In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of coming under the leadership of the will of God and doing His will. He refers to Matthew 7, where Jesus questions how He will reach the nations and fulfill His purpose. The preacher explains that there are three steps to understanding the will of God: general revelation, recognizing God's existence through His creation; rationalization, the tendency to justify our own desires in the name of the Lord; and learning how to obey God in the spirit. The sermon encourages listeners to pray for understanding and for God to work in them a spirit of obedience.

Ooh, hoo, hoo, hoo. All right? Good thing that I was never commissioned by God to do. The fourth one is the intimate, perfect will of God for my life. Gross sin, human failure, good thing. And you know what I've been learning over the years? There is much confusion in the body of Christ because of God's little helper. You meet them at the altar. Can I help you? Oh, never mind. Don't smile, you're it. You're it. Now, when it comes to the power gifts, notice the description, prophecy. Notice these are all power gifts in here. Prophecy, casting out demons. Right? Many wonderful works. That's what I want, the will of God. Are you understanding me? Are you? Glory to God, if you are, you see, I'm after something. Now, let's look. See, he says, now, not everyone that gets involved in all this business really understands what's going on. The object of this game is not going out and doing something for Jesus. The object of this game is finding the will of God for you, dear, and do it. I was in the ministry, in fact, where's Carlton? He was in the ministry. You may remember this situation, but we were ministering to a gal, and she prayed and fasted, and she was already, she wanted to do the will of God. We was praying for her, and a prophecy came. The prophecy said, yea, the Lord has seen the heart's desire, the Lord has called thee to a ministry, and yea, the Lord shall plant thee in a hospital, and thou shalt go from bed to bed and minister to those that are sick. And she got up and said, I will not. Do you remember that? And I was shocked, man, I was just shocked. You don't want to go to a hospital bed to bed, you want to go to the mission field for Jesus. Now let me ask you a question, and this is serious, serious. Is it possible for her to go to the mission field out of the will of God and minister healing and deliverance and miracles? Is it? Are you sure? You better believe it. I did it. I did it. And so have many of you. See? Now somehow we've had the strange idea that the minute you get out of the will of God, the anointing stops, heaven closes, brass gates close, and I wish it was. I really wish it was that the minute that I missed the will of God, the heavens would close. But it doesn't. See? I'm out there and I'm praying for the sick and laboring for God and things are going wrong. And I said, God, why don't you do something? He said, I am, I'm waiting for you to wise up. I never sent you there. I never asked you to go there. And you've been asking me to prop up something I'm not even involved in. I said, yeah, but, but Lord, don't you see the need? He said, yeah, I'm waiting for you to get out so I can send my man in there. I don't want to get off the news, but when I was in Peru, Brother George Vignod's in Peru, one of the missionaries come in, he was all full of joy. He was really happy. And he said, glory to God. He said, thank God for the Communion. I thought, man, he's really gone, you know. He said, thank God for the Communion. I said, what's a man who would give? He says, well, Communists chased home all the missionaries that shouldn't be here. I said, oh, now I understand, see. Because literally that's what was happening, see. Here's all the helpers, God's own helpers, doing something for Jesus. Now, I'm saying to you, I'm saying to you that according to Jesus' teaching, that is a lawless spirit. That means that within that same born-again, spirit-filled little darling is a spirit inside that says, I'm going to do what I want to do when I want to do it. And boy, you fool around with charismatics, and they're especially like that, see. God called me. He said, easy, dear, easy, everything's okay. Don't you try to take my call for me. I said, I wouldn't, I wouldn't. Go ahead. See, because what is this? It's the power gifts. Do you know it's the power gifts that get women in trouble? Understand what I'm saying? See, I'm not anti-anybody. It's just power gifts. There's something about handling the power gifts that creates a problem that is unique. And that's when the temptation to grab the will of God, hear me now, the temptation is to grab the will of God and go with it told on me. I got on a horse one time. I don't know how to ride too good. I had a horse of my own, but they dared me to get on this horse. It was a big white mare, and it was what they call a watch-eyed mare. She had albino eyes, if you know what that is, pink eyes, a watch-eyed mare, and she really was full of zeal, you know. And I got on her back, and I no sooner hit the back than that that horse knew that I didn't know how to ride. See? And, brother, she took off down through the apple orchard, and the limbs were cutting my face, and I just rode. That's all I did. I just rode, you know. And she went tearing down and up one time, down the other way, through traffic, down the other street, and here I come just hanging on. And finally I began to get angry in time. I thought, you rascal, you know. And I'm working up. First I was so scared that I didn't do anything. And then finally I reached down, got the reins, you know, and I pulled them in the reins, and I pulled them in the reins, and finally I pulled them in, pulled them in, her head turned all the way like this, and the blood and the foam is coming out, and I'm cutting her mouth, and pulled her head all the way up, almost to the stirrup, pulled her all the way up, and finally I was so frustrated. I pulled her right up as hard as I could so she couldn't see, and she stopped. That's what God is doing to the church. We really... You know what I can sense in meetings where I'm going? There's a leveling out. See? And I don't mean in evangelism now, but I mean in growth and in the minister gifts and moving into a company. There's a leveling out. Something is holding right there. You know why? God is waiting for us to hear, know, and do the will of God. Now let's take some examples of this, and I need to move on. I wanted to go to another portion tonight, if it seems right. I want to talk about Nadab and Abihu, the Old Testament. Their daddy was a priest. His name was Aaron. They were Aaron's sons. And the two boys watched Daddy offer fire in the tavern. And they said, if Daddy can do it, what? We can do it too. So they light up some fire, take it into the tavern. He says, hey God, how do you like this? He said, I'll show you some fire. Zap! Now how many of you know there was no sin in that? But there was what? Lawlessness. If Mahoney can do it, I can too. If he can start a world map camp, glory to God, I'll start one next door. See, God called him to do it, didn't call you to do it. That's just a slight difference. Just slight. See? But how many of you see that I can start a world map camp next to this one, in rebellion, with a lawless spirit? See? And sing and shout and prophesy and have a wonderful time, and God will bless us. Not fully bless us. Don't say that. I'm saying God will bless us. Because they're his kids, and it's his word that's being preached, and other things that are going on. Right? Let's take one Saul's sacrifice. How many of you remember Saul was a king, anointed king of Israel, wasn't he? And he's there, and there's the enemy, and he's saying, where's Samuel? Will Samuel get here? And finally, he said, Samuel's nowhere around. He said, bring in the sacrifice. He said, I'll do it myself. No sooner made the sacrifice, Samuel walks up and sees and says, my God, man, what have you done? Well, he said, he said, the people forced me. Now listen. Samuel took his man for all, ripped the thing in half, and he said, thus saith the Lord, so shall thy kingdom be to the man who has done this. So the thing. All of Saul's fault was consummated in taking the things of God and going with them his own way. Lawlessness is an inward condition that insists on our own methods, our own ways, our own place, our own ideas. Now let me show you this from the Old Testament. Let's go to Ezekiel, please. Some of you are looking at me a little fond. Ezekiel, please, 44. And I want to show you this as clear in one text so that you will at least know that I'm not building anything, but I'm exegeting Scripture. Ezekiel 44, verse 10. Hallelujah, I feel better. Got that much out, anyway. All right. And the Levites, this is Ezekiel 44.10 now, and we're reading one section, one text. How many of you know that you can go through the Bible and pick out text and build anything? You understand? And please be aware of that so that you understand. I want to say that to you so that you will know that what we're seeking to build in your heart in the Word of God isn't like that, all right? Verse 10, Ezekiel 44, verse 10. And the Levites, that is men who are anointed to God's service, look, and the Levites that have gone away far from me when Israel went astray, which went astray from me after their idols, they even shall bear their iniquity. That's lawlessness, okay? They shall bear their lawlessness. Verse 11, yet they shall be ministers in my sanctuary, having charge at the gates of the house, and ministering to the house. They shall slay the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall stand before them. That is, the people, to minister unto them, because they ministered unto them before their idols and caused the house of Israel to fall into lawlessness. Therefore have I lifted up my hand against them, saith the Lord God, and they shall bear their lawlessness. All right? Verse 13, and they shall not come near unto me. Notice these words, to do the office of a priest unto me, nor to come near to any of my holy things in the most holy place, but they shall bear their shame and their abominations which they have committed. But I will make them keepers of the charge of the house, for all the service thereof, and for all that shall be done therein. Verse 15, this is as I understand the kingdom concept, the obedience, this thing that God is after in His children. Listen to verse 15, but the priests, the Levites, the sons of Zedah that kept the charge of my sanctuary when others went astray from me, they shall come near to me to minister unto me, and they shall stand before me to offer unto me the fat and the blood, saith the Lord God of Jesus. All right, what are we saying now? I'm saying this. There is a spiritual condition in the body of Christ, and it's called lawlessness. It means that after we come into the gifts and ministries and operations of the Spirit, that it is a possibility, yea, more than a possibility, it's a prevalent thing that we take those very things, take them to ourselves as that horse with the bit, get them into our mouth, and begin to run with them, see? And go and do our own thing where we want to go and where we want to do, and do it our own way in our own time. And that day is over. Are you there? It's over. Some of you looking at me foggy, it's over for you, too, even if you don't know it. What's happening now is this, see? God, by the Holy Spirit, is beginning to deal... How many of you know God's beginning to deal with homes, husbands, wives, all that nasty word, submission? Hey, has that been hanging around your groups anywhere? See? Submission, see? These are the words. Now, here's what I'm talking about. The lawless spirit, the spirit that refuses to come under the leadership of the will of God. Now, let's come back to doing the will of God. Come with me, please, to Matthew 7, very quickly. Matthew 7. Now, let's just touch now on the essence of the will of God. All right? Matthew 7, very quickly. Now, we could go through this whole thing again, but what I'm trying to do is say this. Not everyone says to me, Lord, Lord, really understands what the harvest is like. See? How am I, Jesus said, how am I going to reach the nations? How am I going to reach Southern California? How am I going to do what needs to be done? I'll tell you how it's going to happen. It's going to happen by every man and every woman finding their place in the will of God. Now, God didn't call you to do some things. You did them yourself. You know how I know that? How many of you know God never called anybody to go nine directions at once? See? Apostle, prophet, pastor, teacher, evangelist, youth leader, helper, demon caster, outter. I said, what are you doing? Your wife is suffering, your kids are growing bad, and everything. There's needs out there. I said, yeah, but what did God call you to? What did God call me to? What do you mean, what did God call me to? I got the anointing. When I lay my hands on them, the lump goes down. I said, yeah, but what did God call you to? Now listen, I heard a man say a while back, Jesus came to be crucified. He came to give his life for ransom for many. You know, Jesus didn't come primarily to be crucified. He came primarily to do what? Now, he's in the garden. Follow with me now a moment. He's in the garden. He said, Father, I don't want to do that. Literally, that's what he said. Father, I don't want to do that, but if that's your will for me, okay. Putting it into our language. Father says, yes, son, that is my will for you. He said, the cup which my father gave me, shall I not drink all of it? Now, the reason that he was crucified is not because that's what he came for. He came, listen, he came for what? Say it with me. To do the will of God. See, twice in Hebrews 10 it says, Lo, in the volume of the book it is written of me, I come to do thy will, O God. Now listen, there's an interesting Greek word. That word, will, as it's used in Matthew 7 and in Matthew 6 in the Lord's Prayer, literally means this. The wish or the desire of the Father. It hasn't anything to do with, you know, will in that sense. There's another word which means will, you know, you better do it. But this word means the will, the wish, the desire. Say, Father, Church, how many of you could see how much confusion would stop in the body of Christ if all God's kids begin to pray, Father, deliver me from things that you didn't call me to do. Be there, and Lord Jesus, fit me into and help me to do what you called me to do. Father, I don't want to be a demon caster, however, or a miracle worker. What I want to be is a son that does your pleasure. Father, deliver me from a lawless spirit, from going my own way to do the will of God. Father, now it's interesting what the Lord begins to reveal in the life. He begins to prune off all the things that doesn't belong to you and make you profitable and fruitful in the realms that does belong to you. How many of you know you can't do it? How many of you can't do everything? Always be careful if the guy comes along and says, Ephesians or Philippians 4.12, I can do all things. And when anybody starts quoting that verse, I panic, you know, because I know what's happened to them. Say, I can do all things. You know what the literal translation says? I can do all things that the Father demands of me through Jesus Christ. You can't do all things. If you could, we wouldn't need a body. We just need you. Nine gifts of the Spirit hanging off. Apostle, prophet, pastor, teacher, vendor. Somebody say they have a need? Well, he gives the gifts to the body. Well, how old are you? You want to quit now? All right, let's go. Now, let me tell you how we accomplish this maneuver. I'll give you a real quick thing. See, we accomplish doing our own will in the name of the Lord by several devious methods. See? In other words, if we really... How many of you have ever had an experience like this? The man at the Pontiac dealer says, Just try it. See? And you get your hands on that flat, shiny Pontiac Bonneville, right? And you feel that thing, see? And you drive it a little ways and you say, Honey, we got to have this. Then you start rationalizing. See? And even though you say, Well, honey, if we just didn't give the baby its milk, then... Right? And we let the rent go for about six months. We could... We really could buy this. If we really try hard. See? Now, what happens is all that rationalization. Now, that's what has to go. Lawless spirit is the one that takes the spiritual things, rationalizes all kinds of ways, till it gets to go and do what it wanted to do in the first place. Let's go to... Let's go to Psalm 19, will you? Would you let me go a little bit longer? We'll pick up here... Let's introduce this anyway, and then we'll pick it up tomorrow night. Psalm 19, please. Now, I'll review this business again tomorrow night, but let's read Psalm 19, and we'll just go on this a little bit, and at least we'll introduce it and come along as far as we can. All right? Now, Psalm 19 is a fantastic piece of the Word of God. I'll read it. You follow with me now. I'll just read it kind of rapidly, and you follow with me. And this is where we'll begin tomorrow night. All right? Psalm 19. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech, no language, where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone forth, or gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them he hath set a tabernacle for the sun, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoices as a strong man to run away. His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it, and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eye. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also than the honey and the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is thy servant warned, notice that word, and in keeping of them there is great reward. Verse 12. Who can understand his error? Let me give you another translation. Who can tell how many times we offend God? Who can tell how many times you've gone your own way? How can you ever know how many times we've taken the things of God and gone our own way with them? Listen to these words. Who can understand his error? Cleanse thou me from sacred fault. Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sin. Let them not have dominion over me. Then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression. Will you underline that for me now, please? The great transgression. Now that's what we're going to teach tomorrow night, the great transgression. All right, let's go now. And I shall be innocent from the great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeem. Now let me give you these things right now very quickly, and we'll write them in your Bible, please. Remember, this is a classroom or a study. This is not just preaching. This is a classroom, all right? We're looking at Psalm 19, 1 through 6. Will you mark that, please? Psalm 19, 1 through 6. That is, that's what we call general revelation. Just mark these, and I'll come back and explain. Psalm 19, 1 through 6 is general revelation. Psalm 19, 7 through 10 is what we call special revelation, all right? And then Psalm 19, 11 through 14 we will call spiritual revelation, all right? Let's go. We're taking three steps now in this, and we want to understand. First one is called general revelation. Here's what happens. You walk out at night. How many of you ever had an experience where you went out at night in the sunset or some night when all the stars were out, and you had some overwhelming sense of God's great creation? Have you ever had an experience like that? You sit on the seashore and look at the sun out there, and you think, Oh, my Lord, you know, I've had experiences, you know, where I just look at God's creation. Now, this is what is called general revelation. We know, listen, we know there is a God, see? He's created. There's one college student who was an atheist, and he went to his professor who was a Christian, and he said, You know, I want to know God. The professor said, Well, go out at night. You lift your head up into the stars, and you say, God, if there is a God, I want to know Him. So the kid that night, he went out, looked up at the stars, and he said, God, if there is a God, I want to know Him. So he came back to the professor the next day, and he said, Well, how'd you do? And the kid says, Man, I felt like a fool. He said, That's a good revelation for a son. Well, all right, you know, here's God's great panorama. Now, you know, now, day after day, see, it's speaking out, see? It's speaking this. God doesn't need your help. It's speaking, God was around before you got here. See? It's trying to say to you, What is man? Now, special revelation. First we know there is a God. Then God gives us His word so He can tell us what He wants from us. Now, special revelation means God has taken the time to give us the scriptures. Now, notice these, will you? And I know that you're aware of these, but let's just mark them, and then we'll pick them up tomorrow night. Let's look at them. The law, the testimony, the statutes, all right, the commandments, the fear, and the judgment. The six things that God has given us. Look at them now. The law, the testimony, the statutes, the commandments, the fear, and the judgment. These are six things that God has given to us in special revelation in His word so that we can know what He wants from us. See? We can know. Some of you say, Well, how do I know the will of God? See? Now, about Wednesday night, we're going to talk to you the difference between the commandments and the will of God. We'll pick that up now. Please remember that you've got to give me six more nights to get all this stuff put together, so if you're, you know, if you're hanging somewhere, cheer up, I'll get you. All right? Now, let's look. See, special revelation, general revelation, there is a God. How many of you know the devil believes in God? See, that doesn't help you very much in what I believe in God. There it is. It's all spread out before you. Now, it comes right down to specific or special revelation. God puts in His word, This is what I want from you. This is what I want from you. I want you to do this, and I want you to do that, and I want you to do this. How many of you know the Bible says, If you love me, you love me. Now, the Lord has given us commandments so that we can know whether or not we have a rebellious spirit. See, I used to be a dean at Elam, and I was a dean there, and I was giving all the kids the laws. I said, You told us this, and this is the law, and that's the law, and this is the law. And this one kid sitting there, you know, and he's coming down the laws, and I had about 22 of them, I think. And this one kid says, Brother Mumford. I said, Yes. He said, How many laws are there here at Elam? And I said, Well, it was right here. There's 22. He said, Man, even God only had 10. Well, I was laying out the laws. But the thing about all this that tickled me was, and God knows this, is that on the form that you apply to go to Bible college, it says this. Will you cheerfully, will you cheerfully abide by all the rules and regulations of this school? And the kids, some kids put, Yes! Big exclamation. And I said, Uh-oh, a troublemaker. Oh, it never fails. Every time I had a real rebel, see. Now, anybody know, they said, Do the traffic laws bother you? No, not in here. The traffic law bothers me when I want to go 60 in a 35 zone before I miss my plane. Now, you don't know whether you're a rebel or not until God lays one of his laws on you. Now, it's simple. If you believe in greasy grace, Ha! You're not under the law. Oh, I've got a shock coming to me. Listen, in the New Testament, the word commandment is used 69 times. You'd think that wasn't a shock for me, but I personally don't like laws either. I said, Lord, smite that state trooper with blindness. Ah! I said, Why didn't you? See, there he comes. Reverend, huh? I said, Yes, sir. He said, Thy speedometer runneth over. See, there's a special revelation. It's posted 35 miles an hour. See? Now, it doesn't bother me long as I'm in here. You understand that, Church? Please understand. But it's when I want to do something, when I want to go somewhere. It's when my will crosses the will of that sign. Now, that's when the lawless spirit is revealed. See? And the law is there. See? And then I found that in spite of the fact that I've been baptized in water and baptized in the Holy Spirit, that I have found that within my own spirit, within my own nature, a lawless attitude, a desire. Well, come on. But do it my way. I said, God, when you go like this, and do it my way. Right? But he said, I've given you special revelation to tell you what I want from you. Now, we'll get into that tomorrow. Let's go to the next one. He said, Then he gives us spiritual revelation. Let me introduce this to you real quick. Right? We've got five kinds of sin. Let's look at them. We'll just touch on them tonight, and then we'll pick them up tomorrow night. Okay? First of all, we have error. All right? Verse 12. We have error. We'll be talking about that. Second, we have hidden sin, or secret sin. For who? Because you don't have it. Now, it's hidden in this way. Sometimes it's hidden from me and others. Sometimes it's hidden from me and known to others. Sometimes it's hidden from others and known to me. Do you see those three aspects? Three kinds. All right? First one, then, is error. Second is secret sin. The third one is presumptuous or open sin. That is, it's just plain rebellion. I want to, you know, I want to do what I want to do. I'll just sit. It comes out. Now, the fourth one, look at it. The fourth one is dominion, or when sin brings you under its habit. You're popping dope, smoking crack, breathing pornography, open sin. Then all of a sudden, it grabs hold of you. And you are a spiritual prisoner of war. And the fifth one is where we're going tomorrow night. And that is the great transgression, which is rebellion. The rebel spirit. Okay? We're going to go, I trust God now, to help us. Two nights on the negative, and five nights on the positive. See? If I can get across to you tonight and tomorrow night, two things you have to understand. First one is what is a lawless spirit. Second one you have to understand is what is rebellion. What is the disease of our day? It's in the kids, of course. Where are they catching? See? I shall be innocent from the great transgression. And then we're going to take five nights on learning how to obey. I think I can show you some things in the word of God on learning how to obey God in the spirit. It's your responsibility to pray for Brother Morning Bible Teacher, Brother Butterfield, myself, and Brother Paul in the afternoon. Pray for these men, that God would speak to us through this thing. I tell you, if God will help us to get these things up and out where we can understand them, and the Lord can work in us a spirit of obedience, See? I delight to do thy will, O God. Do you believe he wants to do that for us? Surely he does. He wants to work in us a spirit of obedience, where doing the will of God is as natural as breathing.