This sermon emphasizes the importance of developing intimacy with God through prayer and seeking the will of God for our lives. It highlights the personal encounter with the Holy Spirit and the significance of being in God's plan. The speaker shares a powerful testimony of answered prayer, illustrating God's faithfulness and the impact of prayer in believers' lives.

I've had a whole bunch of flu injections for the fall, but it's wonderful to be with you. Many of you have not been part of this weekend because of your schedule, but yesterday morning and last night we spent, oh dear me, probably four or more hours together just contemplating this whole concept of how I can live a Christian life that demands a supernatural explanation. Because, you know, the great missionary to Africa, Siti Statue, used to say, we only have one life to live, and only that which is going to be done for Christ is going to last. And I work with students in many different countries of the world, and pastors and leaders in churches, and I always say to them, it will cost you more to miss the will of God for your life than it will cost you to find it. It's very costly to be outside of God's plan for our lives, and because we only have this one life to live, the burden and the passion of my heart is not to see churches full of people, but, my brother and sister, is to see churches that will be full of people that will be full of God. And one of the ways that that will take place in our relationships with God is when we come to the place where we begin to develop intimacy with God, and when we learn the language of prayer, and as we have been looking yesterday at what we will do again this evening, and I really want you to be part of this evening because this is your church and this is your spiritual home, and tonight at 6.30 we are coming together for a prayer summit. Maybe you are here this morning and you are one of those people, and you say, you know, Gerard, I don't find it easy to pray in public or to pray out loud. We don't want you to feel that you cannot be part of that. Even if you just want to come tonight and be part of that because we are, this is a wonderful experience that we can find ourselves in as a church we come together because, brother and sister, we are not in our own. You are not living out here in the corner of St. John's, or outside in the community out there in Boko Boko Land amongst the sticks, in the mountains. You are part of the fellowship. And you need to know that we deeply care for you. And so I'm going to ask you to come and be with us this evening. It's not going to be a long time, maybe an hour and fifteen, maximum an hour and a half, and we're going to pray about the needs of our church. We're going to pray about the needs of our city. You're going to have an opportunity to be in a little group of three or four people where you will feel so at home with them and where they will say, now is there anything we can pray for you about? Because, you see, the God that we are serving is a prayer answering God. And I want to tell you this morning that your life is so important to God that if you are the only person on the whole of this planet that God so deeply cares for you that He still would have sent His Son to die on the cross just for you. And so when we come together this evening, and I know it's a long weekend, and I know it's Sunday night and those kind of things, but when we come together this evening, most of the churches, when we have done this, we have a huge response of people who came at night. And many of them would say, well, we want to learn what it means to develop intimacy with God. And you see, when we speak about prayer, because God is the initiator of prayer, you say, Pastor, what does that mean? It means that it's not the time that we speak with God, but it's the time that God comes and speaks with us. You see, when God created Adam and Eve, and it's so wonderful that when He created them, He created them body, soul, and spirit. We are what we call a trichonomy. And so that means God has given us a body to make us conscious of our environment, and God has given us a soul, and God has given me a soul to make me conscious of myself. And so when I become a Christian, I discover my identity in Christ, and I discover that I'm precious to God. And then God has given us a spirit. And if you say, Jerome, why did God give us a spirit? God gave us a spirit to make us conscious of Himself. You remember how He said to the woman at the well in John chapter 4, He said, God is spirit, and those that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. And so when God created Adam and Eve, and the Bible says, God said, let us create man after our likeness and after our image. And He put them in the Garden of Eden, and I always say this to students, when God created Adam and Eve and He put them in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were the two most beautiful people that was on the planet. And students would always say to me, so why would you say Adam and Eve were the two most beautiful people that there was? You know what I said to them? There was no answer. Isn't that amazing? Guess what? There was no shopping either. And He created them. And brother and sister, when He put them in the Garden of Eden, I mean, would you bring a child into the world and put this child on a hill somewhere and say, I'll never see you again? No, we won't do that. And so when God created Adam and Eve and He put them in the Garden of Eden, God had a responsibility towards them, because they were His creation. And responsibility is our response to the ability of God. So you say, so what happened? Because they were His creation, and they were God's children, the Bible says God came in the cool or the wind of the evening. It's the Hebrew word ruach. You say, what is it? That's the word for the word spirit. And so every night God came and He had fellowship with Him. Do you realize how important you are to God? Do you realize there could be a loneliness in the heart of God, because He created us and we have no relationship with Him? And so He came and what did He do? He had fellowship with Him. And that's what we are going to do this evening. You're going to discover the depth of your identity in Christ. You're going to discover what it means to linger in the presence of God. You're going to discover that there is the possibility that I can live this Christian life that is so different in the society in which we live. And you know what we will discover, Lawrence, is that, and I mean I love this, you know, we will discover that God answers prayer. That's the most wonderful thing that you can think of. I wasn't sure if I should share this with you, but let me give you a piece of my mind on a colorful Jerusalem. A number of years ago we were in South America. We sometimes broke up with 5,000, 6,000 pastors together for four days of prayer. And we were up there in a place with around 2,000 of them, spent two days in prayer with those pastors. And God really came to visit us in the most amazing way. And so we started Monday and Tuesday, Wednesdays, the day of prayer and fasting. And then we finished on Thursday. And Thursday morning we brought all of these pastors together and then I moved the leaders to the front and we invited them to come and we had about 12 leaders standing at the front. And these pastors come and we would ask them personally and say, so how can we pray for you? And then they would share their own personal needs and we prayed for them. And we do that the whole Thursday morning. And I was standing at the front praying with some of the pastors and then suddenly there was this little pastor and his wife that came. And as they came forward, they came to me and they said, Gerard, would you please pray for us? And I said, oh sure, I would love to. And I said, how can I pray for you? And they said, oh pray for this, pray for this, pray for this. And I kind of listened to them. But you know, I felt that God spoke to me in my heart, you know, this little inner voice in our conscience that said to me, you know, this is not the only reason why they are here. And so I turned to them and I said to them, what's your name? And they said, Victor. And her name was Maria. And I said, Victor and Maria, let me ask you a question. And they said, what is it? I said, how many children do you have? And they looked at me and she looked at me and she began to cry. I thought, oh my God, what's going on here? And then eventually he just spoke up and he said, we don't have any children. I said, how many years have you been married? He said, oh, we've been married for nine years. And we're not able to have any children. And I stood there and I really felt in my heart compelled to turn to them and say to them, Victor and Maria, you know, God is a God that answers prayer. He's given us promises in his word. Would you allow me to pray for you this morning? And would you allow me that as we pray together, that we would ask God that we will answer prayer and that he will give you a child? And, you know, the couple stood there and said, you know, we've tried for nine years and all of us. And eventually he said, sure. He said, we would love you to do that. And, you know, they were short kind of people and I took them like this and brought them close to me and I began to pray. And brother and sister, the burden of God came upon my heart. And for the next half hour, I just climbed underneath that burden. And I just prayed. And when we learn the language of prayer, one of the things that happens is that we learn to systematically dissect the burden of God. And as we were praying together, I forgot about time. As we were praying together, there was a time in our time of praying together that I felt in my prayer that we were making progress. God is helping us to go forward and something is happening here. And there was a moment that I had this sense of a possession, of a conviction, that God was answering prayer and he's going to do something here. And when I came to the end of my prayer, and he stood there and went, I turned to him and I said, Victor and Marielle, I said, I'm going to tell you something this morning. I said, I don't often do this. You know, I've been dealing with prayer for 40 years. And I said, I don't often do this. But I want you to look at me. And they looked at me and I said, I want you to know that I believe in my heart that God has answered this prayer. This morning. So. And they stood there and they looked at me. He said, really, Gerard? I said, yes. He said, I said, God is going to give you a child. And he turned to me and he said, Pastor, what do you think I should do now? I mean, I became as aware as a bottle of ketchup. And all I could say was, Victor, God help those who help themselves. I mean, this one was standing there, looking at me and he said, where have you been the last nine years? And so he was still as stupid as a donkey. And he stood there and he said to me, so what do you think? I said, don't you work, man. And, oh, he said, OK. I knew the poor guy. So. Listen here. Twelve months later, I was back in South America. We have another four days to pray for the pastor. I came down and I put my luggage down. I put my luggage down there. I came out of the place where I live and I stared at him. Way there in the distance. I saw him. Oh, man. And I saw him there in the distance and I guess what? It's a little bit of life. Now they didn't see me, but I saw them. And I just stood there, I thought, this is going to be amazing. And I just watched this, I thought, isn't God wonderful? I mean, isn't God wonderful? And then suddenly they saw me. And they just dropped their suitcases. And they just came running towards me. Thank God they didn't drop the baby. They just came running towards me. And as they were coming running towards me, they came and stood in front of me. And here was this little baby. And I said, Victor and Maria. I said, oh, Gerard. I said, wow. I said, God wants to pray. Yeah, they said, God wants to pray. So I said, so what is this? Oh, they said, it's a boy. I said, what's his name? Oh, they said, Jonathan. Ha, you know what I said? Why isn't his name Gerard? You know what he said? Did you pray for another one? You know, brother and sister, we came to the house in the morning. We prayed for the pastors. And Victor came and he said, would you dedicate this child? And I said, no, I'd love to dedicate him. And, you know, we had only 102,000 pastors and their wives. And they came with a little baby. And came and wanted me to pray. And I took the microphone. And he was there. And I said, Victor, I just wanted to share with the pastors how God wants to pray. And I said, take a few minutes and share it now. I speak through a translator. So he was speaking in Spanish. And I said, tell them how God wants to pray. Don't tell them how you did it. Just tell them. So they got their message. And he was, oh, I'm glad my wife's not there. She would say, you shouldn't have said that. He was telling them the story how God wants to pray. And when we came to the end, I took the baby and I prayed. And as I prayed for this baby, just as I came to the end of the prayer, my translator, who was the president of the seminary in that country, he grabbed the microphone. And he said something in Spanish. And, you know, 15 pastors and their wives came to the front. I said, what did you just say? I said, you're all my babies. And I was just like, I mean, for the victory. I've lived my life praying for so many babies. So I want to tell you this morning. Listen, I don't want you to miss this evening. If you're not going to come tonight, you're going to be out of a workbook alone. You don't want to do that, do you? We want you to come and spend time. You say, why are you saying that? I'm not looking at this church to see a church full of people. I'm looking at this church and I want to see this church that will be full of people, that will be full of God. Amen. Isn't that what you decided? We live in a society. This is a desperate city, you know. I came in here on Friday and it was brutal. Because you see, it's the burden of God for this city. Thousands of people go into hell in a basket. God is not going to break your heart and my heart. We're not going to get through to these people. He that often speaks to people about God will often speak. He that often speaks to God about people will often speak to people about God. He doesn't want us to have worldly friends that drag us into the center of the world. But He wants us to have friends in the world. If I don't have friends in the world, we're dead in the water. And so you see, what does it mean? We want to pray to God. At 6.30 tonight we are coming together to pray. Let's pray, shall we? Heavenly Father, we thank You for this weekend. It's been amazing. Our hearts in many ways have been affected and broken. Because the Prophet in the Old Testament made the statement and he said, My eyes have affected my heart. And we are conscious of the fact that observation affects intercession. And we are here at Eucharist. God, I'm here this weekend not because I've got nothing else to do. But we are here this weekend because we want to be with God. I want to be the father that God wants me to be. And the husband that God wants me to be. And I want to be the mother that God wants me to be. I don't want to lose the spirit of motherhood. And You didn't give us children to populate hell. But You've given us children so that they can live for You. And so I pray this morning as we take the last few minutes of this Sunday morning service. And we turn to the beauty of what Scripture is about. Father, we ask You in Jesus' name that we will not just be informed by Scripture. But we ask that we will be inflamed in our relationships with You. And when we come together this evening to pray. Give us a freedom. Give us a hunger. Give us a desire. Lord, I'm trusting You for 80 people this evening. So that our church can become a house of prayer. And as people cry and ask this church that they will become conscious. That this is a place where God comes to church. In Jesus' name. Amen. You know, we have something in the New Testament. It's a fascinating book. It is a book of incredible dispensational value. Like if we would have had the Acts of the Apostles. Or rather if we would have had the four Gospels. And all the epistles of the Apostle Paul. And we didn't have the Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament. There would have been 31 years of history that we don't know a thing about. So it's an absolutely amazing book. Of not just dispensational value. But personal value. There are 74 names that rise to the surface. And in the Bible names have meanings and explanations. Because vocabulary carried with it is a message. And so when you and I would study the Acts of the Apostles. You will discover that one of the great themes in the Acts of the Apostles. And there are seven of those. One of the great themes in the Acts of the Apostles. Is the theme of the work and the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. And the way to understand what we are talking about here. Is to come to an understanding that in the Acts of the Apostles. That which Jesus did in his earthly ministry. The three and a half years or so that he was involved in his earthly ministry. I'd rather insist that what happened. When Christ died on the cross for us. And he was buried. He was risen from the dead. And ascended to be sitting at the right hand of the throne of God. The Holy Spirit came. And what is happening this morning. Is that Jesus is still working. But now he is working from the realm of heaven. Sitting at the right hand of the throne of God. And the writer to the Hebrews is saying to us that. He is ever interceding for us. That's why the Acts of the Apostles can be called the Acts of the Holy Spirit. Now if you and I would study this book. You will come to the realization that there is. There is a key passage in the book. That opened up to us. These 28 chapters or 1,007 incredible verses in the book of Acts. And you simply say now what is the verse that you are trying to speak about. It's the key verse of the Acts of the Apostles. Because what happened in the first chapter is that. Christ turned to his disciples. And he said to his disciples. You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit will come upon you. And then suddenly Jesus stopped. And after he stopped he made this statement. He said you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit will come upon you. And then he stopped and he said. And you will become witnesses. You see Christ has got no other hands than our hands. He's got no other feet than our feet. He's got no other lips than our lips. You have no idea this morning how important your life is to him. And so he turned to his disciples and he said. You will become witnesses. And then he said to them. This is the way that it's going to work. You will become witnesses in Jerusalem. You will become witnesses in Judea and Samaria. And you will become witnesses unto the uttermost part of the world. And my brother and sister in the first 7 years. Or for that matter the first 7 chapters. These early disciples became witnesses right in Jerusalem. The most difficult place. Because that's where Jesus was rejected and crucified. And then he said to them. Now you will become witnesses in Judea and Samaria. Now why did they become witnesses in Samaria? Because you remember in the 4th chapter of the Gospel of John. The Bible is saying to us that Jesus had to go through Samaria. And as he went through Samaria. There was the women of Samaria that came to fetch water. And when she came to fetch water in the middle of the day. Because of the lifestyle that she was living. When she came to fetch water. Jesus sat at the well. And the Bible in its humanity said to us. Jesus was thirsty. And he was probably hungry also. But Jesus said to her. Give me water to drink. And he began this conversation with the women of Samaria. And eventually he turned to her. After some of the conversation was going on. And she talked about the Messiah. And he turned to her and he said. You are the Messiah. And she was a woman with a very bad lifestyle. Of immorality. And she left the water pot. And she went to the city. And she told the people. A man which told me everything that I did. Come and see if this is not the Christ. And Christ stayed in Samaria. And he prepared the way for the coming of the Holy Spirit. And so then he said to them. I want you to become witnesses. Unto the uttermost parts of the earth. From chapter 8 to chapter 12. They were witnesses in Judea and Samaria. And from chapter 13 to 28. They took the gospel of Jesus Christ. Each one of each one. Into the uttermost part of the world. A brother existed in 31 years in history. But then there was a world which evangelized for Christ. And we need to ask ourselves a question this morning. And the question that we need to ask ourselves is. What was it? Why was it said about these men. They turned the world upside down. Why was it said that these people have been of Jesus. Why was it that when the Holy Spirit came. And came to cast 3,000 people aside. Why was it that place after place where they went. God poured out his Spirit and people came to Christ. Well let me try and explain to you. There are three things that I would like to mention to you. And I don't think we get through all of them. My wife often said to me. You know Papa you're just like a 747 jungle jet. You never have a problem to take off. But you can never get this thing to land again. So let me just try and cover one thing. You see we're dealing with three concepts here. That wasn't funny Andrew. Anyway. We're dealing with three concepts here. The very first one is that. What happened to you when Jesus said to the disciples. You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit came upon you. What really happened is that. To those early disciples. The understanding of the coming of the Holy Spirit. Became a personal encounter with God. Isn't it fascinating. That Jesus didn't say. As a group you will receive. He said individually. You will receive power when the Holy Spirit will come upon you. My brother and my sister. I want to ask you another question. Man said to me once. Why do you ask these questions. And don't allow me to answer them. Let me ask you another question. I want to ask you this morning. How do you see the Holy Spirit of God? Is the Holy Spirit of God some influence in your life? Is the Holy Spirit of God some experience in your relationship with God? Is the Holy Spirit of God. I'm almost hesitant to say this. Is the Holy Spirit of God some manifestation in your life? Would you allow me to say to you. That the Holy Spirit is really none of those things. To a degree. To a degree. He said. Who is the Holy Spirit? My brother and sister. The Holy Spirit of God is a person. He never speaks about himself. You know. He always brings us back to the Word of God. And he always brings us back to the life of Christ. And so. We speak about the Holy Spirit. And we say to one another. That the Holy Spirit of God is a person. You probably sit here. And you say. You need to define this. You need to. You need to take this apart. You need to try and explain to me. What you mean by saying. The Holy Spirit is a person. Now let me do that. You see. When we speak of our personalities. Every single one of us. Every one of us in our personality. We are the mind. And so. When we come to the New Testament. And the Apostle Paul speaks about. The Holy Spirit is a person. In fact. When Jesus spoke about the Holy Spirit. In John 14 to 16. And he said to the early disciples. When my Spirit come. My Spirit will be with you. And my Spirit will be in you. He spoke about the Holy Spirit is a person. When he said. When my Spirit come. He said. My Spirit will testify of me. He said. When my Spirit come. He said. My Spirit will become your teacher. And he said. When my Spirit come. My Spirit will come into all the sin of righteousness. And of judgment. All of those concepts. Of the context of the Greek language. Is that he was speaking about the Holy Spirit is a person. Now we say to ourselves. If I am a person. God has given me a mind. And so here the Apostle Paul came and he said. Let this mind be in you. That was also in Christ. Every one of us who have a personality. We've got a will. That's why I said earlier on. It costs more to be out of the will of God. Than to be in the will of God. And the Holy Spirit of God. Has got a will. You remember how the Bible says in Acts 13. And the will of the Spirit of God came to the surface. When it said. That the Holy Spirit said. This was the will of God. The Holy Spirit said. Separate them. Until he saw all of us. All the ministry. Which I call them. You remember in Paul's missionary journeys. They wanted to go into a certain direction. And they were determined to go. And the Bible says. The Spirit of God. Constrained them. It protected them. It said to them. No. You shouldn't go there. They want to go there. And God said. No. No. I don't want you to go there. The Holy Spirit of God. You see. We have a personality. So we have emotions. And the Holy Spirit of God. Has emotions. Listen. You see. In the life of Christ. You remember. And it's the Spirit of the life of Christ. That we are speaking about. When we're speaking about the Holy Spirit. And Jesus looked over Jerusalem. And he said. Jerusalem. How did I try to gather you? I said. Here are chickens. And you went back. And then suddenly. He was overcome with emotion. And he wept out loud. It was an amazing situation. Now Paul came to us in Romans chapter 8. When he spoke about the Holy Spirit. And he made this statement. He said. Ask three heads to pray. He said. The Spirit of God. Help our infirmities. Why does he help our infirmities? Because we do not know how to pray. In fact. It really means. We do not know how to pray. And he said. But the Spirit of God comes. And the Spirit of God comes with groanings. I don't know this word in the Greek language. He said. What he said. He said. Can't say it with a Canadian accent. Ah, the Holy Spirit. A person. May I say to you this morning. if you are here and you are a Christian. Everything that you read, as a Christian, if our Holy Spirit is in your heart and life, you are forcing the Holy Spirit to read it with you. Every slander you thought, when I say something behind someone's back and I can't say it in his face, I'm forcing the Holy Spirit to be conscious of what I'm doing. And so you say it's a person. Now here is the issue. When I became a Christian, my body becomes a temple of the Holy Spirit. And brother and sister, can I give you a clarification? You see, when I became a Christian, what happens to me is the Holy Spirit came into my life. And I should stop here for a moment, because I think it's quite possible that there are people who sit at a Sunday morning service and you've never become a Christian. You make a city and you think you are a Christian. And you are like me, brought up in a Christian home, brought up over the Word of God, brought up religiously, went to study theology, find myself in a seminary, and at the end of my first year, I discovered that I was absolutely lost. I didn't know Christ. You are not born a Christian, though. David said we are born in iniquity and sin that God conceived us, and so we are born as sinners into the world. And the Bible says the way to sin is death, but the Kingdom of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. The Bible says there is a way that seeth right unto a man, but the end of the way is death.