In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of being clean in the mind, emotions, and heart. He encourages the audience to maximize their time and live according to God's word. The preacher also highlights the example of Jesus, who walked according to God's plan and was guarded through God's leading. The sermon also touches on the topic of revival and the work of the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts.

I just would like to say it's a real joy and a privilege for me to share in this session this afternoon, and I'm relatively new to the work of the Canadian Revival Fellowship, and yet it's wonderful to know that God has got His people in different places of the world who's got the same burden to seek out working in revival. And I'm sure that we are here today because that's the kind of burden that we carry as we seek out and as we trust God to pour out His Spirit upon us, not only maybe these days, but also in the days to come. I was born in South Africa, and I spent the first 27 years of my life in South Africa, and I came to Christ in a theological school in Cape Town. I was brought up in the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa, in very God-fearing circumstances, and yet I didn't know the Lord Jesus as my personal Saviour. And at the end of my first year at Bible school, I was challenged by a fellow student to ask me one night, where would I spend eternity? And that night I realized that I was never born of the Spirit of God. And the Lord saved me, and I went back to my mum and dad's place. They were on a farm in South Africa, and I couldn't preach to them because they were God-fearing Dutch Reformed people. They would say to me, well, there's nothing that we can stop doing to become Christians. We were born Christians. So I just had to live amongst my family for the Lord Jesus Christ. And I was saved for about, oh, I guess about three weeks or so. And we were in a large cattle ranch in Africa, close to the border of Mozambique. And one day I came back from the town, and my mother said to me, there was an African minister who wanted to see me in my little cottage about 50 yards from our farmhouse. And when I stepped into that little cottage, this man was sitting there, and I shook hands with him, and I said to him, now, we're going to discuss theology. And he looked me straight in the face, and he said, no, he said, we're going to be involved in neology. And that changed my whole attitude within seconds. He was, I'm sure, for about an hour and a half lying in his place before God, on the floor of my study, seeking the face of God in prayer. And that was my introduction to what it means to seek God in the place of prayer. I would never forget, I was the first white person that was invited to pray with him. There was a mountain on our farm, and these African men spent days and nights of prayer and fasting and waiting upon God. And I was the first white person that was invited to pray with them. They never told me when they were coming. It was a dark Friday, it was a Friday night, dark African night. You know, sometimes the nights are so dark in Africa, you could hardly see your hand in front of your face. And I was sitting in my study about nine o'clock that night, and there was a knock at my window. And I went to the window, opened the curtains, and don't misunderstand me, but, you know, I couldn't see his face because he was as black as Africa. But I heard the voice, and he said to me in the African dialect, And he said to me, we are going to the mountain to pray. And we walked, there were about five of them that night, and we walked. And as we walked, I turned to him and I said, I said, how will we spend a night in the presence of God? And he turned to me in that dark African night and he said to me, you're going to learn tonight that you're not going to rush into the presence of God. And those words, I'm sure, has meant more to me than every possible book that I've read on the subject of prayer. We are in British Columbia, my wife and myself. We are involved in about nine different denominations. And I'm ashamed to say to you today that I can't find, I can't find a minister. My heart and most of my time is spent with ministers. Last year, we ministered in 95 churches in B.C. and about 78 this year. But you know, my brother and sister, I can't find a minister in the lower mainland of British Columbia who's willing to spend a day with me in the place of prayer, seeking the face of God. So it's wonderful for us, myself, to be here these days. I've been asked to speak on the subject of purity, a clean heart, a pure heart and clean hands. And I've been pondering upon that in both the Old Testament and both the New Testament. And I felt that what we should do this afternoon in this session is to turn to that marvelous chapter in the New Testament, which deals with the great evidence of what happened at the day of Pentecost. You will see that the real evidence of Pentecost, as we will see this afternoon, is what the what was said in the 15th chapter of the Acts of the Apostle, when the Apostle Peter stood up and he said, God, which know the heart, bear them witness, giving unto them the Holy Spirit, the same as he did unto us. And he made no difference between us and them because he purified their hearts by faith. So turn with me, if you will, to the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, and let's read from the first verse of that wonderful chapter in the New Testament. Acts chapter two, and we will begin to read at verse number one. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind. And it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them clothed in tongues like as of fire. And it sat upon each of them. And they were all full to the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. They were dwelling at Jerusalem. Jews devote men out of every nation under heaven. Now, when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together and they were confounded because that every man heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed and marveled, saying one to another, the old are not all these which speak Galilean. And how weary we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born. Partners in the Medes and the Elamites and the dwellers, Mesopotamia and Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus in Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia in Egypt and in the parts of Libya, the outside in and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselyte, Greeks and Arabians. We do hear them speak in our own tongues, the wonderful works of God. And they were all amazed and were in doubt, saying one to another, what mean of this? But others mocking said these men are full of new wine. Then Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice and he said unto them, you that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you and hearken to my words, for these are not drunken, as she supposed, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel. And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, that I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams. And on my servants and on my handmaidens, I will pour out on those days of my spirit and they shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs in the earth beneath, blood and fire and vaporous smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before that great and notable day of our Lord shall come. Let's just bow for a moment of prayer, shall we? Our Father, it's been a tremendous privilege for us today to be so aware of the presence of God just as we are entering into this building. And we want to confess this afternoon that we do not want to take the promise of God's presence for granted with us today. But, Father, we are here to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. We are here these days, Lord, not because we are spiritually fat, but because we are spiritually poor and because of the deep sense of hunger in our hearts after God. And, Father, we thank Thee today that the God we are serving, the unchangeable God, is the one who has promised to us, to visit us with his spirit, is the one who is almighty, is the one who reigneth, and is the one today who is sitting on the throne, looking down upon us as Thy people. And, Lord, we have come together these days not to have a good time, but, Father, we have come together to meet with God and we have come together to be broken in the very presence of God. We want to pray this afternoon that as we gather around Thy Word again, that You will search our hearts as You have been searching our hearts today. We ask, Lord, that if there is any unconfessed sin in our life, that You will bring it to the surface today and that You will break into our midst on this very first day so that in these coming days and sessions, our hearts will be melted in the presence of God. We ask for the covering of Thy precious blood. We thank You, Lord, that You have come to destroy the works of the evil one. And, Father, we pray that You will come to us in such a way these days that You will set us free, that You will give us a vision of God in a way that we have never had it before. We thank You for that in Jesus' precious name. Amen. I'm sure that you are aware of the fact that the Acts of the Apostles is also called the Acts of the Holy Spirit. The Acts of the Apostles is almost a follow up of that wonderful gospel that Luke wrote. And although we do not know a lot about the man to whom this wonderful book was written, is there a sense in which we do know something about his name? The name Theophilus is a combination of two words. The word for God in the original text is the word Theos and one of the words for love is the Greek word Philio. And Theophilus is a combination of those two words and it means a lover of God or someone who was dear to God. Traditionally, it was said to us that there was a man who had a slave with the name of Luke. He sent him possibly to Tarsus or Alexandria to study medicine. He found the Lord Jesus as his personal savior. And as a result of that, he came to share with his master that which Christ has done for him. One thing which we do know about this man, we know this afternoon, my brother and sister, that here was a man who was very much concerned about that which happened after the Lord Jesus Christ has died for us in the cross. A man who was tremendously concerned about the work and the ministry of the Holy Spirit, even within the gospel of Luke. You know, there are seven great themes in the Acts of the Apostles and one of those great themes is the theme of the work and the ministry of the Spirit of God. Are those 260 references to the Holy Spirit and the New Testament, is it significant for us to discover that no less than 59 of them were found in this wonderful book, the Acts of the Apostles? I've twice had the privilege to be at the place where God poured out his spirit in the revival. And you know, in every one of those places was a tremendous encouragement for me to discover the great evidences of the studying of the Acts of the Apostles. The first place which I visited in the revival was a mission station in the south coast of Africa where God poured out his spirit upon the Sulu people about 15 years ago. The interesting thing about that movement of God's spirit is the fact that God is still working on that mission station. They reckon the longest lasting revival in recent days has been the movement of God's spirit in Uganda, when God has been wonderfully working there in the most amazing way. But on that mission station in Kwasi Sabantu, where God poured out his spirit about 15 years ago, there were a number of German missionaries who began to pray for revival. They had special 10 crusades. These people came together to listen to the word of God, and sometimes a number of those Sulu people came to Christ. And when they came to Christ, those missionaries were tremendously disappointed with the level of growth that took place amongst these Sulu believers. In fact, I heard Erlew Stegen saying that many times after they saw these people came to Christ, that sometimes six months after their commitment to Christ, they would go back to their place. And sometimes their 10 crusades had lasted between four and six months. But he said sometimes they would go back and they come across so many of those Sulu people who made some commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ. And yet when they follow them up, there was very little that they discovered as far as spirituality was concerned. And they began to study the acts of the apostle. And those times of Bible study became times of sobbing and weeping in the presence of God. I asked Erlew Stegen how long that took place. And he said, we found ourselves for three months sobbing in God's presence day and night. And I asked him in my ignorance, why did they do that? And he said, well, as we were studying the acts of the apostles and we saw that tremendous standard of God and his word, we compare it with our own lives. He said we find ourselves absolutely broken up in the presence of God. The spirit of God broke through on a Saturday afternoon on that mission station. The first person that came to Christ was a black witch doctor. She came to the mission station and she said to Erlew Stegen, she said, can your Jesus set me free? You look at her and you ask her, who told you to come to this mission station? Because if you know something about missionary work, you would realize that that's the last place where these witch doctors would come to. And she turned to me and she said, that's not what I asked you. She said, I've asked you if your Jesus can set me free. When the spirit of God broke into the mission station, the Saturday night, the villagers was alike as these African people ran from the one place to the other to make restitution with their torches. About five days after the initial break, there was a police station about five miles away and they found the mission station. And this is what the police constable said to them. He said to them, do you think it's possible that you will stop preaching that message to the Zulu people? And Stegen asked him and said, why is it that you want us to do so? You know what he said, my friends? He said, for the simple reason, we do not have enough place in our premises to put all the things that these people have stolen. You see, it's not wrong for the Zulu people to steal, but my friends, it's wrong if you catch them. And when the spirit of God began to work, it was one of the most amazing things. But they began to study the acts of the apostle. Now, if you study the acts of the apostles, you would realize that the first eight chapters of this wonderful book is dealing with what we would call witnessing within the regions or within Jerusalem. The word witness is a wonderful word, you know. In fact, I think we've lost the concept of this word witness because the Greek word for witness simply means that they have to become martyrs for the Lord Jesus Christ. And I think there are some wonderful examples of Stephen and James, the brother of John and others who had to pay the ultimate price of becoming a witness for the Lord Jesus Christ. But you will discover that in that first eight chapters that those early disciples became witnesses within and around Jerusalem. You know, sometimes I find it interesting when it comes to our concept of revival. You see, sometimes my brother and sister, we expect when God is going to send the revival, we expect the spirit of God to work maybe hundreds of miles away from the place where God initially began to work. I'm not saying that it's not possible. I think the 1857 and the 1859 revival that took place across here in this continent and in Britain and to a measure also in South Africa a number of years even before that, there seems to me that at simultaneous times, the spirit of God began to work in a number of different places. But you know what's significant for me? That it seems to me that for seven years that God keep those early disciples right there within Jerusalem before he allowed them to go out into Samaria and Judea and eventually onto the uttermost parts of the earth to take the gospel of the Lord of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you study the first and the second chapter, you would realize that we are dealing with what we would call the founding of the early church. Chapter two, verse number 14 onward is speaking to us about the testimony of the early church, their simple creed, in other words, what they preach and their sanctified conduct, the way that they live amongst people. And chapter three is dealing with the opposition that came upon the early church and also to a measure in chapter four and chapter five, we're dealing with the discipline of a church and the organization of a church. And you know, there are seven places in the Acts of the Apostle where you will discover that the Bible speaks of principles of growth within the early church. And my brother and sister, I think it's quite amazing if you study those evidences of growth, that you will discover that sometimes through a tremendous amount of judgment that came, that the Bible says that God added unto the church such as should be said. You know, we are living in interesting times there out in British Columbia. It's quite interesting for me sometimes to speak in different churches and to listen to the philosophy of church growth. But for me, there are some wonderful principles that God has laid down to us in his work when it comes to the adding of God's spirit and this wonderful movement of the spirit of God. You know, the secret of revival. And I think it's possible for us in this continent to have quite a misunderstanding when it comes to the promise of revival. My brother and sister, revival is not a series of special services. Revival is not some set of camp meetings. I'm not saying that it's not possible for God to send revival when it comes to camp meetings. In fact, I was listening to Dr. Edwin Orr yesterday and he mentioned in 1857 when that marvelous saint of God, Hulvi Palmer and her husband came to Hamilton, Ontario, and she came to speak at camp meetings. And it was during that time when the spirit of God began to work in the most amazing way. In fact, they had to go back to the States and they couldn't go because they had a problem with their luggage. And some of the ministers came to her and asked, why didn't you have some special meetings? And it was during that time when God began to work. I'm not saying God is not able to do that. You see, we can't limit God and the ways that he's working. And yet, my brother and sister, revival is not a series of special meetings. Revival is what Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones speaks of, an organized divine disorder. When so many God and his spirit come upon his people in the most amazing way. I will never forget if I think of the Highlands and the islands of Scotland, I had the privilege of spending eight years in Britain and I had the privilege of spending three years on the Highlands and the islands of Scotland. I had the privilege of speaking for one solid week at one of the largest churches in Stornoway. And you know, when I was there, I took time to really do some researching about the movement of God's spirit. When Duncan Campbell was there in 1948 to 1952, in fact, one of the Sunday mornings, I had the marvelous privilege of preaching in the very church in Barthas where the spirit of God broke through. And you know what a challenge it was to see some of those men who sat there that Sunday morning. And those were the men that was converted during the Lewis revival. You know what Duncan Campbell said, it stirred my heart when I heard it. You know what he said when God sent revival? My brother and sister, he said in the one place he could have counted in his one hand the people that he counseled personally when God poured out his spirit on the island of Lewis. In fact, a dear friend of mine in the States in the name of Dr. Stephen Alford asked Duncan Campbell a number of years ago and he said to him, how did you do follow up work and the Lewis revival? And Duncan Campbell turned to him and he said, follow up work? He said, what do you mean? He said, when God sent his spirit in the revival, he said, you don't follow up people. Those people are following you. And you see, my brother and sister, there is a clear distinction between a series of special services and when God sent his spirit in revival. You see, my brother and sister, I'm sure this afternoon we wouldn't have been at this conference if this is not the passion of our heart. You know what, Jonathan Edwards made a marvelous statement. He said something like 20 minutes and the presence of God in the revival is going to do far more than that, which we have tried to do for the last 20 or 30 years in our ministries before God. You know, it's so difficult to speak about these things. I don't know where you stand with God today, but my friends, my heart is fixed upon God. We want to see something of this amazing outpouring of the spirit of God. And I think it's tremendous for us to have these great biblical evidences of God coming to us in the Bible. So the first chapter of the Acts of the Apostles is dealing with what I would call the days of personal preparation. And we discover how Jesus manifest himself to them. We discover how Jesus instructed them from verse number four to verse number eight. And then we discover how the Lord Jesus ascended to his father. And the Bible says from verse number 13, those early disciples went up into the upper room and they spent a period of 10 days waiting upon this promise of the father. This promise of the coming of the spirit of God, you know, it's a wonderful verse or rather a wonderful word in those in those verses. It is the word earnestly or the word fervently. And that word in the classical Greek, it's got a very beautiful meaning. It speaks of a ship which is in a harbor and it speaks of the fact that this ship has set its sails in such a way that when the wind would come, that this ship would be able to launch out into the depths of the ocean. It also speaks of a hunter who's got his bow and his arrow and he has seen the target or the thing that he wants to shoot and he has stretched that bow in such a way just before he would let that arrow go. That's what that word earnestly and fervently is all about. If I would have been in the north of Ireland today, I spent three years amongst the Irish, what a blessing those years were. And if I would have been in Northern Ireland today, I would say that that word speaks to us about the boiling out Irish prayer meeting. You see, there was a great sense of expectation. And that brings us to this passage today. You see, my brother and sister, I think there are a number of things that we should look at this afternoon when we deal with this whole concept of what it means to live for God with clean hands and a pure heart. That's what we come across in the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. And first of all, I want us to deal with the importance of the time of the coming of the spirit of God. You remember in Acts chapter two, the Bible is saying to us when the day of Pentecost was fully come. I wonder if you have ever in your reading of this marvelous subject of revival, if you have ever found yourselves almost in a spiritual battle with the concept of when God is sending revival and our responsibility to trust God to send revival. I believe in the sovereignty of God. I believe, my brother and sister, that it's utterly impossible for us to bring the power of God's spirit down. It's utterly impossible for us to bring revival down upon us as the people of God. But I do not believe in the conception of a sovereignty of God that is going to nullify my responsibility as a child of God to seek the face of God when it comes to revival. There was the importance of the time. You know, I think there are some wonderful biblical evidences of this timing of the visitation of the spirit of God and the things that took place before God came and mighty revival blessing. I think in that beautiful passage in Ezekiel chapter 47, and I see that passage as speaking to us about the stages of revival. I see the possibility of water to the ankles when God brought us to a place of personal involvement, when you and I would come to that place where we will go and sit on the floor and draw a circle around ourselves and say, blessed Lord Jesus, will you send revival? And when you send revival, send revival right within the circle. You see, my brother and sister, it's not possible for us to stand on the banks of this river and see something of these great workings of the spirit of God if we do not come to the place where God brings us to a place of personal involvement. Now, I wonder this afternoon if you would allow me to ask you, have we come to that place when we have seen the possibilities of God and revival, when our hearts has been stirred and searched as we found ourselves many times broken in the presence of God, that we say, Lord, there is the time of the visitation of the spirit of God. You know, just this last weekend, my wife and myself had the privilege of being in one of the towns where Ralph and Lucita were a number of months ago, and we were asked to be involved in the conference with one of the Baptist churches in that town. In fact, there are some other people here today and Sunday morning, God and His spirit and the most wonderful way broke into our midst in that meeting. You know why we got always begin on a Sunday morning when he breaks into a service. My friends, he does not begin and the person in the congregation that we feel is in the greatest need of God. You know what I've experienced? The place where God breaks in Sunday morning after Sunday morning is in my own heart when I try somehow to deliver the word of God and the heart of the minister and those of God's most choicest saints within that congregation. That's the place where God breaks in. And you know, every time when that happens, we find ourselves broken in the presence of God. We find ourselves not only being satisfied in the realm of my intellect by the word of God, not only being stirred in the realm of my emotions because of the presence of God, but being strengthened in the realm of the world so that I can surrender myself to God. And my brother and sister, morning after morning, when God breaks in in his own wonderful way, I find myself many times at the altar with those people. And you know what I say to God, morning after morning, I said, Lord, this is very precious. This is wonderful. When your spirit comes to breaking, this is not even a foretaste of revival. But I said, Lord, Jesus, to a conference like this, to meet with God ourselves personally, you see, there was the time of the visitation of the spirit of God. Let me ask you this afternoon. In fact, this is our first afternoon. Let me ask you this question. My friends, when last have you met with God? When last, my brother and sister, were you absolutely broken up in the very presence of God? I trust that there are not some of us today. And you sit in this meeting this afternoon and you're going to sit through one session after the other. You are going to be blessed by God's word. And yet you can't say God and his spirit has come to me. God and his spirit has broken my heart. God and his spirit has searched me and afresh in a new way. You see, there is the time of the visitation of the spirit of God. The Bible says when the day of Pentecost was fully come. You know, there are some theologians who say to us that the day of Pentecost was very much related to to the coming or rather the giving of a law and the Old Testament. And if you study Exodus chapter 19, you will discover that there are a number of things that have taken place in Exodus chapter 19 and the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles who somehow correspond to one another. And yet, my brother and sister, we are here these days because we long for this time of the visitation of the spirit of God. I was speaking in a church some time ago and the Saturday night after the service, I stayed with a minister and his wife and this fellow is the German fellow. And the phone rang. We were on our knees praying for the services the Sunday and as we were praying, the phone rang. And here was one of the men in his congregation and the phone to him. And he said to the pastor, he said, Pastor, God had spoken to me today, tonight in the service. And the pastor said, About what? He said, Well, it's nothing in the service or the sermon as such. He said, But as I sat there, God spoke to me about certain things that I said about certain people. And he said, I can't sleep. And this fellow turned to this guy on the phone. He said to him, Now, I want you to phone these people, the people that you spoke to, not the people that you talked about. And he said, I want you to make restitution. And, you know, he put the phone down and we were still on our knees praying and it must be close to half past eleven or twelve o'clock. And the phone rang again. And the moment when the phone rang, I knew it was this man again. And, you know, he picked up the phone, the pastor, and here was this fellow on the phone. He said, Pastor, I've done exactly what that, and he said, But I can't sleep. And the minister said, Why? He said, There are things in my house and those things do not belong to me. And I had this minister saying to him, Now, I want you to take those things wherever they come from, put them in your truck and take them back. And he put the phone down. And, you know, I turned to this pastor and I said to him, Now, brother, this man, I don't think he will be in his service tomorrow morning. I was concerned having him in the service. And, you know, being a German, he turned to me and said, Well, as a matter of fact, that's got nothing to do with you whatsoever. So, boy, I was straightened out and I thought, Well, it's between this man and God. But, you know, the next morning, the man was in his service. In fact, his wife was the organist of this congregation. And as I got into the pulpit that morning, I look over this congregation. You know, you sometimes see people and you know when they're ready to meet with God. And this man sat right in the front. And as he sat there, it was as if God, the Holy Spirit said to me, You see this man? If it is a man this morning who's ready to meet with God, it's this man. Now, my friends, don't ask me to explain this to you. But somehow that Sunday morning, during the course of that service, God, the Holy Spirit came upon the heart of that man. You know, the one moment he sat and he listened. And the next moment when this conviction came upon this, this believer, it was the most incredible thing. He was so absolutely broken up with God. And you know what I began to sense? I began to sense that from where God met with him, God by spirit began to touch the lives of people in this part of the congregation. And eventually I came to myself, came to the place where I said to myself, God is all over this place. You say, where did it begin? My brother and sister, it began at the moment when God came to visit one individual. Have you read the life story of Jonathan Edwards? Have you read the life story of that marvelous, very unknown individual in Scotland with the name of John Livingston? It was not the Livingston that went to Africa. No, it was 1631. Do you know where he was? He was speaking at the place between Glasgow and Edinburgh. And my brother and sister, it was a communion season. And Livingston was a very insignificant man, a little church of Scotland minister. But you know, God began to stir him. It was said that the Sunday night of those services, Livingston walked into the fields of Scotland and he could not face this awesome responsibility to preach the word of God. Then the Monday morning came and he said, I came into the pulpit and he said, I began to speak about 10 o'clock. And he said, I found myself preaching the word of God for an hour. And Livingston said, I began to apply the word of God for another hour and a half. And my brother and sister, as he was supplying the word of God, suddenly God, the Holy Spirit came upon that service. Do you know what happened in one service in that church in shots between Glasgow and Edinburgh? 500 people were swept into the kingdom of God. And I wonder this afternoon, my brother and sister, do you realize how absolutely vital we are for God? Do you realize how absolutely precious we are for God? In fact, many times where we left outside of White Rock, I walk up and down in my study and I many times almost can't believe that God has called me and set me aside and and has given me a burden and a desire to seek the face of God and the place of prayer. And sometimes I go to my wife. You know, we in the faith mission in Canada, we don't get a salary. We get an allowance every three months. And sometimes I go to my wife and I said to her, my darling, I said, you know, I feel so honored. The Lord has called us into this work and and I feel so inadequate for this work. And I would turn to her and I would say to her, you know, I even get an allowance every three months. And if I dare to say it, she would almost say to me, well, if you don't want it, then give it to me. But, you know, there is the preciousness of the call of God. Now, I wonder this afternoon, my brother and sister, do you realize that there must be a time when God comes to visit us in his spirit? Have you seen those early disciples? Have you seen those years as they sat at the feet of the Lord Jesus? Isn't it amazing? They never asked Jesus how to preach. They never asked Jesus how to win souls. They never asked Jesus how to plant churches. No, my brother and sister, they asked the Lord Jesus how to pray. And I think of those years as they sat at his feet. The deep searchlight of a life of the Lord Jesus, those nights of prayer as he soaked himself in the presence of his father, those days as he walked in the presence of his father, three and a half years of wonderful preparation. And then it came to these 10 days. People so often wonder about those 10 days. But you know what I often thought about those days of waiting upon the coming of God's spirit. I see those days of days as days of deep searching when God in his spirit began to search the hearts of those early disciples. My brother and sister, it was a time of honesty and the presence of God. It was a time of sincerity and the very presence of God. Can I ask you this afternoon? Maybe these days is the time of God's visitation to us. Or, you know, when I came these days, in fact, I said to the Lord earlier this morning in this prayer as I was flying out, I said, Lord, we are coming, you know, so many miles to cover and people come from so many different parts and so much money has been spent, my friends. Oh, my brother and sister, how can we go back to our homes to say so much has been done, so much preparation has been done. Isn't it possible for us to say, Lord Jesus, by your spirit. Can this become the time of the visitation of God's spirit? My brother and my sister, can you imagine what will happen if God by his spirit in these days of free conference sessions will come upon us in this room? Can you imagine how it could affect this Bible college? Can you imagine that it's possible that maybe 90 percent, if not more, of these students will not go back into some form of secular work, but they will go back into this land, absolutely ablaze for God. It's the time of his visitation. But secondly, there was not only the time of the visitation of the presence of God, but it seems to me there was the place. Do you know what the Bible is saying to us? When the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. My dear friends, our experiences of God does not hang in the air. My brother, my sister, there is a place where God revealed himself to us. There is a place where we come to grips with who God is. There is a place where we come to grips of the awfulness of sin. There is a place where we come to grips with the character of God and this outpouring of his spirit. Let me ask you this afternoon. Has there been a place like that in our relationships of God? Has there been a place of a revelation of God? I mentioned about Jonathan Edwards a few minutes ago. You know, Jonathan Edwards was was not very much in support of what the great George Whitfield was doing. In fact, in fact, maybe I wouldn't blame him one cent because when Whitfield was preaching in the south of Ireland, John Wesley, the Methodist, went to listen to him. And this is what he said. He said he was like a wild Frenchman swinging his arms like a windmill. But Wesley said, I think the presence of God. And you know, when Jonathan Edwards was encouraged to go and listen to Whitfield, from what I gather from reading, that it seems to me that he was not really in support of it. But you know what happened, my brother and sister, he went and this is what they said. They said as Whitfield was speaking, Edwards was standing there and the tears were streaming down his cheeks as he sings the mighty presence of God. Remember that marvelous sermon of Edwards three days before that? They reckon it's been three days and prayer waiting upon God for that amazing sermon. Jonathan Edwards was no great, great dynamic preacher or such, although I believe he was one of the greatest Christian philosophers that ever lived, one of the greatest expositors, I believe. But you know what happened that Sunday morning after God came to him, when the place of God's visitation came, he got into the pulpit and there is notes like that. And the theme of his sermon was sinners in the hands of an angry God. My brother and sister, listen, there was something like 850 people within his congregation that Sunday morning. And Edwards simply read the sermon like that. And as he was reading it, the spirit of God came upon the servant. You know what happened that Sunday morning? Four hundred and thirty seven people were swept into the kingdom of God. It was the place of God's visitation. And I wonder this afternoon, my friends, we've come from different parts of this land, maybe from across the border today. What about that little place where God wants to visit me with his spirit? You know, in the plane this morning, I was listening to Mr. Duncan Campbell. I've got about 14 of his messages on cassette and always a tremendous blessing. And there is one of his messages, it is the nature of a God sent revival. And, you know, every time when I listen to that message, my heart just breaks in the preciousness of God, because even as Duncan Campbell was speaking, you sense the awesomeness of the preciousness of God as he was trying to share the burden of his heart. But, you know, at the end of that message, he's sharing his testimony and he mentioned about a place where God, the Holy Spirit came to visit him. When as a minister in the United Free Church in Scotland, Duncan Campbell found himself outside of the will of God, found himself, although he was ministering, found himself of a deep sense of emptiness in his relationship with God. My brother and sister, there was a time when the spirit of God began to search the heart of Duncan Campbell. And I wish you could listen to that that moment, that place of God's visitation to his heart and to his life. Have you seen this place? It was the upper room, some say it was the house of Mary, the mother of Mark, some say it was another place. But my brother and sister, there was a place of a visitation of the spirit of God. Let me ask you this afternoon, I'm speaking to you as a believer, I'm speaking to you and I guess most of us in this gathering today has been through some crusade of the Canadian Revival Fellowship. Most of us today, my brother and sister, have sat maybe at some of the great moments of the visitation of the spirit of God. Can I ask you today, is that place of God's visitation, is it still fresh today? You see, my friends, yesterday stinks of in the light of today. It's what God wants to do today when it comes to this, this place of the revelation of the spirit of God. It was a place of absolute openness before God. You know, we are living in an amazing society. I think we are living in a society where we are so busy, even as God's people. And I think there is the possibility that we can be diligent in work and natural and when it comes to watching. Now, my brother and sister, are we still open before God this afternoon? If the Holy Spirit this afternoon comes to us, to my life, to Mr. McLeod's life, to the recipients' life, those of us in ministry here, those of us recipients, if God's spirit is coming to you today and say, listen, my child, there are depths, there are heights, there are revelations in my word which you have never before discovered. How will we respond to such a God? It was the time of his visitation. Isn't that wonderful? When God came to visit my friends, it was real. You know, there was no possibility that here was something and they say, well, maybe this is some workings of the spirit of God. No, my brother and sister, it was deep. It was real. It was solid. Let us have a Louis revival. So many, many years after the Louis revival, they couldn't find anyone who have backslidden in this relationship with God. Isn't it tremendous when God comes in the revival? My brother and sister, when God comes in the revival, that which happened is real. It's deep. It's pleasure. Now and again, in our own little situation out in British Columbia, I think of the last number of years or so, and I'm sure some of us here have experienced that when God come upon a meeting and you sense that all time conviction of sin, evangelistic meeting and you sense that all time conviction of sin and you just began to realize that here is the place of God's revelation in salvation. And my friends, isn't it wonderful for us to realize that there is a place of God's revelation and this wonderful promise of a sanctifying work of the spirit of God, this wonderful promise of cleansing to us as God's wonderful people. You know, in South Africa, when I was brought up, I stayed with a farmer and I was preparing for a missionary convention and while I stayed with him, he was in what we would call the Kalahari Desert and I stayed with this dear man and he began to tell me, he said, you know, sir, there's large farms, about five or seven thousand acres, some of those farms. And he began to tell me, he said, you know, sir, here on my farm, we've got a poisonous plant and you know, the Kalahari Desert is almost semi-desert, but there are trees and grass and lots of them with our sheep and some of them with even our cattle. And he said, we've got this poisonous plant and he said, we get very little rain every year. He said, but every year when the rain begins to come, he said, within a matter of days or so, if that plant is on your farm, he said that plant would come up about 15 or 18 inches above the sun. And he said, if any of my sheep or any of my goats or whatever would eat this plant, he said, within a matter of hours, you find those animals dead or a little place. So I turned to him and I said, so what do you do? Well, he said, you can't do anything about it, he said, because the unfortunate thing is, once they've eaten this plant, he said, you don't see that plant again until the next rainy season would come. So I was quite interested about this, so I said, what do you do? Well, he said, next year when the rain begins to fall, very little rain they get, he said, but when the rain begins to fall, he said, after about four or five days, he said, the first thing you do, you clear the camp. He said, after you have cleared the camp, after about a few days or so, you get on a horseback with a shuffle and he said, you began to clear this camp. And he said, you come across this plant, I will never forget his words, you know, he said about 15 inches or so above the sun. That's where the plant is, he said. Now, you know, you can cut it off and for one solid year, the plant is not going to bother you at all. He said, but brother, if you put that shuffle in about maybe 12 or so inches under the sun, you come across the roots of that plant. And I still remember his words, he said, you know, it's about the size of a tennis ball. He said, and it's as red as blood. He said, that's where the poison is lying. And my brother and sister, you know what happened when God visited us with his spirit? My friends, God brings us to the poison. We began to open up before God and my brother and sister, we began to see ourselves in a way that we have never seen ourselves before. Why is that? It's because of the visitation of the spirit of God. You see, he's the spirit of truth. And we listen to God's word and to see and the spirit of God comes and fertilizes the seed and reveals to us ourselves in the very presence of God. It's amazing when you read the history of revivals of religion. You know, I almost hesitate to say this, but you know, I discover in most of these revivals, you know, there are quite a number of people who would be involved in some kind of a church or even some kind of an experience. And my brother and sister, when God sent revival, you know what they discover? They discover that they were never born of the spirit of God, never born of the spirit of God. It's a place of openness before God. Let me ask you this afternoon, are we walking in absolute openness in the presence of God? Or is there maybe this afternoon some area of our lives, my friends, and we are not absolutely open when it comes to the faith. I'm not speaking about sin as necessary. I'm speaking about the burden that God has given to me when it comes to prayer. I'm speaking about life that he has given to me as I'm studying his work. You see what Jesus said? He said, He that willeth to do my will shall know of a doctrine that I'm speaking of. My brother and sister, you know what Phineas said, Phineas said to me, Bible is a new obedience in the presence of God, the place of God's visitation. Then thirdly, there was the people. Oh, what a wonderful blessing to know when God poured out his spirit, God poured out his spirit upon his people. My friends, isn't it wonderful for us today to discover that those who are a people that were utterly set apart unto God, they were the people who had one desire, one deep concern, one deep sense of passion that was that they wanted to sense and they wanted to know the reality of this promise of the spirit of God. You know, these people, this word, the Bible says when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all of one accord. That word, one accord is a very precious word. It's a marvelous word when you study it in the original text, because you know what it speaks of? It speaks of the symphony concert and it speaks of the conductor that comes in the presence of that wonderful symphony orchestra and they would tune in their instruments one after the other and then the curtains would open and the conductor would turn to the audience and maybe he would bend before the audience and then he would turn to that symphony orchestra. And my brother and sister, there is a moment where he's going to get a sign and the moment when he got the right sign, in absolute unison, that orchestra begins to play. That's what this word, one accord, means. Let me ask you this afternoon, I think first of all, we need to ask ourselves this question personally, my brother and sister, are we walking in the center of God's will for our life? Do you realize that one minute spending outside of God's will for my life is a waste of time? One hour spending out of God's will for my life, my brother and sister, is a waste of time. It's time that we never, ever in our lives should be able to recover. We will never be able to make use of that time. It's a waste of time. Let me ask you this afternoon, when the Bible is saying to us, redeem the time, how do you spend your time? Have you analyzed time? Have you maximized time? You say, how do I maximize time? Through God is living. Or let me ask you, you say, why do you ask the conference like this? My brother and sister, let me ask you today, are you clean in the realm of the mind? Are you clean in the realm of the emotion? Are you clean when it comes to the realm of the heart? Maximize time, how? Through God is living. God is living. My word to study the life of the Savior. And you see that the Lord Jesus Christ, he walked according to a plan, my friend. And as he walked according to that plan, it was a life which was guarded through God that living. I was so blessed the other day. In fact, I ran to my wife and I said to her, I'm going to preach on that as soon as God gives me permission. But I was thinking that wonderful, wonderful passage in Luke chapter four. You remember at the baptism of Jesus, the Bible says he was driven and Mark's gospel said he was driven by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted to the devil. And you remember what the Bible said as he was driven, 40 days, my friends, he spent in the wilderness through the most intense of temptation. And you study the Greek word for temptation and you see the whole concept of what it means to go through under the attacks of the evil one. But you know what the Bible says, after 40 days, listen, Jesus, listen, came out in the power of the spirit of God. So many of us, my friend, we've never learned the secret of retaining this mighty things of the presence of God. Jesus knew that secret, my brother and sister, the people are so important, so important. It's God's people. Now, those words when he said in the last days, I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh and your young men and your young daughters shall prophesy and your old men shall dream dreams. I wonder if you ever ask yourselves, what does that really mean? You know, how do I see that? I see those old men dreaming dreams when when they come to the end of their life and they've experienced the blessing and the presence and the unction and the brokenness of the spirit of God. Now they sit back and they reflect upon the wonderful blessings of God. Now they look forward and they are dreaming about the wonderful possibilities of the visitations of the spirit of God. It's the people. You realize how important you are this afternoon to God? Absolutely important. During the life story of Charles Adams Spurgeon, have you ever asked yourselves, why was it that Spurgeon was so blessed of God? Whenever I speak to ministers, I say to them, Spurgeon is for the clergy. But have you ever read his life story? You know what I've discovered? My friends, it seems to me, although we never used the terms as such as a deeper work of the spirit of God or the concept of revival or being surrendered to God and whatever title we want to give to this openness before God. You read his life story and you know what you discover? The day when Spurgeon was baptized, it was an awesome moment for him. He realized the consequences. And I would go so far as to say to you that that place where Spurgeon was baptized, it seems to me that it affected his life for time and for eternity. He became a mighty instrument of God. The importance of the people. My friends, can I ask you this question today when it comes to God's relationship with me? Is there an open heaven this afternoon between God and myself? What about those areas of obedience? What about the burden that he has given us to pray? We have seen the vision, we have seen the burden, but somehow we have not surrendered to God. We say, Lord, I can't do it. God said, you can. God said, this is your responsibility. You know what's your responsibility? It's your response to God's mighty ability. The people of God are absolutely open, absolutely open. And then it comes to my fellow men, my fellow men, my will, the will of God, perfect, acceptable, precious as it is. The Bible says there was the concept of the importance of the people. And then finally, my time is gone. There was the importance of the manifestation, I don't want to dwell upon that, but let me just say to you that there were three feasts in the Acts of the Apostles, the Feast of Pentecost, and then the Feast of the Tabernacles and the Feast of the Passover. This was the feast of the first three. My brother and sister, have you ever asked yourselves, why did they speak in those 16 different languages? You know why? Because they reckon there were about a million people around Jerusalem at that time. And when they spoke, they never preached the word of God when they spoke in those languages. The Bible says that they spoke about the wonderful works of God.