In this sermon, the speaker shares a personal story about observing a family of birds and how it reminded him of God's presence. He then encourages the audience not to be afraid of the miraculous when it aligns with Scripture, as it is a manifestation of the Holy Spirit. The speaker also mentions that Jesus had eight personal conversations, highlighting one in John chapter three where Jesus became the divine teacher. The sermon concludes with the speaker expressing his gratitude for being part of the gathering and apologizing for not having a beard but wearing suspenders instead.

Hello, this is Brother Denny. Welcome to Charity Ministries. Our desire is that your life would be blessed and changed by this message. This message is not copyrighted and is not to be bought or sold. You are welcome to make copies for your friends and neighbors. If you would like additional messages, please go to our website for a complete listing at www.charityministries.org. If you would like a catalog of other sermons, please call 1-800-227-7902 or write to Charity Ministries, 400 West Main Street, Suite 1, EFRA, PA 17522. These messages are offered to all without charge by the free will offerings of God's people. A special thank you to all who support this ministry. I want to say this morning what a wonderful privilege it has been to be able to spend these days with you and fellowships. What a challenge and what a great stirring in my own heart and inadequate life to be able to be allowed just to come and be part. I was sitting there this morning as we were worshipping and singing and I said to myself, oh how I just would wish someone else would be preaching this morning so that I can just take in a service like this. And I want to thank you today. I want to tell you that God has given unto us a precious burden to pray for the fellowships. It's just been amazing to me to see what God has been doing. I've had the privilege of being here, I think it was six or seven years ago and then been allowed to go to some of the different fellowships and to share and to pray with the brothers and to seek the face of God. And it's just wonderful. I don't want you to misunderstand me and I don't want you to ever think that we've got it together. And I don't want you ever to develop an attitude of arrogance to think that, you know, there's something about us because if God in one moment will withdraw His presence from us, we will disintegrate. But I want to say to you this morning, I really believe in my heart. I really believe in my heart. I really believe in my heart that if there is places where God can pour out His Spirit and revival in the days to come, it's upon the fellowships here and at charity and all over the country where they meet. What a wonderful testimony it will be if one day we receive a call and said and found out that the Spirit of God has broken through in revival in Manitoba. The Spirit of God has broken through in revival in South Dakota or in Tennessee or right here or at charity. And how we would long to see that. Brother and sister, 20 minutes of an outpouring of the Spirit of God will do more for us than all the years of the things that we've tried. And I really have a longing in my heart. And I've often said this to my wife and my daughter. If the Spirit of God breaks through in one of the fellowships in revival, I don't care in which country of the world I will be, I would just ask and say, can I just come and sit in the midst of what God is doing? I've had the privilege to be in revival twice in my life. And brother and sister, if you've once in your life been in revival, you will never ever be the same. It spoils you for life. You have one longing and that's to see it again. What will it cost us? It will cost us absolutely everything. And so that's the longing of our hearts. So thank you for allowing me to be part here. I'm so sorry this morning I don't have a beard. I was trying to convince brother Mose to give me his this morning and he wouldn't do that. And then I said to him, you know, maybe there's one of these ones that you just stick on for the morning. And he said, well, that's not Christian either. So just bear with me and forgive me. But I do have my suspenders, so don't criticize me. I want you to turn with me this morning, if you will, in your Bible. We're going to read from John 14 to John 16. Just a couple of verses out of every passage. John 14 through to John 16. John 14, a few verses. Then John 15, a few verses. And then John chapter 16. John chapter 14, verse number 16. The Lord Jesus said, And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever. Even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him. But ye knowing, for He dwelleth with you, and He shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you. Then verse number 26. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach me all things, and bring all things to your remembrance. He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you. Not as the world giveth give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. And if you turn over to chapter 15, verse number 26. The Bible says, But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of Me. And ye also shall be a witness, because ye have been with Me from the beginning. Chapter 16, verse number 7. Nevertheless I tell you the truth, it is expedient for you that I go away. For if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you. But if I depart, I will send Him unto you. When He has come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. Of sin, because they believe not on Me. Of righteousness, because I go to My Father, and ye see Me no more. Of judgment, because the Prince of this world is judged. I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all three, for He shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak. And He will show you things to come. He shall glorify Me, for He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto you. Our Father, as we just now for another moment in the beauty of what the presence of God has been about, and this week as we have gathered together, and as we have been exposed to some amazing blessed teachings that has been coming unto us from the Word of God. Lord, I must confess this morning that in the few days that I have had the privilege of being allowed to come and humble myself under the mighty hand of God amongst these, my brothers and sisters. Father, I must confess that it has become some of the most precious days in my own inadequate walk with God, probably within the last number of years. And I want to thank you this morning for that which God is doing. We want to thank you for all the brokenness that has been coming upon our hearts in our lives. We want to thank you this morning, our Father, for the way that the Spirit of God has been working in the hearts of the brothers. We want to thank you for every single one that has met with God in a very precious way. And Father, this Sunday morning we want to climb underneath the burden of God, not just for these two fellowships here and the charity, but we want to climb underneath the burden of God for the almost 50 fellowships all over the country. Many of them this morning just meeting maybe a few families, and they need to be an encouragement for one another, and sometimes they sense the loneliness of what it means to be out there in the wilderness of what this world is about. But this morning we face the responsibility to climb underneath the burden of God, and Father, to be able to pray for our brothers and for our sisters. Lord, thou knowest today that I have come to the place, the last two days of this Men's Leadership Week, where I felt I could climb underneath a blanket somewhere in a cabin in the mountains and spend days and nights underneath the burden of God, systematically pray through, not just for every one of the fellowships, but for the brothers and the leaders and the husbands, and for the fathers and for the mothers, and for our families and for our young people, and Father, for our children. But this day we want to pray as we humble ourselves before God. Our God and our Father, we want to pray this morning that this movement of God that has been born in a sense of revival, we ask today that you will prepare us for another great move of the Spirit of God. We want to say to thee this morning, our God and Father, our only survival is not just in new fellowships, or you coming to places in wonderful ways, but God, our only survival is going to be when you will pour out your Spirit upon us again and again. And this day we come to humble ourselves. And Father God, we want to pray this morning in Jesus' name that somehow that this seed will begin to be sown in our hearts afresh. And Father that in the days to come that the burden for revival will begin to settle in our hearts in new and deep ways. And so that we will begin to pray, and that the hours would become like minutes in the presence of God. And that in the days to come that there will come moments in our fellowships in different places where God will come and pour out His Spirit in revival. We want to say to thee this morning again, our God and our Father, we are not interested in fellowships and churches full of people. But we want to say to thee, our Father, we long to be in places that will be full of people, that will be full of God. And Father we do not know this morning what it's going to take in the days to come to be exposed underneath the greatness of the burden of God. And to ask you to bring us to the place where this burden of God will bring brokenness upon our lives, where brokenness will bring cleansing, where cleansing will bring in the dimension of the Spirit of God, and where the Spirit of God is going to lead us into the spirit of prayer, and where the spirit of prayer will lead us into the will of God, and where the will of God will found itself being surrounded by the promises of God. And Lord God, I do not know this morning, in the inadequacy of my own heart here in this continent of North America, what it's going to take for us to systematically pray through for an outpouring of the Spirit of God upon us. Lord, I know today it's going to cost us so much more if it's not going to happen. This morning we want to cry to thee, thou who didst say to us in thy word, I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, I will pour floods upon the dry ground. Thou didst say in thy word, in the midst of the years, O that thou wouldst revive us again. Thou didst say to us in thy word, 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 they were all full to the Holy Ghost. Thou didst say unto us in thy word in the last days, Say of God, I will pour out from my Spirit upon all flesh. Father, we are living in the last days. We want to be a sanctified people. We want to be a people that hates sin. We want to be a people that will be saturated with God. We want to be a people that will be intoxicated, and drenched in the greatness of the glory of God, so that we can become a praying people. And Father, the burden of my own inadequate heart these days is that we will not just have fellowships that will be a mile wide and an inch deep, that we will not just have brothers who say, I believe, and separation, that we will not just have families that will say, we believe in family worship, but, oh God, that we would be able to live out exactly everything that you are saying unto us in your word. And Lord, the burden of my own simple life is that our fellowships will become houses of prayer. God, you need to begin it somewhere in this country. And I believe in my heart this Sunday morning that there is a place where God will be able to pour out His Spirit. It's amongst these different groups that you have called to be set apart unto you. And so we thank you, and I want to thank you today that, Lord God, I'm going back to Western Canada with a burden upon my heart and the days to come to pray in a way that we've never prayed before, and to trust you to come. And I just thank you for the great privilege of being allowed to come amongst people like this. That so much reminds me of my own people in Africa. And yet we say to thee this morning, save us from arrogance. Save us, our God, from attitudes of criticism. Save us from an attitude of thinking that we are doing fine. Save us from a relationship where we think we've got this thing together. But we pray, pour out upon us the spirit of humility. Pour out upon us the conviction of the greatness of what the presence of God is all about. Now, Father, as we turn to thy word this morning, we want to say to thee this morning, we love thy word. Lord, our words sometimes sound so empty. Because we can't understand the depth of the love of God. And yet thy word said unto us here in His love, not that we love God, but that He loved us. And that He gave His Son as a propitiation for our sins. We say again afresh today, our God, our understanding of the love of God will be determined by our observation and revelation of the sufferings of Christ. So, bless the word as we found it upon it. In Jesus' name, Amen. Many, many years ago in my own homeland of Africa, because we speak a different language in that country that I was brought up, many, many years ago, God began to lay it upon my heart to try and memorize the gospel of John. It took me probably about three years not to memorize the gospel of John, but for the gospel of John to memorize me. You see, brethren and sisters, we know so much about the word of God so often. And we have such a knowledge of the word of God. But sometimes the word of God knows so little about us. And we are so foreign to the depth of the dealings of God's word in our lives. But during those three years, God began to wash through my life through these 21 chapters, as they became real or part of my inadequate relationship with God. You remember the Bible is speaking to us about groups that followed Christ. The Apostle Paul in Corinthians spoke about 500 on one occasion. We read about the 120 on the day of Pentecost, when God brought out His Spirit in revival. We read about the 70 that was sent out in Matthew 10, or rather Luke 10. And then within the circle of the 70, do we discover the 12. And you remember those 12 were chosen by the Master, by the Lord Jesus, after a night of intercessory prayer. And within the circle of the 12, do we come across the three? Peter and James and John. And within that circle of the three, we come across the Apostle John. The one that was moved of God to give unto us the gospel of John, the epistles of John, and also the book of Revelation. I have just started about a week ago to memorize the book of Revelation. And this morning I was in my quiet time in the first five verses of chapter 2. And I want to tell you something today. I don't know how I am going to get to chapter 21. Because there are truths that are coming and washing through the inadequacy of my relationship with God. That morning after morning, they are just tearing my life apart. As God is just washing and speaking to my own life. And John was that beloved disciple. The disciple whom Jesus loved. The disciple that was at the foot of the cross. When the Savior looked down and turned to him and looked at his mother and said to his mother, this is going to be your son. Turned to him and said, this is going to be your mother. I love people that love God. I love people that want to live close to God. And I don't know about you this morning, but when I find someone that has a deep passion and a deep longing for God, sometimes I just attach myself to those people like a leech. And I want to be in their presence. And I want them to mentor me. And I want to drink from them. And I want to find out what God has been doing in their hearts and the relationships with God. So what happens in the Gospel of John? My brethren and my sisters, there are two possible ways for us to look at this marvelous Gospel. There is the possibility this Sunday morning in our morning service that you and I as a Christian will be able to look upon this Gospel and see within the Gospel of John what we would refer to as Jesus becoming our New Testament tabernacle. You say, Brother Gerard, why do you say that? I say that because in John 1 the Bible is saying to us, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glorious, the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. I love that little word, dwelt in the New Testament, because in the Greek New Testament it's a marvelous little concept. It's the word for tabernacle. The Word became flesh and tabernacled amongst us. In fact, it's the same word that we come across in the book of Revelation when the Apostle John again made a statement and he said, the tabernacle of God was amongst His people. If you and I will study the Old Testament tabernacle, you will discover in coming to the Gospel of John, because the Old Testament is revealed for us, and the New Testament and the New Testament lies hidden within the Old Testament, you will discover that Christ in the New Testament, as He became our New Testament tabernacle, that everything that the Old Testament tabernacle is speaking to us about found itself somehow in one way or another fulfilled within Christ, our New Testament tabernacle. We do not have time this morning to explore that. But there is another way for us to look at the Gospel of John. And that's by looking upon this Gospel and see within this Gospel the different ministries that the Son of God had. In the opening words of the Gospel of John when the Bible is saying to us, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was God and the Word was with God, you will discover that the Bible is speaking to us about what to a degree we may refer to as the predestined ministry of Christ. The Christ of the Old Testament. And my brother and my sister, I wonder this Sunday morning if you would allow me to suggest to you that it will not be possible for us to come to grips with the Christ of the New Testament and the greatness of His death unless we have come to grips with the Christ of the Old Testament. And when you discover Him in the Old Testament, it's beautiful. We look upon what we would refer to as the Christophanies of Christ in Old Testament Scripture. The one that wrestled with Jacob of old, that somehow crippled him for life, that turned to him and said to him, what is your name? And he said, my name means deception. My name is Jacob. I have been a deceiver. And somehow he crippled him that he will never in his life ever be the same. And he said, your name is going to become Jacob. It means Prince of God. The one that stood in Joshua 5 as the Lord and the King of hosts and Joshua as they enter into the promised land. And I want to say to you this morning that the inheritance that God has in mind for you and for me as a Christian is that we will not live a defeated Christian life, but that God is saying to the people of Israel in the Old Testament, He said, I brought them out of Egypt so that I would be able to bring them into the promised land. The writer to the Hebrews is coming unto us and he said, they remain there for a rest to the people of God. He said, those that have entered into His rest enter from their own works as He is from His. But as they entered into the promised land, there was a man that was standing and Joshua came to him and he said to him, art thou for us or art thou against us? And he responded and he said, I am the captain, the Lord of hosts. He said, I have now come. The one that found himself in the fire with the friends of Daniel, one as the Son of Man. The one that revealed himself in the prophecy of Isaiah when the prophet in Isaiah chapter 6 said, the year when King Uzziah died, he said, I also saw the Lord and He was high and lifted up and His grains filled the temple. And you remember how the prophet who five times in the first five chapters cried out those woes against the people because he never discovered the condition of his heart. But then he came to the place where he said the King Uzziah died. The carpet was pulled from underneath him, brother and sister. And he said, I also saw the Lord. Who did he see? The Apostle John in the New Testament said, he saw the Lord Jesus Christ. I wonder this morning if I may ask you, because my brother and my sister, the potential and the possibilities of our fellowships in the years and the days to come right here in this beautiful building across here in Charity Christian Fellowship and all those maybe 48 other fellowships all over this land is going to be determined by our understanding of the vision of God. And I wonder this Sunday morning if I can ask you, have you lost the vision of God? You see, it was the beauty of the Christ of the Old Testament. It was the consuming fire. It was the seraphims that cried in the Hebrew text, Qodesh, Qodesh, Qodesh is the Lord God Almighty, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. One of the great burdens and the concern upon my heart for this movement of God amongst that which God has been doing, not just here or in Charity or in the other fellowships, my brother and my sister, is simply this, that we will come to the place where we stand on the foundations and the fundamentals of Scripture and we stand on the reality of being separated unto God. But somehow we do not know the reality of being separated from this world. But somehow we do not know the reality of being separated unto God. And I want to say to you this morning, because I have seen it happen, I have been amongst people in this world who are so strong on the concepts of separation that each and every one of us stands for. But we have lost the understanding of our separation unto God. And my brother and my sister, you know what are the consequences? We come to the place where pride begins to crawl in. We come to the place where we lack or where we lost the reality of accountability. We come to the place where we stand upon the greatness of the doctrines of Scripture. But the doctrines of Scripture has not been penetrated every aspect of our walks with God. You say, Brother Gerard, why do you say that? I find myself in many independent movements. You know what has happened? Some of them have become so independent that they are independent of God. And brother and sister, forgive me for saying this, I tell you, my heart is so broken, I felt last night if I could just come to the church and found a little room in this massive, beautiful building, and sit underneath a blanket and not even come to this morning service, because one of the greatest fears in my heart is that there will be a moment that you and I will come and say, you know, we really are not so bad. Listen, we are precious to God, but we are desperately needed. The Christophanies of Christ and the Old Testament. Can I ask you this Sunday morning in this morning service, have you lost the vision of God? You know, it's a terrible thing when you and I can sit here on a Sunday morning like this and you say, brother Gerard, there was a time in my life when I really knew the presence of God. But I sit here this Sunday morning in this morning session and you and I need to say, you know, somehow I don't know the depth of that presence. There has been little things that has been crawling into my relationship with God. My brother and my sister, why did we give out this little sheet on Friday night and those questions and those passages of Scripture? And as I let Him search through my own heart again, we want, as Brother Moe said earlier on, we want to be a people sanctified and meet for the Master's use. There are some of the men that are here this Sunday morning and somehow you have come to the leadership and you've been in the small groups as we have heard our brother from Manitoba and we have made commitments and our minds have been moved by the Scriptures and our hearts have been stirred because of the reality of the unction of the Spirit of God. But my brethren, can I challenge you this morning? Somehow your world needs to be on the altar for God. You need to go back to those fellowships and the things that God has been working in your heart. Those things need to become a reality. So there is the greatness of the vision of God. You say, what was this public ministry all about? What do we also find? There was the predestined ministry of Christ and those opening verses of the Gospel of John. No, brethren, it's just to listen. There was the public ministry of Christ. Now what was that? And I want to challenge you this morning. I wonder, and I was thinking about my quiet America this morning, what will happen to our fellowships about the fellowships all over the country if you and I will come to the place where all of us will memorize the Gospel of John? You know what will happen to us? We will become a holy people! So there was this public ministry. You say, Brother Gerard, what did Christ do in the public? You know what He did in John's Gospel? From chapter 1 to chapter 12, He manifest Himself in wonderful ways. He did it through miracles, and He did it through personal conversations. He did approximately something like eight beautiful miracles in those chapters, and there are possible eight private conversations that He had. You say, why did He do the miracles in those chapters? You know what's the word in the original language? I love that word. The word for miracle is a marvelous word. It is speaking to us about signposts towards spirituality. You say, what does that mean? You see, He did a miracle. And my brother and sister, when the Lord Jesus Christ did a miracle, the reason why He did that miracle is because He is going to reveal and manifest the life of the Father. And I wonder this Sunday morning if I can ask you in this service, are there times when God is coming to you in a miraculous way? You say, what are you speaking about? Are you talking about manifestations? No, my brother and sister, I am speaking about these moments when God comes to visit your life and my life. You say, brother Gerard, why do you say that? My brother and my sister, I am saying that because you know what we stand for? We believe in a spirit-filled life. We believe this morning that there is no power without purity. We believe in the efficacy of the blood of Christ. We believe in the possibility that God is able to cleanse us from all conscious sin. But you know what? The fullness of the Spirit is never meant to become a goal. It's a gateway. Why are there leadership conferences like this? Why are the men coming? Why are there Bible schools? Why are there special services? My brother and my sister, those things are there so that we, as the people of God, can be exposed to the light of His Word. But as we are exposed to the light of His Word, God, the Spirit of God, who witnesses to the Word and witnesses to the blood, He needs to come and meet us when His Word is coming to our hearts. But you know the sad thing and the possibility in a morning like this is that you and I can sit through session after session after session after session after session without meeting with God. So this morning I want to ask you, these last days, has He come and has He met with us? I will never be able not to remember the very first time when God broke into a gathering like this. It was in my own homeland of Africa. And I was part of an organization that had a strong stand and a holy life and a commitment to prayer and a strong conviction that souls need to be saved. And the closest ever that I've come to something like this in North America is right here this morning. That's why I found it so difficult even to get up here and to try and share the Word of God with you. And I was part of an organization like that. And you know I would never forget, I would hear people speaking about the Spirit of God breaking through. The Spirit of God breaking through. And I was a young evangelist just went out in the ministry, and I didn't understand these concepts. And we were involved in a convention in the Western Cape of Southern Africa. And there were about 600 people, very God-fearing conservative Christians who were separated from this world. And they were in this tent and at this campground. And they were in tents and trailers. And the services was in a large tent. And Saturday night came, it was an Easter convention. And Saturday night came, and the leader of the camp made a statement and he said, we are going to have a half-night of prayer, and we are going to ask God to break into this convention. And I remember Mr. Skoll said, we can't go through meeting after meeting without meeting with God. He said we need to trust God to break into our hearts. As a young evangelist I sat there and after the Saturday night service we had a half-night of prayer. And the Christians would come together and we began to climb underneath the burden of God in prayer. We began to seek the face of God and wait within the presence of God. And I don't know what time it was. It could have been 12, 1 or 2 in the morning when Mr. Skoll stood up. He's a godly man. He stood up and he said, I really believe that God has helped us to pray through. Brother and sister, you know, what is going to make this movement growing in the years to come? That's when we learn the secret of praying through. And so he sent us to our tents. And I remember as a young evangelist, I was exposed to prayer. I love this thing of prayer, but this thing of just praying through, persevering through to God. And Sunday morning came, and I would never forget Sunday morning. There was a missionary by the name of Henny Starrum speaking on Easter Sunday morning. And that Sunday morning when I came into the tent, brother and sister, the tent was pregnant with the atmosphere of the presence of God. And the services started just like this morning. We sang the same wonderful hymns. And they said there was a moment when this missionary got up to speak, and he had a very little simple message about Christ and about Easter weekend and the crucifixion. And I would never forget that Sunday morning. Maybe halfway through his message, suddenly the Spirit of God came. There was nothing strange about it. But you know what happened? The Spirit of God came. It was a wave of brokenness and conviction that was sweeping over this tent. And I saw very old, conservative, precious, God-fearing people being saved for 30 or 40 or 50 years sitting there on this tent and the dust and the grass that was on the floor of this tent. And when God began to break through, my brother and my sister, one after the other, they began to bend in the dust before God. And I was standing at the door of the tent and was amazed by this wave of conviction, of sin, the revelation of coming short to the glory of God. And I stood there at the tent, and there was an old man in his seventies standing at the tent who knew these things. And I stood there just weeping, and I would never forget this. He just looked at me and he put his hand on my shoulder and he shook me like this. And I looked at him and he just said to me, young man, this is what happens when God comes. I want to say to you this morning, the day when we lose this thing, we are in trouble. Can I ask you as a father this Sunday morning? My brother, is God breaking into your life? Can I confess? Can I share something today? The greatest fear in my inadequate Christian life is that there will come a time in my times of waiting in the presence of God, morning after morning, that there will come a day or there will come days in the inadequacy of my walk with God that the Spirit of God will not break into my life. You sit here as a father. Is God breaking into your life? You say, brother Gerard, what do you mean by breaking in? Do you know how He's breaking into your life? He's breaking into your life through His Word. You can't go from experience to truth. The dealings of God flows out of the speaking voice of God to your life. And so what happens? He wants to break in. And my brother and myself said, can I say this to you this morning? God breaks in in different ways. You and I sat here this morning. I think of these beautiful, precious young people. My young friends, can I say to you this morning, listen, it's going to cost you more to miss the Word of God than it's going to cost you to find it. And there is this yearning. I mean, I'm staying with brother Denny and his family, and the day before yesterday, we had to drive here to the church, and I wasn't sure of directions, and there were two of the young ladies there, and they were coming to the service, and I said, can you come with me so that I can just make sure I get to the church? And we were driving, and so I said, okay, we've got 15 minutes driving to the service. And I said, now listen, that means seven minutes each. I want to know how I can pray for you. And we sat there, and I just listened. I thought afterwards, oh, no one else wants to drive me again in the future, but they want to drive me again. But we asked these questions. What is God doing in your life? Where is He breaking you? You see, our survival depends upon... and I want you to get this. Our survival depends upon the responding of the Word of God as it is coming through the unction of God through the infallibleness of purity. And so what happens? He manifests Himself. We live out there in Western Canada, and it's different, you know. It's really different. I've been accused as a Biblicist. Oh, I'm so glad for that. I've been accused because I'm old-fashioned. I feel I'm not old-fashioned enough. I've been accused as an ultra-conservative, and I try to find a word that can push me further. And all these kind of things, and I tell you, it's just a mess. And we have a daughter that's 13 years old that really loves God. And one night I went and prayed with her in the room, and we prayed together as a family. And then after a little while, there is a knock at our bedroom door, and I said, and we only have one child, and I said, come in. And there was she standing there, and she said, Daddy, I have a question. I said, what is it? She said, will you pray for me? I said, yes, I would love to. How can I pray? And she said, will you pray that God will manifest Himself to me in a fresh way? It's great when your children come and ask you those questions. And so I just took her in my arms, and I prayed, and took her back to her room, and put her in bed. And we were just about to fall asleep when there was just a commotion. And I didn't know what was going on. I just hear these footsteps come running down the passage of our home. And this time there wasn't a knock at the door. Just running in. And I said, what is it, Monica? And she said, God just came to me. I said, what do you mean? Oh, she said, the presence of God, Daddy. It became so real in my room. You know, I felt, I wanted to go and sleep on the floor in the room that night, because God manifested Himself afresh to my daughter. When last did He meet you, brother and sister? Do not be afraid of that which is miraculous when it is coming out of the infallibleness of Scripture. Because if you are afraid, you are going to grieve the Spirit of God. Can I go a little bit further? Listen. He had approximately eight personal conversations. You say, what were those personal conversations, brother Gerard? Well, let me tell you what they were. In John chapter 3, what happened to Jesus? He became the divine teacher. Do you remember what happened to Him? Right in the middle of the night. This is what the Bible says. There was a man of the Pharisees, whose name was Nicodemus, who came to Jesus by night. What did he say? He said, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher who has come from God, because no man can do these things unless God be with him. And Christ turned to him and said to him, very, very I say unto you, except a man be born again, he shall not see the kingdom of God. You say, what happened? He became the divine teacher. I want to ask you a question this morning, in this morning's service. My brother and my sister, do we know how to lead people to Christ? Ah, you see, I sat under the teachings of brother Moe, and brother Denny, and some of the other brothers from the other fellowship, and they taught a course on soul winning, and this is what's happening. I learned all those things. Can I ask you a question this morning? Are you leading souls to Christ? Listen to what Jesus said. If you confess Me before men, He said, I will confess you before My Father, which is in heaven. If you do not confess Me before men, He said, I will not confess you before My Father in heaven. Listen to what Jesus said to the man that He cast the evil spirits out. He said, go and tell them what happened to you. Listen to the Old Testament. He that winneth souls is wise. My brother and sister, do you know what's the secret of the Acts of the Apostles? And I think it's wonderful during this week, there are people that have come out of the awfulness of sin into the glorious light of the Gospel, and they've been converted, and they've been saved. But listen, you and I, we sit here as Christians, as leaders, as fathers, as husbands, as young people. Do you know how it happened in the Acts of the Apostles? It was not just the preaching. You say, brother Gerard, what do you mean? There are seven words for the word preaching. And the Greek New Testament and the Acts of the Apostles, they are found at 105 places. The two most dominant words that is coming to the surface is these two words. The first is public declaration. That means standing in a pulpit and preaching the Gospel. Seeing people responding to the Gospel. But my brother and sister, do you know what's the other word? The other word is private conversation. Gossiping the Gospel of Christ. And I long for the day in these fellowships and in the churches all over the country when we begin to hear that our men are leading people to Christ. And they're not half-born. It's not spiritual abortions. No, no, they've come out of the darkness of sin into the glorious light of the Gospel. I had the joy of seeing a man come into Christ some time ago. And I was in a church out there in Western Canada in the province of Alberta. And that Sunday morning, the Spirit of God broke into the morning service and God came to visit us. And you know, the Kingdom of God is not by observation. Brother and sister, it's not what we see. It's what's happening deep in our heart. And when the service was over and we were seeking God at the altar of this church, I got into the truck and I was driving back to my motel room. And as I was driving, there was a car in front of me. And I stopped behind the car and I looked at the man behind the wheel and he was so distraught. And he looked around and I thought, what's going on with this man? And then suddenly he just took off. And he just spinned the wheels and he took off. And I looked at him and I said, there's something wrong with that man. And I was following him and I had to turn left and he was turning right. And I made a mistake. And before I knew what I did, I was driving behind him and lost my way to where I was supposed to go. And he was just taking off and he was so distraught. And then he was driving and there was this dirt road and he just took his car and he turned and he went running to that dirt road. And I kept driving. I thought, now there's something wrong with that man. And God began to convict me and said, you need to go and speak to him. For maybe he's on drugs. Maybe he's drunk. Maybe he's violent. So I kept driving. And then I couldn't speak anymore. And I turned around in fear and tremble. And I turned around and I drove. And that car was standing in the field. It was just sitting behind the wheel like this. And I stopped behind him and very carefully got out of the truck and I went and knocked at the window and looked at this man and oh, it was just a mess of tears and just a terrible thing. And I thought he was going to take his life. And he opened the window and I said, my friend, I said, I don't know you. But can I help you? And he said, I know you. I said, what do you mean? He said, I just heard you preached. I said, what do you mean? He said, I was in that service. I said, so? He said, I'm on the conviction of sin. And I led him to Christ. Do you know what disgusts me? This happens so seldom in my own inadequate life. Every year in the inadequacy of my life. And brother and sister, I don't have it together. I want to tell you something this morning. God can do His work far better without us. Listen, God don't need you and me. He don't need you and me. But He gives us the privilege to be involved in this beautiful aspect of ministry. And every year I ask God, I said, God, give me 30 souls. I said, I'm two souls a month. Isn't that disgusting? And my wife said, why don't you trust God for 50? And why don't you trust God for 100? And I turned to her and I said, my darling, I said, listen, I'm inundated by Christians. I mean, all I do is amongst the people of God. And she said, that's no excuse, my daddy. I want to ask you this morning, do we still see them the way that God sees? I tell you the first time when I had the privilege of coming into these areas, I mean, and these horses and buggies and all the things that is going on. And these days again, I took these long walks in these country roads. And here they come up and down. Brother and sister, they lost. They lost. We need to drag them to heaven. They need to step over our bodies in order to go into the eternal flames of hell. So, what is it? It's a soul-saving movement. Ah, this is private ministry. Brother Gerard, what is that? Oh, it's precious. John 14 to John 16. You say, what happened? You see, the Lord Jesus Christ turned from this world. In John 13, He dealt with Judas. The Bible says, when He gave him that morsel of bread, and He gave it to him, and He said to him, what thou doest, doest quickly. And he stepped out. Do you know what the Scripture says? It was dark. It was dark. And there were 11 of them left. And do you know what happened in the rest of John 13, 14, 15 and 16? Brother and sister, Christ began to open His heart to those early disciples. I want to tell you, if you ever want to memorize verses, chapters to the Old Testament, memorize John 13, 14, 15 and 16, and 17. It will revolutionize your life. So what did He say? He spoke to them about the Holy Spirit. You say, Brother Gerard, what did He say about the Holy Spirit? Brother and sister, He spoke to them about the Holy Spirit as a person. In the structure of the language, you will discover that when He spoke about the Holy Spirit, when He said to them, when My Spirit come, My Spirit shall testify of Me. He was speaking about the person of the Holy Spirit. When He said, My Spirit shall become your teacher. He was speaking about the person of the Holy Spirit. When He said, My Spirit shall glorify Me. He was speaking about the person of the Holy Spirit. And I wonder this Sunday morning, if I can ask you in this morning's service, the Holy Spirit of God, my brother and my sister, what is He this morning in your life and my life? Is He a something? Is He an it? Is He an experience? Or do I realize that the Holy Spirit of God is a person? You say, Brother Gerard, what does that mean? It means that He never speaks of Himself or about Himself. But you know what He does? He always brings me back to the Word of God. And He always brings me back to the life of Christ. And so, you and I sit here this Sunday morning. So, you say, what happened? You know what happened when He came into my life? I received Him as a person into my life. So, what did we discover? Personality. You say, Brother Gerard, personality. What is my personality? There are three things in my personality. There is my will. There is my mind. There is my emotions. That's what comes out of personality. And you know, brother and sister, when you and I receive God the Holy Ghost, we receive the Holy Spirit of God as a person. You say, why, Brother Gerard? Because you can't divide up personality. And so the Bible speaks about the emotions of the Spirit of God. Listen to the Apostle Paul. He said, the Spirit Himself, He helpeth our infirmities. And then he makes a statement. He said, He intercedes. This word intercede is a beautiful word in Latin. It's the Latin word intera and the word sidra. Intera means I step in between. Sidra means now I've been involved and I get the whole concept of what's going on. And he said, the Spirit of God comes and He intercedes. Why does He do that? He intercedes, brother and sister. Listen to this. He intercedes with groanings that cannot be uttered. It's the Greek words, tanach, mos. And so this morning, he said, my life as a person. Can I ask you a question this Sunday morning? Has my life been laid on the altar for Him? It's not what you and I have of the Holy Spirit, brother and sister. It's what the Holy Ghost have of us. The great D.L. Moody, when he was asked to come and do an evangelistic campaign years and years ago in a city, they were all meeting together about this campaign that Moody and Sankey was going to have and when the ministers discussed this campaign, there was this young arrogant minister that got up and he said, why do we have to have D.L. Moody? Why is it that he needs to come and preach here in this campaign? He said, why is it even? Does he have the monopoly of God, the Holy Spirit? One of the older ministers got up and he just pointed his finger at this young man and he said, young man, sit. He said, let me tell you something. We who know this man Moody, we want to tell you, he does not have the monopoly of the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit has the monopoly of Moody. I want to ask you this morning, my sister, can I ask you this morning, there in the kitchen, do you still have a little sign above the kitchen sink, divine service conducted three times a day? Is there a grumbling spirit? I don't voice it with my mouth, but I voice it with my soul. My brother, can I ask you this Sunday morning and this morning's service in our times of family worship, when you open the Scriptures, are you just coming to sit down and you open the Scriptures and now the family needs to do it and they listen to you and there's no life to it? Or can I ask you as a father and as a husband, when you have family worship, are you coming out of the presence of God and you open the Scriptures and in the best of your ability as you are helped by the Holy Ghost, you are opening and revealing the Scriptures? So what did he say about the Holy Ghost? Do you know what he said? He said, when my Spirit comes, he said, my Spirit will be with you and he said, my Spirit will be in you. He said, Brother Gerard, what is that? Do you know what he said? That's the presence of the Spirit of God. That is the witness of the Spirit of God. Can I ask you a question this morning? I want to ask myself this question. In our times, our personal times with God, my brother and my sister, does the Spirit of God come and does he witness? Does he witness? Does he witness? So what did Jesus say? He is going to be in your life as a person. He said, Brother Gerard, what does that mean? Do you know what that means? It simply means this. The Spirit of God does not just want to be resident, but brother and sister, the Spirit of God wants to be precedent in my relationship with God. And so I want to ask you this morning, is he precedent? You know, out there in Canada, Canada where we live, we have a campground and my daughter was about five years old and at our campground we have little nests all over the place for the birds. We love gardens and it's beautiful. It's right at the ocean. And so we've done all the landscaping and everything. And every year in the spring we've got a little bird in Canada and we call it chickadees. Now I don't know out here in what they think is Amish country. Maybe you don't have those kind of birds. Maybe they've all been shot or the proper people not supposed to. Anyway, in Canada we've got this little bird. It's called a chickadee. Just beautiful little birds. And every year in the spring they come. And they're very territorial. So we have nests at strategic places with seven and a half acres and we have about seven or eight different nests. And every year these chickadees are coming and they make their nests. And every year we've got some feeders for them and every year when the little ones are coming out oh, it's just wonderful to watch it. And we've got one special nest. And so my daughter and myself we were watching this and we were watching this. And so the mother and the father began to go in and out building the nest and then they laid six eggs. She said, how did you know that? One day when they were out my daughter and myself climbed on the step ladder and we just opened the little thing and there were six beautiful little eggs. And we were all excited about these little chickadees that was coming. And then one day I said to Monica, I said, you know my darling, I said, I think the little birds must be out by this time. And there was one afternoon when the mother and father was gone we went and we put up the step ladder and we climbed up and very carefully we opened it and lo and behold there were six little mouths. Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! All they want was food. And so we were feeding the mother and the father and they got all these meals and wheels every day free and we were feeding them and giving them all these things. And you know there was a day when it was time for them to come out. And so we wondered and thought, oh you know it's about, oh I don't know, four or five inches to the hole. Now how are those little guys going to jump up and get out of the hole? And so Monica said, Daddy, maybe we need to help them. I said, no, no, no, no, no, no. Don't interfere. It's like the Holy Spirit. You don't interfere in the work of the Spirit of God. You let God do His work. And you know what happened? Lo and behold, there was a day when we saw, look at this, and there was this, zoop, back, zoop, back, zoop, back. And the little head was trying to get through. Now they weren't strong enough. And then there was a day when one after the other, they began to pop out. Now there is no fear of people. I mean, they would sit in a tree and you could go right to them and they don't know that it's dangerous. And so we were just six of them keeping our eyes on them. Oh, this is precious. And the mother and father were feeding them and all this kind of things. And one afternoon there was a storm. And oh, it was awful. The rain came just thundering down. And my daughter came to me and said, Daddy, the little birds, are the little birds going to be okay? They don't know how to hide underneath things. And so we began to look and they were flying. They were all soaking wet. And some of them dropped to the ground. And Monica came and said, Daddy, we need to help them. And in our zeal and earnestness to try and help these little birds, I got a box and we put a nice piece of cloth on the floor of the box. And they were all wet and they couldn't go. And we picked them up all over the place. And I said, Monica, now we're going to get them nice and warm. And I said, we're going to take them home. And I said, tomorrow, when they're nice and dry, we're going to bring them back and we're going to release them. So you know what happened? We got home and these little things sat there. And so we took them out. We have an extra cage at the house. And we had a budgie and an extra cage. And so what we did, we put them in this cage, all six of them, and they were all wet and getting dry. And then they were getting dry and got their strength and power and stuff back. And they began to try and get out and bash themselves in the cage. And I began to panic. I thought, oh, what are we going to do? Nine, ten o'clock at night, you just hear bang, bang, as they were trying. And we put our daughter to bed and covered the cage up. And I don't know, it was about ten o'clock or half past ten that evening when I went and I lifted the cage up. And there was one of them lying dead in the floor. And I thought, oh, no. Early, four o'clock the next morning, I was up, went into the kitchen and went to the cage and I opened it up and there was another one lying dead in the floor. Five o'clock I came back and looked and three of them was dead in the floor. By that time my wife was getting up and around six o'clock or so we went and we looked at it. And do you know what happened? There were five of them that was dead in the floor. And there was one alive. And I said to my wife, my darling, we can't tell our daughter. And so we all kept it very quiet and everything. And that morning when I went to the conference center, I opened the cage and do you know what? Six little birds was dead in the floor. And we stood there and forgive me for saying this, you know, we were just weeping. And my wife just took me and she said, Daddy, why did they die? And I just turned to her and I said, my darling, they were born to be free. You sit here this Sunday morning and you are in great bondage. You say, Brother Gerard, I confess my sin before God. I ask God for cleansing. I ask God for deliverance. But somehow I can't get victory. You were born to be free. You were born to be clean. You were born to be the father that God wants you to be. You were born to be the mother that God wants you to be. You were born to be saturated and intoxicated to the presence of God. It's time to pray, shall we? Lover and sister, as we have come to this final precious session of this week together, I just wonder this Sunday morning, maybe there are some of us and if you're honest in your heart, you need to say, you know, I can't really say that God during this week has touched my life on a personal level. And there are just those little things that I feel is robbing me from the beauty of what the presence of God is about. And I need God this morning to take the scales from off my eyes. And I want God to come to my life afresh. My brother and sister, we're going to open the altar afresh this morning. Maybe some of you want to come and just spend some time with God. Maybe a father and a mother in their times of prayer is not as precious as it used to be. Or maybe it's a family and you need to come and seek the face of God. We're going to open the altar. I'm going to challenge you. I'm going to ask you if you would like to slip out. Come and find a spot at the front of the church and come and spend some time with God. We're just going to wait for you to come. You just come right now. Wherever you are, I need to come and spend some time with God. Some of us, we have been Christians for many years. There is a little thing that is coming to the surface and I need to put this thing right with God. And I want to challenge you to come and spend some time with God. We just wait. You come. Just going to wait for you to come. We're not even saved this morning. Never been converted. And you need to be saved today. Still people coming. If you are at the altar, don't rush away. Just wait for others to come. And I ask Brother Mose to come and to close when you feel late. Let it flow. Every knee shall bow. Every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Amen.