In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of experiential knowledge over theoretical knowledge. He argues that true understanding comes from personal experience and experimentation, rather than simply acquiring mental concepts. The speaker uses the example of a high school teacher teaching about electric currents in the human body to illustrate his point. He suggests that churches often struggle because they lack firsthand experience with the power of the Holy Spirit, and therefore cannot effectively guide or direct it. The speaker encourages listeners to seek a deep, personal encounter with God in order to truly know and understand Him.

I would love to achieve this, that love grows and magnifies and multiplies, so it even touches your will. Our hearts are more and more broken and contrite. The word contrite is a very interesting word. Most people don't realize what the word means. It can be very well translated, pulverized. Actually, it's an old English word from the pharmaceutical or apothecary. And you take chalk stone and put it in a mortar and pestle and beat it and beat it and beat it until it is face powder that you put on your face. That would be chalk stone. Contrite would be the word they used. Because it's one thing to be broken, and a broken thing can be mended, but pulverized can't. Not even two pieces that glue together. And that's really the word contrite. It's really what it means, to have that continual breaking until there's just no way it can ever get repaired. I found a long time ago that a person can come through a breaking. For instance, I'm thinking right now of a conference in Japan. And a missionary was very happy because their children, who were a bit rebellious, were touched by the Lord and broken. But before they went home, I said, Now look, they were touched by God. They were broken. It was real. It was genuine. It's fine, but don't be disillusioned. That's only one brick of light in their building of light. It takes a lot of bricks to make a building, not just one. But you go back and you'll find there's not much change. They wrote me later, so glad I told them that, because otherwise they would have been really thrown, because there wasn't much change. Because it takes a lot of breaking, time after time. It takes a lot of bricks to make a wall. And we found long ago, we used to be so, we ourselves used to be disillusioned in our first years of ministry, to see people so broken, and boy, now they've really met the issues, and they're repenting, and oh God. And the next day, here we were again, right with the same issues to meet all over again. Oh God, what's going on here? But we thought if we could keep them there for about six months, that then things began to change. And from then on, the longer the better. But otherwise, it's just, it's not deep enough really to affect the will, and to affect the character, and affect the personality. It shows the right inclination, it shows the possibility. That's why the churches have such problems. I was just in Hawaii where there's a beautiful movie, The Spirit. And the church is flat on the floor for an hour or two every night, as they meet before God, every service night. And I said to the pastor, I said, how is your counseling? He said, in fact, we don't have any anymore. And that's true. Because when God begins to take care of the spiritual issues, then the problems just don't even become problems. They're all met. But when it's, the more and more it becomes a form, and a ceremony, and a religious thing, our minds are met. But we just happen to be more than peanut brains, that's all. And because our minds can be met, does not mean that the rest of our personality has had an encounter with God whatsoever. And so we don't have the wherewithal to meet the problems with. We don't have the faith, we don't have the understanding, we don't have the living word to be able to face the issues of life. Because as we break through, in the meltings and breakings, and we break through in the presence of God, it has a way of opening our ear. We begin to hear. Jesus said to his disciples, it's a foolish heart still hardened, having ears you hear not, and having eyes you see not. Actually, the hardness of heart can be one of the worst sins that a Christian can fall into, and one of the most common. And when that happens, according to the words of Jesus, it closes the ears and closes the eyes. Because remember, Paul prayed that the spirit of revelation, wisdom and revelation would come, that the eyes of their understanding might be opened. Because the eyes of our mind can be opened, and the eyes of our understanding not. That's why it's frightening here in the United States, I hear so much about teaching and teachers, and it's frightening. Because people's minds are so satisfied and their hearts are so empty and dry. A couple years ago, I was talking to a couple in a church in, a Pentecostal church in San Jose. And after the service, and the Lord had moved a small measure, they were so thrilled, and they said, Oh my, this is so wonderful, we're so starved, and we're so thirsty, we just want to have something, and where can we go? And I said, Well, where do you go now? And they said, the section such and such a church. So I said, I've never been there, but I haven't heard the best report. Oh, but brother, he's such a beautiful teacher. Oh, have you ever heard of him? He said, No, I haven't. Oh, but he's such a wonderful teacher. And I said, Where else do you get any help? Well, we go to such and such a thing. Well, as far as I'm concerned, that's worse. Oh, have you ever read their book? I said, No, I don't want to. Oh, but he's such a wonderful teacher. I said, All right, all right, you explain it to me. You're sitting under such a wonderful teacher, but you tell me your heart's so empty and dry. Now you figure it out. But you see, because the mind can be easily satisfied, because it can put things together, it's an illusion and a deception to think that now we have it. And we don't have it at all. Because man can really only know things by experimentation, by experiencing. You take the man, let's put a hypothetical case. Here's a high school teacher, and he's teaching Introduction to Science, and he wants to teach how an electric current reacts in the human body. So he takes a six-month course, has a book fully written to show how the electrical impulses pushes the electrons through the nervous system and how the nervous system reacts in such a way and how the muscles and how all the muscles work. And he gets a six-month course on it. Here's another man that doesn't want to waste time, and so he lines his students up in a line, has them all take hands, and he takes hold of an electric current. They know more in one split second than after six months of study. You see what I mean? Because man learns by experience. That's what he really knows, is what he experiences. The rest is only theory. It's a putting together of mental concepts which may or may not be right. But when you have an experience, then within yourself you have a knowledge. And that's why God says he walks with a broken and contrite in heart. He always uses that other word. If you notice, time after time it's added. It's not just a breaking, it's a breaking and contracting. That is the over and over and over and over and over and over again until the heart becomes very sensitive and very tender and very responsive to God. Then the ears are open. Then the eyes of the understanding are open. Then I hear from God. Then I know. Then when I hear the wrong person or I hear the wrong message, I don't go after it. Even though it might put together well in my mind. As we've traveled over the world, we've seen and heard many people say these things to us. And oftentimes they're not the most intelligent people, not the sharpest people. And yet sometimes it has been. But it's usual or it's not. But that is, they'll be in some place where there's a real subtle error being taught. And there's much of it today. Much of it. It's right. Most people don't even know the difference, actually. There's much error being taught. And it's very subtle. But I've had people say this. Well, it sounded right, but something in here just didn't. And they talk about that something in here that's undefinable. And if I've had one person say it to me, I've had dozens. But here's another person all that way, all for it. Because something in here doesn't say anything. And their minds can put it together. And I've had people, it sounded right, but something in here didn't know. I remember a couple in, a precious couple in England. They run into some teaching that's just torment. The discipleship teaching, actually, which just tore the charismatic church in England, it's just tearing it apart. And this couple said, well, it sounded, everything sounded right. But in here we're just, we're yard balls, because our little group doesn't go with it. And they think we're crazy. But something in here just says no. And they don't know why. But you see, there's been an ear that's opened. And if there's enough breaking of heart, then there'll be that ear that can hear. Whereas if the heart is tarnished, I won't have that. I'll just have the mind to hear with. And I won't know. And God has set loose, in the charismatic stream especially, in Pentecost especially, at this hour in which we're passing through, the hour of history we're passing through now, God has set loose much subtle deception and error. Moving away from the foundation truths. So much so that now when I preach things, that I learned when I was ten years of age, people say, wow, we've never heard that before. And I'm just astounded. I've got to go back. Many places I go, I have to go way back and start at zero. And here I'd like to go on and go way back, because they've been taught a lot of things. About the, oh, I tell you on eschatology, that means the doctrine of the future. They've got all the answers. They know about the sons, and they know about the brides, and they know about everything. But I was just in a church recently, and I spoke on sanctification. And two passages, which, wow, we've never heard that before. And I said, dear Father, where you educated. And there's a lot of it. It's a lot of mind-building teaching out. And I talk to people, oh, so-and-so, oh, he's such a wonderful biologist. I listened to him last year. What they're telling me is their ears aren't open, because I know the man, I know what he's teaching me. They can't hear. They hear all the circus. It sounds good here, and what he sounds good, and this sounds good, and they just, just like little fish, swallow everything that comes by, you know, pretty soon they get the hook. Because God has set it, and the reason he has set it, Paul wrote of Corinthian church, it is necessary that heresy come, that those who are approved among you may be made manifest. In other words, it's a sifting. It sifts out those who are really following God with their heart and their spirit, and those who, Paul calls it a feigned faith, a mental thing, not that which comes from God. Paul often speaks of feigned love and feigned faith. We call it religiosity, it would be more a modern term for it. It's a put-on thing, and done with, oftentimes not the intention of feigning, it's just the fact they don't have the real. Not having the real, they put on the false, and we encourage them to put on, I mean, we pastors, instead of getting them all over the world, instead of getting them, for instance, into repentance and into a real relationship with God, they get them into religion. You believe in Jesus? Oh, yes, I believe in Jesus. Do you believe you're a sinner? Oh, yes, I'm a sinner. Do you want to be saved? Oh, yes, I want to be saved. Who doesn't? Who wants to go to hell? And so we build a feigned thing rather than taking it through to experience. And that breaking is so necessary. Over in Isaiah, if you'd like to take a word, and I find so many people against it. Pastors, they're frightened to death of tears. They'll turn it off, and especially if there's very much of it. They're just absolutely panicked. I think one reason is, in fact, I know one reason is because they've never had enough to know what it's all about, and they can't handle it. And they can't allow anything they can't correct and handle. For instance, I was in Japan, and I was in Nishihara's church. He had a beautiful flow of praise, and that's so unusual in Japan. So I asked him, I said, Nishihara, how did you do this? How'd you get into it? Well, he said, I used to praise the Lord in my own study. I danced and sang and rejoiced and had a glory time. But he said, I didn't know it was for my people. It was for me. Then he said, I went to this great Bible church in Hawaii, a beautiful big church, and I saw that the people were rejoicing and dancing and singing like I did alone. I said, wow! It's for the people! So then he took it back to his church. Now there's a great secret, you see. He's come into it first. So now when he takes his people into it, he can handle it. He can direct it. He's fully experimented in it. He knows all about it. And the reason pastors are so panicked by these things is because they haven't been in it. They don't know what it's all about. They can't direct it. They can't... And so turn it off. And it becomes quite a problem. For instance, I was in Sydney, Australia, and I was deeply grieved. I was incensed, actually. I was angry. At the end of the service, there was a little girl that the Spirit was dealing with. And while the pastor was closing the service, I went to talk with her. And I said, I said, the Spirit's talking to you, isn't he? She said, yeah. I said, you need talking to, don't you? She said, yeah. I said... The conversation was somewhat lengthy, but just the essence of it. I said, I said, you're in a lot of sin, aren't you? She said, yeah. I said, the Spirit's calling. This is your night. And what did you say? I said, just open your heart. Don't run from Him. Just open to Him. I said, come on. I'll just kneel down here and just pour out to God. And tears were coming down her cheeks. And she was just at the point of turning and kneeling with me when two dear saints of God came. Put their arms around her. Now, dear, don't cry. Don't be condemned. Jesus paid it all. Just believe. Just fill your heart with joy and turn the whole thing. Oh, I could have horse-whipped them with pleasure. Maybe they could have repented then. But anyway, after the service, I asked the pastor who they were. Who she was, I mean, not who they were. She was a girl that used to attend the church. She was 15 years of age. She'd just had an abortion. Her life was all messed up. And here God was reaching out to her, and the dear saints of God turned it off. You see, because they don't understand. They've not had it themselves. I've had church after church and place after place and people after people tell me they've never known repentance. They don't know what it's all about. And yet they're charismatic and they're filled with the Spirit and all the rest of it. Actually, it's all the same. They don't have anything that's real. But over here in Isaiah, you see, Paul talks about to the Corinthians, another Jesus, another gospel, and another... And that's what they brought to the Corinthians. And that's what's being brought to church after church after church after church is another Jesus. Another Jesus in the sense He's sweet, loving, kind, good, beautiful, wonderful. And the ice, the flame of fire, the sharp sword out of His mouth. No, that's not there. You see, it's a human Jesus. Paul says, Henceforth we know not Christ after fire. And they're not even a fair picture of a human Jesus because He could turn on His own disciples and say, Get thee behind me, Satan. They take off that whole side. And so it's a false Jesus. It's a false spirit because no Holy Spirit will come into an unholy place. So that speaking in tongues and all the rest is just a matter of saying banana backwards and away we go. It's not the true. It's a false thing because the true thing, He is holy and He will only come where holiness is where there's been cleansing. When Moses stood at the burning bush, the first thing God said to him was, Don't you come any nearer. Already you're on holy ground. Take your shoes off. That's the kind of God He is. He said, You can't even get any closer to me yet. Later He called him up into the fire, but that's after some demons. At that point in his life, stay there. Don't you come any closer to me. So let's look at this scripture over here in Isaiah. It says the Lord, Heaven is my throne. 66, the last chapter. Excuse me. Heaven is my throne. The earth is my footstool. Where is the house that ye build unto me and where is the place of my rest? For all those things hath mine hand made. All those things hath been, saith the Lord. But to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and trembleth at my word. And here's how you are to tremble. He that kills an ox as if he slew a man. He that sacrifices a lamb as if he cut off a dog's neck. He that offers an oblation as if he offers swine's blood. He that burneth incense as if he blazed an idol. In other words, it goes on in the fifth verse. Hear the word of the Lord ye that tremble at his word. The fear of the Lord is to be so upon us that even the best is unacceptable. You know what I mean? That he's a great king. I think one of the things most lacking today is I find in church is the fear of the Lord. In Australia, in New Zealand, in fact I spoke on it sometimes. There was such a comradee, you know, high mate sort of thing. Hi God. There's a book titled Hey God. Oh, it's atrocious. The concept of who he is. And so there's no trembling at the word of God. There is no coming before him with fear. And because of that, the fear of the Lord is a hatred of evil from Proverbs 8, 13. And because of that, there is much evil in our lives. We're not afraid of it. We're not ashamed of it. We're not concerned about it. God's a good God. He loves me. And so there's no contrite-ness. And there's no trembling. And there's no broken-ness. And because of that, God says that's the man I'm going to look to. Or again in Isaiah, where is it there? 47th chapter, is it? I've forgotten. No, the 57th. Verse 15, For thus says the high and lofty one that hath of eternity, whose name is Holy, I dwell in the high and holy place, and with him also, that he is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, to revive the heart of the contrite one. That's the kind of person I'm going to walk with. Or again, in Psalm 51, you probably know that verse quite well. For thou desirest not sacrifice, else would I give it. Thou desirest not in burnt offering. The sacrifice of God, I a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. And it's that, you notice each time it's that word contrite. It's an overlooked word. But it means that continual breaking, breaking, breaking, breaking before God. And in that, there comes a working of the spirit, a broken-ness. No more is that resistance, and no more is that high-mindedness, and that high pride. Then the fear of the Lord begins to come, and the ears begin to open. Jesus said in Psalm 40, I delight to do thy will, mine ear hast thou opened. And when that will begins to break, because it's not only a broken emotion, it's a broken heart, and a broken will, and a broken spirit that he speaks of. That breaking's got to get way down inside, and then will come forth. I delight to do thy will. Then you see, the ear gets open, and we begin to hear from God. And there's such a, a panic in churches when God begins to do a little bit of breaking. They just, they like to have it, but very, very little bit, especially for sinners. And then turn it off, joy, he's done it all. It's a finished work. Jesus has done it all. You just take faith, and move ahead, and conquer mountains, and conquer kingdoms, and king's kids, and away we go. It's interesting, in John 17, 4, Jesus said, I have finished the work thou gavest me to do. Now there he states clearly that it's a finished work. It's all done. And he hasn't started yet. That's before the Gethsemane, that's before the cross, that's before the resurrection, that's before the trial, that's before the denial, that's even before the betrayal. He hasn't started yet. But he said it's finished. And if he'd gone home then, we'd have no redemption. Because he could say it's finished, his faith laid hold of the finished work of his father. Because it was finished, he went ahead and did it. You see what I mean? Okay, it's true, it's a finished work, that is a truth. Because it's finished, I'll go ahead and do it. And there's the work of faith. You see what I mean? But if I just rest on back, it's finished, and then don't do it, it isn't finished. Because faith without work is dead. And so if I only lay hold of the faith of it, it's a finished work, and you hear so much of that today, all over you hear it. And if I only lay hold of that, I've missed it. I've missed it totally and utterly. And Paul speaks to the Thessalonians, he says, your work of faith, that's what's necessary. Of course he's faithful, if he hadn't done it, if he hadn't finished it, we wouldn't have either courage or faith to go ahead and work it. But knowing that it is a finished work, and knowing that he has done it all, and knowing that it's all accomplished, then we have the courage, and the hope, and the faith, to go ahead and work it out. Because everything's under control. There's no doubt. But you see, it's more than a position, it's a work. And those days, I gave you that scripture because it's a very strong scripture to show how fallacious, how false it would be to stay with a finished work without the work. Because if Jesus had done that, we'd have no redemption. It would have been an unfinished job. And yet he said so completely, it's a past perfect tense, I have finished the work thou gavest me to do. And yet he hadn't done it. And that's a position, let's say. We can look at it, like Paul, I fought a good fight, I finished the course, henceforth. And we can say that if we're willing to go ahead and do it. And then that's fine, that's a beautiful position. But if I say it and don't do it, it becomes a total error. And so it's necessary to come into those deep breakings of God. Until your hearts are just completely, we become very sensitized to the things of God. Very sensitive of the spirit. Years ago, there was a man that spent much of his life in jail. He was a criminal, he was a robber, a professional thief. Then was converted and later was preaching in the ministry. And this man's name was King. I was just a teenager when I knew him. And he was telling me one day, how when he would go to rob a safe, he would take sandpaper and he would work his fingertips on that sandpaper until they bled. To make them so sensitive. That when he'd work that safe over, he could feel the clicks of the tumblers as they turned over. He couldn't even hear them, but he could feel them. That's how God wants to be sensitive to him. So other people won't know anything about it, but you'll know. There'll be that sensitivity. In fact, I personally like the word, and I prefer sensitivity to this, to, you might say, discerning of spirit. Because that can be a gift that operates and tomorrow you have nothing. But if we're sensitive, you'll know what's going on all the time. You'll just, you'll step in a place and you'll know it. You'll hear a man speak. When I go into a church, I'm oriented within five or ten minutes. I know where the church is and who they are and what they're doing. I have to. I wouldn't know what to bring them if I didn't. I wouldn't know where to meet them. I found out quick, I couldn't just meet them on my level. I had to go where they were. I remember one church back in Virginia about four years ago. I was there for a week and I spent the whole week back trailing. I don't think I ever did find out where they were. They were so far back. I don't know if they had ever even gotten started. But the thing is to orient, to be sensitive, to know what's there, so that you'll go to a place or you'll hear a message on the radio or television. It can sound so good. Is that all now? Not again. Turn it off. Tapes, there's all kinds of tapes. Some of the finest names. But I found long ago that when a thing gets too popular, look out. Because the high things of God are never popular. The bigger the name, the bigger the suspicion. Because the scriptures say, Woe unto you when all men speak well of you. And the bigger the church, so often, the less the moving of the spirit. I've been in many churches that had a beautiful beginning and they date their decline when they moved into a new building and started growing. One of the hardest things to handle is growth. One of the hardest things to move into is bigness. Very few, I know a few that can handle growth pretty well. But only a few can handle growth. One reason is that it so occupies our time that we do not have time to keep that broken spirit before God. Time to keep that relationship with God. Time to keep that sensitivity developed and operating. Because we quickly harden up. Very quickly. Can I say, I think, one of the most serious sins of Christians is hardness of heart. And it's among the most subtle. In fact, most of the sins that are serious are not recognized even as sins. Hardness of heart is one. Profaning the holy is another. Being offended, moving out of love is another. We can have all of those three and we'd not be conscious that we're offending at all. Another one is unbelief. See, there are things that to us do not seem in any way evil. Now, certain things seem evil to us. There's no one who's going to be tempted to go out and get drunk who loves the Lord. There's no one who's going to be tempted to go out and move in some filthy area of life. But that we know. Our spirits tell us that's evil. Our minds tell us. Our consciences tell us. But whose conscience tells him that faith is evil? Nobody. We all have a bit of unbelief here and there. It doesn't seem all that bad to us. But God says it's evil heart of unbelief. It doesn't seem that way to us. He says, Love us not, his brother, abide us in death. Well, it's easy to get offended with somebody and get your love cut off, but it doesn't seem all that great, you know. That's serious a thing. And so there's many things that can get in so easily. But whether it's a sensitivity, whether it's a broken heart, and the ears are open, then the Spirit can speak to you. And he can point out things that are displeasing, or you just know, just because suddenly that presence is gone. What did I do? I offended somehow. What was it? And get before the Lord, and the Lord will show you where it was. Whether it was a hasty word, or a slanderous word, or a critical word, or a unbelieving word, or whatever it was, because there's a hearing ear. But the hardness of heart closes the ear, and I can't hear. I can't hear what the Spirit's saying. And then I go to church, I get my mind filled, and that satisfies my head and my religious nature, and so I can keep on going down trail, farther and farther and farther away from God. In Australia, several pastors in four or five places said more or less the same, I'll just use one, but more or less the same. This one pastor was driving me up from Brisbane up to his church. It was about 30 miles. And on the road he was saying how happy he was, he just got rid of two members of his church, actually on his board. He called them the old guard. He said, oh I'm so glad to get rid of that old guard. Steeped in the old ways, you know, and God was moving, they wouldn't move with it. And he was just rejoicing that he got these two families out of his church. And I'd heard that by more than one, actually. So I said to this man, I said, you know, do you ever stop to think that once upon a time this old guard was once upon a time a new guard? And today you're happy to get them out, but there was a day that another pastor was happy to get them in? And I said, the people you get in today are going to be the old guard of tomorrow unless you find out the answers why they became the old guard. Why they became those set in their way, old, religious, hard, people in church, if you'd call them saints, that have totally lost out with God. As Peter says, they've forgotten that they were once purged from their old sins. And the thorn in the pastor's side, their misery in this church. If God begins to move, they'll be the first that are against it. They've got their old ways. Bless God, we always do it this way, and that's the way they do it. And around they go with their own little cycle of religious activity, whatever happens to be their way, their cut and dried way. But when they started out, they weren't that way. They were flexible, they were leadable, they were available. Now, there they sit, just hard old lumps. So a pastor's thankful to get them out of his church. And so after a while, the pastors themselves get that way, and so everybody's happy. And when God moves, he's got to go someplace else to move because they would never be allowed in that church to move at all. But the thing is, how did they become old guys? They didn't start that way. But just that hardening, just that closing, until they never get to the place where they are really a people that seek God. They're not led on into God. They're not taken into breaking upon breaking upon breaking until God can reach them through the emotions to the deeper parts of the inner nature, the will, the heart, the mind, the spirit, until I become a changed person. We are changed beholding the glory of the Lord from glory to glory. It's a process. We saw in our work in Argentina, the longer we could keep our young people in that state of brokenness and breaking before God, and those that would stay there were those that had the great glorious changes in their life. There were those that go into it all right, maybe stay there a month and then they drift out and maybe three months later come back for another month and they drift out. They were slow goers. But those that we could get and we could keep in there, their hearts would stay tuned with God and sensitive and broken. Oh, what changes would come? She was a medical student and she was a lively, kind of a crossbow girl, but nothing spiritual whatsoever really and all going with the others of her class and she was with her peers and God got a hold of her and she was one that stayed that way. I think a year went by, I don't think her eyes were ever unswelled. I mean, I've seen her come out in the morning with her eyes literally swollen shut from praying all night, just crying out to God. And that girl had such remarkable changes in her that today, she's my son's wife, Peachy. Some of you might have met her. Today, she's no more like the girl that she first was, the girl that we once knew. She's a beautiful woman in God, but she came through those daily, just every day, every day, breakings before God. In fact, when my son saw her, he'd just come down on a visit. He was going to a Bible school in the United States, up here in New York. He had him a nice job, he had a nice car, and he had a nice girlfriend so they could get married the next year. He came down on a visit. God was moving. He hadn't been there a week. He said, Hey Dad, who's that girl? Oh, just one of our Bible school kids. About another week. He never went home. He stayed there and married the girl. Because there had been such changes. But if he saw her at first, he wouldn't have been attracted. He wouldn't have any other thoughts. He had a good girl, and that was the end of it. And those are the things that God wants to produce and to keep it there. And the more you can go on it, the more you'll develop. As soon as you harden up, then just mark it down. That's the end of your development. I told Philippa more than once, would God give you the gift of tears to wash his feet every day? There wouldn't be a day. Because it's that hardness of heart that closes our inner being. God says, the humble, the constant. How many times would you have to pound a stone? How many times would you have to break it to make it contract, to make it face-powdered, pulverized? We were sent some dishes, a set of English china tea sets from England. And it arrived broken, some pieces. No matter. A bit of crazy glue, and there they sit just fine, all mended. Because they were broken in three pieces. Each article had broken by chance into three pieces. But I assure you, if they'd been pulverized, they wouldn't have been mended. And we can have a touch, or two, or three, and the devil gets out the crazy glue, and we're not long before we're mended again. We're right back where we were. But if we can keep that place, and become contrite before God, and walk humbly before God, and tremble at his words, that's a different story. That person, God said, I'll look to that man. He said, I'll dwell with that man. That's the man that I'm going to put my habitation with. The only other place you're going to be able to dwell with is a high and lofty place, and who can get up there? You only have two choices. So, it's not only that the emotions have to break, because you can have broken emotions and they're well as hard as nails. You can have broken emotions just out of self-pity. You can come in prayer, Oh God, help me Lord, look what these people are doing to the old God, and you just pray and cry at the storm. And there's no breaking at all. But, if your heart is open and tight and tender before God, don't worry, you'll have tears also. And so, in all your seeking, seek to keep your heart tender before God. Keep your heart broken before God. Keep your heart sensitive before God. Whenever you find it hardening up, let that be the first red light. Let that be the understanding, Hey wait, something's going wrong. I have seen so many people all over that have never known what it is. I remember, just about four months ago, I was talking in Poole, England, with a pastor's wife. They were on their way to the United States on a ministry tour. He had been invited over here, and they were coming. Pentecostal woman. And after service, she came up to me and said, You know, I don't think I've ever had any real repentance. I said, Woman, what are you saying to me? You mean that? She said, Yes. I said, You mean to tell me that you have never washed the feet of Jesus with your tears? She said, No. I said, You know what I'm going to do? She said, What? I said, I'm going to wash his feet with my tears for you. I said, You're in a pathetic state. The pastor's wife, she was a woman some thirty-five, four years a day. She wasn't a novice. I said, You're a person in your position this long has to say a thing like that? I said, You... You terrorize me. And thanks to Lord, before the week was over, she was very much washing his feet with his tears. But there's so many, so many. To me, it has honestly become frightening. I can go into churches and we can go through the whole religious bit. And I've seen them. I've been in service after service, in church after church. And there's no moving of the spirit. There's no breaking. There's no melting. There's no coming down before God. It's all a mental thing. And Paul would call it a feigned faith. A false faith. Another spirit. Another gospel. Another Jesus. It's interesting that when you go into history of revival, whether it was Wesley or whether it was Evan Roberts in Wales or whether it was Finney or wherever it is, you'll find it's always marked with great crying and weepings and stirrings and the inner being was stirred before God. The very fact my inner being is not stirred is a first sign that you're so far away that there's no reaching in to contact. So there's been such withdrawing because nobody can draw near to God without being deeply affected in his inner nature. Nobody. It's like no one could come in the presence of an angel and say, Hi, angel. If an angel stood before us, we'd all be flat on the floor instantly. Those tremendous beings, the awesomeness, the fear that would be generated, the very magnetism, if I could use a word that isn't scriptural, of their personality. Oh, how it would reach out to us. You've been in the presence of a person with charisma, we call it. It's a human being. Or you come in the presence of some ruler, you'd be awed. How much to one of those beings. The very fact that I can come to church and my inner being is untouched shows how far away from God I am. Or how far away from God the church service is, one of the two or both. So in all your seeking, seek to come into that place where God can dwell with you. Because he wants to dwell with us. And he cannot dwell in that hard, religious, um, that false thing that we put on that hides the real. Or takes the place of the real. Now this is totally unscheduled and unplanned. But I think perhaps your hearts will be able to understand as we see what we're talking about here. I don't talk this freely in most places, but I think you're able to understand. And hopefully able to to lay hold upon it. And you can just put it up on your on your bulletin board of your life. When you come in the presence of God and in your prayer times and your heart is untouched and your emotions are untouched and your inner being is untouched. Let that be the red light. Let that be the warning signal. Hey, wait a minute. Let's push everything out of the way for a while till I get back into into contact. Into sensitivity. Into a whatever the barrier that's keeping me and God separated is brought down. Whether it's carelessness or whether it's some way I've offended him. Knowing or unknowing. If it's unknowing, well, David had that too. He says, I'll take care of my secret sin, my unknown sin, my hidden sin. The sins I don't know about. Until there is that sensitivity and that responding to God. We are extremely sensitive preachers. We'll respond to sounds. We'll respond to light. We'll respond to sight. We'll respond to touch. We're very sensitive. We're not an insensitive preacher by a long way. We're very sensitive. A small sound can do something to you. In the dead of night and you wake up just a creek can do something to you. Or a roof adjusting in the heat and the cold. You can be very sensitive. So that if we come in the presence of God and are untouched, being as sensitive as we are, well, that's the time to take warning. Now let it go on from that point on. Start finding out what is it that's moving me out. Just like if you sat in a place and people are talking all around you and you can't hear what they say. Suddenly you can't hear what they say. You just see their lips moving. Why wouldn't you be frightened? You'd go see a doctor the next day, wouldn't you? It would be amazing. You might not even wait till the next day. You might get him up at night. Because here is the stimula. Here is what I should respond to and there's no response. I don't see anything. I don't hear anything. Oh my, that would get us into action immediately, wouldn't it? And the same is true if I move in the presence of God and I begin to seek God and draw near to God. Well, there's nothing there. Well, that shows something's wrong. And let's move out and find out what it is. Dig right in there and don't be satisfied until the barriers are down and we're in touch again. And that way we will be moved from glory to glory. We'll be developed by the Spirit of God. We'll go from faith to faith, from strength to strength, from grace to grace, from glory to glory, all those scriptures. And we'll move on up into God. Otherwise, we'll have that great and almost universal, I'm sorry to say, decline. For people have one great experience in salvation and perhaps two in the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And that's it. Down, down, down, down, down they go into the old guard. And when God wants to move, He has to bypass it and move with new and fresh beginning of God. Lord Jesus, we can talk about these things. But Spirit of God, we need you to work them into our hearts and into our life. We need you, O God, to speak to our hearts and speak to our minds, speak to our inner beings, speak the word that would bring us into responsiveness. Let our hearts tremble before you. Let our hearts be sensitive. And when there is a loss of sensitivity, make us become even more sensitive to the loss of sensitivity. Let us know right there, God, this is where I stop. I don't want any barriers. I don't want to drift on as a river running downhill ever farther and farther and farther away from its source. I don't want to be like a fish that's sick and drifting downstream heading for the Great Falls. I want to go on up to God. I want to be like Paul that pressed towards the mind. Even though I haven't yet attained that pressed towards the mind. I desire, O Master, let us have the wisdom of being very sensitive to insensitivity. Let us have the wisdom and knowledge to know when you withdraw, that's the time to start running. Let that be like a mighty trumpet of alarms sounding in our souls. Let us understand, O God, that that's the place where we better stop and take inventory. What's wrong? Where did we make the wrong turn? Where did we lose your presence? Where did we offend you? Where did we harden our hearts? Where do we cease to listen? What is it? Where is that beautiful sensitivity and glory of your presence and your love and your joy that's spontaneous and effervescent within us? O God, put such a cry in our hearts that says, O God, I don't want to stay this way. I don't want this kind of a heart thing. I don't want a heart of stone. You want not only us to be clay in your hands, but you want us to be wet clay, moldable, responsive, open. O Lord, search our hearts. All the hard areas, all the unresponsive areas, all the rebellious places, all the places where will is not yet broken. Lord, take your pestle and pound again, and pound again, and pound again, until that too becomes pulverized, until that too becomes contrite, until that too becomes broken. Lord, deal with us. Don't withdraw your hand. Don't let us fall into self-pity when you deal with us. Let us be wise. Don't let us fall into reactions and bitterness and hardness. When you deal with us, let us be all the more sensitive and thankful that you still love us.