In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of following God's plan for one's life. They stress that every day spent outside of God's will is wasted time. The speaker also discusses the concept of time management and encourages listeners to maximize and utilize their time effectively. They highlight the need to give an account before God for one's life. Additionally, the speaker explains that God has given humans a spirit to make them conscious of Him and to cultivate a sense of God consciousness.

It's wonderful to see you all back this evening. When we start these conferences on prayer, time just begins to fly. This morning, probably around nine or ten of us as pastors and some of our wives came together and we just had a very precious time of prayer together. While he mentioned that tomorrow night at six o'clock, if you would like to come and pray with us, it would be tremendous to have you with us to pray. God is a prayer answering God. And God does not answer prayer necessarily because we are praying, but God is a covenant keeping God and he must stay true to his word. And so when this word of God regarding prayer becomes part of our lives, then it makes such a difference. And the thing that has been breaking my heart today, because we are coming to grips with the need of this community and discovering the will of God for the lives of the pastors and their wives and people in leadership and our fellowships, and those of us who are part of the churches. And the thing that has been breaking my heart today, I've come to a place where I've said to the Lord this afternoon that I feel if I can just climb underneath a blanket somewhere in a little tavern and spend a month underneath the burden of God for this Weyburn community. And so we have a responsibility to pray for one another. Six times the Apostle Paul said, Brethren, pray for us. I work in Africa under a Scotsman in what is called Namibia today. Those days it was called Deutschles Afrika and I was an evangelist. And we started the year with 16 days of prayer. You say, how did you pray for 16 days? I don't know. I just know that we did it. Mr. MacLeod was a tall man. It was him and his wife and I was just a young evangelist. And we had evangelistic crusades all over Namibia From town to town we would go, sometimes find a church, sometimes a hall, sometimes we had services in a tent. And so when I began to work under him, he took us to this campground with nine Christian farmers and their wives. He and his wife and myself. And we spent 16 days in prayer. Three or four sessions every day. We'd get up in the mornings, have our quiet times, have breakfast together. And then we'd meet for the first session and study a passage in the Bible regarding prayer. And the first morning session was always a time of great soul searching as God was just working in our hearts and in our lives. And I will never forget, then we'd pray the afternoon and evening. But I will never forget, I think it was about the third or the fourth day of those days together when Mr. McLeod turned to us and he said to us, God has laid it upon my heart to pray for the town of Walthus Bay. Now I knew that town existed, never been there before. And he said, we're going to pray for Walthus Bay. And for the next three, possibly four days, session after session, we climb underneath this burden of God for the town of Walthus Bay and we pray. As the burden of God came upon us, and pursue the will of God in prayer, and discover what God's Word is saying about His will as we pray. And I think it was the fourth afternoon when he turned to us and he said to us, I believe that God has helped us to pray through for the town of Walthus Bay. And I didn't understand the depth of the concept of praying through. And so he said, why don't we begin to thank God for what He was going to do. And so we continued and finished the 16 days praying about other things. And when we came back into the town of the city of Vintook, he came into my room and he said to me, he said, Gerard, he said, I want you to go to the town of Walthus Bay and I want you to do a series of evangelistic services. So I said to him, why do you want me to do it? He said, because we prayed through for the town. And I said to him, where will I stay? And he said, I'm not sure, but there is a Christian couple who's got a trailer in the back of the yard and maybe you can stay there. And so I said, how many Christians are there? He said, I don't know. And I said, so what do you want me to do? He said, I want you to go and preach the Gospel and you're not going to come back until the Spirit of God broke into the meetings. And he said, we have a faith mission, which means that when I come to a place like this, it's never a question of money, although we need to live because of my preaching, but it's always a question, is it the will of God? And so he said to me, I can't give you anything for gas, fuel. He said, I can give you a little Volkswagen and he said, you need to go. And I would never forget. He turned to me the third time and he said, I don't want you to come back until the Spirit of God has broken into the meetings. I will never forget this. I was driving 450 miles to this town with one little verse ringing through my heart. As a sheep he was led to the slaughter. I mean, that's how I felt. And I got into the town of Halvers Bay and, you know, couldn't find this house, about 4,000 people in this community right at the ocean. And I couldn't find the house of these people and in my desperation, I just stopped and got out of the car and knocked at the door of the house and the lady opened the door and I said to her, Madam, I'm an evangelist. And those were the days where you can still call an evangelist an evangelist, you know, because you were supposed to walk with God. And I said, I'm an evangelist and I'm coming to preach the Gospel of Christ in this community. And she just brightened up. She said, oh, I'm a Christian. And I said, oh, that's wonderful. And I said, what's your name? And she said, my name is Lydia. You talk about the Bible, you know. And so I said, I'm looking for Mr. and Mrs. Newman. And so she said, oh, they just live around the corner. And so I went to this house around the corner and got into this house and I discovered that Hannah Newman, the lady of this house and her husband, I discovered that she was suffering from a nervous condition. And I trust I have a sensitive and a tender heart and spirit for people. And I sat in that house and I thought, I can't ask him if I could stay in this trailer because she's not well. And I was in this house, maybe five or ten minutes, when Lydia Phillips, the lady in whose door I knocked, walked into the house and she just said to me, she said, I just talked to my husband and my husband is not a Christian. My husband is a German, she said. And she said, we have an apartment in our yard and my husband said, you can come and stay in the apartment. She wanted him to be saved. So I replaced the stay. And we got this school hall in this town. There were three little African boys. We walked through the town and invited people with notices to come to these services. I still remember those notices. All time gospel meetings. I like that. So we were inviting these people to come. And so Thursday night was the first meeting. We spent sixteen days in prayer. Thursday night was the first meeting. And Thursday I spent the day in prayer and fasting. God gave me a little message for that evening. The service started at twenty past seven and I went to the service, the school hall about six thirty or so. I put about seventy chairs out and selling Christian literature. And so I was waiting for the people to come. And so quarter to seven came. No one. Seven o'clock came. Nothing. I mean not even a cat. Quarter past seven. Not a soul. And twenty past seven came and I did something which I have never done before in my life and I've never done it since that day. But I had a service because God gave me a message. And it was burning in my heart. And I did everything. I made the announcements. Sang. Prayed. Announced the books. And I preached my little message which was burning in my heart. And I was not as courageous. Packed up and went back to the apartment. And I was in the apartment and I don't know. A few minutes or so. There was a knock at the door. And when I opened the door this big German was standing. He was a brilliant man. He fled out of Nazi Germany working under the great scientist Werner von Braun. And he fled the country. And so there he was in South East Africa. And he stood there and he just looked down at me. He said, My name is Fred Phillips. And he said, My wife said you should come for a cup of coffee. And so I said, Thank you Mr. Phillips. And we were walking down the pathway and as we walked down he stopped. And he just turned to me and he said to me, By the way, how did it go with that service tonight? He knew there was a meeting. And just to be polite he said, How did it go with your service? And I just turned to him and I looked him straight in the eyes. That's what you do with Germans. Looked him straight in the eyes. Now I'm part of one. Straight in the eyes. And I said to him, Mr. Phillips, God was there. And he looked at me and he said, How many people came? And I looked him straight in the eyes and I said to him, Mr. Phillips, there was no one. I thought afterwards I should have said four. The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit and me. I guess I didn't have enough theology. Maybe that was a good thing. I said there was no one. And he looked at me and he said, What did you do? And I looked him straight in the eyes and I said to him, Mr. Phillips, I preached tonight that there were a hundred people. And he just looked at me. I will never forget this. He swung around and didn't say a word. He just swung around. He kept walking. And as he walked he shook his head. I could see him saying, He's got ants in the attic. The elevator is not going to the top. You know what happened? That night, Fred Phillips couldn't sleep. Around midnight he woke his wife up and Lydia said to him, What is it? He said, I can't sleep. And she said, Why not? He said, This man. She said, What about him? He said, He preached when there was no one. So she said, What do you think? He said, I think we should go. On the Friday night I had two people in the service. On the Friday night God came from heaven and saved him. And word got out in that town that Fred Phillips was saved. And eleven nights later we had about 70 people in these services. And I'm not one that makes easy invitations when it comes to the concept of salvation. But it was the 14th night when the Spirit of God broke into that service and 35 people were saved and I didn't counsel one single one. I'm speaking in that church in July. It's a Baptist church that sits around 250 people today. And I don't think they will remember me. But you say, what will they remember? They will remember that we were a group of people that spent 16 days in prayer. But I would insist that if we can't get through to God we are not going to get through to people. Isaiah chapter 50 and just for the sake of our time just read a few verses from that great chapter. The prophecy of Isaiah has been called the miniature Bible. There are 66 books in the Old and New Testament and there are 66 chapters in the prophecy of Isaiah. The first 39 chapters of Isaiah is speaking to us about Old Testament events and prophecies. And there are 39 books in the Old Testament. And then from Isaiah chapter 40 in a very particular specific way the prophet Isaiah began to prophesy about the Messiah. And so there are 27 books in the New Testament. That's why he was called that great evangelical prophet. So Isaiah chapter 50 verse number 4. The prophet said The Lord God has given to me the tongue of one that was learning that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is tired. The Lord God wakeneth me morning after morning. He wakeneth me, my ear to hear as one that learned. The Lord God had opened my ear and I was not rebellious neither did I turn away my back. You know I will never be able not to remember the very first night when I went to study theology in my own homeland of Africa. And as we met in this school the president of the school came to spend time with us as students. And when he looked at us as students he turned to us and he made a statement and he said to us you did not only come to this school to get to know the word of God but he said most of all you have come to this school so that you will be able to get to know the God to this word. And in that school where I studied whilst there an expectation from our faculty because it was part of their lives whilst there an expectation that every morning at a certain time that the students would be up and about and that they would find themselves on their knees alone in the presence of God and they were involved in what we used to refer to as our personal devotional times or what some would refer to as their choir times. And I have learned the last 26, 27 years of my life the tremendous value of what it means to meet your God on a consistent basis. For the reason that we said last night that we cannot take people further spiritually than we are ourselves and that we can only impart to men and women that which we possess in our relationships with God. And I began to study the word of God and I began to ask myself is it possible to stand here this Monday night and this session together and is it possible for me to turn to you from a Biblical perspective and to say to you as a Christian that there is the expectation from God in His word that you and I would consider what I would refer to as one of the great disciplines of the soul. The possibility of being fresh in the presence of God. The possibility of living a Christian life where my life demands a supernatural explanation. Where there is a transparency and there is a vulnerability and there is a vibrance and there is a consciousness of God in my life that let people stop and want to know why is it that my life as a Christian is so different. And so I began to study the word of God. And I began to ask myself this question. And I came across some amazing passages in Scripture. In fact I came across this one in the prophecy of Isaiah where the prophet Isaiah was speaking about the coming of the Messiah. And he referred to Christ and he made this statement. He said morning after morning the Son of God who was sinless in His life and sinless in His birth and supernatural in His life morning after morning the Son of God at this time in His life would He spend time in the presence of His Father. I came across a marvellous passage in the Gospel of Mark. The Gospel of Mark is a Gospel that we find it very difficult to analyse because the key word in Mark's Gospel is the Greek word eusis. It's the word immediately. And if you study the Gospel of Mark you will discover that event after event found itself taking place in the life and the ministry of Christ. And if you study the first chapter and you look at incident after incident as God was flowing through the life of His Son manifesting the life in the names of God. And as you look at that and you come to the end of the first chapter you stand back in absolute amazement and you say to yourself how is it possible that one individual one man with the name of Jesus of Nazareth would be able to survive a day like that. And right in the middle of that chapter Mark makes a statement about Christ. And he said early in the morning deep in the night he went into a solitary place and there he prayed. Dr. Campbell Morgan said regarding that verse it can also be translated as it was his daily custom. And my brother and my sister if it was necessary for Jesus the Son of God to have his consistent times or discipline in his life where he sat in the presence of the Father where he spent time at the mound of others where he was able to say the Son can do nothing unless he see the Father doeth it. How much more is it vital for you and for me as a Christian to consider this discipline of the soul. I want us tonight to contemplate some of these great aspects. I want us to look at the reasons why you and I should consider this kind of a lifestyle. I want us to look at the requirements if we will have time and I want us to look at the regulations and if not then you can in your own time at home just systematically work through that. You sit here in this Monday night session and you say to me Gerard what is the reasons why is it that as a Christian I need to look to my own life and ask God to search my heart and consider this possible lifestyle of walking with God. The very first reason that I have discovered is simply this. God has given unto us a spiritual constitution. That means that God has created us body, soul and spirit. We are of what theologians have referred to as a trichonomy. God has given to me a body and the reason why God has given to me a body is so that through the senses of my body He wants to make me conscious of this world and this environment in which I find myself. And when I become a Christian the Bible says my body becomes a temple of the Holy Spirit of God. That means that whatever I watch on television I'm forcing the Spirit of God to watch it with me. Whatever as a young person I found myself being exposed to on the internet I'm forcing the Spirit of God to do it with me. Whatever I allow to go through my mind as a Christian I'm forcing the Spirit of God to face it with me. My body becomes a temple of the Holy Spirit of God. But God has given unto us a soul. Now what constitutes my soul? It's the Greek word suche. And if you study the concept of that word that you discover that my soul constitute my emotions, my personality to a degree, my will to a certain degree and God has given unto me a soul, my brother and my sister, so that he will be able to make me conscious of myself. We speak about self-consciousness. And the beauty of being a Christian, and the Lord has got no duplicates. My wife sometimes says to me Oh daddy what a place the world would have been if everyone was like you. And I just laugh and I say I think we would have got somewhere. I often say to her you know my darling, I think the only reason that Rome wasn't built in three days is because I wasn't around. And then she said you need God, which of course is true. God has given unto us a soul. Self-consciousness. Brother and sister, the beauty of being a Christian is that when I come to Christ, I discover my identity in Christ. I discover that my life is precious to God. I come to the place where the Apostle Paul came when he said in Galatians chapter 2 he said I'm crucified with Christ and nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me and Paul made this statement he said I am crucified with Christ. The second aspect of the cross of Christ has become a reality in my life. And he said the life which I now live I live it by the faith of the Son of God. And if you study the word faith and the four gospels and discover what Christ said about faith. And now the New Testament is speaking to us about faith. You discover what the Apostle Paul meant when he said the life which I now live I live it by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and died for me. And you will only come to grips with the life of faith to the degree that you come to grips with this concept of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. And the more we see the depth of the price that he has paid for us when he died for us on the cross. To that degree I discover the depth of the life of faith. I found out that I am precious to God. That I am not just some individual that is floating in the ocean of God's love and a community like Waban but that God has got a plan for my life and that as a Christian if I have the responsibility that there is the possibility I need to face that to find the plan of God for my life I need to follow God's plan for my life. My brother and sister I need to follow God's plan for my life. And one day outside of the will of God is wasted time. That means that I need to redeem the time. Sixty ninety-six slots of fifteen minutes every day. I need to analyze time. I need to maximize time. I need to utilize time because I need to give account before God for my life. God has given unto me a spirit. So you say God has given unto me a body to make me conscious of my environment. God has given unto me a soul to make me conscious of myself. But God has given unto me a spirit. Brother and sister why is it that God has given unto me a spirit? It seems to us that God has given unto us a spirit so that He would be able to make us conscious of Himself. We are speaking about God consciousness. So you say what happens when I, what happens when He speaks of Himself or about Himself. He always brings us back to the word of God and He always brings us back to the life of Christ. And when I receive the Holy Spirit of God into my life I receive the Spirit of God as a person. The Spirit of God and forgive me for saying this because it can be misunderstood. The Spirit of God is not an it. The Spirit of God to a degree is not a manifestation. It can be part of what the Spirit of God is about. But one of the greatest deficiencies that I find today in North America is that there are so many of God's people and they move from experience to truth. And the consequences is that they interpret the word of God in the light of their experience and sometimes they isolate scripture and somehow their experience of either word of God does not fit into the experience. They allow things to come in brother and sister that can destroy the relationship with God. So you say what is the alternative? God wants me to move from truth to experience. So that the word of God would become the sanctifying agency in my life. And the totality of what scripture is about bringing to my Christian life balance and consistency and determination because I'm born of personality but God is in the process of building up Christian character. So when he comes into my life he comes into my life as a person. You say how do I know that? Listen to what the Bible is saying to us. The Bible is saying to us that the Spirit of God be a witness of my spirit that I'm a child of God. You remember the apostle Paul in Ephesians six times he referred to the Holy Spirit and he said in the first chapter, he said you will see into that Holy Spirit of promise which is the earnest of our inheritance. The Spirit of God be a witness of my spirit that I'm a child of God. And I wonder this Monday night if you would allow me to suggest to you and maybe you will not appreciate me saying this but my brother and my sister when I had the privilege of seeing someone coming to Christ or pointing them to the Lord Jesus Christ and if I can be absolutely honest with you this evening sometimes in today's society because there is such a lack of depth and there is such a lack of the understanding of what God is saying to us in his word and today's society it sometimes takes me two, three hours to sit down with someone that wants to be saved to say why is it? Because my friends we can't anticipate someone to respond to the gospel of Christ unless their intellect is satisfied by that which God is saying in his word. So once the intellect is satisfied by what God is saying in his word you know what is the consequences? When my intellect is satisfied by the depth of Scripture it brings me to the place where it stirs my heart and the combination between an intellect that is satisfied by the word of God and my heart that is stirred by the spirit of God brings me to the realm of my will and the decision to become a follower of Jesus Christ is taking place in the realm of my will. You say why do you say that? You know why I say that? I've seen and I don't mean this in the wrong way. I tell you it breaks my heart. I've seen poor people walking down the isle of large evangelistic crusades to give their lives to Jesus Christ with a smile upon their face and you think that they were doing God a favor. You say why does it take you so long? We sit down with two Bibles and we systematically go through God's plan of salvation. We look at man's condition that it is lost. I let him read what the Bible is saying we discuss the fact that man was born in sin and that's not just the acts of sin but my brother and my sister it's the state of sin and we systematically go through the scriptures and we read it through and we discuss it and I ask questions until they understand and once we look at the condition of man we look at God's provision and you say what is God's provision? The fact that Christ came and passage after passage of the word of God you see the Bible speaks for itself and so we look at what Christ has done for us and when we see my condition and we look at what Christ has done we come to man's responsibility and you say what is man's responsibility? Man's responsibility brother and sister is to repent you say what is repentance? It's that I come to the place where I 100% agree with God about that which is wrong in my life Pastor said to me some time ago a very dear friend he said to me Gerard why do you have to spend so much time with people that want to be saved and I turned to him and I said to him I said you know what Gerard I said it saves me so much time in the future and I wonder tonight and I don't want this to be dropped as a bombshell but my brother and sister whenever I have the joy of pointing someone to Christ I never say to people that they are born of the Spirit of God you say why not I don't know if I'm in a position to do that as a counselor you say why because the Spirit of God bear witness with my spirit that I'm a child of God we have the joy of seeing them coming to Christ we can explain to them everything we can kneel and we pray with them we sometimes can teach them the sinners prayer but I never say to people no you are born of the Spirit of God you say why not I think it's the work of the Spirit of God I was involved in an evangelistic crusade years ago in my own homeland of Africa and we had services sometimes in tents and I remember there was a lady and her husband who came to these services and God was dealing with them and we very seldom sometimes maybe the 14th or the 15th night we would make a public invitation and allow people to come and see Christ because by that time they know what this is all about and I would never forget it was a Friday night and this lady and her husband was sitting in the back of the tent they were there every night and she sat she sat there and she wept through the whole service as she was sitting there and I knew she wanted to be saved and Saturday morning I was just a young fellow out in the ministry and Saturday morning I went to the little house and you know when I came to this little house I knocked at the door of the house and she opened the door and invited me in unfortunately her husband was out but she stood there and she said please come in and I had to go in and as I came into this little house the first thing that struck me was the condition of the house I mean forgive me for saying this but the house was in absolute mess in fact I remember I said to myself well my boy thank God he didn't send you to clean this house he sent you to share the gospel so we sat at the kitchen table that morning and I began to share with her the gospel of Christ and oh you know it's wonderful when you see real conviction of sin and there she sat at the table with my bible and I just systematically went through God's plan of salvation and she was so ready she was just like an apple ready to drop from the tree and after I shared with her the gospel and I said to her now madam I said now this is between you and God I'm not going to force you into this I said you have time to think about it or you can come to Christ now and I'll never forget she just said I don't want to wait any longer we got on our knees and she trusted God to save her and I didn't have to teach her a prayer she knew how to pray because she wanted to be saved and after she prayed we sat down and I went through passage after passage about the assurance of salvation and after I'd gone through all of it I said now madam I said I can't say to you that you are born again I said God needs to witness with your spirit that you are the child of God three days later I went back to the house knocked at the door of this little house and she came rushing to the door of the house and opened the door of the house and as I stepped in the first thing that I discovered the house was clean I remember I said to myself well my boy if nothing has happened to the woman but you see when God touched the lives of people brother and sister God God touched their circumstances we sat down at the table and I said to her I said madam has God given to you the witness of the Holy Spirit that you know Christ and I would never forget it she turned to me she said to me she said young man she said when you said that the other day I did not really understand it but she said three o'clock this morning she said I was awakened and I was lying next to my husband and she said these words came to me though your sins be as scarlet they shall become as white as snow though they be red as crimson they shall be as wood and she turned to me and she said I can't get away from those words where can I find them I mean you know they are in Isaiah chapter 1 verse 18 the witness of the Spirit of God you see maybe you sit here this Monday night in this session and you don't have the witness of the Spirit of God that you are born from the God you said what is the witness of the Spirit of God my brother and my sister the witness of the Spirit of God in salvation is like a scale on the one side of the scale there is my experience so you say what is my experience it's the place where I listen when someone shared with me about Christ it's the place where I was convicted of my sin because Jesus said when the Spirit of God comes He will convict this world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment it was the place where I became maybe affected and broken up by God and I got onto my knees and I trusted Him and I said Christ I realize that you died for my sin and I want you to come into my heart and into my life and that's my experience but my brother and my sister my experience as a Christian is going to be affected by where I am physically and emotionally and spiritually and mentally to a degree and psychologically for that matter and all these factors will affect my experience but on the other side of the scale it's the Word of God and you see the reason why there are so many of us as Christians who has never found the consistency of growing and developing in our relationship with God it's because we are an experience that we have never been established in the depth of what God and His Word is about and maybe you sit here tonight and say well you know I'm just a young Christian what is the Word of God saying to me I'll listen to what Peter said Peter was a family man he was the one that said that you were born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible through the Word of God which liveth and abideth forever for you have not been redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold but through the precious blood of Christ as a lamb without blemish and without spot and in second Peter he comes to us and you remember what he said he said as young born babes desire the sincere milk of the Word of God so that you may grow thereby you know when our daughter was born when we were expecting Monica I was absolutely confident that it was going to be a boy in fact I thought God gave me a word and I had a name and I missed it all together and so when that little bundle of life was born I didn't have a name and so the doctor said you need a name and I went into the room and I came up with Monica. Monica was the mother of Augustinus the early church father and I thought well I guess that's a good way to go and so I came back and said we're going to call her Monica and so there was Monica born and when she was born I was responsible for her in the early hours of the morning. You see God brings opposites together and my wife is not a morning person I'm a morning person my wife's not a morning person if I would wake Janice up at 6.30 in the morning and say my darling come and watch the sunrise with me she would turn to me and she would say daddy if God wants me to see the sunrise at 6.30 in the morning He would schedule it much later my wife is not a morning person so you know what happened when our little girl was born guess what I was responsible for her in the early hours of the morning and her room, we were in our old house in Trenton Beach and her room was right next to my study and my library and early in the early hours of the morning I would be there trying to meet your God and searching His word and 6 o'clock every morning around 6 o'clock I should say there was this little noise in the room next door and I knew it was time for her, she was waking up and the previous night my wife would come to me and she would say now daddy I put a bottle of milk in the fridge and when Monica wakes up you just go and you put that bottle of milk in the micro-oven for 40 seconds and then you give it to her, it was fun how this baby got used to the beeps of the micro-oven, I mean she knew it was coming so every morning around 6 or so when she was waking up I would I would get up from my knees and go to the kitchen and take this bottle of milk and put it in the fridge and then in the micro-oven after 40 seconds I would go to her and I would watch her and you know it was fascinating in fact my wife didn't know this but there was some mornings that I just gave her two bottles of milk to keep her mouth shut and she would just be like that and my brother and sister I mean you know when I would give her that bottle of milk and she would drink away and I would stand there and just watch and one morning God broke my heart and said us young born babes desire the sincere milk of the word of God so that you may grow thereby you sit here tonight in this Monday night service and you say pastor I've been a Christian for many many years of my life, what is the Bible saying to me listen to the writer to the Hebrew he said sorrowful belongs to those that are strong you know I've counseled people that say they've been saved for 25 years and I said will you turn with me to the first of John and I found him flipping around in the Old Testament trying to find John. I wonder this Monday night if I can ask you in this meeting you sit here as a Christian, you've been a Christian for many many years, my brother and my sister can I ask you this Monday night if someone would knock at your door at 3 o'clock tomorrow morning and you open that door and there is a person standing and said I don't have much long I don't have long to live, I have a few minutes, I have maybe a half an hour or an hour, could you help me to find Christ, will you and I be able to do that or will you get up and run to the phone and phone your pastor or phone someone in your church and say I don't know what to do I was reminded of a friend of mine in South Africa with whom I'm preaching in June, July and August a godly man, how he was in a church in his church and one Sunday night after the Sunday night service there was the vestry the door of the vestry of the church opened and there was a young nurse came in and as she came into that room he said I knew she was a Christian he said as I look into her eyes, he said her eyes were swollen, dark nights without sleep and he said I didn't know what was going on and we sat down and she said pastor can you help me and he said what is it she said pastor you know that I'm a Christian and she said I'm a nurse in the hospital and she said pastor this last week they brought a man in, there was an accident and she said I heard the siren coming towards the hospital and I knew it was an accident and she said as they were bringing it, the doors of the emergency exit opened and they brought this person in on the stretcher towards the emergency surgery and she said I was coming down this long passage, this corridor in this hospital and as they were coming she said I heard this man screaming at the top of his voice and he was screaming saying is there anyone who can help me to find God and she said as they brought him closer and closer she said I had to stand like this in order for them to get him through and she said he was coming and as he was coming he was covered with blood it was obvious that he was dying the one eye was gone and she said through the mist of his face he saw me through the other eye and he grabbed my hand like this and he said nurse, he said I'm dying, I'm dying can you help me to find God and she said I took my hand away she said five minutes later I wonder this Monday night if I can ask you as a Christian what is the reason for your existence brother and sister why did he save us are we like those bears in Yellowstone Park that a certain time of the year if you go into certain areas you find these game keepers and what do they do, they are hunting down those bears and when you find them and you stop and you say what are you doing, they turn to you in agony and they say we don't want to do it, but what has been happening people have been feeding these animals and they would come to the road to get food and as people feed them they become aggressive and we sedated them and with helicopters we take them into the mountains miles away and in a matter of days they would be back amongst them and they'd be at the roads and they said we do this three or four or five times and then we decided it's too late and we hunt these animals down and you turn to them and you say to them why are you doing this and in agony they put their hands in the air and they said we are shooting them because they've lost the reason for their existence and I don't know tonight if you are like me because there are many many times that my wife finds me under a blanket in my library sobbing my heart out before God and she would lift it up and say daddy what is it and I'd say my darling it's the reason for my existence why did he save me and I ask you this Monday night in the service when last have you been broken before God Evan Roberts used to pray and say God will you bend the church and save the people my brother and my sister there are some of us we don't need to wait for often to come to this wavering community we can meet with God in these days that we are coming together and say what is it it's my spiritual constitution and say why do you say that pastor do you know why because every one of us need to stand before the judgment seat of Christ we won't stand before the great white throne that's for the unbelievers but the apostle Paul said every one of us shall stand before the judgment seat of Christ and he said our works are going to be revealed and then he brought he gave the revelation he said there will be hay, stubble and wood what is that it's the works of the flesh those things that we tried the tricks that we tried everything we tried in the book in order to see things happen and it didn't happen and God said when the fire come it's not going to last but Paul said silver, gold and precious stones he said what is it it's the works of the spirit of God it's the spiritual constitution he said what is it you're precious to God, it's going to plan for your life it's going to cost you more to miss it than it's going to cost you to find it where do I stand when it comes to my constitution I can't take people further spiritually than I am myself he said is it only my spiritual constitution, no you know what I discovered spiritual correction oh I love it listen to this listen to the apostle Paul this is what he said to his son in the faith a young man with the name of Timothy Timothy a young man of whom the apostle Paul made the statement this is what he said of this young man I'm going to invest my life in his life and he turned to Timothy and he said to him in the first letter to Timothy he said study to show yourself a proof unto God a workman not needed to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth Bishop who was a contemporary of John Calvin made this statement he said that concept of rightly dividing the word of truth he said it speaks of a father and a mother part of a family with all their children sitting at this dining and this dining room at this table and there is this chunk of meat that was brought to the father and he had this sharp knife and now with a fork as he put the fork in after slice, study to show yourself a proof unto God the word of proof means to be searched by God to be broken in the presence of God he said rightly dividing the word of truth it comes to him in the second chapter and what did he say, he said all scripture is given by inspiration of God and it is profitable for reproof and correction and instruction in righteousness my brother and my sister, can I ask you this Monday night, in this Monday night session, is God still speaking to us through his word are there moments in your life and in my life as a Christian when I find myself in the word of God that suddenly the spirit of God comes and what does he do he begins to break my heart in the word I remember about 7 years ago I spent a year, I felt I wanted to spend a year in my choir time the epistle to the Romans 433 wonderful verses and 58 about 58 minutes every day just took me to systematically work through Romans and you know what happened, after about 3 months God began to open the epistle to the Romans to me and I never studied the bible without a notebook, psychologists are saying to us that nothing is going to have a lasting impression upon your life if it is not going to be some form of expression, and through the years I've learned the value of studying the bible with a notebook, I said to my wife some time ago, I said you know my darling it would be wonderful one day to go to heaven but I said you know what I would miss the most and she said what daddy, I said my notebooks all the places where God spoke to me, and after 3 months God began to open this great epistle and I began to ask myself a question what was Paul's perception of God in Romans, and I went to every verse where he was speaking about God, study it in its context look at that, find out and I asked God to apply it to my life, what did he say about Christ what did he say about the Holy Spirit brother and sister, I don't mean this in the wrong sense but you know hundreds of pages of material came flooding through my life out of Romans, what did he say about sin, the righteousness of God, the Holy Spirit I remember one morning I came into the kitchen and my wife was still ready for breakfast and I came into the kitchen and I found this little word in Romans 8 the spirit of God groaned with groaning and I discovered this concept of the agonized and I found out that it's a word that found its meaning in the Roman Empire of that day when they were restless in the presence of the Emperor and sometimes they would wrestle themselves to death and it's the word agon or agonos, or agonized and I discovered the depth of the burden of the spirit of God for my life, and many mornings I went to my wife, I remember one morning I said to her, my darling just listen to this my wife you know, she's so wonderful cool, calm, calculated, controlled, consecrated, Canadian and I said to her, I said Janet just listen to this, listen to this and she turned to me and she said ah daddy, you know there are 65 other books in the Bible she got tired of me you know oh brother and sister you love I tell you what, it became part of my life, my sheep hear my voice and I give them eternal life and they shall not be plucked out of my hand, and people say oh that's great, just do what you will you still get eternal life, no it's an oppressive imperative mood my sheep is in the process of Can I ask you tonight, is God speaking to you? Brother and sister forgive me for saying this, but you know sometimes you and I sit in gatherings like this and we're not even conscious of our need of God. We've become just like the dark of the blacksmith, that when the man walked into the blacksmith's shop and he came into the shop of the blacksmith and as he came into that shop, he heard it was the dark of the blacksmith sleeping underneath the table, and the man turned to him and he said to him, he said how is it possible that this dark is sleeping underneath the table, what is going on? The sparks were flying, the noise, the carrying on in the blacksmith's shop, and the blacksmith stopped and he laughed, and he said you don't understand, he said you see that dark, he said the first day when I got him, he said I couldn't get him near the shop, he said he wouldn't come near the sparks or the noise, but he said you know what happened my friend, he said every day he came closer and closer and closer, and he said you know what has happened he said you see the dark is sleeping under the table he said you know what took place, he said I'll tell you what, he said my dark got used to this Brother and sister, you know what breaks my heart, and I don't know what it's going to take from God to come to us as his people, you know what breaks my heart you and I as a Christian, we can sit through meeting after meeting after meeting after meeting, and it doesn't do a thing to us, and sometimes God needs to come to us and you know what he needs to do, it's like the layers of an anvil, he would need to take him one after the other, and it's like he needs to take him out of our lives one after the other so that we can just see our need is he in the process of correcting us twice a year I find myself amongst the Amish I say now I know what's wrong with you, that's why when I tell you what happened seven years ago I was speaking at the men's conference in Virginia, like 450 men came together at this men's conference and they called it the men's prayer advance they don't call it retreats, they say the Christians have been retreating all their lives and they call it prayer advance and they got 450 of these men together, brother and sister I wish you could have been there, the Tuesday night the Spirit of God broke into that meeting when I came out of the auditorium of this large conference ground and there was about 9 or 10 phone booths, and there were 10 15 men standing at every phone booth, phoning their wives to put things right because they were living such terrible lives and the Spirit of God convicted them and met them, in fact at that conference that night at the phone booth was a pastor from Calvary Baptist Church outside of Philadelphia, with his associate and 17 of his men and God met to them and they went back to Calvary Baptist Church and they began Friday nights of prayer and the Spirit of God swept into the community and in around 12 months something like 150 people were saved, and at the conference was this man that started the church amongst the armies and he came to me and he said to me he said, would you come and speak amongst my people, and I said, who are your people, he said, I'm working amongst the armies in Pennsylvania, in Lancaster and I said, what do you do he said, I'm not armless but God broke my heart for them and I went and I said, so what took place he said, for 7 years we struggled with 35 people that was, that came out of the old other armies, and he said I brought a Mennonite evangelist in to preach, and he said, when I brought him in, we discovered that out of those 35 people, around 20 one of them was never really saved and he said, God broke into our midst and then he said, you're right the spirit of God broke through and he said, now we have about 800 people, and he said, would you come and speak amongst my people, and I said no he said, why not, I said, listen my brother, God needs to break my heart, brother and sister, you can't let someone into this community whose heart is not broken I mean, God can only use us to the degree that we have become broken and so he said, would you pray, I said, let's pray and every now and again he would phone me, and he would say to me are you coming, and I said, no, he said why not, I said, my heart is not broken because I know they were so different and for 10 months I prayed and never forget, early one morning on my knees, God has broke my heart for those people, and that morning he phoned, and he said, brother Gerard he said, are you coming, I said, I bet you I'm coming, he said, why, I said God broke my heart, brother and sister, let me tell you I didn't know what I was in for, I was amongst them for about 10 days, totally different they were saved out of the old oil armies these forces and buggies and the legalism, and the incest and the child molestation, and the sexual abuse, if God is going to send revival amongst these colonies these Hadarite colonies, and Amish, and Dukabars, 90% of the men will go to prison because of what they've done to their children and so I arrived there at this conference and I stayed in the house of the pastor, he's got 8 children the services start at 9 o'clock, and the Sunday morning it goes through to 2 o'clock they have a saying amongst themselves, they said we will not read the word of God further than we are willing to obey the word of God I stayed in his house I think of little Joshua his son who was 4 years old came to me one night after the service you see these children, they sat through those services, brother and sister and they drank the word of God I mean they are totally different these people know musical instruments and the women sit on one side and the men on one side, I mean I messed it up, I would stand up and preach and I would say brothers and sisters I mean they were so gracious to forgive, and you just have to become like them, I mean I had to preach in suspenders it was great, it was like shooting ducks praying to God that they won't come out, but I don't know what happened I was standing one night after the service here's Joshua, 4 years old the pastor's son, 8 children he was standing, I wish you could see heard that 4 year old boy singing the mighty fortress is our God and he was holding her to my trousers and he looked up, and I said what he said Joshua, he said uncle Gerard he said God broke my heart tonight 4 years old I said what do you mean he said this is exactly what he said he said uncle Gerard, he said God broke my heart, and I wept in my pants I said what do you mean Joshua he said uncle Gerard, he said I was came out of my room one afternoon, it was Samuel 11 years old he came out of his room, his whole face was red like someone has been on his knees like that and I turned to him, I said Samuel Samuel what have you been doing he wouldn't want to tell me and I looked at him and said Samuel what were you doing he said I spent the afternoon in prayer for you so that you can preach well tonight, 11 years old came down one morning at 6 o'clock to get a glass of water, there was Hannah and Esther, Esther is like a little prophetess just Godly pure child there they were sitting, listening through the Bible on cassette, with their open Bibles and I said what are you doing and they said are we having our quiet times I said what are you doing they said we listen to the Bible 4 times a day 3 years later I was speaking at another place and the pastor and his wife and all the children came to the services in the motor home, and Elizabeth when I was there was about 11, probably 12 years old she was 12 years old when I was at the meetings and then 3 years later she was 15 and we were sitting in the motor home and we were talking and I was praying for all of them it was great to pray for one another brother and sister you know the reason why I am so willing for a life in the ministry of intercessory prayer, there is nothing spectacular about it, so I sat in the motor home, one after the other now how are you doing in your walk of God so one after the other from the youngest to mother and father because we knew one another so deeply well, I turned to Elizabeth who was 15, I said Elizabeth, what is God doing in your life, and she just broke and she said Uncle Gerard, she said, I am reading Andrew Murray's book, Abiding in Christ, can you explain to me the meaning of the Greek word meno, what does it mean to abide in Christ, do you know where she is today? She is on the mission here I got up this Sunday morning to preach and I was in absolute agony, in fact to be honest with you, I was physically sick and I got up to preach because I was the first foreigner that they ever allowed in amongst them, and I got up to preach, and they sing for 45 minutes and then they say, you have an hour and a half or two hours to speak to us and I got to preach amongst these about a thousand people who were there that Sunday morning, began to speak and I was in agony, I thought I was going to die and after 15 minutes God came, and He just smashed the meeting, and we were in the midst of an organized disorder They're serious with God They went amongst the Hutterites in Manitoba and around 250 Hutterites out of 11 colonies got saved in the last year Salad food, spiritual correction What about your life? What about my life? Andrew Murray God used him in the revival in the previous century and one Sunday morning in the midst of the revival in the Dutch Reformed Church in Wellington, South Africa Andrew Murray came out of the vestry and he had this habit that when he would come out of the vestry that he would ascend up into the pulpit and before he would ascend up into the pulpit with his black gown, his white shirt and white tie, Bible in his notebook on his arm, and when he would give a first step, and as he would give a first step he would pause to pray. It was just a part of his life. It's still part of the lives of those men today because he had such an influence upon the Dutch Reformed Churches in South Africa 75% are evangelicals I was in a conference two years ago, the very first conference God saved the former Prime Minister and President of the country on a Wednesday night in a glorious way and Andrew Murray came that Sunday morning, and as he came out he took that first step and he paused to pray. Do you know what happened? People rose to their feet because of respect for him, but do you know what happened? As he prayed, Brethren and Sisters suddenly, the presence of God fell upon the people. It was a hush people stood in awe sobbing as this man quietly was praying and as he was praying sometimes he said he prayed for 10 or 15 minutes just quietly and people just stood there in awe Do you know what happened? As he was praying there was a 9 year old girl standing next to her mummy and she began to pull on her mummy's dress because she realized something was taking place and the presence of God was in the service and she kept pulling on her mummy's dress and her mummy did not want to be distracted and she kept pulling and eventually her mummy bent down he walked with God He said, Pastor, what is it going to cost me to walk with God? It's going to cost you absolutely nothing Do you love to walk with God?