In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of God speaking to us every day and our willingness to listen. He shares a powerful testimony of a young man who was once demon-possessed but found freedom and became an elder brother in their church. The speaker also highlights the transformative power of the Holy Spirit and the need for believers to be baptized in the Holy Spirit and fire. He encourages listeners to recognize their role in their own little world of people and to share the love of God with them so that they may have eternal life.

Jesus said in Luke chapter 5, the people came to Jesus and asked him in verse 33, the disciples of John often fast and offer prayers. The disciples of the Pharisees also do the same, but yours eat and drink. And in reply to this question on fasting, he said in verse 35, the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away and they will fast. And then he spoke about, he told them a parable in verse 36. No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment, otherwise he will tear the new and the piece from the new will not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins, otherwise new wine will burst the skins and will be spilled out, the skins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. And no one after drinking the old wine wishes for the new, for he says the old is good enough. He was speaking there about the new covenant life as the new wine and the new covenant church, which is the new wineskin. And the old covenant life is the old wine and the old covenant system is the old wineskin. Now, I find there are many Christians who would like the new covenant life, but it's when it comes to the new wineskins that a lot of people have a problem. And yet Jesus said in verse 38, the new wine must be put into new wineskins. So if we try to have a new covenant life in an individual way, without wanting to be a part of a local body of Christ, we're going to have problems. I might as well tell you that. Because he said, if you try to put this into the old wineskins, it will be spilled out and the skins will be ruined. So, very often I find when preaching about the new covenant and victory over sin, a lot of people would like to have this life of victory over sin and to overcome like Jesus overcame. But they want to take, like the other illustration he used, take a piece, verse 36, from a new garment and put it onto the old garment. They say, can't we have this life in our old system? And the Lord says, no. If you try to do that, the wine will just burst and be spilled out. And yet, I've seen many, many people who come to our conferences who still try to do that. They say, yeah, I know Jesus said that, but I think it's going to work in my case. But I'll tell you in all my life, I've never seen it work. It just doesn't. What Jesus said is absolutely true. If you want the new wine, you have to put it, if you want to preserve it, you have to put it in new wineskins. You have to take the whole package, not pick and choose what you like and give up what you don't like. If you take the whole thing, you'll have a very satisfying life. But if you just try to take a patch, I've seen many people who come year after year to a conference to be stirred and to be renewed and then back into the old life and then come again to be renewed. Old covenant life is like that. If you turn to 2 Corinthians 3, he says there, in the old covenant, 2 Corinthians 3, this is a wonderful chapter by the way, it's contrasting the old covenant with the new covenant. And he says in verse 6, that God has made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the spirit. One characteristic of new covenant life and ministry is, it's not going into the letter, but the spirit. In the old covenant, the letter was important. But in the new covenant, it's the spirit behind the letter that's important. So when you read the Bible, if you're taken up with the letter, you're in great danger of becoming a legalist, of judging other people by the letter, comparing yourself with others and thinking you're better. You know, when you look at the life of Jesus, who's the perfect example of new wine. New wine is really the life of Christ. He, strictly speaking, disobeyed the letter of the law. The old covenant rule was that any woman who commits adultery must be stoned to death. That was clear. And yet Jesus violated it. He did not stone that woman to death who was brought, caught in adultery. According to the letter of the Old Testament law, he disobeyed it. And the Pharisees said, this chap's not keeping the Mosaic law. How can he be from God? Because he did say, okay, you can stone her and whoever is without sin, throw the first stone. And when all had left, there was one man left who was without sin. That was Jesus. He was qualified to throw stones at her and kill her to keep the law. But the thing is, Jesus never throws stones. He doesn't have any stones in his pocket. And so he just let her go. Now, when you read the New Testament, how do you read it? Do you read it as a whole lot of commandments that you've got to keep? Or do you try to understand the spirit behind? The new wine is the spirit behind those laws. And if you don't get that, you can be like a whole lot of Christians and churches who keep the letter in some area and judge other people, saying they're not keeping the commandment here. They're not doing this. And that's the thing we've got to be careful about. There's another example, you know, in Luke chapter 7. We read of a woman who was a prostitute who brought, Luke 7 and verse 37, brought an alabaster vial of perfume and began to weep and wipe Jesus' feet. And when the Pharisee, verse 39, Luke 7, 39, saw this, he said to himself, if this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of person this woman is who's touching him. It's not just that she was a prostitute. There was an Old Testament law in Deuteronomy 23 which said you must never bring the money you earn as a prostitute into the house of God. This specific law. Because that's an abomination to God. Now everybody, including Jesus, would know that where did this woman get such a lot of money to buy a perfume from her earnings as a prostitute? And she brought that completely violating that Old Testament law and Jesus accepted it. In these examples like this, you've got to understand the spirit of Christ. This is the new wine. I see, take this matter of divorce. I'm just as strongly against divorce and remarriage as a lot of Christian churches are. I don't believe that divorced, remarried people should ever be in leadership. But I find some churches in the United States who take such a hard stand against divorced people, which I find I can't do. And when I turn to Matthew chapter 5, I'll give you one example of how we can go by the letter. In Matthew chapter 5, Jesus spoke about two types of adultery. I call it adultery number one and adultery number two. The first adultery Now, there's the Old Testament adultery. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about adultery in the New Covenant. The first adultery Jesus mentioned in the New Covenant is Matthew 5, 28. Everyone who looks on a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery in his heart. That's the first type of adultery Jesus spoke about in the New Covenant, the Sermon on the Mount. Adultery number two is verse 32. Everyone who divorces his wife except for the cause of unchastity makes her commit adultery. And whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. That's adultery number two. And yet my experience has been I've heard so many groups speaking against adultery number two I hardly ever hear them speaking against adultery number one. And it's just three or four verses apart. And I say, hey, what's the reason for that? Why are these guys thundering away against adultery number two and never mention adultery number one? It's because many of them are committing adultery number one every day. They never talk about it. But is adultery number two more serious than adultery number one? Who said that? The legalists. I'm just giving an example of how Christians can be so blind. You can read something. If you go to scripture to find some comfort in your sin you'll find it. If you go to scripture to find some verse to hit another person on the head with, you'll find it. It's a question of what you go to the scripture for. I go to the scriptures to find out how I can become more like Jesus because that's my destination. And I'm not going to scripture to find verses to hit somebody on the head with or to find any comfort for my sin. I'm just showing you examples of how if you go to scripture and for the wrong reasons we can fall back into an old covenant life very easily. There are some amazing verses in scripture. Do you know that the scripture tells us to be filthy and to be unrighteous in the new covenant? I don't know whether you know that verse. It's in Revelation chapter 22. It's a command of God. Be filthy. Practice Do wrong. Revelation 22 verse 11. Let the one who does wrong strictly speaking turn from his wrong. But it says no, do wrong. You think let the one who is filthy turn from his filthiness. No, it says be filthy. Have you understood that? It's inspired by the Holy Spirit. Is there someone here doing wrong? What's God's word telling you? Continue to do wrong. Someone here is filthy? Be filthy. I tell you, that puzzled me. I said, Lord, there must be a reason for this. Finally, the Lord gave me Revelation. What it means is if after reading 1,000 pages in the Bible you come to the last page and you still want to do wrong you better go ahead and do it. After reading 1,000 pages you still want to be filthy, brother? There is no hope for you. You better be filthy. Yeah, I believe that the Lord says that to some people. I've given up on you. You better continue to be filthy for the rest of your life. Continue to do wrong. Is it possible that many of us have heard warnings against sin so many times and we still take it lightly? I've often said in our home church, I say, if you're not serious about giving up sin you better not come to this church. It's dangerous, I tell you, to come to this church and to keep on hearing the Word of God because it will only increase your condemnation. Think of a sin like the sin of Ananias and Sapphira. Just, you know, a sin of hypocrisy. And God judged them so severely just for hiding the fact that they hadn't I mean, covering up how much they sold their land for. Let's assume that Ananias sold his property for $50,000 and he brought $25,000 to church as an offering to God and he got killed. Boy! How many believers are there who'd sell their property for $50,000 and give $25,000 to God today? What was his mistake? He tried to play the fool in a holy church. That was his mistake. If he wanted to play the fool he should have been in some other church. I mean, if he'd been in the church in Corinth, he'd have been an elder brother there. But his mistake was he tried to play the fool in the church in Jerusalem which is moving on with God. Be careful where, which church you're in when you plan to sin. If you plan to sin I would strongly recommend that you find a church that's teaching psychology and telling you to have a good time and make a lot of money. You'll be quite alright there. But if you're going to play the fool with sin, don't join a church that's on fire for God. It's dangerous. And that's why some people prefer to sit in some dead church. They say the old is better. It's safer. Let the one who does wrong continue to do wrong. And the one who's filthy continue to be filthy. In 2 Corinthians 3 he says here, we are not like Moses, verse 13, who used to put a veil over his face. When I read the Old Testament, I understood that Moses put a veil on his face because he didn't want others to get scared seeing the glory on his face. And that was one reason. But here in 2 Corinthians 3 he gives us another reason. The second reason is that underneath that veil the glory was slowly getting less and less and less and less every day. The glory that shone on his face when he met with God on top of the mountain was shone so bright like the sun that people were scared to look at him. He covered it for two reasons. One, he didn't want people to get scared looking at that glory. And secondly, according to this verse, he said that sons of Israel might not look carefully at that glory which was fading away slowly underneath the veil. And this is Old Covenant life where we come up to the mountain, like a conference like this, meet with God, and our face is shining, our hearts are gripped with the truth, and then as the days go by the glory slowly fades away. And then what do we do? We put a mask because we don't want people to know the glory is fading away. We want to speak the spiritual language, we're going to talk about New Covenant things and all that, but inwardly we know the glory is fading away and we don't want people to know it. A lot of Christians, I think most Christians, wear a mask because they feel if others know the real person who lives inside, they won't accept me. We all have a tremendous desire to be accepted by others. And in order to be accepted, we feel we've got to put a mask, otherwise they won't accept me. If they know the real person I am in my home, the way my wife knows me, boy, they won't accept me. So I've got to put on a mask and act spiritual and talk spiritual language. And inside I'm hurting. There's a little person inside us who's scared that other people may find out what we're really like when we are by ourselves. And that's not the way God wants us to live. It says about that early time in Eden, before sin came, the men and women were naked and they were not ashamed. There was an openness about them. There was nothing to hide. And this is how it is to be in a New Covenant church, which is like a family. I believe we must build churches like that where we accept people just as they are. And they don't have anything to hide from us, because we're not here to condemn them. We're not here to find fault with them. We're here to encourage them to know that we're fellow strugglers. We're pilgrims. There's victory ahead for all of us. But you don't have to pretend, brother, in this church. Are you in a church where you feel that people are saying, you don't have to pretend, brother, not in our message. You don't have to be an Ananias here. I mean, if you don't want to give all your money, that's fine. Nobody's asking you for a cent. You don't have to give anything. But be yourself. But it's very rare to find a church like that. And so, like Moses, we put a veil, and the glory fades away. And then Moses goes back up to the mountain, and again the face shines. And this is how many people come for a conference. And again, it's all brightened up. But we know it won't last. In a few days, it'll all be gone. So we've got to put the veil back again. Is this all that Christ offers? That every time we come for a conference, we get lifted up in our spirit and challenged? We meet with God, and our hearts are all shining, and then a little while later, it's all gone? That is Old Covenant life. And another mark of this is that when they read the Scriptures, they never seem to get anything out of Scripture. It says here, verse 15, whenever Moses is read, that was their Bible in those days, Moses, the Law of Moses. Whenever they read the Bible, it's like a handkerchief. You put a handkerchief on top of your Bible and try to read it. You get nothing out of it. It was like that for me for many years. Reading the Bible was like reading a history book. Oh, of course, I could get a lot of facts and information. But there was no revelation that gripped my heart. God wasn't speaking to me. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. And I didn't find God's words coming out of His mouth as I read Scripture. Because if it was God's words coming out of His mouth as I read Scripture, my heart would burn. Remember when Jesus spoke to the disciples to Emmaus, it says their hearts were burning. He took the Scriptures and spoke and their hearts were burning. Have you ever had that experience when you read Scripture? When God hits you with a verse and your heart burns. No, very often it's not like that. It's like as if a veil is on top of it. And that's why a lot of people get bored reading the Bible. I say, get money out of it. But whenever a man turns to the Lord, verse 16, the veil is taken away. God doesn't want us to have a veil when we read the Scriptures. That's Old Covenant life. In the New Covenant we're supposed to have revelation. I remember hearing a very godly man whom I met many years ago. One of the most godly men I ever met on the face of this earth. He said, I get revelation from God every single day. I was a young man in those days. And I said, Lord, I want to come to that life. I want to come to a life where I'm getting revelation from God every single day. That's New Covenant life. When you turn to the Lord, the veil is taken away. And this is the one place in Scripture where the word Lord is referred to the Holy Spirit. In the Old Testament, the Lord refers to the Father, Jehovah. In the New Testament, in almost every place, the Lord refers to Jesus Christ. But here is one place where the Lord refers to the Holy Spirit. Sorry, in verse 17. The Lord What I'm talking about is the Holy Spirit. That's what it says there. And when you turn to this Lord, the veil is taken away. If I come to the Scriptures without seeking for the revelation of the Holy Spirit, I'll find a veil there. I won't get anything out of it. I remember when I was baptized in the Holy Spirit in fire and God gave me this gift of speaking in unknown languages that I never sought for. I suddenly found myself speaking in a language I never planned to speak in. And when I switched back to English and prayed again and again, I found myself going back to this language. And the next morning, I was in doubt. I said, Lord, is this from you? Or did I make it up? I never sought it. And I said, if it is from you, then this book that the Holy Spirit wrote, the Bible, is going to be a new book for me from today onwards. That was about 34 years ago. And I tell you, I've discovered the most amazing things in the New Testament since then. I'd been converted about 16 years prior to that. And I knew a lot of things in the Bible. But it wasn't like this. It was revelation now. Revelation that affected my life. Revelation that showed me what God's will was concerning. The local church and many things like that, which I never knew before. About a life of victory, overcoming sin. What the difference was between grace and mercy. What the difference was between the new covenant and the old covenant. What it meant to take up the cross. Etc. Whenever you turn to the Lord the Spirit, the veil is taken away. And then when you look into the Scriptures, what you see there is not a whole lot of verses and laws. It says we see the glory of Jesus, verse 18. That is one of the wonderful things. I could see the glory of Jesus when I read the New Testament. And the Holy Spirit began to transform me, verse 18, from one degree of glory to another. You see the contrast here? In the Old Testament, the glory was decreasing day by day by day by day by day under the veil which Moses put. In the new covenant, the glory is increasing from glory to glory to glory. That means you come for a conference and you meet with God and the glory is coming to your life and it's just going to increase and increase and increase until the next conference time when it's much more. This is new covenant life. This is the way it's supposed to be. So I saw the difference. Old covenant life is where the glory keeps decreasing. You have these encounters with God and then it slowly fades away. And then you have another encounter with God and it slowly fades away. And you keep waiting for these encounters with God. Well that's all that was possible under the Old Covenant. But in the New Covenant, there's no such thing as an encounter with God. The Holy Spirit is just coming and dwelling within. God Himself is there. And He's continuously showing you the glory of Jesus and it's just constantly increasing. I want to say brothers and sisters, even if you have not experienced this, this is your birthright. This is what Jesus purchased for you on the cross. And the devils cheated most Christians of their inheritance and their birthright. They got taken up with ministry and study and preaching and so many things. They missed the glory. You don't have to miss it anymore. Lay hold on your inheritance and say, Lord, this is the life I want. Get rid of all your prejudices against the ministry of the Holy Spirit. I remember when I saw so many wrong things in Pentecostal charismatic churches. The Lord said to me, don't let your doctrine and understanding of the ministry of the Holy Spirit be a reaction to the extremes that you see in other groups. Get your doctrine straight from Scripture. Not a reaction to the extreme you see somewhere. I've seen that. People want a doctrine which is a reaction to the legalists or reaction to the Pharisees or reaction to the Baptists or reaction to Pentecostals. No. We've got to go to the Scriptures and see there is such a thing as being immersed in the Holy Spirit and fire. Where the Holy Spirit brings us into a level of life where we continuously see more and more of the glory of Jesus. And that makes us see our own need. I believe a spiritual man constantly the Lord gives him a vision in three directions. Upward, inward, and outward. You see an example of that in the Old Testament in Isaiah chapter 6. The thing is, Isaiah had this experience just once. The wonderful thing about the New Covenant is that we can live in this all the time. All the time. Isaiah says here, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne. Isaiah 6.1. And he looked upward. That's the first look we have. You see the glory of Jesus. And he saw the seraphim saying, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts. And seeing that glory and worshiping him, the next thing he saw is his own need. He looked inward and he said, in verse 5, I'm a man of unclean lips. It's automatic. When this glory increases, we see the glory of Jesus more and more and more and more. We see our own need more and more and more. And once you have seen our need and acknowledge our need, we're not so taken up with the need of others then. He said, Lord, I am a man of unclean lips because mine eyes have seen the King. And it says immediately one of the seraphim took a burning coal and touched my mouth, verse 7, and said, your iniquity is taken away. And not only the iniquity is taken away, the fire of heaven touched him. And then the outward look where the Lord says, I have a need for someone to go out with my message. Who will go? Verse 8, for me. Whom shall I send to all these people? And Isaiah said, send me. I believe this is how all of us should live all the time. Seeing the glory of Jesus, seeing our own need, and hearing the Lord saying, I want you to take this message and give it to others. You may never stand in the pulpit because God hasn't given you that gift. But do you know that in the new covenant it says, I'll pour out my spirit on your sons and daughters and they shall prophesy. In the old covenant that was not possible. In the old covenant there was some rare prophet who had the spirit. And if you wanted to find God's will, you had to go to him and say, what does God say? And he'd say, come back tomorrow, I'll tell you. And he'd hear God and tell us. But in the new covenant, you don't have to go to any prophet. The spirit of God would come upon, I'll pour out my spirit on all your sons and daughters will prophesy. On my maid servants, man servants, I'll pour out my spirit and they'll prophesy. And this is God's will. Dear brothers and sisters, that you should have the Holy Spirit poured out on you. And you see the glory of Jesus. And you see your own need. And your sin is cleansed away by the fire of heaven. And the Lord says, can I send you? And you say, yes Lord. And His fire has touched your lips. And when you speak to others, there'll be a fire burning in their hearts. I see in Isaiah chapter 50, what it means to prophesy like this. Isaiah 50, verse 4. This is a lovely verse. And I believe that every one of us can claim this for ourselves. For this is what prophecy really means. Prophecy is to speak to people according to their need. It may be from a pulpit if God gifts you as a teacher or a prophet to many people. Or it may be one on one. It may be a mother with a number of children at home. You hardly ever leave your house. And somebody comes to visit you. Some sister comes to visit you. And you open your mouth and prophesy. Just two or three minutes. And the poor person goes away. Having seen something, touched something of the glory of God. That is your inheritance. Take it. The devil's robbed it from us long enough. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy. We're not under the Old Covenant now where we have to listen to some prophet. I remember when I got converted and I sought for the power of the Holy Spirit. I saw in Scripture that I must covet to prophesy. It wouldn't come automatically. God doesn't give His gifts to those who don't value them. And one way you show that you value God's gifts is by longing and hungering and thirsting for it. So I want to encourage all of you brothers and sisters to covet to prophesy. And I'm not talking about speaking in a meeting. I'm talking about speaking to individuals of prophetic words straight into their hearts. Don't you meet individuals? We meet them every day. There are needy people all around us. Listen to Isaiah 50 verse 4. The Lord God has given me the tongue of a disciple that I may know how to sustain a weary person with one word. Imagine getting a word from God and some needy person comes along my way and I can sustain and lift up his spirit by one word that God gives me to give him. But it happens like this in the latter part of verse 4. God awakens me morning by morning. He awakens my ear to listen. And the Lord God has opened my ear and I was not disobedient. So God wants to speak to me every day. I say, Lord, I want to hear. And the Lord speaks to me and some weary person comes along my way. And I can sustain him and lift him with a word. I remember a young brother. He was once demon possessed. But the demon was cast out of him from a non-Christian background. He accepted Christ and came to one of our village churches. And today he's an elder brother in our church. He's a young man in his thirties. And I remember him speaking once in one of our conferences. And he was speaking on John 3.16. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. And he said, this is how the word is spoken to me. All of us have a little world of people whom only we know. Isn't that true? There are certain people on earth whom nobody in this room knows except you. Some of the people you work with perhaps. Some of your relatives. Nobody in this room knows them but you. That's your little world. And he said, God so loved that little world that he sent me, his son, into the midst of that world so that none of them might perish but have eternal life. Boy, I've never forgotten that revelation that brother got. Young, uneducated brother, can't speak English. It's amazing. The Holy Spirit is an all-respective person. When we seek him, when we listen to him, he gives us a word that can bless people. So, take that word to your heart that the little world of people whom you know, God so loved the world that he sent you, his son, his daughter, into that world so that none of those people might perish but have eternal life. They might get the life of God through you. Will all of them respond? No. They didn't even respond to the word of Jesus. But some of them will. That's our calling. And that's not the calling of just the preachers who stand up and preach to thousands. It's the individual brothers and sisters in the new covenant who open up to the new wine and believe that the Holy Spirit is to be poured out on them, and they're going to prophesy and speak, not perhaps to great crowds, but to one here and another there. That's how the church is going to be built. That's how the new covenant church is going to be built. That is God's will. And in 1 Corinthians 14, for many years I began, I was seeking God as to what is the mark of a new covenant church. I mean, that's been my longing to understand what is this new wineskin? What is the mark of this new wineskin? And for years I thought it was a pattern. The pattern mentioned in 1 Corinthians 14 of different prophets speaking and different people getting up and sharing. And I went through so much that did all these things, but so many people following the pattern and it was dead. And I studied the Old Testament, and I found that the tabernacle in the Old Testament was something which was made according to a pattern but anybody could copy the pattern. I mean, the Philistines could have made a tabernacle exactly like Moses made because all the dimensions were there in Exodus. All you needed was a copy of the book of Exodus. We can make one today exactly like Moses made it down to the last detail because all the directions are given there. But there's one thing that you cannot produce, and that's the fire on top of the tabernacle. There was a fire from God on top of that tabernacle which no Philistine could produce. That was the mark. The distinguishing feature of the tabernacle of God was not just the pattern. And for years I was looking for the pattern. You know, we don't call people pastors, we call each other elders and we got this thing and the other thing and the other thing and the pattern, but if the fire is absent what's the use of the pattern? And I feel there's so many churches today which are happy with the pattern. They're happy with an understanding. They're happy with so many explanations of the new covenant, but the fire is missing. I saw in 1 Corinthians 14 this verse. It's talking about a time when the church comes together, verse 23. 1 Corinthians 14, 23, the church comes together. And verse 24, this is a unique church where all prophesy. That means the Holy Spirit. I mean, he's talking about an ideal church. He says, if you can have a church like this where everybody is filled with the Holy Spirit and everybody has longed to prophesy and they've heard from God and they prophesy. And somebody comes in. A total stranger walks into that church meeting and he hears these people speaking and his heart is convicted. It's almost as though he says, how do these guys know about me? How do these guys know about my inner life? He's convicted and he's called to account by one after the other person. He looks and says, everybody here knows about me. And he falls on his face and he says, boy, there's only one answer to this. God is here. That's the mark of a new covenant church. That's the inspired word of God. This is the new wineskin. Do you long for it? I long for it with all my heart. I say, Lord, we want churches like this. And the answer to this is not more conferences and more Bible study. The answer to this is to be baptized in the Holy Spirit and fire. A real, genuine immersion in the Holy Spirit and fire. We've got to get rid of all our hang-ups and prejudices and say, Lord, I want the mighty power of God. The same thing that Jesus had, the same thing the apostles got on the day of Pentecost. I remember when I was seeking God as a young man for this. I read the testimony of that great American evangelist called Dwight L. Moody. He lived in the late 1800s. He was a preacher. He was seeing souls saved. I think if I got it right, he used to see two old ladies sitting in the corner in all of his meetings praying. He was so happy. He went up to them and said, Well, I'm happy. You're praying for all these sinners who come to the meetings. They said, No, we're praying for you. We're praying that you'll be baptized in the Holy Spirit. We can see that you're speaking all right, but you're not baptized in the Holy Spirit. It created a hunger in his heart. He began to cry out, God, fill me with the Holy Spirit. He didn't sit back and do nothing. He continued to preach. He had this tremendous hunger to be baptized in the Holy Spirit and be fired. He says one day he was walking down, I think it was the street of New York City. He says, suddenly the Spirit fell on him. He was on the road. He says he had to rush into a nearby friend's home and said, Give me a room. I've got to get along with God. He locked himself up in the room. The Spirit of God fell upon him like waves. He says, I got up. I continued to preach the same sermons I'd always preached. It was different. It's like you pick out a piece of a chicken leg from your deep freeze and it's cold. It's good meat. There's a lot of difference between that and when that's put on the fire. One is really appetizing. The other is cold and you don't feel like touching it. It's the same meat. It's the same sermon. It's the same word. The only thing, one's on the fire. It's like that. I read the testimony of another man called Charles Finney. He was another great evangelist in the 1800s. He says how he went out once into the, you know, he got convicted about his sin. He wasn't even converted. He was a lawyer. He decided to get all alone and went out into a nearby forest to kneel down to pray. As he knelt down, you know, he was a respected lawyer. Kneeling down to pray, he heard some rustling of the leaves and he got up, ashamed lest anybody see him on his knees. Suddenly he got convicted. He said, you're ashamed to be seen kneeling down before almighty God. He saw the pride of his heart and it humbled him. He repented and surrendered his life to Christ totally. I think he needed that rustling of the leaves to sort of show him his pride. He was afraid that somebody would see him kneeling down. He received Christ as his savior and he says he went back to his room and as he sat down on the sofa in front of the fire, the spirit of God fell on him. He didn't even know there was such a thing. He was baptized in fire and his life was completely changed. He became one of the greatest evangelists of that century. I've heard amazing things. He'd walk into a factory and people would look at his eyes and be convicted of their sins. He had to close down the factory and call for a meeting. Amazing things. He got married and he went somewhere and he told his bride he'd come back and on the way back he had to get his horse get a horseshoe fitted on his horse and while he was waiting somebody said, hey, why don't you have a meeting? The revival broke out and he didn't have time to go and get his bride because the revival had broken out and he was having a meeting and he had to send somebody else to get his bride. I said, Lord, I read these testimonies and I said there's something in this. These were ordinary men but when they experienced a genuine baptism of fire, something happened. And I said, Lord, I want this. I want it at any cost. I know this is the thing that's the answer to all my needs. I'll tell you something, my brothers and sisters. God set a hunger in my heart way back in 63. Yeah, no, 46 years ago. That's never gone away. I have that hunger today for more of the Holy Spirit, part of the Holy Spirit. It's the answer to all our needs. You can understand everything that you've heard here in the meeting and you can explain it and perhaps know it so well that you go and preach to other people about the new wineskin and the new wine. I know lots and lots of people who go to our website and listen in order to get points for their sermons. Okay, fine. But I say if you get taken up with points for the sermons instead of getting a fire in your heart from what you hear, you've missed it all. What you need is the baptism of fire. That's our inheritance. It's what Jesus came to give. There's no other way to have the new wines, no new wine and there's no other way to build that new covenant church. And I know that once the Lord had equipped me like this and we started meeting the first time. I told you that I turned to the New Testament and I said, Lord, if this is really from you, then the Bible will be a new book for me. And I turned the next morning to Matthew chapter 1 and I said, Lord, tell me this experience I had yesterday. Was it really from you? Was it really the Holy Spirit or something I just cooked up and made up? And I turned to Matthew chapter 1 and I read and read and read and I didn't get much out of the so-and-so was born to so-and-so and so-and-so was born to so-and-so. It seemed to be full of that and I didn't get any edification out of all that. And here I was longing for assurance and suddenly I came across this verse, that which is conceived in hers of the Holy Spirit. Boy, it really hit me, verse 20. It's amazing how God can speak right to your exact need. You know, Joseph had this doubt, was this baby in Mary's womb? Was it the human production or the Holy Spirit in God's sense or the Holy Spirit? It was exactly the same doubt I had. Was this something I cooked up or was it the Holy Spirit in God's sense or the Holy Spirit? And the Lord said to me from there, Mary knew it was the Holy Spirit even if other people didn't. And it doesn't matter what other people thought. And the Lord said to me that Mary, the Spirit came upon Mary to produce Jesus in her. And the Spirit has come upon you to produce Jesus in you. I said, thank you, Lord, do that. Mary couldn't produce Jesus herself. And there I realized I couldn't produce the life of Jesus myself. But the Holy Spirit had come to do that. And further, the Lord said to me, everybody in Nazareth misunderstood Mary. They wouldn't believe it. The same thing will happen to you. You will be misunderstood, maligned, spoken evil of from this day onwards. And it happened exactly like God said. But the body of Jesus came forth from Mary. And I knew the body of Jesus would come forth through my ministry. And that's also happened. And that body of Jesus grew. And dear brothers and sisters, there's no partiality with God. What God's done for others, He'll do for you. If you open your being and say, Lord, I want the power of the Holy Spirit in my life. I want to live for you. I don't want to waste the rest of my days on this earth. I want to live for the glory of God. There's no way to produce the life of heaven in our body, or to build a heavenly church, apart from the Holy Spirit coming upon us. And we've got to seek Him with all of our hearts. God will meet with us and our life will never be the same. I can testify to one thing in the last 34 years. It's not been a perfect ride. But it's not been the old up and down experience. All the Old Testament men had this up and down experience. Whether it was David or Elijah up in the mountain getting the fire of God down in the dumps depressed because some woman threatened him. Can you believe it? This is Old Testament life. And that was my experience for many years after being born again. But once the Lord had met with me like this, I can say before God it's been a from glory to glory with increasing revelation of the sin within me. Of the un-Christ likeness that I see in my own life as I get closer and closer to God. Like Isaiah saw the glory of God and he sees his own need. He saw it once. It's wonderful to be able to see it all the time. So that our life becomes a life of constant and continuous repentance. Of the un-Christ likeness we see in our life. And gradually the fragrance of Christ comes forth more and more in our life. That is God's will. And what he's done for Jesus, he'll do for us. For every one of us. Let's pray. There are many messages you've heard in the past that have challenged you, I'm sure. And what's been the long-term effect of all that? Very often it's faded away after a while. Don't let it be like that this weekend. Say, Lord, I want to respond to your call to come up higher. I want you to lift me by the power of your Holy Spirit to a higher plane of the Christian life. Show me a realm that I've never seen before. Do it for me, Lord. I'm willing to pay any price. I want this new covenant life. I want to prophesy. Not for any honor for myself, but so that I can be a part of your body and build your church wherever I am. I'm available, Lord. I'm not capable, I'm not able, but I'm available. You can ask anything of me. I'm available. Please fill me with the Holy Spirit. Baptize me in fire. And lead me into this life where the glory will increase continuously until the day Jesus returns. Thank you, Father. I believe you'll do this for many of us as we seek you. In weakness, in human weakness, you manifest your power. We are weak people, but your power is manifest the most in human weakness. Thank you, Lord. It will be so. We praise you. In Jesus' name, Amen.