In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the darkness and hopelessness that exists in the world. However, he brings a message of hope and salvation through Jesus Christ. He encourages listeners to have faith and believe that they can be saved from their sins and become new creations in Christ. The preacher also highlights the importance of the Holy Spirit in understanding and applying the teachings of the Bible. He concludes by praying for a spiritual awakening and for God to work miracles in the lives of believers. The sermon is based on John chapter one, which describes Jesus as the Word of God and emphasizes that in Him is life and light for humanity.

This recording is provided by Times Square Church in New York City. You're welcome to make additional copies for free distribution to friends. All other unauthorized duplication or electronic transmission is a violation of copyright and other applicable laws. This recording cannot be posted on any website. However written permission to link to the Times Square Church homepage may be requested by emailing info at timessquarechurch.org. Other recordings are available by calling 1-800-488-0854 or by writing to Times Square Church Tape Ministry, 1657 Broadway, New York, NY 10019. John Chapter 1, I'm going to speak about the way to true spiritual awakening. There is a way folks, and if you'll open your heart to it tonight, I believe that in whatever area of your heart and mind you may not be awakened yet to the things of God. If this applies to you, God will do everything he's promised he's going to do this evening. Let's pray. Father, I thank you for the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Oh Holy Spirit, I ask you to quicken me. I ask you to quicken my mind. God, I have a sense of what you want to do in my heart. But you've got to take me deeper in you than I've ever known. You've got to give me abilities that I don't have. Lord, I hear you calling and I ask you for the grace to run after you. Lord, I pray God tonight I may stand in this pulpit and speak as an oracle of God. Lord, only your word has the power to create and recreate. Everything else is just flattery and human effort. It has no power. God, help me to speak your mind. Holy Spirit, walk closely with me. Overshadow my frailty. Overshadow my weakness. God, be my strength. Lord, I desire with all my heart to see your church quickened. I desire, Lord, to see a multitude of people come to the saving knowledge of Christ. God Almighty, push back the power of darkness. Let the glorious freedom of Jesus Christ be shouted in the streets of this city. God, do something so beyond us, so beyond our ability to do. Lord, do something that would cause all of the world to take notice. Lord, that you are here, you are alive. I thank you for it with all my heart. I believe, Lord, you're the God of the miraculous. I believe it, Lord. In Jesus' name. John chapter 1, the way to true spiritual awakening. Verse 1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. Now, it's interesting. This is John's report of Jesus Christ. John who walked with Jesus, who knew Jesus. He was close to him. He described himself as the disciple that Jesus loved. His heart was open to the love of God. And that openness that he had to the love that God had for him opened his spirit and his mind to something about God that very few in any generation really begin to understand. He saw that in Jesus Christ was the totality of God. And it's interesting that in the beginning of his report, he says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word in the Greek New Testament is logos, and it means simply intelligent speech. In the beginning was intelligent speech. Don't you wish it had stayed that way? I think of the airwaves today, and the talk radio, and all the rest of it. All of the piles of unintelligent speech that is going on in the airwaves even this very moment throughout our world. Not only intelligent speech, not only possessing all knowledge, but in verse 3 says, All things were made by him, and without him was not anything that was made. He had not only intelligent speech, but God had the power to create anything. Hebrews 11.3 says, Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. Really, what is spiritual awakening? Spiritual awakening is when God speaks, and he has free course, and there is no resistance to his voice. It's an amazing thing. In the beginning, if we go to Genesis, we're not going to turn there now, but we see that there was nothing. It was just an empty void. And the Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters, and God began to speak. And that which existed at that time didn't resist him. And as he began to speak, light was created, and light was divided from darkness, and dry land was divided from the waters. And living things were commanded to come to life, and they began to live, fowls and birds and creatures. And then ultimately, God spoke right into the dust, and breathed with his own breath into dust of the earth, and created a man in his own image. There was nothing that could resist the voice of God. Nothing was resisting the voice of God. There was an awakening that happened in a time that we don't fully understand, other than it was dark. There was darkness on the face of everything, until God began to speak. And out of nothing, the writer of Hebrews says, things began to be formed. There was no resistance. Would you be surprised to know today that's the way that God still works? When his word is spoken, when he finds a heart that is open to him, and is without doubt and unbelief and resistance, chooses to believe God rather than the circumstance? Chooses to believe what God's book says rather than what they see in the mirror, or what their ancestors have reported of them, or what people have told them? When God finds a heart that does not resist his spoken word, the miraculous begins to happen. Things begin to be created. Life comes where there was only death. In the Garden of Eden, we find the introduction of unintelligent speech. Now, unintelligent speech came from Satan himself. And it's the speech of a creation that ultimately was transferred to men who were created in the image of God. It's the speech of a creature that was created by God who exalted himself above the knowledge of God. In a sense, began to resist what God had spoken. Has God said? Does God really mean this? Is God really the last authority? Is there not another way? Is there not a better way? Can we not be as God is through some alternative route that we might take? I'm paraphrasing, obviously, but this was really the intent of Satan. He sowed it in the heart of Adam. And subsequently, unintelligent speech became part of humankind. And today, there's no limit to unintelligent speech that's going on in our society. The Bible says the last days are going to be characterized by fleshly wise, but spiritually unintelligent speech. The scriptures bear witness to it very, very clearly. In 2 Peter 2, I'll just paraphrase it for you if you don't mind it. Verses one to three. Here's what it says. There were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. There are going to be teachers. There have been throughout history. There are in our generation who cast off the absolute right of Christ to complete ownership of those who are rightfully his. In other words, they will deny the Lord that bought them. Oh, they might profess his name, but they will deny his lordship. They will deny the fact that Jesus Christ has the sole authority to speak into my life and into your life. He has the right to govern us. He has the right to guide us. He has the right to lead us. If we are truly his, we have truly given ourselves to him. We don't resist what he speaks into our hearts, but we embrace it as the highest way of life. We embrace it as that voice that brings us into places where within us will be created things of God that make us far more than we could ever be of ourselves, that begin to create within us the life that only God can give to us. But there will be teachers in the last days who will deny this right of Christ to ownership of those who come to him. Verse 2, he says, And many shall follow their pernicious ways, by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. Now, it doesn't mean they will be speaking evil overtly of Jesus Christ. What it really means is that they will emphasize another way, as Satan did, above the ways of God. Another way to be godly. Another way to achieve what only God can bring into a person's life. Another way to find happiness. Another way to be healthy. Another way to be holy. Another way to be accepted among the beloved in heaven, other than the way prescribed through the word of God and by the mouth of Jesus Christ himself. Verse 3 says, And through covetousness shall they with feigned, or that means imagined words, make merchandise of you, whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not. In the last days, people will be captivated by empty words of those who want their money and their admiration. The Bible clearly says that under their influence, people will become servants of their own inner corruption, according to 2 Peter chapter 2 and verse 19. And they will take on a form of lifeless outer religiousness that has no true interchanging power, according to 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 5. A religion of self will be the religion of the last day, in the name of Christ. It will not be the voice of God. It will be unintelligent speech. Paul says they'll be turned from truth and be turned to fables, stories, words, as it is, of no profit. They have no power. And all these words can do is cause the outer man to try to form himself into something that looks like God. But there'll be no power, because where God is, there is a creative and a recreative power going on in that life. That's why the apostle Paul says, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. There's a new life that has come within his life. The old things in him are dying off. They're passing away virtually by the hour, and by the minute, and by the day. And a new life is beginning to be formed within him. Darkness is passing away, and light is coming. There's a division between things that used to be gray and foggy. Now he clearly understands what is God and what is not God. He begins to know the voice of God. Jesus himself said, My sheep know my voice, and they will follow me, and no man will be able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. Now, John chapter 1, again in verse 4, says, In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The word life is zoe, which means the highest and best which Christ is. In him is everything that you will ever aspire to. Everything that your heart has ever secretly longed for. Everything that brings you to this house tonight is not found in religion. It's not found in self-effort. It's not found in trying to prop yourself up to be a better person. Everything you've ever longed for is found in Jesus Christ. He is the one who is in the beginning with God. He was with God, and nothing that was made was made without him. He was involved in the creation, the scripture says, of all things. John, the beloved apostle, saw that the words of Jesus Christ had the power to stop certain action. In Mark chapter 4, the disciples were in a boat. They got into a terrible storm. Jesus was asleep in the boat. They cried out to him and said, Master, don't you care that we're perishing? The scripture tells us that he rose up. He stood in the face of that storm. He said three words according to the scripture. Peace, be still. Amazing. The wind stopped. The waves got calm. And the scripture says the disciples greatly feared. And they said, what manner of man is this that even the wind and the sea obey him? What kind of a man is this who has authority over the elements? You see, nature, ironically, it's only man that is created with the will to resist God. Nature can't resist God when he speaks. The wind had to be quiet. The waves had to be still at the voice of God. He had the power to stop certain action. And he had the power to start other things into motion. Think for a moment as John stood on the hillside and witnessed or was told of John 11, 43, when Jesus arrives at the tomb of Lazarus. And he stands on the mountainside in spite of all the human condition of unbelief that's going on around him. The only one that couldn't resist his voice was a dead man. Isn't that ironic? Everyone else is doubting and full of unbelief. And there's a dead man. There's a dead man in the room at that moment. And Jesus stands on the mountainside as it is and cries out, Lazarus, come forth. And John saw this and John knew this. So this man who was in the beginning, this man who is the one of intelligent speech could stop the wind, could stop the waves, and could start something back to life again that was dead. He is a God of the impossible. John knew it. John saw it. That's why when Jesus stood in Luke chapter 4 and verse 18 in the temple, and this was the beginning where he begins to identify what the father had sent him to do. He took the book of the prophet Isaiah in chapter 17. He opened the book. He found the place where it was written. Isn't it amazing? He could have spoken. It's not like he needed to read it out of a book. He had written it himself. For the sake of those in the temple, he found the place. And he began to read, the spirit of the Lord is upon me. Why? Because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. In other words, I've come to stop certain things which have been set into motion in your life. Now there are people here tonight that by the fact that you were born into sin, by the fact that you were born into a certain family, that you have had certain experiences in life, that you have certain perhaps limitations because of various things that have gone on in your life, you are in effect bound by certain conditions. But Jesus says, no, I've come to nullify these things. And I've come to stop certain things which have been set in motion. In other words, for those who are spiritually poor, I've come to open to you. I've come to eradicate this spiritual poverty in your life. I've come to take away the poverty out of your thinking. I've come to take you out of a place where you've come to believe that nothing will ever change. Nothing will ever be any different. You best just sit back and hope for the best and hope to get through it somewhat intact near the end. He said, I've come to put an end to this kind of thinking. I've come to open the treasure of God's life to the spiritually poor. I've come to heal the brokenhearted. Those who have had some kind of an experience come into your life that has damaged you, that has made you believe that you're going to always be under the influence of this thing. He said, I've come to stop this thing in your life. I've come to stand up and speak to it and say, peace, be still, and stop the roaring of this thing in your life and stop these waves of sorrow that are rolling over and over and over in your mind. I've come to put an end to it if you'll just listen to my voice. I've come to preach deliverance to the captives. Every sexually addicted person, every drug addict, every alcoholic, every immoral person, everyone captivated by something of the flesh and of the mind. He said, I've come to preach deliverance. I've come to put a stop to these things that have dominated your life. I've come to give sight to those that are spiritually blind. You couldn't see your way out. Just like creation, before my voice began to speak into this abyss of darkness, there was no life, there was no hope, there was darkness upon the face of the deep. I've come to open your eyes to the reality that God has come, that His mercy is now yours, that the freedom of Christ can now be attained by faith, that you can be saved from your sin. The chains of hell can be broken from off of your life. You can be a new creation in Christ Jesus. I've come to set at liberty those that have been bruised, those who feel that your heart is so deep, it's so dark, it's so far, that you'll never climb out of the pit that you find yourself in. He said, I've come to show you a way out. I've come to stop these things that have governed your life and to tell you that this is the hour of your freedom and your deliverance. 2 Peter chapter 2 and verse 1, again, or 2 Peter chapter 1, rather, verse 3, not only to stop certain things, but to start other things. I thank God for that. Not only to stop the wind in the ways, but to bring Lazarus back to life again. 2 Peter chapter 1, verses 3 and 4 says, according as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that has called us to glory and virtue. Now, the word glory means to be brought to reputation, where the testimony of Christ in you is seen by men. Now, by His power, the scripture says, He's given to us all things that we need for life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him, that is Christ, that has called us to glory. That means to be brought to reputation. God said, I've not called you just to survive. I've called you to be a wonder in your generation. I've called you to have so much of my life. I've called you to change so drastically. I've called you to be so much other than what you were without me, that men will look at you, and they will have to acknowledge that I am alive. They will know it's not you that's brought about this change. The change in you has come about by the Spirit of Almighty God. And He says, I've called you to virtue. And the word virtue means the excellency of God, revealed in the work of salvation. It means the force or energy of the Holy Spirit, which accompanies the preaching, as it says in the Zodiac, of the glorious gospel. God said, I've called you to moral excellence. I've called you to right standing. I've called you back into divine order. I've called you to be awakened to the fact that I'm able to call you out of darkness and into the marvelous light of who I am. I've invited you into my life. I've called you back into divine order. You're not to be confused anymore. You're not to walk around like the rest of society, dependent on circumstance. No, you're to be much deeper than that. You know who you are. You know where you come from. You know who bought you with His blood. You know who God's life is within you. And you know where you're going into eternity and as well as time. In Ephesians 1, verse 13, the scripture tells us that after you trusted, Paul says you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. The Holy Spirit came. And the seal of the Holy Spirit, according to the definitions I was reading, is a legal term denoting a summons or a promise undertaking to do something. God said, I made promises to you. That's what Peter says, whereby are given to us exceeding great and precious promises that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. God says, I've given you promises. I spoke to you. I've got a book for you. Folks, you've got to know this book in this last hour of time. This is not something you open and read just to pass the time or to fulfill some legal obligation for 15 minutes in the morning. This is your life. This is the word of God to you. The words on this book are not just a historical account of God. This is the voice of God speaking to you. Every word in this book by the power of the Holy Spirit is yours. You have, with the power of Christ within you, the ability to receive these promises and to be changed, the Bible says, into this very divine nature of God that is within you. There's a life that is given you in Christ through the promises that you find in this book. And the Holy Spirit is the evidence of God that every promise that's been given to you in this book is going to be made into a reality in your life. Look at John chapter 16, please, with me, if you will. John chapter 16, verse 13. Here's what Jesus said about the Holy Spirit. I'll be it when he, the spirit of truth has come. He will guide you into all truth. For he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak. And he will show you things to come. Oh, thanks be to God. Folks, I got into this book as a young Christian and bound as most are bound before they come to Christ and just after. So far back, even in understanding, but I began to read this book and God's Holy Spirit began to show me things to come. I'm not talking about future events for cities and countries and such like, but things to come in me. You see, every promise is a thing to come. God says, I know it's not in you, but I speak about things that are not as if they are. I can create something out of nothing, but these things are for you. And I began to read it. And you know, my story, one of the first things to come is God has not given us a spirit of fear, but a power and of love and of a sound mind. I didn't. I had a spirit of fear. I had very little power in my mind. Wasn't all that sound regarding these things. Now I have a choice. I can either stay in that condition or I can stop resisting what God has spoken to me. And I made a choice to believe what God had spoken and started to move in the direction of his voice, just like Lazarus did when he came out of the tomb. A little step at a time. Lazarus didn't come out bounding because he was all wrapped up in that thing that had gripped his body, but still he walked out towards the voice that was speaking to him. And I began to walk towards that voice and I began to understand that it's the Holy Spirit's job in this book, as I read it with an open heart and unresist understanding that this is intelligent speech. What God speaks has the power to create and recreate life in me and to begin to walk towards it. And the Holy Spirit will show you things to come. In verse 14 he said, he shall glorify me for he shall receive of mine and shall show it to you. The Holy Spirit will understand everything I won on Calvary. I've won the resources of heaven. It belongs to me, Jesus said, but it belongs to my body, my bride, my church. And the Holy Spirit will come. He will reside within you. I'll be seated at the right hand. Now we understand that God is not divided. He's three persons in one God. But for the sake of understanding, Christ sits at the right hand of the Father. The Holy Spirit comes, indwells the heart of the believer. And everything that Jesus won on that cross, everything that is his where he sits at the right hand of all authority and things that were lost because of sin. Now the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer makes all of this victory known and says it's all yours. Everything in this book is yours. Read it. It's yours. It's yours. It's not for somebody else. Don't resist what God has spoken. Open this Word. See the promises of God and claim them for your very own. Folks, don't live in spiritual poverty any longer when you have the riches of Christ's victory living inside of you. Remember, you have the Holy Spirit and he will teach you all things. He will show you. You don't have to run to somebody for a word. God has given you all of these pages of his Word. You just get in it and say, Holy Spirit, make it real to me. Show me, oh God. Awaken me. Awaken me. Awaken me. Don't let me live in darkness any longer. Don't let me live in poverty. Don't let me live behind prison doors. God, don't let me live in a place of wounding. Don't let me join groups where we just rehearse our wounds of the past. I want to move beyond it. You're not called to lay in the corner and lick your wounds until Christ returns. You are called to be a victorious testimony of Calvary. Every once in a while throughout history God finds a heart that doesn't resist him. God finds somebody that's just foolish enough to believe him. Say, Lord, I'm just putting away my thoughts about myself. I'm putting away what everyone else has said about me. I'm putting away what the devil's trying to speak into my heart. And just like the universe did when you began to speak, I choose to believe you. I choose to get out of the way and I'm not going to resist you. If you say this is what I am, then this is what I am. If you say this is what I can do, this is what I can do. If you say this is where I'm going, this is where I'm going. But God's word was made possible. He calls us to an impossible journey. He's not looking to you for the resources to do what he's asked you to do. He's only looking for an obedient heart. A man or woman who has the courage to say, God, I know I'm not a good speaker. I know I can't do this. But you made my mouth. Your Holy Spirit lives within me. I have your word, oh God. I have you walking with me. God, I can do all things It's through Christ who strengthens me. That's what Your Word says. That's what I choose to believe. By the Word of the Lord, Gideon was brought out of weakness and made a warrior, hiding in his father's backyard as it is, trying to squeak out a little living which may even have been illegal in that day. But nevertheless, God's Word came to him. And out of weakness, he was made strong. But God has to find a heart that won't resist Him. Oh, the strength that's in this room! If you could see it, if you could understand it. The missionaries that are here. The great good that could be done. The volume of people who could come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ! If somebody would just believe Him! Somebody, somebody would have an open heart and say, God, I refuse to be bound by my image of myself. You've spoken words into my life. I'm getting back into this book. I'm blowing the dust off my Bible at home. I'm opening the pages. And God, you're going to teach me again. Through the Word of the Lord, David, the king was shown how to walk righteously in terribly adverse situations. The Word of God is so powerful that only a whisper of God's Word brought Elijah out of thoughts of self-destruction and into a place of continued and fulfilling life. That's how powerful God's Word is. Only a whisper is necessary. Only a sweet promise in the morning as you open this book can change the course of your life. Josiah, the king, discovered the Word of the Lord as he set out to repair the house of God. And the Word of God brought blessing and righteousness one more season to the people of God. Peter, the apostle, found the direction he needed to guide him from impulsive spirituality to the rest that truth brings. The apostle Paul was made into completely another man. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! If I'm going to make a choice, if I had somebody I'd like to follow, it would be Paul. God, make me into another man. Make me into a completely different man. Make me into a man who at the end of my life, no matter what kind of circumstance I'm in, I can still take a pen in my hand and still write, inspired by the Holy Ghost, words of encouragement and support to others who are coming after me. By the Word of God, the apostle John, at the end of his days when he was in prison, saw hope and where it was to be found in his present time of struggle. He said, I saw heaven open and behold a white horse and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True and in righteousness he does judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire and on his head were many crowns and he had a name written that no man knew but himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood and his name is called The Word of God. John saw where his hope was. His hope was in the Word of God. The Word of God who comes to deliver. The Word of God who is all-powerful. The Word of God who is the only intelligent speech and has the power to shape and reshape a man or woman's life into the very image of the Son of God. In John chapter 16, I want to close with this tonight. In verse 23, now the disciples had been in a time of confusion. Jesus was speaking about going to the Father. He had just finished telling them when the Comforter, the Holy Spirit comes he's going to show you all things and he will glorify me, he will take of mine he will show it to you. And in verse 18 they said we cannot tell what he says. We don't know we can't fully understand this. You see their minds were not yet open to that kind of speech that can bring about this newness of life that Jesus Christ was speaking about. But then he told them they were going to have sorrow but in the moment that sorrow was going to be over. In verse 22 he said now therefore you shall have sorrow but I will see you again your hearts shall rejoice and your joy no man takes from you. In that day, verse 23, you shall ask me nothing. In other words, in that day there will be no more questions. You're going to know who I am. You're going to understand what I've done. And you're going to enter into a life. Oh God help us. God help us. What has the church of this generation become? A self-seeking gluttonous people who are so far from the heart of God. The heart of God is to reach fallen humanity. That is the work of God. It's to deal bread to the hungry. It's to give clothing to the naked. It's to go to those that have no helper. It's to reach out with the tender but it takes a recreation because man by nature is not giving like that. It requires a new nature. It has to be a man or woman who is reborn by the spirit of God. There has to be a new heart. There has to be a new mind. There has to be a new spirit. Otherwise we will learn but never realize where that learning is to take us to. It's to the simplicity of ministering to those who are without God and the joy of seeing one soul come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. This is the work of God. In my life it's the work of God in your life. He says in that day you won't have any more questions. You'll ask me nothing. Verily I say to you whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my name He will give it to you. Now it's not to consume says upon your lusts. That's why people are praying and not hearing anything. Not receiving an answer. But whatever we ask for that we might be made into the very expression of God's heart for this generation. That we might become the extended hands of God to a generation that needs to be shown the way to eternal life. That we may have the compassion of God that He exhibited to us through Jesus Christ when He became a man and walked this earth to pay the price for our sins. I don't waste my time asking for God says if I seek first His kingdom and His righteousness He'll provide for me everything I need. I'm more concerned about having a heart for Him first and for His people. That my life truly be an expression of His grace to people all around In verse 24 he says Hitherto or up to this point you've asked nothing in my name. Ask and you shall receive that your joy may be full. Ask me. Ask me. I've been hearing this recently from this pulpit. Brother Dave preached a message recently bind God to His promises. Ask me. You don't care about people Ask me for a heart that cares. You don't have the courage to take a step if I were to ask you to do something outside of your sense of ability your own ability. Ask me for the courage. You're captivated. You need to be free. Ask me. You're blind. You need spiritual sight. Ask me. You're wounded and you've been driven and led by this wounding in your life You don't know if you'll ever get out of it. Ask me. Ask me. And come with a heart that's not filled with excuses as to why I can't do this for you. Come with a heart believing without faith it's impossible to please Him for he that comes to God must believe that He is and He's a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. If a son or daughter asks for bread will his father give him a stone? If he asks for a fish will he give him a serpent? He said if you know if you being evil know how to give good gifts to your children how much more will your heavenly father give good things? And another version says give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him. Ask and your joy shall be full. Folks, I have to be honest with you. My joy is increasing in my heart. I struggle like everyone else does. I've got difficulties in my physical body and do I have family troubles once in a while? Yes, just like everyone else. But there is an abiding joy that's increasing in my heart. The things I'm asking for are not temporal things around me. I'm asking for things far beyond that. God, You've got to give me a mind to understand. You've got to give me a heart to be able to communicate. You've got to give me compassion for the wayward and the lost. Oh Jesus, You've got to open the treasure of this book to me that I may understand it. Lord, I'm asking You. I've asked Him that my family be a missionary family. Years after I'm dead and gone that my family, my lineage would be traveling the world, helping those who are in need and don't have a helper. I've asked Him for this and I'm watching God begin to answer my cry. Folks, you have not because you ask not. It's as simple as that. You've got to ask and when you're asking for the purposes of God and for the will of God, God comes and He begins to speak into your situation, calming your storms and bringing death to life. This is a miraculous walk. It's a supernatural life, folks. Christianity is not just a mental agreement with concepts in a book. It's a supernatural life. There are missionaries here. There are preachers of the gospel here. There are people who will have powerful testimonies of God's keeping and saving and changing ability if you will simply ask Him. Ask Him for the right reasons. Jesus, be a testimony in me. So change me that my cup will overflow, that I won't be able to contain it in myself anymore. To be an overflow of your life, to be an overflow of your compassion. God, I will be compelled because of the love that you place in my heart to reach out to those who are afflicted and without hope in our generation. Ask and your joy shall be full. Ask. You see, I can't do it for you. And now you've got to face something. Now you're either going to be like the world was when God began to speak and you're going to open your heart and let Him begin to do what only He can do or you're going to resist Him. Folks, let's go with God. New York City needs a testimony. There's a lot of churches around. Thank God for the testimony now of the glory of God. There needs to be an awakening in New York City, but it must start first among God's people. There has to be a testimony. Oh, I'd love it tonight if out of this sanctuary there's probably 1,800 people here tonight, and if out of this sanctuary even 1,000 would go into the city and you would be virtually compelled to tell people what God has done for you. You're not throwing Scripture at people trying to stuff a tract in their pocket, but you have a living testimony. I've got to tell you what God did for me last Tuesday night. I've got to tell you. Folks, there's nothing more attractive than that. You go in your office and you start telling people and all of a sudden the pencils go down and the sneers go away just for a moment because everyone, everyone, everyone wants evidence of the reality of God and God says, I've chosen to show it to them through you. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. The Holy Spirit is speaking to you tonight and there's something that you need. Now I know that sounds very general and I don't mean it to be overly general, but the Holy Spirit has spoken specifically into your heart and you know what it is that God's got his finger on tonight, whether it's an imprisonment to sin that you need to be free from or an area of fear in your heart that you need to be released from or a wound of the past or maybe you're beyond that but you say, God, I just lack compassion. I lack faith to believe, God, that maybe you just need to be asking God for some discipline to get in this book. Whatever it is, and the Holy Spirit is speaking to you tonight. This is the pathway to spiritual awakening. It's the pathway to hearing his voice again. And if God's speaking to your heart, as we stand, please step out of your seat. Join me here at this altar and let's worship for a moment together and then we'll pray. Let's stand on the balcony. You can go to either exit. Make your way here. Walk out. Just walk out of that prison. It's as simple as that. Jesus said, I set before you an open door. Just walk out. God's spoken to you tonight. You don't have to reason. You don't have to try to figure it out. You don't have to procure any amount of natural effort. You just walk out. Walk out of the hurt. Walk out of the past. And walk into the power of God. God, help us to be intelligent. Help us to open our hearts to intelligent speech. You are the Word that created the world. We are the result of the breath of your mouth. God, help us to understand these things and to open our hearts and minds again to the words that you speak to us. I pray, Father, with all my heart, that this be a church congregation that gets into your Bible and knows the Word of God, rightly dividing it from beginning to end. I pray, God, that we not be like the children of Israel who limited the Holy One of Israel. But, God, we would take off all of the trappings of unbelief and say, Lord, if you've spoken it, I believe it. God, I can walk into it. It's mine in Jesus Christ. I pray, God, that you establish in this church a testimony for Christ that will shake this city, that will shake the business community, it will shake the parks, it will shake the streets, it will shake Times Square, everywhere we go, there will be a shaking of the powers of hell. I pray, God, as in the day when you did it through Jonathan and his armor bearer, that you cause a great trembling to go into the host of darkness that have partied over this city for too long. God Almighty, send a trembling into the host of evil. God, as you have a people that are willing to believe you and are willing to walk with you. Lord, we choose to be the people. We open our hearts to you. We say, God, do whatever you want to do. Jesus, let your life come into us. Let your thoughts be our thoughts. My God, we give you praise and thanks tonight. You've got to thank him from the very depths of your heart tonight. This is the conclusion of the message.