In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of coming to God and surrendering everything before claiming His promises. They highlight that throughout the Bible, God has always made diligent preparations before bringing about change, but only those with eyes to see could recognize it. The speaker also mentions that there is a great calamity coming upon the earth and the church, and God is currently preparing a people to be a part of His next move. They reference the story of Abraham and the Israelites going into bondage in Egypt as an example of God's preparation for His ultimate purpose. The speaker encourages the audience, especially the young people, to learn from the experiences of men of faith in the Bible and not to copy anyone else's journey, as God has an individual plan for each person's life.

I mean, that's our vision, isn't it? He said we pray to Him. We must come to that place where the Holy Spirit is in charge and we gather together. We've got to come to that. Is it too low? I can fix it. Oh, you need two of them? Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know one was for the people and one for the... And oh, how we've longed in these gatherings that somehow the hearts of the people would be so prepared that God could just come in and assert His Lordship from the very beginning. And He is Lord of the Church, you know. He's Lord of the Church and He's never delegated His Lordship to any apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor or teacher. He's never delegated His Lordship. He'll distribute ministries. He'll distribute gifts. His purpose being that through the administration of those gifts and ministries, the Lordship of Christ should be established. And so we're just going to seek the Lord a while. I know you've all sought the Lord before you came. But unitedly, calling upon God to, well, yield to the Holy Spirit as you're praying. And then we know it's effectual. Just yield to the Holy Spirit as you're praying. We found it easy to yield to the Lord and talk in tongues any time, any time you wanted. It's something that's just been established. And, you know, singing, we don't find it difficult just to flow along. And just, you know, someone gets a song. But in prayer, we don't always find it that simple. But it's just as simple. And so let us yield to the Spirit and everyone feel free to lead out. Call upon God. And if this turned into a prayer meeting, that would be great. We've no programs arranged. But we are very concerned that the Lord Jesus Christ will be exalted in our midst these days. We're living in the end of this present order. And it's so necessary that there's a prepared people for the very sudden and cataclysmic change that's going to come on the earth and in the church. And so let's all just, in your own way, loud or soft or, I don't care, and God doesn't care, reach out unto God and lead out in prayer. And loud enough so that people can hear you. Isn't it enough that God hears? That's most important. But it's also important that the people hear. Paul says, if I'm praying in tongues and you're giving thanks, all right, but the other's not edified because he doesn't understand. Well, I'm just praying. Yeah, but Paul says the other's edified if he understands. Because as you pray in the Spirit, the rest join. And so it isn't just one prayer going up. The whole congregation is praying with you the same prayer. So just for a few minutes now, in a way, everyone seek the Lord and feel free to lead out. Call upon God. He will work in the midst of his people in this hour. Thanking you for your mercy and your great love toward us. Dear Lord, we thank you for loving us just as we are. Dear Lord, for it is not of us that we do what we do, but it is of you. Father, we thank you that we count in your kingdom. Dear Lord, and you love us with a love that is beyond our understanding. Father, I just pray that a travail of your Spirit would lay hold of our hearts. From the beginning of these meetings, oh God, dear Lord, and as this sister prayed that we will once again come into that area, Father, of truly laying hold of the horns of the altar, dear Lord, and we will hear from heaven. Oh God, we don't want to just repeat what one another says, but we want to hear the voice of the Spirit as it quickens our spirit, dear Lord, that we might speak after the oracles of God. Dear Lord, we hold up these two children before you tonight. Oh God, that your hand of mercy and of healing would be extended toward them. Dear Lord, that we might see the hand of God moving in our midst, oh Lord, doing mighty things, dear Lord. Grip our hearts, dear Lord, that we might weep as though it were our own children, oh God. Oh, because of the compassions of your Spirit that fail not. Oh, heavenly Father, we bless thee, Lord, and ask that your presence would be very present in these meetings. Dear Lord, anoint each speaker, oh God, that they might be quickened with a life cold off of the altar, we pray. In Jesus' mighty name, amen. That you help us, oh Lord, to lay our hearts open before you. We invite you, oh dear Lord, to work in our hearts as you see fit. Let us pray for those meetings, oh Lord, that after they're over, Lord, that we just might more act, Lord, like you. Not know more about you, Lord, but act more like you. That you might work at such an extent in our hearts, oh Lord, that we will not be the same after these meetings. Because we're longing, dear Lord, to walk as you walk, to act as you act, oh Lord. So let us pray, Lord, that you help us, Lord, that we might truly come before you. That we take off our mask, oh Lord, and face you, Lord, face to face, and say, Lord, we know you are a Lord of mercy and patience. You deal with this, oh Lord. You deal with my heart, oh Lord. Because we know, Lord, we are an imperfect people. Lord, we are a people of confusion. So Lord, we just pray that you work within our hearts. That you truly might come forth. Because we want to see you come forth from this earth, the shepherd of Israel. Not one man, but you coming forth from this earth, oh Lord. So we just pray that you minister every heart being present here, oh Lord. Have mercy upon us, we pray in Lord Jesus' name. God doesn't hear the eloquent prayer. It's not necessarily the long prayer or the loud prayer. It's the prayer that's born out of the heart, out of the spirit. Hannah had prayed, I don't know how many years, for her son. And I suppose the time came when she was just so weary. She sat there before the temple just mumbling. Just moving her lips. Just moving her lips. That's how distressed she was. Eli looked down on her and he says, put away the wine. He says, this is no place to drink wine. She says, no, my Lord. Out of the anguish of my heart have I prayed. He says, go and the Lord grant your request. And though Eli was a leader of an apostate system, somehow she accepted it as the word of the Lord and she went away rejoicing that God had heard her prayer. And so there's a Hannah people in the earth. And they're crying unto God. And they prayed much and they're getting weary of it. But God sees the moving of the lips. And it is a very eloquent prayer by the time it reached the throne of God. Don't think your prayers have to be eloquent. Because if you're lining up with the will of God and moving in conformity and in line with the moving of his spirit in the earth, before your prayers ever reach heaven, God has ordained an angel to set your prayer afire with a coal off the altar, with incense. And there he stands adding incense to the prayers of the saints, feeble as they may be. And that little incense turns the prayer into something that's mighty before it reaches the throne of God. And I'm quite aware that this is an hour when God is about to perform something unheard of in the heavens and in the earth. And therefore he's preparing a people as he always does in the time of change, in the time of calamity. And we with our earthly minds and earthly eyesight, limited vision, we see conditions and situations and read the newspapers, see the TV, radio, what's going on. And we don't realize that there's something going on in the heavens, that it's related to what's going on in earth. But that's where the action is taking place. That's where God's plan is being fulfilled. And so God wants the people who are going to settle it in their hearts. They're going to begin to hear from heaven. They're going to walk with God. They're going to come to the doorpost and yield their ear to their master. Say, I want to be your servant. Drill my ear through with an awl. And that act in the Old Testament signified that that man was the bond slave of that master forever. There's no getting away from it. No place after that when he could assert his freedom and his liberty. Because he discovered that all the time that he was a slave of his master, that was the only true freedom he had. And when he got his freedom, he discovered he couldn't handle it. He went back to his master. So when you're saved, God gives you freedom and liberty. And for a while the Lord just overlooks everything. Do what you like, God just overlooks it. Suddenly you find yourself in bondage again. You wonder why. Because you haven't discovered that true liberty only comes when you become a bond slave of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so I know Paul was an apostle and all that. But in all his epistles, he said, Paul, a bond slave of the Lord Jesus Christ. He found the one whom he wanted to serve all his life and he found that to be true liberty. That's the only liberty that you and I are going to enjoy. When we forsake all these ideas that because we've got gifts and ministries we can go ahead and do what we like to try to promote the kingdom of God. The Holy Spirit is still Lord of this church and he's looking for a people who will come to him and have their ear drilled through with an awl signifying, I will not do anything on my own. I will listen to the voice of the Spirit. I will obey him. Like those little Selahs we have sometimes. Like we had in the song service. You read the Psalms. Some people, all they can see in the Psalms is a lot of big noise. There's a lot of noise in the Psalms. Let me tell you, there's a lot of heart searching. There's a lot of crying unto God. There's a lot of depression. There's a lot of deep places. There's a lot of miry places. David learned that in every hard place and every difficult place, there was a lifting up. For every casting down, there was a lifting up. For every persecution, there was the oil of gladness that would come his way by the Spirit of the Lord. He had learned what Paul learned years later. That out of death comes life. That if we do not yield to the disciplines of the Lord and follow in the way of the cross, we'll never know true life. Paul learned that when he was weak, then he became strong. The psalmist would be singing some psalm, perhaps filled with praise and exaltation, perhaps one of dejection and filled with a sense of his rejection by his brethren. And why art thou cast down on my soul? And why art thou disquieted within me? Suddenly there's a sila, which means just stop and think this over. It always bothers me when I... you're in a big sing-song somewhere and there's no sila from beginning to end because you're not supposed to stop and think things over. God says stop and think it over. There's a great change coming in the earth. There's a great change coming in the world. Great change coming in the church. And in every time of change, God has a prepared people. I'm not talking about future things. Particularly. I'm talking about God's eternal purpose. People say you're always futuristic. I want something now. I'm talking about now. God's preparing a people now. Today. God's word is always for a people who have ears to hear today. He has tomorrows. But God's tomorrows will not be glorious for you and I unless we're prepared today. God's got tomorrows. We talk about God's tomorrows. But the principle is today if you hear His voice, harden not your hearts. Do what God says. Get ready. Joshua stood before the people for he was commissioned of the Lord to lead the people into the land. They've come to a time of change. And he says, sanctify yourselves for tomorrow. The Lord will do wonders amongst you. Get ready today. Sanctify yourselves today. Set yourselves apart in the Lord today so that tomorrow He might do wonders amongst you. So God wants us to hear His voice and He wants us to know that God has a plan and a purpose for the universe. God's got an eternal purpose. He brings it down into the realm of time and He speaks of it as something already accomplished because it's an eternal purpose. And that eternal purpose He tells us is that under the principalities and powers and heavenly places might be made known through the church the manifold wisdom of God. God willing we'll be speaking more on that later. I think the Lord has been showing me a few things in that area. And drop that old slogan you've been carrying. Don't get so heavenly minded that you're no earthly good. That's one the devil made up. Because we're earthly minded that we're no earthly good. When we become heavenly minded, and I mean totally heavenly minded, we'll see God's Word promoted, God's work promoted in the earth. Jesus lived in the heavens. He walked in the heavens. Yet He of all men in the face of the earth was the one who redeemed mankind. God wants us to become a heavenly minded people, a spiritually minded people, a people of the mind of Christ. People whose carnal mind has been rooted out by the impartation of His Spirit. Until we think in the Spirit and speak in the Spirit and walk in the Spirit. I'm not putting this off to the future. I'm saying God wants us to have that now. And when we come to the recognition that we don't have it, then there's cause for alarm. How God's been sounding an alarm in His holy mountain. Trying to alarm His people, trying to awaken them. Trying to cause them to see that things aren't going to carry on the way they are. That what you've got isn't sufficient. Quote all the scriptures you want about what we have in Christ Jesus. I know what we have in Christ Jesus. As far as the word goes, unmeasurable riches. God wants us to begin to know how to begin to possess our possessions. How to lay hold upon what God has given us. Instead of rejoicing in the bank account you've got with a million dollars there and you don't know how to go down to the bank and draw it out. God says, I know, I've given you everything. There's infinite treasures in Christ Jesus. He's spread a table, there's nothing lacking. He's given us everything, I know that. But He looks down upon a Laodicean church and they're saying we're rich and increased with goods and in need of nothing and God says, you're bankrupt. You don't know it. He says, you're blind and you don't know it. He says, you're naked and you don't know it. He says, you're poor and you don't know it. And He counsels them to buy of Him gold tried in the fire that they might be rich. Don't we have it in the Lord? Yes. But they don't know how to use it. Because the only way you can buy God's gold is to surrender your old life. The only way you can get those fine garments of righteousness is to surrender your tattered garments. That's what you've got to give is exchange. The only way you're going to tap the riches of Christ is when you come to Him in poverty stricken and bankrupt. Declare bankruptcy. And He's got it all there for you. So the burden of the Apostle Paul. I'm talking about the Apostle Paul now. Who for years had ministered faithfully in the work of the Lord. Had seen signs and wonders and miracles and shook Asia with the gospel. Cries out that I might know Him and the fellowship of His sufferings and the power of His resurrection. And He says, I want to apprehend that for which I'm apprehended of Christ Jesus. Didn't He have it all in Christ? Yes. But He said, I want to lay hold upon it. So God help us these days to begin to learn how to lay hold. On what He's given us. Not saying we don't have it, but having it and living in poverty. And as you'll discover as we go along these days. It's not a simple case of name it and claim it because it's yours and you just name it and claim it. Some things you can do that with, I know. But the hidden treasure that God has, it's a little different than that. It's coming to Him and laying down everything you got before you claim it. But the most encouraging thing to me, I began to see a little in God's word. Was the fact that though all through the scripture. There's change after change after change. In God's dealings with His people. In every time of change. God has made a diligent preparation before that time came. But only those with eyes to see could see it. And when the calamity came, people were frustrated, upset. What's happened here? They didn't know what was going on. God had a people all ready, they knew what was going to happen. When calamity came, they were ready. Step in the gap. And there's great calamity coming upon the earth and upon the church. The cry is going to ring through the corridors of heaven one of these days. Babylon is falling, is falling, that great city. And all the nations of the earth are going to mourn and lament. When they see the disaster of Babylon. Which includes the whole religious, social, economic and political realm. If you realize that, you wouldn't mess around with politics. That's part of Babylon too. God's preparing a people who are going to rejoice when Babylon falls. Rejoice ye heavens and them that dwell in it. Find your dwelling place in the heavens. That in that day, you'll be able to rejoice when the economy crashes about you. When there's anarchy on the land. Don't worry about the mark of the beast. You get the mark of God on your forehead. And you'll be immune to the mark of the beast. God's got a mark to put on the forehead of his people. We read about it in Ezekiel. God commissioned a man. Clothed in linen. With an ink horn by his side. Before the time of judgment. He says, go through the city. Put a mark. On the foreheads of all those that cry and that sigh because of all the abominations that are done in the city. And he went out. And another man followed him with a slaughter weapon in his hand. Commanded to begin to smite and destroy. And so many saw the smiting and the destruction. And there was calamity. There was wonderment. But there was a people that were marked. With the mark of God. And the Hebrew says, put a taw. It's like a figure T. I don't know much about Hebrew, but the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet is something like our T. You pronounce it taw. Put a taw on the forehead. Finality. Completion. Last letter of the alphabet. Jesus says, I'm the Alpha and the Omega. If you translate into Hebrew, you say, I'm the Aleph. And the Taw. Translated into English, I'm the A and the Z. For he's the beginning and the ending. What he began, he's going to finish. And if what he began in the beginning was good, what he finishes is going to be good and better. God has an eternal purpose that runs all through Scripture, which we must go into in greater detail. And he hasn't deviated from that purpose. And that purpose is a people who shall become a habitation of God by the Spirit. And a people in whom God will dwell. A people who become God's house. God's home. God's temple. Where God dwells in all his fullness. I say all his fullness. Because that's what Paul said. The fullness of him that filleth all and in all. The church. The body of Christ. The fullness. I'm not talking about the future. That's God's eternal purpose, which has no relation to past, present and future. For God has in mind from the beginning. What he's been working towards. What he's been producing in the hearts of men. Paul didn't attain to it. It didn't alter the fact. Though Paul died without attaining to it. It didn't alter the fact. It's God's eternal purpose. And Paul won't miss out because he believed it. God accepts his faith for the fullness. Abraham won't miss out because he believed it. God accepted his faith for the reality of it. We might die without seeing it. But God's going to have a people in the earth who are going to rise in the image of Christ. If we die without seeing it, it's still true and we won't miss out on it. So God moves along in a certain realm of his dealings. The time comes when God recognizes a need for a change. Because what he said in the book of Genesis. Was not intended to be taken as God's final word. In the book of Genesis we have the seed of everything God would do. But as we begin to, as God unfolds his plan through the centuries. We discover it was just that, a seed. Not the fullness. But it's good to know. That God's a good gardener and when he plants a good seed. He's going to have a good harvest. It's good to know that if God's a good gardener. He's going to have a good harvest. And by good of course I mean compatible, comparable. In the image, in the likeness of the seed that was planted. That's not difficult for you farmers you know. Plant a seed, you get registered seed, good seed, clean seed. Because that's what I want when I come to get the harvest. But it's so difficult for Christians. To believe that God can be quite as exacting. As that good farmer you know here on earth. And so God planted a good seed in the earth 2000 years ago. I don't like to spend much time in imagining things. I don't have all the theological twist to it. But the fact remains when Jesus was here on earth. He had a will to choose and to decide. And from that standpoint he could have chosen. To live on in the earth. God's perfect man. Perfect in love, perfect in holiness. Perfect in truth. Perfect in mercy, perfect in kindness. Well, just not lacking anywhere. Perfect in humility, meekness, gentleness, justice. Long suffering. Could have lived on and on and on. God's perfect man. But God says no, I want many brethren like him. Are you willing my son? To lay down your life and become as it were a kernel of wheat planted in the earth? If so be I can bring forth many other kernels like you. And he accepted it. Yes. I come to do thy will, O God. Jesus Christ living that beautiful life. Going to the cross and dying and going down into the grave. Is God's guarantee to humanity. That there shall arise in the earth a corporate people in the image and likeness of Jesus Christ in the day of harvest. God's guarantee. And that seed has been planted in the hearts of men. It's being planted today. That seed has been planted in your heart and mine. And the thing that has always troubled the heart of God. Always. That the people who are his people. Who walk in his ways and begin to grow a little. In the ways of the Lord. Come to the place. Where there's stunted. And they don't want to go any further. Oftentimes because. Of the knowledge of their leaders. Or the lack of it. The knowledge of the theologians. This is what God ordained. This is the way he does it. This is all we need for now. If God does something else later on, fine, we'll be a part of it. No. For the people whom God has ordained. To be a part of that next move are the people whom he's preparing now. To whom he is saying today if you will hear his voice. Harden not your hearts. And so God ordained. That a people would go down into Egypt under bondage. He told Abraham. Give Abraham a vision of it. That his seed though. He was faithful in giving him Isaac and. The brethren. The twelve brethren. And a multitude after that. God said they're going to go down into captivity. And they're going to be in bondage 400 years. But after 400 years of bondage I will visit them. And I will bring them back again. I'll bring them back to this land. With a mighty outstretched arm. And so about. 80 years. Before the time of their deliverance. God began in earnest. To make preparation for it. And all the while the children of Israel groaning in bondage. Slaves under a cruel taskmaster. In Egypt. Crying unto God for deliverance. All the while. God waits 80 years and they're crying unto God for deliverance. 80 years. He's preparing a man to deliver them. When the 80 years have expired. And the bondage is so severe. That they can bear it no longer. God has already made a full and complete preparation. In the man Moses. See that's the thing I want to emphasize a little tonight. There's bondage in the earth. Unheard of bondage. I have no particular criticism of those who are in there. Trying to alleviate this bondage. And try to alleviate that bondage. And God is doing much. In helping people in their distress. But you know very well. That there's more bondage in the earth today. Than there was yesterday. You know that. You know very well there's more bondage. More corruption. Oh I don't know. More everything in the realm of evil. Today than there was last year. Or 10 years ago. And you also know that there's. There's more of the word of God. Being printed than ever before. And more preachers than ever before. Bible schools are turning out. More students than ever before. And there's more preachers on TV. Than ever before. Why don't we just pause a minute. See that. Doesn't add up does it. Don't think that that's God's way. Just try and help a little here. Try and help a little there you know. Do a little. Do a little everything over there. If you see something. I'm not criticizing anybody. If God says go and do this. By all means you got to do it. But if God takes you like he took Moses. And sits you down and says. Sit there and herd sheep. You stay there and cram brook. And hammer nails. You sit there in the office. And bang away at a typewriter. Don't criticize them in it either. Don't you think for one moment. That Moses was back there in the. Back side of the desert of Midian. By his own choice. And that his heart wasn't heavy. All those 40 years. As he thought of his background. Raised in the royal court. Pulling wires. My oh it would be great if we got a politician. You know on TV or something. I'm not criticizing that or. But I'm not glorifying it either. God prepared his deliverer. In the back side of a desert. Where he had to unlearn all that. Stuff that he learned in the royal court. Until he came to the place where. He lost all his eloquence. Lost all his eloquence. He lost every ambition he ever had. To deliver the children of Israel. Not because he didn't love them. But because he knew he tried and failed. And he couldn't do it. And it took God 40 years to prepare Moses. And bring him to that place. Where he could say Lord I can't. And then God says you're the man I want. You've learned your lesson well. Moses says I can't. God says you go. I can't Lord. God had found the man he wanted. The man who realized. That with all his zeal. With all his desire. With all his heart. He sought to deliver the children of Israel. He couldn't do it unless God spoke. Unless God directed. Unless God was in charge. Wasn't enough that he was a gifted man. He was eloquent in word. And indeed we're told. Profane history will tell us. That he was. Sent by Pharaoh in military expeditions. A mighty warrior. But God had to trim him down to the place. Where he knew. He couldn't do. What was required to deliver the children of Israel. And God says now this man's ready. I'm not intimating in any of this. I say this to the young people. Oh 40 years. Time won't go on that long. Am I supposed to wait 40 years? You're not supposed to copy anybody. You're not supposed to try to copy Moses. Or anybody else. God has an individual plan for your life. And it doesn't need to take you 40 years. To learn you can't do it. If you'll learn. From the experiences. Of men of faith in the Bible. Whose faith follow. But somehow I don't know. Somehow we all have to learn the hard way. But it doesn't have to take long. I want to encourage you young people. Because God's going to have a mighty army of young people. In this day and hour. And they're going to learn quickly. And when they went into Canaan under Joshua. When the time of their deliverance came. Young people went in. Same age as you people here. Some of you children. Same ages. They went in and took the land. They learned from their fathers. They learned from the experiences. Of their fathers. They learned from the last words of Moses. For Moses was with them up until the time. Of their going into Canaan. He gathered the people together. And he recounted all the history of the children of Israel. Because there was many young people there. They'd heard little bits about it. From their fathers and their grandfathers. But Moses went over the whole thing again in detail. And we have it in the book of Deuteronomy. Where Moses would say over and over again. Remember. Remember this. Remember what happened back there. How they sinned against God. How God brought them into the wilderness. To try them and to test them. To prove them. To prepare them for Canaan. Never intending that they should ever look upon the wilderness as their heritage. But as a preparation for the heritage. And those children of Israel spent 40 years in the wilderness. As God prepared a new generation. But there were some of those little tots. Who spent no more than a week. In the wilderness. Or a day. And they went into Canaan. What we want to emphasize. Change has come. Because God is working towards an eternal purpose. So all through the scripture. There are pictures of it. How God moves from one realm to another. Never intending that that realm is ultimate. In fact ordaining that that realm is a preparation for the next. The realm you're in today. The realm that God has brought you in today. Is a preparation for the next realm God wants to bring you into. Water that was so bitter they couldn't drink it. Or come across fiery serpents. That bit many of the people of Israel and they died. Many many things that happened. As God would prove them and test them and try them. That there might be a prepared people for the prepared place. And they never learned. God's purpose. For lack of vision. For lack of obedience. I should say. For if there was obedience. There would be vision. So the solemn warning of scripture. Is not to draw back. Not to fall short. They were redeemed. They came out of Egypt a redeemed people. But they fell short of God's desire. So all through God has to constantly. Come in the scene. And exhort his people and stir them up. And put a vision before them. Not that they live in the future. But that they prepare for that tomorrow. Because God's got a tomorrow. God's got a change coming. He wants a prepared people. He's going to have a prepared people. This is becoming accepted. Pretty well in. Many areas of the church. People are talking about the great move that's coming. The great revival. Remember hearing with us. One brother expressed a concern. Are we going to be able to handle it? We're going to be able to handle. I'm going to have enough preachers. Or Bible schools. Or teachers. There's going to be so many coming in. But if you just knew God. You know that God is prepared. For everything that he's doing. But we're looking at the old order. You see in the way is now. You get a bunch of people. You get a bunch of converts. Well you've got to build a tabernacle to seat them all. What would you happen if everybody in Cranbrook turned to the Lord? What kind of a temple are you going to build? You say of course those things don't happen. They happened in Paul's day. Everybody in this city turned to the Lord. You say yeah just probably a little city. Maybe so. But if God can do it in a little city. Can he do it in a big one? You're going to try and build a tabernacle. To seat everybody in Cranbrook. I'd like to see a church in every home in this city. People say why don't we all get together. There's three or four groups represented here tonight from Cranbrook. Why can't we all get together? I'd like to see a church in every home in the city. I'm not trying to excuse ourselves for our own stubbornness. Or lack of cooperation with one another. If such there be. But that isn't the answer. You're going to build a big building. Get all the little groups together. God scatters salt in the earth. A brother said in a fellowship one time. You're making bread. You don't put a big lump of salt in one corner of it and put it in the oven. You mix it well. And you're the salt of the earth. God's going to scatter this salt all over the earth and all over the cities. A little grain here. A little grain there. A little grain over there. To be the savor of Christianity. Instead of the stench in the nostrils of God and man. That's not a vision. Oh, if we could build a big building. Get everybody into it that loves the Lord. God's vision is for a temple in which He might dwell. A temple made of living stones. For ye all build it together as living stones. Or build up a spiritual house. That we might offer up spiritual sacrifices unto God. A royal priesthood. A chosen generation. And God is forming in the earth a habitation for Himself. In the hearts and minds of His people. A habitation for Himself. For the simple reason that in your mind boggles as you read National Geographic. As they contemplate the way and hows and the means in which the universe came into being. Boggles you. Universe expanding and expanding. Expanding from so many millions and billions of years ago. And still expanding. I don't know if it's right or not. I don't care. But it boggles you. God couldn't find a home anywhere there. He said, you've got to make a man in my image. Because man in God's image is the only home that will delight the heart of God. Man lost the image but God didn't forsake his dream. God knew before He made that man that he would fall. I don't like to say God planned it. Theologically I'd have to say He planned it. But I can't charge God with doing that. I just leave it because I just realize that there's things that God does that we just can't put down in black and white like you can arithmetic. But God knew all about it and He ordained a savior before Adam was ever created. He ordained another man in His image and likeness. Only of a far higher order. A Lord from heaven. The first man was of the earth, earthly. The last man is the Lord from heaven. And as we have borne the image of the earthly, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly. Because the second man that the Lord ordained, isn't it wonderful that God didn't say, Oh, human race which I created, I'm sorry I created you, I'm going to destroy you. Yes, He did say it. But even as He said it, He didn't mean it in its entirety. Because God was preparing a man. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And God must preserve Noah. Because God ordained that another man would come out of the lineage of Adam. Isn't that wonderful that God didn't just wipe humanity off the face of the earth in the time of the flood and then make a new man? Which He could have done. But He says, this man in my image that I planned. Adam was in my image, but he was only in the shadow of my image. One translator brings that thought out, that Adam was made under the shadow of God. In the image of God, but never said to be perfect. Very good. Even as God made him, before He made him, He had a plan of redemption already. Because only in superimposing His plan of redemption upon the earth, would the full glory of this new man come into being. You see what I'm saying? How could Adam have known in fullness the love of God? How could he have known in any degree of fullness the mercy of God? How could he have known in any degree of fullness the patience of God? The long-suffering of God? The kindness of God? Here he was, innocent. Didn't know good or evil. Didn't know evil. All he knew was good. Didn't know sin. Didn't know what it was. Didn't know the effects of it. How could he know the redemption of it? How could he have known the outflow of the heart of God and great love and compassion? Which was all inherent in God. That was there in God. That didn't originate in the heart of God when Adam sinned. It was there. But he couldn't find expression there. Couldn't find fullness there. And God's purpose from eternity was that somewhere down in the fullness of times, the full expression of deity would be revealed in this man. And how could it be revealed? Unless there was an opportunity for love to be revealed, for mercy to be revealed, for patience to be revealed, for long-suffering to be shown, for kindness to be shown. So you see, it really did take redemption to fully bring forth the fullness of the glory of the Christ. So redemption wasn't just an afterthought. Just something, oh, something's happened here, I've got to remedy a situation. It was all tied in with the eternal purpose. That God in redemption would find that thing that his heart craved for because he was God. A home where he could dwell. Which he couldn't find in the galaxies of the universe that he had made. A home wherein he could dwell. And he found it in the revelation of the last Adam. He found that home where he could dwell. In all his fullness. We're talking about his fullness. I know he dwelt in many righteous men in the past. But here is a man in whom he could dwell in the totality and the fullness of his deity because he was totally committed unto the Father. Totally given over unto the Father. And he has become your example and mine. You say, I know that he was sinless and he was born right. That's why he died, that you might be born right. But you say he received such an anointing in Jordan when the Holy Spirit came upon him as a dove settled upon his head. Something that I could never experience. That's why he went back to heaven, that he might send the Spirit that you might enjoy that same anointing. When God presents us with truth, don't make excuses because of our shortcomings in order to justify ourselves. We're doing pretty good. We've got gifts, we've got ministries, we've got churches, the Gospels preached. All we've got to do is multiply our efforts. Don't excuse yourselves when God presents the vision of what he wants you to be. Because it's only in pursuing that vision that God would bring you unto it. It's not my idea. It's not some dream I had. It's a dream that God had in eternity past, if you can use past relative to eternity. But now we've got to declare it because the hour is at hand when God is about to bring forth this man. And if I hear the voice of the Spirit, then I've got to declare what he says. Because when the time comes to do what he's planned, he sends forth a word in the earth to bring to pass what he's planned. He always brings forth by a creative word when the time comes for God to bring into being that which he has nourished in his heart as a plan, as a dream, as a vision. He has a mouthpiece in the earth, declares it. He prepares the hearts of people so that they have ears to hear it. And in declaring it and then people hearing it, eyes are enlightened, the vision is clarified, people rise up to walk towards the Father, forsaking their own ways, their own ideas, their own programs, their own methods of promoting the kingdom of God in the earth, and begin to take the yoke of Christ upon them. Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest through Jesus. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly of heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. He just says, come and get into my yoke. When you get in his yoke, you just can't do your own thing anymore. You can't do your own thing anymore. One man said to me one time, you know, I think I was doing it again, I was younger, I think I'd go into the ministry. Oh, you just don't do things like that. God sets whom he will in the body, distributes his gifts according to his will. He says, come take my yoke upon you. And don't you worry, if you take his yoke upon you, and learn of him by taking that yoke, for that's the only way you're going to really learn of him. I'm not saying about him. The thought is, learn of him, learn from him. You know? I think they tie up an old broncon horse to a good broke horse, don't they, Hank? That the bronc can learn from the one that's had the harness on for some time. An old bronc raring to go, you know. Just hold back here. We're a team now. God wants us to be a team with him. And so the process goes on of learning his ways. Not to slow down the workings of the kingdom of God in the earth, but that a people having learned of his ways, and having their hearts in tune with the Heavenly Father, and sensitive to that moving of the Spirit in the still, small voice of the Spirit, might do exactly what God wants them to do in the earth. And don't think that any man has a better plan than God has. And don't think because you see evil in every hand, and corruption, and corrupt governments, and corrupt economic system, and all that, that God doesn't know anything about it. And don't think that you're supposed to try and do something about it if God isn't. You say, maybe God is. Well then, get in tune with the Spirit and find out. Don't take it upon yourself. You say, the evil's there, I've got to deal with it. No. Jesus has seen evil in the earth 2,000 years. He's done much about it, but he hasn't subdued it all, because even now, in his exalted throne as Lord of the universe, with all power in heaven and earth at his disposal, he's king of everything, not just the earth. He's king of the heavens. There isn't a principality or devil in heaven or in hell that has any authority over the Lord Jesus Christ. In spite of that, he has not seen fit to subdue all evil in the earth these 2,000 years, because as he was in the earth, so is he in the heavens, in total harmony with the will of God. As he was in the earth. And so God's decree to Jesus was, when he exalted him into the heavens, though he gave him the totality of all his power, he vested it in Jesus, made him king of the universe, he says, rule in the midst of your enemies until they're all subdued. Lord, why didn't you do it in 20 years, 30 years? I know Jesus had the power to subdue every enemy in the earth. In 5 minutes if he wanted to, 10 years, 20 years, in Paul's lifetime, he could have totally subdued every enemy in the earth, because God had given him power over all flesh. He's never relinquished that power. But being in such harmony with the will of God, he knows what God's purpose is, and he subdues enemies according to the will of God. Now Jesus, with that power and that authority, has sent forth his Spirit to abide in this temple. Not to set you loose, to go ahead and try and do all you can in the earth to root out the evil. In fact, he laid upon the early church a responsibility and a command not to try to root out all evil. When in the parable it would seem that there was some suggestion to God, God, shouldn't we? An enemy has sown evil. Shouldn't we go and root it all out? And the Master said, No, let both grow together until the day of harvest. You know, all through church history we've heard wars, literal wars, carnal wars, men bearing the name of Christ on two sides of the camp trying to slay one another in the name of wiping out evil. Not knowing that God says, Let the wheat and the tares grow together. Don't worry about it, because I'm not worrying about it. But God, they're growing up there. God says, I know, I'll deal with it. I've got a time. I'm ruled in the midst of your enemies. I'll show you from time to time what you're supposed to do, how to do it, in cooperation with my spirit, my word, my leading, my direction. Let both grow together until the harvest. Then he says, I'll deal with it on the day of harvest. It won't corrupt the wheat. It'll grow. It'll mature. On the day of harvest, I'll send forth my angels. And they'll cut down the harvest, and they'll gather the tares and burn them, and I'll gather the wheat into my garden. And you know, I think every evangelical church in Christendom believes that this is the day of harvest. So do I. Well, if it is, it's the day when God is going to have mature wheat. And he's going to have mature tares. Oh, you say, that's no problem to believe that. Isn't it strange that men have no problem believing what the devil's doing, and yet they have an awful lot of problem in believing what God's doing? Isn't it strange that we can believe that the devil is bringing his harvest unto complete maturity, total maturity, whose number is 666, which signifies total maturity, six, the number of fallen, sinful, carnal man, tripled, no, not tripled, but six to the square, not the square, triple of three, is that right? Six, six, six, the number of man. Here's wisdom, let him that hath wisdom count the number of beasts, the number of the beasts, for it's the number of man, fallen man, apostate man, religious man, but rebellious man, man who's come to maturity, sinful man who's come to maturity. This generation in which we are living, I believe, is that generation that has come to total maturity in the realm of evil. If it isn't quite there yet, it won't take long. I thought it should have been there years ago, totally mature. God says, not quite yet. God will say, how long? God says, because my wheat isn't quite totally mature yet. Don't you think that God's got a schedule that's, what shall I say, coordinated with the timetable of the devil? God's got his own schedule. The whole Christian world is taken up with the mark of the beast and the man of sin and the mystery of iniquity and we need to know about these things. Because God says it's going to happen in the day of harvest. But he wants God's mature people to understand that he's got wheat growing. It's going to come to maturity. And if the devil has power to bring his people to maturity, Christ has power to bring up people in the earth to total maturity. And this is the day when God is putting the final touches, as it were, upon this harvest, causing the sun to shine a little brighter, maybe to be a little hotter, that that grain might come forth totally mature before the day of God's wrath. And so, you know, change has come. Oh, there's so many things I've left out, but we'll carry on perhaps again. Many of you have traveled long distances and I'll give you a good rest tonight. But just, you know, beautiful when that kernel begins to sprout. Beautiful. When it pushes its head above the ground, there's a little blade. Beautiful. And it grows and unfolds. And one day there's a flower, depending on the kind of plant or whatever. And that's still more beautiful. And I know I can read some of the writings of some of the saints of God through the ages who walked with God. Oh, you see how beautiful. How beautiful. It can only be like that. And so you try, of course. God knows you'll try when you see a good vision. He knows you'll try to fulfill it. And no problem, really. Because when you try and fail, then God's right there somehow. I never have any complaint with people that try and fail. If they've learned what God wants them to learn, Because we all do that. But having failed and then having come to the place where, Lord, I'm bankrupt. I just recognize it. I declare bankruptcy. God says, well, waiting for that, how much do you want? And so then the flower, beautiful. And then, but then the flowers begin to fade and fall off. Oh, how we'd like to pick them up, you know. Ever do that? The gym over there in Yakima when the apple blossoms fall off, go around. What's happened here? Try and get them back in that tree fast. You know. Because, you know, it's losing its beauty. Just casually. Well, that's all right. Why? Because He didn't plant apple trees to produce apple blossoms. He planted apple trees to produce apples. And God didn't plant the seed of Christ in your heart and give you the baptism of the Holy Spirit and bestow upon you gifts of the Spirit and ministry of the Spirit as an ultimate, but as a means to an end. And that end is that in the fullness of the harvest there would come forth that harvest in the image and the likeness of Christ Himself. It's not my dream, it's God's. So as God begins to speak these things to our hearts, then we take comfort and courage and our vision is clarified and we're lifted out of despair rather than being brought down into despair. Let's listen to it. Man says, I just can't get down. I used to get down and pray and intercede years ago and now I can't do it. Yet this is the day when we must have that. To begin seeking God earnestly in coldness. I can't have that anointing on me that I used to have where I could get down and pray five hours and I'd get up and think it was just five minutes. I can't do that. What's wrong? Nothing wrong. If you're always looking forward with a clear vision, you always have in mind that whatever God does along the way is in preparation for what He will do in the days to come. Great and mighty as His work might be now, it's a preparation for what He will do tomorrow. Not neglecting what He would do now because if we neglect what He would have us do now then we will not be able to do what He would have us to do tomorrow. But never thinking we've got to have those good old days back again. Recognizing, oh, how beautiful it felt when the rain fell. Refreshing. How beautiful after a rain. But just knowing that if God is going to bring you to maturity, there's going to be some hot weather. There's going to be some long dry spells. And you're going to need it. That the precious fruit of the earth might come forth as God has planned. Those of you my age who knew the Lord back in the early days know very well that everything was ready for the coming of the Lord back about 1935, 1940. Had an antichrist. Mussolini, he was shot, but we got another one. Hitler, come now Lord, got our antichrist. And God says, I'm not waiting for antichrist, I'm waiting for my people to come forth in my image and likeness. And before that happens the man of sin is going to be revealed. And he has been revealed and is being revealed and will yet be revealed in the church which is the temple of God. The man of sin sits in the temple of God. Not in some old temple of wood and stone they're going to build over there in Jerusalem. He's not interested in going over there because God isn't dwelling there. He's dwelling amongst His people. So antichrist wants to get there. And he's rising up. He's there. He's been there from the beginning. John says he's here today. Many antichrists now. So we know that the spirit of antichrist is in the earth. Not to say it won't come to greater fullness. It's coming in the church and I wonder sometimes how it could come to greater fullness in the church. When you read the things that they're doing in the church in the name of Christ. Do you know that Christ means the anointing? The Christ literally means the anointed one. And in the name of the anointed one they're doing such diabolical things in the church in the charismatic church. You tell me the antichrist isn't standing up in the church? The man of sin? He's there. And I dare say he'll come to greater fullness yet. For he is antichrist. He's not anti-God. He believes in God but he's anti-the anointing. God is going to have an anointed people in the earth. You say we are anointed. I know. But a people who are walking in the fullness of the anointing of the holy oil without the stinking savor caused by the dead flies in the ointment. Where Solomon said dead flies in the ointment causes the ointment to send forth a stinking savor. I know there's an anointing but there's a lot of dead flies in it. That's why God in this, the day and hour when God is concerned about this temple and purifying it and cleansing it purging it all the dross of all the curses and all the carnality and all the corruption coming into our midst is a flaming fire to burn out all that which is tares. And we don't have to look out there for tares. There's tares in all of us. Consume the tares in my life, Lord, that perhaps you might use me to consume the tares out there. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank You, Lord. We're together tonight from long distances, Lord Jesus. Oh God, just reaching out after You, just desiring to fellowship with Your people. Many of them have been alone. Many of them in dry places. Many of them in difficult places. Many of them undergoing much stress. Many of them going through warfare of one kind or another, asking so many questions, lifting up their hearts to You and saying, Why, oh God, why? Why is it this way? Remind them, oh Lord, that when our blessed Lord hung on the cross, He also asked that question, Why, oh God? And even Your beloved Son, for a moment it seemed, the answer to His question was not forthcoming. Why, oh God, when He'd served You, He'd walked with You, He was Your beloved Son, the heavens opened and a dove came upon Him and He heard a voice, This is My beloved Son in whom is all My delight on more than one occasion. And then Calvary, You turned His back and He says, Why, God, did You do it? I don't know if He knew the answer then, but He knew it a short while later when it was revealed that had He not done it, the human family could never have been redeemed. And so, Lord, as we ask these questions, remind us of the Why that You asked in Calvary and then perhaps we will question You no further. But, God, we do pray for Your people in distress, in trouble, Satan coming in in every hand to try to disrupt and afflict and divide and coming in and afflicting Your people, serious accidents and diseases. We believe in healing and we pray and people with gifts of healing pray and men whom we feel have audience with God, they pray and still there's affliction. We say, Why, Lord? Cause us to know even though we don't understand. Cause us to have faith, confidence, believe where we cannot see. Say with the three Hebrew children, We don't know whether God will deliver us or not, but we're going to walk with God. He's able to quench the fire, but if He doesn't, it's still alright. We believe You, Lord. We believe in healing. We believe in deliverance. But if You don't deliver, we're still going to believe You. If You don't heal, we're still going to believe You're the God that healeth. We say that in faith, not in unbelief, because we know, Lord, that as You said to one of Your chosen prophets, You've known me as a God of kindness and of love, a God who heals, a God who bestows mercy. You haven't known me as the suffering one. And so now, in Your suffering, You can learn of me as the suffering one. And God gave him the answer, but many of us do not have that answer. So, Lord, wherein we cannot see, we pray that You would strengthen our faith and confidence in You, that there be no wavering, no deviation from the vision, no hardening of our heart, no murmuring, no complaining, knowing though we don't understand how we know it, but just knowing because You said it, that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn amongst many brethren. So, Lord, tonight as we go to rest, we pray that You would give a good rest to everyone. May there be a seeking people these three days. May they come praying. May they come seeking You. May this house be a house of prayer. May there be a gathering together of hearts. May there be a breaking down of walls, breaking down of prejudice, ill will, ill feelings, if there be such. That Your people might truly prepare, Lord, for the binding together that You have ordained in this last hour, a people who would walk in total harmony and communion and union with Yourself. So, Lord, we praise You for all Your ways. Though we understand not all Your ways, we know that the way of the Lord is right and we thank You for it. Lead us, we pray, in Your ways unto the end. Cause us not to fall along the way as one weary from the journey, as one for whom the race has been too long and too heavy for us and so we drop out. But cause us to keep our eyes fixed upon the goal as the Apostle did, pressing toward the mark unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Firm unto the end. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.