In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of obeying the Spirit of God. He refers to a vision that was seen and the certainty that God had called them. The speaker highlights the significance of the ministry of a couple of men under the anointing of the Spirit of God, even though it may not have seemed spectacular or outstanding. He also mentions the difficulty of proclaiming the message of God and the resistance that may be faced. The sermon concludes with the speaker expressing the desire for clear guidance from God before speaking and the anticipation of hearing from Him.

This is tape number K018. Art Katz with the message entitled, The Spirit of the Lord, part number one. This age, children, which is called the end of the ages, began not yesterday, but if I would choose a conspicuous moment for its announcement, I would say that it began in the moment that a certain sun came out of hiddenness and out of obscurity in his thirtieth year. The age of maturity. And came into the familiar synagogue in Nazareth, where his custom was, and took a seat and it was given him the scroll of Isaiah to read, the famous Messianic passage known at that time to every Jew, and happily not as well known today. And he read the words beginning, The Spirit of the Lord is now upon me. It was like the proverbial shot that was heard across the world. Bang! With that incisive statement, the end of the ages began and the first word to announce it, The Spirit of the Lord. As a former kind of intellectual, and one who has traipsed about in the academic world, and has read and studied the kinds of titles that are given to previous ages, the age of enlightenment, the age of reason, the industrial age, there's no question about the title of the age in which God has called us to live our life. The consummating concluding age is eminently the age of the Spirit. This is the age of the Spirit. And every one of us who have eyes to see know that. And even those who have yet not had their eyes opened and are untutored, if they've had any kind of experience in the world, groping, seeking, they have already been aware that this also is the age of the Spirit. They've not met the Spirit of light and the Spirit of holiness, but they've met the Spirit of darkness. And in this final hour, and in this end time, in this great age of the Spirit, there's going to be a titanic collision between these two Spirits. This is a spiritual age. When Jesus came forth into that synagogue in his 30th year, He did more than make an announcement verbally. He proclaimed something with His body and with His life. It says, The eyes of all those in the synagogue were fastened upon Him for the gracious words which He spoke. They were stunned and awed at the electric in this personality. There was something about this personality that compelled their attention. They had seen Him all through His youth, but He had remained inconspicuous. There was nothing about Him to have alerted their attention. Now it says, All the eyes of those in the synagogue were fastened upon Him, because He said, This day are these words fulfilled in your hearing. And they said, Isn't this Joseph's son? Isn't this this obscure lout that we've seen around the streets of Nazareth and in and out and about in the synagogue, and we've never noticed Him before? What is it about Him now that is so compelling? There's an authority. There's an power to His life. And if I suppose that they were using modern terminology, they might have said, He's got it all together. He's put it all together. And putting it all together, children, is the very quintessence of maturity. Remember when Adam blew it? What did he blow? He blew the dominion that God called him to make manifest over the beasts of the earth, over the fowls of the air and over the fish of the sea. And if you're not speaking too far-fetched for the purposes of my illustration today, in our own lives individually, what do these things represent? I would say that the beasts of the earth represent animal or physical carnal desire, our physical nature. Are you in possession and control of that? That's the most elementary struggle. It's the thing which occupies the world. And that's why we have in America such problems as obesity, overweight, flabbiness, early death, premature death. Men have not brought under dominion the physical aspects of their lives. The second of the birds of the air, which I would say is a symbolic depiction of our thought life. I guess every one of us in this room has or is having some kind of struggle in that area. That's Satan's playground. He loves to buzz over our heads and to insinuate all kinds of filthy thoughts, suggestions, and sometimes it's quite a wrestling match to bring the birds of the air under dominion. That's why Paul said, I am determined not to know anything but Christ and Him crucified. Many of us have not learned that lesson and our minds are open playgrounds or should I say battlefields for every kind of mental struggle, every kind of if and but, every kind of introspection or looking back or contemplation of the future rather than enjoying and living the present moment. God calls to bring the thoughts of the air into dominion. And the last and I suppose the most difficult, the fish of the sea, would represent the unconscious or subconscious sphere of our life and personality. Things which we can hardly identify, little knowing pains, things that go back to childhood, things that make themselves manifest in dreams and sometimes nightmares. A mature person is one who has put it all together, who has complete dominion over body, mind, soul, and spirit. And I'll tell you I believe with all my heart that God shall withhold His end-time anointings until He has a mature son upon whom to pour it. Remember that the heavens opened and Jesus received the baptism in the Holy Spirit. And a voice rang from heaven, this is my son in whom I am well pleased. He hadn't yet done anything. He hadn't performed a single miracle and yet God was pleased with him. He was already an obedient son. Then came the doings. And right after the baptism of the Holy Spirit it says that he went into the wilderness in the fullness of the Spirit, but he came out in the power of the Spirit. Have you ever noticed that? A lot of us naively thought that the moment we received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, eureka, something was going to start to crackle and we would stretch forth our hands and dozens would fall under the power of the Spirit and healing deliverances and we would just cut a great swath through the world in the power because we received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I'm not demeaning the baptism of the Holy Spirit. It's the entryway, it's the door, but between the fullness and the power there stands something called a wilderness experience. If you have not tasted of it yet, gird your loins because if you're going to be God's end-time man or woman, there's no way that the Spirit of God is going to be made manifest in power through you except you first intend it at the hand of God in the three areas of temptation, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the plight of life. There aren't any other temptations. All that is in the world is the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the plight of life. And Jesus could say that the prince of this world cometh, but he has nothing in me, not a thing. I've met him on the hardest ground, in the most severe strength, and I answered him, it is written. He made the test and he came forth out in the power of the Spirit and then came under Shabbat into the synagogue and took his seat and read the famous Messianic passage, the credentials of the Messiah, and he said, this day are these scriptures fulfilled in your hearing. Now, dear children, Jesus is the pattern son. What he did 2,000 years ago is a depiction of what God intends to duplicate at the end of the ages in exactly the same way. He's waiting again for another son to come out of obscurity and out of hiddenness, a mature son in his 30th year and come again into the familiar synagogue, but speak with such unction and anointing that all eyes shall be upon him. You'll say, isn't this Joseph's son? Aren't these those Christians? Aren't these those charismatics that had clinics and conferences and all that kind of idol jazz and those Christians with their potluck suppers and their schools and all the rest of their paraphernalia that didn't so much shake the world? We never took note of them, but what is this now? There's something in their voice, their demeanor, their eyes. There's an unction, there's a power. Indeed, the Spirit of God is upon them for he has anointed them or anointed him. They say, Art, your grammar leaves something to be desired. You keep skipping from singular to plural, plural to singular. That's because there's a mystery here which has been concealed from the beginning of the ages, which is now being revealed, the body of Christ. The corporate God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. A precious teacher said, even God himself is a sweet company. Delights in doing things in a corporate way and his end-time glory is going to bring forth a corporate many-membered son who has it all together. Every atom of it is going to have it all together, body, soul, and spirit, and every unit and cell will also have it all put together. Jew and Gentile, black and white, young and old, fat and skinny, every size, shape, and description, every cell in its place, and every joint supplying liberally what the entire body needs. Hallelujah. No place for lone rangers, no place for individuals doing their thing. God winked at such practices in times past, but this is an urgent hour and God's business is at hand and it's time for the 30-year-old son in the fullness of maturity to come forth. And when he comes forth in that maturity under that anointing, he's going to perform the same messianic task. He's going to heal the broken-hearted because the world now is at the verge of such a shaking and shall dislocate the lives of men, shall make them quake and their knees knock and their hearts fail them for fear when the bottom falls out from their security and their self-assurance. They won't know what hit them and there'll be many hearts that shall need to be made whole and healed to heal the broken-hearted. The Spirit of the Lord is now upon me to heal the... is that the way it begins? To heal the broken heart and set the captive free to open prison doors and make the blind to see. The Spirit of the Lord is now on me. I'll tell you children, not one of these great messianic ministries can be performed without the Spirit of the Lord. There's no way to heal, no way to set captives free, no way to open prison doors, no way to give sight to the blind except in the power of the Holy Spirit. The last thing that Jesus quoted out of Isaiah 61, he said, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and then he closed the scrolls and gave it back to the minister. He did not finish the entire phrase because it was not yet time, but it is given to us to complete what he left unsaid because now it is time. How many of you know what it is that Jesus omitted that we are called to conclude? The day of the vengeance of the Lord. To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of his soon coming vengeance on earth. It wasn't so long ago as a recent atheist when I used to look at magazines and they had the cartoons of men with long beards and strange-looking garments, you know, carrying signs, repenting for the day of the Lord's end. I'm not laughing longer. I'll tell you children, the day of the Lord is at hand and the elements are going to melt with a fervent heat and a fire is going to come upon the earth and a fire is going to follow that shall not be quenched and God is looking for a mature son that shall conclude the messianic ministry by calling men to repentance before the day of his soon coming wrath. Now I'll tell you there's not a message more difficult to proclaim than that message. Men want to stop their ears or gnash at you with their teeth and if you're going to be well-meaning and feeble and think you can recite it in the kind of incantation like four spiritual laws or five spiritual laws, forget it. I'll never forget once I spoke at a church, I think it was Louisville, Kentucky and God gave me that message on the two Judaisms but I'll tell you it went forth like a veritable blast and someone had gotten up in the audience and said, speak on prophet and I spoke on and when it was finished I stood by the door, you know how the experience is that we preachers oftentimes have? People pass you by and you're betraying your immaturity. A man comes in through me, all the eyes turn, how long Lord? Everybody passed me by with kind of sullen glances, maybe a few shook my hands and thanked me for the nice sermon and there's nothing that makes a preacher's heart more sick than to be congratulated for a nice sermon when people should have been prostrate on their faces before the Lord. But there was a Jewish man who had been brought to that service by his Gentile wife, Christian wife and I had been briefly introduced to him and he walked me by as if I were a stone, he didn't even take note, he was so angered by the things which I spoke. I thought well I should do it that time and so they took me out to eat at some restaurant in the neighborhood and who do you suppose was eating there with his wife but the same Jewish man and so with my typical Jewish chutzpah coupled with the Holy Spirit, chutzpah is brass or arrogance, I picked up my knife and fork and plate and cup and I walked over and I sat right down at his table. I don't always do things like that but that was the leading of the Lord in that moment and we had a conversation until four o'clock in the afternoon. I would say that this man was the epitome of the finest that Jewish life has to offer and after what I spoke last night we can say that what is the finest of Jewish life is also the finest that the modern world has to offer because they are essentially the same thing. He was a humanist, he was philanthropic, he was full of good works, he was a nice guy and he was telling me the gospel of nice guy-ism. He was telling me the conventional wisdom of the world. Look God, he said, I don't know if there's a God, not a God, but even if there is a God surely he doesn't care what you believe. Anybody can believe anything, that's sissy stuff, that's kid stuff, that's kappa, believing is nothing, it's doing that counts. This is a pure perfect expression of the Jewish mentality and he says as far as doing is concerned I'm a lawyer and I go to bat for the underdog and I take special cases and I don't accept fees and I help people and he painted me quite a picture of what a nice guy he is and I didn't say a word, I received his whole gospel and when he was finished then I began to give him God's gospel. With such recitations as there's no man good no not one, we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. If God were to mark iniquity who can stand? There's not a righteous man upon the earth who doeth good and sinneth not? What are your righteous acts with so many filthy rags in God's sight? And by about four o'clock in the afternoon this man's face had visibly changed, something had gone out of his face, there was a kind of a gray pallor, he was bloodless, there was a white impression in his lips and he had kind of a stunned look in his eyes but being Jewish if he was not going to win at least he wanted to come out with a draw. So we stood up it was time to go and he extended forth his hand to me and he said look Artie said it's very evident that you're a man of integrity and zeal, I respect your opinions, I can't agree with them but I'll tell you what he said, I'll respect your opinion if you'll respect my opinion. Isn't that fair Groovy? I took a deep breath and out of my mouth came these words, I said so long as there's breath in my body I'll never cease to persuade you to give up your opinion and to receive God's for if you will not you shall surely perish. I would say it was something I'm speaking it now conversationally but when it came out of my mouth under the anointing of the Holy Spirit it was something like a big Turkish towel saturated in icy water and he got sloshed with that statement right in the mouth whack! He was expecting some kind of nicety a little pat but that wasn't the loving thing which he needed in that moment and by the way let's make a little footnote here love doesn't always make nice. Satan has sold us a bill of goods a bunch of schmaltzy sentimental nonsense because my Jesus was always loving there's not a thing that ever emanated from his life his speech his conduct in his ministry that was not done in love even when he called the Pharisees hypocrites and white and sepulchers. Love is always a benevolent act intended for another issuing forth from a person at cost to himself it's always sacrificial. I'm sure men would not have gnashed their teeth upon him who have taken such delight in saying crucify him crucify him if he had made nice. Now there are times when we should make nice but there are times also to tell men that if they will not offer their opinions they shall surely perish. It behooves us to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of his soon coming vengeance. Men have laughed at such concepts but I'll tell you the immediacy of that day is so now upon us that it is no longer a laughing matter and there's not a one of us who can proclaim such a thing and minister in the messianic way except that the spirit of the Lord be upon us because he has anointed us because we are the mature sons prepared in obscurity and hiddenness tested in wilderness coming forth in the power of the spirit to do the will of the father we are that mature son. God shall not conclude his messianic task except through an anointed son which son we are together with the body of Christ in Germany the body of Christ in Israel the body of Christ in Yugoslavia and that's why Jesus said greater things that I have done you will do. I never understood that before but I'll tell you when you put on the end time glasses you begin to understand a lot of things you never understood before. How can we do greater things than he did? He didn't mean greater qualitatively he meant greater quantitatively. He was limited to the shores of Galilee to Jerusalem to Nazareth but we are not limited we're everywhere we're in Japan we're in Oshkosh we're in Timbuktu we're in Africa we're Rhodesia South America Israel Russia you name it wherever the people of God are together in unity in one spirit in one accord there is God's body doing God's messianic end times work. Got the picture? Okay now let's look at an illustration in the book of Acts of the principles that I'm describing the 16th chapter. Do you love the word of God? Isn't it unspeakably delicious rich such fullness I'll tell you there's not a time when I look into the word or speak from the word that I don't end with some kind of faint guilt consciousness that I've been superficial and glib such mysteries and such truths hidden in every verse and yet what are we reading here but a day an episode in the life of two Jewish men doing their thing you say what's the big deal then here's the big deal I love it all the more because it's representative it's not spectacular it's not outstanding the whole result of this ministry was a couple of women saved a couple of some scum out of the prison cells a prison keeper big deal it wasn't some magnificent work that can be recorded in an astounding numbers it was a day in the life of a couple of men under the anointing of the spirit of God sent forth by the spirit fulfilling God's messianic task and that's why it's all the more rich and instructive to us I love it because it's history because it's accurate because it's true but all the more because it reveals the definitive pattern and working of God there's a pattern here children and everywhere that you open the book you'll find the pattern the principles the way of God why people perish for the warmth of knowledge they don't know my way God said it behooves us to know the way of the living God which changes not as he does not change so let's begin about the fifth verse where it says and so were the churches established in the faith and increased in number daily isn't that a beautiful verse of which to begin Paul had taken Timothy and they were going about in Asia and they were establishing the churches they were doing the work of God and they were meeting with conspicuous success then we read when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia and after they would come to my here they say to go into Bithynia but the spirit suffered them not and they passing by might have came down to Taurus and the vision appeared to Paul in night there stood a man of Macedonia and prayed him saying come over into Macedonia and help us let's stop there for a moment the first thing that we can note is that I did a lousy job in reading the scriptures and I intentionally did a lousy job and I wonder how many of you were aware of it oh thank you because I think this is pretty much customarily the way we read the scriptures we go bang bang bang bang when God says that we should live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God we should salivate over this it should rest on our tongue like some rare wine we should pop the cork from that bottle and smell the bouquet as if we're anticipating a treat that had been prepared for us by the process of a seed falling into the ground and plucked grapes crushed its essence ground out of its strain filtered made captive in bottles and buried in dark places and brought forth now for our delight this is the way a Jew feels when he holds that glass and he says what does that mean to life wine is a picture of life and he's not quick to knock it back as we do coca-cola you hold it under your nose you feel a prickly thing is going up there and the anticipation is heightened then you bring it closer slowly lest you let a drop slip puts them on your tongue and something shoots like darts into your tongue and then you let it seep down slowly and you feel the warmth and the glow I hope I'm not inducing anyone through alcoholism but I'll tell you children that's the way we ought to savor the word of God how many of us realize that we just read three manifestations of the Holy Spirit bang bang bang three manifestations of the Holy Spirit and there are those in this room who are perhaps waiting for their first and certainly in Christendom there must be untold numbers who are 20 and 30 or 40 years old in the Lord who have yet to experience a single manifestation of the Holy Spirit and here in a space of four verses bang bang bang three manifestations if they thought well maybe the Spirit of God was more alive at that time Holy Spirit hasn't changed we have he is copiously poured out upon servants who are in the place of God to check to direct to lead to empower to anoint because this is eminently the age of the Spirit and let's take a quick and closer look at these manifestations because they're unusual when they had gone through our fridges they and the region of glacier they were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia did you really notice that or did you think that there was some typographical error oh this can't be because the word says that we should go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature so I'm going and I'm going to determine where I'm going to go and how I'm going to do it God has given me a blank check you better watch out before you get your ears pinned back yes God has given us a general invitation but I'll tell you that the specific fulfilling of it has best be directed by the Holy Spirit or not at all they were forbidden by the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia and I don't know about you but I think for for Jewish guys like myself we're much more responsive to the Holy Spirit that bids us go than the Holy Spirit that bids us stop we want to go go go and do for the Lord and sometimes be seen in doing but to be stopped by the Holy Spirit to be dead and hid with God in Christ is not quite as easy to receive especially when you have been successful in establishing the churches in Asia let me ask you a question children can the Holy Spirit stop you in the test of the mature son when the Holy Spirit can do that I would say he has the possession of his vessel because I'll tell you what most of us would have said if we thought that a spirit was saying we've you're forbidden to go into Asia when we're meeting with success daily and God is adding to the church we would have said that's not the spirit of God that's the spirit of Satan trying to distract God's servants and take him away from his successful field of endeavor and send him to some remote place where he's going to be lost in obscurity that's what many of us would have said and that raises therefore a very interesting question an end time question how can we determine whether it's the spirit of God speaking or the spirit of the evil one we know that he's a vicious counterfeiter we know that he's awful and full of guile we know that he can he can seek to imitate the voice of God and he has succeeded often in distracting God's people and taking them out of the place of service what's the answer on the answer is that these men were so familiar with the accent of the still small voice of God that they knew that it was God speaking such a one is not born in a day a man who has that kind of intimacy and familiarity with the voice of God is one who has been long processed at his hand a three month course or a six month course or eight month course will not in itself do it it's only the beginning of things this is part of that wilderness testing and that breaking and grinding and and cutting away of the flesh that we might be sensitive to the things of the spirit and able to discern and i'll tell you children as i told you from the first these are life and death questions you say well big deal supposing they had missed it well if they had missed it we would not be sitting here today because they heard it and obeyed the gospel went from Asia to Europe for the first time and men who had previously drunk their beer out of skulls were saved out of paganism and death and turned to the living God obedience was life for a continent and for the entire western world at a critical juncture in the timing of God in his end time purpose this is the age of the spirit eminently the age of the spirit and we are called to be the people of the spirit and this isn't a game for amateurs here's the principle the spirit of God is given to them that obey him after we've seen the vision immediately we endeavored to God assuredly gathering there was no doubt about this they weren't confused they didn't have to groan and aggravate themselves assuredly gathering the Lord had called them what what men of the spirit they were and loosing some trust they came with a straight course to Philippi which is the chief city doesn't that make you drool i salivate every time i read those words for men of obedience like that who immediately set forth with a straight course to the chief city assuredly gathering the Lord had called them i'll tell you the eye of God has roven to and fro over the face of the earth over the over his christian people looking for the poles and silences of this generation who will immediately set forth with a straight course but what's the nature of our generation indecision compromise deceit if and but wise house when my kids grow up when i have sufficient in the bank account when i've established my security when i receive my pension when i'll retire then i'll devote myself they set forth immediately with a straight course God is looking for such a heart to the chief city and i'll tell your children that wherever God shall call you by the Holy Spirit be it however humble to the dishes to diapers to sweeping the floor to asking forgiveness to a word of apology to a to something gracious to something humiliating for you that is the chief city and if you will not obey that call you need not think that you shall hear another a lot of us have been stalemated and like Abraham who had a 13-year silence from God he's been silent to us also because there was a time in his speaking when we chose not to hear and not to obey we would have loved the grandiose call to action but it was a call to humiliation and that we thought was indigestion that was the chief city at that time if you had chosen to obey it you may find some time today to speak the faith of the Lord and ask him to repeat anything that he might previously spoken which you have ignored that you might do the first things that his call might come again that ultimately he would lead you to the chief philippines of the world in the end times now here's a principle we have to see before we move on the templar says after he had seen the vision immediately we endeavored to go isn't that glorious wow paul saw the vision it came only to one man but it says immediately we endeavored to go what does that suggest the order of god in the body of christ they were knit together joint by joint in the place of god's ordering and one was the head and he was paul he had apostolic authority and the vision came to him and the relationships were so intimate and tested and true that if paul had a vision no one would ever suggest that it was indigestion but they if we assuredly gathered the lord had called us i remember i preached this message one time and when i was over a woman came over to me she's about 55 years of age and she was very distraught her husband had a vision that they should leave their business their beautiful home their swimming pool their little christian ministry where they had baptized believers and had bible meetings and prayer groups in their home and they were really a significant christian couple in their community and sell all and leave all and and come to the youth with a mission uh in europe and study evangelism she thought her husband had flipped out she said when i see the vision then we'll go i said dear sister you'll never see the vision she thought i was attacking her spirituality no i showed her the order of god visions come only to the head the body that is knit joint by joint to the head is required to move with it and the question for the body of christ in the end times when the explicit word shall come from the lord or a vision calling us to an end time task faithful life and death issues being propounded is are we in the proper order of god submitted to the heads which god has established over us that when they receive the vision we shall assuredly gather that the lord has called us and then therefore we shall immediately set forth we with a straight course up until now it's been a jungle of discordancies and and rebellion and murmuring and hot shots who are critical of their pastors or their elders or or what have you but i'll tell you there's an order of god and god is not going to minister to those elders into those heads until the body is submitted unto them i know that they're wanting i know that they're lacking but if they're the ones whom god has established it behooves us to be submitted unto them in the same way that it behooves a wife to be submitted to her husband even though he may be lacking and god is not going to minister maturity and depth and spirituality to that husband until that wife is willing to submit to his authority not because he has impressive endowments but because god has established an order part of the meaning of the word maturity is submitting to authority there's no maturity without submission and there's no action of the body of christ without this profound principle being exercised and god has buried this like a little gold nugget in act 16 for almost 2 000 years and now all of a sudden it's being revealed after he had seen the vision immediately we endeavored to go before we leave this question of visions i want to say this we'll find as we read the rest of the chapter they never did see that man they never saw the man that paul had seen in the vision you say what kind of a god is this who will give men visions that they're not going to see expressly realized well i recently had the experience myself god gave us a vision he gave us the name the date and the place for a special convocation for jewish believers in new york city where it was to be conducted at the beginning on the night of pentecost shul luis the jewish feast day when the fire fell on the heads of the disciples in jerusalem 2000 years before and god said you should call it chicana 74 and hold it at columbia university the very same place where the student rebellions broke out some years ago with jewish youth in the leadership where they urinated and defecated in the university president's office and made a mock and a travesty of that place there you plant the banner of my holiness yes lord he gave us a vision and i know the vision was that the chicana glory of god was going to fall i came to that conference without a message prepared i didn't think there was going to be any speaking i expected that once we were assembled that the glory of god was going to fall and unbelieving jews were going to fall in their faces as they always have and cry out the lord he is god the lord he is god and it never happened you know what the critics are saying oh cats we know you by now you and your visions you and your and your dreams and and your so-called leadings of the lord where is it where was that fire it never fell and the jewish people that we thought were going to come never came it was completely boycotted and the rabbis whom we had invited to speak uh copped out at the last moment under great rabbinical opposition and pressure but instead of the fire falling the believers fell and the very first night god called out the fornicators the liars the chiefs the carnal sinners and the and the stage and the platform the aisles were loaded with heaving and sobbing jewish believers and god said that's the condition of the body of christ these are the ones that you're going to send to germany to to reconcile a fragmented divided body of christ there look at them but before that conference is over the lord said something more he said have it again next year and the year after that and the year after that you know what i believe children in one of those years the first vision that god gave us is going to be fulfilled i don't know when but we thought this was a one-time thing but once we got in motion in obedience to the heavenly religion then the lord began to reveal more we never did see what he gave us but it was sufficient to animate us to encourage us to undertake the task to which we were called and now we're beginning to see the greater logic of it there was a much longer prospect than we had imagined at first so don't be disappointed if you don't see your vision immediately realized it's sufficient to spur you to activity in the obedience of it that's all that was in god's heart and intent subsequently you may see its complete fulfillment or as in this case they never did see that man but by it they were brought to the right place at the right time and did the bidding of the lord and visions don't need always to be visual the old things that god would drop into your heart without actually seeing it and you'll know that you must go there this is the age of the spirit and we are children of the spirit the spirit of the lord is now upon me for he has anointed me with the first words of jesus and they're our first words also and so they came to philipi and we read in the 13th verse and on the sabbath after they had been in that city abiding certain days we went out of the city by a riverside where prayer was wont to be made and we sat down and spoke unto the women which resorted there oh paul baby man i thought that you were a man of god i thought that you understood something about the principles of god and god brings you all the way from asia to europe and you come to the chief city and on the shabbat when the synagogues are burgeoning with jews and there's all the activity and action you went out of the city man you don't know the first abcs of evangelism you better enroll at youth with a mission dear children we've been so intoxicated by numbers the whole spirit of the modern world has permeated god's people also and i'll tell you that god will send his men halfway around the world for one and he'll humiliate his servant at city college in new york that three weeks later some straggly jewish woman who is a compulsive chain smoker should come to the knowledge of him the question is not one one thousand one million ten the question is are we obedient to the heavenly vision to be in the place where god wants us the numbers are irrelevant this session this morning is as important and as consequential as any speaking has ever done before hundreds before thousands and if the audience were one half the size one quarter the size if there were two of you one of you and i was perfectly obeying god to be speaking to you with this word that's all that matters paul went out of the city but he said all right where does it say that the holy spirit says paul gets me out of the city and goes to the other side a vision appears to paul saying get the out nothing like that that's why it's so beautiful because we have here the whole panoply of god's working by the by the spirit that checks and forbids by the spirit that does come and by another operation the holy spirit that is neither vision nor speaking you say what are you getting at how did paul know to go out of out of the city when he should have remained there by every natural and wise evangelical reckoning he had a hunch that's all he had a hunch and i'll tell you what's happening to me children i told you that my life with god began in jerusalem where i was led into a bookstore by being on a mistaken bus and heard a still small voice call me by name i'll tell you i've heard that same voice on several occasions since in the course of my walk in ministry explicitly saying do this go there speak that it's a great delight to have god so explicitly speak to you it's not quite as pleasant when he doesn't speak and you come to a place of commitment and you're trembling and knowing that it's a fateful consequential moment and you would regard that god would explicitly say act 16 which he has said in these times past will give you a clear impression of what it is you're the speaker to do and you're sitting ready to be called on you hear yourself being introduced and we have the man of god with us today and we know that we're going to hear from god through him and we know that god has given him a word and you're thinking yeah i wish i knew what it was and the moments are taking away and finally you're called up and you have still not heard from god what do you do in a moment like that i'll tell you what you do you have no alternative but to speak whatsoever is in your heart and mind to do you remember Elijah stood before Ahab and said is the lord my god liveth before my stand it shall not reign nor do these years but according to my word how do you know to speak that my word what is he a wise guy commanding the elements but i'll tell you that god had done something in his life he had brought him to such a place of obedience in god that his word was god's word his hunch was god's hunch his impulse was god's impulse his thought was god's thought and i'll tell you children that i'm becoming increasingly irritated when i hear christians say oh and i'm going to do this for god and if he will help me then i will do for god so and so it's all wrong it's naive it's stupid it's uninformed it's not the way of god at all there's no two separate categories god there and you here and if you'll be nice and he'll treat you well he'll show you and you'll do for him it's christ in us the hope of glory in him i move and live and have my being for me to live as christ for me to speak as christ for me to minister as christ for me to carry on a conversation as christ for me to be sociable as christ and i'll tell you guys i was once a very engaging personality maybe you would have never had a more pleasant time than to have an hour with our cat at a table over a cup of coffee i could regale you with conversation bright brilliant any topic humorous but i'll tell you now i'm lousy company lousy gray lifeless inert except that he is my life if i have any charm it's his charm if there's any graciousness it's his graciousness if there's any wit it's his wit if there's any humor it's his humor if there's any wisdom it's his wisdom i would assure him not to speak and not to be bright and not to be engaging neither am i i'm dead and hid with god in christ when his glory shall be revealed then my glory shall be revealed also because i don't have any glory independent of his glory he is my life he's the life of my life guys and we've been together now for a few sessions and if you had eyes to say you've noticed a change from session to session a different kind of speaking a different personality different emphasis the first time it was so loose and so informal so jolly we were i enjoyed it myself i wish i could have it the next time almost quite the reverse rather prim firm proper last night almost like a lecture today something else yet quite again my life is not my own can you say that for me to live with christ i am crucified with christ nevertheless i live yet not i christ liveth in me christ thinketh in me christ feeleth in me christ has hunches in me paul went out of the city by a riverside on no more firm basis than he had a hunch there was no explicit speaking there was no vision he went out and i'll tell you i've seen such glories of god on just such gospel of things as that a chance encounter the garden tomb in jerusalem a brushing of elbows passing by a german believer who's looking at some picture postcards uh one word leads to another and i'll tell you that god has opened such a dimension of experience and reality that it bothers my mind a hunch accident the circumstantial meeting of god oh children this is the age of the spirit and we ought to be the people of the spirit led by the spirit animated by the spirit directed by the spirit so for god's sake get every fleshly thing out of the way your thoughts your intentions what you would think would be good well man we're in philippi let's see where's the biggest synagogue located i think we're going to rent the local ballpark and put up big signs and placards and hand out handbills and let's get the crowd isn't that conventional evangelical wisdom and i'm not saying that that wisdom is wrong if god shall establish that wisdom in any given moment but it's a walk in the spirit moment by moment we're not to trust what was successful yesterday past experience past understanding clever rules where vessels holy yielded to the spirit of god do you like that kind of life it's a glory to god and that's why i rankle at any kind of methodology any kind of technique anything that's cut and dried and is down in four laws five laws ten laws principles this is the way you do it this is the method there may be a time when god will employ it but not every time and i'll tell you something in my experience which perhaps you've already known in your own what god used yesterday and blessed and anointed it was a life-giving thing he will not use today because it was yesterday's success and i had to learn early in my ministerial walk that because god gave me a message yesterday which blessed the people i can't bring it out today when i want to be a blessing i've seen it down like a proverbial red balloon what then do we do we have to bring our bodies as a living sacrifice and stand in the place where god has brought us knowing that he has called us we have assuredly gathered that the lord has called us and believing in that moment what's in our hearts is speaking to do is the will of god now that could be the most dangerous counsel if you're a fleshly carnal immature believer i'm not speaking to immaturity this morning i'm speaking to mature if you're a mature believer whose life is not your own and your only purpose is his glory it's wise counsel if you're freshly carnal and immature wanting to do your thing wanting to be seen wanting to be heard wanting to be applauded it's the most dangerous counsel for my for me to suggest to you you ought to do it in your heart it's only when his heart is your heart when his will is your will when his thought is your thought that it's safe to think do it in your heart i'll give you one illustration we'll take a break at a meeting uh some conference i was exhausted the meeting was over i was about to leave and a woman clutched at my hand just before i got to the door and she she had such a look in her face she was in need and i was so tired i couldn't get my thoughts together my mind was just just about shut and i tried to be polite and what it sounded like such a silly thing she wanted to ask me she said brother can't she said on the way to the meeting tonight driving alone i saw a hitchhiker by the side of the road and i had an apos at first to pick him up and almost immediately right on the heels of the impulse the thought came to me how would it look for a christian woman alone in the car to pick up a hitchhiker and i was torn and i did not know what to do brother cast what should i have done now what school of theology shall you go to that will prepare you to give answer none i looked at that woman too tired to think and here's what i said to her i looked at her face there was no question her face was stricken because she is a child of god whose only concern is to do the will of the father that was evident i said you should have done what was in your heart and its first impulse to do and then i wanted to say even if that were wrong god would have redeemed your error do you know that our god is a great redeemer and you know children that god calls us to the book of acts he doesn't call us to the book of indecision he doesn't call us to the book of spinning wheels he doesn't call us to the book of aggravation and exercising our spirit is this the will of god is it nothing should i shouldn't die he calls us to act by the spirit and in the absence of any other clear signal of god of speaking of vision and you have only an impulse in your heart and your heart is ordered in god wanting to do his will do it and if by some means you have missed his will he who sees your heart will redeem your error and make it good and then by such experiences is that you'll know more clearly later how to interpret rightly your impulses and to be more consistent in reading the mind of god and doing his will that's my advice to her and that's my advice to you on the shabbat when the cities were jammed with people and every evangelical hot shot would have said paul go where the crowds are he went out of the city by the river where prayer was wont to be made by women and there he god brought him to a woman whose heart was prepared to receive the lord and when she heard it she was immediately baptized and that was the beginning of the body of christ in philippines isn't this a beautiful way this is the pattern children the principles of the living god by the spirit in the mh