In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the need for believers to move beyond simply observing and rejoicing about the presence of God, and instead fully immerse themselves in His presence. He uses the analogy of a river, stating that many believers have been content with splashing around at the water's edge for too long. The speaker also highlights the corporate implications of this, suggesting that the church as a whole needs to embrace a deeper walk with God. He concludes by describing the church as a beautiful, holy, and anointed bride, and encourages believers to bear fruit and fight according to the rules of the spiritual war.

Hello, this is Brother Denny. Welcome to Charity Ministries. Our desire is that your life would be blessed and changed by this message. This message is not copyrighted and is not to be bought or sold. You are welcome to make copies for your friends and neighbors. If you would like additional messages, please go to our website for a complete listing at www.charityministries.org. If you would like a catalog of other sermons, please call 1-800-227-7902 or write to Charity Ministries, 400 West Main Street, Suite 1, EFRA PA 17522. These messages are offered to all without charge by the free will offerings of God's people. A special thank you to all who support this ministry. They that wait upon the Lord shall be anointed with fresh oil day by day by day, and that will truly renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like the eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. They that wait upon the Lord. Amen. Well, it's a real blessing to be together this morning. I appreciated the words out of 3rd John this morning. It's a joy to hear Brother Dean sharing too. I wonder how many men are yet here from the Leadership Seminar. Let me see your hands this morning. Okay. Speaking to you men, and all of us men, that are local here. I wonder how many of you have been keeping your conscience clear since Friday evening. Anybody have any exercises in doing that? Let me see your hand if you've had some exercises in doing that since Friday evening. Good. Praise the Lord. That's how you learn to walk. God wants to do many things in the future, in our midst. He's longing to do that. He's waiting to do it. The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him. If you're one of those, you've been exercising your hearts, and your conscience is clear, and heaven is open, then your heart is perfect toward Him. And the Lord is going to and fro throughout the whole earth looking for those where He can show Himself strong on the behalf of those whose hearts are perfect toward Him. That's all God asks of us, isn't it? Just keep your heart perfect before Me. An upright heart. Let's bow for a prayer. Father in heaven, we bow down to You this one more time. We love You, Lord. We thank You for loving us. We thank You for Your Son, Jesus Christ, the Lord. We thank You, Lord, for this Sunday morning assembly, the blessing of being together, the blessing of coming together after a whole week of leadership seminar. We thank You for it, Lord. We thank You for Your presence. We sense that You're here today. We treasure that greatly, dear God, and pray that You would draw nigh unto us, Father, as we draw near unto You with our hearts. Father, this morning we long after You. We love You. We want to walk with You. We want all that You have for us, dear Father, as a people. And we do acknowledge that You are the Lord. You sit on the throne. You order all things. We thank You for this Sunday morning service and pray You would anoint us with the Holy Ghost this morning. Give us ears to hear, Lord. Oh, please, Father, give us ears to hear what the Spirit of God is saying unto the church in Jesus Christ's name. Amen. I have been teaching about the anointing of the Holy Ghost all week long in our leadership seminar. For the most part, as we have gone through the week, I have limited the applications to our personal, individual lives, speaking to the men coming from all kinds of different places, some in churches, some in little house fellowships, some all by themselves. I felt it needful to keep the applications along the personal, individual lines. But this morning, I would like to make some corporate applications to the subject that we have been looking at through the week. There are corporate applications which are staggering if we stop to consider them. So this morning, I would like to add to the messages that have already been given. I would like to add to the messages that have already been given this one. The church, God's anointed servant. The church, God's anointed servant. I so appreciated the challenge that we received on Friday night. We were warned, we were challenged about the danger of being like Simon in Acts chapter 8, who wanted to use the Holy Spirit to his own selfish advantage, who tried to buy this power, not realizing that the Holy Spirit is a person, not a power. He saw it as a power and thought it was something that he could just get somehow. Simon did not realize that his interpretation of what was happening was wrong, and that what was happening was not because of some power, but it was in fact the presence of the living God in the midst of the church there in Samaria. Peter rebuked him sharply that somehow, in the evil of his heart, he thought he could buy the Holy Ghost. Well, he did not realize that the Spirit of the living God is God the Holy Spirit. He is a person, not a power. God is not to be used, but to be utterly yielded to each and every day of our lives. Simon had not learned that. God showed us on Friday evening that some of us were guilty of using the Holy Spirit when we get in the tough spots, in the hard places, when we're not sure what to do, why then we drag Him out of the stall, so to speak, and use Him to get us out of our jam, and then we let Him back there and go our merry way, like the ox. You know, we were given that illustration on Friday evening, and I just want to allude to it a little bit here this morning so that we can connect it to the corporate implications of the power of the Holy Spirit. We learned on Friday evening, we are the ox waiting in the stall for the promptings of the Spirit of God to serve, to bear burdens, to win souls, and all the other things that God would call upon us to do. We are His servants. He is not ours. And I so appreciated those words and the way that was brought out to us. Friday night, after the meeting was over, I must say I was pretty tired. Amen, Brother Mose? I was pretty tired on Friday evening, and I remember telling a few people, well, I'm ready to go back to the stall. I've done my work, and I'm ready to go back to the stall and just rest there a while. And those were my plans. I even said to a few people, I'm so tired, I'm just going to go back to my stall, and that will be it. My work is done. But God had other plans for me on yesterday. He decided to test me all day long on the truth that was given on Friday night. Are you the ox in the stall, or are you putting the Holy Spirit in the stall, and you're the one that's in control? Now, I didn't realize what I was saying, and I think I said it innocently on Friday evening. I'm going back to the stall. Well, the Lord said, it's not time to go back to the stall. And, of course, we could allow ourselves to do a lot of reasoning on that and say, now, Lord, You know I'm tired, and You know this, and You know that. But I didn't do that. Because of the message on Friday evening, I wouldn't touch it. So, the Lord tested me all day long, and about midday, I realized what was happening, and I bowed my heart and said, Yes, Lord, I am Your slave. I am Your ox. And You decide when I go back to the stall, I don't make that decision. I tried to take a nap three times yesterday, and I couldn't go to sleep for nothing. And I mean, I was so tired. My wife looked at me and she said, You look shot. Go take a nap. I tried to lay down and take a nap. I couldn't go to sleep for nothing. I couldn't do it. All this message, the burden of the message this morning, it just kept coming up before my heart, and I just lay there wide awake. You know, I couldn't sleep, even though my body was tired. And finally I realized, I'm just a slave. That's all I am. I really don't have a choice in this matter. And it's not time to go back to the stall yet. And the phone was ringing, and people were needing counsel, and all this went on all the way through the whole day, all the way up to 10 o'clock when I finally did lay my head down and go to sleep. No message prepared yet. 10 o'clock, Saturday night. No message prepared yet. Okay, Lord, okay. I'm the ox. You're in charge. I was reminded early this morning that the Holy Spirit is given that we might be living martyrs. Living martyrs. Living out a dying life as the people of God. We are to be those who are anointed by the Holy Ghost and by that anointing, those who are living out a dying life. That means a life that is choosing to die and to die and to die and to die again and again and again. Well, this whole illustration, who is in charge, it has many corporate applications also. Churches can do the same thing, you know. Churches can say, boy, those were really good meetings and my, didn't we have a good time. Now, go back into the stall, Holy Spirit. Just go back in there and we're just going to keep on, you know, we're going to settle back down to where we were and we'll call you when it's time to have special meetings again. We'll get a couple prayer meetings going and we'll woo you out of the stall so that we can have your blessing on our meetings and send you back in there when we're done. I know we would never, we would shudder at the thought of doing such a thing, but yet, it's closer home than maybe we would even want to face. Isn't it, brethren? During the week, we saw, just briefly, we saw that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Acts chapter 2 was the Father anointing His Son from Heaven. We saw that. Acts chapter 2. Let's read that verse. Let's turn over there just for a minute to Acts chapter 2. And verse 32 and 33. Acts chapter 2, 32 and 33. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore, being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear. We saw in our studies that God the Father anointed His Son. Jesus was anointed for His earthly ministry. Anointed by the Holy Ghost. But He was also anointed for His heavenly ministry. He is the heavenly Aaron. He is seated at the right hand of the Majesty on High. He is the minister of the heavenly sanctuary this morning. And He is there making intercession for you and I. Pouring out prayers of intercession unto His Father. And pouring out the answer of those prayers down from Heaven into the hearts and lives of the people of God. That's what He's doing. But as we saw that, we realize that that oil, it came down upon the head of the Lord Jesus, seated at the right hand of the Majesty on High. And that oil began to run down from His head onto His beard. And after it went off of His beard, it began to flow down onto His garments, and it dripped all the way down to the hem of His garments. And we saw that God anointed the body of Christ that day. And that the body of Christ is the anointed Christ upon the earth. These are deep things, I know. But nevertheless, it's so. The Father anointed His Son with the oil of gladness. Hebrews chapter 1. And you read those verses. We don't have time to look at all the verses this morning. Because I want to stick to the applications. But you read those verses in Hebrews chapter 1. Those are heavenly verses. Those aren't verses about Christ when He walked on the earth. Those are heavenly verses. Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever a scepter of righteousness, is the scepter of Thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity. Therefore God, even Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows. And the church in the day of Pentecost, they were anointed with the oil of gladness, were they not? Oh, listen, they were filled with joy. And the Holy Ghost, the Bible says. And I think that's probably the reason why the people looking along said, those people are drunk. No, they're not drunk. They've been anointed with the oil of gladness and the Holy Ghost. Well, the church was born that day. His anointed body. We saw that He is the Christ, the heavenly anointed One. And we saw that we are the body of Christ and members in particular. We are the body of the heavenly anointed One, brothers and sisters. We are the body of the heavenly anointed One as we sit here this morning, if we've been washed in the blood of the Lamb, if we've been born again by the Spirit of God, if our hearts are clear and right with God, and we're living under the anointing of God. We are the body, the anointed body of the anointed Christ. This has deep implications, brothers and sisters. Deep implications. Way farther than I could ever begin to speak about in one sermon. We looked at the vision that Ezekiel had in Ezekiel 47. You know where Ezekiel saw a river flowing out from the throne of God in heaven? From the house of God, there's this river flowing out. And the angel took him there to the edge of the river. And he was standing in the edge of the river, and the water was up to his ankles. And he measured a thousand and walked in there. And the water was up to his knees and he measured a thousand and walked in there. And the water was up to his waist and he measured a thousand and walked in there. And behold, it was a river. It was a river, and you couldn't go across it. It was a river to swim in. Well, us men, we learned. And we've been splashing around on the water's edge for a long time, getting our feet wet—Amen!—looking at the river—Amen!—rejoicing about the river—Amen!—but splashing around at the river's edge much, much too long. Well, brothers and sisters, that has corporate implications also. That has corporate implications. Yes, as an individual, I have to come to grips with my own personal walk with God. Where am I at? Where am I going? Am I walking? Am I playing games? Am I playing games with the Holy Ghost, like our brothers shared with us on Friday evening? Or am I sincerely walking deeper and deeper into the river of God's presence? But, brothers and sisters, there are corporate implications that need to be applied also to such a truth as this, because it's that way with churches, too. Churches will go so far, and some of them say, We don't want to go any further. Some of them will go so far and face different things and say, We can't do that, and they won't go any further. Happens all the time. You know it's so. It happens among us, and you know it's so. Some of you that have been around here for a little while, you know it's so. Wherever that river touches, life springs up. That river is the anointing that is flowing down from the sun unto His body, which is the church. And this morning, brothers and sisters, that anointing is. It's not something that you have to go somewhere to find it. It's not something that you can go to some box somewhere and get it out of there. It is. The church is the body of Christ, and Christ is the anointed one. So, if the anointed one, the head is anointed, then the body should also be anointed. The question is whether or not the church, any local church, makes the choices whether they're going to step into the water, walk in the water, and yea, someday swim, or whether they're going to splash around on the edges all the days of their life. That is a question that we must come to grips with. God wants us to walk into a deeper and deeper anointing of His Spirit as a church. He wants us to do that. God is waiting on us to do that. God would not let me rest all day long. Every time I tried to sleep, all these things just kept coming up before my heart, and I looked upon them. I know that God uses individuals, that the functioning of the body of Christ takes place as individuals are yielded to His Spirit. I know that's so, but at the same time, the church is a body, a body, a functioning body. It's not an organization, it's an organism. There's a big difference between the two of those. An organization can run by the human effort of men who know how to organize and make things happen, but an organism cannot work and function without life flowing in it continually. Cut off the life, you just stop that organism from flowing and functioning. The church is the anointed body, is the mighty power of God on this earth. That is what the church is supposed to be. We are His anointed body. He is our anointed head. And I'll tell you what God has been speaking to my heart about all day yesterday and again early this morning. We are responsible to walk in this anointing into deeper waters. We're responsible to do that. We have not been responsible, brethren. We have not been responsible. We lose our way. We settle back into the status quo. We get busy doing other things. Oh, there are dozens and dozens of reasons why a church begins to lose its anointing. But God has been speaking to my heart through the day yesterday and through the early morning hours this morning that we are responsible. And I guess the reason why the burden is there this morning is because I know so many of us men, we sat through all the week, we sat here in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, we sat here in utter awe at times, did we not? We sat here in utter awe as we sang. And it was so heavenly. And it was so powerful. And we saw God doing beautiful things. And men's lives were transformed. But the burden that came upon my heart through the day yesterday and this morning is we are responsible to walk in that anointing which we tasted and saw this last week. As a church, even though yes, every one of us individuals in this room, we're responsible on our own. But also as a fellowship, as churches, we're responsible to keep moving forward in that which God was doing. Otherwise, it's just some nice meetings we had and we can tell stories about what God did back there. But God doesn't want us to tell stories about what he did back there. God wants us to be living stories every day. And next Sunday can be just as sweet and powerful as last week was. Amen. And that's the burden that I have upon my heart that we as men are responsible to keep moving forward in the anointing that God has blessed us with. That's how the anointing grows, brothers and sisters. It grows as we walk in it. It's not something you just step in and out of. It's not something that you pick up over at one place and you drop off at another place and maybe you'll get it again over here. The way that the anointing grows is if we walk in it. As a church, God has been telling me that we are responsible to walk in this anointing into a deeper water. The choice to settle back down to the status quo has devastating effects, brothers and sisters. Now, I believe that God is a very patient God. He is. He's long-suffering as He shines His light upon us as a people. But there comes a point in time if we keep splashing around on the water's edge when God will finally say, I want a body who will manifest My presence in the world. And if you're not going to be that body, I'm going to look for another one. And there are plenty of churches to remind us that those things do happen. We are responsible to move forward in the anointing that God has given us. As a church, we have lost some of the anointing that we had and some of you have been around here for a while and you know that. You know that. We've come up to these deeper places again and again and settled back down. Settled back down. There are many reasons for the settling back down. And I don't believe that we, as we're sitting here today, you know, it's not in our mind to say, Lord, you go get in your stall. We were glad for those meetings. That was a real blessing. Lots of people went home and they're going to talk about all the things that happened down there at that leadership seminar. But now, Lord, we have other things we need to get on to. I know that nobody is sitting in here thinking or feeling those kind of thoughts. But in fact, if we do go out of here and settle back down into the status quo and just go about our own lives and all about our own business, that is, in fact, how we feel. That's a dangerous thing. And God is patient with us and God will bring us up to the river's edge again and again. But, you know, God is only patient so long. He wants an anointed body to express the beauty of his son upon the earth in the community where we live. The implications are far reaching, brothers and sisters, of what God would want to do, of what God can do, what God is wanting to do and what God needs to do. The Spirit of God is telling me that we can't do that anymore. We can't do that anymore. Those days are over. You've done that enough times. You've had enough meetings. We are the ox. He is the Lord, God's anointed servant. We are God's anointed servant in our community. That's what we're supposed to be, God's anointed servant. That is what we see in the book of Acts. Consider, consider the book of Acts from this perspective this morning. We see in the book of Acts, we see the Christ, God's anointed son, manifesting himself to the world through the church, which is his body. Is that right, theology? Is that what you see in the book of Acts? You see the Christ, God's anointed son, manifesting himself in a world through his anointed body. That's it. It's beautiful. That was God's plan. That's what the Lord Jesus went to the cross for. That's how much he loves righteousness and hates iniquity. He loves righteousness so much that he wants a whole anointed body upon this earth manifesting the glorious presence and character of the living God. That's how much he loves righteousness, that he was willing to go to the cross to buy, to purchase himself a bride which flowed out of his side. Amen. He gave himself for the bride which flowed out of his side. Beautiful, spotless bride. That was thinking about the history of revivals this morning. You know, revivals, they're not just a powerful time in history. Consider it. Consider another look at the history of revivals this morning. Just consider. It's not just a powerful time in history. It is the river of God's anointing flowing among his people. It is a place in history, a place in time, a place somewhere on the earth where God's river began to flow, and all of a sudden the anointed head and the anointed body were connected, and the anointing flowed everywhere, and revival broke out. Oh, when I start considering it that way, oh, it changes a lot of things in my own mind. I begin to realize this is something that is available, and it's right here at our fingertips, and we don't have to sit around for another ten years and wonder if God is going to move in our midst. God wants to move in our midst. He has already sent his Son. His Son has died on the cross. He was raised from the dead according to the Spirit of holiness, and he has been anointed at God's right hand as the beloved Son in whom God is well pleased, and that anointing is flowing even today, and God is just looking for a people who will yield to the anointing of his Spirit and not stop until the river of God is flowing in their midst and in their community. That's what God has been saying to my heart. I don't know how that sits with you. Maybe you're, you know, maybe you're like me yesterday. Well, it was a good week, but I'm tired. I'm going back to the stall. No, that's not going to get it. I'm going back to my program. I'm going back to the way things were. No, that's not it. We can't go back. Revival is not just a powerful time in history, but it is God's people responding, obeying, repenting, serving and yielding to the anointing of the Spirit of God. I would encourage you, I would challenge you to do a little reading on that subject and see. Just read on the history of revivals a bit and see if you don't see God's anointed body moving under the anointing that is upon its head as it's connected together. And the presence of God, the river of God is flowing everywhere. All the beautiful testimonies where revival breaks out. This morning I drove, I drove from the church over there at charity here this morning. And as I was driving down the road, I went by one of those church buildings, you know, and there's a couple hundred buggies out there. And I thought, Lord, they're not converted. It's 20 years that we've been here and there's no conversions, hardly among those dear people. God wants to change that. He can save those dear people. He can do it. I tell you, you read the history of revival. When God moves in revival in the midst of His people, He reaches outside of the church building. And those people that are hiding over there in their horse and buggies over there on Sunday morning, they won't be able to run away from the Holy Ghost. They'll have to deal with Him because He transcends the church building. Let's look in the Song of Solomon for a minute. Found a real jewel in there. The Song of Solomon. Chapter six, chapter six and verse 10, verse 10 begins with, Who is she? Who is she? Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun and terrible as an army with banners? Who is she, brothers and sisters, this morning? Who is that that is like the morning sun, fair as the moon, fairer than the sunshine and terrible as an army with banners? Who is she? Who can tell me? It's the church. That's the church, the beautiful church. She looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, terrible as an army with banners. That's quite a combination, isn't it? We wouldn't put the two of those together, would we? But you see, this is a different kind of war, brothers and sisters. This is a different kind of war. The rules are different. We need to get a hold of that. There is a war, but it's a different kind of war, and the rules are different. We need to learn how to fight according to the rules of the war. Amen? Who is she? It's the church, His beautiful, holy, anointed bride. That's who it is. This bride is being manifested in other parts of the world, brothers and sisters. Praise God for what He has done in our hearts and our lives. Praise God for what we have here, but let's not be satisfied with what we have. This bride is manifesting its beautiful presence in other parts of the world, where people live in poverty, where there's not materialism, where people live in persecution, where the church has a hard time making it, where you get thrown in jail if you open up your mouth for the Lord Jesus Christ. In those places, this beautiful bride is showing forth herself, and she is beautiful, but she is also terrible, like an army with banners. And they don't know what to do with her. The authorities don't know what to do with her, just like the authorities did not know what to do with her in the book of Acts. What can we do? How can we stop this thing? Let's beat her. Surely that'll stop. No, she just glows brighter and brighter when you beat her. Let's starve her. No, she will just get fuller and fuller of the Holy Ghost the more you starve her. Let's scare her. No, she'll be filled with a courage that comes from deep within, and you won't be able to scare her. She's the church, the beautiful, anointed bride of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Anointed One. And oh my, I'm so glad that you can find out how things are going in other places in the earth. It would be pretty sad if all we had to look at and compare ourselves is what we have here in the United States. Let's not compare with the United States. If we compare with the United States, we might think, boy, we really have got something here. I mean, we've got it. It's not good to compare with American Christianity. It's not good to do that. And there's a danger. There's a danger. God wants His bride to be manifested here. We must walk in the light that God has given us if God is going to manifest the beauty of His bride upon the earth in these communities where we live. You know, it's some weeks ago that I was here at Ephrata and I preached on walking in the light, and I just shared the principles on walking in the light and went from there. But when I was in Africa not long ago, the Lord led me to give the same message that I gave here in four different places. And I'll tell you why. Because each place where I went, I saw these young churches who were not responding to the light that God was giving them. And there was problems among them and there was sickness among them and there was strife among them and all kinds of things. And they were filled with doubt and unbelief. And the Lord led me to give the same message four different times because I saw that what was happening was they had not been responding to the light that God gave them. And when you don't do that, it doesn't go well. Well, that applies to us, too, as churches. It applies to us. It's not just for the Africans over on the other side of the ocean. It applies to us, too. Living in America will not be an excuse at the throne of judgment. We will not be able to say to the Lord, Lord, we lived in America. We didn't have time. We lived in America. I was too busy. We lived in America. I had to get the house. We lived in America. I had to have three cars. Lord, we lived in America. Lord, none of that is going to mean a thing when we stand before the judgment. There is no special spot for us because we lived in America. In fact, yielding to America and all of its dreams may be our condemnation when we stand before the judgment. And we get there and we find out how much more God wanted to do. And we didn't even realize it because that's all we know. God is wanting to work mightily among us, brothers and sisters. Praise God for what he's doing. But God wants to do more than that. He wants to do more than that. We have many needs among us, and you know it. There are some hurting people in this room this morning, and many of us know it. And the ministers know it for sure. And some of the others of you, you know it. You know there are hurting people in this room. Some of our children are not saved this morning. And God wants to do something to change all of that. There are some parents that are weeping in their heart this morning. They have a child that's not saved, and they don't know what to do. The child is getting older and older and older. Some of our people have deep problems. Deep problems. Problems we don't know how to solve. Problems with the ministers. Wring their hands in the ministers' meeting and say, God, what do we do? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know what to do. I agree with Brother Moe's and his teachings. Psychology is not the answer. But brothers and sisters, if we're going to say psychology is not the answer and not have the answer, shame on us. So psychology isn't the answer, then you just sit there and wallow in your trouble for the next ten years. That's not the answer. The answer is that we get desperate about where we're at. The answer is that God is an ever-present, living, mighty and powerful God, and there is nothing too hard for Him. But the answer is that God's people need to get serious about those things and seek God until God comes in and changes the situation. Do you believe that God can do that? Amen. I hope you do, because God will test us to see what we will do with the problems that we have in our midst. He will test us. We have those that are sick among us, and God would like to heal them. I'm not saying that God's going to heal every person that's sick in this whole room, but brothers and sisters, why don't we seek God for those that are sick, and trust God to heal them, and save ourselves a few scores of thousands of dollars in hospital bills, and take that money and put it in the offering plate for missions? Why give it to the hospital? And God could take care of the whole thing. Think of our dear poor brothers over in Africa. You know, they don't have any money. They don't even have a clinic to go to, most of them. No doctors over there. What do they do when somebody gets sick among them? Ah, they have an all-night prayer meeting. I wonder what would happen if we had an all-night prayer meeting over somebody who is sick. Amen? But I'm afraid we have fallen so far down into the if-it-be-thy-will that we have no more faith to believe that God could raise them up. We have if-it-be-thy-will so many times we don't even believe God can do it. But God can do it. And I believe in if-it-be-thy-will. And I'm afraid we've if-it-be-thy-will so many times that it's hardly, there's hardly any faith in our heart. I remember that time some years ago we had an anointing service at our cell group, and it was at our house. Dear sister, who had cancer of ovaries and she was barren, and we were watching her just wither away, little by little, day by day. I mean, she was drinking barley green and carrot juice until she was turning orange, trying to spare her life that way. She called for an anointing of oil. And we dedicated the whole meeting to the anointing service. And the Lord sent an African by that day. Interesting. He just happened to drop by. I mean, out of nowhere, somebody that I knew in Kenya ended up over here going to a Bible school in Virginia and ended up on my doorstep the very day that we were going to have that anointing. So we had the anointing service, and we if-it-be-thy-will, all of us around the circle, we if-it-be-thy-will until it was time for the African to pray. And he prayed a totally different prayer than all of us if-ers prayed. That man, he come up out of that if-it-be-thy-will and began to pray in faith, believing God. And he asked God to heal that dear lady and asked God to open up her womb and fill her hands and arms with children. I mean, when he got done praying, it was quiet in the place. Amen. And everybody knew he prayed a different kind of prayer than all of us if-ers prayed. Two or three weeks later, my phone rang, and that dear sister said, Brother Denny, she was so ecstatic. She said, Brother Denny, you won't believe this. You won't believe it. I'm totally healed of my cancer. And I'm pregnant! I'm pregnant, Brother Denny! Hallelujah! Glory! So I just think we ought to balance this if-it-be-thy-will a little bit. Amen? Let's just knock it over the other side a ways and believe God. Our prayers need to become a cry, brothers and sisters. Our prayers need to become a cry, a desperate cry that rises up out of a desperate heart that says, God, we need you to come and do something. We've got a situation here. We don't know what to do. We've come to the end of ourselves, but God, we're coming to you believing that you're a living God and you want to be moving and be active in the midst of your church, Lord. Would you come and take care of this situation? And we're not going to stop until we see an answer from heaven. Fast and pray. I'll tell you something to shoot for. You look at Isaiah chapter 58 there where it talks about the fast that God has chosen. You put that thing in the corporate context. All the beautiful things that come out of those kind of fasts, put it in the corporate context and set your side of self three days and say, bless God, let's fast and pray for three days that God would make Isaiah 58 more of a reality in our midst as a congregation. He'll do it. He's doing it in other places. He's no respecter of persons. We know that. He's the same yesterday, today and forever. He doesn't act different in Africa than he does here. Amen? But it's according to our faith, isn't it? Let's turn to Isaiah 42 for a minute. Consider a few verses there. Isaiah 42 Isaiah chapter 42. We're going to read from verse one through eight. Now, this is a prophecy about Christ. We know that, but I would like to read it this morning and I would like to read it in the context of the Christ, the anointed one and his body. Let's read it in that context today. Yes, it is prophesying that Christ is going to come. Yes, it is prophesying how Christ is going to be when he's on the earth. But brothers and sisters, it's speaking more than just what Christ will do in his earthly ministry. It's preaching about what Christ is going to do with his body upon the earth and in places all over this world. It's speaking of the Christ. Look at it. In light of the sermon this morning, the church, God's anointed servant. Behold, my servant whom I uphold, mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth. I have put my spirit upon him. He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. Has that been completed yet? No. That's in process. He shall not cry nor lift up or cause his voice to be heard in the streets. A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flask shall he not quench. He shall bring forth judgment unto truth. He shall not fail nor be discouraged till he has set judgment in the earth and the isles shall wait for his law. Is that all done? That's not all done. We're in the process of that. Thus saith the Lord God, he that created the heavens and stretched them out, he that spread forth the earth and that which cometh out of it, he that giveth breath unto the people upon it and spirit to them that walk therein, I the Lord have called thee in righteousness and will hold thine hand and will keep thee and give thee for a covenant of the people for a light of the Gentiles to open the blind eyes to bring out the prisoners from the prison and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house. I am the Lord, that is my name, and my glory will I not give unto another, neither my praise to graven images. When you read those verses in light of God's anointed servants and you realize that God is still wanting to do those kind of things and God is doing those things and he's doing them through his servant, the Christ, which is Christ the head, and the church, which is his body. God is still doing those things and God wants to do them. But the body needs to get in tune with the head. In order for those kind of things to happen, the body must get in tune with the head. We have seen this manifest in different times and places throughout church history. Beautiful things like that have happened. I think of the dear Anabaptists in history. Bless God, they were in the river, weren't they? No question about that. The early Anabaptists were in the river. They were deep in the river. They were swimming in the river and the river was flowing and everywhere the river flowed, life sprung up. They couldn't stop them. They tried to snuff them out. They tried to scare them. They tried to beat them. They tried to get rid of them by killing them. They tried to burn their Bibles. They couldn't do it. They couldn't stomp it out. It was a river that was flowing and life sprung up everywhere that it flowed. They were walking in the anointing, brothers and sisters, a powerful anointing, way more than what we know, way more than what we know. They were humble. They were Christ-like. They were fearless. They were an army, a beautiful army, terrible with banners. The gates of hell trembled in the early days of the Anabaptists. The demons were scrambling in every direction in the early days of the Anabaptists. They were scrambling. The authorities didn't know what to do. The more they tried, the worse it got. The more they killed, the more they were born. The more they burned, the more the Word of God was flowing in the hearts of the ones that were left. They tried every way they could to stomp it out, but it just simply made the gates of hell tremble. And we all know why it was that way with those early Anabaptists. They were walking in the anointing, and they wouldn't compromise on the things that God was showing them. Even to the death, they wouldn't compromise on the things that God was showing to them. They walked with God. They were full of God. They were full of the Word. They were full of the burden in the heart of God. Their burden was for the souls of men. They were burdened for the glory of their Christ, their Captain. Nothing else mattered to them. They were walking in the anointing. Listen, that anointing dawned upon some of them in the early days, and those ones in the early days had choices to make. And by their choices, the anointing got stronger. And by their choices, the anointing became more powerful. And by their choices, the anointing spread to others until it became a movement that couldn't be stopped. God is no respecter of peoples. He is not. What He does in one place, He wants to do in any place where there is a people who are willing to walk in the anointing that God gives them. That's the way God is. The gates of hell were trembling, and the demons were fleeing before them in every direction. Now they seem to have lost their way. They seem to have lost their way. I don't know all the reasons, but I know that prosperity settled in. I know that the focus turned at times away from Christ and on to the things, the rules, and we need to be this, and we need to do this, and we need to look like this. And I know that some of that is there. I know that there were times when they were picking at each other and finding fault, and you shouldn't have done this this way and that way. And for whatever the reasons are, they lost that powerful anointing. And I think that any Anabaptist would have to honestly say that that's true. Praise God for what they stand for and what they have. But they don't have this. They don't have it. And I don't say that critically. I don't say it critically, but we have to be honest. It's a dangerous thing to say we still have it if we don't have it. That's a dangerous thing to say. We have revival, we have the anointing of God, we have a blessing of God upon us, but no souls ever get saved. I thought about the Salvation Army this morning, where they were the church militant 120 or 30 years ago. They don't have it today. They do not have the anointing today that they had back there. And the leaders of that organization today would admit that. They would admit that, that they were anointed. They were flowing in that river in the early days. The Salvation Army attacked the cities. They attacked the evil of the cities. They went to the most corrupt places. They were not afraid to go and minister to the drunks of the city. In fact, they loved that. Amen. Let's go to the worst ones. Let's go to the ones that are in the dregs of filth and vomit and degradation. Let's go to the lowest of the low and preach the gospel to them. And pray and pray and fast and pray until God comes in and changes their lives. And the church looked on and said, those people are nuts. And their leader is deranged. Yeah, well, that's what they said in the beginning. But that's not what they said 30 years later. As the Salvation Army churches sprung up all over the world filled with men and women who were absolutely at the bottom of the barrel of humanity. And God raised them up out of that and made holy saints out of them, serving and glorifying God. And everybody shut their mouth. I mean, what can you say? There it is. They were anointed. They believed in bold, believing prayer. They fasted. They believed in holiness. Brothers and sisters, what are we going to do about it? I believe God is telling us He wants us to go on from here, not settle back down. You know, now let's just get on with life and let's just settle back down. We've got special meetings coming in a while and we can get things back up again. That's got to stop. God wants His anointing to rest on us beautiful ways, powerful ways, Sunday by Sunday in the prayer meetings. God wants that. It used to be that way and you know it. Some of you know it was that way. God's heart is that it be that way again. Let us fast and pray and cry unto God that we don't lose what we have gained and that we gain more of what has already been bought and paid for. There is a danger. There is a danger of high-mindedness. There is a danger to think that we are swimming when we're only splashing on the river's edge. There's a danger in that, to think we're swimming when in reality we're only splashing around on the river's edge. There's a danger. You see, that changes how you look at everything. That changes your prayers. 1 Samuel 2. And then we'll be done here. 1 Samuel 2. We have a beautiful prophetic prayer prayed by Hannah at the time that she gave her son to the Lord. This Hannah, she was no regular daughter of the Lord for a few years, then turned him loose in the temple. She prays a prayer. We're not going to go through the whole prayer, but I'd like to read from verse 7 of that prayer. It's prophetic. It's full of revelation of God. In her prayer she says, verse 7, the Lord maketh poor and maketh rich. He bringeth low and lifteth up. That's good to just read this part on right there, isn't it? The Lord does that. He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory. For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and He hath set the world upon them. He will keep the feet of His saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness, for by strength shall no man prevail. Not by might, nor by power, saith the Lord, but by My Spirit. Look at verse 10. The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces. Out of heaven shall He thunder upon them. The Lord shall judge the ends of the earth, and He shall give strength unto His King, and exalt the horn of His anointed. Looking at all of that from a New Testament perspective, amen? Because we're not kings anymore, who get a bunch of people together and go fight against another king. No, we don't do that anymore. Those things, that's not for the Christ, the anointed One. He, a bruised reed, He won't break. Amen? The humble, the lowly Christ, living upon the earth. That war, we're not in those kind of wars anymore, but there is a war going on. And the Lord has adversaries upon this earth, and God wants to thunder out and down upon those adversaries. God wants to do that. He wants to use His church to thunder down upon those adversaries. But the church, many times, doesn't even realize the adversaries are there. They don't even realize He's there. May God open up our eyes. God open our eyes. I guess the plea that I have is, is just that we, that we not stop here, but that we go on from here, and use this last week as stepping stones for the Lord to come back again. Amen? To higher ground, in our fellowships. I mean, think about it, brethren. Don't you think that every minister that was here this last week, who had a bunch of men here, is saying what I'm saying in their churches at home today? I mean, they got a glimpse of something. I mean, they went home thinking, Oh, if the church would get a hold of this, my, all my problems would be over. Well, being a pastor and having a pastor's heart, I know those kind of things that they're saying. They're getting their men up there to testify of the things that God did in their lives, and then the pastor will get up afterwards and say, Brethren, let's not lose what God has done in our hearts and our lives, but let's go on from here. And that's the burden that I have this morning. God wants to do mighty things in our midst if we will just keep on walking out a little bit deeper in the anointing that God is giving to us. I mean that personally, each one, but I also mean it corporately, corporately. May God work a beautiful work in these last days, somehow shape our lives and shape this community and wake it up before Jesus comes and wake it up before persecution comes and wake it up before Judgment Day comes. May God do a mighty work in our community before Jesus comes. That's the burden on my heart. Thank you for letting me share. And all the church says, Amen. Amen. Thank you, Brother Denny, for allowing the Lord to use you this morning to speak to my heart, to our hearts here together. I know that God has shown me, I knew it before this week started, I'm not where I once was in my life, in my walk with God. And I, I'm not happy about that. And I want to see God help me, my brothers help me, that we can lay, I can lay hold and return to where God would have me to be and go on. I don't want to stop. And I believe that all of us, as we're honest, we also know that what Brother Denny said this morning is true, that as a church, we're not where we once were, and we need to humble ourselves, cry out to God. I want to also say that I am, I'm also convinced in my heart, we don't need another emotional experience. Must go a lot deeper than that. And we live in a Christianized religious setting, and we live in a Christianized church, and many are just looking on and saying, where is the power of God? And they have seen enough of empty hoo-blah, whatever you want to call it, and so God help us that we don't add to the testimony of those who are looking on and saying, well, they just end up in worldliness, what's going on, and we just give them enough time, but that we have reality. And that's what we want. That's what I want. I did make a few notes. The key, I so appreciate it, Brother Denny, that you, in your teaching here, you forethought that you could have had an altar call, and everybody would come, and we would all be there, but that that was not what was needed, but that what we need is to take these things deeply in our prayer closet before God, say, okay, Lord, what is it? I want to walk with you. Now, I'm not against an altar call, you all know that. Maybe you do need a trip to the altar in humility, but God, the only thing that I can see in my own life what's going to change, the only thing that will bring lasting results is abiding in Him, staying vitally connected to the Vine. Everything else will just be another bump in the road, and another little, is a bit how the Lord has spoken to my heart, and I just so desire that we would go on, Brethren. In Matthew, you may turn there for one scripture, then I want to open it up for brothers to share. In Matthew 21, and we won't give the whole scripture here, but we do not want to take it out of context, but this is a beautiful heart-searching parable that Jesus gave concerning in Matthew 21, and the parable begins in verse 33, and He's giving the parable of the vineyard there, and the wine press and all there, and how that everything's prepared, and then He comes that He might receive the fruit, but we know that He says finally at the bottom they did not respond rightly, they stoned and they killed and beat those, and finally He says, destroy those wicked men, but the verse I'd like us to zero in on is verse 43, where Jesus said, therefore say unto you, the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation, bringing forth the fruits thereof. Are we going to just keep playing around, or are we going to get earnest and bring forth the fruits thereof? Well, we want to open it up here, perhaps God has laid something on your heart that you would like to share, a testimony, a confession, something that would add to the message as God leads you, we have a hand there, another hand over here in the front if we could get the microphones, and in this building with the echo and all, be sure to hold the microphone nice and close, and speak clearly, thank you. Okay, Brother Jay, you have a mic, or Brother David? Yes, Brother David? Well, I'd like to stand and just give God a blessing this morning for the patience that He has shown with me today, and I'd like to give Him thanks and glorify Him. God is exalted in who He is, in His mercies and His kindnesses, in His personhood, He has been kind to me, and as Denny was sharing this morning, I came with my heart open and I received those words into my heart, I accept that, and it witnesses to my heart, it's true. God has forgiven me time and time again for failure, willful failure, planned failure, and a lack of believing that I could even walk a Christian life. And when Denny, you shared this morning that the Spirit of God is saying to you, it's enough, I believe it. I believe it is enough. And I thought of the children of Israel who are standing outside the promised land and they have refused for the tenth time to believe God, and do the thing that God is calling them to do, and be the people that God is calling them to be, and God says, it is enough. These ten times I have kept count. I have kept the count. God wanted them at the fifth time to say, I'm not going to do it again. There won't be a sixth time, and I feel that way in my Christian life. I feel it's time that there's not another count, there's not another time that God says He didn't believe me again. I also think of the words that Jesus Christ said, He said of Himself and of the Father, He said the husbandman came to the tree, and He said to the gardener, He says, this is the third year that I've come to this tree and there's no fruit. Why is it even in my garden? Cut it down. Those are words that cause my heart to tremble. And yet God has left me in His garden to grow, and my heart this morning is rising up to say, bear fruit tree, bear fruit. Go into that promised land, it's scary in there. There's things I don't understand. But by the grace of God, I'm going to say this morning, I'm going into that water. I'm going to be there. I'd also like to say that I've struggled and I think I've fallen many, many times into legalism and the law, and I've struggled and I've wallowed in that thing and back and forth to where I feel like my Christian life hardly doesn't know what's law and what's grace. But isn't there a place when you just get fed up with the theology of it all, and you say, I'm going to be what God calls me to be. Thank you, Brother David. The other microphone. Yes, Brother Ken. While Brother Denny was preaching that message and was talking about the persecuted church and how when that river is flowing, how the persecution comes and they try to stamp it out and try to kill and destroy. I had to think, it seems to me that throughout all the history of God's people, there's only been one strategy that succeeded against a people that were walking in the anointing, in the presence of God, and that was, it's summed up here in Revelation chapter two, verse fourteen, where Jesus was, or John was writing the words of Jesus to the church and he says, but I have a few things against thee because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel. The one strategy that's, the only one that I can see that's ever worked against a church that was walking in the presence of God is the mixture of the love of this world. Thank you, Brother. Okay, the other microphone is right back here in the middle. Go ahead, Brother. This message has settled heavily on my heart this morning. The Lord is good, as I said under the teaching last week. My heart responded, yes, yes, yes, time and again, this is what I want. By the time Friday came around, I realized it is simple. I just need to obey the prompting of the Spirit day by day. I know the Lord has been speaking to us about our neighbors around there. I haven't always responded. One he's had to put in the hospital before I went to visit him. Another one he put flat on his back with a back operation. Yesterday afternoon I was in my house and I was tired, thinking about laying down, and the Lord just prompted me, go to that neighbor. I went down there yesterday and he was sitting on his porch, and it was a bit cold yesterday, but I'd been wanting to take a set of godly home tapes down there to him for some time. Went down there and he didn't see I had the tapes necessarily had them tucked behind, and I just started talking to him. He opened up and he says, yes, I have needs here in my family, and I know my home isn't right, and I know I need to... and he said he's been starting to have family devotions again. I handed him that set of tapes and he says, oh yes, this, I will use this in my family devotions. And he wanted to pay me money for them. I said, no, just take them. Allow the Lord to use them and speak to you. I'll be back. And I believe that's a key, and I know I've failed many times, but I want to be obedient to the Lord, in my prayer closet, in my family, in my home, in this church, and in the community where I live. May God help us. Amen, brother. Thank you. Is the other microphone somewhere else? There's a hand then in the back. Brother Ross, do you have the microphone? No. But then we'll get it over there. Okay, here. I want to give praise to the Lord for bringing me here. We've been in a home church setting for a couple of years, back in British Columbia, Canada, and we just recently found out about this ministry, and what we found out, we saw more and more it was a heart's desire. I found out about this seminar beginning of January. I talked to a few people, and a brother, who I felt needed to be aware of it, too. The Lord opened it up. We had three days to make our decisions and get our flights. We're here. This week, even before I left, our family has been begging God to lead us to a fellowship that's godly. Not tradition, not worldly. Somewhere we can find fellowship. As I sat here and listened and said, yes, yes, these are all things that I want, Tuesday night I phoned home. I was just going to call a little bit, but my wife and my second son were so wound up with questions. I had a lot of questions to answer, and their heart was so blessed to hear he's found something that we've been looking for. Not just people, but again, something where God is sought to be honored. We all have our faults. I have many. Yet, through this, God has encouraged us, and I've been praying that God would empower me with His Spirit, that I wouldn't go back the same, because we know how easy it is to go back to regular routine, and it cools off. I haven't had enough sleep this week. That's fine. Last night, it was time to go to bed, and I was wide awake. I could identify with Brother Denny. There was no sleep in my eyes. I started reading, and throughout the week, God has been impressing my mind. There's a fellowship back home. He says, I want you to go to that leadership, and tell them where they're at, and unless they repent, somebody else is going to come in and take the blessing. I didn't know if it was of me. Last night, I took a remnant magazine. I read an article. I just started reading, and I didn't get very far. This thought came back, these brethren, to talk to them, and as soon as that thought came, my body started shaking. The tears just started flowing, and then that went away. That happened four times. Is God telling me to tell them? I'm just a simple man. I appreciated that message so much. Finally, it was late. I went to sleep. I had gone for a walk. I met a neighbor from where we're staying. He told me of a man, his neighbor, who he bored horses off of. He's been in bed for about a month, or on the couch. He has a pinched nerve in his back, and he said he would love for you to come and visit him. I'd just fallen asleep for about an hour. The Lord woke me, and the first thing that was in my mind is, that man needs to be visited. He's right here in this community. I have no idea who he is. While I was thinking on it, the thought came to my mind, you should pray for his healing. I said, Lord, is that of you? My body went to the same, like when you're breaking out for weeping, and the tears started flowing. It happened a couple of times. Is that him telling me? Finally, I'd been awake till about three in the morning, just rejoicing and meditating. I fell asleep. About an hour or so later, the Lord gave me a dream. It was very brief, but there was a very severe thunder and lightning happening, and through a window, I saw Jesus. I heard, like I was with my family, I heard the children calling, what's happening? They come running, and when I look around, all of a sudden, their faces see Jesus, and there's just this heavenly expression. I've never seen that before. I cried out to God, and by crying out, I woke up, and my dream was over. I believe he touched me, and I rejoice. Amen.