In this sermon, the speaker shares about the importance of hearing from God and experiencing His presence. They recount a story of a young minister who asked if there was any word from the Lord, and the speaker reassures them that we can indeed hear God's voice and know His will. The sermon emphasizes the power of God's fire to cleanse and purify us, removing sin and falsehood from our lives. The speaker also shares a powerful testimony of a church service where people were prostrated and falling out of their pews, experiencing a powerful visitation of God's presence and fire.

...was in its rightful place, and the sacrifice was on the altar. Then the presence of God could come down, it could come down then, it could come down then. And Moses said, we didn't journey unless the presence went before us. When he moved, we moved, when he didn't move, we would abide. He that dwelleth in the secret place, somebody quoted this morning, of the most high shall abide under his shadow. Shadow. The dove, when the dove spreads its wings, it's in the form of a cross. At the cross, yes, Barney, at the cross, abide under the shadow of the cross in his presence. Oh, let nothing invade your holy inner sanctuary, and steal away that holy, divine deposit of God that has been left in you. Let nothing separate you from God. Let nothing come between, but always set the Lord before your face, and refuse to be moved by people or things or circumstance, the call of the world or anything else. Oh, God forbid the day should come in any of our single lives, when we feel we can go on without that presence. God forbid the day should ever come when the church feels she can go on without that holy presence. Will everybody in this house say, God forbid? Oh, yes, God forbid. Jesus is the head of the church, and he has sent in to the church, and upon us, the precious Holy Spirit. And he is to have dominion over the church and all of its affairs and all of its activities, whether they be sacred or what we call social. It's all to be under the dominion of the precious Holy Spirit. Christ is the head of the church, and he wants to share with us that wonderful presence. I wonder what those holy men of old, those priests felt, when it says the presence of the Lord was such that they couldn't stand to minister. I'm sure you've noticed that it says they couldn't stand to minister. Folks today are constantly asked, is prostration in the scriptures? Give me text to show where people were prostrated. Honey, here's one of them. When they couldn't stand to minister in that holy place. Of course, this speaks to us too. These priests, the day had come when God was telling them that Levitical priesthood was about to come to an end, that it wouldn't stand forever, especially when the rightful high priests would come. And so they couldn't stand. God was speaking to them that this thing was going to die. I wonder what he's trying to say to us. When the Holy Ghost comes, and that marvelous presence of God comes, and we can't stand in his holy presence, I wonder what he's saying to us. He's saying the very same thing, dear, that no flesh can have authority in his divine presence. This must be the end of this thing. Flesh must receive its death. Jesus calls it a corruptible thing. This thing must have its end. Its end, that this Holy One coming in can be in dominion, and the authority be fully his. Are we willing for this? This is what it means if we really want the true New Testament baptism of the Holy Spirit. It's called a baptism. When we're baptized in water, we are baptized in the likeness of his death. And when we come to the altar and present ourselves for the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the scriptural meaning is, I am ready to die. I offer my flesh, I present my flesh to die. I want to go down in baptism to be immersed and submerged. I want flesh to die that Christ can live in the power of this wonderful Holy Ghost. So will you say amen? That was a wee one. Ah, yes, you know the old flesh doesn't like us to talk about Christ and his cross because the flesh doesn't want to carry a cross, doesn't want to hear about his death because we don't want to die, but all true spiritual life issues from death. Now say amen again. Yes, that is true. Oh, so let the rightful owner come in. Amen. Say amen. Say it again. Amen and amen. Let the rightful owner come in. Let him fill the temple with his glory. Let him fill it. You know, I want you to notice something here. The cloud of his presence had come. The cloud had come. But have you ever noticed the fire hadn't come yet? There's a difference between the cloud and the fire. What does John the Baptist say? He will baptize you with what? The Holy Ghost and? And? Yes, say it again. The Holy Ghost and fire. But the fire hadn't come yet. Did you know that? You mean this is happening? But the real thing hadn't happened yet. This cloud is a type of the presence of the Lord. Have you ever been in a meeting where you said, wasn't that a sweet meeting? Such a marvelous presence of the Lord. But nothing happened. Nothing really happened. Sweet. Everything was perfect. All the singers were in their place. All the ushers were in their place. The ministers were in their place. The choir was in their place. The musicians were in their place. Such a beautiful, sweet presence of the Lord. But nothing happened. Eh? Have you been there? Have you wondered why? Where? Where? Why doesn't God do something? How many times have you ever said, why does revival tarry? You know, the fire, there's a difference between the cloud and the fire. The cloud was when his presence came. But here were over 20,000 bullocks on the altar. On the altar. 20, over 20,000 bullocks on the altar. And there was no fire. No fire. And if you know what this meant to Israel, honey, it means the same thing to us. What did this mean to Israel? It meant that Israel, God had accepted this, this, the ark. He had accepted that a long time ago. And it was the presence of that ark, in the holiest of all, that had brought the cloud and the presence of the Lord. But Israel waited for the fire to come down on their sacrifice. And God had not accepted them until the fire came down. You see, their sins were not forgiven. God had not really accepted them. There was no change. There was no difference. The miracle hadn't yet taken place. They waited for the fire to come down on their sacrifice and turn these bullocks into ashes and say before all Israel, you are accepted and your sins are forgiven and I'm here to stay. And so we come to the sixth chapter. What I've said is in the fifth chapter of 2 Chronicles, we come to the sixth chapter and Solomon is concerned about this. There had been no fire. The singers are there, the musicians, and 120 priests, and everything is in order, coming and going, coming and going, moving, just coming and going to church, coming and going, but nothing happening. And Solomon is greatly concerned. So in the whole sixth chapter of 2 Chronicles, Solomon steps up on the platform before all the people and falls down on his knees and stretches his hands towards heaven and begins to pray. And the whole sixth chapter of 2 Chronicles, Solomon is confessing, confessing their sins and praying and calling upon God, confessing and praying and... praying, confessing and seeking the face of God. There's none like Thee in heaven and earth. That's what we sang this morning. There's none like Thee. He really starts his prayer with worship, doesn't he? This is the thing that moves the heart of God more than anything else. The very highest order of worship, of service to God is worship to God. And we cannot worship unless the heart is right. We cannot worship unless the life is clean. We cannot worship in a frivolous attitude. We cannot worship with worldly minds. We cannot. Something goes out of us when we worship. Worship is something of the Spirit. You have to be in touch with God to truly, really and truly worship God in Spirit and in truth. We have to be in the Spirit. That's why carnal men hate worship. Carnal people don't want the church to worship. They don't want to be in that atmosphere. They don't want that. Be done with that. Away with that. Why? Because it exposes their carnality. They can't enter in where there is spiritual worship going up to the presence of God. They can't stand that. So let's get through with that and get on with something else. But oh, oh, how God waits to be worshipped and adored. Then He can come and fill the tabernacle with His presence and things begin to happen. So Solomon is praying. He repents and prays and repents and prays and finally he gets to the end of himself. God lives it when we get to the end of ourselves. We've said everything we know to say. We've prayed everything we know to pray. We've confessed everything we know to confess. I love to be in an altar service like this. A good old Holy Ghost prayer meeting, an altar service where people are repenting and confessing and repenting and confessing. I've done everything I know what to do. I've said everything I know what to say. Solomon says, Oh Lord, you've appointed me to be king over this people. Won't you please own me? Won't you own me? Won't you own me? Won't you accept me? To be accepted means the fire will fall. Oh, the pain of feeling rejected by God, not accepted by God. Won't you accept me? And with that we begin the seventh chapter and it says Solomon had made an end of his praying, which really means Solomon prayed through. He prayed through. Do you know what I'm talking about? Say amen. He prayed until he prayed through. And when he really prayed through, then the word of God says the fire fell. Hallelujah. The fire fell. And what did that mean? When the fire fell, you know when that fire came into the camp of Israel, it could have justly consumed that people. God had said if one of the priests would go into the holiest of all with sin in his life, you know they tied a rope around them when the priest went in there so that if there was sin in his life and he died in there, they had a rope tied around him so they could pull him out. That was actually true. True. And God's fire could have justly killed the whole, all of Israel. But do you know what? When the fire came down from God out of heaven, the fire lit on those bullocks on that altar. They were there. God had told them if they would put the sacrifice on the altar when they confessed their sins, that he would send the fire and would consume the sacrifice that was placed there in their stead and they would be allowed to live. What a marvelous thing. You know Jesus is our bullock. Jesus is our burnt offering. Jesus is our sacrifice. Jesus went to Calvary and took our sins. You know every one of us should be in hell but for the grace of God. Right? Every one of us. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. But when you and I accept the Lord Jesus Christ as our sacrifice and come and do our repenting and give our lives to him, God sent the fire, all right, that the fire came upon Jesus at Calvary and burned up all of our sin. He became sin for us. He took our sin and became our sacrifice. What a wonderful thing this is. And all of those bullocks on those altars was burned to ashes and Israel knew they were accepted. Is it any wonder that it says all Israel fell on their face before God, put their foreheads down on the ground, which the Easterners do to this day. Just like when you see pictures of the Mohammedans putting their forehead down on the pavement and rising up. The whole East worshiped like that and worshiping, adoring, shouting. It says they shouted. The trumpeters blew their trumpets. They worshiped. They adored. They had been accepted by God. That was a real Pentecostal meeting. Don't you think it was? Don't you think it was? How I love this is where people pray until they do pray through. Amen. And when the fire comes down, oh, that wonderful fire of God, and when it comes down, what it does to us and what it does in us is a wonderful thing. That fire that burns up our feathers, that burn, breaks us loose from every bondage, reduces to ashes all of our sins. Honey, aren't you glad every sin that you've ever repented of and given to God has been reduced to ashes? Aren't you glad for that? Yes. So don't let the devil come then and bring up all of your past life and remind you of things that you did even before you were saved. And he tries to tell you that's not forgiven and you still have to suffer for that and still try to put something, stir up your conscience and bring back guilt. Don't accept that. Every sin you've ever committed before you came to Jesus has been burned to ashes. Hallelujah. And you can't reconstruct anything out of ashes, can you? They're all done away with under that holy atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so Israel could go free. You and I cleansed by the fire of God, refined by that holy fire and that it fuses us into God and warms our hard hearts and there's a light in fire, you know. I'm just thinking of one church I was in. Brother May says, I go to all the churches and this church that I was in, the pastor wasn't sure he liked this evangelist and he wasn't sure that he was going along with everything that I was saying. This was something new to him. And I heard a thud behind me and turned around and where do you think he was? Just frustrated. Just flat on his back on the platform. Just down, frustrated. And then they begin to fall out of the pews all over that church. They begin to fall right out of the pews, prostrated all over that place. Some people were frightened. They thought they got up and started to run towards the altar. The whole altar was lined. They began like God was just shooting them down one after another, prostrated under the power. I slid down behind the desk. Yeah, I felt this holy flame burning in my own life and I just slid down and knelt there. But the thing I want to say, I heard this pastor repeatedly say, Oh God, I didn't know you were like this. I didn't know you were this kind of a God. I didn't know you were like this. I didn't know you were like this, God. It was after two o'clock in the afternoon when he rose up. This happened in the Sunday morning service. And when he got up there, he came over to me and he wanted to resign the church. And wanted me to take it. He said, I'm not fit to take this people on. I didn't know God was like this. In fact, I don't know God. I don't know anything about God. I'm going to resign. Let me resign tonight. You take the church. I said, my precious brother, never were you more prepared to lead a people on in God. Now that this holy flame has burned in you and you have a vision of a little bit of who God really is. Oh, what a meeting. What a meeting. What a meeting. In that meeting, in that meeting, the Baptists down the street came up and joined us. I had to have two meetings every night. Had to call in another evangelist to come and help me because we had one meeting upstairs, another going downstairs at the same time. What a visitation of God. Repentance. The cloud of his presence, but also the fire burning, breaking fetters, delivering people, releasing us from tradition, from religion without God. That he wants to fill the temple and the tabernacle. Solomon went home from that meeting and it says that night God appeared to him, began to talk to him. Isn't it wonderful to hear from God? The fire burns and cleanses us, purifies. We can hear the voice of the Lord and God let him know his will, let him know what he wanted. How wonderful to hear from God. This morning I was singing about a young minister who came to me up on the campgrounds this summer, looked at me, he said, Sister Hammond, is there any word from the Lord? I was so glad I could say, yes, honey, God has spoken, there is a word from the Lord. We can hear his voice, we can see his face, we can know his will, we can abide in his presence. We can have the fire consuming our cross, taking away our sin, getting rid of all that is false and hypocritical, so that God in his miracle power can rest, can come and abide with us. Our wars will cease. Isn't that beautiful? War in the individual life, wars in the family, wars in the church, and he will be all in all. Say his name, will you? Jesus. Say it again. Jesus is the sweetest. Shall we stand? Just say his name, just say his name. Jesus, just say his name. Jesus, name that we love. Name that we love. Jesus, you are so wonderful. You are so wonderful, Jesus. Pay attention to what's going on inside of you. Give him place. Give him room. Let the fire, the purifying fires of God burn on the altar of your soul. And these fires in Israel, from that day, the fire was never to go out. What a terrible day it was in Israel. If that fire would go out, it meant they were no longer accepted. Oh, Father. Oh, thanks for giving us Jesus, our blood, our sacrifice, who took the wrath of God in our stead. Oh, God. Oh, give us the grace of repentance, God, to keep the sanctuary cleansed. Oh, to keep our eyes steadfastly fixed on you, to set the Lord always before our face, to above everything else in the universe, to love thy presence and to walk with you in white. Oh, forgive us our sins and our iniquities and our trespasses. Oh, forgive, forgive. Go through this congregation this morning in cleansing, purging, purifying, cleansing flame. Oh, God. Oh, let every temple, for you set our bodies for the temples of the Holy Ghost, let every temple be renovated, purged, that you can come and abide. Oh, Father, don't let anybody walk out of here without your presence this morning. Oh, don't let anybody go without your presence. Don't let anybody go unaccepted because you are so willing to accept and receive. Burn on, oh fire of God, burn on all the dross and sin and everything that's unlike you. God, that you can dwell in our holiest of all until we are wholly united with Jesus, at last with him in his holy temple. Oh, my Father, my Father, my Father, I feel to open this altar this morning for anybody who wants to come and pray. Offer yourself anew to God, I feel, and those who want to go, just please be free to do so, but we're going to softly and prayerfully sing again at the cross where I first saw the light and the burden of my heart roll. If anybody wants to come back there, please step out and come. At the cross.