In this sermon, the speaker discusses the story of Elijah and the widow's son from the Bible. He emphasizes the unpredictability of life and how we may face unexpected and challenging situations. The speaker highlights Elijah's confusion and questioning of God's actions, but also his faith and willingness to take action. He shares a personal anecdote about a professor's rebuke and the importance of receiving correction in our faith.

for this young man and his natural deportment before you and your people unaffected and unreligious may that characterize him throughout all his days and us all save us from professionalism and knowing how to do it simply your men and women speaking out of our hearts in the occasions that are given even now as we continue we look to you to unfold your great heart more jealous for this time than ever we could be you're not just speaking for today you're speaking for the last day for all our days speak Lord for your servants are hearing in Jesus name we pray Amen did you like that prayer? it was not my own I like when I hear God's prayers well shall we continue with this one episode after another from verse 17 of chapter 17 now it came to pass after these things that the son of the woman who owned the house became sick and his sickness was so serious there was no breath left in him what have I to do with you oh man of God what have I to do with you oh man of God have you come to me to bring to memory my iniquities and to make my son die then comes a crisis a crisis of death suddenly and unexpectedly do you like crises? never pleasant but always revealing I'll give you a favorite phrase of mine you can use it crisis reveals an absolute crisis reveals absolutely we are one thing when our circumstances are comfortable when we are in the company of the saints healthy, well fed, well clothed but what are we when the unexpected comes when crisis comes unexpectedly of an ultimate kind what we are in that moment is what we are so it's interesting to observe Elijah here he's taken absolutely by surprise God had not spoken to him he had no anticipation it came to pass after these things that the same lady who took him in who suffered him and provided for him has to suffer the penalty of losing her son what kind of appreciation is that? what kind of God is that? and Elijah cannot answer her he himself is stunned and astonished he prays to the Lord in verse 20 he expresses this surprise oh Lord my God have you also brought tragedy on the widow with whom I lodge by killing her son? I don't get it what's the point of it? so this is an interesting moment to see what a man will do when something comes upon him unexpectedly for what a man does then how he responds then is what the man himself is so what does he do? he said in verse 19 give me your son so he took him out of her arms and carried him to the upper room where he was staying and laid him on his own bed then he cried out to the Lord the prayer that we have just read that even the prophet cannot understand but he's got to answer do you think we'll face situations like that? or do you think we'll have it all nicely ordered? have you seen these paint sets where you fill in the little outline with the number according to the color of the paint? have you seen these paint sheets where the whole forest has numbers and in each number there's a certain color to paint? it's called painting by the numbers and when you're finished you have a facsimile of the Lord's Supper a Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece you do know Leonardo da Vinci? we're not going to be able to do this this way we're not going to be able to serve God this way and do it by the numbers the last days will be filled with things that are unpredictable and will be filled with things things that we could not have anticipated things that will hit us from the blind side and what comes forth in that moment in our reaction or our response is what we in fact are in God so what was Elijah? so what was Elijah? he was as bewildered as we are he's almost accusing God what are you killing this son? I don't understand this so give me this son and take this son in his arms up to the room where he dwells and put this son on his own bed and stand at the edge of the bed take a deep breath and praise professionally Lord, I don't understand what you're doing but I would appreciate that even now you will turn this tragedy to the good so as to honor your name and to impress this gentile widow that she might be saved I know that you're able but I'm asking it of you in Jesus' name and nothing would have happened this is an ultimate crisis the kind toward which we ourselves are tending it's a crisis unto death more than I'm able to imagine more than I can tell you Israel's death may be your own nation's there'll be no light solution here no good, facile, easy solution the crisis is engineered for the prophet himself because the crisis has been made especially specifically for the prophet what will he do? and Elijah stretched himself out over the boy eyeball to eyeball fingertip to fingertip and cried out to God three times it's one thing to read it it's another thing to do it when's the last time you had a corpse in your bed? how icky when you sleep when you sleep a dead corpse in your place how un-antiseptic but that's what it requires the crisis of the last days will not be professionally handled it's going to take more than well-meaning intention the object of God is not only the recovery of the son the recovery of the nation that he symbolizes but the stretching of the prophet himself I know what I'm talking about but it's not yet available for you I'll just say this much save it for future times the Israel of Christ the crisis of Israel in the last days already being formed moving toward death I predict it the devastation of the present state of Israel and world Jewry brought to an ultimate crisis unto death not only for its own sake to experience the resurrection power of God but also for the church's sake for the church will stand over Israel now dead without hope and what the church does is the key to Israel's restoration for however self-sufficient Jews are however capable they are they cannot provide their own salvation God will bring them down and out mark my words it's going to be painful to observe this a nation left as good as dead incapable of bringing its own answer contrary to everything we understand about Jews in their own self-sufficiency they will not be the agent of their own restoration someone else is appointed you, the gentile church or they will not be restored at all Paul calls it a mystery it's the ultimate mystery of the faith that when Paul saw this in the book of Romans that there's an issue even greater than Israel's restoration it is the transfiguration of the church itself compelled to that place by the crisis that Israel presents in its death we may speak of this again we talk about Ezekiel commanded to prophesy over the dead bones of Israel the prophet who is the son of man who cannot believe that those bones can live it's beyond even his prophetic faith to believe it let alone to speak the word of resurrection you prophesy to those bones something that God himself could easily have done but there's more than Israel at stake it's the church at stake who has got to be brought to an ultimate place of prophetic stature and authority so much as even to speak for God as God and in speaking raise the dead that's the mystery Israel and the church brought to a transcendent place by the crisis of death itself and that's what we see here a church that would only stand at the bedside and keep the correct distance and perform professionally and clinically leaves the victim dead something more is required from the church itself the prophetic church ultimate identification with the dead boy I have not preached this for years you know where the last time was? South Africa before a white congregation of middle class charismatic Christians whose lifestyle is quite elevated at the cost of the majority of the suppressed black people living at that time in a system of apartheid a white minority living comfortably and sumptuously on the back of a subdued class of a black people a formula for social violence and disaster it may yet come this is my message for South Africa's sake you white Christians living in your advantage hoping that a lid will be kept on this social catastrophe that it will not erupt in violence in flames and conflagration that brings the whole nation down and maybe you're thinking as I'm saying that this brother is not just describing South Africa he may well be describing my own nation its own condition its own possibility for the future for these conditions seem to prevail everywhere so here was my message for them you comfortable white Christians enjoying your services hoping that you will always continue to have that advantage this is what God is saying to you today you need to lay yourself out upon and over the bleeding black body that undergirds your security and comfort for only that identification will save the nation to feel the corpse to touch the death to identify with it is the key to God's answer this is priestly identification and the Hebrew priests of old never wore shoes they were costumed from head to toe and all of the elaborate requirements of God but they were barefooted and had to be they had to be on the same soil the same ground the same reality of the people for whom they interceded they had to make themselves one the circumstance of the nation itself which Aaron wore on his own heart the twelve tribes of Israel but the feet on the ground and Elijah is a priestly prophet and identified himself with the victim though he was a gentile boy and stretched himself out over the child three times and cried out to the Lord oh Lord my God I pray let this child's soul come back to him the Lord heard the voice of Elijah the soul came back to him and he revived there's crying and crying Elijah's cry was not a cultural form Elijah's cry was not a cultural form it was not the Hebraic culture it came out of the depths of the man it was a deep calling unto deep God hears that cry so I'm a little concerned for you I'm impressed on one hand I'm concerned on the other that your crying is so easy so customary I hear it in your prayers in your responses even in what we have experienced in these days together we don't have this in North America this is not my experience the North Americans are much more reserved it's a rare thing to evoke a cry out of them but when the cry does come it's an authentic cry so I'm concerned for you that your cry be authentic and not just the expression of the mode of your life and not just the expression of the mode of your life that you are living according to your temperament whatever the natural factors are God heard Elijah's cry he waited for it he brought the release of his response that made God release his response because it came from the depths of the man in fact, it was God's own cry that's what deep calling unto deep means that the very deeps of Elijah was God was compassion was priestly identification with the victims this is more than the prophet as the minister performing appropriately this is where you cannot tell where the prophet ends and where God begins it's beyond us it's beyond well-meaning intentions it's beyond rendering good service it's the place of union with very God himself where you cannot tell where the prophet ends where God begins where the prophet's cry is God's cry where his authority is God's authority where he can say it shall not rain nor dew but according to my word because his word is God's word the man has no life unto himself he's not some distinct entity other from and outside of God of the kind that we are and our prayers show it Lord if you help me in the way that I will go and give me understanding, words, anointing then I will do for you that's nice but it's not the ultimate thing to which God beckons us no two independent entities where we obtain from God in order to do for God you cannot tell where we end God begins remember what I said about my prayer? that wasn't my prayer I just opened my mouth it was God's own prayer am I over your head? is this too idealistic? we've left the realm of practicality these things are written for your admonition upon whom the ends of the age shall come you're beautiful children I'm going to take your photograph and show my fellowship at home who they were praying for look at these precious children look at those faces it would be tragic for you to forsake and to give up what you are in yourself as an independent entity well-meaning self-conscious wanting to do for God through God God says that's nice but I'm calling you to something more something ultimate because there's a crisis ahead for you that you will not be able to meet on that day only this basis of such union with your nation with Israel with God resurrection is the ultimate thing how many of you have noticed how many times today and yesterday I have used the word ultimate which translates as the supreme the highest wait a few minutes and I'll come back to it ultimate crisis ultimate response ultimate faith I'm waiting on the Lord I don't know how to go further I don't know how to express it my heart knows but my mind and my mouth are waiting to catch up I'm walking very carefully I don't want to miss this because to miss this will mean to lose Israel's restoration and the hope for Guatemala and Latin America through a prophetic church of the ultimate kind who is not merely doing good for God but identifies with the nation as God it has come to another place transcendent place beyond what is Pentecostal let alone Evangelical beyond charismatic it's the ultimate place demonstrated here by Elijah the place of union with God himself where God gives answer when he hears the cry that is not just professional ministerial but is his own cry when he has the man totally because it's a union that has come through death you can't tell where Elijah ends but he has ended and if he has any life in him any ability in him any authority in him any compassion in him it's God are you in that place? would you like to be? do you believe that it's a possibility that it's available such a union with Christ that your life is no longer your own your speaking your thoughts your steps what you are, what you do totally his the end of all ambition all intention for one's own self not just for carnal things for spiritual things it's death in order to obtain life the life of God that raises the dead if I had any human thought about it this would not be my subject today I would humanly think no way Lord these children are too young they don't have sufficient history in God to understand what you are saying now beyond what they can conceive what their faith can understand what their faith can desire what their faith can appropriate but I'm compelled to say it because we're not going to have another occasion together and the word that comes now has got to stand for the last day when something suddenly will happen for which you were not prepared and could not anticipate and nothing that you learned in Bible school could prepare you and the ball is in your court you've got to deal with it and it's not some light answer that doesn't answer it all when it comes it's life saving and reveals the glory of God that's what we're going to face crises of that kind for which only God can answer for which only God has the wisdom God has the answer God has the authority that he will not confer to us as a provision but will express himself in us and through us to his own glory when he has the whole possession of the vessel so you dear young ladies forget about getting married of course I know you don't think about it with the Lord so I'm not asking too much or am I? you didn't have any thought for yourself, did you? you didn't fantasize in mind's eye of what kind of man that would be and when he would come and what would be the circumstances of your life it's very natural to have such thoughts it's even legitimate unless you have a particular call of an ultimate kind of an ultimate kind like Elijah there's no future no wedding no marriage no hope you're dead to that you've given up right to yourself legitimate right for which no one will ever criticize you this is something freely given God does not demand it he waits to see if you're willing to offer it your whole life the future marriage family ministry all because what he has a woman and a man like that he has them totally they have become the sons and the daughters of God like the prophet Jesus like the prophet Elijah they have no thought for themselves no intention for themselves their life is his their prayers are his their cries are his if I can say this not only is this what Israel needs this is what Guatemala needs and every nation my own nation we're living 8 miles away from the Indian nation the Chippewa tribe the highest death rate in America drugs, alcohol are on the road with violent death pressures drugs, bullets, violence, lives hopeless, despairing despair and they have been thinly inoculated with the gospel and they can make a few phrases but they don't stick they don't endure their culture sucks them in again the power of it unto death they've heard the gospel but they've not heard they know how to be saved step 1, step 2, step 3 we've made salvation a formula and the entire nation is dying 8 miles away from us I think the day is coming when this proud Jew is going to be brought to their deathbed no, even more than that their death must be on my bed the place of my comfort my privacy my little haven that a busy man of God deserves that he doesn't have to be violated his sanctity and privacy must be maintained after all, he gives up himself continually he has a right to such a place if his life is still his own God is waiting for me to carry up in my Jewish arms that Indian boy that symbol of a nation in death and bring it into my dwelling put him on my bed and not stand at the end of the bed and pray correctly and ministerially but to prostrate myself to stretch myself for their sake and exchange the life that is within me for the death that is within me just for one is the key to the nation well, God gave me a privilege many years ago to go to Japan to visit a movement that no longer exists I saw the gospel and the reality of the faith that will affect me forever they were called the tabernacle movement they were pilgrims and strangers sojourners in the earth when the Yom Kippur war took place in Israel a sudden crisis of attack Israel's death seemed imminent hopeless Professor Teshima the founder of the movement with his long white beard charted a jet and filled it up filled it with Japanese believers to fly to Israel and to stand with them in their death the whole motif of this movement was the poured out life I've never seen anything like it this man had such a beautiful wife I had to physically turn my head away from gazing at her she was radiant what a beauty of course, a man of that stature deserves a wife of that kind one day I heard the story Professor Teshima who had been only a Presbyterian lay preacher was in flight from the American authorities and was driven up to a mountain and he had the mountaintop experience with God the Lord called him to the original gospel movement showed him the original gospel showed him the cultural accretions the additions that the gentile church has laid over its Hebraic origin that needs to be ruthlessly stripped away and he came down the mountain with a vision for the faith in its Hebraic and prophetic splendor and the Lord began with him he came to a leper colony because the Presbyterians wouldn't touch him the conventional church societies wouldn't touch him his vision was so threatening against all that is established but they welcomed him in a leper colony and they had a barrier around the pulpit to protect the speaker from the congregation with their running sores and their fingers that are stubbed and their ears that fall off and their sores no Professor Teshima did he climbed over the barricade and came down in the midst of the congregation and embraced and kissed the lepers and they were healed that's how he began and I said well what about his wife what a beauty what an ethereal spiritual woman don't you know Brother Katz? no she was a prostitute she was a concubine she had been sold as a girl to other men and when Professor Teshima began to preach his message she used to mock him in the congregation she came to the meetings to mock him because she had syphilis venereal disease that was eating her face and her beauty she was a piece of death mocking the man speaking about resurrection life and the Lord said to him he complained he said look this woman is making my life a misery it's like Elijah crying out what do you want me to kill this boy? I don't understand this the Lord said marry her and he did she went speechless she was astonished that a man of that stature he was a full orbed man I have not seen his like anywhere he took me to the palace hotel for lunch and ordered the lunch off of the French menu have you tried Vichyssoise? what's that? I'm from Brooklyn, New York I've never heard of it oh he said you'll like it it's a cold potato soup how did he know that? because he had a breadth of culture this wasn't your little man walking on eggshells so spiritual that if the wrong wind blows he's going to be dissipated away full orbed man none of this pseudo spirituality mind soul, spirit, body as we say in Yiddish a man full person as comfortable in the palace hotel as in the leper colony a man for all seasons a man whose very life is a sacrament he called me to his hotel room one morning brother Art do you have a watch? of course I I'd forgotten I had given my watch away last night to my Japanese interpreter who himself was such a man saved from a mental breakdown nervous breakdown as a frustrated and failed Pentecostal preacher and brought to glorious life under Professor Tashima's tutelage I was sitting with him in the conference in Tokyo everybody had the text in Japanese and Hebrew and you think I'm bad? Professor Tashima could speak for three hours you couldn't hear the pin drop and at a certain moment he stopped himself and he called on my interpreter and he began publicly to bawl him out for falling asleep while he was speaking you couldn't blame the man I kept him up late in the night talking because our conversation was fellowship life and I found out later what had happened and the brother stood up before hundreds of people with his head down and he received Professor Tashima's rebuke I said to him that night but I didn't think that you were sleeping he said I wasn't I was so moved by what Professor Tashima was saying that my head fell down and he thought I was sleeping I said well why then didn't you correct him? oh no I needed that rebuke that's the faith so you married this woman? yes and she was healed in union with the man of God and she became the beauty that you see today whose appearance was ravaged by disease she was healed by the love of the man who was obedient to God to marry her in her syphilis in her venereal disease I said oh now wait a minute don't you realize you could have contracted her disease and been killed by it and it would have been the end of your ministry what? the opportunity has been denied to you? oh Artie said very quietly if you don't do it for one you do it for no one one we Americans are so numerically minded how many came to the meeting? how many decisions were made? how many tracts were distributed? it blew my mind he was willing in a ministry that would affect Israel and Japan and Japanese in California and Chicago it was spreading the world willing to risk that for one? you'll not risk it for one you have nothing for any Elijah took the one son and laid him upon his bed and prostrated himself over that one it was God praying it was more than a man could have conceived it was deep calling and fatigue in an ultimate crisis of death only God will suffice and the glory of it is when he will suffice for a man who has no life for himself who will prostrate himself over death in his own bed and cry really cry not the Latin kind the prophetic kind God's own cry to bring God's own answer so I don't know how to pray for you I love your cries I love that broken tremor in your prayers I wish to God we had it at home our people are so antiseptic and formal and stiff I love that resonance I have only one fear that it be authentic and not imitative or a mode of religious expression a deep calling and fatigue may we not reflect our culture even our religious culture but only him with whom we are in union when we are dead to our culture our future our hopes for marriage our hopes for ministry we've given it all of them we have no life for ourselves it's his for his purpose it's for this that the nations wait and for which reason God has given this word that your faith might grow by the hearing of it faith comes by hearing hearing by the word of God not a message that Art thought to speak who would have said no it's not appropriate they're too young there's no way that they can understand it because when you're young you love your life you want to be established in your life you want to be recognized in your life that you're a minister that you have credentials that you've learned how to do it it's natural but to be called at your age now before you could even enjoy that to forsake that to forfeit that to give that up in death that you might come in union with another even God and pray his prayers and speak his words that's the Elijah ministry it's beyond sincerity it's beyond good intentions it's beyond ministerial ability union with God you cannot tell where Elijah ends where God begins you're one so Lord this is insanity this is going too far we wanted to learn our lessons we wanted to become competent ministers to learn how to do it that we could serve you intelligently, sincerely but this this is too much this is beyond we love Guatemala we love our nation we love Israel but not that much can't we keep our life and have it also and still serve you respectably not in the last days when I'm bringing nations to death that can only be raised up by men and women of the resurrection who have no life unto themselves they have prostrated themselves and stretched themselves out over death so Lord I leave this word with you I can't expect these children to understand let alone to desire it to have the faith to obtain it while they're so young so beautiful so impressive in themselves that you're asking for that sacrifice to break that alabaster box to pour out that expensive perfume in a once and for all way that cannot be taken back again that the house might be filled with your fragrance even the fragrance of Christ I can't ask that of them but if there's so much as one who is able now to hear to understand and is willing to forfeit everything not only the precious perfume the box itself the handsome chisel box that has been hit and cannot be recovered that has been poured out at your feet so that your house might not only be correct but fragrant with the knowledge of you you're calling deep unto deep and we want to answer from that place we don't trust ourselves we have cried too easily already moaned too many times sighed too often we don't even trust our own response lest it not be authentic only the expected things the religious things that satisfies us that is cathartic gives us a kind of an emotional release seems to be deep but leaves us unchanged Lord now in this historic moment may there be a cry coming out of the deep of men and women in this room that is not a culture not an affectation not an instinctive response out of their deeps to your deep they're saying yes now once and for all I forfeit my life my hopes for the future for ministry for marriage I have no intention for myself I have no life for myself only union with you that alone raises the dead I'm settling it now hear my cry take me for yourself and crisis reveals an absolute crisis reveals absolutely that what will be revealed in that moment is not some correct well intending minister but very Christ himself that's the faith that's the prophetic call and you've heard it thank you Lord bless these children seal your word let it be historic something transactive in the quiet of this room in a moment of time that will affect all things right to the end we thank you for the privilege of the call the availability of your life that we might say with Paul in full truth for us to live is Christ thank you Lord that we can hear your prayers speak your prayers speak your words do your works and all the glory is to you