In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of guarding one's soul and staying true to Jesus. He urges the audience to get rid of anything that is unlike Jesus and to avoid falling into bitterness or rebellion. The preacher encourages the listeners to stay in the river of life and to bear fruit for God. He warns that failing to do so will result in standing before God empty-handed. The sermon is based on Ezekiel 47, which describes a vision of a river of life bringing forth signs of life and fruitfulness.

...area of Times Square Church in Manhattan, New York City. Other tapes are available by writing to World Challenge P.O. Box 260, Lindale, Texas, 75771, or calling 214-963-8626. None of these messages are copyrighted, and you are welcome to make copies for free distribution to your friends. Forty-seven. Well, I'll tell you what, I'm going to get happy tonight, because I've got a prophecy that's just as sure as Pentecost. In fact, it is a measure of Pentecost beyond anything we can conceive. It's promised to the church of the latter day. The river of life, the river of life. Ezekiel 47. I'm going to read the first 12 verses. I'm reading from King James. This is important. Listen very closely. "...Afterward, he brought me again unto the door of the house, and behold..." This is a vision that the Lord Jesus is giving to Ezekiel. "...Afterward, he brought me again unto the door of the house, and behold, waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward, for the forefront of the house stood toward the east. And the waters came down from under, from the right side of the house, at the south side of the altar. Then brought he me out of the way of the gate northward, and led me about the way without, unto the utter gate, by the way that looked eastward, and behold, there ran out waters on the right side. And when the man that had the line in his hand went forth eastward, he measured a thousand cubits, and he brought me through the waters. The waters were to the ankles. Again he measured a thousand, and brought me through the waters. The waters were to the knees. Again he measured a thousand, and brought me through the waters. They were to the loins. Afterward he measured a thousand, and it was a river that I could not pass over, for the waters were risen, waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed over. And he said unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen this? Then he brought me, and caused me to return to the brink of the river. Now when I had returned, behold, at the bank of the river were very many trees on the one side and on the other. Then said he unto me, These waters issued out toward the east country, and go down into the desert, and go into the sea. Now that's the Dead Sea, folks, which is death, which he will finally conquer. Which being brought forth unto the sea, the waters shall be healed. And it shall come to pass that everything that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the river shall come, shall live. And there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters shall come thither. For they shall be healed, and everything shall live, whether the river cometh. And it shall come to pass that the fish shall stand upon it, from Engedi even unto Egla. They shall be a place to spread forth nets. Their fish shall be according to their kinds, as the fish of the great sea exceeding many. But the miry places," now watch this, but the miry places thereof and the marshes thereof shall not be healed. They shall be given to salt. And by the river, upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow all trees for meat, whose leaves shall not fade. Neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed. It shall bring forth new fruit according to its month, because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary. And the fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf thereof for medicine. Now, Holy Spirit, I ask you to open up this prophecy. Open it. You've come now, Holy Spirit, to open prophetically that which came from the very throne of God. Holy Spirit, you birthed this in my heart. I didn't get it from man, I didn't get it from a book. It came from your heart in prayer. Now, Lord Jesus, you're going to show us tonight, what you have in mind for your church, for us as individuals, for those who will walk in righteousness and holiness. Lord, help us not to miss it tonight. There'll be many people here this and not comprehend it. But, O God, there will be a body. There will be a people tonight that have the ear of the Holy Spirit. They'll have the mind of God. They'll have a hungering heart. They'll have a listening ear. They'll have a seeing eye. They're going to see and they're going to hear. And it's going to register in their heart. And, O God, there'll be a hunger and thirst as we've never known. Pour out your Spirit in this place tonight. Let the Word come forth sharp and quick and powerful. Let no one, O God, let no one sit blindly or deaf in the midst of the Holy Ghost as it goes forth. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Ezekiel had a vision in which the hand of God picked him up and took him to a high mountain. And there he saw a picture of a mighty city. Now, when it says he took him to a high mountain, it's very significant. The hand of God picked him up and planted him on this high mountain. Now, when it says high mountain, he's talking about a vision of messianic age, our time, from the cross to the end time. He put him on a high mountain. In fact, I want to read you just a few Scriptures to establish this. Ezekiel in 43.12 said, Upon the top of the mountain the whole limit thereof round about shall be most holy. What the Holy Spirit is showing this prophet is not for his own age. When he says he took him to the holy mountain, he took him on this mountain, it means he took him into history. He took him into the messianic age. Ezekiel 20.40 says, For in this mountain is the mountain to the height of Israel, saith the Lord God. There shall all the house of Israel serve me. There will I accept them. There I will gather you, that I will be sanctified in you before all the nations. In fact, Isaiah said, And it shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountain, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow into it. What he's saying, going to show the prophets, Ezekiel, Isaiah, your day, going to take him to a high mountain. That high mountain is the messianic age in which we live. And there a man appeared to him, and the man looked like his feet had been in a furnace, his brass. The same man that John saw in the Isle of Patmos. He said as though he were in a furnace, burnished brass. That's none other than Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ appeared to him and said, I'm going to take you on a trip. I'm going to show you a day that's coming. A day beyond anything anyone could ever comprehend. This was the Lord bringing Ezekiel into the house of God. And that house of God on the mountain represents Jesus Christ. A house that we are. We are of His building. He's building this house. And this prophet was given one of the most amazing visions in all the Word of God. He was being shown the future of the church of Jesus Christ and what it would be like in the final days of time. Now this vision's about Jesus. In fact, this whole book's about Jesus. But this vision especially focuses on Jesus. And it's about an outpouring of the Holy Ghost in the last days so mighty, so overwhelming in scope that Ezekiel couldn't understand it. In fact, he couldn't even comment on it. He just gives us the vision without any kind of commentary. He never did understand it. And I'll prove that to you in just a moment. In fact, halfway through the vision, after he took Him out into these waters, Jesus stops Him. He has His measuring rod in His hand. And He turns to the prophet Ezekiel after showing him all of this increase of water in this great flood that's happening. And He says, I want you to look at it there. It's in verse 6. And He said unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen this? Is that in your Bible? Have you seen it? You know what God's saying? You know what the Lord is saying to Ezekiel? He's showing him this incredible vision. And this vision is so incredible. It's so important. Its truth is so mighty. Jesus stops the prophet. And He said, Are you getting it yet, Ezekiel? Are you seeing what I'm trying to say to my people? It's so mighty. It's so important. I have to stop. And I'm going to ask you, Do you see it? Do you see the magnitude? Do you see the glory of what is coming? And folks, I read this vision this week and the Holy Ghost stopped me at the same verse and wouldn't let me move on. And He said, David, do you see it? You've read it. Do you understand it? Do you understand the magnitude of it? That it's a prophecy not for Ezekiel's day? It was not for the day of the prophets at all. It's not for natural Israel. It's for the church of Jesus Christ in the last days, from the day of Pentecost into our very day, and especially for the last day in which we live. God said, David, don't miss it. And by God's grace, I'm not going to miss it tonight. And I'm going to ask you all through this message, Are you seeing it? Do you see it? Do you hear it? And I'm asking you to pray the Holy Ghost open this to you tonight. Open it up, the truth, the magnitude of what the prophet is saying. He's saying, this is so awesome, so incredible, so mind-boggling, you dare not miss it, because there's a glory coming to the church. Now, the vision must have so astonished Ezekiel, and though it's not written or recorded, I'm convinced that Ezekiel did not understand it. In fact, the astonishment on his face was why Jesus said to him, Have you seen it? Are you understanding? Now, you know what Jesus himself said? Verily I say unto you, that many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which you see, and they have not seen them. And to hear the things which you hear, and they've not heard them. Hear ye therefore. He's saying, men like Ezekiel saw great visions, and they didn't understand them. They heard a voice from heaven, and they couldn't comprehend it, because they had such a limited vision of Jesus. Brother, sister, they weren't even in the trickle yet. They weren't even in it to the ankles, because the Spirit had not yet been outpoured. This was not even for Ezekiel's time. Ezekiel would have given anything to understand what he was hearing, and what he was seeing. Jesus said they saw it, they heard it, but didn't understand it. But you see it, you hear it. He said, therefore you understand it. Don't miss it. Now, what is this revelation, this prophetic vision given to Ezekiel? First of all, there's coming in the last days an ever-increasing outpouring of the Holy Ghost. There is going to come an increasing outpouring of the Holy Spirit. And what Ezekiel is being shown is the church of Jesus Christ in the last days is going to be more glorious, more victorious, with more of Jesus, more revelation, more of the presence of Jesus, than the early church, than any church in history. The church of Jesus Christ is not going to go out timid, broken, stumbling, falling. The church of Jesus Christ is going to go out in a blaze of glory and power and spiritual authority. The true church of Jesus Christ will not weaken and sputter. It's not going to be diminished in its numbers. My Bible says the fish shall be exceeding many. That's verse 10. The fish. I'll make you fishers of men. He said the fish, the converts will be many. You'll spread your nets when this river flows and the nets will be full. There is going to come forth, according to this prophecy, a body of believers who will be swimming in rising waters of the Lord's presence. The knowledge and the presence of Jesus is going to rise to the very end and it will crest just at the coming of the Lord. It will grow and increase. Now you see, there's been a tendency among Christians who are blessed to limit God to their own little group or their own little area or their city or their town or their ministry. And the Lord is pouring out His Spirit in a number of places all over the world today. And sometimes there are hundreds and even thousands involved in these little puddles, not puddles, but these little areas of blessing and anointing. And God's doing a new work and usually the tendency is we have got it. This is God's move for the last day. If you want to get in it, you've got to come here and network with us. And we've got groups networking. That's the new charismatic phrase, networking. In other words, you come here. This is the fountainhead of the new move of God. If you're going to be a part of it, you have to come here and sit under it. You have to be a part of what God is doing here. Oh, how we limit God like that! Denominations have been doing that for centuries. Even the assemblies of God. I used to belong to the assemblies of God and I'm not putting them down. But they've become, to me especially, very condescending. And almost as if you don't... I had one preacher said, Brother Dave, I'm telling you, how did you get out of the move of God? If you don't belong to the assemblies of God, you're not in what God is doing in these last days. Well, denominations have been doing that for centuries. Limiting God! There's an old false teaching that is being resurrected again, and it goes something like this. There's only one authority, spiritual authority in every city, every town. And there is only one true church in every city and town. In fact, there was a movement called the church in the city. The church in Akron, the church in New York, the church in New Jersey. There's only one church that God is moving in. They call it the church. In fact, they have apostles now. They're dividing up the United States into territories. And they have apostles now. There's a certain group dividing the United States. They've got a map and they've cut it all up. And they've appointed these self-appointed prophets and apostles who are the spiritual authority. New York City's got one. In fact, we were informed, I was informed that we were under their authority. In so many words. This man has the spiritual authority and he rules and reigns in the earthly heavens over this city. My how we limit God. And there's another tendency. This tendency is to go back to the New Testament and try to resurrect the New Testament church. As if they had more revelation of Jesus than we do. As if their methods work better than anything the Holy Ghost could reveal to us today. And so we believe that if we can go back and find the pattern of the New Testament church and do it just like Paul did it, then we would have a successful, overcoming church. Why would we want to go back to the trickle when we've got waters to swim in? God doesn't want us to look back. He's got something better for this generation. Something far, far greater according to this prophecy. Now, the spring and the fountainhead of this river is the cross of Jesus. One of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side and forthwith came there blood and water. That's where the river began. This is He that came by water and blood. Even Jesus Christ. Not by water only, but by water and by blood. Hallelujah. The blood cleanses. The water flows to heal and bring life to everything it touches. Now, this is exactly what Ezekiel is seeing in this vision as it opens. He's seeing the Lord is taking him on this vision and he walks him out of the north gate. He takes him around the wall and brings him to the east gate. The river's flowing out of the east gate because the glory comes from the east and the river follows the glory. And so he takes him around and he says look and there's water coming right out from the altar under the threshold. And it's just a trickle. You know what that is? That's Pentecost. That's Pentecost. That's where it began. This is the beginning of the last days. That's when the trickle began. When Peter stood and said these are the last days. And you see, the Bible makes it clear that look at verse 1 you'll see the trickle begin. Afterward he brought me again under the door of the house and behold waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward for the forefront of the house stood toward the east and waters came down. Waters came down. What came down on Pentecost? The Holy Ghost came down from heaven was poured out upon all men. These bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost. And he said out of your innermost belly shall flow rivers of living water. So at Pentecost God opened up a fountain. That was the altar. God didn't give Pentecost because they prayed it down. He didn't give Pentecost because they were so righteous or because they had faith. They received it because it was the appointed time. It was a promise of God. It was an eternal promise. This is the promise that was given out through the Old Testament. And what God is going to do in these last days has nothing to do with our holiness. It has very little to do even with our praying it down. That's a part of it. The praying, the believing has to do with us preparing our heart to receive what God has promised. It has to do with us, not him because what he said will happen will happen. Whether you and I are going to be a part of it or not depends on us. Depends on our prayer. Depends on our faith. But the promises of God are eternal. Nothing, not the devil, no angels in hell. Nobody can stop the eternal purpose of God. And he's determined that in the last days the water is going to rise. There's going to be an outpouring of the Holy Ghost beyond anything the world has witnessed. We're going to see more of it as we progress in this vision. Scripture says, the waters came down. There ran out waters. There ran out waters. How best can you describe Pentecost then? There ran out waters. And it's been running and flowing ever since. Peter stood on the day of Pentecost up to the ankles. That's as far as the trickle began. It's coming out now out of the upper room. Began at the cross. That's the fountainhead. I want you to stop just now. Are you beginning to see? I'm going to ask you all to. Do you see it? That's what Jesus asked. Do you see what's beginning to happen? Pentecost with all of its glory, all of its manifestations, was just a trickle flow coming out of the house. As it flows, it grows. This prophecy says. It grows in width, in depth, in volume, in power, and resurrects in life. Now, hundreds of years go by and Constantine comes to the throne after the first century, or the first millennium, a thousand years. And there's been probably 500 years, more like 700 years of persecution. At this time, just before Constantine comes to the throne and gets his vision and turns the empire Christian, the preachers, most of the preachers are in salt mines. Christians have been murdered. Churches have been burned. There are no churches. There are no houses of worship. There's been nothing but persecution. That ended under Constantine. But I want you to know, folks, under that persecution, they came to the waters to the knees. There was a fresh revelation of Jesus. There was an overflowing of revelation. They saw Christ clearer. Some of the writings of our church fathers during that time, they came out of great persecution, came up out of those salt mines. They had a touch of Jesus, powerful. They had waters to the knee. Time goes by, and another darkness sets in, all the way to the time of Martin Luther. Martin Luther said the way to deal with an anthill is put the river to it. You see an anthill? You want to deal with an anthill? Put the river to it. Let the river flow it away. And that's exactly what happened. God put the river to the anthill of apostasy, and they were selling indulgences. The church had been corrupted, and God said, nothing's going to stop the flow. Hallelujah. It looked like the church was going to die, and Martin Luther got a vision of justification by faith, and God brought the church to the waters to the loins. He brought the church to the waters of the loins because there was a new revelation of Jesus, that we are saved by faith in Him alone. And there was a fresh revelation of Jesus, and the waters began to rise. It must have been a sight to see multitudes flock into the great cathedrals, tear down the idols, tear down the images. It must have been something to see multitudes being baptized all over York and around the then-known world. God was pouring out His Spirit. The river was rising. Now, you and I live in the last thousand cubits. You and I live in the last measurement. And Ezekiel comes to this place, and it overwhelms him. He can't go on. It's over his head. He said, I could not pass over. What he's saying, I don't understand this, Jesus, because if this river represents the Holy Spirit, if this represents an ever-increasing glory that You're going to give Your people, who are these? Who's going to be in waters to swim in? Because I can't even pass over it now. He knew God. He was touched by the Spirit of the Lord, but he sees something he can't understand. He said, I couldn't pass over. He never did swim in these waters that you and I swim in. He couldn't see it. It was so overwhelming to Ezekiel. He couldn't grasp it. The Bible says they were walking through the midst of the water. In fact, He said, He brought me through the waters. See, the Lord kept urging him on. Come on a little deeper, Ezekiel. There's going to be more for the church. See, this is what it's going to be like in the church of the last days. There will be a people that have this vision to the ankles. Another generation will have it to the knees. Another closer to my coming will have it to the loins. But now, Ezekiel, come a little deeper. And he's probably up to his chin. And he can't go any further. And he stops. He stops. He said, I could not pass over, for the waters were risen, waters to swim in. Could it be that he said to the Lord, Lord, what is this sea that you're showing me? What is this vast thing that I see ahead of me? I see it opening up to a sea. I see rivers. It's the same trickle, but it's miraculously increasing. Where's the increase coming from? And it's just over my head. He does not understand or comprehend it. Brother, sister, if you think that you and I have experienced the presence of Jesus in a glorious way, if you think we've had a marvelous revelation of who Jesus is, we have seen nothing in comparison to what He wants to show us. And what He has promised to show us. And what He is going to show a people. There will, there has to be a people come into this. God said it. There has to be a people that are going to be in waters to swim in. What are these waters? The Holy Ghost. The Holy Spirit. And what is the work of the Holy Spirit? To reveal Jesus. To reveal Jesus. There is coming what He was saying, finally a people who are in such a vast glory. Jesus was manifesting Himself in such a measure among them. They were swimming. They were abandoned in this great waters of life. Total abandonment to Jesus. Now, it was given to the prophet Isaiah to see something even more glorious about this river. Now why don't you go with me to Isaiah 33. Isaiah 33. Are you beginning to see it? Say Amen if you are. Isaiah 33. I'm going to ask you that three or four more times probably. Isaiah 33. I figured if Jesus can ask it of the prophet, I can ask it of you. Isaiah 33. Same river. Verse 21. Isaiah 33 verse 21. But there the glorious Lord will be unto us as a place of what? Rivers and streams wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby. Verse 23. Thy tacklings are loosed. They could not well strengthen their mast. They could not spread the sail. Then is the prey of a great spoil divided, the lame take the prey. Now let me tell you what that means. Look this way please. He said there's coming a great flood. The rivers are going to rise. There will be a people swimming in these waters. Abandoned to Jesus. Lost in His presence. Reveling in the revelation of who He is. And the enemy is going to try to come against them. But what Isaiah is saying that the people of these last days who are in this flood, those who enjoyed this great outpouring of the Holy Spirit are going to have a special protection against satanic attack. Beyond anything any generation is known. He said no ship with galley oars. That's a warship with slave sailors. You see those men with the whip. And they're counting one, two, one, two. And they're oaring these warships. No gallant. Gallant is war. No warship. No slave ship with those slave sailors are going to be in these waters. In fact this is a picture of the devil trying to get into these waters. Trying to get at you and I in these last days. And you know what? He's got his boat. And he can't get anything started. Well read it right there. The tacklings are loosed. They could not strengthen their mast. They could not spread the sail. There's the devil blocking orders. Strengthen the mast. Put up the sails. Let's get going. And everything's going wrong. Total confusion. Because the angel of the Lord's abhorred ship and said no warship on these waters. No more. No galley ships. You don't even have a puff of breath. There's no wind that can come into these sails. And there's the devil in total confusion. And then the scripture says the lame take the prey. Even the lamest of the believers can overcome him. There's going to be waters to swim in. And there'll be no galley ships in these waters. Oh hallelujah. Brother, sister, God's with his people in these last days. The devil's not going to prevail against the church of Jesus Christ. Not at all. David said let them be confounded and put to shame that seek after my soul. And let them be turned back and brought to confusion that desire my hurt. Let the angel of the Lord chase them. Hallelujah. Let the Lord pursue after them. That's exactly what he's promised. Now the second thing. Go back to Ezekiel 47. The second thing that I want to point out in this vision. Are you ready? There is coming a time of unprecedented revivings from the dead. Unprecedented revivings from the dead. Start at verse 7 with me again. Now when I had returned, behold at the bank of the river there were very many trees on the one side and on the other. Then said he unto me, these waters issued out toward the east country and go down into the desert and go into the sea. Which being brought forth into the sea, the water shall be healed. And it shall come to pass that everything that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the river shall come, shall live. And there shall be a very great multitude of fish. Because these waters shall come thither for they shall be healed. And everything shall live whither the river cometh. The New American Standard reads, so everything will live where the water goes. Is that in yours? Everything will live where the water goes. Is that correct? Everything will live where the water grows. Ezekiel in the vision is returned to the bank. This is the end of side one. All along the bank on both sides trees are springing up. Life, flower everywhere. Life is springing up. Everything the water touches comes to life. And he's impressive because he sees where the waters are going. The waters are going to the Dead Sea. And in the Dead Sea nothing lives. There's no vegetation. There are no fish. There's nothing. And as soon as these waters get there, it's going to heal the Dead Sea. And the Dead Sea is death itself. And finally Jesus is going to conquer even death by his very life. That's the picture he's showing. That's the vision that is going to finally end in victory over death itself. But in the meantime this vision is not for the millennial age. It's not for the kingdom age because we're going to show you we're going to show you that the Dead Sea is there and there's death. And there can't be any death on the other side. There's no need for waters over there to resurrect anything that's dead. There's no death on the other side. So it's on this side that settles it for me once and for all. But you see along with this life that's coming there's a corresponding increase of death in the last days. Now, the scripture makes it very clear. You know this. Jesus said the love of many are going to wax cold in the last days. There's a death coming to love for Christ in many. Evil men, seducers are going to wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. That's going to be the dying or death of morals. The Bible says there'll be scoffers come mocking the message of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's the death of expectancy. There's death everywhere. Sin will abound. False prophets will spread doctrines of demons. That's the death, the doctrines of death. Everywhere you look in the last days is going to be. That's what AIDS is. AIDS is the modern Dead Sea. It's full of death. It's a sea of death. Multitudes dying from AIDS, from alcoholism, from drugs. There's death all over. There's spiritual death even in many churches. And this is what this vision is trying to point out to us. In the midst of all the death and destruction of the last days, the Lord comes along with the prophecy that's so mind-boggling. He said, get your eyes off the death. Don't focus on the death because the river is rising. And that river is the river of life. And everything the river touches is going to come to life. It appears it appeared for many years as though the church in China was dead. For many, many years, for decades, there was no word out of China. Nothing came out of China. Nobody could get a message that many people thought the church was dead. But it wasn't dead. The river was rising. And now we understand that it had been rising and spreading life all over China because the Scripture says, so everything will live where the river goes. The river went all through China and brought life to multitudes. And the river is still rising in China. What about New York City? City of death. Multiplied numbers are dying with AIDS, overdose, murder, sexual assaults. Everything seems out of control. We've got a lot of people trying to move out of New York. Almost everyone, buddy, I talk to now, except those here at Times Square Church, saying I'd like to get out of here. They've got commercials on radio now. It's saying, do you want to move to Florida? Everybody wants to move to Florida. The Exodus well, forget it. It's the Exodus. But I want to tell you something. We have an ironclad promise that the rivers are to rise. And I tell you, God dug a well on Broadway and Jesus is appearing on Broadway and the river is rising and the waters are flowing and nobody in City Hall can keep it out. The homosexuals can't keep it out of the village. Abortionists can't keep it out of the clinics. We can't, nobody can keep it out of Broadway because the waters are rising. And he said everywhere the river goes, there will be life. Nothing can stop it. Now the river is flowing through Romania, East Germany, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Russia. Life in Jesus is springing up all over the world. What about your household? What about your loved ones? You see spiritual death. And has it been discouraging to you? You pray and nothing seems to happen. You know what my Bible says? I just read it to you. I'm going to say it again. And I'm going to ask you, are you seeing it yet? Everywhere the river goes, there will be life. There will be life. I don't know how God's going to do it, but I tell you if God in just a few months can destroy communism right under our noses, he can do everything he's prophesying in this book and in this vision. He can do it anytime. He can do it within a few weeks. He can pour out, the waters can rise so quickly and spread through this city, spread through your household and bring life. Everywhere the river goes, there shall be life. Hallelujah. The scripture says in the midst of all this healing and reviving, there's going to be some that will be left out. The Bible says they're going to be given to salt. Given to salt. Verse 11. But the mirey places thereof and the marshes thereof shall not be healed. They shall be given to salt. Now listen to me closely, please. Here's a warning. This is so heavy on my heart tonight. This is where I'm prophesying. There are little mud puddles the prophet's seeing. It astonishes him because the river has just flooded it. It's just gone over all the marshes, all the mud holes. The river's gone over. It's purged and cleansed everything but these little mud holes. These little marshes. The river goes by and leaves them. It's still there. These little puddles begin to dry up and turn to salt. They turn so white, dry, white, barren, salt. They're given to salt. That word means barrenness, fruitlessness. These are professors of Christianity who have been inundated with the gospel reproof. They have had the Spirit of God plummet their souls. They have had the Spirit of God woo them. But they're unmoved. These are those that are living in rebellion. They're blind and insensitive to their own danger. These are Christians who feel deeply but do not change. They cry and they weep but they do not obey. They make promises and resolutions but they never follow through. Because there's a spirit of rebellion. That spirit of rebellion the Bible says is going to cause them to become dry, empty marshes. And the river will bend. God will bend the river and flow on by. In fact, Peter said these are going to be wells without water. Wells without water. Now follow me please. The wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest whose waters cast up mire and dirt. And the apostle Peter is speaking to the very same thing that prophet Ezekiel is speaking to. And you don't have to turn but 2 Peter, the second chapter, the whole chapter outlines a people who are going to be given to salt. Do you know what salt means? I'm going to say it again. It's a spirit and condition of emptiness, barrenness, fruitlessness. These are those that were once fountain heads. These were once those who had living water springing up. But because of compromise and sin they have become stale and empty and dry and have been given to salt which is absolute barrenness. And Peter said it's because they walk after the flesh. They have become presumptuous. They are self-willed. They speak against God-ordained authority. They speak evil of the things they do that they know nothing about. They are entangled again with the world and have been overcome by those things. They have turned from the holy commandment once delivered to them. And this is the real tragedy. They should have been caught up in this river. They should be pouring forth life. Everything they touch should be coming to life. Their marriage should be healed. Their children should be healed. Their mates, their children, everything around them, there should be the signs of life beginning to spring up. But there are no signs of life. In fact, it's just the opposite. They're drying up. It's a mud hole. It's empty. It's dry. And it's fruitless. Trees are growing everywhere. Even the Dead Sea is coming to life. But there they sit. God's passing them by. The river flows on. This is what breaks my heart. There's some of you sitting here tonight in the same condition. You sit under the preaching of the anointed word by men of God who weep for days, who shut themselves in and bow at the cross, who bear your souls, who are responsible for a holy God, whose very prayers and weeping and tears are stamped by the same spirit that stamped this vision. And you sit under the preaching and you hear it. And it goes something like this. It's like a preacher said in so many words. Well, you go to hear Brother Dave and he's got to do his prophetic thing. It's okay what he's saying, but what he's saying, he just, that's the prophetic. Now, I'm not a prophet. Never did believe I was. But I heard a man and he was on television. That's back when I had television. And he was, in so many words, he was saying a prophet is a man who has to preach doom. In so many words, he said, let him do his thing. I'm not doing my thing tonight. I stand before you having stood before God. I come tonight just as the prophets of God came before Ahab and said, I come to you because I've stood before the Lord. Amen. And some of you have never understood the spiritual authority of this pulpit yet. You go out and you say, I heard it, but I don't see it that way. You believe I'm a man of God. You believe these pastors are men of God. You can hug me. You can bless me. You can give your money in this basket. But you've not heard a word. You've not heard a word until you see, as Brother Bob said this morning, it's not the pastor, it's God speaking. And you know that because it witnesses with your soul. You hear another sound that's not of the flesh. You hear men who love you and bleed for your soul. And some of you said, now for months and months under the preaching of holiness and righteousness and the rivers are rising and God wants to do a work. And you are the temple of the Holy Ghost and these waters are to flow through you. God's called you to be a river. And you've got all this garbage blocking it. You've got the filth, resentment, bitterness. The waters are stopped. And one day you'll stand before the judgment seat of Christ and the testimony should have been this, Jesus, thank you for the fountain you opened in me. I bring to you all the fruit that I bore. I bring to you all the souls that I've won. I bring to you all the people whose my tears have washed into the kingdom of God. You should have stood there with fruit. You should have stood there in the joy and victory of the cross. But you've been turned to salt. And I prophesy to you in the name of the Lord. And hear it from the Lord himself, because the Holy Ghost gave me this message. I didn't get it from man, I got it from God. He's about to do a new thing on the land. He's about to be poured out beyond anything we could comprehend. And he's got to have a holy people, a sanctified people who believe in what God is preaching. Not what the man is preaching, what God is preaching. And I tell you, those who stand against it, God said, I will send a plague. I'll turn you to salt, just like I did to Lot's wife. You'll stand as a pillar of salt, dead, dry, empty. Oh, I tremble when I say it. It's too late. There's some people coming, I don't even know why you come, because you don't agree with what is being preached from this pulpit. Just a handful, but all we hear it. Why would you sit here and listen to me, if you don't believe I was a man of God? That's fakery. Oh, I'm not mad at anybody, but the devil. And I want to see a people who are going to come into this last thousand cubits. Say, oh Jesus, I don't want to miss. I don't want to miss it. David said, pluck me out of the dirt, pluck me out of the mire, get it out of my heart, oh God, don't take your Holy Spirit from me, as we heard this morning. Don't take it from me. When they see the plagues of the land, and the sicknesses which the Lord shall send upon them, and the whole land therefore becomes brimstone and salt and burning, it's a land that will not be sown, it will not bear fruit, the grass will not grow therein, just like I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, because they forsook the covenant of the Lord, and continued in their sins. That's Moses' warning to those who do not heed the call of God to let the river not only enter their heart, but to drive out, and purge, and cleanse. Hallelujah! God's promised me tonight that He was going to open a river. And God's ordained for you, and for me in this church, this is not the only place God is working. This is just one aspect of the work of God in these last days. And we're not asking people to come here to see what God is doing. If God does that, that's fine. We're not trying to network with anybody but the Holy Ghost. We're not trying to build anything, we're not even trying to build a church. We didn't come to New York to pack the house. We came to New York to find a people who would hunger like we did. We came here so hungry, we just wanted to see a people that wanted Jesus. We wanted a people who would give up everything in this world. They wouldn't play games. They would love to hear the Word. They would so love the Word of God, they would heed it. They would know that when we cry out loud and spare not the rod, it's because we don't want to stand before God and see a child that's damned. Spare the rod and damn the child. We'll not do that. If I have to stand here and scream my lungs out because there's a river that's flowing and I've seen it and I'm not going to miss it. I see what's coming. Don't you want to be a part of that? Don't you want to have so much Jesus in you and nothing blocking it that you can go against the ungodly and there'll be life come out of you? You can look at your dead family and there'll be life pouring out of you and no filth, no dirt, but life! I'm not going to let my love for any of you cloud my vision of His wrath and His justice, His mercy. Sometimes we have pastors have a tendency to love people so much they won't preach the truth. That's not love. True love. True love is to guard your soul. And I stand as His servant tonight and His watchman and I say to you, get rid of everything. It's unlike Jesus. If you see signs of death creeping in right now, if you see any signs of bitterness, rebellion, or anything else, you'll know that you're turning aside into the marshes. No, get back into the river. Hallelujah. You can get right back into the river and say, Oh Lord, I see it, I don't want it. I want you to use me. I want to bear fruit! I don't want to stand before God empty handed! I want to be able to my last breathing moment, the last breath I take, I want it to be a breath of life! Oh, hallelujah. Sometimes when I preach like this, I get the feeling it's too heavy for some of you. You just sit there quiet. But I'll tell you something, what I'm preaching to you is glory. It's glory. God's not going to pass you by. Because this river that's rising is going to sweep everything out of this house. It's unlike Jesus. Hallelujah. And that devil had no right. He got no ships. He got no more ships in this house. Hallelujah. Got none of them. Glory to God. He can't even get his sails up. Stand with me, please. Saints, God promises He's going to deal with us tonight. If what I heard was from God, and I preached on the anointing of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit has to convict you tonight. There's got to be a knife in you right now. I don't care how holy you are. There's a knife in me. Right in the innermost of my belly. I'm aching. There's a twisting. There's a turning because the Holy Ghost is stirring and dealing and convicting. Do you feel that tonight? Is He dealing with you? Some of you will not need to come to this altar because you know you've learned already that all you have to do is reach out and say, Jesus, I see it. I see it. I see it. Forgive me. You'll immediately get back into the flow. Hallelujah. You set out and you make your wrongs right. You make the confessions you have to make. You begin to obey the Word of God. You begin to respect His spiritual authority. We're not into telling people how to run their lives. I'm talking about the authority from this pulpit. I'm talking about the authority of this Word that goes forth. Hallelujah. But some of you tonight, there's a dryness, a barrenness, an emptiness. You are not a fountain of life, but God wants to cleanse that spring tonight. He wants to remove all the debris and all the garbage and then He wants to just pour on you a baptism of the Holy Spirit tonight, a baptism of living water. Out of your innermost being shall flow, flow rivers of living water. Hallelujah. In the moment you feel the Holy Spirit, I'm going to pray. In the moment you feel the Holy Spirit tugging and pulling at your heart, get out of your seat and come and stand here and bow your head and say, Jesus, I humble myself tonight. I don't want to be turned to salt. I don't want to be given over to salt, to barrenness. No, I want to stand before you, Jesus, bearing fruit. Hallelujah. The Scripture said those trees had leaves that never died. And it said the fruit, new fruit every month, every month something new, something fresh. Is that your Christian life? Are you enjoying a prayer life that's fresh every day now? Or is it getting stale? Then watch out for the salt. Heavenly Father, I know you spoke to my heart tonight and I know you're speaking to many in this church, some that are visiting for the first time, others that have been coming regularly or just for a short time, I don't know. But Lord, you're trying to remove all that's unlike Jesus. Lord, remove all the rebellion, remove all the corruption, remove all bitterness. Lord Jesus, stubbornness, everything that would block the vision of Jesus, take it from us, Lord, and give us a heart for you tonight. Now, up in the balcony, here in the main floor, have the Holy Spirit talk to you tonight. That's what I'm going to say. Have the Holy Spirit dealt with you tonight. Come on and meet me right here. The Holy Spirit dealt with you. Come on, that's all I can say. Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on me. Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on me. Melt me, warm me, fill me, use me. Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on me. Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on me. Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on me. Melt me, warm me, fill me, use me. Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on me. Folks, I've been instructed by the Holy Spirit to just have a moment where we bow our heads, all of us, and let the Holy Spirit deal with us. It's an awesome thing to be dealt with by the Holy Ghost. It's an awesome thing. It's an awesome thing. It's important tonight that afterward, if you were here this morning especially, and then again tonight, hearing the Holy Spirit, will you let him speak to your heart right now, and will you breathe out in prayer, Oh Jesus, let the river rise in me. Lord, open the fountain. I want to be used of God. I want to bear fruit. I want to give myself, and all that I am, all that I have, I want to give it to you tonight. Lord, with no reservations, I heard you, Jesus. I see it. If you see it, tell him that. Say, Holy Spirit, I see it. Lord, I see it. I see it tonight. You're calling me. You're touching me. I can't turn back. Holy Spirit, deal with everybody in the balcony, everybody in the main floor, and everybody on this stage. Deal with us. Speak to our hearts, oh Lord. Give us the spirit of faith to believe you for these rising waters. Help us to believe that you're going to bring forth a great revival, Lord, that you're going to pour out your Spirit, and you're going to use us. We're going to be a part of that, Lord. You're going to give us waters to swim in. Jesus, you're going to reveal yourself to us. Lord, by your Spirit, convict us. Lord, if we've been careless at this midnight hour, the last day church, if some are careless, careless, God, forgive. Call them back to the secret closet. Call them back, oh Lord, to a diligence. Call them back to you, Jesus. Call them back, Lord. Call us all back. If any have been slipping or drifting or growing cold or indifferent, bring them back. Bring them back. Thank you, Jesus. You that are up in the front, you that have come forward, raise both hands to Jesus. Just lift up your hands. The Bible said lift your hands. Will you pray this? Just cry it right out of your heart. Oh, Jesus, come now, fill me with the Holy Spirit. My body is your temple. You said living waters will spring up, but it has to be clean. So cleanse me. Forgive me. I surrender. I lay down every sin. I love you, Jesus. River of God, river of life, flow in me. Let me bring life. Now thank him right now. Jesus, I thank you for life. Thank you for life from the dead. Resurrection from the dead. Thank you for the life that is in Jesus. Thank you for the life that is in Christ. Hallelujah. Thank you for life. Oh, thank you for life. Hallelujah. Glory to Jesus. You know, I'd like everybody in this building, just raise your hands to the Lord, and I want you to thank him for the life that's in Jesus, the life, the life of Christ, the life of the Holy Spirit being brought to us. Lord, pour out life, abundant life on this church. Let there be life. Spring up, oh God. Spring up, oh well. Hallelujah. This is the conclusion of the tape.