In this sermon, the speaker shares a powerful testimony of a 14-year-old boy who was set free from anorexia through the power of God. The speaker also mentions a book on holiness that he read, expressing his disappointment with the later chapters. He then discusses the importance of prayer and shares insights from John 17, where he discovered new revelations. The speaker also hints at counseling issues that need to be addressed in order to better help those seeking guidance.

This has been an interesting week for me at the conference. And one of the things, I don't know if Dr. Arnold is in here, but Clinton Arnold gave me a new identity. And it's not on one of Neal's In Christ, he needs to add it to the bottom of the list. But as I was sitting in Clinton Arnold's class, he said something that I don't like being called a demon caster, or you know, whatever, that kind of thing. I just, somehow I react to that even inwardly myself. But Clinton Arnold said this, if someone comes up to me now and asks me, what do you do? I'm simply going to say, I'm a trash collector. And I do the kind of work that Josiah did, when he cleansed the temple of God of trash, so the presence of God could be obvious once again in that temple. And that's the ministry that I have, and that's the ministry that gives me the greatest joy. One of the joys I had at the conference, there are many medical doctors here, and God has done so many unique things in our life. I've had opportunity to minister to congressmen and senators, governors, conferences for these people, leading some congressmen's wives to Christ and also to freedom and so on. But one of the unique ones was the medical seminars that we've done. And there are a number of doctors here. In fact, if you want to get sick, you're fortunate. There's probably a doctor in your row. I'm sure there's a doctor in your row, too. I'm sure there's a doctor in your row also, you know. And but many of these doctors had attended some of these medical seminars where we did the warfare teaching. But one doctor came up to me and it was such a blessing. He said, I was in at your conference and where you're speaking on warfare. And he said, after you spoke, I went downstairs and I began to pray. And I realized I wasn't a Christian and I received the Lord as my savior. Isn't that beautiful? At a warfare conference, you wouldn't even think it was name on that thing. But as he began to look at his life and what was going on, he didn't even know the Lord. What a blessing. I recently read a book that was very disappointing and I can tell you what it was. Oh, before I tell you that, I have a few copies of my old prayer letter. I left that you may want to get a hold of. And it's the steps of action that we gave to a 14 year old anorexic boy who came here almost immediately out of a hospital after being hospitalized for it with no help. And in one week was set free and is still free of anorexia. What were the steps that we used? What was the truth that this young man needed to know to come to freedom? And they're they're down here on the front. There's a few left over. And so if you'd like a copy of that letter and what we did and what the boy had to interact with when he interacted with truth, that God was able to set him free of this terrible, debilitating thing in his life that was literally destroying him physically and spiritually. Now, back to the book I read. I read a book, a classic book on holiness. And I was thrilled with chapter one. I was thought chapter two was OK. And from there, the book went downhill and I don't think it's the author's fault. And I have a I think maybe a right sense, a real fear of sharing what's on my heart with you. I won't do it justice, so bear with me. Others have done a better job, but this is so burdened on my heart. And it's amazing. Mark and I did not correspond with each other, what we're going to speak on. And yet God lay John 17 in my heart as he did on his heart. Yet totally different. You know what God gave me was different from his. A year and a half ago, I received a phone call that I had no idea how that phone call was going to change my Christian life. And it was it seemed kind of a of an easy phone call to take because it was easy to say no. And it was a call from Dallas, Texas, to speak at a prayer seminar. And I told them, no. That I would not speak at that prayer seminar because I'm not a man of prayer, I'm a man that prays. And there is a difference, you know, the difference. Have you ever heard Mark do that? There is a difference between a man of prayer and a man who prays. And so I told them now that they had the wrong person. And I told them to and I started naming people, had them been there and said his thing. And I said, no, I just I don't feel right about doing it because there's two kinds of people. This is my excuse. I don't know if Nancy DeMoss is in here, but Nancy, if you do something on the lies that men believe, add this to your list. And that is there are there are guys who pray and guys who do. And I'm one of the doers. Anybody here like that? There goes my granddaughter. What a lie that is. And so I just told them, no. And I and they said, we're going to pray about it. Anyway, they call me back. They prayed about it and they said, we really feel you're the one that's supposed to do this. And so I I thought, well, I will do this. And I didn't realize I already did it, I think was last October, but I had a year and a half to prepare to do that prayer seminar. And God took me on a tremendous journey, first into myself. And then into his word and in many, many ways to try to discover and discern. What was the blockage in my life to be a man of prayer? And so I would like to to share a little bit of some of the things that God revealed to me and maybe encourage you, especially if you're counselors, we're going to get into some of the counseling issues that I think we're failing our counselees on tremendously. And I'd like to share this with you, Micah, four or five, these are not notes in your notes, the notes, you know, just on the names of God, Micah, four or five. It's interesting there, Micah says, and we will walk in the name of the Lord, our God forever and ever. The name of God, that statement, the name of God signifies the whole disclosure of who God is. And it's holy in all holiness and in truth. Secondly, the word name literally means a mark or a brand. It is an external mark that distinguishes a thing or objects, one from another. When I pastored my first church, I grew up in Los Angeles and my wife and I were called to pastor out in nowhere. If you think Sioux City is nowhere, go to Aiden, California. I mean, if you sneeze driving through that town, you'll miss all of it. You know, we were 100 miles one way from a major city. So if we wanted to go to a grocery store or pennies or something, it was a 200 mile round trip. It was 150 miles round trip to get a prescription filled. I think it was 100 miles round trip to get a haircut. It was during the hippie time, although I didn't go that direction, but, you know, it's kind of more in making that that long trip. We were really isolated and they had open range and open range is this, that all this was cattle, ranches and loggers. Was I out of my realm and I never had letterwood stove in my life. I had never met a real life cowboy, let alone have a whole bunch of hard neck, rough neck drinking loggers. God, I got to tell you, this is so wonderful. God moved so wonderfully in that place. So many of these loggers and mill guys and I am so unmanly. I mean, you should see these guys. Their muscles have muscle. They seem to use a chainsaw all day long, falls these big trees, drunkards, fighters, all this stuff. So many guys got saved. And I'm not even really an evangelist, got saved at the logging mill. That's the testimony of all logging mills in California. Don't go to Aiden, California, because you'll get saved. Unbelievable. These roughnecks, when they got saved, it was just a marvelous thing that happened there while we were there. But they had open range and they turn all the cattle out. Thousands of cattle are roaming all over these mountain ranges behind Mount Shasta. And they earmarked them, they warble them and they branded them because they're all turned out and then the snow comes, the cattle all start coming back and you can identify your cattle by what? By their mark, by their brand, and we identify one another by what names, if I asked Neil Anderson to come up here, Clinton Arnold wouldn't come. That signifies a certain person. And that name, if you've heard, Neil, you get a lot of conjuring up in your mind about Neil Anderson or Clinton Arnold or one of the other presenters and so on. So names are extremely important. And to walk in the name of the Lord is to live in accordance with the meaning of his name. It's very, very significant. And if I don't know God by name, I can't walk in its meaning. And neither can my counselees. The scripture says when the righteous are under attack, they are to run into God's name as a strong tower. Proverbs 18, 10, the name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous run into it and are safe. But if I don't know his name, I have no place to run. Not knowing God by name is one of the schemes of Satan. I like what Nancy DeMoss said. All lies come from Satan. Just mentioned it upstairs. When we start our counseling process on Monday with the counselee, we start in Hebrews 12, 1 and 2, and we're told in that passage that we're all running a race. I got a marathon runner is going to be my prayer partner next week. He's sitting here in the front row. My son ran a marathon and was running all through junior high, high school and college because Richard asked me in junior high, he wanted to go into sports. I said, you can't go into glory sports because I taught in two Bible colleges and all the kids in the glory sport were lousy Christians. So I said, Richard, I don't care what you do as long as not a glory sport. And so he became a cross country runner, which is wonderful. Nobody goes. So he got his sports in, won all those medals. But nobody was around. And he says that we're running in a race and he said, there's two things as we run that we have to watch out for. One is weights. Richard ran in this crazy weather when he was living at home before he found Diana moved out, you know, I mean, just all the snow and here he's out running. Well, he didn't run in his shorts. He ran in a sweatsuit. But when he ran the Twin Cities Marathon, he didn't wear a sweatsuit. Not there was anything wrong with it, but it's a what? It's a weight. Be careful that if God reveals to you a weight. That you don't turn it into a sin issue and judge someone else. You tell me three good Christians that chew gum. You know what I'm saying? God tells me, you know, not to gum anymore. I can't anyway, because if I do, the teeth on top will stick to the ones on the bottom. I know good Christians to gum, you know, I can't do it. But there's that sin that so easily entraps us now as we run this race, where are we to focus inside looking under who Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith? I believe this, brethren, every attack of the enemy. I don't care how it comes, what way it comes or what your stuff is, is to get your eyes off of the Lord onto something else, yourself, people, circumstance. What about Peter? When I got out of the boat, when he got his eyes off, who the Lord and looked at a circumstances, what happened to him? He started sinking. And we need to be refocused. I know when you got a rock in your shoe, it's hard not to think about your foot and we have to help our counselees get the rocks out of the shoes so they can think about the Lord. And so we're to focus on the Lord. What is the purpose of the attack of Satan? Steal, kill and destroy. Is that right? He wants to steal, he wants to rob me of joy and peace, the fruit of the spirit. He wants to rob my life, have any eternal significance. I get so wrapped up in my stuff. I never reach out to anybody. He wants to kill most of my counselees that fly in here to see me, have seriously thought of ending their life. Where does that thought come from? The Lord came to give us what life, what abundantly. Well, then when I have thoughts of taking my life, where could that intruding thought come from? And the third is to destroy relationships. You see the enemy at work today, that's what he's that's what he's about. Now, what's his two most effective weapons, I think, to do that is found in Revelation 12. He is the what? Deceiver and the accuser. And I believe that Satan as the deceiver is a little bit different than Satan is a liar. Satan is the liar. A lie is an out and out lie, but I see deception a little differently than that. A deception has a lie in it. But what's got more than the lie is emotions associated with that lie. I believe a man is deceived when his mind and emotions believe something that's not true. And we in our culture have a tendency to believe what we feel and a tendency not to believe what we don't feel. And many of my counselees and I know Nancy was talking about this with the ladies, but I only counsel men. Hundreds of men, all those people I saw were men that fly in here and a man will tell me I don't feel or I don't think usually feel that God loves me and I just say so. I said, what do you mean by so I said, well, he says he does. And what are you going to believe? Am I right? You are counselors, you know, we have we have to get over that feeling thing that if I feel that it's true, I don't feel it isn't true. It's a real that's a deception. And then all the accusing of all the stuff in the past. But I want you to turn if you have a Bible, if not write this down, I think it's very significant. Second Corinthians 10, three, four and five. We're told here the three aspects that come under attack, for though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty, divinely empowered by God, first of all, to the pulling down of strongholds. Now, you've heard Ed Smith and in those who ministered in this area realize that a stronghold, what is a stronghold? A stronghold is a belief system. It's something that I believe is true. And often that belief system is connected with deep wounding. And the wounding is not as significant in my life right now as what I believe about that wounding. You're with me, aren't you? And see, that gets a stronghold in my life until that belief system is challenged and that stronghold comes down. This thing is going to have an effect on my life for years. When I was teaching at a Bible college, the president called me and pretend like he was balling me out. And he said, someone has given anonymous gift to this college to send you and your wife to Israel. And I thought maybe the students did it, and I said, is there enough money to come back? And he said, yes. And so we went to Israel with the friends of Israel, wonderful group to go with. And you end that whole trip at Jerusalem. You go through all of Israel, but the end is at Jerusalem. Jerusalem is a stronghold. Jerusalem is a walled city. And so they gave us a free day and my wife and I were going to do the tourist thing, you know, buy the little wooden things, you know, all the stuff carved out of pine in Oklahoma sold over there for olive wood. You know, or whatever, you know, we did that thing. Well, we walked in and there's all these little teeny alleys. In fact, my wife was saying the other day, I forgot all about that's the first time we ever saw anybody demonized was in the old city of Jerusalem. And we try to get away from this demonized guy. Here, this guy and I've never seen it, I'm teaching in a Bible college where if I even mentioned the word, I'd have been fired, you know, and so here we are in this guy comes with his eyes. I mean, you ever see, you know, the eyes and he was creepy and with another pastor, we didn't know what to do. So we thought, well, avoid this guy. So so we're trying to go down alleys to get away from him. And we run down this. I mean, if you've ever been in the old city, that's what it is. It's just little alleys. I mean, if a donkey comes with stuff on it, you go like this against the wall for it to get by. And here this guy comes up to a brazier where they're selling stuff and he picks up the brazier and he's got this big holder and he's got hot coals holding him to warm his hands. Oh, no, there is, you know, anyway, that was my that was our introduction to spiritual warfare. One on one. And so after you did all the touristy thing, we decided we walked out of the city and we thought either they turned down all the buildings and built new ones or we went out the wrong gate and it seemed more logical, maybe went out the wrong gate. So we went back in, wandered around and finally went out the right gate. Now, what I want to tell you is this. A stronghold may have many gates and from that gate can be many roads. And often our counselees are battling on the road. It's like fighting an octopus sticking its arms, but we never kill the beast. And those strongholds have to come down. That's a belief system that's going to affect as a man believes in his heart. So is he. And these beliefs can be down in there. They're not all the time, but all of a sudden I'm confronted with something. And my interpretation of this situation is based on a false belief system. That's a stronghold in my life. And I've been there. I understand what I'm telling you is truth in my own life. Now, the second one is the one in which in counseling I never dealt with. Never. And I have failed all of my counselees up to this last year when I realized I was failing them, what are we to do? It says the second attack of Satan is this casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against what? The knowledge of God, do you deal with that in your counseling? Do your counselees know who God is? By name. And the significance of that name to their life and situation. Mine didn't. And I was failing to help them in one of the major areas of attack. When was the last time in the church that you go to that you heard a message on who God is? I'm not knocking. I'm saying it's not by accident. It's by satanic design. Some of us have a great understanding of Jesus Christ. Some others have a great understanding of the Holy Spirit and different balances, but when it comes to God. Often he's just. Something on a song or power out there somewhere, that's all he is. And then the third one is intruding thoughts, casting down intruding thoughts. Well, as I began to put this all together and as I began to look at this thing, well, let's go to John 17 and then I'll try to put this together running out of time in John 17 as I was looking at that prayer, I was looking at if I'm going to pray and be a man of prayer, let's look at some of the prayers in the Bible and that kind of thing. As I looked at John 17, I saw something that I'd never seen before. And when you focus on a portion of scripture for a period of time, things can jump out at you that you never saw before. And as I began to look at this, Mark brought out certain things. Remember, he said things that were repeated in that. Well, let me give you some repeats in that five times this was said in that prayer. In verse three, Jesus prayed, and this is life eternal, that they may know the the only true God. His prayer was that they would know God. In verse let me look here in verse 11, he says, Holy Father, keep them through thy own what name in verse 12. While I was in them in the world, I kept them in what? By name. I think I skipped one and let's go to verse 26, because this is what my theme was and father, I have declared unto them what by what name? Five times, Jesus prayed this prayer for you and I, that we might know God by name. And we're told that's one of the attacks of Satan upon the life of a believer is that we wouldn't know God by name. Now, as I began to look at my praying and wanting to be a man of prayer, I had to come to grips and Mark already alluded to it. And that is I needed some kind of a form to follow. And if you've got that free tape, it shows how I laid out a prayer journal. That we gave out at Christmastime. And I realized that probably the Lord's Prayer was very significant because you could take each aspect of its phrases and develop a prayer journal. You know, they just the phrases cover your whole everything is right there. But the very first thing is our what? I got over it. And all of a sudden, I realized I had a problem and I went to Dan Rumberger, our psychologist, to be psychologized. I don't know, Dan, I remember something and I sat down, I said, Dan, I got a real problem. Now, when you grow up in an alcoholic home, an abusive home and you've been put down and you rejected most all of your life and told that you couldn't do anything and you're dumb and you're stupid and all that kind of stuff that has an effect on you as a kid. I mean, it really does all through your teen years and all of that. When I graduated from the college that Clinton Arnold teaches at, I got a special award. They had, you know, summa cum laude and summa this. And I got summa cum lucky. I said, let's get rid of this guy, you know, can't we pass him out of here, you know, because it's hard to live beyond the concept of yourself. Really is if you have a core belief that you can't do it and you're dumb and you're stupid and you're not very smart, it's very hard to try to live beyond that that's going on inside. And so I sat down with Dan. I said, Dan, you know, when I hear the word father. I don't get. Negative thoughts, because I've asked God's forgiveness and I asked the bitterness of my life to be removed and I took care of that years before and I got right by my father. I asked his forgiveness and all of that kind of thing for failing to be the son to him. I should have been in all of that. The rebellion I had, even though I was a non-Christian, I still was wrong, but Christian and non-Christian was wrong for the way I responded to my father. And I got that all right. But when I got the word father, I didn't have bad feelings. I had no feelings. It was just. Level. And then you have these people that go around talking about other father. Now, what did Nancy call him? I can never think. Kara's. What's she say? Car. Charismatics, right. All the charismatics are into all the father, you know, and I'm going, hi, it's just something about that that that's sickening. Sweet. You know, Daddy God, that is that I reacted to that. And some of these praise songs that had Daddy God in it, I just reacted to that and I couldn't help it. I thought that is just so that's just not me. Yeah, it's just that's just too much. Let's say that was revealing a problem. Within me, because God wanted to be my daddy, and so I had to come to grips with that. And then as I went to the Gospel of John and I read that, Mark alluded to that. They tell you is when a word is used a number of times in a book that will tell you what the book is all about. That's the theme of the book, and I wrote in my Bible in Bible school days and I put it in every Bible after that, the word believe is found in the Gospel of John. Ninety eight times. If that's the theme, what do we do with father that's mentioned in the King James Bible one hundred and seventeen times and alluded to, if you add on top, that'd be one hundred and forty eight times is the Gospel of John. So I went to the Gospel of John, showing us a relationship between a son and a father, and I saw there there were three tenses for father. First of all was the father. I didn't have any problems with that one. Then the next one is what our father. I didn't have any problems with that one. But I realized that there was a blockage in my life to my father because my father is a father and God did a marvelous work in my life. I can't tell you the word of a father now is a very special word to me when I talk to my father, God. But God in here is all these years it was there. I didn't realize it. Now, and that's one of the names for God. Let me just give you a couple of quickies on some of the names for God. I want to whet your appetite so that you will really think about this. And what are we doing to correct it in my counseling? One of my struggles with the names of God is God's first name. I struggle with his first name. His first name is what Elohim. Genesis one Elohim, what did he do? Elohim created, see, I'm created by God specifically, individually, carefully, precisely the way that I am. His first name is basic to all of life and all of my walk with God. Do you struggle with your self-image? I did. Did you struggle with your family origin? I did. Do you have bitter resentments towards your mother? I didn't. Did I have bitter resentments towards my father? I did. Did I struggle with my physical limitations and my mental limitations? Yes, I did. I wish I was as smart as Clinton Arnold, but he's almost spooky. You know, I mean, he is so smart. I just do a lot of reading. I do a lot of copying from all kinds of people, but I'm not smart. I know that that's OK. God didn't want me to be Clinton. I just wanted me to be me. But see, when I was struggling with this, who was I struggling with? Elohim, I was struggling with the one who created all this for me, and literally I was sitting on judgment of Elohim. For it says, why were we created? Why were we created precisely the way we are dropped into that home, dropped into that family, given abilities and not abilities and giftings and all of those things? Why we were created, how for him, Colossians says that all things were created by him and what for him that we would bring glory to him. That's the purpose. See, my life is to give people who are watching an honest estimate and value of who God's all about. I am to what's the chief purpose of man? You know, people ask me, what are you? I'll tell you what I am. I'm a presto battle. Karis, that's what I am. I can't put it all together. When I graduated from Bible school, I had all the answers. When I taught at Bible College, I thought I had all the answers. Now I have all the questions. I don't know what I am because I see it's all true, isn't it? I mean, God is sovereign, isn't he? Isn't he? Did man have a free will within the sovereignty doesn't mean somehow it all fits, I think, but I can't fit it. But I believe it. You know what I'm saying? I don't try to believe it and work it off through anymore. I just believe it. OK, now this is so vital. When I was rejecting my design and my family and all of this stuff, I was really attacking Ephesians to 10 and Psalms 139, Ephesians 2 says I'm created in Christ Jesus unto what? Good works that I should do before I was ever saved, before I ever was. God designed me for a purpose. And by attacking the design, attacking the whole situation, I would never find God's will and purpose for my life. I would miss it. So I was rejecting my father. I was rejecting myself. I mean, I was having a problem with worth all these things. I was never free to discover God's purpose for my life. As I said, I was sitting in judgment of God and what was happening. I'm violating a much more serious scripture in everything. What give thanks for this is what the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. And what's the very next verse? Quench, not the spirit. And here I was pastoring. Teaching in Bible colleges, in essence, I was quenching the spirit of God. Now, how do I deal with that? Let me give you some steps because they're not in the book, but I'd like you to write these steps down, because I can't tell you how many of your counselees are struggling with Elohim about all of them, aren't they? To some degree, they're wrestling with Elohim. The first thing, and I share this with my counselees and they hear it all the time, obedience precedes understanding. I try to identify with the people in the Bible. It's very easy for me to do. And I identify with Moses. And God said, Moses, I want you to go down to the lake, river, whatever it was, a lake or whatever it was, Dead Sea or Red Sea or whatever, and raise your rod over it. And I would have said, if I was Moses, can I do it after dark? I mean, if I stand on a rock and do this thing and everybody's watching, what if it doesn't work? I mean, I've never seen it work. Then if it does work, how are we going to muck to the muck anyway? And, you know, we've got a thing that was sent to me that if the children of Israel, the number they think they are, went across, if you've seen the movie, you know, what was the movie Ten Commandments? You got a wrong vision because they went across four thousand abreast. It wasn't a little trail as huge for them all to get across. But see all through the Hebrews 11, all the men were that were obedient there, didn't know what was going to happen. You know, Mrs. Noah came home and said, no, what do you realize? We're the only people in the city doesn't have a boat. He said, honey, don't worry about it. When I get through the Joneses will look at us. I don't think that's the way it was. God said it's going to rain. And he said, what's rain? God said, don't worry about it. Build a boat. You'll know in good time. He didn't wait till it rained. He said, I think I better start on this. See, obedience, what must precede understanding? We're talking about what God clearly tells me to do something. What do I need to do? I need to do it, even though I don't fully understand all of it. OK, the second thing is that thanking Elohim is an act of my will done in obedience to God. So God's not asking me to feel anything there. He's asking me to what? Do something. Being thankful is an act of my emotions that comes as we realize the benefits of God's actions. I can look once I resolve this thing of my family and my heritage and the alcohol and the drunks. And then in my book, just before I practically wrote the book, I realized that we had people in my family that had occult experience. You know, my aunts, my aunt and grandmother were my aunt and her and my cousin were doing telepathy. And all the stuff she told fortunes and late cars and all the stuff was going on in my family, but I thought that was normal. I mean, if you grow up in a family, your aunt always lays cards, isn't that normal? I mean, what's Christmas and Thanksgiving? Well, the family all gets together and gets drunk. Isn't that what they do? That's all I ever knew. That's all ever happened to our house or their house. That's what I thought was. It's amazing. It took me a long time to figure out that my own family has this occult stuff going on. But see, being thankful then will be an act of my emotions as I realize the benefits. But if I never realize the benefits, that's OK. But I see now the benefits of growing up in a home and being rejected. How many of my counselees grew up in homes that were less than the best? And they can't look at me and say, you don't understand. I can look them right in the eyeball and say, I do understand I've been there. I know and I know how you're hurting, but I can tell you the way you're dealing with it is only going to cause you greater hurt and greater pain. And you need to do what I did. See, we thank God for his higher purpose in the situation. And I see it now because God wanted me to go through that so I could help others go through it, too. But as long as I was rejecting that, I could see no benefit in any of that at all. See, to fulfill the purpose and the will of God for my life will give glory to God. That's Elohim. Well, we need to close. Let me give you just a couple other real quickies. We can't go into all of it, but one of them, a thrilling one, is El Elyon, the name El Elyon, the God most high. That is who Satan wanted to be like when Satan picked a name for God. He was picking a nature attribute and character of God he wanted to be like. And he picked El Elyon, the sovereign one that reigns, the one who reigns sovereignly in the heavens and reigns sovereignly on the earth. And I just want to just give you two thoughts here from El Elyon. A mentally deranged man said it perfectly. With a single thought, he said, God, most high rules over all. And when that flooded his mind, his mental sanity returned. And you can read it in the book of Daniel. The unshakable fact that God is sovereignly control over all is the foundation of sanity in this crazy world. It gives stability and hope. Let me give you another quickie, Jehovah Rapha, right? You ever heard of the Rafa? And when we hear of Jehovah Rafa, what do you think of? Physical, what's wrong? The children of Israel went in the promised land, they came to the waters of Mora. Why can they drink them? There are bitter waters and God told Moses what to do about the bitter waters. And Moses put that wood member in there. And the bitter waters were healed. And he said, Moses, my name is Jehovah Rafa, the one who heals bitter waters life. Do any of your counselees need healing of the bitter waters in their life? Do they need to know Jehovah Rafa? Do they need to cry out to him when they're under attack? And then. Oh, I got to give you this one as fast as I can. There was a woman. Who was used sexually, we don't know how many times she was used. But after so often after that, the person is despised in the eyes of the user or those that were involved. And this woman, with all the rejection and now she's pregnant. Does the only thing she knows what to do. And that's to flee out of that abusive situation. And there she is, pregnant, alone. In a strange country. And in the wilderness. And all of a sudden. And. God intervenes. You can read it in Genesis 16, seven through 10, Hagar, what did God know about her? He know he knew right where to find her. He knew her name. He knew her occupation. He knew her heartaches from the home she just fled from. He knew about the child in the womb and she didn't have to go get a CAT scan. He told her it was a boy or whatever they do. What is it? Maybe it's not a CAT scan, whatever it is. If you're sick, I'm not one of those kind of doctors. You know, I won't be any good. God also told him what his name was going to be. And God knew her future destiny. And when God got through talking to her, she gave us a new name for God. The God that sees. Al Roy, God sees. Do you have a loved one? You don't know where they are. I get phone calls. Our son has left. Our daughter's gone. We don't know where they are. But let me tell you, there's a God who sees he knows exactly where they are. He knows her name. He knows what's going on. Can you trust him? Do you see how important these names are? They're vitally important. And let me give you one more and then I'm going to quit. Last Sunday, I was reading Isaiah and I got so caught up in this book, I spent hours doing a word study on two verses. Isaiah 26, three and four. You know, thou will keep them in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusts in thee. It's on my wall in the counseling office, but I never did a Hebrew study of the words. So I got all my Hebrew books, got up the computer, pull up all this. Because there is what a piece of God that passes what all understanding that will guard their hearts and minds, and I'll go word by word, thou who is thou there? It's Jehovah. It's the Lord Jehovah, you just look in the context. The Lord Jehovah will keep that guard, protect or set of watch. Him will guard him in perfect peace, and that's an interesting word. It means harmonious state of soul and mind, both externally and internally. It means soundness, well-being, the absence of inner strife. And the one this grab me, I tell you, I just got so thrilled on this one, I hardly believe it. Whose mind? Now, I knew this one word in the Hebrew that mine can mean imagination. Has your imagination ever gone wild? Remember one time we were moving into a church and was hot and I rubbed the back of my neck and there was a bump there and I thought, oh, I got bit by something. And then after a while, I rubbed the back of my neck weeks later and it was bigger. And I laid in bed and I knew what I had, neck cancer. And I began, I read a book about how this cancer eating this girl up and she could put her tongue up through her nose. And if you read that book, it's all horrible. But you understand what was happening is I wasn't telling anybody. I was thinking, what should they sing, you know, and who should I have do the service and all of this stuff? Well, I hope you get a bump. You won't laugh. Let me tell you. But let me give you two other words here because they're so significant. One, the mind is as by farmed by the potter. But more than that, this is the one that just really grabbed me to frame a picture. The word is stayed is a verb that describes the state of being a continued simple action. It means takes a hold up to grab a hold up and keep on what holding. On the who Jehovah, the I am, I will be who I will be of all the names of God, that one somehow gave me such comfort that God didn't matter who Logan was, didn't matter what I did or didn't do. God would always be what, who you would be. And that just thrills me. And then because he would trust on me, there's another would continue actions, being confident, secure to feel safe in Jehovah, the God who is always there. Now, let me give you this first. Jehovah will guard him in perfect peace, whose mind or mental frame is stayed and continues to take hold of Jehovah because he trusts and has confidence in the God who is always there. Now, think about that, a frame, if your counselees are going to put a frame around God, what does he look like? Is the picture blank? Is the picture distorted? Or is the picture grotesque? I think we have a responsibility. To give our counselees a proper picture of who God is, we need to declare to them his name. Why is that important? This conference, the people have said over and over and over again, first of all, submit to who? What if I don't know who he is? How can I submit to a God I don't know and effectively resist the enemy? They said the only the beginning of helping anyone is what they have to do. Well, what did Nancy talk about? They have to what? Repent, access. Repentance is always towards who? God and faith towards the Lord Jesus Christ. Why do people not have a very much conscious guilt about sin because they don't realize they're sinning against what? God, a holy God, we got to do something. And let me give you in closing a couple of helps. Aaron Potter's book. From light to darkness, because when I started to realize I don't know who God is, I made a pilgrimage for a year and a half to try to find out who he is. I bought all kinds of books and I grabbed my old books and looked at them. And here is a book with two chapters on the names of God and spiritual warfare. And it's on sale back there. The book now that I give my counselees to do, I ask them to buy it. They start on Monday. It goes for forty two days. They're only there for five days. So at least they get four days under their belt. And many of them have written me back and said one of the most significant things that ever happened in the counseling there besides my coming to freedom is working through. Lord, I want to know you. By K. Arthur, what are these names of God mean? It's a workbook. And if God is this, then work it through and form prayers to God and thank him. I can't tell you a better book because we can't do everything in counseling. They would never they'd never leave us. And if they were going back to churches where God was preaching, we'd have to worry. I'm not saying, you know what I'm saying? I mean, I'm not knocking the church. You can't preach on everything either. But these people desperately need to know who their God is. And so they could cry out to that specific name of God for that, for his promise to meet that need and they need to know. And so I would encourage you to encourage your counselees. And in fact, if you can afford buy some and ask him to buy it and to begin to work through this after they leave, that they may have a proper concept of God. Father. We want to acknowledge our failure. In really. Declaring your name. To those who have heard and come to us for help. And father, we pray that we might help our counselees to walk out with a proper view. Of who you are. And how that you're ready to deal and to meet. Every need of their heart and life. That you would be glorified in the lives of those who are crying out for help. We ask this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.