In this sermon, the speaker reflects on the blessings that God has bestowed upon the congregation in New York City. The focus of their seeking is on God's kingdom, righteousness, and the salvation of souls. The speaker emphasizes the importance of coming to God with a forgiving heart and trusting Him to work miracles in their lives. They also address the idea that more fasting, praying, and reading of Scripture will make them better Christians and lead to answered prayers, highlighting the need for unwavering faith in God's ability to fix any situation, no matter how hopeless it may seem.

This message is one of the Times Square Church pulpit series. It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times Square Church in Manhattan, New York City. Other tapes are available by writing World Challenge, Post Office Box 260, Lindale, Texas 75771, or by calling 903-963-8626. None of these messages are copyrighted, and you are welcome to make copies for free distribution to friends. To come to God. Go to Hebrews 11.6, if you will, please. Hebrews 11th chapter, just the one verse. Folks, this should be marked in your Bible. If any verse should be marked in your Bible, this should be underlined and put stars all around it, asterisks or anything else, but mark it well. Hebrews 11.6. Mine is underlined and triple-lined and on the sides, everything. Hebrews 11.6. But without faith, it is impossible to please Him. For he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. Again. But without faith, it is impossible to please Him. For he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. Now, I want you to quote it with me, please. Read it out loud. But without faith, it is impossible to please Him. For he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. Lord, I pray for your unction and anointing this morning. In 1995, you're calling us to faith. To jettison all of our unbelief and our doubts and our fears and to come to you, Lord, as one who's made great and precious promises whereby we're made partakers of your very divine nature. Now, Lord, give us a word from heaven that will begin to do a work in us for this whole year. Lord, I want it to happen in me. Sanctify me. Give me the anointing of the Holy Ghost. Holy Spirit, I know your hand is on me. God, your hand is upon me. And I ask you, Lord, to breathe life through the words that I speak this morning. Sanctify me for your glory. In Jesus' name, amen. Now, I would like to believe that most of you sitting here this morning who call yourself by his name have learned to go to God in prayer about everything. You are a praying believer. Most Christians know and believe in the necessity of prayer. Now, some of you not only pray, but you seek the Lord diligently. Some of you pray with tears. Many of you have learned to fast. You know the value of fasting. And I thank God for a praying, fasting church. Now, some of you have learned even to pour your hearts out to God with great heart rendering and supplications. And you're convinced as David was. He said, When thou saidst, Seek ye my face, my heart said unto thee, Lord, thy face I will seek. And many of you here this morning would be called seekers after God. But I have a question for you this morning. Does God hear every child who comes crying to him? Does he hear every cry of every child of his that comes to him? Do all who come to him seeking his blessing and favor get what they want? Does everybody who comes to him asking deliverance from besetting sin get that deliverance? Does everybody who asks receive? What of those who come to him with much fasting? They fast. I've heard of people fasting for 20, 30, and some even 40 days. Out of Africa come those reports of those who believe in God to raise the dead and have fasted 30 and 40 days. Are we heard by our fasting? Are we heard by our praying alone? Are we heard by our tears? And there's something in us that urges us on saying, If I could just fast more, if I could pray more, if I could just cry more, spend more time with God, read more of the scripture, I believe I could be a better Christian. I'll hear from God and God will answer my prayers. We have the idea that all we need is more, more, more. We hear David say, In my distress I called upon the Lord. I cried unto my God. He heard my voice out of his temple. My cry came before him even into his ears. And because David cried, the next verse says, God came down. He thundered in the heavens. He drew me out of many waters. He delivered me from my strong enemy. So is that it? You go to God and you cry. And God hears and thunders from heaven and delivers you. Beloved, there's a missing link. There's something missing. And it's missing in many of our lives and it's why we're not getting answers to many prayers. It's why often our unsaved loved ones are not saved. It's often why year after year goes on and on and nothing happens. Our prayers are not answered. There's a missing link. And it's this verse that I just gave to you. Hebrews 11, 6, For without faith it's impossible to please Him. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is, that he's a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. In James 1, 6 and 7. But let him ask in faith, nothing doubting. For he that doubts is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think he shall receive anything of the Lord. The man that is living in doubt or entertains doubts, even in his prayer chamber, entertains doubt during his fasting, entertains doubts, don't let that man or that woman, that believer, no matter how many rivers of tears you cry, don't let that person think they will receive anything from God. Anything. Scripture said, David said, Blessed be the Lord because he's heard the voice of my supplication. The Lord is my strength and my shield. My heart trusted in Him and I am helped. I want you to go to Psalms 33. I'm going to, I'm showing you something here from David's Psalms. Psalms 30, go to Psalm 33. Now you've heard me. You've heard Pastor Carter. You've heard Pastor Don. You've heard us say, God wants us to cry out to Him. There is a gut level, there's a gut-wrenching cry we talk about. And God does hear the cry. That that cry is not heard unless it's accompanied by faith. It has to be accompanied by trust. Psalms 33, verse 18, beginning to read, Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear Him, upon them that hope in His mercy, to deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine. Our soul waited for the Lord. He is our help and our shield. For our hearts are rejoicing in Him. Why? Because we have trusted in His holy name. In other words, he's saying, the fear of the Lord, yes. He keeps me alive, He's going to deliver me. I'm going to wait on the Lord. He's my help, He's my shield, He's my deliverer. But it's because we have trusted in His holy name. How many see that in verse 21? Because we have trusted in His holy name. Don't turn there, but Psalms 18, 2 and 3. The Lord is my rock. My fortress. My deliverer. My God. My strength. My buckler. The horn of my salvation. In whom I trust. In whom I trust. He could call God His deliverer, He could call God His shield, His mighty horn of deliverance, because He said, I trust Him. I have no right to say that. I have no right to pray it. I have no right to fast about it, till I trust Him first. In fact, David makes it very clear that all of our fathers, from the very beginning of time, had their prayers answered because they trusted in Him. Psalm 22, 4 and 5. Our fathers trusted in Thee. That's where they began. They trusted and Thou didst deliver them. They cried unto Thee and were delivered because they trusted in Thee and were not confounded. They were delivered when they cried because they trusted in Thee. Psalms 26, 1. I've trusted also in the Lord, therefore I shall not slide. I've trusted in Him, so I'm not going to backslide. I'm not going to give up, and God's not going to give up on me, and I'm not going to backslide. I'm not going to slide back to my old ways because my trust is anchored in Him. It was David's trust that moved God to deliver him. Reading from Psalms 56, 11 and 13. For Thou hast delivered my soul from death. Will you not deliver my feet from falling? Because in God I have put my trust. I will not be afraid of what man can do unto me. And folks, everywhere you hear David crying out, every time you hear David's confession that God is delivering him, you'll hear his cry of trust. You'll hear his testimony rather of trust. He said, God's hearing me. God's answering me because I trust in Him. I cry out to God with tears and supplication, but I trust Him. I'm crying out from this foundation of trust that God put in my heart. Now, I mentioned this last night because I preached half my message last night. If you were here, as I saw, most of you were not here. But the Lord brought this home to me in prayer this past week. I was shunned in with the Lord. I had a wonderful time. And my wife is down in Texas with Bonnie, grandmothering, having a great time with all her grandkids. So I had a week alone and seeking the Lord and fasting and prayer. And about the third day on Wednesday, folks, there are a lot of things I'm praying about. There are some miracles I need that I'm praying about. One of the miracles is an outpouring of the Holy Spirit here in New York City, for example. I'm praying about some needs. I'm praying about physical needs in my family, my own body. There are a whole lot of things that I'm praying about. And you can look at pastors and they come up and they sound as if there is never a problem, never a need, that everything is just rosy with our lives. Now, folks, I would hope you believe and understand that we're not living in sin. And we're not praying about those kind of things. We're praying about the burden. Paul talked about the burdens of the church that were cast upon him and the needs of people. And you can't preach this gospel without a broken heart. You can't stand here without beseeching the living God for unction and anointing because it's an awesome way to have it in your mind all day long. Every waking hour, I have to stand before God and answer. I have to answer whether I have comforted people in their sins by not preaching enough of his law and his wrath, or have I wounded many people who were needing love in that thin line there, this great, awesome thing that hangs over you. Oh, God, I have to stand one day and answer. And I don't want ever to have anybody at the judgment seat be able to point a finger at me and say, you didn't preach the whole counsel of God. And I'll tell you, it's a burden. It's an awesome, awesome thing. To me, it's overwhelming. My prayer every day is, God, if I were ever to bring disgrace to your name, I want you to take me now, slay me. I want you to take my life right now. Don't ever let me be like some evangelist friends and acquaintances of mine who have failed and brought great reproach on me. Lord, I'd rather you kill me than ever let me bring reproach on your name. And I know that every pastor in the church prays that way. God, don't ever let me bring reproach to your name. But there were some things I was agonizing over and praying and crying out to God, pouring my heart out, weeping, and kind of feeling, Lord, I've got to break through. God's got to hear me because I'm putting such an effort into it. I am so sincere. I am so desperate. And He's going to hear me because the Bible says, cry unto the Lord and He'll hear you. I preached it. And I'm quoting those scriptures myself about crying and laying hold of the horns on the altar, and I'm doing all these things and I've got my flesh under subjection because the flesh has no inclination to pray, and you have to have a real victory when you're really interceding. There's a victory over flesh. And I'm rejoicing in this victory over my flesh. I'm really walking all over the apartment and shouting and crying and screaming at God. And so, God, you have to answer. The Lord said, be quiet. Stop it. I mean, lovingly but firmly, stop it, David. Stop it. Get your hanky and wipe your face and stop your crying. Stop my crying? He said, you wanted a broken contrite spirit. To this one will I look. Stop your crying. Stop walking around this apartment. Go sit down. And as clear as anything I've ever heard in my life, don't you ever again come into my presence like you're coming right now with unbelief. I don't want your tears. I don't want your crying. I don't want your screaming and begging until you're going to believe my word. Until you believe. You're crying, you're praying, you're weeping without faith. And you can't please me. You can cry for all 1995, he said. You can weep until there are no more tears left. You can make me promises. You can do anything you want. Fight and strive. It's not going to do you any good because you're not going to have your prayers heard. They'll not be answered. You're not going to get anything from me until you come by faith. And that's when he led me to that. Without faith, it's impossible to please me. And if you're going to come to me, you've got to believe that I am, that I am your God, that I'm faithful to you, and I'm going to reward you if you seek me with faith. Then he said, go to the promises. Go to the promises. And I'll tell you, the Lord showed me how not to come to him anymore. That's why, how this message was born. First of all, do not come to him, expect him to answer a single cry, or hear a single prayer, or do any good thing for you, unless you come with childlike faith in his promises. Unless you come with childlike faith. Because you see, we believers have a very serious problem. We hear so much preaching about the need of prayer, we get under such condemnation when we neglect to pray, and we grapple so strongly with our flesh, trying to bring it into subjection, and we discipline ourselves to pray, and so when we get to this place where we're really praying and seeking God, we think it's unthinkable in our minds that God would not receive after we've gone through such a struggle to achieve this place. We can't believe that we can do all this effort to be in vain. That God doesn't hear it. That you might as well, if you're not going to pray in faith, you might as well go down to one of these churches and light a couple candles, and stand before an idol, and quote your prayers to the idol. If you're not going to come to faith, he said, you cannot please me in any way. Right there stands before us, without faith. It's impossible, impossible. Get a hold of that word. It's impossible for you to please me without faith. Boy, does that stick in me ever since. Abraham developed a faith that staggered not at what God promised. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about a hundred years old. Neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb. He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but he was strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully persuaded that what God had promised, he was able to perform. And we're talking about impossibilities, because God makes a promise to two dead people. Here's a man whose reproductive organs are dead, and here's a woman whose womb is dead. And God's saying, you, dead man, you, dead woman, are going to have a baby. A baby boy. And all my promises of faith are going to come through this child. You're going to be the father of many nations. He's 99 years old, Sarah's 90. We're talking about impossibility. What a challenge to faith. Absolutely, humanly impossible. And God said, Sarah shall her name be, and I will bless her, and I'll give thee a son also of her. She shall be the mother of nations and kings. Sarah shall bear thee a son indeed. Now why did God wait till he got so old? That promise was given to him years before. It was given to him before Ishmael was born. It was given to him when he was still alive. It was given to him before he was dead. Physically dead, as far as reproduction. Why didn't God give him Isaac when he gave him Ishmael? God could have answered that. Why did God wait? I'll tell you, Sarah waited. They wait 10 years, and Sarah gets impatient, and she knows the promise, and Abraham knows the promise, and she gets impatient, and when you get impatient with God, you start designing, and manipulating, and planning, and plotting. And she has a plan she's devised. She said, I'll tell you what, I don't have a child, but I'll give you my maid Hagar for your second wife. You go into her, and you bear a son, you bear me a child through Hagar. And here's a man who doesn't raise any objections, he says, alright, and he goes along with the scheme, with the device, because he's thinking in his mind, well, he said, out of my seed the son will come, and so it will still be my seed. And he's reasoning. And he goes into Hagar, and Ishmael is born. And when Hagar is with child, she despises her, what you call, not her lord, but her mistress. And she despises, then you see Sarah go to Abraham, and she said, this sin be upon you. In other words, what she's really saying, this is your fault. It's not my fault, it's your fault. And she's right. Because you see, it's the man or the woman that has the life that's responsible. Abraham had received the word from the Lord directly from the hand of God, right from the heart of God. He was told to be patient and to wait. And he gets impatient, and he goes along with the scheme, because he's looking for a shortcut. He's trying to make things happen. He doesn't have faith. He's staggering at the promises of God at this point. You see, Abraham had to develop this faith. He had to come to this place through testing and trial, where he had a faith that didn't stagger. He had a faith that was unshakable. And that's God's testimony of Abraham. God said of him, he staggered not at the promise of God. But that was when he was 99 years. Now, this is before that, because from the time the promise was given until the child came was 19 years. Why did God allow the impossibilities to pile up? Why did he come to wait until it was absolutely, humanly impossible? Because this seat had to be the seat of faith. It had to be birthed in faith. This child had to be a child of faith, not of human reasoning, not of considering things and figuring it out. This had to be total dependence on God. This had to be a miracle child. This had to be born in the womb of faith and nothing else. It was Abraham's fault. And folks, the greatest sin is the sin against light. You know, I see a church over here, a Catholic church, every three months or so, they've got this icon. They've got this statue of Mary. And they're holding it on their shoulders and they have little trumpets and thing. And they're walking slow all around 8th and 9th. And I look at these people come and giving money to that idol. And it's an idol of Mary. It's an icon of Mary. And I look at that and I say, the people really, is there such blindness to really believe that she answers prayer, an idol? Even though they may see her representing Mary, that you go to Mary to get your prayers answered rather than Jesus Christ or to the Father. And I'm thinking there's blindness. But folks, you see, we're judged by the light we've received. There are some sitting here now far more guilty before God than anything like that. You can go to the Philippines where they cut themselves and gas themselves and you can say, oh, what horrible blindness. What awful darkness. But folks, they're not going to be judged like you and I are going to be judged who have had the light. We're judged by the light that we've received. And folks, this whole book is a book of light. Promise after promises whereby God has given us everything we need having to do with righteousness and life itself. Everything we need. And yet, rather than appropriate it, rather than to know it and understand it, mind has not conceived the good things God has prepared for them that love Him. But God has revealed them unto us. He reveals it unto those who want it, who seek the revelation. You don't have to live 1995 in fear. You don't have to live in the bondage of unbelief. I want to tell you something. You take one drop of the ocean and that one drop has all the same qualities, the bad qualities of the ocean. There's as much percentage of salt in that one drop as in the whole ocean percentage-wise. All of the bacteria and everything else in one drop. And you can have one drop of unbelief and be guilty of the whole body of unbelief. The whole ocean of unbelief. If you have just these drops of unbelief in your heart, it's the same thing. God wants every drop of unbelief out of our hearts. It had to be birthed of faith, this child, and so it was. You see, the Bible says, Abraham considered not. That means he didn't stop to figure things out. In fact, to stagger means to dispute or to debate. And what it's saying, Abraham didn't try to figure it out. He didn't argue the merits. He didn't debate the issue. God said it and he believed it. Folks, what it means to have faith is to have all your arguments settled. You're not trying to figure things out anymore. You're not trying to debate with God. You're not trying to figure it out at all. You're not reasoning. And the Bible said he considered not. No more human reasoning. He's going to hear the word of God and act on it. Has God delivered you from all human reasoning? Don't come to Him if you're going to try to figure it out. You're going to go to prayer and tell God how to do it or figure it out for Him? That's the way most Christians are. They're trying to figure out how God can answer their prayer. When you go to God, you leave behind all debates, all human reasoning, all idea of hopelessness, all the questions, all the doubts, and believe the Scripture says, according to your faith, so be it unto you. According to your faith. Secondly, don't come to God with any ifs. When God gives you a specific promise, it's absolute unbelief to qualify it with an if. Now let me talk to you about this idea, if praying, if it be thy will. Now folks, that's mentioned one time in the Scripture. It's Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. When He prayed, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless not as I will, but thou will. Let me talk to you about the cup. The cup has nothing to do with the cross. Jesus always embraced the cross. For three years He told His disciples where He was headed. He embraced the cross. He's God. He was God in flesh. He knew that mankind could not be saved without the cross, without the shedding of His own blood. He embraced the cross. That was not the cup. The cup is very clearly the anguish that He was suffering in the garden. He said, My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death. The anguish, the sorrow in Jesus was because man had rejected His Father's plan of their own redemption. He had the weight of the sins of the whole world upon Him. And He did not want His own sorrow to slay Him in the garden. He was sweating. He was weeping bloody tears. He did not want man to kill Him. He didn't want to fall in the hands of the man and be slain in the garden. He knew He had to go to the cross. He said, My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death. The pall of death was upon Him. The cup was death before the cross. Now He said, If it's possible, let this cup pass from Me. And folks, it did pass. That cup passed. The Holy Spirit came down, quickened Him, and by the time they got to Him, Jesus was gentle, prepared, and walked bravely to the cross. There was something that came upon our blessed Savior, and He faced it. He was not dreading it. There was a wonderful thing that happened to our Savior in Gethsemane. The cup passed, and He came. God answered that prayer. He said, If it's possible, let it pass. It passed. There's a scripture in 1 John 5.14. If we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us. Look at the context, and you'll find He's talking about the gift of eternal life. He's trying to understand. Folks, listen to me, please. You can substitute there, promise. Because any promise is a revelation of God's will. Did you hear me? How many are hearing this? Are you hearing in your spirit that the promise is a revelation of His will? What He wills, He has promised. If you ask anything according to my promise, He hears you. According to His promise. His promise is a revealed will. He's promised to keep us from falling. That's a revelation of His will. That is His will to keep you from falling. He's revealed it. Let's look at this scripture. My God shall supply all your need. Would you go to God and say, Lord, if it be Your will, supply all my need? That would be a disgrace. Because God said, I promised you that. Why would you come to me and say, If it be Thy will. Do you not believe what I said? My God shall supply all your need. According to the riches of God in Christ Jesus. Do you think it's God's will to go to you and say, Lord, if it be Your will, keep me from falling. Keep me from temptation. When God has said, I've already said unto Him. Now unto Him who is able to keep you from falling and present you faultless before the throne of God. Why would you go to God and ask Him, If it be Thy will? You see, when we say that, we're giving God an out. And when it doesn't happen, and when we give up, and we don't have the tenacity and the faith, and it doesn't come, then we say, Well, it must not have been God's will. It must not have been God's will. We give God an exit. We give God an excuse. Not to answer our prayer. It sounds very spiritual to say, If it be Thy will. It sounds very spiritual. No, folks. Often it comes from unbelief. The real spiritual way is to go into the Word of God and find His revealed will and His promise. Find His will and then pray His will. Pray His promise. Hold it up to God. Thirdly, Don't come to God until you're ready to believe for exactly what you asked for. All things for which you pray and ask, believe that you shall receive them and they shall be given you. Mark 11, 24. All things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, they shall be given you. Now, God is not a tease. He's not a come on God. Have you ever noticed the big sales around New York City? They'll advertise an item, very cheap, and when you get there, they say, Oh, we just sold out yesterday. This is the end of side one. You may now turn the tape over to side two. A more expensive item. God makes no substitutes. He doesn't... The blind man that comes and the Lord says, What would you have that I do? And he says, Then I might receive my sight. The Lord didn't go to him and said, Well, now look, I know you're blind, but I've got something better for you. If I give you spiritual insight, you can get a job and I'll help you to read minds and you'll be above all the people around you. I'll give you something better. No, the Bible says, He gave him his sight. He said, That you may see the man was healed instantly. He was given what he wanted. Scripture said, If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God and it shall be given to him. Not patience, not long-suffering, wisdom. You get specific with God and he gets specific with you. You can go and pray, Lord, I want my son, my daughter, my husband saved. And I would tell you, You can see a thousand people around you getting saved. All your friends getting their kids saved. But it's not going to do you any good. You're going to hold on and say, Lord, that's fine. Thank you. But it's my son. It's my daughter. It's my husband. It's my wife. Get specific with God. Keep naming until it happens. You can have a need, a financial need and be in debt. And you say, God, I'm going to obey you and get out of debt. And I'm going to watch. I'm going to watch my covetous spirit and I'm not going to get in debt anymore. And you can see a million people around you testifying that their needs are going to be, have been supplied. And that's fine. But you say, I'm going to hold on because that's not an answer to my prayer. I want God to answer my prayer. He has to do it for me. And you hold on specifically asking Him. Some people go to God, God doesn't have the slightest idea what they're asking. Because they don't know. Shotgun prayers. Boy, if God's ever taught me anything is to be specific in prayer. I mean to zero in on it, lay hold of it in faith. Hallelujah. John 14, 13, 14 And whatsoever you shall ask, whatsoever you shall ask in my name, I'll do it. If you ask anything in my name, I will do it. John 15, 7 If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you. Hallelujah. On my way to church this morning, this wasn't in my message. And if you saw me scribble something down, something the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart. When I was on my way to church this morning, the Holy Spirit said, now you get up and you preach. Anything you ask. We're going to have people asking for better cars, better clothes, and a husband, and they're going to describe him, they're going to want black hair, six foot two, big wide shoulders, and they're going to get into that give me, give me, give me. You see, there's another thing. You don't come to him with lust in your heart. Or covetousness. Remember what James said? You pray and you ask and you don't receive because you ask amiss. You're asking with the wrong motive. You're asking to consume it on your own lust. Some of you, honestly, I use this as an illustration. You're single and you pray, Lord God, I'm tired of being alone. I really want a mate. Are you willing to let him do it his way and the one that he chooses? Or is it you're not coveting companionship. You have a lust in you that needs to be satisfied. And you're only dealing on this level of lust. You're not dealing with a companion. You're not looking for someone. You've not really prayed for someone who really loves God with all his heart or soul or a woman who loves God with all her heart and soul who's going to be a real testimony for Jesus and be a strength to you. It's just somebody. You just somebody to satisfy that inner fleshly craving. God's not going to answer that prayer. God's not going to answer that. You look around your house and you get dissatisfied. You see somebody around you that has something better and then something rises up. Well, Lord, I want something better than this and you covet. If there's any covetousness at all God's not going to answer. He said that's the wrong motive. And these people that are preaching name it and claim it. In other words, whatever you name, you can have it. Just claim it. That comes from a spirit of covetousness. I do believe God answers prayer. He will meet every need. He can get you out of debt if you have the right motive. If you have a determination you won't go back in debt. God's not going to bail you out of debt if you're going to jump right back into it. And you haven't learned your lesson. He's going to wait. Now folks, God, there are a lot of prayers that are not being answered and God just lets the impossibilities pile up and pile up till he gets more and more hopeless. And that's what he did with Abraham till he got absolutely hopeless and then the Lord can say now will you believe me? You can't do it. You can't figure it out. I have to do it. You know and the whole world knows. And I got you the place where you know if it comes it's an answer to prayer. It's an answer to what I have promised you. Folks, there are people that that say well and I used to say this well if God shuts one door it's because he's got a bigger door to open. I don't I don't go on that theology that philosophy anymore. In other words, if God doesn't give me what I ask he'll give me something better. His desire is to have you so walk with him that you're really not asking anything except what he births in your own spirit. You shut in with him and he puts these desires in your heart. He puts these requests in your heart. You begin to find yourself praying for souls and seeking first the kingdom of God and then you look around all these things are happening behind you you haven't even asked for them. He's blessing you because you're not asking for blessings. You're asking for things that are close to his heart. And there's something happening inside of you you say well Lord you've been so good I look back over the past year since we've been here in New York City. How God has blessed. How God has blessed. But you see we have zeroed in on seeking him first glorifying his name believing him for souls believing him for his spirit to be poured out believing for the salvation of our family. Seek him first. His kingdom. His righteousness. Seek to be walking before him in purity. Walk before him in holiness. He says I'll take care of all these things. I'll take care of all of them. I'll meet your need. Now before I close let me tell you how to come to him rightly. Just quickly. I'm going to give you four simple things on how to come to him in the right way. First of all you come with a forgiving heart. Listen to me folks. Forget faith. Forget prayer. Forget fasting. Forget it all if you've got a grudge against somebody. If you're going to go to God with something in your heart forget it. You're not going to be forgiving your sins your prayers are not going to get above your head. Won't get past your hair. Let alone the roof. But if you forgive not men their trespasses neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Matthew 6.15 And I'll tell you what I said it last night. God dealt with me on this. Someone last year had wounded me quite grievously. And it's nobody that's here in this church right now so don't try to figure out who wounded me. But oh it hurt because I I know before God I was totally innocent of anything and I went to the Lord and I said Lord I don't want to harbor anything in my heart. I don't want anything to stand between you and me so I forgive. I forgive. Lord I forgive. I prayed that for two weeks and I thought I'd forgiven. Two weeks later I'm sitting at a restaurant with my wife and I'm talking I'm kicking it all around again. I said I've forgiven but boy it's hard to forget. I've forgiven but it's still bugging me. And for the next two weeks I was sharing with anybody to listen. And God said David I can't hear you. You really haven't forgiven. Because when you forgive you forget. You don't bring it up anymore. It's a dead issue. Folks get that in your mind now if you're going to pray and seek God. We're to go into a week of prayer. We're believing God for an outpouring of the Holy Ghost. But we want our prayers to prevail. Get out of your spirit anything against anybody. You've got anything against me? Against Brother Carter? Any other pastor? Get it out. It's not only a matter of getting your prayers answered it's a matter of getting to heaven. I'm going to be there. You better make peace with me. I'm just a little teddy bear anyhow. Seriously. Seriously. You have something against somebody? Don't pray. Until it's out. Until it's settled. And it's dead. Secondly obey his word and do what he says. Whatever we ask we receive of him because we keep his commandments and do those things pleasing in his sight. And by the way he'll tell you if there's anything the Holy Spirit will show you anything that's displeasing to the Lord. If you simply go to him in faith he's promised to reveal it because that's the work and ministry of the Holy Spirit to convict of sin. Righteousness and judgment. Thirdly if you're married treat your mate with intelligence and with honor that your prayers be not hindered. You're going to go to God and you're fighting with your wife forget it. If you're not treating your husband or your wife with intelligence and with honor your prayers are not going to be heard. They're hindered the scripture says. And finally come in simple childlike faith. Except you be converted and become as little children you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. Now I used to think you can't get to you can't go to glory you're going to be lost if you don't come like a child. That's not what it means. He's talking about the kingdom of heaven here on earth. You cannot appropriate all of the provisions that Christ has made unless you come as a little child. You can't enter this heaven on earth. You can't enter this place in God until you come like a little child. You can't enter this. You're going to be left outside. So if you want inside and you want to appropriate all the promises of God and all the provisions of the cross you come as a little child and believe him. Hallelujah. You know what I'm doing this year? And I may put in a little book so that we can share it with the body of Christ. I did publish a promise book. But I'm taking promises for specific things in my life. I'm looking at every area of my life everything I've been praying about and I've made it a point I'm going through and I'm writing down all the promises that have to deal with that. A revelation of his will that has to do with the thing I'm praying about. And I intend by God's grace to go to God every day this next year taking those promises to the throne of grace and I'm going to just lay them there and say here's what you said that's a revealed will I believe what you said and I'm going to start thanking you right now I'm not going to beg you to do what you promised I'm going to thank you for fulfilling your word to me. And I want to go by faith and this year should be more of rather than begging God to do what he's promised standing on these promises of God and begin to thank him and lay them before him and appropriate them. They're ours. Hallelujah. 1995 is a year of faith. A year of believing for the salvation of your family that God's going to start convicting them even today. Hallelujah. Didn't he say ask what you will in my name. Didn't he say anything you ask the father in his name he will do it. Let's believe those are the good things you ask for the salvation of souls and he knows folks he knows your condition your physical condition he knows your financial condition and he's not going to abandon you. I've heard people say well brother Dave I've prayed about my financial needs and I'm still in a mess. Well let every let God be true and every man a liar. Because the word of God is true. I don't care if a million people tell me it doesn't work for them. God says he made his promise I'm going to stand on that promise against a million people who would say otherwise. If your needs are not being supplied if you're going deeper and deeper God's going to have to deal with covetousness he's going to have to deal with some things in your life to get it right with God and when you get things straight and in divine order these promises will work. They will work. Hallelujah. Let's stand. Folks let me ask you a question. If you can't pray specifically for things how do you know when God answers? You say I prayed for something God gave me something else well how do you know that came in answer to prayer? God wants you to know he wants to give you exactly what you ask so that when it comes you'll know specifically that he has answered to encourage your faith. Hallelujah. Heavenly Father forgive our unbelief. There's not a person in this building that hasn't had some times of unbelief drops of unbelief and doubt this past year. And Lord sometimes they're just flashing through our mind they pass through but they're thoughts of unbelief and Lord when we we're not trusting you it means we don't believe you truly love us. Lord you love your people. You didn't call us to abandon us to the devil let the devil ensnare us you called us to deliver us and set us free that we can walk in holiness and righteousness and without fear all the days of our life. Hallelujah. Lord this is your freedom. You're going to save a multitude this year. You are going to save a multitude. And we're going to believe you for our families. Lord for all the people being saved in this church don't pass by our families. We're going to get desperate with you but we're going to do it in faith. Hallelujah. We're going to begin to thank you for your promises. And we're going to stand on your word not our word but on your word. Hallelujah. Blessed be the name of the Lord. I don't have his mind yet for the altar call. Sing a chorus. Okay. Let's just wait on him a minute please. He wants us to come down and rid of unbelief and start a new year. We're going to have a whole church coming down here because we're all feeling that and sensing that in the spirit. But here's what the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart. There's some balcony here on the main floor and you have in you a spirit of restlessness. It's been most of this past year have been very restless and there's been no real peace. Somehow you have not come to a place of real peace in the Lord. Your spirit's been troubled. I don't know what the harassment comes whether it's from the enemy whether it's some sin or situation in your family. But there's a total lack of peace and there's a restlessness. There's something churning inside of you. That's the best I can explain. It's how I receive from the Lord. And the Holy Spirit made it clear that this is just a very narrow invitation this morning. For those who have that turning churning inside of you that restlessness I want you to get out of your seat. That's the Holy Spirit working on you doing something very clearly in your heart this morning. I want you to get out of your seat up on the balcony go down either side come down any aisle and say, Brother Dave, that's me. There's a twisting there's a turning and I don't want to go through 95 like I did 94. That restlessness that thing that's chewing and churning inside of me. Folks, I don't know what it's from but God wants to settle it this morning. Bring that restless heart. He wants to give you peace. Hallelujah. Sing that again. I want to talk to everybody who came forward. Here's what I receive from the Holy Spirit. I don't see any way out of restlessness out of anxiety I see no way for a change other than faith. Faith is your way to victory. Absolute victory. Let's take an example if you've been battling and besetting sin or the enemy has been coming at you and just holding you something has a hold of your life. If you stand here and allow the devil to say I'll never be free I'm going to be like this I've prayed and cried and it's still there you'll never be free. There has to be something that says God has promised to keep me from falling God has promised to keep me. I'm going to stand and believe that. There has to be hope rising in you. Abraham believed against hope. He believed against hope. He believed against everything. You have to believe against all the lies of the devil pounding your head. You have to believe that God said it. You have to stand on what he said. He said call upon me and I'll answer. He is going to answer you. He's going to answer your cry. He's going to answer your prayer. And you've got to stand on that right now. Lord, I'm David said Lord, you promised my house that you're going to bless my seed. And I look around and I don't see it. I don't see what you promised. Nevertheless, I believe. That's exactly where you have to come right now. Whatever it is. You may be in a hopeless situation in your home. It seems humanly hopeless. But you've got to believe God knows how to straighten things out. You have to believe God knows how to fix anything. Anything. I think of drug addicts over the years that came to us. One drug addict. He said He said I got saved, brother. I love the Lord. But I'm married to five women. And I listened to I mean He had lied and cheated his way. And he had He was He had marriage certificates and everything. Five different women. And I said Oh God, how do you ever fix this? How do you ever figure this out? But folks, within a year God figured that whole thing out. God straightened things out. Some of them were drug addicted wives. I think one or two that were passed on. God just miraculously delivered that that brother. He can work a miracle after miracle and get you out straighten your life if you will trust Him and believe Him so. God, I'm going to cast my care on You. I'm going to give everything. I'm going to try to figure it. Aren't you tired of trying to figure it out? Aren't you tired of making God promises that you break? Aren't you tired of carrying this load on your own back? Put it on Him now. Jesus, I'm going to stand on these great and precious promises. Now that requires that you get into this book and you start digging them out. Hallelujah. Go to the Psalms. I'll tell you what. If you spend 30 days just in the Psalms and take every promise and read your name into every promise that was given to David or any other servant of God read your name into it and stand on it. God's the same yesterday, today, and forever. He's no respecter of persons and God will meet you. Oh, that I could pour faith into you. I can't, but He can. That's the work of the Holy Spirit. Oh God, give me the faith that I need this year. Bow your head and pray this prayer with me. From your heart. Jesus, forgive my unbelief. Forgive my lack of trust. Forgive me for all the words of doubt that I've been speaking to my own heart and to others. Jesus, I come to you as a child in childlike faith saying teach me to believe. Teach me to trust. Give me your faith, Jesus. Heal my unbelief. I want to trust you, Jesus, to deliver me and to keep me from falling and present me faultless before the throne of your glory. I love you, Jesus and by your grace in 1995 I'll cast my care on you. I do it right now. I cast it on you, Jesus. I give it all to you now and I trust you to work a miracle in my home and my life. Now raise your hands and thank Him right now by faith that God is going to do what you ask. Hallelujah. Praise you, Jesus. I give you thanks, Lord. Thank Him right now with your own spirit and your own heart and your own lips. I give you thanks. I give you thanks. Wonderful, Lord. Wonderful, Jesus. Hallelujah. I want you to turn around to three people.