In this sermon, the preacher expresses concern about the spiritual state of Christians in America. He criticizes those who spend excessive time watching television and indulging in junk food, which he believes leads to a loss of spiritual fire and anointing. The preacher contrasts these lukewarm Christians with the "wise virgins" who are full of the Holy Spirit and eagerly awaiting the return of Jesus. He also discusses the concept of the spirit of slumber, suggesting that some people, particularly Jews, are spiritually blind and unable to understand the message of Jesus. The preacher rejects the idea that God has cast away the Jews and emphasizes that salvation is available to all.

A message that's been burning in my heart for a couple weeks, and I really know in my heart that the Lord wants me to deliver it this morning. I didn't know who would be here, so you can't say that I prepared it for you. I had no way of knowing you would be here. I knew a few of my staff would be here, and a few of the regulars, but I had no way of knowing you would be here, so the Lord has prepared it. A spirit of slumber, and it's a heavy message, but I want you to know I deliver it in love this morning. I believe that's the role of a shepherd, to speak with the authority of the Lord Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit. But when the Holy Spirit gives a message, it's up to Him to make it real to the heart. I can't do that. He has to do it. We're going to invite Him to do that right now, because unless the Word gets through to some of us this morning, we're going to fall into this spirit of slumber, into a deep sleep, and never recover outside of God's miracle grace and His sovereign work. There's some of you sitting here this morning that need to be awakened. You're on the verge of falling asleep. You're on the verge of going into a spiritual coma from which you may never recover, and it's a very dangerous thing. There's a warning in the Scripture about it, and we've all got to hear it. I have numbers of my staff here, and I invited a lot of my staff to come today to skip from their church and come, not because I'm directing it at them, but I want them to hear, because when I stand before the judgment seat, I don't want to have one say that you didn't minister to me. And it should never be that you can come to a service like this and not hear a clear word from God, and then have to go elsewhere because something, I don't mean another church, but go into a call to go into anything else because you've not heard a clear word from Heaven. Heavenly Father, make it clear this morning. I want you to baptize me with love so that I can minister this in love and not wrath. Lord, I have no wrath in me. I've got your love, and yet you said, show my people their sins. Lord, you said to minister your word in power and unction and authority, and I can't do that, Lord. That comes from your hand, but I pray for that special divine touch from Heaven. Lord, you gave me this message, and I pray that you drive it deep into our hearts. Don't let anybody walk out of here this morning unchanged. We're not here to be stirred this morning. We're here to be changed. Change us from glory to glory to be more and more like you. If there be any, Lord, on the verge of slumbering and sleeping, awake us this morning. Get word into our hearts. Awaken us and do something deep within us, O God. I pray for your touch. I pray for that open mind, that you give freedom of the Holy Spirit, that the word would go forth and the simplicity and the truth of the Spirit. In Jesus' name, amen. Now, you won't be able to follow me in your Bible because I'm going to give you a lot of scripture, and I'll just weave it into it. So if you will close your Bibles for a moment and listen to me, I'll give you the references, and then if you want more, you can call my office and I can make sure that you get it. I'm going to go through quite a few scriptures. I'm going to begin with Romans 11, 7-8. "...Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for, but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded. As according as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear to this very day." Then Isaiah 29, 10-11. "...For the Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes." The Lord hath poured out. You've heard of the Holy Spirit being poured out. "...The Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and God hath closed your eyes. The prophets and your leaders and the seers hath he covered." In other words, you don't understand your preachers anymore. "...And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that's sealed, closed." The book is closed to you now. You don't hear preachers because I have poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep. And then I've told you Romans, he calls it a spirit of slumber. And I think Romans 11, 7 has got to be one of the most heartbreaking scriptures in all the Bible. Here it is, "...Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for." Israel has not obtained, but the election has obtained it, and the rest were all blinded. They were blinded. Now think of it, an entire race of people spent their whole lives looking for truth and satisfaction. They were looking for the rest. They were looking for fullness, and they never found it. Even to this day, there's only a small remnant of Jews who believe in Jesus Christ. Just a handful of Jews, and you know that. They found grace through faith. The rest of them were blinded. As Paul says emphatically, God has given them the spirit of slumber. God has given it to them. They're absolutely blind and deaf to the gospel. There's not an evangelist. There's not a teacher on the face of the earth who can penetrate their darkness. Not Billy Graham. There's no prophet. There's nobody who penetrates that wall. That blindness, that darkness, that spirit of slumber that God has given to the Jews. A very few were saved, and Paul calls them a remnant according to the election of grace. Just a remnant elected by grace. Paul says there's coming a day when all Israel shall be saved, and the deliverer shall turn away the ungodliness from Jacob. Now, I don't understand all of that, but evidently there's a day coming when God will open the eyes of the Jew, and they will see the Messiah, and suddenly he who's been here all the time will be recognized by them. They're going to see him whom they pierced, and they're going to come by way of the cross. But I do know that right now there is a deep sleep. There are Jews that are dying right now and going to hell. They're dying in a spiritual coma. There's a darkness. There's a blindness. Have you ever talked to a precious Jew? Have you ever talked to him about Jesus? Have you ever tried to show him Jesus through Moses? Have you tried to show him through the law? And if you want Jesus, he's all through the book. And anybody tells me you don't see him in the Old Testament, the Old Testament has no meaning for a day, hasn't seen Jesus yet in the Old Testament. If you see Jesus in the Old Testament, he comes in precious, precious covenant. They need not die in blindness, Paul said. And they also, speaking of the blind, slumbering Jew, if they abide not in unbelief, shall be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. In other words, if they sit in a meeting like this and hear the gospel and believe, they're grafted in. The grace is still there. The offer is still there. Has it ever amazed you that missionaries can go to the darkest, heathenest countries in the world, in the heart of Africa, and all over the world and preach the gospel, and darkened, unbelieving, heathen, suddenly have their eyes open, and they see Jesus, they begin to worship him, and suddenly they receive, and there's no slumber, there's no sleep, they receive the Lord gladly. Drug addicts, alcoholics, prostitutes on the street, the street services this summer we look forward to in anticipation because of the hunger, they gladly receive the gospel and they see it. You preach it one time to many of them, I see it, I want it. Christ is revealed, manifest before their eyes. But that the Jew, on the other hand, is still under the spirit of slumber, of deep sleep from the Lord, and they understand nothing that is said or preached about Jesus. Did God pass the Jew away? Did he say, just arbitrarily, I'm going to cut them off from the vine so that the Gentiles can be grafted in? Were they predestinated to be blind? Were they predestinated to be in a spirit of slumber? Absolutely not, Paul said. He said very clearly, because of unbelief they were broken off. But to Israel he said, all day long I stretched forth my hand to you, that you were disobedient, stubborn people. Oh, for years I called and I called, and you turned your back on me. He said, you were the natural branches. You didn't attain what you were looking for. They should have accepted Jesus Christ because they were his own and he came to his own, and his own received him not. They should be the present day evangelists traveling around the world. Jerusalem should be the headquarters of Christendom right now. Jerusalem should be the capital of the Christian religion right now. The faith of Jesus Christ should be originating out of Jerusalem. The Jews should be the greatest evangelists on the face of the earth right now. One day they will be, but they should be that now. But unbelief cast them off. Unbelief caused the spirit of slumber from the Lord to be cast upon them. They said, this man shall not reign over us. We want nothing to do with him. So they hardened their hearts and they provoked the Holy One of Israel. They tempted God. They proved him. They saw his mighty works. Yet the Bible said they had in them an evil heart of unbelief. They wouldn't accept him. They would not hold on to confidence in the Lord. They preferred Moses to Christ. Not one of them could enter into the rest. They couldn't find what they were seeking. And God grieved over them. God grieved over his precious people. Paul wrote, so we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. Now, why is the Jew blind? Because of what? Unbelief. Hardened in his unbelief. His unbelief turning into a spirit of slumber. God really turning their hearts over and their minds to that which was in their hearts. Blinding their eyes. But Paul, think of that. That's a tragedy. Millions are spiritually hungry. And the Jew is hungry. Spiritually hungry. Starved. Searching. But they can't find it. The Messiah has come. He's here in the world. He's alive. His spirit is working. And they see nothing. It's like talking to the wall. You can't penetrate it. There's a slumber. There's a deep sleep. Try it. Go to a precious Jew on the street and talk to him about your Jesus. You know what I'm talking about. You see, Paul was writing this to Gentiles, to Christians. His message really is this. Don't say, poor, blind, slumbering Jew. Don't pity the slumbering Jew. But rather say, poor, slumbering saints. Because this is written to saints. This is written to the Gentile saints. Paul is warning all of us. He said, well, in other words, that's fine. Because of unbelief, they were broken off. That's one matter. He said, Paul said, this is one matter. Because of unbelief, they were broken off. And you stand by faith. You've understood Christ. You've accepted him, haven't you? At least you've made a profession. Whether you're living up to fullness or not, you've made a profession. You said, I know Jesus. But be not high-minded, but fear. For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed, lest he spare not you. He said, you think you stand. Be careful that you're not cut off like the Jew was cut off because of unbelief. Because of lukewarmness. Because of rejecting him. Paul even goes further and he warns of the severity of the Lord God. And in a day when we hear, God is love, God is love, you're loved. That's true, but that's only half the gospel. Listen to it. Behold, therefore, the goodness and severity of the Lord. The goodness of God and the severeness of God. Two sides of the same coin. I'm glad he showed me his goodness first. You know, Moses made two trips to the mountain. Remember, he spent 40 days up there and the first time he came down with the law, his face didn't shine. The second time he came down, his face did shine. He had to put a veil over his face. Because the sinful Jew couldn't stand the sight of the holiness written on the face of Moses. But what caused his face to shine? The law doesn't make your face to shine. It was because the second time God hid him in a cliff of a rock and caused his goodness to pass before him. And he saw the goodness of God and the goodness of God made his face to shine. And when you know the goodness of God, you have that shine on your face. But I'm glad I know his goodness and I also know his severity. I know how he judges. I think it was Irene Ravenhill who said, You've got to know God's love, but you also strike when he strikes. And that's the severity of God. Listen to it. Behold, therefore, the goodness and severity of God. Romans 11.22 On them that fell severity, but unto thee goodness. If, unto you goodness, if you continue in his goodness, otherwise thou shalt also be cut off. We hear so much of this goodness of God, but he's severe, the scripture says, to those who do not continue in his goodness and harden their hearts. You know, there are people who preach once in divine, always in divine. That once you're in, you can never be cut off. Well, I'll let the Bible explain that. What does the Bible say? The goodness of God to you. You know him. You're in the faith. That's fine. As long as you continue in that goodness by faith. Otherwise, you'll be cut off. Oh, toward thee goodness, if thou continue in his goodness, otherwise thou shalt be cut off. For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed, lest he not spare you. If he wouldn't spare his own people, the Jew, how is he going to spare an unbelieving, faithless Christian? And there are unbelieving, faithless Christians. Believe me. I wish every drunken, sodden, adulterous Baptist could hear that this morning. Let every lukewarm Pentecostal hear it. And every playboy Christian. Take heed, lest he spare thee not, the Bible says. You know, our teams are out. Roger's team goes out in these small towns in Texas and down along the border towns. And they go down where the bars are and hold street meetings. And you see deacons coming out. Baptist deacons and Presbyterian deacons and some of them Pentecostal deacons. A few of them. And they're coming out of these bar rooms staggering. And they're drunk and they've got a harlot or prostitute draped over their arm. And they come up and say, Praise God. I'm saved just like you are. I reckon myself dead with Jesus. And they're drunken. They're unbelieving. But some preacher told them that once in the vine, always in the vine. You know, my Bible says, take heed, lest you be cut off. If he spared not the natural branches, how is he going to spare you if you're unbelieving? They come stumbling down the streets full of adultery and their eyes are closed. And they're going to hell in a deep sleep. Last summer in New York, four prostitutes one night came up. They had their tricks hanging on their arm. They all went to once in the vine, always in the vine church. And they're standing there looking at me and I'm saying, Let me pray for you. I need Jesus. Oh, we're saved. We're just as holy as you are, Mr. Wilkerson. You're no judge of us. We are dead in Christ. Jesus looks at us under the blood. We are in Christ Jesus, dead to sin. And off they walk with their tricks. They're sleeping. They're in a deep sleep. No preacher in the world can penetrate that. They're nobody going to get through to their minds. They're locked. They're in a deep sleep. They're in a coma. And I listen to this kind of talk. In fact, when those four harlots said that, I stepped back and I said, Oh, God, how can anybody say that they're serving the Lord Jesus when his eyes are too holy to even look upon evil? And here they are living as prostitutes. The trick's right in front of me. Bring them right into a Holy Ghost meeting. And then I remember the Scripture says that they'll be under a strong delusion that they should believe a lie. And they're fast asleep. They're fast asleep. Those prostitutes were in this spirit of slumber, this deep sleep. Now, folks, I'm more concerned about the deep sleep that's falling on believers in the house of God than any other kind. The parable of the ten virgins says they were all slumbering and sleeping. This suggests the whole church is going to be asleep when Jesus comes just prior to his coming and the cries made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh. Go ye out to meet him. They're all slumbered and they all slept. And really, we are asleep compared to where we should be in the Lord. When the midnight cry was made, they all awoke and they went out to meet the bridegroom. But five of them had lamps that were going out. And those words send a chill down my spine. Lamps going out. Lamps going out. Lamps that used to burn with holy oil. Those that once had an unction, an anointing, a deep love for the Lord Jesus Christ. Lamps going out. I've been thinking about all week about that and all the people I know who once, maybe years ago, were so devoted to Jesus, so filled with his love, so filled with the Holy Ghost, so on fire for the Lord. They burned in passion to the Lord. Nothing else mattered. They told the whole world what Jesus meant to them. And I look at their lives now and I see them slipping away and I see the coldness and I see the deadness in them. And I say their lamps are going out and that really frightens me. The vessel in which there's no more oil, the anointing is gone. It's midnight and Jesus is about to come and there's a darkness in them, there's an emptiness, the joy is gone, the faith is gone. There's no leading, there's no convicting of the Holy Ghost. In other words, the glory of the Lord is departing from people just before Jesus comes. The glory of the Lord is departing from their lives. There are many preachers preaching today in pulpits across America that don't have an ounce of anointing. They haven't spent an hour in prayer. They've rushed from their handball court into the pulpit and not a... They've picked up something from an old message, a girl from their former church, not a fresh word from God, and they're standing in a pulpit with lamps going out. Our mail just cries, people from all over America cry, where can we find a church where there's something that changes their heart, that warms their soul? Where can we move closer to the Lord Jesus Christ? And there's very little of it today in America because the church is asleep. Preachers are used to thunder with an ounce of anointing. They're squatting in front of a television set with their junk food getting fat. Down at Freddy Garcia's a couple of weeks ago, when I was talking about getting rid of that idol and spending more time seeking the face of God, I heard those dear young preachers stand up and preach like a house on fire. And then when they heard the message, come back to me backstage and point to the big belly and say, you know, I got that big belly squatting in front of a television set three and four hours a night, eating junk food, watching every pitiful thing out of the pits of hell. I said I wouldn't talk any more about it, but I can't help it. Every Sunday night in America you look out, and what the Lord must see, He sees millions and millions of you saints with the lamps going up, parked in front of Dynasty in Dallas and watching the pits of hell and losing the fire. The oil is leaking out of their vessels, evaporating, gone. Christians who were once on fire, full of love and joy, looking for His return, adrift and cold, full of doubt, half asleep. Look at these wise virgins. Their lamps are burning brightly. They're full of the Holy Ghost fire and excitement. They're going out to meet the bridegroom. They're on their way to the married supper of the Lamb. They're rejoicing, they're singing, there's fire, there's excitement, there's joy. And then look at these foolish virgins. You can see the sputtering lamp, and some of them already died. There may be one or two sparks left. It'll sputter and it'll go out. And they're trying to protect that little flame, but they're running around weeping, saying, somebody help me, oil, I need oil, my lamp's going out. That's why I wanted some of my staff here. I'm going to tell you, even though you minister with a man who prays, and you hear me bring the Word to your heart, some of my own staff, I see it, the lamp's going out. You always have to be prodded, always have to be pushed, and you keep saying, someday I'm going to read, I'm going to be a student of the Bible, someday I'm going to open that and learn to love it, and see Jesus in it, and I'm going to grow and be cleansed by it. But you have time for everything else but this Word. You say, one day I'm really going to pray, I'm going to lay down every idol, and I'm going to start cleaving to the Lord, and I know He's coming soon, I'm going to go out to meet Him. But that's talk. That's just talk. Until you shut everything else down in life and say, I don't care what it is, nobody, nobody can meet me now because I'm going to shut myself in the secret closet, and I'm going to become a man and woman of prayer. Quit talking about it, saints, do it. Do it! Because the danger that that slumbering spirit on you now is going to turn to a deep sleep. If we really took God at His Word, we wouldn't be lazy and half-hearted. See, I don't fear the devil and all the demons of hell as much as I fear God's causing a spirit of slumber. And no demon in hell can do to me what God can do to me. There's no demon in hell that can put me to sleep. I take it just as it's written here, God hath given them a spirit of slumber. I take it as the Bible says it. God hath given them the spirit of slumber, for the Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep. You are blind, you are deaf, the Word is sealed up to you now. I remember going to hear when He first came to America, Reverend Moon, Sun and Moon. And I sat there appalled as He said, I am the forerunner, the Messiah. And some of you will come to realize one day that I really am the Messiah. And here's this little bald-headed man standing up there saying He's Christ. And I remember what Jesus said, Many will come saying I'm Christ. And so I go out in the hall. I get up while He was preaching. And out in the hall, all these nice dressed young people, very intelligent, most of them college students. And there were four young people standing out there by the hall selling literature. And I said, come here, do you hear what that Korean is saying that He's Christ? Do you hear it? Do you believe it? Yes, sir. Get my Bible out and I said, look what this says, false Christ. Look at me with this dumb look, He's Christ. He's Christ. Nothing I could say. They were sleeping. It was a slumber. Fast asleep. Every cult the same thing, fast asleep. I refuse to shrug off this awesome warning to the people of God because He's talking to those who were once believing, but now they're rebellious, unbelieving, lukewarm. And I've seen Christians who are living under the spell of this deep sleep. Not just Moonies, but I've seen Christians under the curse of a deep sleep from the Lord. And when it happens, you can sit and witness and you can talk. They don't hear a word. They just say, I don't see it. I just don't understand. I'm not convicted. I don't feel anything anymore. There's an emptiness. There's no zeal. There's no fire. There's no commitment. They just coast along. You can preach like Paul the Apostle to them. They sit through precious Bible studies. They can be around Christians who are growing in the Lord, but they're going nowhere themselves. They simply shrug it all off. They don't believe it's necessary to change anything in their life. They're not hearing what God is saying. They've rejected the Lord so long. They've wallowed in fear and unbelief. They have complained and murmured and griped. They've lived for themselves for so long, they're falling into a sleep. I'm going to have somebody come into my office and spend three hours. They say, I'm desperate. I've got to talk. They've got a problem in my life. And I'll go home and, honey, he says, you spent three hours there, David. You must have had some prayer meeting. I said, no. He didn't hear a word I said. He shook his hands. Brother Jack Rice calls him, yes, but, yes, but, yes, but, yes, but. They're numbed. They go around in a soul sleep. Look at this scripture. Ephesians 4.18, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God to the ignorance that's in them because of the blindness in their hearts, who being past feeling have given themselves over to lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness. And that's where it ends. If you get this spirit of ignorance in you and you come into this sleep and this slumber, you finally become godless, sensuous, and wicked. That's why I can't understand when ministers write to me and said, my wife was active in church. She loved the Lord, and she ran off on me. She ran off with an ungodly man who doesn't even love the Lord, and she's drinking, she's smoking, she's cursing. I'm getting with a preacher in El Paso right now who's been asking for help, and his wife was with him in Mission Field for eight years. Came home at the airport and said goodbye to him and ran off with a drug addict, and she's living now with a drug addict. And you talk to her. One passed death, another talked to her, and she says, I don't care what you say, I love the man, I'm staying here. Wouldn't matter if Christ himself, the Holy Ghost came down, she can't hear anymore, she needs to sleep. She's in a deep coma, a spirit of slumber from the Lord, because of hardness, lukewarmness, and unbelief, because of murmuring and complaining. I've been going through my Old Testament, and I'm finding how severe God is on His children who murmur and complain, and who have no faith, who question His power, question His guidance. He said, I've demonstrated my power to you. I've given you no reason to doubt me. But He said, you go through life thinking, well, this is just my words, I'm not hurting anybody. Yes, God says, I read every thought. I know what you're thinking. A spirit of slumber leads to two hopeless conditions. An inescapable trap in the church, and an everlasting burden in the home. And I'm going to show it to you in the Scripture. And David saith, let their table be made a snare and a trap and a stumbling block, and a recompense to them, a reward to them, and bow down their back always. And he was quoting, Paul was quoting in Romans 11, 9-10 from David in Psalm 69, 22. Let their table become a snare before them, and that which should have been for their benefit or their welfare, let it become a trap to them. That which should have healed them, that which should have ministered comfort to them, let it become a trap. A stumbling block. Reward their disobedience, reward their undelete, reward their bickering, their self-centeredness, reward them by making their table a stumbling block and a snare to them. And let them carry a burden the rest of their lives. Oh, listen, David said, thou preparest a table before me in the presence of my enemies. 23rd chapter of Psalms, you know that. What's he talking about? The table of the Lord is worship. It's the house of God. It's godly friends. It's all that God gives us to build us up in the faith to make us grow. It's the house of God. It's the presence of the Holy Ghost. It's the table he spread forth this morning right here in worship and praise. It's the sense of the body right here this morning, all being one in Christ. This is the table of the Lord. And he said, you that are in a deep sleep, you who continue in your unbelief, and I call and I call and I call and you refuse and you refuse and you're sleeping, and you're eventually going to fall fast asleep and God's just going to give you over to your sleep. And that's the deep sleep of the spirit of slumber. He said, the time will come that every time you walk into the house of God, it'll be a trap. You'll be trapped. Every song you sing, you're digging your grave deeper. Every moment of worship is just a snare to you because you don't enter in. You don't understand it. And yet you're caught in a no man's land because you don't want to go back to sin. There's nothing there for you. You're not comfortable out there with the ungodly crowd, but you're not comfortable in the house of God because you're not entering into the worship. You're numb. You just sit there numb. Numbed by unbelief and fear. This is unspeakable. It's almost too awful to think about. But those who overcome by this deep sleep because of their stubborn unbelief, and here's how it works, every message you hear only hardens you now. It's just another layer of hardness upon layer after layer after layer of hardness caused by every time you walk into the house of God, it becomes another trap to you, another layer of hardness. And some of you here this morning, even though the Holy Spirit has been here manifesting Himself, revealing Jesus, you didn't sense it, you didn't feel it. You've been sitting here dead. Even while I speak, now you're dead. God Himself coming down here and blessing Jesus Christ could not penetrate you now. You're here trapped. You don't want to go out with that wicked crowd, but you're uncomfortable here. You're not comfortable anywhere. You're in a trap. It bores you. You go through the motions. It's a spiritual vacuum. Because when you're lukewarm, you're in a no-win situation. You enjoy nothing. You have to endure God's house. So then because thou art lukewarm and neither odd or cold, I'll spew you out of my mouth. And I wonder sometimes why some people come to church. I really do. They don't enter in. They get nothing out of it. They come and they sleep, and they're dead. It's like a man in a hospital. He's in a coma, but he hears every word, and he wants to reach out. He's screaming inside saying, I can hear you. And they're talking as though he's dead. They're talking about pulling a cord, and he's hearing every word. But he's in a slumber. He's in a coma. He can't move. There's nothing he can do. And I've talked to some like that saying, I'd like to get saved. They can talk, but they can't act. I used to be saved. I used to be on fire for God. I used to have a touch from God. And I'm going to look you all in the eye, and I know there are 10 or 12 of you here that once knew the Lord. And you were cold, and you were indifferent, and everybody in the world's loved you. Everybody's tried to get through to you. And right now, you're just about to go so fast to sleep, and you're going to slip into that spiritual coma. God says, all right, I've loved you. I've stretched out my hand to you, disobedient, gainsaying. I've loved you. I've done everything I know. How? Go to sleep. You want sleep? Sleep. God has given them the spirit of slumber. And every time the church door opens, you walk into a trap. That which should have been to your comfort, that which should have been to your welfare, that which should have been a blessing to you, that which should have encouraged you and set your heart aflame, only adds to your slumber. And then secondly, he said, bow down their back always. David goes on to explain what that heavy burden is that God says, I'll put a burden on your back for the rest of your life. Psalm 69, 25, let their habitation be desolate. That's your home. Let their home become a place of emptiness, lovelessness, joylessness. He said they're going to go to church and walk into a trap, and then they're going to walk home to a burden. What could be worse? What could be worse than to walk into a home where there's no love, where there's emptiness, trapped everywhere you go? And when are we going to wake up and realize that the desolation in our Christian homes is a result of a complaining, unbelieving, lukewarm spirit? That's what it is. It's not a husband and wife problem, it's a Jesus problem. The problem of the Holy Ghost in you. Then the home becomes a burden. There's no more refreshing there. There's no more joy. There's death and gloom. It grieves me that thousands and thousands of Christian couples are just merely existing now, putting on a false front. There's a deep sleep in their home, a spirit of slumber is endangering them. David said, let none dwell in their tents. Let none dwell in their house. Nobody wants to come and visit because there's such gloom. The kids don't want to come. And as soon as they get old enough, they run. They don't want to be there. The husband and wife finally end up closing it down, and the for sale sign goes up on their house. Let them no longer live in their tent. Let their habitation be desolate. Now that's prophetic from the Word of God. That's David prophesying what happens to those who won't wake up, who show, God, touch me. God, keep me cleaving to you. God doesn't go around like a sandman with sand in his face, just promiscuously spreading the spirit of slumber. No, he watches patiently and tenderly, calling and dealing and dealing. And finally, God says, I cannot deal with you any longer. You persist in it. And I'll tell you what, if he gave up the whole tribe of Israel except for three men, they were cut off. And I look at Christian homes now. I see people come to church, and I see them not entering in. There's such a shallowness. How many are there in this town, in Lindiff, and all these towns around here just going Sunday morning? I suppose that's why I could never belong to a Baptist church. And I'm not putting a Baptist down, brother or sister, but when I go to church and I see Sunday morning, and I see all deacons, everybody standing there smoking their cigarettes, and they can't even spend two hours without puffing their cigarettes. And I'm not saying those cigarettes alone would send them to hell. But when is it coming a time where we can find people not just looking at the clock, not just coming because it's a thing to do on Sunday morning, but just coming longing, hungry and thirsting for him. And I see these couples come to church, and you can see them when they sit here. If you've got a discerning spirit, you can see it. You know that there's been gloom, fear. There's no joy. And they say, well, I think I'm losing my love. Oh, yes, you are. Look at him. Your lamb's going out. And that's why everything else is going out. Your relationships are burning low. Everything else. I look at the way, you know, I think it was the week before last, we got between 5,000 and 6,000 prayer requests in our mail. And our staff has been broken by it. Gwen and I were reading hundreds of them. She says, Christian wives. And my husband and I were married 25 years. My husband just walked off. It doesn't happen just like that. He just walks off. Notice he bowed down their back. It's because you've been asleep. You haven't been awake to the Lord. And I look at all this, and I say, oh, God, how severe you are to those who are unbelieving. How severe. God, much of this is you're allowing. You're allowing it because of the spirit of slumber and unbelief. And I say, oh, God, why can't they see it? Why won't people just wake themselves and shake themselves and say, my God, help me. Wake me up. All right, now that's the bad side. Let me give you the good side. God's given us a glorious promise that there's going to be a mass resurrection from the dead. That multitudes of sleeping, slumbering saints are going to rise up as an army of overcomers. Hallelujah. Ezekiel in the valley of dry bones. Remember? The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he carried me. This is Ezekiel talking. He carried me out in the spirit of the Lord. He set me down in the midst of a valley which is full of bones. That's the church. Bones. Dry bones. And caused me to pass by them round about. You see, Ezekiel, he's walking just like there's been a war ten years ago. Everybody died, and the bones are bleached, and the carcasses are empty. The birds have plucked every bit of flesh, including their bowels. Everything is gone. They're dead and dry. And he's walking through this valley. Behold, there were many in the open valley. And, lo, they were very, very dry. Now, that doesn't picture the church. One big valley, very, very dry bleached bones. No, it doesn't. But listen. And he said to me, Son of Man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord, only you know. That's what I'd say. Only you know. God, I can't. How can I say these bones are going to live again? And this is the question I think God's going to ask every preacher who preaches the gospel now. He looks out, and God says, Do you see how dead the church is? Do you see how dead my people are? Do you see the death that's hanging over so many now? Do you see this great, vast valley of dry bones? Don't give up on my church. Don't give up on them. I've just written. It comes out in about two weeks. It's at the press right now, a book about Judgment on America. And I've written a chapter called Building of Temples. Hosea said, When my people backslide, they build me temples. And I've taken a strong stand against television ministries that are building junk. And yet the Lord told me I couldn't preach that unless I started praying for those men in love with me. And every day now, I bow before God and pray, Lord, baptize me with love in my heart for these men. And God says, Don't give up on any ministry. Don't give up on anybody. You're not the judge. You speak my word and then love and try to heal and bring back restoration. And listen to what the Scripture says. Glory be to God. God's saying, Don't give up. There's a great shaking coming. I'm going to breathe once again. Before I come, there's going to be new life. Resurrected saints, once dead, are going to be raised in power. Listen to it. Again, he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Now, I've preached to congregations that were the valley of dry bones. Not here, thank God. Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you. He said, Here's your message. You preach. You go out to this dead, dry church and you say, O dead, dry church, God says he's going to breathe on you and you're going to live. And I'm going to lay sinews on you and bring up flesh upon you and cover you with skin and put breath in you. And you shall live and you shall know that I am the Lord. Now, I believe it's a day of destruction. I believe America is going to be destroyed by fire, no question about it. And I believe I've given enough Scripture to prove it in the book. And I don't care what anybody thinks. God made my face like flint and put a steel rod in my backbone. And I don't care what anybody says. But I do know that before judgment comes, there's going to be a revival like you've never known. There's going to be a restoration. The slumbering states are going to be breathed upon again, the dead, dry church. So I prophesied as I was commanded and as I prophesied, there was a great noise and all the shaking. And the bones came together, bone to his bone. And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came upon them and the skin covered them and there was no breath in them. And I think that's about where we are now. There's been a shaking. There's been a bit of movement. Then said He unto me, Prophesy again. This time prophesy to the wind. And prophesy, Son of Man. Prophesy, O Son of Man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God. You know, that's my message. That's our message today. O breath of God, come from the four winds. O breath, and breathe upon all these slain that they may live. And so I prophesied as He commanded me. And breath came into them and they lived and they stood up upon their feet. An exceeding great army. Now the Bible says only a remnant is going to be saved. But you know, if only ten percent, usually a remnant in Israel was ten percent. If ten percent of the world's population will be saved, that's over half a billion. That's some remnant, isn't it? That's millions and millions out of America alone, even a remnant. A remnant compared to the great masses of people that are being damned. But what an army that's going to come forth out of the dry bones of the valley. All my people, God says, Ezekiel 37, 12, 14. All my people, I will open your graves and cause you to come out of your graves. And I'll put My Spirit in you and you shall live. When God says live, you live. God says I'll put a deep slumber upon you. But He said before I come, I'm going to breathe on you. Oh, hallelujah. Breath of God. An exceeding great army that's going to rip off their grave clothes. They're going to come walking out of graves. These dead, dry churches. God's going to move in the audience and the preacher's going to sit there wondering what's happened. People walking out of their graves right in front of Him. And He may see them get out of the grave and He'll want to get out of His grave. And suddenly the Holy Ghost will hit Him. And some of the deadest, driest churches in America, God's going to breathe on them. He said, I'll manifest Myself to those who sought not after My name. I'll breathe on them. Now that doesn't mean He breathes on those who stay in their hardness. It means that they're people that are praying and seeking the face of God. And God's answering. God's answering. God's moving. Even though it's sovereign, He moves sovereignly on those who've been calling on His name. You say, well, how can I call if I'm dead asleep? Well, I'll tell you something. This preacher was sleeping. And I want to tell you, I thank Him for waking me up the past few years and what He's been doing in my life. I thank God for this dear man who came to me and just lovingly told me I was going the wrong way. And I'm glad because I was sleepy. I wasn't fast asleep, but I had a spirit that could have led me off into deadness and dryness. And I'm glad for that moment and that awakening. And I look back at it and I'll say, Lord, there wasn't a good thing in me. There was nothing I did to deserve it. There wasn't one good thing. There wasn't one good thing in the upper room that deserved the outpouring of the Holy Ghost. Peter had denied the Lord. They'd all forsook Him and fled. Everyone in that upper room had failed the Lord. They weren't worthy. God doesn't do anything because you're worthy of it. Hallelujah. But one of these days, and I believe it's right now. I believe He's breathing right now. I believe some of you are sensing God saying, I'm going to breathe on you and you're going to live. The devil's been lying to you, telling you you're going to die. No, He said, I'm going to breathe on you and you're going to live. I feel His breath every waking moment now. I feel the breathing. Let it breathe on me. Let the breath of God, though He is the Spirit, His breath, let it breathe. Let His breath breathe on me. If you and I knew how close we are to judgment, this nation is going to be rocking with earthquakes like you have never known. This nation is going to be judged. America has committed the unpardonable sin. God said your wound is incurable. But there's still time for individual repentance. Individual repentance. I've delivered my heart to you, and I'm not going to push it any further, because I believe if I preach what the Holy Ghost told me to preach, and you needed it, well, I pray He's going to drive it to your heart. We head back. Hallelujah. Breathe, O breath of God. I prophesy to the wind, O breath of God, come and breathe on these. I said, I'll bring you out of your grave. Lord, there are some that are not only sleeping, they're dead. They're fast asleep in death. Breathe and wake, Lord, this morning. Breathe, O breath of God. I'm going to do something that we have not been doing here in these services, but I'm going to do it today. I'm going to give an old-fashioned altar call. I sure am. I'm going to ask God, I'm going to ask every Christian to pray that the breath of God, let's prophesy to the wind, O breath of God, come and breathe. Breath of God, come and breathe on this house. Breathe life. Breathe life upon us right now. The holy life of Jesus. The life of the Holy Ghost. Breathe. Breathe, O breath of God, on every one of us. Wake us up. Alright, now look. Just a moment. While your head's above, just a moment. This is for my staff. This is for visitors. This is for everybody that's here this morning. Some of you have been murmuring, complaining. You once had something with the Lord that was so powerful, so glorious. You've been asleep. You've been slumbering. The Lord's saying it's time to get down to business with me. No more games. Are you going to cleave to me? Are you going to seek my face? Will you seek my face? Will you let me breathe on you? Now don't you dare come unless you know beyond any shadow of a doubt that God's dealing with you today and there's been a spiritual slumber asleep in you and you want God to shake it and awaken you and breathe on you. Then you get up and come and stand here just as many as we can accommodate here. Get up. I'm going to lay hands on you and ask God to wake you up. Wake you up. Just stand right here. Don't come, please. Don't come unless you know that that's truth to you.