1 Peter 2:1 Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, 2 as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. 4 Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, 5 you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
The Lord has laid in Zion a chief cornerstone, and we are being built up a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ.
It’s always difficult for people to adjust from one age to another, because everything that happens in a New Age is so different from what happened before.
For instance, the transition from Old Testament to the New Testament times was the most difficult transition the human race was ever forced to make.
And I speak of this in respect to the people of God. Now the Jewish people had been led by the Lord and came through so many dealings, and had come to have such a wholesome respect for the Word of God that if you would compare the Jewish people at the time of Christ’s first coming with the Christian church now, you would be shocked to see how far below many respects, the church falls below the Jewish people at the first coming of the Lord.
For instance, in the first coming of the Lord, they had such a wholesome respect for the law that those scribes so carefully copied every word, every jot and tittle, little Hebrew markings. They were so careful about it.
They believed in the inspiration of that Scripture. They spent hours studying it. Even to this day, there are Jewish people, especially in Poland and other areas. There are rabbis who know the whole of the Torah and can write it out without one mark being missing.
They can sit down and write from Genesis through Deuteronomy and never miss one small mark of the Hebrew language. There are many of them. This requires a lifetime of study.
We don’t have the same devotion to the Word of God now in the Christian church that these people had at the time of Christ’s coming.
Spontaneous, they could quote the word. Wise men came from the east and said, where is he that is born king of the Jews?
Oh, we know that they didn’t say Micah 5: 2, because they didn’t have a chapter division, but they quoted him. “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, From everlasting.”
They knew exactly where he was to be born. They could tell you. How could a people be so versed and so prepared and worship God on the Sabbath day and keep the law so diligently and yet miss Christ completely?
How could they do it? It was very simple. They were looking for David with a slingshot that was going to pull down the Roman Goliath.
They were looking for something that would be just exactly the way it had been in all those centuries of God’s dealing.
When God said, all right, here I come, and the Goliath that I’ll cast out will be all the devils in those that come to me, the devils will flee out of them.
They didn’t anticipate the level on which Christ was going to come. They were expecting a king, and he was born and laid in a manger.
They were expecting the son of David, and he was the son of David, but they didn’t know how to understand that God had moved the whole dealings up into another plane, another realm.
And every time God does this thing, it just shatters people because they’re so earthbound to the former plane.
Let me give one more illustration. Even in New Testament times, you notice that the Christian Jews were very much addicted to the temple.
It’s why Christ predicted and why it had to be that the temple would be destroyed. That one stone would not be left standing upon another.
Because God was anticipating what we read in this text, that He was laying a chief cornerstone in Zion, and we were going to be built up into that spiritual temple.
And we were going to be the holy priesthood, offering up the spiritual sacrifices that would be acceptable to God.
Well, why can’t we have the old temple? Because then you begin to focus on the old temple instead of these living stones that are being built up by the Spirit for a habitation of God.
The church today is looking for the second coming of Jesus Christ, not realizing that he came in flaming fire through the Roman army destroying Jerusalem, those religious people who killed all the prophets of God in the Old Covenant and Jesus Christ, taking vengeance on them.
They know all the verses in which they put their hope, but they interpret them on the wrong plan, just like the Jews, because we are coming into the age of perfection, not the kingdom, we are already in that age.
God is building a spiritual temple, which we are a part of, being living stones. But we are not talking about your ordinary denominational church. In this church every member participates, there are no chiefs only Indians.
Each member has a vital role, in building up every other member, you may not have a gift of speaking publicly, but you can participate in Body ministry, because unless we have a revelation of the Lord, we tend not to see, areas of our life that are not yet manifesting the fullness of the Lord.
We are to speak the truth in love, and this is not telling one another in the nicest possible way what is wrong with them, it is seeing them in the Spirit, seeing them in Christ. And then speaking into them, into their spirit, we are ministering to the Christ in them the next step they are to take in walking with God.
For example, you personally have been riding in a vehicle with, another brother or sister that is constantly getting upset with other people’s driving on the road, maybe even swearing at them.
You tell them I can see you in the spirit, full of the love and compassion of the Lord manifesting the longsuffering of the Lord, praying for the other drivers on the road, making a difference in their lives where they are becoming considerate of other drivers, loosing an awareness in them of driving safely, letting others pass them, and driving the speed limit, and so on.
You get the idea, we are creating in them, their next level of growth in God. Of course, this requires practice, but YHWA gave us the fruit of the Spirit so that we can practice it on others.
The Lord is bringing these kinds of believers together and setting them in a body, because this is how we really grow.
We are like the temple of Solomon; God has already done a major work in our hearts before the stones are fitly joined together, otherwise we would be constantly defiling one another because things of the Spirit are highly contagious.
And we must come into the unity of the spirit before we can come into the unity of the faith where we all believe the same way, that is why I do not focus on how messed up a person’s doctrine is, if they learn how to manifest the spirit of the Lord, the Holy Spirit will lead them into all the truth.
These living stones, these pillars, these are the significant things, the Lord is doing. These are the ones that God is working on. God is creating things, but He’s not creating them in the realm that people think. He’s creating sons of God.
He’s bringing forth sons for this hour. We need to see the significance of this, and realize that God wants to manifest His kingdom on the earth through us. But the Christian church at large will be more apt to lose sight of what God is doing today than the Jewish people were at the first coming of Christ? Why?
Because we’re in a more apostate condition than the Jews were. We are not nearly as diligent as a whole in the Christian church as the Jews were at the time of Christ’s first coming.
Only in a remnant will there be the wisdom, will there be the foresight to see what God is really doing in the earth. What will the rest of the people be doing?
Preaching a social gospel, excuse me saying it, everything else but building the kingdom of God, can you not believe that?
Yes, they’ll be busy doing a lot of things, running programs, scheduling, and promoting and so forth, making an institution in which Christ is not even real to them in a way that transforms their lives.
And the people in church are not related to each other by that spiritual creation that makes them living stones and builds them up to be God’s habitation.
There’ll be many congregations of believers. That means congregations of individuals, but very few cases will there be the real spiritual body adhering one to another in love, created by God to walk with Him and to build up one another, when we understand that by His body and by His blood we’ve been brought into a new creation. Or you will still be living on the human level, and not the spirit.
Lord, open our eyes to see what’s going on in the spiritual realm, if we look at what is happening in the natural, we will be deceived, because the enemy is still controlling it.
Don’t let us be right in the middle of the church and miss it.
Just think how many people were going to the synagogue on the Sabbath day and they would go out and they tried to throw Jesus Christ over a precipice. Why?
Because he opened the book of Isaiah and said, this day these things are fulfilled in your ears.
Just think how quickly people are ready to reject the word that comes in this hour because it is contrary to their doctrine.
Jesus suddenly said, this scripture is being fulfilled right now. They said who do you think you are, are you greater than Moses who gave us the Law? Stone him, kill him, he is a false prophet.
Don’t get involved with that church. They do not even have a Sunday school, they let their children sit in the church service. I am not against nurseries, but if the kids can walk let them sit in the service and be quiet, their spirit will absorb the presence of God, even if they don’t understand with their mind what is going on.
It is better than having your kids in Sunday school spitballs or something or doodling on their workbooks. Teach you children at home the ways of the Lord.
What we need is a people who are really hungry for something from God. Oh, the tragedy of this thing. Just going to some church, is that all people, see?
Or do you know what God is saying, and doing in this hour? The sun is setting on an age, and there’s a new age being born, and anyone who is observant knows that.
Lord, open our eyes so we can see. Help us to see what you’re doing. You’re not building great massive institutions. They’re going to be shaken to pieces. And even while they’re coming up so strong, they’re becoming top-heavy.
The reports that come to denominations say they can’t recruit ministers. The programs are bogging down. There are many denominations where there are not enough men in the seminaries to replace the pastors that need to be replaced from year to year.
This is a great crying need, and yet these people look carefully. They see no life. They see just a programming thing, ministry. All they do is just keep the program going. Don’t rock the boat. Keep the money coming in. Keep the pledges going. An institution that is so top-heavy.
But where’s the spiritual life? The Lord is saying to us today, it is living stones. I’m building up.
I’m laying in Zion a cornerstone. It’s not what you see with your natural eye. It’s what God’s doing in your heart, a new creation, something coming forth. Praise God for it.
But you can see it in a New Testament Church. Our eyes are open to it. We’re aware that we’re a part of it. How deep does the moving of the Spirit of the Lord go?
Each heart that kneels before the Lord is crying for something, is looking to God for something. May God grant that we will be like that woman with the hemorrhaging of 12 years standing. She said, If I can but touch him, I’ll be every bit whole. So, she came, and she touched the hem of His garment.
May the Lord grant every one of you that in your need, in your desiring after God, in your desire to walk with Him and to draw of His fullness, God grant that every one of you has touched the hem of His garment and you’ve received the thing God has for you.
Let’s bless one another in our pursuit of the Lord. We bless you all and your faith and your love for the Lord.
And as you have reached into the Lord to the fullest of your ability, may God grant you an overflowing, overwhelming blessing beyond anything you’ve ever known before.
Our entering into a new plane of life in the church is very rewarding.
The outstanding thing about this walk will God is not that there’s one or two leaders here and there with a great deal of great ministry.
But it will be the companies of brothers and sisters, the groups that God has raised up in the church that will be able to move and help and strengthen one another.
When people learn how to speak a living word of God, that imparts more of God in those who hear. There’ll be thousands of churches who primary purpose is helping the people come into the full stature of the Lord.
The fifth chapter of Joshua parallels the experience of these new churches, maybe of your own personal life in a special way.
So, we began to read at the second verse. 2 At that time the Lord said to Joshua, “Make flint knives for yourself, and circumcise the sons of Israel again the second time.” 3 So Joshua made flint knives for himself and circumcised the sons of Israel at the hill of the foreskins. 4 And this is the reason why Joshua circumcised them: All the people who came out of Egypt who were males, all the men of war, had died in the wilderness on the way, after they had come out of Egypt. 5 For all the people who came out had been circumcised, but all the people born in the wilderness, on the way as they came out of Egypt, had not been circumcised. 6 For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people who were men of war, who came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they did not obey the voice of the Lord—to whom the Lord swore that He would not show them the land which the Lord had sworn to their fathers that He would give us, “a land flowing with milk and honey.” 7 Then Joshua circumcised their sons whom He raised up in their place; for they were uncircumcised, because they had not been circumcised on the way. 8 So it was, when they had finished circumcising all the people, that they stayed in their places in the camp till they were healed. 9 Then the Lord said to Joshua, “This day I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” Therefore, the name of the place is called Gilgal to this day.
Gilgal means rolling, rolling off the reproach. And the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal, and they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month, even in the plains of Jericho.
11 And they ate of the produce of the land on the day after the Passover, unleavened bread, and parched grain, on the very same day.
After they had eaten of the produce of the land, neither did the children of Israel eat manna anymore. But they did eat the fruit of the land of the Canaan that year.
I want you to notice a procedure. They have moved over into the land of Canaan, and they must do something here that is most important.
They must circumcise all the tribes of Israel because God did not intend to bring deliverance through unconsecrated or unsanctified vessels. Now keep that in your mind.
Often, we say, why doesn’t God bring greater deliverance? Because the big things that count for us just ahead of us are requiring a fresh degree of cleansing and inner purification, and God is doing that very thing. He’s exposing you to yourself.
Simultaneously with the revelation that comes of the Lord in this walk, there’s a revelation of yourself.
I don’t think it’s possible for a person in this walk to be a hypocrite. I don’t think it’s possible. Because the revelation of the Lord also is giving us a revelation of ourselves.
And so, whatever we are, we’re fully aware of it and we can’t hide it. The transparency is not only obvious to us, but it’s obvious to everyone else.
If you don’t think so, come up on the platform and find out how you’re not only discerned, but everybody in the congregation seems to see right through you.
None of it is done with a harsh or critical attitude. All of it is done with the idea of loving you and blessing you and ministering to you. What a wonderful day it is for us to live in. Joshua certainly faced a day similar to that. And he had the commandment of the Lord, take everyone, and see that they’re going to be circumcised, and then we’re going to go in together.
When a new step comes in a kingdom church, I’m very apprehensive because we always lose one or two families.
Families that have not been open to the blessing of the Lord and what God has been doing, so when a new step comes, they seem to be left behind.
And pretty soon they feel that, and they draw away from the church because they’ve lost his life.
The children of Israel were nomadic tribes that moved from place to place. They were like Abraham; they had no abiding city. They looked for one to come.
They were always on the move until finally Canaan had been subdued and then they had a partition of the land according to tribes and families.
But you know, we are pilgrims also and we’re on the move. And God brings us into one level, and then we must obtain a real victory and a deliverance in that realm.
Then we move on into the next. And have you noticed sometimes that you get discouraged because it seems like you just get yourself settled down to enjoy a walk with the Lord and the Lord projects you into the next step, and you’ve got to go through all that deep heart-searching process again, and it begins to get through to you, and you think sometimes, Is there ever going to be any end of it? I hope there isn’t.
One thing that I’ve enjoyed about this walk is that you don’t become dead and inflexible in this walk, but you keep pressing on. It’s always demanding a flexibility and an openness to the Lord. You never reach a point where you can say, well, I’ve arrived.
You always find that God is opening distant horizons of spiritual development and growth to you. And so, no matter how far you’ve come, the focus is always upon how far you have yet to go.
And so that you don’t find yourself exalted with a spiritual pride by saying, well, look how far I have come. But you always say in your heart, look how far I have yet to go. Thank God I’m on the move. Thank God I’m in motion. And I’m possessing the thing that God has for me.
The children of Israel were a people in motion. They could have said, Thank God we have all this manna.
Just about the time they had settled down to enjoy the manna, in the earlier years, they grumbled and said, our soul loathes this light bread. And so, God brought judgment on them.
Now they come to a place where they like the manna. So, what does God do? He brings them in the land of Canaan and stops the manna.
Well, Lord, we love this manna. It was the best thing that ever came along. Get out early in the morning and gather the manna, and you’ve got it made all day. And there was not a feeble person among their tribes.
The manna must have been filled with minerals and vitamins and proteins, everything that you could think of. They were a healthy people, and the Lord had blessed them so exceedingly with the manna.
All of a sudden, it’s cut off. What do we do now? Well, I can see the Lord looking down at them and said, Boys, I’ve fed you long enough, now you’re going to have to get out there and fight for it. Now there’s some fine vineyards out there. There’s the land here before you that’s flowing with milk and honey. But Lord, there’s giants sitting on those greeneries. There are high-walled cities, yes, but you’re going to have to fight and take it now.
This is the day that you’re going to eat the parched corn and the grains of the land, and you’re going to have to go after that milk and honey. And it’s going to be with a slim picking if you’re not ambitious to reach in and take all that God has said is yours and possess it, appropriate it in the name of the Lord.
You’re going to sit here and starve to death if you don’t appropriate it now because the manna is gone.
Manna belongs to the babes. From now on, it’s the old corn of the land. Do you want it?
I can see the children of Israel buckle on their swords and say, all right, now we get our breakfast in a different way. We took a basket out and gathered manna, but now we’ll have to go out and obtain it. We’ll have to fight for it.
No wonder the Lord was saying, sanctify yourselves, because it was going to be an intensive new step in the Lord.
How many are finding that as I’m preaching this, you find in your mind and heart that the Lord is saying to you, this is exactly what you’re going through.
Now you got to go to the place where God is living. You must seek, knock, and find. You are living in Joshua 5. And have you noticed the deep heart searching’s that God is doing? You must have that pure heart to hear what God is saying.
The Lord just keeps putting His finger on one thing after another. Have you been finding yourself opening your heart up to the Lord, praying why? A new level has been opened up and God is saying, now we must come into a circumcision of heart.
I like the way that the scriptures constantly speak of circumcision in the New Testament. It takes the Old Testament ritual and gives it a spiritual significance and says, we are the circumcision who worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.
Philippians the third chapter and the third verse. This is the circumcision that you come to the place where you’re not putting confidence in yourself, but you’re trusting in God. You are worshiping Him with all your heart. You’re entering in, you are rejoicing in Christ Jesus the Lord.
This is the circumcision that God is demanding. We are preparing our hearts to follow the Ark of the Covenant or that symbolic presence of God, to follow it into wars of conquest, to follow it into the possession of those things that have been promised to us for many generations.
We stand in this hour on the threshold of great things. Whether we are willing to prepare our hearts or not is up to each individual.
You find some of them will come up to a great ocean of God’s love and provision, and they’ll take a little thimble and dip into it and say, Thank you, Lord, for my portion.
But there’ll be others that’ll be lugging a great big tub up there and say, Thank you, Lord.
And there’ll be others that’ll take a wheelbarrow and lay a barrel on it and come down to that and say, Lord, fill it up. I want all that you have for me.
What shall I do unto thee? The Lord asked many of the people that he was going to heal and deliver. And the Lord would say unto you, every one of you today, what shall I do unto thee? What would you that I do unto you? What do you really want from God?
It might be rather startling that there might be a few of you that are not asking God for anything. You are not really hungry for any change in your life. You say, I just want God to leave me alone. I just want to go on the way things were. I’m happy with them. I don’t want anything more. I don’t want any changes.
Yes, that’s the way of decay and death because things never stand still. They never stand still. People change.
The forces of circumstances and experiences mature them and bring them into new attitudes.
It’s inevitable that it happens. You’re not going to demand that things stay as they are. You’re not going to remain as you are. You’re going to change.
You say, I don’t want much. Shame on you. Ask large. I am not really hungry for the Lord.
What a tragedy. In a day of visitation your heart is not prepared to seek after the Lord.
Others will say, you just tell me what it is God’s got for me, and I already have a heart crying after it. I’m so hungry for all that God has for me. I want it. I want that walk with God. I want to claim great things. I want to be audacious with my faith.
All right, then circumcise your heart and get ready. It’s with us as it was in the days of the widow of the prophet who was told to go and gather vessels, not a few. Get ready, why? Because there’s a little cruise of oil here that God’s going to work a miracle with it, but it’s going to start pouring and pouring and pouring and pouring until every vessel is filled.
A miracle, a miracle of fullness will come. Get your vessels, not a few. Prepare them, get ready for it. Because this is God’s way of bringing a deliverance. This is God’s way of bringing days of fullness to you.
The awareness of how we stand at this threshold of new and greater things and the seriousness with which the Lord leaves upon us the heart searching and the repentance and the preparation for it.
Seven things we must consider. What steps are significant to us now and this has attracted Satan’s direct attention and attack upon the church.
many people will come under direct assault. It’s a weird thing.
God will indicate what to do with prophecies, we will learn lessons in what we are facing now, lessons specially written for this period of transition we’re in, given by the Holy Spirit.
The Lord establishes His people. the manifestation of God’s sons is right at the door. Isn’t this one reason that would attract the direct fire of Satan more than anything else?
That’s the first step that we consider. Another thing is that the prophecies of authority are coming now. Prophecies on a different level. There’s real authority, there’s creative power in it. And God is speaking of the authority that’s coming to the church.
The prophecies are coming that are bringing down things that must be destroyed and judged right now by the Lord.
Prophecies are coming concerning a change in our nation. And it’s not a change toward, away from God, but it’s a change toward the Lord if we can interpret what God sets before his remnant to believe for and to prophesy for.
Many principalities have been defeated.
I would hate to come up just a little short and have to live another year without certain principalities coming down.
We do not want to be hibernating for a year and not come into the things that we have come so close to possessing in this year.
It’s one of the reasons why I have set my heart in these days to seek the Lord with all my heart and to enter in as much as I can because I think we could really see the breakthrough beyond anything we’ve ever known in this season.
Now listen carefully. A fourth thing. The prophecies have been coming lately about the seals to the book being opened and the revelation of the word coming again.
You remember Daniel’s prophecy, go thy way, Daniel, seal up the book, for its seal up until the time of the end. And everything is pointing toward the most fantastic time of Bible study and Bible revelation that we’ve ever known.
I’m going to make a prediction. One of the reasons why Satan is fighting right now is because of that very thing, that fourth of these seven things, that the seal is being taken off the scriptures where it has been on certain portions of it, and the word of God will be opened like you’ve never heard it before.
And things that have been veiled from our eyes are going to be revealed, and there’ll be treasures and wonders like we’ve never seen that are going to come forth. I make that prediction and you mark it well. because I believe it’s on the way it’s based upon the prophecy that have been coming now.
the fifth step and I want you to notice this this new step is bringing with it authority and I’ve seen a new authority resting upon the elders I have sensed a new authority in myself in the Lord to bind and to loose.
have you noticed it too, this is a thing Satan hates. this is the beginning of the end for him because the scriptures tell how that judgment was committed to the saints of the Most High and they possessed the kingdom. This was Daniel’s prophecy.
Judgment was committed to the saints of the Most High and they possessed the kingdom.
This is the most ominous step of all, that God’s people are moving into new authority. I can even take those kids that are blessed and put a blessing upon them, and they can turn and start blessing and pointing their finger at one another, and the power of God just moves to that place.
There’s a new level of authority, of initiative on the part of believers to bless and to minister to one another.
We’ve never seen that before. And this brings us to something else. God is demanding that we search our hearts and be purified because judgment is being released.
Now, when two of the disciples James and John wanted to bring fire down from heaven and consume the Samaritans. Jesus said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. You don’t know what manner of spirit you’re of.
Now you say, was the motivation good? No, it was not. They had the wrong spirit. So naturally that couldn’t be granted.
But the day is going to come, according to the book of Revelation, which fire will come down to devour the adversaries in the day of the two witnesses.
Yet the two disciples that thought to do that at that time were forbidden because they had a wrong spirit.
And yet it’s very possible that the believers in this new day will move in that very ministry, according to the Book of Revelation in the great chapter on the two witnesses. The 12th chapter.
Now, you say, I don’t understand that. It means that the people in the end time must have their spirits refined until there’s nothing vindictive about it.
Judgment will return from and to the house of God, but it’s not going to be people with bad feelings toward each other, pointing the fingers at each other to try to bring God’s judgment upon it. It is not going to be anything on a low level like that. It’s going to be God moving through people who are so dedicated, so purified, that if they were walking down the street and there were people throwing rocks at them and cursing them, And the Lord would say, Bless them. They would turn around with a heart of love and they’d bless the people that were persecuting them.
Or if God said, Now, you turn and you bring judgment upon that, they would bring judgment.
Whether it would be love and mercy to the point of laying down your life, or whether it would bring judgment would be immaterial to them, only this, they would be the willing, absolute, yielded servants of the Most High God.
See, I couldn’t be that objective. I know. That’s why God is bringing us to this time of the circumcision of the flesh, where we serve the Lord with all our heart. And it matters not what anyone does to us.
We have reached a place where our spirit would be immune as far as this worship from the Lord is concerned. You say, are you talking about us? Yes, and I’m talking about myself, and I don’t know whether I’ve attained to that place, I don’t think I have.
And I think that’s the reason why all of us are called to do a little serious praying. Lord, if you’re going to bring these things, who’s sufficient for them and who’s ready for them, that we would be that impersonal, that we’d be dedicated to being the servants of God, irrespective of what came.
This is a very, very important message to your heart. Another thing that I see is that God required, which the elders are aware of, that the groundwork be laid in the scriptures to the elders and to every ministry in this church, that they would be willing to be set aside or to set themselves aside if they find a wrong thing in their spirit, rather than to enter into this great step as serious as it’s going to be with something wrong in their life.
And I’m thinking that we should be more willing to search our hearts on this because the days before us are going to be so heart-searching I know that any one of us can come to the place that God begins to deal with us, and we come into a new level, and we say, I guess can’t cope with this thing. What’ll I do?
Well, we’ll bless you, pray for you, and we’ll help you, but if it is something you feel that you can’t meet, and it’s obvious that you can’t, you would be better off to lay aside your office temporarily, and break through with the grace of God helping you, and then pick it up again as soon as you can.
Well, this ministry that God has brought before us teaches us one thing. God is thoroughly purging His floor, and He’s gathering His wheat into the garner, and the chaff will be burned with unquenchable fire.
There’s a separation taking place where it is the Lord that is thrashing the floor. It’s the Lord that’s doing this. You have never heard me become too concentrated upon this business of repentance and searching your heart and all the rest of it, unless it was always something that God was bringing to the church that was going deep.
I find my own heart saying, Lord, I know that great things are in the offering for me. Therefore, I must prepare my heart for them. And who can prepare his heart himself only in this way that he searches it, asks the Holy Spirit to reveal he humbly seeks the grace of God, and he exposes himself to all that God would do for him in his life. As he does this, God will help him.
Today, the Lord is saying, Circumcise your heart. This is a time that he’s saying, break up the fallow ground. Open your heart for what God has. Who knows, young man, but what God is ready to lay upon you an anointing to be a prophet. Are you ready for it?
Would you rather play around with the things of the world, or would you rather get down to business and break through to that thing that you’re ready to receive?
What about these young ladies, young sisters in the church? We have a marvelous group of young people. Are they ready to just say, Lord, here I am. Everything’s to be laid upon the altar. I want this step that you have for me and what it’s going to mean. The elders are preparing their hearts for this.
The deacons are preparing their heart for it. I know I’m preparing my heart with all I know how. Can we say, yes, Lord, we have seen the evidence in the past two or three weeks of new doors and new levels being set before us.
Lest any of us should fail to the grace of God or we should come short of it, Lord, help us. I have never seen a new step come, but what I’ve always said, Praise the Lord, look what’s coming.
This is the first time there’s been an ominous note with it, search your heart, prepare yourself. This is so deep and so great that not one of us can afford to enter it unprepared. And with this, this I close. Was that everything that’s ever been a source of openness or oppression to you, Satan is testing it again to see if he can come in. Have you ever noticed that?
How many found things that you thought were overcome and beat long ago? All of a sudden it looks like the devil’s trying to get a toehold again in that same area. Yes, the whole congregation.
Now, be advised. This is the revelation from the Holy Spirit that you know what’s coming. You’re not going to be defeated again.
But the witness of the Holy Spirit was this, that this is being presented so that the thing will be judged, and God will bring his judgment because judgment’s going to be involved in this step.
Well, what do you mean? Well, if you’ve been oppressed by a devil that has come against you, say, to hit a certain area. Say, a demonic oppression against finances. All of a sudden, you say, I thought that was all beaten. Here, I’m facing the same pressure of finances again. All right, don’t accept defeat, but keep seeking the Lord because the devil power that’s coming to do that is going to be judged. And that would be an end of that demon power.
You say, it was some other kind of a problem, or whatever it was, God is preparing to judge it. And I have watched things come up against me in the last few days. that I thought would never come up again. Oppressions that would never rise again. And I know only one thing, God’s going to judge the thing, and He’s going to curse it into hell.
That’s why, and I’m willing to go through it, because I know that this is something God is ordering for a whole church, that the things that you said, well, will there ever be a real resolution of a problem?
They seem like a problem comes. There’s no real solution. There’s no solving of it. There’s no vindicating of who’s right or wrong. And so, you go on.
God will bring it up because God is going to judge the thing and he’s going to establish his people in a real path of victory.
Does that encourage you to know that the thing that’s coming against you is being brought for a purpose? Now you say, I don’t understand that.
Well, let me put it very simply. Do you remember when God wanted to judge the Egyptians? that he keeps stirring them up, and he finally stirred up the heart of Pharaoh long after the Passover, and they marched out, and Pharaoh got his armies together to come after them.
Now God stirred up Pharaoh to do that. Why? Because he wanted to drown them in the Red Sea. That’s why. He wanted to drown them.
You see, that sounds vicious. God had remembered all the thousands of little male children that had been slaughtered at birth by the Egyptians in infancide. to wipe out the Israelites if they could because they were becoming such a nation under the blessing of the Lord.
So, God said, I’m going to have vengeance on them upon Pharaoh and all of his hosts. And not only was the Passover a judgment upon Egypt, but it was the source of deliverance to the children of Israel. And as they walked through the sea, it was on dry ground. But when they came over, God caused the chariots, remember, to drag and they had to discard the wheels and try to slide through on the sand. And suddenly they were in the middle of it, they were terrified because the waters came rushing in on them.
God had given them a promise, The Egyptians, which ye see today, ye shall see them no more forever.
God is stirring up the Egyptians to follow you. He’s stirring up the oppressions to come at you again because He’s getting ready to drown them. Amen.
Think it over. Weigh it and ask the Lord if it’s true. Next Sunday, things will be settling into another pattern in the Word, possibly even by tonight. Things are going to be moving rapidly. Just keep praying and seeking the Lord, and let the Lord help you to prepare your heart for it, because things will happen like you’ve never seen before. And you’ll be walking this month in things that you’ve never experienced before. Amen.