BEWARE OF YOUR PROMOTERS

Luke 4: 5-6 (NKJV)
Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
And the devil said to Him, all this authority I will give You and their glory, for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.

Genesis 14:22-23
But Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have raised my hand to the LORD, God Most High, the Possesor of heaven and earth., that I will take nothing, from a thread to a sandal strap, and that I will not take anything that is yours, lest you should say I have made Abram rich.

Many people wonder why our political system is run by many who are corrupt. Many wonder why people who once sat in opposition for years turn a deaf ear to the cry of the people when they assume power? Are not our political systems run by the world. When people who once had integrity assume certain offices in government they lose their integrity. The love of wealth and fame rules our political fraternity. If one politician uses wealth as a bait to lure another politician the victim ceases to see the other side of the coin. The system of the world is run by Satan himself. He uses the spirit of desire to entice many. He uses the lust of the eyes,lust of the flesh and pride of life.

Ask why many of our politicians do not come out boldly to speak against certain policies which they know are not in the interest of the populace. If one is promoted through an unjust means will he not kowtow to his master for fear of getting a big boot?

When Satan came to tempt Jesus apparently he wasnt asking much. It looked harmless. After all one bow won't take away your dignity. This might have been the picture he painted to The Lord. After all there is no witness amongst us. Make a quick bow and get what you want. He knew Jesus was human and had passions. His aim was to make The Lord conform to his standards. Supposing Jesus failed well the kingdom would have been given to Him but His judgments wouldnt have been righteousness any longer. The devil wasn't looking at the immediate repercussions. He knew Jesus wouldnt have fulfilled His assignment if He had given in. Compromise would have come along the way.

After Abraham's conquest he faced a similar situation from the king of Sodom. Abraham rather chose to believe in God's promises than the offer of the king of Sodom.

There are occasions that we face similar tests and many of us are quick to forget who they are. Many of us will rather choose temporary pleasure over integrity. When we rise through evil means we should remember it doesnt end there. One sin will lead to more sins. One compromise will lead to more compromises. One faithless decision will lead to more fearful decisions.

As people of God we shouldn't forget who we are. We are the light of the world. We are the salt of the world. Our actions will affect others either positively or negatively. There will always be the inclination to sin a little but we have a choice to make. Ours is to purpose in our hearts to resist evil. The grace to overcome comes from The Lord.

May we be people who are quick to discern the cunning nature of the devil.

Glory To Jesus

AN EGYPTIAN COUNTENANCE

Exodus 2:18-19

When they came to Reuel their father, he said, How is it that you have come so soon today?
And they said an Egyptian delivered us from the hand of the shepherds and he also drew enough water for us and watered the flock.

Moses was born as a Hebrew but raised up in the house of Pharaoh. He had a hebrew blood but the countenance of an Egyptian. Though he realised he was a hebrew yet his own people did not believe him. Even in the land of Midian, the daughters of Jethro couldnt recognise him.
What was so peculiar about his identity. God had to reaffirm the covenant with His people. The Egyptian tag had to be taken of Moses. Pharaoh had to know who he was and who had sent him.

After the burning bush experience Moses' life changed forever. He encountered God personally and it changed his whole mentality.

When he returned to Pharaoh he was no longer refered to as The Egyptian. He was known as the messenger of The Lord. His own people recognised him as their own. He was seen as a partaker of The Abrahamic covenant.

Prior to his departure to Midian, he had blood stains. He was a murderer and had the smell of an Egyptian but when he experienced God his assignment and direction changed. It looked like some how he was comfortable in the appearance of an Egyptian. The Egyptians ruled the world now. Though he was no longer in Egypt but he had something of Egypt in him.

Like Moses many of us put on The Egyptian countenance for our comfort. Until we encounter God on a higher level we will continue to wrap ourselves in Egyptian clothes, appear like an Egyptian and think like an Egyptian. God is calling us to liberate His people from bondage but we must first go down on our knees and seek Him. We must allow Him to change The Egyptian countenance. When we finally yield to Him authority will be granted.
The people of Israel knew the authority of Moses. God worked great signs and wonders through him. His own people would have rejected him if he still had the same countenance they saw in him 40years back. We always need to be trained if we are to lead. Authority matters in leading God's people. God's people will also look out for our annointing.

Like The Israelites many sought after signs to believe. Many didnt have genuine faith. The miracles was an attestation of God's presence with Moses.

In our time many churches are lifeless because there is no power of God. The sheep are crying for a Moses. Let us continue seeking, submitting to The Lord and wait for His glory patiently. It took the Jews 40 years to recognise Moses.

Glory To Jesus

DOES GOD LISTEN TO MY PRAYERS WHEN I STUMBLE?

Hebrews 10:22a
Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith

Psalm 51:6
Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part you will make me know wisdom.

Hebrew 11:6
But without faith it is possible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

If one is born of The Spirit he will strive to live right before God. Conviction will increase as he gets deeper with God. When we are spiritual babies we live in ignorance. We are convicted of our sins but conviction gets deeper as we know more of His word. The more we know His word the guiltier we become when we break His commandments.

When we continue to repeat the same mistakes sometimes frustration sets in. We will be wondering if we are really serious in confessing our sins. Some months back I used to ask The Holy Spirit how do I know I'm sincere about what I'm confessing. He told me you know when you are lying. I found this statement to be very true.

We know when we sincerely desire God's mercy. We also know when we are seeking Him half heartedly. Our own conscience bears witness to this. Almost all of us have besotted sins. We have sins that easily ensnare us. Sometimes we go to God and confess the same sin over and over. Some besotted sins that easily ensnare us are lust, slander, gossip, impatience, jealousy, envy, bitterness. We all know what easily ensnares us.

We shouldn't hide our sins when we go before God. He knows what is in our hearts. If we are easily ensnared by lust we should be sincere before God. For example lets say one lusts after the opposite sex easily, when such a person appears before God he/she must confess the nature of the sin. He must accept full responsibility of his sin and cry out sincerely for deliverance. Deliverance may not occur in a day but one must be sincere and have faith.

Bible says he who comes to Him must believe that He is. Hebrews 11:6
If God Himself is quoting this scripture He will use first person singular that is "I AM" and I AM is His name. I AM means God is who He is so we only know Him as revealed in the bible but God is greater than what is revealed to us in His word.

As the bible says in Hebrews 11:6, He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. When we appear before God we should use the approaches the bible talks about in Hebrews 10:22

The first is a sincere heart. We should come to Him with a genuine heart, accepting responsibility for our actions and have a sincere desire to give up.

The second is faith. We should come to understand that when we pray He listens.
Few weeks back I was praying to The Lord to purge me with His fire. I thought I was going to feel that warm sensation as I felt other times. The Holy Spirit told me not to base my purification on bodily sensations but I should believe that I am being worked on.

Not all fall or scream during deliverance but that is not to say they are not being delivered. Personally I've never fallen in prayer but God still sanctifies me.

When we come to Him we must be transparent and have assurance of faith. We should believe in His faithfulness. We should believe in the power of the blood. We must believe in the keeping power of The Holy Spirit. 1Peter 1:5

Glory To Jesus

What is God's standard to be used as His vessal by Pastor Kim, Yong Doo

Judges 7: 2-8 The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many warriors with you. If I let all of you fight the Midianites, the Israelites will boast to me that they saved themselves by their own strength. 3 Therefore, tell the people, ‘Whoever is timid or afraid may leave this mountain[a] and go home.’” So 22,000 of them went home, leaving only 10,000 who were willing to fight.4 But the Lord told Gideon, “There are still too many! Bring them down to the spring, and I will test them to determine who will go with you and who will not.” 5 When Gideon took his warriors down to the water, the Lord told him, “Divide the men into two groups. In one group put all those who cup water in their hands and lap it up with their tongues like dogs. In the other group put all those who kneel down and drink with their mouths in the stream.” 6 Only 300 of the men drank from their hands. All the others got down on their knees and drank with their mouths in the stream.7 The Lord told Gideon, “With these 300 men I will rescue you and give you victory over the Midianites. Send all the others home.” 8 So Gideon collected the provisions and rams’ horns of the other warriors and sent them home. But he kept the 300 men with him.

We call our time the end times. God has a standard on His vessels in this end times. If we only knew His standard, we will speak, think and move accordingly. God uses quality not quantity. God uses a spiritual army who is has excellence in quality. Then how does a quality army created?

In college, a student must choose classes according to the student’s major. In order to graduate, a student must pass the classes and obtain the required credits. Christians have required classes also. The classes consists of suffering, discipline, test and tribulation. When we become a Christian, difficulty and tribulation comes on our way. Why must these difficulties follow us? I focus on the power that God grants us.   Jeremiah 33:3 “ Ask me and I will tell you remarkable secrets you do not know about things to come.”

There is a reason why God handles us in such a way. It is because God desires to raise us into His army. God moves us according to His own will. After a process of much training, we will realize His love. Then we will love Him. But we will be responsible for many things when we love Him. God wants us to become a saint who has power and strength. In order to be one like that, we must receive proper training.

The Lord is within us. The word said, 

 “Examine yourselves to see if your faith is genuine. Test yourselves.” (2 Corinthians 13:5) 

We must do right so that the Lord who is in us is manifested and works through us. This is our test. If we do not pass the test, we will have fear. But when we pass the test, we will taste freedom, joy and peace both mentally and spiritually. When we pass the test, He will give us a blessing of finance/materials and open up the circumstances and our situations. We must test ourselves on a regular basis.

The word said, “Are any of you suffering hardships? You should pray.” (James 5:13) 

When you go through suffering, you don’t really need any person to comfort you. When you go through suffering, you must come before God and pray. When you are happy, you should sing praises. You must not be boastful. When you boast about happy things that has occurred onto you, you might cause other people to be envy and jealousy. When you receive a spiritual gift, pray without being boastful. You will know a person’s spiritual realm/spirituality depending on how they speak. How they think and feel will come out through their mouths. When you encounter a person who judges and condemns others, this person belongs to that kind of spiritual realm. When you continue to converse with a person like that, you will be swept away. People meeting with other people are contacting spirit to spirit.

Numbers 26, God had commanded to count the people who will go out and fight to conquer the land of Canaan. Among all Israelite, there were about 600,000 young man. When the Israelites first came out of Egypt they were nothing but slaves. In the wilderness, there is no water to drink nor food to eat. There is no person who wants to go through suffering and adversity. Without proper training, you will not be able to be useful. In this world, there are many churches. Many Christians became Sunday Christians. Worship and praise only on Sundays.

When we want to be used by God and be totally controlled by Him, we must pass this fearful training. Our thoughts do not develop and grow fast enough and this is one of the reason why our prayers are not answered quickly. When the answer does not come quickly, we begin to think what is the cause for its long delay?. As we think and ponder, we will strengthen our spiritual muscle. The content of our assignment is suffering. It is very important how we resolve the assignment that is given to each and every one of us. God has given assignment to countries, cities, churches, families and to individuals.  The content of our assignment are suffering, pain, discipline and training. You must think right and ask why the things in your life do not go well but are always twisted. Sometimes, we would wrestle only with one problem at a time.

The training in the wilderness is a must for all Christians and it is something in which we must pass. After the Israelites came out of Egypt and right before entering the promise land of Canaan, there were two census. Between the two census, the Israelites had a time of great training. Their training in visual, thinking, mind, attitude, speaking and with variously types personal training. There are times when God uses a great number of people according to His will but in today’s passage, God desires a small number of army like Gedeon’s three hundred.

One day, the Lord showed me a vision of a horse with only three legs.

“Lord, what is this?”

“You must raise, nurture and train this horse into a battle horse.”

“How can this horse become a battle horse when this horse has only three legs?”

But, in a vision, I saw this horse grow a fourth leg. The Lord was wearing an iron armor made of fire. He then got up on a horse and sat on it. Actually, the Lord was riding on many battle horses. He had grabbed the horses’ bridles as the horses ran fast. Only with the light touch of the side of the running horses with the Lord’s foot and the horses stopped right away. When the horses faced obstacles, they jumped over it.

In the last days, many people with quality will be used. The reason why many Christians are not making it is because they are not properly trained. What kind of training do we have to go through? First, you must be humble and pure before God and man. Second, you must be honest. If you are not humble, pure, honest, you must repent. Third, do not sell yourself out for money or material things. Fourth, you must believe in uncompromised truth. Fifth, you must not be ashamed of yourself or the things you have done in the past. Sixth, you must firmly believe that God is with you and He loves you. Then God will raise you and use you.

God decided to choose the people for battle against Midian. But the number of the enemy was too many to count. 

Judges 7:12 “The armies of Midian, Amalek, and the people of the east had settled in the valley like a swarm of locusts. Their camels were like grains of sand on the seashore—too many to count!” 

Those who are worried and scared must leave. So twenty two thousand left and only ten thousand were left in the scene. But God said to Gideon that there are still too many people. In order to win the battle there must have smaller number. After sorting out the people through how they drank the water, only three hundred left to fight against the enemy. Those who had drank the water on their knees and with their hands lapping with their tongue were chosen. With those people, God led the battle and to victory.

God break us to meet His standard of how His servant should be so that He could properly use us. Also, through our daily habits, He sorts out. Therefore, it is very important for us to have good habits. If we are not faithful and truthful, we will be sorted out.

People who do the work of God must not give excuses. You cannot say “I can not do this because I do not have this and that.” These people will endure for a while but eventually they will reach their limit and fall away. One may appear to have genuine faith but there may be unbelief underlying within that person. When some kind of circumstances are created those problems are exposed. Your thought and mind are severely attacked by demons. This is why those people who habitually doubt and speak negatively within their daily lives are very dangerous. You have to correct your thinking, emotion, feeling, and conduct. God has a standard on the believers. Satan has a higher standard than how we measure ourselves as believers. The standard is Job. He had no resentment towards God even though his wealth was taken away, when he was struck by sickness, and when all of his children were killed. Those tests did not offend him. This is the standard our faith is required. A faith that does not resent toward God. If you say that you serve God, you must have the faith like Job. It breaks my heart to see who had potential to be used by God but gives up or falls away. We can not please God without having faith.

God’s answer comes to us in dreams and visions first. But in reality, our circumstance is miserable. But do not move impatiently, if you do, you will become a fake. God calls us to entrust a mission. Before He really entrust some kind of kingdom work, He will test us by making all our effort end in vain. The same thing happened with Moses. Even though he asked the Egyptian king to let his people go, the king continuously rejected him. God made the Egyptian king’s heart more harden. God makes our situation twisted and hardened. This way, we will learn to be spiritually matured. I call this paradoxical grace or ironical grace. Grace within suffering.

Once God begin to intervene in a person’s life, this person becomes a special person. This person will become pure, honest, will not fall into a material things, and will live by the word of God. God said, you have not choosen Me but I have chosen you and raised you. 

John 15:16 “ You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name” 

Those whom God uses must endure and hold their ground in the midst of battle. Those whom God uses must bear stress. You must not straggle, dismay, or show any hint of hesitation within the battle, danger and stress. Like Isaac, the promised one will be given after waiting with patience. God completely breaks us, mold us, and train us.

First, God will remold our way of thinking. Second, we must create a new relationship with God. Third, we must be equipped as a spiritual leader. Fourth, we must read the bible many times and we must pray without ceasing. We must be equipped with the spiritual message in us. Fifth, we must change our perspective. If we understand and care from the perspective of others, we can be a leader. But becoming a leader is very dangerous, because one corrupted leadership can destroy whole churches.

Why have we been born in this generation? What do we have to do? We have lived our lives with our old ways of living. But even after we become a christian, our circumstance do not change. It does not matter how much we pray, we seem to be in a difficult life. But we must find our identity within the suffering.

When you do not want to pray, you must be on your knees and pray. There will be come an appointed time, you must not miss it. You are praying for that timing. You must change your thinking and receive new perspective. When the tests and tribulation comes your way, think beyond your situation. Within the tests and suffering, there are God’s power and blessing. 

Apostle Paul had his revelations while he was in jail. Joseph experienced God’s power while he was in jail. Praying is not a trivial matter or playing a game. Pray and receive what we really need. With prayer, you must open the door which has been closed. It does not matter what happens, do not be dismayed or give up. Sometimes, God radically works and answers. There is a time to wait but there will be a time when God’s sudden answer comes. You may feel like the answer is being very delayed but once God answers and works, the things in your life will be restored in a moment.

When we meet some type of people or when we face some kind of event, the things that were hiding within us become a problem and are revealed. Those hidden problems must be sorted out in order for God to seize and use us. This is why we must daily entrust ourselves to the Lord. You must be satisfied by knowing that the Lord is with us. If you still have some things that are bothering you, you must daily come before the Lord and confess and repenting. I pray that all of you pass and meet the God’s standard.

THE LORD'S DISCOMFORT BY PASTOR KIM YONG DOO

Isaiah 55:6-9
Seek the LORD while he may be found;
call on him while he is near.
Let the wicked forsake their ways
and the unrighteous their thoughts.
Let them turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on them,
and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the LORD.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.

There is a way that God wants and a way we want. Today our God tells us to come to Him.
Seek the LORD while he may be found;
call on him while he is near.
Let the wicked forsake their ways
and the unrighteous their thoughts.
Let them turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on them,
and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
(Isaiah 6-7)

Let’s say this together. We have to walk with God. In order to walk with Him we have to pray, do prayer vigils and try to receive spiritual gifts. However in order to walk with God we have to above all know God. Let’s say this together. We have to know the heart of God. I probably did a lot of sermons with this kind of content. I said that there were about 4 things which God thought were important.


Firstly, God has the heart that all people regardless of type will become his children and be saved instead of being sent to hell. You have to have faith that God is holding us tightly. Hallelujah! Secondly, God has the heart to make us to be like children of God instead of simply receiving salvation. Thirdly, God has the heart to give us more work to do. He doesn’t want anyone to have nothing in heaven. Let’s say this together. We have to do a lot of the LORD’s work.


Many think that only by going to theology school and becoming a pastor one will be working for the LORD however this is not true. In reality the rewards in heaven that the congregation receive is bigger than the rewards the pastors receive in heaven. This is because the pastors receive money from the Church however the congregation goes out to work to earn money and fight reality all the while walking the Christian walk. That is why the congregation receives more rewards in heaven. Do you understand?


The pastors are simply called to do the work of the LORD and if they make a mistake they will lose more rewards and will receive more judgment. In a way there may not be anything more precious to earn a lot and give it away as tithing and as charity. Don’t you agree that working with your sweat is a big task? I think that manual labor shows the purity of labor. It is written that for those who have sown seed with tears will reap with joy.


Fourthly, God cause all things to work for good. Hallelujah! God thinks like this but we are in conflict as we have our own thoughts. If God can He wishes to bring your thoughts to us, make the environment He wants and lead us to live like His children. However, we have drawn a line and told Him “You can work until here; from here it is my life”. We don’t like him intervening above a certain point. We don’t like God’s total control.


If an adult wants to hold hands with a child and walk then the child’s pace has to be met. When an adult takes one step children who had just learnt how to walk have to walk ten to twenty steps to match it. That is why there is a need to know how God deals with us and who He is. We can understand God best through the bible. You will know that God leads us in this kind of pace.


If we want to become used to the God’s pace, training and hard work is needed. Hallelujah! God is the one who suffers more when He tries to match our pace than us who try to match His pace. When I walk with my wife I take big strides but my wife rushes behind me. That is why when I am far in the front I turn back to tell her to come faster or I wait for her.


Likewise it is harder for God to do this for us than for us to do for God. Don’t we say that it is extremely hard when we pray before God? However God does not say that you are tired often. If a person without power and a person with power is to work together there has to be a compromise of level. However, the person without power suffers to compromise and likewise the person with power suffers to compromise as well.


In a three legged race the stride length has to be matched right? Despite all that God suffers this discomfort to accommodate our levels until we change. Let’s say this together. God bears the discomfort. Hallelujah! I probably said this before and the people in the Lord’s Church would have heard about it. When we get involved in the LORD’ work it takes a lot of time.


When we get involved we will get suspicious, be resentful, be jealous, be angry, be stressed, be disgruntled and say that you don’t want to go. When the LORD works alone everything can be done through His one spoken word. When He says let there be light there will be light and when He says let there be sky there will be sky. However, God wishes to unite with us and have us participate.


Until we are united with the LORD, and even after we are united God suffers. We may walk with Him with arms around each other but in reality when we are too tired to walk and collapse the LORD carries us. All of us want to walk with God and accompany him but there is a disrupter who is jealous of your faithful companionship.


There are two spiritual and cancerous beings. Outwardly they are forces of Satan. Internally they are made of our flesh, ego, stubbornness, pride, lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and pride of life. In the flesh you cannot receive the kingdom of God. That is why this flesh has to be controlled with the power of the Holy Spirit. Hallelujah!


There is something that is called our ego. When we are put in to difficult situations due to the work of satan we give up although we are with God. If one thinks that the pastor and the pastor’s wife does not acknowledge him or her one may give up. There will have sad emotions. One will get disappointed and hurt.


Why this is so is explained in today’s word. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways” (Isaiah 55:8). Because we do not know that God’s thought is different from ours we get defeated, become saddened, disappointed and get hurt. It may see when you do everything according to your experiences. It becomes your fixed standard. Everyone fights with each other because everyone’s standards are different. Isn’t so?


Even if couples are living without any friction, there will be times when couples will argue with each other as they each have had different experiences. In order to advance forward there has to be concessions. In order to maintain and advance the family there will be many times when there has to be at least 10 concessions for one step to made forward.


Young men and women dream about marrying princesses and princes however this is a bad lie. When people marry they become shackles to each other and will become entangled. Whatever they do they will hold each other’s ankles catch the emotions and thoughts of each other’s words. Each one’s experience will be used as one’s shackles. However, we have to empty our hearts. We have to become stupid and only then can the family be maintained.


When nobody recognizes what we have experienced we become disappointed, defeated and saddened. God’s thoughts can be different from our thoughts. No matter how much you think this is right God will have an opposite thought. We have to solve it as easily as we scratch a lottery ticket. But when there is a situation we cannot understand or there is a difficult problem we become defeated and saddened. That is why we fall in to despair and everything will seem difficult.


Yesterday two people who were much older than me came. They asked how everything came to be as so. So I told them a bit of my past. They told me that if they were me they would have ran away and asked me how I managed to endure. I am nothing. Look at the characters in the bible. Jeremiah was thrown in to a mud pit that came up to one’s neck and was not able to sit or lie down (Jeremiah 38:6)


Ezekiel was told to lie down on his left 390 days and on his right for 40 days. All the while making and eating bread made of wheat, barley, beans, red beans, millet and oat cooked with fire fueled by human dung (Ezekial 4:4~17). It symbolized his responsibility for the sins of Israel. Compared to what the prophets had to go through the difficulties I went through is nothing.


Now the hearts of the Israelites’ have started to advance to a false religion that is starting to doubt God’s existence. Their standard of God whether He exists or not depends on whether He grants their requests. If God grants their requests God exists and if He doesn’t He doesn’t exist. Even the chosen people of God have this kind of thinking. Don’t we have this kind of thinking as well?


When our prayers are answered then Hallelujah! We say that God is definitely alive. However when our prayers are delayed or are not answered we think “did God die? Did he go out?” When we live the way we want and get used to my ways then the path becomes wider and wider. One will end up in death as the path gets wider. Hallelujah!


When I don’t walk in the path with my method but walk in the path which gets narrower and is driven to a corner we have to give thanks, pray to God and be happy. “God, things have progressed not the way I wanted however I am thankful. I believe that that path which seems very narrow will at some point open up to the road of Zion. Hallelujah!


God gives everyone almost different methods. Daniel and his three friends prayed together. They prayed but the answer to their prayers, and individual tests were different. Daniel went to the lion’s den, and Hananiah, Mishael, Azariah (Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego) went to the furnace. They all received the same grace but their tests were different. When we pray we think “God will probably answer me in this way” and restrict the method of His answer. However when there is no answer we give up.


Today is Pentecost Sunday. “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk "without money and without cost. (Isaiah 55:1). Apostle Paul confessed that he was crucified with Jesus (Galatians 2: 20). There is a border between us before believing in Jesus and after believing in Jesus.


The cross is the border. If one returns to his or her old way of life and then he or she is leaving the cross. Hell and judgment waits that person. We must not cross this boundary. Hallelujah! Let's say this together. We are at the boundary of the cross. The moment you accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior you have crucified the desires and passions on the cross. After doing this you must not cross the boundary because you have entered the Lord’s kingdom. Hallelujah!


The Holy Spirit is not simply given. It is a gift from God that was given because Jesus Christ paid the price by dying on the cross. It is a gift to us but it is not a gift to God and Jesus. It was a price that Jesus Christ who is the Son of God paid by dying on the cross.


“Son, the only way is for you to die on the cross. The Holy Spirit has to go to them. As the Holy Spirit can only go to them through my Son's death, Son you have to be obedient.” Even if Father God did not tell Jesus this, Jesus knew His Father's heart. Because Jesus Christ died on the cross the Holy Spirit was given to us. That is why if you extinguish the Holy Spirit you are cursing and cheating Jesus.


If we think about Jesus who did this for us we have to change our prayers. We have to pray “LORD, please hold me. Let I be caught by You LORD, do not let go of me. LORD, a test has come. Let me win the test.” The reason why the Holy Spirit is with me is because Jesus paid the price by sacrificing Himself. If we are outside of Jesus there is nothing stuffy.


We can live freely. There is no worry. We can do everything we want and fight our way to survive. However, because we are in Jesus and in the Holy Spirit, and in grace when we pray we feel stuffy. Because we are in the grace of God the stuffiness the LORD gives us needs to be inside of us. Hallelujah!


All the pain in this world to us and the "we" in us will slowly disappear. The chance of becoming worldly is slowly reduced to almost nothing. That is why it is stuffy. It will be so if one is in Jesus. That stuffiness will be a method of maintaining our faith. It makes one pray and kneel before God. The person who knows this will surrender early and say God, You are correct.


In the end we can only kneel before God. We have to surrender early and our nature needs to be treated. Let's say this together. My nature has to be treated. When we stay in Christ the Holy Spirit will continue. Our temperament, sexuality, spirituality, flesh, personality, mentally will all need treating. Hallelujah!


The work of the Holy Spirit continues but the forces which continue to interfere it. We sin a bit by bit in our ways. Despite all this it is very precious that God does not take away the grace from us. Hallelujah! Even if we are hard pressed and we feel stuffy we are not being hard pressed. Even if we are trapped we are not trapped. If we think in the flesh then you will be trapped.


Although it is stuffy because we are being hard pressed on every side we will go deeper in to the river of grace and the spiritual realm. Strength to serve and to pray is created. There is no other way but through the power of the Holy Spirit! Hallelujah!


When we read the bible there is something we have to realize. There are two things that collide all the time. One of the two are the laws that we must keep and the other are the exceptional and variable rules. To believe in the word of God, pray, repent, be saved, be born again by the Holy Spirit, love, be humble, be obedient are basic things so we must keep them. Hallelujah!


Another exceptional variable is that it depends on each individual's level of faith. In terms of faith, power of the Holy Spirit, healing, prayer, power, answer to prayers, etc according to each individual's faith diverse variables will be put into action. Hallelujah!


That is why those parts need a lot of variables. Even in an equation there are constants and variables so depending on what numbers are put in diverse answers are produced. It works the same way. That is why I believe that upon the word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit everything should be built up. And we need to love and be humble. If it goes wrong the fire itself can be something that is boasted. The ministry itself cannot be something that we can boast about. Hallelujah!


Even if we receive the fire of God we have to act as if we have nothing. Likewise if we have all the spiritual gifts we have to act as if we have none. If someone boasts about his or her baptism of the Holy Spirit fire we have stay still. The ability to pray, the baptism of the Holy Spirit fire can become one's pride. When God gives us power I believe that we have to be humble till the end. Hallelujah!


In Hosea 6:3 it says "Let us acknowledge the Lord; let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth." Do you know what happens as one presses on to know God more and more? It is a lot better to know God through the bible.


If you get to know God face to face then the more you know about Him the more you would want to die. We cannot control our tongue and flesh according to what I want. I cannot control my thoughts and emotions. The owner of our body and soul is God. When our bodies die or our spiritual eyes are opened and stand before God do you know what happens as we go deeper? Our flesh explodes. Like when one eats the food and if it is not digested he or she will feel nauseas the functions of the body will feel the same way.


It is like this when one stands before God or enters the world of light. You just can't endure it. We may think that our bodies are ours and use it to commit sin. Then when we go to the LORD's kingdom we will have to responsible for them and be thrown in to hell. We are suffering and thrashing around because our repentance did not go well but in hell we will experience pain that is a thousand time more painful. All the functions of our body, cell, plasma, joints will tell God. "This human committed this kind of sin". Like this my own tongue will accuse me before God.


You have no idea what a relief it is to be able to know about God through the bible and prayer. As we know God more we will become guiltier of ourselves. Usually after one commits a sin he or she will no longer know if it is sin. However as one tries to know God more and go deeper in to the spiritual world then inside of us fear and guilt is created automatically inside us.


If one goes before God the body cannot handle it and will confess before Him. As the body confesses it will want to die. As one knows more about God this occurs more often. If we experience this presence once then our lives we will be more holy and the power of godliness will be created. No one can understand God fully with human knowledge.


Among the twelve tribes of Israel there were ten tribes who became corrupted first. The son of King Solomon, Rehoboam was not like his father and was a dictator. He kicked out his subjects and persecuted them. Rehoboam left his faith like this and sets up Israel again in the north with ten tribes.


All the other tribes except for the tribe of Judah and Levi went north. They all started in faith but later the ten tribes were slowly led astray. So the Israel in the north fell first. Later the two tribes in the south also fell away. Then fallen Israel got all eaten up by the Babylonian empire.


It is the same for you and me and also for the nations. When disaster is visible then it is too late. That is why God on one hand will point out our sins and say that He will judge us and on the other hand will say that He will forgive us if we repent. Sin is so tactful that if you talk smoothly than one will not be able to understand. That is God disciplines strongly.


Because of the hidden sins of the Israelite priests, people God destroyed them through war. That is why in Hosea 6:1 it is says let us go back to God. It may be shameless and brazen but when we come before God I hope that we will pray for Him to forgive us. Hallelujah! This is the only way. "God, I failed. I made a mistake. LORD, I have done something really wrong. LORD, I am not recovering but please forgive me. I am here before you shamelessly”.


I said to Father God when I met Him, "Who else do I resemble other than you Father?" I committed sin but no words of repentance were able to come out easily. So in the end that was what I said. After I said this Jesus touched my head. "Father I am so sorry. Please forgive me. Who else do I resemble other than you Father?" After I said this Father God suddenly laughed out loud. God was like a grandfather who was annoyed yet was affectionate towards his naughty grandson.


Let's finish it off here. Even if the method of God does not match our method I believe that we are working with God. There is nothing more precious than a person why is waiting for the moment. Whatever the prayer request may be we need to pray about it, pray for the moment to be shortened, and ask for the LORD's guidance. Hallelujah! And always remember that God bears the bigger discomfort. I hope that until we are given the real rights we will be able endure the discomforts.


Let us pray. Father God, thank You for the grace. We still have not matured. Give us the faith to study our situations and let us wait for Your will by making our trust in you blossom. The path we are walking with You is so good and brings us much joy. Let us handle the calling You have given us till the end. Release us from curses and the pressure. Let us endure till the end. Your servant will now not be in the church for a month so be with us and give the pastors the power of the Holy Spirit, and through the pastor's messages let the congregation be given strength. Let the LORD's church rise up strongly and open up our real rights. Give the congregation strong faith so the evil spirits cannot work and even if they come let they be cast away with Your name. I pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

ARE WE WILLING TO DRINK HIS CUP? LEONARD RAVENHILL

Luke chapter12, verses 49 and 50.

I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled? But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!
I’ve been going to meetings for over seventy years all over the world—Pentecostal conferences, Methodist conferences, all kinds of conferences.
I heard the baptism of the Holy Spirit preached, I think, fifty different ways.

In seventy years, I’ve never heard anybody preach on this text where Jesus, speaking of Himself says: "I have a baptism..."

Charles Wesley gave us that lovely children’s hymn.

Gentle Jesus, meek and mild.
Look upon the little child.
Some people never get past "gentle Jesus." But Jesus is associated with fire. The next time He comes, says 2 Thes. 1:7, He’s coming with flaming angels—thousands of them!

Here He is saying to these disciples, "I am come to send fire on the earth..."

Again, the symbol of the church is fire. I was preaching last Sunday night in a big church with a big cross for Jesus and one for the thieves. I reminded them: "The cross is no symbol of Christianity. The symbol of Christianity is the tongue of fire that sat on the head of each of them."

Our God is a consuming fire.
Wesley has a wonderful hymn on this. He says,

See how a great a flame aspires, kindled by a spark of grace.
Jesus love the nations fires; sets the kingdoms all ablaze.
To bring fire on earth He came, kindled in some hearts it is.
Oh that all might catch the flame; all partake the glorious bliss.

When He first the work began, small and feeble was its flame.
Now the word doeth swiftly run; now it wins its widening way.

More and more it spreads and grows, ever mighty to prevail.
Sin’s strongholds it now o’throws and shakes the trembling gates of hell.

Sons of God, your Savior praise; He the door hath opened wide.
He hath given the word of grace; Jesus’ word is glorified.

Saw you not the cloud arise, little as a human hand?
Now it spreads along the skies, hangs o’er all the thirsty land.

You see the idea: a spark begins and gradually it blossoms to go out through the whole world. Wesley wrote that in 1776, I think, and prophetically.

More and more it spreads and grows, ever mighty to prevail.

Usually with the expansion of a thing there is a weakening, but when the Church truly expands, there is a strengthening.

God never planned any failures for us.

...how am I straitened till it be accomplished!

Now I want to bear this out from the gospel according to Matthew 20:17-22.

And Jesus going up to Jerusalem took the twelve disciples apart in the way, and said unto them,

Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death,

And shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him: and the third day he shall rise again.

Then came to him the mother of Zebedee's children with her sons, worshipping him, and desiring a certain thing of him.

And he said unto her, What wilt thou? She saith unto him, Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on the left, in thy kingdom.

But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask...

She asked a big thing. In the other gospels it says that they asked it—John and his brother asked. Here it says his mother asked. I guess there was a collusion in this. They had agreed together. They believed that Jesus was going to have a kingdom. They wanted to sit on the right hand and the left hand when He came into His kingdom.

But notice they came worshipping Him.
Yet in their worship there was begging.
It wasn’t pure. They had an ulterior motive.
They were trying to bargain with Him.
But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? (v 22)

Now, in Luke 12:49 He said, "I am come to send fire on the earth." What hindered Him from giving them the fire at that moment?

A baptism.

A baptism of sorrow.

A baptism of anguish.

A baptism that we call Gethsemane.

You see, there is no place in the whole wide world where you can put the Upper Room before the Cross. The Cross comes before the Upper Room, but we try to turn that around.

Very often we’re asking people to tarry in the Upper Room who have never knelt at the Cross. They get a false experience and it evaporates. We shun the Cross.

"I have a baptism to be baptized with. But I want you to receive a fire that will change that degraded will of yours.

It will endue you with power.
It will give you energy.
It will give you life."

He says, "I want to do that, but I am straitened. I wish it could be accomplished, but it cannot be done yet."

There are people who think that God is only around to help us. We have a great utility God, they think. You pray, and He does this! You pray, and He does that! You pray, and He sends you money. You pray, and He gets you out of a jam. He’s not somebody you worship in speechless adoration, but He’s a utility God! And some on TV are exploiting that to the maximum.

Let’s go back to Matthew 20.

What wilt thou? She saith unto him, Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on the left, in thy kingdom.

But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto him, We are able. (v 21,22)

So, He took them at their word.

"I want my sons to enter thy kingdom, sitting on thy right hand and on thy left." There is only one way to enter the kingdom: through death.

You know not what ye ask. Are ye able...? Yea, we can drink the cup.
All right, lady— I wonder if she was living when her son was brutally put to death? And James, the brother of John, was killed with the sword. (Acts 12:2)

It was Herod Agrippa I, the grandson of Herod the Great,
a terrible butcher. A man who could be linked up with Pharaoh that
liquidated all the Israeli babies in Egypt—an ancient Hitler.
Jeremiah had more conflict than any other prophet of old. Immediately when he was raised up he was in conflict. He was in conflict when he was dying. What was the secret of his power? It is very obvious; he states it: "Thy fire burned within my heart. While I mused the fire burned." Do you know that forty one times he mentions fire? They put him in a pit, but it didn’t burn the fire out of him.

There is a hymn with a verse that says:

Waters cannot quench it, floods can never drown
Substance cannot buy it, love’s a priceless crown.
Oh, the wondrous story, mystery divine
I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine.

The fire is unquenchable.

The fire of hell is unquenchable.
The fire of the Holy Ghost is unquenchable.

I know there is a lot of opposition against the second blessing. I challenge you to find a man that has made history in God’s kingdom who somewhere didn’t have a second crisis after he was born again in the Spirit of God.

One of the Quakers said he found something in him that wouldn’t keep peace. He wanted to get rid of the thing in him that was always troubling him.
William Booth said, "I found that I ebbed and flowed until one day the Holy Ghost came in his fullness." Then he wrote that marvelous battle hymn that today’s church doesn’t know.

The Salvation Army was a penniless organization that went into seventy countries in ninety years. Not seventy cities, but seventy countries! Men and women left their castles in England. Professors left their professions. Why? Because they could see that fire as clearly as Israel could see that pillar of fire at night. The Holy Ghost was there! And old William had them going down the streets at night marching and singing:

Thou Christ, the burning cleansing flame, send the fire!
Thy blood-bought gift today we claim, send the fire!
Look down and see this waiting host
Give us the promised Holy Ghost
We want another Pentecost.

I’m not sure we want it. We need it! You see, the thing between where you are now and this baptism of fire is a "cup."

Jesus said to her,

Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?

He’d been baptized in the Jordan, but He wasn’t talking about that. The man who introduced Him to the world said, "I baptize you with water." That baptism was external. When He comes He will do something internal. He’ll baptize you—the literal Greek says—"with Holy Ghost fire", not "with the Holy Ghost and with fire." You can’t separate them. God is a consuming fire.

He shall baptize you with Holy Ghost fire.
But you see, there is something between here and there.

The Church never had more equipment that she has now, but she

Never had less power!
Never less anointing.
Never less of the miraculous.
Never less from the omnipotent God.

As I’ve said before,

When did you last tip toe out of church Sunday morning
breathless, awed by the awesomeness of God’s majesty?
God’s glory? God’s omnipotence?
"Ye know not what ye ask." I wonder how often God says that to us.

As I’ve said many times, and I say privately in my prayers, I don’t want to get to the judgment seat with maybe trillions of eyes looking on me, seeing me come up for trial and have God say to me in that day, "Son, I had many things to tell you, but you couldn’t bear them."
When are we going to get serious about being serious about revival?

Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?

What’s the cup?

Skip to chapter 26 of Matthew. Here’s the baptism for you.

And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.
And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one hour?

Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done. (Matt 26:39-42)

What was the cup?
Well, I’ll tell you one ingredient it had: It had betrayal in it.
The men who had sworn allegiance to Him, when it came to a crisis, quit.
Can He drink of the cup? What’s in the cup?

I believe in that cup there was

Internal suffering,
Mental suffering, and
Spiritual suffering.

Do you want to drink the cup?
I am straightened, He says. I cannot do anything now. There is a baptism through which I have to go.

The Holy Ghost cannot come down until I go up.
I cannot go up until I have done the will of the Father.

And so He goes through the agony of Gethsemane. He goes through the lonesomeness. He drank of that cup.

I say it was internal because in Isaiah 53:11 it says He travailed. Isn’t that internal? Deserted by others in the darkest hour, not only by men, but by God.

Can you drink of that cup?
Do you want to travail?
You see, what people are seeking today is a painless Pentecost.
There isn’t such a thing.
What happened immediately after Pentecost? They prospered—yes? No! -- They went to jail! It wan’t prosperity; it was prison, pain, privation, and persecution.

Jesus goes on to say in Matt 6:19,

Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal.

There are a lot of wealthy Christians that will get to heaven bankrupt. And there are a lot of Christians who are almost bankrupt, living in poverty, who will be super-millionaires when they get into eternity.

We read elsewhere that if you’re going to follow the Lord, it means division in the family. Your father and mother will hate you. Jesus came to the place where his brothers said, "He’s insane."

People say, "I want to be like Jesus." Well, I doubt it.
Do you want to get kicked out of your family because you love God?
Do you want to be so true to God that a Thomas comes and doubts you?
That a Judas sells you?
Do you really want to be like Jesus?
Well then, why don’t you practice it?
Why don’t you have forty days and forty nights of fasting?
Forget all the paperwork. We make such rash vows when the temperature is running high in a meeting.
I say, the pain was internal.

He shall see the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied. (Isa 53:11)

I’m sure it was not only internal, it was also mental pain. I’m sure it was bodily pain. It says in Isaiah 50:6, "I gave my back to the smiters." We don’t do that. We fight back. We don’t like somebody to carve us up, scorn us, ridicule us, humiliate us, misrepresent us. He got the whole works! Yet He never muttered once. When it came to the agony of the cross it says that men shot out the lip. "If God’s Your Father, then let Him deliver You."
I say again, the perennial challenge to a Christian, is "Come down from the cross and save yourself." You made a decision in a missionary meeting: "I’m going to give more money to missions." Then something came up and you backed off.

"I’m going to spend more time with God." You didn’t do it.

Before Elijah called down the fire, he rebuilt the old altar.
We don’t want to go back to old altars, to old vows, to old commitments.
We always try to make new things.
God knows they’ll be brought down in a few weeks!
Christianity has not been weighed in the balances and found wanting. It’s being tried, found difficult, and rejected!
It’s too tough. There’s no part-time service. "Leave all and follow me."

I was going down the street in Oldham, which is nine miles outside of Manchester. I was in my early twenties. I pastored the largest church in town; in fact, the largest Holiness church in England. I was going down the street one day. As I passed a house, the lady opened the door,

"Hi! You’re the pastor at the Tabernacle. I often come to your church. I sit on the back seat. I’m very poor. I can’t give anything in the offering, but I want to do something for you. Would you come into my house and drink a cup of tea?"

Well, usually, of course, I want tea, so I said, "Yes." I went in, and boy! did that house smell. I got in there and she had finger nails clogged up with dirt. The kitchen sink was filled with dirty dishes.

There was a plate with some old bacon covered with mold.
That fuzzy horrid looking stuff.
She reached into the kitchen sink to a stack of cups and picked one. You know, the tea had dried on the outside. Oh, mercy on us! It looked as though it had about a hundred bugs at the bottom: dried, dirty, rotten old tea leaves. In fact, some were moldy.
"Well, now" she said, "I’m going to get you a cup of tea."
I said, "All right."
She poured the tea into the cup. It was as black as my shoes, and I don’t like black tea.
"Do you take cream?" "Yes." "Well, I have none."
"Do you take sugar?" "Yes." "I have none."
With that dirty hand shaking, I saw the black stuff that was supposed to be tea, cold as ice.
I hesitated. I felt like tipping it up. But I knew I was on trial.
She held the cup up, "Drink it!"
As she handed me that cup of dirty tea, my mind went 2000 miles away to a place called Gethsemane, 2000 years back. The Father gave a cup of all the dregs of impurity and wickedness. He didn’t give it to Gabriel. He didn’t give it to Michael the Archangel. He gave it to his Son!

This is what He’s come to do. He’s come to consume iniquity. He’s going to do it in the Garden of Gethsemane—by Himself, when everybody has betrayed Him, when His nerves are down, and He can hear the enemy coming! He’s thinking of all the years He’s demonstrated His power, shown that He was the Son of God. He’s walked on the water. He’s raised the dead. He’s cleansed the leper. He’s healed insane people. And they didn’t believe on Him!

So what’s the difference today? Do we believe on Him?

Remember that there wasn’t one of the twelve disciples that had a Bible. Not even the Apostle Paul had one. Don’t boast too much about your Bible knowledge. It’s going to face us at the Judgment Seat.

I don’t have a big library, but I have a few nice books. I wonder sometimes, will these books rise up in judgment against me?

I say with all my heart, we’re looking for a painless Pentecost.
We want to invest a dime and get a million dollars back.
Can you drink of the cup? "We are able," and so they drank, and were crucified.

Today it is considered sadistic if you even say that people have to take up their cross. "Don’t tell young people about the cross—they’ll be discouraged." Are you suggesting that Jesus wasn’t smart? "If you’re going to be my disciple, kiss the world goodbye." You see, when people are born again these days, they don’t get separated from the world. Most likely their pastor is the most worldly guy around! But if you’re going to get what He wants to give, if you’re going to get the true baptism of the Spirit, you have to drink of that cup.

They said, "We are able." And He said, "You shall drink indeed of that cup, and be baptized of the baptism that I am baptized with, but to sit on my right hand and my left is not mine to give. The Father is going to do that." Verse 24 says that when the other ten disciples were around listening they were moved with indignation against the two brethren.

Now He rubs their noses in the dust. "You’re looking to sit on My right hand and My left in My Kingdom." He could have said, "Are you prepared to go through Hell to get there?"…You can’t show me a revival in history that hasn’t been born of travail, pain, loneliness, and dark weary nights.

In Scotland, nine miles out of Glasgow, there’s a great big house, a national memorial to David Livingstone. In it there is a model that shows the room where he died, where for years and years he prayed. It’s like some of those houses in India that are made of bamboo and leaves woven in. And there he is, kneeling over a bed, if you can call it that—two bamboo rods with some leaves on it—and a candle flickering there. They said every night he would kneel at that bed and you would hear him crying with his hands raised, "God, when will the wound of this world’s sin be healed?"

He fought the Portuguese slave traders. He did many, many marvelous things. Why? Because he had a Gethsemane of his own. His precious wife died and he buried her in the jungle. And the baby she bore died. He buried the child at the side of its mother. Another child he had died—he buried that one.

But the grief didn’t change his zeal for God. It added fuel to the fire. "The devil’s trying to rob me. The devil’s trying to hinder me." And he worked with greater zeal. He prayed more than ever he had prayed. They said that night after night his voice would echo through the forest, "Oh God, when will the wound of this world’s sin be healed?"

Dear God! all our pastors are concerned about is adding one or two members! Or getting another bus to bring the people in! I say again, there can be no revival without travail.

"…I want my son to sit on thy right hand…" Well, here’s His answer.

And when the ten heard it, they were moved with indignation against the two brethren. But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant (Matt 20:24-27)
Well, that’s a switch, isn’t it? They wanted to sit on his right hand. He said, "The way into My kingdom is:
If you want to go up, you must go down.
If you exalt yourself, I’ll abase you.
Be abased, and I will exalt you.
Save you life, you’ll lose it.
Lose you life, you’ll save it." It’s reverse logic.

Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto,
but to minister, and to give his life… (verse 28)
Not to give His theology; not to declare, "I have a mandate from the Father to instruct you."
He gave them all He had.

He gave them the Sermon on the Mount.
He gave them evidence that He had dominion over sin, death, disease, and devils, and everything.
And yet, they were unbelieving!
"I’m straightened. I’m tied up. I can’t do anything yet." That’s what He said in Luke 12. "I have no release. I have a baptism to be baptized with. Before that word of John that startled you when he said, "When he comes, he’ll baptize you with the Holy Ghost and fire…", but he didn’t do that. Not immediately. He said, "I have to go through the Father’s will. The Father’s will is Gethsemane. The Father’s will is the Cross. The Father’s will is that I go down into the depths, lead captivity captive, and give gifts unto men."

As I said, there are two great reasons we don’t have revival.

We’re content to live without it,
It’s too costly.
We don’t want God to disrupt our status quo.
The Christian life can only be lived one way, and that’s God’s way. And

God’s way is that I leave all and follow Him.
God’s way is that, in that hour when I think I am going to have joy or something, suddenly that cup turns into a cup of bitterness. When I think I’ve "arrived" at something, the Lord shutters that.
We think, "If I had the privileges of Mrs. So-and-so, I’d be a real saint."

And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many. (vs 27-28)
I was reading a couple of pages in the Marechales life yesterday. I like to turn to that book. She was the oldest daughter of the founder of the Salvation Army. Even when she was 85 years of age she could preach up a storm.
"One night," she said, "I went to Brussels. I went to a large mansion loaded with antiques and costly things. It was beautiful. It was owned by a Christian. I noticed a sweet girl there, at about 9 o’clock each morning she would come out of the servant’s quarters radiant. I said to her one day,

‘My dearie, I want to ask you a question. I’ve noticed the last few mornings while having my breakfast, after coming out of your servant’s quarters, you are so radiant!’
She replied, ‘I begin at 5 o’clock in the morning.’
‘5 o’clock?! To what time?’
‘Well, breakfast is at 8. Usually I have the last fire going by about half past 7.’
‘How do you do it?’
‘I just kneel in front of it. I sweep all the ashes on one side. I put them in a bucket. I get some paper and some kindling wood.’ (And boy, getting coal to catch fire is a job!) ‘I go in that room and get that fire going. I go in the next, I go to the next. I go back and the first one’s gone out, so I do it over again. But eventually I get to breakfast a minute or two before 8 o’clock. I’ve lit my 12 fires.’
‘Don’t you get impatient?’
‘No.’
‘Well, you say the fires have gone out?’
‘Yes, they often go out.’
‘Well, do you get up early for devotions?’
‘No,’ she said, ‘Not very early.’
‘Well, how do you maintain you spiritual life?’
She said, ‘Every time I light a fire, I say, Jesus, while I’m kindling this fire, kindle a fire in me!’
Kindle a fire of Your love afresh in me this morning!
Kindle a fire of Your devotion in me!
Here’s this precious little girl talking to one of the most powerful women in the world. A women who, at 21 years of age, went to Paris and turned the city upside-down preaching to all the prostitutes. The queen of the underworld was there. Men came from the Sorbone, the greatest intellectuals with their long beards and their pipes, and listened to her.
And yet the Marechale said that young lady taught me more
than most sermons I’d ever heard.
She had to light the fire, get bellows, blow the things up and try to get them going. She said, "At every fire place, I never missed one morning saying, ‘Lord as I’m kindling this fire, kindle Your fire in me.’" The fire of love for Your will. The fire of love. The fire of joy. The fire of peace. The fire of compassion.

If this fire came back to the Church, we’d turn America upside-down in six months.

Ours is all theology. We get a starving man and give him a cookbook. Does it help him? He looks in the cookbook and sees there a dish with potatoes, beef, etc. What do you do? You tantalize him! You say, "Oh, I hope one day you can come to our place We’re going to have this dish, this beef, this turkey, and something else." And yet the poor man is ravenously hungry! We give him a picture, but we don’t give him the goods! At the average church on Sunday morning, they give you the menu, but they never give you the meal. They give an outline of theology: ‘This is our precious doctrine." So, most people will be reciting doctrine in Hell.

As I’ve said before, if you say "where two or three are gathered in His name…," if the living Christ is in your meeting, how in God’s name can you have a dead service?! It’s totally impossible?

I remember talking once in Carnegie Hall with Miss Kuhlman. We were talking about the Church, as it is, and various other things. She said, "I talked with some young students the other day. They said,

‘We go to a certain church. We have a wonderful pastor, and a marvelous choir, and he’s a great teacher, but nothing ever happens. We come to see your meeting and there’s a power of God there.’
I was in meetings there where billows of power went over the place!
All kinds of miracles were done.
‘What does the pastor say?’ He says, ‘Well, of course, where two or three are gathered, He’s in the midst…’ Do you know what I said to them? ‘Well, if He’s in the midst, and you believe that He’s the same yesterday, today, and forever, why doesn’t He do in the midst ‘here’ what He did in the midst ‘there’?"
We try and bail God out! The pastor has been to a seminary (or as I say, a cemetery). Our pulpits are full of dead men preaching dead sermons to dead people. But there’s going to come an awakening.
God Almighty doesn’t care if He sends America bankruptcy. He doesn’t care if we have to stand in bread lines. He doesn’t care if our automobiles rust because we have no gasoline. That could happen very easily.

But again, you see, it is so "expensive." We have to more than believe in the Lord. We have to believe on the Lord. We have to more than have a blessing just because we feel better, we feel inflated, or we maybe get a gift or something.

You know, I’ve found that when someone gets a gift of the Spirit,
they’re more proud after they get the gift than they were before.
They’re proud of the gift!
The indwelling of the Holy Ghost, to me, is the most majestic thing this side of eternity.
The Holy Ghost produces holy people. Holy people live holy lives, producing holy fathers and mothers
So here’s a question. Answer it for yourself.
Do you want to drink the cup that He drank of?

Between here and there is a Gethsemane, a cross.
There was a young man in 1904, in a town called Newcastle-Emlyn, Wales. He had about 35 people in the meeting. He put his big hands up and prayed "Bend us, Lord, and then break us." Bend us. Bend the Church. Break the Church.

One night in a crowded meeting, with more than 1200 people, suddenly God came upon him. The writer puts it very beautifully, I think, though terribly. That great preacher who had been captivating crowds and turning cities on fire had a public Gethsemane.

He suddenly crumbled to the ground, as though somebody had squashed him downwards. It wasn’t a spectacle. It wasn’t a demonstration. It was a personal visitation of the Holy Ghost. He writhed. He groaned. He travailed. Some men at the front said, "Let’s go help him." And somebody else said, "Don’t put a finger on him."

When he got up his face was transformed as though he needed a veil over it. From there he moved into a new sphere of power, a new sphere of authority.

We’re not going to gather people together and cause them to repent. Only God can do that.

Read again Joel 2 today. We quote it so often "He’s going to pour out his Spirit on all flesh…" But wait a minute! The price is tremendous: Lay all night between the altar and the doorpost. I’d love to see a couple dozen preachers who would get together and lay between the altar and the doorpost, two nights a week, for the next three weeks, with the Holy Ghost coming upon them. Not "speaking in tongues" in the sense that so many people think, but speaking with a tongue we’ve never heard: speaking of travailing.

What you’ve got in Romans 8 is beyond language.

It cannot be uttered.
It’s God the Holy Ghost groaning through us.
It groaned in Jesus so that He travailed. Are you going to suggest that He didn’t groan? Of course, He groaned at Gethsemane.

I believe that Jesus, right now, is groaning in heaven. If He’s the same yesterday, today, and forever, don’t you think he groans over the Church as it is today?

Poor, misbegotten thing that it is?
Powerless, lifeless, without authority?
Most of our people can’t keep victory themselves, never mind cast out devils.
We can’t pull down strongholds.

But I’m convinced that it is going to come. There’s going to be a great turnaround. It won’t be inside the denominations, as far as I’m concerned. Oh it’s nice to read Hebrews 13:12, "Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify…," that is, "purify, edify, release, transform." That He might do that, "he suffered without the gate." But the next verse says, "Let us go with him outside the camp." Let’s be cut off from everything that is organized, manmade, and supervised.

People say, "Ravenhill is a radical. You shouldn’t take any note of him. You know, he has no covering." Well, I didn’t know that. Poor me! I’ve been going around the world for the last fifty years without a covering! I didn’t know! But the Lord knew I had it, so He kept me. Who was John the Baptist’s covering? People knew when John the Baptist came. He did no signs, no wonders, no miracles. But when he spoke, the words were like fire. They burned in the hearts of the people. If a thing doesn’t burn in me, why, in God’s name, should it burn in you?! I wouldn’t listen to a preacher who didn’t kindle something in my heart.

You see, I backed away from that rotten cup that woman had. Then forcibly she said, "Drink it." At that moment I remembered a man in a garden saying, "Father, this is the most degrading thing in the history of the world. If it’s possible, please…" The Lord let Him do it. It pleased the Lord to bruise Him.

When it pleases the Lord to bruise you, what do you do? Ring for help? Phone for somebody? Call the church? Or do you get alone with Him Who alone is able to heal? With Him Who alone has the balm of Gilead?

You see, God isn’t training Boy Scouts. He’s training soldiers!
No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. (2 Tim 2:4)

There’s a smart advertisement that you see on television and other places. You see these smart boys, these cadets: "We’re looking for a few choice men." Come and be one of the specials. That’s exactly what God does. "I have chosen you and ordained you," so you don’t need any other ordination.

Out of the twelve He chooses three: Peter, James, and John.

People say that you shouldn’t be selective. God is selective.
He always was. He always will be.
Out of the three he chose one. God has a process of elimination. He doesn’t ask you to drink a cup a week or a month after you’re saved, but you gradually move into that area where you realize that this is what He’s after.

He’s after me going to the cross!
And not just to go to it, but to get on it!
"Oh, I’m glad He died for me." Have you died for Him? Isn’t that a fair exchange?

I remember when I was little boy that they announced that an American was coming. He had just written a hymn that was, I think, one of the sweetest hymns ever written, and he played it for us that night.

Out of the ivory palaces and into a world of woe
Only his great eternal love made my Savior go.

Out of the ivory…angels bowed down, and seraphim bowed…and men spit on Him
He had all the glory of heaven, but He had no where to sleep at night... It would take eternity to unveil to us what it meant for Jesus to come. He drank:

A cup of separation from His Father,
A cup of separation from the glory in eternity,
A cup of separation from the worship
because it says in Hebrew that angels are commissioned to worship
Him; men didn’t worship Him—they spit on Him!
He laid it all aside joyfully. He took up a cross to be battered and bloodied.

I love that hymn, My Faith Looks Up to Thee. It was written in the old North Church in Boston Common. (I preached there once, and I had them sing that hymn.) The second stanza says:

May thy rich grace impart
Strength to my fainting heart,
My zeal inspire;
As thou hast died for me,
So may my love to thee,
Pure, warm, and changeless be,
A living fire!

Suppose God were as fickle in His attitude to you as you were to Him? What would happen? The little servant girl says, "I’m on my knees two and a half hours every morning. Every time I strike that match, I say, ‘Lord, as I kindle this fire, kindle Your fire in my heart, the fire of Your Spirit, oh God!’ I’ve been here for years. I must have lit hundreds and hundreds of fires."

She wasn’t at the table serving meals with all the celebrities. She’s up at the crack of dawn. She’s carrying a heavy bucket of coal. She’s cleaning up the dirt. It’s a ritual most people wouldn’t have. But she’s turned it into a sacrament! She’s turned the tables on the devil! When he says, "Well, you could be praying. You could do more than that."

She says, "I would bow there some days. I would just worship. I would see the flames go up and think of the sacrifice that has been made. No, don’t pity me. I’ve got a wonderful job! They pay me to have my devotions! They pay me to sustain my prayer life!" I wish we had a lot more people like that.

Look out. He might bring you up this week and ask you drink of the cup "Can you share my baptism?"

"My baptism is a baptism of sorrow;
a baptism of desertion,
a baptism of pain,
a baptism of loneliness,
a baptism of darkness."
It’s all combined.
Well, can you drink it? Or do we try to make some excuses? All He’s asking for is obedience. Obedience is the key to everything.

This is serious business. Time is running out fast for all of us.

The greatest revival that swept America wasn’t staged. It wasn’t advertised. It wasn’t financially backed. It didn’t have broken down film stars and ex-footballers. It was in the ordinary course of a meeting, when Jonathan Edwards preached his sermon, "Sinners in the hands of an angry God." There was nobody advertised. There was nobody projected.

Jesus says, "How can you receive blessing of God when you receive honor one of another?"

"He resisteth the proud and saveth such as are contrite and of a broken spirit."

There are many who say, "Come down from the cross and save yourself." If you see somebody else saving his neck, and you follow him, you will lose your blessing. You will lose your reward. You will lose your power.

Nobody stood by Jesus.
Maybe nobody will stand by you.
It’s a lonely life, but it’s a glorious life.