Walking In The Spirit

If you've got your Bibles you can read with me. We'll give them just a moment to go down here. Now, don't forget to pray for the camp meeting. Remember. You know, I want you to remember that it's important that you pray. A lot of people just don't realize the importance of prayer, but you need to pray. All right, reading from the fourth chapter of the book of Revelation. "After this I looked, and behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter. And immediately I was in the Spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven," All right. Right there we'd just love to talk with you just for a few moments. You can be seated if you like. You know, John was one of the most unusual people that ever wrote a book. I don't suppose there is a book that has ever been written from the foundation of the world that is even to be compared to the book of Revelation. It is one of the most unusual books and a book that no one seems to understand. It has to be revelated to you and is really an outstanding book. And here, John having been exiled to the Isle of Patmos, which is just a little place off of the coast of Asia Minor, having been placed there because of his testimony for Christ Jesus, having been exiled just because he loved the Lord, and because he wanted to talk about Jesus. But, you know, what we don't realize a lot of times is what seems to be the worst thing that ever happened to us is the best thing that ever happened to us. Now no doubt John thought, This is the worst thing that ever happened to me in all of my life. But did you know it was the best thing for John, for John's soul, and the best thing for the church. It was the best thing that ever happened to John during his whole life time. Because it was there while he was exiled that he wrote the astounding book called the Revelation of Jesus Christ. And I think about John in the same way that I do Paul the Apostle. You know, Paul was put in jail. Stayed in jail for numbers of years, and it seemed to be the worst thing that had ever happened to Paul, but nevertheless it is out of the imprisonment that we received the Pauline Epistles and the different writings of Paul the Apostle. It's while he was in the prison and while he was confined and could not go anywhere else that he wrote these great books, these great writings. To me that really thrills my soul because it shows me that it doesn't matter what happens to a Christian it's always going to come out to the good. Always. All things work together for good to them that love the Lord and those that are the called according to His purpose. It just works out right. It doesn't make any difference what the devil does he always looses. It can attack the people, or whatever, but he always looses. I was thinking about the life of Job. How that Job, how that he was put down in ashes and sores and boils, all over his body. Such a horrible condition to be in. And it seemed to be the worst time of Job's life. He lost his treasures. He lost his wealth. He lost his family. And it seemed to be the worst time of Job's life, but today Job's life is commemorated, not from the aspect of his children, but rather from his sufferings. So the best thing that ever happened to Job, again we say, was the time that he went through his sufferings. And then I think about the Lord Jesus, the things that happened to the Lord Jesus all during His lifetime. But the greatest thing that ever happened to the Lord Jesus was when they nailed Him to the cross, because when He lifted His hands and He said, It is finished, God picked Him up and set Him at the right hand of power and made Him ruler over all things. So then, it's like the Apostle Paul said, Let us equip ourselves with a mind to suffer. Let's just don't equip ourselves with a mind to get gain, or to be something in the world, but rather equip ourselves with a mind to suffer, because this is the greatest thing that could ever happen to us. It's in our suffering that we find the victory that we need to really overcome sin. And so then, it's a wonderful thing to read the Holy Scriptures and read about these great men of power and to understand the great things that God did with them. John exiled to the Isle of Patmos, he's writing the book of Revelation, and as he writes this great Revelation we here John saying as he writes, that I was in the spirit on the Lord's Day. I was in the spirit on the Lord's Day. That's the thing that's so needful in the church today, is that we need to get in the spirit. If we're not in the Spirit we're not walking with God, we're not talking with God. If we're in the flesh the Bible teaches that we cannot please God. Therefore, we must get in the Spirit. When we come to the house of God we must get in the spirit. If we're going to live for God and testify for God we've got to get in the Spirit because it takes walking in the Spirit of God to be able to testify for God and live an overcoming life. How many of you love Jesus? All right. So then, the Bible said John was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day. On the Lord's Day he was in the Spirit and John said, I heard a great voice behind me and a voice that sounded like many waters. And I turned around, he said, and I saw One that was like the sun shining within His strength. And John said it was such a terrible sight, he said, I fell down at His feet as one that was dead. He said, When I looked and saw this great sight I retained no more strength. Like Daniel of old when the angel of God appeared to Daniel, Daniel said, All of my innards just turned into corruption. Said, I fell down at His feet, having no more strength. Said, I retained no more strength. The angel had to touch Daniel to give him strength. And it was the same way with John. When John saw this great sight it did something to him. You know, I'm persuaded to believe that one of the problems that we have today is that we have never really come in contact with God. We've never really seen the great and awesome sight of God so far as His majesty. We've never seen the great wonderful, wonderful presence, or visage of God and because of that, never having seen God, as we should see God, then we don't have a vision for God like we ought to have for God. Isn't that right? But if we ever come in contact with God, if we ever do make that personal contact with God and we get a personal experience with God then everything is going to be different in our lives. Did you know that? Did you know in my own personal life things were never like they ought until I had a personal visitation from God. But I remember when the angel of God came to me in Florida and there where God showed me the death of Brother Branham when the ring on my finger and spoke to me, from that time on it was different. It was always different from that every moment on. From the time that the angel of God spoke to me and appeared to me my whole life took on a change. I believed God before then. I believed in the super natural of God. My wife and I travelled for many miles, all over the different parts of the nation preaching the gospel, but when you come right into the presence of the living God and you begin to realize that you are in the presence of the living God it does something to you. There is a new stimulation. There is a new awakening. There is a new vision. And you feel like going on and doing something for Jesus. I remember, just before the angel of God appeared to me in the vision, I was so tired and I was so weary from travelling so much across the nation. I was so very weary but after that He came to me and began to talk with me I took on a new strength. John said it was like the sun shining within His strength and John could not find the way to express it and finally He just said, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day. If every Lord's Day, as we call it, here at Little Bethlehem we would come together and get in the Spirit we would have things here at Little Bethlehem that would be astounding. Did you know that everyday of my life I walk with God. The Bible said Enoch walked with God. And everyday of my life I walk with God and everyday of my life I have a new experience. God gives me a new experience. I have things to talk to me. I have things to appear around me. I have things to happen to me that thrills me on the inside. It awakens me on the inside. I have a new experience with God everyday. And that's what we need, is a new experience with God everyday. In the Old Testament when the manna came down from heaven God told then, said, Get the manna fresh everyday; don't hold anything over. Said, If you hold it over, said, it won't have the inspiration. It won't have the life. Said, It won't do you any good. Said, If you hold it over, He said, the worms will get into it. And I have made the statement a number of times, and I'll make it again today. That's what has happened to the things of God in this day. The worms have gotten into it. Did you know that? Somebody would say, Now, wait a minute, Brother Pike, you don't really believe that. Did you know the Bible said they have changed the truth of God into a lie. They changed the truth of God into a lie. You say, You can't change the truth of God into a lie. The Bible said they did. That is, they perverted it in the ears of the people. I know that you can't change God's truth. I realize that, but in the ears of the listener they perverted it. The Scribes, the Pharisees, the preachers, they perverted it and they changed it into a lie. They've made it say things that it doesn't say. And they've made it have meanings that it doesn't have to justify the wicked. The Bible said that God shall in no wise justify the wicked. I'm angry with the wicked everyday. The wicked is like the troubled waters, casting up the mire. All of their offerings are an abomination in the sight of God. Everything the wicked does is an abomination to God. And He said, I'll pursue the wicked until they perish from off of the face of the earth. So then, they've changed the Word of God. Not only have they done that but they've taken the miracles and they've changed the miracles of God into lying signs and wonders. The Bible said when those spirits like frogs came out, over there that John mentioned in the book of Revelation, that they went into all the earth gathering together the people. And they did it by miracles. They went in, as I said the other night, into the state of Georgia. They went into the state of California. They went into Tennessee. They went into Florida. They went into Germany. They went into Russia. Said, the went into all the world and they were working miracles and they were gathering the people together to the great battle of Armageddon. So then, what we need to do is understand God and to love God, and get into the Spirit to where we can follow God and realize that God is a great power. That God is our security. That God is our life, that God is our hope, that God is the promise of all good things. And that He will fulfill every promise if we'll walk according to His will. All right. So then, we see it here. John said, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day. And while John was in the Spirit he said, I looked and said, there was a door that was opened in heaven. How many of you understand what heaven is? You know, when you speak of heaven the first thing the people thing about is some great place way off, way off in the elements somewhere. A place that's so far away that no one has ever seen it and that no one will ever be able to see it unless we die. That's the way they think of heaven. But, see? According to the Bible that's not the way that God speaks of heaven. Did you know that heaven is the Spirit? Did you know that? There is no heaven but the Spirit. Wherever God is that is heaven. Wherever God is not that is not heaven. So then, heaven is in the Spirit. It tells us that we are hid with Christ in God. That is, we are hid with Christ who is a quickening spirit and we are hid with him in the Holy Spirit, for we are hid with Christ in God whom the heavens have received until the restoring of all things. The restoring of all things is the millennium. It's the great day of restoration when God will restore every species that was ever lost. Everything that has ever become extinct God will restore it and bring it back and preserve it forever. In the great day of restoration God will restore all things. So then, when we speak of heaven, we think about heaven, we think about the Holy Spirit. We think about the great things of God and what God means when He says heaven. There was a door opened in the Spirit. There was a door opened in heaven. You say, But, Brother Pike, why do you say a door opened in the Spirit. Because John said, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day. There was a door opened in the Spirit. I know the Bible said John was caught up into heaven and there was a voice that said, John, come up hither I will show you things to come. Now. I understand that. But when we really get technical about it, we get right down to the real thing, then we know that God is a spirit and the Bible is speaking of John being in the Spirit on the Lord's Day. Now. If John was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day then that means that we need to get in the Spirit. Now, you would say, Well, Brother Pike, you mean every Sunday we need to get in the Spirit. How many of you know that Sunday is not the Lord's Day? Sunday is just exactly what it's called. It's Sunday. It's the seventh day. But, see? That's not the Lord's Day. When the Bible speaks of the Lord's Day it speaks of His day, which is the day of rest. Now it didn't say the Lord's days. The Bible said God worked in six and rested on the seventh, but it said the Lord's Day, which is a day of rest. He claimed one day as His day because His works are finished. It is the day of God's rest and God's works are finished and everything is restored that was lost. And, so then, God calls that His day, and that's not Sunday. Sunday, an old Jewish ritualistic type of the Lord's Day. But the seventh day, the day of restoration, the day of the millennium, God's day, the day in which the Jews will enter in the restoration of the Kingdom. But to you and I God's day is God's rest. Isn't that right? Paul said concerning the people in the Old Testament, they that were destroyed in the wilderness, He said that these murmured and complained and found fault against Moses and against God, and against the ministry and that God cut them off in the wilderness and the Bible said that God swear that they would not enter into His rest because of the way that they lived, their unbelief. For forty long years God caused them to wander in the wilderness, just continually wandering in a circle simply because they would not accept His word of faith. Isn't that right? Did you know today the thing that causes the people to wander in a wilderness is their unbelief. If they could have faith in God, God would pull them out of that old intellectual wilderness and get them over that carnal mind of Jordan that He calls death. The Bible said if you're in the flesh you cannot please God. You cannot please God if you're in the flesh, but He said we are not in the flesh but in the spirit if so be that ye are born of the Spirit of God. If ye have not the Spirit of God then ye are none of Gods. Isn't that right? And so then, we understand that we've got to work in the spirit to please God. If we don't walk in the Spirit then we don't have any blessing from God, whatsoever. Now, But if we walk in the Spirit as He walks in the Spirit then we will not fulfill the lust, or the desire, of the flesh but we will find ourselves in the power and in the anointing of the Almighty God and God will fight all of our battles for us. Somebody say I love Jesus. All right. So then John was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day. On the Lord's Day he was in the Spirit. And while he was in the Spirit something began to happen. Friend, you cannot get in the Spirit without something happening, did you know that? You cannot get in the Spirit without something taking place. You've got to get in the Spirit. And when you get in the Spirit something starts happening. We're not in the flesh. We're not in the flesh but we are in the spirit. Paul said on one occasion he said, Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death. And said that this body was a death. It's a walking death. He said, I'm a prisoner to this body. Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Now. Right there we could really say a lot of things. Who shall deliver me from this body? I'm in a bodily prison, Paul said, and though I think a lot of this body, though I'm real particular with this body, and I think a lot of this body; yet I've got to confess, Paul said, when it comes right down to it that it's just a bodily prison. It's a bodily death. That all we do is look at our face in the mirror and we feed our mouth and all we do is comb our hair and pretty ourself up and try to figure out how much money we can make to have a nice automobile to give the body a little relaxation while it rides around, you know. To build a home and to build comforts. Everything for the human body. That's why the Bible when it speaks of you it says, flee youthful lusts. What is the word lust in its terminology in the early rendering? Desire. Desire. Get away from the human desire. Get away from the bodily desire. Remember thy creator in the days of thy youth when the evil days draw not night, when you'll turn__ That is in the reaping days that he refers to as evil days, when you'll look and say, I don't have any pleasure in what I sowed in that field out there, saying the field is the world. Do you understand what I'm saying? And so then let's escape the passions of the body. Let's escape the human body. Let's yield the body to God and let God do what He will with it. That's what God wants. This is the temple of the Holy Ghost and the men ought to give it to God. And the man that yields it to God will preserve it forever. So then, who shall deliver me, Paul said, from the body of this death. There is no good thing working within my body, Paul said. I have a will to do good. Inside of me there is a will. I have a will to do good, he said, but to perform that which is good, he said, I can't find it. I can't find the way of performance and yet Paul said, As you've had a will have a performance and he searched for a performance. But he said, I can't find a performance because there is a continual warfare between the inner man and the outer man. There is a continual warfare between this inner man and this outer man and between the body and the soul. Always there is trouble. Always there is trouble. Always a continual war. My outer man and my inner man is a continual conflict and I can't seem to do what I want to do. When I would do good, Paul said, evil is always present with me. The Bible said God looked down from heaven and He saw that men's hearts were continually evil. That's not the way it ought to be. God doesn't want it like that. Our thoughts ought not to be continually evil. He tells us to bring every thought into subjection to the obedience of Jesus Christ, casting down imagination and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God. He doesn't want us thinking evil. The Bible said charity thinketh no evil, and therefore we ought to have a pure and a pure mind for only the pure in heart shall see God. If God is a spirit then only the pure in heart shall see the Holy Spirit. Only the pure in heart can enter into the Holy Spirit. Nobody can get into the presence of God without being holy in heart. The Bible said the pure in heart shall see God. And so then, if God is a spirit there is no way to see God with the human eyes. I've made the statement a lot of times, if there is twenty-two conductive nerves from my eye to my brain I can't ever hope to see something as great as God on those little eye nerves. See? The very presence of God. In the book of Revelation, the very coming of the great Jehovah God, the Bible said, as I beheld the great white throne of judgment, said, all of the earth fled away from His face. Said, I saw Him high and lifted up and sitting upon His throne. And said, and the great light came. And said, as the great light came, said the mountains faded away into nothing. Said, the earth faded away into nothing. All the earth, everything, just fled away from the face of God. What was it? It was because it was the great light that Paul speaks of. Paul said, God is the great light unto which no man can approach, whom no man has seen, nor can see, Paul said. That great light, Jesus, alone sits in the presence of that light. The Bible teaches that He alone dwells within that light. And the only way I can see that great Jehovah God, that eternal spirit, is through that form, or that visage of my Holy Savior, Jesus Christ. I can approach unto that great light of love and life and happiness and peace and eternal endurance by coming through the form, or the blood stains of the Lord Jesus Christ. I think the song that James and them sang this morning was so beautiful. That beautiful name. What a beautiful name. How beautiful that is, to think about the name. Why is the name so beautiful? Why is it so outstanding? Because it is the door that John saw that was opened in heaven. Jesus said, I am the door and there is no other door but Me, Jesus said. That's why it's so beautiful. Beginning at Jerusalem and then to the uttermost parts of the earth, the Bible said, remission of sin shall be taught in My name. There is no redemption except in the name of Jesus Christ. There is no hope aside from the name of Jesus Christ. And so then, every hope that I have is through the name of Jesus Christ. John said I was in the spirit on the Lord's Day. You know what? When the Lord spoke to Peter He said, Peter, who do men say that I am? He had said that to other men. He had asked numbers of times, what do they say about the Son of God? What do they say about this man called Jesus? But see? There was a difference. Peter was in the Spirit. And God said, Peter, who do men say that I am? And he said, One say that though art Elias, and so on, Peter said. See? Said, But, Peter, what do you think about it? You know, Peter having a revelation, being in the Spirit. Peter said, I say that Thou are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Jesus said, Peter, flesh and blood hath not revealed this to thee, but thou art in the Spirit. This is a revelation from God that came from heaven that told you that I was the Son of God. Hallelujah! I cannot look this morning out here at my fellow man sitting out here that's been born again and know that he is the son of God. The Bible said Adam was the son of God. I could not look at you and say that you are the son of God if I looked through my natural eyes. I could not do that because I couldn't understand how you could be the son of God. I'd say, Well, you're a man just like I'm a man. I could not see you as the son of God; there would be no possible way. But if I get in the Spirit__ Jesus said, My words are spirit and My words are life. If I can get in the Spirit then I know that you are the son of God, members of His body in particular, bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. When I get in the Spirit I say, What does the Spirit say? He that hath an ear let Him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. And I say, That's what the Word says. Jesus said, My words are spirit and life. That's what the Spirit said. The spirit tells me that that is a son of God and that I'm not to know any man after the flesh but I'm to know him after the spirit. And I don't know him after his faults. I don't know him after his failures. I don't know him after his shortcomings. But I know him after the sacrifice of Jesus. I know him from the spilt blood of the Lamb at Calvary because he is the son of God through the blood of Jesus Christ. I am a son of God this morning. You may know me after the flesh. You may see me after the flesh but He doesn't see me that way. The man that once was that lived that they called by my name is dead. He's gone. He's buried. He was crucified at Calvary and they laid him away in a grave and today it's not me that is living, Paul said, but it Christ that is living. The life I now live I live by the Son of God. I'm alive by the Son of God this morning. I can tell I'm alive this morning. I feel the vibrancy and the presence of the Son of God inside of me this morning. I know that He is inside of me. If the spirit be in you that raised up Christ from the dead He shall also by the Spirit quicken your mortal body. If you have not the Spirit then you are none of His. So then, John said, I beheld and the door was opened in heaven. My body__ My body is the temple of God. My body is the temple of God and inside of my body there is a throne, for the Bible said the Kingdom of Heaven is within me. And Paul said, I keep under my body. I keep under my body. Somewhere in this temple there is a throne and somewhere God sits upon it. And somewhere my inner man that wars against this outer man, my inner man, that Christ, the hope of glory, that inner man is on the inside. He's having relation with God. He's having fellowship with God and He's crying out saying, restore unto me the joy that I had with Thee before the world ever was. Somebody would say, Brother Pike, you don't believe you were before the foundation of the world? The Bible said, Before the world was I AM. Hallelujah! So then, Christ is inside of you, the hope of glory. Christ is inside of this temple. Let all the world keep silent because God is in His temple. You're the temples this morning. Now, I know the devil would love to take this body. I understand that. And make it a body of death, when Paul said, Who shall deliver me from the body of death, O wretched man that I am. I want to be holy. I want to be clean. I want to be pure. I've a will to do what's right, but Paul said, O, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death. There is no good thing within my body. My passions, my feelings, my ambitions, my desires, my anxieties, my fears, my complex, my temper, my rages, all of this Satan fights within the body to cause the body to want to sympathize with those kind of feelings and those kind of spirits. He wants us to sympathize with it. If somebody does us wrong he wants a grudge to come into our heart. He wants an overcast, a shadow, to cut us off from the sunlight of God, to rest on the inside, a heavy overcast, a heaviness that brings condemnation to our heart that separates us from the joy and jubilance of Christian living. He wants that heavy overcast to come and then he wants us to sympathize with it. When we find ourselves sympathizing with it we find ourselves getting bitter. Whereas, the Bible said, beware lest a root of bitterness spring up within you thereby many be defiled. So then, he wants us to sympathize with him. He wants this thing to sweep over us. He wants thing to take hold of us and he wants us to sympathize with it. Isn't that right? But, see? After we sympathize with it, after we do somebody an injustice, after we hurt somebody then that feeling leaves. That demon has been satisfied. He's defiled the temple of God. God has to destroy the temple because the temple is dirty because we let Satan come into it and the Holy Spirit of life, the waters of virtue cannot dwell there. We cannot be a fountain of living waters springing up into everlasting life the way God wants us to be. (Begin side two.) This is the water spout of God on the inside. This is the waterspout of God. This is a deep well on the inside. So very deep. The Spirit of God searches out the things of God; yea the deep things. Taking the water from the wells of salvation. My cup is over running, David said. Out of your innermost being shall flow that river of living water, that river of life that John said coming out from the throne there. Spoke of coming out from the throne. Saw coming out from the__ Out of the innermost being comes that water, that well of water. Let all come to the water and drink. Jesus said to the woman at the well, He said, Woman, He said, I've got water. He said if you'd taste of this one time you'd never want this water any more. Never again. Never, never thirst anymore. I know, naturally speaking, Jesus understood that she'd want water to drink for her natural body. But, He said, I have water, that if you just one time tasted of this water you would never thirst again, Jesus said. Oh, she said, Give me of this water. Give me of this water. Hallelujah! And the writer said, I saw a stream of water. I saw a river of life, He said, the Holy Spirit flowing out from the throne of God. To taste of this water. The rich man lifted up his eyes, said, give me one taste of that water. Just one tiny drop of that water. And the Bible said evil spirits wander through dry places seeking rest and can't find it. They can't find it. They don't have that water of life anymore. And the rich man said, Give me just one little bit of that water. Just a little taste of that water. Send Lazarus to me and just let him one time touch my burning parched tongue with just a little bit of water. Hallelujah! But I'll tell you what. We're still in the land of the living. We're not where Lazarus was. We're not where the rich man was, but we're still in the land of the living. We can still testify. We can still give water to the thirsty. We can still help the needy. You've got the great opportunity of serving the King. Hallelujah! To serve Christ the King. It would be great to serve the public. It would be great, as I've often said, to be called to the president, to go up there and to do something in the president's office and have them to say you're the man. You're the man that can answer the problem. You're the man that can take care of everything. That would be great, but, my beloved friend, there is no honor bestowed upon a man such as being ambassadors for Christ. We are holy, upright ambassadors for God. We're got the power of heaven and earth in our hands and we are ambassadors for God. And all God asks us to do it deny the body. Just deny the body. Get away from the passions of the body. Sell out to God and let Me walk in that temple and let me talk in that temple. I'll make it beautiful. I'll make it outstanding. I'll raise it head and shoulders above everything in this world, Jesus said. God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows because thou hast loved righteousness. God picked up David, took him from the sheepcote, brought him forth, picked him up. And when He picked him up God said there to David, Thy God, even thy God, David, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows, having made thee a king, set thee upon a throne, give the desires of thy heart simply because thou hast delighted thyself in the laws of the Lord, David. Hallelujah! I feel the Holy Ghost. Hallelujah! I feel the presence of Jehovah God. Because thou hast loved righteousness. For the Bible said the eyes of the Lord are throughout the earth beholding the good and the evil, looking everywhere, wanting to show Himself strong in the behalf of them that walk upright before God, wanting to do something good for them, looking for the upright man. Why would God lift up an upright man? Because to lift up an upright man is to bless the people, to bless his Kingdom, to magnify Himself. Did you know that? If you give to God your life and God walks on the inside of you, to lift you up is to lift God up. How many of you understand that is true? Isn't that right? To lift you up is to lift God up because He is the spirit of life and God knows His people are dying from the thirst of the hot, barren, dry deserts of evil. And good is looking for a well of life that He could put right in the midst of them. Isn't that right? Like in the Old Testament the Bible said they digged the wells. Isaac and them, they'd dig the wells, They'd dig a well over here and dig a well over here. About seven wells they dug. I often think of the church ages when I think of those things. They dug the wells. But, see? Every well of water that was dug, the Bible said, those evil people came by and they took the wells. They filled the well up with dirt. Isn't that right? God can open a new move of God in the earth. Whereas, He's done it all down through the church ages. But in every case the Baptist got it, or the Methodist got it, or the pentecostals got it, or the non-denominationals got it, or the Catholics got it. Somebody got it. Every move of God somebody took the well. That's right. It started off good. Isn't that right? It started off just right. Everything was well. The man that started the move of God, it was just right. But, see? Before the thing was over they'd done built a denomination around it. They'd done built some kind of ecclesiastical power around it. The thing had gotten into such a condition that somebody had turned it into a money machine. The Holy Spirit was driven out. That's why God, in the book of Revelation said, Come out of her, My people, be ye not partakers of her sins. Her sins have reached up to heaven. Speaking of them landing on the moon. Speaking of the things of evil reaching out into the holy places, going up even as high as heaven. Satan has gone before the throne of God. See? Come out of her, be ye separate. Touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you, saith the Lord. And so then, He called them out. He said, she's become the cage of every unclean and hateful bird. One time she was a great church. One time God was moving in her but now she's become an ecclesiastical formanistic thing that is dead. Twice dead and plucked up by the roots, having a name that she lives and yet she's dead, Jesus said. Come out of her. How many of you understanding what I'm saying? You say, How can I get out of there? Because John said I saw a door opened in heaven. Brothers and Sisters, there is a way to get out of this world. Did you know that? We are not of this world. I am not of this world. You are not of this world. There is a way to get out of this world because we are not of this world. Hallelujah! The world loveth it's own but the world doesn't love you and I, because we're not of this world. And when I say world I'm speaking of a system. I say again, God loves the birds. He loves the trees. He loves all of His act of creation. So loved it He gave His only Son to redeem it that it might be pure and blessed as it was in the garden. But I'm talking about the system. The world shall pass away as it did in the days of Noah. They system abides forever. And so then, the world doesn't love us. The world hates us. But, Oh, let me tell you something. There is joy unspeakable and it's filled with glory. You can rejoice in the Lord. You can have the bubbling streams springing up into everlasting life if you walk in the Spirit, as He walks in the Spirit. Walking in the Spirit. Walking in the light of the Lord. Oh, I feel His holy presence, don't you? Last night when I was talking to Jesus I could feel His presence. His warm presence would come down. You know, I could feel His presence so sweet and so real and so warm. And I could hear Him as He would speak to me. Hallelujah! I can here Him as He speaks to the church this morning. Let him that hath an ear hear what the spirit is saying unto the church. Take courage. Overcome. You can overcome for this it the victory that overcometh the world, even your faith in God. Let him that is weak say I'm strong by faith in what Jesus did. If you're weary, if you're faltering, if it looks like you've gone down and you can't get up and it looks like you just can't make it another weary mile, saying, Christ, I am strong in Christ because the Word says I am strong. I am righteousness because He said I am righteous. I am without spot, wrinkle, or blemish because He said I am without spot, wrinkle, or blemish. I am filled with the Holy Spirit because He said I am filled with the Holy Spirit. I am healed and I am free from sickness because He said that I am free from sickness. I just believe what He said about it. If God said it I believe it because all of His promises are yea and amen. Hallelujah! And when we believe we become strong, hallelujah, and courageous in God. Whatever you want to do, the Bible said command thou me concerning the works of your hands, or my hand. Decree a thing in your heart, it will come to pass. Whatever your heart is crying for be straight with God. Be straight with God and I promise you in the name of the Lord, if you be straight with God, be straight with God. If you be straight with God, God will give you the desires of your heart, make you to ride upon the high places of the earth. The blessings of the Lord maketh rich and addeth no sorrow, hallelujah! And He will put you wherever you want to be. Oh, hallelujah! I can hear Him saying amen. Amen! Amen. I'll do it! Hallelujah! Whatever you desire be patient. Don't waver. Don't let the devil say, Well, it's just not for you. Say, Jesus said it. I believe it, it's got to be. Can you stand with me? I want to say again that we love you and appreciate you. And I always get excited when I talk about Jesus. I always get excited. But if I be beside myself, Paul said, it is for the Gospel. It is for the Kingdom of God. All right. While we sing a little chorus together I want to pray for you this morning. While we sing this little chorus. We sing the little chorus, Jesus use me. Jesus use me. Let's sing it together. (Singing) Can you sing it with me? (Singing) While we're singing this I wonder if you would just step out and let's just pray for you. I know it's a little hard with the cameras down here but that's all right. Just step out for a few moments. Let's join our faith together. Let's join our arms and our strength together and let's believe one for another. I'll believe for you and you believe for me. And we'll stand together as a great chain for it's been said by a great man that a chain is no stronger than it's weakest link. Let's don't have a weak link. Let's don't be the weak link. Let's be strength for Christ's sake. How sorrowful it would be in the day of the judgment. How sorrowful it would be if in that day we suddenly realized the chain had been broken in our efforts of life and then God would say, You're the one that broke the chain. You proved to be the weak link. But let's not be weak. Why should I be weak? The Bible said, he that is weak let him say I'm strong. There's no need to be weak. I don't have to be weak; I've got Christ inside of me. I don't have to be weak. I feel His strength. I feel the drive of God. I don't have to be weak. Let him that is weak say I'm strong. I said this the other day: It is wrong for a Christian at anytime to say, I have a weakness. That is wrong. A Christian should never, at anytime say, I have a weakness. For, I say again, what weakness is there in the body of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Is there such a thing as a weakness in the body of Jesus. We are His body; bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. We're not weak. We have no weaknesses. No weaknesses. Did you know that makes you feel good when you testify in Him that you have no weaknesses, but I am strong in Him. I'm eternally strong in Him. I am not strong today and then going to wilt tomorrow. Sometimes we get to the place, I've met people like this, even the youth of today. They've tried so many times and been put down so many times, and been hurt so many times, discouraged so many times and overcome by evil powers so many times until they want to say I'll try again. I'll make an effort again but they can't make themselves do it. They say, Well, what's the use? I've said that before and I've said it before and I've said it before, but I always wind up in the darkness in the same places that I was to begin with. But I'll tell you something. You don't have to. You don't have to. Christian friend, you don't have to. It doesn't make any difference how many times you've faltered and fell. You can stand like a rock. God will give you strength to do it. You can be an overcome that the world will look at and they will be astounded at your ability to overcome the evils of this world. You can do it. You can march courageously across this world as a soldier for God, as an ambassador for Christ and leave a testimony that will astound the world. You can do it. You can do it. Hallelujah! What a great and a mighty day. What a great and a mighty hour. I look at you a lot of times, I'm ministering up here and I think about you and I think about the time that the angel went to Gideon and how that Gideon was so discouraged. I've thought about it many times. Gideon was so discouraged. Nothing left. The enemy having taken everything, standing out in the fields with no hope, no courage, just gathering the leftovers. That's the way a lot of people are in life. They're just gathering the leftovers. No matter how hard they work, no matter how hard they try to get ahead something always comes by and takes what they've got and they wind up with the leftovers. Now you know that's right. But, Brother and Sister, it doesn't have to be that way. David said, My cup runneth over. It doesn't have to be the way the devil has caused it to be in your life. You don't just have to have enough strength to barely go and feel like you're going to cave in and just barely make it and feel like you're half backslid all the time and that your faith won't make it. Take courage in God. Remember Christ is your finished works. Remember that whatever He did the Father accepted it in your behalf and today whatever He is so am I in Him. And I'll tell you, He's a lot of things. Did you know that? He's the prince of peace. He's the prince of life. He's the all powerful one. He's the one that is filled with joy and gladness. The sun shines in His strength. Whatever He is so am I in Him. I am that in Him. That makes me take courage that makes me feel like really going on for God. So I encourage you to take hold in the Lord. I encourage you to try. I mean really try. Really try. Get down to business with God and say, God, I've seen a lot of things in my lifetime. I've done a lot of things but everything is fading away to nothing. But, God, I see one bright light that I have never seen dim in all my years. Never. That light shines brighter today than it has ever shined in all of my lifetime. And I see that light. I see that glorious light up ahead. Hallelujah! I'm headed__ I'm headed for that direction. I'm headed for that direction. There shall be light in the evening time. The path to glory I'll surely find. Hallelujah! How wonderful! How great and how mighty! But I look at you and I think of you like Gideon, and I think, Lord, they're gathering the leftovers. That's all they're getting, is just the leftovers. But I remember the angel so well when he came by. He looked over there and he saw Gideon so tired and weary and cast down. I know some of you have been like that. Couldn't hardly lift up your head. But he looked over at Gideon and I know it must have been some more shock to Gideon when that angel looked out there and that angel said, Oh, thou mighty man of valor. I imagine that tore Gideon all to pieces. He probably started looking around and thought, What in the world is that? What in the world is that fellow saying? Who is he? And he looked at him standing by admiring him and looking at him and said, Oh, thou mighty man of valor! Gideon was just a defeated nobody. But, see? He saw Gideon in the eyes of God. You are not to know a man after the flesh, his defeats, his sorrows. You're not to know him like that. But, see? The angel of God knew the purpose of God and he knew that Gideon, the same one that was in the fields, taking the leftovers, that God was going to raise him up and make him a mighty warrior and a mighty chief and a mighty captain. And that he was going to be God's chief of host and go down there and win the war and save Israel. He just looked at him and admired him, you know, just like you would a great leader, or president or something. Said, Oh, thou mighty man of valor! Oh, thou mighty man of valor! A lot of times I'll pick up your spirits. You come in here, you sisters, and you brothers, you come in here and I pick up your spirit and you're so cast down, you feel so defeated. And I just back off and look and I think, God, a daughter and a son of the living God! How can they be cast down like that? Don't they know they belong to God? That they're eternal in the eyes of God? Mighty men and women of valor! Great women the Bible calls them. Great and mighty men like Elijah. And I look at you and I think, Lord, how can they be like that? Surely, surely they've never been told. They've never been told who they are. How can a daughter of God have a cast down spirit? How can a son of God stand with a cast down spirit? How can He do it? How can He do it when his Father is God? If your father was the president today in the natural, would you be cast down? If your father was the president, or if your father was a king would you be cast down in the natural? No. You'd walk around and everywhere you went they'd know that you were a king's son, or a king's daughter. God is my Father, folks. God is my Father. You know why a lot of people are cast down? It's because they don't really believe that in their heart. The devil harasses them so much they're always in question as to whether they really are the sons and daughters of God. They say, Well, everybody else but not me. But I'll tell you what, let him that don't have a Heavenly Father say He's my Father. If you're weak say I'm strong. If you're sick say I'm healed. Not healed because I say I'm healed, but healed because He said by His stripes I'm healed. He said I'm His son. He said He forgave my sins. I'm His son. I'm His daughter. Isn't that right? That's the way it should be. That's the way it should be. And I'll tell you what, when you take that courage all of the bad things, everything that's ever harassed you, everything that's ever caused you trouble will all of a sudden fade away into nothing. Just nothing. And you'll find yourself standing there saying, My God! My God! I've never felt like this in my life. Never have I felt like this in my life. God, never before have I felt like this. Never. God, I feel like I can do anything. David said, run through a troop and leap over a wall. I can do it by faith of God. No matter the circumstance, no matter what the trouble is, no matter what the problem is I can do it. Don't you believe you can do it? Don't you believe you can do it? Hallelujah! God is so good. Isn't He good? Hallelujah! Praise God! Hallelujah! I want Sister Charlotte to come around here. I want to pray for her. I can tell her spirit is cast down. I can tell she feels this morning, from picking up her spirit, I can tell she feels just exactly like I'm saying. She wants to do something for God. She's had a hard road to travel and the devil has taken advantage of her and it's really put her in a bad situation. She needs help from God and we're going to pray for her.............I felt impressed to pray for her. I'm going to pray for her this morning. I want you to lift your hands up..........Lift your hands up. You know, a lot of times you don't realize the sorrow and the heartache. You can't fathom the great sorrows and heartaches of life. You don't know. You just can't understand. People go in some deep waters and it's hard for them to find their way out again, or be able to get out again. I want you to pray. Many of you have heartaches and sorrows. Many of you have loved ones and you're real concerned about them, but I want you to pray. As I pray with Sister Charlotte this morning I want you to pray with me and I want you to ask God to help her. Ask God to give her strength. She's down here for a purpose. God didn't bring her here for nothing. There is a reason why He has brought her down here. Father, Lord of Heaven, in the name of Jesus, I'm thankful for Your wonderful presence. And Jesus, I ask You to minister to my sister this morning. In the name of Jesus. Hallelujah! I feel the Holy Ghost, Father. I feel Your Holy presence. Fill this body and this life with strength. And I feel You doing it now. (Tongues) I feel the Holy Ghost, Father. I feel Your presence, God. Father, heal in the name of Jesus. Heal right now. Oh, God......... Let's just lift our hands up and praise Him, can we? Hallelujah! Father, in the name of Jesus this morning. (Tongues) Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! (Tongues) Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! (Tongues) Lord, we thank You for Your lovely presence this morning. For the mighty infilling of the Holy Ghost. The mighty flow of Calvary. (Tongues) Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Praise God! Hallelujah! If my people who are called by my name, if they shall humble their hearts and pray I shall hear from heaven and I shall heal their lands. Yea, and I shall go in and out among them and I shall be as a great light unto them as a lamp unto their feet. Yea, and I shall walk in their presence and their wives shall be as a fruitful vine and their little ones as olive plants about their table if they shall hear my words, saith the Lord. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Can we lift our hands up and love Him? Hallelujah! Lord, God of Heaven, we love You and praise You this morning, asking You to be in our midst. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! God, in the wonderful name of Jesus this morning, Father, we ask you to be with us and help us. In the lovely name of Jesus. In the lovely name of Jesus. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Let's sing this little chorus while we're worshipping God, can we? Hallelujah! Give me another key, Sister. A little bit higher. Let's love the Lord, can we? (Singing)

By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr.

Founder and first President of Jesus Christ’s Eternal Kingdom of Abundant Life, Inc.

Holiness Unto The Lord