Ah Ooh, ooh, ooh. Ooh, la la la la la la la la la Hallelujah. God ruler of the universe, you are. There is There's no one like you, God giver of the deepest dreams you are. There is no one like you.
God think of what tremendous thoughts you are Thinking for God Royal, holy, true you are And there is no one like you Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah Welcome to Love Never Fails. In these last days, revival will come. but begins with our individual walk and personal relationship with Jesus. Let's join Brother John now.
Well, good morning. We're so glad you're with us on this. Beautiful day. I don't know about you, but I'm grateful for today. Today's going to be a good day.
And I just want to share a word with you today. That I've had the honor of sharing around the world and uh shared it in many different countries and and Part of uh my heart is not just that uh Some people would see miracles, signs, and wonders, and some people would experience the presence of God, and some people. Would become those that we hear rumors about and stories about. And, oh, have you heard about this guy? Have you heard about that guy?
Personally, usually when people ask me those questions, I'm always like, no, I don't follow anybody. I don't pay attention to Christendom. I don't follow Christian TV. And I couldn't tell you what the number one Christian song is. You know, I would not.
Know what the relevant worship music is if I didn't have kids. And I just don't, I quit following all of that years ago. And one of the things that happened to me years ago is the Lord. Showed me some things in scripture. And I've preached this message, it is written for a couple of decades now.
And I want to share it with you because I'm a firm believer in being a word in the spirit guy. And if I can find it in the word, then. I can have faith for it. I can apply my belief system, my heart to it, and I can have an expectation that if God can do it to them, because God is no respecter of persons, if you have faith, he's going to show up. If you love him, you're going to walk with him.
And if you're walking with him, as it says in John 17, well, you should really just read John 13 through 17. If you're walking with him, that means you're abiding with him. And he said that if you would obey his command, that he and the father would come and abide in you. And to me, that's the end game. That's the whole thing: not whether we make it to heaven or hell, but that we.
Walk with Jesus in this realm. We walk with him in the cool of the day, much like Adam did before Adam sinned. And if Jesus paid the price, if Jesus came and fulfilled the needed sacrifice to To restore man to that relationship with God, then that means you and I can walk with God in the cool of the day. And so we have these fleshly bodies we live in that we've got to learn to put down, that we've got to learn to, as they say, crucify the flesh so that our souls. And our spirits can rise up and that through our soul we can begin to interact with the Spirit of God and walk in the earth as He intended us to walk.
I do not believe that a Christian is the goal. I do not believe being a Christian is the end game. To me, a Christian is somebody Who knows one or two scriptures, they own a Bible, that yes, they've confessed Jesus as Lord. They've got their fire insurance. They go to church on Sunday morning and they don't break any rules.
They're good people. They're moral people. To me, that's a Christian. I'm not looking to be just a Christian. I'm looking to be a child of God.
I'm looking to have God abide in me. I'm looking to reside with God in this earth. And based on scripture, I don't believe that's something that happens in the sweet by and by. It happens, it can happen here in this realm. And so I have preached this message.
It is written numerous times, and I want to share it for you, and I want to get it out there. And hopefully, it inspires you that if you can find where he's talking about you in scripture, then can you do what these people did? You know, there's a scripture. That we'll talk about through this. In Isaiah 11:11.
It says, speaking of Emmanuel, it's a prophecy concerning Jesus. And it says, he'll do as he's commanded to do, he'll do what his father says do. And then in John 7, Jesus says, I do only as I see the father do. I speak only as he hears the father speak, and I save judgment for him alone. He stood up in Luke chapter 4 and he said, he read out of Isaiah and he said, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he's anointed me to preach the gospel, to proclaim freedom of prisoners, recovery of sight to the blind, and to release the oppressed.
And he said, Today, this prophecy is fulfilled in your hearing. There's another example of this when Jeremiah, in the first six chapters of Jeremiah, he is pleading with the shepherds and the religious leaders of their day to get back to the ancient path. He called it the ancient path. And they kept saying, oh, we're good with the law. We're good with the status quo.
We're good with things the way they are. But yet people were crying out. People were suffering and people were not receiving what they should have received from God. And he keeps pleading with them. I believe it's in chapter six.
He says to them, He says, You stand at a crossroads. Choose the ancient path. And they say, No, we're good with the path we're on. We're good with the law. We're good with the religion the way that it is.
These civil servants who were called pastors refused. To acknowledge that there was something wrong. They loved it the way that it was, and they chose the law over the ancient path. And you might say, well, what's the ancient path? Because, you know, in the day of Jeremiah, The law was only several hundred years old.
The law handed down on the day of Pentecost by Moses was only several hundred years old at that point. And he's pleading with them. To get back to the ancient path, what was the ancient path? The ancient path, we know, and we've got other topics, stories about this, is the law of love. And so, because that's God is love, and John tells us that in the beginning.
There was the law. He says, Dear sister, greatly overjoice me to know that you and your children continue in the truth. Not as though I write you a new command, but one we've had. from the beginning and it's that greek word arch which means eternal beginning meaning as long as god was this law always was and that law is the command of love where jesus said in john 13 34 in your bible it says today i give you a new command in the original language he says today i renew with you the eternal original command which is to love one another and so i i you know even david said over and over and over said and god said if you'll love god with all of your heart all of your soul all of your strength david charged his son solomon love god with all of your soul all of your strength every part of your being and yet there's this law in the land that was handed down from moses what g what does david say follow the law of love And so Jeremiah was pleading with those leaders to come back to the ancient law, and they refused to do it. Uh long short.
Uh It brought about their destruction. It brought about the destruction. of Israel. And so it turned into this thing where After that, Jeremiah is known as the weeping prophet, and the destruction came. And so 70 years later, a man named Daniel.
Is reading the book of Jeremiah. And it says he had understanding. His eyes were open. Ephesians says, pray that your eyes of understanding would be enlightened.
So I pray that as we share this message, your eyes of understanding would be enlightened, as they were for Daniel. And he understood from the prophet Jeremiah that the time of the exile was over. 70 years had passed. And so, because he found the place where it was written, he reacted and responded to it. And after that, the king said, Yes, you can go back to Israel.
Matter of fact, I believe Cyrus even gave them money. And so Nehemiah went back and rebuilt the wall. Other people went back and built the temple. And there was one Haggai, who, if you go read that book in the very first chapter, people who were returning, he was bringing the elderly back. These are people who had seen the original temple in all of its glory before it had been destroyed.
And When they saw the second temple, They fell down and cried and said, is it as if there's no glory on this temple? There's no presence on this temple. And you get into this whole series of several hundred years where, yes, there's a temple and there's a religion and the sacrifice is restored. But there's no presence in it. There's no there's no glory in it.
And and the people Ask the question that maybe you and I ask. Is this as good as it gets? Is this all there is? What happened to all the things I hear about? What about the miracles that I read about?
How come they happen in the Bible, but I don't see them happening in the real world? How come I hear about miracles that happened for missionaries overseas, but why don't they happen here in America? Why, why, why, why? And you end up in conflict with God because... You Maybe you aren't reading it for yourself, studying it for yourself.
Or maybe you don't realize it, but you're stuck in the church system. of a second temple that A second-day church that has no glory, has no power. It's not that miracles, signs, and wonders have ceased. That's doctrine that's made up to excuse away why these preachers have no miracles, signs, and wonders. Because when what's not working and should be working, you have to make an excuse for why it's not working.
So instead of going to the word of God and saying, hey, here's what the word says, they make up doctrine. To excuse themselves and salve their own guilt and consciousness. For not having the presence of God. And yet, Jesus himself said, and you need to go study and live in John 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18. Those important chapters.
But Jesus even prayed in John 18, he said, and my prayer is not for them alone, but for any who would believe. Any who would believe And so, I want to share this message with you today about this amazing king that lived. His name was Josiah. And the amazing thing is that Kings, you know, Kings, the book of Kings, and Kings 2, pretty much you can read it in two different places. You can read it in Kings 1.
or Chronicles one or 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles. The story is repeated. A lot of stories are repeated. And this particular king in. 1 Kings chapter 13, King Jeroboam, who is not a righteous king, he's making sacrifices and doing things according to his own desires, meaning he's kind of made his own religion.
He's not following the law of God. He is not loving God with all of his heart, all of his soul, all of his strength. And so he starts setting up altars and sacrifices and things apart from the will of God. And then here comes a prophet. And in 2 Kings 1.
In 1 Kings chapter 13, or you can read about it in 2 Chronicles chapter 15. Basically. This prophet comes in and says, O altar, altar, upon you the Bones of these priests who have misled you will be burned. He's basically saying you're being misled by all these priests. And yet, these are the same lineage of people that Jeremiah ends up.
Prophesying to, and they still. Keep following after these rules and regulations and a church of smoke and mirrors. And Jeroboam even says sees that man, and when he does, his hand shrivels up. And then Jeroboam asked the prophet to pray that God would restore his hand, and he did, but he didn't repent. He did not repent of his false religion.
He did not repent of the things that he'd been doing wrong. And so what happened? The altar was broken and and then People forgot about what he said. And one of the things he said is: there will be a king from the lineage of David by the name of Josiah. He named the name.
And do you know, 322 years later, you can go to. Uh 1 Kings chapter 22, or you can go to 2 Chronicles and read about this for yourself. 34, he says. Then At eight years old. King Josiah was made king.
And The history of King Josiah is that he was raised by his grandmother who taught him the law and taught him about loving God with all of your heart, all of your soul, all of your strength. And so King Josiah is put on the crown or on the throne at eight years old. When he's 16, He begins to clean things up. He begins to he adds an understanding. He tries to get rid of some of the high places and some of the altars that were sacrificing to false gods.
But when he's eight years after that, when he's 24 years old, He had given a command to clean out the temple. And when they were cleaning out the temple, they found, which means it wasn't even being used, if you think about that, in the process of cleaning out the temple. They find the book of the law. They find The record Of the law. And in that law, which we would know as kings at that time.
Uh They find the place. They begin to read it to him, and his name comes up. And the prophecy comes up. When he hears it, he rends his garments. He repents and he cries.
Cries out and he starts, he restores the temple. He brings back all the correct things. And it says that there was no revival since then. as great as the as the revival of King Josiah Since King David. Think about that.
Since King David, nobody went after the heart of God like Josiah did.
So here's this king. He's put on the throne at eight years old, and he begins to do what's right. He's got wisdom in his life. It's his grandmother. And then at the age of 16, he's pursuing God.
And eight years after that, he finds the prophecy written about who he is. It didn't happen at day one, he was on the throne. Didn't happen right away, but he found the place where he was written about. And he went for it with all of his heart, all of his soul, and all of his strength. And There'd never been another revival in Israel since King David, like the revival that King Josiah brought.
Think about that. 322 years later. And you've probably heard that there are thousands of prophecies that speak about Jesus, how Jesus, there's Emmanuel will come, the Messiah will come, and they were looking for him. And then he came. And so I share with you that here are these, here's people who are saying, hey, King Josiah.
You're written about in the Word of God. I'm saying to you today. You are written about and prophesied about in the Word of God that you and I were seeing. thousands of years ago. Thousands of years ago, we were seen.
And so I'm going to kind of take what is going to seem like a rabbit trail here. But if you're in your Bible, I want you to go to Deuteronomy. Chapter 28. And this is key because so many of you, you have prayer requests, you have things you're asking of God. Oh, God, this, oh, God, that.
Why can't this? Why can't that? And I want to show you. Your step. Where you can go, what you can do, how you can come to the place of.
Understanding, that your eyes may be enlightened, that you may know to hope. That's what Paul prayed. He said that your eyes would be understanding, that you being rooted and grounded in love, would come to know. Come to know the hope to which he has called you. See, your eternal purpose is not just to be a Christian.
Your eternal purpose is not heaven or hell. Your eternal purpose is to walk with God. That is the hope of which He has called us. And it goes on to say that you would no longer be swayed back and forth by the cunning teachings of men. King Jeroboam was swayed back and forth by the cunning teachings of men.
That's why God sent the prophet to prophesy to them. And the whole prophecy came to pass. King Jeremiah, when he was prophesying to them, he was the one telling the truth. But all the other prophets who were swayed by the cunning teachings of men said, No, we like the path that we're on. We're good, we're obeying the law.
There you go.
Okay, you get the law. You want to live by the law. You get the law. And Jeremiah said, No, there's another path, and it is the path of love. It's an ancient path, is what he called it.
It's a path that has existed as long as God has been. And don't ask me what the answer to that is because I don't know. He was and always will be. By him and through him, all things are created and have their being.
So he always was and always will. And yet, God has said there's a time coming, there's a place coming in which you and I would begin to become or live. I'll say it like this, because we can choose, this is a choice. This is not something that you're going to walk in just because you're in that time. Not going to happen.
Because you can be like the priests of Jeroboam that were deceiving him. They were deceived and they deceived him. You could be like the priests and the civil servants called pastors who were deceived in the day of Jeremiah and they refused to follow the path, as he called it, the way. And so it's a choice that you make. What I want to do is show you from the Word of God how you can make that choice.
and that you should make the choice with the right information. You know, I remember for years I was like, Seems like there's stuff hidden from me. Why is it hidden from me? And then I started digging, I started searching, I went, wow. Because it is being hidden from me.
I wrote a book called Why the Fisherman Eating the Bait? That relates to a lot of that. Because it is being hidden from you. Because if these preachers and teachers and men of ministry who are building their own little kingdoms, if you find out what you're capable of and what you're able to do, you won't need them. You know, there's a story.
From World War II. In General Wainwright was his name. And General Wainwright was a POW at a Japanese. POW camp in China. The war ended.
The Japanese leaders or or guards of this POW camp didn't come out and go, oh, the war's over, you guys are free. No. It was probably, I think it was about three months after the war was over, after Japan surrendered. that an American plane flew over the POW camp. And at that point, when General Wainwright saw it, He realized There's no way that plane could be flying.
this deep into China. unless the war was over or the Japanese had lost.
So he walked right into the Japanese. Commandant's or general's office of the POW camp. And the Japanese who were armed. The POWs were not. But because General Wayne Wright knew the truth.
He walked in and the Japan or the Japanese turned the camp over to him. When he found out the truth, it changed everything. And so I want you to hear the truth. I want you to understand. I want your eyes to be enlightened that you may know.
You can say, well, Brother John, I don't know if you may not agree with me. Maybe you don't like the way I'm sharing the truth. Maybe, I don't know, you don't like the sound of my voice. Don't let any of that stop you from understanding the message of the truth. Because God is truth, God is light, God is love.
And if I can help. Share the truth, if you bring you into the light, then what need are you of all these other teachers that are building their own kingdoms and building these boats to get rocked back and forth by the cutting teachings of men? You don't need to be that way. You can stop going to church every Sunday and feel like the football goal is the goalposts are being moved every Sunday. Because that's the neurotic Christianity that is preached in this country.
Is every Sunday you go to church, you gotta fix this, you gotta fix that, you gotta why? Because they're preaching to the sinful man, they're preaching to the second nature, the fallen man, they're preaching to your flesh. They're not preaching to the spirit man that lives on the inside of you. The spirit man that lives on the inside of you, all of creation is waiting for it to be revealed, according to Romans 8:19. But the modern-day church is still preaching a second-day church message.
A church that, like the people of Haggai, fell down and said, Is there as if there's no presence, no glory on this church? That's right, because there is no glory on the church. It's a smoke and mirrors church.
Now listen, I'm not talking about the bride. I'm talking about the system of the Western mindset church that most people are a part of. And the reason I can say most of you are part of it because one, I have word on it, which is a whole nother teaching. But secondly, because If you were walking with Jesus. According to the word of God.
things would be immensely different. in your area.
Okay. In your area, if even right now you were listening to this and there's a tug in your heart that. Yeah. Yeah, I've got those questions, then you're not walking in it. Why are you not walking it?
Is it because they don't want you to see it? They distract you every Sunday with all these other things that they want you to do? Apart from What's your already created To do? And so let's go to Deuteronomy and let me share two things out of this. This is Old Testament.
So, one of the things we're going to have to do is I'm going to explain it to you. We're going to read it in the Old Testament because when you read this and you see what God wants to do for you and how He says it in here, then we're going to translate in New Testament terms of what that means. But in Deuteronomy, Uh 28. I love this. Verses one through fourteen.
And it says, It shall come to pass that if you hearken diligently, did you hear that? Hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, and observe to do his commandment, then Then I will command this day that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all the nations of the earth, and all of these blessings shall come on thee. I don't know about you, but I don't even know what blessings I got. God wants to bless me with. But here he's going to say some of it, and I could use some of this.
And he says, and overtake thee, and you shall hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God. That's the second time he said that. Hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God. And if you say, well, Brother John, how do I hear the voice of the Lord thy God? Number one place you can hear the voice of the Lord thy God is in the Word of God.
And I'm sharing you a message right out of the Word of God.
So all I am is a mouthpiece to what I'm reading to you.
Okay? This is the Word of God. It says, Blessed shall thou be in the city. Blessed shall thou be in the field.
So no matter where you are, you're going to be blessed. Blessed shall they be the fruit of the body, meaning you're going to have plenty of kids. And the fruit of thy ground and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kind and the flocks. That means whatever you're involved with is going to increase. Whatever you're involved in, whether it's children, whether it's your work, whatever you put your hand to, you're going to increase.
Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store. That means your storehouse and what you're eating out of daily and your bank accounts. It says, Blessed shall they be when thou comest in, and blessed will you be when you go out. No matter where you go, you're going to be blessed. And the Lord shall cause thy enemies to rise up against thee, to be smitten before thee, and they should come out of one way and flee you in seven ways.
And the Lord shall command his blessings upon thee and your storehouses. In all of thou settest. And all that you set your hands to, he will bless thee in the land which the Lord has given you.
So he's going to give you land. He's going to bless you in that land. All of this is just the blessing to God. And the Lord established the holy people unto himself. Man, that's John chapter 15 right there.
That he shall establish you. He says in John 15 that if you will abide in him, that he and Jesus would take up. They will abide and reside in you. I mean, that's that's amazing. And if thou keepeth the commands of the Lord.
Uh-oh. That's the second time he said that about the command.
So twice now he said, hearken. And keep the command. And if you walk in his ways.
So, his command and his walking his ways are really the same thing: to love God with all of your heart, all of your soul, all of your strength. And he says, And of all the people in the north shall see it and by the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of thee.
So, his blessing and his presence on your life will be so great that the rest of the world will see it. And the Lord shall make thee plenteous in goods, and the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of the cattle, and the fruit of the ground, and the land for which the Lord swore to give his fathers to you. And the Lord shall open up to you his good treasure, and heaven shall give rain into the land of the season, and bless all the work of your hands, and shall lend unto many, and you shall not borrow. And the Lord will make thee the head and not the tail, and thou shalt be above, and thou shalt not be belief or beneath. If you will hearken unto the commands of the Lord, which I command you this day to observe them all.
Listen to that.
So, three times he's basically telling you: hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God. and to obey his command. Three times. The last time he combines it into one statement, but then he goes on in verse 15. He says, if you don't hearken and you don't obey the command, and here's the thing: verse 15 through what is it?
It ends with verse 44. That's. all the junk. The curse that you'll live under. if you don't do that.
That's Old Testament.
So, the two key, three key things I want you to get out of that. One, The blessing of the Lord will run you down and overtake you. I used to joke with our Bible school students when we'd be out doing evangelism. I said, Y'all walk behind me. Why, Brother John?
I said, Because when the blessing of the Lord runs me down and overtakes you, I want a witness because it's coming. It says he's going to run me down, which means it's coming from behind and it's going to overtake me. And I want you guys behind me so you see it so that when I'm getting up off the ground and I say, What happened? Where did all this come from? You go, man, it was the Lord coming from behind, Brother John.
It's a joke. But that's, I'm trying to change mindsets. I'm trying to get people to understand what God wants to do for us. And he says that he wants to do this for you. He wants you to have children, he wants you to be blessed in the land, he wants your bank accounts full.
Why? Because he says you'll lend to nations and you'll be a witness for him. You'll be a witness to him when all of this happens to you. But it doesn't happen to you. It's funny because nowhere does it tie any of the blessing.
Any of the blessing. To you doing anything but two things. Be led by the Spirit. and walk in love. And now, see, I changed it, didn't I?
See, it says, hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God. In the New Testament terms, we call that being led by the Spirit.
Okay, Paul said those who are led by the Spirit are the sons or the children of God.
So we know that being led by the Spirit, and if we will be led by the Spirit, that this will happen to us. The other thing he says is to walk in love. And that's the command. Jesus said, Today, I will renew with you the original eternal command. John says in 1 John and 2 John, he goes, I'll quote the one from 2 John.
He says, Dear sister, it greatly overjoys me to know that you and your children continue in the truth. I love that. Think about that word truth. He says, not as though I write you a new command, but one that we've had from the eternal beginning. And this is a command.
that you love one another. If God is love, and his character is love. Everything about God is love. and truth and light. Then his children who are created in his image are what?
They're supposed to be love. And when Adam and Eve walked in the garden, they were love. They were spirit creatures first, which would have been the spirit of love. But when they ate of the apple, which they were never intended for the knowledge of good and evil, they were never intended, we, you and I, were never intended for the knowledge of good and evil. But because Adam ate of that tree, Yes, we died.
Spiritually, we died. That's why we have to be born again. Not in a physical body, that's what Jesus and Nicodemus talked about, but born of the Spirit. And Romans tells us, Paul tells us that when we are born again, That God deposits within us a portion of his nature, his love nature, a love seed is deposited in you. You have responsibility to make it grow.
And you grow just like you do any other muscle, any other thing. You exercise it. That's what the word agapeo, it's the daily practice of walking in love. Agapeo is always associated with to love. It's always associated with the command.
It's an action. It's what you do. Yeah. And as you walk in love and as you obey the command and as you In the least try, what happens? You become love.
You become the thing that you practice and do every day. You know, if you're an accountant, You didn't start out knowing everything there was about accounting, but at some point in your life, you should become an expert on it. If you were a baseball player now, there was a day and age when you just walked on the field and you had no idea how to even throw the ball properly. If you're a carpenter, there was a time when you showed up on the job site and somebody had to teach you how to use a tape measure and how to read blueprints and how to cut a rafter. If you're, you know, when you learned how to drive, somebody had to teach you which gear meant this, which gear meant that.
And at some point, you teach your own kids that.
So life is a progression of learning. And it's the same way in the spirit. As we're born again, Paul said, as newborn babes. As we're born again, we have to begin to grow. We have to begin to bring out this thing that's on the inside of us called our spirit.
And our spirit should, at some point, Become the thing that leads us, guides us, and as it becomes a witness of who we are. You know, I mean, you've probably heard the stories.
Well, there is a story in the Bible. I don't have to tell you stories about other people that did it, I can tell you about Peter. Peter walking, it says even his shadow, they were healed. And this is after Peter had denied Christ. He denied Christ.
And that's important to you. Excuse me for a second. That's important to you and I. Because here's Peter who spent three years walking with Jesus, three and a half years walking with Jesus. You'd think in three and a half years he'd learned some things.
And then what did he do? He denied Christ. He denied Christ. What about Thomas, who doubted? What about the rest of the apostles and soon to become apostles and disciples who were hiding in the upper room in fear of being arrested by the Romans?
When Jesus walked through the wall, he didn't. cuss them out. He didn't rail against them. He didn't rebuke them for their sin. Because they were in sin.
No, he walked and said peace. Peace. And so, where are you at? Have you denied Christ? Have you done some of these dumb things?
In fear and whatever, part of it because your eyes are not open and you don't have understanding. Maybe you were young. Who knows what it is? Who cares? Because you know what?
Jesus is forgiving you. Jesus already knows. You've been forgiven. And he's saying to you, peace. Peace, whatever it is you're going through, peace.
I'm right here. Let me in. Bam. You know, what you know, well, Brother John, you don't know my sin, really. What about the guy who is hanging on the cross?
One chosen, one did not. And what did Jesus say to the one? Today you'll be with me in paradise. Did the man repent? Did the man go through all your religious battle of the mind?
To receive The reward? Did he go through all the religious Prayers that Churches make us pray. No, he recognized him as Lord. That's all he had to do. I love 1 John because one of the things 1 John says in chapter 4, he says, and this is the gospel: that you believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ and obey his command.
And his command is not grievous, but it is to love. That's it. That's the gospel. That's the good news. And we have this Bible, this history that helps us fill it out, flesh it out.
So, why?
So, we can get past your thinking. We can get past your nature. We can get past the fallen human nature that you and I live in, this flesh, and all the experiences and all the junk that we've piled on top of it. And then, that seed, we say, Yes, I believe Jesus. And he puts that seed in our heart, and that seed is in there, just waiting, waiting.
And for some of us, it begins to grow.
Some of us, we go to heaven and we're still babes because we never did anything with it, because maybe we were deceived, or we never, who knows, we never got around somebody who would tell us the truth. And so there are people sitting in churches who have who they're babies still. They argue about this stuff that even Paul says, why are you arguing about elementary things like salvation and this and that and faith? And yet, we have whole denominations built on the things that Paul said are elementary teachings. Paul said, This: I pray that your eyes of understanding would be enlightened, that you may know the hope to which you are called.
That's what this is about. What is the hope to which you are called? Because where you are right now is not what you've been called to, it is not your eternal purpose. Your eternal purpose. Is what all of creation is waiting for.
Romans 8:19, that all of creation is waiting with eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. That is not something that's going to happen in heaven. Because creation has nothing to do with heaven. This earth and these trees and these stones and everything around us has nothing to do with the heaven. It has to do with the right here and now physical world, and all of it is crying out for you and I to become what we're supposed to become.
Think about that. This sounds so different to so many of you because you don't hear about it preached in churches. You hear about a little bit here, a little bit there, and you go, Yeah, that sounds right. But then what happens? You go to church Sunday morning, they tell you, they moved the goalposts.
You need to do this, you need to do that, you need to get involved in this. And yet, God's saying, I'm right here. I'm right here. I'm right here. I want to abide in you.
John chapter 17, I want to abide in you. If you abide in me and I abide in you, if you obey my commands, my father and I will abide in you. We will take up our residency. That's what Jesus is saying. That is the right now message of the church.
That Jesus is saying, if you open your eyes. My Father and I will abide in you, and you will become the witness in the world that we need. You may not realize it, but there's a revival going on outside of the United States around the world. Did you know that? Right now, the greatest revival, the end times revival, is starting.
It's beginning to take place. Why don't you hear about it in America? Why don't you hear about it in your church? Why don't you hear about it? Why aren't you seeing it out on the street?
I mean I'm going out, I'm trying, I'm doing what I know to do. But, you know, there's a reason why Jesus imparted this gospel to all of us. You know, science figured out, mathematicians or whoever figured out. That if Jesus stayed on the earth, he never ascended into heaven, but he stayed right there in Jerusalem. He set up camp in one spot, and every human being that lived.
would have an opportunity to spend one second with him. And he would never be able to sleep or eat. Because he don't he'd have a line. That basically constantly would always be filled. And you and I would have to stand in that line for 137 years to get to spend one minute or one second with Jesus.
He couldn't have done it. He couldn't have done it in his mortal body.
So he released, he says, You will receive power when the spirit comes on you. Why? Because he made us his witnesses, he made us his disciples so we can carry this message of freedom, of restoration, of being back in the garden and walking with God and walking with God in the cool of the day and be free from this, the symptoms and the diseases and all the junk that comes with the flesh. It's not about heaven or hell. It's about the presence of God.
And see, the church has been preaching heaven and hell instead of preaching the presence of God, instead of preaching the sonship of God, instead of preaching that you're what all of creation is waiting for. What I'm preaching to you is not a. Second day. Smoke and mirrors church. And there's a whole nother series that we're going to have to do that I've been preaching for years that goes hand in hand with this.
We don't live in the second day anymore. From the year of Jesus, from the time of Jesus, we live in the third day. Go read Mark 4. Why did it say after three days? And later on, it says after the sixth day.
Well, the third day from Jesus is the day we're living in right now. After the sixth day from creation is the day we're living in right now. Why is Hosea chapter 6, verse 2, say, in the second day I'll restore you?
Well, if you look at church history, what happened from the year 1000 to year 2000, the second day? Because remember, prophets look forward, and he lived a few hundred years before Jesus.
So he was looking forward into what we call the three days post-Jesus.
So the day of Jesus died. Whatever, zero to the year 1,000 is the first day. And then from 1,000 to 2,000 is the second day.
So we now live in the third day, a day in the eyes of the Lord is a thousand years, according to Peter. And so in the second day, there was a revival that broke out. We call it the Reformation. For a reason, and there were prophecies all about it. You can go study the church history and read all about it, and you can find any flavor of it you want.
But basically, what happened is slowly but surely the church was restored. And in the year 1901, we all know about that was the first year of the last century. Azusa broke out on January 1, well, I don't know if Azusa broke out on January 1st. I believe it was Topeka, Kansas broke out on the first day of January of 1901. And then Charles Parnham received the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
He then went to Houston and shared it with William Seymour. And William Seymour went out to Azusa and shared it out there. And then from there, it went to North Carolina. We had Frank Bartleman out here in North Carolina. And so it just went around the world.
They're not the only ones that were filled with the Holy Spirit. And not everybody traces their roots back to Azusa, but it's the most popular one. And so it's the one you maybe have heard of. And so we see that at the beginning of the last century, there was a restoration of the truth of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit baptism always occurred.
It always happened. It's just now the unveiling, the revelation from the word was upon us. And then, not long after that, came healing. Even though healing has always existed in the bride.
Now, healing became a revelation. And after World War II, it was very important. We had what was called the healing revival. And there were evangelists that went around. Healing all kinds of people in the Western world and in Europe and in the United States.
Then, not long after that, we had a restoration of teaching. And the teachers came out in the, I'd say, 60s and 70s. And I'm telling you now that even now people are going, oh, the apostles, there were people running around in the 90s and early 2000s going, I'm an apostle this. I'm like, no, no, no, no, no. No, not yet.
Not time. But you can see from church history that these things have been restored, that these things are coming back.
Well, that's a fulfillment of Hosea chapter 6, verse 2. And the second half that says, and in the third day I'll restore you, that you will live in my presence. He wants to live in your presence. He wants you to live in his presence. It's about the presence of God.
And that's right there in scripture, Hosea chapter 6, verse 2, that you may live in my presence. That's not up in the here and by and by after the rapture. That's in this realm, in this earthly realm. That's his desire. And so let me so.
We've talked about Deuteronomy that these blessings, the presence of God, that you become a witness. How? But being led by the Spirit and by walking in love.
So let me take you to another verse. Let me take you, let's just talk about walking in love for a few minutes. Just a few verses. 1 Corinthians. Chapter 14, verse 1.
Well, I know what that says. I don't have to turn to it. But he says this in 1 Corinthians chapter 14.
Well, you know, chapter 13 is all about love, but the key, such a key part of that is in verse 14, where he says, Paul says You know, man put the chapter and verse in there. Paul says this in verse one of chapter 14. He goes, and I pray, or he says, make this the The journey of your life, the quest of your life. He said, follow after love or pursue after love. And he used the word love there.
It's agape, the now, the presence of God. He says, make this the greatest quest of your life, the presence of God. Think about that. That's Paul saying, make that the greatest presence of your life. In 1 John 3, verse 23, I mentioned that to you earlier.
It says, and this is the gospel, that you believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ and obey his command, that you love one another. His command is not greesome that you love one another. And then he says, and you can go to John chapter, 1 John 4, verse 7. He says, Let us love because God is love. I mean, how simple can that be?
So Jesus even said in John 13, 34, he said, and this is my new command that you love one another, even as I have loved you. And Jesus did not say in the actual language, he said, and today I renew with you the eternal command that you love one another, even as I have loved you.
So you see, walking in love is the new love God with all of your heart, all of your soul, all of your strength from the Old Testament. We now call it walking in love, follow after love. And now we're not like the people of the Old Testament who are looking forward to the Messiah coming to allow that to happen. No, we're living post-Messiah. or post-death, burial, and resurrection, where we now have access into those things.
And that's the amazing difference between the New Testament and the Old Testament is in the Old Testament, it was all in the future, all in the future, until Jesus came in the Gospels, which really is still part of the Old Testament until the resurrection. And then in the New Testament, we now are post-resurrection and we can now enter into all the things that those people in the Old Testament were crying out for and are wanting and they talked about. And they, like you said, is this as good as it gets? Where's God? Where's God?
Where's the rest of it? Where's God? And so many of us are still doing that because we're living, we're trying to live in this second day church, in a powerless, empty, no-presence church. And that's not the way God meant for it to be.
Now, I also want to share with you, it says in a Um Let's talk about being led by the Spirit. I've given you a few verses. There are. Dozens. I've got other episodes out there about walking in love and why love cannot fail.
You can go study those for yourselves. But he says, let's talk about being led by the Spirit for a moment.
Okay. If you're led by the Spirit, Romans 8:14 says, those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. And it says in Acts chapter 15, verse 28, it seemed to God and us. I love that because here's the Holy Spirit. And it's saying it seems good to us and the Holy Spirit.
It seems right. We have kinship with the Holy Spirit. We have communication with the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit's saying, yep, yep, yep, yep.
Now, the Holy Spirit can also say, no, no, no, no, no. He did that with Paul. And it says, he said to Paul in chapter 20, verse 23: And this Holy Spirit is saying to Paul that in every city, He's got something, there's something, he's warning him. He's repeating it over and over and over. The Holy Spirit will repeat things to you over and over and over and over.
Trying to get it through to you. He did it with Paul. He led Paul to Macedonia. He did that. You know, and I can tell you that in my own life, I'm a green light guy, meaning I'm going to go, go, go, because God said go.
He said, go to nations. He said, I want you to go to nations. And so when I finally agreed to go to Nations, I had a green light. I don't look at it and go, where am I going to go next? Where am I going?
I just, I pray and I say, God, what's on your heart? If not, I'm going here and I'm going there and I go preach the gospel. He didn't tell me how to do it. It didn't tell me when to do it. Didn't tell me anything else.
He said, go. And so I saw that as a green light.
So I've been able to go to numerous nations and I go to. Those nations numerous times. I go into the underground church in a lot of these nations, places where bigwig preachers want to go and they can't get in. Why? Because if they got in, it would stir up the hornet's nest and shut down the ministry.
And so, you know, I'm a nobody, and I'm fine with being a nobody because I can go places nobody else can go. None of the others can go because they want to be somebody. And so, and I'm not saying that that's wrong because some of them are called to do what they do, but they're not going to get into countries they go to. I have a. one of my spiritual fathers cannot go to India.
Anymore because another preacher went to India and stirred up the Hornet's Nest, put a huge poster of himself on the side of a skyscraper, ticked off the radical Hindus. And now the Radical Hindus are all, they're just, they're still stirred up after, I think it's been 12, 13 years, still stirred up. And my spiritual father cannot go back to India. He got caught up in that mess because he was in that area and somebody turned him in. And so now they're blacklisted.
And so now he goes to another nation. And they're doing a better job of remaining undercover. But he was going to India for 20 years preaching the gospel, has probably preached to. I would say close to 15 to 20 million people. in that nation.
And one other preacher. doing his own thing. Ruined it for a lot of other preachers, including my spiritual mentor. And so, um, I can tell you that Sometimes the Holy Spirit will guide you away from those things. And I know years ago, I was supposed to go do a crusade.
in Paraguay and you can research this. And another young man and I, we were both, you know, under, I'm pretty sure I was still, I was still in my 20s. And We were going to go to Paraguay and do a crusade. On the way to the airport, I finally blurted out. I'd been in turmoil and prayer a few days.
And I'm going, how do I talk to him about this? Finally, in the car on the way to the airport, I said, I can't do this. And he lets out a, oh my God, thank you, thank you, thank you. I'm like, what's going on? He goes, Brother John, he said, I have been warned three nights in a row not to go.
And I said, Why didn't you tell me? He goes, Because you're the leader. I said, No, I'm not the leader. We're brothers in this together. We're both going to do this crusade together.
This is not about me. You know, and we turned the car around and went home. The following week, and you can go research this, go look up the revolts and the riots and the. I want to call it. I don't know if it got to the point of civil war, but it did get pretty close to civil war in the nation of Paraguay.
And the Wednesday. that we were supposed to be doing a crusade. In front of what they call the, it's a white building. They call it the white something. There's a huge cobblestone park.
big massive trees And we were going to have a stage there and we were going to preach the gospel. There. And that Wednesday night would have been the first night. of the Crusade, and in the cover of USA Today, was a color photo of a young man throwing a Molotov cocktail, and behind him you could see that big white congressional building. In the park.
that we are supposed to be preaching at. I saw that on USA Today. and you can go look it up for yourself. But the Spirit of God prevented us from getting on that plane and going there. And because of that, we were not caught up in that mess.
The Spirit of God did that. We had no knowledge about what was going to happen. And it broke out that week in that place that we were going to do a crusade. Go look it up. Uh the the Paraguayan riots and whatever happened.
Uh, this is probably, I think it uh I want to say 98 or 99. Maybe even 2000, somewhere in there. And but you can go look it up. And uh, it went on um, not long after that, I don't know if it was a year or two after that, somebody got assassinated. I mean, it went on for a while, so but it started the week that we were supposed to do that crusade, and so you know, my friend, you know.
Unfortunately, he didn't see that and he went home broken going, We missed God. No, we didn't miss God. We totally were protected by God. And it was 14 years later that he found out how God had protected us. And I don't know why he didn't know any of that.
Thought I'd communicate it, but apparently I hadn't. And, you know, I turned around and went to another nation a few weeks, you know, a few months later. And, but there were a lot of people going, oh, you missed God, you missed God. Of course, a lot of people around me, once they saw the USA article, you know, somebody even carried it into the church goes, were you? I said, yeah, that's the building.
They were supposed to do it. I want to say, I'm not exactly sure. I want to say that in that article, you can see the stage. You can see the stage in the background.
So, anyway, but you can go research that one on your own. That's a way that the Holy Spirit can guide you. And so let me let me share with you um Because we're going to wrap this up. Isaiah. 11:3 talks about Emmanuel, and it says, according to that, the spirit of Emmanuel, he would be led by the spirit.
And it says that of speaking of Jesus, Emmanuel, it begins to talk about him. And then we know in John chapter 8, verse Verse, I think it's 55, Jesus, it basically was like, I do, he says, I do as I see the Father do. I speak as I hear the Father speak, and I save judgment for him alone.
Well, he's basically repeating the prophecy of Isaiah 11:3. But then he says this. He says in John chapter 16, and I'm going to turn there and I want to read it word for word because this is where you and I come in. John chapter 16. Gotta lick my finger here.
He says this. Listen to this. Verses 7 through 13. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is expedient for you that I go away.
Remember what I said earlier? Jesus needed to go, give us his spirit so that we could go out there and be the witnesses and do what In the human form, he was incapable of doing. In the human form, you and I are incapable of doing. We would need to sleep. We would need to take a break.
We would need to do all these things. But with the millions of us that are Christians, we. Can be equipped to do what he called us to do. He says, It is expedient for you that I go away, for I do not, if I do not go away, the comforter, the Holy Spirit, will not be able to come to you. But if I do depart, I will be able to send him to you.
So he's saying, when I go, I'm going to be able to send to you the same spirit I had. The same spirit that I had, the Holy Spirit, he will then baptize you so that you can receive power. That's what he tells us. And that's what happens in Acts 2, 4. He says, And when he has come, he will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and of my judgment.
So you, how? How will? He says, well, he says the Holy Spirit's going to come to you. The Comforter is going to come to you. And by him coming to you, he will reprove the world of sin through you and of righteousness through you and of judgment through you.
of sin because they believe not on me of righteousness because i go to my father and you see me no more of judgment because the prince of the world is judged and i have yet many things to say unto you but you cannot hear them now So, Jesus is not going to remain silent, is he? He says, How be it when he, the spirit of truth, has come, he's still speaking to the comforter, the Holy Spirit, he will guide you in all truth.
So Jesus said, I do as I see the Father do. I speak as I hear the Father speak. And now he's saying, he will guide you in the same way. For he shall not speak of himself, but he whatsoever he hears, That he shall speak, and he will show you things to come.
So, what's he saying? He's saying, Of you, you and I, the listener, me, you, and anybody who listens to this, he goes, If you receive the Holy Spirit, if you receive the comforter, which is a promise that he's giving you right here, he will guide you in all truth. You can be led by your hearing, and you will speak as you hear me. He says, He will glorify me, for he will receive of mine and shall show it to you.
So he's telling you, hey. If you If you receive the Holy Spirit, and we know that Jesus with the sacrifice at Passover. 50 days later, they had. The next festival. Which is Pentecost.
And what happens on Pentecost? Pentecost is the day we know that the sacrifice was accepted because Pentecost, historically in the first temple, is when the Spirit of God, by blood, fight, fight, Fire and vapor or smoke would come down and lick The blood off the altar. That's how the blood was removed off the altar is because the Holy Spirit would come down on the day of Pentecost in smoke and vapor and fire and cleaned it off the altar.
So, what happened on the day of Pentecost? None of that happened in the second temple post-Daniel.
Okay, and it didn't happen in the days of Jesus. But then, Jesus saying it's going to happen when he says when the Spirit of the Comforter comes, he says, He then later says, and wait in Jerusalem in Acts, he says, wait in Jerusalem because. Not long after, you will be equipped with power. When the Holy Spirit comes, you will be equipped with power. We know that on a day of Pentecost in Acts 2:4, all of a sudden a mighty rushing wind came and what appeared to be tongues of fire.
So we see the wind, the fire, the vapor, and the smoke settle, except it didn't settle on the temple, it settled on the temples. The tongues of fire settled on the temples. It looked like little fires on top of each one, meaning that the gift, the sacrifice of Jesus, the blood of Jesus, had been accepted.
Now these men have been equipped with the power of the Holy Spirit. But he says. He's not saying this just to The disciples. You want proof of that even more? Listen to what he says in his prayer.
to God the Father. Listen to what Jesus says. And we'll close with this. He says Verse 17, John chapter 17, verse 17. He says, um.
I'll go to verse 20. He says, Neither do I pray for these alone. but for them also which shall believe in me through their word. Are you a them? Are you a whosoever?
Some Bibles say whosoever, but he says, some Bibles say for all who believe. upon me threw their work. Are you part of that, all who believe? That they may be one, as I are, thou Father art in me, and I in thee, and they may also be one in us, that the world may believe you have sent me.
So he's saying exactly what he said over there. He said in John 14 and 15, he said, if you abide in me and my word abides in you, my father and I will come and make our home in you. If you obey my command, my father and I will take up residency.
So you become one with him. He says, that they may be one as you and I are one. He says that the world may believe. What's the purpose of you being one with Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, having all of this? What's the purpose of Deuteronomy 28?
That the world may believe, that you become a witness, that you're set on fire and the world believes. It's not just so that you and I could heap great mansions on ourselves and great wealth on ourselves and all these great things on ourselves and fly on private jets. No, all of this. The miracles, signs, and wonders are the dinner bell of the gospel. How can they believe in a nation that doesn't believe in the Bible?
You take a Bible to some of these countries. I mean, you need to figure this out for yourself. But how do you go to a country that has never heard of Jesus, doesn't believe in the Bible? What if you go to an Islamic nation? They don't believe your Bible.
So how are you, without the Spirit of God, without miracles, signs, and wonders, convince them about Jesus? You're going to just sit there and debate them? No, because they won't use your book. As a judge. They want to use their book.
How do you go to a Buddhist? who doesn't believe in the Word of God, our holy book. which is the only holy book, And debate the word of God with them without miracles, signs, and wonders. How do you reach people who are atheists who won't read this book? Miracles, signs, and wonders.
And the Holy Spirit will do those through you. Jesus said, The same miracles I've done, you will do them as well. And he says, The glory which you gave me, I've given them, then they be one, even as we are one. I in them, and thou in me, and they may be made perfect in one, that the world may know. And knows that we love them as we have loved them.
See, you and I were created to be witnesses. Yes, the blessings of God will run you down and overtake you. I need the blessing of God to be able to go buy plane tickets, to be able to pay for passports, to be able to pay for the church that we're building. I just got another need this morning. The needs never stop.
I've got an $1,100 bill here in my messages. Not a bill yet, but a quote. for putting a bathroom in in the church that we're helping build. And so there's always a need. As long as people are born, there's always going to be a need.
There is a need for healing in the world right now. But where are those people who can do that? I'm going to say to you: nowhere in the Word of God, in all my studies of the Word of God, have I found a place in which you or I was excluded. from operating in miracles, signs, and wonders.
Nowhere. Think about that. There is no place in the Word of God that I can find. And I challenge you to look for it. In which you and I were excluded from having the Holy Spirit being one with Jesus, becoming love.
and operating in miracles, signs, and wonders. None. None. It doesn't exist. You were created with an eternal purpose.
To walk with God. to become one of his children. and to be a witness of that relationship. And Maybe you're not called to go to the nations of the world like I was. That's okay, but you are called to go to your grocery store down the road.
to go to the gas station. Two. Uh see people on the side of the road who need help. You want to see miracles, signs, and wonders, you've got to step out of your boxes. You've got to begin to believe.
And I'm saying to you now. You are written about in the Word of God. It is written who you are. He said, Whosoever believes in me. That they may be one.
As I am in you and they are in me. Jesus said that. Whomsoever Are you in that category? And or to all of them that believe? Not just for the disciples, but for all of them that will believe upon my name.
You're part of that statement. You are written about. Paul prophesied in Romans 8. 19 that all of creation is waiting with eager expectation for you And I to be revealed. And I've been preaching this message for decades, and the Lord corrected me on that statement and on this entire message.
earlier this past year. Because I've been preaching that there is a Soon coming arrival. And I've been preaching it with the prophecies. That we haven't even touched in today's episode about the days and the timings and the day in the eyes of the Lords and the gates and the rivers and all these things that point to a generation. At the end of this dispensation.
That will operate in the miracle, signs, and wonders. They will operate in the presence of God. They will be a witness to the earth. And I'm saying to you, you are prophesied about. It is written about you.
It's written about you. You're in the word of God. And so I want to challenge you. I want to double-dog dare you. I want to, if there's some way I could smack you and get you to believe, I would do it.
Oh, you would hit me, Brother John. I would do whatever I got to do to help you believe and open your eyes to understand, apart from hurting you and lying to you. But what do I have to do to get you to believe? What it says in Paul, what Paul said, that you being rooted and grounded in love, may come to know the hope. For which you were called, for which you were created.
No longer swayed back and forth by the cunning teachings of men, but rather. attaining to the full measure of Christ. That was Paul's prayer for you.
So why Why are we still dealing with this second day church? mentality. This fallen sin nature mentality. It's not meant for us. It is not meant for us.
We walk We had the opportunity. to walk in something that is different. that people around the world are crying out for. There's a cry that has gone up from the harvest. It's reached the ears of God.
And he's looking for people that will believe. It says in Peter, and he's been doing it for thousands of years. He's searching. for someone who will believe. And I believe if you've made it this far.
into this message. You're one of them. What are you going to do? What are you going to do? So I challenge you, I dare you, I I Implore you.
Begin to study the work. If you need to, reach out to me on Facebook. Send me a message. I'll send you these scriptures so you can study them yourself. This is going on Spotify.
You can listen to it on Spotify, share it with whoever you want to share it with. Have people analyze it. I'll tell you this: that if any Christian comes to me and wants to argue the word of God with me, I have one judge, and that's the word of God. That we put the word of God between us and we look at it. Because in this hour, I have barely touched.
On all the prophecies and all the promises. that are given to this. And so I would say to you, you know. Dig into the word for yourself. Quit believing what other men, including me, are telling you.
Dig into the Word of God. Figure it out for yourself and become what God wants you to become. As we close, remember this. Jesus loves people. including your enemies.
And love never fails. God bless you. Mm-hmm.
