Testimony is living. This book is Christ, wanting to leap out of the pages and quicken often-dead hearts.
We have to be intentional when we come together like this. We cannot just ride the wave. There has to be something intentional in us to stay up.
A surfer does not just shut his eyes when he is on the wave and hope to be taken in for a long ride. He is focused. There is studying. There is observing what is happening.
As we come together like this, in many seasons there is always that tendency—there always will be, in our own flesh—to sleep, with the world inundating us. But here we have all Scripture inspired by God. That inspiration of the Scripture is God’s desire and the Holy Spirit’s ability to ignite us, if there is a willingness, if there is a wantonness.
Just as we say, “As the hart panteth,” is there a panting so that there can be correction, conviction, teaching, and that foundation of doctrine? Then we can come into that seventeenth verse: that the man of God, the woman of God, may be adequately equipped for every good work, every good deed, every thought, and everything we say.
Lord, again, we are thankful for gathering us, even for the grace to gather us from so many different parts. Some travelled many, many hours yesterday. Thank You for Your protection on the road and for the health afforded this morning.
Thank You for the quickening now of the Holy Spirit, to be able to sing these songs with meaning, to give worship to You, and to minister to You. It is all grace, and we are very thankful. Now, Lord, as we continue these next few minutes, open Your Word, that together we might see Jesus afresh. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.
Turn in your Bibles, please, to 1 Corinthians 1, verse 9.
When I was asked to share, about a month after the conference there in Richmond, the Lord spoke to me regarding this word: fellowship.
God is faithful, through whom ye were called into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
— 1 Corinthians 1:9
Called into fellowship; called into communion.
Then turn to 1 John 1. We will read the first seven verses.
That which was from the beginning, that which we have heard, that which we have seen with our eyes, that which we beheld, and our hands handled, concerning the Word of life
(and the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare unto you the life, the eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us);
that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you also, that ye also may have fellowship with us: yea, and our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.
And these things we write, that our joy may be made full.
And this is the message which we have heard from Him and announce unto you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.
If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in the darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
but if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanseth us from all sin.
— 1 John 1:1-7
I think, like you, that we all desire to come into the reality of what we know—what we have heard over the years and what we have experienced from time to time. But to come in, in a moment, into fellowship, communion, and oneness with the Lord; walking moment by moment with the Lord—this is the secret.
As we study biographies of men in the past two thousand years, or even go back to the Bible itself and read the biographies there, we see that this was the secret. It was entering into the holy place. It was living in the presence of the Lord that gave a continuous, victorious life.
This was not something that happened only at conferences, where we saw the Lord and could see a thousand miles, and everything was clear. The problems seemed to evaporate. We saw the Lord was ever near, and we experienced that.
But my own experience has been this: they finish a retreat on a Sunday. Monday is wonderful. Tuesday is a little bit foggy, like this morning. By Wednesday, I am groping. I know back there, yes, but it is kind of like a memory. The strength, the power, is missing.
That is not, and never has been, God’s intention. His intention has been not this type of up-and-down experience, but a walk—a consistent walk—hearing His voice, expressing prayers to Him, asking, seeking, and knocking continuously.
That is what we would like to fellowship about today and tomorrow. First of all, as we just read, it is our calling. Then we want to touch on the fact that there is a lot of opposition against this calling. Finally, on the positive side, there is the recovery of this fellowship and keeping it consistent.
I am going to say right at the outset: all of us—and I am starting with myself first and foremost—have developed habits in our walk with the Lord that are not normally continuous.
We have a tendency to compartmentalise our Christian life. Wednesday night, we come in tired. Someone will pray, and often there is an invigoration in our spirits. “Oh, wow. To think that I was not going to go. I am sure glad I did.” In a minute, we are back on top again.
Then Thursday and Friday, there is this low. It might have been lifted up by our quiet time the next day, but by ten o’clock something has come in. We need fellowship on a consistency, breaking that habit.
So that, first of all, the Lord is satisfied. When the Lord is satisfied, we are satisfied. We are ready for His return. There is testimony, and we live the life that God intended. This is our inheritance in Christ.
But as we will see when we talk about the opposition, the world comes in. Many things keep us. The enemy is intense in this area of keeping us from this moment-by-moment fellowship with Him.
God has intended that all of us grow up. This growing up is going to occur through fellowship. He intends it, or He would not have given us the first commandment and the second commandment. That is to be consistent.
We are to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength—not just in our mind. I believe everyone here has that intention, that desire, and has come into something of that.
But when there is first love—not like the church in Ephesus in Revelation 2, where they lost that first love, but that spontaneous, forgiving love—then the Lord is the consuming thought in our life, even in the busyness of work. That becomes what fellowship can provide.
We are to be a testimony: a testimony to our spouse, a testimony to our children, twenty-four-seven. Through very difficult situations, there is that effervescence of Christ coming forth, so that there is not an inconsistency.
Our children, brothers and sisters, and grandchildren often see an inconsistency. They see Mom and Dad singing just the way we sang in the last thirty minutes, and then something happens when we get in the car going home. Children pick up on this. Grandchildren pick up on this.
It is a disconnect, and they throw out the whole thing—particularly when they become freshmen in college. All of a sudden, everything that they are about to be, you know, there was something wrong.
We are to be a testimony to our family. We are to be a testimony to the angels.
This morning we sang, “Crown Him.” If we sing that from our spirit, from the innermost part of our heart, and mean it, the enemy is crippled in our life. If we are singing that on behalf of our family, he is immediately limited.
All of his work that he would try to do—to divide, to bring up a wall, whether it is between husband and wife, brothers and sisters—that is the reality of that song. When we are by ourselves and we are saying, “You are the Lord in this situation,” that neutralises the enemy. It is a testimony.
The enemy is accusing us; at that same time, the Lord Jesus, because He has been crowned, turns to the enemy and says, “No more.” He is still immediately.
Now, that has to be intentional. I am using that word often: intentional. Christian walking with the Lord is not a waterslide, or just floating. It is very intentional. It is very determined. It is very decided.
We are going to have to learn this habit. Whether we are on the phone and someone is in trouble or murmuring, we say, “Lord, I need wisdom. I need Your love for this,” instead of rolling our eyes, holding the phone back here, and saying, “Oh, this person again.”
No, it is very real. That attitude right there takes God out of the picture, where He is now outside the door knocking. He wants to be in and sup with us during that particular situation.
We have been called to be servants of God—no less than Moses. Women, sisters, servants of God: this is not just a man thing. We are all servants of the Lord.
But a servant, according to Psalm 123, must be watching the Master, must be in tune all the time. He must be seen. We must be hearing. Everything is bleak; everything is depressing. The eye, the eye, must be on the Lord.
There must be this, so that we can bring light. Light and fellowship are restored. We just read that in 1 John 1: walk in the light. A servant of God.
We are to be sons. We have heard how many messages and had how many conferences on sonship? But how are we?
When the Lord captured my heart, after I had been a believer for twenty-some years—I became a believer in 1947 and was baptised in 1951; I am seventy-four, so you do not have to do the math—the Lord opened up a new realm in my life.
I alluded to it earlier. Being raised in a Christian home, I had heard and seen everything. I walked the steps that I was supposed to walk, as long as Dad and Mom were in my presence. That is a point right there, in fact, and I will talk about that a little later.
But that reality was missing. That is what happened in 1951. The Lord opened up the door.
Being in business, the first thing that hit me was the reality of Christ in a businessman’s world. It sounds strange—a paradox. “How can business and Christianity, Christ, fit in?” Well, that is the whole point of what we are talking about in fellowship. It works.
We see this in Joseph’s life. We see it in Daniel’s life. Throughout the Bible, we see men of God who made tents and did various things, but they had this walk with the Lord.
Fellowship will bring us to that place of being ready, and it is the only thing: consistently being ready.
Never in the history of this country has there been a greater need for this readiness. The Lord could come today. As we walk in intimacy with the Lord, we are ready. We do not have to think about it. We do not have to second-guess.
The fellowship that we just had from 9:30 to 10:00 can be a perpetual thing. Often it is not going to be with other brothers. We are not going to have the accompaniment of instruments. It is going to be the work of the Holy Spirit: planting, reminding, convicting, causing us to come into the reality of 1 John 1:9.
This is our calling, and this is what God wants each of us to experience.
I said earlier something about parents. I thought of this recently as I was reflecting and thanking the Lord for godly parents.
If my father had been in my circumference all the days of my life, I would have suffered far less. I would have gotten into a lot less trouble. I would have gone down a lot fewer cul-de-sacs, blind alleys, and box canyons.
If I had inquired of him, “Dad, what do you think of this situation?” what a difference it would have made.
When we live in fellowship with the Lord, oh, we avoid so many problems, so many dead ends. God’s wisdom.
We have a tendency to Google instead of looking for the answer here: inquire of the Lord. What a difference. What an eternal difference.
We call someone and ask, “What do you think about this?” Fellowship is good, but here is our source: talking with the Lord.
This can occur as we are walking down the street, as we are waiting at long red lights, as we pray for the person who cuts in front of us on the freeway. God gives us hundreds of opportunities during the day, but we often respond no differently than the pagan.
We shake our fists, become angry with our spouse. They just said something, so instead of praying, as the Bible instructs us brothers to do, we slump out of the room. Voice of experience.
I did not learn it with my first wife, so the Lord—I wonder if He took her home—but the Lord gave me a second chance.
In fifty-two years of marriage, with two beautiful women, I still, every day—every day, because we are together twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week—get to practise just what I am talking about.
“Lord, forgive me. Helen, forgive me. I answered her. I said, ‘Yes,’ but I said, ‘Yes’ with an attitude.”
Sin separates us. It quenches the Spirit. Just like that, quickly, God steps back, as we see in Revelation 3:20, outside the door knocking. It is serious.
The gospel is the simplest thing in the world. Jesus said, “Suffer the little children.” Children understand. Even a two-year-old can understand the spirit, detect the spirit.
Children’s minds become confused, even as infants, when husband and wife are arguing. It is an environment. How do we know? We just read the opposite in Luke 1:41.
Here comes Mary, filled with Christ. She says, “Hello,” and the Holy Spirit fills Elizabeth. It is contagious—very contagious.
As darkness comes across this globe—and I do not have to say to this group that it is coming very quickly—it is coming exponentially. It is like when you watch a video and they speed it up: there is sunshine, and all of a sudden there is a cloud, and then it is raining.
That is what is happening right now in this world. It is not just the United States; it is very, very global.
What we are talking about here is something for which we do not have an alternative. We have to come into a greater degree of moment-by-moment fellowship, or we are going to get swept away. We are going to become depressed, go under, and get carried away just like everyone else. Most of the world is.
So, I believe this is the most serious thing. When we think of a solution to this world, it is not marching on Washington.
Washington—if you study history very carefully, this might be hard to believe—there were just as poor election choices before. That is hard to believe. You have to really look hard for that.
Washington does not have the answer. It never has had the answer. Wall Street has never had the answer. Neither has Paris, London, or Tokyo.
All man can do is build towers of Babel. All man can do is make a name for himself, and God says, “There is only one Name.” His Name is going to end this whole thing, and we are going to have to be tied to that Name.
Not with a thread, but with an anchor. My anchor holds in the Rock, moment by moment.
There is hardly a day that goes by—I experienced it already this week—when you sit down with believers and there has been a movement. Their compass has moved off centre, and it is shocking. You are just taken back.
You start bringing up the Lord, and there is a rebuttal. Sin is no longer sin. Sin has all of a sudden become grey. How does that occur? Lost fellowship with the Lord.
There are two lamentable things in the world. One is that unbelievers do not know Christ. The other is that we believers do not come into the fullness of our inheritance.
How many have ever heard of Spindletop? Do we have any geologists here? Spindletop is a name in East Texas.
A man by the name of Yates, a poor, impoverished man, had a little tract of land and could not make it go. He lost the property. The land was bought up, and the largest oil find in the history of the United States was there, on Mr. Yates’s property.
He was a bankrupt person, and that oil came in and changed the whole economy of this country: the East Texas oil find.
That is where many of us are. I think we all need to be honest this morning and say, “Wait. None of us has come in.” We want to continue, and continue, and continue, and come into that fullness.
A word that Paul often uses, and I think it is overlooked, is this word: fullness.
Fullness of life. Fullness of character. Fullness of purpose. Fullness of testimony. Fullness in our marriage. Fullness in our family.
Fullness is salt. We are to be salt. Fullness is light.
It is an amazing thing every morning. In Arizona, particularly six months out of the year, during the summer months, Helen and I walk early in the morning. We continue that now because it still gets up to eighty-five or ninety degrees, so we walk early because it is cooler.
It is dark—completely dark. What removes the shroud of darkness on the globe? Light.
It is an amazing phenomenon. All of a sudden, the shadows first become visible; then the shadows are lifted; and then there is the fullness of light.
Walk in the light. It is directly related to this word fellowship.
As we look at the Bible, we see that all roads in the Bible move toward this one thought: fellowship with God. Look for a moment at Revelation 21.
It is good to look at the end of the story, maybe even once a week—if not once a day.
I do not know if you have experienced this. I had a brother in Houston who followed football very closely, but he travelled a lot for the oil business, all over the world. So he would miss Sunday’s game. He would fly in on Monday, and his wife would have taped the game.
By this time, of course, he knew who had won, but he had to watch it. He already knew his team had won. So he sat there without any anxiety. Thirty seconds to go, the ball, the score tied up—he takes another sip of milk and watches it unfold. We have that privilege.
Revelation 21, verse 3. I will read the first three verses just to have it in context, because this is the goal.
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth are passed away; and the sea is no more.
And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.
And I heard a great voice out of the throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He shall dwell with them, and they shall be His peoples, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God.
— Revelation 21:1-3
There will be fellowship—constant communion, oneness—the very thing that God has always wanted, ever since the beginning, when we find Him walking in the cool of the evening.
He made man in His image. God is Spirit. He breathed in us. We have a spirit that facilitates communion, that can be on the same channel as His Spirit, and we can have perpetual communion with Him.
Adam and Eve lost that. In losing that fellowship, we see what happened. Even if we stop and think about that for a minute: what happened at that instant when man began to glorify himself?
“I am more important. God, I can make my own decision. I will do this, and I will do that.” We took on the very antichrist character of God in our life at that moment, and we were separated.
Now that nature, even though we are born again, is still there—latent, but always wanting to rise up and separate us from the relationship.
Abel listened to Mom and Dad’s story, their testimony, and learned from it. He saw the importance: “I want to have fellowship.” There is one way: I have to have the Spirit of Christ. I have to have the Lord Jesus. I cannot do it myself.
But Cain, as an unbeliever—and like unbelievers and carnal believers—thought he could manage himself. He could take on life. Of course, it was a failure. God warned him: sin crouches at the door.
It is the same with us. Sin crouches at the door, brothers, and says, “This verse is for you and me.” It is really one of the keys. If we get this right, we are not separated from the Lord; we are one with the Lord. But sin is right there.
That warning was not just for Cain. It is for each one of us.
Enoch is, of course, a beautiful example of one walking with God. I think it is notable to see, “and he was not.” Why? God had what He wanted. That was it. Enoch was created for that purpose.
We are to have that same walk.
We look at the stories of the Bible often almost as we do science fiction. I might like the story—I do not like science fiction myself—but it is a good story.
Who does not like to read about Moses over and over, Abraham over and over, Esther over and over? You never tire of it. The world even found that out. They make movies of it. They see there is something there—in Daniel’s life, in David’s life. The world has a hard time getting beyond Bathsheba.
But those people are to be a template for us. They are not different. In fact, we are more privileged than any one of those men and women in the Old Testament.
God is not walking beside us as He did with Enoch. He is in us—His very being. This is what makes it so simple. It is not some effort. It is not keeping commandments. It is not an external thing I try to do.
One time Brother Kong was in Houston, and we were having breakfast. I asked him a question: “What is the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament?”
Those of you who know Brother Kong know that he does not answer with too many words. He said, “The old is outer, and the new is inner.”
Enoch walked with God. Now He is in us. Love has been written on our hearts, and as we cultivate that, it becomes real. How do we cultivate that love that has been written there? Through fellowship, through communing with Him moment by moment.
When you came last night and again this morning, singing and praying, how many of you experienced—without raising your hand—an uplifting of your spirit when the first person began to sing or pray?
Communion with the Lord in one another: it is Christ in them. It was not just Dale and Ben. My soul, it was Christ. When he grabbed me last night, it was Christ in him. That is all we have to first see in one another.
Noah walked with God. Abram—Abraham—was a friend of God.
In Isaiah 41, God says, “My friend Abraham.” In 2 Chronicles as well, Abraham is called His friend.
You might say, “Well, I have friends I never talk to.” But they are not intimate. We have high-school friends, do we not? We have college friends.
My best friend, who was the best man in my wedding, went to Harvard and became an atheist. I see him every two or three years. We have a meal together. There is no communication. I do not talk to him in between.
Friends—real friends—have communion. There is a washing of one another’s feet when that person comes together. God is the Person who washes feet, first and foremost. That is where it came from.
That is really our ministry to our wives. Husband, Peter tells us of the weaker vessel—how we need to wash their feet.
We husbands—I speak for the rest of the men here—when we come home after ten hours of being kicked around, demoted, questioned, and overloaded, need our feet washed. It is serious. We are in a serious, serious internal business.
Jacob took a long time. There is hope, because we are all Jacobs. But he came to that place. He came to that place where he could be the blessing source.
Can you imagine the walk you have to have, how broken you have to be like Jacob, to bless Pharaoh—Pharaoh, who despised the very thought of being a sheep herder? Yet he was called in to bless him.
A good historical question: I would like to know the result of that blessing. Something probably happened in his life. I do not know whether it was spiritual; it could have been physical. But that blessing must have been something. It was no small thing.
Israel in the wilderness was called for one reason: fellowship. They could not have fellowship with God—oh, many did. We know Moses’ parents had fellowship with God. But God wanted a people. He has always wanted that corporate reality.
His idea was to take them out so that their life would be perpetual: “I will feed you. I want you to come into the fullness of what I originally created man for—the corporate bride for My Son.”
Brothers and sisters, we need to pay close attention to Israel, from that time until the end of Lamentations.
Take a quick read over those five books and Lamentations. That is where the church is. The Lord has not dropped the hammer. He has given us an opportunity.
I am not only talking about the organised church. I am talking about that, but I am also talking about our small gatherings. There has been such slippage personally. I am talking about the brothers; I am talking about each one of us individually.
It is so easy to fall into that trap that Adam and Eve did right at the beginning: ignoring God. It is not going to work at the judgment seat of Christ. It is not going to work. We are each going to be accountable.
Am I in union with the Lord? Yes, I am. We all are. But am I in communion with the Lord?
Is that prayer of Jesus in John 17:8 and John 17:21 being accomplished? That is the question.
In Egypt, Moses was in that communion. He is the example. Where was Joshua? Where was Joshua? At the door of the tabernacle. Who went into the land? Who went into the fullness? Joshua. Where was everyone else?
There is this one word that God has for us: fellowship.
The tabernacle, of course, pictures the church. Basically, the evangelical church is in relationship to the tabernacle at the altar. Praise the Lord for the altar. They have fallen at the feet of Jesus, and the Lord has saved them. Wonderful.
But is that then all? What does Jesus want? What does God want? The Holy of Holies. Every priest, right straight through.
When? Once a year? One hour a year? On Christmas, on Easter, on fifty-two Sundays out of the year? Add fifty-two prayer meetings and another fifty-two Bible studies—is this that?
One hundred sixty-eight hours a week, twenty-four hours a day: communion with the Lord.
David—a man after God’s own heart. What was on God’s heart? Being a general? Defeating the Philistines? Having wives? Is this what God brings up? Is this what God sees in David’s heart? No.
David. All we have to do is briefly look at seventy-some psalms and see the intimacy. We also see what happens when he does not have the intimacy.
The prophets, John the Baptist, Simeon, and Anna—I am just moving through here. What brings Jesus into this closeness with mankind as a man?
Zacharias, Elizabeth, Simeon, Anna, Mary, and Joseph: communing with the Lord. The first time we see Zacharias, where do we see him? In the temple. There is communion. Where do we see Simeon? Where do we see Anna?
Beautiful pictures, brothers and sisters, of what we are talking about. There is this one message: are we in love with the Lord today? Is He our breath?
Or is there so much other stuff plaguing us and interfering with the wavelengths?
We all carry around a smartphone—most of us do. It is fine, but it gives access to so much that can interfere with the heavenly channel.
We get short-circuited. There is a little beep. You pick it up. “Oh, here is something out of Washington. Here is something from BBC News. Something universal, Middle East.” You think about that for a minute.
If that is a prompt to pray, that is something else. Otherwise, it is a short circuit. It short-circuits that fellowship.
Jesus, of course, was the perfect example: fellowship with the Father. We know that was the key to His life. We know that is what separated Jesus from every other man and woman in the Bible and in the history of mankind: never-lost communion.
He inquired of the Lord: “Not My will, but Thine be done,” in everything. Everything.
A simple little thing, a need. “Fix it,” Mary says. “They do not have wine.” Jesus says, in effect, “I will check with the Father.” And He did. He checked with the Father and then proceeded.
That would absolutely change our life, even as far as power is concerned. Get on the Lord’s timing; there is power. We have a connection.
Jesus says to us, “Man, follow Me. Do it My way.” How does Jesus do it? What an example.
He is in Mary and Martha’s house at the invitation of Martha, who is the head of the house. She is working. Mary is listening. Martha becomes anxious. She becomes perturbed.
Without communion with the Lord, it is easy to become fretful. That is where we find Martha: fretting. We find Mary: fellowshipping.
The point I want to make is just one word. How did the Lord, in communion with His Father, handle that situation? Two words: “Martha, Martha.” She was undone.
That is the Lord’s way. That is power. No scolding. You do not raise children by scolding. You can spank them in love; the Bible instructs that. But we do not scold. We do not scowl at our wives.
No, it is “Martha, Martha.” Direct spirit coming down from the Father into the Son, who had emptied Himself of all power except for the Father’s power: the Father’s Spirit, the Father’s voice, the Father’s kindness.
We might have good parents and good teachers all our life. We can mimic them, learn from them, and gaze at them, but it will never change the spirit in us.
Only the Holy Spirit coming in. As we sang earlier, as we gaze upon Him—gazing, as we wait upon Him.
Waiting is a favourite word of Isaiah and the psalmist. Psalm 62 says twice, “I wait upon the Lord. Only God.” Twice there: only God.
As we wait, waiting is communion. Waiting is not kicking back. No, it is intentional. It is looking.
That is the word that changed Andrew Murray’s life. He wrote a lovely little thirty-one-day devotional on the word waiting. It is communing, talking to the Lord, getting our answers from Him. It is getting the “Martha, Martha” spirit from Him.
That is testimony, brothers and sisters. It is not being able to get up here and give a great word. It is not pulpit ministry. That is a very minuscule part.
Our life is in the trenches. It is not even up here on the hill, or up here for forty-eight hours. But we take back into that valley the “Martha, Martha” spirit.
In the garden, when Jesus said, “Mary,” there was connection. She was no longer lost. It was not Jesus who was lost; Mary was lost.
May the Lord bring us into the fullness. As we think of all the roads in the Bible leading to the cross, leading to this word fellowship—the cross, every aspect of the cross—we are thankful for justification, sanctification, deliverance, and victory.
That brings us into the fullness of God. We do not wear a crucifix with Jesus hanging on the cross. It brings us into something: communion.
The Holy Spirit is the same thing. We have been given the Holy Spirit. It does not stop at a healing ministry. It does not stop at personal communion with the Lord or speaking in tongues, as wonderful as those things may be if so gifted by the Lord.
It is a stepping stone. God has given us the indwelling Spirit, baptised us and immersed us in the Spirit at salvation, for communion. He indwells us for communion.
There is an anointing so that this communion can be communicated to our family, to the family of God, and to the world. What a calling, all through fellowship.
May the Holy Spirit not be an end in itself. It puffs up. Gifting has a way of puffing up. That is why the Lord has to be so careful in any type of gifting. Otherwise, we go off the rails.
People have gotten to the place where they say, “Well, I am serious. I need this gift,” and they pray and pray. Finally, the Lord backs off and gives them a gift, and it often takes them off the rails.
Proverbs 30 speaks of, “Lord, do not give me too much, lest I lose sight of You. Do not give me too little, lest I have to steal.”
The Lord, the Shepherd, is the only One who knows what to do. Being a farm boy, we always had to guard against this in turning animals into new pasture. They would go out there and just bloat.
Especially in the spring, they get all excited after eating hay all winter. Here is this great grass, and they bloat. Their stomachs get very, very ill. God knows. He is the Shepherd. He knows exactly what we need.
Our prayer life is not just a quiet time. Even the best quiet time—let us just take an hour. Many of you at work do not get that kind of time. But say you have an hour in the morning and really come into the presence of the Lord, sense the Lord, and everything is sustaining.
That has to be augmented during the day with these ejaculatory prayers: “Lord, thank You. Lord, give me wisdom on this.” That sustains it.
Remember Daniel: morning, noon, and night. There is a continuing. David: morning, noon, and night. In the Word, brothers and sisters, there is this moment-by-moment communion.
Quiet time. You know, we use this term Bible study. It is not one of my favourites. It is a great term. We are told in 2 Timothy 2:15 to study the Word.
But it is very easy to miss communion. We get caught up in the exegesis, caught up in the details of a word study, and the soul is very quick to grab on to titillating things.
We close it and say, “Oh, yeah. Well, was not that a good Bible study? I never knew that before. Did you ever hear that?” You talk for ten minutes that way, and Jesus never comes up.
“Did you see Jesus?” “Oh, no, did not see Jesus.”
We come together to see Jesus’ face. Wednesday night is more than just praying. There has to be foot washing. There has to be coming into the presence of the Lord.
We can be rattling off a prayer list: “Well, we have to pray for the retreat, pray for the speaker, pray for the speaker.” Is the Lord there? “Lord, would You be there?” This is what we need.
Retreats and conferences all have that one purpose: to bring us into greater intimacy with the Lord, to encourage us into this. We should want to go away from here tomorrow wanting to live and abide in the presence of the Lord.
We do not have to think about the World Series. It is over. We can focus.
There is much in the Word about the kingdom, but the kingdom is to lead us to the King.
It is not just what the Jews thought: “Oh, this is going to be fairyland. We need the King to come back. We need the Messiah to come back and wave a magic wand.” No.
The kingdom is not going to happen until we are kingdom people, until we are in love with the King. That is what will bring Him back.
If we do not learn it—and this has been Brother Kong’s burden for the last four or five years now, though it has been a burden for a long time, and it has intensified—we do not have to learn the lesson that we are talking about today over a thousand-year period.
We learn it now, communicate with the Lord now, and are ready now.
The kingdom is more than just a glorified heavenly kingdom. It is oneness with the Lord. It is everyone loving the Lord more than anything else in this world.
That is what every one of us is on this planet for. It is a deep, deep work.
The Lord works in three basic areas to accomplish this. He worked in creation—He had to have creation before He could have this communion. He works in redemption, and He works in judgment.
We have all experienced judgment. We have all had to judge ourselves. The more we judge ourselves, the more we come into communion with the Lord—daily, hourly.
One of my favourite verses is Matthew 28:20: “Lo, I am with you always.” He does not move. “Lo, I am with you always.” One of the last things the Lord said was that He can be with us every second of the day.
The question is: are we letting Him in? Are we reciprocating? Are we responding? He stands there knocking. “I have the answer to that phone call. I have the answer to this health problem. I have the answer.”
I am not talking about healing everyone. I am talking about, first of all, coming into peace. First of all, coming into that place where we say, “Lord, if You want to take me home, if You want me to suffer with this, what will bring in Your kingdom? What will satisfy Your heart?”
That is what the Lord wants: to have that kind of communion with us. “I am with you. I will take you through this. I just want to be your life, not a part of it.”
“I do not want to be the co-pilot. I do not want anyone else to be the pilot. I want to be the plane. I am the Pilot. I am the passengers, because I am in you. I am all in all.”
Does that sound familiar from John 15? The vine and the branch. “Abide in Me.”
Father, we are thankful that You desire to abide in us. This has always been Your will, and You want us to abide in You.
Thank You for this reminder this morning. Again, I am just even reminding myself, Lord. Oh, most of my life, I have not even been aware of this. I understood something in my mind, but nothing of the reality, nothing of the possibility, or what it was supposed to be.
We are thankful, Father, that this is the answer. As the clouds gather on the horizon, there is an answer. We can be freed up in oneness with You as we go through this next period in our life, whether it is a day or whether it is a decade.
You have gone before us, and You simply say, “Follow Me. I am in you.” We worship You. We praise You in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Take a few moments to bring these thoughts to the Lord.