Let Your Glory Fall

Let Your
Glory Fall
Annual Camp
5 to 9th June 2006
th
ROLLAND BAKER
Contents
1 Day 1 evening The Normal Christian Life 3
2 Day 2 morning Finding God 21
3 Day 2 evening Pleasing God 39
4 Day 3 morning Joy 55
5 Day 3 evening Love 65
6 Day 4 morning Times of Refreshing 87
7 Day 4 afternoon Companionship with God 105
Song of Songs 117

Day 1 evening
The Normal Christian Life
This is a very scary audience! It is Chinese! I know, because I was born in China. You might
as well get very relaxed, because we are going to have a very relaxed camp. We might not
even need chairs after a while! This is so Chinese – all the chairs are in nice rows, everything
is exactly in the right place, and just very formally distributed, and just looks so neat, and so
like a church! But we can fix that! We can correct that!
How many would like to get more relaxed? Because when you get to heaven, you are not
going to have any stress. How many have some stress right now? Anybody have any stress?
See, the Chinese, they won’t really tell you out loud. They won’t even show it on their face,
but inside, lots and lots of stress! Because, 我是一个中国人！1
OK, I have got to ask you right at the beginning of this camp. Did you come for
information, or did you come for an experience? How many came for information? How
many came for an experience? How many came for both? Because we could have some
theological lectures. Heidi and I have spent many, many years studying systematic theology.
We have huge libraries. We don’t even know what to do with all our books. But when we are
facing the hungry and the desperate and the dying in Africa, there are very few books we can
pull off the shelf that will help. After all those years of studying, very few books we can pull
out to actually help people!
How many would need some help with your life? How many would like to get lots of it in
the next few days? You are going to find out that even though I try very hard to make very
important and serious points, it is very hard for me to stay serious for very long, and that is
because the Good News is really good news! It is actually the truth! And it changes
everything if you believe it!
Heidi and I went to Africa to face the poorest of the poor, with this very interesting, novel
idea, that the Bible is really true. Even in the church it is a brand new idea! Because the
church spends a lot its of time telling us mostly what we don’t need to believe, or what we
don’t have to believe, or what is not true yet. Or explaining why the Good News is not that
good. It is good, but not that good! You don’t have to be happy all the time.
God is in a very good mood
The thing about the gospel is that God Himself is in a very, very good mood. The church has
been trying to depress Him for a long time. The church has been trying to load Him up with
problems, and challenge Him with issues, and lay burdens on Him, and complain, and try to
believe as little as possible for a long, long time. And the church gets very heavy.
The church gets very concerned about the world, and very concerned about our problems,
and very concerned about the needs of Africa, and very concerned about politics and energy
and global warming and the war in Iraq and the spread of Islam and … just such huge, grave,
difficult, deep issues. And we are concerned about them, and we are struggling with them,
and we are trying to finding our place in the world, and what it means to be an authentic
Christian in our complicated world in which we have to compete in business, and academics,
and society.
1
I am a China man! See the section “Rolland Baker’s grandparents” 9.
4 The Normal Christian Life Day 1 evening
And it is actually very serious in China because there are not enough girls to go around.
You need very sophisticated computer dating programs for guys to find a girl in China! In
Africa, it is the other way around. It is the girls that do all the work! And the parents would
rather have girls. The boys, they own the land, they sit in the gate, they sit under trees. It is
the women that carry the firewood and the water. And the men don’t do anything. So they
would rather have lots of girls in Africa.
You cannot depress God
But God is in a very, very relaxed, happy mood because He has power. And He has the
answers, and He is sovereign.
The Bible says He sits in heaven and He does whatever He likes. 2 He knows how to
glorify Himself. He knows how to let the glory fall. He knows how to do it and when to do it
and nobody can stop Him. Satan and all his schemes can’t stop Him. This world with all its
sorrows and wars cannot stop Him. Your seriousness and depression and problems and stress
cannot get Him down.
You cannot depress God. He is not worried about the future of the world or His own
reputation. We Christians sometimes take on the burden of making Him look good to the
world, making sure that the gospel succeeds, that our church grows, that our missionary work
spreads. We take on huge burdens, and we think that God is just watching to see how well
we do.
But actually we are His workmanship, and He does good work. 3 And by the time He is
finished with you, you will like Him! And you will be happy, whether you like it or not! And
so, Chinese people of Singapore, God is going to renew you! He is going to renew you and
cheer you up, no matter how difficult it is! You see, in some cultures, that is really difficult!
The power of God is adequate
You are going to have to get used to laughing in church because I found out that is what God
does all the time! I did not know that for 50 years! God is in a very light hearted mood. He is
in a very good mood. He is not anything we thought He was.
You might think that I am being cheap, but I am not. I am dealing with the worst poverty
that we can find in the world, the worst suffering that we can find in the world, and we have
found out that the power of God is adequate. There is never a reason, never a time when we
need to be discouraged, and down, and unhappy, and miserable.
I know of at least 55 people that have been raised from the dead in Mozambique. But I
still think it takes more power to make a Western or Chinese Christian happy, than to raise
the dead! It takes more sheer, raw power! For one thing, most of you don’t feel like you are
supposed to. Most of you think that to be a really good Christian, to be just a perfect
Christian, you need to be extremely serious about the issues of life, and your faith, and your
calling in this world. And you need to grief, and seek, and contend, and fight, and be tough
on yourself, and practice asceticism and self denial, sign up for lots of suffering and death
and …
Those things you very well may have to go through, but they are not the destination. That
is not what heaven is going to be like. Imagine getting to heaven and finding out it is –
church! Imagine getting to heaven – “Oh my goodness! There is nothing to laugh about!
There is nothing to be really happy about!” – But heaven is not going to be like that!
2
Isaiah 40:22-23 He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He
stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in. He brings princes to
naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.
3
Ephesians 2:10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God
prepared in advance for us to do.
Day 1 evening The Normal Christian Life 5
Let me ask you again: “What did you come to the camp for?” I am relaxed. I am in no
hurry. I have nothing to prove. I have no reputation to maintain. I have no money to raise. I
take all my needs to Jesus, He can handle it. I am not dependent any particular response. I am
just here to enjoy the presence of God, like you. I am just here to drink. I am here to receive;
I am just here to enjoy another day of company with Him. Just enjoy His glory and His
presence and this amazing life that we have in Him.
Believing all the gospel
The trouble with the church is that the gospel is too good for most Christians to believe. It is
just too good!
The Bible says “Have no anxiety about anything.” 4 Very few Christians believe that! And
the Bible says all kinds of things, “Rejoice in the Lord always!”5 Very few Christians believe
that. The Bible says, “Take no thought for tomorrow, what you are going to eat or drink.” 6
Very few Christians believe that. The Bible says, “Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe
that you have received it, and you will.” 7 Very few Christians believe that. “Cast your cares
upon Him, for He cares for you.”8 Very few Christians know how to do that.
Most of the Bible is in fact made up of phrases and sentences that most Christians don’t
believe! And you wonder why you are so serious! Because if you actually believed it all, it
would take tremendous effort to stay serious! In fact, to be depressed in the presence of God
takes a lot of power and training! You need years of experience, and role modelling, and
counselling, and examples, and endurance, and a track record to stay depressed in the
presence of God. You have to be good at it. You have to be taught how. You have to have
counsellors train you. You have to read discipleship books to show you the way to stay down
and serious. Stay an adult in the presence of God. And that takes “gifting”. That takes
“anointing” to be able to do that.
Because natural people aren’t that way. I know, because we preach all the time to people
that have never heard the gospel before. They think it is good news.
But Christians who have heard the gospel for all their life, years and years of camps and
conferences and crusades and church, church, church, … they have the worst time actually
believing it all. Because every time you take a verse of scripture, and you just don’t quite
believe it all, and you just push it away a little bit, it gets harder to receive the next time
around. Every time you hear a sermon that is just excellent, but you don’t react to it really
well, you just put it aside, postpone it, deal with it some time later, just can’t quite receive it
all, the next time you are going to have a harder time receiving it. Until finally, you have
heard everything there is to hear about the gospel so many times, it is really scary to preach
to you.
Just one miracle
Because, in Africa, they don’t need to see a whole lot of miracles, they just need to see one
before they are totally excited about God. They just need 一个！不要两个，就是一个！9
All they need, all the whole village needs is for them to bring out the village deaf and
dumb 10 year old that everybody knows is deaf and dumb – he hasn’t said a word in his
4
Philippians 4:6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with
thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
5
Philippians 4:4
6
Matthew 6:25 Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your
body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?
7
Mark 11:24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will
be yours.
8
1 Peter 5:7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
9
One! Not two, just one!
entire life – and bring him out, and hug him. Our children don’t know any better, they just
pile on him, and Ka poof! The first word he says, “Mama!” “Jesus!” and more! And he can
talk! And he can hear! And the whole village just goes berserk!
And the chief grabs the microphone. He says, “All right everybody!” He is talking to his
own village. Grabs the microphone right out of my hand, right out of Heidi’s hand. He says,
“Alright! Nobody could do this but God.” This is a Moslem province. The experts have
declared this whole province unreached and unreachable. And he says, “Nobody could do
this but God. We want Jesus! We are leaving Islam today! We want a church now! We need
a pastor this instant! You can’t leave us like this!” And the whole village gets saved.
Everybody is excited and everybody is jumping for joy. And in the morning, they are
parading the deaf and dumb boy down the street and everybody is shouting and parading and
jumping and dancing, and everybody is just so excited and they can’t wait for the next
meeting.
And they say, “Come on, we have got more, we have got more deaf people. We have got
more blind people. Let us bring them all. Let us bring them from everywhere. Let us walk
through the bush, let us walk the whole day, let us walk for 2 or 3 days barefoot to bring the
sick and … ” That wasn’t hard! That was easy! They are brand new. Never heard the gospel
before. All they need is to know from one miracle is that Jesus is real – changes their whole
life.
But if you talk to people that have heard that Jesus is real for years and years, they have
heard tons of speakers, been to tons of conferences, heard tons of tapes, they listen all the
time, and don’t react too much to it! But there is hope! There is hope for Westerners. There is
even hope for Chinese! Even hope for Singapore, you think so? You think you could see
revival like that in Singapore?
A huge hunger
Who came to this camp really, really desperate? This is a kind of a do-or-die kind of a camp.
You want to find God. You want to meet Him. You want to get filled by Him. You want to
be in a place that you have never been. You just don’t want to live anymore where you have
been. You just couldn’t bear it. You just can’t go on. That was you, right? Those hands.
Let us just try something. Do you mind getting
informal? How about just some of the most desperate
of you just come up and just get on the floor, just kneel
down and lie down around me. Because, you know, the
Holy Spirit is very powerful. He likes proximity. He
likes closeness and He likes connectedness. He also
likes humility.
I felt that this is a conference where everybody is
True humility kind of quiet at first, but underneath there is a huge,
huge hunger. Everything is so successful looking outwardly in the new China, the new Asia,
Singapore, Hong Kong, everything is just so modern, everything is so electronic, everything
is so, so successful. But there is this huge, huge hunger, and dissatisfaction.
What a lie it is. Modern society is such a lie. I see products made in China and Taiwan and
all, and they say on the outside on the box, “For your happiness.” It is a cooker for the
kitchen, but it doesn’t make you happy. Neither does all the TV, and all the disco, and all the
Chinese pop music, and all the materialism, and the cars, and DVDs … They don’t. It is such
a lie.
There is nothing that I can really do for you at this camp. But there is a lot that the Holy
Spirit can do for you. And somehow I just get the privilege to enjoy the process myself,
because I am going be as absolutely relaxed as I can be, and enjoy with you. But it is the
power of the Holy Spirit that makes life fun. Literally. It is the power of the Holy Spirit that
makes us able to enjoy God’s company. Brings His presence, so that He is with us in all that
we do, and we are never lonely again, and we can’t fail.
In Jesus you cannot lose
In Jesus, you cannot lose. In the world, everybody is so frightened that they are going to lose.
They are going to lose to the competition. They are going to lose their job, their girlfriend,
their health. They are going to lose their life. But the whole trouble with the Christian life is
you can’t lose. You just can’t lose. You are giving away your life all the time and you are
still alive and you can’t lose. That is what we are finding out in Africa all the time. You just
can’t lose.
Even in the most drastic, serious, terrible conditions, you just can’t lose. And God is still
in control, and you can still trust Him, and His power is still there. And that is what we are
proving in Africa, in the most needy situations that we can find in the world, that you can
still trust Him. You can still have peace. You can have joy in all situations, and there is
nothing to worry about. Period. That is the gospel. That is what Jesus paid for on the cross.
And all the power in the universe flows from the blood of the cross.
The gospel covers everything
That is the spectacular gospel. It covers everything! It takes care of everything. Your guilt,
your past, your condemnation, your weaknesses, your self-image, your hurts, your memories,
your failures, your doubts, your misunderstandings, your lack of understanding. It covers
everything! Absolutely everything. The insecurities of everybody, from the ministry team on
down to the least in the church, the Holy Spirit covers everything. It covers to most
weightiest decisions of the most responsible businessmen. It also covers the concerns of
children when they play. It covers absolutely everything.
Oh we worship You Jesus for that. Let us just worship Him for that. Let us just worship
Him for that. We thank You for that. We worship You for that. We acknowledge that, Lord.
We absolutely delight ourselves in You. We have found our perfect friend. We have found
a perfect friend. A perfect Saviour. A perfect Saviour. Holy Spirit, I ask You to enter these
hearts that You see here tonight and at this camp. You will enter these hearts and You will
just take over, and ravish these hearts. Ravish these hearts so they cannot help but enjoy
You with a completely free and light heart.
Every hungry heart here, there is lots of them, Lord. Everybody here. Ravish them, Lord.
Ravish them with Your power. It is not my preaching that is going to fix them. I don’t have
any desire to impress anybody, but I sure do ask You to do what only You can do. I ask
You Holy Spirit to do what only You can do for these hearts. And You will fulfil every
reason You brought each heart to this camp. That we will indeed see Your glory fall, just
the way we need it. Not in some showy, external way, but right where we need it, in our
hearts. That we will see Your glory, and feel Your glory, right where we need to see it and
feel it, in our life, in our heart, between us and you.
I ask You to transform this place into a room of worshippers, with youthful hearts that fly
high by the end of the camp. That fly high with the end of the camp, that know what it is to
enjoy Your company, and to delight in you. Just to be happy with You and to thrilled with
you. Able to believe you. Able to trust you. Able to look forward to the future and shut the
door on yesterday. Forget what lies behind. Able to release all condemnation. Able to
comprehend with all the saints the height and length and depth and breadth of the love of
God. Power enough for Singapore, Lord. Power enough for South East Asia. Power
enough for all the stress and competition and falsehood that exists in these cultures.
Power for the big companies, Lord, and all that run them.
I will go even further Jesus and ask You to make children out of us, children humble
enough to enter Your kingdom. Nobody trying to be big, important and mature, but
everybody just longing to be a child again, where we didn’t have to worry about anything
and we can just enjoy our days with purity and innocence. Just do Your work, Lord. Do
Your work. I just ask that this be the best week that we have ever had, and the week after
that even better, and the one after that even better. And nobody goes backwards. No going
backwards after this camp. Power, Lord. Do Your work. Reveal Yourself. Nobody leave
this camp without feeling Your presence, feeling Your love for them. Capture hearts. Just
let them feel Your love with the sheer power of Your Holy Spirit.
You know, the people in Africa, they don’t know how a church is supposed to look. They
don’t know when the sermon is supposed to be, they don’t know when the altar call is
supposed to be, they don’t know how you are supposed to quit. They don’t know when you
are supposed to sing and not sing. They don’t even know when announcements are supposed
to be. But they sure love the presence of God, and they sure know when He is around.
I ask You Jesus to bring Your Spirit into this room just so powerfully that people can’t
walk into this room without feeling Your presence. That even the smallest child who is not
sure why they came will find out in a hurry when they came. Even the oldest among us,
Lord, will become young again.
It is not that bad, you know, having eternal life. Eternal life is actually very cool. You look
at most Christians: “Do you have eternal life?” “Yes.”
“Well, how are you enjoying it?” “Well, I am not, really.”
“You have found the secret to eternal life!?” “Yes.”
“You mean, you are going to live forever and you have nothing to worry about?” “Yes.”
“And you are still depressed?” “Yes. Yah, but I don’t know who I am going to marry, and
how I am going to get a job, and I don’t know …”
“But your God can handle all that?” “Yep. Yah, but I am lonely and I need this, and …”
“But can God help you?” “Yep.”
“Well?” “Yah, but God is not very much fun. He is just …” You just wait.
Joy – our motivation and reward
I have found out God is the most fun person in the universe. He has a better sense of humour
than any of you, or me. He invented humour. He invented joy. He invented romance. He
invented peace. He actually is a lot of fun to be around. That is very hard for the church to
understand and believe, because they haven’t known Him that well. He is a tremendous
friend.
And once you know Him, you realise there is no one else in the world that can take His
place. There is no girl, no guy, no girlfriend, no wife, no daughter, no son … who can take
His place. He is better than all of them put together. He knows exactly how to love you. How
to bring what you need into your life. There is actually very little to worry about. Even in
Africa.
Hebrews says for the joy set before Him, Jesus endured the cross. 10 That was His
motivation. For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross. If that was His motivation, it
should be your motivation too. The joy set before you. Not another day of misery. Another
day of God’s companionship. And His joy. And it keeps getting better. It never gets worse. It
10
Hebrews 12:2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before
him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
always gets better, because you know Him better. What was the motivation Jesus had? Joy.
What was the reward Jesus got afterwards? Hebrews. Because He loved righteousness and
hated wickedness, God said I will anoint you with the oil of gladness and joy. 11 That is the
reward.
If you have faith, you will have love. If you have love, you will have joy. You cannot
separate any of those three. You try to separate them and you can’t. If you don’t have faith,
you are not going to have love. And if you can’t love, you are not going to have joy. But the
Bible says these things have been taught us, so that our joy may be full. 12 And over and over
in the Bible it says, that your joy may be full. Everything in life is done by God so that our
joy will be full.
It is not a sin to laugh in church. It is not out of place to laugh in church. It does not
dishonour the gospel to be happy in church. What dishonours Jesus is to have Him die on the
cross for us, and pay for all our sins, and all our sadness, and then have us not be able to
enjoy what He has done. That is what dishonours Him. What honours Him is to be able to
enjoy to the full what He has done. That honours Him. It doesn’t honour Him just to weep
and confess without being able to go on to receive and enjoy what He has paid for us.
We need a whole new atmosphere in church. We need a whole new psychology of the
truth. We need a whole new way of dealing with the issues of life. We need a whole new way
of looking at everything. That is the truth. That is not a lie. A lot of us have been living a lie.
Having an impression of life, an impression of trying to please God that is not true.
Rolland Baker’s grandparents
How did we get to Africa? Long way around. I was born in China actually. My father was
born in China. My mother was born in China. My grandparents went to China as
missionaries in the early 1900s. My grandfather read the great commission “Go into all the
world and preach the gospel”13 and so he did, just like that! He just read it and went.
He wanted to get as far from the nearest white man as possible. So he ended up 10,000
feet up this town of Batang in the border of Tibet and China. It took 6 months to get there
from Shanghai by riverboat in the Yangtze Gorge, and coolies pulling the boats along up the
river, rapids, and riding on the backs of yaks up into the high mountains. My father was born
over a pigsty in a Chinese hut way up in the cold Tibetan mountains. It was so cold, people
were so poor, they would go an entire winter without taking a bath, or washing dishes. They
were so cold, and poor. A lot of people died. And my father took correspondence school. He
took all his education and wrote his exams by mail. It would take a year for a letter to get to
America and back again. It took a year to get results from a test, from an examination back
from America. And he grew up very isolated in China. And the first 5 years, my grandfather
worked hard, and he only saw 1 person saved in 5 years, and he wasn’t sure about him!
It was really difficult, and my grandfather said, “Well, forget this. I am not going to do
this any more! I am not doing this at all any more unless I have the power of God with me.”
So he quit. “I am not doing the ministry unless you are with me, God.” So he went back to
America. He had debts. He worked for 3 years to pay his debts. He said, “I am just not going
to even try any more. I tried. I went to the uttermost parts of the earth. I tried to obey you,
God. I am not doing that any more.”
And then he got filled with the Spirit in the early Pentecostal movement. Really filled with
the Holy Spirit. Really, really, really filled with the Holy Spirit. And God began to speak to
11
Hebrews 1:9 You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you
above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy.
12
John 15:11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might
be full. (KJV)
13
Mark 16:15 And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.”
him. And this time around, He said, “Go back to China. Don’t ask anyone for anything.
Don’t join anything. Don’t try to raise anything. Don’t try to figure anything out. Take your
wife and go, and I will be with you.” And he goes back the second time. How many have
read Visions Beyond the Veil?14 He goes back the second time, and settles in the town of
Kunming where I was born.
But he doesn’t know what to do. He is becoming very simple minded this time. I was
taught by an extremely gifted prophet how to do ministry. You do it by showing up on time,
and arriving empty-headed. This is after 10 years of PhD studies! Because if you have your
own thoughts, there is no room for the Holy Spirit’s thoughts.
Beggar children
So here is my grandfather. He doesn’t know
what to do. But they live in an old Chinese
house with a courtyard in Kunming. It is an
old, old village. Old town, thousands of years
old. And it is just cobblestone streets and
horses and wild gangs. There is no government.
There is no police. It is just wild gangs that
shoot up everybody and take control of
whatever they can. Execute each other, fight
each other. My father used to watch them
behead each other and shoot each other out
from his bedroom window. The traditional Chinese dwelling and courtyard
But there were street beggars, little children. in Kunming, China
Beggars in the gutters. They were victims of tin mines around the city of Kunming. The mine
owners would go into the villages and the rice paddies and promise parents money if their
children would come and work in the mines. Because they didn’t want to pay money to build
big tunnels, they just got little children to work in these small tunnels. And they would take
children but they wouldn’t try to even keep them alive. The tunnels were full of gas, and
dust, and poison. They didn’t feed them, didn’t take care of them. They would work them
until most of the children died. And they would throw the bodies out in the trees and go and
get some more.
But some of these children survived barely, and they would crawl into town. And they
were just in rags, sick, and dying, covered with sores. And they would just eat food out of
dingo ditches and garbage in the streets. And my grandmother saw these children and she
took them in one by one, and washed them off, and put clothes on them. Until she had about
50 children. Actually she took in many more than that, but most of them died right away
within a few days.
So we are talking about the most forgotten people on earth. Beggar children. Nobody else
wanted to take care of them. They did not matter to anybody. Nobody else cared about these
children at all. And even the other churches and missionaries would come and tell my
grandfather, “Your wife is wasting her time with these children. You are just wasting your
time. You should spend your time teaching pastors and doing leadership conferences, and
working with nice kids that would grow up and have some influence and have some
education so they can be useful. You are wasting your time on these gutter children that are
worth nothing!”
And these gutter children, they were not actually any good. They were not grateful. They
did not seek God, they didn’t care. They didn’t want chapel. They didn’t want to hear
14
By H A Baker; published by Sovereign World Ltd. www.sovereign-world.com.
anything about the gospel. They just wanted to go out and play. It was not like they were
seeking God.
Visions beyond the veil
But, all of a sudden, God showed what His values are, and what kind of a God He is, and
what kind of power He has. Because He poured His Spirit out on these children. And for a
long, long time, weeks and weeks and months, they were caught up in visions with Jesus and
with the angels, and in heaven 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
It was the most tremendous outpouring of revelation and revival that I have heard of in
2,000 years of church history. I don’t know of any other time in church history when so
much revelation has been poured out on so many people for so long, all in one place. It was
absolutely overwhelming. All my grandfather could do was watch.
They would come out of their visions just a few minutes at a time, to go to the bathroom,
get a bite to eat, and they would be lost in visions again. They were at first taken to hell.
They didn’t even know there was salvation until angels came and rescued them and took
them up and showed them heaven, and showed them what salvation was all about. They were
shown events of the Old Testament. These were children that had never heard Bible stories.
They have never heard the gospel. They would come out of a vision and say, “Pastor Baker,
is there anything in the Bible about a little boy who had a little sling and some rocks, and
there was this big guy, and he hit the guy on the head, and he chopped his head off.” “There
was this big boat, and lots of animals, is there anything in the Bible …?” And he would just
go through Bible story after Bible story. They have never heard of them. But they had these
detailed visions of them.
And they had visions of the future. They had visions of the coming persecution, and the
cultural revolution in China. They had visions of the end days, when powerful barefoot
preachers without money and without western technology will be transported in the spirit
from village to village in the poorest places of the world with anointing and power to call
down fire from heaven on unrepentant villages, and see tremendous signs and wonders.
Uneducated, simple people, without money and without technology, in the last days. And
they saw Jesus coming in the clouds, and bodies rising in the air from their tombs, clothed
with new heavenly bodies.
This is the real thing. Revival came to the least of these. Not to the most educated, not to
the most capable, not to the top 3% in university, the high-achievers …. It came to the least
of these. God showed Himself by His own choice to the least of these, so that all the rest of
us could have hope, so that all the rest of us could realise what kind of a God we have.
It doesn’t matter how low we think we are. It doesn’t matter how much we have gone
through. It doesn’t matter how lonely or forgotten we think our situation is. God has shown
what kind of a God He is.
Power encounters
So when I was born in Kunming, I knew my grandfather. I saw the orphanage. My father was
15 years old when this happened, in 1927. I was born in 1947. I grew up sitting on my
grandfather’s lap listening to him tell stories of revival in China. Power encounters. Angels
and demons. Buddhism and evil spirits were very common in old China.
He told me all these stories about the power of God, and the power of angels. How even
the simplest believer in Jesus had more power than the most powerful demons. A church
service in revival in the mountains of China could be a simple house or hut where the people
are surrounded by angels all around the walls, keeping out the demons outside who were
howling and cankering and trying to break in and disrupt the meeting. But angels were all
around protecting the meeting. That is just how real spiritual warfare was. And that is the
truth. That is the reality.
The normal Christian life
So I grew up being fully aware of the supernatural world. Actually most Chinese in the old
days did too, they just knew the dark side of it. But they were fully aware of the supernatural
world. It was not unusual to hear testimonies of someone being raised from the dead, or
having visions of heaven, or being healed, or prophesying …. That was just never unusual. It
was normal.
It is the normal Christian life. We walk and talk with our God. His sheep know His
voice.15 It is normal for Him to be with us, and for us to be walking in His power, and doing
His will, and succeeding at what we do because He is with us. That is just normal. This
should be normal life in Singapore. You need to read things to expose you to what is normal.
What is not normal is just sitting in church and nothing ever happening. Normal is not just
singing songs and saying words and going home. That is not normal. Where God is, normal
things happen. Church becomes normal when He comes too! A normal church is a church
where God attends, and He makes His presence known. He makes Himself known. He makes
His company known. He does things that everybody can recognise and see that only God can
do this. And He gets lots and lots of glory and joy out of it, and people can feel His love. And
that is normal. That should be normal Christian life. There should not be any argument over
Pentecost, over tongues, over healing, over holy laughter, …
Fifty, sixty years ago, my grandfather baptised 10,000 people at least himself, personally,
in the wild cold rivers of the mountains of China. And they did not know anything about the
Holy Spirit. They did not know anything about revival. They didn’t know what was supposed
to happen. And they came out of the water speaking in tongues, and falling to the ground,
and rolling and shaking and laughing, and caught up in visions, and their lives turned
completely upside down, full of emotion and joy. This is normal.
In the Christian life, miracles are normal. In fact, in the Christian life, everything is a
miracle. In fact, Romans says anything that doesn’t come from faith is sin. 16 If you do what
you do, not because you believe in God and trust in Him, but you just do it because you think
you should do it and need to do it, that is actually sin. What is normal is to be completely
dependent on God for everything, and to trust Him for everything. 17 That is normal. That is
what pleases Him. The second you stop trusting Him for something, that is sin. That is not
normal. As soon as you start behaving in a way that is not of faith, you suddenly go off into
sin. And it brings unhappiness, it brings anxiety, it brings pride. It brings everything that is
not right. That is not normal.
So lack of faith is very, very abnormal. When I grew up, I grew up into this heritage, and
knowing my grandfather, and then my father telling these stories, and I was just a child, and I
believed it all, and it was just normal.
Heidi’s heart for God
Many years later, I met Heidi. But Heidi was born in a very affluent, rich western family on
Laguna Beach, a private beach in California, and who was raised in a very nominal
Episcopalian type of church.
15
John 10:27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.
16
Romans 14:23 But the man who has doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith;
and everything that does not come from faith is sin.
17
Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your
ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.
However, there is something very special about Heidi. Her mother couldn’t have children.
She was barren. Her parents adopted a little boy who had a heart defect and they knew it. But
they loved him and they adopted him anyway. When he was five, he died. And Heidi’s
mother was really despondent, and she cried out in desperation, “God, if you give me a child,
if you give me children, the first one is yours.” Now, she is barely a believer at all. She
doesn’t believe in any miracle, she is just blurting out something in desperation. But she had
Heidi.
And ever since Heidi was little, she had this huge heart for God. Even when she is five, or
seven, eight years old, she is lying on her bed at night. “Where are you God? I need you! I
want you! I just want to know you, God.”
It was a huge cry in her heart. Her sister who was born 11 months later had no interest in
God. No interest whatsoever. So this is God’s power, His sovereignty, His grace. That is a
gift of God. That should be a great encouragement to you that you are here.
God has the best plan for you
I found out after all these years that you can screw up your imagination, you can intensely try
to imagine what the Spirit-filled life is going to be like, and you can’t, because it always
turns out a lot better than you thought. You cannot imagine what is ahead of you.
It is a good thing. Otherwise, the Christian life would be so boring. If what has happened
to us in Africa over the last ten years was something that we could have imagined before we
started, it would have been so boring. But what actually happened was so unbelievable, just
so beyond anything we could have imagined.
You give yourself to God, you throw yourself on His mercy, you throw yourself at His
feet, you lose your life for His sake, and you end up with the most exciting, most fun, most
adventurous, the most friends, the best things to do, the best use of your talents. He knows
absolutely the best way you should live your life. And you cannot come up with a better plan.
You can try, you can plan, you can think, but you cannot come up with a better use of your
existence and your time and your abilities and your talents than He can. He knows how to
pack more joy, more friendships, and more fun, and yet more challenges and more testings
and all that, that brings both you and God joy and glory and honour in the long run than you
could ever come up with yourself. He just has the best plan. He is smarter than we are. He is
happier than we are. He knows how to be joyful when we don’t. He knows how to make
something out of our lives that we don’t. And He can do it for anybody, as He proved by
coming to the least of these children in China.
The way to revival
Heidi was someone who lived by faith. It was a gift. Her life is a gift from God. God chose
her to reveal His love, to take her to the poor, to take her to Africa, to become a mother to
thousands and thousands of throwaway children that nobody cared about.
And we found out the way to have revival, the way to go for revival, is not to try to be
important, not to try to be influential, not to try to be a famous preacher, not to try to have the
biggest church, not to try to get the best leaders. You forget about all of that. And you just go
to the least of these. Go to the forgotten corners. Go to the lowest places. Go to the darkest
places. Go to the most hopeless places. Go to the poorest places. And then just give your life
away.
Ha! And guess who shows up? And guess what happens to your life? Guess where the life
comes from? Guess where the miracles come from? That is when life begins to get
interesting. That is when it begins to get powerful. Because then you are taking on the values
of God. And then you are beginning to have something in common with Him. And when you
begin to have something in common with somebody, you form a relationship with them. And
that relationship gets deeper and better and more wonderful, and you get closer and closer.
And you find out what life is actually made of. It is made out of love. It is made out of
relationship. It is made out of companionship. Not just with anybody. But with somebody
who is perfect. He is the perfect Saviour who can save you from anything and everything the
devil has ever did to you. And that is spectacular!
Home of loving believers
I will fill in more details as the camp goes on, but
Heidi and I ended up in Hong Kong. We had taken
trips there and ministered with teams, but we ended
up in Hong Kong working with Jackie Pullinger and
other people with street addicts. And eventually we
got our own church. And we just went out into alleys
and we found people that nobody else cared about.
We are starting to learn from my grandfather. The
little old ladies that had no family. The throw-aways,
the street sleepers and all who had just nobody Heidi doing street ministry in Hong Kong
looking after them whatsoever, just totally alone in
this world.
And we formed a church, that we called Home of Loving Believers, in Chinese. And it
was not just open on Sunday at 10 o’clock, it was open all the time. The doors were always
open. We always had a big wok going with fried rice and everything, and we always had
people in there to pray and worship and sing and counsel and teach, and just to be together.
And it was just open, and it was just the home of loving believers. And we just had the most
fantastic time. And we lived in the most crowded square mile in the world, Central Yamaday,
Kowloon, 365,000 people in our square mile. It was on the 27 th floor. Nowhere to jog, so I
just ran up and down stairs. Up and down tall buildings. And it was wonderful.
But we realised something, that Hong Kong is not the poorest place on earth. In fact, per
capita, it is the fourth richest city in the world. There were more Mercedes everywhere, more
five-star hotels. It was just glittering on Nathan Road, and you go around the corner, and
suddenly everything is black and poor. But there was so much wealth. There were tens of
thousands of billionaires in Hong Kong that could pay for everything we ever did in our
entire life, but very unhappy people. And we thought to ourselves, there has got to be a
poorer place in the world where the gospel can be proven. There has to be a poorer place
where we can see and prove what God can do. This is not the poorest, most difficult place on
the planet. There has got to be a poorer place.
The poorest place in the world
So I was reading Time magazine one day, and there is an article about a war going on in
Africa. And it is a ridiculous war. It was so ridiculous that the rebels are even blowing up the
nurses and doctors and humanitarian aid people coming to help. They are blowing up Red
Cross trucks. They are blowing up anybody that gets close. They are just killers. And I read
that story to Heidi, and her first response, instantly, was, “I have to go there! They need
help!”
She didn’t even think about the danger or anything else. So exciting! Why is it exciting?
Ninety nine percent of the people that you read that article to will say, “I am staying far away
from that place! You won’t catch me there!” A lot of preachers and pastors have told me, “I
am so glad you are going and not me!”
But what makes it exciting? It is not exciting if you are going by yourself, with just your
resources, and just your motivation, and just your answers, and just your understanding. That
is not exciting. There are a lot of humanitarian aid workers that try and go do good things.
But we know them. We have been in a lot of disasters where we have met them, and they are
hard, and they are out of ideas, and they are exhausted. And they just want to leave.
We have also seen a lot of missionaries like that. Ninety percent of professional
missionaries who get a 4 year Bible school degree or college degree, and they have pastored
a church for 2 years, and have pioneered a church for a year, and they go through
psychological screening, and they pass the missions board, and they get accepted, and they
itinerate, and they raise their funds, and they get everything ready, and they actually go. After
all those years, and they spend their first term, 90% don’t go back! Ninety percent drop out
rate! Our daughter in Mozambique kept saying goodbye to her friends all the time. “Too
hard, there is no revival, I am going home.” It is no fun.
Living the Christian life without God
In fact, living the Christian life is no fun without God’s company. It is no fun. If you are just
trying to live the Christian life because of something you believe or something you are trying
to do, or something your pastor told you, you are trying to live out something in the Bible,
but it is not with God’s company, it is no fun. It is very hard. It is very difficult. That is the
way most of the church lives. We are trying to obey the Bible, but not without God’s
company. Not without His Spirit. Not without His presence. Not without feeling His love.
Not without His revelation of himself. Not without trusting Him.
And you see the scholars, they are trying to figure out how to save the world, how to
accomplish the great commission, how to make the church grow. They have got their
computerised, targeted strategies for the mission fields of the world …. It is hard. It is really
hard! It is really hard to save the world with computers. It is hard to save it with libraries. It is
really hard to save it with eloquent preaching. It is really, really hard! It is hard to save it with
learned academics. It is really hard to do it with just stories. It is just really hard! It is hard to
do it with fine music. These ministries that go around the world with tremendous musical
talent – and groups and choirs and CDs. It is hard to do it with just music.
Something is needed. It is called God. It is called His Spirit. It is called His company. It is
called His presence.
Mozambique – hell on earth
So Heidi and I researched the poor countries of the world. And we found out that this
Mozambique that we read about was really the world’s poorest country. Half the children
dead before they were five years old. Tremendous famines. War. Killing. Millions of people
killed. There is no family life. It is hell on earth. The more Heidi and I read about it, the more
we said, This is perfect! Because we can show what God can do.
I went there on an exploratory trip for a few days. People didn’t know why I was there. I
was teaching in a pastors’ conference. They didn’t know why I was really there. I was really
there to find some kind of a little house or building where we could take in the poorest
orphans we could find and have a continuation of Visions Beyond the Veil. That was why I
was really there.
And after I was there 2 days, someone walked up and said, “Do you want an orphanage?”
They didn’t know. They had no idea. We went to take a look at it. I thought Mozambique
would be full of orphanages. With all those years of war, and so many parents killed, I
thought there would be government orphanages, United Nations orphanages, Save the
Children orphanages, all kinds of orphanages all over the place. But there weren’t.
There was just one government orphanage. And they didn’t have any money for it. And
foreign countries didn’t have any money for it. And big denominations didn’t have any
money for it. Nobody had any money for it. It was just vandalised, broken down. Children
were demon possessed, and starving. Nobody had a dime to take care of them. And nobody
cared. They were violent delinquents. The police did not want them. They didn’t even want
to put them in jail. They wanted nothing to do with these kids. But we took them. We took
people nobody else wanted. But God did. That is the big difference.
And what does that mean to you? That means it doesn’t matter how alone you think you
are and what situation you are in. God wants you. God loves you. You can trust Him. He
died to save you. His grace covers you. His desire is for you. He has enough power for you.
He loves you completely, totally. There is hope for you. That is the whole message.
So we told the government, “You let us onto the land, we will pay for everything. We will
pay for the food. We will pay for their education. We will fix it up. We will paint it. We will
repair it. We will bring in more children. We will take care of the whole thing. For nothing.
We just want to bless the people in your country.”
We didn’t have any money to do that. We are just talking. We had no support. No
promises. We never asked anybody for anything. I am just standing there looking at this
place. We didn’t even have a car. We just said, “This is perfect, we will take it.” And if you
read our book,18 you see what happened.
The Holy Spirit comes to the children
Almost immediately the Holy Spirit came to the children. Before we had money to paint the
walls, they were black. The children had rags. The same rags that they had been wearing for
years. No beds. No sheets. They didn’t even have a grass mat to sleep on the cold cement
floor. They are barefoot. Full of worms. Demons choking them in the night. Screaming and
kicking and hating each other. Perfect for a revival! Raw material for a revival! This is so
good! Can’t believe we get to be here!
And the Holy Spirit came. And my earliest videos of those days were of the children on
their knees with their hands raised. Nobody taught them how to do this. With their hands
raised, with tears pouring down their cheeks, singing “Thank you Jesus, thank you Jesus for
saving me” in Portuguese. So grateful to God, and just so much joy. Tears running down
their faces.
And they still don’t have anything but the cement floor to sleep on. And still nothing is
working. The rats are coming out of the faucets. The doors are chopped down for firewood.
The toilets are all stopped up. They have been going to the bathroom on the floor and
cooking on the cement floor and living like animals. But they knew what it felt like to be
loved by Jesus and to be saved.
And pretty soon, they began to get visions. And pretty soon, our children in worship
would be taken up by angels to heaven. And the children would be sitting on their shoulders,
and they would be dancing around the throne of God, and the angels will be singing our
Mozambican songs. And our children would be instructed by angels to come back to earth
and preach the gospel, because many are not ready yet. And tell them to grow up and be
preachers, and to preach the gospel, because He is coming soon.
And our timid, shy, naughty little children would come out of these visions suddenly
strong and bold, and they would get up on our chapels and just start preaching to the adults.
And preaching to everybody fearlessly. And they begin to go out with us on the streets, and
we begin to pick up more children. And our children would do the preaching. Our children
18
“There Is Always Enough”, Rolland & Heidi Baker; published by Sovereign World Ltd. www.sovereign-
world.com. Also published under the title “Always Enough”.
would be going after more children. And pretty soon, we have got over three hundred
children in that orphanage.
Miracles of support
And then the communists and the government got jealous because we started to get support.
We don’t know where. We don’t know why. We don’t know how. We would write
newsletters to encourage people about what God was doing, but we wouldn’t be telling about
the need, that we are desperate for your money or anything like that.
But people began to support us. And the children
would be up praying all night for their daily food.
And trucks would show up. And people would come
with food. And stuff would happen. And oh my
gosh, the all night prayer meetings the children
would have just on their own without us asking
them, without us even suggesting. And they would
do that. And they became our evangelists. And we
put hundreds of thousands of US dollars into
repairing the place. Miraculously, support would
Our boys in prayer come. And finally, the government got jealous.
The Marxists and the government confiscated all our property, everything we had done,
and threw us out on the streets, and took everything we had. And we were back to zero, with
320 kids on the street. And the condition was, you can’t stay here and worship Jesus. The
government – they sent their people, and they would beat you if you pray, they would beat
you if you worship here.
And our children said, “We would rather be with you out under the trees, on the beach, or
anywhere than in a place where we can’t worship.” And so they followed us out on their bare
feet out onto the highway, and we were completely homeless. Perfect situation! You have to
read the book18 to see what happened.
But God miraculously gave us new property, new support, new favour with the
government later. And we kept going, adding more children, until we had thousands. And
then, we never planned on pastors, we never planned on a big network of churches, but
pastors in town who originally said “You are wasting your time with these children”, became
jealous of what the Holy Spirit was doing. And they said, “We want to come to your
meetings too. You have to have a Bible school. You have to have teachers.” But we didn’t
ask for these pastors. But they insisted.
Raising the dead
So finally we got new support, new property given to us. And the first dormitory, we gave to
pastors for a Bible school. And we went way out into the bush, and picked 12 from hundreds
of miles away. And we trained our first 12 for 3 months. And we told them, when they
graduated, “Go out and start praying for every dead person you see.” And they did! And they
started rising from the dead! So exciting! And that was the start of our revival. The dead
started rising. People started getting healed.
Crying out for God
And then we had the worst flood in human history since Noah, in year 2000. Three cyclones
– 3 hurricanes – 3 typhoons – came together all at once. And the secular newspapers said it
rained 40 days and 40 nights. And there was this huge ocean of water that ran so fast over the
land nobody could swim in it. And you were dead if you didn’t hang on to a tree and wait for
a helicopter. And in some provinces, a third of the children just went missing. People just
died and were swept out to sea. There were so many, we don’t even know how many.
But there was a cry for God that went out all over the country. The flood did more damage
in one month than 30 years of war, until we see a
nation totally humiliated. 500 years of colonialism.
500 years of slavery. Natural disasters. AIDS. War.
You name it. Until there was no money. No pride. Half
the country would be dead without foreign aid. No
pride left any more. We need God! And so everywhere
I talk about this, I ask the question, “What has to
happen to America, to China, to Singapore, to Taiwan,
all these proud, economically successful tigers of the
economy before there will be a nationwide cry for The Zambezi River in flood
God?”
Since then, we went from 12 pastors to hundreds of pastors to thousands of pastors. And
we don’t know how many thousands of pastors in countries all over. And we don’t know
how to keep up. Because it is not our revival. We didn’t start it, we didn’t plan it. We didn’t
figure out how to do it. We just love trusting God. We just love His company. We just love
what only He can do. We love revival.
Revival – absolute sheer passion for God
You see, that is the thing. Do you love revival? Or can you live without it? Now, what is
revival? Absolute sheer passion for God! Absolute sheer passion! Jesus says, “I know your
deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other!” 19 I wish
that you felt something. I wish you reacted in some way. I wish you did anything but just sit
there.
Sheer raw passion, because that is the way God is. He is a God of life. He has passion. He
grieves over everything that goes wrong. He gets excited and happy about things that go
right. He is anything but neutral. He is anything but just the way most people are. He is alive!
He is just absolutely alive, with energy. If He had His way with you, there would be smoking
crater after this meeting here. There won’t be anything left of the hotel. He will just fry you
with sheer passion. He would just cart you off to heaven and you wouldn’t have a thing to
say about it. That is the way He is.
He is not just a calm, thinking, considering person that just kind of neutrally weighs the
facts and decides that perhaps a decision needs to be made at some point about something
and needs to be very, very adult and patient and neutral about everything. That is not the way
God is. That is not being alive. That is called the walking dead.
And a lot of the world are just the walking dead. They go to their work everyday. They do
their job. They come home. They watch TV. They do their homework. They get their good
grades. They do everything but they are the walking dead. Because they are not passionate
about anything. Nothing. And not anything. Or if they do, they can’t sustain it. They try to
get excited about something, but the suicide rate is still the highest in Hong Kong. And
probably not far behind in Singapore. The suicide rate is still there because they try to get
excited about something and they just can’t stay excited about it. They just can’t.
And there is just one person in the world, one thing in the world, one world that you can
set your mind on, and stay excited about, because it will never disappoint you. And He will
always prove more exciting and more powerful and more gracious and kinder and more
interesting and more fun than you ever gave Him credit for, than you ever did. That is sheer,
19
Revelation 3:15
raw, revival in which you actually like God! You like Him! And you want to spend time with
Him. And you want to share your life with Him. And He is more, more, more satisfying to
you than anybody else.
Then you begin to find out that He is really with you. He is really with you. Then you
begin to see the things that He does. And it just blows you away. And you begin to feel His
love for you. That is what most Christians can’t do. They don’t feel anything. But then you
begin to feel it. You begin to build a relationship. And life becomes very, very, very
different.
Well, that is a very short summary of how we got to Africa and just a kind of an
introduction to these meetings.
Living only for revival
But Heidi and I both decided, long before we ever met each other, but we both agreed when
we met each other, that we were going to live for revival, and only for revival, and nothing
else mattered in this world – business success, academic success, sports success, popularity.
Any other kind of thing in the world was not what we are going to live for. We are going for
flat out revival, and the presence of God. A taste of heaven on earth.
Now if you can’t picture heaven, if you have never gotten a
taste of it at all, and had never been able to imagine it at all, then
it is going to be difficult for you. But I pray that is exactly what is
going to happen during this camp. That you will get a taste of
heaven. And it would be such a taste that you will be completely
wrecked! You won’t be pushed into anything. You will be racing
after it. Just hungry for it. Just running after God because you
have had a taste of heaven itself.
Now can you imagine these kids, my grandfather’s orphan
kids? Can you imagine them having any love for this world left,
after 3 solid months, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day in heaven?
Can you imagine anything in this life having a hold on them any
more? Can you even imagine? They are 10 year old kids. They
Lost in worship
are 12 year old children. But they grew up to become pillars of
the church. They became powerful preachers and prophets. Little children would go out into
villages and suddenly prophesy, with adult vocabulary and voices, and when they are done,
they would sit down and turn to their friends and go, “What did I say?”
Just taken over by God. Just possessed by God. And having a blast doing it. Having a
thrill of their life doing it. No regrets. No sorrow. No disappointment. Everything you do
having its reward. Nothing done in vain. Everything you do is going to succeed, and mean
something. Bring joy to your heart, and God’s heart, and other people’s hearts.
It is up to you
Now, it is up to you. It really, really is. Where your hunger is. What is it you are after. Why
you came to this camp. What you want from God during these few days. What you want for
Singapore. What do you want for your lives. What do you want for the ministry. You see,
God is going to bring revival whether you are a part of it or not. He is totally capable of
finishing His plans for the world and bringing Himself glory. The question is, are you going
to be a part of it? Are you going to be part of His answer for Singapore and South East Asia?
Would you go to Africa if He sent you there?
You could just have a camp. Just have 3 days of good fellowship and good teaching. And
that would be great. And I would enjoy it. But what happens in the next 3 days ... He is
sovereign. But His sovereignty works through your heart and your appetite. So I pray that I
have whetted to some degree, your appetite for revival, and for life that you used to think was
normal. That you will develop an appetite for a life that for a lot of people is freaky and
weird and way off up there, but for those who love God and know Him, is perfectly normal,
and they will never go back. They never, never go back to life without God. Amen.
Christian life is light
We don’t want to continue life with a heavy heart, do we? We don’t want a heavy heart.
Christian life is not a life of just tears and heaviness. Christian life is light. Jesus says, my
burden is light. Take my yoke upon you, for my burden is light, and my yoke is easy. 20 That
is a completely new concept.
I am telling you with some credibility, because in Africa, we are dealing with serious,
serious, heavy, heavy problems. And we would not have lasted, Heidi and I would have quit
years and years ago if we didn’t have a light enough heart to deal with it.
And some of the absolute happiest people we know, who are so depression challenged,
come from the poorest background, with absolutely nothing, but they spread the joy of the
Lord everywhere they go. The people can’t afford wheelchairs, so the crippled jump out of
wheelbarrows. And people are raised from the dead, and they are filled with the Spirit, and
the country is being transformed village by village by village. And they are the happiest
people we know.
And our children that we have in
Mozambique, we have got 4,500 of them now,
they call me Papa Rolland and Mama Aida, and
they are the happiest children we know
anywhere. And they have no Playstation, and
no TV. No nothing. But the Holy Spirit. A
tremendous lot of anointing and revelation and
power and joy. Just absolutely amazing. The
devil cannot steal from them, cannot take it
away from them. And God is using those
simple children to spread the fragrance of the
knowledge of Him throughout Africa. I am proud of them.
Jesus I pray that you will come upon these hearts. You brought them here to this camp for
a reason. And I pray that not one person will leave this camp without that reason being
fulfilled. The hunger of every heart will be met, and that we will come to into an
understanding of our inheritance, what you purchased for us, what you bought for us. And
just have some idea of what is possible in Singapore. What is possible in the lives of each
person here, no matter how lonely and forgotten and insignificant and unhappy they think
their lives have become.
Redeem lives, Lord. Redeem lives at this camp. Redeem lives tonight. Redeem lives with
your sheer raw power. Redeem lives by your absolute revelation about your life. I pray in
the next few days we will get an appetite. We will get a vision and a taste of the power of
the age to come.
20
Matthew 11:29-30 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you
will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
Day 2 morning
Finding God
The trouble with the Holy Spirit is there is no rules. He is greater than all our rules. And He
is greater than our ideas. He is greater than the way we do church. I just like to disappear so
that the Holy Spirit can completely take over and have His way, but I get to enjoy it too. And
since there is no rules, if you want, you can come up and soak and just lie on your face, or
come up here at the altar, if you like. You can do that any time. Just be upfront, upfront on
your face before the Lord or just soaking.
So I invite you to just stretch on the floor, or race around the room or hang from the
chandelier, or just relax where you are any time. Because there is no rules. There is freedom.
The Holy Spirit brings freedom.
A very dangerous place
You know, you live in a very dangerous part of the world called Singapore. It is just really
dangerous here! Singapore is prosperous. And you have a lot of stuff. Dangerous place,
surrounded by a dangerous lifestyle. It is exceedingly dangerous! It is a lot safer to be in
Africa and to be very, very poor.
Because a million years from now, everything will be changed, and we will see then who
was in a safe place. We will see then who was secure, and who had the most, and who was
the richest. We will see, we will know. But Singapore, and South East Asia and KL – very,
very, very dangerous places.
I was just looking at the Straits Times, and you may all know Fann Wong, and the
headline on the front page was, “Secure at 35.” And just talking about how she is really come
of age, how she doesn’t just do youth movies anymore, pretty young thing movies, but she
has achieved what she wants in life. And she knows who she is and she is secure and
successful and famous, and self assured, and has found what she wants and is on top of
things, and has arrived.
Well, I don’t mean to judge her spiritually, because I don’t know the rest of the story. This
is just an example from what I read. I am not picking on her personally, but just using this
kind of thing as an example. But how secure is she?
You see, it is so deceptive. It is just so extremely deceptive. You can have a boyfriend,
and you can have admission into university, and you can have the things that you strive for,
but it is so deceptive. You can’t keep it. You can’t hold onto it. And you really don’t have
any security at all. If she is relying on who she is as a movie star at 35, she really doesn’t
have anything at all. But she is on the front page of the newspaper, and everybody is looking
at her as an example of what they would like to be. This is a fantastic place to be. Let’s try to
be like her.
China is an example of a country that is trying to prove things and get places, no matter
what. The Beijing Olympics, for example. China wants to get as many gold medals as
possible. It wants to really prove something. So they are literally recruiting thousands and
thousands of little girls to be gymnasts, and they are forcing these girls into extremely
difficult exercise and gymnastic routines at a very young age. So severe that their bones are
being deformed, and they are not growing properly, and they are not getting through school,
22 Finding God Day 2 morning
and don’t have the normal family life. But the government is putting these students through
this tremendously competitive program, to get as many people as possible competing, so that
they will get the most Olympic gold medals. They are trying to prove something. They still
want to be the middle country, the country of the next century. And yet, where does that get
them? I know some professional Olympic gymnasts after they are retired and all. Where does
it get you? You see, it is so deceptive.
It is so dangerous to be in a society that is overachieving. Very successful, very
prosperous, very competitive. And you think you are getting somewhere. And you think you
are doing well. But actually, life is very dangerous for you. You are surrounded by so much
input. There is so much that competes for your attention. Everywhere you look, there is
entertainment. Everywhere you look, there are interesting things, competitive things,
stimulating things. All these stuff coming at you, and taking your attention. And if you let all
these stuff take your attention, you are dead. You are just finished. It will kill you. You will
get to the end of your life with nothing.
I am just telling you right now. You live in a dangerous society. And especially you youth.
You are so distracted by so much umpteen channels of satellite TV, all kinds of Asian and
American movies. Every kind of entertainment. Every kind of thing to do on the computer.
Friends. Anything you want. Any kind of toys and entertainment and social life. What is
going to happen to you? What is it going to do to you? Because if you let all of that stuff take
a hold of you, that is all you will get. If you make those things your god, that is the only god
you will have. And that is pitiful.
Thinking about death
You get to the end of your life and all you will have is a movie star, and some pop music, and
some toys, and money in the bank and that is it. Very lonely. And you are going to die soon.
I don’t care if you are twelve at this camp, you are going to die soon. Because in the long
scheme of things, our life is very short.21 Even if you are a young, young person, and you
never think about it, you are still going to die soon.
That all sounds kind of negative. And people don’t like to think about things like that.
That is because it is scary. That is why they don’t think about things like that. So they think
about other things. They just push that stuff out of their minds. But that doesn’t mean it is not
underneath, in your heart.
When I was going to college in California, they did a survey of college students, and they
asked privately, “What do you think about more than anything else?” It is a very private
survey, so nobody had to know what they said. What do you suppose college students in
California think about more than anything else, but they never talk about it to each other?
You might think it is social life or love, but no, the answer was death. People think about
death more than anything else deep underneath, but it is the subject they would want to think
about least, and they talk about least. They just hide it, and they are just insecure all the time.
Africa actually is a safer place to be, because you see so much death around you. And you
see so much extreme need around you that you are face to face with the issues of life. You
confront the fact that you are mortal. You are just human. You are very fragile. You could
get sick and die any time. Your life is going to be very short.
The life expectancy in Mozambique is 38. You hardly see any old men. Almost no grey
hair. Most people are dead of AIDS or disease much sooner than that. So you are face to face
with the issues of eternity and that actually helps you in the long run.
21
Psalm 90:3-6 You turn men back to dust, saying, “Return to dust, O sons of men.” For a thousand years in
your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night. You sweep men away in the sleep
of death; they are like the new grass of the morning – though in the morning it springs up new, by evening it
is dry and withered.
Day 2 morning Finding God 23
I hope that is a warning that helps you.
Word or Spirit
We could have a camp in which there was just totally Bible study. I have been to camps like
that, and actually most of the Christian world operates like that.
Most of the Christian world lives a Christian life in which the Christian life consists of a
belief system. And we study that system, and we try to get that system together. And we
study the Word of God, we study the Bible. And we study our interpretation and our
application. And we try to follow it, try to live it out. And we have made the scripture our
god. And our Christian life consists in trying to understand and figure out and systematise
what is in this book.
Well in the bush in Africa, most of the people we preach to don’t read. They don’t read.
Two-thirds of them are totally illiterate. When we see a village saved, we find somebody
who can read a little bit, that has a third grade education. And we see if he has the Holy
Spirit. And we see if everybody can see that he is a spiritual leader. And in time, we train him
as a pastor. But he can barely read. And when I preach and have translators, they care barely
read the scriptures I am trying to preach from. And we can’t have long periods of theological
analysis.
We have one lady, she went to one of our Bible schools. And I wasn’t there, but our staff
eventually kicked her out, because she couldn’t read well enough to keep up. But she had
raised 6 people from the dead! They didn’t know that. She is so humble! Her husband and
her brother, between them have raised 13 people from the dead! Her brother is totally
illiterate. And they kicked her out of Bible school, because they didn’t think she was capable!
So we have to think in new ways about Word and Spirit.
Knowing God only through scripture
The Christian world is basically divided into 2 parts. Those that believe that God has
mediated His revelation in the form of a book, the inspired scriptures, and that is it. And if
we are going to know Him, we are going to have to know Him by what we read here. And
that is all. And He shows Himself here, and He inspires us through these words, and He helps
us interpret these words, but that is pretty much it. We know Him by these words, and we
don’t really expect to know Him any other way, and we don’t particularly expect any
involvement on God’s part in our life very much. A certain amount of providential events,
but not too much.
So that leads to a kind of Christianity in which we are guarded against cults, and we are
guarded against false religions, and we are guarded against false philosophies, and we are
guarded against a lot of things. But we are still left in many ways quite alone. And quite
lonely. And not exactly in love. I don’t meet many Christians that are desperately in love
with God just because they really, really study the Bible hard.
In fact, in our education, we have met many PhD theologians, and in fact, world famous
theologians, who don’t really pray. They don’t really know God. They don’t really love Him.
They don’t really have much of anything to do with Him. But they know every issue there is
to know about translations, the Greek manuscripts, the various traditions, the issues of
inspiration, interpretation, exegesis, theological issues involved. And they are renowned
scholars, famous professors from universities and seminaries. But very much alone and very
much uninvolved with God.
Connecting to God as a person
Now, there is another kind of Christianity in which you and God actually connect.
Corinthians says he who joins himself to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. 22 Amen. That
is Christianity. And the Bible becomes not your god, but the Word of God. It is designed for
our encouragement. It produces faith in us. 23 It instructs us in righteousness. 24 It is a light
unto our feet, a lamp unto our path.25
But it is not God himself. What the Bible does is point us to God, lead us to God, instruct
us in His ways, tell us about Him, give us His words, give us a communication from Him that
is to all of us, that we can all share. But it is still not Him. It comes from Him. He is in it. It is
living. It is powerful.26 It is inspired.24 It is unlike anything else. But it is still not necessarily
somebody you go to sleep at night in love with. And that is the whole difference.
The second kind of Christianity treats God like a person. It treats Him like He wants to be
treated. Suppose you had a girlfriend and you hardly ever saw her. She is living across the
ocean and you wrote her letters, and you would want her to treasure your letters. You would
want her hang on to your letters, and soak in every word, and read every word over and over
again, and let those words sink into her heart.
But if you ever get on a plane and surprise her with a visit, and she didn’t even look up at
you, didn’t even answer the door because she wants to just treasure those letters, something
must be drastically wrong! And yet, that is how a lot of Christians treat God. “Never mind
God, I am studying Your word.” “I am busy now. I am studying for my Bible examination.”
“Never mind God, I am having my devotion.” “Never mind God, we are busy with a church
service, can’t You see? I have a sermon to preach, we have an offering to take, we have
announcements. We don’t have time for Your Holy Spirit. Well, we have 5 minutes for You
at the end of the meeting.”
But the second kind of Christianity says, “The book is worth nothing if you don’t find the
author.” It is like studying a cookbook but you never cook. The cookbook is worth nothing
unless you cook. It is like a marriage manual that you study but you can never have a wife.
You never get close to her. You just study the marriage manual. This (Bible) is like a
marriage manual. This is like a cookbook. But you need to cook. You need to meet your
God.
Low level of expectation
The reason most people are not interested in church, the reason everybody in Singapore is not
in church on Sunday is because whatever they think might be true about the fact that they are
going to die and life is kind of hopeless without God, still they don’t really believe that if
they went to church, that they would actually meet God, and God would actually be involved
in their life very much. And it is that low level of expectation that keeps people bored with
the Christian life. Especially youth.
You just don’t think God cares who you are going to go out with next week. You just
don’t think He cares. You just don’t think He cares about the next examination you have in
school, or how much fun you are going to have at this camp. You just don’t expect Him to be
22
1 Corinthians 6:17 But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit.
23
Romans 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (KJV)
24
2 Timothy 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for
correction, for instruction in righteousness. (KJV)
25
Psalm 119:105 Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.
26
Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing
even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents
of the heart. (NKJV)
that involved into your life. Most Christians don’t. They just don’t expect much. And so their
Christian life becomes pretty boring, frankly. It is just boring.
You don’t expect miracles. You don’t expect God’s company. You don’t expect Him to be
with you and look out for you and take care of you, and make your life really special because
He is around. You don’t expect to fall in love with Him and think of Him as more interesting
than anybody else. Somebody you can talk to and share more with than anybody else. Just
don’t expect that. Because you put Him behind a screen. You put Him behind the scriptures.
You put Him behind church. And you put Him behind all kinds of things. You push Him
away.
And frankly, the second kind of Christianity that really wants to treat God like a person, it
is pretty rare. It is amazing. Some people say that revival is just really special. You can’t
expect it most of the time. It is something you have to wait for. It is something that God has
to pour out sovereignly once in a while, and it only lasts a few years, maybe. And it is so
unusual, most of time, we just don’t expect to be able to connect with God very much. And
we just kind of decide that this is as good as church is going to get, and this is as good as it is
ever going to be, and this is as much as we can expect in church, so let’s just get used to it,
and just have some kind of social life or some way to carry on anyway. Anybody relate with
that?
The kind of Christianity where people are connecting with God Himself and you are
relating with Him, you have found Him, that is rare. So far. But just because it is rare,
doesn’t mean you have to miss it, because it is available to whoever wants it. And I pray that
one of the results of this camp is that you will realise and develop a tremendous expectation.
“Ha! I don’t have to be so separated from God after all. I can connect with God, and relate to
Him, and He can be my best friend.” You don’t have to be like the 99% of teenagers in
Singapore. You don’t have to.
One thing I like to mention at this point is several different attitudes we have towards
seeking God.
God is very unresponsive and difficult to seek?
One attitude is that He is very, very difficult to seek, very, very difficult to find, very hard to
get Him to do something, very hard to get Him to manifest himself. You have to do some
extraordinary things to get Him to show himself. And it is a lot of work.
I heard a very well-known Bible teacher once at a conference. He said, “Prayer is like
digging ditches. It is hard work. So let’s get our shovels and start digging!” And the really
spiritual ones are the ones who discipline themselves to pray, maybe hours a day, whether
they want to or not, whether they enjoy it or not. Maybe fast a lot. And maybe discipline
themselves in many ways. And they pray very loudly, and they pray very hard, and very
long, and it is a struggle. Because they are contending against spiritual forces, and it is
difficult. And it is like a battle. It is like you get up in the morning and you fight a spiritual
war everyday to try to find God, and pray through, and contend for a breakthrough, and seek
God together for revival. And revival becomes this extremely difficult to attain thing. Maybe
with enough years of seeking and lots of intense discipline, you can get God to do something,
to notice something, to change something in society, to respond to us somehow.
And we think of God as very, very unresponsive. You have to cry a lot. You have shout a
lot. You have to really, really do something to get Him to respond to you. Now, that is not
entirely wrong. There is a lot of good things about that. But it is not the whole picture. It is
not the whole picture at all.
Because one attitude says that, “Well, the glory has not fallen yet. What do we have to do
to get the glory to fall?” “We don’t have revival yet. What do we have to do to get revival?”
“I don’t know God very well yet. What do I have to do to get Him to show up?” And we
think of revival and the presence of God as something that is unattainable, it is beyond our
reach. It is not here right now. We don’t have it in our church right now. It is not in
Singapore right now. So we are just going to keep praying for it. Well, again, that is not
entirely wrong. But it is not the whole picture.
God delights in responding
There is another picture. This is what we are learning in Africa. It is what we are learning in
the renewal. It is what we are learning in revival. And that is, we have everything completely
backwards! It is not God who is unresponsive. It is not God who is unemotional. It is not
God who is hard to get to do anything. It is not God who doesn’t respond. It is not God who
doesn’t want revival right now. It is us! It is not Him! We have everything backwards!
He is delighted to show up today. He will come at the first invitation. He will come as
soon as you open the door.27 He will come as soon as you appreciate Him. He will respond as
soon as you want Him. He will be thrilled with you as soon as you believe in Him and trust
in Him. He will be your friend as soon as you want Him to be your friend. He will be as close
to you as you want Him to be to you. He is available immediately. He is available now. He is
knocking on the door of your heart this second. And He is not difficult and hard to find. He is
right next to you. And you can walk into His heart any time you please. That is actually
closer to the whole picture.
It takes a little adjustment in your thinking. Because we have gone so many years without
much faith, without realising what kind of a God we have, what the good news really is. We
don’t realise how good the good news is.
Getting what you want from God
There is a lot books you can buy in the Christian bookstore. There is a lot of TV programs
and videos you can watch. In America, there is Christian TV all the time. Most programs that
I turn on when I am in the States are about money and how to get it. Or some kind of miracle
and how to get it.
Actually, the most successful books in those bookstores are barely about God at all. I
walked into one bookstore once and the best book was piled in a huge pile and it was Seven
Steps to Success, or something like that. I was very curious, so I grabbed one and started to
look at it. I could not find the word Jesus anywhere in the entire book. Number one seller in a
Christian bookstore. People would like success better than Jesus. And even if they do
mention Jesus, a lot of the books are about how to get His power to work for you. Never
mind Jesus, I just need to have some power working for me.
And actually, most people, when they come to church, they have a problem. They need to
pay the rent. They are sick. They need a job. They need a girlfriend. They need a miracle.
And we have huge crusades in Africa where the banner says, “Come get your miracle!” And
so people come to church asking, “How can I get a miracle?” “I need a miracle.” “I want to
see one.” “I need one myself.” “How do I get a miracle?” “I want to see miracles.” That is
revival. Lots of miracles. And actually, that is a popular subject. It sells millions and millions
of books.
What is on people’s minds is how to get God to give them what they want. If they can just
read a book, or just come to a conference, or go listen to a special speaker, or get a tape.
Somehow figure out how they can get God to give them what they want. If you want
something from God, you pray. If you don’t get it, you pray louder. And if you still don’t get
it, you pray really loud. Or you try to do some other really drastic things.
27
Revelation 3:20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I
will come in and eat with him, and he with me.
Treating God as our Father
How many girls here have a rich father? I don’t mean a shipping tycoon, I mean somebody
who can buy you a TV if you want one. OK, you want something from your father, how do
you treat him? How do you get something out of your father? You have probably figured it
out by now.
I have a daughter, Crystalyn. She is 18. Since we have had her, she has been perfect! It
doesn’t matter what she does, she is perfect in my opinion. She has total control over her dad.
How did she get that way? In my office, I can be very busy. We have thousands of churches
and lots of problems, and we are very busy. And here comes Crystalyn in my office.
Now, she could be really scared. “I don’t know if he likes me?” She could come to the
door and she could be all nervous and afraid. And she could just timidly knock, and then say,
“Oh, forget it!” and just sit down by the door and start crying. Just sob there and stay there all
night. “Oh dad, I wish you would come out and do something. I wish you would pay
attention to me but I know you don’t really like me.” And finally start screaming and crying
and pounding on the door and yelling, “Oh dad, I wish you would do something, I wish you
would care about me out here!” And start sobbing and yelling and … Well, I undoubtedly
would notice and do something, but it wouldn’t be a huge thrill.
You know what is a huge thrill, for me? It is when I am totally busy and she doesn’t care!
And she just blows into my office in the middle of everything, thinking that just because she
is my daughter, she can just totally interrupt me. And think that I love her so much that I
won’t care if she just blows in into the middle of everything. And she just races up to my
chair, and doesn’t care who I am talking to on the phone. Just throws her arm around me,
totally interrupts me and says, “Dad, dad, dad, you are the greatest dad in the world! You
have got to do this for me!”
I would drop everything. She knows that I am just going to drop everything. She knows
that I am thrilled that she thought enough of my love for her that she could just blow in there
without knocking, and blow in there without permission and blow in there without even
caring what else I am doing. She knows, she is so confident in my love for her that she
doesn’t even think about it. It is like the daughter of the president of the US. She just blows
into the White House oval office just whenever.
And I would look at her and say, “Do you think just because you are cute and perfect and
you are my kid that you can blow in here anytime and I will just do anything you say?” And
she says, “Yep! yep! yep!” And she has me totally under her control. There is no way I can
say no to her. No way. Because she has a relationship with me. She knows it. And it is just
fabulous. She doesn’t have to cry. She doesn’t have to yell. She doesn’t to scream. She
doesn’t have to beat her body all night. She doesn’t have go without sleep. She has a
relationship.
Relationship is the key
She knows what it takes to get me to do something. First of all, she likes me. She emails me
all the time. “Dad, I love you. Exclamation. Point! Point! Point!” It is obvious. I know.
You see, God knows whether you love Him or not. He knows. He can tell. Its easy.
Scripture says, “I will help him because he loves me.” 28 What motivates Him to help you is
that you love Him. You have a relationship with Him that He enjoys. He is thrilled when you
come to Him. “Of course she is back. What does she want now? I can’t wait to give it to
her!”
28
Psalm 91:14 “Because he loves me,” says the LORD, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he
acknowledges my name.”
It is totally different. He is the one who is just itching in this camp to breakout among you
and just give you what you want. But He can tell whether you really love Him. Or whether
you are just trying to figure out how to get something from Him. You see, my daughter, she
is not trying to trick me or connive from me. We actually enjoy each other, and we can tell.
That is what makes life, life. It is complete lack of pressure. It is real love that you enjoy.
It is not false love, pressured love, push love. It is not you trying to love God. It is not you
trying to get Him to do something. It is not you trying to live the Christian life. You are
actually in love. And you do know Him, and you are totally confident in your relationship
with Him. And you know He is with you, and it is easy to ask Him for stuff. Jesus is your
friend.
Some people pray to Jesus, they yell at Him! They yell at Him when they pray! They just
scream and yell at Him. Do you scream and yell at your friends? Is that how you enjoy their
company? Pentecostals can be really good at yelling at God! Most people don’t talk to Him
at all!
This is revival
But see, this is revival. This is renewal. This is the life of the Spirit. This is real life. You
come alive because, “Oh my gosh! I don’t have to yell at God. I like Him too much for that.”
You don’t yell at somebody you like. And the more you love them, the less you have to talk
to get something.
Some people think, if you want something small, you just pray a short prayer. You want
something really big, you got to pray a long prayer. And if it is really desperate, you have got
to pray a very loud prayer, and it helps to throw in lots of tears! How hard did Jesus pray
when He raised Lazarus? Just one simple “Come out!” 29 What did Peter do to raise the dead?
“Arise!”30
If you have enough of a relationship, that is all you have to do. It is like famine in Africa.
We can scream and cry and sob over the poor and starving in Africa, and stay up all night. Or
we can come to Him and say, “Hey dad, I need you to do something now!” Which does He
enjoy more? The short prayer is not the cheaper prayer, if it is based on relationship. You
have such a love for God, you are so close to Him, you have such a relationship with Him
that all you have to do is to whisper “Hey dad, I need this now.” And He does the most
powerful thing, the most amazing thing.
We have found in revival in the Christian life that all the most miraculous things we have
ever seen in Africa in our 26 years as missionaries have come when we have been at our
most relaxed. They have been at times when we were most in love. We are the happiest. The
most light hearted. That is when all the really powerful stuff happens. But when we were
desperate, and anxious, and petrified, and scared and screaming and crying, that is when the
least happens.
Trust is what excites God
It would be like my daughter. We are facing some kind of emergency and she is screaming at
me, “Dad, dad, you have got to do this, you have got to do this …!” And you say, “It is OK, I
am going to do it. It is going to be alright.” And she says, “No, it is not alright!” “It is OK.”
“No, it is not OK! You have got to help me!” And she is not listening and she is not believing
me. And she is just continuing to scream and cry. That is not prayer. That doesn’t excite God
very much.
29
John 11:43 When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”
30
Acts 9:40 But Peter put them all forth, and kneeled down, and prayed; and turning him to the body said,
Tabitha, arise. And she opened her eyes: and when she saw Peter, she sat up. (KJV)
What excites Him a lot is that you enjoy Him. You delight in Him. You actually trust
Him. That is what gives Him a thrill. Like it would give any parent. A young child is not able
to provide for themselves. They are not able to put food on the table. They are not able to get
clothes. But they are not worried about it. And it gives you a great thrill as a parent when that
child doesn’t worry about it.
What if you had an 8 year old child that you are taking care of and everyday, “Where’s my
food tomorrow going to come from?” Kid’s 8 years old! “How do I know you are going to
feed me tomorrow?” “How do I know I am going to have anything to wear for school
tomorrow?” And everyday they are just nervous.
What is the difference between that and most grown-ups now? Even presidents of
companies, and pastors of big churches, are so nervous over their building program, so
nervous over this and that, and their budget, and … What is the difference? A little child just
will not think about it. And that thrills the parents. That makes the parents very happy. “This
child is secure in my care.” That is what makes God happy.
But when you try to take the place of God by taking on your own burdens and your own
problems, and you start to be concerned, and worry about everything because you think you
are an adult and you have to, to God, that is like a little child starting to whimper and cry and
be nervous because they don’t know if you will clothe them and feed them the next day.
God gets involved with us
Everyday, Heidi and I feed 10 to 15,000 people. And it is growing all the time. There is more
than 10,000 people, almost 5,000 children that call us mom and pop, and they don’t worry
where their daily food is coming from. We don’t know either! We have no idea most days
where next week’s food is coming from. But one of the joys of the ministry is that we can
share what we have experienced.
When I say that God gets involved with us, I am saying that out of experience. We have
been feeding people for years and years and years, not knowing where on earth it is coming
from, without asking anybody for anything. Without trying to raise support for orphans, or
writing tons of newsletters, or …. Sometimes, people think that whenever we are in a tight
spot, we can just call a pastor in the States. There is always somebody we can call, there is
always newsletter we can send out. We can get on TV and make an appeal or something.
But they don’t realise, we don’t do that. Couldn’t do that. Wouldn’t work anyway. We just
know that God feeds you. We just know that the sermon on the mount is true. We just know
that we don’t have to be like the unbeliever. We don’t have to be like the world. We don’t
have to worry about what we are going to eat, what we are going to drink, where we are
going to go, how we are to do things. We don’t have to worry about anything. I think that is
pretty cool. How many adults here would like to live like that?
Two ways of living the Christian life
The thing is, there is two ways of living the Christian life.
One is, “God is far away. He is hard to get to, He is hard to find.” You don’t expect Him
to do much. You are just going to read the Bible and have Bible studies, and that is it.
The other is, “Hey! God is the most loving, the most emotional, the most romantic, most
exciting, most fun Person in the universe. And He is a lot more interested than I am in
compassion, and mercy, and joy, and being full of life. And I am the sticky one, I am the
problem, not God. And I need Him to fix me.” And He will fix you, if you want to be fixed.
Just like that. It is not difficult. It is not the results of hours and hours and hour at the altar, up
all night, or anything, but as soon as you want Him.
That is what the bush people in Africa have learnt. How long does it take for a blind
person to get healed? How long does it take for a dead person to be raised? It is up to you,
and your faith and your desire. God’s not the one who’s resisting. He is not the one who’s
pulling away.
Two attitudes toward revival
And so, there is two attitudes toward revival.
One is that it is not here yet and we have to do a lot of fighting for it.
And the other is that, it is here! You just need to step in. You just need to walk into His
heart. You need to exercise your faith. You need to receive Him. You need to connect with
Him. You need to set your God before you and connect with Him. It is something that is
available to you right now, right here. And there is nothing stopping you. There is no law.
There is no wall. There is no boundary. There is no chasm. There is no big distance between
you and God. Jesus died so that there would be no distance between you and Him, through
faith.
And so revival isn’t something that is always out there in front of you that you are always
chasing and it is hard to get, and you have to really struggle for it. But revival is something
that you, relationship with God I should say, is something that you can have any time you
want. That is the good news. That is what motivates me when I am in Africa. We don’t hope
for a miracle some day. We don’t hope. But we don’t preach them either. We don’t preach
manifestations. We don’t preach falling on the floor and laughing. We don’t preach raising
people from the dead. We don’t preach miracles of money. Because that is not the point.
Jesus is the point. Love is the point. Relationship is the point. Romance is the point. Joy is
the point. And when we preach Jesus and Him crucified, and when we preach His kingdom
and His righteousness, all these things chase us. And we can’t keep them away. And revival
is not our fault. It just keeps chasing us. And God loves to do things. And He does things all
the time that surprise us.
I am just going to give you some examples. You just need lots of examples. Let’s just take
something really practical.
You need romance more than anything else
What are you going to do for a girlfriend, guys? Girls, how are you going to find the right
guy? We can talk about the problems in your life, what you need help with, and what you
would like, and we can talk about the fact that you need a new computer, and you need a car,
and you need this, and you need that …
But what you really need, which you won’t talk about so much is, is that you need to be in
love. Am I connecting here at all? Does this make sense to you? Underneath it all, I think you
do. You need romance more than you need anything. That is why the popular songs are all
about love. That is why the best movies are about it. Everybody knows.
But how do you get it? Most people plot and scheme and chase and worry and cry … But
God is different. He is the most romantic, most emotional person in the universe. Much more
than you. He is much more loving than you are. He is much more fun. He has a better sense
of humour. He is much more romantic than you are. You just need to learn that, and catch up.
Let’s take Heidi and me, how we got together. I mentioned last night that Heidi’s mother
could not have children. So they adopted a boy. He died at 5. Heidi’s mother is desperate. “If
you give me children, the first one is yours.” So she had Heidi, and Heidi had this huge
longing for God. And her sister born 11 months later had none. Zero. None. Didn’t care at all
about God.
God is after you!
Right off, let me say God does not have to show Himself to you. He does not have to save
you at all. You cannot force Him to save you. You cannot force Him to give you a miracle.
You cannot force Him to do anything. He is God.
So the fact that you are here at this camp and you have a heart for Him is really His grace.
You could be like the millions of other people in Singapore and not care at all. But you are
here. You are here because God brought you here. You are here for a reason. It is His grace.
It is His concern for you. He picked you out. He chose you to be here at this camp this week.
That is amazing. God has selected your name. From before the world was even made, He has
plans for you. He brought you here to this camp. You are sitting in this room listening to
these words because, it is His choice. Almighty God has your number. You are done! You
are toast! You are in big trouble! God’s after you! But that is a good thing!
God’s sovereign work in Heidi’s childhood
So Heidi got chosen before she was ever born. She was set apart, picked out. God is going to
show Himself to her. Turn her into a minister and a missionary. How did He do that?
While she is still a young girl in a nominal church – and they don’t preach salvation, they
don’t preach Holy Spirit, they don’t preach anything, really, except they have beautiful
choirs, and formal everything – and the first time Heidi’s mother takes Heidi to the Eucharist
– this is high church, this is liturgical church, they come up and kneel at the rail and take the
wafer and go through the whole ceremony – and the first time, Heidi’s about 10, she takes
the wafer like the catholic church, and immediately the Holy Spirit hits her, and she collapses
on the floor in the middle of church. The Holy Spirit just clobbers her and she is flat out on
the ground, in the Episcopal church. And the priest leans over the rail and says, “Well, I have
heard that happens.” He doesn’t know what to say. Heidi’s just electrified, filled with the
Spirit, just taking the wafer. That was all she did. It wasn’t her fault.
The Holy Spirit is real. He is powerful. He can clobber you any time He wants. He really
can. How many want to be clobbered at this camp? I would rather be clobbered by God than
anything by anybody else. It is just amazing. He wants to make Himself known. He wants to
throw you across the room. If that will get your attention, if that will be the best thing for
you, that is what will happen.
So, she is just electrified and sensitive. Her family went on vacations to beach ranches in
Mexico. She got used to foreign countries and cultures. Her parents were interested in foreign
cultures and all. Again, this is God’s sovereign work.
A heart for the poor
So Heidi at a very young age had a heart for the poor. Had a heart for people of other
cultures. Had a heart for people that were not the main people in society. The minority
groups. The people that had less attention. The people that were considered at the lower rung
of society. So she wanted to become a foreign exchange student.
At 13 years old, she was living in foreign countries. She lived with another family, and
they would send one of their children to live with her family. So immediately, she began to
get used to travel and other cultures and other languages. When she was 13, she moved to
Europe and learned German in 3 months. In 3 months, she could speak German like anybody
else in the class. That is just a supernatural gift.
A heart for missions
And then when she was in school, at age 11, that is 6 th grade in America, she was in southern
California. And she had a teacher in public school who had been a missionary to China.
And you are not supposed to talk about God in school in America. But this teacher did
anyway. She didn’t care. You know, you can be fired for putting the Ten Commandments on
the wall, and bringing your Bible to school, but she didn’t care. And she talked about serving
the poor in Hong Kong, in the refugee camps. And she put pictures of the refugee camps all
over the walls. And she talked about her experience helping the poor in Hong Kong.
And Heidi is 11 years old. And she is saying, “God! God! God!” She doesn’t even know
Jesus yet. She hasn’t been explained the gospel yet, or salvation. But she has a heart for God.
“God, where are You?” And she hears about the poor, and what this lady had done, and the
kind of work she was doing, and she said, “When I grow up, O God, someday I just have to
do something for those people.” This is before she is a Christian. And she had missions put
into her heart. And she had a desire to help put into her. And she kept being an exchange
student in various places.
“I am a sinner!”
Finally at 16, she was an exchange student on an Indian reservation in the Mississippi in
America. This is a minority group. There is nothing but Indians in this whole reservation.
She is the only white girl. And now, she is the minority, and now they are the ones that
ignore her. And she is the one that feels lonely and left out. Everyone else has black hair and
she is blond. But she goes to a revival meeting. There is a Navajo Indian revival preacher that
comes to this reservation, and he holds an evangelistic meeting. And everybody’s required to
go.
And so she goes. And there are 500 Indian students sitting there. And he preaches his heart
out and he gives an altar call, and nobody responds, except Heidi. She realises, “Oh my
gosh!, this is what I have been looking for all my life.” Because he is talking about a love
that gives you the ability to see people on the inside. To see the underdog, the unlovely, the
ignored, the unimportant, the less popular people in school. But love allows you to see them
from the inside, and appreciate what is on the inside, and to love them where it counts, and
not just by appearances. And he said he used to hate white people. He was an Indian power
movement leader. But now he met a man who gave him a love for white people.
And Heidi thought, “This is exactly what I have been looking for all these years. This is
God! I am a sinner!” And she just races down and bawls her eyes out. And the poor church
people, they are trying to comfort her. “It is OK, Heidi.” “It is not OK! I am a sinner!” And
she just bawls her eyes out.
Filled, and called to be a minister and a missionary
And there is some Pentecostal people there, and they say, “You got to come to our church
tomorrow. You need the Holy Ghost.” She doesn’t even know what that is. She has heard
about it in the Episcopalian prayer book “Father, Son and Holy Ghost.” “What is the Holy
Ghost?” “Well, it is more of Jesus!” “OK then!”
Goes to the next church the next night. “Do you want more of the Holy Ghost?” “Yes!”
And they bring her front and everybody lays hands on her.
They baptise her in the bathtub first. She doesn’t know anything about it at all. They are so
excited. This church is just so weird, she said they either got to be the biggest fakes in the
world, or they are the happiest people on earth. Because they are climbing over the pews.
And they are shouting, and they are laughing, and they are dancing, and they are playing
tambourines, and they are jumping, and they are so happy, they don’t know what to do. And
she has never seen any bunch like this. And finally they bring her forward and lay hands on
her.
And ka poof! She is just blinded by a big white light, and taken to heaven with Jesus. And
she is gone for the next 3 hours. Just gone. Her hands are raised in the air. She is speaking in
tongues. She can’t speak in English for 3 solid hours. And she is lost in visions with Jesus.
And Jesus comes to her, and says “I am going to be your husband.” And anointing oil just
pours down her hands in drips. And He touches her fingers, and says “I am going to be your
husband. And I want you to be a minister and a missionary to Asia, England, and Africa.”
Told her bunch of other things too. Just spoke to her loudly, audibly, just like I am talking to
you. And when she came out of the vision 3 hours later, everybody was gone. The lights
were out. The pastor’s waiting in the back of the church to close up.
And her life changed. Just like that. She never looked back. At 16 years old. A woman.
And in those days, women didn’t preach. They didn’t do anything really in the church. But
God made her a minister and a missionary. And from that day forward, she didn’t look back.
She came dancing out of that church.
The next day, the flowers were prettier, the sky was bluer, the music was better. She was a
ballet dancer. She spent years learning ballet. And she just flirted like a butterfly. She is just
so happy in God. She just could not believe that Almighty God would come to her, just a
simple little 16 year old girl, and just pick her out like that, and just come to her like that, and
allow her to serve Him like that.
Belonging to Jesus
From then on, at every opportunity, she was a minister. She could not walk into a 7-11 store
without praying for the girl behind the cash register. She could not walk into a store without
passing out a tract. She could not talk to any stranger on the street without asking if she could
pray for them.
Every Saturday, every holiday, every weekend, every vacation – summer, Christmas,
Easter – she is taking teams out on the streets. She is taking teams to the prisons. She is
taking teams to Mexico. She is taking teams overseas. She immediately became a minister
and a missionary.
She also lost all her friends. Every friend she had up to the day she was saved left
immediately. Because she instantly belonged to Jesus. She loved Him. Finally she met the
person that she loves more than life. Just met Him. Not just verses in a book. Not just some
stories. Not just some Bible teaching. Not just some spiritual discipline. Not just something
you do. But she met Him. Just who she was looking for all those years as she was growing
up. And she belonged to Him. So she lived with Him from that moment on. It was easy. The
Holy Spirit carried her. She was thrilled. This was the most exciting thing that ever happened
to her by far. Nothing could compare.
She just said goodbye to her friends. They didn’t want to be that spiritual. They didn’t
want to be that interested in God. They didn’t want to be that over the top, crazy, wild. She
just said goodbye. “I know who I love. I know who I want. I know who I am going to serve. I
know what I am going to do. He told me what I am going to do with my life. I am not going
to do anything else.”
There was never ever any competition. Never thought about doing anything else after that.
Had no interest in anything else except being exactly what He said for her to do – to be a
minister and a missionary to Asia, England and Africa. That is it. Once Jesus comes to you
like that, tells you what to do, that is it. No more competition. Your life is settled.
How many would like to have something just that clear and overwhelming? Any takers?
She is 16. This is not some adult. She is just a kid.
Rolland meets Heidi
I met Heidi when she was 20. She was going to university. I had been going to a huge big
church with 25,000 people. And our college and career class was 1,500. And that was where
we had our social life. And everybody is thinking about who they were going to date, and
what they were going to do after church. And what movie they were going to see. And I
finally got really tired of all this. I wanted to go to a place where the Holy Spirit fell all the
time. Where the power of God was present, the presence of God was present. And I didn’t
care how small it was. I didn’t care how few girls were there. I didn’t care if there was any
social life. I didn’t care if there were any friends there. I just wanted a church where God
was.
So I gave up the huge church of 25,000 and went to a little church of 200. And I didn’t
expect to meet anybody there. But miracles happen there all the time, and the presence of
God was there all the time. And you could feel the love of God there all the time. And you
just cried and laughed. It was just intense.
But the church was also a lot of fun. The pastor was a skier and a tennis player. And you
could talk about spiritual things with the pastor. The previous church – if I had a problem and
I asked to see the pastor – they would say, well we have an appointment for you maybe in 6
months! Forget this! I want a family where I can see and talk with the pastor over tennis. And
I met Heidi. She was a skier too. In one of her exchange trips, she went to Switzerland and
learned to ski. And that was how we met.
And I began to listen to her tell her stories of faith, because she would go overseas on
these mission trips with her teams on pure faith. God would say “Go here, go there.” If He
said go to the airport and she didn’t have a ticket, she would go to the airport anyway, and
something would happen. As she told her stories, I began to realise, this is the first girl I have
ever met with this kind of faith that I could live with, and go to the mission field with. I never
knew somebody like this existed. We met. We didn’t go to movies. We didn’t go to dinner.
We just met to talk about the things of God and pray. Because that was more exciting.
When you have a God who is there, and who does miracles, and is with you, and is your
companion, He just makes life more exciting than anything else. And the idea of movies and
dinner, and all the stuff people usually do on dates was so boring, we just never did it. It was
just so boring, compared to the real thing. I am not talking about church, I am talking about
the real thing. So that is all we did. We just got together to share our life in God.
Finally, she got on a mission trip to Mexico City with a team in the Christmas of 1979.
And while she was in Mexico City, Jesus came to her again audibly and spoke to her and
said, “You are going to marry Rolland Baker.” And told her the day that I would ask her.
When she came back and we were on to college campus together and it got to be late at 10
o’clock one night, I asked her. And she said, “I know!” But it was getting late and I was
getting nervous.
And I took her to introduce her to my mother at our church, and my mother’s mouth just
dropped open. She said, “Heidi?” and she replied, “Mrs Baker?” My mother was her 6 th
grade teacher in school who had turned her on to missions! It was my mother in that class
who gave her her heart for missions to begin with years and years ago.
God’s plan is perfect
So God sovereignly wove our hearts together, wove our lives together, wove my background
in China with her rich California background, and tied our lives together, so that my
background in China would influence what we did in Africa, and how the Holy Spirit came
to her would affect everything.
But this is God’s doing. It is not our doing. I didn’t chase her. I didn’t ask for her. I didn’t
figure out how to get her attention. And vice versa. We didn’t chase each other. We didn’t
date a lot of people. It is just better when God takes control. It is better when God has His
way. His plan is just better. It is perfect. You cannot improve on it.
The worst thing that could ever happen was for you to get involved with some boyfriend
or whatever that He did not choose, that He did not pick out for you, that wasn’t His idea.
That is the worst thing that could ever happen to you, because that person would just take
you away from Him.
Much, much better if you let God control your life. Ask Him to control your life. Much
better when He takes over. He is sovereign. He is powerful. You can trust Him.
Most people don’t think He is that sovereign. They don’t think He can really, really bring
you the person you need, He can really give you the job you need, get you into the university
you need. Don’t think He can really talk to you and communicate with you and help you and
get involved with you, or be fun, or make Himself known.
But we completely underestimate God. We should cry out for
more and more revival in the future. But that is not the whole
picture. We should also step into a relationship with Him now.
Even the youngest of you. Even you should just step into a life
with God. Step into His heart. Just walk into His world, and stay
there. The scripture talks about our minds and our hearts up
there with Jesus seated at the right hand of God. 31 That is where
we want to be. My grandfather’s orphans were lost in visions of
heaven for months. And their hearts stayed there the rest of their
lives.
There is no limit to God’s involvement in our lives
Well, we did get married a short time after that. But you have to understand just how
involved God is in our lives. You need to understand there is no limit. There is no limit to
how close you can get, and how involved God can be in your life. And how much He can be
with you. No limit. I don’t care how young you are. I don’t care how naïve you are, and how
little you know about the Bible. It doesn’t matter. There is no limit.
Heidi when she grew up was dyslexic. She could barely read. She had to wear thick
glasses like Coke bottle bottoms. She got terrible headaches when she tried to read. She got
very far behind in school. She got put in classes for mentally retarded people, even though
she had a very high IQ. It was very embarrassing. She compensated by learning through what
she heard, instead of what she read with her eyes. She was an auditory learner, like our
illiterate people in Africa.
But when she got saved, God called her to college. Just before that, she went to a healing
meeting in Okalahoma, and instantly her dyslexia was healed. And she goes to college, but
she doesn’t just go to college and read normally, she becomes a speed reading champion!
This is a person who could not even read six months earlier. And even after she was
healed, she was just kind of normal, about 300 words a minute. But she met this speed
reading teacher at her freshman year at college, and God gave her this ability, and she started
demonstrating speed reading on stage in front of university students. And I used to watch.
And here is how it would go.
They would have a new class of new students, and the professor would say, “How many
here think that they are intelligent? How many here think they read well? Anybody here
would like to come up and read with Heidi?” And they would find some straight-A student
with a perfect academic record, and he would say, “Well, I will try.” So they would take him
up on the stage, and they would sit him in a chair, and they would give him a very simple
children’s book, something titled, you know, “A boy and a dog.” And they would put another
chair on the platform, and put Heidi in there, and they would give her some kind of history
textbook, or something. And they would give them each 3 minutes to read. And they would
say, “OK, go!”
31
Ephesians 2:6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ
Jesus.
And the demonstrator, just to make it more interesting, would try to distract them while
they are reading. They are trying to read as much as they can in 3 minutes, and he is
distracting them, he is joking, he is talking to the crowd, he is interrupting, he is making
noises. And this bright student, he is getting all flustered, and he is all upset, and he is
confused, and he is trying to read, and Heidi’s just going flip, flip, flip! At the end of 3
minutes, “Alright! What did you read?” And the guy goes, “Well, er, there was this boy and a
dog …” “What did you read, Heidi?” “Well, first chapter, outline, point, point, point, …”
She could read 40,000 words a minute! She read so fast that she could not study in the
library because she had to use 2 hands to turn the pages fast enough, and it made so much
noise that no one else could study, so she had to study by herself.
And I would see her the night before examinations, and she still would have a stack of
books that she hasn’t read yet, because she was so busy preaching. Why did God give her
this gift? So she could spend more time in university ministering to people and evangelising
instead of spending all her time staying up late studying. And God gave her supernatural
ability to study in short amounts of time, so that she can preach more in university. That is
what she did.
And she had such a desire to be a missionary that she studied twice as much, so she
studied two years of college university in one year, so she could get into the mission field
faster.
That is a little idea of how involved God can be in your life.
Our first mission field
Then God says, “You are going to go to Indonesia with Mel Tari
by such and such a date.” But we had no money to go. We didn’t
have a place to go on our honeymoon the day before the
wedding. And someone came up the night before the wedding
and gave us this fabulous honeymoon package on the Queen
Mary, and Long Beach, … and everything was taken care of. But
we didn’t get it until the last minute.
And in 2 weeks, we had to pack, sell everything we had and
move to Indonesia. Except that we couldn’t sell anything! We
cannot sell anything. We can’t make a profit. We have to give
away everything! The way we have always been. We just are no
good at making money. That is why we don’t take offerings. We
don’t ask for anything. And people insist on giving to us
anyway. And we don’t know why that is! Our wedding, May 1980
We got down to 2 weeks. We are still short on money. I can’t
spend all the time on details, but we got the money just the day before, and we have one way
tickets to Indonesia, one way, with $30 in our pockets. And we take off to be missionaries.
And we disappear into the jungles of Bali! There were only 2 missionaries in Bali then. We
doubled the missionary population! Three million people, just 2 missionaries, one half of one
percent in church. That is ridiculous! Irian Jaya, that is famous for missionaries. One million
people, 700 missionaries. Bali, 3 million, demons everywhere! You can swat them like flies!
You walk off the plane, there is Hindu incense burning. Every time you go into a restaurant,
there are these stone altars with glowing eyes and candles and evil spirits all around. That
was our first mission field. But we arrived with nothing.
Learning faith
Our church promised $1,000 a month, but we never got a penny. In those days, there is no
internet. There is no telephones, there is no cell phones, there is no email, there is nothing in
those days. You have to stand in line at the phone company for hours to get a connection. We
finally call the States: “Did anybody put anything in our bank account?” “No, not a penny.
How are you guys doing?”
We had to live on miracles. Little old ladies in villages would give us a tin of noodles and
we would throw an egg in and live on it for the next few days! And I lost weight. My
wedding ring fell off. I would go back to America, get fat, and get a new ring, come back, get
skinny, it would fall off. Finally, Heidi bought me a silver ring, it is cheaper! And last year, I
finally got another little gold one.
But it was ridiculous! We didn’t have enough money to buy a Coca Cola. We didn’t have
a car for years. Our first car was an old, old station wagon full of cockroaches. We called it
the roach coach! The people who had it were so poor, they couldn’t afford the same size tires
on all the wheels, so the car would go down the road at an angle. It had a power steering but
no oil, so we had to pull hard on the wheel to get it to turn. And oil would leak out the
bottom and catch fire. And we turn off the engine, and the fires would flicker, and we called
it the dragon wagon! But we were so thrilled, Jesus gave us this car! Yes, yes, it is so
exciting!
We had just enough faith to keep us alive. Now we are feeding thousands of people, we
have got fleets of land rovers, and new cars, and big trucks, and all of this. But we had to
learn. We learned faith in those early days. Just living from day to day. Trusting God for
absolutely everything, and knowing that He was with us, and He called us to do this.
You can’t make Him do that. You can’t decide, I am going to be a missionary. You can’t
force Him to do anything for you. We are not after God for all the stuff He gives us. We are
not trying to get Him to do things for us, and He is not our genii. He is not our magician. A
lot of people treat witch doctors and demons like magic machines. You pay so much money,
you do these chants, and then you get your wish. And that is not God.
Getting involved with God
Because it is God Himself we love. It is God Himself that gives us security. It is God
Himself that gives us the love that makes life worth living.
And we let Him control us. And we let His Spirit control us, because He is better at it than
we are. And the things that He decides, and the things that He leads us in, and the choices
that He makes, and the directions that He gives, are better than ours. And we love to do His
will. Because His will is so perfect, and so exciting, and so fruitful, and so full of love and
beauty and glory.
We are praying for His glory to fall. It falls when He gets His way. It falls when His
kingdom comes. And His kingdom is wherever He gets His way. That is what changes
everything.
But I want you to know that I am not here just to give Bible studies, and to teach theory,
and to teach doctrine, and to give you notes. If anyone has been trying to take notes, you will
find it was difficult. As least you might be able to do that in the later sessions. But I just want
to give you a little taste of how different life is when you actual find God, connect with Him,
He gets involved with you, and He is with you, and suddenly life becomes life. Amen.
If this excites you at all, if you have an appetite for God to be involved with you like this,
why don’t you just tell God. Why don’t just come forward and spend some time on the floor
and tell Him of your appetite for Him. The real thing. We want the real thing.
There is lots more things to talk about. “Well, you know, but that is Heidi, that is not me.”
Well, we are going to talk about that. But don’t make revival something that you have to
struggle for way, way, way in the future. Just walk into it now. You are welcome to come up
here for a while and we will just soak together. Just humble yourself before the mighty hand
32
of God and He will exalt you at the right time. And the younger you are, the better, the
easier it is. But God doesn’t leave out the older people either. Anything is possible. But the
younger you are, the easier it is to walk into the things of God.
32
1 Peter 5:6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.
Day 2 evening
Pleasing God
I am just going to introduce an idea to you that is may be helpful in the next few sessions.
There is actually so much to say, we can’t cover actually the issues that I am raising well in
just a few days. So it is important, I think, for you to understand some things that I have tried
to get across to audiences lately.
Christianity has many perspectives
Most points that you raise in teaching and in preaching are usually only one side of an issue.
Most statements that you can make spiritually express a particular perspective. But it does
not mean that there are not other perspectives as well. Because God is a very rich God. He
has a lot of variety and depth and wisdom that is way beyond our minds.
And so pretty much anything you can say spiritually needs to be explained. It needs to be
explained that this is one part of scripture. And that is why it is important whenever we
emphasise something in a message that you understand that you need to search the scriptures
and see what all the scriptures has to say about a particular subject before you make
judgment, or you criticise a particular point of view.
I could spend the whole evening giving examples. For example, should you laugh or cry in
church? Because you will have preachers that come, and the end result is a lot of tears. And
you will have other preachers come, and the end result is a lot of laughter that other people
don’t like. But which should it be?
Another example: Is the Christian difficult or easy?
Another example is: Should you work hard to serve the Lord, or should you rest? The
scripture says, Hebrews, labour to enter His rest. 33 Well, how do you labour to rest?
I talked this morning about something that might have confused you. On the one hand, I
am talking about how to get your father to do something for you, and it actually can be quite
easy if you have a relationship with him. But then I also said God is sovereign, and you
cannot make Him do anything. Well, which is it? If He is sovereign and He is the boss, then
why try to change His mind, or get Him to do anything?
I could just going on and on and on. Should Christians be rich or poor?
Are we Calvinists or Armenians here? Does God control everything, or do we have free
will?
Both sides are true
Do you get a lot of guess speakers in your church? We had a lot special speakers in Hawaii,
because all the important, fancy, famous speakers would come through Hawaii to Asia. And
every Sunday night, we had special speakers. And these special speakers would come from
all kinds of backgrounds and points of view, and my pastor used to say, “I can’t wait for
Sunday night again and have another special speaker and confuse the people!”
33
Hebrews 4:11 Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of
unbelief. (KJV)
40 Pleasing God Day 2 evening
But you need to understand that it is a good thing that God has more than one perspective,
that Christianity has more than one perspective, because it would be terrible if these
dichotomies, these parallels, these pairs that I am talking about were only true on one side.
It is a good thing God is in control. What if we were out of control? We wouldn’t be able
to count on anything. We would not be sure of getting anywhere. We would not have any
confidence that we would make it in whatever we do. These fat theological books on how
God is not quite in control, they are heavily documented, very scholarly, and their point is
that God is almost in control, but not completely. He is still at war. That is pretty scary! That
means that you might not make it! You might not be able to trust Him to help you succeed in
the end.
But what if we didn’t enjoy any liberty? What if we were just mechanical? We didn’t feel
any liberty? There wouldn’t be love.
But both are true. Because God is an amazing God. Because He can send out His Spirit
and do things that we cannot. He can give us liberty. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is
liberty.34 But where the Spirit is not, there is no liberty. You are a slave of sin. And so there is
lots to understand. There is lots of variety.
Tears and joy. What if it was all tears? What if the Christian life was just tears from here
on out, and we get to heaven and we cry some more? That would just be terrible! But what if
we couldn’t cry either? What if it was just a party? We were just party animals all the time,
and we never felt the things that bring tears? That would not be a rich life either.
So there is lots and lots and lots of variety. And we have to understand that when you hear
me or hear a special speaker emphasise something that there is probably going to be a lot of
other things too to balance the teaching out in the scriptures. And we are going to try to do
some more of that.
Should you be a missionary or stay at home? Some people say, “You should stay at home
unless God speakers to you clearly and tells you to go.” Other people like Keith Green would
say, “You should go unless God speaks clearly to you and tells you to stay.”
How much should you give? Ninety percent or ten percent? Well, in a renewal and the
Holy Spirit gets a hold of Heidi, and she throws up her hands, and says, “Everything!” And
she is laughing in no time. I have to write the cheque!
Pleasing the Lord
Pleasing the Lord is just the most exciting thing. I can’t think of anything more wonderful
than to know that God is pleased with you. And there is nothing more terrible than to have
the distinct impression that He is not pleased with you. That is what makes all the difference:
Is God pleased with you or not?
You see, it doesn’t really make any difference if you please somebody else or not. God is
the one person that you want to please. Why is that? Well, it is very simple. He has all the
power! It is like Jesus said, “Don’t be afraid of people who can kill the body, and that is all
they can do. You should be afraid of the one who can throw you into hell.” 35 That is who you
should be afraid of.
It is just astonishing to me to look at most of the world, especially Asia, and see such a
high percentage of people who don’t care whether they please God or not. They just don’t
care. Which means they don’t have a fear of Him. It makes no difference to them what He
thinks, because they are so caught up in pleasing themselves. That is all they want. That is all
they can think about. That is all that enters their minds. That is all that matters. And that is
just crazy.
34
2 Corinthians 3:17
35
Matthew 10:28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the
One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
Day 2 evening Pleasing God 41
The Bible has a lot to say about pleasing the Lord. There is just tons and tons of things the
Bible has to say, and we are just going to cover a few of them. It really doesn’t matter
whether you are rich or poor, whether you are successful or not in your own eyes, what
people think of you, what happens to you in this life, if God is pleased with you.
If He is pleased with you, you are set. You are secure. You are going to be OK. You are
going to make it. You are going to be blessed. You are going to be happy. You are going to
be thrilled. You are going to get exactly what your heart desires. You are going to be
rewarded. Nothing that you have suffered will be for nothing. Every tear you ever shed will
be collected and saved in God’s bottle36 and He will remember everything you did for Him,
and He will reward you a hundred times over and more in this life, and in the life to come. 37
If you are pleasing to Him.
I have no idea why people have other ambitions. I have no clue why it is that you make
your goal number one, getting into university, or getting a job, or whatever it is that your
goal is, if it is apart from pleasing Him. There is no point. He is the only one that is your
judge. He is the only one who can keep you alive. He is the only one who really knows you
and loves you. He is the only good person in the universe. Remember that person who called
Jesus good and Jesus said, “Why do you call me good? There is only one good person. That
is the Father.”38 He is obviously testing them to see whether they know that He is God.
So there is no security in pleasing yourself. There is none. Just because you get what you
want and you please yourself doesn’t mean you are going to be OK at all in any way. There
is no security in pleasing your boss. There is no security in pleasing your teacher. There is no
security in just pleasing your boyfriend, or even your parents. There is only one person that
pleasing really matters.
Moses pleased God
A lot of people want power. A lot of books are written about how to get power from God.
The person in the Bible who had more power than anybody else, until Jesus, who did greater
signs and wonders than the world has ever seen, was Moses. He parted the Red Sea. He fed
millions of people in the desert for forty years. He was the most powerful person who ever
lived. He was also the most humble person on the face of the earth. 39 And he spent 40 years
getting that way in the desert. And if you are really smart, you will humble yourself early.
Humble yourself soon. Just don’t even try to be something. Don’t even try to impress
somebody. Just please God. Just please Him. That is all you need to do. That is the only
important thing. Get as low as possible. Get as humble as possible.
Moses was the friend of God like no other. He talked with God like a man would talk with
his friend.40 And he had favour with God. God liked him. God was pleased with him. And
this is how Moses talked to God. Exodus 33:13, “If You are pleased with me, teach me Your
ways, so that I may know You and continue to find favour with You. Remember that this
nation is Your people.”
He is interceding for his own people, pleading with God to save them and forgive them
and be patient with them, and not abandon them in the desert. But how often do we say to
God, “If I had pleased you in any way, if there is anything about me that you like at all, then
please be with me. Let your glory fall. Let me find favour with you.” You can’t pray that way
36
Psalm 56:8 You number my wanderings; Put my tears into Your bottle; Are they not in Your book? (NKJV)
37
Matthew 19:29 And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or
fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.
38
Luke 18:19 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good – except God alone.”
39
Numbers 12:3 (Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the
earth.)
40
Exodus 33:11a The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend.
if you don’t make your ambition to please Him. If you are just trying to use God to get
something from Him, you can’t say that, and you can’t expect anything from God. The only
time you can really expect something is to have this kind of attitude. How can you work up
nerve to ask God for anything unless He is pleased with you in some way, somehow.
Make it your ambition to please him
I am just going to say this over and over and over again tonight so that from this session, you
will just remember one thing, and have an appetite for one thing: pleasing Him.
How do I please Him? This is your ambition. What do I have to do? How do I have to
humble myself? How do I have to pray? What do I have to change? What do I have to do?
What can I do, Jesus, to please you? That is all I want to do, that is, to just please you. Who
cares about people, and bosses, and customers, and parents, and friends, and family …. I just
want to please you. I don’t care what it costs me.
Like I said last night, Heidi lost all her friends overnight, because she just wanted to please
Him. Of course, 20 years later, all these friends are strung out and divorced, and broken, and
despondent, and coming back to her, finding her and asking for prayer. Twenty years later,
they all want her, they all want her company, they all want her back, because she is been
walking with God all that time, while they were out fooling around doing whatever they
liked, and ruining their lives.
So we have this example from Moses. He is the most powerful, most gifted man in the Old
Testament. Closest to God. Spent 40 days on the mountain 41 – how would you like to spend
40 days with God on the mountain top with thunder and lightning, just talking to Him like a
man talks with a friend? That is an ambition! But to get there, you need to please God. That
is an ambition worth pursuing!
Asians, they study night and day to get into university. In Taiwan, the little kids get up at 5
o’clock in the morning with heavy backpacks, and they come home at 5 o’clock in the night,
and they study, study, study. In Hong Kong, the children have deformed backs from carrying
heavy backpacks with books. It is a big medical concern in Asia. And they are ambitious!
I know, because I studied like that. I wanted to get straight-As to get into the California
Institute of Technology. It was the most difficult to get into university in the United States. I
studied Physics, and for 10 years, I studied subjects that I didn’t like. I just didn’t care. I had
one goal, to get into Caltech. I studied night and day. It didn’t matter what the subject was,
because I wanted to get there.
But the night before registration, the Holy Spirit had me up all night. I just cried all night,
and I realised in the morning I want to spend my life getting to know the Creator, not just the
creation. And I went to Bible school instead! After all that! But which is more worth it?
Make it your ambition to please Him, because if you don’t please Him, the rest is for nothing.
Pleasing God gets God’s favour
Let us jump to Solomon in 1 Kings 3:10.42 Solomon had the greatest wisdom that the world
had seen. He so impressed the queen of Sheba, she didn’t have words to describe the world
he lived in. He took a poor, dusty nation and just transformed it into a prosperous, rich, well-
organised, well-governed country that was the envy of the entire world, with his wisdom.
And why did God give him such wisdom? Because the Lord was pleased that Solomon
had asked for wisdom to govern his people. You can’t get any better thing to happen to you
than to get God’s favour. You can make a lot of money, but if God is not pleased, so what?
You can get good grades in school, but if you don’t have God’s favour, so what? You can get
41
Exodus 24:18 Then Moses entered the cloud as he went on up the mountain. And he stayed on the mountain
forty days and forty nights.
42
1 Kings 3:10 The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this.
the best person in school to date you, but if you don’t have God’s favour, so what? It is His
opinion that matters. And if He is not pleased, it is for a good reason, and you are in big
trouble!
When we please God, our enemies don’t triumph over us
Let us go to David. Psalm 41:11. He says, speaking to God, “I know that you are pleased
with me, for my enemy does not triumph over me.” How do we know that God is pleased
with us? The devil doesn’t get his way with us.
The devil tries very hard to ruin our lives. He tries very hard to separate us from God. He
tries very hard to make us fail, and make us sick, and make us defeated in everything we do.
How do we know that God is pleased with us? Our enemies don’t triumph over us.
Pleasing God requires the Holy Spirit
Romans 8. It is the chapter of liberty. The chapter of the power of the Holy Spirit. How it is
possible to please God. Romans 8:5. “Those who live according to the sinful nature have
their minds set on what that nature desires. But those who live in accordance with the spirit
have their minds set on what the spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death but the mind
controlled by the spirit is life and peace. The sinful mind is hostile to God and does not
submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please
God.”
We are talking about pleasing God, but right away in the New Testament, we learn that
that requires the Holy Spirit. There is a lot of religions out there, and a lot of religions are
afraid of the gods that they worship, and there is a lot of religious teachers out there who are
trying to get people to do whatever their gods demand. We deal with a lot of Moslems in
Africa. The Koran has 99 words to describe God, and not one of them is father. They don’t
have a relationship with God as a son has with a father. They don’t know how to please him.
It is not that kind of relationship.
But Romans says, you are either controlled by the sinful nature, by the flesh, or you are
controlled by the Spirit. And if you are not controlled by the Spirit, you are not going to be
able to please God. And so that makes it very, very clear right at the outset, that we must,
must, must be filled and controlled by the Holy Spirit, or there is no way we are going to be
able to please God. And if that is the case, nothing we do in life is going to get us anywhere.
Nothing. You just can’t, because we are ruled by the sinful nature. There is no way you can
love when you don’t have any love in your heart. There is no way you can control your
temper when the Holy Spirit is not controlling you.
The Bible says the person who can control his spirit is more powerful, is greater than the
general who conquers a city.43 We look up to the great presidents and the generals and the
people who achieve things in life. The champion athletes and the champion leaders of
business, and we think of them as the most accomplished, most great, most powerful people
around. That is not how God looks at it at all.
If you can just control your tongue, if you can just be patient, you are a greater human
being than the greatest general of the army, than the president of the country. You are a
superior person. You are more to be admired in heaven than the rich businessman, the
champion football player. If you can just control your tongue. That is what makes you great.
That is what pleases God. That is what He honours and He blesses. If you can just stop from
43
Proverbs 16:32 He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, And he who rules his spirit than he who
takes a city. (NKJV)
44
insulting somebody. If you can just refrain answering angrily. If you can just keep from
being impatient. If you can be controlled by the Holy Spirit.
That is what we need, to be controlled by the Holy Spirit. It is no use preaching how to
please God if you don’t have the Holy Spirit. This is priority one. It doesn’t matter if you are
5 years old, 10 year old, 15 or 50 or a 100. We can’t please God unless we have completely
humbled ourselves before Him and allowed ourselves to be controlled by the Holy Spirit.
That is just the start. That is just the beginning. Otherwise, your life is worthless.
The Holy Spirit gives us the ability
I laugh because it is easy for you to enter into the grace of God and to receive His grace. So
there is a solution. The reason I laugh a lot is not because I am making light of things. It is
because we have an answer. There is always an answer!
The gospel is sufficient! It is possible for us to please God! That is the first thing about the
gospel that gets us excited. Because without the gospel, we look at God and say, who can
ever please Him? I could never please Him in a thousand years! I could try and try and try
and I will keep blowing it, and I will never get His favour. I will never get anywhere. I am
finished. Very discouraging. That is how a lot of Christians feel.
But the good news of the gospel is that the Holy Spirit is available because Jesus died and
rose again on your behalf. And it is available. And the big grand news of the gospel that we
preach over all Africa is that finally, freely, by the grace of God, it is possible for you to get
up in the morning every day and please God, and just make God very, very happy. That is a
free gift, that ability.
If you have the Holy Spirit – that is a big if, but it is a free gift – then we can listen to the
teaching of the New Testament, like Romans 15:1. Remember, this is all predicated on being
controlled by the Holy Spirit. A lot of people try to obey the teachings of the New Testament,
but without the Holy Spirit. Very difficult. Very discouraging. A lot of strain. So we need to
relax.
Romans 15:1-3. “We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to
please ourselves. Each of us should please his neighbour for his good, to build him up. For
even Christ did not please Himself but, as it is written: ‘The insults of those who insult you
have fallen on me.’”
It is a huge relief. I usually tell Africans, “You know, most of your problems in Africa
would be gone if you just learnt something simple like, it is better to give than to receive. 45
Because the poor always think that it is their job to receive, and it is our job as missionaries
to give.”
Everything would be fixed, pretty much all over the world, if people would learn that it is
better to give than to receive. Because God is alive, and if He is pleased with you, He will
honour you, He will bless you, He will be with you, if you please Him. How do you please
Him? By trusting Him. How do you trust Him? By not looking out for yourself anymore.
And just always be giving and giving and pleasing other people instead of yourself.
Pleasing God over other relations
Another issue comes up in the area of marriage and in romantic relationship. This is a big
issue. It is real. 1 Corinthians 7. It is not easy to join yourself to a person, and be under
pressure to please them as well as God. This whole need people have to find somebody and
44
James 4:11 Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him
speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment
on it.
45
Acts 20:35 In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak,
remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’
to be in love with somebody and to be married to them and to commit themselves to them –
well for a lot of people, it is needed. Even God said its not good for a person to be alone. 46 So
we need relationships.
But relationships can be very difficult, because you have to choose. You have to choose
between pleasing your wife, pleasing your husband, or pleasing God. Or pleasing your
friend, or whoever you are in close relationship with. And its important. And the closer you
are to them, the more difficult it is.
We have this issue in Mozambique all the time. We have people wanting to come help us,
and they want to come serve us, but their wife doesn’t want to come, or their husband doesn’t
really want to be a missionary. Or if they do, they are very lukewarm about it. Or we have
single missionaries that come, but they are engaged to somebody back in the States, and the
person is not that excited about missions. This is a huge issue. Most people miss the best that
there is in life because they would prefer to please their girlfriend, prefer to please their
family, prefer to please somebody more than God. And it splits them.
Paul’s motive is for you to be free from concern.47 Wouldn’t it nice to go through life just
free of concern? Don’t get married! Just don’t do it! Or if you have to get married, marry
somebody God picks out, like the story I told you about Heidi. Get somebody He picked out
for you at least.
Because if you just go out pleasing yourself and pick somebody, you are going to be so
split. If you really have a desire to please God, it can tear you up. It splits you up. It is
probably the most painful thing in life. I don’t think there is anything more painful than the
choices you have to make in your loyalty, because you love somebody a lot and you miss
them, and you are lonely without them. And you want them around.
Heidi’s experience
Before I met Heidi, she knew this other guy. And they fell in love, and did a lot things
together, and they had a lot in common, except missions. He didn’t feel called to be a
missionary at all. And she had to make a choice. And she said later, it was like cutting off her
right arm. It was a terrifically painful choice. And I still didn’t know her when she made that
choice.
But I knew him though, and I counselled him for months, how to get over this thing! It
wasn’t until later that God put us together. But I saw that in Heidi. And I hadn’t met her, I
hadn’t gone out with her. But I saw what had happened. And I realised, this is a strong, real
Christian. She has cut off her fiancée that she loved a lot, because of Jesus who she loved
even more. And she had to make that choice.
If you can make a choice like that, if you can make the right choice in a situation like that,
you will probably be strong enough to make it all through the rest your Christian life and stay
out of trouble, because you have already made the most difficult decision of your entire life.
Alright? That is lots of warning. Make the right choice right at the beginning. Don’t get
into a relationship. Don’t get stuck with cross-loyalties. You will be so sorry, your life will
be so miserable. We see it a lot. We see it all the time. Someone gets extremely called to
serve God, and give away their life in missions and all. But they are stuck with somebody
that doesn’t want to do that.
46
Genesis 2:18 The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for
him.”
47
1 Corinthians 7:32 I would like you to be free from concern. An unmarried man is concerned about the
Lord’s affairs – how he can please the Lord.
Pleasing everybody for the glory of God
1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1. Now, the principle of this particular scripture is that our aim is to
please God more than anybody else, but we still try to please everybody else too, as long as
we are still pleasing God. That is the aim of the Christian life – just to be pleasing to
everybody, as much as possible. “Insofar as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.”48
And so Paul is saying here, “whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the
glory of God. Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God,
even as I try to please everybody in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the
good of many, so that they may be saved. Follow my example, as I follow the example of
Christ.”49
See, it just is not profitable for us to make it our aim to please ourselves. We don’t get
anywhere that way. We don’t make any progress that way. It is a huge relief just to trust God
and stop trying to please yourself, and just work to please other people. It is just a huge,
huge, huge relief. You cause yourself tremendous amounts of tension when you defend
yourself, when you try to please yourself, and you are upsetting other people, and especially
if you are upsetting God. There is no way to sleep after that!
The only goal of our life
So we come to the theme, 2 Corinthians 5:9. It is one of the primary verses of my life. Paul
says, “So we make it our goal to please Him, whether we are at home in the body or away
from it.” That is expressing the goal of our life in a very simple way that can be our guideline
as we go through each day. This is my point tonight. There is only one point tonight. We
make it our goal to please Him. This is our goal, this is our purpose in life. This is how we
profit.
Asians are into business and they are into profit, and they are into making gain. But Jesus
says, what good does it do to gain the whole world and lose your soul. 50 What good does it
do to be the richest man in Singapore if you don’t please God?
So there is only really one goal to have in the Christian life. It is not how I can get
miracles. It is not how I can get more prosperous. It is not how I can use scripture to get what
I want. That is what a lot of preaching is. A lot of preaching is: “I want something, how can I
get it? Let us find a scripture that will help me get it.” A lot of faith teaching is like that. “If
we believe this, and we confess this, we will get this.” But that is not necessarily the same as
pleasing God.
You don’t necessarily please God just because you want something and you are trying to
exercise faith to get it. In fact, it is completely beside the point. You could want something
and it doesn’t have anything to do with pleasing God.
Joy comes when we please God
The only way you can sleep peacefully at night and get up with joy in the morning, and have
confidence that God is going to be with you during the day, and life is going to be exciting
that day, is if you please Him, and you know it. That is where the joy comes from.
I am going to teach more on joy later, because, you need it! You really, really, really need
it! Joy is not optional in the Christian life. Joy is not for weirdoes that go to Toronto. Joy is
not optional. If you want strength, you are going to need joy. Why? “The joy of the Lord is
your strength.”51 And if you want twice as much power and strength, you need twice as
much joy. You want 10 times as much power and strength, you need 10 times as much …
48
Hebrews 12:14
49
1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1
50
Mark 8:36 What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?
51
Nehemiah 8:10
Asians really need some joy. They need lots of it. You all need to get it really bad. It is the
adults that need it badly. Because joy is the energy of the Holy Spirit.
Why would I go to Africa if I didn’t have enough joy for the job? I am not going there to
get all depressed and run over. That is not why we go there. So we make it our goal to please
Him. That is where all the joy comes from. There is no way to have joy unless you please
Him.
We need to choose
Galatians 1:10. Paul says, “Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I
trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.”
It is really simple. Actually just about everything in life is a choice between pleasing people
or pleasing God. Which will it be?
When you get up in the morning everyday, you have choices to make all day long. And
actually, the real choice comes from answering the question, “Why are you doing this? Is this
to please me, is this to please people, or is this to please God?” And I have tried the first one.
That is no fun. I have tried the second one. It doesn’t get me very far. The third one is the
winner. The third one is the one that takes me higher. The third one takes me to the kind of
joy and power and glory and fruit and excitement and fun.
Serving God is fun
You have to understand, missionary life – I know you have trouble with this, but – it is fun. I
know its hard to accept. But we only have two rules in Iris Ministries, I say this kind of
jokingly, but not really. “You keep your eye on Jesus, and you have fun.” That is our two
rules.
Because if what you are doing is not producing joy in you, you are on the wrong track.
You are not pleasing God. You are not resting in Him. You are not trusting in Him. You are
not doing it with the right motive. You are scared. You want something else. You have got
other plans, and its wrecked.
But serving God is absolutely the most fun thing there is to do. And its especially fun
when you go to a place that is very poor, lots of sickness and suffering, and poverty. Because
you are coming, not with yourself, not trying to please yourself, not trying to impress these
people, not trying to impress people with the good that you are doing in the world. You are
not trying to impress the supporters back home with what a great job you are doing. And you
are not trying to take in lots more orphans to impress people with your next newsletter so you
can get more money. You are not trying to sell things. You are not trying to raise funds. You
are not trying to make people think you are doing something good with your life. You are
free from all of that.
You are going to a very difficult, hard place in the power of God, just to please God. Just
to please Him. And if you are not pleasing Him, then why on earth would you go? But if you
are pleasing Him, He will be with you. And He will supply the power that it takes, and the
money that it takes. The favour that it takes. The people that it takes. The resources that it
takes. The relationships that it takes. The circumstances. The logistics. The timings. The
appointments. Everything that it takes. It all comes from Him. Because you please Him.
And so you go into these impossible situations that normally would stress you out to the
maximum, and you have no way of dealing with them, but its fun, because the power of God
is with you. And He is with you. And having the power of God to relief people’s suffering is
absolutely the most spectacular thing that you can do.
Alright. So Paul is making it very clear here. “Look. I am not trying to please anybody but
God. And if I please Him, I will still try to please everybody as much as possible. But there is
no question where my priority is.”
Pleasing God is our choice
Look at Galatians 6:8. This also makes the issue extremely clear. “The one who sows to
please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please
the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.” So again, we see this very clear choice that
we have to make. It is a choice that children have to make; youth have to make; teenagers
have to make; mature adults have to make. It is very simple. The Christian life is actually
very, very simple. Very simple choices. Who are we going to please? My flesh or the Spirit?
Colossians 1:9-10 also expresses this. This is a constant theme throughout the New
Testament. I am trying to impress on you with lots of scripture that this is the theme of the
New Testament. Why did God make you? So that He can take pleasure in you. That is why
you were made – to please Him. You weren’t made just to be set off to do just whatever you
like in a corner. You were made to bring pleasure to the God who created you. And if you
don’t understand that, and don’t like that, then you are in for a lot of trouble.
So Paul says, “For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped
praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of His will through all
spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life
worthy of the Lord and may please Him in every way.” How is that for a calling? How is that
for a goal? That we live a life worthy of the Lord, and please Him in every way.
The gospel makes it possible for us to please God
And again, the glorious news of the gospel is that it is possible to do that. The usual response
is “Ah well, who could do that? I just gave up on that a long time ago. That is only for
extremely special saints of history, and they really struggled.”
But that is not the gospel. The gospel is that, the Spirit is here to make that possible.
“Bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened
with all power according to His glorious might so that you may have great endurance and
patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the
inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.”52
Now that to me is exciting. That to me is tremendously exciting. That we have a power –
the Holy Spirit – given through the cross, given through the death of Christ, that makes it
possible for us to be pure, clean, pleasing to God, full of all the things that make life worth
living.
Pleasing God sets us free
Again, this theme is repeated in 1 Thessalonians 2:4. “On the contrary, we speak as men
approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please men but God,
who tests our hearts.” That sets you free. Do you realise it? That sets you free from
everything.
It sets you free from worry. It sets you free from concern. It sets you free from jealousy. It
sets you free from anxiety. It sets you free from pressure and condemnation. You are just set
free. You don’t have to worry about anything as long as you please God. That should be your
goal. Because if you please Him, He will support you. He will be with you. You don’t have
to worry about anything. There is only one question you have to decide in life: “Who are you
trying to please?”
1 Thessalonians 4:1. “Finally, brothers, we instructed you how to live in order to please
God.” You see, all the point of the Christian teaching, all the point of Paul’s gospels, all the
point of everything he is sharing with his people, is to show people how to please God.
“Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more.”
52
Colossians 1:10-12
Pleasing our commanding officer
In 2 Timothy 2:3, Paul uses the example of the military about this subject. “Endure hardship
with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus.” See, this raises the question I talked about at the
beginning of tonight: “Is the Christian life easy or hard?” And this is one of the verses that
tell us that being a good Christian involves hardship like a soldier.
2 Timothy 2:4-7: “No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs – he wants
to please his commanding officer. Similarly, if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not
receive the victor's crown unless he competes according to the rules. The hardworking
farmer should be the first to receive a share of the crops. Reflect on what I am saying, for the
Lord will give you insight into all this.” And so, you don’t really succeed as a soldier unless
you please your commanding officer. You don’t succeed at anything unless you please the
right person and follow the rules concerning your activity.
Well, our rules are about achieving eternal life. Our rules are about attaining to the
resurrection. Our rules are about getting to heaven. Our rules are about being totally forgiven.
Our rules are about seeking first the kingdom of God. If you want these things, then the rule
is very simple: We want to please our commanding officer. We want to please our king. That
is the only way we are going to succeed in the pursuit that we have chosen in life.
Now if all you want to be is to be a world cup soccer player, then you live by different
rules. If all you want to be is a successful businessman, then you play by different rules. If all
you want to be is a pop singer, then you play by those rules. And if all you want is a big
church, that is a different set of rules. And if all you want to be is a famous preacher, that is a
different set of rules. And if all you want is a husband or a wife, that is a different set of
rules.
But if you want to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, then we choose the rules
that fit to get there. And Paul is making this very simple: You just please your commanding
officer, and that is Jesus.
Pleasing God makes the gospel attractive
Now Paul in Titus again comes back to this subject in a different way. He is talking about
slaves, and he is telling slaves that they should be subject to their masters in everything to try
and please them.53
Now you would think that Paul and Christian teachers in the New Testament times would
be crusading against slavery, crusading against injustice. Waging political campaigns to
change the law of the land to achieve more freedom. And in fact the gospel did do that later
on. But in this culture, Paul is telling people: “Even if you are a slave, even if in life, you
have found yourself in a terrible spot of being a slave, don’t rebel, don’t revolt, don’t be ugly,
don’t be disrespectful, but be pleasing. Don’t just live to please yourself. Don’t just be
struggling to get your freedom. Don’t just be struggling to get your own will. Don’t just be
struggling to get what you want. But be pleasing, even to your master as a slave. Because
that is pleasing to God. And in so doing, you will make the teaching about God our Saviour
attractive.”
That is what we do with our lives. That is what we doing with our business bosses. That is
what we do with our teachers in school. That is what we do with our friends. We are not
trying to please ourselves but we make the teaching about God our Saviour attractive by how
we live, by how we please people.
We were singing about this earlier in worship. Hebrews 10:8. “Sacrifices and offerings,
burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them.” I was
53
Titus 2:9-10 Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back
to them, and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will
make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.
talking a bit last night about how people try to please God by asceticism. “If I can please God
by praying 1 hour, I can please Him more by praying 2 hours. If I can please God by praying
softly, I can please Him better by praying loudly. If I can fast and please Him for 20 days, I
will please Him more by 40 days.”
I heard of a pastor in China that made it 73 days without food and water, supernaturally.
But in his case, it was real faith, and he was very pleasing to God. But that doesn’t mean that
you will please God if you try to do that. Pleasing God is not just a matter of how badly you
can treat yourself, and how much you can trash yourself like medieval monks who literally
wore scratchy clothes and slept on beds of nails, trying to please God. But that is not what
pleases Him, the scripture says. It is not sacrifices, it is love.
Pleasing God requires faith
We go to Hebrews 10:38. That is the faith chapter. You are all familiar with all these verses.
God says, “My righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased
with him.” Actually, we probably should have started with that verse right at the beginning.
Because if we make it our aim to please God, we are going to have to learn that it is
impossible to please God without faith. You can’t do it.
And everyday, we face this issue in Africa. Everyday, we need more money. Everyday,
we need thousands and thousands of dollars to feed lots of kids. Everyday, we need more and
we don’t know where it is coming from. Everyday, we face crisis. Everyday, we get attacked.
Everyday, stuff happens. Everyday, our faith is tested. And I am tempted to think, “I would
just like to quit, and start a business, and get into something else, don’t have to use faith so
much. And I could just relax. And I know where my money is coming from. And know what
is happening. So I don’t have to be stressed so much.” This is really stressful – feeding
12,000 people a day. On what? We don’t know!
But, guess what? God said, “My righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I
will not be pleased with him.” You stay alive in God and you succeed in God and you get
eternal life in God by faith. There is no other way. I think of all the times in the Christian life
I tried to live without faith. Wouldn’t it be nice just to know where something is coming and
just not have to even think about it? No faith necessary. This is what is going to happen. And
it never worked. I have never found a solution. Never found a replacement for faith. Never
found a way to live the Christian life without it.
Living the Christian life requires faith
Because to live the Christian life, you have to know that God loves you. You have to know
that. You have to believe that. If you don’t know that, you are going to be in a completely
discouraged state. You have to know that He loves you. You have to know that He died for
you. You have to know that He rose again on your behalf. You have to know that for that
reason, you can count on Him, and that you can come into His presence with confidence.
Even praying for revival. If you pray for revival with no faith, you will never get it. You
can sob and cry and pray in tongues and holler and yell and stay up all night and fast for 40
days, but with no faith, you will get nowhere, because that is not treating God the way He
wants to be treated. He wants you to treat Him like a person, like somebody who loves you.
You know that He will respond.
And everyday, you serve the devil notice. “Nope, I don’t believe you; I am going to
believe my God.” “Nope, I am not going to believe what you say; I am going to believe what
He says.” “No, I am not going to follow you; I am going to follow my God.” “No, I am not
going to do what is wrong; I am going to do what is right, because I know that when I do
what is right, I am will be OK. God will back me up. He will take care of me.”
The test of love
Your love for God will not be tested in heaven. You will be there. Everything will be
provided. It is like what the devil said about Job. “Of course he loves you. Everything is
taken care of. You have blessed him with the most prosperity and the most beautiful
daughters, and all the land. And of course he loves you.” 54 And God says, “Well, OK. You
can test him then.”55
And this life is the only chance in all of eternity where you have the chance to prove to the
devil and to the demons and the principalities and the public and the onlookers and the angels
and the courts of heaven what you think of God. Do you really love Him or not? Will you
really choose Him over everything else or not? Will you follow Him or not? Will you do
what He says or not? Will you obey Him or not? Will you live for Him or not? Do you want
to please Him or not?
And so things come up everyday that make you choose, choose, choose. Which way is it
going to be? And when you choose God, even though the devil throws something difficult at
you, that takes faith. You have to know what kind of God He is. He will be with you. And
you make your choice known.
A lot of people want to know the secret to church growth. They want to know the secret to
revival. They want to know the secret to miracles. They want to know the secret, the secret,
the secret. But there is no secret! The gospel has been the same for 2,000 years. It is the
gospel once and for all delivered to the saints a long, long time ago. We haven’t discovered
some secret. It is the same gospel that has been in the scripture all this time. We choose what
we want. We choose God over everything else no matter what it costs us. We put our faith in
Him instead of anything else.
The example of Enoch
The Bible has a record of people that God really, really blessed in a very unusual way.
People that He has shown exceptional favour to. Done incredible things for them. One of
them was Enoch. Hebrews 11:5. And “Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not
experience death; he could not be found, because God had taken him away.” Here was a
human being that God just took straight up into heaven without dying. That is favour! How
many people would like to skip the death part? Like Elijah. There has only been a few of
those people that just never died. That is favour!
Why did God do that for Enoch? Why did God bestow such unusual favour? How rare is
that? Who would like to follow in Enoch’s footsteps? And the Bible says, and this is all it
says about him, it doesn’t go into any detail, it just says, “For before he was taken, he was
commended as one who pleased God.”56 He escaped death completely. He was so favoured
by God that God just took him straight into heaven. Why?
And all the Bible says, is that he pleased God. I can’t think of any grander ambition, any
more powerful, exciting goal that we could have for our lives than something just that
simple, and just that pure. You please God enough, and that is what happens to you.
54
Job 1:10-11 “Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have
blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. But stretch out
your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.”
55
Job 1:12 The LORD said to Satan, “Very well, then, everything he has is in your hands, but on the man
himself do not lay a finger.”
56
Hebrews 11:5b
God rewards those who seek Him in faith
We all know the very famous verse in Hebrews 11:6. “Without faith it is impossible to
please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He
rewards those who earnestly seek him.”
Some people think that it is not pleasing to God to seek revival and to seek the outpouring
of the Holy Spirit, and seek the gifts of the Spirit, and seek, seek, seek. They think there is
something selfish about that. They think we should just stay with Bible studies. They think
that faith means we should be able to do without the power of the Holy Spirit, and the
manifest presence of God. We should just live by faith.
But that is actually not what the scripture says, does it? The scripture says that He rewards
those who earnestly seek Him. Real faith is the faith that brings reward. God rewards you for
seeking Him in faith. He rewards you, and that is what we are after when we pray. That is
why we are in camp. That is why we have meetings. That is why we seek Him together. That
is why we come to the altar.
We know. We have faith that if we will seek Him diligently in faith, He will come to us.
And He will reward us. That is real church. Real church is not a meeting where nothing
happens. Real church is a church where God rewards you for your faith, for seeking Him.
And we are after that reward. Something happens in church, because God responds to you.
That is real church.
God is practical
God is totally practical. Hebrews 13:16 says, “Do not forget to do good and to share with
others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.”
Living for judgment day
Well, the last verse tonight, and this is the climax, I think. When Jesus was baptised, the dove
flew out of the heavens and landed on His shoulder, and this voice thundered from the
heavens. Some thought it just thundered. Others could not understand it, but it was clear to
some. This is God’s son displayed before the world. And what did the Father have to say
about Him in front of everybody? “This is my Son.” This is repeated in 2 Peter and also in
the Gospels. Jesus received honour and glory from God the Father when the voice came to
Him from the majestic glory, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love. With Him I am well
pleased.”57
The whole ambition of my life, the entire, total, ambition of my life is to come to that day,
on judgment day, when my heavenly Father will bestow honour and glory on me and on us,
and say, “This is my son, whom I love. With him I am well pleased.” “This is my daughter,
whom I love. With her I am well pleased.”
I live for that day. I don’t live for today. I live for that day, Judgment day, when God
reviews the sum total of our lives. And He reviews everything you have done. Everything
you have believed. All the choices that you have made. All the decisions you have made. All
the directions you have gone. All the things you have chosen to do with your life, and your
time, and your days. And He looks at your faith. Looks at your humility. And He looks at
your love. And after you have spent the only opportunity in all of eternity to exercise faith,
He looks at you and judges you, and says, “This is my son, or daughter, whom I love. With
you I am well pleased.” That is what we live for. To hear those words. Everything we do in
life is to hear those simple words. Everything. Nothing else will compare to hearing those
words.
57
Matthew 3:17; 2 Peter 1:17
I mean, He could say, “Well, I wasn’t very happy with you, but here is your gold mansion,
here is some money.” That is not what I went to heaven to hear. I live my life to hear the
words, “This is my son, whom I love. I am well pleased.”
Well, I am going to have some more stories about how that has worked out in Africa with
our pastors and many people. But I pray that the Holy Spirit, using the words of scripture like
a sword, will fill you with that ambition. Probably nothing l have said tonight is anything that
you have never heard before. Many of you have been Christians for a long time. But it
doesn’t hurt to be reminded. And it doesn’t hurt to focus exactly on what scripture has to say
to us about how to live our life. That is what the Holy Spirit honours.
You can count on the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit if you are pleasing to
God. You can count on His company. You can count on His reward. You can count on His
presence. You can count on His gifts. You can count on miracles. You can count on His
companionship. You can count on everything in your life being miraculous. Everything in
your life being miraculous to the point that you don’t have to anxious about anything. If you
are pleasing to Him. Amen.
Invitation and prayer
Well, we are just going to have a time of prayer again, if we can
have just some worship music. I invite you again to come up and
make your life a living sacrifice, wholly and acceptable to Him,
which is your reasonable service.
If what I have said has made sense to you, has touched you or
affected you, if the Holy Spirit has touched you in any way, I just
invite you to come up. It is not for me, it is not to please me. I just
want to invite you to come up to please Him. Just talk to Him in a
way that pleases Him. And offer your life to Him in a way that
pleases Him. Commit your life to Him in a way that pleases Him
and express to Him your desire to please Him. The Holy Spirit will
meet you. And again, I would like to pray for you up here. Adoration
Jesus, I ask you to be pleased, Lord, with the hearts that are offered to you. I ask you to
take possession, to take possession with those that have pleased you. If we have found
favour in your sight in any way, if we have pleased you in any way. If you are pleased
with us at all, as Moses has said, we ask you to be with us, and we ask you to shower your
glory upon us, and we ask you to be with us. If we have pleased you, Lord, we ask for an
outpouring of your Holy Spirit. We ask for an outpouring of your mercy and grace and
joy. We ask for a great outpouring, Lord, of your company and your presence. We live our
lives to please you and nobody else. And if we have pleased you, we ask you to respond,
Lord, and we ask you to respond to hearts here. We ask you to respond, Lord, with
energy, and joy, and power, and giftings, and beauty, and peace, and rest. We ask you to
respond with visions, and direction, and leadership, inspiration, initiative,
encouragement, strength, and patience, power to control our spirits. If we have pleased
you in any way, we ask you to take control of us. Take control of us by your Spirit. Take
control of us and have your way with this camp. And have your way with these days that
we have together. Take control, Lord, that what happens here is what pleases you, what
you want to do, Lord, in these few days in this camp.
If you want to humble yourselves before God on the carpet and on the altar, if you just
want to prostrate yourself before Him, if you want to throw yourself at His feet, if you want
to energetically throw yourself on the altar, you are invited to do that up here right now. If
you want to respond to Him physically and bodily, respond to Him, you are invited to.
Pleasing God is a gift
Pure hearts. Pure hearts. I know when revival has arrived – when the most exciting thing in
life is the thought of being made righteous. It is possible to please God. That is just the most
exciting news that there is. Because until Jesus came, it was impossible to please Him. You
can never please God. You couldn’t do it. But because of Jesus on the cross, we can please
Him. We can please the God who made us. And that is the most exciting thing there is.
There is no reward like being pleasing to God. There is none like it. There is no reward
like it. Absolute perfection is possible. You can completely please Him. No condemnation
from your past. No weight and burden from the past. No concerns. No worries. You can’t
please God by being anxious. You can’t please God by being worried. Pleasing God means
you are finally, completely, totally satisfied with Him. Pleasing God means you are happy
with Him. You like Him. You want to be with Him.
And you don’t have to struggle to please Him. It is never a struggle to please Him. You
can completely relax and please Him. It is a gift. Pleasing Him is a gift. Everything in the
Christian life is a gift. And pleasing Him is simply receiving a gift. What a matchless gift!
What an incredible gift! It is a gift beyond diamonds and beyond gold and beyond money. It
is a gift of being able to please God.
It is a gift. The struggle is gone. The stress is gone. We please Him by coming to a
complete rest. He supplies the righteousness. He supplies the goodness. He supplies the
power. He supplies the patience. He supplies the money. He supplies the resources. He
supplies the joy. He supplies everything. We please Him when we receive. We please Him
when we trust. We please Him when we rest in our hearts.
Learning to please Him – that is the goal of our life. The most wonderful ability there is.
Jesus, I pray for this ability for this camp, Lord. From the youngest to the oldest, that you
would graciously by your Spirit pour out an ability to please you. That you would come to
delight in this church, Calvary Assembly of God, this church in Singapore. You would be
so pleased with this church, so pleased with the people in it, so pleased with your body,
just so happy with this church, that you will do anything you like with it. You can do
anything you like with it in Singapore and South East Asia, even Africa. Just take this
church, and make it pleasing to you. Just …
Day 3 morning
Joy
I have to keep reminding you that Jesus is more fun than we are. He is in a better mood than
we are. He is always a whole lot more joyful than we are. You have got to understand that
Jesus Himself likes to laugh. How do I know? Because our children go to heaven a lot in
Mozambique. They have frequent fire carts. What do they do in heaven? What do you think
they do in heaven? What do children do in heaven? They play, OK? They play with angels.
What do angels do? They laugh with children. They sing our Mozambican songs and they
laugh at our dumb Mozambican jokes, and they have a lot of fun with our children. They are
more fun than we are. That is how I know. I know by what the Holy Spirit has been doing so
much.
It takes more power to make Christians happy than to raise the dead! Raising the dead is
easy. Raising the dead is no problem. Healing blind people is simple. But getting people to
see with their hearts, and understand what God is like, that takes a miracle!
God enjoys having fun
How many of you have friends? Why do you have friends? How do you pick friends? Why
do you have the friends that you have? Why do you like them? Why do you like to spend
time with them? Probably your best friends are not the ones who are working the hardest all
the time. Probably your best friends are the ones that you have fun with. They are not out
working all the time, they are not studying all the time, they are not making money all the
time. If they did, you will never have any time with them. You will never enjoy them.
You have friends because it is fun to be with them. You enjoy them. You laugh with them.
It is exactly the same with God. It is exactly the same. He likes to come here and bless you
and be with you and give you miracles because you are not heavy and sour and working all
the time.
It is a big change. It is a huge change for Christians. Because Christians think that God
likes people mostly that are heavy and working hard, and crying all the time. Well
sometimes, yes, but not all the time. He is a person too. He likes to enjoy life. And if you
don’t, if you are just heavy and serious all the time, guess what? The Holy Spirit leaves,
because He wants to enjoy life with you.
You have friends because you have something in common with them, right? When you
understand that God is a happy God, and if you are going to get close to Him, you are going
to have something in common with Him. You are going to have to share His mood. If He is
happy and you are not, then the two of you are going to be not as close as you could be. But
if He is happy, and you are happy, then the two of you can have fun and have something in
common.
So the Christian life is not heavy, down, difficult, hard – everything is a struggle,
everything is tears, everything is suffering, everything is discipline – that is not the Christian
life. That is only part of the Christian life. Enjoy God when you shop this afternoon! Try!
Practice!
56 Joy Day 3 morning
Most churches have lost their joy
Pentecostals are different, but the regular churches had years of practice in taking all the joy
out of the Christian life. That is what I call church! Centuries and centuries of practice of
taking the incredible gospel, and ripping all the joy out of it. The children don’t like it. The
adults don’t like it. The public doesn’t like it. Nobody likes it except the professional
preachers. That is why the Holy Spirit has come to explode that idea. That is what we found
out in the renewal. That is what we found out in Toronto.
But my wife Heidi has been laughing in the Spirit for 30 years. So it wasn’t really new. It
wasn’t new for my grandfather’s people either in China. Eighty years ago, they are getting
baptised in the mountain rivers, coming out and laughing and rolling all over the floor and
lost in visions, and enjoying God. They have never heard of the renewal. It is something new.
We need help to enjoy life
We need help. We need help just to enjoy life. We need just to laugh. We need help to have a
light heart. Now, why don’t we have a light heart? Because we are still weighed down by
things. If you were not concerned about anything, and you had a light heart, it would be easy
to enjoy the presence of God. It would just be easy. You would enjoy His company all the
time. Everything would be easy. It doesn’t matter what the devil does. It would be easy.
But the reason you are not is because you still don’t think that you don’t need to worry.
You still think that there are heavy issues on you. You still are not sure about things. You are
still concerned about things. You are still worried about things. You still think that there are
things that Jesus hasn’t taken care of, and won’t take care of. And you are still under
pressure. You need to learn to relax in the presence of God.
Chinese are some of the heaviest people on earth. So serious about nearly everything. That
is also why they make a lot of money everywhere. In Indonesia, in Africa, and all over the
world, it is the Chinese that have the money in the shops and in the businesses and
everything. They are also very serious about what they do.
You need some extra faith. You need a good huge helping of faith so that you can lighten
up and enjoy the Christian life. How much should you enjoy the Christian life? Look at your
friends. How much would you like them to enjoy you? What do you think? How much would
you like us to enjoy you? You want people to be thrilled in your company, right?
I have tried serious preaching for years and years. I have tried complicated preaching,
intellectual preaching, exegetical preaching, all kinds of preaching. But I found out that
wasn’t the Holy Spirit’s favourite. His favourite mood is when people really enjoy Him. Like
children. They are able to enjoy Him. They are thrilled with His company. It is exciting to
have God in your life. It is exciting to have Him around. It is exciting to have Him with you.
Lack of joy is caused by unbelief
So why aren’t people so excited? Because they don’t believe the gospel sufficiently. They
don’t believe the Good News is that good news. They still think there are lots of things for
you to be heavy and concerned about.
But I am telling you this morning that the gospel is sufficient. The Holy Spirit is
sufficient. His promises are sufficient. The cross takes care of most things? Everything!
Everything! And your problem is you don’t really believe it. That is your problem. You don’t
think that the gospel covers everything. Maybe eternal life sometimes. Maybe sometimes
healing. Maybe sometimes a blessing here and there. Maybe sometimes you know, you can
see God’s hand in your life. Maybe. But most of the time, God is not around. He is not
helping you. And so you are concerned about a lot of things. Does that touch a nerve
anywhere here?
Day 3 morning Joy 57
The reason we are excited, the reason I am up, the reason I laugh a lot, is because the
gospel is true. That is reason to lighten up. That is reason to come to the world with
something that the world likes. That is why Africans are coming to the gospel by the
hundreds of thousands. Because they see what their heart likes. The reason most Chinese are
not in church – they don’t see what they like in there. They took a look in there and they run
in the other direction!
Romans 8:31. “What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be
against us?” How about that? If God is for you, who can be against you? That is enough to
jump! I mean, I am telling you, that is enough to rejoice!
Joy is not optional
I am going to talk about this more later, but, when Paul says, “Rejoice in the Lord always,”58
that is an imperative. You know what that means? That means it is not a suggestion. It means
it is not optional. It means that is what you need to do as a Christian. That is what you ought
to do as a Christian. That means that is what God wants you to do as a Christian.
How much of the time? “Rejoice in the Lord … always.” You need to practice at it. We
practice at everything else. We practice at work. We practice at forgiveness. We practice at
gentleness. We practice at patience. You also need to practice rejoicing. You need to practice
laughing in the Lord. You need to practice being happy in Him.
In the Old Testament, God required it. He set up a whole system of feasts. And He
required His people to stop working for a week, or however long the feast was. He required
them to eat, dance, sing, celebrate, and have a good time. He required it! Or they were in big
trouble. “You will be happy in my presence or else!” That is basically the Old Testament. It
was law. It was not grace. It was law. “You will celebrate!”
In the New Testament, it is different. We are free. You don’t have to. You don’t have to be
happy.
But many choose not to be happy
Lots of people don’t want to be happy. They guard their sobriety. They guard their misery.
They guard their seriousness. They nurse their wounds. They nurse their hurts. They nurse
their doubts.
They don’t want to be happy. I hear people telling me, “I don’t have to be either.” “You
can’t make me!” “I am going to heaven whether I am happy or not.” “God loves me anyway
the way I am.” “I don’t have to enjoy him.” “I don’t have to be romantically in love with
God, I am saved by faith.” “I am OK the way I am.” “I don’t have to be full of the Spirit.”
OK. It is free. It is a free world. You don’t have to be. But I love finding people who want
to be. That is just my favourite. To be in a room full of people that just really want to enjoy
the presence of God, the way He wants us to enjoy the presence of God, which is to be
absolutely crazy, wild, over the head happy with Him. That is the way He likes us, not crying
all the time. And crying some of the time when you are really concerned about something
and you can’t help it, you are free to cry too. You are completely free with somebody you
love to be however you want. But what really is great is to be thrilled with the presence of
God.
The gospel is really good news
Why should we be thrilled? Well this is good news. Only the gospel can give us this kind of
news.
58
Philippians 4:4
59
“If God is for us, who can be against us?” Imagine having a friend, a happy friend, a
good friend, a friend that just loves you, who is for you. And He is so powerful that, that is it!
If He is for you, nobody can be against you. You are safe. You are secure. You are locked in
the secret place of the Almighty,60 in the cleft of the rock.61 Nobody can touch you.
“He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all – how will He not also,
along with Him, graciously give us all things?” 62 Ha! The gospel gives you all things! Do
you understand? Do you understand? We preach this to the poor in Africa. If God the Father
did not spare Jesus, He is going to give you everything else! Jesus is the most valuable gift
He could ever give you. He has already given Him to you. That means we as Christians will
inherit everything.
You know, we have these people preaching health and wealth on TV, and all, and the
prosperity gospel, and they major on the prosperity. We don’t. We major on Jesus and Him
crucified.63 But when we do that, we understand that if we have Him, we have everything
else. It comes as a package.
And you as a Christian and believer in Jesus can look out at the stars, the planets in the
sky, and the world, and the wealth in it, and the gold in it, and all the beauty in it, and all the
joy in it, and all the wonder of it, the wealth of it, and you can look at anything and
everything that is created in all the universe, and say, “It is all mine. It is all ours. We have it
all. We have everything.” I thought that was good! That is really great!
The problem is faith
The problem is faith. You don’t really believe it. That is the problem. That is why people
can’t rejoice in the Lord. “Oh yeah, we have everything, but that is later.” “Oh yeah, that is in
heaven someday, maybe I will be on a gold street, but I am really poor right now, and that
verse has nothing to do with me right now.” That is how most people think.
“Oh, you are just talking theory. Oh, you are just preaching about stuff in the future. Who
knows when that is ever going to happen? I have problems now.” See, that is how you think.
That is why a lot of you are still heavy. You look at that and it doesn’t mean a thing. Doesn’t
mean anything. And that is what has to change.
We preach this to the poor in Africa. I stand out
in the pouring rain, under a tree, inside a mud
church, and the windows are just dripping, getting
bigger all the time because the rain is just washing
away all the mud. And it is cold. And it is dark. And
there is no electricity. And we are standing there in
the moonlight. We are wet, and we are cold. And
people are dirty. And they are hungry. And they
haven’t had food in months, besides bugs, and
leaves, and handfuls of this and that.
And we preach, “Who shall separate us from the
Joy in a mud church
love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or
persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?” 64 How many of you have had
59
Romans 8:31b
60
Psalm 91:1 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
61
Exodus 33:22 When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand
until I have passed by.
62
Romans 8:32
63
1 Corinthians 2:2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him
crucified.
64
Romans 8:35
persecution, famine, nakedness, danger and the sword? But these things don’t separate you
from the love of God.
“As it is written: ‘For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to
be slaughtered.’”65 Alright, we have a signup sheet after the meeting. Anybody wants to be a
sheep to be slaughtered? How many volunteers? How many sheep want to be slaughtered
today?
But the reason why that is still great is that “In all these things we are more than
conquerors through Him who loved us.”66 How many want to be more than a conqueror?
Well, to do that, you also have to be a sheep to be slaughtered!
“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the
present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all
creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” 67
That is what Paul is convinced of. That is what you need to be convinced of.
Miracles of healing
My wife has put her life on the line for Mozambique over and over. Some of you know last
November, she finally got a serious staph infection from handling street children for so many
years. The bacteria from handling street children built up in her system until her whole
immune system broke down. She ended up in the hospital in South Africa for a month. And
the staph infection was spreading all over, and there was no antibiotic in the entire world that
could cure her. She was on the strongest antibiotics that there is in the world, 24 hours a day,
and the infection was spreading, and getting worse. And doctors finally gave up and said,
“You can write your tombstone.” They just didn’t know what else to do.
Now she has faced death over and over and over again. She has been sick to the point of
death over and over again. She has been shot at, attacked. Then she got multiple sclerosis
(MS). And she came to Africa with crutches and a brace. She was determined to continue to
preach in the dumps and in the streets in a wheelchair, no matter what it took, because she
had visions from God about what He would do, and she wasn’t going to quit. The doctors
said, “Forget missionary work, forget Africa. Just sit in California on a hammock on the
beach and just wait to die.”
But He healed her then. He healed her over and over again. And He healed her again in
November. She went to Toronto. She checked herself out of the hospital. They let her go on
the condition that she would see a specialist in North America, and that was Jesus! She went
to Toronto in extreme pain. She nearly didn’t survive the plane flight over there without the
IV drips.
And she got up on the platform in Toronto and preached on the grace and the joy of the
Lord, barely able to stand up, in so much pain, and in 3 minutes, she is just completely
healed and ballet dancing on the platform at the end of the sermon. And she has been
perfectly fine ever since. She went out jogging for an hour the next morning, after being in
the hospital for a month.
The gospel is sufficient for everything
The point that I want to make is that the gospel is absolutely sufficient for everything, and
you need to understand that. The problem is that the church hasn’t preached that. The
problem is that the church says that God does some things, and you have to worry about
other things. God takes care of some things but other things are up to you. God takes care of
some things but you have to take responsibility for some things. God takes care of some
65
Romans 8:36
66
Romans 8:37
67
Romans 8:38-39
things but some things, you have to carry, you have to bear the weight of. God watches your
performance, and you have to please Him with your effort.
Last night we were talking about pleasing Him, but that doesn’t mean what you might
think it means. Because the gospel is totally and 100% a gift. The Christian life is a total gift.
And the gospel covers everything. The cross is sufficient for everything.
What if you have terrible memories from 20 years ago? Somebody hurt you horribly. You
just can’t forget. You can’t forgive. Well, often the church says you need to go through lots
of inner healing. You need to go through counselling. You need to work through your issues.
What does the Bible say? The Bible says, “Forget what lies behind. Press forward to what
lies ahead.”68 “Love keeps no records of wrongs.”69 The Holy Spirit is able to take the pain
out. Give you total freedom. 70 Release you from condemnation of the past. 71 God Himself
doesn’t remember 20 years ago all that you did wrong, all that happened to you. That is the
gospel. The gospel is sufficient for everything.
But what if you just don’t have enough faith? Well, that is a gift too! 72 You can ask for it.
“Ya, but I don’t have enough willpower.” That is a gift too. 73 “Ya, but I don’t have enough
strength.” That is a gift too.74 “Ya, but I don’t have enough understanding.” That is a gift
too.75 “I don’t have enough patience.” That is a gift too. 76 “Ya, but I can’t help but worry.”
Well, freedom from worry, that is a gift too. 77 “Ya, but I don’t know what to do.” Well, that
is a gift too. No problem for God to let you know.
“Yes, but I am just a new Christian.” It doesn’t matter. The gospel covers that too. “Ya,
well, I am just confused.” That is OK, the gospel covers that too. “Ya, but I don’t know how
I am going to get into school next year.” That is OK, the gospel takes care of that too. “Ya,
but my business is failing, and I don’t know how to save it.” The gospel takes care of that
too. “Yes, but my parents are divorced, and this and that, and I don’t know where I am
supposed to live.” No problem, the gospel takes care of that too. “Ya, but I am scared and
lonely.” No problem. God is your friend. God knows how to bring people to you. No
problem. It is not a problem.
“Ya, but, but, but …” I have heard everything. “You don’t understand how terrible my life
is.” “You don’t know what I have been through.” “You don’t understand.” “I have a right to
be miserable.” “I have a right to be sour.” “I have a right to just sit there and be serious
because you don’t understand the weight and problems that I have.”
You don’t understand anything about the gospel! You don’t understand the gospel. The
gospel takes care of everything you don’t understand. It is all a gift. Do you understand what
Jesus did when He died? Most people barely are moved by the fact that He died for them.
They barely are moved. But the fact is that Jesus died to solve everything, to undo
68
Philippians 3:13-14 Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the
goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
69
1 Corinthians 13:5 (Love) is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of
wrongs.
70
2 Corinthians 3:17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
71
Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk
according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. (NKJV)
72
Ephesians 2:8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the
gift of God.
73
Philippians 2:13 For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. (NKJV)
74
Isaiah 40:29 He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.
75
Proverbs 2:6 For the LORD gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
76
Romans 15:5 Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another,
according to Christ Jesus, (NKJV)
77
John 14:27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let
your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
everything. To destroy everything the devil has done in your life. Everything! You really
have to understand the power and the sufficiency of the gospel.
The story of Franzie
We have conferences in Africa. And we have conferences for the poor. That means we have
conferences in very, very poor circumstances. And one time, we had a conference on the
border of Mozambique in South Africa. There were a lot of migrant Mozambican farm
workers working for almost nothing. And it was in a township. And it was way out in the
country, in the community hall. And it was in a very dangerous area.
South Africa has the worst crime rate in the world. Ten times the world’s average rate of
murder. You can kill somebody in South Africa and know that nobody is going to come
looking for you. The people shoot you for your cell phone. It is just ridiculous. It is so bad …
but the gospel is sufficient. It is sufficient. That is why we go to places like that. We
wouldn’t go to Mozambique if we didn’t think the gospel was sufficient. Why would we go
there if we thought the gospel works only part of the time for some things, if the situation
isn’t too bad?
We had a conference, and it got to be late at night. And we were in this community hall,
and the worship is going really well. And the people were all in the building. And then a
gang comes to break up the conference. This is a violent teenage gang. They have come to
just wreck the conference, tear it up, throw rocks, beat up people.
And in South Africa, we have our church leaders. We have commissioners. There is no
one big chief, we have commissioners. But we had one commissioner who went out to try
and calm the gang down. His name was Francisco. We call him Franzie. He is one of our
distinguished missionary statesmen. But he is just a simple plain guy who lives in his
cardboard shack with 2 children.
Sheep to be slaughtered!
And he goes out to calm the gang down at the gate. Just a simple little gate out there. And
instead the gang just jumps on him, and starts beating him, thrashing him, kicking him,
bashing him over the head. And they kill him! Right there in front of our conference! They
just take our lead pastor, and just beat him to death! Sheep to be slaughtered! They shredded
his clothes. They beat him to just a pulpy, swollen mess, and killed him. It is late at night.
And of course the church is shocked. And they are praying their hearts out. And they are
trying to figure out what to do with the body. You don’t just call the hospital in a place like
that. The hospital there doesn’t dare send an ambulance. It is too dangerous! You don’t call
the police. The police won’t come. It is too dangerous! It is dangerous to be a policeman in
South Africa.
How are we going to get the body to anywhere? Nobody has a car. Who drives? Nobody
has even 10 cents to take a public transport to the meeting. But they look and look, and
finally they find an old beat-up car. And they get the body in the car, take him to the hospital
and see what they can do. They don’t know what to do with the dead body. And they get
there. And the church is praying, praying, praying. And our national director Surpresa Sithole
went to the hospital with him.
And after an hour and 15 minutes, suddenly Franzie came alive! He just came alive.
Shocked everybody at the hospital! But he is all swollen up. His mouth is really swollen, and
he can hardly talk. And he just squeezes out a few words. And all he could say was “Forgive
them.” And then the doctors shot him with drugs and morphine and he was unconscious for
the night. But the hospital heard that he had just said, “Forgive them.”
Well, very early in the morning, the police began to investigate. Finally, in the daytime,
they got up courage to go look. And they found one of the boys in the gang who killed
Franzie the night before. And they called the church. “All right, we have got one of the guys.
Come down and press charges, we are going to lock him up for murder.”
But the church remembered what Franzie had said. He had said “Forgive them.” And so
the church said, “Nope, we are not going to come down and sign papers and press charges.
We are going to forgive them. Let them go!” And the police were really upset. “This is
sending the wrong signal to criminals in South Africa. This is not what you should be doing.
This is not how you handle crime.” And the church said, “Nope, we are going to forgive
them.” “You can’t do that!” “We are going to forgive them.” “That is the wrong thing to do!”
“I am sorry, but we are not going to press charges.” And the church made it very clear.
Forgiveness releases healing
Finally the police said, “All right then, come down and take him into your custody.” As soon
as they said that, they got a call from the hospital. Now that happened Saturday night. They
never release anybody from the hospital on a Sunday. They wait till Monday, till the cheques
are all made, and there are more staff on duty. But they called from the hospital, as soon as
the church made it clear they were forgiving this killer, to say, “Come get Franzie, he is
totally well. There is not a scratch on him. Come get your pastor.” He was healed instantly!
He had been lying in bed shredded, with no clothes, because they were all torn up. He was
just a complete mess from head to toe. But he was instantly healed when that man was
released from prison. There wasn’t a scratch on him. It was like he had not been touched the
night before. Instantly. But he is naked, so Surpresa had to go out and buy him clothes! I
thought that was good.
So they get him dressed and Franzie goes down to the police station to pick up the guy
who killed him the night before! He forgives him. Takes him back to the church. Leads him
to the Lord. He gets into Bible school. He is doing beautifully today. This was near Easter.
When Easter came, Heidi and I married Franzie. And this was on resurrection Sunday on
Easter. And our main illustration was sitting on the platform!
Today, Franzie is one of our happiest, most anointed preachers. And he is out having
conferences in the northern provinces of South Africa, and the crippled are jumping out of
wheelchairs. And he is still living in a cardboard shack with his wife and 2 children. And we
are just now starting to build him a simple cement block house.
More than a conqueror
But that is the power of the gospel. That is the love of God, the compassion of God, the grace
of God. That is what makes you more than a conqueror. You offer yourself, your life to God,
to the point of being slaughtered like a sheep. You turn the other cheek. 78 You don’t fight evil
with evil. You overcome evil with good. 79 You trust in your God who is a faithful Creator. 80
You trust in Him, trust in Him to the point of death. You give Him your life, and you cannot
fail. You cannot lose. In the end, you become more than a conqueror.
In the end, it turns out you still have nothing to worry about, even though an out of control
gang is beating you up and killing you! You still win! You still can’t lose. All things still
belong to you. You still get rewarded. You still come out with everything. You still come out
with joy. You still come out with supernatural power. You are still protected by Almighty
God. The gospel is still sufficient. You have reason to be joyful.
78
Matthew 5:39 But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to
him the other also.
79
Romans 12:21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
80
1 Peter 4:19 So then, those who suffer according to God's will should commit themselves to their faithful
Creator and continue to do good.
Franzie today, he just is laughing all the time. You just look at him crooked and he laughs.
He is just constantly full of the joy of the Lord. He is depression challenged! He doesn’t
know how to be depressed. He doesn’t know how to be serious. He doesn’t know how to be
worried. He doesn’t know how to be down. It has escaped him. He has lost the ability to be
normal. That is the gospel!
Is anyone’s appetite up for living in that realm? Just living in that realm where you are up
there high, high, high, high, and nothing can get you down? Nothing can get you down even
when stuff like that happens? I will tell you more stories later. Let us just pray for just a few
minutes.
Thank you Lord for the power of the gospel. I thank you Jesus. I thank you Jesus that
when you came to earth to save us, you totally saved us. You totally saved us from
everything. And I want to honour you. And I want to bless you. And I want to make you
feel loved, Jesus, by believing in you, by trusting you, by accepting what you have done.
By receiving what you have done. By enjoying what you have done. By celebrating what
you have done. By believing in what you have done. Believing in you. Believing in you
with all of our hearts. And loving you with all our hearts, mind and soul and strength.
We want to make you thrilled with us, Lord. And the devil can do whatever he likes, and
we will not fail, Lord. You are stuck with us. We will hold on to you. We will hold onto
your arms and your legs. We will not let you go. You are the only Saviour. You are the
only gospel. You are the only truth. We will hold onto you. We will hold onto you. We will
never let you go, because you are the love of our life. You are the love of eternity. There is
nobody like you. Nobody can be compared to you. We have nobody but you. We have
nobody on earth besides you. And in heaven, who do we have besides you? You are our
life. You are our Saviour. And we will be thrilled with you, Lord. We will be thrilled with
you. We ask you to stay with us today Lord. We love and enjoy you. We ask you to enjoy
this day with us, Lord, our Saviour and our God. Amen.
Day 3 evening
Love
The longer I am a Christian, the less I know how to do church. In fact, the less I know about
a lot of things.
How many are still really, really hungry for something at this camp? You still really,
really need it? God has touched you, but you are still really, really, really hungry?
Reaching for something only God can do
One of the reasons I don’t do what I used to do as much, I used to try to plan and organise
and prepare a very, very organised message, and when I write things, I still try to do that, but
I am reaching for something in meetings that is not easily expressed, and not easily
organised, and not easily predictable, that you don’t easily get by trying to plan it. You
understand what I mean?
That is why I don’t make an effort to make an eloquent, dramatic, organised presentation.
It is like Paul said, I don’t want your faith to be based on my eloquence or my wisdom. I
want your faith to be based on the demonstration of the power of God. 81 I want your faith to
be based on the truth. I want your faith to be based on your experience with the Holy Spirit. I
want your faith to be based on something real, and supernatural. 82 And not on my speaking.
And not on my performance. Not on my presentation. Because I don’t really care about that
myself.
I am reaching for something just like you. I am reaching for something that is absolutely
real, and powerful, and true. Worth living for. Something beyond anything that we have
experienced before. Something that I have never been able to imagine yet. Reaching for
something to happen in a meeting that I couldn’t have predicted just to save my life
beforehand. Couldn’t have prepared it for any amount of money. Something that is just a gift
from God, that is just overwhelming, just His grace that is beyond what you could ask or
think, that you couldn’t even have prayed for. Anyone feel like that?
A physical prayer language
Well, I do this a lot. I am inviting the very hungriest of you to come, that just still really need
something, just to come down on the carpet again right here at the front, right at the start,
right at the beginning. Just the most desperate. Not everybody, just a few of the most … I am
not trying at all in any way, see, to impress you with a message. I wish I didn’t even have to
speak one. I just like the glory to fall.
This is not for me. This is your reaching out to God. This is your doing something
physical to say to God, “I am reaching for something in you that I am hungry for. I am just
reaching for something.” And it is for him. It is just a part of a physical prayer language. You
come forward, and you lie before the Lord, and you show in your most honest and informal
way, “God I am here for something only you can give me. I am here for what only your
Spirit can give me. And I will pay any price to get it. And I choose you above anything.”
81
1 Corinthians 2:4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a
demonstration of the Spirit’s power,
82
1 Corinthians 2:5 … so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.
66 Love Day 3 evening
Honesty and transparency
Well, you know, time to be really honest again. In the Christian life, you can always be
honest. Isn’t that wonderful? You never, never have to put on a show. You never, never have
to try to impress anybody. You never have to put on an act. You don’t have to pretend you
are doing well as a Christian. You don’t have to pretend to God that you are doing well if
you are not. You can be honest. We are always honest.
One thing about getting to heaven is, I know, because of the revelations of heaven that
God has given us, in heaven, we are transparent, we have nothing to hide. We are completely
honest with each other. Just total intimacy and transparency.
In the Christian life and in the church as we know it, we do things for all kinds of reasons.
We preach for all kinds of reasons. We serve God for all kinds of reasons. We lead worship
for all kinds of reasons. We work in the church for all kinds of reasons. And we do what we
do for all kinds of reasons. And I see a lot of people preaching and ministering and working
for all sorts of reasons. Very often, it is for money. It is for success. It is for offerings. It is for
growth. It is to achieve something. It is to make a big impact. It is to change certain things. It
is for lots of reasons.
Love should be our only motive
But Heidi and I have found only one thing, one motive, and one reason for doing anything,
and that is for love.83 That is the only reason we have to do anything.
In other words, if it is not for love, what is the point? What is the point of preaching or
witnessing to somebody, or trying to be a missionary, or trying to serve in the church, if it
isn’t for love? What is the point of approaching God and spending time with Him, if it isn’t
for love? What is the point of revival, if it isn’t for love? What is the point of renewal, if it
isn’t for love? What is the point of shaking and falling and laughing, if it isn’t for love? What
is the point of tongues in a Pentecostal gathering, if it isn’t for love? Like Paul said, if I speak
with the tongues of men and angels, and have not love, it is pointless. 84 Well, we have only
found one motive that stands the test, and that satisfies the heart. And we have tried many,
many other things, and realised that is not enough.
The hard sayings of Jesus
I am going to just read a verse from Matthew 10:39. 85 The New Testament has some
scriptures that Bible scholars label the “hard sayings” of Jesus. When Jesus said them, many
people responded, “This is a hard saying! Who can receive it?”86 And Jesus kept saying them.
And a lot of people didn’t understand. They just shook their heads.
Jesus said things like, “Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no part with
me.”87 And they would shake their heads and go, “That is a hard saying!”
Well, this is another one of those hard sayings. There is actually a few of them here,
starting from Matthew 10:34. A lot of people think of Christianity as a peaceful religion. But
Jesus said, “I didn’t come to bring peace, but a sword.” A lot of people in the world consider
that to be a hard saying. They don’t understand why is He bringing a sword.
83
1 Corinthians 16:14 Let all that you do be done with love. (NKJV)
84
1 Corinthians 13:1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding
gong or a clanging cymbal.
85
Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
86
John 6:60 Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, “This is a hard saying; who can
understand it?”
87
John 6:53 Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his
blood, you have no life in you.”
Day 3 evening Love 67
“I have come to turn ‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a
daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law – a man's enemies will be the members of his
own household.’”88 That is a hard saying! A lot of people don’t understand.
Then we go on. “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of
me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone
who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” 89 Well, there were plenty of
people that just left Jesus as soon as He said that. In fact, when Jesus got finished saying
these sayings, He was pretty much left with just His 12 disciples. Everybody else just walked
off. They couldn’t handle it.90
Losing your life to save it
And then He says what I am going to talk about now, “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and
whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” 91 Now, that is a really hard saying for most
people! But it is also the gateway to freedom. The gateway to joy. It is the gateway to
release. It is the gateway to power. The gateway to life. The gateway to everything. Why is
that?
Falling in love
Once you fall in love, you will understand. All right? If you have never fallen in love, you
don’t understand. You have no clue what on earth God is talking about. Or what love means.
You just have never felt it.
I have met 17 year old Chinese straight-A mathematics students that have told me they
have never felt love. Never. Not from their parents. Not from their sisters and brothers. Not
from their friends. They have never had a girlfriend. They have never felt it. So I am
preaching away and they are staring at me like I am a spaceman from Mars. They just don’t
know what I am talking about. That is why we need some experiences in this life just to show
us a little bit what it is like to relate to God.
But once you fall in love, everything changes. And the things that you used to pay
attention to, and used to grab a hold of you, don’t anymore, because you have fallen in love.
And it is not hard. That is why they call it falling in love. You don’t struggle in love. You
fall in it, right? It is really dangerous! You may never get out! When you fall, you are
captured! You are toast! You are a prisoner! And it is wonderful! And you never want to get
out of the predicament you are in. You never want to escape, because it is exactly where you
want to be.
An invitation to fall in love
A person who does what he does for love is a free person. They are completely free. Because
they do what they do because they want to do it. It is the thing they want most to do because
they are in love.
And so what Jesus is saying here is that, “If you fall in love with me, nothing else will
compare. If you fall in love with me, you will find everything your heart ever desired. And
nothing else will be competition to you in your heart.”
Actually, what Jesus is saying is that He knows His own self-worth. He doesn’t have any
security issues. He is very confident in himself. He knows His own value to you. He is
88
Matthew 10:35-36
89
Matthew 10:37-38
90
John 6:66-67 From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. “You do not
want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve.
91
Matthew 10:39
absolutely the perfect object of desire. He knows who He is. He is perfect love. And if you
fall in love with the perfect object of love, that is perfection!
Now, what happens if you don’t fall in love with Him? Well, then you will love something
else. And those things won’t be as perfect. And you will be terribly, terribly disappointed in
the end. And you will lose what you thought you had, because you can’t sustain it. You can’t
stay in love with something or somebody that is not God. You can’t sustain it. You can’t
keep it going. You can’t keep it fuelled. It is going to disappoint you. It is going to hurt you.
It is going to bite you back. You are going to be crushed sooner or later.
And so what sounds like a very hard saying in the beginning turns out not to be a hard
saying at all. It is the most gracious, the most soft, the most beautiful invitation that has ever
been made in the history of the world. It is the perfect invitation.
It is an invitation for you to fall in love with Him, and to do everything that you do, for
love. And that sets you completely free. Completely at ease. Completely at peace. And
everything works out. Because that is the only really good motivation for doing anything. It
is the only one that completely satisfies your heart.
Everything is upside down in the kingdom of God
Now, I realise that flies pretty much in the face of what everybody does in this world.
The world cup is starting. I always try to imagine football in heaven. “Oh please, you take
the ball.” “No. No. I insist! You take the ball!” “Not my ball, it is your ball. I am sure I was
out!” “Here, you take the point.” Believe me, huge egos are at war here. And huge pride is at
work. In fact, national pride. In fact, in Brazil, some world cup back, people were committing
suicide when Brazil lost. Brazilians were committing suicide. That is just how much they
love football. It is not worth it, I tell you. And people are killed in stadiums in England when
spectators stampede when they get upset. It is just absolutely crazy. They are playing for love
of the game, they are playing for the love of winning. But they are not playing out of any
kind of love for each other. I am not saying you can’t play sports with a good heart. But I am
saying, usually it is not the case.
Business. Boeing says to Airbus, “Please, I insist, you take the contract!” Business is
cutthroat. Every businessman I know practically says the same thing. Business is war! That is
what business is. And you will do anything to win the contract. It is not love, it is war! That
is what business is.
And the way some churches behave, it is almost like evangelism is war. You are
competing for the same sheep. You are going to beat the other church. You are going to get
their sheep no matter what it takes. You are going to put out better drama programs, have a
better summer camp, whatever it takes to get the youth. It is war!
Even relationships. Even dating. Even all these things can be activities of ego and pride
and selfishness and all these things, and not love.
So Jesus says, “Look, if you try to save your life, you will lose it.” Because trying to save
your life is not love. It is tense. It is war. It is terrible. You can’t relax. You can’t have peace.
You can’t be confident of the outcome. You are going to lose. Isn’t that something? The
harder you try to win, the more sure you are going to lose. That is no way to live.
But that is the way most of the world lives. Every time the Palestinians blow up something
in Israel, Israel retaliates. They are trying to protect their interest. What happens? They get
more suicide bombers and they retaliate some more, and everything escalates, and it doesn’t
work. Jesus says, if you try to save your life, you are going to lose it.
I am saying all this to say that in the kingdom of God, everything is upside down from the
way we see things, and the way the world does things. Everything is completely upside
down.
In the world, life is a competition
In the world, we honour the person who achieves the most, gets the most profit, wins the
tournament, wins the election, becomes the governor, becomes the student body president,
gets the scholarship, gets to the best school, gets the job, gets the contract, gets the profits.
We admire people who are on top, and who win. We admire people who work hard to get
there.
And life becomes a competition. And from the earliest years in our society, life is a
competition. Even beginning early in school. Even first grade. First thing you know, you start
being graded, and you start being compared to other students. And you are trying to be the
best. Later in school, you get into sports, and you get into social life, and you want to see
who is the most popular, who has the most friends. Later the competition gets very serious.
And you go on into university, and education, and jobs. And everything is competition. And
the singers on TV, and the pop music, and the sports and everything. Everything is
competition. Everybody is trying to be the best. Everybody is trying to look out for
themselves. Everybody is trying to succeed and become just as great as they can become in
this life. And the pressure is huge.
And of course, that happens in ministry. Ministers try to prove themselves and they are
trying to be somebody. Everybody is trying to be somebody. Everybody is trying to make the
most of themselves. Is that right?
And life is just this endless competition to be the best. And a lot of slogans and songs and
coaching and counselling urge us to do that. “Be all that you can be!” “Join the US marines
or something …” We are urged to join and make something out of ourselves. “Go as far as
you can with your talents and … do the most you can … run the race to win.” 92 That is a
phrase in the Bible. That is why we have to understand things from different perspectives.
In the kingdom of God, everything is done for love
But Jesus says something entirely different. When Jesus talks about running the race to win,
and waging spiritual warfare, He is talking about a whole different sort of war, 93 and
completely different weapons.94 Everything is upside down. He said if you want to be great,
you need to be a servant. And if you want to be the very greatest of all, you need to be the
slave of all.95 And how is that for motivation for Chinese society?
Most people despise somebody who lets other people walk all over them, who lets other
people take advantage of them, who lets other people slap them in the face, who lets other
people cheat them, who lets other people say bad things about them, and they don’t defend
themselves. They call people like that weak. Even some great philosophers have despised
Christianity because they see Christianity as a religion of the weak. It makes everybody very
mild and very quiet and very self-effacing and very unable to triumph.
But God is upside down. Everything is different in the kingdom of God. And that is the
good news! That happens to be the good news. It is a good thing. It is just a total relief to find
out what the gospel is. Because the fact that the gospel turns everything upside down gives us
complete and total relief from pressure and competition and pride, and all the terrible things
92
1 Corinthians 9:24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in
such a way as to get the prize.
93
Ephesians 6:12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers,
against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
(NKJV)
94
2 Corinthians 10:4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down
strongholds. (NKJV)
95
Mark 10:43-44 Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be
first must be slave of all.
that happen as a result. Because in the kingdom of God, things don’t work that way. In the
kingdom of God, everything we do is done for love. 96 Everything. Isn’t that beautiful?
Absolutely perfect. You can’t lose.
Constantly losing your life
Well, if you do things for love, that means you can’t really fight back. It means you can’t
really defend yourself.97 It means you have got to be losing all the time. It means you have
got be giving up your rights. It means you got to turn the other cheek. 98 It means that you
might lose your girlfriend. It might mean that you get cheated out of a huge amount of
money. It might mean that you won’t get the scholarship. It might mean that you lose the sale
because you had to spend the time with somebody else. It does.
The Christian life means that you are constantly losing your life. You are constantly
throwing your life away. You are constantly thrashing your life. You are thrashing it. That is
what the Christian life is. The Christian life is doing things for love rather than for yourself.
Doing things for love rather than protecting your own interest. Doing things for love rather
than advancing yourself, protecting yourself.
And so we are constantly dying. We are constantly losing. We are constantly, constantly
giving ourselves away. We are constantly letting people run over us. We are constantly,
constantly letting people take advantage of us. We are constantly letting people think bad
things about us without defending ourselves. We are constantly, constantly allowing things to
be said about us. We are constantly being seen as weak. We are constantly letting
opportunities slip away. We are constantly letting go of things that we could take for
ourselves.
But God Himself vindicates you
In every way, it looks like we are losing. And Christians are seen as losers. But the truth is,
that is how you win. That is how you get everything. That is how you stay in the love of God.
That is how you keep your joy. That is how you stay in His favour. Because you have fallen
in love with God himself. And everything that you do is done for love.
And God Himself vindicates you. And God Himself in all His power holds you up. And
God Himself turns the tide. God Himself gives you success. God Himself empowers your
life. God Himself backs you up. God Himself brings His reward. God Himself repays you.
God Himself rewards you for your love. God Himself crowns you, gives you the victor’s
crown. God Himself protects you and puts His angels around you, holds you in His hand.
God Himself is with you.
Now, if you try to save your life, just imagine what that means. God is not with you. His
power is not with you. His favour is not on you. His guarantee is not with you. His promises
are not for you. His security you don’t have. His reward you lose. His favour you don’t get.
His love you don’t feel. His companionship you never taste. You are on your own. That is
really death. That is really a terrible way to live. That is really being a loser. That is a sure
way down. That is a sure way to live like an animal. In fact, that is exactly how the Bible
describes people who do not know God. They are like brute beasts. 99 They do what they do
with motives no better than an animal.
96
1 Corinthians 16:14 Let all that you do be done with love. (NKJV)
97
Romans 12:17, 19 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody.
Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will
repay,” says the Lord.
98
Luke 6:29 If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do
not stop him from taking your tunic.
99
2 Peter 2:12 These men blaspheme in matters they do not understand. They are like brute beasts, creatures
of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like beasts they too will perish.
Revival always starts among the most lowly
I am going to give you some examples of what happened to Heidi and me. We are still
learning. We are still learning in Mozambique that the surest way to win is to lose. And
victory goes not to the high pressure, high achievers, but to the meek and the lowly.
Revival was poured out in my grandfather’s orphanage on the least of these. It wasn’t
poured out at first on the great teachers and leaders and pastors and statesmen of the town,
and of the church. It was poured out on abandoned, forgotten, unimportant beggar children
that nobody wanted. That is where revival starts. Among the most humble. Among the most
lowly. That is the way it always is.100
Like I said earlier, the most powerful man in the Old Testament was Moses, and he was
also the most humble man on the face of the earth. 101 The most power went to the most
humble. And so in the Christian life, we turn everything upside down. Our whole goal in the
Christian life is to get lower still.
My grandfather’s phrase was “Take the low road.” Heidi likes to say, “Go lower still.
Revival is deepest where the ground is lowest.” That is where the river is deepest. And we
want to get down there lower still. As low as possible. Way, way, way down there. Just as
meek and lowly and humble as we possibly can get.
We are not competitive. We are not trying to prove that we are better than anybody else.
We are not. We just do things for love. And that is it. And our hearts are set free. And the
lower we get, the deeper the river, deeper we are in the Holy Spirit, the more confidence we
have in God, the more He is with us, the more we win in the end. 102
Choosing the Creator over the creation
Just some examples. I had said earlier that for 10 years or so, I studied hard because I liked
science. I really liked science. I liked science a lot.
When everybody else was at the basketball game cheering, I am under the bleachers doing
extra geometry problems. And if the professors give me a problem and say, “Rolland, I don’t
think you can ever do this problem”, I will stay up 3 days and nights until I do it. And he will
throw me a Rubik’s cube, and say, “I bet you can’t do that.” I won’t do anything else until I
have done the Rubik’s cube.
The whole idea was to achieve. So I studied and studied for years to get into the best
science school that there was, California Institute of Technology. And I had a full
scholarship. They pay everything. Four years, all expenses paid. Just come. And it was the
best school you could possibly go to in pure science.
Except that after all those years, I got to the night before registration and realised that
laboratory equipment doesn’t love you. It just hit me the night before. I pictured myself 20
years down the road in a white coat in a laboratory with all this and instruments and
equipment, cyclotrons, and accelerators, telescopes and … the fat dumb telescope doesn’t
love me at all. That stupid accelerator is just cold metal. Those are just glass test tubes. Those
are just chemicals on the wall. Those are just electrons running around. There is nothing
there. There is absolutely nothing there. And I pictured myself 20 years down the road in my
white coat, lonely, standing in a laboratory, and that is all you have. Electrons and test tubes.
It just so forcibly hit me.
I said, “I don’t want to spend my life at Caltech.” I am not saying that God isn’t with
Christians – there are actually many good Christians now – at Caltech. But when I applied, I
100
1 Corinthians 1:27-29 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the
weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things
– and the things that are not – to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.
101
Numbers 12:3 Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.
102
James 4:10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
was the first one. They said, “Well, there was one other Christian before you, but, he went
crazy!”
And I stayed up all night long praying. And in the morning, I turned them down and I
went and became a Biblical studies major in theology, because I wanted to get to know the
Creator. I wanted to spend my life getting to know the Creator more than the creation. It just
suddenly made more sense to me. It was my heart. It was the Holy Spirit. I want to live for
love. I don’t want to live for science. I don’t want to live for theories of origins and seeing
what is wrong with Einstein’s gravitational theories.
Nothing makes sense without God
By the way, they don’t know what gravity is anymore. They used to think Einstein knew.
They don’t anymore. In fact, the scientists don’t know what anything is anymore. I keep
reading the journals. The scientists are more confused today than they have ever been in the
history of the world.
There isn’t a scientist alive that has any idea what mass is. They don’t know what it is.
They don’t know what energy is. They don’t know what gravity is. They know how things
work, to a certain extent. But the deeper they go, the smaller the particle, and the more they
get into exoteric physics, the less they know. Until nothing makes sense.
You look at it this way, it is one thing. You look at it over here, it is another thing. The
two don’t go together. And they don’t know. Nobody knows what gravity is. What is stuff?
Nobody knows. You get down into the sub-atomic particles, and you get below them and you
get below them and what is energy, nobody knows. They are interchangeable, but what is it?
They don’t know. Nothing makes sense without God.103
Nothing is worth anything without relationship
Nothing makes sense without love. Love is relational. Well, they are finding that out in
science. Nothing is the way it looks, it seems, except in relation to something else. When
there is a different relationship, it changes. Even the scientists are understanding that.
Nothing is worth anything without relationship. Nothing is worth anything without love.
Nothing feels good without it. It is the only possible motive to do anything.
Winning by losing
And so I tossed the scholarship. I tossed the number one science institution in the entire
world. I tossed it, just turned them down after working for it for 10 years!
And people thought I was crazy. They thought I was insane. My own parents thought I
was pulling a huge practical joke. They didn’t believe I really did it. They were in Taiwan.
My mother cried for 6 months! And she is a missionary! Everybody thought I had lost my
mind. My uncles, my family said, “Rolland, what are you doing? You are wasting God’s gift.
You are trashing your life. What on earth do you think you are doing?” And I think what my
life would have been like if I had gone in that direction, where I would be today?
I am in the middle of what I think is the greatest revival I know about in the world today in
Africa, where God is pouring out His Spirit miraculously in ways I had never dreamed I
would ever see. I used to see amazing things, amazing things in scientific laboratories. But I
never thought I would sit with people who had been raised from the dead. I never thought I
would see blind eyes see, and crippled people walk and people filled, and supernatural things
happening all the time. And being connected with Almighty God and walking and talking
with Him. I never thought that would ever happen.
So who wins in the long run? How do you win in the long run? You win by losing. You
win by throwing everything away.
103
Colossians 1:17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
Heidi’s example
Look at Heidi. She was engaged to be married. She gave him up. Just gave him up. She was
going to be a prima ballerina in New York City. She studied 8 years of ballet in Switzerland
and California with private teachers. Did exercises for 8 hours a day for years and years. She
was hard as a rock. Highly trained. She was on her way to becoming a top ballerina in New
York. And she just gave it all away, because Jesus came to her. Just picked her out, came to
her and revealed Himself to her and said, “I am going to be your husband, and I want you to
be a minister and a missionary to Asia, England and Africa.”
Now when Jesus Almighty God, Creator of the heavens and the earth comes to you and
says, “This is what I want you to do”, you can either say “Yes”, or “No”. “No, no, no. I
would rather be a ballerina. Thank you very much, Jesus!”
He captured her heart. She fell in love with Jesus. And she never looked back, because
there is nothing to look back to. There is no competition. There is no comparison. You can’t
improve on love. Once you fall in love, that is it. And so she never looked back.
And God has been with us ever since. We have had 26 years in the mission field and it has
been 26 years of giving ourselves away. And constantly losing, and in the end winning, all
the time. We can’t lose. We have tried to lose. We have been trying to go broke for 26 years
and we can’t do it. It is impossible. Heidi can spend any amount of money by sundown.
Choosing to serve God or money
I know money is a big issue in life. That is why Jesus kept bringing it up. How do I know
money is a big issue? Because most preachers preach about it all the time. You watch
Christian TV in the States, nearly every single sermon is about money, and how to get more
of it. And it will especially help if you give the money to them first! That is what it is about.
Money is a huge issue because money represents our time, our work, our effort, what we
have to live with. It is what we value, and treasure, and crave in this world. But Jesus said
you can’t serve God and money. You have to choose. You have to pick. Are you going to
serve God or money?104
A lot of the churches have chosen to try to serve money anyway. That is why church life
becomes so pressured and miserable. They are working so hard to keep their TV program
going, and keep the building program going, and keep the pledges coming, and keep
everything running. I know, because I know these people. It is horrible. It is a terrible thing.
It is not worth it. I would rather be small any day and be at peace, than to be under that kind
of pressure.
God takes care of us
But Heidi and I, well, the Holy Spirit said, “You will go with Mel Tari this summer, and you
will be there by such and such a date.” Except that we didn’t have any money. Heidi just
graduated from college and I was working, but had quit my job, and everything, so we could
go and be missionaries. And we had nothing.
First, we are going to sell our car, and sell our stuff, sell our household goods, sell our
stereo system, sell our camera, sell everything we had, but we couldn’t. We gave it all away.
And we got to the night before we were to leave, and still we are $500 short for our ticket.
And we could have sold one last thing that we had to a very rich person who could have paid
for it without even blinking an eye. And Heidi and I looked at each other, and realised, no,
this is our only chance to give to this person. We are not going sell it. We are just going to
give it to him.
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Matthew 6:24 No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be
devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.
And the next day, there was somebody on the team that we were going with that couldn’t
go, and he was a photographer, and he said, “Rolland, if you take my place, the $500 is
yours.” So we got on the plane, and took off with one way tickets and $30 in our pockets.
And we disappeared into the jungles of Indonesia. And we are still alive.
Our own church fell apart. The pastor ran off with the secretary, fell into sin and
everything. We never got a dime out of the church. Our parents didn’t know where we were.
Our friends didn’t know where we were. We had no supporters. We had no newsletters. We
had no telephones. We had no emails. We were just stuck out there. But God took care of us.
God kept taking care of us, and taking care of us, and taking care of us.
A year or so later, we realised we needed to bring back a team of people. Heidi was a
ballet dancer, and so we wanted to bring a whole team, and do Christian drama on the streets,
and Christian dance in Bali, and things like that. So we had a whole team of people. I am just
skipping through a lot of things. But I just want to give you a few examples of how you win
by losing. And how that that applies just as much to finances as everything else.
What you do with money shows where your heart is
If you can trust God for money, you can trust Him for just about anything, because money is
the thing that really disturbs people when they don’t have it. When you have financial need,
everything else takes second place.
If you can get things solved between you and God with regard to money, just about
everything else falls into place. Because what you do with money really shows where your
heart is. How you treat money basically shows what you feel about God and where your
heart is, what you love, and what your motives are. 105
H A Baker saves Teen Challenge
When my grandfather went out to China, the Holy Spirit told him, “You just go. Don’t ask
anybody for anything. Take your wife, and I will be with you.” Well, that is what he did.
How many of you have heard of Dave Wilkerson and Teen Challenge? Well, let me tell
you about Teen Challenge. Teen Challenge became famous, his staff was in New York city,
except that they were going broke. In fact, their debts had piled up, and they had no money,
and they had exactly 2 weeks to pay their debt, or they would go out of existence. It was
very, very embarrassing. Dave Wilkerson was under a huge amount of pressure. He was
nationally famous, and now it looked like the whole ministry was going to go under. So his
staff began to fast and pray. And they had 2 weeks. And it got down to the last day, Saturday.
And they had to have the answer. And on that Saturday, they got an envelope mailed to them
from an old missionary in Taiwan. His name was H A Baker, my grandfather.
What happened? My grandfather had decided to live on $40 a month, and lived just like a
Chinese peasant. We thought he was really poor. He just ate vegetables most of the time. He
had an outhouse at the back. He lived in a little peasant farmer house, out in the rice paddies
in Miaoli in Taiwan. And he just decided if he was going to minister to the poor, he was
going to be poor. And he never asked for anything. He didn’t travel. He didn’t speak at
conferences. He didn’t go to the States. He didn’t raise money. But people heard about him.
And God touched people. And they sent money. And we didn’t know how much. And he
kept giving it away, and giving it away. And he still had more. And he still had more. And
when he got older, he just decided, I am going to give away everything.
And he knew about David Wilkerson, and he really admired his ministry, and he just gave
everything away to Teen Challenge. And he didn’t know they were in trouble. He didn’t
know they were in crisis. And he just mailed off this huge cheque and saved Teen Challenge!
This old, almost retired, old, old missionary in Taiwan saved the whole ministry!
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Luke 12:34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Well, what happened after that? David Wilkerson was extremely embarrassed. He didn’t
want to accept the life savings of an old missionary in Taiwan. But he had to. He had to. He
had no choice. And so he humbled himself and took the cheque.
David Wilkerson repays the Bakers many times over
And a few years went by. Seven years. And one day, Wilkerson is studying in his office. And
his bookshelf is over his desk. And a book falls off, and hits him. And it is Visions Beyond
the Veil. And the Holy Spirit says, “Find the Bakers, and do something for them.” He
doesn’t know the Bakers. He doesn’t know where the Bakers are. He spends days locating
my father, who was in Southern California.
My father was transitioning from the Assemblies of God to Asian Outreach in Hong
Kong, but he had no money whatsoever to go back to Asia. Wilkerson finds him, calls him
up over the phone, and just out of the clear blue sky, says, “I am going to pay your way back
to Hong Kong, and I am going to support you $1,000 a month the rest of your life. I don’t
care what you do. I don’t care if you retire. I don’t care if you get sick. I don’t care what you
do, this is what I am doing.” And my father and mother went back to Hong Kong, and built
the first Bible school in China – Pentecostal Bible school – since China opened up in 1980.
And then, Wilkerson invites them to New York City to speak at the mission conference,
and they ask me to come along with them. And I speak at the mission conference. And the
Holy Spirit so touches the place, that Wilkerson buys us our church and property in Hong
Kong. Just buys it for us, and supports us now. And keeps supporting us!
And then when we got called to England in fulfilment of Jesus’ word to Heidi, he
continues to support us, even though now we are going to university. 106 Then when we go to
Africa, he pledges another million dollars to us in Africa. And for years and years and years,
he was our number one supporter in all the world!
The more you throw your life away for love, the more you win!
And he repaid so many times over, a hundred times over. I don’t know how many hundreds
and hundreds of times over. Because my grandfather just gave it all away. And we win! He
wins! God wins! The gospel wins!
Do you understand? Everything is upside down. It is not business competition that makes
you win. It isn’t being better than somebody else that makes you the greatest in the kingdom
of God. It isn’t being the smartest. It isn’t being the most clever. It isn’t being the best
salesman. It isn’t figuring out how to separate people from their money. A lot of people who
take offerings are really good at separating people from their money. Sometimes, it is in love.
Sometimes, it is not.
But my point is, the lower you go, the more you throw your life away, the more you do
things for love, the more you win. The more you cannot lose. The more God’s power is with
you.
Rolland and Heidi’s first team mission trip
Well, it just went on like that. We had our first team. I will just tell you a very quick story of
our first trip with the team. We sent out short-term missions teams.
Usually when people want to do that, they write me an email and say, “Well, how do I do
this? How do I get the money? How do I be a missionary? How do I get to Africa? How do I
do it?” And the answer is, “We don’t know. We have no idea.” Because it has to be a
miracle.
We had this team. We needed 15 people on our drama team. Fifteen. Except in those days,
we took really drastic, drastic mission trips. I mean, we don’t know where we were going to
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PhDs in systematic theology at King’s College, University of London.
sleep. We were going out to the remote corners of the Philippines and in communist areas
where there is just rebels in the mountains, and we were going out into corners of Indonesia
where the only good Christians are dead ones. And we don’t know where we were going to
stay. We don’t have doctors with us. And we have no insurance. And parents ask us, “Is my
child going to be OK with you?” And we answer, “We don’t know if your child is coming
back at all!” And we were planning on going to Red China, and in 1980, that was a serious
place to go. We don’t really know.
And people would want to come with us, and we would say, “You really don’t want to
come with us, because it is going to be really difficult. It is going to be really hard. We are
going to be gone for months and months and months. And we don’t know what we are going
to eat, where we are going to stay. We don’t know what is going to happen to us. And we are
just prepared to give our lives. And I don’t think you are ready for that. And I don’t think you
should really go.”
And the more we talked like that, the more they would sob and cry, and throw themselves
on the floor in front of us. “We got to come with you. We have to come with you.” Until we
had exactly 15.
God provides the finances
Now, we have another dateline. Singapore Airlines, our favourite airline from day one in
1980. That is what we always flew to Indonesia. And Singapore Airlines, they give you a
good price for 21 days in advance notice. We don’t have any money 21 days in advance. We
tell them our story, why we are doing this. They say, “OK, we will give you the same price
for 3 days in advance notice.” “Thank you very much.” We still don’t have any money.
We are doing our drama. We are ministering all over Southern California. I mean, we are
the laughing stock of Southern California. “These crazy college students think they are going
all over Asia for 6 months on faith!” And the pastors were all laughing at us. From Los
Angeles to San Diego, they say these kids will never leave the country. Our best friends were
saying, “We have nothing to do with you.”
But, God had spoken. Heidi and I had already had enough experience to know. And our
team, they got their shots. They got leaves of absence from work. They got out of school.
They bought their suitcases. They got their passports. They got all their immunisations. They
said goodbye to their churches. They made all their preparations. They packed. Without
money. Or at least without enough for all of them. I mean, they tried.
Those that had more than enough gave to those that didn’t have enough, but when we
added everything up, we are still $12,000 short when we are 3 days before the flight. And on
that last day, we were ministering in University of California Irving – university of Chinese
immigrants. And we were ministering at noon. We were doing our drama. We were
preaching God’s blessing, and I am sweating. I am really sweating, because I had up to 1
o’clock exactly to tell the travel agent what we were going to do. And at 12.30pm, we close
our meeting, and have an altar call, and everything is great.
And ten minutes to 1 o’clock, I get up. I am in costumes and everything. I acted with
Heidi. And I walk to a public pay telephone to answer the travel agent. It is 5 minutes to 1
o’clock. I am walking over to the phone. And just as I am reaching for the phone, a Rolls
Royce literally drives up the driveway and parks on the curb, and a guy gets out all spiffy and
dressed richly, and he has got an envelope. Well, before he showed me the envelope, he says,
“How is your faith?” “Oh, just ff fine!” And he hands me a deposit slip, and it is for $12,000.
And I make the phone call. He is a western sales manager of a huge insurance company for
the west of United States, and he had seen one of our performances. And he just came, and
did this. He had no idea!
And we took off on that trip. But we had no money for hotels. We had our tickets, but no
money for hotels. We just left. We took off the ground at Los Angeles. We were just
cheering, we beat the devil! We are off! We are off! We didn’t think about tomorrow. Just
we are off the ground! That is all we cared about.
We had pastors saying, “Oh, you are irresponsible people. We will have nothing to do
with you.” That is the way a lot of missions work. If you don’t have a budget, if you don’t
have your funds, if you don’t have your goals, if you don’t have your statement of what you
are going to do and how you are going to do it for the next year, the missions doesn’t want to
have anything to do with you.
God provides the ministry
Well, just a few examples. We got to Hawaii. We had just enough money to rent a van. Just
enough to rent a van to drive the team around. And Heidi and I used to minister at this little
church at the north shore in Honolulu, Hawaii. And we ministered there. And this little
Filipino lady comes up to us and says, “You have got to come to my church!”
You know, it is a big production. It is a lot of work to take all our equipment and all our
props, and all our lights, and everything that we have. “Well, where is your church?” “It is
way down on the north shore.” “How big is it?” “Well, it has got 30 people!” And oh my
gosh, that is a lot of work. But we went and did it anyway. It didn’t matter how small. We
just did it for love. And just 30 people watched. And then this lady says, “The Philippines
needs this. You have got to come to the Philippines.”
“The Philippines? We don’t have tickets to the Philippines! We don’t have visas to the
Philippines! We have no invitations to the Philippines! We don’t know anybody in the
Philippines!” “You got to go to the Philippines. You have to go to the Philippines.” “What do
you mean, we have to go to the Philippines?” “You have to go!”
OK. For love, we will go. We go down to the Philippines embassy. Can’t get visas in one
day. But they made a huge exception just for us. I don’t know why. And they get us visas.
And this lady has a brother in Manila. We don’t know who this brother is. He is the only
person we know in Manila. So we fly and we land in Manila.
Who is this brother? What are we getting into? Where are we going to stay tonight? We
have no idea. Get off the plane. Walk out. Meet him. Well, he is a pilot for the Philippines air
force. And he flies in their flight demonstration team, like the Thunderbirds, and Blue
Angels. He is one of the top air force pilots of the country. And he knows the commanding
general of the Pasay airbase. And the next thing you know, we are guests of honour, guests
of the commanding general at the airbase at Manila. And we get ushered into the
commanding general’s office, and the flags are flying, and the soldiers are saluting us, and
we are the guests of honour. And everything is provided. We have houses and food and
everything.
And he orders a performance that night. All members of the Pasay airbase are ordered to
assemble for this ministry tonight. All 5,000. And we have a tremendous meeting, and it is so
exciting. And the Holy Spirit moves. And 2,500 come forward for salvation. And it is
fantastic.
Ministering just for love
And then the commanding general says, “You have to fly all over the Philippines and
minister to the entire armed forces of the Philippines.” It turned out we didn’t have time to
fly all over the Philippines. We thanked him very much. “No, we have already made
commitments.”
In that time, we had agreed to go up to this poor, poor little Bible school up in Laoag
province in Northern Luzon, where Marcos was from. It was just a poor, poor little old Bible
school, but we just did it for love. We could have gone all over to the airbases and be the
guests of honour to all the big places, but we went to this little place.
We took jeepneys. And a typhoon decided to come when we took this trip. And we were
riding in these jeepneys. And the wind is just howling. The chickens were just blowing by
horizontally. And we were soaked and we were hot and we were miserable, and the
screaming rain and wind and everything. We had rented these jeepneys and we were driving
hours and hours and hours, days to get up to Laoag. And it is just absurdly miserable. And on
the way, we had no money for hotels. We would find little farm houses, and ask if we could
sleep on the cement floor, or the barn somewhere, with the cracked cement. And spiders,
they lower themselves on you in the night …
And my sister was on this trip, and she falls some stairs in the night, and she breaks her
back. She can’t move. And we are way out in the country. We have no money. No insurance,
no doctors. No nothing. She can’t move. She just can’t move. But some of them have never
seen a miracle before. Heidi says, “Watch this!” And we lay hands on her, and a hot flash
goes down her back, and she is OK, she is fine! Let’s go!
God blesses the ministry
And we get up to this Bible school, and we start ministering. But we need this big sound
system, except they don’t have any electricity usually. And we get to these broken down
venues where the room is just broken cement, and there is no roof, and its hot, hot sun, and
there is dog poop all over the floor, and flies everywhere, and mosquitoes and bugs. And they
are trying to run the sound system off batteries through a converter. And it is so weak
everything is so distorted, nobody can hear anything. And except everybody gets saved, and
we are just so miserable.
Half the team is sick, and they are throwing up between acts. They come on stage and do
their thing, and go off and throw up, and come back on. It is just terrible. Except people kept
getting saved, and blessed! So we kept going, and we kept going. Just for love. You couldn’t
pay us enough to do that. Professionals, they would never do that. We do it for love. And it
was tremendous, because we saw what the Holy Spirit was doing for the people.
And we got up to the end of our stay there. We had a tiny little bit of money left. The team
didn’t know how little. Actually we didn’t have money to get back to Manila, for the
jeepneys, and the fuel. And the little bit that we had, we gave away. Heidi and I, we are just
terrible business people. We are terrible business people. We cannot sell anything. We can’t
make any money. It is ridiculous. And we would just give it away.
So we now had no way to get back to Manila. And we were sitting there at breakfast the
last day. We were supposed to go, and the team doesn’t know we can’t go. But then we get a
knock at the door, and here is two guys in military uniform with a jeep, and they salute, and
say, “Your private plane is ready, sir! When are you ready to go?” because the air force had
sent up a plane to come and get us. It wasn’t just an airliner. It was a private jet with a
turboprop, with a lounge for first class, with sofas. And I am a pilot, and I get to sit up in
front. And we go back in style. We can’t lose! We just keep giving. We just keep giving and
keep giving.
But then, the team was kind of like the Israelites in the desert. “Well, yes. But that was the
Philippines. What is going to happen in Taiwan? Fine for God to do that in the Philippines,
but now what?” And we get to the next place, and get to the next place. We got to the end of
our stay in Taiwan. We had no money to pay our hotel bill. We just don’t know what we
were going to do. And a guy just raises his hand and says, “You don’t know how much God
has blessed us with your being here. We just paid your whole hotel bill.” And we just left.
God takes care of even tiny details
But God gets down to even tiny little details. Little details. I just want to tell you a story of a
tiny little detail to show you that you can rest concerning everything, if you just do things for
love, and just keep giving, and doing everything in the upside down way.
When we are in Hawaii, we had a cassette tape deck that we needed for our drama
production for the sound track. But this church didn’t have a tape deck. And they wanted to
record their messages to give to the people. They were really poor, and we are terrible
business people. So we just gave them our tape deck, our only tape deck. We are just college
students. We don’t have money to run out and get another one with our credit card. It is gone.
So we get to Hong Kong. We don’t want just any old, big tape deck, because we are
travelling. We are carrying things by hand in a lot of difficult places. We want a professional,
little, battery powered tape deck that does the job. We needed battery power. We needed high
quality. We needed it to be small. There was one particular model that worked. It was the
only one that would really work. It was a Sony professional small tape recorder. And we
were going to get it in Hong Kong. Except Hong Kong didn’t have any. We went to the main
Sony distributor, and they said it is back ordered. There is none in Hong Kong. You will
have to wait months for it. Well, but we are leaving tomorrow. Of course, I wasn’t thinking
too much about the fact that we didn’t have any money either. It is US$400. We didn’t have
it.
And we went back. We stayed at YWAM. 107 The YWAM base, you know, youth without
any money. We were sitting there at the YWAM base. It used to be a mental hospital in Hong
Kong, with these high windows so crazy people couldn’t escape. And not even any chairs,
we were just sitting on the floor with nothing. And it got to be late at night, about 10 o’clock
at night. And Heidi and I are praying, what are we going to do? We can’t keep this
production up without a tape recorder. And suddenly, I hear steps out there in the night. Lots
of steps running. Just really excited. And I could hear people talking, and then more steps
and a person came running around to our room door, and pounded on the door.
Now, I had just gone down to the shops down there in Wan Chai in Hong Kong, and had
just gone into a shop and looked at all their tape recorders. And I had a brochure. I said, “You
know, these are nice, but what we really need is this.” And the guy says, “Oh, you mean one
of these?” And he turns around and pulls open a drawer, and there it is. Just the Sony model
we needed. Except we didn’t have any money. Why would God do that? Show us the tape
recorder and no money! Cruel and unusual punishment!
So I went back to the YWAM base. And that is when we heard these steps running up.
And someone had come out of the night, running up the steps up the hill to the mountainside
where the hospital was, and delivered an envelope for Rolland and Heidi. And I opened it up,
and it was $400. Heidi and I had told nobody. Nobody knew how much it was. Nobody knew
that we needed it. Nobody knew anything. And I jumped in the nearest taxi and zipped down
and got that tape recorder out of that shop that had the tape recorder. And we are off and we
used it the whole rest of the trip.
Now, that was a tiny little detail. But that kept happening, and kept happening, and kept
happening. And it is still happening. And in little things. And in big things. You can’t lose by
giving. You can’t lose by taking the low road. You can’t lose by just doing what you do for
love. And that is it.
God takes care of the big things
Now for big things. We got toward the end of the trip, and we still hadn’t gone to China. And
in those days, you couldn’t just go to China, you had to go with guided tours. You had to stay
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at the hotels they required you to stay at. That was how the communists did things then. And
it was extremely expensive. And for the kind of trip our team wanted, we needed US$40,000.
We didn’t have $40. And the team wanted to go to China.
We are in Jakarta in Indonesia, and Heidi and I have no clue as to what we are going to do.
We take a cheap cab to the Sari Pacific Hotel along the main road in Jakarta, to make a phone
call, because where we were staying had no phones. We go to the big hotel to find a phone to
make a phone call. And we are sitting there in the lobby of the hotel, not knowing what to do.
And a businessman walks up, and introduces himself, and sits down next to us, and starts
to talk. He wants to know what we are doing, why are we doing this. And he gets interested.
“Really? Wow. That sounds good. That is amazing.” And he invites us up to his room. And
we start witnessing to him. And we start telling him the gospel and about our trip, and the
things of God. And he is just getting so excited. And finally, he says, “I just want to bless
you guys. What do you need? Money no object.” We say, “$40,000.” He says, “OK.” Just
like that!
Lack of money is never the problem
$400. $40,000. It is just as easy. Not a problem. Not even a little bit of a problem. Now, a
lot of people say, “Oh, I just could do so much for God if I just had this little bit of money,
and this support.” “If I just had resources.” “If I just had something to work with, I could do
so much more for God.” But what I learned early on with David Wilkerson, he is the first one
who said this, “Lack of money is never the problem.” Never. It is never the problem. The
problem is your heart. The problem is your faith. The problem is your relationship with God.
You find out what He wants. You let Him control you. You do what you do for love and no
other reason. You will have what you need when you need it.
You don’t have to do anything except in love. Whenever you talk to somebody, see, I am
talking to you now, and I am not talking to you to get an offering. Because it is just so much
better to live that way, when you can speak to people with no other motive than to bless
them, than to love them. I don’t have any other motive for being here. I just don’t. And you
can’t lose.
God is also fun
Now I want to tell just one more story. We are talking about things we need. Serious things.
But God is also fun. You need to understand. He is lots more fun than we are. In our trip, we
got to Indonesia. We got to Bali again, but with our team. And it was miraculous. And the
police tried to get us. They tried to put us in jail. They tried all kinds of things, but we were
never in the right place for the police. And they never caught us.
Eventually, we had to get back to Jakarta. We didn’t have money to fly. We had to take a
bus. We had to take an air-conditioned bus. That means, the windows are open, and all the air
blows in, with all the heat and dust and smoke and fumes and everything. And we take a 24
hour bus from Denpasar to Jakarta. And the roads are terrible. They are torn apart, and the
bridges are broken. And we are fording streams and bouncing over ruts, and over potholes. It
was terrible. Heidi and I sat on the wooden backseat and we are just bouncing like this off the
seat and she is bone bruised for weeks later, and we are just about kill ourselves. And it is 24
hours.
We finally take a ferry, and we finally get to Surabaya. And Surabaya is this big, huge,
smoky, hot, industrial town. It is just so hot. It is just so dusty. It is so smoky. And we are too
poor to go to a hotel or anything like that. So the bus line has a layover for us. And the
layover is in this little tiny bus station office on this dirty street in front of a ditch. And there
is nothing in there but just a cement floor and a hole in the floor for a toilet. And it is just
dirty, broken glass, dust, heat, nowhere to sit.
And we have got all these suitcases, and trunks, and stuff. And we are just piled on them.
And our faces are black with dust and dirt. And you could just draw lines on our face.
Perspiration’s running down, dripping off our chins and ears. And clothes are soaked and
smelly and stinking. And we are so miserable we can hardly stand it. And all these
Indonesian kids are at the windows pressing their noses against the broken glass, looking at
these stupid, poor foreigners in their misery.
And my sister is on this trip. She is so miserable she finally blurts out, “Oh God, please,
ice cream!” Well, when we were in Bali, we took pity on this old man who lived in a little
hut near Denpasar. He begged us to take him to Jakarta. He said he used to be a successful
businessman with lots of friends. But his business failed, and things went wrong, and he
ended up broke. And he ended up in this little hut in Bali. And we didn’t believe him for a
second. But he was a good old friend, and we just took pity, and we gave him a ticket, and he
was with us.
Well, he heard my sister say, Oh God, for some ice cream. And he says, “Oh, I have old
business friends! One of them is the head of the biggest ice cream factory in Indonesia.” And
he makes a phone call.
And the next minute, ice cream trucks are running through the streets of Surabaya to come
and get us! And we load ourselves onto these cool, air-conditioned ice cream trucks. And we
go to the president’s house. And it is a big mansion. And it has got marble pillars. And it has
got swimming pools. And sunken beds. And big baths. And he puts on a feast for us. He
orders the cooks, and they come up with dishes and dishes and dishes of food. And we are
just diving into the swimming pools and the hot baths and air conditioned bedrooms. And
then he brings the ice cream trucks. He just wheels out all the trucks. And he says, “Whatever
you want. What do you want? Mango, pineapple, vanilla, chocolate sundaes, strawberries,
banana splits, whatever favour. Eat all you want.” And we are sitting there, eating ourselves
sick for hours in air conditioned, clean comfort. All the ice cream we can possibly stand to
eat.
Trusting God for everything
Now, if God would do that with just ice cream, just some whim, just some “Oh, I just would
like some …” If He would respond so miraculously just with ice cream, what do you think
He would do with your life, and your heart, and your time, and in the things that really matter
to you? The serious things of life. Don’t you think you could trust Him with those things too?
God blessed us out of our minds on that trip. I left out the vast majority of miracles. I just
told you a few fun ones. But the fact is, we were all 6 months on that trip, we would sit at
curbs, come out of airports, and have no ministry. And somebody in the airport would
represent some hotel chain, and he would see us, and he would hear what we were there for,
and he would snap his fingers, and next thing you know, 5 vans from the hotel would pull up.
And he was a Christian, and he knew pastors, and they had churches all over town. And the
next thing you know, we had places to stay, and had ministry for the next month. And we just
land.
God honours our giving
When Jesus came to Heidi, He said “I want you to be a minister and a missionary.” She was
not thinking about being a minister and a missionary. She loved the poor, but she never
thought that God would call her to do that. She never thought that a woman could be a
preacher. She never thought that God would ever honour her with such a calling. She wanted
to help the poor, but she didn’t think that God would ever honour her with a calling like that.
But He did. He honoured the desire of her heart. And she got exactly what she wanted.
I remember when we lived in Hong Kong, we lived out on the New Territories at first,
near Sha Tin. And I was on a trip. And I called Heidi long distance, and the Holy Spirit had
been working on her, and she says on the phone, “Rolland, can we move to the slums?” I
said, “Sure!” So she finds the slummiest place she can find, in Yamaday, the most crowded
square mile in the world – 365,000 people in our square mile. And she finds a little tin-
roofed, illegal add-on shack on the top of a 9-storey building, with no elevator. No walls. No
water. No electricity. No paint. She says, “This is perfect! This is just perfect!” You walk up
nine floors, through smoke and Buddhist incense and candles, and there are no lights. She
says, “This is perfect!” And I get home. And we move in.
She brings buckets. And we arrange some bookstores to make some rooms. And we do
some painting. But no hot water. We just dowse our kids with cold buckets. And they walk
up and down 9 floors everyday. And they find their way in the dark through all the smoke to
get down to the ground and get a bus to school. And we started a church there – The Home of
Loving Believers – in Yamaday. And it was the most wonderful church. We kept it open all
the time. It wasn’t just Sunday morning. And it was wonderful.
One time, I heard Heidi say, “I just can’t believe God lets me do this! I just can’t believe
He lets me live here and do this and minister for Him like this!” She is giving and giving and
giving. And God just honours, and honours, and honours her.
The same thing when we went to Mozambique. We came with nothing. We didn’t try to
impress anybody. We didn’t have any big, grand plans. We didn’t try to tell people what we
were going to do. We didn’t try to raise any money for it. Just find one child on the street.
Just find one beggar. Just find one little person that nobody wants. And just take in one
person at a time. Just take one. Just worry about one at a time. And the rest is history.
Thousands and thousands of children. Thousands of churches. Hundreds of thousands of
people saved. So much revival people call and email from all over Africa, “We want the
Holy Spirit too! We want the Holy Spirit too!”
A call to throw your life away for love
Can’t think of anything better than to just completely trash your life for Jesus. Throw it
away. Toss it. Lose it. Get rid of it. Do everything upside down. Don’t try to be the big Asian
success story. Get lower still. Do what you do for love. Don’t do anything for any other
reason.
Set your heart free. Relax. Let the glory of God come pouring down on your life. Letting
the glory fall is a lot more than something happening to you in a few minutes in a meeting. It
is your whole relationship with God. It is what you do with your life. It is the choices you
make. It is a long-term relationship. It is what happens constantly, all the time, everyday. Not
just something that happens in a few minutes in a meeting.
Now I don’t know. I don’t have any idea what you thought concerning missions before
this camp. If it were up to me, I would steal all of you and take you to Africa. I will let the
Holy Spirit do the stealing. We don’t want anyone the Holy Spirit doesn’t steal. We don’t
talk anybody into being missionaries. We don’t. We don’t try to recruit people, just like we
don’t ask anybody for money. We don’t try to sell missions to people. We don’t try to take
people. We don’t try to steal them from pastors. But watch out!
Watch out! The Holy Spirit is loose. He is dangerous. I am just telling you what this verse
says and no more. If you try to save your life, you are going to lose it. And if you lose it for
Jesus, which means if you lose it for love, you will find it. And so I am offering you that
choice tonight. I have told you some of the choices that Heidi and I made. And I am
presenting those choices to you tonight. What do you want to do with your life? Are you
going to keep it? Or are you going to lose it for love?
How many people would like to just throw their life away for love? You will go
anywhere, and do anything, for love? How many have even thought about Africa? How
many thought about other countries? Have you ever thought about leaving Singapore? Again,
I am not trying to persuade you to leave Singapore. I am just saying that, if you try to save
your life, if you try to live your life for yourself, and build your own little heaven on earth,
here in Singapore, or wherever you want to be, you will lose.
But if you want to live it for love, live it out of faith in Jesus, give your life away to Him,
and just trash it for Him, watch what He will do with it. Just watch what He will do. It will be
the most adventurous, the most incredible, also the most tested. 108 But that is what is going to
make you more than a conqueror. Make you win in the end.
Every conference, Heidi and I want to issue a call. A call for people to … See, we are not
asking for a $30 offering for missions. We are not suggesting that you just write a cheque or
put in some cash, and that is your mission work for the year. We are suggesting that you
throw away your whole life! I am talking to business people too. I am talking to people that
already have huge entanglements in investments and businesses and everything else.
I have a close friend. His name is Brian Young. He was a top western sales manager for a
huge company in Canada and the United States. He got saved, he got called to be a
missionary, and he sold everything. He had a beautiful house overlooking Puget Sound in
Seattle, over the water. He was very wealthy. He sold everything. And he could have lived
off of that for the rest of his life, but he gave away everything so he could start broke like
every other missionary. And he plans on being a martyr in Myanmar. And he is one of the
happiest, most powerful, dedicated Christians I know.
Losing your life for Jesus
Losing your life for Jesus. I am not talking about irresponsibility. I am not talking about
faking faith. I am not talking about pretending. I am talking about really living your life for
love, and doing what you do for love.
For those of you that are really serious when you have raised your hands, I would like you
to just come forward right here. This is not everybody. Just make yourself known, just come
up, because I would like to lay hands on you. Just stand up here, so people can see. I just like
to bless you and pray for you.
I have only told you a few silly little stories. We were just college students. We are just
talking about little trips of teenagers. But that little trip Heidi and I took as kids turned into a
revival. You talk about losing. We just kept losing. We kept throwing our lives away. And
we just kept getting it back. We couldn’t die. That is the story of our life. That is our
message. The message is that the gospel is real. And it is true. And when you lose your life
for His sake, for love, you find it.109 That is the only motive that there is to have in life.
A missionary sending church
And if this means that your church turns into a missionary church, this means that the pastor
loses half his people that came to camp! But he can’t lose. You can’t lose. Nobody loses,
because God knows exactly what to do with you. You don’t.
You see, that is the problem. You do not know the best thing to do with the rest of your
life. You don’t know. Only God really knows. And you can’t plan it out. There is no way
Heidi and I could have planned what has happened in Africa. We could never have planned
all the things that happened that caused the revival.
So, if this camp turns into a missionary sending church, then I would say that is a pretty
good result. We see missionaries in Africa, but not many come from Asia, and I don’t know
108
Acts 14:22 We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.
109
Matthew 10:39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
why that is. There are lots, but I don’t see them a lot where we are in Africa, among the
poorest of the poor. I am not saying that if you give your life away, that is where you should
end up, because we are free. We want to set the Holy Spirit free to do whatever He likes with
you. And that could be anywhere.
But if I can just be used by the Holy Spirit to convey how to be free, that is just to live a
life of love, as a sacrifice, as Jesus lived His life as a fragrant offering, 110 so that we can
spread everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. 111 And who is qualified for such
things? Paul asks in 2 Corinthians. But he says, God qualifies us. 112 He qualifies us. We give
ourselves. We lose our lives. We throw away our life for love, and we find it.
So Jesus, I ask you to receive these hearts. Receive these hearts. Receive these hearts.
Holy Spirit, Receive these hearts. Just receive them. Receive them. Receive them. They are
offered to you now. They are the hearts. Amazing! Jesus. It is amazing! These hearts are
here, Lord. These hearts are here. They are for you! And I pray that you will sanctify them
totally. Purify them totally. Take them totally. Here they are. Here is raw material. Lord, I
ask you to take this fuel on the altar, and let it burn! Let it burn! Let it burn! Lord, I ask
you to accept this sacrifice, these sacrifices on the altar. Let these hearts burn! Burn!
Burn! Burn! Let these hearts burn! Let these hearts burn! Burn with love, Lord! Burn with
absolute freedom! Freedom! Freedom! Freedom! Freedom! The only kind of freedom
there is is the freedom of love!
Living an intense life
Who wants to live an intense life? An intense life that is just burning with love and joy. Just
all the things that make us burn with life and energy. That comes from giving, giving, giving.
Losing, losing, losing. Dying, dying, dying. And guess what? Yet we live on. 113 Yet we live
on. Yet we live on. So that the transcendent power, so that it is proven that transcendent
power belongs to God and not to us.114 Just receive. Just worship Him.
You are not giving your life to me; you are giving your life to Him. So tell Him. Just tell
Him. Tell Him. Tell Him. Tell Him. My life is yours. My life is yours. It is yours. Yours. Just
take it. Take it. Take it. Take it. Only make sure I don’t miss out. Make sure that I don’t miss
out in this short life on the absolute best. I don’t want to miss out. Don’t let me do just
whatever I want with my life. Make sure I don’t miss. Don’t miss what you want. And I will
tell you, it is not that bad. Ooh, I wouldn’t trade anything for the kind of life we have had.
We had fantastic testing, but who would want to trade where we are now?
Just take this heart, Lord. Take it. Take it. Take it. Just take these hearts, Lord. Whack
these hearts, Lord. Banish them to Africa if you want!
God knew I needed lots of patience, so He banished me to Africa. I am a little selfish, you
know. We need a little help. But we are not going to talk you into it, much.
Holy Spirit, you direct them. You direct them. You direct them. Here is the raw material.
Here is the wood on the fire. Here is the wood on the fire. Here is the sacrifice.
110
Ephesians 5:2 and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant
offering and sacrifice to God.
111
2 Corinthians 2:14 But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and
through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him.
112
2 Corinthians 2:16-17 To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. And who is
equal to such a task? Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ
we speak before God with sincerity, like men sent from God.
113
2 Corinthians 6:9 known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed;
114
2 Corinthians 4:7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of
God and not of us.
Sacrifice and worship
We are just going to continue. If we can have – whenever you are can, or you are able, to
have some worship. This isn’t for me. This isn’t for me. This isn’t some kind of mechanical
thing. This is your reasonable worship, offering your lives as holy and acceptable sacrifices,
which is your reasonable worship.115
So I would like you to continue to communicate with Jesus. Continue to talk to Him.
Continue to worship Him. You can rest on the floor. You can kneel down. You can run
around the room. You can get excited. You can jump over the chairs. Or you can just rest in
peace. But continue to offer yourself. Continue to offer yourself. Offer yourself. Offer your
life. Offer yourself. Just lose your life. Lose your life. That is the shortest way to complete
freedom and peace. Just lose it. Just lose it for His sake. Just lose it, lose it, lose it. And He
will look after you. He will look after your social life and your friends, and your support, and
your money, and your health, and your relationships, and your hearts, and your emotions, and
your direction, and your energy and your initiative. He looks after that. You get there by
losing your life. And that is what we are doing here tonight on the altar. It is the most terrific
thing you can ever do. Losing yourself for His sake brings no regret. It does not bring
sorrow. It does not bring disappointment. Quite the opposite.
A sending church. A sending church. A sending church in Singapore. A sending church. A
sending church. A sending of people that will go. A people that will go. A people that will
go. A people that will go. Maybe just across the street. Maybe to Russia or China. Maybe to
Africa. But do something with your life besides trying to keep it. Do something with it
besides just trying to nurture it and hold it to yourself here in Singapore. The most natural
fulfilling thing you could ever do is just give it away. And look at the whole entire world and
say, “Now look, God, where in this whole entire world do you want me to go and what do
you want me to do? I am all yours. I am all yours.”
Take a hold of this city, Jesus. Take a hold of the Church in Singapore. Not just Calvary
Assembly of God. But take a hold of the Christians in Singapore.
I know many are already going to Indonesia and many places in South East Asia. But I
know many more, many more could, if God had His way. There is only a tiny handful of
missionaries in Mozambique. Only a tiny handful. Only a tiny handful in Sudan. Only a tiny
handful in Congo. Only a tiny handful in all the countries that most need help. Only a tiny
handful.
Oh glory, glory, glory. Let the glory fall and burn, burn, burn the sacrifices on the altar.
The glory is like a fire that burns hearts. It is a fire that only burns sacrifices. It is a fire
that burns sacrifices. The glory only falls to burn up sacrifices.
Lord, we don’t want to live for anything else except for what is pure and perfect and it is
just the purest kind of love. O God, O God, O God. We have a short time on this earth,
Lord. O God, purify us, purify us, purify us for your work. Purify us for your work. So take
us. Take us. take us, take us and burn, Holy Spirit. The power of your kingdom, Lord. The
power of your kingdom, Lord on these hearts. The power and the glory on these hearts.
Set the people free, Lord. Set the people free from themselves. Set the people free
completely from pressure and competition, and any kind of concern at all for themselves.
Freedom, Lord. Freedom, freedom, freedom.
115
Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a
living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. (NKJV)
It is a joy to throw your life away on the living God. He knows what to do with it. He
knows what to do with it. We don’t. The sooner you throw it away on Him, the better. What
a relief, what a relief, Lord. Purity and relief and rest and confidence.
Oh Jesus. Start these hearts young. Start these hearts young, Lord. Young, young, young
in the power of your Spirit. Start them young in all your glory and joy. All your freedom,
Lord. Take these hearts now. Take them, take them, take them now.
Oh, Jesus, give them the deepest relief they have had in their lives, Lord. Give us the
deepest relief we have ever had. Let us go to sleep tonight with the deepest joy and relief
we have ever had in our entire lives. The sheer joy, the sheer joy of letting you have it all.
Day 4 morning
Times of Refreshing
Well, just so that you know, just because I am on vacation here in Kuala Lumpur doesn’t
mean that all the crisis have stopped in Africa!
Recently the government tried to destroy all our buildings. The Moslems in the
government tried to burn down everything and throw us out of the province. A few days ago,
there was an article in the Pemba newspaper that completely fabricated a whole bunch of
stuff about us. It said that after 10 years in Mozambique, Arco-Iris, which is our ministry, is
anti-government, anti- the political party that is in power now, anti-black, anti-Africa, and we
should be deported out of the country immediately. And they began to list a whole bunch of
stuff: we are drug runners, we are spies for the CIA. And they just put this in the front page
of the newspaper.
War in the Congo
We have about 10 bases, 5 Bible schools in 25 countries. We are in the Congo. We just
started in the Congo. And if you have read or even saw the cover of Time magazine this
week, the cover story is about the Congo. This is the world’s deadliest war. Four million
people have been killed there since 1998. And the centre of the warfare is in the north east
corner of Congo. That is where I just flew. That is where we have just started our ministry.
That is where we have 28 churches.
I flew in there with my Cessna and got greeted by a whole airport full of soldiers with
rocket launchers. They have never seen a civilian plane in there for years. And they wanted
money for everything, and they threatened with everything. There is no such thing as visas
and protocol and proper procedures. It just depends on whatever army is in control of the
airport at the moment. The government doesn’t have enough troops and power to control the
whole country. It is wild and crazy.
The rebels in the forest all around that area are the ones that caused the massacre in
Rwanda 10 years ago. And they are committing genocide against the pygmies, and they are
just burning villages and killing and doing whatever they like.
I was in the marketplace in the town later. We only got into town because we got the help
of the governor and the mayor. I got arrested and hauled into the military headquarters just
for taking a picture in the marketplace. It wasn’t an airport. It wasn’t anything important. But
a whole bunch of soldiers jumped on me, grabbed my camera, hauled me off. It took all day
to get out, again with the help of the mayor and some people we have favour with.
Desperate for God
But I never saw a place that had more hunger
for God than the Congo! We had a conference
there. And the very first meeting, I get up and I
just say, “Jesus!” He comes not because we
yell but because we want Him, love Him. And
that was all I said. And the Holy Spirit just fell!
And everybody just fell on the ground and
started sobbing and crying. And that was it!
Wholehearted worship
88 Times of Refreshing Day 4 morning
Church was over! That was the message. We were done. The whole place just started crying
and weeping and falling and rolling and lost in worship. They were just so desperate for God,
so hungry for God, that was all you had to say.
Just say the word “Jesus” and their hearts just break. And their hearts soar, and they just
get launched into worship. Launched into places they have never been before. Just say the
word of your Saviour. Just say the word. That is all. That is how hungry some places are.
That is how desperate some places are. And I saw the most intense worshipping I have ever
seen. I saw one of the most amazing singing talents that I have ever heard anywhere in the
world, in the middle of the Congo jungle. Oh my gosh! Just sobbing and weeping out of love
for God. They were just so fervent, regardless of the war, and the killing, and everything that
is going around. They just love God. Love Him intensely.
Desperate daily needs
I was dealing with all kinds of email, and we get requests from all over the world every day,
every week, for food, and money, help for desperate, desperate situations. All over Africa.
All over India. Nepal. Bhutan. Indonesia. People are desperate, desperate, desperate for help,
desperate for the living God. And they turn to Him. And He responds to them. We need
tremendous amounts of money every day, tremendous amounts of help, tremendous amounts
of answers from God. We need tremendous miracles from God every single day.
We can’t meet them by just taking offerings. We can’t meet them just by writing
newsletters. We can’t meet them just by travelling and speaking. We can travel and speak at
a conference for a week, and the offering would just last us a day or two. We need far more
money than we ever get in offerings. We need far more money than we ever get travelling
and speaking. We need far more money than we ever get from churches. We have to have big
miracles. Big things happen that just are completely unpredictable. Or we can’t survive. We
have been living like that for a long time.
Living wholly dependent on God
Most people in the West, they have a lifestyle where they don’t really need God, because
they think, I don’t really need a miracle today. I have got my job. I have got my pay cheque. I
have got what I need, and everything is going to be OK without a miracle today.
So how would you like to live a life where you need a huge miracle everyday just to
survive? But when you live like that, that keeps you close to Him, right? That keeps you
close to Him. That keeps you aware of heavenly things all the time. It keeps you up there
where He is. That keeps you in tune with Him. And it helps you to know that He is pleased
with you. You know when He is not pleased with you, you will starve.
A lot of ministries, they can continue whether God is pleased with them or not, because
they treat the ministry like a big corporation. And they treat fund raising like a big sales
campaign. And they can continue whether God supplies or not. And you never know: is God
really pleased with you? Does God really like what you are doing? But if you need huge
miracles everyday to survive, and God keeps doing them, it is comforting.
And actually, we feel more secure this way than we ever would if we had just relied on
normal offerings, and normal salaries, and normal business, and normal life. We feel more
secure because we are in the hands of Almighty God. Does that make sense? How many have
an appetite to live that way? Not even one hand! One! OK, I feel better.
Giving your life away means living that way
Then we talked last night about doing everything upside down and giving your life away. If
you are going to do that, that is how you have to live. You can’t give your life away to God
and then live like everybody else.
Day 4 morning Times of Refreshing 89
Jesus said, “Don’t be like the unbelievers, don’t be like the Gentiles”, in Matthew. Don’t
be like them, because the unbelievers are always asking, “What are we going to eat? What
are we going to drink? What are we going to wear? What are we going to do?” And that is
what they are concerned about.116
And Jesus says, “Look at the birds of the air. They don’t gather into barns. They don’t
store anything. They don’t have bank accounts. They don’t have stock. They don’t have
investments. They don’t have jobs. But your heavenly father feeds them.” 117 Look at the
flowers. They are more beautiful than the clothes you had. And God clothes them so
beautifully, even though they fade away in a few days. 118 Aren’t you much more valuable
than flowers and birds? You understand? We are so much more valuable to God than flowers
and birds. He will take care of us.
Is it possible to live that way in Asia?
And I am just asking the question: “Is it possible for people in Singapore to live that way?”
For people to trust Him like that instead of worshiping the almighty temple, the bank, in a
society where finance rules. Finances are just king in Asia. Money is just king. The banks are
king. Investments and growth are just kings in Asian society.
Heidi and I worked for a big ministry in Hong Kong. But it kind of operated like a
corporation. It had most of its money in stocks in Hong Kong. And the idea was for the
church to live off the return from stock investment, so you don’t lose your capital, so you
don’t waste your offerings. That was the idea.
But there was a huge typhoon in the Marshall Islands that destroyed a lot of the churches,
and they were just absolutely desperate for help to get on their feet again. And so they made
an appeal to Hong Kong for help with reconstruction after the huge typhoon. And the
ministry in Hong Kong said, “No, I am sorry. We can’t really do that. All our money is in
stocks, and we only live off the returns.” So they said, “No. We can’t help you.” Immediately
after that, the stock market in Hong Kong crashed. They lost most of their money.
There is no security, absolutely no security in the banks and the world’s system. None.
The Bible says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own
understanding.”119
So, I am just wandering: “Is it possible in Asia, is it possible in places like Hong Kong and
Singapore for people to be free of the god of money, and investment, and business? And live
in a whole different world. Is it possible?” Would you like to be one of those living in that
way?
It is a huge, huge switch, a huge switch for the Asian mind and for the Asian church. It is a
tremendous change. It is fantastic. But it is what is needed. It is needed in America too.
116
Matthew 6:31-32 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or,
Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father
knoweth that ye have need of all these things. (KJV)
117
Matthew 6:25-26 Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about
your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than
clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly
Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
118
Matthew 6:28-30 And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not
labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is
how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not
much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
119
Proverbs 3:5
We face serious issues all the time
That is not what I really want to talk about this morning. I just want to let you know that we
do face serious issues; that serious, heavy things happen. We are not unaware of them. It is
not like Heidi and I live in some kind of a bubble where nothing serious ever happens, and
we don’t face any crisis, and we are just living in a dream world. That is not the situation.
When we got to Mozambique, the single biggest request that we got everyday was for
coffins! So many people died, and they couldn’t even afford a coffin, that we got more
requests for money to buy coffins than for anything. That was just normal, everyday life.
This was not because of some big plague, or epidemic, or war. This was just normal life.
So many children died. You go to the cemetery, and the coffin shops are outside, and they
have all these pine, simple coffins for children. And you go into the cemetery and the graves
are all small. They are just short, little graves, because so many children died. And the
parents can’t even afford to buy the rough, pine coffins, crudely nailed together. That is the
kind of world we live in, the kind of world we face.
So when I get into the subject I am going to get into this morning, I just want you to bear
in mind that we are not unaware of the needs and problems of life.
Having your sins wiped out
Why did the Holy Spirit come? In Acts, Peter gets up and preaches the first sermon. The
people see the Holy Spirit falling on everybody, and they are speaking in tongues. And the
foreigners from all over the world are hearing the disciples and the people speak their own
language.120 It is amazing. People are being healed. They are seeing the power of God. They
don’t know what is going on, so Peter gets up and explains.121
He prays for a crippled man in front of the temple, and he gets up and leaps. 122 And so
Peter says, “By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made
strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has given this complete
healing to him, as you can all see.” 123 Then he explains what Jesus did. “Now brothers, I
know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders. But this is how God fulfilled what He
had foretold through all the prophets, saying that His Christ would suffer. Repent, then, and
turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out.”124
That is still not what I am going to talk about this morning, but it is a necessary
introduction. It is a corrective, because even in the charismatic movement, people come and
they mostly want God to help them with something. They need help with money. They need
help with something serious. But very rarely, except in the peak of revivals, do people come
to church mainly looking somehow, desperate somehow, for their sins to be wiped out. How
often do you see that in Singapore?
That is what I want, though, everyday. Everyday being cleansed, cleansed, cleansed. That
to me is the huge issue. That is when I know revival has hit. That is when I know people are
longing for God. The important thing is not the bank account. The important thing is not
120
Acts 2:4-6 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit
enabled them. Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When
they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his
own language.
121
Acts 2:14 Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: "Fellow Jews
and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say.
122
Acts 3:6-8 Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ
of Nazareth, walk.” Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles
became strong. He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts,
walking and jumping, and praising God.
123
Acts 3:16
124
Acts 3:17-19
even the body healed. The important thing is that your sins get wiped out! That is the
important thing. Everything else would be OK if your sins get wiped out, because if your sins
don’t get wiped out, no amount of millions of dollars will ever help you.
Times of refreshing
But what is the result of getting your sins wiped out? Verse 19: “That times of refreshing
may come from the Lord.” There is no refreshing unless your sins are wiped out.
People come. They want the Holy Spirit to hit them. They want to fall. They want this,
they want that to happen. They want manifestations. They want to be filled with the Spirit.
They want gifts. They want power. But there is no refreshing unless your sins are wiped out.
That is what brings you refreshing.
I don’t know if that means anything to you at all. It means a lot to me. It means a huge
thing, in our frail human condition, to be able to walk out of a meeting, and feel clean. Our
sins are wiped out! That brings refreshing. God looks at me like, “You are perfect! There is
no flaw in you.”125 Well, if that is the case, you can ask Him for anything! And you can trust
Him for anything. And you know everything is going to be OK.
This verse explains then that the whole reason that God has come, and died, and revealed
himself, and poured out His miracles, is that times of refreshing may come. That is the point,
church, that we can be refreshed!
The point is not to lay some heavy, difficult thing in your life. The point is not to press
you into some difficult service. The point is not to put a heavy load of intercession on you so
that from now on, you are just bowed down in grief and tears. The point is not to make life
difficult. The point is not to put some big challenge on you that is going to be hard to attain.
The whole point of coming to church is that times of refreshing may come onto us.
We need refreshing – and it is supernatural!
Anybody need any refreshing? Just need lots and lots of refreshing? Asia especially needs it!
See. Understand why I started off the way I did this morning, because it is not like we don’t
face any problems.
If I say, we are refreshed, it is really supernatural! Because we face enough stuff in a
single day that will chase most missionaries home. Most missionaries have quit
Mozambique. There are very few there. And most people last only a very short time, because
it is one of the most difficult places in the world to live and function. Just simple services like
water and sewage and electricity are nearly impossible. Just postal delivery – there is no
postal address – we don’t have an address. Just the hut down here, and the place over there in
the field; there is no address.
It is a different world. People don’t last. It is tough. But guess what? We have the most
refreshed kids, and pastors, and people in church that I know of! We are so refreshed you
can’t keep the pastors down! You can’t keep them still in their seats! They are just dancing
up a storm, and just jumping over chairs, and just having a blast! They really are! They know
what it is like to be refreshed by the Holy Spirit. That is why He has come.
And the church, see, has changed it around. The church has gotten so serious about how to
live for God, and so heavy in its obligations and challenges, that you are missing the point.
Peter explains to the people when all this amazing stuff is happening on the day of
Pentecost that the purpose is “that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that He
may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you – even Jesus. He must remain in
heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as He promised long ago.” 126
125
Song 4:7 All beautiful you are, my darling; there is no flaw in you.
126
Acts 3:19-21
Joy is not optional
I can’t stress enough to you, that joy is not just a cheap, silly, optional aberration. A lot of
people think it is.
When Heidi and I first went to Toronto, our first visit cost us a million dollars. We had a
million dollar pledge that was instantly cancelled because we went to Toronto once. And we
knew we would lose it before we went. Our supporter said, “If you go to Pensacola or
Toronto, have anything to do with them, if you visit or have the slightest contact with them,
then we will instantly drop you.”
Heidi was dying of pneumonia and blood poisoning in South Africa. The doctors didn’t
know what to do. She has almost died many, many times. She checked herself out of the
hospital, and the doctors had made her sign a release, “that we are not responsible for your
death.” And she got on the plane, barely could crawl onto the plane, and went to Toronto.
When she got there, she couldn’t sit up. They had to put her in a special rest home for sick
missionaries. They had to carry her into the church. They lay her out on the seat. She
couldn’t sit up even. She could hardly breathe with pneumonia. They soaked her. They didn’t
just soak her. They soaked her for about 4 hours the first meeting. And then that first day, she
instantly got healed of pneumonia, and stood up!
Soon after that, the Holy Spirit nailed her to the floor. She couldn’t get up for a solid
week. She was lost in visions with God. She came there so sick, she was ready to die. She
was ready to quit the mission field. She just wanted to work in a simple store with no
pressure. And instead, God gave her a vision of thousands of children! We only had 300 at
that time. And she was screaming, “No! No! No! There is too many!”
And she is sick, and she is weak, and she is dying. And then she gets this huge vision! She
can’t move. I had to pick her up and carry her to the hotel every night, because she can’t even
lift her head. She is just so knocked out in the Spirit, lost in God. Just up in heaven with Him.
And I have to carry her into the taxi, carry her through the hotel lobby. She is just like a dead
person. And carry her into bed. Carry her back to church. For a solid week, she couldn’t
move. She couldn’t even lift her head to get a drink. Ladies had to carry her to the bathroom.
That is just how zapped she was.
But it changed her life. Totally healed. Totally strengthened. Just laughing like crazy in
the joy of the Lord. Just laughing like crazy! And it is exactly what she needed.
Joy is needed for service
You try serving God in the world’s poorest country without joy! You just try it and see how
long you will last! You just try it without the river! You just try it for a little while! You
don’t make it! That is why so many people don’t get far in the Christian life. They don’t have
enough joy for the job. They are just struggling. They are just struggling, tired and exhausted
and not refreshed at all.
We had to get super duper refreshed. We had to get fried, zapped, wrecked, percolated,
pickled, marinated, burned up, juiced, before we can continue. Because the communists had
thrown us out, and had stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars of everything we have ever
done at our facility. And they had a contract out on my wife’s life, for $20! They were
willing to pay anybody $20 if they could kill Heidi. The witch doctors were up all night
chanting, trying to curse her. “Mama Aida! Mama Aida!” You could hear the drums beating
all night around us.
We woke up every morning to the sound of machine gun fire. Gangs would come running
through our orphanage, shooting up the building, putting holes in all the walls, and stealing
kids. And demons would be choking them in the night, and throwing stuff around, terrorising
everything. We didn’t even have a bottle of ketchup some days to feed the kids, and they
would be up all night, praying for food, and trucks would come miraculously.
The Holy Spirit knows what you need
You need something, and the Holy Spirit knows what you need. You might think you just
need money. And you might think you just need … No, you need refreshing! You need
refreshing or you can’t keep going. Without refreshing, you would just slip back into how
you used to live. You can’t help it. And you can’t get beyond that. No. Joy is not just cheap
and silly.
We had people tell us, that dropped our support, “You are not honouring to Christ. The
church is no place to carry on like that!” And I used to write long letters back, and they
would write back. And I would write back, and they would write back, and I would write
back. And I said, “Oh my gosh, what is not honouring is not to be able to enjoy the Lord! Not
to be able to appreciate what He has done. Not to be able to trust Him so much that nobody
can contain your joy. That is what is dishonouring.”
But you know what? Later, this ministry, they took a national stand against Toronto, and
against holy laughter, and against manifestations, or anything that would draw attention to
you in church. And they supported us anyway later. They said “What could we do? They
take care of widows and orphans! We have no choice! We have to support them!” And so
they continued to support us secretly, under the table, without the public knowing. And in
fact, the pastor even sold his own very expensive apartment, so that he could keep supporting
us, $5,000 a month. Even though he couldn’t stand Toronto, and he couldn’t stand all that
stuff. But what can he do? The fruit is there! But he still needs the refreshing. He really,
really does!
Joy is the outcome of a godly life
Joy is the necessary outcome of a godly life. You poor Asian people! I feel sorry for you,
because God is going to make you happy, whether you want it or not! God is going to make
you a joyful, rejoicing, over-the-top happy bunch of people, because that is the outcome of
the godly life.
And I will show you. I will start going through scriptures here. If you are not, you are not
a normal Christian. If you are just a heavy, serious, sober, straight-faced Christian, you just
quietly do your work, that is not normal. That is not God’s mood. That is not the Holy
Spirit’s mood. He doesn’t just stare at you in church. He doesn’t. He enjoys life.
How do I know? Because so many of our people have been in heaven with Jesus and the
angels. They know how they live. You see a gathering in heaven, it is not just quiet. People
don’t just sit quietly and look at you. It is happy. It is a very joyful place and time. It really is.
If you understand the gospel and the scripture by experience, and you see that it is tested
and proven to be real, joy is going to be the outcome. You are not going to be able to help it.
That is the problem! It just comes! You can’t help it!
Not a matter of talk but of power
You do need power in the Christian life. In fact, Paul says very bluntly in 1 Corinthians 4:20,
“For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.”
Even in the Pentecostal world, even in the charismatic world, so often now, the church has
become a place of talk. I went to a Pentecostal university. And in the university, we had some
of the top Bible scholars in the world. It had become very, very academic.
As you know, the Pentecostals began in America in Azusa Street. We just finished the 100
year celebration of the Azusa Street outpouring in Los Angeles a few weeks ago. What
occurred in a simple little building, a one-eyed black preacher, very uneducated, and people
came from all over the country and the world to get filled with the Spirit. And they were
usually the lower class. They were usually the poor. They were usually the people not
respected by all the well-known preachers of the day. And as you know, people were on the
floor. They are rolling. There is crying. There is screaming. There is praying in tongues.
They are just carrying on like revival people. And respectable churches were horrified.
But as time went on, these Pentecostals decided they needed education too. And as time
went on, they began to build a different reputation. And they wanted to salvage their
reputation. And by the time I came to Pentecostal university, two generations later, their
attitude was, “We spent a long time getting up off the floor. We are not going back.” And so,
I had famous PhD professors teaching me. And if I raised my hand and point out something
from Visions Beyond the Veil, or something like that, they would say, “Well, we don’t
admit evidence like that here, because this is an academic institution.” Pentecostals have
become that way 2 generations later. The fire is gone. The emotions are gone. The
childlikeness is gone. The joy is gone. They are talking now. They are just talking. But the
kingdom is not a matter of talk but of power.
A lot of us agree that we need power for all kinds of things. And I agree. In Africa, we
need power for everything. We need power for health and wealth. We need health and wealth
more than any place in the world. Not that we are against health and wealth.
We need power to be happy
But you know what? What I really want to talk about this morning is the fact that we need
power to be happy. We need power to be refreshed. We need power to enjoy God. We need
power to have the kind of life that the outside world is interested in.
I don’t think the outside world wants to join us, to become Christians, just to sit in church
and be very, very serious and sober and sad and heavy. That is why most of the world out
there are not in church. They are not here, because that is not what they want. They want
Pentecost! They want the real presence of God! They want the mood of God. They want to
enjoy His company.
In fact, I heard it expressed once, “The youth of today want just 2 things: love, and a good
party.” Where do you think they can find this? Probably not the church. And not in the office.
You can’t get emotional when there is a job in your office. The average parent in Hong Kong
spends 3 minutes with his children, because they are so busy. And home is not a place to get
emotional and happy about anything. Perhaps, maybe in a football game. But there are very
few places where you can just laugh.
Church should be a joyful place
When was the last time since you just laughed yourself sick? Most people don’t experience
that. Or if they do, it is not in church. They find some other place.
For most people, there is no place to get really, really happy. There is no time for it.
Never. You go for years without ever really laughing hard and loud and just being happy and
free. I can tell by the looks on your faces you know what I am talking about. What is he
talking about? Is this church?
But I am trying to point out that if there is a place for such release, it ought to be in the
church, of all places. It is in God’s presence, God’s presence is the most appropriate, the
most logical, the most natural place for you to be completely free emotionally. Church ought
to be the place where you are the most free emotionally. It ought to be more free than home,
than the office, than school, than anywhere, than the restaurant. You can’t carry on in a
restaurant. You disturb people. You can’t carry on in the office. You disturb people. You go
home and your parents are in a bad mood, and your sister wants to argue with you, and that is
not the place. Church should be the place. This should be the place for you to be completely
free.
I was just in a conference in England. England is also very reserved. Very quiet. Very
formal. But we had a conference where people ended up screaming and yelling and racing
and running and laughing and rolling and just completely drunk in the Holy Spirit. And
finally they have a release. I don’t know if that is what you want or not. But I am just telling
you, you need it!
The kingdom of God brings joy
Some scriptures here. You need power for joy that is indestructible, and not dependent on
anything but God. Wouldn’t you like to have a joy that nobody can touch, that nobody can
take away from you? Just a huge joy inside that can’t be taken. Money, people can take.
Stuff, people can take. Your toys, people can take. Your girlfriend can leave you.
But what if you had a joy from God himself? What if God shared His joy with you? And
nobody can take it from you? I don’t care what people say. I don’t care what people do. I
don’t care what happens. You have joy and nobody can take it. It is your possession forever.
That is the inheritance of a Christian life.
What is the kingdom of God like anyway? Jesus said in Matthew 13:44, “The kingdom of
heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his
joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.” That is the kingdom of heaven. We have
found the treasure. It just exceeds any treasure we have ever heard of. It is an extraordinary
treasure. It is a pearl of great price. The merchant just paid everything that he had to buy the
pearl.127 And he is filled with joy because he had the pearl.
It is not a matter of sacrifice. That is not sacrifice! You know, we talk of sacrificing
everything on the altar. It is not sacrifice. It is like a person who found a treasure and in his
joy, he just spent everything that he had and bought the pearl. That is how we want to make
Jesus feel. He is a pearl. He is a treasure. It is not a sacrifice to spend everything we have to
get it. We do it in our joy!
Jesus makes our joy complete
Jesus said in John 15:11, “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy
may be complete.”
Why did Jesus preach? Why did He talk to us? Why did He come to earth? Why did He
teach His disciples? Why did He give us scriptures? Why did He die for us? What is He
trying to give us? What is it all for? But He just says plainly, “so that my joy may be in you
and that your joy may be complete.”
Not everybody wants it. Not everybody wants holy joy. Not everybody wants the Holy
Spirit to come on them so powerfully that they can’t help but be happy. Most of the time, not
everybody wants it. The Africans want it. They come running. The Moslems want it. They
just come running. They want it. Heidi and I will travel anywhere where people want the
presence of God in its fullness.
Jesus goes on in the next chapter, “Until now you have not asked for anything in my
name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.” 128 See, that is the result. This
is scripture. What happens when you receive? Your joy will be complete.
And in the next chapter, Jesus says, “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while
I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.” 129 That
is the Christian life. It isn’t just going around heavily, doing good works with a heavy heart
all the time, and trying to do your duty, trying to please God that way. That is not it. The
purpose of the Christian life, the whole point is that the full measure of the joy of Jesus will
be in you.
127
Matthew 13:45-46 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he
had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it. (NKJV)
128
John 16:24
129
John 17:13
A Christian is someone who has the joy of the Lord
Peter is preaching in Acts, and he quotes the Old Testament, “You have made known to me
the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence.” 130 That is the Christian life. And
we are talking about transforming our minds and thinking in a new way. 131 But this is one of
the ways in which the church needs to think differently more than any other, I think, because
it just has been so heavy.
What happens in Acts, when the jailer comes before God? Paul is locked in jail, and there
is a huge earthquake.132 The prisoners are released, but God keeps them, and the jailer and his
whole family gets saved. He brings Paul and his friends “into his house and set a meal
before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God – he and his
whole family.”133 Filled with joy!
I have gotten into the place where I practically define a Christian as someone who has the
joy of the Lord. That is the outcome of your faith, the purpose of your salvation. If I find a
sad, heavy, serious person who is unable to enjoy God and unable to enjoy life, doesn’t have
the faith to really share the joy of God, I would hesitate to set that person before the world as
an example of a Christian.
It is not that we don’t have times where we really go through it. We do. Heidi and I have
gone through lots of tears, and lots of stuff. But we go through them. Those things are not our
destination. Those things don’t define why we do what we do. They are not the result of
God’s dealings with us. That is not where we are headed. But we get through those things.
Even when people are poor, Paul is speaking about the generosity of the very poor. 2
Corinthians 8:2, he said, “Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their
extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.” Even when you are poor, even when you have
very little, in the Holy Spirit, you have overflowing joy.
Joy is a fruit of the Spirit
What is the fruit of the Spirit? Galatians 5:22, “Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness.” Joy is one of those essential ingredients. Without it, you can’t make
it.
Paul says in Philippians 2:2, “Make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the
same love, being one in spirit and purpose.” It is real. It is powerful.
Joy is given by the Holy Spirit
Paul again in 1 Thessalonians 1:6, “You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of
severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit.” Joy is
something that is given by the Holy Spirit. You can’t manufacture joy. You can’t fake it. You
can’t just pretend.
I am not talking about putting on a happy face. I am not talking about going “Ha! Ha!”
when you are crying inside. I am not talking about an act. I am not talking about something
forced. I am not talking about putting even more pressure. I am talking about the Holy Spirit
giving you joy, in spite of ridiculously heavy, difficult things coming against you and all
around you. You are still floating up there and you can’t help it. You are depression
challenged. You are unable not to be joyful.
130
Acts 2:28. also Psalm 16:11 You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your
presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.
131
Romans 12:2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing
of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is – his good, pleasing and perfect
will.
132
Acts 16:26 Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken.
At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody’s chains came loose.
133
Acts 16:34
Depression challenged
We have people like that in Mozambique. Our national
director Surpresa Sithole, I have known him for 8 years, he is
depression challenged. In 8 years, I have never seen him
upset. Never. And I have worked with him every night and
day. I think that is impressive! What do you think? I have
never heard him criticise anybody in 8 years. I have never
seen him upset in 8 years. Just give you 2 examples.
I haven’t seen him in a while. I came to South Africa. He
lives in a poor farmhouse. Met him in town. His wife was
pregnant, about to give birth. I ask Surpresa, “How are you
doing? How is everything?” “Oh, God is so good! Everything
is perfectly wonderful!” Typical response. But I find out that
actually, his wife is having severe trouble in labour. The baby
is breeched. The umbilical cord is around the baby’s neck, and
Surpresa Sithole
they don’t have money for a caesarean, and she is probably
going to die. But it didn’t change him at all. It didn’t change what he felt deep inside at all.
“Everything is perfectly wonderful! God is so good!” He wasn’t trying to fake something. He
wasn’t trying to impress me. He didn’t even think about it. That is just how he naturally
feels.
So what happened that night? The baby is born perfectly normally, of course! No
problems! Totally miraculous! Everything is perfectly fine! That is the truth. It is not faked.
Do you understand? You live in a world of joy, not because it is false, and forced, and cheap.
But because it is real, and powerful. It is the gift of God. It is the kingdom of God. You live
in a different place than anybody else in the world.
I saw him again on another trip. “How is everything?” I haven’t seen him in a while. “Oh
God is so good! Everything is perfectly wonderful!” And then I find out his son had fallen
the night before and broken his arm. He didn’t just break his arm; he splintered his arm –
compound fracture! White bones were sticking out all over! At the hospital, they didn’t have
any pins to piece together all the bits of bone, and he probably was going to lose his arm.
And they didn’t have money for anything better. And it was a total emergency. But it didn’t
occur to Surpresa to say anything to me but “Everything is perfectly wonderful!” He is
depression challenged! You can’t get him down. It is impossible! You cannot get him down!
So what happens? He goes back to the hospital, and the bone is all together! And they
don’t need pins! They just need a simple cast. And he is fine! No tears. No grief. No “Let us
call everybody, let us sob and cry and weep before God and …” “Everything is perfectly
wonderful! God is so good!” Don’t even have to …
Joy is bought expensively by the blood of Jesus
Are you starting to get it? This is not acting. This is not pretending. This is the power of God.
We are joyful for good reason. Nobody else has this reason. You watch a comedian on TV, it
is stupid! He has no reason to be happy. Some of the most famous comedians of all time,
Robin Williams … these people in their private lives are the most unhappy people around.
The joy of the Lord is not an act. It is not cheap, it is not silly. It is bought expensively by
the blood of Jesus. And you actually cheapen the blood of the cross by being unhappy. That
is what you are doing! Paul, in 1 Thessalonians, “You became imitators of us and of the
Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy
Spirit.”134
134
1 Thessalonians 1:6
Joy is the reward of the Christian life
And then in Hebrews, we quote the Old Testament again, the author does, and he is speaking
the words of God toward His Son: “You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;
therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil
of joy.”135 That is the reward of the Christian life. That is how I know the Holy Spirit is
poured out on you.
There are lots more to the Holy Spirit than speaking in tongues. You are going to get to
heaven and find that out. There is a whole lot we are going to be doing in heaven besides
speaking in tongues. There is a lot more to being filled. There is a lot more to showing that
you are spirit-filled than a particular gift. That is part of it. An important part of it, but it is
just a part of it. The spirit-filled life is one that is just full of all kinds of things, and joy is one
of them.
Joy was Jesus’ motivation
I have mentioned this before, Hebrews 12, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and
perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame,
and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” 136 That was why Jesus endured the
cross – for the joy set before Him. That was His motivation.
God can present you faultless and with great joy
One of the last books in the Bible, Jude: “To Him who is able to keep you from falling and to
present you before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy.” 137 See, that is
what God is able to do. I can remember times in my life when I was going through such
heavy, heavy stuff. Extremely difficult stuff. And I consider this one of the most wonderful
promises in the Bible. God is able to take you and your situation, and present you before
God.
It would be impossible to be presented before God with great joy if you weren’t also made
faultless. But He is able to present you without fault. That is what makes the joy real! He is
able; He has the power to present you without fault. That is just spectacular! It is spectacular
to me! It may not be spectacular to you, but it is spectacular to me! And I will preach to
anybody that wants to hear it. It just means a lot to me, because I know how faulty I was, and
how faulty I am. And the idea that God can present me faultless – that is the engine of the
joy! And He has the power to present you with great joy.
Religion is a substitute for God
I am going to finish by talking about a concept. Sometimes the world is smarter than the
church. Sometimes, the unbelievers out there are more sensible, because we have gotten so
religious in the church in our formality and in our style, the things we believe and the way we
do them, that we don’t think normally anymore. We don’t think reasonably anymore. We are
so religious.
What is religion? True religion is taking care of widows and orphans in their distress 138
and doing the good works of God and pure heart and joy of the Lord.
But otherwise, what is religion? Religion is a substitute for God. It is not the real thing. I
grew up in China. I grew up going into Buddhist temples a lot. I grew up watching Buddhist
135
Hebrews 1:9. Also Psalm 45:7 You love righteousness and hate wickedness; therefore God, your God, has
set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy.
136
Hebrews 12:2
137
Jude 24
138
James 1:27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and
widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
monks beat wooden fish and chanting and burning incense and I see the monks with their
scars all over their scalps from where they burn their scalps in asceticism and discipline. I see
them spinning their prayer wheels hours and hours a day. They are beating their drums and
chanting the same chants over thousands of times. I see them wearing their golden robes and
stepping over the beggars and denying the world and denying everything, and getting so holy
that they are completely useless. That is the big problem in Nepal. All the smart, intelligent
people are in caves getting holy. And the country is going to pot. It is a substitute for the real
thing. It is false. They are wearing the robes and they are doing the chants, and they are doing
the religious stuff.
Even in the church
The same thing happened to the church. In the early days, they had the Holy Spirit. And they
had the joy of the Lord. And they had wonderful things happening. And there was great joy
in the city, Acts139 says in Samaria, when demons were being cast out and people were being
healed, and it was so exciting.
But then, what happens? Not much happens, and you lose your joy. You lose your opinion
of God. You are not excited by Him anymore. And you just go through the motions. Because
God doesn’t enjoy that, He doesn’t come to church anymore. And when God doesn’t come to
church, what are you left with? Religion.
And the high churches have their style. They have processionals that come in. They say
the Holy Spirit comes in the wafer. Well, if the Holy Spirit doesn’t really come, you need a
wafer. And if miracles don’t happen, you need to add some more sacraments. And you need
to add some more ritual. And if you don’t really have any motivation to talk to God, you
need a prayer book. And if you don’t know any choruses, you need a hymn book. And if
your imagination is not good enough, imagining the beauty of God in heaven and everything,
then you need choir robes and you need stained glass windows and steeples and you just
need all of these things. Nothing wrong with these things. Unless you make them a substitute
for the real thing. I like beautiful churches, but if they are a substitute, it is just religion. It is
terrible. You are left with nothing.
The world rejects a powerless church
The world out there knows that. The reason only a small percentage of people are in church
is because the outside world looks at the church and says, “That is not God!” That is why
there are so many more people going for New Age, and going for anything with some power.
You go to a bookstore in America and the Christian section is 3 feet long. The New Age
section covers the whole back wall. Because people are wanting something, anything that is
real, that has power. And they know the church is not it. That is just singing. That is just
talking. That is just sitting in a bare room. What is that?
Adults need to play
So the outside world understands some things that we don’t. For a long time, secular
psychologists have understood life to be made out of 2 things: work and love. That is what
life is made out of. You go to work in the morning in order to earn money to take care of
your family and your responsibilities. And you come home after a hard day and you love
your family and friends. And that is what life is made out of. You don’t necessarily enjoy the
work, but you have to do it in order to provide for your family. It is a necessary part of life,
139
Acts 8:5-8 Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Christ there. When the crowds heard
Philip and saw the miraculous signs he did, they all paid close attention to what he said. With shrieks, evil
spirits came out of many, and many paralytics and cripples were healed. So there was great joy in that city.
part of the curse. You just have to do it whether you like it or not. And you just can’t wait to
get home, so you can enjoy the other part.
But the secular psychologists recently have realised that life is made out of a third thing.
And I was on an airline flight once, and I was reading the airline magazine, and there was a
review in there about a new book. And the book was titled, “Beyond Love and Work: Why
Adults Need to Play”. This is not a cheap, silly book. This is written by one of the most
respected psychologists in the secular world, written after lots of research.
Adults need to play! Especially Asians need to play! You need to play. You desperately
need to play, because if you don’t, you will end up like an empty machine.
What is play? I am not talking about being a couch potato in front of a TV. I am not
talking about sitting at a movie doing nothing. I am talking about being thoroughly engaged
with what you are doing, and doing it voluntarily. I am talking about enjoying something so
much that you just throw all your energy into it, purely because you enjoy it. Not because
you need to make a lot of money. Not because you are competing. Not because you have to
do it. Not because you are under lots of pressure. Not because you are trying to achieve
something. Not because you want to suffer and sacrifice to get somewhere. But because you
thoroughly enjoy what you are doing. You do it voluntarily. You can’t wait to get home from
work to do it.
Albert Einstein changed the world
What is an example of that? Albert Einstein. He has a crummy job. He is working as a patent
office clerk. He can’t stand it. He is bored with his job. It is a terrible job. It is the only job he
can get. What does he really like to do? He likes to get home. Home is not a very nice place
either. It is full of kids. It is loud, noisy. The kids are screaming. His wife is a grouch.
But what does he like to do? He likes to think. He just likes to think. That is what he lives
for. He doesn’t have instruments. He doesn’t have a degree. He doesn’t have a cyclotron. He
doesn’t have a laboratory. He doesn’t have assistants. He doesn’t have money. But he can
think. And he changed the world just by thinking. He is thinking about time and space and
gravity and how they relate. And what he came up with has made our modern world possible.
I fly an airplane in Mozambique. There is no radar in Mozambique. There is no air traffic
control in most of the country. There are no radio beacons. They don’t work anyway. How
do I get to where I am going? GPS. How does GPS work? You triangulate with time and
radio waves and different satellites. That wouldn’t work if you didn’t … understand the
theory of relativity. And if it weren’t for Einstein, I
couldn’t find my way in Africa. You wouldn’t have
TV. We wouldn’t have electronics. We wouldn’t
have semiconductors. We wouldn’t understand solid
state theory. We wouldn’t understand quantum
mechanics. We wouldn’t understand much of
anything that makes the modern world possible.
Why? Because some bored, hardworking patent
clerk in Germany years and years ago enjoyed
thinking. Nobody paid him to do it. He didn’t have
to do it. Nobody was forcing him to do it. He just
The flying machine
comes home and he just wants to think. He changed
the world! Absolutely changed the history of the world!
Heidi dances before the Lord
Your big thing, that is play, may not be thinking at all. Very few people enjoy thinking. For
my wife, it was dancing. That was what she did that she enjoyed doing. Nobody paid her to
do it. But she just danced 8 hours a day. She loves dancing. And she was a ballet dancer. And
what does she do now? She dances before the Lord, and she just loves it.
We did street drama for years. And in those street dramas, she danced. It wasn’t ballet but
it was very beautiful free-flowing modern dance. And we took it to Bali. Do you know
anything about Balinese dance? It is very rigid, it is jerky, it is spooky, but it is highly
disciplined and precise. And these dancers spend their whole lives learning how to do it. And
it is demon possessed. And they train these people for years, and then they get them
possessed by the devil, and they blindfold their eyes, and then these girls get up and have
never danced together before ever, and they dance with absolute perfect unison, just split-
second precision. Full of the devil.
And we came in with our drama, and instead of these jerky, spooky, wayang, Indonesian,
Balinese, Hindu dance movements, it is just free flowing. We had the music and it just
flowed. It wasn’t as precise, and as strained and as disciplined, but it was free, and it was
beautiful. And the director of the Balinese dance academy – they are just so famous for their
culture, anthropologists come from all over the world to study this wonder Balinese culture –
except that they themselves knew that they did not have the freedom and the fluidity and the
beauty that we had brought and had shown. And they realised that there was something in the
world of dance and in life that they had completely missed. The kingdom of God is a world
of freedom and beauty. Well, that was possible because we enjoyed dancing. Freedom.
For you, play may be something else entirely. For Heidi’s sister, it was swimming. She
loved to swim. She swam 8 hours a day. She was a competitive swimmer. She was going to
be on the United States Olympics team in 1980. And then Jimmy Carter boycotted the
Olympics and she couldn’t go. That is the vanity of life. You struggle all your life to get
somewhere, and then … all for nothing. But she loved to swim. That was her thing.
Play expresses our humanity
The scientists have learned some things about play. They have learned that play probably is
the highest expression of our intelligence and our humanity.
All the great things that had been accomplished in human history had been accomplished
by people who worked at them just because they wanted to. It wasn’t because they
desperately needed a pay cheque. It wasn’t because they were under pressure. It wasn’t
because they were trying to prove something. It wasn’t because they were trying to be
something. It wasn’t because they had to support their families. It wasn’t because they were
under pressure of any kind. It was because something bubbled up out of them, bubbled up
out of their insides. And they just had to do it.
That is true of the great artists. That is true of the great scientists. That is true of people
that have accomplished great things in any field. Music. Why do people stay up all night and
compose? Something inside just wants to do it. And it is done for no reason than that they
enjoy it. They want to do it.
The best things in life
Take human relationships. All the best things in life are completely useless. Like kissing.
What is the use of a kiss? More germs in your mouth than anywhere! It is completely
pointless. It doesn’t put food on the table. It doesn’t fix anything. It doesn’t earn money. It is
completely useless.
What is the point of a hug? What does a hug do? Nothing. There is no purpose to it.
What is music good for? Nothing. It doesn’t make rice grow. It doesn’t help change the
weather. It doesn’t fix droughts. It is useless.
What is love for? The evolutionists would like to say that the only reason that love came
out of evolution is so that the species would be continued. It is just survival. It is useless.
And same with joy. What is the point of joy? It doesn’t fix my situation. It doesn’t help
anything. It doesn’t get me healed. It doesn’t fix my bank account.
But all these things are what make life, life. All the useless things.
Lessons from the animal kingdom
We also learn from the animal kingdom basically that the dumber the animal, the harder they
work. You look at an ox or a water buffalo. They are so stupid. They just pull ploughs all day
long. And when they are not pulling ploughs, they are just standing there. And you can work
them till they drop. They are so dumb.
And you get down to the level of practically the perfect worker, it is the ant. The ant is the
perfect worker. In a lot of people’s minds, the ant is the perfect Christian. And an ant hill is
just the perfect church. Because everybody is just doing their job. They don’t look to the left;
they don’t look to the right. They are carrying a huge load on their head. They know exactly
what they are supposed to be doing. They are all serving the queen ant. And they don’t get
distracted by emotions and play or anything else. They just do their job. They are sacrificial.
They are dedicated. They never take time off. They never take holidays. They don’t get
distracted. They are perfect Christians.
They just work, work, work. They are just perfect machinery. Perfect denomination. Ooh,
if the church could just be like the ant! “Behold the ant, you sluggard,” Proverbs 140 says. It is
almost a picture of Chinese society. Except that I know that Chinese have beautiful
musicians and artists, and everything else too. But Chinese work like ants. That is why China
is going to take over the world. They are smarter than anybody else and they are willing to
work hard for almost nothing. They are going to kill the world. That is the ant.
Go to the other side of the animal kingdom, and you come to dolphins. How many of you
have seen dolphins? How can you watch a dolphin and not want to be a dolphin? Researchers
have found out that dolphins not only play, they are so smart, they invent games! Dolphins
among themselves invent games! That is how they keep themselves occupied. And they
don’t starve. They just have a blast in the ocean.
They are the opposite of ants. They are just zinging and zooming around, just playing and
free. You just watch dolphins and you think, oh my gosh, to be that free. Nothing holding
them back. They are not stuck on a trail like a line of ants, everyone going single file down
the path and that is it. They just free, zinging back and forth, and up and down and around,
just playing, and happy, and inventing stuff all the time. They are creative, and just alive.
Play promotes health
Scientists have found out that play is the healthiest thing for you. People who spend a high
percentage of their time doing what they enjoy doing actually have far less Alzheimer’s
disease and mental illness and depression.
And in fact, in people who play a lot, damaged brains actually repair themselves. Brain
cells actually regenerate themselves! You actually improve! You can actually fix your brain
with play. It is good for you. It is what your body was made to do. Your body was not made
to labour like an ant all the time. It is not how God made you. Your body breaks down if all
you do is work. Your brain breaks down. Your emotions break down. You just become an
unfeeling machine. And if we are not careful, that is exactly what happens to the church. And
we find out that if you don’t play, use your brain to play, you are going to lose it.
We look for friends we can play with
That is what we look for in our friends. We look for friends we can enjoy. We look for
friends we can play with. Your best friends are not those that work the hardest, probably.
140
Proverbs 6:6 Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise!
They are not the ones that spend all the time in the library or at the office. They are the ones
that you enjoy, the ones that you spend time with doing the things that you voluntarily like to
do.
The Christian life is not just work
How did this human situation come about? We had an industrial revolution a few hundred
years ago. And there got to be the idea that hard work makes you rich. And hard work is
morally uplifting. And God is pleased with you if you work hard and you make lots of
money. And otherwise, you are just wasting your time and God is unhappy with you. And
work is good, play is irresponsible and childish and bad. Holidays are for wimps.
And so famous chief executive officers of big companies write books about how hard they
work for the company, and how dedicated they are towards success. And the world admires
these people, and I have these books given to me all the time. “You should read this book by
the CEO of General Electric or somebody because it is just amazing. He worked 60 hours a
week for 20 years without a holiday. Look what he did for his company.” And we admire
that.
That attitude has built up in the church too. We admire Christian missionaries who fast,
and work, and go for years without furlough. And go for years without going to the beach.
And go for years without spending any money on themselves. And go for years without
laughing. They are just taking in orphans.
Christian life should be fun
Sometimes, people hear about my wife, and they expect when they meet her to find her
looking like a nun with a bun, and a grey robe, and just a hardworking, stern housemother.
“Behave!”
And instead, “Here is Heidi!” She is just a fun little blonde, and she dances, and she
laughs, and she is just Heidi, and she is just so much fun to be around. And they are shocked!
She is a cute little blonde that has fun. And her kids just love to be around her, because she is
just such a blast. That is just not the image we have of the hardworking nun with her bucket
and robes. That is not the Christian life.
She has thousands and thousands of children. When Heidi comes home in Pemba, the kids
are so excited they jump on the trucks and the trucks bring all the kids to the airport, and the
airport terminal is just filled with hundreds of children. And we just overrun all the guards
and all the police and everybody. “Where did all these children come from?” They are all
coming to meet Mama Aida, because they love her. They have so much fun with her. That is
the Christian life.
God is happiest with us when we are enjoying life
How many here are parents? You have children. When you look at your children, when are
you the happiest with them? When they are studying their homework? When they are
washing dishes? When they are making their bed and cleaning their room?
I am proud of my kids when they are studying and … But you know when I am the
happiest? When I am watching them play. That is when I am happiest for my children. I am
proud of all the chores they do and their responsibilities. That is great. But I happiest when I
see my children playing together and playing with their friends. I hear their laughter. I hear
them playing.
We have developed the idea in the church that God is happiest with us when we are doing
the ant thing. We are just sacrificing and working. No joy. Just get it done. And He is
pleased. That is good. But that is not when He is the happiest. Do you understand? He is
happiest in a church meeting when you are absolutely crazy about Him, laughing silly,
enjoying His company. That is when He is the most pleased with you. When you are able to
have so much faith in Him, so in love with Him, that you are free. You are not burdened by
anxiety. And you can enjoy Him.
And so we have the Christians that look at the Toronto blessing and things like that and
say “Oh that is irresponsible, that is dishonouring.” But actually, the opposite is the truth.
The truth is that when God looks down on His family and His kids, and hears their laughter,
and hears their light heart, that is when He Himself is the most pleased. “Ha! Our kids are
enjoying life.” That is what makes Him happy. Just seeing you work is not enough.
The renewal
So we have a renewal. I know we had the Pentecostal outpouring in the early 1900s, but God
is doing something very new. You have a renewal. We have a renewal. I don’t know if you
call yourself a renewal church. I had no idea what to expect when I got invited here. I know
you are “kind of open.” I keep hearing that. “We are kind of open, we are open.” I am not
looking for people that are “open”. I am looking for people that, Ha! Enjoy God! Suddenly, it
has dawned on them: The gospel is all true! The gospel is all true, and we want fresh air!
The Holy Spirit is like a gentle breeze. It is a new breeze. It is just blowing over us. It is
refreshing. It is like a waterfall of grace. It is like Niagara Falls. It is pure. It is powerful. It is
clean. It is refreshing. It cuts through the rock. It cuts through our hearts. It washes away the
junk, and the dust, and the dirt, and the grime, and the heaviness, and the hard work, and all
of that. And it is just so fresh, fresh, fresh, and powerful. And you can feel love again. And
you can feel joy again. And you can laugh again. And you can be in love again. That is the
renewal.
We are looking for people that will pay anything for it. Heidi and I lost a million dollars to
go to Toronto. And that was just the beginning. But we will never go back. We will never
trade what we have seen since then. For any number of millions of dollars. We just turned
down $15 million a few weeks ago, because people wanted to settle us down and control us,
and control our ministry in return for the grant. We are not going to do that.
Jesus said “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out
demons. Freely you have received, freely give.” 141 The gospel is free. And our job as
Christians is to give freely, out of the power and glory that we have in the gospel.
Change your paradigm
I hope, I pray the Holy Spirit has been able to encourage you, change your paradigm. Change
what you think church ought to be, and how the Christian life can be lived. Even in the most
difficult circumstance, even when you are being attacked, even when terrible things happen,
even when you are under high pressure, the gospel is still true! It is still sufficient! It is still
powerful! And God will overcome. God has the power to overcome. And He will overcome.
That is why we can be this way.
OK, I gave it my best shot, but the Holy Spirit is going keep working.
141
Matthew 10:8
Day 4 afternoon
Companionship with God
I am going to talk about something this afternoon in this final session that is actually the most
important thing to me of everything that I have talked about so far. We have covered a few
things. As you had noticed, there are a lot of different moods in the kingdom of God. And
there are a lot of subjects. And there are a lot of ways of preaching and teaching, and they are
all good. And it is a good thing we have variety. It is terrible to always have the same kind of
meeting, and speak the same way, and be in the same mood all the time. There are lots of
reasons to be light-hearted. There are also lots of reasons to be very serious-minded. But I
want to cover something though before I get into this last subject.
Why doesn’t revival last?
One thing that has interested me over the years is why revival doesn’t last very long, usually.
Most famous revivals that you hear about, like the Welsh revival, Indonesian revival, even
the Jesus movement, Pentecostal revival of the early 1900s, the fiery part of those revivals
usually only lasted a few years – 2, 3, 4 years.
I have always been interested in how people can come to a conference, like a renewal
conference in Toronto, or a camp, or somewhere where they have an unusual amount of
spiritual experience, and then can go home and within a few days or weeks, everything is
back to normal. And how it is possible for, for instance, thousands of pastors, probably, tens
of thousands of pastors to come to Toronto, and get a huge dose of the Holy Spirit – I mean,
huge – they just felt things they never felt in their life, got refreshed like they have never
been refreshed in their whole entire life. And then they come back to their home church, and
a few things happen. And then 6 months later, they have moved on, everything is back to the
way it was. Now why is that?
Moving on, to what?
Moved on. Moved on to what? I am always interested in what they are moving on to. If they
are moving on to better revival, that is OK. If they are moving on to more revelation, that is
OK. If they are moving on to more power, that is OK. If they are moving on to more of His
glory, that is OK. But usually, it is something else.
One way that it is expressed, in Australia and many places is they have moved on to
“excellence”. They just don’t want a poor little Pentecostal revival with simple people. They
want an “excellent” church. They want an “excellent” building. They want “excellent”
programs. They want “excellent” drama. They want “excellent” choirs. They want
“excellent” music programs. Everything that they do. They want “excellent” books,
“excellent” teaching materials. They want “excellent” videos, “excellent” TV programs.
They want everything to be “excellent”.
Whether there is any miracles or not is not important. Whether anyone feels the love of
God is not the main thing. Whether there are any supernatural manifestations is not the point.
“We just want to have an attractive ministry that would draw the people.”
There was one big church in New Zealand that had a pastor who was really into the Holy
Spirit. But now they have a pastor that is deep into seeker sensitivity. And they used to have
Sunday school teachers for the youth that were really into the presence of the Holy Spirit.
106 Companionship with God Day 4 afternoon
But now, she is being told, “Let us not emphasise the Holy Spirit so much. Let us have a lot
of fun in our classes, and let us engage the students in a lot of activities, and books, and
stories, and dramas, and … let us back off from the Holy Spirit. We don’t want to scare them
away. We don’t want to go overboard. We just want things that will attract kids.” And so
they don’t have revival anymore. They don’t have. They have turned their backs on renewal.
They are not looking to the Holy Spirit to do things in their meetings anymore. They just
want a really good church.
The fire is passion, passionate love
Sometimes, we have renewal conferences where a lot of them we call “catch the fire”
conferences. People come to catch the fire. That is probably Toronto’s main conference
every year, Catch the Fire, in October. They had 10 of them.
A lot of people come, and things happen to them. They might be thrown across the room.
They might be violently shaken in the Holy Spirit. They might laugh all night. They might
have to be carried to the elevator, to their hotel. It is just phenomenal. They get touched. And
then a few months later, everything is back to normal. And it turns out they haven’t really
caught the fire. It is gone. They are cold again.
And so, there needs to be some kind of discussion on what the fire is, and what the
kingdom of God is really made out of. Because if we don’t understand that, we are going to
go for the wrong thing, and we are not going to be able to keep it. It is not going to be real. It
is not going to last.
Some people imagine fire, but they don’t know exactly what that is. To me, fire means
passion. It means passionate love. Song of Songs describes love as something that burns like
fire. Many rivers cannot quench it.142
When John the Baptist came baptising, he said “There is going to be someone following
me, though, that is going to baptise you, not with water, but with the Holy Spirit, and with
the fire.”143
In Hebrews, we are told that “God is a consuming fire.”144 He burns up everything that
isn’t perfect. Everything that He doesn’t like. He just burns up everything that is sinful.
Everything that is wrong. Everything that is black. Everything that is not right.
And in Revelation, Jesus Himself says “I wish you were either one or the other! So,
because you are lukewarm – neither hot nor cold – I am about to spit you out of my
mouth.”145 He is looking for temperature. He is looking for passion. He would rather have
you be angry with Him, He would rather you be mad at Him, than for you just to look at
Him, and not respond in any way. Fire speaks of passion, and emotion, and life, not just dead
indifference.
Signs and wonders don’t sustain you
Some people think of revival and fire as stupendous miracles, external, supernatural,
physical, and the idea of a conference meeting or series of revival meetings is to stir the
people up and attract people to the meeting by miracles.
In fact, that is actually how we get the attention of Moslems in Mozambique. When
somebody who is blind, or deaf, or dumb, or crippled in a village, and everybody knows that
person, and they have known that person all their life, and suddenly one night, they get
142
Song 8:6-7 Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its
jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame. Many waters cannot quench
love; rivers cannot wash it away.
143
Luke 3:16 John answered them all, “I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the
thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”
144
Hebrews 12:29
145
Revelation 3:15-16
Day 4 afternoon Companionship with God 107
healed, and they are walking, and they are talking, and they are hearing, and they are seeing,
that gets the attention of the whole village. Everybody can see that Jesus is alive, He is a God
of love, and He is here. And that really does start everything rolling. And so sometimes, we
think of the kingdom of God as signs and wonders.
The problem is signs and wonders themselves, by themselves, don’t sustain you. External,
physical things, even if they are miraculous, don’t keep your heart going. How do we know?
Because we have people raised from the dead in Mozambique who have lost the fire. We
have people that were on their way to hell, or they have actually seen heaven, and they died,
and angels came to them. And their families prayed. And the church prayed. And the pastor
prayed. And they came back to life. And their resurrection may have electrified other people,
and the pastor may be so supercharged he is going all over the countryside preaching the
gospel, and the other people in the church may be thrilled, but sometimes, the person himself
or herself who is raised is not all that excited.
“Yeah, I am back. Hi, guys. It was really interesting.” But that doesn’t mean that they
have caught the fire. It is amazing. Now, most have. Most people that have been raised from
the dead, their whole life is electrified. But not necessarily.
Returning to living death
So if you are just after signs and wonders, and you think of the kingdom of God and life in
God as just external miracles, the fire won’t last. And you will go home from the camp or the
conference meeting or whatever, and pretty soon, you will be back to normal.
That is the most scary part to me. A church that has tasted of the powers of the age to
come, have tasted the passion of God, have been deeply in love, felt His joy, felt His physical
touch, maybe been blasted by Him physically, emotionally, maybe gotten tremendous visions
and revelations when that happened, and then later, it seems like nothing happened. Just
nothing happened. You are back to school, back to work, chatting away with your friends,
watching TV, nothing has happened. You are exactly the same as you used to be. Now that is
really scary. That is really, really, really scary. Back to normal. Back to living death, actually.
Just back to numbness. Back to not feeling anything.
But it happens all the time. It happens to churches all the time. There are thousands of
pastors that have been to Toronto, or have been to various areas of the world where there has
been revival, like Timor, like China, like South America, like Argentina, these places. And
they have been extremely touched. And after a while, it is like they have never been
anywhere.
Why did we have a camp? Why did we have a conference? Why did we travel? Why did
we preach? Why did we even bother, if you are just going to go back to the way you have
been.
What we preach in Africa
So we need to understand what the kingdom of God really is. Romans has a very simple
statement about this. Romans 14:17.146 What you need to know is in Africa, and I have said
this already, we don’t preach signs and wonders, and we don’t preach manifestations. We
don’t preach miracles. We don’t preach food multiplication. We don’t even preach church
growth. And we don’t even preach missions. We don’t even preach mission giving. We don’t
preach recruiting mission teams. We don’t preach targeting of mission fields. We don’t
preach mission research. We don’t preach seeker sensitivity. We don’t preach evangelistic
methods. We don’t preach any of these things.
146
For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the
Holy Spirit.
We preach Jesus and Him crucified. We preach the power of the cross. We preach the
sufficiency of the gospel. We preach the faith that was once and for all delivered to the
saints. We preach about what Jesus has done. We preach what He has accomplished. We
preach about His power, His faithfulness, His beauty. We preach the truth. We preach the
only things that will work. And then all these other things chase us. We don’t chase them,
they follow us.147
We can’t keep people from being raised from the dead. We can’t keep people from being
healed. We can’t keep money from coming in. We can’t keep people from adding to the
church. You can’t keep them away. We can’t keep missionaries from arriving. We can’t keep
visiting teams away. We have to build more houses all the time for more visitors. Why?
Because you can’t keep them away. They come by the thousands. They come. They just fly.
We just flood the airports in Mozambique with visitors. It is amazing. We didn’t try to get
them to come. They just email everyday, “Can I come? Can I come? Can I come?”
Righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit
Paul says in Romans here, verse 17, what the kingdom is not, and what it is. He has been into
a little discussion about the weak.148 The people weak in faith argue over what is the proper
thing to eat or not eat, or what is the right day to worship. They are talking about legalities,
and problems, and rules. And Paul is saying, the kingdom of God is not eating or drinking. It
is not about rules, it is not about religion, it is not about all the things that we think religion is
about. It is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
The significant thing to me there is that Paul doesn’t say, “The kingdom of God is signs
and wonders.” He doesn’t say, “The kingdom of God is health and wealth.” He doesn’t say,
“The kingdom of God is church growth.” He doesn’t say, “The kingdom of God is spiritual
warfare.” He doesn’t say, “The kingdom of God is youth camps.” He says “the kingdom of
God is … righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”
You can be highly gifted, and not have righteousness, peace and joy. You can be a great
preacher, and not have righteousness, peace and joy. You can have gifts of the Spirit, and not
have righteousness, peace and joy. You can be a famous preacher and evangelist, and not
have a lot of righteousness, peace and joy. God can gift you with spiritual gifts, and you can
have tremendous gifts of prophecy and healing, and not have a lot of righteousness, peace
and joy. And you can go to revival meetings, and you can fall and you can cry, and you can
laugh, and you can have tremendous manifestations, and go home without righteousness,
peace and joy. And you can be a leader in the church, and you can be popular, and not have
much righteousness, peace and joy.
Righteousness
The kingdom is made out of, well, first of all, righteousness. There is no kingdom without
righteousness. What is the kingdom? It is the home of righteousness, Peter says. 149 That is the
home. The church should be the home; the revival should be the home of righteousness.
Revival doesn’t mean lots of signs and wonders, it means righteousness. And in the
righteousness of God, God does heal a lot of people, and He does a lot of miracles, but that is
because He is righteous. And He does good things for people.
147
Mark 16:20 And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming
the word with signs following.
148
Romans 14:1-16
149
2 Peter 3:13 But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the
home of righteousness.
Miracles display the righteousness of God
People argue over the purpose of miracles. Is it to prove God is alive? Is it to prove the
gospel? Is it to prove the disciples were really apostles? No. It proves God loves people. It
proves He cares when they are sick, and they are hurt. They display the righteousness of
God. It is not just an attention getter. It is not just a growth producer. It is not just a money
attractor. It is righteousness. There is no kingdom without it.
And so if you come to church, you participate in a revival, or you investigate a revival, or
see what God is doing, or get a taste of the power of God, make sure you understand what the
kingdom is. It is not just more power.
When I was in university, our professors wrote a book. And the book was titled, “The
Love of Power, and the Power of Love”. I didn’t agree with the book, because it was
basically a criticism of the charismatic movement. And they characterised us as lovers of
power. And they pointed out all our character flaws, and all the problems of the charismatic
movement. And then they went on to say that God’s power is in love. It is not in supernatural
power; it is in suffering with the poor, and identifying with people who are weak.
And I asked, “Is it possible for love to have teeth? Is it possible for love to have power
also?” And they said, “No, they didn’t think so. You had to choose between power and love.”
That was some of the top theological professors in the world – University of London.
But the renewal is something different. There is a reason in fact why God doesn’t heal
more, and why He doesn’t do more signs and wonders. It is easy for Him to do. I have told
our pastors in Mozambique many times that He could take all the poverty out of
Mozambique in a single day easily. Easily. Effortless for Him to do so. He could heal
everybody in Mozambique in a single day. Wipe out malaria. Wipe out AIDS in a single day,
effortlessly. Just with a word. Why doesn’t He do it? Because He is after something far, far,
far deeper.
I ask our pastors, “If God took poverty out of your church, and healed everybody, would
everybody love Him the way He wants to be loved?” And when they are new Christians, they
say “Ah, sure!” After they have been Christians a while, they say, “No.” They keep their
hands down, because they know the human nature. It takes more than power. The kingdom
of God is not just about external acts of power. We preach the gospel and the gospel is
confirmed by signs and wonders following. That is what the disciples of the New Testament
did.150
Peace
The kingdom is also peace. Tremendous peace. Lots of preachers and churches are trying to
continue the work of the church, but without peace.
Psalm 91 talks about finding that secret place under the shadow of the Almighty, 151 under
the wings of Almighty God, finding that secret place where you are at peace. Very few
people find that secret place. Very few people find that shelter. Get into that rock. Get into
the heart of God where they are safe and they are secure, and not worried about anything, and
where all the desires of their heart can be found. Very few people find it. They are looking
for something else.
Lots of people go to Toronto. Lots of people come even to our revival meetings in Africa.
They see the sound stage. They see the foreign speakers. They see the music. And they even
see the miracles and they see the food and they see the lights and they see the celebration and
they see all the stuff going on. And they react in all different ways. Some people don’t
understand. They are just there for the food. Some people are there for the music. They are
150
Acts 14:3 So Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there, speaking boldly for the Lord, who
confirmed the message of his grace by enabling them to do miraculous signs and wonders.
151
Psalm 91:1 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
there for the dancing. They are there for the promise that maybe God can help them. They
have been to witch doctors. They have been to other churches. They hope maybe we could
help them somehow. They are just there to see if we could help them.
But very few people fall in love with God and find that secret place. And really catch the
fire. And keep revival. And find that peace that is the kingdom of God.
Joy
And the kingdom is also joy. What kind of a kingdom would it be forever if we didn’t have
any joy? It would be worthless.
But if you have faith, you will have love. And if you have love, you will have joy. And the
kingdom is perfect if you have righteousness, peace and joy. And then the miracles and
everything else fit in as they should.
Don’t get sidetracked
So we can experience the glory falling for a short time. We can experience certain things in
meetings. But what I am really interested in is long-term fruit. What I am interested in is that
weeks from now, and years from now, you will benefit from what happened at this camp, or
what happened any other time, when you have really felt, and understood, and partook of
something from God. Hold on to that which is real. Bury yourself in what is real. Don’t get
sidetracked, and fooled, and deceived by things that aren’t real.
Romance is the core issue of life
Now, on that basis, we can get into just the final little subject that I want to leave you with. I
wish I could spend all the time of this subject, because it is the most important to me. I am
trying to get at the very heart of life.
There is a book in the middle of the Bible. What book is right at the middle of the Bible?
Song of Solomon. Did you know the Song of Songs doesn’t even have the word God in it?
Doesn’t even mention God! What is it about? It is about a love affair between a man and a
woman.
Some people try to allegorise the Song of Solomon. That means you assign meanings to
everything. It is not really just a story about a man and a woman. Everything has meaning.
The neck means this, the ear means this, the nose means this, the two eyes mean this, the
pomegranates mean this, and the palm tree means this. People try to do that about a lot of
things in the Bible. They have so allegorised it that they have destroyed it. It is no longer
about love. It is about the church. It is about temptation. It is about … It is about … No, it is
about a love affair between a man and a woman. That is what it is.
I hear people talking about problems in their lives. And the issues and the things that
matter to them. The things that bother them and what is really important to them. And I hear
all kinds of things. “I lack motivation. I lack interest. I lack joy. I lack money. I lack a
calling. I lack revelation from God. I lack spiritual gifts. I lack Bible knowledge. I lack …”
Well, it could be anything.
But those things aren’t the deepest reason that you are having trouble in life. They never
are. When you get down deep to the very core of what is bothering you in life, and what you
lack, the issue is always, always, always romantic. It is. It is romance or lack of it that is
really the issue of life.
It is not business. It is not anything else. You might think it is. I meet people that say they
have never felt any love, they don’t need any love, they are just fine single. They are just fine
doing their job. They are just fine with their business. They are occupied. They have got
important stuff to do in life. They might be a politician. They might be a humanitarian aid
worker. They might be a nurse or doctor. They have got enough to fill their life. They are
doing fine. But they are not fine without romance. I will just put it that bluntly.
God is the most romantic person in the universe
You are created for romance. Why is that? Because that is the way God is. He is romantic.
We are made in the image of God. God is the most romantic person in the universe. He lives
for romance. That is what makes life, life. No romance, no life. I don’t care how much you
have of everything else. You have no life without romance. There is no real joy without it.
Read the Song of Solomon. But you say it is not about God, it is about a man and a
woman. But we are created in the image of God. And God instituted marriage. He created
Adam, and He said it is not good that man should be alone. 152 So He created woman. And He
instituted marriage. And in marriage, people experience feelings that make them alive. Make
them glad to be alive. And when people experience those feelings, that is intended to give us
just a little taste in this life, with people we can see and feel and meet, of something even
greater. And that is the feelings that we can have between us and our God.
If marriage and romance between a man and a woman is great, how much greater the
relationship that we can have with the Creator who invented that kind of relationship between
man and woman. If God created marriage, and created romance like we see written in the
Song of Solomon, how much more does He Himself have? How much more does He
Himself feel?
The church usually has it backwards. The church is usually thinking, “I need romance, but
God is not very romantic. Religion is not very romantic. Christianity is not very romantic.
The mission field is not very romantic. The ministry is not very romantic. It is not enough for
me. I still need something else besides God to keep me going. And I hope I will meet some
interesting people in heaven. Because if it is just God, I am just going to be very, very bored
in heaven.”
That is the reason people dry out. That is the reason people lose revival. That is the reason
they come to conferences, get touched and then go home and go back to the way they used to
be. Because they didn’t meet God. They didn’t find out what He is really like. They have no
idea how romantic He is.
Companionship with God
What the Father is out to do is to create a perfect eternal companion for His Son. We are
created to be that perfect companion for Jesus forever. 153 And He is our perfect companion.
And books like the Song of Solomon give us a little taste.
Anybody that has been really touched by the Holy Spirit knows that the Holy Spirit can
make you feel good. If God invented marriage, think what else He can do. The Holy Spirit is
very, very powerful. He knows how to love you. But I am talking about the love that is
behind the Song of Solomon. Because what keeps us going in the Christian life, what keeps
me going, is not just the big outdoor meetings, and all the salvations, and the altar calls, and
the healings, and all those miraculous stuff, and all the things that get the attention. That is
not enough to keep me in Africa. That is not enough to keep me going anywhere. I would
quit the whole thing if that is all there was.
152
Genesis 2:18 The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for
him.”
153
Revelation 21:9-10 One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came
and said to me, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” And he carried me away in the Spirit
to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from
God.
There is something that keeps me going. There is something that gives us life. There is
something between us and God that holds us and keeps us that is supernatural. That is worthy
everything, worth dying for. And we call it love, but I could use another word to help make it
more real, and that is companionship.
It is companionship with God that makes life, life. He is not just the magician. He is not
just the papa. He is not just the vending machine. He is not just the miracle worker. He is not
just the healer. He is not just the provider. He is not just my Saviour. He is not just God. He
is my companion. It is going through a day with Him that makes the day good. It is doing
things together with Him that makes life good. It is never being alone that makes life rich. It
is having somebody know you perfectly, far better than your husband or wife could, that
makes life great. It is the stupendous possibility of being a companion of God.
Loneliness, I think, is the biggest killer in the world. It is not physical disease. It is not
poverty. It is not secondary sins like stealing and lying and adultery. It is loneliness. That is, I
think, the most painful thing there is.
Some people just joke and they say, “Well, I am going to hell, but at least I will have
plenty of company.” No you won’t. Hell is going to be the loneliest place there could
possibly be. That is what makes hell, hell. No company. No God. No love. No Holy Spirit to
restrain evil. It is just evil in all its force. It is going to be unbelievably, excruciatingly
terrible, lonely place. And some people create their hell right here in this life.
Fulltime occupation – being God’s friend
But what makes the kingdom of God first of all the kingdom of God is you are not alone any
more.154 You are never alone any more. You are a companion of somebody you love more
than life, and that person loves you. It is companionship we are after.
Being God’s friend is our fulltime occupation. It is not being a preacher. It is not being a
missionary. It is not being a businessman. It is not being a singer. It is not being a football
player. It is not being an airline pilot. Those are not our main occupations.
Sometimes, we discuss, “Well, what should I do with my life? Should I be a banker, or a
preacher, or a pastor, or a teacher, or …” The best Christians I know don’t think in those
terms. It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter if they dig ditches. It doesn’t matter if they just
clean toilets, or they are a farmer with sticks, or a wealthy businessman living in luxury.
What matters is that they are a friend of God. That is their fulltime occupation. My fulltime
job is to be His friend.
And you can’t be His friend if you also want to be a friend of the world. 155 You have to
choose. But that is our occupation. There is no compulsion in it. There is no compulsion in
the kingdom of God. There is no force. You are completely set free. As soon as you start
feeling pressure, and compulsion, you know you have made a wrong turn. As soon as you
lose your joy, you have made a wrong turn.
Don’t look back
You don’t look back. The kingdom does not look back. 156 You don’t look back on failures.
You don’t look back on condemnation. You don’t look back on pain and hurts from the past.
As soon as you look back, you lose your joy. As soon as you lose your joy, you are finished.
154
Psalm 139:7-10 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the
heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I
settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.
155
James 4:4 You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God?
Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.
156
Luke 9:62 Jesus replied, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the
kingdom of God.”
You are just finished. You have lost your relationship. You have lost your friendship with
God.
Soak in the Song of Songs
So if I were you, I would come home from this conference and just soak in Song of Solomon
for a while. Just soak in it.
I will read just a few verses to get your appetite up. Song of Songs chapter 2. Some people
say this is all about flesh and sex, and nothing to do with spiritual life. But that is not true,
because it is about relationship. It is about companionship. And physical relationships are
something God invented. What I am after is a relationship with the God who invented
everything. That is the ultimate sort of relationship. He knows exactly what to bring into your
life to express that relationship.
And so what is life like when you have a relationship like this? Just look at 2:10: “My
lover spoke and said to me, ‘Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come with me. See! The
winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth; the season of
singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land. The fig tree forms its early fruit;
the blossoming vines spread their fragrance. Arise, come, my darling; my beautiful one,
come with me.’”
Now, there is a relationship. There is companionship. How would you like God Himself to
talk to you that way? Jesus Himself to talk to you that way? Start everyday with a
companionship like that? That is what we want to stay in. That is what revival is. That is
what the glory of God is. We want the glory of God to fall, but that is what it looks like. To
be in that place. To have that relationship. And have companionship like that all the time.
There is no flaw in you
See, most of us look at that and think, “Oh, I am just not there. Look at me. I am just not
there.”
And so you want to look at chapter 4 verse 7, and realise that because Jesus died, and
because we believe in Him, this is how Jesus talks to you: “All beautiful you are, my
darling; there is no flaw in you.”
Now, maybe your friends don’t think there is no flaw in you. Maybe your parents don’t
think there is no flaw in you. Maybe your own wife and husband don’t think there is no flaw
in you. But imagine waking every morning, and coming to Jesus, who thinks there is no flaw
in you. He is not pretending. That is the power of the cross. There is no flaw in you. He has
washed away your sin. There is no flaw in you. That is reality.
There are just 2 kinds of people: Those that don’t believe that that is reality, and those that
do. That is the difference between believers and unbelievers. Christians and non-Christians.
Non-Christians carry around a load of guilt and imperfection. Christians live in a whole
different world where they are in love with their God and there is no flaw in them. They are
perfect.
Love is as strong as death
But probably my favourite scripture in the entire Bible is in chapter 8 of the Song of Songs.
Chapter 8, verse 6 and following. This is just my absolute favourite. One lover saying to the
other: “Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as
death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame.
Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot wash it away. If one were to give all the
wealth of his house for love, it would be utterly scorned.”
Now, the only way we could understand any of that without the Holy Spirit is if we had
some experience in this life. How many have fallen in love with somebody in this life? How
many have fallen in love with somebody that did not return that love and in fact they went for
somebody else, and you felt jealousy? If that has happened to you, you get some idea of the
power of love.
You can’t turn it off. Once you are afflicted and diseased, it is like AIDS – you can’t get
rid of it. It completely takes you over. It absolutely takes possession of you. You can’t get
free of it. You can’t get out from under it. Nothing can break it. Not anything that person can
do or anybody can say can stop it. It really is as strong as death. It is unshakeable. Once you
feel that love for somebody, that is it. There is nothing in heaven and earth that can break it.
There is nothing that can stop it.
It is powerful. It is the most powerful force there is. It is stronger than death. That is what
movies are made out of. That is what great novels are made out of. That is what the great
stories of history are made out of. Anybody that has had any kind of relationship, that has
tasted this at all, knows the truth. This is the stuff of life. It is not just the external singing and
dancing and this and that at church. It is love that is as strong as death.
True love is never a struggle
A person who is in love is not struggling to stay in love. So often, I hear people struggling
with their Christian life.
Imagine going on a date with somebody, and you just take them to the nicest restaurant
you can find, and you are sitting there in the candlelight, and you just look at that person, and
you go, “I am struggling to like you!” “I am trying hard, OK? Give me a break!” “I am
working at it.” That is how marriage counsellors talk. Married people have to “work at it.”
That really gets God’s juices going: “God, you are good, you know, but I am working at
liking you!” I was talking to you earlier about this pastor that explained prayer. “It is like
digging ditches! It is hard work!” Again, you take your date, and you go out on the beach in
the moonlight, and you look at her, and you go, “OK, let us dig some ditches!”
I have a daughter who is in love. She is 18. And I listen to her on her cell phone. I pay the
cell phone bill. I know how much they are in love! They can laugh and talk forever. It is like
an inexhaustible fountain of words.
Do you realise that is what prayer should be? It is not, “Oh God, OK. I am going to be
spiritual. I am going to please God. I am going to get up early. I am going to pray for an hour
even if I am sleepy. I am going to get up and discipline myself and I am going to dig ditches
and I am going to so please God.” Do you think that is pleasing to God?
That is about as pleasing to God as your date: “Look, I don’t want to talk too much. I am
tired. I really want to go to bed. But, let us work at this. OK. Why don’t you call me? I am
going to write down a list of things to talk about. And I have a prayer wheel. I don’t think I
can talk to you for an hour, so I need this prayer wheel. And for the first 5 minutes, let us
cover mom and dad. Let us talk about them. And then in the next 5 minutes, let us talk about
school, OK? Alright, we will get pass that. And then we will talk about … And then, whew!
Got through the hour. Goodbye!” That is over with. Nobody in love talks like that! And that
is not how you should pray. Better you didn’t pray if you want to talk like that.
Because God is the ultimate romantic person. He wants the real thing. That is why He
doesn’t just heal everybody and do miracles all over the place. This is what He is after. And
if this is what He gets, then the miracles follow.
But this is rare. That is why miracles are rare. This is really rare. People who are just in
love with God and can’t talk to Him enough. You can’t shut them up. You can’t keep them
from praying.
The pain of jealousy
It is jealousy. Have you ever felt jealousy? Man, it is like being speared. It is like a sword
stuck through you. There is no worse pain. There isn’t any worse pain than for somebody
you love to go for somebody else.
That is the pain God feels everyday. God describes faithlessness, and idolatry, and
unbelief as adultery against Him. All through the Old Testament. 157 All through the Bible.158
If you don’t love Him, you don’t care about Him, and you care more about something else,
He feels the pain of jealousy.
And if you have ever felt jealousy in your life, you know what that is like. It is unyielding
as the grave. You can’t stop it. It doesn’t yield. You can’t get over it. It burns like blazing
fire, like a mighty flame. Many waters cannot quench it. I tell our pastors, the Zambezi River
can’t put it out. The ocean can’t put it out.
Catch the real fire
What you want in a conference, a camp, a revival, is a fire. A romance with God that nothing
can put out. It is the real thing. You want to catch the real fire. Not just exciting music, and
manifestations, and prophecies, and this and that. You want the real fire that nothing can put
out. Six months later, it is burning hotter than ever. A year later, it is burning hotter than
ever. Nothing can put it out, because it is the real thing. And of course, you wouldn’t trade it
for anything.
Heidi and I have been through a lot of pain, a lot of attacks. We have lost a lot of things.
People have tried to kill us over and over. We have been sick to the point of death over and
over. Our lives have been threatened over and over. We have lost millions of dollars. We
have been embezzled. We have been cheated so badly it would make your head spin. We
have had people on our staff, chiefs of staff that plotted for a year to falsify our documents
and withhold them, so that we would get in trouble with the government and be thrown out
of the country, so that our own staff could take our money, take our land, and buildings, and
run everything themselves.
We have been backstabbed, and embezzled, and lied to over and over and over. We have
had people pose and pretend to be Christians, and pretend to help us and all, and then riot and
kill behind our backs. And falsifying contracts and taking materials and stealing food out of
our kitchens and robbing us in every which way possible, causing violence and …
But we wouldn’t trade the companionship we have had with God over these years in
Mozambique for anything, because our companionship cannot be quenched. Many rivers
157
Jeremiah 3:8-9 I gave faithless Israel her certificate of divorce and sent her away because of all her
adulteries. Yet I saw that her unfaithful sister Judah had no fear; she also went out and committed adultery.
Because Israel’s immorality mattered so little to her, she defiled the land and committed adultery with stone
and wood. Ezekiel 6:9 Then in the nations where they have been carried captive, those who escape will
remember me – how I have been grieved by their adulterous hearts, which have turned away from me, and by
their eyes, which have lusted after their idols. They will loathe themselves for the evil they have done and for
all their detestable practices. Hosea 4:12-13 They consult a wooden idol and are answered by a stick of wood.
A spirit of prostitution leads them astray; they are unfaithful to their God. They sacrifice on the mountaintops
and burn offerings on the hills, under oak, poplar and terebinth, where the shade is pleasant.
158
Matthew 12:39 He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign! But none
will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” James 4:4 You adulterous people, don't you know that
friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an
enemy of God. 2 Peter 2: 2:1 But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false
teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who
bought them – bringing swift destruction on themselves. 2 Many will follow their shameful ways and will
bring the way of truth into disrepute. 14 With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the
unstable; they are experts in greed – an accursed brood! 15 They have left the straight way and wandered off
to follow the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness.
cannot wash it away. Nothing can shake it. And in the end, Almighty God Himself vindicates
us, and repays. And no matter how much money we have lost, He has given much more
back. No matter what pain we have felt, He has given us much more joy back. No matter
what people have done, He has given us far more people who want to stay with us.
And we can’t lose. We can’t lose. We can’t lose. Because it is real life, and it is going to
stay with us forever and ever and ever.
Christian life always gets better
I pray you will come away from this camp with something that you will never lose. Never
lose.
Never go back. I don’t want to go back to yesterday. I don’t want to go back to last week.
We never look back. Never looking back, always pressing forward to what lies ahead,
pressing on to that high calling that lies ahead of us.159
Christian life always gets better. It never gets worse. It always gets better. No matter how
old you are. No matter what failures you have experienced. No matter what has happened.
The future can always be better. Nobody can take that away from you. Nobody can take
away real love.
Soak in the Song of Solomon when you get home today. Just frequently go to it from now
on. And just let it fill you and refresh you and keep you on track. I pray that this camp has
whetted your appetite for the best things in the kingdom.
159
Philippians 3:13-14 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting
those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark
for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
SONG OF SONGS
1This is Solomon’s song of songs, more
wonderful than any other.160
Young Woman: 2“Kiss me again and again,
Young Man: 15“How beautiful you are, my
beloved, how beautiful! Your eyes are soft
like doves.”
for your love is sweeter than wine. 3How Young Woman: 16“What a lovely, pleasant
fragrant your cologne, and how pleasing sight you are, my love, as we lie here on
your name! No wonder all the young the grass, 17shaded by cedar trees and
women love you! 4Take me with you. spreading firs.”
Come, let’s run! Bring me into your
bedroom, O my king.”
Young Women of Jerusalem: “How happy
we are for him! We praise his love even
2 Young Woman: “I am the rose of
Sharon, the lily of the valley.”
Young Man: 2“Yes, compared to other
more than wine.” women, my beloved is like a lily among
Young Woman: “How right that the young thorns.”
women love you! Young Woman: 3“And compared to other
5
“I am dark and beautiful, O women of youths, my lover is like the finest apple
Jerusalem, tanned as the dark tents of tree in the orchard. I am seated in his
Kedar. Yes, even as the tents of Solomon! delightful shade, and his fruit is delicious
6
“Don’t look down on me, you fair city to eat. 4He brings me to the banquet hall,
girls, just because my complexion is so so everyone can see how much he loves
dark. The sun has burned my skin. My me. 5Oh, feed me with your love ― your
brothers were angry with me and sent me ‘raisins’ and your ‘apples’ ― for I am
out to tend the vineyards in the hot sun. utterly lovesick! 6His left hand is under
Now see what it has done to me! my head, and his right hand embraces me.
7 7
“Tell me, O my love, where are you “Promise me, O women of Jerusalem,
leading your flock today? Where will you by the swift gazelles and the deer of the
rest your sheep at noon? For why should I wild, not to awaken love until the time is
wander like a prostitute among the flocks right.
of your companions?” 8
“Ah, I hear him ― my lover! Here he
Young Man: 8“If you don’t know, O most comes, leaping on the mountains and
beautiful woman, follow the trail of my bounding over the hills. 9My lover is like a
flock to the shepherds’ tents, and there swift gazelle or a young deer. Look, there
feed your young goats. 9What a lovely he is behind the wall! Now he is looking
filly you are, my beloved one! 10How in through the window, gazing into the
lovely are your cheeks, with your earrings room.
setting them afire! How stately is your 10
“My lover said to me, ‘Rise up, my
neck, accented with a long string of beloved, my fair one, and come away.
jewels. 11We will make earrings of gold 11
For the winter is past, and the rain is
for you and beads of silver.” over and gone. 12The flowers are springing
Young Woman: 12“The king is lying on his up, and the time of singing birds has
couch, enchanted by the fragrance of my come, even the cooing of turtledoves.
perfume. 13My lover is like a sachet of 13
The fig trees are budding, and the
myrrh lying between my breasts. 14He is grapevines are in blossom. How delicious
like a bouquet of flowers in the gardens of they smell! Yes, spring is here! Arise, my
En-gedi.” beloved, my fair one, and come away.’”
Young Man: 14“My dove is hiding behind
some rocks, behind an outcrop on the cliff.
160 Let me see you; let me hear your voice.
New Living Translation
For your voice is pleasant, and you are crowned him on his wedding day, the day
lovely.” of his gladness.”
Young Women of Jerusalem: 15“Quick!
Catch all the little foxes before they ruin
the vineyard of your love, for the
grapevines are all in blossom.”
4 Young Man: “How beautiful you are,
my beloved, how beautiful! Your eyes
behind your veil are like doves. Your hair
Young Woman: 16“My lover is mine, and I falls in waves, like a flock of goats
am his. He feeds among the lilies! frisking down the slopes of Gilead. 2Your
17
Before the dawn comes and the shadows teeth are as white as sheep, newly shorn
flee away, come back to me, my love. Run and washed. They are perfectly matched;
like a gazelle or a young stag on the not one is missing. 3Your lips are like a
rugged mountains.” ribbon of scarlet. Oh, how beautiful your
mouth! Your cheeks behind your veil are
3 Young Woman: “One night as I lay in

bed, I yearned deeply for my lover, but
he did not come. 2So I said to myself, ‘I
like pomegranate halves ― lovely and
delicious. 4Your neck is as stately as the
tower of David, jeweled with the shields
will get up now and roam the city, of a thousand heroes. 5Your breasts are
searching for him in all its streets and like twin fawns of a gazelle, feeding
squares.’ But my search was in vain. 3The among the lilies. 6Before the dawn comes
watchmen stopped me as they made their and the shadows flee away, I will go to the
rounds, and I said to them, ‘Have you seen mountain of myrrh and to the hill of
him anywhere, this one I love so much?’ frankincense. 7You are so beautiful, my
4
A little while later I found him and held beloved, so perfect in every part.*
8
him. I didn’t let him go until I had brought “Come with me from Lebanon, my
him to my childhood home, into my bride. Come down from the top of Mount
mother’s bedroom, where I had been Amana, from Mount Senir and Mount
conceived. Hermon, where lions have their dens and
5
Promise me, O women of Jerusalem, panthers prowl. 9You have ravished my
by the swift gazelles and the deer of the heart, my treasure, my bride. I am
wild, not to awaken love until the time is overcome by one glance of your eyes, by a
right.” single bead of your necklace. 10How sweet
Young Women of Jerusalem: 6“Who is this is your love, my treasure, my bride! How
sweeping in from the deserts like a cloud much better it is than wine! Your perfume
of smoke along the ground? Who is it that is more fragrant than the richest of spices.
11
smells of myrrh and frankincense and Your lips, my bride, are as sweet as
every other spice? 7Look, it is Solomon’s honey. Yes, honey and cream are under
carriage, with sixty of Israel’s mightiest your tongue. The scent of your clothing is
men surrounding it. 8They are all skilled like that the mountains and the cedars of
swordsmen and experienced warriors. Lebanon.
12
Each one wears a sword on his thigh, “You are like a private garden, my
ready to defend the king against an attack treasure, my bride! You are like a spring
during the night. that no one else can drink from, a fountain
9
“King Solomon has built a carriage for of my own. 13You are like a lovely orchard
himself from wood imported from bearing precious fruit, with the rarest of
Lebanon’s forests. 10Its posts are of silver, perfumes: 14nard and saffron, calamus and
its canopy is gold, and its seat is cinnamon, myrrh and aloes, perfume from
upholstered in purple cloth. Its interior every incense tree, and every other lovely
was a gift of love from the young women spice. 15You are a garden fountain, a well
of Jerusalem.” of living water, as refreshing as the
Young Woman: 11“Go out to look upon King streams from the Lebanon mountains.”
Solomon, O young women of Jerusalem.
See the crown with which his mother *
All beautiful you are, my darling; there is no flaw
in you. (NIV)
Young Woman: 16“Awake, north wind! 14
“His arms are like round bars of gold,
Come, south wind! Blow on my garden set with chrysolite. His body is like bright
and waft its lovely perfume to my lover. ivory, aglow with sapphires. 15His legs are
Let him come into his garden and eat its like pillars of marble set in sockets of the
choicest fruits.” finest gold, strong as the cedars of
Lebanon. None can rival him. 16His mouth
5 Young Man: “I am here in my garden,

my treasure, my bride! I gather my
myrrh with my spices and eat my
is altogether sweet; he is lovely in every
way. Such, O women of Jerusalem, is my
lover, my friend.”
honeycomb with my honey. I drink my
wine with my milk.”
Young Women of Jerusalem: “Oh, lover and
beloved, eat and drink! Yes, drink deeply
6 Young Women of Jerusalem: “O rarest
of beautiful women, where has your
lover gone? We will help you find him.”
of this love! Young Woman: 2“He has gone down to his
Young Woman: 2“One night as I was garden, to his spice beds, to graze and to
sleeping, my heart awakened in a dream. I gather the lilies. 3I am my lover’s, and my
heard the voice of my lover. He was lover is mine. He grazes among the lilies!”
knocking at my bedroom door. ‘Open to Young Man: 4“O my beloved, you are as
me, my darling, my treasure, my lovely beautiful as the lovely town of Tirzah.
dove,’ he said, ‘for I have been out in the Yes, as beautiful as Jerusalem! You are as
night. My head is soaked with dew, my majestic as an army with banners! 5Look
hair with the wetness of the night.’ away, for your eyes overcome me! Your
3
“But I said, ‘I have taken off my robe. hair falls in waves, like a flock of goats
Should I get dressed again? I have washed frisking down the slopes of Gilead. 6Your
my feet. Should I get them soiled?’ teeth are as white as newly washed sheep.
4
“My lover tried to unlatch the door, and They are perfectly matched; not one is
my heart thrilled within me. 5I jumped up missing. 7Your cheeks behind your veil
to open it. My hands dripped with are like pomegranate halves ― lovely and
perfume, my fingers with lovely myrrh, as delicious. 8There may be sixty wives, all
I pulled back the bolt. 6I opened to my queens, and eighty concubines and
lover, but he was gone. I yearned for even unnumbered virgins available to me. 9But
his voice! I searched for him, but I I would still choose my dove, my perfect
couldn’t find him anywhere. I called to one, the only beloved daughter of her
him, but there was no reply. 7The mother! The young women are delighted
watchmen found me as they were making when they see her; even queens and
their rounds; they struck and wounded me. concubines sing her praises! 10‘Who is
The watchman on the wall tore off my this,’ they ask, ‘arising like the dawn, as
veil. fair as the moon, as bright as the sun, as
8
“Make this promise to me, O women of majestic as an army with banners?’
11
Jerusalem! If you find my beloved one, “I went down into the grove of nut
tell him that I am sick with love.” trees and out to the valley to see the new
Young Women of Jerusalem: 9“O woman of growth brought on by spring. I wanted to
rare beauty, what is it about your loved see whether the grapevines were budding
one that brings you to tell us this?” yet, or whether the pomegranates were
Young Woman: 10“My lover is dark and blossoming. 12Before I realized it, I found
dazzling, better than ten thousand others! myself in my princely bed with my
11
His head is the finest gold, and his hair is beloved one.”
wavy and black. 12His eyes are like doves Young Women of Jerusalem: 13“Return,
beside brooks of water; they are set like return to us, O maid of Shulam. Come
jewels. 13His cheeks are like sweetly back, come back, that we may see you
scented beds of spices. His lips are like once again.”
perfumed lilies. His breath is like myrrh. Young Man: “Why do you gaze so intently
at this young woman of Shulam, as she
moves so gracefully between two lines of left hand would be under my head and
dancers?” your right hand would embrace me.
4
“I want you to promise, O women of
7 Young Man: “How beautiful are your

sandaled feet, O queenly maiden. Your
rounded thighs are like jewels, the work of
Jerusalem, not to awaken love until the
time is right.”
Young Women of Jerusalem: 5“Who is this
a skilled craftsman. 2Your navel is as coming up from the desert, leaning on her
delicious as a goblet filled with wine. lover?”
Your belly is lovely, like a heap of wheat Young Woman: “I aroused you under the
set about with lilies. 13Your breasts are apple tree, where your mother gave you
like twin fawns of a gazelle. 4Your neck is birth, where in great pain she delivered
as stately as an ivory tower. Your eyes are you. 6Place me like a seal over your heart,
like the sparkling pools in Heshbon by the or like a seal on your arm. For love is as
gate of Bath-rabbim. Your nose is as fine strong as death, and its jealousy is as
as the tower of Lebanon overlooking enduring as the grave. Love flashes like
Damascus. 5Your head is as majestic as fire, the brightest kind of flame. 7Many
Mount Carmel, and the sheen of your hair waters cannot quench love; neither can
radiates royalty. A king is held captive in rivers drown it. If a man tried to buy love
your queenly tresses. with everything he owned, his offer would
6
“Oh, how delightful you are, my be utterly despised.”*
beloved; how pleasant for utter delight! The Young Woman’s Brothers: 8“We have a
7
You are tall and slim like a palm tree, and little sister too young for breasts. What
your breasts are like its clusters of dates. 8I will we do if someone asks to marry her?
said, ‘I will climb up into the palm tree 9
If she is chaste, we will strengthen and
and take hold of its branches.’ Now may encourage her. But if she is promiscuous,
your breasts be like grape clusters, and the we will shut her off from men.”
scent of your breath like apples. 9May Young Woman: 10“I am chaste, and I am now
your kisses be as exciting as the best wine, full breasted. And my lover is content with
smooth and sweet, flowing gently over me.
lips and teeth.” 11
Solomon has a vineyard at Baal-
Young Woman: 10“I am my lover’s, the one hamon, which he rents to some farmers
he desires. 11Come, my love, let us go out there. Each of them pays one thousand
into the fields and spend the night among pieces of silver for its use. 12But as for my
the wildflowers. 12Let us get up early and own vineyard, O Solomon, you can take
go out to the vineyards. Let us see whether my thousand pieces of silver. And I will
the vines have budded, whether the give two hundred pieces of silver to those
blossoms have opened, and whether the who care for its vines.”
pomegranates are in flower. And there I Young Man: 13“O my beloved, lingering in
will give you my love. 13There the the gardens, how wonderful that your
mandrakes give forth their fragrance, and companions can listen to your voice. Let
the rarest fruits are at our doors, the new me hear it, too!”
as well as old, for I have stored them up Young Woman: 14“Come quickly, my love!
for you, my lover.” Move like a swift gazelle or a young deer
on the mountains of spices.”
8 Young Woman: “Oh, if only you were
my brother, who nursed at my
mother’s breast. Then I could kiss you no
matter who was watching, and no one
would criticize me. 2I would bring you to
my childhood home, and there you would
teach me. I would give you spiced wine to *
Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot
drink, my sweet pomegranate wine. 3Your wash it away. If one were to give all the wealth of
his house for love, it would be utterly scorned. (NIV)

Let Your Glory Fall

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Let Your Glory Fall

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Let Your

1 Day 1 evening The Normal Christian Life 3

2 Day 2 morning Finding God 21

3 Day 2 evening Pleasing God 39

4 Day 3 morning Joy 55

5 Day 3 evening Love 65

6 Day 4 morning Times of Refreshing 87

7 Day 4 afternoon Companionship with God 105

Song of Songs 117

3 Young Woman: “One night as I lay in

5 Young Man: “I am here in my garden,

7 Young Man: “How beautiful are your

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