Moving from Barrenness to Abundance

I am simply going to take a moment to go to the book of Joel, because that little chorus that began this whole process—I believe God has a purpose for it—and I want you to know where that chorus comes from, because it has biblical content as well and is very much in keeping with what we are discussing concerning the baptism and the fullness of the Holy Spirit. God wants a people filled with the Holy Spirit; God wants a people who have His anointing so they can carry out the tasks He has appointed for that people.

These times in which we live are times of spiritual barrenness, but they are also times of an imminent harvest. Now, how are we going to move from the desert and barrenness to the harvest and the rain? There is something important there that you and I need to know.

How are we going to move from barrenness to abundance, from drought to abundant fruit and harvest? This is not the first time the church has found itself in straits like the ones we are in, because today we look at the state of the worldwide church and see a powerless church; we see a church that has no decisive influence on society.

When we look at the nations of the world, the countries that exert influence over modern history, we see that the influence of God’s people in determining the decisions made at the governmental, cultural, academic, artistic, legal, and media levels is minimal. There is an entire segment of humanity living as though God did not exist, as though the Word of God had no relevance for this world.

It is as though the church lived on an island within society, and all kinds of things take place in our churches: the gospel is preached, the Lord is praised, and many things happen, but the world outside does not even notice—it does not even notice. Society continues on its course, and humanity continues to develop scientifically and technologically and makes all its decisions without taking God into account. They pay God what in English they call “lip service”; they mention God, but it is merely words. There is no true fear of God.

Statesmen and stateswomen go to churches, and many of them pretend to be Christians because it suits them, because they know that there are Christians who long to see God’s justice established in the corridors of government and who are eagerly looking for someone who embodies God’s values and will rise to positions of government. So they manipulate the church and tell the church that they are Christians, and they even talk about... and choose whichever denomination may prove most advantageous to them in terms of numbers, pretending to belong to that denomination so that innocent Christians who long to see the glory of God will vote for them. But once they are in power, they forget the promises they made and govern like any other ruler, according to the interests of the nation, according to the interests of the party to which they belong, and according to calculations about the next election; they do not govern according to God’s values.

And the church continues carrying out its activities, but it is not affecting humanity. The image that comes to mind is that of a growing desert, a desert spreading farther and farther every day. You know that many of the great deserts that exist today, such as the Sahara and the other deserts of the world, were not deserts thousands of years ago. They were places in bloom; they were places with abundant vegetation.

The Bible helps us understand that this is practically what happens. Take the Negev Desert, for example. I was in the Negev Desert a little over a year ago, and as I read there in the Negev Desert, standing atop a mountain and looking at the expanse of desert beneath my feet, I remembered and read the words of Isaiah and Ezekiel, which spoke of how God would turn those blossoming places into desert if God’s people did not repent. And that is what happened. Today the Negev is an entirely desert region, like a Dead Sea—dead, dead, dead—with no outlet anywhere; all the salt keeps accumulating, the water keeps evaporating, and that sea becomes saltier and saltier, as a symbol of the barrenness of that Jewish nation that has refused to acknowledge its Messiah.

And so there are many deserts that have gradually spread. The vegetation has been dying, ecological processes have been unleashed, and what was once fertile land and lush vegetation has been drying up and swallowed by the desert, while the desert has continued to expand.

And we can say that this is the predominant picture of humanity today, especially in the Western world. Europe, New Zealand, Australia, North America, Canada—the developed countries in particular—are a spiritual desert, and every day they are becoming more and more desolate; every day they are moving farther and farther away from the Word of God.

And the church, in turn, has also been dying. The church in these places was a powerless church; it is a dry church, a barren church. We celebrate the great acts of God, but we celebrate them only in theory.

It pains me when I read the Word of God and see that in our churches—including our own, it must be said—we do not see the signs, wonders, and life that God has given us the right to desire for our congregations. Something is wrong, because either we close the Scriptures, stop dreaming of and longing for God’s great deeds, and say, “Look, these are simply things that happened in the past, but they are not for today. Let us settle for a routine religious life,” and stop celebrating these things and singing those choruses we sing, “Send Your Rain”; or we keep pressing in toward the Lord, believing that this is for us, that it is for this time, and that God wants to perform the same great deeds because, as the Word says, He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

I believe that God wants to make the desert blossom, brothers and sisters, but He first needs a church that will blossom as well.

The prophet Joel saw something similar in Israel at the time when he prophesied. Israel was also a spiritual desert; the Word of the Lord was not flowing, and there was no manifestation of the Spirit. There was even drought in the natural world, because nature often symbolically expresses the spiritual condition of the humanity that governs it, and the land had become barren and dry. Today we see something different: we see that the earth itself is also in crisis. Scientists talk about global warming, which is melting the ice floes in the Arctic, and they speak of imminent disasters that will continue to occur here on earth as humankind continues harming the earth.

Here in the United States, we see crises like the one caused by Katrina, the terrible flooding. The sea is in upheaval in this time, volcanoes are becoming active everywhere, and there are earthquakes. There have been more earthquakes in the last one hundred years than in the rest of human history. Nature... something is happening in nature, because I believe nature is also expressing the cry of this lost humanity.

Then Joel, in his book, also writes about that same drought. Look at chapter 1, verse 11. It says: “...Be ashamed, you farmers; wail, you vine growers, for the wheat and the barley, because the harvest of the field has perished. The vine has dried up...” Do you remember the little chorus we used to sing? “Your vineyard is desolate,” or dry. “...The vine has dried up and the fig tree has withered; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree, and the apple tree as well—all the trees of the field have dried up. Therefore joy has withered away from the children of men...”

What Joel paints there is a picture of drought, desert, and desolation. But that physical drought in nature is a metaphor; it is an expression of the drought among the people of Israel, just as today there is also a growing disturbance in nature that speaks of the disorder within the church of Jesus Christ and throughout the whole earth in this time, as humanity moves farther and farther away from the ways of the Lord.

So what are we going to do in that case? Are we going to remain like this? Are we simply going to get used to being the church, to playing church as we always do?

Brothers and sisters, do you want to live a merely religious life? Are you content with your condition? Are you content with what you see in the church? I am not content; I am not content... Some would say, “Oh, Pastor, you have a church that has grown, a blessed church, a church that has this and that.”

Brothers and sisters, I am not a very content person, ministerially speaking. I thank the Lord for everything He has given us, and glory to God; if I die, I will die at peace. But there is a discontent in my spirit—the discontent of not seeing what God has told me I am supposed to see. There is a dissatisfaction in my soul because I want to see more. I do not want to lie down to sleep and say, “Oh, we already have hundreds of people, we already have this, and now, until I retire, I will simply keep things as they are.” God forbid. In your life and mine, there must be a hunger for something more; there must be a desire to see the glory of God manifested. I cannot bear to see the name of Jesus Christ put to shame, rejected, and reviled as so many people are doing today.

Today people laugh at evangelicals; intellectuals laugh at the people who believe in the Word of God. We have been made to look ridiculous in many ways. They have laughed at us, and sometimes we have helped them laugh. Sometimes I think that the church of Jesus Christ is like the Jewish people when Goliath—when they were fighting the Philistines and a great soldier arose on behalf of the Philistines, a people who were God’s bitter enemies. Goliath was about eight feet tall; he was an enormously burly man, an experienced warrior. The Philistines brought him out of some village around there, brought him over, and stationed him... The two camps were facing one another, and the Bible says that every day this great warrior, Goliath, would come out of his tent and stand before the camp of the Hebrews. All the Hebrew soldiers were there, and this man would begin insulting God’s people, insulting God, and challenging them to send him a man who dared face him. And every day God’s people had to remain there in silence and swallow their pride while this demonic being cursed God’s army and brought shame upon God’s people.

And, brothers and sisters, sometimes I feel that this is the condition of the church in this time. Technology has given atheistic, secular, rationalistic, humanistic, unconverted humanity a great weapon with which to mock everything we, as the people of God, proclaim: to laugh at our claims that Jesus Christ is Lord, that Jesus Christ is coming a second time, that He died and rose again, that He heals and delivers and baptizes with His fire, and that He creates men and women filled with the Holy Spirit, with transformed lives, healthy families, prosperous people, and young people who do well in their studies and respect authority. And every day the people outside who do not believe in God look at that. They see our decrepit churches, they see our marriages barely holding together and hanging on by the grace of God, they see our children who do not share our faith and values, they see our finances in ruins, they see the disorder in evangelical homes, they see our dysfunction, and they say, “Where is the God you boast about so much? When you go into your churches, you say this and you say that, but we do not see Him. Show Him to us. Send us someone who dares to confront our claims.”

What is happening? Why can the church of Jesus Christ not have the same power we see in the pages of the book of Acts? A mere handful of people turned all Jerusalem upside down and caused consternation in the Sanhedrin and among all the rulers because the Holy Spirit was with them, and miracles, signs, and wonders were seen. The order of the kingdom of God invaded the church; they shared their possessions, there was love among the brothers and sisters, there was an anointing from God, the kingdom of God was advancing, God was performing great deeds among His people, there was authority when they testified, and the nation took notice of that anointed people filled with the Holy Spirit.

But today it is not like that, brothers and sisters. If we are honest, Goliath is standing before the camp and insulting us, and here at the State House we did not even have enough strength to advance a silly, foolish amendment, because the senators and the representatives in the State House do not respect us, because we have not commanded their respect, because they know we do not have the strength to uphold our values. And because they do not respect us, they do whatever they please. Do you understand? And the church has not commanded respect.

Brothers and sisters, I desire a church—and God desires a church—that inspires respect in the world out there. Do you remember? I spoke about this last Sunday at the 9 o’clock service, when… once Samuel arrives at a village, he comes to anoint David because God has sent him to anoint David as the new king who will replace Saul. And when Samuel, a prophet of God, recognized as a prophet of God, arrives at the village, at Bethlehem, where David lives with his family, when the elders of the town see the prophet of God coming and entering the village, do you know what they say to him? “Do you come in peace, or do you come with hostile intent? Is your coming peaceful?” What were they saying to Samuel? They were saying, “We know that the power of God is with you, and we want you to tell us right now: Have we offended you? Have we done something, so that we can immediately throw ourselves down and ask forgiveness?”

Because, you see, when the power of God is upon the church, the church commands the respect even of unbelievers, because the power of God has two blades: one blade blesses and heals, and the other blade cuts through the innards and destroys if it has to destroy.

I am tired of that image the world out there wants of a little church that approves all the madness and all the shamelessness of society. That is what they want from us: for us to put our seal of approval on every mad idea that occurs to secular man, who does not have God’s blessing to think as God wants him to think. But God is going to raise up—when the power of God falls upon His church—a church that is going to demand that the things of God be respected, you know? Because a church that is going to have the power of God—oh yes, it is also a humble and loving church—but, brothers and sisters, everything I see in Scripture, perhaps because of the temperament God has given me, is that God is a God who is love, but He is also a consuming fire, and His church cannot be more tender than the God who created it. The church of Jesus Christ has the love of Christ, but it also has the fire of Christ.

Christ is both things. When He comes at His second coming, He is not going to come as the little shepherd of sheep who came as the suffering servant. No, He is going to come with all His power and all His authority to judge the nations and to hand over to the Father the authority that has been given to Him, and everyone will have to give an account to Him. That is the Jesus Christ with whom I identify, and that is the church I believe God wants. That church needs the power of God; we need the anointing of God, but there is a price to pay. The wilderness has grown and the fields are desolate; the locust and the insect have eaten the entire harvest, and it is a wilderness, and that is what Joel declares here.

Now look at what the answer is, what the solution is, how we are going to move from the wilderness to fullness.

Verse 13 says, “…gird yourselves and lament, you priests; wail, you ministers of the altar; come, lie all night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God, because the grain offering and the drink offering have been withheld from the house of your God…” The drink offering is the oil, the offering of oil that is given to the Lord.

Look at where the answer lies for the wilderness humanity is in. It lies in God’s servants strengthening themselves, girding themselves, preparing themselves, devoting themselves to seeking the Lord; in the priests wailing before God; in there being a cry from God’s leaders. And God is raising up that cry, and I want to be part of that cry. That is why I work the way I do with groups out there—North Americans, Asians, African Americans, anyone who will listen—and I work hard because I want to be part of a cry that rises up in this land so that God may visit this land again and put an end to Goliath’s insult. Until the church cries out to the Lord, until the church girds itself and raises a desperate voice and says to Him, “Lord, we no longer want to live under the oppression of the enemy; we do not want it anymore.”

And so that you may say, as David said, “…as the deer pants for the streams of water, so my soul cries out for You, O God…” Until the church cries out that way, there will be no deliverance. The ministers, the priests, the leaders have to cry out to the Lord.

Look at what verse 14 says: “…proclaim a fast, call an assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land in the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD…”

Do you see, brother? That is where it begins; that is where the miracle begins. It is in the outcry, in crying out to the Lord, in asking Him to visit His people. What does 2 Chronicles chapter 7, verse 13 say? It says: “…if I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to consume the land, or if I send pestilence among my people…” You have heard these words before; that is the context. It says: “…if my people who are called by my name humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and forgive their sins and heal their land…”

That is the Lord’s promise, and that is what God tells us: “Cry out to Me, pray to Me, seek My face, and I will answer you.” That is a promise. Either God lied, or He fully intended to honor His promise. If we do our part… our part is to pray, cry out, seek the face of the Lord, ask Him to forgive our sins, take the word of the Lord seriously, set our ways in order, stop playing with spiritual dolls, and begin to take the Christian life seriously, brothers and sisters.

We have to ask the Lord to change the programming of our minds, to change… because it is difficult, brothers and sisters. We have become so accustomed to barrenness and spiritual death that we now believe that is normal. We are like a woman who cannot have children and has stopped desiring them because it hurts too much to desire them, so she simply kills that dream and becomes accustomed to not giving birth. But God says, “No, I want you to cry out; I want you to ask. Do not settle for the bare minimum. I want to give you what you desire.”

What does the Lord say to that woman in Isaiah 54? He says: “…rejoice, O barren woman, you who did not give birth; break into song and shout for joy, you who were never in labor, because the children of the desolate woman are more numerous than those of the married woman, says the LORD. Enlarge the place of your tent, and let the curtains of your dwellings be stretched out; do not hold back. Lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes, because you will spread out to the right hand and to the left, and your descendants will inherit nations and inhabit the desolate cities, says the Lord…”

The cities are desolate; our young people shoot one another and kill one another in the cities, and the church is powerless. The church has no influence, and that is why politicians do not respect it. We pray and hold every kind of celebration within four walls, but the world out there continues… and God says, “No, I am going to… keep crying out; raise a song, barren woman, because I am going to give you influence. I am going to position you so that you inherit the nations and inhabit the desolate cities.”

Brothers and sisters, God wants to give authority to His church. I do not know what your theology is; mine tells me that God has established the church as the nurse of the nations. Before leaving, the Lord Jesus Christ said, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth; therefore go and preach the gospel and make disciples of the nations.” Either He was mistaken and exaggerated, or that is what the church has to do. The problem is that the church has always squandered God’s anointing.

At one time we discipled the nations. The medieval church, for example, held dominion over Europe, over the Middle East, and over practically the entire known world, but it became corrupt; it became perverted; it allowed itself to be corrupted by the values of the world and became a perverse church, a corrupt church, a church from which the Spirit of God withdrew. And we squandered the anointing God gave the church to govern the nations, and we have had years… centuries of wilderness. We are paying the price; in a sense, we are in exile because we squandered God’s anointing.

But I believe that God now wants to bring His church out, place it in authority again, and have it inherit the nations and inhabit the desolate cities. As I told you, my eschatology becomes more and more complicated every day concerning the future and what God is going to do, because I read Scripture and that is what I see: that promise of the Lord… it is for Israel, but by extension it is also for the people of God.

It says, “…for the mountains shall move and the hills shall tremble, but My mercy shall not depart from you, nor shall My covenant of peace be broken…” says the LORD, who has mercy on you. The Lord wants to bring His anointing upon His people again; the Lord wants to bless His church and make it fruitful again.

Then it says, “…proclaim a fast, call an assembly, Joel; gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land in the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD. Alas for the day, says the Lord, because the day of the LORD is near, and it will come as destruction from the Almighty…”

There is a day approaching; it is the day of the LORD, a terrible day. When the United States experienced the destruction of those two towers on 9/11—the most, most, how shall we put it, spectacular disaster that has been seen in the history of humanity—the whole earth saw it: those airplanes crashing into the two symbols of American power; technological power, because those towers were a technological marvel, and the financial power and influence of the United States, destroyed by the Arabs, whom God has always used to scourge His people.

Did you know that? Always the Arabs… whenever Israel rebelled, He sent one Arab or another, and how interesting that today He is also sending the Arabs to cause trouble for this nation. These are warnings God has given this nation. Katrina is a warning to this nation. God is lifting His covering from this nation and from humanity. God is preparing His judgments, because He is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and He has been holding back His judgment, waiting for the greatest possible number to turn to Him before He sends it.

Do you remember what I said when I began this sermon series? God does not want anyone to be lost. God does not want the wicked person to perish. He says, “Tell him to repent, because I do not desire the death of the wicked. Tell him to repent,” says the Lord, “to repent and live.” God is saying to humanity, “I want reconciliation with you, but the day of My judgment is approaching, and if you are not reconciled to Me, judgment will come.” Alas for the day, because the day of the LORD is near.

“…The grain rotted beneath the clods; the barns were laid waste, the storehouses destroyed, because the wheat dried up. How the beasts groaned! How troubled the herds of cattle wandered because they had no pasture! The flocks of sheep were also laid waste…”

Now look at the answer—and with this I will finish. Chapter 2 says: “…Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on My holy mountain. Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, because the day of the LORD is coming, because it is near: a day of darkness, of gloom, of cloud and shadow…”

Now let us move to verse 12 of that second chapter. How are we going to avoid that terrible… that scenario? How are we going to move within that framework God establishes? And it says: “…therefore, even now, says the LORD, turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning. Tear your heart and not your garments…”

Brothers and sisters, the repentance of God’s people is not a cosmetic matter; it is a matter of the heart. It is not a matter of our simply going around applying warm compresses. There is much of which we have to repent; there is much over which we have to weep before God. The first thing of which we have to repent is our superficiality toward God. And I will get into, if you like, the worse sins, but I believe what hurts the heart of God most is a church that takes liberties with His honor and His glory that we have no right to take; that we come to the house of the Lord thinking about 20,000 things except worshiping Him; that we love our jobs more than the place of prayer where we ask God to visit our homes, bless our marriages, and heal our lives. We love our high-definition color television more than coming to the house of God and worshiping Him, and we like earning money for a new toaster, a new air conditioner, or a shinier car than the last one we bought much more. And we run away from God; we run away from His glory. We do not love Him enough; we do not surrender to Him everything we are supposed to surrender.

And God is an offended Father; He is a neglected Father. He is a Father who says, “When are you going to call Me on the phone? When are you going to wish Me a happy birthday? When are you going to bring Me some flowers? When are you going to give Me the place I deserve and express love to Me as I deserve? When are you going to give Me the respect and reverence that I, your Creator and Sustainer, deserve? I give you food; I give you life; I give you the mind that weaves thoughts together. And when the time comes to give Me My tithe, when I ask you for only a portion, you turn into accountants and give the bare minimum, when I expect to be respected and honored. When I invite you to come to My house and honor Me with your praise, you say, ‘I am too tired, too busy; I have too much work. I will go another day. Sunday is enough already; be satisfied with that.’”

The Lord is not pleased; the Lord is grieved, he is saddened. His Spirit has withdrawn from the church because it is a Laodicean church, a lukewarm church, and to that church the Lord says: I wish you were cold or hot, but because you are lukewarm, I will vomit you out of my mouth. It is a lukewarm church; lukewarmness is what the Lord abhors most in his church. I wish you were cold, because then he would not have to contend with you. I wish you were hot, because you would bring joy to his heart, but this is a church that has one foot in the world and one foot in heaven, and they think that by doing that they have done what they need to do. But God wants a church that is calling out, crying out, ‘…rend your heart and not your garments; return to the Lord your God, for he is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in mercy, and he relents from punishment…’

Brothers and sisters, God does not want to punish the earth. God does not want to withhold his gifts and his blessing. God wants to pour out his oil and his wine abundantly upon his church. He will not settle for this; he is not pleased with the condition of his church. But his church has to pay the price; it has to ask the Lord… The church has to return again, are we together?

God is tired of a comfortable, complacent church, a Sunday-only church, a religious church, a church that has not died, a church that does not live as the Lord says: ‘…present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, which is your true worship. Do not conform to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…’

The church of Jesus Christ has to stop thinking the way the culture out there thinks. There is a new pattern of thought that God desires. God wants us to live like a torch, being consumed day after day. May our body be a living sacrifice; as we walk, may we leave drops of blood as the trail of our journey across the earth, because we are dying before our God, like a sacrifice each day, wearing ourselves out before God, burning with love for the Lord.

Is that what you feel? For many of us, the answer has to be no; we have grown accustomed to this. We see so many mediocre and lukewarm people, and we think that this is the Gospel, and we say, ‘I am not doing so badly.’ But God wants something different. God wants a people who establish a different standard, who say: No, I do not want to settle for the minimum; I want the utmost from the Lord. I am going to stop playing at being an evangelical. I am going to take that evangelical membership card and burn it, and we are going to make a great pile of evangelical membership cards, and we are going to become genuine Christians of the Lord who love God with all our heart, with all our mind, with all our soul.

‘…Who knows,’ Joel says, ‘whether he will turn and relent and leave a blessing behind him, namely a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God? Blow the trumpet in Zion, proclaim a fast, call an assembly, gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children and those nursing at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his chamber and the bride her bridal room. Between the entrance and the altar, let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep and say: Spare your people, O Lord, and do not give your inheritance over to reproach, so that the nations may rule over it. Why should they say among the peoples, “Where is their God?”’

Why should the unconverted person out there be able to laugh at the church and say, ‘Where is your God? Let him make a difference in your lives.’

We evangelicals love to boast about victories, but they are victories so small, so insignificant, so ridiculous, that the person out there, with his critical faculties, fires at them and destroys them in a moment. Something far more powerful is needed to convince this highly developed humanity—the humanity of the twenty-first century. Miracles of unprecedented proportions, as never before, are needed so that God may manifest his presence before his people, silencing the devil, silencing Goliath once and for all.

Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’ That is what eats away at me many times. Why do I so often have to walk with my head bowed? Why do I have to keep my mouth shut? Because, in reality, the miracles and the things God has promised would be done among his people are not being seen. And we cannot go around relying only on rhetoric all the time.

But I do not believe that this is what God wants, and it says: ‘…and the Lord was zealous for his land and spared his people. And the Lord will answer and say to his people, “Behold, I am sending you grain, new wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied with them; and never again will I make you a reproach among the nations”…’

Brothers and sisters, I cry out to the Lord, and I want you to cry out to the Lord: Father, remove the reproach from over our heads. Remove the shame from your church; remove the shame from your church. Your name is insulted, ridiculed, and cast aside by unconverted, unbelieving people, and your church has to swallow that bitter pill every day and bow its head. Only inside, when it shuts itself within four walls, can it declare your greatness; but deep down they know that it is not as they say.

And brothers and sisters, I believe it is time to do something; it is time to cry out. I ask the Lord: Father, no, no, no—do something, because we are not satisfied. I am not satisfied, and I know that God is not satisfied with the condition of his church.

‘…I will drive the one from the north far away from you; I will cast him into a barren and desolate land, his face toward the eastern sea and his rear toward the western sea. His stench will rise, and his foul smell will go up, because he has done great things. Do not fear, O land; be glad and rejoice, for the Lord will do great things. Beasts of the field, do not fear, for the pastures of the wilderness will turn green; the trees will bear fruit, and the fig tree and the vine will yield their fruit. You also, children of Zion, be glad and rejoice in the Lord your God, for he has given you the former rain in its season, and he will cause the rain to come down upon you—the former and the latter rain—as at the beginning,’ says the Lord…

‘…The threshing floors will be filled with wheat, and the vats will overflow with wine and oil. And I will restore to you the years that the caterpillar, the locust, the crawling locust, and the swarming locust ate—my great army that I sent against you. You will eat until you are satisfied, and you will praise the name of the Lord your God, who has worked wonders for you; and never again will my people be put to shame. And you will know that I am in the midst of Israel, that I am the Lord your God and there is no other; and my people will never again be put to shame…’ says the Lord.

It is a definitive visitation. Receive it in the name of Jesus; we declare it in the name of Jesus. We declare that the Lord is preparing to lift the shame from the head of his church, but it will be in response to crying out; it will be in response to fasting; it will be in response to repentance; it will be in response to confession of sin; it will be in response to confession of irreverence, mediocrity, spiritual lukewarmness, spiritual complacency, and the pretense of spirituality when there is none. It will come through acknowledging all these things. And it says:

‘…And after this, I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters will prophesy; your elders will dream dreams, and your young people will see visions. And also upon the male servants and upon the female servants I will pour out my Spirit in those days.

And so that there may be no doubt that it is in this time, it says: And I will show wonders in heaven and on earth—blood and fire and pillars of smoke. The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. And everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved, for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be salvation, as the Lord has said, and among the remnant whom he has called…’ says the Lord.

That is the scenario God wants for these times. It is the scenario that consumes my heart; it is the desire within my spirit; it is the cry of the Spirit within me. I hope it is within you as well. We cannot do church as if—as if we were living in ordinary times. These are times—these are times of pregnancy; these are times of giving birth. The woman has to give birth, and the baby does not want to come out, brothers and sisters. If she does not give birth, it will die. Church, it is now time to give birth; it is now time to give birth, and we have to feel uncomfortable, like a woman who has gone past her due date. If that baby does not come out soon, it will die, and the woman will die too. The church has to give birth. The church has to wake up. The church has to pay the price. The church has to begin living the Word of God seriously.

I invite you, brothers and sisters, to take the Word of the Lord seriously. I invite myself as well. Father, have mercy on me, I say to the Lord, because when one preaches like this, imagine the weight that falls upon one. But it is the only way, brothers and sisters.

Church, wake up, says the Lord. Awake, you who sleep, and Christ will shine upon you. Let the feeble knees bend; let the downcast hearts rise before God.

I ask the musicians to come up here. It is time, brothers and sisters. A worldly church will never be able to do the work God wants that church to do.

‘…You covet and do not have; you kill and burn with envy and cannot obtain. You fight and wage war, but you do not have what you desire because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, church, because you ask wrongly, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. O adulterous souls, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity against God? Therefore, whoever wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God…’

Christian, you cannot have one foot in the world and one foot in the kingdom of God. Friendship with the world, love for the world, love for the things of the world, the desires of the world, the passions of the world, the interests of the world, the glitter of the world, the fabrics of the world, and the metals of the world are abhorrent before God; they are abominations before God. If your heart is there, your heart cannot be with God, because no one can serve two masters.

That is why the church has lost power. We ask and do not receive; we covet and do not have. There is internal warfare among us, within our homes, within ourselves, within our church, because we love the world and are, in a sense, enemies of God. Or do you think that Scripture says in vain, ‘The Spirit whom he has caused to dwell among us yearns jealously’? Do you think it is in vain that it says, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, your mind, and your strength; him alone shall you serve; you shall have no idols before me’? Is that a game to the Lord? Is he saying it merely because it sounds nice? No, he truly means it. He says it because that is what he requires. But he gives greater grace, it says:

‘…Therefore submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Sinners, cleanse your hands; and you who are double-minded, purify your hearts…’ says the Lord.

Those who are double-minded must purify their hearts; they must make their hearts undivided, because the double-minded person receives nothing from the Lord. The double-minded person cannot receive anything from the Lord.

‘…Grieve and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into weeping and your joy into sorrow. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you…’

May the Lord, this afternoon, brothers and sisters, create within us a contrite and humble heart, a heart that desires the glory of the Lord. I ask the Lord: Father, we can no longer go back. We cannot return to the old ways; we cannot return to comfort. Ask the Lord to change your heart this afternoon. Young people, get moving…

Young people, stop playing around with the Lord. This is no time for games. This is not about pretense; it has to be more than that. Take God seriously. God wants a young generation that can take the nations and perform wonders, but that will come only as a result of the power of God descending upon your life because you have paid the price, you have taken God seriously, you have spent time with the Lord, and you have submitted to him your dreams and your preferences, your mind, your mouth, your body, and your emotions. It is the only way God is going to visit you and do something powerful in your life.

God is calling a new people, a people through whom he can do what he wants to do. I feel the presence of the Lord in this place, calling the people of God, calling me as their pastor, calling the pastors of this congregation, our spiritual leaders, to seek the Lord more intensely, to greater seriousness toward God, to pay the price. At night, ask the Lord to visit you, to wake you from sleep; and when you are there at night, lift your prayer amid your drowsiness and say, ‘Lord,’ and ask him to restore the land, to restore your life, to bring revival to Lion of Judah, and to bring revival to the city of Boston.

He wants to do something, and I am not sure… I know that he wants to do something, and we have to ask the Lord: Speed up your process, Father; speed up your process.

Bow your head for a moment. I want to invite you to give your heart completely to the Lord. Present your bodies as a living sacrifice; present your bodies as a living sacrifice; present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.

If you have not received Christ as your Savior there in your heart, ask the Lord right now, right now, to come into your heart. Ask Jesus right now; say to him: Lord Jesus—say it gently, quietly, with me right now—say to him: Lord Jesus, come into my heart, come into my life, take possession of my life. Ask him to take possession of your life, to speak to you in the night, to seal your life for himself, to set you apart for himself; and promise him that you will not be mediocre, that you will not simply go through the motions, but that you will love the Lord passionately and take your walk with God seriously. Ask him to visit you; ask him to take your dreams and your plans and do with them whatever he wants.

This is no longer the time to yearn for vain dreams. The Lord is preparing to come with all his power, and all people’s ambitions—all of that will remain here. All the great achievements, the great towers, the great museums, the great works of art—all of that will burn; everything will go up in flames, together with matter itself. All of it will burn, and nothing will remain. So do not wear yourself out yearning for vain things. Dedicate your life to giving to the Lord; give yourself to the Lord and live ablaze, white-hot. Give everything to the Lord and ask him to make you fruitful and visit you as he did Mary, and to turn you from a virgin who has borne no fruit into a woman who gives birth to life, into a man who brings forth spiritual children. Ask the Lord now to touch you, to visit you.

Father, visit your people; fill us with the Holy Spirit. Lord, imprint this word that has been spoken upon our hearts now; seal it in our hearts, place it deep within our spirits, Father, so that it may reverberate. Father, I proclaim it not only for this church; I proclaim it for the entire church in New England. I proclaim it for the church in the United States, Lord; I proclaim it for the church in the West, Lord.

Father, I declare this word in the spirit as a prophetic word, Lord. I release it in that way and declare that it is not a local word, Lord; it is a word meant to go forth from this church and to be translated in the spirit into different languages, if necessary, Father, in the name of Jesus. And I activate, Lord, the prophecy of Joel; I activate Joel’s words, Lord, in this congregation, in my life, in the lives of my brothers and sisters, Lord, in the life of Boston, in the life of Massachusetts, New England, the entire northeastern United States, and all the rest of this nation. In the name of Jesus, I activate the prophetic move of God. I declare that your word, Lord, rises like a giant in the midst of the times and makes its message prevail, Lord, in the name of Jesus.

Father, fill us with new strength, and fill us with a vision that comes directly from your Spirit, Father. Forgive us.

Stand up and ask God for forgiveness; let us ask the Lord for forgiveness, let us ask the Lord for forgiveness. And if you want to come forward and kneel, come, and as a church we are going to ask the Lord for forgiveness. Come, move in close, those who can, because I know that not everyone will be able to do it; and you can also do it there at your seat. But come, and let us ask the Lord for forgiveness, as a deposit. We are going to ask the Lord for forgiveness for our families, for the church of Jesus Christ throughout the earth, for the church of this nation, and for the sins of this nation. Let us ask the Lord for forgiveness; let us ask him as a church, because we have neglected his glory. Lord, I have neglected your glory. Lord, I have neglected your glory. Forgive me; forgive us, forgive us, Lord.

Father, we ask you this afternoon to remove the condemnation from your church; remove the sin from your church, Father, because we have sinned against you, Lord. We have offended you; we have not lived up to what you have given us and called us to do, Lord. Now cleanse us, cleanse us, heal us; forgive your church, Father. We afflict ourselves before you, Lord; we groan before you, Lord; we cry out before you. Lord, we rend the inner depths of our hearts; Lord, we rend our innermost being because we know that we have offended you and have not been the children you deserve us to be.

Wash us more and more from our wickedness and cleanse us from our sin, for we acknowledge our offenses, and our sin is always before you, Lord. Against you alone have we sinned and done what is evil in your sight. Purify us with hyssop, and we shall be clean; wash us, and we shall be whiter than snow. Make us hear joy and gladness, and the bones you have crushed shall rejoice.

Hide your face from our sin and blot out all wickedness, Lord. Wash us more and more; cleanse us. Cleanse your church, Father. Your church humbles itself before you this afternoon; your church repents, Lord. We repent on behalf of our brothers and sisters; we repent on behalf of this nation. We repent on behalf of the politicians in the State House here in Boston and the politicians in Washington, Lord. We repent of the sins of Roxbury, Mattapan, Brookline, Lexington, Wellesley, and Newton. We repent of the South End, of the sins of the South End, Father, which you know well.

We ask for forgiveness, Father. We identify with them because we are no better than they are, except by your grace and your mercy. But we too have failed before you, and we repent and ask you to forgive us and to heal—heal your people, Lord. As you have said in your Word, in Second Chronicles, chapter 7, verse 14, “…we humble ourselves and pray, we repent and cry out, and you have promised that you will heal the land, Lord…” Heal the land; heal the land, Lord. Heal your church; heal your people, Lord. Cleanse us, cleanse us. We repent, Lord. Thank you, thank you, Jesus.

We believe in your forgiveness; we believe in your forgiveness. Forgive our children, Lord; forgive our families; forgive our homes, Lord. We repent, O God. Heal the land, heal the land; heal your church, Lord, heal your church, Lord. Heal me; heal your people; heal this tribe, Lord. We repent, we repent, Lord. Forgive us and raise up a new people, a restored people, Father, a people with sincere hearts.

Oh, have mercy on us, Lord; have mercy on us, Lord. Visit us again, even though we have no right even to hope for that, Father. We repent simply because it is the right thing to do; we do not want to manipulate you. You do not have to visit us, but we do have to repent, and we do so obediently this afternoon, Lord. Cleanse your people; heal your people. Let your work be seen on the earth, Lord, and for the sake of your Son, heal the nations and bring a harvest of souls, Lord, so that they may not be lost, so that they may not go to hell without knowing Jesus. Give your church the effectiveness it needs, Lord. We love you and bless you. Thank you, thank you, Jesus; thank you, Lord.