We Want to Lift Christ Up and See His Banner Over the City

Let us turn to Acts, chapter 2. Last Sunday we were talking—we did not get fully into the actual text of chapter 2 of the book of Acts—but we spoke about the need for a revived church, as opposed to the Johannine church, as I called it. John preached that he baptized with water, but that one would come after him who would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire; that was the Lord Jesus Christ.

And we were talking about the need for that church to move and flow among the people of God and to be moved by the Holy Spirit, as we have seen this afternoon in our service: a church that flows in praise, flows in ministry, flows in the prophetic word. I do not know whether you realize that this is what we were doing: prophesying. When we say, “We want to lift up Christ,” and, “One step forward,” and, “We want to see Christ…” that is prophecy. When we are singing, “A river of life is flowing from your throne, O God,” what are we saying? We are making a declaration by faith, and we are prophesying that this is what is going to happen. Sometimes we believe that prophecy is only, “O God, thus says the Lord, listen.” Not necessarily. To prophesy may simply be to proclaim a message from God under the anointing of the Holy Spirit at that moment. Prophecy may even consist of taking a verse from the Bible and uttering it for a particular moment, for a particular person.

Then that verse, which is eternal and general, takes on specificity for that case, that person, that occasion, and it becomes a prophetic word. So prophecy is many things. Prophecy can be praising the Lord under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, as Elizabeth did when she felt her child, John, react to the child who was the Messiah in Mary’s womb, and Elizabeth uttered, “Praise the Lord, O my soul; glorify him,” and she prophesied, even though it was simply praise. So prophecy is many things.

We were prophesying this morning, and when different brothers and sisters prayed, there were elements of prophecy in them as well. In other words, we were flowing. And that is what the apostle Paul says, by the way, when he says, “What then, brothers, when you gather together among yourselves? One has a word of prophecy, one has a hymn, one has a psalm.” He is talking about what the worship of those people was like. Those first Christians had no history telling them how a service was to be conducted. We follow centuries-old traditions concerning how to conduct a service, but that is something that has developed over the centuries of the church and church history, and we have acquired a program, a way of doing things.

In fact, part of that program comes to us from the Catholic tradition, from which the Protestant movement separated in the sixteenth century with Martin Luther. But many of the things we do and have turned into something evangelical actually come to us from that long historical tradition of the Catholic Church, and also from the times before the Catholic Church, before Constantine, and from ancient times.

But I believe that when those first Christians gathered in a house, they had no ritual, they had no hymnal, they did not have a Bible as we know it, they certainly did not have the New Testament, and sometimes they did not even have the Old Testament, because one of those scrolls was extremely expensive, and not everyone—in fact, very few people—could afford even a single page of the Scriptures, much less a scroll of a book of the Bible. In those early days of the church, when these Christians gathered, they were forced to improvise everything. They were like those old Pentecostal groups that gathered in the countryside of our countries, simply to hear from the Lord, because perhaps the person serving as pastor did not even know how to read or write, but he had the anointing of God. And so they gathered and praised and spoke about the Lord and prayed, and the blessing descended upon their lives. And I believe that when we take time to break with routine and open ourselves in this way to whatever the Lord may want to do, we are entering into that tradition of people who allow the Holy Spirit to guide them and do whatever he wants with us.

And I believe that this kind of church is closer to the church God wants for these times. Now, let me tell you that this does not mean we necessarily have to do that all the time, every time. I believe that anything can become routine, and what is from God at one moment, and what is God’s moving for one moment, can become a ritual like anything else.

For example, the Quakers are an evangelical denomination dating from the eighteenth century, I believe, which arose from a powerful move of God in the northern parts of Europe. When they gathered—and this was part of a very powerful revival that took place in Europe—they trembled. In fact, the word “Quaker” means a person who trembles, as in “earthquake.” You have seen Quaker oatmeal—or Quaker oats, as Dominicans call it. The man pictured on the Quaker oatmeal represents that evangelical religious tradition that came out of a revival. And people called them Quakers as a way of ridiculing them, because they would sometimes tremble in the services; the Holy Spirit would come upon them, they would begin to tremble, and God moved them in powerful ways.

Well, today the Quakers here in the United States are one of the most liberal denominations; those people do not even believe in electric light. Very liberal, but they still retain their origins, because at one time Quakers gathered in their sanctuaries, in their very simple halls, stripped of all ornamentation, and they sat and simply remained silent, waiting for a word from God, a prophetic word. So, as God gave them light, they had no program, and if someone received something from the Lord, that person would stand up and prophesy and speak what the Lord told them. And they remained silent and simply flowed according to what the Holy Spirit told them.

Today they still retain that practice, and I respect them. Let me tell you, they are highly educated, very decent people, with a sense of social justice that makes us look small by comparison. I bless them. Understand what I am saying. In a sense, my criticism is respectful. But today they retain the form practiced by those historical ancestors, in the sense of keeping silent and waiting, yet when you truly analyze the framework and religious conception underlying what they do, it is very different. Their conception of the supernatural and the spiritual is very different, but they retain the ritual.

So let me tell you that if one is not careful, spontaneity can become a ritual. Do you understand what I am saying? Spontaneity can then become the new routine, so the devil gets into everything—even into the soup—wherever he can, if one is not careful. One must always be discerning the spirit. So what I mean by that is that we are always going to seek and try to hear from the Spirit and adapt ourselves to whatever way God desires. But that is what God wants: a church that is always catching the Spirit’s new wave and following after it—not the fashions of the world, but the flow of the Spirit. Christ says that the Spirit goes wherever he wills; no one can catch the wind, seize it, and put it in a box. And we have to flow, and that is the church I believe God wants at this time in order to do something powerful through it.

And we are going to continue inquiring, seeking, experimenting, and allowing the Lord… I hope you are in tune with what we want to do and with what God is calling us to do. Amen. Because there is no point in doing things if the people are a thousand miles away. Every one of us has to be involved in this and do our part by coming and bringing God’s blessing to this place.

Another thing I was saying: when we were singing that chorus, “We want to see Christ in the city,” and, “Step by step moving forward,” “each prayer a blow in battle,” and so on and so forth, I was thinking about how important it is for us to understand what we are saying. I believe that we are in such a time, and every day God seems to confirm this message more firmly within me so that I will carry it everywhere: yes, we are on the brink of a great revival, a great conquest of the earth, an outpouring of the Holy Spirit on a worldwide scale, a mighty rain of the Holy Spirit, a harvest of souls unlike anything ever seen in history, an abundance of signs, miracles, and wonders unlike anything ever seen in history, and an unprecedented freedom for God’s people to flow in the anointing of the Holy Spirit. All of that is coming.

And look, there is something else as well: a conquest of the systems that sustain society and a repossessing of the earth. That is the most radical part of all—that is, reclaiming for Jesus Christ and the values of the Kingdom of God the different sectors of society and culture that are now under the mindset of the world, of secularism, and, ultimately, of the demonic and the anti-Christian. For example, in this nation—I was reading something that a very prophetic sister gave me at the beginning of the service, and among the things this person spoke about concerning what God… because he is speaking to his prophets everywhere.

Look, brothers and sisters, let me tell you: either God is preparing something, or let us close the doors of this church, go home to sleep, and forget this business of playing at being evangelicals. Let us close up shop, because I believe that if God does not do something… The fact is that wherever one goes, there is a restlessness and an expectation among the people of God that we are on the brink of something. I do not know how long it will take for the mighty, evident eruption to become manifest, but we are on the brink of something. There are signs everywhere.

This thing I was reading mentioned, among the many things it pointed out, Provincetown. How many know where Provincetown is? Provincetown is out there by Cape Cod; it is on the edge, at one of the farthest points of Massachusetts, on the Codfish Cape—Cape Cod sounds better. But that is where the Pilgrims arrived when they came from Europe seeking religious freedom, without fully realizing—although they did know that they were part of a miraculous project of God—that this was where they would arrive. That is where the Pilgrims landed; that is where they disembarked when they came from Europe, hungry, freezing, many of them sick and almost at the point of death. Interestingly, they were not actually supposed to arrive there. Their voyage was instead taking them toward New York; that was where they were going to disembark. But for various reasons they arrived at that point in Massachusetts. In a sense, that is where this nation began, although there were already immigrants in Virginia, for example, and others had also gone to Florida—Spaniards and other groups. But in reality, the only community that flourished—because almost all of those in Virginia died, and no strong, deeply rooted community developed there; the vast majority, hundreds of the English immigrants who first came to the United States through Virginia, died of hunger and disease, were killed by the Indians, and so forth—was this group that arrived there aboard the Mayflower, took root there, and from there this nation, the government of the United States, and many other things were born. And these people there in Provincetown knelt down as soon as they set foot on North American soil and made a covenant with the Lord called the Mayflower Compact. In fact, they made it on the ship before disembarking, and they declared their purpose of founding a land dedicated to the Lord. It is called a compact, a covenant, because they covenanted with one another to follow the Lord, to establish a land that would worship the Lord, and to dedicate that enterprise to the Lord.

And so it was there, in Provincetown, that this nation began and that the spiritual heritage established by this nation began. After the Pilgrims and Puritans, others came from Europe, and they spread through different little towns in Massachusetts and then Rhode Island. They kept arriving through Connecticut and continued on to New York and other places. They spread throughout different parts of New England; that is why it is called New England, because they were originally English. And wherever they founded a new town, the first thing they did was establish a church. They never founded a new town without establishing a church, and they never established a church without making a covenant to give that town to the Lord. And wherever they went, they put their faith in the Lord into writing.

If you go to the government building here in Boston, the State House, go there one day and enter the main halls of the government building. You can do so free of charge. And there you will see murals and inscriptions that speak of the lordship of Christ and the reverence shown toward the Gospel, even in the government building. Today, those people who are there in the government building—the representatives and senators—are ashamed and try to minimize their Christian heritage. And what you have today, what they talk about, is secularism, multiculturalism, and pluralism. It is like people who are ashamed that their grandmother is Indigenous or Black, and they try to hide her when visitors come. “Where is your grandmother?” Do you remember that saying in the Caribbean?

These people are ashamed that their ancestors declared the lordship of Christ. Now, do you know what? I believe that when God makes a contract, He does not forget it; when God makes a covenant, He does not forget it. These people made a covenant with God; there is an established title deed, there is a legal document in heaven declaring that this nation, its institutions, many of its government buildings, and its churches belong to Jesus Christ. And do you know what is needed? Simply for the people of God to claim those things, come before the devil, and say, “Let go of that, because I have the title deed right here saying that this belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ.”

I sometimes think about many of those exquisite little churches found in so many villages here in New England—beautiful, extremely old, dating from the eighteenth and seventeenth centuries. Those churches are still there in the town squares of many communities here in New England and in other parts of the United States. Those little churches were founded by men and women who believed in this Word as the Word of God. But as time went by, those little churches began to lose their vision, and the congregations that supported them evolved and changed under heretical teaching, becoming liberal churches that do not believe in this Word in which we believe. They give it some sort of formulaic reverence, but they do not believe in the supernatural content of that Word. And those little churches that once proclaimed the precious and simple Word of God now give the people who go there sickening, harmful, poisonous food that kills their spirit, cuts off their vision, and induces a sleep and stupor that prevents them from coming into contact with the energy of the Holy Spirit. They are captives. They are like that king in one of the trilogy films, The Trilogy, who is seemingly covered by a demon and is simply completely hypnotized and under a spell, and needs to be awakened.

That is how so many people in the United States are bewitched by a doctrine of demons. And I say that with love and with fear and trembling: they go to those churches and receive an evil doctrine. It is the Bible that calls that a doctrine of demons, not I, and we must ask the Lord to set those churches free, because those churches belong to Jesus Christ. Harvard has a great chapel that generally preaches heresy and teaching contrary to the Word of God. That immense chapel belongs to Jesus Christ. Harvard was founded to educate and prepare men for ministry; today it prepares men and women in a secularist, humanist, rationalist, anti-Christian doctrine. But I believe that Harvard and its buildings belong to Christ Jesus. And we have to claim them.

Where am I going with this? And this is my message—we are not even there yet; we are circling like an airplane around the subject of chapter 2 of the Book of Acts. Where are we going? Here is the point: when we say, “We want to see”—Bruce, if you could put up that chorus, “We want to see Christ, we want to lift Christ up,” and so on—put it up there, because what we are saying at this time is: “Lord, we want all these things that have been stolen from us, things established by people who loved You, feared Your name, and grounded their lives in Your Word—we want those things to be returned to Your people. We want to conquer the structures of the city. We want City Hall and the State House to be taken over by people who love Christ, revere the name of Jesus, fear the name of Jesus, and enact laws that reflect the values of the Kingdom of God. We want the universities, from Harvard on down and MIT on over, to have professors, presidents, and young people who praise Christ, and we want those classrooms to be filled with praise and worship and with people who have laid their intellect at the feet of Jesus Christ.”

We want the art of this nation—its literature, music, philosophy, sociologists, and those who teach politics, history, and science—the entire intellectual and cultural establishment, to come to the feet of Jesus Christ as well. Instead of art and cinema in Hollywood today promoting a homosexual agenda, for example—and whenever I say “homosexual,” I say it with love and respect for the many Christians, including some in our congregation, who struggle just as we struggle with other inclinations: adulterous, pornographic, abusive, violent, and resentful ones. They struggle with those things, and we love them, have great respect for and acceptance of them, and rejoice that they are in our congregation. But there is a homosexual movement, brothers and sisters, that is demonic, possessive, and imperialistic; it wants to conquer and conform this culture to its own image and likeness. And we want those realms of Hollywood and the intellectual world also to bow their heads before the lordship of Christ Jesus.

And we want the leaven that is the Gospel to leaven that dough as well. And we likewise want the Gospel to penetrate Wall Street, to penetrate the Chicago Stock Exchange, to penetrate the large corporations that today abuse and exploit the poor, and to penetrate the real estate industry as well, which has caused so many of the messes for which we are now paying—all those things.

And we also want it to enter the world of healthcare, where today it is also preached that young people are incapable of keeping their zippers closed and that, therefore, what must be done is to give them condoms—pardon the expression—so they will not have children, but they cannot be taught that they can control their appetites. And so what must be done, as this government wants, is to encourage and strengthen the abortion industry by filling this nation with abortion clinics, so that when they need to have an abortion there will be a clinic on every corner, they will not have to travel very far or ask their parents’ permission, even if they are minors, and there will be abundant money to pay for all the abortions that may be necessary and plenty of money for campaigns promoting contraceptives. And we want the lordship of Christ to penetrate those places as well, together with a doctrine of self-restraint, holiness, seeking the face of the Lord, and fighting the good fight, because it is not easy to live in purity and holiness in these times. We understand that.

But we also want the lordship of Christ to enter the political world where laws are made, there in Washington, and we want the lordship of Christ to be established there as well—in the world of hospitals and social work, in all those areas, and in the world of the Internet and the media, which are so powerful today and are being used by Satan to hold minds captive through pornography and to draw young people into a virtual community where they do not speak with adults, and do not even speak among themselves. They speak into the remote control through a Twitter, or whatever it is called, or an iPhone or an iPod, or whatever, but many times they are incapable of having a good conversation with an adult, sitting down, listening to him, and receiving a blessing from a gray-haired head.

And we want the Lord to penetrate the world of communications as well, and for there to be producers in Hollywood who make first-rate films, but with an underlying reverence for the Lord, and who proclaim that their talents come from God and offer them to God. And may there be Christians who compose symphonies and musical pieces that rival any great musical work that can be produced in the secular world, because they are anointed with the Holy Spirit. And they drink, as David did, from the Spirit of God and play their harps under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, and the demon leaves Saul.

And that is what we are asking for. And the last thing I will say about it is this: What does God want? That is why we must be filled with an energy, a gasoline, a premium fuel—super premium—that God wants to give us so that this vehicle, which is the church, can climb the steep hill represented by this culture and can conquer it, because it has food like Elijah’s, enabling it to walk through the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights.

The church God needs must be nourished by something new and different—by that food. That is why we must seek more of the Spirit of God. I believe that God has brought us into this study of the Book of Acts in the year 2010—we are in 2010, right? Yes, the last time I checked. He has brought us into it in this year 2010 because He wants to tell us prophetically: “Yes, children, that is what I want. I want that church. I want you to meditate on what the Holy Spirit is and what the supernatural mindset is. I want you to immerse your minds and spirits in the patterns, in the paradigms, represented by that book, because I placed that book there in My Scripture so that whenever the church felt tempted to abandon the patterns of the Spirit that I have established, it would have to return and compare itself with that movement of My Spirit, which is the foundation, the standard, and the point of reference for every church throughout the centuries.”

“I want you to return and immerse yourselves in those waters, remain there for a while, drink and soak it in, and be marked by the images that emanate from that Book of Acts.” I encourage you in the name of the Lord… As you meditate on the Book of Acts, continue meditating on that book. Continue meditating on that book; read it as part of your devotional life, read it many times, and ask the Holy Spirit to keep saturating you with the energy contained in that Book of Acts.

And let us ask the Lord to make the Lion of Judah congregation a truly and wholly Pentecostal church, a church capable of flowing according to the patterns of the early church, the church that moved under the action of the Holy Spirit, that church which conquered the whole earth despite being at a great disadvantage.

Again, look, now I really am concluding with this. Listen carefully to what the Holy Spirit is telling us. My eschatology—do you know what eschatology is? Eschatology is the study of the end times. When a person studies at a seminary, there is an entire discipline taught called eschatology. In the original Greek, eschatology refers to that: the fulfillment of the times, the end of things.

And for years, many of you and I have received the doctrine that the world will grow worse and worse and worse, that the Antichrist is coming, that the church will be persecuted, and that at some point this world will become so ugly, so evil, and so terrible that the Lord will have to take us out of the earth. An entire scenario has been constructed. Consequently, most of us—in fact, almost all of us—have grown up with this idea, which, incidentally, is simply a model reconstructed from all the different passages found in Scripture. But just as that model exists, other models exist as well, and what I want is to submit the following for your consideration:

I do believe that the Antichrist is coming. I obviously believe that Christ is coming a second time—all those things. But here is what I believe God is telling the church, and He is telling it to many of God’s prophets: I believe that Christ will not come until the church has conquered those realms about which I am speaking. I do not know how long the church will manage to conquer that land and retain it, but I believe that before the final details of the church’s eschatology are fulfilled, there is still something left to be done, and that is to repossess the land and give the Lord what belongs to the Lord.

My whole spirit, my whole being—and incidentally, let me tell you that I have searched the Scriptures extensively, comparing what God has spoken to me with them to see whether I am outside Scripture, because ultimately Scripture must determine what we believe, and I have found nothing that contradicts this. I believe that the church has always sinned by rushing ahead. In our desire to see Christ come, we have always tried to get ahead, and the Lord has always had to say, “Hey, there is still more to be done. This has to be done, this has to happen, and that other thing has to happen.” And I believe, brothers and sisters, that there is still some time before Christ comes. Perhaps I will see it; in fact, I believe that I will see Christ come. Perhaps I will be a little old man somewhere with a cane, but I will see Him. And Christ is near; Christ is at the door. But before that, there is work to be done. The land must be reconquered. There is still a great revival coming. There is one final great harvest; there is an outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

That passage from Joel to which the Apostle Peter referred on the Day of Pentecost is interesting. That passage did indeed have a partial fulfillment when Peter referred to it, as if to say, “What you are seeing is what the prophet Joel spoke about.” But if you read the Book of Joel, amid the complexities of prophetic declarations, there are prophecies that are fulfilled twice. And that prophecy of Joel—yes, Peter understood that it referred to that outpouring of the Holy Spirit—but I believe that there is one final outpouring of the Holy Spirit, which is what the Book of Joel is truly referring to, and it is for the end times.

Clearly, the context of the Book of Joel—and we will look at it later—was not referring exclusively to Pentecost; it was referring to the end times. Because if you read there in the Book of Joel, it says that in those days I will pour out My Spirit…

Let me at least do this so that you do not all leave confused and afraid that Pastor Mirando is becoming a heretic. Look at what verse 28 of chapter 2 of Joel says:

“…and afterward I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy; your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions; and also upon my male servants and female servants I will pour out my Spirit in those days….”

Whenever the Bible speaks of those days, it means the last days. And look at what it says:

“…and I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and pillars of smoke…”

That was not referring to Peter’s time; it refers to the end times. Read any prophecy about the end times, and it speaks of these signs: blood, fire, pillars of smoke.

“…the sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and dreadful day of Jehovah comes…”

That declaration of a final revival, an outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon all flesh in which the young would see visions, the old would dream dreams, the humble of the earth would prophesy, and there would be terrible signs in nature, refers to that final time before the great and dreadful day of Jehovah comes.

“…and everyone who calls upon the name of Jehovah shall be saved….”

A time is coming, brothers and sisters, when in India they will call upon the name of Jehovah, and many—millions of people—will be saved. In Asia, in Japan, in Korea, in Vietnam, in Cambodia, many people will call upon the name of Jehovah, and they may not be able to recite the Four Spiritual Laws, but they will call upon that God and be saved.

And in Africa, in Latin America, in Australia, in North America, in Canada, in the United States, millions of people will call upon the name of Jehovah and will also be saved. And everyone who calls upon the name of Jehovah shall be saved. That is the revival that is coming, that great visitation of the Holy Spirit, that immense harvest of souls before that final one comes…

“…for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance….”

You know, brothers and sisters, the other thing is that the Jews will be converted in Jerusalem; in Israel there will be great mass conversions of Jews, as Jehovah has said, and among the remnant whom he shall have called. There is a remnant of the Hebrew people who will also turn to the Lord.

So when we say, “We want to lift Christ up and see his banner over the city, so that everyone may know his truth, that he is the way to heaven,” look, that is concrete. What we are saying is not vain, vague, esoteric, metaphorical poetry. What we are saying is that we want to see Christ’s banner planted in the State House, at Boston City Hall, at the White House, in the home of Harvard’s president. We want to see it at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts; we want to see it at Boston’s Symphony Hall; we want to see it in the rooms where this society’s novels are written and its musical works are composed.

We are saying that we want to reconquer, and we want to see it in Provincetown, where those Pilgrims landed. As I was saying, a monument to the Pilgrims was established there—a monument and museum built more than a hundred years ago, filled with references to the Christian faith and to the Pilgrims. Today, do you know that the gay community, the homosexual community, has taken over Provincetown? Provincetown is a homosexual town. One of the most beautiful towns in the United States and New England is a homosexual town. They are in control there.

Do you think that is a coincidence? That where it all began, in the cradle of this nation, where men and women came with a hunger to establish the lordship of Christ, today the devil has planted his banner there in a very powerful way and now rules there? And they have removed many of the references to Christ and Christianity from that museum. It is still there, but it has been completely eviscerated of references to Christianity. They have stolen our house; they have stolen our heritage.

And I believe the Lord says, “I want you to go and repossess Provincetown.” I do not know how we are going to do it, brothers and sisters. The only thing I know is that the gasoline—that is what I want, the gasoline. With the gasoline, I do not know whether we are going to make Molotov cocktails, but we are going to do something with the gasoline. But with the gasoline will also come the strategy; with the gasoline will come the power of God; with the gasoline will come the signs and wonders and the prophetic acts of God that will force those who refuse, as they gnash their teeth, to hand over the keys to the properties they stole from Jesus Christ. There will be conflict; there will be struggle. Enrique, come over here. Look, there will be struggle, there will be war, there will be conflict, perhaps there will even be bloodshed; I do not know. To make this perfectly clear, I am not talking about violence. Perhaps there will be the shedding of the blood of Christians and of people who will give their lives for this to happen. And there will be violent people who will rise up against that revived church and against God’s prophets who will declare the truth.

Brothers and sisters, listen carefully to this: Christ did not come to bring peace; he came to bring a sword. For that revival God has in store to take place, there will be war, there will be conflict, there will be violence; God’s enemies will gnash their teeth. Any Christian who wants to go around winning people over with a little smile, acting very pleasant and thinking that this is how the devil will be converted to the Gospel, should go home and sleep, because first there will be war, there will be conflict, there will be a power struggle, there will be a wrestling match, because when the Kingdom of God advances and moves, it moves like a glacier, smashing through mountains, rocks, and roads, powerfully forcing its way through, the Gospel says. And only those who know how to move with force possess the Kingdom of God.

So I ask you, Lord, fill our hearts with vigor; fill our hearts with the heart of a lion that does not retreat even when the hunters are many, great, and powerful. Fill your church with the fire of the Holy Spirit; fill your church with a hunger to please you instead of pleasing men; fill your church with the conviction that even if it costs me my life or brings me death, I will be faithful to the word of the Lord, I will proclaim the word of the Lord, I will live for the Lord, I will reconquer the land.

That is the church that will take this nation. Stand up and ask the Lord to make what I am declaring, brothers and sisters, real in our lives. I declare these things; I hear myself saying them. I say them out of obedience, because I believe we are in the time to proclaim these things and to ask the Lord to raise up a people in the Hispanic world, a renewed African American and Anglo-Saxon people, a people of the Old Testament and the New Testament, a Pentecostal people, a people with fire in their eyes and fire in their hearts, a people who have already died and do not care about dying physically because they are dead anyway, and all they want is to go into eternity. But may they give the earth to the Lord and give the Lord what belongs to him; may they gather the sheaves and present them to the Lord and say to him, “Okay, Lord, come now, because your church has done what you told it to do, which is to disciple the nations and preach the Gospel throughout the world.”

There is still time, brothers and sisters, there is still time, there is still time. There is still much to be done; there is much to be done before Christ comes. There is much work, there is much land to conquer. Who knows whether we are talking about something that will take three, five, seven, or ten years, but I know there is still a little time before we see the Son of Man coming in the clouds.

And there is a final Pentecost that must come, and who knows whether this is the time and this is the hour for that Pentecost to fall upon the people of God in different nations. I know that I want to be part of that Pentecost. Let us seek it; let us pay the price.

And so we give glory and honor to the Lord. Father, we adore you; we bless you. Glorify the name of the Lord. Give glory to the Lord and ask that this word be engraved upon our hearts and that God help us make it real, make it living and present. We claim the earth, Lord; we claim the earth; we claim the earth; we claim the cities; we claim the nations; we claim the regions of the world. Teach us to walk in your perfect revelation. And help us do your will. I bless your people, Lord. Fill your people; fill your people, Father, with that fresh anointing.

Let us sing that chorus one last time, very softly, and then we will see how the Lord leads us: “We will see Christ lifted up, see his banner over the city.” And sing it with the understanding that I hope this message has added something to your life.