Seeing the Invisible
by David K. Bernard
2011 · UPCI General Conference 2011 (city not stated in the delivered transcript)
Kind: sermon
Scripture: 2 Kings 6:15-17, 2 Kings 6, Mark 2:22, Hebrews 11:27, Joshua 6:2

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/david-k-bernard--seeing-the-invisible
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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Praise God. Remain standing another moment. I'm going to second Kings chapter 6. I do appreciate my family, my parents are watching at home. I appreciate the general board, all of these leaders, and uh our especially our top executives. I'm not going to mention everyone by name, but I sincerely appreciate everyone who's working together for the cause of the kingdom of God. It's a privilege. It's a privilege to be the general superintendent. I don't take it for granted for lightly. This is not something that I sought, but I do appreciate your support and your working together. Second Kings chapter 6, the story of Elisha and the young man surrounded by the army of the enemy. 2 Kings 6, I'm reading verse 15 through verse 17. 2 Kings 6:15. And when the servant of the man of God was risen early and gone forth, behold, unhost compassed the city both with horses and chariots.

And his servant said unto him, "Alas, my master, how shall we do?" And he answered, "Fear not, for they that be with us are more than they that be with them." And Elisha prayed and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. I'm preaching here tonight, seeing the invisible. Seeing the invisible. You may be seated. What I want to tell you tonight is there is an invisible world. We can become so absorbed in life and its problems that we fail to recognize the invisible world. But I want to tell you that the invisible world is more real than the visible world. And our awareness of the invisible world is what ultimately will determine our destiny both here and for eternity.

When you read the story, you'll find that what prompted this particular situation is that the Syrian king was determined to raid Israel. But every time he would send an army, lo and behold, the Israelites would have an army there to meet him and counter him. This happened repeatedly so much it could not be a coincidence that every time he attacked the people of God had already anticipated the exact plan and place of attack and were able to thwart it. And so the Syrian king said, "Who is in our innermost chambers? Who's the spy that's reporting every plan?" His uh counselor said, "No spy, O king, but there is a man of God in Israel." There's a prophet who can see what nobody else can see. And it's that prophet Elisha who is telling the king of Israel everything that we plan. So what I'm saying is when we can see the invisible world, we can defeat the strategy of the enemy.

No matter what comes against truth, no matter what comes against the church, no matter what comes against the will of God, no matter what comes against revival, if we can keep our eyes on the invisible world, we can defeat the attack of the enemy and we can press forward with righteousness and truth in our generation. And then as this passage points out, when we see the invisible, we realize that the power on our side is greater than the power against us. When we look at the circumstances only, when we look at the visible world only, when we count how much money we have versus how much money someone else has and how much we lack. When we account, we count our resources, our ability, our numbers and compare them to what we need physically or what others may have, then we're deficient. But when we look with the eyes of faith, if we see what God sees, if there is just a man of God somewhere, if there's just a woman of God who says, "I see the invisible.

I see what God sees. I see God's plan." Then we will realize that the power on our side is greater than the power against us. In other words, we must learn to see things as God sees them. If you continue reading that passage, Elisha prayed and this host of the the the Syrian army that had come to capture Elisha, it's amazing. The king was thwarted on every side because Elisha knew what was going on. If he had any kind of rational understanding, you would think he would say there's no use sending an attack against Elisha cuz he's the very one that anticipates them. With carnal reasoning, you keep making the same mistake every time. So he says, "Well, I'll just send an army and capture him. That'll solve that problem." not thinking that if Elijah could see every other army that came along, then why wouldn't he see this one?

And sure enough, he walked out. He prayed for God to act. God struck the band of soldiers from Syria with blindness. And they didn't know what to do or where to go. They began asking, "Where is Elisha?" And Elisha showed up and he said, "I will take you to the man you're looking for. Just follow me." He wasn't lying. But he took them right into the city of Samaria where they were surrounded by the army of Israel. And he said, "Here you are. The man you seek is right here." The king of Israel said, "Shall I kill him?" Said, "No, give him dinner. Send him home." Did so. And the bands of Syria never attacked again in that era. Here's the point. Not only do we need to see the invisible world, but if we are blind to the invisible world, that will lead to blindness and defeat in this world.

We need to see what God sees, not only for the future, not only for eternity, but for what God wants us to do here and now. If we don't see what God sees, we will fail. If we don't develop and maintain sensitivity to the things of God, we will live in defeat when we could live in victory. We will miss opportunities that God has given us. But if we can see the invisible, we can have victory. What I'm saying is we must be faithful to God's plan, to God's will, to what God is trying to reveal to us. We must expect the miraculous. We cannot survive by our ability. We cannot succeed by our foresight and our ingenuity and our genius and our education and our philosophy and our reasoning. All those things may have their place, but we as the church of the living God will not be successful merely depending on human tools.

We must have the miraculous. We must have the move of God. We must have prophecy in our midst. We must have healing in our midst. We must have the gifts of the spirit in our midst. We must have the mighty outpouring of the Holy Ghost. Now, let me lay a foundation for a few minutes. I appreciate so much what brother Mangan said, and believe it or not, I had my message already prepared before I heard him preach. But I heard him preach and I thought how much he was saying what I would like to say. Of course, no one can say it like he can say it. And then brother Porter came along. But let me talk about this. The answer that we seek cannot simply be new methods and approaches. Now new methods are good to a point. New approaches are good. We're doing things at conference that we didn't do before.

We're making plans we never planned before. I'm not against that. I think we ought to do things well with excellence. We ought to be cutting edge in the 21st century and so on and so forth. But if we think that is our answer, we are looking at the visible world for our answers. We will never find the answers in what we see with our physical eyes. What we need to do is see the invisible. Somehow we need to get our eyes on where God wants us to go. Somewhere we need to see the host of the armies of the living God. That's where we will have the victory. In that context, let me take you to Mark 2:22. I'm reading from the New King James, the words of Jesus. Mark 2:22. He said, "And no one puts new wine into old wine skins, or else the new wine bursts the wine skins.

The wine is spilled. The wine skins are ruined. But new wine must be put into new wine skins. Now he's talking about something new. Our culture always something wants something new, something relevant, something cutting edge. But what is this new? In the context he was talking about the new covenant as opposed to the old. And supremely we as Pentecostals recognize wine as symbolic. We would say the epitome of that new covenant is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. That's the new wine. But he was trying to prepare the church. When I poured out my spirit, when I institute the new covenant, you cannot do it according to the traditional forms of the past. No matter how good they might have been, what purpose they might have served, you must have new wine skins. You must have not the old tradition but the new way. Now don't just jump and apply that to the latest in advertising miracles because in the context he was talking about the New Testament church.

He's going to pour out his spirit first of all upon Jewish believers. But they could not bottle up the spirit in their old traditional forms of the law of Moses ritual ceremony and tradition. But they had to break out into a new dimension of apostolic identity and power. So the new wines skkins I believe was the church in the book of acts. And we as Pentecostals our goal is to go back to the book of acts. That's the new wine skin. That's the new form. That's the new way. The spirit is flowing. But we've got to channel it through the new wine skins of the book of Acts church. Now, just bear with me for a few minutes. Let's make an application. What would that mean to me? I got to thinking about what did the New Testament church do that was new and different?

And I could preach on a lot of doctrinal points, but as far as doctrine, they believed in one God just like they always had. They believed in the atoning for sin just like they always had. But it seems to me some of the things that were new, and this will remind you of some things were said last night. What was new was the demonstration of the Holy Spirit. What was new was the miracles, signs, and wonders poured out upon all flesh. In the last days, says God, I'll pour out my spirit upon all flesh. Your sons and daughters shall prophesy. Your old men shall dream dreams. Your young men shall see visions. It was bursting out of just a prophetic corner and becoming the norm for all of God's people. So, that was what's new. Amen. Second thing is new is the preaching of Jesus.

And I want you to know we've always got to have Jesus front and center of what we do. It's not about us. It's not about the preacher. It's not about the choir. It's not about the website. It's not about the technique. It's not the friendliest church in town. Although we want to be the friendliest church in town, but we can't simply try to attract people by what we can offer them. But we have to attract them is by Jesus Christ preaching Christ and him crucified. And I could mention many things, but here's what I wrote down. The work of the spirit, preaching of Jesus, prayer, worship, and separated life. That was how they channeled the new wine into new wine skins. They poured the new wine into wine skins that could expand, that would not be brittle and old, would crack and break and lose the work of the spirit, but they had those new wine skins.

So, I'm challenging us to go back to what the New Testament church established. Don't look for something newer than the New Testament church. Don't look for a message that's newer than what the apostles preached. Now, what I'm going to say next is an application. It no doubt is an oversimplification and will not be true in every instance. But we do things different than other religious groups whom we respect. I'm not here to disparrage them. But why are we different from them? Here is just my own little application. Take it for what it's worth. But we have traditional denominations which seem too often to be old wine in old wine skins. No move of the spirit but a traditional form. That's not what Jesus was talking about. Old wine in old wine skins. But God always tries to break through in every situation. And we saw arise the charismatic movement which in many ways was new wine.

There are many people that have received a genuine experience of God. I've seen some of them incorporated in the home church that we pastored in Austin. Wonderful people who received the Holy Spirit. Some were even baptized in Jesus' name in charismatic movements in traditional denominations. But the failure of many, the new wine was poured into old wine skins, old forms, old doctrines, old lifestyles. New wine is not going to be successful in the same old lifestyle, in the same old tradition, in the same old doctrine. So that solution doesn't work. New wine, thank God for new wine. But if it's just left in old wine skins, it misses the point. It won't last. It might be genuine and good for a time, but eventually that old wine skin can't hold it. It'll crack and break and you'll lose most of what you've got. That's just my application.

In our day, we're seeing something else, which is not totally bad if you see what's happening, but it's not the solution either. We have what is often called the emergence. Now, they're coming out of traditional denominations. They're realizing the traditional denominational way does not connect with people. And that's the good part. That's true. They're right. And so they're looking for new wines skins and they come up with new methods. They realize in our postmodern generation, people don't like absolute truth or don't believe in absolute truth. So they rephrase and and repackage and represent. They use innovative methods which are not always bad. They use cultural relevance. But here's the problem. No matter how relevant you are, no matter how cool you are, no matter how attractive you are, if at the end of the day it's still old wine in there, that's not going to do the job.

So some people have new wine skins, but it's still the same old wine. What I'm here to say is apostolic Pentecostals, what we need is both the new wine of the Holy Ghost and the new wine skin of the apostolic church moving forward in Jesus' name. We have what the world needs. I said we live in a generation doesn't respect truth or authority. So if you say let me tell you what the Bible says, they don't care. or why should I believe in a homosexual marriage or not? Well, the Bible says, well, so what? But you know what? If all we were were fundamentalists who just had word, then we would be stuck because people won't believe the word. Now, we do believe the word, but we are Pentecostals. We have an experience with God. So, if somebody says, "I'm an agnostic. I'm an atheist."

or I'm a Christian but I don't believe in the Bible. I don't attack them. I say, "Well, brother, sister, are you willing to talk? Are you willing to study? Are you willing to learn? Would would you let me pray with you right now? Would you come visit our service?" Because I am convinced that even though they might not listen to the word initially, there is power of God that can change their life. I see what they cannot see. I can feel something that at first they may not feel. But if I can get them in the presence of God, they can still change. See, we have an experience. We have a testimony. If you say the Bible says this, their eyes glaze over. But if you say, "Let me tell you what happened to me. Let me tell you how God restored my marriage. Let me tell you how God delivered me from alcohol.

Let me tell you how God healed my daughter. Hey, our culture is attuned to those first person testimonies. Everybody testifies everything in the media. That's how they get famous. We can say, "I have a testimony." You know, I planted a church in Austin, Texas. We planted 16 churches out of that. I still try to preach at each of those churches once a year. So I'm preaching and still in churches of 10, 20, 80, 100 downtown. I'm supposed to go to downtown Austin in a few weeks, preach at a small congregation. So I still like that cutting edge grassroots where I'm preaching to somebody out there is a Buddhist. Somebody out there is an agnostic. Somebody out there is not coming from my background. That's exciting to me. And let me just I'm taking a little time here, but give me just a few minutes and we'll we'll start going forward.

But I'm trying to give us something to think about. There are basically two ways to plant churches. And I think some church planters are looking all the models out there and they are focusing on those things and forgetting what we have. But we need to see what God sees. We need to see the invisible. We need the new wine in the new wine skins. Now, in my just plain estimation, one way to build a church is what I'm calling the attraction model. There's much to commend it. I believe we need to be thinking about the first time visitor. What will they experience in the parking lot, in the front door, when they visit the restroom, when they visit the nursery, when they sit down, when they hear the message? Everything needs to be very sensitive to them being able to understand, receive it, accept it.

our website, everything should be geared toward making a good solid impression. I'm not against that. But if the method of building a church is attraction, we're going to build something that everybody likes and wants to join, there's a danger in that because how far are you going to go? The first time they realize this is a Jesus name church. This is a holiness church. You got to pay tithe in this church. If you're going to sing in the choir, you got to Well, wait a minute. So you're going to break your attraction model unless you keep accommodating, accommodating, accommodating. That is not our model. I believe we should be visitor oriented and friendly and sensitive. But our model is not attraction. Let me tell you our model is conversion. You to think about that. In other words, somebody might come into your church and say, "This is crazy.

This is strange. I don't like this." How many times have I said after a move of the spirit on in our service, maybe tongues interpretation, maybe somebody jumping up and down, and I will say, if this is your first time in our service, it may be unusual, but I want you to know, read 1 Corinthians 14, read Acts chapter 2. We're doing everything in scriptural order. We want you to understand the spirit of God is moving. And if God was an ordinary average God, he wouldn't do that. But if God really is the awesome, almighty, omnipotent God, every once in a while, he might surprise us. Every once in a while, he might do something out of the box. If God only went according to our program, that wouldn't be a very original God, would it? We need the miraculous. We need something we can't see.

We need something we can't put in the schedule. We need something we can't put on the program. We need an unpredictable God. We need a God that's bigger than our imagination. We need a God that breaks out of our box. So, I don't apologize. I'm just explaining. I remember one time, and you know how most preachers are, including me. I'm preaching on Sunday morning, and the Lord is moving. I feel like it's really going great, and it I'm bring it to a climax, almost to a close. And there's a a a couple who's visiting. She's from Haiti. He's an African-American who's uh has his doctorate of engineering, a professor at the University of Texas. The kind of person you really want to attract, right? And unconsciously, you want to make sure everything works smoothly. So, I'm preaching away. She stands up in the middle of my message and starts speaking in tongues and falls on the floor.

God filled her with the Holy Ghost right in the middle of my message. Well, the spiritual side of me was praising God. The carnal side of me was thinking her husband is going to drag her out of here and never bring her back again. He's going to be so totally embarrassed that his wife fell out on the floor in the midst of 400, 500 people speaking in tongues. What professor would allow that? But you know what? He was stirred. And to make a long story short, before long, they were both baptized in Jesus name filled with the Holy Ghost. We depend on people coming who are skeptical, who don't like it, who think we're crazy, who think we're fanatic, who think this excessive, but in the course of hearing the preaching, feeling the spirit, seeing people's response, they say, "Wait a minute. I may not understand it, but I've never felt this before.

It may not agree with my theology, but something is happening. I feel the presence of the Lord. And they go out of there changed by the power of God. We are not just trying to create an attraction model. We're trying to see what God sees and convert people to the kingdom of God. What I'm saying, new methods have their place. But we if you want to be relevant, you preach to the needs of people. If you want to be relevant to 21st century generation people that don't know God, you preach healing and see them healed. You preach deliverance and see them deliverance delivered. You preach restoration of families and marriage. You preach the outpouring of the Holy Ghost. You preach the move of God. and you will find a relevant church that's reaching all generations, all people. The answer, I'm saying, is to see the invisible.

The answer is still to look beyond what the visitors see and see what God sees. Look beyond what those visitors look like now and see what they look like in the eyes of God. See their future. As Christians, as spiritfilled apostolics, we've got to see what nobody else sees. Nobody else in the congregation may see it, but we see the invisible. We see where we're going. We see where the church is going. We see where the people are going. We see what God sees. Praise God. Praise God. And I'll just mention this in passing. Why am I so passionate about this? I was raised in Korea. My parents were missionaries. I saw them as the first United Pentecostal missionaries to that country. Preach a message. They were told, "We're Asians. We're not demonstrative. We're not going to accept this. This is not our culture." My dad said, "It's not American culture either.

I can bring you to American churches that have the same reaction, but I'm I'm not trying to give you American culture. I'm trying to give you Bible culture. I saw them build a church. I saw over 500 people baptized at one time in the early 70s. You weren't reading about that in the Herald in those days. 200 people baptized in and received the Holy Ghost in a three night revival. That's common nowadays and many numbers exceeding that. But in those days that you didn't hear those things. I also saw the miracles take place. I also saw uh healings and various forms of miracles, demons cast out. I also saw persecution. My parents one time physically attacked when my father was leading service and bodily dragged out of the church. My mother picked up and thrown in the street. All because they baptized in Jesus name.

So I know this message works and I know it works even under persecution. I know it works in the realm of the miraculous. And so as a young man growing up, if I would see models that failed to meet that ideal, I could say, "But I know the real." There may be a preacher over here who's a hypocrite, but I know it really does work. There may be a church over here that's dead or it's compromising its identity, but I know it really works. It works in the good times. It works in the bad times. I know it works. I went to Rice University four years, University of Texas Law School, three years. I want to bore you with all that, but I was the only United Pentecostal at that particular time in both colleges. You go in that kind of setting. If you don't know what you believe, you'll go out of there believing 10 different things.

Your faith will be tried. Just to give you a simple example. It's it's political and I I don't care what your politics are, but I remember when Ronald Reagan was shot and almost died. I walked into the the student lounge at the University of Texas Law School and the students were cheering. you're saying, "Hope he dies." And I was thinking, regardless of what whether you're Democrat or Cult, whatever, how could you say that? But that was that was the environment. Somebody that was praying for him to live is the weirdo. So, if you are not going to stand up for what you believe, you don't survive in that environment. And then I was asked my first my first full-time uh ministerial life experience was teaching at Jackson College of Ministries. I guess it's okay to mention it's too late now. It's ancient history. But I was part of a new faculty administration to replace one that no longer believed the Pentecostal message.

Most of my class I was teaching the upper level classes age 24. I was teaching the the seniors and the juniors systematic theology, church history, Romans, all that stuff. And I was just about the only one in the class that believe what I was teaching. And my method was to say, "Ask any question you want and I'll answer it." And we went back and forth. That's where I went home and wrote some of the books that you're reading today. What I'm saying is there are many points along the way that it would be easy to say, is this really necessary? As a a church planter, there are many times if I stand up for this, I will lose that family. If I stand up this, I'll never win that family. And so what I'm saying there have been many many points where I could have calculated how easy it would be but I could not to change but I could not get away from the example of my parents.

I could not get away from the word of God. I could not get away from my own experience. And so I'm here to say it's not the politically correct thing that I'm preaching. I'm preaching what I've found to be true. And I want you to know in our church in Austin, we saw agnostics say. We saw Muslims saved. We saw Buddhists saved. We saw Mormons saved. Jehovah's Witness saved. I'm not disparaging them, but I'm just saying people have come from a far off. But to see them baptized in Jesus' name, filled with the Holy Spirit, living a holy life, singing in the choir, I'm telling you, that's not a psychological gimmick. That's not an attraction model. That is a conversion model. That is new wine and new wine skins. That's seeing something that doesn't exist and believing it will exist. That's seeing something that's not there and seeing it come to pass.

That's looking at an old man and seeing a new man. That's looking at an old woman and seeing a new woman come to life. That's what we need. Let me say this. Hebrews 11:27, the example of Moses. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king. For he endured as seeing him who is invisible. Moses was faced with the impossible task of standing up to the mightiest king of his world, Pharaoh, and demanding that a group of slaves be delivered. He was so scared to do that. It took a burning bush experience. And then he argued with God in the burning bush. He argued with the miracle. It took him a lot. But once he got a hold of it, the Bible said it doesn't matter what the the secular authority in his life said. It didn't matter what the society around him said.

He made up his mind. He looked at the one who was invisible. What I'm saying, if you can see the invisible, you can do the impossible. If you can see the invisible, you can do the impossible. If you can see the vision that God wants you to see, you can do what God calls you to do. Stop saying you can't do it. Stop having an inferiority complex. Stop comparing yourself with everybody else. Stop trying to be like everybody else. Try stop trying to be successful, quote unquote, like everybody else. Try to be who God called you to be. Try to be what God has told you you can be. Be apostolic. Be Pentecostal. Be Christian. We need to see what nobody else sees. We need to face the enemy. We need to step into the miraculous. We need to do the impossible. Just a few slides to show you.

In Uganda, February, I was there. Missionary Philip Tolstad, he's here. In 2010, the church of Uganda added one year added 431 churches and preaching points. What's that? More than doubling in one year. You say it can't be done. Somebody sees the impossible. Young man, Simon, a United Pentecostal preacher in Uganda. When he was a child, his father got in trouble with the government. The police or the soldiers came and murdered his father in front of his very eyes. According to human psychology, he's scarred for life. He'd be lucky to survive. He should be in counseling to the day he dies. He should in be in serious jeopardy. But he's a United Pentecostal preacher, pastor, preaching the gospel. He didn't see what the world around him said would happen. He saw what God said could happen. Another young man, Peter, he was a former child soldier.

If you've read about it, you know the rebels at that time would capture the children and they would put the little girls in prostitution. They would put the little boys into the army, force them to kill their friends, kill their family, and and give them a hardened conscience age 10, 12, put them on drugs, put a gun in their hands, and force them to kill. If you ever got out of that, what would it be like? You'd be scarred for life. Emotionally, you would be a You couldn't help anybody else. You couldn't even help yourself. But he's a United Pentecostal preacher today because somewhere he got a hold of the invisible. And when he saw the invisible, he was able to do the impossible. I'm not talking about just what's happened in the Old Testament or the New Testament. I'm talking about 2011 United Pentecostal believers that we love and are in fellowship with.

They are doing the impossible because they see the invisible home missionary North American missions can Illinois pastor Larry Garcia. He saw something nobody else saw. He met Dr. Omar Garcia of Cuba. He was a communist and atheist. To make a long story short, he was converted, baptized in Jesus' name, filled with the Holy Ghost. Now, he started a medical clinic. And so, we have New Life Pentecostal Medical Clinic in Canaki, Illinois that's ministering to the community. I would have never thought to do that, but that's just because my vision was too limited. Somebody saw what I didn't see. Somebody saw what nobody else saw, and they're doing what nobody else has done. He's started a community garden and he's ministering the people. Their motto is instead of people coming to the church, the church goes to the people. I'm just giving you examples to stir you up.

What can you see in your community that nobody else sees? What do you see in your city that nobody else sees? What will God show you? I can't tell you what it is, but I can urge you to get a hold of God, to build an altar like you heard last night, to get a hold of God in prayer and worship and start seeing what God wants to show you. Ian Graduate School of Theology, one of our recent graduates, because he has a master's degree, he was able to be uh become the pastor of the community church at Grand Canyon National Park. He's like the chaplain of the Grand Canyon. He wrote me recently. He just baptized someone in the Colorado River. Hallelujah. He prayed. He had a group of people, a lady with cancer. She wanted them to pray. He told the people to lay hands on her.

He said they never done that before. But they laid hands on her. And the doctor's report came clear. No cancer. She was healed. He's an apostolic witness in Grand Canyon National Park. 800 people on Easter Sunday. It's a different ministry. He's sewing seed, but he's excited about sewing seed among people around the world. He's seeing what nobody else saw. I never in my wildest dreams thought we would start a church in Grand Canyon National Park B paid by a nonprofit association, but that's just cuz I wasn't seeing hard enough. Another one of our students, Crystal Miko, did a summer internship preaching at Yellowstone National Park and she's telling of all the testimonies of how she was able to talk to people about receiving the Holy Ghost. I was in Louisiana with Brother Cox. Let me just just share a few things. Mostly rural and small towns.

You can't have a great revival in a smaller town, can you? If you're in a big city, of course, you can have the numbers, but not in an averagesized town. Let me just give you some statistics. This is recent. This is hot off the press. Denim Springs, Louisiana. Pastor WR Johnson 65 filled with the Holy Spirit in four months. Bro Bridge Pastor Jonathan Haggood 109 in two months. LeBlanc Pastor Alfred Gibson 41 in 11 weeks. Indian Village Pastor Terry Bushnull 17 including eight backsliders. Tickfall. Pastor Adrien Spikes 24 in two months plus 30 backsliders. Delh High Pastor Shane Lester 10 in two months. I'm telling you, God is giving revival where people can see what nobody else saw. Everybody else says a burnover field. Everybody else says a small town. Everybody else says a dying community. Everybody else says can't have revival here. But somebody says I see what nobody else sees.

Tickfaw. I think I've got a a family picture there. One of the young men in the picture stole broke into the church and stole stuff. Now, somebody did that. I know my opinion, but the pastor said, "You know what? If you'll just come to church, we can work this out." As a result, the whole family is in church today. He saw something that nobody else saw. He saw an opportunity everybody else just saw through legal lens. Everybody else saw justice. Everybody else was looking according to human thinking, which is right as far as it goes. But somebody looked beyond and said, "Wait a minute. I see an opportunity. Wait a minute. I see a soul. Wait a minute. I see a revival." One of these churches, African-American gentleman came to a Caucasian pastor and said, "Are people like us welcome to come here?" The pastor said, "Sure."

And brother Cox, I don't remember the statistics, but in a few months time, about 30 or so African-Americans incorporated in the church. The church doubled in size because somebody sees what nobody else sees. You say, "Well, we can't have revival. We're just a small Caucasian church." No, you're not a Caucasian church. You are the church of the living God in your community. You can reach the African-American. You can reach the Caucasian. You can reach the Hispanic. You can reach the deaf. If you can see it, you can do it. If you can see it, you can do it. If you can see the invisible, you can do the impossible. I'm coming to a close. Joshua 6:2, God said, "See, I've given Jericho into your hand, but you got to see it." So, they started marching around the city every day, one time on the seventh day, seven times.

Can you imagine? Boy, talk about the United Pentecostal Church bringing unity to Pentecostals. I'd hate to be Joshua. And they're marching around the city. It's hot. It's not cool. climate control comfort. We're talking about out in the Judeian wilderness. We're talking about the heat, the sun. We're talking about dust of thousands of people being uh marching around. Can you imagine? What are we marching around the city for? It won't do any good. That's crazy. That's foolish. We're going to do it again tomorrow. We're going to do it again tomorrow. Hey, this is the third time today, the fourth time today. What are we trying to prove? We've been doing this for days. Nothing's happened. It wasn't like one stone started falling out each time you walked around. It wasn't like half the wall fell the second time. It was no revival, nothing happening, no move of God, no healing, no deliverance, no miracle.

Day after day after day, time after time after time, marching round and round and round and round. Don't raise your hand. You ever felt that way? But you got to see. Oh, I feel the Holy Ghost here. I feel the spirit of prophecy here. You've got to see what nobody else sees. That seventh day, that seventh time around, when Joshua said, "Okay, we've been seeing and seeing and seeing, but right now, we're going to shout." And when they shouted, the wall fell down flat. They conquered the city and they won the victory that God had planned for them all along. Amen. And so I'm saying on behalf of the United Pentecostal Church International and the entire apostolic movement, it's not really about our organization, is it? Lord, as Elisha prayed, open our eyes that we may see. Sure, we want more money. Sure, we want more buildings.

Sure, we want programs to be successful. Sure, we want this. But you know, that's not what we need. What we need is vision. Lord. Elijah didn't say, "Send more chariots. Send more horsemen. Send more armaments. Give me this. Give me that." Elijah just said, "Lord, open his eyes." Once you see what God sees, everything else is in perspective. Once you see what God sees, Lord, open our eyes that we may see. What is God wanting us to see? Would you stand with me? I I don't know what God is doing in your country or in your city or in your town or in your state or in your province. You're going to have to pray and seek God for a fresh vision. But I'm telling you, we've got to see the invisible. We cannot just look at what church growth experts tell us to look.

We've got to look at what nobody can see. We've got to see what God sees. We have 40,000 churches in the United Pentecostal Church International. I believe in a couple years time I see 50,000 churches. I see 50,000 churches. If the Lord carries a few years, brother how a 100,000 churches is not unreasonable. a hundred. I see a 100,000 churches. We have 4,300 churches, US and Canada. On the horizon, I see 5,000. I see it right there. If the Lord carries, I see 10,000 churches in the United States and Canada. Can you see what I see? I Yes, there are problems all around. I could probably give you a list of problems. In fact, if Brother Jones and I would get together, we could probably list you more problems than any other two people in this whole building. But that's not what I see. That's what I deal with.

That's what I wade through. That's what I work on. That's what gives me job security. That's what gives me a paycheck. But that's not what I see. What I see is revival. What I see is new churches. What I see as souls. What I see as miracle signs and wonders. What I see is what nobody else has seen before. And I'm not talking about me as an individual. I'm talking about the body of Christ here tonight. I see revival. I see churches around the world. I see your city in revival. What do you see, Lord? Open my eyes that I might see. I want to appeal young men and women. Maybe you're not licensed. In fact, if you're not a licensed minister, but maybe something I've said or something you felt or in something you felt last night and God is calling you to see something bigger than what you see.

I appreciate if you're look if you're pursuing a career and education, all that. I see. I appreciate that. We need people in all careers and and everything. But if you see God calling you to ministry, God calling you to do more than what the world sees, I want you to come forward right now. My first appeal is to young men and women. You are seeing something that maybe you never seen before. God is dealing with you. I want you to come. I I see thousands of young ministers. I see thousands, some licensed, maybe some not licensed, men and women, black and white, multi-racial, multicultural, multilingual. We've got about 9,000 ministers. I see in the next couple years, a couple more thousand ministers. I see we ought to be adding a thousand ministers a year. But it's got to come from people like you who are seeing something that your peers are not seeing.

Who are seeing something the world is not seeing. Oh God, open my eyes that I might see. Let the Elijah's pray. Lord, open the young man's eyes that he might see. Oh, we need some Elisha's, some men and women of God. Open her eyes that she might see. Open his eyes that he might see. I wish some of our elders would start praying for some of these young men and women. Lord, open these young men and women, the eyes of them that they may see. God press in here Open our eyes that we might see