The Only Answer

how many are happy to be in the house of the lord tonight so thankful tonight for what i feel you can be seated i don't sing very much out but do whatever agency heal all my diseases trust in you i trust in you you are all i believe you're my jesus you're all i need i believe you're my healer i believe you are all i need i believe you're jesus your life clap your hands if you feel that way

i want to say it's such an honor i'm so humbled to be here tonight i love the robinsons the parks i know y'all know but y'all got one of the coolest pastors around i've admired this man since i was a kid probably the best dressed preacher i've ever seen play man i love the robinsons i love the parks thank you guys for this opportunity to be here tonight i'm very young and i've got a very simple message for you guys but i've prayed and this is what i feel that god has given me for this service i'm gonna do my best to deliver it tonight go to exodus chapter 33 verse 11.

you know i like probably anybody else here i've never seen the world quite in the shape that it's in today and i keep telling myself i shouldn't be surprised because you know the bible really told us all this stuff was going to come and i'm not here to be political but i do know that it's time for the church to be the church and i do know that god hath not given us the spirit of fear and i don't know i can't tell you what's going to happen in the world but i can't tell you what i'm gonna do i'm gonna stay in the church i'm gonna stay fooled the holy ghost i'm gonna keep living right i'm just gonna do the best that i can and believe that god is gonna make up the difference

exodus 33 verse 11 says and the lord spake unto moses face to face as a man speaketh unto his friend and he turned again everybody say turned again he turned again into the camp but his servant joshua the son of nun a young man departed not out of the tabernacle one more portion of scripture second chronicles chapter seven i'll be starting with verse 12. it says then the lord appeared to solomon by night and said unto him i have chosen i've heard thy prayer and i've chosen this place to myself for a house of sacrifice if i shut up heaven that there be no rain or if i command the locust to devour the land or if i send pestilence among my people so the way basically i sum this whole scripture up as god is saying if the world is going crazy if you don't know what's going on if you don't know what to do this is your answer if my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then will i hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land and i'll do my best to be brief tonight i'll be preaching for a few minutes on this subject the only answer the only answer

need a couple people lay your bibles down please i need a couple prayer warriors to help me pray right now god i need you jesus come on somebody lift your voice like an apostolic we love you jesus god we need your anointing to be in this house god i need your anointing to be honest let your word go forth god let it find good ground i'm trusting in you jesus i'm trusting in you jesus i'm trusting in you jesus in the name of jesus in the name of jesus clap your hands as you're seated

i want to begin this message by saying that i am so thankful tonight for prayer i believe that prayer is the greatest tool that god has given mankind i believe that prayer is probably the most underrated and it's probably the most neglected tool that god has given mankind if you read through your bible you will find that god puts quite a lot of emphasis upon prayer and you will find that god loves praying people we know that results happen when people pray we know that chains break when people pray we know that revival happens lost family members come home all of this is when people pray and because there is so much power and prayer the devil does anything he can to distract you from doing just that sometimes i think that because of our fast-paced society and a lot of us have short attention spans that a lot of us are not getting near to the places and prayer that god is wanting to take us our society is so fast-paced everything is so sped up that things like our attention spans have taken a hit and anytime a preacher is in a pulpit not only is he fighting the flesh and he's fighting doubt and he's fighting insecurities but he's also fighting for your attention there are studies conducted by leading psychologists recently that say that the attention span of humans has gone down to around eight seconds they say that a human can only focus on one goal or one task or objective for only about eight seconds without getting distracted with something else and that puts our attention span shorter than that of a goldfish which is pretty interesting but whether you believe that or not is up to you but i can't say from experience that i've seen preachers and pulpits preaching their heart out preaching what god gave them and the very people that god has laid on their mind and they're reaching for can't even hear them and it's not because they're sitting there with their ears plugged or they skip church but it's simply because they are distracted with other things it's because they've got other things they've got other people they're thinking about things that they're worried about doing and just life in general so because of this i am persuaded that many people aren't getting to where god is wanting to bring them and many people's prayer lives are suffering because they are distracted with other things and prayer has taken a back seat for a lot of us especially in this time prayer has been put on the back burn and it's not a priorities and countless people are not getting where god is wanting to take them so anytime a preacher's in a pulpit he is competing with other things that are trying to distract you he's competing with music with technology with media with the news with whatever it is that the world is trying to shove down your throat that is what a preacher is competing with and people will get the attitude that if you can't grasp my attention within the first you know five minutes or so of the sermon then i'm on to something else and i will find something better to entertain me but the best things from god have always come when people were willing to spend time in his presence and the best things came when people would linger in his presence and the greatest revivals came when people would push some things off and they would forget about the schedule and say god you are my priority and today i will make time for you

we know we live in a messed up world i'm not here to talk about it we are bombarded with it we know the world is messed up we know we live in a chaotic world and people are dealing with fear and we're dealing with stress and we're dealing with things that attack our mind even when we're in the church even when we're at service we're dealing with things that attack our spirits and our mind and we know that our world is hurting and we know that our world is in pain and we're seeing the problems of the world and the stress of the world begin to push and to shove its way into our lives and into the church to where a lot of times when we come to church all we're really doing is looking for a little relief at times and all we're really doing is looking for a little escape from the cares of this life and there are people in this building that tonight you are battling some major things and there is more stress i know there is there's more anxiety and fear and panic and the devil has convinced some of you that what you're dealing with is something that you're just gonna have to get used to he's convinced you i guess i just need to get used to carrying this around i guess i need to get used to how this feel and some of the people of god even when you come to church you feel depression and you feel anxiety and you can't get these things off your mind but let me tell you that is not the will of god for his people we don't have to get to the point where we get used to being beat down because our god is bigger than that and our god is greater than that and he has enough power to where there can be a day where you look back and you say that was the last day that i struggled with that anxiety that was the last day that i struggled with that spirit that was upon me there is a place of complete victory for some things and god to where you really can come to church and you can feel pr you can't feel relief in the peace of god that passeth all understanding there are people in this moon that i came to tell you the things that you're battling the only answer will be found on your face before god saying god i can't fix this and god i can't handle this but all i need is a move of the holy ghost in my life clap your hands if you believe that tonight you can be seated

we hear a lot of preaching and teaching about god's relationship with moses he had the relationship that a lot of us would desire moses had a relationship with god that i would desire that really all of us should strive to have a relationship like that and god wants a relationship with us like he had with moses and this is nothing new so if you've heard it just bear with me but i just wonder if moses ever came to a point in his walk with god where his meetings and the time he spent with god and the words he got from god became just a little more ordinary than it had been at one time if you go to our text it says that the lord spake una moses face to face as a man speaketh unto his friend and he turned again into the camp so i just wonder if moses ever came to the point in his walk with god where his meetings with god just became a little more routine he talked to god for the people and he went to the people with for god that was his job that was just what he did and i do want to clarify that i'm not saying that's how it was or even i believe that is how it was but i am telling you that there is a danger in us becoming like that there is a danger in treating the presence of god just like it's ordinary and just like it's anything else and the reason i wonder this is because i know human nature i know how many experiences i have had in the presence of god and still so many times we can come to church and we can be so unappreciative at times and it is beautiful and it's incredible that god spoke to moses face to face but sometimes i believe god wants a little more because god loves when people love his presence see we can have an encounter with god but sometimes god wants a little more than just an encounter i don't ever want to get to the point in my walk with god where i only go to god when i need something i only go to god when i'm in trouble i only go to god when i need a word but i want to have a relationship with god i want to realize how special it is that i'm even allowed to be in the presence of god and i pray i want to get the spirit of joshua upon me to where instead of just having an encounter and going back to my routine and going back to my week i would say god i just want to soak up as much of your presence as i possibly can amen it can be very easy i know how it is it's happened to me many times in my life we get so caught up in wanting a word we get so caught up in just wanting things and asking for blessings and asking god to do this and do that when we forget how beautiful it is that we're even allowed and we're even able to be in the presence of god i fear that a lot of us we forget the gift that we have not only have we been given the holy ghost but we have been given free access to the presence of god you can get into the presence of god anytime you want and you can soak up as much pro the presence of god as you want if you look in the old testament you will find that the high priest was only able to enter into the holies of holies or the presence of the lord really one time a year he was only really able to experience the presence of god one time a year and you're not going to tell me that there weren't people in the camp of israel that wondered you know what is that like what does that feel like to be in the presence of god but they weren't born at the right time so they couldn't necessarily really experience the presence of god like we do and we know that when jesus was crucified and the veil was rent that signified free access for all of humanity where we could enter into the presence of god whenever we wanted so i just wanted i do not come with a chip on my shoulder i just wonder if those people had an opportunity you know what would they think of us to when you know a lot of us when we come to church we're just anxious to get it over with and we come because you know maybe it's just something that we do or maybe we were raised that way or our parents taught it but we're not appreciative of the presence of the lord we have free access to god's presence and a lot of us really just take it for granted we're not praying throughout the week we don't have a true walk with god we don't have a true appreciation for the presence of god see people in the bible they realize how special how valuable god's presence was that's why a lot of times pretty much all the time when god's presence would enter into a room they would fall on their face or they would get on their knees and a lot of us we come to church and it's like okay here we go again you know i'm ready to get it over with i'm here and i just want to go home and a lot of us we think we know exactly what's going to happen at church but in recent times i have prayed that god would give me a true reverence for his presence i don't want to come to this place and ever be unappreciative of what god has given me

the ending of our text exodus chapter 33 it said his servant joshua the son of none a young man departed not out of the tabernacle other translations of this scripture if you look it up it says he would not leave the tabernacle it said he had a haunted he lingered in the tabernacle he had a hunger for the presence of god and he tarried there and he lingered there because he realized that in the presence of god is everything that i need and the presence of god is my healing and the presence of god are the answers to the questions that keep me up at night in the presence of god is relief from my doubt in my own life i thank god for high church i thank god for sunday night services but in my own life some of the best moments some of the moments when i've gotten revelation and peace over some things that were on my mind have been and just laying on my face before god i thank god for high services but in my own personal walk with god a lot of times when i've gotten what i need i just been by myself in a prayer closet this is the first time in scripture that we read about joshua really being in the presence of the lord this is the first time that we read that he had an experience in his presence and i want you to think about the first time you received the holy ghost i remember i got the holy ghost at the age of eight years old and all of a sudden you know i really didn't care what anybody else thought about me i wasn't worried about where people eat were eating or what they were doing because i was in the best place that i could be and that was in the presence of god so i don't ever want god's presence to just become usual and to become ordinary in my life people can get to the point in their lives and in their walks with god where they think that they are doing god a service by showing up to church and that's because to them the presence of god has become common it has become ordinary in their lives and being in god's presence it should be familiar but it should never be common being in god's presence should be familiar but it should never be commentarying is an art that has been lost in our fast-paced society to where we're always looking for the next thing and figuring out the next thing on the agenda but god is looking for a man and god is looking for a woman who will say god it's just me and you right now god there's no distractions there's nothing getting in the way because i just want to be in your presence clap your hands right a lot of people they come to church and i feel like pretty much everybody has gone through this at some point but you know we come and maybe we don't feel like it's like god i came to church tonight i really didn't feel like it so god just bless me give me this and give me that when god is saying is there anybody who just wants to be in my presence is there anybody who just appreciates being with me and i want to tell you that there is something that is better than blessing and there is something better than what you can receive and that is just being in the presence of god and really the real reward of prayer this is something i feel like god gave me recently that the real reward of prayer is not necessarily healing it's not necessarily even deliverance or things that we would typically think of but the real reward of prayer is god's presence all the other things healing and deliverance and god making a way when there seemed to be no way that is nothing but a byproduct of being in the presence of god it all starts with being in god's presence if you need healing if you need deliverance if you need god to make a way where there seems to be no way just spend a little time in the presence of god and see if your life doesn't get a whole lot better amen

people wonder you know why don't we see as many miracles as we used to see we are definitely seeing miracles i've seen the dead raised i really have i've seen that twice in my life i've seen blind eyes open i've seen multiple of miracles in my life but i do believe probably that we're not seeing the frequency of miracles that they saw in early pentecost maybe we're just not seeing as many miracles as they saw but let me tell you i am sick and tired of only hearing about the miracles of the old days i mean no disrespect in any way but i'm tired of only hearing about the miracles that they had and i'm tired of only hearing about the things that they saw and the moves of god that they had we do need to talk about them every once in a while and thank god for them but can i tell you that i don't want to spend all my time talking about the old miracles i don't want to spend all my time talking about the things that god used to do let me tell you god never intended for there to be a ceasing in a death of the miraculous and the moving of the spirit in the church god never intended for that to be a ceasing of miracles and i want to preach to you right now and tell you that the same god that worked in the 50s in the 60s and the same god that worked in the book of acts chapter 2 it's the same god that works today god is still a healer god is still a deliverer god is still a waymaker clap your hands if you believe that tonight can i tell you that god has not changed but maybe our approach to god has changed the bible says jesus christ is the same yesterday and today and forever god has not changed but maybe our commitment to god has changed the bible says i am the lord and i change not god has not changed but maybe our dedication to god has changed let me tell you that what we need in 2020 is not more talent what we need is not more ability but what we need is an old-time revival of prayer what we need is an old-time revival of consecration and dedication god is calling some people back to a place of dedication in your life and back to a place of consecration i really do believe that if we want old-time miracles if we want old-time revival it's going to take old-time prayer we need old anointing for a new day we need old-time conviction for a new society who has no fear of god god help us to pray help us to pray you may be seated

so many pentecostals myself included for a long time we fall into the little cute five minute prayer a day you know god help me today and keep me on the job and bless me and a lot of people feel that i just don't have the time to pray they feel that they are too busy and a lot of people they'll come to church and they'll pray for a few minutes and it's like as soon as they feel the presence of god they're out the door and it's like they just wanted to make sure that they could still feel god and god as soon as he comes in and he's ready to commune with you you're out the door and you're back to life and you're back to your routine and so many times in pentecost i believe god is ready to do the miraculous i believe he's ready to heal and to deliver and to set free but our lifestyles don't match the lifestyles that they had in early pentecost i recall stories of all night prayer meetings i recall stories where people would speak in tongues for hours and hours after they first received the holy ghost i've heard stories that my dad has told me about brother verbal being we all know who brother verbal being was he was an incredible man of god but even as a boy he would spend days in a prayer closet he would spend whole weekends in a prayer closet and his mom would bring him clothes on the weekend to change into they say one night he came up and he began to pray right in front of the pulpit and they came back the next day it was about 12 hours later and he was still in the same spot on his knees and he had prayed all night long and my mind goes to people like william saymore a lot of us are probably familiar with him but he was the preacher who initiated the azusa street revival and and from what i've read he preached about the holy ghost and he preached about why you must have the holy ghost to be saved well before he ever even received the holy ghost he was invited to california to preach a revival and he got behind the pool when he began to preach that you must be born again if you want to make heaven your home he began to preach scriptures like acts 2 38 and john 3 3 and john 3 5 and the people did not like it they kicked him out of the church and they said that he was a false prophet they said that he was not a man of god but thankfully there were a few people who believed what brother say more was preaching and they began to have church in a house that was around the church and they began to fast and they began to pray and he kept preaching you've got to have the holy ghost he kept telling them you've got to have it and not one of them had it at that time but they began to fast and they began to pray and a few days into the fast the first person received the holy ghost and they didn't stop there they kept fasting and they kept praying and a few days later six more received the holy ghost but brother say more he was the preacher like i said and he's still not he still had not received the holy ghost but the story says that he made up in his mind he was gonna have the holy ghost and he went and he got on his knees and he got on his face and he began to pray and he prayed and he prayed and the story says that he prayed all night long until he finally in the wee hours of the morning received the gift of the holy ghost see it's like people in early pentecost a lot of them had a different tenacity about the things of god than a lot of us have it really didn't matter to them how long it took they were going to get what they needed from god

and this is just something that has been on me a lot recently i fear that you know we as pentecostals in this day and age and in the 21st century especially those of us who were born in the truth we were raised in this we didn't have to dig it out we didn't have to look for it it was basically laid in our laps i fear that a lot of us have become spiritually spoiled in some ways i think a lot of us we want the miracles i believe if we ask any young person here if you ask them do you want to see miracles do you want to see these things i believe every person would say yes we want to see these things but we want the miracles but a lot of us don't want to put in the dedication it takes to see god do miracles we want the divine but we don't want to put in the time it takes to see god move the way that he really wants to move can i tell you that if you want to see miracles if you want to see signs and wonders it's going to start on your knees if you want the anointing of god it will be found on your knees if you want god's favor if you want god's blessings it will be found on your knees apostolic prayer will break things in your life that need to be broken it will break strongholds that the azusa street revival that i was talking about this happened in the early 1900s this was a time of great racial tension there was a lot of segregation and during this time white people and black people did not even use the same restrooms they did not drink out of the same water fountains and one thing they certainly didn't do was go to church together in fact brother samore's parents had at one time been slaves but in this time of hatred and confusion and separation and all these things where people did not understand people of all colors came together and they were united by the power of the holy ghost and all of a sudden it didn't really matter what color you were it didn't matter where you were from or what language you spoke all that mattered is that they wanted to see a move of the holy ghost you know what will break the shades of racism you know what will break the chains of addiction in your life it is the power of the holy ghost you know what will bring strongholds in your life it is the power of the holy ghost like never before we need apostolic revival we need people who know how to pray we need people who know how to respond to the moving of the spirit

old time pentecost is a lot more than just standards old time pentecost is a lot more than just shouting but old time pentecost is about praying until you break through into the spirit old time pentecost is about extended fast on time pentecost is about praying until you're in a pool of tears it's about moanings and groanings which cannot be uttered somebody needs to pray god put that into me put that into me i don't want the miracles i don't want conviction i don't want old-time preaching and a conviction to die with the elders but somebody needs to pray god put it into me i don't want the old-time miracles to die with the elders if i'm not never on another platform i just want to be a prayer warrior if i'm never on another behind another pulpit it doesn't really matter as long as i know how to pray god is saying give me somebody who just loves to be in my presence and if i can get some help on the music please if we're going to be everything that god has called us to be we're going to have to know how to pray if we're going to reach the people that god wants us to reach we're going to know have to know how to pray above jobs above money above relationships above anything in your life your number one goal needs to be god teach me how to pray and here's why because there's gonna be a day coming in your life when the only thing you're gonna be able to depend upon is your relationship and your walk with god and there's going to be a day coming where there's going to be battles that arise in your life that your talent won't be able to get you through and there's going to be situations that arise that your ability and your charm and your charisma won't be able to get you through but the only thing that will be able to get you through is your walk with god and the only thing that we'll be able to get you through is the fact that you have a relationship with him you find a person who knows how to pray there's not a devil in hell that could convince them to backslide they don't have to have the most talent they don't have to be the best looking or have the most money or any of that but if they know how to pray that's the only thing that really matters before you know how to play an instrument make sure you know how to pray before you learn how to sing before you learn things on the job make sure you know how to pray revival comes from a place of prayer favor comes from a place of prayer the anointing of god comes from a place of prayer let's stand all over this house there is nothing in your life that can take the subs