Into The Deep

But I do feel like God has given me a word for this body today, very much in the flow of what He has been speaking over the past several weeks. First Corinthians chapter number two, verse 10, the Bible says, but God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. We won't really dive into this chapter in its full context, but the Apostle Paul is explaining to the church at Corinth there's some things about God that you're not going to access or understand by human knowledge or human wisdom. It's only by the Spirit that searches these things out. One translation says it's the Spirit that reveals to us God's deep secrets. The deep things of God. I want to preach to you today into the deep, into the deep. Father, I pray that Your Spirit would help us. God, I know what You have impressed upon me. I know what You have

been speaking to me for several days. I've heard the voice of the Spirit through our past or over the past several weeks. I know what You're trying to do. And I pray today, Father, that You would bring us into one mind that the Spirit of unity would cover this congregation, that You would give us ears to hear what the Spirit is speaking to the church, that You would tender our hearts to receive and prepare us to respond. In Jesus' name, and everybody said, Amen. Amen, the Lord bless you. You can be seated. Admittedly, I'm not one to often use illustrations, but as I was studying this week just by, we might say, chance, but I'm not so sure it wasn't the providence of God. I stumbled upon a news article on Wednesday morning while sitting in the coffee shop that I felt like very adequately described what I was trying to put pen to paper as God was speaking to me this week.

It was on Wednesday morning of this present week that more than 200 whales were found beached on Tasmania's West Coast in a disturbing mass stranding event that, unfortunately, they said was not the first of its kind. The stranded animals appeared to be a pod of approximately 230 pilot whales. Upon discovery, over half of them had already died, and a rescue effort was immediately initiated for the rest. This troubling event was only 48 hours after the carcasses of 14 young sperm whales were found washed up on King Island, also part of the state of Tasmania and just south of the city of Melbourne, Australia. The phenomenon was magnified by the fact that only two years ago, to the very same day, 470 long finned pilot whales were found beached on the sandbars of the exact same harbor. While many were able to be rescued, over 350 died on the beach and in the shallow water, leaving them responsible to dispose of this mass number

of whale carcasses. They would go on to say in this article that Macquarie Harbor has notoriously become known for its shallow channel and has earned itself the nickname Hell's Gate. You see pilot whales grow to 13 to 20 feet in length and can weigh up to 7,000 pounds. They are massive creatures known regularly to hunt to some 2 or 3,000 feet of depth. So the tragedy of this story is none other than this. A creature that God made for the deep died in the shallows. I rise on this Sunday morning to preach to you what I'm very troubled about in my travels. Born and raised in North America some years overseas and now here I am again, still traveling for a living. And I submit to you my observation of the uncanny parallel of this story in modern Christianity. I fear that our American idea of Christianity is becoming increasingly shallow. Built with more consideration for self than savior. Comfort is

prioritized and people are increasingly intoxicated on inspiration and entertainment. Commitment is feared and even mocked. It's an indictment against us to say we believe the Bible but know little of what it actually says and live even less than what we know. We talk much about how God serves our purpose but little about how we are called to serve His. I tell you today that the Bible makes no compromise with the world. Yet still we find little emphasis not in this pulpit but in modern pulpits of doctrine and hardly any talk of holiness and even less of sin. And such is the result that we have. No demonstration. There's no power. There's no miracles. There's no glory. There's no real life change but it's a Christian empire built on charisma and personality. I tell you today God has made us for the deep. There is a danger to those that God is ordained for the depths to spend too much time in the shallows.

The whale is a little picture of the story but it's not really what I've come to preach about. I've come to preach to us today what God has been speaking through our pastor for the past several weeks. There is a clear call from the spirit to new life to venture out into the deep. I know the shallows can be convenient and it can be comfortable but we have not been made for the shallow waters. We have been made for the deep things of the spirit. We'll not get there by human intellect. We'll not get there by earthly talent. It's only by the spirit of God. We're made for the deep. And while this might be the indictment of many modern churches and modern pulpits you know as well as I do it is not true of this house or this pulpit. God has given us a shepherd and put something in this body that is a witness to us all. We all feel

it. We can all hear it week after week. There is a clear call from God into the deep. What the spirit is saying to us all is it's time to venture out of the shallows. It's time to forsake comfort and familiarity. It's time to venture out into the unknown waters of the deep. Perhaps there's no story more fitting to portray this than what we find in Luke chapter 5. Jesus is walking when he sees two ships standing by the lake and the fishermen are coming out of them. They're washing their nets. They're not cleaning their catch. They're washing their nets. They've come back empty-handed lacking in need. And Jesus enters one of these boats and says to Simon, I would that you would just thrust out a little from the land. And Simon's kind of got this perplexed look on his face because he's the fisherman. This Jesus is a carpenter. Now if we were talking about framing up a house he

could take some 2x4 and air gun and he could do that no problem. But Jesus you just stepped into my world. This is where I'm skilled. And you're telling me to launch out into the deep. Well evidently you're not aware that we've been working at this all night and we've come back with empty nets cleaning them with no catch. But the Bible said when they had finished speaking Jesus gives them this command, launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a draft. Launch out into the deep. And Simon answers him and says, Master we toiled all night and we have taken nothing. Don't you understand? We've been at this for a long time. This is not new to me. Lord this is familiar territory. We're actually coming back from a long night of fishing. We've been working and we've been toiling. That word toil means to grow weary. This is not simply just a confession of his present predicament. He's

not telling Jesus that I don't have any fish. He's telling Jesus I've tried. I've got nothing and now I'm weary. It's not just a confession of his reality. It's a confession of his feeling. He's telling the Lord we've tried. We've done all we knew how to do. We did what we've been trained to do but we've come back empty handed and Jesus is just looking at him and telling him if you just do what I'd say and you launch out into the deep can I tell you it would be easy to think when you come back empty handed that you're in the wrong place or it might be the wrong time but what Jesus is about to show this fisherman is you're actually in the right place and it actually is the right time. The only thing you've got to do differently is get out in water that's a little bit deeper. You don't have to change what you're doing. You've been doing

the right thing all along. All you've got to do is do it in a place of greater depth than where you were. New life I'm telling you this is the place and now is the time. Just keep doing what you're doing. Keep serving like you're serving. Keep praying like you're praying. Keep fasting like you're fasting. Keep witnessing like you're witnessing but do it from a place of greater depth than you've ever done it before. This is the right place and this is the right time. All you've got to do is launch out a little bit deeper. Here's Simon Peter. He can't make sense of it because this is his arena of expertise but the fact is God knows just how much failure he has to allow into our lives to bring us to a place of humility. And finally Simon says, all right, I've toiled all night. I've tried this before but nevertheless at thy word. That's all God's really looking for. Our

people who set opinion aside and stop trying to debate the sovereign God and will just say, Lord, if you said it, I'll do it. At thy word. Doesn't make sense to me. I'm a skilled fisherman. I've been doing this for a long time but evidently you see what I don't see and you know what I don't know. So at your word, I'm gonna launch this boat back into the deep and when he gets out into the deep and he drops his nets, all of a sudden he's got more fish than he can contain. He's calling for friends to come along and gather some of that harvest because it's more than that one little boat can hold. I tell you today, what God's doing in this body is bigger than this building can hold. It's bigger than this one church can hold. The impact and the influence of the spirit and what God is doing through this body is beyond what new life can

hold by itself. Nevertheless at thy word. Don't stop doing what you're doing. Just do it from a place of greater depth. He starts pulling that fish up and now there's a little change of perspective because in the earlier verse of the story he is referring to Jesus as master. In other words, you're a teacher. I recognize your ability to teach me but when he starts pulling something out of the depth that he couldn't find in the shallows he looks back at the one he called teacher and now calls him Lord. Let me tell you something about the deep places of God. The reward is not what God gives you. It's God himself. The reward was not the fish he pulled out of the deep places. The reward was the revelation he got of God. He said to Abraham, Abraham, I am thy exceeding great reward. The reward is not the city. It's not the blessing. The reward is the revelation. He said to

the Levites, all the other tribes are going to get a portion of the land but to you I am your portion. I'll tell you what the deep places of God are. It's God himself. It's where you start to learn things about God and see things about God that you can't discover in the shallows. That's what he was talking about when Paul said is the fellowship of his suffering. He said I'll take you into the depths, the places that not everybody wants to go so I can show you things about myself. I know in the shallows where you maintain control and where it's comfortable and where it's easy that's where many like to stay but there actually is a place in the depth where you can discover things about God. And so he goes into the boat calling him teacher but by the end of the story he's recognizing him for who he is, Lord. And then the Bible goes on to say in

verse 11 of Luke 5 that when they get back to shore he forsakes everything and follows him. Can I tell you what you discover in the deep will change how you live in the land? When you really experience the Lord Jesus Christ and all of his glory and all of his power I tell you today without apprehension it will change your life. What happened out there in the deep when he got back on the land? It caused him to leave everything and start following Jesus. I tell you today there are things you discover in the deep that radically transform your life. It would be easy to be overwhelmed and even discouraged after a long night of toiling and think I've done something wrong. I must be in the wrong place. It must not be the right time when the fact was it was the right place and it was the right time. But if he was going to get the harvest that he

was looking for the only place he was going to get it by was launching out into the deep. I tell you today there's a call from God to us to pursue the depths of God like never before. God has been speaking to me about our attitude towards this moment at the risk of being repetition because I did mention this a few weeks ago. I have to ask you today what kind of journey are we on if we don't know the destination? For this is why God gives us prophetic utterance. This is why God declares to us the end from the beginning. So we know the destination in which we are pursuing. Just hearing the atrium the other day before chapel on Friday morning speaking with pastor just briefly. Just a 60-second two-minute conversation about the 2023 calendar and pastor Andrew and I were there and pastor made this statement. He said, I just feel like we're about to break out into

a revival where there's going to be a great number of souls that's going to disrupt our schedule in our program. I kind of feel this little prophetic thing inside of me start quivering. The spirit bearing witness with me and so I have to ask this body today what is our attitude towards this moment? Because prophecy is God's declared intention. It's God using words to paint a picture in our minds of what the end looks like if we get in position. This is why Paul told Timothy in 1 Timothy 414, Neglect not the gift that is in thee which was given thee by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery. The word neglect comes from the Greek word amelio which means to be careless of or to make light of. Paul was telling Timothy, Timothy you've received something of the spirit but now your responsibility is don't neglect it don't allow yourself to be slumbered into a careless attitude towards

the things which God has spoken to us by prophetic utterance. But this has always been God's battle. He raised up a man named Moses to stand before the greatest man in the world and say let my people go and still they would not do it. So ten plagues were poured out the wonders of God were poured out on that nation until over one night millions of people walk free and they start walking towards this land that prophecy had said flowed with milk and honey. God had raised up a servant, a mighty man of God to declare to them the destination that they were going to but the Bible would tell us that when the journey was long and they grew weary in the journey they began murmuring against Moses. They begin to say things to Moses like why did you bring us out here to die? We were better off back there in Egypt their weariness caused them to look back instead of

looking forward. They began to neglect the prophetic reality that had been spoken and begin to dwell on what they perceived as a more comfortable past. Until God has to stretch forth his hand and the Bible says in Exodus 14 that he hardened the heart of Pharaoh to follow after them. The prophecy itself, the land itself was not enough incentive to keep them moving into an arena of faith that was unfamiliar and challenged their perceptions and knowledge of God. God was calling them to deeper experience. God was leading them to a dimension that they had never been before and they would not go. So God said that's alright. I'll just put my finger on Pharaoh's heart and put enough adversity behind you that you have no alternative. I'll use adversity to push you closer to your prophecy. Or the Virgin Mary who's soon to be married and she's fan with child conceived of the Holy Ghost. She knows this by angelic visitation by proclamation

of God for the angel came even giving her the child's name. For thou shalt call his name Jesus for he shall save people from their sins. How in the world could you ever wrestle with doubt or uncertainty when that which is in your womb is conceived of the Spirit was made known by angelic visitation? The prophets that spoke of it hundreds of years prior scribes and those of the law had looked and waited. The Bible tells us in 1 Peter that even the angel's desire to look into the fulfillment of prophecy all of heaven was waiting with expectation for this moment. So one might think if she was really persuaded of the fact that that which is in her womb is of God that she would have been in position. But she's days away from giving birth and she's in a city 70 miles from Bethlehem. And the problem was the prophet Micah had said that when the Messiah comes he'll be born

in a city called Bethlehem. So now we find ourselves in the unfortunate predicament of carrying prophetic possibility but not yet in the right position. Now one might think would God not send another angel to come to this young virgin in the middle of the night and say thus saith the Lord Mary thou art not in the city thou needs to be in. But no, not at all. In fact God did the very same thing he did with the Israelites. He just moved his heart upon an earthly king and called for that king and inspired this idea for that king to call for a census in the land. So it is for no other reason than their national citizenship. Then their national allegiance that they come back to the city of Bethlehem for the census and the paying of taxes. And one might think it just happened to be coincidence. There at the time of the census contractions start happening and they start looking

for a place to give birth. It was not coincidence. It was God using adversity to put his people in position for prophetic fulfillment because they had developed an attitude of carelessness towards the prophetic reality that was moving in their midst. Or what about the early church? God had told them, I'm going to give you my spirit. You shall receive power to be my witnesses. Power to be my witnesses. Power is what you're getting to witness is the purpose. And it's going to happen in Jerusalem and Judea and to Samaria and to the other most parts of the earth. Jerusalem is where it's going to start but I don't intend it to stay there. But evidently they became comfortable in what was happening in Jerusalem. God said I wanted to start there. I don't want it to stay there. Peter didn't even understand what he was saying. When by prophetic utterance he declared that the gospel was going to go to those that they

would not even fellowship with. The spirit of prophecy moved upon him transcended his carnal mind and he began speaking about God reaching people. His people won't even talk to. The Jews had nothing to do with the Gentiles. There was no fellowship so much so that they would walk all the way around the city so as not to have to walk on the dirt that Gentiles and Samaritans walked on. That's why the disciples were troubled when Jesus said I must needs go through Samaria. And so here they are. What looks like a revival bursting at the seams in the city of Jerusalem. But God is not content because God didn't say I want this to stay in Jerusalem. He said I want it to start in Jerusalem. But somehow, some way they developed this carelessness towards the prophetic reality that had been declared over their lives. So what did God do? He did what he had been doing from the beginning. He just moved

his hand on an earthly king. It's Saul in Acts 8 and it's Herod in Acts 10. But it comes in the form of persecution. And that persecution puts such pressure on the body of the early church that they have no other option but to scatter themselves across the face of the earth. But the Bible says everywhere they went they went preaching the gospel. One would think they walk with the Lord. They pray. They have the Word of God. Was it not enough when God said I want this to go to Judea and Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth. No, it wasn't enough because they fell prey to the same thing we've been falling prey to for thousands of years to grow weary in the waiting. And we get lulled into this careless attitude towards prophetic realities and prophetic opportunities. We become comfortable in what we have and we do not pursue what is ahead with the fervor we need to pursue

it with. I know this doesn't sit well with an American culture but I've seen enough other places in the world to tell you God is not American. I want you to hear me right now. Even your problems serve the purpose of God in your life. I preached in Ukraine last November. They might have had 130 people in that building. Nobody knew that war was going to break out at the end of February. But that 130 people is upwards of 400 people every single Sunday now. Now I wouldn't wish war, I wouldn't wish destruction on anybody but you hear this preacher right now. Even your problems are in the hand of God. Even your problems serve the purpose of God. Paul said in Romans 828 we know that all things work together for good to them that love God and are called according to his purpose. He didn't say they are good. He said they work together for good which merits the question whose

definition of good do we live by? Because sometimes in God's eyes good equals loss. Sometimes in God's eyes good equals discomfort. Sometimes my definition of good is not God's definition of good because my definition of good is how is what I'm going through affecting me but God's definition of good is what I'm going through and how it's affecting his purpose. Even our problems serve the purpose of God. This is why in the very next verse of 1 Timothy 4 and 15 he continues to Timothy he says Timothy you've got to meditate now upon these things and give yourself holy to them that thy profiting may appear to all that word meditate is meliteo it means to care for or attend to. He's telling Timothy your responsibility is to develop an attitude of disciplined care for the prophecy which was given to you for the promise that you have been entrusted with and to give yourself holy not partly not just a day a

week not a couple hours Sunday and an hour on Wednesday holy I know you don't know me and I know this is new but I've really tried to live my life by giving everything I have to God I've turned down career opportunities I've moved my wife and kids across the world because I heard God say go you know why I'm here right now because I heard God say go there's a lot of things I have to learn but you hear this preacher today there's a clear call from God to give ourselves holy to the prophecy let me tell you something pastors not getting up here and talking about little revival because he got it in a book he's talking about it because he's been with God and the spirit has spoken again and now there is a call of shared responsibility to new life fellowship to say I'm going to be a par I'm going to give myself holy to the thing which

God has spoken he said come on Timothy you've got to meditate on it you've got to care for it you've got to focus on it you've got to be a steward of it don't meditate on the problems meditate on the prophecy oh but the economy is doing this and this is happening and that's happening despite all the problems he didn't say meditate on the problem he said meditate on the prophecy I tell you listen I tell you what I know from God this church is on the threshold of prophetic opportunity let me just tell you in Zachariah chapter 9 the spirit moved upon that old prophet and he gave a prophecy that when that Messiah comes he's going to come riding on a donkey into the city of Jerusalem 350 years later Jesus looks at his disciples and says boys you're going to walk over to that village over there and you're going to find a cold donkey tied up and you're going

to unloose it and you're going to bring it to me and if anyone should ask you what you're doing you just tell them the Lord has need now let's just think about this for a minute because it's a day like every other day I tell you prophetic invitations and opportunities are actually veiled in the mundane it looked like every other day but the fact was they've been waiting 350 years for this moment and those disciples walk over onto another man's farm like it's theirs start unhooking that donkey I don't know but there's probably a good chance that at some point in that farmer's life some unwelcome visitor showed up uninvited on his property so what was it that caused him to deal with these disciples in a different manner what farmer would willingly let a couple man walk onto his property and unhook his investment and take his resources and walk away well the Lord has need and when he hears those words

there's a witness in his spirit and he realizes this is it we've waited 350 years for this moment this is it you can have my donkey because the truth is everything I own actually belongs to God anyway and if he wants it he'll get it however he needs to get it but this was a prophetic invitation out of all the farmers and all the donkeys God looked at that man instead I'm giving you an invitation the question is will you be spiritual enough to perceive what is happening in this moment will you think these are two no good teenagers just coming to steal your donkey in the middle of the day or will you perceive that they're actually on assignment from God coming to get what I need so that city can know me here's the fact that we've got to reconcile the question is not do you want to see it because I tell you you're going to see it one way

or the other what the Holy Ghost is asking us today is do you want to be a part of it whether you're in this house or you're sitting in your living room mocking what used to be on a Sunday morning when the power of God is falling here you're going to see it the question is do you want to be a part of it and when they take that donkey and they bring it back to the Lord the Scripture said all this was done so that it might be fulfilled it was the fulfillment of prophecy out of all the people that God could have looked to God found one man and said I'm going to give you an invitation to fulfill a prophecy that's been 350 years in the waiting I've been around church long enough to know how this goes we get up here and out of tradition we talk about revival and we shout about stuff but we really aren't quite

sure we entertain doubt and unbelief and it's just you know I'm telling you right now God's got a question for this body do you want to be a part of it because I know what I felt standing out there Friday morning when he started talking about 2023 and just feeling like there was a revival that was just going to mess up the schedule in an extended season of horror I'm telling you I just felt this little prophetic thing stirring in me and I'm telling you he didn't get it out of a book he didn't get it on some YouTube video he's being led of God and what God needs of all of us is to say we sense the invitation we sense the moment and we're going to give ourselves holy to it don't neglect it don't become careless about it we've been waiting for this come on we've been preaching about it for decades we've been praying about it for years and

what God is saying to us is now is that moment not next Sunday not next month not next year now now is that moment but see there's two dimensions of deliverance that have to happen to move into this place there's two deliverances in Matthew 21 the first deliverance is the cult he's tied up he's bound to the agenda of an owner that has a purpose contrary to the king I know this farmer thought you were going to go break the field I know this farmer had an agenda for you but the real king has an agenda for you you're about to be the vessel that brings salvation to this city but the second deliverance in the story was the farmer himself that he was willing to be delivered from what he thought was his and give it to God that we would give him not holding anything back whatever he comes and has need of Lord if you need it it's yours I'm

not going to keep it to myself because there's a city that needs you and when Jesus mounts that donkey and starts making his way into Jerusalem the Bible says the whole city was moved that word literally means they begin to tremble and quake in fear there was a realization as that man started coming in to that city he wasn't just a man this is actually the fulfillment of a prophecy we've been waiting 350 years for but you know being moved doesn't make a movement being moved in a moment is not the same as giving yourself holy to the prophecy and so when Jesus gets into the city of Jerusalem where's the first place he goes he walks into the temple and he starts flipping tables and causing havoc you know the Bible makes this profound statement that we read over the Bible said he interrupted them he didn't allow the vessels or the instruments of the sacrifice to be carried through the temple

you know what that means it means he was stopping their ability to offer the sacrifice this is what he was telling them this system that's built on tradition and is void of power and has no glory I'm stopping it now because you've been living in the vain repetition of empty tradition when what you really need is right here he walked into that temple and he started flipping the tables of the money changers there was provision in the law for that to happen but the problem was they were deceitful and they were crooked and the Bible said that you have made this place a den of thieves when it should be a house of prayer they had stolen the purpose and stolen the glory and God said no longer so he starts showing them the inadequacies of the religious system they had built it's just my humble opinion that's kind of what God started doing in 2020 he started showing the world the insufficiencies

in the inadequacies of all that we call religion don't get me wrong hear me this morning I thank God for buildings I've given and we're going to give more and I believe in it we're going to fill it many times over but Christianity is the one faith in the world that thrives in the absence of a building go find a Hindu temple, go find a Mormon temple go find a mosque go find a synagogue massive ornate structures but I've stood under trees in the heat of the African sun and watched the glory of God fall I've stood in war torn countries where there wasn't cushion chairs and sound systems and witnessed the glory of God can I just tell you what I feel it's the patience of God growing thin with people that are moved but not becoming a movement people that are entertaining things in his house I tell you the first thing he did when he got to the city of

Jerusalem he said I've got to come to that place that bears my name but not my nature and I've got to purify the house that's what pastor was doing up here last Sunday morning there was a call of God there was a word from God that was calling us to purity because the first thing God does when he's getting ready to change a city is purify the house that he's going to change it from he starts flipping tables he's driving out the money changers he's saying you don't need those instruments anymore what you really need is to make this house a place of prayer and when he had purified it and they began to pray see purifying is what the spirit does prayer is our response and when they had began to pray the next verse he said he started to heal them miracles started happening see there's a little progression here he comes to purify the atmosphere and the response of the

people was to give themselves to prayer and then all of a sudden there was a manifestation of power they realized the emptiness of that system that was built on tradition and they recognized the call into the deep I preach to you today what we all know and feel that there's something moving through this body God's speaking to this church we feel it I've just come to put a little definition on it for you today it's a call into the deep but Dan on the shallows it's safe I can still touch bottom and I'm in control that's the problem there's some things you won't find in the shallow in fact if you stay there too long you'll jeopardize yourself because God didn't make you for the shallows God made you for the deep I'm talking about the deep things of God I'm talking about being apostolic I know I kind of sitting over there earlier in church everything I got thinking about and I

felt what would happen if we were at a restaurant sitting there on Sunday afternoon and as I'm waiting for my food I just caught away in the spirit start speaking in tongues and I have a vision because you realize that is how God brought the word for the Gentiles to be reached he was a man who had far from perfect but just spiritual enough that while he was getting ready for his little afternoon routine he could be caught away in a trance and by way of a vision God could show him what the end looked like so he could give himself to it you can't give yourself to it if you don't know where you're going but I'm telling you there's a call into the deep don't be surprised when you start stirring in the middle of the night and you wake up and there's a call to prayer don't even be surprised if there's an angelic visitation here and there don't be

surprised when God starts doing unusual things I'll tell you what it is it's a witness of what God's doing because there's a call into the deep I don't want you to receive this this is not a rebuke because you're doing the right thing you're in the right place and this is the right time all you've got to do is launch out a little bit into the deep that's all you got to do Simon I know you've been toiling all night I know I know this has been a long time coming we've been working and sacrificing and praying there's nothing special about me there's nothing special about any of this it's just the fact this is God's place and this is God's time but the only place it happens is in the deep and what God is calling all of us is to pursue the deep things of God in a measure like never before last week pastor got up here and there was

such a clarion call that purified the house it was like Jesus was flipping tables on Sunday morning it was like Jesus was driving some things out on Sunday morning but I tell you this week hear me I feel a sure word from God right now this week God's asking in measuring our response to prayer next week there's going to be an apostle that stands in this pulpit and you hear me right now I feel a word from God there will be notable miracles in this house next Sunday because it's how God works he came to purify they responded with prayer and then there was a demonstration of power I'll close until this story and then I'm done we're going to pray God gave me a word ten years ago when I got saved I had some problems in university when I got saved I brought a lot of debt into my relationship with God and I battled condemnation about that for a long

time but the Lord gave me a very specific promise in 2010 he said like a seed you have to fall into the ground and die and when you do he said provision is going to come from the north, south east and the west and the mountain of debt will be no more and so when I'm getting ready to move across to the other side of the world because God told me to I started telling God ten years ago you gave me a promise I'll do anything you ask of me I'll go anywhere you go I'll do whatever you want but I need you to fulfill your promise to me now ten years of waiting and frustration bi-vocational ministry three jobs for most of ten years just scraping to get by we tried to do our best I even hired a financial advisor we sat down we're going through our budget she says well I can tell you two things sir so well

I hope it's a good two things she said number one you need to make more money so well I didn't pay you to tell me that she said number two this is really the only area of your budget where you have room and she points to this little line called giving I said well I'm sorry that's the one line on this page you can't touch and just so we're clear I said that's just what I budget to give monthly that doesn't take into consideration times when the spirit of God speaks to me and we give beyond that and she looked at my wife and I at our dining room table and she said well there's nothing I can do for you and my wife you know she's got a little that fire and I she said I want you to know God gave my husband a promise she starts telling this lady what the Lord said to me her eyes are just like

deer in the headlights two times in those ten years I had the opportunity to advance into a very very good career I sat across the desk from a general manager of one of the most profitable hotels in all of Atlantic Canada on a clear track to promotion and management and one of the leading hotel companies in the US I said I didn't come to this city to pursue a career I came here because God called me to help plan a church it was hard I would tell you at times it even made my family suffer but I'll tell you what I learned in ten years is if God gave me a promise and I'd give myself wholly to it I've literally made a life altering decisions on the basis of what God said to me and in 2020 when COVID shut the world down and preachers weren't traveling and churches weren't gathering and I was living in my in-laws little townhouse with

my family of five sharing bunk beds in a time of extreme frustration and discomfort I discovered that even problems serve the purpose of God and I watched God open the windows of heaven on my life in a mountain that I couldn't climb my way over or dig my way through in 60 days God removed it I was 100% debt free I gave larger offerings than I had ever given in my life and I had savings in my married life for the very first time I want you to hear this preacher right now there's a lot of things I'm still learning a lot of things I gotta figure out but this is one thing I know about walking with God and he gives me a sure word of prophecy if he gives me a sure word of prophecy and I'd give myself holy to it there is no question it will come to pass there is prophecy resting on this church and there

is prophetic destiny hovering all around us and today there's prophetic invitation just like that farmer had in Matthew chapter 21 where Jesus sent those disciples and said you take those cults you take that donkey and if any man asks you what you're doing you just tell them the Lord has need I'm telling you God's come to loose some things in this house today if you're wondering why I'll tell you why it's cause God has need he has need of you and he has need of what you have he has need of your donkey and he has need of you and when you give it to him he's going to mount that and he's going to ride it into the city you've got to understand this the city doesn't experience it if he doesn't give I'll tell you the question of the day is not do you want to see it I'm sure as I was sitting there last night God said this to

me the question is not do they want to see it the question is do they want to be a part of it cause you're going to see it let me tell you you're going to see it if it's not us I'll tell you who it will be it'll be a little Muslim university student down at Indiana State University who God comes to by dream in the middle of the night and she realizes that Jesus isn't just a prophet but he's the living God that's who it's going to be it's going to be some alcoholic that rolls out of his bed have hung over on Sunday morning he didn't know anything about this but maybe his grandmother used to go to New Life his mother didn't his father maybe his grandmother way back in the 80's went to New Life he's tired of that life it's just going to be that Sunday that he scrolls in here half drunk looking for somebody to love

him and Jesus to help him I'll tell you today it is going to happen we are going to see it the question we have to answer right now is are we going to be a part of it because when the man gave him the donkey the scripture said all this was done so that it might be fulfilled all of this was just a fulfillment of that old prophecy come on lift your hands lift up your voice come on my house shall be called the house of prayer come on there is a prophetic invitation here today and it is into the deep it's God saying let's go deeper let's give more let's give more of ourselves let's go deeper come on you've been doing the right thing this is not a rebuke this is the right place and I'm telling you this is the right time all we've got to do is get out a little bit deeper come on when you come to

this altar today I would that you would just give yourself to prayer right now just give yourself to prayer come on we can't get there by human wisdom it's not by human intellect it's not by our talents or our giftings or our abilities only the spirit can search out the places and take you to the deep things of God come on it's like a river flowing through this church you can feel it rushing past your ankles you can feel it but as you keep waiting out deeper and deeper and deeper you discover there's things in the depths there's places you go in the depths come on Peter I know you've been toiling all night you've been working all night you've tried you've sacrificed, you've served you've prayed, you've worked and you're tired but now is not the time to call it quits we gotta get back in the boat and we've just gotta go a little bit deeper come on I can see

it come on there's something happening here right now yes my house my house this house shall be called the house of prayer I know you can't make sense of it I know it can be a little bit uncomfortable come on somebody you gotta get the dust off that prophecy that'll promise that you've been a little bit careless toward brush the dust off it right now when God speaks that word to you your responsibility is to become a steward of it to guard it to fight for it come on that's it we're plunging deep right there go just close your eyes and go deep right now there's something that happens in that deep place it doesn't happen anywhere else deep calls the deep place of the spirit beckons unto the depth of my soul beckons in the name of Jesus beckons I give myself to you God all that I have and all that I am is yours that's it into the deep into

the deep we're just following after the spirit into the deep let me just tell you what I feel right now I'll be a little bit vulnerable with you that's just kind of how I roll I hope that's okay I've kind of been feeling just an intense amount of strain against our marriage and my family since we came here it's so odd to me because I said to pastor I'm home it feels like home I just kind of been wrestling with this sitting there and java ho the other morning God started talking to me I'm looking through Acts chapter 8 the Bible says when Saul went to wreak havoc against the church you know what he did he went into the houses of the believers he didn't come to the corporate gathering he went into the houses of the believers I'm going to tell you what you feel this calmness this stillness this is the authority of God we would think the greatest manifestation

of authority is that victory and that praise I submit to you that's not so because the Bible says that the God of peace shall crescent in other words peace is the ultimate sign of authority that's why Jesus is asleep on the boat when the disciples are fearing for their life because he knows I have authority over this storm so I'm at peace this is why in Revelation 4 when you come before the throne of God the Bible says it was a sea of glass like under crystal there was just stillness in his presence what you're feeling right now is the authority of God in the deep place there's people here right now I'm telling you God wants to begin working in your family because the strength of this house ultimately is dictated by the strength of what happens in those homes and when Saul wanted to wreak havoc on the church he bussed his way into those households and started disturbing families that's

what I feel in the Holy Ghost right now the peace you feel right now is ordained by God to go home with us today this is not a moment I'm not talking about a moment it's one thing for Jesus to come riding in and you to be moved in a moment I'm talking about a movement right now I'm talking about moving from calling him master to recognizing him as Lord it's a title of submission and the one time in Jesus' earthly ministry when angels showed up was when he crawled his way into a garden and said nevertheless not my will but thine be done and an angel came and strengthened him so he would have what was necessary to get in position on that hill called Calvary so the prophecy could be fulfilled what prophecy when Isaiah said crown of thorns and by his stripes we are healed so the old prophecy of that suffering servant in Isaiah 53 could be fulfilled I'm

telling you there's something that God gives us in the deep that allows us what is necessary to be in position for all the promises of God to be fulfilled but right now God's about to give us something that's going home with us every attack against your marriage every attack against your family everything that's messed with your children everything that's brought tension and chaos and confusion no today God's put something in this house to help us I want you to lift your hands right now by the authority of the word of God and by the power of the name of the Lord Jesus Christ I speak against every tactic the enemy is using I plead the blood over every husband and every wife I speak the name of Jesus right now over every family enemy we cast you down every deceiving spirit we cast you down oh that's it