Simplicity in Christ

As we direct our attention to the Word of the Lord, I want to say how thankful I am to be here tonight and to have been here this week. I am blessed every time I come to Mississippi, and this week was certainly no exception. It was such a joy to be a part of this great camp meeting, to be with my dear friends Brother Woodward and Brother Jones — just two of the great stalwart preachers of the gospel for many, many years. How many are thankful for the legacy preaching and teaching of Brother Woodward and Brother Jones through the years, that have edified the body of Christ? All of us have been blessed by it, and this week has just been a marvelous impartation of God's word. Brother Hunley, the first two nights — what a great camp meeting it has been.

Bishop and Sister Tipton, thank you. God bless you and your teams. Amen. Could we give them a great big hand clap of appreciation? Thank the Lord. Amen. I leaned over to Brother Woodward as Brother Tipton was speaking earlier, and I said, "Brother Tipton is an elite leader in our fellowship. He is an extraordinary leader in our fellowship." We thank God for the ministry of the Tipton family — all the great men and women that comprise the leadership of this wonderful district. And we thank God for it. We honor our government officials. God bless you. So thankful that you're here tonight. Thank you for the wonderful words. Amen. And it's just a wonderful blessing to be in the house of the Lord.

I have so many friends in the Mississippi District, and I spent my first five years living in Mississippi — so I'm right at home tonight. Amen. We lived in Southaven, Mississippi for the first five years of my life, and so it's good to be home. Praise God. Good to be home.

But I will direct your attention to the book of Second Corinthians, chapter 11. I'm going to read three verses of Scripture, and they are the first three verses of Second Corinthians chapter 11. The Word of the Lord says this: "Would to God ye could bear with me a little in my folly: and indeed bear with me. For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ." I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

And I want to speak for just a few moments tonight in your hearing, by the help of God, on this subject: Simplicity in Christ. Simplicity in Christ. Could we lift up our voices unto the Lord and ask His blessing upon the preaching and delivery of His word?

Lord, Your word is so perfect and pure. And God, we handle it today with fallible hands. But I pray that You will bless every effort, every word that is spoken tonight. Let it be anointed of Your Spirit as it goes forth. I pray in the name of Jesus that it will go forth with wisdom and with boldness, with love, with clarity and accuracy. Help it, I pray, to break every chain, to accomplish all things whereto You send it. I know it will not return void, but it shall perform Your will — and we give You the thanks for it, in Jesus' name. And everybody said amen. Amen. God bless you. You may be seated in the name of the Lord.

The apostle Paul, writing his second epistle to the church at Corinth, uses some pretty strong language as he begins to express to them what he called fear. That's a very powerful word, and it is just exactly what he meant to say. He said, "I have a fear." And he said, "My fear is that in some way or another, the enemy would beguile you, just as that serpent beguiled Eve in the garden." He said, "Would to God ye could bear with me in my folly." He said, "I'm dealing with a little something here." He said, "I'm jealous over you, but it's not a human jealousy. It's a godly jealousy." He said, "It's not envy. It's the fact that so many times people look to other things to satisfy the human need that only God can satisfy." And he said, "It is my desire — it is my lot in ministry — to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ." And here in comes the fear: I fear that the enemy would come against you as he did Eve, and beguile you through his subtlety and turn you away from the simplicity that is in Christ.

And it's an interesting thing, because the apostle Paul could have used a number of different scenes of Scripture where deception was afoot, where subtlety was at work. He could have used a number of different scenes of Scripture — and you can list them as well as I: times and places where people stumbled and fell, where they believed the lie and it turned out to be to their own demise. Whether it be Samson and Delilah, David and Bathsheba, whether it be Achan and the folly in Jericho — any number of different settings and scenarios would have worked to describe man's tendency to fall into the snares and the subtle deceptions of the adversary. But he was very deliberate in choosing who he would highlight as the picture of the most egregious subtle deception. And it was, in fact, Eve — and it had to do with the deception that was in the Garden of Eden.

He said, "My fear, as I seek to bring you to a place where you are in fact that glorious church, that bride without spot, without wrinkle, washed in the blood of the Lamb — my fear is that, like Eve was beguiled, maybe you would be beguiled, and that you would be turned away from the simplicity that is in Christ." The inference here is that Eve enjoyed — prior to the beguiling, Eve enjoyed — a simplicity in her relationship with God. And it is true. The relationship that Adam and Eve had with God in the very beginning was simple. It was not at all complex. There was nothing difficult about it whatsoever. There was no hardship involved. It was simple. It was understandable. It was easily lived out and enjoyed. And Paul said, "And the new covenant brings us back to that simplicity. And I just have this deep, abiding concern that, through the subtlety of the enemy, you may make the same mistake she made in believing the lie of the adversary."

And of course, we know that she was in fact tempted by that serpent that the Bible refers to as the most subtle beast of the field. And even as I tell you she was beguiled by the serpent — you know who that serpent was. You know who it was. I don't have to tell you. If I were to pass this microphone around the auditorium tonight, one after another would tell me who it was. It was the devil. You know it, and I know it. But Genesis doesn't say that's who it was. Neither does Exodus through Deuteronomy, nor Joshua to Malachi. We don't learn in the Old Testament who that serpent was. In fact, all through the Gospel accounts, and all through the epistles and the Acts of the Apostles, we don't learn who that serpent was. It isn't until the Revelation of Jesus Christ, that the apostle John the Revelator is looking into the end of days and he describes that dragon, which is that old serpent called the devil. And I just was curious: we encounter the serpent three chapters into the Bible, but we don't learn his identity until ten chapters before the Bible concludes. And I'm going to tell you why I think that is.

I think that's because the devil doesn't always come to you as a serpent. The devil doesn't always come to you as a slithering snake in a Garden of Eden. Sometimes he comes to you exactly as you would prefer, and crave, and desire. Sometimes he comes to you in the pride of this life, or in the love of money, or in the lusts of the flesh and of the eyes. There are myriad ways in which the enemy can present himself to you. And the issue is not how he manifests — because he can even transform himself into an angel of light. So much so that the apostle had to warn us that even if we were to receive a different gospel from an angel from heaven, we are to not receive another gospel, and that angel is to be accursed. If any bring any other gospel to you, let him be accursed. It's that serious. And the enemy can be that deceptive. And we have to be aware that the enemy seeks to deceive us — to steal, to kill, and to destroy. It's not about what he looks like or how he manifests himself. It's about what he says. And it doesn't matter in what form he takes, or what form he manifests. It is a reality that when he starts talking like that serpent, you and I are to shut that voice down in our hearts and in our minds. He opens it up with: "Hath God said that you shall not eat of every tree of the garden?" Of course, he poses a question about the word of God.

And there's nothing wrong with having a question about the word of God. God is not intimidated by our questions. But it is important that when we have questions, we ask God about the questions. It's important that when we have questions, we go to somebody who can help us find the truth and find the right answer to those questions — because the devil is a liar, and he's the father of all liars, and he will lead you astray, and he will deceive you. And that is what happened with Eve. He started out by saying, "Hath God said?" And very soon thereafter, he was in total defiance of what God had said, and said, "Ye shall not surely die" — completely rebelling against what the Lord had spoken. And the Bible says Eve was deceived, but Adam, her husband, was with her, also did eat, and he was disobedient. Paul makes it clear to the church at Rome that Adam's disobedience is what brought sin into the world, and death came by sin.

You and I need to understand that sin never travels alone. Sin always has a companion, and that companion is always death. And that's where death comes from. Sin brought death into the world. Death can't get into this world without any other avenue — there's no other way that death can enter into this world except by the sin of mankind. And so, sin brought death into the world. And I want you to know that when Adam sinned, and Eve was deceived, that disobedience ushered sin into the world, which brought death with it. And everything changed at that point.

Before that time, everything was simple. Everything was easy. Everything was easily understood. There was no complexity. There was no misunderstanding. Adam and God had a beautiful relationship. The Bible describes the voice of God walking in the garden. Listen to that imagery. The voice of God was so clear to Adam that it had an animation of sorts, where it was actually walking in the garden, and Adam was so at ease with the voice of God. But the Scripture says that once the sin had occurred, something shifted, something changed. The voice of God came down into the garden just as it had in times past — but when the voice of God came calling for Adam, Adam did not respond. And the voice was saying, "Adam" — calling unto Adam — Adam is hiding himself. Finally, Adam comes out from his hiding. And the Lord says, "Why are you hiding from me?" And Adam says something that we've never seen Adam say up to this point. It is our introduction to a concept called fear. Before this, we don't know what fear is in the Scriptures. But now we have an encounter with the concept of one being afraid. Adam says, "I heard thy voice, and I was afraid." It's the first time anybody talks about being afraid — because that's what sin will do. That's what disobedience will do. It corrupts the mind.

Before the sin, before the disobedience, before the death entered the picture, all was well. All was at peace. The voice of God walked and talked with man in the cool of the day. It was a beautiful communion that Adam shared with God. But sin drove a wedge between God and man. And I will have you to know: it wasn't God who changed. God is God, and God will never change. He is the same yesterday; He is the same today; He is the same forever. God was still one. He's still holy. He's still just. He's still love. He's still the good shepherd. He's still compassionate. God was all that He has ever been and will ever be. In that moment that He came down into the garden, God had not changed. But Adam had changed. Something shifted in Adam, to where now, when he hears the voice of God, it doesn't have that soothing effect upon him. It doesn't have that sense of belonging that once so comforted him. It didn't feel like a father talking to his son, as it did in times before. Now it's as though the voice, if you please, is almost filtered through a voice distortion instrument. And that voice that once brought so much peace, and brought so much security — now it's a distortion of that voice. And when Adam hears it, it doesn't sound pleasant. It sounds like: God is getting ready to overthrow me, and God is getting ready to pour out His wrath upon me. And Adam fled, and he was afraid.

And thus begins a long journey that we still see at work today — where man, who is made in the image of God, man who was designed to have covenant relationship with the Lord — now, when man hears the voice of God, he runs from it. He hides from it. You see it even in our services when we gather together. You saw what we just experienced. There was joy in the atmosphere. There was peace in this house. "No place I'd rather be," we sang, "than here in Your presence." In His presence there is fullness of joy, and at His right hand there are pleasures forevermore. We are familiar with it. When we walk into this house, we call moments of prayer a sweet hour of prayer. We say things like, "Just a little talk with Jesus will make it all right." "When you feel a little prayer wheel turning" — I don't even know what a prayer wheel is, but I know when one's a-turning, you can feel the fire burning — "and just a little talk with Jesus makes it all right." We know how to get into the presence of God, how to find peace, how to find comfort, how to lay hold on hope, because He inhabits the praises of His people. And when we begin to praise the Lord, peace comes like a river.

And yet somebody could walk into this place and be so far from God, and have so little knowledge of Him, and have such little experience in His presence — and there are times where they look at the very same beautiful thing we see, and they might run and hide. It might cause them to be a little bit afraid. We've seen it before. We saw it with Israel.

Moses was so excited. He had stood before a burning bush — a bush that was burning, but not being consumed. The voice from within the bush said, "You go tell Pharaoh: I AM hath sent you." And Moses goes to tell Pharaoh. I'm telling you: what he experienced before that burning bush changed his life. His question was, "Who am I?" The answer was, "I AM." Moses kept asking, "Who am I, to go to Egypt? Who am I, to lift my voice? Who am I, to go and do Your work?" But God didn't pay any attention to the question, "Who am I?" He just kept reestablishing His own identity: I AM. I AM. I AM. Ladies and gentlemen, it is not about you or your inadequacies. It is about the power of God. It is about the glory of His name. Hallelujah. Don't you worry one more day about whether you can or cannot. It's about God, and His power, and His abilities. He's an omnipotent Savior. I AM was the response. I'm telling you, it put something into Moses. And Moses didn't care anymore that he wasn't an eloquent speaker. He didn't care anymore that they had a warrant out for his arrest. He didn't care anymore what anybody thought of him. He walked in the authority of the great I AM, and said to Pharaoh, "Let my people go. God has said, 'Let my firstborn son go.'" He told Pharaoh. And so He delivers Israel out of Egypt. They go through the plagues. They come out of that final plague, that Passover night, and they come into the place where God is leading them. They arrive at a Red Sea: "Stand still, and see that I am the Lord." And Moses said, "You shall stand still and see the salvation of the Lord." And the waters parted hither and thither, and they walk through on dry ground. And Miriam leads the ladies in a song of praise and a dance of joy. And they're so excited. And Moses has been telling them: "I've talked with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I know the God of our fathers. I know His name. And I can't wait for you to meet Him — because when you meet Him, it's going to change your life." He said, "I've heard His voice."

And let me tell you something, ladies and gentlemen: that's who wrote this book. We read from people who heard His voice. This isn't just a collection of sages from ancient ages. This isn't some ancient literature. No — these are holy men of God who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. The prophecy came not in old time by the will of man; it is of no private interpretation. Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. They heard His voice. Whether it was Ezekiel by the river of Chebar, seeing the heavens opened and seeing visions of God — or it was Isaiah, saying, "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple," and I heard a voice saying, "Who shall go? Who will go for Me? Whom shall I send?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me." That's who wrote this book. Men like Noah, that preacher of righteousness, who could hear God giving clear instructions about the cubit inches of a boat that would fit everything God wanted inside of it, in order to survive the great indignation of God upon the earth. Men like Abraham, I don't know how many people God spoke to and they ignored Him. The Bible doesn't say it happened. I don't know that it did. I just wonder how many people God had called to go out. I don't know. But I know one man heard Him, and one man obeyed Him, and that man heard God say, "Leave thy father's house. Leave thy father's kindred. Go to a land that I will show you. Go look for a city that hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." And Abraham said, "All right, I'll do it." And God said, "You hear Me? You hear Me, and you're obeying Me. You heard My voice. You listen to Me. You're sensitive to Me. There's no distortion to My voice with you. You're not afraid to obey Me. I don't make you want to run and hide. Oh, this is something! You know what, Abraham? Everywhere you place your foot, I'm going to give it to you. You know what, Abraham? Blessing, I will bless you. Multiplying, I will multiply you. I'll bless those who bless you. I'll curse those who curse you." This is what happens when people start hearing the voice of God in clarity. Hallelujah.

Moses said, "I can't wait to introduce you to Him. You're going to love Him. He's awesome. He's everything they said He was, and more. I talked to Him. The bush was burning and it wasn't being consumed. And He called my name two times, and He told me His name — and He's awesome, and you guys are going to love Him. He's great." "Well, where is He?" "He's right up there in that mountain." And they looked up at that mountain, and there was lightning, and there were thunders, and there were vapors of smoke, and there was darkness, and there was tempest, and there was like a cyclonic ferocity of wind and rain and hail. And Moses said — they said — "That — that's where He is?" Moses said, "Yeah, that's where He is." "Oh," he said, "I know it. Oh, I know what you're thinking. It looks bad — but trust me: if you'll just step into the waters — if you just step into the waters and go down just a little bit deeper." Hallelujah. Don't you let what you don't understand intimidate you from stepping into the glories of God. Hallelujah.

Don't you let — how many remember when you thought everybody in here was crazy? How many remember when you thought the tongue-talkers were crazy? How many remember when you thought Sister So-and-So was crazy, because she'd let out that war whoop and take off dancing down the aisles? Now we can hardly get you in your seat, because something happens when you step into the glory and the presence of God.

But to the fleshly mind and the carnal man, the presence of God is frightening. And when they looked up at that mountain, they said, "You have lost your mind. We are not — we absolutely are not going up into that mountain. You go up into that mountain, and you tell Him — you tell Him to just talk with you and leave us alone." They said, "We cannot bear the voice" — this is what they said — "the voice of words." And to them, that's what the voice of God was: it's just a bunch of words. And to a lot of people, that's what it is. It's just a bunch of words. It's just confusing. It's just a bunch of words.

So this is what God did. God said, "You know what? Here's what I'm going to do." He said, "I'm going to take all those words that are intimidating to them, that they don't think they can bear, that they don't think they can understand, that they can't sort out — I'm going to take all those words, and I'm going to wrap it up into one Word." And can I tell you that "in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God"? Can I tell you that that Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory — the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and full of truth? Can I tell you that He's not just a bunch of words? There's one Word, and that Word is Jesus. And I want you to know that in that name, and in that person — that Jesus — in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And you and I, we are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.

Moses goes to God and said, "Lord, they won't come talk to You. They're sending me — and I want them to be in Your presence." The Lord already knew they were going to have to be brought in incrementally. He said at first, "Don't let them break through, or I'll have to break forth. They're not ready." He said, "We're going to set up feasts in the wilderness, and the feasts are going to teach them about Me. They are so far from Me that I have to teach them." And so He said, "Here's what we're going to do, Moses. We're going to establish the law of God, but I'm going to have to give it to you. And since they won't receive it, I'm going to have to give it to you, and you're going to have to give it to them."

And this is why the law of Moses is confusing to us today — because the law of Moses seems like a bunch of arbitrary, random regulations that just don't seem to make a lot of sense. But that's because they didn't get it directly from God. They wanted a man to stand between them and God. And I want you to know that, just as there is one God, that one God is also the mediator. And "there is only one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." And you don't need anybody standing between you and God. You hear me? You can have — yea, should have — yea, must have a personal relationship with God. And I want to tell you something: when He has a personal relationship with you, His law doesn't have to be written on tablets of stone. It can be written upon the tablets of your heart.

When it's written on tablets of stone, there's so much more you've got to go into. There's 613 ordinances and statutes. And then you've got to add up all the other things to that. And that's what happens when it's tablets of stone — when you've got somebody else doing all the praying for you, when you've got somebody else doing all the studying for you, when you've got somebody else doing all the talking with God on your behalf. But when you have a personal encounter with God, He is able to restore to you the simplicity that once existed between God and man.

Let me tell you how He writes His law upon your hearts. Amen. It starts with repentance — turning from your wicked ways. And when you're baptized into the name of Jesus Christ, those sins that you walked away from — now, you haven't just walked away from them; they are washed away. They are washed away. They are not upon the record of your life any longer. They will not stand against you in judgment, because they have been washed away in the blood of the Lamb, for the remission of sins. You were baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. And when you are filled with the Holy Ghost, that is the Spirit of God living on the inside of you. Hallelujah. That's the mind of God living inside of you. And the Spirit searcheth the things of God — yea, the deep things of God — and they are revealed to us by the Spirit that lives on the inside. Having the Spirit of God in us is having the mind of God in us. Hallelujah. And now, all of a sudden, keeping that beautiful, perfect law of — oh, can I just tell you that the law of God is perfect? It's weak through the flesh, but it's perfect when it's imprinted upon your heart by His Spirit.

I need to tell somebody: don't — don't listen. Jesus came not to fulfill the law of God; He came to fulfill the law of Moses. And the law of Moses was the law of God — but it was the law of God via Moses. But the law of God in its purest form does not need somebody like a Moses standing between it and us. Hallelujah. He was manifest in the flesh, and He put His law in our hearts. "So the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The commandment of the Lord is pure, rejoicing the heart. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart and enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold. Sweeter also than honey, and the honeycomb." See, you didn't think it was perfect, and you didn't think it was clean, and you didn't think it was right, and you didn't think it was sweeter than honey, and you didn't think it was more to be desired than fine gold — because you don't hear His voice. You have to be able to hear the voice of God. You have to be able to hear the voice of God. It's not hard to live for God when you hear His voice. It's not hard to know how good He is when you hear His voice. Oh, hallelujah.

Brother Woodward, when I hear the voice of God, He can say things to me that are absolute, utter correction of the error of my ways — and when He says it, I feel more loved. I can't even describe it to you, but the Lord can come down and tell me, "Stop that." I've had Him just come down and just ever so gently just smack me. In the most loving of ways, He said, "Joel, you're off base here. You're off track here." And He begins to adjust me, and realign me, and get me upon the path of His holy word.

Brother Woodward talked about it this morning: the rhema word of God and the logos word of God. I want you to know we need both in the church today. Thank you, Brother Woodward, for helping us to see it and understand it even more clearly today. I want you to know that the word of God — when I say the word of God, you know what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the written word of God. But I want you to know that these are the Scriptures. This is the script form of His word. That's why we call it the Holy Scriptures. But before there was a printed page, His word was His voice. And let me tell you: when you hear His voice, it will not contradict His written word. As a matter of fact, when you hear His voice, you should go to the written word to make sure it was His voice you heard. And I want you to know that what you hear from God — if it's God you hear from — you will see it mirrored in His written Holy Scriptures. I like to call this the hardback version, and the voice of God is the audio version. But they do not deviate, one from the other. It's the same word. It's the same word. And I want you to know that He can speak to you. And we need people who can hear from God.

Bishop, I can't do ministry if I can't hear from God. I don't know how to do ministry without hearing from God. I don't know how to preach unless I hear His voice. I don't know how to pray for people if I don't hear His voice. I don't know how to do that. If somebody knows how to do that, that concerns me. I don't know how to pray for people, how to lead people, how to make decisions, how to preach the word, how to teach the Bible. I don't know how to do it without hearing His voice.

So I asked Him one day. I said — Lord, I asked Him more than one day. I went on a two-week time of prayer and seeking God. I was fasting, and saying: "Lord, I need desperately to hear Your voice." I said, "I don't want it to be a case where You speak, and then I hear it, but I'm not sure it's really You — and so I've got to send it through customs, and have TSA check all the bags and rip all the bags apart and unzip everything and check the documentation, and look at You, and have You stand in front of the picture-taker — and then finally, fifteen minutes after what You told me to do, the time had already passed and the opportunity was gone. Finally I decide that must have been the Lord that wanted me to encourage that soul. I thought maybe it was the devil that wanted me to encourage that soul. And I guess it must have been the Lord, now that I've put it through a thorough background check." And it's ridiculous. I said, "God, I don't want that. I want to know when I hear from You. I want it to be as clear as 'the word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah,' and 'the word of the Lord came unto Ezekiel,' and 'the word of the Lord came unto Isaiah.' I want the word of the Lord to come to me, and I want to know that's Him. I hear it. That's His voice. That's His voice. I want it to be simple. I want it to be clear. I want it to be understood. I don't want there to be complexity. Lord, make Your voice simple for me to understand."

So I prayed this prayer for two weeks. This was many, many years ago. And I was asleep one night, around 3:30 in the morning. I woke up, and I sat up in bed, and decided I want to get out of bed. So I put my feet on the floor and thought, I think I'll just go out to the hallway. And instinctively, I went to the top of the steps, and instinctively I just went down the steps, and went down to the bottom of the steps, and stood there for a moment, and thought, I'm going to go down to the kitchen. I walked down to the kitchen, and as I walked into the kitchen, I saw our portable phone. And see, back in those days, in the early days of Pentecost, we had what were called landlines. And there was that portable phone sitting there. It should have been upstairs with my wife and I, but now it's just sitting down here. And I thought, you know, I'm going to check that. I mean, I've only been asleep for four hours, but I just feel — I just feel instinctively like I should check that. And so I picked up the phone and I checked it. There were eight voicemail messages. That's not good. Been asleep for four hours — from 11:30 to 3:30, there are eight voicemail messages. They were all from Sister Stella Rivers, from our church. Her husband, Brother Carrie Rivers, was one of the godliest men, to this day, that I have ever known. And this was probably twenty-three, four years ago. And the first message started, and the next, and the next — and I finally realized what was happening: Brother Carrie Rivers was dying, right then, in the hospital.

And I immediately — I put the phone down, and I made myself presentable, and I went rushing out of the door. And as I turned to lock the door to my house, I heard the voice — and the Lord spoke to me, and it wasn't audible, but I knew it was the Lord talking. And this is what I heard the Lord say. He said, "You just heard My voice." And I stopped. I'll never forget it. Galveston, Indiana. I stood under the starry night sky, and I said, "Lord — okay, I don't remember hearing Your voice. You'll have to explain this to me." And He said, "My voice, when you're filled with My Spirit, is not external from you. My voice is not way off in the distance, having to fight through a bunch of stuff to get down into your thinking. My voice is in you, as My Spirit." And He said, "My voice is when I replace your instincts with My instincts." He said, "It was Me telling you to get out of bed. It was Me telling you to walk down the steps. It was Me telling you to walk down the hall. It was Me telling you to pick up the phone. You thought it was your instinct. No — that was My voice inside of you. My voice is in the members of your body."

And I went on to the hospital, and I prayed for Brother Rivers. He died that night, and the Lord raised him up from the dead that night in the hospital. That was about twenty-three years ago. He's still living. He's well into his eighties. He's doing great. And if you were to walk into Mercy Church, Kokomo, Indiana, you'd see Brother Rivers down in the front, worshiping God with all of his heart.

A few years passed. I was standing in a hospital room, and there was great grief in that room, as a loved one was lying in the bed. And I stood there for a moment, and I heard the voice, and the voice said, "Send everybody out of the room. Send everybody out of the room." And I did not send everybody out of the room. And I walked out of that room myself, and I went to find a place to pray. And I said, "Lord, oh, please forgive me, because I very clearly heard You say, 'Send everybody out of the room.' And Lord, I didn't obey. And Lord, I ask You to forgive me for not obeying Your voice." And then I said, "But Lord — in my defense — come on. Come on: send everybody out of the room. And then what? And then what? What am I? Am I Elisha? Elijah? Going to just stretch myself out over the body, and have security called on me, and drag me out of the hospital? Then what? I mean, this isn't First Kings 17. This is the new millennium. And then what? What was I going to do after I send everybody out of the room?" And I'll never forget: that voice came back to me, just as gentle and just as compassionate as it always was. And He very simply said, "I would have told you what to do next." And I want you to know that that's how the voice of God works. His word is a lamp unto my feet, and His word is a light unto my path. And when He gives you a word that all it is is a lamp to your feet — where you don't know what's up ahead, you're just walking one step at a time — don't you ever be afraid to take that one step He told you to take. You just take that one step. I don't know — I don't know what was going to happen. Maybe He wanted me to sing. Maybe He wanted me to pray. I don't know what He wanted. I just know I'm learning how the voice works. And the voice — when He begins talking, you don't have to have it all figured out. You just follow the voice. Follow the voice. It's the simplicity of walking with God. It's the simplicity we have in Christ: that we can walk with Him and talk with Him. I want you to know: "I come to the garden alone, while the dew is still on the roses. And the voice I hear, falling on my ear, the Son of God discloses. And He walks with me, and He talks with me, and He tells me I am His own. And the joy we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known."

He spoke to me one day — rebuked me real good. It was such a solid rebuke. But I knew He loved me, because He's a father chastening his children. I was going through a little stint where I was looking at people. There was an era: people called themselves "Jesus follower, Jesus follower, Jesus follower." And clearly, that's okay, because we're supposed to be following Jesus. But I was just being a little suspect of it, and thinking: I wonder why they're saying that about themselves. And the Lord just kind of interrupted my train of thought and said, "Are you a Jesus follower?" And I thought, "Well, I hope so — but the way You asked it makes me wonder. You may know something I don't know." And He said, "Well, then, if you are — where are you? Because I'll tell you where I am." And He gave me a hospital room, and He gave me a bed number, and He gave me a name, and said, "That's where I am. Where are you?" And I realized, you know what we do, half the time? We get up in the morning and we give God our to-do list, and we say, "God, bless everything that I'm about to do today. All of these items on my list — bless everything I'm about to do." Instead of getting up in the morning and saying, "Lord, where are You? Where's the cloud? Let me see where the cloud is. I'm going to follow You." Hey, we've got Jesus following us, when we're supposed to be following Him. And I'm going to tell you something: if you'll tune your ear to His voice and start following Him, you'll see miracles. You'll see signs. You'll see wonders. You'll see people saved. You'll see people delivered.

So, I'm in service one day, and I get a note at the pulpit, and the note says that Jared and Tiffany were just in a terrible car accident. They were sitting at a stoplight — they're just sitting there at a standstill — and they were hit, sixty-five miles an hour, by a car that didn't see them, wasn't paying attention, and it just obliterated their vehicle. They were on their way to church — a young couple, engaged to be married. And Tiffany, by the grace of God, only had scrapes and bruises. But Jared was nearly pronounced dead on arrival. They were prepared to pronounce him dead on arrival, and they found the faintest of pulses, and they said, "All right — we're going to rush him to University of Cincinnati Hospital. There's a tremendous neuroscience center there." And they rushed him to the University of Cincinnati Hospital. And he lay there in a coma, and they had to remove half of his cranium and let his brain swell out. As he lay there, they said, "This young man is going to die. We need to prepare you. There's just nothing we can do. If you are praying people — pray." I'm telling you, we filled that waiting room with prayer for that young man. And they said if, by some miracle, he doesn't die, he will be in a state of incapacity all the days of his life. He will never be able to feed himself. He'll never be able to clothe himself. He'll have no use of any of his limbs. He will be in a complete vegetative state. And so they just said, "It is hopeless." And so we prayed. They said, "We're going to keep monitoring him, as long as he's got brain activity." And they were monitoring him. And we prayed. My goodness, we prayed. We had praying chains. We had fasting chains. We sought God. And about forty-nine days into it, we were at a Christmas gathering of leaders in the church. And we were just gathering for some fellowship. And while we were there, a phone call came in. It was from Tiffany's brother — Jared's future brother-in-law. And he said, "I need the saints of God and the ministers to pray right now. They're calling us in. They've given up on Jared. They said, 'Tonight's the night. They've lost him, and we need prayer right now.'" Oh, my goodness. We had prayed more than I can even express. We had prayed — and we gathered again. We gathered hand to hand. We began to pray. We encircled that room, and we prayed. And I mean, we prayed, and we called on God, and we wept and we cried, and we prayed. And then we finished praying, and people wiped the tears from their eyes, and they just began to kind of meander back. A somber chit-chat kind of developed again in the house, and everybody was just trying to process the feelings they were having. And all of a sudden, I heard the voice. I heard the voice, and the voice said, "You don't get to stop praying." This instinct in me rose up: Go pray. Go pray. Go pray.

I went to the corner of the room. I was trying not to be terribly conspicuous, but I went to the corner of the room, and I knelt down, and I put my face in the corner of that room, and I began to pray. I began to pray — and I didn't know what to pray for anymore. I had rebuked every devil I knew to rebuke. I had cast down every imagination I knew to cast down. I had subdued every principality I knew to subdue. I didn't know what to pray. And let me tell you, saint of God: when you don't know what to pray for as you ought, speak in tongues — because the Spirit will make intercession for you. There are things that need to be subdued, and you don't know what they are. There are things that need to be cast down, and you don't know what they are. But the Holy Ghost in you knows what they are. I didn't know what to pray. So I didn't use my natural tongue. I began to pray in the Holy Ghost. I began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit of God would give the utterance. It was an unknown language. I didn't know what I was saying — but the Holy Ghost was bearing witness that something was happening in the Spirit. And I'm going to tell you something: when that gets on you, and it's a deep travail, and it's a burden to pray — you pray till the burden lifts. You pray until the burden lifts. Don't you stop praying until the Lord releases you from that place of prayer. Because when you pray like that, and He releases you from it, that means something happened. Something broke. Something shifted. And all at once, it lifted off of me.

And I jumped to my feet. I had no clue what was about to come out of my mouth. I had no idea. But I knew that I had heard the voice enough by now, to know that whatever comes out of my mouth is the word of God. I don't have to know what it is. I know that when I speak it, it will be the word of God. And I walked over to the phone, and I said to the owner of the home — Brother Brian, of all our leadership, pastor — I said, "Brother Brian, call Brother Aaron. Please get him back on the phone." He called Aaron back. I said, "I need to talk to him." I didn't even know what I was going to say, but I knew that I was under the unction of the Holy Ghost. And I got on that phone, and I said, "Aaron, are you on your way to the hospital?" He said, "Yes." I said, "I want you to go into that hospital. I want you to walk into Jared's room." I don't know what's about to come out of my mouth. I said, "And I want you to pray for Jared. And I said, Aaron, I need you to understand what I mean. I want you to pray for him. I don't mean ask God to heal him. We've asked God to heal him. I want you to pray for him. I want you to pray his prayers for him. I want you to pray what he would pray, if he could pray. I want you to stand in the gap, and I want you to intercede on his behalf."

I don't know where that came from. I'd never spoken those kinds of words before. I had never given that kind of an instruction. But the Holy Ghost was giving the utterance. It was a word of wisdom and a working of miracles. And I said, "I want you to lay your hand on him, and I want you to pray for him. Pray his prayers for him."

That young man of God, Brother Aaron Williams, walked into that room. He laid his hand on his new future brother-in-law's head. He said, "Lord, this is Aaron. I'm going to pray Jared's prayers for him. Lord, heal my body. Raise me up off of this bed of affliction. Deliver me from this condition." Brother [Cares?], I want you to understand: that night he was supposed to die — but the next morning, Jared came up out of that coma. That was sixteen years ago. He came up out of that coma, doesn't remember anything he went through, and he went on to graduate from the University of Cincinnati. He went on to marry Tiffany. They've got two beautiful children. And if you walk into Tree of Life Church on Sunday, you'll see Jared down at the front of the church, dancing before the Lord.

I want you to hear me. If you listen to the voice, He'll tell you where to go. If you listen to the voice, He'll tell you what to say. If you listen to the voice, He'll tell you who to pray for.

Now, the Bible says that in the days of Eli, the word of God was precious in those days. Do you know what that means? That means it was exceedingly rare. Do you know what that means? That means it was rare for people to hear the voice of God. People didn't hear the voice of God in those days. That's why, when Samuel came to Eli and said, "Did you call me?" — Eli, if he knew the voice of God, he would have immediately said, "It wasn't me. You're hearing from God." But it was precious in those days. It was rare for people to hear the voice of God. That's why Samuel had to be put in the temple. That's why Hannah had to be barren, up to the point of her commitment that she would put her child into the temple — so that God could have him in a space, a place where he could learn the voice of God. Because God needed a priest, and a prophet, and a judge, who could hear His voice.

I tell you what Mississippi needs. Mississippi needs some pastors, and pastors' wives, and saints of God, and leaders, who can hear the voice. And all of a sudden, you don't know why you stopped in there — but you did. And you don't know why you went down that checkout lane — but you did. And you don't know why you decided to go here on this day, and just walk down the hospital. You don't even know why you pushed the wrong elevator number and went on the wrong floor. It wasn't the wrong floor. It was the right floor. "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord." When you're hearing the voice, His voice will get in your steps. His voice will get in your words. His voice.

I want you to know: "all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose." Hallelujah.

So Peter — Peter comes to the house. They're cooking. He walks into the house, and the food's not ready. He's got time to kill. How do you kill your time? How do you use spare time? I'll tell you how we use spare time. "What — we've got thirty minutes to spare? Oh, come on. Thought I'd be ready by now. I guess I'll go get on Instagram. I guess I'll go scroll. I guess I'll go compare myself to others. I guess I'll go envy what somebody else has going on. I guess I'll go just indulge all the junk news happening in our world today." That's not what Peter did. Peter went to the rooftop, and Peter began to pray. I'm going to tell you: we need to pray more. How much more? I'll tell you how much more: we need to pray without ceasing. Peter goes to the rooftop, and he starts to pray. And while he's praying, the Bible says he went into a trance. That's a scary little word. But the New Age mystics don't hold that word. That belongs to the church. It doesn't mean self-enlightenment. It means everything else goes quiet, and it's just you and God. It's just you. When was the last time you prayed yourself into a place where you turned your eyes upon Jesus, and looked full in His wonderful face, and the things of this world grew strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace? When was the last time? I'm going to tell you: God can get some things done in the kingdom, if He can get us in that place.

All of a sudden, a sheet comes down in front of Peter. It's got all manner of unclean beasts on it. The Lord said — the voice, the Bible says, the voice — a voice said unto Peter: "Rise, Peter; slay and eat." And Peter is about as spiritual as you can get in that moment, and he still says, "Not so, my Lord." Brother Rios, I'd hate to see what it was like when he was just carnal. He's as spiritual as you can get, and he's still fighting God. "Not so, my Lord. It's common. It's unclean." Three times the Lord said, "Rise, Peter; slay." And He finally said, "Don't you call what I have cleansed common or unclean." Hallelujah. And it prepared Peter. It prepared Peter's spirit. Prayer prepared his spirit. The voice prepared his spirit, for a knock on the door. And there were men from Cornelius's house who, without prayer and without the voice, Peter surely would have turned them away. But because his spirit had been softened by prayer, and his heart had been readied by the voice of God, he said, "I'm coming with you. I don't care if they call me before the council. I'm coming to preach Jesus to you, so you can receive the Holy Ghost as well as we." He preached Jesus to them. And "while Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word." And Peter knew they had the Holy Ghost because they were speaking in tongues — the Bible says. Hallelujah.

Peter and John are walking to the temple — the gate called Beautiful. I'm almost done. Our musicians, you could come if you'd like. And Peter and John come walking to the temple. And as they're walking to the gate called Beautiful, there's a lame man at the gate. And the Bible says that he fastened his eyes on Peter and John. Peter and John fastened their eyes. Their eyes were fastened. They were connected. And he looked to them. And the Bible said he asked an alms, and Peter said, "Silver and gold have I none." Stop right there. Thank God he didn't have silver or gold. Because when we've got silver and gold, that's what we use for everything. He doesn't need silver and gold. He needs a miracle. And I'm just going to tell you something: don't you get frustrated. Don't you get frustrated when you feel like you lack the material you need. God will withhold the materialistic in favor of the miraculous, every time. Because I'm going to tell you something: if I've got some silver and gold, I'm going to throw it down at him, because I've got some praying to do. It's a time of prayer, and he's holding me up. So here's some — whatever — here's some silver and gold. But Peter said, "Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I thee." Now, I just need to stop right here and tell you: Peter did not stop and say, "Lord, I want You to heal this man. Lord, I pray that You'll heal him. I pray that You'll just deliver him from this lame condition." And there's not a thing wrong with prayer. Hear me: there's not a thing wrong with prayer. "The prayer of faith shall save the sick." But when the voice is directing you, you know when to pray and when not to pray. And this is when Peter looks down at the man, and he says, "I don't have silver and gold, but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk." And he took the man by the hand.

You want to know why we're afraid to do that kind of thing? Because we don't have the confidence of the voice. But I want you to know that when the voice is directing — and when the voice is leading — there are going to be times you won't even need to pray. You'll just command: in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. There will be times you'll be able to step to it and say, "I've been praying, praying. Now I've got the word to speak." Because there's a moment when prayer shifts into prophecy. And you know what to say, and when to say it, and how to say it. This is why the Bible says your old men will dream dreams. Your young men will see visions. Your sons and daughters shall prophesy. Now, now, now — listen to me. Old men dreaming dreams: that's the way God used to speak. He used to speak through dreams, when people had to be completely incapacitated — no distractions, just completely incapacitated. They could dream a dream. The voice of God could speak. Then, as they got closer to God, young men could see visions. Now they didn't have to be asleep. They could be wide awake, and they could see the voice of God in vision form, and it would play out in front of their eyes even while they were wide awake. But let me tell you about the sons and daughters. Let me tell you what's coming. Let me tell you what the future holds. This is what Joel was prophesying: there's coming a day when you don't need a dream, and you don't need a vision. He's going to put His word right in your mouth, and it's going to be on the tip of your tongue, and you're going to be able to declare it — because you're governed by the voice of God.

I want everybody who wants a relationship with the voice of God — I want you to lift your hands right now, in the name of Jesus. I want some pastors. God bless you. Wonderful pastors. I want you to know that God is going to make you more sensitive to His voice than ever before. I believe that in the name of Jesus: you're going to know where to go; you're going to know what to say; you're going to know when to say it. Even right now, the voice of God is speaking to someone here tonight. Even right now, the voice of God is putting a name in your heart, a name in your mind. God is putting a direction. He's putting a direction in your spirit. He's put it in the instinct of your spirit. That's not your instinct. That's His. You want to know the will of God? You go to the word of God. You want to know the will of God? You go to a place of prayer, and pay attention to what you feel to do when you come up out of that prayer.

There's a moving of the Spirit of God happening right now. I want you to listen to me. I want you to listen to me. If you're praying, you just keep praying — but I want you to hear me. I want everybody in this house — I'm going to do it as well — I want every one of us right now to say: "Lord, I want to hear Your voice. God, I need to hear Your voice. God, remove anything in me that's inhibiting Your voice. God, I need You to speak to me. There are people in my city that are broken, that are despondent. There are decisions I need to make, and I don't know what they are — but You do. Speak to me, Lord. There's a direction I need to take. There's a place I need to go. There's a message I need to preach. Speak to me, Lord. God, when I open up the Scriptures, let the Scriptures leap out at me, like Brother Woodward was teaching us today. Let the rhema leap out from the logos. Let it land in my spirit. Speak, Lord. Speak, Lord. Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth. Here am I. Send me. Here am I. Send me."

Come on. That's it. God's bringing you back to a place of simplicity. God's bringing you to a place of simplicity. He's going to take away the complexity of walking in the Spirit. He's going to take away the complexity of operating in the gifts of the Spirit. He's going to take away the complexity of showing forth the fruit of the Spirit. You're going to be led by His word, led by His voice. You are His sheep. You are His people, the sheep of His pasture. And He said, "My sheep, they know My voice. My sheep know My voice. And another they will not follow."