"Put All Things Under the Feet of Jesus" By Derek Prince.

thank you so much for your welcome to root for me I want particularly to a direct your attention to one book which was published about about three years ago called blessing or curse you can choose it came as a tremendous startling revelation to me some years ago when I realized that God told us to choose he said through Moses before behold I said before you this day life and death blessing and curse therefore choose it staggers my mind that God has left us to make the choice and so many people don't realize that don't make the right choice and labor under the burden of a curse from which they could be free Ruth and I be ministering together now for 14 years and God has opened up this theme of blessings and curses to us and we came to the point where we really were hardly willing to pray for the sick unless we had first dealt with the issue of curses because I find today the majority of people that we minister to have some kind of a curse over their life in most cases they're not aware of it and even if they are aware of it they're probably not aware of the sauce so in this book I've done my best to uncover that whole area the the two words blessing or curse occur altogether about 600 times in the Bible so it's not a little subject and I've had one or two letters from people that want me to minister to them or counsel with them I have to say frankly we are not able to give much time to personal counseling we have to give priority to the public ministry but even when I read the letters I thought they need to read the book so if some of you have written to me you don't get a direct reply just go to the book we have them I suppose cause I could say hundreds of testimonies of people whose lives have been revolutionized by this discovery I'm not yet to sell something I don't need to do that but I'm concerned that people are laboring under problems that they could be free from now that doesn't mean you have no more problems in your lives anybody who teaches there it's a false prophet and I have to say Ruth and I have had our share of problems these last especially these last three years both of us have been at least fairly close to death with physical conditions and it's the mercy of God that we've been preserved His mercies you know are new every morning his Compassion's fail not the longer I live the more I see how indebted I am to the mercy of God so we're going to make a confession or a proclamation which really is our testimony summed up briefly taken from psalm 118 verses 13 through 18 now the words that started are addressed to the enemy they're not addressed to God so don't be surprised you look pushes me violently that I might fall but the Lord help me the Lord is my strength and song and he has become my salvation the voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tents of the righteous the right the right hand of the Lord does valiantly the right hand of is exalted the right hand of the Lord does valiantly I shall not die but live and declare the works of the Lord the Lord has chastened me severely but he has not given me over to death how many of you anticipate the Lord's chastening the Bible says he's chasin sir every son whom he receives if you are without chastening you're not a true son you're illegitimate as I've said we've been through some real hard struggles we're not the only ones we know that many of you here have been through them too we were in New Zealand about three years ago for some meetings and we were meeting with our international directors and Ruth and I were located in a motel and she was having the most intense intestinal pain and I was there kind of not knowing what to do and she began talking to the Lord and she said lon I commit the family to you then she said lord I committed the ministry to you then she said Lord I commit Derek to you and I thought to myself I better do something quickly and I found some brothers and they came around immediately and prayed and Ruth was raised up but she was really at that store at that moment later on God directed us to take a sabbatical of six months in Hawaii we went on this sabbatical with great anticipation of a wonderful time in the beautiful climate of Hawaii in in a condominium that we owned just about the Pacific and we envisaged Bible study and prayer and fellowship it turned out to be some of the hardest months of our lives in the closet I became progressively more and more sick and the doctors really couldn't discover what was wrong with me and eventually a clever doctor diagnosed what's called sub acute bacterial endocarditis and it ceased to be sub acute after a while and I ended up spending 17 days in the hospital and six weeks on intravenous antibiotics and it may not sound spiritual but I thank God phantom erotics you know that there was a time in my life many years ago when I thought I'd never need medicine God delivered me from that pride we went there because we felt we'd come to the end of one phase of our ministry and I'd handed over the administration of the ministry to my son-in-law and we wanted to know what God had for us next in our lives and so we thought if we give him six months that will be wonderful and it seemed a very long time to us to take six months away from ministry well at the end of six months we had heard nothing from God about our future he had spent all that time dealing with problems in us that prevented us from being ready to hear and respond to what he had to say next I don't intend to go into detail but if a preacher speaks about problems people always conclude it's one or other of three things is either immorality or alcohol or misappropriation of funds that was not it but there are plenty of other ways that Christians can block God's purpose for their lives and I have a deep concern for all of you here tonight I watched you enjoying the pageant and rejoicing in the beautiful music but to tell you the truth I'm confident that many of you are not where you ought to be with God right now statistically I think that's absolutely sure and so my desire is to help you not to accuse you not to condemn you but to help you after we'd come through this carried a dear brother in the Lord said this to me he said your decision to take a sabbatical saved your life because if you had gone on traveling at ministry you wouldn't have had the opportunity to have the close medical supervision that eventually discovered your problem you would have died and I want to say to some of you it could well be that if you go on being as busy as you are with as little time for waiting on God as you have you will die when you don't need to the gospel is a serious message it's a message of life and death now the theme that was allotted for this conference whilst dwelling in his presence because I was away in Israel and in Britain I didn't get the theme but I felt the Lord gave me a message and had I known the theme it couldn't have been better suited to the message I want to speak tonight for a while and something that I think is radically out of place in the body of Christ I'm not saying in every part of the body of Christ but in most of the body of Christ there is something that is out of place and it's a very important part of the body it's the hey in Ephesians one the last two verses God says that he put all things under the feet of Jesus and gave him to be head over all things to the church which is his body there's an interesting difference in language God put all things under the feet of Jesus they were subjected but when it relates to the position of Christ he gave Christ the most wonderful gift he could give it was not subjection it was not domination it was the most precious and wonderful blessing that he can offer to the body was to have Jesus as hey and he's head over all things not over a few things not of the most things but over all things and I'm gonna deal in the way in a moment with the functions of a cave but I just want to ask you right now could you honestly say in the presence of God Jesus is head over everything in my life there is nothing that's outside his control there's nothing which is not the expression of his determined will for me in Ephesians four verses 15 and 16 Paul writes in it's the middle of one of these long sentences he says speaking the truth in love or being honest in LOM we may grow up in all things into him who is the head Christ from whom the whole body joined and knit together by what every joint supplies according to the effective working by which every part does it share causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love notice the whole body depends on the head and it's only through its relationship to the head that the body derives nourishment and is able to grow and function effectively if the relationship to the head is impaired the whole life of the body is automatically impaired and then in Colossians chapter 2 and verses 18 and 19 Paul says let no one defraud you of your reward only no one disqualify you would be a better word don't lose what God intends you to have but this person who defrauds takes delight in false humility and worship of angels intruding into those things which he has not seen vainly puffed up by his fleshly man what I would call a super spiritual person who claims to be super spiritual but that's actually very common and Paul says don't let such a person deceive you and cheat you out of your rightful inheritance and then he says of such a person in the next verse verse 19 not holding fast to the head from whom all the body nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments grows with the increase which is from God Navi says having lost connection with the head as soon as we lose connection with the head we are headed for error some form of deception some kind of false teaching something that is out of line with the truth of God the only condition of safety for the body collectively for each believer individually it is to be rightly related to the head every true believer has a divinely prepared direct connection with the head Jesus Christ that no one ever interfere with your personal connection with the head pastor's are wonderful people but they cannot take the place of Jesus the function of a pastor is not to be your head it's to help you cultivate your relationship with the one who is Jungian it's not to tell you the answers to all your problems it's to show you how to find the answer for yourself from Jesus some people are lazy they just want some human being to solve all their problems it doesn't work that way and some leaders are despotic they want to take control of people I've been through all that and thank God I've come out of it and I have no desire to be in it again you have to have your own personal relationship with Jesus you have to be able to hear him speak to you you have to be able to be directed by him you have to have something inside you that tells you when he's pleased and when he's not pleased you have to be sensitive to the head now I want to speak about four functions of a head this is not a lesson in physiology I'm not competent to give one these are just simple practical perspectives in my way of thinking the head of the head has four main functions first of all to receive input every part of the body has a right to communicate with the head and the head receives communication number two to make decisions the head decides what the body is to do number three to initiate action and the key word is initiative because the one who takes the initiative is the head and number four having taken the initiative to coordinate the activity of the members carrying out the decision of the aim and say those just once again because I want you to be considering your own relationship with Jesus and also considering the relationship of the body the church as you know it today here in America all right here are the four functions number one to receive input number two to make decisions number three to initiate action and again I want to say the word initiative is a key word and number four to coordinate the activity of the other members as they carry out the decision of the hand now in the body of Jesus Christ the church the headship of Jesus is effective only through the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit is the only means by which Jesus can communicate with the body direct the body control the body and preserve the body so we are talking not merely about a relationship with Jesus but what goes with that a relationship with the Holy Spirit I'll give you just a few of many scriptures along that line in John chapter 16 verses 12 through 15 Jesus is taking farewell of his disciples and he says I still have many things to say to you you cannot bear them now however when he the Spirit of Truth has come he will guide you into all truth so Jesus is saying I can't tell you everything you need to know now you're not in the condition to receive anymore you're already overwhelmed by what I've told you but that doesn't matter because the Spirit of Truth the Holy Spirit is coming and he will guide you he will take over from me your direction it's interesting that the translation says when he the Spirit of Truth has come because the original text is Greek those of you that know anything about genders there are three genders in Greek masculine feminine and neuter he she or it now the Greek word for spirit o pneuma is neuter so the normal pronoun would be it but the the rules of grammar are broken to put in the pronoun he why to emphasize the Holy Spirit is a person is not just something he is someone and you can't relate rightly to the Holy Spirit if you merely relate to him as an it he's a he he's a person God the Father is a person Jesus Christ the Son is a person and the Holy Spirit is a person and Jesus says from this time forward my relationship with you will be effected through the Holy Spirit and then he goes on to say for he will not speak from himself but whatever he hears he will speak and he will tell you things to come I believe the church should have direction concerning the future supernatural from the Holy Spirit not everything but the things we need to know my personal view of the world situation is that the church that goes into the future without the Holy Spirit the guide is going into disaster I think we have only just limps the troubles and the pressures that are coming on the whole world and not least on the United States of America and we are going to need the Holy Spirit to warn us of things that are going to happen so we won't be in the wrong place at the wrong time one of the prayers that Ruth and I pray continually is to be always in the right place at the right time but only the Holy Spirit can make that possible then it says in verse 14 he the Holy Spirit will glorify me and please know that's one distinctive mark of the Holy Spirit there's a whole lot of things in the charismatic movement which are said to be the work of the Holy Spirit but they lack the mark of glorifying Jesus anything that exalts a human personality is not from the Holy Spirit it may be spiritual but it's not from the Holy Spirit they're that in mind whatever the Holy Spirit does his ultimate aim is always to glorify Jesus if Jesus is not in the center of the stage the scenario was not from the Holy Spirit that's enough I think of that passage let's go on to Romans 8 verse 14 for as many as are led by the Spirit of God these are sons of God the word there is not a child that are grown up son how can you live as an adult Christian there's only one way to be regularly led by the Spirit of God it's what we call in English a continuing present tense those who are regularly or continually led by the Spirit of God they are sons of God and some of the people who talk most about the Holy Spirit no least about being led by I've been a Pentecostal for more than 50 years I'm not ashamed of it I thank God for Pentecostals I owe my salvation to them but the people who say when I was baptized my only spirit in 1986 and I spoke in tongues and that's it are probably far out of touch with the Holy Spirit today it's not a one-time experience it's an ongoing relationship I'm sorry to keep coughing you don't have to pray harder second Corinthians 3:17 now the Lord is the spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is Liberty the Lord in the New Testament is equivalent to the sacred name Jehovah or whatever you want to call it in the old so not many is God the Father Lord not nearly as Jesus Christ the son Lord but the Holy Spirit is Lord he himself is God and where he is Lord there is Liberty or freedom again with my background in Pentecostalism I've seen the snare that many fold into and charismatic just followed them assuming that because you got blessed through dancing and jumping last time every time you want to get blessed you have to dance and jump brothers and sisters that's not Liberty that's bondage Liberty is doing what the Holy Spirit directs at any given time in any given place and there's a lot of variety in the Holy Spirit he's got more than one act and then invasions two two versus verse 18 verse 22 for through him that's Jesus we both that's Jews and Gentiles have access by one spirit to the Father notice all three persons of the Godhead we're through Jesus by the spirit to the Father that's the way up verse 22 in whom that's in Jesus you also are being built together for a habitation or a dwelling place of God in the spirit so in Jesus God dwells us dwells in us by the spirit God indwells by the spirit those who aren't in Jesus both directions upward and downward the link is the Holy Spirit if you miss out the Holy Spirit there's no connection you can have all sorts of good doctrine and religious activity but if the Holy Spirit isn't there you have no contact with God he is the only way by which we can contact God now I want to discuss briefly with you the issue are the initiative and I want to come to the point where I apply it very personally one of the words that's used again and again in the bible is the word choose or choice and I'm not going into it doctrinally but the truth of the matter is we are the product of God's choice if God hadn't chosen us we'd never become believers the initiative did not proceed from us it came from God how many didn't know that you didn't get saved because you were trying hard you got saved because God decided to save you and if he hadn't decided to save you you could've done whatever you like but you'd never been saved that's humbling because it shuts us up to total dependence on God which is just what we're all afraid of now jesus said to his apostles in John 15 verse 16 you did not choose me but I chose you that's very clear isn't it there's no doubt about that you didn't make the choice I made the choice I don't think that's the choice for salvation that's the choice for Apostleship he said I've chosen you twelve and then he said one of you is a devil that's a horrible thing to say wasn't it that's something to ponder over but we won't go into it then he said you did not choose me but I chose you and appointed you or placed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you I understand from there that the only enduring fruit proceeds out of the choice of God only that which God has chosen will produce enduring fruit you can have all sorts of religious elections and programs in the church and religious activities but if God didn't initiate them there will be no permanent fruit whatever and then Jesus also said and whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you you understand that to be able to pray effectively to the Father proceeds out of the choice of Donald we can pray all sorts of prayers but if they don't proceed out of the choice of God we have no assurance that God will answer them I sense myself I mean and this is my impression that God is urgently dealing with the church in the United States to bring us back to the place where we realize our total dependence on God I think we've had a measure of success in the charismatic movement I wouldn't call it a movement any longer because I don't think it's moving but we have had a measure of success but we've forgotten that it all came from the mercy of thought we didn't deserve it it wasn't because we were clever or spiritual or well-educated or country Hicks it wouldn't matter so initiative is expressed through choice so the only things as I understand it in our lives where God is really involved other things which God has chosen I think that applies to marriage if you're considering getting married my advice to you would be marry the person of God's choice find out don't make your own decision I've been married twice my first wife is with the Lord my second wife is here with me my first marriage lasted 30 years and our present marriage has lasted 14 years both have been happy and successful but not a lot of people consented in the world today the reason is God chose I didn't I've never chosen a wife I'm not saying everybody has to had it that way but that's the way it was with me God knew I wasn't intelligent enough to make the right choice I said that sincerely when it comes to abstract reasoning I'm successful when it comes to understanding people I'm at a loss so god very directly intervened and overruled in each situation and in neither instance was I trying to get married on it listen young women them young man I've never dated but I've been married happy late twice you don't have to date in order to get married that applies to older people too I'm not saying it's wrong today but don't depend on dating depend on God excuse me that's what happens when you have a microphone in front of your nose but the alternative would be worse so we've done two Acts chapter one just before the day of pentecost the eleven remaining apostles had assembled in jerusalem but a lot of other people but then there was one missing because they had to be twelve i really don't know exactly why they had to be twelve but they had to be twelve because they were going to be twelve foundations in the new jerusalem and twelve gates to the city and anyhow so the apostles knew they needed one more because Judas had dropped out so Peter says this is the leader in acts 1 verse 21 therefore of these men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us beginning from the baptism of John to that day when Jesus was taken up from us one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection so there's certain basic qualifications they had to be people who had been present all through the Ministry of Jesus from the baptism of John to his resurrection they have to have there had to be people who'd witnessed him after his resurrection until the time of his ascension so they they checked over the people and they proposed to verse 23 Joseph called barsabbas who was surnamed Justus and Matthias now both of those fulfilled all the required qualifications but only one of them was chosen by God and what was important to them was to find out whom God had chosen and now this would not be considered spiritual in Baptist circles actually I think the new the Living Bible says they tossed a coin says here they drew lots but it's the same thing why because they've come to the point where their own understanding could take them no further they knew it had to be one of the two they didn't know which the thing that mattered was God's choice how fun God's choice well draw straws or toss a coin I'm telling you that because I want you to see how totally different the perspective of the early church was on this issue what mattered was God's choice any legitimate way of finding that out was what's all right so it says they proposed to they prayed and saying you Lord who know the hearts of all show which of these two you have chosen to take part in this ministry and they cast their Lots and the Lord fell on Matthias and he was numbered with the eleven apostles he became the twelfth apostle but you see the the thrust of everything in the whole area of Apostleship from the choice of Jesus to the choice of Matthias was God's choice because God's choice expresses God's initiative and God's admission it expresses God's headship and anytime we take the initiative out of the hands of God we have shut off the headship of Jesus we have been actually extremely presumptuous may God forgive us basically I think the church is going to have to come on its face before God and say God we have been totally presumptuous and we repent and we asked you to forgive us take one other pattern from the book of Acts Acts chapter 13 versus one two and three now in the church that was Dan Tian there were certain prophets and teachers Barnabas Simeon it was called Niger Lucius of Cyrene II man Ian who had been rocked brought up with Herod the Tetrarch and Saul five men were named there were all prophets and teachers as they ministered to the Lord and fasted the Holy Spirit said now separate to me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them the NIV says as they worshipped Lord and faster the Drake says as they conducted their priestly ministry to the Lord could be worship could be something else but while they were waiting on the Lord they hadn't got any agenda of their own the Holy Spirit said this is my agenda how many times does the church come to God with its own agenda and never once asked God what is your agenda dawn is not a rubber-stamp you can't make your decisions write them out in the minutes and then get the name of God as a rubber-stamp because God it's not a rubber stamp he's gone says gang then having fasted and prayed and laid hands on them they sent them away so where did the decision come from came from gone by by whom by the Holy Spirit that's right now before they were sent down by the Holy Spirit they were prophets and teachers what were they after they were sent out apostles that's right they're called apostles twice in acts 14 verse 4 the multitude of the city was divided outside with the Jews and part were the Apostles and verse 14 but when the Apostles Barnabas and Paul this so there is a way for apostolic ministry to emerge if we can acknowledge that there are prophets and teachers an apostle is one who is sent for anybody who has not been sent for cannot be an apostle interestingly although the initiative proceeded from God the Father by Jesus Christ the son through the Holy Spirit they were not called apostles before the church had sent them out God does not bypass the church in appointing ministries now I'd like to read just the final statement about this ministry in acts 14 26 this is the end of the ministry from there they sailed to Antioch where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work which they had completed they came together called the church together and reported it's very right normally for people who are sent out to do something to report back to the people who sent them out that is to be answerable to be responsible but what really blessed me years ago when I read this was that they'd been commended to the grace of God for the work which they had completed or fulfil and I said to myself how many of us in the church today can say we have completed the work that we were assigned to not just done part of it but done the whole job and my explanation is because the initiative proceeded from God anything else will not produce the same result now let me turn to first Corinthians chapter 2 I don't suppose anybody here has a Philips New Testament do you by any chance I have one but I hadn't been at home I don't want to misquote him but first Corinthians 2:16 says for who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him that's a quotation from the Old Testament how many of us are a position to instruct the Lord to give him advice to tell him how to do things the answer I think is nobody it's what they call a rhetorical question we know the answer then it says but we have the mind of Christ now why I wanted to quote Phillips was cuz I think he says amazing though it may see we have the mind of Christ now that's typical Phillips is just expanded something but I think it's a very worthwhile rendering amazing though it may see we have the mind of Christ what I want to say is it's we it's not high the mind of Christ is not given to one single individual it's given to the body by the head and until the body learns to find the mind of Christ it will go largely undiscovered can we say can you say in your particular fellowship or church we have the mind of Christ would you even contemplate that question does it occur to you that we should be able to say that if we can't say it who can aren't we the Karris Mattox aren't we the people that are filled with the holy spirit with a few leaks where are the people who have the mind of trance how can we become their people I believe there's a very simple answer and I've begun to see it work I can't stand seeing it work totally but I've seen enough to feel that I'm on my way to the answer and I'll say bye there's one key word very unpopular word amongst American Christians the word we least like to hear some of you can guess what it is wait not work but wait we are so work oriented we work ourselves to death but that's only half of the gospel let me give you just two scriptures first of all in 1st Thessalonians chapter 1 verses 9 and 10 first Thessalonians 1:9 and Tinian Paul is writing to these who are some of the earliest Christians probably one of the first letters he wrote and he's speaking about the impact that the gospel had made in Thessalonica and he says they themselves declare concerning us what manner of entry we had to you in Thessalonica and how you turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his son from heaven notice they they did they turn to do two things to serve and to wait that's the totality of the Christian life serving is not all of it in fact it's very incomplete if it's not accompanied by waiting we serve we wait the Bible in more than 50 places speaks about the Missy the need or the necessity of waiting on God or for gone centrally on an NIV here can I anybody any other fan can I borrow it from my mom for a moment thank you so much the reason I've chosen this I'll give it back in a minute is that it's translation of Isaiah 64 verse 4 is so vivid this is Isaiah 64 verse 4 since ancient times no one has heard no ear has perceived no eye has seen any God besides you who acts on behalf of those who wait for him so this is a picture of the one true God and what is his distinctive characteristic he acts on behalf of those who wait for him and if you want him to act on your behalf you know what you have to do you have to wait thank you so much may the Lord bless this table see I have a passionate conviction that the church is never going to get beyond where it is in America today and I'm talking to Americans that's why I say America I've just been in Britain but my conviction is the church will never get beyond where it is until it learns to wait on God I was in in a small city in England called howl and at the end of my series amines I called the leaders up in the platform and prayed for them and apparently God released something through that so they've been urging us to go back and we were back there this past weekend and for four years a group of leaders numbering representing perhaps 15 churches now have been meeting together and waiting on God almost unbelievable and these meetings that we were in in a way were different from almost any meeting administered in not because I was different but because something had changed in the atmosphere then I preached some very straight messages then only those sins we confess are forgiven if we don't confess our sins they are not forgiven God is fully well ready and waiting to forgive but is laid down a condition if we confess our sins he is faithful and just and at the end we had about ten couples without any emotion or height I said now if you need to confess sins you can confess them to God but the Bible also says confess your sins one to another that you may be healed and there is one major barrier to healing is unconfessed sin you're free to come down well they came down for about two hours just coming forward one by one to confess their sins and some of them for quite well-known leaders in that area now to me that's significant and I see it as the fruit of people waiting on God I had a lot of prophecies about revival and I may have given some myself but that's only one thing we don't have revival until we have it and we don't have it until we've met the conditions you can prophesy as much as you like but the real barrier to revival is unconfessed sin and until that's dealt with you can do as much as you like you can do all the preaching and all the singing and all the publicity but the results will be disappointing you say well I don't think I have any sense well wonderful but how close have you come to go on you spend a little while waiting in the presence of God and you may have a different view say I'm sharing out a personal experience I've never been a backslider as it's called quote backslider I've served the Lord more than 50 years and by the grace of God I have seen uncounted numbers of people helped but when Ruth and I got alone with God without any premeditated plan or agenda it took God six months it's clear of the debris in my life and God showed me things that I had done 30 years previously he said you never confessed it and just to help us humble ourselves Ruth and I confess to one another you don't have to do that always but the bible does say confess their sins one for another doesn't it do you know that James 5 verse 16 how would you feel about that how years and years ago I read the journals of John Wesley and I discovered in his journals somewhere in Yorkshire just about fairly close the way we were preaching he said one of the strongest Methodist societies that he knew and grown out of ten people who committed themselves to meet together weekly to confess their faults to one another that's not the modern plan for starting a church is it and after all the Methodist movement did impact the whole of Britain and most of the United States for one century so maybe there's something to be said for it I feel like I'm I'm didn't intend this time I'm feeling impressed to read Isaiah 59 verses 1 & 2 we're so used to referring these words to the Jews that we sometimes forget they applied to Gentiles also isaiah 59:1 to behold the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save nor his ear heavy that it cannot hear God is still got good hearing and his arms still is powerful but your iniquities have separated you from your God and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he will not hear now God is no respecter of persons it's wonderful to know that we have the right of access to God through the blood of Jesus when the blood of Jesus cleanses us but the blood doesn't cleanse those who don't confess if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin there are three continuing present tenses if we continually walk in the night we continually have fellowship with one another and the blood continually cleanses but their conditional the first word is it if we walk in the line my comment in that and that is is this out of out of fellowship out of the light if you are not in fellowship you're not in the light because if we walk in the light we have fellowship one with another and if we're out of fellowship the blood is not fencing us the blood does not cleanse in the dark it only cleanses in the light and if we've been in the dark and we want to be cleansed we have to come to the light for the blood cleanses in the light but not in the dark I personally believe this is entirely a personal opinion that God will never have his way with the church in America until the leaders of the church take time to wait on God and I say specifically the leaders I'm going to end by reading an account from a friend of mine a well-known Minister your Alice fascist and he just wrote this newsletter of which I received a copy about something that has just happened in Australia how many of you been to Australia well the authors are a pretty tough crowd I think you'll agree and a breakthrough in Australia a spiritual breakthrough would be a remarkable event and I believe it's coming when I want to read this account I hope it will help you it's dated September 1992 a couple of days ago I returned from the ends of the earth Australia and the most unique gathering of spiritual leaders I have ever attended after this experience I will never be the same again and he's a man of mature ministry and experience Nobel intercessors for Australia and Tom Hollis leader of Huawei I'm in Australia I know them both had felt the need to call together pastors elders and leaders and ministries from all over Australia to come together to seek the face of the law the conference was called leaders looking unto Jesus and the timeframe was three weeks this in itself was a daring step how could anyone imagine it being possible for busy spiritual leaders to set aside three whole weeks when I realized that more than 100 and responded to his call and saw that most of them stayed for the whole period I was convinced that it had to be one of the seven wonders of this world and anyone proposed to me to do something like this in your a boy in the states I would have laughed of the thought if we can get leaders together here for a whole day we ought to be grateful apparent that God must have something special in mind with Australia and I would not be surprised if a very powerful spiritual awaking would come out of Australia and touch the worldwide body of Christ possibly it is the isolation that our Straley and friends feel out there at the edge of the globe coupled with a realization of the hardness and roughness of the Australian heart that have been the main factors moving our friends to cast themselves down before the Lord at any rate no matter how far back in living memory I have not been a part of anything like this before in my years in the ministry so let me enlighten you with some of the extraordinary things that took place then there are few headings sitting at his feet this was the way God laid out in picture the purpose of this gathering to sit at his feet like Mary and not like Martha tried to please him and serve him at our own initiative to enter into his rest which is arrest from our own works just as God having created heaven and earth in six days rested from his works on the seventh this proved to be very difficult for all of us whenever we tried to sit silently in his presence only five minutes would pass and someone would not be able to wait any longer but had to break in with a prophecy or a song or a scripture reading all proving how hard it is for us to wait and let the spirit take the initiative praise God we had lots of time before us three whole weeks and slowly but surely we learned to just wait until the spirit would begin to blow with his gentle wind among us how difficult it is for us to just enjoy God's presence without exercising any kind of activity the next heading is beholding his glory second Corinthians 3:18 became very much alive to us but we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory just as by the Spirit of the Lord coming under the entire lordship of the holy spirit is equal to coming face to face with Jesus that's exactly what I was trying to say in the light of his glory and perfection we can measure ourselves in all our shortcomings and be exposed to the transforming power of his spirit changing us into the image of his dear son how different this way is to our own attempts at looking at ourselves and despair over all that is lacking of Christ's likeness in our character God had called us together not as we had expected to load on us new knowledge and information but to change us into the likeness of his Jess son next heading the vertical way for me personally a change took place in my whole thinking as one has been active in the prayer movement for more than twenty years I had developed a way of discerning problems and places by help of the information available and using my analytical mind by looking unto Jesus and waiting to come face-to-face with him I discovered that any true discernment of any situation only comes when we look at it through his face if we want a true picture of ourselves we need to see ourselves the way he looks upon us if we want to know where the church is standing and how the situation is in our very own nation we can look at it at the horizontal level and measure it by the outward appearances that we would end with a wrong and untrue picture only as we behold the face of the Lord and come to understand his burdens for his church in his world we can apply our prayers or ministries with great effect the last heading is falling in love with Jesus when people give themselves to seeking the Lord over a three-week period one would expect that they would end up by being drawn into intimacy with him and so it wants the overall discovery at this time was a deep realization of how far away from our first love and from the centrality of Christ we had been used to living our lives even as his servants therefore the calling was to enter into the bridal chamber and to fall in love with our heavenly bridegroom to return to our first love and make Jesus the center and focus of everything we were doing so it happened as he went on exposing his great and strong love to us we yielded more and more to him and the joy and the worship increased in quality and strength at the end whole sessions were spent just reveling in his lung we had lost any ambition of being effective and wanted only to be with him more and more the Song of Solomon with its many rich pictures of the developing love relationship between the bride and the bridegroom became a guideline for us all the way through I know that I am using big words when I say that nothing so far in my life can compare with these weeks but I'm convinced that no matter how big such a statement might sound it is the truth and as I'm writing this newsletter I have a strong desire in my heart to be allowed to continue in this direction looking unto Jesus this is also what I wish for all of God's people that they would have the great joy of being a part of such a gathering in the nearest future now I read that simply because I wanted to move out of the realm of theory and into the realm of practical experience that's an up-to-date account of what happens when people take time to wait on God yeah but brothers and sisters I'm convinced that the greatest need in the life of most of you is to take time with God and I'm persuaded if I'm sorry to say that most of you don't give God much time and I think that's the thing of which many of us need to repent Ruth and I have learned and this is very very miniature we've learned to take one day a week to wait upon God it's Wednesday and we have no idea what will happen we don't have an agenda we don't have a prayer list sometimes we start by reading the Bible sometimes we don't but at the end of the day we tend to say to ourselves how did we ever get here we had no plan or thought of being involved in what we're in at the end of the day it's time for me to stop I think I've said all I need to sing

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Keywords: derek prince, bible, Under Jesus, Jesus, all things, praise, Lord, Christ, beginning, end, God

Id: yJ9Z6WBvMyc

Length: 67min 30sec (4050 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 19 2015