Seeking and Finding the Lord - Joe Sweet

we're um last sunday i shared with you we're at the greatest door of hope for the church ever god what god has set before the church is so awesome and so great and i have a message this morning that's one of the best news we could ever hear from the lord and here's what it is in a nutshell and i'm going to get to it here's what's what the holy spirit is saying it is time for the church all of us to seek the lord in an extraordinary way that's the best news you could ever hear because when god is saying and calling us to seek him in an extraordinary way is because he wants to make himself known in an extraordinary way come on somebody see i just gave you bad news to your flesh and good news to your spirit now depending on whether you're walking in the flesh or you're walking in the spirit your reaction will be the flesh has to go down and the spirit has to rise up if we're going to draw near to god and that's really where we are and um so i'm calling this message i was going to call this message seeking the lord but i'm not i'm going to call it seeking and finding the lord because god never tells us to seek him unless he intends for us to find him and i don't think any of us including myself know what it means yet to find the fullness of the lord and god wants to bring a whole new level a whole new level of his presence his fullness and his power and he's he wants it more than we do can you believe that god wants you and me to be filled with his spirit more than we want it and you might think to yourself if that's the case then why am i not more filled than i am because god has conditions he cannot and will not fill us more than we are filled now unless we meet certain conditions and so god is telling he's if anyone's listening god's telling the church now is the time to seek god like never before not next week not next month today is that day today's that day because god wants to encounter us on every one of us and the way that's going to happen is not by us staying where we're at and praying for the lord to come to us that's not how it works the bible says draw near to him and he'll draw near to you then he tells us specifically and james how to do it humble yourself turn your laughter into weeping and mourning go low before the lord draw near to him and he'll draw near to you we can't stay i can't stay where i am and keep saying god come to me come to me come to me god doesn't work that way he said you draw near to me and so that's the word of the lord for all of us every one of us no one's exempt and what i'm telling you is good news jesus it sounds like bad news that's because you're in the flesh you're in the spirit you know it's good news god's waiting for us we're not waiting for him he's waiting for us to draw near and he's going to help us to do it so i uh i shared last sunday and i'm going to re share this in an encounter on november 1st a couple days before the election rick joyner was caught up to heaven in a face to face with the lord jesus christ he was taken up to heaven of course he's had a lot of face-to-face encounters with the lord if you've ever read some of his books they're just full of heavenly revelation and the lord told him on november 1st he said if the election goes the way you want it and the church does not have a great awakening the church will be in worse condition than it is now now that tells us right there that god's opinion of the presently of the church at large it doesn't mean every individual there are there is a remnant that's awake there's a small percentage of the body that's seeking god but they're a small percentage he said if the church doesn't have a great awakening they'll be in worse condition than they are now and you know that just could i knew that was the word of the lord it gave me great concern and my prayer was that god would still give us the people that we wanted in the white house and a great awakening but god knows better than we do god knows what will wake us up and what won't and he he told the laodicean church because he said we're rich we have need of nothing he said i have a different opinion you're naked poor wretched miserable and blind but how did they get blinded because all their needs were met they got what they wanted and sometimes for god to give us what we need he has to take from us what we want and when we lose what we want we'll start seeking what we need and when we have what we need he can give us back what we want see isn't god good so um i still believe there's great hope for our nation but i believe we're in a time right now of chastisement from the lord chastisement doesn't mean god's angry it means he loves us it means he's going to give us a course correction and first he does it with the church if you read first peter chapter 4 verse 17 the bible says judgment begins with the house of god right now this nation is under chastisement from the lord and that doesn't mean god's angry it means god's serious and he's going to have his way and he's going to bring correction so the sooner that we understand that and we know what god wants and we give it to him the better off we'll be and so um here's what the lord told rick and you don't have to believe this prophetic encounter if you don't want to but but the bible bears it out all you have to do is read the bible and you'll know it's true here's what he told rick he said the answer for this nation is still second chronicles 7 14. if my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways i'll hear from heaven i'll forgive their sin and i'll heal their land he said the church still has not fulfilled that verse and that's the answer for this nation and then he went on to say very few are seeking my face he said right now there's more prayer coming up from the body of christ than ever before but most of it is for their needs and that includes who who we get elected of course we want the wall up of course we want uh bad laws to stop of course we want the economy to get better but god has a higher agenda even than that he wants a a body who's awake a bride whose eyes are burning like pilate lights with love for jesus people who've realized they've been bought with a price and they're no longer their own and they've given themselves over their whole life to the will of god that's what god wants he wants that more than he wants us to have the nation that we want he wants to have the body that he paid for and when we give him what he wants he'll give us what we want that's you can read that in the psalms it says if you'll delight yourself in the lord his will his desires first he said he'll give you the desires of your heart god loves us and he wants to lavish blessings on us but we don't exist for our pleasure we exist for his we exist for his will and if we're going to follow our master and that's what a disciple is a disciple is a follower of jesus christ then we're going to follow in his footsteps first peter chapter 2 it says christ suffered for us and he left us an example that we should follow in his steps who did no sin neither was there guile in his mouth when he was reviled he didn't revile back when he suffered he didn't threaten but he committed himself to god who judges righteously he's our example to follow and here's what jesus said i came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me for it's written in the volume of the book lo i've come to do thy will the bible says you are not your own i'm not my own we've been bought with a price therefore glorify god in your body the apostle writes that we should no longer live the rest of our life on the desires of man but on the will of god and so uh god wants to make some changes and correction in our thinking he's doing it because he loves us and wants to get us where we need to be again someone might be thinking oh i don't believe in that prophetic stuff you don't have to just read the bible and it's very clear in there we have not yet fulfilled second chronicles 7 14 if we had our nation would be having a great revival and a move of righteousness would be blanketing our nation god would be raining down righteousness and healing our land we obviously see that's not what's happening so we can't say i've fulfilled it as a body we can't say that but what we can say is god is good and he's giving us grace to fulfill it now amen now i want to talk to us a little bit about that about fulfilling second chronicles 7 14 and about seeking and finding the lord i'm convinced after seeking the lord with prayer and fasting with waiting on my knees seeking his face by the way the lord told rick he said very few are seeking my face and even fewer are turning from their wicked ways i said this on friday night the word wicked i looked it up in the hebrew and i think that some of us i might not be the only one some of us might understand misunderstand the connotation of that word because in our culture we think of wicked as really bad like we have levels of bad don't we this year's bad right here and then worse than bad is evil and then worse than evil is wicked so when god says turn from your wicked ways there may be something in us that says well i'm not wicked i love the lord okay i look up the word wicked and here's what it means not agreeable with god okay now let's hear it again if my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves pray seek my faith as i said earlier to seek the face of god when you look at someone's face you can tell what mood they're in most of the church doesn't know doesn't have a clue when you look at someone's face you're ready to listen to them when you look at someone's face you can tell their feelings god that's what god wants to do to seek his face now what happens why does god say seek my face because he wants to make his face known what does it look like when god makes his face known ezekiel 39 verse 29 god says i will not have hidden my face from israel for from them any more for i will have poured out my spirit on the house of israel. so to seek god's face is to seek to know him to hear his voice to know what's in his heart and the result of it is god said i'll pour my spirit out on the house of his or on his people so when god says i want my body to humble themselves and seek my face he's saying i want to make myself known to my people in a greater way i want to pour my spirit out on my people in a greater way that's what he wants god wants that more than we want it because god's heart is to disciple the nations god's heart is to shake the nations and bring in a harvest for himself and he needs a church that's baptized in the love of god the presence of god the fire of god the fruit of the spirit and the gifts of the spirit god god needs that we need the fruit we need to be baptized all of us fresh every one of us in the love of god we need fresh baptisms of his presence and then we need all the power everyone i do we need more power than we than we're walking in and the gifts we need the fruit all the fruit and all the gifts the fruit is the substance the gifts are the power tools to open prison doors to set captives free to heal broken hearts god's got the harvest on his heart we've got i'm not saying we all do but in general meaning the body of christ have getting another blessing on our heart praying for blessings lord we want to see your signs and wonders why so we can have better meetings no we should if we're going to draw closer to the lord i want to see god's power but i want to see it unleashed on those in bondage i want to see those are blind come out of darkness into his marvelous light i want to see people that have been ravished by sin have their hearts healed i want to see parents that are struggling struggling with handicapped kids to see them healed i want to see people their skeptics become believers i want to see doubters get baptized in the holy spirit that's what god's after he's trying to get the attention of the church that we would start to be after what he's after and when we get after what god's after we're going to get a fresh encounter fresh baptisms the baptism the holy spirit is in fire and all the gifts and all the anointing is not it's not to be it's not something to make us feel better or validate us they're tools to help people and if we love god then we love lost people we love backsliders if we love god and if we love lost people and backsliders then we're grieved in our heart and we pray for him and we seek god until we get a fresh baptism so we can reach him with love and power but anyway god is is good if we don't i'm now i'm speaking in generalities to the body of christ i know that there's among us people that love god that are seeking him and fasting and they're as red hot as they know how to be but maybe not all of us are but in general most if we're honest most of the body of christ is fast asleep we'll pray until we get the things that we want and as soon as we get everything we want we sort of go back to sleep again and god wants to change that god god is the sovereign god we just saw an election stolen we see wicked people in washington right now god allowed it god didn't do it right now america is under judgment from the lord and so is the church now mis don't misunderstand that doesn't mean god's angry the judgment in the bible most of the time it's used means chastisement and it's redemptive in nature to give us a course correction and whoever god loves hebrews chapter 12 every son or daughter god loves he chastens so god's allowed listen please hear this for a few minutes i mentioned this this morning right now we have the god hating and that's not exaggeration we have the god hating left that has control of all three branches of the government many holdovers from the previous obama administration it's been brought out now that the doj fbi irs and powers of the government were weaponized against conservatives against christians and against our own nation we had a four years of grace a stop gap in there now with that gone they have unbridled free reign of corruption in the first week now there's been 40 plus executive orders putting a halt to the border wall where the we've had a couple hundred miles or more border wall built statistics proved that wherever the border wall was drug traffic and cartel traffic and gang coming into the into our nation was cut by over 95 percent now those in washington ordered immediately cease and desist all border wall building they immediately ordered millions over 11 million illegals amnesty they sent orders to the border release every illegal alien now do not deport any of them from our government how many are following this getting us back in the bad parrot climate deal paris climate deal stopping the clean oil line that was clean that made us help make us energy independent now that oil is going to china and russia and it's going to make our gas price rise first day in office stopped 11 000 jobs ran blatantly and openly with this agenda we are going to raise taxes our taxes are going up now just listen they've the left has taken over big tech how many know that's true they've taken over facebook youtube twitter and big tech it's the the left has taken over corporate america that's a fact the left has taken over our universities they're teaching just you know i read over a year ago they've uncovered and only five universities how many hundreds of universities are in our nation in just investigating five universities they found over 1.1 billion dollars in illegal donations given from the communist chinese government and from russia to our universities what is the purpose of the communist chinese government in russia donating over 1.1 billion dollars to five of our universities and they haven't investigated the others yet it's because they're bribing they're bribing our universities to teach our young generation to hate capitalism hate america and love socialism they've been very successful we have people in the white house now who are doing their level best to ensure that our tax dollars will pay for abortions already with executive orders that when now your tax money is going overseas to pay for abortions in other countries they hate israel they're giving hundreds of million dollars to other countries where while our own veterans are suffering they're doing their level best to dismantle everything good about our country now understand that's where we are and it's not god's desire it's not his will god did not desire that israel have saul as a king but they wanted it so he gave it to him if you read jose here's what god says i gave him a king in my anger and i took him away in my wrath it was a chastening from the lord so right now america is under chastening from the lord and he's not waiting for the nation to turn he's waiting for the church to wake up and when we wake up humble ourself and seek his face like never before god in heaven will hear our prayers he'll forgive our sin and he'll heal our land so the prayer focus on making everything in the land right is the wrong focus the right focus is lord help me go low and seek your face god said i'll take care of the land they've weaponized the government against us they work hard to destroy our economy they hate god they hate christians they're rapidly working to destroy this nation i want to say this it will only get worse i wish it wasn't true but i'm telling you the truth things in the nation in this nation are only going to get worse and worse and worse and it won't change until there's a great awakening in the church so that's why our prayer should be number one lord wake me up and let me be as on fire as i can and my intercession is going to be for the awakening of the body of christ it's the body of christ in the church i mean the church in the nation that is the hope of the nation so understanding that helps us understand what we ought to be doing now in the book of joel if you have your bible and you want to follow along you can i'm going to begin reading it joel chapter 2 verse 12. but i'll just give you a brief summary of some of the things happening in the chapter 1. it's so parallel to where we are right now what god wants to do in the book of joel god's people backslidden they stopped obeying the lord they went into idolatry now god will send prophets he'll send he'll try to talk to his people but if we become dull and we heap up for ourselves teachers that tell us what we want to hear i'm not saying that all of you have done that i'm talking in general to the body of christ one of the most damaging things that's been done to the body of christ is the hyper-distorted grace message it's made people feel like they've already got everything and they don't even hardly know the lord in the book of joel god sent a plague of locusts and he told them that an invading army was imminent it was god who sent the locust and you can read it it says the locusts came to devour the crops when they did their crops were failing it says the grapes the figs the pomegranate the apple they were all failing the fields were wasted the land was mourning the grain was ruined these are all i'm reading out of chapter one the harvest of the nation perished the people were risking famine the fields were burned burning on fire barns were broken down the flocks of sheep were suffering the water brooks dried up fire had devoured the open field and god said an army to invade was imminent and the lord was behind all of it every look up here for a minute the crops were failing god dried up their brooks he burned their open fields he's god sent a plague of locusts don't fall for the over simplistic theology that anything negative can never be from god the only people that believe that are people that don't read their bibles if you read ii chronicles 7 14 read the verse before it god said if i send a plague if i set up the heavens if i do that if my people humble themselves and pray and seek my face i'll hear from heaven forgive their sin and heal their land so god sent an army of locusts he says in the book it's my great army i sent it he dried up he took away from them all the things that they wanted to get their attention because he couldn't get their attention through the prophets they wouldn't listen they would listen to his spirit they would listen to his word he'd what i mean prophets god had already told him in a word what he expected them to do they wouldn't listen to it and so god comes down to it he said well i'm not going to let you be completely destroyed i love you and i got to get your attention so here comes here comes the army here comes the locust here comes the nation that you love the nation that we love is being torn to shreds right in front of our eyes if that doesn't grip us what's it going to take i'm not going to wait another year until it's worse and worse and worse and worse i'm ready to seek god with all my heart right now right now i mean me personally me personally i'm seeking god with all my heart like i've been a christian 43 years there's been times i've sought god passionately with everything i know in me i'm in that place right now because i i'm not going to stop seeking him until i have a face-to-face encounter i need to have a fresh encounter with the lord and every believer needs that so now that's the condition in joel's day and now in joel chapter 2 verse 12 god's going to give them the solution joel 2 verse 12 now therefore says the lord turn to me with all your heart with fasting with weeping with mourning surrender your heart not your garments now if you write in your bible i'd suggest you underline our circle turn to me with all your heart all write that down that's so important that we get that seeking god with 95 of our heart doesn't work you might get a little blessings but you won't see his face in jeremiah chapter 29 verse 11 it's a verse we all probably know some of us might have it on a refrigerator god says for i know the plans i have for you for good and not for evil to give you a future and a hope some of us haven't read the next two verses because in order to get that plan god tells him what to do he said then you will go and pray to me you will seek me with all of your heart i will be found by you when you seek me with all of your heart so if we want the plan that god has it's for good and not for evil we have to start seeking him with all of our heart all now to seek god with all our heart means there's nothing left to give all the heart means i don't have anything else to seek him with when we do that we're going to find him here's what god says surrender your heart not your garments return to the lord your god for he's gracious and merciful now god's telling him right up front in the previous chapter he said not only has a locust come and devoured and you're having drought and famine and lost your crops but i've got an army that's about to invade you god says turn to me with all your heart i'm a gracious and merciful god i'm slow to anger and of great kindness and he relents from doing harm who knows if he will turn and relent and leave a blessing behind him a grain offering a drink offering for the lord your god then he says blow the trumpet in zion consecrate a fast call a sacred assembly gather the people sanctify the congregation let me pause there for a moment so twice he's also mentioned fasting when god says turn to me with all your heart then the next verse says with fasting now fasting is a grace gift given to the church that the holy spirit will use to help turn all of our heart when we don't fast it's hard to turn all of our heart to the lord because the flesh has too much pull on us but when we fast the holy spirit uses that to turn all of our heart so god knows better than we do so he said if if you want to turn your whole heart to me do it with fasting i'm going to make a confession in the flesh i don't like fasting usually but sometimes by the third day of a fast i like it then because then i start getting more and more into the honey of his presence and hearing his voice better and your spirit man becomes stronger and then it's easier to keep the flesh subdued but before you start a fast the idea of a fast i i just don't like it i don't like fasting i like eating i do don't you i like when melinda makes cornbread and chili i like making ribs on my smoker i like german chocolate cake don't we like to eat but the the bible says in the book of ecclesiastes to everything there is a time and a season and a purpose under heaven is it time for war is it time for peace is it time to fight is it time not to fight it's time to build there's a time to tear down there's a time now is the time to seek the lord now that's the time we're in right now the sons of issachar had the wisdom of god they knew what time it was they knew what should have been done so god says if you'll turn to me with all your heart he said call a solemn assembly gather the people sanctify the congregation assemble the elders gather the children now here's how serious it is here's how much god wants everybody's heart he said gather the children and the nursing babies let the bridegroom go out from his chamber in the bride from her dressing room that means if you're about to get married and go on your honeymoon god said stop put it on hold come out of the dressing room come out of the chamber fast and seek my face he said let the priests who minister to the lord weep between the ports and the altar let them say now he's going to tell them what to say spare your people o lord and do not give your heritage to reproach that the nation should rule over them let me just say it like this god don't let the wicked rule in this nation why should they say among the peoples where is their god that's happening right now by the way we need to recover me you us the body christ needs to recover the fear of god now when we recover the fear of god we're going to recover the fullness of his presence when the church fears god the government fears the church see it in the book of acts the church walks continually acts chapter 2 acts chapter 5 acts chapter 9 in the fear of the lord and that the fullness of his presence and the government trembled at them they said oh those men that have changed the world have come here too they turned the world upside down they shook and trembled at the power that the church walked in right now that the church is despised we're told to shut up we're told that we're haters we're told that we have the wrong opinion we're told that we're the problem for this nation we're the salt and the light or supposed to be god said let the priests who minister to the lord weep between the ports in the altar let them say spare your people the lord do not give your heritage to reproach that the nation should not should rule over them why should they say among the peoples where's their god then the lord now if we do this god said if you do this turn to me with all your heart with fasting rend your heart not your garment in other words don't let it be outside crocodile tears not outwardly but inwardly he said then the lord will be zealous for his land he'll pity his people the lord will answer everyone say the lord will answer and they'll say to his people behold i'll send you grain and new wine and oil you'll be satisfied by them i'll no longer make your reproach among the nations i will remove far from you the northern army i'll remove the wicked people that are controlling the government right now i'll drive away and drive him into a barren and desolate land with his face toward the eastern sea and is back toward the western sea his stench will come up and his foul odor will rise because he's done monstrous things fear not o land be glad and rejoice if we seek his face for the lord has done marvelous thing do not be afraid you beast of the field for the open pastures will spring up and the tree bears its fruit he's seeing prophetically the fig tree and the vine yield their strength be glad you're children of zion rejoice in the lord your god for he's given you the former reign faithfully he'll give you the rain the lattering to come down for you the former rain and the latter rain in the first month the threshing floor shall be full of wheat the vats will overflow with new wine and oil i will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten the crawling locusts the consuming locusts and the chewing locusts my great army which i sent among you you shall eat in plenty and be satisfied and praise the name of the lord your god has dealt wondrously with you my people shall never be put to shame then you should know that i am in the midst of israel i am the lord your god and there is no other my people should never be put to shame and it should come to pass afterward afterward what after we turn to god with all of our heart with fasting and tear our heart not our garment that i will pour out my spirit on all flesh your sons and your daughters shall prophesy your old men will dream dreams your young men shall see visions and also on my men's servants and on my maidservants i will pour out my spirit in those days so that's god's prescription for the usa amen now here's what jesus said in matthew chapter 7 and he repeated it in the gospel of luke word for word jesus christ said everyone who asks receives he who seeks finds and to him who knocks it will be opened now in context when jesus said that let's put it in context in the gospel luke jesus said which of you having a neighbor having a friend will come to him at midnight and your friend is on a journey and he'll ask you for three loaves but you have nothing to give him so you go to your neighbor's house knock on his door and say will you give me bread a friend of mine is it's midnight he's on a journey i have nothing to give him and a friend says leave me alone i'm already in bed my family's in bed but you but you stay there and you keep knocking please i need bread no we're in bed you stay there and keep knocking jesus used the word persistence importunity a literal translation is lack of shame faced in other words you don't care how humiliating it is there's no shame in it you're going to keep asking jesus said that's the word translated in perturbity it means you've lost all your pride there's no more shame on your face you're just not going to give up and so the friend says please i i've got a friend it's midnight i have nothing to give him he said he'll rise up and he'll give him how many do you need because he wants to go back to sleep he said here you need three here's five loaves now jesus interpreted that he said so shall my father give the holy spirit before let me back up in this jesus said he's because of his persistence he said he will give him as many as he needs and then jesus said interpret the phrase as many as he needs means jesus said how much more will my father give the holy spirit to those who ask him so now god's saying that we the salt and light of this nation must go to the lord and say lord we're knocking asking seeking for the bread of your presence for the bread of your love the bread of your holiness the bread of your power we're asking for the fullness of the holy spirit our nation is in a midnight hour and we have nothing to give her that's the right prayer and it will stay in that place of no shame absolute humility and say lord we're going to seek your face until you pull part the heavens and shine your face on the church and when we do god's power and presence and his glory will be poured out on this nation so jesus said everyone who seeks finds now in that context when he told us okay lord i i need your holy spirit and this tells us why the way we're supposed to be seeking the holy spirit it's not to validate me to make me look better to make my ministry grow now the purpose of the holy spirit is to it's found in luke 4 18 and 19 the spirit of the lord is upon me jesus said for he's anointed me to preach good news to the poor to heal and bind up brokenhearted to open prison doors to set captives free to pronounce the favorable time of the lord so the anointing is given to the church not for us the anointing is not for us the anointing is given to us to help broken-hearted people tell blind people to help lost people to help crack heads to help single mothers tell people that don't know god to help people who are raised in heathen homes and they're sincere but they're lost that's what the anointing is for and we have to have that to bring the harvest in without the power of the holy spirit we can't do the will of god jesus christ the son of the living god who lived a sinless perfect spotless life before he could begin his earthly ministry had to go into the desert and fast for 40 days until and be baptized in the first he was baptized in the holy spirit and fasted 40 days then he began his ministry it said after his 40-day fast he returned in the power of the holy spirit amen so if he had to do that how much more do we so again god said everyone that seeks me will find me so when when god's calling me and i know he's calling his body i'm not going to tell you to seek the lord i'm not going to tell you to fast but what i am going to do is ask you to please sincerely take undistracted time alone with god on your knees and pray from the bottom of your heart say god do you want me to fast and obey whatever he tells you ask the i want you to i want every person hears me to kneel down say god do you want me to seek you in an extraordinary way and if so wait and seek him in prayer until he shows you how to rearrange your schedule so you can give him more time now one way i'll just throw this out there where everybody can get at least one or two hours of extra time every day is you can eat one meal a day and then what happens is you have all that breakfast time to stay in the word in prayer stay on your knees you can eat lunch you'll have enough energy one meal a day you can still do everything unless you're a construction worker you know you have to figure out another way to do it if you're doing hard physical work i've done that and then you then you don't eat dinner and you have all the time the wives you don't or whoever makes the food at home you don't have to prepare a meal you have all that time you have to do the dishes you don't have to eat if all you have everybody just found an extra hour or two every day to sit at his feet and i'll tell you what fasting does when you're when your stomach is growling and you're on your knees it's it does something to your spirit man and makes you just reach out and cry for god there's no better place than to be on your knees fasting telling the lord i want a closer walk with you make your face shine on me draw me to yourself lord make yourself known to me in a greater way draw me break anything off my life that's not pleasing you when we do that and we stay there until the door opens that's where transformation comes that's the season we're in right now now i as i said earlier in second chronicles 7 14 when god said if my people will turn from their wicked way again the word wicked don't think that means oh i'm just a god-hating rebel that's not what it means wicked means are ways that don't agree with him but we don't know it but we don't know it that's why he doesn't say if my people will turn from their wicked ways okay let me not use the word wicked let me use the word if my people will turn from there by the way turn is another word for repent so what god's saying is when the church repents i'm going to heal america i'm not blaming this group or that group or this group i personally am going to seek god until my life is a burning flame of fire amen we don't have any other option and it's the best thing that could ever happen to us but when he says tur god didn't say if my people will turn from their ways that don't agree with me he didn't say that you know why because we can't because we don't even know what they are it takes first humbling ourself if we have the attitude i don't have any bad ways in me you're never that that's an ultimate form of pride in arrogance well i feel like i'm doing everything right is it possible that i have blind spots is it possible that i don't know everything is it possible that i might be wrong on something is it possible that i've made a presumption and god wants to correct me i think it is so god doesn't say just turn from your ways that aren't pleasing to me he said first humble yourself ezra said i proclaimed a fast that we might humble ourself before the lord and seek his ways for us and for our children the angel appeared to daniel and said daniel oh man greatly beloved of god he said from the first day that you humbled yourself your prayer was heard but i was withheld 21 days because of the prince of persia evil power but no one helped me then michael came and helped me he said i've now come to give you understanding you know what the church all of us me we need right now we need understanding we need to understand what's on god's heart what's on his agenda and what he wants from us because without that understanding if god wants a cherry pie and we make him an apple pie we're giving him the wrong thing so don't think necessarily your now there is wickedness and some of the church some of this some of the doctrines and teachings and habits and practices are blatantly wicked among some professing believers but if you're thinking well i'm i don't believe people in this church have intentional or blatant wicked ways but i believe we and myself included have ways that god wants to he wants to illuminate us correct us and change us so that we understand his heart more and we start agreeing with him more so god said before you could even turn you've got to humble yourself before you can turn from the ways that are displeasing me you got to pray before you can turn you have to seek not my hand not my blessings but my face and god would never tell us to seek his face unless he intended to show us his face and i promise you when god starts to show his face and god starts to show his face massive transformation will come to the church and then to the nation because every one of us will be on our face when he shows his face and the things that we couldn't overcome for the last 10 years will overcome in about 10 minutes and then our hearts when you see the face of god your heart becomes ignited with love and passion to do his will when you see the lord when you see the lord everything in your being down to a cellular level screams out i want to do your will and when we drift from him we fall into delusions that think that he exists to make sure we get our will that shall pervert it things become but when we see the beauty of the lord and how good he is and how pure how righteous all his ways are everything in us cries oh god i want to glorify you i want to do your will so god said seek my face humble yourself pray seek my face turn here's the promise of god he said if you'll do that god's said all here if he hears that means he's going to show us his face he said i'll forgive and i'll heal now since everyone went long in worship i still have 15 minutes what will it look like does anybody want to repent and seek god with me is anybody offended good what can we expect what can we expect if we do this i'm seeking the lord i'm i'm not gonna i'm not gonna from my own soul throw something out there and say oh we're going to do this as a body all i know right now is the holy spirit is saying it's time for all of us to extraordinarily seek the lord everyone but i'm i am asking the lord and i don't want to say anything until i know i definitely heard something clearly but i'm asking the lord if he'd if there's something corporately he wants us to do maybe special meetings maybe times to come and lay on our face before him but here's what we can expect and what i said last sunday and i mean it where what i'm talking about right now this direction we're going we're not changing i'm not going to do this for three weeks and say now i have another teaching series we're going to stay right here in this vein until something drastic changes there's no plan b this is it so if you're going to keep coming here this is what we're going to be doing don't don't expect oh in two weeks he'll be off of that we're not i'd rather just quit the church and go do something else than to stay out of god's will but that's not an option all right what can we what can we expect if we see what what does it look like when god answers that prayer and he says i'm going to show my face well i told you in acts i mean ezekiel 39 verse 29 god said i won't hide my face from them anymore i will have poured out my spirit on the house of israel so when we see god's face individually and corporately god's going to answer he's going to pour his spirit out and you know as god pours his spirit out even that is what helps us turn more god god could start making himself known in our prayer times he can start god can start manifesting his presence in here with the fear of the lord and help bring us to repentance but here's some things we can expect can i read a few verses acts chapter 2 suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled the whole house where they were sitting then there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire and one sat upon each of them they were all filled with the holy spirit they began to speak with other tongues as the spirit gave them utterance we can expect god to pour his spirit out and every single person be filled with the holy spirit is speaking with tongues i don't know why you aren't smiling i don't know why somebody's not saying amen aren't you hungry for god here's here's what we can expect acts chapter 2 verse 41 and those who gladly received the word when peter preached they were baptized and that day about three thousand souls were added to them when god pours his spirit out we'll start seeing people come to the lord not in ones and twos but in hundreds and in thousands it says and they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship in the breaking of bread and in prayers then fear came on every soul and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles so we can expect hundreds and thousands to start coming to the lord we can expect the fear of the lord to come on the church we can expect signs and wonders to become normal now we have to ask ourself here here's one of the ways i've been seeking god i'm not going to give it all to you now and it's for another message but i've been asking the lord lord what are our ways that are displeasing to you not to be one of them right now and and it's hard when a person is lukewarm it's almost impossible to even know that you are lukewarm people don't go i'm lukewarm lukewarm people think i'm blessed that's what the laodicean church said how do you feel we're blessed we have need of nothing she said you're lukewarm one of the ways that god is displeased with is lukewarmness lukewarmness doesn't mean you have no fire means you have a little fire but not a raging inferno and if you if you have a little fire and if i have a little fire and i compare myself to a cold dead church i'll think i'm on fire but god will say no you're lukewarm here's something god doesn't like please hear this he doesn't like when we seek him but we don't do it with all our heart he doesn't like that it's not his ways one of the ways we have to turn from is seeking god 90 percent or 95 we have to turn from that god doesn't like it he said turn to me with all your heart and so that's the other thing i'm going to ask everyone to do i'm doing this i'm asking god not just one day i'm asking him each day lord show me what it looks like in your eyes not in my eyes see i can i can say i'm seeking god with all my heart in my eyes but it has to be in his eyes so i'm seeking god say lord what does seeking you with all my heart look like to you will you ask god that and then let's each just do it now i don't know if everybody's going to do this or not but i do know this because the lord showed me there's enough people here that are going to do it and god's going to get his way he told me this i told you this dream i've had a while back the lord jesus christ came walking to me in a dream and he had a hundred dollar bill and a twenty dollar bill in his hand and he and as he walked toward me he got close to me and then he held 120 in his hand then he put into his heart and he closed his eyes and i had i had the knowing it was sort of unusual for me but i knew that he loved this what he was holding his hand he loved do you know god loves all people but he loves those that seek him early proverbs 18 17 8 17. i love them that love me and they that seek me early so find me he took the 120 100 billion 20 billy pressed him to his heart closed his eyes and he loved him then he handed him to me and he said i'm sowing this to you and i remember saying no lord no i said i i should be giving you my first fruits you shouldn't be giving to me and he said resolutely he said no i have purpose to do this i'm sowing this to you and i took it when i woke up immediately what came to me is the 120 in the upper room the lord said many people there were thousands that thronged me when i multiplied the bread hundreds saw me resurrected from the dead but only 120 obeyed me and went into the upper room and prayed and waited on me to be full of the holy spirit and obey me he said i'm giving you i'm sowing to you at your church i'm going to bring the 120 to your church i don't know if that's a literal number it that could be 68 people here or 132. i i don't know if it's literal i know that what god said to me is i'm going to bring the people here that will do it and you know what that means we're going to see his face so don't i'm not worried about the people that don't i know the people that will are here with me somebody say amen so this is what we can expect acts chapter 3 when the apostles were on their way to the daily prayer meeting they spoke the command of healing to a man who was lame from birth he stood walking leaping and praising god all the people were filled with wonderment and about five thousand souls were added to the church this is what we can expect when god shows his faith is anybody with me does anybody believe the new testament can happen today okay what tongues of fire everyone filled three thousand saved five thousand saved and then you go to act chapter five ananias and sapphira come in they're two-faced they're dishonest they get judged they fall dead this bible says great fear comes on all the church then right after that through the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were done so much so that all the people from jerusalem and all the surrounding areas brought all their sick and laid them in the streets in hopes that the shadow of peter passing by might touch him and the bible says and they were healed every one this is what happens when god shines his face so when god says tear your heart weep mourn we should be saying something like this god how was i ever okay with not having that how was i ever okay and i'm not i know i can pray for it and just kind of put it out there like i'm waiting and i'm praying and i'm waiting for god to do something but now it's like god said it's your move see we're i'm not okay with this and i know now is god's appointed time it's time to seek god and so uh the man at the gate beautiful was healed five thousand more were added that's a good day i was church today five thousand got saved [Music] oh yeah he should have been at the service before that two people died really yeah and after that everybody else brought their tithes by the way this is a whole another message and i don't want to go i'll just give you a sprinkling some of you heard me teach this over the years wherever the fear of god is the fullness of his spirit is acts chapter 2 and and they were all filled with the fear of the lord the next verse signs wonders the fullness of the spirit acts chapter five great fear came on the church miracles the fullness the river thousands coming to the lord the fullness of god's spirit is wherever the fear of god is and the fear of god means we hate what displeases god and we love what pleases him that's the fear of the lord it's to depart from evil and do what pleases god when you read about the seven spirits of god in isaiah 11 verse 2 and 3 it speaks about the spirit of the lord spirit of wisdom spirit of understanding resting on jesus spirit of counsel spirit of night and the spirit of the fear of the lord the seven spirits of god that jesus walked in were flowed in words of knowledge words of wisdom healings miracles discerning of spirits authority power over the wind power of the waves he moved in the seven spirits of god and the bible says in the next verse and the fear of the lord is his delight the fear of the lord is the linchpin that holds it all together and the church has lost the fear of god and when we get the fear of god back the fullness of his spirit flows so i want to i'm going to try to close right now and i'm going to ask each one of us will you sincerely ask the lord lord do you want me to fast and then obey him and ask him what kind of fast how long personally i don't have a time on mine mine's not a date on a calendar mine's an event mine's until an encounter i might have to buy smaller sized shirts i don't care i don't care i don't care i've done it before who cares our our man perishes but our inward man is renewed day by day ask the lord do you want me to fast what kind of fast how long ask the lord listen you are his sheep you hear his voice you don't need me to tell you what to do you can just hear the lord and the lord will guide you and say lord show me how to seek you with all my heart he'll tell you he may tell one person get up an hour earlier he may tell another person stay up an hour later it's all different for everybody he may tell one person do this and another do that but if we all obey we're going to find him lord amen ask the lord lord will you show me what it looks like to seek you with all my heart and then lastly i'm going to read this how many believe god has us in a good place listen i want to tell you this if you're hearing if there's something in you that resonates with what's being said right now we're in the best place we've ever been we're at the door of hope we're there if not us who if not now when if not here where i just recently re-heard a message i heard from the late great saint d.g.s dennica and from india who i was my wife and i were so blessed to meet him and uh know him have time with him and his wife he has i don't know if this is true but in my opinion he birthed and led probably the largest ministry on the planet his son paul who's been in this pulpit a number of times is leading that ministry they have 2 000 full-time staff they have over 75 24-hour a day houses of prayer they have a christian university with over seven thousand students television radio and uh dgs dinner cutting his ministry i never in my life ever met a man so full of the holy spirit his face glowed and he moved in all the gifts all the fruit you know a man is walking with god when his wife says that's the acid test right here's what his wife said about him she said my husband she said my husband is the embodiment of love he was a living sacrifice his entire life was a living sacrifice and guess what that's what we're called to be he was full of the holy spirit all the gifts when he would go outdoors to have an open air evangelistic meeting the average attendance i was in two meetings with his family with paul denickon the average attendance is three to five hundred thousand people in all the meetings the blind see the lane walk the deaf ear demon possessor delivered and thousands and thousands and thousands turned to jesus every city he went to was shaken by the power of god and so 10 or 12 times a year he'd have these massive meetings and he would uh he many times god would take him up to heaven you know i and i like i wrote this down it's almost word for word i changed a couple small words because of the english wasn't his first language so he's saying it sort of in broken english and i under so but it's almost word for word what he said off his message he's telling about a time he was taken up to heaven he said in 1993 when god took me to heaven there was a particular servant of god from india who was used notably by the lord in south india the lord jesus introduced him to me when he saw dgs he said only after coming to heaven i was made to know how much more i could have accomplished if i only would have humbled myself and sought god for the fullness of the anointing of the holy spirit i never bothered to do that i didn't seek god for the fullness of the holy spirit and power which the lord jesus christ himself received and only when i came here did i realize how much more i could have done and the lord jesus himself also told me my son how much more you could have done in the world if only you would have humbled yourself and asked me for the fullness of my spirit then that servant of the lord told dgs denicoden son i am so thrilled that you've been careful to always humble yourself and receive the anointing of the holy spirit god will continue to use you mightily then dgs denickon went on to say that in heaven there are servants of god who are showing their past and they're showing what they could have done if they'd only humbled themselves and sought the lord with all of their heart and they cried bitter tears seeing how short they fell from their potential in christ so jesus said this was a good lesson for me if we want to receive any blessings from christ now in this life is the time to seek him the world has yet to see a man or a woman who is totally surrendered to christ that's where we are i'm glad i'm not in heaven feeling disappointed i'm glad that right now i can do it aren't you amen there's there's a lost city that jesus wants to touch and you know what what's going to happen if we will obey god and and go as low as we can and let him deal with us let him talk to us as we seek his faith it's not because god's mad at us it's because he loves us that's why he's calling us to seek him if we'll do this do you know what's going to happen the fire of god's presence like none of us like you and i have never seen will become resident wherever you go you'll be a fire carrier i'm seeking you know what my desire is as a pastor that everybody in this church would be filled with all the fruit and all the gifts all the fruit and all the gifts you know if one church gets on fire do you know what's going to happen it'll it'll spread to other churches if one church in this valley gets baptized in fresh fire you know what's going to happen all the other churches are going to say how did you do it we want it we want it we want it you know when one city gets on fire all the other cities what am i saying if we if i get on fire you'll get on fire if you get on fire they'll get on fire if our city gets on fire the next city gets on fire if our state gets on fire the next state gets on fire things can spread really fast on youtube let's pray lord help us lord you brought us to this place lord i know i know lord it's not your will that this nation go down the tubes lord lord lord lord lord you still have many good things you want to do lord you still have a great purpose for this nation lord it's not your will the wicked should rule but god you want your church awakened we're asking you as a body we ask you individually we ask you corporately god would you talk to every one of us give us the grace to seek you lord and to stay low before you until fire from heaven fills us lord have your way in us and father i plead the precious blood of jesus over every household over every individual those that are watching online right now those that are in this building every person lord that you call to be a part of this body we cover with the blood of jesus i break every demonic assignment every witchcraft every word curse we break your power father we ask you now for the grace come on agree with me god draw us according to your words song of solomon chapter one draw us and we will run with you lord we ask you to not let us go hold us to this lord until we see your face shining in glory god this is the time this is the hour so lord let your will be done and us we ask in jesus name if you agree with that say amen give god praise [Applause] [Music] [Music]

Channel: ShekinahWorshipTV

Views: 15,711

Rating: 4.9243855 out of 5

Keywords: Joe Sweet, Shekinah Worship Center

Id: 4x-uW8IBdYQ

Length: 76min 34sec (4594 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 31 2021