DEEPER WORSHIP

by
John Robert Stevens
LIVING WORD PUBLICATIONS
P.O. Box 958, North Hollywood, California 91603

WORSHIP WITHOUT DISTRACTION

In these days when changes are taking place in the whole world, even God’s people have
not known what was to have priority. Many things face us. What is the most important of all?
What are we to do? God suddenly answers us, “You are to worship Me!” Therefore, we cease
to magnify anything else as being of prime concern as we stand and worship. Only one thing
could defeat us in the time of problems and persecution, and that would be our forgetting that
we are a people raised up to worship God. When we are set to worship, we enter into
something beyond faith. Is there such a thing as “something beyond faith”? Yes, the three
Hebrews were told that if they did not bow down to the image on the plain of Dura, they
would be thrown into a fiery furnace. They said, “We do not know whether our God will
deliver us or not, but one thing we do know: our worship belongs to the Lord. We will not
bow down to an image” (Daniel 3:16–18). It is that kind of dedication to worship that we
must have. Our worship will be wholly for the Lord.
What will happen when we have the true dedication to worship? We will prevail. Fire
cannot burn us, water cannot drown us, and Satan cannot put us down. Nothing can prevail
against us if our hearts are set to be worshipers of the Lord. We may be tested on that point,
even as the three Hebrews were; but they had a beautiful person walking with them through
the hot coals. Only the bands that bound them were burned, and they came out without even
the smell of smoke upon them (Daniel 3:25–27). We set our hearts to be steadfast worshipers
of the Lord. And while we are rejoicing and worshiping, judgment will begin to fall!
Inflexible worship is a worship that absolutely does not waver in its dedication to worship
the Lord. It is constant, never deviating from the course to worship God. This worship will
break down the last remaining barriers that have kept us from moving forward. It will be the
spiritual force that will hold us together as we move forward in the Kingdom.

MAKE HIM A THRONE

We will consider Psalm 22:3 from two different versions. King James says, But thou art
holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. The New American Standard Bible reads,
Yet Thou art holy, O Thou who art enthroned upon the praises of Israel. In Hebrews 13:15
we read about offering to the Lord our praises, the sacrifice of the fruit of our lips. With such
sacrifice God is wellpleased. We come to give the Lord praise and worship.
Anything you can think or imagine from the Scriptures can be established in your mind and
will be very valuable to you. As you praise the Lord, imagine that you are building the
habitation in which God wants to dwell. When you offer up praises, you are offering to Him
the sacrifices He accepts as pleasing to Him. When you offer up worship and praise to the
Lord, you are creating, in the Spirit, the throne on which He chooses to sit. There He is
enthroned upon the praises of His people.
We ought to consider our worship and praise in a service from God’s viewpoint more than
from ours. Worship comes from being able to relate to God on His terms, to give Him what
He wants, and to please Him. We cannot be menpleasers. We must try to please God. We
practice this principle in our human relationships. We do not go out of our way to be
obnoxious; we try to think in terms of the other man and what he wants. A good salesman
considers what his prospective customer is thinking and what he wants. Then he proceeds to
tell him that he has exactly what he wants, and soon the customer is ready to accept the
transaction, because he believes that what the salesman has in mind for him is what he really
wants.
We must seek to please the Lord if we are to walk with Him. Often the Lord gives a word
telling us what we want, and we accept it. Conversely, we come to the Lord and ask Him
what He wants. We can find the answer in the Scriptures. For some time God has been
searching for something. He is seeking worshipers, those who will worship Him in spirit and
in truth (John 4:24). The Father is seeking such to worship Him, and the search goes on and
on. As we begin to view it more from God’s viewpoint than from our own, we come to
realize that we are not just praising the Lord to get a blessing; we are not worshiping the Lord
because that is the thing to do. We are worshiping because we want to please Him. We want
to give Him what He has been seeking all along.
This principle is very serious and cannot be overly stressed. If we do not realize that we
come to please the Lord, we will miss everything that the worship service is to mean to us. If
we come to please the Lord, we will think the way God is thinking about a situation. If we
come to touch God so that He will meet our need, we may receive something, but not very
much. The people who receive everything are those who forget themselves in their desire to
relate to what God is looking for in their lives. They want to genuinely please Him, to give
Him worship and praise. That is exactly the way every true worshiper must think. God thinks
the same way.
In a church, people are not especially drawn to the ministries who are always looking for
what they can get. They tend to stay away from them. Some may bless such a ministry, but
not many relate to him. Yet when someone wants to be a blessing and is only concerned
about blessing the Body, about being used of the Lord and finding a way to meet people’s
needs, people consider him a precious brother and seek ministry from him. They relate to him.
God looks at it the same way.
Your thinking must be reversed, for you do not normally think God’s way. You only think
selfishly of your own needs. Forget yourself and seek first the Kingdom of God. That does
not mean that you seek your place in it. You are seeking for the Kingdom; you are seeking
for God’s will to be done. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven, Matthew 6:10b. Seek
first the Kingdom and His righteousness, and what happens? All these things will be added
unto you (Matthew 6:33), because immediately God puts His finger on you and claims you as
His. When you are working for God’s interests, you project yourself into a place of forgetting
yourself.
The man who gets a promotion in his company is the man who is genuinely concerned
about seeing the company move ahead. Incidentally, he is also the one who gets the raises in
salary. Because he is taking care of the company’s interests, the company takes care of his.
That is the way it works. When we have learned the truth of this principle, we will realize that
God wants people to worship and praise Him, and we will determine to be those people.
You may have thought that God primarily wanted you to work hard at one of the projects
involved in sending the Gospel to the world, that He was trying to get a lot of free labor out
of you. No, that is just incidental; it really is not the big issue. He is looking for a worshiper.
If you do not worship much, but you work hard, then you had better take a new look at your
life, because much of it is not as important as you think. You are not in the Body of Christ to
salve your ego. This is not an ego trip. You are to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. Then you will
become His precious son, moving and ministering, doing His will in the earth.
As we are faithful in a few things, He will make us rulers over many (Matthew 25:21). We
do not seek to walk with God because we are looking for the easy route. We want our lives to
please the Lord. We desire whatever He wants. If He sees that He can trust us because we are
looking after His interests, He will give us a commission. If He puts us over ten cities, those
ten cities will glorify God. We move in to do it, because our delight is to please Him.
When you worship the Lord, give Him everything within your heart. He is enthroned upon
the praises of His people. You create the throne from which He is pleased to rule. The
Lordship of Jesus Christ is inevitably tied in with real living worship. Because He is Lord,
you worship Him, you recognize His authority; you magnify and praise Him; you surrender
all your life and all your interests to Him; and He is enthroned upon the praise and worship
you give Him. It is not the sound you make but the spirit behind it that is important. You can
worship and praise and sing, and still never really focus on the Lord. You can get into a rut if
you are not careful. You have to project your spirit to see the Lord and to worship Him and to
know what you are doing.
Worship services are successful when they magnify the Lord. The main emphasis should
not be our need and what we ought to be doing. We do not come to church to magnify our
need; we come to worship, to bless the Lord, to give Him what He wants. Then the services
are very effective in meeting our need too. The Lord smiles on us. He is enthroned upon our
praises.
For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus,
and have no confidence in the flesh. Philippians 3:3. Circumcision seals God’s people. God
does that for the worshiper: He circumcises his heart. Is there something in your life that you
want to be rid of? You can either struggle with it, fight it, and intensify your focus on it, until
you make yourself heartsick trying to overcome it; or you can become a worshiper, and God
will circumcise your heart and cut the defilement away. Enthrone Him on your praises and
worship, and watch what He does for you in return. He is looking for worshipers; and when
He gets one, He works him over and makes him His son. Praise Him until your praise has
formed a beautiful, mystical, golden throne upon which He is enthroned in your life. A
worshiper never lives alone. If God inhabits his praises, a worshiper always has someone
with him.
THE SONG OF MOSES AND THE LAMB
In Exodus 15, we find the song of Moses which is one of the earliest of the songs found in
the Scriptures. These early songs were always songs of victory. As civilization deteriorated
(from the head of gold down through the silver and the other symbolic stages depicted in
Nebuchadnezzar’s vision in Daniel 2:31–35), we find that songs have also changed. In fact,
sometimes it is not possible to discern what is a song. The themes vary. A study of the themes
of songs down through the ages would be interesting.
I like western music, but I do not like the theme. The theme of such music is usually sad.
Someone sings about how he has been forsaken, how lonely he is, or how his sweetheart has
left him. If we Americans were a happy people and a people who had been serving the Lord,
what marvelous songs might have come through that field of western music.
 The Negro spiritual was born of a great deal of trial and persecution. After the blacks were
set free, they did not have the impetus to create songs, so they stopped insofar as being
creative in their music.
In contrast to the songs of the world, the Scriptures are constantly speaking about songs of
victory. The songs which God brings are sung in triumph. All the songs of the Kingdom will
be slanted toward the victory and the glorification of Jesus Christ. They will be slanted
toward that appropriation, that realization of who we are, that comforting which comes when
we voice again and again what God has said, what God has proclaimed, what God has
provided.
The book of Revelation from chapter four to chapter fifteen parallels very closely the first
fifteen chapters of the book of Exodus. You can understand the book of Revelation by
reading the book of Exodus. Exodus records the plagues which came upon the gods of Egypt.
Plague after plague came—the darkness, the flies, the lice, the boils, the frogs, and the water
turning into blood. The culmination of those events was the slaying of the firstborn. After that,
the Israelites were delivered and passed over the Red Sea. Then they sang the song of Moses.
From there they went on into the wilderness and on to possess their promises.
God is promising another Passover for us which is coming in much the same way as the
first one. It will come with the trumpets sounding. After the angels sound the trumpets,
plague after plague will come, and finally, the fifteenth chapter of Revelation says that the
song of Moses and the Lamb will be sung. Then comes the real deliverance. After the song is
sung, seven angels with bowls of wrath pour them out upon the earth.
We are facing a beautiful deliverance, and we are not going to wait until it is all over to
start singing our songs. We are going to be singing with great faith and revelation as a
prelude to that which is coming. Whenever God wants to be greatly pleased and glorified in
people’s faith, He gives them their instructions, and they have their time of shouting and
rejoicing before they see the action. They do not sing about heartbreaks and such things as
the world does today. They sing songs of victory as are found in the Scriptures.
I am sure that it was praises to God that Paul and Silas were singing in the Philippian jail
(Acts 16:25). It was not some lonesome, sad song: “If I had the wings of an angel, from this
prison house I would fly.” That type of song belongs to the modern day. Paul and Silas were
singing and rejoicing, and they did get out of jail. The songs in the Bible often came as a
result of victories, but some of the victories came as a result of the songs. Do not forget that.
We recall how Jehoshaphat appointed the singers, and they went out singing and praising at
the front of the army of Israel. What a day! By the time they got to the battlefield, the enemy
had all died (2 Chronicles 20:21–24). That was really exceptional singing! When the Lord
wanted some real warriors, He picked a choir. The people were singing prophetically for the
glory of God, and the victory did come in the name of the Lord.
When the Israelites marched around Jericho, it was a similar situation. God did not tell
Joshua to wait until the walls fell down to shout. He commanded that the people walk around
Jericho once a day for six days, and on the seventh day, after seven times around, they were
to stand and shout (Joshua 6:3–5). When they shouted, they shouted the victory.
We yell before we get our victory. We shout, we cry, we praise the Lord, and we rejoice;
then the victory will come. We believe, and we start singing.
Revelation 15 speaks of those who had the victory over the beast singing the song of Moses
and of the Lamb. What was the song of Moses? God took the horse and rider and hurled them
into the sea. They went down like a rock. They sank like lead. The waters passed over them.
It was the end of the power of Egypt. The Israelites were singing and rejoicing, but they were
rejoicing over a current historical fact of deliverance. We are rejoicing over a real victory that
is to come, and we will have that victory.
 We will have a different kind of Passover than the world has ever seen. It will be a time of
judgment that will settle upon the whole world like darkness. From the viewpoint of an
airplane, darkness seems to rise up from below to meet the plane. It seems to come up out of
the very valleys of the earth. In the dreadful judgment that is coming, a darkness will cover
the whole earth. But we are looking unto the Lord, the Sun of righteousness, who comes with
healing in His rays (Malachi 4:2). For us it is a time of deliverance.
This end time will be the greatest time of psalms the world has ever known. Already we
seem to be tuning in to it. In the church services the word should do one thing for the people
who want to be creative: it should set them on the track. Someone should give the guideline,
and then everyone can tune in to it and participate with prophecies and psalms. Someone with
revelation pinpoints where the action is and where the blessing is, and the rest of the people
tune in to that. They can preach on it; they can sing about it; they can prophesy about it. It is
real to all because someone has pointed out where God was moving.
I will tell you where the Holy Spirit is moving now. He is moving to prepare the greatest
song of victory ever sung: the song of Moses and of the Lamb. The hymns that will be sung
over the coming years will not be the doleful dirges of the world. We will leave Egypt as did
the Israelites: as we move out in the end-time Passover, we will go out boldly in the sight of
the Egyptians while they are singing their sad tunes and burying their dead (Numbers 33:3, 4).
We are moving out. God is getting ready to bring judgment, and the song of triumph, the
song of glory and praise to the Lamb—that is our song. If we want to be on the right track,
we should start writing songs about victory, about the Kingdom of God.
There are prophecies in the Scriptures telling us that the song of Zion will be heard to the
ends of the earth (Isaiah 24:16). Who will sing the songs of Zion? We are the ones who will
sing these songs. There will be songs composed that will far outshine the psalms of David.
Some of David’s psalms were rather sad, while some of them were very angry. Some were
just the mournful wailings of a man crying for help. Some were songs of triumph.
There are songs of victory that will come to the people of God who will stand and sing.
That is the reason I often ask the people in the psalm service to try something new. Reach for
something new. You can get into a rut, and before you know it, you are singing something
that is meaningless. Stay in the creative flow. Be ready for things that are different. There
will be all kinds of music and all kinds of sounds coming forth. There will be songs with
fantastic words which, when sung, will transform a whole congregation, changing their mood
and setting them in a whole new pattern of victory. Whatever you have seen in the world, you
must be prepared to see something far different. You must be prepared for the worship and
the songs that will come forth in the Lord.
Our heritage in the Lord is perfect victory. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly,
speaking to yourselves in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs; singing and making melody in
your hearts to the Lord” (Colossians 3:16). This admonition applies to us. Some way we must
come into it the song of Moses and of the Lamb.
While the earth is filled with judgment, this song will come forth. Many things will happen
in the earth; then the song will come. While the remnant is singing and worshiping, the other
events will follow in rapid sequence. God is going to be glorified to the accompaniment of
the heavenly choir. That anointing of the Lord, the great Passover, is coming.
THE SUBMISSION OF KINGS AND PRIESTS
Our worship must be with a definite element of submission, based upon the divine order
that God is restoring. Our test will come in the absolute, total submission to God as He
restores divine order, the Church, and His Kingdom. This brings the work of the cross to the
old flesh. We do not want anything of Babylon no matter how it is dressed up and called
restoration. We have seen enough of those who use the Church in their efforts to build a
kingdom.
In much of Christianity today, every man is doing that which is right in his own sight. If
you want to be well accepted in certain Christian circles, speak in tongues a little, preach a
few sermons, and then go around helping men build their own kingdoms. But if you begin to
preach divine order and the restoration, you will be rejected. Many want a restoration of
experiences, with just enough anointing to grease the machinery and help them build a
kingdom.
God has impressed upon my heart that man is not to be exalted. We want to see the divine
order, all the way through—apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, elders,
deacons—all doing what God wants, with a submissiveness. We want to see homes set in
order according to God’s pattern. If in any of those areas we fall short in submitting ourselves
to the Lord, we will find ourselves being examined and dealt with by God.
The sifting has already started. Those in the outer circumference will back off because they
will see very clearly that they do not want this total submission. Consequently, the Lord has
been leading me to speak forth with a real boldness about the Lord’s authority over the
believer. True scriptural submission is required as God is trying to establish an order
throughout the whole Body.
The remnant that God is raising up will insist on the Lord’s claims, on what He wants on
the earth, even if they lose everything else. They dare not follow the course of
denominationalism, nor can they become an anarchy with only a few strong leaders, each
doing his own thing. Instead of having little kingdoms here and there, those who really want
to walk with God must blend together in their concern that the focus not be on only one or
two leaders, but upon the Kingdom of God.
Many ministries are being established in divine order. The restored Church is not a
monarchy, nor will it be an oligarchy (the rule of the few), nor a democracy. It is the Lord
reigning and establishing in Zion all of those who will move as governors. The Lord is
bringing forth a complete submission in those who are to be the kings and priests of the
Kingdom. There can be no anarchy in our hearts. The Kingdom comes forth in our hearts
through our submission to the Lord. This walk with God is not another church movement; it
is a Kingdom movement. Therefore the laws and principles in the realm of spirit govern us
absolutely.
We submit to whatever God wants to bring to us, to however the divine order is to be
manifested. We submit the relationships we have to one another. If any of these relationships
contain any element of rebellion, we must ask the Lord to deal with them—whether it is a
relationship between parents and children, between husband and wife, or between families
and the elders over them. We ask that God put a fear in our hearts, lest we should displease
Him or fail to be submissive to Him in any way.
The book of Matthew is the gospel that centers upon the King and the Kingdom;
consequently, the principles of the Kingdom of God are outlined there with a little more
emphasis than they are in Mark, Luke, or John.
And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in
heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the
name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I
commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:18–
20.
The apostles received a commission from the Lord based upon all authority in heaven and
earth being committed to Him. Because He had that authority, He could commission anyone
to do anything. He commissioned them to go and make disciples of all nations, which implies
that they would have authority. They were not told to go and beg them to be disciples, or just
to preach to them.
This is the Kingdom gospel, which is different than the commission as recorded in Mark,
which says, “Go and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believes and is baptized will
be saved, and he that believeth not will be damned.” Mark seems to give an option, but
Matthew speaks of the thing that must come to pass: “Make disciples of all nations. Go and
do it! Make disciples of them.” We are to move in with an authority. When we come to the
end of the Church age and the beginning of the greater manifestation of the Kingdom, then
we have the command: Go out into the highways and hedges (your little boundary lines), and
compel them to come in … Luke 14:23b. There shall be a great forcefulness in the authority
that must rest upon the whole Body—the authority to move under the authority of the King.
We believe in the King of kings and Lord of lords. And we are the kings and the lords over
whom He is King and Lord.
He is not King over Hitlers or Mussolinis, though He does have authority over all rulers and
demons. The Kingdom we are speaking of is the Kingdom in which nothing shall defile. This
means, of course, that we, as kings and priests, purify ourselves. We prepare ourselves to be
completely submissive to the Lord. In our submission to the Lord begins the manifestation of
authority that reaches out to make disciples of all the nations. Those who will be strong and
do exploits will know their God, in the sense that they are related to Him properly, in
complete submission (Daniel 11:32).
Do you feel in your own heart that you are where God’s will wants you to be? Have you
found that the process of dying is painful and slow? Perhaps you have wished that God would
speed it up. He has made you submit to the work of the cross. He has brought you through.
Now is the time to stand and worship before Him in complete submission. When Jesus knew
that the Father had put all things in His hands, He laid aside His garment and girded Himself
with a towel and washed the disciples’ feet. He said, “You call Me Lord and Master, and you
say well, for so am I. This is what you are to do for one another” (John 13:3–14).
It is in that submission to one another, in that realm of complete humility, of submission to
the Lord and to the divine order, that we are going to hear even our babes prophesy, and
watch the miraculous creation of the very thing that is spoken. The creative prophecy that
will cause the bones to become an exceedingly great army will be spoken by the people who
have submitted to the Lord (Ezekiel 37:10). We cannot move in authority if we are not
submissive to His authority. Nothing but complete submission to the Lord and to divine order
can open the door for us to move in the authority that is necessary.
I know that the test is coming to many brothers. I think of all the consequences, of all that
might happen. I search my own heart and wonder who will stand as God brings us down to be
submissive in the hard place. I am not submissive to anything that will promote my interests;
I am submissive only to the thing that pleases the Lord, whatever command He gives. There
is no other rule, no other guideline or principle. All the way through, we must have this kind
of dedication to all authority in heaven and in earth. The world will challenge that authority;
let us be sure that we do not. Let us submit to it, and then we will see disciples made of the
nations.
When Jesus asked the disciples, “Who am I?” Peter answered, “We know who You are.
You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). Jesus told him: “I will give
you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you shall bind on earth shall have been
bound in heaven, and whatever you shall loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.”
Matthew 16:19. Notice the strange tense: what you do shall already have been done.
The Body of Christ is ready to move into the greatest manifestation of discipleship ever
seen. Every venture shall be brought into absolute submission to the mind of the Lord, as it is
revealed through seeking God with fasting and prayer. God’s people will not support the
projects that are not absolutely in submission to the Lord. There will be true, New Testament
discipline operating in the Body, and this will become an issue. Many believers will find their
hearts submitting to God with tears and heaviness. No one can be allowed to promote his own
little project. God’s people will have to do exactly what God wants them to do. Whatever
God tells them to do, this they will do—not with just a passable tolerance, but they will love
it. They will cleave to His Word and worship Him with all their hearts. When He says,
“Prophesy,” they will prophesy. When He says, “Create,” they will create. When He says,
“Make disciples,” they will make disciples.
We must get rid of the arrogance that has existed among God’s people and walk humbly
before Him in the submission that He has ordered for us. I know I am speaking what we all
feel. We want to walk with God in divine order.
Churches must reevaluate their structure, their leadership, and functions. We may have
been very sincere in what we have done, but it is time to bring it all down before the Lord and
have a “January inventory.” We will see how much is junk and how much is pure gold. We
do not want to build with hay, wood, and stubble; we want to build of gold and silver and
precious stones. We are going to call for the Building Inspector to bring His blowtorch and
blow on everything we have done. What can be burned, let it be burned. New Testament
churches do not need to be promoted; they just need to be what God raised them up to be.
The background of our third Scripture from Matthew deals with someone sinning against
you and the course by which you go to him privately and then with one or two more, and next
you tell it to the church, and so on. When Jesus finished this teaching, He gave a promise
which is related to it. However, I think the promise is more inclusive than just a matter of
discipline, or a way of bringing judgment or of excluding the impurities from a church. I
think it goes beyond that, for it has a positive as well as negative aspect.
He says, “Truly I say to you, whatever you shall bind on earth shall have been bound in
heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. Again I say to
you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for
them by My Father who is in heaven. For where two or three have gathered together in My
name, there I am in their midst.” Matthew 18:18–20.
This is speaking about two or three of us gathered together in submission to the Lord, in
submission to that exalted name which is above every name, above all principalities and
powers, and bowing to His absolute, total authority over our lives. As we begin to pray, with
that authority to which we submit, what we bind is bound in heaven; what we loose is loosed
in heaven. The authority works through those who are submissive to authority. This means a
great deal more than just being gathered in the name of the Lord. It means that we are
gathered in submission to the name. We read of the authority of His name in the Epistles.
Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every
name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow … and every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord … Philippians 2:9–11.
The disciples walked very humbly. There was no arrogance, no pretentiousness, no self-
assertiveness in them. But notice what God did through them. People dropped dead at Peter’s
feet (Acts 5:5, 10).
As we enter into the battle with all boldness, we must be sure that there is none of the
arrogance, none of the vindictiveness and hatred in our hearts that is found in the hearts of
our persecutors. We should predetermine to walk in love towards them. What we do, we have
to do, but we will not do it in hatred or in rebellion. We are going to do it in submission,
seeking the Lord’s help and pledging ourselves not to walk in hatred nor in any viciousness,
even against our enemies. Does that sound strange? That is what God will bless. This is a
way we can show that we love our enemies.
If I am not submissive, I have no leverage against the arrogance and rebellion of the age.
The minute I fail to be submissive, the principle breaks down. Parents, apply that also. Do
you want submission in your children? Then be sure that in all honesty of heart, you have that
same submission toward God. If you want them to listen to you and to what God shows you,
then you must also listen carefully to what God is trying to tell you. This principle applies in
every area. When an apostle or a prophet brings a word from the Lord to the people, they
must listen with the same spirit with which he listens to God. When a man of God in
authority bows in humility before the Lord, the congregation will respond in a similar manner.
The authority flows down in divine order through submissive hearts. The minute that
arrogance and rebellion enter in and there is no submission, the entire flow stops.
If we are submissive to the Lord, we can face ordeals and prevail in them. We know that
the arrogant are going to meet their match. Satan and the principalities will come down, and
all who have the pride of those demon spirits will fail. The only ones who will prevail, who
will inherit the earth, will be the meek, those with the submissive spirit that God has worked
in their hearts (Matthew 5:5). We want to have that meekness wrought in us because we
know we are about to inherit the earth. We are ready to make disciples of all nations. We are
ready to humble ourselves and publish—quickly and efficiently, with all diligence and
dedication, even if it means that every one of us must expend our lives completely—this
gospel of the Kingdom that will be preached in all the world for a witness.
Forgive us of our arrogance, Lord. Forgive us of our reacting to everything, too much on a
human plane. Forgive us, O God, where the relationships that we have in the Body have not
yet been completely subjected to Your will. Let the boys and girls repent too, for they have
not been submissive to their parents. Let brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers, parents
and children, husbands and wives—all of them together, Lord—submit to You. Whatever
rises up to rebel, let it be smitten by the sword of the Spirit. Let us walk in Your love and
Your mercy. We do not want to rebel or murmur against You, no matter how hard the path
You set before us.
Let none of us sin, as Moses did, when out of the aggravation of the moment he struck the
rock when he should have spoken to it (Numbers 20:11). Let there not be in our spirits that
which deviates one iota from what the Lord commands us to do. Let us do Your will
completely. None of the brothers are professionals in the sense of the world’s training of
ministers. They are men You have trained. They are men of God. Bless our ministries, Lord.
They shall be different from the ministers of traditional Christianity because in their hearts
will be a submission, and in their mouth will be authority—authority that will change the
world. Bless us, Lord, as we prepare our hearts for this new level of worship and what it is
going to mean.

BREAKING THE BONDAGE OF BONDS

Acts 4 tells us that after the apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit, great boldness came
into their lives as they spoke the word of the Lord. We may get the idea that this boldness and
liberty in the Spirit comes to everyone who has been filled with the Spirit; however, we find
that many who are Spirit-filled may still find days in which they are bound and unable to
function. Their spirits are restrained, and they are unable to cope with things; so they may
think they need a deliverance. It would be very difficult to define what it is that they do need.
Their spirits need to be liberated. They have a certain restraint upon them.
 Spirits have varying degrees of liberation; some are freer than others in focusing their
consciousness or awareness some place apart from themselves. You may have had the feeling
at times that someone was boring a hole in the back of your head, as he was concentrating on
you. There might have been no evil intent; he was just thinking about you. When someone
focuses his consciousness on you so strongly that you become aware of it, you often have a
tendency to become uneasy and look around, wondering who is thinking about you so
intently. A person who is able to do this is one whose spirit is a little more free in this
particular aspect of activity.
I am concerned that every Christian should be a free spirit as far as worship is concerned.
No matter how you restrain your spirit otherwise, toward the Lord there should be a freedom
that enables you to project your focus upon the Lord without anything coming in the way. We
do not want a heaven of brass, causing our prayers to bounce right back on us. We want a
free access to the Lord.
There are several things that bind or restrain a person’s spirit and his contact with God. One
is devil power, though it is not always the devil who uses this. We read of demon spirits
interfering when Daniel prayed for twenty-one days. His prayer was immediately heard; there
was no difficulty there. The answer was restrained because the prince of the power of Persia
had withstood the archangel as he tried to bring the answer to Daniel (Daniel 10:12, 13). Such
interference is possible; however, most of our problems, when it comes to our spirits being
bound or our ministry or worship being restrained, do not come from devil power, but from
other sources. The bondage of spirit that can come from devil assault is minimal, because all
authority in heaven and earth belongs to the Lord. The effect that demonic assault could have
in binding our spirits would be minimal if everything else were right.
We need to be aware of the things that tend to bind our spirits, making it difficult for us to
become free worshipers of the Lord. There are times when we are very free when we come to
the house of the Lord. Other times everyone else is free, but we seem to be bound, and we do
not know the reason.
First of all, we need to recognize that the bond we have with people affects the bond we
have with Christ, and it affects our liberty to worship. There is a very positive aspect to this,
as well as the negative. If we have a bond with someone who is very spiritual, we will
automatically have greater liberty and less bondage in our spirits than we would have
otherwise.
Paul spoke to the Corinthians about what was binding their spirits: You are not restrained
by us, but you are restrained in your own affections. He did not lay a restraint upon them;
they did it. If they were bound in spirit, they had done something among themselves that had
brought it about. Now in a like exchange—I speak as to children,—open wide to us also. Do
not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and
lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with
Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the
temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, “I will
dwell in them and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate,” says the Lord. To be separate from
the unbelievers means that you must lose the bond you have with them. Do not be bound
together with an unbeliever; you must be separate from that bondage.
“And do not touch what is unclean; and I will welcome you. And I will be a Father to you,
and you shall be sons and daughters to Me,” says the Lord Almighty. Therefore, having these
promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting
holiness in the fear of God. Make room for us in your hearts … 2 Corinthians 6:12–7:2.
“Make room for us” would be equivalent to saying, “We want to make a bond with you.” The
bond that we make with people is very important. We should not do this at random or just at
any time, but only when the Lord leads in a particular way.
Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the
members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? May it never be! Or do you not know
that the one who joins himself to a harlot is one body with her? For He says, “The two will
become one flesh.” But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him. Flee
immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins
against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is
in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought
with a price: therefore glorify God in your body. 1 Corinthians 6:15–20.
The bonds that people make with each other can he very effective. When a person comes to
the house of God to worship the Lord, he may find himself totally restrained, hound in spirit,
and unable to break through because of a bond that he has with someone else. These bonds
can he created in many ways. Paul says, “Do not he unequally yoked together with
unbelievers. What fellowship can the spiritual have with the unspiritual?” He said also, “If
you are joined with a harlot, you are one body with her, for God said, ‘The two will become
one flesh.’ The body was not made for fornication; it was made for the Lord.” When we are
joined to the Lord, we are one spirit with Him; and because the Spirit is housed within our
bodies, they become the temples of the Holy Spirit by virtue of the bond we have in the spirit
with the Lord. If we are the temples of God, He will live and move in us.
Just as the Holy Spirit can help us have a bond with the Lord to the extent that we are
joined to the Lord and are one spirit with Him, in a very similar way, a man who has a
relationship with a harlot becomes one with her—one flesh. That does not mean that
thereafter they are never physically separated, that they are like Siamese twins. Siamese twins
are actually one organism, but two individuals. This is not true of a man and a harlot. He may
have a relationship with her and walk away with no evidence of a bond tying the flesh
together physically; nevertheless, a bond is created that ties together what the Scriptures call
“the flesh.” Thereafter her flesh is bonded to his flesh; they have become one flesh. Whatever
devils harass her can harass him. Whatever she is open to in the flesh life, he is automatically
open to. If she is cut off from God, he will find himself desolate and cut off from God, and it
will be very difficult for him to rise above it. The same bondage of the flesh that she suffers
comes through to him.
Young people need to realize this truth. Many times the old standards and morals do not
mean much to them until they develop the hunger to walk with God. Then they suddenly
become very careful, because they have too great a struggle trying to walk with the Lord
when they have made a bond with someone through a promiscuous relationship. Those bonds
are effective in transmitting spiritual restraints and bondages, harassments, and openness to
demon power from one person to another. In addition to repenting of the sin, the person who
has made such a bond sometimes needs ministry to break the bond. The harlot may have
spent all her life getting into the situation of being harassed and oppressed, but after only one
contact with her, a man can be in the same position. Devil possession can easily be conveyed
by sexual intercourse with a devil-possessed person.
This principle makes life very difficult when an individual is married to an unbeliever; then
only the grace of God reaches in. The Word tells us that if a Christian wife is married to an
unbeliever, and he is content to dwell with her, she should stay with him (1 Corinthians 7:12–
15). The same is true of a Christian husband married to an unbeliever. God will sanctify the
unbelieving partner and the children through the believing partner. Thus the grace of God
reaches in to see that the children are not harassed in the situation. But the Word also says
that if the unbeliever departs, let him depart. In such a case, the believer is not bound either
by the law of marriage or in the flesh, and the bond will cease to be. This is a great promise
of the Lord.
It is possible for a husband or wife to dwell with a mate who is an unbeliever—“unequally
yoked together” is the phrase the Scripture uses—and find that he is so bound to the Lord that
he does not accept the harassment and bondage of the other person, even though they are
living intimately together.
Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against
his own body. 1 Corinthians 6:18b. He sins against his own body inasmuch as he makes a
physical bond, creating the channel and openness for harassment to come through. It affects
his soul life. It affects his attitudes. It affects his spirit. Everything is affected. By his
immorality he has committed a sin against his body, and now his spiritual defenses are gone.
A healthy person who restrains himself from such contact is not open to the devil possession
or harassment that many people are. It is amazing how one can keep himself clean from the
things of the world and the contamination of the flesh if he will merely follow the Scriptures.
1 Corinthians 7:25–35 contains teaching about the bonds we have with others, about how
they affect our spirits and can either restrain or set them free. Now concerning virgins I have
no command of the Lord, but I give an opinion as one who by the mercy of the Lord is
trustworthy. I think then that this is good in view of the present distress (the persecution they
were going through), that it is good for a man to remain as he is. Whether people should get
married or not is an individual matter, depending upon the will of God for each individual. If
it is the will of the Lord for you to get married, fine. If it is not the will of the Lord for you to
get married, then you are not missing anything.
Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be released. Are you released from a wife? Do not
seek a wife. But if you should marry, you have not sinned; and if a virgin should marry, she
has not sinned. Yet such will have trouble in this life, and I am trying to spare you. A
relationship that exists between a man and a woman inevitably brings complications. The
man can never really understand the woman, and the opposite is just as true. Their thinking is
so entirely different.
But this I say, brethren, the time has been shortened, so that from now on both those who
have wives should be as though they had none. In effect Paul is saying, “The time has come
that you should not have an adverse bondage in any of these areas.” A relationship such as
that between husband and wife can leave them bound and restrained toward God. And those
who weep, as though they did not weep (there are circumstances and experiences of your life
that can break your heart, and they, too, can restrain you before God and create a bondage);
and those who rejoice, as though they did not rejoice; and those who buy, as though they did
not possess. Sometimes there is nothing that makes a bondage on you as much as apparent
blessings, good experiences, and victories. They can be an actual detriment to you.
Have you ever noticed that when everything is going well with you, you have less contact
with God than at any other time? You are being blessed too much and receiving more good
things than are good for you; these things put a bondage on you and restrain you. You have to
get rid of them. Possessions, too, can create a bondage on you. This is certainly true at the
present time. If you do not think so, just find someone who has property and compare him
with someone who has no property; you will find that the person with property and
possessions is worried. He does not know what to do with them, and there is very little advice
that is guaranteed to be absolutely correct. The Lord wants us to be free.
And those who use the world, as though they did not make full use of it; for the form of this
world is passing away. But I want you to be free from concern. One who is unmarried is
concerned about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord (theoretically, that is true;
although some unmarried people are only concerned about getting married); but the one who
is married is concerned about the things of the world, how he may please his wife, and his
interests are divided.
And the woman who is unmarried, and the virgin, is concerned about the things of the Lord,
that she may be holy both in body and spirit; but one who is married is concerned about the
things of the world, how she may please her husband, And this I say for your own benefit; not
to put a restraint upon you, but to promote what is seemly, and to secure undistracted
devotion to the Lord.
Paul was not opposed to marriage; he was merely pointing out that all these things—
possessions, circumstances, experiences, relationships—can put a bondage on you, so that
you do not have an unrestrained devotion to the Lord. God wants you to come into that
freedom of devotion, freedom of worship, freedom of liberty in the Spirit. It is in the negative,
carnal, fleshly relationship that the bondage occurs.
There is a positive, helpful aspect in the making of bonds. The Scripture says, “They that
are strong ought to hear the infirmities of the weak” (Romans 15:1). It is possible for us to
affect other people in a good way and be a blessing to them; the bond we have with them can
be a mutual blessing. This is often true of the bond that a mother has with her child. Through
extrasensory perception, a sensitive person can suddenly have tremendous psychic insight
into an accident or potential harm coming to a loved one who is a great distance away. He is
able to see it or visualize it, or to get warnings ahead of time of such an event. Usually the
bond in such instances is a very close one of family ties, such as a husband and wife; but
most often it occurs between a mother and her child.
In bearing a child, a mother bonds herself to her child more than she realizes. It has nothing
to do with heredity or genes, which could make them somewhat alike, though not necessarily
so. The bond that is created is so real that they tend to understand each other and respond to
one another’s circumstances. The mother creates that bond deliberately when the child is too
young to reciprocate at all. In fact, if theirs is a healthy relationship, I do not think a mother’s
bond with her child is ever based on what the child can give the mother, but on what the
mother can give the child.
If a mother tries to possess her child, she can become more of a curse than a blessing. If she
tries to harass and hold the child down, refusing to let him come forth, she can create a
bondage that can turn into an evil thing. But if she reaches out to her child with all her heart,
if she loves unselfishly, desiring that he develop his full potential and mature as quickly as
possible, if she stands back and releases him into his own maturity and into finding his own
identity, she will have the strongest bond with her child that is possible.
Any woman married to a man who has a strong bond with his mother will acknowledge
how difficult it is to create a bond with him that is equal to the bond between him and his
mother. If it is a good bond, the wife is thankful; but if there is anything at all wrong in such a
strong bond, the wife will have a very difficult time creating as strong a bond with her
husband.
Bonds can restrain people and affect their worship and their unrestrained devotion to the
Lord. Ministers of authority in the churches should help people to break the wrong bonds
they have. If all those wrong bonds were broken, it would be most effective in lifting the
worship to a higher level. We may be surprised to know how many restraints we carry from
childhood, from our parents or our family. We may be equally surprised at how many
restraints we have been responsible for all by ourselves, without anyone’s help. All these
affect our freedom of worship as we reach out to magnify the Lord.
We should establish one important fact, especially where immorality is concerned. Bonds
get in the way, not only of worship, but in the flow of ministry as well. In Old Testament
times the Jews observed the laws of cleanliness, and the lepers had to stand afar off and
declare themselves unclean (Leviticus 13:45). No one was to come near to touch them or
have any close contact. The Jews had certain quarantine laws, and if a person touched a
corpse, he had to wash with running water and was considered to be unclean for a certain
number of days (Numbers 19:16–19).
Today there are people who go out and have contact with the world or enter into a wrong
relationship, and immediately come back to the house of God. Even though their conscience
is bothering them, they try to prophesy or sing a psalm, with the result that the service is
harassed because the bond which they had with iniquity, with the unrighteous, comes through
in their worship and prophecy. They do not realize that they should go into mourning and
repentance and remain unclean until the bond and contact is fully broken. It is not a matter of
time; it is a matter of a work of grace. When they know that the bond they have had with the
unclean thing has been removed and God has removed the sin, then they may come to the
house of the Lord and prophesy and sing psalms.
Wait before the Lord. When the Lord has recreated a close, pure bond with you—which
you tend to break by a bond with the flesh—then let the Spirit of the Lord flow through you.
Colossians 3:12–20 presents the other side of the coin with a positive truth concerning
bonds. And so, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of
compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and
forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against any one; just as the Lord forgave you,
so also should you. And beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity
(the margin reads, “the uniting bond of perfectness”). There is a bond that we are to have
which can be a positive uplifting influence.
And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body;
and be thankful. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and
admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with
thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name
of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.
Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives,
and do not be embittered against them. Children, be obedient to your parents in all things,
for this is well-pleasing to the Lord.
This passage speaks of submission, but for the purpose of this message, we want to place
the emphasis upon bonds. A wife may seem to be submissive to her husband, yet have no
bond with him whatsoever. Her submission is not just lip service; her actions correspond with
the requirements of submission. Yet she is refusing the bond with her husband, and this in
itself may exasperate him. When a husband and wife live together and one of them refuses
the bond and the unity or oneness, it inevitably is so exasperating to the other partner that he
often becomes furious. He knows instinctively that there is a barrier, a restraint, a sense of
withdrawal.
This passage in Colossians emphasizes the positive side, when it speaks about the love that
brings a perfect bond among the whole house of God—the love that can cover a multitude of
sins. You can help a brother or a sister who is in trouble while hating the garment spotted by
the flesh (Jude 23). When I lay hands on people and minister to them, I often make a bond
with them; but I never receive anything more than a little negative reaction. When I move in
love to help a brother or a sister, I receive nothing that restrains or harms me. Only when you
bond to someone in rebellion or in disobedience does the flesh become an open channel for
the negative reactions to move through the Body; then you have difficulty. But you can make
the effect very positive.
1 Peter 3:1 speaks about a woman’s spirit being perfect to the point that as a result of the
submission in her spirit, her husband is won without a word. She is able to create a bond with
him that goes beyond his understanding of the Scriptures or of the truth, and he is won and
actually pulled in by the bond she has with him. A wife may think she cannot make a bond
with her husband because he is unclean, a sinner. The fact remains that in the spirit she can
reach through and claim her husband for the Lord.
Sometimes when I hear that a minister has a problem, I reach out in the spirit and make a
bond with him. Later, when I talk with him, I find that the problem is already gone. My spirit
has helped him come into the humility and the breaking of his spirit before the Lord.
There is a great deal involved in being a spiritual leader. He must have more than a wisdom
which has all the right answers; he must have a right spirit which reaches out to the people. In
a positive way, he can literally liberate someone else’s spirit. People can approach a problem,
and technically have all the right answers, yet they cannot save the situation. Remember—
you do not win people by arguments; you win them by the way you can relate to them and lift
them up as you become one with them.
If you are weak, remember that the Lord said: “You who are strong bear the infirmities of
the weak, and if any is overtaken in a fault, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit
of meekness, considering yourself, lest you also be tempted” (Romans 15:1, Galatians 6:1). If
you try to help your brother, be careful; you may make a bond with him that could open the
door for you to be tempted with the same thing that has defiled and defeated him. Before you
make a bond with him and try to help him, be sure you are spiritual enough to handle it. I
have found that often when an individual tries to help someone else who is in rebellion,
before long he is just as rebellious as the one he tried to help. That is the reason the Word
says, “Consider yourself, lest you also be tempted.” Be careful what you tackle, because you
may relate to someone and make such a bond with him that you are sucked under with him.
On the other hand, if you are spiritually strong and have a good bond with the Lord, you can
reach out in the Lord and become a channel of blessing to lift him up.
How about our bonds with inanimate objects? Can they affect us? Yes, they can. I do not
know why, but oppression can also come through possessions. Have you ever walked into a
house owned by ungodly people and felt the oppression with which it was filled? I can give
you another illustration. Suppose you wore a certain garment at a time when you were
particularly rebellious or disobedient to God. If you wear that same garment six months or a
year later, you will again be hit by the same spirit of oppression. The garment will carry the
spirit. I have heard that in the Philippines when a man is buried, all his clothes are buried with
him. One woman, whose husband was a doctor, told me that when her husband died, she
threw away all his clothes. She did not want any spirit of infirmity or affliction being
conveyed to someone else. Beyond any germs that may be adhering to clothes, there are
contaminants that affect people in their spirits and in their attitudes.
This concept of bonds gives us a better understanding of the story of the rich young ruler
recorded in Matthew 19:16–24. He came to Jesus asking what he must do to inherit eternal
life. Jesus reviewed the commandments for him, and the rich man replied, All these things
have I kept from my youth up. Jesus looked at him and loved him. Jesus saw that he had great
potential, and He wanted to make a bond with him. But He saw that he already had a bond
with his possessions which had put a burden and a restraint upon him. So He told him, “If
you would be perfect, go and sell all that you have; give it to the poor, and then come and
follow Me.”
The Lord was not merely concerned about the poor or about the fact that discipleship
requires a great price, but He knew that discipleship must be without any bondage, without
any bond that supersedes the bond with Him. You have to love everything else less than you
love the Lord. Nothing should be a bondage to you that would prevent your serving the Lord.
The Lord must he first. The rich man went away sorrowfully, for he had great possessions.
He was bonded to all the things he owned.
Why is it that a miser or a rich, ungodly businessman can never get enough money? Even if
he made a million dollars a day for a year, he would work just as hard the next year to make
money. He cannot possibly spend all his money in one lifetime. Why does he keep striving to
get more money? His spirit reaches out and bonds itself to his possessions. It is all his spirit
has. That is the reason it is so hard for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of heaven—
harder than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, Jesus said. You may protest that a
man can be rich and still be a Christian. Only if he is rich toward God. He cannot have a bond
with physical possessions. He must let them go.
When you come to the house of the Lord, the material possessions in your life can cause a
bondage to you. Conversely, what you do not possess can bother you also. If you have such a
restraint, get rid of it. Come to the place where nothing of this world matters much to you. I
have noticed that when some material blessing became too important to me, God refrained
from giving it to me. When the time came that I was not concerned about receiving it, I could
speak just a simple prayer and I would receive it.
I do not think God worries about how much money His people have. Job was a very
wealthy man of the East. Abraham was a wealthy man. David amassed unbelievable fortunes,
as did Solomon. There are many examples in the Old Testament of men who had an
abundance of riches. God does not care whether the men who serve Him are rich or poor.
Abraham was very careful not to let anyone prosper him; God was going to do it all. He
would not even take a shoelatchet from the king of Sodom, lest he say that he had made
Abraham rich (Genesis 14:23). He had no bondage to possessions. When he and his nephew
Lot divided the land, Abraham treated Lot most magnanimously, letting him choose the best
pasture lands (Genesis 13:9). He never thought of himself, and yet he had seniority and could
have claimed the first choice.
Abraham had no bonds with anything he possessed. Even though God promised him the
land, he bought it so there would be no bond with the Canaanites upon the cave of Machpelah
where he and Sarah, his wife, were to be buried (Genesis 23:9). Abraham refused to be bound
to anything. Although he had many possessions, he did not want to become so attached to
them that they would be a restraint upon his spirit. God could give him things, but he did not
want the things to possess him with something evil resulting from it. They who would be rich
will fall into many hurtful lusts. The love of money is the root of all evil (1 Timothy 6:9, 10).
Love of money leads to many strange bonds that can be destructive.
For most of us, being bonded to much money is probably the least of our problems. But
what about the bonds with circumstances? The classic example of this in the Scriptures is
found in the book of Acts. Paul had ministered freely, but finally the Holy Spirit witnessed to
many, and also by Agabus, the prophet, who showed him by tying his own hands and feet,
that Paul would be bound if he went to Jerusalem (Acts 20:23, 21:11). Paul said, But none of
these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself. Acts 20:24a. He refused to
look at the circumstances.
You and I should never be attached to the passing circumstances. In 1929, when the crash
came, many wealthy men killed themselves. They could not hear the idea of losing all their
money. They were so bonded to their possessions and the lavish circumstances of their lives
that when they were taken away, life was unbearable, and they killed themselves. Their
possessions had become their entire life, so when their possessions were gone, their lives
were over.
A person can live just for favorable circumstances. As long as the wind blows in the right
direction, he is happy and serves the Lord. A prosperous and apparently happy person may be
very ineffectual in standing and worshiping before God. He may have a bondage and restraint
upon him because he is bound to his circumstances and so attached to this world and what is
in this world that it is a restraint upon him.
I have noticed how God works in the lives of people who seek to come into a walk with
Him. First of all, He arranges it so that they are not too happy; it seems they have to be a little
miserable. People who are well adjusted to the world will never seek a walk with God, for
they are restrained. They are so busy making money, having family reunions, going here and
there every Sunday, with everything so pleasant, that they could not be bothered with a walk
with God; in fact, they probably would not understand it. Favorable circumstances put a
bondage on them. Whom the Lord loves He troubles a little, lest such a man be destroyed by
his attachment to the world.
For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life,
is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but
he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. 1 John 2:16, 17. How many of the people who
walk with God have everything they want in life? How many have a good mate and a happy
home, with every circumstance just right—no problems, not too much money and not too
little, but whatever they need? Not many are in that particular situation. If they are, they did
not find it to be so when they started with the Lord. All the good things came as a blessing
from the Lord to them, not as anything of the world bringing an adverse bondage to them. 2
Timothy 2:4 tells us, “Be not entangled with the affairs of this life that you may please Him
who hath chosen you to be a soldier.” If we become entangled, we have a bond; therefore, we
must be separated from the world.
2 Corinthians 3:14–17 speaks of another aspect which can easily create a cloud over our
worship. But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old
covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ (speaking of Israel in
the Old Testament). But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart; but
whenever a man turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit; and
where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. The freedom we want, that release from the
bondage and the bonds on our spirits, comes by turning to the Lord. The hardness of heart is
taken away, and the Lord can help us.
You must realize that when you come before the Lord, your spirit is the key of removing all
the bonds that would hinder you. Suppose you come before the Lord with a bond that you
made in a life of sin. Will God take care of it? Yes, for when the heart turns to the Lord, then
the hardness of heart is taken away and the bondages and the bonds are removed. But
whenever people are set and their minds are hardened, nothing good happens to their spirits.
Only when they open their hearts and turn to the Lord, does He start breaking the bonds that
are upon them.
If circumstances or problems are in the way, the Lord heals them as you look to Him. Many
people have come to the Lord with broken hearts. It is very difficult for you to get anywhere
with a broken heart or with a sorrowful spirit. You are so restrained in your spirit that there is
a heaviness upon it. But if you truly turn to the Lord, He comes and comforts you; reaching
through the heaviness and sorrow that has you bound, He sets you free from it.
When things are not going well, ask the Lord to show you what has restrained your spirit,
what it is that is putting a bondage on you and keeping you from breaking through. One thing
that will do it is just a little bitterness or unforgiveness in your spirit. When you stand and
pray, forgive men their trespasses (Mark 11:25). That is the first thing you must do. You may
not realize it, but even your hatred can bind you to another person. You can have such a
hatred for a person that every time he reacts negatively, you feel it. Every time he explodes in
his emotions, you react too. The force of hatred can be so great that as you stand with an
unforgiving spirit, you will react back and forth with the person you refuse to forgive, the one
who sinned against you. If your brother has sinned against you, and you bring your gift to the
altar, first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift (Matthew 5:23,
24). Although he may have sinned against you, still you may have something in your spirit
that is restraining you. Even though he offended, go and make it right so that you liberate
your own spirit, setting it free to seek God. Then come back and offer your gift, and God will
accept you. Let there be no animosity, no jealousy, no hatred, no vindictiveness.
Are you restrained in seeking the Lord, or is it an experience of pure joy? Is most of your
praying and intercession concerning oppressions that you want to see broken, or do you really
have a delightful bond with the Lord so that a joy, a communion, and fellowship comes
through? You had better decide what you have. Do you have a walk with God and an open
communion with Him, or are you frustrated, bombarding God to get something broken or
changed as you intercede? Even though you are involved in spiritual warfare, your worship
ought to be a sweet, holy, precious fellowship and bond with the Lord without any interfering
static. If you are missing that, you are missing a great deal.
It is even possible for people to whom you are not bonded to influence you. The Lord says,
“Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers, for what fellowship has light with
darkness?” The Word tells us that Jesus could not do many mighty works at Nazareth
because of the unbelief (Matthew 13:58). He laid His hands upon only a few and healed them
(Mark 6:5). He had been raised in Nazareth. The people knew Him. In a sense, even with our
Lord Jesus Christ, there were contacts and bonds of human relationships existing with a
people whom He had known from infancy. Something came through even to the Son of
God—He who had the Spirit without measure, who could heal the sick and raise the dead—
so that He could not do many mighty works because of the people’s unbelief. This story is the
classic example of what can happen when there is unbelief. Ministries can be chained by
bonds, contacts, and relationships that exist in a church with unbelief. A little leaven
leaveneth the whole lump, because we are so bonded together (1 Corinthians 5:6). Oh, how
we ought to strive to keep the Body of Christ free and clear!
In case you are one who limps along, first up and serving the Lord, then down and going
into sin and thinking it does not make much difference what you do, let me tell you that it
does make a difference. Because of the bond you have with your brother and sister, the level
of the worship will suffer. It may be just the smallest bit, but it still has an effect when you
come to worship with defilement in your spirit. That bond with the world, that defeat, that
bond with a bad spirit, will go through the whole Body. First, go and seek the face of the
Lord, then come to the house of God with a blessing. Then as you stand and worship,
everything around you will be blessed as a result of your bond with the Lord. He that is
joined to the Lord is one spirit. You are literally bringing the presence of the Lord into the
house of God.
You will bring into the house of the Lord either the presence of the Lord, the spirit of Belial,
or your own bad spirit. You are going to bring something. If it is nothing more than a restraint
or a bondage, you will still share it with your brother. But when you come with freedom, your
brother can partake of your freedom.
The fear of man makes a snare that will put us in bondage. Lord, loose us completely from
the fear of man. Let there be an open acceptance of anything God says, regardless of how it
makes us appear in the sight of man. Let us despise the opinions of the world and loose
ourselves from any conformity to this age. Let us not be conformed to this age, but let us be
transformed by the renewing of our minds. Set us free, Lord, from what our minds have
accepted of the past in conditions and bondages.
 You are bringing deeper worship to us, Lord. You are showing us that deeper worship is
possible for every one of us. Nothing of the past will set us back, even a step. A man is
handicapped when he takes the chains of his past and welds them to his ankles and then tries
to run a race for God. We refuse to do so.
BE SENSITIVE TO GOD
Cornelius was a centurion, an officer in the Roman army, a professional soldier. However,
we are not as interested in this phase of his life as in the fact that he was a devout man, and
one who feared God with all his household, and gave many alms to the Jewish people, and
prayed to God continually. He was much alarmed one day when an angel appeared to him,
and he said, “What is it, Lord?” And he (the angel) said to him, “Your prayers and alms have
ascended as a memorial before God.” Acts 10:2, 4.
This is somewhat disturbing—the fact that this man was technically not a Christian, He did
not know the way of Christ, yet his prayers and alms were coming up to God for a memorial
that was well pleasing to the Lord. I hope this next statement will be understood correctly.
There is a better approach to God than what is taught in fundamentalist circles which try to
preach people into a revelation. So often the quality of conversion is not there, because what
is born of fleshly effort must remain fleshly (John 3:6). Many people have been converted to
something less than what God wants.
Cornelius was different. He could not be kept out of experiences. He came to the Lord as an
honest, deeply sincere worshiper. He found Christ and was filled with the Holy Spirit. Then
Peter had to back up and baptize him in water, because none of the conventional procedures
had been fulfilled in his life. First he was filled with the Holy Spirit, and then I suppose they
showed him more plainly what salvation really meant. Without any question, he was a
believer by that time; but he had to go through the formality of understanding those scriptural
experiences.
In these days we will see many people finding God. There will be many who sincerely
worship the Lord. We must not discount or discredit them. Without any knowledge of Christ
they will come seeking God and worshiping Him. They will come into a walk with God
quicker than some orthodox, fundamental believers who have been trained from childhood in
all the doctrinal aspects of God, yet they have no worship in their hearts. When the evil days
come, these will turn away because the letter of the law will not be enough for them. To be so
close to the Kingdom and to miss it is a tragedy. But it will happen.
It is interesting to see that people who have had no knowledge of the Lord come into a walk
with God often; times more rapidly than those who profess to be Christians. It is not how
close you are to it in doctrine, but how close you are to it in your spirit that counts. The
Pharisees in Jesus’ day had all the correct doctrines, and of all people they should have
accepted Him; but they rejected Christ. All over the Roman world the Gentiles, without any
religious training, eagerly pressed in while the Jews turned away, causing riots and
blaspheming the name of God (Acts 13:45–50). What is God trying to tell us in all this? It is
not that we should not study the Bible, but it is that we should be worshipers. Unless we are
worshipers, all the rest is easily lost and is of no advantage to us at all. We must be those
deep worshipers of the Lord.
Worship is essential because it leads us into three important areas: clearer perception and
revelation, creative prophecy, and steadfastness. As we worship, God starts bringing
revelation to us … For the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. 2 Corinthians 3:6. It is
revelation that makes the Word live for us. That is the reason the farther we go with God, the
more precious the Scriptures are to us and the more diligently we study them.
 The second thing that happens as we worship the Lord is that we begin to prophesy, and the
prophecy takes on a creative aspect. As we prophesy, we know that by the anointing of the
Holy Spirit the words of our mouths are actually making the prophecies come to pass. We
feel the reality of it. As the words come forth, we are aware that they are living and creative.
A man who worships remains steadfast in the times of sifting. In light of the things that are
before us, we need to really be worshipers. If we fail to worship, we will feel that we are
being shaken; however, the more we worship, the more we will feel the steadfastness and the
security of our walk with the Lord. This is very important. There are many who have no
obvious security right now. There is nothing on which they can really lean. Even those who
have had plenty of this world’s goods feel the insecurity of the hour. God is bringing people
to the place where they will either be fearful—actually filled with terror—or they will be
filled with a confidence in the Lord as they worship and adore Him, believing for the
preservation of the remnant which God has called by His Spirit.
When you begin to worship God in Spirit, you do so quite blindly at first. You begin many
times without an awareness of what to do next. You worship when you do not know the
answers, when you do not have a word from God to follow. You simply stand before God to
glorify and adore Him. Your worship of the Lord takes precedence. It has a place of priority
over your own needs. You do not come as a beggar pleading for God to give you an answer,
to show you which way to go. You just begin to worship Him. Then as you continue
worshiping, your ears come alive, your eyes begin to see as God directs you step by step into
what you are to do. Worship is an aspect of waiting on the Lord. Your fears and anything else
that is in your heart tend to surface during a period of worship. The Lord has the caldron
boiling, as it were, and He keeps stirring the pot and ladling off the impurities of your spirit.
Worship becomes a purifying process that clears the vision and the spiritual perception.
There is a great need for us to move into worship, or we will never be the prophetic
community and the closely knit Body that God says we must be. These are the two basic
things that must be worked in the Body in order for it to survive. When we stand and worship,
we will be the prophetic community, as our spiritual sensitivity is heightened and we find
ourselves overwhelmed with His presence. The presence of the Lord is very real to
worshipers. He is in their midst. He said that if two or three of us are gathered together, He is
in our midst (Matthew 18:20). He will never forsake us. Unto the end of the age His presence
is with us (Matthew 28:20).
The Parousia could have taken place at any time, but there was never a people prepared. It
is not the Lord who makes the Parousia; it is the people. “Parousia” is the Greek word for the
time of Christ’s presence in the end time, when He will lead His people right through the
endtime events. The Lord will not come down and force His presence upon us. When we are
in the Spirit and our sensitivity is increased, His presence becomes an overwhelming
experience.
How many other prisoners were on the Isle of Patmos besides John? The Bible does not tell
us, but it would be safe to assume that the Romans did not maintain a penal colony for only
one man, so there must have been many. But John was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and the
revelation of the Lord came to him, and he fell down like a dead man (Revelation 1:10).
There were many on the road to Damascus with Saul of Tarsus, and though his experience
was more of a sovereign act of God, still we must remember that Saul’s heart had been
prepared (Acts 9:3–8). When the Lord appeared to him, he fell to the ground; but as far as we
know, it had no lasting affect on any of the other men in his company. They were on their
way to persecute the believers, and they, too, were very sincere. But there was something
different about this one individual. He writes later about the zeal he had: he was a Hebrew of
the Hebrews, a Pharisee of the Pharisees (Philippians 3:5). None excelled him in his desire to
worship and serve God. This was true of Cornelius also. His worship coming up to God was
unexcelled. If we want a revelation of the Lord to our hearts, we must become deep
worshipers of the Lord.
Two will be at the mill grinding; one will be taken in the judgments, and the other will be
left (Matthew 24:41). I want to be one of those who is left; I do not want to be swept away in
judgment. To be preserved through these days one must be sure that he is a worshiper, for
that will be the sustaining factor. It is to the worshipers that the Lord reveals Himself.
Because their sensitivity to God has been developed, at times worshipers are like men slain
before the Lord.
Now do you understand why I keep emphasizing the need to come into a deeper worship?
As long as we stand, blessed of God, on the fringe of the Kingdom, we can sing and carry on
until we crack the rafters. But one day we will become the Kingdom of worshipers who meet
God and become like dead men. We are not yet that deep in worship. We need something
more in the depth of our worship. We must aspire to go on to a sensitivity to the Lord that is
far greater. Every time we come to church we should have a meeting with God. The
preaching and the teaching should actually be almost secondary to the fact that as worshipers
of the Lord we break through to God.
Do you want to be that deep worshiper? Do you want to have a revelation of the Lord? It is
not what you grasp with your mind that counts; it is how God meets your heart. When God
meets the heart, very soon He meets the head. Set aside the things that are a confusion and a
problem to you; push them into the background. You walk with God first with your heart, and
then with your head. God first met Cornelius’ heart, and eventually He met his head. Peter
spent several days teaching him and explaining what had happened to him (Acts 10:48).
We must come to the house of God determined to be led by the Spirit of the Lord. We must
get out of any lethargy, any rut, or anything that holds us in a passive state where we are
insensitive to the voice of the Lord. How do we do it? Worship; we worship the Lord. I
appreciate the zeal in worship; I appreciate the psalms. We do not want to lose any of that,
but we must keep uppermost in our minds this drive to come into a deeper worship of the
Lord, into a meeting with God, into a walk with Him. I am sure we are not yet satisfied.
Though our walk with God is rich, yet we are still stirred, almost unconsciously by the Spirit,
to believe that there is something better that we can have.
Blessed are they who have ears to hear. In the book of Revelation the word was always:
“Blessed is he who hath an ear to hear what the Spirit saith to the churches” (Revelation 2:7).
Jesus was constantly pointing that out to people, but they did not know what He was talking
about. How do we receive this capacity to hear God? I think we receive it while we are
worshiping. Spiritual focus comes to a worshiper. He sets his heart upon God, and God grants
him the capacity to develop an awareness of the Lord. In my thinking, that is what the
Parousia will be.
Many miracles and releases come as God works through people with prepared hearts. This
is the pattern we see in the Scriptures. Would the events on the day of Pentecost have
happened sovereignly if those Christians had not been waiting on the Lord, preparing their
hearts, and seeking God (Acts 1:14)? I do not think so. God allows the heart to be prepared
first. It is the man who worships the Lord who is prepared for the revelation that God brings.
As the presence of the Lord is manifested in the earth, who will see it? Do you think the
world will see Him? What about those in the Christian world who have denied that He is
even God, who have denied the inspiration of His words—are they going to see Him? No, for
the Word says that unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin
unto salvation. Hebrews 9:28b. There must be that expectancy, that looking for Him. And
every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself … 1 John 3:3. You will never make it
any other way than by worshiping God and allowing Him to bring you that awareness.
Jesus told His disciples, “But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears,
because they hear. For truly I say to you, that many prophets and righteous men desired to
see what you see, and did not see it; and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.”
Matthew 13:16, 17.
“The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field; which a man found and hid;
and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has, and buys that field. Again, the kingdom
of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, and upon finding one pearl of great value,
he went and sold all that he had, and bought it.” Matthew 13:44–46. A walk with the Lord is
a pearl of great price, a treasure hidden in a field. Does the world consider it that? What
would be the opinion of many churches concerning it? Would they call it a pearl of great
price? or a treasure hidden in a field? God is moving in the earth today; He is bringing
wonderful revelations that are as a pearl of great price or a treasure hidden in a field. But
many see only the rocks in the field. We see the treasure hidden there.
What will the field cost? It will cost everything we have. Some may think that is a poor
bargain, that the field is not worth it. But a treasure is hidden there. Otherwise, a walk in the
Spirit would not be worth what we go through. If anyone becomes discouraged, if anyone is
ready to give up, perhaps he needs to wait on God until he finds the treasure again. Maybe he
needs to worship until he sees the treasure, for he may never have seen it in the first place.
Perhaps he was just moved by some of the other manifestations that accompany a walk in the
Spirit and did not really see the treasure or find that pearl of great price for which he would
be willing to sell everything he has.
Some may think they would give anything to be able to prophesy and sing psalms or to be
able to do signs and wonders. Those are not the true treasure; those are just the side benefits.
Our attitude must be that we would give anything to walk with Him. Our basic need is the
revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the deeper worship will lead us to that revelation of
Him. Above everything else, we want our hearts to be set upon this deep worship of the Lord.
We want the veil to be taken from our eyes.
Are you one who has never really had this revelation of the Lord? You must ask Him to
give you eyes to see and ears to hear so that the blindness passes from you and God makes
you sensitive to Him. The sustaining, all-compelling revelation of the Lord, which comes to
people in a thousand different ways, is what really makes a walk with God. There is no point
in your trying to pay the price when you do not have the blessing. Look to the Lord to meet
you.
In the name of Jesus Christ, we curse the darkness, we bind the strong man who would
blind our eyes and keep us from revelation, who in a thousand ways would turn our focus on
something else. In the name of Jesus, we command the veil to fall from our eyes. We
command our hearts to be open for God to meet us gloriously in a way that we shall not try to
analyze with our heads, but that we shall believe with our hearts and find it becoming real to
us.
I prophesy unto you that the vision and the revelation shall surely come. The darkness will
pass, and the Lord shall bring light unto you. For doth not the Lord see the sincerity of your
heart? Are you not now even as Cornelius of old who sought the Lord with prayers when he
did not yet have the revelation? So the Lord shall meet you also. He shall turn the darkness
away from you and bring forth the glorious light of His revelation. You shall know that God
is moving in the earth today, not because you have analyzed it with your mind, but because
the Lord hath made it real to your heart and He has set your feet upon the path that He has
chosen for you to walk. You will know that you are loosed to do the will of the Lord, raised
up by the hand of God. You shall not wonder whether you are able to survive, but you shall
know you were brought forth and born that you might walk with your God.
FOCUSING ON THE LORD
No worship or praise to the Lord is ever wasted; however, when a service does not have
clear-cut guidance, then everyone is going in his own direction, and that is a sure guarantee
that nothing will happen in the service. Every minute should count. Every moment should be
effective in going some place in the Lord.
We concentrate on the procedures, on the praise, on exhorting one another, but all that God
is really asking us to do is to open up to an awareness of Him. A service can be very intense,
but that intensity must be focused on the Lord. When we prophesy, it must not only be with a
lot of force, but with an awareness that this is a word from the Lord. In our worship, there
must be a focusing on the Lord; we are loving Him, and He is very real to us. He is
demanding that we have a greater awareness of Him.
The Lord has been cautioning us about falling into a rut or a form. This has to be a walk
with God. It is not a new liturgy or a new form of service that will interest young people,
because they cannot be reached by the old traditional methods. We are not interested in
methods, gimmicks, rituals, or forms of praise and worship. What we are concerned about is
this: Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord. Hosea 6:3a. Unless we come to
know Him, and we see Him with the eyes of our spirits, and He is very real to us, we are
missing a walk with Him.
A walk is not going in a circle. We must eliminate the merry-go-round type of service that
leaves us in the same place we started. We ought to pray to love the Lord so much and be so
focused on Him that we can almost lose sight of everything else. We are not approaching a
service correctly if we come primarily for a blessing or for a deliverance, if we come to see
what the Lord will do or to experience the ecstatic feeling of prophesying or the glow of
worship.
I do not worship to feel a glow. I want to feel that I am standing in His presence and
adoring Him. I ask for nothing else. I want to have an awareness of Him and to concentrate
on Him. That is what a walk with God is all about. If we are walking, we are going some
place. What is the goal? What is the objective? Is it to survive? That is not our goal! We want
to walk in something greater than has ever been walked in before, but we will not do so if that
is the only goal we have. The only way we will be what God wants us to be is that we realize
that the walk takes us into His presence.
The word “Parousia” means “His presence.” In King James it is translated, “His coming.”
The Scripture talks about the Parousia, the presence of the Lord, as though it is an all-
pervading thing for His people. During that time there will be tribulation and judgments.
People will even pray for the rocks to fall on them to hide them from the face of God
(Revelation 6:16). The presence of the Lord will only be felt by those people who are
dedicated to focus on it and to develop an awareness of it. Even though satanic forces,
principalities and powers, and antichrists are raging round about them, they see only one
thing: they see the Lord. They are focused on Him.
Our purpose is not starting businesses. It is not survival or storage. It is not even psalms,
hymns, and prophecies. These are all by-products and effects that are incidental. The goal is
that we develop an awareness of Him; that is done by faith. Nothing will happen
spontaneously. That is what is wrong with the rapture theory that involves just waiting for the
Lord to blow a trumpet and catch the saints out of this present mess. In the meantime they are
simply waiting. Hebrews 9:28 tells us, … unto them that look for him shall he appear the
second time without sin unto salvation. They are looking for Him. There is an awareness. And
every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself (in everything he does) … 1 John 3:3.
Why are we trying to be sanctified and purified? It is for a purpose. When a girl is getting
ready for a date, she takes a bath, puts on her best clothes, and fixes her hair. She wants to
smell as sweet as a rose. Why? She is meeting the fellow who she hopes will ask her a certain
very important question. We are looking for the Lord like the bride who has made herself
ready. To her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, the righteousness of
the saints (Revelation 19:8). The fine linen is not just to show off. We want to be righteous
because we want to please Him. We want to stand before Him; therefore, we purify ourselves.
With all our hearts we want to be the bride of Jesus Christ.
We still have hang-ups and problems that frustrate us with their persistence. Let us go on
and do what we are supposed to do. Some trees drop their leaves in the fall of the year, yet a
few of their leaves always hang on, refusing to come off. We might wonder why they do not
let go, for they are dead. We feel the same way about our faults. We wonder how long the old
dead things will persist in our lives.
We walk with the Lord not just to get rid of the old dead leaves. We seek a contact with
Him, an awareness of Him, a walk with Him. What will be the result? When the blessed
Spirit begins to flow through us, just as the sap flows through the tree, a little bud forms,
shoving off the old leaf. Down it comes, without anyone picking it off.
When you have a sticky problem that hangs on, you do not need to concentrate on the
negative aspect of your deliverance. Take the positive approach. Come and seek the Lord.
Cry unto Him. Develop that awareness. Stand in His presence. Then when you look around,
you will be surprised how much of the old has fallen away.
But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into
the same image from glory to glory … 2 Corinthians 3:18. What happened to the old
problems? They disappeared because we followed on to know the Lord. He met our hearts,
and we had a revelation of Him, and it changed us. We did not have to worry about the
negative side of it. We concentrate on the positive aspect, and the negative side takes care of
itself.
Come to the service determined to meet the Lord. Worship the Lord and focus on Him. If
you have just that one little moment when He becomes real to you in some way and
completely overwhelms you, that will be the meeting He is seeking. After a while you will be
able to practice His presence in an even greater way, for the Parousia does not happen
spontaneously. The presence of the Lord will be manifested to those who believe for it, who
focus on it, who want it. In that day they will say, “He is in the desert. He is in the inner
chamber. We must go find the Lord.” The Lord said not to follow such sayings because as the
lightning flashes from the east to the west, so will be the Parousia (Matthew 24:26, 27). Just
be aware. Be open to it. Will everyone see it? No. Will everyone experience it? No. Only the
ones who have faith for it will experience it. Determine to be one of them. We are on the
threshold of this event even now.
I remember one service in which the Lord spoke that He would appear and be real to us.
That word was so real that I actually found myself looking with more expectation than I ever
had in my life, I was expecting to see the Lord walking down the aisle. I looked for His
appearing. Then I began to study the Scriptures and found that this was very scriptural. There
is a word translated “appearing” which is not Parousia or apocalypse, not the great unfolding
revelation of the Lord in the final event. It speaks of frequent times when He is going to
appear. I think the Lord is trying to bring us to the place where we will come to the church
services waiting for the Lord to appear. It may seem fanatical, but whether we see Him with a
natural eye or with our spirits, He will be real to us.
 It must be firmly planted in your mind and spirit to believe for a revelation of the Lord to
your heart. He Himself may choose the way that He appears to you, but come to meet the
Lord, look for Him, really desire to touch Him. Come with the desire in your heart to focus
on the Lord. Set everything else aside and focus on the Lord. You do not do this
independently; the whole Body should enter in with mutual faith. I believe the Lord could
actually appear and stand in a service, ministering and speaking to the people. Very shortly it
will take place. The Lord shall stand before His army which is exceedingly great. He will
lead His army and make known His words. This is the prophecy of Joel 2:11.
When prophecy comes, it must not be an exhortation, telling everyone to get busy and
praise the Lord. Exhortation is good, but we can have too much of it. Maybe you need a little,
but you do not want only salads in a meal. That old style exhortation will give way to just
standing before the Lord and prophesying things into being. You will loose and you will bind
as you move in the Spirit of the Lord. Would you like to have a meeting like that? You can
have it.
What would happen if the Lord really manifested Himself? What happened when the Lord
met John on the Isle of Patmos? He fell as a dead man, just as a felled tree (Revelation 1:17).
The book of Ezekiel and other Scriptures speak of the overwhelming experiences when the
Lord appeared to people.
A service can be like an airplane. It can rise just ten feet off the ground, time after time, or
it can soar over a mountain, across an ocean, or through a valley. We desire to have a meeting
with the Lord that eliminates completely the depression and the discouragement, that raises
us out of the level of the fog. The sun always shines though it is not always visible from the
ground. When we are up in an airplane, we can see it. In our services, we want to do more
than just sputter through the fog, through the satanic battle and conflict. After we have been
in the battle all week long, it would be good to come to church and rise right up into the
presence of the Lord and be blessed by Him. It would be sweet and precious. We would be
coming not merely for a blessing; we would come for a revelation. And there is a difference.
Blessings can be sweet; but like sugar, they give you a lift, followed by a letdown. We want
more than a blessing; we want something that will sustain us by day and by night. We want
such a revelation of the Lord that we are aware of Him, we walk in His presence, we live
with Him, day and night. This is what we want. This is what we need. We do not have any
program, and we are not going to be slaves of methods. We are going to walk with God, as
we put our hand in His and sense His presence.
Waiting on the Lord involves a prayer of listening, an intense focus. We are not like an
amateur short-wave operator, scanning the dial carelessly; we are trying to dial in one
specific place and listen, with an intent focus. Scientists keep listening for sounds, for electric
impulses from outer space, thinking that there may be some intelligent beings out there that
are trying to get through to us with some kind of code. We are not just listening to see if
someone is saying something; we are listening for a word from the Lord. If someone speaks
who does not have a word from the Lord, we dial him out. That is not despising prophecy, for
Paul tells us, Prove all things; hold fast to that which is good. 1 Thessalonians 5:21. We want
to get the one prophecy in the service that is right on, that tells us we have heard from God.
We are very selective. We listen to the psalms, and when someone in the Spirit really
contacts God, we tune into that. We want to meet God. We want to hear what He is saying.
This will be the selectivity of the services in the days to come.
More and more, we will find that New Testament Church services will either disintegrate
into many unrelated, miscellaneous manifestations of the Spirit and the gifts, or they will
focus on the one thing that the Spirit is giving. Jesus said, “The Spirit shall testify of Me”
(John 15:26). Every service must be a revelation of the Lord.
 Instead of just singing a lot of choruses, let us find out what the Lord really wants in a
service. He wants the focus on Him. He wants our own will set to worship, our desire set to
break through to Him. He wants us to come not as so many passive individuals, a
congregation waiting to be stirred up until we flow together; He wants us to come with
expectancy, anticipating that He will meet us. The format of our services is not the issue; we
are concerned about their effectiveness. We must touch the Lord on a new level. It remains to
be seen what God will do in just one service when the people come with expectation. We
have not yet seen it happen. Much of the time we hope something will happen, but we do not
come with that living, vital expectancy that stands and draws the presence of the Lord.
Smith Wigglesworth was once asked if, when he saw a devil-possessed person, he waited
for the Spirit of the Lord to come upon him as Samson did when he went out to tackle the
Philistines. He said, “No, I never wait for the Spirit of the Lord to come upon me. When I see
a devil-possessed person, I start after him, and it is up to the Lord to bring the anointing by
the time I get there.” That was an audacious attitude, but because he believed it, it happened.
Somehow that spirit has entered into my own heart, and when I come to a service, I do not
pray for the Lord to meet us in that service. I come expecting God to meet us. I come with
expectation. When I stand before someone, ready to minister to him, I do not wonder if I will
receive a revelation over him. I come expecting God to show me. Revelation comes because
the will is set to believe and to appropriate.
When the woman touched the hem of His garment, Jesus said, “Who touched Me?” He was
not aware of her until she touched Him (Luke 8:45). You must determine to come and touch
the Lord in each service.
Much depends upon you making up your mind to the fact that God intends to meet you. He
said, “Where two or three are gathered together, there am I in the midst” (Matthew 18:20). If
He is in the midst, let Him manifest Himself. Expect to see it; then it will happen!

BONES, COME ALIVE!

The hand of the Lord was upon me, and He brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set
me down in the middle of the valley; and it was full of bones. And He caused me to pass
among them round about, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley; and
lo, they were very dry. And He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I
answered, “O Lord God, Thou knowest.”
Again He said to me, ‘Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the
word of the Lord.’ Thus says the Lord God to these bones, ‘Behold, I will cause breath to
enter you that you may come to life. And I will put sinews on you, make flesh grow buck on
you, cover you with skin, and put breath in you that you may come alive; and you will know
that I am the Lord.’ ”
So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a
rattling; and the bones came together, bone to its bone. And I looked and behold, sinews
were on them, and flesh grew, and skin covered them; but there was no breath in them. Then
He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, ‘Thus
says the Lord God, “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that
they come to life.” ’ ” So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them,
and they came to life, and stood on their feet an exceedingly great army. Ezekiel 37:1–10.
What a miracle! Prophecy became the creative force to bring forth the army of the Lord.
Will the army of the Lord come forth in this day as the result of some special teaching or
some unique wisdom in building churches? No, it will come forth because we have the faith
to stand and prophesy to one another. We prophesy even when there is the illusion that we are
looking at bones. We will prophesy them into being warriors who will do the will of the Lord.
We know there are many problems. Sometimes we must battle an illusion of loneliness.
Satan isolates us, telling us that no one really cares very much or is too concerned about us,
that we must be prepared to walk on by ourselves. That is not true. It is a lie of Satan.
Nothing displeases him as much as our determination to walk together in complete scriptural
unity. No longer are we seeking our own interests; our hearts are set on the Lord.
When Satan comes against you, prophesy against him. When he tries to create some
illusion in your mind or bring an impression or a lie to cause you to react to a certain situation,
remember to react in kindness and in love. When you see people struggling with problems,
start prophesying to them. Can these bones live? Is God going to have an army? He will if
you prophesy it. Prophesy to those bones until God makes them a great and mighty standing
army.
The flow of prophecy is going to become directive and creative. How did Timothy receive
his ministry? Elders laid hands on him and prophesied over him, that by those prophecies he
might war a good warfare. (1 Timothy 1:18, 4:14). Even though we are in a walk with God,
we are not yet aware of the real commission that has been given to us. The New Testament
churches that God is raising up have ministries who can lay bands on people and prophesy
over them to show them the will of the Lord for their lives. They can prophesy gifts and
impart them to people. They have a commission of the Lord. People must be able to come
into the churches and say, “Here, behold me. I am an old, dry bone. Prophesy to me. Set me
in the Body where I am to be. Cover me over. Put breath in me. Have a vision for me. Have
faith for me. Can you speak the word of the Lord to me?”
And we will answer, “Yes, we can speak the word of the Lord to you. Dry bone, hear the
word of the Lord and come alive.”
The word must be creative. It must bring divine order. An ear cannot grow on a foot; it
must grow where an ear is supposed to be. Every bone must be set in its proper place. God is
going to bring divine order through a prophetic flow; He will speak and it will come to pass.
This order will not extend to the whole church world. Many will not listen; they do not want
anything from God. But often an individual comes who is hungry. He has been exposed to a
living, creative word and realizes his need for more of God. He is like an old, dry bone, but as
we speak God’s creative word, he comes alive.
A new way of doing things is opened to us. We will not try to change the religious world by
oratory or promotion. God’s people will be turned loose. They will be unified and brought
into a divine order. We will simply stand and prophesy it. We will speak the word, and
hovering over the circumstances will be the Spirit of the Lord.
Read your Bible again, beginning with Genesis 1: “The earth was without form and void,
and darkness was over the surface of the deep. The Spirit of God was hovering over the
surface of the waters, and God said, ‘Let there be!’ ” That is all God has to do—He just
speaks it. Today the Spirit of God is hovering over men’s hearts in many churches. Some
people are enemies of this move of the Spirit. Prophesy to them, for the Spirit is hovering
over the chaos in their lives. Prophesy that there be an order, that the bones come alive and
become a part of the army of the Lord. It will not take very much—just a moving and a
shaking and a few million miracles—to bring forth the army of the Lord.
Do not give up. Do not give up on your brother. Do not be unkind. Do not tear one another
apart. Keep your heart open to love. Do not let the illusion of Satan get through to you. It is
all a damnable lie. You must believe for one another!
COME OUT OF HER
 The confusion of languages and the great problem of communication when the ancient
tower of Babel was judged by God was initiated by God to prevent the world from ever
having any unity in humanity until it is united in God. This all occurred early in human
history and is recorded near the beginning of the book of Genesis. It is not until we come to
the end of the book of Revelation that we find the whole thing pieced together again. In it we
see God bringing Babylon to an end. Of course we must understand that when the book of
Revelation was penned by John by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, it was not written to
physical Babylon, for that had long since ceased to exist. Unless we see Babylon as the
spiritual force that it is, we have no explanation for what is written in Revelation. It certainly
was not an actual place in existence in the day of John. The historical place called Babylon
had come to its end a few hundred years before Christ, when it ceased to be a world power.
Eventually it was completely destroyed.
Now we must find out what Babylon is today. It is necessary for us to define it, because we
talk a great deal about it. Those who are critical of this walk that God has raised up
sometimes say, “What is Babylon?” They often disagree with us, especially when some
aspect of denominationalism is presented and referred to as Babylon. This often causes a
great deal of resentment, and I can understand it well. Nearly anyone would feel resentful if
someone came along and labeled him Babylon. We must remember that any of us could
become Babylon just as easily as anyone else. Babylon is not a place; nor is it a denomination.
Babylon is a state of heart. Babylon is an attitude of spirit which can be found everywhere.
And one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me saying,
“Come here, I shall show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, with
whom the kings of the earth committed acts of immorality, and those who dwell on the earth
were made drunk with the wine of her immorality.” And he carried me away in the Spirit into
a wilderness; and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, full of blasphemous names,
having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and
adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a gold cup full of
abominations and of the unclean things of her immorality. And upon her forehead a name
was written, a mystery. “BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF
THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.” And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the
saints, and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus. And when I saw her, I wondered greatly.
Revelation 17:1–6.
Historically, the church in its organized form has been responsible for a great many things.
All of the early reformers who came on the scene following the Dark Ages knew what
Babylon was. They knew it was the papacy, for the pope actually controlled the city that sat
upon seven hills. They knew it was Rome with all of her might and force that controlled the
nations, the kings, and the governments. Even today that particular religious organization is
the greatest corporation on the face of the earth with controlling interest over more businesses
than most people realize.
It was two Jesuit priests who came up with the dispensational doctrine which was later
adopted by Darby and then by Scofield and Larkin in their Bibles. This doctrine has become
a rather prominent fundamentalist doctrine followed by the Baptists and many Pentecostal
churches. The whole purpose of those two priests originally was to present a doctrine that
would counteract the reformation teaching against Babylon. They answered their threat by
teaching that it was yet to happen in the future. Anyone believing the futuristic teaching
would have to give up believing that Roman Catholicism was responsible for the darkness
which had been upon all of Europe for a thousand years. That terrible darkness was not at all
to be labeled as the spirit of antichrist, of Babylon or any such thing.
 It is surprising, but those two Jesuits pulled it off. Their doctrine became widespread. I was
raised to believe it as a boy, but later I began to look into it. The Holy Spirit constantly gave
warning that this teaching was not right, and I began to seek the face of the Lord for answers
to my questions about it. I discovered something that I want all to understand; Babylon is not
the Roman Catholic church. The Roman Catholic system is part of it, as described so fully in
Revelation 17 and 18. It speaks about a mother of harlots and abominations in the earth.
Notice, however, that every time something of Protestantism came forth, invariably each
movement followed in the same mold that they had objected to in Roman Catholicism. Is the
whole religious system a harlot? It is if it is involved in the prostitution of the authority that
Christ gave the Church.
A harlot is one who takes her body and sells it for money. A spiritual harlot does the same
thing, using spiritual authority that God gave to commit fornication with the kings of the
earth in order to become a political power. This does not mean that God is not able to bless
people in Babylon. In fact, that is the reason for the cry, “Come out of her My people, come
out of her and do not be a partaker of her plagues” (Revelation 18:4). At this very time, God
has an amazing way of dealing with many of His people in Babylon: thousands of people in
the Roman Catholic church and many of the old line Protestant churches are receiving the
Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues. Do not sell them short; they are people who love God.
The Protestant denominations are going along in the same trend as the Roman Catholic
organization, becoming merely a political force in the world. The World Council of Churches
has played into the hand of Communism a great deal. They are still committing fornication
with the kings of the earth. The Greek Orthodox church in Russia now has many leaders in
the World Council of Churches, and these men are actually communistic atheists at heart.
They are there to work every way they can to bring propaganda and criticism against the
United States. Anyone who takes the trouble to research this can verify it to be true. A great
percentage of what we see calling itself Christianity is in reality a system of religious
organizations that are largely political forces. We are not saying that the people in these
churches are not Christians. Some of them are very good Christians, filled with the Holy
Spirit and moving in the power of God. But God is concerned about the system.
Two women are described at the end of the New Testament in the book of Revelation. One
is the great harlot, and the other is the virgin Bride of Jesus Christ who has made herself
ready and comes into the marriage supper of the Lamb. This is a contrasting picture of the
false church and the true Church.
The spirit of antichrist is already in the world and is capitalizing upon the fact that a great
many of the so-called “Christian” churches have renounced the inspiration of the Scripture.
They do not believe the miracles of the Bible. They build up a theology completely based on
unbelief. This plays right into the hands of Satan. They are attaining a spiritual oneness with
the world, because they have lost their Lord. They do not believe He was the virgin-born Son
of God, that He gave His life and rose from the grave, that He ascended on high to be our
Lord, or that He is coming again to be King and Lord over all things. Many of the Protestant
religions adhere to what they call a higher criticism, believing that Christ was only a great
man who lived and died as a great man. This is their unbelief, their modernism. This is what
is taught in many of their seminaries. There are very few fundamental schools left that strictly
adhere to believing the Bible to be the Word of God.
What kind of oneness can these people have? Only a oneness with the world. And so they
have evolved what is called the “social gospel,” which teaches, in effect, “If you are going to
believe anything at all, you will have to believe in being good to your neighbor. Let’s try to
make the world a better place; let’s try to outlaw war and get rid of all these bad things.” That
is all they have left. However, Christ did not bring a social gospel.
 In order to understand the relationship that His people were to have with the world, with
each other, and with the Lord, we must go to the words of Christ Himself. “But now I come
to Thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy made full in
themselves. I have given them Thy word; and the world has hated them, because they are not
of the world, even as I am not of the world. I do not ask Thee to take them out of the world,
but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
Sanctify them in the truth; Thy word is truth. As Thou didst send Me into the world, I also
have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also
may be sanctified in truth. I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who
believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me,
and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that Thou didst send
Me. And the glory which Thou hast given Me I have given to them; that they may be one just
as We are one; I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, that the world
may know that Thou didst send Me, and didst love them, even as Thou didst love Me.” John
17:13–23.
His people were not to be a part of this world’s system. They were not literally citizens of
this world; they were citizens of the Kingdom to come. They were living and coexisting with
an order that would disappear. Why would God do such a thing? You must understand that
the disciples did not know either. After the resurrection and shortly before the ascension, they
came to Jesus and asked, “Wilt Thou at this time restore the Kingdom to Israel? Is this the
time it will happen” (Acts 1:6)?
He answered, “It is not for you to know the times and seasons which the Father has put in
His own hand. You go forth and preach this gospel to all the world. And you will receive
power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you.”
We are to be witnesses of that which is to come. We are to preach the gospel of the
Kingdom; that is exactly what a walk with God is all about. I cannot see that a walk with God
will ever be popular with politicians. It could not possibly help either a Democrat or
Republican to be a member of this walk. I am not trying to be sarcastic; I am saying that there
is no oneness between a walk with God and such things. Yet we have men of integrity who
work for the government in various positions. One brother in such a position was forced to
submit to extensive psychiatric tests because of his witness in this walk. One little Jewish
man listened to him and wrote out a declaration that he was one hundred percent more sane
than the people who were making the charges. But they keep trying.
By the world’s standards a real believer has lost his senses. Because he really is not of the
world, he does not think the world’s way about things. He refuses to take his spiritual force
and use it for some community project. He does not join in to be active in the world’s
organization. He has something else cooking. He is in this world, but he is not of it. He is set
to come into a oneness with the Lord and to see any other oneness on human terms as
spiritual adultery.
This is what makes Babylon a harlot and the mother of harlots to everything she touches.
Babylon is constantly prostituting the spiritual force and oneness with the world instead of
communing with the Lord. You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world
is hostility towards God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself
an enemy of God. James 4:4.
Some will ask, “You mean I can’t love the world?” No! You cannot! Real worship is the
strongest deterrent there is to keep a person out of the world. I have never seen people really
given to worship who can enjoy the world or its places of entertainment. They are just more
false ways of life. We are criticized for this attitude. People think we have a lot of rules and
regulations. We do not. The Bible does not speak negatively about things as many people
think. It speaks about things in a very positive way. It never settles an issue by putting one in
a straitjacket. It goes far beyond that: it brings the divine life of Jesus Christ within the
believer. It makes us one with Him, literally starting a spiritual love affair with the Lord. A
real Christian believer becomes part of the Bride of Christ, part of the holiness and the purity;
and he realizes he cannot defile himself with the world. His standards are far higher than
could be produced with a few legalistic regulations.
The adultery the Scriptures speak about is the love of the world. If you are a friend of the
world, you are an enemy of God. Some have said, “I must make a living, and every day I am
out in the world.” We may be in the world, but we need not be of it. The book of Hebrews
calls us pilgrims and strangers. We are just traveling through, and we dare not become so
deeply involved that we become an integral part of a system which is an enemy of God. It
hates God. If a person becomes a friend of the world, he becomes God’s enemy, for he has
lined himself up against the Lord.
The Scriptures make it very plain. 1 John 2:15 says, Do not love the world, nor the things in
the world. This is where America got herself in trouble. We just love things. We are greatly
intrigued with every kind of gadget that money can buy. Other countries are aware of this,
and they know that when they export the various gimmicks, the little gadgets, the electronic
devices, the American reaction will be, “Oh, I don’t have one of those. Give me six! I’ll buy a
bunch of them.”
I think we will have to simplify our lives. We should have done it long ago. We should get
away from this thing that makes everything so attractive and so beautiful. All the gimmickry
the world has to offer, including its processed foods, leaves an unsatisfied sense of hunger
after it is consumed. As we get back to the simplicity, we will find something that satisfies.
Do not love the world. What is there in the world? I think a significant example of the
world in our time is the neon-lit strip in the desert called Las Vegas. What a beautiful sight it
is with all the lights shining and blinking. But what happens behind all those lights? You
cannot see what is behind it. Gambling, the underworld, the rackets, the prostitution—
everything money can buy—is all right there to be bought. But outside are the beautiful lights,
and people go inside thinking they are really going to be entertained. Some of the filthiest
things you have ever heard in your life come crawling out. What a dark and evil place it is.
The lights are going out. God is going to expose the old harlot for what she is.
Take away her finery and her beautiful adornment, and let everyone see what an old bag
she really is. There has to be something that exposes it all the way through. One of the most
effective educations we could give our young people would be to help them begin to
understand what Babylon is. Take away that scintillating glamour that blinks and sparkles to
cover up the dirt. Take it away! Find some dope addict who is really sweating it out, and let
them see what it is like behind those lights. Do not keep them there long; just let them see
what the end of sin is. The way of the transgressor is hard. God says, “Do not love the world
nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world the love of the Father is not in him.”
This is where Christianity has missed it. They are prostituting themselves with the world.
They feel they must be conformed to this age. But the Scriptures say, “Be ye not conformed
to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2). This is
what it is all about. Psychology teaches that we must be well adjusted people. Well adjusted
to what? To all the crime on the streets? To all the terrible things happening in the world? I
do not want to get adjusted to that. I do not want to believe in it. And to this they reply, “Well,
you must accept the world the way it is; you must accept the religious rackets and just smile
and be tolerant.” I do not want to be tolerant; I do not want to believe in that. I want to
believe in the Lord! I want to believe in the purity of the gospel!
 Is that too idealistic? I want to be idealistic; I want to believe in something with all of my
heart. In a day when there is nothing in the world to believe in, I do not want to believe in the
world. I want to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If any one loves the world, the love of the
Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes
and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is
passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God abides forever. 1 John
2:15–17. We are interested in far more than mere survival; we are concerned about abiding
forever. We are laboring for the meat that does not perish, that endures unto eternal life.
These things of survival which we are learning will help a little, and will feed a few people
through a time of crisis. But our main concern is this: God is preserving us into His Kingdom.
What is Babylon? We would have to say it is a spirit. Some might say it is an organization,
but organizations can be of God. There must be someone to answer the telephone; and right
there you are facing an organization of sorts. Every household must have a certain amount of
organization in order to function properly. So, no one could deny that there must be some
basic organization. But Babylon is a highly organized religious system that is not organized
for the glory of God nor to do the will of God, but is built up to further the system and to
build a political force. It is prostituting the spiritual authority and life to the world. This is
spiritual adultery, and this God is against.
Forget anything that is not created by the will of God in the leading of the Holy Spirit.
Walk away and stay away from everything that comes forth on a human level which is
designed to produce human objectives in conformity to this age. I think we should
continually review and go through many of the things in the walk and in the different
churches with the idea of abandoning them if they get in the way. We should be eternally
vigilant. We, too, could become Babylon overnight. It is so easy for the human heart to begin
to go after the world and to adhere to the world. A person can get tired of the eternal battle
and the misunderstanding that comes from the world. He can begin desiring in some way to
conform a little in order to appease men. That can be a very, very deadly spirit. Jesus said, “If
they reject Me and My word, they will reject your word also” (John 15:20).
A recent article in a well-known national magazine was written about the Bible. It was
entitled, “The Most Dangerous Book in the World.” It proceeded to blame the Bible and
Christianity for so much. How diabolical that the enemies of the church will use this truth,
which really applies to Babylon, to persecute the true Church. Such articles play right into the
hands of those who desire to persecute the remnant of God. And yet all the truth in it actually
does apply to Babylon, but not to the real thing God is doing. It is very subtle. A time is
coming when Satan will accomplish a great deal by persecuting the true Church for things
Babylon has done. Nevertheless, the harlot will be destroyed by the very political powers she
has fostered. She comes riding on a beast, and the beast is going to devour her. Christianity is
facing its greatest challenge, and most of what calls itself by that name will go under, because
it does not have any life. When the real pressure is on, the people who do love God will move
out of Babylon. That is God’s way of shaking it up. These systems are going to be devoured
by the very thing they have brought forth.
“For this reason in one day her plagues will come, pestilence and mourning and famine,
and she will be burned up with fire; for the Lord God who judges her is strong. And the kings
of the earth, who committed acts of immorality and lived sensuously with her, will weep and
lament over her when they see the smoke of her burning, standing at a distance because of
the fear of her torment saying, ‘Woe, woe, the great city, Babylon, the strong city! For in one
hour your judgment has come.’ And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn over her,
because no one buys their cargoes any more.” Revelation 18:8–11.
 A few years ago there was not much open criticism of the church here in America on a
national level. But today there is a great deal of open hostility against the church. Ministers
used to get discounts on everything they purchased. There was a kind of prostitution back and
forth. Businessmen belonged to the church that could best further their business. They would
go sit through a sermon they did not even agree with; much less did they have any faith in it.
That is spiritual adultery. They gave some distorted kind of allegiance to the church, and the
church was in turn fostering them in their endeavors. But the Word says, “Now they weep;
the merchants of the earth weep and mourn over her because no one buys their cargoes
anymore.” This commercialism is going to end.
We have another picture in Revelation 19:1–9. After these things … After the manifestation
of the false has run its course, then comes the true. It seems there must always be an Ishmael
or some half-breed thing which can never really fulfill the will of God, before the true son of
Isaac comes forth. Esau was born before Jacob, but God said, “Esau I hated, but Jacob have I
loved.” The false must first make its appearance. Then when the true comes on the scene,
there is a ready-made reproach prepared for it.
People call us Mormons because we believe in divine order and the restoration of apostles,
prophets, and the New Testament Church. But the Mormons came a generation or so before
us. Some others have accused us of being spiritualists because they find us to be active in the
mystical realm of spiritual warfare. In no way are we spiritualists. Another accusation is that
we practice witchcraft. We have successfully practiced the judgment of witchcraft and the
binding of that evil thing, but we certainly do not practice witchcraft. Because we believe in
the Holy Spirit, some people think that we are Holy Rollers, and of course, this is another
absurd judgment. We have been called Christian Scientists because we believe in divine
healing. The truth of all this is that the Lord has restored all these truths, but the world has
been filled with many false and even negative manifestations of them. Therefore, we find a
ready-made reproach prepared for us.
What is the difference between the true and the false? It would be difficult sometimes to
really tell the difference until you see the one glaring truth about Babylon: she is a harlot.
And she is prostituting all the spiritual authority and force she has to obtain a place and a
position in the world. It is not so with the true Bride. She has no part of the world. She is in it
but not of it, nor is there any oneness in her with it.
After these things I heard, as it were, a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying,
“Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God; because His judgments are
true and righteous: for He has judged the great harlot who was corrupting the earth with her
immorality, and He has avenged the blood of His bondservants on her.” And a second time
they said, “Hallelujah! Her smoke rises up forever and ever!” And the twenty-four elders and
the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sits on the throne saying, “Amen,
Hallelujah!” And a voice came from the throne saying, “Give praise to our God, all you His
bond-servants, you who fear Him, the small and the great.” And I heard, as it were, the voice
of a great multitude and as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty peals of
thunder, saying, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns. Let us rejoice and
be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His bride has
made herself ready.” And it was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean;
for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. And he said to me, “Write, ‘Blessed are
those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’ ” And he said to me, “These are
the true words of God.” Revelation 19:1–9.
The book of Revelation paints a wonderful picture of the Bride. It shows us what comes at
the end where we see the Bride who is pure, clean, righteous, and clothed with the
righteousness of her very life. Her beauty is in her purity. What a contrast to the great harlot
that is destroyed with the smoke of her torment coming up forever and ever.
Some have said to me, “Brother, you are too hard on Babylon.” Just wait to see what God is
going to do with her, and then all will see that we are not too hard on Babylon. In this study
we have seen a picture of two women that runs the whole course of history. I believe it is
going to come to an end soon.
What is Babylon? Could we become a part of Babylon? Yes, we could. If we follow the
ways of human thinking, we could easily gravitate to Babylon. Thank God for the purity of
this walk at this time. I would say it is one of the purest things to come along, because we are
completely out of accord and adjustment with the world system. God help us to go even
further.
WORSHIPER OR IDOLATER?
Worshiping the Lord is both the greatest offense and the greatest defense we have. It truly
is. Nothing is greater than worshiping the Lord, opening our hearts to Him, and entering right
into it. We must be led by the Spirit of the Lord from week to week and month to month. It is
beautiful when the Lord is setting the course of worship.
This is a time when the lights are going out like a worldwide brownout. The world is facing
the four horsemen of Revelation who are stomping all over them, and they do not know
which way to go. They are afraid. Plagues are breaking out. Many things are happening.
Men’s hearts are failing them for fear (Luke 21:26). This is the way it is supposed to be. But
we are looking up, because our redemption is drawing nigh (Luke 21:28).
If there is anything wrong in our motivation that would prevent God from giving us the
answers we need, worship takes it away. A person may have a faulty motivation when he
intercedes. He may have feelings of bitterness, resentment, vengefulness, selfishness, self-
seeking. Many things can get in the way, even his own ambition; but still he prays in the will
of God. But when the time of fulfillment comes, we must remember that the fulfillment
comes in various degrees according to the way we have submitted our motivations to the
Lord completely. We must come before the Lord saying, “Thy will be done,” with no
resentment, no bitterness, no vindictiveness, no selfishness. We must put everything that we
want on the altar and just worship before the Lord. We must worship the Lord.
As we keep talking about worship, it will become more real to us. There are many aspects
of it, and like any part of our involvement with the Lord, we cannot reduce it down to some
simple principles and say that we have reached the depth of this revelation. How can anyone
say that he has worked out the doctrine of salvation and now understands it thoroughly. We
will study it all our lives, and still we will never reach the end of understanding concerning
salvation. Worship is just the same. How can we understand worship? We know that we can
bow down on our knees and worship the Lord. That is very simple. And yet, while the truth is
very simple, it is so profound that none of us can really understand what we do when we
worship.
In worship we focus everything we are in the direct channel of what God wants us to be in
relationship to Himself. That is an important statement. When we begin to worship,
regardless of where we are in relating to the perfect will of the Lord, we position ourselves
right at that moment so that the thrust and the direction of our lives is toward the perfect will
of God concerning us in relationship to Himself. It does not matter whether we are talking
about the law or the grace of God, about the Old Testament or the New Testament; God has
always been looking for the same thing. Jesus said that God is a Spirit and He has been
looking for people who would worship Him in spirit and in truth. He has always been seeking
worshipers. The search of the Father is to find worshipers (John 4:23, 24).
 We see the search for worshipers even in the commandments recorded in both
Deuteronomy 5 and Exodus 20. When the ten commandments were given, God spoke all
these words, saying, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out
of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for
yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the
water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God,
am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and fourth
generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who
love Me and keep My commandments.” Exodus 20:1–6. The commandments bring out the
whole idea of worshiping the Lord and how we are not to allow other things to get in the way.
This is important.
The first chapter of Romans talks about those who worship the creature more than the
Creator, making that which God has created into an object of worship (Verse 25). Idolatry is
not really understood, and that is why people cannot understand the worship of the Lord.
They do not understand the nature of their subservience to other things. A person cannot
worship God and worship something else. Most people do not worship idols of gold or silver
or wood, but people do worship some strange things. They worship those things which they
have put ahead of God until the whole service of their lives, their labor from day to day, is to
get money to put in certain channels. They may not put up an actual idol and worship it, but it
all comes out the same, whether it is a pin-up picture, a portrait of Christ, or a crucifix. We
are not to make any likeness of anything that is in heaven or on earth or under the earth.
(Exodus 20:4). Idolatry can take some strange forms. The Holy Spirit has directed that there
be no pictures of Christ and no crucifixes or crosses in our churches. We come in simplicity
to a God who is a Spirit, and we are not going to have any likeness of anything.
Many Buddhists have tried to straddle the fence and practice both Buddhism and
Christianity at the same time, for they think there is nothing incompatible with it. However,
the attitude of Buddhists who truly accept Jesus Christ is enlightening. They not only give
their shrines to be destroyed, but they also take off their crucifixes. When they rid themselves
of idolatry, they discard their crucifixes along with every other image.
So many things get in the way of God until without realizing it, we are worshiping them
and giving service to them. God says, “Thou shalt not serve them” (Exodus 20:5). We have
labored for something that is wrong. We have come to the place where anything that has a
priority over God becomes idolatrous. Paul even says that we are not to have among us any
covetous man, who is an idolater (Ephesians 5:5). A man who is covetous is an idolater
because his yearning is after something other than God. He is yearning for money instead of
serving the Lord. It seems strange that the yearning and the drives of a covetous man are
called idolatry. If we would worship the Lord in spirit and in truth, if we would give Him
everything within our hearts, then all the goals, all the loyalties, all the things that take
precedence over God must be broken.
In our relationships with other people, we can easily put another person first in our
affection, ahead of the Lord. It is not easy to come to the place where God is first. When we
love someone very deeply, it is easy to think that since we are serving the Lord, our other
relationships have the proper emphasis. We need a barometer that will immediately show
where we are on the scale of putting the Lord first. To seek first the Kingdom and His
righteousness is essential. In this hour all the other little things people set ahead of the Lord
will be swept away. What will we have left if we are not really set to serve the Lord with all
our hearts, with everything that is within us? Without that we will not make the grade.
In the second Psalm the picture is drawn of the heathens who rage and think to dethrone the
Lord. Then the command comes to bow down before the Lord and worship Him. We need to
analyze what it means to kneel down before the Lord; it would add something to our worship.
I remember one man with a rather violent spirit who preached with many Scriptures telling
the people to kneel down. The people did not receive it, but it was very obvious why they did
not: the man did not have the worship of such kneeling before the Lord in his own spirit. He
was preaching something that legalistically demanded the people to do something that he
himself did not do. The people immediately saw through it. Nevertheless, we ought to open
our hearts in every way we can to learn to kneel before the Lord.
I would not advocate the revival of the Roman Catholic custom, but it would be good to
have altars available at every service. People could come and kneel down and worship the
Lord for a season before the service. If they filled the altar and there was no room, they could
kneel at their seats and worship the Lord. Bowing down, kneeling before the Lord is a
tremendous attitude of worship.
The New Testament opens with the story of the wise men who knelt and worshiped the
Lord as a babe (Matthew 2:1–12). Without that desire to worship they would never have been
directed; they would never have had the revelation in the stars about Jesus Christ.
Furthermore, God revealed to them the plot of Herod to kill the Child, and they went back
another way, not because they were wise, but because they had revelation. This came in a
dream in a way that was beyond their knowledge because they were worshipers of the Lord.
The Gospel opens with people kneeling down and worshiping Christ, even when He was
just a babe. How we ought to worship the Lord, even if the Christ that comes forth in us is
just a babe! We should be kneeling down and constantly worshiping and submitting ourselves
to the miracle and the wonder of that which is coming forth of God in our lives. Is there
anything more important in this whole world than to manifest Christ to the world? Is it worth
more than having other goals and objectives, setting other things up that are greater in our
thinking?
Let us come to the place where we kneel down before Him. It involves a submission. We
will not bow down to serve other things; we will not worship the idols of the world. To the
Lord we will bow down. Him we will serve and worship. There will be thanksgiving in our
hearts continually before Him. Such worshipers are the ones who are going to be led. We
bow to His will and subordinate what we want, what we are, what we do, and what we love.
We submit every relationship as we set ourselves to be worshipers.
The loneliness of a worshiper is something I have been well aware of. There is a loneliness
that comes to an individual when he reaches a new level with God. He leaves something
behind. He has a circumcision of heart. Something is cut away when he becomes a true
worshiper of the Lord. When it first happens, there is a very lonely feeling.
One does not realize how comfortable and secure he feels when he has not all the money in
the world, but he has some; not all the property in the world, but he has some; not all of the
real assurance and success in the world, but he has a place. He has a few things, but suddenly
he becomes a worshiper; and on that new level he watches God cut everything away. He
watches his idols crash. He sees them splintered into a thousand pieces, because nothing can
hold a place in his heart anymore except one thing—the Lord. God is the Lord. A worshiper
walks that lonely path until he comes to the place where everything else is submissive to the
Lord. From then on, anything God wants, He gets. It is all His. It is easy to say it, but not as
easy to start walking that path as a worshiper, to start saying goodbye, to start letting go.
You may think you submitted all to the Lord long ago, but you do not know your own heart;
you do not know how you hang on to things. You do not know that subtle, deceptive priority
you give to everything else but God in some areas in your life. Watch people when that one
area of their lives is touched and see how crabby they get. They do not want that thing to be
touched. Every man seems to have at least one thing that he holds back from the Lord. I hope
you do not. But if you do, know that the Lord is going to worry you. He is going to worry
you day after day until you realize that it is ahead of the Lord and decide it must go.
If you want something, and you want it so badly that it gets in the way of the Lord, you will
have time after time after time when the Lord will deal with you to lay that thing on the altar
and put Him first. You know this is true because you have had the Lord deal with you again
and again. Just about the time you think that you have it laid on the altar, suddenly it appears
as if the Lord is going to take it, and you grab it back. The Lord starts to put a knife in it, and
you grab it, saying, “What are you trying to do? kill my sacrifice?” This happens over and
over again as you learn to submit to the Lord.
We are the circumcision who worship God in the Spirit (Philippians 3:3). The man who
worships God in the Spirit has had the old flesh of his heart cut away. Everything else is gone.
When we get right down to it, circumcision is a form of mutilation. When God circumcises
our hearts, He mutilates them; and everything that we have gloried in is cut away. We are the
circumcision who worship God in the Spirit.
We are going to be worshipers and not idolaters. We are going to do the will of the Lord
from a whole heart. Nothing is going to get in the way. We have some consecrating to do.
Some things need to be laid upon the altar. The Lord is striving to do something for us, but
we must be those worshipers who come out of great tribulation (Revelation 7:9, 14). The
book of Revelation is a book of worship. In it everyone is worshiping the Lord. When the
devil is thrown into the pit, the saints worship the Lord. The martyrs worship the Lord; the
creatures in heaven worship the Lord; everyone worships the Lord.
Anyone who is not a worshiper reads the book of Revelation and sees only the beasts, the
false prophets, the antichrists, the plagues, the four horsemen, and the thunders and lightnings
from heaven. He sees destruction over all the earth, and that is all he sees. But a worshiper
reads the book and sees something else. He sees that Christ is Lord. This is the reason we
must he worshipers. The world is going to see disaster in what takes place shortly, but we
will not see disaster. We are going to be worshiping the Lord. We will be worshiping Him
with all our hearts and with everything within us.

PRESS ON TO KNOW THE LORD

The background to this particular study is Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman
recorded in the fourth chapter of John. When Jesus asked her for a drink, she began to talk,
amazed that a Jew would thus speak to a Samaritan. He said to her, “If you drink of the water
I give, it will become a well of water springing up to eternal life in you.” When she answered
that she would like to have that water, He told her to go and call her husband. She replied, “I
have no husband,” and Jesus said to her, “That is true; you had five husbands, and the one
you have now is not your husband” (John 4:5–18).
Our study begins with verse 19. The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a
prophet. Our fathers worshiped in this mountain; and you people say that in Jerusalem is the
place where men ought to worship.”
Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain,
nor in Jerusalem, shall you worship the Father. You worship that which you do not know; we
worship that which we know; for salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming, and now
is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for such people
the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit; and those who worship Him must
worship Him in spirit and in truth.”
The woman said to Him, “I know the Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when
that One comes, He will declare all things to us.”
 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.” And at this point His disciples came, and
they marveled that He had been speaking with a woman; yet no one said, “What do You
seek?” or, “Why do You speak with her?” So the woman left her waterpot, and went into the
city, and said to the men, “Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done; this
is not the Christ, is it?” They went out of the city, and were coming to Him. John 4:19–30.
In a story such as this, there are many important truths; and if we would expound them all,
we would cover areas beyond the focus of the Holy Spirit. What we are concerned with in
this message is revelation and worship and the relationship between the two. It is significant
that when Jesus spoke by revelation to the Samaritan woman, it immediately brought up the
subject of worship. When the subject of worship came up, the woman began to present the
position most of Christianity is in today, that is, the Samaritan idea of worship: “Our fathers
worshiped in this mountain. Our father, Jacob, dug this well from which we are drawing our
water to drink. Look at the beautiful traditions. You see, we do worship; do not get the idea
that we do not. We are very religious people here in Samaria. Our fathers worshiped in this
mountain.”
Jesus answered, “The hour is coming when the place will not be important. Neither in this
mountain nor in Jerusalem shall you worship the Father.” He then proceeded to give one of
the greatest revelations on worship in the New Testament. He said, “You worship that which
you do not know.” To a large extent a great deal of worship is still on this level. People are
worshiping what they do not know. They are entering in wholeheartedly; they love the Lord,
but they do not know Him. They may even be perceptive enough to know the moving of the
Holy Spirit when He comes in gifts and ministries. But they still do not know the Lord.
Our walk in the Spirit could easily become just another movement if we settle down in our
own little rut. We either move on to what God has in mind for our worship, or we will miss
what God really has for us. God intends for us to come into revelation worship. Even at this
present time, many Christians do not know the Lord; they do not have an awareness of Him.
They have awareness of a moving; as when a person feels a breeze. They can sense it, but
that does not mean they truly know the Lord.
Time and time again, men who claimed to know the moving of the Lord have failed to
follow His leading. They did not really know the Lord. When He moved in a way to which
they were not accustomed, they were lost. They were as lost as the Jews were in the New
Testament times, because they did not realize that God was moving and doing something new
and bringing people up to a different spiritual level. It is not His movings of which we must
be aware; it is the Lord of whom we must become aware.
Often people refer to the prophecies about the end time—that will be the day of exploits;
that will be the day of a double portion; that will be the day when greater works than these
shall you do—but they still do not understand how it will come. “Greater works than these
shall he do; because I go to the Father.” John 14:12b. In this same context Jesus goes on to
talk about how the Father and the Son will come and manifest themselves to us. It is by the
revelation of God to our hearts that the prophecies will come forth. “They that do know their
God will be strong and do exploits” (Daniel 11:32). The key is “those who know their God.”
Are we worshiping what we do not know? I do not think we are. We are coming to know
Him; we are coming into the revelation of the Lord. Then shall we know, if we follow on to
know the Lord … Hosea 6:3. It is not following on into a ministry; it is following on to a new
phase of restoration. Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord. Should we be
crying for this? Oh, yes. Paul cried, That I may know Him … Philippians 3:10.
Many superficial Christians will say that they know Jesus. They do not really know Him.
Sometimes people can be so blessed of the Lord that they are lifted up in singing in the Spirit,
but I long for the day that the Lord becomes so real and is so revealed that we fall on our
faces.
Some may think our worship is beautiful, but there is still a step we must take. Jesus said,
“You worship that which you do not know; we worship that which we do know; for salvation
is from the Jews.” He also said, “There is an hour coming when the true worshiper shall
worship the Father in spirit and in truth.” How do we get into this? By revelation. The day
will come when more will be done through revelation worship than is occurring now through
all our efforts. The worship will begin to flow as soon as people come into a worship service;
they will have a meeting with God there.
Our worship in the Spirit has been beautiful, but suddenly the Lord is speaking to us of a
complete change. The new worship will be as different from our present worship in the Spirit
as our present worship is from the old, ritualistic form of worship. The change will be a
greater step than any of us anticipate. Then the emphasis will never be upon the individual.
Slowly the spotlight has moved away from the one-man show, the one-man ministry, and has
shifted to Body ministry. The emphasis no longer is on the individual, but on the great,
ministering company. In the next step, the focus goes upward to God. The focus will go
upward until the Lord will be seen and revealed in our services more than ever before.
Since we know where we are heading, we should move in that direction as fast as we can.
We must stand and wait before the Lord and worship Him. It is significant that in every step
we take there is a time of fasting and prayer and worship while we are seeking the face of the
Lord. All through the Scriptures—in the Psalms, in the prophets—there is the phrase, “Seek
His face. Seek the Lord.” This is what we are to do. We are not seeking answers, nor are we
seeking for miracles, nor are we seeking to do exploits, nor are we seeking to do greater
works. We are seeking His face. We are striving to come into revelation worship so that as
we worship the Lord and praise Him, as we give sacrifice without number the way the priests
did at the dedication of Solomon’s temple, His glory fills the house until no one is
ministering, for His holy presence breaks through upon us (1 Kings 8:11). This is what we are
seeking—the breakthrough of the glory of God.
What should we do in the meantime? We should worship with all our hearts, just as we are;
but we should recognize that our present worship is just a vehicle to bring us into the
presence of the Lord. Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord. He will come
unto us as the rain, as the former and latter rain unto the earth (Hosea 6:3). I think we often
miss the deep meaning when we read the Scriptures. We follow on to know the Lord.
Paul said, That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection Philippians 3:10a.
“Paul, don’t you know Him?”
“Yes, I know Jesus, but I want to know Him.”
“Aren’t you saying the same thing? ‘I know the Lord, but I want to know Him?’ ”
How far beyond our comprehension God is! We will never exhaust His depths. We know
the Lord, but we want to know Him. We want to know more than Moses, more than the
Israelites of the Old Testament. God made known His acts unto the children of Israel; He
made known His ways unto Moses (Psalms 103:7). To understand the ways of the Lord, to
understand the principles of His moving is fantastic. But to come to know Him is the greatest
goal of all.
“They that do know their God will be strong and do exploits.” A new level of revelation is
coming, and we who worship must strive to move into it. The guidelines are before us. We
know how to start the car; we know how to shift the gears; we know where the spare tire is;
we know on which side of the road to drive; we have passed the test; we have memorized the
vehicle code. Now where? Have we no place to go? Oh, no! We are following on to know the
Lord. “Then shall you know, if you follow on to know the Lord.”
 The New Testament church is like the great ark that Noah built. He built it on top of a
mountain, waiting for the floods to rise. In that ark were all the things God was going to save
from one age. He transported them, floating them upon waters that covered the earth, until
finally He let them rest on Mount Ararat. From there they would start a new age.
We are coming into the principles and truths of the Kingdom. We are coming into the ark
which is prepared according to the blueprint that God has given. Where are we going? We are
leaving one age and entering into another. What are we going to do? We will see the King,
and we will know Him. Then with this vision, we begin to realize that all our worship and
praise, all that is taking place is not an end in itself. The gospel of the Kingdom is not an end
in itself: it is the vehicle; it is the principles; it is rules of the road; it is the means by which
God will convey us out of one condemned age right into the glorious Kingdom of God.
We must open our hearts to God and determine to be His worshipers, to know the Lord, to
really know Him.
“You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know.” Samaritans, Jews, every
worshiper—there is a time coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the
Father in spirit. We do not know who the Father is, and never can know until the Son reveals
Him. “All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son,
except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father, except the Son, and anyone to whom the
Son wills to reveal Him.” Matthew 11:27.
Jesus said to His disciples, “He who has My commandments, and keeps them, he it is who
loves Me; and he who loves Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will love him, and will
disclose Myself to him … If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love
him, and We will come to him, and make Our abode with him.” John 14:21, 23. We are to be
filled with all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:19). I know of no one who has experienced
this. Nor is there anyone who has even comprehended what it will be like. We must make the
next step; there is another level to attain.
How do we take the next step? We keep God’s commandments, love Him, and keep on
worshiping Him. We do not give up on worship just because we have not yet come into its
perfection. We walk in the present as fully as we can; the breakthrough will come. We may
discard many things that now give us the impetus in our worship. But one of these days, the
Parousia will be here in its fullness, and we will be standing in His presence. Then will be the
most marvelous days of worship the world has ever seen. What tremendous revelation of the
Lord we will have! This will come by revelation worship.
THE VEIL AND ONE STEP BEYOND
One cannot understand the book of Revelation unless he has a good concept of the book of
Ezekiel, for the spirit of Ezekiel was very much with John on the Isle of Patmos. The imagery
and the symbols of Revelation are never understood until one understands the Old Testament
prophets. Even in the marvelous messages to the churches there are many references and
allusions to the Old Testament that few people can understand.
At this particular period of the restoration, the Lord is opening to us a door into something
that is more than restoration, for it has not existed in former dispensations. He is opening the
door so that everything which has been remote regarding the presence of the Lord and our
ministering in His presence is now to become a reality. In the past we have sensed the
presence of the Lord without the reality of the breakthrough into it; now we will know that
breakthrough so that we literally worship in His presence. In the mind of the Holy Spirit, the
Parousia is destined to bring those who have worshiped at one level up into the very level of
His presence. This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes, though we have not
attained anything in ourselves to warrant it.
 This is a revelation and truth definitely related to the Kingdom. The presence of the Lord
will be marvelous in the days of the Kingdom, but we are not concerned about that so much
as we are concerned about the period of His presence now, while the consummation of the
age is taking place. While the Lord is winding up the age with judgment upon the earth, while
He is bringing forth and manifesting His sons, while He is bringing an end to the futility of
all creation, His presence will hover very closely over the earth.
Chapters 40 through 48 of Ezekiel contain end-time revelation. Chapters 40 through 44
speak of the building of the new sanctuary and the return of the glory to this sanctuary. This
is not a literal building of stone; it is the people of the Lord. We are the sanctuary that is
being built. In chapters 43 and 44 the return of the glory is pictured as God’s glory and
presence beginning to come back to the Church. The loyal priesthood of the sons of Zadok,
mentioned in Ezekiel 44, is a type of the end-time remnant. The other Levites, who had
departed and become apostate, ministered to some extent, but they were not allowed to come
close to the very inner sanctuary and the presence of the Lord. These sons of Zadok stood by
when everyone else turned away, and they received the glorious ministry typical of the
ministry of the remnant which is now being prepared. The remnant is standing by the Word
of the Lord while others reject it and become apostate. In the return of the glory that remnant
is established as the ministering and governing element, the priestly order, the ruling order,
the kings and the priests.
Ezekiel 45 and 46 tell of the sacrifices being restored; however, these are not sacrifices to
eliminate sin. They are sacrifices of thanksgiving and worship, and they are all highly
symbolical. Ezekiel 47 talks about the remnant ministering in this great spiritual temple and
the living water issuing forth from the threshold of the sanctuary. These are the waters that
bring forth the trees whose leaves are for the healing of the nations (Ezekiel 47:12). Wherever
the waters flow life comes forth—very typical of the Kingdom. Chapters 47 and 48 deal with
the locating of the tribes and the final building of the new Jerusalem. The book of Revelation
ends similarly with the building of the new Jerusalem and the symbolical dimensions that are
given for it. According to literal calculations in the book of Ezekiel, the new Jerusalem would
be about seven and one-half miles square. It is not a literal place, but a symbol of something
God is preparing. He is first preparing a remnant who will minister in His temple; and then
the waters, which will heal the nations, will begin to flow. Then God positions His people as
He wants them. The Old Testament tribes give a symbolical picture also. Finally God gives
us a description of the holy city in which there is nothing that defiles (Revelation 21:27).
The whole picture in the hook of Ezekiel describes how God will meet His people again
and what He will do for them. Jeremiah and Ezekiel prophesied that the Lord would deal with
His people by a new covenant. It would not be in the old way they had known under the
covenant He made with Moses. This would be a new covenant, and this time it would not be
written with His finger on tablets of stone; it would be written on the tablets of the heart. God
said, “I will write My word and My covenant upon their hearts, and they will not say to their
neighbor, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know Me from the least to the greatest”
(Jeremiah 31:33, 34).
The ninth chapter of Hebrews enlightens the revelation of Ezekiel. Now even the first
covenant had regulations of divine worship and the earthly sanctuary. Hebrews 9:l. The first
covenant was established by God under the law of Moses: a covenant with the people, ratified
by blood. The literal meaning of Old Testament and New Testament is old covenant and new
covenant. According to the last verse of the previous chapter in Hebrews, the old covenant is
passing away. When He said, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. But
whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear. Hebrews 8:13.
 Christ came to change the basis of our relationship with the Lord. But now He has obtained
a more excellent ministry, by as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which
has been enacted on better promises. Hebrews 8:6. When He took the Passover cup and the
unleavened bread, He said, “This is a new covenant in My blood” (Matthew 26:28). I do not
think any of the disciples realized what was taking place. They did not realize that this was
the covenant which had been prophesied by the prophets of old. Jesus was saying, “The old
covenant is gone, but a new covenant I am making with you, and this is a new covenant in
My blood.” The first covenant, under the law, was ratified with blood; therefore, it was
necessary that Jesus, bringing in a new covenant, make the new covenant in His blood. His
blood sealed it.
For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for
a second. But finding fault with them, He says, “Behold, days are coming, says the Lord,
when I will effect a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; not
like the covenant which I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to
lead them out of the land of Egypt; for they did not continue in My covenant, and I did not
care for them, says the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
after those days, says the Lord” (note carefully): “I will put My laws into their minds, and I
will write them upon their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be My people. And
they shall not teach every one his fellow-citizen, and every one his brother, saying, ‘Know the
Lord,’ for all shall know Me, from the least to the greatest of them.” Hebrews 8:7–11.
Has this word ever been fulfilled? Not yet. The new covenant is to have its fulfillment in
the days of the Kingdom. We have been in the initial manifestation of the new covenant, but
the full promise of it has not come. We are still teaching our fellow-citizens and saying to our
brothers, “Know the Lord.” But the time is coming when this prophecy will prevail. The
breakthrough will come when we stand and worship so completely in His presence that it will
be revelation worship—a worship in which God reveals to us directly, so that the
intermediary channels of ministry will not be necessary.
Although there are apostles of the Kingdom coming forth now to herald and lay down the
principles of the Kingdom, I do not believe apostles will be necessary in the Kingdom. I do
not think prophets, as we know them, nor any of the ministries that now are a channel for
God to bring revelation to His people will be necessary, for the revelation will come to each
person directly. The only reason the ministries are working now is that we be no more
children tossed to and fro, that we come to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,
that we come into our full maturity (Ephesians 4:11–14). This must be the vision of every
minister. We are not to build a kingdom about us of those who are utterly dependent upon us
for a word, for instruction. Everything should be designed to produce that spiritual maturity
and the breaking down of reservations so that people are able to break through into what God
has for them.
The value of worship is a most important teaching, inasmuch as it is opening up a new line
of truth and a new level of revelation. Once the objectives that God is working out are clear
in our minds, revelation will change a great deal. Worship is not only a preliminary to warm
up the hearts of the people so that the Word can be received; worship will become our most
important function. In awe we will sense His presence so much that it will be a direct
communication and a direct ministry from the Lord. We need to learn to worship so that the
worship removes all veils and barriers. When this new covenant worship is fully established,
no one will teach his fellowman to know the Lord, for they all shall know Him, from the least
to the greatest.
“For I will be merciful to their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” When
He said, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming
obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear. Hebrews 8:12, 13. The value of the old
covenant lay in the fact that people who were afar off, who were strangers and aliens from the
covenants of promise (Ephesians 2:12), could hear words that would bring them close. The
prophet would receive a word from God and say to the people, “Thus saith the Lord.” Of all
the books in the Old Testament, Ezekiel speaks the most about people knowing the Lord.
“Thus saith the Lord” is the keynote all the way through. The prophet was the mouthpiece of
God, giving the people a word from God. The priest, anointed and directed by God, also led
the people; he was their mouthpiece to God, crying out to God for them. The prophets spoke
from God to the people; the priests interceded from the people to God. In this way God
bridged a gap which He had not been able to bridge before.
Through Christ all believers are brought into a priesthood. We are all coming to present our
bodies as living sacrifices. Christ has broken down the barrier (Ephesians 2:14). He has
become the intermediary; the role of the human intermediary is lessening.
For there was a tabernacle prepared, the outer one, in which were the lampstand and the
table and the sacred bread; this is called the holy place. Revelation tells of Christ walking
among the seven golden lampstands (Revelation 1:13). The imagery all through the hook of
Revelation speaks of the Old Testament sanctuary. And behind the second veil, there was a
tabernacle which is called the Holy of Holies, having a golden altar of incense and the ark of
the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden jar holding the manna,
and Aaron’s rod which budded, and the tables of the covenant. And above it were the
cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat (now notice the hindrance and check of the
Holy Spirit); but of these things we cannot now speak in detail. Hebrews 9:2–5.
It would appear (in fact it has appeared to many who profess to be Bible scholars) that in
spite of all his quoting of the Old Testament, the writer of the book of Hebrews did not really
know the Scriptures. He was rather vague in his quotations and often said, “Somewhere it is
said …” But in this instance it appears that he was completely confused. Any student of the
Old Testament knows that the golden altar of incense was not in the Holy of Holies at all; it
was on the other side of the curtain (Exodus 30:6). It was the last object the high priest faced
before he went in to stand before the presence of the Lord. Imagine a contradiction like that
in the Scriptures! The writer gave a hint of his intentions when he said, “We cannot now
speak in detail.” In other words he was saying, “We cannot tell you much about this now.”
But did he realize that he was contradicting the Old Testament? He knew what he was doing.
If we read a little further, we will find a key to explain the reason the altar of incense is now
in the Holy of Holies instead of in the holy place. The writer had a revelation from the Lord
and was describing the tabernacle which is pitched in heaven of which the one on earth was
but a shadow (Hebrews 8:5).
Now when these things have been thus prepared, the priests are continually entering the
outer tabernacle, performing the divine worship, but into the second only the high priest
enters, once a year, not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the sins of
the people committed in ignorance.
The Holy Spirit is signifying this, that the way into the holy place has not yet been disclosed,
while the outer tabernacle is still standing, which is a symbol for the time then present,
according to which both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make the worshiper
perfect in conscience, since they relate only to food and drink and various washings,
regulations for the body imposed until a time of reformation. Hebrews 9:6–10. The time of
reformation is the time of restitution of all things spoken by the mouth of all the holy
prophets since the world began (Acts 3:21). This happened when Christ entered into the holy
place. The Word calls Him a forerunner (Hebrews 6:20). He went into the Holy of Holies as
the forerunner, not only to eliminate the regulations of the old covenant, but to bring the new
covenant which looks to the time when His law will be written in our hearts and we will all
know the Lord and stand in His presence. He became the forerunner, going into the Holy of
Holies to present the precious blood in our behalf, and He also opened the door for us to
come into the Holy of Holies.
The writer of Hebrews was referring to a dispensational happening—until the time of the
great establishment of all things—and when that takes place, the tabernacle is pictured
differently. Now the Holy of Holies contains not only the ark of the covenant, but also the
altar of incense. In Old Testament times the priests worshiped with a veil between them and
the magnificent presence and glory of God. Today’s priests move into His presence.
At the hour of Christ’s death the veil dividing the temple was ripped from top to bottom.
Thus a new and living way was made through the veil, that is His flesh, so that we can come
and stand in the presence of the Lord (Hebrews 10:20). Everything that God has been doing
is to bring us closer to Him. Prophecy comes to exhort us to draw closer to the Lord, to edify
and build us up to be the very housing of God, His sanctuary. It is all drawing us; it is leading
somewhere and we had better see where it is leading.
God has to eliminate the old, step by step. The original tabernacle was built as a picture of
what would take place through the ages. But one stage disappears, and then the next
disappears, and finally, all that will be left will be the Holy of Holies.
The church world knew a time of sad, mournful songs. Then came a period when the songs
were more exuberant and joyful. Believers praised, danced, and shouted; but they were on the
outskirts of His presence. Then the level moved up again. In this walk in the Spirit, the level
of singing and worship is much greater than anything we have ever known. We have moved
on and on, continually progressing. Now God is telling us there is another level of worship
that we have not yet reached, a level in which we pass through that veil which has already
been removed, as far as Christ’s provision is concerned. Dispensationally it waited for the
time of reformation, and now we are coming to the revelation worship in which we not only
worship Him, but His beauty and His wonder are unveiled to us. We come and stand in His
presence to worship as we have never dreamed possible.
The man who jumps and hollers in his worship is a long way from an awareness of God’s
presence. On a soulish level he may have goose bumps and various other experiences. But
God is bringing us into something besides the soulish level. God keeps letting the old fall
away. Perhaps the thrust that the soulish level gave was like the first stage of a rocket ship
which drops off after it is spent. Perhaps we have another stage which is yet to drop off, but
before long we will be in orbit. We will be about the throne continually as we worship and
praise the Lord.
There will be times when God will move into our worship, and the worship will suddenly
seem to subside. In the awesome wonder of that worship, He will become so real to us that
we will become like the men of God who came into His presence and fell at His feet as dead.
The book of Revelation opens by telling how John saw the Lord, whose eyes were like a
flame of fire, walking up and down in the midst of the seven golden lampstands. He fell at
His feet as dead (Revelation 1:17). That is exactly what the Lord is bringing to us. We must
press on to come into this level of revelation worship—a worship that opens up revelation,
not of circumstances and problems, but of the King Himself. Then shall we know. Let us
press on to know the Lord (Hosea 6:3).
When a priest approached the Old Testament tabernacle, first he came into an outer court.
There was the sacrificial altar, and then came the bronze laver made from the mirrors of the
women of Israel (Exodus 38:8). In the laver the priests could see their reflection and wash
themselves (Exodus 30:19). After the slaughter at the altar, their next step was to wash
themselves. Then they went into the holy place, where there were a lampstand, a table with
the sacred bread, and the altar of incense. Behind a veil in the Holy of Holies there was
originally only the ark of the covenant, the covenant of His glory, the ark of God’s very
presence (Exodus 26:34). In it were a golden jar of holy manna, Aaron’s rod which budded,
and the tables of the covenant.
When Christ died, He opened up a new and living way for us to come right into His holy
presence. The veil of the temple, the veil that separated the holy place from the Holy of
Holies, was rent from top to bottom. God has opened the door by the new covenant of His
precious blood. Now the altar of incense is located in the Holy of Holies. The Lord is
bringing us closer and closer to the objective of that new covenant. The objective is that we
are to be standing in the Holy of Holies with the ark of His glory, presenting at the altar of
incense the worship of kings and priests unto the Lord.
This is our vision. We are pressing into deeper worship. The writer of Hebrews was not
confused when he pictured the golden altar of incense as being moved from the holy place
where the priests stood just one step away from the presence of the Lord. Until now we have
been worshiping in the holy place; the lampstand symbolized the Holy Spirit’s illuminating
Christ in the midst of the Church, and the table of sacred bread symbolized the holy
Communion, the feeding upon the Lord. Now we take one step beyond the veil to stand
before the altar of incense where the praise and the prayers of God’s people come up to the
Lord (Revelation 8:3, 4). God is bringing us to this place.
Where does a walk with God take us? It is true that we will walk to the ends of the earth
with this gospel of the Kingdom, but that is secondary. Our walk is into His presence. Day by
day there is an unveiling; there is a shortening of the distance between us and the Lord.
Before the Old Testament high priest entered the Holy of Holies, he made atonement for
himself and went through certain washings (Exodus 40:32). Christ came forth to be the High
Priest of our profession. In the end time the Body of Christ comes forth; and as a result of the
indwelling Christ, they, too, must have the high priest ministry. This high priest ministry
enters beyond the veil into the Holy of Holies to stand in the presence of the Lord and to
worship Him. This is the reason the Church must have the washing of water by the Word
(Ephesians 5:26). The high priest washed with pure water. Aaron’s clothing was removed; he
was washed from head to foot and clothed with clean garments; then he entered in the Holy
of Holies with boldness (Exodus 40:12, 13).
God will bring the cleansing and the deep purging in our lives so that we may be prepared
for the worship that is to come. We are to be prepared to stand in the Holy of Holies
worshiping the Lord. We are to be prepared for the glory of God returning to that realm of the
Holy of Holies. We have heard the prophecies about the glory returning. We have heard the
prophetic word that calls us to cleansing and repentance. Never in former days did we find
such deep, penetrating searchings into our motivation and into our spirits. Now God does not
stop the probing and the searching and the digging. We are constantly aware of His leading.
But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through
the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this
creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He
entered into the holy place once for all (when it says holy place, it is speaking of the Holy of
Holies), having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the
ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctify for the cleansing of the
flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself
without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
And for this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant. Hebrews 9:11–15a. Christ opened
the door so that He could mediate the new covenant to us. What is the objective of that new
covenant? That we come into the Holy of Holies and stand before the Lord.
 But He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God,
waiting from that time onward until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet. For by one
offering He has perfected for all time those who are (being) sanctified. And the Holy Spirit
also bears witness to us; for after saying, “This is the covenant that I will make with them
after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws upon their heart, and upon their mind I
will write them,” He then says, “And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no
more.” Hebrews 10:12–17. We fully come into this new covenant in the Kingdom.
How wonderful it is to be delivered from the old law and its legalism and to come into the
grace of God! The grace of God hath appeared, teaching us to deny ungodliness and worldly
lusts, to live sensibly, righteously, and godly in this present age (Titus 2:11, 12). The Holy
Spirit is teaching us. How is He doing it? He is writing the Word on our hearts. When the
laws of the Kingdom are written on our hearts, the right responses will be automatic. Doing
the right thing will be our first nature. It will be our real nature. It will be written on our
hearts. We will stand before His presence worshiping and adoring Him, and His law will be
written on our hearts.
We have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way
which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh (that is the reason the veil was
rent from top to bottom), and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw
near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an
evil conscience and our body washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our
hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate
one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the
habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more, as you see the day drawing
near Hebrews 10:19b–25.
This picture of our coming into the presence of the Lord explains why we are going through
the washing. Christ died that He might sanctify the Bride; she is being cleansed by the
washing of water by the word, and she will be without spot or wrinkle or blemish or any such
thing (Ephesians 5:26, 27). She will come wholly without blemish before the Lord. The
priests who ministered in the sanctuary were not allowed to wear any garments that would
cause them to sweat (Ezekiel 44:18). We are reaching into a day when we will stand cleansed
and perfect in the presence of the Lord.
The writer of Hebrews tries to sum up what is taking place in the whole age: But you have
come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads
of angels, to the general assembly and the church of the first-born who are enrolled in
heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, and to
Jesus the mediator of the new covenant and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than
the blood of Abel. Hebrews 12:22–24.
Now we see the reason we must press into worship; it must not become a rut that stations us
on a lower level of revelation, just behind some curtain or veil that God has already rent for
us. There must be a way to enter in. There must be a way to walk with God. The Lord’s
revelation to our hearts will be very precious. His glory shall surely be revealed.