He Wants Us to Do It

He Wants Us to Do It

by Tim Ruthven

Transcribed from the original recording; may contain errors.

But I’ve got a word, and I’m excited because I have a real witness to this word. It’s just the beginning of something very exciting. And it’s going to grow and grow, I know, in my own experience. And I trust in this camp’s experience. It’s a word for this camp, I believe, as well as what God is doing in my own life. And I think it’s very appropriate that our dear sister should get up here and talk about the prayer tower. I’ve been to probably 40 camps. And I don’t remember somebody getting up and speaking deliberately and giving a presentation on the prayer tower in the way that you did. And I’m not saying it because it’s protocol for the speaker to get up and say something nice about somebody who’s preceded you. I want you to hear that, I really mean it. It’s a rare thing, and that was a word for me. I needed to hear that tonight, and the Lord knew I needed to hear that tonight. Because God’s word to us at the moment is pray.

Now there’s a prophecy gurgitating down deep inside me that I don’t want to give. I don’t even want to come over here tonight. That prophecy is frightening the daylights out of me. I don’t know if I can give it. I’ll tell you what it is rather than give it. Can I do that?

But what the Lord is saying to me is that you’re going to go through the fire. You’re going to go through the fire. And you’ve been led astray. And you’ve put your faith in men. And you’ve put your faith in ministries. And you’ve put your faith in doctrines. And you’ve put your faith in teaching.

You’ve followed the Pharisees and the scribes when they were legalistically dotting their I’s and crossing their T’s. And you’ve been led away from the ability to hear the still small voice and to know the witness of the Spirit. And see the life of the Spirit that’s in God’s Word. For your understanding and for your edification and for your sanctification.

And you’ve been built into all sorts of things that have aborted the process of God. And God’s fire of judgment is about to fall. And the works that man has built will not stand. There is so much wood, hay and stubble. Only that which He has built in hearts. Only that which He has built in your innermost being. Those lively stones that He’s rightfully fitted together and knitted together and placed within the body. They will stand and they will not perish.

It’s imperative that you become a people that pray. It’s imperative that you become a people who know who you are. And this word is not to strike fear in your heart. But this word is to forewarn you. So you will not be surprised. So that you will know what God is about to do. So you will not be bewildered by the things you see and the things you hear. But that you will be prepared. And you will face the day. And you will see it as a glorious day. You will see it as a day of victory. You will see it as a day of purging. You will see it as a day of refining. You will see it as a day of cleansing. You will see the church emerging as a beautiful, created being of God. The very bride and body of Christ. It’s not a day to fear. It’s a day to look forward to. It’s a day of perfection. It’s a day that God will reveal to the world that which has been hidden.

And it’s to be yours. And in the context of what He’s been saying to me, I have this tremendous impression that CFO next year, here at the Golden Isles, can be the greatest experience that has ever known. And I urge you to pray. 1989 is to be a mighty year for CFO. A mighty year. If you will hear the word that He has for you this evening, and receive it into your heart, and walk in it, and practice it throughout this coming year, then 89 will be just the greatest camp you’ve ever seen. I’m almost envious. Thank you for the invitation, but I plan to be at the Feast of Tabernacles.

So thus saith the Lord. It’s your responsibility to test and try what you hear. And to discern aright the spirit of it, and decide what you will do with it. And God will not judge you for judging the prophecy. But He’ll judge you for not judging the prophecy. Okay?

I want to get back to my text that I introduced you to the other night that said, “Lord, teach us to pray.” I can’t get out of this text. I talked about it at the last camp that I was at. And I’m just so full of it. So, that’s why I’m excited about our sister and the prayer tower tonight. I’m so full of it, I went to Korea, as I told you in May, for a variety of reasons. One was because I was coming off the drugs that I’d been taking for three years after my brain surgery. And another was, I’d planned to begin writing a book on prayer. However, when I got there and prayed through into the presence of God and had an encounter with God that I hadn’t had since revival days in New Zealand and in Indonesia, I was just left with this enormous impression that it was too early to write a book on prayer. And that I didn’t have enough knowledge or experience to write a book on prayer. And that I should put it aside for a few more years and just pray.

And so that’s what I decided to do. But I have just been lost morning after morning after morning. So taken up with the excitement and the adventure that there is in prayer. And I don’t know why we’ve made it a work. I don’t know why the prayer meetings are so poorly attended. I will never understand it after seeing 50,000 people praying in Korea at the same time. I will never understand it after attending a meeting of 10,000 people sitting cross-legged on the floor all praying at the same time. Living on that mountain for 14 days surrounded by voices 24 hours a day crying out to God right on the demilitarized zone, soldiers everywhere. I don’t know what those soldiers thought. They’d wander through Prayer Mountain. They’d come over from their bunkers and use the telephone. I even saw some of them being dragged in. I’ve got a feeling that Christians were even dragging them in and leading them to the Lord. I saw… I never… This guy fought all the way. I tell you he was manhand. I was killed.

It was a great experience. And I realized I have so much to learn and that I need the Lord Jesus Christ to be my teacher for a few more years before I start writing about “Lord, teach us to pray.” But I did share some little things with you. And because it was communion, remember, I turned over to 1 Corinthians 11 and just touched on something that Paul said there. He said there was some sickly amongst us because we failed to discern the needs of the body. And I felt that was like a prophetic word, that that was a word to us, that was a word to mind where we were in our walk with Him and that some of our sicknesses in that were due to our own misdemeanors in that we were failing to be sensitive to the need of the body. And we dealt with that scripture by afterwards praying as a congregation together and believing that God would, because we repented, because we turned to Him, because we were sensitive to the need that was in the body, that He would respond to our prayer and He’d bring healing. And I anticipate over a period of time hearing more and more about that healing. Well, there’s so much in Luke 11 about prayer and I’ve been in it for so long I didn’t anticipate the direction that the Lord led me at all.

Matter of fact, I’m very surprised and very excited about it. I feel like I felt when I just finished a book called He Brought Us Out to Bring Us In, and I feel like I felt then when He first introduced me to that text in Deuteronomy, it just jumped out at me. I mean, you have scriptures jump out at you all the time and so do I, but when this one jumped out at me I knew I was going to live this one and I knew it was going to be around for a long time in my experience and it was going to be another new adventure, and that’s how I felt this afternoon when I started seeking the Lord for this evening. I’m going to read you the scripture that He gave me. It’s in 1 Peter chapter 2 if you want to follow it in your Bibles. It goes like this. “Wherefore, laying aside all the malice and all guile and all hypocrisies and envies and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby.” Let me interrupt what I’m reading to tell you a little story. I won’t mention the preacher’s name. He’s too well known. But the preacher was visiting, this particular preacher was visiting a church in Southern California, and he stood up in the pulpit and he opened the Bible and he read his text just as I’ve read to you, and he read this, “Love one another as I have loved you.”

They all waited for him to begin his address, and after long silence he read the text again, “Love one another as I have loved you.” Everybody waited. Long silence. Again he read the text, “Love one another as I have loved you.”

Suddenly a lady in the front raised up and said, “I’ve got it. He wants us to do it.” That’s the way the Holy Spirit delivers the message. He wants us to do it. Somehow we have been fashioned like a flock of sheep. We’ve been driven into a corner of a field somewhere, and we think that’s the only corner in the field and that’s the only way to do it, and we feel insecure if we move out of reach of the rest of the sheep in that corner of the field. You know, you and your small corner and I in mine. And there’s only one way to have a meeting. And there’s only one way to have a service.

And I was talking to a brother the other day how he tore up his Presbyterian order of service and said, “From now on I’m following the Lord.” And we were sharing. I did the same thing. But did we tear up the order of service?

I’m not sure that we tore it up. Nothing’s very different. We just got another order of service. Call it charismatic if you like. Call it CFO if you like. But the Holy Spirit better fit into it. I thank God that that preacher could stand up there and repeat the same text over and over again. And eventually one lady heard what was being said. And I thank God she had the liberty to stand up and say, maybe the brother wants us to do it. What he’s saying.

I interrupted myself to say that because maybe the Holy Spirit wants us to do this. Lay aside malice. And not just hear about it. And if it strikes a chord in your heart, pray a little prayer right where you sit and say, “Lord, that’s me. I want it under the blood now. I want to respond to the word now. I will have forgotten in one hour’s time. He won’t stop. He’ll keep talking for an hour. By the end of the hour, I’ll have forgotten that.”

Lord, if my name’s on that word malice, convict me of it quickly. And let it be under the blood. And let it be disposed of. And let it be laid aside. Guile. Hypocrisies. Envies. Evil speaking. Deal with them quickly, Lord. Let them be under the blood so I can get on with what You want me to hear and do and experience this evening. Lord, we don’t want to pass up one single little word that the Holy Spirit might be saying to us. We want to experience what the Holy Spirit is saying to us. We just don’t want a message. We want a life-changing experience. We want the word to be experiential in our heart. We want it to be alive in our heart. We want it to penetrate to the very marrow of our being. And transform and change. And then it goes on to say, “As newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby.” And some of us may be newborn babes. I feel like a newborn babe when it comes to prayer. And I told you I’m not a non-praying person. And I’m not a novice. And I’ve enjoyed some mighty adventures with the Lord in prayer. I’m just telling you how I feel. I feel that if God has taught me some things, then there’s so much more to learn that what He’s taught me seems insignificant compared with what He wants to lead me into.

I also feel that I’ve been robbed and cheated of some things in prayer that I should have known for a long, long time. But it’s like a veil has been over my eyes. And this afternoon, the Lord lifted it aside a little for me to see one little truth, have one little encounter that I’m excited about. I can’t wait to get away home and continue to pray this through because it’s going to unfold more and more in my ministry.

After the career, I came to the conclusion, the greatest, highest calling of God, their sister, is to pray, not to preach. I hope you understand this right. I don’t care if I never stand in another pulpit, but I’ll die if He doesn’t let me stand in His presence day after day.

I’ll wither up and cease to exist if I can’t live in His presence day after day and have that liberty, that freedom that He’s given us by the blood of Jesus Christ, by the power of His Holy Spirit. He’s given us an opportunity to pray. I watch those Koreans so closely. Oh, I’ve never seen such an excitement in prayer. And I’ve never seen such big prayer meetings. And I thought, somebody’s going to ask me why when I get home. And I got my intellect going, wondering why? Is it because they’re Assembly of God? Is it because they’re baptized in the Holy Spirit? Came to the conclusion it had nothing to do with that. I came to the conclusion, I heard this little word over and over again. And remember, there’s not much English spoken. So I grabbed on every little English word I heard. But I heard it over and over again. They prayed through. First of all, the pastor prayed through. I don’t know what that conjures up in your mind. I don’t know what that means in your heart. Just take my word for it. He prayed through. And go and find out experientially. And then you’ll be able to put words to it. And then others came to join him to pray.

And they prayed through. That was a word that was used much in revival. But I haven’t heard it used since then. And so they prayed through. And so I crawled into that little Korean concrete square cell thing on the side of the mountain. And said, “Glory to God. Lord, I’ve come to pray through. Whatever that means. I’ve come to pray through.” And at some point, I touched something in God. And it came out of my mouth like rivers of living water. And then a fear gripped me after a while. Lest I forget all these things I was hearing coming forth. And I was hearing with my natural ear. And I prayed with him. Please let me go and find a tape recorder or something. I’ll never remember all these things. Like a flood that came. I prayed through. I want more of that.

You want more of it. If we could pray through and touch the heart of God tonight, we wouldn’t want another message. We wouldn’t want another service. We just want God. We’d be worshipping Him. It would just flow from our innermost being. We wouldn’t be able to find words to express what was going on inside us.

We’d be caught up with that encounter. And wanting more and more and more of that encounter. That’s whatever it triggers off inside us. When we touch that heart. When we touch that spirit. That’s what we’d be addicted to. That’s what we’re craving for.

And I feel as a newborn babe. I feel as though I’ve been a long way away. And I have been a long way away. I left the revival in New Zealand 14 years ago. And I’ve been in America 14 years this December. I’ve been a long time away from it all.

Then it says, “If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.” And once having tasted, it would be the motivating factor in our lives. We’d be motivated to pray. We’d be organizing prayer. We’d be dropping things that we were doing to pray. And then it says, “To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious.” My ministry in Germany is called Edelstein, which means precious stone. You know it’s called Gems in America. I write the gems from God’s Word. And it’s translated into German, distributed throughout Europe. And it’s called Edelstein. Precious stones. But here it says, “Ye are lively stones.” Who are lively stones? You are lively stones. You are the gems.

Isn’t that beautiful? You are His precious stones. Lively stones. It says, “You are a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.” Did you hear what I said? A holy priesthood.

Am I a holy priest? Is that what the word means? He’s not talking about an ordained minister. He’s not talking about an ordained evangelist. Although they are holy priests too. He’s not talking about my Catholic friends. He’s talking about the body of Christ.

He’s talking about every believer. A priest. And He wants us to function as a priest. And to function as a priest, what would we do? Well, if we turned over to the Old Testament and examined what Aaron was as a priest, we’d get a type or a shadow or an example of how you and I should behave as one of these holy priests.

Aaron’s priests were born into it. They were priests by birth. Because they were the sons of Aaron. And you and I are priests by birth. We’re being born again. It’s the born again. He’s talking about being a holy priesthood. So just as the sons of Aaron are priests of… under God, so you and I are priests under God. And we were born again into that experience, that privilege. That’s powerful. It says in verse 9, if you… it’s emphasized. It says, “Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood.”

Because we’re not sons of Aaron. We’re sons of He who is the great high priest and King of kings. So we’re a holy priesthood because He is holy. And we’re a royal priesthood because we’re related to the King of kings.

That’s exciting. If God would write this on our hearts, if He would enlarge it to our understanding by His Holy Spirit, if He would cause this to motivate us, then we might start acting and behaving like a royal priesthood. And if we began acting and behaving like a royal priesthood, we’d be praying.

We’d be interceding. We’d be standing before the presence of God, burdened in our hearts for the multitude of nations that surround us, that live in darkness and sin. We’d be crying out, we’d be crying out on their behalf. That’s what a priest does, doesn’t he? Doesn’t he take to God the needs of the people?

Aaron’s priesthood, they took blood and they sprinkled it upon the altar, and they took oil and they anointed the altar, and they made intercession for the people of God. So why should it be any different under the new covenant, as a royal priesthood? We put our faith in the blood. The blood has been shed. We remind the Father that the blood has been shed. We sprinkle the blood by faith on that altar before the Father. The Holy Spirit has been given. That oil has been poured out. And so we come into the presence of the Father. He has made a way into His presence. That’s what Hebrews is all about. Hebrews is about the inner sanctuary not made with hands. Hebrews is about that Holy of Holies where Paul said that we could live, we could abide, we could dwell. We heard Alex talking about the closet. That’s the Holy of Holies. That’s the inner sanctuary. That’s where God is. And you and I, as a royal priesthood, have been chosen, have been called out, have been separated to perform this function, to perform this ministry, and to come into the presence of God and function in this capacity. The only thing is that we have yielded it up by default.

Isn’t that true? We’ve dabbled in prayer. Last time I spoke to you on prayer, I spoke to you about knowing who I am as a son of God, knowing God as my heavenly Father, knowing Him in an intimate way.

Turn out of nobody. And this is not heavy stuff. Why? Peter says, this is just a continuation of stuff that he’s feeding newborn babies. He just finished feeding them some milk. He reminded them how gracious the Lord was. Didn’t they taste the Lord? Wasn’t He good to them? But now, let me tell you some real nitty-gritty things. If you think the Lord’s been good feeding you on milk, and you’re excited because you’ve had an encounter with God and you’ve touched Him, listen to this, you lively stones, you precious gems. Listen to this. Not only is God building a habitation, a house, by rightly relating you and molding you and making you and fitting you together, you’re a holy priesthood. I’m standing here looking at holy priests.

I’m standing here looking at a royal priesthood. These are not my words. I didn’t dream this stuff up. Calvin didn’t write this. He may have wrote about it, but he didn’t write it. Wesley may have wrote about it, but he didn’t write it. All the great saints may have written about it, but they didn’t write it. The Holy Spirit gave this to Peter. And Peter wrote it. And he dared to say to newborn babes, “You’re a holy priesthood.”

I’ll never forget as a baby Christian discovering Jesus as great high priest. I gave up running around and asking people to pray for me. From then on, I went straight to the top. Now, I know there’s times when we need the body to pray for us. And I appreciate the prayer I experienced tonight and the prayer I’m going to experience before I leave camp.

But we have a high priest who is sensitive, who feels our infirmities, who has suffered in like manner. We will never suffer the indignities and hurts that He suffered. So He’s sensitive to wherever we are tonight. And He’s willing as a great high priest, He’s willing as a great high priest to make intercession for your needs and my needs.

And then beyond that act of willingness, He desires to gather under Himself a royal priesthood and lead us and allow us to participate in this ministry of intercession, this highest calling of God. He invites us to participate in it. He makes a way for us to participate in it. He wants us to participate in it. So we’re not just talking about something we do in the area of prayer. We’re talking about who we are and what we do because of who we are.

I think God wants to motivate, wants to squeeze your heart a little so that you’ll go home from camp thinking, “Glory to God. That’s right. I’m a royal… I’m of a royal priesthood. I’m related to the priesthood, born again into the priesthood, baptized into the priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ, great high priest of heaven itself in the sanctuary not made with hands,” whom Paul says, the minister of the inner sanctuary.

Oh, I’m getting… I better not get too excited. I ain’t going to give you an Old Testament reference for it though, just to put it in its perspective. No, that’s not… Here we are. Isaiah 61. Remember Jesus, when He went to the synagogue and they handed Him the scroll and He spoke a portion of Isaiah 61. He said, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and to open… to the opening of the prison to them that are bound.

“To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all that mourn. To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified. And they shall build the old wastes, and they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations. And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the aliens shall be your ploughmen and your vinedressers.”

Now hear this. “But ye shall be named… Ye shall be named… the priests of the Lord. Men shall call you the ministers of our God.” After He said all these words concerning the Messiah, He concluded, “Ye shall be named… the priests… of the Lord.”

Good stuff. Not Aaron’s priesthood. But we can learn something from Aaron’s priesthood. And I looked at it this afternoon just to see if there was a particular point that the Lord might want to draw our attention to. And I found something that I felt the Lord wanted to draw our attention to. Hmm, I should have marked it.

Yes. Okay, first of all then, it’s in Exodus 29 if you’re interested in looking it up. The scripture I underlined here is in verse 7. And it speaks of them taking the anointing oil and pouring upon his head and anointing him. Now, I don’t know what you think about this anointing oil. I can remember as a young man pastoring a little Presbyterian church. I can remember the senior pastor of the mother church calling me and saying, “One of the elders’ wives has asked us to visit and anoint with oil and pray. What do you think about anointing with oil?” “I don’t know. I guess I never thought about anointing with oil. What are you asking me?” “Well, one or two of the elders are willing to go and pray for the elder’s wife and anoint her with oil. Will you join us?” I said, “Okay.” “We’ll pick you up in the motor car.” So they came by and picked us up and we sat outside this elder’s home, and actually it was an elder of my church in the parish.

And we’re all talking about anointing with oil and somebody brought out a bottle of oil. I don’t remember what sort of oil it was or anything. And somebody was saying, “Well, what do we do with it? Do we pour it over her?”

None of us had ever seen an anointing before. Didn’t have the faintest idea what to do. I could just see this oil all being poured over her head and running down her face, and somebody said, “I think it’s all right just to put it on her head with your finger.”

So we went in and everybody dipped their finger and put some oil on her head and we all prayed. And at the end when we’d all prayed I thought, “That was real neat. That’s for real.” And I was going to hospital to have an inner ear operation. I think the following day, wasn’t it, Marge? Or the day after? So I said to them, “Fellas, if this thing works, I mean, if this putting oil on and praying can bring healing, and I’ve got to go to hospital, why don’t you do that for me too?” So they all dipped their finger in and put oil on my forehead and prayed for me and we all went on our way rejoicing. And I thought, that’s a neat experience, and I really forgot all about it. Until I woke up after the operation.

And there’s a couple of doctors standing beside my bed. And what had happened was I was under the care of the senior surgeon or whatever he’s called, the leading surgeon for that particular specialized unit in that area of our country. So he was Mr. Big Shot. So because I was under this man, the hospital surgeon came and visited me and said, “I’m not going to put you through the discomforts of an ear examination. We’ll just take what Dr. So-and-so has said.” Fine. And away I went to the operating theatre, and now I wake up and here they are standing at my bed saying, “What is your occupation?”

I said, “Well, Presbyterian minister.” “Aha, that explains it. Well, we didn’t have any operation to perform. What we thought we’d have to cut away wasn’t there. And what we thought we were going to find behind what we had to cut away wasn’t there.

“Now, somehow or other, all this had started receding. There was a little bit of flesh still left there so we did clean that up and take it away, but you won’t be discomforted. You can go home in a very short time.” And I didn’t have an ear operation.

And methinks it had something to do with being anointed. And I found that James thought so too. He said, “If there’s any sick amongst you, call for the elders.” Well, they were elders and they did exactly what James said. They anointed me with oil and prayed for me and confounded the surgeons, including me.

So I learned a little bit about anointing and I’m excited about it now. However, that’s not the point I want to make. The point I want to make here is that these guys were consecrated. Are you hearing that?

They were born into the priesthood. They were priests by birth. A day came in their life when they must offer themselves now to serve as priests. And when that day came, they had to go through a service of consecration. And during that service of consecration, they were anointed with oil and blood.

Up until this time, no, the blood went on the altar. The oil went on the altar. But at this time of consecration, it was applied to their ear, their right ear and their right thumb and their right toe. And it was even applied to the clothes that they wore. So the clothes that they wore were sanctified and important as well as their physical being. And I found here then several references to consecration.

So I asked myself this question this afternoon. Are we failing to appreciate the priesthood of believers that it’s ours because of who we are as born-again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ? Are we failing to enjoy this? Are we failing to appreciate it? Is it nothing more than a doctrine to us? Because we haven’t been consecrated into it. Because we haven’t seen the importance of it. Because we haven’t reached out and taken hold of it. And because we haven’t used it.

Am I making sense? I know this is on tape so I’m being very careful what I say. And I was a little bit nervous and I wasn’t too sure of myself. I snook over here and asked the chairman, what do you think about this? And I even asked Alex.

I don’t want to get into deep waters and I like CFO and I’d like to be asked back again one day. Are you understanding what I’m saying though, aren’t you? So I’m hearing the word say that we’re a holy priesthood and we’re to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. We’re a chosen generation. Yes, a chosen generation, chosen before the foundation of the world, but also a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar… We’re peculiar.

We’re peculiar people. I’m glad it’s used peculiar. I understand peculiar. We’re a peculiar… We’re different. We don’t need to try and be the same. We’re different. A peculiar people that show forth the praises of Him. Oh, I want to praise Him so much.

I want to praise Him so much. I watch them all dance at the Feast of Tabernacles and think how marvelous it is that they can do these beautiful things and all these costumes and float down the aisles and float across the platform and up stairways, and it’s mind-blowing and there’s beautiful music. But what does it all mean in comparison with me being a priest under God by Jesus Christ?

There was a time in my life when I first saw dancing I determined to dance, and I stood in front of the mirror and I said, “Feet, you’re going to move.” Of course I was a long way from home. I was in Indonesia and nobody knew me and nobody would know about it. But feet, you are going to move. I refuse to be inhibited in this area. If my feet can glorify Jesus, then they’re going to glorify Him. You’re going to move. One way or another, you’re going to move. And I stood in front of this long mirror on the front of this wardrobe and I did silly little jigs. Oh, I’m glad nobody could see me.

I’ll never be able to do what those people did in their beautiful costumes and things. But I’ve got some garments that the Lord Jesus Christ has provided for me and they’re sanctified and they’re holy. And He wants me to keep them without spot or wrinkle just as surely as Aaron’s sons took care of their priestly garments. I’ve got garments too. The word says so. And I’m going to wear those garments and I’m going to come and go into His presence. I’m going to live in His presence. I want to be set aside to be what He’s called me to be. I have a very dear friend. He’s an international Bible teacher and I’ll never forget him telling me a story about actually dying and going to heaven. And when he got to heaven he discovered that he had missed God’s highest calling on his life.

And I thought, how can that be? This man is an international Bible teacher. This man was one of the founders of the missionary organization that Marjorie and I were serving in America. This man was an apostle over the biggest church in my part of the world. This man was the principal of a Bible school in New Zealand. I mean in America. All these things he was doing at the same time.

He had passed it in France. I took him to Germany with me to examine what God was doing through my gems in Germany, and asked him to examine it so that I wasn’t getting led astray. I wasn’t spending too much time in Germany when I should be in America.

Great man of God. And yet here he tells me that God revealed to him he had missed his highest calling. And I could see how seriously he took it. And I determined there and then I would find God’s highest calling for my life. I wouldn’t settle for being a pastor. I wouldn’t settle for a ministry gift. I wouldn’t settle for writing books. I want to know what God’s highest calling is. And I found it in Korea.

It’s to pray. It’s to come into His presence. It’s to live in His presence. It’s to be separated under Him. That’s what a priest is. It’s to come out from the world. It’s to have no inheritance. The rest of the tribes could have the land, but the Levitical priests could not. Everything they had was in God. They had nothing outside of Him and wanted nothing outside of Him. They were a priest to serve the people. They were a priest to serve God.

They made sacrifices for the sins of the people. They made intercession for the needs of the people. They cried out to God on behalf of the people. And then they received from God and gave to the people. And God has called you and I to be a holy, a royal priesthood, and He’s opened the door of the inner sanctuary to us. And He’s called us into that inner sanctuary experience. And He would have us stand before that altar. He’d have us stand before that table of incense.

And He’d have us act out what He’s called us to be, a royal priesthood. And we just took hold of the words of what the disciples said to Jesus when they said, “Lord, teach us to pray.” And got it into our minds and into our hearts in the context of who we are in Christ as a royal priesthood. And let the Holy Spirit, let the Holy Spirit tutor us and cause us to walk in this and cause it to be enlarged to our understanding and cause it to manifest itself in our hearts and cause us to get out of bed in the middle of the night and be priests under Him when He wakes us up and wants us to do exactly that. And put on our royal garments.

I don’t want to be too far away from here next year, March, when they have their CFO. But if you go home and if God would just sow this in your heart to your spiritual understanding, so it is beyond any intellectual or academic reasoning, so it’s beyond words that I’ve chosen to speak into your head tonight.

So your hearts are arrested with the very life, the living breath of God in this area. And you take it home with you and it manifests itself and manifests itself and manifests itself. That prayer tower will be so big that it will be spread right throughout the country.

A multitude of people standing before God and the Holy of Holies crying out to meet the need of the people where they live and where they serve as a royal priesthood. What might happen throughout the nation? I don’t know how many states are represented here, but I remember, I hope you didn’t think I was rude this morning, if you noticed me, I was looking very closely at the council ring, looking at the cards, and I had difficulty finding one with Georgia on it. We represent a lot of states.

So this royal priesthood is going to be spread out through a lot of states. Look at all the royal priests that are here to intercede on behalf of the needs that surround them in their state. What might happen throughout the United States of America if you could just see that inner sanctuary and recognize that He has set you apart for this office. He has made a way for you by the blood. He has anointed you by His Holy Spirit. And all it awaits is an act of consecration to lay hold of it and walk by faith in it and do it.

Oh. It has an attractiveness about it. I don’t know if it has an attractiveness to you. It has an attractiveness to me. I love Israel. I thank God for what He’s doing in Israel throughout Germany. It’s a miracle the way He’s translated them into Hebrew.

There are people who think I should be living there. And maybe they’re right. I don’t know. But I want to enter in to what I’m sharing with you now to the fullest extent that God will enable me to.

I have already planned. We’ve already looked at a little piece of land in Alabama and it’s got a little… Oh, what do you call the house, Marge? Creole. It’s got a little Creole house. Do you know what a Creole house is? It has a little veranda on the front and a veranda on the back and the room goes right through so the wind can blow through. Do you know what I mean? It’s a little Creole… It’s a cultural thing. And we like culture. And it’s a little Creole house and it’s in the woods and we are looking at this and planning how I can build a little prayer tower system. It won’t be very big. It doesn’t have to be very big. We’re not planning to have meetings with people. We’re planning to have meetings with God.

And I’m excited about it. A little impatient and excited. And God’s given us okay. And He wants me to do this. But only this afternoon… Only this afternoon when I think of… Here I’ve been labouring in this Luke 11 and there’s so many good things about prayer and only this afternoon He reminded me who we were. I’ve heard us talk about prayer warriors and all the rest of it. But the Word calls us a royal priesthood. How many people are willing to function as priests? Are you hearing what the Holy Spirit’s saying?

Now think seriously. There may be no backing out. You are a royal priesthood. The Word says that. But you may not be functioning as the royal priesthood in the full meaning of the text. I went to the back and got from the dear sister a little bottle of oil tonight. I haven’t paid you for it yet. But I got this little bottle of anointing oil and I will pay you for it.

Because as I was praying about this afternoon I felt the Lord say that you would enter in by consecration to experientially enjoying this life as a royal priest by an act of consecration tonight, and that I could anoint you with oil just as surely as Aaron’s sons were anointed, so that by way of consecration you would lay hold of what is rightfully yours and that you’re perhaps not using. Do I have some witnesses? Am I the only one standing here tonight? I’m not the only one, am I. Is there some that would like to be anointed? Thank you.