The Now and the Not Yet

The Now and the Not Yet

by Audrey and Ron Plaster

Transcribed from the original recording; may contain errors.

I’m going to start, and then Ron’s going to take over. And then I think I’m going to finish, but we’ll see what God does. Can I just pray? Lord, Father God, help. Lord, open our eyes of our understanding that we might hear what You have to speak to us about the kingdom of God.

Lord, open our eyes, open our hearts, cause us to understand what You would say to us. Quieten, Lord, all those voices that are clanging in on us, that we might just hear Your still small voice. Amen. In the beginning, God’s kingdom was here. In the beginning, God created the earth, and everything was perfect. And He created man, and everything was perfect. And His kingdom was here. His reign and rule was here on earth. Everything was good, God said. And then man turned. He turned from the rule and the reign of God when he sinned. He listened to another reign, another voice, another rule, another kingdom. And we were lost. Now, Jesus is coming again. Now, Jesus came, first of all, okay? Jesus came to return the kingdom to God. Man lost it and gave it over to Satan. And then Jesus came to return the kingdom of God to earth, to reunite us with God by taking our punishment. We had handed the kingdom over. And Jesus came, and He made a way.

He took our punishment. Now, Jesus is coming again. You say, “Oh, I know all this.” But this is how I’m starting. Jesus is coming again. He’s coming again when there will be the full reign and rule of God on earth. Between the first coming of Jesus and the second coming of Jesus, that’s the time, the age that we live in, there’s a battle going on.

We, as the saints of God, we’re fighting a battle. We’re taking back from captivity that which we gave to Satan. There’s a war. There’s a war raging. Many of us don’t like to believe that we’re in the war zone. But there is a war still going on. We know the end. We’re on the victory side. There’s no doubt about that at all. We know the end. We’re in the winning army. But there’s still a fight going on to take back the territory that we handed over to another kingdom. Now, there seem to be about three, and probably many more, but I’m going to give three views of the kingdom of God. The first is the triumphal view. It’s everybody is healed. Everybody is restored. Nothing happens that God doesn’t ordain. The kingdom of God is here. It’s triumphant. The next view is the suffering view. Nothing happens until the end. We just wait. Sweet by and by. We just wait. We can’t expect healing. We can’t expect miracles.

There’s no real intervention by God supernaturally until the kingdom has come in the final age, the final harvest. And then there’s a third view, and this is what we want to talk about tonight, and that is the now and not yet. Not yet. It’s a tension. We’re claiming what is God’s.

I’ve got lost property. I wondered why I’d put that there. And I remember I thought, yeah, we’re claiming what is God’s. It’s like, you know, we might have an object, and then we lose it through our stupidity, carelessness. And then we go to the lost property, and we claim it back. And I think that’s exactly what we’re doing with the kingdom, is we’re in the process of claiming back each individual part of the kingdom. Jesus is reconciling, but we’re not all reconciled. I want to just talk from the parables to try and illustrate this point of view.

The Jews lived mostly under a domination of a foreign and evil nations. They looked to the Old Testament for the coming of the kingdom of God. They put all their hope on the promises in the Old Testament that the kingdom of God was coming. They expected it to be political. They expected it to be a political, ethnic kingdom that would come and it would take over the whole world. That’s what the Jews were hoping for. That was the big hope. They believed the kingdom of God was coming. They trusted in the promises, but their expectations of how it came were to be disillusioned. They thought it was going to bring salvation to Israel and judgment to all the enemies. Now, in the parables in Matthew 13, the sower… We sang it in rhythms this morning about the seeds, you know, that we sowed. And some fell on the path. And some fell on the rocky ground. You remember? And some, the thorns, choked us as we went, you know. And some fell on the good soil and it multiplied. Now, the Jews expected that the kingdom of God would come in real power and there’d be no resistance. No one would resist. It would come so powerfully. But Jesus in that parable says that, no, we can resist, we can quench, we can, for all those reasons given in the parable, we can, in fact, quench the kingdom of God.

Some people don’t even receive it. You know, the parable about the weeds. “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the householder came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then has it weeds?’ And he said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them up?’ But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. And at harvest time, I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned. But gather the wheat into my barn.’” Now from this, the Jews expected the kingdom of God to remove all evil from the earth. But the parable Jesus taught, and He said, the present kingdom has come without overthrowing evil. The wheat and the tares grow side by side. The mustard seed. It goes on. I don’t think I’ll read it. The mustard seed and yeast.

Or maybe I will. It’s a short one. “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field. It’s the smallest of all seeds. But when it has grown, it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”

He told them about the leaven. “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened.” Now, it was hidden. The Jews expected the kingdom of God to just immediately fill all the earth. Death. But Jesus said the kingdom had come in a tiny group of Jesus and His twelve disciples.

You know, the disciples so often said, “Is this it?” And at the cross, they were so disappointed, weren’t they? Because they thought that this kingdom that was coming from their mindset and from their interpretation of the promises of God that it was going to be this complete overflow, this complete conquest of the enemies. They were disappointed when they heard that Jesus was going to be crucified. That wasn’t the idea of what the kingdom of God was.

Jesus said the kingdom had to come in such a tiny group of Jesus and the twelve gradually triumphing over all evil and then filling the earth. You know, the hidden treasure and the pearl, the treasure. He finds the treasure and then he hides it and he goes and he buys the whole field. He really knew the value of the treasure and the pearl. He finds the pearl of greatest price and then he sold everything to buy it. He knew the value of the pearl. The Jews valued the kingdom more than anything else.

Jesus taught the Jews that they were in danger of not valuing the kingdom of God because it hadn’t come in the form in which they anticipated. It was in an unexpected form. It was hidden treasure. I think many times we are like this. That God pours upon us the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of God upon us. And we don’t receive because it doesn’t fit into our doctrine. It doesn’t fit into our psychology. Sometimes it doesn’t even fit in that we don’t think the person who is being used by God is really the one that God surely would use. I remember… oh dear, I remember… when I was first converted and… or just in a matter of a week or something.

And the first time that I read… no, no, I know. Someone came to the apartment to put me straight on submission. And here I was just… oh, so rejoicing in God. Just so full of God. And having sold my whole field, you know, my whole… everything for the pearl of greatest price. And this person came to set me straight. And I wondered why they were so tense. And then they opened up their Bible and they started reading some of the instructions from St. Paul. And I can remember my reaction. I remember listening to it. And my response was… well, “He must be a chauvinistic pig.” And it was… I mean, it was an honest response. I hadn’t learned the ways of church people at that time. And they were horrified, you can imagine, you know. But I really felt that. And I really… you see. And anyway, oh, within a matter of weeks, it was the funniest thing. Actually, I’ve never really learned this submission bit.

It’s going to be one of the first things I ask the Lord. And it really is. I’m learning an awful lot about love. I’m learning an awful lot about forgiveness. I’m learning an awful lot about upholding one another and supporting one another. But the submission bit that’s so often taught… No, I… Ron said to me when I got into this kick at some time, ha, and Ron said, I was trying to be all submissive, you see, as I thought it was being told how I had to be with my husband. And of course, obviously, I wasn’t. And so I wanted to please God above everything. I wanted to please God. And so I was trying so hard. And Ron was getting so frustrated. And one day he got a hold of me, I can remember. And he grabbed me by the shoulders and he said, “Do you believe that the Bible teaches that wives should be submissive to husbands?” I said, “Yes, Ron.” He said, “You really believe that now?” He said, “Yes, Ron. You really want to be submissive to me?” “Yes, Ron.” He said, “Then stop being submissive.”

It’s true, isn’t it, Ron? I think he’s regretted it soon. Anyway, with the pearl, you know, the greatest price and the one hidden in the treasure, Jesus talked and He said, “You know, you’re in danger of not valuing it because it’s come in an unexpected form. It’s a hidden treasure.”

You know, as I became a Christian and moved on, I’ve been a Christian since 72, so I don’t know how many years that is. It seems like eternity, but it’s obviously now. But you know what happened to me? I mean, talking about the submission bit, you know, I went through the whole bit, didn’t we all? And so I was rejoicing with the Lord and full of the Lord and bringing people into the kingdom and being used for healing and deliverance and you name it. You know, I thought this was the stuff because it said in the Bible, that’s what Jesus did. I knew I couldn’t do it on my own. Don’t we all know that? Of course we do. I can’t. One time in our living room, bone was restored in a person’s back. I mean, ridiculous. I can’t do that. It was verified by the doctors afterwards. I mean, and we didn’t even know the person. Afterwards, we didn’t even know what we were praying for. Just for healing. She needed healing. And the Holy Spirit came and did all sorts of really strange things. On that time being, she fell out. And I don’t believe in being slain in the Spirit. You know? And I mean, and that’s what happened. She fell on our living room floor.

And I can remember thinking, I’m so glad we’ve got such a lovely new carpet for her to lie on. And, you know, as I remember it, I think I should say to her on, that was 1975, and we’ve got the same blooming old carpet.

But anyway… We’re about to get a new one. But you see, what happened to me, and this might have happened to you, is I gradually… I somewhere along the line got a little disappointed in the kingdom of God. I just like the disciples. Just like the Jews.

I thought… that it was one thing. And then I kept finding out it was something different. And I kept getting disappointed. Okay? To the point came, when I was so disappointed with the kingdom of God, I decided that I’d just try and be good.

I really did. I came to the kingdom, I thought I was rotten. I knew I was rotten. I believed I was rotten. I accepted the righteousness of Christ. I was relieved. I was happy. I was hallelujah. You know, I moved with that. And then, over the time, I somewhere went over into being good. And I suppose, taking in a way that suffering view, when I think of it, if I can just be good enough. And you’re very much supported by that in many Christian circles, aren’t we? If I was not very good, I sure knew about it. And if someone else wasn’t very good, I sure made sure that they knew about it. Well, don’t you do that?

Okay, you do it quietly. I’ve learned that now. I used to say it straight out. You know? But then I learned. You say it quietly to yourself. Hey? It gets to the point, sometimes, that you don’t even know you’ve said it to yourself. And then the Spirit of God will come upon you in a special anointing. And do you know He’ll even make you emotional? You will repent and weep and see your sin and see how you’ve hurt God and how much God hurts that awful person that you’ve judged, and you’ll be quite emotional.

Usually, when the Spirit comes upon you and you forgive and God forgives you. And then you might even forgive yourself. The hardest thing of all. You might even say, “Audrey, I forgive you for thinking those thoughts, for judging God’s loved ones, for doing thus, thus, and thus. Audrey, I forgive you. No more. It’s gone. Get ye behind me, Satan.” Hardest thing ever. Where did we get to?

There’s also the parable about the net. It was thrown into the sea and the good and the bad. Fish were gathered in together and then later they were sorted. Again, it was later. The Jews expected immediate separation. They thought that the righteous and the ungodly would obviously, as soon as the kingdom of God came, then there would be a separation. Jesus said, “No, no. Fellas, you got it wrong. The kingdom doesn’t bring immediate judgment. Not until the fullness of time.” That’s what that, that’s what that parable says. The kingdom came in Jesus. The Holy Spirit through us, can you imagine? Through us, earthen vessels, is continuing to work the kingdom of God and winning back territory. If I was God, I wouldn’t use us.

But do you know, He doesn’t have to, He’s actually chosen to. Because God is God. He’s actually chosen to use us. And what are we doing? Many of us are trying really hard to be civilians in a war and being good.

We can actually enter the kingdom of God in advance. Because Jesus has made the way. We can actually have all the goodies at the end in the fullness of time. And we all kind of know, at least maybe some of us don’t, but a glimpse of what those goodies are. We know there’ll be no more mourning, no more crying. I can’t wait till no more crying, no more mourning, no more gnashing of teeth. Where we’ll know everyone as they really are known. We get glimpses of it, don’t we? In Norway, just a few weeks ago. It had to be God, because I don’t have this kind of love. But a drunk came into our meeting. Now this is true, absolutely true. A drunk came into our meeting before the meeting started. And some beautiful saints of God decided that he was sent by the enemy to disrupt the meeting. And they literally bodily took him out of the doors. And that could have been. You know, that could. And maybe they had the right discernment. Anyway, didn’t really make much difference. Because I didn’t know this had happened beforehand. And so in the middle of the meeting, the drunk comes in. And so who’s sitting, you know, right by there but me. And so he came in and he sat down and he started to get a little not bad, was he?

Really? Really? You know, just… You know what it’s like when you’ve got a drunk in the midst, you know? Okay, just, you know, just didn’t quite do what we do in church. Okay? Not too bad, honestly. But anyway, so I sat there saying, “Lord, Lord, Lord, do you want me to… You know, what do You want me to do? Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da.” Anyway, eventually I felt, oh, maybe it’s becoming a bit of a distraction. So… St. Ron. Ha-ha. Come to think of it. Anyway. St. Ron to… And said to Ron, you know, I really think, you know, back then. So, yeah, Ron went off, you see, and with some other guys took him down in the basement and I sat there and I just heard the Spirit of God say to me, “Audrey, go down to the basement.” Now, if you know me, my father had an alcohol problem and I am fearful of alcoholics. I can never understand why people think they’re funny. I run.

That’s my response. If I’m in a restaurant, there have been times where I’ve got up and gone, not in judgment, just in fear. Just, I don’t, I’m frightened. And this is, when I think of it, a few years ago. And so the Lord said, you know, “Go on down.” And I went down and as I entered that room, I was overwhelmed with love. I can’t explain it. I don’t know where it came from. But perhaps I do. It was love that was ridiculous. And I was behind him and they were praying for him. And I came in and I prayed. I don’t know what I prayed. I just said one sentence. And this man swung round and he said, “Why are you loving me to me?” And I thought, yeah, why? No, you know. No, I didn’t. No, I didn’t. Forgive me, Lord. Honestly, I didn’t. That’s what I would have done. He swung and said, “Why are you loving me?” And I said, “Because Jesus loves you.” And I looked at him and honestly, there was liquid love just flowing through me. I couldn’t not touch that slobbering man. I couldn’t not do it. Now, I’d like to tell the victory story that he sobered up and he was, blah. No, that’s not the end of the story.

It’s probably rather like these parables. You know. The kingdom of God came to him that moment. I know it. He knew it. It was constantly, “Why do you love me?” We ministered to him and so forth. Eventually, we did send him out, didn’t we? And suggested that he come back tomorrow when he was sober. And the Lord was telling me that he was one of His.

And so, and he went very willingly. I mean, just, you know, “Why do you love me? Why do you love me?” He went, didn’t he, as he staggered down the stairs, you see. Well, wouldn’t you know, for the next, the conference went on for four days. Every day, that drunk came back drunk. And every, every day, the Lord caused it that I’d confront him. One time, I was ministering to someone and there was a noise out the back and it wasn’t the drunk. It was just cars or something. And I went out the back to close, to close the back door. Harmless thing. And I went to open one door to go to close the next one. I opened it and here was my drunk. Drunk.

Sort of thing, shaking his head, saying, “Audrey, why do you love me?” You know? This went on for four days. Now, I’d love to tell a victory story. I know. I know that God touched that man through me. I knew it. I know that God touched me through that man. I know it. Don’t ask me how I got to that. Oh, we can enter the kingdom of God in advance of the end. We can be set free from Satan’s tyranny and, what’s more, we can set others free. That’s the kingdom of God and now it’s Ron’s turn. See, they moved us down here this evening just in case I acted out of my vaudeville act again. Thought you needed more space. I thought it was because Daphne could pull me off quick.

The kingdom of God. We often think that Jesus came saying the kingdom of God has come. I’d like to refer you to Mark chapter 1 verse 15. Recorded there are Jesus’ words. And Jesus is saying, “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand.”

Jesus came saying the kingdom of God is at hand. There’s a very subtle but a very definite division between the kingdom of God coming being at hand and the kingdom of God coming. Now, I want to make this clear. Jesus later on said that the kingdom of God has come. But that was to the individual.

When Jesus first came He said the kingdom of God is at hand. Within reach. And I’d like to demonstrate it by this cup of water. A cup of water which you can ignore. You can bypass. You can know it’s there. You can take no notice of it. You can come up and you can look at it. You can walk away. You can even inspect it.

Put it down and ignore it. And isn’t that just like the kingdom of God? Isn’t that what was illustrated in the parables? That you can inspect the kingdom of God. You can know it’s there. You can acknowledge it and not partake. But when you as an individual drink then the kingdom of God has come to you.

You can and so I want to make that point very clear. It’s often said that God has no grandchildren. You have to accept Him personally. It’s a personal walk. And when you accept Christ personally as your own Savior then the kingdom of God has come to you. You’ve reached out. You’ve taken hold. And you’ve drunk.

Last night I talked about communication. And I told you the story of that woman who was so touched by God she was just saying, “God spoke to me. God spoke to me.” Yes, we have a God who communicates. He not only communicates, He’s so involved with us or wants to be so involved with us that He can reach us through every sense.

He’s not a God out there, He’s a God here and as drink of Him can participate with Him in the kingdom of God right here and now. You don’t have to wait to the end. You can break into the kingdom of God right here in the present. You can sense the kingdom of God. Haven’t you ever walked into a prayer meeting and you just know God’s there? You just have that sense of the presence of the Holy Spirit. That’s God touching your senses. You can feel God. Those last night who the Spirit came upon, they felt the Holy Spirit. They felt the kingdom of God. And it has many ways of affecting us. We often see people crying when the Spirit comes upon them because He touches you deeply. And so you cry. You’re emotional. And people say, “Oh, that’s emotionalism.” Or you shake. That’s why in the 1700s, they called the people Quakers. Because when the Holy Spirit came upon them, they shook. And that’s where the name Quaker came from. Because of the moving of the Holy Spirit upon them. People get slain in the Spirit. If you’ll notice, when the Holy Spirit comes upon a person, they’ll start to breathe deeper. Their temperature will rise. There are many manifestations of the Holy Spirit coming upon you.

People have said, “How do you know the Holy Spirit’s on a person?” When we prayed for people last night, people say, “How do you know?” You sense. You sense it. And you can see the Holy Spirit working on them. We can feel the kingdom of God here today. We can see the kingdom of God. Now, many people tell me they’ve seen angels. I haven’t had that good fortune. At least not an angel as we expect to see him. But one of the most famous stories of seeing angels is at the Battle of Mons in the First World War, where a group of Allied soldiers were actually led from a German entrapment by an angel. An angel physically appeared to them and led them out to safety.

That was seeing an angel in the accepted view. I’m also told that angels will appear in human form. And one of the best stories I’ve heard, and one I like best, is one given by Smith Wigglesworth. I don’t know. You’ve probably heard of Smith Wigglesworth. He was a tremendous evangelist early this century. And he tells the story of how he was preparing for a meeting, a very strenuous meeting. And he just wanted to be alone, wanted to be quiet with the Lord. And when there was a knock at the door. And he thought, just ignore it. I’ve got too much to do. Knock. Well, they’ll go away in a minute. Knock. The person was so persistent that eventually he went to the door and opened the door. And here was a little girl about eight years old. And it was raining and she was dressed in a rain cape and boots. And she said, “Please, Mr. Wigglesworth, come quickly. My mother’s so sick.”

And Wigglesworth looked at the little girl and said, “Well, can’t I come in the morning? I’m rather busy now.” “No, please, Mr. Wigglesworth. She’s so sick. Would you come right away?” “All right.” So he put on his hat and coat and followed the little girl. Went up to the house. The door was open. He went in. And there was this woman laid out on a divan in the front room, deathly sick.

Wigglesworth prayed for her and saw a miracle of healing right there in that woman’s living room. And after he’d finished and they were talking and sharing. And she said, “How did you get here?” And he said, “Well, your daughter came and got me.” So he said… So the woman said, “My daughter? What was she wearing?” And Wigglesworth said, “She was wearing a rain cape and yellow boots.” So the woman took him to the closet, opened the closet and said, “Are these the clothes she was wearing?” Wigglesworth said, “Yes, that’s them.” The woman started to cry. She said, “My daughter died a year ago.”

An angel in human form. The kingdom of God can come to you as an individual. In Hebrews, Paul says that we can taste of the heavenly gift. We can taste of the good word of God and the powers of the world to come. We can be partakers in the Holy Spirit. We can be that involved in the kingdom of God. We can bring the future kingdom of God right here into our presence today.

The Holy Spirit, of course, is the spirit of power. Jesus came and worked through the power of the Holy Spirit. That power is available to you here and now, right today. In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit would fall on people. And they would prophesy, they would do great works of God. And then the Holy Spirit would lift again. And that’s how it was through all the great men of the Bible. The Holy Spirit would come upon them for the job that God had for them at that time. And then it would lift again. Today, Jesus came and brought the Holy Spirit to earth for us. Today, the Holy Spirit can indwell. It won’t fall and lift like it did. It will indwell you.

We have to do is to ask. Jesus introduced God’s kingdom to earth. That’s recorded in John 6:38. Jesus came to do God’s will. That was the purpose of His coming. To do God’s will on earth. And to do the works of God. John 9:4 tells us that Jesus came to do the works of God. What did Jesus do? Let’s turn to Luke 4:18 to see what Jesus did as the works of God.

Luke 4:18 says, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, the recovering of sight to the blind, and set at liberty them that are bruised.”

That’s what Jesus came to do. Why? What was the purpose of Jesus coming to do this? Why did this have to be? And for this, we have to go back to creation. Audrey was mentioning that when God made the world, made creation, everything was good.

Last night, I read to you the scripture in Revelation, where it said, Jesus is the Word. And then in John 1:3, it says, Jesus is the Word, and by Him, everything that was made, was made. That by Jesus, all creation was made. There wasn’t anything that was made, that wasn’t made by Him.

He made the earth. He made man. And in Genesis 1:27, 29, it tells us there how that God, when He had made the world, gave dominion to man. He said, “Man, have dominion. Subdue the earth. Take charge. This is your area. Have dominion.” And then Audrey told us how man gave it away. He submitted to another power and gave the kingdom over to Satan. Now this created a problem because in Philippians 2:9 and 11, it says that all things will be subject to Jesus in the end. All things will come under His rule.

And that all things in the end have to be given back to God. Jesus created the earth, created man. He gave dominion of the earth to man. In the end, that will all be given back to God as God’s kingdom. But man has given the earth away.

This earth that Jesus had given to man, man has now given to someone else. Jesus has got to give it back to God. Now there’s a problem. Man gave the earth to Satan. And Satan’s power is spiritual. And there’s no way that creation, flesh and blood can contend against the spiritual power of Satan. There’s only one power that could contend against Satan, could defeat him, and that was the power of God.

How could God give man that power? Because you see, man has to get the world back. God is not only a God of love, He’s also a God of justice. And so, to be just, for man to work out his state, he has to get the world back. That’s justice.

There wasn’t any other way God could do it. Yes, He could have come down and He could have swept creation away, He could have swept Satan away, but where would God’s justice have been? As much as He is a God of love, He’s a just God. And so, what man gave away, man has to get back. And so, God came, Jesus came, to bring the Holy Spirit to earth. But the Holy Spirit couldn’t dwell in us until we, our spirits, were purified, until we were a new creation.

And so, Jesus died paying our penalty that we could be seen by God as holy and therefore receive the Holy Spirit. Now, by receiving the Holy Spirit, we now have the power to fight back, to win back that which we gave away.

Jesus came to save what was lost. Are you ready? We, as Audrey said, we’re in a war, we’re in a fight. We have to win back what we gave away. It’s an awesome task, isn’t it, when you think of it that way. But God has not left us comfortless, He has not left us powerless. The first thing that Jesus did when He ascended was to send the Holy Spirit and He told the people to wait, didn’t He? He said, “You’ll be empowered from on high to go out and witness and to all the land,” didn’t He? He says the same thing with us. We receive the Lord, we are washed, we’re redeemed, as someone in one of the groups was saying, “I’ve been redeemed.”

But it doesn’t stay there. It isn’t just, “I’m redeemed and thank you, Lord, and now just make me betterer and betterer.” You know? It’s, “Lord, I’ve been redeemed, now use me. Use me to capture the land,” because just like that drunk, there are many people who are lost, who are hurt, who need healing, even if that drunk knew Jesus and I believe he did. Because he’d say, “Yes, Jesus loves me, but why are you loving me,” he kept saying.

Yes, people who have received the Lord, we still have a lot of areas in our lives that the Lord wants us to minister to one another as His body, as His arms and legs, to redeem, to win back the territory that Satan has taken, that there’s a job for every single one of us. There really isn’t a space on the sidelines for any one of us. We make excuses. There’s no earthly reason why I would want to be talking here this week, is there really? I mean, you know, it’s a week of our holiday, a lot of stress, nervous energy. I’d much rather be sitting with you in the pews and just not be up here. But, well, I just really would. But, you see, there’s work to be done. You guys need to get equipped. You’re here. God’s brought you here. Some of you need to receive Jesus. Some of you need to be born again. Some of you need to have the kingdom of God come to you tonight. Some of you need to be empowered with the Holy Spirit. Maybe one of us needs that. Be being filled. It’s a continual thing. Be being filled. With the Holy Spirit, we need this. There’s a work to be done. Every one of has a task.

God’s given you a mouth. God’s given you His Spirit. God’s given you your personality. And God can even use my personality. I didn’t finish that story about the fellow who… you know, when I said that the Apostle Paul was a chauvinistic pig, and a few weeks later he came and he was saying, you know, that God uses, you know, most remarkable people. And he said, in all honesty, he wasn’t being funny. He said, you know, “He even uses Audrey.” And he really said, “He even uses Audrey.” You see? I’ve often thought of that because I constantly say it to God. “He even used me, Lord.” The Lord wants a meek and contrite spirit. That’s all. That’s all.

“Blessed are the meek in spirit, for they shall see God.” Blessed. Not striving. Not trying to be good. Not trying to be better. Not trying, with all your might, to earn your way, to earn your gifts, to earn your ministry. It’s quiet dependence on God. It’s a meek and contrite spirit. Wow, Lord.

Mary. Mary. You remember Mary and Martha. I always felt sorry for Martha, did you? I don’t know. As a mother, I often feel sorry for Martha. Quite honestly. Because I often have been in Martha’s spot. But you know, Jesus said… You know what I’m talking about. Mary and Martha, okay. And I think Jesus comes for lunch or something. This is Audrey’s paraphrase. And you know, they’re working to get His lunch and striving away and tidy up the house and you name it. And here’s Mary, sitting at the feet of Jesus, listening to His every word, receiving from Jesus. And Martha says, “Look, Jesus, do something about my miserable sister. She always has been lazy. Now, please, get her going.” And we all sort of kind of know that, don’t we? In some circumstance or other. And Jesus said, “Mary has chosen.” Chosen. Hear me, people. “Mary has chosen the good position, which shall not be taken away from her. Mary has chosen the good position, which shall not be taken away from her.” I come to you tonight, now. And I say you have a choice.

God has given you free will. Will you choose to tonight, this moment, sit at the feet of Jesus? Let’s just pray. Lord, we come. Lord, by Your Spirit, draw us. I feel that the Lord is saying that some are drawing back for fear. For fear of the commitment. For fear… For fear even of the demonstration that might happen if they were to fully come to the Lord. For fear of the lack of control. For fear of the unknown. For fear of the unknown.

And the Lord wants you to know to not fear Him. But to come. To come as you would come to a loving father. As you would come to a loving mother. As you would come to a loving parent. The Lord says, “Come.” The Lord says, “Come. And fear not.”

“For you think you are rich. But you are poor. You think you have abundance. But you have poverty. Come unto Me. Come that I might heal you.” I sense the Lord is saying, for someone to come to be healed. I don’t think it’s a physical healing.

Oh Lord. Lord Jesus. Lord Jesus. Lord. I’m sorry for the delay. It’s as if I’m resisting the Spirit. The Lord is showing me. I think that there is someone who… I don’t know. There’s a real strained relationship. And I know that could be for most people.

But I… I sense there’s a great disappointment in someone’s heart. That just like the disciples were disappointed with the kingdom of God. Just like it didn’t live up to their expectations. So someone… Someone in a family has not lived up to your expectations. And there’s been a great disappointment and a great hurt and the Lord wants to minister to you tonight. He wants to pour in His love to your heart and fill you so full that you will have the strength and the courage to endure. That you’ll be so full of His love and His wisdom that when you move your left foot in front of the right you will not stumble, says the Lord. Lord…

Now if that… If that is… If that speaks to someone, raise your hand, I guess. Well Lord, now what do we do? I don’t know whether you bring people forward. Daphne, can I bring… What do I do? Four people have responded. Oh Lord, it’s nice just to be me, isn’t it?

Just come forward. Yeah, come forward if it’s not too embarrassing for you. I don’t know how else to do. And now Lord, we stand. Lord… Lord, we just… We just come and we gather in Your name. And I want to assure you people that the saints of God are surrounding you. And that they’re protecting your back. And they’re lifting you to the heavens. Aren’t you saints of God? Yeah.

Now if any one of you feels to come and pray, you know what God wants to do. He’s painted the picture, hasn’t He? Ask the people specifically. Yes? Ask them what’s happened and pray the power of God and the healing of God and all what God said He would do for them. All you’ve got to do is do what God said and He’ll do it.