(Singing:)  "The windows of heaven are open . . ."

One more time.  Do you believe that?

Now let's give the Lord a handclap.  Come on.

We clap our hands to You, Lord.  Hallelujah, hallelujah.

Can you just lift up a shout to the King, hallelujah, the King of all kings?  Oh, hallelujah.  Bless the Lord.  Bless the Lord.  Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful is the Lord.  Hallelujah.  

Could we do that one more time?  Hallelujah.  Hallelujah.  Hallelujah.  Glory.

You may be seated.

(Singing:)  "'Cause you've got one more valley, one more hill . . ."

Are you looking forward to it?  I'm really looking forward to it.  Hallelujah.

Well, the Lord is good, and He's worthy to be praised.  And the devil's mad, and I'm glad.  If he's mad, that means the Lord is up to something big, and the devil knows all about it.  He's feeling it, isn't he.  Amen?

I want to preach tonight from Romans, chapter 11.  If you'll reach and get your Bible and then stand, let's read a few verses of Scripture together.  

There's too much to report in one meeting, so it'll take us a month to tell you all the things that happened in the month that we were gone.  But I can speak, I think, for every person.  We're greatly blessed, enriched.  Our lives are full because of the experiences that the Lord gave us in Israel.

When you go with the right spirit and for the right purposes, you'll never be the same.  Your life will be forever touched.  Somewhere you will have the nation of Israel and the heart of the Jewish people stamped on you forevermore.  

And that's God's intention.  That's God's intention.  He wants that to happen.  It's the Bible.  So it would be easier for you to get by without your right hand than to forget about Jerusalem.  

We had a wonderful time.  It was so hard to say goodbye to Paul and April.  It just really grieved us because they had been such a blessing to us.  We had such a wonderful time with them.  And they knew we were staying, and we knew they were leaving, and I don't think any of us were happy about the arrangements.  But that's the way it was.  It had to be that way.  

So for the first two weeks, we nearly ran ourselves to death.  All I can say is they got the grand tour.  You could have spent several thousand dollars and went on a bus and would not have got to do all the things and see all the things that we were able to see with them in the course of two weeks.

There are prophetic significances to so many things that God did that we want to talk about at some point.  

Brother and Sister West are some of the most wonderful people, in the world anyway, and they're wonderful to travel with.  They were a blessing all along the way - just their way, their personality, their sense of humor, the way they look at things.  It's just good.  It was just what the doctor ordered for us.

And we were so blessed to have Marybeth and Katie.  They make the most terrific team.  I told them.  I said, "You all have something special.  You've got a special friendship because you compliment one another in so many different ways."  

They spoiled our children.  I know it wasn't easy on any of us.  It's hard to be locked in with very active children, with no yard to run in, for over 30 days.  We have no room to run.  There's no place to go and play unless you make a special trip to do that.  And it must have been hard, but they sure handled it well.  And before it was over, our children would rather Katie and Marybeth say goodnight to 'em and tuck 'em in than us.

I said, "Well, what am I - just chopped liver?"  And Joshua said, "Well . . ."  So we missed them last night when it came time to go to bed.  

Thirteen hours and 15 minutes on a plane, but it was the grace of God that took us there in a good way with extra seats.  He brought us back with extra seats so that we could lay down - really.  A bus of 50 people, a whole bus, a tour of 50 people, were scheduled to be on that airplane, and for some odd reason, God held up the bus and the bus didn't make it to the airport in time.

So I sure did enjoy those extra 50 seats.  They just made it so nice.  And not only that, but God just let them be all around us so that we could enjoy them and lay down.

Our children slept 6 and 7 hours on the airplane.  That's a miracle - never happened before.  And God just gave us rest.  I woke up with a stiff neck, but I sure enjoyed those three seats.  

It is not easy to get all of me, laying down, scrunched up into three seats, but you can do anything when you're tired enough.  And my neck was cocked up like that because of the arm rest, but it was still good - every bit of it.  Hallelujah.  God is just good.  Amen.

So I don't know what you were expecting tonight, but here's what you're getting.  I pray that it will help you in some way.  And we'll meet again in the morning and we'll just see what the Lord has.

I won't go very far tonight into the night vision that I had, or the vision, but I will just as soon as I can.  I know that I'm not to go very far into it until I lay a slight foundation for it, and that's what I'm going to be doing tonight.

It will be a review for a lot of you, but I want you to hear it anyway because I believe it's the Word of the Lord to us to prepare us for what God has to say to us in the next few days and weeks as we . . .  We know that this is a very, very unusual time.

You had some of the best services this past month that we've ever had away, and I was so blessed to be able to watch them - not when you were having them, but they left every service . . .  Before they left, they uploaded them onto a website.  I was able to download them onto my computer and watch them whenever I had the chance to do that.

And I was blessed by all of the preaching and all of the singing and all of the praying.  I was just blessed.  I heard some maturity in the Word that was really, really special.  I praise God for it.  You all right?  All right.

Romans, chapter 11, verse 1.  We'll read quickly and let you rest.  

Please understand that our bodies don't know that we've made it back to Alabama yet.  And we only got in at 5:55 yesterday, in the morning.  I've had plenty of sleep, but I still feel like I should be sleeping now at 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 1, 2:00 in the morning in Jerusalem.  So just ask the Lord to help us quickly catch up, and He will.  He's faithful.

Verse 1 said,

1.   I say then, Hath God cast away his people?  God forbid.  For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.

2.  God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew.  Wot ye not what the scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying,

3.  Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life.

4.  But what saith the answer of God unto him?  I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal.

5.  Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.

6.  And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace.  But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.

7.  What then?  Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded

8.  (According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day.

Let me read that verse again.

8.  (According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day.  

One more verse:

9.  And David saith, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumblingblock, and a recompense unto them:  

Father, we thank You tonight for the wonderful peace of God that is in this house.  I thank You, Lord, for Your Presence and Your Anointing that has been here already.  And even though the enemy showed up on time to hinder us, to cause us to be distracted and fretful and worried over the streaming, You are the God of peace.

You are peace.  And You're in this house tonight to give us peace.  And we wait on You for all that You have stored up for us.  We wait on it with great anticipation.  

And Lord, we pray tonight that you will help us, speak to us, challenge us and prepare us for the great revelation that is coming in this hour.  

Bind the hand of the enemy now, that he have no way and have no room to move among us.  Bless this Your people.  BaShem Adonai Yeshua HaMashiach, in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we pray.  Amen.  And the church said, "Amen."  

You may be seated together.

We're going to do just a little bit of a study tonight.  Again, I recognize that this is not what you've come to hear.  Turn with me, if you will, to Deuteronomy, chapter 29.  Oh, hallelujah.  Hallelujah.  

Deuteronomy 29, beginning in verse 2.

2.  And Moses called unto all Israel, and said unto them, Ye have seen all that the LORD did before your eyes in the land of Egypt unto Pharaoh, and unto all his servants, and unto all his land;

3.  The great temptations which thine eyes have seen, the signs, and those miracles:

4.  Yet the LORD hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day.

Verse 3 again:

3.  The great temptations which thine eyes have seen, the signs, and those great miracles:

4.  Yet the LORD hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day.

For me this is a strange place, a strange thing to read in the Bible.  Moses is coming to the end of his ministry and he's saying to the people, "No one has been as blessed as you are to see the miracles of God.  You have seen the signs and the wonders and you have seen God confirm His Word time and time again.  But there's something that's not been given to you.  You've never been given yet a heart to perceive."  

That word "perceive" is deeper than "to recognize."  It means "to digest."  It means "to understand."  It means "to come to the full knowledge of something."  

The Lord spoke to us in a revelation while were in Jerusalem, and He said, "I am emphasizing My Throne.  The emphasis is going to be on My Throne."  

And you know, when we think about the Throne of God, we get all kinds of pictures in our mind and ideas.  We think of authority.  We think of a king ruling over his kingdom.  And I don't know about you, but there's one thing I want to be ruled by.  There's one thing I want to be governed by.

There are many things that I have to be governed by in life: laws and rules and restrictions, and so forth.  But there's one thing that I desire to be ruled by and governed by - it's by the Kingdom of God.  

You know, I don't know if you perceived what you were hearing, but in two services that Brother Kary spoke, he spoke about the judgment of God.  And it was from such an unusual direction.

And I don't know if you really got it or not, but who in their right mind would ever pray, "God, I want You to judge me."  Who in their right mind would ever pray such a prayer?  And that's exactly the prayer that we need to be praying now and not later.  

"Judge me!"  Oh, what a place to be - under the judgment of God.  Because if we're under the judgment of God, it means we have surrendered to the authority of God, the will of God, the Kingdom of God, the Word of God.  It means we're ruled by the King on His Throne.

And wouldn't you rather be judged now, as our brother was preaching?  (It took him two services to bring it out.)  But wouldn't you rather be judged now by the judgment of God than to be standing on the outside and judged later?

There's a people that are going to be judged now and there's a people that are going to be judged later.  I want to be of those who receive the judgments of God now, because our God is a God of justice, and His justice is not man's justice.

His justice is according to His Word.  And it issues forth, it flows forth, from who He is and His character and His love for us.  

And God said, "I'm going to emphasize my Throne because from My Throne, full knowledge . . .  Full knowledge flows from My Throne."  

If you want to have full knowledge, if you want to have full understanding, if you want to have full perception of something pertaining to God and His Word, you're going to have to find yourself positioned.  You're going to have to find yourself in the right location where God is doing it.

And do you know where God is doing it?  He's doing it from His Throne.  

When we think in our little common mind, "I want to be before the Throne.  How do I get there?  It's a million miles away," it proves we don't understand how really close we are to that other realm, to that other dimension.  We're closer than what we really understand.

And God has provided a way.  And if you'll remember, the Lord said, "I'm going to give you the third trance vision, and when you return, you're going to be able to teach people how to stand before my Throne."  

And God revealed in Jerusalem why it's important to get there.  It's important to get there because there is where the full knowledge of God is being revealed.

I don't know if you're hearing that or not, but I encourage you to.  You've been given the blessing.

And then Sunday morning, Brother Enzo was preaching.  Was it Sunday morning?  Yes.  I want to say to you that I heard Chad mention in the praise and worship that there was a struggle.  And Brother Enzo made some mention, some reference, to a struggle.  But I just want to tell you, as an outsider looking in, it was a whole lot smoother than you realize.  

I tuned in at a very odd place.  The preaching was over, and it was a very solemn atmosphere in the meeting as you were coming up for prayer.  And I thought, "My, what in the world has happened?"

Brother Enzo was singing and you all were watching him sing, and then he called everyone forward.  And in my perception I just felt, "Oh, it was so solemn."  And I thought, "What has happened?  I wonder if something's been said.  I wonder . . .  Oh my, they had such a glorious meeting the night before.  What in the world is going on?"

And I even asked them at the end of the service, "Why are things so solemn? Is everything all right?  Did everything go good?"

"Yes, everything went fine.  It was just a little bit hard to enter in."

But I went back and watched the entire service.  And to be able to see it . . .  You were in it.  You were experiencing it.  But to be able to stand out of the circumstance a day later and watch the service, you missed it.

To be able to hear it again in the whole context, and follow it through, and to hear our brother speak about those who . . .  What was the term?  Kind of stand back?  Bystanders.  

And you know what I'm praying tonight?  I'm praying that if you have been . . .  And it was a hard word.  Sure, it was a straight word.  I'm not against that.  That's kind of what I like.

I can hear . . .  Oh, my.  You can hear "candy" all the time.  You can have something "sugar coated" all the time.  You can read Norman Vincent Peale and Robert Schuller anytime.

But give me a Word from God that challenges me where I'm standing, makes me want to do a little different than what I've been doing.  That's what I like.  That's what's kept me going.  

And I pray tonight that if you have been a bystander in this past season, that it will be only a mistake on your part, a mistake that you have already corrected before the Lord around the altar last Sunday morning.

I pray that you're not a bystander because it has not been given to you a heart to perceive.  

But there's a lot of people out there who have seen the mighty miracles, who have seen how God has brought his people through the temptations on this wilderness journey, who have heard, "Thus saith the Lord," who have seen what God has done coming down among us in this generation, and they still cannot receive.  They still cannot be believers.  They still cannot participate or even partake of what God has done.  

And looking at it from this realm, I understand that it's the same today as it was in the days of Moses.  There is a group of people, there's a host of people, that it has not been given to them a heart to perceive, to digest, to understand.

And what is happening is they filter revelation through their knowledge, they filter revelation through their doctrine, they filter revelation through their improper perception and they miss Truth.

When you judge revelation by your perception, by your understanding, by your church teaching, you can miss Truth when God so desires to spread it among us.  How many of you want Truth?

Why do we want Truth?  Somebody tell me why we want Truth.  Because we can't be free under anything but the Truth.  We will always be in bondage when we're not under Truth.

And because our church is a church of Truth doesn't place Truth in you.  It doesn't impact you.  It's not an impartation that's automatically given to you.

You have to position yourself sometimes to receive the full knowledge of God.  There's a place, there's a destination, where that's possible.

I said, there is a destination where that's possible, and that destination is the Throne of God.  And we want to get there.  

They saw the miracles.  They saw God bringing His people through the tests and the temptations.  And yet it had not been given to them a heart to perceive, eyes to see, ears to hear, even unto this day.

And thousands of years later, the apostle Paul says the very same thing in Romans, chapter 11 - it was not given to them to perceive, eyes to see or ears to hear, unto this day.

So several thousand years passed by and yet there was only a remnant of people who were able to recognize what God was doing among them.  And the rest, it just wasn't given to them to perceive.  They just didn't get it.  (You still with me?)

5.  And I have led you forty years (Poor Moses.  I feel sorry for him.  And I have led you forty years) in the wilderness: your clothes are not waxen old upon you, and thy shoe is not waxen old upon thy foot.  

6.  Ye have not eaten bread, neither have ye drunk wine or strong drink: that ye might know that I am the Lord Your God.  

7.  And when ye came into this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, came out against us unto battle, and we smote them:

8.  And we took their land, and gave it for an inheritance unto the Reubenites, and to the Gaddites, and to the half tribe of Manasseh.  

9.  Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and do them, that ye may prosper in all that ye do.

This is Moses at the end of his ministry recognizing that for forty years he has preached to a people who did not have a heart to perceive what they were hearing and had not been given unto them eyes to see and ears to hear.  They were that close to the Pillar of Fire, that close to the reality of God.  

Thousands of opportunities they had been given to accept, to believe, to reach out and embrace what God was doing in their midst.  Thousands of times they had been brought to the verge of making a decision.  Thousands of times it had been placed right up in their faces.

But because it had not been given to them a heart to understand, eyes to see and ears to hear, they remained in their religion and they failed to receive reality.

I want to tell you something.  God is getting ready to ultimately shut up many, many voices that are crying out in the land in this hour.  

I've been in the Presence of the Lord - two powerful experiences that are too big to put into words.  Really, there is no way to tell you how it has impacted my life.

But to think that after all these years of serving the Lord, the Lord would give me this experience - to be able to speak, to converse, with those seven stars that He held in His hand in Revelation 1 . . .

John . . .  You see, this is humbling.  John saw them as stars in His hand.  God allowed me to see them in reality as men.

And he not only did that, he gave me an appointment in this experience, this night vision, that I was able to sit close enough to touch them and them to touch me, and to hear them tell their experiences and their rejections and their failures, to hear Martin Luther, to recognize that he recognized that I didn't like him.  I saw the look on his face when we walked together in this experience I had with the Lord.

It couldn't have just been a dream.  It was too vivid.  

And he put his hand in the small of my back as we started walking to where we were going to speak.  And I looked in his face and I was condemned because I knew that he knew that I didn't like him.  And it was so funny because as he began to talk, he was intimidated by the fact that I didn't like him.

And he was so quiet and so humble - not at all like I thought he should be.  And he said to me, "If I would have only known then what I know now, I wouldn't have said so many terrible things against the Jewish people."

And immediately I was filled with such a love like I've never felt before for Martin Luther.  He's been dead a long time.  He lived in the 1600's.  And I reached out to embrace him, and he embraced me in this visitation, and it was all forgiven.  

He confessed to me some vices (sounds strange), some temptations in his life, that he said, "I was never quite able on my own to overcome these things."  But he said, "When I came to the place that I was about to give up, I just couldn't go on anymore, an overwhelming anointing would come upon me."

And he described it as an overcomer's . . . or the anointing to overcome.  And he said, "I would find myself lifted up in spite of my failures, my temptations, what I had done wrong."  

He had some serious vices.  But it didn't change who he was.  It didn't change what his commission was.  It didn't change the love of God for him.  

And then . . .  I don't know when, but I'll take time and we'll go through the conversation with all seven.

But when I came to the last messenger and we talked, one of the things that he said to me was . . .  We talked also about rejection.  It was a theme.  It was an unusual theme that ran between all seven of these men.

They everyone spoke to me about rejection and how hard it was to continue feeling so rejected and misunderstood.

And one said, "Having everything you say twisted . . ." - Paul.  He said, "Perhaps no one has ever had their words twisted and misapplied more than the letters that I wrote."  He said, "They were misunderstood during my lifetime."

But he said, "You know better than I how misunderstood they've been now for all these years and how preachers have taken my words and caused them to fit their own ideas."

Oh, this was sad.  I was ready to cry with him.  He took me through some of his hard times.

(If it's easier for you to see this as a dream, then call it a dream.)

And I felt such compassion for him because there was a quiver . . .  He's in a place of rest.  He's in the Presence of God.  And yet there was still a quiver in his voice when he talked to me about these rejections.  And he mentioned the beating and mentioned several of these things, but not in a boastful way - not at all.  

He said, "Only God knows the times . . ."  He said, "There was a dark trial in my life, and I was ready to go back and live the life that I had once lived."  That's serious.  Ooh.  Talk about reading somebody's mail, hearing somebody's dirt.

To have the apostle Paul tell you in a night vision that he almost went back and lived his life as an observant Jew, denying what he knew . . .  

Somebody said, "Well, I never read that in the Scripture.  I tell you, there are some things that will really make you think that if you read it again.  But I'm only telling you . . .  I'm just reporting the news.

My heart went out to him.  But he said, "In that darkest hour - without prayer, without praying, without reaching up, without even calling on the Lord - I was filled with a great anointing to overcome.

And I repented on my face because I knew that my secret was a secret from everybody around me, but it was not a secret from God.  He already knew how close I was to going back and hiding this Truth, living just a happy little Jewish life.

"But in that hour I was filled with such an anointing to overcome.  And I saw myself not as defeated and rejected and persecuted and ready to die, but I saw myself as an overcomer.  And it was just what I needed to press on."

I haven't spoken this.  I didn't tell this in Jerusalem.

When he finished saying that, I said to him, "Was it worth it?  Was it worth it?  All that you went through, was it worth it?"  

He got . . . he seemed to be very emotional.  And he said, "As I was dying, before I ever saw into this realm, I heard these words . . ."  He said, "I knew that I was stepping into a place that I had hoped for, but I didn't see anything.  I knew that my spirit was leaving my body, but I didn't see anything.

Before I ever saw anything, before I ever knew what had happened," he said, "I heard these words: 'Well done, thou good and faithful servant, for you have fought the fight and you have overcome.'"

I woke up, or came to myself, knowing one thing.  I don't have to be a great preacher, a great singer.  I don't have to write great books.  I don't have to be remembered for any talent or gift, but I know one thing I have to do.

I have got to leave this life, either by the grave or by the resurrection . . .  I have to leave this life as an overcomer.  I've got to.

I've got to leave this life as an overcomer, no matter what I have to lay down, no matter who I have to shove aside.  No matter what kind of a cost it would be, I must leave this life as an overcomer.  I cannot be satisfied leaving this life as a mere believer.  

Many are going to go into eternity as believers.  A remnant of people are going to leave this life and go into eternity as overcomers.  

We've always known that.  We just called it different things.  Some will make it, but will not receive any rewards.  

If you'll read the Book of the Revelation (we're going to go through it soon), if you read the first few chapters there, the words that are spoken to the seven churches of Asia Minor, each one of those churches is given such a precious promise.

But it's not given to the believer, it's not given to the church member, it's not given to the bystander, but it's given to who?  To the overcomer.

"To him that overcometh will I grant . . .  To him that overcometh will I grant . . .  To him that overcometh will I give a new name, a white stone.  To him that overcometh.  To him that overcometh."

And I knew immediately, "I've got to leave this life as an overcomer."  And you do, too.  We cannot settle for mere Christianity, a little dose of religion, a little bit of this and a little bit of that.  We've got to pay the full price.  We've got to go all the way.

We can't stop with our toes in the water, but we've got to go all the way in to that river that Ezekiel saw.  He said it was a river that could not be passed over.  That's where we've got to go.  

And we'll never do it in our own strength.  It'll be the same way that Paul did it.  That's what means so much to me.  We'll do it the same way Paul did.  He said, "When I thought I would go back . . ."  Who would have ever thought?

"When I thought I would go back and just live as an observant Jew and deny the Truth of who the Messiah was, when I thought I couldn't make it another step or go . . . , all of a sudden this anointing, (hallelujah) this overcomer anointing, would just come over me."  

Hear Martin Luther say, "I almost just gave up and went into the sin that I had fought against, that I had stood against, that I had . . .  You know, sometimes I was successful and sometimes I wasn't successful when I was tempted with these sins and when I was to the place that I would just go ahead and say, 'Why care?'"

And listen.  I didn't know why, but I knew that when Martin Luther was not railing against the Jews, I knew he was railing . . .  If you've read any of Luther's writings, he was always railing about something.  He was always wild about something.

And if it wasn't the Jews he was flailing about, it was his own battle.  He talked about overcoming, and temptation, and . . .  No wonder it was such a glorious thing.

You know, if God would have revealed this revelation to a "goody-two-shoes," who never had a temptation, who never had a sin, who never did dirty, rotten, lowdown, ugly, pitiful things, it wouldn't have meant the same.

But He chose a man who was tempted and tormented.  He chose a man who sometimes he could keep from sinning and sometimes he couldn't keep from sinning, and he yielded to the temptation to sin.

But it was that kind of man that God chose to meet, and to impart to him a revelation that has changed all of our lives.  

He said, not to some great hero, but to somebody like Martin Luther . . .  He said to him, "The just shall live by faith, Martin Luther.  God sees your temptation, and He sees how you're climbing up the steps on your knees trying to pay for your sin.

But I want to say to you, the just shall live - not by how many 'Hail Mary's' they say or how many times they count the beads - but the just shall live by faith."

I don't know what it does for you, but it's more outstanding for me than it's ever been before to know that it came to a man who, though he wore the robes of holiness, you know, a monk separated from all things that were unholy and unclean . . .  And yet he was a filthy sinner who had to be justified by faith, just like all the rest of us.

And when he thought he couldn't do it anymore, this overcoming anointing . . .  Hallelujah.

I know it's late for some of you.   You can slip out when you must.  

And then come to the last of the last and hear his rejection and what he experienced . . .  And to hear him speak about the same overcoming anointing . . .  And to have him say, "There's one other thing I want you to know" . . .

He said, "THUS SAITH THE LORD is coming in."  

And I knew what it meant.

It means that very soon there is something that's going to come for the believers that's going to shut up all the other voices that talk to you - all those other voices that battle for your attention, all those other voices that say, "You're not a believer.  You're not in it.  This is not for you.  You're not an overcomer.  You don't have the Holy Ghost.  You're not this.  You're not that.  You'll never do it.  You're nobody.  God'll never use you.  You don't see visions.  You don't have a dream.  You're just dumb.  You're just stupid.  God don't  . . ." - all these other voices that . . .

There is something coming in.  Hallelujah.  Come on.  There's something coming in that will silence every other voice that battles to get your attention - something coming in.

And do you know what he said it was?  He said, "It will be THUS SAITH THE LORD."

Once you get a revelation of His Voice, once you're able to discern and to recognize His Voice and to distinguish His Voice from all other voices, then you have received into your life THUS SAITH THE LORD.

And it absolutely silences any other voice that the enemy could use to speak to you.  Because once you know His Voice, that's the Voice you're listening for.  That's the Voice you believe.

If He tells you you're lost, you're in trouble.  When that Voice starts speaking, if He says that up is down and down is up, you better believe it.  When that Voice . . .

Somebody said, "How am I going to know?"

You're going to know.  The overcomer is going to know.  Every overcomer is going to know when they receive that revelation of THUS SAITH THE LORD.  Yes.  Yes.  

In my other experience I went to a university of angels.  I sat in on a class that was being taught.

And the most outstanding part . . .  And I'll give you Scriptures for it later.  Some of you have already heard the tape from last Sunday morning.  The most outstanding thing is angels were being taught.

They were being instructed by mortal men, men who had been mortal, men who had lived the life of a mortal man ? not an angel, not a great cherubim or seraphim, but a mortal man.

And these mortal men, and women, were teaching these angels what it means to fight the good fight and overcome.

And I thought, "This is so strange.  Why do angels need to know?  Why do these angels need to know what it means to fight the good fight and overcome?  Why do they need to learn anything?

They're not lost.  They're not saved.  They have eternity given to them.  Why do they need to know?"  And I asked.

And the answer came, "Because of the job that they're about to do."  He said, "Those angels are coming down, and they're going to help minister that overcoming anointing."

And he said, "The first thing they're going to do when they come, they're going to announce the destiny of that person that they come to."

So all those years of wondering, "What am I supposed to do for God?  How is God ever going to use me?  I'm fat.  I'm ugly.  I stink.  How is God ever going to use me?"

When that angel comes, that spiritual messenger, and you have a contact with him, the first thing he's going to tell you is your destiny, why you are here and what you're called to do.

And if you know what's good for you, you'll forget about being fat, ugly and stinking and you'll jump up and start doing with all your might what the Lord has called you to do.

You'll hang all of your inhibitions and insecurities and insufficiencies, hang-ups, and whatever else you want to call them . . . you'll hand them all up on the shelf and immediately be endued with power to do what God has called you to do.  

God is getting ready to remove your excuses and launch you into your destiny.  I saw the angels that were being trained to come down and get you ready.  What a day.  

You can hear all of these things and add them to your repertoire of spiritual blessings and experiences . . .  (I'm closing.)  You can just add them to the list of good things you've heard, things you've experienced - signs, wonders, and blessings - if you want to.  Or you can hold on to them.

I've got a real sense that you need to grab hold of them somehow and hold on to them with everything you've got, so that the enemy can't steal them until God's Word is fulfilled in your life.

You've got to hold on to them with tenacious faith, with great strength and determination.  Because there is a people who it has not been given to them a heart to perceive, eyes to see and ears to hear.  

Jesus said to the rich man, when he prayed to father Abraham on behalf of his brothers . . .  In fact, he said, "I have five brothers that are still alive and oh, they're headed in the wrong direction.  Please send Lazarus back to tell them the way it really is when we die."  

Father Abraham, who was a type of the Messiah in this reference and other references . . . he said, "They have the prophets.  And if they can't believe the prophets, they wouldn't believe one though he were raised from the dead."  

Do you know why?  Do you know why they didn't believe the prophets?  Do you know why they wouldn't believe somebody though he were raised from the dead?

Because it had not been given to them a heart to perceive, eyes to see and ears to hear.  And it didn't matter what happened, they were still going to "lally-gol" around in their eternal state of "do nothing" while the Kingdom of God was being established in their midst.

Just like today.  There are people who are going to continue whore-hopping.  They're going to continue drinking.  They're going to continue drugging.  They're going to continue rejecting the loving, merciful message of the Lord Jesus Christ.

They're going to continue to do what they've always done - some of them because they haven't yet been impacted by a spirit of conviction and some of them because it has not been given to them a heart to perceive, eyes to see or ears to hear.

Moses missed the blessing of crossing over with the children of Israel.  Why, he could have lived hundreds of more years had God so willed, but he missed his opportunity for such because he allowed the people . . .

The Bible says this, by the way.  He allowed the people to push him beyond the Voice.

Whatever we do, we've got to stay in tune, we've got to stay in heavenly synchronization.  

The Four Living Creatures . . . their ministry is not over.  Although we type them to ages past, their ministry is not over.  

Oh, by the way, Martin Luther explained . . .  - my old buddy, Martin.  It's so strange.  I would think twice about this if I were you, too.  In fact, if anybody else on planet earth would come and tell such a story as this, I wouldn't believe it unless God made it real to me, and He did.

I found out that all these hundreds of years later, Martin Luther is still engaged in active ministry.

What a shock, huh?  I mean, didn't you imagine Martin Luther . . . ?  Of course, you did put him in heaven, didn't you?  I didn't, much.  I tell you, I didn't know.  I was quite concerned about his eternal destination.  He said some horrible things, but he made it.  

And you know what?  It had nothing to do with who he was or how good he was.  It had everything to do with the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.  The same thing that's going to get you there is what got Martin Luther there.

And you'd think by now he'd be wearing a diaper and playing a harp and sitting on a marshmallow cloud, wouldn't you?  You'd think by now that he was living in a retirement home, "Heavenly Acres" or something, you know - living in a retirement home, drinking latte and reading the TV Guide.  But he's busy.

He said, "Nothing happens to the nation of Israel, or to the Jewish people, that I'm not totally aware of."  He said, "I've made it my whole focus."  That was very hard for me to get.

He said some other things.  I knew in my heart that he didn't mean he was reading the Jerusalem Post and keeping up with what was going on.  It was as though he had some "say."

Perhaps it sounds a little Catholic to you.  Martin Luther's not Catholic.  He's the one who caused all the trouble.  Remember?

I needed some help with this one.  Several things I needed help with.  And when I woke up, came to myself, the first question that popped into my mind were some things that were spoken to me - one by Martin Luther and by several other people, who seemed to indicate that they were still actively engaged in some form of ministry.  

And since we don't believe in ghosts and haints and spiritualism, I needed to understand how those who have already gone into the Presence of the Lord could be actively engaged in ministry.

And I found it right in the Bible.  Imagine that.  Imagine that.  Found it right in the Bible.  

Hebrews 11 talks about a great hall of faith.  Did you know that not only men are mentioned there, but one harlot, one loose woman whose name was Rahab.  And Rahab made it all the way to the hall of faith.

And when Hebrews 11 is finished listing all of these heros, Hebrews 12:1 says what?  (Could you pull that up?)

(I'm closing - the second time.  That's always a good sign.)

Hallelujah.  Glory.  Aren't computers wonderful?  

1.  Wherefore seeing we also . . .  

Excuse me a moment.  Katie, take us back to Hebrews 11, the last verse.  Do I need to tell you what the verse is for you to be able to find it?  40?  Hebrews 11:40.  Okay, I'll just settle for 40.  You really should read a lot of it.  You've got to get this in your mind.  

These are those who wandered about in dens and caves (Remember the Scripture?) destitute, naked, sawn asunder.  These were they that the Bible said, "Of whom the world . . ."

All you dirty, rotten, sick, perverted, Hollywood-infested world, you're not even worthy to kiss the feet of those men and women who lived for a divine purpose.

That bunch of shims that the world idolizes and makes over and sets them up - ignorance.  The world is more excited about some movie star having a baby.  And how many of you know most of them do it out of wedlock, but the world just celebrates it.  

The whole world was watching to see if one of these women who's married to Cruise, I guess, the adherent of the Church of Scientology . . .  In the church of Scientology, you're supposed to have babies in silence, no sound at all.

And the whole world was waiting to hear if this woman would have her baby in silence.  And when it happened, he had no comment.  What do you think that means?  

And he was going to . . .  He had all the world in an uproar because he said that there was so many minerals and vitamins in the placenta that he was going to eat it.  And everybody believed him, except me.  Because I've seen them.  Dracula couldn't have eaten something that looked like that.  But the whole world was waiting with bated breath to hear what happened.

That's what the world's crazy about.  Understand what I'm saying?  That's what the world cares about ? who's cheating who, and who's being true, and whose car is parked next door.

But Hebrews 11 talks about people who paid a price, who had a testimony, who died for a cause - and I don't mean Jihad - a real cause.

They didn't commit suicide. They were cut up.  They were sawn asunder.  Herod ripped open their mother's bellies, and his soldiers dashed those little unborn babies against the walls of Jerusalem.

And the Bible said in Hebrews 11, "Of whom the world was not worthy . . ."  I love that.

If that had happened today, these characters in the hall of fame . . . they would have never made it on the evening news.  They would have never made it in the newspaper.  No one would have ever known who they were.

And yet, God said, "The world in all its smartness is not worthy of one of those little soldiers or heros."

Those sick Romans spent what would be the equivalent of millions of dollars to go out on ships and catch sharks and cart them to Rome, and flooded the coliseum.  Can you imagine?  Flooded the coliseum and put those sharks in to feed the Christians to.

True history records it.  Not just lions - sharks.  In fact, they would build an island, a platform in the middle, and put a lion or two so that if they happened to make it out of the water . . .

But the world wasn't worthy of those who held the testimony of Jesus Christ.  

So you can call Christians weak minded if you want to, you scholar, you, you smart thing that's got it all together, you genius, you.  You say, "Religion is just for the weak minded and the women and children."

But I tell you, the world and everything it knows isn't worth one of those saints of God that became lunch to a lion or trampled under the horses' hooves in the Circus Maximus.  

You fail and you run the other way.  When they failed, they ran to Jesus.  They ran to the altar.  They ran to the arms of mercy.

They knew that it was better to let Jesus judge them than to judge themselves.  

Isn't it amazing that the Ancient of Days is a better judge, a more merciful judge, than you would be?  (And we know how to take care of ourselves, don't we?)  But He would be a more be a merciful judge than how we would judge our own selves.

38.  (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.

39.  And these all (all of them, everyone of them) having obtained a good report through faith (died for the cause.  Had a good report, a good sermon preached at their funeral, yet) received not the promise:

40.  God having provided some better thing for us,

Wow!  Shouldn't we be careful how we live.  

40.  . . . that they  (Somebody say, "They.") without us . . .

Somebody said, "Well, this was talking about those who died before they knew anything about the Messiah.  So now those who know about the Messiah . . .  So it was those after, who came to Jesus . . ." and so forth.  It says,

40.  God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.  

Brother Branham explained that the righteous dead are in the Presence of the Lord.  To be absent from this body is to be what?  Present with the Lord.  He explained that to us from the Scripture.

But they have not entered into the fullness of their reward.  No, sir.  They're in a place where there's no pain, no trouble, no heartache, no sorrow, but they have not entered into the fullness of their reward.  

You want an Old Testament type for a New Testament reality?  What happened to those who died in the faith of the Old Covenant?

Didn't the Bible teach us that they did not go to heaven, they went to a place called, in English translation, what?  Paradise.  And Paradise was located where?  Next door to what?  To hell.  

We have so many examples in the Scripture.  We have Jesus on the cross, saying to one of the thieves, "Today, you will be with Me in Paradise."

Notice, he was an un-baptized believer.  Baptism . . .  Sorry, sorry, sorry to you Apostolics.  Sorry to you.  He wasn't baptized in anything, in anybody's name, in anybody's title.  He wasn't even baptized.  He wasn't sprinkled, spit on or immersed.

But Jesus said, "Today, you'll be with Me in Paradise."

Jesus, teaching about Lazarus and the rich man . . . He said, "You can't cross over there."

"Oh, Father Abraham, come and send Lazarus to dip his finger in water and touch my tongue for I am tormented in these flames."  

I used to hear my old granny talk about that story.  And she said, "Can you imagine the paradox of what the rich man was asking for?  He had walked day after day, passing by Lazarus who was nothing but one big rottening sore.  Leprosy had eaten his body, and putrification (is the word Granny used.  Do you know what that means?) dripped from his fingers."  

In hell, the rich man forgot about all of that and he said, "Send Lazarus to dip his finger in water."  All the times he had crossed to the other side of the street because he didn't want a fly that had laid on Lazarus to lay on him.

And now, in hell, he was willing for Lazarus to come.  Didn't matter how Lazarus . . .  Of course, Lazarus had already received a different kind of body anyway.

And what did Jesus tell in the story that Father Abraham said?  He said, "He can't come to you and you can't go to him because there is a gulf fixed."

And did the Bible say, when Jesus was laying in the grave, that He did what?  He descended into heart of the earth and led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men.

We've heard the prophet of God preach about that great testimony meeting that took place in Paradise.  And when Jesus left Paradise, he emptied it.  He took those righteous dead with him.

And the Bible said that many of the saints which slept arose and walked again the streets of Jerusalem.  Others of them were transported into another place, not quite all the way yet.

I'd like to take time to tell you where that place is but it would take a lot of time.  It's not a million miles away like you've thought about.  It's not somewhere in the blue yonder.  It's nowhere that NASA could ever find it, no matter how high she soared, because it's with us.  It's closer than that.

Eternity is closer than that.  Eternity is closer than that.  Eternity is closer than that.  Eternity is with us tonight.  It's just in another dimension from the one we're living in, but it's with us tonight.

I heard Brother Branham say, "Our loved ones are with us tonight."  We can't see them, and we shouldn't try to talk to them, but he said, "They're with us tonight."

They're just in a faster dimension than the one we're living in.  But they're with us tonight.  How could our theophanies be with us?  They're in that other dimension.  

When I got that revelation, I personally quit singing "I'll Fly Away" (but I don't mind when others sing it) because it's closer than that.

"One Day I'm Going To Take a Step" - that's my song.  That's my revelation.  That's my understanding.  Oh, it's a whole lot easier to get a glimpse, a grasp, of heaven when you understand where it is.  (Oops!  "You had to go and add that, huh?")

I'm closing - third time.  It's got to happen.  Things are completed and perfected in threes, right?  And sevens.  And sevens.  And eight is new beginnings.  I could just start all over again.  Shared a whole lot more than I thought I would.

How is it?  How is it that "they without us should not be made perfect?"  (Now give us 12:1 please.)
  
1.  Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about (surrounded) with so great a cloud of witnesses,  

I've always wanted to buy this painting.  I never have.  But I've always wanted this painting.  I almost bought it one time.  You've seen it, some of you.

There's a preacher standing in the pulpit.  Any of you seen it?  There's a preacher standing in the pulpit.  I mentioned it several times.  And behind him on the left and behind him on the right are all of these ancient figures, maybe like what you'd think Abraham or Moses or Daniel or some of these great heros of the faith . . .

They're standing behind him, sort of silhouetted, you know.  And he's just preaching away, and all these men of God have come and they're just standing behind him.  Do you get it?  You get it?  

Trespassers, are they?  Why would they care what I preach?  Why would they care how you live?  Why would Martin Luther care, now that he is in eternity, what happens to the Jewish nation?

"Christ killers," he called them.  "Let them all be damned," he said while he was alive.  Why would he then now care what happens?

Why would some of these other seven messengers say to me that they're still engaged in active ministry?  Why would they care?  They've already entered into rest.  Why would they care?

Don't you get it?  Because, "They without us . . . "

Remember, there are some who it's not been given to them a heart to perceive, eyes to see or ear to hear.  But to him that can see and hear and perceive, let him do it now because they without us are not made perfect.

They're waiting on us because they have not yet obtained the fullness of their promise.

The Ephesian Bride is waiting on the Bride of Laodicea.  The first Bride is counting on the success of the last Bride so that the first Bride can enter into the fullness of their promise.

The last Bride has got to come all the way, too.  All the way, you've got to come - all the way.  

And you're not doing it alone, honey.  You're not doing it alone.  Standing all around you there is a great Cloud of Witnesses.

Abraham is standing there saying, "You dunce!  If I did it, you can do it!  And you must do it because there's a higher place than the one I'm living in right now.  And I didn't come . . . I didn't come  this far to stay where I am.  I'm going all the way."  

Where does full knowledge come from?  The Throne.

"I'm going all the way.  I want to see His face.  I'm going all the way, and without you, I can't go all the way."

That's the way God designed it.  We're all going in.  That eternal Bride from every age . . . we're going into that last place to see His face together.  

Do you want a quote?  The prophet of God said that the Bride of every age in that land beyond the curtain of time . . . the Bride of every age was gathered with the messenger of that age.  They're all in the same place.  

Musicians are coming.

We've got to make it.  They're standing around watching.  Just like that little preacher.  Whoever painted that painting, there - that little preacher . . .  

How many of you have ever heard . . .?  Have you all heard that song on the radio about that little preacher who went to town, and he was knocking on doors, inviting people to church.  And he came across a woman sitting out on the porch.  Anybody heard the song?  

Ain't that something, brother?  That's some kind of song somebody wrote, ain't it?

And the woman says to him, "If you're going to stay around here, I need to tell you a thing or two.  You're going to have to keep it simple and short.  Don't offend anybody.  Don't tell the Truth.  Because if you do, they'll run you off like all the others before you."

Sad song, but it's really got a message to it.

And the woman knew.  She really knew from experience because she had fallen in love with one of the young, single preachers that had come to preach in this church.  And the church people destroyed him.

She saw his destruction, and she had a little bitterness perhaps in her life.  But she wanted to help that little preacher from making the same mistake.  

But you know, I think of that.  If that preacher would go to that pulpit and preach what God give him anyway, there might not be one amen out there, but there'd be a great Cloud of Witnesses behind him saying, "Amen.  Amen.  Amen.  Preach on.  Preach it anyway."  

1.  . . . great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,  

We win.  Somebody say, "We win."

Let's stand.  

So why would Martin Luther be so busy?  Why would he care?  Because they without us . . .

We love You, Lord.  You've brought us a mighty long way.  We want to serve You all the way.

We recognize that Your Kingdom is being established among us, and we want to be right in the middle of what You're doing.  Hallelujah.  (Tongues)

We don't feel worthy to be counted with those that the Bible said the world was not worthy of, and yet they are depending on us.  We're not depending on them, they are depending on us.  We're not counting on them, they're counting on us.  So when you feel like . . .

"There it is.  See it?"  I love it.

If you can't preach like that, you're not called.  If all those witnesses can come around and give you strength and encouragement and you still can't tell the Truth, you're just not called to preach, are you?

Hallelujah, hallelujah . . .  Wonderful is the Lord.

I believe you can do it.  

Let's come.  Stand here just a moment.

(Singing:)  "We've been made more than conquerors . . ."

Hallelujah.  Let a little bit of that victory come on you right now.  Let a little bit of that overcoming anointing . . .  "We've been made more than conquerors . . . "

We need that THUS SAITH THE LORD to silence all the voices of reason.
  
"We've been made . . ."  

We need all the voices of reasoning to be silenced by THUS SAITH THE LORD.  The Lord didn't go to all this effort to prepare a Bride to let her be fooled by foolish prophets.  He's sending a THUS SAITH THE LORD.

"We've been made more than conquerors . . . "

Oh.  Hallelujah.  (Tongues)  Get in the Spirit to receive right now.  Get in a mode to receive right now a heart to perceive, eyes to see and ears to hear.  Oh, full knowledge, full intimacy.  Receive right now.  Get in the attitude of reception.  "I receive . . . "

Come on, do it.  (Tongues)  Receive a portion - shoes of overcomers specially designed for trodding.

Overcomers don't walk.  Overcomers don't sachet.  Overcomers trod.  Shoes for trodding, shoes of determination, preparing us with peace.  We receive.

"We've been made more . . ."

Let God transform you from a bystander to an overcomer.  Yes.  Yes.  Yes.  Hallelujah.

I want everyone that will to lift up both hands.  I want you to begin to declare that you are in a receiving mode.

I stand here, Lord, to receive.  Whatever the impartation for this hour is, whatever it is that You want to sow into me, whatever it is that You want to impart into my life, whatever portion of glory, whatever portion of anointing, whatever portion of purpose, I receive right now.  I take it as my own.  Hallelujah.

Give me eyes to see.  It's going to take eyes to see, ears to hear.  It's going to take a heart to perceive to be able to make it through these revelations that the Lord is sending.

You're going to have to lose your filters of religion and doctrine and ideas.  You're going to have to listen carefully and closely to the Spirit of God.

Watch carefully to make sure that each and everything can be grounded in the Word of God.  Then grab it.  Take it.  You're going to need it in this next hour.

"We've been made more than conquerors . . . "

(Tongues)  Let our eyes be opened to see that great Cloud of Witnesses.  Let our eyes be opened to see those angels that are coming, freshly graduated, ready to announce our destinies, ready to reveal the next step.

When the Lord allows me to go further in that, I'll tell you that He said, "The angels are coming not only to reveal our destiny . . ."  But sometimes that's too big and too grand and too noble for us to swallow.

Sometimes all we need God to reveal to us is our next step.

The Bible's full of examples where angels came all the way in to this earthly realm just to tell people what to do next.  They didn't come and tell them what they're going to be doing for the next fifty years.  They just came and told them what they're supposed to do next.  "Arise, get up and go to so-and-so.  Arise, get up and do such-and-such."  

The Angel of the Lord came to Joseph and said, "Arise, and take the baby with you and go to Egypt."  Hallelujah.
  
If God won't reveal to me the next forty years, if there should be forty years, I just need to recognize and be ready to receive the Word of the Lord for my next step.

"What would You have me to do next, Lord?  What would You have me to do next, Lord?  What would be the next step that You would have me to take?"

How many of you desire to know what God would have you to do next?  

Oh yes, Lord.  Show us.  

"We've been made more than conquerors . . . "