WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:05.220 Come on, just give the Lord a hand clap. Lord, we just want to say thank you in the name of Jesus. 00:06.760 --> 00:15.440 Praise God. So tonight, if you have your Bibles, go with me over to the book of Hebrews chapter 1. 00:16.260 --> 00:24.240 Praise God. Thank you, brother. Appreciate that. You all okay tonight? Okay. So Hebrews chapter 1, 00:24.440 --> 00:26.920 and let's just see where we end up with this tonight. 00:27.440 --> 00:36.980 God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets. 00:37.440 --> 00:44.560 So God at various times and various ways. Everyone say various ways. Okay. So guess what? 00:44.720 --> 00:51.260 To this day, God speaks in multiple different ways. Is that right? So multiple different ways. Not 00:51.260 --> 00:57.700 one way, you know, but multiple different ways. It goes on to say, hasn't these last days spoken to us 00:57.700 --> 01:04.200 by who? His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, to whom He also made the worlds be in the 01:04.200 --> 01:11.140 brightness of His glory, the expressed image of His person, upholding all things by the word of His 01:11.140 --> 01:16.820 power. When He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of God, on the 01:16.820 --> 01:25.020 majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a 01:25.020 --> 01:31.180 more excellent name than they. To which of the angels did He ever say, you are my Son? And today 01:31.180 --> 01:37.100 I've begotten you. Again, I will be to Him a Father, and He'll be to me a Son. And He again 01:37.620 --> 01:43.600 says the first, He brings the firstborn into the world. He says, let all the angels of God 01:43.600 --> 01:51.920 worship Him. And of the angels, He says, who makes His angel spirits and His ministers what? 01:53.440 --> 01:59.640 A flame of fire, right? And so this is what God spoke to me this week about what to share 01:59.640 --> 02:06.340 tonight. So my wife and I were watching this program, and it was a program about 02:08.080 --> 02:17.540 this serial arsonist. And this arsonist who would start fires, they were trying to figure out 02:17.540 --> 02:24.520 in this documentary how to catch this guy. And the one guy said something, and my spirit man 02:24.520 --> 02:31.180 jumped when he said it. He said, there's a story of the fire. Look at your neighbor and say, 02:31.180 --> 02:38.400 there's a story of the fire. Okay. And when he said it, man, my spirit man just jumped. There's a story 02:38.920 --> 02:46.080 of the fire. And I was thinking about that this week, as God just spoke that word to me, 02:46.080 --> 02:51.840 and I knew that's what I was going to share tonight, that there's a story of the fire. Here 02:51.840 --> 02:58.760 it says, He makes His ministers what? A flame of fire. Is that right? So there's a flame of 02:59.400 --> 03:04.900 fire. All of us have a story of the fire. That's why I wanted you to give your testimony to somebody. 03:05.240 --> 03:13.480 What was it? It was a story of the fire. Is that right? And so that the fire 03:13.480 --> 03:20.340 begins to tell a story long afterwards. You know, many people don't know very much 03:20.340 --> 03:26.700 church history. And as a result, they don't realize that there's a story to the fire. 03:26.700 --> 03:29.620 There's a story to the fire right here in the state of Minnesota. 03:31.720 --> 03:39.820 In 1898, 1898, first people were baptized in the Holy Spirit in Moorhead, Minnesota. 03:40.980 --> 03:44.700 A lot of people don't know that. 33 people were baptized in the Holy Ghost. 03:45.000 --> 03:48.900 They were all Norwegians and Swedes, so they couldn't speak English, but you know, 03:49.160 --> 03:53.480 so they couldn't carry it on from there. But the fire began in Moorhead, Minnesota. 03:54.200 --> 03:57.760 Is that awesome, huh? And so for over 12 months, they were getting people 03:57.760 --> 04:01.180 saved and baptized in the Holy Ghost there in Moorhead, Minnesota. 04:02.220 --> 04:08.080 And then there's a story of the fire as well. There was a man by the name of Charles Parham, 04:08.240 --> 04:14.920 who was from Kansas. And in this man, he started a Bible school. 04:15.620 --> 04:18.840 And we wrote a whole book about it called The Fire That Could Jump the Ocean. 04:19.880 --> 04:25.920 And in that story about Charles Parham, he said, Lord, I want to do a Bible school, 04:26.020 --> 04:32.540 but I want one subject, the baptism of the Holy Ghost. That's the only subject of the Bible school. 04:33.300 --> 04:39.560 And he said, people are just going to begin to come from all over the country 04:40.290 --> 04:46.680 to this Bible school. And sure enough, 44 people came from all over America and came there to 04:46.680 --> 04:53.040 Little Topeka, Kansas. And so for six months, he would make them every day they had to pray for 04:53.040 --> 04:58.060 the sick. There was a hospital right within walking distance. So every day they had to lay 04:58.060 --> 05:05.280 hands on the sick to stir up the fire. Come on, right? So they had to stir up the fire by laying 05:05.280 --> 05:11.940 on their hands with people. And for six months, all they did was study the subject of the 05:11.940 --> 05:16.800 baptism of the Spirit. And they had to start in Matthew and go all the way through Revelation 05:16.800 --> 05:31.200 and start all over again. That was the Bible school. So on December 31st of 1900, this man of God, 05:31.400 --> 05:36.740 he went and he told the Bible school, listen, excuse me, it was right after Christmas. So it 05:36.740 --> 05:43.560 was the 26th of December. And he said, I have to go on a journey, but I'll be right back in a matter 05:43.560 --> 05:50.340 of a few days. And he said, don't stop studying and praying. And so at that time, he was making 05:50.340 --> 05:57.060 them pray for four hours a day for the baptism of the Spirit. Come on, is that awesome? That's 05:57.060 --> 06:03.020 hunger, amen? Come on, everyone say that's hunger, right? I mean, today, if you don't get it 06:03.020 --> 06:08.220 in four seconds, they're done. You know what I mean? And so here they were four hours a day for, 06:08.420 --> 06:16.020 you know, days. And so Charles Parham went and was returning back. And as he was coming back, 06:16.400 --> 06:24.180 he went and unbeknownst to him, there was a lady in the Bible school, her name was Agnes Osman. 06:24.700 --> 06:32.100 And Agnes Osman went and had been studying Acts 19 where it says, and they laid hands on him 06:32.100 --> 06:38.240 and they were filled with the Holy Ghost and spoken tongues. So when Charles Parham came back on 06:39.820 --> 06:47.160 the late hours of December 31st, it was late in the night, it was about 11 o'clock at night, 06:47.260 --> 06:52.920 they were going to pray through the night into the new year of 1901 for the baptism of the Spirit. 06:53.840 --> 06:59.880 And about midnight, she went and she said to Brother Parham, she said, lay hands on me 06:59.880 --> 07:04.600 like they did in Acts 19, I'll be filled with the Holy Ghost. He goes, I don't even have it, 07:04.660 --> 07:10.160 how can I give it to you? She goes, I don't know, but God will somehow honor it. You know, come on, 07:10.220 --> 07:17.120 amen? It was a story of the fire. I said it was a story of the fire, right? And so he laid hands 07:17.120 --> 07:22.520 on her that morning at about midnight, 12, 12, 30, laid hands on her, he never even spoken tongues. 07:22.520 --> 07:26.500 Power of God hit her and she was baptized in the Holy Ghost and she spoke in tongues. 07:28.420 --> 07:35.560 And she spoke in tongues and sang in tongues and wrote in tongues for three days. She wrote in tongues, 07:35.660 --> 07:40.580 you can go right now on Google and see what she wrote in tongues for three days in perfect 07:40.580 --> 07:48.080 Mandarin Chinese. And so, but what is that? It's a story of the fire. I could give you 07:48.080 --> 07:57.420 story after story. Historically, I could tell you of the days of, you know, Charles Parham or 07:57.420 --> 08:04.100 Charles Wesley or John Wesley or George Whitfield and all of these guys and how they would, you 08:04.100 --> 08:09.560 know, cry out for the glory of God to begin to manifest and stuff. What was it? It was a story 08:09.560 --> 08:19.520 of the fire. And I'll never forget, we were ministering in England in 2011. And while we're 08:19.520 --> 08:27.400 ministering in England, we went and we ministered in this one particular city called Leeds. And 08:27.400 --> 08:32.680 as we're ministering this city called Leeds, one of the guys that was driving us around, 08:33.240 --> 08:38.740 he went and said, do you know that John Wesley had a revival right here in this building? 08:39.560 --> 08:45.260 I said, no way. He goes, yeah, he did. He really did. And he said, here's the story. And he took me 08:45.260 --> 08:52.320 over to the wall. We were in this restaurant and on the wall was a picture. And it was a picture of 08:52.320 --> 08:59.460 Wesley. And Wesley went and was pointing to a woman who was, who had crawled up into the tree 09:00.580 --> 09:05.720 because she wanted to see what was going on in this Holy Ghost meeting. Because people 09:05.720 --> 09:10.600 were getting slain in the Spirit, the glory of God was moving and stuff. And when he pointed at her, 09:11.100 --> 09:15.080 they said it looked like someone shot her with a gun and shot her right out of the tree. 09:16.060 --> 09:20.260 She flew out of the tree and fell under the power and she was under the power for about 09:20.260 --> 09:28.140 three hours. Come on, is that awesome, huh? Amen. So speaking of a story of the fire, 09:28.380 --> 09:33.960 so the year before 2010, I had a dream one night. So one night I had a dream. I've 09:33.960 --> 09:38.720 only had two of these kinds of dreams. These are very unique dreams. It's a strange sign in a wonder 09:38.720 --> 09:46.920 dream. But I had this dream in 2010 and I had a dream. I was in England and I had a dream. I 09:48.120 --> 09:55.840 went in uninvited into a hospital room and I laid hands on a woman that was dying and she 09:55.840 --> 10:02.160 was in a coma. And in the dream, I put my hands like this on her stomach and I said, 10:02.160 --> 10:09.300 come back. And when I did, she sat up out of the coma and she rose up healed and her son came in 10:09.300 --> 10:14.620 and that's all I remember. I don't remember anything else. So I thought, wow, that was weird. 10:14.680 --> 10:18.040 So I grabbed my prayer journal. I just wrote it down because we had never been to England. 10:18.460 --> 10:23.460 12 months later to the day, we're in England. So we're ministering in different parts of England 10:24.000 --> 10:30.120 and the pastor says, I have a friend who was the John Gotti of England. 10:31.420 --> 10:39.920 Okay. He was the head of the England mob and he got radically saved. This guy. Okay. 10:40.800 --> 10:46.660 And he got radically saved in prison and it's a crazy story. Jesus appeared to him and 10:46.660 --> 10:51.880 he said his chains fell off him and he goes, Jesus, break me out of here. 10:53.620 --> 10:56.580 He thought Jesus came to break him out of prison, right? 10:57.640 --> 11:04.600 His crazy, crazy story. But anyways, Davey was his name. And so he said, he wants you to come 11:04.600 --> 11:08.820 and preach for him. And I said, man, let's do it. I said, where is he? He said, well, 11:08.860 --> 11:13.620 he's a little bit farther north right on the border of Scotland. So I go on the border of Scotland 11:14.920 --> 11:18.620 and I just told Susie. I said, we just got to do it. We just got to be obedient. We got 11:18.620 --> 11:25.800 to go. And so we go on up to this city and we start ministering and I had terrible jet lag. 11:26.700 --> 11:33.220 So once the service was over, I just shot to the back and got to my book table 11:33.840 --> 11:38.540 and I'm sitting there trying to let, you know, my marbles kind of, you know, 11:39.240 --> 11:43.300 reset themselves because my brain was on, you know, Minnesota time. 11:44.520 --> 11:53.160 And so as I'm sitting there at my seat, this older lady walks out and her son and she says, 11:53.640 --> 12:03.480 hello. And I said, hi. And she said, do you remember us? I said, no. I said, we meet thousands of 12:03.480 --> 12:08.080 people. How could I remember you? There's no way I could remember you. And so she said, 12:09.520 --> 12:13.620 she says to her son, he doesn't remember us. And I'm like, lady, do you know how many people 12:13.620 --> 12:18.040 I've seen just in this last 12 months? You know how many churches? We've been at over 50 churches 12:18.040 --> 12:24.300 this year. And I said, have you come to our meetings in the USA? And she said, no. She said, 12:24.380 --> 12:33.780 I was dying in a coma. And you walked into my ICU unit. And you put your hands on my belly like 12:33.780 --> 12:40.640 this. And my son was standing there when you walked in. And she said, you said, come alive. 12:40.920 --> 12:47.140 And I came out of my coma and I sat up and you preached the gospel. My son and I got saved. 12:48.140 --> 12:54.080 Come on. Is that awesome? Amen. I mean, just tears are running down my face. 12:55.000 --> 13:00.060 And I, now I'm sitting there thinking, this was a dream. I'm like, this was a dream. They're like, 13:00.080 --> 13:06.160 no, it wasn't a dream. You came in. Come on. Is that awesome? What is it? It's a story of the 13:06.160 --> 13:13.840 fire. I said, it's a story of the fire. Amen. And this is what the Lord was beginning to 13:13.840 --> 13:19.400 minister to me about. Is that there's something about these stories that we have to tell them. 13:21.040 --> 13:25.180 We have to tell them to the young people. We have to tell them to our children. 13:25.860 --> 13:31.860 Because if we don't tell them, these stories are going to die with us. Come on, talk to me, 13:31.980 --> 13:38.080 somebody. Amen. And one of the things I believe that the Lord wants to do in a revival in our 13:38.080 --> 13:45.700 midst is that the Lord wants us to begin to respond again to the Spirit just like we did years ago. 13:46.020 --> 13:52.840 Amen. Now, as most of you know my story, I didn't grow up in a great church like this. I grew up 13:52.840 --> 14:02.280 Lutheran boy, Western Minnesota, and going to this high school and stuff. And God sent a man from 14:02.280 --> 14:07.360 Fargo, North Dakota to come to my little town. And he got a whole bunch of kids saved. 14:08.680 --> 14:14.300 And I ended up getting saved as a result of it. One of the kids led me to Christ. And so I knew 14:14.300 --> 14:22.520 nothing. But I was responding to the fire. I was responding to the fire that night. I mean, 14:22.620 --> 14:28.920 the night I got saved. No preacher told me to do this. The night I got saved. I went and I 14:28.920 --> 14:35.820 ripped all the wicked pictures off my walls. I burned over $200 worth of albums back then. 14:35.820 --> 14:41.760 I used to listen to KISS. You would never know that, all right? But Jesus, don't tell my son that, 14:41.840 --> 14:47.060 all right? But anyway, so... But I took hundreds of dollars and I burned it. Nobody told me to 14:47.060 --> 14:53.120 do that. Come on, what was it? The fire of God. The fire. The fire of God on the inside. It 14:53.120 --> 15:05.560 was responding to the fire. Amen. And so I get saved as a young teenager. And I was 15:05.560 --> 15:10.820 begging my parents to get baptized in the Holy Spirit. And we just didn't have good teaching. And so 15:10.820 --> 15:16.100 we were told the Holy Spirit lived in Fargo. So that's where we had to go for the Holy Ghost. 15:17.480 --> 15:22.820 Okay, so you've heard my crazy story on that. But we really thought that the only way you get 15:22.820 --> 15:27.400 the Holy Ghost, you got to go to Fargo, you know? Whatever reason he likes Fargo. Okay, 15:27.440 --> 15:32.140 he's a North Dakota guy or something. I don't know why. But that's what we thought, right? 15:32.140 --> 15:38.860 And so I'll never forget that night in January of 1983. It still brings tears to my eyes. 15:39.200 --> 15:45.040 Because sitting in that assembly of God church, we were... we couldn't find the church. We finally 15:45.040 --> 15:51.480 found the church. And so we were in the last row. And I'll never forget that the pastor preached 15:51.480 --> 15:56.260 this powerful message. I mean, I ran down to the front. I didn't know what I was doing. I 15:56.260 --> 16:01.340 just ran down to the altar and just responding to the Lord. Amen. Me and all my friends 16:01.340 --> 16:06.940 responding to the Lord. Then we responded to the Lord for the baptism of the Spirit afterwards. Come 16:06.940 --> 16:13.300 on. Amen. And I remember when I was just in my early years of Christianity, going to that church, 16:13.480 --> 16:18.180 and I just remember every single time the Spirit of God would deal with us, we would just respond. 16:19.060 --> 16:31.320 Again and again. Did you ever know who Dave Duell was? Yeah, Dave Duell. He was a great 16:31.940 --> 16:40.500 I've preached in Greeley, Colorado, right? And so he came to our church and I remember my friend 16:40.500 --> 16:48.000 and I, we dove at the altar. You know, what were we doing? Responding to the fire. Responding 16:48.000 --> 16:55.260 to the fire. Amen. And many times I think that we kind of get used to the fire, and we 16:55.260 --> 16:59.660 kind of get used to the warmth of the fire, and we stop responding to the fire. 17:00.780 --> 17:08.840 See how quiet it just got, right? And I think that, you know, as for me, I know for me that 17:08.840 --> 17:15.800 I'm in church more than most people, okay? So last year we preached in over 200 services, 17:16.380 --> 17:26.520 okay? 57 churches. And I have to constantly shake myself so that I don't get used to 17:26.520 --> 17:33.580 the smell of the fire. Are you with me? And so that I begin to constantly respond to the fire. I 17:33.580 --> 17:39.100 respond to the fire. I respond to the fire. Every time the Word of God is cracked open, 17:39.480 --> 17:45.040 as soon as it's cracked open, I look at it like, I've never heard this before. What am I doing? 17:45.260 --> 17:52.680 I'm keeping it fresh on the inside. Amen. I'm keeping it fresh on the inside. And what am 17:52.680 --> 17:57.520 I doing? I'm responding to the fire. This is something I believe that we have to get back 17:57.520 --> 18:02.760 in the church here in Minnesota. We have to get back to altar calls again. Come on church. 18:03.400 --> 18:08.920 We got to get back to altar calls are normal in the church. Not just salvation calls. Yes, 18:09.220 --> 18:14.360 salvation calls praise God. Most important, but I believe there's something about us 18:14.360 --> 18:21.680 constantly having our heart tugged at to respond to the fire. Hallelujah. Amen. 18:21.680 --> 18:26.100 I remember hearing Mack Hammond tell a story in a pastor's conference one time, 18:26.400 --> 18:32.060 and he told us a story. He had an altar call for people to respond to the message of prosperity. 18:32.840 --> 18:36.100 And I thought, that's the craziest thing I ever heard, you know? And I thought, no, 18:36.240 --> 18:41.140 you know what he's doing? He's getting people to respond to every bit of God's Word. 18:42.840 --> 18:49.640 Right? We have to respond to the fire. We have to respond to the story of the fire. 18:49.640 --> 18:55.180 I mean, I think to myself, we were ministering not that far from here. I don't want to say the city 18:55.180 --> 19:01.140 in case they're listening right now. But we were ministering in this one church, and man, 19:01.240 --> 19:07.140 it was so dead. Jesus, if the paramedics came in to take out someone that died, they would 19:07.140 --> 19:11.860 have taken out two rows of people. I'm telling you, I'm telling you, it was just that dead. 19:12.060 --> 19:16.880 I mean, it was twice dead, plucked up by the roots, you know? And it was rough. 19:17.880 --> 19:22.120 But God began to move in those meanings. It was the craziest thing. It was just like, 19:22.360 --> 19:27.760 poof! One person got touched with the glory of God and started laughing in the Holy Ghost, 19:27.860 --> 19:33.760 and the joy of the Lord hit that place. I mean, you looked at some of those faces that have not 19:33.760 --> 19:40.680 laughed in probably 30 years. I mean, it looked like their faces would break if they laughed. 19:40.820 --> 19:43.740 Do you know what I'm saying? I mean, they looked like they were, you know, 19:44.400 --> 19:49.380 sucking on a lemon or something like that, you know what I mean? And it was just so serious, 19:49.660 --> 19:56.860 so somber. Because what? Because they got used to being around the fire. They got used to it. 19:56.920 --> 20:03.060 That's what happened to Judas. Judas got used to being around the fire. And it got to be 20:03.060 --> 20:08.800 old hack to Judas. Is that right? Got to be so old to Judas, he was willing to sell out 20:08.800 --> 20:16.040 Jesus for a bag of silver. Think about that. He was willing to sell out the master that he watched, 20:16.320 --> 20:22.700 walk on water, multiply food twice, saw the man raise multiple people from the dead. Come on, 20:22.820 --> 20:30.140 somebody. Amen. Cast the demons out of a naked man in gatherings, right? All of these 20:30.140 --> 20:35.080 crazy things. And the Bible says if all the miracles of Jesus were written down, 20:35.080 --> 20:43.720 the worlds couldn't contain the books. Is that right? And Judas saw it all. He saw all of it. 20:44.320 --> 20:49.500 He even saw it by his own hands. He saw the food multiply by his own hands. Is that right? 20:50.260 --> 20:56.920 But what happened? He got used to being around the fire. He got, it became old to him. Are 20:56.920 --> 21:03.260 you with me? He became a connoisseur of the fire. Right? A smorgasbord of the fire. 21:03.260 --> 21:09.020 Instead of saying, you know what? I've lost my fire and I got to get it back. And I don't 21:09.020 --> 21:15.520 care what everybody in the church thinks. Come on, amen. I don't care what anybody in the church 21:15.520 --> 21:22.980 thinks. I have to respond to the Lord. Is that right? And that's where I believe that we are 21:22.980 --> 21:28.960 right now is God is looking for the church to start to respond again. Because listen, 21:28.960 --> 21:36.500 if we don't train our kids by our example that we respond to the fire, then our kids are doomed. 21:37.420 --> 21:44.240 Are you with me? Our grandkids and all of that stuff. And I want this next generation and the 21:44.240 --> 21:50.840 other generations to come to say, I remember when people were hitting the altars. I remember 21:50.840 --> 21:55.800 three o'clock in the afternoon on Sunday morning, people were laying in the floor weeping 21:55.800 --> 22:00.780 their hearts out. Or the joy of the Lord hit the whole building and everybody's laughing, 22:00.880 --> 22:11.020 drunk in the spirit. Come on, amen. Hallelujah. Is that right? Amen. Man, I sit and I read some of 22:11.020 --> 22:17.780 those old books on Azusa Street. I read some of those old books on Azusa Street. Man, your heart, 22:17.900 --> 22:24.360 you just fills your eyes with tears, right? And did you know that the fire department was 22:24.360 --> 22:31.580 called 33 times in three years? 33 times. They thought smoke was coming out of the top of the church. 22:33.260 --> 22:39.460 And the fire department would come 33 times. Can you believe that? 33 times, brother. And they 22:39.460 --> 22:46.860 came to put out the fire and there was no fire there. And these firefighters that came would 22:46.860 --> 22:55.140 all get saved every single time. Come on, hallelujah. Amen. What were they doing? They were responding 22:55.140 --> 23:02.380 to the fire. Is that right? Hallelujah. Literally, they were responding to the fire. I never 23:02.380 --> 23:16.840 thought of that, right? So look over in, I think it's second Timothy. Second Timothy. Y'all 23:20.320 --> 23:26.600 know the gospel of Jesus Christ by the will of God. According to the promise of life, which is in 23:26.600 --> 23:33.320 Christ Jesus. To Timothy, a beloved son, grace, mercy and peace from God our Father and Christ 23:33.320 --> 23:41.860 Jesus our Lord. I thank God whom I serve with a pure conscience, right? A pure conscience. Now, 23:41.880 --> 23:46.760 think about this for a second. The word conscience there, circle it in your Bible. The word 23:46.760 --> 23:55.380 conscience is never mentioned in the first 39 books of the Bible. I'll say that again. The word 23:55.380 --> 24:03.020 conscience is never mentioned one time in the Old Testament. Why? Because the old could not 24:03.020 --> 24:10.900 penetrate the heart of stone, right? So it never changed until John chapter 8. Does the word 24:10.900 --> 24:17.260 conscience ever come up? But I'll let you look that up another time, all right? So he says, 24:17.460 --> 24:22.960 I thank God whom I serve with a pure conscience. Everyone say pure conscience. He says, as my 24:22.960 --> 24:28.720 forefathers did, without ceasing, I remember you in my prayers night and day, greatly desiring to 24:28.720 --> 24:34.740 see you being mindful of your tears that may be filled with joy. When I call to remembrance 24:34.740 --> 24:40.800 the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois 24:41.420 --> 24:49.280 and in your mother Eunice, I am also persuaded is in you also. Therefore, I remind you to stir up. 24:49.560 --> 24:56.440 Come on, right? What? The gift of God. Is that right? Stir up the gift of God, right? Stir up. 24:56.540 --> 25:03.060 Everyone say stir up the gift of God, right? So we have to stir it up. We have to stir up 25:03.060 --> 25:09.660 the embers of that flame, right? We have to stir it up. Listen, I mean, I don't wake up and all of 25:09.660 --> 25:13.960 a sudden, ooh, I just, you know, want to pray in the Holy Ghost for three hours. You know what I'm 25:13.960 --> 25:18.700 saying? I mean, I don't wake up and I want to evangelize all of a sudden. Ooh, I just, 25:19.040 --> 25:25.260 I want to evangelize so much. You know what? I have to stir it up. Is that right? You have 25:25.260 --> 25:31.120 to stir it up. No one's going to do it for you. Is that right? So sometimes you just 25:31.120 --> 25:37.120 got to grab yourself by your spiritual neck and say, now we're going to praise the Lord. 25:38.540 --> 25:44.260 Come on, right? I mean, some people, the devil doesn't have to do much to keep them out of church. 25:44.760 --> 25:49.460 Well, you know what? I heard it's going to rain. Oh, better not go. The Lord wants us to be safe. 25:52.240 --> 25:57.440 Come on, somebody, right? Oh, I heard it's going to snow. You live in Minnesota, my Lord. 25:59.180 --> 26:04.580 Come on, talk to me, somebody. I heard it could snow tomorrow. We were in a church. Oh, Jesus, 26:04.800 --> 26:10.800 help me. I'm just going to say it. All right, we were in a church in Wisconsin, and the Spirit 26:10.800 --> 26:16.620 of God was moving in this church so powerfully. People were being touched by the glory of God. 26:19.460 --> 26:24.300 And as the people were, I better not share the whole of it, but as people were being touched 26:24.300 --> 26:31.060 by the glory of God, the pastor got up 20 minutes into my sermon, pulled the microphone out and said, 26:31.140 --> 26:38.440 well, I heard it's going to snow tonight. Let's all just go home. And his own child was there. 26:38.660 --> 26:45.120 His own son was slain in the Spirit, weeping in the presence of the Lord. And everyone was like, 26:45.120 --> 26:53.340 no, this is what we've been wanting. But this is what has been served up in the 26:53.880 --> 27:00.580 dead church in America. It's not even a fire. There's not even a story of a fire. They're not 27:00.580 --> 27:08.220 even a story of smoke. It's a story of wet wood. The first church of wet wood. 27:10.820 --> 27:15.500 What are you, what part of, what denomination are you from? We're from the first wet wood church. 27:16.940 --> 27:21.680 We got wet wood and our fathers had wet wood and our kids are going to have wet wood. 27:23.380 --> 27:28.440 Some of you will get that joke on the way home, all right? But that's where I believe 27:28.440 --> 27:32.700 that the Lord wants to awaken that thing on the inside of us. That's what happened in 27:32.700 --> 27:38.040 this church, not that far from here. We ministered here a few years ago. And it all began 27:38.220 --> 27:45.900 with this guy who had been in the military and he had jumped out of an airplane, a paratrooper, 27:46.860 --> 27:53.160 and his parachute didn't completely open. So he broke about 40 some bones in his body. 27:54.480 --> 27:59.760 Horrible pain. And just learned to live with pain and he came down to the front and I went 27:59.760 --> 28:04.240 and laid hands on him and it looked like someone hit him with a ball bat. And they had no 28:04.240 --> 28:11.020 catchers in the church. And I mean this guy just went flying on the floor and you heard his head 28:11.020 --> 28:17.640 hit like a coconut right in the floor, right? And when he hit the ground he was drunk in the 28:17.640 --> 28:24.440 spirit laughing uncontrollably. And everybody in the church started laughing in the spirit. 28:25.800 --> 28:30.240 And no one knew what was funny. And the more they tried to stop it, the more they laughed. 28:32.600 --> 28:36.940 Come on somebody, amen. What were they doing? Responding to the fire. 28:38.080 --> 28:43.840 Responding to the fire. Responding to the story of the fire. The greatest revival in Minnesota 28:43.840 --> 28:52.480 history is just upon us. I said the greatest revival. Amen. We may have some of the craziest 28:52.480 --> 28:59.640 politicians in all of America. But guess what? So did the apostle Paul at that time. 29:00.380 --> 29:07.480 Is that right? And it didn't stop revival sweeping through the entire Roman empire. Come on somebody. 29:07.740 --> 29:17.720 Amen. Hallelujah. Everyone shout fire. Amen. It's a story of the fire. Amen. And many people, 29:17.720 --> 29:24.240 they once were on fire and they think back, man, one time I used to, every time the church was open, 29:24.320 --> 29:33.680 I was there, you know. I'll never forget. We were ministering in Florida and we went to go minister 29:35.020 --> 29:41.040 we went to go minister in the Pensacola area and we had gone to the Pensacola revival. 29:41.600 --> 29:48.600 And it was amazing and we had gone there before but we had also gone after it was over. 29:49.160 --> 29:57.060 But I assumed they still had Friday night meetings at least. So I had a Friday night open so I told 29:57.060 --> 30:02.200 my wife I said listen let's just go on that let's go a day early go to the Friday night 30:02.200 --> 30:09.520 Pensacola revival. Oh man that sounds great. So we get there and all the doors are locked. 30:11.040 --> 30:16.280 So I'm driving around driving around and here comes a custodian and I get out and I'm like 30:16.280 --> 30:22.800 don't you guys still have Friday night church? And he said just like this he said we serve the 30:22.800 --> 30:29.460 world for eight years now we're going to serve ourselves. And that night I had a dream 30:29.460 --> 30:33.320 and so in the dream I mean I'm telling the web pastor mayor I just started weeping 30:34.020 --> 30:40.100 and so that night I had a dream and so in the dream there was a I don't even know what 30:40.100 --> 30:47.180 to call it but like an incinerator and there was a crane and this crane was grabbing 30:49.340 --> 30:55.180 thoroughbred race horses and it would pick up this race horse this giant crane and the horse 30:55.180 --> 31:01.180 would fight and it would throw it right in the fire. Then it would pick up another one 31:02.060 --> 31:07.940 and then it would throw it in the fire and I was trying to stop it and the third one I 31:07.940 --> 31:14.920 knew the crane was religion dead religion man-made religion and at the third time it picked up that 31:14.920 --> 31:22.260 horse it picked the horse up and I looked and the horse turned into a pastor and it threw it 31:22.260 --> 31:29.420 into the fire and the Spirit of God said is there no balm in Gilead? That's what the Lord was 31:29.420 --> 31:38.260 saying. In other words is there no place that anybody can go where there's fire? Not where they 31:38.260 --> 31:43.080 can go and get a good sermon at. Come on talk to me somebody right? Now where they can get three 31:43.080 --> 31:51.440 points in a poem but is there somewhere that people can go and get freedom? Amen? Is there a 31:51.440 --> 31:57.520 place that they can go or they can respond to the Spirit of God? I remember years ago we 31:57.520 --> 32:08.360 ministered in Baton Rouge, not Baton Rouge, Boca Raton Florida and so this pastor had invited us 32:09.040 --> 32:14.620 and he had a crazy story and he said listen we want you and Susie to come to our church but 32:14.620 --> 32:18.760 we're not a normal church and I'm like oh cool well we're not normal ministers so it'll be 32:18.760 --> 32:25.740 good match. And so I said so why do you say that? And he said well he said even my 32:26.820 --> 32:33.900 salvation story is not normal. And I said oh what was your salvation story? And he said well he said 32:33.900 --> 32:40.760 I was studying to go into politics and I was living with this girl now my wife but he said I 32:40.760 --> 32:46.040 was living in sin with her, knew nothing of God, nothing of Jesus, nothing of the gospel. 32:46.580 --> 32:54.100 And he said one night I had a dream and he said in this dream he said I'm in church 32:55.340 --> 33:02.280 and the the pastor was given out communion and it but it was in one of those churches where they 33:02.280 --> 33:07.080 put it in your mouth like a like an Anglican or something like that you know what I mean more 33:07.080 --> 33:13.860 liturgical. And he said and when he put it in my mouth I knew I was changed and I woke up. 33:14.640 --> 33:20.100 So he said I woke up my girlfriend and I said we're supposed to go to church. She goes 33:20.100 --> 33:26.620 church. We're not church people. He goes I know this but there's a higher power that wants us to go. 33:28.360 --> 33:33.940 He's not saying he doesn't know you know what I mean. And so she goes what church? He goes I 33:33.940 --> 33:39.700 don't know that part. I don't know that part yet. So this back you know in in the late 90s when 33:39.700 --> 33:45.060 they still had yellow pages. Young people don't even know what that is today. And he took 33:45.060 --> 33:50.120 a yellow pages and he did one of these you know and like this right. Oh okay that's the church 33:50.120 --> 33:56.960 we're gonna go to. And so so they they went and and literally just drove to this church knew nobody 33:56.960 --> 34:04.260 nothing. And they sat during the service and and it came time for the for the communion. 34:04.900 --> 34:11.200 And it was a much more you know serious liturgical type of church. And he said so I tell my 34:11.200 --> 34:17.720 girlfriend hey this is just like the dream. So he said you just follow behind me and I'll just 34:17.720 --> 34:24.200 do like the dream and then we'll just take this you know wine and this you know wafer. I don't 34:24.200 --> 34:29.320 know what this is he said. But we're supposed to do this. And so he said so we get up there 34:29.920 --> 34:35.920 and he said in the pastor puts the bread in my mouth and gives me to drink and when I 34:35.920 --> 34:44.400 drank wham he goes I went into deliverance. And he goes and I'm shaking and demons are coming out of me 34:44.400 --> 34:51.180 and they're like oh my god call 911 you know. They had never seen anybody respond to the fire. 34:51.460 --> 34:59.280 Come on somebody. They were gonna call 911 on that. And he said the next thing I know my hands 34:59.280 --> 35:04.460 go up and tears are running down my face and I'm speaking in tongues. Come on give the Lord a 35:04.460 --> 35:12.880 hand clap amen. And so then he said so we want you to come to our church but our church isn't normal 35:12.880 --> 35:19.620 either. And I said so what's your church like? And he said well he said well we don't sing 35:20.040 --> 35:25.680 Hillsong and Bethel and all of that. And I'm like okay that's fine. And he said you 35:25.680 --> 35:36.580 don't understand. We rap in tongues. I'm like what? He said you heard me. We rap in tongues. 35:36.740 --> 35:43.080 That's what we do. I said wow that sounds awesome you know. And so Susie and I couldn't wait to go. 35:43.440 --> 35:49.380 So he tells us a story. He said well there's kind of a story to it. He said after my 35:49.380 --> 35:55.100 girlfriend and I got saved. We got married right away. And we started going to this church. 35:55.640 --> 36:01.000 And he said I got trained for a Bible school. He said I went through their Bible school for one year. 36:01.440 --> 36:07.240 And he said after one year he said we were living in this little apartment in a pretty rough part 36:07.240 --> 36:14.560 of town in Gainesville Florida. And he said excuse me in that Boca Raton area. And he said 36:15.380 --> 36:21.420 one night I woke up and a bunch of guys were outside my door drinking and you know passing 36:21.420 --> 36:27.480 weed around and stuff. And he said I woke up it was like 2 2 30 in the morning. He's like 36:27.480 --> 36:33.500 God don't you see this out here? Why don't you do something about it? And the Lord spoke to him 36:33.500 --> 36:41.530 and said why do you think I put you there? And so he said I was he said I wasn't in the 36:41.530 --> 36:48.110 spirit at all. I wasn't feeling the spirit. I was totally in the flesh okay. But he said I'm in my 36:48.110 --> 36:53.990 boxer shorts. I walk out and there's five guys and they're all passing weed around and drinking 36:53.990 --> 36:59.770 and stuff. And he said and they look up at me and he said I felt like Jonah. I just preached 36:59.770 --> 37:06.330 the gospel and they all got saved. And he goes I was shocked. He goes now what do I do? 37:06.430 --> 37:09.650 I don't know what to do now with them. Now they because he thought I was going to be like 37:09.650 --> 37:13.430 Jonah and just you know repent you know God's going to kill you all or whatever. 37:14.370 --> 37:19.490 And so anyway so he said they started coming to my house and doing a Bible study. 37:20.810 --> 37:26.230 And he said I told him you guys need to get water baptized. And they said well 37:27.690 --> 37:33.110 you're our disciple. So you baptize us. He said no no no you got to go to a church and do 37:33.110 --> 37:36.690 it. That's the only way you can do it. And so that's what he told them right. 37:36.690 --> 37:42.030 And they said no there's a pool out there. One of the kids said there's a pool right outside here. 37:42.250 --> 37:50.250 Why don't you baptize us tomorrow. And so the the guy said now he's a pastor but he said then he 37:50.250 --> 37:56.150 goes that's a pretty good idea actually. He said all right I'll baptize you if on one condition 37:56.150 --> 38:03.710 if you bring all your unsafe friends tomorrow. They said done. So he said so I thought there 38:03.710 --> 38:09.990 is going to be five ten guys out there kids out there right. I get out there there's 115 people 38:09.990 --> 38:16.130 around that swimming pool. I mean he said they're all half high and drunk and you know carrying on 38:16.130 --> 38:21.530 and stuff but they're there you know what I mean. And so he said I get the first kid and I 38:21.530 --> 38:27.170 baptize them and he comes out of the water speaking in tongues and all of them start weeping 38:27.990 --> 38:34.830 and they all got saved. Come on give the Lord a hand amen. True story. True story. 38:35.630 --> 38:42.790 Why do I tell you that? They just responded. They responded to the story of the fire amen. 38:43.590 --> 38:47.610 That's why I believe that the Lord has us all here tonight is that we have to learn to be 38:47.610 --> 38:55.370 quick to respond to the fire. In 1904 there was a group of 13 teenagers that went and that 38:55.370 --> 39:03.390 was their earmark of their entire ministry was to respond quick response obedience to the spirit. 39:04.110 --> 39:10.150 That was their whole their whole focus called the Welsh revival. And in 13 months the whole 39:10.150 --> 39:17.250 country was saved. Every single policeman was laid off. Every single judge was laid off. There 39:17.250 --> 39:23.570 was no crime and all the bars shut down. Come on somebody. Why was that? You know 39:23.570 --> 39:31.250 why it was? It was because the church responded to the fire amen. They responded to the anointing. 39:31.610 --> 39:37.430 They responded. You know I'll tell you I can't tell you how many times that people that God brings 39:37.430 --> 39:43.330 people into church and the spirit of the Lord starts speaking. The moment they start the first 39:43.330 --> 39:48.230 song. He had no idea what I was preaching on tonight. What was the first song you sang tonight 39:48.230 --> 39:53.850 about? Would your fire come down? Is that right? Wasn't that the first song he sang? 39:54.530 --> 39:59.790 So guess what? God was speaking to you. You thought maybe I'm just reading the words off. 39:59.930 --> 40:07.710 You had no idea Almighty God was speaking from the first note. From the first note 40:07.710 --> 40:13.310 God was talking to us. Oh come on amen. All the way through the second song, the third song, 40:13.310 --> 40:19.150 the fourth song. Every single moment of tonight the spirit of the Lord was speaking. What was he 40:19.150 --> 40:26.230 talking about? The fire, the fire, the fire, the fire, the fire. Amen. That's why I'm telling you. 40:26.370 --> 40:32.670 I believe that God is wanting us to be quick to respond. Quick and obedient to respond. Amen. 40:33.310 --> 40:41.730 Some of the greatest meetings I've ever been in is when somebody responded. I could tell you 40:41.730 --> 40:48.270 responded to the anointing. And the whole place just went into a crazy uproar of the Holy Spirit. 40:49.150 --> 40:54.730 I could tell you of in Mankato, Minnesota, I had a revival there for four months. I was in Mankato, 40:54.850 --> 41:00.150 North Mankato for four months. And the glory of God hit that church like an atomic bomb. 41:00.570 --> 41:05.650 And people were weeping and laughing in the presence of God for hours. And we just kept 41:05.650 --> 41:12.150 going for four and a half hours. All through 2000, the year 2000. And I could tell you in those 41:12.150 --> 41:17.150 meetings there was one meeting that changed everything. A guy went and the spirit of the Lord 41:17.730 --> 41:25.590 started ministering to him and he ran down to the altar during the offering. 41:26.550 --> 41:30.990 And during the offering the spirit of the Lord was speaking to him. And the Lord said go home 41:30.990 --> 41:36.550 and get your 40 foot ladder. I think I shared this here before, but I'll share it again. And he said, 41:37.910 --> 41:42.550 Lord, what am I going to do with a 40 foot ladder? The Lord said go get your 40 foot ladder and 41:42.550 --> 41:47.510 sew it in the altar, sew it in the offering. And he painted houses for a living. That's what he 41:47.510 --> 41:52.970 did. And he's like, why? You know, and the Lord just said, do it and do it now. 41:54.090 --> 41:59.690 And so he lived just literally across the street. So he ran out, grabbed his 40 foot ladder and 41:59.690 --> 42:05.470 came in. Unbeknownst to him there was a boy in the church that was the most rebellious kid in the 42:05.470 --> 42:11.690 church. And every single Sunday he would leave service to go outside and skateboard, literally 42:11.690 --> 42:20.050 in defiance of his mother in rebellion. And so when that man walked down the center aisle of 42:20.050 --> 42:29.650 that church, and he laid that 40 foot ladder on the altar, the power of conviction, hit that boy. 42:30.150 --> 42:35.990 And that boy walked out of that church and grabbed his skateboard and laid it in the altar that 42:35.990 --> 42:44.230 night. He is now a missionary to Mexico. Come on, somebody. Come on, hallelujah. How did it 42:44.230 --> 42:52.250 happen? One person responded. I said, one person responded. I said, one person responded. See, 42:52.270 --> 42:57.390 sometimes the devil says, well, you know, you can do this at home. What will people think? Well, 42:57.390 --> 43:02.530 most people don't think anyway. There's nothing to worry about. The lights are on and nobody's 43:02.530 --> 43:07.670 home, okay? So there's nothing to worry about. You understand? It's just like, you know, 43:08.190 --> 43:11.670 just like that comedian said, you know, he goes, I know all you women are wondering, 43:11.670 --> 43:14.510 what is your husband thinking? He goes, I'm going to tell you nothing. 43:16.650 --> 43:22.030 He's thinking nothing. Absolutely nothing's going on up here. Right? Anyways, but 43:24.910 --> 43:32.210 but we have no idea to when we respond to the fire, when we respond to the Lord. We have no 43:32.210 --> 43:39.850 idea we could either be blessing someone else or not blessing somebody else. Are you with me? 43:40.550 --> 43:45.630 So sometimes you have absolutely no idea. I'll tell you one last story and we'll close. 43:46.510 --> 43:58.010 So we were, we were living in Florida. This is in 2004 or 2003, excuse me, 2003 we lived in 43:58.010 --> 44:06.010 Florida. And I'll just be very transparent. I got very discouraged in ministry. I know 44:06.010 --> 44:12.030 none of you holy people have ever been discouraged. So, but I just got very, very, it was like, 44:12.230 --> 44:18.850 it was demonic. And I just got so discouraged. And so my wife is like, you got to go somewhere, 44:19.030 --> 44:24.990 you got to go, the Lord's got to touch you. You know, and so I literally got on a plane for 44:24.990 --> 44:32.650 Canada and I went to these revival meetings. And I sat there in defiance and in rebellion, 44:32.650 --> 44:37.510 just wanting to be depressed and feel sorry for myself. Now again, you've never been there, 44:37.650 --> 44:44.710 so praise the Lord. But I sat there in defiance and I was like, I was just discouraged, you know. 44:45.430 --> 44:50.410 And I was so discouraged. It was like I was in such a whole of discouragement, I couldn't get out. 44:51.190 --> 44:55.530 And I'm sitting there and it's hard to describe, but there was probably 2500 people in 44:55.530 --> 45:04.350 this building. And it's hard to describe, but the, not the balcony, but what do you call that that goes 45:04.350 --> 45:11.930 up to the balcony? The, yeah, like a stairway or whatever you call those stairs that go up to 45:11.930 --> 45:18.210 a balcony. Yeah, like a ramp, but it's, there was no room in the building for all the people. 45:18.470 --> 45:22.850 And this is before Jesus' culture and all of that. And Brian and Jen Johnson are doing 45:22.850 --> 45:29.050 the worship. It was just out of this world. And I'm sitting there trying to be depressed. 45:30.170 --> 45:35.150 And Brian and Jen Johnson are doing the worship, right? And she's jumping and spinning and praising 45:35.150 --> 45:44.130 the Lord. But there was this large group of Japanese people that were a part of this group 45:44.130 --> 45:50.310 that had come for these meetings. And so they were from the floor all the way up to the top. 45:50.310 --> 45:54.970 There was probably, I don't want to exaggerate, probably over a hundred of them. And so they all 45:54.970 --> 46:00.570 had the, you know, the headset on so that they could get the translation. And there was a woman 46:00.570 --> 46:08.350 there. I'm forever indebted to her. And she is leaning over the edge and she starts waving 46:08.350 --> 46:13.930 her arm like a windmill, like this. And I look up and I'm like, oh God, now it's, now it's 46:13.930 --> 46:18.450 going to get weird. I hate weird so bad. You just have to know me. I just hate weird. I'm 46:18.450 --> 46:26.130 like, God, why is this got to get weird now? You know, but I went from discouraged to now I'm irritated. 46:30.850 --> 46:36.890 And I went from that deep discouraged depression and now I'm irritated and aggravated with this 46:36.890 --> 46:40.610 woman up here. And she looks like she's ready, brother, she looks like she's going to throw 46:40.610 --> 46:46.050 us off ball. You know what I'm saying? And she's winding up, right? And every time, 46:46.050 --> 46:52.390 Pastor Verne, I would look up at her, she would be winding it faster. I'm like, what the heck is this 46:52.390 --> 46:58.650 woman doing? I was like, is nobody seeing this and everybody's praising the Lord. And I'm like, 46:58.730 --> 47:07.270 so irritated with this one woman. And Jim, I'm looking up there and I'm just wanting to say, 47:07.370 --> 47:12.110 somebody stop this crazy woman here, please, because I'm trying to be discouraged here in 47:12.110 --> 47:20.150 peace, you know. And I'm trying to be depressed and I can't do that with her doing that up there, 47:20.230 --> 47:25.890 okay? And now she's just going wilder and wilder and sweat is running down her face. This is not 47:25.890 --> 47:30.150 one minute. We're not talking, no, no, no, not two minutes. This went on for 15 minutes, 47:30.210 --> 47:36.370 nonstop. And I'm like, I'm not going to look. I will not look. Oh my God, she's still doing 47:36.370 --> 47:43.230 it. And it was like, every time I looked at her, I got more irritated and the joy of the Lord hit me. 47:45.030 --> 47:54.570 And I began to respond to the presence of God. And it went from hilarious joy and I was just 47:54.570 --> 47:59.910 struck with the joy of the Lord in the midst of worship. Nobody laid hands on me and I fell 47:59.910 --> 48:08.170 out under the power there all by myself and God was healing me. Come on, amen. Come on. Thank you, 48:08.390 --> 48:13.890 Jesus. So you put that music on for me tonight. Father, we thank you tonight for the fire of God. 48:14.610 --> 48:22.850 Lord, there's a story to the fire. There's a story to the fire that we must respond to that 48:22.850 --> 48:28.590 fire. And Lord, tonight we ask right now over every single person that's listening to the sound 48:28.590 --> 48:33.650 of my voice. Lord, I pray if there's people that are discouraged tonight, if there are people that 48:33.650 --> 48:38.910 are depressed tonight, if there are people that are in bondage or whatever it might be tonight. 48:39.190 --> 48:47.910 Lord, I ask in Jesus' name, I ask, Lord, that they would respond to the very presence of the 48:47.910 --> 48:54.570 Lord, that they would respond to the anointing. They would respond to that fire, that they 48:54.570 --> 49:02.110 would embrace that fire. And Lord, I ask right now in the name of Jesus, that every single person 49:02.110 --> 49:07.310 would be stirred up on the inside of them to get back to answering the altar calls just like 49:07.310 --> 49:14.630 they used to years ago. Lord, to get back to that all over again in the name of Jesus. God, 49:14.690 --> 49:19.450 we give you thanks in the name of Jesus. We thank you, Lord, right now tonight for the joy of 49:19.450 --> 49:26.330 the Lord to touch every hungry heart. Touch every hungry heart. Just fill the house, brother. 49:27.290 --> 49:32.830 Lord, tonight I pray right now your presence would touch people tonight. Spirit of God, touch 49:32.830 --> 49:34.490 people tonight in the name of Jesus.