City Central Church Podcast
Personal Encounters with Christ
Gerry Fry speaks to the City Central body about the need for dynamic personal encounters with Christ.
I love you. Now, you've already been on your feet, but back on your feet for just a moment, all right? Tonight, we're going to watch both the clock. I love Emmanuel speaking. I love his teaching. I'm not going to do it, and Peggy and I are not going to do it in Emmanuel tonight. But that man is a man of God, and I love him, and I appreciate him and his message last weekend with just powerful along with Brian's. This tonight is going to be something different. In fact, actually, we're not preaching tonight. We have an exhortation. I'll do half of it. Peggy will do the other half. This had probably been the worst time could I ever remember that I've been asked to even share. I would rather Peggy do the whole thing. I don't even want to share two minutes. I didn't even want to be here. I just wanted to go and hide, and first of all, I didn't know if you could understand me. And this has been one of those things that happened. I can't believe it had to happen to me, but I had a choice a few months ago either to go to false teeth and have them all pulled out or something or braces. Anyway, I took braces. Anyway, I'm not sure I chose the right way. I didn't know. So since January, I've had these upper things on, and I finally, you know, I've spoken a few times different places and made it through. I'm glad I didn't have to speak here, and you didn't have to put up with it. So then this Friday night, Brian calls out of the blue and said, "I want you to speak Sunday night." And whatever, you know, this is a very important time. Anyway, Brian, if you only knew, on the middle of the week, this week, I've had what I knew was coming, but I just dreaded it. I don't want you to look too close. I don't want any videotapes made of me. My two lower teeth are missing now. They pull two lower teeth right here in the lower front out. Put the braces on immediately. Go upstairs. The oral surgeon took out the two teeth. They don't pull them out and go through all that, and then go downstairs, and they put the braces on, and so it's been a miserable few days. And I thought, "Well, I'll just go and hide and put something over my head. Nobody needs to see me." And I can't, you know, try to eat, and it's horrible. I won't go out to eat with anybody, be sure. This is not the time. And so then, right after that, you know, getting this call and knowing, and I said, "Well, Lord, are you sure?" In fact, I talked to Brian this morning, and I said, "Brian, are you really, really sure you heard from God? You don't know what this is going to mean. It's going to be hard enough on me, let alone hard enough on the body of believers there." So anyway, that's where we are. So if you can't understand me, just say, "Well, thank you, Lord. You're speaking. I hope maybe my spirit will speak to your spirit." And Peggy will get it all straight now when she comes. We've had a burden, unbelievable burden, this last several weeks. You'll understand that more as we begin to exhort. So we're just going to do an exhortation from our heart. I want to wish every father a happy father's day, but I come as a father to this body. I don't know why you'll understand maybe why God put us here. I can't believe that, but God did it and sovereignly did it. So when we come tonight, all Brian said the next 21 days, find out what God is going to say. And that's when Peggy and I heard that these next 21 days are to be a personal encounter. Both in corporate prayers that you have in different places, but more important everyone. And the Lord said this is to be 100%. There's not to be one that calls this their church body, where you're a part of this. Now the visitors and others, you don't have to feel this, but if this is your body and you're a part of it, and even the catalyst school, you have to, we adopt you into this for now, this is to be a personal encounter for these next 21 days, but it'll go on beyond that. It's just that fact we're going to zero in on the things we're going to share with you tonight. So I want you to pray with me that God will enable us to see, because the burden is so heavy that if we don't break through in these 21 days, it's all over. You can have, you can talk about, we are called. You can talk about all these other programs. I hop, YWAM, etc. This church is on a place where we've got to break through. We can't go another day unless you're willing to go. So I'm going to call you at the end of the service to make a decision. So it's not, I mean this father's coming not to, but because you're the most incredible group of people I've ever been around. I love you. You're doing great in many, many ways, but there's some things that are missing. I almost felt I encountered the Lord in speaking to this body and saying, "I love you. You're special. If I know I did you, I've called you." But there's some things missing. And we are going to have to hit those now. If we don't, God will find somebody else. I ask that you'll give us hearing ears. Give us a spirit that can respond to you. Give us eyes that will suddenly be opened and understand, Lord. So we go beyond just the things we see in man's program and all the things that men do and men puts into place. We want you, Holy Spirit, to come in the power and fire of a new Pentecost. We want to see the mighty power of your spirit begin to illuminate the lives of men and women till we see your glory manifested, your power release. People are healed and people are delivered, and we will begin to see your love sweep the city because you're going to do it. In Jesus' name, and if you believe that, say amen. You may be seated. This body has been marching together for well over ten years, probably 11, 12. I don't know the exact date that Brian Brandt had a group of university students and young adults that he joined them with Clover Creek and Clover Creek became one with what was called New Song. And in that group, they met on Saturday night, so New Song was Saturday night. And this was something that God was blessing and God was doing a marvelous work. Two years ago, God and his wonderful sovereign work came and brought a new direction. And there was no longer the connection with Clover Creek, now destiny, but we were to be a people following the direction of the Holy Spirit, with our own elders, with our own leadership, and et cetera, and et cetera. So that started a little over two years ago, two years ago March, to be exact. During these two years, which we now then have been directly connected with you, and as an elder, I've watched ups and downs. I've watched this body learning and trying to discern God's purpose and what God had. We faced a lot of difficulties. We faced a lot of disappointments, and we've had a lot of victories. Yet, over these two years, in the battle, because it has been a battle, it hasn't been an easy one. Suddenly, it was a whole new day, it was a whole new hour that we were having to face, and a lot of things were happening. And as we battled through some of these things, fatigue set in. Worryness set in. There was unbelievable delays. Sometimes we didn't even know where we were going. What was going to happen next, and we were almost existing week at a time. And during that time, I've watched the inevitable happen. We begin to lose that cutting edge of a fiery passion for revival. I'm talking about revival. I always still talk about it. I'm talking about something that is their existing that has diminished. Even though you're all doing great. I'm proud of you. I think this is the greatest group that I've ever been around, and I love you. I've watched that area that we can almost call burnout. Sometimes, some of you have just been holding on, and others have been dropping off. My first acquaintance with New Song, and I call it New Song, even though we're using the term city central, but to me it's New Song, city central, whatever it is. Anyway, you're a body of believers, okay? My first acquaintance was June of 2000. I'd never heard of New Song or Clover Creek Bible Fellowship. I'd never heard of Brian Brant or Mike Richards or anybody else. And some way through Jenny, Adam's wife, she got a book from her mother from Idaho. Her mother lived in Idaho and sent a book to Jenny, and Jenny got this book that was titled in pursuit of his glory by this some fellow that she had never heard of, Gerald Fry. And so she gave it to Brian. Brian was moved, gave it to Mike Richards. The next thing I knew I was getting a call. That was June of 2000. And I get a call and they introduce themselves. I said, would you meet with us and some of our staff or lunch? I thought, fine, you know, okay, I'm open because they discovered I lived here because my address was in the back of the book. So I arrived at lunch and it was great. I just felt a kinship. But out of that, Brian looked at me and he said, would you be willing to come and teach two Monday nights at a school of revival, which is going on. They had a school, a 12 week, 12 Monday night school of revival of 120 university and young adults that was going on in the June of 2000 all through that summer. So I said, okay, I felt that I should. And for two Monday nights, I met with him. Now this is toward the end of June. And then I said, look, I saw something. I hadn't seen for a long time. And I saw, in fact, you know, as I looked around, I see some of you that were there and you can realize you were then that particular school of revival. But I saw a group of students and young adults that were wanting revival. And I said, God, I mean, I know there's a lot to learn, but God, there's something here. And God knit my heart with you from that time on in Clover Creek. So the years have gone by. And now here we are June 2009, nine years later. And all the things that are going on in the world and the things it, God's purpose hasn't changed. God still has the same purpose. And that is experiencing the power of the Holy Spirit to be witnesses. That is to give evidence of a resurrected, transformed overcoming life so that the glory of God might be seen. That was what God was showing because that's what revival is. That's true revival that sweeps a community. So this is what I begin to see. So tonight when Peggy and I come and share these words with you, it's almost coming in the place of calling you to this personal encounter with the power and the presence and the glory of God. And it's something that's going to happen in your personal life. Corporately, when you meet in prayer rooms, yes, this is important that we pray together. But if you don't do this daily in your own individual life throughout the day, it's not just saying, well, I'm going to bow my knee here. It's a personal focus in which you have an encounter that is going to enable you once again to burn with a fire. And if you've never burned with fire, you're going to get on fire because God's going to begin to do this because it's the only thing that is going to be able to touch the city. And if you don't do it this time, God said very clearly this week that I will lift my hand and I'll find another group. You're not the only group. And God will let you go on and do your little things, whatever you want to do, and you have all your programs and you can yell and scream and jump and dance and all that. But God will not bless. I don't care whether it's we are called or off to this group or whatever group. Anything that is going to be able to touch our city is going to be the power and the glory of God being manifested through a people that are willing to have those personal encounters with God. That is your choice. That is where we are right now and we need to make that decision tonight. So this last couple of months, we've been going through the same thing. I couldn't believe that suddenly here Peggy and I are going through it knowing that some of the pressures that we were having as a church body, but we began to have our own personal pressures. They were getting very heavy. In fact, I don't know at a time in the last number of years that it's been as heavy as it's been for us, personally. I mean, you would think that by this time, I mean, when we reach this point in our life, you'd say, well, you don't have any problems yet. The enemy still can find us. And with the various circumstances that I don't need to go into, the enemy has used those circumstances in various things. To bring it into deep despair, in fact, I probably have had some of the most moments of great despair that I've had for years and years. In fact, it got so heavy that I finally did what I never thought I'd ever do. I just wanted to give up. I wanted to give up on the church. I wanted to give up on the revival. I wanted to give up on this whole thing. The glory of God, it's just not going to happen. I wasn't going to give up on Jesus. I was going to go on, but I just said, I'm tired of battling all the crud and the things that go on. And that was just my own self, my own things that were happening. So these overwhelming disappointments were filling our lives with feelings of fear, failure, hopelessness. And it was affecting us emotionally and physically. So we were under that. But it was in this time because God's always loving, He's so faithful even when I said, "Lord, I know I don't need to be here, but I'm here." And the Lord began to speak. And He began to speak to me out of John chapter 11. And during that time, as He began to speak to me out of John 11, and you all know that, so you can look it up later. But that's the story of the raising of Lazarus. So you all know the story of Lazarus, raised from the dead. If you went to Sunday school, you learned it. Anyway, that was the thing. I got down to verse 40, and those words just begin to burn in my heart, and they just begin to leap in my life. They begin to hear Jesus say to me, as He said to Mary and Martha in the disciples, "Did I not tell you if you would believe you would see the glory of God?" If you would believe you would see the glory of God, and then begin to recognize God had a message. It's a prophetic message for this end time, because John 11 is filled with prophetic implications. When you realize why did Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead? A man had been dead four days. The greatest miracle of all of his miracles. And yet, it came at a moment when his disciples were filled with disappointment. They filled with despair. They were discouraged. If you read John 11, you'll begin to find, "Jesus had just been in Jerusalem." And they had threatened to kill him. And that kind of bothered these disciples. I think it'd bother you, too, if you were there. And suddenly, they said, "This isn't turning out the way we thought. What's going to happen? What's going to happen to Jesus?" They want to kill him. They want to get rid of him. And so they leave Jerusalem, and as they are away, they get the news that Lazarus is dead, a close friend of Jesus. And Jesus delays and doesn't go immediately. And in the midst of this, they begin to question what's going on. And Jesus makes this statement. So you go back in the early part of John 11, he said, "This is for the glory of God." Now you begin to see God's orchestrating this. God's allowing this event to take place so that the glory might be seen. So he says to his disciples, "Lazarus is not asleep. He's dead." And I'm glad I wasn't there. Because this is for God's glory that the Son of God may be glorified. God gave Jesus to be the very epitome of what the glory is. You want to know what the glory is? You want to know what the glory is and just look at the life of Jesus. That's the glory of God that we're talking about. We keep talking about, "Oh God, send the glory." It's saying, "I want to be like Jesus." I want the glory that was abiding in Jesus to be abiding in us and as a body so that we might do what Jesus did and bring glory to the Father. That was the glory. In fact, when Jesus began his ministry, the first miracle he did was converting water into wine. He performed that miracle, the end of John chapter 2. It says this was the beginning of miracles and Jesus manifested what? His glory. That's the mark of Jesus, the beginning of Jesus' ministry. It was marked with the glory of God. So the glory is God's power. The glory is God's love. The glory is God's compassion. The glory is God's goodness to the people and we begin to see this for the three years. The three years have gone by and fatigue is set in. Awareness is set in and these disciples were discouraged and disappointed. It's not turning out the way we thought. We used to see the big crowds and now they want to turn against us and now they want to stone us and now they want to kill us. And so all of these things were going on and when Jesus said, "All right, now we're ready to go back to Jerusalem. We're going back to Bethany." And that's when Thomas said, "All right, we love Jesus." Because you love him, I know. You'd probably be saying the same thing to Thomas, "Oh, I love you Lord. Don't know what's happened. Don't know why this happened. We haven't seen anything in Tacoma. We haven't seen the glory. We haven't seen a revival. But Lord, we're still going to follow you. So we'll go back and die with you." They missed the whole point. But that's where we are. We're missing it. We're missing the fact of what Jesus is about to do. Because then Jesus comes back and he comes to Bethany. Mary and Martha now hit him and they're discouraged. They're disappointed. In fact, they're really just saying, there's their reaction. Jesus, if you had been here, this wouldn't have happened. How many times have I said that? Lord, you could have done something about this, but you didn't. And Jesus didn't. And Lazarus now is dead. And then he said, "Let's go see the grave." He's been dead four days and then he does the astounding thing. He said, "Take away the stone." Mary and Martha say, "Oh, we can't do that. It's going to stink four days." "Well, this is wrong." And that's when Jesus looked at her. Because remember Jesus had said to her, "Not only had told his disciples, you'll see the glory. God's son is going to be glorified." But when he arrives with Mary and Martha, he makes that profound statement, "I am the resurrection and the life." "I am the resurrection and the life." They still didn't get it. They thought, "Well, yeah, someday we're going to be raped." He said, "I am now." Because the "I am" means the God that makes things happen now. It's not someday, it's now. "I am the resurrection." But they didn't still get it and get it, so Jesus turned to them once again. And he said, "If you would believe, you will see the glory of God." Now, that glory was going to be manifest in the greatest miracle when Jesus says, "Lazors come forth," and he comes forth. But that miracle of his God's glory was going to do two things. It was going to bring a marvelous group of people that were going to be converted, and they're going to believe. But there was going to be another group that would reject. You would think by now the Pharisees and the priests and the Sadducees and all these opponents would say, "Oh, he really is the Messiah, but instead let's get rid of him." And then a few days he was hanging on the cross. We stand at a moment in church history, in the history of our nation, in the history of the world, in which we are come to that point where now we're going to have to realize God is saying to us, "I'm ready to reveal my glory." There's going to be a glory going to be released in this hour that has never been released before. It's going to be the only place that we can picture it as the book of Acts, but this is going to be greater. We're going to see the glory of God in such measures. Already it's being seen in some parts of the world. It's being seen in Mozambique. Some of you have seen the videotape of the finger of God. Heidi Baker, dynamic woman of God. Heidi is being used as the Lord, but do you remember what she said? It's the power and the love. It's not just power. It's love. It's love and power, power and love. That's when the glory of God really begins to operate. When we can begin to love God with such a love and love others, and that love flows out with such a greatness that releases the power. That's why Paul writes the Timothy, "God's not given us a spirit of timidity or fear, but a power and of love and of a sound mind, a mind that can grasp the truth of who God is, that reduces our love, that is so great, that we want to bring the power of God." We don't want to see miracles so we can bring people on the platform and look at some individual personality that we've been doing for years. That hasn't got us any place. We want to see a power and a love that is flowing from every one of us until our community is touched and moved by God so that we can see the glory of God. That's the only thing that's going to affect a coma. Something else is going to affect it. All church sermons and church music and all that we do will never affect that. We can keep doing our programs. We've been doing it for years and I'm tired of it. I want to see the glory of God in a group of people that are willing to pray and have that personal encounter with God so that he might be glorified and a city might be turned upside down. God's going to do it. Let me conclude with just one more thing and then Peggy is going to come and really lights you up. As the Lord began to speak into my heart during these times, these last few weeks, he reminded me that he has given to me a ministry of the Spirit that is glorious. And he's given to you individually and corporately as this body, a ministry of the Spirit that is glorious. In other words, full of glory. That's what he's given. That's our ministry. It's a ministry of the Spirit that is glorious. And so he took me to 2 Corinthians. You'll find that in 2 Corinthians chapter 3 and chapter 4. You can bright it down and look it up and study it and meditate on it in the next few days during these personal encounter days. You get to the end of the chapter and he says where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. That's why God's brought us into the fullness of the Spirit so that we can be free to do what? Behold the glory of God. Only by the Spirit are you going to see the glory. But as we with unveiled face, behold the glory of the face of Jesus, who he is in this personal encounter. We're going to be changed from glory to glory. And as we're changed from glory to glory, then we then, it's by the power of the Holy Spirit that he does this, we then become the reflection of a city that can see what the glory is all about. And when we come to these last days, which we are in, I mean, it's alarming. I've lived a few years if you well know. And I've seen a lot of things developed since I entered the ministry in 1952. And as I've watched the development of our nation, I mean, the last ten years has been astounding, but the last six months has been unbelievable. How could it move this fast? I've preached this for years and believed it and knew these things were coming, but God, it's here. But at the same time I'm looking up for my redemption draw in the eye, because I believe we're now at the verge of that great and glorious day of His coming. Now, but in the meantime, we're going to see things that we never dream would see. And it's not going to be an easy day for you or for me. But God said I would be a part of this generation. And this generation is going to see not only those events that are prophesied in the Word of God that are coming in there happening right before your eyes if you only open them. But God said He's also going to reveal His glory. And He's going to find a people. That's one thing you can be sure of. You'll raise up a people. And so when I got through reading chapter three and we're going to chapter four, He said, "Now, Jerry, since I've given you this ministry, don't lose heart." This body of believers I've given you this ministry, don't lose heart. Don't lose heart. Because see, it's so easy to lose heart. Paul could have lost heart. He goes on in that chapter saying, you know, this glory is where. In this temple of clay, we're just a jar of clay is all we are. And these earthen vessels, but that's what Jesus was. He took on the same earthen vessel and He revealed the glory. Now Paul says we have this glory in these temples of clay and we're hard pressed times. It's going to come. It has come. And for many, we're hard pressed, but we're never crushed. Sometimes I'm perplexed and I don't understand. I don't understand a lot of things going around here and what's going around in the world, what's going around. But I'm not going to be in despair if I don't lose heart. We're persecuted in different ways. Not that I haven't had any physical persecution, but there's been other persecutions. But we are not abandoned because God said, I'll never leave you no forsake you. We're struck down, but we're not destroyed. And what then Paul takes us into this phenomenal thing he said, because all of this is happening so that death may work in me so that life may work in you. God took Peggy and I through this, not just say, you know, I want to crush you. He wants to say, I want to make sure those things are dead so that greater life can come out of you and to a generation because we're responsible for this next generation. We're responsible for your generation and the generation that's following you because we've got about four or five generations living here at one time. And if we keep on this and some of this, Jesus and Terry, we're going to have six generations. I don't know. But we're going to see this, but at the same time, it's death. And that's what Paul said, I am crucified with Christ. So when I'm going through my despair, my disappointment, my discouragement that is so real, I need to bring it to the cross and when I bring it to the cross and overcome it and triumph over the enemy that was trying to press me down, what is happening? I recognize, Lord, I have been crucified. You've taken that death of my disappointment, the death of my failure, the death of my defeats, the death of my fears, the death of my hurt, and you bore them at the cross so that I might have the power of the Son of God living in me. So I live not by the strength that I have, but by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. And as I die to this and walk in this death, then life begins to work through me. And as I begin to walk into this, then Paul says, I believe therefore I spoke. So then I begin to say, God, help me to understand what you are saying, that this is the truth of this hour, that if I would believe and begin to speak for the truth, that we're going to see the glory of God, it will happen. And we're going to see the glory of God manifest in this city. And we're going to see it. And I believe God's calling you to these 21 days. And to the days beyond that, that we might become the instrument through which God is going to do it. And then he ends the chapter by saying it again, don't lose heart. Don't lose heart. Oh, yes, these bodies do go weak. These bodies do get fatigued. But then we have to look up and say, but God, you're still faithful. And I'm going to be renewed day by day. That's your personal encounter, day by day. I'm being renewed by the Spirit of God to pray, to walk in the things of the Spirit, to allow the Spirit to take control so that I can continue to preach the word and to claim the truth that God is going to do a work in our day beyond anything we've ever seen. Do you believe that? Do you believe it? Are you ready for it? And I want you just to lift both hands and close your eyes as Peggy comes to the platform now. And I want you just to say, Lord, I will believe. I will believe that we will see the glory of God. I will believe we're going to see the glory of God. Forgive us of our unbelief? Yes. Forgive us of our unbelief. Forgive us of our fears. Forgive us, Lord, as we march in to taking the next generation. And God help us to see we're no longer just a little group of people. You have taken us through the death so that life might come into the city. And God, take us now. We thank you. You're going to do it. In Jesus' name, in Jesus' name now, Lord, as Peggy shares these all important prophetic truths, continue to lead us until God, this place, becomes what you've designed it to be in Jesus' name. Lord, we're grateful for your love. We're grateful for your presence, Father God. We just ask that you just walk up and down these aisles in and out of these seats, Lord, do a new thing in us, Father God, refuel us, O Lord, with the power and the presence and the glory of yourself, Father Jesus. We thank you, Lord. I've been sick for so many of the last two years until I just said, God, I have had it. I didn't want to pray. I didn't want to do anything. And I just said, Lord, I just have to have something from you. So this week in my daily divorce, I've been going through all the right stuff. God, I haven't had much power behind it. I've been doing all the right things. I've been doing the hour every day and I've been doing the Bible reading, but you know, it's just here. It's not here. So this week, I said, Lord, I'm just tired. I have had it. I never feel good. My leg hurts all the time, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And so he just directed me to my day reading Psalms 77 and that's what I want to just tell you my encounter with the Lord Jesus this week. Chapter 77 in Psalms says, I cry out to God. You can read it when you get home. I want you to look at me and not that. Not that I'm all that pretty, but I want you to get it. I cry out to God. Yes, I shout. Oh, that God would listen to me all night long. I prayed with hands lifted up in desperation towards heaven, but my soul was not comforted. I was not released or I wasn't at peace. First force is you don't let me sleep. I think of the good old days when the Lord came in awesome power. Jerry and I have ministered with Catherine Kuhlman. We've seen people raise almost from the dead. We've seen them jump out of wheelchairs. We've ministered with Benny Hinn. We've seen thousands come to the Lord. We've seen people's teeth filled with gold fillings right on our platform. I've seen it happen. My son has had gold dust fall on the shoulders of his jacket and stay there for days. We've seen feathers from angels. I'm not kidding you. This is not a far-flung thing. This is truth. This is gospel. And I'm saying Lord, do it again. We have seen it, but that was yesterday. Verse 7 says, "Has the Lord rejected us forever? Have his promises permanently failed? Has he slammed the door on his compassion for us at City Central?" Verse 12 says, "Those things are constantly in my thoughts, but I can't stop thinking of you, God. I can't stop thinking of your mighty works." Verse 13, "Oh God, your ways are holy. Is there anything as mighty as you?" You are the God of great wonders. You demonstrate your awesome power. Verse 19 says, "Your path led us through the sea, the depths of pain and difficulty." You've been there. You're young, but you've had pain. You've had difficulty. You've had adverse circumstances. But God, you made a path, a pathway no one knew was there. That's the God I serve. He makes pathways that aren't even there. He's the God of the impossible. Airline tickets handed to a missionary friend of ours at the airport when God told him to go preach in Germany. He had no money. He had no job. He had no nothing. He didn't even have airfare to get there. He went to the airport. A stranger came up to him and said, "I was told to give you these." He looked around to thank the man. He wasn't there. Is that an angel? I don't know. That was the beginning of a 30-year ministry for him in Europe. There are evangelism centers all over Europe because of that man. There's revival centers in Africa. There's revival centers in India. There's revival centers in Asia because of that. God is God and nothing, absolutely nothing can hinder what he wants to do. Is he a respected person? No, he is not. God the Father keeps fresh in our hearts the character in the ways of God. Jesus keeps before us the Great Commission. Go into all the world. What is the world? He's not calling everybody in this building to preach around the world, but he's calling you and me to reach our world. Who's going to mind the store? We've got to have people that are here and planted in places where on the job, in the school, in the university, walking up and down the streets, being housewives, being mothers, having everything that we can be in our world to bring the glory of God, to bring revival, to our world, to bring revival to our family, to our relatives, to the part of the world that he's entrusted to you and me. The Holy Spirit is our enabler. He knows that we can't, but his energizing, empowering strength and might can flow through us saying yes and amen to fulfill the book of Acts here and now. Friends, we don't have many tomorrows. We can say, "K, Sarah, Sarah, whatever will be, be, we don't have time for that anymore." Yes, that's a Doris Day movie, you know I like movies. But that's truth. Whatever will be will be, but I'll tell you whatever will be as Jerry said in the last six months, we never thought whatever would be would be so soon. But God, we must, on a daily basis, fill our hearts and fill our minds with a fresh encounter of his power because we're facing the suddenlies. When I, just about a year before I met Jerry, I was studying and preparing for musical theater in the city of Dallas and I had blah, blah, blah, blah, I claim you know how that goes. And I was in the rehearsal hall getting ready for the next performance. And I went to the door, when I went to walk through the door, Jesus stood there. I saw, I didn't see a space, but I saw his robe, and I saw his hands. I was a nominal Christian. I grew up, went to Sunday school in the Baptist Church, I didn't know Jesus. But when you have a personal encounter, when you see Jesus, you'll never be the same. His voice sounded like many waters, but gentle and loving, saying if you will leave all, and follow me, I will show you signs and wonders. I didn't even know what that meant, but I knew the power and the presence of Jesus. And that's what he wants today, suddenly the Lord. Numbers 12 for us says, and the Lord spoke suddenly to Moses. Isaiah 29 says, yes, it shall be in an instant, suddenly. Acts 2 says, suddenly there came a sound from heaven. Are you ready for the suddenlys? Psalm 78 4 says, we will not hide these truths from our children. We will tell the next generation of the glorious deeds of the Lord, about his power, and his might, and his wonders. There, and I've been faithful to proclaim that to our generation, this is your responsibility. This is your mandate. This is your mandate, to proclaim the power and the might and the wonder of who he is. How can we do this? How can we be, be suddenly people, by a fresh refueling of the fire of God that goes clear to our bones? It's not an experience, kids, it's a way of life. It's not 8-5, it's 24-7, 1 Corinthians 7-5, they gave themselves for a season to prayer and fasting. That's what God's asking us these 21 days, a season of prayer and fasting. He's not asking, he's saying. See when the Lord asks, he gives us a choice. When he says, you better listen. It's like when your mama says, honey, would you take out the trash? And then your mama says, John, I said, take out the trash. You get it? The Lord is saying 21 days, prepare for the suddenlies, prepare for the suddenlies. I'm not saying fast meals, I'm not saying pray 24-7, I'm saying give yourself. Daily, with a focus on the Lord, being sensitive just to the next thing He tells you, stay focused on receiving fresh encounter, fresh encounter, a new refueling of His power and His presence. Live a fasted life. That doesn't mean don't watch TV. Don't use your cell phone, don't eat. If God says it, do it. But what it means is keep your focus. See Jesus, when I earn, when I drive, when I take shower, when I brush my teeth, when I eat, focus, expect, I expect, psalmist says, I expect the Lord to act. Do you get up every day expecting the Lord to do something on your behalf or you just hoping He'll show up? Whoa. If you're just hoping He shows up, you may stand on the corner for the next streetcar. But when we wait on tiptoe expectantly, God always shows up. Do you want, do you need, do you have to have a refueling of the love and the power and the presence of God in your life? Jesus said before He ascended that we would do what? Greater works than He. That's not for some big somebody, that's for you because He is in you. When you are born again, salvation is not a thing. Salvation is not an act. Salvation is the person of Jesus Christ. So when you are born again, you are a living vessel with Jesus in you. For the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for He has anointed. Are you anointed? What is the anointing? The anointing is simply the release of the power and the fire of God that He's already put in you. But you have to release it, that's the anointing. He has sent us to bring good news to the poor. How many shoulders and elbows do we rub every day with the poor? I'm not talking about monetarily. I'm talking about the poor in heart, the poor in spirit, the poor with no hope, the poor with no focus, the poor that are unloved, the poor that don't know Jesus, even the poor that do know Jesus and don't allow the Holy Spirit to be released through them to live. Not just an overcoming life, but a life of possessing. We can overcome and not be possessors. You can overcome every difficulty and still not possess the fullness. You can have a new Cadillac sitting in your driveway and you may have the keys in your hand, but you do not possess it until you get in and put the key in and start trucking down the street. That's what the difference in overcoming and possessing. We overcome to possess. And so many of us live in the state of overcoming. Ooh, you know, I don't do this and I don't do that and I pray and the Lord, the devil's not after me at least, not this morning. But we need to possess the fullness of the power of the Holy Spirit so that it is released, that we can be anointed to proclaim that the captives are freed, that the time of the Lord's favor has come. The time of the Lord's favor has come to New Song City Central. We don't have to have a facility. We don't have to have great numbers, we're grateful for the Reinhardt Bonkeys, we're grateful for the Mark Anderson's, we're grateful for the Emmanuel Ziggas, we're grateful for our pastor, we're grateful for the elders, but I want you to know tonight, we have to have one mind ourselves, we have to move with one goal ourselves, we have to have one heart ourselves at City Central to follow him, to walk in his ways. Revival brings evangelism, evangelism does not bring revival. Do you want revival, do you want the power of God moving in your life? Then let's cry out to God, let's shout in faith, let's declare with power and authority. Lord, do it again, we've seen it, we've read about it, we've heard it, Lord, do it again. It's not my brother nor my sister, but it's me, stand with me, do you want his power? Do you want his glory, do you want his presence, the spirit of the Lord is in this place? You can see his mighty power, Lord, do it again, Lord, do it again, Lord, do it again just as you did in the book of Acts, Lord, do it again. Hallelujah, do it again, Lord, do it again, once again, Lord, pour out your spirit, hear a cry, hear our desire, God, we want to see you, we want to see your glory, Lord, we want to see, we want to experience, we want your glory to be manifest, we want the fullness of that glory, that glory, Hallelujah, we're going to hand to each one of you, something in just a moment, in fact, be ready, in fact, just take it and just hold, go ahead, Matt and whoever else is helping him, get one to everyone and hold on to it, because we're going to pray for this, we've shared some things in this little piece of paper to put into your Bible, bring one to me, Matt, I don't have mine, thank you. Go down to the bottom of that where it says, "The spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor, he has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see that the oppressed will be set free and that the time of the Lord's favor has come." Can I ask you a question now? You may put that down for just a moment, just put it on your seat so you can, we'll come back to it. I want you to recognize, first of all, your believer, right? I mean most of you, if there's any unbeliever, please forgive us if there's a family time tonight, we love you and we hope you know, we'll come to know Jesus and all the reality that we know Him because there's nothing like it and all the world. So I'm looking at believers, how many know the Holy Spirit dwells in you? All right, then you're anointed. All right, now what we want to see is that anointing released, that anointing that enables us to proclaim the good news and Paul said it this way. This is the mystery, but it's now revealed. It's Christ in you, the hope of glory. There it is, that's the whole gospel, Christ in you, the hope of glory. I want you to turn, I hope we can do this one on one, but I want you to turn to the one next to you in just a moment, might be your husband, your wife, or a friend, or a neighbor as long as there's two, and if we run, you know, if there's somebody all alone, make it three, but I want you to pray this prayer quickly. I want you to pray God release the anointing in my brother or my sister. Release that anointing, if it's your wife or your husband, release the anointing to fulfill your divine purpose in their life and in this body for the city and for the world. Release it and I'm asking for it. I believe I have the authority because I'm anointed and I just reach out my hand and anoint you, then when you finish that, don't make it long, you say that prayer, then let it be reversed, then the person you're laying hands on, you turn around and do that with the person that has been praying for you. I want you to do this not as an emotion, but as a sign of what God's given to you. And as we release this anointing, this anointing is going to be so powerful that when we come to the end of the 21 days, how will we know there's going to be a change? First of all, it's going to be very evident around here. We can do a lot of things, we can have a lot of sessions, we can have a lot of services, you can even have a lot of prayer meetings, but if in 21 days, there isn't a marked difference that you didn't really hear us. You really didn't do what God asked us to do. We just went through another form, went through another day, went through another 21 days. If you really do this, we're going to see what God wants to even start tonight. Because when you come to pray for someone who knows, maybe it's your wife or your husband or your friend or neighbor, they're sick. We've been battling this physical thing in our family, and we know that God is saying, we know Brian Christie about it. We know there's others in the body that are battling physical infirmities, it's a spirit. See, what I said while ago, the enemy has sought in any way to destroy this body. There's been an unleashing, it's uncanny. I've been around a lot of churches, but I've never seen a group of people that love God the way you love Him, and yet still have all the, just the release. I know it's the last days, but I know it's uncanny. The spirit of illnesses, infirmities, attacks emotionally, financially, all these things have been almost like, this is not ordinary. Do you know why it's not ordinary? Because you're not ordinary. We're to do an extraordinary work in these extraordinary days, and because of that, the enemy is out to take us out, but now we've found where the key is, it's right there at the throne. I'm coming to have that personal encounter. That's why it's going to be personal. Nobody can go into that holy of holy place for me. I've got to go myself. No one on this staff, no one in the elders, no, this is not going to be a great preacher day. This is going to be a day where the body of Christ rises up, it's you going in. So when you pray for that person, we're going to see healing released. We're going to see that. You're not going to have to say, "Well, I'm going to pray that this will happen." No, just say, "I release the anointing, to heal, to deliver, and to make whole," because Jesus has already paid the price. Now we're proclaiming what He's given. So would you take these next, we're only going to do this about two minutes, one minute a person, and so I'm going to call you on that, so don't delay. You can't go into one of your long prayers, and I know you can pray forever. But that's good, but right now, all right, turn around. [BLANK_AUDIO]