Apostolic Lighthouse
The Olive Leaf - Bro Wilson
the Lord is in this house. It probably wouldn't take much for me just to light a little fire. And because you are a dino, Greek word for dino, you just probably explode. But I came here and the Lord on the way here, the Lord said, "Do you want us to preach tonight?" I hadn't talked to you, you know. And I said, "Well Lord, I said, "If you want." And he said, "Okay, I'm going to have you preach." So I was over there and Pastor Sampson hadn't talked to me. He was making his rounds, you know, touching all the people and saying, "Hey, praise the Lord, you know, hey, you know, and encouraging." He got to me and all of a sudden the Word came over me. And I said, "I want to tell you something." I said, "God is going to fill your altars with people, but it's not just going to be people seeking the Holy Ghost. It's going to be people seeking the deeper walk with God. It's going to be people that are seeking gifts so that they can take it out of this building and onto the streets because God wants this very well-kept secret in Nioso to get out of the building and into the streets where you live. He wants to equip you so that you're praying people through right on the street corner, maybe writing Burger King or McDonald's or in the Mexican restaurant that you go to. He wants to use you to get the word out because it's you. You are the witnesses to the world. Hallelujah. Praise God. I'm talking to somebody that says, "I can't do that." You can't do that. Just like you can't go and fight in the army. But if you join the army, the army will give you a gun. They'll give you the camels. They'll give you the hard hat. They'll give you the training. They will equip you to fight. And if you are really hungry for this Holy Ghost, he will equip you. He will train you. That's why he gives us pastors, preachers, evangelists, apostles, prophets. He gives us to us for the perfecting of the saints. Oh, Hallelujah. You won't recognize yourself in a year from now. Let me take it a step further. Let me tell you something. He wants body ministry to start happening in this church. That's where the body begins to pray for the body. That's where the body begins to say, "You know what? Such as I have, give I be. The site shall follow them." That preached the gospel. Doesn't say that. It says that believes. And if we will believe it, we can have it. Come on. I'm talking about believing apostolic ministry. I'm talking about having a Pentecostal experience. Hallelujah. I was pastoring in Havera, Montana. And there was a lady. She was let out of a hospital. She was very, very sick. Very extremely sick. And they said, "You can leave the hospital for two hours to go to church." And so she just happened to come to my church. And at that time, we were praying for the sick. You know, sometimes we say, "You know what? Let's call for the elders of the church. We're going to pray for the sick." And so she just came up. She came up. She was in a hospital gown with shorts underneath. It looked like a mini skirt. It was very immodest. And she came walking right up to the front. And I jumped down. And I was praying with people. And it wasn't quite this size church. But maybe a fourth. And she came up. And so I put my hand on her. And as I did, she began to cry. And then all of a sudden she began to speak in tongues. And I was a pretty new pastor. I had been there maybe six months. And so I turned to my assistant. And I said, "She had the Holy Ghost." He said, "I don't think so. I don't think so." No, she doesn't have the Holy Ghost. I said, "Listen to her." She's speaking in tongues. And so I said, "We'll keep the service going." She went back to her chair. And she's crying. I go back around and come up behind her. And I said, "Hey." I said, "What happened?" She said, "I don't know. I don't know what happened. I don't know." I said, "Well, I heard you like talking in like another language or something. What's going on?" Of course, I knew, you know. "I don't know. I don't know what happened. I have no idea." She came up to the altar. And God filled her with the Holy Ghost. And she didn't even know anything about speaking in tongues. I'm telling you, this thing is real, folks. This thing is real. This thing can happen. It can happen. It's real. It's real. I know. It's real. It's a Pentecostal blessing. And I know. I know. It's real. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. Now listen, you've danced and shouted and praised and worshiped God. And I want you to know for a preacher that's tough to get up and preach behind that. You've heard that before, haven't you? Yeah. But I believe I've heard from God. Is that all right? If you have your Bibles, turn it with me to Genesis chapter number seven. Genesis chapter number seven. Genesis eight. Let's go Genesis eight. Genesis chapter number eight. I'm going to why you're turning there. I'm going to attempt to recreate the story. Maybe put a little Wilson into it if not changing the word or anything. But tell you the story. Is that all right? And this is a little bit different style preaching. But if you will, we let me try it out. And I'm just going to preach to you. And I want to preach on this subject. I was thinking about it. And I think I'm going to call it the olive leaf. Is that all right? The olive leaf. Genesis chapter number eight and verse number one. And it says, "And God remembered Noah and every living thing and all the cattle that was with him in the ark. And God made a win to pass over the earth and the waters assuaged." Go down to verse number six. "And it came to pass at the end of forty days that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made and he sent forth a raven which went to forth to and fro until the waters were dried up from off the earth. Also he sent forth a dove from him to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground. But the dove found no rest for the soul of her foot and she returned unto him into the ark for the waters were on the face of the whole earth. Then he put forth his hand and took her and pulled her in unto him into the ark. And he stayed yet other seven days and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark and the dove came into him in the evening and low in her mouth was an olive leaf plucked off so no one knew that the waters were abated from off the earth. And he stayed yet another seven days and sent forth the dove which returned not again unto him anymore. Jesus, I pray, O God, that you would minister through me. Let me touch, O Lord, let me, let me minister, O God, your word. Jesus, I praise you. I worship you. Lord, I love you. God, open our understanding and our ears for you to speak to our hearts. In Jesus' name we pray. In Jesus' name we pray. The church said, Amen, you may be seated. So it's interesting to know that a lot of people don't realize this that as much time has passed, as from Noah's day to present time, as from Adam to Noah's day. So roughly about 3,000 years or so 3,500 years from Adam to Noah and another 3,500 or so years from Noah to here. We are living in the last days. And in Noah's day, what some people don't realize is that Noah lived in a pretty advanced society. For example, the great pyramids, we cannot duplicate them even with our modern technology. We just can't lift a hundred ton piece of rock a thousand feet into the air. We just don't have the capability to do that. And we haven't quite figured out how they have done it. But apparently, civilization was pretty advanced during the days of Noah. It had never rained on the earth, the Bible says. And we find out that through process of time that they believe that there was about 8 billion people on the earth during the time of Noah. About the same as what there is today. And the earth seemed like it was getting wicketer and wicketer and wicketer. It seems like where humanity masses, it seems like the world gets wicketer. Do you understand what I'm saying? For example, in the "O" show there's 15,000, 16,000, something like that. Do you know when the last murder was in the "O" show? You might be able to figure it out maybe two or three months ago. Maybe you had two or three this year. But you go over to a city like Los Angeles where humanity has mass and you will find there's probably hundreds of murders. It seems like where man humanity masses sin increases. And so when we have sin increasing, before long it begins to get vile and reckless. And so in Noah's day, Noah is sitting here and I can see him. God is looking down and he says, "You know, I don't remember why man, I created man. Why did I create him? It seems like he's doing nothing but getting worse and worse and worse." He says, "I'm going to go down to planet earth and I'm going to see for myself what's happening." And the Bible says, "The sin of man came up before God." And God said, "I don't want man. I'm going to destroy him." But the Bible says that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Let me tell you a difference between mercy and grace, okay? Mercy keeps you from getting what you deserve. Grace gives you what you don't deserve. So in other words, a little boy goes walking into a grocery store and he sees a three-musketeer. That was my favorite candy bar growing up. Looks to the left, looks to the right, puts it in his pocket and goes walking out in the store, lady cubs. Ha, gotcha. What did you put in your pocket? She reaches in there. Ha, your little thief. Now, mercy says, "I'm not going to call the cops." Grace says, "Here, here's the candy bar. Get out of my store." Mercy keeps you from what you deserve. Grace gives you what you don't deserve. And so Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. So let your mind wonder like mine does often times. And Noah's sitting there in his hammock. You know, he's rocking back and forth, just kicking back, you know. Noah. Noah. Ham, where you at? Where you at, Ham? Not Ham, Noah. Sham, where you at? God says. Not Sham, Noah. All right, Ham, where you at, boy? I'm trying to get a siesta here. I'm going to wear you out. Not Japeth, Noah. Noah. This is God. He sits there. God begins to tell Noah, you need to build a boat. I'm going to flood the earth. I'm going to destroy all the living on it. And you need to build a boat. The Bible says Noah moved with fear and begin to build a boat. Now the Bible doesn't say how long it took him to build a boat. History says it took him 120 years. Okay? And we really don't know. The Bible does say, you know, that God's spirit will not always strive with man 120 years. And so we believe it was 120 years. It wasn't just boom, the no boat was built, okay? It took some time. So let's pretend it's 120 years. Is that all right? And so let's say for the first 10 or 20 years, you know, Noah's compiling, cutting down trees, getting two by fours all up together. You know, he had to get all the stuff together, you know, and build the place for the boat and everything. And so, you know, for the first 20 years, maybe he went under the radar. Maybe nobody knew what was going on down at Noah's place. And so Noah, he's building and finally he starts constructing the walls of the boat. Now we've seen pictures of Noah's ark, you know, and it's got this nice, what is that called, the gate or whatever to it? And you know, but most theologians and historians believe that Noah's boat was just a square box. All it had to do was float. And so they believe that it was just a box, a big square box. And at some point in time, that box began to start looking like a building or whatever. And I can see Noah's neighbor. He goes over to Noah and says, "Hey Noah!" He says, "Well, what's your building there?" And Noah says, "Well, we'll pretend that he had an American name." Well, Sam, I'm glad you asked. Sam, there's a boat. It's an awful big barn. You call it a boat? What's a boat? Well, Sam, the Lord, God hath told me that he's going to flood this world with water. And so I'm building a boat because he said, "If I build a boat, I won't drown in it." And Sam looks at him and goes, "Haha." Nice to see you, Noah. Hey, you have a good one, okay? And Sam gets out of there. He can't wait to go tell his buddy Phil about how Noah's lost it. Man, he's lost it. Phil, you're not going to believe this. That thing that knows me, "Yeah, that's an awful big barn. What's he building a big barn like that? That's no barn. That's a boat. What's a boat?" Well, it's a thing that you float on water. There's no water around here. I know, but hear me. Noah says that the world's going to be flooded with water, and we're all going to drown if we don't go up and build the boat. Noah's lost it. He has. It's funny. And I can imagine Sam and Phil, they get together. Where are you going tonight, Phil? Oh, we're going to go over on this Sunday afternoon. We're going to go and spread our checkered blankets out and have a picnic, and laugh at Noah as he builds a boat. Hey, can I come? You sure can? And before long, there's a crowd that starts forming, forming, you know? And they're all out there. All of them have checkered blankets, you know? Because that's what you do when you have a picnic. And so they're all out there with their checkered blankets and stuff, and they're sitting out there, and they're laughing at Noah. "Hey, Noah! When the flunk get to come, Noah! Hey, Noah! How many psychiatrists doesn't take to change a light bulb?" Just one, but the light bulb's going to have to change. That's a good one, Phil. And they start laughing Noah to scorn. Ever been laughed to scorn? They start laughing at him. They start tearing him down. They start ripping into him, and Noah gets his little box out. He steps up on his box, and he says, "Now hear the voice of the Lord! I'm telling you that the Lord is going to destroy this world with water, and the only safe way out is through about..." They laugh. They laugh at him. "Ah! It's so funny, Noah!" The Bible doesn't say this, but he preached for 120 years. He may have got some people involved in the building. It doesn't say that, but he may have. Let me run with you. He may have got Max. Max was helping him build a boat, and one day, Noah was out there, and he says, "Hey, Max! Will you toss me that hammer?" And he said it in just a wrong tone. And Max says, "You know what? I'm not your slave. I'm done with you. Get your own hammer. You have offended me for the last time, Noah!" And he walks away from the ark to his own destruction. Maybe there's some of you here, and you're dealing with offense. And somebody has said, they might not have said, "Pass the hammer." But they might have said, "Hey, do this," or, "We could do that." And they're not my boss. How dare they say that to me? I'm not trying to meddle. I'm not. But hear me for a moment, folks. I'm telling you that the Noah's the preachers of your church, they're not trying to offend you, but they're trying to say, "Hey, wake up. Listen to me. I've got some news for you. I'm reaching for you. I see something in your life, and I'm telling you, you're going to miss the boat. If you don't get it out of your life, stick with the boat, folks. Keep going because the storm is coming!" Noah continues to build the boat. It doesn't say that Methusela died in the flood. He died the year of the flood. He might not have died in the flood, but he died the year of the flood, and Methusela did. One day, the crowds there, and all of a sudden animals start showing up. Mrs. Mistra Elephant tells Mrs. Elephant, "Hey, baby, pack your trunk. I'm taking you on a cruise." Mrs. Giraffe says, "Hey, Mr. Giraffe, I want to go on a boat ride with you." Mrs. Zebra says, "Hey, quit horsing around. Let's go for a boat ride." All of a sudden animals start showing up. Animals start showing up to the ark. They start coming in. I'll be honest with you. Sometimes it's pastors. Sometimes we feel like we're pasturing animals, but let's listen to me for a moment, because the animals listened to the voice of God, when they were saved. The Bible says that God shut the door. The last bit of pitch went on the ark. The last two by fours nailed in. Everything was good. Animals came aboard, and God shut the door. Scientists believe that at one particular time in Earth's history, there was a ring around the earth, and this ring got superheated according to them, and it began to fall in the form of rain. At the same time that the rain began to fall, the Bible says that the fountains of the deep begin to boil up. At the same time that water began to come up from the ground, the Bible says that the earth began to explode with volcanic activity. So picture me for a minute. One day it's a beautiful day, and in three hours into that day, all of a sudden lightning cuts across the sky. Thunder sounds. All of a sudden rain starts raining, I mean it starts raining like cats and dogs, you know. Sorry. I've got to behave. And all of a sudden it starts to rain very heavily. And those people that were on the earth, they start looking around and going, "Oh, look at this! Ah!" But all of a sudden the water starts getting high, and they're slopping around in there, "Hey, hey, I know what we need to do. We need to go to Noah's place." He's got that there, that there, that there. Floating contraption he calls about. Let's go! And so they go swooshing through the water, trying to get up to get to Noah's boat, and I can just see, and maybe there was a couple thousand, maybe I don't know, I'm just kind of guessing, okay? Maybe there were several thousand that were there. I don't know how many there were, but there were some there, I'm sure, and maybe they even had grappling hooks, you know. And they threw it up there, and it got on the top of the ark, and it was a big flat, you know. And so they climbed up there, and they're saying, "No, Noah, let us in! We believe you now, Noah! Let us in! Oh, Noah, let us in!" Now I don't believe Noah was the kind of pastor that he sat there for 120 years, and then he said, "You know what? You laughed at me for 120 years! Go ahead, drown now, you sea rats!" I believe Noah said, "Hab! Jam, Jaypeth! Get a two-by-a-four over there, and get that door open for them!" They ran over and... Let me think, okay? They ran over, they tried to pry that door open, but God had shut the door. And finally in sheer exhaustion, they stumbled over and they said, "We can't open it, Dad." And they're hearing people pound, "No, Noah! Noah, open the door! Will we believe you now? Open the door! Noah, we believe you, Noah! Open the door!" Two days, three days, maybe. I don't know, maybe four or five days, pounded on the door till their voices were rasped, and they couldn't, and a wave would come over the top of the boat and wash some of them off, and they'd still hold on to the boat. A few days later, they're down to 50, and before long they're down to 10, and they got their thing, their two-by-four, their branch, whatever. No! No! We're dying. Open the door, Noah! 40 days and 40 nights it rains. It's storming worse than we've probably ever had in our lives. It's storming waters coming by. The boat begins to lift off of the ground, and people start falling off the ark this way and falling off the ark that way, and before too long, maybe a week, maybe ten days. Before long, there's that one last person they can hear. He's pounding on the ark. No! No! No! No! Wave washes over, and it rains for another, I don't know, 33 days or so. And then all of a sudden, after 40 days of nights of storming, just solid rain coming down, all of a sudden, it stops. As soon as it stops, no one wakes up. Hey, it stopped raining. It stopped raining. Hey, okay, it stopped raining. Hey, do you hear anybody still up there? No, Dad, I don't. Okay, okay. What's this mean, Dad? I don't know. I don't know. God hasn't told me. But something's happening. Something's happening. They're sitting there, and the water begins to just, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh. It's just tossing to and fro on the waves. No storm, just eerie silence. A month goes by. Dad, have you heard from God? Dad, Dad, have you heard from God? No. How long does he expect us to be on this boat? I don't know. Dad, get, get, get, talk to God. I have, he hasn't answered me. Some of you might be in that stage, and you walk with God right now. You're going through a storm, or you've just come out of a storm, but it seems like God isn't talking to you, and you're saying, God, I need you to talk to me. And he's not talking to you. Stay faithful. Keep the course. Come on, I'm talking to somebody. I'm talking to somebody right now. You're going through a marital time. You're going through some marital problems. You're going through some problems with your children. You're going through some problems with your neighbors. You're going through some problems with your job. And you're saying, God, I need you. I don't know what I'm going through, God. Answer me, and God is silent. Keep the course. Keep plotting. God has something in mind. God's doing something, even though you can't see it. He's working. Let me say it again. Even though you can't see it, he's working. Even though you can't hear it, he's working. God is still on the throne. Two months pass. It's a long time to go through a trial. Anybody getting seasick yet? Three months. Nothing from God. Four months. God remains silent. Five months. Six months. God's still not talking. At the six months time, all of a sudden, they look out a window that Noah has made in their arcing. They look out and they can see the mountaintops beginning to start to form. What are those, Dad? I don't know. It looks like land, though. They didn't have mountains back in before this time. It looks like mountains. I'm going to call them mountains. Dad, have you heard anything? No, I haven't heard anything. Dad, we've been on this boat for seven months now. Is God just expecting us to live on the boat for the rest of our lives? I don't know Ham. I don't know Shamm. I don't know, Japeth. It's hard when you don't have direction and you walk with God. It's hard just to pray when God doesn't answer. It's hard to fast when it seems like there's nothing going on. But I will tell you if you will learn to fast and if you will learn to pray, I tell you, God will not leave you boatless. He will not leave you hopeless. He will not leave you shipless. But He will provide for you. He will make a way for you. But just keep the plot. Keep on staying the course. God said stay in the boat. I'm going to deliver you to stay in the boat. Nine months go by almost a year. I think there were a week and a year in the boat. He sees that boat runs the ground. What was that, Dad? I don't know. It sounds like we hit something. We did. We definitely hit something. Boom, boom, boom, boom. Okay, we're landed. Dad, what's this mean? I don't know. I don't know. We're just landed right now. Okay. We're okay. Let's see what's going to happen. Let's see what's going on. I don't know what's quite happening yet. But the boat hit something. Finally, I'm not going to hold you much longer. But I want to minister if that's all right. So finally, Noah says, I'm going to take a raven out. I'm going to just thrust it out the window. He says, Raven, find me some hope. I don't know if you know anything about ravens, but they're animals that they'll live off of dead meat. It never comes back. There's so many bodies floating in the water. It can eat and stuff. But also a raven is a type and shadow of the flesh. And we didn't start this thing in the flesh. And we certainly can't end it in the flesh. He said, you know what? I'm not going to start this in the flesh. Go get me a dove. You know what a dove represents in the Bible? It represents the Holy Ghost. So he takes that Holy Ghost and he says, dove. He says, go find me some hope. And he throws it out the window. And that dove goes, and it goes to and fro all through the day. And about even time the Bible says, it returns unto him. And he puts his hand out that and the dove lands on his hand. And he pulls it back into the ark. He waits another seven days and he says, dove, go find me some hope again. Let me tell you something. The ark was a trial. The ark was a trial. It was a test for no one in his family. No probably would have gone fishing. But he only had two worms. Sorry. I don't know where these come from. So Noah is sitting there. He says, bird, go find me some hope. And it goes out to and fro. And this time it comes back. And lo in its mouth is an olive branch. And all of leaf. We, we thumb through that. We say, oh yeah, it's just an olive leaf. It's not a big deal. It's just an olive leaf. But oh, let me tell you something. It let Noah know that the waters were being abated from off of the earth. And let me tell you something folks. It might not mean nothing to you, but it meant to Noah that the waters were going down. And my feet are going to walk on dry ground again. I'm going to be able to plant. I'm going to be able to raise up some things. I'm going to be able to build a house. I'm going to be able to do some things. Oh, it meant that something was going to happen and life was going to return to normal. I've preached all that time for this right here. Some of you have been asking God, full in all the branch and all of leaf. God, have you heard my prayers? I'm asking for your direction. Have you really heard my prayers? You've been praying and you've been talking to God and you've been saying, Lord, have you heard my prayers about my family? Have you heard your prayer? My prayer is about my body, my health. He sent this preacher here tonight to give you an olive branch to let you know he has heard every prayer you have prayed. Listen, I'm talking to somebody right now and I'm letting you know you're saying, God, what do you have for me? What is in my life? What is your plan for me? And I don't know what your plan for you is for you, but I have an olive leaf for you. I'm letting you know that he's telling you I've heard your prayers. I've heard your cry. Hippa, baba, baba, hasha, tandala, baba, baha. Oh, come on, I'm talking to somebody. Oh, come on. Somebody needs an olive branch. You do, sir. Okay. This is an olive branch for you, sir. It's not a big deal, except for the fact that God says, I have heard your cry. Hasha, tandala, baba, baha. Oh, come on, somebody. You can pass them out, too, if you want. Oh, hallelujah. Hallelujah. Just hear something that says, I've heard your cry, sir. Hippa, baba, baha, hasha, tandala, baha. He's not a deaf God. He hears your cry. He hears your prayer. He knows what you're going through. Hippa, baba, baha. You're going to see it this week. Hippa, baba, baha, hasha, tandala, baba, hasha.