Questions On Our Prayer Life

Our first question is, over in the book of John chapter one, Jesus is beginning to cause disciples and Philip has been brought by Andrew to hear about Christ. The Messiah has come and Philip goes and tells one of his friends, Nathanael, and Nathanael with a sarcastic reply, he says, has any good thing ever come out of Nazareth? And Philip gives that great word, there are two action verbs, come and see. And there are many Christians that need that encouragement and edification in your prayer life and in just simple discipleship and following Christ.

And so I just want to ask Carter to speak a word into the prayer life. Come and see. Come see how good God is and how powerful he is and just be able to give a word of encouragement to you all as you listen.

Well, I think that one of the reasons that people don't pray, is because they see prayer as an exercise. They don't see it as a relationship, they don't see it as something that's actually emanating from the heart of God himself. It's God who instituted the concept of prayer as our form of communication with him.

But in order to pray effectively, I have to be able to see the passion in God's heart to answer my prayer. Now the only time in the New Testament where you see the tangible anger of God through Jesus Christ, is when he comes into the temple and he sees that it has ceased to be a place of prayer. It has, it has devolved into like a religious system of profiteering off of people's failures and such like.

It's this perfunctory exercise. And the temple had so been diminished from what it was intended to be, that he made a scourge of course. And we see this, the anger of God manifested in the temple.

Now, I'm trying to take my mind into that scenario. And you see, there are temple guards there. Their whole raison d'etre is to protect the money and such like.

There's probably dozens of guards there. They're armed, and not one of them raises his hand to stop Jesus Christ from overturning the table, driving out the sellers and the buyers, and all of the oxen, sheep, and doves, and everything else. And then he makes this profound statement.

Yeah, I think they must have felt, there must have been a fear of God hit everybody there at that moment. And the knowledge that if I raise my hand against this man, I'm probably going to die at this moment. There had to be something.

Because technically it's one man overthrowing an entire religious system that they're duty-bound to guard, but nobody moves. So, and he says, it's written, my house is to be a house of prayer, but you've turned it into a den of thieves. Now, my personal opinion is that the thievery was not the money changers, and the selling of doves.

There's a natural thievery that goes on with this, you know, the price haggling, and the overpricing for certain things for people. But the thievery was that they were stealing the desire from God's heart to answer their prayer, from both God and from the people who were supposed to be coming in. So we go back, I know it's going to be a long answer, but it really does answer the issue of prayer.

We go back into 2 Chronicles. When Solomon built this original temple on this spot, and he's dedicating the temple, he made a scaffold and stood on that scaffold, raised his head, and prayed a pretty profound prayer. And it went something like this, and I'm just going to scan it very quickly.

And he says, Lord God, you're putting your name here. So hear the petitions of your servants and your people when they pray towards this place. If we sin against our neighbor and we're forced to take an oath and we come, come, hear from heaven and bring just judgment to us.

If we're defeated before an enemy and we confess and return and confess your name and pray and make supplication before you, then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your people, Israel, and bring them back to the land that you gave to their fathers. When the heavens are shut, that there is no rain because they've sinned against you and they pray towards this place, hear in heaven, forgive the sin of your servants and teach them the good way in which they should walk. When there's famine in the land, pestilence or blight or mildew, locusts or grasshoppers, when their enemies besiege them, think about America today, besiege them in the land of their cities, whatever plague or whatever sickness there is, whatever prayer, whatever supplication is made by anyone or by all your people, when each one knows the burden of his own heart and spreads out his hands towards this temple, then hear from heaven and forgive.

And concerning the foreigners, there's like people who hear about your reputation, about how you're answering your people, when they come in with a question from a far country, because they hear about your great name and your mighty hand and your upstretched arm, they come and pray, hear from heaven and do everything that the stranger asks you to do, that your name might be even given more glory on the earth. When people go to battle against their enemies and they're fighting and they turn and they pray, hear their supplication, maintain their cause. When we sin and you become angry with us and deliver your people to the enemy and they take them captive to a far off land or a place near, yet in that place they comfort themselves, that's spiritual awakening, where they're carried captive and repent and make supplication to you in the land of their captivity and say, we've sinned, we've done wrong, we've committed wickedness, and then they return to you with all their heart and all their soul in the land of their captivity and pray towards the land which you gave to their fathers and the city which you've chosen and towards the temple which I've built for your name.

Then hear from heaven your dwelling place, their prayer, their supplications and maintain their cause and forgive your people who have sinned against you. Now my God, I pray let your eyes be open, let your ears be attentive to the prayer that is made in this place. Chapter 7, when Solomon had finished praying, the fire came down from heaven to consume the burnt offering, the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple.

The priest could not enter the house of the Lord because the glory of the Lord had filled the Lord's house. So God, in a sense, gave credibility to this cry of Solomon by coming down in the fullness of his power, as much as we can understand, and he filled the house with his glory saying, I'm pleased with this, I'm pleased with this prayer, I'm pleased with your desire to pray to me if you're taken captive, if you have questions, if you need resolution to a whatever the situation is, if your cities are besieged, if your children are taken, I'm pleased that you will come into this house and you will ask me these things. Now later on it says, when Solomon goes home, it says, then the Lord appeared to Solomon by night and said to him, I've heard your prayer and I've chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice.

When I shut up heaven and there is no rain or command the locusts to devour the land or send pestilence among my people, if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven forgiveness of sin and heal the land. He says, now my eyes are open and my ears are listening to the prayer made in this place. For I've chosen and sanctified this house that my name may be there forever and my eyes and my heart will be there for protection.

So God said to Solomon, I will be watching and I will be listening for the prayers that you pray in this place, no matter how difficult your situation is or how, you know, how captivated you might become as a people, if you will humble yourselves and come to me and pray, I will hear, I will forgive and I will heal your land. Now he says, my eyes are open and my ears are listening to the prayer that's going to be made in this place. So now the same Jesus, the same God, who spoke these words to Solomon, who came down and filled the house when it was dedicated, now comes physically as the man Jesus Christ into the temple and sees what this temple has become.

The anger is because turning it from what it's supposed to be is robbing God of his desire to answer. You know, like we don't see that. We think that when we pray, we're trying to convince a reluctant God to say, all right, you've prayed long enough, you've prayed hard enough, you've sweated enough, all that.

We don't see it as if the passion was in his heart. He says, my eyes are open, my ears are listening so that I can actually bring you home, heal your land, restore your families. And he says, and you've turned this, you've turned what's supposed to be a relationship where you ask and I respond, you've turned it into this buying and selling complex where you're just profiting off of people's failure.

Instead of turning them to me, you're profiting off of it and you have ceased to become a house of prayer. And the anger in the heart of Jesus is not that we're not praying, it's that he can't answer us. And until we see that, we're always trying to move the hand of a reluctant God to answer us, not saying the passion is in his heart, way beyond and way before ours are even coming in.

So most people don't see God that way. And because they don't see God that way, they don't pray or their prayers turn into this. And it's a lot of us that they pull out of their back pocket and pray for my aunt and my uncle, my dog, creepy and all this other stuff, like every day, the same thing.

It's not really a conversation anymore. And because they don't understand that God says, I want to answer your prayer. When you get that, it changes everything.

Why don't you share with the, with the answer prayer, which you shared in your sermon tonight, about the hundred thousand. Well, when I was a new believer, I began to pray. I was a police officer and I was walking the beat.

I'm a brand new believer in Christ. I don't have any ability to speak. I'm just out of the gate.

I don't really have any skill set, per se, to do anything for the kingdom of God. I'm really just trying to stay alive. I'm trying to float on this new seat.

You know what I'm talking about, right? You've got so much weight on you, it's dragging you down. You just want, I'm trying to learn to be a husband. I'm trying to learn to be a father.

I want to be a good person. I want to be an honest, truthful person. I want to, you know, I just want to be other than what I am.

And I started praying this prayer. It was a secret prayer. I didn't dare tell anybody because they'd think I was crazy.

But I started praying, Lord, I want to win a hundred thousand people before I die. And then I began to be specific. I said, God, I want these people to not just raise their hands in a service somewhere or services somewhere, but I want them to actually walk with you all the days of their lives so that when they stand before your throne one day, you can actually look at them and say, well done, good and faithful servant.

So my prayer started turning specific. Now you have to understand like, man, this is impossible with me. It's not going to happen.

I'm not, I can't speak publicly. I don't like being in a crowded room. I'm just, I'm just learning to care about people.

You know, like, I mean, it's just, I'm coming from way, way down the tunnel. Yeah, man, it seemed almost absurd, but it was a desire in my heart. I said, God, I'm asking you that my life would count.

So fast forward many, many years down the road, I'm in Nigeria, just Nigeria in the middle of a civil war. And the people had been in quarantine because they'd been killing each other. And we were the first allowable public gathering in this part of the world.

And there's a town of about 3 million people and about 500,000 came out for three nights consecutively. And that's, that's their estimation was between four and seven. You can't count.

All I can say is I was on a platform 15 feet high and I couldn't see the end of the people in any direction. It's just a sea. It's an absolute sea of people out there.

And I remember that first night because it's, it's, it's Muslims fighting against non-Christian. They're burning each other's houses down. They're burning each other's places of worship.

They're killing each other. Like both sides are doing this, not just the Muslims, the Christians. Well, they call themselves Christians, but they're doing it as well.

So I spoke that night on the bankruptcy of all religion. And you can use that Jesus said, because they do believe in Islam, that Jesus is a prophet. So I was on good ground.

Jesus said, the Jericho parable, all, all religion that has no compassion for its neighbor is worthless. It's bankrupt. It has no value in the sight of God whatsoever, whether it's Islam or whether it's Christianity, so everybody's on level ground.

And then I went on and finished the message and talked about what a relationship with God really was. And I said, anybody here who wants to give their life to Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins and to be able to forgive your neighbors and to be able to, you know, to live not only with an assurance of heaven, but to live the life that God would have you live on the earth while you're here. I'm going to ask you in a moment to raise your hand.

I said, but if you have no intention on changing the way you are, if you have no intention on forgiving your neighbor, if you have no intention on, on being the person that God says you should be, do not disgrace God by raising your hand. Do not do it. I didn't want any easy believers of that night.

But if you want to give your life to Jesus Christ, who claimed to be God, would come down in the flesh to man. You can't say he had a son because the Muslims were involved at that moment. So, but you can say he became a man and he took on a name and his name was Jesus.

I said, I'm going to ask you now, if you want to open your heart to him, please raise your hand right now. And the estimates that night from the people who were there is about a hundred thousand people raised their hands to receive Christ as Savior. And then we prayed the prayer of repentance and forgiveness.

And then that night I went back to my hotel room and it suddenly dawned on me, God, you answered my prayer that I prayed years ago, which was an impossibility in one night. In one night, you've given me a hundred thousand souls, which I believe are many of which grew up with God. And I went to kneel down beside my bed in the hotel room to give him thanks.

And when I knelt down, he said to me, Carter, don't limit me. Don't limit what I can do. I can do exceedingly above and beyond all you can even ask or think.

There's no limit to what I can do. If you will walk in faith, I can do much more than what you're seeing tonight. You know, so I got a letter from one of the Muslim vendors who was way, way, way, we had like, we used, I believe it was Reinhard Bachmann's equipment in Africa.

So we had the big screens and speakers. And so there's a screen and screen and screen. So I filed it back so you can see more and more speakers.

And so there was a vendor way in the back. I wouldn't be able to see him. He's like way, way in the back.

And he wrote me a letter in New York and he said, I want to thank you. He said for revealing to me a God so clearly that I could never find through Islam. I have, I've surrendered my life to Jesus Christ and I'm now a loyal follower of Jesus Christ.

And then at the end of his letter, he says, please pray for me. I will most likely be killed by my Muslim brethren. Now that's a conversion.

He's not asking for money. He's not asking for anything. He's just sending me a letter.

And the governor, now the governor of Papua State, Nigeria was not there. When he came back to Jos, the city was at peace. There was no fighting going on.

People were intermingling with one another. He was perplexed. He said, what happened here? They told him.

So he flew to New York with an entourage and he came to see me. And he comes into my office, the governor, he comes into my office and he says, I don't know what you did. He said, but would you lay your hands on me so that I too can become a follower of Jesus Christ? Like he had no idea that he didn't know the concept.

He thought it was like imparted. He didn't realize it. So I had to explain to him what it was to become a follower.

But he flew to New York to give his life to, and he says, it has to be on the platform. I want to give my life to Christ, but it has to be on the platform. So we went into the sanctuary and he got on the platform and he gave his life to Jesus Christ in front of all of his, he had a whole entourage with him because he was the governor.

And in front of all of them, he humbled himself and gave his life to Jesus Christ. But this is what God can do. I was thinking when you told that during the revival service, what was the time period between when you were walking and praying that and then when you went to Nigeria? Was it 20 years? Yeah, I'd say I was saved in 1978.

This was probably around 1980-ish. So it would be 25 years later. Okay.

Yeah. So come to see the evidence when God stirs the heart, puts a desire on you to pray so that God can be glorified in such a manner, but let go of those things of religion that destroyed the temple, that threw people away from God rather than bringing them unto him. So I'll pray again for that, and then I'll pray and then we'll go on to the next one.

Father, I just pray tonight that people can see the largeness of your heart, because if they can't see it, they can't believe that you ever want to answer them. You have a large heart, much bigger than we give you credit for. I'm asking God that people can see the largeness of your heart, the desire to answer our prayers.

And if you're willing to show yourself God, if we're willing to let you be God, give us a bigger vision of you, Lord, than we've had thus far. We see you sometimes as a stingy grandfather that has to be, you know, convinced to give your children a dollar. God Almighty, when you have the treasure of heaven and you're willing to give it, you know, to your children to, in whatever measure they need to give things of God, to do the work of God.

So Father, I just thank you, Lord, that you have, you've over the years shown me the largeness of your heart, your willingness to hear, your willingness to forgive, your willingness to heal. And so, Lord, I just thank you, God, just give people a bigger vision than they've ever had of you in their lifetime. And I ask it in Jesus' name.

Holy Father, I pray in agreement with that, is that, again, is that it's not complicated. Satan will come to deceive and traditions and rob us of so much, Lord, that you intended. Forgive us for that, Lord, and just keep us in that place, Lord, is that we remember those words that you repeated over and over.

My eyes are open and seeing. My ears are open and listening. And Jesus gave us the declarative statement where you said, ask, seek, and knock.

And so, Lord, may we be found faithful to enter in. May we sit before you. May we gaze upon you.

May we behold you, Lord. And then as you reveal yourself, Lord, we don't need to ask for anything. We don't need to say anything.

We just need to worship you. And, Lord, again, it is that when it is time to ask, we know that there is a God who sees, a God who hears. Thou God, see us now.

I love that phrase, Lord. And, again, you are in the midst. And so, Lord, again, just draw us in.

And may we, again, not be discouraged if prayers are not answered, whether it's 25 years or in a lifetime, Father. You're a God who is ready to answer in your time, and your time is right. And so, Lord, just give us faith to remember the promises, remember the directives in these testimonies.

Come and see how great a God it is that we do have to pray to and to answer this. So, Lord, I thank you for that in Jesus' name. Amen.

All right, number two. We're not going to make it to our questions here tonight. Lord, we'll arrange this when you get back from all your trips.

We'll wait for a big snowstorm and we can sit down and nothing else to do. Second question that I want to ask you, Carter, here tonight, what do you see right in the church? Again, Carter travels worldwide, sees more churches than what most people do, denominations, two-fold question contracts. What is right in the church that's happening to give you hope and glory for what God intended? And then Revelation, where he speaks to the six of the seven churches, and he says, with this I have against you, what do you see that the Lord would say to the American church, with this I have against you, that needs to be repented and corrected before it's too late? Well, we have lived in ease, you know, for a long, long time.

We fell into the labor scene trap, I think, in America, where we said we're rich and increased in goods and we have needed nothing, you know, and quite often, and not all, but many of the churches, especially in areas where it became almost culturally acceptable to be a Christian. If we had a nice house, we had a job, we had two kids in college, you know, everything was satisfied. I had pastors from a church in Texas, had 25,000 members in the church, and they came to see me in New York City, and they said, we can't get a permitting going.

We're 25,000 members in this one church, I won't name the church, but we can't get a permitting, and if we call a permitting, maybe only 200 people will come, and then nobody will pray. So, they came to New York City, and they saw Tuesday night, we were conked out for the permitting. People showed up at five o'clock just to pray about a permitting that was going to go online at seven, so we prayed from 530 at five to seven for the permitting that went from seven to nine, and the house is full, and it was one of the premier services in the Times Square Church, and they said, so how did you get this going? What's your program? And I told them, I said, guys, it is, it's not a program, it's a passion.

I said, they said, well, what do, why can't we get a prayer meeting going? I said, well, that's a question that you need to answer yourself. I said, because your church will become a mirror image of your leadership. If you want to see your walking top, look at your church.

I said, so are you praying? Are you, I said, what are you preaching to your church? Why do they not have a burden for lost people around them? Why do they think everybody's saved? Why do they have no passion for missions? I said, if your focus of your gospel is on self, you know, that I've often said in America, I think this is what the Lord would have against some of His church, the Constitution of the country guarantees this undeniable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of personal happiness, right? So that's in the Constitution. Unfortunately, instead of the church, influencing that, the church adopted that almost as a theology. It's about my life, my freedom, and the pursuit of my happiness.

So it's all about me. You know, I just came from, I'm not going to say what, I came from a state here just recently, a couple of weeks ago, where there's no real church growth by, by salvations. It's all, it's all just transfer growth.

Because if you're not telling me enough about me, then I'm going across the street, where they're going to tell me more about me. Everybody's going around with their basket, it's about me. What can I take home for myself? Where the church is, is supposed to be about others.

The whole raison d'etre of being on the earth is about other people. It's, it's about the hungry, and the afflicted, the addicted, the poor, the impoverished, the lost, the, the confused. We're supposed to be out there.

Jesus Christ stood up in the temple. And he said, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, and he gave the reason. For the poor, for the addicted, for the afflicted, for the wounded in heart, for those who don't see a way forward, for the marginalized, the lost.

And he said, and then he said to his disciples, as the Father has sent me, now I send you. So how did we, how did we turn that upside down to where the Spirit of the Lord's upon me for me? You know, for, and we, we allow these light creatures in the pulpits that, that, that feed that wrong theology, may I put it that way. It's an inverted cross.

It's got nothing to do with the work of God. And of course, what happens is because that became largely the focus of the American church, the whole society around us is dying now. Our children are, we're like the, we're like the, the servant of Elisha that woke up in the, at nighttime, the enemy that surrounded the city.

Our cities are surrounded. Our colleges are surrounded. Our schools are surrounded.

Our kids are surrounded. Laws are being passed. It's just, it's insanity what's going on right now.

The first man to wake up was a, was a natural man. He's a part of the family of God, but he's a natural man. He hasn't got spiritual eyes.

And he says, oh, he counts like the chariots there. He counts the chariots here. He counts the souls there.

He counts us. And he comes to the conclusion, we're done. We're finished.

We're toast. And Elisha says, he was a man of prayer. This is about prayer.

He says, God opened his eyes. And when he opened his eyes, he saw that the mountains and hills were filled with warriors sent from heaven and willing to fight on their behalf. And the, I love that fact that with, with just, just three prayers, Elisha took the whole enemy army captive.

A praying man, you know, like it says in the scripture, the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails nothing. At some point, we've got to get out of the stupor that we're in. At some point, somebody's got to say, has anybody noticed the emperor has no clothes? You know, has anybody had enough? Yeah.

I said at a pastor's conference recently a while back, I said, do we have the courage guys to just stop? Do we have the courage to say what we're doing is not working? Do we have the courage to maybe look again in the scriptures and say, maybe we've deviated from the pattern of the New Testament church and begin to pray and begin to ask God to do again what only God can do and yield our bodies as a living, as opposed to coming in with a wagon saying, fill my basket for me. We're coming in saying, fill my basket for others. Give me something to give to somebody else.

Give me, give me words to speak. Give me a heart to go. Just give me what I need for the sake of the work.

Why was the church going to let care on the earth in the first place, if not to continue to look at Christ in the second? The redemption of the lost has always been the work of God. So what you're saying then, the scripture that Isaiah says, or Jeremiah says, these are the old paths. This is what works.

And that the church in America has largely left the old paths to create new paths, which God has not seen an honor for. We've got to have the courage to say, so how's this working out? Our whole society is dying. Our children are dying in the streets as the scripture says in the Old Testament.

For want of truth, they're dying. So at some point, it would behoove us to go back into the prayer meeting. The church started with a prayer meeting in the afternoon.

And by God's grace, I always say to the students at our Bible school, when all else fails, read the instructions. Because as men, we're loath to read instructions. We start trying to put something together.

And I think we started trying to put together this thing called the church, but it doesn't look like it's supposed to according to the instructions, right? You know, somebody's got to read the instructions and say, this thing was perfect in prayer. And these ordinary people stepped up. They didn't say, wow, this is awesome.

We're in an upper room. And you know, the presence of God has come here. He called the tongues of fire outside of each of our heads.

Now we have to market this somehow. And it's like, we need a bigger upper room. And we need to have more people in here.

You know, that's the American way of doing it. But no, they didn't stay. They went out of the upper room.

And they went into a hostile marketplace. And they went into it empowered by the Spirit of God to speak to a people who were just deeply religious and actually had crucified Christ only a few days before. They were risking their lives, and they knew it.

And I think we need to be willing to risk some things then in this generation that we're going to make a difference. Even our freedom. Did you ever hear of Don Miller? I think you mentioned his name one time.

Don Miller, 50, 60 years, prayer ministry in Dallas, Texas, Fort Worth, biblical preaching. And the first time I ever sat in one of his prayer conferences down in Florida, the first sentence out of his mouth was, he said, I pray for my pastor to resign from my church. I just shook my head.

I just, what? That's the way he started. And he said, my pastor resigned this past Saturday, this past Sunday. And he went on to say, he said, I prayed that because my pastor was not praying pastor.

And he said, if the pulpits, which you said, I know, to the church in Texas, if you're not mirrored to your congregation, the life that you're supposed to be living, your congregation will never become what it is. So the pulpits to pray for, the church to become a house of prayer again, and to forfeit this Americanism of trying to make the church what we want it to be rather than what God wants it to be. You know, the end result of that story in Texas is the two pastors, we had a really good talk about it.

I said, you have to pray, you've got to instill in your people a vision beyond themselves. They have to see a purpose bigger than just me. You know, and they have to have an understanding that God is willing to give them what they ask for, to do what he's called them to do.

You know, he doesn't send us out to do something without the equipment to do it. And they called, I think about six months later, and this is good news, is they had 2,000 people now coming up to pray every week. And so they had taken it to heart because they saw a prayer meeting where God was, and they saw people coming out to pray.

And so they went and they started patterning their meetings after what they saw, and the Lord started bringing people in, because the people do want to be led, and they do want to pray. What was the bad part? You said the good part was, but what was the bad part? I don't remember. Okay, well, let's pray into that.

Where are the churches at? Let's just pray for the church. Yeah, Father, we just pray for the leaders, Lord, tonight. God, we're not here to judge anybody.

We're here, Lord, to ask you, because you told us, you told Solomon, my eyes are open, my ears are listening. If you've been taken captive, and we have been in America, largely taken captive by the lust for things and the lust for ease, we've lost the message. There's not even an understanding of suffering for the sake of Christ anymore, or for the sake of somebody else who needs to know they can be healed and free and saved.

So, Lord, I'm asking you, Jesus Christ, to touch the pastors. We're not asking for the judgment. We're asking for the resurrection, Lord.

We're asking for the touch of heaven to come into the lives of pastors across the nation. God, set the men and women in your house aflame again, those who are preaching and teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. Set them aflame for you, Lord.

God, you're able to do that. You're able to stir their hearts. You're able to give them dreams.

You're able, Lord, to reach them whatever way you can and you have to. So many men and women that I have met over the years who are in some kind of leadership positions are so dry themselves, and so longing for a touch from heaven. So, Lord, we're asking you.

Lord, you didn't say everybody had to ask, but somebody had to ask. Even in Ezekiel, Lord, you just look for one man. That's all you look for, one man to stand in the gap and make up the heads that you should not have to destroy the nation.

So, God, we're just asking you tonight, just Dan and I, here we are, there's two men sitting here, but Lord, we're asking you for mercy for the leaders of your house. We're asking, Lord Jesus Christ, that you would touch them anew and afresh, that you would draw them into the prayer closet. You'd begin to speak to their hearts.

You'd lift them out of weakness and out of the funk of just operating with human wisdom only and bring them to that place, Lord, where they would lean upon you and not lean on their own understanding anymore. Provide them, Lord, for God, your church can't be revived without leaders that are revived at the helm. So, God, revive them and somehow use our lives to make a difference.

If we can't be used, use us, Lord. We surrender our lives to you and we ask you to help us to make a difference in the lives of other leaders, and we ask it in Jesus' name. Holy Father, again, we just, we set your bride before you.

It's not the United States, it's not the denomination, it's not men's, it's yours, it's your bride. Lord, again, you would be glorified in that, and you've laid out before us what that requires and what that is necessity of. The old paths were set in front of us.

Praying churches were prevailed, where you advanced your kingdom, and great miracles were done, and great signs and wonders were shown, and your name was testified, and the lost were redeemed, and great testimonies of revival, Father, because of who you are. But you set their hearts worth prayer, and I thank you in this generation. There is more conversation, and there is more desire that we would see prayer.

Again, Lord, it is that this cannot be manufactured, and it can't be instructed by men. So, Lord, would you take men's hands off the ark, Lord, this holy instrument that you've given of prayer. Lord, and just allow for your Holy Spirit to teach us and to instruct us on how to pray and to pray for your namesake.

Lord, again, it's that, again, you wouldn't touch the pulpits, that they would be men of prayer, Lord, that, again, that they would get alone with you and be spent for you, Lord, in the closet before they step in that pulpit. And, again, Lord, is that they would, the unction would be so much upon them is that those that come to listen would say, I perceive that this is a holy man of God that walks by, because the unction would be on him. So, Lord, again, restore that which we have tainted, that which we have tarnished.

Forgive us, Lord, and make your church to be that which is pleasing unto you. Abide prepared, Lord, holy, pure, undefiled, and ready for your second return. Lord, we give these things to you in Jesus' name.

All right, the next question we go to is, was you there when David Wilkerson preached on the call to anguish? Yes. He was in that church. If you haven't seen that, you too, you can watch that powerful sermon, I don't know, that's probably one of the most profound sermons, that's pathetic, that come out of that, a call to anguish.

And when he preached that in the 90s, there was a phrase in that that he said, whatever happened to anguish in the church? And he broke down the psalm, as he did many times in that sermon. I want to ask, as you see the church, I don't hear a lot about holiness in the services anymore. We see pastors falling in immoral sin, like Steve Lawson, right on down the line, they've been this past year, numerous major pastors that have fallen into immorality and sin.

Holiness is gone. And we know God is holy. He said, be holy for I am holy.

What happened in the church? I think casualness is the big enemy. I think it's failing to understand what we are called to be in Christ, who we're called to be in Christ, that we're called to bring His name and reputation in our societies, and among the people, and a failure to understand that He is willing to do within us what we cannot do for ourselves, each one of us, and He's willing to give us the grace that we need to be the people that God has called us to be. It's God, it's God alone, it's God's initiative, it's God's presence, it's God's power.

It all comes down, I think, Dan, to what's in my heart. Do I really want to represent Christ? Do I really want to be a disciple of Jesus Christ? Do I really want to turn away from what I know I should turn away from and turn towards what I know I should turn towards? And do I have the courage to trust God for the power to do that, the promises to give me that power? Do I really want to stand out and be an ambassador for Him? I'll give you an example, like when we're talking about, I was talking to some young guys here today at the school, and I was talking about, I used to drink, I drank a lot before I came to Christ, and I used to use alcohol in a sense to, you know, pacify my conscience, and a lot of other things, you know, and I was drinking to the point where some of my friends were concerned about me. They even talked about a new dimension at one point, because I was getting a bit reckless when I drank.

I was a brand new Christian, and I was growing home, and I stopped at a restaurant. They had the best bacon and eggs in the whole country, as far as I was concerned, so I'm heading home from work. I'm in the middle of the park.

I stop at this restaurant, and I have bacon and eggs, my Bible, and a beer. Okay, so I don't see anything wrong with this. I've never heard a sermon on banking or anything like that, and I'm reading my Bible, and I came to the part where the angel appeared to Zacharias, and he says, you're going to have a son, and your son is going to turn the hearts of many from darkness to light.

He's going to turn them, you know, from where they are to the Messiah, and he said, and wine or a strong drink will never touch his lips, and I'm sitting at the table, and I'm thinking, I would like God to use my, we're talking about holiness now. I'm not talking about legalism, okay? I'm talking about turning away from something that we shouldn't be doing because we found something better than that that we want to do. There's a holiness that's just pure legalism.

That's all it is. It's taste not, touch not, hand in mouth, and it's not even pleasing to God. I think living a separated lifestyle, there's a reason behind it, so I'm looking at the Scripture that says God was going to raise up a man.

He was going to use his voice to turn many back to God, back to God himself, and wine would never touch his lips or alcohol, so I'm looking at the beer on the table, and I remember thinking, well, if that's the price of being used by God, then why alcohol will never touch my lips again, and I literally physically pushed a glass of beer across the table, and that's 45 years ago. Never touched its head. I won't take communion if it's alcohol.

I won't do it. I was in Albania recently, and they were having communion, and I said to the pastor, I was preaching there, so the whole focus of a thousand people is on us and the Bible, and I said to the pastor, I said, is this alcohol? He said, yes, and I said, what do you do for the people in your church that are alcoholics? I said, you know, and I'm grabbing this discussion while they're passing the cops out. I said, you know that one touch of alcohol with their lips and send them on a three-week binge.

I said, you know that, and he said, well, I've never considered it. I said, well, you need to consider it, and I said, personally speaking, I'm not going to take communion here in this church because I will not. I made a promise 45 years ago that alcohol would never touch my lips, but I did it, not out of legalism.

I didn't do that because somebody said, thou shalt not drink. You understand? I did it because I wanted a voice that was going to be able to turn people from darkness to light, so I had a higher reason for turning from certain things. A lot of people don't ever aspire to a higher reason for all this.

They don't see that turning from this will turn other people to God. I hope this makes sense, but that's why I pushed that across the table, and I find it interesting that one of the big doctrinal debates in the Pentecostal church, at least in America, is about drinking now. Everybody wants to drink, and it's not about should we drink wine, it's how much wine should we drink.

You know, and I told the church recently in Georgia, I said, well, you feel free. If you want the stink of alcohol on your lips, you go right ahead, but I want the sweetness of Christ on mine, and so I'm not turning away from it because I think a glass of wine will send me to hell. You understand? I'm not doing that.

I'm doing it for a higher reason, and I think people have to get back to the higher reason. Why should I not listen to, you know, certain things? Why should I not watch certain things? Because whatever you set before you, that's what you're going to become, so you put that away from you, not because David said, I'll set no wicked thing in front of my eyes. I hate the work of those who turn aside from me.

Now, it's because he wanted Christ. It's because he wanted his eyes to be... It's not just because he wanted to put a wicked thing away. I've been in churches where it's just all taste not, touch not, handle not, and all you get is a whole bunch of judgmental people that will criticize and judge everybody that doesn't look like themselves, because they're not abandoning it for the higher cause.

Right. Legalism. Well, that's legalism, but holiness is different than legalism.

Holiness is, I want to be separate to God for the reason of the work of God on the earth. I want to see people turn to God through my life. That's why I pour some beer across the table.

Not that I believe that drinking a glass of beer would send me to hell. I just wanted a higher reason for life than that. I don't want a quick fix.

If I'm bummed out that day, you know, it is said, whatever you turn to in moderation, you will turn to an excess in times of crisis, which is true. If I'm prone to turn to the bottle for a glass of wine at night, I'll turn to the bottle if I'm going through depression and stuff. That's exactly where I'll turn, because I'm getting a formal pacification from that.

So, I see holiness in a different light than I think maybe some people do. That's why I'm not sitting here in a tank top. You understand what I'm saying? As he's talking here, my mind's reeling a half thousand miles, but our time is running out.

So, I'm going to throw you two questions with this off of that holiness. We just come out of a revival service. When all the revival of God's manifest presence has ever come, holiness is the first thing that's restored to the church, that relationship for a greater purpose.

Yes. Sin is cast away. Worldliness is like carnality.

So, all those things are crucified, and he's glorified. And then the second thing, which again was a part of what we wanted to get to, why don't we see miracles in the capacity, like we read every page of the gospel, Jesus was human to somebody, every page of the book of Acts, the disciples and apostles were human to somebody. There was signs and wonders and miracles, and I know those that say all that's past, you know, the theology and all that stuff, but he was still the same.

And we just heard the testimonies tonight. He's still a God that makes them get up out of wheelchairs and out of hospital beds. He's still a God that restores and does all that.

Is it the lack of holiness that is grieving and quenching the Holy Spirit that causes some of this? I say it's the lack of purpose. Okay. I mean, you look at the early church, they were singularly focused.

I mean, they were going out to do the work of God, and the signs and wonders were just to draw people to the actual message. They had a message. Right.

And, you know, the message was about turning from sin and turning to Christ for life and forgiveness and for the higher purpose that God has for every life. They were focused on what their lives were supposed to be. But also, too, don't forget, they knew they were going to suffer.

When they stepped out of that room, they knew they'd probably die, and most of them did for the sake of the gospel. We don't even think that way anymore. We just think about living.

But that balance comes. And so our balance becomes self-balance. Should I drink this? Should I watch that? It's all self-balance because we're not living for a higher purpose.

When you start living for the purposes of God, all these other things fall to the wayside. You know, years ago, I was a hard creature. I had sheep years ago, and every once in a while, they would get through a hole in the fence, and they'd go into my neighbor's field.

And so I would get my two sons, I'd get my wife, if anybody happened to be visiting our house, and we'd all have sticks, and we'd sort of semi-corral them and bang on the ground. The poor sheep are running left and running right. We're trying to get them to go through this hole in the fence.

And so eventually, the first one would find it, and then, of course, they'd fall, and they'd all go back, and then I'd fix the hole. But we'd all be sweating and exhausted. And so one day, I was going to work, and I look out my kitchen window, and about 40 of my sheep are under my neighbor's back porch.

He's got a big deck, and they're all eating. I thought, oh, great. I thought of Psalm 23.

It leads me, and that's it. I don't have time to go and yell and scream and bang on the ground. I've got to get to work.

But they love oats. They'll rip the pockets off your jacket to get that oats. I know, because I used to put oats in my pockets, and they found out, and they ripped my pockets right off.

So I got this little can. I had a small can in the barn, and I put oats in it. To me, I didn't know if it was going to work.

It was a lark. I just thought, I'll try it. So I went for about 2,000 feet down the road.

I went in my neighbor's yard and said, here you go. And I shook a can of oats. And lo and behold, all 40 of them followed me down the road back to the barn, because everyone wanted the oats in that can.

And I began to realize, man, I've been yelling and banging on the ground all this time, when all I had to do was lead them and set before them something they wanted. OK, fast forward. I'm preaching years later, and I'm yelling and screaming and banging on the ground, trying to get the people to stop drinking and do nothing.

You know, just to stop the dumb church, you know. And the Lord just reminded me one Sunday. He says, Carter, you're doing the same thing all over again.

He says, set before the people something that they desire. And he brought me to the scripture where a man went out seeking great pearls, goodly pearls. And it says, when he found one of the great pearls, he went home.

What did he do? He sold everything he had. And he didn't just buy the pearl. The scripture says he bought the lamb, too, as well.

He bought not just the cross, but the journey. So he said, preach the pearl. And I actually started preaching what your life could be in Christ, what God is willing to set before you, what your future could be.

And then suddenly you find the people go home pouring out their booze and flushing their drugs and everything else that they're doing. I'm not even talking about this stuff. Now, let's say, for example, I went to Cornell University last year.

About 400 students came out to hear it. And I shared my testimony. And I talked about what your life could be in Christ, what your life could be.

And I gave an altar call at the end. I explained what an altar call was. And about 200 students came forward to surrender their futures in the hands of God.

We prayed together in the prayer to receive Christ. They fell on their knees and started weeping. I never told them to do that.

I just talked about what can your life be if you should surrender to God. I went through Romans 6, 7, and 8. So they understood that. And then they stood up and started spontaneously confessing sin.

I never talked about it either. They started saying, I've been doing this. I don't want to do this anymore.

Another one was having to do this. And I've been doing this. And it was pretty heavy duty stuff.

And I don't want to live this way anymore. Then they started rejoicing and weeping and dancing and crying. And I never told them to do that.

It's a spontaneous response. Because the pearl was set before them. This is what my life could be.

So he went home. And they already started dumping stuff out, like right at the altar. I don't want to live like this.

I don't want to do this. I'm hooked on pornography. I don't want this to be part of my life.

I'm having indiscriminate sex on campus. I don't want to live that way. I'm cheating on my exams.

I don't want to. So they're suddenly just confessing stuff. And they're dumping it.

And I can preach all week on each one of these sins or preach the pearl. And they automatically went home and just, you know, they dumped it out. And that started to happen when they preached this way.

People started, they started following them. Instead of yelling at them, trying to get them to go through the whole event, they started following. What do you say then to the church? Oh, we're off now.

What do you say then to all these that preach the pearl, the message, the gospel? And people come forward and they respond. I want to make a decision for Christ. I want to follow Christ.

I want to believe in Christ. And you go check on them six months later, 18 months later, and the dog has returned to its fallen. And they have forsaken that which they surrender to or yield to.

What do you say to that, then, that we see so much happening here in America? Like I said, in other nations, they know when they give their life to Christ, it's a destiny. They understand that and they stay true to it. But not here in important Europe, I would say.

You've been in Europe more than I have, but they make decisions, but they don't follow to that. It's only that moment of decision, and then it comes and it goes. Well, I would say the same thing.

I just say you've chosen a lesser path. You're dealing in pennies when your father's left you a fortune. You're dealing in nickels and dimes.

You're living in a way that's not described in the Scriptures, and your life is bringing no honor to God. You know, you're called to bring honor to God through the way you live. And what you're choosing with knowledge is wrong.

You know, I wouldn't hesitate to say that, if it's necessary to say it. Well, and I think, again, there's a majority of church in America that is following these principles. Holiness is forsaken, because they haven't been instructed what that is.

But we know that that's a clear command. You're supposed to be like I am, and I'm holy, and that's what I want my children to be. Well, unholiness, its root, in my opinion, is lack of purpose.

You know, when a person doesn't have a purpose, then they go back to what they used to do. You know, and they hide it now. The only difference is it was open, now it's hidden.

And they go to the church, you know, because they have no purpose. They've never entered into what God has for their lives. They don't see a future, so they just go back to the past.

And part of it, I lay at the doorstep of those that are preaching the gospel. They don't really give the people something to aspire to, to live for, to go for, in a sense. Because a lot of the preachers are not themselves.

You know, they're just stuck in the text. They've got no life behind it. They're not living in the day-to-day miraculous.

They're not living in the day-to-day. Like, they're not rising up every day, morning by morning, new mercies. I see.

They're not looking for what God's going to do for their life. They're not reaching out with every opportunity themselves to speak to a lost person. You know, and so it's all academic.

And when it's all academic, they themselves become hypocrites and are hiding. And so they can't leave the people. You know, it's true, you can't leave the people any farther alone than yourself and the preacher.

But let's bring into that, and then I've got one more question, and we'll wrap this time up here for this evening. But let's pray into that for holiness and for the church, and all those things, again, which are coming short of His glory, that that would be reprimanded correctly. Father, let me just ask Lord tonight, if you would give, just give those who preach the gospel a new vision, a new one, a fresh understanding of the Christian life, of what it's about, of the incredible power that you are willing to release in the life of somebody or anybody that just says, Lord, here I am, send me.

God, I'm asking you, Lord, just to help the pastors just get back to living the life that you have for them personally. That it's not all just in the pulpit. It's in the store.

It's on the street. It's wherever we travel. It's the people we speak to.

Give them a compassionate heart for people every day that they can convey and bring into the pulpit and hope to lead the people into a practical Christian life that bears fruit for the kingdom of God. Father, I just thank you, Lord, that I believe, because I've seen these other things start falling away when people have a vision for the future. It is true, people without a vision perish.

Help us preach the gospel to envision the people to see that there's this amazing life in Christ that is available to those who want to ask for it. We thank you for it in Jesus' name. Holy Father, again, we just know that, again, how much you desire for your people to be that much of right in your sight.

Lord, we thank you for the desire that you give us to follow after you. Lord, again, your spirit speaks and says, now this is the way, now walk in it. Thank you for every lead that you have given that has brought conviction.

These ones at the altars that confessed their sins and threw away their sins, that was not of themselves or Carter or anyone else. The spirit was telling them this is the way, now walk in it. And so, Lord, again, we just pray that that would continue.

We pray for the pulpits, that they would declare the whole counsel of God and not just have truth. Lord, again, the watered-down gospel or cheap grace or any of those other things, Father, a prophet's nothing except for that which hell desires. Lord, again, we just ask that you would accomplish in sons and daughters of faith, Father, to bring us all to that place, Lord, which, again, is that which is pleasing unto you.

Lord, again, thank you for the testimonies that bear record. Look what the Lord has done in their life where sin is cast away and never returned to, removed and never gone back after. Lord, their great deliverance, great victory.

But Lord, even for those that may have gone back, we pray, speak another word, Lord, give them that other command, Lord, that they would rise up and follow after you. We just sang the psalm, no turning back, no turning back. So, Lord, don't let them turn back.

Lord, you are able, just like you did that king over in Genesis, I kept you from sinning against me. Thank you, Jesus. Lord, you are able.

You are able. Blessed is the name of the Lord. In Jesus' name, I pray.

I want to ask just one last question because our time's up, but he said he had a word on this, so I would be remiss if I didn't let you go before you shared that. In 2 Chronicles 36, you that listen to me know, till there was no limit, whatever reason, God has ingrained that phrase in my head, and it is my fear for our nation, how close we are. And so, when I shared that with Carter, he said, I do have a word for that as far as the state of the nation and the state of the church, either in our near future or far future.

But how about just sharing a word, and we'll conclude with that. Well, I have been preaching for quite a few years now. I've spoken in Washington as well at some gatherings there, that I believe the Lord spoke to my heart that America is a mirror image of Paul's journey on the ship in Acts chapter 27.

They charted the course, as we did as a nation, of smooth sailing, thinking we're going to get to our destination, but at the same time, abandoning the Word of God that was there through the Apostle Paul, and saying, don't take this journey. It's going to result in the loss of the ship, and it's going to result initially, he said, in the loss of life as well. But they ignored Paul.

They stuck him down in the belly of the ship, and they took off, and it was smooth sailing, and then eventually, a storm came, a storm that was of such proportions that you could not naturally figure your way out of it. And they cast four anchors out of the stern, and wished for the day, and that's what we are presently doing today. That's when we started bailing off big corporations.

We're casting the anchors out of the back. We're hoping to get to another day. But when all hope, it says in Acts 27, when all hope was lost, that we would be saved, and we're almost there now.

We're not far from there now. Then suddenly, somebody said, where's that man that told us we shouldn't take this journey? I don't know whether it's the captain or whoever, but I wrote a book about it called Fear Not, and I have a chapter called From Captain to Captain. In 10 minutes, Paul goes from being a captain on the ship to captain of the ship, and he's giving all the orders.

Don't do this. Cut off the ropes for the escape boats. Listen to what I'm telling you.

Take on some meat. You're going to need it. And he's telling everybody the ship is going to break apart.

If you can swim, swim to shore. If you can't, grab a piece of wood. There's going to be lots of wood to go around.

And I love the fact that there's a praying man in the belly of that. You know, right now, it'd be so easy to criticize America, and America's deserving of it, to be honest. And down in the belly of that ship, I have no doubt that there's men down there that are plotting revenge.

The talk is fierce. If we get out of here, we're going to cut the throats of those who have mistreated us. There's desires for vengeance, obviously, among the prisoners.

It'd be so easy to take on the temperature of the room down there, but Paul doesn't. And it'd be so easy for us today to take on the temperature of the political discourse in this country, the great division that's going on here, to end up being on one side or the other. But instead of being on one side or the other, he goes to God's side.

And he begins to pray and say, Lord, what do you have for my life? And an angel of God stands beside him and says, there's a plan for you. You're going to be brought before Caesar. And because you have prayed, and because you have sought the will of God for your life, God is granting you 275 souls.

Who would have dreamt? I have no doubt. If you've seen an ocean, I see the ocean frequently because I have a patient there. If you've seen an ocean that fierce that it can break up a ship that can hold that many people, there's no chance of getting ashore.

Even in the the undertow is so strong going the other way, there's no chance you can swim ashore. No, you can't in a storm that size that's breaking a ship like that. And so Paul says, if you'll listen to me, I have a word from God.

And the word from God is going to take you to safety. But you're going to do it my way. You stay with the ship, and the ship is going to break apart.

And everybody grabbed a piece of wood. And I shared this in Washington one time. I said, there's a lot of cross to go around, and the cross still holds, and everybody can lay hold of the cross.

And we're coming to places in America where I'm sad to say, the ship is going to die. And we're going to end up in a, they ended up on a very cold, unfamiliar place. So the geographic boundaries of the United States might be the same, but it's going to be a very cold and very unfamiliar place.

But in this place, the power of God began to be known again. In this place, the healing started flowing through the hands of Paul. I think it's in that unfamiliar cold place that the church will rise again.

And healing of minds and hearts and relationships and families will start to take place if we are given to the will of God. Now, this is the one thing I want to conclude with. There's a communion service on the deck of that ship, and there's not like it except for the Last Supper.

The Last Supper is the epitome. But I have a, I had a Disney artist that drew this for me. I have a picture.

And it's Paul on the deck of the ship. The ship is going down, and he masterfully drew it. And all the people are gathered around, and Paul's got this loaf of bread he's broken into, and he's doing this.

And he's thanking God, Lord, thank you that you sent me into this storm with these people, because if I wasn't here on this ship, they were all down. And thank you, Lord, that you have a plan for my life, and the plan for my life includes the salvation of people who have no hope if I wasn't here. And I think as a church, we're going to have to get to the point of saying, God, thank you for letting us be born into this generation.

Thank you, Lord, for sending us, letting us be born in a time in America when we've taken this incredibly foolish journey. We've thrown your word into the belly of the ship. We've not listened to the warnings that were given us by the prophets of God.

But thank you, God, that down there, we started praying. See, if Paul wasn't praying, he would have been the same as everybody else. But because he prayed, he had a word from God.

And he had a word not only of where he was going, but that God was going to spread these people so that they could consider their eternity. He spread them physically so they could consider being spread spiritually. And I've no doubt they heard the gospel from Paul when he got to shore.

But we're going to have the prevalence down and going through the storm ahead of us. But I think we need to start praying now and say, Lord, what's your purpose for my life? And as you're leading me forward, and it prisons in my future, and so be it. But as you're leading me forward, would you be kind enough to let me take people with me? And would you give me a thankful heart that I'm not a Christian to be spared from the storm, but I'm actually to be thrown into the midst of the storm for the sake of the people? So that the whole Christian focus is about to go to the wind in America.

For real. As I often say to New Yorkers, one nuclear bomb can change your whole day. And it's going to happen one day.

There's going to be calamities in the heavens. There's going to be natural disasters on the earth. This whole world is about to be shaken.

And the only thing that can't be shaken is a praying man or a praying woman who is dedicated to the work of God, given for the sake of people. We will not be shaken. I'm telling you, my brother who's listening tonight, if you are dedicated to following God's path for your life, and if you are given for the souls of lost people, you will not be shaken.

You will have a confidence that is God-given indeed. You know, Paul had to hang on the wood just like everybody else. He had to go through the same storm, so would we.

But think of it this way. If your value system is your house and your job and your kids, then obviously you're going to be thrown to the wind. But if your value system is souls, my prayer is God, whatever it takes to reach this.

Without the famine, there's no Mount Carmel. It was a three-year famine to get the people to the top of Mount Carmel. There's no confrontation with the prophets of Baal.

It took a famine. And you look throughout history. And without the calamity, America would just go on its merry way, and the people would all spend an eternity in hell apart from God.

So if God has to pull out the economic carpet, if he has to bankrupt the nation, if he has to send it into a storm of epic proportions for the sake of people, then it's worth it. My value system is souls. I've had houses, I've lost houses.

I mean, it's great. Everybody needs a roof over their head. Thank God.

But that's not my value system. I've learned from experience that can be God in the world. The thing is, it's about people.

And I think in America that we need a spiritual awakening. We'll start with that idea that the gospel is not just about me. The gospel is about others.

It's about, yes, it's about me coming to Christ. But then it's about my life being used for the sake of others. And I'll say it again.

If it takes a storm for this country to turn to God, I'm ready for the storm, and I'm willing to live through the storm for their sake. So I want to join Paul on the deck of the ship and break bread and say, God, thank you that you allowed me to be born into this moment and to undertake this journey, as difficult as it must have been in the belly of that ship. You imagine how sticky and dank it looked down there.

But as difficult as it was, Paul comes up and he says, be a good chair. Can you imagine? That's what I want my life to be like. Be a good chair, everybody.

A bomb just fell in some part of the country, or an old yeller just exploded and we're going to be under a nuclear winter for the next ten years, and we're going to lose all our crops. I'm not laughing at that. I know it's going to be a lot of hardship.

But the point being, the churches will fill again. You can be sure of it. And there's going to have to be people in there with a word from God.

And if you don't pray, you're not going to have a word. You're going to have thoughts about God, but you'll not have a word from God. There's two types of preaching, right? One is thoughts about God, and it's all true.

And the other is a word from God. It's about God speaking through a vessel to the people. One has power, the other doesn't.

One has information, the other has power. And so I'm in. I'm in.

I can say it. I'm just in. And a lot of you would say, well, you're old.

You should be in by now. You've only got a few years to live anyway. Well, I've always been in.

And I've known for years that we're going into a crisis. I told David Wilkerson one time, back in about 1997, I said, I'm going to live to see the fall of this great nation. I felt it in my spirit.

And we're there. And we're there. Yes, we're there.

It's a matter, like we could go bankrupt tomorrow. This November election could set our cities ablaze. I mean, very well might happen.

But whatever it takes for people to turn to God, I'm in. All right. Well, thank you for that word.

Again, our opportunity here tonight was to just have a dialogue, especially question and answers. But we, again, just to use the time to share about these things that for you that are listening, that you understand the importance of what we talk about on Thursday night hour of prayer. Again, these principles of the scriptures of what's coming, what's already on us, what we need to be bringing for the Lord.

And so, again, we had so much, again, the opportunities that we can maybe do this again some other time to finish up some of these other questions. But Carter, thank you so much for spending your time with this. And again, for all the opportunities that he's always been so faithful to do the conferences that we've done and the videos that we needed.

Just grateful for that. So we conclude tonight. And again, we'll follow up again next week for Thursday night hour of prayer and any feedback that we get on this just to be able to cover.

But again, it is the Psalm 109, verse 4. I give myself unto prayer. And as a psalmist wrote that Jesus was a man of prayer. And again, he instituted that for his house, that we would be housed as a prayer, and that you would be a man or woman of prayer.

And then we would give ourselves to what the Spirit wants us to do. We're here for such a time as this. If he wanted us to be born in some other era, some other generation, it would have happened.

But the end is coming for what we know is what's always been normal. And God has us here for that reason. May you be that vessel of honor for God's glory and for his name's sake.

And as Carter said it, we're sold out for it. There's nothing more important than eternity. Everything else comes and goes.

The grass withers, the flower fades. But the word of God, the eternal soul lasts forever. And it is worth the investment to be an obedient child of God for his name's sake.

So thank you for joining us. Thank you for watching along. Go back, listen over to this, pray into these prayer points that, again, have been shared tonight.

And we'll continue to bring these things before God to advance his kingdom. Good night, and God bless you. God bless.