Jim Bakker Show - Jim Bakker Sermon 5: The Church At Smyrna
Aired: 2024-06-03
Duration: 58:19


=== Church at Smyrna (03:52) ===

[00:00:09]  Today's lesson starts in Revelation chapter 2 verse 8.
[00:00:14]  We're at the church at Smyrna.
[00:00:17]  The church at Smyrna.
[00:00:19]  Revelation chapter 2 verse 8.
[00:00:22]  Is everybody there?
[00:00:24]  And unto the angel.
[00:00:25]  Now remember, oh, we're getting, I'm so excited because we're laying that foundation of Jesus in the book of Revelation.
[00:00:34]  And when we come to Jesus and we see and we learn all these things that let us know these clues, we're going to find out where Jesus comes back in this book.
[00:00:45]  So here it says, unto the messenger.
[00:00:48]  Angel means messenger.
[00:00:50]  Remember, John the Baptist, the same word for John the Baptist, the messenger, is angel, the same word that's angel.
[00:00:59]  And we know John wasn't an angel.
[00:01:01]  He was a forerunner.
[00:01:03]  He was proclaiming Jesus was coming.
[00:01:05]  So you must understand Greek and Hebrew.
[00:01:08]  Boy, I read something on the internet the other day.
[00:01:12]  I'm telling you, somebody hates me really desperately, and they hate Billy Graham too, so I'm in really good company.
[00:01:18]  They hate him, so I felt honored at least to be in that category with him.
[00:01:24]  But they were defending, this same person was defending the King James Bible, and that it was the only reference.
[00:01:32]  My God, the King James Bible isn't that old, folks.
[00:01:37]  People, I heard people so ignorant that they say, oh, that's the one that Paul had.
[00:01:41]  I want the one Paul had.
[00:01:42]  I want the King James.
[00:01:44]  You know, the King James Version is not holy.
[00:01:50]  The King James Version is good.
[00:01:54]  But I want to tell you something.
[00:01:56]  There's errors in the King James.
[00:01:58]  King James was a king of England.
[00:02:01]  He wasn't a saint.
[00:02:04]  And he had a group of men who just interpreted it and translated it.
[00:02:08]  It's just a translation.
[00:02:10]  Get over it.
[00:02:14]  Go to the original text.
[00:02:17]  Go to the original.
[00:02:19]  Go to the Greek.
[00:02:20]  Go to the Hebrew and find out what God says.
[00:02:23]  Because the Bible says in 3 John, above all, God wants you to prosper.
[00:02:28]  And that's a lie from the pit of hell.
[00:02:32]  Why do I get angry over the King James Bible?
[00:02:35]  I only get angry.
[00:02:36]  I love it.
[00:02:39]  But above all, God does not want you to be rich.
[00:02:45]  Above all, God does not want you to prosper.
[00:02:48]  Above all, God does not want you to have money and wealth and things.
[00:02:52]  Above all, God wants you to be saved.
[00:02:56]  Above all, God wants you to be born again.
[00:02:58]  That is an error in translation.
[00:03:00]  Do you understand it?
[00:03:04]  That word prosper in the Greek is made up of two words.
[00:03:07]  It's made up of good and well and road.
[00:03:12]  Journey, progressive word.
[00:03:14]  So it means journey.
[00:03:15]  Somebody just said journey.
[00:03:17]  That's what it is.
[00:03:19]  All John was saying was above all.
[00:03:23]  He didn't mean above all is not even in there.
[00:03:26]  That's out.
[00:03:26]  That's wrong.
[00:03:27]  It's not even in the original.
[00:03:29]  All John was saying was, brethren, I want you to have a good journey through life, even as your soul has a good journey to heaven.
[00:03:38]  Look it up.
[00:03:38]  Study it.
[00:03:39]  Go to Harvard.
[00:03:40]  They'll tell you.
[00:03:41]  Go study with the Greeks.
[00:03:42]  They'll tell you.
[00:03:44]  Above all, God says you're to love God.

=== Jesus Writes to Smyrna (07:19) ===

[00:03:49]  And the second above all in the Bible, you're to love your neighbor as yourself.
[00:03:54]  And preachers are sending people to hell today because they're telling them, above all, God wants you to have money.
[00:04:01]  And we're building our churches on lust.
[00:04:04]  We're building our churches on how we can get more stuff and more things.
[00:04:11]  And we have arrogance.
[00:04:14]  People.
[00:04:16]  We cannot follow teachers having itching ears.
[00:04:19]  We have got to study and read this word.
[00:04:22]  Forgive me.
[00:04:24]  But I feel strongly about this.
[00:04:27]  And under the angel, the messenger, the pastor of the church in Smyrna.
[00:04:33]  Now, Smyrna is located 35 miles north of Ephesus.
[00:04:38]  This church at Smyrna was in the most splendid of the seven cities.
[00:04:45]  It was the pride of Asia.
[00:04:48]  How many know a city can be aesthetically beautiful and be filled with sin?
[00:04:55]  And they were loyal to Rome.
[00:04:58]  They had much emperor worship.
[00:05:03]  We worship movie stars today, I guess.
[00:05:05]  But they worshiped their emperor.
[00:05:07]  They had to say that their emperor, they would say, Caesar is Lord.
[00:05:14]  Can you believe that?
[00:05:15]  And they were very, very loyal to their emperor.
[00:05:20]  And it actually, this worship of the emperor started in this city of Smyrna.
[00:05:27]  And Christians there suffered greatly because of this.
[00:05:32]  Because the Christians wouldn't say Caesar's Lord.
[00:05:35]  Would you say it?
[00:05:37]  I wouldn't say Caesar's Lord, would you?
[00:05:39]  So that's, they tell me, as I studied about John, that actually John is in this prison writing the book of Revelation right now because John would not say Caesar is Lord.
[00:05:51]  You know what John said?
[00:05:52]  History books teach you this.
[00:05:53]  History about John even tells you this.
[00:05:56]  John would say, Jesus Christ is Lord and there's no other.
[00:06:02]  That got him in prison.
[00:06:04]  Jesus Christ is Lord and there is no other Lord.
[00:06:09]  And we may have to come to that someday.
[00:06:13]  But I'll tell you what, God takes care of his own.
[00:06:17]  Jesus has prepared a place that a million years is just today.
[00:06:22]  So don't worry about the stuff.
[00:06:25]  God will take care of you.
[00:06:27]  He is God.
[00:06:30]  And so this city was to smash the church out of existence.
[00:06:36]  The goal of this city of Smyrna was to literally destroy the church of Jesus Christ.
[00:06:43]  Remember we talked about Polycarp, the bishop of the church there.
[00:06:50]  And he was martyred, killed in this city for the gospel of Jesus Christ.
[00:06:56]  And he refused to say that Caesar is Lord.
[00:07:00]  So here we go.
[00:07:02]  And unto the angel, the pastor of the church in Smyrna, write these things.
[00:07:09]  And remember, as we read each, look next, as we've studied every one of the churches, Jesus identifies himself in a little different way.
[00:07:18]  Did you notice that?
[00:07:20]  And here's how he identifies himself to the church at Smyrna.
[00:07:23]  He says, Write these things, saith the first and the last, the beginning and the end.
[00:07:28]  This is Jesus, which was dead and is alive.
[00:07:34]  Oh, I believe the church at Smyrna was facing death every day.
[00:07:41]  They were being killed every day.
[00:07:43]  And so I believe that's the reason Jesus, when he opened up the greeting to this church, he said, this is from the Savior who was dead and rose from the grave.
[00:07:55]  And I believe that was because what he wanted to tell this church is, don't worry if they kill you.
[00:08:03]  Because the Savior who was dead and alive is coming to you to write to you right now.
[00:08:09]  He lives.
[00:08:10]  Amen.
[00:08:11]  So he says, write these things.
[00:08:14]  Saith the first and the last.
[00:08:15]  This is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, which was dead and is alive.
[00:08:19]  Verse 9, I know thy works.
[00:08:23]  Oh, isn't it wonderful that God knows us?
[00:08:26]  He knows.
[00:08:26]  He said, I know.
[00:08:27]  He knows everything you've done.
[00:08:29]  I hear people say, oh, I clean these bathrooms and nobody sees me.
[00:08:33]  God sees you.
[00:08:35]  I clean bathrooms in prison every day.
[00:08:38]  Every day.
[00:08:39]  And I'm telling you, those guys in the prison, they'd look at me like, why are you working for the man?
[00:08:44]  They'd actually say that.
[00:08:44]  You know, the man is the warden.
[00:08:46]  They say, why are you working so hard for the man?
[00:08:49]  And I'd say, well, you know, the man don't use these bathrooms.
[00:08:53]  Actually, they use the bathrooms.
[00:08:55]  But I was doing my work as under the Lord.
[00:08:58]  I knew if I was going to win anybody in prison to Jesus Christ, they had to see that Jim Baker's religion was real.
[00:09:06]  They had to know that I wasn't a slacker.
[00:09:09]  I worked every day in prison.
[00:09:12]  Days when I hurt my back so bad, I had to crawl out of bed one day with pain.
[00:09:18]  I got up and I mopped the floors and I cleaned the toilets.
[00:09:22]  I never had anybody else ever, ever, ever do my job in prison.
[00:09:26]  Why?
[00:09:27]  Because a lot of guys like to slack off.
[00:09:30]  They like to get any excuse.
[00:09:31]  Boy, if they can get a doctor's writ, boy, I'll tell you, they'll work out that, work that thing to death and stay in bed.
[00:09:36]  But you know what?
[00:09:37]  When you stay in bed as an orderly, another inmate has to do your work.
[00:09:43]  How did I win souls to Christ?
[00:09:45]  A young man who was just killed in a skydiving accident, I was able to testify to him.
[00:09:50]  He was my cellmate, one of the world's largest drug smugglers.
[00:09:55]  He accepted Christ.
[00:09:57]  He learned Jesus.
[00:09:58]  He studied with me.
[00:10:00]  I was able to teach him the things of God.
[00:10:02]  Why did he accept it?
[00:10:03]  This man got out of prison.
[00:10:05]  He had a little hard time in the beginning, but he ran a skydive school.
[00:10:09]  But this man, I found out from his pastor a few weeks before he died, he established a church.
[00:10:18]  That's why it's important to live your life when nobody sees you or you think they don't.
[00:10:26]  Because God, this is what Jesus is saying to the churches here.
[00:10:30]  He says, I know you.
[00:10:32]  I know your works and your tribulation.
[00:10:36]  Oh, and that word tribulation, it means I know your hardship.
[00:10:40]  I know your pain.
[00:10:43]  Jesus said, I know your pain.
[00:10:45]  And I'm telling you, when God said, and Jesus is telling the church, I feel your pain.

=== A Rich Man's Pain (05:56) ===

[00:10:51]  I feel your hurt.
[00:10:52]  I want to tell you something.
[00:10:54]  Jesus took our pain on the cross.
[00:10:59]  Jesus was beaten and bruised for our sins.
[00:11:04]  He feels your pain.
[00:11:07]  He is touched by the feelings.
[00:11:11]  Is that right?
[00:11:13]  He says, I'm touched by the feelings of your infirmities, by sickness, by pain, and all.
[00:11:21]  Don't you think he understands ridicule?
[00:11:25]  I know thy works and tribulation and poverty, but thou art rich.
[00:11:31]  This sounds like double talk.
[00:11:33]  He says, I know your poverty.
[00:11:35]  And they were.
[00:11:36]  This church was in a great, prosperous city, but they weren't prospering financially.
[00:11:42]  They were struggling.
[00:11:44]  They were hated.
[00:11:45]  They were despised in Smyrna.
[00:11:47]  But it says, but thou art rich.
[00:11:51]  How were they rich?
[00:11:52]  They were rich in faith.
[00:11:54]  The trial of your faith is more precious than gold.
[00:11:59]  It's your trials that stack up that riches, that better than gold stuff.
[00:12:08]  I'd say, I wouldn't trade anything for my prison experience.
[00:12:11]  And I don't want to go back.
[00:12:12]  I know that.
[00:12:13]  I'm not going to tell you I want to go back.
[00:12:15]  But I want to tell you something.
[00:12:17]  When the world's falling apart, I'm not going to fall apart.
[00:12:21]  I've already lost it all.
[00:12:22]  I've already been through the valley of the shadow of death.
[00:12:25]  I've already experienced rejection.
[00:12:28]  I've already experienced the lows of the lows.
[00:12:31]  I've experienced the loss of all things.
[00:12:34]  And I want to tell you something.
[00:12:36]  I have learned the gospel.
[00:12:38]  I have learned the word of God.
[00:12:40]  I have a theology that works today.
[00:12:43]  I went into prison with a theology that doesn't work in prison.
[00:12:48]  No matter how hard I would try, they wouldn't bring me a Mercedes in prison.
[00:12:57]  No matter how much I named it and claimed it, I couldn't get anything.
[00:13:03]  I think I told you once, I tried to get the Christian motorcycle gang.
[00:13:08]  They let them come into some of the prisons.
[00:13:10]  Actually, some of the state prisons, they actually let them in.
[00:13:12]  And I worked so hard to get those big old bikes.
[00:13:15]  I'm telling you, they're beauties.
[00:13:17]  I mean, and there's, besides women, there's one thing prisoners love.
[00:13:22]  They love motorcycles.
[00:13:24]  They love the bikes.
[00:13:26]  They love the Harleys.
[00:13:28]  And I thought, oh boy, what a secret weapon I could have if I could get that Christian motorcycle group to come in and bring those big bikes.
[00:13:35]  And we'd have a secret witness.
[00:13:36]  We'd bring those bikes in and then we'd tell everybody in the prison because, you know, you don't have to go to services in the prison.
[00:13:42]  So only a real small percentage of the prisoners ever go to church or chapel.
[00:13:48]  Very small percentage.
[00:13:49]  But I'll tell you, if we had bikes in there, I'd had them all out there.
[00:13:53]  But you know, the warden wouldn't even let me bring motorbikes into the prison.
[00:13:58]  But I'll tell you, there's one who passed through those gates.
[00:14:01]  There's one who was there.
[00:14:02]  There's one who says, I'll never leave you.
[00:14:04]  I'll never, never leave you.
[00:14:06]  I'll never, never forsake you.
[00:14:07]  I want to tell you something.
[00:14:08]  Jesus Christ goes through the valley of the shadow of death.
[00:14:12]  He's the one who prepares for you a table in the presence of your enemies.
[00:14:17]  And this is what Jesus is saying.
[00:14:19]  These are the words of Jesus to the church.
[00:14:23]  We ought to pay attention to this word.
[00:14:26]  He says, I know your works.
[00:14:27]  I know your tribulation.
[00:14:29]  And some of you are wealthy in this room.
[00:14:30]  I remember John and Joyce.
[00:14:32]  John informed me one day that he was a millionaire.
[00:14:34]  I told him I'd never seen a happy millionaire.
[00:14:36]  And I was preaching in the church, you know how I do.
[00:14:39]  And I was there at the dream center and telling them, oh, I'm telling you, because I was trying to tell everybody in the ghetto wants to get rich so they can get happy.
[00:14:48]  And I said, well, I've never seen a happy millionaire.
[00:14:50]  Most people are millionaires.
[00:14:51]  They're trying to keep the relatives awake, you know, and trying to, you know.
[00:14:56]  You get a yacht, you got to dock it, then you got to wax it.
[00:14:59]  You know, like the dealers have their big boat there, their big yacht, you know.
[00:15:06]  No, I'm just joking.
[00:15:08]  But they got a pontoon boat anyhow.
[00:15:11]  And it's still you got to pay to dock the thing.
[00:15:13]  I mean, everything you have takes work.
[00:15:16]  So I was just telling the kids in the ghetto, I was just telling them, you know, money's not going to buy happiness.
[00:15:20]  Money's not going to make you happy.
[00:15:22]  I've never seen a happy millionaire, I proclaim.
[00:15:24]  And so I went out to the alley, the same alley where I met Lori, and John comes out to me and he said, you're wrong.
[00:15:33]  I want you to meet a happy millionaire.
[00:15:38]  And I thought, boy, I wish he'd notify his face then that he was this happy millionaire.
[00:15:43]  But I learned he was just this rough Italian who built the garage door company there in Florida.
[00:15:50]  I'm California.
[00:15:52]  And they've worked hard for their money.
[00:15:54]  I want to tell you that.
[00:15:55]  But they started from the ground up.
[00:15:57]  But he told me because of Jesus, he was a happy millionaire.
[00:16:01]  So I'll take that back.
[00:16:02]  There might be some happy millionaires.
[00:16:05]  But only if they're doing like he does.
[00:16:07]  He gives unto the Lord.
[00:16:09]  He serves on boards of directors.
[00:16:11]  He has stood with this ministry.
[00:16:13]  They're the pioneers, really.
[00:16:14]  Jerry Crawford and some of these are the pioneers of this ministry.
[00:16:17]  I'm telling you, a lot of wealthy people are getting in to the last days thing.
[00:16:23]  And they're doing things for the cause of Jesus Christ.
[00:16:27]  But I know thy works and thy tribulation and your poverty.

=== Fear None Of Those Things (15:24) ===

[00:16:34]  Verse 9.
[00:16:35]  But you're rich in faith.
[00:16:38]  I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews and are not, but are of the synagogue of Satan.
[00:16:47]  There was a cult of those actually in those days pretending to be Jews living in sin.
[00:16:52]  Some of them very hostile to the church.
[00:16:56]  The synagogue of Satan.
[00:16:58]  We'll hear a little bit more about that in a minute.
[00:17:00]  But verse 10, here's what Jesus is saying, and this is the word for you today.
[00:17:04]  Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer.
[00:17:10]  Some of you have suffered things.
[00:17:12]  Don't be afraid.
[00:17:13]  Don't be afraid of prison.
[00:17:16]  God let me go into prison where there was no creature comforts.
[00:17:23]  I didn't, for months, I never sat on a chair with a postery.
[00:17:30]  We had nothing but metal chairs.
[00:17:32]  I tell you, one of the first things I did when I got out of prison, I sat in one of those big couches, sofas.
[00:17:36]  Whoa, you don't know what you miss until it's gone.
[00:17:44]  But a lot of the theology that we preach today, if it's real, it'll work in China.
[00:17:52]  If it's real, it'll work in Africa.
[00:17:54]  If it's real, it'll work in the ghetto.
[00:17:57]  And the gospel I have today works in the ghetto.
[00:18:00]  It works in the prison.
[00:18:02]  Because I've been through the valley of the shadow of death.
[00:18:05]  All the stuff left.
[00:18:06]  All the material things were gone.
[00:18:08]  Some of the people I thought were my friends walked away.
[00:18:12]  But I didn't lose any friends.
[00:18:14]  I didn't lose any friends.
[00:18:15]  Isn't that awesome?
[00:18:17]  I didn't lose one friend.
[00:18:19]  I just found out who they were.
[00:18:23]  Isn't that right?
[00:18:25]  Nothing like a valley to find out who your friends are.
[00:18:28]  It's awesome.
[00:18:30]  Most people have to die to find out.
[00:18:34]  When I walked through the valley of the shadow of death, he was there.
[00:18:39]  He says, fear not.
[00:18:42]  I was afraid when I went into prison.
[00:18:45]  I was so beaten up, I was the shell of a human being.
[00:18:49]  I admit it.
[00:18:50]  I mean, let's be true.
[00:18:51]  I'm not a great big man of God.
[00:18:53]  I was a whimpering idiot at that time almost.
[00:18:56]  I was quiet because I'm melancholy, but I was there in the back of that police car driving to that prison to spend the rest of my life there.
[00:19:03]  I didn't know what I would face.
[00:19:05]  And I walked into that prison with the chained and all the others chained together.
[00:19:09]  I'm telling you, but I've been through the valley of the shadow of death.
[00:19:13]  And God never left me.
[00:19:15]  He got more and more real.
[00:19:17]  When I finally got out of myself, when I finally got to the point where I would cry out to God and say, God, I need to see you.
[00:19:23]  I need to hear you.
[00:19:25]  And God began to speak to me.
[00:19:26]  And I began to have that communication with God.
[00:19:29]  And I began to realize the things of this earth are going to pass away anyway.
[00:19:32]  God has loved me so much that he wanted to prepare me to teach the word of the Lord in the last days to tell people that you can make it.
[00:19:40]  You can go through this.
[00:19:42]  I'm telling you, when the world falls apart, come and find me because I'll hold your hand and we'll walk through this valley, the shadow of death together and we'll win souls and we're going to have the time of our life.
[00:19:54]  We'll win more people in these last days when the world's falling apart.
[00:19:59]  One of these days, Los Angeles will crumble to the ground with an earthquake.
[00:20:06]  You don't believe it?
[00:20:07]  You don't have to believe it.
[00:20:08]  God's told me it's going to happen.
[00:20:10]  I saw a vision of it.
[00:20:11]  It's in my book, Prosperating the Coming Apocalypse.
[00:20:13]  And then in the next book.
[00:20:15]  And then the scientists found out that there is a fault just like God showed me under Los Angeles that's blowing up.
[00:20:23]  And they said it's the pressure of the ages, just like God spoke to me in that vision.
[00:20:28]  And he said it's going to be like atomic bombs will explode under LA one day.
[00:20:33]  And not one building will be left standing.
[00:20:37]  What's going to happen when the world starts falling apart?
[00:20:40]  If your hope is in the material things of this world, you will fall apart.
[00:20:45]  But if your hope is in Jesus Christ, you will not fall apart.
[00:20:50]  God put me back together.
[00:20:53]  I met John and Joyce in the alley.
[00:20:55]  I met Lori Graham in the alley.
[00:20:59]  You'd be amazed what you can find in the alley.
[00:21:04]  See, we want everything to be pretty.
[00:21:07]  We want everything to be the way we want it to be.
[00:21:10]  Jesus died on a cross that wasn't pretty.
[00:21:15]  He says, I'll prepare a table for you in the presence of your enemies.
[00:21:20]  That's what God's going to do for you.
[00:21:22]  And that's what he did for me.
[00:21:24]  And I don't want to go there.
[00:21:25]  We don't have time today.
[00:21:27]  But it says, fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer.
[00:21:33]  Don't be afraid of them.
[00:21:35]  Don't be afraid.
[00:21:36]  Don't fear.
[00:21:37]  Things that are, I'm telling you, things that we fear, most of them don't ever come true.
[00:21:43]  The only things we ought to fear are some of the things we ought to look in the word of God.
[00:21:47]  And we ought to see what's coming, and we ought to prepare for the last days.
[00:21:52]  Because wise men prepare.
[00:21:55]  Say, wise men prepare.
[00:21:58]  And we are not prepared, people.
[00:22:01]  Mentally, the church is not ready.
[00:22:03]  We have people in the church for the goodies, not for Jesus.
[00:22:08]  Jesus says, come and die.
[00:22:10]  He says, fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer.
[00:22:13]  Behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that you may be tried, and you shall have tribulation ten days.
[00:22:22]  Now remember, a day with the Lord is a year.
[00:22:28]  Remember, we've studied that, haven't we?
[00:22:32]  And so this could be 10 years.
[00:22:36]  This could be the time that God wants to prepare us in telling us this same word.
[00:22:44]  There's a 10-year period of time that's coming on the earth like has never ever come before.
[00:22:51]  We're going to be tying the book of Daniel into our study of Revelation as we go along.
[00:22:55]  And I'm telling you, Daniel prophesied the hour we're living in.
[00:23:00]  So fear none of these things which thou shalt suffer.
[00:23:02]  Behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison that you may be tried, and you shall have tribulation ten days.
[00:23:13]  Be thou faithful unto death.
[00:23:17]  And I will give thee a crown of life.
[00:23:21]  Say faithful.
[00:23:25]  Oh, Jesus said in the last days they will not be faithful, that there will be a great falling away.
[00:23:33]  He says, be faithful unto death.
[00:23:37]  This is the cry of our God.
[00:23:40]  Be faithful.
[00:23:41]  Be faithful to me.
[00:23:43]  Be loving to me.
[00:23:46]  He tells us what he wants is an intimate relationship.
[00:23:50]  You can't have an intimate relationship with somebody who's not faithful to you.
[00:23:56]  If you're married and your mate's out running around, you don't have an intimate relationship.
[00:24:01]  You're just one of many.
[00:24:04]  That's not what Jesus wants.
[00:24:06]  He wants intimacy.
[00:24:09]  He wants faithfulness.
[00:24:12]  Fear none of these things.
[00:24:14]  Fear them.
[00:24:14]  It's just say, fear not.
[00:24:16]  If you study fear nots in the Bible, we found out that I think there's 366, actually.
[00:24:22]  There's 365 for sure, but I think we added up 366 on for every day of the year.
[00:24:29]  Fear not.
[00:24:29]  Say, fear not.
[00:24:31]  That's the word for you.
[00:24:32]  Fear not.
[00:24:33]  All these things are coming.
[00:24:34]  Don't get upset by them.
[00:24:36]  God wants you to know about them.
[00:24:37]  God just wants you to know.
[00:24:38]  So when things begin to happen and you see something happen, and like a 9-11, we don't get all shook up.
[00:24:44]  We say, we knew these things would happen.
[00:24:46]  It's in the Bible.
[00:24:48]  If you want Jesus to come back, these things have to happen.
[00:24:54]  Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer.
[00:24:56]  Behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison that you may be tried and you shall have tribulation ten days.
[00:25:02]  Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.
[00:25:07]  This is a victor's crown.
[00:25:09]  This is the crown of the winner.
[00:25:11]  This is the victory crown, the wreath that you see in the Roman days.
[00:25:15]  This was describing the winner's crown.
[00:25:18]  And you're going to, if you'll be faithful, you're going to receive that victor's crown.
[00:25:22]  Verse 11, he that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
[00:25:29]  We must get used to hearing the voice of God's Spirit.
[00:25:35]  Did you hear what I said?
[00:25:37]  We must have the office of the prophet restored in the body of Christ.
[00:25:44]  Now, I know we've got some crazy people who say they're prophets.
[00:25:49]  Usually, if somebody goes around announcing they're a prophet, I'm wondering.
[00:25:55]  I mean, if they just keep telling you, I'm a prophet, I'm a prophet, I'm a prophet.
[00:25:59]  Usually a prophet doesn't have to say they're a prophet all the time.
[00:26:04]  How do we know a prophet?
[00:26:06]  You know how we know a prophet.
[00:26:08]  I don't even have to tell you.
[00:26:10]  Their prophecies come true.
[00:26:11]  Somebody said that.
[00:26:12]  I heard you.
[00:26:12]  Their prophecies come true.
[00:26:15]  So we must get used to hearing the voice of God's Spirit.
[00:26:19]  So when those 10 days come to us or 10 years, we will hear and recognize the voice of the living God.
[00:26:30]  Remember, these messages apply as much to us now or more than they did back in John's time.
[00:26:38]  That's a key to remember right now, folks.
[00:26:41]  So be thou faithful unto death.
[00:26:43]  I will give thee a crown of life.
[00:26:44]  Verse 11, he that have an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says unto the churches.
[00:26:50]  He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.
[00:26:57]  What is the second death?
[00:26:58]  The second death is the lake of fire.
[00:27:03]  Revelation 20, 14.
[00:27:04]  Just slip back over there and let me show that to you.
[00:27:09]  I really would like to talk a few moments about hearing from God.
[00:27:14]  I wanted to finish the next church.
[00:27:18]  We stay with one hour of teaching, and so I won't go over it.
[00:27:23]  But there's so much I feel the Holy Spirit wants to say.
[00:27:30]  Revelation 20, verse 14, and death and hell were cast into the lake of fire.
[00:27:36]  This is the second death.
[00:27:39]  You see, if you just read the whole Bible, it explains everything to you.
[00:27:43]  Everything in Revelation is explained somewhere else in the Bible.
[00:27:47]  And you say it's a mystery.
[00:27:48]  Yeah, it's a mystery.
[00:27:49]  But when you have a mystery, if you're a good detective, you find clues, right?
[00:27:55]  And you study and you find out the answers because the mystery will be revealed to you.
[00:28:01]  The problem is, we don't want to read the word of the Lord anymore.
[00:28:04]  We want some preacher to interpret it for us.
[00:28:07]  We want to go to the McDonald's of church.
[00:28:09]  We want to drive in and have them reach out and say, whack, you're a hamburger.
[00:28:13]  Or not that, but I mean, you got the Holy Ghost.
[00:28:18]  Amen.
[00:28:18]  And you got this knowledge now, and you can have full understanding of the book of Revelation.
[00:28:23]  No, the Bible says study to show yourself approved unto God.
[00:28:28]  A workman that needeth to not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
[00:28:34]  That's why I go to the Greek.
[00:28:35]  That's why I go to the Hebrew.
[00:28:37]  That's why I study hour after hour after hour after hour.
[00:28:43]  People mock you today if you study the Greek and Hebrew.
[00:28:46]  I hear preachers mock it from the pulpit.
[00:28:49]  Say, oh, these preachers quoting the Greek and Hebrew.
[00:28:51]  All we're doing is studying the very depth of the manuscripts of the real Bible that King James was translated from.
[00:29:04]  We've got to study.
[00:29:08]  Otherwise, we're in the church right now that's telling people stuff that they're getting from each other instead of from God.
[00:29:16]  Smyrna was a good church.
[00:29:18]  No complaints against it.
[00:29:20]  But it was severely persecuted.
[00:29:24]  And I'm telling you, when you do good and you're persecuted for it, it's pretty tough.
[00:29:28]  Can you say amen?
[00:29:31]  But persecution always refines God's people.
[00:29:38]  You didn't like that, did you?
[00:29:39]  Persecution always refines God's people.
[00:29:43]  God was warning them that more persecution was coming.
[00:29:48]  Just as I'm trying to warn the church, persecution is coming.
[00:29:51]  The last days are here.
[00:29:53]  But we have victory in the kingdom of God.
[00:29:57]  We have victory as God's people.
[00:29:59]  We're the only ones that are going to win.
[00:30:02]  So stop your moaning and groaning.
[00:30:04]  This is the day we've waited for.
[00:30:06]  This is the hour we've been preaching about.
[00:30:08]  This is the thing we've been looking for.
[00:30:10]  The coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:30:12]  All these things must come about.
[00:30:14]  Matthew 24, Jesus said.
[00:30:17]  So I find people who really love Jesus love Revelation.
[00:30:21]  People who really love Jesus, they want to know.
[00:30:25]  They want to know truth.
[00:30:27]  And we've got to hear from God.
[00:30:31]  This church was told, I want you to hear what the Spirit is saying unto the churches.
[00:30:38]  He that have an ear, let him hear.
[00:30:42]  It's not strange to hear from God, people.
[00:30:46]  It's getting stranger and stranger because we're hearing from television.
[00:30:51]  We have 500 channels in our homes today.
[00:30:56]  500 different shows you can watch on direct TV at any moment.
[00:31:04]  Boy, clicker and clicking dad, his fingers probably wore out.
[00:31:09]  Us old men, our thumbs are going to be wore out before the rest of us.
[00:31:12]  We've used our thumbs more than anything else.
[00:31:14]  Click, But all of that information is evil information.
[00:31:21]  All of that information is destroying us.
[00:31:24]  That information, the Bible says there's coming a famine, and it's a famine of the word of God.
[00:31:29]  And we're in that hour where we have a famine of the word of God.
[00:31:32]  I go to churches and I hear sermons preach, and they use two words, two little words out of the Bible, and they take off on two words and don't even preach the Bible.

=== The Word Stands Forever (03:37) ===

[00:31:44]  And people say, well, I don't want to come to your Bible study.
[00:31:46]  All you do is read the Bible.
[00:31:48]  All you do is you keep giving a scripture.
[00:31:49]  You keep going word to word to word to word.
[00:31:52]  I want to be entertained.
[00:31:55]  I made up my mind.
[00:31:56]  I'm in Branson, and there's too many good entertainers.
[00:31:59]  I'm not an entertainer.
[00:32:01]  I'm a preacher.
[00:32:03]  So I'm going to do more of the word.
[00:32:06]  I'll tell you, there's going to come a day when all we'll do on this television show is feed the word.
[00:32:11]  We're going to be a life raft out here in these last days, and we're just going to be giving out the word.
[00:32:17]  Right now, we're a kindergarten.
[00:32:18]  We're just getting started.
[00:32:21]  1 Peter 1:25 says, But the word of the Lord stands forever.
[00:32:29]  The word of the Lord.
[00:32:30]  This is why every one of these churches are told by Jesus, please, he that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says.
[00:32:43]  How many really would like to hear more from God?
[00:32:46]  I mean, raise your hand if you want to, because God will look at you.
[00:32:49]  God looks at your heart.
[00:32:51]  He won't talk to you if you don't want to.
[00:32:52]  He's a gentleman.
[00:32:55]  But the word of the Lord stands forever.
[00:32:59]  Amen.
[00:33:01]  We're entering the days where we are going to have to hear the word of God.
[00:33:06]  We must know the word of God.
[00:33:08]  I'm scared to death that the church is not majoring in the word of God today.
[00:33:14]  It scares me because it's the only hope.
[00:33:17]  Jesus Christ is the only foundation, the Bible says.
[00:33:22]  And that foundation has already been laid.
[00:33:23]  He's the only foundation, which has already been laid, which is Jesus Christ.
[00:33:27]  Who is the word?
[00:33:29]  Jesus.
[00:33:30]  He is the word.
[00:33:33]  As I said my last week in prison, somebody said, What are the three things you learned in prison?
[00:33:37]  What's the three most important lessons you learned in prison?
[00:33:40]  And I didn't even think.
[00:33:41]  I mean, it just came out of my mouth and I said, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.
[00:33:49]  That's the three things I learned.
[00:33:52]  And the man asking me, I said, I want three things.
[00:33:55]  I said, that's the first three things.
[00:33:56]  That's the most important three things.
[00:33:58]  Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.
[00:34:00]  And then he said, well, no, give me another one then.
[00:34:02]  I had to think for a minute.
[00:34:04]  Then I said, well, another name for Jesus?
[00:34:06]  The word, the word, the word.
[00:34:10]  He said, well, give me one more.
[00:34:12]  I asked for three.
[00:34:13]  So this will be the ninth things now, but I said, obedience, obedience, obedience.
[00:34:24]  Nobody shouts at that, but it's the truth.
[00:34:28]  We must hear from God today, people.
[00:34:33]  We must stop our busyness.
[00:34:35]  I'll tell you, it's time to, we're working on shutting off most of the cable into our house.
[00:34:45]  Sky Angel, I don't think they know who we are, but we know who they are.
[00:34:48]  So we're going to put Sky Angel into our home, to our kids, about 30 channels of nothing but gospel.
[00:34:54]  Sure, some of it's crazy, but it's better than the other stuff.
[00:34:58]  Amen.
[00:34:59]  Amen.
[00:35:02]  We need to hear from God.

=== Word Of Fire (11:32) ===

[00:35:06]  Jeremiah 23:29.
[00:35:09]  Does not my word burn like fire? asks the Lord.
[00:35:15]  Is it not like a mighty hammer that smashes rocks to pieces?
[00:35:19]  Therefore says the Lord, I stand against these prophets who get their messages from each other.
[00:35:28]  That's the word of God.
[00:35:29]  Jeremiah 23, verse 29 and 30.
[00:35:33]  Does not my word burn like fire?
[00:35:36]  He says, this is unbelievable.
[00:35:38]  God says, I stand against these prophets who get their messages from each other.
[00:35:44]  How could I teach prosperity?
[00:35:46]  How could I teach people to love the things of this world like I used to do on television?
[00:35:51]  And I didn't do all wrong because people get mad at me when I say I was wrong, but I was wrong.
[00:35:56]  I was wrong to teach prosperity teaching.
[00:35:58]  I was wrong to teach people to fall in love with this world.
[00:36:01]  I want to tell you, how did we get this?
[00:36:03]  How have we come to this kind of teaching today when it's not in the Bible?
[00:36:07]  It's because we got our messages from each other.
[00:36:11]  We would take that person's notes and this person's notes and we say, well, we'll do think and grow rich.
[00:36:16]  And we read this book and we add this to it.
[00:36:18]  And we've added to the Bible.
[00:36:20]  And I'm telling you, we have chaos in the church today.
[00:36:23]  We have a religion that will not stand.
[00:36:26]  When the stock market crashes, major churches will go under because they're built on prosperity and giving and having blessings of prosperity instead of the blessings of the Lord.
[00:36:43]  I'm not trying to take your lollipops from you.
[00:36:45]  I know you've heard this stuff for decades.
[00:36:47]  I'm one of the fathers of this thing.
[00:36:49]  That's why I'm telling you it's wrong.
[00:36:52]  I've read the Bible now, cover to cover.
[00:36:56]  I couldn't find one good thing that Jesus said about money.
[00:37:01]  The Bible says the love of money is the root of all evil.
[00:37:06]  The Bible says if you presume that gain is godliness, to flee it, to run away from anyone who presumes that gain is godliness.
[00:37:17]  If gain is godliness, then the mafia should be the deacons in your church.
[00:37:23]  Jesus says you can't serve God and money.
[00:37:29]  Woe unto the rich, he said.
[00:37:33]  I won't go there.
[00:37:35]  I'm just telling you, folks, we have got to hear the word of God.
[00:37:41]  We've got to stop hearing from preacher so-and-so and doctor so-and-so if they're not teaching the word of God.
[00:37:47]  We can't have proof texting.
[00:37:48]  We can't get a word here and a word there.
[00:37:51]  We've got to have the whole Bible.
[00:37:53]  I challenge you to read my book, Prosperity and the Coming Apocalypse.
[00:37:57]  I take every prosperity scripture and I put it back in the Bible where it belongs.
[00:38:01]  Every time you put a prosperity scripture that the preachers are using today and I used to use, every time you take it and put it back in the Bible, in the same chapter it goes back in, refutes the way it's been twisted today to be used about money and getting stuff.
[00:38:19]  Do you think Jesus died for you to have a Rolls-Royce?
[00:38:28]  The stuff doesn't matter.
[00:38:29]  If God blesses you, use the stuff.
[00:38:32]  Enjoy it.
[00:38:34]  I don't care if you've got a Rolls-Royce or a Volkswagen.
[00:38:37]  It's 10.
[00:38:39]  And it's going to melt away someday.
[00:38:44]  If God's blessed you with something, you know, man, think of the crowd you could pick up in a Rolls-Royce and bring to Sunday school.
[00:38:51]  I mean, that would be a great little bus.
[00:38:54]  Use it for the glory of God.
[00:38:58]  Use it.
[00:39:01]  I wouldn't embarrass anybody for the world, but there's somebody in the crowd here that God has blessed their family and blessed them.
[00:39:07]  And it's not John and Joyce, but there's somebody else here that God has really blessed them.
[00:39:11]  And I mean, they use what they have for God.
[00:39:15]  They have a theater in this town, and they turn it over for church.
[00:39:19]  They have a lovely home, and man, there's people there.
[00:39:22]  I've even been there.
[00:39:23]  I mean, with our kids there, and all the fun things.
[00:39:26]  But when God gives you stuff, just use it.
[00:39:30]  His stuff is junk.
[00:39:32]  Just don't worship it.
[00:39:35]  Because if your hope is in the things of the world, when it all falls apart, you will fall apart.
[00:39:43]  God spoke to me that the church people, when the market crashes again, He said the church people will blow their brains out the same as the world will do.
[00:39:56]  Don't fall in love with this world.
[00:39:59]  Fall in love with Jesus.
[00:40:03]  Look at 2 Timothy 4:2.
[00:40:07]  It says, Preach the word.
[00:40:09]  Be instant in season, out of season.
[00:40:12]  Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering in doctrine.
[00:40:18]  For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine.
[00:40:22]  We're here.
[00:40:23]  We're here right now.
[00:40:24]  This is the hour.
[00:40:27]  But after their own lust, say lust.
[00:40:31]  That doesn't mean just sex, folks.
[00:40:34]  That means stuff.
[00:40:36]  That means power.
[00:40:40]  That means pleasure.
[00:40:43]  That means stuff.
[00:40:44]  They will lust.
[00:40:46]  They shall heap to themselves teachers having itching ears.
[00:40:52]  And they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned into fables.
[00:41:02]  They're preaching today in many, many areas.
[00:41:05]  Only give to rich preachers.
[00:41:08]  I watch services where they come up and they literally put money in the preacher's pockets, a quarter of a million dollars at a time, half a million dollars.
[00:41:16]  One of the preacher ladies, I mean, I saw her the other day.
[00:41:19]  I know she got a quarter of a million dollars.
[00:41:22]  They just gave it to her.
[00:41:22]  Instead of an altar call, she gave an altar call for people to give money to her, and they just brought it up.
[00:41:27]  Quarter of a million dollars.
[00:41:28]  I counted it up.
[00:41:30]  I used to do telethons.
[00:41:31]  I can figure the math out.
[00:41:32]  She asked for thousands, and then she got the 500s, and then they all brought it right up and just poured it into her bosom.
[00:41:37]  And you know what they're teaching today?
[00:41:39]  Don't give to the poor.
[00:41:40]  God doesn't want you to give to the poor.
[00:41:42]  Only give to successful preachers so you'll be successful.
[00:41:44]  That's a lie from the pit of hell.
[00:41:48]  It's a lie.
[00:41:51]  The Lord taught us we are to bless the poor.
[00:41:55]  He says if we feed the hungry, he will be our nurse in the time of trouble, actually, is what it interprets.
[00:42:03]  So we must not follow teachers having itching ears.
[00:42:08]  The true test of teaching is the Bible.
[00:42:10]  Galatians 1:8.
[00:42:12]  But though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accused.
[00:42:20]  We are living in the hour of another gospel.
[00:42:24]  All word, no matter if you get it from a dream or a vision or from a preacher, it must be backed by the word of the living God.
[00:42:33]  That's why the Bible says study, study, study.
[00:42:36]  And we fall in love with our preachers today, and so we've made them gods.
[00:42:43]  And so we don't even check on them anymore.
[00:42:45]  We just take it for granted.
[00:42:47]  I am so shocked that people have come to accept that the prosperity teaching of the day, the popular teaching of money, money, money, is the thing that's acceptable, and it's just become a part of normal theology for millions and millions and millions and millions of people.
[00:43:11]  And you know what?
[00:43:12]  There are millions and millions of broken people who have given $2,000, $3,000 saying, well, I owe a quarter of a million, so if I give this, God's going to pay all my bills.
[00:43:26]  And we have hurt more people.
[00:43:27]  They're on the outside, broken up because of a false gospel, another gospel.
[00:43:35]  Oh, I believe in reaping and sowing.
[00:43:38]  I believe in giving and receiving.
[00:43:40]  But I'll tell you what, we have twisted the gospel and made money our God instead of Jesus Christ.
[00:43:50]  The true word of God brings repentance.
[00:43:55]  We were just told by some of the visiting doctors that the young people in the church today, what was it, 95% of all teenagers before 18, all men, had sex before out of wedlock by age 18.
[00:44:22]  Girls by the age of 19, 85, I think, percent of all girls in the church have had sex.
[00:44:34]  And you think nothing's wrong?
[00:44:36]  We're godly America.
[00:44:39]  We have murdered 40 million babies in America.
[00:44:44]  That's worse than the pagans of the Old Testament that burned their children.
[00:44:51]  And we keep saying, oh, we're godly Americans.
[00:44:54]  God's not going to do anything bad to us.
[00:44:59]  You know, you can't have a show in Branson.
[00:45:01]  And I'm serious.
[00:45:02]  Tour buses will not come to your show if you don't have a patriotic hymn or something patriotic in your show.
[00:45:11]  God bless America.
[00:45:13]  Yes, God bless America.
[00:45:19]  Because we want to hear that.
[00:45:22]  We want to hear it.
[00:45:23]  So it eases our conscience.
[00:45:28]  We are a perverted nation.
[00:45:31]  We are against God.
[00:45:32]  We break all ten commandments every hour on the hour on that tube.
[00:45:38]  And that's how we're entertained by the things Jesus died on the cross to save us from.
[00:45:44]  People, we've got to hear from God.
[00:45:47]  We have got to read his word.
[00:45:49]  It is normal to hear from God.
[00:45:52]  Everyone in the Bible that loved God heard from God.
[00:45:58]  John 10, 27 says, My sheep know my voice.
[00:46:04]  You must know his voice.
[00:46:05]  How are you going to know his voice?
[00:46:07]  I'll tell you, you'll know his voice if you spend time in the word.
[00:46:11]  The reason I can tell you some things that I'm going to be teaching in the book of Revelation is because I've read the cover to cover of this book.
[00:46:17]  And the word of God, God is the same God from Genesis to Revelation.

=== The Voice of God Comes (05:10) ===

[00:46:22]  He's the God that was 2,000 years ago and he was a God six, 7,000 years ago.
[00:46:27]  He was the God of the Old Testament.
[00:46:29]  He's the God of the New Testament.
[00:46:31]  There is a harmony in the gospel.
[00:46:32]  There's a harmony in the word of God.
[00:46:34]  And it's the voice of God.
[00:46:38]  And today, maybe we've got to examine if we're sheep or not because he said, my sheep know my voice.
[00:46:45]  If you're following voices that telling you that to have money means God loves you, I'm telling you, you're believing a lie.
[00:46:54]  Money has nothing to do with the love of God.
[00:46:58]  It's your ability to raise it and make it and provide it.
[00:47:01]  Yes, God can bless you financially, but I'm telling you, money is not a sign of godliness.
[00:47:11]  It's evil.
[00:47:13]  It's evil.
[00:47:16]  All the leaders in the Bible heard God's voice.
[00:47:20]  Adam and Eve talked with God.
[00:47:22]  Genesis 3, 9.
[00:47:24]  But the Lord God called to the man, where are you?
[00:47:27]  God talked to him.
[00:47:29]  Genesis 17, 3, and Abram fell on his face and God talked with him.
[00:47:34]  Exodus 20, 22.
[00:47:36]  And the Lord said unto Moses, Exodus 33, 9, the Lord talked with Moses.
[00:47:42]  Genesis 15, 1, the Lord came unto Abram in a vision saying, fear not.
[00:47:48]  1 Samuel 15, 10, then the word of the Lord came unto Samuel.
[00:47:52]  Samuel 7, 4, the word of the Lord came unto Nathan, saying, 1 Kings 18, 1, the word of the Lord came to Elijah.
[00:48:00]  1 Chronicles 11, 3.
[00:48:02]  And it says, Therefore came all the elders of Israel to the king to Hebron, and David made a covenant with them in Hebron before the Lord, and they anointed David king over Israel according to the word of the Lord given to Samuel.
[00:48:14]  1 Chronicles 22, 7, 8, David said to Solomon, My son is from me.
[00:48:19]  It was my mind to build a house under the name of the Lord my God.
[00:48:22]  But the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, You get the picture?
[00:48:27]  Throughout the Bible.
[00:48:29]  Psalms 107, he sent his word and healed them.
[00:48:33]  Isaiah 9, 8, the Lord sent a word unto Jacob.
[00:48:36]  Isaiah 16, 13, this is the word that the Lord had spoken concerning Moab.
[00:48:41]  Jeremiah 23, 28, the prophet that had a dream.
[00:48:44]  Let him tell a dream that he had heard my word.
[00:48:48]  Let him speak my word faithfully.
[00:48:51]  Ezekiel 1, 3, the word of the Lord came expressly unto Ezekiel the priest.
[00:48:57]  Hosea 1, 2, and the Lord said to Hosea, Jonah 1, 1.
[00:49:01]  Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah.
[00:49:05]  Micah 1.1, the word of the Lord then came to Micah.
[00:49:08]  Zephaniah 1-1, the word of the Lord then came unto Zephaniah.
[00:49:11]  Haggai 1-1 came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet unto Zerebbabel.
[00:49:17]  Zachariah 1-1 came the word of the Lord unto Zachariah.
[00:49:20]  Zachariah 4-6.
[00:49:21]  Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerebbabel, saying, not by might, not by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.
[00:49:29]  Genesis 4, 6, and the Lord said unto Cain.
[00:49:32]  Genesis 6, 13, and the God said unto Noah.
[00:49:35]  Genesis 17, 9, God said unto Abraham.
[00:49:37]  Genesis 31, 3, and the Lord said unto Jacob.
[00:49:40]  And Numbers 22, 12, the Lord God said unto Balaam.
[00:49:43]  Numbers 22, 28, the Lord opened the donkey's mouth and said to Balaam.
[00:49:47]  God even spoke through a donkey, so he could surely use some of us.
[00:49:50]  Joshua 5, 2, the Lord said unto Joshua.
[00:49:52]  Judges 7, 2, the Lord said unto Gideon.
[00:49:54]  1 Samuel 8, 7, the Lord said unto Samuel.
[00:49:56]  1 King 9, 2, the Lord appeared to Solomon, and the Lord said unto him.
[00:50:00]  2 Kings 21, 7, the Lord said to David and to Solomon, his son.
[00:50:04]  1 Chronicles 14, 10, and the Lord said unto him.
[00:50:07]  Then in the New Testament, I'm just skipping through.
[00:50:09]  The Spirit said unto Philip.
[00:50:11]  And then Acts 9, 3 and 4 and 5, I heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why thou persecutest me?
[00:50:17]  And he said, who art thou, Lord?
[00:50:19]  And the Lord said, I am Jesus.
[00:50:21]  Acts 10, 1 through 4.
[00:50:23]  There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius.
[00:50:25]  He saw a vision in the ninth hour.
[00:50:27]  And he said, what is it, Lord?
[00:50:28]  And he said unto him, thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God.
[00:50:33]  They all through the Bible.
[00:50:34]  Acts 12, 7, the angel of the Lord came upon Peter, and the angel said unto him, God speaks through the whole Bible.
[00:50:42]  What if I went on to tonight's show tonight and they were interviewing me and I said, I heard from God.
[00:50:49]  Do you know what that crowd would do?
[00:50:50]  They would laugh.
[00:50:54]  The comedians would then make jokes about it.
[00:50:57]  They would poke fun.
[00:50:58]  They would blast it.
[00:50:59]  They would blaspheme.
[00:51:00]  But I'm telling you, in the Bible, it was normal to hear from God.
[00:51:07]  And according to God, it's abnormal not to hear the voice of the Lord.
[00:51:12]  You can hear the word of the Lord through the Bible.
[00:51:15]  You study the Bible.
[00:51:16]  Every day, God speaks to me through the Bible.

=== God's Words in Dreams (07:02) ===

[00:51:19]  I mean, I'm crazy.
[00:51:20]  I get so excited.
[00:51:21]  I get over there studying the word of God and I'm studying Daniel.
[00:51:25]  And I'm telling you, I've been through Daniel the last few weeks.
[00:51:29]  And I get so excited, I just want to run with it.
[00:51:32]  I can hardly preach this because I want to get you over to Daniel now.
[00:51:36]  I want to share fresh manna.
[00:51:39]  We're going to talk about manna, hidden manna in our next lesson because that's to the next church.
[00:51:47]  But I'll tell you what, God wants to speak.
[00:51:50]  God spoke to me.
[00:51:52]  Amos 8, 11, Behold, the day comes, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.
[00:52:02]  We must hear the word of God.
[00:52:06]  We must have the true prophets.
[00:52:09]  And there are a few around us.
[00:52:11]  God spoke to me in prison of the future through the word of God.
[00:52:17]  People, there's coming famines, there's coming pestilence, there's coming earthquakes, there are earthquakes, there's tribulation coming, there's the stars are falling from the going to fall from the heaven.
[00:52:26]  The Bible talks about the terrorist sword, the mighty sword, the mighty power.
[00:52:32]  We've seen the terrorist sword, those airplanes smashing into the twin towers into the Pentagon.
[00:52:37]  Those were terrorism, but the Bible tells about it.
[00:52:41]  We need the preaching of God's word to confirm the word, but it must be backed by the word of God.
[00:52:49]  2 Timothy 4, 2, preach the word.
[00:52:51]  Be incident in season, out of season.
[00:52:54]  Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine.
[00:52:59]  We must have this word of God.
[00:53:02]  We can have personal words from God.
[00:53:04]  Don't let just anybody give you a word.
[00:53:06]  If it hasn't been confirmed by God to you and your heart, don't accept it.
[00:53:11]  Don't accept it.
[00:53:12]  Take the word.
[00:53:13]  I believe two or three witnesses is very, very important hearing from the word of God.
[00:53:18]  Terry Inman came to my prison cell, a pastor, I think John enjoyes his church there in California.
[00:53:24]  I never met this man.
[00:53:25]  He found his way to my prison.
[00:53:27]  He said, God, what do I share with Jim Baker?
[00:53:30]  And God gave him the strangest message.
[00:53:32]  And here's the scripture, Isaiah 41, 40, verse 1.
[00:53:36]  Comfort ye, comfort you, my people.
[00:53:38]  But he said, I want you to put Jim Baker's name in it.
[00:53:40]  And so it said, comfort you, Jim Baker.
[00:53:43]  Comfort Jim Baker, says your God.
[00:53:45]  Speak comfort unto Jim Baker and cry unto him that his warfare is accomplished, that his iniquity is pardoned, for he hath received the Lord's hand double for all his sins.
[00:53:54]  The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, prepare you the way of the Lord.
[00:53:57]  Make straight in the desert, a desert, a highway for our God.
[00:54:01]  This man came to me, gave me this strange verse saying that I had paid for my sins, that God was going to use me.
[00:54:08]  And I'm telling you, that was March 23rd, 1994, in prison.
[00:54:13]  And then on January 4th, 1999, I was up in the mountains of where Rick Joyner's conferences are.
[00:54:23]  And Cindy Jacobs, January 4th, 1999, didn't know me even harder.
[00:54:30]  I mean, she hadn't even met Lori and I personally before that moment.
[00:54:34]  And she had a word.
[00:54:35]  And she read Lori's mail, as they said.
[00:54:39]  She prophesied over Lori.
[00:54:41]  She prophesied over him.
[00:54:42]  And guess what?
[00:54:43]  She gave me this same word.
[00:54:46]  This same verse of scripture in the same way that had been given to me in the prison cell.
[00:54:52]  She didn't know anything about it.
[00:54:53]  And a few weeks ago, somebody else gave me the same verse again.
[00:54:59]  In the mouth of two or three witnesses.
[00:55:02]  You don't have to guess.
[00:55:04]  When God speaks, you're going to know he's speaking to you.
[00:55:08]  So I'm telling you, God will speak through the prophets.
[00:55:16]  The word of God will come to you.
[00:55:18]  It comes through prophets.
[00:55:20]  It comes through the word of the living God.
[00:55:23]  I'm going to pray that you all, some of you that come to this Bible today, I want you to start having dreams because the Bible says old men will dream dreams, and that's me.
[00:55:32]  I've had dreams that have just changed my life.
[00:55:34]  My adventure in the Bible started in prison when I felt like God had abandoned me.
[00:55:39]  And I began to pray, oh God, speak to me.
[00:55:41]  God, speak to me.
[00:55:43]  And I'll tell you, finally, one night I had a supernatural dream.
[00:55:47]  I was sitting next to Jesus, and he took a slice of his eye and he put it over into my eye.
[00:55:52]  And he said, Jim, I want you to see everyone and everything through my eyes.
[00:55:58]  And when I woke up, I knew what I had to do.
[00:56:01]  I began to study the words of Jesus.
[00:56:04]  And it was studying the words of Jesus that changed my life.
[00:56:07]  It was through a prophetic dream.
[00:56:09]  And next week, I think I'll start where I'm going to finish today.
[00:56:13]  I'm going to finish up a little bit on hearing from God.
[00:56:16]  And then we're going to go right to this next church because it talks about that church hearing from God as well.
[00:56:21]  But we must hear from God.
[00:56:24]  We must hear from the living God.
[00:56:27]  And I'm urging you to be a part next week.
[00:56:31]  I'm going to share some of the dreams from prisons.
[00:56:34]  I'm going to share some of the things that God has spoke to me that I think will just amaze you.
[00:56:40]  I want to give you the 31 things God gave me, including the bombing in New York in 9-11.
[00:56:47]  God gave me that and I delivered it.
[00:56:50]  And God speaks today, people.
[00:56:53]  I'm praying that God will speak to you.
[00:56:55]  Let's close.
[00:56:56]  Father, I pray in the name of Jesus.
[00:56:59]  Lord, I pray that everyone in this room will hear from you, God.
[00:57:06]  I pray, God, that you will speak to people in the night.
[00:57:12]  God, you said that my sheep hear my voice.
[00:57:16]  You've told us tonight that the message to the church today is if you have ears to hear, hear what the Spirit says.
[00:57:28]  And Lord, I'm praying that you'll give a hunger for the word to everyone here.
[00:57:33]  Lord, that you will give not only this hunger, God, but they'll search for truth and share it with others.
[00:57:42]  God, I pray that you will speak in the night in dreams.
[00:57:47]  Lord, I pray that you will give visions to people.
[00:57:53]  Lord, I pray for the prophets, the true prophets that are living in the hills, that are living in the valleys, that are living in obscurity, Lord, that you will bring them to minister to the church, God.
[00:58:05]  True men of God and women of God.
[00:58:08]  People that will not get their messages from each other, but God, that they will get their messages from heaven.
[00:58:13]  And God, be with us as we open this book again next week.
[00:58:16]  In Jesus' name I pray.
[00:58:19]  Amen.