While the Bridegroom Tarried — J.C. Hibbard

I have something that I want to bring to you that God laid on my heart for this service this morning and it's found in the latter part of the 24th chapter of the book of Matthew. In the 30th verse, the 32nd verse, the 34th verse, the 37th verse, the 24th chapter, and the 41st verse, the 43rd verse, and the 45th verse, and the 48th verse.

Jesus’ End-Time Teaching in Matthew 24

All eight of those verses that I just read to you in the 24th chapter, every one of them are the words of Jesus and he is there telling some of the things that are to take place in the very end time that it is coming.

Now the whole 24th chapter, all of it has to do with when should these things be, what should be the sign of thy coming in the end of the world. He deals a whole lot with things that even have been way back there in his time, but if you'll notice, he earmarks in the 34th verse and he says this generation, earmarking when I'm coming down at the very end, he said this generation at the end, all the things that I have told you that are going to occur in the very end time, they shall all come to pass in the same generation.

Now we find according to the Bible, we know what a generation is according to Word, there's 14 generations from Abraham to David, 14 generations from David to Christ, and you figure that up, it's allowing a little over 50 years for a generation, around 60 years.

And a generation is when one generation of people leaves the scene and another generation comes on. Now he wasn't forced to say something that wasn't right, but he said when the end time comes, there's going to be dramatic changes all over the world and even in the heavens, and it will not take place during the 1900 years, but the very end time, they will begin to explode and boom, they'll all come to pass in the same generation.

Now we don't know when Jesus is coming the day and hour, but don't nobody say we don't know the generation, because he said when these things begin to come, as the fig tree buds and you say the summer's at hand, you don't say it's here today, you know the summer is right at hand, the fig tree is budding and it's telling you that summer is at hand.

So when these things begin to come to pass, then look up for your redemption, draw it nigh, because when they begin to come to pass, they'll all come to pass and finish in the same generation. I live to see it come in, I live to see it come in.

Knowledge, Transportation, and Signs of the End

One of the key things is knowledge will increase and according to Micah, my automobiles will run down the highways and the chariots will run without horses and they will run like lightnings for 1900 years, that's the way the transportation, the horse, but we had run across the field to look at a Ford when it had stopped in my baldhead days.

The Bible said that he would let men fly through the air and that would be at the end time and as a dove to the window, men would fly. And it said knowledge would increase and then it said that there would be a time of rebellion, wickedness, it would be an adulterous generation.

He went on to describe that the primitive days would cease and we had enter into a new area. Do you know we didn't have any electric lights when I was a boy? There might have been a few just coming on, but how many clean lamps, and you have the lamps to read but let me see your hand, all over the place, but we, how many cleans lamps now, let me see your hand.

All right, how many remember the time that if you wanted to go anywhere you hooked up the horse and went, put your hand up. All right, right here now, but how many hooks up the dolly now to go, put your hand up.

Nobody. We have electric lights today. I could go on and preach an hour on the thousands and thousands of things electronically and every, medically, and it said the great last sign there's going to be after the inventions and everything began to explode, which year after year it began to start and it rolled open and America began to throw out inventions of every kind, the telephone, the radio, and the whoever heard of a telephone in my boy's day or your child's day.

When it first came out to show you how far we've gone, brother, we've come a long way, baby. You'd go along there and you'd walk up to the thing, you'd go, and then it'd answer, then you'd give one, two, three longs, and then pause, and then one quick one, and that was old sister Jones, and she'd pick up the receiver and she'd hear click click click click click click click 24 on the line and everyone had listened to see who's talking, Miss Joe.

We've come a long way, baby. You've got a private phone now. Brother, God said it'll come to pass in the same generation. This thing is closer than you think. Is everything set today for the bond to go off, iniquity being brought on the subjection by the gospel, everybody getting happy and everybody praising the Lord and everybody quit cussing, everybody is not vulgar no more, they're all decent.

No. Iniquity abounding! How many believe iniquity is abounding on every side? Listen, I want you to open your heart to a fact. A lot of people is dead asleep right today. They're asleep expecting Jesus to come.

Now I told you there were eight separate individual things and every one of them, when you get home read them, I gave them to you. 30, 32, verse 34, 37, 41, 43, 45, 48. Every one of them has to do with the very end time.

The Rapture and the Separation of the Ready

And he tells us here that as it were in the days of Noah, so will it be. When in the coming, when the Lord comes and we are caught up, now that also could refer when he comes back, set up his reign a thousand years, but what we're talking about, what has to happen before he comes back, sets up his reign, he's gonna come and the trumpets gonna blow and we that are alive and remain are gonna what?

Gonna be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord. You say, oh I believe Brother Hibbard that there won't be no rapture. I believe that's right at the end time when Jesus comes back.

You do. How can we be caught up to meet him when we're up in heaven and we follow him on white horses? Another thing, when the Holy Spirit is taken out of the way, then shall the wicked one be revealed and he has three and a half years before him.

When the Lord comes, he don't have five minutes brother, it's up, the curtain pulls to the world, the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ. You've got to put it where the word puts it.

There's going to be a taking out, there's going to be a blast of a trumpet, the Lord will come with a shout and with the voice of the archangel, we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together.

And it said there, Jesus said, there's going to be two in the field working and one will be taken. Don't mean he dies, he's changed in a moment twinkling of an eye and he's caught up to meet the Lord.

And the fellows, two in the field, John Wordsay is gone. John! Mile out in the field and nobody there, just spoke to you a second before. You look, there's old hobnail shoes, there's old boots and there's old overhauls and there's old hat, bandana handkerchief.

And you reach over there, you think, oh boy, here's his boots and overhauls. Why, he spoke to me a second ago. He's gone. You know that's going to happen all over the world. In your bedroom, the baby's gown will be there, but the baby won't be there.

Why, wake up of a morning, your wife's clothes gown will be there, but she won't be there. If she's a Christian, oh yeah, you got to watch that. Now, he said two would be in the bed, one will be taken, the other left.

Two in the field, two in the bed. Get up next morning, what a sight. You say, do you reckon that'll happen? It's going to happen all over the world when Jesus comes, if it's nighttime. And that means there are many Christians, many Christians.

Now don't get warped like one fella. He, someone told him that and he got saved and he said, honey, we're not going to sleep together. Because he said, you're a Christian, I'm a Christian now, and said, God said one's going to be taken, the other left.

He said, now we're going to both sleep in single beds so we'll both go. But here's what he meant. He meant there are many cases where the wife is serving God and the husband's not, and God's going to take one and he's going to leave the other.

Meaning this, one's ready to go and the other's not. In the field, one is ready to go and the other's not. There'll be two women grinding at the mill. One will be taken and the other will be left. Meaning, the two that went to the mill, half of them went and half of them stayed.

The two out in the field, half of them went and half of them stayed. And the ones in the bed, half of them went and half of them stayed. The ten virgins that went out to meet the Lord, the kingdom of heaven is locked unto it, half of them went and half of them stayed.

Four times God is saying, among those that are supposed to be ready, among those that have associated with religion, unto those that rub elbows. They're at the mill. One's holding it and the other's grinding it.

They're both plowing in the field. They're both connected. They both know about it. Do you think a man's ready to go to heaven, keep his mouth shut, never say anything to the other fellow? No doubt he was a professing Christian, but he wasn't ready.

What's he telling us? There's going to be a split down the middle. Half's going, half's going to stay. You stood while ago and said you want to go to heaven. I'm going to talk about the bunch that's not going to make it.

Watchfulness and Readiness for Christ’s Coming

So he goes on here and he said, as we're in the days of Noah, so shall also the coming Son of Man be. And he comes on down, 43rd verse, it said, hear, watch, therefore you know not what hour the Lord doth come, but know this, if the good man of the house had known what hour the thief would have come, he would have watched and would not have suffered his house to have been broken up.

What did God tell every one of you to do? He told you to watch, spiritual watch. Listen to this, therefore be also ready, don't get ready, but be ready, for in such an hour as you think not, behold, Son of Man cometh.

I'm coming down to something important now. Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his Lord hath made ruler over his household, to give unto them their meat in due season? Who, notice, who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his Lord hath made ruler over his household, to give unto them their meat in due season?

He has made every one of us, he's placed us over a household. Every one of us is responsible for somebody. How many believe that? Don't kid yourself. You have effect upon somebody else, as sure as God made an apple.

Now, God has given you, delegated you a responsibility, and it said, blessed and wise is that man. Blessed is the servant, whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing. Now notice that. He said, blessed is that servant, whom when his Lord cometh, shall find so doing, giving meat in due season.

You are carrying out your responsibility. Now notice, and he shall begin to, no, here we are. Verily I say unto you, he will make him, that's the 47th verse, it said, blessed is the servant, whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing.

Verily I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he hath. Now who's speaking? Jesus is speaking. When's he speaking? He's speaking of a condition. He has just got through mentioning seven of not almost end time, but seven end time experiences and this one I'm reading now is the eighth one.

But here he comes in and tells one of the main reasons why some of them are not going to make it. Now that's what I want you to listen to. Verily I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he hath.

The Evil Servant Who Delays His Lord’s Coming

What the 48th verse. But, and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, my Lord delayeth his coming. My Lord delayeth his coming. Now what has the evil servant said? The great good wise servant, he said the wise servant, but now this is the evil, the unwise, you see the foolish.

It said that he said, and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, my Lord delayeth his coming and shall begin to smite his fellow servant and eat and begin to drink with the drunken. Now what's wrong with saying, my Lord delayeth his coming?

I want to see if you hand your little card to the Lord and let him grade it and say, Lord, am I a Christian? Am I the Christian you want me to be? He'd either have to check yes or no or tell you why. And if you'd say, Lord, am I doing everything the way you'd like for me to do it?

How many believe if he say, you call me Lord master, if I do, you're supposed to be my servant. You're supposed to act accordingly. It's not every man that says Lord, Lord, but he that doeth the what?

The will, the will of my father, which is in heaven. You see, then every confidence toward God that whatever we ask of him, we receive him because we keep his commandments and we do those things that are pleasing, pleasing in his sight.

Somebody said, I'll go to church when I want to. I have my program made up. I go when I want to. And I know what the book said, but you see my situation. And so if it's not to where you can carry out your life, like God says to you, you need to get down on your knees and pray that God will work it out where you can.

The devil will make it awful easy for you to get yourself separated from the church, let everything in the world come in. But God tells you, forsake not. He didn't say unless you have a job or something, he said, forsake not the assembling of yourself together and exhorting one another.

But he said, more so as you see the day approaching and you see the end time coming and how many believe we've lived to see the end time coming. Then he said, forsaking not. Now let's come right on here and get this.

That evil servant, he says, my Lord delayeth his coming and begin to smite his fellow servant and begin to eat and drink with the drunken. And what's wrong with it? Let's read the rest of it. The Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him and in an hour when he's not aware.

He comes and catches him. He has said, my Lord delayeth his coming and he has begin to smite his fellow servant. He's been, you know, kind of buffing him and hitting him around and he's beginning to eat and drink with the drunken, with the drunken.

Now it said we're sober. You know, you can't be sober and drunk at the same time. You know what the drunken is? The drunken are those that are under the intoxication of liquor, spiritual intoxication.

And he tells us we're the light and the children of the world are darkness. But he tells us that we are to be sober, separate ourselves from drunkenness. Now, eat, drink with the drunken. The drunken are in a state, they're not aware of what's going on around them.

Why, the house could be on fire or every kind of a danger could be there. But if he's all soused up and he's drunk, you know, he is not aware, he cannot think right. His thinking faculties are not normal and his actions are not normal.

Some people want to give away all the money when they get drunk. Some want to love everybody and they're mean as the devil when they're sober. But when they get drunk, you know, they want to hug you. I got on the elevator the other day and a fellow goes, how are you?

Well, how's everything coming along? Just fine, huh? And I was in there and there's a lot of other folks, and the folks were like that, you know. But boy, he's just loving everybody. I know one fellow named Lee, he'd get saved.

I mean, when he'd get, oh, he needed to get saved. When he'd get drunk, come in every payday and his wife, she hadn't worked, they'd starve to death. He'd take his money and get him a bunch of dollar bills and he'd go down the street and he'd say, hey, want a dollar?

He'd throw it down. Just throw money like that. Just go down. And he'd actually do it. He'd throw his money away. Tight-fisted as he could be when he was sober. It changed his nature. Liquor, drunkenness.

It said he began to eat and he began to drink. He lost his separation. He was mixing with the wrong crowd. He was having his fellowship with the wrong kind of people. He began to eat, drink with the drunken and he began to smite his fellow servant.

Now what'd the master do when he came? When he came, unaware, said he'll come in an hour when he's not aware of. And he'll say, well, what you been doing? I've been seeing you, delaying your coming. I've been eating, drinking with the drunken.

Well, nice. That's good. Uh-uh. No, that's not what he said to the fellow that was faithful. He was the opposite. He was wise, not foolish. It said, well done. I'm going to make you ruler of all of God.

Is that what he said to him? Right above this. But if the evil servants say, I just got through telling you what happened with the good servant and here's what the master says. And it says here, the Lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him and the hour when he's not aware of and will cut him asunder and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites and there shall be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.

He'll go to hell, not make it to heaven. Now I want you to sit in here on the balcony, young people don't care who you are. I want you to look straight brother here, but I'm going to tell you something.

The Ten Virgins and the Need to Be Ready Now

You say, what's the next verse say? He said, don't have, that's the end of it. No, it's not. That's a great mistake they made in fixing, you know, putting the Bible in chapters. When Paul, I mean, when Matthew wrote this, he wrote a letter and that 25 has nothing to do with separating that because I want you to notice the next verse, what it says.

The next verse says, then shall the kingdom of heaven be like an unto. It starts off connecting with the kingdom of heaven with what he had just got through saying. Had you ever read that that way? You read it the way God put it in here.

That 25, just forget it. Just pull them all together. When he got through saying the wise servant was faithful to discharge his duty and the master came and he was ready and he said, well done. And he made him rule over his goods.

But if the evil, the foolish servant shall go ahead and say, my Lord delayeth his coming. Oh, he's coming. Sure. The Lord's coming. We believe that, but we don't believe he'll come today or tomorrow or the next day.

And you know, we believe it'll be a little while and begin to smite the fellow servant, your Christian brother, begin to mouse back at him and begin to eat and drink with the drunken. That means to keep yourself separate from the world.

God said, love not the world, neither the things in the world. Scripture says pure and undefiled religion before God, the father is this, this fathers and widows in the time of their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

God loves the world. He loves those that you're in the world. You're to try to win the world. You don't go around saying, I can't talk to you. I'm a Christian. No, no. It means as far as the spirit of the world.

Brother, we are in God's kingdom. We're redeemed. We're going to heaven. We don't talk the language of the world. You've got to be sanctified. He said, and then I'm going to wind up when I ought to be starting, but I'm going to close here real quick.

He said, then shall the kingdom of heaven be like unto. When? When like these two servants, one of them said, my Lord delays his coming and begin to smite his fellow servant, eat, drink with the drunken.

And it said, the master will come on him in a time where he's not looking for him and appoint his portion with the hypocrites and there'll be weeping and gnashing of teeth. He'll die. He'll go to hell.

He had a servant, but he wasn't faithful and he was cut off and God gave him a portion with the hypocrites. Then, then shall the kingdom of heaven. When? When the Lord is coming just at the time, he says eight different things at the very end.

Then shall the kingdom of heaven be like an unto 25th chapter gives you the 10 virgins. What about the 10 virgins? What about it? When he started, he said, and then I'm explaining the one I just got to telling you, what was the one just before the wise, the good and the wise servant, when he came the good and the wise, it uses the word wise servant, but the one that was foolish and unwise, the wicked servant, he began to say, my Lord, delay of his coming.

Does he explain to us what it means to be ready in the 10 virgins? The ones that were ready went in. How many of the virgins were Christians on the way to heaven? 10 of them were virgins. 10 of them had lamps.

10 of them had oil in the lamp. 10 of them burned because that our lamps had gone out while the world, by the millions were out there and they were not connected with this bunch on the hill, you'd say, what are they doing?

Expecting the Lord to come said, no, no, they're out there. They're not even counted. But what are that 10 up there? They are up there. They left this crowd. They've separated the self from the world.

They have gone out as virgins with robes on with lamps, with oil in them and they're burning to meet the Lord. But five of them got in and five of them did not. Then show the kingdom of heaven be like an unto, just the verse above it.

He tells us the foolish one said, my Lord delays his coming. What happened to those five? All 10 of them. One is just as ready as the other. Had the Lord got there a little early, how many of them would have gone in?

Be honest. Now, if it got there a little early, you know who got in those that are ready? How many would have been ready? All of them would have been ready because they all were virgins. All had robes.

All had lamps. All had oil. All of them had oil in the lamps and all of them burned. But while the bridegroom tarried, what did the verse above it say? It said when that wicked servant said, my Lord delayeth his coming, I've got time to do what I want to do around here.

I'm going to have a good time, smite the fellow servant. I'm going to get on a little drunk, have a little time with my party fixing out here, eat, drink with the drunken, you know, and the master of the Lord will come in an hour that he thinketh not.

So what happened? The 10 virgins out there, it was a delay. A lot of people for the Lord come a month ago, then shout and have it, talk in tongues, you'd have been ready. I'm not asking whether he was ready 10 months ago.

I'm asking if you're ready now. He didn't say get ready. He said, be ready. If the Lord had come while I'm preaching before I wind up, you know who's going? It's not those that have been ready. It's those that are ready.

Your sins have got to be under the blood. You've got to be separate. Oh, you say, brother, you don't mean that, do you? Keep himself unspotted from the world. Love not the world, neither the things that are in it.

But it says, the 10 virgins, while the bridegroom tarried, winding up, they slumbered and slept. You know what slumbering is? You don't snore because you're not quite that deep into it. Your eyes are a little glassy.

I don't want to see anybody like that. I'll throw a book at you, maybe. But you know what? Well, you almost have to sit down to show this. But anyway, when you're slumbering, you kind of, you're about half there, so everybody raise your hand.

And every now and then you'll catch it. You're not where you can lay down, but boy, I used to go to sleep on the streetcar. About 45 minutes going home, wet-out, in Bel-Air. Every now and then, that guy would say, gang, gang, gang, gang, cow in the truck, something like that.

It'd wake me up, you know, or some other thing had happened, you know, and I'd rouse up, and I was there. I wasn't, but when I'd go home, I'd get in the bed and start snoring. But they slumbered. A lot of professing Christians today, you know what, what you're good for when you're slumbering?

Not a thing in the heaven. Brother, you can't figure a problem, you can't sing, you can't help nobody, you're not fit for nothing. You're half here and half there. You're not awake, you're not asleep, you're not capable of using the right thinking.

And it said they slumbered, but at midnight there was a cry of aid. The bridegroom wasn't there, but he was almost there at midnight. And there was a cry of aid. Behold, the bridegroom cometh. He's a half a mile down the way.

Go out to meet him. And there arose real quickly, and they trimmed the lamp, they had oil in them, and they got them all ready, and everything began to get ready. And the other said, oh, we haven't got any oil.

Give us some of your oil. No, we can't do that. So when they went, they wasn't there when he come. But, you know, when the bride, you know, when the herald went forth, huh? Let me tell you when he went forth.

Last-Day Preparation and the Pentecostal Awakening

In the day of the Lord's preparation, when he's preparing his bride, the Bible says in Mayhem that I'm going to let the chariots go down the broadways. In the day of the Lord's preparation, the automobiles will take the place of the horses, and they'll run like lightning down broadways.

They won't have pig trails or ox trails, they'll have broadways, super freeways. You know how many highways we had in the United States when I was a boy? Paved from one town to the other? Not one. Not one is to be definitely proved, not one in the United States was the rich nation.

Why? The only one that they had as near paved was the Appian Way, there out of Rome. They paved it with bricks. I'm talking about in my boyhood days, there wasn't a paved highway between any city. But now, brother, there are paved highways between every city, and they're not called pig trails, they're called broadways.

And the chariots were racing down them like lightning, and it said it'll happen in the day of the Lord's preparation. What happened when the automobile came in? God poured out His Spirit in Uzzu Street in California, in Georgia, in Los Angeles, in London, in India.

I could mention two or three more where God poured out His Spirit, and the power of the Holy Ghost began to move upon people, and people received the Holy Ghost, spoke in tongues, and they began to go out, and everyone began to preach, the Lord's coming, the Lord's coming, the Lord's coming.

Listen, way back to 30 years ago, see if this preacher's right. How many believe in those days the message was, the Lord's coming, the Lord's coming, get ready. People wouldn't even plow. They figured the Lord's coming before the harvest.

People wouldn't plant trees. Am I telling you the truth? Is it true that Pentecost in its early stage, that was 40 years ago, 50, back 50 years, 50 years. Listen, is it true? The main message they had is the Lord is coming soon.

How many know that to be the truth? Put your hand up. The herald went out. He's right around the corner. What has happened since God has sent His servants to awaken and let the bride know He's coming?

All these last day things have happened. Are we slumbering? Are we eating, drinking with the drunken? Are we smiting our fellow servant? Never with your mouth, but in your heart are you saying, my Lord's going to delay His coming.

He's coming, but He'll delay His coming, and you act accordingly. If people in this church, every one of you, believed that Jesus Christ was as near the coming as He really is, and if the Lord could just tell you how real it was, it'd make a tremendous change in a lot of your habits.

Things that you've neglected and left out, you'd start doing. Some things you've been doing, you'd quit. God's handing you a report card. Is He satisfied? How many believe He's coming? I don't know, why did He say half of them that was ready, they were all ready.

Two in the field, half went. Two at the mill, half went. At the, in the bed, half went. Ten virgins, half went. That's not talking about all the denominational churches, they're not even in the going.

Some of them may be saved, but God's talking about the true believers that are saved and born again, that's once had an experience as a falling away. How many believe if we're not stirred and alarmed 100 we ought to be?

A Call to Spiritual Examination and Prayer

Let's stand to our feet together. It's early, it's only ten after twelve. We ask God to speak to this congregation. If I should ask you a question straight from the shoulder, as far as you know intelligently, do you feel that your life as it stands right now is ready for the trumpet to blow?

And if He'd come now, everything would be ready. If not, if not, there's no better time when God is speaking. I said, God, what would it take to really stir, to really stir and let the people see exactly where we're living?

I've told you a dozen times already, because it's real. It may not be real to you, but it is to me. Nine weeks ago, on a Saturday night, I was in that room right there where I prepare for my, I used to go in there and prepare to come right on out to preach.

And in my dream, God came in that room while I was at the desk. He's hearing me tell this. And He came in there and He said, son, go out and tell them to keep their lamp trimmed and burning. And I said, all right, Lord, I'll tell them.

I was getting my morning message. And I waited just a moment. So, He said, son, go out and tell them to keep their lamp trimmed and burning. My dream. How many believe God gives dreams? And while I was delaying a little bit, the Lord said, son, get up and go out there now and tell them to keep their lamps trimmed and burning.

And I awakened. And that was back there nine weeks ago when I preached on the 10 virgins. But since God's give this message to me, it fits right along with it. It's not whether your lamps have burned.

Five of them have burned. But brother, when He come, they were not burning. The ones that were ready went in. But the ones that were not ready didn't go in. It's not whether you have been ready. Are you ready now?

If not, you need to pray. With your head bowed. How many people here this morning will say, brother, but I'm not absolutely sure. I've neglected my prayer life. I've neglected reading the word like I should.

And I've made excuses and I haven't come to the service like I should. Because God requires me to do it. And see to it that my life is adjusted to where I can do it. But I've neglected some of the spiritual things.

And I want you to pray for me this morning. That God will help me. And I want to be awakened out of the stupor and the slumbering. And I want to be prepared when the trumpet blows. How many will raise your hand right now and say, brother Hibbard, I'm not absolutely sure.

I want you to pray for me. I want to be ready. Put your hand up. Put it up. God bless you. All over the place. God bless you. I see it. There must be a hundred or more. You don't have to put your hand up.

But my friend, if inwardly your soul is telling you that you have come short, you have not qualified for the rapture. You need to do something about it right now. Just one more minute. Is there anyone else?

Put your hand up. Anyone else? God bless you, son. I see it. I want you to be as serious as you can. I want everybody to do what brother Hibbard tells you. I want you to reach over and take someone by the hand.

I don't care who they are. And I want us to look to God together and pray for everyone to raise their hand. That God will acknowledge that lifting that hand as a signal, Lord, I want help and I want to be ready.

Would you do it? And I want every God-fearing Christian to pray with me right now. Father, as we join hands with children and as we reached out and laid hold upon someone's hand, I pray to let the Holy Spirit move upon those who lifted their hand.

And I pray that you would lay your hand upon them. And God, bring a deliverance spiritually to set them free from anything that stands in the way. In Jesus' name, right now. If they have sins and need to be forgiven, you'd forgive her sins, you'd blot it out, put it behind your back, never to be remembered against us anymore forever.