Jabbok — David Wilkerson

Jacob's Wrestling at Jabbok

Jabbok, of course, is that place where Jacob wrestled with the Lord, a defender to God. It's where, in fact, he got his new character, he got his new name Israel. It was the place where he cast down, once and for all, his last idol, and he won his great, final, glorious victory.

Not that he didn't have temptations beyond that point, but something happened in Jacob that would mark him for life. And he rose up that night, Genesis 32, 22, and passed over the fjord Jabbok. Now Jabbok means a place of passing over.

It represents a struggle, it means to empty yourself, it means to pour oneself out. And boy, what a glorious revelation is revealed in this place called Jabbok, because it has everything, absolutely everything, to do with us today.

It's a place where God's people discover the secret of power over every single besetting sin. Oh, that I had heard this message and received it in the Holy Spirit 20 years ago. It represents a life and death crisis the Holy Spirit brings to us, and it's this crisis that he brings us to at Jabbok that leads us to an absolute, total surrender of our lives.

And there can be no glorious victory over self or sin until you go to this place. And this is the place, the final ultimatum where God says, you and I are going to have it out. We're going to deal with every area of your life.

You're going to face yourself, you're going to be emptied of all your evil desires and all your selfish ambitions, and I'm going to change not only you, I'm going to change your character and everything that is about you.

The Red Sea, the Jordan, and the Need for a Third Crossing

Now in the past, believers have been taught that there are two crossings in the life of a Christian, the Red Sea and the Jordan, and the Red Sea crossing represents the coming out of the world, it speaks of a new start, in other words, getting saved.

A lot of people, of course you know as well as I do, come out of Egypt and they get stuck in the wilderness and they never go into the promised land. They get stuck in this wilderness of unbelief and fear and confusion.

The majority of Christians have left Egypt, you can say truly they got saved, but they're stuck in confusion, they're trying to, you know, do you ever hear the word coping? Can you imagine coping with this marvelous gift of life the Lord has given us?

We're trying to cope with this gift called life. They leave the world, but they never really do enter into His fullness, so they talk about another crossing and that is represented by the Jordan. Now the Jordan represents the further commitment to the Lord, that's water baptism, it's Bible reading, it's witnessing, it's a desire to grow in Jesus, it's a passing on to a life of praise, and for many this promised land represents the fullness of the Holy Spirit and many in the Pentecostal movement believe that the baptism of the Holy Ghost in and with the Holy Spirit is the crossing of the Jordan into a fuller life.

Now I don't like the word full gospel, by the way, that suggests that others have only a half a gospel. I don't like the word charismatic, it sounds like a disease, like asthmatic. It's an overused word.

And all these terms that people use, but you see, Christians say, well is that all there is? No, the promise isn't that. You go into the promised land and that's it, God gives you your inheritance. You enter into the spiritual Canaan for the children of God, you get saved, baptized in the Holy Ghost.

What else is there? But you see, the children of Israel did get their inheritance, they entered the promised land, they got their inheritance, but they never did enter into the rest that God wanted them to have.

Because when they did get to Canaan land, these God-fearing, Spirit-led people still had sin in their hearts. They still held to their secret lust, in fact, the idolatry had never been fully removed from their hearts.

They got their inheritance all right, but they didn't get the rest that remained. And that rest has to do with full surrender of sin. He's not talking about some kind of mental attitude, it goes deeper than that.

And tragically, this is the way it is today, multitudes of Spirit-filled believers have never known the true rest of God, their peace is constantly disturbed by a troubled conscience. There's a contradiction at the center of their lives.

God said of Israel that Israel could not enter in because of unbelief, He said, therefore there remains yet a rest of the people of God. Now do you understand this? It suggests that it's possibly saved, Spirit-filled, totally dedicated to the work of the Lord, doing His work, and still be hooked by secret sin.

It's possible to still go to Canaan and still be an idolater, and still hold on to the thing at the center of your heart. It's possible to cast out devils in Christ's name, to heal the sick before miracles, to discern, to do great works, all the name of Jesus, and still be sin-hooked by a deep iniquity.

And only God knows how many Christians in America today carry on this losing battle against an obituating sin, they fight a craving, even after they're saved, craving for drugs and alcohol and sex, they say, well I dearly love the Lord, you see there's just this one thing left in my life, I've just not gotten the victory, a little besetting sin, besetting in modern terms is the sin that keeps hassling you, it's the monkey on your back.

They hate this sin, but they keep doing it, they don't want to give up on Christ, they don't want to go back into the world, but they can't seem to lay down this one idol. Now they've given the Lord the whole land, but one little castle, they just hold on to this little thing, isn't it a little thing Lord, isn't it little?

The little fox that spoils the vine, and oh, even the men and women of God, including ministers of the gospel today, all through the country are struggling with an inner idol or a besetting sin. Oh, I've met men around the country who have great, great hunger for God, they wouldn't think of going to the beggary elements of the world, they'd rather die, and they hunger and thirst for the fullness of Christ, they cry for holiness, they're really dedicated, they're hard-working men and women of God, there's still this one little thing.

It's a lingering problem, it's an idol, it causes them grief and tears, they're torn with guilt and condemnation, they feel helpless, they feel unworthy and confused, I've known of people who fast and pray, they make promises, but all of a sudden they're overwhelmed, and the thing they don't want to do, they do, and they're left helpless, they say, I just can't help myself.

Then they try to bite the bullet, they want to burn it out, they want to force it out, and it's always their uprising when they least expect it. Now, for years and years I've struggled with the theology of victory over sin.

I'm not talking about this term sinless perfection, what I'm talking about is a freedom from slavery to any sin or any lust, to be free from the slavery to it. And few men have studied more than I have about the doctrine of sanctification in the past two years, I've studied and read about holiness, and you see in New York I've worked with the worst sin slaves in the whole world, so I really wanted an answer, and I've been really struggling for years to be able to present simply and clearly a message on how anybody hooked on sex, drugs, alcohol, hate, sometimes, you know, we cop a plea, we totem pole our sins, we put homosexuality on the top, for example, and pride down here at the cross should be the other way around, in the sight of God.

But you see, all these things that are in our hearts, and I wanted to find a message from the Lord that would make it clear, not an oversimplification, but a very clear picture that I could understand, and I know if I could understand I could preach it because I'm pretty thick.

The Church's Struggle With Besetting Sin

And I thought, what about all these ministers and others who carry on secret affairs, husbands and wives are giving up on their marriages, by the millions now, hoping to find someone else who pleases them more, and they go around talking about how bad things are at home, lying about the condition to justify running off and carrying on a secret affair.

They say, isn't it horrible in my house, and they go around sharing how terrible a husband or wife is, just justifying their action to excuse the secret love affair with somebody else. There's this sexual lust, there's adultery, there's fornication that's sweeping through the church like a black plague.

You know that, I don't have to get into all the sordid details of it. But come on now folks, isn't there any victory over all this runaway lust in the church? Isn't there a voice somewhere, isn't there something that we can get a hold of that we don't have to become a victim and lay down, and let the spirit of the age roll over us like a steamroller?

Does the child of God have to go all through life as a slave to some besetting sin? Is there no place of final victory? I don't mean final victory from temptation, but freedom from giving in to the lust.

See, there's a third crossing. Here's my message. There's a third crossing, Jabbok. Now Jabbok was the tributary of the Jordan. It was a fjord that flooded many times, and it was a lonely place. And this Jabbok crossing is the loneliest crossing, because you see, the Red Sea crossing, you can cross with the multitude.

Here are three million Jews crossing the Red Sea. You know, all the multitudes that get saved, you're swept in, and usually if you come to one of my meetings, you get saved with the dozens that come forward and are swept across the Jordan.

And you can even pass, or rather the Red Sea, you can pass the Jordan with mighty armies of God all about you, but Jabbok, you'll cross all alone. There are no crowds around, there are no armies around, it's a very, very lonely crossing.

No counselors, no friends, no helpers, this is your private war just between you and God. And Jacob was left alone, and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. And Jacob was left alone.

And see, Jabbok is where the Jacob in us gets its final death blow. It's where God deals with us, not only about our sin, but about our very character, and where we're going in our personality and in our character, whether or not we're going to grow or get stuck somewhere because of our sin.

Jacob's Appeasement and the Exposure of His Character

You see, at this point, Jacob's a troubled and very desperate man, God's put his back against the wall, so to speak. He's returning now after all these years to get his inheritance. He saw his brother that he'd swindled his birthright from, he's coming at him over here with an army of 400.

And here's Jacob now, a mature man. He's now a loving father. He's obedient to the Lord, after all, he's obeying God's command to go back to his homeland, and he's doing exactly what God told him to do.

And he was now a lover of truth. He's a humble man, he's a praying man now. Here it is in the scripture, listen to it. Oh God, I am not worthy, Jacob said, of the least of thy mercies, and of all the truth which thou hast showed unto me, thy servant.

Oh God, I'm not worthy of the least of thy mercies. I'm not worthy of anything that you've done. He's a humble, that's the cry of a humble man now. He's obedient, he's a praying man, he'd been praying already before he even got across the Jabbokeesh, he's a praying man, but this humble, obedient, praying, God-fearing, truth-loving servant who's into revelation, knowledge, and everything else, is still into appeasement.

That means, appeasement means giving in to a dangerous power to avoid trouble. It means keeping peace at any cost, even compromise. Boy, how this strikes at what's happening in the church today. See, Jacob said of trusting God in his crisis, he's beginning to work angles, he tries to think his way through his problem, he divides his cattle into separate droves, he sends them over drove after drove to soften his brother's heart, he's going to bombard Esau with wave after wave of gifts, of goats, camels, bulls, sheep, donkeys, rams, here they come.

And the Bible says, for he said, I will appease him. Giving in to a dangerous power, appeasement, and that's where the majority of Christians are today. Have you ever heard it, I just can't help it, I didn't want to, I don't want to do this, I hate myself, but in spite of all my superhuman efforts, I give in and I fall, so we appease him.

See, we sit and confess, we weep and confess, then if that doesn't work, we stay up half the night trying to think our way out, we work angles and we scheme, we try to justify, we excuse, we plan, it's all in vain, because we seem powerless against an overwhelming need or desire.

Oh, we're obedient now, we're praying, we're seeking the truth, we're humble, we're loving, we're kind, we're God-fearing, but there it is, there's that fly in the ointment, there's a secret holdout deep in the innermost of the heart, there's still a bit of appeasement, there's still a little scheming, there's one idol standing, not yet totally yielded, not yet fully under the total lordship of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Bethel's Religious Experience Versus Jabbok's Spiritual Surrender

Let me show you what happens at Javik. First of all, at Javik, religion gives way to spirituality. Now, one can be very religious and not be spiritual at all. You know that. Jacob had had a very, very religious experience years before at Bethel.

On his way to Paten Arim, to find a wife of his own people, he had an amazing, very amazing religious experience. And here's what's described, and Jacob dreamed and beheld a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven, and behold, the angels of God ascending and descending it.

Genesis 28, 12. You see, God appeared to this man, now that's a very religious experience when God appears to you, and he made a covenant, he made an agreement with him, and it was a promise of a material blessing.

He said, Jacob, I will give you the land whereon thou liest, I will bless thy seed. And Jacob was overwhelmed, he cried out, how awesome, the Lord is in this place! And he calls it Bethel, and right then and there, this religious man proceeds to make a deal with God.

See, Jacob caught on, the only thing he heard was the blessing part. I'm going to bless you, Jacob. Now God was trying to unfold, he was trying to open the heavens to Jacob to show him the glory of God and the realities of the Spirit.

But Jacob, something resounded in his heart, that blessing part, what was that blessing part? And here's what Jacob sees, Jacob, right then and there says, I'm going to take it, and he makes a blessing pact.

He said, if God will be with, listen, see how familiar this sounds. If God be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, if he will give me bread to eat, and if he will give me raiment to put on, so that I come to my father's house in peace, and as the original says, in success, then shall the Lord be my God.

If you'll bless me, now I'm not putting these words together, that's in the King James Version. If you will bless me, then I will surely give you back the tent. Give it to me, Lord, so I can give it to you.

You see, Lord, if you'll give me bread, if you'll give me clothes, if you will prosper me, if you will bless me, then I'll serve you. You think of it, God's in the place, the heavens are open, the angels are running up and down this ladder, God's speaking, what a supernatural surrounding, and all Jacob can see is a deal.

For land, and food, and clothes, and prosperity, and success in all his ways, it was strictly a religious experience all the way. Now, Bethel is the religion of our day. Like Jacob, our covetous spirits interpret God's promises only in materialistic ways.

We go so far as to desecrate the precious atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in all these high-sounding religious phrases, we talk about the power of Christ's shed blood, but those who preach this prosperity message are desecrating the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ.

They are blind to the true meaning of the suffering of Jesus Christ on the cross. All they can see out of it is this deal. The atonement to them means health, wealth, prosperity, and deliverance from the curse of poverty.

It's Bethel, it's religious. They don't see His power over sin. They don't see that it provided freedom to sacrifice, to suffer, to serve willingly, to suffer the spotting of our goods if necessary for the sake of Christ, to gain an incorruptible crown, to suffer the loss of all things and not let it bother you because the atonement provided something better, an eternal inheritance.

What about all the multitudes of charismatic people who are worshipping at Bethel now? What about all the preachers and teachers who are stuck at Bethel claiming all the Bethel rites and promises? Over the past few months, I've been pretty hard on them, and I've been kind of, you know, just been wrapped on the knuckles a little bit because I was thinking some of them were demon-possessed.

No, the Lord says they're just religious people. They're not spiritual, they're religious, very religious. You can be very devout like the Pharisees, very, very pious and very, very devout and use all the phrases and be very, very religious like Jacob.

You can experience great revelations, you can see angels, you can even hear from God, but at Bethel, the flesh is in control. It's a place of religion, it's not true spirituality, it's a partial revelation.

It goes for all the blessings while ignoring the deep inner struggle. Jacob didn't deal with the inner man at Bethel. God wanted to, but he missed the point. It's being in the presence of the Lord without dealing with the Jacob nature in us, and that's why we need a Jabbok.

Jabbok as Absolute Surrender

Secondly, Jabbok is a place of absolute surrender, absolute surrender. It's a place of total victory over your besetting sin. Now, you're not ready for this passing, this final passing, this third passage.

Maybe you've been over the Red Sea and you've been across the Jordan, but you're not ready for Jabbok until you're desperate. You have to come to the end of yourself. Your burden of sin's got to bring you down to a life and death crisis.

And, boy, look at this crisis that Jacob faces now. On one side, Esau's closing in, the other side, God's closing in. And there's a whole host of heavenly witnesses, and Jacob realized he'd been cornered, he couldn't go any further.

It was the absolute end of the line. And outside of a miracle, he said, I'm exposed, I'm dead, I can't go on, this is it. Jacob's sins had caught up with him. You see, for 20 years, he'd played a game, he'd blocked his way through, he'd survived on his cunning cover-ups, but now he couldn't go on, not even a day, not even a step.

Jacob, this night, was going to be forced to look God in the eye, eye to eye, and see himself for what he really was. He was not this great patriarch anymore, he's not this great man of God, he's not that vivacious Christian witness, he's not that Bible school student anymore, uh-uh.

This time, Jacob means business. This man wants to be free now, oh, he hungers and his heart cries for freedom, and it took an all-night struggle. He wanted, before this night was over, to look the whole world in the eye.

He wanted to look God in the eye on the whole world and say, I'm clean, my reproach has been removed. He was seeking cleansing. And he said unto him, this is the Lord speaking to him now, in the midst of his wrestling, and the Lord said unto him, what is your name?

And he said, Jacob. Now Jacob knew what his name meant, it meant heel-grabber, grabbing, always grabbing. One who cheats, he cheated his brother, he cheated himself, he cheated God and tried to cover it up.

And what the Lord's really saying to Jacob now is, he's saying, Jacob, look at yourself, look at what you've become because you hold on to this, look what you've become, you've become a permanent cheat, it's become a part of your nature, it's ingrained in you.

No more excuses, Jacob, for once in your life, face reality, face the truth, be deadly honest or you're not going to get the victory, this is it, Jacob, tonight's the night. And out it comes, all the pent-up tears and condemnation and guilt, and he said, oh Lord, I'm paraphrasing here, but he said, oh Lord, in modern English, I'm a phony.

I'm sure Jacob could have said, I'm religiously, outward religious, but inwardly, I know that I'm a grabber, I'm a cheat, I've played with fire too long, I've been excusing my actions, I've justified my sins, oh God, forgive me.

Now, you and I can find no victory over that lingering sin until we face a final deadline from God, there has to come a deadline, for God says, this far, no further, we're going to deal with this now.

You've got to face the reality that God's justice and judgment against your sin has to grip you with the finality, and the reason American people play with their sins because they have no fear of God, they don't even believe in divine justice.

You were loved, you know, you're going to make it, don't worry, you loved, we're loved. There's no question about that, but folks, you and I are not different, if God's going to judge sin in the world, he's going to judge it even more in the church.

You've got to know that you and I are not special people immune to judgment, or exposure. You must face the fact that God in his love must give you a deadline, a last chance to obey completely. Now, that doesn't mean that his grace is withdrawn, it doesn't mean that his love and his mercy is limited.

There comes a time when God can no longer hold you back from the wages of your sin. God has to give you the deadline because he knows that death is around the corner, he knows that there's problems, that spiritual death that people enter into when they disobey God.

Not everybody like Ananias and Sapphira drop dead, there's something far more awesome and horrifying, and that's the spiritual death. It's just around the corner, the Lord sees it, and to avoid that, he's got to rush us to Jaffa and say, we're going to deal with it because God sees what's happening, God sees what's right around the corner.

He said lust can seize it, brings forth sin, and sin's death, and he's got to deal with us before that spiritual death sets in. You've got to face the reality you can't go on living a lie, no matter how blessed you are, no matter how anointed, no matter what great things you've accomplished in his name, God will not permit an open-ended license to do anything we please.

He says, you're going to obey me or you'll be exposed. He said you're going to reap now what you sow. And folks, here you come to Javik, and in Javik you face the ugly truth. You confess it in all its ugly details.

You go to him, I don't care what your sin is, you say, oh Lord, if it's a daughter, I'm an adulterer. If you're a fornicator, I'm a fornicator.

In order to hear the continuation of the message, stop your tape machine and turn the cassette over.

Confession, Fear of God, and Deliverance

I don't care what your sin is, you say, oh Lord, if it's a daughter, I'm an adulterer. If you're a fornicator, I'm a fornicator. I'm no better than the harlots and the homosexuals who walk the street hustling in bus stations.

Oh God, I'm the worst liar in the church. Lord, I've been cheating. I'm not what people think I am. And Lord, I know you have to expose it. I know I have to pay the price for what I'm doing, so take it, Lord, take it now, take it.

I've reached the end of myself. Lord, I don't want to carry this terrible burden one more day. I've got to be free. I'm tired of playing a role. And Jabot, when you reach that point of desperation, this tremendous sense of God's divine wrath and judgment against sin, you know that He loves you.

You know that you're under grace. And it was under grace that Ananias and Sapphira dropped dead. And it wasn't over money or land either. God didn't need their land. He didn't need their money. No, no, no, no, folks.

They died afraid because there was fear of God in the first Pentecostal church of Jerusalem. And if we had the same kind of fear, people would be dropping dead now over the church. God didn't kill them.

It doesn't say that. Peter didn't kill them. And you know, that fear is gone. And I'll tell you something, folks, when I've been setting myself alone with God in the past few months, that awesome fear, the glorious fear of God, oh, I glory in His grace.

I glory in His mercy. But it's because of His grace and His mercy, you realize that that grace cannot be abused. And you have to come to this final deadline. You say, oh, God, I can't carry it anymore.

I want to be delivered. I want to be a free man. I want to be a free woman. And that sense of God's judgment comes upon our hearts. And that's gripped me in its fullness. You say, I have heard people say over the years, oh, we are kept from sin by the power of His love.

Well, Peter said, knowing the terror of the Lord. Hey, folks, has any generation received more preaching about love than this generation? Has it done the job? No. The only thing left is the message on the judgment.

Character Transformation and the Expulsive Power of New Affection

You see, at Jabbok, Christ delivers us not only from our besetting sin, but He does it by changing our character. The great old preacher talked about the expulsive power of a new affection, that you can't get rid of one affection until you replace it with a more powerful affection.

Well, that's the way God does. He pushes the old character out by giving us a new one. And He said, thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel, for it's a prince of power with God and with men.

You've prevailed, Jacob. You've prevailed. You see, He said you're prevailing now through the power of a new character. To prevail means to gain the upper hand, the victory and superiority. You see, the Lord's not interested in you getting the victory over just your besetting sin.

He won't let you pick and choose. Because if you get the victory over this one little besetting sin, there'll be another take its place and crop up over here. It's just like those little moles we have over there.

You kill them here and He sticks His head up over here. What do they call the little gophers? Well, you can get rid of one gopher in your life and there'll be another gopher pop its head up somewhere else.

No, He's going to deal with your character, your very nature. And see, this desperate night, He's facing the truth and the Lord touched Him and the Lord cripples Him. One of the greatest miracles the Lord can perform in our life is to cripple our human efforts and make us totally dependent on the Holy Spirit.

Best thing God could ever do for you and me. You get to Jabbok and you won't go bouncing out. You'll crawl out, humbled and crippled and crying. Oh God, I've made that surrender, I've laid down my sin, my idol is down, but I can't keep the victory without supernatural help.

You brought me to this place of absolute obedience. Now it's up to you to sustain my commitment. Give me supernatural help and oh, God moves heaven and earth supernaturally for the man who goes to Jabbok.

Man or woman who faces that final deadline at Jabbok, God supernaturally changes your character. It's a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit and that brings me to the most important part of all. Number three, Jabbok is the place of an open heaven.

The Open Heaven and Freedom From Guile

You get rid of your besetting sin, automatically opens the heavens again. God reveals Himself only to the people who get rid of their guile. Guile means deceit, dishonesty and secret sin. And listen to the promise that Jesus gave to Nathanael, one of the twelve.

Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him and saith of Him, Behold an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile, no deceit, because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou? Thou shalt see greater things than these.

Verily, verily, I say unto you hereafter, ye shall see heaven opened. The angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. That's what Jacob had, remember? That's what happened again at Jabbok.

The heavens opened again to Jacob. He alone, Nathanael was the only disciple that got this promise. And what Jesus was saying, Nathanael, there's no deceit in you, there's no dishonesty in you. You're an open book.

There's no hidden work of sin in your life. Nothing is hindering the flow. You're going to be given an open heaven. You'll see things that few others see. I'll give you full revelation because there's no guile.

And oh, how the Lord wants to open our hearts to this truth because it's our guile that closes the heavens and they become brass. That's why Jabbok is so necessary. It's a place to lay down our final remains of guilt and guile and deceit and dishonesty so the heavens are open again because it is true our sins hide this face from us.

Jacob renames Jabbok Peniel, which means the face of God, because I have seen God face to face and my life is preserved. Now Jacob's a spiritual man, no longer a religious man. No more talk about material blessings, lands and food and clothes and success.

He's seen the face of God. It's not cattle now, it's Christ. The heavens are open again. The ladder reappears. But now he understands the deepest meaning of this open heaven. He sees it as access to the Father.

It's a means of getting to know him. It's a matter of sitting in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. It's the glow of his presence, it's the sound of his voice. The values are all spiritual now. Jacob becomes a spiritual man.

Jacob had wasted years. He could have enjoyed years of an open heaven. The heavens have been closed to him because of his guile. Look how he cheats. He keeps on. I don't care. I get upset at ministers who talk about how inventive Jacob was.

And after all, Laban cheated him so he had a right to cheat him. What kind of theology is that? Somebody cheats you, you have a right to cheat them. Oh, Jacob cheated. He marries Leah, he's tricked into that and despises her.

What kind of a man is that who despises his wife? This man, the heavens had been closed to him. He had no open heaven. You know, I really, there's danger in saying, well, hey, you know, in recent years I've had a revelation of the Lord, God's drawn me closer and everything I've done before then is useless.

No, I don't say that. I thank God for all he's done in the past life, in my past life. I thank God for all the blessings in New York and the streets and people have been saved. But, oh, I thank the recent months and years he's brought me to Javik.

I thank God that there was a night, an all night for me, when God held my face up to the mirror and made me take a long, hard look. And it was so ugly, it was so unbelievable, that I couldn't believe.

I said, God, you had a right to kill me. I'm not talking about adultery, I'm talking about something far more sinful than that. I'm talking about things like God,.

And I need you to go to the core of the heart. I'm talking about our need of acceptance, our need to do something,.

Our need, all of our human needs that are never dealt with. And at Javik, the Lord made it clear to me, he said, David, if you'll have this with me, and if you will absolutely lay it down, everything in your life, and become an open book, no hidden guile, I'll open the heavens to you.

He kept his word. Oh, I'm not into some supernatural revelation. See, and if you really get a revelation from the Lord, it's not new, it's never new. I'm afraid of new revelations. Last week, I got five letters from people that said, have you heard the new doctrine in the country that's called new wave generation?

That's the new doctrine coming down the tarnpike, so get ready. There's one every month. Somebody gets a new, fresh revelation. Now, if you get the real revelation of an open heaven, it has to do more with the glorious old truths of atonement, and his righteousness by faith.

Nothing fancy, but it's usually life-giving. It speaks of life. It speaks of victorious living in Jesus Christ through power of faith. Judgment must begin in the house of the Lord. The whole church of Jesus Christ is gonna be brought to Javik.

I believe that. I believe with everything in me, God is going to create a crisis in the church. He's gonna bring every one of us to a crisis. He's gonna make it so empty, so restless, so hungry. He's gonna bring Esau with his army this way.

You say, well, brother Dave, don't you have more temptation? Oh, folks, that's not, I'm not saying that I've come to a certain perfection, but I've come to the rest that remains for the children of God, and to the open heaven.

I don't want a dome over me. Austin Spark, Austin Spark speaks of that dome that comes, and the only life you have is within that church, or that religious dome that you have built. No, God wants to just break open that dome and open up the glories of heaven.

Isn't it exciting to be around a person who has been to Javits, and you can see it, you know it.

There's peace, there's joy, because the joy of the Lord is a strength. If you don't have any joy, you don't have any strength.

And I don't like that phony piety that goes around with a frown, pretending to be holy. I was at a Bible school one time, and a very pious young man had told the Lord, made a promise that the only way to become holy, he thought, was not to talk for three months.