Resurrection Realm — David Wilkerson

Resurrection Realm and the Raising of Lazarus

Isn't it wonderful what the Lord did this afternoon in our presence, and so many hearts changed and lives that were helped, and we don't believe the Lord ever gets finished. He just begins His work. We won't get finished until we get there, will it?

Until we get on the other side. Go to John, please. John 11. John 11. Talk to you tonight about the resurrection realm. We're going to try to move into a new realm tonight. A resurrection realm. Just open it to the 11th chapter, and leave it open there on your table before you while we pray.

John 11, the resurrection realm. I know so little about this, I'm almost hesitant to preach it, but I've seen it. I've had a glimpse of it. I know Brother Warnock has seen it because he's written on it.

He's talked much about the resurrection realm and some of the others that have come through great revivals. You know God has spoken this in the past, and I believe He's going to speak it again. I may see it a little different than some of those in past years saw it, but I've caught a glimpse of it, and I want you to catch a glimpse of it.

I told Brother Warnock and some of my associates before preaching, I felt so inadequate tonight to approach this subject, but I'm going to ask the Lord to give us an anointing, and somehow you'll see it.

At least see it. Get a glimpse. The Lord will take your eyes and open them and give you just a peek into this realm He's trying to move us into. You know that repentance is to lead to life, don't you?

And when there's true repentance, true life comes. But that life is in a new realm. It's a resurrection realm. Heavenly Father, we thank You for the depth and anointing of the worship here tonight, and we pray now that You would speak Your Holy Word.

We acknowledge Your Holy Spirit. We ask You to come in a very special way that You would open our eyes, give us hearing ears, take the fat away from our hearts, strip us, O Lord, that we may see and hear from the Holy Spirit.

Lord, without the unction, without the anointing, we are dead. We are lifeless. There's no hope. O God, come now and put fire in my lips, cleanse them, and let us hear from heaven. Lord, I believe You gave me this on my knees.

I believe this is something You want us to share. We've never shared this before, and help us tonight to see this realm that You're trying to move us into. You're trying to get us out of this realm of darkness into this glorious realm of resurrection.

Lord, just make us hungry for it. Help us to see this new land. Don't let us be like a Moses who stands on the mount and can't move in. Lord, move us into this realm. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. John 11, go to 23, please.

John 11, 23. We're going to just take a look at this. In fact, go back all the way to verse 14. Verse 14, John 11. This is speaking about the death of Lazarus. Then Jesus therefore said to them plainly, speaking to His disciples, Lazarus is dead, and I'm glad for your sakes that I was not there so that you may believe, but let us go to him.

Thomas therefore, who's called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, let us also go that we may die with him. So when Jesus came, he found that he had only been in the tomb four days. Now, Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off.

And many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. Martha therefore, when she heard that Jesus was coming, went to meet him. But Mary still sat in the house. Martha therefore said to Jesus, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.

Of course, you know that's true, don't you? Jesus, if he'd been there, he would not have died in what they believed was a realm of death. Even now, I know that whenever you ask of God, God will give him.

Jesus said to her, your brother shall rise again. Martha said to him, I know that he'll rise again in the resurrection on the last day. Jesus said to her, what? I am the resurrection and the life. A very familiar scripture.

He who believes in me shall live even if he dies. Everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? She said to him, yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the son of God, even he who comes into the world.

Of course, she didn't answer his question. And when she had said this, look what she did. What did she do? She went away and called Mary, her sister, saying secretly, the teacher is here. He's calling for you.

She said, I don't see this. Maybe you do. She went away. So this she rose quickly was coming to him. That's as far as I want to go on that. There's a, if you go a little further to verse 35, you find the shortest, they call it the shortest text, the shortest verse in the Bible, but perhaps one of the most profound or perhaps the verse that we've never understood.

Jesus wept. Why do you think Jesus was weeping? I've heard all kinds of explanations. Certainly he's not weeping over Lazarus, his friend, because he knows shortly he's going to embrace him. You know that, don't you?

He's going to embrace him. He knew that he'd come walking out of that tomb. In fact, he had said in 1111, speaking to disciples, our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep. I'm going to wake him out of his sleep.

Now, how does Jesus weep over a man who's sleeping? He's in the arms of the father. He's just sleeping. So how would Jesus be weeping over a man sleeping in the arms of his heavenly father? Jesus was not weeping for the man in the tomb, because the dead man was not in the tomb.

The dead man was outside the tomb. He was weeping for all the dead people who surrounded him. Lazarus is going to come walking out of that tomb. They were going to get a person. Oh, by the way, I've heard people say, oh, I wish I could be there.

I would have rejoiced. No, you wouldn't do at all. You'd be running down a hill just like everybody else did. Scared to death. Just like that widow of Maine who had a son. And the casket goes by and Jesus stops and says, put the casket down.

And Jesus, I don't know what he did. He laid his hands on the box and said, son, rise. And you say, if I'd been there, I would have fallen on my knees. No, you would have run over the hill when you saw a corpse getting up out of that box.

Resurrection life would scare you to death. He looked on that curious crowd and he knew what was in their mind. He said, could this man have kept Lazarus from dying if he'd been here? But you see, Jesus was weeping because they didn't understand who he was.

They didn't understand it at all. He was life eternal, life in fullness, life in completeness, everlasting, endless. But all they could think of was the natural life. The natural life of Lazarus. Jesus came to this earth to bring every dead body out of every tomb.

He looked at the Pharisees who he saw as white as sepulchers, as graves upon which men walked. He wanted to raise them out of this spiritual death in which they existed. He was life and he knew it. He was spiritual life.

He came to his own and his own received him not. He wanted to bring life to the inner man. Jesus knew that soon, in just a few moments, Lazarus would become an oddity. He would come blazing out of that tomb and for about two months, maybe only if he were living today, two weeks.

That's about as long as we remember the satellite blaring up. That's as long as we remember any kind of a miracle or any kind of a tragedy nowadays. Two weeks. And Jesus knew that Lazarus would become an oddity.

He'd become a kind of wonderment, a celebrity of sorts. And they'd want to touch the man. But that's all just an objective wonder and they would go back to their dead ways, not understanding that he was the life, eternal, everlasting life here today.

They would go on their ways living in a realm of bondage and death. They would be chained to their lust and their corruption just as they were then. They would never understand him as the source of resurrection life now, here today on this earth.

I don't believe Martha understood that at all. He said, I'm the resurrection and all. She has the testimony most of us have. I believe Jesus is the Son of God. I believe that he is God's Son in the flesh.

He's come to this earth to save that which is lost. Now that's a good testimony, but that's not enough. That's not enough at all. The Bible said she went away and called Mary. I doubt the disciples understood him being the resurrection at all.

All they could see was an earthly kingdom. All they wondered is who is going to be the greatest in this kingdom. Who's going to sit on the right and who's going to sit on the left when he sets up his kingdom here on this earth?

All they could think about was the flesh, the natural life. They weren't even thinking in spiritual terms. The Lord had said, my kingdom is not of this earth. It's not an earthly kingdom, it's a spiritual kingdom.

The life that I've come to bring is not just physical life, it's a spiritual life. They didn't understand it. In fact, I believe Paul was the first one in the Scripture to understand who Jesus really was.

Not until Paul had his revelation of this great mystery. He had a revelation of this realm of the resurrection. He believed that when you're in Christ and Christ in you, you move into a new realm. Not of this world.

Resurrection Life in the Heavenly Places

In fact, go with me to Ephesians. Go to Ephesians the 2nd chapter. I want you to hear it in Paul's own language. Ephesians the 2nd chapter. Go to verse 4. I hope you have your Bible and I hope you love the Word and tremble at it.

Ephesians 2. Verse 4. I still hear the rustling of the leaves. Somebody have a hard time finding it? I'll give you a minute. Verse 4. Now this is what resurrection life meant to Paul. It was the Holy Spirit coming upon a believer to awaken and arouse him out of his depth of sin.

This was a spiritual arousement. A spiritual rising from the death of corrupt flesh and the corruption that held him down to this world. Now Paul did speak of a day of redemption for this physical body.

A day in which this mortal would put on immortality. That there would be a new body. This physical body would pass away and there would be a new immoral body in his own image. But while he lived in this mortal body, he was already raised in his spiritual man.

He was already in heavenly places with Christ Jesus. In other words, he's saying, by the Spirit of God, I'm no longer part of this world system. I'm not a part of the death that touches every area of it.

I'm not a part of the sin and the corruption of this world anymore. I was once dead, I was a partaker of the lust of this world, and I was blinded by sin. But now I've been raised above it all. I don't live in that dark realm anymore at all.

I've moved out of that realm of flesh. Christ Himself has become my life. He's everything to me. Everything in this world now is dung. It's nothing but rubbish. I'm passed out of it. Now the Greek word here for being made alive, it's anegrio.

And that means to rouse, to awaken to a place of steadfastness. To awaken to a place of steadfastness. And this is exactly what the Holy Spirit, I believe, is doing in this gathering. He's doing it all over the world.

He's doing it in China. We leave two weeks from tonight for Poland and Hungary. Thirty days behind the Iron Curtain. And I expect the Holy Ghost to be preparing a people right now, and there's going to be an arousement.

There's going to be the sound of a trumpet up and down through Poland. In Warsaw, in Gdańsk, in these cities that we're in. And in Budapest. We've opened a center for drug addicts and alcoholics in Budapest.

And already God is moving there. What the communists couldn't do with their millions of dollars, now they're crying for help because they know only God can do it. Even the communists know that. They won't admit it if they didn't admit it while they're calling for us.

But He's waking up a holy people who are going to become steadfast in a new realm. A new realm of resurrection. Now there are doctrines abounding today in America and around the world that teach that God is raising up a super race of human beings so full of faith they're going to get a certain quality or quantity of faith and they're never going to physically die again.

Now one of the men who taught that just died recently. It set that whole movement into fear and terror. They thought if anybody lived, he'd live forever. But you see this new kingdom dominion class of people, they're not going to physically die.

There's going to be a super faith race that's going to come forth and be manifested on the face of this earth. And they will not physically die. And they say the only reason we do not see that yet, it's not been manifest in power.

And we have not had the quality or quantity of faith to make that happen. But God somehow is going to make that happen. Paul wanted nothing to do with that doctrine. Nothing to do with that doctrine whatsoever.

I give it to you from the scripture. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. To physically die is gain. But I'm hard pressed from both directions. Having the desire to depart and be with Christ.

And that's what this generation doesn't have. This desire to depart and be with Jesus. For that is very much better, yet to remain in the flesh is more necessary for your sake. I heard a tape of a rather well-known young Pentecostal evangelist.

And he was preaching at a youth convention. And he said, when Jesus comes, he's going to have to drag me out of here. I've got too much to do for him. He'll have to drag me away. I don't want to go now.

And I'm hearing that everywhere I go in the country. And I hear that on radio. I hear it everywhere I go now. I don't want Jesus to come. I want to win the world first. Well, this burden of the Lord is on every one of our hearts as we walk in holiness.

But Paul said, I have a desire to depart and be with Christ. If you're in love with Jesus Christ, you want to be with the object of your love. And this flesh means nothing to you. Listen to what Paul said.

More than that, I count all things to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For whom I've suffered the loss of all things, and I count them but rubbish or dung in order that I may win Christ.

He said, listen to this. Therefore, we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying. Our outer man is what? Decaying. Paul's outer man was decaying. Paul said, I'll tell you what. If Paul said physical exercise doesn't do much profit to the body, how in the world would he preach that today when we're in such a physical craze in America?

Everybody's into building up the body. Boy, Paul would thunder that today, wouldn't he? He'd look at all these jogging Christians. Go ahead and jog, but he's going to tell you there's not much to it. This thing's going to decay anyhow.

This house is going to die out. You can run, you can jog. It's decaying, folks. Some of us are decaying a little faster than the others. Therefore, do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.

For momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison. While we look not at the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are the eternal.

I believe there is an eternal kingdom, an invisible kingdom, but it's manifested right now in a visible way through a holy body of people, of corporate people walking in holiness and manifested in their body.

There is a manifestation in this physical body. But that manifestation is holiness and righteousness before the King. There is a manifestation in this physical body, but that manifestation we'll get into a little more as we go.

Rejecting an Earthly Dominion Kingdom

Now, I don't have my eyes on an earthly kingdom. Oh my, you're going to hear that because I'm telling you now, this is where all of the charismatic movements are going. This is where the health and wealth and prosperity and faith gospels are going.

They're going into a physical kingdom, a dominion message. They're going to put the coming Lord Jesus off into some future. And my Bible said He's a wicked servant who says, My Lord delays His coming.

It's a wicked servant who says, My Lord delays His coming. And we're going to put the coming Lord way out here and everybody's going to relax. Nobody's going to have to be vigilant. You know the early day disciples, they looked for Him daily.

They said, Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus. There was an expectancy in this early church that we're missing that love of His appearing. I think He's coming for those whose love is appearing. And our love is appearing.

I want to win souls. I want to be a part of what He's doing these last days. But I can say with pride, I've got a desire to depart and be with my Lord. Oh, hallelujah. I'm not looking for an American imperial president who's going to bring the whole world under subjection to some kind of spiritual congress that we set up here in America.

We've got this super sane idea in America. And we think the kingdom of God is going to come to America. Well, I'm seeing something else in the Spirit. I see a holy remnant whose hearts have been wound to Jesus Christ.

They're going to go deeper and further into the heart of Christ. And He's going to become their joy. He's going to become their life. They're going to have an eternal state of mind, a New Jerusalem state of mind.

They're totally free from all that's of this world. There's a heavenly minded people arising. But how is this going to happen? How do we move into the spiritual kingdom, this realm of resurrection? Alright, first of all, those who move into this resurrection realm are going to judge sin in themselves and in the church.

Judging Sin in Ourselves and the Church

They're going to judge sin. Go to 1 Peter. 1 Peter. I want you to go to 1 Peter, the 4th chapter. Go to Hebrews and turn right. You'll find it. Tell me you know where Peter is here in your Bible. 1 Peter, 4th chapter, 17th verse.

Very familiar Scripture. For it is time for judgment. For what? With the household of God. And if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? Judgment begins where?

It begins in the house of God. But who is the judge? Who's the judge? Now listen closely to this now. Jesus Christ is not judged while we are sojourning here on earth. If you'll go back to John. Go back to John 12.

I'll prove that to you. John, the 12th chapter. You've got to see this before we go any further in the Scripture. John, 12th chapter. And go to the 47th verse. I'm going to read verse 47 and 48. And if anyone hears my sayings and does not keep them, what's he say?

I do not judge him, for I did not come to what? This is Jesus speaking. I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. He who rejects me does not receive my sayings as one who judges him. The word that I spoke is what will judge him at the last day.

At the last day, the word of God will judge us. But who is the judge right now in the house of God? We have the idea that God is going to just suddenly come down and judge every one of us. No. You are the judge.

I am the judge. We have been called to judge our sin. You and I are called to judge sin in the church. There is almost no holy ghost discipline in the church anymore. Almost none. And the reason there isn't, there are not enough holy men in the pulpit that have a touch of God and will do what they say.

I can't do it because I know where I should be. And I don't want to be a phony. King James Version, 1 Corinthians. Don't turn there, but 1 Corinthians 11, 31, 32. I'll read you a very familiar scripture.

For if we judge ourselves, we shall not be judged. If we... what? Judge ourselves, we shall not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened to the Lord that we may not be condemned with the world.

That we may not be condemned with the world. The holy ghost is the prosecutor. Boy, I'll tell you what, he's some prosecutor too. I want to get into this with you just a little more. Now, to judge sin means to censure it and to agree with the holy ghost when he convicts you with it.

It's to say, I will not permit this because the holy ghost's work when he comes to this earth is to judge the world of sin. That's the prosecutor's job. The idolatry of Christians is not worthy of the body and the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I want you to go to 1 Corinthians. Go, you or John, turn right. 1 Corinthians, the 11th chapter. We don't preach ourselves in these meetings. We preach Christ, we preach His Word. You can follow us and you can... if it's not in the Word, you don't have to agree with it.

It's from the Word. 1 Corinthians 11, verse 27. Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner... In what kind of manner? In an unworthy manner shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord.

But let a man examine himself. And so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself. If he does not judge the body rightly. If he does not judge the body.

I'm a part of the corporate body, but I'm a cell in this body. I first judge my sins and I judge it in the church. I judge it in the church. We lack the jealousy of a jealous God. Do you know there's a Phineas priesthood that God has raised up?

Phineas was that young man that took a sword in his hand. When a prince of Israel named Cosby took this Midianite woman. Prince Zimri brought this woman named Cosby into his tent. Already 23 ,000 Israelites had died because of sin in the camp and seduction.

And I think by this time Moses must have given up on the people. He said, this is a hopeless... In fact, he had told them, he says, even when God found you, you had to rebuild yourself. There's never been a time I've known your God picked you up, that you haven't been a rebellious people.

And here is this prince, young prince of Israel, and he's taken this prostitute into his tent. And this young man of God, Phineas. Something comes over him. And he takes the sword in the hand and he approaches that tent.

Now I'll tell you what it would be like if he were living today. We'd have 10 ,000 preachers saying, don't judge him. He's probably trying to win it to Judaism. Every servant stands or falls to his own mess.

Don't judge, don't judge, don't judge. I hear that so much it's coming out of my ears, and that's a smoke screen to hide from righteous judgment. That young man didn't ask any questions. There was a jealousy in his heart.

It wasn't a jealousy for God, it was the jealousy of God. And there's a difference. It's a jealousy of God. It's walking so close to God that you have his heart. You have this hatred of sin. And he goes in there and he said, in the name of Jehovah, and he spares them both.

Kills them on the spot. And God told Moses, he said, you go tell him that because he was jealous of my jealousy, I'm giving him an everlasting covenant of peace. And I'm establishing for his household an eternal priesthood.

And every man or woman of God who stands up for the jealousy of a holy God, has that priesthood of Phineas. He's judging sin first in his own life. Phineas could have never gone into that tent until he had sin out of his life.

God would have never allowed that. God would have stricken him dead. He was a holy man. Don't judge. Did I read 1 Corinthians yet? 1 Corinthians 11, 27. Did we read that? Here we are. Go to verse 29. For he who eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly.

For this reason many among you are weak and sick and have in a number sleep. But if we judged ourselves rightly, we should not be judged. For when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord in order that we may not be condemned along with the world.

Look at me. We've got a sick church. We've got a weak church. With multitudes of sick and weakly Christians. Why? Because the righteous judgment of the Lord is not coming forth from the pulpits. This is what brings out the sickness.

This is what brings out the disease. Dealing with it with the sword of the Lord. We have sick pastors, burned out workers, a weak and poverty stricken church in many areas. Because we're drinking unworthily.

You know the scripture says we're still doing some things that we did when we were pagans. Go over to 1 Corinthians 12 chapter. See right there, 12. Look at verse 2. 1 Corinthians 12 verse 2. You know that when you were pagans, you were what?

You were led astray to the dumb idols. Led astray by the dumb idols. There are some people who don't act saved at all. They're still being led away by the dumb idols. They're sitting right in the living room.

Idolatry, Television, and Spiritual Callousness

Go to Isaiah 46. I want to show you something about that dumb idol. I'm calling your television set a dumb idol. Isaiah. Did I say Isaiah? Isaiah 46. Why am I in Ezekiel? I want to go to Isaiah. Isaiah 47, 36, 46.

Isaiah 46 verse 7. Now I don't know who delivered your TV set. But you see, they lift it upon the shoulder and carry it. They set it in its place and it stands there. It does not move from its place. Though one may cry to it, it cannot answer.

It can't deliver him from his distress. If you love that thing, why don't you ask it to heal you? Why don't you ask it to anoint you? What good is it doing for you? Say, Brother Wilson, are you hung up on this?

You know, everybody calls. Every time God raises a voice, somebody raises a red flag. Legalism. Legalism. They lift it on the shoulder and they carry it into the living room, into the bedroom, and into the kitchen.

They set it on the mantle. They set it there and place all the furniture to it. They eat in front of it. It doesn't move. Not even when the prophets cry, it doesn't move. Because they justify that dumb idol that moved.

Think it was a healing evangelist the way some people treat it. They go there for succor and strength. They get bored and idle and they sit there being ministered to by the devil. It doesn't matter to half of you here.

You say, you're just going to go out and do it anyhow. It doesn't matter. I'm telling you, it's impossible to have the Holy Ghost abiding in you without having His conviction. Did you hear me? It's impossible to be filled with the Holy Ghost without having His convictions.

If we refuse to judge the sin that the Spirit's convicting, we grieve Him. And then in turn we become calloused in our hearts. And our churches today are being filled with Christians and ministers. Ministers calloused by sin!

They're no longer filled with pangs of conviction. They sin without regrets. They're being excluded from the life of Christ. They pretend love for Christ, but they have this greedy lust within them. Would you go back to Ephesians 4?

To the right again. Ephesians the 4th chapter. I'm just going to keep you in the Word here. Ephesians the 4th chapter. The hammer. Lord, keep the hammer on us. You know the Bible said the righteous love reproof?

If you don't love reproof, you're not righteous then evidently. I didn't say that, did I? I guess I did, but that's what it means. Ephesians 4 .18. Being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart, and they have become calloused, having given themselves over to sensuality, for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.

But you did not learn Christ in this way. He's speaking about people who've learned Christ the wrong way. You didn't learn Christ that way. They've been cut off from the life of God. Would you turn to go further right to Hebrews?

Timothy, Titus, then Hebrews. Hebrews 3. How many believe that there are hardened criminals in the church? Raise your hand. How many believe there are hardened criminals in the pulpit? Now that's a pretty strong statement, but I'll back it up.

I'll back it up. And I'm not being facetious. Hebrews 3 .12. This is serious business as far as I'm concerned. Because He's speaking to who? Take care of who? Take care, brethren, lest there should be in any of you...

A what? Lest there should be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, and falling away from the living God. It's awesome. But encourage one another day after day, as long as it's still today, lest any of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm unto the end. While it is said today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your heart as when they provoked Me.

But look at verse 12 again. Take care, brethren, lest there should be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, and falling away from the living God. How can that happen to a man and woman of God? How can that happen?

That there could be hardened criminals becoming hardened in their hearts. Because the Holy Ghost has been dealing with them time and time again. And they will not judge their sin. They will not say enough and they become deceived by it.

And the more they're deceived by it, then layer upon layer upon layer. And I'll tell you what I'm prophesying here now. And I've never prophesied it from a pulpit before, but I'm saying it now. And the Lord put this in my heart about three months ago.

We're soon going to have ministers being exposed for having AIDS. Because of their dealings with prostitutes. Mark, let it be hidden. They often disappear for a week at a time. They go to New Orleans.

They go to San Francisco. They go to Denver. They go to the mountains like Vail and Aspen. And they visit prostitutes. They go to London. They go to Africa. They go anywhere on the face of the earth. And they're little troops and they visit the prostitutes.

By the deceitfulness of sin. There are preachers in America today who are living in absolute flaunted adultery and fornication. Homosexuality. Who are standing before people and preaching a gospel that sounds good.