The Power and Presence of God — Michael L. Brown

The Need for God's Power and Presence

You convinced in my heart that there's a message you want me to bring and I pray Oh God that you would enable me to be your messenger and deliver your truth. And that it would come Lord through your wisdom and in the power and life of your spirit.

And that it would be backed by your own hand as we bring your message Lord May I not go on more than what I need to to deliver what you've given to me to deliver to your people. Give each of us whatever state we're in.

Lord, you know the many different conditions of your people here this night. Lord give each of us right where we are ears to hear what your spirit is saying in Jesus name. Amen, I Just want to speak to you tonight about the absolute critical essential need of the power and presence of God in our midst and in our lives and Although I'll probably say nothing new and it won't be some big insight for some some verse somewhere.

These are fundamental truths that we can very easily move away from in the pressure of life in the pressure of ministry in the zeal of following the Lord and Pursuing our calling and seeking to be effective witnesses in this world.

We can in the process miss out on one of the most critical Fundamental things the essential absolute need for the ongoing visitation of God for the ongoing power and presence of God in our midst and when when we talk about the goal of going from visitation to Habitation the goal of not just having God visit us in power, but stay with us in an abiding way.

We don't mean that it gets less powerful. We don't mean that his presence gets less intense. We don't mean that the miracles just kind of fade away. We're talking about the ongoing miraculous reality of God in the midst of his people.

Which is the New Testament norm and without which there cannot be any fulfilling of the Great Commission any Jesus Revolution any authentic New Testament anything without the presence and power of God.

The Great Commission and the Promise of Christ's Presence

We know the words of Jesus in Matthew 28. We're just going to look at Several well-known passages. We all know his words after his resurrection. The words are so familiar to us that we forget how overwhelming they really are.

Jesus has his 11 disciples in Galilee. Some worshiping some still doubting Jesus came to them and said Matthew 28 18 all Authority and heaven and on earth has been given to me therefore go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and Teaching them to obey everything.

I have commanded you and surely I am with you always to the very end of the age those words spoken by the resurrected Jesus are Overwhelmingly bold words and large words all Authority and heaven and earth is given to me.

There's no appeal to a higher authority. There's no power. That's greater. There's no possible resistance to the will of God asserted on the earth in the name of Jesus. And I was remembering some quotes that I put at the beginning of the last chapter of a book I wrote some years ago.

It's time to rock the boat and. And these words were written by pioneers by people who went out into difficult hostile territory one into South Africa another into other parts of Africa another into China and They went into situations that in the natural were impossible, but they went based on what King Jesus said.

David Livingston Pioneer missionary in Africa. He said on the following words. I staked everything and they never failed. Lo I am with you always even into the end of the world. Not just some sentimental fact that Jesus is with us.

Not just some feeling that we have. I know the Lord is with me. But the reality of his presence and authority in the midst of every kind of hostile Territory and demonic situation with no believers often around for miles and miles and miles as far as you can go.

But he staked everything on the fact that Jesus said I'm with you and all authority is with me. Now go. Listen to what Hudson Taylor said. Missionary to China. Founder of the China inland mission a man whose life and sacrifice Directly ties in with the multiplied tens of millions of Chinese born again today.

Hudson Taylor was a man who was so consumed with the burden. So one of his quotes again the other day. He said perishing China So filled my heart and mind that I had no rest by day and a little rest by night till health gave way.

No rest by day little sleep by night till health gave way. The burden was so Consuming. And yet the burden alone is not going to change the people. The burden alone. It's not going to break down demonic strongholds.

The burden alone is not going to change a single life. Unless there's the anointing and the power and grace of God coming down and bringing about the change. Hudson Taylor said this. We are a supernatural people born again by a Supernatural birth.

We wage a supernatural fight and are taught by a Supernatural teacher led by a supernatural captain to assured victory. Should I read that again? We are a supernatural people born again by a supernatural birth.

We wage a supernatural fight and are taught by a Supernatural teacher led by a supernatural captain to assured victory. That's the power of the gospel. That's that's the heart and soul of the Great Commission.

Listen to what John G Lake said. Mightily used by God and healing miracles. The end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. Pioneer missionary in South Africa. Mightily used by God in the States as well.

He said a true Christian is unique. He stands alone. He supersedes all who have gone before. He will not have a successor. He is man at his best in God's best effort for mankind. In other words, it's through the believer that God's going to get the job done.

There's no plan B if it fails. There's no other Commission than the Great Commission. There's no other resource than the power of the Holy Spirit. There's no other people but the people of God who are going to get it done.

It's not that we all just check out and fail because we fall short and God sends in the angels to finish. It's going to be God working through his people period. It's reality. There's no other plan. No other way.

It's going to happen and it's not because of our strength. It's because of his strength and the largeness of the task and the weakness of our own flesh reminds us. It's only by his might and only by his power.

Hudson Taylor also said. We've given too much attention to methods and to machinery and to Resources and too little attention to the source of power the filling with the Holy Ghost. It's it's so easy to do it because we like to be in control and we like to make things happen and we want another Method we want another formula.

Look, it's just human nature. I can be preaching a message and everyone's absorbing it taking it then if I say, okay. Let me give you three points. Everybody immediately starts to write one two, three because that's something we can kind of take hold of and grip.

I'm not saying it's wrong. I'm just saying it's human nature. We like to know when it's going to start when it's going to end how it's going to operate and we like to To know that we can see a thing go a certain way from beginning to end and yet our faith must be absolutely Totally cast on God because of the impossibility of the task to go heal the sick to go set the captives free.

Being back in New York City all the time just reminds me all the more that the city's not just going to bow down because a New ministry starts that demons are not just going to run because we were part of a move of God.

And you go into Muslim nations you do Jewish ministry you go into Hindu stronghold. You start to reach out to downtrodden people or people who've been bound by religious hypocrisy. The only thing that's going to work is the power of God coming through.

Character, Power, and the Work of Ministry

Of course if it's not lived out through godly lies if it's not lived out through people with pure hearts. The whole thing's a sham, but it's never been either or there listen in the Word of God. There is no tension between character and power if the life is yielded up to God.

There's never an emphasis. Well, you better just work on one till you get the other. The thing is you need both in an essential foundational way. Without godly character. There is no way we can ever make it into the work of ministry and once we're in the work of ministry without the power Of God, there's no way we can get anything done.

Listen to this little quote on a tablet and a large church seating a thousand people. This inscription was placed in memory of John Getty. He was a pioneer Presbyterian missionary to the South Sea Islands.

When he landed in 1848. There are no Christians here when he left in 1872 there were no heathen. I want you to turn with me to the book of Acts the second chapter. You read through the Old Testament you read through the Hebrew Bible.

It's a very supernatural book. It's filled with dreams and visions. It's filled with miracles. It's it's filled with prophetic words. When God was not working when there were no signs and wonders it was a tape.

It was taken as a sign of judgment. Where is the the parent the presence of God? Where's the power of God? How come he's not speaking and acting in our midst? Psalmists would pray others would pray. Oh God take your hand and the folds of your garment and act.

They would cry out to God as if he was sleeping. And and they would say God back up with your hand what you say with your mouth. God is not a big talker. God backs his word with his power. You get into the New Testament.

It's a totally supernatural book you go through the Gospels. It begins with the the virgin birth of the Son of God. Then his miracles and his death and his resurrection and then you get into acts and it continues.

It's a supernatural book and that supernatural presence of power continues right through it's understood through the epistles. And then you read the end and he's going to come back. It's going to be the most supernatural thing of all.

Absolute visitation. I mean the the clouds breaking through and Jesus coming in great power and glory and the whole earth seeing them like lightning flashing from the east to west the sound of a great trumpet blasted the elect caught up to meet the Lord's extraordinary picture and.

Yet somehow we think that in between it just kind of gets mundane and every day and and hard work and effort and just sweat. And go for it. What happened to the same power? What happened to the same reality?

I said again, I'm not telling you anything new. I'm not telling you anything. We don't believe and we don't hold to. I just feel from the Lord that we need to stir ourselves. Because with all of our effort with all of our works with all of our desire.

With all of our dreams with all of our visions we can still forget some of the simple fundamentals. We must have God coming down. We must have visitation. We must have outpouring. We must have a steady stream of the anointing and flowing of God coming out of us and touching a sick and dying world.

Otherwise, it's not the fullness of the gospel. Otherwise in many ways, it's a defective non New Testament gospel. It's an interesting thing, but you go through phases you go through seasons where you're really pursuing one thing.

Maybe for years you're seeking God to demonstrate his power to heal and then maybe another time. You're just pouring your heart out for greater Compassion to touch the poor and the needy and then another time you're just you're just consumed with with a world vision and just Activating people for mission, etc, etc, and it's hard to always keep everything, you know.

Equally balanced the same way and it's hard to not neglect certain areas. And we need to stir our own hearts honestly and ask have any of us somehow graduated from the fundamentals. Have have we graduated from the school of the power of the Holy Spirit without having that power?

Is that kind of old hat or something that we went after more when there was a little different emphasis now. We're talking about Jesus Revolution and we're going to be this force change in the world and we want to see God touch these people all these nations.

We want to see all these things happen. The dreams are from God, but they will only be brought to pass by supernatural power by supernatural voices from God. Speaking to people in their need and their sin.

By the voice of God blaring forth in the midst of his people by the demonstration of his gifts. It's the only way it's going to happen. Look in the second chapter of the book of Acts notice God comes with intensity and power when the day of Pentecost the biblical Jewish feast of Shavuot the Feast of Weeks the day of Pentecost came they're all together in one place suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and Filled the whole house where they were sitting notice that God likes to take over when he comes.

Notice that God often announces when he's coming so that will take hold of the moment and take hold of the reality. Notice that no matter how fully prepared you are. You can't be fully prepared for God's coming.

He still comes suddenly. Some of you may have remembered this Sarcastic little prayer that I wrote one of my books called prayer for a nice revival. Oh Lord come and quench this longing of our soul, but please Oh Lord.

Just leave us in control. Oh God send your glory send your power, but please Oh Lord. Just keep it to an hour. The reality is God comes intensity power force oh. You might say isn't the Holy Spirit always a gentleman who comes as a dove.

Well, it's it's not just someone like Saul of Tarsus who's persecuting the believers a Jewish man persecuting fellow Jews Who follow Jesus that has a an encounter with the Lord that is not quite dove-like.

It's also people who love the Lord and who are hand-picked disciples. And who are waiting for his coming that still have an intense experience with God. Why. Because God is intense for human beings. Hey, big daddy.

This is Chapman. What's going on today, but yeah, my dude. Look, he's not your dude or my dude or your big daddy or my big daddy. You say hey, that's just the way we relate. Well, maybe he relates like that with you just because of extreme immaturity not necessarily because of extreme intimacy.

I'm not saying you shouldn't relate to him as daddy and Abba and lean on him and just be intimate and enjoy his presence. And pour your heart out to him when I get close to God. I don't worry about him striking me or smiting me or slapping me or crushing me or you know I don't think that he's you know, waiting there with the hammer just to see if I come the right way Almighty Heavenly Father how low it be thy name then he puts the hammer.

All right, son. You can come. I Don't have any such image. But I don't have the image that in heaven. We kind of kick our feet back in a rocking chair and say so man. What's it been like being here all this time without us?

You say, you know, I've heard of people, you know that that Jesus just appeared to them and that's the way they talked. Yeah, I've heard of some of those same people messing up late. I Wonder if there's something lacking in our appreciation of who he really is.

I Wonder sometimes if there's some lack of reverence because of lack of experience. I Know It only works when you're preaching them suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and Fill the whole house whatever city God was making it known.

You know, you can almost see it in the spiritual realm. If you look on a one one of those. It's weather maps, it's satellite maps or something, and they'll show you. This is a picture of Hurricane Lily coming in off the coast.

And you look at this thing, it's massive. You know, when it's going up, the wind is blowing hundreds of miles away and it's raining states away because this thing's just coming through. I wonder what it looks like in the spiritual realm when the visitation begins to come near, when the presence of God begins to come near, when the people of God charged with God arrives.

I wonder what it looks like. Remember, this is just the earthly sign and symptom of the spiritual reality. God says that it'll come like the rain. Oh, gentle rain. I just love when you just stand out there and it's just the spring showers and, oh, Lord, pour it out.

Sometimes it's like that. But when the earth is dry and cracked because there hasn't been any rain, people are dying and animals are dying and there are no crops and a whole generation is about to get wiped out and the people are praying for rain and God sends the rain.

It's the floods, it's the deluge, it's the outpouring that drenches and soaks the land. That's what people need and want. And God says, as one of His images, just as I pour out water on the dry and thirsty land, Isaiah 44, a promise to Israel, but with spiritual application to all of God's people, just as I pour out water on the thirsty land, so I pour out my spirit on you, drenches of God.

Pentecost, Revival, and Holy Upheaval

You know, the idea of just sprinkling someone at baptism was not a first century Jewish concept. When people were immersed, they went under, they would get under the water completely. And when you go completely under the water, you get completely wet.

Have you ever noticed that? When someone is baptized, they go under and they come out, the hair is wet and everything's wet. I was baptized February 4th of 1972. I'd only been saved a few months and at that point, there was still a little flesh left.

And I remember, if you can imagine this, the mercy of God. I remember being excited about being baptized and, you know, one young lady there talked about when I came up out of the water, you know, that it was just all filthy and dark just as it drained out.

Really? And she said, yeah, all your sins were just going down the drain. And I thought, oh, I guess she means that metaphorically, but was it really dirty water? But I remember kind of being excited about being baptized in this fleshly way.

And trust me when I say God had mercy on a foul wretch before I was saved and a real reject before I was saved. I remember thinking this is getting baptized. So I hadn't cut my hair yet. I had this long hair.

But most people never really knew how long it was because they didn't see it wet. And when it dried, I had this long hair and had this little flip on the end, so it's all right for a lady, but not not all right.

And no one really knew how long my hair was. But I did actually think to myself with some fleshly pride that when I got baptized and came up out of the water that people would see how long my hair really was sick.

You say, does that tie in with the message? Well, yes, in two ways. First, it just creates kind of an endearment, you know, between us, kind of a love and a sense of commonality. And and secondly, it reminds you that you get wet.

I remember when the pastor's mom was getting baptized and she was an old lady and not keen on going in the water. And he kept she just wouldn't quite go in all the way, didn't speak English, you know.

So the pastor's talking to his mom in Italian and she didn't quite go. It was just the tiniest bit of her head because he's just terrified going under the water. Tiniest bit of her head. It didn't get wet.

And he may I don't know how many times he made her keep going down. He's like, you know, I see her on the way in to have it. Just everything except the top of your head, lady, because it didn't go under.

So you get the point. You get wet, saturated, wet, completely wet from head to toe, covered, immersed. Isn't it interesting that that's the image? John immersed you in water, but soon you're going to be immersed in the Holy Spirit and fire.

That's not just symbolized by a dove lighting upon you. There is more that is taking place. Even if a literal dove literally came and sat upon you and it was some kind of a sign, a miracle. The reality is being immersed in God, being immersed in the spirit, being drenched and saturated in the presence and fire of God.

That's not a light image. Here is God comes in power at Pentecost. There's a reality that's being conveyed to us. Suddenly, a sound like the blowing of a violent wind. Notice it's sudden and notice the sound like the blowing of a violent wind.

Came from heaven, filled the whole house where they were sitting. It's not just that when you invite God in, he just kind of takes a quiet back seat. You know, the ridiculous, one of the most ridiculous of many ridiculous Christian bumper stickers through the years was the one, God is my co-pilot.

All right, ready to take off, Lord, ready? There's Jesus sitting there. You fly that plane, if you have any trouble, as you fly to your chosen destination, he's your co-pilot, he'll help out. You put that together with some of the rapture ones, you know, if the driver suddenly disappears, you know, the rapture is taking place.

Hey, if Jesus is the co-pilot, he'll just take the, well, no, if Jesus comes, maybe that doesn't work. Fills the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tons of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.

They were not expecting this. There was nothing in their own background that told them to expect something quite like this. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit, began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

And notice that immediately when God comes, it brings division. God's not the author of confusion and he doesn't inspire one person to prophesy one thing and inspire another person to prophesy the opposite among his people.

He's not the author of confusion. He doesn't inspire 10 people to all speak at the same time, contrary messages, and bring confusion. That's not who he is or what he does. But when he comes, his very coming brings division because it reveals what's really in people's hearts.

I was telling a pastor in New York City that before God's going to bring true unity to New York City churches, he's going to bring division. He said, but Jesus wants unity. I said, correct. And first thing he has to do is destroy superficial false unity, things that are only skin deep.

Luke the second chapter, it says that the coming of Jesus, as Simeon prophesies over the baby Yeshua, that he's appointed for the falling and rising of many in Israel and for a sign to be spoken against at the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.

You find out what's really in people when Jesus shows up and begins to move. When the power of God begins to be manifest, you can talk, you can have lovely meetings, you can agree on all kinds of things.

But when God comes down, that's when the rubber meets the road. Here it's a synagogue. This is a holy place set apart for worship of God and study of his word and prayer. Jesus goes into a synagogue on the Sabbath, a day set aside specially for worship of God and service of God.

He goes into what would be considered a holy place for holy purposes on a holy day and he heals somebody and some of the leaders go out and plot how to kill him. Do you understand that? He announces in another synagogue meeting that the spirit of God is on him, that he's the fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah.

The spirit of the Lord God's on him because he's anointed me to preach good news to the meek, the poor, outraged, they're ready to kill him. Here at Pentecost, God comes down. Listen, this was not a fabrication, this was not an imitation, this was not mixed with human carnality.

God came down and immediately some said, this is God, others said they're drunk. One of the guaranteed things that will break the unity of a coalition of leaders praying for revival is revival. Did you hear what I said?

One of the greatest things that will break the unity of a coalition of leaders praying for revival is revival because he will not come in ways that fit our nice little parameters and he will not come according to what our traditional experience has been.

And his coming will always be on some levels different than what we expect and on other levels more than what we expect. And the reason that we pray for revival and we pray for visitation is because something is wrong and something is missing and something is off.

And when God comes to set those things right, it brings upheaval, holy upheaval, what Jonathan Edwards called holy disorder, because we're getting back into God's order. A few years ago at our younger daughter Megan's wedding, some of you may have met my mom, wonderful mother, as caring, loving, affirming a mother as you could ever ask for, just turned 80, in great shape, goes to the gym three mornings a week and works out.

But she was not a connoisseur Italian cook, that was not one of her strengths. And when I grew up and I had spaghetti and meatballs, my mom cooked spaghetti and meatballs, she used for the sauce tomato soup.

I actually chatted with her about this the other day, we laughed about it. But she says it's delicious, I still use it. That's how I grew up, spaghetti and meatballs, when she'd make that, that was a highlight meal.

Then I went out, started preaching, traveling around New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, states, preaching at a few different churches here and there, about 19 years old. They're almost all Italian, Pentecostal.

So I preached at one place and then after the meeting, we went to the home of this wonderful Italian family to have lunch. What did they serve but spaghetti and meatballs? And I almost gagged. I put a giant meatball, oh come on, a little thing, something I could swallow, something really small.

I remember having to figure out a way to get small enough pieces into my mouth to swallow without chewing because I didn't want to taste it. You understand, I was so used to the inauthentic. I was so used to the wrong recipe.

You understand that when the real thing came, I almost choked on it. Some of you might be thinking, you have a lot of choking stories, don't you? Hey, don't get personal here, all right? I mean, listen, oh God, come and, oh God, send visitation.

We don't know what we're praying for and asking for. Well, some of us have been through the, we were in revival for four or five years in Pensacola, we know exactly what to expect, okay, right. Things will go according to certain patterns.

I wrote about the patterns beforehand and I lived through them on a few different occasions and I've read the history of revival and seen what's written in the work and the patterns always seem to be the same and one of the patterns is God comes in unexpected ways.

No matter how prepared you are, when he comes, when his spirit breaks out, when he visits, it's still sudden and it still overwhelms you and it still rocks your world. And notice what happens here because the purpose of the coming of God is not just the experience, it's not just the tongues and it's not just the fire and it's not just falling or shaking or some kind of encounter, it's to glorify the risen Jesus.

It's to do the work of God on the earth. I mean, what if you got a job at a cemetery? Someone said, okay, here's your job, first thing you got to do is just go through all the roads here where you see like leaves have fallen, branches, different, you got to clean all that up, garbage, litter, you got to clean all that up.

Then you've got to go, you got to rake up, you know, around the grave sites and things like that and just make sure everything is clean and nice. Okay, can you handle that? Yeah, okay. And then go raise the dead.

The Power of the Spirit for the Great Commission

The great commission is go raise the dead. And even though most of the time we don't see most people rise from the dead and there are only a few resurrection accounts in the New Testament, in other words, it's not written that all the dead that Jesus was ever around, he raised, it is written that all the sick that came to him were healed.

Healing the sick by the power of God is just as difficult as raising the dead by the power of God is just as difficult as seeing the true salvation of any human being. It's only by the power of God. You know, I look out and I see people from different nations here and we may be used, most of us used to what's happening in America and how the gospel is received in America.

You go to other countries with your exact same method and your exact same witnessing techniques and your exact same everything and you hit a brick wall and nothing happens and you end up going home discouraged and wondering what's wrong.

Well, there are demonic strongholds that are not coming down easily and people's eyes that have been blinded for centuries and centuries through their ancestors and traditions. And it's only a visitation from God that will break through.

That is reality. So Peter stands up and immediately says, this is a scriptural thing. This is the outpouring of the spirit that Joel prophesied. Peter makes it clear this is a last days event. And if you are convinced that we are living in the last days, of course, we have been since Jesus died and rose from the dead.

It's been the last days, according to the New Testament, the last hour. But if you have some other sense, well, aren't these the last of the last days? Well, remember that God says in the last days will pour out his spirit on everybody.

Don't buy into a theology that just says the last days get worse and worse and worse. The last days get darker and darker and darker. And the people of God weaker and weaker and weaker until Jesus just comes and rescues us.

Like one dear brother had the chart in the book written about 75 years ago. The chart was called the failure of Christianity. He didn't mean listen to me. He didn't mean the failure of human traditional ways trying to imitate the New Testament gospel by Christianity.

He meant the New Testament gospel lived out through the ages. He had a chart about the failure of it. It all just goes down. And then Jesus just rescues this drowning group before they perish, proving that man's a failure.

Yeah, man's failings have been proven over and over again, which is why we rely on the power of God and the wisdom of God and the resurrection of Jesus. This is not about the failure of people. This is about the failure of God, because his word declares that he will have a people from every nation and that we would make disciples of the nations.

And this gospel be preached as a witness to all nations. And he will pour out his spirit on all flesh. Either it's true or it's not. But look at what Peter goes on to say. He first preaches Jesus, preaches his death, his resurrection.

And then he explains what's happening. Verse 29, brothers, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried in his tomb is here to this day. But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne.

Seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that he was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his body see decay. God has raised this Jesus to life. And we are all witnesses of the fact exalted to the right hand of God.

He has received from the father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. He's alive. And this is the proof. This is something they gloried in in the book of Acts. We have evidence that Jesus is risen from the dead.

It is not only that he lives within my heart. It is the tangible evidence of the power of God in the name of Jesus today. You know, there's a simple little witch doctor story I heard once, but it's so real.

These solid believers, spirit filled people. We're talking to a witch doctor in an African nation. I forget which nation it was. The story is so simple. And they were talking to him and asked him, well, tell us about this power that you have, this power by which you do all these things.

And he said, well, it's not here now. And they said, well, what happened to it? And he said, well, it left when you came in. I mean, ultimately, according to Revelation 12, when Satan's cast out of heaven, it's because he's not strong enough to fight Michael.

It's a power struggle. The reason that Satan doesn't assault the throne of God is not just because God is so loving and Satan says he's just too good. I don't have it in my heart to do that. And it's not simply because he thinks he'll be outsmarted.

And he'll say, you know, we know the secret entrance into the back of heaven. And when he gets there, God will have it bolted up. It's not just that it's the power of God is against him. And there is no wisdom or counsel or might against God's power.

I was meditating on something the other day. I was meditating on at times in my life that I knew God was against me. Maybe when he was dealing with the conviction before I was saved or as a new believer when I was going in a path, some minor thing, and he was just making it clear, don't do it.

I'm not in this. And it would be the most wild thing, not literally this, but as if you get in your car to drive over to see someone that God doesn't want you to see. And all four tires get flat simultaneously.

And then you put on the radio to hear the news. And instead, a station that you've never put on before, there's a guy preaching at you and you go to change the channel. And it doesn't change. I remember as a new believer, one of my friends was going with a young lady.

And they committed the foolish act of just being alone together in her home while the parents were out. And they started to touch each other and do things that they shouldn't have done. And the phone rang.