(A Living Challenge) How Badly Do You Want It? — Dale Gish

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We greet you this evening in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the way that we would like to meet this evening and for these meetings that are before us. Whatever it takes to do that, that's what we'd like to do.

Seeing Jesus by Faith

Because, brothers and sisters, there's a guarantee that comes from the Scriptures when we gather in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. And it's when two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.

I mean, what a foundation for these meetings. Amen? I don't know anything that would change these meetings more than that. Than the reality of the presence of Jesus Christ sitting right beside you. And our desire tonight is that by faith we could see Jesus.

Brothers and sisters, Christians need to be visionary people. Christians need to be able to see the invisible. That's a little bit what faith is. Faith is not sight. Faith is evidence of things not seen and without it, it's impossible to please God.

Christians must be visionary people. That's our desire this evening, is that by faith we could see Jesus. And I want us to know that there are some things on our part that we must do for that to happen.

You know, there were some Greeks one time who went to Jerusalem desiring to see Jesus. And it just so happens that they came on the very week that Jesus was to be crucified. And they found some of the disciples and they said to them, Sirs, we would see Jesus.

And Andrew went and found Philip and Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus, They said, there's some Greeks here who would like to see you. And Jesus gave them the strangest, most unusual answer. He didn't say anything about Greece.

He didn't say anything about being Gentiles. He didn't say, OK, I'll come and see them. Jesus, there's some Greeks here who would like to see you. And Jesus said,.

Accept a corn of wheat.

Fall into the ground and die. It divideth alone. Now, is that a strange answer or is there a message in it for us this evening? I believe that there is a message in it for us this evening. And it's simply that if we want to see Jesus, the flesh must die.

I don't know, really, if there's any Greeks here tonight. But I've got a pretty strong feeling there's some Germans. And probably some Irish and Swiss and Italians. Really, we're just a bunch of Gentiles tonight desiring to see Jesus.

But I want us to know that the formula has not changed from the week that Jesus was crucified until tonight. The flesh must die if you won't forgive your brother. If there's bitterness in your heart and some fellowship with the world, you'll never be able to see through all of that to get a vision of Jesus Christ.

It'll never happen. If the flesh is alive and well, it will distort your vision of Jesus Christ so much that He won't even be beautiful to you anymore. And that's amazing. And that's disastrous, brothers and sisters.

I mean, beautiful Savior! Blessed Redeemer! The altogether lovely One, so distorted by the flesh that we don't even desire Him anymore. But it happens all the time. And if you're here tonight to find fault with a brother, if you're here tonight somehow to exalt yourself in the Kingdom of God, you're never going to see Jesus.

And there's a lot of people that say they would like to. Herod wanted to see Jesus bad. Long time desired to see Him. But when he finally stood before Him, all he really wanted to see was a miracle. And Jesus would not do one.

Because God does not reveal Himself to that kind of heart. He will withdraw Himself. So, I challenge us this evening. Are we free for God to reveal Himself to us tonight? Or is there something in our life that would cause Him to withdraw?

I have a title for the message this evening. I would like it to be in the form of a question. I would like for the title to be, How Bad Do You Want It? How bad do you want it? And that's going to be referring to a clear vision of the Lord Jesus Christ.

A life-changing vision of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's going to be referring to power over temptation. And victory over sin. And answered prayer in your life. And being filled with all the fullness of God.

How bad do you want it? Not, do you want it? I tell you I could ask this assembly tonight, Do you want it? And all the hands go up. But when I say, how bad do you want it? Every heart must pause in meditation and consider.

What are you willing to do to get it? That's what we'd like to do this evening. We'd like to search our hearts. Let's begin with a word of prayer. Holy Father, tonight, God, we come before you and we know that there's no way that we could ever see through the flesh to get a clear vision of our God.

We know, Father, that there's only one formula to take care of the flesh. And that is crucifixion. It is death by crucifixion. None of this brushing the flesh aside, Father. It will always show up in another way.

I pray tonight, Father, for the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, by which, Paul said, He was crucified to this world and the world was crucified unto Him. I pray for the reality of that tonight, Father, so that we would be free to get a clear vision of our Lord Jesus Christ.

O God, I believe that there's higher ground for us tonight. We have not attained. The Apostle Paul had not attained, but he pressed on. And tonight, Father, we desire the grace of God upon our hearts that we could press on, that we could get a vision, that we could be renewed with a fresh invitation of God, Father, to the promises of the Word.

I pray that the reality of the promises of prayer will overwhelm us this evening, Father. O God, have Your way tonight, Father. We're here to meet with You. We're here to meet with You, Father, on Your terms.

Have mercy upon us.

I pray for it, Father, in Jesus' name, Amen.

Examining the Motives for Coming to God

I want to challenge us greatly this evening on the motives that are in our heart. How bad do we really want God? But first, I would like to speak a word on behalf of our Heavenly Father. I just believe that God would have me to say this evening to each one of us that is here, Welcome.

I believe that's the atmosphere that God would have for us to come together into this place. I mean, yes, we are here to meet with God. Yes, we're here to crucify the flesh. Yes, we're here to climb upon the altar and lay our life down upon the altar.

We're here to meet with God on His terms. But welcome. Have no fear. I believe that God is here in our midst and I believe that His arms are reaching out to each one of us this evening. Welcome. I heard a man say one time that he looked that word up in the dictionary.

Welcome. And in the dictionary that he looked in, in English, it said that welcome is a contraction for two words. Will come. Welcome means I will come. And it's just simply when there's been an invitation sent out with great desire.

And you respond to that invitation and you say, I will come. And that creates the word welcome. It's just an atmosphere of I really want you to come combined with an attitude of I really want to be there.

And it's the fellowship of that kind of reality that creates the word welcome. And I believe that's exactly where we are this evening. Because I believe there's an invitation from the heart of God to each one that is here this evening to come to the house of God and meet with God because His presence is here tonight.

We need to believe that. And each one of us who are here tonight have said I will come. But I want us to know whenever you say I will, I will come. That's an act of your will. And whenever there's an act of your will, there is a motive involved.

And we need to search our hearts many times. We need to know what makes us do what we do. And brothers and sisters, many times, and I've seen this, when we come together sometimes into the house of God and we begin to sing and the singing is just a little slow.

It's a little bit draggy. It needs more spirit. It needs more life. It needs more hands in the air. And when they're not there, I'm just going to tell you you didn't come to sing. There must have been some other reason.

And when the Word of God is opened up and the words of life come before us and the promises of God and the commandments of God are laid before us and we're just a silent congregation. I mean, there's no amens.

There's no praise God for that. There's no thank you, Lord. We're just a silent congregation. And when that's the case, I'm going to tell you you sure didn't come to rejoice in the Word of God. And when it's time for prayer and we're on our knees and we come before the throne of God and we pour out our petitions before God, but you're sitting there and your eyes are open and you're looking around and there's other thoughts in your mind, I'm going to tell you you didn't come to pray.

There's another motive somewhere in our hearts. And when it's time for the altar and the call of God is before us and the altar is open and there's no response, I'll tell you this, you didn't come planning to meet with God.

And sometimes, brothers and sisters, we need to do that. Sometimes we need to put some umph into our singing. Some amens to the Scriptures. Sometimes we need to close our eyes and go to the throne of God and let the grace of God become real to us and let the things of the dark grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.

If we want to see Jesus, we need to do that. There is something on our part that we must do for that to happen. So, I want to challenge you tonight. Why did you say to the invitation of God, I will come?

And I challenge myself with that question. You know what it makes me think of? Something you're all very familiar with. It makes me think of Leadership Seminar. Those of you who have been there, you know that that place is a live audience.

Amen? I mean, when it's time to sing, those men sing. I mean, they came planning to sing, I believe. It just seems like the Holy Spirit of God comes down and gives all the brothers there a double portion to sing and they use it too.

There are times when I can't even hear myself sing in that place. Why is it that way at leadership when it's time to preach? I mean, that place is instant with loud voices. Amen! Preach it, brother! Hallelujah for that!

Sometimes all the way through the message. Why is it that way there? And when it's time for the altar, many times the altar is clear full of men weeping and praying unto God. Why is it that way at leadership?

Let me tell you why I believe it's that way at Leadership Seminar. Because at one point there is an invitation that is sent out. And the men that are there receive that invitation and they said in their hearts, I will come.

And they said it with conviction. And they said it with commitment. They said it willing to make a sacrifice. I mean, those men rearranged their schedules so they could be there. Those men postponed their business appointments so they could come.

They sacrificed being with family. They sacrificed making more money so they could be there. And when those men came, I tell you, they came praying and they came fasting and they came planning and they came to meet with God.

They did. Those men had already gone to the altar in their mind before they even got to that place. You know how I know that? I know that because that's the kind of comments that I hear in registration at the beginning of the week.

I hear comments like, well now, why are you here? Well, I'm here because our family is going through some really big things right now. Big decisions. Big changes. And I want to be real close to God when we go through those changes.

So that's why I'm here. And why are you here? Well, I'm here because I know good will. I didn't slip it away from God. I've been growing cold in spiritual things and I need to let God get a hold of me and I need to let God work me over and I'm going to let Him do it.

And that's why I'm here. And brothers and sisters, that's the registration at the beginning of the week hasn't even been a sermon preached yet. It doesn't have anything to do with the preaching, I tell you.

And they're already under conviction. And I want to show you something. I want to show you something tonight. When you go anywhere that way, God is faithful. Whether you go to leadership seminar, or whether you go to your closet to pray, or whether you go to the mission field, if you go that way, God is faithful.

Or if you come that way to church this evening, God is faithful. And God was faithful in leadership seminar when He met with those men. My mind goes back especially to one evening a few years ago. I believe it was on a Thursday evening when Brother Gerardi Toit preached that message.

I tell you, the altar was packed. Clear full of men. As you know, that's a big altar over there. No more room at the altar. Men began to kneel in the aisle on the way to the altar. And they were just there weeping and praying softly unto God and some of them not so softly.

And it just brought down a holy atmosphere upon that place. It did. And I want to tell you something about that sermon that Brother Gerardi Toit preached that Thursday evening. It was not that great of a sermon.

And what I mean by that is that it was a wonderful Holy Spirit filled anointed message of God. But it was no better than the sermons that you hear right here in this church house every Sunday. Brothers and sisters, I tell you, it didn't have as much to do with a sermon as it did with the motives that were in the hearts of those men.

All sermons are in one scriptural category. Foolishness of preaching. That's what it is. And there are souls that are saved by it. And we are going to do it. But I tell you, when the motives of the heart are open to God, when the motives of the heart and the brothers and the sisters come to fellowship that way, I tell you, God moves!

And we want it to move tonight! Don't we? I believe that He's here! I believe that if we could see Him, if we could have the veil taken off of our eyes, God would move! So I challenge you this evening, why did you say to the invitation of God, I will come?

You said you would come. But I want you to know that God said, I will come too. He is here tonight and He is not going to miss a meeting where He has liberty to do whatever He wants to do. He's not going to miss a meeting like that.

And I believe that He is here tonight. So what are you expecting God to do? What have you given Him liberty to do? What did you prepare your heart for last week for Him to do tonight? Some of these things take preparations.

What kind of week did you have? I tell you, brothers and sisters, if the only kind of week we ever have is a hard week and things didn't go too well and we got all racked up in the things of earth and I had a little problem with anger, I lost my temper a couple of times, I said a couple of hasty words, we were too busy, family devotions didn't go too well, we didn't have enough time for prayer, if that's the only way we ever come together, I tell you, we will not!

We will never! Never! Go forward in the Kingdom of God with power! All we're ever going to be able to do is just barely make it. We'll just barely be able to keep our head above water. Barely be able to maintain a little peace among ourselves.

You put a sinner in the midst of that kind of congregation and they're not going to see a whole lot of difference between you and them because they had a tough week too! And they're not going to get converted.

The Kingdom of God Is More Than Barely Surviving

I want us to know something. The Kingdom of God is not a just barely making it thing. We need to get that out of our mind. The Kingdom of God is not a just barely making it thing! What is it? I tell you this tonight, if that's what it is for you, and I want to say this carefully, but if the Kingdom of God for you is a just barely making it thing, you might not be in it!

You read the Word of God and tell me this thing is just barely making it! No! It's a Lazarus come forth thing! It's a rise, take up your bed and walk thing, brothers and sisters! It's a love your wife like Christ loved the church, brothers!

It's a be in your place, sisters! A prayer and submission before God! We're not just barely making it. All the power of Heaven is behind us. We need to believe that. And when we come together having had that kind of week, amen, I mean when there's fresh repentance, when there's a fresh anointing of God, when there's a fresh testimony of answered prayer, when you've been in the Word of God and you've been on your knees before God, I tell you, you come together that way, and when it's testimony time, all the hands go up, and there's a sinner in that congregation, he's going to know that he's been in the presence of God.

And you can say, well, Brother Dale, I've been a Christian for 20 years.

I've given my life to God. I've confessed my sins so many times. I think I've sold out to God. I've heard all the sermons preached several times. We've held so many seminars in this place that I don't think we could hold another one where I didn't just hear the same thing again!

But it's hard, Brother Dale, to just maintain that fresh anointing every single Sunday. You know, like I had when I first got born again. When I first saw who I was without Christ. And then I experienced the fullness of His dwelling within.

And the burden lifted, and sins forgiven, and hallelujah! It's just hard to maintain that fresh anointing.

Every single Sunday. And I say, I see.

So the longer we walk with God, the more we learn of Him, the more we experience of answered prayer, the more truths that come forth out of His Word, the harder it is to maintain a fresh anointing. Is that where we're at tonight, brothers and sisters?

Is that where we are this evening? I tell you, if that's where we're at tonight, we need faith to be able to see Jesus! We need to get a vision! I believe that faith will do that for us, because it will let us see the invisible.

That's what a vision is! If we could get a vision of the Lord Jesus Christ, I don't know anything that would rearrange our priorities more than that. You know, it's interesting to me, you can go to the Word of God, and you can look at men in the Word of God who got a vision of God, and they were never the same again.

Visions of God Transform His People

And I'm not just talking about unbelievers. I'm talking about men of God. I think about old Brother John, a man out there in the Isle of Patmos. There's about as sanctified a man as you could get. I mean, he was as righteous as you could get.

He had walked with God. He had seen the miracles that Jesus had done. He had seen the woman touch His garment and become healed. His life was covered by the blood. He was sold out to God. He was sanctified.

He had been at the cross of Calvary. He had taken care of Jesus' mother. He was about as sanctified as a man could get. But I'll tell you, one day, out there in the Isle of Patmos, old John got a vision!

He heard a great voice behind him, and when he turned around and looked... I'll just give it to you in John's words. John said, righteous man, and when I saw Him, and when I saw Him, I fell at His face as dead.

You think about it. Here was a righteous man who should have just rejoiced to see his Lord. But he didn't just ease himself down and show some reverence to the One he loved. All the strength of his life went out from him when he got a vision of his Lord.

Is that not reality to us tonight? Is that all saved for a future day? That's what a righteous man did. And he didn't need to get born again. He is already born again. And I believe I'm speaking to born-again people here this evening.

But we need to get a vision of God. And I'm going to tell you something else that I believe we need to get a vision of. And it's not only who He is, but it's who we are without Him. We need that vision.

I tell you, there are men in the Scriptures who have got that kind of vision too, brothers and sisters, and Ezra was one of them. Ezra one day got a vision of the sins of the people. And when Ezra saw the wretchedness of sin as God sees it, he plucked every hair out of his head, every hair out of his beard, and he ripped his mantle and tore his garment and sat down astonished all day until the evening sacrifice.

And then he fell on his knees and spread out his hands before God and said, I am ashamed and blushed. I mean, picture it. Ezra got a vision of sin as God sees it. And that's what he did. He pulled all of his hair out on his head and his beard, and he ripped his garment and tore his mantle and sat down astonished until the evening sacrifice and spread out his hands and said, I am ashamed and blushed.

Brothers and sisters, has your sin ever impressed you that way? Has the sins of the people ever impressed you that way? I want to tell you something. If that ever happened to you, if you ever did that, you would never be the same again.

No way. There's no way. But that's what a vision does. And it doesn't matter how righteous you are this evening. If you got a vision of God like John got on the Isle of Patmos, you'd never be the same again.

You know what? We wouldn't be bashful anymore. We would run to the altar weeping. We wouldn't care who was there. We wouldn't care who was revealing our sin. We would just run to the altar crying to God for mercy and for grace.

And He's here. He's not a mean God. He's a loving Father. And His arms are stretched out. But we would respond if we got a vision of Him. Even if you're skeptical and uncommitted tonight, you would do that.

You know, like the children of Israel, I think about that often on Mount Carmel. Elijah was there with them and he said, how long will you halt between two opinions? And they answered him not a word. They weren't talking.

They were skeptical. They were uncommitted. They were just holding back. They were a little too embarrassed. They were a little too bit bashful. They couldn't commit themselves. How long are you going to halt between two opinions?

What I want to tell you tonight is when the fire of God came down and it consumed the altar and the sacrifice and the stones of the altar and licked up the water that was in the ditch, all of a sudden they were willing to talk and all they could say was, the Lord, He is God!

The Lord, He is God! The Lord, He is God! The Lord, He is God! And I want to tell you, we'd have that same chorus right here in this church house tonight if we would get a vision of who He is. They got the veil taken off of their eyes, they did.

And they saw God. Brothers and sisters, that's what a vision is. Nothing changed. Nothing came that wasn't already there. The veil came off. And then you can see what was there all the time anyhow. You know, I think about the servant of Elijah.

Elisha. When they were completely surrounded by the enemy, there was a point there where they couldn't see anything but enemy. And the servant of Elisha cried out and he said, Alas, Master, what shall we do?

And Elisha told him, he said, Have no fear. They that be with us are more than they that be with them. What do you mean, Elisha? And Elisha prayed, God, open his eyes that he may see. And God answered that prayer.

He opened his eyes and he saw the whole mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. And there's something in my heart that wants to pray for each of us tonight, myself included.

God, open our eyes so that we can see. That's what a vision is. Nothing changed. It's the veil came off. And they could see what was there all the time anyway. Always available to us. And by faith, the veil comes off.

The Fire of God and the Desire for Spiritual Power

You can say, but Brother Dale, the fire of God doesn't fall anymore. Visions, fire of God, miracles, that's Old Testament and Bible times. That doesn't happen today. And I want you to know that if that's God's will, I say amen.

I say amen to God's will. But I want to challenge you tonight. How did you figure that out? The fire of God, miracles, visions, they don't happen anymore. How did you figure that out? Is that something you've heard all your life and so now that's just the way it is?

Is that something you observed by watching Christianity in America? I challenge you tonight to go to the Word of God and show me where that is the heart of God for it to be that way. And what are we going to go by?

What we've always heard? What we've observed in America? Or what the Word of God tells us, brothers and sisters? That's a challenge before us tonight. And it's not as far away from us as we like to think.

You look at your life and you just ask yourself, do I believe it? I'm going to challenge us this way. It may have a whole lot more to do with the fact that we don't want it than it does to do with the fact that God won't give it.

Man does not want the fire of God. Did you know that? Man doesn't want the fire of God and here's why. Because man does not like fire that burns out of his control. And that's what the fire of God is.

The fire of God always burns out of man's control. You read the book of Acts and whenever man tried to stop the fire of God, it just spread more than ever. And praise God for that. But let me tell you something.

The fire of God never burns out of His control. Don't let the fire of God get you going so hard that you overlook His commandments. That's strange fire. And we don't want any of that. We want to be faithful to the Word of God.

But is the problem that God's not willing to send fire? Or that we're afraid of it? And that brings us to the question of the message tonight. How bad do you want it? And man doesn't like a vision of God or to see the power of God.

He shrinks away from that. Do you know why? Because he knows that he'll never be the same again. It's going to destroy his securities that he has built up in life. Man knows that. It's like the children of Israel on Mount Sinai.

You know what they told Moses? They told Moses, don't let God talk to us anymore. Moses, you talk to God and you tell us what He said, but don't let God talk to us anymore lest we die. In other words, give the vision to somebody else.

We don't want it. In other words, we don't want to hear from God. And those mentalities are not as far away from us as we think they are sometimes. There's a passage of Scripture that I would like to read.

Revelation in the Knowledge of Christ

Let's turn to Ephesians 1. The book of Ephesians is full. I tell you, you could meditate on these first couple of chapters for hours. Days. But I want to look at just a little passage here. Verse 16, ceasing not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you.

And I'd like to stop reading there and challenge us. As I read that, I thought, God has something He wants to give to me. This is not Old Testament visions and dreams. This is New Testament theology. God has something He wants to give to me.

Well, let's read on. That God, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. The spirit of wisdom and revelation. I tell you, brothers, that sounds like a vision to me.

That's what the book of Revelation is. It's just a vision that John got on Patmos. And God wants to give me the spirit of wisdom and revelation. But He doesn't want to give us the revelation that a lot of people get, where God told me to do this, or God told me to do this, or God said I didn't need to do that.

That's not the revelation He wants to give. If you read on, it tells you exactly that He wants to give you the revelation in the knowledge of Him. God wants to reveal to you His Son. He wants to take the veil off of your eyes so that it will change your life.

The eyes of your understanding being enlightened. I tell you, it just sounds like the veil came off in that little phrase. The eyes of your understanding being enlightened that ye may know what is the hope of His calling and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power to usward who believe.

I tell you, if we comprehended all that, we would have had a vision. To know the hope of His calling and the riches of the glory of the inheritance of His saints and the exceeding greatness of His power to usward who believe according to the working of His mighty power.

I'm reading this because this is New Testament doctrine. And I don't know what all this means, but when it says according to the working of His mighty power, it just sounds to me like His mighty power works.

It works in prayer. It works in forgiveness. It works in love. Your wife. It works in being in your place to your husband. It works! The mighty power of God works! How bad do you want all of that? God has something He wants to give you.

Hunger for the Word and the Power of God

How bad do you want His Word to be the engrafted Word that brings power over temptation and victory into your life? There was a very poor man one time. I believe that it was in England and he did not have a Bible.

And he wanted one bad. He prayed. He wept. No Bible. Poor man. And he had a wagon load of produce that he was taking to market one day. And it was all he had to make his living. But on the way to market, he met a man who had one page of the Word of God.

And this man had a greater hunger for that page of the Word of God than he did for natural food, and he traded a whole wagon load for one page of the Word of God. Can you imagine how that man would have read that page?

Have you read them that way? Can you imagine how that man would have got his family together and read that page to his family? Have we got together as families and read this page that way? Just stop at the end of that page.

I don't care if you're in the middle of a sentence or not. That's all you have is that page. Get your family together and read it that way. Don't you think that man found salvation on that page? I don't know what page it was, but don't you think that's the way God would work it out when you want it that bad?

I believe that. You know, you and I might read that page and say, well, there's no salvation on this page. But I want to tell you something. There might be for that man. Because God has mysteries and God will reveal Himself to someone who seeks with all their heart.