Divinely Lead — David Ravenhill

If you were not with us this morning. We transitioned from the first three services, where we dealt with some basic foundation truths, the Lordship of Christ, forgiveness, cleansing of the house of God, getting right with God.

And this morning we talked about maintaining that victory. The Bible says He wants men and women that are steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. Not people that are up and down, vacillating, but steadfastness.

And so we need to maintain the walk and the life that God has given us. We are now moving on to another phase and before we do that let's look to the Lord in prayer again. Father, once again we magnify you.

Lord, we exalt you. You're the head of this church, the head of the church. Lord, it wasn't redeemed by the blood of men, doesn't belong to a denomination, doesn't belong to a movement, it belongs to you.

We are your people, the sheep of your pasture. Lord, we acknowledge your headship over us. We're your body. You're the head of that body. And Father, we ask tonight that you would come and do what you said you would do, build your church, further your work in us, Lord we pray.

The Last Days Will Bring Spiritual Contrast

In Jesus' name, Amen. I'm convinced that we are living in the last days, exciting days and terrifying days. There is tremendous contrast that we see in the last days revealed in the Word of God. The Bible says, in the last days I'll pour out my Spirit upon all flesh.

That's going to be exciting. The Bible says, in the last days perilous times will come. That's not very exciting. The Bible says the wheat and the tares will mature together. So while we're going to see the church blossom, I believe, and come into the fullness of all that God intended, so also we're going to see the kingdom of darkness blossom.

The wheat and the tares will mature together. And so again, we have days of tremendous contrast. Days in which we're going to see, I believe, the outpouring of the Spirit of God in an unprecedented way.

Because God said, in the last days I'll again not only build my church, but in the days of those kings I will establish my kingdom. That kingdom will last forever. It will crush and devour every other kingdom.

But along with that, in the last days we're going to see the love of many wax cold. We're going to see signs and wonders and miracles created by false Christ and false prophets. Beware lest any man deceive you.

Worldwide deception is going to accompany the outpouring of the Spirit of God. And so we have to discern. And so these are days of tension, days of contrast. The Bible says again, Matthew 24, there's going to be rumors of wars, wars, rumors of wars, signs, wonders, miracles, earthquakes, pestilence, all of those things that we're beginning to see and experience in a greater measure.

But it says these are just the beginning of birth pangs. And birth pangs do not diminish as the time approaches. Every woman wished, would wish they would. But they accelerate. And rather than get further and further apart, they get more and more frequent.

And so we're going to see more and more famines, more and more earthquakes, more and more pestilence, more and more wars and rumors of wars. But again it's the beginning of birth pangs, not death throes.

So God is going to birth something, a glorious church, a kingdom that cannot be shaken, a company of men and women. Again as we heard tonight, those sons of God that God is going to manifest in these last days.

Not some exclusive, you know, company that can incorporate. Many years ago they incorporated the sons of God in America. Don't know how you do that, but they were the sons of God, you know. What somebody said is bride pride.

We're the only ones. But God is going to do something, I believe. He's going to display to the world a glorious church. And in order for God to do that, He is going to raise up men and women, that He will use in various capacities.

Men with a passion for God, men with a passion for the presence of God, men with a passion for purity, men that are not swayed by public opinion, men again that live their life in the light of eternity.

They're not on the stage because of some sort of an ego trip. They're conscious again that they are servants of the Most High God and that one day they'll give Him an account. The Bible says, be not many teachers, thus incurring the greater judgment.

And it's a fearful thing to be in leadership, because leaders will be more severely judged than anybody else. So be not many teachers, be not many leaders, thus incurring a greater judgment. To whom much is given, much is required.

Purity, Passion, and Purpose in the Bride of Christ

But God will raise up men and women, I believe, in these last days, that will fulfill His purpose. There are three things, three characteristics that I see about the Bride of Christ. One is purity. I've done many, many weddings and I've never seen a dirty bride.

And God is not coming back for a dirty bride either. So she has to be a pure virgin. So one thing is purity, the next thing is passion. I don't think He's coming back for a bride that's not madly in love with Him.

To those that look for Him, He will return a second time. But also, men and women that want to be involved in the purpose of God. Passion, purity, purpose. God said to Adam, I will make you a help meat.

And so Jesus Christ is coming back for a help meat. In Song of Solomon, one of the things that the bride wanted to know about was, take me to where you pasture your flock. All of a sudden she became interested in what He was interested in.

I guess if I'm going to marry you, I better like, you know, sheep and goats and whatever else you look after. So let's go down there and, you know, get involved. We need to be involved in the purpose of God.

It's not all about passion, lovemaking. That's part of it. It's also about purpose, destiny. Again, as we read and sang tonight, at least, the nations and this nation. God's heart for the nations. And so with every new move of God, there is a, many times at least, a new leadership that is raised up.

Many times the pioneers of the past are the persecutors of the present, unfortunately. Because they think that God's got to do it the same way. And when He doesn't do it the same way that God moved 30 years ago, 40 years ago, then they resist and say, no, you don't understand.

I've been there and then God has to raise up another group of people. Tonight I want to speak to you about the birthing process, the birthing of a ministry. If you turn with me to the book of Judges, Judges chapter 13.

And as you're turning to that, let me give you a little bit of a background to this portion of Scripture. If you've read the book of Judges recently, you know that there has been a series of stages in the life of Israel where they have gone into captivity, they've gone into bondage.

In chapter 4 of Judges, we find that for 20 years the nation of Israel has been in bondage to Jabin the king of Canaan. Imagine 15, 16, 18, 20 year old kids that have never known freedom. They've been in bondage.

In Judges chapter 6, you have the nation of Israel in bondage to the Midianites, during the time that God raised up Gideon. Again, seven years in which the Midianites came and totally devastated the land.

Hardly a blade of grass existed. The economy, everything else was destroyed, because of sin of the nation of Israel. In chapter 13, it gets worse. Verse 1, Now the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord.

And so the Lord gave them into the hands of the Philistines for 40 years. You would have thought they would have learned the lesson. Seven years is bad enough. Twenty years is bad enough. Forty years now in bondage.

Forty years in servitude. Forty years in captivity, under the hands of the nations that God said you were to dominate. Remember, this is a nation God says, I want you to be the head and not the tail. I want you to be above and not beneath.

I want you to lend, but never to borrow. I want you to be a light to the nations. I want you to be that city that we heard about tonight. That was the role of Israel. That's their function in the Old Testament, to be a light, to be salt, to be a nation, a testimony.

And here we have them in servitude and bondage. Instead of them dictating what should be going on, they are being dictated to. They're being governed and ruled over. And it's a time of devastation, a time of darkness.

God Works Through Darkness to Raise Deliverers

And yet in the midst of it, God is at work. How many of you know God is never caught not knowing what to do. He's always working out His plan and His purpose. He knows exactly. He rules over the affairs of men.

And while He has permitted this, He is about to change it. And many times we look at the darkness of this nation and other nations and we wonder, you know, is God really in control? I can assure you He is.

Have I not spoken? Will I not bring it to pass? And sometimes in the midst of the darkness and the devastation, God is working away silently. This is the case here. God is about to bring forth a deliverer.

He is about to raise up an anointed man of God. A man that is going to turn the tables on the Philistines. A man that is going to once again put Israel on the map. And I believe God is wanting to do that once again.

Again through a corporate body, as we heard tonight. It doesn't mean that individuals won't be used. But I believe, as somebody said, this will be a faceless generation. There will be so many individuals being used that there won't be one person that sort of takes the limelight.

But there is a process that I want to look at. This birthing process. And as we look at this, I trust that God will give us some insight and understanding as to the ways in which God works. Because God's ways are not our ways.

There are eight areas that we're going to cover. Some are much shorter than the other. But the first one is divine desperation. The second one, divine intervention. The third, divine conception. Number four, divine gestation.

Number five, divine restrictions. Number six, divine possession. Number seven, divine maturation. And number eight, divine participation. I will repeat those as we go through. I thought you'd have got them by now.

Divine Desperation Begins in Barrenness

Divine desperation. Verse two, And there was a certain man of Zorah, chapter 13 of Judges, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah. And his wife was barren and had borne no children. What a strange place to begin.

God does some funny things, doesn't He? I would have thought He would have gone down to some sort of school of the prophets. I thought He would have gone into some Bible school. Thought He would have gone to some priestly family or something.

And instead, God reaches into the life of a couple, a woman who is barren. There's nothing more devastating for a woman than to find out she's barren. There's in the Proverbs, it says, there are two things that will never be satisfied, sheol and the barren womb.

And a barren woman cannot be sort of paid off with riches, or possessions, or clothes, or jewelry, or anything else if she's barren. Nothing is going to appease that, nothing is going to satisfy that, because everything that she was created for has been stripped from her.

And women will go to desperate lengths in order to bring forth life. Why? Because they were created to bring something that has eternal value into this world. The whole being was destined of God, again, to bring forth life.

And when that doesn't happen again, there is a deep frustration and anger many times, bitterness. And again, extreme lengths will be taken. Tens of thousands of dollars, or tens of thousands of pounds in some cases, going from one specialist to another.

And when all of that fails, then flying to the end of the world almost to adopt a child from some third world nation. But to do anything to have a child, and when you can't have a child, the frustration.

And this is where God begins. A woman who has been stripped of her natural capability. A woman that God has brought to the end of her own resources. She's tried, and tried, and tried, and tried, and nothing happens.

Barrenness, as you know, is a major curse, a major reproach in the Bible. Wasn't it Hannah that says, he's taken away my reproach. We have the blessings and the cursings there in Deuteronomy 28. Part of the blessing was that you would be fruitful, not only in your crops and everything else, but the fruit of the womb.

Part of the curse was that you would not have children. But you see, there is a reason that God uses this woman, because she typifies the church. In fact, all the way through the Word of God, the only people that are barren are women.

Apart from Abraham, in the sense of being an old man. But you see, the church is barren. Can't do anything of herself. Can't produce anything of her own ability. She doesn't have any resources of her own.

There's nothing wrong with a bridegroom. I am come, that you might have life. He is the life giver. He is the source of life. And so the woman, the barren woman, typifies the church throughout the Word of God.

And God will bring us to this place of barrenness, where he will strip us again of our capability, our self-sufficiency. And you may, you know, come on the stage and have a great ministry, but somewhere along the line, God will strip you of your own resources, and your own capability.

And he will bring you to that place of total and absolute dependency upon himself. And it's one of the major principles in God's Word. Jesus said, apart from the Father, he says, I can do absolutely nothing.

Then he says, apart from me, you can do nothing. I do only do the things that I see the Father do. The Son can do nothing of himself. Dependency. One of the very first principles, the very first law, that Jesus ever taught his disciples.

I think I touched on it, I believe, when I was here last time. It was there in Matthew, the Beatitudes. The very first law of God's kingdom, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God.

And that word in the Greek is the word beggar. Blessed are the beggars, for theirs is the kingdom of God. What is a beggar? A beggar is somebody who lives off somebody else's resources, somebody else's generosity, somebody else's wealth.

He's looked at his own impoverished condition. I remember being in India a number of years ago, and seeing a cripple at the side of the road. We pulled up in a Jeep, and I was looking around, just enamored with what was going on.

I heard a voice, and I looked down, and finally here was this little boy, 10, 12 years of age, all crippled, legs all twisted underneath him, hands all crippled, begging. You see, that young boy could not sustain himself.

He didn't have the resources. He didn't have the capability of looking after himself. There was no means of sustaining his life. He couldn't work, and so he begged. You see, he derived his life from somebody else's resources.

And Jesus said, the very first law of my kingdom, blessed are the beggars. Recognize that apart from him, we can do absolutely nothing. Look at your impoverished condition. I don't care how brilliant you may be, what sort of degrees you may have.

God will strip us, and bring us to that place where we cry out to God, and say, God, fill my cup. Lord, you've got the resources I need. I'm going to live my life by deriving from you all that I need.

And Jesus said, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is, not will be, the kingdom of God. He makes his kingdom resources available to beggars. And so, this is where God begins in the birthing process, barrenness.

Taking away again our natural abilities, and capabilities, our own strengths, and all those things. He will strip us, in order to get us to this place where we look to him, and to look to him alone. And I could testify, and give you details of my own life, how true that is, and many, many other lives, as I've read the story of great men and women of God.

It's amazing, isn't it? Some of the greatest servants of God, in the Word of God, came out of barren situations. John the Baptist, Elizabeth was barren. David can trace his pedigree, if you like, his history back, just a generation or so, to Ruth, who was barren.

She'd been married. Remember, her husband had died, they had no children. She married Boaz, God opened her womb, brought forth again, Obed, and then Jesse, and then David. Again, here is this wonderful king, that we sing so much about, came out of barrenness.

Joseph, heard about Joseph tonight. Where did he come from? A barren woman. Rachel, give me children, or else I die. And so many times, God reaches again, into these barren situations. Isaac, the child of promise.

Sarah, unable to conceive, until God opened her womb. Samuel, one of the great prophets of the Old Testament. Hannah, barren, until God opened her womb. I mean, these are choice vessels, but they all came out of barrenness.

That's the place where it all begins. Recognizing again, our impoverished condition. God, I can't do it. I can't take this nation. I can't take this city. I can't do this. I can't do that. Lord, unless the Lord builds the house, we labor in vain.

Lord, we're incapable of doing it. So you have to do it. Not by might, not by power, by Your Spirit, Lord. Not by my strength, not by my wisdom, not by my cunning, not by my skill. Lord, I've tried all that, and it doesn't work.

And so, we've got to learn, don't we? One of my favorite portions of Scripture, again, I touched on this last time I was here, when we had the day's teaching together. Hebrews 11 verse 32. Let me just read it quickly, and just comment on it.

I won't go into detail, like I did last time. What more shall I say, for time would fail me, if I were to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, the prophets, who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, became mighty in war, and put foreign armies to flight.

How many of you would like to fit into that category? What an incredible group of men. Unbelievable, isn't it? I mean these are the great heroes. These are the men that we sort of put up on a pedestal, and we say, well God, I mean, you know, you don't breed them like that anymore.

These are the sort of the, you know, the elect of the elect. These are just a breed all of their own. I can't even begin to be even in the same company. I mean after all, when's the last time you did some of these things?

Conquer the kingdom. That's what we talked about. Taking the land, perform some great act of righteousness, obtain some great promise, shut the mouths of lions, quench the power of fire, escape the edge of the sword, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.

What a list. But you see there's one phrase, if you were following along, I left out. Now let me put it in, and it will change everything. Verse 34, they quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword.

Listen, from weakness were made strong. Oh, I love that portion of Scripture. You see, there was always one common denominator with every great servant of God. From weakness, from barrenness, they were made strong.

God chooses the weak, and if you're strong, He's going to weaken you. He's going to do the Jacob on you. He's going to make you walk with the limp. He's going to take that area of strength, and He's going to bring it to a place of dependency.

Guaranteed. No way around it. You may postpone it, you may put it off, but somewhere along the line, God's going to catch up with you, strip you of everything. Until again, you can be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.

Divine Intervention Brings Visitation

Not in your own strength. Again, not because of your own cunning, your own ability, and so on. My father used to have a saying, you can have 30 degrees and still be frozen. The next one, the second one, is divine intervention.

Verse 3 again, then the angel of the Lord appeared to the woman. Until God showed up, she was going to remain in the condition that she was, barren, hopeless, helpless, weak. But then something changed in that house.

God came. The angel of the Lord appeared. God intervened. There was a visitation of God. And again, the church will remain barren until there is a visitation of God. That's what we're crying out for. I know that's what you're crying out for.

There's an expectancy. When the heavens, Lord, you come down, the mountains melt at your presence. Not my presence, not my ability, not my wisdom, not my personality. The mountains melt when you come.

We need a visitation of God. And again, you can go through the lives of so many individuals and you realize that until God showed up, nothing happened. Moses, the Bible says in the book of Acts, supposing his brethren understood that God had raised him up to be a deliverer.

Moses assumed everybody saw in him the leadership qualities. He goes out there, sought to bring deliverance to the nation of Israel by killing off a couple of Egyptian soldiers and burying them in the sand.

It takes a long time to get rid of the Egyptian army that way. God had a better idea. The Bible says Moses was mighty in word and deed. He was eloquent. He was raised the son of Pharaoh's daughter, the finest education that anybody could have in all of Egypt.

And we know now as we've excavated and seen some of these fabulous tombs and the wealth and so on, all that he had around him. The finest of everything. I mean, here he was. He was a striking man, part of the royal family.

Suppose his brethren understood. God takes him on the backside of the desert for 40 years. 40 years of stripping. 40 years where God basically sort of at least, it would appear neglected him and yet God had his hand on him all along.

And finally at the end of 40 years, divine intervention. Suddenly God shows up. He's never late. Oh, I would have thought he'd been late. I mean, when you're 40, you've got a little bit of, you know, get up and go.

At least I used to have my get up and go's, got up and gone. And you would thought, you know, God surely, I mean here I am. I'm no longer just a teenager. I'm 40. I'm, you know, this is the time surely when you're going to use me now.

Supposing again, his brethren understood. 40 years on the backside of the desert. The Bible says he was content. The word there is to be slack. It's like that of a bow, when you slacken the bow. I mean, he's lost in one sense his vision.

He's failed. One day he turns aside and God comes. Says, Moses, got a job for you to do. Moses says, not me Lord. I stutter. I can't speak. The Bible literally says he was mighty in word and deed. By the time God gets through with him, he's been around those sheep long enough that he sounds like them.

Lord, I'm going to make a fool of myself. You had your chance 40 years ago. I'm 80 now. And says, from weakness, you're going to be made strong. Because you're going to go in my name. Not in your name.

Not in your personality. Not in your strength. Not in your ability. I'm going to put authority in that rod. I'm going to put authority in you. And I'm going to send you divine visitation. Gideon. Talked about him a moment ago.

There he is in the wine press. Again, maybe the last little bushel of wheat. Trying to get something to eat. The land has been devastated. He's hiding, hoping nobody sees him. Again, food was precious.

The Midianites have swooped down and again devastated the land. All of a sudden the angel Lord comes. Gideon, got a calling on your life. Lord, you've got the wrong person. Lord, don't you know about the tribe that I belong to?

It's the smallest tribe of all 12. And Lord, don't you know about my father's house? It's the smallest house of all the tribe. And Lord, don't you know that I'm the least in my father's house? So Lord, why go to the smallest tribe and the smallest house and the least member of that house?

God says, go in this your strength. What was his strength? His weakness. The greatest strength you and I have, if we use it properly, is our weakness. It will drive us to God. There's been many, many, many, many times when I've got on my face before God and shed tears and said, God, I cannot believe I'm doing what I'm doing.

Lord, I don't have the ability. I look back at my life, failed many courses in school, was nervous and shy, introspective, never did anything publicly, never wanted to go into the ministry. The last thing I wanted to do.

You see, my greatest asset has become my weakness because over the years it's forced me to get along with God. It's forced me to lift up my little cup and say, Lord, unless you fill my cup, I have nothing.

And when you're self-sufficient, who needs God? Because I'll do it, Lord. I've been trained to do it, and I know how to do it, and I've got the personality to do it. Jacob, all alone one night, going back to face his brother who has threatened his life and a divine visitation, divine intervention.

He was changed and transformed as God wrestled with him and subdued him, changed his nature and his character. No longer will he be called Jacob, a deceiver, a conniver, but a prince, again from barrenness to strength.

And you can go on all the way through the Word of God. Joshua, the same thing. There he is. He's taken over command after Moses dies, and he's out facing his first major obstacle, Jericho. Out in the field there, no doubt looking at the size of that place and thinking, God, how on earth?

And all of a sudden, what? Divine intervention, the angel of the Lord appears. He had a meeting place with God. Isaiah went into the house of God one day, had a meeting place with God. I saw the Lord high and lifted up.

I heard Him speak, who shall we send? I said, Lord, I'll go. First of all, it was cleansing. The seraphim took the coal, placed it on his lips. Abraham, the Bible says, the God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham.

The 120 in the upper room, again suddenly, it was the outpouring of the Spirit of God and those fishermen. Oh, not Sanhedrin, not, you know, Pharisees with all the scriptures they'd memorize, dangling, you know, like a fly fisherman with his corks, you know.

You would have thought God would have reached into the life of one of those, but Paul says, listen, not many mighty men. God takes the foolish things, the weak things, the base things. You see, God's biggest problem is, how do I get the glory?

God's biggest problem. And while He will share everything with us, He says, my glory I will not share with any man. He'll share His love, His patience, His kindness, all those other things with us. But my glory, I don't give to any man.

And how does God get the glory? By taking something that is despised and worthless and insignificant and weak. And people look and say, that's got to be God. I went to school with that guy. He was the most unlikely to succeed in our whole class.

Divine Conception Requires Total Commitment

And now look at him. Something's happened to him. The third one is divine conception. Verse 3, the angel Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, behold, you are barren and have borne no children, but you shall conceive.

See, God knows where you are. I don't know where you are. God does. Here is a nation of a million plus people and God knows exactly what's going on in each home, each heart, each situation, each circumstance.

Many times we feel, you know, the pastor doesn't see me and this person doesn't recognize me and so on. Here I am just sitting there. But God knows where you are and He knows what's going on. I know you're barren, He says.

I've been watching you. You're not just a number to me. Your name is inscribed on the palm of my hand. When we think we're all alone and nobody cares, He cares. He calls His own sheep by name, but not by number.

And He says, I know all about you. I know what you're going through. I know the tears you've shed in the secret place, longing to hold a child, longing to bring forth life, longing to be fruitful. I know all about that.

And you shall conceive. You see, God can open the womb whenever He wants. And sometimes we have to wait, because there are dealings that God has to do in our life. Because the Bible says, an inheritance gained hurriedly in the beginning will not be blessed in the end.

And we have a classic case of that with the prodigal. He seemingly wasn't mature enough to handle what he was given. You see, the anointing is like money. You give a million dollars to a six-year-old and you can get a million dollars worth of bubble gum.

He's not going to invest it. He's not going to buy houses and lands or invest it in some way and make it grow. He's going to blow it, so you don't give him that. Yeah, blow it literally. Some of you are more awake than I am.

And so God waits a time, doesn't He? See, if you'd have given it to Moses at the age of 40, supposing his brethren understood. Moses was full of it. He thought he was the cat's whiskers. He thought, you know, surely everybody sees in me the potential of being a great leader.

After all, you know, I'm an Israelite, but I've been trained up here in the ways of Egypt, and I speak the language, and I know the culture, and I know, you know, I've got connections. I'm a son of Pharaoh's daughter.

I know all the, you know, I'm the one. See, God knows when. You shall conceive. Conception is a very personal thing, very private thing. In the years that I've pastored, I've gone to the hospital numerous times, especially in New Zealand.

And I'm sure it's this way here in this country, where you have sort of socialized medicine. In America, you know, if you want to do visitation in the hospital, you need to follow the ambulance, you know.

There's no sooner does the baby arrive, than you're back home. If you can make it in half a day, good, you know, but never more than a day, very seldom overnight. Pastors' nightmare, if you want to get there, and at least show some sort of compassion.

But in New Zealand, at least, it used to be at least a week they would keep you in hospital, if you were tired, or they didn't think you were quite ready. Ten days, all at government expense. And I've gone to the hospital numerous times, more times than I can ever imagine, climbed up the stairs there of Christ Church Women's Hospital, given the name, been shown where the ward is, and gone in and admired that beautiful little baby, a boy, a little boy, a girl, stood around the bed with the parents, maybe other siblings.