H, That You Would Rend the Heavens — Shane Idleman

The Holy Spirit’s Work Through Surrendered Vessels

The message tonight has been on my heart for quite a while. The topic is one of the most important things you are going to hear from this pulpit, and I've mentioned this before, about the Holy Spirit and what He can do in your life.

And the only reason this church is here, the only reason I'm here, is because of the work of the Holy Spirit in my life. That's it. So anytime people say, oh, Shane and Morgan, you guys started the church, you're great, thank you.

No, Shane Idleman's not great. He would not be here. He'd be drinking a six pack right now. The Holy Spirit, through empty vessels, does God's work. So He gets the glory, He gets the credit. I'm really against idolizing or putting a man up on a pedestal, or look at what God has done.

That's my whole, on my tombstone, look at what God has done, okay? Give my wife permission. That's what this is about. And the only thing lacking in the lives of many people is the work of the Holy Spirit, to the degree He wants to work.

And we often don't realize that we think God doesn't have any limits, and I agree with that, but He is limited, and I'm being careful here, He's limited by how much we allow Him to work in our lives. Now granted, He could take over and just steamroll your life and have you do whatever you want, but there's a relationship there.

The more you surrender to me, the more I'll fill you with my presence. The more you give up control to me, the more I will guide you. And we see that, and I've been stuck on Isaiah 64. It's been a favorite passage of mine for many years.

I love Isaiah and Jeremiah. They really resonate with my own spirit. But the title of the message is, Oh, that you would rend the heavens. Oh, that you would rend the heavens. The introduction to this message is pretty simple.

Israel’s Straying and the Cry to Rend the Heavens

Israel, believe it or not, had strayed from God. Big surprise, right? So they have strayed from God. There's leanness of soul. They're in want. So they've strayed from God. They're starting to see the ramifications of that.

Ever been there? Every hand better go up on that one. So that's the context. So Jeremiah, or actually Isaiah, is speaking to God, the heart of the people. He says this, Oh, that you would rend the heavens.

Oh, that you would rend the heavens. That you would come down. That the mountains might shake at your presence. As fire burns brushwood, as fire causes water to boil, to make your name known to your adversaries.

That the nations may tremble at your presence. When you did an awesome thing for which we did not look, you came down. The mountains shook at your presence. For since the beginning of the world, men have not heard, nor have they perceived by the ear, nor has the eye seen any other God beside you.

You act. You who act for the one who waits for him. In other words, God will act on behalf of those who are waiting for him. And maybe it's just me, but my heart's on revival for sure. We're actually gonna host in October a revival conference here with speakers coming in.

I've been talking with Leonard Ravenhill's son, David Ravenhill, to see too if he can possibly speak. And a couple other people, I think 12 speakers in all. And the whole focus is revival, the way God designed it.

Genuine revival. And that's not a bad word, even though it's taken on some negative things. But I wanna just pull a few things from here. Oh, that you would rend the heavens. Me and my wife, we're going back and forth on this, actually in New York, I think, because we read that God rent the heavens, right?

Rent, rent, open it up. And come to find out, rend is something you're wanting to do. Rent is after God does it. So God rent the heavens means he opened it up. He poured out on the people. But rend, it means you're asking, Lord, would you do that?

Would you pour out heaven upon us? It's the difference between open versus shut. Famine versus feasting. Drought versus downpour. This is the greatest need in the church today is for you to receive a downpour of the Holy Spirit.

I'll say that unapologetically. And if you're curious, again, if that applies to you, talk to me afterwards, and I'll let you know. But the majority of people in the church need this downpour of the Holy Spirit.

Preparing the Soil for the Holy Spirit’s Downpour

Here's the thing. God does the opening if you prepare the soil. See, it's interesting, and if we had time, I could take you to a lot of different verses, but he's saying, God, would you rend the heavens?

Would you pour out the rain? Would you come down? And God would say later into different prophets, you tear up your follow ground. You break up that follow ground. You break up that hardness so when the rain comes, you're ready.

So you have to prepare the soil, and that's really what I'm doing tonight. I want to set the stage for future Wednesdays. This is going to be a different service than the Sundays, and it's focusing on preparing the soil and receiving from God.

The next thing we see here is come down. Come down. At this point, the children of Israel and Isaiah are desperate. Come down. Have you ever told God you've got to do something? You've got to come down.

And there has to be a desperation. There has to be a desperation for God to move. How bad does a person want it? So thank God for desperate situations sometimes. That's the only reason I'm here today is because of a desperate situation.

The only reason many of you seek God is because of desperation, right? So would you come down? It's this call of desperation. Ask Him to come down this evening. Here's the interesting thing about a downpour.

It nourishes, it restores, it replenishes, and it revives, it makes alive. What they're asking for is a downpour of rain to come. Do you need to be refreshed, renewed, revived, restored? Then you ask God to come and downpour on my life.

And it's interesting. I've been reading a lot of different books. I would encourage you. There's one this week I'm reading, Andrew Murray, The School of Prayer. And it's about teach us how to pray. It's a whole book on prayer, and it just saturates your life.

Reading that and other things, and even seeing out here in the barren desert when we get a downpour of rain, and you look on the mountains, what is on the mountains after a month or so? Poppies and purple flowers.

Where did all that come from? Where did all that come from? It came from the dead and buried seeds under the ground. And when that downpour came, even death came to life. Those dead seeds that would sit there and decay came to life.

Same thing in your own life. That's what I'm asking you this evening. Are you dry? Are you parched? Is something barren? Let that downpour come and revitalize. That's what God does. He revives dead things.

Actually, that's what the word revival is. Will thou not revive us again so your people can rejoice in you? Something about Christianity that we have to learn is if you're not careful, you will go to the other extreme of being dry and dead and unfruitful and unbarren and rigid and cold.

Words that Christ I read about, you need a downpour. You need God to pour into that dead and unfertile soil. But men, especially men, are too proud to cry out to God. As a result, they never experience a downpour.

I can't imagine going through life with the heavens never opening. And see, here's the issue. Sure, a person's a good Christian. They're a good person. They do things. But they've never had that downpour.

They've never had the Holy Spirit coming upon them and changing everything. Let me give you an illustration. You know a little stream, right? You've ever seen those little streams? Those streams are nice up in the mountains.

When a downpour comes and it comes off the mountains and it breaks a dam, it leaves just a wake of destruction in its path. And I'm using destruction as a good way here. It knocks down trees. It moves 10-ton boulders.

It redesigns the entire face of the mountain. See the difference? Many have a stream. It's comfortable. It's a little stream. But when that downpour comes, it revitalizes everything. It tears up. It roots out.

It pulls down so you don't even look the same because a downpour has occurred. That's the difference. So get that imagery in there. Is it a little stream? Are you in the little stream and just kind of going along?

Or is there a downpour that's wrecking everything in a good way? It's just turning the soil over. Here's what it is. A downpour is a difference between a farmer, many Christians, a farmer throwing out a few seeds and there's his harvest.

Little things here and there. It's nice. Versus a farmer plowing the field, thousands of seeds and a bumper crop growing corn as far as you can see. That's downpour. That's why I always talk to you about this subject often because if I can get this in you, if you can experience this part of God's nature, it will radically change your life.

The Downpour That Shakes, Consumes, and Purifies

Then the third thing we see here. With the downpour, everything shakes. The mountains shook. Can you imagine the mountains shaking at your command? Mount Everest, Mount Whitney, shaking. When the downpour of God comes, even the mountains shake.

It disrupts everything. Like I said, the soil, the landscape, our lives, our agenda, our relationship with God. Everything is shaken up. Then the fourth thing we see is it consumes. It consumes. As the brush is burned and the water boils, a downpour consumes, heats, and purifies.

It's interesting. He's talking about raining down rain and then he's comparing it to a fire. That doesn't make a lot of sense unless the imagery here, if you go back in the Old Testament, it makes a lot of sense because he's using different imagery to get the point across that this type of downpour that God is going to bring, it consumes, it heats, it purifies.

Besetting sin is put to bed. You know, those sins that just keep coming up. I can't overcome this. I can't overcome this. Those things are put to bed. They are purified when this downpour of the Holy Spirit comes.

It's a white light of the gospel. Also, what happens, there's a renewed desire for God. Anybody want that? Okay, thank God. It happens in my life, too. See, I'm not preaching at you. I'm preaching to you, with you.

There, fellow soldier, if I'm not careful, this can happen. A renewed desire for God and the things of the world creep in and God begins to grow distant and a downpour will change all of that. Oh, that you would rend the heavens.

God, rend the heavens and fill my spirit again with your word. And then the fifth point I like here, it stops the enemy. Isaiah said here, the enemy trembles at God's presence. He trembles at God's presence.

If you're, I don't know about you, but demonic attack is not fun, is it? Especially when he's harassing with our children. Now he's really made me mad. And, you know, I don't know how much is demonic, how much is the world, how much is their self, I don't know, but I do know there is a devil out there and that downpour will annihilate him for a season.

It will level him. That's why I said on Sunday, the weakest saint on his knees receiving God's downpour is stronger than hell's best soldier. That's something you need to internalize because you worry about the demonic realm or the devil or enemies or whatever it is.

But when you're on your knees, when you receive that downpour from God, there's nothing that can come against you, child of God. We just watched a video. Nothing, nothing. If you think otherwise, show me a scripture that would say that.

That when Christ is on our side, that is a majority. Have you ever thought about that? The court system. Oh, the courts or the legal system or the government. God plus you is the majority. And this downpour that he's talking about, it stops the enemy.

Oh, that you would rend the heavens. God, would you rend the heavens? Our families need it. Our dear children need it. Our nation needs it. Our city needs it. See, it's preparing the soil. It's getting that heart of desperation.

God doesn't move on a heart that's not desperate. Remember, I've talked about it many times. If you seek me, you will find me with all of your heart. That sounds like a desperation. That's a deer panting after water.

That image is, a deer rarely pants unless he's been running or being chased by something. And it's this desperation that brings this downpour. So after it stops the enemy, we see here that, this is an interesting part of this.

He said something here that really caught my attention. He stops in the middle and he said, you did awesome things. He goes from rending the heavens and the enemies and all, he goes, God, you did awesome things.

Thankfulness as Fertile Soil

And it reminded me to share this with you. Thankfulness is fertile soil for a downpour. You will never receive a complete downpour from God with a critical negative heart. Actually in Galatians, Paul says to the church there, if you bite and devour one another, you will tear each other apart.

That a critical heart, and it's hard because it comes up, that word human, the word's human nature. It's human nature to be critical. And me too. It's human nature to be unthankful. It's human nature to pull up, point out all the things that are going wrong.

We love to, for example, put down California, right? Oh, as soon as I'm out of here. Well, we should be thankful. Go live in 99 of the other parts of the world and you would be running to get back here.

See, there's this thankfulness. So if you want God to rend the heavens and turn rend into rent, right? Just pour into you. You've got to have a thankfulness. God, you are awesome. Thank you. I'm a thankful heart.

I have a thankful heart for what you're doing in my life. And that's positioning yourself to receive from God. Bitterness, negativity in a critical heart prevents a downpour. I'm going to ask you something this evening.

That's why I wanted some of the core team here. Is that I want you to leave all of that at the foot of the cross this evening. The critical spirit, negativity, unthankfulness. And again, I'm right there with you.

That can creep into my own life as well. I avoid the news for that very reason. I don't know how, but it prevents that mighty filling of the Holy Spirit. When I'm critical and negative, you think I want to go visit hospital homes?

You think I want to preach? Actually, that's what I used to do is I used to just kind of hide out in a room and then come to preach because many years ago, just so much negativity. By the time I got to the pulpit, I'm like, I don't even want to speak.

I did this morning when I was listening to worship by myself. Isn't it interesting? I have no problem with God. I have no problem with God horizontally, but the problem comes vertically. That's the problem, right?

All of us, oh, if it was just me and God, just me and God on this earth, we could do great. But then he asked us to reach out vertically to people, to others. And that unthankfulness will starve the fruit of the Spirit.

It will, instead of love, joy, peace, you have anger, confusion, irritability. And you have to work, you have to just change your thoughts. You have to say, Lord, I am thankful. Thank you. Thank you for giving me these children.

Thank you for giving me this home. I mean, I, uh-oh, uh-oh, cat's out of the bag. But even looking for homes, I'll just get in there, I better get off that one. But even houses, me and my wife, we kind of get complaining sometimes because he put us right in the track of homes that we said we never wanted to move into.

And we wanted land, you know, a couple acres and work the land, you know, nothing but just, because that's, you know, my family came from Oklahoma and the farms, and I've always had that desire, but if I'm not careful, I can get unthankful.

And like, oh, but I just got you this. Are you not thankful for this? You know, and it creeps in, and it hurts, it hurts. Might not hurt preaching, because most of you don't do that, but it'll hurt all aspects of Christianity.

Your marriage, your relationship with your kids. Do you think if you're being unthankful, you and your spouse are gonna get along? Let me just tell you right now, it's the opposite. Butting heads, that's where that comes from.

So if you want a downpour of God, if you want to experience that, we've got to get back to this, this spot of being thankful. And then the final point, that waiting prepares the soil for the downpour.

Waiting, Counting the Cost, and Following Christ

He acts for the one who waits for him. God acts on behalf of the one who waits for him. I mean, how many scriptures do we have on waiting? He who waits upon the Lord shall renew his strength. There's this waiting, and there's this seeking God.

But I want to share something with you tonight that I know a lot of you know, but it's a good reminder that, well, to put it bluntly, waiting has a cost. Downpour, to receive what I'm talking about, there is a cost.

And we've done a terrible job in the church the last 50 years of painting this picture that you come to Jesus, everything's good. Everything's great. You may lose a job. You may lose a career. Many are losing their lives.

You will lose friendships. You will not be looked upon as popular, and you'll be an outcast. And if we don't tell people the truth, then they have this image of Christianity that's not biblical. When Jesus said the world hated you, or the world hates me, they're going to hate you as well.

It's this thought here. There is a cost. So experiencing God, having a downpour, having God fill you, there is a cost to it. Everything I'm talking about here, there's a cost to pay. Somebody said, I think I read somewhere in the Bible that count the cost before you follow me, consider what you're doing.

Does a king go to war without considering the cost? Do you build a tower without first considering how much you're going to spend? Do you follow Christ without considering the cost? I mean, would we stand up for Christ if everyone in our workplace stayed seated?

Would we? So we have to realize the value of something determines its cost. See, the value of a downpour determines the cost I will have to pay to get it. Early morning prayer, fasting from time to time, putting on worship, getting rid of these attitudes, everything we're talking about, it's not easy.

It goes counter-cultural. It actually goes counter-flesh. It goes against my flesh. These are things I don't want to do, but there is a cost. Think about the cost that people put into their work. They'll work somewhere 40 years, 40 years of their life, so they can retire and then die within a few years.

I think the average now is seven years after retirement if you don't stay busy, because the body wasn't designed to go down. It was designed to keep working as long as God gives us breath. That might put some of you in a bad mood getting ready to retire, but just do something for God.

We'll keep you busy. Think about 40 years. I'm just going to retire. I'm going to retire. 40 years. See, there's a cost. It has a value. Retirement has a value, and there's a cost to pay. Have you ever looked at how much time it takes to get a PhD?

Wow. Trying to go to school and then go to a different school and then the hours and the dissertation and all these things. The value of the PhD, there's a cost. What about the Olympic athletes? Read some of their training regiments.

Six hours a day. You think they can't do anything. I mean, you think you can't do anything. They can't do anything. Home by eight. Training for the Olympics. They've got their scale out. That's two cups of brown rice, two chicken breasts, right?

Perfect carbohydrate to macronutrient proportions with fat and carbs and protein. And I've got this. Don't touch me. The value of something determines its cost. The value of the gold medal determines the cost this person will pay.

Now, the greatest cost, right? So the value of something determines its cost. It costs Christ his life. It costs him everything to be beaten and humiliated because the value was so high. So downpour. Renting the heavens has a cost.

I'll just throw this in there, too. Do you know that life-giving preaching has a cost? I'm not talking about just preaching. Life-giving preaching. Life-giving. That is going to give life to the congregation has a great cost.

Had I known it, I might not have ever signed up for it. But God tricked me. And it's well worth it, of course, right? I shouldn't say that. Somebody's going to email me. Somebody's going to email me. And I should elaborate.

It's well worth it. I'm very happy that He has called us to do this. But there's a cost. There's a cost. E .M. Bowne said that life-giving preaching costs a preacher much. Death to self, crucifixion to the world, and the travail of his own soul.

Crucified preaching gives life. Crucified preaching can only come from a crucified man. And there's a cost. There's a great cost. A great cost. Many of you aren't even aware, but Morgan said it was okay, and I went to the Oaks for a whole day.

I've just had water since yesterday. 30 hours. 30 hours just water. Getting up early, praying for the serving, praying for a lot of you in this room, praying for healing that needs to take place, praying that a downpour would affect the lives of these people in here.

There's a cost. You can't go run with the boys. You can't get to bed late. I can't go to all the movies. There's a cost to that, but it's well worth it, but I'm just showing there is a cost to seek God and to have that downpour for him to pour into me, and then I pour into you.

There has to be a cost. God says, Shane, if you're not going to pay anything, I might not deliver. How bad do you want it? How bad do you want to experience me? Are you willing to give up a meal or two or three or four?

Are you willing to get up and put on worship and fast and pray and seek the heart of God? There's a cost, and if we can remind people of that, they're better prepared. That's why it cracks me up this time of year.

All these advocates, just order this pill, 30 pounds in 30 days, and you'll look like whoever nowadays, right? Kardashians or Brad Pitt. I don't know who's popular, but you guys know. Lady Gaga, Katy Perry.

Look, just 30 days, 30 pills, 30 days, $300. Come on. See, but they're not prepared. You want to get your life back and lifestyle changes and lose weight and get in shape. There's a cost to pay. It's called this, right?

No, I can't go there. I can't do that. I can't do that, and there's a cost to anything in life worth having. So I'm going to get to the end here shortly, but I want to prepare the soil as you wait for the rain.

Breaking Up Fallow Ground and Removing Spiritual Obstacles

Here's how you prepare the soil. You have to break up the fallow ground. Examine your heart. Wanting more of God. Is it about God's glory, or are you striving for popularity, position, and power? I only say that because a lot of people want more of God so they can elevate themselves.

It has to be, Lord, I just want all. Now, those motives might come in. See, a wrong motive isn't necessarily bad. It depends on what you do with it. If the wrong motive comes in, you take that thought captive, you bring it back to the Lord, and you get back on track, then that has not become sin yet.

When a man is tempted like Jesus was tempted in all points, he didn't give in to that temptation. But you have to make sure, I want this downpour for God's glory and God's glory alone because, Lord, I need you.

You have to remove excuses, especially this is tough for men. People that say, I don't need that. I don't want to get carried away. I'm just not emotional. That's not who I am. Fear prevents the downpour because there is inside of all, even me, I'll just be honest with you.

Lord, I'm not sure how much of a downpour I can handle. I mean, of God just pouring into you, pouring into you. It was D .O. Moody who actually was not well known. He was in Chicago. He was doing ministry in his own power and strength.

And he admitted it to God. He surrendered to God. And in New York City, he said he received a downpour so powerful that he had to run into a room and just get on his face for hours before God. I can take you to, I've mentioned this many times before, I can take you to people you read, all these heroes of the faith.

They had a, God visited them in a mighty way. They had a downpour of his spirit. So fear, get rid of fear. Say, Lord, whatever you have for me, I want it all. Also, we talked about this earlier, pull out the root of bitterness.

If you bite and devour each other, watch out, you will be destroyed by each other. In order for a downpour to occur, you have to remove that bitterness. And it's an ugly little root and it likes to grow and grow and grow and remove those things.

And then finally, we have to sow in love. Sow in love. So many believers know the Bible and they are workers, but they lack the fertile soil of love and compassion. Let me just put this out there. If you're not loving, gentle, and compassionate, you have not received a downpour.

The Holy Spirit has not mightily filled you with his spirit. If there's not love and compassion and gentleness. That, above all other attributes, is a characteristic of somebody filled with the spirit.

Yes, boldness, for sure. But love, compassion, gentleness. Why? Because now it's a new spirit working within me. It's not the old flesh. And now we all struggle here, right? Nobody's mastered this area, but there should be just an overpowering love.

And it's ironic, too. I'll just throw out a book. It's called They Found the Secret and it's lives of many men and women that you all know, John Bunyan and Amy Carmichael and different things that talked about this downpour of the spirit.

And in so many cases, the thing that always stands out is I felt this over-empowering love from God over me. It was so overpowering I began to weep. This love that came on, this love that came on, this love that came on from God.

And then it penetrates our own hearts and now we have a loving, compassionate heart. So without that, there is no downpour. Now I know many people might be saying, and I'm being straightforward, but this is why.

The Holy Spirit’s Fullness and the Cost of Spiritual Renewal

Do farmers gently work the soil? To get the soil ready, gentle is not in their vocabulary. I've actually used to get hired to come and do this, to get follow ground ready for harvest or to dig up things.

And I would bring over a 22 ,000 pound John Deere backhoe with a three foot bucket and big iron teeth and I would hit that ground and I would hit that ground and I would hit that ground. That's not gentle.

Same thing, you need to hear words like this. Farmers do not gently work the soil. Guys, we're not trying to be careful and stack crystal. We're trying to shatter glass, break our hearts. We're not gently making a pot like a potter.

We're crushing things and getting the soil ready. Here's the sad thing, the sad reality is we often think that a message like this that I'm giving is for immature or new believers. This message is actually more relevant for those who are older and seasoned in the faith.

Because that soil can become hard again and calloused. Soil that used to produce, soil that used to be abundant. Have you ever let a field go for a few years? The rocks, the weeds, you can't grow anything.

So this type of message is for many of us in this audience. I like what Leonard Ravenhill wrote about William Booth. You know who that is, the founder of the Salvation Army? William Booth reports in his journal, he said his exact words, I found that I ebbed and flowed until one day the Holy Ghost came in all His fullness.

He was saying there that he was going back and forth through work, through ministry. Here's a Bible, here's this. But it wasn't until, he's just going through the motions. Many people are just going through the motions.

But he says it was not until the Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost, they use in the King James, especially back then, the Holy Ghost came upon me in all His fullness. The fullness of the Holy Spirit came upon him.

The Salvation Army was a penniless organization that went into 70 countries, Ravenhill writes. Not 70 cities, 70 countries. Men and women left their castles in England. Professors left their profession.

Why? Because they could see that that fire, the fire of God, as clearly as Israel could see the pillar of fire at night. The Holy Ghost was there. There was downpour. It's an interesting thing too. You can look this up yourself.

The Bible talks about John the Baptist. He said when Jesus comes, He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. The actual Greek rendering of that is He will baptize you with the Holy Ghost fire.

That's what it is. It's this baptism. Jesus said are you able to partake in the baptism that I'm going to partake in? Talking about His death, of course, and different things, but He is the baptizer of the Holy Spirit.

I don't want to get real controversial. All I have to say is you know if you got it and you know if you don't. Were you baptized Sunday? I'm not sure. Was there water in there? I think I was. The people that got baptized know they were baptized.

Now the correct New Testament language is filled with the Spirit, an ongoing filling of the Holy Spirit. Now you know why I often ask this question. How many of you in this room? If you can't answer that, that's why I'm preaching this message.

Jeremiah’s Burning Word and the Outpouring of the Spirit

How many of you can say like Jeremiah? His word is in my heart. This word is in my heart like a burning fire. It's burning. This word is in my heart like a burning fire. It's shut up on my bones. I can't even hold it back.

The reason you can't hold it back is because it's the Holy Spirit wanting to let loose, wanting to, you've received that downpour. Now it has to be outpour. See the whole point of the downpour is to be outgoing, right?

It's incoming and then outgoing. So if you cannot say like Jeremiah, his word is in my heart like a burning fire. If you have not experienced those rivers of living water, it's okay. It's okay. Just go to God and say, God I need that.

I need that downpour. I've grown cold. I've grown callous. How many of you have heard of Oswald Chambers? He wrote My Utmost for His Highest. It's the highest selling devotional book of all time. Did you know that before he received this downpour he was miserable?

He was a Bible teacher and miserable. Here's his own words. Before the Spirit came upon him, God used me during those years. How many of you could say this? God used me during those years but I had no conscious communion with Him.

The Bible was the dullest, most uninteresting book in existence. Even though he read it often. Oswald Chambers, did you catch what he just said? He said the Bible was the most boring, dullest book I've ever read.

I was going through the motions. He was a teacher at a Bible college. How does this happen? It happens because without the downpour of the Holy Spirit, none of that, there's no spiritual life. So of course the book is boring and dead because the author of it is not residing in your soul, filling you over abundantly.

That's the key here. Then he writes a few years later, if the four previous years had been hell on earth, these five years have truly been heaven on earth. Glory be to God. The last aching abyss of the human heart is filled to overflowing with the love of God.

He goes from somebody, we'll never hear, you would never have heard of this man ever. Ever. Had he not received that downpour of the Spirit. I think that's one of the greatest deceptions of the enemy is we can go, well I'm a Christian.

I go to church. I do some things for God and I'm a little stream. Comfortable and cozy. But you need that downpour. Your family needs that downpour. I know this isn't right. I know God's not needing us to do anything.

But I often imagine at this church and different churches, how many more people would he use if they were completely filled with his Spirit. How many more people, the eyes of the Lord go to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are loyal to him.

He goes about, he's looking. Empty vessel, I'm looking. Empty vessel, I'm looking. Empty vessel, I'm looking. I just read a story this morning of Elisha. E-L-I-S-H-A. Elisha, he took over from Elisha after he was up.

But he told the widow to go and get empty vessels. And as long as you kept bringing empty vessels, he would fill it with oil. And then the Bible says that the oil ceased after she stopped bringing empty vessels.