God Is Preparing a Heart — George Warnock

Christ in You and the Life of the Spirit

Verse 10,. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin. Now, not that it's going to die. It's dead. It's mortal. Death functions in it because of sin, because of the sin principle. Even though we're not actively sinning, there's a sin principle in our body, in the body, that will bring it to death.

It's a sin principle in the body. Otherwise, we couldn't die. And only if that sin principle is removed will we be able to come to that place that Jesus walked in, where he said, No man taketh my life from me.

But unless God, by his grace, by his mercy, unless there's a people, and I believe there will be a people who will apprehend this life to such an extent that there'll be no cause of death in them. I don't mean by that they'll become immortal.

There'll be no cause of death in them, but they'll still be dwelling in a body that'll be capable of laying down their life. Not walking around in a glorified body, but having conquered death. And then because they've conquered death, they'll be able to lay down their life for their brethren.

You can't lay down your life unless you've got a life to lay down. Unless you have conquered death, you can't really lay down your life. But anyway, if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, the sin principle.

But the spirit of life is life because of righteousness. But if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken or give life to your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you.

He's not talking about a future resurrection. He's saying if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you now, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken, give life to your mortal dying body.

Not the body that's gone down into the grave. That would be a corrupt body. There's a distinction made in the Bible between mortality and corruptibility. Mortality is a body that is alive but is dying.

Corruptibility is a body that is dead and buried. Buried at least three days, four days. The Son of God never saw corruption because he was dead three days. Four days would have meant corruption. So Jesus was dead three days but never saw corruption.

But his body became mortal as he took your sin and mine. A living body subject to death. So a mortal body is a body that's alive but has got the principle of death functioning within it. An immortal body is a body that can never die because the sin principle has been defeated.

But if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, then he that raised up Christ from the dead shall give life to your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you. Now there's much there in Romans 8 that I believe remains for appropriation and apprehending.

Many of the saints of God are suffering in their mortal bodies. They're suffering when there should be life flowing from the Spirit. I'm not saying that you're capable here and now of partaking of immortality.

I'm not saying that. I'm saying that there should be a quickening. There should be a constant quickening of our mortal bodies because of the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. Now believe as the Spirit of God begins to take control of his temple, we're going to discover that diseases are going to be swept away from the house of God.

God doesn't want it. He paid the price of our diseases as he did for our sins. God would have a healthy people in spite of the fact that wherever we go, we witness much sickness and disease in the house of God.

God promised the people of God when they came to the waters of Mara, when God healed the waters of Mara, signifying to them that he would heal the bitter streams of our life. God said, if you will keep my covenant and walk in my ways, I will not lay upon you the diseases which I've laid upon the Egyptians, for I am the Lord that healeth thee.

Early Pentecost appropriated, began to appropriate many of these promises. But because we did not remain in that state of total subjection to the Lord Jesus, the Spirit of God went away. He had to fly away and desert his temple almost because he could not abide in that place of which we desecrated.

We could not abide there. And what could we expect but the sins and the diseases of the world to infiltrate the church? And the church has become a participant of all the diseases known to the human family.

We think it to be normal. We think it's a wonderful Christian thing when, you know, some great church will get together and build a hospital to look after the sick. Well, that's an act of mercy, I know.

But God says, if you walk with me and walk in my ways, I won't lay upon you these diseases. You won't need these hospitals. And so there's a law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus that makes us free from the law of sin and death.

The New Birth and the Wind of the Spirit

That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto you, you must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof.

But canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth. So is every one that is born of the Spirit. Now, we've all known this scripture, probably most of us could quote it from memory. We've always applied it to new birth.

When a man comes to know the Lord, he's born again. We quote the scripture, the wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof. But canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth.

And rightly so, that's true. So when you come to the Lord to be taken out of the old kingdom of darkness and sin and death, the old Adam, and come into the new, there's a new birth. You're born into it, truly as you were born into this world, as a descendant of Adam.

So when you come to the cross, when you repent, when you receive the Lord, you're taken into a new stream, you're taken into a new line, a new order, a new Adamic race. You're born from above, born from above.

And it's like an under the blowing of the wind. You don't know how that transpires. You can't figure it out. You can't sit down and rationalize it. But all you know, the wind is blowing, and you hear the sound.

But you can't say where is it from, where is it going. You can't predetermine its course. It just comes according to the will of God, does that transforming work, brings forth a new life, and the Spirit of God blows on you know not where.

But what I wanted to point out is not only something that pertains to a man who enters into new life, but it's a principle that applies from that day on. It applies to the new order. So is every man that is born of the Spirit.

Why do we say that applies to that moment when we receive Christ and then forget about it? That's the principle by which we are to function in this new order, the principle of the blowing wind. You don't know where it comes.

You can't predetermine its coming, nor can you predetermine its future. Men are always trying to do that. We're always trying to so arrange and so organize and so manipulate that we can get the Spirit of God to move in that course that we have ordained for him.

We've got all the programs, everything set up. All the Spirit of God has to do is come in and move in this channel that we've arranged for him. He doesn't do that. He brings a new life, and you don't know whence he cometh, and you don't know whether he goeth.

You don't know the course that he will take. And so why do men plan, and can I, we're going to do this. I believe in the next 10 years, you know, we better establish 30, 40 different churches here, and so we set our sights, we set a goal for ourselves.

But you're predetermining the course of the Spirit for him. God wants a people who will simply be led of the same Spirit by which they were born. He led of the same Spirit by which they were born. We're born of the Spirit.

He comes as the wind. You don't know how he does that work in our hearts. Well, then you don't know where he's going then. You can't predetermine your course. You can't say it's going to be this way and try and predetermine your course.

But we must lay ourselves open. If we're truly born into this new life, into this new realm, God wants us to lay ourselves open to be subjected to the moving of the Spirit of God. It doesn't seem a safe way.

It doesn't seem a secure way. We mentioned the river. When you lose your footing, it doesn't seem safe. You're carried along the river. Where is it going to? Well, we can't say explicitly. All our springs are in thee, and that they flow in the purpose of God, and that they will flow back to the heart of God.

But we cannot predetermine the course of the Spirit of God. So let's not attempt to do so. Let's be content to lose our life in this river of God and leave it all up to him. It doesn't seem safe. You can't plan, but it's the safest way because we're under the control of God's Spirit.

Don't you think it's safe if we can come under the control of the Spirit of God? The wind that blows, you don't know how, where, you don't understand it, but you hear the voice. You hear the sound thereof.

And we know the sound is right. We know it's the sound of God. We know it's the voice of God. But we don't know his course. So is everyone that is born of the Spirit of God. May the Lord bless this word to your hearts.

Seeking God in Uncertainty and Ministry

Let us have a season now in which we'll earnestly seek the Lord. And he needs you. And I know it's helpful to people. Someone comes along with true priestly concern, lays their hands on them, and prays for them.

And there are those who especially are used in that kind of a ministry. We can all pray one for another, I know, but there are those who somehow have a special ministry in being able with priestly hands to lay them upon some individual who is in need.

And with a heart of priestly mercy, encourage them, help them, pray that God will fulfill the desire of their heart, whatever it is that's troubling them, whatever it is that's of a particular problem to them.

And it's a time when God's people are in great distress. There's great questionings, there's uncertainties. It's a good sign because if you're going to truly flow in the river of God, if you're going to truly be caught away in the wind of God, you're not going to know where he's taking you.

You just know that it's into his heart. But from here to there, you don't know the course of events in this earth. You can't predetermine his course. Once we could, because we're living pretty well according to the law of the old life, the old Adam, where we'd plan and make provision and so forth.

But it doesn't work in this order. And so if you find yourself in a realm now where you feel well once, I used to have it pretty well planned and everything seemed to work out, but somehow recently I'm so very uncertain.

Well, rejoice in that. Because as you begin to move in the realm of the Spirit, you're going to find more and more uncertainty as far as the direction in which the Lord is leading you. And that's the way it's supposed to be, to be led of the Spirit, just to be borne along by the Spirit.

Having confidence that the Spirit of God is God, the Spirit of God is the Lord Jesus Christ. Not just some mystical thing, just some presence, some sort of an essence of some kind. The Holy Spirit who comes to take up his habitation in the church is the Spirit of the Lord Jesus dwelling in the midst of his people.

Like we emphasized the other night, I go away, but I come again. I go away for a little while, but I come again. And he came to abide in this temple. And I know we don't see, we haven't seen the fullness of the abiding presence of Christ in this temple because we haven't prepared for him a habitation.

We haven't so ordered our lives before him that he could come and take control. We wanted to exercise control. We wanted him to come and help us to fulfill the desires of our heart. And so he goes back.

He cannot find a place to rest his feet. But when we are prepared for God a habitation, when we're prepared to say, Lord, I don't want to run my own life anymore. I want you to be in control. I want you to cleanse me.

I want you to purge me. I want you to root out of my life all things that offend, all things that are contrary to new creation order. I want to walk according to this rule. I want to hear the voice of the wind.

I'm prepared to be carried along by the wind of the spirit. He's ready then to come and to help us to take charge, to take control. And so may the Lord help us each one as we wait before him at this time.

Yeah. Know what the desire is tonight for the Lord to work, work among us. We have had camp meetings for the past 13 years and years meetings. And we've always had the same desire that this brother has expressed for God to move in and to take control.

But out of those 13 years of things that we have experienced and we've learned from most of those years, and I think maybe all of them, God did move in somewhere, either to end the meeting or somewhere in between, somewhere in the start, that we knew that God had made a divine move upon us.

But it never came until there was repentance first, never did come, no matter how much we long for it, no matter how much we desire for it, no matter how much some of our hearts were filled before God, it would not come until there was repentance made.

The Lord said, I would have healed Israel, but the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered. I believe tonight, if you want to see a move of God, I believe there's sin in the camp tonight that's not been repented of.

It seems like God's people kind of hold back. They don't keep their account up to date with the Lord. And they want to keep things secret, but nothing is hid from God tonight. Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil.

And he sent you and I into the earth to do the same thing. So we've experienced the word of God. It always had to been brought forth. We've had to preach repentance. We've had to name people's sins, and they came and were convicted, and they repented, and we had a revival.

You read of the revivals of the past. It always came when people repented. Thank God we have the foundation tonight that we can repent. God hasn't moved in these meetings like we'd like to see him move, but there's sin in the camp.

Not in everybody, but there's sin in some that needs to be repented of. And when that happens, you'll see God move. You'll see us being blessed. And if these meetings end and there's no repentance, God help the ones who never repented.

Because if you can see how deadly, how sinful sin really is, you wouldn't want to take it home with you, but you'd want to repent of it and get rid of it. I thank God that through the years, he's given me lots of opportunities to repent and to turn from things.

He that repenteth of his sin and turns from him, God will bless, but he that hath his sin shall not prosper. So I pray tonight that the ones who have those things in their heart tonight that know that they've done something contrary to God's will.

You know it. We don't have to really tell you, but you know it. If you will repent, there'll be rejoicing in the camp. There'll be a move of God. So may the Lord bless you. We know that it's right that there's no coming to God without repentance.

So we're just going to leave it. I don't know just how best to do this, but I was thinking maybe everyone gather around who want to seek the Lord. Those of you whom God is convicting of some particular thing in your life that you know is not pleasing to him, come and cry out unto God.

Confess it to him. It might even help if you found some brother or some sister that you felt you could bare your heart to them. It might help you to do so. We're not going to stipulate how this must be.

You can do it before the Lord alone, and it must be before the Lord really alone. But in the presence of God's people, let's recognize that Christ inhabiteth his temple. Don't be afraid. God should so lead you to someone to open up your heart to them.

If you sense in them a priestly heart, go to them, because God's priests are not in the business of exposing and airing one's sinfulness. They're not in that business. They're in the business of mediating to them by the Holy Spirit the forgiveness and the cleansing that is in Christ Jesus.

And when Moses washed the priests, who were sinful men like anybody else in Israel, and they had to be cleansed before they could go into holy things and minister in the holy place, he took them into the laver, and that was behind the gate of the court.

And the court was five cubits high, which would be about seven foot six, higher than any man in Israel. And in there, open only to heaven above, Moses stripped Aaron and Aaron's sons of their filthy garments and washed them and clothed them with pure white priestly garments.

And so remember that any time you are called upon to minister in priestly service to God's erring ones, you do not have the right, nor does God supply the grace, for you to come and expose their sins.

They may do it, God may lead them to do it, but it is your privilege, your service, your priestly ministry to take them in beyond the gate, beyond the linen curtains, where no man can see, and between you and heaven alone, to deliver that man from his uncleanness.

And so may the Lord work and move in the hearts of lives. I'm not aware of anyone who is hiding any sins from God, I don't know. Brother says there is, maybe there is, I'm not denying that. But come up to the front.

We know we all need to be repenting. We know that we all need that spirit of repentance. And that doesn't mean by that that we must always linger in the area of condemnation. There's no condemnation. But nevertheless, we realize that there is defilement as we simply walk about in this world.

And so it's something like Jesus took the disciples who had been bathed, they'd been washed all over, but when they came to the Last Supper, just walking up to the steps, their feet would be defiled. And Jesus, during the course of the meal, he rises from supper, took a basin of water and a towel and girded himself and began to wash the disciples' feet.

And he came to Peter and Peter said, Are you going to wash my feet, Jesus? And Peter said, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus said, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. He says, Not my feet only, Lord, but also my hands, my head.

Jesus says, No, he that is washed all over needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit. So we're clean through the blood of Christ. We're clean through the word that has been spoken unto us.

We've been redeemed by his blood. But all of us contact this defilement, walking about in this world. You can scarcely walk down the streets without contacting defilement. And our feet need to be washed.

I'm not denying, of course, that there is deliberate sin. There are sins which men seek to hide. And they need to be repented of. And so we all need to repent in one kind of repentance or another, as the Spirit of God enables us.

And if God is speaking to your heart, grasp that opportunity that God has given you to repent. Because you just can't repent because we stand here and say, Repent. Which God's people knew that. You can't repent unless God grants repentance.

God has to grant repentance. You see how helpless I am? Yes, you're helpless. Totally helpless before God. So as you humble yourself before the Lord and acknowledge the truth. Paul says, if a man who has erred and been taken captive by the devil, if he will acknowledge the truth, God, peradventure, will grant him repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.

And so you can't just say, Well, I think I'll go up and repent. The Spirit of God is convicting of some particular thing. Then come and repent of it. But all of us need to have that spirit of repentance upon us.

Not where we're always saying, Lord, I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner. I'm defiled. Lord, help me. You know, there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. But we just know that we contact defilement constantly.

And we want to come to him for cleansing day by day, moment by moment, abiding in that attitude of, Lord, I want to be turned again. And that's what repentance is. I want to be changed. I want to go your way.

I don't want to go my own way. And should we all just gather, all of those who feel a need for a visitation from God, some of our young people I know want to be filled with the Spirit. I know there are folks here who have been especially used to the Lord to lay hands on people that they might be filled with the Spirit.

And many of our young people and the younger young people need that baptism of the Spirit. And so let's pray one for another. Let's pray one for another. We're all priests unto God. Let's pray one for another.

That one who has erred whom God is convicting at this time, especially, if so be ye here. Come to the light. Never fear to come to the light. Because the light of God is not to condemn you, it's to cleanse you.

It's to illuminate you. It's to set you free. One thing that I always wanted to cherish as a young man and growing older was never to fear to come to the light. Never to fear there's a meeting where God is moving, where you sense that the people of God are seeking Him.

There's a presence of His Spirit. Never to fear to come to that meeting. Don't think, well, I'd better run out because maybe God will expose something in my life. You come and expose it before the Lord, between you and God.

And perhaps with the help of one with a priestly heart by your side, expose it to heaven and to God. It's nobody else's business. And when, perchance, someone comes to you and lays bare their heart and tells you what they have done and how they're sorry and how they want God's presence to return to them, never tell anybody else what they said to you.

Because as soon as they do that, that sin of theirs becomes Christ's sin. He became sin for us who knew no sin. And if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

And when Jesus died on the cross, He became sin for us. And when that repentant soul comes and lays bare his heart to you or to God, or you hear the words that he's uttering unto God in repentance, however it might happen, don't you dare go out and say, that one did this and this and that and the other.

That now belongs to Jesus. And that one is set free. So let's come. Would you have something in particular, Walter, or would you just like to minister amongst the people as they come, or would you like to say something?

Repentance, Conviction, and the Cleansing Word

I just felt last night, the Lord told me that the little fox will spoil the vine. But I felt I hadn't submitted myself to the leadership here earlier in the day, so I didn't feel that I had a right to speak that word forth because I felt it was going to be fairly heavy and I didn't feel that I had that right.

So as you know, today I came and I spoke to you about that and submitted myself to your authority and you said that I could minister if the Lord gave me the word. So I brought that word forth this evening.

And I feel that the word that the brother brought here was exactly what the Lord would say because he had me repent this afternoon for some things in my own life. And there was a blockage there that there was no flow of life at all and it was because of something that I had not taken care of at the time that the Lord mentioned it.

So it's true that no revival will come unless we remove that blockage that the Lord is pointing to. He's not going to share his glory with something that's defiled. So the word of the Lord also says that every heart knows its own bitterness.

You know what your own sin is if it's a hidden sin or it's something that's blocking. Just ask the Lord what it is. Give him some time and he'll let you know what it is. Thank you.

See the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword and piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit. We get things so mixed up. There are legitimate things in the soul realm.

We've got to eat. We've got to sleep. We've got to work. There's a legitimate occupation and a function of the soul. But we try to bring that into new creation life and the word of God comes forth and says, no, this is something for the old creation order.

This is spirit and divides asunder. And so it's a time when that piercing sword is going forth. And if perchance the word of the Lord during these two or three days has spoken to your heart or convicted you, the Holy Spirit will convict.

Satan will condemn and he'll get you condemned and he'll get you all confused and, oh, I'm rotten. I'm no good and I'm a sinner. And you ask yourself the question, well, what is it I've done? Well, you can think of maybe, you know, you know that you're not perfect and all that, but there's nothing specific.

But conviction is different. He'll remind you of something. Might be very little. Father said little foxes. Might be some very little thing. But it can cut off that fellowship with the Lord. And so, you know, we want to be right with the Lord.

We want to be right with the Lord and come and gather around, seek the Lord. Might maybe even as you're here, God will remind you of something that you have to make right. But we're not, you know, the reason I speak this way, I've been in meetings so often where there's been these messages of repentance and you'd find the godly ones coming up, you know, the old grandmas that really love the Lord, but because they're so sensitive to the Spirit, you know, they feel every little error that they've committed.

And the ones who are really sinners, the ones who have really wronged God and really done things that are not right, they sit back there and are not touched. I pray God that when the Spirit of God is in our midst and we make room for his Lordship, the Spirit of God will not condemn people, but he'll convict.

This is wrong. And when there's something wrong and he shows you, what's the answer? If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. When you sin, you've got an advocate.

You've got five bleeding wounds which pray, Father, forgive him. They know not what they do. But if we confess our sin, then he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

And notice what he said. Oh, God will love you enough, he'll be merciful enough that he'll forgive you. He's faithful and just. Forgiveness after true repentance springs from the faithfulness and the justice of God because he's a just God and because he's faithful.

Because Jesus is your advocate when you confess your sin. He's faithful and just. Nothing to do with love there at all. He's faithful and just to forgive you your sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

So shall we gather around the front and feel free one to pray with another. Feel free to come to someone and say you need help, you need prayer. Be sensitive to the leading of the Spirit. Different ones who go around praying for one another and pray that God will move in our midst and meet the needs in many lives and in our young people, that they for themselves might sense the touch of God upon their soul, many of them very precious and know the Lord, but somehow not having that real touch of God that they can look back to.

I touch God and we want to continue to remember them not only tonight but in the days to come. But they grow into a world that's totally corrupt and it's difficult for them, far more difficult for them than it was when we were young and it was bad enough then.

So shall we gather around perhaps Marty here and maybe lead a song and everyone gather around and let's pray one for another.

Holiness, Legalism, and the Need for Scriptural Answers

There's really nobody who's living it. Remember he kept saying but how do we know when you've repented and what if I've repented 99 and then he went to an ad hominem argument and this always will happen.

He pointed to me, do you sin? Always do that. The idea is to get you down to where you say well really nobody's living it. Boy God gave me wisdom on that. I played that back and God gave me wisdom on that because you could get so tongue-tied you don't know what you're doing.

I said when I do the Lord shows me and I go to him and get the victory over it. I don't keep doing it. Now that's not a proud remark, that's the truth. And no Christian will go and say that. That is obviously true.

The man finally gave up. He says well that's a powerful message you're preaching. Praise the Lord. But you go to your friends and notice that he brought in the old salt legalism. Aren't you preaching legalism?

Preaching legalism, preaching legalism. When you say that God is coming to reconcile his people, this is legal. But anytime you say that God is serious about holiness, the next shot is legalism. It is intellectually impoverished.

It's as soft as a rotten pumpkin. It's just a knee-jerk thing. Anytime you know anybody says you've got to live the life to be a Christian, it's legalism. Legalism. It's an intellectual impoverishment that is in our country.

That's theological death. My, my, my, listen, I thought brother, oh I so praise God that he kept me in a good mood that day. And I was, I was in a good mood. Praising the Lord because those things get me excited.

Now, anyway, you know, we've got enough boggling our mind down with that kind of stuff. All right, what's our last question? How? Now, see, all these have to be answered from the scripture. How is God going to do this?

How is he, is he going to wave his wand? Uh, people, uh, you, uh, this is a good question to ask evangelicals. This is a good question to ask them. Do you believe that we're someday going to be really holy instead of just a pure?

Oh yes, yes, yes. Then ask them those three questions. And when you get to how, that's interesting. What did they have never thought of it? When they do this, they will, you know, the Lord is banging like that.

And then they'll say in a moment in the, in the twinkling of an eye and I will be suddenly righteous. I'll be just like Jesus. And this is the belief. But you see the problem, there's just one small problem, Bill.

It's not scriptural. Outside of that is great, but it's not scriptural. All right. So now let's look at Isaiah four, four. Most of you have that memorized, but as I say, we, we we're got to give an answer to people that ask us.

So when they say, aren't you just preaching, preaching legalism? No. And then give them the scripture, which is what I did to that fellow. I, I just started with, he said, well, what about first John?

I said, yeah, let's take first John. And the boy, he was right on my turf. Then the first John, that's first John. If anybody in the whole scripture talks about sin as first John, if you say, you know him and don't do his commandments, you're a liar.

All right. Isaiah four, verse four, when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, imagine filthy daughters of Zion and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from that mister of literally the blood guiltiness by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning.

All right. Then how is the Lord going to affect this cleansing according to the scripture? How's he going to affect it by the spirit of burning and by the spirit of judgment? And let me ask you again, how is the Lord going to affect this cleansing?

Right. By a baptism of fire, by a spirit that comes on you and begins to burn the areas of darkness. It's a baptism of fire. It isn't done with a fairy godmother waving her wand. It's done with a baptism of fire.

That's one part of it. All right. And then we read Malachi, didn't we? Who may abide the day of his coming and who shall stand when he appeareth, for he is like a refiner's fire, someone purifying metal and like fuller soap, that is a harsh laundry soap, and he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver.