Fire — Michael L. Brown

We love you, and we praise you, and we exalt you. Lord, I thank you so much for the outpouring of your spirit. I thank you so much, Lord, for this team of leaders and workers, Lord, with a heart for you.

I thank you so much for this assembled congregation of your servants, Father, hungry for you. I pray, God, that you would visit us with fire. I pray that you would speak to us with clarity. I pray that your word would come forth in such a way that we would never forget, as long as we live, the truth of your scripture, the truth of your word.

Visit us, change us today. Let your fire fall. In the name of Jesus, amen. You can be seated. And I want you to turn with me to three passages. Daniel 7, Malachi 3, and Matthew 3. Daniel 7, then Malachi 3, and then Matthew 3.

Fire as the Sign of Revival and Divine Visitation

If you want a title for this morning's message, it is one word. It's a word you often hear around here. It's a word you often hear as we pray for people. The word is fire. One night, after the service was over, I was out in the parking lot.

Some young people came around my car, and they said, would you pray for us? I said, sure, I'd be happy to pray. And we're out there in the parking lot. It's probably past midnight. And I went to pray for them, just like I always do in here.

And I started to yell, fire, fire!

Then it hit me, probably not the smartest thing to do. At 12 .30 at night, outside, I was waiting for the fire engine. Fire! Daniel chapter seven, a vision of the throne of God. Verses nine and 10. As I looked, thrones were set in place, and the Ancient of Days took his seat.

His clothing was as white as snow. The hair of his head was white like wool. His throne was flaming with fire. And its wheels were all ablaze. A river of fire was flowing, coming out from before him. Thousands upon thousands attended him.

10 ,000 times, 10 ,000 stood before him. The court was seated, and the books were open. Malachi chapter three, verse one. See, I will send my messenger who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly, the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple.

The messenger of the covenant whom you desire will come, says the Lord Almighty. But who can endure the day of his coming? Isn't it interesting? They're praying for visitation. They're praying for God to come.

They're praying for the outpouring of the spirit. They're praying for God to come down and touch his people. And the prophet says he's coming. But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears?

For he will be like a refiner's fire, or a launderer's soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver. He will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings and righteousness, and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the Lord as in days gone by, as in former years.

And then a further word of judgment in verse five. And now we go to Matthew chapter three. The words of John the Baptist. As you're turning that last book over from Malachi to Matthew, let me tell you that if you want revival, you must have fire.

If you want revival, you must have divine fire. Many books that are written on the subject of revival have the title fire in them. A recent book dealing with the history of revival around the world is called Revival Fire.

Recent book coming out about revival in South America is called Latin America in Flames. A book I wrote, From Holy Laughter to Holy Fire. That's how people often speak of it. You'll understand why. You'll understand what it means in a little while.

John the Baptist’s Warning About Fire and Judgment

Matthew three, John the Baptist is warning religious hypocrites. Verse 10, the ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

I baptize you with water for repentance, but after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

Three verses, fire, fire, fire. Verse 10, verse 11, verse 12. It is possible that we become so used to biblical terminology and biblical pictures that we don't really stop and think about the picture itself.

We hear about fire, we hear about God being a consuming fire, we hear about the baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire, we hear about God coming as a refiners fire, and we forget that that is frightening imagery.

You're driving down the road and suddenly you see a crowd of people running and cars pulling over. What is it? There's a big fire. Everybody's coming to look at the fire. If you hear of people being burned in a fire, there's hardly anything more terrifying than that.

Sometimes if I hear of someone, there's a terrible fire and someone's been severely burned over 80 of their body, I just think to myself, Lord, if they're saved, take them home because the agony of what's ahead of them, the destructive power of fire, the disfigurement.

Fire, you tell little kids, don't play with fire, there's that fascination, but it's frightening to get near it. Fires can blaze out of control. I remember a few years ago seeing a USA Today headline, there it is in color on the front of the newspaper.

There's a picture of fire coming up behind the beautiful community in Southern California and this fire is just eating everything in its path. It's a devouring fire, it can't be stopped. And there it says, nothing to stop the fire.

All the money in the world can't stop that fire from spreading. And before you know it, those homes that could have taken months and months and months and months to build and be worth a couple million dollars, boom, they're gone, just ashes.

The Holy Fire of God’s Presence

Fire. I make reference to this many times, but we trivialize this. We cheapen the image, we don't understand what it really means. We sing that wonderful song, it's a beautiful song that I love, take me past the outer court through the holy place.

It's that call to come into the holiest of all to see the Lord face to face. And we sing that song and whenever I sing it, even though it says take me in by the blood of the Lamb, and I mention this all the time, but whenever I sing that song, I said, oh God, have mercy on us as we sing it, because we don't know what we're singing.

We get to that one part in our blissful, charismatic worship, Steve always refers to, you know, the holy posture, you know, with the head cocked just right. And there we sing those words with that lovely smile on our faces.

Take the coal, touch my lips, here I stand. Take the coal, touch my lips. Summer's coming, sing that at a few barbecues, friend. Come up with some reality, go over while they're cooking up those steaks and those burgers and that chicken, and go stand there.

Hey, take that coal, touch my lips, here I stand. I'm talking about a coal from the altars of God. Not just some barbecue. Isaiah's standing there overwhelmed and overcome by the presence of God in Isaiah six.

Woe is me, I'm undone, I'm a man of unclean lips. He's completely defiled, no problem. One of the seraphs is gonna come with a coal from the altars of God and touch it to his lips. Oh Lord, call me into prophetic ministry.

Read Isaiah six, Lord, I feel called to pastor instead. Let me tell you, you're gonna do a work for God, he's gonna take the coal and touch it to your lips. I first want you to recognize, though, when we talk about God being a consuming fire, coming as a refiner's fire, it's more than just words.

In fact, it's more intense than literal fire. The temperature gets hotter. The purification, deeper. The judgment, more intense. Fire draws people, fire draws crowds. Leonard Ravenhill always used to say, fire's the most attractive thing in the universe.

You never have to advertise a fire. You never have to advertise a revival. When John Wesley was asked how he drew the crowds, he said, I set myself on fire and people come to watch me burn. I want you to consider that God in the Old and the New Testament reveals himself as a devouring fire, a consuming fire.

I love him as my father. I don't know the meaning of condemnation in my own life. I live carefree, anxiety-free. Plenty of pressures, plenty of burdens, plenty of things to carry, plenty of weights, but I know the love of my father for me.

I know what it is to fall short. I know what it is to repent on my face and say, oh God, I never want to disappoint you in the slightest, with an attitude, with conduct, with word, in any way. We've all been through that.

I know what it is to strive with all my might to please and to live absolutely stretched out, day and night, to do the will of God until I drop, but I know what it is to rest in him. He's my loving, gracious, heavenly father.

He only wants to do good for me. Whatever he puts me through is for his glory and for my good in him. I know his gentleness. I know his kindness. I know him as my shepherd. I know what it is to lie down in green pastures besides still waters.

I also know that that loving father is an all-consuming fire. When he revealed himself to Abram in Genesis 15, you can look up the references later. Genesis 15, 17, God comes and passes between the covenantal pieces of sacrifice, and how does he come?

As a smoking fire pot and a blazing torch. He comes down on Mount Sinai. Exodus, the 19th chapter, how does he come down? Verse 18, as a consuming fire. Exodus 24, 17, the Israelites. It says to the Israelites, the glory of the Lord looked like a consuming fire.

How does he get Moses' attention? In Exodus 3, there it is, a fire burning in a bush. Gets his attention. Throughout the scriptures, you get to Hebrews, the 12th chapter and the 29th verse. The New Testament, what does it say?

For our God is a consuming fire. Quoting the words of Moses in Deuteronomy 4, 24, he's a jealous God, a devouring fire. And the thing that is so interesting about this, when you talk about God as a devouring fire, when you talk about God visiting a church in revival fire, remember, you cannot contain a devouring, consuming fire.

Revival on God’s Terms

And if you wanna have revival, you're gonna have to have it on God's terms and God's way. You can't put it in a little package. You can't turn it on and turn it off. You can't put it in your denomination only or in your church setting only.

You've gotta have the fire sweep through and you never know what's gonna get burned up when the fire falls. Oh, it's one thing to pray for blessing. It's one thing to pray for anointing. It's one thing to pray for souls.

It's one thing to pray for joy. It's one thing to pray for deliverance. It's one thing to pray for healing. And these are all things that God brings and God does in the midst of his people. But just remember, when you're praying for God to pour out his spirit, for God to bring blessing, for God to bring refreshing, you're also praying God send fire.

You say, well, we didn't put that part in when we prayed, but God puts it in when he comes. That is the God who visits his church. Your agenda might just get burned up. Your pride may just get burned up.

Fire burns up flesh. And one sign that revival has not happened is when you see a lot of people strutting around. When you see a lot of superstars, that's an evidence to me that revival fire is not there because when the fire falls, it burns that junk and trash up.

Every one of us should be able to say, God, send your fire in my ministry. Whatever is born of you will endure the flames. And whatever is born of flesh, let it go up now. I'd rather that it goes up now than it goes up when I stand before God in judgment.

I'd rather suffer loss now when I can do something about it than suffer loss then. I'd rather be embarrassed here than be embarrassed there. If you're in television ministry, radio ministry, media ministry, if you're an author, if you have a school, if you have a church, if you're traveling, if you're on the mission field, say, oh God, send your fire.

You say, but that sounds destructive. It is only destructive to that which is built by man. If it's a human kingdom building, let it go up in smoke. If it's done to the exaltation of flesh and blood, let it burn.

God himself is a devouring fire. God's word is like fire. Think of it. Some of you may primarily be called to teach. When I'm in a school setting, I'm primarily in a teaching mode. When I do our day sessions for leaders, it's half teaching, half preaching.

When I go out and travel, it's always in a preaching mode. I understand the different modes. I understand sometimes you're teaching. You say, let's just open up the word, and there are various interpretations of this word, and here's how I think the Lord wants me to bring this out to apply it, and you're teaching.

But let me tell you something. There's gotta be a word burning in your heart no matter who you are, no matter what your calling is. It can't just be some mamby-pamby. I'd like to share some thoughts today.

Are you called? Does the word burn in your heart? Are there things that you would die rather than change? Because it's the word. Jeremiah hears from heaven in Jeremiah 23, a word to the false prophets.

They're borrowing their messages one from another. Everybody's stealing words one from another, but they're not hearing from God. They're not getting a fresh word from heaven. This written word is not coming alive by the Spirit of God, and they're not in tune to continue to have that life flow from God to their own lives.

And God says, look, you got your message, you got your message. He said, but my word, Jeremiah 23, 29. He says, halochod davar 'i ka 'esh, is it my word like fire? Says the Lord. U 'chufatish yifatseh tza, and like a hammer that smashes the rock in pieces.

Jeremiah said, look, it's too much. All these judgment prophecies, I gotta hold back. I'm going against the other prophets. I'm going against the priests. I'm going against the princes. I'm going against my own people.

It's too much, too much resistance. Always negative, negative, negative messages. They won't hear, they won't repent, so they can hear something positive. And he said, I decided I was gonna quit, no more.

I decided I'm not gonna speak in his name anymore. And let me tell you, if you've ever had to bring a brokenhearted message, you've been through that. If you've ever had a warning of judgment, you've been through that.

If you've ever had to get up and preach repentance over and over and over and over, you've been through that. You just wanna shut up. He says, but I couldn't. Why? Because his word was like fire, shut up in my bones.

I tried to hold it back, but I couldn't. I can do no other. Listen, not everyone is called into, quote, prophetic ministry. And most of what we call prophetic ministry, to me, is just peripheral frill stuff.

The person called into prophetic ministry is on fire on the inside. They're consumed. They can do no other but confront a sinning society and a sleeping church. But let me say this, the church as a whole, all the people of God, ministers as a whole, we are called to be a prophetic people.

And I ask you, is God in your heart like a consuming, devouring fire? Is his word in your heart like a consuming, devouring fire? Jeremiah 5, 14, because the people mock, God says, then your words are gonna be like fire and the people, the chaff it consumes.

There should be a wilting, withering effect of the word of God coming out. We see it here night in, night out. We see people come in with resistance, with pride, with opposition. This just happened last week.

I don't know if I got to tell you yet, Steve. There's a kid out there during the service. I happened to notice him because he's sitting next to one of our students. And I see the student just kind of smiling at him as he's standing there, stiff, reserved, wanted nothing to do with God.

He was a pastor's kid, backslidden, on drugs, flirting with Satanism. What was he doing in the revival? That's what makes it revival. God brings him from around the country like that. Unsaved, hostile, stand on line 12 hours to come in and hear a repentance message.

And then they'll say, I don't know what I'm doing here. Then those famous words, I don't know. My parents are in the ministry. My parents are believers. Now we know what you're doing here. They've been praying.

Before the message, Steve says, say this prayer with me. Speak to my heart. And I watch, I never ever open my eyes to look around because I'm praying that God will speak to me. But this one time, I decided to look at this kid as I said the prayer to see if he would pray.

In the beginning, he doesn't pray. And then I just see him kind of gritting his teeth and just mumbling the words. Just like that. And then I lose sight of him at the altar. I can't see him. I don't know, did he come forward?

What happened? Two days later, I talked to the folks that knew him. They said, you wouldn't believe what happened. This kid was hostile. It was just last minute he ended up coming because his brother's coming to the school of ministry in the fall.

And he came, they said, listen, he was up at that altar. He repented, he has been turned around. He desperately wants to get baptized before he goes back. He came in the other night at two in the morning, crying, saying, I'm just so hungry.

He said, everything from my life, the drugs, it's all gone. He said, how do I get filled with God now? That's what I want. The word on fire. Not just human opinions, not just human ideas, but that word comes and it melts resistance.

That word comes and it convicts and it burns and people go out of here and their whole perspective has changed. They've been self-centered. Many of you have figured out a comfortable way to be in ministry through the years.

Comfortable way to kind of have your cake and eat it too. Serve the church, but also have a nice, comfortable lifestyle. And I don't mean that you all have to live on the street or live in poverty. Somehow you get in a meeting where God's moving and the fire comes back.

And you're not looking anymore at how you can save your life. You're looking at how you can see God come down at any cost and any consequence. You're not calculating, well, if I do this, this will happen, if I do this, that will happen.

Fire, Salvation, and Purification

And you're saying, God, I don't care what happens. I just have to have you. Fire. One thing that's interesting though about fire and the word of God, everyone is going to be touched by the fire. Friends, if you escape the fire of hell, you will find the fire of heaven.

Listen to what the word says. We read from Matthew the third chapter, verse 10, the trees that don't bear fruit are thrown into the fire, cut down and thrown into the fire. Verse 12, Jesus is going to burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

You say, that's just judgment. That's just hell fire. That was verse 10. That was verse 12. What about verse 11? He's going to baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. As best as I understand that passage and what's being said, it's not two separate baptisms, the Holy Spirit and fire.

The baptism in the Holy Spirit is a baptism in fire. It's a baptism in purity. It's a baptism in refining. It's a baptism in holy heat for the work of God. And on Pentecost, what happens? Tongues of fire come down.

You want the glory, friend? You're going to have to have the fire. There was a friend of mine, a pastor in New Jersey, who made a comment that stuck with me. He was talking about John chapter 15. And in John 15, Jesus says every branch in him, he's the vine, and every branch in him that doesn't bear fruit, he cuts it off, throws into the fire, cuts it off.

But every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes, cuts it back. And my friend said to me, Mike, in the kingdom, everything gets the knife. Everything gets the knife, either cut off or cut back. Either destructive fire or pruning fire.

In the kingdom, everybody gets the fire. You know what it says in Isaiah 33? It's an amazing passage. Verse 14 of Isaiah 33, the godless, the sinners in Zion are terrified. The hypocrites are terrified.

This is in God's household in Zion. What do they say? Who among us can dwell with the devouring fire? Who can live with everlasting burnings? They're not talking about hell, they're talking about who can live with God.

You want God? There's gonna be purification, friend. One of the first things revival's gonna bring to you, either before it comes or as it comes, is the refiner's fire. As you begin to seek God for revival, God will show you that you're not in the least bit hungry.

God will show you that a thousand other things are more important to you than revival. God will say to you, do you really want revival? Then what about this, and what about this, and what about the fear of man?

And what about leisure, and what about this, and what about that, and what about this pet scent, and what about this, and what about reputation, and what about finances? And he'll strip you bare. You say, well why does he do that?

Because when revival comes, you're gonna lose all that anyway. Jesus said this after warning about hellfire in Mark chapter nine. He says, everyone, everyone will be salted with fire. Every sacrifice will be salted with fire.

God's fire comes down, and he's holy. You can't just talk about send the power without having the power of a holy God. A fresh touch of the spirit means a fresh touch of the holy spirit. Not the happy spirit, but the holy spirit.

Said this before, but you can go to some of our churches and hear some of our messages and think he's the hollow spirit. Or flip on television and watch some of our big preachers and thank God for the good preachers on television and radio that are glorifying Jesus in a way that's pleasing to him.

And it's not our job to just sit and figure out who's who and what's what and judge by outward appearances. Our job is to pray. And if there's something sinned, to speak up and act. You can watch some of our folks and think it's not the holy spirit, but the Hollywood spirit.

Friends, when he comes, he comes as the holy spirit. Can I just say something? Pastor, this is gonna be very deep, very profound, very tough to follow. If they have a problem, maybe you can follow me, Stephen.

Explain it. Okay. Everybody get this. Everybody. It's important. He's very holy. He's very holy. Was that clear? Clear, yeah? He's frighteningly holy. Just think of holy fire. Think of all the junk that the fire burns out.

Think of all the stuff that it purges out. Talk to Aaron about the holiness of the fire of God. Leviticus 9, after eight days of separation for the priesthood, Aaron and his four sons are going to be ordained priests of God most high.

Out of all the people on the earth, only Aaron and his family have been separated. Oh, I'm in the ministry. Oh, I'm called. Oh, God has entrusted me with his work. Friends, there's a responsibility. Aaron and his sons.

They're all prepared. They finish all the preparation. They go through the ceremony of ordination. They have their seven-day waiting period. They finish the ceremony. They present their sacrifices. It's happened.

What a glorious day. Aaron and Moses go out and bless the people, the end of Leviticus 9, and fire comes out of the presence of God. I used to think of fire coming down to consume the sacrifices, but it's literally in Hebrew, fire came out probably from the tabernacle.

Think of it, God's blazing presence in the tabernacle. Fire comes out, shoo, and it eats up the sacrifices offered in obedience and according to God's standard, and the people fall on their faces and shout.

If I were there, I would've fallen on my face and shouted. Same thing that they did in 1 Kings chapter 18 when Elijah gives his proposal. Let the God who answers by fire be God. That should be a prayer every pastor, every leader, every missionary evangelist, every minister of the gospel prays.

Let the God who answers by fire be God. May not be much left after you pray that prayer, but at least you know that God is there. The fire comes down from heaven in 1 Kings 18, eats the sacrifices, devours the wood, licks up the water, eats the rocks and the dirt.

The people all fall face down, the Lord, Yahweh, He is God, Yahweh, He is God. Everybody's caught up back there in Leviticus 9, so exciting, man, this is awesome. There's no break in the Hebrew, the narrative continues, it's all the same day.

His two oldest sons, Nadav and Abihu, may be caught up in the excitement of the moment or perhaps drunk based on later legislation that God gives. Whatever it is, they get so caught up, they offer some unauthorized fire.

Unauthorized incense contrary to God's command. Just moments before the fire comes out of the sanctuary and devours Aaron's sacrifices. Now, boom, moments later, the fire comes out of the sanctuary and devours Aaron's sons.

Look at what God tells Aaron, Leviticus 10th chapter. Listen to the word of explanation. Verse three, I'll just read it. Moses said to Aaron, this is what the Lord spoke of when he said, among those who approach me, I will show myself holy.

Ooh, in the sight of all the people, I will be honored. Leviticus 10th three. Lord, I want you to show yourself holy by consuming your sacrifices, not me. See, God comes in revival. He comes not just to destroy that which is built by flesh and to burn out the sin and the pride and the competition and the envy and the jealousy and the self-will from the church.

He comes not only to burn away the complacency and the lackadaisical attitude and the low standards. He comes not only to burn those things up, but he comes to refine and to purify the righteous and the godly.

Malachi three, he comes as a refiner's fire. He comes as a launderer's soap, a fuller's soap. We go over to India, minister there. Every year, we used to go for about a month each year because of revival, obviously, we can't break away for that time.

But we just took a team of over 50 of our students to India. I broke away for one week, the only time that I'll break away from the revival like that, with the blessing of the other brothers to do it.

The team stayed after there with our missions director. We've been in India, and sometimes, you know, you bring a, if I'm there for a week, I can bring enough changes of clothes to last me a week. But otherwise, you've gotta get them cleaned while you're there.

And there's a group, it was actually a cast at one point. They're called dobis, and they are the ones that clean your clothes. And I'll, you know, and you'll give them stacks like this high, you know, the whole team, all the clothes, and they'll be back there the next morning, maybe it's like $2 for everything.

All folded, all nice. The only problem is you'll notice sometimes that the buttons are broken off of your shirt. Things are just a little damaged. We were in a city called Guntur one time, and out the back window of the place we were staying, I saw the dobis working.

They'll work by some body of water, some river or stream. If they can't have that, they'll have these basins of water. And I watched them clean my clothes, or somebody's clothes, early in the morning till dusk.

They're out there working in the hot sun. And they'd take your clothes, and first they'd put them in the water, and they'd squeeze, and squeeze, and squeeze, and squeeze. And then they'd take those things and beat them on the rock.

Boom. God send revival. God refine me, purify me. All right, boom.

Stretched out, squeezed, and boom, beaten again.

And then hung out to dry in the sun. It's gonna come like a refiner's fire, like a fuller's soap. Listen to what Smith Wigglesworth said. And let me tell you this one thing. Listen to me. God reminded me of this the other night during the service.

Just as surely as God knows how to deliver the godly from temptation, he also knows how to test us. He knew the very thing that would expose Peter's pride and self-confidence. Peter probably could have taken on an army with swords, denied Jesus, I won't deny him.

With the crowd, with Jesus and his disciples, Peter might have been the first one to lay down his life and to go fight for the Lord. But now with Jesus betrayed, now with him being mocked and interrogated, now with all that security gone, now with everybody else fleeing, just a little servant girl.

Weren't you there with him? Intimidated by a little servant girl. God knows how to get at the motives of your heart. And one thing about revival, it brings flesh to the surface. I told you something about the Holy Spirit that was very deep and very profound, that he is very holy.

Let me tell you something equally deep, equally profound. The flesh is very ugly. You'd be amazed what comes to the surface when revival fire falls. Man, maybe attitudes you thought you had buried years ago, no, they were just dormant.

Maybe you hadn't wrestled with the pride issue for so long because you were the head honcho and everybody looked at you. So you just walked in pride without even knowing it. You didn't need the attention because you had the attention.

Now revival fire comes and God says, I want the attention, all this pride rises up. Lord, I had no idea that was there. You're getting up to preach and the spirit speaks to you right in the middle of a message.

Are you performing? Where did that come from? Refiner's fire. Somebody lashes out at you, they're trying to split the church and next thing you know an anger rises and wrong, where did that come from?

Fire, it's bringing it all up to the surface. Steve worked in a refinery, he could tell this firsthand. But you'd put all the silver in the refiner's fire and it looks pretty pure, it looks pretty good until it hits that fire and then a little while later, all the muck, all the junk comes up to the surface to be skimmed away.

God will test your motives, God will test your heart, God will test your hunger, not to hurt you but to help you, not to destroy you but to make you more like Jesus. 1988, I was preparing for ministry in Israel.

It was the 40th anniversary of the state of Israel. It was Shavuot, Pentecost, the Feast of Weeks, it was the largest gathering of Jewish believers in Israel in modern history and just by a providential choice from God, I was asked to bring the keynote message, it shouldn't have been me and God laid it on my heart to fast, do a water fast for three weeks to get ready for the fire to fall and even when we got to Israel, there had been fires that had broken out all over the land, it was just a natural reminder to me that God's fire was gonna fall in that meeting.

People say, well what happened, did the fire fall? You better believe it, it fell right on me. Right on me. Five months of purging and purifying God put me through. Things I had never been through. Since I was first saved when I was 18 and I started to preach, I loved to preach the word.

I could literally be sitting in church right in the front row in the church I was saved in and two minutes before the message, the pastor would say, Mike, you preach. Man, just, and God's spirit would be there.

Now I'd be on my way to preach somewhere and I'd say, oh God, no, I don't have anything to say, what am I gonna do when I get there? And I'd arrive and they'd say, brother, we have brought you in because our church needs a prophetic word from the Lord.

I go, God, I don't even hear God, what do I do, oh no. And I would die a thousand deaths just before getting up to preach. Five months of purifying. I remember one night going to lay hands on people. I may have shared this at a leaders conference before, I don't remember.