TRANSLATION ALERT 160
Digesting the WORD Neal Frisby’s Sermon CD # 1341 11/28/90 (PM)
Well, thank you. God is really wonderful, isn’t He? It’s great. Let’s pray a little bit here. Lord, all of thy people together, what a day, what a day that will be when we see you! All this life’s journey, Lord God, will be worth it all. Oh, if they could only know now in their hearts and believe by faith what it’s going to be like, according to thy Word, every service would be so full of power and happiness, Lord, there’d never be nothing like it.
Oh, but the old flesh and the devil, he’s around to try to pull them down. Now, touch each heart, Lord. Touch each person here tonight, inspiring the heart to win souls, Lord, to testify and to tell the people thou art coming very soon. No matter what their problems are tonight, meet their needs, Lord, every one of them, and let them feel the energy of thy Spirit. I try to back out of the way, Lord, that you can move on in on them. Give the Lord a hand clap!
1.All right; you go ahead and be seated. Are you happy tonight? I am preaching a little bit? All right; we are going to get in here. Okay, are you ready tonight? All right, let’s get into this right here. It’s kind of, I don’t know how long it’s going to be, but I’ve talked several times and got a little bit of messages on things. I might put some of them in some of these shorter messages, but we will have to find out here tonight. And if you don’t need this tonight, you will, because the Lord moved on me and I told you about it, you know, and He told me, and I remember it is quite a little while back. He said that the people, the fault of the people now that are in the churches, I am not talking about just here, but some on the mailing list. They will know that it’s true when they visit the churches and they know it’s true too, that the joy of the Lord is withering away and the faith is kind of withering away with it. It’s becoming dormant in them. And then when the people get in that condition, they get in a rut, and they have to get out of that rut. How many of you believe that? And anymore, when they have revivals across the land, it doesn’t seem to do what it used to do. See, things are kind of seeding in, people are finding their positions kind of like, but we will find out in the Bible how we can get out of that rut and stay out of it. Amen. And more often than one, you get into that and God will really bless you. And you listen to it real close here. You know, this time of the year is supposed to be a happy season, but even at Christmas, people can’t get too many of them to be happy anymore, they’ve had so many of them. You know, and a lot of times around when people get paid and support, they can get happy at that time. But then, you know, when they have to face it by faith and they have to believe the Lord when things are confronting them and they have to believe the Lord; maybe when somebody has said something against them. And then, see, that shows how much power and faith that they really have. And then they just kind of lose their joy faster than they can get it. How many of you believe that? And listen to this right here.
2.Now, the Christian, the assets in the life of a Christian that the world is supposed to take notice of and that people are supposed to watch is a Christian’s life of peace and joy and happiness and believing that Jesus has given eternal life. Now, that is supposed to be in every Christian’s life and satan is doing the best he can now to steal that away from you. And the Lord said He would try to do that. See, you ask any singer that’s a good singer and they know that if they are not up to par inside like they should be, with the joy they need, it makes it harder. They have to put forth a harder effort. And even when they have to sing songs that have a little blues to it or so forth like that they still must have something inside them bubbling or it makes it harder for them. But the joy in the Bible is always connected to singing too, you know. And so the thing is this, you can get happy in your singing songs, stay happy there and so forth.
3.Now, we are going to get into this and because the Lord spoke that to me, I kept waiting on it and so forth like that, Digesting the Word, how to eat the Word, how to digest that Word. And let’s get down why some people cannot hold on to what they get, and we will see where we are going in here. Now, I know it’s not easy in the world that we live in to keep a bubbling spirit. But we must use our faith and not let satan out trick us because we are the elect of God, the believer of God, and we must stand up against those evil forces. And young people, it’s not easy and satan will try to drag you down, but your life is one of joy. Don’t let the devil steal it from you. You will have a miserable life, being a Christian or so forth like that. Did you know the church is not following the instructions that the Lord gave? If they would follow those instructions, Jesus, He is coming for a bride, He said. He is the bridegroom. Can you imagine Him coming for an unhappy bride, saith the Lord? Now, if you are going to marry somebody and they turn out that they are not happy at all about it, it’s going to make it a hard one, isn’t it? You see? So the Lord says, “You ought to be rejoicing. You will rejoice if you believe my Word.” It’s all tied to your faith and old satan, boy, you know, there’s a satan just as well as there’s a Lord Jesus because he’s the one that puts up that block in there. You’ve got to outsmart him. Oh, I’ll tell you, the little foxes eat the vine and so forth like that in the Christian life.
- Digesting the Word, let’s read something here and we’ll get on down in here. And so we are up against those forces there and so forth, you know, preachers, they never liked to preach real powerful good messages and have to be confronted back again by Lucifer, trying to steal it from the people. And he will do it to try to discourage the ministers. You know, a long time ago when I was traveling and I’d have revivals and, and because we had such instant miracles, sometimes it made great joy in the audience and made some of the preachers that didn’t know how to preach quite that good or didn’t know how to work those miracles. I wasn’t in ministry too long, but it seemed like things were working. And if they [ministers] get a chance to write me a note or a letter or get in the morning service where they can talk to me, they used to tell me, “Brother, you know, you just preach. I preach to these people,” and they said, “You know, they get so discouraged] they discourage me.” And I said, “Well, you can’t, don’t look at the people just keep looking at God.” If you are going to stay, if you’re going to stay in a ministry, you just got to…see, that’s satan wanting you out, he is going to get you out of there pretty soon. You got to look to the Lord Jesus, see? And each one in that audience, if he can discourage you, take away that joy and that merriment, pretty soon you’ll be back out on the streets, trying to get some from a bottle or a pill over there. Something will have to fill that void, God said. You keep the Lord Jesus in there, and that void of joy, it won’t be filled up for something out in the streets and, so forth like that.
5.Now listen to this here, the Word of God, how do we digest the Word of God? Listen to this in Jeremiah 15:16. Do you know when rolls appear in the bible, sometimes, especially Revelation chapter 10:11, where He first started coming in to bring this, that it was, oh, it was sweet, you know, them rolls, they get things stirred up? But there was a bitter side to that thing in there, and judgment was coming.
Another place in the Bible, they ate it, it was just kind of sweet, and Ezekiel ate one of them, and different places it would turn to judgment. But here is the Word of God. Those were called some kind of scrolls that God, rolls that were given them, you know, that He was symbolizing things and so forth. You can read in Revelation 10:1, I believe it’s one of them. That’s right. But this is the word of God right here, and He is going to tell us something. Those are symbolized in some things that God wants to do in those other things too. Now this right here, “Thy words were found.” Oh, he found the Word. See, he found those words. And I did eat them. Boy, now watch, he didn’t just bristle over them and, and say, “I don’t understand, I don’t understand that.” You will if you stay with it, and you keep listening to what God has to give you. And he said here, “And I did eat them, and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart.” Now, why, what was the difference here, Jeremiah 15:16? The words that he found, and he ate them, in other words, he let them come into his mind, down into his heart, down into his soul, and he digested them. Now, you know, when you, he likened it to food. It’s the other place, David said thy word, thy law, and thy precepts said, oh, they are like honey in my mouth. They learned how to use the power of God, and it worked for them too, you see. You got to put forth an effort. If you don’t put forth an effort, and keep drinking some water, you’re going to dry up and die and dehydrate. That’s exactly right. And if you don’t drink or take in the Word of God, the same thing, you are going to dry up, and you’re going to lose your joy.
6.Oh, the prophet Joel said, “Oh my, my, the bugs have been on the vine, and they’ve chewed away the word of God,” he said, and he lamented out there, and he said, look at this! He said, the joy is withering away from the sons of God. He said, it’s going to go down, and it did, boy, and a great judgment, and droughts, and everything came upon them, and even at the end of the world that he was talking about there. What a pitiful condition, he said, that they got into! Because the joy began to wither, and when it did, the rest of the roots began to go, and they lost their faith. The next thing you know, there’s just a dead tree out in there, plucked up twice by the roots, and so forth like that. And he said, oh, the joy at eating it, rejoicing in my heart (Jeremiah 15:16). Now, when, like food, 75, or 60, or 75 percent of the people at one time in life or 50 percent or more, they eat wrong. Now, they shovel it all down, and they are busy, and they are gone, see, and the next thing you know, they got, man, their stomach hurts maybe. If you shove, it doesn’t do you much good that way. If you chew slowly, all the experts, any experts that know about health, and let your saliva, and you chew it slowly, and you get the content out, and you keep on doing that, you see, take the time, and then it digests just right. And then the body is full of health, see, and it comes out there. Well, Jeremiah found them, and he just didn’t read, open real quick and real fast, but he digested it little by little.
7.When you get the Word of God, read it little by little, digest the Word of God. These messages are the same way, be alert and listen, and as you chew on the Word of God, it will bring satisfaction. Then you will begin to get joy. You will rejoice in your heart. People today, the Word of God is secondary. They just throw it around like that. They don’t try to get in there and let the thing soak in, and let it come through, and digest through their system. If they do, it will bring strength. It will bring health. It will bring joy. It will bring peace. That’s right. It will bring friends. You know, I’ve seen some people so happy, and you’ve seen it. Today, it’s one of the hardest times in this world. It looks like when you see what’s going on from the letters, and from the nation, and the preachers, and so forth like that, and it used to be that there’s such happiness and joy even without miracles, you know, way back. Now they just let the devil slip in there, and just take that joy away from them. And you know, some people can get so happy with the joy of God that people actually follow them to church! How many of you believe that? I’ve heard of it and seen it myself. The devil has got in here, where we live at today, and where he’s at, and he’s slipped in here, and all this prosperity, God couldn’t do nothing with people. Israel, every time they got prosperity, they almost made God weep, and He wanted to bless them so badly, like some child that He had. And every time they turned to another god, every time, they got unhappy with Him. They were unhappy with the Lord. How many of you believe that? And they would get unhappy with Him, and so forth like that. When prosperity came, you see, and it did, the people, they just lost their joy. Somehow they put material things ahead of the Lord. They got everything ahead of the Lord, and they forgot all about God, and then pretty soon their joy was gone, pretty soon their faith was gone, and pretty soon they weren’t even in church, or they won’t even want to listen to God. How many of you believe that? Exactly right! “Thy words were found, and I did eat them, and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart.” Chew on the Word of God. See, get these scrolls and read them and the Bible, daily, and slowly. Don’t gulp it down in one way, and run over it fast, you are going to lose the nourishment of that word. So Jeremiah showed us how to do it. Boy, piece by piece, little by little, he chewed on that Word of God, and the Lord, all through the Bible, speaks about it. David also, and all the rest of them, about that Word of God in there.
8.And I tell you right now, sometimes because prosperity causes all of this, it’s taken away many times for a gap of time or a time, and on the people, it did Israel, and it’s liable to follow suit in this nation, too. Then finally, they will be given over just to riotous living, and big prosperity return after some crises, you know, and they will go on off up in there, and it will be the biggest mess you ever seen, like, like the days of Lot, when the building, the buying, and all of that will return. But then it will return under a dangerous zone, and a mark that will be given as a terrible thing that’s going to come in there, and so forth. And so then, you see, gossip, sometimes people think somebody says something, it kills them. They can’t have no joy there, and it just kills them, and it is bad, it’s hard. The age that we live in, I’m not trying to say all this is going to be as easy, is it? I’m not, I can’t present it like that, but I can present it that you are more than a conqueror. Don’t you let that mini-mouthed devil come in now and steal what God has planted in your heart from somebody that’s fasted, and sought God with all of their heart, no matter who they are, that places it there. Get behind the ministers that are true. Get behind the ones that believe in God. That’s what He calls you to do, to really get in there and help, because satan, if somebody is true, and somebody is bringing that Word of God with all the power, that God can put on that thing; you know that satanic forces will try to discourage in every manner to get a hold of the people. And no matter how, we will try to get behind, see, and get happy in the Lord. Joel saw the bugs eating on them vines, joy got out of the house of God, and he lamented, and boy, he said, they will weep and howl now. Boy, he said, it’s going to be a tough day! And you lose your joy, you lose your salvation, your faith is gone, too. Everything is gone in there, and if you have any divine love, it will wither away also, it will go, too.
9.I will tell you, you got to hold it. Jesus’ last words that He gave, “My joy, I leave with you.” Now, you know what kind of joy that is. My joy, the eternal God’s joy. He had to go to the cross, do all that He did. He was rejected by His people. He was rejected by those that were created by Him, and all of that, and yet He fulfilled His mission. And He rejoiced, amen, at the final thing, and He said in the end He will rejoice with His people forevermore. That’s really something. You’ve got, as a Christian, you know, all of this out in the Word, such a valuable that God gave you! You know, the other night, I was telling you there won’t be two of you. He won’t make no mistake and leave you and take one that looks like you, because it’s so set, even in the turnings of Mazzaroth and all of that, it is so set that He knows you, and you’re so valuable that no one’s like that, you see, no matter what. He’s done that for you, and you have eternal life. And all this joy, nothing, nothing can buy it, nothing, see. And the people let the old human nature come in there, and old satan in there, and just steal their faith and just tear them all down. You’ve got to really stay in here, see, and eat the Word of God, so don’t let the gossip kill you. Try to find a way out of that, and I know that sometimes it can get hard too, because sometimes it’s your friends, see, and they will come upon you there and so forth like that. And so, you know, the Bible said this, the age we live in, and the type of perilous dangerous times, the inflationary conditions, and things and debt people get in, it will causes a great worry, it brings pressure upon the people, but the Lord said to you, “Don’t let it steal your joy, because my people will do exploits at that time.” He will pull you out and push you up on a solid Rock. He will help you in every way, so digest the Word of God, and you will be satisfied with happiness and peace. And all over America, if they follow the instructions of the Word of God, it would be something. Oh, my strength, the joy of the Lord is my strength, it said in the Bible. There are so many scriptures I found in this, how to eat the Word of God. That is just like you are supposed to eat your food and you know what? Some people say, “Well, if I don’t eat at least one meal a day, I’d just die.” Well, if you don’t read the Word of God at least one day, you will probably do the same thing spiritually. How many of you believe that? But, God is merciful, even those that don’t get to the Word of God like they should. He is powerful, strong, like this anointing, and powerful to raise them back into a condition and everything; you ought to be more than happy to read His Word, amen!
10.Now Isaiah 35:2, “It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice, even with joy and singing.” Oh, He likes it! “The glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, and the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God.” It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice, even with joy and singing. How many of you believe that? You know, if you knew, in your heart, like you’re supposed to, and believe in your heart, you couldn’t help but to be happy, more happier than Christmas, little children, can ever make you. Oh, yes, if you really believe, all of you, not anything in this world could make you…is it a fact that some are doubting that God has called them? Some are doubting that they are going to make it in, that steals your joy. Why, if you keep listening to that, you are going to be in trouble, and your joy will go. But if you believe you are going to make it, and you believe that God has chosen you, and no matter what, you are going to set to the flint, you are going to hold on to that power. No matter which way the world goes, no matter which way religion goes, it doesn’t matter, you hold right on there, and you keep that in your heart, He will find a way, He will get you on up there! Believe in your heart, you are going to make it in there, because it’s worth it all, I’ll tell you right now. And He says there, the joy, and Habakkuk 3:18, “Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.” All of those prophets, from the very beginning, no matter how much trouble, no matter how many times they wanted to kill them, no matter how many times they cursed them out, called them all kinds of things, called them crazy, they called them everything that they could call them. No matter what, it seemed that old prophet, it seemed that he could take out on him, and all sixty-six of those that they have in there, the prophets, or how many they’ve got in there, in the bible, that wrote the bible that is in there, every one of them made it in there. How many of you believe that? Only one was Judas at that time, wasn’t writer of any of the bible books or anything like that, that he got into sorrow and committed suicide at that time, and all kinds of things like that that got a hold of him there. But all of those writers, that Old Testament coming up through there, every one of them, every one of them made it, because you know what? No matter what the devil did to them and done much more than he is doing to anybody in this church at the latter times now, only the tribulation group will ever face what those men faced in there, and the twelve disciples, knowing that one day they were going to face martyrdom. They knew that they were going to face the Roman Empire, or the Jewish, or what, the council, and so forth, yet every one of them, you notice from the beginning, made it. Every one of those made it, and you have to be, you have to be solid in your heart, you have to believe, and keep your joy in the Lord, you will make it like every prophet made it in there. How many of you believe that?
11.Go back! No matter what happened, they had no excuses, they went on. They made it, because they believed in God. We don’t see one failure; it’s the ones that wrote those books in there. Now, let’s read this over here. I will rejoice in that. Psalms 89:15, “Blessed are the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance.” What made it? How will they walk into the light and the countenance of the Lord looking over them and watching them? Those that walk in the joy of the Lord, He said, the countenance of God will look upon them, for He loves joyful people. How many of you believe that? That does something to them. He said, “Now they are believing in their hearts there. They are happy with this great thing that I’ve done for them. They are rejoicing in my Word and not in lucifer or in the carnal flesh or what they’re doing out here in the world. They are rejoicing now that they have eternal life.” Jesus, they came to Him and said, “Lord, we can put these devils on fire. We can cast these devils out, give us power.” And the Lord said to them, “Something is greater than that.” He said, “Don’t rejoice that you’re able to cast them devils out,” but He said, “Rejoice that your names are written up there”. He said, rejoice. It’s all right to get happy and cast the devil out, but He said, the greatest joy in this world is your names are written up there. That’s right. And that goes to tell us a little something about people who can cast devils out; they are generally going to make it there. How many of you believe that? Amen. He was talking about that right in connection with that right there. So He said, “blessed is the people that know the joyful sound.” Know it, see, they’ve digested it, they know it. Oh, they shall walk in the light of the counsel of the Lord. Now, in Psalms 51:12, David one time, with all the problems that he’d run into in warfare and the people of Israel, every once in a while, the devil would try to get him down. And he had a lot on his shoulders, and he was burdened with a lot of things. If it wasn’t one thing, it was another thing coming at him from some army or some war, some giant or something was after him, somebody, the people, something was going on. See, sometimes his own family, his sons would turn on him and so forth like that. David went up against everything. And sometimes he’d kind of let it get him, and he’d kind of go down a little bit. And here’s what he says, he didn’t lose it. Now watch this, and that’s what the church needs too, Psalm 51:12, across the country, the whole church, not just this, I am not talking about one person or two, it’s just the whole thing together. Psalm 51:12, he said, “Restore the joy of my salvation.” He had gotten to a point, he let things and business get him down, but he asked God to restore that joy. He had the salvation, he believed it, but the joy was gone, and he knew it wasn’t long until it would go from him there. So he said, “Restore the joy of my salvation.”
- And every one of you here tonight, when you get down like that and satan seems to put more on you than you can bear, you pray, you digest the Word of God like Jeremiah said, and joy will return into your heart, and God will help you. In this whole life, if you have true spiritual joy to help you along this life, there’s nothing in this world that you can buy that can beat that to give you more joy. How many of you know that? Whatever you buy in this world can be gone by a few days, but the joy of the Lord remains. He said, “That your joy be full, I leave it to you. You do what you want to do with what I’ve left with you.” And so, right there, one time, the people, they thought, David, you know, and he looked like he got out of hand. I wish that people could go to church and get happy that way, and people would leave happy that way, and never mind about what people say or do, it doesn’t matter but just get happy and see how healthy and how better that you get. You know, if you eat your food right, they claim, and eat properly, you’re a better joyful person, a happy person if you get the right kind of things out of it. Same as the Word of God, if you do it right, if you just stay with it like Jeremiah said it, eat the Word of God, digesting it, and so forth like that, it will spring forth in health and joy, and you will be a much better spiritual Christian in the Lord. How many of you believe that? He was talking about the physical, and he was lining up the spiritual the same way. Why, you wouldn’t dare think about not eating for three or four days unless you were on a fast or something like that, neither let the Word of God or some message or sermon that God has given you go by. That’s what Jeremiah was trying to get in there, like that.
13.So one time, David heard the Ark of the Lord was coming, and he got so happy, he didn’t know what to do with himself. He no longer thought about himself being a king on this earth. He didn’t think anything about the people or some of those other ones he was married to or whatever, he didn’t care about that. He didn’t care about the big shots around there. He didn’t care about anything for a minute. Man, the Lord looked down on that guy, and man, they said, “Man, he’s gone crazy sure enough now.” And David got out there to dance in the pull of that Ark. It brought such joy in his heart because it meant something to him. That Word was in his heart, and when he saw that, the deep called the deep. He knew the miracles that Moses and Elijah, all of them, everything that they had, he knew all the miracles of the past were attached to that little Ark. And when he saw that coming, it was like God Himself, boy, confirming him again. Boy, it made him so happy that the real house of God, he could see it coming, that little old thing there! And you know what? The bible said he got so happy he tore off everything. He was going to bring attention to that one way or the other and the happiness that he was in and everything like that, oh my! And so when they have God in such a way, and you get God in such a way, and the joy of the Lord moves on you, and you let the joy of the Lord move on you, that’s really something when it’s real. It was real to him. And God admonished him for that. Finally, some of the things that David said, God just said He knew it in the beginning before He even put him there. But the Lord said, “That man, I will sit on his throne, and none other but his. I will sit there on his throne.” He had something, you better go check it out in there. Yeah, he had a few mistakes, but there’s something about it in the Old Testament there. He had such a heart on him with faith and so forth like that. One thing is those praises. Another thing, he meant what he said, he [David] believed in what He said. Oh, how God said, man, He said, “You are a man after my own heart, David. Well, some of the things probably David did is not even written in the Bible, but the fact is this, he was happy. He got happy, man. That was real happiness. So God looked at that, and the people, you know, they probably thought this, other times, they thought that about him, but God was watching it all. And the Lord put it all together, and he seemed to come up on top. How many of you believe that?
14.All right, now, let’s go on. There are great prophets in that bible besides him. Why, there are great ones, but I am trying to tell you, even though David, you know, wasn’t perfect, he knew how to get on in there, boy and he did! He was after God’s heart and he got Him. Now, Acts 20:24, “That I might finish my course with joy.” Paul said, “I don’t want to finish my course in sadness. I don’t want to finish my course, you know, discouraged. I don’t want to finish it like I’ve seen.” But he said, “I want to finish my course with joy even if I have to go before Nero, and I know it’s the last time that I’ll go there. I have a crown, I know that.” How many of you believe that? I believe it with all my heart. Romans 14:17, the kingdom of God is joy, the bible says not meat and drink, but the kingdom of God is the power of the Holy Spirit and joy. Then it turns around and says the kingdom of God is joy. Did you know that? The devil will make you grouchy. The devil will just get a hold of you. You think you haven’t got a friend in the world. You think that everything is not working right, there’s nobody like you. There’s a lot of people like you, satan’s got a lot of them out there and he will get you to think in that way. Well, I’ll tell you what, if you love my ministry and believe in me, you’ve got a friend. How in the world can you get sour? You’ve got a friend. I love anybody. And the Lord even has love for the sinners, you know, out there. I have to have that, but a deep love for those that love this Word of God. And they think, “Well, you know, he’s doing the best he can.” “I’m already behind him. I get behind him.” My lands, you’ve got a friend!
15.You don’t care about people; it doesn’t make any difference about that. Keep your mind on the Word of God there. I don’t care out there what happens, people ought to come to the house of God with joy in the heart and to get more from God. They come with some kind of peace and contentment and rest in their heart and there’s no greater testimony than a joy that comes from the heart. How many of you believe that? Oh, my, that’s really great! There’s seven or eight things that the Lord has, seven or eight specific things that you can preach on. Tonight is joy. Sometimes it’s divine love. Sometimes that’s to do with peace and rest, but all of that works together in there. So we’ve got that in Psalm 16:11. “In thy presence,” and the only place that he ever found it, “In thy presence,” he said, “is the fullness of joy.” In thy presence, he had been in the presence of other kings, he’d been in the presence of great men and prophets. He’d been in the presence of his people, he’d been in the presence of his relatives, he’d been in the presence of his family. He’d been in the presence of evil, giants, everywhere, he’d been everywhere, but he said, right here, “In thy presence is the fullness of joy.” There’s the presence of the Lord and there is your joy! So, if you allow the presence of the Lord, if you eat the Word of God and digest it properly then the presence of the Lord will come out like light. And the light of His countenance will be upon those that are full of joy. How many of you believe that? How great the Lord is! Oh my, it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice even with joy and singing. How great and powerful the Lord is! You know sometimes we have the joy that Joel saw at the end of the age and predicted all that was going to come even to atomic war and all of that. It’s as if the church, there’s not enough joy. I just wonder, you know, if the church is getting enough of fruit. Sometimes they claim that if people eat properly and fruit, they have more joy, amen. I don’t know, but they claim all of that and Jesus was talking about different things. Maybe what the church needs is some of the fruits of the Spirit to make it happy, maybe the spiritual fruits have dried up.
16.And they are stuck with a few gifts around there. Amen. And they hear the word of God, but then the fruits of the spirit, the most valuable over all gifts, the most valuable, you know, peace, love, joy, happiness. See that joy is in that. Fruits of the Spirit you see, and possibly the church don’t have enough of the fruit of the spirit. To have the joy, there’s where it’s at, in the fruits of the spirit. May the gifts and the fruits and the Word of God, may all of it work together, and that’s why we are going to get out of here. Can you say amen? The bible said. The Word, your faith in the Word and the fruits and the gifts of God, work like a wheel within a wheel until we meet the Perfect One. That’s exactly right. So at the end of the age, Thy Word, Thy Word and all over the bible, see. How to digest the Word of God is the name of the sermon. Digesting the Word of God, thy words were found, now he didn’t have them at that time, but he found [them], and I will eat them. And thy word was unto me the joy and the rejoicing of my heart. Hallelujah! And you know what? The Lord had told him [Jeremiah] how that the nations and how that the people would go up against him. He was a prophet, not only to that nation, but to all nations, God said so. I foreknew thee in your mother’s womb. Foreknew you before you ever come. He told him they will set their faces against you hard, Jeremiah. They will try to do everything they can to discourage you, they will try to kill you, He told him. The Lord told him, He told him all of that. And even knowing that, Jeremiah read this Word and said, I rejoice. Amen. He said and thy word was unto me after I ate it, the joy and the rejoicing of my heart. Knowing at any minute, they could come in and beat him or do anything they wanted to do and tried to do to him. And they locked him up in jail and prison, threw him in pits and yet, that prophet, he had that joy and that heart in there. Boy, he had it in there! And the Lord won’t ask you to do something you cannot do. Satan I tell you, you cannot, satan can’t do nothing. That’s all he knows. That’s all he ever knows, “you can’t get healed, you can’t get salvation, you can’t get this, you can’t go to heaven.” Why oh yes, we can, we are going to heaven! How many of you believe that? That’s exactly right. You know, I was praying for an individual. At least they told the truth about how it got into the heart and blocked the spirit and power of God, the other night in the prayer line, how those things can get in there. But digesting the Word, you get the Word of God in there and that digesting [digested] Word will run that poison out of there. How many of you believe that? Amen. That’s right.
17.I know sometimes it’s hard. You know the world that we live in. Sometimes satan tries to make it look impossible, but there’s been hard times in the past, much harder than ours and they shouted with joy. Jehoshaphat one time, he had to face a big army. It looked like they were going down. So, he told the people to just start singing and rejoicing, start singing and rejoicing. Do you know what? Before they knew it, they had won the victory completely, lock, stock, and barrel. How many of you believe that? Amen. So, there is victory and power in that. Take the instructions of the Lord. Don’t let any of this get in your way and you keep the Lord there. Blessed are the people [that know the joyful sound]. That joy in the Lord, there is something to it and you can do it. And every time satan tries to steal your salvation and your salvation goes down, you keep all this working together and then you recall about the words of God, what He said in the bible. He does love a happy people.
- In fact, there will be great tests, great crises, great confrontations. I cannot tell you a lie, great persecution will come upon this earth just before the elect gets out of here but at the same time, He’s got a plan. He’s got something going that He is going to make those people happy, just before He comes. You will be confronted now, see, it will try the whole world, he’s going to try the whole world including the elect at the very end of the age and that’s in the book of Revelation 3. But you are going to make it, you are going to make it through there. And so, at the end, He is going to have His way, the way of that Holy Spirit because He is coming for a happy people, He said. He is coming for those that love Him and are looking for him and He is coming for those that believe so strongly in their heart. He is going to have a happy bride elect because they know He is the One they want. How many of you believe that? Amen. You could get no better, no matter what. than your great Messiah, the Living God. That’s right.
19.I want you to rise to your feet. If you want God to rejoice and smile, like David said, His countenance smiles over the people that are happy and joyful. No matter how hard it is, you are going to win. Can you say amen? Did you know, people on my mailing list everywhere that get this? Lately I’ve been saying something about those people that are behind me in such a way too and they know I am telling the truth. Some of those don’t have a spiritual church. They don’t have anywhere to go. They don’t know of a church that really has power and so forth. And when they get this message, you watch the letters that will return to me, how thankful they are to hear it. Because this is their church, this is what they hear and what they read. And they are going to get happy; I can tell you. You people have it here and sometimes you don’t take advantage of what God’s got, such power that runs back and forth in this auditorium. I mean, He is going to prepare an army. He is going to really put the full armor on you. How many of you believe that? Can you come down here and shout the victory tonight? Okay, it’s time for me to quit. And don’t forget, be here Saturday and Sunday too. Come on down, I am going to pray a mass prayer for you. Come on down! Thank you Jesus. Thank you Jesus. Oh my! Thank you Jesus. Oh my! Jesus, Heart of joy. Oh, Jesus, make them happy Lord! Get happy, happy in the Spirit of God! Thank you, Jesus! Amen.