John Bevere - God, Where Are You?! (The Wilderness)
- Watch
- Donate
Would you be seated and watch this? You want to know how gold is purified? It’s ground down and thrown into a furnace down by a 2,000-degree fire. As the heat increases, impurities begin to surface that you never saw before; they appear so you can scrape away these impurities. And what are you left with? Fine, pure gold. The trials you face as a human being are the furnace designed to remove the impurities in you so that the only thing that remains is what was placed at the core of us: God’s nature and character. Some of you are in the furnace right now. All you see is the fire, all you feel is the heat. Each day feels like a struggle, and you want to give up. You want to hit the snooze button; you want to give up on that marriage; you want to quit that job and take the easy way out. You weren’t created for easy; you were created for victory. When the fire is raging, keep going. Always remember that on the other side of pain, on the other side of trials, is your promise.
I just want to open up and share with you a little bit of my background. I was raised in church; my parents took me every single weekend, but I had absolutely— and I mean absolutely—no relationship with God. It was quite obvious because in high school and college, people were witnessing to me like crazy. I remember one guy came and shared with me about Jesus for two hours during my freshman year at Purdue University. He told me later, after I got saved, that he literally walked out of my room in tears because I was clueless about what he was saying. But it wasn’t until my sophomore year in my fraternity, where athletics were a big part of my background; I played the USTA circuit in tennis, participated in the Junior Davis Cup, and played for Purdue University.
So, I really didn’t pay much attention to anybody unless they were an athlete. God knew this. One of the best athletes in the state of Indiana happened to live in my fraternity. He came up to my room and shared Campus Crusade’s Four Spiritual Laws with me. I will never forget that night; all of a sudden, I realized that God loved me uniquely. He cared for me deeply. He wanted a relationship with me, and He wanted to make promises to me as any good parent would make to their child and keep them. All this started adding up, and my heart just opened. I remember that night when I received Jesus Christ as my Lord; everything changed. I mean, with girls, athletics, and going to church, everything couldn’t fill the void Jesus filled. But the thing that stood out to me was His presence. That’s what amazed me, something I had never experienced in church before.
I’m not a guy that cries; athletes are trained not to do that, right? Yet, I found myself crying all the time. I remember one time when a storm was forming in the distance; it was ominous, and I started tearing up, thinking, «My dad created all this.» And man, did He answer prayers uniquely and quickly! I remember one time my cassette player— you might want to Google it when you go home; it is prehistoric— broke. I was a broke college student; I didn’t have money to fix my cassette player, I didn’t even have money for hot dogs for a date, you know? I thought, «Jesus, you said lay hands on the sick, and they will recover—my cassette player is sick!» So, I laid hands on it, and, God is my witness, my cassette player started working. It never broke again.
So, I thought, «This is Christianity.» But then, all of a sudden, His presence started seeming a little more elusive. It felt like instead of moving toward the promises He was making me, I was moving away from them. In fact, it seemed like nothing was going right in my life, and the overarching question that kept coming up in my heart was, «God, where are You?» Does anybody know what I’m talking about, or am I just preaching way over people’s heads right now? Have you ever cried out, «God, where are You?» There was a three-step pathway I didn’t understand. How many of you know that God has a destiny for all of us? And really, how can you be a Christian and not understand that, right? Psalm 139 says, «Every day of my life was recorded in a book before a single day of my life began.» The steps of a good man or good woman are ordered of the Lord. Well, God’s got a three-step pathway to get us to our destiny, and that pathway is so fundamental.
The first thing He does is give us a glimpse; He shows us where we’re going. He gives us a promise. With Joseph, it was a couple of dreams; with Jeremiah, it was a word; with David, the seer Prophet came and spoke it to him. I actually have a file folder in my credenza right behind my desk, and in that folder are all the prophetic words that have been given to me that are truly from heaven. There is one dated July 1981, and there were things spoken over me in that prophetic word that I didn’t start fulfilling until I was in my 50s. Crazy, right? God will give you a glimpse. Now, somebody might be sitting there thinking, «Well, wait a minute, John. God hasn’t given me a glimpse like that.» Well, let me get a little tough for a second, okay? The Bible says that God rewards those who diligently seek Him in faith, but it does not say God rewards those who casually seek Him with wonder and doubt. So, you might want to check on your seeking level and we’ll move on from there.
Once He gives you that glimpse through the promise, then the process begins; everybody say «the process.» Now, what’s the process? I affectionately call it the Wilderness or refining. Why is the process important? Because it gives you the character to handle the promise once it’s fulfilled. And once you successfully navigate the process, then what happens? Then comes the promotion, and that is the fulfilled promise.
Peter writes about this in his book, in 1 Peter, chapter 1. The first five verses talk about our inheritance in heaven that is undefiled. I love the apostles because they don’t spend much time talking about heaven. Why? Because we’re in the here and now, right? He talks about it quickly, then he goes on in verse 6 and says, «In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while.» Now, everybody say «a little while.» A little while to God is a little different than a little while to us; if I say to you I’m going to be at your house in a little while, you’re thinking 10 to 15 minutes, right? Peter, in a second letter, says a day with the Lord is a thousand of our years. So, with my engineering mind—I was trained as an engineer—I thought, «Well, if a day with God is a thousand of our years, what’s an hour to God?» I divided it out by 24 and found out that one hour to God is 42.6 years. So, a little while, seven or eight years? That’s 15 minutes, okay?
Aren’t you glad you came all the way out and fought the traffic on Wednesday night just to hear that? Okay, «Even though now, for a little while, if need be…» Let me enlighten you— the need is there; you have been grieved. And the word «grieve» means greatly distressed by various trials. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. I love that you don’t have ingenuine or counterfeit faith; it is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold, though your faith is far more precious than gold. So around that time period that I was talking about, Lisa and I actually lived here in Dallas. We were both attending a very large church here in the Metroplex area—probably one of the best-known churches in America. We had 450 paid staff members at one time. Our church didn’t talk a lot about character, godliness, purity, or holiness; we talked about miracles, faith, believing God, and being successful in life.
So, I was out praying one night. Lisa and I lived in an apartment here in Dallas, and there’s a field by a construction area where no buildings were built yet, and I used to go out there and pray a lot. One late night, I was praying, and God spoke to me so clearly. The Holy Spirit said to me, «Son, I’m going to begin to teach you how to deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Me. I’m going to begin to work a work of holiness in your life.» Now, you must understand that was completely foreign to me. A Catholic boy gets saved, and now he’s at a church that doesn’t talk about these things. I was so excited; I ran back to my apartment and told Lisa, «Babe, babe, God spoke to me!» She asked what He said, and I told her, «He’s going to begin to do a work of holiness in my life. All the excesses in my life are going to go— all the excessive food I eat because food was an idol back then. I ate even when I wasn’t hungry. Oh, the TV I watch, all the sports—He’s going to clean it all up!»
You know what happened? The next three months, I ate twice as much as I normally ate. I watched twice as much TV; I watched twice as much sports. After three months of this, I went back out to the same field; this time it was early in the morning. I said, «God, I don’t understand this. You said You were going to make me holy, and I am like twice as fleshly.» So, the Holy Spirit speaks to me that morning and said, «Well, son, that’s because you’ve been doing it your way. Holiness is not a work of your flesh; it’s a product of My grace. Now I’m going to begin to do it My way.» I had no idea what He was talking about, but over the next six months, I started going through trials like I had never faced before and they were not self-inflicted trials. You know what I mean by self-inflicted trials? That’s when you’re doing stupid things and saying, «I’m under that job.» No, you’re not under a trial; you inflicted it on yourself. We’re not talking about that; we’re talking about I’m doing the right things, and all the wrong things are happening—really wrong things that I’ve never faced before, right?
During the six-month time period, I was a terror to live with. I was like angry at Lisa for the stupidest things; I was irritated by my nine-month-old son, angry with my pastor for not recognizing me, and really upset with my friends for not giving me the sympathy I thought I should get. I mean, it was bad. After six months of this mess, I went back out to that same field and said, «God, where’s all this anger and bitterness coming from? I wasn’t even this angry and bitter before I got saved! What do I bind? What do I cast out?» That’s when the Holy Spirit said, «Son, you don’t cast out flesh; you crucify it.»
I remember I had this 14-karat gold wedding ring on—Lisa gave me this one on our 25th, so it’s different— but this 14-karat yellow gold ring… He said, «Son, your ring— look at your ring. Does it look like pure gold?» I said, «Yeah, it looks like pure gold.» Now, you have to understand 14-karat means 14 parts out of 24 parts is gold, and 10 parts out of 24 parts is impurities: copper, zinc, nickel, and other metals. He said, «Does it look like pure gold?» I said, «Yeah, it looks like pure gold.» He asked, «What happens if you put it in a furnace and heat it up to a couple thousand degrees?» I said, «It liquefies.» He said, «Then what happens?» I said, «The impurities, which are the lighter metals because gold is heavier, come to the surface.» He said, «They appear, right?» I said, «Yeah, they appear.» He said, «They were in there the whole time, weren’t they?» I said, «Yeah.» He said, «But you didn’t see them, did you?» I said, «No.» He said, «You didn’t see them until it went to the furnace. All this anger and bitterness has always been in there, invisible to you but visible to Me. Now I have permitted you to come into the furnace of affliction so you could see these things. Now what you do with them will determine your future. You can keep blaming your pastor, your wife, and your friends, and it will all go right back down, and we’ve got to start this process all over again. Or you can own it, and if you own it and repent of it, I’ll take My ladle and skim it right out of your life.»
You have to understand, God really respects our right to choose. I remember during this time period, you know, Jeremiah makes a statement in chapter 15: «Why is my pain perpetual?» I understand that statement. I lived in pain. I woke up in the morning in pain; I went to the office in pain; I ate lunch in pain; I came home in pain; I lived in pain; I went to bed in pain, and I woke up in pain again. One day it got so bad, I closed the door in my office, and I’ll never forget this. I hung my head in between the corner, and my hands were draping down like this. I said, «God, why do I hurt so bad inside? This pain is unbearable. Why do I hurt so bad?» He said, «Son, because you’re dying. There’s always pain in death. Do you want to know how you’re going to know when you’re dead?» I said, «Yeah, how will I know when I’m dead?» He said, «When you don’t hurt anymore.» Because He said, «Dead people don’t hurt; dead people don’t have any pain.» I said, «God, would You please kill me quickly?»
See, the time period was 1984, 1985, 1986, and you have to understand I had all these promises. Remember I told you about the promise, the process, and the promotion? I had all these promises, and almost all of them stated that I’d preach the gospel all over the world. I thought, «God, it’s 1984. Jesus is coming back in 1988. I have got to get out there and do this.» But you know, if God had allowed me to do that, I would have destroyed a lot of lives. If you look at Joseph, how many of you know Joseph in the Bible? Come on, everybody should know Joseph. He has to be one of my favorite characters in the Old Testament. God gave him these dreams of great leadership and clearly showed him that one day he would be a leader and that his brothers would even be under his leadership, right?
But when Joseph shows up in Genesis 37, the very first verse says he was telling his dad about the bad things his brothers were doing. So, he’s a tattletale. If you go a couple of verses later, like six more verses in, it says he’s bragging about his dreams and talking down to his brothers. So let’s list this out clearly: when Joseph shows up, we have a bragger, a tattletale, and someone who talks down to people. So God puts Joseph into a leadership position, right? You have a very narcissistic, insecure leader; somebody is going to destroy lives. So God says, «We need a little work done in this boy’s life.» God doesn’t author this; He permits it. You have to understand that God knows the end from the beginning because He’s not bound by time, but we are.
I can tell you everything that happened yesterday; I can’t tell you much of what’s going to happen tomorrow unless God shows me, right? Because we’re bound by time. But God knows what those boys are going to do—his brothers. He knows they are going to sell him into slavery. So what do they do? They throw him into a pit. For those of you that don’t know, pit stands for «preachers in training,» by the way. He’s sold as a slave and brought down to the most powerful nation in the world, where he’s sold into one of the officers of the king’s house in Egypt—Potiphar.
We in the Western world do not understand what his brothers did to him. What his brothers did to him was worse than killing him because back in those days, it was everything for a young man to receive his father’s name and inheritance. God appears to Abraham and says, «I’m your reward,» and Abraham’s response is kind of like, «Big deal! I don’t have an heir; nobody’s going to carry my name on.» Back in those days, if you were a slave, you were going to work the rest of your life to build someone else’s name and heritage, their legacy. The woman you marry will build their legacy, and your children will build other people’s legacies. It’s one thing to be born a slave; it is a completely different thing to be born the heir of a very wealthy man and have it all stripped away from you by your own brothers. After six months— a year— all hope of a father’s rescue is gone. My dad thinks I’m dead; he’s been a slave for ten years. Would you think about how long ten years is? Go back ten years—it’s a long time.
Now, God is blessing him because God always blesses, but underneath the surface something much worse is going on. The officer’s wife gets the hots for Joseph. She doesn’t approach him once or twice; the Bible says she approaches him every day. Now, I want you to stop and think about this. This woman is probably dressed in the best, scented in the best, and has a seducing spirit to boot. She’s approaching him every day for sex, okay? Now, you’re not thinking this through. He doesn’t have a connect group, a small group; he doesn’t have podcasts to listen to; he isn’t even looking at Twitter. He’s got no pastor. Yet every day—I love how this guy fears God—he’s like, «No.» A lot of people don’t get the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord is not to be scared of God; how can you be intimate with someone you’re scared of? The fear of the Lord is to be terrified to be away from Him.
Paul tells us about the fear of the Lord when he writes to the Philippian church. This is Paul writing to the Philippians, but it’s really God speaking to us. You know what he said? He said, «As you have always obeyed in my presence, even now, much more obey in my absence; work out your salvation with fear and trembling.» It’s one thing to obey God when you’re in an atmosphere like this; it’s easy. But what about when your child is throwing up all night long, and you have the presentation of your life in front of the board the next morning? Or what about when you’re at work and in your dream job, and somebody gossips about you, completely slanders you, and tells lies about you? You get fired. Are you still going to obey God, or are you going to be a little passive-aggressive like, «Why should I obey You? What have You done for me?»
It’s really quiet in this Presbyterian church right now. But Joseph, every day—think about it! Ten years; you have had your heritage stripped from you. You’re not the bad one—your brothers are! They’re enjoying all the wealth of your great-grandfather Abraham. You’re working to build someone else’s legacy, ten years, and this woman is approaching you. Finally, they are alone in the house one day, right? This woman has a plan; she puts on the right outfit, shows some leg, and has a little cleavage, and she nestles up to him and goes, «I’m yours; nobody’s here.»
And he does exactly what the Word of God says: he flees sexual immorality. She has a hold of his garment. He runs; that robe tears, and now she’s scorned. Her lust turns into hate, and now she accuses him of rape—the very thing he ran from. So, he gets thrown into the dungeon. I just preached in Louisiana a couple of months ago in the largest prison in the United States called Angola in southeast Louisiana with 6,200 inmates; they’re all in there for 20 years to life. Can I tell you that prison was a country club compared to the Middle Eastern dungeons I’ve been in?
Let me tell you—we don’t get what a Middle Eastern dungeon is. Middle Eastern dungeons were usually cisterns that were dried up underground. The average height of a Middle Eastern dungeon, the cistern, is four feet; there’s no sunshine; it’s dank; it’s bedrock. Picture this: there’s no mattress, no pillow, no running water. You throw up, you live in it. Nobody comes in and cleans it up; you don’t have a gym or a basketball goal, you don’t have a television, and you don’t have any sunshine. The Bible says they hurt his feet with fetters; they laid them in chains «until the time that his personal promise came to pass.» The word of the Lord tested him.
Amazing! You know what they do in those dungeons? They give you what’s called the bread of affliction. What’s the bread of affliction? They don’t want you to die; it’s too easy. So, they give you just enough bread and just enough water to keep you alive. Then God brings the greatest test to Joseph. What’s the greatest test? He brings two guys that had dreams—a butler and a baker. You know the story, right? They want an interpretation of their dreams. What’s the test? Listen, can Joseph proclaim to them the faithfulness of God when he has not seen one shred of evidence of it in his own life in ten years?
Think about it. God says you’re going to be a leader and your brothers will be under your leadership. He’s gone from pit to slavery to dungeon. Can he proclaim to them the faithfulness of God when he hasn’t seen any evidence of it in his own life in ten years? Joseph would have been like many of us. «I had dreams last night; leave me alone. Dreams don’t come true. I had a dream once…» If he would have done that, he would have died in the dungeon saying, «God, You’re not faithful and You don’t keep Your promises,» when the reality is God is faithful, and God does keep His promises. He passed the test! He obeys. And every time he obeys God, his life gets worse! Do you understand this? All he does is proclaim the dream and he gets the pit and slavery.
All he does is flee sexual immorality, obeying the Word of God, and he gets the dungeon. Now, he obeys and proclaims the faithfulness of God, and the butler forgets him. He’s in there two more years—two more years living in his waist, his urine—all that stuff, okay? He’s underground in this dungeon, two more years, and then the king has a dream. The butler goes, «Oh my gosh, I forgot that guy.» He gets restored: seven years of plenty, two years of famine. Add up the years! Nineteen years later, here come the brothers. And some of us are upset when our dreams aren’t fulfilled in 18 months!
Do you know what Joseph’s life shows us? It shows us this: no man, no woman, no child, no organization, and no demon can ever get you out of your destiny. Joseph’s brothers said, «We’re going to destroy him; we will kill him, and we’ll see what becomes of his dream.» And God says, «Oh yeah? You’re going to be the very ones that fulfill his dream!» The only one that can get you out of your destiny is you. How does Paul tell us in 1 Corinthians 10? You have Israel; God brings them into their refining in the desert. You know, read your Bible; God only intended them to be there one year. They ended up being there for 40 years, which tells me you can’t shorten your refining time, but you sure can lengthen it.
Good preaching, amen? Thank you so much! There are five things that kept them from their destiny. Isn’t this amazing? Moses pastored a three-million-member church, but only two adults in his entire congregation fulfilled their destiny. Think about that for a few hours! Your life’s work, and only two people fulfilled their destiny. Okay, you’re going past the way; you can go to this guy. There are five things Paul lists that kept them from their destiny: Number one, idolatry; number two, sexual immorality; number three, tempting Christ; number four, lusting after evil things; and number five, complaining.
Whoa, whoa—one day I’m reading this, and I go, «What?» You know, when I was a kid, my sister watched Sesame Street. It wasn’t on when I was a kid; it was on when she was a kid. This is my baby sister, and they had this song. Do you ever remember the song on Sesame Street? One of these things just doesn’t belong here. Do you remember? They’re singing a song, and they get a picture of a car, a picture of a bicycle, a picture of a horse, and a picture of an alligator. Well, come on, you’re bright Texans; which one doesn’t belong? The alligator! You ride the other three; that doesn’t belong.
I’m looking at this, and I’m going, «Complaining has no place in this list! This is wrong!» I’m talking to myself; I’m thinking, «This is wrong. Complaining in a list with idolatry and tempting Christ and sexual immorality?» The Holy Spirit said to me, «Son, complaining is a very serious sin.» I said, «Okay, I don’t get it. I need understanding.» He said, «Son, do you know what complaining is?» I said, «No.»
He said, «Complaining says to Me, 'God, I don’t like what You’re doing in my life, and if I were You, I’d do this completely different.'» It’s an absolute disrespect for My person and My ways. It’s a complete lack of the fear of God. All of a sudden, I saw it! I went to Lisa and said, «Lisa, complaining is serious.»
So there are four things we discipline our kids for: If they hit their brothers, they get disciplined. If they speak disrespectfully, they get disciplined. If they rebel, they get disciplined. If they lie, they get disciplined. I said, «Complaining falls under rebellion.» So we discipline our kids for rebellion. I got to the point where I was so proud of the fact that I didn’t complain! I was on this four-day fast, and the Holy Spirit said, «I just woke up, and the Holy Spirit said, I hear the complaining in your heart.» I didn’t get out of bed; I rolled to my knees and said, «God, forgive me!»
Do you know the prophet Malachi saw the last days? He said there are going to be three kinds of people on the earth: number one, Christians who complain; number two, Christians who fear God; and number three, unbelievers. God said this: «You complainers—these are complaining Christians—you asked, 'When did we ever do that? '» Listen to what God says: «When you complainers said it doesn’t pay to serve God, what did we ever get out of it? See, if Joseph would have said, 'What am I getting out of obeying God? ' he would have stopped.»
This is what a lot of people do. They have this attitude of, «Why should I obey You, God? Every time I obey You, things don’t work out for me! I get fired from my job; I lose my wife; I lose my kids!» Are you here, or are you just listening really well?
Okay. I thought people in the South liked to shout «Amen.» I’m having fun with you. It doesn’t pay to serve God. What do we ever get out of it when we obey Him? When we did what He said, what difference did it make? Oh my gosh! Does that sound familiar? «From now on, we’ll call the unbelievers blessed; for those who do evil, they get rich; and those who dare God to punish them, they don’t suffer any harm.» «Then those whose lives feared God got together and talked it over. God saw what they were doing and listened in. A book was opened in God’s presence, and minutes were taken of the meaning of the names of those who feared God, which were written down. God says, 'They’re Mine—all Mine. They’ll get special treatment. That gets My attention.' When I go into action, I’ll treat them with the same consideration and kindness the parents give to the child who honors them.»
The question is, you have to ask yourself— and be honest—are you going to be a complainer or one who fears God? This is what you need to ask yourself. See, because let me tell you, you feel abandoned! I would imagine Joseph felt a little abandoned by God. Watch this video.
«Everybody has a hero. Mine’s my dad. Ever since Mom died, it’s only been us. He has a way of filling my life with colors that sometimes I don’t understand. He has this advice, but I trust him. What always brought us together was our love for running. One day, I’ll be faster than him, and when I am, I’m gonna win every marathon in the world! Or at least that was my plan. I’m losing my sight real quick.»
«They told me the lowest level that you can see is called interocular melanoma—eye cancer. Unfortunately, you will lose your vision. That was the day my father disappeared.»
«Dad? Run! Champ! I thought he would always be there for me. I guess I was wrong. Dad, where are you? You abandoned me. Where are you, Dad? Where did you go? Do you not love me anymore? Am I still beautiful? Are you no longer proud of me? How could you leave me when I need you the most? Dad? Dad, why did you leave me?»
«I’ve left her to realize she’s more courageous than she ever imagined. I’ve left her to discover how beautiful she is from the inside out. I’ve left her to challenge herself in ways she never considered. I’ve left her to discover how strong she really is.»
«Abby! It’s me! Dad! It’s me, baby. Why did you leave me?»
«I was right here! I was always here! I was always here, baby!»
«No one believes in you more than I do.»
Think about how far you’ve come. Her dad says he gave her what she needed, not what she wanted. You ready, folks? What we’re seeing here is amazing. This is a testament of true love: allowing someone to see their true worth and beauty.
I used to think my dreams were over; I thought I’d never run again. And even though I can’t see my dad, I know he’s guiding me the entire way. Of course, this video doesn’t show that her dad did anything to her; it shows what he did for her.
I want you to think of this video in the light of Job’s words. Job went through something very similar to what Joseph went through. Job made this statement: «Look, I go forward, but He—God—is not there; backward, but I cannot perceive Him. Now look at this: when He works, so He’s working on Job’s path on the left hand, and I cannot behold Him. See that? Dad was working on her behalf so that she could discover how strong she was. When He works on the left hand, I cannot behold Him. When He turns to the right hand, I cannot see Him. But He knows where I’m going.»
Why? He’s the One that planned it. God says, «I’ll never leave you; I’ll never forsake you.» It’s just that Job couldn’t perceive Him, even though God was working on his behalf, just as she couldn’t. «He knows where I’m going, and when He tests me…»
Why do we have a problem with tests? It’s midterms and finals, right? God gave us all what they called PTSD or whatever it is over tests. But can I say this? I just flew over the Atlantic Ocean a few weeks ago, and I’m so glad that pilot passed the test because he and I didn’t end up at the bottom of the ocean!
I mean, think about it. What’s in you? God says, «I brought you into this wilderness to humble you and test you so you could know what’s in your heart.» He knows what’s in your heart; you need to find out what’s in your heart.
Good preaching, amen? Thank you so much! And when He tests me, I will come out pure gold. Do you know that pure gold is actually tender, soft, and pliable? Did you know that 14-karat gold is very hard and brittle? If you look at gold, it’s got a counterpart called brass. Brass looks like pure gold, but brass tarnishes because of the atmosphere.
Do you understand? When you go through testing, you’re no longer tarnished by the atmosphere of the world. Pure gold—if you look at the streets of Heaven, they are the purest gold; you can see right through them like glass. Do you understand? When you come out as pure gold, they don’t see you; they see the treasure in you.
We need to see so much more Jesus in the church right now. What was Job’s response? The same as Joseph; they both did the same thing. Listen to what he said: «For I’ve stayed on God’s paths. I have followed His ways and not turned aside. I have not departed from His commands, but I have treasured His words more than my daily food.»
Do you know the most recent statistics I’ve got? At the recent polls, this is not a Barna; it’s a secular one. I think it was the Gallup poll. Fifteen to twenty-five year-olds right now spend, on average, 53.7 hours a week in front of a screen. How much time do they spend in the Word? They can surely tell you what everybody’s saying on Instagram and Twitter.
See, here’s the deal—the Word of God is food for our spirit, right? So do an experiment. Go four months eating one meal on Sunday; make sure it’s a light one, and then once a month you get a meal on Wednesday night. You can pick first, second, or third or fourth Wednesday night—whatever you want—do this for four months and tell me how much strength you have.
Now here’s the deal. When you stop eating, your body screams. You ever done that? How many have gone on a fast? You go without food for twelve hours? What is your body doing? Come on, talk to me! It’s screaming, «I’m hungry!»
Don’t look at me religious. You know what your spirit does? Just the opposite. The less you feed your spirit, the quieter it gets. The less you eat physical food, the more you want to eat. The less you read the Word of God, the less you want to read it.
Let me just say this—in the early 1980s, miracles were happening like crazy, but I took care of some of the guys that God used to work those miracles. I heard the things that were being said, and I said, «How can this be?» But yet they’d get up on the platform, people getting out of wheelchairs, and I go, «Shut up! The Lord spoke to me!»
In the middle of all of it, God spoke to me and said, «I gave My church a thimble full of My power; let’s see how she’ll handle it.» We didn’t handle it well! He said, «Let’s see if she’ll market it, make money off of it, and use it to draw people to herself.»
So He said, «In the midst of this, I’m going to bring My church into a wilderness. I’m going to develop her character. When she comes out of this wilderness, she’ll walk in the measure of My power and My spirit that the world has never seen.» We’ve been in that wilderness now for over 30 years, and we’re about to come out. God showed me last year that we’re about to come out.
But here’s the great news—are you ready for this? The greatest attack against you comes at the very end of your wilderness. David is in the desert for 12-14 years, but when do his wives get kidnapped? When does everything he has get stolen by the Amalekites? When do the last 600 people that believed in him on the earth want to kill him? Days before his fulfilled promise.
Jesus is in the desert for 40 days being tempted by the enemy, but it’s the last three that occur at the very end. They’re the ones that get written about. God spoke to me and said, «You strengthen My church,» and we released this book faster than any book we’ve ever released—this is the 21st book—because I realized it was a prophetic word for the Body of Christ.
We need you to fulfill your harvest! Moses had two people that fulfilled their destiny, but Joshua was another pastor; only one guy in his congregation of millions did not fulfill his destiny, and that was a guy named Achan. It was all over money. I believe this generation that comes out will have the character to fulfill what we’ve been called to do, and we all need to fulfill what we’ve been called to do. Can you say amen?