Learning To Dwell
Lou Engle (Teaching)
I think the Lord's going to try to teach us to dwell. You know, those guys who did it for 30 years in the Tabernacle of David.
You think they got bored? No, I believe they had skilled musicians with the spirit of prophecy on them. So when they came
under that thing, I am convinced there was no boredom in that house of prayer. The would be caught up and they would
start prophesying, "The Lord said to my Lord, "Sit at My right hand until I make your enemies your footstool."" There was
no veil in that temple.
I believe those days are being restored, and it won't be boring. We're going to be prepared for Heaven, and God doesn't just
suddenly end it and say, "It's Heaven time, now we go to Heaven and start doing it" - we move toward Heaven until Heaven
is us. The Bride makes herself ready for marriage supper of the Lamb. It's not suddenly you get into the marriage supper, you
become ready for the marriage supper. We're not going to Heaven without being prepared for Heaven: the Bride makes herself
ready. I believe also that Christ is not going to rule in the Millenium without us. I believe that 24/7 is rising in the earth because it's what we're going to do in Heaven, and when the earth finally begins to move in full 24/7 day and night worship, it's preparing us for our vocation when we get over to the other side. It's the same way with His rulership. We're being prepared to rule now, and as we rule governments in intercession, and when He comes we're going to be ready to rule with Him.
Psalm 72 - I was stunned by this passage maybe a year or two years ago. This is the only Psalm sung by Solomon. It's about the glory and the universality of the Lord's reign. Nobody can say that this Psalm rightly describes any earthly king.
1 Endow the king with your justice, O God,
the royal son with your righteousness.
5 He will endure [b] as long as
the sun,
as long as
the moon, through all generations.
8 He will rule from sea to
sea
and from
the River [c] to the ends
of the earth. [d]
11 All kings will bow down
to him
and all
nations will serve him.
14 He will rescue them from
oppression and violence,
for
precious is their blood in his sight.
15 Long may he live!
May gold
from Sheba be given him.
May people ever pray for him
and bless
him all day long.
"Prayer shall be made for Him continually." I believe that when Jesus comes to set up His throne on the earth, it will be the same as it is in Heaven. He will not reign without day and night worship and intercession, because that's how He's created it in His administration. He will do on earth as it is in Heaven, and the throne to day is in the surrounding of day and night worship, and when He comes, He will have already prepared day and night worship worship for the King. I believe the Church is going to learn to pray for kings and those in authority because we're preparing to pray for the Son's reign when He comes and rules, and it will be continuous worship and intercession around the throne in Jerusalem. I think He's not coming to rule unless the Church learns to rule with Him, just like He's not coming to take His Bride unless the Bride has made herself ready. So let's do it!!!
Martin Luther King preached here (at the Central Square 1st Baptist church), and this place was the end of the Underground Railroad. The pastor here came on as a pastor to 25 people. There's a church that meets here Sunday, with the wonderful Pastor Wayne. But when he came here, he just began to ask the Lord, "What do I do?", and he began to pray and seek the Lord, and the Lord spoke to him, "This place will be a house of prayer." So he began to pray that this would become a house of prayer. Others began coming to him and speaking to him that this will b a house of prayer. So this dear pastor, and his wife who works in the pro-life movement in this area, and he gathered 11 national and international leaders, and they dedicated this place as the Central Square House of Prayer. It's right in the gap between MIT and Harvard. It's a great place to stand in the gap.
Bob Weiner encouraged Bethany to contact Pastor Wayne about
using the First Baptist Church as the location for the 40 days of
fasting and prayer, and he felt that it was an answer to prayer that
this would take place here.
(Introduces Bethany)
Our dream is to launch a house of prayer that will remain.
(Introduces Chris Berglund)
start of Chirs Berglund's message ---
When Lou was sharing about the atmosphere, I was thinking of a story of a man who went to Heaven, and when he returned to Earth, his eyes were opened, and for 3 months he saw and smelled a light and a fragrance around everyone. If we could rip back the veil a little bit, each of us has a light and a power and a fragrance that flows through us, depending upon the Christ life that's flowing through us or the self life. If the self life flows through us, there's an odor: if it's Christ's life, there's a fragrance. It's a sober thought to think. You can fake out to your neighbor, but you can't fake out the angels and the demons. They know just by looking at you if there's love exuding out of you or if selfishness is exuding out of you, and they don't have to pay much attention to most Christians today because they don't have any power.
When we get to Heaven, the things that we gave our life to, we may not even remember any more. If you gave yourself to lust or pride, you'll be in Heaven wondering, "What is that I gave my life to?" Because those things don't exist there. You know, our rank in Heaven is based on the image of Christ that we have here on earth. Christ was perfectly confident in His identity in His Father. Nothing can tempt a man who knows he's secure in intimacy with the Father. There's no insecurity, because you know the Father has told you He's so well-pleased with you. If we're jealous or envious or insecure or manipulating people, it's because our intimacy with the Father is lacking. It's a hard word isn't it? Because we struggle with those things, we want to have something. But the Father is saying, just develop intimacy. See, it doesn't matter who delivers the word, or who prays the anointed prayer, or who gets the prophetic dream,because it's the body together, it's not seperate, it's together. The enemy wants to divide, but Christ wants to bring us together with Himself and each other. Once you're in that place of unity, you're sitting next to someone, and you know, not just with head knowledge, but heart revelation, that the person next to you is the Bride of Christ. You'd better be nice to that persion next to you, becuase that's the Bride of Christ, and He doesn't tolerate our opinions about our neighbors very well very long, because Jesus died on the cross to for us to come into the image of Christ. He'll judge that pretty quick. Every time I release a thought or opinion or something that's negative, I'm coming against what He died for. He died for a pure, spotless bride, and it's a serious thing. In the Old Testament, in Ecclesiastes and Zacheriah, it talks about how the Lord hates it when you think secret things about the king, when you have thoughts that are hatred towards people. In Ecclesiastes it talks about when you think an evil thought, the birds of the air pick up that thought and they take it other places - it's not a private thing.
Ecclesiastes 10:20
The demonic realm picks up even your thought life, and it releases it other places - it's a pretty amazing thing.
I was taking a walk with the Lord a few months ago, and He spoke to me and said, "Chris, your thought life is your secret history with me."
What God says is as mighty as His acts. It's a done deal. It's just a matter of the manifestation coming to pass. Everything He says comes to pass. He does not lie.
Abraham's covenant with God, where he sacrificed animals in the covenant with God, and watched the animals by night to chase the vultures away from touching the covenant. He won't let the birds of prey touch the covenant.
What we're dong with Boston, is really we chase the vultures away from the covenant. There's something about us when we stand over the covenants Jonathan Edwards and God made at Harvard, or Princeton, or Yale, and we don't let them touch it, because these birds of the air continually come and try to pick away at it, to pick away at justice issues.
Jesus came as a forerunner. He didn't have powers that were available to Him that aren't availble to us. He ran the same race. He didn't say, "Come and admire Me", He said, "Come and follow Me". A lot of people look at Jesus and say, "Well, He was Jesus, HE could do that, He could live above sin, He could turn the water into wine, He could intercede the way He did, sweat drops of blood. A forerunner is someone who leads the way. If an angel came in here today and said, "Come and follow me", we would say, well, we can't because you're different than we are. Jesus comes and says, follow Me, because I am the same as you are. We've never had a sufficient understanding of Christ's humanity and so we've never thought we could be like Him. If you went to India as a millionaire from America, and you live in a five-star hotel, and you spend your days teaching the poor hygeine, but then go back to your five-star hotel at night, they're not going to be given a lot of hope. They'll think, well, you're here teaching us hygiene, but then you go back to your hotel at night and take a shower. But if you go to India and teach them and live among them, and you don't draw on your bank account back in the US, they're given hope, because you came as they are. Jesus didn't come in five-star flesh.
Paul said in Galations, "Don't frustrate the grace of God. It's not your rules and your regulations, it's the relationship with God that fulfills the Law."
Eternal life is not future. It is life that's given to us now that lives inside of us. It's the seed, the very quality of the nature of Christ that's given to us. Christ's life is given to us to live in us now. In that life is given the ability to transcend human limitations. Not only the ability, but the longing in our hearts to transcend human limitations. God doesn't want us to be mere people, He wants us to live His life. When intercessors are facing the Prince of Persia, or whatever demonic realm we're standing against, we don't have a chance in our flesh, do we? But we have a seed in our hearts that has already won at Calvary the battle against the Prince of Persia, and that prince has no chance against Jesus. We can stand before the enemy and not be moved, because we're standing in the new nature of Christ, the victory that's already bought. But our mind has to come in line with this new life, and that's called surrender.
John 17 - We can become one with Him.
David's longing for a drink from the well by the gate in Bethlehem. By pouring out the drink, he elevated the value of that water to a drink offering to the Lord. It's like our lives. We have to be close enough to the greater David to hear His longings, and then we go and do His longings, and we become an offering to the Lord. He pours us out. Some people say, "What a waste for you guys to be gathering at some church and praying and fasting. You could be doing something else." But then is it an offering? Has God spoken? If He has spoken, and He has longed for it, it becomes something of eternal value to Him.
God may whisper to one of us that He's longing for a drink from the covenants He made with Harvard. Who's going to rise up and go get it?
Joab was David's general, and yet he never attained to one of David's mighty men. Why? If you read his life, at times he was one of David's closest allies, and at other times he made decisions based on what was good for him. Yet his brother, Abishai, does attain to be one of the mighty men.
You know what purity of heart is? It's an undivided heart. It's focused, and in Proverbs 22:11 it says, you'll be the king's friend if you have a pure heart and grace on your lips.