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Don Crum & Bill Byers

Heartland Church Weekly Message

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  1. Hi. This is Dave Olson.

  2. I'm the senior leader of Hartman church located in Ankeny Iowa.

  3. I hope the following message, challenges and courage's and

  4. ultimately changes you. Thanks for joining us.

  5. Good morning. What a great day it is to be in

  6. the presence of the Lord. And I appreciate so much about

  7. this house in the short time I've been here just remarkable

  8. and you know, when I feel the audience is right, and hungry, I

  9. just open up. So I told you a lot of stuff

  10. yesterday and, you know, I had a guy come up to me one day in a

  11. conference down in Texas and he said, dr.

  12. Crumb, you won't remember me, but I was in one of your

  13. meetings, 25 years ago, and you told a lot of stories Out of

  14. Africa and your time and tenure in in West Africa and he said,

  15. you told a few of those stories again tonight, 25 years later

  16. and he says, I know you tell the truth and I looked at him, I

  17. said well, how could, you know he said?

  18. Because the details were exactly, like they were 25 years

  19. ago and he said, I know, Because nobody can remember how they

  20. tell an embellishment or a lie and say it again the same way,

  21. 25 years later. So to me, I took that as a

  22. compliment but I'll I do like this share testimonies of what

  23. God has done because they teach, you know?

  24. And the other interesting thing the guy said was, I don't

  25. remember a thing you preached on that night, but he said I

  26. remember your stories and I guess we'll Jesus figured that

  27. out. To write because he used

  28. Parables a lot of stories. But anyway, it's been a joy to

  29. be here. I'm so excited about just being

  30. able to come along with Bill buyer and Faye.

  31. These are wonderful Servants of the most high God getting to

  32. know them more and more for the past four years.

  33. They've served on a special governmental team that I'm the

  34. head of and they are some of the most mature People that I know

  35. and what I would say would be, they are truly, truly genuinely

  36. a true mother and father in the Lord.

  37. So I just encourage you to recognize how special it is for

  38. you to be able to have that kind of connection with them as sort

  39. of an Apostolic voice into this house.

  40. So I really confirm them. Before you today one quick thing

  41. and I'll hand the Mike back to Bill or are you Bill?

  42. Okay just stay near stay close not long ago.

  43. I just started thinking about the word amen.

  44. And you know it's the last word in the Bible, not the end but

  45. amen. It's the last word in the Bible

  46. and it's the last word in the Lord's Prayer and I thought, you

  47. know, there's got to be More to the amen than just encouraging

  48. preachers when they're preaching.

  49. Right now, we preachers love to hear amens because it lets us

  50. know that people somewhere in the crowd or still awake.

  51. So you know I like it the amen, it's encouraging but God gave

  52. the amen to the church, not just to encourage preachers.

  53. In fact, he gave it to the Equus Sia to his Remnant Church, his

  54. body of believers. Is as a word of having a final

  55. word in every matter because it is the final word.

  56. In the word of God, it is a word that literally means so be it

  57. it's actually a governmental term.

  58. It's like being in a court of law and the judge sounds the

  59. gavel. At the beginning of a hearing to

  60. announce the beginning, the jury is seated.

  61. The trial has begun or the proceedings have begun.

  62. But it is the sound heard in a court room.

  63. That is the final sound of conclusion and completeness,

  64. because when the gavel sounded at the end, there's no more time

  65. for lawyers to present evidence or their side of the story, The

  66. Judge sounds, the gavel as a amen.

  67. And last word that Seals Everything God gave the amen.

  68. Not to the angels, He didn't give the The amen to the

  69. unbelievers, he gave the amen to the church to have the last word

  70. in every matter, God never intended for sickness and

  71. disease, to have the last word in your life and even those that

  72. have gone before on to be with the Lord.

  73. And that a disease, may have been that part that led to that

  74. promotion to Heaven. It still never has the last

  75. word. Listen.

  76. Don't let the enemy have the last word in your situation,

  77. whether it be sickness or Finance or whatever

  78. relationships, God gave the church, the word, amen.

  79. And in American English, my British friends, say, don't say

  80. you guys speak English over there, you speak American and,

  81. but in American English, it's a men in Spanish.

  82. A man in Russian. I mean, it's almost It's the

  83. same word in every language but it is a word of finality.

  84. It's interesting that in the Old Testament.

  85. Amen was always used at the end of what God said to come into

  86. agreement and to seal what God has said.

  87. But in the New Testament, it's interesting because amen is used

  88. before God does something, or before he says something.

  89. Because when Jesus said verily, verily are truly truly.

  90. Essentially, the word, amen. So he would say, Amen, before he

  91. said it, God not only gave the amen to the church in this hour,

  92. to have the last word in every matter that matters, but he also

  93. gave it to us as a prophetic decree to say.

  94. Amen. And agree with what God has not

  95. yet done. So we speak in agreement to what

  96. he's going to do, but we've not yet.

  97. Seen the evidence of Of it. So use the amen for both.

  98. Amen. Everybody said, amen.

  99. God bless you. Thank you.

  100. We need to take another offering and bring an altar call after

  101. that. That's good.

  102. Every matter that matters. Got your Bibles.

  103. Can you turn with me quickly to the Book of Proverbs chapter 25?

    Proverbs 25 chapter mention

  104. Verse 2. It's the glory of God to conceal

  105. a matter. but the Glory of Kings is to search out A matter, every

  106. matter that matters, The word matter.

  107. Is word. It's the glory of God to conceal

  108. a word. It's the Glory of Kings to

  109. search out a word. God.

  110. God is the is the Divine originator of the game of

  111. hide-and-seek? I've heard preachers almost all

  112. my Christian Life say God doesn't play games.

  113. Yes he does. And he is a master player.

  114. And you're not going to outsmart him, he's going to win every

  115. time. I guarantee you that but he

  116. likes the game. Yeah, I figured every man in

  117. this room would say Amen to that.

  118. He likes it and he likes concealing things, but we have

  119. to understand that he does not. He does not hide things from us.

  120. He hides things for us. He conceals it to preserve. he

  121. puts the, he puts the, he puts the most precious Hidden

  122. Treasures in a place, For his children to fight.

  123. They're not accessible by anyone else.

  124. There only accessible to his children to you to me.

  125. And so when God God sets, this in motion when he conceals a

  126. matter when he conceals a word, He sets it there for the purpose

  127. that we engage in the Heavenly game of hide-and-seek and

  128. seeking out that which he hides because it is precious, it is

  129. precious. It is precious.

  130. The reason that gold is so valuable is, it's not easily

  131. found, right? And the reason that the word of

  132. the Lord is so valuable is, it's not easily found.

  133. You're going to have to search or going to have to wait.

  134. You're going to have to speak the Which of Tears you're going

  135. to have to, you're going to have to give your heart.

  136. You're going to have to give your mind.

  137. You're going to have to give your body.

  138. You're going to have to give everything, that's the cost in

  139. the kingdom is everything. It's always everything.

  140. It's never short of everything. It's always everything.

  141. And and when we begin to understand these things, and we

  142. begin to understand what matters to God, and when what matters to

  143. God, matters to us. Then you've got a wonderful,

  144. wonderful. Wonderful impetus.

  145. That's released in. That's moving forward.

  146. God himself loves hiding. He loves it, he loves mystery,

  147. he loves standing right in front of your face and you not even

  148. know he's there. Hmm.

  149. I guarantee you, he's this way. I guarantee you and some people

  150. think he's not around, but he's there.

  151. He's there. He sees he hears.

  152. He knows to some people that would be intimidating and even

  153. fearful two other people. It's very comforting.

  154. He sees he hears, he knows. Listen to this.

  155. In the beginning was the word? Remember he conceals a word in

  156. the beginning was the word. The word was with God.

  157. The Word was God. He was in the beginning with

  158. God. All things were made through him

  159. and without him nothing was made.

  160. That was made in him was life. And the life was the light of

  161. men and the word became flesh. Dwelt among us.

  162. And we beheld, his glory, the glory, as of the only begotten

  163. of the father full of grace and truth.

  164. And so God brought this this this this hidden hidden Heavenly

  165. reality into a material world and yet he Still hidden.

  166. They were very few that were privileged to have the

  167. sensitivity to actually come to Bethlehem.

  168. Yes, yes, yes. This is class participation.

  169. Very few. In fact, if you look at it it's

  170. a little bit embarrassing, quite frankly.

  171. The only ones that really, really had a clue where these

  172. guys that at best were, were astronomers and at worst were

  173. astrologers and they got invited, they picked up on it,

  174. they saw something and they had the courage to engage in what

  175. they saw and they moved on what they saw.

  176. And it took them a long, long, long time.

  177. They left, they left their homes.

  178. Long before Jesus was born. Just to get there.

  179. They saw they saw a star, they saw a light, they saw something

  180. that nobody else saw somehow someway.

  181. God, God, God got into their hearts and got into their lives

  182. in such a way that they, they wanted to engage in.

  183. They wanted to seek and then you have Shepherds that nobody

  184. wanted to sit next to in the synagogue.

  185. Because they smelled like sheep. Are there any sheep herders in

  186. the house? I prefer cattle myself.

  187. It was a lady in North Platte Nebraska that preferred sheep

  188. and she rebuked me at the end of the service but quite frankly

  189. sheep stink. They don't smell nice.

  190. And these are the guys that were invited in to look at the Lamb

  191. of God. Because they valued.

  192. They valued what everybody else passed over and what everybody

  193. else took for granted. And God called them and God drew

  194. them. He's given us.

  195. Clear instructions and Jeremiah, you know, this this scripture

  196. very well, I'm sure verse chapter 29, it says, for I know

  197. the thoughts that I think toward you says the Lord thoughts of

  198. peace and not of evil to give you a future and a hope.

  199. And in in, in this time of personal pronouns, Listen to

  200. these. Then you will call upon me.

  201. And you will go and pray to me. And I will listen to you and you

  202. will seek me. And you will find me when you

  203. search for me with all your heart.

  204. Those are the pronouns that matter.

  205. And he says, when you do this, he says this, he gives this

  206. promise. I will be found of you.

  207. I'm going to jump out and say here I am.

  208. Right here, I am. So many times, you know, the

  209. Lord has this in his hand, in life, puts us in his hand and

  210. here we going and we're having this sweet communion with him

  211. and and we're just looking upon the Lord and loving him.

  212. And and then all of a sudden, some difficult time, some

  213. difficult season comes and he still got us in his hand but

  214. because of his great grace and his great love, he'll take his

  215. other hand and he'll put right over the top of us and we go

  216. crazy. Where are you?

  217. Lord. What are you doing?

  218. I can't find you. Oh, Jesus, please speak to me,

  219. don't leave me. Oh, please people even please.

  220. It's okay. Oh, there you are.

  221. There you are. Oh Jesus.

  222. You I don't know what happened to her.

  223. I do something wrong. Where have you been all this

  224. time? I'm right here.

  225. I'm right here. I love you so much.

  226. I love you so much. Older little bit of trouble.

  227. Jesus, Jesus. What?

  228. A wonderful sense of humor, God has.

  229. It's going to be Comedy Hour when they review my life in

  230. heaven, all the times that I've freaked.

  231. I mean, just freaked out. Lord, where are you?

  232. I couldn't feel him. Couldn't see him couldn't sense

  233. him. And he hid me in his hands.

  234. He was there all the time. And he was closer than I even

  235. dreamed. He covered me below above

  236. around, north-south-east-west top, bottom, everything he's got

  237. us, He's got us. He says I'll be found by you.

  238. It's when he opens up that other hand here I am.

  239. It's going to be okay. He says, I'll be found of you.

  240. Turn with me to the book of Song of Solomon.

  241. This Living Word. Draws near to our heart and we

  242. search for him and we, and we discover this on this amazing,

  243. amazing mystery. That we only really begin to

  244. seek him. When we begin to sense that he's

  245. been seeking us. He's the one that initiates it.

  246. He was there all the time he was never not there.

  247. Papa Jack would say, I don't know how many times I heard him

  248. say this. I, when I started studying the

  249. kingdom, I discovered that the kingdom was already studying me.

  250. God is the one that searches God is the one who seeks God is the

  251. one who puts the desire inside of our hearts, the longing

  252. inside of our hearts. He initiates that you can't take

  253. credit for that. He's the one that initiates it

  254. all. He's the one that puts the

  255. desire to pray, he's the one that puts the desire to fast.

  256. He's the one that puts the desire to get off of your bed,

  257. and take your head off of your pillow on Sunday morning and get

  258. out in the cold and come here. When your pillow was shouting to

  259. you the whole no, no don't leave me.

  260. Stay here with me. We will have such good communion

  261. together. I'll whisper in your ear.

  262. I love, oh you back to sleep. And is, it would be so easy.

  263. Yes, to turn over and just close your eyes and go back to sleep

  264. on a Sunday morning, especially a cold one.

  265. And yet, here you are. How'd that happen?

  266. Yes, of course, you cooperated. I understand that because God's

  267. done a good measure of work inside of your heart and inside

  268. of your life, that you have an understanding on the inside.

  269. No, I need to be there. I want to be there.

  270. There's something going on there.

  271. That's better than what's going on here, right?

  272. And the kids get drug along in the process.

  273. And little bit by little bit painfully.

  274. They learn. Wait a minute.

  275. There is, that's Mom and Dad are right.

  276. When you get up, we need to get going.

  277. Well, we never gave our children an option, you know?

  278. We just we just got them up many of the many was the time that

  279. they were asleep and we dressed them in their sleep.

  280. They wake up in church. I'd make sure of that because I

  281. was the pastor. truth is, if we have any desire to seek the Lord

  282. It's only because he's already been seeking us.

  283. Song of songs 1:2. Let him kiss me with the kisses

    Song of Solomon 1:2

  284. of his mouth. For your love, is better than

  285. Wine because of the fragrance of your good ointments.

  286. Notice the pronouns again, your name is as ointment poured

  287. forth. Therefore, because of this the

  288. virgin's. Love you.

  289. Draw me away. Listen to the prayer of her

  290. heart. Draw me away.

  291. We will run after you. The King has brought me into his

  292. Chambers. We will be glad and rejoice in

  293. you. We will remember your love more

  294. than one rightly. Do they love you?

  295. And so she's consumed with only him.

  296. She's not consumed with answers. She's consumed with the answer

  297. singular. He is the answer to everything

  298. that we have. He is the answer to every

  299. question that we have. He is the answer to the, to the

  300. conundrums of our life. These problems that just seem

  301. like they've got 14 and 11 different sides to them and we

  302. can't figure anything out. He's the one. he is the one that

  303. when we search for him with all of our heart, when we seek him

  304. and him alone He States, I'll be found.

  305. I'm going to jump out from my Hiding Place.

  306. I'm going to make myself known to you.

  307. I'm going to reveal myself to you and God has done it with me

  308. and the most unusual places and he is so gracious, and he is so

  309. kind There goes on. In verse 8, the voice of my

  310. beloved behold, he comes leaping upon the mountain skipping upon

  311. the hills. He he will dance upon the most

  312. difficult challenges of our life.

  313. I don't know if you've ever climbed any mountains, but let

  314. me tell you something, it sounds really romantic and its concept.

  315. But the moment that you start having to climb something, let

  316. me tell you honey, It Ain't Easy.

  317. Mountains, often speak of yes, Great accomplishments.

  318. But they often speak also of great challenges And I mean

  319. great challenges. I remember hearing the testimony

  320. of a man that ran from coast to coast in the United States. and

  321. he ran every single day and he ran and he ran, and he ran, and

  322. he ran and he ran Coming from the east coast to the West Coast

  323. and after many, many many, many, many many days of running he

  324. sees off. In the distance, the Rocky

  325. Mountains, And his heart just sank.

  326. Dear God help me get over these. Can we get there?

  327. And then help me climb them, right?

  328. Yeah, it's one thing to to romanticize, Mountaintop

  329. experiences. But you have to measure that by

  330. all of the journey to get there. And God comes leaping upon the

  331. mountains and skipping on the Hills there.

  332. Nothing to him. Then he says, she says, my

  333. beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag behold notice this?

  334. This is this is where I'm going behold.

  335. He stands behind our wall. He is looking through the

  336. windows gazing through the lattice and my beloved spoke and

  337. said to me, rise up my love, my fair one, and come away.

  338. God is looking at Iowa. He's just behind your wall.

  339. He's just at your window, the place where you receive light

  340. the place where you receive the spirit of wisdom and Revelation

  341. in the spirit of wisdom and Revelation functions.

  342. In this place called a window. It's where Daniel went to pray

  343. every day. He went to his window in the

  344. open, the window up, he wanted as much light as he possibly

  345. could, could could Garner and he and he opened up his heart and

  346. he opened up his life and he at the risk of his own life.

  347. He opened his heart and he sought the Lord and he cried out

  348. unto God because because something was going on with his

  349. heart and something was going on with his life, that God was

  350. present in his window, and God was there in, God was drawing

  351. him and God was looking at him. And the Lord said his eyes upon

  352. him in the Lord, would not take his eyes off of him.

  353. There's something about the eyes of the Lord.

  354. You go through the scriptures in the eyes of the Lord scatter,

  355. his enemies, just his eyes, just the look of the Lord.

  356. You don't have to say anything. He didn't have to lift a little

  357. finger. He doesn't have to do anything

  358. at all. He just looks had fathers and

  359. mothers in my life and I and they had what I would call the

  360. look, Somehow, someway, Spirit of the Lord transpose the look

  361. into my wife. And she can give me the look.

  362. And I recognized it sometimes in my stupidity I just move along

  363. but there's the look it's there it's there and I'd better

  364. recognize it right right. The Lord was looking at the

  365. bride. And here she is in her house.

  366. And the interesting thing is that he's looking through the

  367. lattice work. And latticework is placed upon

  368. windows for privacy and latticework is usually made up

  369. in our lives with our excuses. It's usually made up in our

  370. lives with our fears. It's the things that we it's the

  371. things that we put up in that we hide behind.

  372. To ensure privacy, we all have it.

  373. You might not, you might not admit it but we all have it,

  374. right? Latticework is oftentimes seen

  375. as I as the image that we want to project so that people will

  376. receive us and accept us. Latticework is there.

  377. It's put there for privacy. It's put there for the reason

  378. that I want to let some light in but I don't want anybody else

  379. in. It's a place where I can hide.

  380. And here he is standing. At the window and looking

  381. through the lattice work. And I don't know how many times

  382. it's happened in my heart and in my life that I went to seek the

  383. Lord, only to discover that there was a pair of eyes.

  384. Looking right back at me before I even got there.

  385. He was there waiting for me. Became a shift in the service

  386. this morning. The Lord took this message and

  387. there's more to it. And dear Lord, I can go for what

  388. is it? It's only 85 pages.

  389. I have a tendency to over prepare. and, and And as we were

  390. singing this morning, there's a shift that came in the

  391. atmosphere and I heard it first, and then I saw it.

  392. And then, and then I heard clearly again.

  393. God is looking through the lattice work, at the state of

  394. Iowa. His Eyes Are Fixed upon you.

  395. Now, she went about her job, she went about her duties.

  396. She went about all the things that women can do.

  397. And I, my wife will tell you, you get royalties off this.

  398. She didn't like this, but she, if she's on a, she'll tell you,

  399. if she feels comfortable with your Shield, she won't.

  400. She won't divulge. She will divulge this.

  401. She would put a name into this and that is that sometimes

  402. sometimes I just watch her. I watch how she moves because I

  403. like it. I watch.

  404. I watch how she puts her makeup on.

  405. I like it. I watch how she attends to her

  406. hair. I watch how she looks at herself

  407. in the mirror. I watch.

  408. I watch her. And there's not a woman on God's

  409. green earth that cannot feel the eyes of a man.

  410. And pretty soon. She feels a little fidgety and

  411. comfortable. And she looks around and there I

  412. am. What are you doing?

  413. I'm watching you. Why are you watching me?

  414. Because I love you. I like what you look like.

  415. I like the way you move. I like the way that you look at

  416. yourself. I like it.

  417. Jesus was looking through the lattice work.

  418. And he's looking through the lattice work of your individual

  419. life. He's looking through the lattice

  420. work of your marriage. He's looking through the lattice

  421. work of your family. He's looking through the lattice

  422. work of the congregation and he's looking through the lattice

  423. work of the state of Iowa. Why?

  424. Because he loves you. That's why Because he has plans

  425. for you. That's why Because he wants his

  426. eyes set upon you until you begin to fidget.

  427. And you begin to think, I don't know.

  428. Something's to feel something. Shining on me.

  429. I'd there's something happening. There's some movement somewhere.

  430. I don't know how to and I can't discern and I can't see it or

  431. not. Something.

  432. I feel like somebody's looking at me. we've all been in a crowd

  433. of people and suddenly we felt someone looking at us and we

  434. turned her head and they were The human soul is quite amazing.

  435. Actually, it's much bigger than our bodies.

  436. So an interview one time of a of a professor.

  437. And, and they were, and they were asking this question, where

  438. is the human mind? What a brilliant question.

  439. I mean this that that's that's a lot of people would say well

  440. dumb. It's in your head.

  441. No, it's not. That's just a central processing

  442. unit. That's just the computer.

  443. That's just the physical, the physical place, where things are

  444. processed. And the professor was a woman

  445. professor and she sat there and they said, where is the human

  446. mind in the human body? And and, and, and the professor,

  447. you could just they thank God they didn't edit this.

  448. They just kept the camera right on her and she you could see the

  449. wheels turning in her mind. She was her eyes.

  450. It was coming through. There was this movement in her

  451. and she was there was this thought process and finally, she

  452. said after maybe I don't know 30 seconds of Silence, that's a

  453. long. Time in video and radio.

  454. And finally, she said, well, well, we know that, it's at

  455. least inside the human body. And I thought, oh my God,

  456. they're beginning to actually find out the secrets of the

  457. Lord. Out of the issues of the heart,

  458. the mouth speaks. As a man thinks in his heart, so

  459. is he? So God is looking and he's

  460. searching and he's watching, and he's got his eyes fixed Upon Us

  461. on every one of our hearts on every one of our lives so that

  462. we can come to the place where we begin moving and we're

  463. getting in touch with a part of our being that we don't normally

  464. operate in and we can feel his eyes and we start looking

  465. around. Where is that coming from?

  466. Hmm. and then suddenly you go to your window of prayer, or you go

  467. to your window of worship, or your goal, your window of the

  468. word, or you go to the window, wherever you're getting your

  469. light from, And you start looking out for more light and

  470. lo and behold, there's a pair of eyes looking right at you.

  471. And as soon as you recognize those eyes and soon as you lock

  472. eyes with him, the light that is in your soul comes through your

  473. eyes and the light that is in his soul comes through his eyes.

  474. And when they meet together, an atomic explosion goes off inside

  475. of us. And that's when the word of the

  476. Lord comes forth. And he says, Come Away With Me.

  477. Let everything else just fall to the ground.

  478. Stop worrying about your makeup. Come on and just come with me

  479. now. Now.

  480. I've been several times in our marriage.

  481. Here's another royalty for my wife.

  482. I've been several times in our marriage that I watched this

  483. woman get. I mean she was dolled up.

  484. Dialed in. Her face is beginning to glow

  485. red now. And and she was gorgeous.

  486. I mean she was knockout gorgeous and we're going out of the

  487. house. To which I would say to her Wing

  488. going anywhere. This is just too good.

  489. We're not going to go anywhere. We're going to stay home

  490. tonight. No.

  491. No. She says, we have to go out.

  492. I said, no, we don't. We don't really have to be

  493. there. I don't want to share you with

  494. anybody. Yeah, yes.

  495. Who are we living for? Hui dressing for who are we

  496. preparing for? Who's the number one?

  497. I ministered in Japan for many, many years and and the Japanese

  498. divulge Secrets. They've got a gazillion Secrets.

  499. Dear Lord, they got seven levels, they got seven levels of

  500. their language and most Japanese, don't even know.

  501. All the levels of the language of Japanese.

  502. They are excellent hiders. They they they conceal things

  503. better than anybody. I think at least they try to And

  504. one day we were talking I was talking with some pastors and

  505. they said to me, you know, you know the word love is not in our

  506. language. When someone actually loves

  507. someone else, they look at that one and they say you're my

  508. number one. Your first priority your top

  509. priority for me. Nobody else comes in the game.

  510. Just you your number one in. There's only one.

  511. It's not 1 of 2. It's one of one.

  512. And I thought, oh Lord. Increase their language.

  513. But the question remains, who is your number one?

  514. I mean, really. He knows, you know.

  515. He knows. He knows.

  516. And he comes and he positions himself at our window and he

  517. looks at us through the latticework and he's looking on

  518. us, not with condemnation. He's looking on his not with the

  519. idea of shaming us. He's looking on us, not with the

  520. understanding that he's going to condemn us.

  521. He's looking on us because he loves us because it's the

  522. pleasure of his heart and it's the pleasure of his life and he

  523. doesn't want to be anywhere else.

  524. He just wants to look through the latticework of our window

  525. and it doesn't really matter to him.

  526. If the This work is there because he's looking Beyond it.

  527. He's looking through it, it doesn't hold him out.

  528. And he looks at our hearts and he looks at our lives.

  529. And, and we're there, and then suddenly become aware of the

  530. eyes of the Lord, that is set upon us.

  531. And then he speaks. He waits he's patient.

  532. He's not in a hurry. You might even say that he's got

  533. the whole time in his hand. So he's got time and he knows

  534. it. But something happens when we

  535. begin to realize he is looking at me.

  536. And he's waiting for that moment to call us away, and he's

  537. waiting for that moment. And his heart is pounding in his

  538. chest, and his, and I'm using human terms, forgive me?

  539. But his heart is pounding inside of his being.

  540. And his longing inside of his heart and patience is operating

  541. and functioning and joy. He's looking with joy at the

  542. very first moment that we stop. What we're doing, and we turn to

  543. him. because when we stop, what we're doing, And we turn to him.

  544. That's when he reveals himself to us.

  545. That's when he says to us. Okay, let's get out of here.

  546. Come on, just you and me. Let's go.

  547. I know a place. Come with me.

  548. Let's go. And while we were singing

  549. earlier this morning, I just felt of the spirit of the Lord,

  550. that his eyes. I felt his eyes looking upon

  551. Heartland church and I felt his eyes looking upon and canny

  552. Iowa, and I felt his eyes looking upon the central portion

  553. of this state. And I felt his eyes looking upon

  554. the whole state. And I found, I found words in my

  555. heart that God gave all the way back to 1998 for the heartlands

  556. of the United States of America. And I felt that they lifted up

  557. from where I thought they would be and they They were looking

  558. for a place to land. And then the holy spirit's so

  559. graciously reminded me of the story of Noah.

  560. And Noah at the end of the flood.

  561. He opened up the window. And he let out the dove.

  562. And the dove flew and the dove was searching for a place to

  563. land and could not find one. And then the dove returned and

  564. he held out his hand, and he took her in inside and then it

  565. says, seven days later. He let her out again.

  566. And she went, and she looked and she searched but there was no

  567. place to land, no place to light.

  568. There was only, there was only a small little Olive Branch.

  569. She picks that and and she brings that olive branch of Hope

  570. back to Noah. Something's changing out here.

  571. I just wanted you to know. And then seven days later, he

  572. opens up the window sword, approximately 21 days of this.

  573. He opens up the window and finally she goes and she does

  574. not come back because she found a place to rest.

  575. I want to say to you this morning that the holy spirit is

  576. released the, Holy Spirit has lifted up and lifted off.

  577. And the Holy Spirit is looking upon the heartlands for a place

  578. to land. Are you willing to let his eyes

  579. fall on? You?

  580. Are you willing to let him look at you until you become uneasy?

  581. Are you willing or you willing to let him divinely?

  582. Disturb you to the degree that you that you lay everything else

  583. down and you just come back to him.

  584. And you say Lord where where are you?

  585. I can feel your eyes but I cannot see you.

  586. And you're looking, you're looking.

  587. You look because of latticework trellis work.

  588. Often has a Vine growing on it. And it's sometimes difficult to

  589. see his eyes looking at you. And then you make the connection

  590. Bang. I was in Mullen Nebraska.

  591. Mullen Nebraska is a Crossroads. In fact, in that day and time, I

  592. don't even realize I don't even think that there was a stop sign

  593. there. Much less a traffic like forget

  594. that Just a Crossroads small little Community tiny.

  595. But in Mullen Nebraska, They've got a couple of Bucket List,

  596. golf courses. and I got an invitation, I got a bucket list

  597. invitation To go play at a golf course called Dismal River in

  598. Mullen Nebraska. It's just that it's outside.

  599. It's quite a ways X is actually outside of Mullen.

  600. That's just the closest Little community that they could attach

  601. it to. And it was this bucket list

  602. course, where you go there. And and I was, I was, I was

  603. treated to this. I, it was a gift to me and

  604. otherwise, I would have never had the money to go to a place

  605. like this. I mean, you go there and it's,

  606. and it's rustic five-star facilities.

  607. They have they have a restaurant but they have no menu.

  608. You just tell the chef what you want, and he will cook it.

  609. That kind of place. I didn't even know those things

  610. to existed, but they do It was an all-inclusive thing.

  611. So I ordered ribeye every night. Cuz I like the fat content and I

  612. want to see Jesus sooner. And besides that, it tastes

  613. good. It's the best cut in my opinion.

  614. And we went to the Pro Shop, when we arrived and the director

  615. of golf, the god that's above the head pro, the director of

  616. golf metis. And he looked at us and he says,

  617. I don't know what you guys have done, right?

  618. But you are the only four men on this golf course, for three

  619. days. No one else is coming.

  620. You've got the place to yourself.

  621. And oh, did we play golf? It was great.

  622. Beautiful In The Sand Hills of Nebraska, just beautiful there.

  623. This desolate place and yet it's got a beauty that's that's

  624. almost non-descriptive. You have to go there and see for

  625. yourself. And we played golf for three

  626. days and the afternoon of the second day.

  627. I got tired, really tired. Abnormally tired, after lunch.

  628. And I looked at the guys and I said, I know this sounds crazy,

  629. guys, but I'm going to go back. I'm just going to go back to my

  630. room. I'm going to go back to my room,

  631. I'm going to rest a little bit, so I go back to my room.

  632. And what do I do? I turn on the Golf Channel.

  633. Case. You didn't know I like playing

  634. golf. There are days that I'm pretty

  635. decent at it, shot my age about a year ago.

  636. And I'm old. And I'm there, and I'm watching

  637. the Golf Channel. And there comes on the Golf

  638. Channel, a documentary on a on a professional golfer Hall of Fame

  639. golfers life. His name's Ben Crenshaw.

  640. It's from Texas. And Ben Crenshaw had this father

  641. Mentor in his life. By the name of Harvey Penick who

  642. was renowned for his teaching ability and and the great ones

  643. would go to Harvey Penick, if something was wrong with their

  644. game and he could straighten them out really quick.

  645. It didn't take him long, he could see.

  646. Just had that kind of vision that kind of eye for the golf

  647. swing. And Ben Crenshaw had been having

  648. a really, really difficult time in his game.

  649. And and so he had won the Masters.

  650. It's a Wonderful Tournament down in Augusta.

  651. Georgia. I've been there.

  652. It's just incredibly beautiful there and it's almost it's

  653. almost the Holy Grail of all golfers would be to play there

  654. are and professionals to play in that tournament.

  655. That's that's the tournament, right?

  656. And and been in really he won the tournament.

  657. Once before and so but he was having a really, really

  658. difficult time with his game, and he just couldn't get

  659. anything, right. I mean, just couldn't get

  660. anything, right? Nothing was going right?

  661. And and on one of his one of his afternoons.

  662. His, his caddy helped him with a small little tiny adjustment in

  663. his swing and he just started hitting it dead solid.

  664. Perfect. It just came that quack touch

  665. bang immediate. And he was out on a practice

  666. round and he was given a message someone came out from the

  667. clubhouse and said Harvey died. And and Ben's whole countenance,

  668. his whole being just just changed, it was like his father,

  669. his mentor, the one that raised him in his profession.

  670. The one that had sewed, everything into him and had made

  671. him what he was had died suddenly, And Ben's I have to go

  672. I have to go back to Austin. He was he was he lived in

  673. Austin, Texas. Ben got on a flight flew, back

  674. to Austin for the funeral. And and professional golfers

  675. from all over the world, went to Harvey P nk's funeral, they just

  676. stopped what they were doing. And they went to his funeral to

  677. honor, a man that they loved because he was a father And

  678. after the funeral, they went from the from the sanctuary into

  679. of the reception hall. And all of these, all of these

  680. professional golfers were going from one building to the next

  681. building. And there was a, there was a,

  682. there was a golf. There was a sports caster.

  683. That was interviewing as many people as he could grab.

  684. And they got, they got bin somehow.

  685. They somehow, they got bin just to stop for just a moment.

  686. And the, and the and the broadcaster said Then what did

  687. Harvey Penick mean to you? And his eyes were red and tears

  688. were flooding down his face unashamedly.

  689. And he looked into the camera and he said Harvey, Penick was a

  690. great Christian man. And when I, when I heard that on

  691. this, this broadcast there in my room at Dismal River, Golf Club,

  692. Something happened in my heart and I broke on the inside of my

  693. heart and I said to the Lord that's enough for me.

  694. That's enough of a testimony for me.

  695. I'll take that one. and I don't know how to describe this to

  696. you, but my door of my cabin opened and Jesus walked into the

  697. room. And I rolled off of my bed and I

  698. fell on the floor. And he just looked into my

  699. heart. And there was a dimension of

  700. Glory that he has never ever taken me and ushered me into and

  701. it happened at a golf course watching a golf documentary.

  702. He stands at the window of our life.

  703. Looking for us, waiting for us to just stop what we're doing

  704. and open up her eyes and say, I love you Lord, where are you?

  705. You're the one that I'm looking for.

  706. I don't need any more answers. I just need you.

  707. Just just you just you and my focus of my prayer life gets

  708. extremely laser-like and narrow and all the other things that I

  709. pray about and all the other things that I longed for in all

  710. the other things that he has promised me and all the other

  711. thing, and they just seem to just lose meaning the moment

  712. that I find him, the moment that I find him, When is the last

  713. time that you've gone to your window?

  714. Could I just suggest to you? Maybe it's been a little too

  715. long. Maybe we need to set aside.

  716. This this time of tremendous turmoil all around us, economic

  717. upheavals, political upheavals This prophetic word, that

  718. prophetic word, another prophetic word in Dear God, in

  719. heaven profits, that aren't even prophets are prophesying.

  720. Just set it down. I'm just speaking to you as a

  721. father, this morning, just set it down.

  722. You don't need that. What you need is.

  723. Just open your window up and look out your window because

  724. he's waiting there for you. When he's waiting there for you

  725. and you see him, I guarantee you.

  726. What's going to happen? He's going to say, come on.

  727. Come with me. Come with me.

  728. And then every single question that you've got in your soul

  729. will be answered in a twinkling of an eye.

  730. Suddenly you won't have any more questions.

  731. Suddenly, you just want to be quiet and you just want to hear

  732. what he's got to say, and you don't want to Cloud the time

  733. with him with your own thoughts. Bob Jones years ago, you may

  734. know the story. He was told by an Angel, you

  735. need to get ready for any in the angel named a month.

  736. I'm going to use January. I don't remember what it was.

  737. I'd have to look back. And the angel said, look you

  738. need to get ready because in January Jesus is going to come

  739. and he's going to he's going to bring a visitation but he

  740. himself is he's coming to you he's going to meet with you.

  741. So have your questions ready? The angel said?

  742. So, Bob labored over it. And he labored and he labored in

  743. the labor, what questions? What it, what kind of what do I

  744. need to ask him? What I need to have ready, and

  745. it's just man. I mean and January we came and

  746. January went and Jesus didn't show up. so, we thought Well,

  747. you know, you didn't tell me what year.

  748. That's Faith, right? Did you tell me what year maybe?

  749. It's next January and so he prepared himself all year long

  750. for that January. Jesus didn't come.

  751. And it went for several years like this but Bob never gave up

  752. hope and he never dropped it and he never disbelieved it.

  753. He believed it from his heart. And so, he was preparing for

  754. every single January, just come. Come come, come like a clock.

  755. Jesus wouldn't show within its next year.

  756. Then, it's next year. Then it's next year, then it's

  757. next year quite a few years. Then one day the angel popped

  758. into his room. Oh, by the way, it's this coming

  759. January. Get your questions ready by now?

  760. Bob had all kinds of questions. So he starts going through his

  761. questions. Comes closer to January closer.

  762. King, he starts taking questions, out taking questions,

  763. at taking questions. Out taking question.

  764. No, no, not this. No, no, not that.

  765. No, no, no, no, no, not this. And he came down to this short

  766. list of questions. It was almost time for January

  767. to roll around. And he felt so empty with the

  768. questions that he had left. And sure enough January came and

  769. Jesus walked into the room. He believed that it was

  770. physical. And Jesus was, there he is.

  771. Jesus, and Jesus with his wonderful wonderful.

  772. Wonderful sense of humor says, Bob, do you have your questions

  773. ready? And Bob answered him.

  774. And he said, I don't want to waste our time together with my

  775. questions. Would you just talk to me about

  776. whatever you want to talk to me about?

  777. I will listen. I think that's important.

  778. God is calling Heartland Church. The Holy Spirit has risen over

  779. the heartlands of the United States.

  780. And he's looking for a place to light, he's looking for a place

  781. to land. You have promises in this house.

  782. You have prophetic words in this house but I'm going to reaffirm

  783. them even this morning and I don't even know them, but I can

  784. tell you this, Holy Spirit has lifted up and the Holy Spirit is

  785. flying and the Holy Spirit is looking for a place to land.

  786. So that when he lands Or when she lands.

  787. Or when he she lands. Because they're both there.

  788. In the language itself. No, ma feminine.

  789. That'll get your theological panties Twisted wanted.

  790. She's looking for a place to land.

  791. And when she lands, she has purposes that we never dreamed.

  792. Because God wants to speak to the heart of this country that I

  793. can tell you, I've known it since 1998.

  794. I've been prophesying since 1998.

  795. I've been coming into these Heartland since 1998.

  796. October of 1998. With a vision with a heart, with

  797. an a, seeing of everything that God showed me, that he was going

  798. to do in the heartlands of the United States of America.

  799. And I have not yet seen it fulfilled.

  800. And so, I since Holy Spirit brooding, Brooding over the

  801. heartlands of the United States. And he's looking.

  802. Holy spirit's looking for a place to land.

  803. It's like he's got his eyes. She's got her eyes.

  804. Set on us. I feel the eyes of the Lord this

  805. morning. I feel his gaze.

  806. Something has grown to attention inside of my heart and my life.

  807. Even the short time that I've been with you, there was so much

  808. resistance for Fay and I the past two weeks before we came

  809. here. The resistance level was

  810. honestly, it was painful. Mental torments emotional,

  811. torments. All kinds of Temptations, 2222

  812. not come. All kinds of opportunities that

  813. this known to do that. No, no.

  814. But my heart was set. And I've walked with him long

  815. enough to know this that when I come to the end of myself and

  816. when I come to the end of my strength that in my weakness,

  817. his strength then takes over in his strength is made perfect in

  818. my weakness and I've discovered through the years.

  819. Just stay, the course. Bill.

  820. Just stay the course, even if you don't have the strength to

  821. take, but one more step, just stay the course and go and he'll

  822. give you the strength and you can do it.

  823. There have been so many times in my life and faces life that I

  824. was sicker than a dog on Sunday morning.

  825. I mean, throwing up sicker than a dog.

  826. It's a Texas saying I think Cats could probably get sick, too.

  827. but the saying sicker than a dog, And I would say to my wife,

  828. just get me to the pulpit. I'll be all right.

  829. If I get there, just just help me get behind the pulpit and

  830. when I get there, it's going to be okay.

  831. And I cannot tell you how many times that that happened in our

  832. life. 44 years of marriage, coming up on 45 really quick in

  833. the fast lane. Stay the course, Heartland

  834. Church. Stay the course congregation.

  835. Don't be surprised in. The passing of 21 days that Holy

  836. Spirit doesn't breathe over you. Looking for a place to land.

  837. That was through 21 days of dealing right there with Noah.

  838. I've Got a Feeling, I've just got this feeling, I've just,

  839. I've just got this feeling, we need to lift our eyes up, to be

  840. whole the king. And the lover of our soul.

  841. And look out the window. So in this 21 days of prayer and

  842. fasting, this is a 21-day window for you.

  843. Come. Come and do whatever you need to

  844. do while you're in it. Because I know that there's a

  845. lot of things that you need to take care of.

  846. There's a lot of things that you need to do.

  847. There's a lot of things you need to dress, but somewhere in this

  848. 21 days, don't be surprised. If you come to the window in

  849. this house and another pair of eyes is looking back at you.

  850. And when he looks at you, open your eyes and gaze upon him.

  851. Gaze upon him. When the, when the shepherd said

  852. this. After the Angels left, the

  853. shepherd's looked at one, another and said, let's go to

  854. Bethlehem. This is paraphrase.

  855. Let's go to Bethlehem, and let's see this thing.

  856. And the word thing is Rhema. let's go to Bethlehem and let's

  857. see this Rhema This matter, this word.

  858. And the word see is the keyword, it's horrible.

  859. And her 0 means to see with the eyes go deeper, see with the

  860. mind, go deeper to perceive, go deeper to see and experience,

  861. intimately. What you're looking at?

  862. And so those Shepherds went to look upon the Lamb of God and

  863. they didn't give him a casual glance, they looked until there

  864. was an experienced heart-to-heart and then it says

  865. they went out and they told the whole city and everyone was

  866. blessed and everyone was amazed and Mary and Joseph were amazed

  867. and Mary pondered these things. In her heart, God's going to do

  868. something for you and 21 days. Get Ready.

  869. Get Ready, Get Ready. Get Ready.

  870. Get Ready. Father I thank you.

  871. I, thank you for the Simplicity of this word.

  872. I thank you. Lord, that you are able to take

  873. a weak vessel and bring forth transformation word.

  874. I ask you Lord look into through the latticework of Heartland

  875. Church. I ask you now.

  876. Lord, looking through the window look through the latticework

  877. look through the failures of the past.

  878. Look through the insecurities, look through all of the, all of

  879. the things that we all put up. To protect ourselves.

  880. Look through them, just get close enough to the window and

  881. look through them to whether the latticework doesn't even, it

  882. doesn't even come into play. And keep looking at us until we

  883. are divinely Disturbed. Until we stop what we're doing

  884. and we turn looking where we don't even know.

  885. And so we look outside the window only to find you there.

  886. Speak to our hearts. Give us the secrets of your

  887. heart for this season. Calls us to come and do a place

  888. where we are riveted by your spirit and we seek only you.

  889. You and when we are, when we, when you are found of us and we

  890. are found of you, you will take care of all of the minutiae.

  891. Of details of problems of issues of everything that even seems

  892. impossible to us to deal with that, we don't have answers for.

  893. You are the answer and so we invite you into Our problems are

  894. Ministries. Our Praises, our worship, our

  895. prayers, our fastings are everything.

  896. Come, come, Holy, Spirit. Come lover of our souls. and

  897. gaze Upon Our Hearts until we feel your eyes and we start

  898. searching for just you Just you. Just you.

  899. I thank you for this father. Hallelujah.

  900. Go ahead and stand. I want to pray over us this

  901. morning. I believe this is an invitation

  902. from the Lord into this 21 days. Remember years ago, reading an

  903. article about two Russian artists.

  904. They were sculptures, they had been commissioned by their

  905. government to carve some carving and this husband and wife team

  906. got to discussing how they couldn't do what they did

  907. without a thumb. And in their discussion, they

  908. came to the conclusion, there must be a god, they began to cry

  909. out for the god, the creator of the thumb to reveal himself to

  910. them. They came to the conclusion of

  911. the goodness of God because of his their thumbs and I've often

  912. thought the goodness of God is revealed in food.

  913. You know what? I could worship God just for the

  914. jalapeno. That God gave you taste buds in.

  915. Just the right place to experience an array of different

  916. flavors. Isn't that good of him?

  917. You know, he could have made everything tastes like spinach

  918. or like would he could have done that but he didn't do that

  919. because he loves us. And fasting among other things

  920. is us saying, God we thank you for food.

  921. We thank you for the gift and all the different flavors, but

  922. what we're really hungry for is you Lord we set aside the

  923. satisfaction of our physical appetites for this short season

  924. and Lord, we ask let us Feast on you.

  925. Let us Feast on the goodness of who you are and so Lord.

  926. We ask even now Lord, for Grace, to fall upon us, and Lord, I ask

  927. that you to wake in our spiritual appetites as Bill

  928. stood up here, and read the menu of Heaven.

  929. Lord, let our spiritual appetites begin to be awake and

  930. let us salivate in the spirit. And Lord, we look over the, the

  931. banqueting table of the next 21 days.

  932. And Lord, we ask for one thing that you'd release more of you

  933. to us. Lord release more of you to us.

  934. Lord, God, we are hungry for you.

  935. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus.

  936. Jesus. We thank you.

  937. Hallelujah, on our last trip to Colombia.

  938. We went to this one barbecue spot and they brought out these

  939. big bibs and they made us put bibs on before they're brought

  940. the food. And I just saw that picture.

  941. When I was praying over us, get your bib on.

  942. There's some feasting going to happen.

  943. I'm serious. Get your expectations up, get

  944. your spirit you. Jewel utensils.

  945. Get your fork in your knife in hand.

  946. Get you big old plastic Bib and belly up to the table.

  947. It's going to be a time of feasting on him.

  948. Amen. Bill fade on.

  949. Thank you so much. Thanks for taking time out of

  950. your busy schedules. Yeah, we love you guys that.

  951. These have been the hors d'oeuvres and out of the feast.

  952. He begins. Thanks for listening to our

  953. podcast. If you'd like to help more

  954. people hear this message, you can get the word out by

  955. subscribing and sharing it on social media.

  956. If you'd like to support the Ministries apartment church, you

  957. can do. So at Heartland Church,

  958. online.com give These have been the hors d'oeuvres and out of

  959. the feast. He begins.

  960. Thanks for listening to our podcast.

  961. If you'd like to help more people hear this message, you

  962. can get the word out by subscribing and sharing it on

  963. social media. If you'd like to support the

  964. Ministries apartment church, you can do.

  965. So at Heartland Church, online.com give