The Few

Hello everybody and welcome to another edition of Wednesday Night Live. This is Ron Crawford coming to you from the Father's Church in Dallas, and it's always a blessing to reach out to my congregation as well as to our wonderful Saints family, Saints Nation as it were. Already today I've had the privilege of communicating with three different countries. Isn't that amazing? Not all at the same time.

Boy, is my voice have to be loud to do that. But we're really grateful to be aligned together on behalf of the purpose of the Lord. And this apostolic calling to make disciples throughout the earth is really a mandate. You know, there's a lot of ministries that that reach out around the world and they they have their own emphases. And I bless them for whatever they contribute.

But there aren't a whole lot of people who are actually being entrusted with the meat of the word that God has given to you. It's unique, and it's largely based upon training people to reach out to the throne of grace and to welcome the kingdom and to establish sons and disciples so that they can become pillars in the temple. As the Lord has said, they can be tabernacles and temples of the Holy Spirit. And to believe that the power of the cross is giving them victory in the place where God has established them. And as you well know, probably a at least 80% of what I just said, and that's a small portion of what God has given to you.

At least 80% of what I just said is like a foreign language to most of the church. I don't say that presumptuously or pridefully, just truthfully. And I'm speaking to our Saints family here. And I think that very often because you are such a remnant, you see others who are abundantly blessed. You see megachurches growing.

You see social function. You see people that are really happy just fellowshipping together, having their meetings on the golf course or at the buffet line, waiting for the rapture because they've got a home in heaven. That's great. I bless them. And that's rather appealing because in in the natural, you know, I grew up in that, not necessarily golf.

I never really got into that. I liked hitting little white balls in other ways. But the point is that we don't just exist here as babies. We don't just exist here as those that are pew warmers. We don't exist here searching for a church to determine what offers the most to us.

We are servants of the most high God, and we are called to make disciples. We have an apostolic ministry into the church, those that are willing to receive. And this is the scripture that we're wanting to look at in Luke chapter 10. Beginning at verse one. After these things what things?

Luke 10 · chapter mention

Well he had just said, no man having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. So that is quite a parable about Jesus making an appeal to people and one guy says, you know, I'll follow you wherever and he says, follow me, and the Lord then hears him say, let me go and take care of a very deep family situation, or let me go and see some property I just bought, or let me go I'm just getting married. And Jesus said, you know, no man having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom. So you have committed yourself and we follow. But after these things, verse one of chapter 10, the Lord appointed 70.

What have we learned about 70? Let's just stop real quick and refresh. 70 in the Old Testament, the letter I n was a numerical, demarcation of the number 70 in in just, local accounting. But it also indicated elders. It indicated people who were mature in the Lord and knew how to communicate with him.

The is the eyes. The is the ones that can be in the valley of weeping of Bakkah and make a well of supply there. We've studied all this. So when Moses appointed a 70 or 72, I believe it's more 70. But, because there is some debate as to which it whether it's 70 or 72, and I'm not gonna argue with that with you.

So don't send me any scriptures. But Jesus appointed 70, which makes me think that that's what Moses probably did. And so he was specifically sending out people to establish a kingdom reality and to pattern it. And he sent them to cities and places where he himself would come. We're making way for the Lord and for his kingdom to come, but you have to have the altar set right, and you have to have people that are going to represent the kingdom in those places.

Therefore, verse two, he said it to them, the harvest is great. Great there is not megas, which would indicate megas is a spreading out from a common point of function, but polis, p o l y s. And this this is a governmental term, it is a city term, it is, you know, like if you have politics or you have police, you have an administration of a particular terrain or a city. So the harvest is requiring those in those places that the spirit would send us forth and sending forth at the end of verse two is ekbalo. So it's a launching.

It's not just an extension. It is being thrown, being sent to regions that are outside of what your normal purview would be. So he's he's saying that this is how the harvest is gonna be raised in Polis that the spirit will launch you into by the direction of the Holy Ghost and and the will of the father, of course. So the harvest is great. This is how it's going to be.

And have we not experienced this as saints? From this touch point or your touch point, your gap, God says, how many nations now? I've lost track. It's in the forties. I did that math a long time ago.

Go here. Go here. I'm opening a door here. How'd that door open? Only God could have done that.

Go here, go here, and establish disciples. This is the mandate of the spirit. It's not devised by people sitting in a boardroom and saying, where are we gonna open new franchises of the Saints Network? I think we should begin to invade this area. We have never done that, Never will.

We listen to what the spirit is sending us to, and we then say yes. And even if there's an invitation that comes that is not concurrent with what we deem to be the direction of the spirit for us, we don't go there. So we've been living this to a degree, and it's only going to be exponentially advanced from this point. But we have to have laborers, and they are classified as few. Are you sticking with this thus far?

This is Wednesday prayer and bible study. You should have your Bible open. Don't be there scratching your head thinking, I don't understand what he's saying. Read along with me. You should have your olive tree open.

Pop on these words. See with what I'm saying is true. Laborers are workers. Now that word you'll see on Strong's, is sacrosanct, is often equated with a teacher. I'm just saying what it says.

But oligos is the few. That term has been made popular when we first started teaching about it. People were saying, what are you saying up there pastor? Now if you turn on any of the news, you hear crazy Bernie saying, we gotta eliminate the oligarchs. And then he's trained his parrot AOC to say the same thing.

You got mom Dami in New York saying relatively the same thing. And where did they learn that term? From their forebearers in Russia who used that term to describe oligarch, somebody that was now a business titan, somebody that has risen up to the top, to the rank of leader, and they dominate finance, or they dominate agriculture, or they dominate government. Now however they got there, I'm not going to justify one way or the other because usually there was violence. But in the purest term, this meant somebody that is pressed through and they're at the very top, and they then have authority, they have understanding, and they're gonna hold that position.

So when Jesus says the harvest is great, he's saying that the type of laborers we need working in there are oligos, and it's not gonna be everybody. It's not, you know, many are called, few are chosen. Somebody's gonna have to be an authority no matter where it is. I used to say this about fivefold and interpretation settings. If you don't have an interpreter, if you don't have somebody that is a hermeneut, which is what the scripture says, the enemy's gonna appoint one.

So you have to have you have to have an authority structure. And this term, yes, it indicates that there aren't a lot of these, but the the the lack in quantity is personified by the authority and the expertise of this lack of numbers. So what's it say here? Jesus is using this word, not me. You say, well, it's all Greek to me.

Well, you better know some Greek then because this is what Jesus said. Amen? Put your thinking caps on. The harvest is going to be scattered as to how the Holy Spirit has indicated around the world. Laborers, those that will work, those who will teach, are going to have to function as oligos.

And finding them and training them and getting them secured in their position is the task that we're looking for now. And we're trying to raise up leaders. We're trying to teach. We're trying to establish understanding of the meat of the word. Then we were doing this honestly and sincerely, and always is the case when you see this scripture and you dig into the word and you say, hey.

Wait a second. This is what the spirit is wanting to do. Well, how does the church usually do this? Church usually comes in. They pass out tracts.

They they evangelize or they appeal to people to come and fill the pews. And they do that through a lot of different ways. The most prominent in my city is what's the biggest structure with the most stuff to add to young families or to gymnasiums or to fellowship or sporting programs? What's the best way I can attract in that way? And then what you got is you got people that have come because they like their kids' involvement.

They want them in a wholesome atmosphere. I understand that. But are they there because they wanna be challenged to become deeper in the word? Are they there because they wanna be on their face and say, I want your kingdom to come, and I'm gonna represent as an intercessor the welcoming of your spirit? Probably not.

You know, I I you know, my granddaughters, they sing, and they're in advanced choral societies that sing in a lot of churches. And as a good grandpa, I go to hear them. And I'm proud of them. Katie leads my daughter leads worship in a lot of different places, and my oldest daughter deals with a lot of young people musically, and a lot of them are in churches. And sometimes when I go to these churches, I'm not being critical.

I'm just observing what they have. And at one of the wealthiest churches here in relatively close to us, the rack of pamphlets that they had that were all professionally and beautifully done was all over the map what they were offering people. Those that were challenged with gender issues, those that were looking for a mate, those that are lonely and want fellowship, Those that, and it just goes down the line, those who want to learn about finance. You know, there were probably 30 of these. And I found one that was for prayer.

And when I opened it, it was a top 10 list of how to get God to answer prayers in certain ways. How to pray for this. How to pray for that. It was a list. It was a shopping list.

And I bless that church. I'm glad we have churches because a lot of them are going after hellish things or they're submitting themselves to really demonic progressive mergings with what we would know to be satanic agenda. And I bless that church. It's well funded financially. But the people come there, some for status, a couple of owners of sports franchises here in Dallas.

They go to that church, or at least they're on the membership rolls. So it's a social thing. Well, where do you go to church? Well, I go here. Now I'm not ridiculing the church.

I'm just saying this is the way it is. And us good little kids that went to school in Springfield, we were taught find a need and fill it. I heard that in so many classes. You go in, you analyze where you people are, and you try to satiate what their desires are. Well, that's serving people and not serving God.

So you have been given a task that is an oligos task. There aren't a whole lot of them in the church that would want to do what you've agreed to do, and it feels lonely. You can look around and think, gee whiz, here we are. We realize the presence of the Lord. We realize the depth of the word.

But look at that place downtown. Man, they've got 15,000 members. They're on a first name basis with the president. They talk about things and every year they kinda adjust their charts about the end time. I'm not just ridiculing them.

I'm saying that's just the way quote unquote prophetic ministry has been throughout my lifetime. I don't know how many antichrists I've heard identified, and then the next year they hope that the people forgot that this is who you said it was gonna be. The harvest is great. The laborers and the teachers that work at it are an oligos. We have to raise up those that will be sincere and mighty in God.

And we need the church to be reproducing babies. We need the born again to come. But if you just have a nursery, you know, my little grandson, he likes going to his preschool. And what does he like about it? Well, he can go in there.

He's got all kinds of toys. They have snacks. They have little kids that on some points, he he really doesn't care to be around, but I've got pictures of him hung hugging little blonde girls and you know, because they make them do that. You know, it's real cute. And I think that's wonderful.

But if you have a church full of babies, that's what you're gonna do. You're gonna you're gonna have toys that they like. You're gonna have activities that they can participate in and have fun doing it. You're going to give them snacks. There's going to be a lot of other ones, their same age, who want the same thing, and the parents are going to say, there's another preschool over here that has twice as much.

You understand what I mean? And I value that for little kids in the natural. But the church can't just be full of little kids. You can build thousands of members, you know, like what the Apostle Paul said, know, at the time you should be dealing with oracle issues, that's a scriptural term. You have such a need as one to bring milk.

You have itching ears. You want to cure the same thing over again and over again. You know, remember back in, let's see, it had to been 1994, while we were still doing the general church stuff, there was a really nice lady that was in the church. She sang beautifully, and, you know, she was part of our fellowship. But she came up to me after one Sunday service and said, pastor, I appreciate all you've done for me, and I love this church, but I'm gonna have to go somewhere else because you don't speak on the end times.

And I just stood there and looked at her, And I I saw that God had given her a home, and she'd come out of a broken marriage, and God had really restored her. And she was being used by the Lord, and she loved people here and people loved her. But 1994 she wanted more teaching on the end times. You know that was thirty two years ago. How much has changed since then?

Think back. I bet you can't even remember what was going on in 1994. You could look it up right now and you're not going to listen to the rest of the message. But what good would it have done for me to be speaking about the end times back then? I would have had to adjusted my chart about 20 times.

Who would have thought we'd be living in a time where what we see around us in our nation and what we see happening in The Middle East, what we see happening with China and Russia, only the father knows the day and the hour. But some people just love to debate what are the signs of the times, what is this? Oh, this has to mean this. Have you seen this book? Oh man, they identify who the leopard is, who the bear is.

They identify who's coming from the East. Man oh man, you know, I listened to that all my life. I lived through the late great planet Earth explosion. I lived through we had Tim LaHaye come here and speak for three nights. Believe that.

He came to Lakewood Assembly. I drove him around in my car. He was writing those left behind books at the time. Can you imagine that? And I bless him.

I remember seeing all those Thief in the Night movies when I was in the seventies. That was big time because on a Wednesday night or a Sunday night, you could sit there and the old projector was shining it up on the screen and you're watching this, and all those bell bottoms and long hair. Wow, God was even taking people in the rapture with boys with long hair and bell bottoms. I must have totally eliminated the showing of that film in some of those holiness churches. But I was sad to see that young lady leave, but I wasn't gonna start preaching on the end times because, you know, I remember in seminary at the AGTS up in Springfield, I went to classes with a gentleman named Ed Lawrence who wrote commentaries on revelation for the assemblies of God, nice man, and Stanley Horton and several others who would write.

And I remember what brother Lawrence said one time. He said, look, the best thing you can do is study what the scripture says. If you start prognosticating, you're either gonna have to adjust or be told you were wrong every two or three years. So the point is that nobody really knows until it actually starts happening or it's immediate right before it happens what these prophetic scriptures mean. I always remember that.

I always remember that. And but but the point is that there are just people that will come to churches because it scratches their ears, or it provides some kind of social climb. You can't afford to get into a country club, so let's go to this big church that all I have to do is maybe give an offering, maybe pay a tithe every now and then. Am I criticizing or am I describing? I think I'm describing.

I've been there. And I did that for a while. Not hypocritically, but you know I knew how to play the game and I didn't like it when I was doing it. We did it well, but I didn't like it. You know I could go on but I won't.

The harvest is great, the laborers are oligos. So then it says pray the Lord of the harvest that he would send forth laborers into the harvest. This word pray is an interesting word it's diomai. We've talked about it from time to time in the past. It even though it's translated as prayer, it's really not a prayer word.

The onus of this definition is based upon the fact that somebody is ingrained in a scenario, committed to a scenario, and out of that they're appealing for help in that scenario. Now, DMI comes from deo, which is bind. I bind you Satan in Jesus' name. Bind and elucine. Deo, to bind.

And diaomi comes from that, which means that you have invested yourself. You are ingrained in a thing. And you're calling out on behalf of that. Deesis, to some degree, flows from this, which is the key word for sanctification, supplication. And it's very interesting that if you are committed to the Lord of the harvest, the Lord, to raise up and teach for the development of oligos, those that will be indigenous representations of a kingdom mentality in a place, in a nation.

You are ingrained in that calling and you recognize the desperation for that development. Deomai is a cry out of the midst of need. And you you've already some of you have already skipped ahead. You see how it's used. I besought them or this the father with the demonized son, besought the Lord.

I besought your disciples. He was ingrained in that, that desperate situation, and he called out on behalf of the need of that situation. I think that this kind of shines a new light on what it means to bind the strong man. We've talked about this before. That would mean that the greater one has sent you for that time to that place, and your hold on the authority in that place on behalf of the instruction from the throne of God, you you are committed to that mission and you want it more because it's what God says.

So when you bind the strong man, the enemy is there because he's an interloper. The enemy may may be there because he was originally created by God before he rebelled to serve the kingdom in that place. That was the scenario with man that was the demoniac of Gadara. He had an army of unclean spirits at his behest. And he besought the Lord, torment me not.

He appealed Adaomi, besought, torment me not. Have you come to eradicate me from this place before the time? He was invested there only because God had positioned him there. And when he rebelled, being deceived by the enemy, he then became an unclean or a blocking influence. A damai is the is the call of somebody who is not only committed to something, but is calling forth in that commitment from a fully ingrained devotion to that place or that purpose.

And Jesus uses this term for those, He's talking to the 70, isn't He? Who are being sent out two by two. The Holy Ghost is indicating polis and he's saying, you need to be calling out to God to establish oligos in that place where you're being sent. You're not just going there to raise up an evangelistic photo. Well, bless God, we had 400 people that come and accepted the Lord.

You know, in 1968 as a 10 year old boy, I sang alto in the Billy Graham Crusade Choir at Pitt Stadium in Pittsburgh. That was a really unique experience. And I appreciate what Billy Graham did where he had these crusades. He'd come into cities and pack stadiums, And there would be hundreds and hundreds of people that would go down and accept the message of the saving grace of the Lord, and they'd fill out little pieces of paper, and then those would be distributed to the churches who had committed themselves to support financially or with ushers or with choir members or even with counselors. You need to have crowd control there when all those people stream up.

So they distribute these cards, and I heard somewhere that it was a good work. I'm not dissing it. But the percentage of people who actually continued on with the Lord, and it would be worth it for one. All of heaven rejoices when one soul commits himself to the Lord. I understand that.

But out of all of those people, I wonder in light of what we're talking about today, how many of them then were taken deeper into the things that God really wanted them to be his sons. So this is a few thing. And those who actually commit themselves to to be submitted and committed to the kingdom coming and God's will being done. That's few. That's few.

And you as saints are one of them, or at least we're called to be. So when we pray in this way, we're not iteoing. We're not We're not. Any of the other prayer words. This is a an appeal from the depth of our place of involvement and commitment that this work of committed people in the places and the regions and the cities, the nations where God sends us, that there would be those who would rise up to say, give me this mountain.

I'm not here to play church. I'm not here to build a monstrosity of a building. I am here to see the kingdom come. And when you cry out, maybe this is a barak. I think this is probably indicative of what barak really means.

No. Because you're blessed from the throne And Baka, the kind of cry that the elders, the Ayin, would offer up, I think Diami probably aligns with Baka. And that kind of commitment is what dislodges those that wrongfully have control currently of strongholds. So you're not going to give it the good old college try. You're not going to go into a stadium, toot the shofar a couple times and say, well bless God we prophesied it, it's going to be.

I see that all over Europe. And so many people just become mister conference, and they go from place to place to place, and they think that they've done all there is necessary. Listen. Until you die to self, until you decrease so that he might increase, until you Dei Ami, where you are not only committed, you are ingrained in the calling that God has given. To do what?

To raise up sons. To raise up these oligos. And maybe there's some kind of demonic prophecy with these Democratic Socialists

who are saying we've got to get rid of the oligarchs.

Let's see how California does when all the oligarchs move to Texas, North Dakota, and Florida. Let's see how they're going to fund all their social programs when all the oligarchs are gone and all their businesses have vacated. Let's see how that works out. Seattle's already lamenting. Starbucks is on the way out.

Boeing probably will be, even though they probably have sweetheart deals, governmentally. But I think maybe it's a prophetic thing that the enemy is saying the Holy Spirit is trying to raise up oligarchs. And I remember what Jesus said, the harvest is great, the labors are few. And what's the pre eminent, what's predated concept here? You don't put your hand to the plow, and when you see what it's like to be digging in the ground say, I don't want to do that.

I don't want to dig deeper. I don't want to commit myself to plant anything here. I put my hand to it but no, you turn from it, the kingdom is not coming for you. Don't get mad at me. That's written in red just a few verses before if you'd like to read it.

And then there the Lord says, come follow me. And and what he said, you know, I know I've got to do this. I've got to do it. You just don't understand. Nobody knows the troubles I see.

What did Abram do? He picked up and he left. He followed the Lord. What did Elijah say to Elisha? Hey, I've thrown my mantle over you.

You gotta follow me now. Oh no, let me go back. Do what you're gonna do, but I'm gone. God doesn't tolerate fools in in that respect. Fool is ephron.

Remember? I refuse to breathe hard after God. I refuse to communicate out of the depth of my spirit. I refuse to embody what God has put me on this earth to do. That's what a fool really is.

That's the term in the New Testament. So pray, Deomai. May need to adjust a little bit our definitions there. But I do think under the anointing of the spirit that that's since it's being told to the elders, the 70, the ayin. You know, in the Old Testament, if the ayin is Baka, here the ayin is being told to Deomai.

And it's that cry from deep within. Now not all the usages of that in the New Testament is what I'm saying in a righteous way. You had a demonic ruler that was trying this. You had the the little boy that was possessed by an unclean spirit. His dad was crying out.

It just indicates a cry from something that you're entrenched in. But when we're committed to the kingdom and we're committed to this mesh message to raise up sons and to establish those that would be oligos in nations and those that would teach and labor. It's a tough go, but it's worth it. Some of you probably getting tired of doing it. I know I've been, but when I'm weak, he's made strong.

And I know I've looked at the harvest, just what I see. And I have lamented that in the natural we don't have enough workers. We don't have people to appoint to tasks. We have some, but not enough. And we need to be praying specifically for the other nations, but even here in The US.

I look at I look at obligations and things that the Lord has put before us here, and I've listed them out. There's probably I said not long ago that there are five of them. There's nine of them, and they're all developmental, and they have to be done. And, yeah, I've tried to do it. Well, why don't you ask me, pastor?

I'm not just gonna dole these things out. It it's it's more of a headache to try to run roughshod babysitting people, telling them what to do, making sure they're doing it. Did you do this? Did you do oh, I forgot. I'll get around to it.

No. We've we've got to see divine appointment and I'm praying about that because it's frustrating. I'm not lamenting here. It's good that the harvest is great. It's good that the fields are plentiful.

It's good. You know, you see another story that Jesus tells a parable about, you know, the harvest is there. He has laborers, but he recognizes I need more. So he goes out to people that are lounging about in their and he says, come on in. And then he goes to another and these people are lounging about and he says, come on in.

We need those interested laborers in their histamine who currently are unemployed. I need that. Well then what about the story of the prodigal? I can understand why the older son didn't know how to respond when the heavenly father was saying, let's kill the fatted calf. You know, obviously, the heavenly father knew that this guy wasn't just playing around.

He could then be entrusted as a as a as a younger son. And but you can't just sing that song, come home. Come home. You know, you can't just say, well I'm back, I've made a mess of my life, here I am. Now what did that guy say?

I want to be as your hired servant. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired servants. He was there to serve. And so if prodigals want to come back, I'm not interested in what you've been doing.

I'm interested in whether you're gonna commit yourself and serve. Now, you know, Jesus says to the elder son, all that I have is yours. I pray that God will help us to realize that and to begin to utilize it in a way that's productive for the kingdom because that older brother was working. He was he was hard at it, but he obviously wasn't utilizing all that was available to him in the father's house. And then you have that parable of the vineyard where all the people earn the same pay, and the the ones that have been there all day are ticked off.

That's kind of a Pentecostal term, ticked off, as opposed to those terms that some of you say. What does that mean there? On the surface, it doesn't make sense. If I was in the union and I worked all day and some doofus comes in and worked for two hours, you better believe the union's gonna speak up about that. Because this guy's worked eight to ten hours, he should be getting union wages more than what this guy's getting.

That wasn't the issue. When you're working in the kingdom, you're earning the same privilege of fulfilling your identity, serving God, rejoicing in his blessing and his benefit. And I have that same privilege as somebody that's fresh in the field down in Rio De Sostras, Brazil. This is God's way. And so I believe that God is calling us to legitimately look at this.

Laborers are oligos, dia mi. We don't need to be complaining. We don't need to be putting threefold prayer requests, arguing our case in the courtroom of heaven. We need to do what Jesus says from the point of our commitment where we are ingrained and absolutely entrenched in service to the Lord by divine edict. We need to call on God, that laborers, those that will do the work and will learn and teach will rise into a position not in pride, but in servitude.

This is what we should be praying. Yeah. Go your ways. Verse three. I send you as lambs among wolves.

And and he says, I'm gonna supply for you. And he says, whatever place you enter into say peace be to this house. And if there is a commitment of sons for the accomplishment of the task, your peace rests upon it. And if not, it comes to you again. In the same house remain.

Don't go from house to house but whatever city you enter into they receive you. Eat such he goes on. You know sometimes I know I've irritated some of the more tender hearted members of our teams because we go, we go, we go. And then after a while I think, like the guy that was fertilizing the fig tree every year, finally the master says, shake off the dust. Cut that tree down.

And we're not mean about it, but you've got to go where people are sincere. If they're just wanting you to come because they like you, if they want you to come because you're an American or whatever nationality you are and they love to welcome people into their country from other lands, hopefully people are going to like you. You know sometimes people have left our church here because they get a check-in their spirit and they have a strange peace when they leave. They're not wanting to follow the things we're doing, but they want to remain friends. Oh, we we wanna still fellowship with you.

And while we bless them, the epistles say, you know, you love them, but don't fellowship with them because they will dumb you down. They'll draw you into things that quenches the fire of the spirit within you. It feels weird for me and I'm just opening my heart here. I fellowship with a lot of different people and sometimes I'm with people that aren't even spirit filled, they're Christians. I have friends in the medical field who I fellowship with who are Christians but they're not walking in the spirit.

They're not walking as saints. And it feels weird to me because I know their language. I know the language of the general church. I can quote scripture toe to toe with them. But it's like we're from different planets.

And if you hang around them, you're gonna become enamored with that. You're gonna start thinking, you know, what fellowship has what we're doing with Christ have with the world? Or God forbid with Belial. It's difficult. So we have to remember who we are and this shaking of the dust is very important.

You know in Brazil, I gotta be careful with this, but there are a lot of churches that want an American team to come in and minister. Oh and they like to have a spontaneous visitation of the Spirit. They love that. Who doesn't? But after a few years I recognize they're not doing the things that were imparted to them.

They're not praying. They're not proscuneoing. They're not speaking in diversities of tongues. And they don't want to. They like the general church.

And we love them, we greet them, we embrace them, but I'm not scheduling to go back into their churches. There are too many places that actually want what God is sending us, and we have to go there. And again, I know there are tender hearted people that say, oh, well, you don't love them. Yeah. We love them.

There's a lot of people that God loves in his family, but there aren't a whole lot of sons. You know, maybe maybe you've had to evaluate in your will. Maybe those of you who've had younger children and you maybe have them now, and you think, okay, if something were to happen to me, who would I who in my will would I commit my the care of my children to? Now you want to talk about who's committed, don't you? Now it's costing you something, and you do the mental math.

Well, these people are wonderful people, but I they don't really commit themselves to the Lord. I'm not sure how my kid's gonna be raised. These people over here, they're great people. We have fun with them, but they're not really somebody I would want to entrust my kid to. You do that.

You admit that you do it. I know you do it. If you have any sense at all. We did this when our girls were little and we we made arrangements. Thank God he kept us alive.

But you you think we do that in natural parents? And you don't think the Lord who gave his life wants us to be very selective as to who we are forging the kingdom with? Especially if they put their hand to the plow and only touch it when we come back into town. I'm preaching at you. I know probably the only person who's saying Amen is Fran.

But we need to learn again. I know that DMI is translated as pray. How else were those sixteen eleven and fifteen eighty nine translators gonna translate this? Deo is to be bound to something, to be committed to something. And whatever you bind on earth is bound in heaven.

The whole new slant of what that word means. You know, we just use it in in defensive or warfare terms, and even though I know that can be the binding the power of binding is not you smiting something with a sword, it's you going in with the commitment from the throne on behalf of what God's will is and whoever wants it most wins. Now you bind the strong man, it's gonna be a clash of who believes, of who is really sent from God, and who has been commissioned to take authority in that place. Not just by spouting two or three verses and tooting the shofar. But I'm committed here.

I'm not going anywhere. The kingdom of heaven suffers violence. The violent take it by force. Remember the illustration I used, that was like the king of the hill thing. I am standing in the gap.

I've done all to stand and I'm standing. You're not gonna blow me out of here. This is where the kingdom comes. And when you perets, then you perets. Deomai, bind.

So how would that work with whatever you bind on earth is bound in heaven? I think that it's going before the Lord and saying, Father, I'm committed here. I welcome your kingdom. Or you're going to a place and you you're you've got people that are committed and they're they're wanting to do this work. You declare that that they're bound into that place that God has called them to, and that is settled in heaven, and he begins to release things.

The loosing is the empowerment. It's almost like perets parats, isn't it? It's almost like Bacha and the release of water, isn't it? And when you go and you bind the strongman, what happens at the end of that? The goods are distributed.

Makes sense, doesn't it? So DMI is an operative term based upon your commitment, your placement, and what God has called you to do. Let's begin to pray that way. I dumped a lot on you. We'll see you this Friday for the power devotional and then again this weekend.

May God bless you. Thanks for listening. Goodbye.