The Hallmark of Death (Part 2) – Radical Spiritual Transformation | Dying to Self and Following Jesus

There is nothing like ritual. Y’all eat lunch together every day, I know you do. It just kind of goes from sop to syrup, and then it goes good…and then it dies. Somebody had a strong spirit and got it started. Do you know why it died? It got in a rut; there was nothing new. Where is a new strong spirit that can walk on the spot? Gee, that’s exciting, Gene, let’s do that. That’s not enough. None of this is enough. There has got to be a total end to being. Then, in the process, half dies and the other half lives; there has also got to be a total living to Jesus Christ. We have a long way to go. Tonight is basically a negative message. Brother and sister, I ask you again to come back to the Lord, raise standards, and get violent. Come up with some new things in new territories that have not been touched so far.

Youth is for getting saved, giving your life to the Lord, and getting married. It’s what youth is for. Middle age is for serving the Lord. Old age is for being a testimony to his faithfulness.  To the single sisters, you’re really banking on me to get these brothers to get married. I think the single sisters have got to face a heavy thing. I mean, that is, that many of you will not, in fact, be married. Now, sister, you can struggle with the next 20 or 30 years of your life, or you can settle today that you will be the Lord’s and give your passion and your love to Him.

Single sisters, I want you to know the church of Jesus Christ depends on you. Utterly dependent on you. Totally dependent on your example. To be an example of what the bride of Jesus Christ is like. To the married sisters, I would say…boy, the married sisters feel so condemned sometimes about having children and having a home. You must not feel that way. We don’t sit around here encouraging people to get married and then get condemned over it. You have got to learn to be an outward help, not always an inward one, to your husband to go on with the Lord and not be a hindrance to him as he leaps forward. Therein, you must be very careful.

But sister, I’m more concerned about something else: your tongue. Your tongue. I would say to a married sister, “Oh, married sister, be so careful about what you say.” Your great damage to your husband often comes from what you say about others. Sometimes the church of Christ is destroyed initially by a wife saying something to her husband, and it is interesting that in the scripture, there is a pointed word said to sisters whose husbands are elders, whose husbands are servants, and whose husbands are workers. You carry a triple responsibility. Sometimes Eve’s seed is planted in a dear brother’s heart. He would never have thought about it if his wife had not planted it there. If you wish to do battle, do battle there: end negative discussion of other saints, situations, and spiritual conditions in the Lord’s house.

I have only walked around the outer edges of this thing. I have not at all tonight dealt with the main thing. The main thing is this. Step one: we must go to the Lord and give Him our lives to be brought to an utter death. I would ask you to bring everything that you can name to Him; everything, and ask Him to bring it to an end. This is the negative. One day we will come to the positive, but we need a deep impression of the negative. I ask you to be so practical with the Lord tomorrow. Try to live out tomorrow in the sense of tonight…and be my help to do the same.

I want you to know the Lord’s making some progress. Not much, but we are not where we were, generally speaking, 3 months ago. Some of us haven’t moved a peg, but there’s been a little work in general among the Lord’s people. Praise the Lord, a better day is coming. I have not given you all the help there is for this; the Lord didn’t allow this summer to be a time to give us much help. This has been a pretty dry summer for spiritual revival, but it has been a time to get an idea of what the Lord is after.

You have been reading some dear chapters on humility. Have we had time with chapter 12? I passed it out, but nothing was done. May I ask you to turn that room over there into a 24-hour intercession that God brings this church to be nothing. That we might have an example as clear as the life and testimony of Madame Guyon, and that is not, in fact, enough; that we must be the testimony of Jesus Christ; that we must be the bride’s own testimony.

Brother, sister, will you make this something that we bombard heaven with? Will you go to the Lord and make this a real thing of prayer? In doing it, say to the Lord, by Your Spirit within me, show me clearly the territory you’re demanding in my life. Let’s get back to being ruthless with ourselves and with one another, and so sensitive to our helpless condition before the Lord. If you see me fall short of that which I speak, I beg you, let part of your prayer be, “Lord, I’ll not take Gene as my example.” If you do that, we’re all ruined; take the Lord, not as your example, but as your footsteps.

Brothers, I tell you, right up here is a mind that can hardly even think in the terms that we must live in. We can hardly even articulate this. Watch our testimonies in the meeting. We hardly even know how to talk about this subject; how far we have to go, how much we need to pray. I beg you to be bold. Don’t go whining and whimpering. Turn those prayers to the Lord. Challenge Him with His own faithfulness. Speak to the Lord’s triumph, for He has triumphed.

Father, bring every one of us individually and the church corporately to utter death till there is no feeling, until we are in the name that You can begin to be All. If it takes a lifetime, Lord, we’re committed. We are forever committed to this work in our lives. Change us, alter us, so that when men meet us, they will know we live in a very confined place; that we are not privileged to wander all over with our thoughts and our words, but that we live a very strict life before the Lord. A life of constantly being put to death to our own desires, whatever they are. Come to the Lord and raise a standard higher than my words can raise. Praise the Lord.