Joshua 1:1 “After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, (the Lord said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ aid):”
In a sense, the primary leader is the servant of the Lord and the others are his servants. It was not because he was the Number One man. It was not because God started with him. He was not called “servant” from the beginning. He went through the process step by step, serving Jethro, and so forth. You can’t start by serving God. Do you know Him?
I am not asking whether you are saved. You are very saved.
It is one thing for your sins to be forgiven. It is another thing to know God.
Part of my worry is that many people do not worry about the fact that they do not know God, and they are not actively seeking Him so that they will know Him. By the grace of God, we shall write the book entitled, “Seeking God,” because:
There are many people seeking God’s power, but they are not seeking God. There are many people seeking God’s blessings, but they are not seeking God.
Three pretty girls entered a jewellery shop, and the jeweller was very wealthy and very generous. He told them, “Ask anything you want in the shop and I’ll give you.”
Ah! One girl saw a very beautiful diamond. She wondered, “Can I ask for that?” Then she had the courage to ask for it. He told her, “Take it.” Oh wonderful! She took it and she danced, danced and danced. The other girl saw some fabulous gold. The gold of Ophir. She hesitated and then she asked for it. The man said, “Take it.” Oh! She took it and rejoiced. Then the third girl, timid, with shaky steps, walked towards him and said, “I want you.” The man was single, so he married her and then she owned the shop.
God said to Levi, “You shall have no inheritance, no portion in their land. I am your Portion and I am your Inheritance.” And in that act, He made Levi the richest. Others have land, Levi has God. Finally, the others had land, Levi had cities. Levi had the meat that was already brought in, and the priests had what was already cooked.
My prayer is that you should stop looking for these things and seek God and, like that girl, when you have found God, you will have all these things. I am thinking about people who will take a long fast to invest it in seeking God or invest a long prayer crusade in the seeking of God; people who will bring a sacrificial gift and say, “God, I place this gift on the altar and I ask that You give me Yourself.”
The problem is that believers know too many words but too little action. Most people here have not had a personal appearance of God to them. Many know nothing about Moses’ experience when he said, “Lord, show me your glory.” So that God had to take him, hide him in a rock and pass before him and show him all His goodness.
I would like the Yaounde Elders to repent because they have heard this truth about withdrawing to seek God that He might appear personally to you since 1981, for 15 years. I have given my testimony a number of times, when I went to Mont Fébé and told God that I would not come back until He appeared to me, and what happened. Brethren, you people have been very wicked to yourselves; none of you has come to ask me even to tell you a little more. Even those of you who are being discipled by me, I know most of you go on retreats, but I don’t know anyone of you who said, “I am going to seek God.”
One encounter with God can take a person 15 years ahead, because in one real encounter, the scales fall off and everything is different.
Listen, Brethren, when I was striving to sell the car we sold last year, Brother P.S. came and said, “But why is it that I don’t know any bother about selling such things in order to give God? You have been bothering and bothering and bothering about selling this car in order to give God the money as supplementary giving. Why is it that I know no such desires?” The difference is not consecration because Brother P.S. is consecrated. The difference is that I was given a vision of hell and I was given a vision of heaven one year after that. It is as clear as if I saw it today the agony of the lost and the ecstasy of the saints. One vision of what it means to be in hell, and even at your worst, you can never be the same. One vision of the ecstasy of the saints in heaven, and you are not the same. Most brethren here have not received ministry from angels, but they are satisfied.
Brethren, is it not surprising that after I came out of 7 days of waiting on the Lord early this year, having locked myself just to be in God’s presence alone, the only person I know who set out to imitate me, one month after that, was Sister H.M. who locked herself up for 7 days? Some months after that, Sister C.M.B. locked herself up for 7 days. They might not have gone very far, but they have begun the practice that will lead to a breakthrough. The men around me surprise me by their horrible commitment to being originals. Brethren, the truth is that apart from a few exceptions, the people who are actively trying to imitate me are the sisters. It is an unholy contentment or an unholy “I-don’t-careism.” But I want to say that God can be sought, and God can be found. And when you find Him, you want to seek Him some more.
This December, I shall lock myself up for 10 days. Next year, I shall lock myself up for 14 days. If the Lord tarries, in 1998, I shall lock myself up for 21 days. I shall do this increasingly, until the day when there will be 40 days that I have spent only beholding His face, undistracted by the face of man.
Spiritual experience is what is received in return for a price paid.