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I hope that I am preaching today to people who desire for God to move actively, powerfully, and freely in your life. The scriptures prophesy of a time that would come in the end time where a generation of people would be "lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God," and

Just as God prophesied, a large group of people from every age, season, culture, and walk of life has arisen in these days who fulfill such a description. We have a generation of churchgoers who are satisfied to just attend church every once in a while, and label themselves as a Christian and so in such present a "form of godliness" but who deny the power of God working in their lives. When people desire a crown without a cross and a victory without a fight and holiness without repentance, then they become a people that grow accustomed to dead religion that impacts little in their life and they grow accustomed to living their life without His power.

But I want to obey the commandment of Paul about such people: "have nothing to do with them." Because I don't want to grow used to God NOT working in my life, but rather I want to get used to God doing great things all the time! I want God's power to be a frequent visitor in my walk. I want God's purpose and activity to be a common thread throughout my days. I have learned that religious activity is no substitute for a real God interacting with humanity and furthermore I have tasted of His goodness and Spirit and once you taste His power, then no religious creation of this world will ever do. Once you have tasted of the heavenlies, then you will no longer be satisfied with the traditions of men, therefore I want to be a conduit for the Holy Ghost and an opportunity for Him to work!

Jesus promised His disciples that they would receive "power after the Holy Ghost" came upon them (Acts 1:8). The Greek word for power there is dunamis where we get the word "dynamite." It means "explosive force," and "breathtaking power," and yet some Christians are more like smoke bombs than a stick of high explosive: a big show and not much pop. But I have made up in my mind that if God has an awesome blessing for me that goes beyond the ordinary, then I want it! I refuse to settle for less. The scriptures say:

The greatest thing that you have heard that God could possibly do in your life, is tame compared with the even greater things that God has for us! Somebody -- even today -- make up in your mind that "I'm going to get before I leave everything that God has for me!" I will have nothing to do with a generation that denies the power of God in their life.

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If you, then, are desiring for God to move in your life greatly, then you will be thrilled with our subject today, because I want to clue you in to a sort of secret to getting God move in your life. It's not deep, but it's so obvious that most people forget it's importance. That secret key is found in "preparing for Him." Preparation is the key to getting God to move in your life.

Before you think that I've gone off the deep end, you ought to know that the Old Testament can be summed up in the one word of "preparation." The goal of creation was for God to create a creature in His image with which He could fellowship and have a relationship with. The universe was created as a surrounding to the solar system. The solar system was created as a home for the earth. The earth was created to be a place to hold a garden, and a garden was planted and prepared by God as a home and habitat for His prized creation, you and I. And from this comes a great truth: God does not just "plop" His power about haphazardly, but rather His power is only manifested through and to a properly prepared place.

When man sinned and messed up the perfectness of the place that God had prepared for him, we find that God began an elaborate plan to bring forgiveness and redemption from that sin so that man could once again find a close relationship with Him. The blood sacrifices of Genesis give way to the laws of Moses and yet throughout the Old Testament, we are being pointed toward a day where His power will be revealed through the birth of a baby that would be "Immanuel" which being interpreted is "God with us!" Have you ever thought about how crazy it is that there are 39 books of the Old Testament and only 27 in the New? Have you ever noticed that four fifths of the Bible is the Old Testament? Have you ever noticed that the Old Testament books span events of thousands of years and yet the New Testament less than seventy? Why is that? Certainly the New Testament is important because it is the revealed glory and plan of God to us! But could it be that God is trying to emphasize something to us? Could it be that God is showing us how much planning and preparation went into our salvation? And could it be that He is trying to teach us a principle that preparation is the key to having the glory and power of God manifest within us?

Between the Old and New Testaments are 400 years of silence in which God stopped speaking publicly, but yet was working feverishly behind the scenes to prepare earth for His coming. And when it finally came time for the baby to be born, God did not just plop Himself into the manger, but first arranged a miracle baby for another woman so that six months before His earthly ministry would begin, there would be someone preaching to "prepare the way of the Lord." The angel told the father of this child who would become known as "John the Baptist":

Surely there is nobody here that would deny that Jesus Christ was the most power-packed man whose feet ever touched the continents! This is the man from whom demons fled in panic, disease followed suit, and whom conquered death, hell, and the grave. This is the man whose voice rang with such authority that the winds and seas obeyed Him and who could cause the laws of gravity to be of none effect. Bro. Hancock recently pointed out to me the scripture in the Old Testament where it says about Jehovah God:

"Only Jehovah God of the Old Testament can walk upon the waves of the sea," Job said and so when you see Jesus Christ walking to His frightened disciples on the tops of the white caps of the Sea of Galilee, know that you are witnessing the God of the Old Testament come in flesh to dwell among His people. All of the power of a God that fills the universe was bundled up inside the body of Jesus Christ! He was and is the most powerful being that has ever tread anywhere!

And yet that mighty power of God that was represented by Jesus Christ only came after the proper preparation had taken place. After the plan had been fulfilled. After God had spent countless hours getting everything arranged. After a man had come to preach repentance to "make ready a people prepared for the Lord" and the people had responded. THEN the power of God was manifest to them! Accident? No, God was trying to impress upon us that if we want to see His power; if we desire to have Him move upon us; if we desire for His presence to be here, then we must prepare ourselves. Think about all the preparation and planning and cleansing and arranging and details that went into building the temple in the Old Testament and yet it was only after the preparation was complete that the visible presence of God Almighty descended into it and inhabited it, and then remember that our lives are now the temple of the Holy Spirit and therefore we must become a temple prepared for Him! If you want God to reveal Himself mightily in your life, then it will not come by accident, but it will come because you have prepared yourself for His coming!

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In our text, we read a remarkable miracle that is not mentioned as much as perhaps the blinded eyes that were opened or the deaf ears that were unstopped but is a miracle just the same. It has come down to the last week of Jesus' life and this year as Jerusalem gets ready for the annual Passover meal, they are largely unaware that Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, will be the Ultimate Passover sacrifice. Because Jesus would die the evening of the Passover, He and His disciples would eat the Passover meal an evening early. They would eat the meal on the day commonly called "the preparation of the Passover."

The Passover was the biggest and most important festival of the year for the Jewish people. I can only compare it to our Christmas for you to get a modern idea. The stores were shut and not allowed to be opened on the day of the Passover, and so the day before, "Passover eve" if you will, was the day where everyone scurried to get the final preparations and work done for that important day. How many of you ever made the mistake of going into town shopping on Christmas Eve? Take the scene at the mall on December 24th, this year and substitute camels for cars, stalls for stores, shekels for Visa, and robes for nakedness and you have a somewhat general idea of what the "preparation of the Passover" was like.

And so it is the day before this preparation day, and the disciples ask Jesus "where are we going to eat the Passover meal?" And the Bible says that Jesus sends two of His disciples -- we know from other passages that it was Peter and John -- and tells them to go into the busy city of Jerusalem, and that they will see a servant carrying a large pitcher of water from the well and when you see that man, follow him, and when you come to the house, say to the owner of the house "The Master says, where is the guest chamber where I shall eat the Passover with my disciples?" And the scriptures say that the disciples obeyed exactly what Jesus had said, and were amazed to find that it worked out perfectly as He had said!

I want you to grasp the significance of this miracle. First of all, the disciples do not mention Jesus by name, but just "the Master says." Second of all, the owner of the house, allows complete and total strangers to come in and dine in his home. Third of all, the man has a room set up for thirteen men to eat the Passover meal a day early on the day of preparation where most people would still be trying to pull it together. Fourth, he is not surprised by the request, but immediately ushers Peter and John and shows them the room.

What this leads me to believe is that Jesus Christ chose this particular house and this particular man to host the Last Supper because this man was "prepared" to host it. There is no preconceived arrangements here. Jesus didn't slip behind the disciples back and go put money down on a rental and a caterer. In fact, Jesus has been with the disciples continually for at least a week, and for the last three months before that has been off in Perea far away from Jerusalem. There is no pre-arrangement here.

From all of these clues, let me tell you what is the most likely scenario that matches all the criteria and what I think happened. I think that this owner of the house was a believer in Jesus and was thinking about Jesus and His disciples coming to Jerusalem. And I believe that he prepared a guest room for their supper without even being asked by Jesus directly. Obviously, Jesus did not send the two disciples at first thing at sunrise because they would have seen literally hundreds of servants carrying waterpots because that was the normal time of the day to go to the well. But it was later in the morning so that the only servant that they saw carrying water from the well was this man who was getting extra water in preparation of the room that he was preparing. That this event was what Jesus told His disciples to look for indicates that his going to get water was something that would cause him to stand out from the crowd. The extra water requiring a second trip? It was because the owner of the house was preparing a room for a Passover meal for thirteen guys. And despite no prearranged deals, and despite not knowing where Jesus was at the time. When the man prepared, Jesus showed up!

If you want to entertain Jesus in your life this morning, then the key is to prepare a place for Him to come into! If you prepare the place, then know that Jesus will definitely show up! He will never turn away from a prepared vessel! If you make your life a place prepared for Him, then know that He assuredly will turn up at such a place! Because He has spent eternity preparing your salvation and preparing this opportunity for you to receive His power, and so such a God jumps and immediately responds to a human who return the favor and prepare to meet Him! Prepare your heart to find Him and it will! Prepare your heart to receive His Spirit and you will! Prepare yourself for a mighty touch and you shall receive it!

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The kingdom of God at it's most basic and elemental form comes down to preparedness. Paul writing to the church in Rome said:

God prepares a man or a woman to heed the call of Christ and to preach His Gospel. This person prepares themselves for ministry and finds their niche in the kingdom of God. They then prepare to preach the Word of God and the Word of faith to those who will gather together to hear it. We have a service of praise and prayer before the preaching so that people can prepare their minds to receive the Word of God. After they receive the Word of God, then the people must respond to it by preparing their hearts to receive the promise of the Word of God. After they receive the promise, they must allow God's Word and Spirit to prepare them to meet Jesus at His Second Coming. He has gone away to prepare for us a place to be with Him for eternity, but He will come back and those who are prepared to meet Him will go with Him to the place prepared for them! The Kingdom of God in it's most basic form is "preparedness!"

But what I want to stress to you is that if anywhere in the process, there is a lack of preparing, then the cycle ends. What if nobody heeds the call of God to prepare themselves to preach the Gospel, then Paul said "how are they to preach unless they are sent?" What if the preacher refuses to prepare themselves to minister the Word of God needed for this exact moment, then Paul said "how can they hear without a preacher?" What if the preacher preaches, and yet the people have not assembled themselves and with prayer and praise and coming together prepared themselves to receive it? Paul said "faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God," therefore if you are not here to hear the Word of God, then the greatest sermon in the world can do no good because you will not have the faith to receive it because of your lack of hearing! And what if the people who physically hear it yet don't receive it and prepare themselves to receive it? Then the cycle has stopped. And what if Jesus were not really coming back? Then what would be the point if He has not truly gone to prepare us a place?

If any part of the cycle were broken by a lack of preparedness, then the entire cycle would fail. But understand where you are today. A preacher has heeded the call of God and been sent to this area. The man of God has prepared the Word of God for this service today and is here delivering it as we speak. You are here and have prepared your hearts to receive the Word of God by attending this service and worshipping in the congregation. And certainly Jesus Christ has gone away to prepare us a place and will be back one day for His people! Therefore the responsibility of the kingdom of God rests upon you today. The only way we can fail to have a move of God here today would be if those who hear the promises of the Word of God refuse to prepare themselves to receive them! The only way we cannot have the supernatural power of God revealed would be for those under the sound of my voice to decide that they would not prepare themselves to receive it working in their lives. It is not an issue of whether or not God wants to or can move today, it's an issue if we will allow Him by preparing our lives as a place for Him to operate! What is the state of your heart today? Is it a locked door and a barred gate in the spirit? Or is it a open door with a room prepared for Him to come and dine with you!? Are you caught by surprise at His knocking on the door, or have you been expecting it? What is the level of your preparedness today? Are you prepared to give Him the run of the house or just to say high at the door and then shut it in His face? Where is your level of preparedness today?

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Making your life a place prepared for Him does not mean that you must "get good to get God." The Spirit and power of God does not come to those who are perfect, but rather to those who will prepare their hearts for Him. There are three specific things that you can do to prepare yourself for His coming into your life today:

1. Repent.

Scriptural repentance has two parts: asking God to forgive your sins, and expressing a desire to turn from your old lifestyle and exchange it for the lifestyle that God has for you. When you ask God to forgive you of your sins, you are admitting your need for Him in your life and thus humbling yourself before Him. When you express to Him that you want a change in lifestyle, then you are giving Him an invitation to come and work in your life. Both are essential: God will not come where He is not wanted, and He will not work where He is not invited.

Our other text said:

Being a "vessel of honor" that is "prepared for every good work" comes from "cleansing ourselves" from the things of this world. True repentance prepares you to be a vessel of honor through which God can work. In this church, there will never be anyone lead you in a "sinner's prayer" or ask you to repent to a man, because everyone must "cleanse himself" and you must pray the prayer to God and you must truly repent before Him. I can pray for you to have the understanding and faith that you need, but I cannot prepare your heart for you, you must be willing to pray the prayer of repentance in your own words and by your own volition.

2. Break up the fallow ground.

Throughout the Bible, the Word of God is referred to constantly as "a seed" that is planted which brings forth fruit. We are instructed for the seed to fall on "good ground." A good ground for a seed to fall on simply means a ground that is prepared for it. The ground must be tilled and broken up before it can adequately receive the seed produce the harvest. It was the prophet Hosea who said:

The "fallow ground" refers to the needed practice of Hebrew farmers to plow twice. The first plowing was to break up the hardened layer of earth that had been created from the weathering of the past year. It was a light plowing simply trying to loosen the hard upper crust. Such ground that had been plowed once was entitled "fallow ground." Before the seed was to be planted, it needed to be turned up again in a much deeper plowing. And so Hosea equated the natural to the spiritual.

Simply living in this world with it's many ways against the will of God places a hard crust upon our spiritual man that must be plowed up to allow the rain of the Holy Ghost and the seed of the Word of God to enter in. Many of you have been touched by God already this morning. Perhaps you were touched by the moving of the Spirit during the worship. That was getting you to the place where that hardened layer of carnality that developed throughout the week was broken and softened up. Thank God for that. But that means that you are now "fallow ground" spiritually.

You need to allow God's Spirit to move upon you again and this time to "break up the fallow ground." You need to respond to God's Spirit again. You need to allow Him to dig deeper into your heart. You need to receive something deeper and even greater than what you experienced in worship service. It's time to break up the "fallow ground." It's time for the second brokenness and response to His Spirit. And then Hosea commanded:

3. Seek the Lord until He comes and receive Him.

Once you have reached this place of preparing your heart, you must not stop until He has come! You must seek after Him until He enters in and does the work! And you can have faith resting assured that He will never turn away a prepared heart! Jesus Christ will show up.

I close this message by taking you to the first two chapters of the book of Acts. Jesus was about to ascend into the clouds and before He left, He commanded for the disciples to go and wait in Jerusalem until they received the Holy Ghost. It is here that He told them that they would receive power -- dunamis -- after the Holy Ghost came. The disciples had seen the supernatural and even performed the supernatural, and yet the supernatural was about to happen to them!

Of the five hundred or so that heard the command, only 120 went to Jerusalem and assembled themselves together to prepare themselves for the promise of the Holy Ghost. I want you to notice that three steps of preparation were present at the Day of Pentecost in the first two chapters of Acts. The scripture records that "all His disciples" forsook Him at His arrest and so they repented of their past sins and asked God to help them forsake that lifestyle and to walk in His will. They spent an entire week (!) breaking up the fallow ground. They had been touched by Jesus for three and a half years on the outside, but they were about to receive His Spirit within them! And so they had to break up the fallow ground and believe that God had a supernatural experience for them beyond what they had experienced. They had to not be satisfied with just the fallow ground of having felt Jesus in their lives, but to desire all that God had for them. Most people today are just satisfied with a little touch, a shallow preparation, but God is looking for those like the 120 who will break up the fallow ground and allow God to touch them deeper than just a surface blessing!

And then they stayed there until they received what God had promised. The scripture says:

When they received this dunamis from heaven, it caused an uproar in Jerusalem and thousands of people gathered together to hear Peter preach about it. He finished his sermon with this:

"Repent and be baptized" -- in other words, prepare yourself -- and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit! The gift of God's Spirit that had just been received by the 120 was not limited to them, but would be available to everyone that God called and who prepared themselves with obedience to God's Word!

And so the promise is unto you today! You can receive the Holy Ghost and you can receive dunamis power for whatever your needs are today. But the secret to having God come move in your life is in preparation! Are you willing to prepare you heart through repentance? Are you willing to break up the fallow ground and seek Him until He comes? Because He will come -- if you make your life a place prepared for Him. To such a place, God will come and come speedily! Somebody prepare yourself and invite Him in to do something great, today!