________________________________________________________________________

It's something that I disagree with many preachers on but I strongly stand by my opinion. It's the misuse of the scripture that gives two criteria that must first take place for the return of Jesus Christ to happen. Paul wrote:

Two things, Paul said, must happen before the return of Jesus Christ: 1. a great falling away and 2. the antichrist will be revealed to the world. Paul wrote that scripture in A.D. 51 or 52. We know without a shadow of a doubt that the Antichrist is yet to be revealed to the world, but there are many, many preachers that are proclaiming that there must be a day of great backsliding that is yet to come too. I have a problem with that for several reasons. First and foremost I think that the "great falling away" has already happened in the Middle Ages. It was illegal for several hundred years for the ordinary man to even own a Bible then. Most of the church services were in Latin which nobody understood. That was when the Catholic Church used their political power to enforce such heresies as angel, relic, Mary, and saint worship, confession, the Pope, and the zillions of other things that the Catholic church does that directly contradicts scripture. There were very few people there that held to truth -- we know that there were some because it recorded that they were often killed for those beliefs -- but they were very few. The vast majority of people had no relationship with God and no way of getting one except to risk their life by going to the few rebels. Most of humanity had fallen away from truth.

There has never been another time and I don't believe that there will ever be such a time where the Word of God and truth was hidden from more people. The Antichrist is yet to come, but I say that the "great falling away" has already taken place. It would be impossible with technology the way it is for the devil to suppress God's Word to the level of the Middle Ages again. The falling away was yet to come when Paul wrote it in the A.D. 50s, but I firmly believe that here in 2005, we stand on the other side of the great falling away.

I bring it up because I have heard preachers preach from this as that it had yet to happen and preach negative faith so much that you felt like "falling away" before you left the service. And it has been my experience that you get what you preach. If you preach that there will be a massive backsliding with most people going back on God, then -- at least in your ministry and your church -- that's what you will get!

But I preach that we have not a great time of backsliding in our future but a great time of harvest! God promised that the last would be first and the first last! That means that what the Apostles experience in the Early Church it the book of Acts first will be in last place after God finishes what He wants to do in this last generation! God is moving mightier now in the world than He ever did in the book of Acts! In the book of Acts, God added to the church "daily" such as should be saved. After the missionary efforts of the original Apostles, the Holy Ghost had spread to Western Asia, parts of the Middle East, Southern Europe, and slightly into the most northern parts of Africa. That was then. I read recently a quote from our Foreign Missions Director that said that the stats show that on average EVERY 18 SECONDS someone receives the Holy Ghost in the world today! Every 18 seconds! That's because God's message has spread to every part of the globe; not just to a few select countries but it's in China, and in Africa millions are getting the Holy Ghost every year, and in South America and in North America, even Castroville! God's not adding daily to the church today, but every few seconds! We are not talking about a revival yet to come but about a time that's here!

Some people can't see it because they are looking in the wrong place. They are expecting the wrong things. My wife ran into some ladies this week from another church and when they found out that she was the pastor's wife, they were telling her about how hard it was going to be and how stressful and how many trials that she would have to endure and to prepare herself for the worst. My wife interrupted by telling them what God had done in just four years and what God has been doing recently and smiled and said "We're expecting God to do great things, not bad!" Some of you are looking negatively, as those people were, with the attitude of "when is God going to do something?" And in the little over 10 minutes that it's taken me to preach this far, over 30 people have received the Holy Ghost for the first time in the world! I think God responds to our little doubt and small visions sometimes with frustration because what we are praying for is not coming but is already here, it's just up to us to change our attitudes to allow it work in our life! The time is not coming, but the time for God to do great things, even in Castroville, is here. Now Is The Time for revival! Now is the Time for what God is doing!

_______________________________________________________________________

I don't think that there is a great backsliding that is going to take place, but I do think that in the plans of hell there is a great agenda to get Christians to lower their expectations. The devil doesn't want you to expect to receive something great from God. He wants you to get into this mode of always waiting on your answer to come one day. That you'll receive your blessing, tomorrow. And tomorrow never comes, because tomorrow then is today and you're still saying tomorrow. The scriptures say "Oh, Magnify the Lord with Me" but most Christians are better at magnifying everything else in their life. You magnify something by focusing on it until it appears bigger than everything else. As long as you are focused on the negative and the bad, then that's what's going to be in your life. And unchanged human nature is naturally drawn to the bad and the worst. I hate the news output today. I don't watch the news, nor do I read it in the newspaper very often. I don't make it a priority to listen to it on the radio or read a lot of it on the internet. Because 95% of it is negative. We're quick to accept bad news about somebody ("I always knew that they would do that") But skeptical to accept good news ("Them? Are you sure they did that?). Humans are naturally drawn to the scandals, the accidents, and everything that has gone wrong. And it's a natural result of our sinful nature. Doubt is as inherent in our sinful nature as doing sinful things is. They both came from the same place. But Christians who would never murder or steal, consistently give in to doubt and believe it sometimes over truth because they don't realize that it's a trick from the devil.

I think that Christians ought to be drawn to the positive things in life. I think that Spirit-filled believers ought to be brimming with excitement about what God is doing. People who are always down and depressed are people who have not yet got the revelation that doubt and fear is a trick from the enemy and not something that came from God and thus not something that you have to give in to, and instead you must fight completely. And according to scripture you should be able to be happy even when you are in the worst of circumstances. I'm not saying sugarcoat your troubles and lie about them, but rather that you should Magnify the Lord until you realize that compared to Him everything else is a small affair!

We need to change our attitude toward the times. The reason that we don't have great expectations and that we lose faith is because somewhere we think that we've got to see all the "stars lining up right" and everything has be going good for something great to happen in God. And because we can't see anything positive happening, we don't claim the promises of God and fall into the trap of the devil to not expect great things at this time of our life. A Godly principle about attitude toward negativity of the world is found in our text in Psalms. The writer said:

The writer of the 119th Psalm was the "real deal," spiritually. Go read what he had been praying in the rest of the Psalm. It's a gem of scripture that emphasizes the need for God to be worshiped and the need for the Word of God in his life. This is a Godly man speaking who has a mature view of living for God. And in our text, he says to God: "they have made void thy law."

The New International Version says "your law is being broken." The Today's English Version says "people are disobeying your law." The entire verse in the New Living Translation reads:

Some of you need to catch this and let it change you. This Godly man lived in a time when obviously most of the people around him were disobeying God's commandments and not doing right. It was not a positive situation. What the Psalmist did NOT say is instructive. He did NOT say "God I'm the only one who cares about your Word anyway, help me." He did NOT have a pity party for himself. He did NOT say "I'm depressed, Lord and worried because every where I look I see people breaking your commandments." He did NOT say "Lord toast this evil generation and save only me." There's no hypocritical soapboxes here. And there's certainly no doubt. He does NOT say "Lord your word says that you can do this and that, but I'm not seeing it so I'm not sure if you really can do it."

What he did say is "Lord everybody is breaking your law, it's time for you to work!" "Lord almost everybody is doing bad and they have 'made void' your commandments, therefore it's time for You to do what only You can do, God!" I like his attitude. Where the doubters see millions of sinners, this Godly man sees the setup for a massive revival! Where the doubters see a bunch of sickness, this Godly man sees an opportunity for God to show Himself as the Great Physician. Where the doubters see trouble and turmoil, the Godly man sees an opportunity for Him to be the Prince of Peace! They've made void your commandments, Lord! It's time for you to work! God, you see, works best in the worst possible circumstances. What an attitude! It's time, God, for the miraculous! What convinced you of that? The depravity and making void of the commandments of God!

That word "void" triggers the story of the Creation in my mind. The scriptures say:

If we humans could have been present at the time of Creation, no doubt somebody would have looked at the heaven and the earth that without form and "void" and full of darkness and said sarcastically "Greeeeaaaat God. Good job, now you've got a lump of dirt and a bunch of mess. You created a heaven and an earth and right now it's far from beautiful, surely this isn't the plan of God." But you see where there is a void, God sees an opportunity to work because the next part says "the Spirit of God move upon the face of the waters." The void was the key for the Spirit of God to move. There was a void, therefore it was time to work.

Oh, could I preach here. The Hebrew word for "void" in Genesis means "empty; an indistinguishable ruin, a mess." The Hebrew word for "void" in Psalms 119 means "broken, violated, frustrated, cast off, defeated, dissolved, divided, failed, frustrated, to have come to nought" (see Strong's Hebrew Concordance). That's what the "void" refers to. Do you want a greater move of the Holy Ghost in our services? Do you want God to move in ways that blows your mind? Do you want to see the miraculous? Then we've got to get a void in here. If we will get people whose lives are broken and torn apart and who are frustrated and in a mess and broken and failures and empty, then we will see the mighty, moving of the Holy Ghost because to God a void is the time for Him to move into action and begin to work!

The earth was void and full of darkness and that's what caused God's Spirit to begin to move! And when God's Spirit began to move, it didn't stay void much longer! Light shone into the darkness! Life sprung forth. Order came into the confusion! All from a void! And so now maybe you can appreciate the Psalmist's words:

The Psalmist knew that it was time for the supernatural move of God to show up so rather than be depressed when things looked bleak, he just smiled and said "it is time for you, Lord!"

America may not be without food and nourishment physically, but they are starving spiritually. It's illegal to kill someone's pet and you can go to jail for abusing a dog, but millions and millions of babies have been legally murdered through abortion since it became legal in the 1970s. I read recently of a study by a non-religious group of movie ratings that what was considered PG-13 in the 1980s was now considered PG and what was considered PG in the 1980s was considered G now. Conversely what was considered X-rated in the 1980s is now slipping in to the R rated movies and what was considered R rated movies is now PG-13. What our society considers wrong is slipping further and further away from God's unchanging law. You can see more nudity in the newspaper today than the Playboy's of the 1950s showed, but that doesn't make it right in God's eyes. The slipping morality of America has made it possible for a homosexual agenda to be so promoted that states have pushed to allow same-sex marriages and many so called "Christians" don't "see anything wrong with it." That all despite the Bible's clear view that God hates the -- dare I say it -- SIN of homosexuality. The divorce rate in America is over fifty percent and all couples that marry in 2005 will more likely divorce than stay together. A very slim margin of people, particularly boys are virgins when they marry today and nothing is ever said about it. I'm still here to preach to you that sex outside of marriage is sin and there's no ifs, ands, or buts about it. What the latest singer craze or hot actress is doing doesn't change what God thinks of all of it. What the majority of people are doing doesn't change God's Word that says it's wrong!

I could go on and on with zillions of depressing statistics that would convince you -- as if you needed convincing -- of the evilness of our world and how far our society has drifted from God. Needless to say if there is ever a generation that has "made void God's law" it is this present one. And yet I'm not depressed or scared or timid, and neither should you be, because I'll stand with the Psalmist:

Now is the time for God to show up! God is working mightily in our society and will continue to do so! If you want to see a 1,000 soul revival in Castroville, then that must mean that there must be 1,000 "voids" here in the first place. The world has gone crazy, Lord it's time for you to work! It's time for you to prove yourself! I'll stay faithful to You! Because You are working mightily in this generation!

Seems like Paul said something somewhere about where "sin doth abound, grace doth much more abound." He wasn't saying that we should willfully sin to get God's grace, and in fact he went on to address that attitude with "God forbid." What Paul was saying was that if you want to be intimidated by how bad everything looks and suck your thumb and sit in the corner whining, then go ahead, but I'm excited about what God's going to do! If you want to be scared and all out of sorts because it looks grim to be a Spirit-filled believer in this world, then go ahead, but as for me, I'm going to smile and watch God work!

We need the spirit of Joshua and Caleb upon us: "they may look like giants to you, but they seem like giant victories and good stories to tell my grandchildren about." It's time for God to work!

We need the spirit of David upon us: "he may be bigger than anything that you've ever seen, but you're about to see a victory bigger than you've ever seen! It's time for God to work!"

We need the spirit of Gideon upon us: "there may be thousands and thousands of the enemy and only 300 of us, but watch what God's about to do! It's time for God to work!"

When Joshua later looked at the walls of Jericho, he realized "it's time for God to work!"

When Peter looked at all of the Jewish people gathered together to see what was happening on the Day of Pentecost, and realized that he was looking in the faces of the very ones that 50 days earlier had raised their fist and screamed "Crucify Him," he didn't run scared but decided that now is the time for God to work!

We've prayed for a great revival and a magnificent supernatural outpouring and fresh souls to be saved in our town and church, and what has happened is many of you have ran into problems. Your life has become a "void." You are frustrated, some of you have lost your jobs, you've had issues and situations that were beyond your control come in and try to steal your joy. And some of you are wondering "why isn't God answering my prayers." He is answering your prayers. That's why the void has come in your life. If you want the Holy Spirit to move, it needs a mess to fix. If you want God to leave you alone for a while, then invite someone else that is down and out to church. If we are to have the revival that we want, there must first be a void!

Somebody stop magnifying your situation or the current spiritual climate and start magnifying Jesus Christ! I don't care how great your problem is or the situation looks, there's hope. If there's a void, then it's time for God to start working! The devil wants you to look at the void and get glum and depressed. God wants you to look at the void and turn to Him and say "it's time, Lord, for you to work!" Say "yes, Lord" and then get out of the way!

That's the lesson that Paul was trying to get across to the Ephesian church. These were mature saints in God who knew what they believed. But to them Paul said:

They were serving God. They were walking with Jesus. Their fault was that they letting their circumstances dictate to them what they received from God. Paul told them to "redeem the time, because the days are evil." Paul said "I know things look bad and there is a bunch of sin and the days are evil, but don't let that convince you that God is not working. In fact, you need to redeem the time." That word "redeem" is literally "to rescue from loss" in the Greek. Paul was saying, "don't get distracted by the bad things and the evil and what the world looks like but rather seize the moment this is a fantastic opportunity for God to work through you!" He said "you need to understand what the will of the Lord is, and it's to be filled with the Spirit!"

When you go back and study verse 18, you'll find that Paul was referring to the way the Greeks worshipped the idol Bacchus, the god of wine. People would go to parties and get drunk as a skunk and act like heathens. That was normal. And so Paul was saying, "don't get discouraged by the evil that you see. Don't participate in it, but counter it by getting drunk on the Holy Ghost!" In other words, in the midst of the worst possible sin-filled city, it's time to have a Holy Ghost revival! The circumstances looked bleak, but God looked at it for an opportunity to shine! Don't get down, Ephesians, you've got a better drink and a better God!

________________________________________________________________________

God responds to faith, period. Without faith, you aren't going to please God and you aren't going to receive anything from Him! We are NOT waiting on God to work, but rather God is waiting for us to believe. Now is the time that God wants to work, regardless of what the situation looks like. Let me show you what I mean.

Another lesson that we can learn from Creation is that God created everything that exists in six literal days and then stopped creating. One of the laws of science that has been proven correct is that there is no new matter being created. You can take existing matter and change it's form and turn it into another state, but you had to start with something in the first place.

God obeys His own law of the universe. God can give you a new life, but you've got to give up the old one first. There's a lot of truth in that. God won't create something out of nothing; for Him to work, He's got to have something. He didn't pull bread and fish out of the air, but to feed the five thousand, He first needed a little boy's sack lunch. He didn't just become flesh, but He needed a willing virgin girl. God is looking for a vessel. And God wants to work and if it seems that He is not working, then it's because He lacks a vessel at that moment. Never forget that. God needs a vessel. If a town is to hear the gospel then a willing vessel must be willing to go preach. If your school needs to hear the Word of God and see a positive example, somebody must become that and allow God to use them. Angels and the Spirit of God don't preach the gospel. God needs a willing vessel. Bad circumstances won't stop God from moving, but the lack of a willing vessel will! Therefore make sure the bad circumstances in your life don't stop you from being a willing vessel!

Hear me and stay with me now. All the water that has ever been or ever will be is already in existence. It vaporizes into clouds, it rains upon the earth, it flows into bodies of water where it is evaporated into the atmosphere by the sun, all to repeat the process. But there is no new water. The water that you are drinking has been around since Creation! The air around us is saturated with water in vapor form. But we only become aware of it when it condenses, either as rain, or on the side of a cup or something

In Acts chapter 2, when the Holy Ghost was poured out on the Day of Pentecost, Peter quoted this prophecy with these words:

It's interesting that God always used the symbol of water for the Holy Ghost. Jesus said it was like everlasting water from a well within you that would quench your thirst. Joel and Peter said that the Holy Ghost would be "poured out." We tend to view the Holy Ghost as something that God sends when everything gets perfect, but actually the Holy Ghost was poured out and made available for men and women to receive 2,000 years ago. When you "receive the Holy Ghost," all you do is yield to the Spirit of God that is already all around you and by faith receive what has already been done. In other words, the Holy Spirit is already here ready to be received whether anyone wants it or not. We only become aware of it when we praise God. What has changed is not that the Holy Ghost has "come in here suddenly" but that we just tuned in to it and became aware of it. God is looking for a vessel. If you want the Holy Ghost, it's already here for you waiting, you've just got to be willing to receive it. You "tune in" to it by repenting of your sins and worshipping Jesus!

"What are you saying, preacher?" What I'm saying is that the Holy Ghost has already been given, it's just our duty to be a willing vessel. We're not waiting on God to pour out the Spirit, rather God's waiting on us to respond and tune in to Him. Regardless of the circumstances, God will fill you with the Holy Ghost if you will "tune in."

It's the same with healings. Isaiah prophesied that Jesus would be wounded for our healings:

That was prophesied before Calvary. AFTER Calvary, Peter quoted this verse but changed one little word:

Peter said we "were healed." Even before you get sick, the healing has already been paid for by Calvary and we were healed by His work. In other words, every healing has already been done in the mind of God and God is just looking for a willing vessel to perform it!

It's the same with the blood of Jesus. The price has been paid. All the blood that is going to be shed has been shed. But God is looking for someone to apply that blood to their lives. He is looking for someone to be baptized in His name, washing away their sins (Acts 22:16)!

What I'm trying to get you to understand is that the Holy Ghost and supernatural is here already, whether you feel it or not. We've got to get beyond having "to feel something" in order to believe it and receive. You'll feel something when you receive it, but just because you don't "feel" something doesn't mean that it's there or not there.

There are zillions of radio and television and satellite signals passing through the air of this building right now. There is classified intelligence broadcasts from the military passing through here. It's been doing since before you got here and it will be passing through here when you leave. You can't feel them. You can't see them. But they exist. They are here.

There are two things that need to happen for you to hear them and experience them. First someone has to realize that they're already there despite the fact that you can't see or hear them. The second is that we need a willing vessel to respond and "tune in."

It's the same with the Holy Ghost. All the blessings of God that we could ever possibly need is already here in this building. We just haven't received them because we haven't reached a point in our lives where we realize our need for them. Whatever you need from God is already here. God is just looking for someone to realize that they are already there regardless of what you feel or don't feel, and to become a receiver for the Spirit!

You can stop asking whether or not now is the time to get your blessing or miracle. It's time. Now is the time. It was here before you got here this morning and it's still here tonight! God is waiting on you to realize that Now It's Time!