Living Hope Fellowship Church...Sermons From the Pastor
A
LARGE PLACE
by Pastor Kevin Badgley
Psalm 118:5. "I called upon the LORD in distress: the LORD answered me, and set me in a large place." There is plenty of room for blessing. He set me in a large place when I called unto him!
Jesus said he went to prepare a place for us. If he did it in the Old Testament, he can do it in the New Testament. People that live in the Bible belt know about Jesus but are scared to death of the devil. I am not afraid of the devil, the old boy himself, because my Jesus defeated him 2,000 years ago. The devil is a "has been." This fight is rigged. The enemy I'm fighting is already defeated. I put on the gloves, get in the ring, and Jesus says to go whip him because he's already done it. As long as I get in there and keep hammering, Jesus will give me the victory. We are in a fight of faith.
". . . the LORD answered me, and set me in a large place." This isn't just for young folks and these fiery, young, little preachers. This is for all the saints of God if they want to get in there. It's a large place! Unfortunately, it is not crowded. How many want to go to that large place in God?
My job is not to preach to you to make you feel better. My job is to tell you what God says. If it makes you happy, hallelujah. If it makes you mad, hallelujah. If it makes you sad, hallelujah. If it makes you backslide, hallelujah. If it makes you get closer to God, hallelujah, but I'm gonna tell you what God tells me to tell you! The honeymoon is over. Now you've got to start living this thing. You will never see anybody dancing with banners and tutus in here. You will not see choreographed dancing in here, either. They start that and I'll kick them right out the door.
I had some devil possessed people one time come up on the front pew. They were mocking the service. I walked down to them and I said, If you are praising the Lord, that's good, but if you came here to disrupt the service, I will bodily throw you out. They looked at me and glared and stuttered. I said, You heard what I said. They walked out. I got a word through the grapevine that one of them wanted to talk to me. I sent a note and I'm praying and believing God. It was a young person. People are looking for somebody that will stand their ground, even though it is unpopular. That is why you have lost so much! You're compromising with the world and the devil.
I don't give a rip what the neighbor says; we're gonna have church! A lot of people don't know what church is. The Bible says, "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." If God decides to make a fool out of the temple, what is that to you? If God decides to make the temple have an earthquake, and dance, and shout, or pass out, or get drunk in the Spirit, what is that to you? You are not your own. Yield over to the Spirit of the Lord. Too many times you've quenched him out of pride, fear, or unbelief. God wants to set you free from that. What have you got to lose but sin, sickness, disease, affliction, and the devil? and your pride. Jesus became of no reputation. Why don't you throw yours down and let's go on with Jesus!
God can't lie. Hebrews 13:8 says he stays the same. "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever." His word is still good. That means he is still accountable for it. Do you know why people say that God has changed? Because if God has changed, then they are not accountable for what he's been saying for 2,000 years. If he hasn't changed, then you are still accountable.
In John 14:1-7 Jesus is talking. He said, "(1) Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. (2) In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. (3) And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. (4) And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. (5) Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? (6) Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (7) If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him."
Do you know what a lot of people think that these scriptures say right here? that Jesus was about to ascend into heaven after his crucifixion and after his resurrection. He was going to go up there and build them a mansion in heaven and later on after rapture or tribulation, he would come after them and take them up there. Wrong. That's not what that means. Look at verse 3. It says, ". . . I will come again. . . ." How? by the promise of the Father. How? by the power of the Holy Ghost. He said in verse 10, "Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me?. . . ."
When the Holy Ghost comes down and Jesus has made a place for you, then you are supposed to be going there! You are supposed to be headed there, striving toward it. "I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Folks, I am trying to get it through to you, you have access to heaven now. Everybody is waiting for this lily-livered thing to come along and just form and off they go. . . . You=ve got so much dead weight it couldn't carry you! But if you will pray, and fast, and seek God, you can get into the Spirit. Jesus has given us power over all the power of the enemy and every hindrance that would keep us from it.
He will get us into that place of God. He'll get us into that mansion. What is the mansion? That is the ministry from God - a place in Christ. Preachers ain't even doing it, let alone the congregation. Preachers are supposed to go up there and get it and say, Here it is, here is how I got it, now you go. They ought to be throwing them up there all the time. Jesus could be standing in the hallway and shuuum-there comes another preacher through. Kaboom, there's another person. He'll give them a commission and send them back to the earth. You've never heard this preached, have you?
Paul was continually in a position where he was between heaven and earth. People talk about walking in the Spirit and don't know what they are talking about. I'm talking about living in the Spirit. It's not just salvation. It's not just being filled with the Holy Ghost. I'm talking about literally translated. Paul said we are translated into the kingdom of God's dear son.
Ephesians 2:6 says, "And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." Philippians 3:20, "For our conversation is in heaven. . . ." Elijah did it and he didn't have the blood of Jesus or the Holy Ghost. Who are we? We've preached on this before. We'll go deeper today.
John 14:21. "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth then, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him." This is basics. This is the common, Blow Joe Christian. Everybody thinks that you are supposed to wait around. They think a vision just comes from heaven and jumps on you. No! You pray into the thing. I said, you pray into it! That's why you're peeved. You won't fast and pray and seek God. Jesus said he's prepared a place for you.
Last week the Lord began to pull on me in the Spirit and I didn't understand it at first. I'm beginning to understand it more and more now. I've been able to prepare this message in light of it. He dealt with me, not in words so much as in knowledge and understanding, coming into prayer. It wasn't like going out into the study and getting on your face and start crying, bawling, and squalling. It was like, COME ON INTO PRAYER WITH ME. SHUT YOURSELF AWAY WITH ME. Then I heard something that really shook me. I heard, COME UP HITHER. I said, What? I wanted to hear it again. After that, I heard it about six or eight more times . . . in the past few days. That is the same thing he told the two witnesses when they rose up out of the street in Jerusalem - COME UP HITHER. He said it in another place.
I'm excited about this. This turns me inside out because I am going! There is going to come a time when I walk up on this platform and I'm gonna vanish. You may see something preach, but I may just vanish altogether. Look at the first three verses in Revelation 4. I read verse one in my office and I liked to went! It says those words, COME UP HITHER.
Revelation 4:1-3, " (1) After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter. (2) And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. (3) And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald."
This says he was in the spirit. What was he talking about? He was born again, but that is not what he was talking about. He was filled with the Holy Ghost, but that is not what he was talking about. He said immediately he was in the spirit. This was 1900 years ago, sweetheart. We need it worse today than he did. You know why? because we got a lot of "name and claims", and big boys with big suits and big ties and big money, and all this blow on the TV, and they ain't producing nothin' like the first apostles did! It was common to go out in the Spirit and talk to Jesus face to face. Go ahead and call me crazy. I don't care.
Somebody turned to somebody else and said, "When I get out of here, I ain't never goin' back!" Let me tell you something! When I go out in the Spirit, it is gonna be hard for me to come back, but you'll see. This ain't bragging. I'm telling you what God is beginning to commission people to do. The only reason I'm sharing it is because God doesn't want us to withhold it. He said in Psalm 84:11, "For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly." I am not withholding from you now.
John saw a throne in heaven and one sat on it. What was that? Too many hot dogs? Look at verse three again, "And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald." I've seen that emerald's power. That is the anointing of God the Father. Jesus has the yellow. God the Father's is green. I know because I had it on me one time in a vision.
Like I said, I'm pulling all the stops out. You can think I'm crazy if you want to. That's all right. They thought Jesus was crazy too, but when they tried to throw him off the brow of the hill, they couldn't find him. He passed through the midst of them and so passed by. It wasn't time for him to die yet.
The Bible says John was immediately in the spirit. You think I've had too many hot dogs, too much coffee, and too many pipe dreams! I'm not teaching today on "name and claim." I'm not talking about praying down here and hoping God will do something. I'm talking about going up there and getting the answer and bringing it back!
Let me tell you something. You ain't going up there unless every sin is under the blood of Jesus. We are dealing with you so that perhaps you will get hungry enough to do something about the sin that doth so easily beset you.
Did you know our area is called Little Egypt? Go to Zechariah 10:10-12, "(10) I will bring them again also out of the land of Egypt, and gather them out of Assyria; and I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon; and place shall not be found for them. (11) And he shall pass through the sea with affliction, and shall smite the waves in the sea, and all the deeps of the river shall dry up: and the pride of Assyria shall be brought down, and the sceptre of Egypt shall depart away. (12) And I will strengthen them in the LORD; and they shall walk up and down in his name, saith the LORD."
Genesis 5:24 says, "And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him."
He said they shall walk up and down, he didn't say back and forth. He didn't say east and west. He said up and down! Why do you think the devil is fighting us so hard? because we're trying to walk up and down, not back and forth. God turned to the devil when he was standing before him in the days of Job in the first and second chapters. God asked Satan where he had been. Satan answered that he had been walking to and fro in the earth and up and down in it. This is Bible.
The devil had been walking up and down in it. That is why when you start seeking God and a higher place in Jesus, you're gonna meet the old boy eyeball to eyeball. But when Jesus has covered you with his blood there is no power that can come against you and prosper! Isaiah 54:17 says, "No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD."
Matthew 16:19 says, "And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."
I'm gonna bind it down here and I'm gonna seek God. When I get up there that devil is gonna be bound and I'm gonna walk up and down through his living room. Yes, I'm weird; I'm peculiar. Call me a nut; I don't care. I am going through.
Look at Psalm 118:19-20, "Open to me the gates of righteousness: I will go into them, and I will praise the LORD: This gate of the LORD, into which the righteous shall enter." Some teach this is the new Jerusalem and is types and shadows of this and that. I'm talking about going in there now in the light of the Word. This is David talking 3,000 years ago. He didn't even have the Holy Ghost. It was just on him. The Word of the Lord was in him. Enoch, the seventh from Adam, did it for 300 years. He walked with God and left sons and daughters.
Hebrews 11:5 says, "By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God." What does it say there in Zecharaih 10:10? ". . . and place shall not be found for them. . . ." He's finally went off the edge. Yes, I have. Look at them eyes; ain't nobody home! It is one of two things. Either I'm crazy and off beat, or I'm telling you the truth.
How am I gonna get there? An airplane will run out of gas. Astronauts can still see stars when they get out there. They say it will take millions of light years just to get to the center of this one galaxy. There are multitudes of galaxies in this universe. They don't even know the extent of it all, but let me tell you something.
Back in 1986, in the early morning hours, I was in the day room at the prison where I was working my job. Suddenly I began to go out in the Spirit and I saw things. Suddenly I was being taken up a steep incline into a blackness. I saw the stars in the sky and shuuum! I was translated in a moment of time. This universe won't hold back the power of God. I passed them and they were gone. I was going through a thick blackness. A voice spoke to me and said, Thou art going to stand before the Almighty God. I'm talking about God, the Father. I thought, Oh, there is not enough air for me to grab. Let me grab a pole, an angel, anything; I'm scared to deat, I knew if I stood before a holy God in my present condition I'd melt like wax before a candle.
Listen, you ain't' never felt fear until you've felt the fear of the almighty God. The fear of the devils of hell is a joke. That fear doesn't even come close to the fear of the Lord! The Bible says you've got to have that fear, in spirit and in truth living for God. The fear of God will make you forsake your sins. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. . . ." Some of you are not scared of God. If you were, you'd be in the altar. You would have been in the altar a long time ago. You aren't afraid of God. Everybody will be afraid of God sooner or later, though. When you stand before a holy God on Judgment day, you're gonna be looking at him and he's gonna be looking at you. You are gonna search for a place to hide. You won't find it.
The Bible says the heavens, and the earth, and all the hills, and mountains flee from the presence of the Lord. No place was found for them. They ran. Can you imagine getting in that place with God and walking with God in such a fashion that not a devil in hell can stand against you? Are you listening? Of course, there wouldn't be any thing that you would be doing on your own. You wouldn't be having all this fun up here. You won't have all those preoccupations between the ears. You might be kind of spacy too. Somebody might be talking to you and you may say, I hear something from the Lord, just a minute, I gotta go pray. I'm going through!
We keep crying and think, OH, God! Why don't you do this? He wants us to pray. I've been praying! Check out 24 hours in a day. How long have you prayed in that 24 hours? I gotta be doing something. Why don't you pray? Well, I'm liable to become weird. Yes, you probably will.
Revelation 3:20-21. "(20) Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." Some say that is talking about getting saved, and it does, but don't limit God. Reading the Word of God is like peeling an onion. You do it a layer at a time and you cry a lot. Verse 21, "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne." That's talking about praying through from glory to glory right now.
Some think they have the power. They ain't got squat, yet. They're just getting started. They're just hooked up to the elevator. You got to get in and you've got to let the door close behind you and not look back. Remember Lot's wife. You got to get in there, stay in there, and let God take you up to the top floor.
In John 10:9 Jesus is talking. Jesus is the authority. All power in heaven and earth has been given to him. "I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture." What? After you get saved, you're going to go in and out? Where? Up and down. Go up and get your commission and come down and pass it out and get some more going up there. I'm tired of just my prayers going. I want to go too.
Ephesians 1:3, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:" Our spiritual blessings are (where?) in heavenly places (how?) in Christ. Look at Ephesians 2:6, "And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." Are you sitting in heavenly places right now? Oh, yes, I am. How much sin goes to heaven? How much sin, worldly thinking, or just plain old flesh goes to heaven? None. And you're telling me you're sitting in heavenly places?
Look at 1 Corinthians 16:9, "For a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries." Paul is talking here. He's just talking about opportunities. That is just a figure of speech. Fine, you stay down here. What kind of door was he talking about? He's talking about having adversaries. Jesus said in Matthew 11:12, "And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force."
Ephesians 6:12 says, "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." Most people aren't wrestling against the devil; they are yielding to him. The Bible says to, "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." You have got to wrestle him. A lot of people are walking around saying, Oh, the devil has come against me! Bless God, it is time for the victory! Instead, you get into melancholy, OOOHHHoohhOOHHoohh, I'm gonna die tomorrow. Good, then we won't have to listen to melancholy no more! What if you believe God? You can throw that thing off of you. You can grow closer to God through that tribulation. It is necessary and you can go through the door!
1 Corinthians 15:48-54. "(48) As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly." Earthy is earth bound. "(49) And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. (50) Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. (51) Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. (52) In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. (53) For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. (54) So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory."
Paul cried out in Romans 7:24, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Then he thanked God through Jesus Christ our Lord. He was talking about all the wrestlings in the flesh and the things that kept him from the spirit realm with God. Folks, the devil's crowd can translate and levitate. They don't have more power than God. Everybody is waiting for the rapture to take place, from these scriptures. That is not all this means. The church needs to get in that place and worship and praise God. I'm talking about the real church. I want to get on the main line. I want to talk to God. I want to see Jesus. I want to put my hands in the nail-scarred hands and put my fingers in his side. Thomas was no fool. He listened to their reports but said I ain't goin' after nothing until I see it; until I touch it; until I live in it, and then I can reign in it. When he saw him there was no more problem. Thomas then said, AMy Lord and my God.@ When he came out of that room, Thomas didn't have doubt any more.
The Spirit of the Lord told Philip to join himself to a chariot. He obeyed, talked to the eunuch, and got him saved and baptized. God wanted Philip to go to Azotus. Philip could have said, How am I going? This chariot is awful slow and that is a six day journey. The Bible says in the moment, in the twinkling of an eye, this corruptible will put on incorruption. God just shot him over there. Acts 8:40 says that Philip was found at Azotus!
That is the place where Christians ought to be. That is the church of the God I serve. God is trying to get us out of this miry clay. When you go out your report should not be, Ooohh, I'm hurting. It is gonna be, Let me tell you about the angel I saw last night when I went out in the Spirit.
John was talking in Revelation 1:10 and said "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day. . . ." like there was nothing to it. What was Philip, Elijah, Enoch, and others doing? A chariot of fire came after Elijah. Or . . . did somebody eat some more hot dogs and have a hot dog vision? God wants us to get to the place where we are in the Spirit.
Once, we were singing and shouting and praising God and I saw something. I saw a long golden corridor and it was going down. There were cleats on the corridor ramp, like a cattle ramp. It led off to a point far down to the earth. I saw the Lord standing there, looking toward the opening and down the ramp. Then he looked back at me. Then he'd look back down the corridor, and then back at me. He said, I HAVE GONE TO PREPARE A PLACE FOR THEM. He was talking about his bride, his church. He said, I AM THE DOOR. I AM STANDING AT THE DOOR AND I AM KNOCKING. THEY CAN HEAR ME KNOCKING.
Don't tell me you can't hear God knocking! I'm not talking about salvation, baptism, and the Holy Ghost. Let's get on a little further. Paul said he fed some with the milk of the word but they should have been on meat.
Jesus looked down and said, I HAVE MADE EVERY PROVISION. WHERE ARE THEY? IT IS LONESOME UP HERE WITHOUT MY KIND UP HERE. There's no other kind like Jesus there. He's still flesh and bone. Angels aren't like Jesus. He can't talk to them like he can you. The Father is a Spirit. He can talk to him because they are one, but he wants to communicate with you. Jesus wants to talk to you. He wants to have a visitation.
If you go out in the Spirit you can go with the anointing of Christ upon you. It is a freewill choice. Most are so happy to be melancholy here, they will just stay here and wait for the rapture. Yes, we can go in the rapture, but God is dealing with us now, today, this time, right now. Jesus looks down that corridor and he looks back at you. ONLY COME UNTO ME. ONLY COME UNTO ME. He said, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls."
Do you believe this is God's provision? God made it for all. He said in Revelation 3:20, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." How do you open the door? Get on your knees before God and seek his face. God will reward you. He is knocking right now. Some are backslid and some are cold. God wants to set you free. Get real with God. He is trying to get you into heaven with him now. He loves you. He died for you. Either you will come in or you will go out. You are going somewhere.
References: Psalm 118:5, John 14:1-21, 1 Timothy 6:12, 2 Timothy 4:7, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, Philippians 3:14-20, Luke 10:19, Acts 2:33, Philippians 2:7, Hebrews 13:8, Colossians 1:13, Ephesians 2:6, Galatians 5:16, Revelation 4:1-3, Psalm 84:11, Luke 4:29, Hebrews 12:1, Zechariah 10:10-12, Genesis 5:24, Job 2:1-2, Isaiah 54:17, Matthew 16:19, Psalm 118:19-20, Hebrews 11:5, Psalm 111:10, John 4:23-34, Psalm 139:7-12, Revelation 3:20-21, Psalm 48:71, John 10:9, Matthew 11:12, Ephesians 1:3, Ephesians 2:6, 1 Corinthians 16:9, James 4:7, Ephesians 6:12, 1 Corinthians 15:48-54, Romans 7:24, John 20:27, Acts 8:40, Revelation 1:10, John 14:2, Matthew 11:28-29.
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