Life begins here as you go out the door. The things that God does in here, He applies out there. It is not just coming and having a wonderful service. He intends that our lives be changed forever…not just an hour to feel good here. He wants our minds renewed. He gave me this message last Sunday. We took a weekend and went up to Boone, N.C. and then to Hickory. We were getting ready to go find a church in the Hickory area, but I asked my wife if she would rather stay in the hotel and get into the word. We did and God gave me this message for you today.

As we studied the word, God said this is for next week. He put this in my hand to feed the sheep. I do not question what God is doing. He has a word for you. Every song was in place to speak this message into our lives. God added a new wrinkle into the message this morning. I am to be obedient like Ezekiel whom God told to stay on one side for so many days and then on the other. So I am standing before you with a wrinkled shirt. I always iron my shirt. Go wants to challenge us and cause us to live in Him…to move in him.

I have asked my wife to come and share a dream she had.

It has been a while since God has spoken to me in a dream. I asked the Lord to come and speak again. The Saturday before Labor Day the Lord came and spoke powerfully to me. In my dream we were sent to a place to do a mission; we had the authority to do it. At that time there was a lady who was asking, “Why are you here? Why are you doing this thing?” I told her that we were sent to do this mission. “We do not want your place.” Then persecution broke out outside and people were looking for a refuge including myself.

Out on the streets, I looked up an alley. I saw a man in an open doorway; he was unclothed. It was like a drunken thing, but the man was calling out, “This is a place of refuge.” He was calling people to come up. I turned away still looking for a place of refuge. I saw a shack. Two men were coming out. Spears of light were coming out of the shack. I came out on a stallion riding on the street. Then I heard an enemy saying, “Take her out!” I had some small instrument in my hand. As the enemy came up to me, spears of light came out of the instrument. As the light came out, all that was ugly became beautiful. Then the enemy sent more to stop me. Again, the instrument in my hand sent out light. I buried my face in the stallion’s neck and blessed the creature as we rode into battle.

As this all started out, I was afraid of not finding a place. In the end there was no fear because of what the light did every time. the enemy came.

My wife’s refuge was in going forth, and not in a hiding place. The refuge of the Lord was in her going forth. 5000 miles away in Hawaii a woman had a dream the same night. This woman is married to a huge Hawaiian -- he was our song leader while I was there. Her nephew had drowned several weeks ago. The boy was 13 and went surfing. The parents suddenly looked for the child, but he was no where to be found. His father found him in the surf and they got him to the hospital. However, when he got there he was brain dead. While the doctors said that he was brain dead, they sent him on to a larger hospital.

In the mean time, the family began to pray. Jena laid her hands on the boy and prayed in the Spirit. When my wife shared her dream with Jena, this is what she was told. Jena had dreamed about my wife; it was the same night my wife had her dream. My wife asked her what the dream was about. She told her that we were in a place where sick and dying people were everywhere. She saw a dying man, and as she went over to the person some one asked her who she thought she was to pray for the person. She knelt and prayed; as she prayed in the spirit, everything that was death and dying, but suddenly things turned into beauty. Suddenly her eyes were opened and she saw the beauty of what God was doing. God dropped keys into her spirit; He told her she had the keys.

It is important that you understand -- God changes the process by which He gives you packages. As God does this, He lets traumatic and tragic things to happen in your life.

In the family of the boy, they are praying as there is a revival. The boy is off life support and responding in the family. God had a plan for this family. Their lives were changed from a placid event at a beach to a tragic occurrence. And now to prayer. Jena said that even her brother-in-law was involved and bought a book of verses. They are saying only positive things in the son’s room. They only want beauty and truth to be spoken in his room. They are reading the verses to the boy. Jena said God told her to go through the door He had opened for her. As she read the Scriptures, the power of God gloriously came in. When the family came into the room, revival came to them. All this happened to bring this family into the living reality of God.

In what Glenn told us this morning, he had been told to “close the door and let’s go.” It is time to move. God is a God of movement. God is doing these things to change us forever. He wants a movement in our lives of such faith that we are changed. He does not want us to be afraid. He wants us to go forward.

In John 7:32, we read: “The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about Him, and the chief priests and the Pharisees sent officers to seize Him.” Jesus said to the crowds that He would go to Him who sent Him. Speaking to the religious people and saying that they would seek him and not find him. The Jews wanted to know where He was going that they could not come. In Summary, Jesus said that the religious can not come to God. These religious people were on time for every service. They did everything and they were perfect. They lived according to their routine. They thought their were pleasing to God.

Hold that place an go back to Amos 5l:4 ff. Lets see why the religious can not come to God. “For thus says the LORD to the house of Israel: ‘Seek Me and live; 5 But do not seek Bethel, Nor enter Gilgal, Nor pass over to Beersheba;
For Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, And Bethel shall come to nothing. 6 Seek the LORD and live.’” The places here speak of the same routine every day -- the same service everyday. God says you can not come that way. Glenn said it correctly, when he said that God is a God of movement. God brings wrinkles to cause us to come to Him. In Amos 5 we read that the Lord said, “Seek me and live.” Do not seek Bethel or enter Gilgal or places of religion. Once there was life there, but it is not there now.

Worship there became a routine, a habit or death to repeat things over and over again. The Lord told them to seek Him and live. We are not to go back to routines again. Gilal represents captivity. Religion is captivity. Religion comes to nothing. It does not bring you to God. The same thing done over and over again does not bring you to God. God in His mercy throws a wrinkle in your life; He challenges you by putting things in our path. This stops the on and on process which leads to nothing.

In routine there is death that settles over our spirit. Even though you say and do the same thing, things get heavy. Hopefully you looked for a way out to get to God. If you settle the routine, you just become a Pharisee.

Seek the Lord and live. This is a moment by moment place. He challenges us to walk in Him …to shut the door behind yourself and to go. God will be with you. Put your fears and reasonings aside, and go on. Once when I was on a youth board in Hawaii, we went into a place where things were all asunder. The leader said to me, “Let’s go.” He started pushing things around, and I thought it was still messed up. I might have thought all the work would come to naught. We pushed beds around for about 45 minutes, but finally I began to see. The puzzled was taking shape and lining up. All of the sudden, everything lined up perfectly. It was amazing. I was supposed to shut up and get going.

Glenn has been working for the company for 20 something years. Then a new guy comes in and has a new plan. Glen, facing the truck of packages and a new route said, “Shut the door and let’s go.” God says, ”Seek me and live. Do not go to Bethel or Gilgal.” Forget your routines and go on in God. Even if He lays it on your heart to stay in your hotel room and stay in the scriptures. Religion is in all of us. We kept saying we needed to be in church. We pushed the religion aside and sat down on the bed and studied the Bible, and the Lord brought the word.

In Amos 5:21 Amos is speaking of religion and we read, “ I hate, I despise your feast days, And I do not savor your sacred assemblies. 22 Though you offer Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them,…” God said to seek Him and live.” Come to the living Lord and hear from Him daily. If no word is heard, keep on walking. The Lord is with you all the time. His word is fir you to walk on.

Why does God hate religion so much? It is only a routine where you are not really worshiping Him. These routines become idols which you made for yourself. It is as easy to be an idolater as to be a religious person who lives according to the routine. God says, “You brought me scarifies, but you carried your idols.” In some South American countries, there are churches which mix religion with the idol ties of the land. If we get fixed on the routine, we carry our idols. God throws a new wrinkle in our life so we will get on our face and seek Him. It is His mercy and glory that does this for us.

In verses 14-15 we read, “14 Seek good and not evil, That you may live;
So the LORD God of hosts will be with you, As you have spoken. 15 Hate evil, love good; Establish justice in the gate. It may be that the LORD God of hosts
Will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.“ Simply put, God hates religiosity.

Now let’s go back to John. God in His mercy throws in the wrinkles. Life does not end with this life. God is doing something more profound. He is preparing people for eternity. He challenges us in this life for the place that God has for us in eternity. There is more that God is doing than just this short life. He looks into an eternity of purposes that He has. He is preparing a people -- spirits that are His -- they will live in Him and be used of Him. I do not know what it is. If you know, write the book.

The first thing I told the hippies when I got saved was that I did not know all the answers. I did not want to burn out in this life. I knew there is something else that God was doing. It is like my wife’s dream --the ugliness is being turned into beauty by God.

Our refuge is not in hiding in religion; It is going out into Him and letting Him into your life. I do not know what form that is for your life. I know what it is in mine. We moved to N.C. and in the process of time it is clearer what God is doing. We were listening and walking; so He led us there.

In John 7:37 we read, “On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.” Here is the one qualification: “If you have thirst.” If so, then come to Jesus and drink. We are all like camels, we need to be thirsty.

In verses 38-39, we read, “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”’

Now let’s go to Is. 55:1ff, ““Ho! Everyone who thirsts, Come to the waters; And you who have no money, Come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk
Without money and without price. 2 Why do you spend money for what is not bread, And your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance. 3 Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live; …”

What is the qualification? Thirsting for God. Getting tired of the routine. Taking the challenge and coming to Him . God says to shut the door and go. Drink in what He has said to you. Trust Him. You will be carried through the things you face daily. Your soul shall live and you will have an everlasting covenant.

You say you are not good enough. Well, neither was David. But read what is written, “And I will make an everlasting covenant with you — The sure mercies of David. 4 Indeed I have given him as a witness to the people,…” David was an adulterer and a murderer. Yet he is a standard before you. Try to change your own mind, and it won’t happen. You try, but God has His plan. We read in verses 6 ff, “ Seek the LORD while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near.7 Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts;
Let him return to the LORD, And He will have mercy on him; And to our God,
For He will abundantly pardon.”

It seems here that God is telling us to do the work. You forsake your thoughts. Look at the next verse, “ For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD. 9 “ For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.10 “ For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, And do not return there, But water the earth, And make it bring forth and bud, That it may give seed to the sower, And bread to the eater, 11 So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. 12 “ For you shall go out with joy, And be led out with peace;…”
 

God says, “I am going to do this in you. I am sending you in a new truck on a new route and in a new system. It is not time to retire.” The work that requires you to shut the door and go will challenge you to step over the wrinkle in your life and go forth. You will go forward step by step drinking in the word of the Lord. In His word is life…not routine. The routine leads to death and captivity. God is asking you to step out into life. His word will do the work. Remember God says “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” …So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. 12 “ For you shall go out with joy…”
 

If you do not go on, then the wrinkle may be bigger next time. It is God’s mercy and God’s grace. If you get rock hard in your religion, He will challenge you. God is determined to prepare a people for eternity. A people He will use for His purposes and His glory. His people will learn to walk and live in Him. Whereever the Spirit goes, you will go. Like Ezekiel and the creatures with wheels, you will move in Him. In your willingness, He will throw wrinkles in your path.

Return to the Lord and His thoughts and His ways. Let his word accomplish His purpose in you. You shall go out with joy. If God throws a wrinkle in your life, a new route, new system is on its way and this is not a small thing. God‘s wrinkles are not just for the moment. He wants you to shut the door and go. This is an eternal word. It means for us to come to God…to thirst…to drink of Him. And as you do, the word in you will accomplish what God wants you to accomplish. You will go out with joy.

God gave me this word last Sunday morning. I told God you might think I was speaking of your religiosity. No, I am speaking of Life. We are going on in God and pressing on in Him As He speaks words into us, it will be life, joy and peace. It will change us and not return to Him void. He will not let us slip into religious places where things are a routine. He will challenge you.