 Father God just bless brother Peter right now as he shares a message Lord anoint him with your your spirit just bless him abundantly for his courage to come out tonight and share a message We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Praise God So I guess we are already into the the new day So I'm very glad that we can be here together And I must say that I was very blessed already by being with the people that are here and Particularly this last prayer and the last things that were talked about about Unity that has been my theme for quite a while And I've been trying to write about it and to talk about it and the very thing about One church one baptism one truth one way to go in order to live with Christ in New heavens and a new earth where righteousness will dwell So hopefully tonight even though we might think it's a big crowd. Well, actually, it's a small crowd We are only a few people here tonight But at least if we are together and we are in unity and we are connected with our Lord Jesus Christ and he is the one working through us The sky is the limit. There's there's no end to what can happen out of these kind of things So I'm just very very grateful to be with you. Now if there's anything that's not gonna work It's gonna be with me, but anyway, so here we go So The this these kind of things so if they've all sudden shuts out or whatever you let me know But in the meantime, I would like to have a scripture read here And he's gonna be doing my readings because I don't read that well anymore But they maybe the first thing I'll have to admit is that I am to be talking about the Midnight call or whatever it is so maybe we can see if we can sing a song and Curtis by the way, you all know Curtis Curtis Martin lives here close to where we now live in Waynesboro and Pennsylvania and I would like if we could stand can we stand and just sing one little song and this is the beginning of the Midnight You know that song don't you? Okay The time is gliding like the shuttle at the weaver. How many of you know it? Can you put up your hands? Okay, let's sing that time is gliding like the shuttles of the Waver and the day swiftly passing by If tonight should be the calm of the mind Boom, are you ready for the midnight cry? Oh behold The bride can come in What if now the sound is the sky Would to meet him Enjoy your sorrow Are you ready for the midnight cry? Now you will sit down are you ready for the midnight cry and You know where this comes from it comes from all those Virgins that were out there and they were supposed to get ready for the bridegroom Well, half of them never got ready and in the end of it. They had a sad experience at the end So anyway, that's a bit the context of what we are going to be talking about here tonight at midnight And if you ever get tired or bored or whatever, we will see if we can sort of wake you up But I'm not sure exactly how because I don't see very well Which is my biggest problem at this moment in time but here anyway the kingdom of God is something that I want to talk about and Particularly about a part of the kingdom of God If somebody asked you what is the kingdom of God, how would you describe it? Do you know when there were people that showed up with Jesus and that Jesus talked to them about the secret of the kingdom of God Sometimes he talked about the secret of the kingdom of the heavens Now you think I said that wrong I did it was the kingdom of the heavens But whatever the case it's the kingdom of God the secret of the kingdom of God So I want you to read that first scripture you read that personal scripture right now You can do it right here because it's coming right there Read out loud 12 and others around him asked him about the parables He told them the secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you But to those on the outside everything is seen in parables All right There's the secret of the kingdom of God by the time we're done with this in an hour that I hope that we have a very clear Understanding of what the kingdom of God actually is there are two parts of the kingdom of God And there's a bit of a mystery about it and many of us have not either Thought about it or maybe even Discovered it and so that's what a little bit what I want to talk about behind this midnight thing that we're talking about Now I would like to read a little bit more some scriptures But before that we are having some heroes of faith to talk about I would like to talk about two Young men can you hear me does this thing work? Okay? All right, so anyway, whatever the case the two young men that I knew about I mean there was before my time But this was in the early 1700s in Germany One of the young men was called Leonhardt doba and he was a potter They made clay pots in the southern part of Germany Which is close to a place called high bone or hard bone that area and so in that many of our of our people here Actually have ancestors at one point in time lived in that area. It's a southern part of Germany Well, he was there But he found his way through Germany and he was converted and he found his way into the Moravian community up in Laositz which is up in the far north eastern part of Germany which is right next to Poland at this moment in time It's anyway He went up there start working in that Christian community at Hanhut and things went very well for him but during that time they had a big revival and during that time they got really interested in praying praying during the night and It went out there on top of a hill that they call the Hanhut The Hootback is right beside Hanhut itself the town of village the village of Hanhut and up in there They had the Hootback which is like the hill of the watch is what you can call it at this moment in time I hope that many of you young men will eventually find their way to that place It is still a very fascinating place There are still many young people from all around the world many of them African who are whatever and they're coming together And you still get there early in the morning. Just not that long ago. I was up there and here I was out there and there's saw some boys out there praying out there amongst the trees And there's also a graveyard back and there's lots of people are buried up there Well, whatever the case they were out there and I started talking to them eventually and and here They looked a little bit stumped by it and they and didn't exactly know what to say And all of a sudden I realized they were not even speaking German It is in Germany and then all of a sudden they just they they talked to me in English and he said oh, they come from America Oh, well, I can speak English and so I started talking with them in English and here We had some a beautiful time They're praying together and up on top of that hill They have a little round thing that you can crawl up into it And then you can walk around and then you see all The country far and wide from top of the mountain and there you can be praying in every direction in the whole wide world And that that is what I often do in my mind still I'm on top of this boot back and I'm looking out over the whole wide world looking at all these different things But this Leonhardt Duba was there was a man that came up there and and they started praying out there in the middle Of the night exactly what you're doing now Now you're not on top of big hill and you're not doing fancy stuff as far as outlooks and all that But you are here and we are praying during the night and that's a wonderful thing There's another young man that came as a as a refugee From Bohemia, which is boyman there in the southern part next to Moravia and he came up there He was a teenager and they were up there and they started praying together and you know what they couldn't stop they prayed and They prayed more and more and more and more people showed up And it was one night after the next is during the night and in the summertime and he came up and and he couldn't get stopped And so here they were praying sometimes you just kept going on praying all night long And this was the kind of prayer that don't think it's like a long fancy prayer of all sorts of Elaborate things to say it was just they were there They were in the presence of the Lord and during that time this the things started to happen all night long And then it got into the place where it went day and night and then it went into week after week month after month And do you know how long it lasted? Can anybody tell me a? Hundred years there it was and during that time Around a hundred years. Well anyway, it went on and on it got a bit more organized over the time And so on and Leonharddoba and this other young man This was Tobias Leopold was named and he was like a teenager and he came together and they they learned about the black people down in St. Thomas in the West Indies during that time and they met a black man from there Started talking about it and here one thing led to another and if and this Packed them off and this now we were talking this earlier this morning about planting Churches and planting places and so on well guess what back in those days They made it very simple they put people out that they gave them a couple of coins They're probably both the mother had around two or three dollars each between the two of them They had no money and they went out there and they said you go out there and you see if you can find you Halfways around the world over to the West Indies and so they went up there to Denmark And it took about half a year until anybody got them into a boat because that is crazy said you can't go down there They said oh, we're gonna go down there. We're gonna work with the slaves. Well, they said no You can't do that. You're white. You can't go down there work with slaves. They said all right well Bobo he knew how to make pottery and the other guy was a was a carpenter and he said well We'll go down there and we'll work as carpenters or whatever we're gonna do whatever we're gonna we'll get there And so eventually the Lord helped him down there. Well, actually there was another boy came first He was named doffin each month came reverse and then the Tobias came a little bit later on but whatever they went down there one thing led to another and Here eventually Tobias came down. He lasted about half a year about six months and he died and Many of their people just died as flies all over the place It came over there Families came down there and it didn't last long at all. They got sick. It was hot It was terrible and here they got strange diseases people came in there birth their place down One after next whatever it was a very very tough time by the time that Leon hot Doba died a good number years ago Can you give me a guess as to how many people how many black? African people were converted found their way to the Lord not just half ways not just partially not just doing silly things But doing very important work amongst them. I have a number. I'm bad with numbers, but I have it right here It is let me think here. Okay. Can you give me a guess? way more No, not that many it was 13,000 13,000 Afro-American slaves were a part of the church at this moment in time And I am talking about the kind of people that were Roundly converted and there were people that were working as slaves out there in the middle of nowhere in the hot And you know how it is hot down there in West Indies and so on and by the time it was done It was a thorough Ongoing church and I know many of those people at this moment in time I've been there many times and right in that area and here the 100% of our Afro-Americans and all the way down into Guyana and the Suriname and so on and things are still happening now It's not quite like it used to be anymore But anyway, so I'll just give that a little bit of an everything the story about of an example So don't think that just because you're a few people you can't do any a few things that not much can happen out of the Very few handful of people the whole wide World has always been changed by just a few people So don't worry about numbers just do faithfully what you can do and things will go well now I would like to share a few of the other scriptures that come along with it And this is all about the kingdom and how that all went But before that I'll have to tell you a few more stories that go along with it My name is Peter Hoover my great-grandfather was also called Peter Hoover and I'm named after and of course our family lived on just a North Shore of Lake Erie this is like a good number years ago and My great-grandfather as a young man went out there With his fiddle he liked to play the fiddle very well And he was also a sailor and because our Conrigation which is the reign of Mennonite Church was right on the North Shore of Lake Erie and I'm saying right smack dab On the North Shore it is so close that on the place for my great-grandpa lived and so on You could sit on the porch and take an apple corn throw it in the Lake Erie I mean there you go So it was like smack dab beside the water in fact it was so close and the graveyard the Hoover graveyard is so on the Water that eventually washed out so bad that they even had to take the road from one side of the Graveyard on to the other side because it was washed into the lake And so and even the graves themselves probably some of them are gone too and even the meeting house was burnt down But then they put it about a quarter mile in on my grandparents place Which is a little bit in and so that's the reign of Mennonite Church Which is possibly the oldest one in North in in Canada It would have been founded that congregation in the late 1790s So gives you a bit of an idea some of the people came actually here from from this a cumberland valley But whatever the case so here was my great-grandpa Peter Hoover, but he had his fiddle and he liked to dance and So one night he was going over there to the neighbors And he was going to see if somehow or another if he could just have a jolly time over there with his neighbors and a lot of them are Irish and English or whatever they were in that area and so he went over there But for some reason or another the Lord Inspired him that he should go and check the thing out and look into the window first So he went over there and it was dark already and it was in the winter time And he went over there peeped into the window and here what he saw was a vision a very strange vision all these people that were dancing it looked like they were devils dancing around it was horrible It was so bad Everybody was dancing around and it just looked like a wicked wicked wicked situation and it looked like they were all Getting ready to be destroyed and so he rushed back home took his fiddle Smashed it that was the end of the fiddle and here he was part of a large large family He was the only no he and it one sister were the only ones that stayed in sort of a conservative Place that you can actually be very comfortable with and he took a very Serious approach and he learned he became like a very old man He was almost many years old when he died and he was a faithful person. It was through my great-grandpa That I had this little link into something that happened many years ago later on he had a boy Well, he was married then and then he had a boy the first boy called John John died very quickly, then he had a couple of girls They had a girl called charity another one Elizabeth another Marianne and and so on but whatever down the road But then yet at the very end they were going to have a little But a little child didn't know it's going to be a poor girl But they were going to have a child all of a sudden my great-grandpa Peter Hoover was out in the barn And he was working and all of a sudden the spirit told him reason I'm telling you these things is because don't Don't get rid of the idea that the spirit will show you things the spirit will show you if you are willing to listen Anyway, he was out in the barn all of a sudden the spirit told go Immediately go do go somewhere. I'll tell I'll show you and so he rushed out of the barn. What was happening? He couldn't see anything. What's going on? And so he and right away the spirit told down to the spring house. We're down to the spring house And this is a very sad story. He went down there He ran down to the spring house see what's going on and he looked into the door and do you know what he saw? It was a horrible sight. He saw his wife hanging from a rope from a beam in the in the spring house He took his jackknife and quickly cut the the cord and she fell off and and he saved his wife and here what was happening is that She was just about to have the baby and she was scared and somehow or another the devil Had convinced her that she's not going to make it anyway And so she thought she's not even going to go through all that pain of this childbirth And so she's just going to take get rid of herself before that even happens And so here my great-grandpa was there and so he saved her and out of that three days later My grandfather was born and they called him meadow meadow Hoover And that was the only boy they ever had that survived and out of that family Came an ocean of people that kept the family And and my grandfather when he died he had around 300 descendants at the time he died He was also like in the 90s when he died and now there are I don't know how many of the of the family that's left And they're all my grandpa's Descendants from down down through that area. So that's what happened later on My my family that was working in that area Meadow Hoover grew up and he was converted at a menonite church sometime with some conference menonite Folk but then somewhere along the line he was He was going to be our somebody they're looking for for an ordination And and he was the only one that's candidate to do it and everybody expected that menon Hoover young man Is going to be the the new preacher there at this place and everybody sort of accepted What's how it is? Well, it's fine the bishop thought so to this to a couple of bishops came in One came from for the north which is the watery area which would be up in the kitchen area One of the bishops came from down there Ezra Martin and the other one was down there at Freeman written house And he was came from the Out there close to Hamilton Ontario close to Niagara Falls actually and so he came over there and these bishops were coming over And all of a sudden my grandfather menon Hoover whom I worked with so Much he had as an older man He worked in a paddle shop and I was the boy that there was As soon as I was out of school I was there helping out the paddle shop and so on and he told me stories All the way through he's a great storyteller and I don't remember much about the paddle shop But I do remember very much about the stories. Well, anyway, one of the things that he was he felt like to talk about He said he was coming down from the upstairs of the of the barn Right before his ordination And everybody expected menos going to be the ordained man. He was halfway down the stairs All of a sudden the lord told him don't have a thing to do with this What's that all about? Well, he was completely mystified But he he told the people later on he said I can't go along with this I don't know what's happening. But I'm not supposed to be going there. So anyway, he didn't and everything changed All the people at that area that whole church died rather promptly and everything went cuckooied And they had all manner of problems and and he was out of it And he and even though he lived on a very beautiful farm It's the old Hoover farm right beside the lake and so on and here he took that and he went somewhere else And if and started somewhere else and if it wouldn't have been that for That decision of my grandfather Have you any clue where I would be? You you wouldn't have a clue Do you ask most of our relatives when we go to the last reunion was about 10 years ago the family reunion Most of the people have not even a clue as to what anabaptism is or what anything of this nature And they are from all over the place and of course they're divorced me married their catholics They're all manner of stuff and and here they always ask me about some historical things about our background Well, whatever all that means it doesn't mean but but to me but the fact of the matter is our family was completely Utterly changed the reason I'm telling you these stories is I'm talking my story You have your story and you are going to have your story by the time you're done So that's what the whole thing's all about. So anyway, my grandpa went to another place and so on My dad was exactly that same kind of a person one day He was going to go down to a congregation that at that moment in time was functioning at a place called muddy pond Tennessee and if you ever heard of that place, it's a curious place There's a lot of very zealous people there and uh, and they had all sorts of ideas I had two uncles living down in there and uh, and here they called on my dad My dad was it was a church leader in the in the family or in the in the church fellowship That that thing's getting caught. I don't know where it'll so whatever the case the the thing was they wanted my dad to come down there and so here my um My dad and my uncle daniel martin and there was another man called john shirk And who is now the bishop up out there at gory interior amongst the orthodox menonites But he's an old man by now, but anyway, this is 1970 summer of 1970 dad was out in the barn Walked into the horse stall because of course we had horses and buggies and so on Interesting enough because that we were like a million months from the rest of our relatives as far as culturally But whatever the case so we were there and uh, my dad was out there half ways through putting the harness onto the horse Gauchat and so he was there The lord spoke to him Said you take your son peter alone What's that's that's unreasonable You don't take three pressures and go down to muddy pond Tennessee and try to fix a church problem And bring a ten year old boy along. I mean, what's that all about? And so my dad was so doubtful about it that he actually gave my gave the lord a test He said all right then lord I will take peter along, which is me and he said I will take him along providing I'm going to find him on the yard where he is and the the weird part of it is I was away for holidays It was during the summer and I was with my twin friends and we were like about a lot of no 12 13 14 15 kilometers. It's probably like close to 20 kilometers away. It was on the other side of st Jacobson terrier and so here we were and here I was going to be gone for a week and my dad had to drive all the way down there to pick me up And and see if like if you could take me down to Tennessee. Well, the last thing I was going to be doing that Well, all right while that happened He was there out in the uh putting on the the harness on the horse and at the same time I was down there down east of connoisseur Ontario and here there's two boys that were I was taking us along with some twin brother twin boys at their house is where I was staying and that morning We all decided all right. Well, we're going to go and we will visit another boy Which is about a lot of though a couple of kilometers east of our place Also close to the town of connoisseur and this was a brewmaker farm And it was right past josh palm's if josh palm's later on lived in muddy pond tennessee If you know anything about those folks, but whatever the case So I was we were going down that road and it was in the summertime and it was actually through the bush lane And we're going down there and it was hot already in the morning sort of it was in the during summer And we were all walking barefoot. Of course we were little boys and and so all of a sudden We were halfway down there and we were out in the bush lane and here all of a sudden I had this thing happening somebody told me Somehow I was 10 years old at the time and he said stop Don't go down there turn around Well, I was mystified How in the world? What's this? What's this all about? I said I told the other boys. I said, oh, let's stop then. Let's go back home. Let's not go there after all He said, well, what's wrong? Do you feel sick? He said, no, I don't feel sick I said, uh, what's going on and I said, well, my my feet are are wet and my pants are getting wet He said, well, that's silly. He said we're going to swim all the time. We get wet all the time and you're barefoot What's the difference and I said, well, I don't know but I just let's just go back And so we turn around and we walk back to to where these folks came from and I was on the yard Barely on that yard Then here comes my dad with his horse and his buggy and he comes in there with a big smile And there am I standing on the yard Exactly the test that he had given to the lord and so here my my dad immediately said you go get your clothes immediately And they wash up your plates a little bit. We're going to Tennessee right now And this was the first time I was ever going to the us of a and we got over across the Detroit whatever and we're done Well, anyway, the only reason I'm telling you these stories is Be ready when it comes However, it comes listen There is a world of a difference whether you are a person that grabs a bible and takes it as a book And all that you do is like a rule book like there's there's do do do and don't don't don't If that's all you're doing you are using your bible in abuse You're actually using something that is never going to work for you You may you may actually wreck what you what you learn from the bible So the thing the moral of the story what i'm telling you as young people is the the thing is get tuned in listen Learn how to listen The lord will tell you and i'm not saying it's all going to come miraculously and strangely and unusually But the thing is you need to be tuned in that is the main thing probably i want to tell you tonight But that has much to do with the kingdom the sacred Of the kingdom of god, but there's much more about okay now we want to read a few of the scriptures that go along with So now we have the the kingdom of god is here. And so um, um, let me just see uh, did you read the scripture? So read the scripture right here Nicodemus said rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from god For no one can perform the miraculous signs you're doing if god is not with him In reply, jesus declared I tell you the truth no one can see the kingdom of god unless he is born again How can a man be born again when he is old nicodemus asked? Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born Jesus answered i tell you the truth no one can enter the kingdom of god Unless he is born of water and the spirit Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the spirit gives birth to spirit You should not be surprised at my saying you must be born again The wind blows wherever it pleases you hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going So it is with everyone who is born of the spirit. All right, the spirit Is what you need you need it Otherwise you are stumbling around you are falling and and wherever in the dark If you will find the light the way to go you will need to find the spirit somehow and it's there for you Don't ever think it's not for you. It is for you For you in person Don't wait don't stay until or to give up on it. It just stay there hang on and and the lord will Show you how to go and I will tell you another little Description a little bit how it all goes. There are two ways of kind of working it out with our understanding of god and the scriptures and the truth and eternity and everything One of them is in german we have two terms for it. One is called the gohussumsglauben, which is the the kind of obedience that comes from all obedience Gohussumsglauben and that thing is always the thing about rules and how you do this do this Don't that don't that so on well? We are only way too familiar with that kind of stuff amongst Anabaptist folk and many of the people here are of anabaptist background So if all that you can think about doing all the right things, do you know what you probably haven't even caught? Now the other side of it and many times it's the other Ditch of the whole situation is a thing called a hatsonsglauben Which is like the kind of a faith the kind of an understanding that is totally wrapped around Totally geared on experience The hatsonsglauben like the the the experience of the heart and so on Well, if that's all that you've got and all you have is just oh This wonderful thing happened like five years ago at july or whatever Well, whatever. Well, if that's all you can talk about it's just how it went when you got born again You're also not catching it. There are two things. We need to be both obedient We also need to have an experience, but we have to walk with the Lord It's a bit like walking on the railroads I don't know if you ever tried doing railroads, but if you ever walk on the railroad You're not going to be looking at your feet and and think you're going to stay on the on the on the rails If you're talking on top of the walking on top of the rails you have to be looking Far ahead you have to have a vision You have to walk forwards and and then you can walk on the railroad quite successfully Well, that is a bit how it is with being a christian You have to not fall into this ditch into that ditch. You have to keep walking walking walking with your eyes fixed on Jesus That's how it works and out of that your spirit and your life everything will come together now I will have to tell you another sad story a very very sad story Just some while ago. There was an anabaptist man That I don't even know personally says probably good, but I do know his brother and all and I know other people quite well And this man apparently for what you're telling me is for about a year and a half This man in a conservative men-on-night congregation and he was course wearing his plain coat and wearing, you know All the good stuff and right kind of shirt and whatever and so forth But whatever and anyway, he was son. He was a Sunday school teacher Apparently for the last year and a half That man was visiting a lady a prostitute Night after night or many times just night after night after night and then he went to the the men-on-night congregation and was able to stand up on a Sunday morning and Teach Sunday school and then he was able to pray and so on and so forth and be just as religious can be After all this came into the clear and was discovered and so on his brother-in-law asked him How in the world could you do that? How could you do that and at the same time preach and pretend that you're all the same and then he said something that was very profound It's probably the most profound thing he ever said. He said the two things were just not connected But you know what? That was the problem He identified correctly That wasn't connected Is your life connected? It's my question to you. Is it connected in my life? That is the issue our life our beliefs our current Direction, is it all the same thing? Or is it just a couple of things bits and pieces here and we have side by side and we have all sort of Have an idea how to work it. Well, it's not going to work When I was up in Canada, I was teaching school and the stock in the 1970s and of course, I had a good number of First Nations children Well, a number of these First Nation folk had joined our church and this was some kind of the Mennonite congregation up close to the Ottawa Valley It was up in the northeastern part of Ontario. Actually, in fact, I don't know if somebody heard from there or not But it is now a church that they call themselves Fort Steward. I think they changed it somewhat, but it's Fort Steward, Ontario Anyway, whatever the case Up in there, there was a First Nation guy, which was from the Ojibwe tribe and he had gotten converted. It was part of the church His name was Dallas Johnson And he was a very earnest and an interesting person to know and whatever the case, but he fell back Very sadly And one night while Dallas Johnson was down at the Curve Lake industry At the we say in reserves we used to say but we're not supposed to say we say now called the First Nation tribes or whatever Everything is changing up there in Canada, but whatever the case. So we were supposed to okay Dallas was down there and he was in a pub and in the pub Sadly, he went up the front and he was getting lots of things to drink and somehow or another He had gotten too much and he choked and whatever and he fell over and he and he choked himself actually and died It was a horrible horrible ending But then we of all things were called on to come down there and have the funeral And so we went down there now as a school teacher of course at that time and we're down there It was like 30 below zero and don't worry if it's if it's going to canadian or american He was about the same on both sides and so it was it was if it would have been 30 below It would have been here it would have been there as well So anyway, but it's 30 below down over there over up there and we went down there and it was Brilliantly sunny. It was the middle of the summer and there's lots and lots of snow And I was really really surprised that the First Nation folks had actually dug a grave But here they did and so here we were and we were trying to get him buried and somewhere along the line They said his favorite song was How does it go? Do you have the song right there? Don't you I have it right here? Um Where do I find it? Is you read it now read read how say It you're uh, oh here you are you left your room this morning. We'll see if you can sing that song Do you know that song? I think you do you do know it? Okay, well, that was his favorite song And so now they asked us if we can sing that song at the funeral and my oh me We said what are we going to do with this because it just doesn't sound like it fits Like what we're doing and here we're trying to bury this person And here on the top of it like all this First Nation people came I would say 95 of them of this man that were there were either Quite drunk or halfway drunk and here they were and it was just a weird weird situation But we sang this song nevertheless and we tried to do as best as we could with the funeral It was quite a strange funeral, but here is the song So let's see if we can stand this song stand and sing this song because I want you to be thinking about that particular song And you better start it because I'm you know the song, don't you I'm not sure if I know your tune to that though Are you left your room this morning? Did you think to pray In the name of christ the saviour Did you serve for loving favor Who is ashamed to pray Oh our praying burst out with prayer Night to day Slow in slow growth and in glad days Don't forget to pray If anything that you should remember don't forget to pray Don't forget to pray and not even sit down again But if you want to but the the thing about prayer is don't even worry about making long elaborate prayers Actually very recently I had a very strange vision And I don't know if you like having visions or what I was never quite sure about as to what all comes But everyone said well I just have them whether I'm either I'm sleeping or whether I'm awake Many times it was right before I go to sleep or whatever and all of a sudden I see stuff And in this particular time it was a very weird one. It was that I was there and all of a sudden I was on the other end of the prayers It was really weird. It was I was there with the Lord beside me and here these These prayers were coming from all over the place from all over the world And here there was the people came up and they and they shared their prayers and I was absolutely flabbergasted Just listening to them. They were weird prayers. You know what they were and people came in there and they started talking to This direction because I was on the other end of the prayers and so here these things came and they were like Long worded little things and they had like lord this and lord that lord the other It's kind of the sing song little thing and it says Here's going on and in here and and on top of that it was All those cliches like old things that everybody always says all the time when they're praying anyway And a lot of it was sort of king james halfway through and here it was and said here I was listening to all this kind of stuff and it was so Bizarre and I thought and jesus has to be there listening to all that kind of stuff and I thought well I feel sorry for him and and I thought well, do you know what we should do We should try that on one another and see how it actually sounds I mean you try it with your dad and see how he's going to look at you I mean you'll get some very strange looks if you if you start talking to people like here Why on earth would we talk like that when we're praying? Why don't we just pray like we pray and try to say what we want to say and on top of that We don't have to make a long spiel about what we're praying about I mean we can just pray and we can say these kind of things and then we can move on and as far as prayer goes If we're talking a bit about prayer tonight and my feeling about prayer is Actually recently a friend of mine. He was talking with his brother So it's not exactly directed to me But he was talking with another brother in the church and it was over in england It was actually in northern england And the man I don't know if you ever heard of but it's tom right if you if you heard if you know what tom right He wrote a good number of books and it was on little youtube or whatever about things that she Inside kind of a person but anyway, he was talking with his friend and this friend He asked him so how do you go with your prayers this morning? And he said oh, well, I prayed about five minutes It's strange So five minutes and he said well, I was trying to pray for over half an hour But I finally started working when it was about like almost done and so I had about five minutes left And do you know what that is very honest? Very honest While we are praying we may as well be honest Do you know what most of you people It's certainly me and most all of us around we can't just sit there and just spoke things Just talking talking talking talking while we're praying. It's not even necessary The lord already knows a lot of these kind of things anyway But one thing we do need to do is we need to be in the presence of the lord And even in the presence of the lord, maybe it's not even going to be five minutes In fact, if you are serious about it, I would say you push it When you're young and you're starting all of this with your prayers You will be good off if you actually in a complete minute Are in the presence of the lord in your heart Try it Just try it For a whole minute, you're not thinking of anything other than just the lord As a schoolteacher I sometimes would talk with my children and I said all right So now we are going to be just totally quiet now for a whole minute But it's only one thing I'm going to tell you while we are on the this whole minute of being totally quiet Just the only thing I'm going to ask you is don't think of any pink alligators Now sit there for a while Said now what now were you managing? Do you know what everybody did? Well, that's how it works our brains are very strange things Very very strange things they oftentimes do exactly what we don't want to don't them to do and so when it comes to prayer And there we are and we're trying to keep focused on prayers and so on but so Easily we wander and we wander and we wander. Well, don't be too stressed by it Even when you are starting very as a young person or recently converted or something like that. Don't worry about it. Just pray Think don't don't say a whole lot to your to the lord Well, you don't have to say anything about loud necessarily But just be there and and be present in in the lord and then present what you have what you have or just listen Just listen and then when that slides off well, then okay, then we then we do something for a little while and then Five minutes later 10 minutes later or whatever and then get connected again Connected it's reconnecting reconnecting all the way through and now i'm getting back into this whole thing about the secret of the kingdom of god It's constant Returnings to the lord constant All day long and the more that you do this the more that you learn about that The more beautiful this comes it doesn't matter like even while i'm here speaking Am i always conscious the whole way through with the presence of the lord? You know what it's exactly the same thing anything else i have to continually return Return return return return all day long and once you have not done it for like half an hour Or like an hour or half a day or whatever You're in trouble It's not how it works and and to think about like early in the morning spending a whole to hour Well, that's very easy for me because i'm there and i wake up anyway So i have time there and so i do pray on and on all the way through that But i think of lots of other things i think of other people think of needs think of all sorts of stuff What's all fine? But the thing is just when you are praying don't be too focused on how you actually pray or Just like all long sorts. So the thing is just keep on going always return to prayer return return Return return the rest of your life the easier it gets very very less I think if i'm not mistaken I can walking in here tonight or somewhere on the line and i think i've heard of somebody talking with the jesus prayer Well, i'll get to it later on that's a very interesting one. So anyway, let's see Are there any scriptures here that i would like to to share a little bit about someone that by the way, what's time? So we're done Well, i don't want to i just want to quickly finish a few things here. All right well So anyway, so um, well, uh, the things otherwise it becomes like a fancy imaginary thing Okay, now we have god far away. Oh, well recently i was just reading a book called the the What is it called again the doctrines of the bible and it's done by daniel kaufman who was a menonite bishop And he one thing that he was describing on this book was about heaven And do you know what there's something very very serious about that there's a serious problem with that whole thing He was saying that heaven is far away And so uh, he had he had a weird scripture that is not even connected with heaven And it comes from Isaiah or somewhere and he had it in there and he said it's far far away And it only comes to the king james by the way And if any other english or german or whatever it's not not even there But the words are not even there, but whatever the case So yeah, that's idea that is somehow another and i also recently i wrote another i saw another article That somebody asked him about heaven and he said well or but god and he said well this this actually a scar A religious scholar wrote back and it's even online and he says that um, all right Well god is not on earth and god is not in the heavens that we can see as far as like the actual physical heavens And so there must be a third heaven which uh, which um, what's the name paul talks about and so he must be like Who knows where like way out there somewhere do you know what that idea is? That idea is absolute false false false doctrine number one Now don't be too upset The word heaven is not in the bible It'll never be there The concept of heaven being a place in that sense is it's not even there It always Everything consistently both in greek and in hebru it's always plural. It's always the heavens Every single time the three heavens that we're talking about is indeed the first visible heaven Or heavens or whatever and then the second one is beyond this where like the stars and all that is there That's the second part of it and then the third heavens That you can connect with and so on. Do you know where that is? It's right here The only thing that you are not getting into it is because you're not seeing it. It's invisible It's the invisible version of it and every so often the lord allows that to be shown And and you you have lots of evidence of this in the scriptures that all of a sudden like you remember when when elisha Elisha it was that was out there with his With his young man was out there and he was very very worried. He said oh, there's lots of enemies are coming He's done. Oh, what's gonna happen? What are we gonna do now? So here they all come We're all gonna be destroyed and then elisha went and prayed and he said just open this man's eyes and so all of a sudden it opened his eyes and the first thing he knew that there were an ocean of of um Angels that were all around him and so here it everything turned out completely completely different He was seeing something that he'd never seen before. Okay. Well, we just need to look a few more things It's a nathaniel. Do you know what nathaniel? He all of a sudden when he when he started seeing the lord He was very impressed and then jesus told him you read this one you read the scripture in you And then jesus turns around and he said this Just keep it on there a little bit further Really, you will see the heavens opening and the angels of god are sending and descending on the son of man All right What I want you to know before I close is I want you to have your heart Opened to the heavens the heavens are here now you read the thing about okay I'll just tell you inok inok and uh moses and elisha There were people that just whooshed out and they never even died and so whatever and so they went out there And all of a sudden where were they where were the where did Elijah go? Where did inok go? Well, they just went into the invisible part of it. That is the the the heavens on the other side But whatever now keep on going with the elisha. Elisha says this. Oh, yeah at the beginning. Is that elisha? No, it's about you go right down in here. There's just a mars. Yeah, uh, this mars So here is a poll talking to all the greeks out there in mars you read quick One man god made all the nations that they shouldn't have at the whole earth God did this so that they Was seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him though He is not far away from any one of us for in him we live and move and have our being The thing about it is that the heavens are here The god is here in your prayers And so that's what we're talking about prayer is don't think that you're talking about some kind of an imaginary god Far far off. Do you know what you're actually thinking with that? That's a completely nasty thing Maybe I told you that before but the idea the gnostics had the idea that the the heavens or the heaven that we talk about is completely It's it's not geographical. It's just an idea. Well, it's in your brain. That is totally wrong And many many people have so if you ask him, so where is heaven? Well, you know where where the clouds are You know where everything else, but we don't know where heaven is heaven is way out there Don't think that way how in the world can you pray that way if it's out there So it's all in your brain. It was all imaginary. Well, then you may as well just quit it Okay, now the next one you read this one here that one It just keep it on a bit now because it there just keep going that way once When being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of god would come jesus replied The kingdom of god a kingdom of god is not something that can be observed Nor will people say here it is or there it is because the kingdom of god is within you is within you That's where you find it. You find it right here. Okay, now read the next one In my 30th year in the fourth month on the fifth day Well, I was is Ezekiel by the way. Well, I was amongst the exiles by the kibar river The heavens were opened and I saw visions of god The heavens are open Boys girls brothers everybody. This is the thing I most want for you that the heavens will be open to you Somehow somewhere it'll happen. Okay. Keep on going When all the people were being baptized Jesus was baptized too And as he was praying the heavens were opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in a bodily form Like a dove and a voice came from heaven You are my son who my love with whom I am well pleased Nobody went to heaven a heaven was there all of a sudden was visible. That's the only difference Okay, now keep going next one Jesus said father glorify your name then a voice came from heaven I have glorified it and I will glorify it again The crowd that was there and heard it said that they had thundered the smack dab right in the middle of Jerusalem heaven was there So what else would you expect? Okay, keep on going others said an angel had spoken to him Jesus said this voice was for your benefit not mine. Read this one yet. Go ahead. Go on there The transfiguration. Yeah, I just talked about all the transformation So we were at the transformation and all of a sudden what happens there Well, everything changes drastically Peter said all sorts of things that he probably shouldn't say just exactly the kind of I would do his very stranger got that name. But whatever the case. So here he was and he said let's put some three sheds in there Well, what's that gonna be? But here they were looking out there and the first thing they knew they saw who else was for Jesus Most Elijah, do you sense significant about that? How did Moses get to where he went? Nobody knows What about Elijah? Nobody knows where he went and so all of a sudden they showed up with On top of this mountain which is Mount Tabor out in in Israel as the first thing they could see things Wow, in the world could you see Moses? How could you see Elijah? Well, here it was they could see him because all of a sudden he would He reappeared. Well, that is exactly how it is. The heavens are right here So when you are praying and you are praying some imaginary Gnostic kind of the of a thing way out there never never land like I was wondering or something. Well, no wonder you can't pray No wonder Get real Recognize that the lord is right here. The reason that you aren't seeing him is because he is he has a Human flesh. I mean by the time, you know after his resurrection Remember that that these the Israelites were all in this shed or in this uh, this room and the first thing You know Jesus showed up and the door was locked How did he get in? He showed what he showed his scars He was wearing the same body What did he do? He asked for fish and eight And how did he get in he got in through the walls? How did he get in? This is the mystery between the earth reality and spirituality and spirit The spirit and the earth are connected. It's from god We are in the midst of this. We are going to be there. We are earth people We are not heaven people. Oh, by the way, we need to also read the scripture I'm so sorry, but I just have to say the scripture somewhere in here where Jesus actually says that nobody's ever been to heaven What did you say that you find the scripture and very quickly? It's right in here somewhere right in here God is spirit. Okay, read this one. Just go down into here God is spirit and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth That's the only way we're going to ever get to god is through the spirit now read this No one has ever seen god But the one and only son who is himself god and is the closest relationship with the father who has made him known How did Jesus ever say that that nobody's ever seen god? What about adam and eve walking around in the bush out there and adam and eve or wherever and here and god was walking with So what god, do you know what he does? He is spirit But he can show up anywhere He can show up in a human body if he wants to and he does and then sometimes Abraham Abraham was there three men came in or one of them seems to have been god But he came in on eight with with Abraham and so how did that happen? Well, it's because god can do that kind of thing What about moses when he was up and and he saw the the the back side of god or something? Well, god allowed him to do that But there's also just one of those miracles But god is a spirit and jesus himself said nobody ever saw god and you never will either And you're not going to be in heaven because he even says nobody's ever been up well not so far But you will eventually but whatever it's going to come all together anyway But whatever the case and so now we have what we have the well, what about this one? So what about this donkey and elisha what's his name? Balaam was sitting on top of it and the first thing you know god Is talking out of a donkey's mouth? What was god now in the donkey? What was god when uh, what's his name was down there in the whale underneath and all of a sudden god He was hearing what god was telling in the in the bottom of the ocean with the with the with the In the middle of the whale well, that's a very strange place to be but god can be anywhere He is a spirit and at the same time what about god being in a burning bush How's that possible? Is that even? scriptural He was there What about the winds of the of the storm how can god be in the storm? very strange Help comes from the hills what from the hills what about from the hills? What about yeah well all sorts of things we can talk about all sorts of things about god god is everywhere But god is spirit So don't expect god sitting on the throne as an old man with the beard like michael henselow. I mean that is an absolute Character, I mean don't don't even look at it. Don't even go to the sistine chapel I don't even like it and so whatever the case So the the real god that we're dealing with is a spirit a spirit Actually it is and the only one that comes in flesh and blood is is or flesh anyway is the lord jesus So anyway, there we go. So but now we have to just finish this up a little bit. Oh, dear me The heavens open Well, there's lots here about the heavens open But I want you all to discover this thing about the opening of the heavens and then we gather short prayers Okay, well short prayers It's very good to keep shorts and then now we go with the prayer points Okay, a good place is to go so since god is around as a young boy I was out there out beside the river and There's two rivers coming together and there's a sort of a little hill up on the side a little steep little thing And I call it this at momo shell Which is a silly thing because it's a little community over there in france many years ago early christians But whatever and I had a regular spot and there's only one of Many many many things all over the world I have found spots in there where I discover god and out of that once I've been there This is always recent south america in the europe in the asia Wherever it was where I've ever been in my life and I find spots in there Where all of a sudden I connect with god and once I'm connected I can go back to those places over and over and over and just one thing leads to another and it is such a wonderful thing Come back come back come back to places You do it find your places and and connect god and and you will you will have a wonderful time with it And then look at the prayer points and now we go with the loving power I won't get into that one and so now we get into Fear and and barrier there are so many things that people especially men and I especially and a baptist They have a hard time getting along with god because they don't even think that god even loves you They're scared of god and so god is just an old man that you you better do this you better do that Better not do the other good and trouble. Well, that is just not god It's just not the lord jesus if you want to pray if you want to get along with him You will need to discover how much he loves you And you start loving him in return and all of a sudden everything comes together And you will have enjoyable times with the lord and you can have it every single day No matter what is happening all around you anything goes wrong, but that never will go wrong. The lord will love you anyway Okay, good. Now. So if you have some scripture here, just do the tax Oh the tax collector. Well, you think about uh, they were very very humble people Remember the tax collector and so he had this thing about the lord jesus have mercy on me a center Well, that is the jesus prayer. I could tell you I could think the whole message about I love the jesus prayer But if you know anything about it, check it out and and it's it's just a way of prayer Don't make complicated prayers lord jesus christ have mercy on me and say let's all stand Let's do it right together. We'll do this together and we'll we'll do it out now And this is the the story of the the man that was like the the tax collector There's the the lady of the the finician lady out there at the river and somewhere And then we have a number of cases like that where it happens about four or five times in in the new testament So let's pray all together lord jesus christ have mercy on me a center. Let's do it again Lord jesus christ have mercy on me a center. Let's do it again lord jesus christ have mercy on me a center And you sit and think about the the jesus prayer and you'll the early christians had much to say about that All right, good. And so we have the jesus prayer. Okay, and now we go with how to pray Well, we talked about that already a prayer Project, well, I would have loved to get into that but I can't and so now we go with the prayer tools One thing I just have to show you I just have to give you this it's you hang on to that and I have it in here And it's this and it's this and it's another thing. I have three things in here and And and this is now this is our funny unusual Electronic world that we're living and have you ever seen these kind of things these are mp3 players Or this is one is an amp. I think two of my mp4s and one of is an mp3 and what you should do I do it and I just really like it one of them is full of the bible And so and some of them put some messages in there as well But whatever it's it's full of the bible in there and I have in all sorts of languages like german and and about german favorite language and then of course that I have the spanish and I have the english and I have Portuguese and I have french pieces in there and What else they have maybe Italian I think have in there and whatever else a whole bunch of Very very nice to listen to scripture So in the middle of the night, so I wake up early and my wife is still there She's sleeping and I don't want to bang the place around and so on and so here I just reach out onto my cupboard right beside there and pick up one of these things and I start listening And you know what it is so enriching if you are young people young men By the way, if you have our problems with with bad thoughts or something that do you know what turn that around inside out And it'll be your best advantage right there Why because if you are always tempted say you're tempted like 15 times a day or something or maybe an officer who knows But every time that a dirty word or a dirty something or this that comes around or just somehow wicked things I don't know how it goes with girls, but I do know how it goes with boys And now of course I'm a little older so my my kind of temptations are different than yours probably if you're younger But nevertheless we get tempted all the time But here we are and so here these temptations come around the thing to do is to flip around and say all right And here we come again Let's go to the lord and if you do it every single time and and you turn to the lord That is a great motivation to get back connected with the lord. See So if you just keep doing it, well all of a sudden, hey, it's almost me And so every time it comes while you're right here go again. So that's how it goes All right, so here I have my bible thing and then I have the other one Which is my gospel one and there's all full of gospels all different languages and so on and and all I do is I just put in there and hear my And then I have one gospel coming in this language this one this one And and if you don't know different language, well do it with different versions or something that and and just So don't listen all the same thing all the same time But then just listen to that gospel over and over and then this other one the black one here Is the one about songs and so I have like oh Maybe a thousand or more of the of all beautiful old hymns with all sorts of beautiful things in there And so when I'm just going to sleep or whatever I put this on and so I'd have it over every night And and then I listen to all and all day long So I carry these things around when you travel or wherever and it's a great thing to do It's an electronic thing It's a silly thing whatever I grew up with completely with electricity and all that But here if it works it works and so I just recommend that you do this now Let me just see if I can finish this off and then so now oh the last thing I'll just have to finish this this is all time But the thing that I want to tell you one more thing and if you forget everything else that I said Don't forget this one We need to do something and we're not doing it yet By the time this all gets done I want this to be working Before I die. I hope It's a thing about sending people out like Jesus said Jesus mission This morning we were together and we had A long story about how to do To start new churches We talked about all sorts of practical things I'm not the most practical thing you've ever met in your life I mean as here I I think about I dream about all sorts of things I'm usually they could jump ahead of everybody else and it doesn't work and people think it's silly and so on And later on it probably is but Once in a while sometimes things come out of it But my thing about that one is well, this is we're not this is not me This is not Peter Hoover at all This is the Lord Jesus. What did he do? He took his disciples and he sent them out two by two Simple as that and without money without anything just like I talked about those moravans at the beginning And he sent about and for the kingdom of God You go and you present the kingdom of God come two by two come to this village come to this family Come to this house be there work there for a while do your thing And then if it works it works great place Praise God you can start something and if not you walk off and you take your shoes and Dush them off and and then you move on somewhere else and you find another place But two by two you go you go you go and you find the seekers and out of that comes Simple little fellowship and it works. Do you know what this is an example right here? It's christian newcomer. I could tell a whole message about that one or I could write a book about it If I want to he was a a menonite preacher from glossdale congregation in lancaster county Have you ever heard of that place and he came over there and he had a huge problems personally He had all sorts of personal problems and whoo He was a very disturbed kind of a younger man And later on he got soundly converted and do you know what he did? He went on his horse with a brother just any old brother oftentimes a young boy or whatever He went along with him and he went all over the place into the east into the west into ohio Which back this is the 1700s and ohio was just barely even settled by white people And then he got into canada and he went down to virginia and he had regular regular regular all the time They haven't a calculation. I can't even give you the number of the many many many thousands of miles that he went with his horse Wherever he went every week. He went there and he met the same people He went over and over over he went around circle and so he went About a month he'd come back and then he was stopping and he stopped every single time Preach the gospel and got people to the lord and then he had a community and he always had bread and wine And then he had had together a little meeting and then they did the thing Then he went on to the next came back again and out of that came hundreds Of congregations started around him. It was simple. There was no money involved No property no those five families are selling a farm and buying another house or whatever that is way too slow Way too complicated by time you get this done You'll be as old as a grandpa and the the thing about it Just do it do it while you're young did why it's why it's capable and that is that is that is him But then there's many other people that went all the way through there's another group that I know It's vulgarly. We often say the kunyans, but it's another group and they send out with no money They send them out two by two two by two two by two We have to call the two by twos up in Canada and in Australia all over the world and the growth there and just two by two What what I so much hope You boys in particular You're young do it for at least half a year Or maybe one year or five years or something like that and just start going out two by two and meet the seekers Don't make it complicated. Don't don't don't go people that don't even want you or whatever Just go there and find people here find people there and once you have them together And then you have little meetings in people's homes Don't try to make it complicated Just have like two or three families or something that and and then come regularly Don't just do a wonderful thing and then never come back And just do that come around and around and around and then have your communion have your bread and your wine And then and and your your little message that goes along with it and so on and then they're expecting you to come back And out of that the exact same thing that happened with christian newcomer Or the saddle that had settled with the coonites or it happened with the early christians or whatever that can happen again It happened with the early anabaptist. So why in the world would you make it complicated? So if you want to do that I want you to get connected somehow and I would desperately want to do that And if nothing else you let me know about it and I will help you and my email address if you can remember this My name is peter hoover, which is rather simple. It's just peter and then h double o the er and then there's a period and then there's t as Which stands for tasmania because we've lived there for many years and so here's peter hoover dot tas at gmail.com and if you're right on there and if you are interested with another A single person or something of that nature and if you can come around as two by two and your church Blesses you and everything sends you off with it with a blessing and so on I expect many many things and if you want some ideas I can tell you I can get you connected all over europe into africa into asia into australia into new zeal Many little or all of those little islands all over the place and I cannot wherever I mean the sky is the limit and another thing is the end of it Don't think that this earth is all going to be destroyed. That's the end of it That is not how it is in the end There's no such thing as you're flaking off and floating off into some kind of an imaginary heaven You are going to be here. This earth is for us. It's the heavens and earth of new Righteousness that is coming together at the end of our journey and this will be restored Everything will be restored. It's in acts everything will be restored. What do you think? Do you think that god made a mistake that he tried to sing with earth and it didn't work? And so he just trashed it and now now it's going to take you off into who never never land No, that's not how it's going to be He's going to come back You're going to come back. This could be new heavens and a new earth and we are earth people And we are here to work one with another to get that all accomplished May the lord help us and there's much more we can say but I don't personally go So may the lord let's stand and then we will pray Lord There are many things we could talk about tonight We don't have the time we don't have the way put together like we could do this But one thing we do want we want these young people that are here that they would catch the vision That somehow or another this would come together in such a way that real Church communities would actually happen with hearts Lies women men children everything would come together and in that You will be in the presence of it all in the spirit and in the flesh On this earth and in the heavens around us and we just pray that that will be accomplished in our time It's not unreasonable lord. You can help us. You would be more than ready to help us We know it so well and the only thing is for us to wake up and get it done So may the lord be praised. Thank you so very much