 Folks last week we were talking about knowing the voice of God and knowing the will of God and Want to get back into that a little bit tonight and explain it You know one of the things that I love about seeking the Lord, you know The Bible says if you deal it gently seek me you will find me and It was probably about seven or eight years ago Our chaplains are deployed all across The southern Sudan we've trained over 500 men in the southern Sudan and We've had 71 of our staff killed in the war over there serving Christ But there's a particular area called the Nuba Mountains and before the Afghan Iraq war way back 20 years ago The Nuba Mountains was considered the most dangerous place in the world to be and and we had about 75 chaplains that were deployed to that part of the mountains and We were constantly praying for them because they were always under attack by the Northern Islamic government. We actually there was a tape that was captured of the Islamic camp commander Speaking to the troops and he was telling him you're to utterly wipe them out kill them all man women and children It was really a bad place of the world and we had literally been praying for that place And we there was probably about a six-month prayer. We were praying kind of what I would call the prayer About Hezekiah Hezekiah has been threatened by the king of Assyria And and you know the Syrian team blasphemes God and God tells him not to worry. I'm gonna go ahead and deal with this and in it says that The it says then the angel the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp When the people got up the next morning, they were all dead bodies So Senechrob king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew he returned to Nidava and stayed there And if you know anything about the Syrians, they were a very ruthless people when they would attack After the first battle they would take the bodies of all the enemy soldiers And they would cut them up in pieces arms legs heads and they would put them on their spear tips And when they would come back into the city for the next fight, they would hurl these pieces of the body into the Army that they were fighting and people were terrified of them And this is much the same way it was in the Nuba mountains Islamic army if there was particularly vicious and but we've been praying Lord in the same way that you Protected the children Hezekiah and his time that you would protect them like this and I don't remember it maybe seven eight years ago the northern army launched an attack in the Nuba mountains on a city called Kadugli and When they attacked it there was a small garrison of soldiers there I think somewhere between 120 or 130 soldiers and I think we had 12 chaplains deployed to that area and The commander of the city just told the sedge soldiers to flee he says we don't have the ability to stop them there's just way too many of them and So the soldiers packed up and left but we had a chaplain by the name of Jobber and Jobber to me is kind of like a prince of his people. He's a very noble man Before he goes into battle he leads all the soldiers in prayer And I think it's been one of the most touching things I've ever seen You'll see these guys line up for battle and they come together and they've got their machine guns draped over the soldiers the bandolaires of bullets and the RPGs and they're getting ready to go into battle and Jobber will begin to pray and thank God and tears are really running down his eyes and he's a very strong man and You know the the radical Islamists didn't just kill Christians they killed nominal Muslims if you weren't a radical Muslim They would kill you too. So there are radical Muslims fighting with the Christians of the southern Sudan and the Islamic Nominal Muslims realize that when Jobber prayed they didn't lose very many men in battle So they would refuse to go into battle until this Christian prayed for their army to go out and do battle and When they hit Cadoogli like I said they hit it with over 30,000 soldiers Jobber said to the commander he goes if we evacuate right now they will kill every man woman and child in here and we have to fight and You know, he said well, I've already dispensed the army. He said well, we'll stay and fight with you So there were 12 chaplains and probably with the commander and his men another roughly 10 men and they literally fought for two straight weeks and during that time they evacuated the entire city and Jobber's wife was pregnant at the time I think she was somewhere around three months pregnant and he said to her he just said you have to run I Will find you someday. He goes I if I don't fight You're gonna die and so here's he has to stand and watch his pregnant wife leave and go out as he goes to battle when the battle When they finally withdrew from the city, you know Jobber Came to see me and he said that you know after they had finally got all the people out And they got most of the people out of the city without being killed He said that you know, we were watching the enemy army. He said West there were so many dead They were pushing them into graves with bulldozers and he said one night we went out and we inspected the bodies When they weren't watching and he said what we couldn't figure out There were no wounds on the body There were no bullet holes. There were no bombs We don't know how they died and I said well Jobber We've been praying this prayer for the last six months and when we read it that the angel of the Lord went out and Steal 185,000 you could just see his eyes get big because Jobber does believe and trust the Lord and knew that it was really the hand of God that did that and After I think he said it was several months before he found his wife. He found her under a tree Excuse me. She was pregnant and gave births shortly after that But job are still out there serving and he's an incredible man of God I think that one of the things guys when you're praying, you know, what I've always found in my own personal walk with the Lord It's the still small quiet voice that speaks to the heart and lead you and guide you in what you're supposed to do But I think that an essential to that is you have to be a person that's given to prayer There was a three-year period of my life that I went to Calvary Chapel San Clemente. It was not a large church But they had a prayer meeting every Tuesday morning and every Thursday morning. I think it was either five or six o'clock in the morning I think it was five that we would go to there to pray I don't remember now because it's been so long and for three years. I did not miss one of those prayer meetings I went to every single one of them And we did not have a midweek Bible study, but we had home fellowships Well, the same thing for the three years that I was there. I never missed a Wednesday night home fellowship And at that time it was long before God called me to the southern Sudan I had no clue that I would ever go to Africa and my heart's desire was to be a missionary in Russia And I remember that in one of the prayer meetings I was praying and as I was praying I just since this the Lord spoke to my heart and he says I'm gonna send you to Russia this year Well, I've been praying about going to Russia for 13 years that I've been out in the normal work world I've been praying previous to that when I was in the Marine Corps probably another three or four years there and I just had a strong sense when the prayer meeting was over There was another brother by the name of Jim Schultz and we didn't even discuss Russia in the prayer meeting And I just said you know Jim I go it's really strange I said when I was in this prayer meeting I had a sense from the Lord that he was gonna send me to Russia and he goes You know what? He said it's funny that you said that because when we're praying I had the same sense that God was gonna send you to Russia now. They knew I had a heart for it well, I Went home and I started to write a newsletter and I tried to put it together to send out maybe raised support to go and I couldn't get it to come together and And I was a little bit frustrated. I prayed and I said Lord I I felt like you told me you're gonna send me to Russia and I Tried to put this together, but I can't get it together and what the Lord spoke to my heart He said I told you I was gonna send you to Russia. I didn't say you were gonna send yourself And so I kind of forgot about it and I don't know guys It was probably at least six months later I remembered it and when I remembered it it troubled me because the Bible says my sheep know my voice and I said Lord I really thought that was you and if that wasn't you what did I hear? I mean do I know how to understand and perceive your voice and things and the Lord's I Had just a sense to just to not worry about it Well that Wednesday night. I went to my home fellowship in the three years that I went there There was a sister in our church by the name of Kathy white now. She did not attend our home fellowship She was at another one. She was very faithful to it, but she never attended ours Well that one Wednesday night she attended ours because she was asked to come and play the guitar And so I got to the home fellowship and Kathy walked up to me and she said West I want you to do me a favor and I said what's that Kathy? She goes I want you to get a passport. I said why do you want me to get a passport? She says because I have a trip that's fully paid for to Russia and every time I pray God tells me to give it to you Well guys my dream had always been to go into the Russian prisons and preach the gospel and the group that I would go with was Eastern European outreach and where they were going was the prisons and you know, I think obedience is so important for the believer because I Look at the 38 countries we're in now all the people that we have on the mission field around the world Had Kathy not given that to me. I don't know that I would have ever gone to the mission field But her obedience ushered in this ministry And so she plays a huge part in and has a great reward in that I think perseverance and prayer is extremely important and I want to come to the book of Daniel and guys and Daniel Chapter 10 it says in the third year of Cyrus King of Persia a revelation was given to Daniel who was called Belta Shazer Its message was true and it concerned a great war the understanding of the message came to him in a vision At the time I Daniel mourned for three weeks I ate no choice food no meat or wine touched my lips and I use no lotion at all until three weeks were over on The 24th day of the first month as I was standing on the bank of the River Tigris I looked up and there before me was a man dressed in linen with a belt of the finest gold around his waist His body was like crystal light his face like lightning his eyes like flames and torches his arms and legs like gleam and Burnish bronze and his voice like the sound of a multitude I Daniel was the only one who saw the vision the men with me did not see it But they set but such terror overwhelmed them that they fled and hid themselves So I was left alone gazing at this great vision I had no strength left the face turned deathly pale my face turned deathly pale and I was helpless Then I heard him speaking and I listened to him I fell to into a deep sleep in my in my face to the ground a hand touched me and sent me trembling on my Hands and knees. He said Daniel you are highly esteemed consider carefully the words I'm about to speak to you and stand up I have now been sent to you and when it he said to me I stood up trembling He continued do not be afraid Daniel since the first day that you set your mind to gain Understanding and to humble yourself before your God your words were heard and I have come in response to them But the Prince of Persia a kingdom resisted me 21 days then Michael one of the chief princes came to help me Because I was detained there with the King of Persia Now I've come and explained to you what will happen to your people in the future for the vision concerns a time yet to come and one of the things that we see here guys is the Daniel persisted in prayer and Often in prayer, you know, I Really think that one of the reasons we don't get victory is because we're not persistent You know God wants his people he said the Bible says again if you diligently seek me you will find me It is not casually. It's not occasionally And guys are there's many scriptures throughout the word of God where God tells us how much he delights when people Dilligently seek him that they have a real heart to understand and know him and So when Daniel prayed it says the moment that he started praying God dispatched the angel But apparently this was some kind of demonic force that hindered him and then God sends them the angel Michael To reinforce him so that he might make the journey there But God did hear his prayer and I found that over the years that persistence and prayer is one of the most important things that I have Discovered in my own personal walk with the Lord a lot of times you know, it's funny because You know, I've heard pastors get up before and say well, you know, the Bible says, you know Ask of me and it will be given to you But they say well that means that if you ask according to God's will and that is true But you know, they you know, I've heard pastors say well Don't pray and ask the Lord to bless the lottery because God's God's gonna bless this prayer but when I was in Russia, there was a a lady by the name of Melanie and She did not have a lot of money. She was quite Poor to be honest with you, but two or three times a year She would get people to sponsor her she'd scrape together somehow she would get to Russia to go on mission trips and I'll never forget she would bring this huge duffel bag with her and I ended up having to lug that duffel bag around all the time for because it was so big But I remember that we had a brother that was there and we were staying at someone's house And he was a big guy and he literally sat on this bed and it just shattered I mean it it splintered. He was so big and you know, I knew did I Knew that I should have told him don't sit on that bed But you know, you don't want to embarrass the guy and so I'm sitting there with a couple of guys And I said I said I don't know what we're gonna do I said we've got to find a drill and put this bed back together and Melanie goes well I got a drill in my bag. I go you got a drill in your bag. I mean who brings a drill to Russia You know, so she reaches in her bag and she pulls out a drill and I go well, that's great I said but we got to find some screws So she was all I got those two and she reached in there and she pulls out a box of screws And she gives them to us well guys the testimony that this is a true testimony Melanie Did not have a lot of money And there was some local lottery going it wasn't like the California lottery where you win millions of dollars But she needed furniture for her house Well in this lottery they were giving away a set of furniture So she literally went to every person she said and said listen guys, I need this furniture I can't afford to buy furniture. I want everybody in the church to pray for me and she got everybody prayer Well, guess what she won the lottery and got the furniture A couple months passes and she comes back and says you know what they got another lottery going on and they got a washing machine And a dryer and I can't afford to buy a washing machine and a dryer And I need all of you guys to pray for me because I need this washing machine and dryer Will everybody pray for guess what she won the washing machine and the dryer Then there was a third one and I think it might have been a car I don't remember but there was a third thing that she did the same thing for and sure enough guys She won it now. I'm not encouraging you to go out and buy a lottery ticket But if you do and you win you always 10% in your tithing, okay, just want to be sure about and You know guys the Bible says that God works in mysterious ways and and I've learned that over the years And one of the things that I'm sharing with you is that Hearing God's voice and knowing the will of God is really tied together with obedience if you don't have obedience in your life You're not going to experience God's blessing In the first year That we started the ministry in southern Sudan training chaplains. I got malaria and I remember that when I got malaria, I could have got on a bush plane and flown out to a Western hospital But I really clearly heard the Lord's voice tell me stay in the village Don't leave and I knew that the Lord wanted it because it was it would be a witness to the people now guys I In my years of being in Africa, you know, I don't know exactly how many times I've had malaria You know, I say 20 my staff says 35 to 40. I really have not kept up count with it But my temperature was extremely high and I was in and out of consciousness during this time There were two commanders in the army. One was one commander by the name of Kwaman Yon Another one was the commander Mamoul. They're both generals now, but they were commanders back then and my wife Vicky who was not my wife at the time told me that the Commander Paul came to see me three times Commander Mamoul came to see me three times and the chaplains came to see me five times I only ever remember seeing each of them one time That's how much I was out of consciousness and I remember that one time I woke up and I looked across the room And I saw two goats in the room and I looked at Vicky and I said Vicky am I hallucinating or they're actually two goats in my room? She goes no, there's two goats in your room this is the hospital that we have in our village there and Guys they took my temperature and again. I have no explanation. I didn't take it I don't remember them taking it and they did take it under the arm They didn't put it in my mouth, but they said my temperature was 111 degrees and they took it twice now I've heard that under the arm it can be off by about two degrees so that can make it 109 But past 106 degrees you're not supposed to survive and I remember that I could literally Feel my body dying. I don't know if some of you about their hip Maybe you've experienced being close to death. Well, I could feel myself dying I knew that I was I was fading and I remember praying at that point and I said Lord I Know that I cannot go down much more and come back up if you don't Break my fever. I know that I'm not gonna make this and the Lord spoke to me in 2nd Corinthians the chapter 11 And he talked to me about Paul's suffering and Paul talks about the person that cushioned that he went through in the first 11 years of His ministry now guys at the timeline that Paul the Apostle writes this he's 11 years into his public ministry He's got another 11 years before he's going to be martyred for his faith And he tells us what happened in the first 11 years and he says Five times I received from the Jews 40 lashes minus one three times I was beaten with the rod once I was stoned three times I was shipwreck I spent a night and a day in the open sea. I've been constantly on the move I've been in danger from Gentiles in danger from Jews in danger in the city in danger in the country in danger at sea in Danger from false brothers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without food I've been cold and naked and besides all these other things I face daily my pressure my concern for all the churches Who is weak and I do not feel weak who has led into sin and I do not inwardly burn Paul tells us that in the first 11 years of his ministry that he has been beaten nine times severely for the gospel Now guys the reason they would give you 40 lashes minus one is they used a whip called the cat nine tails It had a rod with nine to twelve pieces of leather hanging down from it Within the leather there was pieces of shell pieces of metal and pieces of bone And when you would hit someone on the back it would literally grab the flesh and pull it right out of your body Early historians tell us that the reason they gave 39 lashes is Because most men would die at the 40th lash now not everybody would even make it to 39 But as a general rule 39 you would live and 40 you would die So they'd literally beat you with an inch of your life And they said that men who often went through this beating even if they survived it they would go insane because of the difficulty of the the severity of that beating there and This was just the cat nine tails. It doesn't talk about the time of being stoned or beaten with the rod and The Lord really spoke to me about Suffering for the gospel there and that was the reason that he had been there Well, I remember that when Kwaman Yon come in guys Kwaman Yon is a massive man I mean, he's like six foot seven or eight. He's got these my hands look like baby hands compared to him He's a big man and he was known as the butcher of Sudan people said that You know when qual would enter to the city he would wipe out half the inhabitants They said he would line people up and walk down and say shoot this one shoot this one This one lives shoot this one shoot this one and I remember waking up and seeing qual at the end of my bed And I could tell that he was worried. I also remember waking up and seeing general Momol Who was a general now he was a commander then and he smiled at me and he came over and he took care of my hand and guys General ma'mul and I are extremely close now. I was the best man in his wedding Which it's a tremendous honor in the Sudan that's normally given to bring a Relationship with some warring tribe or something. That's what you use marriage for you don't use it for true friendship My wife Iki was the best man In a wedding and ma'mul was very different than Kwaman Yon. He was like a king David He was a great warrior. I actually brought him to America probably about 10 or 12 years ago To get a bullet taken out of him and I remember that when we brought him here The doctor called me up said which piece of letter you talking about the guys got so much metal in them We don't know which one it is and And so Finally after I prayed that prayer and the Lord gave me that scripture My fever broke and I went back to my safari tent We lived in tents for the first four years that we were in the south Sudan And I remember that Kwaman Yon came to see me and when he walked into my safari tent I was laying down. He said, you know what else when I saw you I really thought that you were going to die and I said general I said If I die I will go home to be with the Lord but if you die You will perish for all of eternity. He goes. I don't understand you He goes this isn't even your country yet. You're willing to die for it and We talked and he left well guys shortly after that and general will also came to see me and general will had a tremendous interest in the gospel He was not a believer when we met him But we brought one of those little cassette players over there that you would wind up and it would play cassette tapes And we gave him pastor chuck smith's tapes. Well, he was listening to him all the time we brought over a little television with a vcr and we brought The movie countdown to eternity and the general watched that 40 times and The night of our first graduation We knew that the enemy knew we were graduating a class and we're going to get bombed And so we really prayed that the Lord would protect us that day from being bombed because we got bombed about 12 13 times during the years that we were there and we lost people people would be killed in those bombings And that day we had heavy cloud cover the the entire day It looked like it was just going to pour in drenches And we could hear the atonaut bombers going above us, but they couldn't see us so they never dropped the bombs and at the end of the celebration that day Because it was a big celebration for the city to have these chaplains graduate You know commander mumble came to me and he said i'm going to go back to my Compound I said Commander can I give you a ride? He said sure So he got in my vehicle and about 10 or 11 of his soldiers got in and drove him back to his compound When we got there He got out of the vehicle and I first I was just going to leave him I was going to drive away But the Lord spoke to me he said less it's time and I go And I knew what the Lord was telling me and I said Commander I need to talk to you about the most important decision you're ever going to make in your life and I said Do you want to be forgiven of your sin? He goes yes I go Do you want to know if you die tonight? You'll go to heaven. He goes yes I go commander. Are you ready to surrender your life to jesus christ? And he goes yes and about In front of about I think it was 40 of us offers maybe 70 of his officers and soldiers he was 70 He bowed his head and he became a child of the king and guys I In all the years I've led many people to christ, but I've never had after you prayed he looked at me. He goes west I fully understand what I have done He goes I have refueled received the full born again christian experience I've accepted jesus christ is my lord and savior and I will not turn back and I want you to baptize me and Guys I was excited. I couldn't believe it this great general or commander had given us life to christ So I got back in my vehicle and I raced back to my compound to tell the staff guys You're not going to believe it commander memul just gave his life to jesus christ when I get there commander qualmanyan's waiting for me and we sit down And we start talking and about 30 minutes later. I'm saying the same thing. I go commander. Do you want to know? If you die tonight, you'll be forgiven for your sins. He goes yes Do you want to know if you die tonight? You'll go to heaven. Yes. Are you ready to give your life to jesus christ? Yes, and he took my hands and he said the center's prayer and guys The people in the sudan talked about this a lot. They said we knew this man He was a butcher. He was a murderer But now he's a completely different man And guys one of the things that with it if we we can pray, but if we don't practice obedience now I think about the fact that when I got sick Had I disobeyed the lord and said I don't want to be uncomfortable And got on that airplane and flown out Would these two men ever come to know christ as their personal savior? I don't know I doubt it But the lord used it as a testimony for them and one of the things is believers Is a lot of time god uses suffering in our life To get other people's attention. It's something that we need to be very aware of You know I hear people Tell me that the lord told them things and guys a lot of things that People tell me that god told them. I know that the lord has not spoken to him. It's spoken through their flesh one of My closest friend luke luke. I shared with you last week 14 years marine corps special forces Speaks about seven eight languages And tested at genius level Well, he's literally had 20 women come to him and say The lord has told me that I am supposed to be your wife, you know and You know luke has told them all The lord hasn't told me that you know He's still not married and truthfully I I don't think he ever is going to be married I think he's much like paul the apostle. He's so committed to the gospel and to reaching people I don't think that he will ever quite settle down I've had two or three people that have told me that goddess told them That they were going to be raptured that they would not see death that they would be raptured The two or three people that have told me that are all home with the lord right now and not here on earth, you know So apparently the lord did not tell them that and I think that one of the things is that when we're praying and we're seeking the lord we have to Seek god according to his will and what the word says, you know I think that god The situation when melanie was very unusual. I've never heard of anything like it again But it was a unique situation and I believe that god did honor her faith I remember being up The bible talks about word of wisdom or word of knowledge And guys are there there are two different things First chrithians 12 8 is where we get both of those word of wisdom and word of knowledge is and A word of wisdom is a former revelation like prophecy god giving divine knowledge in certain situations And it's it's when god speaks to people's heart on things that they don't know or shouldn't know When we first started the mission field We were working very closely with calvary chapel saving grace Still a great group of people But there was a guy down there that went to the mission field and I remember him telling us that He said, you know one day I was praying And I was praying about what god wanted me to do with my life And the lord told me to go to police Now he didn't know what police was. He didn't know if it was a city A territory a country he had no clue in his life So he looks it up and he finds out that police is actually A country And he said, you know what? He goes after the lord spoke that to me. He said over the next month I had about a dozen people come up to me. I told them nothing about what I was thinking And they said to me have you ever thought about praying and going to being a missionary in police? And I believe this is sometimes how god reveals to us, you know There's a word of wisdom that is supernaturally spoken through other people Uh We used to go up when I was in the marine corps And right after I got out we'd go up to Los angeles to the skid row area and we'd go up there and we'd feed the people that were homeless and We would share the gospel and we had a lady by the name of trish and Trish was always very gifted in hearing from the lord. I you know You kind of envied that she just had that kind of a relationship with the lord And uh, I remember we were up there and we were handing out tracks and Uh She hands a track to this guy and tells him jesus loves you And he and he hands her back another track And it's about communism And she's trying to convert him to christ and she he's trying to divert her to communism And trish looks at him and she said The only reason that you believe in this Because your entire family was killed in el salvador And you're bitter and you become a communist because you want to get even And the guy who just broke down and started crying Because we didn't know him. He didn't know us It was just a supernatural revelation that the lord had given to trish. I know that When I was in the business world guys and At a pretty young age. I was successful When I was about 27 years old, I was probably making the equivalent of about 250 to 300 thousand dollars a year in today's money And I was in sales and all the guys I were with were young guys in their Mid-20s to early 30s and then we were making a tremendous amount of money And all the guys that were with me drove Porsche Mercedes We even had one 20 year old guy named andre. He bought himself a A brand new rolls Royce. I mean we were making a lot of money So I started thinking well, maybe I should buy a nice car too. This is the world that I live in So I'm thinking about buying a twin turbo Maserati. I'm a young christian. Well, I'm not a young christian, but I'm a christian and and I remember that I really felt I wanted to ask trish if If I was making a mistake, but I didn't want to tell her, you know I didn't I didn't want to tell her what I was thinking. I didn't want to know how carnal I was And uh, so she calls me on the phone and we start talking and she goes Wes is there something you want me to pray about? I said, I don't know trish. There's always a lot of things going on with me She goes, but is there something specific or that you need an answer from the lord? And I said well, yeah, there probably is and she goes. Do you want me to pray for you? And I said yes, please pray for me And so she starts praying and then she looks at me and she goes I don't know what you're thinking about But the lord has told me to tell you no And again, I say no And so I said What about the DeLorean, you know You know guys, uh, if you ever praying about going out and buying an exotic car I Don't suggest you pray about it if you actually want to get it because I don't think you'll get what you want there Because word of knowledge is Is different word of knowledge Is supposed to come from Biblical knowledge we have And god using that knowledge in a certain circumstance to reveal things to us, you know We went out we saw I went out saw Jesus revolution this week and if you haven't seen it I really recommend that you go and see it. I thought it was a great movie You know everybody who's seen it knows it's not completely accurate But beyond that the one great thing that comes through is the love that the people had for each other And uh, I know myself Uh When I started going to Calvary Chapel back then in the early days of the ministry because I got saved May 11 1976 at the marine base at camp Pendleton, California And they took me to Calvary Chapel and I remember that The guy said to me one night. Do you want to go to Calvary Chapel? I said, what's Calvary Chapel? Are they really going to you want to go to Calvary? I said, what's Calvary to go? It's a church. I said sure And I remember going into the auditorium and there's just thousands of hippie That have all bathed which was a big miracle for me in the first place to see hippies that had bathed But one of the things that struck me about it and I couldn't wrap my head around it You would see these young beautiful hippie girls And they would go up and they would kiss some guy on the cheek that you think why in the world would a girl like that? Kiss a guy like that. I couldn't understand it But it was pure it was holy love and that's what I remember about that back then But you know in the movie Lonnie for his big eyes Gives a prophecy to Greg Laurie That he will have a church of thousands And whether that's a word of knowledge or word of wisdom. I don't know But I think that Lonnie had seen some of the gifting in Greg's life. It was becoming very evident at a very early age But there are different ways that we can learn and discern the will of God in this area and guys it says that It says with word of wisdom it says wisdom is the ability to use knowledge for the correct purpose All Christians are to ask God for wisdom on how to live James wrote the following words If any of you lacks wisdom let him ask of God who gives to all liberally and without reproach and it will be given to him So this is what a word of wisdom is supposed to be now on the word of knowledge Let me see what how this is It says again the supernatural revelation combined with knowledge to deal with the problems and I do believe that God gives people supernatural knowledge to deal with problems. I've seen it many times over the years I think one of the things that I want to encourage you about in your faith Is don't become discouraged in your faith because things don't work out the way that you want One of the things that we need to realize is that God has A higher wisdom than all of us You know guys something happened to me a couple months ago There was a young man That my wife and I had discipled in Africa. His name was Duncan Duncan when he was a young child his father died very young His mother was very traumatized. They were in a very badly war torn area and Duncan told me that when he was five years old That the rebels attacked the village he was in And his entire family just scattered they ran in all kinds of directions And he's a five-year-old boy and he's running out into the wilderness and in Africa They have what's called this spear grass And if you get it in your feet, you never really get it out I mean the pain does somewhat society But you'll always have this sensation in your foot the rest of your life and he's running through spear grass to go He got to a an area and Ran into a family and told him what was happening and they told him to sit down and Duncan was too afraid. They said let us get you some food and he ran off At five years old. He's in the bush for three days by himself uh He finally finds his way back to the city center And he runs into his brother and he said, you know, I ran into my older brother that was Probably seven. He said we just threw our arms around and we just cried Unfortunately, all of his family survived but his mother Because of the hardship the life started to drink alcohol And uh At seven years old he walked in and she was gone Now he's already lost his father. He's run from rebels Well Duncan was adopted by uh a family That runs our farm in africa. We have a school for children that holds about 700 children. It's a castle It's a very safe and secure area and they Kind of adopted duncan took him under their wing Richard and susan did And my wife vicki pointed out duncan to me a number of years ago And we could tell there was something really different about this kid. He was just special And I remember that every time we would have a pastor's conference or a missions conference or we were teaching the people Duncan would be in the front row and he was literally on the edge of his chair And he would come up to me afterwards. He'd go pastor west. I just feel like I learned so much from you And I saw his life just so vibrant for the lord Well, we we sent him to college And he graduated number one in all of yuganda the entire country And while he was in college, there were many young girls that pursued him He's a good-looking kid. He's handsome Duncan kept his testimony pure He would witness christ to them and they realized they were not going to get what they wanted with him That was just the kind of kid he was And I remember that when he graduated I bought him a motorcycle for transportation It was his graduation gift and and duncan was really like a son to me. I mean I I really loved him and And when the Calvary teams would go over a couple years ago Don McClure and And about 15 pastors came over and we'll have it again this year And everybody loved Duncan and people would comment about him I remember there was a young girl that he'd come over. She was about 23 and she said, you know The one thing that I notice She goes, I know that I'm a attractive girl and there's several pretty girls here But I watched Duncan and he's ministering to all the older ladies He doesn't even pay attention to us. He's out there. He's taking care of the ladies that are In their late 60s and 70s. He's ministering to them and she goes, this is the kind of guy that I want to marry I don't want to marry men like men are america. I want to marry a guy like this and uh I remember when I was over there a few months ago We were I was helping Duncan to build a house and you know, we built our own houses We make our own blocks and Duncan was doing a great job and he's a very smart kid. He went out and he Leased pieces of property and he was growing crops and making a decent living and We were planning to open a passion fruit farm in africa because it's a very high dollar crop If you have a hundred acres of passion fruit, you can make about two to three million dollars a year And we were planning on growing 300 acres because we want the ministry to be self-sufficient And my I was going to raise Duncan up to oversee this entire operation And I remember sitting there thinking to myself, you know lord He's the son that I have always wanted He is so special to me every time I would come and see that kid he would just throw his arms around me and he would hug me and Got a call About two months ago Duncan was on a bus headed to Kampala the capital A tractor trader broke down And they put no lights or anything in these bus drivers drive it Ridiculous speeds they go like 75 miles an hour Well, the tractor trader was broken down and they hit that thing at 70 miles an hour And everybody on Duncan's side of the bus was killed including Duncan it is tremendously hard for me to understand that I can't wrap my head around it But you know the bible says The righteous are taken away and no one understands it's to save them from evil days And one of the things that we need to realize is that god sees the future So if the lord says notice something It's for your best Many young women God has told them not to marry someone and many young men But he was the big man on campus and they married him and later down the road they're miserable And again guys the answer is not to get a divorce the answer is to seek your god But when god says no it's not because he's trying to withhold something from you. It's because he's trying to protect you Luke and I and I'm going to close here in a second my time is up Luke and I have talked about a lot of what we see going on around the world and we have a orphanage in central america And it's for handicapped children But guys all of these children that we have in the orphanage have been sold into prostitution I have a three-year-old that we need reconstructive surgery Because she was made a prostitute at three years of age and up to 10 men a day We're violating this young girl I have a nine-year-old That told us that when she was about six or seven her father started bringing in Five to six men every night to watch her shower And then each of them in would take their turn with her She is hib positive and needs reconstructive surgery on both the front and the back There are things that I will never fully understand But the thing that you have to do is trust the lord when you don't understand The beginning of wisdom is to trust the lord God knows things we don't know the great thing that I can say is these children are safe I am I've got a meeting with the president of that country in may And they have a law in that country that children can't be adopted If they've been molested and we're going to try to give that law change Plus the criminal gangs that are selling them. We're going to try to intervene and do something about it And I can look at it And say why god but we have to realize that we live in a fallen world There are things that you just have to leave in the hands of god. You're not ever going to fully understand it I will miss duncan forever, but I know He's with the lord And I know that god brought him into our lives to love him to disciple him And to make a difference And in the same way in your own life I would encourage you to pray And ask the lord to give you wisdom in first chronicles 16 11 says Seek the lord in his strength Seek his face continually I look at All the lives that have been saved around the world through this ministry You know one of the things that has happened guys and I rule close with this In afghanistan The taliban does unbelievably cruel things to people and women in particular But when we go in there and we rescue these people And they ask us why we came for them We tell them jesus They can't understand that because in their religion God is cruel and you make a mistake and he will murder you He will torture you But what's happened because the lord has led us into that and because of the system that they're under These people are coming to know christ in great numbers Now if they were not under that persecution They probably would have never come to christ And it's sometimes hard to understand and justify But because of the great suffering they're going through it's open their heart to the lord jesus christ And while they might have suffered They're coming to know them as their personal lord and savior the beginning of wisdom is fear of the lord And guys when the bible talks about fear of the lord It is a reverent fear But it's also an awe-inspiring fear of when you know that you don't do what's right. There are consequences So i want to encourage you as you seek the lord and you seek his will for your life Whatever god says to you just do it Learn just to be obedient People ask us how our ministry grow so fast and i all i tell him is obedience We just did what the lord told us God bless you