I'd like for you to turn to Matthew chapter 12 in your Bible, please. And I'll be using five scripture texts tonight. And just a couple years ago, I was supposed to be at an important meeting the next morning. And I couldn't fly there. There were no flights.

So this man with a quite big car. You know, well, it was an expensive car, and he was eager to drive me most of the night to get me to this other place. Very eager to do this, and so I thought about it, and finally I said, all right, I'll go with you.

And he said, well, I don't mind. I'll just stay over and then drive you home. I said, well, that would be really nice.

So we get in this car, and I'm sitting in the front seat with him, and we're driving late into the night. Now, this is 1 o'clock, maybe 1:30 in the morning, and we're going down a back road to nowhere, and as we get out on this back road, the fuel light comes on, red light.

How many of you know when you're out in the bush and the red light comes on, the climate changes in the car? So he tried to ignore the light, see? And after a while, the pressure and the tensions are building so high, he said, we're low on fuel. I said, I know this.

He said, oh, this car goes a long way after the light comes on. I said, it better.

Now the tension's building in the car, and he is praying because he's got the man of God out in the bush, and he really is worried that he's going to fail his job. So I'm here, he's praying in tongues, rebuking the devil, pleading with God and all kinds of stuff, and I'm sitting there wondering what's going to happen.

I really didn't know what would happen, and suddenly he turned around this bend in a little country road. There's a single gas station with one pump, and the light was on. And he whipped into the gas station and we filled the car up and went on to trip.

Now, what I want to talk to you tonight is called running on empty. I believe that I'm carrying the word of the Lord. Running on empty is a particular kind of spiritual skill.

There has been no place in the renewal to even talk about empty, let alone think about running on empty. Let me read my text, please. Matthew chapter 12, and I'm reading 18, 19, 20. All right, familiar little text, and you'll understand what I'm after in just a moment.

Behold my servant whom I have chosen. This is, of course, Jesus the Messiah. My beloved in whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall proclaim justice to the Gentiles. He will not quarrel nor cry out. Nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets, meaning he refuses to hock his wear.

Verse 20, a battered reed he will not break off. And this very familiar little statement, a smoldering wick, he will not put out until he leads justice to victory. And in his name, the Gentiles will hope.

I want to try to tell you some lessons that I learned, and I'm trusting God will help me in such a way that it will touch us where we live.

Now, a smoldering wick is not hard to understand. In the time of Israel, a lamp was a thing that looked like a gravy ball. The oil was poured in it and a wick was out where the spout would be. There was a cloth wick that would come out of that. And when it would run low on oil, the wick would start to smolder and smoke would come up from it.

And so the owner of the house would know that he'd just go pour more oil into the thing and immediately the light would shine again.

Now, this is an interesting thing because I was looking at something that I called, you know, that people call spiritual burnout. I wasn't burnt out, but I was running low. The light was on and the climate had changed.

And I didn't quite know how to respond to the Lord because I've walked with the Lord almost 34 years plus. And so I was trying to figure out what in the world was happening.

And so I learned something about a smoldering wick, and that's this. When you run low on oil, you start burning wick. Meaning the moment that the anointing begins to subside, then you start trying to do it in human effort.

How many of you know smoke makes people cry? There's nothing worse than someone pretending an anointing. Nothing makes me cry than to see someone low on oil who doesn't even know it. They don't even have a light. The wick is smoldering.

Now the promise, of course, Jesus said, I will never quench that. I will always come and bring more oil. And I know how to heal that. Jesus promised it. I know how to heal that.

So I was really trying to hear what God was saying to me. And I heard the Lord say these kind of things to me. And it goes something like this. There is a powerless place. There is a time when God leads all of his children into a place that I would like to call a powerless place. There is also a powerful place, a time when you're anointed and you're full of the word of God and the gifts of the Spirit are hanging off.

But there's also a powerless place. Now let me explain to you the powerless place. The powerless place is Jesus in Gethsemane. Luke 22, this is the second verse. Look at it with me for a moment.

I was going to just quote it, but I want you to look at it with me. Luke chapter 22 and verse 53. Let me just show you a time, a very real instance in the life of the Lord Jesus. And he makes this statement.

He said, Luke 22 and verse 53. While I was with you daily in the temple, you did not lay hands on me. But this hour and the power of darkness are yours.

Now, all of a sudden, this powerful ministry that Jesus had exercised all of these years and all of the deliverance and the healing, now all of a sudden it's gone through some kind of a change, a metamorphosis, and I want us to understand that.

In the powerless place, nothing goes right. How many of you know it's right on the edge of this that the disciples start to fight over who's going to have the greatest place?

So I went back and studied fairly carefully the Gethsemane experience, and it was very, very tender. I was deeply moved, and I don't want to teach on that. I just want you to understand that a powerless place is a time when it seems like I'm low on oil, and it's a weakened place, and nothing seems to go right.

Even the car won't start. The kids are worse than they ever were, and the pressure seems to surround me everywhere, and the thing seems to be coming down on me, and I thought, Lord, what is this?

Now, powerful place, we all understand fairly carefully what it means to be in a powerful place. You read the Bible, it's like the 4th of July.

Man, things pop all over the place and the anointing and prayer is wonderful. But how many of you know there are times when you say hallelujah and it runs off your chin and drops on the floor? That's real. Heaven seems black.

Now, here's what I learned. I learned 2 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 9 and 10. Will you turn there?

This is the third scripture. 2 Corinthians chapter 12. Verse 9 and 10. I'm nervous this evening for some reason. I think I feel anxious that you're not going to hear me.

And I don't want to do that.

2 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 9 and 10. And he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you. For power is perfected in weakness.

I said, I don't want to hear that. Power is perfected in weakness.

Now, I'm going to give you Mumford's translation of that in just a moment. Power is perfected in weakness. That is not the charismatic message. Are you there?

Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses. I thought, man, where are you coming from? That the power of Christ may dwell in me.

Now, the contrast is the powerful and the powerless. Verse 10. Therefore, whenever you see a therefore, find out what it's there for.

Therefore, I am well content. And those of us who were in the Bible class this morning understand contentment.

I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, come on, then I am strong.

Now, very interesting contrast. Now, let me give you the lesson, and then we'll come back and try to understand it.

The lesson is this: how you conduct yourself in the powerless place is how you're going to conduct yourself when you're in the powerful place. So that what God teaches you in the powerless place is the thing that He's working in you, that is nature, and He's teaching you something about how to conduct yourself when you're in the powerful place.

How many of you know that when you're in a powerful place in the Spirit, you can be cruel to others? Man, it's going well for me. I've got the anointments. And it's an interesting thing. I did that to my family, and I did it to my wife, and I've done it to people because in a powerful place, I knew how all this was going to work.

You just do this and this, and you believe this, and you read that, and this comes out at the end. Put the quarter in, kick the machine, and it comes out. But you don't walk with the Lord very long till you find out it doesn't work quite like that.

And he says, now, here's the message. My grace is sufficient for you. That is the first lesson about learning how to run on empty.

I promise you, Jesus said, around the next bend will be a gas station, the right one, the one you need. My grace will be sufficient for you.

Now, I want to give you a gift, personal gift, Bob Mumford's gift to you and to this conference. It's Acts chapter 8 and verse 33. Will you turn there?

Acts chapter 8, verse 32 and 33. Now the passage of Scripture, what he was reading was this.

And he was led as a sheep to the slaughter. And as a lamb's before its shearers is silent, he does not open his mouth.

Now I would like for you to underline this and then put the date in it. What's the date today? January 12, 1990. Just put the date right here.

And the phrase is, in his humiliation, his judgment was taken away.

Now, what's behind this is a very interesting statement. Let me give you a free Greek translation. It goes something like this. While he was under the dealings of God, he didn't get a fair deal. While he was walking through a powerless place, things didn't go the way he thought they should.

Judas is coming. The disciples are fighting. The whole pressures begin to come down on him. And if you ever sat down and read Gethsemane with some degree of understanding, you can't see him unless you see him as honest to God man wrestling with some deep, deep painful issues. The perspiration was a blood.

And the failure and the pressures that was surrounding him. And as he looked at this, he said, Father, is there some other way?

So in a powerless place, he begins to understand something about the powerful place. While he was under the dealings of God, he didn't get a fair deal.

Now that's a message. That needs to come very, very clear to us because the law is this. How you conduct yourself in the powerless place is preparation for how you will conduct yourself in the powerful place.

One of the real diseases of the charismatic renewal has been triumphalism. You don't know what triumphalism it is. It means simply that everything is triumphant and victorious and we're here to show you how to do it.

Now let's look for a moment at the next lesson. How should we act when we are in the powerless place?

Now, I want you to follow carefully tonight. If you can walk with me through a set of circumstances, a little bit scary, but if you could hear them, I think something will break loose in us.

Owning the truth, owning or recognizing or making the truth to be mine is a Christian teaching.

Some people think we are Christians because we are escape artists. Are you there? I mean, if you know, the world out there thinks we are Christians because we're slightly emotionally lacking and that we need pie in the sky.

But if you ever walk with the Jesus of this Bible, that is the opposite of us. The Jesus, no one helps us to face ourselves like Jesus does.

All right? Now.

Fighting truth, when truth is starting to come to you and you fight truth by your own human strength, that's what causes smoke and makes others cry.

I would like to say always, but I'll modify it a little bit. Let me say it this way. Truth is almost always negative when you hear it the first time. Putting on a little weight, aren't you? Don't we love to hear that?

One morning, just before I came on this trip, my wife said, why don't you get on the scale? I said, I don't want to get on the scale.

She said, why? I said, because I don't want to get on it. And I started to get all bent. She said, you afraid what it's going to say? I said, aren't you smart?

But the reason I was getting all bent was because I had put on about 12 pounds, and I knew that I put on 12 pounds, but I didn't want her to tell me that.

Do you understand? So I didn't want to hear the truth.

Now, I want to suggest a couple truths to you. That are hard to hear. I don't love my husband. I don't love my wife. I can't stand this child. How do I know God is loving?

Are you standing there screaming, God is love, God is love? I don't know God is love.

I don't like myself.

Now, let me tell you how I came to understand this. I was ministering in a fairly large conference and I was praying for people. They were coming up this way over the platform.

There was about five of us praying for people. And as this young lady came across the platform, she was about 20, maybe 25 years old.

And as she came across the platform, the Holy Spirit said to me, tell her to tell you the truth.

So she walked across the platform. I said, young lady, stop right there. Unless you tell me what's really wrong, I don't want to pray for you.

She stopped dead. She kind of reacted. She said, okay, I will. I've been married three years, and I don't like my husband.

I said, next.

I absolutely didn't know what to do. I mean, she said with kind of a hatred and a venom coming out of her and something coming out of her.

And I knew then that I wasn't going to be able to do the magic touch. I knew the hurt was very deep in her.

So I said, you know something? I believe that's the truth.

And she started to cry. Because you know what she expected me to do?

Exhort her. Nah, that's not really the truth.

I want you to love him. He's a nice man.

And so I said, you know, I believe that's the truth. She started to break. The tears started to flow.

And I said, though it's the truth, it doesn't have to stay that way. Follow what I'm saying.

She started to break.

The tears started to flow.

And I said, though you have owned the truth of that, she said, for three years, I've been wrestling with the fact that I really didn't love him.

And it's building in me.

And I began to see something that was happening.

So I finally, I said to her, I believe what you're saying is the truth.

And she just came apart.

And I said, now let me explain something to you. Though it's true you don't love him, it doesn't have to stay that way.

And she saw how truth could set her free. If she could just own the thing rather than fight it and resist it and deny it.

I have a friend of mine, we were in a camp together, and I heard him say these words, up, down, up, down. I said, what are you doing? He said, I'm doing my aerobics. Up, down, now the other eyelid.

Now, I mean, that actually happened.

Now, I want you to know that many of us go through kind of mental gymnastics.

I do love him, I do love him, I do love him, I love him, I do love him, I do love him. And all the while something says, no you don't, no you don't, no you don't.

So the mental gymnastics and the thing that's going on inside is about to make Christians spiritually schizophrenic.

Is truth whether it's negative or positive? If I say the lights are out, that's the truth. If I say the lights are on, that's the truth. Because whether the lights are on or off, negative or positive, the truth is.

And we as Christians need to learn how to accept and recognize the truth when I am in a powerless place if I continually play mental games.

But I'm scared to embrace the truth because I don't want to fail God. I don't want to hurt you. And above all, I don't want to admit it to myself.

So I play the game of denial.

Now let me explain to you what denial is.

Denial is a scary thing.

I was trying to explain this to prisoners at San Quentin. Maximum security prison. In the congregation is 200 of some of the toughest men in America. They have done just about everything that a human being can do.

And I learned not to ask any questions. Literally, I began to minister to them without asking questions.

And so I was trying to explain to them about God's love.

And I said something like this, and I want you to hear me when I try this on. Yes, okay? I want you to hear it.

I said, many of you are like a man who sees his life. It goes from one to a hundred. And some of you recognize that you want to start at 49 or 50 and

Here is the cleaned-up version of the sermon transcription:

Understand, 1 to 49 is the real you. I thought, man, you're talking something. It's hard to understand. It's hard for them to get a grip on. I began to recognize that that was really true in many, many people's lives. And as I did, I began to perceive something of what God was saying.

1 to 49 is just as much me as 50 to 100. And I began to recognize that God said, "I want you to know, Bob, I love all of you." Everything past, present, and future. How many are glad that God's love covers the whole deal?

All right. Now, when we begin to understand something about God's love for us, then we can begin to accept negative truth as well as positive truth, and I can begin to face the fact that it really is true that I have trouble with this child. I've got five kids. This one really gives me trouble. Man, that's hard for a mother or a father to admit.

Very hard. It's hard for anyone to say, "You know something?" I really am lazy. You know something? I am given to these kinds of faults or this kind of problem or this set of circumstances.

And as I begin to recognize, I begin to see Christians in a kind of denial syndrome and they're working, trying to work their way through it. And I thought, Lord, I do understand you want us to accept what I was. And what I am, and what I'm going to be, and you want to cover that with your love.

If I can accept myself as I really am, then I can accept you. It broke over these prisoners, and many of them began to break and weep and open themselves, because how many of you know there's some things in our past we don't want to turn around and look at?

Come on now. You say, "Well, the blood of Jesus Christ." I understand. Don't get nervous. I'm not talking about what you've been forgiven for. I'm talking about the nature of your whole lifestyle.

Now, what happens is, in the time of weakness, now hear my heart, please, in the time of weakness, that's when all that kind of stuff comes into focus. It doesn't come into focus in the time of strength.

This last year, I went on several retreats by myself and got off and was fasting and seeking the Lord. And interesting thing, in a time of weakness, the Lord brought a lot of stuff back to my mind that I had repented of and I had forgotten about and all this stuff.

And the Lord began to bring something. And I thought, "That's the devil." I rebuke you, devil. The Lord said, "You better listen."

In a time of weakness, I want to reveal some things to you. I want you to know you really are human. And the fact that you're human, I love all of you. One to a hundred. I died for all of you.

Amen? Now, that is really the essence of the gospel. Truth sets us free. Now, what kind of truth? Negative truth and positive truth. Once I can embrace it, truth will begin to set me free.

If I'm playing mental games with it, then I find myself in a kind of paranoia and I'm wrestling with something that I can't seem to get through and then the time of weakness seems to extend itself.

God is not a man. And his love is not like a human. Now listen to this phrase because I want you to hear it. God factors in more failure into your life than you do.

He said, "Look at Bob." Oh, Bob Mumford. Yes, I know just what he's like. So he factors in 27 failures. Are you there? I only factored in 11.

He said, "That's all right. My grace, come on, come on. My grace is sufficient for you." I understand. I factored in 27. You only factored in 11. When you get to 12, are you going to be shocked? No one has had any more human zeal.

If human strength could do it, I would have already done it.

Now, what do we do when we're running on empty? Now, let me give you seven quick lessons. They're not so quick. They are real, all right?

Let me give you seven suggestions to do when you're running on empty. I met a pastor. And I won't tell you what town he was, but he said, "I prayed that if the Lord would let me talk to you, that you and I would meet."

I turned the corner. There he was. We almost bumped into each other.

And he said, Bob, I need to talk to you. I said, yes, sir. He said, this past year has been the toughest year of my ministry.

He said, everything is dead. The church is dead. The Bible's dead. The congregation seems dead.

And he said, I am in a tough place. I said, well, let me talk to you. I think Friday night I'll be saying something to you that would speak to that situation.

How many here have had a particularly tough last year? Could I see your hand?

Oh, yes, about 50, maybe 60%. What's your fuel light on? Because if it wasn't, I'm a prophet who missed the whole deal.

Let me give you the lessons, and I'm going to speak them, and if you can hear me, these seven things may save your life.

First of all, by the way, running on empty can be an individual, a family, a church, or a whole denomination. Number one, recognize the reality of seasons.

There are seasons in the Christian life. The Christian life starts with spring when you're brand new born again. How many of you know when you're born again? Everything was wonderful.

Then comes summer and the Lord puts the heat on. And when summer comes, the heat is on, comes fall. And fall produces fruit. And then you give the Lord all the fruitfulness.

Then comes winter. And in winter, things get hard and frozen and dry. And what comes next?

Spring. Now, if you ever understood that all Christian life runs on seasons, that's why it's important to understand your season, and it's also important to learn how to be gracious to other Christians when they are in winter.

There's nothing worse than to see a spring Christian meet a winter Christian. So what's the matter with you, man? Read the Bible.

The guy said, "I still have to read the Bible." Well, if you just believe God, listen there, I believe God. Of course, this is summer, and this is spring, and he's in it. Man, he's got all the answers.

The strange thing is, after a while, that thing turns around. Aren't you glad? Doesn't that make you feel good?

I said, oh, praise God. Thank you, my brother. I really appreciate it.

Now, if you don't know that there are seasons, You injure people.

When I pray for people, I try to determine what kind of a season they're in. Because you don't have growth and fruitfulness without seasons. It's a whole teaching, really thing.

Now you're looking at me weird, alright? Paul said to Timothy, "Be instant what?" In season and what? Out of season.

He said, Timothy, you have to learn how to run on empty. When you're out of season, you got to do it anyway. But you have to learn how to do it when you're out of season.

It's different. Pastors here will tell you there are times when preaching is really dry. You do it anyway. You get up, it's out of season.

Sometimes I could preach Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in one meeting. Other times I couldn't get one message out of the whole book of John.

Well, you learn that seasons are there for a purpose.

Second lesson, what you do when you're running on empty. First, recognize the season. Two, don't kill any Egyptians.

Oh, if you could just hear me. When you go, when the fuel light comes on and you're not in the powerful place, a lot of people have done really dumb things. Get divorced, quit the ministry, sell the business, sell the kids.

When things aren't going well, things weren't going very good for Moses, he killed an Egyptian. And when he did, it extended his journey 40 years.

Many times people say, Brother Bob, could I see you just two minutes? I said, sure. And then they tell me what happened.

Three dead Egyptians. And I just look at pain. Because when you're in a powerless place, you attempted, the temptations and the pressures to do really dumb things is very severe. Don't do it. Hold steady.

There's a gas station around the corner, but I don't see it. I know you don't see it, but I'm telling you it's there.

Third, answer this question. Does God really love me as I am? Or was that a religious lie that he told me to make me feel better?

Does God really love me just like I am? Or does he want me to be something else, something different? Has God rejected me in a low place? Have I committed the unpardonable sin?

God's love for you at that time. Now you have to answer this question.

Does God really love me as I am? Or was that a religious lie that he told me just to make me feel better? My brother, my sister, if you don't learn to lean into the love of God, it makes the journey a lot longer.

Number four. You have to know that powerless and powerful are both the normal, balanced Christian life.

There is more powerful than powerless, aren't you glad? There's more powerful than powerless, but both of them are part of the normal Christian life.

Jesus Paul, I gave you two examples.

Number five. Your conduct or behavior in the powerful or the powerless place does not change God's love for you.

Let me say it again. Your conduct in the powerful or the powerless place does not change God's love for you. He loved you before you. While you were yet a sinner, he loved you.

One day I was in a powerless place. And I was going to pray for a person. They were really hurting and it was a physical situation. And so I prayed for the person. And when I prayed for them, they didn't get healed. And immediately I start throwing this thing in on myself.

And the Lord said, whoop, whoop, wait a minute. If you would have prayed for him and he would have got healed, would you take the credit? I said, no. He said, well, then don't take the blame. You understand?

It wasn't my strength that healed him. And so immediately I start turning in on myself in such a way that I start condemning and accusing and whatever else happens when you're in a powerless place and you're already powerless.

Number six, thank you. The courage to own the truth.

What is the truth? The courage to own it all, one to a hundred, everything in my whole life. I recognize all of the failures and all of the successes and everything that God has ever allowed in my life because I am confident of his love.

I can accept and own it all and I can recognize when someone comes to speak into my situation, I'm able to receive it because I'm secure and I recognize.

How many of you know we have this treasure in an earthen vessel? One man translated it, we have this treasure in a styrofoam cup. But the courage to own the truth is what starts setting people free.

I have got to face the fact my marriage is in trouble. I've got to face the fact. In instances come to me, I was about to pray for a lady who had cancer. And as I started to pray for her, I said to her, sweetie, you don't have to believe. Let me believe for you.

She started to cry. I said, if you could believe, you'd already be healed. Why don't you just let me believe for you in your behalf? And you just receive. I just reach up and take a gift from Jesus, and I'm going to just minister this gift to you, and it's just yours.

You don't have to do anything. The fact that you're here asking me to pray causes me to know that you really do believe.

Suddenly, faith was released in her. And as she saw that she wasn't trying to screw up some kind of faith, Her whole spirit opened to God, opened to the gift, opened to me.

And the Lord moved into her life and healed her in a very dramatic way.

I thought, man, what is it, Lord Jesus, that you're trying to say?

Now, the last scripture, James chapter 5. Will you go with me quickly? James.

Now, I want to show you something here. James chapter 5. Seventh point. Last point.

To know this biblical foundation. Conduct in the powerless place. Know your seasons. Don't do anything dumb. Free. God's love is real. Four, the both of these are real. The powerless and the powerful place are both the normal Christian life. Five, conduct or behavior doesn't affect God's love. It affects your journey, but it doesn't affect his love.

Number six, the courage to own the truth. Now I'll show you where we're going to go with this, and I'm asking God to help us to make this thing come together for us. James chapter 5, verse 13.

Now I see the powerless and the powerful in the same verse. Verse 13. Is anyone among you in a powerless place? Let him pray. Is there anyone among you in a powerful place? Let him sing praises. Isn't that interesting?

Am I talking to the right people? Verse 14. Is there anyone sick? Let him call for the elders. Let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.

Prayer offered in faith will restore. The one who is sick will raise him up and his sins will be forgiven.

Now, I want you to see these three words. Restore, raise up, and forgive. Those of us who pray for the sick will tell you, sinners get healed easier than Christians.

I was in Manila a few years ago, and I went over to pray for a lady to be healed who was on a cot, unsaved.

I started talking to her about Jesus and what it meant to get saved, and she received Christ, and the whole of her family was around the bed, or actually it was a couch in the living room, and as I started to pray for her, as I prayed for her, and God started to heal her, about five or six of the family all got healed. None of them were saved.

I was praying for people. I'm going down the line as I was going down the line, praying for this person. And I touched this man on the head. And it was like sticking my hand in an icebox. I pulled my hand back and I said, are you a Baptist?

And he said, how did you know? I mean, that's actual. I'm not exaggerating it enough.

You know what? Because in him was all this stuff that all the gifts were gone and this was demonic and he wasn't sure he should be there and all the problems he was going through.

Now, watch this. Because powerful, powerless. Both in the same verse. Now watch, let's read. Restore, raise up, forgive. Verse 16.

Therefore, remember the rule about the therefore? Therefore, confess your sin one to another, meaning own the truth that the Lord has been trying to get through to you.

But you don't own it. You run from it. You ignore it. You frighten from it. You say, well, if I really said that, I'm so thankful for the way this whole conference has gone.

When Winky said he was going to minister on the Thomas factor, I thought, praise God. He just gave me a signed copy of his book, and it's autographed from one cow to another.

So I thought, what a conference when we're really grappling with the real issues. The real issue is the Thomas factor.

Now, look with me, because what I want you to do is see how James is working with this scripture.

Confess your sins one to another, meaning there is a vulnerability. There's an owning of this kind of failure. It's all right to say, "I'm in a powerless place."

And as you open, and there's a certain kind of vulnerability, he says, these words, he said, you will be healed.

The word healed encompasses finances and home and families and marriages and physical, and it's a powerful word, and it encompasses every known human need.

Elijah. Look at verse 17.

How many of you know immediately Elijah is the greatest living example of the powerful and what? Powerless. No greater example could ever be given than Elijah. Man, he stood on the mountain with the prophets of Baal.

I wanted to be with him so bad. Some of you heard me tell this. I was walking in my study. As I was walking in my study, walking up and down, I said, "Where is the God of Elijah? Where is the God of Elijah?"

I did that for about half an hour. After about half an hour, I heard these words. "Where are the Elijahs?" I literally fell on my face and began to weep.

The Lord said, if I used you like I used Elijah, there won't be anything left of you. You know why? Because I didn't know how to conduct myself in the powerless place.

This move of God that we're beginning to touch, I think I could speak. If you want me to say, yay, yay, I will. But I think I could speak prophetically that you're going to find as the next move of God begins to move, it's coming out of a powerless place.

I think you're going to find God is going to gently but surely bring us all to a kind of a tender place in the Lord.

How many believe that by the time Pentecost fell in the upper room, Acts 2-1, they were all pretty tender?

This is how they got into one accord. Man, I really messed it up. James said, I did too. But you didn't know, I denied him first.

No, I did. So the whole vulnerability was there and he said they were all of one accord.

And the Holy Spirit fell.