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     1. The Glory of His Presence   (4:02)
     2. Jesus, the Very Thought of Thee   (2:02)
     3. Wanting Jesus   (31:08)
     4. Ho, Every One that Is Thirsty   (4:25)
     5. I’ll Sing It and I’ll Tell It   (3:40)

Philippians 3:7-8.  But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.  ⁸Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.

Isaiah 55:7.  Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

I Peter 1:8.  Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.

I don’t blame the Apostle Paul for saying “that I might know Him and the power of His resurrection.”  He had gotten a sight of Jesus Christ, and now he didn’t want to see anything else anymore.  He was filled with the wonder of Jesus Christ, and now he didn’t want to think of anything else anymore.  I don’t blame him for “following after that I may know Him.”  Oh, what a call, what a marvelous call! 

I know that we can preach holiness until our heads drop off and accomplish absolutely nothing.  But when God can do for us what He did for Paul, something will happen to our hearers.  He was able somehow to picture Jesus as so desirable.  So desirable was Jesus to him that he counted everything else “but refuse”—himself included.  Talk about flesh: he says, “We rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh.  We’re the circumcision.  We’re the real Jews.  We’re a new creation.  We’ve got nothing to do anymore with the old creation.  It’s crucified.”  He says, “I’ve been crucified with Christ.”

How did it happen?  Why, because he “put on the Lord Jesus Christ,” because he loved Jesus so much that he opened his life to receive Him.  And from then on, nothing else had any interest for him anymore at all—nothing, even the things that were gain to him.  And what was it that was gain to him?  Why, his religious attainments.  That’s where we get stuck.  We are “rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing.”  All you need to do is to hear our testimonies and you’ll hear it somewhere along the way.  You’ll hear where we are better than others, where we have more than others, how greatly we’re blessed, how wonderfully we’ve been used of God. 

Oh, we’d like people to know that we’ve got something.  Paul wanted them to know that he had absolutely nothing, and if there was anything at all that he ever boasted of, he says, “Put it in the garbage can.  I don’t want to know anything about it.  Let my soul be filled with the resurrection power of Son of God.  Let me know Him, and the power of His resurrection.”  And every moment of his life, and all the activity of his life—everything—was swallowed up in this one hunger: Oh, to know Jesus!

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“Let this mind be in you.”  “Don’t be conformed to this world.”  When you get a kink in the back, the first thing you do is to go to a clinic or to a doctor to find out what’s the matter with you.  And then, the trouble begins—then you’ve gone into the devil’s territory, and the devil has the leverage.  And don’t blame him if he makes things worse: he will. 

Glory to God: “Be renewed by the renewing of your mind;” “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts”!  Our thoughts are unrighteous.  Our thoughts are the handles by which the devil handles us.  But, oh, to have the thoughts of Christ: “Let this mind be in you”!  And what does that mean?  It means that Christ works my thoughts in me.  He thinks for me.  We don’t give Him enough time.  We don’t “present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God.”  I ought to accept His sacrifice for me, and become a sacrifice for Him.

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We don’t forsake our own thoughts, we build them up like the children build up their toys.  I tell you, we do.  I tell you, we need this Bible.  I tell you, folks, we need Jesus Christ, and we need him Himself.  He says, “You’re wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked—with all your propaganda—unless you have Me.”  And the question in every meeting, and in every season of prayer is “Do you want Me?  Do you want Me?”

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Oh, God, make us hungry for Jesus Christ!  Take away every other desire from us—every other pursuit.  And make our hearts to be so hungry to know Jesus Christ.  All my occupation ought to be “that I might know Him and the power of His resurrection.”  And it isn’t done only by praying.  I’ve known people that would walk up and down like a tiger in his cage, and say, “Oh, that I might know Him; that I might know Him; that I might…”  That isn’t the way to do it:  Count things but refuse that are in your way!  Forsake the things of earth!  Forsake yourself!  Forget yourself!  Open your heart to the glory of the present indwelling Son of God!  This Almighty Power that raised Him from the dead is waiting for a chance to raise you from the dead—to lift you into heavenly places, and to keep you there.  “God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.”  It takes desire.  It’s His proposition that I should have Him for my salvation.

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Paul said, “refuse.”  He’s not talking about his cigarette smoking and his longing for circuses.  Some of our people go to the circus.  Listen, you’re a circus yourself.  Just get yourself in front of a mirror and take a good look at yourself.  You’re a Barnum and Bailey in person.

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That’s what He means when He says, “Thou hast given Him power over all flesh to give eternal life to as many as Thou has given Him.”  What kind of a power is it?  The power to die on the cross; the power to lay down Him life, and to pick it up again.  God gave Him power to take my sin and to take my earthly life and put it out of the way, and then to be my resurrection life, hallelujah!  Oh, Jesus is wonderful; Jesus is so wonderful!  And the Holy Ghost has come down from heaven for one purpose: to make Jesus Christ lovable to you—to make Him desirable.  Until you count everything else “but refuse…”  Talk about forsaking the things of earth, and denying self.  Why, it’ll be your joy, your desire.  You’ll count it all “but refuse.”

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He makes Himself to be my life, my light, my salvation, my righteousness, my holiness, my all and in all.  When He laid down His life, He laid it down that He might pick it up in me.

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That sign out there has never been lit up again because it’s no good at all: “Please, before speaking to anyone, talk to God upon your knees.”  You wouldn’t have to be admonished to do that.  You wouldn’t come to meeting and look around as if you were in a zoo.  You’d come and you’d bring God with you—you’d bring the power of God with you.

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My Lord, and my God!  We read these things in the Bible, but we have not yet become “living epistles of Christ… written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God.”  And it’ll never happen until we fall in love with Jesus—until we want Him so badly that He who has gripped us…  Paul says, “He has apprehended me.”  Now that’s the question: has He apprehended you?  Has He made a proposal of marriage to you?  Has He said to you, “Do you want to be Mine”?

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The example of a humble and simple believer.  “She walked up and down in the kitchen, and she just praised the Lord, and that rheumatism was gone again.  She said, ‘Brother Waldvogel, I can’t help it.  It just burns in here all the time.’  Jesus did something for her.  He did something within her.  He tells us here that, ‘He works in you to will and to do,’ thank God!”    (from 4:16)

An illustration from airliners delayed by fog.  “Here in our work, in our Pentecostal assemblies, we’re constantly running around in a circle…  Oh, beloved, if Jesus Christ is your pilot, He’ll take you right through on a bee-line, glory to God!  He’ll take you to that landing strip perfectly.  And He’ll land you in time, and He’ll land you in the New Jerusalem.”    (from 14:59)

An illustration of a call resolutely refused.  “God gave a message that came directly from the heart of the Father…: ‘I will live out My own life within you if you will let Me.’…  She fell in love with [an old scalawag] and heaven or hell couldn’t change that girl’s mind…  All hell couldn’t do anything, and all heaven couldn’t do anything.  That’s how hard, how deceitful our hearts are.”    (from 18:29)

An illustration of how we don’t want the Presence of Jesus as we suppose we do.  “…again he got red in the face.  And then the crooked business deals—and Jesus was there all day long and watched everything and understood everything.  And oh, what a day!  My, he never wanted to live another day like that again in all his life…  How about yourself?”    (from 20:47)

The fruit of so-called “human wisdom.”  “She says, ‘You don’t know what you’re talking about.  That was a Greek sentence and it meant something entirely different.’”    (from 28:45)

Komm, Herr Jesus, sei unser Gast,
und segne, was du uns bescheret hast.  (HRW adds “aus Gnade.”)

Come Lord Jesus, be our guest,
and let these gifts to us be blessed.  (out of Thy grace.)

Oh ich kenne meine Pappenheimer, wisst ihr. — I know my audience, you know. 

This expression has the idea of being fully aware at a psychological level, especially of human shortcomings.  It could be rendered, “I’m on to your tricks,” or “I can read you like a book.”

“They discovered Jesus and the power of His resurrection” — George Fox, John Wesley, St. John of the Cross, A. B. Simpson, F. F. Bosworth, Aimee Semple McPherson, John Alexander Dowie.  “Why some of them failed utterly: because the devil didn’t like it.”

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