DR. PAT ROBERTSON: Let's praise Him today.

Hallelujah.

Thank you, Lord.

Thank you, Father.

Lord, visit us today.

May the anointing of your Holy Spirit rest upon us.

We bless you and praise you.

In Jesus' name, Amen.

Be seated.

This has been our week of prayers, but a wonderful week.

I was told two days ago that our response, our calls, our prayer

requests are 70% up above last year.

Right now, about 106,000 people have

asked for prayer in various forms that we've seen.

People want to find God.

They want to find the power of the Holy Spirit.

This is a special day.

And I want to comment on that, and I

want to talk a little bit about the word, too.

But I was talking to my dear wife, who, I might add,

is answering to prayer.

She was striding along with the physical therapist today.

She's getting up out and walking and recovering.

And prayers are being answered.

Thank, God.

Well, she's sitting there, and I said, honey,

we got the 29th of April, and that's the--

they landed in 1607.

How many years has it been?

So I don't know.

Let's figure, OK, how many years has it been when it's--

you know, this is 1960.

What is it, 2067?

See, I'm going to lose track of time.

Well, we went from 1607, April the 29th until now.

That's about 410 years--

or 610.

Give me-- somebody tell me.

Give me some math.

I said 410.

I was right.

I get confused.

I'm sorry.

410 years since the spiritual start of America.

Those people came off a boat, and they

landed at a place called Cape Henry, which

is just up the road from here in Virginia Beach.

And they brought with them a wooden cross.

And they knelt in the sand around that cross,

and they claimed this land for the glory of God

and for His son, Jesus Christ.

And I want to declare again--

tomorrow is the official day, but today I

want to declare that this country belongs

to Jesus Christ.

It is his.

He has first claim on it.

And we are following the footsteps

of those who came to claim it.

And some years ago, the interior ministry put up--

we don't have an interior ministry.

What-- department.

Of the interior department put up a plaque out there

that said, Act 1, Scene 1 of the unfolding drama that became

the United States of America.

And that's when it had Act 1, Scene 1

was a prayer meeting around the cross

on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean

just a few miles from here.

And we at CBN, some years ago reenacted that ceremony.

And then we had a cross.

And it was empty, and we put microfiche copies

of our partners at the time in it.

And then I prayed, and I asked for the anointing to come.

And I've had times where the anointing of God

has been extraordinarily strong.

And we've seen an extraordinary amount of miracles.

But to my memory, that's the most powerful anointing

of the Lord I ever had.

God's word came upon me so much, it was

almost impossible to stand up.

Because God was transferring that anointing that was there

to what's here right now.

And we are the fulfillment of the prayer,

of those people who said, from these shores may the gospel go

forth all over the world.

And just, I mean, magnify your calling, folks.

Magnify your calling.

You are heirs of a great tradition.

And we are responsible for that flame that

was lit in those early days.

And you know, the amazing thing about that--

there's a guy that you've never heard about

or you seldom hear about unless we talk about it here.

His name was Richard Hakluyt.

It's a weird name and it's a hard name to pronounce.

But he's this English preacher, and the Lord visited him.

And he said, you know, I want to win

the heathen of North America.

Well, there wasn't anything going on much

to North America except a bunch of heathen.

And he said, we've got to go over there and colonize

and reach those people for the Lord.

And yeah, Richard, sure Buddy.

You know, we're going to go evangelize North America.

Yeah, OK.

But he was indefatigable.

And he traveled all over England,

talking about reaching the lost on this Atlantic,

over in North America.

Finally, he was able to get together six or seven

people who believed like he did, and they

formed something called, I believe,

the Virginia Corporation.

And they were able to finagle a meeting with the King.

And they said, your Majesty, we want to evangelize the heathen

over in North America.

Would you give us a grant of land?

And the King says, well, how much do you want?

Now, listen, when you ask from God, ask largely.

Ask largely.

You know, a few years ago, we had three lifetime prayer

requests of people who asked to put into our chapel, into our--

whatever it is-- thing that we had

under the cross in our chapel.

And lifetime prayer requests.

You know, I want to pray that my headache will get healed.

No, no, no.

You don't-- you're missing it.

I need $200 to pay the electric bill.

No, that's not it.

You know, ask largely.

Isn't that what the Bible says, 8 Psalm 81.

Open your mouth wide and I will fill it.

Open your mouth wide.

Not keep [INAUDIBLE].

Open your mouth wide.

Well, Hakluyt and his buddies went before the King

with an amazing request.

And they said, here's the land we want.

And they delineated-- they called it Virginia.

But it was from the border of Canada

all the way down to the line of what's now South Carolina,

and from the Atlantic coast all the way

over to the Mississippi.

We'll have that hunk of land.

It's OK, it's yours.

That was Virginia.

And some of our sisters in West Virginia and Ohio

and all those kind of states, don't realize

they used to be part of us.

We say that humbly.

My father used to tell a joke.

This son was at dinner, and he asked this man,

where are you from?

And the father said, son, no.

And he said, why not?

He said, if he's from Virginia, he'll tell you.

And if he isn't, don't embarrass him.

So-- well, the Virginia Company had most

of what is now North America.

That was their grant to evangelize the nation.

And then Hakluyt went about raising the money

to send this small group of people

over in this little boat--

three little boats, actually.

And they landed on the shore, and they knelt in prayer.

And so we commemorate that again, 410 years.

The signing of the Constitution was important.

And everybody said, well, that's when America started.

Declaration of Independence, July the 4th, that was nice.

But the time it started was when they knelt on the shore

and they said, this land belongs to Jesus.

So why don't we join hands right now and commemorate that?

And while we're praying, let's pray

that their vision will be fulfilled in this nation.

And pray for this land.

Father, we come before you right now.

And we ask for the special anointing of your Holy Spirit.

And we pray for America.

We thank you, and once again, we reassert your claim

on the United States of America.

This land belongs to you.

And the enemy may have tried to take it away from you,

but we're not going to give it to him.

In the name of Jesus, we once again

proclaim the sovereignty of God Almighty over the United States

of America.

It's your country.

It was dedicated to you, and we assert that once again.

And Lord, we pray right now for revival.

We ask, Lord, in the name of Jesus that all over this land,

there might be a stirring of your spirit.

There might be a quickening, that people might come back

to that original vision.

Lord, they had a vision of Godliness.

They had a vision of reaching people for the lost.

They had a vision of a New England,

of a city set on a hill.

They had a vision of the God--

of glory and the God of the Bible being Lord of this land.

Lord, we ask you, come and reassert your authority

over this land, and bring your people in conformity

with your law, your decrees, your desire,

and may we be the people of your planting,

that you will be pleased with us as a nation.

And Lord, take away the sin.

Take away the blasphemy.

Take away the evil that just stirs

in the hearts of all of us.

And may we all serve you with a joyful heart.

In Jesus' name, we declare once again, America

belongs to Jesus.

Amen.

Thank you, Lord.

Amen.

Praise God.

All right.

I want to share with you.

I know you probably get a little tired of my taking

up these weighty questions.

But when you read the words of Jesus,

you know, he said, I came from the Father.

He did?

Well, how did he get here?

And how-- I am reading in John, and he's praying.

And he said-- he's talking to the Father--

I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out

of the world.

They were yours.

You gave them to me, and they have obeyed your word.

Now they know that everything you

have given me comes from you.

For I gave them the words you gave me,

and they accepted them.

They knew with certainty that I came from you.

And they believe that you sent me.

And then he goes on to say, I'm coming to you now,

but I say these things while I'm still in the world.

Now, did Jesus fly in on a space ship?

How'd he get here?

Did you ever think about that?

I mean, he says, I came from the Father.

And I carry these words from the Father.

Well, how'd he get them?

According to what the Bible tells us,

there was the seed of God implanted

into an egg of a young virgin whose name was Mary.

And she got pregnant with that.

And the baby grew in her womb, and then she

had a baby at the normal time after nine months.

And he grew up as a young man and showed forth great promise.

And before long, when he was about 12 years old,

he said, don't you understand, I've

got to be in my Father's house.

And he was teaching and speaking to the rabbis

and the learned teachers of the law,

and he astounded them with his wisdom.

But now he's talking and he's getting ready to leave,

and he's got his disciples gathered around him.

And he said, I came from the father,

and I had with him some words that he gave me.

Now I'm going back to the father.

And all the time he lived, he was conscious of the fact--

at least after the time he turned 30,

and the Holy Spirit came on him with power--

he was conscious of the fact that he was the Son of God.

And he told them, he said, the time

will come when you see the son of man

coming in the clouds of glory and sitting

at the right hand of the power.

And of course, that was the thing,

they said, well, you better kill him for saying that.

That just too much.

But how did he know these things?

And how did it take-- but I came from the Father

and I brought words with me.

That teeny sperm, little teeny thing,

that's where he got the repository of all these words.

You see the movie about Superman,

it's really the Bible story.

You know, it's the same thing.

I mean, they picked up the Jesus narrative,

and they made a movie out of it about some supernatural person

who came and had all this strength.

But Jesus came from the Father.

And the thing is, I was reading about what they did to him.

He's a supernatural being.

He's come from another world.

He came from the Father who created everything.

And according to the Bible, he is the agent of creation.

All things were created by him.

And without him, there was nothing made that was made.

He created it all.

And yet, he came in the midst of that,

and he took on the form of a human being,

was made in the flesh.

And that little teeny-- that little teeny, teeny thing,

little sperms, little tiny thing, and that's

how God came into the world.

It's amazing.

He could have come down with a bunch of angels.

He could have had a big explosion

in which apparently he did when he started the universe.

They call it the big bang.

I mean, big, big, big blow off.

But it was just this tiny little thing

quietly came into our midst and became a man lived among us.

But when he dealt with the people, they hated him.

And they turned their backs on him.

And they reviled him, and they spit on him.

And they pulled his beard out.

And they claimed that he was illegitimate.

We weren't born of fornication.

We were Abraham's children.

They claimed he was an illegitimate kid.

That's what they did to the Son of God.

And then they took him and they stripped him of his robe,

and lashed him, beat him with a cat of nine tails.

His back was bloody and bleeding.

And then they hung him on a cross

and drove nails into his hands and feet, and spit on him

and mocked him and hit him with sticks.

This is the Son of God.

And he had to endure all that.

And he knew-- see, he knew he'd come from the Father.

He knew he was going to the Father.

But he knew he had to give his life because of you and me.

He saw us here.

He saw us sitting in this room.

And he gave his life so that you and I might live forever.

You know?

You remember that song, you know, he took it all.

He took the fall for me.

He did.

He took it for us.

And he didn't have to.

He voluntarily did it.

He voluntarily submitted in the Garden of Gethsemane.

He was agonizing because he realized what

was coming up ahead of him.

He knew exactly what was going to happen.

He knew, first of all, he was going to get beaten.

He knew that he was going to get despised.

But he also knew that he was going

to have to bear the burden of the sin of every single one

of us and every stinking dictator and monster that's

ever lived in the world.

He was going to have to absorb all that into himself.

And he sweat drops of blood.

And he cried out to the Father, Father,

if there's any possibility, let this cup pass.

You know, he's just saying, OK, I've been up there with you.

I know what it's like.

But you've got all this resource.

Would you go back and check all the files and all the decrees

and everything in heaven and in earth,

and see if there's not some one way out

of doing this a different way?

And the Father said, son, you know, this is the plan.

This is the only way.

I have to die.

My son has to die.

Because we created man in our image,

and we've got to die to pay the price for sin.

Either that or I'll destroy all the human beings on the earth.

That was the choice.

God either had to redeem mankind or he had to destroy mankind.

This rebellion had gone on long enough.

And he finally said, OK, I'm ready.

He prayed that three times.

And then he was ready to go to the cross.

The decision was made in Gethsemane.

It wasn't made on Calvary.

He made the decision to die for you and me.

But he knew who he was.

He knew he'd come from the Father.

He's the Creator.

He made us all.

We're made in his image.

And yet, he died for us.

But the good news is he rose again.

And so the celebration we have is for a risen Savior.

And we know that he's got-- he said, now,

I'm going to the Father.

And you'll be a little sad, but I'm

going to prepare a place for you because where I'm going,

nobody can come right now.

But then you'll be with me.

And in my father's house there are many, many rooms.

There are many, many resting places where you can go,

and I'm going to make a place for you.

There's going to be plenty of room in heaven for you.

And I want you to know right now today

that there's plenty of room--

there's room at the cross for you, that song we sang,

but there's plenty of room for everyone of us.

There's room for us at the cross.

And he said, there's room in my father's house.

I'm going to make a place for you.

And I'll come again.

Even as I go, I'm coming again.

But next time he's not coming in a little sperm.

He's not coming as a weak carpenter's son.

He's not coming as a suffering servant.

He's coming as a King, regal in glory with power

and might, To destroy the destroyers of the earth,

and to establish his reign over all the earth.

And the Bible says, he will reign forever and ever

and ever and ever.

World without end.

Amen.

And we will be part of his kingdom.

And we will spend our time praising the Lord

and worshipping him.

And he'll smile on us.

And he'll look upon us and say, I love you.

I've given myself for you, and now you

are the precious redeemed.

You are the redeemed of the Lord.

Praise God.

It's coming.

It's coming.

And all the stuff that goes on in the world, good and bad,

whatever happens doesn't matter.

God's got it under control.

He's got it under control.

And he'll take care of history and make everything right.

And I love that Romans 8:28.

In the Greek, it says, God shapes

every circumstance for good to them who love him,

to those who are called according to his purpose.

He's going to shape in all for you and me because he loves us.

He's coming again.

He said, I'm going to the Father now.

Father, I'm coming to you, but I'm going to come by--

keep these that I have brought.

They are mine.

I don't want to lose any of them.

I don't lose one.

I don't want to lose one.

I'm not going to lose one.

They're my sheep.

I've given my life for them.

They belong to me.

I'm not going to lose any of them.

So you are His.

You're in His hand.

And, you know, I get these calls,

these letters from people who say,

well I had sex out of marriage, and am I going to go to hell?

Or I said a curse word in a moment of anger.

You reckon I'm going to go to hell?

The answer is no.

You're going to heaven.

God's got his hand on you.

You gave your heart to Jesus and he's going to forgive your sin.

All sins and blasphemies will be forgiven out

of the sons of man.

That's what he says.

OK.

So right now, we ought to pray.

We ought to believe God.

We ought to stand in the presence

of the Holy One of God.

We have access to the throne of grace.

We are the children of the living God.

And the one who died has risen again, and we are his

and he is in us, and we are at him and he's in the Father

and the Father is in us.

And we're all part of his heavenly kingdom.

So right there, let's just hold before the Lord

these prayer requests.

Father, Father, just like Jesus pray, we come before the father

right now, and we ask for healing.

We ask for deliverance.

We ask for blessing.

Lord, lift the burden, the fear, the curses upon these people.

And may they know peace and joy and happiness and healing

and prosperity.

And Lord, for everyone in this room right now,

may the anointing of the Holy Spirit rest upon them.

May the touch of God be upon them.

In the name of Jesus, receive his anointing.

And may his blessing be upon you.

We take away every single troubled thought.

Financial burdens, taken away.

Physical problems, taken away.

Family problems, taken away.

The joy of the Lord, your strength.

From this moment on, you shall know the joy of the Lord.

Praise God Almighty.

And as he taught us to pray, may the Lord

bless you and keep you.

May the Lord cause his face to shine upon you

and be gracious under you.

May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you

and give you his peace.

In Jesus' name, Amen.

Amen.

Amen.