The services continued in Franklin, and the next
great miracle took place the following Sunday.
Oh, it was thrilling!
I knew something was happening.
I knew that I had tapped some great
resource.
I wasn't quite sure.
I wasn't sure.
But all the thrill, the joy, the expectancy.
I knew the Holy Spirit had something to
do with it.
I knew, I knew, I knew it.
But I knew so little about this wonderful
Third Person of Trinity.
I preached again on the mighty power of
the Third Person of Trinity on Sunday, the
Sunday afternoon service.
Going home from that Sunday afternoon service, George
Orr, a Methodist from Grove City, Pennsylvania, was
there with his wife, a man who had
received compensation for the loss of an eye.
All the papers were there to bear about
it.
There was no mistake about it.
Going home from that Sunday afternoon service, suddenly,
as he and his wife were going over
a hill, he explains it by saying that
it seemed as though the sun suddenly burst
forth in all of its glory.
He turned to his wife and he said,
Did something just happen to the sunshine?
No, she said, I didn't know anything strange.
He kept on driving home.
When he walked into the kitchen, the first
thing that he saw was the clock.
And for the first time standing in the
kitchen door, he realized he was seeing the
time.
For both eyes were perfect.
He had received sight in the eye for
which he was receiving total compensation for the
total loss of an eye.
Eye was not there.
No one laid hands on him.
No one had prayed for him.
He had not even asked for himself.
But something had happened.
Something glorious had happened.
And he came back the next night and
told it.
His face beaming, his face shining.
That was the beginning and since that time
literally thousands and thousands had been healed by
the power of God.
The secret?
I searched for the secret.
I had nowhere else to go but God's
word.
Follow me very closely, very closely.
As I sought, I saw for the very
first time that there was more than God
the Father giving Jesus Christ.
Sure I had learned it early in that
little Methodist Sunday school.
God so loved the world that He gave
His only begotten Son.
But something else had happened before God gave
His Son.
And I like to think of the three
persons affinity sitting down at a great conference
table planning man's salvation.
It would have to take sinless blood.
Perfect blood.
Only the Son of God could measure up
to it.
And Jesus said, I'll go.
I'll take the form of flesh.
I'll take the form of man.
Absolute deity, absolute divinity, the very Son of
the living God.
But to pay the price for man's salvation,
it would mean He'd have to come in
the form of flesh.
But before God gave His Son, before Jesus
consented to come, He offered Himself first, the
Word of God says, through the Holy Spirit.
We fail to see this.
I often think of those who try to
minimize the power of the Holy Spirit.
Who refuse to accept the person and the
power of the Holy Ghost.
Remember, if Jesus could trust Him, if Jesus
took everything that He had on the Holy
Spirit, surely you and I can afford to
trust the Holy Ghost.
He knew the Holy Spirit.
He knew the mighty third person, the Trinity,
in a greater degree than any human being
has ever known.
Even the Apostle Paul, with all the spiritual
insight, with all the glory, with all the
secrets that God trusted him with, yet the
Apostle Paul, he thinks, never knew the power
and the person of the Holy Spirit as
Jesus the Son knew Him.
He was the resurrection power.
Jesus knew it.
He was the power of the Trinity.
Jesus knew it.
Jesus had faith.
Jesus had confidence in Him.
And so he turned first of all, he
thinks, and said to the Holy Spirit, if
You'll be with me, if You'll come too,
I'll go.
And he thinks the Holy Spirit not disobeyed.
And then it was that God gave His
only begotten Son.
That you and I might have life eternal.
And Jesus came in the form of flesh.
He came as a babe in a manger.
Literally, God in the flesh grew to manhood.
Yet he thinks the three were not united
until that hour when Jesus came upon the
waters of baptism.
Oh, glorious moment!
Oh, thrilling moment as Jesus came up out
of those waters of baptism.
And in that moment something happened.
A voice spoke.
It was the voice of God when He
said, This is my beloved Son in whom
I am well pleased.
No man, no woman can ever stand before
the great Creator, can ever stand before the
judgment seat of God and say, I didn't
know.
For God Himself left no doubt in the
mind of any human being as to who
that babe was in the flesh.
As to who that one was that came
up out of the waters of baptism.
Who that one was who was nailed to
that center cross.
No man can plead ignorance as to who
Jesus Christ really is.
For God Himself spoke and to all generations
that comes said, This is my beloved Son
in whom I am well pleased.
And in that moment something happened.
Oh, glorious moment!
It must have been one of the greatest
thrills that Jesus received as He walked in
the flesh upon this earth.
For the Holy Spirit came upon Him in
the form He thinks He was saying.
I'm here now.
Things will happen.
We're running on schedule.
I kept my part of the agreement.
You keep yours.
And man will have salvation for the whole
body.
I'm here.
Oh, it must have been such a reassuring
time for Jesus.
I wish I had been there.
And then it was that miracles began happening.
I know I, too, speak of the miracles
that Jesus did.
I know we read the miracles in the
ministry of Jesus.
We always think of Jesus performing those miracles.
But I want you to remember something.
That when Jesus walked this old earth He
was as much man as though He were
not God.
Of course, in the same sense.
He was as much God as though He
were not man.
But He had to take the form of
flesh.
He was tempted.
Because He was in the form of flesh.
He could have yielded to those temptations.
If Jesus could not have yielded to temptation
when He was here on earth if when
Jesus stood face to face with Satan and
was tempted by Satan remember that was not
the first time that Jesus, the Son of
God, and Satan had met.
Always remember that.
Satan knew Jesus very well.
Jesus knew Satan before He became Satan.
Jesus knew Him when He was one of
three of the most powerful angels that God
had created.
He knew Him before the fall.
He knew Him before He said, I will
be like unto the Most High and began
to ascend into heaven having become jealous of
God.
And God in wrath not being able to
allow sin in heaven thrust Him to the
earth and He became a disembodied spirit.
We know Him today as Satan.
You know my friend that was not the
very first time that they came face to
face with each other.
When He stood before Jesus and literally offered
Him the title deed to this planet, to
this earth if He would bow down and
serve Him.
And remember something.
This very hour, Satan still holds the title
deed to this earth.
He once ruled over this planet over thousands
and thousands.
Methinks there could have been millions of angels.
This was His great empire.
When God created Lucifer, He gave him the
title deed to this earth.
He still holds it.
Jesus knew that He held the title deed,
that He was not lying.
When He offered the title deed to this
planet, to this earth, if Jesus would bow
down and serve Him.
Jesus could have turned to Him and said,
You are a liar.
But Jesus knew He was not a liar.
He knew He held it.
One of these days, my friend, when Jesus
comes back to earth, King of kings and
Lord of lords, it's going to change the
whole thing.
There's coming a day, and that's one reason
why Satan is working overtime.
He knows that His days are numbered.
He knows His hours are numbered.
His time is short as a great world
ruler.
Know that.
One day He's going to have to forfeit
the title deed to this planet, to this
earth.
For there's coming a day when the surface
of this earth will be renovated by fire.
And the city of the new Jerusalem, John's
solid in the spirit, comes down.
And this old planet becomes our eternal home
forever and forever and forever.
And in that day, Jesus Himself will hold
the title deed to this planet.
And we will be a part of that
great inheritance and shall rule and reign with
Him.
Oh, sure.
Those miracles in the life of Jesus were
performed by the Holy Spirit.
Know that.
Jesus knew it.
Jesus knew.
It was the power of the Holy Ghost
that performed those miracles.
He was just as dependent on the Holy
Spirit as you and I are dependent upon
the Holy Spirit today for every miracle that
may take place.
That's the reason, beloved, before Jesus went back
to glory again, He left to the church
the greatest gift that He could leave the
church, this glorious body of Christ, His bride.
We belong to Him.
We're the gift that God the Father gave
to His Son.
We, the church, the living, vital body of
Christ, the bride, we were born into this
wonderful body of believers.
We are the gift that the Father gave
to His Son.
That's the reason Jesus looking up and talking,
the Father said, These that thou hast given
unto Me.
And love is something that you do.
And just before Jesus went away, He wanted
to give to His own, to give to
His church, a gift.
And the greatest gift that He could give
to His own was the one who had
been so faithful and so true to Him,
who had never left Him, had never disappointed
Him.
The last words that He said before He
went away, He said is, He gave the
gift, and ye shall receive power.
After that, the Holy Ghost is come upon
you.
Oh, I wish I could stand the highest
mountaintop.
I wish I could shout it.
Until every man, every woman who stands behind
the pulpit, every priest, every rabbi, every minister,
could know, could hear, could understand.
Believe it.
Receive Him.
This wonderful gift that Jesus gave to His
church, this body of believers, it was a
sacred, it was a holy gift.
There was no greater gift that He could
give.
And He wanted to give.
God the Father had just given Him the
gift, the body of believers.
Jesus in turn wanted to give this wonderful
body of believers the gift that had been
given to Him.
A gift.
And let me ask you, what greater gift
could He have given?
That He thought of those miracles that the
Holy Spirit had performed through His ministry.
He thought of the great manifestation of the
power of the third person.
He knew what a great comforter the Holy
Spirit had been to Him.
And the word comforter means strengthener.
He knew the Holy Spirit had come and
had been His strengthener during those days of
loneliness, during the time when He was spat
upon, during the time of ridicule, during those
days when it seemed the whole world did
not understand Him.
All men had forsaken Him and for a
time it seemed that even His disciples had
forsaken Him.
And yet the Holy Spirit was there strengthening
Him.
Do you know the glorious strengthening power of
the Holy Spirit?
Paul did.
That's the reason Paul said, because of one
of his letters, perhaps it was a moment,
just in this moment that I'm talking to
you, as we think about our spiritual experiences,
the closeness, the deepness, the glory of those
experiences, and Paul said, the mercy of the
Lord Jesus.
He's so merciful.
And the love of God.
And who can fathom God's love?
And where would any of us be without
the mercy of the Lord, without the love
of God?
But he didn't stop there.
Paul continued, and the fellowship of the Holy
Spirit, that fellowship, that closeness, that oneness in
the midnight hour when it's so dark, Jesus
had that fellowship of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus never went down in the hour of
temptation because of the power and the presence
of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus had the courage.
Jesus had what it took when the hour
came, when He had to yield His own
will to the will of God the Father,
and two wills became as one.
You and I cannot do it except for
the power of the Holy Ghost.
Do you know Him in that sense?
Jesus knew Him.
Jesus understood.
Jesus knew the secret of His earthly victory.
And that was the reason He turned and
in His last bequest said, and ye shall
receive power, the same power that had been
manifested in His ministry, in His life, His
daily life.
Do you see it?
Can't you see it?
Oh, if only I had the ability It
is the greatest day of my life.
It changed not only my life, it changed
my ministry.
This ministry is what it is today because
of the power of the Holy Ghost, the
power of the Holy Spirit.
How better can I tell you?
Are you a minister standing behind your pulpit?
You are seeing no results?
You're a discouraged man, but you really won't
admit it?
You dread going into your pulpit?
Really?
You dread facing your congregation Sunday after Sunday?
You won't even admit it to your wife?
Sometimes you wish you were out digging ditches.
You wish you could just be an ordinary
somebody instead of a man of the cloth.
It's discouraging.
Not seeing results?
You're not satisfied.
May I just say to you, won't you
turn it all over to the Holy Spirit?
Won't you turn your ministry over to the
Holy Spirit?
Won't you turn yourself over to the Holy
Spirit?
Won't you turn your will over to the
Holy Spirit?
You'll have a new ministry.
You'll be a new man.
You'll have a new congregation.
There'll be a vision there.
You'll get results.
And ye shall receive power.
After that the Holy Ghost is come upon
you.
What happened on the day of Pentecost?
He came.
Jesus said He would come.
And we know that Jesus made heaven safely.
I'm so glad to know that.
We know that He did.
We know that He arrived on schedule because
the Holy Spirit arrived on schedule.
Because Jesus said, it's expedient for you that
I go away because I have to go
back to take the position of Great High
Priest at the right hand of God the
Father.
And after I will have arrived, I will
send the Holy Spirit.
And we know that Jesus made it and
that He's in position of Great High Priest
because the Holy Spirit came.
It all worked out on schedule just as
He said it would.
The 125th with the Holy Ghost.
We call it the day of Pentecost.
Things happened.
Oh!
I'll tell you they had exciting times in
the early church.
Things were happening.
Remember something.
We talk about the day of Pentecost.
We are still living in the day of
Pentecost.
Today is still the day of Pentecost.
And we have every right to have the
same things happen in our churches.
This hour has happened on the day of
Pentecost.
Because it's the power of the person or
the Spirit.
And the day of Pentecost will not come
to an end until the Holy Spirit leaves.
And when the Holy Spirit goes, He takes
the church with Him.
We call it the rapture of the church.
And then will be the end of the
time of the Gentiles.
I know the secret to the power in
this ministry.
I know the secret in those who are
healed by the power of God.
The secret is found in the person of
the Holy Spirit.
I have chosen to accept the gift that
Jesus left for me.