They're trans just judged and they had to
carry the person pick them up and carry
them to the meeting for them to repent
and get Delivered you'd be amazed you would
be amazed at some of the things in
the history of Revival what God said I
mentioned the Southern Presbyterian Church people on their
knees barking like dogs Picture some of the
most sophisticated intellectual people I Mean there's one
one Well, I can't even begin to describe
one story.
I heard it's just mind-boggling when it's
this guy who was just uh, I Mean,
I can't even describe how together and and
how socially fine-tuned he was and everything
when he finally It's filled with the spirit
and chases his pastor down into a hiding
place in the back of a kitchen You
know and and and bouncing like a frog,
you know speaks in tongues in front of
I mean How can you even describe a
scene like that?
You say it's crazy listen, I'm just telling
you these things happen If you experience real
revival, you'll see a little of all of
it.
No one conjures it up No one makes
it happen in fact with with every revival
you get a lot of stumbling because the
flesh counterfeits and the devil counterfeits and You
got to know what's going on.
The spirits moving all of a sudden someone
shrieks and you rebuke them That's the devil
you be quiet.
Someone else shrieks.
It's the flesh someone else shrieks.
You say let it go.
It's the spirit They're getting delivered.
You have to have discernment.
You have to know what's going on.
Sometimes it gets a little intense Overwhelming and
I haven't experienced true revival.
We certainly experienced the beginning of what could
have been a great revival For Long Island
in the New York area, but was certainly
an outpouring of the spirit even in the
midst of that I remember just as things
began to happen somehow in the back of
my mind I'd heard about these things and
read just as things began to happen at
a Sunday night prayer meeting I remember just
saying oh my this is getting heavy As
this one woman lets out a shriek as
she gets delivered and another tall Brother who's
actually actually here tonight collapses like a yun
tree boom on the ground.
I said, oh my this is getting heavy
Well, why does God do that?
I?
Believe he does these things then there's flesh
just imitating.
There's satanic counterfeits, but I believe God does
these things why?
Well, I'll give you four reasons One reason
it's a display of his supernatural power All
right.
It's an awesome thing You're at a meeting
and 5,000 people Crumbled to the ground
like one That's an awesome thing.
I remember one Korean fellow who was very
very very skeptical about the things of the
spirit and Fairly cold in his overall relationship
with the Lord And he came to a
meeting and I laid hands on him and
he was like a dead man I mean,
they just laid him out between a couple
of chairs.
He was like a dead man under the
power of God I remember afterwards he said
that changed his life.
He experienced the reality of God God shook
him something happened.
There's a display of God's supernatural power Even
if some of the stuff is strange or
odd it puts you in a different realm
Put you in a holy realm put you
in a realm where you just kind of
tread softly I mean something's happening something's going
on when the spirits really moving there should
be an atmosphere of the spirit You know
when I can never understand meetings where you
got you're ministering to people or people up
at the altar praying You're laying hands on
people and the power of God is supposedly
falling And I don't know people looking at
their watchers or this one's singing, you know
a Secular song in their mind and just
you know waiting to get out and this
one's you know Tying their shoelaces and and
reading a comic book in it.
Wait a second.
Are we in the presence of God?
What I mean, are we focusing on God
we worshiping him with this just some kind
of sideshow performance I've seen people minister and
they start everyone who wants to go home
Go ahead and go home and they just
start praying for people and everyone's talking and
buzzing around and they're up front in France
Like wait a second.
I mean if the spirits really at work,
let's have a little reverence.
Let's join together as one man one body
But when these signs start occurring when these
supernatural things Man, you know, wait a second
God, I mean you're on your way out.
All of a sudden you start in the
way something's going on here So one purpose
is to display God's supernatural power and to
make a lasting impression lasting impression And there
are enough times where I've seen God move
on people intensely powerfully and it's shaking away
and they've never forgotten They can't forget it
Like God came down put his hook in
their jaw and picked him up out of
the water and said remember me Yeah, I
remember you.
All right now go back down in the
water You don't forget that What's another purpose
of religious stumbling blocks?
Well to destroy every last remnant of human
religiosity and the flesh These things are
just not pleasant.
These things are just not acceptable.
They just don't build you up in the
natural You know when when I was in
my cold period from about 72 to Excuse
me from 82 to 87.
I knew the numbers weren't computing their proper
No, not from 82 to 87 87 From
77 to 82 Glory to God from 70
19 and 77 as they say to 1982
I Was much more at home in the
flesh with my religious beliefs.
I felt much more Relaxed in the presence
of learned professors than when I was a
Pentecostal praying in tongues at least an hour
a day That stuff is just unacceptable It's
unacceptable to the fleshly mind and to human
pride When you get down on your knees
and you groan and shake and tremble and
prevail Lay there prostrate on your face for
two hours.
That doesn't exactly build up the intellectually proud
Esteem that you could hold for yourself You
know It's not the type of situation where
you you get up from that and you
see some professor and you want to talk
to him About some high and lofty religious
or theological subject.
I mean you've been down in the pit.
You've been down in the trenches It was
much easier for me to go pursue my
studies and do all these other things and
leave out some of these You know put
these other things back in the closet old
Pentecostal Anti-intellectual stuff put that back in
the closet when God grabbed hold of me
and seized me though.
I just had to say Lord, whatever.
I Remember the night when this guy couldn't
even drive his car That I referred to
that night in November of 82 Here he
can't even drive his car.
And at this point he's laying on his
face prostrate just before we we're gonna go
home He's laying on his face prostrate.
I'm kind of wondering how he's gonna manage
to drive or do anything looking at him
There's one guy.
It's fallen laying on his back.
Oh, no, not falling again when we pray
for people I thought that wasn't God I
proved to my satisfaction.
It couldn't be God I gave all the
intellectual reasons for now.
He's falling the wife speaking in tongues sounds
like a chicken I mean just going on.
I mean just I don't know what a
chicken sounds like but you know what?
I mean just I mean just speaking in
tongues chattering and chattering and the husband laying
on his back speaking in tongues and the
other guy laying on his face shaking and
Then the other guy who was the old
-time Pentecostal who was there in the group
kind of doing like an Indian war dance.
Oh Oh My god, I said, I thought
I was dead to all this.
I thought I'd this was all behind me
I thought I didn't have to worry about
any of this stuff.
It's so humiliating I Said Lord, if that's
real if it's you, all right, whatever.
I don't care.
I don't care And I don't care.
I didn't and I don't But I mean
man, there was some religiosity in me.
There is some fleshly pride There ain't no
fleshly pride left After you get through weeping
and wailing on your face for two hours
for dying Well, I mean, where's the fleshly
pride you go to talk to somebody so
I just want to share my face and
you fall apart I mean, where's the pride
it's demolished So these religious stumbling blocks they
really go a long way and doing that
I mean here you're you've prepared your whole
sermon and you want to impress the people
and the spirit just kind of gets hold
of Your feet and you start boogieing You
know, I don't mean dancing gracefully but just
kind of boogieing and jumping it's like oh
no I don't believe this unless you quench
the spirit.
You're gonna have to dance around that whole
building Hey and One moment of time God
can humble more pride and destroy you more
human religious edifices Just with that one little
religious stumbling block there then years and years
and years of trying to work it out
And wean yourself of it and all this
other stuff.
You know, I remember one time Guy was
going door-to-door Selling his family encyclopedias.
He was in from, California.
They send you to another part of the
country So you just work day and night
you're away from your friends and everything and
he was gonna make all this money He
thought it was harder than he expected got
over to my house I just come back
from teaching.
My wife was on her way out started
talking to the guy and Found out that
he had known the Lord as a teenager
and or even very young teenager and backslid
now He was maybe 18 19 20 years
old Someone had led him to the Lord
back to the Lord as he was knocking
on doors and we began to talk I
said man You need the power of God
in your life.
I said even filled with the spirit You
know, no, we began to talk about it.
So I opened up the word We sat
down showed him the scriptures here just alone
in the house Showed him the scriptures and
said well, you're ready to receive a lot.
I'm a little scared.
But yeah, I'm ready Here laid hands.
I remember the power God fell on him.
He got laid out collapsed on the couch
shaking trembling speaking in tongues I still remember
as he tried to get up and collapse
down again, and he couldn't even move the
power God was there It's like well Whatever
religious system he was involved in or whatever.
He thought was the right way because I
didn't know his background He'd never seen anything
like that heard about a little bit never
experienced it that whole thing Just got demolished
a whole lot more quickly than if you
tried to teach him instruct him and have
a religious argument you know when I was
getting cold I Had met this guy This
is when I was still kind of remnant
hot, you know The coals were still burning
but there wasn't fresh fire And I was
in college and I was talking to this
guy and he was a militant Baptist And
we would argue points and I was on
the Pentecostal side.
He was on the Baptist side wherever we
differed That's where we differed and I really
thought I could prove my point I didn't
see him for a couple years and yeah,
I mean he used to have super super
short hair and be super super conservative I
didn't see him for a couple years all
of a sudden I ran into him at
this point And I was really cold and
I was in agreement with him He looked
a little different.
His hair is a little longer.
I just looked a little bit more free
And I couldn't wait to talk to him
before I could talk to me said, you
know We had these people and they were
going to this church out on the island
This church had a lot of good things,
but a lot of problems also out along
on I said they were going to this
church And one after another was leaving the
Baptist Church, and I'm not pro Pentecostal anti
Baptist or the reverse I'm just saying this
is the the historic occasion here And they
were leaving the church and I got really
concerned and I sat down with this one
sister and told this tongue stuff was Wrong
and all this other stuff and she said
well Ralph Have you ever prayed about it
now at this point?
I was ready to tell him that all
his old positions were right, but he beat
me to the punch He was ready to
tell me that I was right.
All my old positions were right I so
I said, you know, what happens?
Well, you know, I talked to her I'm
like, can you rebuke you and you set
us straight and what happened?
He said I just went home and I
just said God If it's real I want
it and just started speaking in tongues just
like that They experience God tongues is probably
the greatest contemporary religious stumbling block the last
two three generations probably tongue But it destroys
every last remnant of human religiosity in the
flesh And then a third thing these religious
stumbling blocks do they get us back to
God's order?
But first we must be violently shaken out
of our order So religious stumbling blocks violently
shake us out of our order and get
us into God's order You say well God
does everything decently in an order.
Yeah according to his order According to his
order the description of decently in an order
in first Corinthians 14 includes tongues prophecy interpretation
revelation All different people speaking you'd call that
order and 99% of services.
No That's because it's God's order not our
order if I said you're right I want
you to put all these chairs in order
here And what you did is you lined
them up against the wall you stacked them
against the wall You had them in perfect
order and then everyone came in to sit
down.
I said, what'd you do?
You got to take them all down now
so the people can sit Well, I can't
get it any other way from your order
Which is totally wrong to the right order
without taking your order down first Got to
take the chairs down and then set them
up in rows the right way So basically
we've got this thing I don't like when
the spirit moves like this Who are we
to dictate I prefer if the spirit would
move more quietly or more subtly Well, whichever
way you prefer he'll move He'll move the
other way until you stop dictating to him
how you want him to move The Bible
says test the spirits with a small s
not test the spirit with a capital s
if it's him you back out of the
way So these religious stumbling blocks just so
violently shake us out of our order of
doing things look, let's say you're worshiping the
Lord and singing a hymn and Someone so
turned on says all I brought I feel
I have a testimony.
Well not now At the end of the
service will give you a moment.
Well, that's not gonna shake the order.
Okay?
But when you get up to sing your
hymn and The moment you begin to sing
the words you break down Weeping and get
on your face and start trembling and weeping
before the Lord that will knock you out
of your order pretty quickly You see so
these things are violent shaking intense Contrary, I
don't mean contrary to God.
I don't mean contrary in terms of just
Controversial, I mean contrary to the way people
would do it.
So the last purpose of religious stumbling blocks
I said it's contrary to way people would
do it.
Well, it's obviously this Religious stumbling blocks remind
us that revival belongs to God not to
man Revival belongs to God not man When
he moves in this way, you can't work
it up.
You can't orchestrate it You can't turn it
on you can't turn it off You can't
bring it up the fever pitch.
You can't bring it down.
You can't set up when you can't set
up How why cuz it's God who does
it?
Over and over and over and over in
Bartleman's description of what happened at Azusa Street
and the subsequent movings of God in that,
California area Over and over and over again.
He shows how people try to control it
continually quench the spirit In fact, he says
this The New Testament Church begun by Brother
Smale seemed to be losing the spirit of
prayer as they increased their organization They had
become ambitious for a church and organization again.
It's not that organization is wrong.
It's when you organize God out It seemed
hard to them to not be like the
other nations quote churches round about them and
right here They began to fail as church
work increased They lost sight of the real
issue human organization and human program leave very
little room for the free spirit of God
It means much to be willing to be
considered a failure while we seek to build
up a purely spiritual kingdom God's kingdom does
not come by observation It is very easy
to choose second best their prayer life is
needed much more than buildings or organizations These
are often a substitute for the other souls
are born into the kingdom only through prayer
The New Testament Church seemed to be drifting
toward intellectualism I became much burdened for it
during one meeting.
It was so painful after what we had
seen I groaned aloud in prayer one of
the elders rebuked me severely for this.
How are the mighty fallen kept ringing in
my ears?
See this church that was called the New
Testament Church was initially wide open to the
things of the spirit But then in order
to get this better and get this better
and get this you had to turn this
on turn this off Start this stop this
control this let this in not let this
in For the people's sake you see for
the people's sake they can only handle this
they can't you start to dictate It's no
longer God's.
It's no longer God's in the moment It's
taken out of God's hands like we said
it ceases to be revival so religious stumbling
blocks Display God's supernatural overpowering and awesome power
You know, it makes people realize God's pretty
big How many times you ever been flattened
by the spirit?
I mean flattened One fellow who's a weightlifter
told me that well, he was laying on
his face Well, I met in New York.
He was laying on his face and he
said the Lord came Just basically I put
his toe on his neck and said try
and get up Larry And he said the
guy tried with all his might and couldn't
move and he said he God was just
giving him a glimpse He said well God
made the universe here But do we ever
have a just a little glimpse?
Enough to keep us flat on our faces
maybe enough that we want to speak in
our mouths are just silent Enough of a
glimpse of the power of God that we
just feel the rush and push of the
spirit coming upon us Religious stumbling blocks display
God's power.
They destroy every last remnant of human religiosity
in the flesh They get us back to
God's order by violently shaking us out of
our order and they remind us that revival
belongs to God Not to man Father we
pray each heart here We pray that when
you come When you move When you arrive
in a new and significant and powerful way
be it corporately or individually for each of
us here God we pray that we will
be waiting and willing and ready and ready
Ready to receive humbly with open hearts and
open minds in Jesus name Amen