I want to read from Ephesians chapter 5.
Wherefore, he saith, verse 14 that is, Awake,
thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead,
and Christ will give you light.
See then, that you walk circumspectly, not as
fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because
the days are evil.
Wherefore, be you not unwise, but understanding what
the will of the Lord is.
And be not drunk with wine wherein is
excess, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking
to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual
songs, singing and making melody in your heart
to the Lord, giving thanks always for all
things unto God and the Father in the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting yourselves
one to another in the fear of God.
Just that far.
It seems that wherever I go, Christians, and
I probably could rightly say the majority of
Christians, they do not know whether they're filled
with the Spirit or not.
How do you know, they say?
I pray a lot about it.
I believe I have been, but I don't
see any evidence of it.
And I hear this wherever I go.
You'll notice in Ephesians 5, it's not an
option, it's a command.
Be filled with the Spirit.
So we should be filled.
And if we don't know how, I want
to try and deal with that tonight.
First of all, back in Acts chapter 2,
of course we have what they call a
Jewish Pentecost.
Jews, there were some proselytes among them, Gentiles
who'd become Jews.
They could do that in those days.
And then, following this, in Acts chapter 4,
I call this an extension of Pentecost.
I don't believe that the 120 were filled
with the Spirit on the day of Pentecost.
I think just the 12 were.
And there's some evidence of that, I think,
if you follow it through.
And I don't want to argue with anybody
about it.
Okay.
It was an extension.
And that all those converts on the day
of Pentecost were filled with the Spirit in
Acts chapter 4.
And they spoke the Word of God with
boldness.
As a consequence, that ought to be one
of the signs of being filled with the
Spirit of God.
Then going down, thinking further, we have what
we might call a Samaritan Pentecost in Acts
chapter 8.
Now, these Samaritans, they felt they were really
the people of God.
They were not.
They were, if you know the story about
Samaria in the Old Testament, they were people
that came down from Babylon and other places
and dwelt in the cities that the Israelites
had to leave because of their sin.
And it says, they feared the Lord and
served their own gods.
Strange.
That's the kind of people they were.
So, of course, the Jews and Samaritans did
not get along because the Jews did not
recognize them and the Samaritans wanted to be
recognized.
But Jesus said to a Samaritan woman, salvation
is of the Jews.
So this, when they believed on Christ, they
did not receive the Holy Spirit.
And they didn't receive the Spirit until Peter
and John came down and laid hands on
them.
Then they received the Spirit.
I think God did that to help humble
them, help them to understand.
If they had any pride, they should really
lose it because the Jews were a special
people to God.
Then in Acts chapter 10, we have what
we might call a Gentile Pentecost.
Because the same things happened in the house
of Cornelius as it happened on their Pentecost.
And those who were there at the time
with Peter, they were astonished that God had
poured out His Spirit on the Gentiles exactly
as it happened to the Jews on their
Pentecost.
And both the Jewish Pentecost and the Samaritan
Pentecost were referred to as a baptism of
the Spirit.
Okay.
Then I would call this, in Acts 19,
a missionary Pentecost.
Paul had talked with twelve men who were
disciples of John the Baptist.
And he explained to them about Jesus Christ
more fully.
And they were baptized in the name of
Christ.
Then Paul laid his hands on them and
they received the Spirit.
And it was another type of Pentecost.
And it was a powerful experience because through
these twelve men particularly, Paul got training people
in a school belonging to a man called
Tyrannus.
And as a result of this, it says,
listen carefully, that all of Asia, all of
Asia, heard the word of the Lord Jesus.
Jews and Greeks, Jews and Gentiles.
A marvelous thing happened.
It must have been through these twelve men
that Paul trained and sent out.
He couldn't have done this himself.
In any case, what happened there in Acts
19 was certainly another outpouring of the Spirit
of God.
Then there's a personal Pentecost in Acts 9
.17. Ananias said, Brothers, Saul, the Lord, even
Jesus, that appeared unto you in the ways
you came, hath sent me that ye might
be healed, and might be filled with the
Holy Spirit.
That was kind of a personal Pentecost then,
right?
His ministry was the most powerful of all
the apostles.
So his filling of the Spirit must have
been as powerful as theirs at the same
time.
Let's go from there.
I met a man.
He lived in Toronto, then moved to New
York, and he worked for Billy Sunday.
He had a great evangelistic gift.
His name was Harold Stevens.
And we were talking one day.
He said, tell me about your experience with
God.
He said, well, I played the organ in
a church.
I had no interest in soul winning at
all.
I had never felt called into ministry.
But the church was having street meetings with
a little portable organ, and they kept begging
him to come and play the organ.
No way, he didn't want to be seen
on the street, you know, playing an organ.
That was beneath him.
So he kept on saying no, and they
kept praying that God would speak to his
heart.
And one day, it became such a burden,
he couldn't say no anymore.
The street meeting was already in progress, so
he began walking down.
Made up his mind, I'll do it.
And halfway to the organ, he was filled
with the Spirit of God in such a
dynamic way that when he got there, they
said, hey, Harold, great to see you.
Here's the organ.
Forget the organ, he said, I've got to
preach.
And he started preaching, and a revival erupted,
and people stopped.
They had to go to a nearby church
building, get all these people in, and a
revival came, and many, many people were saved.
And Harold Stevens was launched into this evangelistic
ministry.
He wasn't even called into it, he was
pushed into it.
But please notice this.
It didn't happen until he did what?
Until he humbled himself.
And forsook his pride and did the thing
he knew all along he really should do,
but for pride's sake, did not want to
do.
Harold Stevens.
John Nicholson was an Irishman in Northern Ireland.
Years ago, before he was converted, he was
just a hooligan.
Big guy, loved to fight, loved to get
drunk, and he had a terrible mouth.
Then he got saved.
And for eight months he struggled terribly with
all these old habits he had, and had
little victory over them.
And then he heard of a deeper life
meeting of some kind, and he went there,
and there he discovered, after you become a
Christian, you should surrender yourselves totally to God.
And one night in the meeting, that's what
he did.
Okay, God, he said, now, anything you ask
me to do, I'll do it.
You know what he was asked to do?
To go and stand with a Salvation Army
group on the street, in a street meeting,
on a Saturday night.
He begged, oh God, I'll do it, but
you know, can't we have it on Wednesday
night?
The reason he didn't want it on Saturday
night was because on Saturday night, everybody came
in from the country.
A lot of his old cronies would see
him standing on the street.
Oh, Nix, he didn't want that.
But God wouldn't give in, and God kept
saying, Saturday night.
So he had to do it because he
told God he'd do anything.
And then when he got there and saw
the crew, he almost fainted dead away.
Two teenage girls and a guy that was
so daft, they said he didn't have enough
brains to have a headache, you know.
And he had some kind of a board
on both sides with some Bible verses on
it.
And this was the team he had to
work with.
Oh, he was so embarrassed, but he was
there, you know.
And one of the girls said, nobody's listening
to us, so let's pray.
Get on your knees, Mr. Nicholson.
So he saw friends of his old cronies
that were sitting on the sidewalk watching him
get down on his knees.
He did it.
He got on his knees and he heard
them jeering and hollering at him and all
this stuff, you know.
He knelt there.
And finally they got up and one of
the girls said, Mr. Nicholson, lead our parade
down to our feet.
It was a building of some kind.
And he thought to himself, what parade?
Two girls and this daft guy?
Okay, so let's go.
And as he was going in that parade,
God filled him with the Holy Ghost.
He was filled and became an evangelist of
great renown in Ireland.
Anybody from Ireland would know who John Nicholson
was.
I think he's gone on now.
Died perhaps 1950 or something, but greatly, greatly
used of God.
What was the difference?
Well, he was like Harold Stephens, you know.
Same problem.
Pride stands in the way in many times
in Christians' lives.
The reason why we're not filled with the
Spirit is because God is asking us to
do something.
We don't want to do it for pride's
sake.
We don't want to admit it for pride's
sake, but that's the real problem that we
have.
Cecil Carter.
Some of you heard me in one of
the other sessions.
I don't think here, but one of the
other sessions we had.
But Cecil Carter, a great man of God.
He was a big fellow and a tremendous
athlete.
For two years in a row, he took
top honors running the mile in British Columbia,
Canada.
And he was a real witness for God,
and he ran a hardware store.
But he felt he should be in full
-time Christian service, and it never happened.
So finally, he bargained with God.
He said, God, if you don't call me
into full-time service, by the time I'm
30, I'll never think about it again.
I'll just do what I'm good.
And you know what happened?
His 30th birthday came and nothing had happened.
He said it was the saddest day he
ever put in.
But at 10 o'clock on that night,
the phone rang.
And Percy Wills from Victoria, British Columbia said,
Cecil, God has told me to ask you
to become a missionary with the Shantyman's Christian
Association.
Well, he got out of that store in
five seconds, you know, and on the road.
But before that happened, he was up in
the mountains one day, he told me.
And he was trying to surrender himself to
God, and he just couldn't.
He said, I went out there.
It was a beautiful, sunshiny day and not
a cloud in the sky.
And he's kneeling there and talking with God.
And he kept saying, God, I can't do
it.
And God kept urging him and he said,
God, I just can't do it.
And just then, a stroke of lightning hit
the ground about 20 feet away.
I can do it.
I can do it, God.
And he surrendered totally and God filled him.
And he became a, he was one of
the most Christ-like people I've ever met.
And led hundreds of people to Christ in
logging camps in Canada.
Had a wonderful, wonderful ministry.
I was never with him, but I was
moved towards heaven.
He's dead now.
I hope somebody writes his life story.
Moody sought this baptism for six months.
This baptism, call it a filling or a
baptism, whatever you want.
I don't care about the language that we
use here.
But he sought it for six months because
he saw two ladies praying in one of
his congregations.
And mind you, he had the largest Sunday
evening congregation of any church in Chicago at
the time.
And he asked these ladies why they were
always praying when he was preaching.
And they said, because you don't have it.
Don't have what?
You're not filled with the Holy Spirit, you
know.
He couldn't believe it.
Well, I've got the biggest congregation in Chicago,
you know, on Sunday night.
They said, we know that.
It's got nothing to do with it.
You're not filled with the Spirit.
So he began praying with these ladies.
And then he got a tremendous burden.
And for six months, nothing happened.
Then walking down the street one day.
See, he had to humble himself to pray
with these old ladies.
What had they got to show him, you
know?
But he was willing to do that because
he wanted to know.
And so one day, walking on the street
in Chicago, he was filled with the Spirit
of God.
He was so overwhelmed with the love of
God in his experience.
Now, it doesn't always come this way, but
it came that way for him.
And he rushed to a friend's house and
asked for a room where he could be
alone for a few hours.
And in that room, he thought he was
going to die.
He was so filled with the love of
God.
And then God sent him around the world
and a million people found Christ before he
died.
Spurgeon.
I don't know of any writer that's ever
said anything about Spurgeon being filled with the
Spirit.
I found something in one of his sermons,
though, that I think would indicate this happened
to him at a certain time.
He was converted at the age of 15.
He was baptized in a river, dividing two
colonies.
And here's what he said.
Before my baptism, he said, I often doubted
I was really a Christian.
And he said, I was very fearful.
I didn't like talking to people about the
Lord or giving out tracts or anything.
But he said, when I went down under
the water, something happened.
And he said, all my doubts and fears
disappeared.
And I think, he said, that the river
carried them down to the ocean.
And the fish in the ocean swallowed them,
because I've never felt them since.
Now, I think that's when he was filled
with the Spirit.
Because the evidence is all there.
And at the age of 17, when he
began pastoring this Water Beach Little Baptist Church,
40 members.
He said, we had Holy Ghost revival from
the first day.
What did he mean?
Water Beach was a little town with a
horrible reputation.
Many people in the area were drunkards.
He went from 40 to 400 members in
two years.
Every drunkard in the area had been converted.
That's why he said, we had Holy Ghost
revival.
He couldn't have said that if he wasn't
filled with the Spirit himself.
I think it's important to keep that clearly
in mind.
Whitefield, an Anglican Bishop, laid hands on his
head and prayed for him.
And at that moment, something happened in his
heart, he said.
Wesley, he spoke about a strange warming of
his heart.
These two men, you know, Whitefield, they preached.
He and Wesley sometimes preached to crowds of
as many as 20,000.
And at Canvassing in Scotland, nobody really knows.
But they say there could have been 100
,000 people in the open air, no voice
amplification.
Whitefield was heard clearly by them all.
He had a tremendous voice, a gift from
God, no doubt.
For these men had had a meeting with
God at some point.
And they walked with God.
I think, you know, that one of the
reasons why we maybe have a good experience,
but we don't walk with God is simply
because we don't walk with God.
Walk in the Spirit, the Bible says, Galatians
5, and you will not fulfill the lust
of the flesh.
And the reason why we fall into the
lust of the flesh is because we're not
walking in the Spirit.
We're not doing what the Spirit is asking
us to do.
We're not listening to our neighbor.
We're not giving out tracts, perhaps.
Whatever God is, He may be asking me
to make a large donation to a missionary
fund.
And I say, no, but the Spirit's leading
me to do that.
I don't do that.
Then I wonder why I start having trouble
with the lust again.
I mean, this is all connected in the
Word of God.
Do you know who Sam Chadwick was?
A very well-known preacher years and years
ago.
They said his sermons were works of art.
They were absolutely beautiful.
And he loved that, you know, and he
may put all kinds of poetry in.
And he had a great command of the
English language.
And his sermons were renowned far and wide
as just beautiful, gorgeous things.
But he wasn't filled with the Spirit.
And he didn't know why.
And he prayed and prayed.
And one night, God said, Chadwick, you want
to be filled with the Spirit?
Burn your sermons.
What?
Burn my sermons?
That's right.
And Chadwick got up and got his sermons
and threw them in the fireplace.
And you know what he said?
From that moment, I was filled with the
Spirit of God.
And he became an outstanding preacher of the
Gospel of Christ at that point.
Now, that may not make any sense to
you.
I don't know.
It makes a lot of sense to me.
I mean, this was an idol in his
life, you see.
And he had to get rid of this
idol.
And you may have an idol, too, that
God wants you to get rid of.
He burned all his sermons.
Hudson Taylor was struggling for years.
He saw a few souls saved, you know.
But not much going on.
And in anguish about being filled with the
Spirit.
And he prayed many times to be filled
with the Spirit.
Nothing seemed to happen.
In his case, it was somewhat different.
He got a letter from a friend.
And his friend told him how he'd been
struggling for years to be filled with the
Spirit.
And he finally found it by resting in
Christ.
And apparently, this phrase, resting in Christ, was
used of God in Taylor's life.
And he sought and quit all his fussing
and worrying.
And just leaned back, he said, in the
arms of Jesus Christ.
And rested.
And the following day, he led seven people
to Christ.
And he never looked back.
He always had that anointing of the Spirit
on his life from that time and forward.
A.J. Gordon used the following words, four
of them.
Desire, desire it.
Enthrone Christ on your heart.
And then expect and accept the Spirit of
God by faith.
And his life was transformed following this particular
way.
Trumbull, he was greatly used of God.
He came to the place where he realized
he had to stop working for Christ.
But rather let Him do his work through
him.
So he gave up trying to serve Christ.
And came into close fellowship with the Lord,
just letting Him work through him.
So as the Spirit worked through him to
go out and evangelize, he did that.
Or maybe to go somewhere and do something
else.
Whatever he was led by the Spirit to
do, he did.
And it wasn't until he began doing this
that he saw the power of the Spirit
in his life.
It says, remember, dear people, walk in the
Spirit.
If you walk in the Spirit, you'll see
the evidence of the Spirit in your life.
But if you keep saying no to God,
you'll see nothing.
And I think this really is our major
problem.
I remember one time in a revival meeting
where God was working.
And we had a time of sharing.
And a teenage girl, maybe she was 15,
a Mennonite Christian.
And she came and asked if she might
sing her testimony.
And we say, that's fine, yes, you can
do that.
She wanted to sing without accompaniment in front
of this huge crowd.
And she stood there and sang so sweetly.
Oh, to be like Thee, blessed Redeemer.
Oh, to be like Thee, pure as Thou
art.
And people, as she was singing, the Spirit
of God came in the whole congregation.
And everybody began to weep.
I said to my wife afterwards, honey, what
did you feel or sense when that girl
was singing?
And she said, it's the closest to heaven
I ever expect to get till I get
there.
And all of us felt the same thing.
The presence of God just swept the whole
place, you know.
While she was singing, oh, to be like
Thee, blessed Redeemer.
Is that the cry of your heart, to
be like Him?
Is that what I want to be?
I remember meetings one time and, you know,
people start saying nice things about your sermons.
And I said, hey, God, listen, I don't
want them to remember me.
I want them to remember you.
And I prayed for a whole afternoon, dear
God, would you let them see Jesus instead
of me?
After the meeting that night, Ralph Lew's wife
was there.
Not Ralph Lew, Lew Soteri's wife, Henrietta was
there.
And she and a friend came up and
they said, Brother Bill, we don't know how
to say this, but when you were speaking
tonight, we never saw you.
We saw the Lord Jesus standing there.
You know what I did?
I just said, hallelujah.
Wasn't that wonderful?
I'll tell you, I don't know what they
saw.
But thank God they never saw me.
Oh, to be like Thee, blessed Redeemer.
Is that the cry of your heart?
You already want to be some kind of
an outstanding Christian worker.
Forget it.
The Bible says, the lame take their prayer.
Not the well and the strong, but the
lame take their prayer.
The little person, the humble person.
And God is looking for people that will
be that kind of person.
Goforth, here's what Goforth said, he's a famous
Canadian missionary to China.
He spoke about the dethronement of the idol
of self-sufficiency.
And it was when he did this, when
he dethroned the idol of self-sufficiency in
himself, that's when the power of God came
on him.
He saw revivals in China all over the
country.
For the many years he served there, great
turnings of Chinese people.
You know, Chinese people, before those days of
revival, you'd never ever see them cry.
It was a matter of pride, they wouldn't
cry about anything.
He saw whole congregations sit in there weeping
their hearts out in those times of revival.
But you see, it didn't happen until he
dethroned self and enthroned Christ on his heart.
And then the blessing came.
I'd like to say this, there is such
a thing as a personal Pentecost.
Listening to what I said tonight, you'll understand
it doesn't always by any means come in
the same way.
Although, underneath this, there is something that's common
to them all.
And that is a giving up of self.
And a willingness to let Christ truly sit
on the throne of the heart.
And I know this partly through my ministry
and partly through my own experience.
We can keep on saying no to God,
but you can't do it forever.
You may wind up, as many Christians do,
cantankerous, critical, cold, conniving.
Instead of being like John the Baptist, it
says, he was a burning and a shining
light.
He was shining because he was burning inside
with love for God.
And we can be like that if we're
willing to dethrone the idol of self-sufficiency.
Or whatever it is that God is talking
to you about.
Maybe it's your men, it may be your
attitude to your wife.
Ladies, it may be your attitude to your
husband.
Or to your children.
Or to your neighbor.
Or something God is asking you to do
that you're not willing to do.
Until you are willing to do what God
is asking you to do now.
Don't bother praying to be filled with the
Spirit.
It just will not happen.
Many years ago, the first revival I ever
saw was at Pioneer Camp on Lake of
the Woods.
I was directing a camp there of teenage
kids.
But on the way down, I went down
on a train.
And they called it the water something or
other train, a tiny little train.
Just one coach on it, or one cab,
or whatever you want to call it.
And there was maybe 30 people there.
Before we got to the end, the Lord
said to me, I'd like you to give
out some tracts.
And you know what?
I didn't want to.
I went, oh man, this is too close.
I'm not sure about this.
The Lord just kept gently saying, please.
And finally I got up and gave out
tracts.
And nothing happened.
But we had revival in that camp.
Have you ever been in a teenage Bible
camp where the kids can't eat their meal
and sit there with their heads on the
dinner plates?
They can't even eat.
They're so under the conviction of God, you
know.
That's the first time I saw revival.
I saw what God could do.
And God said to me, if you hadn't
obeyed me on the train, you wouldn't have
seen what happened here.
Now that's a principle we're thinking about here.
How much more should your Heavenly Father give
the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him
but then in Acts 5 it says, He
gives the Holy Spirit to them that obey
Him.
It's not just asking, it's obeying.
And He may ask you to do a
difficult thing.
It's not difficult.
You see, the will of God is good,
acceptable, and perfect.
If it's good, it's not bad.
If it's acceptable, it's something you can do.
He will never ask you to do something
you can't do.
When God called me to preach, I really
thought it was a joke.
I was lying on my bed in a
logging camp where I was working.
And I said, hey God, you know what
I'm like.
I can't even talk to people without running
out of words.
I can't be a preacher.
And I argued with God all night, you
know, and I can't.
And all He ever did was give me
one verse.
I can do all things through Christ who
strengthens me.
And I couldn't get away from it.
And finally, before the sun came up in
the morning, I said, okay God, I'll do
it.
And if anybody asks me anywhere to preach,
I'll do it.
I knew, of course, nobody would do that.
And two weeks later, somebody asked me to
preach, you know.
Oh, that was hard.
But I didn't turn back.
I did it.
Because I had that verse in my mind
so strongly.
I can do all things.
Don't ever say you can't do it.
You can say this, I won't do it.
That's what we're normally saying, I won't do
it.
But what is God saying to you right
now?
Is there something He's brought to your attention
that needs to be dealt with?
You want to be filled with the Spirit?
Forget about the way it happens.
And just please remember, it will not happen
in any way.
Unless I'm willing to do what God is
asking me to do.
The Bible says, listen carefully, in James 4,
Submit yourself there to God, and what then?
Resist the devil and he'll flee from you.
I don't think I told this story here.
Maybe I did.
Forgive me, but maybe some hadn't heard it.
Dave White in New Brunswick.
He was an alcoholic, and he became a
Christian.
And for eight months after he became a
Christian, he was drunk at least once a
week.
And he just gave up, and he didn't
know what to do anymore.
He just couldn't beat the thing, you know.
Well, I was holding meetings in Woodstock, and
he was in the meetings.
And one night, I preached from this text.
Submit yourself there to God, resist the devil
and he'll flee from you.
He said to his pastor, I want you
to take me in to St. John's tomorrow,
and you'll be coming home alone.
Likely.
Here was the problem.
He had broken some law.
They were searching.
He'd been, he'd evaded the law for 21
years.
He'd been hiding in little towns in New
Brunswick.
And God told him that night, Now, if
you want to resist the devil, you're going
to have to submit to me.
And, you've got to go back to the
police and surrender yourself.
And he did.
That's why he told the pastor, you'll be
coming home alone.
When they walked into the police headquarters, the
chief police was away, and the assistant was
there.
And when he walked in, he said, Dave
Smith, where have you been hiding?
We've been looking for you for 21 years.
And he told them what had happened.
Well, why did you come?
And he told them.
And then the deputy chief began to cry,
because he said, You know, three years ago,
a Baptist preacher led me to Christ, and
I fell off in the ditch off the
King's Highway.
You guys coming today, I'm back on the
King's Highway.
Thank you for coming.
And he said, Smith, listen, you don't have
to go to jail.
We're going to wipe the records clean.
Just live for God.
You know what happened?
He had no desire, absolutely no desire from
drink, from that day, when he gave himself
up.
So, you see, it's the same thing.
Submit yourself there to God, and then resist
the devil.
He'll run.
But he won't run unless you submit to
God, because you don't have the power to
resist the devil.
You get that from God.
When you submit to God, do you understand?
Does that make any sense?
It should.
I mean, it's from the Word of God.
Mark 11, 24.
What things soever you desire when you pray,
believe.
It really runs like this from the Greek.
Believe that you have received them, and you
shall have them.
And we should pray, certainly pray the prayer
of faith, when we're asking God to fill
us with the Holy Spirit.
But I say, if these other things are
not rightly taken care of, nothing's going to
happen.
I know from my own experience with people,
because sometimes, you know, God asks you to
do something, you don't want to do it,
and what happens?
The power of God isn't there anymore.
Nothing happens.
I remember, I didn't hear a voice, but
as clear as a bell, God said to
me one time, I can't bless disobedience.
I can't bless disobedience.
Just as clear as a bell.
And I had to go and do the
thing I didn't really want to do.
And when I did, the power returned.
Submit yourself, if God is asking you to
do something, whatever it is, maybe make restitution
to somebody you wronged long ago, or pay
some bills you've been avoiding, whatever it happens
to be.
Say yes to God tonight.
And then ask Him to fill you with
the Spirit.
Then believe Him.
Remember, we have to dethrone the idol of
self-sufficiency, or whatever kind of idol it
is, so Christ can sit on the throne.
I was holding meetings in New Brunswick one
time, and a missionary was in the area.
Somebody told me he was a wonderful missionary,
so I gave him a night, and I'm
glad I did.
And he told us how, where he came
from in Africa, if a chief has a
throne, it'll likely be not big, a thing
like this, maybe a log, but if you
ever see a log with a scarlet-colored
cloth on it, that means a king sits
there.
So he had a little thing made like
a throne with a little scarlet cloth on
it, and he had a little wooden man.
And this man represents you and me.
And so this little man, he's walking around
and looking at the throne, and he says,
you know, I'd like to sit on that
throne.
So he climbs on the throne.
But after he's been on the throne a
while, things aren't going well.
And so he gets off the throne, and
he kneels in front of the throne.
Then things go very well.
But after a while, he decides to get
back on the throne again.
He does it again.
And again, things go badly.
So he gets off the throne and asks
God's forgiveness and kneels down in front of
the throne of Christ.
He got that far, and a lady in
the congregation jumped to her feet crying, and
she said, hey, that's me, that's me, that's
what I've been doing all my life.
She just kind of forgot herself, you know.
So, but many of us are like that.
We're doing that.
A personal Pentecost?
How much more shall your heavenly Father give
the Holy Spirit?
If you then, being evil, know how to
give good gifts to your children, how much
more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy
Spirit to them that ask Him?
If you're a Christian believer, of course you
have the Spirit reciting within you.
But He can't fill you if you're filled
with self.
Let me lose my life and find it,
Lord, in Thee.
May all self be slain, my friends, see
only Thee.
Though it cost me grief and pain, I
shall find my life again.
If I lose my life, I'll find it,
Lord, in Thee.
That's a song we sing in revival circles
many times.
So, let me lose my life and find
it, Lord, in Thee.
Has God spoken to your heart?
Is there something?
Maybe you should come and kneel at the
altar here if you've got something you need
to deal with tonight.
We'd invite you.
Let's just stand, shall we?
I'd like to pray.
Father in heaven, just bless your people, bless
your children, and bless those who may respond
tonight, we pray in Christ's name.
Now, people, the altar is open.
Please come if God has spoken to your
heart.
And pray the prayer, Search me, O God,
and know my heart.
Try me and know my thoughts.
See if there be any wicked way in
me.
And then confess whatever God may show you.
If there's no room here at the front,
kneel at one of the pews.
And I know there's others that need to
come.
Why don't you come if God has been
tugging at your heart?
And maybe you've seen something tonight you haven't
seen for a long time.
You come, yes.
Others come if God is tugging at your
heart.
I'm going to close the meeting.
And if some people just stay there and
pray for those who are at the altar,
we'd appreciate that very, very much.
Otherwise, you are dismissed.
If you care to go, you may do
that.
But go quietly.
Say if you can and pray for those
at the altar.
For those who are kneeling, can I just
say this again?
Simply pray the prayer God gave us in
Psalm 139.
Listen carefully.
Here's the prayer.
Search me, O God, and know my heart.
Try me and know my thoughts.
And see if there be any wicked way
in me.
And God will show you.
Maybe you're here because you already know what
the problem is.
That's great.
Confess.
The Bible says if you cover your sins,
you'll never prosper.
But if you confess and forsake them, you'll
have mercy.
If you confess and forsake them, you'll have
mercy from God.
So you have a few moments to do
that.
Then we'll lead you a step further following
this.
Be seated if you like.
People, be as thorough and honest with God
as you can.
God loves just two things, like humility and
honesty.
Humble yourselves unto the mighty hand of God,
and He'll lift you up in due time.