Hast thou not known?
Hast thou not heard?
That the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator
of the ends of the earth, fainteth not,
neither is weary.
There is no searching of His understanding.
He giveth power to the faint, and to
them that have no might He increases strength.
Even the youth shall faint and be weary,
and the young men shall utterly fall.
But they that wait upon the Lord shall
renew their strength.
They shall mount up with wings as eagles,
they shall run and not be weary, and
they shall walk and not faint.
We welcome you again to On Eagle's Wings,
a ministry of encouragement to the pastor, to
the local church, to the believer, to walk
with the Lord Jesus Christ.
We also want to encourage you, if you
haven't received Christ, to consider the Lord Jesus
Christ and receive Him as your Savior.
We'll be sharing some things with you today
that I trust will be helpful to you
and encouragement to you in your ministry and
your walk with the Lord.
So get your Bible.
If you have time, maybe you're busy running
around, getting ready to go somewhere, go to
church.
But you might be able to grab a
little sentence here or a thought there, something
to encourage you.
We just want the Lord to be first
in all you do and say we want
Him to be glorified.
We trust that He will be glorified by
this program On Eagle's Wings.
I just got back last week or so
from a trip back up into the north,
up into a revival meeting working with Evangelist
John Musser with Gospel Revival Ministries.
I'm the Phil representative and the crusade coordinator
for this ministry.
And we try to minister to local churches
and also we have an international ministry to
pastors and to evangelists in other parts of
the country.
Our world, I should say, going into 17
countries so far.
And the main thrust of this ministry is
to give them literature.
We send out a packet of literature to
many of these men that have nothing.
And many of them, if they can get
a Bible, it's just an exciting thing to
them.
We've been seeing a real movement of God
over in Africa and I have right in
front of me a stack of letters from
some of these pastors and evangelists as they
write and share their hearts and what's going
on in their lives.
It's sometimes heartbreaking to read these letters.
I thought I might read one with you
today, maybe share one or two about what
God is doing in other parts of the
world.
Sometimes we get to looking at our own
black cloud that we've got around and we
get discouraged.
We look at our church or our family
or even ourself.
And it's good to get a world view
about what God's doing.
I believe in our country that we're definitely
seeing some interesting things happen.
You can't even keep up with it, I
don't think, prophetically.
I was talking to a director of a
radio station, an owner-manager of a radio
station today, and he said that Jack Van
Ippe is trying to get on the air
and get all that he can to share
about what's happening with the tearing down of
the Berlin Wall.
This is significant.
And with the Russians opening up and letting
things happen over there in their country, I
believe also with many other spiritual leaders and
Bible teachers in our land that this could
be a setup, a trap, though I don't
believe that we'll ever be able to trust
the Russians.
I was just reading in Ezekiel 38, 39,
and 40 this morning how they are going
to come down yet and try to destroy
Israel.
But things that are happening today are key.
We need to keep our eyes on the
Lord Jesus Christ very closely.
We need to watch Him and see what
He's doing and let Him do what He
wants to do in our lives.
Myself, the reason that I'm with you today
is because I've just let Him do what
He's wanted to do.
And I've found that I'm always thrilled with
the Lord Jesus Christ.
I may not understand what He's doing all
the time.
I may not sometimes like what He's doing,
but I'm never dissatisfied with the Savior.
I've found it's always best to let Him
be the Lord in everything.
It was in 85 that God met me
in revival, back up in a small town
in Nebraska, Gordon, Nebraska.
I was pastoring a small church back up
there, sort of in the boonies you might
say, and had been pastoring the last 15
years in Wyoming and Nebraska in sort of
desolate spots where there wasn't much for good
work, good Bible preaching.
And I like that.
It was hard, but the competition wasn't there
as far as a lot of churches goes.
It was mostly just the devil there for
competition.
You're going to have him anywhere you go
if you're going to serve the Lord.
But while we were out there in western
Nebraska, God did something in my life that
I haven't got over yet, and I don't
think I ever will.
He met me in revival.
I was a bitter pastor.
I didn't know it.
All I knew that there was something wrong.
And He met me and broke me and
cleansed me and made me a new man.
And out of that breaking and that humbling
that He was able to do with me
has come a different ministry.
At first I traveled around giving my testimony
to other churches and other pastors, and I
did that for several years with Evangelist John
Musser, going in ahead of him doing pre
-Crusade work and meeting with pastors, and I
did that out of my church.
And a year ago, the first of December,
one year ago, God asked me if I
would let go of my pastorate.
And He had been bringing me up to
this point.
He had been dealing with me over the
last few years about letting go of things
and being abandoned to Him.
And I'd had to let go of a
house, and then He told me to let
go of my reputation and to let go
of my salary.
And my church was growing at that time,
and sometimes they didn't understand, especially when I
came in and said that I felt like
God wanted us to resign our salary and
just live by faith, let Him take care
of us.
And they didn't want to do that at
first and were reluctant, but they agreed that
if God was in this, then that's what
they wanted to do.
And so God continued to make me let
go of things and be willing to let
go of different things.
And finally, the hardest one was a year
ago.
It was actually September 1st when the Holy
Spirit impressed upon me that God wanted me
to resign my pastorate, and that was hard.
I had thought about it and prayed about
it for a month and then turned in
my resignation.
And then two months later, which was the
1st of December back in 1988, I was
through being the senior pastor in the church.
Then went through the process of finding a
new pastor, and it wasn't that complicated because
they just moved my dear brother, Wes Lavery,
in to be the senior pastor.
He was my assistant, and so after a
couple of months, then they voted him in
to be the pastor, and he's there now.
But God then directed me to just back
off.
He wanted me out of the area, and
so we moved down to southwestern Missouri, out
in the woods, back in the backside of
nowhere.
God opened up a place for us to
stay temporarily in a home, and that's where
we've been since March of 89.
And it's during this time that God has
been taking me deeper into this thing of
being abandoned to Him, just to let Him
supply our needs.
I'm a missionary now with Gospel Revival Ministries.
I'm the crusade coordinator and the field representative
and you don't get sometimes a lot of
offerings.
Sometimes we don't have crusades for weeks.
So we just rely on God, and we've
learned that He is sufficient.
It's been a good cleansing time and a
good restoration time for our family.
We have five children, and we are getting
to know our children in a new and
deeper way, and our relationships with them are
deepening.
And out of this, God has raised up
this radio ministry of reaching out to pastors
and churches to encourage them.
And it hasn't been easy for me to
back off.
I've been doing a lot of traveling and
a lot of ministering.
I was busy in my church and busy
here and there, and then just to back
off into seemingly obscurity has been hard.
But now God has opened up more doors
and as the days keep rolling in, these
dark days, I'm getting more excited.
I think we need to be excited about
Jesus Christ.
If we don't, we'll begin to get discouraged
as we look around at all these things
that are happening, all the bad things, all
the negative things.
And I don't intend this ministry to be
one that focuses in on all those bad
things.
I would like, and I've shared this before,
just to take this time to do nothing
but teach the Word.
But I'm finding that God wants me to
be an encourager to the pastors out there
that are faithfully teaching the Word.
And let me encourage you pastors, hang in
there.
I'd like to meet with the pastors in
this area sometime.
God has been prompting my heart to share
some things with you and maybe sometimes we
can, somewhere, maybe you can invite me to
meet with you somewhere and I can share
with you what God's doing and what God
did in my life that so changed my
life.
We're finding that pastors are desperate for revival.
They're desperate to see God do something in
their own lives and in their own churches.
And we have found by experience that there's
spiritual, scriptural laws that we can apply that
will bring about a revival.
Now, what we need in our land is
an awakening.
This is where only God really brings about
a revival or an awakening.
But there are laws that we can apply,
simple laws, especially the laws of prayer and
fasting and waiting on God and calling upon
Him and searching our own hearts for cleansing
and confession, making restitution, dealing with all known
sin in our lives.
These type of things.
And then some other things we'll be sharing
with you.
But God has been doing some things.
I was up there in Michigan just north
of South Bend at this crusade recently and
we saw God do some wonderful things.
Our youth night when we had the teenagers
there, a pastor's son got saved, tired of
all of his rock and rebellion, and he
turned to Christ as his Savior.
We were at a Christian school and John
preached there and shared a strong salvation message,
a large Christian school.
And somewhere between 50 and 70 came forward
for salvation.
We were not even ready for that.
We didn't have enough prayer packets for them.
But I would say a large number of
those received Christ as their Savior.
Just an amazing thing.
And while we were up there too, a
godly man in our nation went into a
coma, a man that I highly respect.
He went into a coma.
His name was Dale Faisenfeld, the director of
Life Action Ministries.
And after our Sunday night meeting was over,
John and I stopped by the hospital where
he was and went into the intensive care
and went into the room where he was.
And Dale was laying there in a coma.
He went into that coma about four or
five days earlier, I think.
And we went in with some friends of
his and we prayed there with him.
Of course, he was unconscious.
And it was an awesome thing to me
to be in the presence there of that
godly man.
And then 30 hours later, approximately 30 hours
later, God took him home.
This is significant.
Why did God take a man like him,
a key man in the revival movement in
our country, at a time like this?
I don't know.
But God's doing things.
My friend, we want to be in on
it.
We need to be getting ourself ready.
When Christ comes, we don't want him to
be rapturing our church.
If it's a harlot church and off in
sin and playing games and bickering and we've
got bitterness and gossip going on, we don't
want him to come when we're like that.
I believe that he wants to come and
receive his church up as a glorious church.
This is why we're here, to encourage you.
Now let me share this letter that I
have in front of me.
It's just one of many.
If I can read his writing without stuttering
through it too much here, he writes, Dear
Beloved Musser, Greetings to you in the precious
name of Jesus Christ.
Brother John, I'm sorry to have kept long
to tell you that I was unable to
attend the seminary I gave you the address
and the pledge to you last year.
And now I'm schooling in one of the
Bible institutes in a state in Nigeria called
Kaduna.
And it's going to be a year program.
I do want to tell you though that
I always hold you high before God.
You see, your revival sermon sent to me
had been a blessing to me and to
other ministers who have listened to them in
this direction.
I would want you to send me more
of your audiotapes and Cruden's complete concordance.
I need it badly now.
My fiance was very grateful to what you
sent to me last year, and she said
I should send her regards to you.
And he gives her name and says a
few other things.
Now this is a second letter from him.
Here's another letter.
Sir, grace to you and the peace of
our Lord Jesus Christ.
I receive information about your ministry from a
friend who resides in Kano State, Nigeria.
I came here in the year 1981 to
establish this branch of national evangelical mission.
From the time we came to this land
until now, we have passed through a series
of persecutions in the hands of our counterparts,
the Muslims.
For eight years, we have been worshiping God
in the desert.
They chased us from one house to another
until we finally got a place and pitched
our tents in the desert area.
Last year, they came to the desert while
we were in fellowship and burned our tents
with fire.
By the grace of God, they did not
touch any life.
But after the burning of our tents, they
came to my house and brought all my
belongings and set them on fire.
And indeed, they were looking for my life.
This just goes on and on and on.
On the letters, how they share how they
are persecuted and driven from their land, and
they write for material.
They want materials.
One brother said, My greetings to you in
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Thank you for the gospel materials sent to
me from Gospel Revival Ministries.
My heart was filled with joy when I
got the materials.
The books sent to me were my earnest
expectation from the Lord.
Not only that, but the contents of your
letter to me nourished my soul and gladdened
my spirit.
As I went through the wonderful books you
sent to me, I was on fire.
And I praised the Lord that the spiritual
fire I got from the books would something
about encouraging other believers.
I think he said here it's hard to
read his writing.
And also non-believers around me by the
special grace of God.
According to your letter, he gives a date
on it, I will do my best to
tell brothers and sisters in Christ here in
Canaan State.
We are writing them information about how to
request material and some different things about that.
I like the one about this one pastor.
He said, I didn't really intend on reading
so many of these excerpts, but this one.
He said, Sir, it was a big revival.
In my soul the day I read some
books from your ministry, then I really became
interested in the materials from your ministry.
Please Sir, I would like you to send
me some books on Christian living, magazines, tracts
and also one thing which I deem important
in my Christian life.
That is the Greek Dictionary for the New
Testament.
May God bless you and your ministry.
Well these men write.
One man wrote, he said, Calvary greeting in
Jesus name.
Exactly a week ago I suffered a loss
of all my household property in a fire
incident which took place when no member of
the family was available.
A minister who visited the family to console
us gave us your address to write for
help.
More specifically, in replacing some of the textbooks
I urgently needed to start with again.
And they are a good Bible commentary, Vines
Expository Dictionary of the New Testament Words and
the Strong Concordance and the Good Bible Dictionary.
These books, if at all, found anywhere in
Nigeria to buy.
I won't have money to buy them.
Your sacrificial help is highly needed.
Faithfully, and he gives his name.
Many of these men, I haven't read one
of them yet that asked for money.
All they want is Bibles and books so
that they can preach.
And they are reaching out to literally thousands
of people over in that country.
It's amazing that the Muslims are getting saved
like this from the Muslim religion.
And not all of them are Muslims, but
a large number of them are.
I lived in a Muslim country.
I lived in Turkey for a year and
a half.
And it was hard.
You couldn't just share Christ with someone.
It was dangerous.
You might get in trouble.
One man wrote back.
He says, Dear Brother Musser, Calvary greetings to
you in the precious name of our Lord
Jesus Christ.
I like words to thank God for giving
you such caring and loving spirit.
I just wouldn't know how to start thanking
you for the precious thing you have done
for me, which passes human comprehension.
I was dumbfounded and non-plus stretching my
hand to receive the package from the hands
of the postmaster in the post office.
I was really excited.
I came home shouting and leaping, praising God
anyhow.
Several believers heard about the good news and
the love of God in action and came
trooping to my pad.
I like his terminology, trooping to my pad.
In fact, many have taken your address to
write you.
For years I became a Christian.
I have not received such a monster package
from any fellow overseas.
While all I have got to say is,
God to reward you hundredfold in Jesus name.
I would like to give you information about
my ministry.
I am an associate minister with Evangelist O
.C. O'Keefeman, director of Faith Life Bible
Fellowship, which began some few months ago with
20 to 30 members.
The director had been away for almost three
months, preaching in the states through invitation by
some ministries.
You see, Brother Musser, I will be leaving
my present station for another about 1,200
kilometers off.
It is called Iona State.
He goes into that.
That is actually the response to that first
letter I started reading to you.
Then he goes into how difficult it is
to get some books.
He says, the Vines Expository Dictionary came right
on time.
We believers here find it difficult in getting
religious materials and study aids because of my
country's economic depression and other things like that.
Please keep me posted.
I still need more of your messages and
other helpful study aids.
May God richly bless you.
Well, these letters go on and on.
One pastor said that they have little cell
churches, but the whole total number in their
area was like 60,000.
One man said he started off with just
him and his wife.
He preached to her and he opened the
window so the neighbors could hear and those
passing by.
He preached to her and the family.
Within a year they had around 200 in
his little church.
Are we seeing conversions like that in our
churches in America?
Well, I don't think so.
We're just not seeing that type of thing.
It breaks my heart to see us sort
of playing games.
We have all the wealth.
We have all the Christian literature and these
have so little over there.
They live in poverty.
We've been invited to go over there and
John Musser, the director of Gospel Revival Ministries,
of which I'm the field representative and crusade
coordinator, we're praying right now about going over
there.
We know it cost us about $4,000
to $5,000 to go over there and
have a crusade.
These men are begging us to come over
and teach to them.
We're talking about teaching the pastors and the
evangelists over there.
They're begging us to come over and teach
them.
It almost be like setting up a temporary
Bible school.
Come over and teach them and they go
out with boldness and win literally hundreds and
thousands to the Lord.
They're busy.
They give everything they have.
It's like the New Testament.
Just like the book of Acts again.
Here we sit in America with all the
money.
One of the things that we're trying to
do is collect books and Bibles.
At our last church when we had the
crusade, we went home with maybe 100 or
200 pounds of books and Bibles that people
gave us.
Then we pray for postage to send these
books to them.
You pray for us in this ministry.
You pray that God would use this to
reach these dear people over there.
My friend, if your heart doesn't go out
to them, you've got a hard heart.
Maybe you're not even saved.
We pray for you.
We care for you.
There's so much hate and bitterness and murder
and gossip and slander going on in this
world.
Unkindness, cheating, lying, stealing.
It was a fresh breath of air when
the Lord Jesus Christ came to this earth.
When He walked among men, there was God
in their very presence.
One of the disciples said, show us the
Father.
He turned to him and said, Thomas, if
you've seen me, you've seen the Father.
What we need is Christ.
When you have Christ, you have all you
need.
And we have hard things to go through
in this country amidst all of our abundance.
Some of us are not real rich, and
some of us don't have much food.
But we have Christ, and He's adequate.
He's sufficient.
Let me encourage you to let Him be
the Lord of that area that you're struggling
with.
Maybe you're fixing to go to church this
morning, and there's someone there that you just
can't stand to face.
Or, pastor, maybe you're going and your heart
is so heavy and burdened down.
Let the Lord take it.
Let Him lift you up.
He's the Lord.
It's His church anyway.
You're just the servant.
The pastor's to spend most of his time
in prayer and ministry of the Word to
others by visiting them and preparing that Word
and sharing it publicly.
Don't let yourself get too distracted with many
things.
You folks that have a godly pastor that's
faithfully preaching the Word, relieve him of things
that are weighing him down, those extra things.
Like Mary and Martha, when Jesus was in
the home, there was Mary sitting at Jesus'
feet, and Martha was running about doing those
other things.
But one thing was needful.
My friend, we need to get back to
the simple basics of letting Jesus be the
Lord of our lives.
Well, I didn't know which way we'd go
today in this program.
I wanted to share some things with you
from Moses that you could use, but maybe
next time I can share those things with
you, about his fears.
You see, I like to take the life
of someone in the Bible and show you
the cross.
It was there at the cross that all
of our sins were paid for.
It was there at the cross when Christ
died for us that we were set free
from the penalty of sin and from also
the power of sin.
Have you come to the cross?
Have you come to the Lord Jesus Christ?
My friend, he's the only one that counts.
I've been in a lot of places and
done a lot of things.
I've been in businesses and done all kinds
of things and traveled the world, been in
all the countries, but let me tell you,
nothing satisfies like Jesus.
Jesus Christ is wonderful.
Turn it over to him.
Let him set you free.
Let him be the Lord of everything you
do.
Why don't you let him be the Lord
of that problem that you have?
Why don't you let him lift you up
on eagles' wings?
He will.