We have to apologize for the acoustics in
this interesting chapel.
We hope you will be able to hear,
despite a little bit of echo.
We really, all of us feeble brothers and
sisters helping to put this conference together, welcome
you in the name of the Lord.
There are many different types of people here.
Some are not staying on OM for a
year.
You're going back into leadership responsibility in your
church.
We're happy you're here.
I wish there were more in that category
myself.
My personal desire is to have double this
many.
You may say, well, that's so many.
Well, nobody wants to cut down on the
summer crusade.
Eighteen hundred people with us this summer, and
most of the leaders of the teams were
new people, and many of them had never
been to a leaders' conference.
So we've got to train more leaders if
we're going to keep up just with the
OM, and that's not our goal.
Our goal is to keep up with Jesus.
He's a lot faster than this pokey old
movement.
And we want to see people trained to
be radical Christian leaders of their Christian unions.
Some years we have quite a few here
from that group.
But we praise the Lord for those who
are here, and I've generally in the past
years requested it, so I'll do it again,
those of you who are leaving after this
conference, to give me a little personal note
where you're going, so I can pray for
you, maybe send you a pile of books.
People say you should have a hobby, so
I've taken up this hobby of giving out
books, tracts.
Tremendous inspiration.
But we like to pray for those of
you who are going into other ministries.
You know, it's often tougher to leave a
fellowship like this and to go into a
hard church situation or some other leadership, where
if you announce, oh, let's have a night
of prayer, it's going to go over like
a lead balloon.
Or, why don't we go door to door
this weekend?
Especially if it's a cup final weekend.
We want to, those of us in OM,
be praying more fervently for those that are
out in other responsibilities.
We know, of course, some of you go
into fellowships far more live than OM.
Hallelujah, I hope the Lord can do something
better than OM.
We're just, you know, one of God's smaller
groups, one of God's weaker groups perhaps in
some ways, though of course he has a
great gift working through weak people.
Have a seat.
Required reading for everyone who goes through an
OM leader's course is Oswald Saunders' book, Spiritual
Leadership.
We gave it out in July, gave it
out in August, we're still giving it out.
Any of you, let's have some distributors please,
this pile here.
If you have not had a copy of
this book, please raise your hand.
Let's see how many we got to go.
How can this be?
Very quickly, let's have some more helpers.
More helpers, come on there.
Here's the Hoshway Brothers moving into action.
Please read it.
You don't have to read it tonight.
But you can finish it by the end
of the week.
It's not going to take you the rest
of your life to digest it.
Keep your hand up.
If you exercise your arms more, you wouldn't
have so much trouble holding your hand up.
Come on.
More distributors here, these men are slow.
Way in the corner there.
Hell of a world all these people come
from.
Now, I think we're going to just about
have enough.
What to do about the balcony?
Peter Maiden wants his copy.
Here.
We'll get some more at the book table.
Also, you're supposed to study, you don't have
to memorize, the leadership manual.
And if you don't have one, that's a
little harder to get.
But not tonight, but you tomorrow, check the
literature table.
Neil Brinkley is in charge of the literature
table.
Stand up, Neil.
You think you can find some of those
leadership manuals?
I think there's some around somewhere.
Check the office in case Rosie's safe.
Praise the Lord.
Now, the title of this little message tonight
is God's Way Forward for OM in the
80s.
God's Way Forward.
It's really a follow-up on my advanced
session this morning.
But you don't necessarily have to have heard
that to understand what I'm going to say
tonight.
There are times in any spiritual movement when
we do not just teach the word of
God, but we declare what we sense in
our inner being that God is saying to
us as a body of people.
This has to be based on the word
of God.
But I'm sure all of you who have
studied the scriptures know that the Lord leaves
quite a lot of scope for some individual
thinking.
You will find every single little rule about
how to have a happy marriage in the
Bible.
You'll find the basics more than enough.
But then you've got to use a little
bit of sanctified imagination, a little bit of
prayer, and you've got to wrestle things out.
And different groups develop totally different approaches on
many areas.
And they all claim to get it from
the Bible, even just in terms of leadership.
Some call them elders.
Some call them deacons.
Some call them shepherds.
Some call them leaders.
Some call them coordinators.
Some call them pastors.
Some call them, of course, bishops.
On we could go.
Different denominations have chosen different terminology.
And I feel very strongly about this message
tonight, that it is something of what God
wants to say to us.
I know that anything that I ever say
will be mixed with some earth.
This treasure is in earthen vessels.
As the message comes out, some of the
earth gets in the way.
And you have to learn how to get,
if you ever listen to me, just how
to throw aside some of the Verwarian earth.
Try to get through to what the Word
of God is saying, what the Lord is
saying to you.
Now, I believe in a message like tonight,
the Lord says different things to different people.
Those of you on the ship, in the
ship ministry, are going to see how this
fits into your ministry.
Those of you in the Muslim world are
going to see how this fits into the
Muslim world vision.
And those of you who work behind the
scenes, that's somewhat my place, you're going to
see how it fits in there.
Those of you leaving OM, I believe you're
going to see how a lot of this,
not all of it, will fit into your
situation.
Let's pray and ask God to speak to
us.
Lord, speak from your Word.
Your servants wait upon you.
We need a message from above.
We need something, Lord, that will shake us
loose, break up our fallow ground.
That we may proceed forward in your timing,
in your power, and by your grace.
Speak, for your servants listen.
Through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Amen.
I'd like you to turn to 2 Timothy
chapter 2.
2 Timothy chapter 2.
An old familiar verse in OM's leadership training
arsenal of verses.
Chapter 2, verses 1, 2, and 3.
I'm using two Bibles these days, the old
translation and the new one.
Let me try this verse from the new
international translation, or these verses.
You then, my son, be strong in the
grace that is in Christ Jesus.
And the things you have heard of me
say in the presence of many witnesses.
Entrust to reliable men, who will also be
qualified to teach others.
Entrust to reliable men, who will be qualified
to teach others.
Endure hardship with us, like a good soldier
of Christ Jesus.
No man serving as a soldier gets involved
in civilian affairs.
King James entangled with the affairs of this
life.
I like that better, actually.
He wants to please his commanding officer.
And it goes on.
Similarly, if anyone competes as an athlete, he
does not receive the victor's crown unless he
competes according to the rules.
A hardworking farmer should be the first to
receive a share of the crops.
Reflect on what I am saying, for the
Lord will give you insight into all of
this.
And that's a prayer of mine as we
go into this message tonight.
That God will give us insight.
Sometimes we need the overview.
Sometimes we need insight.
We need wisdom.
You've all heard me quote A.W. Tozer.
The greatest gift needed in the church today
is the gift of discernment.
The gift of discernment.
In many ways, I would love to leave
O.M. myself.
I say that very honestly.
I don't believe it's God's will.
I believe this is my longer-term commitment.
But I have such a linking with so
many churches.
I have a list of probably 30 churches,
40 churches that have asked me to come
and minister to be with them anytime from
a day to a week that I've not
yet even gotten to.
And most places, especially in North America, have
given up writing because I'm not over there.
I just love to minister among God's people.
Not just big churches.
Church I was in two weeks ago, Little
Methodist Church, only 17 people in the meeting.
You know, God isn't so impressed with our
bigness.
Of course, not against big churches.
God does big things.
God works in small ways.
But I feel such a linking with the
churches, and I'll be sharing about that in
the morning.
And I hope we'll never see O.M.
as something separate from the churches.
That is totally wrong.
I have a reprint of an article against
this whole concept that, you know, these groups
are parachurch groups and this is the church
group.
We very much feel that as we look
into the New Testament, both are there as
part of God's church.
The teams moving out that often start churches
or teams that follow up on what the
Lord has done.
And then the church itself.
And if there's certainly one of the great
needs in our day is the coming together
of movements like O.M. and local churches.
And a lot of our time, some of
us as leaders, is just continually building those
relationships.
Building those relationships with local churches.
Ministry.
I don't go to any churches to present
O.M. Maybe you didn't know that.
Maybe.
I've done it once or twice.
I don't remember this year.
I go to declare the message of God.
To declare the counsel of God.
Sometimes I'm speaking about marriage.
I'm often speaking about other spiritual subjects.
And because of this, I get many open
doors.
I never be invited as somebody with a
missionary message.
Because as you know, missionaries don't always have
open doors.
This is how the Lord opened the door
into Spring Harvest to six and a half
thousand young people.
Because I could go and speak about commitment
and discipleship and spiritual balance and love.
And we bring in the missionary challenge and
a thousand copies of Operation World and a
few other things.
Just all part of the package.
I was reading.
I'm still reading volume two of George Whitefield.
I haven't quite gotten through it yet.
I got sidetracked into Charles Coulson's tremendous book
Life Sentence.
And then finally got decided I better read
the first book, Born Again.
And then I got into about seven other
books.
And I somehow can't find that copy of
George Whitefield volume two.
Somebody probably pinched it.
But you know, back in his day, many
of his men who went out in ministry
were called exhorters.
That's a term we don't even use today.
The very big thing in our day is
that we constantly hear the main need is
for Bible teaching.
I've heard many people that give the idea
that if we just had Bible teaching, everything
would be all right in the church.
Well, I've gone to churches where all they've
had is Bible teaching, sometimes very good teaching.
And the people are very orthodox.
And many times they're also very dead.
I am strongly in favor of Bible teaching.
I'm strongly in favor of people in the
Word of God.
But I believe also God wants to give
to the church people with a ministry of
exhortation.
Men who will stir up God's people, call
them to revival, call them to repentance.
Take a theme from the Word of God,
use whatever method God gives them, and bring
forth the message.
And I believe this is greatly lacking in
the church today.
This is why Ravenhill has been so mightily
used.
This is why Tozer so mightily used, and
many other men, with that kind of exhortation
and that kind of ministry.
Now, actually, I don't like to talk about
OM.
But I think for this occasion, for this
Leaders' Conference, I should say some things about
the work of OM.
Can two run together if they are not
agreed?
Ninety percent of you are planning to stay
with OM for a year, about 80 to
90 percent.
More than that, you are the leaders of
OM.
Some of you will be leaders this year.
And I think it's important that we be
able to feel free and relaxed to talk
about this fellowship that God has raised up
without thinking we're on an ego trip or
we're blowing our own horn.
Because I think most of you know that
we are constantly criticizing our own movement.
As field leaders, we're meeting two or three
hours already every day through lunch, until we
have to go to the next meeting at
three o'clock, basically criticizing our own work.
So we feel that it is necessary at
times to speak openly about this work.
And I just think, with all my heart,
those of us especially who have been around
for a number of years and we've seen
the miracles God has wrought, the answers to
prayer, the people saved, the people healed, the
people helped, the people whose lives were totally
destroyed when they came on an OM summer
conference.
Some come right from adultery, right into the
OM conference.
And God's put them together.
We had the highest response this summer, any
summer I can remember, to the invitation for
commitment and surrender and to be filled with
the Holy Spirit.
There must have been 700 people this summer
who made such a commitment, and some do
it without standing up.
I received hundreds of letters, follow-up notes
from these people.
It is truly incredible how the Holy Spirit,
despite our failures and weaknesses, again and again
pours himself out upon these gatherings and conferences
and then scatters those people to the ends
of the earth.
There are now people who have been trained
in OM laboring in almost every single nation
in the world, minus perhaps 10 or 15
countries in some very small places.
I never cease to be amazed.
Many of them never felt they should keep
contact with OM.
They felt we're too busy, why should they
write a letter?
Then eventually they write us and they say,
I'm here, I'm there.
I've got a job in Saudi Arabia.
I'm here in Uruguay.
I'm in one little tiny country in Africa.
There were seven ex-OMers.
One mission society, mainly half of them were
ex-OMers.
I couldn't believe when I heard this news.
Many, of course, are back carrying on the
vision for missions in their own home church.
God has blessed.
God has answered prayer.
And I want to say this to you
because some of you are new in leadership.
If you are not absolutely convinced that this
is a work of the Holy Spirit directed
not by man, not by George Verwer, not
by some board of directors, if you're not
deeply convinced that this is directed and guided
by the Holy Spirit, I would beg of
you in the name of Jesus not to
join.
And when you go out onto that team,
one of the most fatal mistakes you can
make is to think you are working for
Operation Mobilization.
Beloved, we are a fellowship.
And if you're in this fellowship, you are
working for Jesus.
We can never meet your needs.
We can never give you enough pastoral counseling
and help, though we're trying to increase that.
Trouble with OM, we're trying to increase about
25 different things all at once.
And we're wrestling to know what our priorities
are.
But I believe it will revolutionize your life,
especially in Christian work where things sometimes do
get very, very ugly.
If you think Christian work, whether you're with
OM or any other group, is some kind
of nice way to sort of go out
and serve, you're in for big surprises because
Christian workers and Christian leaders, they're human, they're
real, they fail.
And one of the key things we want
to emphasize as we go on in this
decade is that we are working for Jesus.
And that this work must be guided and
directed by the Holy Spirit.
Someone recently wrote a tremendous leaflet called The
Missing Person in Foreign Missions, the Holy Spirit.
There's not enough time waiting upon God.
There's too much discussion and not enough unction.
Committee meetings gather together oftentimes as five minutes
of prayer and five hours of talk.
And I pray that in your own life
and in our OM gatherings and in these
conferences, there will be much waiting upon God
and seeking the Lord and making sure that
the Holy Spirit is leading and guiding us.
We know that's not some simple little easy
thing that comes about through throwing out a
few spiritual cliches.
It takes time to know God's ways.
I can be, I guess, OM's biggest critic.
Anybody who doesn't see blantant problems and difficulties
and at times sin in OM, they certainly
must be just a spiritual baby.
But I believe that the Holy Spirit is
still in charge of this work.
On the basis of that, I'm willing to
go a few more years.
Don't presume.
Never presume.
A spiritual movement, the moment they begin presuming
that the blessing of last year will carry
the next year, are beginning already to move
into danger.
Because God, as we spoke about this morning
in the message that I felt the Lord
had given, often allows movements to be tested
to the very fiber.
That's happening to a number of spiritual movements
right now.
They're being tested to the very fiber.
Leaders have been knocked out.
Marriages have split.
I think most of you know that I
have a great appreciation for the charismatic movement.
I'm now distributing this book, Love Covers, which
is basically a favorable presentation of the charismatic
movement and a book that calls charismatic and
non-charismatic Christians together.
In the broader sense, we're all charismatic.
If you're not at least somewhat charismatic, you're
in trouble.
You better go get your plug in the
right socket.
I hope you'll read over that book.
I have received more letters as a result
of distributing that book than any book I've
distributed this year.
They're coming in from all over the world,
people asking, I want a dozen, I want
a dozen.
And we have hardly started yet.
And I believe one of the reasons the
Lord brought in this very special unusual gift
is because he wants to help finance some
of these efforts to distribute great Christian books
to Christian leaders.
Christian leaders are incredibly busy.
They seldom go into a bookshop.
They seldom buy a book.
But when they get a book from another
Christian leader, especially one they have doubts about,
they read it.
I've got people reading Love Covers from California
to Timbuktu.
And I'm getting back some exciting letters.
Yes, I agree with Billy Graham, who said
that one of the five reasons for church
growth in our generation, one of the five
reasons, was the charismatic movement.
We are not charismatic in root.
Many of us, when we first got saved,
didn't even know what that was.
We knew who the Holy Spirit was.
He was born before 1904.
And I just praise God that from the
early days, he did not allow us to
any great degree to develop prejudice against this
movement.
Of course, we had our reactions against extremism.
You cannot, we've always said, put people all
in different categories.
But I think it's a miracle in O
.M., a miracle of the Spirit of God
that we have come together of these different
backgrounds and different viewpoints on certain issues, like
the whole subject of tongues, and like some
of the things in connection with church government,
and that God has enabled us to function
together and has enabled us to reach at
least 300 million people with the Word of
God in these 20 years, and that's not
an exaggeration in any way.
Yes, the Holy Spirit is working.
He works in different ways in different people.
He works in different movements in different ways.
I'll never forget in 1964.
A brother, I was very close to him,
did not feel that we emphasized the Holy
Spirit enough.
He didn't feel some of our leaders were
filled with the Spirit.
He thought I was filled with the Spirit,
very kind of him, mainly because I was
noisy.
And he left.
And a movement was started as a counter
to O.M., as a slap in the
face.
It was called Operation Pentecostal Fire.
They certainly had a better name.
Within a couple of years, it was dead.
It was dead.
You see, it isn't the name you take
on.
It isn't what you talk about.
It's not even whether you have all your
doctrines neatly stacked in the right priority.
It's God.
And God works in mysterious ways.
And it is a mystery to me how
He has been able to use the likes
of us.
And I tell you, I stand before you
just one of many leaders in this world
more inadequate, more feeble, more scared than I
have ever been.
And yet I know in God's mysterious ways,
He has chosen to use a feeble band
of nobodies, not only for initial evangelism, but
for spearheading many major efforts that have resulted
even in new churches being born and in
many people coming to Christ.
Yes, the Lord in the past 25 years,
if we go back to Mexico, 20 years
if we go just to Europe, has laid
a foundation.
He's raised up a fellowship.
He's given this fellowship a unique purpose and
a unique place in the Church.
And now in a miraculous way, He's given
us unity with thousands of Christian leaders.
I thank God that we didn't develop some
kind of a persecution complex when we were
so criticized in the 60s and tell everybody
to get off our backs, we're going to
do our own thing.
Instead, God humbled us, showed us the error
of our ways, showed us that we deserve
some of this criticism, and that we must
just keep loving people.
And if they punched us, we just love
them more.
And some people who used to use OM
as a punching bag today, now are spreading
this vision more than people in the work.
There's nothing like getting an enemy turned around.
Look at the Apostle Paul, fighting the Christians
with all the hatred he could stir up.
God turned him around.
We need some people like this.
So the next time somebody tries to take
the mickey out of you, next time someone
calls OM the biggest floating band of vagabonds
that have ever cluttered up the evangelical world,
you say, praise the Lord for that insight,
brother.
Just love him right out of his shoes.
Yes, God has laid a foundation.
Some people think OM is getting into the
middle years.
You know, don't compare a movement with people.
I'm getting into my middle years.
And Dale Roatan is getting into his middle
years, and quite a few of us.
You can't make that comparison with a movement.
You study church history.
OM is just being born.
Wesley at his death.
Basically, that in a sense terminated the birth
of the Methodist movement.
I don't want to compare OM with the
Methodist movement.
We're very, very, very, very different.
And in history, you make a great mistake
when you go try to copy previous movements.
One of the unique things about OM, it's
got many original, many original things.
But OM is just being born.
You are part of the birth of a
spiritual work.
God can lay me aside.
God can lay McCloskey aside.
God can lay Roatan aside.
God took Keith Beckwith, the director of the
work in Britain, within the third year he
was in the work.
Took John Watts at the same time.
Took Chris Begg and three others in one
motor accident.
This work is just being born.
You are part of the birth.
It takes a couple of decades for a
spiritual movement to be born.
If it's a man-made movement, it can
be born and die in five years.
We've all seen that happen.
We've seen it even happen with churches.
People talk a lot about church planting.
I've seen churches planted by man.
Planted by man.
In my book of Acts, it says God
added to the church.
Today, often man adds to the church.
You go back five years later, it's dead.
Yes, God has laid a foundation.
And as we move into the 80s, I
think we have a foundation in which we
can do much more.
I think most of us sense, and I've
had very little resistance to this as I've
talked with many leaders, that in the 80s
we must emphasize the Muslim world and the
unreached people.
We were ignorant of this people's challenge ten
years ago.
We were in it.
We were doing it in our sort of
scatterbrained way.
Reaching 200 million people for Christ across India.
You don't think we've reached into almost every
unreached pocket of people?
We have.
But it's only the bare beginning.
But you've got to start somewhere.
The trouble with too many people is they
sit in seminary for eight years all discussing
how to start and how to do it.
And some other little character walks out of
Bible school flunky and says, hey, I think
God answers prayer.
Why don't we try that?
And boom, things just start to go.
We're not going to reach those unreached people
without more prayer.
Our priority in this decade must be prayer.
Waiting upon God.
Praying forth labors.
Praying forth finance.
Penetrating strongholds.
I believe God wants us to penetrate whole
denominations that are resistant to this vision and
this challenge.
Get to the leaders.
Get to the pastors.
And whether they send anyone on OM or
not, it could shift their whole viewpoint.
You may not understand somebody like Ralph Winter.
You may not agree with him.
I will tell you he is one of
God's chosen men in our day.
I've watched this man.
He has a simple lifestyle.
I've always disagreed with him on a number
of points.
We've had some interesting conversations.
I have trouble with everything from California, even
Frank Dietz.
But he's a man of God.
He doesn't have to agree with me.
And he is over there, a great man
of God, Roberson McQuilkin of Columbia Bible College.
We were talking about Ralph Winter.
He said Ralph is a man with one
arrow.
He has one arrow.
Everywhere he goes, the same arrow.
He's shooting every denominational hobnob across America straight
in the head.
It's exciting.
They get angry.
They pound their fists.
Who's this?
Nobody from California with his $15 million college
telling us we've been all wet for 50
years.
I mean, he is a little bold, isn't
he?
We need men like that.
We need to be stirred up.
O.M. needs to be stirred up.
Praise God for Ralph Winter's vision.
The unreached people.
He's got it down to a science.
I can't even follow his charts.
And God has used that to influence some
of our leaders.
We were talking about it today.
What is the largest unreached people's group?
The Muslims.
They are broken down into many subgroups.
Many subgroups.
Many languages.
You know that.
They don't all speak Arabic.
And Turks are not Arabs.
And Iranians are not Arabs.
If you don't know that by now, you
better start reading a little bit.
And Kurds aren't Arabs.
And they are one of the most neglected
people's groups that's been on our mark for
15 years or more.
One of the other biggest unreached people's groups
are the Turks.
Another one is the Afghans, and that's broken
up into many groups.
Gordon, do you know how many subgroups there
are in Afghanistan?
Do you have any idea?
A hundred.
He just gave that off the line.
Maybe 101.
It's unbelievable.
It's an unbelievable challenge.
The Muslim world must, I feel very strongly,
be the big challenge for the 80s.
God has given us these two ships.
They are like spiritual catalyst bombs.
They can go anywhere.
The Lord directs them, and they seem to
go anywhere.
And they can spread the vision.
We need that.
We even let them go to Australia.
Someone told me years ago one of our
ships is going to go to Australia.
New Zealand.
These places are evangelized.
Now we're getting invaded by the Australians.
Ten years, they're allowed to take over the
entire work.
They don't need a visa for India.
And I believe God has given other ministries.
There's not time to go into this.
That alert the church, challenge the church, present
the vision.
So much more I could say about that.
But we must now make sure that this
energy, this vision, the results of this, gets
channeled in the direction of the unreached people.
In the direction of the Muslim world.
And as much as the Lord enables us,
because we can't do everything, and that would
be one of the greatest mistakes we could
ever make, other unreached people.
I believe 2 Timothy 2 and verse 2
needs to be re-emphasized in O.M.
That's why we're here at this Leaders Conference.
My method of leadership training many, many years
ago was simply to live with a brother.
I've had the joy of living together with
probably 200 people in 25 years.
I mean for at least some weeks or
some months.
Just living together, traveling together, making mistakes together,
having an argument, repenting, weeping, getting it together
and pressing on.
I'm still convinced that's the greatest method of
discipling and training men.
Live with them.
That's one of the key benefits of the
ship ministry.
So many people can live with God-fearing
anointed men.
They can see their lives, they can see
their wives.
If you want to find out about a
man, talk to his wife, if she's honest.
Better yet, try his daughter.
Now O.M. has become bigger.
It's not possible for us, especially now that
many of us have families and the change
and the increased dimensions of the work, to
live with as many people as we once
did.
The reason I have just got a coach
to travel in is so that other people
can be in the coach.
The first reason, to be honest, is so
we can survive ourselves.
That other people can travel with us.
And we can learn from each other.
Iron sharpens iron.
Think of the lessons learned in the back
of those Volkswagens between here and New Delhi.
Living together, working together.
Teamwork has been one of the absolute anchors
of O.M.'s strategy.
We must not lose it.
Working on a team.
And I want to just bring in here
the fact that we don't want to just
train men to stay with O.M. and
fill those many key needs we have in
O.M. We do.
But we want to train people for other
missions.
God's given us a linking with WEC.
God's given us a linking with the Red
Sea Mission Team.
Lionel Gurney, the founder, will be here in
two weeks.
God's given us a linking with the North
African Mission.
A number of their major leaders are Exo
-Emers.
They're recruiting more Exo-Emers than any other
mission in the world at present.
God's given us a linking with OMF.
God's given us a linking with BMMF.
Mr. Punt once spoke at our coordinators' conference.
And O.M.ers are in all these
groups.
And usually they get some most years.
There's many other missions.
I can name just right there 25 other
missions.
CLC is one that comes to mind.
Others are smaller, like the London City Mission.
Just met a former second officer from the
ship.
He's now full-time with the London City
Mission.
God's using him.
It's hard work feeding around the doors of
London.
So we have, in a sense, a two
-fold vision.
Of course, we want to train people for
specific needs within our own fellowship.
Those frontline situations in Turkey, in Pakistan, in
other Muslim lands.
And we need key men who will have
long-term ministries and things like the ship.
Otherwise, we'll not be able to carry out
this other ministry.
Training people to work with other mission societies
and other churches.
Quite a few trained in O.M. Not
only work with denominational groups, they have started
O.M. within their denomination.
One brother left O.M. in the early
days and started the Alliance Youth Corps.
In the Missionary Alliance Church.
What a link God has given us with
some of their churches.
On October 7th, I speak at the 100th
anniversary of the CMA Church in New York
City.
A ministry started by A.B. Simpson 100
years ago.
The Alliance is still basically an evangelical, dynamic
missionary force.
And we've had the joy of working with
them.
Moving on from this, as we see this
vision to reach the Muslim world.
To reach the unreached people.
And we know there's unreached people in Europe.
We know there are pockets of unreached people
everywhere.
What could we say is the greatest need
as we think about how we're going to
bring this to pass?
I'm going to have to be a little
quicker.
These things will be covered again because they're
so important.
But I just share what I feel the
greatest need is in O.M. right now.
We're going to go on with this vision.
This has to be crystallized by each O
.M. field.
In a lot of things I'm quite flexible.
But some things you'll find me like a
piece of concrete backed up by whatever else,
steel.
And one of the things I am strong
about is that O.M. has to be
led basically by the people in the country
where they are working.
It will not be led by people sitting
in London.
The people in France will get God's mind
for France.
They will be in fellowship with us.
If they get into sin, if they become
a cult, we will become their arch enemies.
And right across the world, in India, the
leaders there meet four times a year.
They've got to get God's mind for India.
I can't get God's mind for India in
England because I've lived in India.
I've been involved in that work.
Of course, I can make suggestions.
You'll never understand O.M. unless you understand
that the work basically is directed from the
field where they're working.
That's why every field is different.
Ultimately, I believe we are like-minded.
Ultimately, I believe we're headed in the same
direction.
Unity comes in the midst of diversity.
You can't work in Turkey the way you
work in India.
Let's not be ridiculous.
And you can't work in Saudi Arabia the
way you work even in Jordan.
Every nation and, in one sense, every people's
group is unique and takes wisdom and discernment
to know how to reach through that group.
I got one of Eugene Nida's most unique
articles on pluralism last night.
I wouldn't even read it.
Boy, when she starts talking about the problems
of cross-cultural communication, you just tremble.
That's why groups are scared of us.
They say, how can this immature, naive band
of semi-literates, spiritually speaking, go into in
-depth cross-cultural evangelism?
The only explanation is God.
I want to assure you, my beloved, I
really believe that if God dies, we are
definitely in trouble.
This has to be kept in balance.
And we can learn from Eugene Nida.
I've been reading her books for many years,
not so much lately.
We can learn from these missiologists.
But if we wait for the intellectuals, if
we wait for the seminarians, if we wait
for the missiologists to actually do the spade
work, actually go out into these countries and
learn the languages and give their lives, the
job is not going to be done.
It's never been done that way in 2
,000 years.
I've been reading a little more last night
about C.T. Studd.
I don't have the quotation with me.
It's unbelievable.
If you ever think O.M. is extreme,
if you ever think I got problems, C
.T. Studd was so extreme.
He wrote a booklet called I Don't Give
a Damn.
Or I Don't Care a Damn.
It had the word damn in it.
And it so upset the stodgy middle class
evangelical society that day that he was removed
from his own mission.
That's right.
And most people abandoned C.T. Studd.
And you can't blame it all on the
people.
And I think when he was kicked out
of his mission, that's when he started the
weck.
And they were so despised, they were so
criticized, that for several dozen workers, I think
they were seeing something like 35 pounds come
in, in a week or two.
It's an incredible story.
Norman Grubb has written about that.
And yet, God laid his hand on that
man, despite their mistakes, and there were serious
mistakes.
And he just blessed the weck and has
made it one of the great missionary bodies
today.
It's amazing, isn't it?
It's amazing.
What is the greatest need if we're going
to go forward in this vision?
We're going to maintain even the existing witness.
400 people in India right now is no
small thing in any missionary history book.
And now we hear of them going down
like duckpins with hepatitis.
We need more prayer for India.
We need more fasting and prayer for India.
This whole work needs a recommitment to India,
a land of 700 million people, because it's
a spiritual warfare.
It's a fistfight with demons from one end
of the country to the other.
And I believe OM must renew its commitment
to India, and especially the Muslims within India
who are just so unreached and who are
gaining momentum at such a speed.
But still there's a greater need than all
of that.
It's described in many places in scripture.
If you look back in Chronicles 7.14,
you'll find it.
If you look at Acts 4.31, you'll
find it.
It's what some people call revival.
Now I, for a couple of years, hardly
spoke about revival because the word was so
confusing to people that I've decided to go
back and speak about it again.
This year I had the joy of speaking
at the Canadian Revival Convention.
I was somewhat skeptical when I first heard
about that movement, especially when they organized a
fellowship.
But in a very unusual way, I was
asked to speak as the main speaker of
their convention this year.
I can't even remember how many people were
there.
A thousand or something.
And I had the joy of fellowshipping with
some of those people, especially these two brothers
who were God's human instruments in the revival.
Believe it or not, twins.
The satyra twins.
And I saw those brothers flowing together in
revival and ministry and counseling.
And other men like Bill McLeod who may
visit the ship.
And we know, of course, there have been
a number of sort of charismatic type of
revivals.
This particular revival is a non-charismatic, in
the technical terms, if you understand what I'm
saying, which is somewhat unusual in our day.
And I was just so blessed.
And I was encouraged.
And when I came back from there, I
just preached one of my old revival messages
that I used to preach and called people
to come forward and repent in the front
of the place.
It was up in north of Birmingham.
I almost fell over.
People responded.
People came up.
I prayed with over 20 people personally.
And God touched many of their lives.
I believe God wants to give us a
ministry of revival.
I believe God wants to touch people in
revival.
I long to see whole churches, but I'll
be happy and motivated even if I see
individuals here and there that is our greatest
need in OM, revival.
I think you know that in OM we
have emphasized personal revival more than sort of
a larger type of revival.
Personal revival is emphasized in Calvary Road.
It's you and Jesus.
It's the cross.
It's being filled.
It's cup running over.
What a linking God has given us with
Roy Hesham.
Never would dream that this would happen.
He's more or less committed to a few
of us.
The whole care of all of his books
when he and his wife go to be
with the Lord.
I know he'd love to be with us
now.
And I was with Roy Hesham recently for
a time of fellowship.
And I can testify this man who wrote
those books 20 or 30 years ago.
And you ought to read his biography because
it's really down to earth about his problems
and failures and the mistakes of that movement.
I will tell you I've watched Roy Hesham
ever since I met him.
He's a man who has lived in revival
all these years.
Doesn't mean he's perfect.
He's intensive like me.
Consuming fire.
Ephesians says be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Old Vance Hadner one of the most unique
southern preachers in the history of America.
He says we wouldn't have to speak about
revival if we knew more about viable.
It's a big southern accent.
Viable he says.
What's that?
We are according to the scriptures alive in
Christ.
That's yours.
And if you're not appropriating that life because
Christ lives in you, you're making the biggest
mistake in your Christian life.
And you're settling for less than God wants
to give you.
Doesn't matter if you've been in OM one
year or ten years.
I believe the greatest need in OM is
revival.
A quickening from the Spirit of God.
This will renew our worship.
Tombstones can't worship.
You can't get water, generally speaking, out of
a rock.
Jesus, of course, or it was Moses did,
but I think you know what I mean.
Would you unite with us as leaders in
this fellowship and work toward revival?
Revival in our own hearts.
Revival on our team.
Some of our OM teams by January, they
are dead.
Let's not defend it.
Let's not feel offended.
They get somehow just beaten down and hurt
and they just don't recover.
Praise God that's not the end of the
road because many of them, within a few
months, experience revival.
And many of them do go on.
But I long to see greater revival in
our prayer meetings.
Some of the OM prayer meetings we have
to acknowledge are dead.
There's some kind of an OM rosary.
We keep swinging it around until people get
hit in the nose by it.
Now, just forgive me.
Probably this is part of my problem.
I have a real trouble understanding people who
have no enthusiasm.
Forgive me.
How someone can fall in love with Jesus
Christ, get caught up in the vision of
God, the glory of God, be able to
talk directly to God, see miracles, see people
saved, and have such a blah in the
prayer meeting is beyond my ability to accept.
And I will not accept it.
God wants us to be zealous people.
William Macdonald in his book, True Discipleship, says
zeal is the thing we are without excuse
for not having.
Any dumb babe in Christ, even if he's
illiterate, can have zeal.
I want to ask you, leaders in training,
filling your minds with great nuggets of truth
in these intensive seminars, I want to ask
you, are you zealous for Jesus?
Do you go into these seminars really hungry
to get something?
Or do you sort of limp in like
someone dragged you around with a horse for
your jogging in the morning?
Zeal, enthusiasm.
Some people say, oh well, you know, we
could become fanatics, go overboard.
You know what Tozer said about that, don't
you?
I love this quote, I can't resist giving
it at every conference.
But he said, to think that too much
enthusiasm was the greatest problem in the average
church was like sending a squadron of policemen
out to a cemetery to guard against a
midnight demonstration by the residents.
I don't think it's the biggest problem in
the church.
Maybe in your church.
I want to ask you, are you on
fire for Christ?
Are you filled with the Spirit?
Do you know the glow of God?
And then I list as the next greatest
thing, commitment.
If you don't like that word, use another
one.
Dedication, surrender.
One of our most widely preached passages is
Romans 12.
We put you there for brethren by the
mercies of God to present your body as
a living sacrifice.
If OM ever lost its message on commitment
and surrender, we're finished.
We're finished.
We call people to commitment.
We're not ashamed of it.
I find it incredibly hard to give invitations.
I was up in Norway recently.
I didn't think I was getting through to
the people.
They were listening to all this razzmatazz, interesting
music, and I had to speak through an
interrupter to give, I'm not going to give
any invitation.
I'm basically a coward, only the Holy Ghost.
If I have any boldness, apart from pure
stupidity, only the Holy Spirit.
And I thought, I'm not giving any invitation
here.
A brother comes up to me just before
the meeting, sort of says something like, well,
we sure hope you're going to give an
invitation tonight.
Even Norwegians can get excited.
When I gave the invitation for commitment and
surrender, I preached it as hard as I
could.
Fifty, sixty or more came for counseling, wanting
to commit their lives.
Realizing that there's such a lack of commitment
today.
There's such a playing around.
Playing around at prayer, playing around at evangelism,
playing around at giving.
I will tell you, if God's people learned
the joy of giving, we'd have so much
money, we'd have to have special meetings into
the night just to dream up new projects
to know where to spend it.
Most of my dreams and visions, I have
to murder in the morning because of the
lack of finance.
So often from God's supposedly chosen, so too
often frozen people.
People are running around arguing about tithing.
Arguing about tithing.
I would have thought a donkey could tithe.
It seems to me that God's principle is
still, except you forsake all that you have,
you just can't be my disciple.
Ooh, what a verse.
That verse in O.M.'s early messages, which
we still do preach on occasion, upset more
people than any other verse.
William Macdonald lost more friends through true discipleship,
and I'll tell you, when Where is the
Treasure came out, it's lucky he could stay
among the brethren.
He came on O.M. for a year,
never been the same.
Maybe you haven't read Where is your Treasure.
I remember going to Cambridge University in the
early days.
They were really laying for me.
There were ugly rumors against me at Cambridge.
I remember having fellowship once with John Stott.
He said, you know, someone told me you're
the Pied Piper of Cambridge University.
Can you believe that?
All these intellectual giants, dignified stalwarts of the
English stock.
This little skinny American comes in, Pied Piper's
up to the Regents' barrack.
It's got to be out of your mind.
And I'll never forget going to Cambridge University,
and they thought, you know, I was going
to come in on this forsaking all message.
And I just had this word, you know,
I don't think people in one sense should
give unless they find it a hilarious experience.
You don't give first and then get filled
with the Spirit.
That may happen in some cases because God
is full of surprises.
When you're filled with the Holy Spirit and
all that God wants to give you, vision
and commitment and reality, you will give and
give and you will just find it a
hilarious experience.
It's just what the Bible says, no special
doctrine.
It's more blessed to give than receive.
You don't have to come on OM to
learn that.
But oh, how so often God's people are
selfish.
And we're building bigger mansions and we're buying
bigger cars and we're justifying every ungodly expenditure
that can ever be imagined.
And millions go without Bibles.
Do you know the need in Poland right
now for Bibles?
Do you know the Bible Society is asking
for Bibles within Poland if they could just
get money and get people?
Oh, what a challenge.
What a challenge to invest for eternity, to
lay up all your treasure in heaven, to
abandon all and follow Christ.
The greatest need is revival.
The second greatest need is commitment, deeper surrender
to the Lord Jesus Christ.
The next need I have very quickly is
what I call the amalgamation of the practical
and the spiritual.
I feel very strongly about this.
I feel Satan tries to bring in a
dichotomy, even into OM.
Those out on the front lines of Pakistan,
these are spiritual men, these are God's guerrillas.
Those bounding on typewriters in Manchester, well, they're
good brothers and sisters, praise the Lord.
Maybe they couldn't get to Afghanistan.
Or maybe they just like the English climate.
Or maybe they like that beautiful section of
Manchester.
Beloved, one of the greatest needs in God's
work today is for practical workers.
I will tell you right now, our Indian
brothers are not praying for great preachers.
They're praying for truck drivers and mechanics that
are harder to find almost than dodos in
Ecuador.
I ask you not to allow the spiritual
and the practical to be put into separate
categories.
This is a mistake we often make even
in the area of money.
Do you think in the early days of
this work that it was just a matter
of praying and then going to sleep?
We believe together with fervent prayer from the
earliest foundation of this work that we should
also communicate the vision.
We've got a hot message.
We don't put it in the refrigerator.
I've written weekly reports up until a couple
of years ago when my friend John Neal
took over.
Now all different kinds of people write it,
though I've written it the last two weeks
for 20 years almost.
Every week to the men and women who
stand behind me.
They are as much in this work as
you are.
Not many of you have been here 20
years.
These prayer partners, some of them have given
hundreds of dollars and thousands of dollars and
pounds have stood with us 20 and 25
years.
Half the men on the board of directors
in New Jersey have stood with us over
15 years.
He was not a wealthy man.
He was just a working man.
God revolutionized his life.
His one great passion was just to give.
It was never huge sums, but I will
tell you over 23 years he's got a
lot of treasure up there.
God led him to sell his nice house
and give half of it to world missions
and move into the house he bought with
the other half, much smaller.
Can you imagine in this kind of mania
spread across the Christian world why we'd have
more Bibles and scriptures and tracts and films
than we know what to do with.
It's interesting that many on OM find it
difficult to send out even one prayer letter
a month.
So we finally decided we'll try to send
out one every other month.
Now we're down to four a year and
we're still going down.
Why?
Because I'll tell you why.
It takes discipline.
And if we're honest, we're not disciplined people
the way God would have us.
We don't know how to buffet the body,
things we don't want to do, force it
to do things we don't like to do.
So the prayer letters don't go out.
People don't pray because they don't even know
where you are.
And the enemy comes in like a flood.
I pray that this year there will be
a renewed discipline in prayer communication, getting the
prayer requests out.
Somebody said to me, well isn't it better
just to send personal letters?
I mean how many personal letters can you
write?
The way some of the people I see
write personal letters you're never going to do
very much that way.
Plus, listen, a personal letter is good.
I'm more in favor of that.
That communicates that you are a person.
A duplicated letter of prayer request communicates that
you are a person with a ministry.
Two different things.
Use both.
Don't put one against the other.
There's a lot of things I would love
to say.
Taking the initiative to find meetings.
Some of our best preachers sit with nothing
to do on Sunday because people don't have
the initiative to organize meetings.
Or maybe they don't think meetings are important.
How do most OMers come on OM?
In most cases a meeting plays part.
And then of course there's that meeting in
which just one is speaking to one.
I believe with all my heart that God
has given us one of the greatest gold
mines of literature that any movement has ever
had in the history of the Church.
And yet so often we lack initiative to
even take the literature to the meeting.
It's so heavy.
We are getting old.
And then someone told me I couldn't believe
it.
I could have choked the guy if I
was in a bad mood.
He said at that church they already have
our books.
No church has our books.
I've never met one.
You take a survey on the greatest books
Calvary Road, not one in ten have ever
read it.
In the church today there are more books
than there ever were.
Beloved, we are in an ignorant age when
it comes to missions and we need to
take the books and take the messages and
take the pamphlets and if they won't buy,
give it to them.
Let's give away ten million books in 1981
or two.
We need a vision for literature.
What it can do in the church.
What it can do to spread the mission
vision.
Ralph Winner without his literature would be doing
very little.
He works by literature.
Luther worked by literature.
He's a German theologian showing that the literature
is the major tool that the Spirit of
God has used to bring the Reformation, to
bring new movements, denominations and the advancement of
the gospel across the world.
Forgive me for getting so excited.
I speak too fast and then some of
you don't understand me.
Let's amalgamate the spiritual and the practical.
Let's pray.
Let's be Calvinist and we work with all
of our might like Arminians.
Half of you, praise God, don't know what
I'm talking about.
There's so much I would love to say.
The next greatest thing I've just put here
is spiritual balance which we'll talk about later
on.
But believe me, balance is not compromise.
Balance is not a sign of coming into
the middle years of growing dusty or musty.
Balance keeps the fire from becoming false fire.
Without the message of balance in OM we
would have been finished years ago.
I personally would have been finished.
Most of you wouldn't have tolerated me.
I'm not even sure my wife would.
Balance is love.
It's love in action.
It's love bringing different truths together.
It's not compromise but it's, in a sense,
as Robertson McQuilkin said, it's staying at the
center of biblical tension.
Different, strong, radical truths of the word of
God, different sides of the issue and the
facts of history pulling us into spiritual balance.
That is essential and there's almost every subject
you will deal with in this Leader's Conference.
You'll have to work toward finding the balance.
The next greatest thing I've written here in
my notes is the word homes.
I believe in the 80s we must emphasize
more the home.
We are not a bunch of bachelors plotting
across the world.
Most of us are married.
Many of you who are single within the
next few years will be married.
Praise God for the few remaining soldiers and
soldieresses who plot on single.
We need more such people in OM but
it is difficult to remain single in such
a movement.
The greatest need perhaps in my personal life
is more of a God-centered home.
I'm not talking about some little haven of
heavenly peace where only doves dare to go.
A home is a home.
At times it's a battlefield.
At times it's a jungle.
But somehow God has got to be in
there and somehow we've got to pray and
we've got to spend a lot of time
with him and we've got to spend more
time with our wives and we've got to
learn how to somehow survive even when we're
in this great spiritual warfare.
I believe it can be done.
Some of us, not without failure, are doing
it.
And then lastly, only for lack of time,
the greatest need is a miracle.
What a miracle of God that so many
British and French and Germans and Americans and
Swedes and Norwegians and Singaporeans and Indians and
South Americans and all the rest have come
into such a great degree of like-mindedness.
This is a miracle of the Spirit of
God greater than many things that people would
classify as a miracle in our day and
age.
I've got a whole new message for you.
The hardest to find miracle almost in the
church today.
I'll give you that message another night.
Yes, unity is going to cost.
It will mean sometimes sacrificing personal vision.
It will mean sometimes going to one field
instead of another.
It will mean at times doing things you
don't like and as you move forward and
as we move forward there are a few
who once sat where you are sitting whose
marriages have come completely apart.
And it comes on many of us as
leaders almost every week sometimes every day that
there's some who were once amongst us and
today their marriage is over and the kids
are in all kinds of chaos and the
other problems often at least one of the
partners in almost every case is totally away
from God and I'm not going to say
it's not happened to many in 24 years
but we have the principle of the 90
and 9.
I believe one of the greatest strategies of
hell right now is against the Christian whole.
I've seen Christian leaders across the world go
down like duck pins.
I can't believe it.
I don't even talk of some of the
things I
don't think it's going to work unless we
as families are willing to take up the
cross.
If we try to meet all of our
little inclinations all of our little needs all
the little things that we feel are going
to make for a happier marriage it's a
dead end road.
There are things we need to do there
are things we need to buy there are
homes we need to have some place to
put our coat and live in.
But I believe ultimately that which is going
to keep our marriages together is the cross.
Crucified life.
The commitment to Christ and the same kind
of commitment to one another.
And I'd love to talk about this all
night.
They're just some of the burdens on my
heart for the way God would have us
move forward in 1980.
On the one hand the vision, the strategy
the Muslim world the unreached people the foundation
there's got to be revival commitment the amalgamation
of the practical and the spiritual spiritual balance
God-centered homes and unity and of course
the prayer life and the spiritual life that
goes with this.
Let's pray.
Just take a moment for silent prayer searching
of our hearts some of us I wonder
if there's some of us something you're holding
back from God clinging on to it like
a little boy clinging on to a penny
when someone wants to give him a ten
pound note.
Would you let go of some crummy little
copper penny that Satan's got you infatuated with?
Would you make a deeper commitment of your
life to Jesus Christ and his kingdom and
his work tonight?
To even be a leader if that be
the will of God?
Would you make a fresh surrender to the
Lord and be filled with his Holy Spirit
that you may know that personal revival every
day of your life?
Would you ask God for a greater vision?
A vision for the whole world a vision
for the unreached people a vision for the
church that revival may come and the blessing
will spill out and run out to the
ends of the earth a vision for a
God-centered home a vision for unity and
oneness the kind of discipline and diligence that
could enable us through quality do twice as
much this next year as we have done
in this past year twice as much in
terms of in-depth penetration impact and spiritual
conquest for our Lord Jesus Do you believe
that?
According to your faith it will be granted
If God can give us a hundred thousand
pounds in answer to prayer in the first
night of this new OM year what can
he give us in the next 365 days?
Much more than money I can assure you
thousands of precious souls born again of his
precious blood filled with his Holy Spirit and
marching like a mighty army across the world
in obedience to the King of Kings who
may return before we even get to the
next conference May your heart be filled with
faith according to your prayer Let's pray silently
Spirit of the Living God Fall afresh
on me Spirit of the
Living God Fall afresh on
me Bend me, mold me
Fill me, use me
Spirit of the Living God Fall
afresh on me Our Lord and God in
much feebleness and weakness we, at least some
of us collapse before you In ourselves this
is not possible this way of life In
ourselves we would but run for the nearest
bed of ease But by your grace we
shall go forward By your grace that which
you have given us we will commit now
to faithful men who will be able to
teach others also that this vision from man
to man and mouth to mouth and heart
to heart would move across the world We
sense, O Lord, our unity with hundreds of
other agencies and churches and missions That together
we may obey you Keep us from extremes
on one side spiritual frostbite on the other
side from introspection on one hand and overconfidence
on the other that we may walk humbly
before you We know, Lord, that we are
but earthen vessels and have feet of clay
But your treasure is overwhelming us And we
are filled with your Holy Spirit And Lord,
if there are any leaks help us to
find them in these days and to be
refilled again and again and again Break down
the human barriers that so easily divide us
O God the nationality barriers the temperament barriers
the doctrinal barriers the strategy barriers A hundred
barriers that somehow even sometimes though they're good
issues somehow creep up and divide and ultimately
destroy the ongoing work of your church We
may be of one heart and of one
mind and move together for you for your
glory never for the sake of O.M.
but for your glory for your kingdom because
we love you, Jesus Amen Let's just stand
and as a reminder of what it's all
about sing, Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus Turn
your eyes upon Jesus for the glory
in wonderful things and the
things of earth will grow strange in your
eyes in the light of his glory
and grace Turn your eyes
upon Jesus and
the things of earth will grow strange Amen
God bless you and I think we'll have
the habit when we close as we do
in England I think it's a good a
good habit to just sit down for just
a half a moment of prayer and then
get up Let's just do that Commune with
God Do remember to keep quiet in the
dormitories after the listed hour It's very, very
important