Send down the rain, Lord, send down the
rain.
Send down the light of the rain.
Send down the rain, Lord, send down the
rain.
Send down the light of the rain.
Send down the rain, Lord, send down the
rain.
Send down the light of the rain.
Send down the rain, Lord, send down the
rain.
Send down the light of the rain.
Singing in the rain!
Singing in the rain, Lord, singing in the
rain.
Singing in the light of the rain Singing
in the rain, Lord Singing in the rain
Singing in the light of the rain Sing
down Sing down the rain, Lord Sing down
the rain Sing down the light of the
rain Sing down the rain, Lord Sing down
the rain Sing down the light of the
rain Praising in the light of the rain
Praising in the rain, Lord Sing down Sing
down the rain, Lord Dancing
in the rain Dancing in the rain, Lord
Sing down Sing down Sing
down the rain Well
the Holy Spirit Sets my feet a-dancing
The Holy Spirit Thrills me through and through
The Holy Spirit Sets my feet a-dancing
He'll set your heart a-dancing Well the
Holy Spirit Sets my feet a-dancing The
Holy Spirit Thrills me through and through The
Holy Spirit Sets my feet a-dancing He'll
set your heart a-dancing Ladies only!
Come on ladies!
Come on son!
The Holy Spirit Sets my feet a-dancing
The Holy Spirit Thrills me through and through
The Holy Spirit Sets my feet a-dancing
He'll set your heart a-dancing Last time!
All together!
Come on!
One more!
The Holy Spirit Sets my feet a-dancing
The Holy Spirit Thrills me through and through
The Holy Spirit Sets my feet a-dancing
He'll set your heart
a-dancing Thank you Ish Let me uh
He should come with a t-shirt Carrying
a government health warning emblazoned on it Uh
Ish We're glad to have you on the
platform Come here a minute mate I just
wanted to ask you something about the lunchtime,
funtime thing Oh!
I haven't got a pie Have you not
got a pie?
We wouldn't, no we wouldn't do that to
you Just come here a sec Can we
just do a commercial for that?
I mean I'm very aware that uh Numbers
were up a bit this time Yes Are
you pleased with that?
Yes uh Yes, very pleased Very good Is
it right you've been doing some terrible things
there like Putting custard pies in people's faces
and things?
Terrible Yes uh Very true, very true More,
more, more Right I'm sure that just as
we were enjoying ourselves Uh in fun and
fellowship That God was also enjoying that too
And I think it's great for us to
To realise that And I think it's also
great for us to realise That there are
times when we can laugh Because we have
confidence with each other In the family of
Christ We can just relax and just have
fun At the same time There are times
when we can turn immediately Just before God
and acknowledge who He is And how great
He is And how wonderful He is And
we're going to do that right now Number
47 Jesus, how lovely you are You are
so gentle, so pure and kind Last, Sheila
to take the lead on the verses Then
when we come to the chorus Let's just
again move into a spirit of praise Lifting
Jesus into the centre of our worship tonight
Number 47 Jesus,
how lovely you are You are so gentle,
so pure and kind You shine as the
morning star Jesus, how lovely
you are Jesus
is the King
Jesus Jesus,
how lovely you are So gentle, so
pure You shine as the morning
star Jesus, how lovely you are
Jesus Hallelujah Jesus
Jesus, how lovely you are You are
so gentle, so pure and kind You shine
as the morning star Jesus, how
lovely you are Jesus
Jesus will take you
soon Jesus, how lovely you
are You are so gentle, so pure and
kind You shine as the morning star Jesus,
how lovely you are Spring
Harvest is very much a partnership when it
comes to putting it together It's an interesting
partnership between British Youth for Christ and Buzz
magazine And part of the cooperation is that
I gladly give Clive Calver an elastic five
minutes One week, one night in Spring Harvest
to talk about their important work That'll be
tomorrow night And he gladly in return gives
me an elastic five minutes to talk about
the work of Buzz magazine And the allied
work on another evening And that's tonight But
I'd like to break the rules slightly Because
rather than spend most of my time talking
about the magazine I'd like to spend most
of it talking about something which is far
more important And if you can imagine something
more important than Buzz magazine Then you know
I'm talking about something very important But let
me just get out of the way for
a moment a few practical details Which I'd
like you to be aware of And then
get into the meat of what I want
to talk to you about Which is a
very important project about which we need to
commit ourselves Last night we were hearing from
David Pawson talking about leadership And one thing
is clear is that leadership brings responsibility And
when you're producing a magazine which is going
to be read by about Well, bought by
about 30,000 people each month or more
You feel responsible Particularly when it's going to
be read by something like 100,000 people
each month As it gets passed from hand
to hand and so on And as we
work out our responsibilities What we're trying to
do through Buzz magazine Is to give you
a clear understanding of what God is doing
in his world So many of us live
in situations where we're forced to have blinkers
on Because of the fellowships we're in, the
denominations we're in and so on And if
only we could get a grasp of what
God is doing around the world And realize
that in many places in the world God's
church is growing faster than the population rate
And at the same time getting the balance
to see that there are some countries in
the world Where you could get all the
believers sitting in the front row here Or
gathered into one of our chalets That is
the kind of balance we're trying to get
across We're also concerned to tackle the major
issues of our world And see how our
Christian lives relate to the world outside And
what the world outside is doing to our
Christian lives Our responsibilities went a stage further
when we became concerned about a year ago
That marriages in this country were hurting About
one in five marriages in Britain today ends
in divorce And Christian marriages are not exempt
We wish they were but they're not And
so we felt the need to launch a
magazine Aimed directly at strengthening and sustaining Christian
families And we launched Family Magazine back in
September And the response has been overwhelming The
circulation of that is now in the region
of 20,000 copies a month or more
Which excites us because it shows it's meeting
a need I mean the current issue which
is on sale on the Basen Family Stand
Includes something on how to talk to your
children when death comes How to explain death
to your children Tackles the whole issue of
why is sex such a problem so often
in Christian marriages Looks at case histories like
a family that decided not to have an
abortion When they were told that almost certainly
the child to be born to them would
be handicapped There's an answers column dealing with
those sort of issues We'd be delighted if
you would stand with us and with your
family and your church And take these magazines
regularly That's all I want to say about
the two magazines But as I talk about
responsibilities A responsibility came into our hands just
ten days ago Which we as an editorial
team felt we couldn't budge You'll have found
on your seats a piece of paper which
is headed Free the Siberian Seven Now it
may be that you're very much in touch
with the situation Concerning these seven Christians But
if not I'll touch on it briefly The
situation is that in the basement of the
American Embassy in Moscow Are seven Pentecostal Soviet
Christians Whose homes are really in Siberia They're
comprised of members of two families And they're
basically held hostage by the Soviet Union's continuing
persecution of Christians For example, members of these
families have already served time in labor camps
And in psychiatric hospitals They've already had their
church services broken up Members of these families
have already seen their children confiscated by the
state for re-education Because of the blessing
of God upon their local church The authorities
insisted that they registered as a registered church
That was quite easy All you had to
do was sign a document saying You would
not give any religious instruction to anyone under
the age of 18 They said how can
we do that in conscience before God As
a result they faced this kind of persecution
Almost three years ago They went to the
American Embassy Quite legally But found themselves needing
to take refuge there For reasons that are
explained in this little panel here You can
read it at your leisure But that was
three years ago You've now been in your
chalets here for three days If you can
imagine seven adults Virtually adults in there Not
for three days or three weeks or three
months But by 27th of June they will
have been there for three years They're in
a basement so there's little light coming in
There's a Soviet guard on the outside and
there's a grill to their window At regular
intervals during the night He will rub his
baton along the railings outside their window To
make sure they don't get sleep They're under
that sort of pressure An American Christian who's
been working in that embassy Has made friends
with them And he came out recently and
said They are in a deadlock situation The
Russians don't care The Americans are embarrassed Neither
side trust each other They may have been
there three years now They may be there
another three years Unless an independent country does
something He said if only British Christians would
take up the cause He said I believe
something would happen When Georgie Vins was being
treated the way he was And the British
public rose up Led by Christian leadership He
became free and he said The situation for
many others facing that kind of persecution Was
drastically changed And so Buzz is taking a
commitment along with others To do something about
this situation To let the Russian authorities know
that we're concerned To pray about change And
also to do something to let the Christians
there themselves The Siberian Seven know that we
love them And are doing something A number
of things that you can do And they're
outlined on this leaflet In June we're going
to issue a special issue of Buzz With
them on the cover Covering the three years
they've been in there And highlighting the problem
And laying out a plan of action There
are a number of these things you can
do The first thing is we've made arrangements
To get a message from Spring Harvest Into
the basement of the American Embassy Don't ask
me how it's going to get in there
I can't tell you but I do know
I just can't say how public it's going
to be there But anything we say here
in written form Will be there within two
weeks In the corridor by reception When you
get out tonight There'll be a big sheet
of paper Where every one of us can
write messages Of greeting, love and support We
shared this last week We've already got a
huge page Full of signatures and greetings We'll
put that up there To show you what
the last lot did And it'll challenge our
creativity And our involvement We're going to stick
the two together And get it out there
to them Within the next two weeks The
next thing you can do Is to order
an action pack Which we're going to be
making available That pack will include A 12
minute audio visual of the situation Telling the
story on slide and tape Including photographs even
from the Embassy itself So you can stir
up interest Among churches in your area And
get something moving Obviously it's going to cost
something to produce that We're going to have
a sheet of action ideas Telling you who
you can write to And what you can
say Who you can phone And you can
badger To make sure that people know we
care There's going to be a copy of
the book The Siberian Seven Which covers the
material To clearly indicate what's gone on In
the Soviet Union It's a tremendous book Which
I would encourage you to get as part
of that And there'll be posters and stickers
And everything else We mean business And it's
going to be in the pack Now the
pack is going to cost We reckon in
order to produce and post to you Something
in the region of six pounds And that's
what we're asking you to part with For
it when you order it If there's anything
over We'll put it into a fighting fund
To do all the other things we want
to do The next thing we need to
do is pray It's going to take a
miracle To break the kind of diplomatic deadlock
That we're talking about Lastly, keep June 27th
free We want to have a worshipful And
positive demonstration in London To show the media
And the Soviet Union and the authorities That
we mean business And we're concerned about these
people I believe it's possible through this To
have a tremendous triumph image In the media
today To show what can happen When God
takes hold of people's lives Under persecution I
believe that rather than Condemning the Soviet Union
We could do something together Which would show
the triumph And the glory of God In
the lives of Christian believers In the face
of persecution In a godless regime So let's
work together And pray together And see something
happen For the glory of God For the
Siberian seven In faith, I'm going to ask
That we sing number 87 Thine be the
glory Risen conquering sun Endless is the victory
Thou or death has won These brethren of
ours In the Soviet Union Are but part
of a whole persecuted church Who are standing
faithfully For the cause of Christ And I
believe we should stand with them Let's stand
and sing number 87 Thine be
the glory Risen conquering sun Endless is the
victory Thou or death has won These brethren
of ours In the Soviet Union Thine be
the glory Risen conquering sun Endless is the
victory Endless is the victory Thou or death
has won O Jesus Christ Risen from the
tomb Lovingly he brings us Sadness, fear, and
woe Let the church with gladness Hymns of
triumph sing For her Lord now liveth Death
hath caused this thing Thine be the glory
Risen conquering sun Endless is the victory Thou
or death has won O Lord we doubt
thee Glorious Prince of Light Thine be the
glory Earth, wind, air, sea, and sky Make
us all that confess To thy heaven's power
Bring us safe and joy Thine be
the glory Risen conquering sun Endless is the
victory Thou or death has won I
believe that what we've been challenged with is
something important That it's something we need to
hear And on behalf of Youth for Christ
I want to give every endorsement to what
Peter said We're so thrilled that Buzz has
taken this lead Let's pray, shall we?
Graham, would you come and pray for these
Siberian Seven and the position that they find
themselves tonight?
Father, we thank you for the amazing power
that there is through prayer and through actions
of faith which are born out of your
spirit and out of love and concern And
we thank you, Lord, that through this power
through the power in the name of Jesus
through our prayers that things can be done
which are beyond our expectation Father, I want
to pray that you'll give us a high
level of expectation as to what you can
do through our prayers and through our action
in this situation So, Father, just right at
this moment we want to focus in on
that basement We thank you, Lord, that prayer
knows no geographical limits at all We thank
you, Lord, that our prayer is as powerful
here, thousands of miles away as if we
were actually just down the road from the
American Embassy in Moscow So, Father, we just
want to concentrate our prayers upon that basement
and pray in the name of Jesus that
you will pour into that basement such a
sense of hope and such a sense of
refreshment that a kind of miracle happens in
their hearts Father, I pray that if the
atmosphere there is heavy and that they're depressed
Lord, that you'll pour in your love and
your light so that it's like heaven for
them Father, I believe you can do that
such that they'd rather be there than here
because of the sense of heaven that you
bring Lord, we pray that you will give
a sense of your presence there that everybody,
the God outside the people in the embassy
get a sense that something's happening that this
God that they believe in is real We
ask, Lord, you'll give them hope We ask,
Lord, that you'll give them joy We ask,
Lord, that you'll give them your divine wisdom
to know how to act what causes of
action to take if any are open to
them And we pray, Lord, that you'll sustain
them and strengthen them and give them a
sense that they are not alone Lord, we
just ask that now in the mighty name
of Jesus believing, Lord, that you are doing
it And we pray also, Lord, that you
will put a burden on many of our
hearts to continue praying for them until we
see them set free We pray this in
the name of Jesus Christ Amen Our speaker
this evening is George Verwer We are very
privileged to have him with us.
God has used George under his hand to
raise up a mighty missionary army particularly of
young people around the world primarily as a
training school and also in addition to see
millions of lost people beginning to be reached
for the gospel.
We're privileged because the time George has given
us during Spring Harvest, as I understand it
is proportionately more than he actually gives his
own organization in terms of ministry And so
we're very grateful that he would be able
to clear his diary to be with us
And I trust now we'll still our hearts
and open our wills to hear what God
has got to say through him.
George Verwer I'm very grateful to Buzz and
Youth for Christ but firstly to the Lord
for this opportunity to be here one of
my deepest convictions I mean this with all
my heart is that as different fellowships different
organizations and movements here in Britain we may
be able to move together in God's great
purposes.
We're not all the same, we're not all
doing the same thing but we have one
Lord How my heart was touched last night
through the ministry and I hope we'll not
forget that which we've heard especially when I
think of what God is doing here in
Britain and I've actually felt this for a
number of years it's one of the reasons
in a very strange way, there's not time
to tell that tonight God very clearly 18
years ago made this country my home I've
never been back to my own country except
to speak for a few weeks and it
was with that conviction that God was going
to do something very great in this country.
He has been down through history and it's
just exciting to be a part of it
ever since my conversion I've been accused of
being a fanatic not a very interesting cloud
to live under the last five years I've
been preaching about spiritual balance, I guess trying
to get away from my image of being
a fanatic, I don't think that's the reason
actually but I am very very strong on
this subject of spiritual balance and we've been
seeing that in the life of Jesus in
our seminar on Jesus my daughter came to
me the other day and she said she
felt I was getting extreme on the area
of balance and I come with a heart
very very full, I've just arrived back from
Turkey, Jordan Israel, Syria Hungary, Yugoslavia Greece, a
few other places traveled by van, thought we'd
never make it we had three punctures before
we got out of Germany my heart is
so full I'm known as a fanatic about
literature I've written a book on literature an
absolutely dead book it doesn't sell, we have
to give them away every time we get
stuck with the edition because the fact of
the matter is the church does not have
a vision for Christian literature to any great
degree a few of these men do and
I've cut my book review by 80%
because I know they're talking to you about
books all the time but I hope you
will visit the book tables not just to
get something for yourself, praise God that's good,
but to think in terms of perhaps giving
books to others you may not be a
great communicator but as you give books away,
loan them lose them, I just put a
book of about a famous converted political leader
Senator Harold Hughes in the library in Bromley
where I live they sent me a letter
of appreciation imagine if everybody here put a
few books of Christian testimony in the library
next to a lot of the liberal teaching
and other books that are in the libraries,
what a ministry that could be I want
you to turn with me now in your
bible to a number of scriptures we're going
to be asking some serious questions it really
excites me when I see people taking notes
if you look in the seminar book and
you turn to my notes, you will find
them very easy to memorize don't do it
tonight but there is a page actually that
you can write on if you don't have
some blank paper with you and I would
like to also engage in operation feedback I
was too afraid to do this last week
but George Whitfield used to do this when
people were preaching when he was preaching, he
would ask people to send up notes to
him in the pulpit about what God was
doing in their hearts probably the greatest British
preacher of all time used as greatly as
Wesson, incredible now I don't want you to
hand your notes to me up here a
number of reasons I once had a note
and said your time is up, please sit
down I'll probably get one of those from
Clive but you keep your notes and send
them to me later on or turn them
in at the OM literature table where you
can pick up a lot of free literature
but if there is anything you want to
ask anything you want to say I won't
be able to get to it all this
week just feel free to communicate I actually
can say this honestly I actually prefer small
meetings in Turkey I spoke to almost all
the believers in the capital city of Ankara
I would have preferred that to be a
little bigger there were only five Turks in
the whole meeting so I'm a little overwhelmed
here but I would like to have some
communication and so feel free to communicate any
question any burden now if we can get
to that scripture in the book of Hebrews
sorry to leave you there halfway chapter 11
tells us about faith, if you can read
that chapter on your own you will be
greatly stirred remember even as we hear the
word of God tonight, if we don't mix
it with faith and it's true all day
it says that earlier in Hebrews if the
word preached is not mixed with faith it
will be of little value that's why I
so believe in the ministry of counseling and
pray that you will seek help and counsel
if you have a spiritual question or you
want to make a commitment there are people
that want to help that's not the total
answer but it could be part of the
answer one of the young men who shared
with me recently some very heavy things said
he had never talked to anybody in his
life about this I don't believe that's God's
way as Christians to go around with things
bothering us eating away at our conscience making
us feel guilty we've never talked to anybody
ever about it I would have been wiped
out years ago as a very weak struggling
Christian if I hadn't learned something of opening
up and I'm scared because I know that
keeping things in also can create about 50
different psychosomatic illnesses it's just not healthy it's
just not sensible and it's not God's way
the word of God says confess your faults
one to another pray for one another that
ye may be healed and we're the introspective
bottled up generation and I pray that many
even among ourselves will be sharing and praying
for one another and there'll be a flood
of spontaneous fellowship right across this great camp
the word preached must be mixed with faith
faith will demand action faith will demand decision
and I believe we're in a divine moment
tonight last night God was speaking especially to
leaders tonight I believe God very strongly wants
to speak to just ordinary nobodies especially some
who may be very young in the faith
and you may be just struggling along bound
up with doubt in some bondage gripped by
some problem or whatever else and God wants
to bless you those whom he loves he
chastens if you feel the chastening hand of
God tonight it's because he loves you and
if you're never chastened if there's never any
correcting ministry of the Holy Spirit in your
life it's because you may not be yet
his child then you better really be scared
so in Hebrews 11 we have this great
message of faith and then we get to
Hebrews 12 and I want us to read
starting at verse 1 what a wonderful thing
to hear those pages of the Bible let
me see the Bibles, I learned this from
Buck Singh in India he planted about 400
churches by the way, slight anointing raise your
Bible where are the Bibles, hallelujah shame on
any of you who don't have a Bible
my oh my, you better get to the
book stall quick well let's try something else
you got a bit puffed up on that
how many of you have not read yet,
you love the word of God you love
Jesus and you believe it's God's word but
somehow you know, television, other books, Little Orphan
Annie Bionic Man how many somehow have not
yet read the Bible once let's be honest
here, maybe a few never read the Bible
once, raise your hand well, you're honest about
75% of you you know it was
a blessing last week people came up to
me and they said God's spoken to them
about reading the whole Bible through this year
we did it as a youth fellowship years
ago, as a group, we did it individually
as well, it only took us 66 hours,
we just read it non-stop in the
church 66 hours 70, something like that it
was so funny the local people thought this
was so strange, this pagan community and made
front page and got on the Associated Press,
went all over the world youth group reads
Bible, you know, big thing let's
read the word of God wherefore seeing we
also are compassed or surrounded about with so
great a cloud of witnesses, you read about
those in Hebrews 11 let us lay aside
every weight and the sin which does so
easily beset us, hinder us, and let us
run with patience the race that is set
before us looking unto Jesus the author and
finisher of our faith who for the joy
that was set before him endured the cross,
despising the shame in his set down at
the right hand of the throne of God
for consider him that endured such contradiction of
sinners against himself, lest ye be weary and
faint in your minds we read more and
I hope you will read more from Genesis
right through Revelation I want to ask you
a number of questions tonight, I think it's
good to take spiritual inventory it's Wednesday night,
it's the middle of the week, and I
feel these are some of the most important
questions you can ever ask, I wrote them
down this morning in my Bible I may
not get to all of them you can
write them down and you can before you
go to sleep tonight and there may be
some tonight that right from this tent you'll
just want to get alone with God and
not just be caught up with more activity
others, God will lead you into activity but
all what a need there is as we're
here receiving much, receiving much to have times
alone with God there may be some that
may want to try to get to sleep
early and try to get up early and
get out on that beach, not necessarily to
run, that's not my main burden, but to
seek the Lord I believe these are days
when God wants us to seek His face
the key to revival found way back there
in 2 Chronicles 7 14 if my people
which are called by my name will humble
themselves and pray and seek my face and
turn from their wicked way then I will
hear from heaven and heal their land beloved
in our Christian life there will be no
gain without pain, there will be no revival
in Britain without a paying of the price
upon our knees and upon seeking His face
let's ask some serious questions first of all
I want to ask you are you in
God's race I had a rush to get
back to England for a leadership conference a
week or two weeks ago drove almost non
-stop from southern Italy to London the amazing
thing is when I got to London one
of the first things I read about was
the London Marathon which they're expecting to become
one of the great sporting events or athletic
events in the future somehow in an unexpected
way 4,300 came and finished the race
26 miles the
main thing that everybody in Britain was thinking
about was the great horse race that was
going on that day and if they weren't
thinking about that then they were probably down
at the Thames watching Oxford beat Cambridge again
in rowing and I was sitting on the
tube late at night and there was obviously
a Cambridge fan on the tube and I
asked him who won Oxford and he said
well I said well you know what happened
he said well I'll tell you how they
did it I said well how he said
they import Americans hallelujah there's still some hope
in the race they also had a woman
calling as Cox Wayne so maybe that was
the secret but it's interesting to watch racing
to watch the Olympics and if you think
this is irrelevant you obviously haven't studied your
New Testament because not only here in Hebrews
12 do we have the picture of a
Christian as a runner but also Paul in
1st Corinthians chapter 9 says I so run
and he goes on to say and I
believe it's the missing link in many Christian
lives and I believe it's the reason that
many of God's people instead of being his
chosen people are his frozen people is because
they don't know the secret of what Paul
talked about in 1st Corinthians chapter 9 do
you know it?
Paul said I buffet my body discipline I
buffet my body and bring it into control
bring it into subjection lest after preaching to
others I become a castaway disqualified beloved the
Bible teaches not me you can forget me
the Bible teaches that we are in an
intensive race I say this with fear lest
it will be misunderstood but I pray that
you'll at least think about it I'm really
convinced that few of us I don't care
whether you're from a house group or a
cathedral whether you're with OM or who you're
with I feel that few of us know
the kind of commitment we read about in
the book of Acts and it burdens me
day and night I feel that many of
us are just playing games and I feel
even many of my friends and co-workers
as Christian leaders, many of them have been
deceived into a commitment into a commitment that
is less than what God would have and
we have neglected whole basic emphases in the
New Testament like the warfare discipline, buffeting the
body and such things as when Paul wrote
to Timothy and said endure hardness as a
good soldier of Jesus Christ, this is why
though the church is growing and it is
the number of missionaries from Britain is decreasing
because somehow the thought of going to a
strange country and eating strange food and maybe
not having the things we're accustomed to does
not appeal to most people it does maybe
appeal to a few and they have to
experience much of crucifixion less they do it
in the energy of the flesh Tozer said
and I hope you'll read his books that
we have measured ourselves by ourselves for so
long, there are no longer higher plateaus in
the things of the spirit and for 25
years I've gone from nation to nation looking
for examples looking for men I could pattern
my life after, looking for men who I
could learn to pray from looking to men
who had more love more zeal, more compassion
more reality, who were living examples of what
I see in Paul and in Jesus and
in Timothy and what I read about in
books like Hudson Taylor and George Mueller and
others who I don't believe are fairy tales
and I found few I found few I
can tell you praise be to the living
God I have found some and some I'm
not worthy to tie their shoelaces and don't
misunderstand what I'm saying because I can assure
you no matter how committed a man is
no matter how zealous no matter how much
he knows of total commitment no matter how
much he is in that race he's still
an earthen vessel he still will have his
weaknesses and his failures and that's where God
had to break me and God had to
humble me and God had to show me
I was looking at times for things that
didn't even exist and I went back to
the word and developed I hope a little
bit of spiritual balance but you see if
you're not committed if you're not really in
the race if you've never really presented your
body as a living sacrifice unto God, there's
nothing to balance balance is not a position
of compromise, not a matter of sacrificing the
basic truth it's a matter of taking the
often extreme strong statements of the New Testament
and letting one statement balance off the other
love and truth, zeal and wisdom freedom and
order and there's a hundred areas where we
can find that one truth will balance out
another truth the Concorde, the fastest airplane in
the world, is a perfect example of balance
and if you're more balanced, you can go
faster for God so it's not a matter
of compromise but if you don't even have
that basic commitment if you're not really filled
with God's spirit and moving forward as a
soldier in the battle well it's nothing to
balance, it's like having two wings out in
Heathrow airport and no main fuselage of the
airplane can you imagine it would be a
strange sight for airline spotters to see two
wings going down the runway there's got to
be the body, there's got to be in
your life that commitment that abandonment to God
and then God can bring in the balance
I remember when I was ministering in the
Netherlands with Brother Andrew some of you know
Brother Andrew God's smuggler, tonight you've got Brother
George God's bungler and that's no joke I
went into the Soviet Union one of the
first things I ever did in Europe got
arrested by the Soviet secret police due to
my own stupidity and accused of being a
spy it wasn't very exciting so God uses
even mistakes but Brother Andrew gave oh we
met together for tea and he asked me
if I gave an invitation at the meeting
and I said that I hadn't, I said
well you can do that, he said he
thought he would because he discovered that it
was easier to cool down a fanatic than
warm up a corpse I don't know, I
don't know your churches, maybe the greatest problem
in your church is too much enthusiasm too
many people just getting excited about Jesus, running
out witnessing all over the place, disturbing the
neighbors A.W. Tozer said this he said
to think that too much enthusiasm was the
greatest problem in the average church, was like
sending a squadron of policemen to a local
cemetery to guard against a demonstration by the
residents at midnight if you don't like that
you can take it up with Tozer when
you get to heaven oh how we need
that God-given enthusiasm, I was reading just
a few moments ago, a little bit in
this book on the subject of zeal, William
McDonald says that's the one thing we are
without excuse for not having you don't need
a theological education to have zeal all you
need is to be born again and that
leads me to another question I wrote it
down and I don't want to forget to
ask it are you really a child of
God we have to step back a little
bit because you don't enter God's race by
your own efforts you don't enter God's race
by baptism or church going or being good
to grandmothers or taking little children to school
on whatever day they go these days but
by faith in Jesus Christ and I sense
there may be some that have never even
begun the race in terms of being born
again perhaps I could just briefly share my
own testimony because someone may be able to
relate to this I at sixteen would not
have understood anything about this kind of gathering
I would have considered it complete fanaticism, this
was not my side of life my grandfather
from the Netherlands was an atheist my other
grandfather from Glasgow, Scotland was a drunk my
father came over from the Netherlands to find
a good life and we were not finding
that so well because the Bible says he
who commits sin becomes a slave to sin
when you live near New York City as
I did at sixteen things get very heavy
I don't want to go into the details
but one woman began to pray for me,
she'd been praying for the school that I
was attending for fifteen years, not only that
God would save people but that God would
send them, that school, that ungodly secondary school
became the first birthplace London became the second
in a sense of operation mobilization, it wasn't
called that back then one woman who believed
in prayer I will tell you if she
was here even though she's very very old
now she would be in every single prayer
meeting going on around this place she went
for prayer meetings like ducks go to water
prayer is as Mr. Vendoran of Caponry once
said I think it's the title of his
book the Christian's vital breath no wonder so
many of God's people are anemic and that
woman prayed for me for three years, she
sent me a portion of God's word, a
gospel of John through the post and I
read it over a period of two years
three years approximately and every year I got
worse my conduct was so bad I was
blacklisted by the teachers of the school I
was arrested by the police for housebreaking and
stealing and a few other things that should
have discouraged her completely but she kept praying
then Billy Graham came to New York City
one night, I didn't know what that was
either, I didn't even know what an evangelist
was, I was a little bit into pornography,
I went to pick up some once and
there was a magazine about Billy Graham right
next to it I saw he played sports
and he had a wife, I figured he
wasn't totally crazy I figured I'd go in
and see what he had to say and
there, in that huge place, a little bit
similar to this with my doubts with my
questions, I even had my binoculars because I
heard he was a hypnotist I heard the
simple gospel Jesus Christ died on the cross
for my sin and I was convicted of
the Holy Spirit and I went forward for
counseling and I repented of my sin and
trusted Christ as my savior and I can
tell you this is not an exaggeration it
has been real every day ever since and
if there's anyone within the sound of my
voice tonight that's not yet made that commitment
to Christ to trust him as your savior
I pray that you may make your way
to that counseling room and someone can show
you how tonight you can know the peace
and the forgiveness and the joy of salvation,
it's real beloved oh it hasn't been an
easy road for me I had many questions
especially God's people any of you ever had
this problem?
Everything was going right until you got more
and more involved with God's people God's peculiar
people you haven't met me yet you know
if there's anyone here tonight that I turn
off, you know, we Americans I've been 18
years trying to learn English, you can see
I failed we live with a total inferiority
feeling when we're in Britain and we know
the moment we open our mouth, I preach
in Christian unions almost every other week, if
it's an evangelistic meeting, the moment I open
my mouth, they find out I'm American they're
switched off look, if you're switched off by
anything I said, be encouraged because when I
listen to my tapes it really switches me
off and I am glad for cassette recorders
with automatic quick stops but I will tell
you though, maybe something I say or someone
else says switches you off, God can switch
you on, we are weak, we are human
we fail, we do turn people off at
times, I remember witnessing to a hippie up
in Kathmandu I think he was a little
high and I was going strong, boy I
was using all my apologetics, Dr. Francis Schaefer,
FF Bruce, you know boy, I thought, he's
gonna come to Christ any minute, I'm crying
to God in the name of the Lord,
in the name of the Lord, he looked
at me he said, buddy, I don't read
your vibrations I didn't want to ever witness
again you know, failure is often the back
door to success and those of us who
are so-called Christian leaders, we're not always
bounding over the wall in some kind of
gospel van I remember once giving out tracts
in the street of Thailand I really wanted
to be home, drinking a Coca-Cola, having
a milkshake oh, the great day that McDonald's
came to England thank you, Lord oh, I'm
sorry about that I don't get paid for
that, but I was dreaming about hamburgers and
milkshakes and here I was, standing in the
streets of Thailand giving out tracts, I've always
had trouble with my nose, that's why I
don't turn sideways I don't like these people
sitting over here and they have an expression
in Thailand it's, if they don't like a
foreigner, they call them, because their noses are
so streamlined, these nice noses, they think ours
are like Pike's Peak sort of a Snowden
on the face and here as I was
giving out tracts, a man came up to
me, and instead of taking the tract, he
reached out, and he stroked my nose if
I ever had a missionary call, and I
never had a call, God just saw me,
knew what a bullheaded character I was, and
gave me a kick and I've been going
ever since but I think if I ever
had one, I would have lost it there
but failure is often the back door to
success, and if there's any of you you
have doubts, you have fears you have questions
would you at least seek some counsel would
you open God's word in a fresh way
and let the Lord Jesus work in your
life but just a couple of other questions
I want to ask before we go, and
we're going to keep to our time tonight
and that's this I think I heard Clive's
explanation after David Pawson's message, and I agree
with it 100%, because I have the opportunity
to come back in two days time, just
about the time you're getting relaxed, and you're
I'll be back but I want to ask,
just in closing, a couple of other very
serious questions, and that is simply this, are
you filled with the Holy Spirit how in
the world can we ever even think of
evangelizing Britain, or the world unless we know
we are filled with the Holy Spirit oh,
I listen to A.W. Tozer on this
he hit me very hard you need to
know, he says you need to know you
have been filled with the Spirit some speak
about a baptism of the Holy Spirit some
speak in other terms I'm not going to
argue about that tonight I think of what
Billy Graham says, he said I don't care
how you get it, just get it just
get it and it won't hurt you to
get on your face and pray for 20
minutes tonight, to make sure that you're filled
with the Spirit of God Acts 4, 31,
after Pentecost some of the same people who
were at Pentecost were praying, and they were
filled with the Holy Spirit, and they went
forth and spoke the word of God with
fullness you cannot explain the book of Acts
without understanding that doctrine it's not just some
spectacular event that happens to a few certain
people who need to preach the fullness of
the Holy Spirit is a very down to
earth thing, it's a very practical thing, God
works in different ways in different people, some
are more emotional than others but you must
know if you're going to walk with God,
if you're going to run in God's race,
you must know God's power, Ephesians 5 be
ye filled with the Holy Spirit Hebrews chapter
13, you'll find another verse that should warm
your heart because in that chapter, it says
our God is a consuming fire have you
ever heard anyone preach on that text?
our God is a consuming fire, and I
want to ask you this other question are
you on fire for Christ?
isn't that the will of God?
it doesn't mean you'll necessarily be loud like
me some of the most consistent on fire
people I know, they don't preach they live
and their light burns there was once a
man who went joined the Salvation Army, became
one of the greatest soul winners of all
times, he wrote a book called Resurrection, Life
and Power, and in that book he gave
a definition of fire, let me give it
to you what is fire?
it is love, it is faith it is
hope it's passion purpose, determination it's utter devotion
it's a divine discontent with formality ceremonialism lukewarmness,
indifference sham, noise, parade, and spiritual death, it
is singleness of eye, and a consecration unto
death it is God the Holy Ghost burning
in and through a humble, holy, faithful man
or woman, are you that man?
are you that woman?
then I want to ask you, is Jesus
Christ Lord of your life?
Lord of your money?
Lord of your time?
how I praise God for the emphasis that's
come across here, on a simple lifestyle, to
me that's so basic in our day not
that we're all going to be the same,
not that we run around judging people whose
God may have prospered in a special way,
for a special purpose but that we may
become a little more like the Lord Jesus,
is he Lord of your life?
a constitutional monarchy may well work for the
British government we all pray for the Queen,
I remember when I came across on the
Queen Elizabeth, first time I went to an
Anglican service, heard them pray for the Queen
she's number one but she has no power,
the power is in the hands of the
Prime Minister and other ministers that's alright for
your government, but it's not for your Christian
life Jesus wants to be King absolute Lord
absolute monarch in your life have you made
him King?
or is Prime Minister self somehow still running
your life, if you're really honest and all
that's hard all that's in these days Prime
Minister self and some of his other departments,
the department of jealousy the department of social
affairs the department of greed that somehow these
departments and Prime Minister self may be dethroned
and Christ may be made Lord, Lord of
our lives have you ever done that?
are you still doing it?
I believe this is God's word for us
tonight I share this as someone who has
failed often times in the midst of the
race yea, even fallen flat on my face
and I know one thing that whether I'm
running full speed winning men to Christ and
praising him or somehow I've fallen flat on
my face and usually with me it's either
lust of the eyes or my big tongue
that somehow for a few moments gets me
down I know that at that moment he
still loves me and somehow there's someone here
tonight, you've been in the race you've known
what it has been to run for Jesus
to experience the exhilaration and the joy of
being in God's way and in God's work
and yet somehow tonight you're down maybe lust
maybe pride maybe bitterness has got in maybe
fear somehow you're down all to just realize
he's reaching out and he's saying come and
run again with me lay aside every weight
fix your eyes on your Lord allow him
to fill you with the Holy Spirit and
believe me you will be running not some
little dinky 26 mile marathon but a full
total life thousands of spiritual miles for Jesus
and the joy of that which I've only
known 26 years it's not very much talked
to my friend on the phone Oswald J.
Smith 90 years of age still running, still
praising God I almost wept a man came
up to me in South Africa, he gave
me some sweets he thought I was a
little boy he was 100, personal friend of
George Mueller patted me on the head, run
along sonny a hundred years of age still
running the race oh beloved may this can't
be filled with men and women who in
these days put their hands on the plow
allow God to fill them afresh with the
Holy Spirit make Jesus Christ Lord and never,
never though all hell resist us turn back
from our Savior who we love let us
pray let's have just a moment of silent
prayer searching our hearts asking those questions are
you in the race are you really His
child are you filled with the Holy Spirit
have you made Jesus the Lord of your
life so that you'll go anywhere, anytime whatever
the cost by His grace, by His power
are you on fire for Christ if you're
not, would you confess would you come to
the cross and say Lord Jesus forgive me
lukewarmness, pride playing around one more even jellyfish
floating downstream may God give us a backbone
by the power of His Holy Spirit before
it's too late would you just spend a
moment in silent quiet confession commitment, prayer to
the living God who loves you with an
everlasting love let's pray silently just pour it
out, pour it out oh Lord Jesus I
can't pray for others in a full extent
but I know that I must pray for
myself fill me a fresh oh God with
your Holy Spirit that I may not be
found just playing around that I may not
be found speaking things that I'm not living
and experiencing Lord I seek your cross tonight
deal with the little areas, the hidden areas
Lord Jesus we thank you for your cleansing
we thank you for your forgiveness we thank
you that you know all about us and
you love us still and even though there
may be some that have fallen flat on
their face you're reaching out you're wanting to
pick them up and to thrust them back
into the battle back into the race that
they may run and not grow weary that
they may be your man that they may
be your woman to go where you want
to go and to do what you want
them to do Lord grant it tonight for
we pray in the powerful authoritative name of
our Lord Jesus Christ Amen Amen Amen Let's
stand and proclaim that kind of reality shall
we Jesus is Lord creation's voice proclaims it
for by his power each tree and flower
was planned and made Jesus is Lord the
universe declares it sun, moon and stars in
heaven say Jesus is Lord Let's stand and
proclaim creation's voice proclaims it for by his
power each tree and flower was planned and
made Jesus is Lord the universe declares it
sun, moon and stars in heaven say Jesus
is Lord Jesus is Lord Jesus is Lord
praise him with hallelujah for Jesus is Lord
Jesus is Lord yet from his throne eternal
in flesh he came to die and reign
on Calvary's tree Jesus is Lord from him
all life proceeding yet gave his life for
ransom thus setting us free Jesus is Lord
Jesus is Lord praise him with hallelujah for
Jesus is Lord Jesus is Lord for sin
the mighty conquered from death he rose and
all his foes shall love his name Jesus
is Lord God sends his Holy Spirit to
show the world the power that Jesus is
Lord Jesus is Lord Jesus is Lord praise
him with hallelujah for Jesus is Lord let's
say the words of the grace shall we
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ the
love of God and the fellowship of the
Holy Spirit be with us all evermore Amen