I'm really delighted and honored to have George
Weber with us.
I've asked Alan to introduce him in a
couple of minutes.
We've got a number of us who have
come from Operation Mobilization, which is what George
has founded and is the director of.
Ed and Aya Bukowski, who, as you know,
are in St. Petersburg, Russia, now met in
Vienna at OM.
There's a number of you.
Alan was with them for some time.
We're delighted that George can be with us.
Just before Alan comes up, we'd like to
take an offering this evening.
If you would like.
Great joy to introduce our speaker tonight.
George is a man who had a tremendous
impact on my early Christian life.
He's the leader of a movement called Operation
Mobilization, which is a missionary training organization.
I think he told me the other day
that they estimate that probably have had about
75,000 people through OM now.
So I think that's had a tremendous impact
on our world.
Probably the things that I picked up from
George, two things that came into my mind
as I was sitting here.
One was that prayer is real hard work.
And the second thing that was really helpful
for me in being a part of OM
was George taught us to have a love
for the whole body of Christ.
I'd been raised in a Plymouth brethren home
and felt like that was the only people
that existed in the face of the earth.
And when we got an OM, George exposed
us to the whole body of Christ.
And I believe he has a message for
the whole body of Christ.
And so I'm going to call George up
now, and I'd just like Steve to come
and we can pray for him and ask
the Holy Spirit to anoint him for what
he has to bring to us tonight.
Even though George is small, you've given him
a big heart.
And Father, we just thank you that he
is with us tonight.
We count it a privilege that you've sent
this man of God to be with us.
And Father, now by your Spirit, we just
ask you to anoint him with power and
with your Holy Spirit.
Holy Spirit, we ask that you just rest
upon him and give him the Word that
you have for us, this body, tonight.
Lord Jesus, just rise above all of his
physical infirmities that he may be feeling at
this time and just fill him full of
yourself.
Prepare our hearts, Lord Jesus, to obey what
you have to say to us tonight.
We ask in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Thank you, Lord.
Thank you.
Praise God.
Amen.
Go into all the world and preach the
Gospel to every person.
That's burned on my heart now for 37
years since my conversion.
It's good to have the privilege of being
with you.
I think the first few days of the
new year are always important.
I know every day is important.
But I was in a fellowship this morning
where they seldom give altar calls, but when
the Spirit of God was done in that
meeting, the pastor just stood there and without
even any music, just gave an altar call
for people to get right and to make
decisions for how to use their lives in
the new year and people flocked forward in
what might normally be considered a little bit
of a staid sort of traditional Baptist environment.
God is doing tremendous things in the world
today.
I don't know if you are just a
local person that can't see past your own
front yard or garden.
Even spiritually speaking, I don't know you and
you don't know me, and if you're skeptical
for the first 15 minutes, I can fully
identify with you.
I would probably be skeptical myself.
But God is doing tremendous things all over
the world.
A lot of people are very negative.
I pick up books that are so negative,
you know.
Everybody is deceived or about to be deceived.
But in fact, God is doing phenomenal things.
Maybe you feel there's a lot of problems.
Maybe you're having some struggles in your own
Christian life.
If you turn to the end of the
Bible, you'll discover we win.
That's right.
So it's a good place to read.
It doesn't mean there aren't heartaches in the
world and our hearts ache for those that
are suffering and lost and how sad it
is when people seem to be unconcerned about
human suffering.
Millions in Africa without food.
We may not be able to do much,
but we surely should allow our hearts to
be broken.
I had the privilege of using Alan Remley's
office, managed in 24 hours to rake up
a $150 phone bill on his phone.
And I was opening mail from all over
the world, and I got a letter from
a relief organization, and in it was a
little packet worth 20 cents.
That little packet contains this new formula they
discovered.
So simple.
That can so quickly save lives of starving
children.
20 cents.
20 cents a day, at least for the
first few days.
Then they have to get proper food.
Amazing.
So I believe, as it says in 1
John 3, 16 and 17, in this we
perceive the love of God in that He
laid down His life for us.
So we ought to lay down our lives
for the brethren.
And the Church of Jesus Christ today is
rediscovering that the Gospel isn't just Jesus Christ
dying for us, it's now we laying down
our lives.
1 John 3, 16.
You see, we got stuck in John 3,
16.
Didn't finish reading the Bible.
The very next verse says, He that has
this world's goods.
Canada is one of the most well-resourced
nations in the world.
It's also one of the most evangelized nations.
One of the most churched nations.
Now you may say, well, a lot of
these churches are dead.
But a lot of them aren't dead.
And we praise God that Canada has been
one of the great missionary-sending nations.
I've been fellowshipping the last 24 hours with
a big, tall Sudanese.
Saved in Toronto from the jaws of Islam.
Amazing.
Gave his testimony this morning.
Going off to Prairie Bible College to get
some more training to perhaps go back if
he isn't martyred in the process.
Because I tell you, when you leave Islam
to follow Jesus Christ, they put your name
on a list.
A couple of men in Egypt years ago
gave their lives to Jesus.
Their wives fed them broken glass and their
food until they were dead.
That's why Jesus taught in Luke 14 that
as Christians we ought to count the cost.
We ought to count the cost.
You'd better count the cost before you get
tied into vineyarding.
I know about vineyarding.
We know more about John Wimber in England
than you know in Canada.
This guy has shaken the whole nation.
And now, John, and now Mr. Wimber has
got even a greater vision for world missions.
And he's going to be kicking guys spiritually
out all over the world and there's going
to be vineyard martyrs.
Write it down in your little Gospel notebook.
There's going to be vineyard martyrs.
They're going to come back in boxes.
We've had them in our work.
The early missionary work in Africa, they're all
dead.
You say, hey man, they believe in healing?
Sure they believed in healing.
Everyone that died was perfectly, completely healed.
And some of those people that died within
a few weeks in Africa believed that healing
was in the atonement, believed in miracles.
But you see, martyrdom goes beyond all of
the little miracles that we play with down
here.
So Jesus said in Luke 14, Count the
cost before you build a tower.
I presume you know the passage.
We won't open to all of them.
Then he said, before you go forth to
war, count the cost.
And then he had Luke 14.33. I
bet that's your favorite verse.
If Luke 14.33 is your favorite verse,
you can collect five free books at my
book table.
Do you know what Luke 14.33 says?
Except you forsake all that you have, you
cannot be my disciple.
Have you ever seen that on the text?
You know, on the billboard in the average
church?
Except you forsake all that you have, you
can't be my disciple.
That doesn't mean that somehow you turn into
a beggar and start wandering down the street
in a loincloth.
But it means, as A.W. Tozer, one
of the great writers of all times, pointed
out, that you give everything over to God.
He immediately will give you back your basic
needs.
So you won't end up some kind of
spiritual weirdo.
But it's a heart transaction.
It's a Holy Ghost, mind-bending, heart transaction.
I have a great privilege.
As I come here tonight, I have a
quarter of a million prayer partners.
Now, I'm, you know, I'm just skinny, 140
pound, you know, standing next to Alan, you
know, I look like a midget.
But I got a quarter of a million
people approximately praying for me.
So that's what you're facing tonight.
You think you're running into a spiritual tornado
as you sit there.
You'll know.
Now, they're not all praying at once.
I don't think we can handle that.
If they all turn on the power at
once tonight, you know, some of you would
probably just be blown right out the window
straight to China to plant churches.
So, these people, they don't all pray at
once, you know.
They just, some of them sleep, those in
China.
You may wonder how I get so many
prayer partners.
Well, I've been going night and day for
37 years.
And I've been in 60 nations.
And God gave us these ships.
And sometimes I minister to 18,000 people
and they, you know, one look at me,
they put me on their prayer list.
They know this guy, you know, he needs
prayer.
I got more than prayer.
Sometimes people used to give me money at
the door in the meetings.
And that was the way God supplied some
of the money for Operation Mobilization.
People would hand me money.
They'd say, you know, you don't look well.
Buy a meal here.
And they'd hand me some money.
I remember once in India, a beggar trying
to get some money from me.
My money was committed to Jesus, to world
evangelism.
I wasn't going to give it to just
any old beggar that comes along because there's
so many of them in India.
Some of them are phonies.
And this beggar came along.
He really put the pressure on.
He lifted up his shirt, showed me he
had almost nothing there.
Food, sir.
Food.
Nothing here.
He was in trouble.
I ripped up my shirt.
I said, look at this, buddy.
Nothing here either.
So, get off my back.
And he went away, chasing a fat guy.
Go into all the world and preach the
gospel to every creature.
That's a command of Jesus Christ.
That's a command we have to take seriously,
even if we don't feel up to it.
Even if you're a Canadian lover.
You just love Canada.
You just want to stay here.
You love the snow.
You love this terrific weather.
I guess this is why people are pushing
their way into the airport to get to
Florida.
But maybe you're a Canadian and a Florida
lover.
You're not too excited about Mongolia.
Right here, north of China.
Do you know this nation is just open?
Do you know some of us have been
weeping, fasting, and praying for 35 years for
Mongolia?
And now it's open.
You can go there.
You can teach English.
You can set up a business.
You can preach.
You can give out tracts.
You can print books.
Mongolia, it was communist.
Now, communism is being dismantled.
There are a few communists around.
How many of you pray for Mongolia?
Raise your hand.
Boy, your hands were all going up because
you thought I was going to ask how
many of you pray.
What do you think, I'm a jerk?
I know I don't look good.
I don't come to a vineyard fellowship and
ask you, do you pray?
Do you pray for Mongolia?
Raise your hand.
You know, one of the things that I
just encourage you to do in 1993 is
pray specific prayers.
Pray specific prayers.
When you're a baby Christian and you pray,
you generally just pray sort of general prayers
and you repent and you pray and you
repent.
You ask God to fill you and bend
you and break you and send you and
use you and touch you and all these
different wonderful prayers.
It's great.
But there has to come a day when
you get beyond that.
We're never beyond praying for brokenness and repentance.
You start praying specifically, specifically for nations, for
individuals, for kings.
We're told in 1 Timothy 2 to pray
for leaders, specifically.
I often pray for them and then send
them a letter.
I was praying for John Major and got
the bird and sent him a book.
Got a very nice letter back.
I used to pray a lot for Maggie
Thatcher.
Amazing how that woman kept going so long.
And I prayed for her, sent her a
book called Faith in the Dark.
And shortly after that, she resigned.
I don't know if she read this book
or not.
It's amazing how any jerk can send any
famous person in the world a book.
Have you ever done that?
Something you may want to do in 1992.
My prayer tonight is you're going to let
your creative juices flow.
And you're going to walk out of here
dreaming dreams.
You're going to walk out of here with
visions.
You're going to walk out of here with
ideas.
Not necessarily big ideas.
Life isn't all big things.
We often get funny ideas about people that
are introduced like me.
Founder of Operation Mobilization.
75,000 people.
You know, a couple of ships.
Think, all I'm in is the big things.
People think, I'm a great man of faith.
I need another ship just down to the
ocean.
In the name of Jesus.
One more ship.
Somebody wrote me, when are you going to
get a jumbo jet for Jesus?
Somebody else wrote me, when are you going
to launch a gospel train?
Somebody else did a cartoon in a Christian
magazine of me standing on a submarine that
I was getting for Evangelism in Depth.
But my life is mainly little things.
A phone call to encourage a brother who's
going through a crisis.
A letter.
20 minutes visiting someone.
Giving out a tract.
Selling a book.
Giving a book.
Life is little things.
We need little visions.
We've got quite a few people with big
visions.
But for every person with a big vision,
you need a lot of people with little
vision.
How are we going to get the big
vision actually accomplished?
The Bible says, if you give a glass
of water, like I have over here.
If you give a glass of cold water
in His name, you shall receive a reward.
I'm excited about 1993.
This is harvest time in the church.
You get some people think we're just holding
out to the end.
I've been in some of these churches.
They're shrinking.
Every month there's less people.
They're holding out to the end.
That is not the age we're in.
That's deception.
This is harvest time, brothers and sisters.
There are more people coming to Jesus Christ
throughout the world than ever before in the
history of the planet.
That doesn't mean they're all perfect.
That doesn't mean we don't need revival.
But when a man comes to Jesus Christ
and is born again, that is big.
That's not little.
I know some people, they run down what
God is doing in Brazil.
Because there's a lot of superficiality in Brazil.
There's a lot of people come to Jesus
and then backslide.
There's churches that have got a lot of
false doctrine.
But I'll tell you, I've just been in
Brazil again.
Not long ago, it's harvest time in Brazil.
We may have 25 million believers in Brazil.
I tell you, in Brazil, it makes what's
happening in Canada look like it's really pretty
slow.
Not exactly spiritual hockey.
God is working in Brazil.
God is working in Argentina.
I've just come from Argentina a few months
ago.
This one guy's church, I think, has gone
to 20,000 or something in a matter
of a couple of years.
People being saved.
People being healed.
People being blessed.
This is harvest time.
And every one of you should go out
of here into the new year wanting to
be a harvester.
Now, we know it's not as easy to
win some cold semi-pagan Canadian as it
is to win somebody from Brazil or Argentina.
But nothing's too hard for God.
Let's win some of these hockey players.
They make good missionaries.
Let's win some of these baseball players.
Imagine this year the Blue Jays.
Last time I was in Canada a few
years ago, these Blue Jays were supposed to
come and be testifying in a meeting and
I was going to preach at.
And they didn't show up.
I don't know, I think they had some
trouble that day.
But it used to be a number of
men on that team were really on fire
for Jesus.
I pray for the Toronto Blue Jays.
It's one of my favorite teams, at least
in the top 30.
And I believe they would make some good
missionaries as well.
So, God is saving all kinds of people.
Prostitutes.
We have a work in Quebec.
Just talked to the people on the phone
last night.
Just among prostitutes in Quebec.
We've seen prostitutes saved in the streets of
Paris.
Begin serving Jesus.
Do you ever pray for prostitutes?
Do you know in Bombay, India alone, where
I and my wife used to live, we
have 300,000.
They're spreading AIDS across the entire nation.
Who cares?
That's what it seems sometimes.
Go into all the world and preach the
gospel.
This is serious business.
Because the Bible says so.
And I hope tonight you, if you haven't
already done it, are going to make a
serious commitment.
Don't want to lose the world.
A serious commitment to be a global Christian.
I'm not asking you firstly to go.
I'm asking you firstly to become a global
Christian.
That doesn't mean you have to wear a
world jacket.
These jackets aren't just for anybody.
These are special.
But it does mean that you have to
begin to pray for the world.
We have some maps.
And they're not very expensive.
Steve Hawkins, our Toronto rep.
I don't know how he's got out this
far from Toronto.
He's supposed to be in charge of Toronto.
But Steve is there.
And he's got these maps.
What do these cost?
$3.50. Is that Canadian dollars?
$3.50. Get this.
This is a beginner's map.
It's a beginner's map.
We've got other maps.
That's a beginner's map.
$3.50. Okay.
Begin to pray for the nations.
Well, we gave you the Mongolian test.
That was a little unfair, right?
Let's do something easier.
How many of you pray for the nation
of France?
Raise your hand.
You pray for France.
We are not exactly improving at this point.
What did Jesus say in Acts 1.8?
How many know Acts 1.8?
Who can quote Acts 1.8?
Jump up and quote Acts 1.8. Surely
you've memorized that passage.
Give the whole verse.
Ah, that was prophetic.
That was prophetic.
You can sit down.
See, that's the part of the verse we
know.
You shall receive power after the Holy Ghost
has moved upon you.
Has filled you.
And that's what we all want.
But that's not the whole verse.
And you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem,
Judea, Samaria.
And where?
The uttermost part of the earth.
So if you don't even know where the
uttermost part of the earth is, how are
you going to become a real Acts 1
.8, Acts 1.8 spirit-filled Christian?
Difficult.
France.
We think France is in Europe.
Surely that's evangelized.
France does not even have one twenty-fifth
of the witness that we have here in
Canada.
Not even one one-hundredth.
I've just been in France twice again.
The past months, it's unbelievable.
The greatest work in France has been the
work of the Holy Spirit among the gypsies.
That's been exciting.
We'd like to see that spread to the
French people.
How many of you pray for Turkey?
Turkey, right here.
Right between Europe and Asia.
You can see it better here.
Turkey.
Right here over my heart.
Fifty million souls.
They're just like you and me.
They're people.
I'm sure we don't believe in Anglo-Saxon
-Canadian superiority complex.
None in this cosmopolitan country.
That would be foolish.
Turks.
They need Jesus.
Fifty million of them.
All the believers so far that have come
from the majority group background.
Most are Muslims.
All the believers that have come out from
Islam.
We've been laboring there thirty-three years.
Could fill.
Just fill this room.
Among fifty million.
How many people in Canada?
Is it twenty-seven million now?
Twenty-seven million more or less.
What a privilege to be a Canadian.
I tell you, I love this country.
This is about my 100th visit.
Sorry, I haven't learned the language.
But I love this country.
I'm not able to say hey properly.
But...
Thank you.
Amen, glory, hallelujah, hey.
But I believe it is in the plan
and purpose of God to continue to bless
the nations of the world through Canadian missionaries.
You say, well, you know, I'm willing.
You know, if God gives me a call,
I'm willing to go.
I've talked to a lot of young people
about this call.
I think this is a mistake.
People waiting for a special emotional call.
Sort of a zap in the night.
And I believe we need more guidance.
Acts 13.
Five men prayed.
God gave them a vision.
They waited upon God in prayer.
And then the Holy Spirit spoke.
That's beautiful, isn't it?
The Holy Spirit spoke.
And said, separate Paul and Barnabas.
Sending them out as missionaries.
And the church prayed.
And the church laid hands on them.
And the Holy Spirit sent them forth.
You study Acts 13.
In fact, while you're at it, study the
whole book of Acts.
I try to read it every year.
Certain sections of it.
Almost every month.
The book of Acts.
We can learn so much.
How the Holy Spirit worked.
How world missions had its beginning.
So I believe we need people who are
ready tonight to seek God's face about becoming
missionaries.
Then you wait upon God in prayer.
And then the church confirms.
The church and the leaders of the church
may say, hey, we're glad you got this
vision.
We think you need to prove yourself a
little bit here at home first.
And then maybe we'll send you out.
So I believe we need basic guidance.
One of my close friends who went to
glory rather quickly after I met him, I
hope it wasn't my fault, was a guy
named Keith Green.
And Keith Green, he's a little bit extreme.
I guess that's why we got on so
well.
We don't mind him.
Maybe she's volunteering for mission service there.
Let the children come.
But Keith Green said if God hasn't called
you to stay, you ought to go.
That's a bit over the top, isn't it?
Maybe the truth is somewhere in between.
Do you have a passion to go?
Is your heart concerned for the nations of
the world?
Jesus looked at the multitudes and He began
to weep.
It's my experience in Britain and many other
nations that too often as God's people, we're
mainly in it for ourselves.
We want to get a blessing.
We want to be healed.
We want to be helped.
I want all that.
But that isn't where it ends.
We then want to take the healing and
the help and the gospel to everybody in
the world.
Let me put this over here for a
bit.
And let me at this point just share
my testimony.
The bottom line I think for what I
want to say tonight or what I want
to do is I want to encourage you
to press on.
I sense there's some people here probably wrestling
with discouragement.
Ninety-two hasn't been exactly your boom town
turn the world upside down year.
And you're sort of wondering what does 1993
hold, especially since you don't have a job,
you owe a little money down at the
bank, your girlfriend's not really quite sure you're
the right one yet, and a few other
things aren't just working out exactly the way
you'd like.
And I would ask you to go into
1993 with a spirit of faith, with a
spirit of expectation.
One of the things that marks your movement,
you know, I read widely, I travel widely,
you're a widely criticized movement.
There's whole books, half books about you people.
Well, whenever a movement gets criticized like that,
I know God must be doing something.
If nobody is criticizing you, you are in
big trouble.
You better get a spiritual check-up right
away, because you can't do anything.
I've had so many people criticize me.
One of the beautiful things, I thank God,
in my own feeble, struggling life, I've never
had any bitterness about all the people that
criticized and assassinated me and O.M. all
over the world, sometimes because of our own
mistakes.
I remember when Billy Graham was attacked.
He's my spiritual father, and I'll get to
my testimony in a minute.
But I remember when the more extreme fundamentalist
people, that was more known back in the
50s, turned against Billy Graham.
He had letters from all over the country,
just, I mean, attacking him.
Some of you are too young to know
much about all this.
I'll give you a little history lesson tonight.
He laid all the letters on the bed,
and he said, God, I'm not going to
sleep until I have nothing but love for
all these people.
What's your attitude toward people that don't like
you?
What's your attitude toward maybe a church you
used to go to where you got walked
on?
What's your attitude toward maybe even people in
your own family that really have given you
a raw deal?
One of the greatest works of the Holy
Spirit is the grace awakening.
And every night we can go to sleep
with a clean conscience and a sense of
wholeness and a sense of forgiveness toward all
people, even those who may have criticized us.
So I hope I can encourage you to
press on.
I hope that if some of you are
battling discouragement and you've had a rough year,
that you'll go into 93 with a spirit
of faith and expectation.
My message isn't mainly or firstly world missions.
My message, I would like to be as
apostolic as I read in the book of
Acts, to preach and declare by the grace
of God the whole counsel of His Word.
Now, I can't do it all.
I don't get that many opportunities in one
sense.
When I go to a church or in
a fellowship for the first time, I don't
give a message 388, which I do have.
I just start sort of in the beginning.
So let me share my testimony because my
testimony isn't so important, but I'm hoping that
some lessons about encouragement, perseverance, discipline, reality of
the Holy Spirit will come through.
I'll let your own ministers expound the Word
of God.
I haven't come to expound the Scriptures, though
I fanatically believe in that.
I've come perhaps with exhortation.
I've come with a word from the Lord
that will have some verver dirt mixed in
it for this treasure's in earthen vessels.
And I come hoping that I can encourage
you to just keep on running.
It says in Romans 10, verse 15, how
shall they preach, how shall they go unless
they are sent?
Have you seen that verse?
That's a hot one, isn't it?
I get so excited about the Bible.
The Word of God.
The Bible is the Word of God.
Romans 10, verse 15.
How shall they preach?
How shall they go unless they be sent?
There's a book on the table.
There's only a couple left.
Serving as a sender.
What in the world does that mean?
That's what your fellowship here is becoming.
It already is.
This ain't a sleeping fellowship.
This is a sending fellowship.
This is not a fellowship just for the
magnifying of your own problems so that you
can get involved in operation introspection and be
one more gospel weirdo.
This is a fellowship for seeing people change
by the power of God and then seeing
those people reach out to others and even
across the world.
It's a sending fellowship.
Serving as a sender.
So God sent Billy Graham to New York
City.
I feel God sent him for me.
I was from a nominal Christian home.
It's just like a non-Christian home.
It's really almost worse because religion...
Religion is often the enemy of spiritual revolution.
And this church I went to...
You need a lot of discernment to understand
churches.
There are churches that are a bit sleepy,
but they're faithful to God's Word.
And there's a starting point there.
This church was apostate, departed from God's Word.
Salvation, the blood of Christ, departed.
It was a social club.
So I was religious and lost.
And God sent Billy Graham to New York
City not for a crusade.
He just came for one night because he
heard New York City was so tough.
Two years or a little more before he
came, a lady...
I know some of you heard part of
this at God's Rock on Friday night, so
I'll sort of jump ahead.
Then I'll condense a bit.
Two or three years before Billy Graham came,
a woman put me on her hit list.
You might call it a prayer list depending
on what you're doing.
She not only prayed that I would become
a Christian.
That was bad enough.
She prayed that I would become a missionary.
There wasn't even any discussion.
Imagine that.
I don't know if any of you have
a grandmother or grandfather or uncle or aunt
praying that you're going to become a missionary.
You might as well just go as soon
as possible.
Save yourself a lot of hassle because God
answers prayer.
And then that woman sent me a Gospel
of John through the mail.
And I began to read this Gospel because
I was seeking.
Now my life was sports, women, New York
nightclubs, money.
That was my life.
And this woman comes meddling into my life
with her prayers.
Many of you have had the same experience,
right?
Somebody praying for you.
The weapons of our warfare are not carnal
but mighty unto God to the pulling down
of strongholds.
I'll tell you one of the most encouraging
things in this Canadian visit was when I
was with you people on Friday night and
after the meeting was over, you spent time
in prayer.
I tell you that's where the battles are
won.
I've tried to spend a half night in
prayer almost every single week of my life.
It's not always easy.
And there's no brownie points for just sitting
in prayer meetings.
But the Bible says that we wrestle not
against flesh and blood but against principalities and
against powers.
And if we're going to get in spiritual
warfare and there's going to be a lot
of it in 1993, we've got to get
down to prayer.
We've got to get down to specific prayer.
And we need to make sure our own
personal prayer life is sorted out.
That takes discipline.
That takes faith.
It takes accountability.
So this woman that came into my life
was a powerhouse for God.
Later on, after my conversion, I met some
of the other women that used to follow
Billy Graham around just praying for him.
Just praying for him.
Absolutely amazing.
In fact, Billy came back to New York
City two years later.
And I was privileged to be in some
of those prayer meetings behind the scenes.
People on the floor weeping, crying out to
God for revival in New York City.
Anyway, I went to this Billy Graham meeting.
And I heard the Gospel that Jesus Christ
died on the cross for me.
There may be someone here tonight that's new
to these things.
Jesus Christ died on the cross for you.
And Billy, at the end of this meeting,
did something I had hardly ever seen.
He called people forward to repent.
To be ministered to.
I initially wasn't going to move out of
my seat.
I didn't need that much.
That seemed like heavy dosage.
I had this blonde with me.
Proxide blonde.
Didn't have a great reputation.
I was secretly in love with her.
So I bowed my head and prayed for
her.
Maybe she could use some of this hot
religion.
I was already the president of my church
youth fellowship.
I was about to receive the God in
Country Award in the Boy Scouts.
I tried to get in the Girl Scouts,
but that door was closed.
Do I need to repent?
But as I bowed my head and prayed,
it was a long time ago, the Holy
Spirit hit me like a fast train.
Isn't it great when the Holy Spirit just
really opens up on you?
Oh my, oh my.
Be ye filled with the Holy Ghost.
D.L. Moody.
You ever read about D.L. Moody?
You know what the secular encyclopedia says about
D.L. Moody?
Overweight American evangelist who depopulated hell by two
million souls.
So much for Weight Watchers.
D.L. Moody, way back more than 100
years ago, he would emphasize the need to
be filled with the Holy Ghost.
And he would emphasize the need to be
filled again and again.
One day a lady in the front row
said, Mr. Moody, why do you keep going
on about being filled again and again?
And he looked her in the eye and
he said, Madam, because I leak.
That ministered to me.
I've had very special meetings with the Spirit
of God.
I've often spent whole days in prayer in
mountains, in caves.
It was when I came back some years
after my conversion from being arrested by the
KGB for Bible smuggling in the Soviet Union.
I went for a day of prayer in
the mountains of Austria.
I was in the top of a tree.
And God, just like that, gave me a
picture of millions and millions of people being
reached throughout Europe.
And then He gave me two words that
I had never hardly pronounced in my life
before.
Operation Mobilization.
And that led to the birth of OM,
which 75,000 people have taken part, which
tens of thousands have gone to heaven, which
over 100 organizations traced their birth roots back
to.
One woman prayed for me.
Billy Graham let the Holy Spirit send him
to New York City.
I forgot to tell you that I got
to the meeting because a businessman gave me
a free seat on a bus.
Praise God for people using their money for
the kingdom.
I tell you, if God has entrusted you
with any money, quite a few of you
from your eyes, you look broke.
But if God has entrusted any of you
with any money, that is a serious thing.
That is a serious thing.
Even as a young Christian, I had this
little business.
I sold firefighting equipment and fire alarms and
a few other things.
And I owned a little philatelic agency, a
stamp business.
That wasn't really so good.
You'd buy a stamp for one cent and
sell it for a dollar.
I sometimes felt bad about that.
I gave those businesses to God.
And one of the greatest joys I had
as a young Christian was giving money for
World Evangelism.
Before God ever sent me.
Before I ever went to Mexico.
I was 18 when I went to Mexico.
So Billy Graham gave the invitation.
I went forward.
I was saved.
The Holy Spirit came to live in me.
Began to fill me.
I went back to my high school with
the anointing of God.
Do you know what it is to have
the anointing of God on you at 16
years of age?
It's dangerous.
Because you can do stupid things.
Because the anointing doesn't mean you're smart or
clever or educated or know Greek or can
preach the Word of God.
But I went back to my high school
and I began to speak of Jesus.
We organized prayer meetings.
We got into the Word.
And fortunately, we got some good Christian books.
If you don't buy some of these great
Christian books we have there tonight, even if
you give them a post-dated check, we
take up to the year 2000.
You need your head examined.
Because it's a privilege to get a hold
of Christian books.
Get some things sorted out in your own
head.
We started these prayer meetings in this high
school.
This school where a third of the students
were drunk on the weekends.
It's just outside New York City.
People are wild.
We had one meeting.
600 people came to the meeting.
And when it came time for me to
give an invitation for people to repent and
believe on Jesus Christ, 125 of those students,
some of them the school drunks, stood up.
Before that, we had a campaign to distribute
the Word of God in an amazing way.
1,000 students in that school promised to
read the Gospel of John.
Can you imagine students, high school students, reading
the Gospel of John?
Most of all those people that stood up
in that meeting were young people.
Some of them became missionaries.
You see, that lady had prayed for a
revival for that school for 15 years.
Are any of you discouraged in your prayer
ministry?
I love it when Christians are honest.
Don't you like it when Christians are honest?
Stop playing games, tear the mask off, and
really be real.
That's one of the things that's kept me
going all these years.
Be real.
And be accountable.
I hope you've got somebody you're accountable to.
How many of you ever struggled with your
sexuality?
Raise your hand.
Let's see how honest you can be.
Whoa!
Look at that.
Almost everybody.
That was my big struggle.
I tell you, from age four, these little
things that God created with little different kinds
of eyes and faces and hair and knees.
Age four.
I fell in love at age four.
I remember because I wasn't going to school
yet.
And I waited outside this primary school for
this girl, this one girl, to come and
sharpen her pencil in the window.
By the time I was 16, there were
32 different girlfriends in my life.
And after I was saved, for a while
I thought, deliverance.
All this is going to be taken care
of.
Don't make that mistake.
I remember leading this girl to Christ there
by the Washington Memorial.
I think I told you that on Friday
night.
And then for the next three hours, necking
with her.
This is not in the personal evangelism book.
I don't even know what word you use
for that anymore.
And then I had a major failure.
I'm embarrassed to share this, but I want
to share it.
Because thousands of young people have written me
over the years.
I mean thousands.
22,000 have written me just from one
of my books alone.
And many of them have said, look, it's
been your openness, your honesty about your struggles
as a Christian in the area of sex
that have totally changed my life.
So one or two years after being a
Christian, I thought I was doing alright in
my Christian life.
That's dangerous.
Beware if you think you're doing alright in
your Christian life.
Why?
Because the Bible says, take heed lest you
fall.
I was at this little sleepy Presbyterian college.
God was working.
There was an anointing.
I went down to the jail.
Most of the people got saved there.
I went into the streets.
People were coming to Christ every week.
I thought I was doing alright.
Not much problem.
I wasn't even dating girls anymore.
I went into this fast against dating.
I think when we're first converted and we've
got struggles with sexuality, we tend to let
the pendulum swing the other way.
No more women.
No more dating.
Touch not.
Look not.
Some guys put their necks right out of
joint just trying to look the other way.
And I hitchhiked hundreds of miles from this
college to visit a friend, a relative.
And she was busy.
So I went out in the streets giving
out tracts.
Indianapolis.
Young Christian.
Now let me just jump back and say
at 16 I was into pornography together with
all my girlfriends because in that day in
my community you wouldn't sleep with these girls.
We didn't do that so quickly back in
the 50s.
And so you got confused and you fell
easily into the kind of mild pornography we
had.
And of course I knew this was wrong
and as a Christian I turned from it.
But that day in the streets of Indianapolis
I was giving out tracts and I was
starting to get confused.
The lights, the women, the pictures.
And to my amazement I walked.
Stopped giving out tracts and walked right into
a burlesque place, striptease place, girly place.
I don't know what they call them anymore.
Can you imagine as a Christian sitting in
there watching?
Well, I discovered I really was a Christian
that night because I was miserable.
This was not me.
This was not what I wanted.
And I was out of there like a
flash.
And I walked into the telephone box in
the Indianapolis bus station and picked up the
phone and started to pour out my heart
to God.
They used to have these nice phone booths.
They're great for prayer.
I was pouring out my heart to God,
repenting of this lust of the eyes.
But I felt condemned.
Have you had the devil try to condemn
you in 1992?
Try to say you're finished?
You're no different than you were before you
were saved.
You might as well go back to the
pit because you're still living as if you
were there.
The accuser of the brethren tried to hit
me in that phone booth.
But I stood on the Word of God.
A verse I learned as a baby Christian.
Confess your sin.
He is faithful and just to forgive you
and cleanse you from all unrighteousness.
And I walked out of that kiosk, that
telephone box.
I didn't feel forgiven.
But in raw faith, I turned from this
lust.
And as I walked through that bus station,
it's as if it happened last year, a
man walked up to me and within a
moment, he said, what must I do to
be saved?
I mean, have you had this experience in
the bus station?
People ask you, where's the bus to Winnipeg?
People say, where's the bus to Ottawa?
They don't walk up to you in a
bus station or in a train station.
They say, what must I do to be
saved?
Within an hour, after sharing from the Word
of God, we walked up to the Indianapolis
War Memorial.
He gave his life to Jesus and was
born again.
Often when God wants to use you in
a mighty way, you will be tempted.
I remember once, another bus trip years later,
I was going to speak at the biggest
meeting in my life, the Urbana Convention.
I was to be the youngest person ever
to speak at the Urbana Convention, the Great
Missions Convention, with 10,000 people.
And on a bus, away from my wife,
a bit lonely, I saw the most beautiful
woman I had ever seen in my life
up to that time.
And I thought, there's only one thing I
want in life.
Can you imagine a Christian?
Only one thing I want in life right
now.
I want her.
Of course, it's so ridiculous.
She probably would have just clobbered me with
her pocketbook.
But when Satan is turning on the heat,
we do stupid things.
In five minutes of stupidity, young man, you
will regret it the rest of your life.
But I knew spiritual warfare.
I knew prayer.
I ran into the telephone booth.
This was years after the Indianapolis crisis.
And I repented.
And I cried out to God for help.
I was all alone.
I walked out of the phone booth.
I saw her again.
I used to get angry with God about
this.
I said, Lord God, why do You create
things so beautiful?
Why aren't there more ugly women in the
world?
It would be so much easier.
I ran back into the phone booth.
It's the truth.
And God just took it from me.
The amazing thing is I found out the
next morning I slept real well that night
that that woman was behind me in the
bus seat the whole time.
It was all over.
I was again another extreme temptation.
The Lord just took me through.
Infatuation.
How many of you are married?
All married men at this time can raise
their hand.
Let's see who is married.
Okay, all the married women.
Raise your hand.
Infatuation.
It happens.
There's a book on that table called Eros
Defiled.
I think it's there.
John White.
Everybody should read this.
If I were a pastor of a church,
you have to read this before you get
in a church.
It's so basic.
It's so important.
John White has been one of my favorite
authors for 25 years.
He comes from Lancaster where the ship vision
was born when I lived in a converted
pub not far from where he was born.
I was up in Sweden.
And again, it happened.
I thought, I'm finished with all this now.
I'm getting older.
I've got a couple of kids.
I've got a good marriage.
We've got the normal marriage.
We're making love.
We're doing what needs to be done.
I'm up in Sweden and I see this
woman.
Suddenly, I'm sitting in the back of a
car with this woman and I'm feeling like
I hadn't felt for a long time.
Because as marriage goes on, sometimes the feelings
aren't so condensed.
They're there, but they're stretched out.
And I was infatuated with this woman.
And it was tormenting me.
I want to tell you, if you ever
have this experience, it is not from God.
It is not from God, no matter how
nice it seems.
We had a man in London years ago
who got a prophecy.
Praise God for wisdom these days in testing
prophecies.
He got a prophecy that he had married
the wrong wife.
So he divorced her and got one.
Of course, she was also more in line
with his theological changes.
We've got to have the power of God,
but we've got to have the Word of
God and those two things in balance.
I remember what old Bob Mumford used to
say on that.
It was a great help to me.
So I knew that wasn't from God and
I fought it.
I think I even shared it with my
wife.
I've always kept an open book with my
wife, not in every detail, but in a
basic way.
And an amazing thing, this woman joined Operation
Mobilization.
And an amazing thing, she moved into the
same headquarters where I was living.
And I tell you, I had to battle
that.
You see, it wasn't a matter of just
doing anything with this woman.
We have to guard our minds.
We're not to run lust trips through our
film track in our heads.
That's lust.
It's wrong.
I kept praying and I kept battling.
We believe in deliverance, but God sometimes lets
you wrestle with something for a while before
you're set free from it.
You must understand that.
Eventually, within some months, God set me free
from it.
When I saw her later on, nothing was
there.
But before that deliverance was a time of
struggle, a time of testing.
Later on I met her and she got
real fat.
So I said, even as a human being,
I said, thank you, Jesus.
No, I shouldn't say that.
That's not right.
I quoted from Billy Graham the other night
and somebody came to me this evening and
said that quote from Billy Graham has just
been on their heart and is so ministered
to them.
Billy Graham speaking at an Urbana convention.
By the way, I did go to Urbana.
I had to take Billy Graham's place that
night at Urbana.
And when I gave the invitation, it was
an invitation for people to repent, especially of
moral sin.
And 4,000 people stood at Urbana and
repented.
And I meet them in every nation almost
of the world as missionaries and soldiers of
Jesus Christ.
Do you know what it says in the
book of Proverbs?
The wicked woman hunts for the valuable life.
Why are we seeing so many Christian leaders?
Did you read John Wimber's article about fallen
leaders?
Everybody needs to read that.
Why is that happening?
Because the wicked woman under the inspiration of
Satan hunts for the precious life.
And again and again as a young Christian,
as my life was being formed, as God
was preparing me for India, God was preparing
me to help start this movement, the enemy
again and again tried to destroy me and
trying to make use of the greatest, greatest
weakness in my life.
The whole sexual area.
Now, maybe that's not your problem.
Fine.
You can contextualize what I'm sharing to whatever
your problem is.
For many women, and many women don't understand
men, and our marriages would be a lot
better if we did understand one another.
But many women, their big thing isn't lust.
Their thing is insecurity.
Fear of never getting married.
Worry.
Those three things.
And those three things often set women up
to commit immorality when they have no interest
in the sexual side of the whole thing.
At least at that moment.
But they're afraid and insecurity comes in and
worry comes in and other pressures and then
you have that sort of cooperative effort.
All the time I'm having to deal with
people on the phone.
I can't do all the counseling I want
to do.
None of us can.
Some of it I have to do over
the phone.
One of my friends in Chicago, her husband,
just walked out on her to go off
with another woman.
Do you realize how devastating that is?
Brothers and sisters, we do not have to
have that kind of thing in the body
of Jesus Christ.
In our own movement, we've been going 35
years all over the world.
We have had very little.
We keep short accounts and close accounts.
We walk in the light.
1 John 1-2.
Very little of that kind of thing.
I don't think we should be intimidated by
this program that Satan has going.
I think we need to stand on God's
promises and know that we can walk in
purity.
We can deal with infatuation.
We can deal with problems in our marriages.
And God, I believe, wants to do a
new thing in this area.
But let me go on a little more
with my story.
I saw some amazing things happen, but more
and more, my focus was the unreached people
of the world.
I began to read.
I thought I had brought a copy of
Operation World up here, but it's back there
on the table.
It's a book that shares prayer requests on
almost every nation in the world.
And I began to read books like that
and missionary prayer letters and go to missionary
meetings.
I went even 75, 80 miles away to
go to a missions conference.
I'd never been to one.
I couldn't believe it.
All these exhibits, all these different missionaries, all
different groups, seeing what God was doing.
I recommitted my life.
I said, God, I'll go wherever You want
me to go.
I guess in some ways I'd already prayed
that.
I prayed it again.
And as I studied, somehow some literature about
Mexico fell in my hands.
God's providence.
Tonight, you have to face the reality of
God's providence.
Being in this meeting Sunday night talking about
the world, hearing this testimony, being exposed to
some of these countries we've referred to, this
literature, God's providence.
I am only able to accept one out
of every 20 invitations to minister in Canada.
People will pay my air ticket from London
to Vancouver almost any time I want.
I'm not saying that to boast.
I'm only saying that to drive home that
in God's providence, we're here tonight.
I leave at 645 in the morning out
of the airport.
And I believe it's because there are some
people here that are just like where I
was at 17 years of age when God
was turning on the heat for the unreached
people.
And God was saying the nations of the
world, the people of the world.
Well, what can I do?
Eighteen-year-old kid still struggling with lust.
Not very disciplined.
Still a hothead.
Still a big mouth.
These things don't all change overnight if you've
got these kind of problems like I had.
Have.
How's God going to use me?
But I learned how to pray.
I experienced the fullness and the baptism and
the reality of the Holy Spirit.
I learned how to memorize Scripture.
I learned how to hold high the shield
of faith to stop those fiery darts of
the enemy.
I learned how to deal with discouragement.
And I had plenty of it.
And at 18, after reading about Mexico, I
said I'm going to go.
I didn't have a church.
I probably made some mistakes.
I said I'm going to go.
These people need Christ.
I had read that many people in Mexico
didn't have the Scriptures.
I was interested in raising money for Scriptures
before I was even saved.
You can imagine what happened after I got
saved.
I believe everybody in the world should have
at least the Word of God.
I wrestled with this.
I prayed.
I didn't have any money much.
God supplied an old van, 10,000 Scriptures,
and two other brothers that I recruited to
go to Mexico.
That was the first birth of Operation Mobilization.
I was 18.
I saw people fight to get a hold
of the Gospel of John.
I saw people, even though my Spanish was
so weak, we'd play Gospel records and we'd
see people just repent and come to Jesus.
When that kind of thing happens to you
and you're just a young Christian and a
teenager, your life is never the same.
I went out to a garbage dump, worked
among the garbage people.
They lived in the garbage.
Imagine going to the local garbage dump for
a meal.
I picked up a little baby and held
the little baby in my arms.
One third of her body was covered with
flies.
I saw people getting their meals by picking
little bits out of the rubbish, out of
the garbage, and making a little garbage soup
and drinking it.
I walked into the sunset that night and
I completely again broke before God and recommitted
my life to be an ambassador of Jesus
Christ.
Though it was very much against my peers,
my relatives' thinking, I went back to this
university where I was studying and I quit.
And I tell you, that was not done.
I threw the opportunity for a degree.
I had no degree.
Can you imagine in modern society not having
even a bachelor's degree?
I mean, idiots have a bachelor's degree in
the United States.
I left this university and I went to
Bible college.
I didn't know what Bible college was.
I largely went to Bible college in Chicago
because I was burdened for the cities.
Let me get some water.
I was learning by doing in the jails,
in the streets, literature distribution, preaching, and yet
I was in a little sort of out
of the way place near Knoxville, Tennessee.
So I went to Chicago.
I went to Bible college and I started
going door to door with Spanish books and
into the streets and working among drunks.
It changed my life.
Your life isn't going to change just going
to meetings.
Your life isn't going to change just in
praise and worship for an hour and I
love that.
Your life is going to change.
That's part of it.
When you start practicing what you're singing about,
when you start trusting God in specific ways,
it's too much general kind of faith, survival
faith.
You start trusting God in specific ways.
God taught us in those very early days
that He would provide money through prayer.
You didn't have to go on a big
fundraising.
I'm not against fundraising, but you didn't need
to go on a big fundraising thing and
waste a lot of money on glossy literature
and all kinds of things in some of
our organizations.
50% of the money is spent to
raise the rest of the money.
It's ridiculous.
I'm not going to give any of my
money to those groups.
I'll tell you that.
We had prayer for finance and we saw
miracles.
Again, I could go on too long.
I think I shared with you on Friday
night.
I'm the longest preacher in Europe.
A lot of doors closed to me because
of that because a lot of our churches
like short meetings.
I preach a lot among the Anglicans and
there are a lot of spirit-baptized, spirit
-filled Anglicans in England where I'm from.
But some of them, some of the more
traditional churches, they like short services.
I was in a church and the man
wanted me to speak 20 minutes.
I said, hey, what about 25?
He said, take 21.
But I think I told you about the
meeting in Germany many years ago.
I was preaching about discipleship and commitment and
world missions and the need to forsake all
and follow Christ.
Young people were listening.
It was mainly an OM meeting so I
felt free.
We organized it.
A man in the back was trying to
get me to stop.
He held up his watch.
I said, folks, praise be to God.
Look at this man.
He's donating his watch for world missions.
From Spain and from Chicago and from that
Bible college, God sent me to Spain under
Franco, Nazi Spain.
We saw miracles.
From Spain, I launched a thrust into the
Soviet Union, a little bit premature.
I wasn't really ready.
How many of you know my good friend,
Brother Andrew, God's smuggler?
He's a wild Dutchman as well.
Tonight, you've got Brother George, God's bungler.
It's the truth.
I went into the Soviet Union.
I had these Gospels hidden in the cornflakes
boxes.
I had a printing press under the dashboard.
And due to my own mistake, I got
caught on the second or third day there
near Love in Ukraine.
What a devastating experience.
They interrogated us for two or three days.
They first thought we were American spies going
to send us all expenses paid vacation in
Siberia.
Then after a day or so, they decided
we were religious fanatics.
Gave us a submachine gun escort back to
Austria with the help of the Czechoslovakians.
Devastating.
Failure.
Any of you had any good, juicy failures?
1992?
Let me tell you some good news.
Failure can be the backdoor to success.
And you're not hearing the testimony tonight of
Mr. Success.
You're hearing the testimony of a failure who
again and again has had to crawl back
to the cross and ask God to redirect
me and help me and fill me afresh
for His service.
There's a book out now.
You ought to read it.
It's brilliant.
It's called Failure, Backdoor to Success.
I haven't even read it.
Just the cover broke my heart.
Some of you don't read much?
Just go look at the covers.
Just look at the covers.
It'll break your heart.
Think of that book.
We're all sold out.
Grace Awakening.
I believe it's the greatest book of this
decade.
Grace Awakening.
Amazing.
Amazing message especially for characters like me.
Failure, the backdoor to success.
Let's make 1993 count.
Let's go from here with a spirit of
expectation.
Let's get these maps of the world and
begin to pray for the nations of the
world.
Let's realize that if God can use an
old lady and a struggling lusty holic to
begin a mission society that has given the
Gospel to 500 million people never done before
on this planet, then you don't have any
excuse.
Get with it.
In the name of the Lord Jesus.
Your prayer life.
Your evangelism.
Your walk with Jesus.
The purity.
The reality.
I already told you what happened after I
came back from Russia.
I went back for a day of prayer
on the mountains and God gave me those
two words, Operation Mobilization.
He said I was to mobilize Europeans.
I wasn't a European.
How am I going to mobilize Europeans?
I was a nobody.
Our group called Send the Light previous to
this new name, Operation Mobilization.
It's unheard of.
But an answer to prayer and the nights
of prayer and a work of the Holy
Spirit.
By the next summer, God gave us 200
Europeans.
By the next summer, 2,000.
A couple of years later, an ocean-going
ship that could reach tens of millions through
the Gospel.
A few years after that, a bigger ocean
-going ship that has a staff bigger than
most mission societies.
300 people on MV Dulas listed in the
Guinness Book of Records as the oldest passenger
ship of the world would soon launch out
and touch nations across the whole world.
Around that same time, another movement was born
that you're more familiar with, Youth with a
Mission.
I remember meeting Lauren in California when Youth
with a Mission was being born.
Within minutes, there was a bonding.
And Lauren said, Hey, I'd like to come
over to Europe and see what you people
are doing.
This very humble man came to Europe, not
for a great position.
I didn't know what God was doing.
Youth with a Mission was just being born.
I said, Lauren, you can be in charge
of the literature.
I got pictures of Lauren Cunningham carrying boxes
of books around the OM warehouse in Paris
the year between the two summers that we
gave the Gospel to 25 million souls.
God works in different ways in different people.
But God wants to work in all of
His children.
Nobody is excluded.