We start with him, and we go on
with him.
There was such a sweet guy that we
met a few years ago when we were
doing an outreach.
And he looks very thin, and he has
a dark skin, and he's a little bit
upset.
Well, I suppose you would be upset if
you lived in the street for such a
long time.
And he got thinner and thinner, and he
had a dog which got fatter and fatter.
In fact, it was a really gross dog.
Looked more like a pig.
And it was very ugly, and he really
loved this dog.
And it was quite a famous dog in
the street in which he slept.
It was so fat that the people in
the street used to play chess on it.
I mean, it really was that fat it
could hardly move, too.
Because he gave it all his foot.
And we were doing an outreach.
I don't know if you do outreaches.
Maybe you did one today.
Did you?
Any of you do an outreach?
Well, we were doing an outreach in the
park, you know, which is when we stand
on a platform and sing about him.
And then we get down from the platform
and we touch people.
But he was too frightened to be touched.
And I could see him.
And that the seeing, I don't know quite
how it works, but, you know, Gary was
talking about not understanding what John Wimber and
Blaine were talking about seeing the spirit.
And you think, how can I see?
But you can learn.
And with the seeing, I don't know quite
how it works, but you can learn.
You can see somehow, you must touch this
one now.
So I walked around the park.
And I stayed about ten yards away from
him at least, because I knew he couldn't
stand anybody to be closer.
And we walked around several times.
And after about three times, a very big
concrete park, after several times, I just got
a bit closer.
Of course, I couldn't physically touch him at
this time.
That's too much.
And that was all that day.
That was all.
And then another day, a little closer.
Until we knew his name and he knew
how to find us.
And he was a heroin addict.
And he used to come up to...
We had addict meetings.
And of course, he came to know Jesus
very quickly.
And he is wonderful.
Wonderful at understanding Scripture.
Wonderful.
I'll give you some examples of how our
people understand Scripture.
This is quite extraordinary.
And I'm telling you these stories because I
want you to be jealous.
Because people often say, Jackie, where do you
get your teaching from?
And I say, well, I get it from
the Holy Spirit and the people that I'm
with.
And one day in an addict meeting like
this one that he came to, it was
Easter.
And all we ever do in these addict
meetings is worship.
And we go through gospel stories.
I won't allow epistles at this point.
Only gospel stories.
And we were doing the resurrection appearances of
Jesus.
And so I asked them, because I don't
teach Bible at these meetings, when they're born
again, they're still on drugs, most of them,
the Holy Spirit can teach them Scripture.
There's no point in my preaching at them
because their brains are half-sogged with heroin.
You know, they're really...
But they can hear God, so I get
them to teach me what they hear.
And I really believe the Holy Spirit can
do this.
It's wonderful.
So I said at this Easter time, we
were doing the story of Jesus appearing to
the disciples in the room.
And I said, okay, how did he get
there?
Well, this guy who had come four days
earlier, that means he was a four-day
-old Christian, had brought a friend with him,
which is awful because they're always doing this.
And his friend had come to know Jesus
half an hour.
Well, the half an hour one said, oh,
yeah, it says the door was locked.
He must have got in through the wall.
I said, okay, how did he get in
through the wall?
Well, the half an hour one said, he's
a ghost.
And the four-day-old one said, no,
he's not.
On Wednesday we did that.
He's got flesh and bones.
I said, okay, he's got flesh and bones.
How did he get through the wall?
And they're all on the edge of their
seats.
I mean, this is real fun stuff, you
know.
The rest of the world's filling in salvation
booklets, and our guys are doing, how did
Jesus get through a wall?
And so I said, how did he get
there?
And the four-day-old one said, fatly.
Which means he's got miraculous power or magic
power.
I said, okay, how long did he have
this fatly?
Well, he said, Jesus always had fatly.
But before he died, he never used it
on himself.
This guy's still on heroin.
And I said, do we get fatly?
And he said, yeah, we get fatly.
He said, now it happens in our heart.
Later it'll happen in our body.
Not bad.
I mean, fancy understanding resurrection of the body
when you're four days old.
Anyway, this guy is like this.
He understands scripture.
Now, you see, they receive it spiritually.
I don't teach them.
I learn from what they share with me.
And this guy still looks awful.
And he looks so awful.
And he's still so wounded that he can't
bear us to pray for him.
Because he feels dirty.
He feels ashamed.
And he's not used to people, you see.
He's just used to his dog.
And so he used to come week after
week after week.
And he loved worshiping.
He sings most terribly.
But he's a wonderful guy to be near
and worship.
He just worships.
And sometimes I found that the only way
I could get to pray for him in
these meetings was to go to him.
And I did this quite genuinely.
And I would say to him, Daito, I'm
so tired this evening.
I'm so exhausted.
Would you mind praying for me?
And he always would.
And when he put his hands on me
and prayed for me, I sneaked one in
for him.
This is how it worked.
And he came to live in our house.
And he never could last very long, you
see.
We've got wonderful helpers.
But, you know, it's hard for our helpers.
You know how we get people off drugs?
We have six men looking after one man
for one day.
That is, we have six people doing a
four-hour duty.
They never leave him.
They go into the toilet with him, into
the bathroom.
They never leave him alone for a day,
a minute, a second.
They're always there praying for him, massaging him,
bathing him, worshiping, and so on.
Six in one day.
In ten days, that means 60 Christians have
helped.
So, you know, it's hard for our helpers
because they're tired.
The awful thing is if 20 people get
saved in one week, can you add up
how many people we need?
And why the church needs to be mobilized?
You see, it's actually not that hard a
job, but our people are tired.
And when you've got a funny guy in
the house, who's not lived in a house,
and who doesn't really understand sort of getting
up and, you know, normal things, sometimes it's
hard for them to be patient because they're
short on sleep, and, you know, they're not
all that perfected either.
And so he never lasted very long, and
he used to go back to the streets
and go back to heroin.
And he was so ashamed of himself when
this happened, that he never would come back
to our addicts' meetings for a long time,
because he felt unworthy, until the Holy Spirit
attracted him back again.
He couldn't really stay away that long.
But, you know, I think he's wonderful, this
guy.
You know, after two times in our house,
and this was after knowing him for about
two years, he would come to our addicts'
meetings in a suit.
And he's the only one that wears a
suit.
The rest of us wear T-shirts and
shorts, and he would come.
He's a street sleeper.
He would come in a suit.
And he would come two hours early, and
he would go into the toilet and scrub
it cleaner than you've ever seen.
It was wonderful.
He served us.
He'd been touched with kindness, and he was
so kind to us.
And when he had scrubbed it so clean,
he would sit by the door, because we
have an answer phone, and he would make
it his job to answer the answer phone.
So when people buzzed at the door at
the bottom, he was the one that pressed
the come in knob.
And he liked doing that.
And I look at him.
I often look at him.
And just like Gary said on Thursday night,
I think, oh, from where he started to
where he's come, he's got so much further
than I have.
I'm proud to call him my brother, and
I honor what God has done in him,
and I honor his courage in allowing it.
And the last time was just a few
weeks ago.
He failed our house again.
I mean, fancy failing a Christian program.
At this time, he came back to the
meeting quite quick, and I said to him,
Thay Thao, have you any idea what made
you run?
And he said, yes.
He said there are things inside me that
make me frightened, and I'm frightened to face
them.
The extraordinary thing is, he could hear my
question and answer it.
I don't know many people that could answer
that question.
I thought, this man is brilliant.
I mean, never mind he's still on heroin.
He has come so far.
He understands, and he allows God's grace in
his life, and he acts, and he serves,
and he does good works while he's still
being saved.
You may start to see one such as
he.
In 1 John 3, 16, this is what
it says.
This is how we know what love is.
Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.
Past tense.
He laid down his life for us, and
we ought to lay down our life for
our brothers.
If anyone has material possessions, and sees his
brother in need, but has no pity on
him, how can the love of God be
in him?
Now, it says if anyone has material possessions.
It doesn't say if anybody's got many.
It says if anyone has material possessions.
That's all of us.
Sees his brother in need, but has no
compassion on him.
How can the love of God be in
him?
Says John.
How can God's love be in him, if
when he sees his brother, he doesn't act?
And apparently it's something to do with material
possessions.
If anyone has material possessions.
And the implication is that we might share
what we've got with someone else.
And this is the heart that I'm longing
to see more and more.
And you know, it's so exciting.
Because in the last few years, there've been
quite a few Canadian hearts.
Of course, there would be thousands more that
I don't know of.
But I've seen a few young people like
some who've shared in the past few days.
They haven't got a lot.
And they're not very experienced.
And they're not very mature.
But they are willing to share what they've
got.
Their time.
Their sleep.
Their holidays.
That's all.
The tough people might know how kind God
is.
How would they know he was kind unless
someone touched them?
There was a man I knew.
He was a doctor, actually.
He read this passage.
And he said, Jackie, would you pray for
me that I will have compassion?
Because I don't have love.
Now, I'm a little bit wary about praying
for people to have compassion, honestly.
Because I'm not sure it happens here.
You see, compassion really is when you need
it.
There.
Why would you have it here?
This is sort of a wasted thing, I
suppose.
You see, it's for when you have gone
and seen.
And are moved by his heart to understand
how they feel with them and with some
kind of solution.
Because compassion brings some kind of solution.
At least the touch of Jesus.
But anyway, this man asked me to pray.
And I said, well, I'll use the old
-fashioned Bible to pray for you.
Because the old-fashioned Bible in this passage
says, If anyone sees his brother in need
but does not open his bowels of compassion.
So, I put my hands on this doctor
and I said, Lord, open his bowels.
He had diarrhea for three days.
True.
And about time, too.
Half of the church is constipated.
Very uncomfortable being constipated.
We say, more, Lord!
More, Lord!
But...
See?
Not only supposed to do it once a
week, you know.
Keep the body healthy.
So, it's something to do with those we've
seen.
Now, I suppose that there are two kinds
of ways that we might see people.
Some of you, when we prayed on Thursday
night, began to see people with your mind's
eye.
We were praying once in the World City
and we saw someone.
We actually saw a beam of light falling
upon a thin lady.
And we...
This was a kind of picture, you know,
or a revelation.
And we described the thin lady and one
of the guys there who'd recently got off
drugs said, that's my mother.
And so we said, well, where is she?
And he took us across the harbour and
we found her living in what you would
call a closet.
But she is a very small lady.
You...
When you opened the door to her place,
you had to immediately half lie on the
bed because there wasn't any other place to
go.
So the place was about four and a
half feet long and about three feet wide,
that was it.
And she was a very old lady and
she had lived most of her life grieving
for the loss of her husband and a
helpless son.
And we knocked upon the door and she
came to the door, this thin little lady.
And the only living she ever made was
she collected the surplus bits of cloth from
the factories and made simple things and sold
them in the street.
And when she opened the door, we said,
hello, we've come to tell you about Jesus.
And she said, about time too.
She was waiting.
But many are.
Of course they might not know it's Jesus
they're waiting for.
But how would they know unless somebody went
and told them.
Another time, we saw somebody actually.
And as you walk around your streets, you
will begin to see people.
And all we have to do is touch
the ones we've seen.
That's all.
Now somebody just now tonight came up to
me and said, Jackie, I did what you
said.
I prayed in tongues over this alcoholic and
he wasn't changed.
But why changes them?
And somewhere people need to be touched by
the kindness of God.
Then when we pray in tongues over them,
it might quicken their understanding of who it
was that showed kindness.
You see, praying in tongues over people is
not a substitute for wasting our life on
them.
It's kindness.
It's Jesus coming kindly to save us.
He didn't stay in heaven and pray in
tongues.
He came and was the Word.
Tongues is but a wonderful gift to help
us call upon the mercy of the Lord
that it be revealed to people who need
touching.
Touching.
And we can't always finish the job.
Sometimes if we see somebody we just pray
for them, that's all.
And we might not have the courage to
get any closer.
Or it could be that if we're a
lady and it's a man, it wouldn't be
smart to get closer.
But we can at least do something.
We can begin to pray for them.
But there might be something more.
Could be a cup of cold water.
What I often do with the strangers that
I see is I look at them and
I honor them.
I mean they're God's creation.
I will acknowledge them as precious people.
I will honor them and acknowledge them and
greet them.
Not pass by because I don't know what
to do.
That just might be all in Acts 4
chapter 9.
Peter and John have healed a cripple and
he was a cripple from birth and they
got into terrible trouble for healing this cripple
and they got arrested and they got before
the leaders and Peter said why have we
got into trouble for an act of kindness?
That's it.
Now Gary was talking about reaching out to
bring the kingdom of God here now.
How did Peter and John know on that
day whether it would work or not?
They did it anyway.
They said well we haven't got any money.
Sometimes we might give money.
They said we haven't got silver or gold
but we will give you what we've got.
And they had a bash and it worked
and the man stood up and leapt and
danced and Peter said we've got all this
trouble for an act of kindness.
And that's all we have to do is
an act of kindness.
Sometimes we can tell people I'm doing the
act of kindness in the name of my
Jesus of Nazareth.
Sometimes we might not be able to say
the words.
I told you yesterday about the Vietnamese refugees
when we laid our hands on the oranges.
Well we weren't allowed to say they were
Christian oranges.
You know.
But we sent them anyway.
It was wonderful you know.
Because I don't know.
The refugees got to sort of understand.
I don't know how they understood the oranges
came from God or Christians but when they
moved to their next place they used to
send requests to us saying would you mind
please setting us some underpants in the name
of Jesus.
Sometimes people know we're from Jesus.
Sometimes they don't.
I was in the States once and I
was in a car with a young man
and we were discussing how you learn to
see.
And we were driving from Lancaster to Anaheim.
And you know Johnny's talked about eating noodles
for breakfast but what we're very shocked about
when we come to California is how gross
their burgers are.
And we were to stop at one of
the grossest of gross burger places.
You know I mean huge.
And we were coming around the corner of
a block and I said to my friend
I just saw a man standing in the
street.
I could just see his shadow and I
said that man's poor.
That man's hungry.
And my driver said how do you know?
And I said I don't know how I
know.
I can see him.
That's all.
Anyway we went into the burger place and
we chose these gross burgers you know.
I mean with fries and all the stuff.
And this man came in and I saw
him reading the menu on the wall and
I knew he was pretending.
He was pretending to choose.
And I knew he couldn't choose.
And finally he came up to the counter
and he ordered of course the smallest bag
of fries because that's all he could afford.
And so he said to the waitress we'll
have one more order of what we just
ordered for ourselves and would you please give
it to that man?
And she said do you want me to
tell him that you gave it to him?
And I said no.
You can just say some Christians gave it
to him.
We weren't at that time about to go
and sock him with a bible verse.
He needed at that time a hamburger.
And it could have brought him salvation.
Kindness can.
Sometimes we say the words.
Sometimes we can finish the job.
Sometimes we just take one step.
And I was in India just a year
ago and there's this lovely church in India.
Actually the people are rather like you.
They're really sweet people.
It's a strange thing in India.
And it would be hard for us to
imagine that it would be like that over
there.
But the Christians are all middle class.
And the people that feed the poor are
the Christian aid agencies.
Now they do feed some poor but it
doesn't necessarily bring people to Christ.
At least it feeds some people.
But you see what touches people is when
people like Jesus touch them one by one
in kindness.
So this whole church in Bombay where it
decided that they would all start doing acts
of kindness.
That's all.
Okay.
This is what we're going to learn to
do.
Acts of kindness.
Where shall we start?
And we just said you start with the
one you see.
You don't need to plan an outreach.
You don't need to plan a rally.
You just pray God will you open my
eyes and I'll touch the one I see.
I'll do something.
So a few weeks later I met one
lady and she said I am very enjoying.
I am very enjoying.
There are these lepers and they are coming
and I can speak their dialect and I
am giving them some lunch and then I
am going to the store to buy a
dress for their daughter and I let them
choose.
That's all.
A bit better than asking them to church,
don't you think?
And there was this pastor he's such a
sweet guy.
He I stayed in his house and I
stayed there and he has two children he
has two house guests and the whole of
his house is about 600 square feet and
I stayed there too.
He has the church in his house.
He also did a full time job at
the dockyard and in order to get to
the dockyard he used to take the train
and he was saying please Lord show me
what act of kindness I can do and
he used to have to change trains to
get to his journey and he had five
minutes on the platform and when he got
onto the platform he saw a man, that's
all and he was a poor man and
so he sat by the poor man that's
all and the next day he sat by
the poor man again and he was praying
inside him Dear Lord please show me what
to do and this went on for about
a week and people began to notice him
and he saw more and he found out
that there were dozens of people that slept
behind the platform a little child who was
two and had never sat up got a
lung disease and bones just weren't strong and
lepers and old ladies and none of them
were Christians of course but they were curious
why do you sit on our platform and
he said oh I just want to be
your friend I'm a Christian and he just
listened to him to them and this lady
said to him would you mind very much
coming to see my husband he's very sick
and my pastor friend said I'm very sorry
but I only am having five minutes so
I don't have time to come and every
time he went to the platform this lady
said please come and see my husband so
he decided one day to take an earlier
train he's already only getting four hours sleep
a night by the way but he thought
he would take an earlier train so he
could go and see the lady's husband and
he got there already and the lady came
up to him and she said you're too
late he's just died and my friend sat
on the platform and he put his head
in his hands and he cried and he
wept for thirty minutes and when he opened
his eyes he was surrounded by all the
people that live on the platform and they
were all crying that's all he did that's
all he had to give he wept with
those who wept and from that moment on
he could do everything for those people he
was their friend for life and they trusted
him as they trusted no other and he
would go and everyday he would take medicine
to the little baby and by now he's
only getting three and a half hours sleep
and he would have to take the medicine
everyday because of the climate and also because
when you live on the street and it's
so dirty the medicine crumbles so he would
take it everyday and after a few months
the baby could sit and it would be
after several moments that the baby could stand
just a little thing just a little thing
and he got to be very famous and
when I spoke to him he said you
know I am getting messages and the people
from the other platform are saying will you
do our platform and he said but I
am thinking I should stick to the platform
God has given me and all these people
are coming to him and he said will
you send some of your people so I
went with my with some of our people
now our people are very poor and we
don't speak any Indian language but we do
know about God's mercy and we do know
about worship so we went onto the platform
with him and our guys who can't read
but who can hear about the resurrection of
the body they worshipped on the platform and
as they worshipped these two Hindu men who
were drug addicts saw Jesus and they came
to Christ and miracles like this happened no
this wasn't us we were just allowed to
go in and do that stuff because a
poor pastor who is short on sleep walked
first and all he all he had to
give was his tears and later on so
many people came to Christ we sent a
team to pray them off drugs and we
stayed with them in a house and saw
them through a certain procedure of course the
pastors had to give up his dock job
now he's got a new church too on
the platform that's how it
goes when you touch someone you might not
see any result or it might be that
when you touch someone like the pastor did
that a church is born, I don't know
but that's up to God all we have
to do is touch people anyway and that's
not too hard is it and that's what
we're going to bless you to do as
you leave this place and young people you
can do this too I was at a
conference in Germany a couple of years ago
and this little teenager came up and he's
he's a surfboard freak and his name is
Leif and I mean he's a German teenager
and I mean he's very he's just a
German teenager and he his father's a pastor
and he found his son Leif I think
he was 13 at the time after he
came back from this teenage conference and he
said what are you doing and he found
his son in the kitchen making a thermos
of tea and a sandwich and he said
what are you doing and he said I've
seen a man and he gave a man
a sandwich and a thermos of tea that's
all and this boy became so famous amongst
the man's friends that they all welcomed little
Leif on a surf skateboard and little Leif
became so famous that the whole church could
go after him and you know so many
people have come to Christ that the whole
church has changed and the city has given
them a building revival comes to that city
through a 13 year old just a sandwich
with his hand I wanted
to sing a song about God's kindness and
sing his glory that it doesn't matter
nobody knows how to play it so it's
one of Andy Park's songs but if you
ever hear it and if you ever sing
it remember what it means when you sing
show us your glory it's a very strong
and compassionate kind God who in a quaking
mountain comes with kindness and forgiveness very slow
anger and we want to pray for any
of you who'd like to take a step
in sharing the kindness that you've received with
someone that's all now I expect you all
to walk forward so would you unless of
course you've not tasted his kindness I
don't anticipate that this will be a very
long ministry time but that doesn't mean it
won't be a very important time of ministry
because I think what Jackie has in her
heart to do is simply in very simple
ways to bless you but as I understand
this blessing, it is a blessing to do
and a blessing to do is a sort
of double-edged sword because if we don't
do it actually becomes judgment Jesus in John
chapter 13 washed his disciples' feet so they
would understand something of the importance of taking
the kindness and the blessing that we've received
and releasing it so he washed their feet
and he said do you understand what I've
done for you he said he showed them
this example now that I have washed your
feet so you ought to wash one another's
feet this is one of the last things
he left with his disciples and then he
told them the significance of this he said
I have set you an example that you
should do as I have done for you
I tell you the truth, no servant is
greater than his master nor is a messenger
greater than the one who sent him now
that you know these things you will be
blessed if you do them remember one time
preaching a woe to you chorus and message
in our church our church was growing very
rapidly and increasingly I recognize there are so
many people coming to receive a blessing and
one time I don't know why I did
this I think it was the Lord actually
I turned to that passage woe to you
chorus and I said look folks if you
don't intend to do these things why are
you coming go somewhere else where your judgment
will be less you know where they talk
about I don't know anything but why do
you want to do this to yourself don't
come please have a lesser judgment for yourself
and go somewhere where you do not hear
this I was being serious remember many years
ago I went I won't draw this story
out it's kind of a humorous story in
some ways but John Wimber prayed for me
before he really even knew who I was
you know it was amazing I was very
nervous there was other people behind me I
didn't want to take much time and John
he's always careful the way he prays but
he looked at me and then he began
to pray this prayer I was just feeling
tremendously underpowered under blessed very needy and he
prayed for me and as soon as he
began to pray I got so excited because
he prayed one of those you know pull
the lever and three lemons line up it
was just incredible he prayed all this great
stuff may everything God's given to me be
given to you a double portion I can
just think this is mental I mean I
can imagine having this staff striking the waters
it was so incredible I thought boy these
people behind me must be just seething with
jealousy this is unbelievable then about half way
through my heart just sunk because a revelation
came to me you know Mr. Vineyard prayed
the hottest prayer I could ever imagine and
it wasn't working it wasn't working my knees
weren't even shaking I didn't feel any oil
in my hands I wasn't even sweating there
was no buzz there was no intensity and
I thought that's it the blessing came and
I lost it nothing didn't happen it didn't
work I don't know what I looked like
walking back to my seat but I know
I was just kind of shuffling my posture
was even worse than usual I just thought
woe is me I am undone the greatest
guy in the movement prayed for me and
it didn't work about half way back to
my seat the Lord said to me very
clearly how do you know you'll never know
until you go to do these things Glenn
Cook told me early on he said there
is no blessing in the prayer the blessing
is actualized when it's released the blessing comes
when we do these things not when we
know these things are we communicating and so
Jackie in a sense I think is going
to pray over you and bless you now
that you know these things if you go
and do them I'll tell you something there
will be a blessing for you a tremendous
blessing it was not too long after that
time I had the blessing of seeing my
father healed what a blessing that was but
it could have never happened unless I prayed
do you understand and there were a lot
of pull the lever swallows my quarter prayers
there was a lot of going out with
seemingly no blessing but that's what's to be
prayed over you now think about it for
a second do you see how many people
are here not much compared to the total
population of Edmonton but what would happen if
we simply went out and looked and acted
in kindness I'm not talking about some great
evangelistic explosion messages of wisdom persuasive power I'm
just talking about being nice I commissioned the
first church in Norway in Oslo Norwegian people
are not that friendly really the pastor has
a tremendous strategy to win the nation for
Christ he said to his church be nice
just be nice you may win the whole
nation do you hear me because a cup
of water can do incredible things in a
dry and thirsty land so can you imagine
the cumulative effect if we simply listened to
God looked and did what he told us
to do in the simplest ways I guarantee
you this city would not be the same