Jimmy, bring me a little water.
Please.
It's so good to be here tonight.
Probably means a great deal more to me
than it does you.
And I trust that you'll pray for me
as we travel through this week.
This is first me preaching several times.
I've been, for about the last five weeks,
I've been preaching on Sunday.
And last week preached a couple times during
the week.
But this will be the first time I've
done this.
And you just pray that I'll walk with
Him.
You know, some people know Him as a
fire escape.
That's all they know about God is they
met Jesus and He's a fire escape for
them.
And some of them know Him a little
deeper than that.
They do things for Him.
They just do things.
They'll take on projects that He puts on
their hearts, you know.
They'll do this and they'll do that and
they'll sing and they'll preach for Him.
And they'll do this little job and that
little job for Him.
And some, though, know Him and walk with
Him.
And to those He makes those living epistles.
The only explanation for their life is God.
He leads them through strange ways.
He leads them down unusual paths.
And I don't know how I can really
picture this to you tonight, except in John
3 there's a passage that I think draws
a picture.
And you know, a picture is so much
more important than words.
But in John 3, there's a picture of
the Lord dealing with our hearts.
And I want to read it to you.
And I'm going to read out of the
Amplified Bible, if you don't mind.
The wind blows.
The 8th verse.
The wind blows where it will.
And though you hear its sound, and yet
you neither know where it comes from nor
where it goes, so it is with everyone
who is born of the Spirit.
I mean, you know, the wind shows up
and the wind's gone.
And here it goes again.
Back in Psalm 77, 19, the psalmist said,
The way of God is in the sea.
And that's an interesting statement to me, because
you see out on the sea there are
no signposts.
And there are no footprints.
And so if you're going to make it
through the sea, you've got to stay with
him.
You've got to stay with him.
And he's like a wind.
And I want to talk to you tonight
about walking in the wind.
Walking in the wind.
I know that God wants to make every
one of us living epistles.
The only explanation for our life is God.
When we see each other, we'll say, you
know, boy, there is a testimony of the
grace of God.
Of the grace of God.
When I got saved by the grace of
God, I thought, boy, this is the final.
This is the greatest.
This is the end.
I don't need any more.
But you know something?
I found out that I wasn't finishing.
I was starting on a journey.
Amen.
And God just kept moving in my life.
And the wind would blow this way for
a while.
And then the wind would blow another way
for a while.
And then the wind would blow another way.
And man, I thought I was a successful
preacher.
I thought I had it all put together
when I was 22 years old, pastored a
church that had 800 members.
And I mean, I was the talk of
the town.
And I was the big boy on the
block.
With all those other preachers, with all their
education and all of that, I was still
bigger than all of them.
And I mean, I thought I had it
made.
But the wind began to change.
And began to blow in a different way.
And then I went into evangelism.
And boy, how rich my life was.
I didn't put out a brochure, because God
gave me Psalms 75, 6 and 7, and
the last verse in that chapter, where it
says, Promotion cometh from the Lord.
He raises one up and He puts another
one down.
And I never had to put out a
brochure and help more meetings than most of
those fellows who did put out brochures.
And I said, you know, I am really
putting this thing together.
I mean, I have got it together.
And for 30, until I was 39 years
old, boy, I thought everything was going right.
And then when I was 39 years old,
right here in this area, God allowed the
wind to change again.
And this time it baffled me.
Because it called on me to do something
that I had never done before.
And that was to suffer pain and confusion.
And I was in a dilemma.
But I am going to tell you something,
folk.
That wind just kept blowing.
I cried out to God.
I begged God for a lot of things.
I said all kinds of things, but He
didn't seem to pay any attention.
It seemed to Him, me, that He knew
what was best.
And regardless of what I said, or what
I thought, or what I wanted, He went
ahead and did for me what was best.
And He just kept on working in my
life.
And brought me through an experience physically that
doctors said I would never, never go through.
And then raised me up.
And for almost 18 years, let me travel
across this country, in foreign lands, and just
do everything I felt like I wanted to
do.
And then one day, the wind changed again.
And my doctor told me, she said, you're
going to have a problem.
I said, well, I don't think you know
what you're talking about, but I'm hearing you.
And it was Christmas time.
And I sent my family on to my
mother's, except my youngest son and my wife.
And I stayed at home.
And when the wind changes, folk, you've got
to be ready to change with it.
And I got up every morning at 5
o'clock.
And every morning at 5 o'clock, I
began to read the Word of God, meditate
on the Word, pray over the Word.
And one morning, during that time, the Lord
spoke to my heart, out of Psalms 148,
12, where it says, I will maintain, in
the King James it said, I will maintain
the cause of the afflicted.
And I knew God spoke to my heart.
But I didn't like that word, afflicted.
But I knew He spoke to my heart.
And I got peace, peace like a river.
And I began to move with Him.
And then He began to deal with my
heart.
And He began to deal with my body.
And the amazing thing about it was last
June, or May, last May, I found myself
in the hospital in the most severe pain
I have ever been in in my life.
I had sores that big, on the tip
of my tongue, all the way down my
stomach, down into my stomach.
And I couldn't eat.
In fact, I lost weight so fast that
they thought I had AIDS and tested me
for AIDS.
And it turned out good, by the way.
But it was tough.
It was tough.
I got out for a few days and
went back in the hospital again.
And I had something that my family didn't
know about.
I had a promise from God.
I will maintain the cause of the afflicted.
And when Brother Jimmy said tonight, I would
say, I don't care what they say to
you, I'm going to make it.
I don't care what they say to you,
I'm going to make it.
You see, I had a word.
God had given me a promise that he
would maintain the cause of the afflicted.
And, folk, it got low.
Six times I was operated on in two
months.
And my wife was told, I don't know
how many times, he'll not make it.
He'll not make it.
She went in one morning and they were
ready to pull the plug.
And they said, we're glad you showed up
because we're going to pull the plug.
Mr. Beasley wants to die.
She said, you don't know him.
I've lived with him for 35 years.
And he's not that type.
He wouldn't give up.
If hell froze over, he wouldn't give up.
And she fought them.
Had to call the whole family in.
And they had to decide.
My preacher was called.
My family doctor was called.
He called my preacher.
I mean, friend, they were stirred up all
over that country trying to keep them from
pulling that plug.
I mean, the devil did everything he could
to kill me.
Everything.
And finally, our oldest son, I got everybody
in the room and asked me if I
wanted to die.
And I was able to shake my head
because I had a pipe down my throat,
my tongue hanging out one side.
I couldn't talk a word.
And I shook my head, no.
And they backed off.
But what I want to say to you
is this.
During that time, they put me on Demrol
and morphine because I was in such pain.
And it was hell.
But one night, a little nurse walked by
me and she said, Mr. Beasley, you know
what's happening to you?
I said, no.
She said they're taking you off of medication,
the Demrol and morphine.
Folks, I couldn't holler because my mouth was
stopped up.
I couldn't say a word.
But I tried to pull the hair out
of my head with my hands.
I was in such severe pain.
And when my little nurse told me what
they were doing, I realized that I could
give in to that pain and call for
another shot and be a dopehead the rest
of my life.
Or I could seek the grace of God
and find the grace of God adequate for
my need.
And I'm telling you, folks, it was hell.
My body would jerk all over the bed.
I would break out in sweat.
And I would be freezing to death one
minute.
And it was absolutely hell.
And I said, Lord, no doubt, this is
the hour of temptation in my life.
This is the greatest temptation I've ever faced.
And I honestly believe it was.
And I could have said no, backed off,
been a dopehead the rest of my life,
or I said yes to Jesus.
And you know what?
My emotions went one way.
My understanding went another way.
And the only thing I had control over
was a choice in my heart.
And I said, Lord, I want to stay
with You.
And when I made that choice, God showed
me that when Jesus went through His great
time of temptation, He sent angels to comfort
Him and minister to Him.
And so I said, Lord, I'm not Jesus,
but I sure would love to have some
of those angels coming down and ministering to
me.
And I'm telling you, folks, He sent them.
He sent them for the next eight days.
He sent those angels.
And the amazing thing about it, not one
of them was mystical.
Every one of them was flesh and blood.
And it amazed me.
Every single solitary one of them was flesh
and blood.
And they would come.
And they would bathe my face with cold
water.
And they would read the Scriptures to me.
And they'd quote the Word of God to
me.
And they'd preach to me and encourage me.
And they would just say, hold on.
And they would stand by my side for
eight solid days.
And my dear friends, when that eight days
was over, that was peace like a river.
And that hospital became as sweet as heaven
itself.
And I was not anxious not one moment
in that hospital for three months in ICU
with that thing in my mouth.
Couldn't say a word.
But I had glory, brother.
One doctor said to me after I was
up in rehab, she said this.
She said, what is your name?
And I said, Manly Beasley.
She said, you know, I visited you, but
you were not conscious that I was there.
And she said, she said, I looked at
you and she said, you know, I saw
something.
She said, I said to the doctor with
me, she said, that man will make it.
Because he knows the secret of going through.
Now, I know what that secret was.
That secret was walking in the wind.
And I was right in the middle of
walking with God in the darkest hour of
my life.
Now, here's why I've said all of that.
Most of you knew a great deal more
about my testimony than I've shared tonight.
So I didn't want to share a lot
of it.
But here's what I want to tell you.
When you walk in the wind, when you
walk in the wind, folk, God has prearranged
your life.
Your life is prearranged.
Amen.
What evil did you do, preacher, to get
you have to go through such and such
right now?
I don't know that I did any evil.
It might have been what good I did
to cause me.
What are you saying?
I am saying, folk, that what I've gone
through was as much in the divine plan
and purpose of God Almighty as anything you
will ever run upon.
Listen to it.
Let me read you a few verses.
I'll read this out of Amplified if you
don't mind.
Listen to this.
Psalms 139, 16.
Listen to it because this gets heavy.
Your eye saw my unformed substance, and in
your book all the days of my life
were written, before ever they took shape, when
as yet there was none of them.
Did you hear that?
You know what the psalmist said in the
next verse?
He said, that's heavy.
You know what he's saying?
He's saying, before you ever became substance, God
wrote down in a book everything about you.
Wrote down in a book long before you
became substance.
And then in Ephesians 2.10, you know
what he says?
Oh my, listen to what he has to
say in Ephesians 2.10. My, I love
this.
He says it very plain and very simple
and very profoundly, and I want to read
it to you because it just stands out
to me tonight.
It's so important.
Ephesians 2.10. We are God's own handiwork,
His workmanship recreated in Christ Jesus, born anew,
that we may do those good works which
God predestined, planned beforehand for us, taking paths
which He prepared ahead of time, that we
should walk in them, living the good life
which He prearranged and made ready for us
to live.
Listen, my friend.
God is not a God that works on
the laws of contingency.
You say, what do you mean?
Something just flopping together.
My dear friends, this thing has been planned
out from eternity to eternity.
And God has written down in a book
and laid out everything about your life.
I mean it's all laid out.
Your life is prearranged.
My mother used to tell me, she said,
son, God has a plan for every person's
life.
And if you will just simply find that
plan, if it's being a ditch digger and
obey God, God will make you successful.
My friend, tonight, every person in this building,
every individual in this building, you may be
conscious of it or not conscious of it,
God has a plan for your life tonight.
God has a plan for your life.
I mean, you owe something to Him.
He's got it all laid out for you.
And it's all written down in a book
just for you.
And my friend, I have found in my
own life that this whole thing has been
absolutely, totally, completely prearranged before I ever got
there.
Amen.
Yes sir.
And I'm going to tell you something.
When you're walking in the wind and you
hit storms like that and you know it's
prearranged, you don't get upset.
You don't get disturbed.
You don't start fretting.
And you don't start pouting.
And you don't start running off somewhere and
try to get some better orders.
My dear friends, you've got the best.
You are walking in on God prearranged life
for you.
And you say, well, but it's hell.
Oh, what glory in the midst of that
hell.
Amen.
How in the world can the grace of
God be ministered to where there is no
need?
Hebrews talks about falling from grace.
He's not talking about getting lost after you're
saved.
He's talking about we as individuals, as people
of God failing to make use of the
grace of God.
You see, you may not believe in miracles
tonight, but I got a Hindu doctor up
there in Dallas, Texas that's lost and headed
to hell.
She believes in them.
Amen.
The doctor that told my wife time after
time after time, he'll not make it.
He's agnostic.
But brother and sister, he has all explanation
for my life except God.
After I began to come out of that
dilemma, every day he had to come by.
I'd wave at him.
I'd say, Hello, Dr. Faulkner.
He'd shake his head.
The grace of God, folk, is able to
work and minister in our lives in that
prearranged life that God has for us.
Why in the world should we fear?
Why shouldn't we pray, Lord, whatever it takes
to make me a recipient of Thy glory,
a manifestation of Thy power, and grace?
Why shouldn't we pray, Lord, whatever it takes,
here am I?
Amen.
Yes, sir.
I mean, folk, this life is prearranged.
God's got a plan for every one of
you.
God has a plan for every single boy
and girl, man and woman.
By the way, folk, if I understand the
Word of God right, you can be an
adult with all your Bible knowledge and be
missing that plan.
Amen.
You can be out there using God as
a fire escape and doing your little job
for God, and my dear friends, completely miss
walking with Him.
Excuse me.
You can completely miss it.
And, oh, I'm not telling you tonight that
God's going to lead you through the things
He's led me through.
He might give you something better.
But I'll guarantee you one thing.
It will be unique.
It will be so real and so blessed
that the only person that will have any
experience like it will be you.
God doesn't duplicate.
Amen.
Yes, sir.
We walk in the wind, folk.
You see, we walk it with Him.
He gets us on up there beyond the
fire escape, beyond these little jobs for Him
where He leads us down the path into
all that He has planned for us where
we're living officials.
That's not all.
When He leads you into that plan, life
He's got for you, everything you need on
that journey is already provided.
Amen.
You don't see how you can afford it.
I've got news for you.
I don't see how you can not afford
it.
You don't see how you can pay for
it.
And we may not be talking about money.
You don't see how you can get by.
You don't see how to overcome the past.
Hebrews 4, 3 says, and the King James,
although his works were finished from the foundation
of the world.
See, God completed that whole thing.
If God is the God of yesterday, today,
and tomorrow now, if He's that God, He
had to complete everything in one whack.
Amen.
He didn't have to come along and do
something else.
He hath given unto us all things that
pertaineth unto life and godliness in the Lord
Jesus.
It's already given to us.
I mean what I have found through these
years of journey with God that every need
I have had in that journey, walking in
the wind, He has provided.
While I was living here, in this place,
the Lord spoke to my heart one day
and said, take out a hospitalization insurance.
All of my life up to then, He
said, no insurance.
And then one day He said, a insurance.
He said, Brother Manly, God doesn't change His
mind.
I beg your pardon?
He never did change His mind.
His mind never was changed.
He just changed my mind.
Amen.
He knew what He was going to do
all the time.
I couldn't get an insurance policy local.
Went to North Carolina, having lunch with some
preachers, and a man walked up to me
and said, why don't I have an insurance
policy for you?
Came home to my wife, I said, you're
going to get sick.
She said, no buddy, it's your turn.
And I began to get ill.
And a year later I went, spent a
year out of the ministry, virtually a year
out of the ministry, and every need was
met.
And that hospitalization was an unbelievable policy.
Unbelievable.
And we used that for a number of
years, and I got so guilty of it
because many of my friends were on it,
and they were having to pay such high
premiums, and I knew I was spending all
their money.
You know what I did?
I dropped that policy with all of my
problems, seven diseases, and started my own company.
That's right.
And we had over a hundred families in
that company.
It became a big company in Texas.
I didn't get the money from it.
I turned it over to an insurance man.
But I started it.
And then one day, we realized that we
were going to have to sue a preacher
because of his lying and some lot of
other things.
And he had a daughter that was ill,
and she was under mental care, and the
psychiatrist only put on her record the only
problem she's got.
She hates her daddy.
And we were having to spend $20,000
a week on her just to take care
of her.
And we were going to have to sue
this preacher to get out of that thing.
And so I just said to the man
who was running the company, I said, I
know it's in the minutes.
Let's dissolve the company.
He said, all right.
The day we dissolved the company, one of
the biggest insurance groups in America opened up
to me with all of my problems.
I had a hypertension problem.
Now watch this.
I'm getting in detail just to show you
how my God makes provision for you when
you're walking in the plan.
I got into that company.
I took hypertension in.
Therefore, I could not be paid for anything
that related to hypertension for two years.
So I was hoping two years would pass
before I had any problems, but it didn't.
And I went to the doctor.
My kidneys went down.
And I just knew it was because I
had hypertension.
I said to my doctor, I said, why
did I lose my kidneys?
She said, well, when you had that disease
back there in 1971, it damaged your kidneys.
I said that hypertension had nothing to do
with it.
She said, not at all.
So, my dear friends, the insurance was completely
good.
And not only that, but when you go
down with kidney trouble in America, I don't
know if you know it or not, you
go on Medicare.
And so I had two of the best
companies in the world taking care of my
needs.
You say, what do you say in all
of that?
Well, I just got out of the hospital
and my bill was less than $500,000.
My sister that's seated over here called that
hospital a week before last now.
And she said, the lady there said the
bills were paid.
I was out eight months.
And every need was met.
I didn't have to beg anybody for a
dollar.
Now, a lot of you gave, but I
didn't beg you for it.
God put it in your heart.
Now, what I'm just trying to say tonight
out of this testimonial type of message is
something that's really applicable to every man, woman,
boy and girl.
Listen, if you walk with God, God, you
walk in the wind, my friend, God has
a plan for your life.
I mean, it's a good life.
It's a good plan.
I mean, it's what God wants.
It will honor God and bless you and
bless the world while you're going through it.
The world will stand up and say, Blessed
be the name of the Lord.
They'll praise God, not you.
And in that plan, I don't care who
you are, God has made absolutely every single
solitary provision you need.
Amen?
I don't know how He does it.
Who in the world can know how He
does it?
You'd have to be God to know how
He does it.
That's our problem now.
We're trying to figure out how He's going
to do it.
And that's none of our business how He's
going to do something.
How He's going to do something is absolutely
His business.
Our business is to walk with Him.
I mean, He'll do it, friend.
He will do it.
Think of God calling you into a walk
with Him, walking on the way with Him.
Think of God leading you to do something.
And that's the perfect will for your life.
And then Him not making provisions for you
to do it.
What kind of God do you serve?
I don't serve a God like that.
Now, I may have thought through the years
I did, but I've come a long way,
and I'm talking in retrospect.
I guarantee you, I can look back, folk,
and He was there all the time.
He was there.
He made the provision all the time.
Yes, sir.
And in that God has a plan for
your life, and in that God has a
plan for my life, God has made provision
for you to carry out that plan, then,
my dear friends, it's just not going to
come to you without effort.
It is not just going to bounce on
you and pounce on you.
You're going to have to discover it.
And you're not only going to have to
discover it, you're going to have to make
a decision to accept it.
And when you do, make that decision to
accept what God has planned for your life.
Then, my dear friends, He will be able
to operate it in your life and bring
it out to where the world can see.
You see, I saw that morning when He
said, I will maintain the cause of the
afflicted.
That same morning, He took me to 2
Corinthians 4 where this heavenly treasure that we
have in Christ Jesus, that heavenly treasure, is
deposited in this earthen vessel.
And the word study that I was using
took me back to Gideon.
And there was Gideon back there, and he
had so many men and he had to
get rid of all of them, but 300.
And the mighty army of the enemy had
come to defeat Gideon.
Gideon got his 300 men.
And you know what he got?
He got them an old earthen vessel.
And down inside that earthen vessel, he put
a light.
And no one could see that light down
in that earthen vessel.
He said, the hundred of you take your
vessels and go up on this side.
Another hundred on this side of the enemy
and another hundred on this side.
And said, when they blow the trumpet, break
the vessel.
Break the vessel.
And when the trumpet blew, they broke the
vessel and the light broke out.
And God said, son, I have put the
glory in this old earthen vessel.
And if you want that glory to get
out, you are going to have to let
me break the vessel.
And when that vessel is broken, the glory
will be revealed.
Yes, sir.
I found out, folk, that you could be
in bed and can't say a word with
your mouth, only words with your eyes, and
a few gestures with your fingers.
And the glory will be so real that
the nurses and the doctors and the friends
will come in to be a blessing and
they'll go out blessed because of the glory
of God being revealed and manifested from a
broken, broken, broken vessel.
Yes, sir.
No wonder Paul said, I will bless God
when I am weak.
You know, when I am weak.
Paul knew that vessel had to be broken
in order for the glory to be revealed.
Yes, he knew it had to be broken.
My dear friends, tonight, when we walk in
the wind, we get in on God's prearranged
life for our lives.
We get in on all the provisions of
glory.
Who in the world would have ever told
me I could have paid a half a
million dollar insurance bill?
I didn't have that kind of faith.
Amen, I'm glad God didn't call on me
to believe for a half a million dollars
to pay a bill.
I'd still been suffering.
But I'll tell you one thing, folks, He
had it provided.
He had it provided.
Amen.
God let us discover this tonight.
That God has a plan for every one
of us.
God has made the provision for us to
go through this thing absolutely victorious.
Shouting all the way.
Not without difficulty.
Knocked down, but not knocked out.
Amen.
Knocked down, but not knocked out.
How people get surprised.
I'm surprised to see you.
Why?
A man picked me up in Atlanta, Georgia,
Thursday morning.
He said, they told me I was supposed
to pick up Manly Boosley.
He said, I told them they didn't know
what they were talking about.
Because he'd heard I'd been knocked down.
But he hadn't heard I hadn't been knocked
down.
Yes, folks.
Glory to God.
We haven't been knocked down.
Yes, sir.
You and I want the glory of God
in our lives, but we're absolutely too wicked,
too scared to pay the price for God
to do the work that the glory might
be revealed.
What you want, what the world wants is
a passage to shout through this life with
nothing in it but, my dear friends, the
happy things.
That's why I saw one of the denominations
about us today is making such progress.
The folk one of these days, they're going
to wake up and realize that glory is
not on them.
If you want the glory, folk, you will
have to pay the price of letting God
get you in on His plan, open up
His provisions for you, and break you to
where that glory can shine.
Did you know when they broke those vessels
of clay, you know what happened to them?
Those people, the enemy, fled until it took
Gideon and them days to catch them.
I mean, it put the devil to flight.
I get sick of this crowd sitting around
waiting till God sends us a great revival.
Well, that might be justifiable on a collective
sense, but it's not justifiable on an individual
sense.
If you're not living in the glory tonight,
my dear friends, it's because you're ignorant of
it or you are rebellious against it.
Amen?
That's God.
If it got any better, I couldn't stand
it.
Amen?
I'm having a good time.
I don't know about you, but I walk
with the King.
Hallelujah.
I walk with the King.
Praise His name.
And, folk, we're on the road.
I invite you to come join me.
May the Lord bless you.
I've said enough.
May God help us.
Amen.