Lord, we thank you for this opportunity that
we can come together under your word.
Lord, the matters of you and your kingdom
are the best.
There's nothing on this earth that is as
bright and as wonderful as that.
Amen.
Our text will be in John chapter 7,
from verse 37.
On the last day of the feast, the
great day, Jesus stood up and proclaimed, if
anyone thirsts, let him come to me and
drink.
He who believes in me, as the scripture
has said, out of his heart shall flow
rivers of living water.
Now this he said about the spirit.
Let's just end there.
I'd like to speak about this, he who
believes on me, as the scripture says, so
that it's not too long.
He who believes on me, as the scripture
has said, rivers of living water will flow
out of his innermost being.
This word was a real problem to me.
It was at Mapumulu in 1966 when I
was there.
This word troubled me day and night.
He who believes in me, as the scripture
says, rivers of living water will flow out
of his innermost being.
And I said, but I do believe.
And I don't doubt that I believe.
But the rivers of living water, I don't
see.
We have a river down here, the Tugela.
One river.
The desert turns to be a garden.
All sorts of fruits and vegetables grow from
it.
In 1966, I was in real trouble.
And I said, Lord, you say in your
word that if anybody believes, as the scripture
says, rivers of living water will flow out
of that person.
I believe, but I don't see the waters.
Preached for 12 years, day by day, but
I still don't see any rivers of living
water flowing in KwaZulu.
And then I looked in the Bible and
I said, now where does it speak about
rivers of living water coming out of a
person?
Now I'd go to the service, and the
service was in an old, was actually in
the stable, an old house that was built
out of corrugated iron and wood.
And that's where we had the service.
And in the service, I said, men and
women, you Christians, the Bible says, if you
believe in the Lord, then there will be
rivers of living water.
Who of you believes in the Lord Jesus?
And they all put up their hands.
Now, I should have been very pleased because
everybody there said that they do believe in
the Lord Jesus.
And I said, but here's a problem.
The Bible says, if you believe in him,
as the scripture says, there will be rivers,
not one river, rivers of living water flowing
out from that person.
As you say that you believe on the
Lord Jesus, are there rivers of living water
flowing out of your life?
Nobody could answer in the affirmative.
And I said, I too must, I'm still
looking into the word and praying because this
thing's got me beat.
And then I realized that I mustn't make
a mistake.
The Lord Jesus is he that believes on
me as the scripture says.
And then I realized that the Lord Jesus
says that the Bible speaks about believing on
the Lord Jesus.
They said, let's now have a look to
see what does the Bible say about believing
on the Lord Jesus.
Then we started studying the Bible to see
what does the Bible say?
Was a word that really picked me and
that really worried me.
When the Lord Jesus says, I haven't come
to judge the world, but the words that
I have spoken, they will judge the world.
Then I brought the two together and realized,
but these words will judge us on the
day of judgment.
And I said, oh Lord, speak to me
through your word.
I want to know, what does the Bible
say?
Twice a day we would meet.
We used to come together twice a day
at seven in the morning before the store
opens.
And after five, when the store is closed,
we'd come together again.
To read and study and to see what
does the Bible say?
And then we read the book of Acts.
And it came to the day when one
day it was a Saturday.
Then some
came
to me and said, can't we go home
today, to do our washing, to see to
the children.
Can't we have the service earlier, at half
past one or at two o'clock?
And I agreed.
And when we came together, I said, let's
do it at half past one, at two
o'clock, with the magistrate, the assistant magistrate,
the postmaster, the party, the police, and the
police.
I said, let's do it at half past
one, at two o'clock.
Now, across the road from us, there was
the magistrate, assistant magistrate, postmaster, the chief of
the police, other police.
They were all together, just across the road,
to play tennis, and I was here in
this old stable, together with the blacks, having
a service.
The magistrate was an atheist.
The junior magistrate was an atheist.
And they used to not like me at
all.
They used to say that things are wrong
and go wrong in South Africa is because
of the missionaries.
The missionaries have done all the damage in
this country.
They are spoiling the blacks.
Now, we
came together, broken hearted, and I said, let's
do it at half past one, at two
o'clock, with the magistrate, the assistant magistrate,
the postmaster, the chief of the police, and
the police.
Now, we came together, broken hearted, and sincerely
seeking the face of the Lord, and suddenly
I realized that this was a bad time,
because they might hear us.
They might hear me crying because they're just
across the road from us.
Now, that building had the old-fashioned sash
windows that you've got to lift up and
then lock.
And then I got up and I thought,
well, let me just go and close the
window, that those that are outside don't hear
how we are crying to the Lord on
our knees here.
We literally cried.
When last did you cry and shed tears
before God?
If you've never done it, and you haven't
got only a head of wood, you must
have got a heart of wood or a
heart of rock.
And I got up and I pushed the
window up and I closed it properly.
And when I closed the window and I
closed it properly, then I heard the voice
of the Lord speak to me.
He said, yes, close it properly, because then
I'll be on the outside and you'll be
on the inside.
I didn't need anybody to interpret that.
I understood that word very well.
God isn't kept out by the glass at
all.
He is kept out by the heart of
man.
I turned around and I thought I would
start the service.
I suddenly saw like a big words written
in front of my eyes, like the screen
here, only bigger as it were hanging in
the air.
God
resists the
proud.
It was like a spear that pierced my
heart.
And I said, I've always thought it's the
devil that's resisting me.
It's the devil that stops the people from
coming to the service.
It's the devil that stops the people from
getting converted.
Is it God that resists me?
All these years I blamed the devil for
making it so hard and difficult for me.
And all of a sudden God revealed Himself
to me and said, I am in your
way.
Because there's still haughtiness.
There's still pride in your life.
I am resisting you.
Then I said, oh God, if only the
devil would resist me, there'd be still a
chance by your grace to overcome him.
But if you resist me, no hope.
I can't do anything.
If God is against me and I resist,
I am hopelessly lost.
I can't do
anything.
God opened the curtain a little bit and
I saw His holiness.
I saw His fearful holiness and I just
cried out and said, oh God, have mercy
on me.
I am a hopeless sinner.
And I cried out and I said, Lord,
deal with this haughtiness.
Deliver me from every form of pride.
That this may be the end of God
resisting me.
And I cried to the Lord, I said,
Lord, save me, Lord, deliver me that there
may be no pride, no haughtiness in my
life.
Many things the Lord spoke to us in
those days and spoke to me.
I'll just touch on here and there something.
I was like a blind man and it
was as though the Lord took me by
my neck and pushed me with my nose
into things.
One day I arrived by motor car because
I'd been away and when I arrived I
heard them already singing in the service, the
Christians.
Something within told me and pushed me, go
to the service immediately.
And I said to myself, I can't go
like this without a suit, without a tie,
in my working clothes.
I can't go and hold the Bible in
my hands before the congregation dressed like this.
And then suddenly three people stood before me.
And I thought, what will so and so
say if I stand in front of them
having the Bible and being dressed like I
am?
And so and so, what will he think
about me?
And what will the third person feel when
they see me like this?
Such foolish, idiotic things can play a role
in a person's life.
What people think, what people feel, and what
people say, oh what a sinner I was.
What people think, what people say, oh what
a
sinner
I was.
I am not a servant of Jesus Christ.
That was a knockout blow to me.
Aung San Suu Kyi wanted me to meet
a person at Hattebias Potem.
I had met his brother-in-law.
A huge, tall fellow.
He is going to Germany now for the
World Heavyweight Championships.
Boxing.
He boxed with the World Champion's brother, I
think in three seconds or three minutes.
The person was on the ground, on the
floor.
Now he is going to go and meet
the real champion.
And I said to Aung San Suu Kyi,
please, I want to meet all these people.
For that boxing match, he gets 40 million.
Whether he wins or whether he loses.
But he says he wants to knock him
out like his brother.
But I got a worse knockout blow than
that man because God knocked me out.
For 12 years I told the Zulus, I
come to you as a servant of Jesus
Christ.
And now all of a sudden, I'm disqualified.
Paul says, if I still try to please
men, I'm not a servant of Jesus Christ.
It really knocked me out.
There was another word.
The Prophet Elijah is one of my favorites.
I love his story.
He prayed that it shouldn't rain and for
three and a half years it didn't rain.
Then he prayed again.
He put his head between his knees and
he prayed.
And a cloud came up the size of
a man's hand.
And he sent a message to the king,
hurry to get home.
The rain is coming.
And the rain came and it got them
on the way.
He prayed and fire came down from heaven.
I love that man.
And I respected Elijah.
And I said, if I ever get to
heaven, I'd like to shake his hand if
there's such a thing.
But he was just like us, just a
human being, just like ourselves.
I heard how he stood before his wicked
king, King Ahab.
And he said, your majesty, God before whom
I stand.
God before whom I stand.
You know what it's like if you stand
before a very important person.
You forget about everything else.
You just think about this person whom you're
facing.
God before whom I stand.
You know what it's like if you stand
before a very important person.
You forget about everything else.
You just think about this person
whom you're facing.
If you stand before an important person, you
will be very careful how you stand.
You won't stretch and yawn.
You'll be very careful to have the right
posture when you stand there.
And you will have your best manners.
Forgetting everything else, just looking at this moment.
God before whom I stand.
You know what it's like if you stand
before a very important person.
You will be very careful how you stand.
You forget about everything else.
You'll be very careful to have the right
posture when you stand.
He stood before his king, and a king
in those days was not like the kings
today, that are just like a puppet.
These were real kings.
They could have just commanded and he would
have been beheaded.
He said to the king, O king, guard
before whom I stand.
So he forgot about everything else.
He just remembered God, the Lord of lords,
the king of kings, and realized he stood
before him.
And my heart broke, and I cried.
And I turned to go to the service
with the car, and then I saw the
temple of the Hindus in my mind's eye.
And it was as though the Lord took
me and showed me a film of my
life, of what I was.
And I saw, as it were, myself going
into the temple of a Hindu.
Do you ever been in a Hindu temple?
There are plenty idols made by men.
Some idols in the image of a man
with horns or hands like a snake, like
real spooks.
And I went to the first idol in
my mind's eye, I saw myself kneeling down,
worshipping this idol with my forehead on the
ground.
And I saw myself get up, go to
the second idol, kneel down, bow right down
with my forehead on the ground, worshipping this
idol.
And I got up and went to the
third idol, and I went right down and
I bowed down and worshipped this idol with
my forehead on the ground.
And so I saw myself praying and worshipping
idols.
And I got up.
And I heard the word saying, I don't
want you to worship idols, worship only the
living God.
And by that time I was at the
end of myself.
I went through a side door into the
service, wiping my tears, hiding my face, got
to the first chair and I just said,
let's get down and pray.
There was nothing that I was going to
preach or teach anymore, I just got down
on my knees and said, God have mercy
on me, save me, I am a sinner
lost.
That's how God took me through the mill,
and he didn't do it in a nice
way, with the feet first.
He took me upside down with the head
in first and he crushed me and he
milled me.
By God's grace, that's how I got revival.
That's why revival means something to me.
Have you got it?
Have you gone through the mill?
Have you been cleansed and sanctified?
Many people carry on and they live like
devils.
They speak like them.
Why?
They have been changed.
You don't just see and hear Jesus, you
hear some other voices as well.
Some other voices.
We heard a lot of voices last night.
Many, many, many.
You can't imagine what can be in a
man and in a woman.
But I want to tell you, you won't
get places in anywhere with God.
The streams of living water won't break forth
out of your innermost being unless you believe
as the Bible and as the Scripture says.
Now you test yourself, even if I just
spoke a third of what I wanted to
speak.
You test yourself.
Do you believe as the Scripture says?
That will determine whether rivers of Holy Spirit
water will break forth out of your life.
You test yourself.
Do you believe as the Scripture says?
That will determine whether rivers of Holy Spirit
water will break forth out of your life.
Let us pray.
You Lord got up and you cried.
You cried out aloud on that day even
though people wanted to kill you.
You had to call out because you just
couldn't keep quiet about this.
You had to call out that He who
believes in you, as the Scripture says, rivers
of living water will flow out of their
innermost being and a desert will bloom like
a garden.