Text 9 is in the Epistle of James.
The Epistle of James.
I have an almost incurable habit of...
Let me say that again.
I have an almost incurable habit of...
And I think after reading the Bible that
one of the most profitable studies is to
discover how God has made men.
We're going to start tomorrow morning.
We did not start this morning on the
Epistle to the Hebrews, Chapter 11, and see
how God made men.
It's a very fascinating study.
The lives of many great men have been
written in two volumes.
Begbie wrote a very fascinating life of the
founder.
He was half-Jewish, half-Gentile.
He established the Salvation Army, the worldwide revival
that began in 1865 and went into 70
countries in less than 90 years.
There's a very fascinating life of the founder
of the China Inland Mission, Hudson Taylor, Dr.
Hudson Taylor.
The first volume is called The Growth of
a Soul, which is the explanation of the
life of the man.
The second is the development of the China
Inland Mission.
I don't think it's very difficult to write
the life of a person in two volumes,
if you have enough information and you have
enough words.
But I'm quite sure in my own mind
that God alone could write the life story
of one of the greatest men that ever
crossed the bridge of time, in two words.
And this is what God does when he
writes the life story of this fantastic man,
the prophet Elijah.
Because it says here in the end of
the Epistle of James, summarizes his life, verse
17, the middle of verse 17, he prayed.
Isn't that wonderful?
His whole life, the life of a man
who could strangle the economy of a nation,
subdue kingdoms, terrify kings, raise the dead.
You name it, he did it.
He lived in a realm that we don't
live in anymore, hardly.
He lived in a realm that we don't
live in anymore.
Why does it say anymore?
Because you can't say anymore about any man.
I don't care how old this is in
this church.
I don't care how many degrees he has.
As I said last night, if you're not
known in hell, as far as I'm concerned,
preacher, you're a failure.
I don't care if you have 50,000
people in your church.
And in case you think this man was
not a normal man, he was very normal.
Oh, I can prove that too, Wade, because
the scripture says so.
He was a man of like passions as
we are, and the other proof is that
he stood up to 800 men and ran
away from one woman.
So that shows you he was pretty normal.
He had nerves, sinews, emotions.
This man is one of the rare breed.
He's tagged as a prophet.
Prophets are God's emergency men for crisis hours.
The schoolmen of the church have divided them
into two classes.
Minor prophets, major prophets.
And yet some of the minor prophets had
some major truths.
There are only three chapters in that book,
that wonderful little prophetic book of the minor
prophet Habakkuk, or Habakkuk if you like.
And I was reading it today because, you
see, there's a common denominator about these men
who are called prophets.
They were never successful in the eyes of
the world, they were never popular, nobody wanted
their autograph, nobody took their photograph.
They were not only brave men, they were
burdened men.
You'll find this repeatedly amongst these men, and
this is how the prophecy of Habakkuk begins.
The burden which Habakkuk, the prophet, did see,
O Lord, how long shall I cry?
And will thou not hear even the cry?
When I cry out unto thee of violence,
wilt thou not save?
Why dost thou show me iniquity, and cause
me to behold grievance?
For spoiling and violence are before me, and
they are they that raise up strife and
contention.
Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth
never go forth, for the wicked doth compass
about the righteous.
Therefore wrong judgment proceedeth.
And he finishes up there at the end
of the third chapter in one of the
bleakest spots, one of the most terrible expressions
in the whole of divine revelation, he says,
O the fig tree shall not blossom, and
let there be no fruit in the vine,
and the labour of the olives shall fail,
and the fields shall yield no meat, and
the herds shall be cut off from the
store.
Now there's blackness compounded.
There's death, desolation, destruction, everything to terrify him.
And then as he finishes he says, Yet
I will rejoice in the Lord.
I will joy in the God of my
salvation.
The Hebrew says, I will shout aloud his
praise, and I'll dance in the presence of
the Holy God.
Even though it's as black as midnight.
Oh he comes through with some light, because
he says there in chapter 2 and verse
14, He sees right at the end of
the tunnel the earth shall be filled with
the knowledge of the Lord, and the glory
of the Lord as the waters cover the
sea.
Now he's the same breed of man as
Elijah.
And I hardly ever preach on Elijah, but
somebody comes up and says, Now you forgot
one thing.
I forget many things, I'm getting old.
There are three signs of old age.
One, loss of memory.
I can't remember the other two.
As you get older you get kind of
mental lapses, and sometimes I skip things, I
don't finish what I intended to say.
But, let me say this, this man Elijah
again.
He's outstanding, he's a giant amongst men.
There's no major prophecy of Elijah, there's no
minor prophecy of Elijah for sure.
And somebody says, remember after Elijah came Elisha.
Elisha did twice as many miracles, raised twice
as many dead, he prayed for a double
portion of the Spirit, so forth and so
on.
Right, but God is never called the God
of Elisha, he's called the God of Elijah.
If you went to a Jewish home on
certain seasons, and they were celebrating one of
the Old Testament feasts, if there were fourteen
people in the house, there would be fifteen
chairs, and the door would be left open.
If you ask why the door is left
open and why there's an extra chair, they
say because Elijah may come.
You remember when John the Baptist came, they
didn't say this is Elisha, they said this
is Elijah.
When Jesus died on the cross, they said
he calls for Elijah.
The last two witnesses at the end of
the Revelation are, one of them is Elijah.
On the Mount of Transfiguration they beheld, I
wonder how they knew, they had no photographs,
but Peter and John said there's Moses and
there's Elijah.
He's always there.
He's one of God's supermen.
It's true he didn't have an advanced party,
didn't have any double knits and alligator shoes
like the modern evangelist, didn't need a million
dollars to stir a city.
He learned, I think what we need to
rediscover, that one man with God is a
majority.
He came onto the stage of the Old
Testament, you remember how he came, every Sunday
school child knows that.
And I'm not going to suggest that you
read it tonight, but read it when you
go home.
Fifty-eight years before he came there had
been a dividing of the kingdom, then there
had been a succession of kings.
Each king did more iniquity, the second did
more evil than the first, the third did
more evil than the second, the sixth did
more evil than the fifth.
The last one, Ahab, did not do more
evil than the king before him, he did
more evil than all the aggregate iniquity of
all the kings before him.
If you want to read, give a summary
of this, read it when you go home,
the end of the 16th chapter of the
first book of Kings.
You'll find that the whole nation was just
swept with an awful tidal wave of impurity,
iniquity, and idolatry.
And impurity.
And then as the Irish would say, to
make bad worse, though God said that the
city of Jericho should not be rebuilt, they
rebuilt the city of Jericho and laid it
in the foundation of their own blood.
And then to defy God again it seems
that Ahab decided he would marry a woman
of another group, another nation, that God said
should not be done.
And the wicked woman Ahab, finally the wicked
woman that married Ahab, Jezebel, got into authority.
And just as you might put the lights
out one by one and plunge the nation
into darkness, she did exactly that.
She got on the throne.
She chased the priests away.
There could have been a moment when this
man could have said in despair when every
preacher ran away, I even, I only am
left.
Instead of that he braced himself and said
not I even only am left, but God
and I are left.
He couldn't even put his finger on the
word of God.
If two of you shall agree, and if
he could he couldn't find anybody else to
agree with him anyhow.
All the preachers had run away.
I wouldn't give you a dollar for the
whole 6,000 of them.
The enemy had come in like a flood.
But the spirit of the Lord was to
lift up a standard against him.
All the iniquity had been done that could
be done.
Evil had been compounded.
This woman is in the place of authority.
She's got everything where she wants it.
But she miscalculated because there was one man
still left.
Now whatever else they did about Elijah, they
may have scorned him, they may have criticized
him, they may have hated him, but they
never mastered him.
They knew he had too much power with
God.
And I don't know how he did it,
but maybe they were looking for some flowers
in the garden and suddenly this rugged, ragged
little man came and put his finger up
and he said there's going to be no
rain according to my word.
You see, if you keep emphasizing be filled
with the spirit, be filled with the spirit.
Right, be filled with the spirit.
The same word that says be filled with
the spirit says be angry.
The trouble is most of us get angry
over things that shouldn't disturb us that much.
Just your children do something, you get blazing
mad.
Something goes wrong in the church but iniquity
can abound.
You see this nation again I say was
parallel with the nation that we're in right
now.
Evil was done in a flagrant, boastful, wicked
way.
It was no longer done in a corner,
it was done openly.
Before long though the X-rated films on
TV.
I say tonight what I said yesterday if
you were not here that if you and
I were as spiritual as we think we
are with all your talk about the Holy
Ghost you'd have come to God's house tonight
in sackcloth with a handful of ashes to
put on your unworthy head.
So were they.
No nation has risen as rapidly as America
no nation has fallen as quickly.
Pro-later we have more alcoholics than any
other nation in the world we have more
drug addicts we have more illegitimate children we
have more kids under fifteen with venereal disease.
We've legislated this devilish thing, abortion.
The church hasn't said much about it.
I'd like to see some Christian kids parading
somewhere up in Washington against some of the
devilish things that go on.
Oh we'll shout from the pulpit I find
a lot of preachers who are very brave
in the pulpit but cowards when they get
out of it.
Afraid we might lose our jobs afraid we
might upset a few deacons.
Maybe to the advantage of Elijah he didn't
have a pastor he didn't have any deacons
he could offend but please and if he
had he wouldn't have cared anyhow.
The enemy has come in like a flood
this woman thinks she's got everything there in
a grip and this man looks out they've
rebuilt altars to Ashcroft they've rebuilt the city
God should and he's angry smoke ascends every
day from altars and it stinks in the
nostrils of God.
Does that worry us?
Not on your life.
We put our arms round people.
It doesn't matter whether you're in the Church
of Rome or not as long as you
get the baptism let's put our arms round
them.
Well if you're going to have Pentecostal Catholics
you've got to have Pentecostal Mormons and Pentecostal
Jehovah's Witnesses and Pentecostal Spiritists who are you
to divide the sheep from the goats?
If you take one take the lot but
as far as I'm concerned they're all heretics
anyhow if they don't abide by the word
of the Living God.
The day is coming when the Church of
Rome will strangle her she hasn't conceded one
thing in Vatican I or Vatican II tell
me what she's conceded she doesn't want to
share she wants us all to come like
little puppies and bow at the feet of
the man they call Father They're heading for
the greatest conflict of the ages you remember
when Paul went to the intellectual capital of
the world which was Athens he saw shrines
he saw temples and he says it says
in the sleepy Elizabethan English his spirit was
stirred it says in the in the Amplified
which I don't like except when it agrees
with me and it says there in the
Amplified that when he went down Main Street
in Athens he was angry sure he was
angry he saw the money invested in false
gods he saw people doing obeisance to God
he saw their sacrifice he saw their devotion
I was privileged to preach at the great
Curacao convention in Japan a few years ago
not too long ago my dear wife and
I went into a meeting because a certain
man was there and he said oh I
remember you preached to us in the convention
in Curacao and I said I remember it
too when did you leave Tokyo?
yesterday these are great days for travel as
we conversed he said you know I had
quite an experience in Tokyo I went in
for a haircut it's so cheap most things
are in Japan but he got his haircut
while the little man was snipping away at
his hair he said are you a Yankee?
well he said no but I'm American but
he said oh you're a businessman he said
no I'm a missionary oh good good I'm
a missionary too you're a missionary you're a
barber cut my hair no no no cut
hair in the morning nine o'clock two
five go home and have my supper seven
o'clock I go out take my tracks
with me take my little phonograph no he
wasn't a J.W. he was a member
of this new religion political religion Sokogaki he
said we're going to push the Christians out
of this country oh you can tell me
how the gospel spread in South America and
other countries you know we've never penetrated Japan
with the gospel the missionaries have been there
a hundred and three years and half of
one percent of the people now if you
want the challenge get to Japan if you've
got an experience that can shake the world
get to Japan and manifest it I go
myself as I was younger the man said
I go out at seven o'clock knock
on a door get in a home play
my phonograph record give them instruction go to
the next door go to the next door
at seven o'clock at night and I
finish just before two o'clock I try
to get home for two o'clock and
then at two o'clock I go into
my private chapel and I draw the killet
on one side and I sit there and
I meditate on God and renew my strength
from two o'clock to four my missionary
friend said I began to feel pretty bad
I don't pray like that so I said
well how often do you do this?
every night how long have you done it?
over six years every night every night this
is the message for the world Christianity doesn't
have it nobody else has it we're going
to change the whole of the East and
then we're going to invade Europe and America
here is a heathen man who believes that
he has something that can solve the problem
in the lives of men and women he
gives himself and said at night till two
in the morning and then from two to
four he prays before his God a dumb
God that can't hear his broken heart ears
that can't hear hands that can't serve a
heart that can't feel but he pours out
his prayer oh come on preachers come on
deacons come on Leonard Ragner do you pray
like that?
Gabriel can get some of us out of
bed at midnight to pray till two in
the morning we're so fat and satisfied got
big cars and lovely homes people that tell
us we preach better than Sturgeon well I
know you preach is good because you steal
his sermons but apart from that why should
people think we're sincere we only play the
game of Christianity as I say again are
the things you are living for worth Christ
dying for Elijah is brought in everywhere you
look but when he sees the whole nation
giving up to strange gods oh we serve
the gods of lust we serve the gods
of dope we've millions of kids paralyzed with
dope we've 9 million alcoholics we've more divorced
people and broken homes than any nation it
doesn't break our hearts though does it broke
my heart of Elijah I don't care what
anybody else does I may be the only
one left but there is a way to
God and that same God is the same
wonder working God that he's ever remember he
challenged the hosts of Baal you know his
life is really simple as I said last
night the life of that wonderful man Samson
is very simple all they did with Samson
was bind him blind him and grind him
and the story of this man is very
simple it's trust and obeying he goes and
he says to this man and woman there's
gonna be not according to God's word according
to my word and he's shut up heaven
you see the difference between belief and faith
is belief says it can be done and
faith says it will be done and he
says according to my word I'll shut up
heaven that's why it says in the next
verse he prayed again that the heavens might
still be shut up and he shut up
heaven there's gonna be no way and he
put the key of faith in his pocket
and the Lord said to him go hide
thyself that's pretty rough isn't it when you've
had a city-wide crusade and the Lord
says get out of the picture when your
name is the best known name in the
whole nation and God says go hide thyself
and he didn't say for how long you
see the story is very simple the Lord
says in this chapter go hide thyself in
the next chapter he says go show thyself
and it's wrong to show yourself and you
should hide yourself it's wrong to hide yourself
and you should show yourself he said I've
commanded the ravens to feed thee there and
I've commanded the woolly woman to feed thee
there now if the Lord says the ravens
are gonna feed you there and will you
notice they got bread and flesh in the
morning and bread and flesh in the evening
so by the scripture you only ought to
have two meals a day and so they
had bread and flesh in the morning and
bread and flesh in the evening and Elijah
left all the glamour the house was shaken
the king was terrified if there was nobody
else that was feared in the nation this
woman feared the man of God anyhow and
God says go hide thyself that's the hardest
thing preachers are always saying to me you
know I want to tell you about my
life what do you think I should do?
I say go hide yourself take three months
off and go in the cabin and just
take your Bible there's a wonderful little man
down in South Africa and I haven't been
there but I have some invitations to go
I don't think I'll make it but one
day Dr. Tozer my eminent mentor was coming
out was in his office stroking a piece
of paper not only stroking it but he
gave it a kiss now Tozer was not
emotional well he was about as emotional as
a toothpick and there he was with a
piece of paper in his hand when I
went into the office he said I would
rather have this little note from a Baptist
preacher in Africa a little black man than
a letter from the President of the United
States to the King of England the Queen
of England I gave this illustration a meeting
not long ago and the man came up
to me afterwards he's the pastor of the
First Baptist Church in Spartanburg South Carolina and
he said that was interesting to hear you
talk about Buma because it was in my
daddy's church that Buma came he came in
the meeting one night a sinner he hit
the altar he got wonderfully saved there was
no uncertainty he got the witness of the
spirit do you remember Bunyan's pilgrim got the
same thing and he said he gave three
leaps for joy I think one for the
Father one for the Son one for the
Holy Ghost but he said he gave three
leaps for joy because he said I came
to a place that was somewhat ascending and
I was walled and out of that and
there was the cross and the burden loosed
from off my shoulders and fell from off
my back and it went into an open
sepulcher and I beheld it no more forever
hallelujah and that's what Baptist used to be
like Buma got marvelously saved the pastor said
well it's so good to see you could
I help you and he said yes sir
you could he said well what can I
do for you and he said give me
a church give you a what give me
a church right a miracle just took place
in my life I came in here so
burdened and my garden was gone I came
in darkness I received light I was bound
I'm free I want everybody to know yeah
the pastor said we're all like that at
first you know you know you're thrilled to
find you one of these chosen people and
before long one of these frozen people I
can't give you a church do you have
any school training no did you go to
high school no did you go to bible
school no that was a big advantage though
I didn't know it and so he said
well after all you couldn't be a pastor
couldn't be a pastor a little black man
disappeared just over a month later the preacher
was preaching he thought well I've seen that
fellow before somewhere after the meeting he said
hello how are you fine could I help
you he said yes what can I do
for you he said give me a church
thought I'd seen you before you were in
this church about a month ago weren't you
well it's the same thing I can't give
you a church in any case you haven't
been in a church for a month where
have you been he said sir when you
told me you would not give me a
church and he lives in Durban South Africa
and he's there tonight if you ever go
down to Durban I went down the road
outside of the city I came to the
forest I found a pot in the forest
I found a stream I found a hole
in the wall and I put a mark
on it and I made a mark there
21 days and 21 nights I stayed in
there and I said Lord you and I
are going to have this out you're going
to tell me before I leave this place
you'll call me to minister and if you
have now your men are going to change
me and if you haven't I'm not going
to preach he said I stayed there 21
days and 21 nights all I did was
like Elijah I drank water from the brook
I didn't touch any food I didn't hear
any voice I didn't see any face except
his face his voice and he told me
I'd put my hand upon you and he
filled me with a holy ghost while I
was there and he told me that I'd
lay hands on the sick and he was
a Baptist preacher and they recovered now he
said they were going to give me a
church he said well I'll see the deacon
the generous deacon said well there's a little
shanty church outside of town just a little
ring where a few colored people go we'll
let him to the pastor there he can't
do much harm as a matter of fact
there's only five members and they'll soon get
fed up with him and they'll come back
to our church and then we'll close it
down we'll say you see see what happened
why was Tozer kissing the piece of paper
because the man I happen to have read
one of two or three of Tozer's books
but that man I understand now the little
black man that stayed there with God the
man that went there and stayed 21 days
and 21 nights with God at a church
of 1200 people and in a country where
whites won't go listen to black men he
not only has white men sitting there he
has government officials who are very happy to
be deacons in his church and he's maintained
reminding do you know why because he didn't
stay there a certain place God filled me
with the Holy Ghost the day I understand
that he got filled or went into that
little hole in the wall that cave was
the 17th of November every year since then
he said goodbye to his wife and kissed
his children goodbye to the deacons not whether
he kissed them but anyhow he said goodbye
to them as well and he's gone back
in that hole and stayed 21 days and
21 nights fasting to renew his vision and
renew his strength you got it all at
seminary didn't you preach it you got a
nice little thing on the wall the devil
looks up and runs out and says boy
I can't stay here he's a seminarian I
mean he's got knowledge that's all your diploma's
worth if it's filled with pride and you
think you've made the devil afraid because you've
got diploma isn't it amazing that Elijah made
it the way he did he never went
to bible college never had any advance men
never had his picture taken you know like
these dramatic preachers that's a classic pose if
you fill with a holy ghost you know
you look like this signs and wonders and
miracles they couldn't move their fuzz on a
gander's nose go hide thyself when
did you last shut the door you weren't
available to anybody go on get away this
is where God sends his great men a
lady asked me a while ago what university
i went to and i was felt very
good you know i said bush university yeah
would i i said she said she must
have been about this go hide thyself ah
this is the toughest thing isn't it oh
we put emphasis on tithing of course it's
all testament if you preach tithing you should
preach circumcision too and everything else that goes
with it there's no tithing in the new
testament they gave according to the way God
prospered them but there's no such thing as
literal tithing and in any case what does
it say in the scripture bring me all
the tithe no all the tithe it's the
it's the tithe of the god no there
is no tithe
of is no tithe of the there is
your legislator, will you push him to the
backside of the desert like God did?
Moses lived 120 years, 40 years in the
universities of Egypt, 40 years he learned more,
the second 40 he lived with his mother
-in-law, and the third 40 from being
80 to being 120.
You wouldn't cut the middle out of a
man's life would you?
40!
Life begins with 40!
There is a young man, he's already trained
in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, he's
ready to deliver the nation, good!
Could you stand there?
I challenge you to try it for 40
hours, I challenge you to try it for
40 days, until God speaks, and if he
speaks you'll never forget it!
You were in a meeting the other week
where God moved, all kinds of preachers came
in from Presbyterians, Pentecostals, you mentioned it, freewheeling,
I mean freewill Baptists, and I don't know
who else didn't come, other kinds of Baptists,
missionary Baptists, they all came in.
You never know who's in the meeting.
In England you know when there are preachers
there, they wear their collars backwards way, because
most of them are going backwards way, but
anyhow, you can tell when the preachers are
there.
I got a letter just before we set
off on the road, a few weeks ago
now, and as I opened it I said,
Martha dear let's read the letters before we
get in the car, and I read this
one.
Brother Raymond, the last night of your meeting,
a Methodist minister was in our, in the
meeting, dignified, fine young man, very accomplished, very
gifted, and God got hold of him.
He went to church Sunday morning, they got
through the preliminaries, and it came time for
the message, and he said, friends I could
give you a sermon, I've been doing that
for a year or two, but I'm not
preaching a sermon, I'm not going to talk
to you again until I hear from God.
I've been preaching sermons, but not a message
from God.
Good day.
The deacons didn't like that.
They liked it less when they went the
second Sunday, and he went through all the
preliminaries and said, I haven't heard from God,
good day.
They were climbing the walls the third Sunday,
when he said, I haven't heard from God,
good day.
What are we going to do with him?
We pay him to preach.
He's preached good sermons.
Oh yes, he preached good sermons, never disturbed
anybody.
He knew how to do like you do,
construct your sermons with homiletic imperfection, and exegetical
exactitude, and grammatically impolished.
Three Sundays he turned that fine congregation away,
and they plotted and planned and said, look
he's only got one more Sunday to do,
we're going to do something.
They went the next Sunday.
Did the preacher go?
They thought Gabriel had come, never mind the
preacher.
That man just stood there and gave a
word that God, he'd waited a month.
They'd songed him, criticized him, written to him,
threatened him, until I hear from God, and
he'll have preached to you again.
He preached that Sunday morning, he got his
text out, he preached about ten minutes, that
congregation broke up, they began to run to
the altar and cry and groan and ask
to be saved, ask to be filled with
the Spirit.
God began to manifest himself with the Holy
Spirit in the meeting, and turn the church
upside down.
Oh, you'd like it in six easy lessons,
wouldn't you?
You'd like to send to some little mill
up there, where they'll give you a theological
degree for fifty dollars, and four soap wrappers.
It costs something to hear from God.
This man is going to deliver a nation.
He's going to put his uniform on one
side, lay his medals down, nobody's going to
bow down to him, nobody's going to wash
his feet.
He has no slaves to attend, he has
to look after some slaves.
And there he walks up and down, and
God hasn't given him his commission yet.
Can you imagine him the day before, he's
eighty years of age, going down the road
and saying, I missed it.
Boy, God hasn't spoken to me.
I don't know why, oh!
Why, I remember that bush was burning.
Nothing unusual about it, except it's not consumed.
He goes near and a voice says, take
off thy shoes from off thy feet.
And the God that answers by fire, answered
out of the middle of the bush.
After forty years of stillness.
Of course, if you get filled with the
Holy Ghost, you'll have to get filled the
way I got filled, otherwise it won't be
genuine.
The man that took over the job was
a fellow called Joshua, you remember, and he
had problems with Israel too.
Maybe one day he was saying to himself,
I shouldn't have taken the job, I'm sure
that, well, after all, I mean, I never
saw a burning bush, I never heard the
God's voice, and I'm just about destroyed with
this bunch.
After all, he got about a million and
a half people, you know, take a bit
of handling.
No burning bush, no voice of God.
Maybe I should, oh!
Who about the captain of the host of
God, take off thy shoes from off thy
feet.
There was no burning bush.
It was the same commission, it was the
same anointing.
God sent his great men into the wilderness
of silence.
I reminded you yesterday, John Baptist was in
the wilderness twenty years training, and he only
preached six months.
Now guys go to college six months and
preach twenty years, no wonder they run out.
The greatest intellect the world ever saw, the
Apostle Paul, and after God revealed himself to
him on the Damascus road, he revealed himself
in him in the wilderness, a school of
silence.
Isn't it amazing that Jesus went about doing
good?
No, doing nothing for thirty years.
Went home at night, brushed the sawdust off
his hairy legs, took the bits of wood
out of his toes, and walked home.
And maybe made a casket for somebody the
next day, or a yoke for the neck
of a beast the next day.
And he wasn't sweating and wetting and anxiety
and fretting and say, Lord when am I
going to start my, no he did not
do that.
For thirty years God left him that.
Go hide thyself.
I had the privilege of talking with one
of the greatest men in the world today,
Buck Singh.
If everybody comes around, if everybody's in this
area, get a rope and put it around
his neck and pull him in, let him
talk to you.
He's a very wonderful man.
He raised up about three hundred and fifty
churches on his own in India without any
backing, financial backing at all, without asking for
a dime.
We were talking about the things of God.
He said to me, Brother Rayfield, you know
the Americans are lovely people.
I like them very much.
They're very generous, very kind.
They've got lovely churches.
But I've never been in a church in
America where they could worship God.
Oh, I said that's something.
And I've never been in a church in
England where they could worship God.
Well I said, supposing I came to your
church on the Lord's Day, one of your
services in India, your particular group, what would
happen?
You know what he said without backing an
eye?
He said the first three hours of the
service we give to praise, adoration, thanksgiving, worship.
Then what?
Oh he said the second three hours we
give to prayer, supplication, intercession.
I was getting a bit nervous but I
risked it.
I said and then what?
He said the third three hours we break
bread.
One has a psalm, this man has a
hymn, this woman had a revelation from God,
that man over there has just finished a
20-day fast, this man has had to
go make an apology, God's been dealing with,
and the whole minister, church ministers, nine hours.
I said but you don't have that every
Sunday do you?
He said no.
Oh I said I wasn't thinking of special
Sundays.
Oh well he said no.
We don't have nine-hour service every Sunday.
Some Sundays the glory comes down whether they're
12 hours, 13 hours, 14 hours.
Hmm?
My good friend that wrote that book, Brother
Andrews wrote the book that you've read, I'm
sure many of you, God's smuggler.
I had a tape from him recently, he'd
been behind the Iron Curtain of Baptist Church.
Went in at eight o'clock Sunday morning,
God was blessing them.
Twelve o'clock the communist police came in
and said shut up, get out!
And an old saint struck up a hymn,
and every time the communist policeman put his
hand up the old saint struck, and they
sang the cop out after an hour.
He went out, he gave up, and he
said at one o'clock we really started
the service.
They'd already been there four hours, and he
said at one o'clock we began the
service.
We finished with praise and adoration at six
o'clock at night.
He said nobody looked at their watch.
Do you know why?
Nobody could afford one.
At Baptist Church is God going to have
to take away your TV, and your automobile,
and that boat of yours, and all those
other silly things you've got, to get us
to learn to worship him, and adore him,
and magnify him.
Go to church at eight in the morning
till six at night.
We go at six at night till eight,
we think we're going to get extra stars
in our crowds.
Now I'm proud to say to you tonight,
you think that revival is number one imperative
in America.
In the midst of all the soddiness, and
corruption, and blackness, and bleakness, and political intrigue,
and the sick dollar, and everything else we
have.
For we're at the bottom of the pile.
Nobody respects us around the world anymore, particularly
since war began.
The dollar's more tragically limp than it's ever
been.
Would revival solve our problems?
Yes it would, temporarily.
The coming of Christ will do it permanently,
but revival's the next best thing.
Now do you want revival at the price
of bread line?
This man says, I'll shove them heaven.
I'm determined that almighty God will get the
glory, and they won't look any more strap
and bail.
They won't be intimidated by politics and things.
They're going to know that God is on
his throne.
If I strangle the economy and you're standing
bread lines, and that's exactly what happened.
Then you go to a woman later and
say, make me a little cake, and she
says, no I'm going to make a cake
for myself and my boy and die, like
everybody else is doing.
Maybe under a breath saying if I could
get my hands on that money like I'd
strangle him.
There's a price to pay for revival.
Do you remember when Paul testified twice in
the Acts of the Apostles?
He says going down to that Damascus road,
there shone round about me and them that
journeyed with me a light from heaven, but
I heard the voice.
On the second account he says there shone
a light from heaven on everybody, but he
spoke only to me.
And I've got to the place now where
I speak to a nice crowd like this
of 10,000 people or 20 people.
If God speaks to one man, I'll be
rewarded.
If God finds out of these young men
a David Brainerd tonight, or finds another sturgeon,
I'm rewarded.
The rest of you go to sleep anyhow.
You don't want to be disturbed.
Your name's in the book of life.
You've got a job in church.
You've got a comfortable pastor.
Why in the world should you eat all
the erring one?
This is why these men have a glimpse
as I've got to a scene tonight.
How long has it been?
I was thinking the place of prayer is
filled with tears.
It's filled with blood.
Isn't it rather amazing that those men that
saw the most amazing minister in the world,
the ministry of Jesus, they never said, Lord,
teach us to do miracles.
They never saw God teach us to preach.
They said, Lord, teach us to pray.
There is no account in the world of
God that Jesus ever prayed with his disciples.
He prayed for them.
He prayed in front of them in John
17.
He never prayed with them.
Why?
You remember in the garden when he was
going to the most critical point of his
life?
He says, you tarry here while I go
pray.
In other words, you're not big enough to
take it.
You can't sweat.
You can't bleed.
You can't travel.
As I was thinking of these fine young
people here tonight, I remember the revival of
1859.
Spurgeon had been in America in 1857.
Three thousand men were meeting there in New
York for prayer every day.
Two thousand men were meeting in Philadelphia.
Three thousand men were meeting in Cincinnati.
Seven to eight thousand men praying every day.
Spurgeon got back as quick as those slow
boats could get him, and he said to
the people in England, pray for revival.
America's going to have a move of God.
They prayed.
The spirit broke out in Ireland in a
place called a Huckle.
I preached there.
Why did it begin?
Because some teenage boys, seventeen, eighteen, and nineteen,
there were four of them, got behind a
hedge, and it rains two days out of
three in Ireland.
And they wet that old shamrock with their
tears more than the rain.
And they stayed there day after day, night
after night, and prayed, God break through in
Ireland.
And they had the greatest revival in 1859
they've ever had.
1903, the deacon of a Baptist church, I
guess, in one of the little Welsh towns.
I preached many times in the hills of
Wales.
The deacon was up on the mountain, as
they call it.
You call it a molehill, maybe.
It wouldn't be more than a thousand feet.
But they have some great big boulders, great
big rocks.
And the old man was walking up there,
looking over the lovely valley.
He heard some groanings.
He heard some tears, and thought, this is
strange.
And he moved, and eventually he looked round.
There were four young men from his own
church, prostrate.
One or two of them, others clinging
to the rock, crying, O God, rend my
heavens and come down.
Come over the principality, as they call Wales,
because they have a prince, not a king.
He was terribly disturbed.
He said, we old men should set the
part, and hear the young men weeping and
travailing for Christ to come in revival.
He went up the hill a few days
after, a few nights after.
And while other boys were playing ball in
the valley, or fishing there in the river,
those young men were there praying, travailing.
I didn't want to bring this message tonight,
to be honest.
I wanted to preach on a wonderful woman
in the Bible, Hannah, a barren woman.
Have you noticed that the greatest men in
the Old Testament were born of barren women?
Samuel was born of her.
Rachel prayed.
And I've said very often, I mean it,
that God does not answer prayer.
We pray thousands of prayers, God never answers.
Rachel didn't pray.
She had more jewels, she had more love
from her husband, she had more attention.
But she came one day to the place
where jewels and all the show that she
had, didn't satisfy.
And she threw herself at the feet of
her husband, and she said, Jacob give me
children or I die.
One of the texts of scripture says we
wrestle not against principalities and powers.
We could chop the text off and stick
it over the door in most of our
prayer rooms in our churches.
I don't care how big your church is,
preacher.
I'm not interested in your bus ministry, just
in itself.
I don't care how many people you say
come Sunday morning.
If you want to know how popular a
church is, you go Sunday morning.
If you want to know how popular the
preacher is, you go Sunday night.
If you want to know how popular God
is, you go to the prayer meeting.
And no church, whether it's Mr. Criswell's lovely
church or anybody else's, no church is greater,
stronger than its prayer meeting.
That's the prayer house, that's the powerhouse.
Go hide thyself.
And he hid himself, and he didn't leave
a forwarding address.
And he didn't get worried that somebody might
shoot the bird down that was bringing his
breakfast, he just rested in God.
And he stayed there, and then God says,
go show thyself.
And he went to show himself.
Not very nice to go and ask a
widow, is it?
Who wants to sponge on widows, apart from
evangelists?
Who wants to sponge on widows?
Hi, good morning, make me a little cake.
Sir, I've a handful of meal and a
drop of oil, I'm going to put them
together and make a cake.
That's all I can do.
I'm up to the end of my resources.
My boy and I, we're going to eat
this and die.
My wife said, make me a cake first.
Oh, I may as well die today as
tomorrow.
Make yourself a cake.
She went back to the barrel, and it
was filled to the top.
And that oil thing was shooting like an
Oklahoma gusher, down the rug and out down
Main Street.
No, it wasn't.
I believe that until God opened the heavens,
until they had a harvest, that woman took
the last handful of meal out of that
barrel every day, and the last drop of
oil, because that's the test of faith.
I got a lot of millionaire friends, they
don't do much for me, anything.
I don't worry.
Because if I lean on millionaires, God will
pull the support out.
I got lots of friends who said to
me, wherever you are in the world, if
you need money, send me a cable guy,
just say how much, and he'll do that
by the next cable.
I've never asked a person for a penny
once.
I've been around the world a couple of
times.
I've got nobody to enhance me.
God will take care of you.
Make me a little cake.
Made a cake.
Well, very nice.
Elijah went in one day, and here's a
weeping woman.
Oh, now she's not that placid, nice lady
who says, oh, it's wonderful that we've got
a supply.
She's an angry woman.
She says, is this the reward I get?
I've been looking after you and feeding you
until my child died.
Do you know what he said?
Don't worry about that.
I'm the greatest faith healer in the world.
Where's the kid?
Where's his body?
Bring it here.
Oh, and he just says, gets all of
it.
He says, Lord, this kid's dead.
Put life in it.
Thank you.
He's a baby catch.
That's the way we do it on TV.
We'll do anything to get a dollar.
What did the man of God do?
He could shut up heaven.
He could terrify a nation.
He could shake the throne.
He said, give me that child.
And it says what?
He ran up into a loft.
You got a loft in your life?
Or is it a basement?
Or is it an old gut?
A place where God seems nearer.
A place where the angels have picked up
your tears and stored them in his bottle.
A place where you struggled in birth for
Christ to be formed, as Paul says.
He prayed, nothing happened.
He prayed again, nothing happened.
What did he do?
Go out by the back door.
It isn't God's will.
Better quit.
You'd better find out whether it's God's will
before you pray.
Then you won't waste his time or yours.
He prayed once, it didn't happen.
He prayed twice.
The third time, he laid himself on the
child.
Compassion, humility.
And he prayed.
God's life came.
I'd like to paint that picture if I
were an artist.
Elijah coming down those steps and the woman
looking in on, he says, hey your child's
living.
You remember what she said, by this, by
this, by this I know the heart of
man of God.
I wasn't too persuaded with the oil and
the but by this, this is supernatural.
You must somehow be in touch with God.
You link your impotence to his omnipotence and
touch my child and he lives.
Isn't that the work of the church?
You happy quickened who were dead.
Phinney did what no modern evangelist does.
Phinney went to a city and stayed till
God split the heavens.
Phinney went to Rochester, New York.
I've been in that church, I stood by
the tablet outside, where in less than six
months, Phinney had 100,000 people genuinely born
of the Spirit of God.
Phinney said you can take a map and
you can draw a square and precipitate God
in the square.
And a man with an experience is never
at the mercy of a man with an
experience.
That's exactly what Phinney did.
Oh, but wait a minute.
However much you exalt Phinney, maybe he was
seven feet tall, maybe he was one of
the most brilliant preachers.
Remember this?
That Phinney never made an altar call within
the first 28 nights of preaching.
Most of our evangelists don't have 28 sermons.
28 nights in a row and he never
made an altar call.
He didn't preach the love of God, he
didn't say you're a sinner, God loves you,
he said God is angry with the wicked
every day, which the word of God says.
He didn't preach grace, he preached law, he
didn't preach love, he preached judgment, he didn't
preach heaven, he preached hell.
He didn't say you're a person, he said
you're a rebel.
But he got results.
64 percent of the converts of D.L.
Moody backfled, 72 percent of the converts of
Phinney stood.
Because he knew how to attack the human
will, not just emotion.
But when you've given him all the credit
you can give him, would you remember this
please?
He had two men with him, younger than
he was or about his age.
They called, he called them Father Nash and
Father Cleary, only because they wore long beards.
There was an old lady in a church
I pastored in Bolton, England.
She remembered when Phinney came to town.
I was there in 1932, she was about
80 years of age, she remembered Phinney coming
to town.
She remembered the two men came down the
street to a little house that only had
one bedroom, a little room, outside plumbing and
no bath, and these men knocked at the
door and asked if they could rent a
room, and the lady said, I don't have
one.
Well, what's this thing down here?
Is it a basement?
No, it's a cellar.
Do you know those two praying men rented
that cellar for 25 cents a week?
Do you know those two praying men prayed
12 hours each every day?
Oh yes, you can have your song leaders
and your great choirs.
Phinney didn't go in for that stuff.
I'm not condemning them, I'm showing the difference.
When Phinney stood there at times he roared
like a lion.
He seemed as though he was incandescent, it
seemed as though deity invaded him.
And away they're behind, they never came on
the platform, they were never shown in any
magazines.
There were two men who said, this is
our ministry, and they hid away and prayed,
and they were pulling for him all the
time and resisting the devil and making it
easy as it were for God to get
through on that congregation.
There never has been revival without prayer, there
never will be.
If God has called you to prayer, he
called you to a bigger ministry than standing
here, or standing on TV and talking to
50 million people.
You know one of the wonders of America,
there are a lot of wonders about America.
One of them is that every rotten modern
religion was born.
Mormonism, Spiritism was revived here.
Unity, go on mention it, they all came
out of America.
And now before you feel sick let me
tell you this, some of the greatest saints
that have ever lived have come out of
America.
John Hyde, I could tell you another story
about him.
Praying patiently at Portland, the man who didn't
have a long rug, he had a hard
floor like this, and when they were going
to bury him they noticed at the side
of his bed that there were two grooves.
And when they took his clothes off to
wash his body he had big hooves on
his knees, and they put two and two
together, that's where he used to pray.
And he'd warm holes in the floor of
his bedroom.
John Hyde, you remember the man that prayed
himself to death at the ripe old age
of 28, David Brainerd?
The man who when he sneezed in the
snow sprayed it with his blood, when he
coughed he spit out lumps of his lungs.
He just thought it was a petal off
a rose.
If you took it like that it would
stretch because that's how your lungs are made.
He died at 28 years of age.
Ah, you say, well you're talking about men
are handled as far as I'm concerned, and
I'm happy to call him my friend.
I think, what is he, 88 tonight, Mark,
or something like that, 88 years of age.
88 years of age, healing about Chicago.
I went into his room not long ago.
He read some of my books.
He said, I'm very honored that you've come
in.
I said, sir, you're not honored at all.
I'm honored.
My mother told me that if ever you
go into the presence of the king, you
never turn your back.
You always backpedal this way.
And after I talked with that wonderful man,
I backpedaled.
When I got to the door, I said,
sir, thank you for this privilege.
What's unique about him, he's a little Scotsman,
88 years of age.
He's got a complexion you girls would go
crazy about.
He hasn't got a wrinkle, he's got beautiful
pink cheeks, he's got black blue eyes.
He certainly knows his Bible.
What's unique about a man at 88, I'll
tell you.
This is unique about him.
That man hasn't been to bed one night
for the last 28 years.
He's in America tonight, not Finney's Day.
He's not at the 5 o'clock convention
like Hyde.
He isn't over in China laboring like Jonathan
Goldthorpe.
He's up there in a little room, and
every night at 10 o'clock he goes
to pray, and he prays till 5 or
6 in the morning when the burden lifts.
He reads half of Psalm 119, and he
prays.
Do you feel comfortable, preacher?
You spend more time golfing and goofing, don't
you?
You can spend a lot of time in
the basement when they're serving coffee and donuts
and monkey nuts, anything else.
Know anything about praying like that?
Give me a couple of deacons like that,
I'd be prepared to go to hell.
88 years of age.
He won't let me write his story.
Boy, I'd write it if I could.
But I'll tell you what happened just a
while ago, about three years ago.
That man got a witness from God about
a thing I've talked about so long, that
God is going to give us a Pentecost
to out Pentecost Pentecost.
And God told that man, in the next
outbreak of revival, we have a false revival
right now.
There's going to be a genuine revival.
There's a false revival right now.
And in that next move of the Spirit,
when God rends the heavens, the last great
reaping before Jesus comes, one billion people are
going to be born again.
That's a little over a third of the
world's population.
Five minutes, I'll let you go.
How do you know about prayer?
I often say my prayers, but do I
ever pray?
If I were to ask you who is
the greatest praying person in the Old Testament,
what would you say?
Most likely Jacob, he prayed all night.
No he didn't, he prayed all night because
he was in a jam.
You'd pray if you were in a jam
tonight, wouldn't you?
Somebody tells you your brother's coming.
My brother!
The last thing my brother said was he'd
kill me.
So what does he do?
Sends off the sheep, sends off the goats,
divides his family, jumps over the brook.
Going round the back of a big rock,
somebody jumped on him.
Well who do you think he thought it
was?
There's only one man in the world he
was afraid of.
Nobody said, if I'm going to die, I'll
die fighting.
That doesn't sound like a prayer meeting.
It sounds like a church business meeting, but
not a prayer meeting.
The more he fought, the more this person
held on to him.
Suddenly he says this can't be a man,
he's got super strength.
He still tried to fight.
The only thing I learned out of that
night of prayer is this, that when he
went into the night of prayer, in the
language of the novelist, he was tall and
dark and handsome.
He was a smart man and he walked
in, but when he came out of the
night of prayer, he came dragging a withered
leg for the rest of his life.
That's why we don't pray, isn't it?
The spirit is willing, but flesh is weak.
Moses wants to keep his hands up, but
they're going down and well they have to
prop the flesh up.
If you want to grow old quickly, pray.
Remember the men turned on Jesus and said,
what are you talking about?
You're not 50 years of age, you're only
30.
Would you like somebody to think you were
50 when you were 30?
Why was it so old and haggard?
He thought he wanted to pray as was
his custom.
Jesus is essentially a man of prayer.
This man tries to break away and he
suddenly realizes this can't be a man with
this strength.
Finger touches the sinew of his thigh and
it shrinks.
And he says this isn't a man, this
must be God.
And then the angel tried to get away
and then Jacob hung on to him, wrestling
I will not let thee go until I
thy name and nature know.
Speak to me now, for I am weak
but confident in self despair.
Speak to my heart in blessings, speak.
Now I don't believe that Jacob was the
greatest man of prayer.
Who was the greatest man?
I used to sing a hymn in England
often.
Prayer is the simplest form of speech that
infant lips can try.
Prayer the sublimest strains that reach the majesty.
Prayer is so simple a child can do
it.
Prayer is so vast it will exhaust your
vocabulary.
And the greatest prayers in the bible had
no language.
Romans chapter 8 has three types of brokenness
and there's one there, three types of groaning,
the whole creation groaning, we groan within ourselves,
the spirit groans.
Now I'm not hitting tongues for the fun
of it.
People say that's tongues, it isn't.
If it was God would say so, he's
more sense than you and I.
There's a place where even tongues can't get,
there's a place where the Holy Ghost will
grow.
Somebody said maybe facetiously if a couple were
married, if the woman had a baby, if
the wife had the first and the husband
had the second there'd never be a third.
Because men don't know a thing about travel,
birth, and pain.
But Paul did, he said little children for
whom I travel in birth.
There comes a place where you can do
nothing but groan and God measures every groan
and he picks up every tear.
Who every grief has known that wrings the
human breast.
You can stand up and sing till the
sky falls all to be like the blessed
Redeemer but if he holds you to it
you'll have 40 days on the back of
the desert alone and you'll have a Judas
in your life and you'll have a Gethsemane.
And nobody goes through Gethsemane with you.
You can cry your eyes out, I want
to know your resurrection life, there's one way
to know it, die.
And it's the only way.
It isn't something he hands out of his
life, it's when you die you get resurrection
life.
The greatest man of prayer, Moses.
Moses come here, come up the mountain.
Let me talk to you.
Moses, I am tired of this people.
Yes God's patience runs out.
His spirit doesn't always stride either with men
or nations.
As I said last night, the greatest threat
to America tonight is God.
They're within one step of God doing the
most terrible thing he can do this side
of eternity, removing our candlestick.
If you think he won't do it, I
remind you again that every city in China,
every small or large town, 800 years ago
had a thriving New Testament church and there
isn't one tonight.
I remind you that when the Jews took
Jesus, Jesus said wait a minute, your house
is left unto you desolate and God hasn't
bothered with the Jews for 2,000 years
and he's married to the Jews and he
divorced the Jews and he's going to be
remarried to the Jews and he's forgotten them
for 2,000 years.
What makes you think he can't forget America
for a hundred?
They'd only just get out of trouble, he'd
left them 400 years, there's no profit till
John Baptist came.
They've been in bondage 400 years under the
Pharaohs, we never learn our stupid lessons.
All right.
Moses, I'm going to destroy this people.
But don't get worried.
Out of your loins I'm going to raise
a far greater nation than Israel now.
You know if Moses had had half an
ounce of carnality he would have said Lord,
tomorrow I'll go to those people and say
look, the whole bunch of them will
burn you up.
You know it's wonderful when when God reaches
down and takes hold of a man.
There's only one thing I know of this
side of eternity greater and that's when I'm...
Do you remember in that chapter, go home
and read it, God says Moses leave me
alone.
And the old Methodist hymn book paraphrases that
experience when it says let Moses in the
spirit groan and God cries out let me
alone.
That isn't Moses crying because God has a
grip on him, it's God crying because Moses
has a grip on him.
Let me alone.
Because I can't live if they don't live.
Now you're a wonderful congregation, you're being patient.
I'm going to make a wild guess that
to some degree you must have interest in
America and revival or you wouldn't be here
tonight, you could be at home.
But tell me how many of us, if
Gabriel goes counting the tears you said for
lost America, why America?
Well she's not the only country in the
world but she's the country we live in
and I pay every tax you pay and
I live for America otherwise I'd be somewhere
else.
I could be in New Zealand or Australia
tonight at a far bigger meeting.
But God told me to stay in America.
Graham was going around the world.
He's in Atlanta tonight, he's just back from
a month in Korea.
He'll be off again, that's his business.
God will not let me leave America for
a world tour this year because I can
save it now.
But because he wants me to say my
peace anyhow.
How's your prayer life tonight?
Have you got beyond ABC's?
Do you know what it means to travel?
Do you know what it means to fast?
Do you know what it means to grieve?
Do you know what it means to have
a broken heart?
Do you know what it means to have
a Gethsemane?
It's pretty high language isn't it?
But after all you've been saved 20 years
you ought to have got beyond your ABC's.
You've been a preacher but can you, can
you lift your church any higher than you
are?
Do you know what it means to travel?
Would you like, I believe I can say,
that's my sweetheart, I, I think I can
tell you this, I'd rather pray than do
anything on God's earth.
I'm not a socialite.
I get invitations to go on yachts and
flying planes and do this.
Well I don't do it.
You can do it if you're a business,
do it.
Life's too short.
This generation of Christians is responsible for this
generation of heathens.
Whether they're at home or dancing under the
bush.
In Africa I'm going to talk about vision
tomorrow night, a threefold vision.
A vision of a holy God, a vision
of a lost world, a vision of self.
The disciples said, Lord teach us to pray.
It's in my last word, it says in
that little book of Jude, which is really
an epitome of the whole bible, talks in
verse 20 about praying in the Holy Ghost.
And as far as I'm concerned, one main
evidence you're filled with a Holy Ghost is
your prayer life will be revolutionized.
If it isn't, as far as I'm concerned,
you didn't get filled with a Holy Ghost.
You may have got a touch, you may
have got a blessing.
Do you want to learn the language of
the Spirit?
Do you want your heart cleansed from cells?
Seeking, sport, fun, and put yourself on the
altar and say, Lord I don't care what
it takes.
I'm not asking how many came, maybe 80,
100 came last night, that's all right.
I'm asking you tonight, are you prepared to
make a deal with God before this audience
and a world of demons looking on and
a world of angels looking on and then
a recording angel there making a record of
what you say and think in the light
of eternity.
Are you prepared to apologize to God that
you don't pray and sweat and grieve and
trot air and say, God have mercy on
me.
I want more than anything on earth, if
I never teach a Sunday school class, if
I never preach again, if I never become
a missionary, I want to know the holy
art of intercession by the ingrowing Holy Ghost
in my life.
I'm going to sing a verse of a
hymn, 174, verses
1 and 2.
Holy Spirit breathe on me.
Any candidates tonight for cleansing, for anointing?
If you come tonight, I'm going to do
something I don't often do, but I thought
I should.
If you come and stand here, don't come
except God the Holy Ghost has convicted you
of failure, calmness, indifference, but if you come
and kneel here, I'm going to lay my
hands on the person here and you can
join hands.
I don't know what else he'll give you,
that's not my business, but I'll tell you
if you mean business, when we get to
the end of the train and I see
you in eternity, you'll say, I thank God
that I met him that night, that I
put my pride on one side, my preacher's
pride, my deacon pride, my Sunday school teacher,
my rich pride, and I knelt there and
said, God have mercy on me.
Cleanse my heart of failure and weakness and
fearlessness and passionlessness.
Cleanse me and fill me with the Holy
Ghost.
It may be very radical, so don't come
running out for fun.
Don't come just because you want to be
blessed.
In travair and prayer, shall we stand?
Maybe you folk here, if you can just
touch each other, I'll lay my hands on
these men and they can, you can touch
the other folk near.
Our Father as we bow before thee in
this solemn moment, we come before thee as
thy children, acknowledging our bankruptcy.
Many of us have very ragged prayer lives
and some of us have not prayed at
all.
We come to thee tonight asking forgiveness, asking
cleansing for our failure, asking thee tonight, and
I pray as I lay my hands on
these dear ones now, that you will put
your chastened hand on them in a very
special way, particularly these young men and women.
Oh God, the world has never, never, never
in its history, as far as we can
see, ever needed a Holy Ghost revival more
than it needs it tonight.
We forget the denominations or the churches that
these folk are from.
We're the sheep of thy pasture.
You are our shepherd or you're the captain
of our salvation.
I pray tonight, my Father, that right at
this moment, that just as the fire fell
in Adathurum, that a fire of the Holy
Ghost will come every heart bowed before thee,
that out of these men tonight you'll get
the new Brainards, you'll get new Lesleys, you'll
get new Finneys, you'll get new men like
Father Cleary and Father Nash that will hide
themselves away.
Lord, I pray ambitiously for the sake of
Jesus Christ that you'll make this meeting a
tragedy to the devil.
I ask you, Lord, that all hell will
have to mourn because Jesus Christ has emancipated
lives here tonight.
They learn a language greater than learning Greek
or Hebrew.
They learn the language of the Spirit of
the Living God.
They learn the language of which cannot be
uttered.
They learn the language of the deep mystery
of God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
which cannot be gotten by university.
It cannot be dismissed or put upon us,
if it were, by even the seminary.
It cannot be wrought by our scholarship.
It cannot be bought by our money.
It cannot be engineered by our ability.
We cannot fast to persuade thee to do
it.
We cannot plead with eloquence that you'll do
it.
All that we can ask is you look
on our nakedness tonight and clothe us.
Look on our emptiness and fill us.
Look, we pray, on our weakness and strengthen
us.
Lord, I pray that on the ends of
the earth may feel this meeting tonight, that
Lord, somewhere in some dark spot in Africa,
or down amongst the lost millions of South
America, or somewhere maybe in the Orient, some
of these lives shall go and give to
the power of the Spirit.
We think of men like Jonathan Goforth.
We think of others that went there into
China in those days and they saw God
manifest his power and give holy.
We think of the Shang-Tung Revival and
all the mighty working of your Spirit.
We think of how you came to firecloth
in India.
We think of the moving of your Spirit
there in Wales, when you came down and
turned that principality upside down.
We think of the 59 Revival there in
Ireland.
We think of the moving of your Spirit
away there in Scotland 500 years ago, when
that young man preached on the hillside, and
we're told that 400 people were born again,
and 10 years after, almost every one of
them could be, except those who have died.
We're still walking in the faith.
We're still obeying God.
Others have gone into missionary service and into
the ministry.
We're ambitious for thee tonight.
We're tired of the devil's dominion over America.
We ask thee to teach us how to
pray, that we can resist the powers of
darkness, that we can strangle the power of
Satan, that we can make a highway for
us.
Get prophets out of them.
Get preachers out of them.
Get strong.
Some of them may have known the travel
in childbirth, naturally.
I pray you teach them the language of
travel in the Spirit, that both things may...
I think of Japan there, that has never
yielded to a gospel.
It's time for you to break it open.
We think of what you did in Indonesia,
that had never been a revival in that
Mohammedan stronghold, and yet you broke in there,
and despite the arguments men have about the
miracles, we're told there are more people born
again of the Spirit of God in the
last five years than all the previous years
in history.
We think of Russia tonight, the vast, prison
house of communism.
We pray that it will please thee, Knox,
who can pray.
Raise up, we pray, the Emmanuels.
Make that the strongholds of this king and
queen temple.
And he brought blessing, and the fire descended,
we're told, and he prayed, and the rain
descended, and he prayed, the rain fell, and
the fire fell, and the people fell.
Oh God, I ask thee that these dear
ones will go home, and in their utter
fear, every fetter of weakness, every fetter of
disobedience, and grant our God that these men
and women, the 18th of June
1973, and say, it was there that God
touched me, it was there that God anointed
me, it was there that God called me.
I pray again they'll know how to plead
the blood to protect themselves, and plead the
promises that they may inherit the wealth that
there is in Jesus Christ.
Bless others still in the audience who maybe
were afraid to come, or for some reason
didn't come.
Reach them too.
As we go on this week, we ask
thee that you show us your glory.
Make this night just the first of greater
blessing.
Move us tomorrow night in revelation, and understanding,
and vision.
Move us on Wednesday night, if you permit
us, to preach on the judgment seat, that
we'll have a pre-trial of that awesome,
terrible experience that has to come to every
man, whether he's a king or a criminal,
a priest or a harlot.
Everyone must stand at the judgment seat.
And for the balance of the week, Lord,
we don't want to inject any flesh, anything
of men, anything of self.
We just want your glory totally.
We thank you for your presence tonight.
We welcome you to come, Holy Ghost, and
you've come.
We welcome you to stay upon us.
We welcome you to brood over this building,
that just as people looked and saw the
fiery, cloudy pillar that led Israel, that just
as this steep, Lord, everything is above this
building, it shall radiate the glory of God.
Manifest yourself as you will.
We take our hands off this week, and
say, Holy Ghost, you're welcome to do anything
you want, but we'll glorify Jesus.
Whether it be miracles of healing or miracles
in the spirit or gifts of the spirit,
we care not.
Just have your own wonderful way, so long
as it bears the brand of a supernatural
God.
No brand of supernatural Satan power, no brands
of men, but the brand of God.
We thank you for loving us tonight.
We thank you for coming and abiding with
us.
Dismiss us now with our blessing, we pray,
in the name of the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Ghost.
Amen.