In this sermon, the speaker shares a strange experience they had while ministering. Despite not being an evangelist, they felt compelled to give an altar call and invite people to make decisions for God. The speaker emphasizes the importance of receiving and allowing the truth to revolutionize one's thinking and prayer life. They also highlight the power of positive words and faith in the story of Lazarus. The sermon concludes with the speaker sharing a personal anecdote about relying on faith and trusting God's provision.

Read it inspirationally, that I will have a chance to bring fresh inspiration on an old text that you have read 4,928 times. He says, now I have a chance at you to bring a spiritual illumination, spiritual light in teaching, because you have skipped by your perfunctory reading, your traditional reading, because you got a certain reaction. I'll give you a new reaction. How many of you know he can? You can read the same old thing you've read a hundred times and all of a sudden, how many of you know, a fresh reaction comes? Well, why is it? Because you are reading it with him, with his sense of inspiration, and he will inspire. Well, here I was reading this wonderful chapter. It is the 11th chapter of John. Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. Therefore his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. When Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that in the Son of God might be glorified thereby. Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. When he had heard, therefore, that he was sick, he ran immediately to their... Did he run immediately to help them? And he said, Oh, I love them so, and they are terribly tired, and I shall make my speed to get to them. He did not. He stayed still for two, three days. I don't blame him. Isn't it wonderful how daring he can be? And those poor sisters, all upset, and he's at death's point, and Jesus says, Well, just wait a minute. How have you ever had him almost exasperate you with something he's doing for heaven's sake? I mean, in the flesh, you would be provoked and exasperated and say, Lord, how do you dare to do things like that? How do you know he dares? He's dared to slay me several times. I've passed through hell a couple of times. You wouldn't believe it. I have. Do you know what I mean? I have. I had to to know something. I had to. And he loves me. He loves me so much he could trust me. And so he loved them tremendously. So he says, I'm going to hold off a couple of days. He abode two days still in the same place where he was. Then after that, he said to his disciples, Let's go on to Judea again. And his disciples, thus and so. Now, I'll only read that much for this. He finally decided to go down and see what's the matter. How do you know you can't hurry God? He's never in a hurry. You see, Lord, the whole thing will go to smithereens if you don't come in here and intervene. Now don't get excited. How do you know the Lord takes time? Oh, he's taking time with me sometimes. I think the Lord will go crazy if you don't do something. He said, No, if you do, I can heal you anyway. Well, that's true. So he says he stays up there. Then he goes down to see them. Well, as I was reading, the Lord says, Now keep open and I want to show you something in this chapter. So I read it that day. And the next day he gave me the same chapter to read again. And the third, I think I was about a week in this chapter. Because he was going to show me one of the most beautiful rules in our faith life that I had found. And I discovered it here. Now, we can't take the time for that, but I want you to notice something. In his conversations with these disciples, before he goes, and when he has this conversation with Martha, who is first, Mary, who sits back in the house and doesn't go out, she is interpreted from two angles. One of them said she's so peeved she wouldn't go out. The other one said, Oh no, she had such sublime faith, she sat still saying, All will be well. Well, now we don't know. How do you know the interpretations of poor Mary and poor Martha? We won't go only as far as God gives us light. Martha took the initiative to go out because she's older than Mary. She's the one who manages the home. It says the home of Martha. Mary is the younger sister and Lazarus is the brother. So, Martha goes out to meet him. Now, watch the conversation that takes place between Jesus and the people who go to tell him about Lazarus and the conversation when he talks with Martha and then when he repeats it again with Mary. Now, the whole thing hangs upon the conversation which he had with them. So, the Lord said, Analyze these conversations and see if you can see something in there which is something you would not notice. I said, I will, Lord. So, it took me all these days, I don't know, about a week, fussing around with Mary, Martha, and Lazarus to get him out of that tomb. But, you know, people are so interested that they only come to the passage where it says, Lazarus, come forth. Well, he said, There's an awful buildup before you can get him out of the tomb. You have to get him in the tomb and you have to have him there those three days too. You have to let him be in there dead and buried before you reach the climax. You want the climax without all the antecedents, but you have to have your antecedents. So, he says, It all depends upon their conversations. So, I got a pencil out in my papers and then I just go at it. So, he says, Now, look at your conversations and tweak that all the way through. And do you know what I found? I found four so far. In his conversations, every word that he said concerning this Lazarus who was sick and in the tomb and dead, were always positive. They were beautiful, positive words, creative, and full of faith. Now, when they came and he said, The one whom thou lovest is dead. He didn't say, Oh, how sad, how terrifying, how dreadful this is. He did not. Do you know what his first attitude was in his word? This is under the glory of God. I'm going to see some terrific relating or don't you? Can you relate a dead man in a tomb to the glory of God or can't you? The next time God puts one of your Lazarus in a tomb, how many of you know the best thing to do is to relate it? Don't moan in front of the tomb. Oh, God, Lazarus is died, is in the tomb. This is my hope and this is what you gave me. And the Lord will say, Put a stone over the tomb. And then he put a stone over it. And then we say, Well, dear Lord, he's in the tomb and a stone over the tomb. And it's beginning to decay. Oh, Lord, you won't get anywhere. You won't get anywhere. No, you won't. You have to listen to his conversation. What was his first word? A positive word of faith. This is not death. As you see it. It is unto the glory of God. Then he goes on to say, This is not unto death. How many of you see a positive statement of something hopeful? Do you get the positive approach or don't you? The positive approach. It's not negative. Second, it is unto the glory of God. How many of you see a positive thing again right away? Life, glory. All right. Verse 11. He says, He sleepeth and behold, I go to awake him. How many of you see victory again? He's asleep. I go to awake him. How many of you see he's saying already something to encourage them? He doesn't bemoan the fact. Four, this is a good part, is when he gets Martha in a corner. You see, she's the one that starts this argument business. And he says unto her, he says she'll live again. Oh yes, she says, I believe he'll live again in the resurrection. Oh, he says, listen Martha, the resurrection is right present, right now. I am the resurrection. How do you relate it? How many of you had her on the spot? He surely had her right on the spot. It was good. Best thing he ever said to her. He didn't say, oh, don't cry, Martha. I'll do the best I can. No, no, no, no, no. That sounds like Sunday school papers and funny religious hymns. I'm so tired of them. I like the realistic side of the thing. I like him dealing just like this, as he did with them. There are at least four times in here, he speaks of the victory. Not death, but life. Well, she says, I know he'll come up in the resurrection. Well, the resurrection is right present. Now, do you believe it? Here's the resurrection. Can you relate it? How many say he puts her exactly on the spot where she belongs? Don't get into an argument with the Lord. He always knows what he's doing. How many know he always has the last word anyway? We put up great defense mechanisms, psychologically speaking, behind which we try to hide. The ego is disturbed and frustrated, and then we build these horrible complexes, and you get into bad, bad business. Don't do that. You have to get out of it anyway. So he puts her on the spot. Now, I'll skip all of that until he gets them at the tomb. And here's the tomb. And he's sealed in there. And he has already given her at least four lovely words. The first one, he speaks to the friends which relate them to her when they come down. They say, what did he say? Well, Martha knows what he said. It was to the glory of God. The neighbors have told him already. What did he say to Martha? I am the resurrection. Your brother will live. Jesus had given her all these words of hope and encouragement, which are positive. There's nothing negative in it. It's a positive thing. Keep over on the positive side if you possibly can. Now they're at the tomb. And he has to have permission, of course, for them to move the stone. So they ask Martha. Well, she said we can't. He smells for this time. He's been there four days. He's dead. He's dead. What does Jesus say? Said I not unto you that if you would believe, you would see the glory of God? Now remember. Said I not unto thee that if thou wouldst believe, thou shalt see the glory of God. So the Lord stopped me like that. He said, do you see that? I said, sure, Lord. I've read that hundreds and hundreds of times. Elijah says, I'll give you a little secret. This is one of the rules of faith in your new realm where you are. It begins with the word of God, the word which he speaks. Not the word you find in the Bible. It may be in the Bible. But you can't just go to the Bible and pick out a lot of verses because he said them. The word that I speak is life. People are stumbled like that today because they say, Well, the promise is right there in the Bible. And I got the promise. I said, I know. That's where you got it. Get your leading and your word from God who is the author of the word. And who knows the significance of the word. Why, I never heard such preaching as that. Aren't you Pentecostal? I said, sure am. But I'm not under the variety that most of them are. How many know I'm not? How many know I am Pentecostal? I don't belong to certain breeds. Because I don't believe in their traditions. Their traditions are not wholesome nor are they scriptural. They are purely religious traditions. So they said, I got in the Bible. That's a very dangerous thing to do. Why? He has to speak the word. When he speaks the word, it has two characteristics. He spoke it to me. He says, my word is creative and it holds the kernel of faith for its execution. I said, I believe it. How many of you can go back in your life to some of the impossible things that when God has spoken, he has given you out? A kernel of faith with it and light. How many know that? Sure. But how many know you can claim a promise and get nowhere? Why? Because it is not spoken by him. His word is light. Always remember that. That's why I have to go and help these people out who just work on promises. Get your promise from the Lord. He said, I am not unto thee. I gave you the word that if you would believe what? What's in the Bible? No! Believe what I said to you and you shall see. Well, I said, Lord, that's terrific. Said I not? One. Two. That if you will believe what I said. Three. You shall see the glory of God. How many get it now? How many see a logical rule in there? And it's as real to me as two times two make four. It won't make six. It can't. Two times two make four. You cannot make it otherwise. You get the word from God. It carries with it a kernel of faith and it is creative. And he can, he's, I've had to do this because I've lived all these days and lived my life in this kind of teaching. He gave me that verse to go around the world on one time. Just that one verse. Just one verse. And I went around the world. Took me a year to get around. Left San Francisco on the 28th of October. And a year from that 28th of October I landed in New York. And I had girdled the globe and visited countries from New Zealand, all over Australia, India, and all these places. And got back again. How did I go? I went on one verse. One verse. And I didn't wear it out. I didn't wear it out. That is the verse he gave me that carried me 19,000 miles on ships. And I'm a poor sailor. And didn't I dread it? Oh, I said, Lord, you're calling me to go to Australia. I don't know a soul in Australia anymore and I could go to the moon. How could I ever go to Australia? You ought to go to Australia and carry the message I put on your heart to the saints there. They have no teaching. And I want you to go. But Lord, it takes money to go and I don't know anybody there. I can't go up to somebody's door and say, I have come. I said, I'm not a lunatic. If it says you're going, I'm calling you. Now you have to believe what I say. Well, I have to have money. Well, that's God's business, not mine. My business is to say, thank you, Lord, and go and make arrangements. I've had to learn that and I've proved it for 58 years. I have lived absolutely by faith. He called me out of all professional work. He never allowed me to make a contract or work for a salary. In Bible school work and places where I've taught, I said, I'm a very peculiar creature. But you don't have to have any stated salaries or contracts with me. If you want to give me something for teaching in the college here, I'll take it. If you don't, it's just the same to me. He said, he's crazy anyway, so let's take him. And they've taken me. And I've gone and done all my work here for 58 years. Around the world, all over Europe, down in Africa, back two, three times. And never a backing. Never. I've never gone out on any board or invited. Just the Lord said, go. And I said, thank you. And then I go. Well, you have to believe what the Lord says. Well, I'd rather believe the Lord than some funny baloney stuff. I don't have much stock in it. I believe what He says. So he showed me this. He said, do you see, this is a rule. You get your word from me and you dare to believe what I give you as your word and you cannot help but see the glory of God. How many know that? Absolutely true. I couldn't preach it if I didn't believe it. Here I was. I didn't know anybody in Australia. You don't have to when God's doing the thing. Did I have a board back of me and some advanced agent telling this? Fiddle diddle. Don't bother with such stuff. What do you do? Well, I said, all right. I don't know about anybody in Australia. Get ready to go. How many of you would like to try it? Sir Flett has such a wonderful life. How many of you know I do have a wonderful life? But I wouldn't wish it on a cat. You wouldn't take it. I don't believe you could take it. You're so used to the security of everything that you wouldn't know what a wonder it would be to stand on a street corner with your grit and $5 in your pocket and no one on God's earth where you're going or what's ever going to become of you. Would you like to try it? It's very thrilling. And every bit of your background wiped out from under you. Every bit of it. Completely washed out from you. I was invited to dinner up here in Oakland. Remember Bernice Lee? How many of you remember Bernice Lee? A missionary of India years back. I was in Bernice Lee's home. How many remember Molly Ayers? Used to come? Well, Molly was there. And I was having dinner with them right out of the clear sky. They didn't know anything about what was going on in my heart than a pussycat. I never tell anyone. I don't say, I'm walking by faith. Hallelujah. Absolutely by faith. How many of you know that technique? I'm walking by faith. How many of you know this handshake? Oh, that's another trick. Well, I don't play all those funny things. If he gives me anything, I take it. If he doesn't, it's just the same. Doesn't matter to me. One bean. I sat at the table. And Molly is an Australian, you know, by rights. So Molly, she said, John, Brother John, when are you going to Australia? I thought, what on earth would she say that for? She doesn't know anything about me or Australia or anything else. Well, I said, what do you mean? Oh, she says, I just have a feeling some way you should go to Australia and give those ministers a feast. She said, they don't, anyone go down there to teach them or even the evangelists go. Well, she says, they need you. I said, Molly, I don't know a soul in Australia. What in the heavens would I go there? Go to somebody's door and say, I'm Paulette. I'm from America. The Lord said to me to come. Well, he said, well, put them in the silo until we wire all these loose. I said, I won't do that. Now, she says, John, forget it. So the next day I came down in Bernice. And she came down to Bernice again. She says, here, sit down. I want to talk to you. She says, I'm an Australian. Molly, I know all the places in Australia, the cities. I've been born there. I know all the works. I know the churches and the preachers. And nothing would suit me better than to write a letter of introduction that you're going to be let loose over there. Here's your list. There was my list of all my appointments for four months all written down on a piece of paper. From way up there, Geebung, up, you know, in Queensland, right on down, Sydney, Brisbane, way on down. Then I took a plane to Melbourne, right on way over to Perth. The whole work, she says, here's your list. Now, I'm going to write ahead, and you write too. And we can start in Sydney. How do you see the Lord? Now, I didn't know anything about such a business, but it was nice to go to lunch, wasn't it? It was wonderful how God had that woman there. And he had one from Australia who knew all the ins and outs. And I started writing letters, and I got the loveliest letters in reply. Welcome, welcome. We would long to have you to come and minister to us. We would long have it. Went over there and spent I don't know how many months all over Australia. Well, it was wonderful. Now, shall I tell you how I got started? This is really funny too. This isn't funny, but it's rather ghastly. He says, you're to go. And I remember Bob Cummings from India. Well, Bob was there at one time too, having lunch. And he leaned over and said, Brother John, when are you coming to India? Oh, Bob, I said, I don't know. You know how I live. I walk with the Lord. If he goes to India, I go. And he said, go to the North Pole, and I go there. I don't know where I'm going or anything about it. I just run around like a child. He says, I'll tell you something. I feel to do it. We're going to put on a district convention in Bangalore next year in India, and I want you to be the speaker for it. He says, I'll meet you in India. You'll have a wonderful time. You'll be the speaker for the convention for the district. And it came true. It came true. So the Lord says, you have to get ready now to go. Well, I said, Lord, it's nice for you to tell me these things, and you are shaping the thing up, but I have to have some money and something to work on. I can't go to somebody and say, I'm going by faith. I said, I can't do funny things like that. I mean, no, he doesn't want us to do strange things like that at all. He says, I just want you to believe me. Then he brought this rule. He said, do you remember what I gave you in the raising of Lazarus? I said, yes. He says, take this rule of three. It'll take you not only here to Australia to India, and it'll take you farther. And I went on this rule of three around the world. I said, well, how will I do? He said, you do your part, and I'll do my part. I'll furnish you, but you have to have the faith to believe. Do you believe what I'm telling you? I said, yes, Lord, you never lied to me. Well, he said, you believe what I tell you. Now, he said, you are to go. Will you believe me for your offerings, for your tickets? I said, yes. I haven't anything. I guess I had maybe $20 or $25. I don't have a lot of money. He says, that's all right. Will you believe me? I said, yes, Jesus. You've never let me down. You've never forsaken me. We've lived together all this time, and you won't let me down. I believe you'll do it. Although I haven't any money, I believe you'll do it. He said, if you do, make your plans. Then I had to go with that. What do? Write to Washington, get your passport ready, get your letters of introduction, get all that. Well, I said, my heavens, yes. On what? On World Swing. Didn't I say it? Yes. Well, then do it. So I tried the first few weeks, and the offerings weren't worth 10 cents to get to India or any other place. Oh, Lord. I said, this is terrible, and he never lets me tell anybody. Nobody knew I was doing this. It's none of their business. This is faith. You don't tell it to people. Afterwards, to give God the glory of what he can do, you can tell your testimony, but you don't tell what the process is. So I went days and days, and not a letter. The offerings were just this little. Not a thing to encourage me. And I said, well, dear Lord, the time is getting short. Then I was kind of weak. Do you ever have weak spells in your faith? Don't you ever? Well, I kind of got weak-kneed, and I said, Lord, I don't want to be bad, but if somebody could only give me, say, $5, who didn't know anything about what business we were doing, not know a thing about it, but somebody could give me $5, Lord, it would encourage my faith. But you don't have to do it, but I kind of would like you to do it, Lord. But I didn't hold it to bondage. I didn't make it a contract. If you do this, I'll do that. I didn't make it a business at all. How do you know you can do that? He knew my heart anyway. You can't tell funny things to the Lord. So I said, Lord, that's the way I feel. If I could get $5 from somebody who didn't know anything about any of this, I could take it as a real omen from you, and you'll help me. So I went on offering. They didn't get me anywhere. I said, Lord, I've got to have some money. But I wouldn't. I'd get up and preach about the Lord. Hallelujah, and how wonderful He is. He is wonderful. Then I'd go home and say, well, Lord, where are you? And He'd say, no. How many want to walk by faith? Oh, dear child. The people have asked me to write a book of my life. It's too fantastic. You wouldn't believe what I wrote. It is. It's really too fantastic. The things that God has done with me and for me, they are completely out of this world. They're just fantastic. So I was getting quite concerned, and I had a meeting in a nice church, gallery, good congregation of people, and it was a teaching meeting, four or five nights, teaching, teaching, teaching. I'm not an evangelist. He gives me souls, though, but I'm not an evangelist with their technique. Do I see another soul tonight? Say the organ gently, dear. Do I see another? I can't go through all that same soul. I just say, anybody wants to get saved, come on down, and we'll get saved. I'm blunt like that. I can, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, and somebody goes, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. They roll their eyes. I can't do it at all. I just can't. Not in me. I just can't do that. The Lord knows it. He never lets me do that. I had this week's meeting, and the congregation were fine, had good meetings, and came Friday night, and I only had Sunday left. And Friday night I was preaching, speaking, just as usual, teaching, and the Lord began to speak to me right inside, right when I'm talking out here. How many of you know you can have two things going on at once? Well, I do. I have sometimes three things going on at once. It's kind of complicated, but it works. I was laying out the truth here and the Lord says, Give an altar call. Give an altar call. Give an altar call. And I said, Dear Lord, I couldn't do that. I don't know anything about this. Come forward who I see. I said, Lord, I can't. Give an altar call. You give an altar call. I'll be with you. You give an altar call. There are souls here who need God. You give the call. I'll meet them. Well, I didn't know if I was preaching or arguing with the Lord. What was the matter? But the meeting went on, and at the close I said to them, I said, Here's a good big congregation, three, four hundred people, I said, I'm having a rather strange experience, and perhaps you can help me with it. I don't know. I said, I'm not an evangelist, and I'm not used to giving altar calls and doing all these things that other people do, but while I've been ministering here, I have sensed God dealing with souls, and you've come out night after night after night, and God says there are people in here tonight who should make certain decisions. So I, without any fanfare, organ playing, or anything else, I stepped out of the pulpit and went down to the altar, and I said, There are people here tonight who need to meet God. You've heard truth. I don't know what you're going to do with it, but you have to make a decision. Are you going to receive the truth? Are you going to let that come into your heart? Are you going to let it revolutionize your ways of thinking? Let it come into your prayer patterns? Let them do these strange things? Are you willing for that? Are you willing to meet God? Whoever wants that, you just come here and we'll pray. Well, you'll know there was such a move of the Spirit that the altar was filled in no time at all. They were clambering down out of the gallery, coming down. You don't have to do those funny tricks at all. How many of you know in God where she works? You don't have to have any kind of a technique about it at all. I just stood there like that, and I said, Come to Jesus. Jesus is here tonight, and He wants to meet you, and He wants to talk to you. He told me so, and I believe Him. And if you want Him, you come here and we'll pray with you. The altar was full. Down the aisle came a man, very well-groomed, perfect gentleman. I'd never seen him in the world before. I didn't know who in the world it would be. He said, Mr. Fulett, I want to speak to you. I said, Do you want prayer? Oh, he said, God knows I need the prayer, but I didn't come for that. I want to talk to you. Will you speak to me? I said, Yes. He said, I was saved in my room about three weeks ago, and I gave my heart to the Lord. And I knew He wanted me. He's called me. But I have no knowledge of these things, and I have come to these meetings for a week. I don't belong in this church at all. It's just not my place at all. But I have come because somebody gave me a little ticket that said a teacher was going to be in here, and I wanted teaching. I had asked the Lord. I said, Lord, can you send me somebody that can teach me? And the woman gave me that ticket with that name, and I've come here. I have listened to this for a week. I can never tell you what it's done for me. He says, You have revolutionized my whole thinking processes. Have you any literature? Well, I said, I have some tracts at home, but I don't bring books and tracts with me. He says, I'd like them if I could give them a name. I said, Well, you give me your name and address, and when I get home, I would be very happy to send you some of my tracts and literature that might help you. Well, he said, I'll be glad to do it. So he went over here and wrote it and put it on a paper, and I put it in my pocket. So I went home after the meeting, and I was undressing, getting ready for bed, and I said, Oh, dear, that order for tracts, I better put it somewhere where I can keep it. And I opened it, and there was a check for $500. Well, I said, Lord, I don't know who he is. Where did he come from? Well, he said, I know all of that. Said I not unto thee that if thou wouldst believe thou wouldst see the glory? He brought me this old thing. I said, I do. I only thought that maybe $5. Well, he says, I can give you $500. That's nothing. It's all the money in the world. It's mine, and you're my little child. Isn't it nice to have a big father like that? He says, I can give you $500. That's all right. Well, I said, Lord, I don't know who he is. I didn't thank him, because I thought it was an order for tracts. So Sunday night, I went back, and I preached, and the Lord says, give another altar call. It's unfinished work Friday. Finish this work Sunday night. There are people here tonight who are not here. I want them to come to God. You give the call. I stepped down, and that place was filled again on Sunday night, just filled, here in the world, praying, seeking God, looking to God. This gentleman came down the aisle, and I said, oh, mister. I said, I don't know what to say to you. I don't know you. I've never seen you before, but I appreciate what you have given me. Now, that's all right. He said, that's all right. But I said, I want the address so I can send you these tracts. So he went and wrote his address. And I went home, and I undressed. And when I went to look at the address, there was another check for $500. I said, well, Lord. And the Lord says, said I not unto thee that if thou wouldst believe, thou shalt see? I said, yes, Lord, I think I see. Well, how many see miracles like that? A nice little miracle he threw in, all for nothing. I said, Lord, I don't yet know who under heavens he is. Where did he come from? He says, he's one of my children. You don't have to know all about that. Now, he says, you go on. So how many of you know I got started? Well, that's one little illustration. I could stand here the rest of the night and give you illustrations, and some of them are really miracles that God has wrought, because he keeps his word. He says, you must have faith. I'm not conscious of having anything. I'm just conscious that I have God, and he's big and plentiful. But do you have a technique, and a certain thrill, and a courage? I said, I haven't anything. I've just got God, and God says to me, we'll get along just fine. And there we go. Let me tell you this. I'm a poor sailor. I've been sick on the Atlantic two times enough to... How many of you have ever been seasick? Isn't that terrible? Oh, I think you want to die and can't. I said, Lord, I'm willing to die if you only let me die. But he wouldn't. He just kept me. And I've been sick like that two times on the Atlantic. I thought I would really die. And here was this trip ahead of me. And I said, Lord, you sure got me in a mess. You know I'm no sailor. I get deathly sick, and now you're asking me to cross the Pacific Ocean. I said, Lord, let's pray about this. I want to pray. So I got down before the Lord. And I said, Lord, I don't know. You know that I get terribly seasick. But if you want me to get seasick and go on this trip, by your grace, I'll get sick then and do it if you want that. How do you know what I mean? I surrendered to it. I said, maybe you have that as a method to reach maybe the porter or the man in the ship. Maybe you have some contacts you want me to have by being sick. Maybe you'll have somebody bring me a drink of water, and I'll win them to Jesus or some kind of a thing. Like folks have these funny things. And I thought maybe I was going to have one of them. But I said, anyway, Lord, I surrender. And I really meant it. I said, you've suffered for me. Why couldn't I suffer seasickness if that's what you want? And if you want me to be sick, for your glory, that you're going to get something out of this thing, I'm the victim and you can have me. And I meant it from the bottom of my heart. I meant it just as much as I know I'm saved, I meant it. I said, I am willing to surrender myself. And if you want me to be sick and have this awful time alone, and no one to come and hold my hand and say, darling, do you want a drink? All these lovely folks have darlings. I don't want anything about it. But you know how it would be sick and then have some gentle person. But you know when you walk with him, he's darling, all right, but he doesn't bring you a cup of tea. So I said, Lord, if I'm sick, it's terrible to lie there alone and nearly dead. But it's all right. I said, you'll get me through it. And I said, it's settled. Well, how many know the bar out from San Francisco, that rough place? It's a special place. Well, I took the ship in the afternoon and it was coming up from the table, from supper or dinner, we call it, of course, and the ship was beginning. And my stomach went. And I didn't know where it went. It didn't go back again. And I thought, oh, Lord, isn't this terrible? And I went staggering up the steps. And I thought, well, this is terrible, isn't it? But, Lord, I don't seem to feel so sick. But I feel so sleepy. I think I'll go to sleep. So I got to my stateroom and I curled up and I went sound asleep. And the ship up and down and everybody on it sick. And by and by, a few hours later, I woke up. I thought, where am I? Oh, I thought, I don't seem to be sick. I went out on deck and you should have seen the deck. And people draping themselves over the rails, you know. Oh, I thought they all seemed to be sick. Well, I wasn't sick. I wasn't sick at all. I just was sleepy. I thought, isn't this funny? Well, I thought, that works wonderful. So the next thing, I stopped at New Zealand. And between New Zealand and Australia is the Australian Bight, they call it. It's a little sea they call Australia Sea. And that is rougher than anything on earth. And I was having the morning service on ship for the Protestants. They had a priest who had the Catholics. And the woman sat by the piano, playing the piano. And the ship began to go up and down like this. And here I stood with one foot here and the other was just as far as I could straddle this way. With the Bible in my hand, trying to keep my balance. And the chairs and the people on the chairs were all going this way. And all of a sudden, I saw the woman on the piano bench go sailing right past me like this. On deck, it was terrible. Really, on the thing, there she was riding along. The thing went right past her. Oh Lord, I said, is the ship going down or what? And they all began to get deathly sick. So we closed the service and I went back and I said, Oh Lord, I feel so sleepy. I went to my room and I went sound asleep. Just like a little kitten, warm in there. He took me 19,000 miles by steamer that year. I counted them. 19,000 miles over the Atlantic, the Pacific, the Indian Ocean, Red Sea, Mediterranean Sea, Atlantic Sea, all that. 19,000. And I wasn't sick once. Not once, but just sleepy. Every time the ship would go and everybody got vomiting, I was so sleepy. Just like a little kitten, lying on the pillow and I'd sleep away. So when I got home, I had a little Thanksgiving with the Lord. I got home and I said, Lord, you were so good to me. You know how scared I was of getting sick. Lord, I wasn't sick once and you took such good care of me. And he came right by me. He said, I didn't want you sick. I wanted the surrender of your will to me. And when I had the surrender of your will, that's all I wanted. And when I found you were willing to be sick for me, I took that for all the sickness in the world. And that's why I let you sleep like a little kitten. Wasn't he good to me? Wasn't that a sweet experience? How many can see God in things like that? So he took me around the world on what? Rule three, said I now. Then he clinched it. He let me hear some of these prayer warriors, we call them, who are always bringing the fire down, you know, and claiming the victories. These terrific prayer warriors. And sometimes I don't think they have much faith. They have an awful lot of noise. But they don't seem to get anywhere. To me, they don't. And there was one praying to be like Elijah who brought the fire down. And we are like Elijah, men of the same nature and passions as Elijah. And Elijah prayed and the fire fell, brother. And we can pray and bring the fire down. Well, they prayed, but I didn't seem to feel much of the real fire. I got quite a commotion. But what I would call a fire never reached. I went home and I said, Lord, tell me how this thing goes. He said, now you go back in your Old Testament and wherever there is a miracle, where God comes forth from answer to prayer and doing a miracle, you will always find it prefaced with this. The word of the Lord came to Elijah saying. How many remember that sentence? The word of the Lord came to Moses saying. And Moses spake unto Abraham saying. And in the power of what he says, they had their miracles. Not one of them dared to move in his own initiative. I said, thank you, Lord, I could have gone to heaven. I felt so terrific. How many know when the Lord gives you something like that, you're electrified by it? I said, thank you, Lord. That has cleared a lot of these funny meetings that I've heard that never got any farther than the ceiling. A lot of people got a hollering about them, but I mean they never got anywhere with God or anybody else. He said, now you look in the word. And it's always prefaced by something of the Lord. Why? Let God take the initiative. Don't start planning something from God and ask Him to step in and fill the bill. How many of you are wrong right away? Let God take the initiative. And when God speaks the word, how many of you know heaven and hell can't move you? If God says, jump over the moon, do you know what I would do? Well, I would jump and He would carry me over the moon. Wouldn't that be right? I'd do my part. I would jump and He would carry me over the moon. It's obedience to what He says. And He has so much for us. Our precious and wonderful Lord, we felt Your presence with us tonight.