Leonard Ravenhill emphasizes the profound need for faith and the power of prayer in the life of believers, reflecting on the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11. He acknowledges the struggles of the modern world and the emptiness of human systems, urging the congregation to seek a deeper relationship with God and to be filled with His Spirit. Ravenhill calls for a return to the glory of God, highlighting the importance of being captivated by His presence and the necessity of faith that acts in obedience to God's will. He challenges the church to move beyond mere rituals and to experience the transformative power of God in their lives, as exemplified by the faithful in Hebrews. Ultimately, he encourages believers to cultivate a hunger for God and to live out their faith boldly in a world desperate for hope.

prayers, that you dwell in light unapproachable. We do not wonder that Westeros had veiled in flesh the godhead sea. We thank you you dimmed your glory and couched it all in the flesh of a little infant child. God contracted to a span incomprehensibly made man. But Lord we thank you that because of that we have boldness, not arrogance, not familiarity, that we have boldness to come to the throne of grace to find help. And Lord we need help. Our need is so great individually. We need a vision, we need a faith, we need of love, we need of courage, we need of compassion for a broken, lost, damned world around us. A world without God and without hope. Lord we know every human system is bankrupt. We've tried them over and over and over again. We think of a Hitler who is going to change the world, and Stalin is going to change the world, and Mussolini is going to change it, and yet all their empires are in ashes tonight. But Lord we bless you for the risen Christ at the right hand of the Father living to make intercession for us tonight. And we come Lord conscious of all our infirmities, our inferiority, our weakness, but we thank you that you do not make this or that demand on us except that we can, believing in the finished work of Jesus. We thank you tonight Father for all the progress that has been made today in your kingdom. And Lord as we think of this crowd of heroes in Hebrews 11, think of the different kinds and think that even today in this world, I believe this very day, people have been martyred for Jesus Christ in Russia, in China, in other countries. Nobody will ever mark their graves, but Lord these sparrows don't fall to the ground for what you see them. You see that weary woman somewhere up the Amazon tonight, tired, afflicted, tortured maybe with bugs and all kinds of things. Bad food, bad environment, everything's bad except the peace that's in her heart. And for that blessed mystery fellow that again has gone to some people who have never yet heard the message of redeeming love. We thank you again that old hymn says, Dear dying Lamb, thy precious blood shall never lose its power till all the ransomed church of God be saved to sin no more. Then in the nobler sweeter song we'll sing thy power to save when these poor ransomed tongues shout victory o'er the grave. Lord we ask you for every ambassador of the cross tonight. We thank you Lord as you look from heaven you can see them whether in Russia or Mesopotamia or Bulgaria or Estonia or some other countries. We bless you. I thank you for the word that we hear about Romania where young people have been stirred. Thank you for the news from Africa there from Kenya this week of the Nysa tribe being visited by the spirit where people are walking 20, 30, 40 miles a night to hear the wonderful story of redeeming love that you've opened the heavens upon them. They don't get bored, they don't go to sleep while the message is there. The atmosphere is electric with the risen Christ of God. Lord we pray come to the valley of the shadow of death in which we live. Come to us with all our religiosity in America, all our programs, all our schemes, all our devices. But Lord our clouds have no rain. Our sky has no power. Our word is so empty, ritualistic, so formalistic, so neat. Lord we pray soon you'll burst the wine skins. Lord rip them apart. Let us see the glory our fathers saw. Lord if we read a freshly storied Azusa street of your workings and how the roots of that revival went back to the Welsh revival. Lord we want to see this again in this needy hour. Lord we're convinced there are more lost people in the world at this moment than ever in history. Dear God we pray for our young people. They've never seen the glory of God. They sit through a service and answer some little questions sometimes, but they've never gone out of the sanctuary staggering under the revelation of God. Staggering under the majesty of God, awed by the splendor of God. Lord we pray return prophetic ministry to those who profess your name. Lord we put signs outside of our churches and they've got nothing to do with what's inside. Where is the power? Where is the Pentecostal glory? Where is the revelation? Where is the prophetic word? Where are speckers broken just so we could hear them snap? Where are the drunkards coming? Where are women dragging their husbands to the sanctuary to get them not just sobered but saved? Where are people losing their meanness and their bitterness and their selfishness and their pride and their covetousness and their childishness? Lord we can't truthfully sing like a mighty army moves the church of God. It's not true. But our hearts ache to see it. We want to see a people Lord who want to die literally to everything. Every creature comfort. Every honor the world has. Every style. Every system. So totally hungry, hungry for God. So captivated with God. Lord you've told us in your word in the last days your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Young men see fish and old men dream dreams. And on my servants and handmaids. You didn't say on the bosses and on the millionaires and on the bishops and archbishops. On my servants. We think about you took servants Lord Jesus in the days of your flesh. Men that smelled of fish. A man making out income taxes and you took them and you taught them and you allowed the Holy Spirit of God to come on them and they went out and turned the world upside down. Lord as I read today there are supposed to be 36 million people around the world filled with the Holy Ghost. And yet only 120 turned the nation upside down. And before very long people said these men who have turned the world upside down have come here also. God God heal us of our impotence. Heal us of our blindness. Heal us of our coldness. Lord put a craving hunger for your presence more than anything we've ever craved for in our lives. Maybe some of these men once craved for honors as sportsmen and that's gone. Crave for success in business and no it doesn't satisfy. Lord we ask you to get us from the very soles of our feet to the crowns of our head vibrating with God. With the love of God and the power of God and the grace of God. We thank you again for your holy word. This lamp for our feet and this light for our path. Bless it to us tonight. Make quickness for the psalmist said quicken me according to thy word. Do this now Lord. As we open this book open our hearts open our understanding. And this faith we've spoken of kindred in us tonight. But I think of Wesley's cry 200 years ago and you did it. When he cried give me the faith which can remove and sink the mountain to a plain. Give me that childlike praying love which longs to build my house again. Thy love let it my heart or power and all my simple soul devour. Enlarge in flame and fill my heart with boundless charity divine. So shall I all my strength exert and love them with a zeal like thine and turn them to a pardoning God and quench their brands in Jesus blood. Not again I pray intensify this desire in my heart. My dear Martha all the other precious folk here don't let this section of Texas point a finger of scorn in the last day and say you are so busy running meetings and other things you never saw the glory of God you never precipitated that glory on us. Forbid it God. Take supreme control. We want to hear not only hear hearken and obey and do the will of God. Because your word says he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. Give you thanks in Jesus name. Okay we're going to look in the epistle of Paul. Well I think he wrote the epistle some people don't anyhow the epistle of Paul to the Hebrews. You know it doesn't matter what page you wrote in the bible there's contention about it. One guy says this the other says the very opposite. This is called the epistle to the Hebrews but that's the title somebody put on it. One man shatters that whole thing because he says there's neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free. The church is divided into Gentiles and Jews and other people. We're all one in Christ. There's only one cross. There's only one fountain filled with blood. There's only one purpose for all of us. We come to that a bit later. Hebrews 11. The general idea about this epistle is of course it's a commentary on the first five books in the bible plus the book of Psalms which again is five books. There are five books of Psalms in the Hebrew. But I don't think it's just an interpretation of the tabernacle and the sacrifice and everything. The supreme work of the Holy Spirit in his chapter is to make Jesus Christ central. He chose Christ as the beginning and the ending, the alpha, the omega, the first and the last, the center, the circumference, the light, the life. He's everything. We've been mentioning that book to you that's uh you can get one from brother uh I don't think in his pocket. It's a big book with 700 pages. It was written in 1591. I wonder how many books that are written today will last 400 years. Most of mine don't last 400 days. I put them in the garbage except my own. But anyhow 400 years 1591 Isaac Ambrose wrote on three words 700 pages looking unto Jesus. Hebrews 12. That's what it's all about. And again I remind you you know 95 95 percent of evangelical preaching this coming Sunday from Pentecostals to to who? Presbyterians or Mennonites to Methodists. 95 percent of the preaching will be about a man who lived 2,000 years ago. After the 95 about three percent will be about the Christ who's coming soon. You know we do we're missing where he is now. He's at the right hand of the Father waiting to bestow upon us more than you could ever dream of. But we're preaching a prophetic Christ. We're preaching a historic Christ. We're not preaching the Christ where he is now. Living to make intercession for us. It doesn't matter how imperfect your praying is or mine tonight. He'll perfect it. If it depends on our vocabularies we're sunk. I remember I was preaching once in a church I passed in England and suddenly it dawned on me. Is the destiny, the eternal destiny of these people dependent on how I put words together, illustrations, bits of scripture does it depend on me? Of course not. There is a human responsibility. God has ordained preaching. But we're not going to manipulate people. If I can manipulate you one way this guy will manipulate that way. It's the guidance of the Spirit of the living God. I'll say let's look at here Hebrews 11 and verse 1. You know right right through the whole of the New Testament, I haven't counted them, there are over 300 references to faith in the New Testament. Only twice in the Old Testament is faith mentioned. Look that up. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for. The evidence of things not seen. Some say that's a definition, some say it isn't. Faith is substance. What is substance? It's sub. What's sub mean? Under. A submarine goes under the marine, under the water. A subway goes under the road. Sub stands. What stands mean? Stand. So sub stands means under, stand. You say then it means to understand. No it means to stand under. It means that whatever we believe God for, faith can take hold of these precious promises and put them underneath. If we can't we've no claim. We claim on the merits of Jesus Christ. We claim because of his holy word. Over and over again you find this wonderful chapter. Faith by faith, by faith, by faith. We're going to take a character hopefully every Friday night now. But you know it's not only what faith does that's visible, some of the most amazing things are not even mentioned in this chapter. I remember, you'll think I'm getting old, okay, 60 years ago I remember reading a book by Dr. J. H. Jarrett in England and he called, he calls Hebrews 11, the Westminster Abbey of the scriptures. Remember they're all Old Testament characters in Hebrews 11, no New Testament. Hebrews 11, why did he say that? It's like Westminster Abbey because Westminster Abbey we bury all the famous people. There's a disc on the wall with two profiles, one lit behind the other. Somebody called them the two most famous brothers that ever lived, John Wesley and Charles Wesley. Go to another place, there's a place that marked the place of, well right up by the high altar there, of all the people in the world who's buried there. Who's buried there? David Livingstone. When they brought his body from Africa they cut his heart out by his request. Take my body into England if you like, my heart is here and it's going to stay here. But there's a perpetual memorial there and all through the Abbey, Westminster Abbey, there are marvellous records of heroes and outstanding people. Some are statesmen, some are lawyers, some are poets, some are preachers. I remember about 20 odd years ago I mentioned Hebrews 11 and Westminster Abbey, link to that I've done just now, a lady came to me after she said, Mr. Renner we've got the most famous visitors in America arrived yesterday from England. I said, well who in the world were they? She said, the Beatles. I said, the what? She said, the Beatles. She said, don't you think they should be buried in Westminster Abbey? I said, yes today. Why bury those guys in Westminster Abbey? You know this, this, this chapter could boil us over except when you realise all these people like us, flesh and blood, they'd nerves, they'd fears, they'd doubts, they'd emotions, and yet somehow God Almighty got control of them. These guys are somewhere up there. You know, God's never behind anybody. We talk about football stars and movie stars and all the rest. Dear Lord, the Apostle wrote about that 2,000 years ago, not about movie stars, he said one star differs from another star in glory. Do you think that John Wesley's going to be the same as a dying thief? The dying thief got that on the last beat of his heart. John Wesley was saved at 35, turn that round it's 53, add them together it makes 88, that's when he died. We were reading it yesterday, my dear Martha and I, he left what, six, six silver spoons. Of course he's a good preacher, he had a good collection of books, a faded Geneva gown, six silver spoons, six one pound notes, all worth five dollars each, don't give me a great funeral, find six poor men, let them be pallbearers and give them a pound each for carrying me to my grave. So he has six silver spoons, six pound notes, a small collection of books, a Geneva gown he preached in and something else, what was that, oh I remember, I knew it was something else, the Methodist Church. Would you believe that's all he left? Do you know he rode over a quarter of a million miles over the roads in England when they were infested with highway men? He rode in the night, he sat on his horse and if it was moonlight like it is tonight, he'd be reading a Greek primer or a Greek New Testament, jogging along on the horse. You know one night some guys jumped out of the hedge with white coats on and screamed at the top of the, and the horse reared up so John got all of it, stood in the stirrups and looked over him and said, who are you? And one guy had practiced this, he said in a deep voice, we're the devil brothers. Oh well he said, stand on one side and let me ride on, I married his sister. Wasn't that rough going? How in the world did he do all his writing and all, everything he did? Because one day he became totally committed to Jesus Christ. The message of justification by faith had been lost in the dark ages. How did it come to light? Martin Luther. God reached down into the middle of the Roman church and found a man who defied the devilish system and they still hate him. After that John Wesley came and he revived the teaching of sanctification by faith. He didn't invent it, he taught it. In other words we're to be holy. As it says in the 12th chapter of this epistle, as he which is called to is holy, it says in 1st Peter, but it says in this chapter here that God has called us to holiness. We're frightened of that word. In one of these hymns Charles Wesley says, to perfect health restore my soul, to perfect holiness and love. And that's what holiness is, it's not some fantastic thing, it's perfect spiritual health, spiritual clarity of vision, spiritual strength, spiritual understanding. Yet this chapter which shocked me, these guys are so far up there, one star different, there's Abraham, there's Isaac, there's somebody else. You know sometimes you have to turn a thing around to find out the value of it. When I was in England I used to think sometimes, well I remember, I did think sometimes, but I remember mother calling me one day, she said this is the third time I've called you, get curled up in that chair. I hadn't been in that chair for two hours. I was up in Minnesota with, what do you call him, Minnie, along the shores of Minnie Tonka with Hea Water and his girlfriend Minnie Haha. I wasn't in that chair man, I was miles away. I used to get lost like that. But again, when I think of all these different people, the investments, you know nobody ever had a bigger Bible than you have, forget it. The staggering thing about Hebrews 11, it knocks me out every day I read it, and I mean that God's my witness. I read through Hebrews 11, these staggering men and women, through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained the promises, stopped the miles of land, women received their dead, raised to life again. All the devilish things, and not one of them ever had a Bible. Well in God's name, what are you and I going to do when we stand before Him? If the world lasts another thousand years, it won't last another thousand weeks I think. But when I get there, I have to face up to having the whole revelation of God. Phinney didn't have a bigger Bible than I have, Wesley didn't have a bigger Bible than I have, Spurgeon didn't have one. But somehow they got nearer to the heart of God, they got a revelation from God, they got convictions by the Spirit, and they laid their lives on the line. Yes I can read these heroes of faith, but when I come to this chapter, what's it say? Time would fail me to tell of Gideon, of Barak, and so forth. Then it says they subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, and obtained promises. They had trials of cruel mockings and scourgings. And some did what? When the gate was opened, they said no. They refused to be delivered, that they might obtain a greater resurrection. What do you make of that bunch? There's no name. Ten thousand tribulations they went through. I persuade myself that every day I live now, somebody dies for Jesus Christ in Russia or China or somewhere. We go about our business, of course we have our hardship, sometimes you get a, you know, you go to McDonald's and you don't get a very good hamburger, and that's a grief of course. And sometimes you get a flat tire, that's terrible, beyond bearing almost. And yet others were imprisoned, tormented, suffering beyond anything we can understand, even in this hour. Well going back, let me say this. When I was in England, I determined, if ever I came to America, I was going up the most wonderful place to see something. That was up the, what do you call it, the, in London, the, I mean in New York, the Empire State Building. Good night. I went up and down those streets for over three years, never get up there. People go and they say, nobody knows how many millions of photographs have been taken. You know, when you get up there, anyhow, if you stand here, it sways like that, you know, it has to sway, otherwise it would snap off. People are there with cameras, they take a north view, a south view, east view, west view. Oh there's, there's what, Stratton Island, there's the Statue of Liberty, get all the pictures. Everybody's there with cameras. One day a guy got an idea, there might be something better than that. Do you know what he did? He got a camera and laid on his back at the door and he took a picture from the ground upward. I saw a picture of that, it was very fascinating. It looks as though the top, it stops in heaven, you know, when you see the size of the thing. What is it, a hundred stories high, 110 or something? From the top to the, looking down, is one thing. Laying back and looking up is something entirely different. Well if you look at this chapter one way, you'll be staggered. And maybe you'll be knocked back a bit, you'll say, well that's out of my reach. Well I remind you again, there were mortals like us. But supposing, instead of getting heroes of faith, supposing you turn it round. Oh well you've told us what Mr. Jowett said, well let me tell you what Leonard Ravenhill says, in case you ever hear him. He's a bit crazy but he'll tell you. Didn't I say this? I say Hebrews 11 is a rogue's gallery. A dirty bunch. I wouldn't have put them in if I'd written it. You'd think I'd have put Moses in, he murdered somebody. You'd think I would have put Rahab, she was a harlot. You'd think I'd put Noah in, he got drunk. Look at the bunch. Boy it's like having a bunch of deacons. All the problems you have with them. And yet God got each one of them in his own place, in his own way. And they all had one common denominator. Let me tell you how valuable this thing called F-A-I-T-H is. As children in England we used to say F, F, F-A-I-T-H. Forsaking all I take him. Very good. Good definition. Forsaking all I take him. How precious it is. Jesus is going down the round the corner and he bumps into Peter and Peter backs off. He says, well Lord how are you today? Fine. He said, I've got a word for you. So people come up to you. I've got people come up to me. I tremble sometimes, they get such weird words about me. I don't want to hear them. If they're nice I do, but not the other things they say. So he says what? Satan I've desired thee. What else? That I may what? Sift thee. Go on say the rest. As wheat that I have, that your health won't fail. No, I prayed for you to prosper. Huh? I prayed for you to be successful. Jesus fastened onto one thing. Peter from here to eternity you're going to go through hell sometimes. I prayed for thee that thy faith fail not. Never mind your money, never mind your circumstances. My faith looks up to thee. What do you find the apostles saying? Look in the epistle, uh first epistle of Paul to the Thessalonians. Let's see what he says there. First epistle of Paul to the Thessalonians, okay chapter one. Now let me switch that over and go to the second epistle for a moment, because I'll be working back a drape I don't. Second Thessalonians chapter 3 and verse 2. That we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men. Now notice all men have not faith. I've heard the greatest preachers in America in the last 10 years say, come on now you've got faith, use it. The scripture says all men have not faith. Well who's right? Your preacher or what the Lord says? No you. There's a natural faith of course in natural things. You get in a plane and you don't check the seat, you just sit on it. How do you know he won't let you down? A pilot, oh they don't do it now. They used to come in in the old days and walk through and say good morning sir, good morning madam. They don't do that, they go in the front now so you won't see them. Then if there's any trouble you can't identify them. But they used to walk through and I see this man say, excuse me a pilot, oh yes look at my, oh I don't care about those wings, you can buy those. I want to see your pilot's license. Oh it's in my delete, well I'm not flying today, show me the pilot's license. Show me the license. I say, has this plane been checked? Yes, well I want to see the certificate. Have you got gas in it? Yes. How do you know? I saw a man on the wing there putting gas in it. He used to do that, I remember he used to watch through the window and they'd gas the thing up. I'm sure he didn't put enough. We're going to New York, how long are we flying? Five hours. He didn't put enough to get us halfway there. What do you do, stop and walk out? Oh it's okay. And then of all things, we're going north and the plane goes south for about 10 minutes and you pull the bell and say, hey this guy's going wrong, turn left and let's go up that way. You trust him, you don't know if he's a pilot, he looks like your garbage collector. But you trust him even if he is a pilot, you don't know him, you don't look at his license, you don't look at the license of the plane, you trust, you trust, you trust. Natural money, natural things. But we're not talking about that, we're talking about something entirely different. Look in Paul's letter to the Romans a minute. Take the chapter we all like so much, Romans 12. I beseech you therefore, by the mercies of God, you present your body as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is a reasonable service. Let's go down to verse 3. For I say, through the grace of God given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than you are, but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man, a what? A measure of faith. I don't believe every man has the same measure of faith, that faith is a gift of God. There's natural faith in natural things, but natural faith doesn't operate in supernatural things. Faith is a gift of God according to the measure of faith. Look at verse 6. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given unto us by the prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith. So you see, this is very clearly set forth. You know, some people set off, God has told me to do this, and six months after the whole shebang is closed down. I can give you a whole list of ministries across the nation that start, God has told us to do this, God has told us to do that. You go up to a certain city, there's a, well, Aldo Roberts built a tower, so this other guy has to have one. It's half built, it's been there the last 20 years, and they call it his folly. But they had a revelation from God to build a prayer tower. Well, it's good to build a prayer tower, but not if you get people's money, buy the millions of dollars and then leave it abandoned. There are so many of these things like that. We talk about seed faith, I don't find it in the Word of God. It's likened to a grain of mustard, the smallest and it can become the greatest. Well, let's go back now to Thessalonians. First Thessalonians chapter three. But now when Timotheus came from you unto us and brought us good tidings of what? Your faith and charity. Now they got both, they had faith and they had love. Now go down to verse 10 in the same chapter. Now this is the amount, this man has such extreme language, hasn't he? Wasn't it in the ninth of Romans where he uses one of the most awesome things I'd ever read in the Word of God. He says to his brethren, linking it to that verse we sang a few minutes ago, my zeal inspire. What did he say in Romans there? He said, I could wish myself accursed. Literally, it means I'll be damned if need be. I'll be destroyed. If destroying what I have will bring others into the kingdom, destroy me. This one has no half measures. Spinoza talked about a God intoxicated man. Do you know what? The church never does anything when it's sober, only when it's drunk. A drunk man doesn't care a hill of beans what you think about him. I told you the first day of war, 1939, I was at the head church of the Nazarene in Scotland. We came out of the meeting, the whole city was in darkness, streetcars had no light, automobiles had no light. The brother I was with said, Brother Ramiel, I'm going in a building here. You had to carry a gas mask, it was given in a box with a tape, you put it around your neck, carry it on your shoulder. Compulsory to carry a gas mask, instead there was a raid. He went in that room and I stood by a lamppost. And he said, stand by that lamppost so when I come out I'll be able to find you in the back. So I stood there, a streetcar came up. A Scotsman got off, his rubber legs wouldn't hold him up, and he pitched forward and put his arms around the lamppost and me as well. I was thinner than I am now, not too heavy now. And he said, I said, hey, he said, hey, hey, what's your name? I told him, ah, you're English, I had no time for you, he said. And he said, I'm Sandy MacTavish, can you sing? I said, no, I can't. And he sang Maxwell Town Braids of Bonnie, started singing. Rolled his feet, can you fight? I said, oh, no, no, I can't fight for sure. You can't sing, you can't fight? Put his hand in his pocket and brought a handful of silver. Now when a Scotsman hands you a handful of silver, you know he's drunk. He'd never do that if he was sober. Ah, he said, I want to talk with you. I said, I can't stand talk. You can't talk, you can't fight, you can't sing? Ah, you're no good, he said. If I'd met that man at nine o'clock in the morning instead of nine o'clock at night, he wouldn't have even given me the morning, he wouldn't have said top of the morning to me. But he's intoxicated. And it's only when men and women are really intoxicated with the love of God and the will of God that they're reckless to do anything. I don't believe faith is believing something you can't prove. Faith is having the grace to do the thing God has told you and it looks as black as hell. It's a reckless abandonment to the known will of God. And right through the scriptures you'll find how that goes. Well let's go back again then as we said to Thessalonians. I'm praying night and day, that is 1st Thessalonians chapter 3, praying night and day. He isn't satisfied to say, you know, every morning after breakfast I kneel down and say a little prayer, oh bless those dear people at Thessalonica. He says, I pray by night and pray by day, and I pray earnestly, I pray with a sweat, I pray with an anxiety for you. For what? It's already said previously in verse 4 that, verse 6, they are faith and charity. What's it saying here in verse 10? Night and day praying exceedingly that we may see your face and supply, might make perfect that which is lacking in your faith. Now go to the 2nd epistle for a moment, 2nd epistle of Thessalonians, this chapter 1. What is he praying for in that verse we just left? Praying night and day that I may see your face and supply that which is lacking in your faith. Now look what it says in verse 3 of the 2nd epistle, chapter 1. We are bound to thank God always for you brethren, as it is me, because your faith groweth exceedingly. Not your faith groweth, your faith is growing by leaps and bounds. Faith that is going to be trusted is going to be tested. I used to say often to young people, you know, I say look at my muscles, my muscles are hard to find. I never chopped trees down, I'm never athletic, I haven't used my muscles, so they're not developed. I was in Miami airport one day, rushing downstairs, I think the children arrived and I was rushing, and here's the, what do you call, escalator thing coming up, and just as I went, I saw this big black head coming, and I stood back, hi, it was Mohammed Ali. I wasn't going to get in his way for sure, boy what muscles he had, boy did he strut his stuff, boy everybody in the airport, I went past and I went, you know, very opposite that worm of a guy. Faith that's going to be trusted is going to be tested. Can you think of the excitement of a man who spent so much time in prison? Discouragement? God help you. He had a band of spiritual men, what did they do? They abandoned him. Demas have forsaken me, having loved this present world. Alexander's gone off to something else. Spirit-filled men deserted a spirit-filled man, deserted the most monumental holy character the world's ever seen outside of Jesus Christ, and then you wonder why you get upset, something gives you the cold shoulder, forgets you, ignores you. Well at the opposite, not only is he discouraged when all men, but look what he says, all men forsook me, nevertheless what? The Lord stood by me. You say, I'm not getting very near to God, you know why? You've so many friends that's why, they take your time off, come and sit in your house, waste your time, get rid of half of them, I'll leave you to choose a half, husband get rid of his wife's friends, wife get rid of her husband's friends. Not a bit of a clearance, wouldn't it? But he says, all men forsook me, and you know what happened? What happened when you take the scaffolding away, you see the building. Most of us have had theological scaffolding around our thinking all our days, we've never seen his glory, never seen his majesty, never seen his broken heart, therefore we're not broken. We think we're here just to glide along and you know, help me in the hour of temptation. Brother, sister, if you're not known in hell, you're not much good. I tell the preachers that every time I get a chance to preach to preachers, so they never send me any thanks. But if preachers are not known in hell, they're known in guts. Paul was known. What did the demons say when they kicked a fellow around? They said, listen, Jesus we know and Paul we know. Can you think of anything more holy, more wonderful in all creation? That somebody says you and Jesus Christ are the same? The demons said we know when Paul moved, we knew when Jesus moved. Jesus we know and Paul we know. But who are you? The usurper. Dear God, I'm trying to write a book and the chapter I'm writing, some things about preachers, I think they'll have the book publicly burned. I hope they do, it'll sell better. Anyway, when all the facade is taken away, when everything that we cover ourselves with, you know, our ability, our scholarship, our ordination, everything, when it's all taken away and I appear naked in the sight of God, that's going to be some mighty revelation. But Paul not only was, didn't get discouraged when they all forsook him and fled, but on the other hand he says here, your faith grows exceedingly and the charity of every one of you that he mentioned previously in the first epistle, chapter 3 and verse 6, but he wants them to be of a boundless charity, a boundless love. Don't you think he's run to the extreme? If he didn't get discouraged when all forsook him and fled, he must have been awfully encouraged when these people were going on in leaps and bounds with revelation and with love and with faith. And that's what it's all about. Our maturing in holy character. I think the next week we'll give you some of these. I don't know whether I have them now. I had an outline. Are you going to run some off for us? I had one. Okay. I just, let me make a reference to it. Thank you. We'll give you one of these next week. We won't take an offering either. Isn't that amazing? Well, it's just, it's all tabulated out of Hebrews. I think it's, it's very wonderful. I didn't do it. I mean, I copied it, but I didn't invent it. You know, God wants us to bring us into a glory that we don't know a thing about. What's it? Isaac, Isaac Watts wrote the hymn, Jesus shall reign, wherever sun doth its successive journeys run. His kingdom stretch from shore to shore, till moon shall wax and rain no more. Blessings abound wherever he reigns. The prisoner leaps to lose his chains. The weary find eternal rest, and all the sons of one are blessed. Blessings abound wherever, wherever he reigns. The prisoner leaps to lose his chains. Then another psalm says, in him, in Christ, the tribes of Adam boast more blessings than their fathers lost. Do you wonder that one of the old saints, a century or more ago, said about the epistles of the Hebrews, it's the hub of the wheel. All the epistles are joined by this mighty central factor. It's showing the supremacy of Jesus. It tells about Jesus in the beginning. But let's, this is what it brings us into, if we follow on to know the Lord. It says in Hebrews 2.14, we're partakers of flesh and blood. Hebrews 3.1, we're partakers of the heavenly calling. Hebrews 3.14, we're partakers of Christ. Hebrews 6.4, partakers of the Holy Ghost. Hebrews 10.33, but we're partakers with the martyrs. Hebrews 12.8, partakers of chastisement. Hebrews 12.10, partakers of his holiness. Because he had no sin. Well, you need a little bit of sin to keep you humble. Why not have a lot and be real humble? I never saw a sinful man that wasn't arrogant. There isn't one sin you can defend. There isn't one sin will enrich your life, your character, your personality. They're all destructive. The devil comes not but to destroy and to kill, to rob us, to keep us in bondage, clothe in tears. Say, dear God, did I walk so near to spiritual riches? So near to spiritual wealth? So near to spiritual authority? So near to spiritual power? I was preoccupied with something. Oh, there was a sale at Penny's that day, so I forgot about my Bible. I rushed down there. I did something else. You know, I pray for you daily and myself. We'll be more eternity conscious. Let the other people go after chaff. Dear God, most Christians live for trivia. Won't stand up five minutes. Let me quote this one thing, then I'll finish here, or I'll go on talking too much. Anyhow, we'll get some of these for next week. You can all have one free as a Christmas gift. When I first came to America, I came first in 1950, and for eight years I commuted the Atlantic. I went across it about 20 times. But Sunday nights, I'd dash home to the hotel, and there was a little box on the wall, a little thing like that. Just two stations, you know, in those days. No national TV, no TVs, they hadn't come, no radios. You switched a button, you got on one channel, the other. I used to switch to this certain channel. There was a church up on the west coast of the United States in Portland. I forgot my name. And the preacher there would say, well, we've just returned from Africa. Thousands gathered every night. Thousands were saved. Thousands were filled with the Holy Ghost. Okay. We had a great service here last Sunday night. We had to put chairs in the aisles. We had over 2,000 people. 10 people came forward to be saved. 20 came forward for the baptism. 8 came forward for healing. It was a wonderful meeting. Boy, that used to make my hair stand up. I'd like to be in one of those services. That fellow went on like that. Had one of those powerful ministries on radio in America. Just a year before he died, he was very sick. His wife came in, as usual, at night, give him a good night kiss, brought some milk for him, and left it there. When he went in in the morning, he said, darling, call my pastors. Call the deacons. I want them to stand round the bed. Well, he'd made a lot of profit, so she thought he was going to prophesy, I'll die, you know, 3 o'clock tomorrow afternoon or something. He said, dearie, when you left last night, Jesus came and stood there right at the bottom of the bed. And he pointed to him and he said, I know your works. For 25 years you've been in this church. You've seen signs and wonders and miracles. You've been to Africa and taken photographs of crowds. You've had a great ministry. I've something to say to you. Your 25 years of ministry is wood and hay and stubble. Your life and mine is either wood, hay and stubble or silver, gold and precious stone. Wood, hay and stubble are above the ground. That's the ministry people see. Silver, gold and precious stone is secret ministry, praying, weeping, traveling, doing works for God that nobody knows a thing about. And this man, he said, Jesus said, your life for 25 years of wood, hay and stubble, as God is my witness, I believe I'll stand at the judgment seat and see that Christ with eyes of a flame of fire. And listen, everybody's frozen tongue will melt before him. I believe I'll see the bakers, Jimmy, Tommy, poor souls. They spent 25 years building a ministry of wood, hay and stubble. Because it's all above ground, it caught the eye. It got rewarded. And it's going to go like that. It's going to burn like that. Going back to this man, he said, darling, Jesus himself appeared and said to me, your life, your healing ministry, evangelistic ministry, is wood and hay and stubble. When I put my torch to it, you'll just be knee deep in ashes. And he said, I want all the preachers to come. They came in and he told them what happened. And he said, you know, I've been pleading since I woke this morning, dear God, let me live just one year as I should have lived all my life. I don't care about the obvious ministry. Give me birth pangs. Give me the secrets of the most high God. You can't publish them. I want to lay up for another year, no more wood, hay and stubble, silver, gold and precious stones. Silver is a type of redemption. Gold is a type of devotion and worship. Precious stones. The priest had a breastplate like this, about this side, a bit wider. He had 12 precious stones. There was the name of the tribe on each stone. And he went into where? He went into the Holy of Holies where nobody else could go. You know, I want you, dear people, and I want to, I want to go to the Holy of Holies. In the outer court there was daylight. In the holy place there was a seven-branch candlestick. There was artificial light. In the Holy of Holies there was no light. No light. It was as black as black could be. Unless the Shekinah glory of God came. When that Shekinah came, it was brighter than a thousand sunrises. You see, this is a trouble with our generation, dear God. Why do you go to the church you go to? Oh, we have the best choir in town. Oh no, we have the best young people meeting. Oh, we have the best this. Tell me where is the glory? But I asked a dear brother, precious brother, flew in a plane, little plane, all the way from Oklahoma to come to this meeting tonight. He's coming back next Friday night, God bless him. I asked him, I said, brother, when did you last tiptoe out of the sanctuary? You couldn't whisper to your wife. You couldn't say a word. You're overwhelmed. The heavens parted. You saw the glory of God. The Shekinah glory came. If it came once, we'd never forget that if we lived to be a thousand years old. But it's only for the holy man to go into the holy place. The junior priest couldn't go there. I reminded you before, that statement that Dr. Krishnamurti makes, that in the second book of Chronicles, chapter 26, you remember there's a, there's a, what was the name of the priest there? Uzziah, Uzziah. And he came through the outer court. He came through the Gentile court. He came through the women's court. He came through the priest's court. He came to the holy place. Then he went to the holy of holies. That man must have been demon possessed. Why? Because 81 men tried to stop him and he tossed off 81 men. He was determined that he would go and do what the priest could do and God said you won't. And he struck him dead. They put a leopard's rag on his lip. But I use that, I say, well listen, he said, let me tell you this, just go back for a second. That man, Julius Caesar's rival, what was he called? Pompey. Pompey became more powerful than Caesar, so Caesar sent him to what was called the holy land. When he arrived, they went in ships, they had horses with, you know, with the, what do you call them? Curtains on them or whatever you call them. And beautiful saddles and they had plumes in their helmets and breastplates and the people gasped. They'd never seen people like this. When they marched through town, they said, what's that building? Oh, that's, that's the temple. What's that for? For God. What? We've a hundred, a thousand gods over in Rome. No, this is the God. He put that ball of fire in the sky. He puts the stars in the sky. He controls the universe. He made the universe. And that God comes in there? Yes, he does. So Pompey comes and outside, people remembered, when they heard the news, Pompey has said he is going to the holy of holies. Two thousand people followed him and screamed, don't go in, you'll die, don't go in, you'll die. He was determined to go in. They remember that second chap, that second book of Chronicles, chapter 26, where again, Uzziah went in, he defied the priest, he went in and the glory of God struck him. Well, I quote it, I say now, that man came all that way, look how far he came, through the Mediterranean ocean and then into what we call Israel. Then he goes through the outer court, the women's court, the Gentile court, the priest's court, to the holy, holy place, until he gets to the holy. Young people come to our churches. I went to a church not long ago. They've got 30 acres. Why? We want our old football field, our own tennis courts. Dear God, do children go to church to learn to play tennis? God help the preachers. Why can't they get them spiritual, so they want prayer and revelation and the word of the living God. So I say, the young people come to church now, they go past the basketball court, they go past the tennis courts, they go back past the baseball court, they get inside the church, but there's no glory. As I said to a man today, we go to the house of God, we read the word of God, we sing about God, but where is God? Often you go home, you can't eat your dinner. You felt the impact of eternity. I'd rather have 10 people that want God than 10,000 people that just want to run a church. I could go and join a church and I'll be a co-pastor with 12,000 members and the guy will build me a mansion. Oh, that doesn't interest me, it's a hill of beans. I want to see the glory of God come, so that our young people don't have to be told to go, they just long to get to the sanctuary where God is. The glory of God fills the temple. It's going to take that, in this critical hour in which we're living. Preaching isn't going to do it. Big crusades aren't going to do it. It must be the very presence of the living God there, until we're broken and humiliated and groaning and so broken over a rotten world, that there's no contentment for us except to see the glory and majesty of God. Okay, let's, I better sign off here. Well anyhow, that measure of faith you have, it's got to be exercised but it's going to go. I thought twice about that hymn that came to me as I was praying, Charles Wesley, give me the faith which can remove and sink the mountain to a plain. Give me that childlike praying love which longs to build thy house. It's not talking about a gorgeous building, building God's house, a place where God is comfortable, a place where from sentences of conference it's God, God, God, the will of God, the purpose of God, the revelation of God. I want that faith to be developed in me and the only way it can develop is by testing. You go into the next chapter, what does it say? It says that the Lord will develop us how? Not by giving us creature comforts. We're going to be tested in the areas of patience. Two difficult things. One difficult thing is to find the will of God. There's only one thing more difficult, that's doing it. You have need of patience, it says in the 10th chapter, to do the will of God. What was the will of God for Noah? How much patience did he need? Over a hundred years of it. But God didn't tell Abraham to build an ark. They all had their different appointments, we'll see. They needed faith to worship, Abel, there's faith to worship, there's faith to work, there's faith to witness. And yet God takes us, as it were, in a side room and says, look, I'll show you how I made these men. They didn't sit down and somebody have a blackboard and teach them, they were taught by the Spirit of the Living God. They had no pocket Bibles. Come on, do you and I know God so intimately? I mean, if you're driving down the road, the Lord can say, pull off and get up a side lane. I want to speak to you right now. I used to have a good memory, I don't now. I'd wake up in the night, something would come to me. I'd say it three times and when I got up in the morning, I'd say it like that, boy, I can't do that now. As soon as anything comes, boy, I'm up and out of bed. Mother comes, how long have you been in your office? Darling, I've only been here a couple of hours. I didn't trust myself. Is God going to be my secretary? Is he coming, if I won't listen the first time, is he going to come the second time? I'm his servant, he's not my servant. He gives orders, I can't give him any orders. He's here to command this little span of life I have, dear God, how short it is. When I see what these men did, Bob, you call me this week? I want to see you after me, just for a minute, that's all. Brother Jack here has a book, it's the history of the Azusa Street revival. I hope you all get it. Do you know why? Because the revival, 1904 in Wales, Evan Roberts was corresponding with a man in California and the fire in California began in Wales. A man in Wales caught the blaze, he went from there to the Cyclades Hills in India and they had revival. He went from there to China, they had revival. They said we're going to Korea and the Chinese said, you'll never do anything in Korea, they're so phlegmatic. He had a bigger revival in Korea than he had in China, so he went back to China and he came back again. But you know the background of it all was praying. I preached one day down in Lake Okoboji, Okachobe is in Florida, Okoboji is in, I know a bit of Indian history anyhow, it's in Iowa. And a young lady came to me and she said, no, there's another one, a man that came to me this time, and he said, did you ever meet praying Hyde? I said, no, I wish I had. Did you? He said, yes, at the Cyclades Hills in India. He said he preached and he said, I said to him, sir, could I see you in the morning, even for 10 minutes? He said, well, yes, I'll be praying in the back room in the morning, come at 10 o'clock. And he said, I went and I knelt to the side of him, he was kind of soft, speaking softly, and he said, he stopped, so I, I, me, you know, big prayer warrior, I poured out my heart, you know, told God everything I knew in five minutes and shut up. He said he started praying and I looked at my watch and he said when he started it was 10 o'clock. He said he hadn't prayed many minutes, it was, and he said, I said, oh no, no, no, no, I'm not going to do it. Second time, third time, I'm not doing it. Somebody put their head around the door and said, Brother Hyde, you're speaking at three o'clock and it's 15 minutes of three. And he said, I said to myself, the man's an idiot, we haven't been here half an hour. But he said he started praying at 10 till 11 to 12 to 1 to 2 to 3, 5 hours, and it went like that. He said it was awesome. I wouldn't go to, at the end, he milked my eyes. He said it wasn't the volume necessary, he talked as though he was kind of whispering to God, talking to God at the side of him. But every revival there's been, has been laid in prayer. You can't have birth without travail, you can't have birth without pain. We've tried to do it by crusades, bring in a special speaker, forget it. I got an invitation today to go preach to hundreds of priests, I said, no, not, as far as I know, I won't. If the Lord tells me, I'll come. Because preachers are the key. Those preachers need to get broken. Forget numbers, forget the money, forget all the other showmanship. Are we robbing hell? Is the devil afraid of us? I'm not going to sing on what Christian soldiers do, I feel there's a unity even here, a passion for the lost, a burden. It's getting terribly late. I had a letter, just very, it's stingy, I had a postcard yesterday from one of the greatest preachers in America. Dear Leonard, he said that the coming of the Lord is near, then in capital letters put, very, very near. It's now the moment to be alerted in a new way to storm the stronghold of the devil. Numbers don't matter, money doesn't matter. What matters is we all get a new quickening, we all get a new revelation, a new priority. I've never in my life been so awed, if I can take one second, I talked to somebody yesterday, you know, a few, remember a few months ago the press said that a boy had been living in a bubble for a number of years, and at last they'd taken him out of the bubble. I'd been living in a bubble for about six months, a bubble of the fear of God, not cringing fear, His awesomeness, His majesty, the failure of the church. Come on, I'll go out on a limb, why in God's name, I've got to be honest somewhere. Tell me where the Pentecostal church I'll go, a church where you can open those doors and say this is that, a church where you know you can't take a person twice before they'll get saved. It'll tell you about that in the Zerzuzah Street meeting. A dear brother that came down today, Larry there, asked me about the awesome presence of God in the great revivals in England, those little Pentecostal guys, they had no money, they had no advertising, they had no hype, they had no begging. And yet when they walked in the meeting and sat down, big strong men started to weep, eternity came on them without opening their mouths, weep to weep of excitement with a choir of something and all kinds of junk. Well I'm tired of all that. I believe God is going to manifest this power. I think the big boys have had their day, they've gone off now, off TV, there's a chance for local churches to take over where those guys, not where they left off, but to show something better. And there is a praying remnant in this area, there's a praying remnant in this country, and I thank God for them. People who don't want to surface, people who are the silver, gold and precious stones under the ground, not showmanship on TV, I've led so many millions to Christ, I've done this, that's below me. When the fire gets to it, it'll be chaff. We need to live with eternity's values in view, faith to believe what we can't see, but we know God manifested even for our sinful flesh and blood. I hear there's going to be a rally or something tonight for young people, did you hear about that, where is it? In Lindale, after the ball game, after 11 o'clock, they should be going to bed at that time, not going to a meeting. Anyhow, somebody's going to witness to them. My neighbour, what's his name, I've forgotten his name, Jacob, he's preaching at Rose Heights Sunday morning and Sunday night. Dave Wilkinson opens his church in Times Square this weekend. I don't know where Joe Foss is, he'll be troubling the devil somewhere I hope. Let's believe God for them. Doesn't matter who gets the glory, if God gets the glory, I don't care a hill of beans. I'm sick of guys posting how much they've done and what they've done, forget it. There's an awful lot of flesh got to be burned up before God's glory is coming down, I'll tell you that. Aren't we sinful, we're like little children, a little girl boasts her dolly is better than yours, this boy's bicycle is better than yours, their dog is bigger than yours. You know, the Christians are very much in that silly game. Let's tell God we've got an ache in our hearts to see his glory, to go to church, dear Lord, some mornings at 10 o'clock, come home at 10 at night, that's what they do in Revival. They don't run out for a coke and a this and a that and the other. God holds them spellbound. When God is on a meeting, people don't run home when the preacher says, well good night, God bless you. They dare not leave the sanctuary, they dare not step out of God's holy presence. We need to walk like that every day of our life, in close communion with him. With a consciousness we're right in his will. You say my faith doesn't grow much, I'll give you the answer very simply, faith grows how? Cometh by theology. No, that's the reverse version. Faith cometh by, faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Let's pray for Spencer, he's still up there with the Indians. Pray for his wife, the baby hasn't come yet. Pray for these other meetings. I believe it's going to get harder and harder to be a true Christian. The church is getting more worldly and more fleshly. Let's sing a verse and if you have to leave, leave. I hope you can stay for a little while anyhow.