In this sermon, the preacher describes a powerful encounter with God during a church service. He witnesses an angel standing at the front of the church, and when a man approaches, the angel grips him and he falls to the floor sobbing. The preacher observes the man's humility and surrender to God. The preacher then emphasizes the importance of preaching the gospel and the message of the cross, urging pastors to focus on the true message of salvation. He criticizes churches that lack anointing and resort to emotional tactics to try to create a spiritual atmosphere. The preacher concludes by highlighting the need for the anointing of the Holy Spirit to open our eyes and enable us to see the truth.

I've met a number of folks here who said they were here and they were there in the meetings. This is the first time I've been back in this district for a long time. But way back there, sometime or other, I was in a number of the churches in this district. Out on the Cape and in the Boston area. And I wonder if there's anybody here who was in that Framingham Bible School. Anybody here attended Bible School in Framingham? Hello. Isn't Jesus wonderful? Oh, oh, will you say his name again? Will you say it to him? Will you say it the way you're all, when you're all alone with him? Oh, the power of that name. The fragrance of that name. Jesus. We want that holy ointment and fragrance of that name to settle down over us this morning. Well, we've just had really a full course turkey dinner. Can you get up from one turkey dinner and sit down and eat another one? He said I should give you steak. We've had these lovely reports. Thank God for what he's doing today. Thank God for every time I hear a good report. There are many reports that aren't so good. But thank God for every good report. Yes. How many of you are encouraged in the Lord? Can I see your hands? Is there anybody that's discouraged? We want Jesus to minister to you this morning. Hast thou no wounds or scars? Yet as the master shall the servant be, And wounded are the feet that follow me, But thine are whole. Can he have followed far who has neither wound or scar? Now that's not to discourage you, but to encourage maybe some who came along with a wound or a scar. And I'm to speak on preaching, the Holy Ghost and preaching. And you can't speak on preaching without involving the preacher. So if you have any wounds or scars, don't be ashamed of them. Every prophet I read about in the book had wounds. They certainly did. A prophet is someone who gets his head cut off. A prophet is someone who gets sore in two. A prophet is someone who's most unpopular. But a prophet is someone who'll tell the people the truth. Because only the truth will free them from whatever bondage they're in. God has called us aside for this institute to talk to us. And if we don't hear his voice, we missed it somehow. Because I feel that God is here and has brought us together for the purpose of talking to us, dealing with us. I pray constantly, Precious Lord, please, please don't stop dealing with me. Please don't leave me alone. If I don't pray it every day, there's never a week goes by that I don't pray. Oh, please don't leave me alone. Please don't leave me where I am now. Please don't. Because I see so much ahead for us in God. We've only touched one hundredth of one percent of what there is in God for us. We praise him for what he has done. But oh, that a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the things of God will be upon us to know the Lord. And we can only really know him. Only know him by the power of the Holy Spirit. Have you ever hurt inside of you to know the Lord? Have you ever felt that inner ache? Oh, I want to know him. And if we really know him, I know, I know. To know him, we have to know him in the power of his resurrection. Yes, that's what brought us into his kingdom. But to go on with him and really know him, we have to know him in the fellowship of his suffering. That's suffering for a lost world. Suffering for his church. Suffering for the body of Christ. I want to tell you the body of Christ is heavy, heavy, heavy on my heart these days. There's such a need, such a deep bleeding need in the body of Christ. Oh, what nourishment is needed in the body of Christ. Nourishment. I was conducting meetings in one of our larger churches, one of our famous churches. And that pastor just kept after me until I came. And I tell you the truth, I did not want to go. I didn't want to go. I don't fit very well in programs. I don't fit very well in the modern setup, even in some of our Assembly of God churches. I don't belong. I don't fit there. And I didn't want to go. But the Lord told me finally that I should go. And he told me to go on the platform and sit on the platform. And watch, he said, watch the sheep come through the door. And I sat there and they took on the form of sheep as I saw the people come through the door. I could see their ribs. I could see the lack of nourishment. I could see the poverty of spirit. Sheep that hadn't been fed. I could hear their baa. Their cry for bread. Living bread. Not jokes. Not stories. Not entertainment. Not distorted songs that you can't even understand the words. Not music that is so loud it would blast your ears. Baa. Is there some bread for me in the service? I attended church when I wasn't speaking. And outside the door there was a woman standing weeping. I said, honey, may I help you? Are you in need? Can I help you? She says, I came so hungry this morning. And I'm going home without anything to eat. Oh, pastors, give your people bread. Jesus is that bread that came down from heaven. Jesus is our bread. And this brings me to my text. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. My precious brother frightened me when he said Luke 4. I said, oh dear, is he going to preach my sermon? And he stopped just in time. I'll take you beginning with the 18th verse. The Holy Ghost and preaching. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, the recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. I want you to say that. You, have you been baptized in the Holy Spirit? Is the Spirit of the Lord upon you? If so, I want you to say just that much with me. The Spirit of the Lord. You didn't say it right. You said the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. I don't want you to say it that way. I want you to say the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Say it again. The Spirit of the Lord. Is it? Is it? Jesus knew the Spirit of the Lord was upon him. He knew he was a man anointed of God. He knew that. Do you know that you are a man anointed of God? Does this holy, does this holy thing rest upon you? I'll get back to just that part. Jesus is saying the Spirit of the Lord is upon me to preach the gospel. Did Jesus preach the gospel? That's what it says. And this is why, this is why the Spirit of the Lord is upon we ministers to preach the gospel. Do you know there's very little gospel preached today? Are you aware of that? And I'm sorry to say, I'm so sorry to say, as in this church that I just referred to, there's very little gospel preached today. There's sermons. What is the gospel? In the 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians, Paul tells us what the gospel is. Jesus Christ, dead, buried, and risen again. So this is Jesus Christ dead. The cross, the cross, the cross. We don't hear much about the cross today. On Good Friday, during Lent maybe, we hear about the resurrection on Easter Sunday. Paul says the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. And as you are invading villages and invading cities and invading towns and wanting to reach the souls of men, I beg you in Jesus' name, preach the gospel. Give them the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what Jesus talked about. He talked about, He was going up to Jerusalem to suffer. He constantly told them about His cross. He told them that He would die. He told them He would be three days in the grave. He told them that He was going to rise again. Jesus preached the gospel and things happened. And when we preach the gospel, this is the gospel. This is the word that God said He would confirm with signs following. And if we want the signs, we must have the gospel. The death, Jesus on the cross. As I said last night, at Calvary, purchase everything, everything that comes to us from God, comes to us through the cross. Or through Calvary, Jesus purchased it for us, hanging there on the cross. I love to preach the cross, that man hanging there. Oh, my dear, oh, did you ever think of what was going on out there on Calvary? What was going on between Jesus and His Father? Oh, Jesus didn't, He wasn't concerned that the people were nailing Him to the cross. He wasn't concerned about them spitting in His face. He wasn't concerned about His wounds. He wasn't concerned about the multitude and what they were doing. Father, Father, Father, His concern constantly was His relationship to His heavenly Father. Father, forgive them. I know what they're doing. They don't know what they're doing. Father, forgive them. It was Father who sent Him to that tree. It was His Father who gave Him as a sacrifice. It was His Father who sent Him to us. It was His Father that kept Him alive and going and true to the mission that He had sent Him to. And hanging on the cross. Oh, what was going on between that Son and the Father? Father, Father, until finally He could say, Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit. A man, a God-man. He didn't come to us as Son of God. He came as Son of Man to be a witness among us. To show us who God was and what God is like. He lived like God. He died like God. He paid the price to set not only an example for us, calling us, wooing us, inviting us in this last hour before He comes back to receive His church. He's given us this opportunity to come together to make the same commitment that He made. To die if necessary. Do you love your community? Do you love the parish that God has given you enough to lay down your life for it? Do you love your church, your people? Would you lay down your life for your people? The shepherd would give his life for his sheep. Oh, let us drink of the Spirit of this Holy Christ. Drink of His Spirit. And the best way I know to really eat of Him and drink of Him and put Him on is to receive into our heart and life and whole being, spirit, soul and body the same anointing that was upon Him. Are you a man anointed of God? Do you know what it's like to have that holy anointing? Do you minister with an anointing? You know, we hear a lot about burnout. There's all kinds of burnout. But I'm afraid a lot that is called burnout is because of ministers trying to do spiritual ministry with only natural abilities. And the anointing just isn't there. That's why they want to move. If I leave this church, I'll move to another one and then preach the old sermons over. That's why they leave the ministry. That's why they commit suicide. Burnout. You can't perform spiritual ministry with natural means. We have to have this holy anointing. Then you can go out of the pulpit more refreshed than you came in. And then you can have a good long life full of the Holy Ghost and 10,000 thanks to God, a fruitful ministry. I want to talk about this anointing. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Say that again, please. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Now let's examine ourselves to see if the Spirit of the Lord is really on me. What is this holy anointing? Now, I'm not asking you if you have the baptism. I'm not asking you if you have the baptism. I'm asking you if today you have this holy anointing upon your life. Now I want you to look in the Word and we'll talk about this anointing. Of course it comes with the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Of course it does. So we have to talk about the baptism of the Holy Spirit too. I want you to go to the 133rd Psalm. Turn there. Turn there and we'll see something about this anointing. This anointing. Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. Now listen to this. It is like the precious ointment upon the head that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard that went down to the skirt of his garment. An anointing. This is the high priestly anointing. And the oil was poured on his head and it was to cover the whole man. Run down over every part of him. And this is really what the true New Testament baptism of the Holy Spirit really is. People all over this country, they have come up to me and said, Sister, will you lay hands on me and pray for me that I'll speak in other tongues? I said, No. No way. I wouldn't like to do that. Don't you believe in the baptism of the Spirit? I said, I certainly do. But there's quite a difference between the baptism of the Holy Spirit and just speaking in other tongues. Well, I want the baptism. Well, honey, then if you want the baptism, that's something entirely different. But I'm not going to lay hands on you and pray for you that you'll speak in other tongues because you are more than a tongue. The oil ran down over the whole person. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, the Acts all say the same thing. John the Baptist is preaching and he says, There comes coming one after me, I'm not worthy even to untie his shoes. I baptized you with water, but he shall baptize... What's the next word? No, what's the next word? Say it again. Would everybody say that word? Are you more than a tongue? He'll baptize you. Who are you? Who are you? What goes to make up you? You are spirit. You are soul. You are a body, a whole body. So to have the New Testament baptism of the Holy Spirit that John is talking about and that the disciples received, he shall baptize you. He's going to baptize your spirit. Oh, what spirits people have. What spirits they come to us in. What spirits we meet. God wants to deal with that thing at a Pentecostal altar and this is why I love tarrying meetings where God can get at us and deal with us until he can baptize the spirit, that spirit, that hard spirit, that strong spirit, that dominating spirit, that spirit that wants to rule the whole church, that spirit that can tear up a church, that can divide a church, devising spirits. God wants to get hold of that spirit and it makes you a pillar, pillow, pillar in the church instead of a problem. Make your people see to it that they're really and truly baptized in the Holy Ghost. I've had them come, Come sister. I heard her speak three words in other tongues and she won't believe she has the baptism. Will you come over here and minister to her? I will gladly come. She won't believe she has the baptism. I don't believe it either. And I'll come over there and minister to her. Oh, stay here sister. Stay here sister. You've only just begun. He wants to deal with that spirit and I have seen him deal with spirits. I tell you, deal with spirits. Deal with soulish natures. Deal with the wills of people. The wills, those wills. Oh, oh. Been in revival. I know what revival is. I know how this thing works. When we let God do it the way he wants to do it. And the altar was full of people and here was a wife and a daughter that was prostrate under the spirit. And when God gets them down, for God's sake, don't pull them up. Leave them there. A dear old black preacher, a friend of mine, do leave them where the Lord done flung them. And let God deal with his people. Let him deal with all of us. We need to be changed. If the baptism doesn't change, it's no baptism. The real thing will change people, changes inside and out. God deals with wills, with strong wills, stubborn wills, hard wills. God wants the person. He doesn't care two cents about anybody speaking in other tongues. He wants the person. He wants your life. Preacher, God wants your life. God wants you. God wants to get his nail-pierced hands on you. Follow me, he says, and I will make you. They rush on, fishers of man. I said, wait a minute. You're no fishers of man until you're made. Follow me, I'll make you. And God takes us in his hands and begins to deal with us. There was this woman, the mother and daughter at the altar, and they were prostrated. I believe in prostrations. And when you know what God is doing, you'll believe in it too. You remember in the temple when the glory of God came and the priests were prostrated? It says so. They couldn't minister. They were prostrated. Why? That's where prostration began because God was through with that old order of things. And He prostrated those priests saying, I'm through with this order of things. There's a new order coming in. And when God prostrates us by His Spirit, He is saying to us, I am finished with this order of flesh. And I want a new order to come in here, an order of the Spirit. If you walk in the flesh, you die. If you live in the Spirit, you can have life eternal. Say hallelujah. There's a difference, believe me. And this is what prostration is all about. God puts us down to put us out of an old order of the flesh and bring us into, let us rise in new order in the Spirit. So for God's sake, if God gets anybody far enough out of the order of the flesh to prostrate them, for God's sake, leave them alone until God finishes what He's pleased to do in that life. The husband of this woman and daughter was determined that he was coming up there and get them. Somebody told him, better get up to that Pentecostal church, your wife and your daughters are lying up there on the floor. So in he came. But God was giving us, I mean a real Pentecostal revival in which the supernatural was being manifest. And God had set a circle around the front of that church. And whoever crossed over that circle was smitten in one way or another by the Lord. And so this man came in the door and he came down the aisle. He came to that circle of God like God set a circle around Sinai. And when he came, he was coming down there to get them up, get them out of there. And he came to the circle of the presence of God. And when he hit that, God hit him. And he didn't know what struck him. But that will, strong, stubborn will came up and up he came again. You can't tell me, you can't tell me God Almighty would prostrate somebody on the floor. There's no God toward his life. There's a lot of fanaticism up there. I'll get him up from there. He came up again. And that willful man defied God and he came. By eyes, and I saw an angel in Roman armed uniform. And that angel was standing right there at the line. And when that guy came up again and tripped him as nicely as you please and down on the floor he went. Flat. He began to sob lying there crying like a baby. Just sobbing, sobbing, sobbing. I, of course, let him alone. God, go on. Do whatever you're doing. Just do whatever you're doing. And after a while I went over to see how the poor guy was getting along. And he was sobbing and crying. And he says, Here I lie just like a worm in the dust. Thank you God. And God had just pinned him down. He tried to get up but he couldn't. God had just pinned him down. I don't know how long. Sometimes, you know, those real meetings, real Pentecostal meetings don't get out at 8.30. Most of the people in the early days of Pentecost got the baptism after midnight. Most of them did. And we waited in those marvelous, tiring meetings when God was building pillars for His temple, dealing with spirits. Well, after a while he got up. The Lord had won the battle. The last word I heard from him, he was Sunday school superintendent in the Assembly of God church. Yes. God wants to baptize our spirits. Yeah. Changes, changes, changes. Baptize the soul, the whole soulish realm that can be so religious and not a touch of spiritual life there. I've met them. God bless you sister. And she said, the same to you. Couldn't even say praise the Lord. Soulish. We can preach sermons soulish. We can sing songs soulish. We can go through a whole service that's just religious and soulish. And there's not a touch of the anointing of God on it. Dead. It's dead as this desk. And I'm sorry to say there's Assembly of God churches that are as dead as this desk. And there's no anointing on the preacher. There's no anointing on the music. And so that's why we have to become emotional. One woman, I saw her dance across, the whole way across. And after the service, I went to her and I said, Sister, why did you do that? She said, God wasn't doing anything. I thought I'd get something going. And she danced. And there's a lot today to try to get something. Oh, is there one number? Good. You know when it's there and you know when it isn't there. And the congregation knows it too. Oil on our heads. And light, light has come to us. Light. We see the light. Light has come. And we see the light because He has anointed our eyes. His blessed are your eyes for they see. The oil that is poured on the head comes down over our eyes and our eyes are anointed and we see things as we never saw them before in this Spirit-baptized life. Do I speak the truth? Yes. You see things as you never saw them before. Blessed are your eyes for they see. Oh God, anoint our eyes. Anoint our eyes that we could see with the eyes of the Spirit what God wants us to see. We see then what He sees. We understand that the way He understands. And this oil baptizes our ears. Baptizes our ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the church today. God baptize our ears. Baptize our lips that we bring life to the people. We bring living bread to the people. Jesus says the words that I say unto you they are what? Spirit and their life. Are our words Spirit? Are they life? God save us from preaching death. But words of Spirit and life will wash the people, heal them, help them, encourage them. This sacred holy anointing on the head of the priests and the prophets flowing down. This is the real baptism of the Holy Spirit. This is what the real thing will do for us. God save us from these quick baptisms. People just speaking a little bit. Brother was telling about the line up of all the baseball guys. This woman I know is going all over the country. She's been all over this country. And she tells people who come for the baptism to say the music score. Just say the music score and then take off from there. Do ti la so fa mi re do. And take off from there. And you've got the baptism of the Spirit. Popular. She's going everywhere. And her husband. She and her husband together. That's not the baptism of the Spirit. That's not the baptism. And for that, that's one of the reasons why the foundation of this movement has been so weakened. Because we've got hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people who have never received the baptism in the Holy Ghost. One pastor dared to ask me to come for two weeks of meetings. They don't today, you know. You're lucky if you get a whole weekend. But he dared. And I found out that church, oh, half of the people didn't have the real baptism of the Spirit. Yet they were told they had it. But it was not the pastor's fault. This had happened before this pastor got there. And so I told them, began to tell them what the real thing was that would do for them. And it was over George Washington's birthday. And so we said, we're going to have a day of fasting and prayer. And all of you who want the real thing, you come. Forget that past experience and let God really and truly baptize you with the Holy Ghost. And they came. And God came. They were getting the baptism of the Spirit all over that church. Some were praying in the Sunday school rooms. Some was in the choir rooms. They were at the altar. They were all over the church seeking God. I tell you, God was everywhere in that building baptizing with the precious Holy Spirit. And not two-minute baptism or five-minute baptism. Prostrated for hours in the presence of God. Broken, broken, repenting, digging out old things in that life, bringing it to the foot of the cross, rising up from that place just saturated with God. He calls it the baptism. The baptism. He shall baptize you. When you're baptized in water, you're immersed. You're submerged and immersed. And one dictionary I loved when I found it says, put under. And I said, oh, I like that. I like that. Really put under the power of another personality. And that other personality is the precious Holy Spirit. Immersed. When you receive the baptism, were you really immersed in God? Were you submerged in God? Were you put under another personality? That personality is the Holy Spirit. Until, you know, He comes. He wants to be dominant. Dominant in our life. Dominant in our life. Jesus was conceived with the Spirit. He was born of the Spirit. He ministered in the Spirit. He went in the Spirit. He returned in the Spirit. Everything that He did was done in the power of the precious Holy Spirit. In the Old Testament, everything that's done, every miracle, everything in that Old Testament that brought any glory to God was wrought by the power of the Holy Ghost. Those Old Testament prophets, they were all such ordinary men. Ordinary. Ezekiel, a little boy down in Babylon in captivity when God began to deal with him, talk to his heart that He wanted his life. Isaiah says, I'm a man of unclean lips. Little David. God told Samuel, you take a horn of oil, go down to Jesse's house and anoint one of his sons to be king in Israel. And when little David was brought before Him, He said to Samuel, arise and anoint him. He's the one. And he poured that horn of oil on David's head and from that time the Holy Ghost came upon him. I love it. I think it's the 103rd Psalm where David says, without the Holy Ghost, I feel like an owl in the desert and a pelican in the wilderness. Pelicans don't live in the wilderness. They're water birds. Owls don't live in the desert. They're away from their home. David says, that's the way I feel if this Holy Spirit, oil and anointing is not upon me. Oh God, help us to determine we won't live until we've prayed through day after day after day and keep that fresh oil flowing down. And know that holy anointing is upon us. Flow down over his lips, over his lips, over his lips. The words that I say are spirit and life. God make our words spirit and life. Then it flowed down, flowed down over his whole heart. Do we have a heart that's anointed, that loves like he loves? Do you love your people? Do you love your community? Do you love the souls? I ask again, would you lay down your life for them? Not only to cover his heart, but his disposition. Somewhere down in there is the source and the beginning and the rise of our disposition. I have met some dispositions that it would be good if they had a little oil. He anoints these dispositions, deals with them, and it flowed down over the whole person. His hands were anointed, his feet were anointed. Jesus could show his disciples his hands and his feet. They were crucified hands, they were crucified feet. Are our hands crucified hands that do only the will of God? Are our feet crucified, anointed feet that walk only in his sacred will? I'm talking about a man anointed by the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost and preaching. When we're in this place, our message will be the message of the cross, the message of Calvary, that has brought us everything that we have, that with anointed hands and lips and minds and reasoning and spirits, we can bring the lovely truth to the people. Give them living bread, living bread, and watch the church grow and be nourished and have a strong church full of God and full of the Holy Ghost. Of course there'll be miracles. Of course the sick will be healed. Of course they will. In an atmosphere like that, sickness can't live. Of course it will be washed out by the presence of Jesus and the power of the precious Holy Ghost walking only in his will, hands that can minister Christ. That preacher can preach. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel, the cross. In one of our big conferences in the assemblies of God, it just went on and on, preacher after preacher, we sing so little about the cross. All these new courses, it's just full of words, but there's no cross, there's no blood, there's no redemption. There's nothing for the people to carry out with them, to minister to them when they get in hard places and temptations. Oh, precious Holy Spirit, the power of the cross, the power of his redemption, redemption grace flowing through the assembly. We want revival. Honey, what is revival? Tell me, tell me, what is revival? Revival is Jesus coming to us and coming among us. That's revival. Jesus. Jesus is here. And when he's present, anything can happen. But until he gets there, nothing happens. All our plans, our programs, you can spend millions. Nothing happens until Jesus gets there. And in closing, I just want to say this little word in addition to last night. Every revival that I've ever heard about or it's been my privilege to be in has been prayed down. They just don't come floating in on the wind or brought in on a wave. And I have met pastors that have said to me, they tell us the revival is coming. So I'm going to wait until it gets here and I'll get on board. Revivals don't come that way. Revivals are prayed down. Real intercession. I know what it is to pray until I spit blood. But I know what it is to see God move too. And lives changed in revival after revival all over this country. I've conducted revivals. My own people from home have come to visit me and couldn't get in the door because of the crowds inside and outside. God was moving. God, I believe with all my heart, the heavens are heavy, heavy, heavy with clouds of latter rain. I believe that. And the way to get it from there down here is intercessory prayer. Yeah. Any church on the face of the earth can have revival if you pay the price. But there is a price to pay. And contend for real New Testament baptisms of the Holy Ghost. And in your own life, don't be satisfied to be cut short yourself. See to it that you have a New Testament baptism of the Holy Ghost that you can flow in the Spirit with God and with the Lamb. And they all said, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, let it be so. Shall we stand? I don't know. The only place I know to get oil is at the altar. This altar is wide open. This altar is wide open. Now you can consider your stomach or you consider a vial of oil.