In this sermon, Tommy shares a powerful story of his experience in Nigeria. He recounts a moment when he faced a group of warriors ready to attack, but through the name of Jesus Christ, he commanded them to stop and they obeyed. This miraculous event led to the spread of the gospel among the people. Tommy also shares a story of a prayer meeting where rain was desperately needed, and through the faith of the Christians, rain came pouring down. He emphasizes that it is not by human power or numbers, but by the Spirit of God that miracles happen. Tommy concludes by urging the congregation to pray for laborers in the harvest field and to fully embrace and apply everything that Jesus has provided for them.

Matthew, chapter 9. I want you to have the Scripture open, because I wouldn't be surprised with what there might be an error somewhere along the way. And I think it's important that you should catch those errors. You should not let a preacher get by with it. And if you find one, make note of it. So I'm going to begin reading. Verse 36. But when they saw the multitude, they were moved with compassion on them, because they fainted and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. Is that correct? Oh, I wonder why. Why couldn't the Holy Spirit have said, these disciples that had been many months with the Lord Jesus felt the same way about the lost as he felt. That's not what the text says, is it? Don't you think that if that had been the case, that Matthew would have been inspired by the Spirit of God to write it the way it happened? Don't you think that when you find that it is not referring to the disciples, that there's a reason for it? I read it again correctly. But when he saw the multitude, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest. Verse 35 declares, And Jesus went about all the cities and religions, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. And when he on this particular day in this particular place saw the multitude, he was moved with compassion. Think for a moment now as to what we know about the attitude of the disciples. I think it's important that we should get acquainted with them, know all we can about them. Now I think you get a secret of what is in the mind and in the spirit and heart of the apostles when you remember that evening of the resurrection, when our Lord was on the way to Emmaus. And he joined himself to the two that were walking, and you remember that significant statement that they made when they were talking about the events that had happened in Jerusalem. Then they concluded by saying, And we thought that it had been he that would restore the kingdom to Israel. That is what they were expecting. Now these men were fishermen, laborers, none of them were politicians, but it doesn't take a great deal to turn a laborer into a politician if he has an opportunity. And they were very much concerned about what was going to happen when the Lord came to the throne of David and gave back to Israel the glory that Israel had had under David. Obviously he had to have helpers, didn't he? Obviously somebody had to assist him, and who was better than the ones that had helped him get to the throne? And so, do you recall that the mother of James and John came to the Lord? I see that picture this way. James and John are walking along with the disciples from village to village, and James says, You know, John, it isn't going to be long until we're near home. Let's ask mother to invite the crowd home for a big meal at noon. And you know these fellows love to eat. They enjoy a good meal. She's the best cook we've got around here. And when they're all out under the wall sound asleep in the shade taking a nap, why, we can get mother to go to the Lord. Now he'll be grateful because she picked such a fine meal. And we'll get her to say something like this, Lord, when thou comest into thy kingdom, let James sit on thy right hand, and John on thy left. And John remarks, Now wait a minute, older brother. Just because you're two years older than I am doesn't mean that you should have that honor. After all, you've always admitted that I'm smarter than you are. I learn quicker. I'm better with people than you are. Now let's change that and have it sound like this. When thou comest into thy kingdom, let John sit on thy right hand, and James on thy left. Oh yes, they were very interested in what they were going to get out of serving the Lord. That was what they were concerned about. Oh, you recall, don't you, that occasion when our Lord was in one of these villages? He'd been teaching, he'd been preaching, he'd been healing the sick. Not everybody in the neighborhood came to the meeting. I see one village where there were about four mothers who didn't come. One was the mother of the little baby that was born blind. The other one was the mother of the baby that was paralyzed from the waist down. Another was the mother of the baby that had cerebral palsy. And the third one was that little baby that they said was demon-possessed and howled and cried and screamed. These mothers didn't go because they knew there wasn't any reason. They'd never heard of a baby born blind being healed or someone really paralyzed being healed, so they stayed home. But along the middle of the afternoon, early afternoon, a man came running through the village saying, I see, I see, I was born blind and I see. And the other three mothers went over to the mother of the little blind baby and said, it's still time. Why don't you take him? This fellow that just went through here, praising God, that he was born blind and he lived many years and the Lord healed him. Oh, I don't know, I don't want to go. So then, just about then, the man that had been crippled from the waist down had to be carried around, wheeled around or carried on a litter. It's through their leaping and praising God. And so the three mothers, well, why don't you take your little crippled baby? And so finally the four mothers decide to go. Well, off at the side are Peter and Matthew, the two old men of the disciples. And I can hear Peter saying, oh Lord, Matthew, I think this whole time we're spending here in Galilee is a pure waste. Doesn't the Lord realize that that adage that says nothing good will come out of Galilee except maybe us, but other than that, nothing good comes out of Galilee. There's no political influence here. We can't do anything here. Why doesn't he just leave this place and go down to Jerusalem? That's where the movers and shakers are and that's where we've got to go. Why don't we go down there? Well, the people are coming and there you see them as they come. Mother's bringing them. Lord Jesus is saying, suffer the little children who come unto me. But Peter and John say, no, wait a minute, Peter and Matthew. Listen, the Lord is tight. He's had a long day, a lot of sick people. We've been doing this now for several weeks, going from village to village throughout all of Galilee, teaching and preaching and healing the sick. And he has had it. He's tired. We'll be back sometime. Please go home, ladies. It's a real way. And the Lord Jesus looks over their heads and sees them and said, suffer the little children. Let them come to me. Bring them here in the way parts when they come. That's what's happening there. That's what's taking place. This man, the Lord Jesus, loves the little children and he loves the people. And so he wets his two fingers and lays them on those blind eyes and when he lifts them, the first sight in the eye of that little child is the mother whose voice he's come to love and to trust. And those paralyzed, palsied arms reach out and touch the cheek, the first controlled motion that the little child has ever been able to make. And the disciples. Well, what's all this about, you poor babies? We've got to get on with this kingdom business. We ought to be down in Jerusalem. What I'm trying to get you to see is what's in the heart of the disciples. You see, you can be a follower of Jesus and know him so well that we don't know him at all. We can be so pally with Jesus that we haven't any idea in the world who he is or how he feels. That's what was true with the disciples. They knew him so well, they didn't know him at all. So on this day, as the Lord Jesus is coming, I see it as market day, there's a little swale there, perhaps some trees about, and all the people from various villages have gathered on this one day a month market. And so there is quite a crowd. He calls it a multitude. And as he walks up over the edge of this little rise that shields the market scene from view as they were coming, the Lord Jesus comes to the crest of this little rise and he looks down and he sees just from far as he can see people and all that goes on in an open air market. And as he sees them, the disciples notice that he's beginning to sink. The words in that verse said, he was moved with compassion, but the literal in the Greek is, he almost fainted with compassion. Now who was he looking at? Was he looking at the people from distant lands in China, in Africa, in South America? Who was it that moved him so? Of whom could he say sheep scattered without a shepherd? I'll tell you who they were. They were the people that lived in his own community. They spoke the same language he spoke. They ate the same food that he ate. They lived in the same area that he lived. Perhaps he knew many of them or some of them at least. And when he saw them, he saw these as sheep scattered without a shepherd. It's very easy for us to be deeply moved about the people in Latin America or in Africa or in Asia because they're there and they look so pitiful. But when we look on the people that live on the same block we do that drive good automobiles, mow their lawn with a power mower, eat with silverware and sleep between sheets, we see them, it's a little bit hard for us to think of them as sheep scattered without a shepherd. But it wasn't hard for the Lord Jesus. And sometimes we who are his servants and follow him, name his name, get the feeling that the service from God takes place within the four walls where we meet. This is not the place where we serve God. This is the place where we're taught, where we're instructed, where we're refreshed, where we're guided into the resources that are ours in Christ. And we begin our service when we leave, not when we come in. The problem is that so many of us are like the disciples. We've got some other agenda, some other program, some other priority that we want to use the Lord for. And instead of letting him live through us and love through us and win through us, we're trying to use him to forward our agenda and our program, as were the disciples trying to use him to get him to the throne, get him into office, because they were going to benefit from it. Believe me, they were. They were practical men, and they knew that you don't go fishing unless you expect to bring back fish. It means they're living that way. And you don't leave your nets where you can catch fish every day and follow somebody that you'll believe is the next king unless you're expecting that when he gets to the throne, he's going to remember who helped him get there. So here we have a picture of the disciples. Here we see the disciples. When he saw them, he was moved with compassion. And he knew their hearts. He knew all about them. And so he turned to them, and what should have been his force became his field. And the first thing he said was to his disciples, the harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few. I don't want to dwell on how extensive the harvest is. Give you statistics, I could do that. Give you statistics of the number of missionaries and so on. You're familiar with that. Oh, I'd just like to bring to you the words of that song that were sung by Dr. Simpson 100 years ago. Remember it? You've heard it. You've sung it. Heard it sung. A hundred thousand souls a day are passing one by one away in priceless guilt and gloom. Without one ray of hope or light, with future dark as endless night, they are passing, passing to their doom. That was true when Dr. Simpson sang it. A hundred years ago, it was about a hundred thousand souls a day. But the population of the world has nearly trebled since that time. And with all of our television, with all of our radio, with all of our printing presses, with all of the means we have of communication, the fact is that it's nearly 300,000 souls a day that are dying without ever having heard the name of Christ. Nearly three times as many as there were. In 1950, as deputation secretary for the Sudan Interior Mission, I was having a Bible and missionary conference in the Mikado Baptist Church in Macon, Georgia. The pastor had invited for this particular day of the week 10 other pastors in the neighborhood where I was already had had a missionary conference or was scheduled to have a missionary conference for a day of seminar in which we discussed, and I tried to share with them, how they could make their missionary conference more effective than what they had known. Some of them had never had one. Some of them had had one, but they wanted it to be more effective the following months. So we'd spent this day, we met about 9.30, quarter to 10. We had lunch together. I'd been answering questions all afternoon from about 1 and it's now about 2.30. They have to get back to their other home activities. I'm about to close it now. Well, are there any other questions? One of the pastors, a very thoughtful man, clear-minded, said, here we are, 11 of us, and we are Southern Baptists. We're taking on missionaries. It's a sedentary mission to take on others. This is new. We've never done this before. You've come in and you've captured our hearts and we know this is what God wants. If this continues to spread, I suggest you're around me, if this continues to spread, what do you think is going to happen in the next 50 years, by the year 2000, if we keep on going this way? Do you think we'd get the job done? And I had to say, Father, I don't know. I've never heard the question asked and I've never heard the question answered. Therefore, all I can do is to tell you that I'll go back to my office on Monday and I'll try to get through this and when we meet, as we plan to meet in about three months' time, I'll have an answer for you, the best answer I can get. So when I got back to the office, I did as all successful men do. I asked my secretary to do it. I told her precisely what I wanted. Beginning in 1850 and the 1860 and 1780 and each ten years thereafter, I wanted her to go do the research. I said you can travel, you can do anything you need to get it, but I want to know what the world population was in 1850 right up to the year 1950. And then I want to know what it's going to be from 1950 to 2000. I want to know how many Christians there were in the world in 1850, 1670, if you've got it, the best you can get. I want to know how many missionaries there were in the world in 1850 and I want to know how much money was spent for missions in each of those ten year periods and how it increased. Well, she did a lot of work, a lot of telephoning, got a lot of materials sent in. The only thing you know about the future is what you learned about the past. So I took the highest ten year period, which was by the way from 1940 to 1950, the average increase in missionaries, increase in money and then I used the projections, the demographic projections of the world population and projected it up. This is what I found. That based on what we have done in the past hundred years, the 50 years from 1950 to the year 2000 were going to be the period of the greatest failure in evangelism in the history of the world. There would be nearly three times as many un-evangelized by the year 2000 than there were in the year 1950. Based on everything we could project, we had airplanes then, we had radio then, television was coming, we had these things around us, you could see amplification in the large book, we hadn't had any Telstar up there yet, but we still had a lot, we had intercom, international telephone, all of these things were available to us in 1950. Of course, they've been increasing cheaply. I projected in 1967, on the basis of inflation as it was occurring, that we would reach the time, 1970 rather, we would reach the time when missionary giving increased would not equal inflation increase. And that from that time on, the amount of giving increases in churches would run behind the average inflation of all the countries serving as missionaries. Now I was wrong about that. It wasn't 1970. It was 1967 when that line crossed. And we will never have more money, as much money, based on world population, missions and so on, for the work of evangelism around the world as we have in 1967. From that time on, we've had more money, but it's not been increasing. The giving has not been increasing as fast as the inflation. Nor had we projected the great mega-television, electronic movements. We had anticipated that there would be maybe 10 television programs that would be soaked up over $800 million every year of money from God's people, which is just about the amount of money we give to all missionary causes in the world today. So, what we had was a situation then where, based on the best projections we could make, I was very discouraged about it. I went to that group, and I hope they didn't ask me about it. I had promised I'd have it. I had the information. I had the projections worked out. They were available for them if they wanted it. And they did ask, and I told them. And they said, what does it mean? I said, all it means is we're going to have to run as fast as we can to stay in place. Just to keep up, we're going to have to run very, very fast and work very, very hard. But I said, I do not know how to break this chain. That was what stirred my heart with hunger. And I went back again to the Word, and I discovered that we had a program, we had a plan, we had methods, we had everything except the power of the Holy Ghost. And I began to read the Word of God again, and to discover that, for instance, in John 17, the Lord Jesus said, Father, I in union with them, thou in union with me, that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and then that the world may be able to believe that thou hast sent me. And so I had to conclude that the only way that we could possibly complete the task given to us by the Lord was for a mighty outpouring of the Spirit of God. Then I saw the charismatic movement come, and I said, here it is, Lord, bless your holy name. It was more important that I found the people of Greenland, for the most part, had absolutely no awareness of it. Even though the Word said after that, the Holy Ghost has come upon you, you shall receive power, and you shall be witnesses unto me. There seemed to be a contentment just to play with the supernatural power games with the Holy Spirit rather than to get out and be unto the earth with the message of God. I say to you that there is only one possible way that this vast harvest of new laborers can ever have the task completed, and that is if we have the prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ answered, the provision of the Lord Jesus Christ appropriated, and the plan of the Lord Jesus Christ followed. And he said, if we did, the world would know, and the world would be able to believe. That's the only hope. That's why I rejoice to be in a church with a new beginning, because I dare to believe that you're going to go to the Word and find out what the provisions of God's grace are. That's one of the reasons I had the temerity, the rationality, to put those tapes out there, because not here but elsewhere, to make them available, because I've spent 50 years trying to find what the Word of God teaches that will enable God's people to become the kind of missionaries, the kind of witnesses that the Lord wants them to be. And I can't go everywhere, throwing the burden on every community. So we want to provide this to the entire church. The whole purpose, listen, everything God provided for His children was to enable us to be effective witnesses for Christ and to complete the task that He gave to His church of getting the gospel out to the ends of the earth. So He said, the harvest is great, and the labors are few. I won't dwell on that longer. I move to the next verse. Pray ye, the Lord of the harvest, that He will thrust out labors into the harvest. I was here on debt and furlough. I had the opportunity. I had been matriculated at Southern Baptist Seminary. I thought I was going to attend. I told you I looked at the books and saw that they were books in which I, some of which I'd read and wasn't interested, and the others which I wasn't even interested enough to read. I was supposed to study them. So I matriculated one day and dematriculated the next day. They told me I had to pay one month's room rent, so I said, well, in that case, I'm going to stay here and use it up. I'm just going to live here. If I was good enough to be a student, I'm good enough to stay in the dorm, I want to have spiritual income. So during that month there, I was invited to speak to the church, and I began to talk. The Lord led me to this text, and I had brought with me from my library Thayer's Speak English Lexicon, Strong's Concordance, and I was there at the library of Southern Baptist Seminary where I had all the help, and I started to parse every word or to analyze every word in that text. I'll never forget the day when I saw what this verse really says. I'm going to read it to you, give it to you the way I saw it, the way it is. Pray the Lord of the harvest in order that he will be able to thrust out laborers into the harvest field. It's a causative, in order that he can, in order that he's able. Well, I took it to the Greek professor, and I said, is this right? He read it through, and he said, yeah, it's right, but I wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot bowl. I said, why? Because he said the implications of it are explosive, and I don't want to get involved with anything like that. I said, is it correct? He said, it's correct. That's what the text says. We've analyzed it properly. Pray the Lord of the harvest, and I used to wonder why, when God loved the world and gave his son, and the son loved the world and gave his life, and God raised his son from the dead, why he turned around and says, now you pray that I'll thrust out some laborers. It didn't make sense to me. It didn't make sense at all. If God had gone that far, why didn't he go the rest of the way? Then it says, so that he may be able to thrust out. Oh, I began to ask questions. You can believe I began to ask questions. What happened so that God had to ask us to pray that he can thrust out laborers? What took place? I'll tell you what took place. Man sins. He comes under the control of the God of this world. The Lord tells us, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. He has described this one as the prince of this world, the God of this world, that he controls the affairs of wicked men. In effect, it's this. Man, for himself, to be loved by God, to love God, to share all that God is and all that he's doing, but instead of man loving God, his love turned in upon himself. That's the essence of sin, self-love. I'm going to do what I want to do. In so doing, he came under the control of the God of this world. Now, the God of this world owns and controls and governs man, wicked man. Once we were, what does it say in Ephesians 2? And you, who were dead in trespasses and sins, who walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince and the power of the air, that very same spirit that now works in the children of disobedience, among whom we all had our manner of life in times past, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. This was what we were, governed by walking according to the control of the God of this world. So what is he saying? He's saying that those of us that have renounced the God of this world, repented of our sin, savingly embraced Jesus Christ as Lord and as Savior and have been translated into the kingdom of his dear Son, he's saying, look, out there are your kinsmen, and I have made you to be a king and a priest. I didn't ask you if you wanted to do it. I made you one. Unto him who loved us and washed us in his blood and made us to be kings and priests. Made us, made us to be kings and priests. Such we were. We were thus under a new mandate to represent sinners and it is our responsibility to exercise our priesthood. What is our priesthood? What was a priest? What was Moses to Israel? Moses went from the presence of sinning Israel into the presence of God. He confessed the sin of Israel. He accepted the justice of God's judgment upon Israel, and then he pled for Israel. So much so that he said, Lord, if you don't forgive Israel and pardon Israel, I don't want to go up. I won't go up. I'll take my place with these people. He became an intercessor, a priest, pleading with God in behalf of sinning Israel. And so what he's asked us to do is to recognize that we're kinsmen to sinners. And it's our responsibility to legally represent those sinners before God. Let me give you a picture. Years ago, when the missionaries first went from the Sudanterian mission into Nigeria, there was very little support, very little interest, very little cooperation. Walter Gowan, Tom Kent went. Roland Bingham stayed here at this end to hold the ropes while they went in. And within just a few months after they landed in Lagos, Nigeria, both Walter Gowan and Tom Kent had died. Why? Because they were in Satan's territory, and there had not been an intercessory breakthrough for them. They could be slain. They were vulnerable. They were vulnerable. Some years later, Dr. Andrew Stewart worked his way to England on a cattle boat, went down to Nigeria, but he had, in the course of getting ready to go, been getting a group of people to intercede, to turn back the power of darkness in Nigeria. And Dr. Stewart went in, and he began to witness. He began to preach, and God began to honor him. One missionary in the Sudan interior mission, just one. And then there was a fellow that applied to the Christian Missionary Alliance and was turned down because he had a mother that needed to be cared for. And he didn't have the right education. But he spent a little time there with Dr. Simpson, and God infused his heart with a great love for the Lord Jesus and the belief that signs and miracles were for today. And Tommy Titcombe began to get people to pray, to pray, to pray, to pray, that God would turn back the power of darkness and he could go into a tribe of which he'd learned the lure of a tribe. And they interceded, and they cried out to God. Tommy Titcombe finally got to Nigeria, carried his entire outfit on his back, made it into a pact strapped over his shoulders. Everything he was going to have from then until he came back was on his back. And he went in and he met Dr. Stewart. They had a staff meeting, a field meeting, and it was unanimously decided that it was unfair for one tribe to have two missionaries when the big Yoruba tribe didn't have any. Tommy Titcombe went in to the Yoruba tribe. When he left the main path, the trade path, and went off into Yoruba country, there was a vine across the path with human skulls. And as he went under, the top of his pack hit the vine, and all he could hear was the rattle of those skulls as he walked down the path. The skulls said, don't come in here or your head's going to be up here along with the rest. And some of them were pretty green, hadn't been there very long. They'd been steeped in cannibal feasts. Tommy went on because he had prayed and there were people praying and interceding. And he said, I'd have never dared to have gone if I didn't know that there were a group of people that had promised to pray continuously around the clock, interceding to turning back the power of Satan so the gospel could get planted. He walked into the village where the paramount chief lived, walked right up to the chief who was sitting there with a lot of his people around him. He threw his pack off his back and he said, where am I going to sleep? I've come to live with you. And his arrogance and his boldness took him by surprise and probably amused him and said, what do you mean? He said, I'm going to stay here. I'm going to live with you. And I want to know where I'm going to sleep. I'm tired. I've been walking a long way. And the chief said, well, over there is the widow. Her husband died and his grave was right in the middle of the hut. You can sleep on the grave. So Tommy went in and laid his bedroll out on the grave and that's where he slept. He said, I never asked what I ate, but I knew that some of the things I saw around there didn't look like any animal I'd ever seen that had worn hair or looked awful. I never asked. God said, what's whatever you eat, just give thanks. So I didn't have to worry about it. I just ate. I had to live. And he said, they wouldn't let me preach. I told them I was there and told them, they said, we don't want to hear that talk. Which doctor said, you ought to be killed anyway. We ought to eat you. You shouldn't be here. He said, well, I'm here and I'm going to stay here and you can't touch me. So at night, Tommy, he couldn't preach in the village, but at night he'd sneak out of the hut and he'd crawl up, go up on the rocks overlooking the village. And he'd lay down at the precipice where there's sharp rock and he'd lean out and he'd shout the gospel down. Midnight. And it would seep through the straw of the roofs and people would hear it. They called him a yinbo egbe, the little peeled man of egbe. They thought his skin had been taken off, that's why he was white. And here he is, the yinbo egbe is up there and he's preaching the gospel at midnight. Midnight. And he's doing this for a long time. And there were 12 people that came to him that became disciples. And he moved outside of town and he built a little hut. And every morning these 12 would come and have prayer with him. This particular morning while they were at prayer, they heard war cry, they heard chanting, they heard death call, they heard crying out to the evil spirits as Tommy was and these 12 were there in prayer and worship. And they heard and knew what it was. The witch doctors stirred up the people. They were going to take all 12 of them up to the hill and sacrifice them to the evil spirits. They stayed there for 13 days. They had a little water, they rationed it, had a little food, they rationed that, and they just stayed there and worshipped the Lord. Tommy said during that time one night he saw the Lord Jesus for the only time he ever saw him, ever as revealed. And the Lord Jesus said it's all right, just stay here because this is going to be the greatest victory that they've ever had. On the 13th day the Lord told him that when the people go up to the hill to pray, because they hadn't been able to break into that little house, they had flaming arrows and they wouldn't shoot them. They would rush and stop. He didn't know why. Later on one of the men who was converted who had been calling for their death said, well of course we couldn't get in there. All those men in white were standing around you and they wouldn't let us get to you. Well we didn't see any men in white. You didn't? Well we sure saw them. They wouldn't let us get anywhere near you. They were there. The Spirit of God says Tommy, now's the time, take them out. So they went out, the people, the warriors had all gone up to the top of the hill and Tommy went down into the center of the village under the spirit tree where all the skulls and bones of those that had been eaten and cannibal sacrificed were hung. And he stood under that sacred spirit tree. After a little while the people came back, they saw the footprints of those that had gone out of the house, the house was empty, and they saw them under the spirit tree. And the people were afraid, these men, these 12 men with them. They hadn't eaten very well, they were up in an awful lot of strain. Tommy said, that's all right, don't worry, everything's fine. And with the witch doctor in lead in the front and the warriors coming with their upraised spears rushing at these 13 men standing there, Tommy waited until they were just about ready to throw their spears. And he stood up and said, in the name of Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, stop! And he said they leaned over like they were on a cable. They just stopped in a straight line. And then they'd been using words of one of their chants, and he took the same chant and he began to give the gospel. He said, you like that? Yeah. If you like that, make your mouth like a crocodile. Open your mouth. So he went on. The witch doctor said, listen, you're finished, you're gone, you're done, you leave, or else you get down here and pray to Jesus Christ to save you. Well, the witch doctor crept off, and later he came to Christ. Tommy preached the gospel. A miracle had happened. And he went back and he stayed there. He said, if any of you would like to meet Jesus, come tomorrow morning and I'll talk to you. He thought maybe one or two would come. When he woke up and got up the next morning, and he looked outside, light enough to see, there were over 400 people in the front yard. A group of 10, a group of 12, three, a husband and wife, all around the station. And in the next six weeks, 1,500 people professed faith in Jesus Christ. There came a time when there was a smallpox plague in the area. The elders of the church came and said, what are we going to do? He said, Lord, what are we going to do? And the Lord said, you tell them that anyone who moves onto the mission compound will never get smallpox. Can you imagine? So he said it, and the drums carried the message, anyone who moves up with Ian Boegbe on the ground of the mission will never get smallpox. And hundreds of people moved on, and no one got smallpox. Another time there was a terrible drought. They'd planted their corn when the rains came, and then it dried up. There'd been a flood of rain, they planted the rest of their seed, it dried up, and now they were hungry. No rain. They were going to be hungry, they were going to starve. And the elders came and said, Ian Boegbe, the Muslims have sacrificed, they've prayed, there's been no rain. The pagans have sacrificed, there's been no rain. When are we going to pray? He said, what promise do we have from God to pray for rain? Why, said the elders. Elijah was a man of like passions, and he prayed and it rained. He said, call for a prayer meeting tonight. We will pray for rain. So the drums, which were the media of the area, carried the message out. The Muslims prayed, no rain. The pagans prayed, no rain. The Christians are going to pray. Now we'll see whose God is the Lord. An hour was set for the prayer meeting. Tommy went down, the sky was still light early in the evening. Wasn't a cloud anywhere in the sky. Wasn't a cloud the size of a man's hand. But when he stepped inside this large shelter where they met, he knew there'd be rain. Because the side aisles were filled with rain hats. The big hat with the rain that kept them from getting wet. They'd stoop over and they had this woven mat on the back. They went to prayer. After they prayed for about a half an hour, Tommy said, we heard on that tin roof, blink. And then a little later we heard, blink, blink. And then a little later, blink, blink, blink. And he said in less than two minutes we couldn't hear who was praying. The thunder of the rain on the roof. It rained all that night. It rained all the next day. It rained the next night. It rained the next day and the next, that afternoon the elders came and said, Elijah also prayed that it wouldn't rain. Don't you think it's time we said, Lord, we've had enough for a little while? And so they prayed and the rain stopped. Tommy was working in the dispensary. He reached up to get a bottle of sulfuric acid. Slipped out of his hand. It hit a protrusion on the shelf. It burst and raw sulfuric acid came into his eyes and on his face. He immediately put water in it, went to the house, put some milk in it, went to bed, sent a boy 40 miles to the next missionary to have him come to help. And the message went out in the church. He woke up. He had had rest. He was in great pain, but he slept a little. Then he heard a voice outside the window. Two elderly women had started to pray. They prayed all that night. They prayed all the next day. They prayed the next night. They stayed there in prayer. And there was the following day, the next day that the missionary got there and he said he came. He was so sorry. He just laid down by Tommy on the bed and took him in his arms and started to sob. And Tommy said, no, no, no, don't sob. I want him and I've asked Jesus and he's going to give me my sight. But Tommy, your eyes have been burned away. Oh, what's that with Jesus? He can put them back again. And when he took the towel off, Tommy's eyes had been restored. They'd burned away with sulfuric acid. When he was with me, we were outside a good bit. He'd get his face tanned, but where the skin had been burned away, there was no scar tissue, it never tanned. What had happened, Tommy learned one thing, that you have to pray the Lord in the harvest so that he'll be able to thrust out laborers into the harvest field. He went, didn't go until he had a group of people that would intercede, that would claim the blood of Jesus, that would stand on the victory of Calvary, that would resist the enemy, that would exercise the authority that's ours in Christ, to open the way into the ear of a tribe. Money is bound by the God of this world. Tribes are bound by the God of this world. Hearts are bound by the God of this world. And they're all released by intercessory prayer, by the authority of the believer in believing prayer. We've got to teach our people this, we've got to learn this, that it's not by mind, it's not by power, but it's by that which God has given to us and invested in us, that which the Lord Jesus purchased with his poured out life. Tommy told me he was going back to Nigeria, said it would be my last visit. I know the Lord has told me I can go once more. He labored there for over 40 years. The church had grown to thousands and thousands and thousands of believers. Sunday morning he spoke in the church. Unknown to him, the church leaders, the national church leaders, had said to the people, come and see a Yinbo Agbi. We'll never see his face again until we see him in the presence of Jesus. Some people had started on Saturday walking. Others started on Friday. Some had their service in the morning and walked in. Tommy had just seen the people at the local church. He'd preached to them, gone to the missionary's home for dinner. Everything was very quiet. The people had been instructed, don't make any noise. There was a truck. They pushed the truck back right in front of the mission house. They put a chair on the back of it, a sofa chair. Tommy had his dinner. He said, well, we'd better go. I've got to get into Lagos so I can leave to go back to Toronto. That's right, Tommy. And when they came out, the whole village was filled with people. Not a sound. Who were these? Tommy looked. There were the elders. There was one of the men, very old now, who'd been a young man with him those 13 days in that house. There was another elder who'd been one of the warriors that had called for his life. That was the son of the witch doctor that had inspired them to come. They took Tommy out. They lifted him up to the truck. This little man sat down in the chair. They didn't start the motor. The elders just locked and pushed the truck and the people opened. And then they said over 15,000 voices. All hail the power of Jesus' name. Let angels prostrate fall. Bring forth the Lord of God in heaven. One man who dared to believe God. Oh, I got so sick, so sick, so sick in the heart of telling what God had done through Tommy Titcombe to churches and people and missionaries that didn't believe that that was for today. We raised money to send people who denied the power of God and the reality of the gifts of the Spirit and the enablings of the Spirit of God until finally I couldn't stand it any longer. I couldn't stand it any longer. I had to seek God. I had to seek Him for myself. And I had to dare to believe that when the Lord Jesus prayed, Father, that they all may be in union in the very same way I lived in Tommy Titcombe and he lived in me, they will live in me and I will live in them that the world may know and the world may be able to believe. Hear it again. When he saw the multitude, he was moved with compassion and he said unto them, pray the Lord of the harvest that he'll be able to thrust out labors into the harvest field. Father, there's enough life stuff in this company this evening to change the world for thy dear son. It's not by might, it's not by number, but it's by my Spirit, saith the Lord. Father, we can't say anything to the people that aren't here. We can only talk to those who are and to challenge them and exhort them to open their hearts, to receive everything that the Lord Jesus purchased with His blood, to learn everything that He provided and to appropriate everything that they learned experientially, that the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb that was slain, may see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied. And so we plead the precious blood of Christ upon Calvary Temple, upon the pastors, upon the elders, upon the people. And we're asking that because thou hast been with us during these days of this missionary conference that there's going to be a release of thy Spirit as thy people understand what it is to exercise the authority that's ours in Christ, to release tribes and villages and people in Acapulco and in South America and around the world, to release the money that's needed to send the witnesses, to protect and bless and empower those that go. Oh God and Father of Jesus Christ, let the prayer of thy dear Son that He may dwell in us the way thou didst dwell in Him and we will dwell in Him and live in Him the way He lived in thee, that the world may know and be able to believe. Oh Father, let that be fulfilled. We've tried everything else. Now Father of Jesus, help us to do it your way that men and women might come out of death into life in ever increasing numbers for the glory of thy dear Son, for His name's sake. Amen.