In this sermon, the preacher describes a powerful testimony given by a woman named Lizzy Smith. Despite her small stature, Lizzy's testimony transformed the atmosphere of the meeting and brought the presence of the Holy Spirit. The preacher emphasizes the importance of preaching with conviction and delivering the message of repentance. They contrast this with the modern approach of relying on films and entertainment to attract crowds, highlighting the need for the wind and fire of the Holy Spirit. The sermon also references biblical figures like John the Baptist and the dramatic impact of wind and fire in nature.

Deepest gratitude to God for this privilege of fellowship and of worship and of ministry. Sometimes, at least, I've got an idea that maybe I was the only queer person left, but it's been great to meet you all. And Brother Anderson and a few other queer folks around here, Brother French, and I hope someday that we'll meet again. I just asked you to, uh, I don't ask for anything, it's not my business to ask for anything. A lady said to me one day, do you have a, do you have a promise? I said, yes, I do. Do you have a promise? She said, yes, I do. I said, what is it? Well, I could have guessed it. Romans 8, 28, everybody has it, it's the one which's in the Bible, it's been used that much. But he said, do you have a promise? I said, yes, and what's more, nobody else wants my promise, and so I have it nearly all to myself. And he said, well, what is your promise? I said, the Lord preserves the sinful. And I'm not clever enough to look after myself, and so the Lord has all the responsibility. But he's really good to work for. Now this verse is the best known verse, I suppose, in holiness works, but I better read it to you. I sometimes wonder why Luke 3, 16 is not as well known in the Church as John 3, 16 is to men and women in the world, even. But the word in John 3, 16, you know, is God's soul of the world, that's God's, the redemptive purpose of God in Christ to the world. But here is the redemptive purpose in God, in Christ, to the Church. And it says in Luke 3, 16, John answered, saying unto them, I indeed baptize you with water, that one cometh mightier than I, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and fire. Dividing the Old and New Testaments, there is a page, a very innocent looking page, it's blank, there's nothing on it. And yet that innocent looking page represents a solid block of 400 years of spiritual darkness without any light, 400 years of spiritual stillness without any prophetic voice. And then suddenly on the velvet blackness of that 400 years, God shows the radiant personality of John the Baptist. The stillness of 400 years is shattered by an anointed man. There was a man sent from God. And the need of the hour in which I live, brother and sister, the need of this hour is for men sent from God. May I respectfully say, not even sent from the Bible school, but men sent from God. I suggest to you that to attempt to measure John the Baptist by our modern standards of spirituality is about as difficult as trying to measure the sun with an instep. The sun is far away, your instep is very small, John is far away, and our modern standards of spirituality are so desperately low that you can't measure John the Baptist by modern standards of spirituality. John came on the stage after 400 years of stillness. It was a, it was a nation, remember this, they were fundamental. It was 400 years of progressive deterioration. It was 400 years of being wrapped up in ceremony and circumcision and sacrifice. God could have said of them as he said of the church at the end of the book, I know that thou hastest false doctrine. As I said the other night, it isn't enough to have a negative gospel, you must have a positive gospel in the day in which we're living. And these people love new moons and they love Sabbath. They were very careful and meticulous. They said their prayers, putting on new garments. They watched every phase of the moon. They did a thousand and one things. Why, one of the historians of Jewish antiquity reminds us in the days that when John came on the stage of time, men used to say their prayers, of course, the Jews said their prayers in a chair. Didn't they say in the upper room the Spirit came upon them as they prayed while they were sitting. Every man was sitting and the Spirit came upon them. And this man tells us in the day when John came, that these Jews had nothing else to do but divide doctrine and play with doctrine. And they argued as to whether God would hear you when you said your prayers. If you said your prayers you must say your prayers like this and put both feet up. And the other half said no, you have to put your feet out like this. Now that sounds absurd, but you see when people have lost the power of God they're fooled with anything. And so they argued, if you put your feet that way then the answer is prayer. Charlie always walked like that before he died, never had any more sins. But you imagine four hundred years there had been a whole army of priests, hundreds of priests through hundreds of years, and yet the nation had gone to hell. And here's a lesson for you, that what God could not do to a whole army of priests, hundreds of priests in hundreds of years, in six months one man filled with the Holy Ghost turned the nation upside down. Secular history is tied up with bloody men and evil men. A man comes and he pulls the nation to the edge of hell like Hitler. A man like Torquemada rises up. Some other person Genghis Khan or if you want to go further back Philip of Macedon and Alexander that conquered the world at 27 and cried because there was no other area of the world to conquer. And wicked men do wickedly and wicked men pledge themselves. And one man in the power of the devil when he's sanctified to the devil, when he's separated to the devil, when he lives for the devil, when his heart and his imagination and his interest and his desire and his ambition and everything else is inflated with the evil part of the devil, a man can wreck the world nearly. But listen before you take too much sorrow out of that. Remember this, that while secular history is tied up in men that have pulled the world down, they've razed cities, they've plunged nations into bloodbaths. The world's secular history wraps around men. Spiritual history wraps around men. There is a man sent from God whose name was John Wesley. And when the bloody revolution swept over France, and they said it would jump over the English Channel only 21 miles, they said England will go down under the deluge. But Leckie, a secular historian, not a spiritual historian, Leckie the secular historian says this, that when the bloody revolution swept over France, they swept the whole monarchy into the dustbin. They raised their banner, liberty, fraternity, equality. They were going to have a new race of men but they never got them. And when it looked as though England would fall under the spell, then he says God raised up an army? No sir. A committee? No sir. God raised up a man sent from God whose name was John Wesley. And Wesley put to flight the armies of the alien, the enemy of coming like a flood. And the Spirit of God raised up John Wesley against it, and put to flight the powers of hell. Religion had been on the downgrade for 400 years. Every male child was circumcised. They kept the law meticulously that they wandered far, far, far away from God. You know this man John was very wonderful. The amazing thing about John the Baptist was he was filled with the Holy Ghost in his mother's womb. And Mary was filled with the Holy Ghost. And Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost. And Zacharias was ministering in the temple in the court of Abiah. And when the angel appeared and said a son should be born, it was incredible. And he was smitten with doneness. And outside in the temple court they began to ask the question, what manner of child shall this be? That's what it said in the sixth, about verse 65, don't look, but chapter three, first book, I mean the first chapter in Luke, and verse 65, what manner of child shall this be? And before they called, God answered that request in the fifteenth verse. Fifty verses before, God, not man, God said of John the Baptist, he should be great in the sight of God. The trouble with America right now is it's full of great men. It's full of great preachers. It's full of great theologians. It's full of great men that fill the pulpit, don't they? Rather if they get much fatter they'll have to extend the pulpit. But it's full of great men, great theologians, great intellectuals, full of great men. You know why they're great? Because the rest of us are so small. They're great in their own judgment. They're great measured at the sight of others. So this is not the measurement of one preacher flattering another. This is God that measures John and says he's great in my sight. Rather the only thing in the world that matters is that you know somehow in your spirit, while you don't want to be great, that somehow God says he's put something great in your soul, something indestructible, something that's eternal while we obey God, something that's going to carry us through bloody fields, something that's going to help us split open the walls of indifference and modelism and godlessness in the age in which we're living. If I could pray one prayer and die in five minutes, I would pray that God Almighty would send to my generation a whole colony of battalion of John the Baptist. Give the world 10,000 John the Baptists and we'll bring the world back to God. A man sent from God, a man all by himself, a man that God says was great. Yes, John was great. Where did God make John the Baptist? He went to a Bible school. Brother, you can go if you want. The fields are exactly nothing. You'll be the only student there. You'll teach a little bit of Holy Ghost. Your textbook will be broken men and women. Your inspiration will be revelation in prayer. John was in the wilderness. There's a place to live, in the wilderness. You know, John went to God's Bible school, God's first Bible school. God went to God, John went to God's Bible school. He stayed there 20 years, that's my guess, that he was there 20 years and he preached six months. Now fellas go to Bible school six months and preach 20 years, you don't wonder they're dry. And John wandered about in the desert. I think God took him and said, they're the ruins of Sodom and Gomorrah, and I'm still a holy and a good God, and I'll send vengeance on the nation unless they repent. John didn't have anybody. He couldn't say, brother, come and pray with me. He was the only one. He was in the wilderness maybe 20 years. Yes, here is the most polished gentleman in the world. His name is M-O-S-E-S, Moses, and he lived 120 years. The first 40 years, he was in the universities of Egypt. The second 40 years, he learned a lot more. He lived with his mother-in-law. And the last 40 years, 40 years, yes, 80 years of age. That's a good age to start doing a job, isn't it? Two-thirds of his life gone. Here is the greatest intellectual the Church of God ever had, a man with a colossal intellect, a man with a wonderful pedigree, a man that was blameless and spotless, a man that took everything that everybody else wanted and trampled it underfoot, and he said, it's done. And when he was saved, he knew Hebrew, he knew Greek, he knew Latin, he was distinguished, he was the exceptional scholar in the school of Gamaliel. And he got saved one day on the Damascus Road. And brother, if he'd have been saved in our day, we'd have said a converted Jew, a converted Rabbi. If he'd been a cowboy saved in America tonight, you'd time to the radio the next day to tell everybody how to get revival. And he doesn't know how to be from a bird's foot hardly. He was a big man in the world, a big sinner, a big rotten corrupt man in Hollywood. He may have brought a dozen illegitimate children in the world. He may have made a hell of a hundred women's lives. He may have done a lot. But brother, he got saved last night. And so you transfer him from the height he was in Hollywood to the height he was in the Church of Christ, only a bit higher. What a day. There used to be a day when you drew men to Christ and to conferences because there were men anointed of the Holy Ghost. Now we draw them because you've got a broken-down cowboy from Hollywood and a girl that can play dumbbells or, no, not dumbbells, but dumbbell preachers. Um, she prays, uh, what? Oh, that's it, cowbells, that's right. She prays cowbells. And she prays, this is like heaven to me on a half-a-dozen dumbbells, half full of water, taps it out, and you're all supposed to clap and say, how wonderful, I got blessed. That thing doesn't want blessing, it wants blasting. A man sent from God, a man like Moses, and God says, yes, everybody bows and says you're a prince in Israel, get him to the desert. Wouldn't it be nice commanding an army one day, the next day looking after a lot of fluffy, woolly sheep? But I could look after sheep for four days. Four days, four months, four years, 40 years. I think I was wool gathering if I looked after sheep for 40 years. And when he'd be looking after sheep 40 years, you'd see his trouble and the trouble of Paul. See why, the trouble wasn't that they didn't know enough. The trouble with Paul was he knew too much. See? Now that's not the trouble with a modern preacher, they don't know enough. Why, blessed would have got a room in the church full of dead men's brains, virgins and everybody. They ought to know a lot, didn't they, all the books they've got. Sure they did. I remember Samuel Chadwick telling us at Cliff College, well when he was the best preacher, rated the best preacher in England, and he preached and people were converted. And he said, but I'm not filled with the Holy Ghost, I want to be filled with the Holy Ghost, fill me with the Holy Ghost, fill me with the Holy Ghost, fill me with the Holy Ghost, but it never got filled. You know that's what people say, Lord fill me, what they ought to say is Lord kill me. And he said to the Lord, why don't you fill me? The Lord said, you've got a bundle of, a bundle of sermons. Exegetical, oh yes, homiletical perfection, exegetical exactitude, historically correct, everything in order. This man was a wonderful brain and he got his sermons all streamlined. And he said, but Lord, I want souls like that. Yes, the Lord said, it's not your sermons, it's the fact you're proud of them. You want to be filled with the Holy Ghost? He said, more than anything in the world. All right, the Lord said, you put all those sermons in the fire grate and put a match to them, set fire to them. Oh, he just got his little lovely darling sermons and he took them to the fireplace there and got a mat and then he, he lit them. I can see him sitting there on his chair and just stroking his nose. He said, brother, brethren, they did burn. They were so dry. Amen. Brothers, you've got yours in the fire, you better not put them all in at once and blow the house up. Oh, yours are dry, dry. There's not enough water in heaven to warm those, to get those dry bones of your sermons going, you better burn them. John was in the wilderness, in the wilderness maybe 20 years, learning what God thought about man, learning what God thought about sin. And you think all you have to do is come to a conference. You know, it's wonderful what you can hear when you keep your ears open, isn't it? And today I was walking and in the next room, those, those walls are awfully thin up there, and there were two boys discussing the preachers. I really enjoyed them, now I, I won't tell you all they were saying. You better ask them to put it in the report. And one of them said, you know, yes, they're this, they're that, but he said, I'll tell you what, I'll tell you what, you know why fellows like to come here to a crowd like this? I'll tell you why they like to come, he said. He said, they like to come because there's such a good prayer backing and it's easy to preach. Now that may be partly true, only partly. Brother, what I know about preaching these days, if you don't take your praying unction with you, you don't get any move on. You can't step in the pulpit and preach about the Holy Ghost. No, sir, you must do what John did. He was in the world in those 20 years and preached six months. But brother, if John the Baptist preached in America, he wouldn't last six weeks. If John the Baptist preached in England, he wouldn't last six days. God wanted to wake a sordid nation. He wanted to disturb it out of the sleep of death. It had religion, but it was damned. It had God on its lips, but not in its heart. And God looked all over the nation, couldn't find a man, so he said, I'll make one. And he gave a woman past age of child. And from the very moment he was born, he was separated. My wonderful mother, the very first day I was born, laid me on the bed and put her hands on me and said, Lord, either make this boy evangelist or don't even let him live. I thank God for a mother like that. A man sent from God. Yes, sir, I agree as the preacher said last night, and again was it this afternoon, that what we need in Holiness work these days, where we have so many phrases and terms, they don't mean anything, they're just a big drum. You know what I think of John the Baptist? Well, I think John the Baptist was the man of sorrows till the man of sorrows came. John carried the sin of the nation. God wanted to turn a nation upside down. Who better than John the Baptist, with a face like a judgment morning, with a voice like a hurricane. John didn't have a heart, did you know that? John didn't have a heart, he just had a volcano inside of him. Ah, yes, on the day of Pentecost, there were two million people in Jerusalem. There were 120 people in the upper room. And 380 that ought to have been there, but they were fishing up in Galilee somewhere, they never got in on the blessing. That's right. But there were 120 in the upper room. There was only one with John. The 120 had an audience. When they came out of the upper room, they fell on top of the crowd and began to preach that John was in the wilderness. That's a place to preach, isn't it? Nobody lived in the wilderness. Oh God, why put me in the wilderness? It isn't fair, it isn't reasonable, but I read that they came from Judea and Samaria and all the nation began to fall down on top of John, do you know why? Don't you think that man Anderson has all the smart answers, he doesn't. I've got one or two. Do you know why John got the crowd in the desert? You never thought of this, I thought of this. You can think of it, you're too dumb. Needed an Englishman to think, do you know what he was, he was showing a film of the crossing of the Red Sea. Don't you think he was? They've just got some new religious movies out and he said, say, I want to show you the hanging gardens of Babylon and the, we've just put a show on at one of the Bible schools and filmed it and it's marvellous. We're going to show you how the fingers wrote upon the wall and a man's knees shaking together and a thousand chariots coming down the road and then a thousand beggars entering a thousand hearts and blood mixing up with the wine. It's the most dramatic film. Brother, this is going to do a great deal of work for us. Why brother, we're so bankrupt spiritually now that the other day in a newspaper, a religious newspaper, an evangelist is advertising, I'll come to your church for 14 nights, I'll show you 14 different films and we'll have speakers at the altar every night. You don't need the Holy Ghost, only films. Brother, there'll be some filmy Christians about too. Oh, the church has except the crowds. Yeah, that's all, that's all that matters, the crowds. God help us. Oh no, John wasn't showing any films. No films. A man away out on the Pacific Coast said, Reginald, I enjoyed your preaching the other night. I must have been off form, but anyhow I enjoyed it. He said, I want to give you a bit of advice. Brother, I've had enough advice to be infallible, but I'm not. But I listened and I said, all right, come on, give me the advice. He said, you want to stop preaching for a bit. All right, I wondered what was coming. He said, stop preaching for a bit, get along by yourself, and don't get up until God gives you one of the gifts of the Spirit. Oh, I said, yes, I see. He said, you wait on God till he gives you the gift of healing. And then he said, brother, I want to tell you this, I prophesy, if you get the gift of healing and you maintain your prayer life and keep preaching like you do, you'll need to 15 to 20,000 feet of sand and you'll fill it anywhere in America. If only you'll get the gift of healing and wait on God, you'll see something happen. I said, brother, will you listen to me a minute? I've listened to you. He said, yes, I'll listen. I said, well, listen here. I want to tell you something. I want to tell you about a man, a man, a wonderful man, a man that emptied villages and cities and everybody came to see him and everybody listened to him and hundreds and thousands of people were converted. And I don't read that people run after him saying, John, have mercy on my son. He's a lunatic. John, touch my poor blind mother's eyes. I brought my grandfather. He's paralytic. I read in the Word of God this. John never raised, John never healed a sick man. John never raised a dead man. No, sir. John did something infinitely more than raise a dead man. He raised a dead nation. People didn't come to see miracles. They came to say, why, why, why, why has this man come along? Who is he? Yes, sir. On the following Sunday, nobody went to the synagogue. They all went past. They went down into Jordan Valley. They saw a man, a man, not an angel, a man, a man that God has made. Oh, brother, if we could have some John the Baptist. We talk about reaching the masses for God. We don't want to reach the masses for God. What we need is not a preacher. We need God to send us a prophet to preach to the preachers. That's what we want. Ah, yes, sir. Bible schools can make preachers, but only God can make prophets. The preacher said I was reading the other day. One of the great books I have in my library. Just to impress you that he's got a big library, you know. I was reading. That's what the preacher said. The prophet never says that. He doesn't have time to read much. The prophet says the word of the Lord came unto me, saying. I heard the voice of the Lord saying. The burden of the Lord is upon me. Ah, brother. The devil doesn't worry about so much preaching these days. Brother, he can afford to look at it and say. It didn't do much in the last 20 years. And it's not likely to do much in the next. The way they're going. It isn't preachers the devil's worried about. It's prophets. And John Caton. A spirit filled. A spirit anointed man. Not so much theology. Sideways a bit, you know. This man wandered in the desert 20 years after he was filled with the Holy Ghost. But he did. Because he was filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother's womb. And then he was in the desert. Brother. I say this man bore the sin of the nation. This man felt about sin as God felt about it. This man saw sin as God saw it. This man trembled. And he wept. And he groaned. And I believe that when you read. When God opens his book of the judgment. Oh when I see John the Baptist there. John. What a man. The only evangelist I ever know that never took a love offering. Brother I should have put that in this afternoon. Let me get to the judgment bar. Some of these big preachers have to account for a love offering. Oh. Yes sir. Hit it. I was in a town not long ago. A preacher had been there. This wasn't his offering. They said what are your expenses. He said two thousand four hundred dollars for two weeks. That money. That was his expense. Not his love offering. I told him he was one of the greatest men in America. And he said Raymond you know I sit on that committee don't you. He said you know the other week we had a man came in. A distinguished American preacher. That gathers money from all over America. And he said gentlemen. I know you're needing money. And I have well. I have maybe twenty five thousand dollars. I can give your missionary society fifteen thousand dollars. What's it worth to you. See what he meant. I know fifteen thousand dollars I'll give you. But you give me a nice tip. A back hander of say three to five thousand dollars. Isn't that nice. I tell you an evangelist that runs five Cadillacs. A poor dumb preacher the other day in Pennsylvania said. I've only been preaching for years. He said when I came. I only had one suit. And now he said the Lord's been good to me. You know I have fifty one suits. There's some conviction around. But Anderson says it's not him. I guess for the French there. He's a bit older than me. I guess he doesn't have about fifty two suits anyhow. All the time he's been preaching. Isn't that wonderful. Fifty one suits for an evangelist. This is suits he wants. They ought to shoot him. That's what he wants. What are we coming to. I wrote an article some while ago. And I got blistered for it. But brother I'll write one ten times as hard. If the Lord inspires me. Some of the boys hit back. Because I said they go around the world. On love offerings. And they do. Some old widow says I feel like to send you five dollars. And those guys come to my country. And swank around the country. This generation is cursed. This generation is cursed. So help me God as I meet him at the judgment bar. But in my judgment one of the curses of this generation is. That this generation is smitten with traveling preachers. And it isn't traveling preachers who want it. Traveling preachers. This man brought a nation to birth. God can trust him with it. Everybody went past the synagogue. And went down to see a man sent from God. John was a strange man. A very strange man. He had fifty one suits. As a matter of fact he had three hundred and sixty five suits. You know why. He had a suit for every day. The same one. It was a wonderful suit. He found an old dead part of his body. And God got this sun scorched fire baptized man. With a leather girdle about his loins. And now it comes to all the preachers. Even holiness preachers now. It's stylish. They all wear a beautiful black suit. Backwards wear. You don't know whether they are preachers or undertakers. At the front they wear the collars backwards wear. You know. This man. Well I think that's honest most of them are walking backwards wear. So they may as well wear them that way. Well listen John the Baptist. Was strange in his dress. He didn't have to press his trousers even. He got up in the morning. Full of the Holy Ghost. And said I don't want to live. You see John the Baptist had a time limit ministry. But brother let me tell you. You've got a time limit ministry. Every preacher here tonight has a time limit ministry. I agree with brother Frank. The coming of Jesus is nearer than we know. And the answer to this salvation of America. Might be in this very meeting tonight. Don't you go away sir. I was in a wonderful meeting. Listen. God may be going to lay something on you tonight. You'll never escape to the judgment bar. John was strange in his dress. He was strange in his dress. Brother he didn't really need to get up off his knees. From the night of prayer and get a milkshake. No sir. He didn't need a bit of something to fortify his inner man. Oh no. John I read. You see that he what. He ate locusts. They're big flies. And he caught them and pulled the wings off. And put them on the rock. And turned them over. And then he got a bit of bread and put them between. Made his own hamburgers and enjoyed them. And then he talked in a hall. He got some honey out of it. Honey in the rock brother. Strange in his dress. Strange in his diet. Strange in his doctrine. Oh those big fat belly priests. All came waddling down. To the edge of the Jordan. See. I could have had one or two of you fat fellows. To do that for me. It would have looked better. I was in Louisville preaching there last year. And a woman couldn't get through the altar. I said what's wrong with you. She said I have a hatred against the preachers. I said what. She said they're all so fat. I said what do you mean they're all so fat. She said prophets can't be fat. Now that may be true or it may not. But listen. John the Baptist was strange in his dress. And strange in his diet. And strange in his doctrine. And when nobody went to church. They wanted to know why they were having revival down in the valley. He didn't have any boys with golden trumpets. He didn't have anybody doing a theological juggling act. He was a man. He was a man with a drive like a hammer. And they came down. And very pompously said. And if we may ask the question. Seeing we're the hierarchy of the church. And God has committed the destiny. The spiritual destiny of this great nation. Into our hands. Where did you get your license to preach. Who are thou? How high thou dost aspire. If God confessed John the Baptist. He thought he was nobody. He. He. He. Must increase. And I must decrease. Who are thou? Oh brother. I think this is one of the best. There are some wonderful jokes in the bible. If you ever find them. Here's a wonderful joke. They said John who are thou? And he said I'm a voice. Most preachers are only echoes. That's. Oh they said a voice. A voice. Voice. It means authority. It means power. It means intelligence. I'm a voice. Tonight America doesn't want an evangelist. He wants a voice. England doesn't need doctrine. It needs a voice. And bless Graham a thousand times. I preached in the same program as a boy. And like him immensely. But let me say in all due respect. That while Graham has a message maybe for the sinner. He's no message for the church. You can holler down every radio. Every amplifier. Every microphone in America. About corruption in the white house. And corruption in the taverns. And immorality. And dog peddling and every other damnable thing in the world. That won't get you into trouble. That's preaching. But listen the prophet doesn't do that. He doesn't start fooling around with bits of things like that. What the prophet gets into trouble for. You know this man really lost his head in religion. He was only six months around. And they cut his head off. They put him in prison. Tried to stuff his mouth. And then he shouted. Cut his mouth off. They cut his head off. I'll tell you when he got into trouble. I'll tell you when they took Billy Graham off. 80% of the radios in America. The first time he blasted the church of Rome. You get into trouble when you start any false religion. Corrupt religion. Nothing but taking men to hell under the guise of a crucifix. You don't get into trouble for saying there's corruption here. The politicians want you to do that. They want the church to clean the mess up if they can. It's when you don't look at the level of the stars and stripes and patricism. You see it from the elevation of God. And you see a nation full of iniquity and corruption. It's body is full of wounds and purifying thorns. And preaching won't do it. It needs a prophet. And John came. Strange in his dress. Strange in his diet. Strange in his doctrine. Do you know why? It says in that third chapter John began to preach and to say repent. It says in the fourth chapter Jesus began to preach and to say repent. It says in Acts chapter 2 that they said what shall we do? Don't get alarmed. Don't get alarmed. Matthew and John and the other boys are coming round with the decision cards. We want you to fill them all in and we'll collect them up and have a real good time. It doesn't. I have to read the authorised version. That's the pulverised version. Here it is. The authorised version. John began to preach and to say repent, repent, repent, repent. Brother, I tell you I very much doubt, I don't want to be unkind to preachers but I wonder if God have any prophets around these days in the truest sense of that word. All prophets are not nice to look at. People should listen to John the Baptist. Brother, it made no difference if he was harried on his throne with another man's wife or a big fat-bellied priest. He murdered them. He blessed their souls. He lived in the fire and so he could have them dismiss fire on them. Fire, fire. Oh sir, sir, said Maxine Dear Maxine has burned his life out at 29. A holy man, a holy man is a fearful weapon in the hands of a holy God. John didn't preach his own thought, he preached God's thought. John didn't preach homiletically, he delivered his soul. Repent, repent, repent. My brother, these days young people come to the altar, they don't know why they're coming. When they leave it they don't know what they've got so they don't know when they've lost it. The evangelist preaches 30 minutes and makes an altar call for 45 and you have to pull it, it's like pulling teeth out and get people at the altar that listen when there's revival that's what the preacher does but when there's a prophet around, people get mad and terrified and they say, men and brethren, what shall we do? Can I read of John the Baptist? It says in the 10th verse that people said, what shall we do? The Republicans said, what shall we do? And in the 14th verse the soldiers likewise demanded, what shall we do? Brother, when conviction starts moving around, when God cuts men's hearts open, when God lifts the lid off your memory and shows you your sin, oh, something happens, men smart, men get terrified, men tremble. When we get weeping preachers we'll get weeping penitents. When it burns in us it will burn in them. You say, I wonder if people can sit under my preaching. I don't. What do you get your sermons so easy that they glide over the people easy? They don't move you so they'll never move them. The man that isn't moved will never move. The man that isn't moved isn't moving. John said repent. I saw a writer of a great American preacher recently and the writer said, you know, this man is no hellfire preacher. He isn't there hanging you over the piss. He isn't there trying to bring a guilt complex on you as a psychologist says. No, he's a nice man. He just says, friend, you're very lonely. Why don't you take Jesus as a friend in your loneliness? He says, lady, you've got a burden. Why don't you let Jesus carry the heaviest end of the burden? And so he gets Jesus over the people like that. Well, brother, I never will as long as I live. Why did Jesus come? He came into the world to save sinners. Oh, you say, Jesus, if you get saved and you're a bad man, Jesus will make you good. Listen, the first thing Jesus came to do was not make bad men good. A bad man can make himself good. I've seen many a man change his life. I've seen a man become a wonderful man in the hog by sheer willpower. You might break your will and maybe never sin from now till you die, supposing you didn't. The trouble is, what are you going with the sins from the moment you made that decision to the day you started sinning? No, sir, Jesus did not come to make bad men good in the first place. He came to make dead men live. Now, I don't care whether it's Einstein or who in the world it is, I want to tell you this, however lovely a man may be, he may be charitable, he may give money to cancer funds, he may shell out his millions to this, it makes no difference if in the pit of his heart that man has not repented, if he's not turned his back on sin and his face towards God and renounced the world and the flesh and devil and hell, all the mercy he gives away. No. Jesus didn't come to make bad men good. He came to make dead men live. And then they become good. You mustn't be too hard these days. There are lots of good religions, are there? No, I don't know. We just present Jesus to you. There are twelve gates into the city. Oh, I see. Well, if there are twelve gates in, there's only one password, and that's the blood anyhow. I don't preach Jesus Christ as a saviour from sin. Not my business. I preach Jesus as THE saviour from sin. Oh, it's bigotry, it's bigotry. You mean there are more than a thousand religions in the world and you want every one of them except the gospel? Yes, sir, yes, yes. They're all a fake. They lead men to hell. Neither is there salvation in any other. In any other. If there was another way, God would never have given Jesus. If there was another way. There is no other way. Another thing unique about our religion is this, my friends. It's the only religion in the world that I know of, though I'm not the best informed man, but it's the only religion in the world that I know of where a man's God comes and lives inside of him. Every little man worships a big shrine. Every man goes to a holy place. He goes here, he goes there, that, that, that. The miracle of miracles. The miracle of miracles. It seems bigger than the incarnation. The God can come down into flesh. Our God contracted to a span, incomprehensibly made man. He was born in a stable. I'll tell you something more wonderful than that. He was born in the stable of my heart. People say, why don't you become a Christian? Brother, you can't become a Christian. You can't become a Christian. No, sir, you can't become a Christian. The only thing you can do is lift the latch, if you will, and say, I'm willing to God, God make me a Christian. The Holy Ghost makes Christians. Oh, I wish I had enough time. I'm going to leave this here. But listen, I'd like to see some men like John the Baptist. Ha, ha. Most of us that may think we're hot will be cold at the sight of John. Oh, there was a preacher in New England, you remember. He had a crowd like this every Sunday. The place was packed with plenty of money. That wasn't a worry, that wasn't a worry. There was no breathing, breathing, breathing of the Holy Ghost. And I read Jonathan Edwards went to pray one Wednesday, and he prayed all day Thursday and all day Friday and all day Saturday. And Saturday he not only prayed, but he prayed and fasted. And he stayed out of bed all Saturday night until his eyes were swollen and the congregation was packed. And there in the morning he began to preach that amazing sermon on sinners in the hand of an angry God. And before he preached ten minutes, men were falling off their feet and they were down in the aisle and they were holding to the pillars so they wouldn't fall into hell. And so he said, ladies and gentlemen, would you be quiet just a minute? I'm awfully sorry. I didn't mean to disturb you like this. I mean, it's really rude of a preacher to get you all full of panic. Get up there and sit on your feet and now try and start again and make it more easy. No, once he got them down, that's where he wanted them anyhow. And he led them into Germany. He cut their hearts open and he brought conviction on them and condemnation on them and he opened their memories and sin that was in them gushed over them until they said, oh, please, please have mercy upon us, have mercy upon us. He had no mercy for them. It was only God's mercy they needed. You don't tell me the next day they were on the streets saying, will you sign your name in the back of my Bible. You haven't had a photograph of yourself. Schabnerola walked the streets of Florence in Italy and the nation was corrupt and rotten and he got a burden from God and that monk had an experience of regeneration and he went in the street in the anointing of God till when men saw him coming down the street they ran round the block, they didn't look at him. His long face. He'd been there in the valley of the shadow of death. He'd had the voice of God and he came with the voice of God and he turned the heart of that nation to God. If you go to Florence in Italy you'll see a wonderful monument to him now. The Roman Catholics were smart. They caught up with it and so they said, we'll make a shrine of it. But remember the very people that built his shrine were the people that tied him to the stake and set fire to him and they said, if you don't repent of your sin we'll cut you off. We'll cut you off from the church and the burning saint of God said, cut me off from the church if you like what shall separate me from the love of God shall tribulation or distress or famine or peril or nakedness assured by God. That's victory. Say, would you preach like that if you thought they were going to burn you next week? That's a preaching that turns nations upside down. The only thing you can do with John the Baptist is get rid of him. Rather there's not been one like him for 400 years. Let's hope there'll never be another. Ah, but there was going to be more than one God, he was just a model. God was going to produce 120 in the upper room in a little time. And John came preaching. Last year when I was on the Pacific Coast I got invited to a Baptist conference so I was honest, I said I brought a Baptist sermon to you. I didn't preach anything else it was a play for safety you see sometimes you have to change your color. So I went into a Baptist crowd a great big rich crowd in a wealthy church out on the Pacific Coast and I said, well I must play for safety in case you don't ask me back. I'm going to preach a Baptist sermon. They all smiled and nudged each other and thought, now this boy's compromising we've got him where we want him. I said I'll preach you the sermon of the first Baptist that ever lived. I baptize you with water he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost. What did I tell you? You should have seen the chairman. You should have seen the people nudging each other. What's coming? Oh one brother said yes I was converted and then I was baptized. I believe that why listen you don't think you can start thinking God's thoughts before him do you? Is God going to drown him with enough water in the world? He can swim but he can't stand the fire. It burns him up. There are two Baptists John baptizes and Jesus baptizes. There are two elements water and fire. There are two recipients the body and the spirit. The water can't get inside the fire's no good on the outside. Jesus gives one job John does the other. He says I can't do that when he when he when he has come. He's coming. Jesus says I'm ascending if I don't go up he can't come down. And he went up and the spirit came down and he says they were all half filled with the Holy Ghost. That must be this new version this new American version. No sir it doesn't say that it says they were all filled all of them to all their capacity were filled with the Holy Ghost. John says when he comes he's baptized with the Holy Ghost and fire listen I'm going quick now fire fire fire we don't like the fire now people talk about the Holy Ghost but not the fire have you baptized him? Oh I I have nothing against the Pentecostals I preach there when I get the chance I preach in Vatican if I got the chance a bald headed old rascal would throw me out I suppose after the first time but I preach in Vatican if I got the chance I preach in hell if I got the chance Aye Aye the fire what is the symbol of the church of Jesus a cross? No the cross is cursed the cross is a Roman symbol the cross is a figure of death you may put it on a tombstone you may put it over a curse most of them are dead anyhow they need it I was preaching last year with Van Tavner and he said some of you know his drawl his southern drawl I didn't even try I never did I'm out of England but with his deep southern drawl he said you know folks ain't that a clever and wonderful because they've got a deep refrigerator one of those deep freeze things well brother he said we've had them for years at street corners with steeples on brother listen the only answer to the cross is fire it isn't a cross it isn't a cross I don't read the Lord your God is one cross I don't read our God is a consuming cross I read our God is a consuming fire you go to Genesis chapter 3 it's got fire a flaming fire a sword the fire of condemnation you go to Exodus chapter 3 a fire a burning bush and Moses said I'd better go near here's a bush that's burning but it's not consumed and out of the middle of a burning bush he heard a voice brother if you have fire in your church you'll have the voice Genesis 3 the fire of separation Exodus chapter 3 the fire of consecration Leviticus chapter 3 the offering shall be burned with fire Numbers chapter 3 fire false fire I've been a dad in a bayou false fire Malachi chapter 3 the last one that preached before John came at the other side of the 400 years and he looks down that long corridor of 400 years and he tries to look down and he says and who shall abide the day of his coming who shall stand when he appears he's like a refiner's fire Matthew chapter 3 fire Luke chapter 3 fire 1 Corinthians chapter 3 fire Revelation chapter 3 fire brother you've no option about it the baptism of the Holy Ghost is not a luxury it's a necessity it's not an improvement it's an imperative God, God, not the preacher God says I will thou without a hot or cold so because I'm neither hot nor cold I'll spew the out of my mouth I challenge you and I don't care if you teach history church history what you teach but I tell you this tell me a man that's moved his generation for God that didn't have a second blessing tell me one Charles D. Finney say five hours after nobody said a word for him and he said I was baptized with the Holy Ghost and fire Dr. Hatch a wonderful preacher you sung that hymn that Dr. Hatch wrote with a great surge of desire in his soul after God and he sat down and wrote a hymn his spirit was reaching out he had a good church he was a soul winner there was no fire and so he wrote that hymn breathe on me breath of God fill me with life in you that I may love what thou wouldst love and do what thou wouldst do breathe on me breath of God till I am holy thine till all this earthly part of me glows with thy fire divine Methodism gave William Booth the booth and when Methodism put him down God took him out and he set the Salvation Army marching around the world with a banner and on the banner he said blood and fire and it's Glennon Rowe wrote a hymn that began the battle sermon Methodism of the Salvation Army love Christ the burning cleansing flame send the fire my blood bought gift today we claim send the fire look down and see this waiting house give us a promise holy ghost we want to live a pentecost send the fire to make our weak hearts strong and brave send the fire to live a dying world to save send the fire to burn up every trace of sin to bring the light and glory in the revolution now begins send the fire and watch me set kindle a flame of sacred love on the mean altar of my heart there let it for thy glory burn with an extinguishable blaze and trembling to its source return in constant prayer and fervent praise and to quote one more about three years ago away in India a very wonderful woman died Amy Wilson Carmichael thirty years ago she was sick the last three years she injured her spine she could hardly get out of bed but in the last three or four years she wrote some of the greatest hymns and one of the greatest hymns of this in the last verse she says give me a love a love that leads the way a faith which nothing can dismay a hope no disappointments tire a passion a passion that will burn like fire let me not stink to be a fraud make me thy pure flame of God that's consecration you like isn't it you take one big leap on the altar and say here I am Lord burn me up a burnt offering all of me the me the me that's touchy the me that's ambitious the me that wants to be listed with the ten great preachers I preached for a man that was hungry to get me to his church when I've been there a day or two he's so brave nearly making a mistake if you preach like this you'll never be listed with the six great evangelists of America I said brother I didn't even know I had to try oh flesh likes preeminence flesh likes to be up with the great preachers flesh likes to say the old men are going off and now he's one of the best young men we'll have and you feel happy yes I want to get in on that no sir not the man that's filled with the holy ghost he doesn't worry he doesn't have any worries John Wesley said I would no more worry than commit adultery you don't have to worry when God's got everything the lady said how did you live those two years when you were laid up in plaster from my toes to my chin just three years ago how did you live did you have a church to support no no she said did you have a board behind you I said no just a rock beneath me I want to tell you brother it'll stand all the weight you put on it a rock a rock oh brother we need a fire tonight you know Peter warmed himself at somebody else's fire till he got a fire of his own then he set everybody else on fire it was shivering and afraid and the girl said I've seen you before he said you're a liar I never did belong that man another girl said oh I say Peter I remember seeing you at Jesus once at a healing meeting he began to curse he was cold and shivering said can I come a bit near they said yes come in we thought you belonged that gang come in with us come in with us we didn't know you were backslidden come in with us come in with us oh you left the whole of this church why well just a disagreement no it wasn't a disagreement you got sour that's the trouble the spirit moved you grieved the holy ghost it wasn't you and the pastor that was a scapegoat it was you and God something went wrong and they said come into our church we're all like that no fire around here oh you don't want to go to one of those holiness churches you don't want to go to them they're fire conditioned come to our church it's air conditioned brother that's alright we know you're not one of the chosen people you're just one of the frozen people and you'll keep frozen if you stay with us there's not enough fire to melt you around here step in you'll be alright yeah we laugh at the others but we maybe better turn our eyes on ourselves as we finish this conference say what's the difference between us and the other folk in the world you can tell me why the church down the street is empty I don't want to know why it's yours I'm saying oh yes we've all kinds of things even in holiness churches listen brother I'll tell you what we've got we've got equipment equipment but not enduement we've got action but not unction we've got revival rattle we'll holler at the bench yes sir we've got rattle we've got rattle but not revival we've got commotion but not creation we've got magic but not dynamic yes we can give you all the answers about holiness we're dogmatic brother it must be this way you must be saved you must be sanctified oh usually in England they say I praise God I'm saved sanctified and satisfied brother you couldn't doubt it you couldn't doubt it satisfied to let the world perish satisfied satisfied to stay at home and say it's only the prayer meeting night brother if I know about the devil the only night you have any nerves is when the prayer meeting is really on fire nearly every time you go to the pulpit it has a glass of cold water they need a bucket of fire in most of them and then suddenly they need a man on fire the holy ghost is typified as a beautiful dove but not a dove on the day of Pentecost the holy ghost is typified as water but the holy ghost is consistent and water only finds its own level oil but he's not oil on the day of Pentecost he's not water on the day of Pentecost he's not a dove on the day of Pentecost I saw a little flower just moving in the wind and there was a fly sitting on it and he went up and down having a nice little joy ride I picked up the newspaper a few minutes afterwards and there on the newspaper it said a tornado had swept through Songso and I went to the city not long after and trees as thick as that block there that pillar were laid across and they cut the houses in two and the police wouldn't let it go that way the streets were blocked the tornado that was so gentle once it rocked a flower was tearing the houses and tearing the trees you can hold a fire on the end of the match they're dropping in one of those big forests away in Oregon the two most potent forces in nature are wind and fire wind, look what it does fire, look what it does the brother, when you get the wind and the fire when it's together water goes one way fire goes up and down and in and out and forwards and backwards there was a sound of a rushing rushing rushing mighty wind and after the wind the fire the god of fire the burning bush of fire the god that answered by fire let him be god he comes in there for almost fire and he sat upon each of them and he set them on fire and they went down and set the world on fire give me two or three minutes, listen the wonderful John Wesley came down from the University of Oxford at the age of 35 he became a preacher he preached in his father's church and John Wesley says he puts it on record himself, it's not my words Wesley says I preached two years I lived it very hard I preached for two years I not only failed to get anybody saved I failed to get anybody even on the front seats in my queue two years nobody came to church nobody got saved hell went on it's way heaven was needy, the blood was wasted the holy ghost was looking for somewhere to go and he couldn't and about a quarter to nine on the 24th of May 1738 John Wesley went into Aldersgate to hear a man and all the man did was read from Luther's preface of the epistle to the Galatians and he said about, about, about a quarter to nine I felt my heart strangely warm I want to suggest to you tonight that the angel that took a life called from off the altar and touched the mouth of Isaiah that that angel took a life called from off the altar and dropped it in the heart of John Wesley and the world's been warmer ever since that day John Wesley had the brain of a genius he had the tongue of an orator he had the fire of a zealot and if he'd given his genius to business he'd have died a multimillionaire if he'd given his brain to politics he would have died the prime minister of England John Wesley made electric things just to relieve his brain of a bit of pressure he learned languages just to keep his mind fresh ah he was a genius he led it all on one side and at a quarter to nine John Wesley was born of the spirit and a bit later he was filled with the spirit and a bit later he had a walk in the spirit and he preached in the spirit and he prayed in the spirit and he brought the spirit down and he changed the world instead of England needing that message the world needs it tonight instead of God getting Wesley he wants a hundred Wesleys why shouldn't Russia why shouldn't Russia have a John Wesley why shouldn't India have one why shouldn't Africa have one religion's done nothing practically now for years in America because the Holy Ghost isn't there when the Holy Ghost isn't there brother you need tin cans and cowboys and everybody else to fill in the meeting but when the Holy Ghost's there you don't need anybody but the Holy Ghost what does fire do, it burns doesn't it you want blessing but you don't want burning you want blessing but you don't want hurting you want blessing but you don't want to get on the altar good brother said last night you want blessing but you don't want to be broken up and God won't play your game you can talk about the Holy Ghost till the cows come up but brother you're 30 and you've been trying you're also a bit violent and your soul will swivel fire consumes I'm not minimizing regeneration it's a wonderful work but it isn't all that Jesus died to give us the purchase of thy death divine give me with all that's sanctified the hurricane the hurricane of love and the book says love is a fire love burns yes sir when you're going home tonight in a T model Ford or a Cadillac or a good brother here flies his own plane he's going home in his plane in the morning but brother that plane won't leave the ground unless you've got some fire in it he went down to the airport today to see if it was air worthy and he filled it up with gas but that's not the answer it needs fire to get it off the ground that diesel won't take you home down the track unless it's got fire in it it may have a diving car it may be made of beautiful shiny turbos it may have smart men in uniforms but when the man presses the button unless that generator's working you'll sit there on the railroad and never get any place that diesel needs a fire your autoplane needs a fire your T model Ford needs a fire your 55 Dewey needs a fire there's no motion without fire there's no moving without the fire of the Holy Ghost you can't pray, move move for the lost world as they were moved by the Holy Ghost you can't be moved without the Holy Ghost you can be moved emotionally but brother it won't last till you get home that's right you've got to be moved with a personality you've got to be indwelled with the Holy Ghost that's what you've got to be he's a spirit of burning he's a spirit of power he's a transforming power yes but he's a transforming power because he's a transforming personality makes all the difference when he comes in all the difference he will abide with you he doesn't come for three days on the Mount of Blessings he comes to abide take him back to that tough spot but abide in you take him back to the mitten field but abide in you oh yes the devil fears the fire it's only a church on fire that robs hell fire that's right the devil doesn't care how much water you have my Baptist brother I mean how many gifts you have Pentecostal brother I'm not asking that I preach in a Pentecostal church and everybody's spoken tongues in it and I preach my heart out and I didn't make an altar call I sat down the preacher stood up and said I don't know where we are and he's got gifts and he said I don't know what angels he's been preaching about if that's the Holy Ghost I have a gift of the Spirit but I don't have the Holy Ghost if the Holy Ghost makes you into the woods to pray if the Holy Ghost makes you weep if the Holy Ghost makes you sobbing I don't have the Holy Ghost he said I'll admit he said I preach to you Pentecostal folks and I have the gift of tongues and I interpret and I've got another gift I want to tell you tonight he said my heart is clean now that's what he said a preacher said goodbye to me on the streets of Leeds one day and I said where are you going he said I've left the hole in the crowd I said oh I'm sorry to hear that I've got something better I said you have I want it oh he said I was in a meeting the other night and I got the gift of satan I said that's very good but is it better than the holiness oh I think it is it was more excitement than joy and everything else alright he went to his church I went to Cliff College the first time I was called he sent me a letter and he said lad will you come to my church I was half tempted to say no what can I tell your folks they know everything will you come to my church I wanted to preach a real radical holiness message the man that had got more than me I didn't say he hadn't I went to his church I preached the message about the holy ghost indwelling the heart cleansing the heart from sin coming to enthuse purging from carnality filling you with God I said anybody want that blessing to his amazement his wife got up and walked to the altar she said I don't have that I have tongues but I don't have that before she could get there an old man with a beard came down the aisle and came and sat he had a long white beard and he got his hands up and he said Lord I've had the gifts of tongues many years and the gifts of poverty and the gifts of something else but oh I've got a devilish temper and I'm very touchy and I'm jealous and I'm proud and I'm this I didn't tell him to contradict his theology brother if you let your head be silent and let your heart talk you'll find yourself in the same place ah yes the holy ghost purges gets out the dross gets out the impurity gets out the self gets out the ambition gets out all the carnality and then God comes in but something more than that we heard that wonderful message last night I agree and amen every word of it yes as a preparation we don't have to wait for the holy ghost he has to wait you can't just come here and just kiss the floor I take it by faith amen because you won't get it brothers God's got to do some crucifying got to get a knife in it'll take him a while to get the chariot there to take you to your own funeral anyhow you may have to dig your own grave and read the burial service over yourself then jump in the grave so I don't care if I never preach again and nobody ever sees me for me God will see me within himself I've been around conferences now a long while I'm getting old but I'm lucky to not I want to tell you this that I've never been to a conference in England and America you may have a sermon on it I haven't heard it I've never been in a conference where anybody preached on out of him shall flow rivers of living water we're always on the retrieving end brother the first reason you need the holy ghost isn't even to purge you amen the first reason you need the holy ghost isn't even to make you a good mystery yes the first need you have of the holy ghost is not to make you an evangelist the first reason why you should be filled with the holy ghost is because God said you have to be filled with the holy ghost and until you get filled with the holy ghost you'll be disconvenient and you'll be a half backslidden anyhow the holy ghost isn't for backsliders I read they ran in the temple praising God backsliders don't praise God they were full of joy they'd seen him going up in the sky let me give you one story I was preaching in Dundee where Billy Graham was preaching the other day big hall there and I went up with a Nazarene preacher and as we got off the train he said Len I don't feel like preaching this afternoon and I said well we'll shake hands I don't either and as we approached the Terrafield Mission there was a great big sign and it said on that sign here so and so and so and I said there's your name up you have to keep faith with the public and we got in the meeting he said Len I'm going to leave the meeting you've got to preach I'm as dry as dry and I said well brother why pass it on me I didn't even know about the meeting you had weeks to prepare well he said I'll tell the people I brought an Englishman to preach well I don't know what I'll say and so he put me in the jam I opened my Bible and I tried to preach anyhow and I preached about fire and about purity and about purging and about endowments and other things that we usually preach about and I said now we've got to finish this meeting we've got to catch a train and get back to Perth before we go I said in this audience how many say all this afternoon above everything else in the world I want to know my heart is pure and the dynamic the dunamis not a feeling not a blessing the blesser not an atmosphere not something God just injects in my heart but a blessed living holy ghost comes to abide in me do you want the holy ghost do you want to be purged do you want to be endowed do you want to be burned up do you want to be effective for God if you do raise your hand and about all of you raise your hand I said let me ask only once again will you bow your heads they bowed their heads I said will you raise your hand again and I counted them there were 12 I said who will be the 13 a little red haired girl at the back raised her hand and I said that's wonderful I said I can't even stay to pray but as we sing spirit of the living God maybe you'll come out to the altar go in those rooms there somebody will pray with you I watched the people come out I watched that girl come down the aisle there little girl about this height with red flaming hair I said goodbye got on the train went to all lots of hundreds of places just a few years ago I went to the big missionary conference in Manchester it was a big platform like this and I looked at the state of missionaries people had written life stories books about them they'd written books themselves and at the end there was a little woman she was so small her legs didn't even reach the floor and she kept stringing them all the time the preacher was having a hard time I thought she was wanting to kick him but anyhow she kept the legs going and then her hands kept going and then she kind of said I wish I could get to that desk for five minutes and at the end the chairman said this has been a heavy meeting and it's a warm afternoon and it's a crowded building and we need more atmosphere and maybe a lot in the windows and before we go I want Lizzie Smith to give you a five minute testimony and you'd have thought he'd pressed a button and she jumped off it she just jumped off the chair hit the floor and was here at the desk and in five minutes rudder the atmosphere was changed it was living the meeting was instinctive God the holy ghost was there now listen to the little woman she couldn't have looked over this thing hardly she was so small and she looked over the desk and she said oh I want to tell you something that God did for me she said for years I lived in Dundee it was never any good when I went to mystery meetings the devil said listen don't you lay everything on the altar you're no good to God you don't have any brain God can't do anything with you anybody else in the meeting but not you why are you finished school in the fifth grade you can't even speak good English you can't even write a good letter what could God do with you and then she startled me I jumped next she said I remember Brother O'Donnell saying that afternoon and I said oh the woman can't when did I preach in Dundee oh yes one Saturday afternoon and she said he finished the meeting by saying listen it's not what you've got it's what God can give you once he's cleansed you he can trust you with it then that's why he trusted John the Baptist