In this sermon, the preacher discusses the importance of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers. He emphasizes that it is not a decision, but a mental flip that occurs when the Spirit of God comes upon someone. The preacher also highlights the role of God in forgiving us, Jesus Christ in redeeming us, and the Holy Spirit in regenerating us. He mentions a story about a man named Simeon who prayed for revival for over 60 years and was told he would not die until revival came. The preacher concludes by expressing his belief that a rebirth is coming for the church and that God will re-energize and give a new vision and authority to believers.

Leonard Ravenhill. Our Father we thank you tonight that we do not have to descend into the depths to bring thee up or ascend into the heights to bring thee down. We thank you that we found the way through the blood past the veil to the holy of holies with God. Lord we thank thee that you said if we draw nigh to God he'll draw nigh to us. Lord we turn our backs for this little time on this vain vanishing world in which we live. This world which so loves darkness rather than light that appreciates even the work of sin to the work of God. Lord we ask you to come yourself. Malachi says and who shall abide the day of his coming? The Lord whom ye seek and Lord tonight for myself and for this people I do not seek blessing, do not seek healing, do not seek joy but seek God himself. We would say as Wesley said less than thyself oh do not give. Lord make this a terrible night for the devil. Make it a glorious night for our risen Lord. Make it a night when fetters will be broken. A night when heart shall be cleansed. A night when people shall get spiritual vision that will never go dim. A night when people will put on the whole armor of God and go to fight the good fight of faith. Lord we thank you for the blood of Jesus Christ tonight. We want to be numbered with a number who overcome him the devil by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony. Lord outside there's a perishing world and according to your word it's doomed and damned and lost. Lord we pray that this meeting shall scatter to the very ends of the earth. Lord we pray that young men and women shall die to every human ambition and become alive in Jesus Christ tonight. Lord again we asked do the miraculous. Do what organizing cannot do. Do what preaching cannot do. Do not what logic cannot do. Do what human zeal cannot do. Do not do what religion cannot do. Come by the power the power of the risen son of God. Lord get a hundred percent victory out of this meeting. A hundred percent defeat for the devil. Let bondage to self die tonight. Let bondage to this world die. Let all the flowers of the world perish. Let them wither tonight. Lord I pray send the plague on the garden of the devil as it were. He puts his flowers out so fascinating but tonight Lord again we're jealous for your glory. We know there's a war going on in the Middle East but Lord there can be a bigger war in this place tonight. But Lord we pray the devil will lose in every life that anybody fettered by the devil and sin will be liberated. Christ will be exalted. Let thy will become illuminated as never before. We would glorify thee in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you. Be seated. Okay I have a text tonight in the second letter of Peter in chapter 1 and verse 20. No second Peter chapter 1 and verse 21. For prophecy came not in old time by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. A few years ago I did a study on the Holy Spirit and to do some research I went to a very old edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica. I didn't have the American edition and as I looked in there I discovered there were just three pages out of thousands of pages there were three pages on the Holy Spirit and 31 pages on the papacy. It's amazing how little attention we really give to the Holy Spirit of God. There's a creed some of you know called the Apostles Creed. I don't think the apostles ever heard about it but you remember it begins, I believe in God the Father Almighty what maker of heaven and earth and in Jesus Christ is only Son our Lord who was conceived by the Holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary suffered under Pontius Pilate. In the average church meeting when you go the Holy Spirit is the last person mentioned in the last moment of the meeting. We dismiss the meeting in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Ghost and that's the end. Most of you don't know anything about him till you go to church next time but there is such a thing as living a spirit filled life. Prophecy came not at any time by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. It's not possible for me to transmit to you what those words meant to me when I first heard them in the early hours of the morning a few months ago. Just those very simple words moved by the Holy Ghost. If a man is moved by the Holy Ghost he's never the same again. The Holy Ghost does everything majestic. He made this wonderful book with all its various contributors. There's no contradiction in it. Many of the men never knew each other, never saw each other and ate the work. It's the most majestic book in the world. A man that's educated and doesn't know the Bible isn't educated. A man that knows the Bible and isn't educated is educated because again he knows the word of the living God. Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Immediately I thought about the Holy Spirit's working in creation. I was thinking of the hymn that we used to sing in England very often. John Wesley died in 1791. I was in a meeting some years ago and I kept referring over and over and over again to my good friend Dr. Tozer. After a meeting a lady came to me and said you actually knew Dr. Tozer personally? I said yes. I prayed with him, I talked with him, I ate with him and it was a very wonderful thing to know him. Well during the week I used my prerogative and I used quite a number of the hymns of Wesley which I like very much. The same lady came to me and said did you know Mr. Wesley personally? I said no, he died a couple of years before I was born. It's 1791. You know this wonderful little brochure that the distinguished president composed. I think John, you put this together John? You put this together? Now don't get embarrassed, just say yes. Thank you very much. I know he's very shy but anyhow. You know immediately I read this thing, I was ignited by it. Last year we had a marvelous conference. If you remember the theme was holiness unto the Lord. Do you know to this very week I hear people from all over the world who come and tell me that that was a life-changing experience. You know somehow we've got the idea that there's a famous book, let me see, I don't know when it was written in the 1500s, The Imitation of Christ. Do you remember that book? But that's totally wrong. You can't imitate Christ. Christianity is not the imitation of Christ. Christianity is the impartation of Christ. The glory of living in this world is the glory that Christ can live in us. As the apostle said, the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. But immediately I got this folder. I began to think of how many times I've preached and thought about the subject of fire. I was raised in England in case you don't know. And for the first 15 years of my life I went to a Methodist church. And we had a wonderful pastor most of the time. He was the most marvelous guy for drinking tea. Came to our home at least once a week or once twice a week. And he always came for tea. But I liked him. I loved him. You see on what he did in the weekdays, he was a pastor. On Sunday he was chairman of the board. Thank you. Well I was one of the board. But the fact was that while I was interested honestly for the first few years, I used to read my Methodist hymn book. I almost brought it tonight. I've carried it around the world wherever I've gone because I love the great hymns of Wesley. Particularly the ones related to fire. It seemed that the whole of that revival was surrounded by the emblem of fire. As I said last night, the first great revival, the greatest revival in English history was due to the Wesleys and it wasn't in buildings. As a matter of fact the Bishop of Gloucester locked his doors against John Wesley, Charles Wesley, and who was the other fellow? Whitfield. He would let them in the place even. How many of you remember the name of the bishop of that time? None of you. That's exactly what he deserves. After all he wouldn't let the greatest preacher in the world go in there. So I say I just sat back in my chair or in the pew and I over and over and over read again those amazing hymns of John Charles Wesley. And one of them he says, Come Jesus Lord with holy fire, Come in my quickened heart inspired, Cleansed in thy precious blood. Now to my soul I self-reveal, Thy mighty working let me feel since I am born of God. Me with a quenchless thirst inspire, A longing infinite desire, And fill my craving heart. Now listen to this. Here's a man with acres of culture. Here's a man who's one of the greatest men in the country and he cries to a God. He's already soaked in theology. He was in Oxford University. He was a don or a teacher there for some period. And yet he's conscious that while he has a measure of the grace of God, there's a great vacancy in his heart. And he says this awesome thing, Less than thyself O do not give, In might thyself within me live, Come all thou hast and art. Everybody that comes in my office and all kinds of people, all shapes and sizes and colors and tribes. I ask them all one thing. Do you know God? They usually hesitate. Sometimes I press it and say, does Christ live in you? In me? Well, if he doesn't, he's not a Christian. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. God doesn't patch us up. He remakes us. He gives a new heart, new spirit, a new life, a new outlook. Well, not only does he say that, Wesley wrote another hymn in which he says, Refining fire go through my heart, illuminate my soul, scatter thy life through every part and sanctify the whole. The same thing came to a man who was half Jew and half Gentile. He reminded me much of Keith Green. How many of you heard Keith Green? What a great guy he was, wasn't he? Someone asked me, did he used to come to your house? Never more than five times a day. I wouldn't care. Coming in the day, he came at two o'clock in the morning. I want to share something. Well, listen, I'll be here tomorrow. No, no, I've got to tell you now. He's a great big guy, six foot one, a map of gorgeous curls he had. He put his arms around me and almost killed me and said, I love you. It's a strange kind of love, isn't it? Guy comes and hugs me and I, all right, I believe you. I suppose you know he was half Jew and half Gentile. I used to tease him, he must be bored, he must be related to William Booth, founder of the army. But William Booth wrote one of the greatest battle songs that was ever written. Thou Christ of burning, cleansing flame, send the fire. Thy blood-bought gift today we claim, send the fire. Look down and see this waiting host. Give us the promised Holy Ghost. We want another 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. The fire of God so came that people crossed the Atlantic. One of the most distinguished scholars in America at that time, he was a senior orator in the university, was a young man by the name of Brangle. And Brangle crossed the Atlantic Ocean and signed up with the Salvation Army when he was despised and rejected. William Booth looks at him and he said, who are you? He said, well, I'm Dr. Kemble all the way from America. Now, Bickle stopped talking up there to you. Good to see you. Thank you for coming. I guess you came after the offering, did you? Just like you. But William Booth, I'll tell you one thing, dear friend, among others, you never have to advertise a fire. If you have a fire, you don't need the circus act in front of it to attract people to the fire. Fire is the most attractive thing in the world. The God I serve is a consuming fire. You'll never see that as a bumper sticker. You'll say God loves you, but you never see a bumper sticker, do you? Our God is a consuming fire, but he is. And what did the prophet say? The Lord whom ye seek. I'm not looking for God in Anaheim. Is it Anaheim? We're still here? Well, it's still the wilderness of America anyhow. I'm not looking for blessing this week. I'm not looking for anointing this week. I'm not looking for joy this week. I'm looking for God to come. If God doesn't come to America, we're sunk. But I'll tell you what, there's not a thousand sudden Hussain's can keep God away from the place. We're not afraid of the enemy. Because greater is he that is in us if we're born of the Spirit of God. If the Spirit of God resides in us, if the wisdom of God is with us, greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world. So again, Booth gets his mighty army going. You talk about signs and wonders, they really had them. You know, one of the advantages of being old, well, I'm not really old, but I'm getting older. And I look back on some of the experiences, they almost said adventures. And one afternoon in the hills of Wales, I talked with a man who was the right-hand man for William Booth. Let me show you how attractive a man on fire really is. You've got John the Baptist in the wilderness. He doesn't wear any, what was it, say, doctor's robes. Distinct thing, except of course he wears a leather girdle about his loins and old camel skin over his body. And yet they went from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria. And he was a man on fire for God. He was God's incandescent man. It takes God to set a man alight with holy fire. And John the Baptist was there, he had no financial backing, he had no five-piece band, he had no newsletter. Would you believe that? He didn't even have a five-serne the camel. He didn't have any signification except that God was with him. Jesus Christ said of him, when ye are to see in the wilderness a reed shaken by the wind, this man is the most anointed man in the world today. You never again have to, you never have to advertise a fire. I was thinking today about a hundred years ago, I wasn't around. And it was a marvelous time in England because at one end of London you had William Booth preaching his hellfire sermons. Another end of the city you had Dr. F.B. Meyer who was the very opposite. In the middle of the city you had Spurgeon. In another place you had Dr. Parker. In Westminster, not Westminster Abbey but St. Paul's Cathedral, every Sunday afternoon 3,000 people gathered to have a Bible reading. And yet there's a young man only in his 20s in Wales, and the man I talked with in the hills of Robbyn had said he received notice that the Spirit of God had come upon a young man by the name of Evan Roberts. He took the overnight train intending just to see what God was doing. He went in this auditorium, of course compared with this place it was small, there were 800 people there. Evan Roberts came down and sat down on the front seat and bowed his head and he bowed his head and he bowed his head and the people wondered he was there for three solid hours praying. Our people get up and walk away. But then he stood up and preached for 15 minutes and the glory of God filled the place and they were broken and weeping and they went back to their, they went back out of the building. Evan Roberts went to wait all night on God in prayer for the next day. But the man who should have gone home after the first day two days, then three days, then four days, and five days. Then he sneaked back in the office and old William Booth was there. So he just turned and said to this man with a gruff voice that William Booth had, where have you been? So Major Russell said, sir I've been to heaven. You've been where? He said I've been to heaven. No he said I'm asking you sensibly where have you been missing all these days? He said I've been to heaven. I don't understand that. He said well I went to Wales. There's a young man flaming with the power of God. Here is a man who's comparatively unlettered. I don't think he received any ordination except the ordination of John 15 which is the only genuine one I have ordained you. What other ordinations matter? William Booth said tell me about it. He told him about the power of God that God came on communities. The taverns were empty. The police courts were empty. All that was filled were prayer meetings and other places. God was sweeping through town after town and immediately the old general began to weep and he said we used to have it like that in the early days of the Salvation Army. I'm glad you went there. Well how is it that a man like that, a man with comparatively little theological background, a man that has no wonderful personality, has no signs and wonders and miracles, do you know the poor guy only had God? Isn't that terrible? Do you know the difference between the early church and the church today? They had the endowment and no equipment. We have the equipment but no endowment. As I said last night, Noah built an ark about 43,000 days but nobody took any notice of him. Nobody takes any notice of the gospel in America these days hardly or in other places. But God's going to prove that he's God. He's still the same living God yesterday, today, and forever. So William Booth says I'm glad you saw and heard the power of God. So after that this man has a new zeal, he has a new enthusiasm, he has a new fire in his heart. He's seen the working of the Spirit of God. The Salvation Army went into 70 countries in 90 years. They were ridiculed and scorned but eventually even the Queen of England invited William Booth for high tea as they called it. And other people received him joyfully. But it went through its travel because you see it began to show the mighty power of God. There was fire whereas the other places was a coal. And the key of the whole thing was this. William Booth had on his banner, he had a flag that he made himself. He not only wrote the battle song, Thou Christ of burning cleansing flames send the fire. He also put on his banner blood and fire. There was blood and there was a cross. He preached on the baptism with the Holy Ghost not for power but for purity. These days it's all power, power, power. What about purity? Without purity no man shall see the Lord. I don't care if you raise the dead. I don't care if you're the mightiest preacher in the world. You won't get there. God isn't going to let sin invade the area where he lives. It ruined this world. It's not going to ruin God's plan any longer. Well thinking again about the power of the Holy Spirit. It says here, holy men of God speak as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Now this is something I haven't totally thought out and I have never preached it before. But as we were flying over, and I don't like flying it's for the birds, but as we came over the rocket the pilot said we're flying at 31,000 feet. At that moment I was having a wonderful experience with God. He was speaking to me about these words. Holy men of God, holy men. The prophets were holy men. They were lowly men. They were lonely men. They were direct men. They were difficult men. They were men who walked with God and then came down to earth in the power of the Spirit of God. One of the old preachers years ago said, Ebenezer Brown said, I live five days in eternity then I come down to earth and share the spoil with my congregation in my church. That's a wonderful way to preach. But the Holy Spirit, these men speak as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Doesn't it say in the beginning the Spirit of God moved over the face of the earth? And what happened? You've got this wonderful creation he made. But my mind moved further again. Here's a choice little girl, a beautiful young Jewish maiden. Everybody knows her. She has a habit of squeezing up in the temple where an old man goes day by day and he raises his hands and he cries to God, I shall not go until the glory of God has been manifest. His name was Simeon. Let me tell you something very interesting. Maybe not to you, but to me. Three years ago Martha and I were in, Martha's my wife, my secretary, my gardener, I'm the supervisor. But we were in this meeting and the man came off the platform, came straight down to me and he said, you're Simeon. I said, I'm who? He said, you're Simeon. He said, you've prayed all these years. I've prayed over 60 years for revival. And he said, you won't die until revival comes. So that's why I came to Anaheim this week to see revival come. I'm tired of meetings. I'm tired of reading books. I'm tired of writing them. I want to see God manifest himself. I want God the Holy Ghost. I want God the Holy Ghost to bring such conviction of sin that people can't sleep at night. I want the Holy Ghost to come on people that you're going to see us shopping and somebody will start singing blessed assurance. And before you're through, you'll have a prayer meeting. That'd be wonderful chaos. I like that kind of chaos. I'm just believing God to do it. You know, I heard the peep, who was the young guy that preached this afternoon? How many were here this afternoon? Was that a wonderful service? I wasn't there. But everybody said they never heard Brother John as fresh, as anointed as he was. I mean, not for a long while. You see, you get like the peep you live with. He's getting old and wise like me. And is that terrible? He had to clap for himself. Nobody would clap for him. But I'll tell you what, John, I didn't tell you this. As I sat there in the back room tonight, the only thing that kept coming to me was rebirth, rebirth, rebirth. I believe this week, Vineyard's going to have a rebirth. God, God is going to re-energize and give a new vision, give a new power, give a new authority. We're only in water to the ankles yet. We've got to get water to the knees and the loins and then waters to swim in. It's time to get out of the shallows into the deeps. We're going to the most serious period in human history. And we need to see the church of God. What makes me so sad is to see a sick church in a dying world. But dear friends, God's going to change that. I'm not hanging on by the skin on my teeth. I'm hanging on by the promises of God. He says, in the last days he'll pour out his spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters, look at the thousands of young people. There's enough people here to change the history of the world. It all depends if you're hungry enough for God, if you're sick of failure, if you're sick of weakness, if you're sick of powerlessness, if you're sick about not having vision and strength and power to prevail in prayer. The resources are there in God. When I sang about this little girl, everybody says, you know, that's Mary. Everybody knows Mary. Isn't it? But did you hear the rumor about her, about Mary? Oh, nothing wrong with Mary. Oh no. Well, you know, her boyfriend, oh yes, Joseph, nice guy. Do you know she's pregnant? She's what? Oh, you're thinking of a Mary. I'm thinking, oh yes, I am. And you say that that Mary is pregnant, yes. Did you ever think of that? Did you ever think that that little thing who's been invaded by God, the Holy Ghost, do you think she knew when God invaded her? That one day she's empty, she's barren, then the Spirit of the living God comes, and He, what? Conceived by the Holy Ghost. People say you can't believe that. I can. I'm so simple, I have one verse of the Bible all to myself. The Lord preserveth the simple. I'm, I can't take care of myself. So the Lord preserveth the simple. Do you remember a hymn, glorious hymn, praise to the holiest in the heights and in the depth be praise, in all his works most wonderful, most sure in all his ways. The second standard says, O loving wisdom of our God, when all was sin and shame, a second Adam to the fight. No, sirree, you can't have a second Adam. If you have a second Adam, you have a third Adam or a fourth. There's the last Adam, the first Adam, and the last Adam. Well, how can a baby be born without a father? Well, the first Adam was born without a, was born without a mother anyhow. So where's the problem? I mean, maybe your problem, but it isn't God's. God has no problems, except with some of you stubborn folk. But think again, here's this precious little woman. How many times do you think she'd been to the temple, and she'd heard them read out of the prophet Isaiah, a virgin shall be with child. But listen, with the knowledge something else came. She also knew that the child she conceived one day would hang on a cross and bear the sin of the world. She knew that the Isaiah 53 said, surely ye hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem in stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. Would you like that? You see, it's very wonderful to be filled with a spirit, but sometimes God gives you revelations of things ahead, and all you do, you have heartache. You can't always share it. It's a burden God has given you, and you have to bear it. And I'm saying again that that precious little woman, she bore the reproach, oh that brat, I thought she was better than that. And she's having a child. They criticized her mercilessly. I can imagine all around the city of Jerusalem, they were scorning this precious little woman, but she didn't care. You see, God is indwelling her. I'll tell you, when the Holy Spirit of God comes and indwells you with a new birth, you'll know about it. You'll have a song. What did she do? Immediately she magnified the Lord. She didn't say stand up and clap and sing. Immediately she burst. My soul doth magnify the Lord. She didn't care about the Romans. She didn't care about the high priest. She didn't care about anybody else. She's indwelt by God himself. She's going to bring forth a son. And she's told his name is Jesus. He'll save his people from the sin. And he's gone there for the rise and fall of many generations. What a blessed, blessed experience. Then I began to think of the wonder of the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything in the life of Jesus was by the Holy Ghost. He was conceived by the Holy Ghost. Then what happened later? At the beginning of his life, he's conceived by the Holy Ghost. At the end of his life, what does it say? It says of that same wonderful Lord Jesus Christ that he prayed. He prayed in the Holy Ghost and who by, what was it, what was the scripture? Offered himself without spot. How does that begin? Oh well, let me, I can put it together I think. But here's the end of his journey. He's done signs and wonders and miracles and yet it says he offered himself by the Holy Ghost. Jack's looking up the scripture for me. Nobody else can memorize it. Sure you need to go to Bible school, the whole bunch of you. Oh when he had by himself purged our sins, offered himself without spot to God, who through the eternal Spirit, the Holy Ghost is full of majesty, never does anything small. Every time a man is born again, it's a miracle of God. He can take the rotten, corrupt human personality with all its twisted depravity and deformity and hellishness and cleanse it and indwell it and rule in it and live in it by the power of the Holy Spirit of God. Why himself purged our sins, offered himself through the eternal Spirit to God. The Holy Spirit is full of majesty. What's it saying in, you see I believe in my heart actually that we can't really praise God apart from the indwelling of the Holy Spirit of God. I don't believe we can pray without that. Doesn't the scripture talk about the Holy Spirit of God? Does it say of him that, now that scripture has escaped my mind again, but anyhow. Oh in Romans chapter 8 it talks about the Holy Spirit of God with what groanings that cannot be uttered. You know I believe, I believe the Virgin Mary had the most horrible pregnancy that ever was. It's one thing for a woman to carry a baby a number of months, that's not so bad, but getting it through the birth canal is something entirely different. The devil didn't want Jesus Christ to be born. As soon as he gets out of his mother's womb, there's a price on his head. Herod was troubled and all Jerusalem with him. He divided a city before he could walk or talk. That's the first thing he did. The last thing he did on the cross was divide men. And during his lifetime he divided men. So Jesus Christ, so Virgin Mary again I believe, knew a burden of prayer that none of us knew at all. She's going to bring forth all heaven is looking on, all hell is looking on. The devil's going to stop this if he can. And to prove that again, Jesus does wonders, does some miracles. And then is it an amazing thing that the Son of God at 12 years of age startled all the theologians. He went to the temple and stood there. And what did he say at 12 years of age? Don't you know that I was at that, he said, Jack then, he said I must be by my father's business. Good it was. Okay, at 12 years of age he knew about his father. But listen, he didn't go down as a miracle worker. He didn't go about as a boy evangelist. He didn't make a sketch of the Daniel's image or something and go around giving lectures. He went like an ordinary boy. The amazing thing is they lost him on the way going home. The most treasured child the world had ever had and his mother and father lost him after staying at a meeting. That's incredible. But again, the Spirit of God, Jesus, pardon me, the Holy Spirit's energies again in that sixth chapter, eighth chapter of Romans. There I was saying earlier about Thomas Binnie that lived seven years after Wesley. He wrote him eternal light, eternal light, how pure the soul must be when placed within thy searching sight. It shrinks not, but with calm delights can live and look on thee. The spirits that surround thy throne may bear that burning bliss. But that is surely theirs alone, since they have never, never known a fallen world like this. Binnie said that in 1798. A fallen world like this? You could have searched America. You could have searched England and not find one scrap of pornography. Hardly ever find a drunken. The standards are very high. But man has fallen. Look at the condition of him tonight. As we mentioned last night, kids 16 are veterans in iniquity these days. They've nothing to learn. They know all the secrets so-called of sex. Look at the sports madness that we have. Look at the bias there is to worldliness and godliness. So this man goes on to say a fallen world like this. And then he says there is a way for man to rise to that sublime abode, an offering and a sacrifice. A Holy Spirit's energies and advocate with God. These, these prepare us for the sight of holiness above. The sons of ignorance and night may dwell in the eternal light through the internal sun. There's nothing more glorious than to see a depraved man transformed by the power of God. All his old habits are broken. He becomes a new creation. He has a new ambition. He has new vocabulary. I say again, I don't believe you can really pray without the Holy Ghost. That's what the word of God says. Praying in the Holy Ghost, it doesn't mean necessarily praying in tongues. It may, it may, but it means praying with the of God and the strength of God. It means of enduring strength to bring forth to birth. There are few people that have that strength. Miracles don't happen by accident. I was reading the other day about a revival that there was in the 1600 by a man by the name of John Hunter. John Hunter. No, no, not John Hunter. What's his name? You can't remember that. Oh, John Livingstone of shots. He was to preach a communion service and there was some hundreds of people expected there. Do you know what he did? He stayed up all night. He wept and he fasted and he prayed and he prayed in the morning, preached in the morning and the anointing of the spirit of God on the text. I will sprinkle clean water upon you and you should be clean from all your filthiness with I cleanse you. And then God says, not for your sake do I do this or house of Israel, but for my holy name's sake. And 500 people were born again of the spirit of God that morning. And years after they were still abiding fruit. It wasn't a decision. It wasn't a mental flip. The spirit of the living God came upon them. God forgives us. Jesus Christ redeems us. The Holy Spirit regenerates us. The men, the men became a new creek, became new creatures in Christ Jesus. As I told you last night, I tried to tell you the glory seems to depart it from the pulpit. I think there are three things missing from today's preaching. Maybe, maybe I'm proving it. Number one is intensity. Number two is immensity. And number three is eternity. The revival that swept through England went to Oxford University. And as a result of that, Wesley and George Whitfield were brought into the kingdom, but it never touched Cambridge University. 30 years before that, there was a man in the church of England by the name of Charles Simeon. He prayed, preached in the power of the Holy Ghost. Listen to this preacher. I'll tell you how he preached. He preached until he got the devil man. He got the deacons mad and that's worse than getting a devil man. Do you know what they did? They ripped the seats out of the, out of the building and put them in outside in the graveyard. What happened for 10 years? Come on preacher, you think you have power of your personality? Here is a man who for 10 years never had anybody sit in the church with no seats. He didn't say, Lord, I don't deserve this. He preached until he packed the house with the glory of God. And people came and stood for 10 whole years to hear that man. There was a man in the same period, a Baptist, I've forgotten his name for the time being. They said when he preached 10 minutes or 15 minutes and the anointing of God came, the whole congregation stood up and they stood up and stayed standing up until he finished preaching. To me, that's preaching. When people are fascinated not by personality, preaching is more than logic on fire. Preaching is more than a profession. It's a passion. It's more than passion. It's obsession. You have the wonderful experience of the apostle Paul himself. This one thing I do, forgetting everything that's behind. And he became obsessed with the fact that Jesus Christ was a prince of peace. He himself is coming down the road loaded with guilt, with bloody hands. And suddenly Jesus Christ comes. Why did Jesus leave his throne and confront this murderer? Because he was carrying inside of his garment, this toga. He was carrying a garment. He was carrying a authority to bind all the Christians and put them to prison. The amazing thing is the man who's the greatest persecutor of the church became the greatest preacher.