In this sermon, the speaker discusses the tragic discrepancy between the ideal outlined in scripture and the reality of people's lives. He shares a personal story of a choir director who felt responsible for the lack of revival in their church and asked for forgiveness. This led to a powerful encounter with God and a renewal of their faith. The speaker also talks about the afterglows that occurred during their meetings, where people experienced the touch of God and were transformed. The sermon emphasizes the need for believers to receive the Holy Spirit and highlights the importance of aligning our lives with the biblical ideal.

You'll bear me witness with that we've been sharing pretty well every meeting some happenings Out of the revival and I want to do that again tonight before we have a time of sharing In the Winnipeg crusade back in December beginning in December of 1971 We began on a Tuesday night with three days notice No churches cooperating We went to the church seating twelve or fourteen hundred place called Elam Chapel and I remember the first meeting we had one of the brethren in a little prayer service. We had prior to the meeting He said brethren if we have 60 people out there tonight, we'll be lucky Well, we had 600 that night and by Friday 900 and by Sunday we were full We stayed there for 17 days and then recessed for Christmas and came back in a larger church in the new year and stayed there for three weeks and God did many wonderful things, but while we were in Elam Chapel before Christmas Dr. Sherwood worked who is the editor of Billy Graham's paper the decision paper Through Leonard Ravenhill who was a personal friend of his heard about revival in Canada and hopped a plane came down to Winnipeg And he let us know when he was coming. We had never met him And he was there that night place was packed and there was a Very very heavy response at the end We had the choir law full of people that had come forward the platform Was a large platform loaded with people the altar of the church the first way to keep moving people out of pews So we had the first three pews clean across the church and mr. Work. He was in the front pew So he had to keep moving back Afterwards he came up and introduced himself, and he said He said Bill. This is wonderful. This is just one. He said you know our organization desperately needs a revival and Then he said he paused from up, and he said my wife desperately needs a revival and After a long struggling pause he said you know what and I need a revival well before I could Talk to him somebody came and said you're needed in the counseling room, and so I have to leave him standing there We had an afterglow that night, and he was there with a notebook and a tape recorder taking down You know what was going on and then he had to leave on a plane the next morning So I didn't get to see him really talk to him after that But God really touched his heart And he I have a half hour tape that in my possession which he sent to me in the mail Which was his personal testimony, and he told us how that he would he said I would have divorced my wife 20 years ago, but I didn't want to hurt Billy Graham and there was no compatibility between he and his wife at all and He'd always blamed her He said she was just you you couldn't talk to her you can do anything with her, and he'd always blamed her But God showed him That the fault was his and So he experienced renewal, and he's written a book It's called the afterglow. I would suggest to try and get it. It'll bless your soul every chapter He spells out very clearly what happened in his life in his wife through the revival up here in Canada and It's in some ways. It's rather amusing because after God renewed him he Offered to help his wife with the dishes one night, and she said what happened? What's wrong with you? You know she looked at what's wrong with you and Then when he off to take out the garbage. She said you know what you're going crazy or something you know and It's all and finally he got her to an afterglow and she complained about the seats being hard Why did the prayers have to be so long and all this stuff and finally she said well? I'm gonna hit the chair Now the hitting the chair is a kind of a phrase You have people sitting in a circle in a chair in the middle with a rug there and people who want to be prayed for Will hit the chair I mean they get up and walk and kneel at the chair and if it's a woman ladies will come and kneel with if it's a man men will come and you'll counsel with the person in front of the whole group and Lead them in the steps of renewal and so she hit the chair and God renewed her I was in the crusade in Edmonton He for me long distance. He was so excited. He could hardly talk He said my wife got renewed guess what my wife got renewed my wife my our home was like heaven and she's traveled with him In afterglow work, they've had afterglows in churches all across America pretty well He was asked a couple years ago to go to Korea when Billy Graham was in Korea He was supposed to go to it to speak to preachers and of course there were hundreds He said we had they had some meetings where they're probably 1,500 preachers or more there And he said you know bill. I left all my sermons at home All I took was my Bible and all I taught them was Galatians 220 what I learned in the Canadian Revival and So God revolutionized his life I was in Minneapolis in the crusade and mr. Word got me to speak to the headquarter staff there They have about 400 in one building and 50 another they closed the place down so I could have a chapel there So I can talk to them and I brought a revival message and gave an invitation There were 25 or 30 came forward one lady got saved and never been a Christian and others got renewed There were two or three involved in the occult we had to deal with Including a lady who was employed by the organization who was involved in the area of counseling of all things But she was involved rather deeply in the occult and God blessed her and after we'd finished all the counseling an older gentleman came up And he was dressed in in work clothes sort of and he sent him one of the custodians And he said I was in that meeting and he said God spoke to my heart in a powerful way So now I went back down. He said I can't sleep a floor I can't push him up all I can do is stand there and shake he said I need to be counseled with so we counseled with him and God touched his heart, too Mr. Wirton I were I was in a several crusades in Minneapolis actually since 1971 and Well in one case mr. Work was running the afterglow with me and he had a brand new beautiful buckskin jacket with a sheepskin lining brand-new I don't think costume and That night we had doing like good number of people there and a chair in the middle with everything But the rug with no nowhere for anybody to kneel so you know what happened He took off this beautiful new jacket of his Laid it on the floor and the people knelt on his jacket that night when they went to the chair in the afterglow By the way, who's in this meeting has ever been in an afterglow? Nobody has we should have one before I leave at least one maybe Sunday night After the service evening or let's think about let's have an afterglow alright, I Will do a prayer about it and We don't have afterglows just for the sake of having them they've been greatly used of God Could I give you 40 minutes of an afterglow in about three minutes or whatever, you know? a school teacher get up a man in the afterglow there was about 60 70 people there and he said I am a Christian, but my life is real phony He said I say I sing my Jesus I love thee, but I don't think I really love him He said because I never talked about him if I loved him I talked about him He said I need prayer. So he came to the chair and some men came in counsel I was monitoring the thing but I just sat over at the side and these men came in council and prayed with him and he Got to his feet and you could see by the look on his face. The Lord had touched his life He went back to his chair and immediately another fella popped up and he said well I'm a schoolteacher to and he said if that man's a phony He said I'm a worse phone He said I know him and I'm worse than he is He said I need prayer too and his wife shut up beside him and she said well, I'm just like my husband she said I'm cold and empty and so the two that we put a second chair out and men and women came in Mountain Council with them and Then they two sat down and then the lady we found it later on. She was a psychiatrist we didn't know her I'd never seen her before because there were people from different churches in the meetings and She said well, I've got a problem. I'd like to be prayed for and we said what's your problem? She said well, there's some people I can't like and I know you're supposed to like everybody and I just some people I just can't like so somebody in the group said are you a Christian? Oh, yes She said so somebody said on what do you base your Christianity? Well, she said I've always done a lot of good things over the years. So then of course the group knew she wasn't born again And you know, they led her to Christ They got talking to her the group did I didn't have to do a thing just sat there and people talked to her and finally she Came and knelt at the chair and some ladies came and knelt with her and she gave her heart to God then she wouldn't sat down and Then there was a man sitting in the circle. He wasn't sitting far from me and I didn't I didn't know who he was He was a backslidden evangelist a man who about the 15 years ago backslid went right to the bottom of pile as far down as a man could go and he was in the meeting that night and His wife was sitting about five down from him and why they weren't sitting together I don't know But at this point she got up and she came and stood in front of her husband and in front of the whole group She said to her husband. She said honey I've often thought that the reason you backslid years ago was because I was not a very understanding wife She said I didn't to really love you the way I should have I didn't appreciate you. I didn't encourage you and she said I Really think I'm to blame and she said Martin could you forgive me and He just burst he just broke and he got to his feet and he and he staggered over and fell on the chairs and she got Down beside him and the two of them were just renewed. God touched their lives. That was about 40 minutes in an afterglow and And So it goes and some nights these afterglows went on for two o'clock three o'clock Even as late as six o'clock in the morning as the Spirit of God was talking to people could be preachers missionaries evangelists Sunday school teachers and all kinds of people from the top to the bottom and Oftentimes we used to have a saying That you know the hardest nuts they wait for the last and sometimes at four o'clock in the morning that the circle would be narrowed To 12 people maybe we started with 250. We're down to 12 now and in that circle is one guy He's really tough and he just is struggling and fighting and everything else and finally at the very end He'll say look I need prayer remember a pastor pastor of a church seating 1,400 people He was a tough one one night just sat there and right to the very end about 10 or 12 people left and he asked for prayer well So much for the afterglows John chapter 7 if you have a testament or Bible with you and Thank you all for sharing Each evening there be an opportunity for sharing John 7 37 in the last day that great day of the feast Jesus stood and cried saying If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink he that believes on me as the scripture has said now Jesus is not quoting here from any particular specific scripture He's giving us the sum total of the teaching of numerous scriptures in the Old Testament He that believes on me as the scripture has said out of this innermost being shall flow rivers of living water But this he spoke of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive For the Holy Spirit was not yet given because the Jesus was not yet Glorified The title I'd like to give to my message tonight is a tragic discrepancy I Hope that You are praying that God will lay on my heart the message I should bring you know it's an awful feeling sometimes an hour or less before the service you have three or four Sermons running through your mind. You're not sure which one you ought to bring now normally It's quite clear, but not always and that's an awful feeling for a preacher I watched isn't it terrible sitting here, and you got three sermons running through your mind You know if one duck flies over you know what to do you shoot that duck, but it's 16 fly over. That's that's hard a tragic discrepancy and the tragic discrepancy is the discrepancy between The ideal that we find outlined in the scripture and the actual which is where I live now ladies if you were to go to a store and Pay for a rug let's say 12 by 14 you pay cash for it is to be delivered It's delivered to the house, and when it's unrolled you find it is 6 by 8 Now there's a discrepancy in the rug size You paid for something much larger Would you have to ask your pastor's advice as to what to do about it, I don't think so You know to do about it You'd write a letter or you'd phone or you go and see the person response and say look I paid for this and I only got this why is there this discrepancy in size? Or supposing men you were going to buy a car and you had a friend who sold cars And you told him look I want to get a car that will get me at least 20 miles to go on the highway And the fences look I've got exactly the car you want people tell me they're getting 24 25 miles to go It's exactly what you want so in the strength of this friend of yours his recommendation you buy the car And discover you have a gas gobbler like I heard a fellow say one time every time the more of my car turns over It says 25 cents 25 cents 25 cents So what are you going to do about it? You wouldn't need me to tell you what to do you would have words with your friend See look this clunker only get seven miles a gallon. What are you telling me 24 miles a gallon? Now you were not honest because there is a discrepancy between what you were promised and what you're actually Realizing you know what to do or if you work for somebody and they owed you $200 And they said look I'll send you a check in the mail and the check came sure enough and the check was made up for $50 there's a discrepancy now $150 when you need to ask your pastor or me or somebody else what to do of course now You know what to do you write a letter get on the telephone go and see the person as the case might be Because there's a discrepancy that you won't explain you want that other $150 we don't have to be told what to do we know what to do and The thing is this you know when it comes to a material matter We know exactly what to do if there's a discrepancy of the kind that I've just been describing But there can be a discrepancy between what God has promised in the scriptures and what I am actually Experiencing and it can be there for 45 years, and I never ask a question and it's a tragic thing because If my life is not really filled with God's Spirit in a New Testament sense and measure it's a tragic thing then because of the good I might do if my life was really filled with God's Spirit and because of the evil that I sometimes unwittingly do because my life is not controlled by the Spirit of God a tragic discrepancy so then What I want to do tonight is this I want us to look together at the Word of God and see what the Lord really promised and As we do this I wonder could each one of us in our hearts Sort of line our life up with what God is saying in the Bible one of the first meetings here I think I said that revival was my experience catching up to my theology But sometimes my experience never does Another definition of revival is this revival is a Christian coming up to a New Testament level or standard. That's all it is But you see we've been subnormal for so long that when the normal comes along we think it's something abnormal All right God gave us some marvelous promises regarding what we might call the abundant life or the overflowing life of victorious Christian life and here's one and They go it says from strength to strength Are you a stronger Christian now than you were a year back? Or can you think back to you know the days when you first found Christ as your personal Savior? Could you honestly say you are a stronger Christian tonight than you were then? But the Bible says you ought to be they go from strength to strength and it must mean from strength at this level to strength at that level Here's another one Proverbs chapter 4 It says the path of the just is as the shining light that shines more and more Unto the perfect day the perfect day is that day when I pass over to be with God or in the larger sense when Jesus Christ Returns, but the path of the just is supposed to be more and more light on life's pathway Is there do I have more light Spiritually speaking now than I had a year ago or five or ten years back What are the facts in regard to this matter? Oh John chapter 1 where it says talking about my relationship to Jesus Christ it says of the Greek there means out of out of his fullness we have all received and grace for grace New grace in the place of old grace today's grace in the place of yesterday's grace You remember that the manna that came down from heaven every day it bred worms and stank if it was kept overnight Some people are trying to live on an experience that happened, you know some while ago. What happened today? Did I fellowship with my Savior today? That Jesus Christ does he walk and talk with me every day Well, he wants to and so out of his fullness. We have all received and grace for grace Grace is poured into thy lips was the way the prophecy ran of Jesus in Psalm 45 and that grace is available to us Directed toward us the word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory the glory is of the only begotten of the Father full of what full of grace and full of truth and All this fullness we have all received and grace for grace Do you know more of the grace of God now than you knew a year back six months ago or two three years ago? Do you do you really now? there is the ideal that God has given us in the Bible and the actual is where I really live and then In John chapter 8 the Lord Jesus Christ said if the son talking about himself if the son therefore shall make you free you shall be free indeed Free indeed. Oh, we had a beautiful experience of that one night a pastor came for counseling out in Western Canada And he said, you know, I I really think I've got a demon I have such an awful problem and He told us about it and we checked this out. He did not have this kind of a problem at all And I said my dear brother in the book of James chapter 1 It says every man is tempted when he's drawn away off his own lust and I said you're going to have to recognize this fact That it's a self problem. It's a lust problem just rising from self. He had not been walking in the spirit So he accepted that and we went to prayer and he asked God to forgive him and he was praying You know his his body began to move back and forth. I thought it was gonna just sort of break in two or something He didn't really he told us after as he said, you know when I was praying the Lord gave me the prayer He said it was just not my prayer at all And you know in the middle of this this intense prayer of his he started to laugh You could just about hear the chains go clunk on the floor He was free He was totally free and He cried and he laughed and he thanked God for giving him the gift of repentance it's called that in the Bible these two places acts 5 and in 2nd Timothy chapter 2 the gift of repentance and All was just so great. So the next night he gave his testimony now We never encourage people that are struggling in certain areas to share You know any intimate details of what went on in their life before God set them free. He didn't do that He just said people I've been struggling with an awful problem and he said last night Jesus Christ set me absolutely free and I want to sing my testimony and you'll never guess the song he chose He chose a song Oh happy day that fixed my choice on thee my Savior and my God Well, may this glowing heart rejoice and tell its raptures all abroad He hadn't been singing more than two lives before that who we were in a building seating a thousand The whole crowd was crying my head was on the pew in front. I was sitting down here and I was just crying I couldn't help it You know If you shut your eyes, you could you you would have thought it was an angel let down from heaven on a golden cord It was not a natural thing at all. I Talked to the pastor of that particular church afterwards an older man I said did you ever hear singing like that and said never in all my life He said that man was singing under the unction and power of the Spirit of God You know finally he was overcome and he began to cry then he stopped and he said I'm gonna finish the song And you know, he got to this place Now rest my long divided heart fixed on this blissful center rest nor ever from my Lord Depart with him of every good possessed. I'll never forget as long as I live, you know afterwards I was congratulating myself because up in the balcony. I had a fellow taping everything in that night It said now look, I want you to take everything that goes on tonight. Not knowing this fellow was going to sing you see So afterwards I went to talk to the fellow doing the taping and I said, I hope you got everything tonight everything You said I just got your sermon. Oh, I said don't tell me that don't tell me that don't you remember? I said everything tonight. Did you really sir? I thought you said just the sermon and So I began complaining to the Lord and the Lord said speak no more to me about this matter My lasted about a half now started grumbling again because I thought wouldn't be wonderful to have that on a tape I could take it all over the country and play it and Christians could hear and be blessed the way we were blessed that night I began grumbling the Lord said now He said I want you to get it down in your knees and thank me from your heart that you didn't get it on tape It was too sacred. It was meant only for this crowd this night So I get down struggle a bit and I said, okay God praise the Lord. I never got out on tape and everything was settled But the Lord set him free Jesus Christ said if the son therefore shall make you free you shall be free what Indeed are you if you're not why not ask the question why? In John chapter 10 verse 10 the Lord Jesus Christ said the thief comes to kill steal and destroy He said I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more Abundantly and that really means an overflowing life Now if I don't have it, why don't I have it? Why don't I ask the question and find out? Why I don't have this overflowing life that the Word of God talks about well Romans chapter 1 it says up verse 69 I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto Salvation to everyone that believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek and then he says this for therein That is in the gospel therein is revealed the righteousness of God from faith to faith Is your faith growing? Is it stronger now that used to be and you don't assort us? I sum it up 2nd Corinthians 318. It says but we all with open face It means no veil hanging on our face like Moses had but we all with unveiled face Beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory To glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord one glorious experience with God the Holy Spirit after another who is transforming and changing me into the likeness of Jesus Christ now, that's the normal Christian life and anything less than that is Subnormal and I need to ask the question. Why if my life is not what it ought to be By the way, what do you do with Romans 14 17 18 where the Apostle Paul says the kingdom of God is Righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Spirit For even in these things serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men Some people think that you have to have all the sinners mad at you're not living a Christian life That's not so it says you'll be approved of men The common people heard Christ gladly It was normally the religious leaders political leaders and so on that were opposed to the message of Jesus Christ Oh, yes, sometimes ordinary common people will hate it, too I understand that all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution But it doesn't say that everybody's going to persecute you a lot of people are going to be impressed Why many even of the chief of Asia were Paul's friends the Word of God says they were his friends All right The kingdom of God is not meat and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit For he that in these things serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men now sometimes people come and they'll say You know preachers you're always talking about joy and peace in the Christian life, but you know, it's not that way You know, there's a lot of problems and a lot of trouble and you know It's not that way and you shouldn't really be telling people that because that's not true. I Think of Billy Bray that Cornish minor become preacher Very very happy person filled with God's Spirit and people he said people say well Billy haven't you ever had any vinegar? Oh, yes, you said I've had vinegar as well as honey, but I've had the vinegar with a teaspoon I've had the honey with a ladle Romans 15 13 says this it's a sort of a prayer of Paul's it says now the God of hope fill you with all joy and Peace in believing that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Spirit What do I do with a verse like that? Was Paul just sort of throwing up kind of a blank and you know comforting words that don't really mean anything The God of hope fill you With all joy and peace in believing there's faith that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Spirit What does it mean? Our first Peter 1 8 is talking about my relationship to Christ whom having not seen you love in whom though now you see him Not yet believing you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory Is that the normal Christian life? Well, really people that's what the Bible saying Let's look for a few moments shall make some promises about the Holy Spirit And first of all, I have to clear away a misapprehension that many Christians have Often you'll hear it said the Holy Spirit doesn't talk about himself Then they'll quote from John 16 where Jesus Christ said he shall not speak all of himself But dear people, it does not mean that the Holy Spirit will not talk about himself Because the next statement is whatsoever. He shall hear that shall he speak and The word all there really means he shall not speak out of himself But whatever he hears he'll speak and that's what Jesus Christ said about himself in John chapter 12 He said I have not spoken all of myself He didn't mean I haven't spoken about myself because he had he said I am the bread of life I'm the resurrection in the life. I am this I am that he said many things about himself And so did the Holy Spirit why there are 19 references to the Holy Spirit in Romans chapter 8 There are almost 60 in the book of Acts Obviously the Holy Spirit frequently talks about himself But he does not talk of himself out of himself nor did Jesus because when Jesus Christ said I have not spoken of myself He said but the father who sent me he gave me a commandment what I should say and what I should speak So both Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, they simply reported those things that God the Father gave him to tell That's the meaning of it but in John 16 It does say Jesus Christ said he'll glorify me and the Holy Spirit while he may talk about himself He will glorify Jesus Christ. That's his work Preacher came in one time. He said All these people saying you're filled with the Holy Spirit the meanings There isn't one place in the Bible anybody ever said I am filled with the Holy Spirit and The Lord flashed a thought into my mind from the book of Micah No I did was quoted Micah the prophet said but truly I am full of power by the spirit of the Lord and of judgment and of might to declare Unto Jacob his transgression and unto Israel his sin moreover. I said to my preacher friend There is not one place in the Bible in the entire Bible where anybody ever said I am saved Am I to conclude from that that nobody's ever to say I'm saved Well, he saw the hopelessness of that Then he said it himself that he was saved You see we have so many examples of people being saved in the Bible and so many examples of people being filled with the Holy Spirit well Promises about the Holy Spirit there are many of them in the Bible Here's one problems 123 the Lord says you turn at my reproof behold. I will pour out my spirit unto you I'll make known my words unto you and God is saying if I will turn from my sins Then he will pour out his spirit to me and his word will come alive in my soul Strange things we've even heard people say that the hymn book came alive I was in a cruise not really a crusade but in a seminary in the States one time We had two sessions a day for four days and the one night there was a singing group contemporary musical Christian singing group there and The leader of the group came forward and I had a fellow with me from Winnipeg and he counseled with this Particular young man who came to me after said man. I couldn't get anywhere with him. He said I didn't do a thing with him All he did was argue He said the clothes you people wear make me look like a tramp And the way you got your hair cut and the way you've got this done and and the songs you're saying make this old-fashioned And dull and dead he says I just just feel like a fish out of water out here and finally get up off his knees and he left the building and He said boys, I don't know what's wrong with him. I don't even know why I came forward But you know, he was back. That was money that he was back Thursday night this time he came forward and this time the Lord got a hold of his heart and Harry comes with him again and this he said this man just poured out his heart Although he's a professing Christian and singing around the country. He had all kinds of problems in his life And then Harry said, you know the first thing he said after his life was renewed He Said my you're beautiful people and he says, you know those songs Places there's something about them. They really hit you don't they? Now the songs hadn't changed and we hadn't changed but he had and God said if you turn as my reproof I'll pour out my spirit unto you. I'll make known my words And you there's a promise. Here's another Isaiah 44 3 and 4 the Lord said I will pour water upon him That is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground I will pour my spirit upon your children upon your seed and my blessing on your offspring You know Christian parents say to me whose children whose children are straying all over the country They'll say well God did his part, but my kids didn't respond So then I say all right What does the next verse say the next verse says and they shall spring up as among the grass as? Willows by the watercourse if you are a Christian parent, you've got one child straying Don't you let the devil have that child there is no reason why the devil should have one child belonging to a Christian believer If my life is right, I can believe God for my children All right. It's a promise of God Isaiah 44 3 and 4. There it is I will pour water upon him that's thirsty and floods upon the dry ground I will pour my spirit upon your seed and my blessing on your offspring and they shall spring up as among the grass as willows by the watercourse And we know people that have laid hold of promises like that and seen their whole family come to God in a week They really got excited about it when they saw what God was promising and they began to plead the promises back to God and he began to work All right, that's a promise about the Holy Spirit There's one in Zechariah chapter 10 verse 1 It says ask you of the Lord rain in the time of a latter rain. When is the time of the latter rain? There's a verse in Proverbs that explains it It says the King's favor is like a cloud of the latter rain The favor of the King when you're walking in the favor of the King Walking in fellowship with Jesus Christ Then there's a cloud of blessing just waiting to break on your head Constantly ask you of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain for the Lord So make bright clouds and give them showers of rain to every one grass in the field Do you have a luscious crop of green grass growing in the field of your life, or is it dry and drought ridden? empty Well, here's what God is promising. That's what we're looking at in the Bible And then you come to the New Testament You have Luke 11 13 where the Lord Jesus Christ said if you then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children How much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? Now some people have managed to dispensationalize that promise away if it doesn't belong for today. I wonder why it's in the Bible personally It's a promise. I think we can take today many people have and found that it really is so Or this promise here in John chapter 7 where Jesus Christ said he that believes on me He didn't say the Apostles or you know preachers. He just said he that believes on me As the scripture is said out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water But this he spoke of the spirit which they that believe on him should receive Now are there rivers of living water flowing out from your life? Is your life really a blessing? Many many Christians have told us mournfully sadly, but honestly my life is not a blessing So what are we gonna do with John 7 38 and 9? There's a discrepancy here do people we need to face up to it many people have And have entered into a new walk with God a walk where the blessings are there just like the Lord promised 2nd Corinthians chapter 3 it talks about the Old Testament system and and Paul says that there was glory there There was glory there, but he said it was done away, and he says that the ministration of condemnation was glorious Oh, how much rather is the ministration of the Holy Spirit glorious and That's what we have today. We have the ministration of the Holy Spirit of God and It's a glorious thing not a dead thing or a dry thing All right, those are promises then about the Holy Spirit. What are we going to do with the book of Acts? That's a challenge to my heart. I mean it's a historical record of what happened in the early days of the church All right, the first 15 chapters of the Bible there are 50 references of that book rather there are 50 references to the Holy Spirit Some of those chapters have five and six references to the Spirit of God And when you look at the book of Acts, what do you find? You find the Jews when they believed on Jesus Christ They were filled in the Spirit of God when Gentiles believe they were filled in the Spirit of God Acts chapter 2 Acts chapter 4 Acts Chapter 10 Acts chapter 19 when Samaritans were believed on Jesus Christ. They were filled with the Spirit of God and Whether a person was a let's say an apostle or a prophet or an evangelist or a pastor or a teacher Or whoever he was if he was a believer, he was filled with the Spirit of God If he was a man, he was filled. If he was a woman he was filled It didn't seem to matter who as a matter of fact in the book of Acts if you were a Christian not filled with the Holy Spirit Brother, you didn't belong like Ammonias and Sapphira They had agreed together to tempt the Spirit of God and Paul or Peter rather said why has Satan filled your heart? Their heart was not filled with the Holy Spirit. They were filled with Satan's power Now here's a text for that book acts 1352 it says and the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit Doesn't say somewhere. It says simply and the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit Now that's the testimony of the book of Acts Now what am I going to do with that today? Some people do some very fancy Theological footwork, you know to get away from the obvious implications of texts like this in the Word of God Because they realize they're not living up to it and they say to this Oh, well, you know if there must be that God really doesn't intend that for today and people come up with some very very strange Reasons as to why they're not walking in the spirit. They're not filled with the Spirit of God And just because some people may have made some outlandish claims which are not supported by the Word of God Respecting the Holy Spirit. There's no reason for me to throw the baby out with the bathwater Which is what many Christians have been doing Over the years God's given me a great hunger just to study up on this this thing called revival and dr Edwin Jay or from California who's done more research on revival and any man that said he's written about 12 Maybe 14 books now on the subject of revival He has studied every Bible that ever happened anywhere in the world and we've been corresponding together He's asked me to go to England with him a number of times to do research on revival I don't know if I'll ever get there or not. I don't know why he wants me I told him I said look with all these big intellectual lights you have working with you I don't know why you want me along. Well, he says we need some enthusiasts as well as some intellectuals Well, that's fine But anyway, he's writing these books on revival and you know You read these stories and your heart just melts as you see what God can do But then your heart breaks when you see how little is happening today In North America Where there are for example 28 million people who call themselves Baptist Did you know that 28 million people in North America call themselves Baptist? If even half of those people are filled with the Spirit of God we would rock the world Rock the world but there's this terrible discrepancy between the ideal and the actual as We see it in the Word of God tonight What is the actual there's a verse in Jeremiah chapter 9? It says they go they proceed from evil to evil Slipping and sliding slowly downward getting colder and colder deader and deader more critical and harder and all the rest of this is the Story of many people, you know a fellow in a very large evangelical church in Western Canada a choir director in the church said to me one day And I didn't realize at the time was a cry for help because this was before revival and some things many things I didn't know then many things. I'm sure I still don't know but at that time I never had the experience I've seen off as a cry for help. He said Bill, you know all these texts in the Bible about the abundant Christian life He said they sure don't work out for me He said frankly the older I get the more corrupt I become You know something not long after that He forsook his wife ran away with the young girl from the church disappeared in Eastern Canada somewhere. I just heard a few months ago He's in eternity now. I Can see him yet saying the older I get the more corrupt I become Now that's sad What about I mean why Isn't God giving? Isn't God blessing? What is the reason? Well sometimes people have said to me Okay, brother bill Romans chapter 7 the Apostle Paul said all wretched man that I am and you know I'm wretched like Paul was you know, I'm just being scriptural And I say, okay, let's look at the scripture then all wretched man that I am Now let's go on Who shall deliver me from this body of death? Let's go on. I thank God Through Jesus Christ our Lord You see people have a tendency to take certain parts of scripture out and not look at the whole thing like I said last night a text taken of its context becomes a pretext for low living and There's a high cost for low living alright So then people say well, it was only meant for the apostolic age like the book of Acts That was just meant for the apostolic age Then you have to answer this the Lord Jesus Christ said I'm going to send you another Comforter that he may abide with you until the last Apostle dies Is that what he said? No, he said that he may abide with you forever Forever and how long is that? All right, that's what he said Then some people say well once the canine scripture was completed and with a complete revelation in printed form I have the Bible the 66 books of Bible then we didn't need all those miraculous elements we find in the book of Acts Now when I talk about the miraculous elements in the book of Acts I'm not talking about those things out in the periphery like you know The tongues experience and the shaking of the buildings and all these you know the the attendant Phenomena that went on I'm not talking about those things don't ever mistake the attendant phenomena for the real thing I mean those things happened. I believe it but This is not where the action is I Remember a couple in the States down in Denver, Colorado She had had the tongues experience You know what she and her husband told me she said it and he was there listening. She said tongues is not where the action is She said the action is listen carefully the action is where the cross is and She's right The action is where the cross is Except a kernel of wheat fall into the ground and die it abides alone tongues or no tongues Gift of prophecy or healing or no Now I am NOT running down any genuine spiritual gift. I'm just pointing out something that there are more important things Anyway, some people say well. There's only need to we had a completed Bible, then I asked this question Okay, so what about the 2,000 tribes today? They still don't have any part of the Bible not even one book of the Bible in their own language Suddenly then expect that these miracles should still occur among those people and right away. They're in a quandary They've never thought about that As a matter of fact you know for centuries after the kingdom of Scripture was completed There's probably not more than five Christians in a hundred that could read And if you could read there wouldn't be one Christian in the heart of the heart of the head the Bible You know the printing press was not invented for a long while after the kingdom of Scripture for centuries hundreds of years after the kingdom Of Scripture was completed and in fairly recent times and by that I mean within the last 300 years if you lived in jail England enlightened as it was and all that kind of thing If you were the two people out of a hundred that could read and you want to read the Bible you'd have to go down to the village church And you'd have to get special permission to read the Bible which would likely be chained to the pulpit and the curate would stand there And watch you while you read for ten minutes at a time No, that's not an argument either So what are we going to have to do with the problem? We're gonna have to look at a square in the face. You know what the problem is the problem is sin s I am Is that what the Bible says yes it is For example God said turn and I'll pour out my spirit on you if I'm not willing to turn When God reproves and rebukes me for sin He will not pull out his spirit upon me if I'm not willing to repent of my sins God won't pull his spirit out It's as simple as that I Will yet praise thee more and more David said in Psalm 71 But some people are grumbling and complaining more and more and the fault is not God. He hasn't turned the tats off. I Heard about some place where the water wouldn't come to the water pipes and they got the water pipes apart They found a big old frog in the water pipes. Nobody know how the thing got there You know a big old frog called self gets stuck in the pipes sometimes and you know The blessing doesn't flow a frog is cold and so itself. It's a good illustration. I think I Have to speak for myself as well when I think back dear people. Do you mind if I shared you something here? I've got this many books in the Holy Spirit my library read them all read some of them more than once and many many books in revival and prayer and related themes And I read them by the hour. I read the Bible through and through and through and through again I made copious notes in the Bible I went through the Bible one time and made notes on every prayer in the Bible I cataloged them under the four headings you find first in the chapter 2, you know prayers supplication intercession giving a thanks And all this kind of thing. I used to take whole nights. I'd fast I'd pray I tried to pray whole nights through that God would fill me with the Holy Spirit You know what? I was trying to do I was trying to overcome God's reluctance When I should have been trying to lay hold of God's willingness The problem was not with God prayers not to change God prayers to change me To bring me to the point where God can safely do what he always wanted to do and to be perfectly honest Now those nights and I try to print you I normally fell asleep about two or three o'clock in the morning woke up my knees at five o'clock or something felt quite a shade Dived into bed and didn't try again for another couple of months when the pressure got so bad I'd try again and it went on for years Until one night in sheer desperation. I faced Galatians 2 20 I am crucified with Christ and I told the Lord I said I'm tired I'm going into Galatians 2 20 and tumbling out the other side like Eutychus fell out that window in the book of Acts I said God I'm going to go into this by faith and I am never coming out and the next day I could see a difference in my life and Not more than a couple of months later one night the Lord came to me and in a very sweet and beautiful way He filled my life with the Holy Spirit And Then I knew the difference God was just waiting for me to deal with sin himself. That's all He would have blessed me way back if I had understood this They didn't see me much literature that said anything about it And I didn't understand some of these things in the Bible All right Then here's a thought you know in Job chapter 20. There's a thought there He's talking about the hypocrite and secret sin And he's likening secret sin to a candy that a person has in their mouth And he's talking about the person enjoying the sweet morsel and rolling it under their tongue Okay, so you've got this sweet can in your mouth And it's really nice and nobody else knows you've got it, and you're sucking on it, and you're enjoying it, but that's secret sin You know what he says. He says that man will suck the poison of the ass And the vipers tongue will slay him the tongue of the devil and then he says this He shall not see the rivers the floods the brooks of honey and butter Our texts he that believes on me as the scriptures said out of us innermost beings shall flow rivers of living water The hypocrite the person with secret sin in his life will not see the rivers the floods or the brooks of honey and butter The Hebrew there says the screaming brooks He will never see So secret sin may be the problem Here's something else in John chapter 4 Jesus Christ talked about the info of the Spirit of God He said if you drink of this water He said but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst But the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life and artesian Well, dr. Rubin toy used to say you don't have to go looking for it. You've got it inside you a Well of water springing up getting higher and higher and higher Until we walk over someday and be with the Lord forever That's the info of the Spirit of God now the outflow the Spirit of God is in John chapter 7 There's an outflow then if I'm filled with the Spirit of God you ought to be an outflow of blessing you see to other people And one major reason why many Christians are never filled with the Spirit of God is because they're all concerned about the inflow and they're not concerned about the outflow They want to be filled with the Spirit of God with all the attendant phenomena They can lay their hands on but they're not really concerned even about their neighbor's salvation So they are never filled with the Spirit of God. God will not fill people with the Spirit just to make them happy I find over and over again. Here's a little study I made one time as I noticed it looks significant Was significant that almost always in the Bible almost always when people are filled with the Holy Spirit the next thing says and they spoke They had something to say for God and if I want to be filled with the Holy Spirit So I'll have something to say for God to the unconverted neighbors and people I work with and so on Oh, it may not be very long shouldn't be very long other things being equal and my understanding of the doctrine all until I'm filled with the Spirit of God You know the difference between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea they're both fed by the same river But the Sea of Galilee has an outflow as well as an inflow and the Dead Sea doesn't have an outflow just an inflow and it's Getting better by the day. There's not one fish inside that sea You can actually sit up in the water. It's so salty now. I'm reading newspaper. You won't sink You can't do that in the Sea of Galilee. There's as many fish in the Sea of Galilee today as there was 1900 years ago So there's an outflow and there has to be an outflow in my life I Don't like why am I praying to be filled with the Spirit of God for selfish reasons vain reasons self reasons many many times People want God to you know to fill that old self To glorify self like Saul you remember Saul said I have sinned yet honor me now He said to Samuel the prophet honor me now not honor God honor me and God won't go along with any self glorification program. I don't care how nicely it's wrapped and how nicely it's presented He will not do that self has to die. So the Lord Jesus Christ can live and shine out through my life Maybe there's no faith. Maybe there's no asking God said ask some people don't ask asking shall be given you seeking you So fine knocking it shall be opened unto you The problem dear people is always the problem is always in here, you know I read oh, I guess it was about 10 years or whatever ago. I Read a book it was the story of a great revival that began among Indian people in Lake Winnipeg Norway house in northern Manitoba and the missionary towels were back about the time of the Welsh revival 1906 or seven or something and the missionary tell how he got so discouraged with what was going on They win people to the Lord and then they'd be back in their debauchery within a week and got so just discouraging, you know and finally got to praying Oh God revise these people revive them for your spirit do something and Then he says in the book and one night God revived me and Then the revival started among the Indians and hundreds were converted Now the book was written in 1926 and the author of the book said The only Indians in northern Manitoba that we know of today that are walking with God are Indians that were converted met revival back in 1906 but the thing that spoke to me was this where did God have to fill a missionary first of all Wasn't he the missionary the man who gave up family and friends and home and all the comforts and everything else to drop there in the bush and Eat bannock and jackfish and eaten alive by black flies and mosquitoes. I mean hadn't he given up a lot. Oh, yes Do you know something about self? Self will read the Bible and pray and tide its income and go to Bible school or seminary And it'll go and live in the jungle for 40 years It will do almost anything but die We've had missionaries come and say we can't go back to the foreign field There's just no blessing in our hearts unless God does something for us. We are not going back Because they have seen Although it might look like we're making a great sacrifice to go to foreign land. We might make a sacrifice But not that sacrifice of self, which is absolutely essential whether it's there or here the text then says Jesus Christ said He that believes on me as the scripture has said out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water And we're talking that about a tragic discrepancy. How is it in your life? Are you filled with God's Spirit is his spirit flowing out through you if the answer is no Would you ask the further question dear God show me why and He gave us a prayer to pray in Psalm 139 23 and 24. The prayer is this search me Oh God and know my heart Try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any Wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting and just before the close line. I say this you'll owe me your ears You don't know your own problems you just think you do You don't know what God is saying? Unless you've asked God to show you the sin in your heart and life a Lot of people are fooled here. I Know a couple went home from a revival meeting and he sat down. He says honey. I'm concerned Maybe we're not through the Holy Spirit as we ought to be so he says I'll tell you what to do sister's wife How do you tell me the absolutely honest and tell me I don't care what you say is gonna crush me You tell me I didn't see anything wrong with my wife and she spoke up and said no, I don't she said you're an ideal husband You're a perfect, you know, gentlemen father Christian all the rest, you know, and she said I just I can't see anything wrong So then she said it now you tell me about myself He's a little honey. I feel the same. He said you're perfect. I mean he said, you know, so you know what they concluded They were both filled with the Spirit of God When I heard the story I knew the couple I said to myself I wonder what would have happened if they had gotten down on their knees and said Lord Search me Oh God and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts if they'd asked God to show them Then the story is different. I've talked with people. I remember a man came one night. He says brother bill I want so I want so much to enter into an overcoming Christian life But he said, you know, I've been searching my heart and I can't find anything that's wrong there He said why won't God fill me with the Holy Spirit? What's that? Have you ever asked him to show you? He said no That's why we get down and pray and so we did and dear people I'll guarantee that God showed at least 12 different things in his life that were wrong After he prayed the prayer search me Oh God He waited and the Holy Spirit began to work and I heard him confessing this and confessing that and confessing something else and on and on it went He was not aware of them But the Holy Spirit was and God was willing to show him when he was willing to pray this honest prayer