Leonard Ravenhill preaches about the profound need for divine intervention in a world filled with spiritual deadness and despair. He emphasizes the importance of recognizing our desperate condition without God, likening it to the storm that arose while Jesus was in the boat, and how He arose to calm the storm. Ravenhill calls for a revival of faith and a deeper understanding of God's majesty, urging believers to treasure their relationship with Him and to reach out to those who are spiritually lost. He illustrates the transformative power of Jesus through the stories of the demon-possessed man and the woman with the issue of blood, highlighting that true healing and restoration come from a personal encounter with Christ. The sermon concludes with a call for believers to share their testimonies of God's greatness and to seek a deeper relationship with Him.

Father, tonight that before thine ever blazing throne, we have and we ask no lust of our own. Lord, we thank you that you hear our feeble call, our cries, our very spasmodic, as it were, adoration. We are glad, Lord, there's a company in your presence who cease not to say by day or night, holy, holy, holy. Lord, we need to rediscover more of your majesty, more of your glory, more of your awesome presence. Lord, I cannot help but think as we sing this song of the millions today who have bowed down to idols of wood and stone. They've called from broken hearts to stone images that have no hearts. They've cried with loud voices into ears, stone ears that cannot hear. They've cried for help to hands that cannot move. They've called for deliverance and the feet of stone they cannot come. Lord God, help us to treasure our light. We want to thank you for tonight for every good and perfect gift. We want to thank you tonight for the precious blood. And all the people said, and we thank you for the precious book. And all the people said, we thank you for a hope that we have. And all the people said, we thank you, Lord, that you redeemed us. You bought us not with corruptible things such as silver and gold. We thank you tonight for the permanent offering Jesus made that once in the end of the age, he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. He didn't need the Virgin Mary. He didn't need cherubim to help him. He gathered all human sin and all human iniquity. We think of the Lord Jesus staggering up the hill to Calvary, not just bending over a load of wood, but bending over billions of sins, because the word says the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. Lord, it will take eternity to fathom that. We wonder why, as the hymn says, thou didst not spare thine only son, but gavest him for a world undone. And freely with that blessed one thou gavest all. We lose what on ourselves we spend. We have our treasure without end. Whatever, Lord, to thee we lend, who givest all. Lord, give us an expansion in our hearts. The psalmist prayed, enlarge my heart. Lord, enlarge us that we may hold more capacity for your grace, more capacity for your compassion, more compassion for a dying world. Lord, we thank you tonight. We can really sing, he lives within my heart. But Lord, we think of millions in our own country, as the hymn says, fast bound in sin and nature's night. They're just as dark as though they were somewhere up the Amazon. They have education and that illumination and social standing, but there's a center in them, an area in them that's dead. It has no relationship to God. Lord God, make us conscious we're walking amongst, we're walking amongst dead people who are walking. They walk, they see, they buy, they sell, they eat, they do all their things, but Lord, they've no living relationship with the living God, therefore they're not living, they're still dead in trespasses and in sin. And that word grips me so often, Lord. Lately, they're without hope. No wonder they commit suicide. No wonder they do the devilish things. They have no hope either in this world or the next. Lord, their eyes are blind, their intellects are still dull. Lord, you must awaken, we can't awaken them by argument, by logic, by preaching, by threatening. Lord, it's your operation. We long for the Holy Ghost to come, Lord. I think of the time when you came in the great American revival in, I don't know, under Jonathan Edwards there, in the 1600s, 1674 or something. And he says that people down the street visibly were under conviction. Their faces were drawn as if in pain. They were in pain. They were in soul pain. They were in guilt pain. They were in condemnation pain. And yet, Lord, you use some very simple men to awaken them. Lord, this is the greatest need we have in our nation. We need an awakening. We need a divine intervention. Lord, all our crusades and operations, they're just little drops in a bucket. As the hymn writer says, thou must save and thou alone. Lord, there's no help outside of your majesty, outside of your mercy, outside of your grace. Lord, we thank you for hearing us tonight. We bless you that we're accepted in the beloved even at this moment. We thank you, Lord, as we've already sung tonight, we know in whom we have believed and we're persuaded that he's able to keep that which we've committed unto him against that day. Breathe on your word afresh tonight, Lord. Come with holy assistance as we pray. Lord, we don't know how to pray as we ought. We can bring needs and situations, but Lord, we want the spirit of God to birth something in us tonight. Lord, make this a birth chamber, I pray. Again, we ask thee, make this meeting a tragedy to the devil. Lord, as he looks down or wherever in the world he is, Lord, when he looks here, he'll say there's one spot covered with blood and I can't get victory in that area, but our lives are covered with that same precious blood. Lord, we thank you again. Thank you for the precious people who've come tonight. Again, quicken your word to our hearts in Jesus name. Thank you. I was thinking that while I was praying, you know, when Napoleon was conquering Europe, he conquered so many different countries, but on the map, England, which is a place I've visited, and that England is always red. It's in flaming red on the map. And one day when his warlords were telling him what to do, he said, except for that red spot there, I could conquer the world. You know, I like to think of that. The devil looks at Calvary and says, if it were not for that red spot, I could conquer the world. Okay, let's come to the word. We're going to read this good book, part of it. The gospel recorded by Luke chapter 8. Let's read from verse 25. They've come out of that situation, the storm, you know, when the ship was being battered there. And I don't like reading that story. I'll tell you why. They were in the middle of the sea and the waves were beating the boat around. And they woke Jesus. He better sell him God asleep. It says that he couldn't sleep, he couldn't eat, because the multitude were after him. He's having a nice rest in the boat, and these poor puny little disciples go and wake him up and say, don't you care that we perish? Wouldn't you have thought they would have said, if they loved him, Lord, you're going to drown. But they were so full of me, me, me. Isn't that right? Gracious as it is, so it must be, can't you? Carest thou not that we perish? Lord, don't you concern I can't get whitewall tires for my automobile? Poor lady in grief. She said it's going to be cold. There's a frost two mornings ago, and she's looking for a fur coat and can't find it. And yet there are people at this very moment, trapped under that debris there in El Salvador, screaming for help. It's hell on the way to hell, because Catholics want to die with somebody making a sign of a cross. What does it say? Absolvo Deus, and gives them the last rites. And there they are, trapped, groaning in agony, terrified to live and terrified to die. You know, we don't know, most Americans don't know the value of America anyhow. You've got to come from Europe to find it out. And most Christians don't know the value of Christianity. You've got to come out of bondage and sorrow and night and darkness of self-righteousness and be free. Isn't it wonderful he took, he took control of the whole thing. There's another story, that version of this, it says, as they were crossing the sea, a storm arose. And in the same verse it says, but he arose, and there was a great calm. There's some divisions for a sonny to preach a message. A storm arose, he arose. Well, if Jesus still the storm here, can be still the storm in your life? Your inner storm, your domestic storm, your business storm, that's his business. Okay, verse 25. He said unto them, what is, where is your faith? And they, being afraid, wondered, saying one to another, what manner of man is this? For he commandeth even the winds and the water, and they obey him. And they arrived at the country of the Gadarenes, which is over against Galilee. And he went forth to the land. They met him out of the city, a certain man, which had devils a long time. And he wore no clothes, neither abode in any house, but in the tombs. And when he saw Jesus, he cried and fell down before him with a loud voice. I like the version in Mark 6, because it says there that he, not just he fell down, but he fell down and worshipped him. He fell down before him and said with a loud voice, what have I to do with thee? As I've said many times, that the greatest honor in the world was given to the apostle Paul, when, when those men tried to cast demons out. And the demons said, Jesus we know, and Paul we know. So many of these preachers, oh I want, I want to be rated with Billy Graham at Oral Roberts. I don't care a hill of beans about them, they're nice guys. I'm concerned what God thinks about me, not my rating in the level of evangelists. I may be the worst preacher in the world, I don't think I am, but I could be. But does it matter what rating we have of men, if God has no rating on us? Cried with a loud voice saying, what have I to do with thee, thou son of God? There was another place it said, thou holy one, thou holy one. Even devils recognize the holiness and majesty of God. What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou son of the most high? I beseech thee, torment me not. Jesus asked him saying, what is thy name? He said, it is legion, and legion means there, legion is, the minimum is five thousand, and the largest number is ten thousand. Now think, hold that for a minute. On the cross Jesus said, I could call ten legions of angels. Ten legions of ten thousand is a hundred thousand. He could have called them, but he didn't. You know, he could have done what those men said, come down from the cross, wouldn't he have been terrified if he did? You know, that's the biggest temptation to you and I, when you've made a decision to live at a certain level, come down from the cross, save yourself. Those people don't fast, those people don't sacrifice, those people don't. Well, you're not those people. God almighty's called you to something higher and nobler and purer and stronger. And if you want to live like the worms around you, that's your business, I don't. As I've told you so much, I'm tired of sick to death of mediocrity. I'm tired of preachers all on one level, using the same gimmicks, using the same gadgets. God's going to do something. I'm sure of that. Where are we now? Verse 13, Jesus asked him saying, what is thy name? He said, legion, because many devils entered into him. And they besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep. See, the devils are afraid of him. Don't command us to go out into the deep. And there was a herd of swine feeding on the mountain, and they besought him that he would suffer them to enter into them. And he suffered them. Then went the devils after the man and entered into the swine. Well, I'll tell you why swine are smarter than men. As soon as these hogs found they had the devil in them, they all committed suicide. Weren't they smart? The man had lived with the devil in him for years. As soon as these things felt this horrible power in them, they all fled and committed suicide. What happened? Something wonderful. They ran into a steep place into the lake and were choked. When they that fed them saw what was done, they fled. Why did they flee? Why were they afraid? They fled in the city and they went into the country. And they went out to see what was done. And Jesus came. And they came to Jesus and found the man out of whom the devils were departed, sitting at his feet, clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. What's wrong with them? They're afraid of the man when he's full of demons. They're afraid of him when he's full of God. The most dangerous man in the world is a man filled with God. A man that's linked to omnipotence. He links his impotence to God's omnipotence. And there's an unbiblical code, as the man's voice said, unbiblical code of life from the Lord to me and to you. So what did he do? They were afraid. They fled and went into the city. They found the man sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed in his right mind. Isn't that wonderful? He'd been happy to live in tombs. Dear Lord, what a place to live. Some people don't live in them. They just go once a week, Sundays. I've told you, I believe that when I look at it, not tonight, but the average church, when I see rows of people, it's death row. It's rows and rows of dead people. They've got religion. They take communion. They pay their tithes. They talk about, but they're dead. They've got no living relationship with God. The church couldn't be in the condition it's in if every so-called church member was really born again of the Spirit of God. It's a supernatural life. Notice it says that when he was running around in the tombs, he was naked. As soon as he gets sober and sensible, he gets clothed. Do you know what happens in foreign countries? They tell me, Mrs., I went in New Guinea, and I went up through the country, and there were tribes there with hardly a g-string on. But you know, as soon as they get saved, they want covering. Now in America, the more stylish you are, the less clothes you wear. See these kids on football, painting their faces like savages? And these daredevil groups that, I don't listen to rock music, but there's such a horrible, horrible fever a bit around the country. And God won't put up with that much longer. What happens? Verse 37, the whole multitude of the country of the gatherings, they rallied the crowd, and they besought him, and treated him to depart from them. Why? What had he done? He'd taken a man who'd been a menace, a man that didn't sleep, because he's leaping in the tombs, and he'll do all kinds of devilish things, and now that man's been soldered and brought. Are they turning him out of the city because he healed the man? No. What are they turning him out of the city for? Because he destroyed their property. They were running hogs, and they were not allowed to have hogs as Jews. And so Jesus went, and he destroyed all their capital, if you like to put it that way. He told all them, spoiled all their material possessions, and they were furious about it. You know, it's a strange world. If you do good, you get murdered. If you do evil, you get murdered. It's a world of insane people. You know, it was a communist that first said to me, Leonard, I know what you stand for. I want to tell you one thing, theologically. It's the only thing he ever told me. He said, to be insane is to be insane. Now you could go to a theological cemetery and not learn that. To be in sin is to be insane, and it is. What sin is profitable? Why do people cling to sin? Why do they buy it? Why do they sell it? Why do they eat it? Why do they drink it? Why do they plan their lives around it? They're mesmerized by it. This poor man is possessed of evil spirits, and he's not ashamed to be naked. He's not ashamed to do the things he's done. But once he gets clothed and in his right mind, he's totally an acceptable, wonderful man. But they lost all their property, they get Jesus out of here. You know, we say Jesus comes, he's a prince of peace. Jesus comes to bring a sword. He divides people. He divides families. I've told you before, a very, when we had a crusade in the city of Bath in England, we had some aristocratic girls. Some of them had danced in Buckingham Palace, and they were related to royalty and whatnot. One very lovely young lady came to the altar one Saturday night. I preached on Psalm 51. Mary Barton. And she knelt there, you know, so stiff, and with her hands up, and prayed. I asked her what she wanted. She wanted to get saved. She got saved. What did she do? She wouldn't drink sherry before dinner. She didn't want to smoke. She didn't want to go to the county ball. She didn't want to go with the upper crust of society. A mother came to see me a month after, said, what have you done to my daughter? I said, nothing. What did I do to her anyhow? Well, she's been a good communicant in the Church of England all these years. And now, she doesn't want to do anything. When she comes home, she won't take drinks with us. She doesn't want to play cards. She's not sociable. What's wrong with her? I said, it's not wrong with her. It's you. I said, she's been put in a right mind. And you're the problem. She hasn't a problem. You know that girl went to Afghanistan. I think when I hear the news, she went there and labored for about 10 years in the most difficult situations. She went to the poorest hospital in London, and people didn't know who she was. I was preaching in London at a Catholic convention, I think it was. A lady came to me, and I'd made reference to this lady, said, was that girl's name? Mary Barton, I said, yes. She said, well, she was my roommate at the hospital. It's an old Jewish hospital in the slummy areas of London. She was my roommate for three years and never gave me a clue that she was a society girl, that she'd studied music. She'd studied under one of the modern masters in Belgium, painting. And she'd had all the benefits of it. Never said a thing about it. And yet she said there was something when she was in the room, there was a presence there. A presence without saying a thing. Good night. That girl, I think, had worn the most fashionable clothes ever. About, what, couple of years or more that we were in Bath, I never saw anything spectacular on her tone. Just a radiance. You know, around Bath there are seven hills, and I held a street meeting on Saturday. I had to go to the police court about it two or three times. And Thursday afternoon, and you know what I'd do? I'd look for these American soldiers coming, and Polish soldiers, and French soldiers, and English, and I'd put Mary Barton up on the box. Boy, was she beautiful, you see, wasn't she? And Mary would stand there and give a testimony how for years she'd been so self-righteous and prayerless, and the Bible was like a mouthful of sand. And I'd come into a living, loving relationship with him, her face radiated. And guys would halfway, walk halfway through the ring and look up at her, and she'd stand there and just tell how beautifully her life had been transformed. She had no criminal record. She had no record of drugs. She was as clean and upright as a girl, in any girl in the world. But she said, I found there was a vacuum in there. There was an emptiness. There was some space that only God could fill. But I'll tell you when it came, she went through the offices and the admiralty with the upper crust of the British Navy, and really bore witness for the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that, that isn't in the authorized version, but it's good. Now what happens to this fellow? He was 38. Now when the man out of whom the devil had been cast, came to him, that he might be with him, but Jesus sent him away. Wouldn't it be nice if you could live in meetings all the time? He wanted to become an extra disciple. Oh, if I could live with you Lord, I could get victory. If I could just stay around here. But it's when I get outside, well that's the test, isn't it, of character? Test of our spirituality, test of our strength, test of our vision, test of our qualities. Oh Lord, could I stay with you? Jesus says, no, go about your business. Go home and tell the folk there what's happened. Return to thine own house, verse 39, and show how great things God hath done unto thee. And he went his way and published throughout the whole city what great things God had done for him. But what's the result when we read it? Behold, there came a man by the name of Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue, and he fell down at Jesus' feet. Do you notice he always fall at his feet? And asked him, he would come to his house, he had one daughter, one daughter, only one daughter, and she was 12 years of age, and she lay dying. But as he went, the people thronged him, and a woman having an issue of blood, 12 years, which has spent all her life, see that? The little girl was 12 years of age, she got 12 years of joy, 12 years of love, 12 years of happiness in her home, and suddenly she's dying. Now you have the opposite here, you have a woman with an issue of blood. The Greek word there is hemorrhaging, she was hemorrhaging blood. And it doesn't look too dramatic when you see it here, in the King James or some other version. This woman had an issue of blood for 12 years. Do you know what that means? In the Jewish economy, if you read the book of Leviticus, a woman with an issue of blood was an outcast. She could not go to the temple or the synagogue, she was unclean, she looked unclean, she smelled unclean, her husband divorced her, she can't go to her family, she can't go to her friends, she's like a leper walking with his hands up and shaking a bell and saying unclean, unclean. This is one of the best known women in town. Don't you think maybe that Jairus was a bit irritated? My daughter's lying there dead and you're bothering with this dirty scum? Everybody knows this woman. She should be put out of the way entirely, put her in the valley, down in the valley where Jesus was crucified before he went there. Where all the unclean are. She had an issue of blood 12 years and not only had she difficulty, not only had she misery, she had poverty because she sold everything she had in order to pay doctors. Mark is very strong about that. Mark had a kind of contempt for doctors, I think. But they'd spent, she'd spent all her money, one physician, another physician, running everywhere. And finally she comes to Jesus. I'm going to read verse 43 again. The woman having an issue of blood 12 years, spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any of them. And she came behind him. I like that. Why did she come? This woman would never go in a crowd. She had to walk at the other side of the road. Everybody says look she's coming, this dirty vile woman. She's been put out of the synagogue, out of the temple, out of her home, out of her family. It was, she was ostracized on every simple level, spiritual and social and every other way. Why did she come to Jesus? Well I think, I'll tell you what I think, I'm sure I'm right. Because in verse 39 again, the man who was being healed of demons or cleansed of demons, he published throughout the city, the whole city. I imagine he stands in the market square and somebody says, you know I've seen that man, he's usually gashed, he cuts himself with stones. He used to be naked, his body was all torn. Notice his eyes sag, notice the marks on his body, he's bruised himself, afflicted himself, the devils have tormented. And there he is standing and saying, that man Jesus that you don't like. Don't you think that he kind of got a kick when he saw the big old fat priest there, and priests are usually fat anyhow. And he saw the priest there, and he saw the scribes, and he saw the pharisees. And he says, I want to tell you, Jesus done it. Your religion is sterile, your theology is stagnant. Oh you read with sonorous terms in the temple, the 35th chapter of Isaiah, that when he's come the eyes of the blind will be open, the ears of the deaf unstop, the lame will leap as a heart, the tongue of the dumb shall sing. And when he does it, you turn on him. This is a very son of God. They say, go to hell, we don't want you. And it's like that today. It's still people will not come to Christ, but they may have life. They've got a substitute. They've got a little bit of something called pleasure and satisfaction. But you see, these were real deliverances. She came behind him, I like that. She didn't get in front of him, as much as say, you're not getting by till you do something for me. She didn't say a word to him. She didn't bring him a gift. In the 7th chapter, you have one of the most beautiful stories in the Bible, where the woman brought an alabaster box of ointment, and again came to his feet. And remember, he turned and rebuked Peter, the man who had been a leper and been healed. And he said, I entered your house, you gave me no water, you gave me no kiss, you didn't do anything for my feet. But this woman, since the moment I came in, I've not ceased to kiss my feet. Wash them, she said. I'll wash his feet, sure I will, not with water, with tears. I'll give him my alabaster box of ointment, and she put it on his feet as well as his head. And then she took her hair and dried his feet with the hair of her head. What happened? The fragrance she poured out on him came back on her. You know, very often we don't come out of the sanctuary or the closet with any halo around us. We don't stay long enough. We burden everything, throw it all on God, and he's waiting to say, get my ear and say something to me. He needs me to come with some power of another world on me, with an authority from another world, with a message from another world. Unless we do, this generation's going to hell and going quickly. She came behind him and touched the board of his garment. I looked up one of the old references, and it said that the the priest used to wear a long garment, then he wore a scarf, and he threw the scarf over his shoulder, and there were tassels on it. Because in Leviticus, it said the priest must have a blue tassel. And this, this writer said, you know, this woman came up behind him and touched that tassel. She didn't do anything of the kind. The scripture said she touched the hem of his garment. How in the world did she get there? I mean, the crowd around. Jesus says, who touched me? And besides, look, are you crazy? Look at this crowd jostling you. Everybody's knocking, trying to get near you. You're the greatest man in the world, they're trying to touch. You know, you can be in a crowd and never touch Jesus. You can go to a meeting. I'm sentient enough to know, I'm not much, I'm sentient enough to know that God wouldn't arrange a meeting like this, or if I preach to a thousand or two thousand people, I've said this, there's one man in this meeting that God wants. The rest of you close your ears if you like. This is God's appointment with one man in this meeting. We look for crowds. Where do they go after we've got all our decisions? But let God speak to a man. He'd never forget that meeting. I meet people now who say, I remember you preached so many years ago. Do you remember me? How in the world do you remember all the faces? No, I don't. Well, you remember that night you preached on so-and-so, you preached on so-and-so, you preached on so-and-so. You know, we can talk, but only God does the speaking. There's a crowd, but I don't believe Jesus ever looked at a crowd as a mob. He looked at them as a group of needy individuals. He didn't see the mass, he saw the individual. He doesn't see the mass here tonight, he sees an individual. He knows every shade of obedience or disobedience in us. He knows every degree of faith or unbelief in us. There's nothing hidden from him. This woman came. How did she come? Well, let me look here in chapter 6 and verse 8. Chapter 6 verse 8 says, He knew their thoughts and said to the man which had a withered hand right up, He knew their thoughts. Remember the other scripture says, He knew what was in man. This woman is behind him, he knows her thoughts, he knows, he feels the vibes, if you want to say that. He knows she's coming, she's coming with a worshipping heart, an adoring heart. She doesn't go to anybody else. Again, she doesn't speak to him, he doesn't speak to her. He doesn't say, well, you're a foolish woman, you had a fortune and you spent it, you've been going to physician year after year after year after year until you're totally bankrupt. Look at your body, it's withered and look at your face. You're in a wretched condition, you're weak and you're wicked and you're an outcast of society. But he says, Who touched me? I remember the first time I went to a meeting of Miss Kuhlman and she had a voice, good night, worse than mine. A voice like a rope under a door. And she stood there and she said, He touched me. I thought, oh, who's who talking? But I'll tell you what, it moved me. I'd never heard that song before. He touched me, oh, he touched me. You know that song? He touched me, oh, he touched me. And all the joy that, something happened, something happened. And now I know, he touched me and made me whole. Can you sing the verse, shackled by a heavy burden, you know it? Shackled by a heavy burden, then the hand of Jesus touched me. And stand up, really sing it. He touched me. Jesus said, Somebody has touched me for I perceive that virtue has gone out of me. It's also translated power. It's also translated life. This woman spent everything she had trying to find life. Well, again, how did she get there? If she touches the hem of his garment behind him, she must have pushed past the men and women that were there, determined. You see, this is a case of desperation. This is where God is bringing a lot of us. He's going to bring the nation to desperation before long, financially. He's going to bring us more and more to desperation, where meetings won't satisfy us. It'll have to be the living God in the midst of a people, with the living word, and the living resurrected Christ speaking, so that every meeting vibrates with eternity. What do you think she felt like? Immediately, she touched him, and divine life, holy life, eternal life, quickened that mortal body. I guess it was like touching, I don't know about voltage, what a hundred, how many volts would give you a shock? You don't know. What an ignorant crowd. Anybody know? Bracey, you should know, smart boy like you. Oh, thank you. Okay, flashlight battery. But anyhow, do you think she could touch the living Christ of God, who is the way, the truth, and the life, who came that we might have life? You know, he throws his arms out, and Wesley says, the arms of love that compass me would all mankind embrace. And remember what Jesus, one of the sayings that he had was, him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out. He's healed a man full of devils, he's gone to Jairus, his daughter, and healed her, showed his power over death, and he comes to this woman and purifies her. Now look in the ninth chapter, at the end of the last one, the previous, the verse at the end says that, verse 55, a spirit came again, she rose straightway, and he commanded them to give her meat. And her parents were astonished, but he charged them they should tell no man. Then, next verse one of chapter nine, then he called the twelve disciples, and gave them power and authority over devils, and to cure diseases. And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick. Come on now, not pray for the sick, heal them. I've seen God do many miracles, and I'm hungry for them in one sense, but I want to see that God do the greater miracle. I want him to raise up people who are dead, incestuous, and in sin. People who are tormented with demons of lust, demons of, of drugs, and every other demon. But you see why he had authority was this, he'd done it all in front of their eyes. He isn't giving them a theory. The woman doesn't care to him and say, I know you've done many things, uh, will you be holding a healing seminar next week? I'd like to come. She can't fool around with that. She's got a desperate need. For 12 years she's been haunted day and night with a, and she's been cast out, as I say, from the temple, divorced her husband, lost her family, and she's an object of scorn as well as pity. This is my one chance. I don't care what they do. Don't you think she was a marked woman ever after that? Don't you think she was marked for two reasons? Number one, she dared to do what no women did. She pushed through the crowd and touched the greatest man living in the world, the son of God, and said, but I'm desperate, there's only one place. You know, I want to see conviction of sin where people can't sleep. I'd rather pray, keep people away with prayer. It's better than they don't sleep for five nights and spend five billion years in hell not sleeping. I've been so disturbed, moved, broken, reading about hell, nobody preaches about it anymore. I listened to a tape of Jimmy Swaggart's the other day, good guy, and he says, you know, at the present moment there's more immorality in the churches in America than ever in history, and he's right. But he's wrong in his premise because he says this, the reason of that is they've lost view of the rapture. There's thousands, there's millions of people believe in the rapture who've got divorced, they're living in sin, they drink wine, they do worldly things. It isn't the rapture that we've lost sight of. What does the word of God say? There's no fear of the rapture before their eyes. There's no fear of God before their eyes. We've lost sight of his holiness. We're like Bernard Shaw, we don't say it, but he says I accept God on unequal terms. But God could snuff out my breath and your breath like that and he wouldn't miss us. But Jesus has shown his power. He's fulfilled every prophecy that was made of him again, particularly that 35th chapter of Isaiah which I love so much. When he's come the eyes of the blind shall be opened. He has power over demons, he has power over death, he has power over disease. Well I don't know brother Bracey, I guess you'd agree with me anyhow. I don't believe the church should ever have lost that power. I don't believe every meeting has to be a healing meeting, not in the sense of physically every meeting should be a healing meeting. It should heal us where we have grief and where we have doubt and where we have injuries, where the devil has been booting us around. But Jesus says I give you power. He gave it to the twelve. He gave them power and authority over all devils to cure diseases and he sent them to preach the gospel of the kingdom and to heal the sick. Let me go back a minute to the end of verse 47. She declared unto him before all, oh wait a minute, verse 47. When the woman saw that she was not hid, when she suddenly realized I'm exposed anyhow, I'll go the second mile, I'll fall down before him. It says what? Falling down it's the same word that's used there in Mark 6 that she fell to worship him. She's overcome. But listen here's the electrifying thing. Falling down before him she declared unto him before all the people for what the cause she had touched him and she was healed immediately. Now look here's this crowd looking on and someone says I wouldn't touch that woman with my foot. She's the dirtiest, vilest, rottenest woman we've ever had in this city. She deserves to be an outcast. And what does Jesus do? Well she got cleansed but she needed more than that. What did she need more than cleansing? She needed receiving. I love to read that story of the woman that went to the sepulcher early in the morning and she thought it was the gardener. She's supposing it was the gardener. She thought he wasn't there and he was. When they lost Jesus coming from the temple they supposed he was there and he wasn't. She supposedly wasn't there and he was. But can you imagine a woman going into a spooky cemetery? I don't like cemeteries. I guess most women wouldn't be found there too often. She goes in the darkness and somebody moves and he gave her name he said Mary. Nobody said Mary in the whole world like he said it. There's somebody can say your name that makes all the difference. Just the way they say it. And he said Mary and she said Rabboni. Oh boy she was electrified. It's him he's risen. Jesus turns to this leprous woman if you want to put it that way. This social outcast, this religious outcast, this domestic outcast. Immediately he touched him she was healed. But the bonus is here he turned to her and he said daughter. Don't you think that electrified her? My daddy won't hold me as his daughter and yet this holy man says daughter. He's not only cleansed me he's received me. Well I think it's consistent with the as the big shots say contextually. Don't you think after this this woman's prayer life was revolutionized? I only ever prayed once as I was kneeling there behind him he didn't even look at me. What do you think she felt when she turned around and saw that holy face and saw the smile and when he smiled and said daughter. She doesn't care what the rest of the world thinks now. Let the pharisees laugh. Let them say she's unclean. Let the social people say you're an outcast. She said I'm his daughter he's received me. As the hymn says if I ask him to receive me will he say me nay? Not till earth and not till heaven pass away. This must have been the most exciting day in her life. She brings no gifts she has no arguments. But Jesus says I perceived that when I when she touched me not the people that jolted me she came with faith she came with expectation. He knew what was in her he didn't need to look behind he knew what was in her. He knows what's in you tonight. He knows what's in me tonight. He knows our secret desire. He knows our motives. There's a hymn that talks about the chambers where polluted things hold empire over soul. There's not a single thing in your life and mine which isn't just totally unveiled before him at this very moment. And yet there she is as I say with all her transgressions and all the mess she's in and suddenly that life goes flowing into her. And she's hardly got over the shock of that when he says daughter. Is there anything more wonderful? How often do you say I'm part of a royal priesthood and a holy nation? And yet what happened? It didn't matter whatever Jesus did nobody liked him. You know everybody's these days wants acceptance. Well I don't I love rejection. For if I'm accepted with that bunch I'm not much good. I wouldn't like to be like any of them. I'm quite willing to be an outcast. It doesn't make any difference. Some churches won't have me. That's okay. If I'd been married twice and I was a film star they'd have me. But I just happen to be an ordinary guy you know. An amtat three wives and all this other junk. You know the most popular unpopular thing in the world today is truth. It isn't heresy that divides people it's truth. He was the essence of truth and they wouldn't have him. They beseeched him the antithesis. Go out of our coast. You can't have revival without upsetting the economy. When dear old Billy Sunday was around there everybody knew you know he used to pick up a chair on the platform and smash it over his knee and say I'd do that with a brewery system if I could. But nobody gets mad about the brewery. Everybody's on one binge now. It's always drugs. And yet liquor is killing more people than drugs in the nation anyhow. But they beseech him get out of town. I've told you after the third night of preaching in his tent Billy Sunday had to have a police escort to get in the pulpit and a police escort to get out. But nobody fears us now. Do you think people are afraid of a guy on a tv screen? Not on your life. They can press the button switch him off anyhow. I know people like to do that with me but I still keep going. But I'll tell you what we don't we don't celebrate as we should celebrate. That he took out uncleanness. There's a scripture I don't know brother Bracey you preach on it sometime. It pleased the Lord to bruise him. It pleases the Lord to bruise me sometimes to find what I'm made of. Not to prove me to God to prove me to myself. All the vows all the statements all the commitments that I've made about my strength and my confidence in God. And if things just just don't go my right way then what do I do? Go sour? No. He doesn't say he touched anybody else in the crowd does he? Doesn't say anybody else touched him. But she was so desperate she said I don't care what they'll say I'll get a worse name at the end of the day. I'm going up behind this holy man as they say. And she comes up and pushes her way through the crowd. They can smell her coming she stinks she's horrible and she touches him. And he says who touched me virtue went out of me. I remember one day we were having dinner with Miss Coleman and we were talking about preaching. And I said well uh oh she said last night after that big meeting there've been some thousands there. Oh I felt like a rag. Oh many people are healed. I felt I needed healing. She said I don't know what's wrong with me. I said there's nothing wrong with you. She said well Dr. Ravenhill. I'm not a doctor but she gave me one. I said well she said Dr. Ravenhill what do you mean? I said will you turn up platform about three hours? He had words of