In this sermon, the preacher shares a story about a man who faced criticism and threats but remained faithful to hearing from God. He preached a powerful message that led to a manifestation of the Holy Spirit in the church, resulting in people running to the altar to be saved and filled with the Spirit. The preacher emphasizes that hearing from God comes at a cost and compares it to the life of Hudson Taylor, a great man of God. The sermon concludes with a plea for revival in America, acknowledging that while revival can temporarily solve problems, the ultimate solution lies in the coming of Christ.

The text tonight is in the Epistle of James. The Epistle of James. I have an almost incurable habit of, let me say that again, I have an almost incurable habit of reading the Bible. And I think after reading the Bible that one of the most profitable studies is to discover how God has made men. We're going to start tomorrow morning. We did not start this morning on the Epistle to the Hebrews, chapter 11, and see how God made men. It's a very fascinating study. The lives of many great men have been written in two volumes. Begbie wrote a very fascinating life of the founder of the Salvation Army, William Booth. He was half-Jewish, half-Gentile. He established the Salvation Army in a worldwide revival that began in 1865 and went into seventy countries in less than ninety years. It was a very fascinating life of the founder of the China Inland Mission, Hudson Taylor, Dr. Hudson Taylor. The first volume is called The Growth of the Soul, which is the explanation of the life of the man. The second volume is called The Growth of the Work, which is the development of the China Inland Mission. I don't think it's very difficult to write the life of a person in two volumes, if you have enough information and you have enough words. But I'm quite sure in my own mind that God alone could write the life story of one of the greatest men that ever crossed the bridge of time, in two words. And this is what God does when he writes the life story of this fantastic man, the prophet Elijah. Because it says here in the end of the Epistle of James, summarizes his life, verse 17, the middle of verse 17, he prayed. Isn't that wonderful? His whole life, the life of a man who could strangle the economy of a nation, subdue kingdoms, terrify kings, raise the dead. You name it, he did it. He lived in a realm that we don't live in anymore, hardly. He lived in the realm of the supernatural. And yet God condenses his whole life into two words he prayed. Why doesn't it say any more? Because you can't say any more about any man. I don't care how eloquent he is, I don't care how big his bus service is in his church, I don't care how many degrees he has. As I said last night, if you're not numb in hell, as far as I'm concerned, preacher, you're a failure. I don't care if you have 50,000 people in your church. And in case you think this man was not a normal man, he was very normal. Oh, I can prove that two ways, because the Scripture says so. He was a man of like passions as we are, and the other proof is that he stood up to 800 men and ran away from one woman. So that shows you he was pretty normal. He had nerves, sinews, emotions. This man is one of the rare breed. He's tagged as a prophet. Prophets are God's emergency men for crisis hours. The schoolmen of the church have divided them into two classes. Minor prophets, major prophets. And yet some of the minor prophets said some major truths. There are only three chapters in that book, that wonderful little prophetic book of the minor prophet Habakkuk, Habakkuk if you like. And I was reading it today because, you see, there's a common denominator about these men who are called prophets. They were never successful in the eyes of the world. They were never popular. Nobody wanted their autograph. Nobody took their photograph. They were not only brave men, they were burdened men. You find this repeatedly amongst these men, and this is how the prophecy of Habakkuk begins. The burden which Habakkuk, the prophet, did see. Oh Lord, how long shall I cry? And how wilt thou not hear even, and wilt thou not hear even the cry? When I cry out unto thee of violence, wilt thou not save? Why dost thou show me iniquity and cause me to behold grievance? For spoiling and violence are before me, and they are they that raise up strife and contention. Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth, for the wicked doth compass about the righteous. Therefore wrong judgment precedeth. And he finishes up at the end of the third chapter in one of the bleakest spots, with the most terrible expressions in the whole of divine revelation. He says, for the fig tree shall not blossom, and not having no fruit in the vine, and the labour of the olive shall fail, and the field shall yield no meat, and the hurl shall be cut off from the stall. Now there's blackness compounded. There's death, desolation, destruction, everything to terrify him. And yet as he finishes, he says, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Hebrew says, I will shout aloud his praise, and I'll dance in the presence of a holy God. Even though it's as black as midnight. Oh, he comes through with some light, because he says there in the, in chapter 2 and verse 14, he sees right at the end of the tunnel, the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, and the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Now he's the same breed of man as Elijah. And I hardly ever preach on Elijah, but somebody comes up and says, now you forgot one thing. I forget many things as I'm getting old. There are three signs of old age. One, loss of memory. I can't remember the other two. But as you get older, you get kind of mental lapses, and sometimes I skip things. I don't finish what I intended to say. But, let me say this, this man Elijah again. He's outstanding. He's a giant amongst men. There's no major prophecy of Isaiah, there's no minor prophecy of Elijah for sure. And somebody says, remember after Elijah came Elisha. Elisha did twice as many miracles, raised twice as many dead, he prayed for a double portion of the Spirit, so forth and so on. Right. But God is never called the God of Elisha, he's called the God of Elijah. If you went to a Jewish home on certain seasons, and they were celebrating one of the Old Testament feasts, if there were 14 people in the house, there would be 15 chairs and the door would be left open. If you ask why the door is left open and why there's an extra chair, they say because Elijah may come. You remember when John the Baptist came, they didn't say this is Elisha, they said this is Elijah. When Jesus died on the cross, they said he calls for Elijah. The last two witnesses at the end of the Revelation are, one of them is Elijah. On the Mount of Transfiguration they beheld, I wonder how they knew, they have no photograph. But Peter and John said there's Moses and there's Elijah. He's always there. He's one of God's supermen. And it's true, he didn't have an advance party, didn't have any double nets and alligator shoes like the modern evangelist, didn't need a million dollars to stir a city. He learned, I think, what we need to rediscover, that one man with God is a majority. He came onto the stage of the Old Testament. You remember how he came, every Sunday school child knows that. And I'm not going to suggest that you read it tonight, but read it when you go home. Fifty-eight years before he came there had been a dividing of the kingdom. Then there had been a succession of kings. Each king did more iniquity, the second did more evil than the first, the third did more evil than the second, the sixth did more evil than the fifth. The last one, Ahab, did not do more evil than the king before him, he did more evil than all the aggregate iniquity of all the kings before him. If you want to read, give a summary of this, read it when you go home, the end of the 16th chapter of the first book of Kings. And you'll find that the whole nation was just swept with an awful tidal wave of impurity, iniquity, and idolatry, and impurity. And then, as the Irish would say, to make bad worse, though God said that the city of Jericho should not be rebuilt, they rebuilt the city of Jericho and laid it in the foundation of their own blood. And then to defy God again, it seems that Ahab decided he would marry a woman of another group, another nation, that God said should not be done. And the wicked woman Ahab, pardon me, the wicked woman that married Ahab, Jezebel, got into authority. And just as you might put the lights out one by one and plunge the nation into darkness, she did exactly that. She got on the throne. She chased the priests away. There could have been a moment when this man could have said in despair, when every preacher ran away, I even, I only am left. Instead of that, he braced himself and said, not I even only am left, but God and I are left. He couldn't even put his finger on the word of God. If two of you shall agree, and if he could, he couldn't find anybody else to agree with him anyhow. All the preachers had run away. I wouldn't give you a dollar for the whole six thousand of them. The enemy had come in like a flood. But the spirit of the Lord was to lift up a standard against him. All the iniquity had been done that could be done. The evil had been compounded. This woman is in the place of a poverty. She's got everything where she wants it. But she miscalculated because there was one man still left. Now whatever else they did about Elijah, they may have scorned him, they may have criticized him, they may have hated him, but they never laughed at him. They knew he had too much power with God. And I don't know how he did it, but maybe they were looking for some flowers in the garden and suddenly this rugged, ragged little man came and put his finger up and he said, there's going to be no rain according to my word. You see, if you keep emphasizing be filled with the Spirit, be filled, right, be filled with the Spirit. The same word that says be filled with the Spirit says be angry. The trouble is most of us get angry over things that shouldn't disturb us that much. Just your children do something, you get blazing mad. Something goes wrong in the church, but iniquity can abound. You see this nation again, I say, was parallel with the nation that we're in right now. Evil was done in a flagrant, boastful, wicked way. It was no longer done in a corner, it was done openly. Before long there'll be X-rated films on TV. I say tonight what I said yesterday, if you were not here, that if you and I were as spiritual as we think we are with all your talk about the Holy Ghost, you'd have come to God's house tonight in sackcloth with a handful of ashes to put on your unworthy head. So would I. No nation has risen as rapidly as America, no nation has fallen as quickly. Pro-later we have more alcoholics than any other nation in the world, we have more drug addicts, we have more illegitimate children, we have more kids under 15 with venereal disease. We've legislated the devilish thing, abortion. The devilish thing. I'd like to see some Christian kids parading somewhere up in Washington against some of the devilish things that go on. Oh, we'll shout from the pulpit. I find a lot of preachers who are very brave in the pulpit, but cowards when they get out of it. Afraid we might lose our jobs. Afraid we might upset a few deacons. Maybe it was to the advantage of Elijah he didn't have a pastor, didn't have any deacons he could offend or please, and if he had he wouldn't have cared anyhow. The enemy has come in like a flood, this woman thinks she's got everything there in the grip. And this man looks out, they've rebuilt altars to Ashcroft, they've rebuilt the city, God should, and he's angry. Smoke ascends every day from altars and it stinks in the nostrils of God. Does that worry us? Not on your life. We put our arms around people. We say today it doesn't matter whether you're in the Church of Rome or not, as long as you get the baptism, let's put our arms around them. Well if you're going to have Pentecostal Catholics you've got to have Pentecostal Mormons and Pentecostal Jehovah's Witnesses and Pentecostal Spiritists. Who are you to divide the sheep from the goats? If you take one take the lot. But as far as I'm concerned they're all heretics anyhow if they don't abide by the word of the Living God. And the day is coming when the Church of Rome will strangle her. She hasn't conceded one thing in Vatican I or Vatican II. Tell me what she's conceded. She doesn't want to share, she wants us all to become like little puppies and bow at the feet of a man they call Father. We're heading for the greatest conflict of the ages. Do you remember that when Paul went to the intellectual capital of the world which was Athens? He saw shrines, he saw temples, and he says, it says in the sleepy Elizabethan Englishes, his spirit was stirred. It says in the Amplified, which I don't like except when it agrees with me, and it says there in the Amplified that when he went down Main Street in Athens he was angry. Sure he was angry. He saw the money invested in false gods, he saw people doing obeisance to God, he saw their sacrifice, he saw their devotion. I was privileged to preach at the great Kurizar convention in Japan a few years ago. Not too long ago my dear wife and I went into a meeting because a certain man was there and he said, oh I remember you preached to us in the convention in Kurizar. I said, I remember it too. When did you leave Tokyo? Yesterday. These are great days for travel. As we conversed he said, you know I had quite an experience in Tokyo. I went in for a haircut, it's so cheap. Most things are in Japan. But he got his haircut. While the little man was snipping away at his hair he said, are you a Yankee? Well he said no, but I'm American. But he said, are you a businessman? He said no, I'm a missionary. Oh good, good, I'm a missionary too. You're a missionary? You're a barber? No, no, no. He said, cut hair in the morning, nine o'clock till five, go home and have my supper. Seven o'clock I go out, take my tracts with me, take my little phonograph with me. No he wasn't a JW, he was a member of this new religion, political religion, Sokka Gaki. He said we're going to push the Christians out of this country. Oh you can tell me how the gospel spread in South America and other countries. Do you know we've never penetrated Japan with the gospel? The missionaries have been there a hundred and three years and half of one percent of the people. Now if you want a challenge, get to Japan. If you've got an experience that can shake the world, get to Japan and manifest it. My girl, myself, who was younger, the man said I go out at seven o'clock, knock on a door, get in a hall, play my phonograph record, give them instruction, go to the next door, go to the next door, at seven o'clock at night. And I finish just before two o'clock. I try to get home for two o'clock. And then at two o'clock I go into my private chapel and I draw the curtain on one side and I sit there and I meditate on God and renew my strength from two o'clock to four. My missionary friend said I began to feel pretty bad. I don't pray like that. So I said, well how often do you do this? Every night. How long have you done it? Over six years. Every night? Every night. This is the message for the world. Christianity doesn't have it. Nobody else has it. We're going to change the whole of the East and then we're going to invade Europe and America. Here is a heathen man who believes that he has something that can solve the problem in the lives of men and women. And he gives himself up from seven at night till two in the morning and then from two to four he prays before his God, a dumb God that can't hear his broken heart. Ears that can't hear, hands that can't stir, the heart that can't feel, but he pulls out his prayer. Oh come on preacher. Come on deacon. Come on Leonard Ravenhill. Do you pray like that? Gabriel can get some of us out of bed at midnight to pray till two in the morning. We're so fat and satisfied. Got big cars and lovely homes. And people that tell us we preach better than Spurgeon. Well I know your preach is good because you steal his sermons. But apart from that, why should people think we're sincere? We only play the game of Christianity. Let's say again, are the things you are living for worth Christ dying for? Elijah is brought in everywhere you look. But when he sees the whole nation giving up to strange gods, oh we serve the gods of lust. We serve the gods of dope. We've millions of kids paralyzed with dope. We've nine million alcoholics. We've more divorced people and broken homes than any nation. It doesn't break our hearts though, does it? Broke the heart of Elijah. I don't care what anybody else does. I may be the only one left, but there is a way to God and that same God is the same wonder-working God that he's ever been. You remember he challenged the hosts of Baal. You know his life is really simple. As I said last night, the life of that wonderful man, Samson, is very simple. All they did with Samson was bind him, blind him, and grind him. And the story of this man is very simple. It's trust and obey. He goes and he says to this man and woman, there's going to be no rain. Not according to God's word, according to my word. And he's shut up heaven. You see the difference between belief and faith is, belief says it can be done, faith says it will be done. And he says, according to my word I'll shut up heaven. That's why it says in the next verse he prayed again that the heavens might still be shut up. And he shut up heaven, there's going to be no rain. And he put the key of faith in his pocket and the Lord said to him, go hide thyself. That's pretty rough, isn't it, when you've had a city-wide crusade and the when your name is the best known name in the whole nation and God says, go hide thyself. And he didn't say for how long. You see, the story is very simple. The Lord says in this chapter, go hide thyself. In the next chapter he says, go show thyself. And it's wrong to show yourself when you should hide yourself. It's wrong to hide yourself when you should show yourself. He says, I've commanded the ravens to feed thee there and I've commanded a widow woman to feed thee there. Now if the Lord says a raven is going to feed you there, and will you notice they got bread and flesh in the morning and bread and flesh in the evening. So by the scripture you only ought to have two meals a day. And so they had bread and flesh in the morning and bread and flesh in the evening. And Elijah left all the glamour. The house was shaken. The king was terrified. If there was nobody else that was feared in the nation, this woman feared the man of God anyhow. And God says, go hide thyself. That's the hardest thing. Preachers are always saying to me, you know, I want to tell you about my life. This, what do you think I should do? I say, go hide yourself. Take three months off and go in a cabin and just take your Bible. There's a wonderful little man down in South Africa. I haven't been there, but I have some invitations to go. I don't think I'll make it. So one day Dr. Tozer, my eminent mentor, was coming out, was in his office stroking a piece of paper. Not only stroking it, but he gave it a kiss. Now Tozer was not emotional. Well, he was about as emotional as a toothpick. And there he was with a piece of paper in his hand. When I went in the office, he said, I would rather have this little note from a Baptist preacher in Africa, a little black man, than a letter from the President of the United States to the King of England, the Queen of England. I gave this illustration a meeting not long ago, and a man came up to me afterwards. He's the pastor of the First Baptist Church in Spartanburg, South Carolina. And he said, that was interesting to hear you talk about Duma, because it was in my daddy's church that Duma came. He came in the meeting one night. A sinner. He hit the altar. He got wonderfully saved. There was no uncertainty. He got the Spirit. Do you remember Bunyan's pilgrim got the same thing, and he said he gave three leaps for joy. I think one for the Father, one for the Son, one for the Holy Ghost. But he said he gave three leaps for joy, because he said, I came to a place that was somewhat ascending, and I was walled on either side. And there was a cross, and the burden loosed from off my shoulders, and fell from off my back, and it went into an open sepulcher, and I beheld it no more forever. Hallelujah! Now that's what Baptist used to be like. Duma got marvelously saved. The pastor said, well it's so good to see you. Could I help you? And he said, yes sir, you could. He said, well what can I do for you? He said, give me a church. Give you a what? Give me a church. Right. A miracle just took place in my life. I came in here so burdened that my burden has gone. I came in darkness. I've received light. I was bound. I'm free. I want everybody to know. Yeah, the pastor said, we're all like that at first, you know. You know, you're thrilled to find you're one of his chosen people. And before long, we're one of his frozen people. I can't give you a church. Do you have any school training? No. Did you go to high school? No. Did you go to Bible school? No. That was a big advantage, though I didn't know it. And so he said, well after all, you couldn't be a pastor. Couldn't be a pastor. A little black man disappeared. Just over a month later, the preacher was preaching. He thought, I've seen that fellow before somewhere. After the meeting, he said, hello, how are you? Fine. Could I help you? He said, yes. What can I do for you? He said, give me a church. Thought I'd seen you before. You were in this church about a month ago, weren't you? Yes. Well, it's the same thing. I can't give you a church. In any case, you haven't been in the church for a month. Where have you been? He said, sir, when you told me, you would not give me a church. And he lives in Durban, South Africa, and he's there tonight, if you ever go down to Durban. I went down the road outside of the city. I came to the forest. I found a pot in the forest. I found a stream. I found a hole in the wall, and I put a mark on it. And I made a mark there. 21 days and 21 nights, I stayed in there. And I said, Lord, you and I are going to have this out. You're going to tell me before I leave this place, you'll call me to minister. And if you have, neither men or devils are going to change me. And if you haven't, I'm not going to preach. He said, I stayed there 21 days and 21 nights. All I did was like Elijah. I drank water from the brook. I didn't touch any food. I didn't hear any voice. I didn't see any face, except his face, his voice. And he told me, I put my hand upon you. And he filled me with the Holy Ghost while I was there. And he told me that I'd lay hands on the sick, and he's a Baptist preacher, and they'll recover. Now he said, are you going to give me a church? He said, well, I'll see the deacon. The generous deacon said, well, there's a little shanty church outside of town, just a little lean-to where a few colored people go. We'll let him be the pastor there. He can't do much harm. As a matter of fact, there's only five members. And they'll soon get fed up with him, and they'll come back to our church. And then we'll close it down. We'll say, you see, see what happened. Why was Tozer kissing a piece of paper? Because the man happened to have read one of two or three of Tozer's books. But that man, I understand now, the little black man, that stayed there with God. The man that went there and stayed 21 days and 21 nights with God has a church of 1,200 people. And in a country where whites won't go listen to black men, he not only has white men sitting there, he has government officials who are very happy to be deacons in his church. And he's maintained the anointing, do you know why? Because he didn't sit on a certain day at a certain place. God filled me with the Holy Ghost. The day I understand that he got filled, or went into that little hall in the wall, that cave, was the 17th of November. Every year since then he's said goodbye to his wife and kissed his children. Goodbye to the deacons. Not whether he kissed them, but anyhow he said goodbye to them as well. And he's gone back in that hall and stayed 21 days and 21 nights fasting to renew his vision and renew his strength. You got it all at seminary, didn't you preach it? You've got a nice little thing on the wall. The devil looks up and runs out and says, boy I can't stay here, he's a seminarian, I mean he's got knowledge. That's all your diploma's worth if it's filled you with pride and you think you've made the devil afraid because you've got diploma. Isn't it amazing that Elijah made it the way he did and never went to Bible college? Never had any advanced men, never had his picture taken, you know, like these dramatic preachers. That's a classic pose if you're filled with the Holy Ghost, you know, you look like this and signs and wonders and miracles. They couldn't move their fuzz on a gander's nose. Go hide thyself. When did you last hide yourself, preacher? When did you last shut the door? You weren't available to anybody. Go on, get away. This is where God sends his great men. A lady asked me a while ago what university I went to and I felt very good, you know. I said Bush University. Bush University? Yeah. Would I know anybody that went there? I said Moses. She said Moses who? She must have been a Baptist. Go hide thyself. Ah, this is the toughest thing, isn't it? Oh, we put emphasis on tithing. Of course it's Old Testament. If you preach tithing you should preach circumcision too and everything else that goes with it. There's no tithing in the New Testament. They gave according to the way God prospered them but there's no such thing as literal tithing. And in any case, what does it say in the scripture? Bring me all the tithe. No, all the tithe. It's the that's the trouble, you see. Because if you give God a tenth of your money you should give God a tenth of your time, which is two hours and twenty-four minutes every day, plus an offering which would make it about three hours a day. You should tithe your conversation, tithe your time, tithe everything. Ah, when it comes down to it, we get by very easily, don't we? As I've said repeatedly, we're the most undisciplined disciples the Lord ever had. If we dare be called disciples, maybe we should just be called followers. Go hide thyself. God's ways aren't our ways, you know that. You say it often enough, sure enough. Would you take a man who's been trained for 40 years and he wears a uniform and he's a brilliant general and he has a breastful of medals and he's already a legislator. Would you push him to the back side of the desert like God did? Moses lived 120 years. 40 years in the universities of Egypt. 40 years he learned more. The second 40 he lived with his mother-in-law. And the third 40, from being 80 to being 120. You wouldn't cut the middle out of a man's life, would you? 40. Life begins with 40. There is a young man, he's already trained in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. He's ready to deliver the nation. Go hide thyself. Could you stand that? I challenge you to try for 40 hours. I challenge you to try for 40 days. Until God speaks. And if he speaks, you'll never forget it. In a meeting the other week where God moved, all kinds of preachers came in from Presbyterians, Pentecostals, you mentioned it, freewheeling, I mean freewheel Baptists. And I don't know who else didn't come, other kinds of Baptists and missionary Baptists, they all came in. You never know who's in the meeting. In England you know when there are preachers there, they wear the collars backwards way. Because most of them are going backwards way. But anyhow, you can tell when the preachers are there. I got a letter just before we set off on the road a few weeks ago now. And as I opened it, I said Martha dear, let's read the letters before we get in the car. And I read this one. Brother Ray, near the last night of your meeting, a Methodist minister was in our, in the meeting. Dignified, fine young man, very accomplished, very gifted. And God got hold of him. He went to church Sunday morning, they got through the preliminaries, and it came time for the message. And he said, friends, I could give you a sermon. I've been doing that for a year or two, but I'm not preaching a sermon. I'm not going to talk to you again until I hear from God. I've been preaching sermons, but not a message from God. Good day. The deacons didn't like that. They liked it less when they went the second Sunday, and he went through all the preliminaries and said, I haven't heard from God. Good day. They were climbing the walls the third Sunday, when he said, I haven't heard from God. Good day. What are we going to do with him? We pay him to preach. He's preached good sermons. Oh yes, he preached good sermons, never disturbed anybody. He knew how to do like you do, construct your sermons with homiletical perfection and exegetical exactitude and grammatically polished. Three Sundays he turned that fine congregation away, and they plotted and planned and said, look he's only got one more Sunday to do. We're going to do something. They went the next Sunday. Then the preacher go. They thought Gabriel had come, never mind the preacher. That man just stood there and gave a word that God, he'd waited a month. They'd found him, criticized him, written to him, threatened him, until I hear from God. I'm going to preach to you again. He preached that Sunday morning. He got his text out. He preached about ten minutes. That congregation broke up. They began to run to the altar and cry and groan and ask to be saved, ask to be filled with the Spirit. God began to manifest himself with the Holy Spirit in the meeting and turn the church upside down. Oh, you'd like it in six easy lessons, wouldn't you? You'd like to send to some little mill up there where they'll give you a theological degree for fifty dollars and four soap wrappers. It costs something to hear from God. This man is going to deliver a nation. He's going to put his uniform on one side, lay his medals down. Nobody's going to bow down to him. Nobody's going to wash his feet. He has no slaves to attend. He has to look after some slaves. And there he walks up and down, and God hasn't given him his commission yet. Can you imagine him the day before? He's 80 years of age, going down the road and saying, I missed it. Boy, God hasn't spoken to me. I don't know why. Why, I remember that bush was burning. Nothing unusual about it except it's not consumed. He goes near and a voice says, take off thy shoes from off thy feet. And the God that answers by fire, answered out of the middle of the bush. After 40 years of stillness. Of course, if you get filled with the Holy Ghost, you'll have to get filled the way I got filled, otherwise it won't be genuine. The man that took over the job was a fellow called Joshua, you remember, and he had problems with Israel too. Maybe one day he was saying to himself, I shouldn't have taken the job. I'm sure that, well, after all, I mean, I never saw a burning bush, I never heard the God's voice, and I'm just about destroyed with this bunch. After all, he got about a million and a half people, you know, take a bit of handling. No burning bush, no voice of God. Maybe I should, oh, who are thou? The captain of the host of God. Take off thy shoes from off thy feet. There was no burning bush. It was the same commission, it was the same anointing. God sent his great men into the wilderness of silence. I reminded you yesterday, John Baptist was in the wilderness 20 years training, and he only preached six months. Now guys go to college six months and preach 20 years, no wonder they run out. The greatest intellect the world ever saw, the Apostle Paul, and after God revealed himself to him on the Damascus road, he revealed himself in him in the wilderness. The school of silence. Isn't it amazing that Jesus went about doing good? No, doing nothing for 30 years. Went home at night, brushed the sawdust off his hairy legs, took the bits of wood out of his toes, and walked home. And maybe made a casket for somebody the next day, or a yoke for the neck of a beast the next day. And he wasn't sweating and worrying and anxiety and fretting and saying, Lord when am I going to start my? No, he did not do that. For 30 years God left him there. Go hide thyself. I had the privilege of talking with one of the greatest men in the world today, Buck Singh. If everybody comes around, if everybody's in this area, get a rope and put it around his neck and pull him in, let him talk to you. He's a very wonderful man. He's raised up about 350 churches on his own in India without any backing, financial backing at all, without asking for a dime. We were talking about the things of God. He said to me, Brother Ravenhill, do you know, the Americans are lovely people. I like them very much. They're very generous, very kind. They've got lovely churches. But I'd never been in a church in America where they could worship God. Oh, I said, that's something. And I've never been in a church in England where they could worship God. Well, I said, supposing I came to your church on the Lord's Day, one of your services in India, your particular group, what would happen? Do you know what he said without backing an eye? He said, the first three hours of the service we give to praise, adoration, thanksgiving, worship. Then what? Oh, he said, the second three hours we give to prayer, supplication, intercession. I was getting a bit nervous, but I risked it. I said, and then what? He said, the third three hours we break bread. One has a psalm, this man has a hymn, this woman had a revelation from God, that man over there has just finished a 20-day fast, this man has had to go make an apology, God's been dealing with, and the whole minister, church ministers, nine hours. I said, but you don't have that every Sunday, do you? He said, no. Oh, I said, I wasn't thinking of a special Sunday. Oh, well, he said, no, we don't have nine-hour service every Sunday. Some Sundays the glory comes down, whether they're 12 hours, 13 hours, 14 hours. My good friend that wrote that book, Brother Andrews wrote the book that you've read. I'm sure many of you, God's smuggler. I had a tape from him recently. He'd been behind the iron curtain in a Baptist church. Went in at eight o'clock Sunday morning, God was blessing them. Twelve o'clock the communist police came in and said, shut up, get out. And an old saint struck up a hymn, and every time the communist policeman put his hand up, the old saint struck, and they fanged the cop out after an hour. He went out, he gave up. And he said at one o'clock, we really started the service. They'd already been there four hours. And he said at one o'clock, we began the service. We finished with praise and adoration at six o'clock at night. He said, nobody looked at their watch. Do you know why? Nobody could afford one. A Baptist church, is God going to have to take away your TV, and your automobile, and that boat of yours, and all those other silly things you've got, to get us to learn to worship him, and adore him, and magnify him. Go to church at eight in the morning till six at night. If we go at six at night till eight, we think we're going to get extra stars in our crowds. Now if I were to say to you tonight, you think that revival is number one imperative in America, in the midst of all the soddiness, and corruption, and blackness, and bleakness, and political intrigue, and the sick dollar, and everything else we have. For we're at the bottom of the pile. Nobody respects us around the world anymore, particularly since Watergate. And the dollar's more tragically limp than it's ever been. Sign 2. Would revival solve our problems? Yes it would, temporarily. The coming of Christ will do it permanently, but revival's the next best thing. But do you want revival at the price of bread lines? This man says, I'll shut up heaven. I'm determined that almighty God will get the glory, and they won't look anymore at the shrines. They won't go to Baal. They won't be intimidated by politics and kings. They're going to know that God is on his throne. And if I strangle the economy and you stand in bread lines, and that's exactly what happened. Then you go to a woman later and say, make me a little cake, and she says, no I'm going to make a cake for myself and my boy, and die like everybody else is doing. And maybe under a breath saying, if I could get my hands on that money like that, I'd strangle him. There's a price to pay for revival. Do you remember that when Paul testified twice in the Acts of the Apostles, he says, going down that Damascus road, there shone round about me and them that journeyed with me a light from heaven? But I heard the voice. On the second account he says, there shone a light from heaven on everybody, but he spoke only to me. And I've got to the place now, whether I speak to a nice crowd like this, or ten thousand people, or twenty people, if God speaks to one man I'll be rewarded. If God finds out of these young men a David Brainerd tonight, or finds another Spurgeon, I'm rewarded. The rest of you have got to sleep anyhow. You don't want to be disturbed. Your name's in the book of life, you've got a job in church, you've got a comfortable pastor, why in the world should you eat all the erring one? This is why these men are the burden. As our brother was singing tonight, how long has it been, I was singing the place of prayer, it's filled with tears, it's filled with blood. Isn't it rather amazing that those men that saw the most amazing ministry in the world, the ministry of Jesus, they never said, Lord teach us to do miracles, they never said, Lord teach us to preach, they said, Lord teach us to pray. There is no account in the word of God that Jesus ever prayed with his disciples. He prayed for them, he prayed in front of them in John 17, he never prayed with them. Why? You remember in the garden when he was going to the most critical point of his life, he says, you tarry here while I go pray. In other words, you're not big enough to take it, you can't sweat, you can't bleed, you can't travel. As I was thinking of these fine young people here tonight, I remember the revival of 1859, Spurgeon had been in America in 1857. Three thousand meeting, three thousand men were meeting there in New York for prayer every day. Two thousand men were meeting in Philadelphia, three thousand men were meeting in Cincinnati. Seven to eight thousand men praying every day. Spurgeon got back as quick as those slow boats could get him, and he said to the people in England, pray for revival. America's going to have a move of God. They prayed. The spirit broke out in Ireland in a place called a Huckle. I preached there. Why did it begin? Because some teenage boys, seventeen, eighteen, and nineteen, there were four of them, got behind a hedge, and it rains two days out of three in Ireland. And they wet that old shamrock with their tears more than the rain. And they stayed there day after day, night after night, and prayed, God breakthrough in Ireland. And they had the greatest revival in 1859 they've ever had. 1903, the deacon of a Baptist church, I guess, in one of the little Welsh towns. I preached many times in the hills of Wales. The deacon was up on the mountain, as they call it. You call it a mall hill, maybe. It wouldn't be more than a thousand feet. But they have some great big boulders, great big rocks. As the old man was walking up there, looking over the lovely valley, he heard some groanings, he heard some tears, and thought, this is strange. And he moved, and eventually he looked round. There were four young men from his own church, prostrate. One or two of them, others clinging to the rock, crying, Oh God, render the heavens and come down. Come over the principality, as they call Wales, because they have a prince, not a king. He was terribly disturbed. He said, we old men should set the pattern. Here are young men weeping and travailing for Christ to come in revival. He went up the hill a few days after, a few nights after. And while other boys were playing ball in the valley, or fishing there in the river, those young men were there praying, traveling. I didn't want to bring this message tonight, to be honest. I wanted to preach on a wonderful woman in the Bible, Hannah. A barren woman. Have you noticed that the greatest men in the Old Testament were born of barren women? Samuel was born of her. Rachel prayed, and I said very often, I mean it, that God does not answer prayer. We pray thousands of prayers, God never answered. Rachel didn't pray. She had more jewels, she had more love from her husband, she had more attention. But she came one day to the place where jewels and all the show that she had been satisfied, and she threw herself at the feet of her husband, and she said, Jacob give me children or I die. One of the texts of scripture says we wrestle not against principalities and powers. We could chop the text off and stick it over the door in most of our prayer rooms in our churches. I don't care how big your church is preacher. I'm not interested in your bus ministry, just in itself. I don't care how many people you say come Sunday morning. If you want to know how popular a church is, you go Sunday morning. If you want to know how popular the preacher is, you go Sunday night. If you want to know how popular God is, you go to the prayer meeting. And no church, whether it's Mr. Criswell's lovely church or anybody else's, no church is greater, stronger than its prayer meeting. That's the prayer house, that's the powerhouse. Go hide thyself. And he hid himself and he didn't leave a forwarding address. And he didn't get worried that somebody might shoot the bird down that was bringing his breakfast. He just rested in God. And he stayed there and then God says, go show thyself. And he went to show himself. Not very nice to go and ask a widow, is it? Who wants to sponge on widows, apart from evangelists? Who wants to sponge on widows? Hi, good morning. Make me a little cake. Sir, I have a handful of meal and a drop of oil. I'm going to put them together, make a cake. That's all I can do. I've got to the end of my resources. My boy and I, we're going to eat this and die. The man who said, make me a cake first. Oh, I may as well die today as tomorrow. Make yourself a cake. She went back to the barrel and it was filled to the top. And that oil thing was shooting like an Oklahoma gusher. Down the rug and out down main street. No, it wasn't. I believe that until God opened the heavens, until they had a harvest, that woman took the last handful of meal out of that barrel every day. And the last drop of oil, because that's the test of faith. I got a lot of millionaire friends. They don't do much for me, anything. I don't worry. Because if I lean on millionaires, God will pull the support out. I got lots of friends who said to me, wherever you are in the world, if you need money, send me a cable guy. Just say how much and he'll be there by the next cable. I've never asked a person for a penny once. I've been around the world a couple of times. I've got nobody to finance me. God will take care of you. Make me a little cake. Made a cake. Well, very nice. Elijah went in one day and here's a weeping woman. Oh no, she's not that placid nice lady who says, oh it's wonderful that we've got a supply. She's an angry woman. She says, is this the reward I get? I've been looking after you and feeding you and my child died. Do you know what he said? Don't worry about that. I'm the greatest faith healer in the world. Where's the kid? Where's his body? Bring it here. Oh and he just says, gets all of it. He says, Lord, this kid's dead. Put life in it. Thank you. Here's your baby catch. That's the way we'd do it on TV. We'll do anything to get a dollar. What did the man of God do? He could shut up heaven. He could terrify a nation. He could shake the throne. He says, give me that child and it says what? He ran up into a loft. You got a loft in your life or is it a basement or is it an old bus? A place where God seems nearer. A place where the angels have picked up your tears and stored them in his bottle. A place where you've traveled in birth for Christ to be formed, as Paul says. He prayed, nothing happened. He prayed again, nothing happened. What do we do? Go out by the back door. It isn't God's will. Better quit. You'd better find out whether it's God's will before you pray. Then you won't waste his time or yours. He prayed once, it didn't happen. He prayed twice. The third time he laid himself on the child. Compassion. Humility. And he prayed. Child's life came. I'd like to paint that picture if I were an artist. Elijah coming down both steps and the woman looking in on. He says, here your child. Your child's living. Do you remember what she said? By this, by this, I know the heart of man of God. I wasn't too persuaded with the oil and the meal, but by this, this is supernatural. You must somehow be in touch with God. You link your impotence to his omnipotence and touch my child and he lives. Isn't that the work of the church? You Hattie Quicken who are dead. Phinney did what no modern evangelist does. Phinney went to a city and stayed till God split the heavens. Phinney went to Rochester, New York. I've been in that church. I've stood by the tablet outside where in less than six months, Phinney had 100,000 people genuinely born of the Spirit of God. Phinney says you can take a map and you can draw a square and precipitate God in the square. And a man with an experience is never at the mercy of a man with an argument. That's exactly what Phinney did. Oh, but wait a minute. However much you exalt Phinney, maybe he was seven feet four. Maybe he was one of the most brilliant preachers. Remember this? That Phinney never made an altar call within the first 28 nights of preaching. Most of our evangelists don't have 28 sermons. 28 nights in a row and he never made an altar call. He didn't preach the love of God. He didn't say you're a sinner. God loves you. He says God is angry with the wicked every day, which the word of God says. He didn't preach grace. He preached law. He didn't preach love. He preached judgment. He didn't preach heaven. He preached hell. He didn't say you're a wonderful person. He said you're a rabble. But he got results. 64% of the converts of D.L. Moody backslid. 72% of the converts of Phinney stood because he knew how to attack the human will, not just emotion. But when you've given him all the credit you can give him, will you remember this please? He had two men with him, younger than he was or about his age. They call, he called them Father Nash and Father Cleary, only because they wore long beards. There was an old lady in a church I pastored in Bolton, England. She remembered when Phinney came to town. I was there in 1932. She was about 80 years of age. She remembered Phinney coming to town. She remembered the two men came down the street to a little house that only had one bedroom a little room, outside plumbing and no bath. And these men knocked at the door and asked if they could rent a room. And the lady said I don't have one. Well what's this this thing down here? Is it a basement? No it's a cellar. Do you know that those two praying men rented that cellar for 25 cents a week. Do you know those two praying men prayed 12 hours each every day? Oh yes you can have your song leaders and your great choirs. Phinney didn't go in for that stuff. I'm not condemning the man showing the difference. When Phinney stood there at times he roared like a lion. He seemed as though he was incandescent. It seemed as though deity invaded him. And away they're behind. They never came on the platform. They were never shown in any magazines. There were two men who said this is our ministry. They hid away and pray and they were pulling for him all the time and resisting the devil and making it easy as it were for God to get through on that congregation. There never has been revival without prayer. There never will be. If God has called you to prayer he called you to a bigger ministry than standing here or standing on TV and talking to 50 million people. You know one of the wonders of America, there are a lot of wonders about America. One of them is that every rotten modern religion was born here. Jehovah's Witness, Mormonism, Seventh-day Adventism, Spiritism was revived here. Unity, go on mention it. They all came out of America. And now before you feel sick let me tell you this. Some of the greatest saints that have ever lived have come out of America. John Hyde. I could tell a lot of stories about him. Praying Patron of Portland. The man who didn't have wall-to-wall rug. He had a hard floor like this. And when they were going to bury him they noticed at the side of his bed that there were two grooves. And when they took his clothes off to wash his body he had big hooves on his knees. And they put two and two together. That's where he used to pray. And he'd warm holes in the floor of his bedroom. John Hyde. Do you remember the man that prayed himself to death? At the ripe old age of 28, David Brainerd. The man who when he sneezed in the snow sprayed it with his bland. When he coughed he spit out lumps of his lungs. You'd have thought it was a petal off a rose. If you took it like that it would stretch because that's how your lungs are made. He died at 28 years of age. Now you say well you're talking about men a hundred years, listen I'll tell you one of the greatest men in the world as far as I'm concerned. And I'm happy to call him my friend. I think what is he 88 tonight now or something like that. 88 years of age. 88 years of age. He lives about, well I won't give you a clue even, but he lives north of Chicago. I went into his room not long ago. He read some of my books. He said I'm very honored that you've come in. I said sir you're not honored at all. I'm honored. My mother told me that if ever you go into the presence of a king you never turn your back. You always backpedal this way. And after I talked with that wonderful man I backpedaled. When I got to the door I said sir thank you for this privilege. What's unique about him, he's a little Scotsman, 88 years of age. He's got a complexion you girls would go crazy about. He hasn't got a wrinkle. He's got beautiful pink cheeks. He's got bright blue eyes. He certainly knows his bible. What's unique about a man at 88 I'll tell you. This is unique about him. That man hasn't been to bed one night for the last 28 years. He's in America tonight, not Finney's day. He's not at the cycloc convention like Hyde. He isn't over in China laboring like Jonathan Goforth. He's up there in a little room and every night at 10 o'clock he goes to pray. And he prays till five or six in the morning when the burden lifts. He reads half of the long version. There are two versions of the Sermon on the Mount. And then he reads half of Psalm 119 and he prays. Do you feel comfortable preaching? You spend more time golfing and goofing don't you? You can spend a lot of time in the basement when they're serving coffee and doughnuts and monkey nuts anything else. Know anything about praying like that? Give me a couple of deacons like that I'd be prepared to go to hell and have a crusade I think. 88 years of age. He won't let me write his story. Boy I'd write it if I got the chance, but he won't let me. I'd like to photograph him he won't let me. But I'll tell you what happened just a while ago about three years ago. That man got a witness from God about a thing I've talked about so long. That God is going to give us a Pentecost to out Pentecost Pentecost. And God told that man in the next outbreak of revival. We have a false revival right now. There's going to be a genuine revival. There's a false revival right now. And in that next move of the spirit when God rends the heavens. The last great reaping before Jesus comes. One billion people are going to be born again. That's a little over the third of the world's population. Five minutes I'll let you go. That kind of thing. What do you know about prayer? I often say my prayers but do I ever pray? If I were to ask you who is the greatest praying person in the Old Testament what would you say? Most likely Jacob. He prayed all night. No he didn't. He prayed all night because he was in a jam. You'd pray if you were in a jam tonight wouldn't you? Somebody came to your brother's coming. My brother. The last thing my brother said was he'd kill me. So what does he do? Sends off the sheep. Sends off the goats. Divides his family. Jumps over the brook. Going around the back of a big rock. Somebody jumped on him. Well who do you think he thought it was? There's only one man in the world he was afraid of. What do you say? If I'm going to die I'll die fighting. That doesn't sound like a prayer meeting. Sounds like a church business meeting but not a prayer meeting. The more he fought the more this person held on to him. Suddenly he says this can't be a man. He's got super strength. But he still tried to fight. The only thing I learned out of that night of prayer is this. That when he went into the night of prayer in the language of the novelist he was tall and dark and handsome. He was a smart man and he walked in. But when he came out of the night of prayer he came dragging a withered leg for the rest of his life. That's why we don't pray isn't it? The spirit is willing but flesh is weak. Moses wants to keep his hands up but they're going down and well they have to prop the flesh up. If you want to grow old quickly pray. Remember the men turned on Jesus and said what are you talking about? You're not 50 years of age. He was only 30. Would you like somebody to think you were 50 when you were 30? Why was he so old and haggard? Because he wanted to pray and to pray as was his custom. Jesus was essentially a man of prayer. This man tries to break away and he suddenly realizes this can't be a man with this strength. The finger touches the sinew of his thigh and it shrank. And he says this isn't a man this must be God. And then the angel tried to get away and then Jacob hung on to him. Wrestling I will not let thee go till I thy name and nature know. Speak to me now for I am weak but confident in self-despair. Speak to my heart in blessings speak. Now I don't believe that Jacob was the greatest man of prayer. Who was the greatest man? I used to sing a hymn in England often. Prayer is the simplest form of speech that infant lips can try. Prayer the sublimest strains that reach the majesty on earth. Prayer is so simple a child can do it. Prayer is so vast it will exhaust your vocabulary. And the greatest prayers in the bible had no language. Romans chapter 8 has three types of brokenness and there's one there. Three types of groaning. The whole creation groaning. We groan within ourselves. The spirit groans. And I'm not hitting tongues for the fun of it. People say that's tongues. It isn't. If it was God would say so. He's more sense than you and I. There's a place where even tongues can't get. There's a place where the Holy Ghost will groan. Somebody said maybe facetiously if a couple were married if the woman had a baby. If the wife had the first and the husband had the second there'd never be a third. Because men don't know a thing about travel, birth and pain. But Paul did. He says little children for whom I travel in birth. There comes a place where you can do nothing but groan and God measures every groan and he picks up every tear. Who every grief has known that rings the human breath. You can stand up and sing till the sky falls all to be like the blessed Redeemer. But if he holds you to it you'll have 40 days on the back of the desert alone and you'll have a Judas in your life and you'll have a Gethsemane. And nobody goes through Gethsemane with you. You can cry your eyes out. I want to know your resurrection life. There's one way to know it. Die. And it's the only way. It isn't something he hands out of his life. It's when you die you get resurrection life. The greatest man of prayer Moses. Moses come here. Come up the mountain. Let me talk to you. Moses I am tired of this people. Yes God's patience runs out. His spirit doesn't always slide either with men or nations. As I said last night the greatest threat to America tonight is God. We're within one step of God doing the most terrible thing he can do this side of eternity. Removing our candlestick. If you think he won't do it I remind you again that every city in China, every small or large town 800 years ago had a thriving New Testament church and there isn't one tonight. I remind you when the Jews took Jesus, Jesus said wait a minute your house is left unto you desolate and God hasn't bothered with the Jews for 2,000 years and he's married to the Jews and he divorced the Jews and he's going to be remarried to the Jews and he's forgotten them for 2,000 years. What makes you think he can't forget America for a hundred? They'd only just got out of trouble. He'd left them 400 years. They'd no profit till John Baptist came. They've been in bondage 400 years under the pharaohs. We never learn how stupid. All right. Moses I'm going to destroy this people. Out of your loins I'm going to raise a far greater nation than Israel now. You know if Moses had had half an ounce of carnality he would have said Lord I'm glad you're going to vindicate me. Tomorrow I'll go to those people and say look the whole bunch of you over a million go to hell you're going to burn in hell. God's going to send his judgment but not on me. I'm so holy and immaculate that he says he'll burn you out. But Moses you've been so faithful. What did Moses say? You know it's wonderful when when God reaches down and takes hold of a man. There's only one thing I know of this side of eternity greater and that's when a man reaches up and takes hold of God and that's just what did Moses. That Moses did. Do you remember in that chapter go home and read it. God says Moses leave me alone. And the old Methodist hymn book paraphrases that experience when it says let Moses in the spirit groan and God cries out let me alone. That isn't Moses crying because God has a grip on him. It's God crying because Moses has a grip on him. Let me alone. Moses says I'll let you alone on one condition you'll liquidate a million and a half people and you'll liquidate me as well because I can't live if they don't live. Now you're a wonderful congregation you've been patient. I'm going to make a wild guess that to some degree you must have interest in America and revival or you wouldn't be here tonight. You could be at home. But tell me how many of us if Gabriel goes counting the tears you've shed for lost America. Why America? Well she's not the only country in the world but she's the country we live in and I pay every tax you pay and I live for America otherwise I'd be somewhere else. I could be in New Zealand or Australia tonight at a far bigger meeting. But God told me to stay in America. Graham was going around the world. He's in Atlanta tonight he's just back from a month in Korea. He'll be off again that's his business. God will not let me leave America for a world tour this year because I can save it now. But because he wants me to say my peace anyhow. How's your prayer life tonight? Have you got beyond ABCs? Do you know what it means to travel? Do you know what it means to fast? Do you know what it means to grieve? Do you know what it means to have a broken heart? Do you know what it means to have a Gethsemane? It's pretty high language isn't it? That after all you've been saved 20 years you ought to have got beyond your ABCs. You've been a preacher but can you can you lift your church any higher than you are? Do you know what it means to travel? Would you? I believe I can say that's my sweetheart. I think I can tell you this. I'd rather pray than do anything on God's earth. I'm not a socialite. I get invitations to go on yachts and flying planes and do this. Well I don't do it. You can do it. It's your business. Do it. Life's too short. This generation of Christians is responsible for this generation of heathen. Whether they're at home or dancing under the bush. In Africa I'm going to talk about vision tomorrow night. A threefold vision. A vision of a holy God. A vision of a lost world. A vision of self. The disciples said Lord teach us to pray. It's in my last word. It says in that little book of Jude, which is really an epitome of the whole Bible, talks in verse 20 about praying in the Holy Ghost. And as far as I'm concerned one main evidence you're filled with the Holy Ghost is your prayer life will be revolutionized if it isn't. As far as I'm concerned you didn't get filled with the Holy Ghost. You may got a touch, you may got a blessing. Do you want to learn the language of the Spirit? Do you want a heart cleanse from self, seeking, sport, fun, and put yourself on the altar and say Lord I don't care what it costs. I'm not asking how many came. Maybe 80, 100 came last night. That's all right. I'm asking you tonight. Are you prepared to make a deal with God before this audience and a world of demons looking on, and a world of angels looking on, and then a recording angel there making a record of what you say and think in the light of eternity. Are you prepared to apologize to God that you don't pray, and sweat, and grieve, and traverse, and say God have mercy on me. I want more than anything on earth. If I never teach a Sunday school class, if I never preach again, if I never become a missionary, I want to know the holy art of intercession by the indwelling Holy Ghost in my life. We're going to sing a verse of the hymn. 174 verses one and two. Holy Spirit breathe on me until my heart is clean. Any candidates tonight for cleansing, for anointing? If you come tonight I'm going to do something I don't often do, but I felt I should. But if you come and stand here, don't come except God, the Holy Ghost has convicted you of failure, coldness, indifference. But if you come and kneel here, I'm going to lay my hands on the person here, and you can join hands, or put your hands on each other, and I'm going to pray that God tonight will give you this endowment. I don't know what else he'll give you, that's not my business. And I'll tell you if you mean business, when we get to the end of the prayer and I see you in eternity, you'll say, I thank God that I met him that night, that I put my pride on one side, my preacher's pride, my deacon pride, my Sunday school teach, my rich pride, and I knelt there and said, God have mercy on me. Cleanse my heart of failure, and weakness, and tearlessness, and passionlessness. Cleanse me and fill me with the Holy Ghost. It may be very radical, so don't come just because you want to be blessed. Come because you want to be broken, and emptied, and filled, and energized, and identified with him, in travering prayer. Shall we stand? Maybe you folk here, if you can just touch each other, I'll lay my hands on these men, and they can, you can touch the other folk near. Our Father, as we bow before thee in this solemn moment, we come before thee as thy children, acknowledging our bankruptcy. Many of us have very ragged prayer lives, and some of us have not prayed at all. We come to thee tonight, asking forgiveness, asking cleansing for our failure. Asking thee tonight, and I pray as I lay my hands on these dear ones now, that you will put your pierced hand on them in a very special way. Particularly these young men and women. Oh God, the world has never, never, never in its history, as far as we can see, ever needed a Holy Ghost revival more than it needs it tonight. We forget the denominations, or the churches that these folk are from. We're the sheep of thy pasture. You are our shepherd, or you're the captain of our salvation. I pray tonight, my Father, that right at this moment, that just as a fire fell in that upper room, that a fire of the Holy Ghost will come every heart bowed before thee. That out of these men tonight, you'll get the new Brainards, you'll get new Wesleys, you'll get new Finneys. You'll get new men like Father Cleary and Father Nash, that will hide themselves away. Lord, I pray ambitiously for the sake of Jesus Christ, that you'll make this meeting a tragedy to the devil. I ask you, Lord, that all hell will have to mourn because Jesus Christ is emancipated live here tonight. They learn a language greater than learning Greek or Hebrew. They learn the language of the Spirit of the Living God. They learn the language of groanings which cannot be uttered. They learn the language of the deep mystery of God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, which cannot be gotten by university. It cannot be dismissed or put upon us, as it were, by even the seminary. It cannot be awarded by our scholarship. It cannot be bought by our money. It cannot be engineered by our ability. We cannot fast to persuade thee to do it. We cannot plead with eloquence that you'll do it. All that we can ask is you look on our nakedness tonight and clothe us. Look on our emptiness and fill us. Look, we pray, on our weakness and strengthen us. Lord, I pray that on the very ends of the earth may feel this meeting tonight, that Lord, somewhere in some dark foreign Africa, or down amongst the lost millions of South America, or somewhere maybe in the Orient, some of these lives shall go and due to the power of the Spirit. We think of men like Jonathan Goforth. We think of others that went there into China in those days, and they saw God manifest His power and give holy. We think of the Shang-Tung Revival and all the mighty working of your Spirit. We think of how you came to Cyclops in India. We think of the moving of your Spirit there in Wales, when you came down and turned that principality upside down. We think of the 59 Revival there in Ireland. We think of the moving of your Spirit away there in Scotland five hundred years ago, when that young man preached on the hillside, and we're told that four hundred people were born again, and ten years after, almost every one of them could be, except those who have died. We're still walking in the faith. We're still obeying God. Others have gone into missionary service and into the ministry. We're ambitious for thee tonight. We're tired of the devil's dominion over America. We ask thee to teach us how to pray, that we can resist the powers of darkness, that we can strangle the power of Satan, that we can make a highway for our God as John Baptist did. Get out of these young men, I pray, more than evangelists. Get prophets out of them. Get preachers out of them. Get soul winners out of them. Get out of these women. Some of them may have known the trouble in childbirth, naturally. I pray you teach them the language of trouble in the spirit, that birth pangs may come upon them. Break up our lives. Wake us at midnight. Disturb us in the midday. We're jealous for thy glory. I tell you tonight, Lord, I'm more eager and determined than ever to see you glorify the name of your son. I think of Japan there, that has never yielded to the gospel. It's time for you to break it open. We think of what you did in Indonesia, that had never been a revival in that Mohammedan stronghold, and yet you broke in there. And despite the arguments men have about the miracles, we're told there are more people born again of the spirit of God in the last five years than all the previous years in history. We think of Russia tonight, the vast, potent house of communism. We pray that it will please thee to raise up men there. Raise up the Sinis. Raise up the Wesleys. Raise up the John Knox who can pray. Raise up, we pray, the men who will make that Kremlin tremble. Even Elijah made the strongholds of this king and queen tremble. And he brought blessing, and the fire descended, we're told. And he prayed, and the rain descended, and he prayed, and the rain fell, and the fire fell, and the people fell. O God, I ask thee that these dear ones will go home and in their own bedside tonight, thank you for this emancipation. Break every sector tonight, every sector of fear, every sector of weakness, every sector of disobedience, and grant our God that these men and women will grow and flourish more rapidly in these evil days. That every time you look on these lives, they'll look back to this Monday night, the 18th of June, 1973, and say, it was there that God touched me, it was there that God anointed me, it was there that God called me. I pray again they'll know how to plead the blood to protect themselves, and plead the promises that they may inherit the wealth that there is in Jesus Christ. Bless others still in the audience who maybe were afraid to come, or for some reason didn't come. Reach them too. And as we go on this week, we ask thee that you show us your glory. Make this night just the first of greater blessing. Move us tomorrow night in revelation and understanding and vision. Move us on Wednesday night, if you permit us to preach on the judgment seat, that we'll have a pre-trial of that awesome, terrible experience that has to come to every man, whether he's a king or a criminal, a priest or a harlot. Everyone must stand at the judgment seat, and for the balance of the week, Lord, we don't want to inject any flesh, anything of men, anything of self. We just want your glory totally. We thank you for your presence tonight. We welcome you to come, Holy Ghost, and you've come. We welcome you to stay upon us. We welcome you to brood over this building, that just as people looked and they saw the fiery, cloudy pillar that led Israel, that just as this steep, Lord, everything is above this building, it shall radiate the glory of God. Manifest yourself as you will. We take our hands off this week, and say, Holy Ghost, you're welcome to do anything you want that will glorify Jesus. Whether it be miracles of healing, or miracles in the Spirit, or gifts of the Spirit, we care not. Just have your own wonderful way, so long as it bears the brand of a supernatural God. No brand of supernatural Satan power, no brands of men, but the brand of God. We thank you for loving us tonight. We thank you for coming and abiding with us. Dismiss us now with our blessing, we pray, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.