In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of being a vessel for God's work. He encourages listeners to walk in the Holy Ghost and be obedient to God's commands. The preacher discusses the attributes of a disciple and the transition from being an ordinary convert to becoming a disciple. He emphasizes the need for faithfulness and not presuming to have more wisdom than God. The sermon also highlights the importance of seeking a personal relationship with God and being useful in His work.

Now, this morning, this morning we're going to continue with a thought, lesson number four, Forging the Vessel of Recovery. I want to read in 2 Kings chapter 2, verses 19 through 20, then we're going to read again in 1 Samuel. But in 2 Kings chapter 2, verses 19 through 20, And the men of the city said unto Elisha, Behold, I pray thee, the situation of this city is pleasant as my Lord seeth, but the water is not, and the ground is barren. And he said, Bring me a new cruise, and put salt therein. And they brought it to him, and he went forth under the spring of waters, and cast the salt in there, and said, Thus saith the Lord, I have healed these waters, Therefore shall not, there shall not be from this any more barren land. So the waters were healed unto this day, according to the saying of Elijah, which he spake. Now, we read this in the lesson number two, A New Cruise. But I want to turn back with you and read also again in 1 Samuel chapter 1, verses 15 through 20. And Hannah answered and said, No, my Lord, I am a woman of sorrowful spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the Lord. Count not thine handmaid for a daughter, Belial, for out of the abundance of my complaint and grief have I spoken hitherto. And Eli answered and said, Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant thee thy petition that thou hast asked of him. And she said, Let thine handmaids find grace in my sight. So the woman went her way, and did eat, and her countenance was no more sad. And they arose up in the morning early, and worshiped before the Lord, and returned and came to their house to Ramah. And Elkanah knew Hannah his wife, and the Lord remembered her. Wherefore, it came to pass, when the time was come about, after Hannah had conceived that she bear a son, called his name Samuel, saying, Because I have asked him of the Lord. Then again in Samuel chapter 3, verses 1 through 4. And the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli, and the word of the Lord was precious in those days. There was no open vision. It came to pass at that time when Eli was laid down in his place, and his eyes began to wax dim that he could not see. And here the lamp of God went out in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was, and Samuel was laid down to sleep. That the Lord called Samuel, and he answered, Here am I. Now our thoughts are now occupied and have been occupied throughout this week with the vessel God will use to recover his people spiritually. And we have pointed up all the way through history when God reacted against the deflection of his people. He always raised up a vessel to put into that vessel that which would bring about that renewal. On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Ghost wasn't poured out on Jerusalem, it was poured out on 120 believers. They were the vessel of God to which that recovery was going to come. There's always been a remnant, and God has always raised up a people in times when he's about to do something great in the earth. I believe you'll agree with me that the time has come that God is going to bear his arm, we're going to see a revival, we're going to see a renewal of the church of the living God to the place of the book of Acts. So our thoughts are there. Something has been lost, it must be recovered. This has been all through the ages. Luther, Wesley, all of them, now in the end of this age again, it has come a time when there's so much mixture, confusion, there must be a new beginning. You can't just take that old and begin to patch it up. You begin to deal with all of that mixture and you've got trouble. I've been accused of a lot of things simply because I said that God will not allow any mixture. The book of Galatians says you can't even mix this with law. Amen. And there's been a lot of problems and a lot of things said on this ground. But there's so much confusion, so much mixture, that there has to be a new beginning. A new cruise is needed and it must be like the vessel of the cruise of the first century church. That is, it must stand entirely upon a New Testament basis. Our problem today is we've left the Bible base. We've tried to find a base more suitable to the world. The ungodly, the backslider, the sinner can sit in our churches and feel perfectly at home. It's a sad thing when a backslider can sit in the church, proud as a peacock, and act like everything's all right. This is what's happened. The church has moved away from the Bible base and attempted to find a base more suitable to the world. So there must be a new cruise based entirely upon the New Testament. Jesus must be the Lord of that church absolutely without reservation. That church must exist for one thing, that is, to serve the life that is within her. That is, the life of God. When you recognize us as being the body of Christ, going back and seeing what that body must be, all you have to do is go back, look at him while he lived in the body that Mary gave him. Read the Gospels as he walked this earth in a body that Mary gave him. Now, a body is a vehicle through which a personality is expressed. Is that right? This is the whole purpose of a body, that a personality may be expressed. Jesus came, took upon the form of flesh, and was expressed through a body just like the one you and I are wearing. Now, if you want to know what Lordship means, look at that body. He'd never argued with him. It never said, I'm too tired today to go. It never said, look, I'm not going to preach unless you give me a king-size bed and a hilton. Never argued about that. No, it said, the foxes have holes, birds have nests, but the Son of God has no place to lay his head. That body never argued with him about where to go. It never was too tired. It never was too difficult. That body existed to serve the life that was in it. That's entirely what it was for. He laid that body down at Calvary on the day of Pentecost. He picked up another body, called the church, and if Christ is to be Lord of that body, then that body exists only to serve the life that is within it. I'm not my own. I've been bought with a price. I cannot argue with him. I must go where he says, do what he does, except what he gives me without argument. I'm in a hilton well and good. I'm in a Sunday school room well and good. I'm here to serve the life that is within us. So that vessel that will be the vessel of recovery must be a vessel over whom Christ is Lord, absolute Lord. No questions asked, no arguing, no voting to see whether we carry out the Great Commission or not. I was in the Marine Corps four years during World War II. They never one time asked me if I'd like to go on a hike. They just said, we're going on one. They never asked me if I wanted to go to Guadalcanal. I'd just wind up there. They never asked me if breakfast was served too early. They just put it out there, you better be there to eat it. I bought with a price. He never asked me if I wanted to be a preacher. He said, you're going to be a preacher. Never asked me if I wanted to come to Greensboro, North Carolina. Just opened up the door and said, show up there. Amen. He commands. He doesn't court men and women. He commands men and women. Thank God. Hallelujah. Let him be Lord if you're going to be that vessel. And it must be totally a selfless vessel. Unselfish. There cannot be selfishness. If any man will be my disciple, let him first deny himself or herself. You know what that says? That you're totally unselfish. That you don't live for yourself. If his desire is not your desire, then your desire must die. If his will is not your will, then your will is wrong. The will that willed in him must will in me if I'm going to be a part of that vessel of recovery. He never asked any man to draw him a blueprint. He's already got the plans. He just says to you and I fit into them. Don't lay awake at night with a think tank trying to figure out how I'm going to do my job. I've already given it to you. Walk in the Holy Ghost. Be obedient to myself. Be the vessel I command you to be. And the work of God will be accomplished. Now, the first feature, and I'm talking today, our lesson is the features of such a vessel. We must be able to recognize in my lessons that I've taught on the attributes of a disciple. There's so many descriptions of disciples in the world today that I went through this book. I said, how would I know one if I saw him? And God began to deal with me about the attributes of that disciple. And I believe it's one of the most important works that he's allowed me to do. It's basically the last message. It shows them the transition from the ordinary convert to a disciple. Well, looking at this vessel of recovery, God began to deal with me about the features of it so that if you want to be a part of it, you can recognize and know what's going to have to be in you if you are a part of it. And the first feature of such a vessel is that it must have a personal life with God. I want that to soak in a little while. There's so much second-handed mess in the church today. Everybody's living on what somebody else said. Somebody told me, but how about yourself? Jesus asked some folks one time, are you here because somebody else told you, or do you know this yourself? Do you know this yourself? Such a vessel must have a personal life with the Lord. It can never be second-hand. You hear the message with your head, but that must become an experience of your heart. We got folks all over this country, they know something with their head, and we mistake the ability to know with having. You can sit down and know everything about food and starve to death. You can know all about God, not know God Himself. And a great part of the church lives all of their life never knowing God in a personal way themselves. It must have a personal life with God. This must be built upon an intimate union. Listen, in the scripture I read, God did not send Eli with a message. It is one of those double calls, if I took you back to the first one, Samuel, Samuel, making it very personal, very, very personal. When he gives a double thought, verily, verily, you better put a line under that and stop. And when he takes a name and says Saul, Saul, you better listen very closely there. And this Samuel, Samuel said very, very personal. God didn't send Eli around there. It's not going to be a second-hand deal, not on your life. I run across people all over this country, all over this country. If God tells you anything about me, you tell me. They're always going to meetings, wanting somebody to prophesy over them and tell them what God has to say. Let me tell you something. If you're going to be a part of this vessel of recovery, you're going to have to be somebody that God can talk to himself. God's going to have to talk to you. I know there's a lot of people are never, and again, I want to tell you, I'm not talking about heaven and hell. Jesus saves. I know that. The blood of Jesus Christ saved. I'm talking about that God is forging a vessel through which he can pour his Spirit to touch once more a dead, cold, lifeless religion and to bring a people to himself. And if you're going to be a part of that, you are personally going to have to know God yourself. You're not going to have an Eli telling you what to do, but you are going to be able to hear the voice of God. The only thing Eli can do with his long experience, and he's been there a long time, he knows he's been in that priest's office, he's run that office so long, but the only thing that he can do to Samuel or for Samuel is to personally speak to the Lord. He said to Samuel, say, speak, Lord. That's all he can do. Nothing else with all of that religion. He can't help him. God is not going to have a vehicle. That's all we've got to ask somebody else. He wants me to come before him and talk to him and him to me. Now listen. No one will bring God in power to meet a changed situation who does not have a personal life with the Lord. Mr. Mueller, the man of the orphanage in England that prayed in so much, everyone knows, mostly everyone does at least, about Mr. Mueller, the man of faith that housed and fed 2,000 orphans, never wrote a letter, just prayed it in, prayed it in. Somebody asked Mr. Mueller one time, said, how do you come by such great faith? He said, I'm not aware that I have great faith. Amen. Folks always talking about the faith, usually don't have very much of it. Amen. But he said, I'm not aware I have great faith, but whatever faith I have, it has come through a personal, intimate relationship with God. He talked to God and God talked to him. And if you are going to God's power in, it's not going to be a secondhand thing with you. No, no. I believe any prophecy comes to me is going to confirm what God's already told me. Oh yes, sir. And if it doesn't, I just hang that up on a shelf somewhere. I've had folks prophesying over me. Amen. I've got a birthmark in my forehead and I begin to preach. Sometimes it comes out and folks have saw blood there and crosses there. And I know what it is. I was born with it. Amen. I know what it is, so I don't get excited about that. There's one thing that excites me. That's the Lord Jesus Christ. I know him. I've talked to him and he talks to me. Somebody comes along to prophesy. That's wonderful. I believe in that, but I believe it will confirm what he said to us. That personal relationship. Are you sure about your own personal life with God this morning? How about you as you sit here under this Gospel 10? Amen. Those that may listen to this tape. Do you have a personal life with God? Is God speaking to you? Is God dealing with you? Amen. That's so very, very important. It is possible for every child of God to know the Spirit of the Lord working in their own lives. It's possible. Samuel had a new beginning, a personal life with God, and these two things led to Samuel being a link with God in the divine discontent and divine reaction. Now listen. He knew God. He personally knew God. Therefore, he could enter into the discontent of God. I see people today that act like everything is just wonderful with the church. They don't have a personal life with God, or they feel what God feels about all the gimmickry and idolatry and nonsense that makes up the church of the living God today. Brother Schambach and I were preaching until about 1 o'clock this morning, talking about the situation across this land. Amen. I believe there's to be as much accomplished here in these meetings as any meeting you'll find anywhere. But yet both of us were talking, grieved, about the Bible said they were healed every one, and how far we are, amen, from performing in the manner. Yet people are not grieved about that. He said to me, I go home, not so much shouting over what happened, but weeping over what didn't happen. Those that drug their poor, sick bodies out and weren't healed. Amen. Oh, God's heart is disturbed, and that person that has a personal life with him is disturbed also. Samuel could enter into that, because he knew, listen, God was not satisfied. What does Eli know about that? Nothing. His boys are committing adultery right there in the church. They're stealing the tithe. The whole thing's a mess. He's a good man himself, but he don't have backbone enough to straighten it up. That's where you are today, this tip-torn-around preacher like their own eggshells. So afraid they're going to offend somebody. Afraid the board's going to fire them. Afraid somebody's going to cut their salary. Oh, God have mercy on us. Afraid, fear. Oh, listen, Eli, he's not going to make any waves. What does he know about what's going on? God is dissatisfied. I've went to conventions. I've went to councils, and my stomach gets sick up there talking about what great people we are, what great things we've accomplished. If we really heard from God, there'd be repentance and sackcloth and ashes. Our spirits would be broken, because his is broken. When Nehemiah came back after he got the leave to go and rebuild that city, and he came, and the walls were broke, the gates were off their hinges, and the man of God walked in a daze, weeping, weeping. The Bible said you'll call a wall salvation, and a gate to praise. The salvation was gone. The praise was gone. It was a mechanical thing. Everybody lift your hands, and let's praise the Lord. Amen. Yes, but I'm glad you did that, but I'm just trying to make a point. You can teach an ape to do that if you work at it. It ought to be alive, that every moment ought to be breathing the praise of God. My heart ought to be broken, because the gates that are praise are off the hinges. The walls that are called salvation are broke down. Listen, we go to conventions. No, what bragging we do about how great we are, and what we've accomplished, and look about us, the day of the world, it's gone mad. We're in the midst of a darkness, and don't have a candle hardly to burn for it. May God help us to enter into that discontent with God. Eli and others have no sense of God's dissatisfaction. They were totally insensitive to God's feelings. Totally insensitive to God's feelings. They have their meetings, offer their sacrifice, but they're not troubled with a disturbance of God in their heart. They're not troubled. Let me tell you something, not only not troubled, brother, but they get mad at you if you point up the trouble. You looking at a man that knows. I felt like an illegitimate child at a family reunion for years. Yes, sir. I said, this isn't right. It looks great. It looks great, but it isn't right. It doesn't have its basis on the Bible. It isn't producing the results. When the Bible says, By the fruits you shall know them, he's not talking about just love, joy, and peace. He's talking about what we produce. Fruit is always known in the second generation. I've watched the second generation of converts come off of that altar, and I'm telling you, they're dissatisfied. I mean, they're not what they ought to be. Amen. There is not dedication to prayer. You can't get them in a prayer meeting. There is not dedication to mission. They're not disturbed over this awful times in which we live. Oh, no. He lie. He's totally insensitive to how God felt about it. Ain't nothing he can tell, Samuel, but just tell him, say, listen to what God has to say. They have their meetings, offer their sacrifices, but are not troubled, not troubled with the disturbance of God in their heart. Now, Samuel, Samuel, and I'm talking, using Samuel here to show you the features of the vessel that God's going to use in this end time, and if you are going to be a part of it, this is going to be a part of your life. Samuel, because of his personal life in union with God, came immediately into a sensitive, conscious union with a dissatisfied heart of God. He looked at it and felt exactly like God felt about it. He's not impressed with all their statistics. The light's about to, the fire's about to go out in there where the ark was. Here the lamp was about to go out. It's a flickering down. My God, there's so little light left there, and he entered into it. First Samuel chapter 3, I read to you verses 1 through 4. God makes known to Samuel that dissatisfaction. He talks to that young man. He don't send somebody around there to tutor him. God talks to him because Samuel's heart feels like God's heart feels. Now, the knowledge involves Samuel in a very painful and difficult circumstance. He has got to go to tell the old high priest that God ain't happy with you. That's what it amounted to. Things are wrong here, and God's going to do some correcting. Let me tell you, that won't get you any votes. I said that won't get you any votes. It involved him in a very painful circumstance. He loved Eli. He loved Eli. He didn't want to have to go through that. I know he didn't. There's a lot of things that you have to do that you don't want to do. I preached to that church at home and went home and told the wife, I can't eat. I'll be weeping. What's the matter with you? What's the matter? I said I didn't want to talk to him like I talked to him this morning. I didn't want to have to say what I said to him this morning, but I had to say. I had to talk to him. They're lost. They're going to be lost. There's things coming in going to send them to hell. If I don't stand up, nobody else will. Today, when God is looking for somebody with enough personal experience with himself that you can feel what God feels about the situation, Samuel had to go tell him. But Samuel was brought so much into the heart of God that he was able to be perfectly loyal to God in all things. You see, every time God apprehends a human, he immediately begins a process of death and resurrection in that human. That's when you pass through dry, hard places, when it looks like everything has forsaken you. God is trying to kill you that he can raise himself up in you. You pass through this so that you feel like God feels about things, and until you feel that way, you can't get anywhere. Samuel had that kind of an experience with God. Therefore, he felt about things like God did. Look at the prophet Ezekiel. His wife fell dead with a stroke. I mean, just fell dead. Now, God spoke to him and said, You get in that pulpit and you preach, you smile. Don't you let one tear trickle down your cheek. Don't you act like you even know she's dead. You just preach and don't even mention her birthday, much less the funeral time. Oh, my God, here's a man of God in a bright red suit, probably, up in the pulpit preaching and jumping around. Wife just died last night. Why? God is saying, Listen, Israel, God's wife is dead, and nobody cares. Nobody cares. God is making Ezekiel see how God felt. You know the man was tortured. Oh, God, this has been my companion. Listen, I've got a wife I had for 38 years. We were in a meeting, Sister Hutchin and I in the Kentucky, and the man of God preaching in the morning is talking about a friend between Jonathan and David. What friendship? And somebody asked me when the meeting was over, Did you ever find a friend like that in your life? I said, I sure did, and married her, took her home with me. Best friend I ever had on this earth. Talking to her full story. I got out of bed this morning. Yes, sir, let me tell you, if I were to get word that that little lady had gone on, my God, to get in that pulpit and preach to you and be able to say anything on this earth but tell you that my wife had gone. Oh, but this is what he had to do. He said, Lord, I can't. I'm sure. It didn't in the book, but there's a lot of things you can read. How can I do that, Lord? My best friend, my companion, the mother of my children is dead. How can I do that? You do it. You do it. Amen. I want you to know, man of God, how I feel. You can't preach till you feel how he feels. You have no ministry until you feel how he feels. Eli don't feel that. He can lay in there and let the light go out. A lot of people can't feel it. As long as the money's coming in and a lot of people sitting in Sunday school, they could care less how God heart is. He made Hosea fall in love with a harlot and married her. I mean a woman of the street. She's selling herself, but the man of God fell in love with her, fell in love with her, married her. She loved him. His heart was grieved. He looked and looked and found her on a block for sale and bought her back. My God, what's going on? I'll tell you what's going on. God is telling you, Israel played a whore with me, but I loved her. I bought her back. That's the church. You have to feel that. You have to feel that. You are never going to be a part of this. Samuel had entered in. He knew how God felt. Therefore, he is able to stand and be true to God, even though it meant going in, telling his boss that God's upset with him. Things are not right here. Listen, when Samuel came into heart union with God's disappointment, his ministry began. I believe that's the way it is. You can go through a lot of things called ministry, but when your heart comes into union with God's dissatisfaction, then ministry begins. Effective ministry comes out of something that God has done on the inside, not just learning something in a Bible school. If God's done something in the inside, you need to go to a Bible school or somewhere and learn something. You sure need to learn something, but that won't make you a preacher just going there. No, no. Let me tell you, Samuel started the school of the prophets, and they rose up to cursing. Amen. They rose up to cursing, and here, effective ministry comes out of something done on the inside. The vessel has a burdened heart about the state of things, and ministry comes out of that. It comes out of that. You have seen what God wants, and you've seen what exists, and out of a burdened heart, ministry begins. In that ministry, Samuel became a bridge. I said, in that ministry, Samuel became a bridge. That is, he became the vessel of recovery. He became a bridge of transition. Transition from what? A transition from Saul to David, from flesh to spirit, from just religious without God to the ark back where it belongs. That's what he became. Amen. In that place, in that position of a burdened heart, sensitive to what God feels, he became that bridge, amen, in that transition from one state to another state, from Saul to David. Saul totally was a self-man, amen. He never obeyed God. He lived always in opposition to God, and here, Samuel was that bridge, that bridge that goeth from that flesh to the spirit, from one state to another state. That's what God is trying to find, and what he will find, a vessel through which he can bridge that gap from all of the gimmicks and mechanicalism of religion to the living Christ made real again. The vessel of recovery in this 20th century, then, must have, first of all, a personal life with God. The second feature that marks the vessel of recovery is such a vessel must not be a part of existing spiritual conditions. Oh, folks get angry here. Listen. Whatever had settled down upon Israel, Hannah was not a part of it. Whatever come down on those people and got them in that state, she wasn't a part of it. Don't call me a daughter of Belial, she said to that priest. I'm here out of groans of my heart. I'm making my complaint, preacher, because my heart is burdened. That's why, amen, I'm not here as a daughter of Belial. I'm not a part of all that mess going on out there, and I'm going to tell you something. I don't mind telling you. I'm not a part of all that gimmickry of religion out there that's geared only to get people's money, promote something that God didn't even end. And somebody somewhere along the road is going to have to know what is and what isn't. Somebody's going to have to say, I've had every kind of a religious charlatan in 28 years come to Beaumont, and they'd get on radio and television and shoot every pastor out of the saddle. They didn't mind shooting at me, but if I got up and shot back, then I become some kind of a rogue. Well, I'm a rogue. Man come into town, poor people, sick people, needing help, grasping at a straw. Here he's got, bought up a whole case of chewing gum Wrigley's. Now they're selling that to them precious people for a $10 offering. I'm out there, and he says to them, I can't lay my hands on your innards, but I've anointed this gum, and you chew it and swallow it, and I don't know if he's going to touch your inside. They're giving $10 for a 20 cent pack of gum. I said, it's a lie. Call it what you want. Don't ever come through the doors if you don't want to. But I will not be a part of such nonsense. I'm not a part of sending you out a little bag of meal or a piece of candle to send back me with a dollar wrapped around it. I'm not part of such nonsense. I don't care how big it is, it's not God. All that blind man ever needed was Jesus, and to find him, all he needed was a body through which Jesus could live. The church of the living God today must stand up and be counted. Listen, we are not to be lords over the faith of God's people, but Pastor Williams, under God you are charged to deal with what your people believe. If they believe everything that comes to them today, they're going to be insane. I listened to a radio, thank God for the medium to preach, but I was listening, driving down the freeway, and a man come on preaching for 15 minutes, and his message was, if you talk in tongues, you're of the devil, for 15 minutes. The next man come on, and he preached for 15 minutes, that if you don't talk in tongues, you're not saved. Then the third one come on, believes like me, that you've got to be saved to do that. The Holy Ghost didn't give them to the world, but I said, dear God, if I didn't know what I believe and know something about the Bible, I'd just pull off the side of the road and just forget it all. Isn't that right? I'm saying to you that that church must know where it's going, know what it believes, and that pastor must stand in that pulpit, whether they like what he says or not, and do something about what his people believe. Listen, Samuel was not a part of what was going on. Hannah was in revolt against what was taking place. She was different. The same was true of Samuel. He was different. He was in revolt against the existing spiritual conditions. The vessel God will use in the recovery cannot be a part of that which is content with less than God wants. If we are going to be a part of that vessel of recovery, then we can't be a part of that that is satisfied with less than what God's satisfied with. I can't soothe my conscience. Amen. I not only must not be for it, I must be against it. There must be something in me against that. I must love God's people enough to risk their friendship in telling them the truth. Isn't that right? I must love them enough. You go to a doctor, and you've got a growth on your arm, and he tells you it's nothing when he knows it's a cancer. He hates you. Many years ago, I had a vision. I've only had two or three of them where I really saw. I've got a vision in my heart that I mean where I really saw. I've been fasting for many days, and I was lifted up out of the Spirit somehow or another, and as I looked and beheld, I saw a man. He was running in what looked like liquid fire, bubbling, an awful sight. He looked like he was exhausted beyond words, maybe had been running for years, and he had reached down into that boiling liquid fire and pulled another human up. I couldn't hear what he said, but I could tell he would curse and throw him back and run on, pull another one up, curse and throw him back. In my spirit, I said, Oh my God, what am I looking at? And the Holy Ghost said to me, You're looking at a man in hell looking for a preacher that lied to him. My God, mister, I don't want somebody down there for eternity looking for me because I lied to him. Truth only sets free. Truth in love that says, I didn't write. It looks good, and it makes it. We mistake the ability to promote for faith. We do, folks. Listen, I'm just telling you how it is. Jerry Lewis raised $32 million in 24 hours on Labor Day. Had $10 million to buy television time. Raised $32 million with that $10 million. Nobody said Jerry Lewis is a man of faith. Let a religious man do the same thing, and we just, ooh and ah, he's a man of faith. Nothing, you can sell anything in this country if you got enough money to promote it, but Jesus isn't sold like cheap jacks wire in the marketplace. Amen. You don't sell him like you sell aluminum siding or soap. Amen. He's known to us, and that church must come back and be that vessel that's not a part of what's going on. Under no circumstances can such a vessel sanction that which is contrary to God's mind. Under no circumstances. Listen, it's not enough that the vessel not sanctioned. It must be in revolt against all that is contrary to God's thought. The vessel God will use must be in heart union with God's discontent. It must weep over conditions. Oh, heaven is disturbed. Jesus wept over Jerusalem. Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem. Jeremiah sent him the gate of Jerusalem, watched them coming by. He said, oh, that my head were a bucket of water, and then that heart rend and cry, haunts you till today. Doesn't it mean anything to you, all you that pass by? I'm saying to you, church, does it mean anything to you that the walls of that blessed thing called the church have been tore down? Its gates are not on the hinges right. It's a time that we entered in to the discontent of God. Just because there's a lot of religion doesn't always mean there's a lot of God. But third, listen, the vessel, such a vessel must learn the voice of God for themselves. Must have a personal life with God and learn the voice of God for themselves. The Lord never came to Eli and told Eli what he wanted Samuel to do. From the beginning, Samuel had to learn to recognize, discern the voice of God. That'll explain a lot of God's work with many in you. You know, we're people of questions, ain't we? All of us. We're people of questions. I have some wonderful people. They're people of questions. But in my lifetime, I've had questions and there wasn't anybody to answer. God, listen, that vessel he's going to use, he'll let you come to that place in your life where those questions and you can't find anybody with an answer, nobody with an answer. Hebrews 5.14 said, strong meat belongs to them who by reason of the exercise of their senses are able to discern between good and evil. You hear me? Amen. That just means that when I can't find an answer secondhand, if I'm really going to be a vessel of God, I wait till I find that answer from God. Then it is mine. I said, it's mine. By experience, I've stood up, I know. And God is going to let that vessel that he's going to use in this end time come to a place where the answer is from him, that you learn the voice of God. When you ask the questions, nobody can give an answer. But you wait, you exercise those spiritual senses until they operate and you can know the voice of God himself. That vessel has to know the voice of the Lord. It can never be used unless it comes to that place. Why is it that you can get so little help secondhand? Have you ever wondered? I've had people come in these meetings, wonderful people all over this nation. Brother Clinton and I went everywhere looking. I just can't seem to get help in a spiritual matter now and things. I said, do you ever stop to think that God may be tired of you going somewhere looking at it? Why don't you find an altar and wait on God until God can talk to your heart? He wants you to become personally acquainted with himself so that he can talk to you. And such a vessel that will be used in God's recovery in this hour is going to learn that voice for themselves. Amen. Now you can mark that down, ladies and gentlemen. It must be in heart union with God. It must know the Lord is seeking to make you know him personally. Not to be independent, but useful. Useful. Not trying to make you independent, but to make you useful in the work of God. I've been anytime. They want no answer. And you know what the problem? Folks, when they're disturbed, usually talk too much. Now you can't talk too much to God, but we usually talk too much. I have time to time, people watch his own television or other people in marriage get in trouble. They got a little friction, separated. And a woman come in, sit down in that office and start telling me about that devil. Oh, I said, I'm telling you Brother Clinton, you know, just she's disturbed, she's hurt. Or maybe him doing the same thing about her. And I said, now hold it just a minute here. I said, wait a minute. Do you want to go back? Do you want to get that man back? You want to get that woman back? Why yes. I said, well then quit that. I said, you can be sure I ain't going to tell nobody what you said about him. But you tell a lot of them folks out in that church, and he prays too, and you get your family back together. You come and sit on the pew, and they said, there's that poor thing with that devil again. They won't ever forget it. When you're disturbed, you usually talk too much. And we get disturbed over things spiritual. And we're going everywhere, talking to everybody, get 45 different answers. We're more confused when we get through than when we started, where if we just lay hold to God. All he's wanting us to do is just come back to that altar, and wait, and wait until he can tell us what he wants us to know. Amen. Fourth, listen. Fourth, that vessel of recovery. I'm talking about the features of it. That vessel that God will use must be faithful, though it seem presumptuous. You can't decide you've got more wisdom than God. Samuel told Saul, God wants everything dead out there. All sheep, all cattle, every male child. Amen. You kill everything over there. I mean, it is so corrupt. A turkey buzzard had to hold its nose to fly over it, and he said, I want everything dead. Here he comes back with all the sheep. You know what he's saying? God never really knew how fat these sheep were. I mean, he got them, and decided he knew more about it than God did. That's what's the problem happened in the pulpit today. A lot of us decide we know more about how to have a revival than God does. That rich young ruler came to Jesus, and Jesus told him what he had to do. He didn't want to do it, so he left unsaved. Went away sorrowful. Jesus never sent anybody after him. Now if that had been us, it would have took us five minutes. Now look, he's young, he's a nobleman, he's rich. Wouldn't that make a write-up in the magazine? Oh, Lord, that would be something being the convention speaker. Amen. It would have took us five minutes to get that nobleman to give permission for God to save him, and the next night we had had him on the circuit somewhere, telling folks what wonderful things had happened to him. Jesus never followed him. He never had no other answer. You'll either do it this way or go to hell, son. There's nothing going to change for you. Your money don't buy this. Nobody has a right to change it. I'm not here this morning with any authority at all to amend the Word of God. And nobody is. Must be faithful, though it seems presumptuous. Samuel, Samuel, just a boy. He runs in there to Eli. Did you call me? No, I didn't call you. Went back in. Samuel, are you sure you didn't call me? No, never. Son, if he calls again, you say, hear my, Lord. He's going to talk to you. Hear my, Lord! Son, I want you to go on and tell the priest. This is all a mess. I'm not accepting his sacrifices. The whole thing's corrupt. He's going through the rituals. It all looks perfectly good to the people, but I haven't got anything to do with any of it. Let me tell you something, boy. That seems presumptuous for a boy going on and telling an 80-year-old priest that's been in that office maybe 60 years that you're wrong, that God's going to judge this mess. Let me tell you, though, that vessel God is going to use is going to be steadfast. It's going to be faithful. It's going to be faithful regardless of what it seems like to anybody else. It's just going to stand up. Oh, I've had folks to say to me, yeah, well, if you was doing as much as so-and-so, I said, what do you mean? You don't judge this thing. I'm not saying I'll do anything, but you don't judge this thing by the crowd. If you do, then the Pope had 5 million people in Mexico City. You don't judge it by the money because the mighty has got more of that than anybody else. You judge it by the spiritual content. God made me to know that about the rapture. I read, as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the coming of the Son of Man. And it struck me one day that it wasn't but aid on that boat, aid on it. I read a book by a man that was a physicist born again that said there was perhaps 1 billion people living at the time of that flood. They lived a long time. They begot sons and daughters, amen, and nothing died like it does today. They lived 500 to 900 years and had children all along the line. I said, dear God, there's only 8 people out of a billion. Then I said, there's 4 billion people on this earth now, and if it's going to be like it was then, wouldn't there be 32 people in the rapture? There'd have been more Pauls died than that. Wouldn't be a chance of me being there. But God talked to me, listened to me. He said, no, sonny, not the number. That's all the spiritual content there was. That's all the spiritual content. Not the aid. He said, all that's going to go to heaven is what comes from heaven. Amen. All that's going to be raptured is that which is spiritual. You listen to me. If anything's going to get out of here, God doesn't judge anything by how big it is. He doesn't judge by how many television stations I'm on, how big Brother Schambach's tent is even. He doesn't judge. Heaven judges on the grounds of the incorruptible. How much of what you are and what you've done will reappear again and be glorified in eternity? That's all that God is interested in. How much of that that fire can't burn up? How much of that that can't be corrupted? How many sermons I've preached that God burned up? How much money I may have given that never amounted to anything to God? Amen. How much we've done, but yet, listen, the incorruptible. Oh, ladies and gentlemen, only the spiritual content. Amen. Only that which is spiritual. So you don't judge just by what the eye sees. Amen. How much of that is really eternal that's operating in the midst of all of this? It must be steadfast. Amen. We must stand against that which religion makes much of sometimes. I said we must stand against that which religion makes much of. Now, if you want to get in trouble, you deal with religion. James Robinson preached against the homosexuals in Dallas and Channel 8 threw him off. Ten thousand saints and hundreds of churches filled an entire page in the Dallas Times-Herald saying, if you don't let him back on, we'll never look at your station again. I said that's wonderful. Thank God stood against the homosexuals. I'll tell you one thing. If he arrives and preaches a message against religion, there won't be anybody stand with him. He'll stand by himself. The world's sacred cow, brother. They make everything saint. They'll stand up with him. They should stand up with him. But if that message, you didn't see nobody rallying around Jimmy Swaggart when they cut him off the stations in Atlanta and began to shoot him down because he said they can't save you, only Jesus saves. You didn't see no big rallies, no paper full of folks. In fact, he was took off of one of the main religious stations because of what he said. Oh no, brother, you want to get in trouble, you deal with religion. But that vessel must stand against that which religion makes very much of. Then finally, for that vessel, for that vessel that God will use, it must have a prayer history. A feature of that vessel will be prayer. There's nothing made so little of today as prayer. John Wesley said it, I wish I would have got the one to say that. God does nothing except in answer to prayer. God does nothing except in answer to prayer. You hear so little about prayer. There's so little preaching about prayer. The Bible said faith comes by hearing the word of God. You hear so little about prayer. But I'll tell you this, that vessel that God will use in this recovery will be a vessel of prayer. Samuel's whole life ministry was fulfilled through prayer. Israel had got so rotten that God's going to judge her. And he said, if Samuel prayed about this, it wouldn't change my mind. You know what that says? He said, if anybody on this earth could change me, Samuel could do it. But he said, if Samuel prayed, I'm still going to do what I said I would do. That tells you something about Samuel. He is a man that laid before God. That vessel that God is going to use is going to be a vessel of prayer. One of the major features of it that governs and overrides everything else is it will be a vessel of prayer. The Lord singled him out in Jeremiah 15 and 1 as one of the two, if any could prevail with God, they could do it. You read that, Jeremiah chapter 15, verse 1. Samuel's ministry was mainly a ministry of prayer. He waited, and God taught, and he moved. Amen. Oh, brothers, you're not going to put down prevailing prayer and get anywhere with God. When Zion prevails, there'll be born. There'll be sons and daughters born. Amen. Talks about Zion coming to birth, children coming to birth, and the church not having enough strength to give birth to them. So weak that she died in childbirth. What a tragedy. I said, what an indictment. But the ministry of prayer, he had a place with God so utter and complete, his own reasoning did not even come in. I mean, God come down telling him what to do. He didn't try to reason it out. He didn't say, now, Lord, I can't go talk to that priest. I'm living here eating his groceries. You know, I'm here because he let me here. He could have said that's his own reasoning, but he's there because God put him there. And he never argued. He never reasoned. He just got up, went on in there, and told the man what God told him. His own reasoning was such an utter lie with God that his own reasoning never entered into it. You can't say anything higher about a Christian than to be able to say they're people of prayer. There's nothing you can say higher. We cannot have power with God unless God has got us into such a place of prayer. These features will be a part of that vessel. Mark it down. You'll have a personal life with God. It will not be a part of the existing spiritual conditions. Not only will not sanction those things, it will be in revolt against those things that God is against. It will know the voice of God for itself. It'll be steadfast, though it even seems presumptuous, and it will be a vessel of prayer. There'll be that place of prayer in that vessel that God is forging to pour forth his healing spirit in these last and final days. I want you to stand with me, and let's worship God. Hallelujah. Lift your hands. Just lift them up. Let's love him here this morning. Come on, folks. Let's worship God. You believe what I've said, do you? Amen. You believe. Do you want to be that? Do you want to be that? Do you want to be that vessel? Do you want to be that vessel? I'm asking the folks on this tape, listen to it. Do you want to be a part of that vessel of recovery? Is it in your heart's desire to be the vehicle, whatever the cost? Oh God, whatever the cost, to be that which you will use in these last days. Oh Jesus, when you came, you represented a change in history, and all religion hated you. Now we stand there today to represent you in your fullest manner, and we recognize that we're not going to be put to sainthood by the religion of our time, but we will be the vessel of recovery and the salvation of millions. Touch every heart that stands here this morning. In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, minister to us. Let the word of the Lord dwell in our hearts richly. Oh God, don't let a person that's heard this message take it lightly. But oh God, may they hear it again and again. Now that may they come those that can be forged into a vehicle that you can live through in the name of Jesus. John Wesley said, give me ten men that fear nothing but God and hate nothing but sin, and I'll change the course of history. Evidently, evidently, God gave him them ten men because he changed the course of history. Once more, God is saying, just give me those that represent me, and they will be the salt of the earth. They will be rather the cruise through which the salt can come. God bless you.