Leonard Ravenhill emphasizes the need for a three-fold vision in the life of a believer, drawing from the life of King Uzziah, who, despite his initial faithfulness and prosperity, fell into pride and disobedience. Ravenhill warns that true vision involves recognizing God's holiness, our own depravity, and the hopelessness of the world without God. He illustrates that the church must awaken from its slumber and seek the Holy Spirit's fire to transform lives and communities. The preacher calls for a deep introspection and a return to genuine prayer and repentance, urging believers to seek a closer relationship with God. Ultimately, he challenges the congregation to allow God to reveal and remove anything that hinders their spiritual growth.

There was some searching stuff said this morning we all need to reconsider. In the year that King Uzziah died, let me say this quickly. What do you know about King Uzziah? I'll give you his life story in a few words. Look at the second chapter of Chronicles, chapter 26. And read from verse one, let me read it quickly. All the people of Judah took Uzziah who was sixteen years of age. What's your boy at sixteen doing? Gathering baseball cards? He's sixteen years of age. It's mentioned again in verse three, he was sixteen years of age. When he began to reign, he reigned fifty and two years. What's sixteen and fifty-two? Come on, sixty-eight? Look at verse four, he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord. According to all that his father Amaziah did, he sought God in the days of Zechariah and had understanding of visions of God, he had that. At sixteen years of age he understood God, he understood visions of God. He sought other men of the prophets like Isaiah, he sought Zechariah. Can you imagine him asking counsel of these amazing men? Now let me read this quickly to you. At the end of that same verse it says, as long as he sought the Lord God made him to prosper. He went forth against the Philistines. Verse seven, God held him against the Philistines, against the Arabians, the Drogon, Gerber, the Hunim, and the Amorites gave to Amaziah all these things. Then go on and read. What did he do? He raised the economy of the nation like no other king had ever done. They raised the peak of their standard of living. They had the greatest armies. Not only that, he had wisdom. Look it says in verse 15. He made Jerusalem engines invented by cunning men and he built towers and bulwarks to shoot arrows and stones. Remember they had wooden cities and they hurled against those wooden cities tremendous slabs of stone. Look what it says. His name spread far abroad. He was marvellously helped till he was strong. When he became strong his heart was lifted up to vanity. And he went into the temple of the Lord to burn incense. You say listen. He said I got all the doctors together. They all bowed down for me. I got all the economists and they bowed down. I got all the rulers, the theologians, they bowed down. I got all the political people, they bowed down. Now I'm going to the temple. I mean I'm the big shot on earth. He was helped until many of us can stand adversity. We fight over. We can't stand prosperity. One of my heroes is Dave Wilkerson, my dear wife and boys and Nancy. We were with Dave 30 years ago when nobody knew him. But since then God has poured blessing on him. He's one of the most courted men in the world. He was in my office. He told me he spent 60 million dollars cash buying a church building. He spent another building of a million dollars, another one two dollars. But nothing has spoiled him. He still retains his integrity. You know it's one of the few churches that I hope people go up there. They say I was amazed when I got there. There were more people at the altar before the meeting than after. They were praying down the power. You were wondering God's name. You could almost go to hell and preach if it's all that battery of preaching. Sometimes you don't make an altar call. He said by the way the prayer meeting he said I say listen we're going to sing. I'm going to give an exhortation and I'm going to say pray. And he said Len they pray in 62 languages. All at the same time. It doesn't confuse God. I said you're praying tongue short. Those are all Japanese. Those are all people from Vietnam. Those are all people from the country. 62 languages. No other church in America does that. He says if God convicts you don't come and kneel at the front here. Turn around and talk to people. So one night a man comes down he says well I've got something to say. David says turn around and say here's millionaires, multi-millionaires, street girls, criminals, all in that audience. And the man turns around and looks at them and tremblingly says I lived in New York and I murdered 10 people when I was here. I dismembered four prostitutes when I was here. David says all right come and see me the DA tomorrow. And they took him to the DA's office. The DA said well I can't touch you. Certain laws don't allow me. A few weeks after a man came forward. I thought he was virtuous. He said I didn't kill ten people. I only killed four. I didn't chop four women up. I only chopped two up. And that goes on nightly in New York and big cities. And we go to sleep. And God looks from heaven and sees the church asleep. David goes down to the gutter most and the upper most. It's one church that makes me proud. I'm not just proud I know him. I know him as a personal friend. I've shared many tremendous things with him. But there's something eaten into the heart of that man that he goes there and pours out his life. This same thing happened here. Can you imagine everybody saying we've got the most wonderful king in the world. He's a whiz kid. He's raised the economy. Industry has changed. All the farming has changed. Education has changed. Everything he touches turned to gold. This wonderful kid of course is getting older now. Then he suddenly decides he'll take the church on. What does he say? Verse 16 says when he was strong his heart was lifted up to destruction. He transgressed against the Lord his God and went to the temple of the Lord to burn incense. And Azariah the priest went after him and with him four score priests. That's four score and one. That's 81 men jumped on this man. He must have been demon possessed. He tossed them all off and he was going to burn incense. What happened? Do you see it? In the year that King Uzziah died. Uzziah is my idol. Uzziah is the greatest man that ever lived in this country. Uzziah has changed the economy. Uzziah has changed our style of living. He's the wizard. He's the greatest guy we ever had. All the nation was turned to him. But God is a jealous God. You see the trouble with Azariah, God is eyes on Uzziah. And in the year that King Uzziah died. Can you imagine? Everybody sees this man going into the temple. Have you heard the news? He fell dead. What a brilliant king. We can't live without it. We'll have to. Do you remember some guys were going to turn this country around a few years ago? They had what I call religious humanism. They were the moral majority. They're going to turn the country around. No sirree. If America is ever turned around, God will turn it around. Nobody else will. This fellow won't go along. I heard a story the other day. There's a barber shop in Alabama with a sign outside. Haircuts, $200 while they last. After that, $6.50. What's an arrogant man do like that? Listen, it's not the trouble in the White House. It's a trouble in God's house. Oh, they're all going to get together in 1994 with King Cho or somebody. And they're going to have 40 days of fasting. Why in God's name don't we have it now? Is it a showpiece? Who lies all night between the office and the doorpost? The deacons will kick you out. Now let me say this quickly. It's a terrible thing. Do you know the same thing that happened in 65 BC? The famous ruler of that day was Julius Caesar. And he got friendly with Pompey. And Pompey married the sister of Julius Caesar. And he became more famous as a leader. Pompey became more famous in Rome than Julius Caesar. So Julius Caesar banished him to the ends of the earth, which happened to be Israel. And he went there with ships loaded and horses. Horses with skirts or you'll call saddle cloths. Beautifully embroidered. The men wore breastplates and two and on their heads they had helmets with feathers and all the show. And all the people came out to see them. Then one day, when they looked around the city, Pompey said, what's that building there? Oh that's the house of God. What do you mean God? We've got many gods in our country. No that's the God that made heaven and earth. He lives in there, yes. Well I'll go there tomorrow. Do you know 3,000 people followed him? They fell on their knees and cried, don't go in, don't go in. You Zion did not me die. Oh I'm a Roman general. He went to the temple. They tried to resist it. Okay, Dr. who was it now? Dr. Dr. Critchwell has a book. He describes this king coming down. He comes through the courts of the Gentiles. He comes through the courts of Israel. He comes through the courts of women. He comes through the courts of women. Then he comes up a big curtain that's at least six inches thick. Well what's that? Oh that's the curtain behind that. That's the holiest of all. That's where God lives. Tear it on one side. So they struggled with it and they put it on one side. And he expected to see blinding glory. There was nothing there. And Pompey exploded. He said I came all this way. You tell me your God is there and he's not there to see me. It's total darkness. And he blazed off in his anger. Where is God? Where is God? Where is God? What do you do with the modern church? You come to the tennis court and the volleyball court and the other court and teenagers come to find God in the sanctuary. He isn't there. We're trying to worship a God that isn't there. How many times do people like call me and say there's something wrong in our church. There's somebody, something missing and not something, somebody. Can you have a dead meeting if the living God is there? Did you ever see a wet-eyed preacher preach a dry sermon? Nobody will teach you to weep except the Holy Ghost. I prayed with Dave Wilkerson and seen tears run down his face when we knelt in his office together praying for the next move of God to move. If we would at that time living in down in dirty old Brooklyn. I don't know a man until I've prayed with him. I know some of the great so-called prophets. No I don't know a single prophet. Prophets don't go into big posh hotels and have nice meetings. Prophets go to the highways and byways. I'd like to see somebody stand on the steps of the of the, what do you call it, the captain and raise his hand and say like he lied that there'd be no rain for these years. They don't do that. They talk, I know where you come from, anybody knows that. But God's going to raise up those men. All right, what did he do? He had a vision. He had an upward vision of beauty, an inward vision of depravity, an outward vision of beauty, an upward vision of the holiness of God, an inward vision of the helplessness of himself, an outward vision of hopelessness. What is holiness? Holiness is soul health. What does Wesley say? To perfect health, restore my soul to perfect wholeness and love. All right, I'm going to hurry up, get through this. What is the greatest need of the hour? You can't buy it, you can't organize it. It's for the Holy Ghost to come. And as David said this morning, he doesn't dwell in a temple made with iron. He doesn't go in our super mega churches with six thousand seats. He doesn't go to Westminster Abbey. He doesn't go to St. Paul's Cathedral. He finds men. He found a little man in China once by the name of John Sung. Wherever John Sung went he had revival. He found an American by the name of Jonathan Goforth. Wherever Goforth went there was revival. God inhabited the man and dispossessed him of all he had. Okay, one of the recurring things in the diary of John Wesley is that about a quarter to nine, on the 24th of May 1738, suddenly the Holy Spirit came. Here's a man of impeccable morality. He's a scholar. He's a gentleman. He's a teacher at Oxford University. And suddenly the Holy Ghost came upon him. And he was born again of the Spirit of God. He gives you the time about a quarter to nine, the 24th of May 1738. The fire of God fell. And the world was different. Jesus talked to 500 brethren at once. I think they're all invited to be uprooted. Only 120 came. Yet the 320 went. 380 talked about the miracles Jesus did and everything. But these men said, I need God more than anything else. Just think quickly. You think of all the, I forget the exact number, but it says, what the King Solomon made a hundred, a hundred and twenty thousand altars for sheep. Another seventy thousand altars for animals. And nothing happened. People said, look at all those animals. They make good food. Look at all the priests standing there. Nothing happened until he prayed again and the fire fell. Then what happened? Elijah is on Mount Carmel. I don't know how many million people were there. Nobody does. The royal family was there. Ahab was there. Jezebel was there. The royal people were there. And here is a man of God alone. And he says, the God that answers by fire. Let him be God. And suddenly the fire came. But the fire didn't just eat the sacrifice. It licked up the water. It licked up the dust. It licked up the stones. There are stones over there in Hawaii. They've been there since creation. But when they had a recent earthquake, they melted and flowed down the hill. If you've done anything else, there's nowhere else to destroy them. But the fire did it. No wonder William Booth, all he had was an old wife, well too old. See the curvature of the spine. He steps in the gutter. He's a half Jew and half gentle. And he wrote the battle hymn of the Salvation Army. Thou Christ of burning cleansing flames, send the fire. Thy blood-born gift today we claim. Send the fire. Look down and see this waiting host. Give us the promised Holy Ghost. I believe in child evangelism to a degree. I do not believe in child evangelists. Oh our church is sending six teenagers. Why God they've defeated themselves. I see a newspaper and it says there's a Japanese girl coming to the Carnegie Hall. She's 14 years of age. You say to her play Paganini and she'll play this. Play that and she knows everything. And she stands there and does it. She's 14 years of age. Then she goes off in the Carnegie Hall next week. A boy comes from Poland. He's the greatest pianist since Paderewski. So you've got children that are leading the world in music. You've got children leading the world in some other sciences. But you don't find a 14 year old boy going to, what are they advertised for? We want a few good men who are the Marines. You don't find a 14 year old boy in the Marines. Sure I'd like to see a girl play the violin that makes the world stagger. She's 14. She spends 10 hours a day. I was reading the live story of the other night at two o'clock in the morning actually of the new studies that have come out and Jonathan Edwards the greatest brain that America ever had. What does it say? I thought about our David and Paul too. Oh Jonathan Edwards preached one sermon on sin that's in the hands of an angry God. But he prayed 500 on love that nobody mentions. Do you know what he did? The night before he prayed sinners in the hands of a hungry God he gathered the most prayerful people in town and many of them for a week and fasted. You can't have revival without travail. Do you know what Jonathan Edwards did when others were riding horses and having fun? He read his bible 13 hours a day. He made himself available to God. Turn down. I've prayed it hundreds of times. God don't let anything live in me that should die. Don't let anything die in me that should live. Don't narrow my vision. Stretch my vision. I'm going to an eternity with God. Eternity as you heard this morning is the habitation of God. You read up. There are 66 books in the bible. There are 66 chapters in Isaiah. You know where the bible is divided? Well Isaiah is divided the same way. Read how many times in the first section at least 12 times the holiness of God is mentioned. The second section 17 times the holiness of God. God is holy. Somebody said to one of the great holiness preachers in America. Every time you open the bible it's holiness. He did this. He said they're not have to open it. It's on the cover. One thing we don't do in America. The only one of the 10 commandments we remember. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. People go shopping on Sunday. They go to Canton Fair. Find all the bargains. I wouldn't. You couldn't take me out to dinner on Sunday. I wouldn't go. I'd like a new car. I wouldn't go on Sunday to buy it. I keep the Sabbath high because God says keep it. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it. God gives you six other days. Can you shop six other days? God only asked for one day a week. No. When the holy ghost gone to every day is a holy day. I don't really holy on Sundays for an hour. I want to live a holy life, a pure life, a clean life, an intense life. There comes a life and I've met people this last few months by telephone, by letter, by my office girls swinging over all the time. There's something more. There's something more. There's something more. I'll say two things in quick. When those big lumbering galleons of Spain pulled out from Spain on the ebb tide, there's nowhere else to go, they disappeared over the horizon. On the coins of Spain at that time it said this, me plus ultra. Me and me plus ultra. No more beyond. Because ships have gone out never come back. But then Columbus came back. When Columbus came back they changed the coins. They issued new coins and left me off. And so it read instead of me plus ultra, no more beyond. It read more beyond. Some of you got out of Egypt. But did Egypt get out of you? Dear God it moves me to tears. How many people went into the promised land? Even Moses didn't make it. Maybe a million people or more went out of Egypt. But how many went to the promised land? How many of us possess our possessions? You're a child of God. Oh I'm only a human. Forget it. God says if you're born again you're a vessel unto honor. God says if you're born again you're an heir of God and a joint heir with Jesus Christ. You've every right to have dominion over sin, sickness by the power of God. And live a life of victory and power in the spirit of God. More than conquerors through him that loved us. Not Christ in history or Christ in heaven merely. But Christ liveth in me. I was trying to, I thought I knew worse. By the way you can't buy this book. If you want a thousand dollars you can have it. And I'll give it permission. But you can order a book from Jack. Dr. Towles put many of these great hymns together, particular favorites. But I was looking for a hymn I thought I knew well enough and I couldn't find it. Charles Wesley says this. Come Jesus Lord with holy fire. Come and my quickened heart inspire. Cleanse in thy precious blood. Now to my soul thy self reveal. Thy mighty working let me feel. Since I'm born of God. Then he says this. Let me go back a second. What does this say? The cherubim couldn't look on God. They had six wings. With two they covered their eyes. They couldn't bear to see the holiness of God. With two they covered themselves. They couldn't bear the holiness of God to touch them. And with two they flew away. It reminds me of Psalm 80. Do you remember it? O thou that dwellest between the cherubims come down. Three times in that psalm. Cause thy face to shine upon us. If God smiles on me do I care who frowns on me? If God loves me do I care who hates me? If God whispers in my heart I'm walking the light do I care what somebody else says about me? Because I don't do miracles and raise the dead forget it. Do you get what Wesley says? This fabulous preacher. This man of impeccable morality. This great scholar. Less than thyself O do not give. You didn't ask God for that did you? You asked God for tens and he gave you what you asked for. He asked you a blessing. He gave you a blessing. Do you think that makes God happy? He's looking to make you his habitation. You don't go to bed when you want. I've suddenly woke up this last part of six years. I go to bed at nine o'clock at night. I get up at twelve. I get two or three or four hours study. The phone doesn't ring. People don't tell me. I've had the best times with God. Particularly reading 1st and 2nd epistles of Paul to uh. I better drink this or somebody get disappointed. Not very good. Tell me do you think you could you could really tonight stand in invasion of God. He'd tear away your vanity. Maybe your whole business is you love to see your lovely self in the glass. Do you ever see yourself in the mirror? Okay. Do you remember the church in the book of the revelations? Oh young people say I'm going to fulfill the great commission. What is it? I don't know. Oh yes Jesus said go into all the world. He said that to the twelve. It's the last word of Jesus. It's not the last word of Jesus. It's the last word of Jesus to the twelve. The last word of Jesus in the book of the revelations seven times. Repent. Repent. Repent. Supposing the Holy Ghost came tonight. That's what I pen for don't I? Well I've got a pencil in my hand. Supposing the Holy Ghost comes. Any beans to Marcus? If you are bitterness in your heart and unbelief he puts a black cloth on your forehead. If you have an under giving spirit he puts a blue cross there. If you have a jealous spirit he puts a yellow cross there. If you have an envious spirit he puts another one. He doesn't do that. He doesn't deal with us as he did with Miriam for gossiping. What's this man say? In the year the king is that I saw the Lord. Maybe nobody else did but he saw the Lord. And I said woe to Israel. No. Woe to the chief priest. No. Woe to the money makers. No. Woe is me. I'm undone. We all know what's wrong with the other person. What's wrong with you? Then what? Here is the altar. It's got strips of meth on it. It's a sacrifice. From the sacrifice blood is dropping down onto a live coal. You see a thousand bumper stickers. God is love. But God is fire. My God is the consuming fire. He's going to consume the world in fire one day. This is the only time in the bible where cherubim are named seraphim. Cherubims were put at the garden so they wouldn't go back in the garden of Eden. They drove Adam and the other people away. But the seraphim come with a pair of tongues. He takes a live coal from off the altar. The blood is dropping onto it. Symbolic of the cross. The live coal is blazing. Symbolic of the Holy Ghost. I hate people that have the baptism. Forget it. Pin somebody. Will you baptize with the Holy Ghost and fire? Fire. William Booth says to his fire. We want the fire. Will you please send the fire? The fire will meet our every need. We have a lovely fireplace in our house. At summertime we don't use the fire. But in winter I love to see a fire there. Fire is so wonderful. Friend you don't need a entertaining crowd to with music. All you need a pulpit on fire. Because as my dear principal used to say to us. Gentlemen you never have to advertise a fire. What happened when those illiterate men through the street. Good God. A black man. God bring revival to America through a black man. They were hated like the devil is. Yet God comes on a Nazarene guy. And all he had was a shoebox as old Dave Wilson say. And he ducks his head into that shoebox. He never looked up. He prayed and the Holy Ghost came. Do you know how the Holy Ghost came? People two blocks away coming down the street got on a conviction. You don't need to sing just as I am 13 times. I asked a man to go to a meeting. No he says charismatics laugh at other churches have rituals. They have more rituals. Every charismatic meeting is the same. Sing 14 choruses to him and then have a message. I'm not going. They didn't go. We got into a rut. Do you know what a rut is? It's a grave with the ends knocked out. So if you're near a rut you're in trouble. The great anointing with the Holy Ghost that David talks of. We don't talk about the beauty of holiness. You can't worship God without it. How can you only worship a holy God with bitterness in your heart and pride in your heart and cunniness. You think the prettiest doll that walks through. Everybody loves me. I'm so handsome. Forget it. The most beautiful woman ever led prayed. Well I've never heard another one pray. Lord six princes wanted to marry her. Madame Guillaume. And Madame Guillaume said Lord take away my beauty. He took away her beauty. He took away her husband. He took away her freedom. She was in a building with walls 30 feet thick about the width of this. Why did they lock her up in there? She can't smash her way out. What did she write when she was there? Oh Lord why do you treat me like this? I'm the greatest Christian of all. She wrote a little bird of mine shuts off from the fields of air. Contended in this place to lie since God has placed me here. Well please the prisoner to be because my God it pleases thee. And I forget the other example. She talks about the bars. But she said don't control me. Walls do not a prison make. Barriers. There's no barrier to God. In other words you can wall me in. You can't roof me in. Why is someone of God's most gorgeous Christian in the world in Bosnia tonight? Bloody. Only half a leg. Only one eye. They haven't had a decent meal. They haven't had a bath for six months. They have to stand there and watch six men rape their wives. They thought a 13 year old daughter four or five men in turn would rape the precious little thing. And God looks on and does nothing. Nobody's appointed a day when he will. Nobody's going to get by. At the judgment seat I believe Frank there won't be rich and poor. There won't be great and small. There won't be two kinds of judgment. Those who are faithful and those who are unfaithful. Beat out faithful unto death. I think I'm weak physically now. Weaker than I've ever been. I had a terrible uh just over a month ago a sciatic nerve went wrong and I never had pain in my life like that. Oh women say that women don't. Men don't know what pain's like. The greatest pain in the world is bringing a baby into the world. Not so. The greatest pain in the world is traveling in Christ. What did Christ do? That's why you've no fruit in your church. You go to a meeting with some magic words. How can there be pain when you haven't traveled? If the blessed apostle with his colossal intellect and he wrote 14 epistles if you give him Hebrews. If he says I travel night and day that you Christ may be formed in you. Not that you may stop drinking and swearing and so forth. Okay. He took a live call from off the altar. What did he what did he touch? He touched him when he confessed he was a Christian. I think I'm weak physically now. Weaker than I've ever been. I had a terrible just over a month ago a sciatic nerve went wrong and I never had pain in my life like that. Oh women say that women don't. Men don't know what pain's like. The greatest pain in the world is bringing a baby into the world. Not so. The greatest pain in the world is traveling in Christ. What did Christ do? That's why you've no fruit in your church, you go to a meeting with some magic words. How can they be born? You haven't traveled! If the blessed apostle with his colossal intellect, and he wrote 14 epistles, if you give him Hebrews, if he says, I travel night and day, then you, Christ may be formed in you. Not that you may stop drinking and swearing and so forth, OK? He took a live call from off the altar, what did he touch? He touched him where he confessed, I'm unclean, I'm around unclean lips, someday Debbie's going to come back. I may never come back, I don't know, but Debbie will come back. I hope he'll preach one day on circumcision. There's a physical circumcision, there's a circumcision of the lips, there's a circumcision of the ears. Let him preach it to you. He took a live call from off the altar, your lips are very tender, aren't they? I'm often, I like tea and I like it hot. Only crazy, crazy people drink cold tea. OK. I drink, and I often wonder when I take my, my precious wife used to do surgery, and take things out of the sterilizer with her bare fingers. Now she can boil an egg, throw the hot water off and lift the egg, spread it out with her finger. I can't do it. I need a pair of tongs or ovencloth toothpicks. But she's got her fingers removed from her back. Are you immune to the Holy Ghost, are you fighting off the Holy Ghost? You know you're weak tonight. This has touched my lips. What did David say in Psalm 51, Lord open now my lips, that my mouth may show forth thy praise. What kind of lips have you tonight sister, are you the biggest gossip in church? Do you tell silly jokes with these lips? Other people are dumb, they can't. Are you a critic? Are you a bitter hound? What do these lips do? Glorify God? Wesley says oh for a thousand tongues, if you have a thousand tongues you won't live. What a difference, and he comes in annoyance, finally. Every man I've read of, and I don't care what your theologians say. I know there's a team going around the world saying signs and wonders will turn the nation. I don't believe that, so I'd like to see them. Here's the greatest miracle ever happened. Jesus comes to breakfast. My God what a breakfast. Somebody takes a piece of bread and breaks it. And Jesus very graciously, Jesus very graciously takes the piece of bread. Do you think that man ever forgot the resurrected Christ there? He takes a piece of bread, and Jesus puts forth his hand, and suddenly the man who offered him the bread sees a hole through his hand. It's the only hand in the world with a hole, he knows it's Jesus, and he turns to the man and he takes a piece of honeycomb, and he says brother here, and the man's terrified I noticed that hand had a hole in it, and he says Jesus, please share my honeycomb. Isn't that enough to keep you going the rest of your life, to see Jesus alive, to eat with Jesus, to feed him? No Jesus, let's wait. No, no, we don't need to wait, Lord. We know you're Jesus. We know, we know we see you now, we see those marvelous eyes, we hear you talk, we've seen your hands with holes, we don't, oh wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, he says, you can't live on emotion next time, man. Next greatest miracle that was ever performed, what did he do? He led them out as far as Bethany, and they saw him ascend, that's the second greatest miracle. He's not arisen from the dead, he ascends. They see him, they eat with him, they talk with him, and then they see him ascend, but he says, Tarrish, you'll forget about this emotion, as David said, you might have a sleep or something, and the next day, it's all gone, you go in the upper room. That was the most exciting place on earth. Have you ever thought of the waiting? We've been here 46 days, only four days to go, wake up the next morning, hey, only three days to go, two days, hey, tomorrow, tomorrow, who's coming? God! Not blessing? My God is God himself. What did A.D. Simpson write in that wonderful hymn, himself? Once it was a blessing, now it is the Lord, once it was a feeling, now it is his word, once his gift, I want it now to give it all, and so he goes on. A.D. Simpson will receive the Holy Ghost. What did he do? He sold his house, he sold his carriage, he had the largest ministry in Louisville, a five-figure salary that nobody else in America had, no preacher, and he went to New York and bought a piece of land and built a tabernacle. I preach in that tabernacle. Now when he was there, of course, but he launched, one man launched the Christian Missionary Alliance, which now has 1,200 missionaries. The final thing, one of my favorite hymns since I've been a child, was written by Edwin Hatch. Breathe on me breath of God. Do you remember that? How many of you remember that hymn? Breathe on me breath of God, fill me with life. Not fill the crowd here, not fill Billy Graham, fill me with life anew. You need to be a holy father in the house, you need to be a holy mother. No child ever went out of our house in 20 years without seeing the face of their mother. She was up before seven making breakfast. She works 12 to 13 hours a day today, at 83 years of age. I see her ministering every day. Dear God, it'll mean God send you money and everything, with time we'll be on for pennies. When they knocked on the door of our house and said, your husband's dying in Chicago, 4,000 miles away, now why send enough money to come to the hospital to find me? We'd had the greatest revival in Dr. Charles' church in history, he said. Then I jumped out of a burning hotel, hit the deck. My leg was in three pieces, parts of my back were hanging out, now both my feet were broken. Is that the way to get? It's the best thing God ever sent me. God is never capricious. All he wants is my drop to consume and I go to be fine. Let me go back to this one man. He's in the greatest university in the world, Oxford, Dr. Edwin Hatch. He preaches, the church is full, he's not short of people, he's not short of money. But one day he says, I'm not satisfied with success, I'm not satisfied with money, I'm not satisfied with what other people have. He comes to Canada actually, and then he snatches a piece of paper and he wrote, I believe without stopping, he wrote, breathe on me breath of God, fill me with life anew, that I may love what thou dost love and do what thou dost do. Breathe on me breath of God, listen till I am wholly thine. I don't care about my scholarship, I don't care about my Hebrew and Greek, I don't care about my, the fact I'm so eloquent and I move people. Breathe on me breath of God, till I'm wholly thine, till all this earthly part of me glows with thy fire divine. Do you wonder I've done that hymn for 80 years? I still, as David says, fire, I said 10 minutes ago, Phineas said I need repeated baptism, yes. I've preached some of this message 30 years, only a little part of it, because I didn't get the hang of it. It's vision. Give me two more minutes. Who was the first man that ever preached? A little man that walked up and down Sodom and Gomorrah, the cities of the plain, with his hands raised up. He saw a hole in the clouds. Did not he say there wasn't a Bible on earth? As far as I know, unless Abraham was there, there was nobody else. And he looks through that hole and says, the Lord cometh with 10,000 of his saints, and he still hasn't done that. Why did he preach with such confidence? For the simple reason he had vision. The next great man was Noah. I've read the story of Noah for 80 years with my eyes closed, and God opened them a couple of years ago. I've seen things. I'm terrified to read the story of Noah, but I'll tell you frankly, what did he do? Oh, everybody knows what Noah did, he built an ark. That's not what Peter says. Peter says Noah, a preacher of righteousness. What does Peter say? There's only one way to prove it. That's not quoting Greek and Hebrews. It's like, obviously people said, your son hasn't done anything this morning. Sure. You can't buy it. Peter says, preaching when the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. I think John Knox was maybe the greatest preacher that Scotland ever had. He went in St. Giles Cathedral one morning, it's packed to the rafters. What does he do? He goes to a couple of hymns. He gives the announcement, John Scott, John Knox, the man who'd been 12 years in prison in France. He's going to be the liberator of Scotland. And he stands in front of a packed audience. Do you know John Knox has got his liberty in his back, preaching in the cathedral. He's packed to the rafters. And he stood there and he said, folks, you'll have to go home. I have no words from God. We wouldn't do that. We'd get up an old message and warm it up and preach it. I was walking down the street in Glasgow with Jock Purvis that wrote the great book, Fair Sunshine. He said, Len, I think the greatest thing John Knox was, was when he stood there in the crowd it's even said, I have no anointing of God. Dear God, wouldn't it be wonderful instead of trying to persuade people God's here because we clap our feet and sing. He's not there. If God's in the place, but you'd rather go out with a heart, your tears streaming down your eyes, that you're redeemed, you're going to live with him for a million years from now, or you'll go with a broken heart. The whole sinful world is going to hell. You say you believe in hell. I don't believe you. When did the Holy Ghost last pluck a tear from your eyes? I don't sleep one night in seven. Martha comes through to my office about two or three in the morning, brings me a glass of warm milk. I said, Len, please come back to bed. It's time. Oh, darling, I'll be there in a while. Sometimes I go, sometimes I don't. Why do we preach as daily priests this morning? Because I don't want you to be as useless as I've been for years. Sure, I've preached around the world. Sure, I ran the largest wholeness church in England for years. It's success wasn't my preaching. It's success that we had three prayer meetings a week and three street meetings. My daddy was a street preacher. My daddy was a man who prayed. My sister said, once at dinner, I remember the day, Daddy, even when you take grace, you find you do it. He said, because people are lost. He couldn't pray five minutes without tears. He took me to a night of prayer when I was 14. He never bought me a baseball. He never bought me anything. We have one of our three boys that are sportsmen. I bought them a gun. We never took newspapers. Martha, when I was away, would read life stories of great missionaries. They grew up in that atmosphere. And Paul, when he comes home, he told me the other day, this precious woman, she's nearly black, Pandita Ramabai, had revived in the very heart of India. And one man passed through only once. And he saw that swarthy-skinned woman standing there with the anointing of God. And he said, my life was transformed. Why don't miracles... Listen, do you know somebody who would really like to be like some Christian? A Christian never changes their attitude. A Christian who is always broken before God. I like music. I like fun as much as anybody. We've just about laughed ourselves... Let me tell you what I believe. I believe that entertainment is the devil's substitute for joy. The more joy you'll have in the Holy Ghost, the less you'll need TV or anything else. I'm convinced of that. I have a TV. I use it. It breaks me. I go and pray in my room very often. I'm not like a church near us. It's split on the TV question. They have and they have not. They don't have a TV. They feel they're on top of the world. These people don't. It doesn't turn me on. I turn it off. But if you kill it, it'll steal all you've got. Most of you men go to bed at night, tired. Not from work, but watching TV till you're bugged with it. The men who change this to have been baptized with the Holy Ghost don't care what you say. I never ask you to come forward. You've been forward 50 times. I'm asking you to go home and say, Lord, show me. What is it? My unclean lips? My unclean habits? My unclean desires? What is it that stops the Holy Ghost from flowing through me? How wise they are to live in waters that don't flow out of me. The greatest men that ever lived. Only had the same Bible I have. Only had the same God, but they knew him better. I'm not bothered to go here, go there, go to some great convention. I want God to reveal himself. It may be more than that. I don't know what I'm asking about. Sure, I've seen thousands come to altars. I've got spiritual sons all over the world, thank God. Some of the outstanding people in America say, My life was changed when you preached on this. Is it? Mostly, when I preached baptism I had a vision. A vision of deity. A vision of depravity. A vision of... Tonight, when you go to the world. Four fifths of the world is going to hell. God can't do anything more for the world. He's given his son. He's given his word. He's given the Holy Spirit. He's waiting for you to capitulate. Get rid of that wretched pride. Pride of faith, or pride of race, or pride of grace. And saying, Lord, Less than thyself, O do not come and inhabit me. Indwell me. As I say, I'm not going to sing. I'm not going to ask you to come forward. I'm going to ask you to go home and deliberately ask God, Search my heart. What hinders my fruitfulness? Why don't I have tears for a lost world? Why am I so unchrist-like? Why am I so self-centered? We're not singing a chorus. But I'm going to ask you to sing something just in worship. Will you say, do you remember the chorus? Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed Lord. If he draws you nearer to him, He'll draw you away from somebody and something. So be careful. He may touch the Uzziah in your life, your best friend. He's obstructing your vision of God. So God moves the Uzziah. He does it as a king. And then he sees the Lord in his holiness. Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed Lord. To the God of my life. Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed Lord. To thy presence.