Choosing the Bible Over the Coffin

Let us all stand on our feet, please. Let us bow our heads. We bow our heads before His Majesty and His excellent glory, knowing that He sits upon a throne made of sapphire.

Surrounding Him are ten thousands times ten thousands of holy beings crying, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty. That throne circled with a rainbow upon whom sits the Son of Man, the Son of God, the Savior of our souls. We worship Him tonight.

We come from our several towns to worship Him. We come from our several states to worship Him. We meet together in this forest under these whispering pines that we might worship Him.

We hear the birds sing and we thank God we have come to worship Him who made all creation. We walk on the tender grass and we look up and say thank you for the one who made the softness of this earth that we might walk upon it. And we look at one another and say here is the apex of God's creation.

Here are the immortal souls and we look into the eyes, the mirror of the soul, and we say we love you because you're God's creation and because you have been born again by the Spirit of God and now you're the son and daughter of God. We love you and we're all part of that family, that family of God upon this earth. We're all part of that body, that living body of which He is the federal head.

And we, we are the members of that body. Yes we are. And all the people said and we are members of that glorious body, that living body upon the face of this earth that He said even the gates of hell could not prevail against that body.

We thank you Lord we're in the body and the body is in us. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. We're in the body, we're in the body to function, to move, to operate, to have our being in the body, the living body soon to be caught up with the head to live with Him forever and forever.

So let it be dear Lord we are ready and all the people said but until that time Lord we will remain true as fingers and toes and arms and feet and legs and ears all part of that body. We will remain true in our respective place to be what God would have us do and to be what God would have us be. And now Lord this is the last night.

Just wonder how we're going to act Sunday morning Lord in some places we got to go. Yes, but we know thy grace is sufficient and we know thy love is sufficient and so we will go and we'll be faithful and we'll be true and we'll be considerate and we'll be kind but we'll be loyal to Jesus too. Oh, we'll be loyal to Jesus too.

Blessed be the name of the son of God. He redeemed us from our sins and he broke the chains of hell. He emancipated us and set us free and now we walk in the liberty of the sons of God because he set us free.

Can you say amen? And now Lord we lift up our voices together tonight for our servicemen wherever they might be. They're our blood. They're not aliens.

They're not forgotten. They're our sons. They're our husbands.

They're our brothers. They're our loved ones. They're the ones that are holding this nation as strong as it is tonight and we thank you for every one of them.

While they're gone from their homes, I beg thy protection over them. I beg that you will keep them. I beg that you will keep them spiritually.

That they should not forget the things they have learned in their home and in their church. I pray that you will keep them morally. That they will not be drugged to the to the very pits of immorality in some foreign land only to regret it for the rest of their days.

Bring them back clean and pure men. We ask it. We ask it and all the people said.

Any that may have to die for their country this night. I ask you father in heaven to talk out loud a way out loud. Let them hear your voice.

Let it sound like thunder and let him let him let him repent and be saved and let not one be lost to the devil. We pray for them this night in Jesus name. For those that are wounded.

For those that are disillusioned. For those that are so sad. We pray for them especially.

Bless them. Keep them and bring them home. Likewise we pray for our missionaries.

They're the marching army of our God. They're the heroes of our faith. Some of them tonight are in very very terrible circumstances.

Some of them are fighting the very demons of hell face to face and jaw to jaw. Oh God give them thy strength. Give them thy power.

Give them thine assurance. Bless our missionaries and all the people said. Hear their cry.

Hear their plea. Preserve them and bring them back to us. We pray and lord bless our country.

We love this country. It's the best country in the world and we thank you for it. We feel sorry for those people that are down on this country.

They don't understand and how to appreciate what they have. We thank you lord for this country. We pray that your blessings will be upon every part of it.

From the Washington D.C. to the plains, to the valleys, to the mountains, to the seacoast. Bless this country of ours. We pray and give us revival in our time and let these people here be the seed of revival.

That wherever they go throughout the land they shall plant the seed and a harvest shall spring up. Bless them lord we pray. Bless them.

Bless all of our ministers, pastors, evangelists, missionaries that are in this room tonight. May they be firebrands of god. May they be invincible before the hosts of hell.

Make them strong. Bless our key laymen who rise up and build for god in this hour. Who have faith in god.

Bless every one of them we pray. Bless our young people. We thank you for these young people here tonight.

They testify that there is no generation gap. That we're all one here together tonight. We all love the same lord.

We all have the same goal and that we are one together. Bless them we pray and help them to reach this generation with the truth and with the power of god. Bless them we pray.

Bless those who organize and set in motion this convention and repay them many times for gathering together this host of people to worship the living god and all the people said let it be. Why don't you shake hands with somebody right next to you and say my you look sweet tonight. As I've been watching you folks tonight I've just been imagining what's going to happen next Sunday morning wherever you're going to be.

I don't feel sorry for you. I feel sorry for them because they won't be able they won't be able to understand just where you've been and I can't I think Camp Father Stout is the best name I know for you. You're the farthest out bunch I've ever seen.

You're you're certainly living up to your name. In our church in South Bend, Indiana a family moved across the street from the church and after they'd been there for a month or two my little wife slipped over and said we we do want your friends to worship in our church. It's just across the street here and you're certainly welcome and and we welcome you to come and worship with us and the lady said now honey uh said uh we would like to but says we've been watching you people up over there and and said really really says we're not strong enough to stay up with you people.

So that's the only thing we see against you so we're just not strong enough to stay up with you. I'm thinking that about some of you I'm getting kind of weak. I don't know I don't know how much longer I can stay up with you but uh I've enjoyed it so far very much.

Hallelujah. God bless you. Now uh we are to pray for the sick tonight and so I will speak along that line.

Open your bibles to the gospel of Matthew chapter 4 and verse 23 and you will see there the fullness of the ministry of Jesus which has been fulfilled in this in this conference. In the gospel of chapter 4 in verse 23 it says Jesus went about all Galilee put a little circle now teaching in their synagogues put a little circle around teaching preaching the gospel of the kingdom put a little circle around preaching and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of diseases among the people put a little circle around healing. Those were the three ministries of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Those were his three ministries. Have you ever noticed that he put teaching first? Teaching first. He believed that you should enlighten people before you bring them into something.

You ought to know what you're getting into. Some of you were slow finding out what you got into when you got into this. He went about teaching first.

He taught the people before he invited them into the kingdom. He taught them. He told them what the whole thing was about.

He told them who he was. He told them what they could expect. He told them what they could receive from God.

He taught the people and after he had taught the people the bible says then he preached the gospel of the kingdom. Then he told them they could become participators. Then he said you can become part of that.

You can become part of this with the excellent ministry that God has given you in this meeting with brother Charles and brother Prince and the many others that have ministered unto you. You have gotten all three of these ministries. You've got a teaching ministry, profound teaching ministry given to you and then you've had a preaching ministry.

A preaching ministry that exhorted you. A preaching ministry that lifted you up. A preaching ministry that brought you in.

A preaching ministry that thrilled your soul. You have received a preaching ministry and also many of you have already been healed. You have had a healing ministry brought to you.

Some of you have been prayed for on the campus. Isn't that wonderful for the doctor to set up his laboratory right out on the campus? Some of you have been prayed for in the dining room. Some of you have been prayed for in all kinds of places especially in the cottages and you have received the healing ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So the threefold ministry that Christ came to give to the world has been the fullness of the ministry that you have participated in in this conference. Don't you thank the Lord for that? Well give him a hand right now. The only reason that I can talk to you is because I know healing and I was healed.

I was born in a quasi-Christian home. I was born in a home where the father did not want religion of any kind. He wanted a wicked time and my mother wanted a lot of religion.

She wanted all of her share, half of anybody else's she could get. And that makes a strange home for a kid to be raised in. So I come up in a home hearing prayers and cussing in the same room.

And it was a strange affair. But my father was tolerant. Back when I was a boy when they had revivals they didn't have the kind you folks have today.

When the evangelist would come he brought his whole family with him because they had nowhere else to go. And he didn't stay for a week or two he'd stay for five and six and seven and eight weeks and sometimes more than that. And as far as hotels and motels they didn't know that existed at all.

They stayed with the saints. And the only saint that had extra rooms was over at my house. My mother would bring them in and my daddy didn't like it but he tolerated it.

And I tolerated it because when they came they got my bed. And so I grew up mostly on a pallet. Anybody know what a pallet is? You're from the south.

Those northerners don't know yet. I was raised on one. And also when we didn't have all that gang of preachers there and their kids I could eat at the table of my daddy.

And I thought that was quite honorable. I really enjoyed it. But when that bunch was there I ate at what they call the second table.

And it means exactly what it says too. It's second all the way through. And preachers are good eaters.

I discovered that and found it out being a boy. And I didn't like them. I didn't like preachers because of the way they approached me.

As soon as they walked in the house they'd say, uh Lester do you love Jesus? And I didn't love him. But if I, you know, said what I really meant I'd have got a whipping for it. So I said yes.

So they made me lie and that made me mad. And then I didn't like their kids. Their kids were a bunch of sisters and didn't know how to fight and I didn't like that kind of kids.

And so I'd whip them almost every day. And of course the evangelist didn't like that. And so I had a hard time with religion.

Miserable time with it. I went far away from it until I disliked it with all my total being. My mother was praying one night and she said Lord make Lester a preacher.

And right in her prayer I said I'll die and go to hell but I won't be one of those. My father taught me not to like them. And I didn't like them.

But you couldn't upset my mother. She just turned around and smiled a little and says you'll do what God wants you to do. And just kept on praying as if I hadn't said anything.

And and that offends you too when you don't upset people. When I was 17 years old I had tuberculosis in both lungs. You don't know how I got it.

It didn't run in our family at all. I began to spit up blood. For a number of weeks I told nobody.

I spit up blood into a handkerchief and threw the thing away. Then I took to bed. The doctors were called.

At that time we lived in Panama City, Florida. We lived out on St. Andrews Bay. Our house was a story and a half looking out over the waters.

My room was upstairs made out of 24 windows. I had all the sunshine and all the breeze I needed and I was dying of tuberculosis. And I didn't want to die.

I wanted to live. I was 17 and I was dying. And I had a big conflict.

My wife, my mother would go bringing in those those prayer women from the prayer meeting. And and back in those days that was a praying as bunch this side of heaven. When they got to praying you had to actually run to stay out of their way.

They didn't know anything about knitting for the Japanese but they shown you how to pray sinners out of hell. And uh they would come over and pray for me and I'd get so miserable I felt like I was going to die when those old women would come in and start praying. But they they didn't understand one thing.

They didn't understand who I was. They'd say Lord bless this little darling that doesn't know any sin. And I'd stick my head under the cover and cuss them for saying it.

It's amazing how little some people know about some other people isn't it. But gradually I was dying. I was dying of tuberculosis.

You don't know how it feels unless you've had it. Your pains, your hurt, you hurt so bad. You heave and you cough and there's in a pan.

And uh it makes you feel so terrible. This was getting worse and worse and worse. They tried to get me saved and I said I'm not I'm not I'm not a last ditch man.

I said I'm not going to mess with that. I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to do it.

And so I didn't. I was just getting closer to hell every day. One afternoon something happened.

I began to turn purple and choke and spit blood. They sent for the doctor in a hurry and he came. He tried to get a pulse.

He tried to get a drop of blood and he was frustrated. He couldn't get anything. He turned to my father and he said this boy will die tonight.

He stayed around for a little while and finally he called my father to one side and he said drop by my office the next morning and I'll have a paper prepared for you. You can go and get him a lot in the cemetery. He'll be dead before midnight and he walked out.

I was expected to die that night. My family stood around. My head was all right.

It's just my body that was sick and I could hear whispering and looking at me and looking at one another. Boy it's a miserable thing to be a goldfish isn't it and everybody looking through the bowl at you. And I knew they were looking at me and they thought I was going to die.

And I lost view of them and I saw something. I saw on one side of my bed a coffin the same size of my bed and it was open and I could see inside and I looked at it. It was so awful.

I said well it's come now. I'm looking inside my own coffin. It's all finished now.

I turned my head the other way and there was a bible as big as the bed. It was as big as the bed and I looked and there was this big bible. I could see it like I'm seeing you.

It was a vision. I turned back and the coffin was still there and I turned back and the bible was still there and God spoke to me and said son you're going to choose one of these tonight. Now you know us southerners we don't make up our mind very fast.

Takes us about three weeks to make up our mind on anything and God said I had to make up my mind that night and I wasn't just about ready to do it and yet I remembered that doctor said tonight was the last night. There was a coffin and there was a bible and I didn't want either one of them. I didn't want a bible.

I knew that meant preach and I didn't want a coffin. I knew that meant die and I wasn't ready to die and then something happened and this is the mystery of the whole business of Christianity. Lying there between life and death looking at a coffin and looking at a bible something happened on the inside of me and suddenly I could make up my mind and I knew it was made up.

Now beforehand when I made up my mind it didn't mean anything because the next hour it was the other way anyway. If I went to church one night and they said you get right with God and I said yes by eight o'clock the next morning it's all finished. It's all gone.

I didn't have anything by then but I really found out that if I made up my mind that night it would be forever made up. That if I spoke a word that night it would be a word of truth. I suppose that's what you mean by getting saved because something happened.

I just decided that if I were to say something it would be that way. So I looked up to God and I said God I've just decided against this over here and I've decided that if you would let me live even though I don't want to I'll preach and then I said now lord if you let me live as long as I preach I'll be the oldest man in the world and I'm just about ready to make it. A lady asked me the other day if I was the original Lester Sumrall.

I says I don't think God wants to tell you the truth about that. I went off to sleep my family stood around and watched all night because they thought I was dying. The next morning they were still standing there waiting to see if I was ever going to open my eyes again or open them and I said I'm hungry.

My mother says I'll get you some grape juice and I said no you won't. I said what did my dad have for breakfast? Well she said you know ham and eggs and grits. I'm glad we're far enough south to know what they mean and says you couldn't eat that it would kill you with the hot biscuits and I said well that's all right just bring them in I'll eat them.

She says it won't hurt me. She thought I was delirious they expected me to be dead you see and I said I want them I'm hungry I've got to eat it. Oh she says take some grape juice.

I said I've had all of that I ever want. That's about all I've had for weeks. I won't eat what my dad had for breakfast and poor little mother she says what you're going to die anyway you might as well have what you want.

So she went brought me some food and set it down and she didn't stay she walked out crying and I grabbed that dish of food and brother I want you to know that I ate it. I hadn't had anything to eat in weeks they'd just been feeding me that little bit of drop of stuff. I ate it it went down it it just felt wonderful.

She came back in says where's that food? I says it's down there. She said how do you feel? I said wonderful. She said you mean you're not going to die? I said no I'm not going to die.

I said I saw something last night. I saw a coffin that was open and I saw a bible. She says I told God that if I could get out of the coffin I'd take the bible and that little mother of mine began to shout all over the room.

She was so happy she didn't know what to do she didn't know what to do she was so happy. Three days later I was walking all over the place. Ten days later a friend of mine took me out on the Gulf of Mexico all day long fishing together.

Three weeks from that night the Lord spoke and said uh you're kind of slow. Says you said you were going to preach and I said well yes Lord I'll I'll get going if you like. So the early morning I walked into the dining at the kitchen where my father was eating breakfast before he went to work and you know down south we used to call our father's papa and I said papa I'm going to go out and preach today and if you ever saw a 250 pound giant get mad he got mad.

He hit the table he said you're not going to be a beggar I'd rather you'd be dead. He said you're not going to be a preacher I won't permit it and there I stood there I still weighed about 92 or 3 pounds mind you. I was just a little stack of bones and I stood there trembling and crying and his big old Irish face was as red as ketchup and he was letting me have it and I didn't I couldn't say anything.

I was just I was just standing there dead and he got up and walked out the door and slammed the door and got in the car and drove away to the shop and I went about back to my room and I fell on the floor like a little kitten and I began to cry and I said my heavenly father says go my earthly father says no and I don't know what to do I don't know what to do I don't know what to do and I didn't know what to do just a kid laying there on the floor I said lord what shall I do and the lord spoke to me he said you read Isaiah 41 10 and 11 you know what to do so on the floor I reached and got my bible and I pulled it over and I began to read these words God said fear thou not I was writhing in fear he said fear thou not and it was just like some big hand came down and reached inside and got something black out and just pulled it up out of me and it was gone fear was suddenly gone I didn't have any more fear God just reached and took it out he said fear thou not he said for I am with thee I said lord you're going to go along with this meeting that I'm going to go home I said if you're going to go along I'd rather leave my dad at home he wouldn't be sympathetic anyway I'd rather have you along with my lord than anybody else he said fear thou not I am with thee he said be not dismayed I was dismayed what does he want to preach about I didn't have any idea what to preach about where was he going to go I didn't know where to go I was dismayed he said be not dismayed I am thy God I began to think of Moses I began to think of Elijah I said lord you're going to be a God like that I said if you are let's get going somewhere he said be not dismayed I am thy God listen he said I will strengthen thee I was as weak as a kitten he said I will strengthen thee I will help thee I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness behold all they that were incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded they shall be as nothing and they that strive with thee shall perish why I said lord did you just slip that in there right now did anybody else ever read that lord have you ever felt like the bible was just for you and nobody else I didn't know those words were there and I looked and read them and cried over them and I said now lord I'm ready I got up and packed a little 49 cent cardboard suitcase put little what little I had in it I walked downstairs my mother said where are you going I said out to preach out to where to preach and then she began to cry you know mothers are wonderful things you know she cried to get me saved she cried because I got saved she cried for me to preach cried because I preached I said dear lord you can cry about anything can't you she said where are you going and I said I'll send you a postcard don't worry about that she said how am I going to where you are I said you're going to have to ask Jesus about that I don't know she said well where are you going to preach and I said I'm not interested in that at all I'm on interest one thing God said get going and I'm going to get in motion I'm just going to get in motion just going destination don't mean anything only going means something well mothers can't understand that at all so I kissed her goodbye and walked out the door there was my little old buddy you know that we went out fishing together he said you know I could lead some courses would you take me with it and two dumb ones always always better than one so I said yeah let's go and so he was ready he had an old jalopy worth about 498 so he said let's go in my car I said okay let's go so we went chugging out of town we went on for about an hour up the country and it was about lunch time we parked under a tree and I said did you know that's a persimmon tree he said yes I said you know they're ripe he said yes I said say grace yes sir we had we had our first dinner I'm glad they were ripe our mouths would have puckered for a week but but thank God the Lord always has them right well a little further out in the field there I saw a little little old schoolhouse country schoolhouse and I said that's it right there so we asked a couple of people around said who's in charge of that and they said that farm over there and I went over to see him I said sir I want to preach that schoolhouse over there says you know uh I was sick of tuberculosis and I was dying the doctor said I was going to die in two hours and said you know I saw a vision and saw a coffin and you know and saw a bible and the Lord healed me and says I got to go out and tell it and he said I want this schoolhouse and he opened his mouth to say no and before he could say it I says now you see if I don't preach I would die of tuberculosis and you would be to blame if you ever saw a farmer look a mess that one looked a mess he didn't have any teeth and he was chewing tobacco and his bottom his bottom uh jaw there dropped so low until tobacco juice was just flowing out of both sides he said my god almighty my god almighty and he began to look for that key and he handed it to me and I started to walk off and I said just a minute we need your lantern you know they didn't have an electricity I need your lantern well he says all right go tell the woman to give it to you so we went and got in this little old schoolhouse and I was hoping nobody would come but they did about eight came so I didn't know what to tell them so I read to the first I read to you that's the only you know that's the only one god had given me so far so I read him that one and then I told him how sick I was and and how the lord healed me and now these farmers didn't wash before they came they just you know came out of the field and they in the seats in that old schoolhouse were homemade and when they sat down in them they just kept going down scooting down until all you could see were their bald heads and their knees popping up back there it was the funnest looking bunch you ever had to talk to and then to beat that when I was talking they'd say and a tobacco juice about that big would go and hit the wall and down it would go and and I would look at it I said I got into it and then I said you know the doctor said I was gonna die and they said and I said dear lord you know I almost I wanted to run but there was no place to go well it took me about eight minutes to go through the whole thing I didn't ask anybody to get saved because I hoped they'd go to hell I said so I said would you please get up and go home and uh my my young friend and I went out and he said you didn't do too well did you and I said no no I didn't do very well but I said those guys spitting out tobacco juice I didn't like that well he said that they do that at political meetings I said well there's not a political meeting well I said I'll tell you tomorrow night there won't be anybody there and have a good excuse to go home you know the next night they had about 40 those men really worked hard the next day and and you know what they said they said come and hear a guy tell the biggest lie you've ever heard so the basis of getting people out was to hear a lie well we got back the next night here were these people so I said uh I don't know I had to go through the same one I hadn't got another one you know just the night before so I started through it and that was the right thing to do because those new people that came didn't believe the fellows that told them they believed the fellows that told them a lie they thought I was all right but they believed the guys that were there the night before told a lie so when I gave the story it proved that they were telling the truth and did they ever have a time down there hitting each other and said I told you I told you yeah I told you and then and I was trying to tell the story but I I didn't get very much done well that's a miserable way to start preaching and I went from little country school house to country school house to country school house and every time I didn't like something I said I wish to god I'd have gotten that coffin that night I sure don't like this and I was a I was a poor preacher I never did tell anybody I loved them because I didn't but I told people many times I said I'm preaching to stay alive and I said I if I ever I said if I ever stop preaching I'll die of tuberculosis and I said I'm preaching to stay alive and it was the truth and that went on for about 18 months we'd gotten as far as Tennessee out in the country from around Dyersburg there out in the country little old country school house and one night my friend was up there waving his hands like this you know with the choruses he's getting a little better too and uh I was sitting on the side there and I lost that whole meeting I've only seen two visions you want to know how long I was 17 and then my next birthday I'll be 58 so when you don't see but two in 40 years that's not very many and that means you're not seeing them every night did you hear me in the back row thank you I lost my song leader and I lost those poor little country people all right and I saw a vision I saw all the people in the world I saw the Chinese I saw the Japanese I saw the Indians they were all dressed in their beautiful garments the Japanese were dressed in those colorful garments so beautiful so beautiful the Chinese were dressed in their national garments so pretty the Indians were dressed in their long flowing robes all of the nations were so pretty I looked at them when you're seeing a vision it's just like seeing you now you can't you don't know it's a vision till it's all over it's so real until you don't know it's a vision you think you're seeing it and I was looking at them they were on a wide highway very very wide highway miles and miles millions and millions and I was looking at them and they were so pretty so lovely but I was only seeing the side of them I couldn't see anybody's face they were going away from me and I was looking at them and God picked my body up I'll pick my spirit up out of my body and just left it there and I went up over the top of them and I went to the end and I saw them go to hell I saw the whole world go to hell now if I'm anything at all tonight it's because I saw that second vision if I'm any kind of a man of God at all tonight it's because I saw that second vision that's the night that's the night that something happened in my life that's the night that my whole being was changed I saw those people go to hell when they got to the end of their road of life and there was the brink just sharp precipice that went to hell they didn't want to go over and they would try to back up and the ones behind pushed them over into hell there they were pushing everybody was going over and I said go over their hands went and their feet went and they screamed and their faces were contorted and I heard God and he was talking to me he said you're to blame for this and I said God I'm not to blame I don't know these people they're all foreigners I don't know these people I'm not to blame I'm not to blame and God said if the ungodly commit his ungodly deeds and he died in his ungodliness and you don't warn the ungodly man of his ungodly deeds and he dies in that ungodliness I will require his blood at your hands and I looked and the blood was flowing all between my fingers blood oh there had been hundreds of people in my meeting that I hadn't even tried to get saved I told them to go home and I said God you mean a man in Japan can go to hell and I'm to blame and I've never seen him God said yes Lord I said a man in Africa can die and I'm to blame God said yes if the ungodly commits his ungodly deeds and he dies in his ungodliness and you don't warn him we don't have to save you we have to warn you I will require his blood at your hands Christians you better wake up the judgment of God's going to be terrible you hear what I said the judgment of God is going to be terrible and I looked and I saw all those nations I says oh God oh God oh God and I woke up when I woke I don't know how long I'd been in this vision they'd had the meeting they'd finished the meeting and they'd gone home and they took the lantern I was sitting in the little building by myself I was ashamed to ask anybody what happened and so nobody told me I think they must have thought I was praying and so they said let him pray and they didn't bother me or they might have shook me and I didn't come out of it and they said well he's praying leave him alone he's stubborn he don't want to look at us I don't know what they thought I never I was ashamed to ask them but when I woke and the building was dark I said my God I'm a little boy born in New Orleans lived around by Biloxi and Pascagoula Mobile Panama City never been north never seen snow my life never seen foreigners except a few come down to swim and here you told me I'm to blame for the whole world going to hell I said Lord what do you mean and I laid down on the floor and you know those school room floors are not kept clean I looked like a hog the next morning I was dressed in white trousers white shirt that I used to preach in as a kid and it was as black as tar the next day I rode everywhere that night I doubled up I cried until I hurt I wept I wrung my hands I said my God the world's going to hell and I'm to blame you told me I was to blame I said show me what to do and God said love the people I said God I promise you I'll love everybody I ever see on the face of this earth I promise you I'll love everybody Lord on the face of this earth I promise I promise Lord the next morning about eight o'clock when I walked out of that little country building I had to press my eyes open because they were stuck I'd wept so long until they would glue together when I washed my face and people saw me they said you don't look the same anymore I said no I grew quite a bit older last night they heard me speak the next night and they says that don't sound like your voice I said no I got a man's voice now I'm God's man too and when I preached they said you don't preach the way you used to preach I said no no no no millions are going to hell and I'm to blame how can I preach like I used to preach and brother the world changed the world changed 18 months later I was on the docks in San Francisco when I was 20 years old I got on a boat and I started to find those people I started to find them I began to run and I run from country to country I preached in over 100 nations of this world in over 1,000 cities of this world I'm much better known in many foreign countries than I am in this country because I've lived so much of my life looking for those people and you want to know something strange on the hillsides of Tibet I'd look at a man I'd shake his hand and I'd say where where did we meet before he'd say well I I have no idea I've never left this community right here have you been here before and I'd say no and God would say you've seen him you've seen him I said where Lord you saw him on the highway that night you better get him in a hurry his blood will be required at your hand huh don't tell me you can't preach then brother you can preach in a hurry it don't take you half an hour to give an altar call then you can get one in 30 seconds how many knows what I'm talking about and so we went from country to country preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ revivals oh yes oh yes I know what it means to have 15,000 souls come to the altar in one night yes I I know what it means to see a nation moved by God's power the whole nation moved by God's power I've seen it it's one of the sweetest things on the face of the earth to feel God shake a nation by his mighty power can you say amen and we saw him heal people I'm going to give one illustration then we're going to pray for the sick started around the world that's 20 went through New Zealand and Australia to Thursday Island to Indonesia called Java I was now 21 I hadn't been there but a few days before in a meeting bigger than this one tonight twice this size down on the front pew a little girl got off the seat began to writhe like a serpent like this and green mess came out of her mouth and covered her nose clear under here and it wasn't slobber it was something stiff that came out a green looking mess and it it wasn't like a soap sod it didn't go back down it just stayed there and and the people in that church they sung over it and prayed over it they didn't paint it they tried to ignore it I'm telling this because I promised a group today I tell them how the Lord led me to exercise spirits I'd never heard a sermon on it my life I'd never seen anybody in my life pray for anyone that was demon possessed in my total life I didn't know anything about it but here I was in this Javanese city I was to be the preacher and here was a girl writhing like the serpent her eyes were blazing and they were twitching and and she was going up and down up and down clear across back and forth and nobody's doing anything about it and I didn't know what to do I was 21 time came for me to preach I didn't know what I was going to do but inside of me I said if I don't get her up I've lost this crowd inside of me I said my gospel can't get there through that I said I've got to get her up I stood up without any forethought of what I was going to do I said get up and sit on that seat my interpreter got so scared he never said a word just went like that the girl didn't know one single word of English and I didn't know one single word of Javanese you see what happened that devil got right up and sat on that seat and sat there like a statue not like a human sat there like a statue for 45 minutes while I preached just like that never moved an eye never moved a muscle at the end of my message I said now come out she was healed like that and when she did the glory of God hit that bunch of people and they began to run down those aisles by the hundreds to get saved Jesus said to Simon Peter flesh and blood had not revealed this unto thee but my father which is in heaven the most that any of us knows God revealed it to us did you know that when I got back to my room I told brother Carter what happened I said do you ever see anything like that happen he said no but you did the right thing and he said always do the right thing he was twice as old as I was and I was very glad he said that a few nights later I was they had tremendous churches in that country we were in another large church and I walked down the aisle coming in the the front door to walk down to the platform I got about a third of the way down and a woman the place was packed and jammed with chairs down the aisle you couldn't hardly get down so she was sitting on a chair not in the pew she caught me by the sleeve and pulled me and said just a minute and I turned around she says you have a little black spirit in you and have a little white spirit in me well now I could have done two or three things I could have shook her off and walked on down the aisle and lost that whole meeting or I could have turned around and said shut up and walked on off and that would have been impolite and I paused for a moment and I felt God's anointing go down through my body now this was a new town these people had never seen me before they didn't know anything at all about me and I knew nothing about them I spun around and I didn't speak to the woman at all I said you're a liar talking to the spirit I said you're a dark black spirit that's in her and within me I have the beauty and the whiteness of the Lord Jesus Christ come out now grabbed me by the side of the head and she was healed like that her eyes spun around in her head her her mouth opened up and that thing came out of her she was healed like that and the glory of God went straight to the front of the building they shouted clear to the front when they when that woman was healed and they couldn't see it they were looking the other way but the power of God just surged from that spot clear to the front of the meeting I said to her how long has that spirit been in you she said 15 years when I went to the witch doctor I said you're free don't go back to the witch doctors anymore from that time from that time God has blessed us to set people free in their spirits we didn't learn it we just got out there and in trouble had to do something about it and if you when you come up against a problem don't run from it don't run from it if I can say something real respectful tonight it's very hard to say it respectfully but if I can say it real respectful and you if you will forget it uh then I'll say it there's a certain witch doctor in Nairobi and he challenged brother Billy Graham to go on to a big public platform and one of them would pray for some sick people another would pray for the sick people and and that he would show them that his witchcraft was stronger than his Christianity and and and Billy Graham would not go and I've got the clipping this big that he refused to accept the challenge about the next year Oral Roberts was in the same city having a large meeting the same witch doctor challenged him to come on to a public platform that one would pray for one of them and another would pray for some of them and they'd see which God was the strongest and and brother Oral Roberts refused to go and I've got that clipping I kept them both and it's a big one it's that big and I've been hoping to God I could find that guy one day that's right not not for my sake not for my sake but here he has taken two of God's servants and abused them and I cut both of those clippings I was living in the Philippines I cut both of those clippings out of a Filipino paper and they were that big even in a Filipino paper cleared the other side of the world that these men refused the challenge of this man I want you to know now anytime Baal can do more than my God I'm ready to hand everything over to him I'd have got on the platform so quick and I'd have had him on his knees because I'd have cursed him first I'd have let him know who is God I don't believe there's anyone that can stand up against my God and if there is I want to see him and I tell you one thing I'll let any witch doctor in the world come alongside and let him pray for somebody I'll pray for somebody and I'll show him who is God I don't believe the devil can heal people the devil is not a healer of people the devil is a destroyer he is not a healer my savior is a healer he is a aren't you glad of that throughout the world today I want Jesus to be glorified as a mighty deliverer and aren't you glad he is a mighty deliverer he's a mighty deliverer praise his name