Ainult Jumal
võib sulle puhta südame anda.
On üks asi, mida tänapäeval vajame üle kõige—see on midagi, millest me praegu ei räägi. Vajame võimast patutunnetuse laviini.
Elame imelikul ajal, kus kurjus pole enam kurjus. Oleme muutnud terminoloogiat—nurjatus/ülekohus on nüüd nõtrus, patusus on nüüd nõrkus; deemonlikkus on nüüd puudulikkus.
Taavetil oli kõige õndsam kogemus maailmas, ja see õnnistus oli, et ta tundis end näruselt oma patu pärast.
Kas meil on kahju, et kurvastame Jumala südant… keelates Jumalale õigust omada meie isiksust/iseloomu… omade meie meelt… omada meie mõtteid… omada meie emotsioone? Kui mitte, siis röövime me Jumalat.
Jeesus ei tulnud maailma, et halbu inimesi headeks teha. Ta tuli, et surnuid elustada.
Olen mures oma vaimus, et põhjus, miks maailm läheb täna öösel põrgutulle, on see, et oleme kogudusena kaotanud Püha Vaimu tule.
Olen tüdinud pelgalt lugemast kiriku ajaloost. Tehkem ise kiriku ajalugu Jumala armu kaudu.
Keegi küsis minult: „Kas sa palvetad surnute eest?“ Vastasin: „Ei, ma jutlustan neile.“ Ma arvan, et iga kirikupink on surmamõistetute pink. Mõtle sellele! Nad on surnud! Nad laulavad Jumalast; nad räägivad Jumalast, aga nad on surnud! Neil ei ole elavat osadust (Jumalaga).
Tänapäeval on inimesi, kes väga rõõmsalt tähistavad jõule, ülestõusmispühi ja isegi nelipühi, nii kaua, kuni midagi ei juhtu.
Koguduses on täna vähktõbi!
Keegi ütles: Kui ma toon kellegi Kristuse juurde, siis millisesse kirikusse ma ta tooma peaksin? Kellegi kuhugi kirikusse saatmine tänapäeval on kui vastsündinu panemine külmkappi. Ma tahan paika, mis pakatab Jumalast, pakatab igavikust.
Kui tead
kogudust, kes põleb Jumalale, ütle mulle ja ma lähen sinna. See peaks olema
kirik, mis, kui sa oled sisenenud, siis ei tule sa samasugusena välja, vaid sa
usud, et Jumal on seal ja sa oled olnud Tema pühas ligiolus.
Algkogudus oli abielus vaesuse, vanglate ja tagakiusuga. Täna on kogudus liidus jõukuse, isiksuse ja populaarsusega.
Kuidas saab teenistus olla surnud, kui Kristus on elav?
Ma usun, et iga kogudus on kas üleloomulik või pinnapealne. Usun, et pole mingit vahepealset varianti.
Kuuled inimesi kogudustes ütlemas: Issand, oled teretulnud! Kui Püha Vaim tuleks mõnedesse kirikutesse, jookseksid inimesed sealt ummisjalu välja.
Pühapäeva hommikune teenistus näitab, kui populaarne on kirik; Pühapäeva õhtune näitab kui populaarne on jutlustaja. (Kolmapäevane) palveõhtu näitab, kui populaarne on Jumal.
Üks tubli baptist ütles kord Dr Tozerile: Kui Jumal võtaks ära oma Püha Vaimu homme, siis minu kogudus tegutseks samamoodi edasi. Me ei saaks isegi aru, et Ta lahkunud on.
Kui mina ei usu Jumala sõna, miks peaksid Sina seda uskuma? Kui meie seda ei usu, miks peaks maailm meid uskuma?
Oleme pimedad aru saama, et meil on kohustus 5 miljardi inimese ees maailmas. Selle põlvkonna kristlased vastutavad selle põlvkonna kadunud hingede eest!
Meie õnnistused on muutunud meie needuseks. Nad köidavad meid. Nad võtavad liiga palju miee aega ja hoolt.
Tahan näha osadust, kus sinu koormad muutuvad minu omaks. Sinu kurbus oma laste pärast muutub minu omaks! Kus me tõesti kanname üksteise koormaid; kus me armastame üksteist ja laseme maailmal näha ja vaatama tulla, et järgime alandlikku ja malbet Jeesust, keda huvitab vaid Isa tahte täitmine.
Noored tulevad meie kogudustesse ja mida nad näevad? Hiljuti käisin ühes kirikus—neil on 30 aakrit. Mis nad sellega teha kavatsevad? Nad tahavad oma jalgpalli- ja tenniseväljakuid. Armas Jumal, kas lapsed tulevad kirikusse tennist õppima? Jumal, aita jutlustajaid! Miks me ei võiks noori õpetada vaimulikult, et nad tahaksid palvet ja ilmutust ning Elava Jumala sõna. Noored tulevad kirikusse, kus pole aga auhiilgust.
Ma tahaksin pigem olla koos 10 inimesega, kes tahavad Jumalat, kui 10,000ga, kes tahavad kogudust mängida. Tahan näha Jumala kirkust laskumas kogudusele, et meie noori ei peaks käskima tulema kogudusse, vaid siis nad lihtsalt igatseksid tulla pühakotta, kus on Jumal.
Kas lähed kogudusse kohtuma Jumalaga või kuulama jutlust tema kohta? Kui paljud tulevad kogudusse, oodates kokkupõrget Jumalusega?
Olen tülgastunud meie tänapäeva n.ö kristlusest. Mis on selles üleloomulikku?
Millal on inimesed pühakojast välja tulles olnud sellises imetluses, et nad ei saa tund aega rääkida, sest Jumal on oma auhiilguses seal kohal olnud. Armas Jumal, nii pea kui nad välja tulevad, räägivad nad jalgpallist või mingist muust spordist või mingist suurest allahindlusest kesklinnas või kuskil mujal. Me ei ole haaratud igavikku.
Millal sa viimati kikivarvul pühakojast väljusid? Kui sa ei suutnud öelda ühtki sõna mitte kellelegi, sest olid Jumala auhiilgusest nii lummatud?
See rumal maailm arvab, et on Jeesusega lõpparve teinud, kuid nad pole Temaga isegi veel alustanud.
LEONARD RAVENHILL
https://www.gospeltruth.net/ravenhill.htm
Nobody else can give you a clean heart but God.
There's one thing we need above everything else; it's something we don't talk about these days. We need a mighty avalanche of conviction of sin.
We're living in an unprecedented day (when) evil is no longer evil. We've changed the terminology-- iniquity is now infirmity; wickedness is now weakness; devilry is now deficiency.
A Roman Catholic priest startled us not very long ago by saying that for 25 years he had been sitting in the confessional, listening to the confessions of men and women. He said he heard (of) murders, rapes, adultery, and fornication. He met men and women who have broken every law of God and man with repetition. But never in 25 years had anyone ever confessed to be covetous. Covetousness! We wrap it up and call it ambition. We may call it business or something, but right down in the middle of those things is a rotten word called "covetousness." Paul called it idolatry!
David had one of the most blessed experiences in the world, and the blessedness was that he was miserable about his sin.
Are we sorry for grieving the heart of God... for denying God the right to own our personality... to own our mind... to own our thoughts... to own our emotions? (If not) we're robbing God.
Jesus did not come into the world to make bad men good. He came into the world to make dead men live!
I'm concerned in my spirit (that) the reason the world goes to hell-fire tonight is because we've (the church) lost Holy Ghost fire.
I'm sick and tired of (only) reading about church history; let's make (some) by the grace of God!
Someone asked me, "Do you pray for the dead?" I said, "No, I preach to them!" I think every pew in every church is death row. Think about that! They're dead! They sing about God; they talk about God, but they're dead! They have no living relationship (with God).
We've got people today that are very happy to celebrate Christmas or Easter or even Pentecost Sunday as long as nothing happens.
There's cancer in the church tonight!
One said, "If I lead somebody to Christ on the street, which church should I send him to?" Sending someone to church today is like taking a newborn baby and putting it in a refrigerator. I want a place that vibrates with God, vibrates with eternity.
We say, "Let the Spirit have His way in our church." We don't!! We mimeograph what He has to do last Wednesday in the church office!
I want to see the house of God where it's open 24 hours a day so people can come. We don't close the hospitals after eight hours a day or the police station. Why should the churches be locked up tonight?
If you know a church on fire for God, tell me and I'll go. A church where (after) you've gone in, you don't come out the same, believing that God is there (and) you've been in His holy presence!
God is taking His hands off of America. We've had so much light and we've rejected it.
The early church was married to poverty, prisons and persecutions. Today, the church is married to prosperity, personality, and popularity.
How can you have a dead service with a living Christ?
Fifty years ago, you never heard of a divorce in the Christian church. You never (even) heard of marriage counseling in the church... We're putting up with sin in the church.
I believe every church is either supernatural or superficial. I don't believe there's any middle ground.
You hear people say in church, "Lord, You're welcome!" If the Holy Ghost came to some churches, there would be a stampede to the door.
If the church was doing their business, the psychologists wouldn't dare to sing their dumb song.
Sunday morning (attendance) shows how popular the church is; Sunday night shows how popular the preacher is; (Wednesday) prayer meeting shows how popular God is.
One good Baptist (once) said to Dr. Tozer, "If God withdrew the Holy Spirit tomorrow, my church would function just the same; we wouldn't even know He was gone."
The church is supposed to do what? To stop corruption? Is the church doing that? No! The world is corrupting the church!
If I don't believe the Word of God, why should you believe it? If we don't believe it, why should the world believe us?
We're blind to the fact (that) we have an obligation to five billion people in the world. This generation of Christians is responsible for this generation of lost souls!
Our blessings have become a curse. They attract us. They take too much of our time and concern.
There isn't a "Pentecostal" Church in America. If there is, tell me where it is.
In the early church, signs and wonders and miracles followed. They cast out demons, blindness and paralysis. That's normal Christianity! We're so sub-normal, if we ever became normal, they (the world) will think we're abnormal.
I'm astounded, bewildered, confused, baffled when people tell me there are 75 million people in America that are filled with the Holy Ghost and we're the most rotten nation on earth.
I want to see a fellowship where your burdens become mine! Your grief over your children becomes my grief! Where we really bear each other's burdens; where we love each other and let the world come and see that we are the followers of the meek and lowly Jesus who cared only to do the will of His Father.
I wish, in America, (that) we were as concerned about separation from church and sin as we are about separation between church and state. Church and sin-- it's a monstrous problem.
Young people come to our churches and what are they seeing? I went to a church not along ago--they got thirty acres. (So what are their plans with it?)
They want their own football field and tennis courts. Dear God, do children go to church to learn to play tennis? God help the preachers! Why can't we get them spiritual so they want prayer and revelation and the Word of the Living God. The young people come inside the church but there's no glory.
I'd rather have ten people that want God than 10,000 people who want to play church. I want to see the glory of God come so our young people don't have to be told to go (to church), (but when) they just long to get to the sanctuary where God.
Do you go to church to meet God or to hear a sermon about Him? How many come to church expecting a confrontation with Deity?
The best title of the (professing) church of God today, in my judgment, is "Unbelieving Believers."
Philip the deacon. Boy, wouldn't you like a half a dozen deacons like him in your church?
(Acts shows us) the church of Jesus Christ before it became fat and short of breath by prosperity.
I'm embarrassed to be a part of the (so-called) church of Jesus Christ today because I believe it's an embarrassment to a Holy God!
I'm sick to death of the so-called Christianity of our day. What's supernatural about it? When do people come out of the sanctuary awed and can't speak for an hour because God has been in glory there? Dear God, as soon as they get out, they're talking football, or sports or something or there's going to be a big sale downtown or somewhere. We are not caught up into eternity!
When did you last tip-toe out of the sanctuary? (When) you couldn't say a word to anybody (because) you were so overwhelmed (with the glory of God).
We speak thousands of words every day and all these words are accumulated: the good words, the bad words, the criticized words... we're so flippant with our words; we're so easy with our criticism. We stab and we injure and we hurt, and God is going to try all my word before a thousand-million people. Every word you say is going to be played back some day. The Word of God says man shall give an account for every word that he has spoken.
I've heard a million words, sermons, and read books: (and) I'm accountable to God for everything I have. Every moment of my time, every dime of my money.
You can't help what you hear, but you can help what you say. You're going to be accountable for every word you speak.
This silly world outside thinks it is finished with Jesus Christ (but) they haven't even started (with Him) yet.
Ten million years will not put a strain on the clock of eternity.
The surest thing in the world is not death and taxes, it's death and eternity. Yet, we're so unconcerned. We are not eternity conscious enough.
I read through Hebrews 11. These staggering men and women through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtain the promises, stopped the lions; women received their dead raised to life again. All the devilish things (they endured) and not one ever had a Bible! Well, in God's Name, (what) are you and I going to do when we stand before Him?! When I get there, I'll have to face up to having the whole revelation of God. Finney didn't have a bigger Bible; Wesley didn't have a bigger Bible, but somehow they got nearer to the heart of God. They got a revelation from God, they got convictions of the Spirit and they laid their lives on the line.
I find the Book of Revelation a book of mystery: I don't understand a lot of it. It's a book of majesty: (it shows) Jesus in all His glory and His majesty: and it's a book of misery because it shows me the collapse of world systems; it shows the final judgment that's going to come on the world, and it shows the anger of God that's going to be poured out before long.
I still believe in the majesty of that eternal court. Oh the awesomeness of it... God will say to some, "Come ye blessed!" and (to) the rest, "Depart from Me!" I don't want to stand at the Judgment Seat of Christ and God say to me, "I left you a book of blank checks signed in the blood of Jesus and you didn't use half of them!"
I can think of one thing when I get to the Judgment Bar and Jesus will look down and say, "I had many things to tell you but you couldn't bear them." We're too busy running our own lives: praying when you want to pray, eating what you want to eat, going where you want to go, spending what you want to spend, reading what you want to read, (Do you) call that a spiritual life? Brother, it is carnal as carnality!
I've had something burning in me for years and it burns more fiercely than ever to write this book (on the Judgment Seat of Christ). There are times (when) I can't go in my office. I'm awed with the awesomeness of God and the task that we're right on the verge of tremendous judgment unless we have a tremendous, tremendous, earth-quaking revival. I know people say, "Why don't you pray and ask God to take it (the burning) away?" I've prayed for 60 years to get it! I'm not going to ask Him to take it away! I'm asking Him to deepen it! I'm asking Him to intensify it!
We have a crowded house for once in six months. Normally you could pick a chair anywhere you like. Are you suggesting that you or anybody else would live its normal course if we all believed that all men outside of Jesus Christ are going to perish for ever and ever and ever? !
Once inside eternity, we'r e going to be very embarrassed at the smallness of our faith.
What are you going to do when you get to eternity, if you can't stick in an hour with God down here? In God's name, what are you going to do in a million years in God's presence? Expect some reports from earth about football or something?
The Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible is the religion of Christ's church.
The devil's aim today is to keep one away from the Bible.
Sin will keep you from this Book or this Book will keep you from sin.
Most people are bothered by those passages, which they cannot understand; the Scriptures which troubles me the most is the Scripture I do understand.
We're going to get into this Word and eat it. It'll hurt us at times (but) it will revive us. It may unclothe us to clothe us, empty us to fill us, cast us down to lift us up and yet this is all we need.
If we had a super, super revival of a billion people being saved, it would still be too late. Could you imagine a billion people being saved-- in governments, in hospitals, in universities, in schools, business people? Yet there would be four billion people in the world still unsaved.
The sinner's prayer has sent more people to hell than all the taverns in America.
We've gone into other countries... have we taken the Gospel? No! We have not taken the Gospel; we're giving them American Christianity or English Christianity! Bible-Christianity: it's the most costly thing in the world; it's the most beautiful thing in the world; it's the most glorious thing in the world.
We're a debtor to every sinner--to everybody--no matter the color.
The only vision (many) of you have is television.
America is not dying because of the strength of humanism; it's dying because of the weakness of evangelism! We take people to the cross, (but) we don't put them on the cross.
There should be a birth chamber in every church; (it) should be a room for travail.
There are three worlds looking into this meeting tonight: there is a world of angels--the Angelic world; there's a world of demons--a Satanic world, and there's the ordinary world outside, and everyone of them is going to feel the result of some decision you make tonight.
I doubt if 5% of professing Christians in America are born again--and that's true of England!
Here's the world with millions, millions, millions dying. They were dying while you were sleeping last night, while you were fooling around somewhere! God is saying, "Who will go for Us?"
Can you remember the last time you didn't go to bed because people were dying without Christ?
I think one of the serious breakdowns in modern evangelism is this: it has offered too much for too little. What we do mostly is offer forgiveness. We need cleansing! There is no true conversion until a man takes up his cross.
There's one thing that life does where ever it goes--it begets life.
We don't preach salvation. We preach forgiveness.
The biggest job in the world is not running the White House; it's running God's House!
You cannot preach unless your heart is full of Christ.
If the sermon doesn't burn in you (preacher), it won't burn in anybody else, that's for sure!
Wet-eyed preachers never produce dry sermons.
What is preaching? (It is) to open the eyes of the blind; to turn them from darkness to light; from the bar of Satan unto God. How many preachers do that?
We have too many preacherettes preaching too many sermonettes to too many Christianettes smoking cigarettes.
David Hume, who was a Deist, didn't believe in any inspiration or revelation or the Son of God or in the Bible. About five o'clock one morning, he was going down the street in London. He came around the corner and went straight into the hands of another man who said, "Why aren't you David Hume?"
"Yes.''"Where are you at this early hour?"
"I'm going to hear George Whitfield preach," replied Hume.
"You don't believe a word Whitfield preaches," said the man.
"No," Hume answered, "but he does!"
Even the Deists knew when a man is not just talking theology.
If a preacher is not known in hell, he ain't worth a hill of beans.
Every meeting, people go out damned or delivered, and a lot hangs on the preacher.
The pastor who doesn't weep for the lost shouldn't expect people to come and weep for their sins.
I tremble at the awesomeness of preaching God's Word.
Do you know what's wrong with modern preaching? It's missing three things: one, it has no intensity; two, it has no majesty; three, it has no eternity.
I'm convinced that the greatest thing about those Puritan preachers (is) they lived in eternity six days a week and came down to earth on the seventh! Our preachers, today, are golfing on Saturday and "goofing" (around) the other five days... It's a profession to most of them (when) it should be an obsession with them!
We put men into pulpits because they have degrees. But you can have 32 of them and still be frozen! "Oh," you say, "we got a new pastor. He's got a B. A." I've got a B. A. too, I'm born-again! Today, there is such an emphasis (on education) isn't there?
We're so far removed from God's way of doing things--we think a man is a good man if he can draw a crowd these days. Do you know what Finney did? Finney preached sometimes, and the whole congregation got up and walked out on him. That's a good meeting! He sent them out horrified! I only preach for two reasons these days: either to send people out that door blazing mad at me or blazing with the peace of the Holy Ghost! That's all!
I use to preach my heart out and people would say, "I haven't slept for five nights." Nowadays, they take you to court and sue you for that.
If there's no brokenness in the pulpit, why should there be any brokenness in the pew?
You can't preach about the Holy Ghost unless you have the Holy Ghost!
Let's don't blame the Presbyterians for not having a vision of hell; we have no vision of hell.
One of the old Puritans said that one of the agonies of hell is the Holy Ghost will be there still convicting men of sin and there will be no place to get rid of it.
Are you wiser in God (now) than you were last year at this time? Peter says we're to grow in grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Isn't it amazing that God gives breath to a man who is going to blaspheme Him all day!
The wonder of the grace of God is that God can take an unholy man out of a unholy world and make that man holy and put him back into an unholy world and keep him holy!
The world is waiting for a practical demonstration of the Gospel of the grace of God!
Three things faith does: it reckons on God; it risks with God (and) it rests in God.
Faith is taking God at His Word.
F. A. I. T. H. As children in England we used to say: Forsaking All I Take Him.
Faith that's going to be trusted is going to be tested.
I have no faith in my faith. My faith is in the faithful God.
Mrs. (John) Wesley said, "(There are) two things to do with the Bible: believe it and behave it!"
Faith can't do anything I want; (but) it can do anything God wants.
We try and get people saved who don't even believe they are lost.
There are two kinds of people in the world--only two kinds. Not black or white, rich or poor, but those either dead in sin or dead to sin.
I don't ask people if they're saved anymore; I look them straight in the eye and say, "Does Christ live inside you?"
Listen, if a man is really born-again of the Spirit of God, it is the most radical thing this side of eternity. He becomes a new creature! He has a new heart! He has a new mind!
I heard a famous preacher and he's an Englishman (say), "You came here tonight and the Lord is merciful. He will forgive your sins tonight-- He will forgive your past sins, your sins of today, and your sins for tomorrow." (I thought) "Isn't that nice?
Can you imagine going up to a judge and the judge says, "You've been charged with stealing a lady's purse, did you steal it?""Yes," replies the man, "it had $100.00 in it."
"Are you sorry?" the judge asks.
"Yes, I'm sorry," answers the man.
"Well," the judge says, "You're forgiven. I forgive you for all the purses you've stolen in the past, all you've stolen today and all the purses you'll steal the rest of your life."
Wouldn't that be insane?!
You can go to hell at the communion table or the gambling table if Jesus hasn't saved you.
I don't want to be saved just to make it into heaven; I want to be saved from sin; I want to be a God-directed man that in the life I have, I may live for the glory of God. For the devil has enough people to give glory to his rotten name. He's got more people that has given every beat of their heart, every bit of their money, (and) every thought of their mind. Every instinct they have, they are sold out to the devil.
If you're going to a mission field-- wherever that is--if you don't have this love, you'll break down within six months. You'll be a casualty there; you'll be a liability instead of an asset. The mission field isn't dying in want of missionaries, it needs ones with anointing; ones with a love that surpasses all things--a selfless, an undying love, an unbreakable love.
The original missionary went out on a one-way ticket--no return trip! They didn't go down to Guatemala for a weekend to hand out tracts believing they did God a favor.
If you have a task without a vision, it's drudgery, but if you have a task with a vision it's a missionary.
You can't offend a man that's filled with the Spirit.
The darker it gets, the brighter your light will shine.
It's going to demand a lot of courage before too long--to really live and maintain the true Christian life according to the Word of the Living God.
Christ will not stand competition. This vain world should have no pull on us at any level at all.
You have no right to sin. If you have sin in your life, you've got something which is illegal in the sight of God; you're giving the devil a hand in your life.
You can't say, "Christ is all I need," until Christ is all you have.
Sin is abnormal in the Christian life.
What is Christianity? It's not giving up lousy sins. It's not just confessing my sins. Sure I have to be cleansed before He comes (but Christianity) is inviting Jesus to be the Master and Lord of my personality. It's the life of God in the soul of man! That is the greatest definition of Christianity outside of the Bible.
Every day should be a period of exploding with God, getting again into His Word!
Christians don't tell lies, they just go to church and sing them. How many times have you stood and sang, "Take my life and let it be" and haven't given Him a scrap?
He died to make us examples on earth of the heavenly life.
It would be a good idea, if every day this year, as far as the Lord lets us live, you asked the Lord, "Have you lived comfortable in me?" You think He is? Would you have to retrace your steps?
You can't love theology; you can't even love your Bible. You can only love a Person.
This moment can be a turning point in your life if you not only come to the cross, but get on it! Get rid of your pettiness and your jealousy! Get rid of your erratic living that you get when you come to a conference and you're down in a valley (the) next week! That shouldn't happen if Christ is indwelling in me. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever! He keeps me in peace; He keeps me in joy; He keeps me in power.
Are you beyond the place where anyone can offend you?
If you're going to be a true Christian, I'll tell you one thing amongst others: it'll be a lonely life. It's a narrow way and it becomes narrower and narrower and narrower.
He wants to get us to the place where we'd rather fast than feast; where we'd rather be unknown than known.
God didn't come to be a shareholder, forget it! God doesn't want to share your life, He wants to own it! He doesn't want partnership, He wants ownership of every part of my being!
It's not simple being a Christian. After all, it's a majestic thing!
There's so much land ahead to be possessed! So many more revelations to be given! So many more burdens to carry! Life is short and I guess you think you have a long way to go but you don't know that.
There are progressive revelations--if you walk with God, you'll find there are things (which) will be unveiled this coming year (that) you never thought about the past two or three or four or five years.
We've reduced God to a minimum. Most of us are trying to get to heaven with minimum spirituality. If we looked after our business like we look after our soul, we'd be bankrupt years ago! The materialism has crept in and it's blinded us! It (has become) a way of life.
All we have (today) is a sinning-repenting cycle. That is not what Jesus died for! We need to shout from the housetops and tell people everywhere today--in the church and out of it--that Christianity is N. 0. T. NOT a sinning religion.
A brother was telling me this week when he got baptized, it was kind of a sudden thing and he went down into the water and suddenly realized that he had his wallet in his pocket. There's not many wallets that get baptized (these days). We kind of say, "Lord, you look after our sins (and) I'll look after the rest. Every penny you earn since you've become property of Jesus Christ and you'll give an account of before God. He doesn't just take your sins; He takes your (whole) self; He takes (over) the government of your life.
All you have to do is get in a closer walk with God and you'll find your enemies are in your own church.
A saint is good when nobody is looking.
I want to so live that God doesn't have to have to give me one minute's notice to step out of time into eternity.
Let me tell you as an old geezer that I am: there's not one thing in life worth having outside Jesus Christ. If you (can) really sing, "Thou O Christ is all I want," you've got it made!
God is looking for people who will live wrecklessly for Him--not concerned with public opinion or preacher's opinions, but becoming a love slave of Jesus Christ.
Paul said, "...having nothing yet possessing all things..." Today, we have all things but possess nothing!
We're not here to get to know the Word of God but to (get to) know the God of the Word.
People say, "I read my Bible everyday", but when was time last time they studied it?
You forfeit God's love as soon as you get fascinated with the world (1 John 2:15). God wants you to move into fullness.
He wants to move you into the place where your steadfast and unmovable and always abounding in the love of God. Only a risen, exalted Christ can make that possible. He's got to have pre-eminence in my living... in my thinking... in my time... in my language... in all things, not some things. Everyday (every second) should be holy for a man who has the Holy Ghost.
If you want to Iive sloppy and slip, thinking your time is your own. It isn't! (Not) anymore than your breath is your own. He has to have pre-eminence in every aspect of my life.
I'm determined this year, more than ever, to know Jesus Christ in a new way such as I have not known Him before. I want to discover His majesty; I want to discover the glory He had with the Father.
Partial obedience is disobedience!
Good is the enemy to the best!
C'mon what really excites you? (What do you do on) Sunday afternoon? (Do you) watch a bunch of dumb guys kick a ball around? When do you give Jesus two hours of your time adoring and magnifying Him?
Christianity is NOT a sinning-repenting religion! It's a victorous religion! There should be a place where you quit your sinning!
If there's stagnation in your life, it's your fault and not God's.
Are you living for what people think? God help you if you are.
It's easy for you to pour contempt on your (own) pride; it's when somebody else pours contempt on your pride is when you're in trouble, isn't it? Can we put our heads up at this time and rejoice? This is a time to prove our spirituality.
There are three people that live in me and three people that live in you: the one I think I am; the one others think I am, and the one God knows I am... and it only matters what God says I am.
It's a tragedy when you try and prove your spirituality by things you don't do rather than proving it by the things you do.
Somebody, some day, will pick this Bible up and will be simple enough to believe it and when they do, the church wilI all be embarrassed.
I have this in black and white-- where the Communists said in their manifesto: Christianity is certainly more powerful than anything we have. Jesus Christ can do more than Karl Marx, but the (professing) Christians don't believe it, and secondly, they won't sacrifice for it.
God has only one standard for His people--He wants a holy people. We're kept by the power of God through faith unto saIvation.
Sinning is not normal in the Christian life. People say you need a little sin to keep you humble... then (why not) have a lot of sin and be real humble.
People today want a painless Pentecost. After the apostles were filled in the upper room, they were persecuted... (and) they went to prison for preaching the Word. Immediately (when) you're filled with the Spirit, it doesn't matter what area you yield your life, the devil will fight to get back the ground he lost in your life.
The Apostle Paul never had to deal with Pastors who had spring fever with basebalI and winter fever with the Super Bowl! He never had to deal with that. All he had to deal with was devils! That was easier! You can get people delivered from the devil-- drinking and smoking-- but you can't get them delivered from sports! It's a strange day isn't it?
Do you mean what you sing?
I'm sick to death of paper theology. I want to see it in flesh and blood!
The trouble with our theology is it's all on the blackboard; our theology is all in text books. It has no life! it has no breath! It has no power! it has no authority!
There's no cost of being a Christian in America. Good Lord, no!
The dreadful possibility (is) if I get out of Iine with the will of God, I can become as corrupt as any man who has ever lived.
If the saints are the salt of the earth, (then) praying people are the salt of the church.
If you want to expand your soul, then learn to pray.
How do you learn to pray? (Well), how do you learn to swim? Do you sit in a chair with your feet up drinking coke learning to swim? (No), you get down and you struggle. That's how you learn to pray. Prayer is our strength; Prayer generates strength; it generates vision; it generates power; and the devil wilI drive you away from the prayer closet more than anything.
No man is greater than his prayer life.
Jesus prayed there at the Jordon (at His baptism); He prayed at (the) Mount of Transfiguration; He prays here (John 17) and just before He goes to the cross. Prayer, prayer, prayer all the way! Should I pray less than He prayed?
I want to see something that God builds. I want to find some people so hungry for God that every night they want to pray and make intercession. We're not going to move America any other way. We've tried every scheme and every fancy thing and (we) try and work something up, but what we need is (for) somebody to come down. Some Person! Not a new theology, a Person!
I stand over a hundred of preachers and I see them shrink and I see them fall on the ground and cry because they have no prayer life. They're so busy with all the affairs of the church and they're not ministering to Him!
Are we so in love with the Lord Jesus that He could ask anything of you and you'd do it? If God telIs you to get up at 4:00 a.m. and intercede would you do it?
Let me live with a man a while and share his prayer life and I'll tell you how tall I think he is, or how majestic he is in God.
What's your prayer Iife (Iike) this morning? Would you like Gabriel to hand me the book of your devotional life for last month and read it to this fine audience?
You have to be a man to pray (and) you have to have strength to pray.
I believe the choice in America (will come down to this): either we concentrate in prayer or (we'll end up) praying in concentration camps. You say it can't happen. It will!
Go home and think about this: your saved (and) your daddy's lost. Have you bore your heart out (to God) for him lately? Is your daddy going to sit in hell and see you at the marriage supper of the Lamb? AIl you do is turnover Scriptures and mark Scriptures and memorize verses, and he's perishing! Where, in God's name, is your humanity, never mind your spirituality? What about your unsaved brother... your unsaved sister... maybe your unsaved pastor?
If you want a new personality, I'll tell you this: the only way to get it is to have a prayer life. You can't pray and be unclean; you can't pray and hold a grudge; you can't pray and have bitterness. We blame the devil so much, (but) many of us sabotage our own prayer lives.
Not all praying men are prophets, but all prophets are praying men.
No church is going to have a revival with a prayer meeting (only) one day a week!
If you don't have a praying pastor, forget it!
I don't believe God answers prayer; He answers desperate prayer.
There are millions and millions that are going to a fiery, eternal, tormented hell. (Do you think) you would have such a narrow, shrunken prayer meeting at your church if every believer believed that?!
If you tell me this, I'll tell you how spiritual you are: will you tell me how much you pray. Brother, I'm not interested (if you're) booked up ten years; I'm not concerned about how many books you've read, how many doctorates you have (or how large your church is), tell me how much you pray!
We've got more books on the Holy Ghost than any generation ever, but we've never had less power; it's all in print on book shelves, like most of our praying is!
I tell you what-- we won't be embarrassed at the Judgment Seat that we fasted and prayed!
Do you know what the most eloquent prayer is? When you don't say a word!
We think we have a message... we have to run there and catch a plane and go there. No, no, that's not the greatest ministry. It's good (if) God has ordained it, but the greatest ministry, I'm sure, is the ministry of intercession.
Prayer is pre-occupation with our needs; Praise is pre-occupation with our blessing; Worship is pre-occupation with God Himself.
You young men that came tonight, listen! The most important thing in the world while you're on this side of eternity is that you learn to worship God. If you're going to do it for ever and ever, dear Lord, you ought to practice it now!
When you go out of a meeting and say, "I didn't get much out of that meeting tonight." That's not the point! How much did God get out of it? Did He get worshipped? Did He get adoration? Our only business on earth is to glorify God.
You don't worship God standing up; you worship God on your belly. worship is speechIess adoration!
How much time have you spent with Jesus today? When is the last time you've gone to Him and say, "I'm not going to ask you for a thing; I come to worship you in spirit and in truth."
The reason why we don't miss revival is because we've never been in one.
In evangelism we (the preachers) make the altar call; in revival the people make the altar call.
God is present when peopIe don't Ieave the meeting.
If we can Iive without revival, then we're not where God wants us to be!
If God hasn't gone out of business, then revival must be possibIe. The trouble is we don't want revivals! We just want blessing! We just want churches fulI! We just want our easy way! Oh, to see the worId the way God sees it!
PeopIe say, "If we had revival? Wouldn't it be wonderful; we'd all be united." No, we wouldn't, we'd be divided!
There is no other way for America to be saved unless we have a Holy Ghost revivaI that makes men hate sin and loathe sin and turn from sin and repent from sin!
I'm Iooking for something so majestic (that) no man dare to stick his name on it. If he did, he'd drop dead.
I don't believe twenty people in all of America, with its 230 million people, have ever been in a revival.
I believe the "Pentecostal message" as in the Word of God is the only answer for this world!
Everyone wants revival. Do you know why they want revival? To fill up the vacant pews. Many revivals empty the church before it fills it. God wounds before He heals.
You'lI get revival when you meet God's conditions (for it).
You say I'm preaching sinless perfection. You say, "Well, do you think you can get to a place where you can't sin?" I know nothing of the kind. It is not impossible (for a Christian) to sin, but it's possible not to commit sin.
Wouldn't be wonderful to have a few men like Paul? He said, "I'm dead!" Dead to self... dead to ambition... dead to feelings... dead to be offended... dead to be flattered... dead! Paul died to everything!
You can never destroy human personality, but you can destroy self.
If you're not walking in holiness, you're not walking where God wants you to walk. The very nature of God can be ours.
All (of) God's great men have been very, very lonely men. The price of being a prophet is Ioneliness.
Without holiness, no one shall see the Lord. Jesus didn't die to save us from hell. That's a fringe benefit! He died to get total occupation of us. To be holy in speech... in actions... in everything. We want to give God our lousy sins. What do you think He does with them? He wants your will... He wants that career of yours ... He wants that selfish heart not to live in selfishness.
Remember, when you say, "I'm sorry" and repent, and become a child of God, you're bought with a price. You have no rights to yourself... no rights to your time. It's not our time, it's God's time.
There is one qualification that proves we're filled with the Holy Ghost and that's we Iive a holy life.
You see some bumper stickers ("Christians Aren't Perfect, Just Forgiven); they say Christians are not sinless, they just sin less. Well, I got news for you; if you're a Christian, you don't sin! You've got victory over sin! The Lord Jesus Christ came to purify us unto holiness and nothing but purity will satisfy Him!
I had a man chase me one day because I said that to become a Christian you must renounce your sin... repent... and take up your cross. "Oh no," (he said), "you mustn't tell young people to take up their cross; you'll frighten them."
I said, "Why don't you argue with the Lord about that, not me?" That's what the Word of God says-- you take up your cross and follow me.
AIl you have to do is decide to walk a little closer to God and you'll be criticized more in the church than in the tavern down the street.
Holiness is not a Iuxury, it's a necessity. If you're not holy, you'll never make it to heaven.
If the Son of God needed the anointing, how in the world do you expect you and I will get by without it? We need that anointing everyday; we need that quickening; we need that motivating power of the Spirit strong in us everyday.
Unction. It's that mysteriousness something that God is pleased to put upon those who will travail and wait for that anointing. Without it, preaching has no power and no authority.
Ordination. What good is it? It's an abomination unless God's given it. There's only one ordination (and) that's in John 15 (verse 16, where Jesus says), I have ordained you, and if God has ordained you then all hell can't stand against you!
Ordination and anointing are a milIion miles apart.
A man with an experience is never at the mercy of a man with an argument.
Christianity is NOT morality on stilts!
You can't offend a man that's filled with the Spirit.
You may fool your pastor; you may fool yourself, but you'll never fool God.
People say, "We want another Pentecost." I don't believe them for a minute. Pentecost in the New Testament is tied in with persecution, poverty (and) prison!
If we have another Pentecost and it was real , we'd all be in jaiI within a month. We're such an accommodating Christianity today. Anyone can live around a Christian. They couldn't in the day (of Pentecost) when these people were around.
We hear (about) many (who) go to a conference or a meeting and say "Boy, wasn't that good? weren't we challenged?" The question isn't "weren't you challenged?" The question is, "Were you changed?"
The world out there is not waiting for a new definition of Christianity; it's waiting for a new demonstration of Christianity.
Are you still comfortable sitting in a ball park and hearing someone taking Jesus' name in vain?
There is a question children will ask and that's: "Where did I come from?" Somewhere, sometime, you'd better give them the answer because if you don't, someone will give them the wrong answer.
I was looking at a fairIy recent issue of National Geographic and it certainly had some fantastic phhotography. Part of it was about SwaziIand and their women, there, lying on the fIoor with a rag around them. Their ribs were standing out; (and) there were corpses of babies all over the place. The country, right now, is in a terrible grip of famine and we, today, can't make up our mind what kind of ice cream we like.
I am the Way--that is external; I am the Truth--that is internal; I am the Life--that is eternal.
The spiritual man walks in heaviness an hour after the meeting as he was during the meeting.
The Romans didn't put Him to death, I put Him to death; you put Him to death and (professing) Christians put Him to death over and over and over again these days (with) careless living.
The cross is going to judge everything in your life--your eating, your drinking, your sleeping, your spending, your talking. Everything is cross examined!
My goal is God Himself-- not joy, not peace, not even blessing, but God!
God wants to bring us into a glory we know nothing about.
You'll never get me to believe that the church today believes in hell.
When Jesus was condemned and they put an old, dirty robe on Him and He wore that stinking robe that you might wear a robe of righteousness. How often do you think of that? They put a crown of thorns on His head that you and I might wear an eternal crown. He was separated from the Father that we might be brought to the Father. He took on human nature that we might have divine nature. He left eternity for 33 years so we could go to eternity for 33 billion years, as far as that goes.
If you want your child to go to hell, buy him a T.V. all for himself and (it'll) destroy him!
We're a million, billion miles away from New Testament Christianity!
I am very suspicious about people coming to the altar. The altar is about one of two things--death or sacrifice. It's cheap to come to the altar (these days).
Only the Holy Ghost can change the world.
Human history is not written with ink on pages of paper; Human history is written in blood on the parchments on the skin of men and women.
Every step you make in Jesus Christ enrages the devil.
One thing that really crushes me is when I think that America has 500 evangelists and not one revivalist; not one that can shake a city.
If Bible knowledge could change the world, we would've changed it long ago.
There's going to have to come some heroism in (today's) Christianity. It doesn't necessarily mean burning at the stake, but it could mean that.
We would never think of stealing somebody's purse, but we'd steal their time.
Isn't it amazing how we believe in the sovereignty of God until it comes to money-- then we send a newsletter.
God is not drying up in His resources.
I want to be on the devil's list of most wanted men in America; any other list, forget it!
Jesus didn't come into the world to make bad men good; He came to make dead men live!
It's not the imitation of Christ that you and I need, it's an impartation of Christ (that we need ). Christ in you the hope of glory.
The devil's substitue for joy is entertainment.
Why worry when my times are in His hands?
God is looking for men (who are) committed from the soles of their feet to the crown of their heads.
I think the most awesome thing in the world tonight is a person that dares to say he's a Christian. It makes me tremble I'll tell you that!
I've had more accolades in my time, about my books and preaching, but it don't make a hill of beans difference. I made up my mind fifty years ago that no one would flatter me and nobody would flatten me. We're all unprofitable servants--there's so much we don't know.
The king in America-- (you say) there isn't one. Yes there is, his name is King Sport and his wife is Queen Entertainment.
I think hell had a holiday when Paul died.
The first thing Jesus did before He could walk or talk is divide people.
Today, people say, "We want peace on earth." Sure they want peace on earth but they don't want the Prince of Peace!
Tell me this: do you wish everyone in your city had as much of the Spirit as you do? Would they do anything if they had? If they had onIy as much love; only as much zeal; only as much passion for the lost; only as much understanding of God's Word? How far would they get?
If we're poor materially, mostly it's because we have to be. If we're poor spiritually, it's because we want to be.
A man came into my office from another nation and he dropped this in my ear, "Christianity began in Palestine and it became a religion; it was transferred to Greece and it became a philosophy; it was transferred to Europe--to England--it became a cult and it was transferred to America (and) it became big business.
Our young people have never seen (true) Christianity.
God smote Moses with Ieprosy. If God smote us from our gossipping and criticism, we'd have to turn (this meeting) into a healing meeting.
I persuade myself that every day I live now, somebody dies for Jesus Christ. In Russia or in China or somewhere. We (just) go about our business. 0f course, we have our hardships. Sometimes we go to McDonalds and don't get a very good hamburger and that's a grief; of course, sometimes you get a flat tire, that's terrible. Others are in prison, tormented, suffering beyond anything we can understand.
It's easy to be bold when everything is going well.
The fire never falls on the altar; the fire falls on the sacrifice!
The greatest need tonight in America is prophets!
Why do we send people to other countries? We can't even save our own country! A little guy on T.V. says, "Give me more money, my message should go, into Japan." Why? Do you know how many murders they have in Japan for a year? Twenty! We have that many in a day in New York State! They'lI say, go back and clean your own country up!
Christianity is Christ plus nothing!
The first epistle of John is merely an exposition of the new birth.
I think one of the serious breakdowns in modern evangelism is this: it has offered us too much for too little. What we do mostly is offer people forgiveness. We need cIeansing! There is no true conversion until a man takes up his cross.
Jesus doesn't want your sins! What will they do for Him? He wants you! He must be Saviour AND Lord. If Jesus is not Lord of all then He isn't Lord at all.
Most people can't enjoy their religion; they just endure it.
You say I'm preaching sinless perfection. I know nothing of the kind. It is not impossible for a believer to commit sin, but it's possible not to commit sin.
People accept Jesus as a teacher but not as Saviour. WelI, why don't they accept His teaching? He said, "You must be born again." It's not an option.
We're so flippant with our words and we're so easy with our criticism. We stab and we injure and we hurt and God is going to try all my words before a thousand-million people.
We all try to put on a face and appear (to be) more spiritual than we really are... Don't you think so most of the time?
If you want an expanse in your soul, then learn to pray.
If I'm not known in hell, I'm not worth a hill of beans much good. The demon said Jesus I know and Paul I know (Acts 19:15). (Is there any better compliment than this?)
Jesus said, "You come unto me, I AM the Water of Life...! He said He was the Bread of Life; He said He was the Light of Life... We can't live without bread; we can't live without water; we can't live without light; and we can't live without God. Without Christ, you can only exist.
God is supposed to be in residence in our beings.
If you want a new personality, I'll tell you this: The only way to get it is to have a prayer life. You can't pray and be unclean; you can't pray and have a grudge; you can't pray and have bitterness. We blame the devil so much, (but) many of us sabotage our own prayer lives.
Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? The man who has a degree? The man who is wearing his collar backwards? The man who stands behind an ornate desk with stained glass windows? No, a man can be plowing in the fields and ascend unto the hill of the Lord. He that hath clean hands-- that's our relationship with the world; and a pure heart-- (that's) our relationship to God.
I guess you've heard a hundred stories of people who say, "I remember the day I got saved." If you're a Nazarene of the old holiness folk, you'd hear them say, "I remember the day I was sanctified."
I tremble at the awesomeness of preaching God's Word. Sometimes I hear preachers read the Bible as if it were a weather report.
Do you really want an intimacy with God where He shows you the world as He sees it?
I'd be happy to go to heaven tonight (but) I want to see God do something awesome before I die. The devil has kicked us around like a football but we're going to have a great Church.
I think the most awesome thing in the world tonight is a person that dares to say he's a Christian. It makes me tremble I'll tell you that!
It's a short journey on the way to heaven. The hour is coming for all of us before too long.
The supreme joy in my life is to know the will of God.
I'm determined this year more than ever to know Jesus Christ in a new way that I have not known Him before. I want to discover His majesty; I want to discover the glory He had with the Father.
That's what Jesus did in the garden: He travailed for your life and for mine. Will you travail for some until the glory of God comes down on them? Weep for them so they won't have to weep in hell. It's not an easy way, but it's a glorious way.
The one thing I want the Lord to say to me when I die is, "You are my beloved son."
The greatest loss in life is not losing an arm or losing a friend or losing a fortune, it's losing your relationship with God.
Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount never blessed a material thing! The richer we get in the church, the poorer we get in the spirit.
David said, "My sin is ever before me." There's one thing we need above everything else; it's something we don't talk very much about these days: We need a mighty avalanche of the conviction of sin.
Where there is no joy, you have to fill it up with entertainment. The more joy you have in God, the less entertainment you need outside of yourself.
It doesn't say in Scripture that you lost your first love, it says you left it.
The dreadful possibility--if I get out of line with the will of God, I can become as corrupt as every man who has ever lived.
God is going to restore the power and authority in His church starting with the pulpit (with) brokenness (and) confession. If there's no brokenness in the pulpit, why should there be brokennss in the pew?
If I don't believe the Word of God, why should you believe it? If we don't believe it and act it, why should the world believe us?
The church should have more vision than anyone in the world; she's blind and crippled and she's helpless in her present state.
I believe the Pentecostal message as in the Word of God is the only answer for this world!
It's essential you have the witness of the Spirit. Either He witnesses with condemnation and guilt or He witnesses with peace and joy; it can't be both.
What does the church have to attract the world? What does she have?!
Christianity, again, is Christ plus nothing!!
Often when I'm praying by myself, I thank God for the incorruptible Holy Ghost. Nobody can bribe Him; nobody can buy Him!
Some of you business guys, if the Holy Ghost could be bought, some of you business guys would pull your check books out, (and) He'd be a board member for you; but you can't do it.
The mighty Holy Ghost put this book (the BibIe) together!
I'm looking for something so majestic (that) no man dare to stick his name on it. If he did, he'd drop dead.
If we had another Pentecost, we'd (all) be in jail in six days.
You never find anybody asking for money in a true revival.
I don't believe twenty people in all of America with its 230 million people have ever been in a revival. A revival that stops the traffic; a revival where the lights never go out for months-- weeks and weeks and weeks in the sanctuary; a revival where the prayer meeting never ends!
Who's preaching salvation (these days)? We're preaching forgiveness.
We fear a Russian invasion; we fear a financial breakdown, but we don't fear God! I want that holy fear!
I want to see something that God builds. I want to find some people so hungry for God that every night they want to pray; (and find) where there's intercession! We're not going to move America any other way... We've tried every scheme and any and every fancy thing and (we) try and work something up, but what we need somebody to come down. Some person! Not a new theology, a person! Just as the Holy Ghost invaded the virgin womb and created Christ there, I need the Holy Ghost to form Christ in me. If I don't, I'm not a Christian! Christ in you the hope of glory. That's what it's all about.
