LORD, TEACH US TO PRAY – UPPER ROOM HEART’S CONDITION
CHAPTER THREE
<And
it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased,
one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught
his disciples.
And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father
which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done,
as in heaven, so in earth.
Give us day by
day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive everyone that
is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.
And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a
friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me
three loaves;
For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and
I have nothing to set before him?
And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me
not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise
and give thee.
I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him,
because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth.> Luke 11:1-8.
That is “persistence’. Because of his persistence in asking, he will
rise and give him as many as he needeth.
<And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given
you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that
seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a
father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give
him a serpent?
Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a
scorpion?
If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts
unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy
Spirit to them that ask him?> Luke 11:9-13.
RIGHT ATTITUDE:
DESPERATION TO RECEIVE OUTPOURING
What you are going to hear equals to Upper Room Heart’s Condition—the condition that
every person’s heart must be in that will go to the Upper Room, (spiritually
speaking), and receive the great Outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
The Scripture said over in the Book of Acts chapter 2,
they were in one accord, and one heart, and then that brought the Outpouring of
the Holy Spirit. In perfect unity, they
obeyed the Lord and went up there blessing and praising God by faith for the
Promise that He made until it came. That
is the way that you have to go on, blessing and praising God for your healing,
or for any request that you made to the Lord, until it is fulfilled. But we have a greater Promise. This little lesson, I trust and hope, will
teach (or remind us at least) how to approach the Lord. This little exhortation has to do with
preparing your heart, the right approach and the right attitude to the Lord to receive the Holy Spirit: whatever portion
is given out now, and the greater portion that will come later through the
Outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
When I say Outpouring of the Holy Spirit, I am
speaking about the Headstone. Look on
your pyramid teaching and you will see right there the prophet placed at the
Capstone, “Jesus, Love, Holy Spirit.”
That is the great fullness of God that is coming. We call it “the Token” because the prophet
typed that out to a bus ticket, which is a token. Then he said, “The Token is the blood.” After that, he kept on talking about the Holy
Spirit as the Token. The next message
that followed in the evening, he emphasized that all must be desperate to
receive that Token.
Jesus spoke
by a parable and put it so wonderfully.
Notice how He connected that
with the Lord’s Prayer. The beginning of
the Lord’s Prayer says <Thy kingdom come.>
Of course, everyone of us here who were listening to the Word of God are
fully persuaded that the Kingdom of God is none other than what they received
on the day of Pentecost, the true Outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
KINGDOM – BAPTISM OF THE HOLY GHOST CAME
IN POWER AT PENTECOST
Quote
W.M.B.: 187-239 He said, "Thou art Simon, and I will give
you the keys of the Kingdom of heaven… What
is the Kingdom of heaven? The Holy
Spirit. The Bible said… "The Kingdom of heaven is within you..."
I mean, "the
…He
was crucified, died, rose the third day, was on earth forty days among men,
ascended up into heaven, told them to wait till they seen the Kingdom of God
come upon them; at this time the Father will restore the Kingdom in a spiritual form to them. They went up
to the city of
KINGDOM COME IN FULLNESS OF POWER ON THE
DAY OF PENTECOST
Quote: E-96 Jesus
Christ in the 16th chapter of Saint Matthew, I believe, told Peter, "I
give unto you the keys to the Kingdom of heaven…On the day of Pentecost when the
Soon after
Jesus spoke about the Lord’s Prayer and taught the disciples to pray, He spoke
this parable. Now this parable is
directly connected with that prayer.
Yes, I love that little parable and how He placed it. He talked about a guest who came at
midnight. Having nothing to set before
him, the host went to another friend in the night. And he said, “Listen to me man, I have a
friend that came from a long journey. I
have nothing to set before him. Wake up,
and lend me three loaves of bread!” That
fellow pulled up his feet under his sheet and said, “Man, I have my children
sleeping in bed with me, right now! How
can I come out there and give you?”
Jesus said, “Because of the man’s importunity, persistence, (that man stood right there and wouldn’t let him go to
sleep) he got it.” I imagine he stood
out there and said, “Man, give me the bread; I know you have it!” He nodded away a little bit and the man called
out to him again and said, “Friend, I’m waiting out here; give me the
bread.” The man was persistent.
Jesus used
that little parable to say, that so will it be to all that would ask for the Holy Ghost. Now do you see how that fits into the message
of desperation? The prophet said,
Quote W.M.B.: We must be desperate, or perish! Desperations
63-0901E.
Jesus was
preaching “Desperation” long before
the prophet. In this parable He was
saying, “If you want the Holy Ghost, you have to get desperate!” Yes, that is what it amounts to. If you want this Kingdom, you have to be
desperate for it. You have to be
persistent. He spoke a little parable
again (Luke 11:9-13) and said, “Knock, for the Holy Ghost, for eternal
life, and it shall be given to you; seek and ye shall find; ask and it shall be
given unto you.” In other words, “I am
the sinless Son of God, and you are evil fellows. You just got baptized, but you are evil. You are striving to live a Christian life,
but you are evil. And if your son asks
you for bread, are you going to pick up a big rock, bring it, put it on the
table and tell him to butter that and eat it?
No! If he asks you for a fish,
will you catch a snake and put it on the table?” He said, “No, you won’t do that. And if he asks for an egg, will you give him
a scorpion?” He said, “You being evil,
you don’t think like that, how much more will the Lord give the Holy Ghost to them that ask of Him?”
Now the
point that I am trying to make is that we just cannot sit down as wallflowers
and think, “Well when the Token comes we may get it; and if I don’t get it,
maybe I’m not elected.” Friends, that is
the worst attitude to sit in the house of God with. You have to come in here knowing that you are
a son or daughter of God and that you come to your Father. He was typing out the natural father with the
spiritual Father. He was telling us
there that if we ask of Him the Token, He would not give us a stone for
It. If we ask Him for the Holy Ghost, He
will not give us a serpent. If we ask
Him for that Outpouring, He would not give us a scorpion. Beloved, I am not expecting a scorpion. Is anybody expecting a scorpion? Well, some people sit in the house of God and
expect a scorpion to bite them and kill them.
Yes, they are sure that they will not receive the Token. They are sure that they are too evil to
receive the blessings of the Lord. That
is the worst attitude. Some people sit there and they are sure that
they are the foolish virgin.
Friends,
the Lord is encouraging our faith. He
brought all those types to say one thing.
“If you ask the Lord for this Outpouring, you are going to get It. If you ask
the Lord for the Token, you are going to get It. If you ask the Lord for eternal life, you are
going to have it. If you ask the Lord
for revelation, you are going to have it.
If you ask the Lord for the new birth, you will have It. If you ask the Lord for healing, you are
going to get it! That’s it. Oh, yes!
How many love that? I love it!
LORD’S PRAYER CONNECTED WITH OUTPOURING - KINGDOM
Oh, the Lord used to teach very simply and very
deep! Probably they never understood
that He was connecting the Lord’s Prayer with that parable, but it is connected
because the Kingdom is that Outpouring.
Why would He give that parable immediately after the Lord’s Prayer? Because it was connected with it. He said that when you pray, it shall be
granted to you. He said, “Knock, it
shall be opened to you. Say the prayer
that I just taught you and it shall be granted to you. Just apply the prayer.”
“Prayer” is to make a request to the Lord. You hear somebody say, “I pray thee, let me
have so and so.” “I pray thee” it just
simply means a request. So now, our
prayer to the Lord is a request; and then worship and praise is to return thanks. Sometimes, you return the praises and the
thanks long before you receive what you requested. Like in the Upper Room, they went up there
blessing and praising God for the Token, which had not come yet, and they got
it, even because <faith is the substance
of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.> So
you are blessing God just as if you had the thing, and the Lord honors a man’s
faith.
The story starts over here in Luke 11. The Lord prayed a prayer. And I guess it was so fitting, it was so
inspirational and His words so perfect before the Lord, that it moved one of
the disciples, and this fellow turned around and said, <Lord, teach us to pray.>
Isn’t that wonderful? <Lord,
teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.> Now that was not a silly question. Somebody might be in the audience, “I don’t
know how to pray. Brother Bruce, teach
me to pray.” Yes, that is not a silly
question. Jesus never rebuked the man
for that. No. Immediately Jesus went on to teach how to
pray. There is a right way and a wrong
way to pray. There is a right approach
and a wrong approach. If you have the
wrong approach, then you would not have what you are asking for because you
approached in the wrong way.
Now, that happened in the prophet’s life. He met a girl somewhere. It sounds to me like she was overseas but it
may have been right in this country. As
the story goes, she seemed to have been destitute, poor, and ignorant of
eternal life, ignorant of the Gospel; and the prophet of God taught her to
pray. You know what the prayer was that
he taught her to pray? “Lord, save
me.” That was all. “Lord, save
me.” And when Brother Branham
returned, the girl was saved!
Is not that a wonderful prayer to teach our children? They may not be able to understand all that
we are saying here. Sometimes their
heads are filled with play,
sports. All that some children think of
is play, from morning to night. You have
to restrain them. You have to teach
them. When they are in the house of God
their minds are still busy and they do not hear the words of Life. Let’s say that they miss everything, you
could take a little time off to teach your child that little prayer, seeing that
the mighty Elijah did that. How simple,
if we could only get into our children’s heart, “Lord, save me.” Isn’t that understanding a child and how a
child will think? Yes, because a child,
having to say a long prayer, will open one eye about halfway. If he doesn’t open one eye, he will peep
through his fingers.
The prophet of God taught that little girl a prayer
that she could handle and she could remember anywhere, “Lord, save me.” After a while, that little girl was saved
because she was saying that sincerely and honestly before the Lord. The prophet of God taught her that and she
believed him. I don’t know how long she
continued to say that prayer, but the prophet of God said when he went back,
the little girl was saved! I tell you,
that is so wonderful; that is so sweet!
I don’t know where I read that or probably I heard it from some preacher
that was associated with Brother Branham, but I believe that story.
I met a little
girl one time, who was kind of fatherless and motherless. I said, “I will try this out.” This girl was a heathen and I happened to
come in contact with her where she was working.
She was just a little girl, about fourteen years old. I desired to see that little girl saved
because I felt so sorry for her. So I
started to talk about the Lord and I taught her the same prayer. I said, “When you pray, say, ‘Lord Jesus,
save me.’” And you know it was several
years that rolled around and that girl came around and was baptized in the name
of Jesus Christ. I am telling you it
works! You know that there is sincerity,
honesty, and humility in a child’s heart that is great. If you can imbed into their hearts and
their minds that they have a soul, and that soul could go out and go to hell or
it could go to heaven, and they could understand that, the Lord will hear that
prayer. It does not matter how small
that child is, teach the child to pray.
Yes.
This
disciple was so moved with the prayer of the Lord. I do not know what prayer He prayed, but
Jesus used to pray a lot. The Bible said that He resorted to the mountain
and spent all night in prayer. He was a
praying man. Then, this disciple must
have heard the sincerity, the honesty, and the respect towards God. (I am judging that from the prayer that He
taught the disciples now.) This moved
the disciple to say, “Lord, teach us to pray.”
Isn’t that a wonderful thing? If
he did not ask that question, we may not have the Lord’s Prayer here. A little question somewhere and it is a
blessing to the entire world! “Teach us
to pray, Lord.” So the Lord gave them
that prayer.
Now, the
Lord’s Prayer is the greatest prayer
in the Bible, because it is the Lord’s
Prayer. I do not believe that there is a
more perfect prayer in the Bible than the Lord’s Prayer. Many a man prayed from way back in
Genesis. Abraham had lovely
prayers. Daniel prayed. Yes, John taught his disciples to pray; it
was not even recorded in the Holy Script.
Right through the Bible, we had men praying, but I tell you the most perfect prayer that anybody could say
is the Lord’s Prayer.
PERFECT PRAYER - RIGHT HEART’S CONDITION -KINGDOM OUTPOURING
I
will tell you why it is so perfect.
Because, in just a few words, He taught his disciples to make request to
the Lord for both the natural and the spiritual and the hope of an eternal
kingdom. Right here, I will put in this:
that prayer connected the Promise of
the hour, (which was the Outpouring
of the Holy Spirit), under the terminology, “Kingdom of God.” It was for both natural and the
spiritual. That prayer is a complete
prayer that the Lord gave; only God could pray like that. What this disciple must have heard there
included some of this, because how the Lord was praying attracted the
disciples. I want to call your attention
to some of these things.
To pray
that prayer, your heart must be in a
certain condition, otherwise you can falsely say that prayer. Millions today are saying the Lord’s Prayer
falsely. My, just to settle your minds a
little bit, this prayer is asking the Lord to forgive our sins as we have
already forgiven our brother or sister, or forgiven an offender—saved or
unsaved. Now, if that did not happen in
your life where you forgave that party there and you come to say that prayer
over here, “Forgive me because I forgave my fellow men,” you are lying.
Come on, I hope you are reading between the lines. Then you are hypocritically saying that
prayer. The prayer does not apply. So you must meet a certain heart’s condition to really say the Lord’s
Prayer.
Now there are certain forerunners to this prayer. The Lord warned us about hindrances when we
say our prayer, “Lord, teach us to pray.”
But the Lord had already spoken in another place, Matthew the sixth
chapter, five to the fifteenth verse.
<And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the
hypocrites are…:>
First of all Friends, you cannot say this prayer as a
hypocrite. Listen, this prayer is not
for a hypocrite. This is an Upper Room prayer. What I am teaching you here is very simple;
what the Lord taught there was very simple and this has to do with the Upper Room,
making your life right, coming up to the standard where you could really, from
your heart, ask for that Outpouring to
come to you and your family. I will
point out one or two little things that Jesus warned us about.
Matthew 6:5-15: <…for they love to pray standing in
the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men.
Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet,
and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and
thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the
heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.
Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father
knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.
But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither
will your Father forgive your trespasses.>
<And when thou prayest, thou shall not be as the
hypocrites are:>
Whenever you are going to pray, you cannot be a
hypocrite. This prayer is not for a
hypocrite; this is for the disciples. The disciple asked him, <Teach us to
pray.> This is not for the hypocrite
that is just doing something like Hollywood, a play actor, a pretended Christian,
a church member. It is not for the pope;
this is not for his cardinals; this is not for all these evangelists on the
radio and the television who are there to collect the people’s money. This is the prayer of the disciples.
<…for they love to pray standing in the synagogues
and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily, I say
unto you, They have their reward.>
Matthew 6:5.
Now when they stand on the street there and pray
aloud, (like you hear some of these fellows there pray out loud) and everybody
looks out there and says, “That’s a spiritual
man. I tell you, that’s a holy
man!” The pope prayed a prayer that the
whole world heard from “St. Peter’s” Square.
He has his reward. The reward was the praises of men.
I will just analyze it a little bit. Jesus says, “When you pray, don’t come with pride in your heart.” That here amounts to “pride”. The Bible went on to say,
<God
resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.> James 4:6. Another
warning that He give also: He advises us to:
<…enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy
door, pray…> Matthew 6:6.
And then He warned us about vain repetitions. He said,
<…use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for
they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.> Matthew
6:7. Vain repetitions.
It is vain repetition when somebody in the
congregation has to count on the chaplet, “Hail Mary, mother of God!” Vain repetitions! At the end of the chaplet, (I don’t know how many
you count) the Lord did not hear your prayer yet because you are using vain
repetitions and you are praying to Mary.
The Pentecostal is guilty for
using vain repetition by saying, “Praise God, praise God, praise God,
hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, praise God, praise God!” That is vain repetition! They think because they repeat “Praise God”
and “hallelujah”, over and over, God will hear them. No, it is best to have a chaplet and count how many times that they are saying,
“Praise God, praise God”! Oh, yes! Soon they will bring the chaplet into the Pentecostal Church. He gave us these warnings and then taught
them to pray.
<Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your
Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.> Matthew 6:
8.
Always remember this: when you approach in prayer, the
Lord knows before you were coming what you were going to ask for. Sometimes I get fumbled up in my words and
mixed up in my thoughts in what I am asking the Lord for and then I smooth it
out very easily. I say, “Lord, you know
what I want to ask for.” When you are
praying, sometimes you get kind of muddled up in
your head or something like that. Well,
that is the way I smooth that out. I
say, “Lord, no matter what I say, You are looking at my heart and You know what
I want; if that thing is not good for me, I don’t want it. If that will hinder
me from receiving the Promise, receiving eternal life, I do not want it,
Lord. No matter how hard it is, I don’t
want it; Thy will be done.” So, you see,
our approach is very important.
Do you see that this prayer is not for the
hypocrite? This prayer is not for a play
actor; this prayer is not for a church member; this prayer is not for the
world; this prayer is not for organization, though they say it the most. This prayer goes far and wide. It is not a school prayer. This prayer has to do with the Upper Room; it has to do with the Holy
Ghost; it has to do with what we call the “Token.” In order to say this prayer, your heart must
come to a certain condition; then the prayer becomes sincere; then the prayer
becomes honest; then it becomes effective; then you are praying for what the
Lord asked you to pray for. Look at the
prayer properly and you will see how the Lord brought that right down.
The Lord’s Prayer is the greatest prayer. It covers both natural and spiritual; it
covers the hope of the Christian Church.
Then, if you will examine that prayer, you will notice that Jesus
indicated a certain attitude that
you must approach with and a certain reverence, a certain confession, certain
things that you must do, before you even say that prayer. Your heart’s condition must be right before
you say that prayer. It must be empty;
it must be surrendered. And we are going
to examine that just a little bit. Let
us see if that prayer is saying that.
This has to do with the Upper Room. Definitely Friend, if you do not understand
what I am saying tonight and if you are not established already in this fact,
then you do not know how to approach the Lord for the Token. Is this important then? I feel that this is important.
You must be empty.
Let us use the word “empty.” Before you say this prayer, you must be
empty. You cannot approach in pride,
cannot approach in self; you cannot approach in boastfulness; you cannot
approach in a way of chanting, to say that you are going to invoke the
Lord. All that this “chanting” is doing
is trying to invoke the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit is not invoked; evil
spirits are invoked! The same way that
people chant and bring up evil spirits, they think that by that same method
they could come and fool God. Say, “God
you’re really nice; yes, you’re real nice.”
“God is a good God!” –Oral Roberts.
Yes, He is also a God of judgment!
People think by flattering the Lord, that the Lord will say, “Here, take
it and go.” It does not happen that way,
Friend. Jesus gave us a certain heart
condition to meet and I am re-emphasizing here that heart’s condition is
connected with the Upper Room experience.
It is connected in how to receive
the Holy Spirit. You must have a certain
heart’s condition.
REVERENCE
<After this manner therefore pray ye:> Matthew
6:9.
This is the manner
that you must pray. Children, Grace
Covenant Church, Little Boys, Brothers and Sisters, “Teach Us to Pray.” This is the way to pray. If I would teach you to pray, I will use the
greatest prayer, and that is what the Lord left us here. We look for the same Promise.
<Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be
thy name.> Matthew 6:9.>
Isn’t that wonderful?
The word “hallowed” there is “holy”.
In other words, <Lord, I am fully conscious that I am approaching a
God that has no sin. Holy,
Righteous.> <Hallowed be thy name…>
Isn’t that very reverent? You must be conscious of Who you are
approaching, not like in the schools.
They have taken the prayer out from a lot of the schools here; it still
goes on in the Caribbean and many parts of the world. Children must have their devotion for fifteen
minutes before they start work. Thank
God for that. They must say their
prayers before they eat; and when they come back inside, they have to say their
prayers and thank God for what they ate; and before they go home in the
evening, they must pray again for guidance and protection. We still have that. A lot of children who are heathens come to know the Lord Jesus by
those school devotions. I myself had
some influence from that.
<Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy
name.>
Friends, in
other words, you must approach respectfully, reverently, in adoration, knowing
to Whom you are speaking. Not like a
school prayer that children say when they are hurry to eat, drink, and go home.
Now that is the way we got fed up with the thing, because we never did
understand. We ate our food, chewed it
up and went home. You go and sit down;
it was meaningless. We were sinners; the
prayers did not even belong to
us!
The prayer is speaking of reverence. When we come to the house of the Lord, we
must be reverent. We must not bring everything in our mind:
natural, work, problems, fusses, offenses.
No. In order to say that prayer,
you have to mean it. Yes. <Hallowed
be thy name.> <Holy be thy name.>
In other words, “You are holy, Lord.”
Brother Paul instructing the church said,
Timothy 2:8: <…lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.>
Now you see that connects this Lord’s Prayer
here. Jesus taught them the same
thing. He said, “When you come to the
Lord, approach Him reverently,
respectfully, in adoration, knowing that He is the holy God, the most
holy.” Now how are you going to approach
the Lord with such reverence and holiness if you do not fulfill the rest of the
Scripture about pride and self and are trying to fool God and flatter Him? How are you going to say this prayer? There is a heart’s condition, there is a way
to approach the Lord, <Hallowed be thy name.>
Brothers and Sisters, what kind of men and women ought
we to be knowing that we are going to speak to God on this night, and tomorrow
night, and other nights? What kind of
reverence ought we to come in with here?
This could express it. “Without
wrath, without unbelief,” the Bible said.
You have to come in here with reverence knowing that “I’m going to speak to God.”
He comes and meets us here;
He fellowships with us, not that He lives here.
He does not live in this wood building.
No, Friends, He lives in earthen vessels. But then He said, <For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in
the midst of them.> Matthew 18:20.
That is why I said the other night that He comes in this auditorium,
because His children are gathered here.
Now, do you know that that takes in “church order” and
everything that we practice right there, <Hallowed
be thy name> because we want to be reverent to the Lord when we are
praying, when we are preaching, in coming into the house of the Lord. We have that reverence and we have that
respect when we walk through the doors of the tabernacle. Now you see how that verse picked that up?
You see the first words that our Lord used, <Our
Father which art in Heaven, Hallowed be thy name.> Matthew 6:9. Isn’t that love, isn’t that respect,
Friends? Isn’t that adoration; isn’t
that humble? In the very first prayer He
told his disciples, whenever you’re praying, tell God who He is, that He’s a holy God, a righteous God. You are just not talking to a man. You just did not come to Brother Bruce to ask
him for something or Pastor McGahee here.
You did not come over here to ask your fellow man for something. Be reverent.
If you feel to kneel, kneel. If
you feel to stand up and lift your hands to Him, as He said, <…when ye stand praying…> Mark 11:25. So you must be reverent.
THINE KINGDOM -
TOKEN OUTPOURING COME
Look at the vastness of this prayer. Immediately the Lord went down to the next
verse right away. <Thy kingdom come.>
Matthew 6:9-10. That is the
hope of the Christian Church: Now the kingdom has to do with the eternal
kingdom in the hereafter. It has to do with the Davidic kingdom in which we
will rule and reign with Christ for a thousand years; and then we will live in
a new world after that. Friend, this
Kingdom of God has to do with the Outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Jesus, in other words, is teaching His disciples how to call for
the Holy Ghost, how to approach for this Holy Spirit, how to approach for this
Promise that “I told you will come upon you.”
Luke 24:49:
<And, behold, I send the promise
of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be
endued with power from on high.>
It was a Promise.
He is telling them here how to approach this thing. <Thy kingdom come.> How are you going to pray for that
Outpouring? How are you going to pray
for that Great Blessing to come unless you have a vision and you know what It
is? In that Outpouring is tied up the
rapture, is tied up the resurrection, is tied up the Third Pull ministry, and
is tied up the translation. Don’t you
see that unless That comes, nothing
could happen? The rapture cannot take
place; the manifested sons of God cannot come on the scene. No, everything will remain as it is. The Bride will remain scattered around the
world. It only takes the Outpouring to
bring her together.
GOD’S WILL BY
KINGDOM OUTPOURING
One of the first requests that the Lord put into this
prayer is, <thy kingdom come...>
Thy Outpouring come;
thy Token come; thy fullness come.
Hear this, <Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.>
I want to stay there just a minute. That
simply means that the only time that the “perfect
will of God” will be done, fulfilled, and accomplished is when that
Outpouring of the Holy Spirit comes.
That will bring to pass all that God has for the Church and all that He
planned from the foundation of the world.
It came through the Old Testament, and sent Jesus to the cross, and
right down to the end time here. He has
a great plan in His mind, and the Lord Jesus knew that. He was praying for that plan, <thy kingdom come, thy will be done in
earth as it is in heaven.> This is what He was teaching His
disciples. Without that Outpouring of
the Holy Spirit, the will of God cannot be accomplished, which He planned
before the foundation of the world. It
is the mystery of His will, the predestinated mystery of His will.
Ephesians
1:4-5, 9: <According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of
the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
Having
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself,
according to the good pleasure of his will,
… Having made
known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he
hath purposed in himself. >
Can you tie that there? Jesus knew the predestinated mystery of God’s
will, and that was in Christ. Here,
Jesus is saying that prayer and that is what He is talking about. The only time that the predestinated mystery
of God’s will is accomplished is
when the Kingdom of God comes. That
happened in the Upper Room and it is going to happen one more time to bring to
pass the will of God.
Today the will of God is to rapture you. The will of
God is to bring the manifested sons on the scene. Well, that Outpouring will do it. The will of God is for you to rule and reign
with Him for a thousand years. It cannot
happen without an Outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The will of the Lord is to bring all the
saints that were martyred from the grave.
That Kingdom of God will bring it to pass.
Now hear this, if the will of God is not your will, how can you say this prayer? Think on that. Think of what I am trying to get at. <Thy kingdom come thy will be done in
earth.> Matthew 6:10. The
will of the Lord is to bring the Kingdom to the Church. When that Outpouring comes, they will fulfill
the predestinated mystery of God’s will.
Now, if you do not have the same purpose as God to see this Kingdom,
this Outpouring, come, (which is the most
important thing for the Church right now—the coming Kingdom) then Friends,
you are out of the will of God.
I am teaching the church how to pray here, but let me
challenge every preacher upon the face of the earth. If you are not preaching, an Outpouring of
the Holy Spirit for the Bride in the end time, you are out of the will of God, Preacher.
<Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it
is in heaven.> Matthew 6:10.
Any preacher who is not highlighting the Outpouring of the Holy Spirit to bring to pass the
will of God and His predestinated plan is out of the will of God.
Now don’t let me
hurt your feelings, Friends. If you are
seated here tonight and your greatest purpose is not to receive the Outpouring
when it comes and to go in the rapture, you are wasting time. You are out of
the will of God. That must be your purpose. Little Fellows, Brothers, Sisters, pretty,
ugly, big, fat, old, young, listen to Brother Bruce. Before you could even say this prayer, <Our Father who art in Heaven…thy kingdom
come, thy will be done…>, not only in earth here, but it must be done in
your life.
Now how can God’s will be done in your life if you do not have this Outpouring of the Holy Spirit
first place? That is my goal: the rapture, the Token,
eternal life! How are you going to say
this prayer with a big ambition of the world?
How are you going to say it? You
will have to start saying the prayer, “My
will be done.” Come on, that is very
simple. “I want a university education
and I don’t care what Pastor Kenny has to say or that Brother Bruce has to
say.” Then that is what you will
have. Now, catch me correctly. Friends if a person’s whole life is wrapped
up in this Outpouring and the rapture, there is no room to want a big chunk of
this world, because the Bible tells you,
I John 2:15:
<Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man
love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is
in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the
Father, but is of the world.>
You cannot say this prayer with that pride in your
heart of wanting to be this or that after sitting and hearing the Word of God
since you were a little child. Yes. You should not take your mind into such a
direction, after hearing the Word of God and the Token preached to you, that
you want a university education. Let me
tell you, this brain could only take
so much and when you fill it with the things of the world, there is no space
for the Word. That is what I am
saying. You meditate on what I am
saying, Friends.
HIGHER EDUCATION VS
GOD’S WILL BY OUTPOURING
Here, the Lord is telling us that when we pray, say, <Thy
kingdom come. Thy will be done in
earth…> You should be so
anxious to see God’s will fulfilled upon the earth, in your life, in your
family’s life and in your children’s life.
Any parent that will try to put that kind of ambition in their children
is betraying them. It does not work to
pack your head with all that university education. (And probably send your
girls to learn a trade that a man
should do: send her out to drive a truck; send her there to learn mechanics and
let her go under a car, and put on overalls; to climb ladders way up in the air
and be a builder or an engineer. Friends, such people have not heard the Word
of God. They missed the mark. That worldly image that you put over to that
child, a young girl or a young man, is wrong.
The Bible says,
I Timothy
6:8: <And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.>
I John 2:17:
<And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will
of God abideth for ever.>
Oh, yes! Now
get me correctly, Friends. Why would a
parent want to push their child into the wrong environment when they already
have a certain amount of education? Even
though you want them to work, they go to work for half a bread, and receive the
Token. Brother, they eat half a bread,
drink, and wear half, and have their minds on the Token. I believe that is common sense. After you sit under the Word of God, it makes
a difference. Now we shall leave that
for people who came in here from a certain society. Some people come in as educated people. They come in as university graduates. Thank God for that!
I Corinthians 1:26: <For ye see
your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many
mighty, not many noble, are called:>
But yet, God called some of them and they had a
certain program where they had their children out into college or into
university. I don’t expect to take that
family and bend them into our church understanding. I have to take them and commit them into the
hand of the Lord. Yes. If they come and ask me, “My daughter is in
her first year in the university.
Preacher, what do I do?” I will
speak their language because that person does not understand what I am trying
to get at. In the advice, I will put the
negative and I will put the positive. I
will show that if you go this way, this will happen and the possibility of
this child losing her soul; and I will show that if you go this way it is better; and I will let that family make a
choice. In some foreign lands, if message believers do not risk
their souls and get university education, they cannot obtain jobs. That is in a different category. May God have mercy upon them.
But when it comes down to people who were brought up
in the house of God. You sat here for
ten, twenty, thirty years, and take your little daughter and your little son
and you want to send them to a university, you’re an unbeliever, disobedient
and you have your own will; you have your own program. There is no place for you who have your own
program and your own will in the house of God!
You will be responsible for that little girl’s soul
and that little boy’s soul! God will
hold you responsible!
That is what I tell many people that start getting
ambitious in this hour. It is worldly
ambition that does that, you know. When
they get so ambitious where they will not listen to the Word, I say, “You send
that child there and you will find out that it will corrupt that child and I
want you to know that my hands are clean.
You will answer for that
child on the Day of Judgment!” I have
seen them leave the Word of God. Sent
them for betterment on the next island.
Then they come back with big bellies from the colleges. Oh, yes!
I had to deal with them.
One got so ambitious, she went down and started
drinking beer and fooling with a man, I warned them before it happened. I said, “Okay, you are going to leave the
house of God now.” God had mercy upon
that young woman; she came right on the pulpit; she said, “I was disobedient
and the university is no place for a young girl. You cannot survive there as a young Christian
girl; the environment is terrible. I repent! I want to serve the Lord.” She is back in church.
You see, when you try to help people and show them the
right way, they get against the
minister. They want to think that the
minister is trying to keep their children down from their ambition. Let me tell you
something my Beloved, you cannot mix this Gospel with the ambition of the
world. The ambition of the world is one
thing and is of the devil, I don’t care what you say. Yes sir!
I John 2:16:
<…all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes,
and the pride of life,>
Why do you want to go down to that university? Why do you want to work on this big job? Pride of life! You have your own program. People sit there and they say they have a
pastor, but they pastor their
families, and then put the blame on an unsaved relative or unsaved friend or
some neighbor and put the blame on the girl.
Yes. Something like that
happened. I will call the young fellow
in and say, “You heard this Word of God.
Do you have the ambition now to go in the wrong environment? What are you doing with your soul? I am dealing with you. I have nothing to do with parents. I am dealing with you. What are you doing about this? You either want the church or you want the
world, because I could see where you are going.”
We are talking about
something that will qualify you for the Upper Room. This is very important. If you miss this my Brothers and Sisters, and
you do not take heed to it, you might come up short. The Lord wants an
emptiness. Now, listen to me, before you
could pray that prayer and ask the Lord for the Token, your will must be surrendered to God. You are telling God, “Thy will be done.” How obedient are you to the message? How obedient are you to the pastor that is
trying to lead you to eternal life? He
suggests that thing is not good for you, “I know your strength as a
Christian.” That pastor is set there to
look over you. “And in my estimation you
will not make it through that university; you will not make it through that
job.”
Many a man come to ask
me: “Should I go and drive a taxi?”
(They don’t know what I am telling them.) I say, “Don’t go.” The next fellow comes and says, “Shall I go
to drive a taxi?” I say, “Go
ahead.” I don’t have anything to explain
to you. What I may tell you may embarrass
you. Yes. The next fellow says, “Should I go and make
this great, big investment over here?”
“Well, no.” “Well, Brother Bruce,
I don’t understand how you give that fellow the permission and I don’t have the
permission.” Because you have a money spirit, and that money spirit is
going to overcome you, and you are greedy of the things of the world. His selfishness must come out.
But I am getting back on this one phrase: <Thy will be done.> Now how are
you going to tell the Lord, “Your will be done Lord in my life” and you have
your mind made up to do something contrary to His Word? Can you say this prayer? Can a man say this prayer having his mind
made up? “I know the Word say not to do
this, but I think I will do it. Never
mind what Brother Bruce says; never mind what the elders say; I think I want to
take the chance. I want to commit
fornication. I want to live in
adultery. This tight dress here, I like
it and I want to wear it.” And you are
saying, <Thy will be done>? No,
you had better say, “My will be
done.” “Our Father who art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom
come. My will be done.”
You better change it or you will never get the Token by saying, “My will be done.” You could repeat these words here, but you
know that you are holding something in your heart that is against the Word of
God, that is your will be done, not
the Lord’s will be done.
I am trying to emphasize something. I am reasoning with you. I am explaining and analyzing this little
prayer here, if it would not be offensive to the Lord to say, “analyze.” But, Friend, I am trying to show you what the
Lord meant in the prayer, <Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done…> When
you approach the Lord and you say that you set out for the Token, you have to
be empty. You have to be empty of
yourself; you have to be empty of
your will; you have to be empty of the desires of the world; you have to be
empty of your ambitions. It cannot work,
Friends. You cannot get the Token by
wanting a big chunk of this world and wanting the Token at the same time. “I want all of these properties. I want all of these lands; it does not matter
if I pull some schemes. I’m in business
and I want to get all of this money; it’s a little string I have to pull and a
little dishonesty.” Friends, you cannot
get the Token like that. The will of God
be done. The Lord is going to give you
what you are supposed to have and you must be able with emptiness to say, “Thy
will be done.”
Now if you have your own way, you must be convicted when you are going to talk
these things to the Lord. Tell God, “Thy
will be done,” and you know exactly that you have a woman out there that you
like more than your wife. A woman has
her eyes upon some other man, and she is praying now, “Thy will be done.” No, that’s “Your will be done.” So you
see where this is connected, Friend. It
is an emptiness. You have to be
empty. You cannot be holding on to the
things of the world; you have to be empty.
I thank God for an empty heart. That is not just now, Friends, but from the
time I took the Gospel, nothing in
this whole world was too dear to me. My
vision back there was eternal life, and instead of getting weaker, it is
getting stronger. I believe that many
have the same testimony here tonight.
Oh, yes! One aim, one desire, and
that is to have the will of God done in your life. His will must be done in earth here, as it is in heaven.
One time there was a fellow who tried to inject his
will in heaven. (Do you know him?) And Michael had to clean up heaven and throw
that fellow out of the kingdom because he was trying to inject his will. His name is Lucifer. Jesus, after so long a time, could now say this
prayer, <Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.> Matthew
6:10. It shows that heaven was cleaned up and had nobody
there who was thinking contrary to the will of God.
Anytime you want something outside of the will of God,
He is going to boot you out like
Lucifer. Listen, I am not talking just
about education or something, I am talking about a little item contrary to the
Word. You want to hold onto some vice or
something in the bedroom, or you want to hold onto some little greedy money spirit, you will not get
the Token. Eventually, it will send you
through the tribulation to purge out that which you did not surrender to
God. I do not want to go there,
Friends. I want my purging here. How many say, “Amen”, there Young
Fellows? Don’t you want your purging
here? If anything is bothering you,
sacrifice the thing here: lust of
the flesh, lust of the eyes, carried over by some friend. Some friend is such a great friend that you
have to follow him and do the wrong things.
Sacrifice the friend! Jesus said,
<If thy right hand offend thee, cut it
off.> Matthew 5:30. That means,
“Get rid of the friend.” Yes. “Your right foot offends you, chop off the
foot.” Yes. <If
thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out> Matthew 5:29. No kind of
nonsense of a “friend connection”, “relative connection” or some kind of
influence in the neighborhood. Cut the
thing off! Yes. There we are.
<Thy kingdom
come. Thy will be done in earth…>
and hear this, <Give us this day our daily bread.> Matthew
6:10, 11. Beloved, Jesus was such a
spiritual man. He is not talking about
bread and butter, although it is included, but the emphasis is “Feed me with
the Bread of Life because I cannot get that Token until I am fed right.” You must be fed right with the Word of God to enter the Outpouring of the Holy
Spirit. That is why EODH went out there
to clean it up because <…all tables
are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean.> Isaiah
28:8. All that EODH is saying is
“This is vomit, that is vomit, that is vomit, that is vomit,” Yes sir, “And this is the bread of life.”
I John 2:15: <Love not the world…>
Yes, I hate this world Friend. Can you still go down there and enjoy seeing
those people in their nakedness, could still enjoy the music of this
world? Like one young brother told me
there in the camp, “That music just sickens me, Brother Bruce.” Yes, I tell you I felt so happy. I say, “There is a man that is making a
sacrifice for the Lord.” Wonderful
brother. Lord bless his heart.
The Lord continued this prayer. He has given you your
daily bread every day for all the years.
Thank Him for this daily bread
here today. Now you know what that
expresses? It expresses faith. <Give us this day our daily bread>, expresses faith. Don’t you see the faith in it? Without faith: “Lord, give us our yearly supply!” He made them gather the bread in the
wilderness everyday. No, He didn’t pour
it down and say, “Okay, let that last for three hundred and sixty-five days
now.” He said, <Give us this day our daily
bread.> It exercises faith.
The eleventh chapter, says, <Give us our bread day by day.>
<Day by day, give us our bread.> You see, <The just shall live by
faith.> Romans 1:17.
But some people are getting so scared about what will happen in the future. “What will happen to my children? What will happen to this, what will happen to that?” They hold two, three or four jobs and are
trying to hoard up a certain amount
of money. Hoard up this money to think
that if they fall down and die, they will have enough money for their sons, their
daughters, and they could get a big chunk each.
Yes, you are corrupting them too (At the end of your life, they will be
fighting for the biggest share) when
you should commit yourself into the hands of the Lord, go right on and serve
the Lord and seek the kingdom first. Yes
sir. Some are getting a pension and they
are not satisfied with that. They want a
second job, a third job, and a fourth job.
And the excuse is: “I am trying to put some bread on the table.” They think nobody knows that they are getting
a pension from their job. I shake my
head and say, “Yes, yes, yes, you better put some bread on the table, they may
starve to death!”
Now that is what people are doing. You see, as the time goes on, they think like
if the Lord is lingering to come, so now some fear is taking hold. “What about if I die, what will happen to my wife, what will happen to my
children?” Friend, the Lord took care of
Naomi; He took care of Ruth; He worked out that greater way of salvation for
them. Sometimes it might please the Lord to have both father and
mother die and a young girl and a young boy remain in the house for their
salvation. And those same people, are in
a backslidden condition, cannot obey the Word of God, have haughty spirits upon
them. They would not even wave to a brother or a sister—haughty spirit. Now when a man starts getting scared like
that and fear fills his heart, he will corrupt his house and corrupt his
children. Oh, yes! There we are children.
<Give us this day our daily bread.> Where
is your faith? You want to hoard up the
bread for ten years after you die, so your wife and children will not have to
beg. It is a good idea not to have your children or family begging. But when you
will do that at the expense of your
souls and take two and three jobs, have a big pension and want to go and drive
taxi too, getting into all kinds of a danger, and on top of that, neglect the
Word of the Lord, you are in trouble.
This is what Jesus tells you to do here.
<Give us this day our daily bread>, and then that will
exercise your faith.
UPPER ROOM
CONDITION - AS WE FORGIVE OUR DEBTORS
<And
forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.> Matthew 6:12.
The only time you, as a Christian, could come and ask
the Lord for forgiveness, is if you
have already forgiven your fellow men.
You cannot say this prayer with offense in your heart. “That person over here done me so and so; I
will get even with them. Our father who
art in heaven… I will take care of
them. I cannot bear to stand that girl. I don’t like to be around her. I don’t like to be around that brother at
all. Yes, there is something that rises. He comes one way and I go the next way and I
just hate him.” This prayer doesn’t
belong to you. You have to clean the
heart before you say the prayer because this prayer is telling God, “Lord, I
already forgave my brother over here and even the unsaved man, even the
neighbor out there, even the man on the street, the sinner, I already forgave
him, so I’m asking you to forgive me for my sin.” How are you going to say this prayer? You’re a dead hypocrite. That correction
ought to be made before you sit in the house of God. If you sit there and the Token comes, you are
not going to get it. That is what the
Bible is saying. <Thy kingdom come…> “Lord, I’m asking you to forgive me for
my sins because I already forgave everybody for their sins.”
Listen to the parable that our Lord spake. (Matthew
18:23-35) That adds up right here
where a man could not forgive his fellow man, but his boss forgave him for all his debts. When the boss heard that he could not forgive
his brother for a couple of pennies, he said, “Thou wicked man! I’m going to put you in prison until you pay
every penny now!” That is a
parable. You know what that means? The Lord pelted him back in a backslidden
condition, and he went into the prison of the devil. Bound him with demons that is what that
means. Yes, you could lose your soul for
not forgiving your brother. That is how dangerous it is.
This is just a little type. Everyday you are giving a brother a ride
home. (Look how evil people are!) Three months, four months, “Thank you
brother, thank you brother. You are a
real lovely brother, thank you.” And one
day you forgot to pick him up because you got busy. You know that evil man forgot all the
goodness that you did for him and will start reproaching you around the whole
church about how evil you are. That is
an evil
man! He is an ungrateful dog,
unthankful! If that man wasn’t so evil,
he would be thankful for all the months that you gave him this and gave him that
and the fact that you picked him up and dropped him off at his door and he
would overlook that. He would not keep
you in mind for that. The next day you
are going to give him a ride, He says “It’s okay, Brother. I will find my way
home somehow.” You are an evil man! There is evil down inside of you, there is
unforgivingness down in you. Oh, yes.
If you have not forgiven your brothers, you have
offences; you are not prepared for the Token.
How are you going to go up there and have one heart if you did not forgive your brother? How are you going to go up to the Upper Room,
and be in one heart and one accord? All
these things have to be fixed down here.
We constantly have to bring our heart into “Upper Room condition”. This is “Upper Room condition,” I am talking
about. Yes. Everybody that sits here ought to be grinding
out everything within their souls. There
are people that are so touchy. I tell
you, if you did something to them by mistake, they will hold you in mind for
the rest of their life. You are a bitter
person: bitter man, bitter woman; you will never
get the Token like that. You will
never go up to the Upper Room in that condition. Am I making sense? This prayer has a lot of sense.
<And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our
debtors.> You are telling God, “I
already forgave that Brother Bruce for preaching against me.” Yes.
You laugh at that? You preach the
truth to people and they hate you. Jesus
said,
John 8:40: <But now ye seek to kill me, a
man that hath told you the truth.>
<…lead us not into temptation.>
You see, you are so careful about what you do, what
you say and everything that you are asking the Lord, “Protect me Lord. Don’t lead me into temptation; I don’t want
to do anything wrong.” You want to walk
so circumspect.
<But deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom…>
The whole prayer is an Upper Room prayer. <For
thine is the kingdom.> “Lord, don’t ever let me be led into temptation—For thine is the kingdom, the Token,
the Outpouring.” In other words, “You
hold the Token; You hold this Outpouring; You hold this fullness. It belongs to You! If You don’t give it to me, I cannot have
it.” <For thine is the
kingdom…> Look at what is going to happen with the Kingdom and the
Power. You see? There is Power that is connected to the
Kingdom.
Acts 1:6-8:
<When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord,
wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom
to Israel?
And he said
unto them, It is not for you to know the
times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.
But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy
Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem,
and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the
earth.>
They asked about the Kingdom and He started talking
about the Outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
<For thine is
the Kingdom, the power, and the glory,
for ever. Amen.> Matthew 6:13.
He started with the Kingdom and ended with the
Kingdom, to show you where the Power and
the Glory is for the Bride in the end time. They are hooked up in the Kingdom, the Outpouring
of the Holy Spirit. You will never see
manifestation; the rapture cannot go; there is no power to bring the dead from the grave, no Power to take you off
the earth, until the Lord comes with another Outpouring of the Holy
Spirit.
Friends, I hope you catch this little message here
tonight. I never thought of this message
in this fashion, until I came into the room the other night and the Holy Spirit whispered to me, “Upper
Room Heart’s Condition.” I said, “But
wait a minute, this is that prayer that the disciples had to pray, and this is
the heart’s condition that brought them into one heart and one accord. They had forgiveness for one another; they had
no bitterness; they had no selfishness in them; they had no worldly ambition after they followed
the Lord. That is why they found
themselves in the Upper Room with one heart and one accord.” So I still entitle this message tonight,
“Lord, Teach Us To Pray” and I will put a subtitle, changed by the Holy Spirit,
“Upper Room Heart’s Condition,” that if somebody who wants to receive the Token
is looking for this tape, they would know that these are the guidelines to
receive It.
“Lord, teach us to pray”—He taught them how to receive the Outpouring of the Holy Spirit. He taught them how to get the great fullness of God. He taught them how to get the Token, right in that prayer.
TO RECEIVE GOD’S PROMISES, WE
MUST YIELD BODY AND SOUL
We want to make sure that all our sins are under the
Blood so that we can approach the Lord, as the church, on behalf of our
brothers and sisters who are sick and afflicted. The Bible said to confess
our sins one to another and pray that we may be healed. Sin separates man
from God. Sin hinders the salvation of people. It hinders their
healing. It hinders the healing of others. If we feel that we have
any unconfessed sins, the congregation as well as those that would come for
prayer, we want to make sure to put them under the Blood. I am putting my
sins under the Blood, though I have done that today in preparation for this
meeting. Let us do that. As repentant sinners, confessing our sins, our
shortcomings—in thought, in word, in deed.
Our very pride is great sin before the Lord. Our
boastfulness, our evil thoughts, our criticisms of others, our judgmental
attitude, our irreverence in the house of God, our lack of prayer, our lack of
dedication, lack of meditation—all these are sins that we don’t even
consider. Lack of yielding to His Spirit, lack of support for the
ministry, for the Word when it comes forth, lack of thinking on Him,
concentrating on the Word while it is going forth, lack of dedication in your
prayer closet.
I want to speak a little bit on the subject, “To
Receive God’s Promises We Must Yield Body and Soul.”
We have come to the great vision of God’s Promise that was laying in the message for many
years. People around the world are now waking up, after many years since
the prophet’s decease, to this great vision of the Promise of God. I want
to send forth one admonishment concerning the Promise of God, healing, and any
promise of God that you would approach Him for; there is a right and a wrong approach. To receive anything
from the Lord, we must yield ourselves to Him, body, soul and spirit.
Though we have heard about this Promise of God for many years, and you
can sit and hear for another few years, there is a right approach to receive
this Promise and that is you must yield Him body and soul.
The example of receiving the Promise of God was played
out so wonderfully in the upper room for nine days. The Lord sent them
there to go and praise, glorify and magnify God until the Promise came.
It was a yielding of the body, soul and spirit. To receive this Promise
of God, you here and those that will be out there who hear the Promise of God,
must yield to God their all. You cannot yield part to the world and part
to the Promise and the things of God. No man can serve God and mammon at
the same time. He will love one and hate
the other; or hate the one and love the other. You must give the Lord
your all. If you believe this Promise, you must make a full commitment to the Word of God and to
the Lord Himself; and you must make a full commitment to receive that Promise
of God at all costs. It doesn’t matter what you have to lose upon this
earth, what price you have to pay, what suffering that you have to suffer, you must
make a commitment.
The Lord made a great commitment to purchase our
salvation. He knew all that would happen to Him by reading the
Scripture. I believe He read Isaiah 53 and saw all the sufferings that He
must suffer, but in order to purchase that salvation, He made a
commitment. The commitment was so great that none else could bear
that—none of the disciples, nobody. The commitment was so great that when
He came to that point of suffering and paying the price, He sweated blood and
He begged the Lord, <Lord, let this cup pass from me. Not my will but
Thine be done.> See the commitment. “I want the easy way, Lord, but if
I have to get the hard way, I yield.” That is yielding. That is the
perfection of yielding to the Spirit.
The greatest
example in the Bible that I know of, in yielding to the Spirit of God, the will
of God, the purpose of God, and the promises of God, was displayed upon Mount
Olivet in Gethsemane. You talk about
torture, mental pressure, in so much that the Man started to sweat blood.
<Ye have not yet resisted unto blood.>
Hebrews 12:4.
Brother Paul said, but the Lord resisted those demons
on that mountain that day. He used the words,
<But this is your hour, and the power of
darkness.> Luke 22:53.
Imagine how many demons of hell were loosed to go upon
that mountain to tempt the Lord, to change his purpose, but hear the prayer of
the Lord. He said,
<Not my will, but thine, be done.> Luke 22:42.
Isn’t that wonderful? “I know what is going to
happen to me, every step of the way, before it even happens.” As much fear as He had, and as much blood as
He saw falling out of His face and hands and wetting His vest because of the
demonic pressure (He was a human being), He still prayed, <Not my will,
but thine, be done.> He went and prayed three times. Oh,
my—no answer; and then He yielded. He said, “If I have to die, I will
die.” Yes, He did not want to displease
the Lord for a moment and He yielded.
When we hear the Promise of God preached to us,
Friends, there is a certain approach, and that is: you must make a commitment
and you must dedicate yourself to
that Promise and be determined that “I will receive that Promise at all
cost.” Yes. The rapture is hooked
up in Eternal Life, the great Promise of God. Then when you come to that
Promise of God, you endeavor to contend for the faith of God’s Promise.
There is a faith of God’s Promise and we must contend for that faith with
everything that we have in us. We must contend against all heresies and
keep that vision of the Promise of God before us.
PREPARE LIFE FOR
PROMISED OUTPOURING
In order to receive that Promise of God, we must prepare our lives to be
qualified. Not only believe the Promise and say, “I believe,” but, if you
believe, works will follow. You will start correcting your lives; you
will start working out your salvation; you will purge out every sin in your
life; you will be against it; you hate it; you don’t want it. Although
you sin sometimes, by sins that so easily beset you, you want to overcome them.
The Prophet of God, William Branham, said,
FULL OBEDIENCE ENTITLES US TO THE TOKEN
Quote:
Fully obedience to the whole Word of God entitles us to the Token. The Token 63-0901M.
Now that is a serious statement, Brethren.
ALL OUTSIDE THE TOKEN WILL PERISH
Quote:
And everyone outside of the Token of the Holy Ghost will perish. The Token 63-0901M.
That means that the rapture is going to leave you. Now what is more
important? Our house? Lands? Jobs? Education for our
children? University? Now anybody that has that kind of vision do
no t understand what they are sitting
under. Brethren, if you know the urgency of the hour, you will try to
understand that there is only one important thing today and that is Eternal
Life and to receive that Promise. If you die before that Promise comes,
then you just die, you go on with the Lord, but the fact is that you must
prepare your souls, and endeavor to prepare your children’s souls.
You should be airing that Promise to your children;
bring them up in such a way to let them know what is most important in this
life. To let them know we are not ignorant people—we must read, we must
write, we must have a certain amount of education, we must have a profession,
we must do something—but Friends, you have to keep them looking at that Promise
of God. If you keep them looking at that Promise of God they will
understand that, “Yes, I must survive here but the important thing is that
Promise of God.” That’s the middle line. But if we will try to put
certain great ambitions into our children, you will dull their spirit to the
Word of God, dull their spirit to salvation. That mind is young and
tender. If you start singing a song from a certain age about “this great
profession out here” and “great profession there” and “you want to become a
doctor out here” and “you want to become a scientist out here” and “I want to
send my girl, my boy over here,” you, yourself, do not have a vision of eternal
life.
VISION OF ETERNAL
LIFE- RAPTURE
“Brother Bruce,
that’s your opinion.” What did the Bible say?
Matthew 6:33: <But seek ye first the kingdom of
God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you>
Friends, some of us get afraid for the future of our
children. This is the future of your children.
The future of your children is the rapture; the future of your children is the
Token; the future of your children is to be sons and daughters of God.
This is the future. The greatest future
and the greatest preparation that any family could prepare for their children
is to point them to Eternal Life. Tell me if I am speaking the truth!
My Beloved, that is my ambition for my children; that is the ambition for
the church; that is the ambition for everybody.
Sure, why would I want to send my children out there
in a certain environment that will dull their spirit and will take them away
from the Word of God. Don’t even know if they are going or coming and
make them church members, full of lust, full of ambition, full of education, and
great big ambition for the world—to become a millionaire, to become rich and
educated. What is that in this world? Beloved, the world has that
today and they are not happy with it. Why should Christians sell their
salvation? No. So we should teach them to yield to the Spirit,
yield to the Promise of God. We should teach them that if they have
certain faults to get down into prayer, kneel before the Lord, beg; and help
them to overcome these habits. Pray with them, and you go on.
There is an approach and you have to be desperate
about this approach. Friends, the prophet of God preached “The Token” in
the morning and then he preached “Desperation” in the evening. Now those
two messages were tied together. He said:
WE MUST BE DESPARATE OR PERISH
Quote:
Oh, church, rise and shake yourself. Pinch your conscience; wake yourself up in
this hour. We must be desperate or perish. There's coming forth
something from the Lord. I know it as THUS SAITH THE LORD. There's coming forth
something, and we better get desperate. It's between life and death. It'll pass
through us and we won't see it. Desperation 63-0901E.
In order to receive
this Promise, when you hear It in India, Africa and the rest of the world, you
just do not go on with the same old life, saying, “The Promise is coming, and I
believe that Promise.” You better work out your salvation with fear and
trembling. You better start preparing your life. You better start
getting the congregation over there to change what they are wearing and let them put on the proper
clothing, wear the right shoes, and don’t cut their hair. Let them learn
to speak right and act right and apply the ABC’s of the message. You just
don’t do it half heartedly; you have to do it in desperation. You have to
prepare for this Promise with desperation.
Friends, every family has a responsibility to put that
vision into the hearts of their children—from small, instead of putting a
certain vision of the world there and great ambition to achieve this and
that. All will perish. You should put this ambition in them,
“Children, we must make this rapture!”
Why would you think that my daughter would want to
hear those stories at the age of ten, laying at my side, and the next one
laying at my side, just four years younger. She said, “Daddy, I badly
want to make the rapture, you know.” I never forgot that. I
listened to that. I said, “A seed is planted.” After awhile, she
used to run up on the side of the pulpit when I finished preaching, and sit
down there. One day, I looked at her (she was about five or six years
old) and I saw her crying, so I understood what was happening. I said,
“Why were you crying? Somebody bothered you?” “No, Daddy, I don’t
know why, something, something… Yes, something that I’m feeling that makes me
cry.”
Brethren, we should teach them how to yield to the
Spirit; how to forgive one another; how to cherish eternal life and the
hereafter. What has created that: “I badly want to make the
rapture”? Beloved, I used to sit down and tell them of the hereafter. I tell you, it excited
those children. I told them about the apples; I told them about riding
the lions; I told them about the different animals and how you can call the
fishes. And they got so excited and would ask, “Daddy, we could call the birds,
and they will come and sit on our hands?” “Yes, yes.” I answered.
And that had been embedded in them that we are going
to live in a new world, where there is peace and where there is no sickness,
where there is no fear and everything. We should be molding our children
into that instead of getting busy with everything in the world. When your
children come near you, do not say “Well, go away from here, you are bothering
me!” What kind of a father, what kind of a mother are you? You
ought to develop an attachment with your children. Beloved, we ought to
create an environment, and if we
don’t do that as parents, how are we going to influence our children? So
we must centralize our attention and have a focus. We must have a vision
of life and a vision of that Promise.
ALL PROMISES TIED
INTO THE OUTPOURING
Home and abroad, remember what I preached to you for
the past three days: everything is tied up in the Token. When I say
“Token”, I mean the Outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It also represents the
blood. We are looking for that Outpouring of the Holy Spirit. If you do not get it, you will go through the
tribulation; Friends, you cannot go in the rapture. Little Brothers, if
you don’t get the Outpouring of the Holy Spirit, which is great Power of the
Holy Ghost, greater than the Holy Ghost that we have now that makes you cry,
makes you shout, makes you dance, makes you feel sweet and nice, you cannot be
raptured. That is great, that’s the Holy Spirit. We have the Holy Spirit
but we have to get more of this Power; and the Power must be so great
in us that it must transform this body from a flesh body to a spirit
body.
You are not going to get it by just being a church
member or by coming to church because your father and mother brought you here,
or because you were born in church. No, you have to get it by yielding your spirit. You must
yield your spirit; and you cannot centralize your attention upon some great big
ambition. I am not tolerating ignorance and say that everybody ought to
leave school. No Friend, but there is a limit to this thing. There
is a certain amount of education that will damn
your soul. It will send you into the wrong environment. When you achieve that certain profession, you
will go to work in a different kind of environment and you will be with a
certain kind of people.
Many women that start working have to wear a certain
kind of dress to suit the job. Don’t you see that? To go to a
certain university, you have to put on a uniform to suit that. What kind
of nonsense is that for Christians? We must never behave like we are so
hungry and starving that we have to send our children outside there into the
wrong environment until they lose their souls behind it. We are behaving
like the world when we get like that.
A little sister from Trinidad took the Word of
God. They won’t allow her to wear her Christian clothing. She went on and the Lord blessed that young
lady, (sitting right here; fine young lady; unmarried). She said, “Keep
that job. Give me what will suit my clothing.” They said, “We can
give you part-time in that kind of clothing.” Well, she said, “Yes, I will take
part-time.” The Lord has blessed her
now; she now teaches in an elementary school. We thank God for
that. I say, wear your clothes! When you make the sacrifice, the
Lord makes a way!
Yes, My Beloved, we are going to live, we are not
going to die without being a doctor or lawyer or some politician or something.
Let us yield our vessels to the Lord. Now all these ambitions of the
world hinder our salvation and hinder the moving of the Spirit. We worry too much about the future,
Brethren. “If I die, what will happen to my family? If I die, what will happen here?” Beloved,
commit yourself in the hands of the Lord.
Three men died one time and left three women, and God
took care of them: Naomi, Ruth, and the next one was Orpah. It pleased
the Lord to kill all three men to fulfill a greater purpose than making a
future for their family. Out of that family of Naomi came forth Christ.
Now do you see how the Lord works? Some people have gone off, beginning
to think, “If I die what will happen? If this and if that...” I say,
“Commit yourself in the hands of the Lord; seek the Kingdom first and all
other things shall be added to you.” Yes, that’s it.
So, it hinders the salvation of people and affects
your family, when we lean to the world. When we do not want to yield to
the Spirit, the Lord sometimes moves us
with little aches, pains, and little troubles, and little sorrows. We
don’t want that; we want to yield without his whip. We want to be
obedient. Do you see how Jesus yielded without getting a whipping?
We want to follow that pattern. So, we have to yield to the Spirit.
Now Friends, in yielding to the Spirit for that Promise
of God, you must make a commitment.
I told you, you must be desperate about it when your hear that Promise of
God. Just don’t treat it as some little casual something. No, you
have to press in; that means that you have to work out your salvation. If
there is anything in your life that is not right, don’t think that you will
keep that there, and by and by, it is going to leave you and then you will
receive the Promise. Friends, you have to work it out. You have to
press; you have to pray; you have to yield.
When you come to church, wherever you are (here,
Bethel, or around the world) there is a way to approach the Lord for any divine
promise. Whether it be for your healing, or overcoming your weaknesses,
or if you want to overcome some great problem in your life, or you are seeking
the Lord for something in your life that you need, there is a way to
approach. There is an approach for healing.
Now let me deal with approaching the Lord to get more
of His Spirit, more strength down in your soul to live a Christian life.
Whether you are in your prayer closet or in the house of God, you must have the
right approach. When you come
to the house of God, you forget every other person in the congregation.
Come in reverently. Bear these things in your mind. Reverence. “Be still and know that I am God.”
How on earth are you going to come in reverently
unless eternal Life is your vision, unless the Promise of God is your
vision? So you see where it starts from. It start from right
there—you caught a vision of Life. If you caught a vision of Life, you
caught a vision of the Lord, you caught a vision of His Word, you caught a
vision of the Promise of God (the One that promised that) then you will come in
reverently.
When I say “reverently”, it means that you will come
in respectfully, knowing that you are approaching the house of God, knowing
that the Spirit of the Lord dwells in this auditorium. He comes and meets
with us. When you come in, in that frame of mind, reverently, then you forget
every other thing around you, and you come to the house of God and
meditate. Now the Scripture says,
Luke 24:36: <And as they thus spake, Jesus himself
stood in the midst of them…>
I don’t mean for this to sound sacrilegious, but you
have one of the greatest
opportunities to have the Presence of the Almighty among you, the visitation of
the Mighty Angel, Revelation 10:1. I wonder if you and others where the
Lord visits are making the best use of this? You could have the great
Lord standing in your midst and you do not know how to yield to Him; you do not
know how to approach Him; you do not know how to get the best benefit.
Like the songwriter says, “Reach out and touch the Lord as He goes by.”
Now the Lord could be going by, coming through the assembly, moving up and
down, but if you do not have the right approach, He will pass you by.
There was a blind man who could not see who was
passing by, but he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth. That man started
to cry because he knew that Jesus was around. He said,
<Thou Son of David, have mercy on me.> Mark
10:48.
And that fellow cried and cried and cried and yielded
and yielded and yielded until it
touched the Lord. “Reach out and touch the Lord as He goes by.”
Then the Lord was attracted. If faith is in your heart and you have
that vision down in there, something will reach out to the Lord.
Understand what I am saying, Brethren. There is a great need here.
So the Lord could be in our midst but we fail
to yield ourselves to Him.
YIELD TO THE SPIRIT
“Brother
Bruce, how do we yield to the Lord?” When you come in to the service, meditate upon Him. Now you cannot
meditate properly unless you bow your heads and close your eyes. You will
never benefit anything by watching the fan (that is for children who don’t know
much), by looking to see who is coming, by looking to see who is leading songs,
or by looking at your neighbor to see what is going on. Brethren, shut
off everything from you. To meditate, shut off everything. In order
to shut off these things, you have to close your eyes sometimes; you have to
bow your head sometimes; and then you have to think on Him. As you
think on Him, He will draw near to you.
Now when you feel His Presence and you feel good,
nice, when you feel something moving in your soul (you feel sweet) that is the
Lord that is near you. Worship Him. You might be meditating so
much. Just worship Him, “Thank you Lord, thank you Lord, thank you Lord.”
You don’t open up your eyes and watch everywhere; you don’t be in the natural
and let all kinds of thoughts of the job or the school, and the girl, and the
boy, offences, and all those others things just pass through your mind.
No, that is being in the natural. When you get in the natural like that,
it affects the song service; it affects the preaching; it affects one another.
Listen to what I am saying. This is the way to yield to receive
that great Promise that is coming. This is the way to yield to overcome
your faults and your habits.
You say, “I don’t have anything to pray about.” What
about the sins that so easily beset you? What about those things that you
are fighting to overcome in your life? What about the sick in the
church? What about the little brother that might die with cancer?
What about the next little brother that might die with something else?
What about that? Brethren, we are too unconcerned. Yes, we have a
lot to pray about.
Then you meditate. Meditate. Don’t just open your eyes and be listening and watching the singers and then hearing the
songs. You did not come in here to hear songs only. No, those songs
are to help you to be pulled up in the Spirit. I am talking to young
children; I am talking to older people. Some people get so much in the
natural that they don’t pray, they don’t meditate, they don’t sing. How
do you expect to get into the Spirit unless you meditate? Unless you
pray? You cannot follow your feelings. Sometimes when you come to
church, you don’t feel anything. The reason you are not feeling anything
is because you are not keeping your mind on Him. Keep your mind on Him. You feel to lift
your hands, lift your hands and pray. If you do not pray you will enter
into temptation: you will start thinking about the job; you will start thinking
about the offense. My Beloved, forgive those that trespass against you
and pray for them. If you cannot love them, pray for that person.
You start worshipping the Lord; you start confessing your sins. Bow
before the Lord; kneel before Him in your prayer closet, in the church.
There is no barrier why you cannot kneel.
Close your eyes, clap your hands, sing the songs of Zion.
Now, I am not saying that everybody is going to sing
at the same time, especially in a prayer meeting with the music. Somebody
might feel led of the Lord just to meditate on the Lord. Another person
might have a zeal for singing. Go ahead and sing. The next person over there might have a zeal just to pray out loud. Now all of us in
here cannot have the nature of praying out loud, nor can everybody have the
nature of being silent
neither. Anytime you see everybody silent at the preached Word of God or
when the Spirit of God is moving or when the singing is going on, there is formality coming into the church. In a real spiritual church, some will be
making some noise out here, some will be meditating around there, some will be
dancing around there, and another person has such a nature that they are just
in the Spirit and meditating on the Lord; but we should never get into
formality where everybody just sits there and says, “Well, I don’t have the nature to pray out.”
Those same people that say that they do not have a
nature to pray out and make a joyful noise before the Lord, you hear them in
the church yard and you will know if it is formality or if that is their real
nature. Everybody could adopt a certain nature, “Well, our nature is not
to pray out.” But wait a minute, when you are out there, you can laugh so
that everybody hears you. You can talk with a certain volume that
everybody could hear you. You can laugh more scandalously than anybody
else. That is the truth. So now, it is not a matter that everybody
should take a certain thought and say, “Well, I don’t have the nature to really
pray out.” No, you are lazy
and there could be some pride in
your heart. I am telling you the truth! There could be some
formality, some starchy business about you, and because the others are not
praying out and are not expressing themselves, you want to take on that same
kind of form and follow one another.
My Beloved, worship the Lord in the way that the Lord made you.
There are people that come to church at a loss, as if
they do not even know where they are!
Song service is going on, and they sit down there and will not
sing. People are praising the Lord, and if they have to praise the Lord,
you have to tell them, “Praise the Lord. Now everybody lift up your hands
and praise the Lord!” You find, at that moment, everybody gets expressive
now and says, “Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord!” Jesus
said that these people draw nigh unto me with their lips but their hearts are far from Me.
Now the Lord wants a heartfelt worship. He wants
you to worship Him from the heart. He wants you to express yourself to
Him. Too many eyes are open when worship and prayer is going on. That is not prayer meeting! Prayer
meeting is not everybody sitting down there and hearing the songs, and watching
and gazing around with their eyes open. Beloved, prayer meeting is
something different. You have to get there and press the battle, pray and
press into the Spirit.
Luke 16:16: <The law and the prophets were until
John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man
presseth into it.>
Do you see how you are going to get that Token? You see how you are going to get that
Outpouring? You have to press into it; and the pressing starts right in
your prayer closet. Young people, they are nice children; they dress
nice, they are obedient, they want to serve the Lord; but they don’t worship. Their eyes are open,
watching everywhere. They are watching in back, and watching in front.
That ought not to be. The Lord wants you to come in here and make
Him the center of your attraction. That is why for healing, Brother
Branham said:
MAKE HIM THE CENTER OF YOUR THOUGHT
Quote W.M.B.:
“Make
Him--center of your thought right now, the Lord Jesus. …You
don't have to bow your heads 'less you're asked.” The Deep Calleth to the Deep 54-0624.
But Beloved, I am talking about you coming to the
house of God. You must not be in a next world. Even though you have
your eyes closed and are listening to the songs, you must be thinking on the
words, believing the words, “It’s for me.” Yes, these things get you in
the Spirit. Jesus could be passing here, that Mighty Angel could be here.
I feel Him; we know that He is among us, but what I am talking about is
you receiving the benefit; there is an approach to it. Yes sir. I
come here; I feel that great Spirit of the Lord; that mighty Angel is here, but
I want to see each one of you receive the best
benefit. That is what I am saying.
If you do not know how to approach to receive that benefit, you won’t
get it. You just won’t get it. I'm speaking generally.
You cannot come into a church and sit down there and be thinking of your
job. Youths watching around with their
eyes open, nobody whispering a prayer, nobody has their heads bowed, and nobody
is meditating. You cannot get the blessing of God like that. We have
to change that, wherever we are, and we have to yield to the Spirit.
Nobody should tell you to do a half-day fast.
Nobody should tell you to do a day fast.
Friends, you must see that need in your life and do your fasting in
secret. You must see that in your life and do your praying in
secret. Yes, young men ought to come together, as we used to come
together, and say, “We are going into the church, four or five of us, and we
are going to spend a day with the Lord, and fast and pray.” Brother, that
is spirituality; that is Christianity—all night prayer meetings. Yes sir.
Some of us don’t have the zeal for it but at least you can spend a day
with the Lord, from the morning to the evening.
What are we doing? We are trying to overcome this lust that is in our bones
and in our flesh. Oh Beloved, when service is over, young fellows must
not be talking about women and which girl likes the next one. Girls must
not be talking about boys. You should be talking about the Word of God
that you heard from the pulpit. That is yielding to the flesh, but we
have to yield to the Spirit. Do you understand what I am saying about
yielding to the Spirit?
My beloved Brethren, try it the next service.
Come in here, bow your head.
Come in here, meditate on the Lord.
Forget people around you;
worship the Lord; pray. If you feel like worshipping
the Lord loud, pray out. If you feel to meditate, go
ahead! If you feel to kneel, get
down on your knees and start praying, yes sir! And you are going
to see how the same Spirit that is among us and comes with the preacher, comes
into your life.
Galatians 5:16: <This I say then, Walk in the
Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.>
“The lust of the flesh” means the
ambition and the desires of the world. If your mind is centralized on the
Word and the things of God, you ought to be happy in church. Church must
never become a formality into such a way that you cannot enjoy the Word of God,
punctuate it with an “Amen,” and support your pastor, and the preachers.
You young fellows should be supporting the Word and be on fire. Now do
you know why it is that sometimes people cannot do that in a
congregation? They cannot do that because they did not do the ABC’s of
meditating, praying, worshipping, singing, and getting in the Spirit.
So now if you did not get into the Spirit with all the preliminaries of the
meeting before the Word, you are just dry and you sit down there. If your
mind has been busy upon the natural for the whole day, then Brothers, when you
come in here, it will take an hour to hour and a half, (and if you don’t watch
sharp, two hours) for you to start getting in the Spirit.
You are like an old-time car that they used to start
with a crank handle. There are
churches like that. You know those old “Prefect” they sent down to
Trinidad? They had no switch key, and
you had to have a crank handle. In the morning, you take that handle and
you crank it and you crank it and
you crank it; and then when you hear it start up, you pull out the crank handle
before it kills you! We do not want to be like that, here, or in India,
or Bethel; we don’t want to be like those old Prefect. No, we live in a
different age—we just turn the key. From the time we come in here, we
just turn the key and you must hear the engine rumble. Yes, let us try
that the next service.