Confronted With a Challenge

When the true Church is up to power, she lives in the impossible realm. As far as man is concerned, living free from sin is impossible and being able to keep a conscience void of offense toward God and man is impossible. All of God's people being called out of Babylon (religious confusion) into one body through a divine work of God's Spirit and God's Word is impossible, yet it's working all the time. When it comes to salvation, whether it's our's or someone else's, with men it's impossible.

In this twentieth century, the church is being confronted with a challenge and an opportunity in a way and on a scale that she has never before known. Somebody might say, "These are terrible times." This is the greatest day of opportunity that the church has ever known when we look on the positive side. I can truthfully say that the needs are greater: there is more heartache, sickness, and despair. The enemy has certainly loosed himself in a most positive manner to destroy everything that is good, the individual life and the home.

The terrible suicide rate is going up day after day with our youth. My, it should cause us to hang our heads in shame. When these things occur it brings perfect understanding that there are people out there who need help as never before. On the national level, there is a clash among nations, wars are going on today around the world. We are in a time when people are filled with the fear of destroying one another and even destroying the whole world.

In the midst of all those things, religion is showing it's head with ecumenicity. They are trying to bring all religions together in a Bible unity. I will just say quickly that they are working at something that cannot be done. The devil is also working on the individual Christian. I have never seen a time of such religious indifference, not just out in the world, but among some who claim to be God's people. We're in a time when people want their own way and their own laws, even right in the congregations of the church.

My, the courts of Babylon (false religious confusion) are spreading fast and reaching into the ranks of those who claim to be the true Church. We can preach the Word just as it is, but people have their own theology and their own ideas. They try to shape it to fit their own circumstances and that's what they live by. Religious indifference is causing many to go on without God and without His Word. In such a time as this, the supposed church is in a weakened condition over our land.

When we think about the weakened condition, our thoughts always go back to the days of the early church when the Bible brings witness to the fact that those people seethed and surged with power. Just a few individuals had enough power with God to turn the world right side up. There was power in abundance. Somebody said, "Well, we're not the morning-time church." If we're the true church, we're the same church. God didn't change churches down the line.

The church that Jesus built is built that the gates of hell cannot prevail against it. We know the church is not a building somewhere. The church is the people. When He built a church that the gates of hell couldn't prevail against, he merely was saying, "I am bringing an experience to the hearts of the people wherein nothing that the devil can do can keep them from living victoriously. They can overcome every circumstance the devil can lay in their way."

Now, the church is not any higher than the people are living. It's merely bringing confusion to new people when we preach what the church is according to the Word, and then they have to search to try to find a people who lives that way. That which we call the morning church, the very beginning of the true church, was made up of people who were sold out to God, people who had the power of God. When they moved, it was God moving. When men battled against them, they battled against God, and because of that, the church was able to go forward.

We can read the Acts of the Apostles, in the first chapter, verse 15, where it says there were about 120 disciples when they started. As we read on through the book of Acts, we can tell by the very expressions that people made of them that there were no men of wealth there, no men of great influence or human ability, and there were none with intellectual eminence. One way that God was glorified was that they could see Peter and John were ignorant and unlearned men. I'm not putting a seal on ignorance, but I am saying that there wasn't any real intellectual force operating there. They were poor, undistinguished, simple men.

What the Flesh Cannot Do

Acts 1:15...We want to look to this group of people who were given an incredible task. Jesus told them that He wanted them to be witnesses unto Him from Jerusalem to the uttermost parts of the earth. In another lesson, He told them that He wanted them to go and teach all nations or disciple all nations. They were to take a message to a world where anti-Semitism was as violent as any time in history. They were to preach purity in a world that was esteemed in immorality.

I know corruption is bad today, but if we will study the things that went on back then, we will see that it had reached into the realms of religion, even prostitution went on at the temple. I am mentioning some things because people are prone to say, "Well, we're in a different day. It's a much harder time." Let's be reminded that the church went through times when millions were killed. The majority of Christians today have never had a hand laid on them for the cause of God.

We need to realize that the enemy has planted thoughts in our minds to give us carnal excuses. I'll sum up this thought by saying: because we're not doing more as the church to reach the world, we can't blame it on any outside circumstance. If we're not getting anything done, the trouble is within us and not out in the world.

God can put something greater within us than he that's in the world. No matter what the devil comes up with, when God through the Holy Spirit moves into our heart, there's someone greater in us than any power or circumstance that will come up against us. I pray that God will help us to take a look into our inward beings. They were sent forth to preach purity and they preached it in a world that was corrupted. When we look at their circumstances, the task seemed completely impossible. It wouldn't have been surprising to me to read that they recognized the impossibility from a human standpoint and quit before they started. We ought to look again at the impossibility of doing the work that we need to do. We need to get rid of some of the "I can'ts" by trading them off for "I can."

That great light which shined down on the Apostle Paul, brighter than the noonday sun, was the light of God; the same light which shines down on you and me. It will break through the darkness, and the first time that light comes, it lets us see ourselves as we really are. Paul didn't see himself, he was in darkness. He had a lot of religion in his head and none in his heart. He had set out to persecute and waste the Church. He wanted to wipe it out by himself; but when the light shined down, he saw God and he saw himself in the true state that he was in. He said, "Lord, what would you have me to do?"

In the seventh chapter of Romans, before he found this salvation, all the religion he had was in his head, and he said in so many words, "The good that I would do, I can't; the evil that I don't want to do, that is the thing I do. Oh, wretched man that I am." If that's our Christian experience, then we're wretched and mighty miserable. I want us to see that God has brought something better than that. I know the religious world says that was Paul's Christian experience. No, no, no!! That was his experience when he lived after the flesh and before he ever found the positiveness of the Spirit of God. He was in a weakened condition, just as man without Christ is in yet today.

Paul said in Romans 7:24-25a: "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Then in Romans 8:1 he said, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." In Chapter 7, before he found this power, he said, "the good I would do, I can't"; then after his conversion he changed his message. In Philippians 4:13 he said, "I can do all things through Christ which strengthened me."

There are lots of thing that I haven't done, and there are things I may be called upon to do that I've never tried, but I thank God I can do it. How do I know that I can do it?---"I can do all things through Christ which strengthened me." God is looking for the church to put their trust in Jesus Christ as never before and quit trusting the arm of the flesh. We have limited God today to what we think we can do and what we can do through the flesh. We have to get out into the area of what the flesh cannot do---it is there that we begin to shine forth to a world that is waiting to get the real message of truth. I pray that God will help us.

"Ye Shall Receive Power"

We read in Acts 1:4-5: "And, being assembled together with them [Christ], commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, said he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence."

Then in verse 8, Jesus said, "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses..." He wasn't telling them to go and tell about it, but to go and show it. "Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his" (Romans 8:9b). The very Spirit of Christ comes into us, and when He comes into us, we will witness that Christ is true by living just like He lived. We need to get some of these old-fashioned truths rejuvenated and raise up within our minds.

Jesus made it very plain in John, Chapter 14, when He was telling His disciples that the works He did were not His works, they were the Father's. He said, "believe me for the very works' sake" (verse 11). We should be able to tell the world the same thing: If we don't believe it for the very work that we do and for the way we live. Believe it for the very works' sake.

Somebody might say, "He was the Son of God. He lived like the Father. His strength was the Father in Him." Let's read verses 12-20: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father...And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter...Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive...but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you...At that day [when the Holy Ghost comes into you] ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in me, and I in you."

Out in the religious world, the devil, working through unbelief, is selling people and believism. More and more, works are being put clear out of the picture; it's all by faith. Well, faith without works is dead. If we're sincere followers of Christ, God will work salvation in, and the we will work it out in our daily living with fear and trembling. Why with fear and trembling? We will tremble because we want to work it out just like Christ worked it in us.

Real salvation will bring a soberness and a seriousness. It will get rid of this light, chaffy business. It will stop such testimonies as "I don't care how I act, how I dress, where I go, or what you say about it, I know Christ is down in my heart." There needs to be some working out of that which Christ works in us. We need to reveal the hidden man of the heart just as the Bible tells us to.

Jesus told them they would receive power for the task, after that the Holy Ghost was come upon them. When the Holy Ghost came, the task that seemed impossible became possible. Oh, what a change! Oh, what driving away of fear! I can just picture in my mind those fellows in that Upper Room: Perhaps they had the doors locked and the windows bolted, afraid of what might happen; but when the Holy Spirit moved on them, they unbolted the doors, came down stairs, and went out into the street praising God. I don't know just how they acted, but they acted in such a manner that people thought they were drunk at 9:00 o'clock in the morning. Peter told them, "For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day" (Acts 2:15).

I want us to see something. There's too much fear today among the people of God. The enemy has moved on many to cause them to fear for their life. If we're not careful, the same fear that's out in the world will get hold of us. There are people who are afraid to eat for fear they'll eat the wrong thing and get cancer. Others are afraid to go on vacation for fear somebody will hit them on the highway and they'll get killed.

Some people are afraid to speak their own convictions. God gives us convictions on which to stand. We're not to cram them down somebody's throat, but we ought to let people know what our convictions are. People are afraid to speak because they are afraid of what people will think about them. We're going to have to get to the place where we don't make a reputation for ourselves. A Christian, a real follower of Christ, can't make for himself any reputation. The world is going to run us down, and they're going to misjudge us. They called the Master of the house Beelzebub---what are they going to call us?

One Who Stands With Us

First John 3:1a says, "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God." Let's not get excited if the world doesn't know us and doesn't understand us. They didn't know Him. They misunderstood Him and put Him on a cross; yet Jesus could say, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." They didn't know the depth of what they were doing. Peter said that if they had known they were killing the Prince of Life they wouldn't have done it.

People today will misjudge us, misuse us, call us names and everything else, but we have to be delivered from fear, and the Holy Spirit will deliver us from it. He came as a comforter, or the Greek said a strengthener. Thank God, He will strengthen us to the place were we can stand no matter what people do to us. The Bible said that Job was an upright man. No matter how many times the devil knocked him down, he stood right back up. God is able to give us grace to stand.

We're not in the grace of the Old Testament where they merely were justified and received forgiveness for their sins. We have entered into a grace whereby we can stand and rejoice in the tribulation. Why? We can know that it is working patience, and patience is working hope. It is building those things up in us, it is strengthening us, and it is helping us.

Jesus told them not to fret. In essence He said, "When the Comforter comes, He will take the things of Mine and show them to you. Peter was ignorant about the kingdom, but when the Holy Ghost came on him he spoke freely about it. He said, "It has just opened up to me that Jesus did not come to set up a literal kingdom, but He promised David that while he slept in his grave, He was going to raise up a King to sit on the throne. And God has exalted Jesus to His own right hand." When they began to speak, within just a few years, the message of the Gospel had reached the whole then-known world. Somebody may say, "How could a little handful of men with no education spread the Gospel so quickly?" It's not possible, but God deals in the impossible. What a message that should bring to people in this day and time. People think we have to become educated to preach the Gospel, but those men weren't educated. Without Christ there's an inward emptiness, and inward weakness, and inward fears. Some things can't be overcome any other way than through the power of the Holy Spirit. When the morning church started forth into the world, there came a new light, a new purity, that even the most hostile people could not deny. They worked in every way to deny it. Paul said the Gospel could even convince a gainsayer, and they did, when they did it God's way. The Bible says that the devil believes and trembles at the Word of God. He knows it will produce just what God said it would. So his big move is to get us to add to, take away, and not believe the Word as it is. Why? He knows it's powerful.

The New Testament leaves a clear witness. Without a shadow of doubt, the power behind this miraculous force was the power of God, the power of God's Holy Spirit. This is the same power which we need today and must have to finish our course for God. It has never changed. Jesus said, "without me ye can do nothing" (John 15:5). However, He didn't quit there, He told them, "The Father and I are going to come through the Holy Spirit and move into your life." I say, we need it!

Our Scripture text says, "With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible." That's why Paul said, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." What did he build it on?---Jesus' words, "with God ALL things are possible. and, "all things" covers quite a bit. God has given us, through His Word, precious, exceeding, and great promises whereby we are able to receive all things. Everything that pertains to life and godliness, all we need, He has given us through Jesus Christ if we will believe it and obey it.

Without the Holy Spirit

With men it's impossible to live holy and free from sin. That's why the religious world is becoming more adapted to sin all the time. They talk about holiness and then turn around and fight it. With men it is impossible to withstand temptation, with men it is impossible to be a living witness, and with men it is impossible to be the true church. The more we know about the church, the activities of the church, and how the church operates, the greater our temptation is to carry on in the flesh without the real power of God.

When we were first saved and didn't know our way around, we had to really trust God or we were going to get off track. Then the farther we go, the more we are tempted to become careless about keeping the right connection between our life and the Holy Spirit. When I say, "without the Holy Spirit we cannot be the church," I am saying this: WITHOUT THE HOLY SPIRIT THE CHURCH DOES NOT HAVE A MESSAGE.

In 1 Peter 1:12 Peter said, "Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven..." Those preachers preached the Gospel with the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven.

It's harder and harder to get through to people in funeral services in this day and time. In many instances, they don't even want a preacher, and when he's there, all they want him to do is to have prayer and read a poem. When you begin to preach on sin, repentance, and the Gospel, they just shut you off. I know I'm never going to get through to people unless God moves through me in a miraculous way.

I tell young preachers, "You might just as well go down to the graveyard and preach to the dead. They won't hear you and neither will people who are living without the Holy Ghost opening their minds to the Gospel." So when I say the Church doesn't have the message without the Holy Spirit, I'm speaking the truth. We can rattle off church doctrine---many groups are doing it, but there's no life-giving substance, there's nothing there to lift us, encourage us, and inspire our faith without the Holy Ghost's anointing.

No man could raise up and say they're not preaching the Word, but it's not the message. Somebody might say, You're just getting technical." No. You'll agree with me, I'm sure , when I say preaching inherently runs into certain dangers. Unless the Spirit of God is controlling a preacher's life, he can air his own opinion, preach his own prejudice---and have his convictions built on the Word---yet it can become a binding, hard yoke, and the people cannot lay hold of it. I say again, without the Holy Spirit we don't have the message.

Too much humanism today has captured the minds of so many preachers that they are skeptical and agnostic rather than committed and certain. One man, after listening to the message of a minister like that said, "I came to hear certainties, and all you said was 'I believe, it's possible, it could be so.' I have enough doubts of my own. I don't want to hear your doubts." Only the Holy Ghost can send the message, anoint the message, and use the message to make it a certain something to drive doubts and fears and unbelief away.

It's only the Holy Spirit that can save preaching from the dangers that there are today. The minister who has the experience of the Holy Spirit is the one who can preach the message and say, "Thus saith the Lord." Too many are preaching over in Matthew when God is speaking our of Isaiah. It's when we get lined up with the Lord that God uses us. God said, "Get the Word at my mouth," and when we get it at God's mouth, anointed with the Holy Ghost, then we can say, "Thus saith the Lord," and it comes with authority and positiveness.

The Certainty of the Gospel

In Matthew 16:13-17 Jesus asked those disciples: "Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? And they said, Some say the thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven." In other words, Jesus was saying, "You didn't get that from a human level or from some college education. You heard directly from God." Then He said, "...upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (verse 18).

The church is built on certainties. That rock was not Peter, if it had been, the church would have gone down a few hours later because Peter sank. The church is definitely built on certainties. It's built on a certain message, brought to certain terms through the whole experience, nailed down by the power of God.

When Peter preached on the Day of Pentecost, he didn't say, "Hey, brethren, this could be what Joel was talking about." No! He said "...this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel" (Acts 2:16). The Holy Ghost brings a certainty that our world needs today. How many are in confusion! May God help us to see this thing as it really is.

We're in a time when the ministry has let down, and too many of the worldly people like it. They say, "Our minister is just one of us. He will do anything we do, go anywhere we go"; but the sad part of it is, there's no God there to lift people. Preachers, I just wanna say this to you: No matter how much the pull of the congregation may be for letting down, God has called us to lift up the Bible standard. This is no time for the Bible standard to come down. This is the time to lift it up as never before to a confused, darkened world. There's just one thing the devil has in mind, he wants to bring the ministry down to a level where they can't help people.

A dear, faithful brother in the church told me about the time his mother died. He was heartbroken, out in confusion with no foundation. At the graveyard, he went to the preacher who preached the funeral and said, "I need help. I need somebody to pray for me." He said the minister just looked at him as if to say, "What's the matter with you?" We, thank God he came into contact with another brother and got in the services, heard the truth, and had his burden lifted and got saved.

Our world needs light, and light is certainty. We can tell when we get light---it will be certain, just as sure as it is light. When the Holy Spirit works, we can quit saying, "I think so" and start saying, "I know it's so." This is what the heart of modern man is craving today.

Without the Holy Spirit in our lives, the church can't have real growth and development in its belief. None of us have attained all that God has for us. We can't write down our theology and say, "This is it." The Holy Spirit is still teaching, and whenever we lost the Spirit of God, then we stop our growth in knowledge and understanding because it's Him who is going to bring all the things of Christ to us and give us understanding. The grave danger for the church is in worshipping its own path and becoming dead while she worships that path.

I read one time about an old minister who was in his eighties. The census taker came and asked him to fill out the census papers. One question was, "When did you finish your education?" He didn't write anything down. The census taker said, "When did you finish your education? I want to write it down." He said, "I can't write it down because I'm not finished yet." There are too many who are finished.

We're still moving ahead, we're still growing, and we are still gaining more understanding in the Word of God. I know this may be a strange statement to some, but it's true---without the Holy Spirit, even the Bible is a dead letter. It's only when faith and belief depend---not on the Book of books, not on a creed---but on the living Spirit of the living God. Only then can the church grow and develop.

Without the Holy Spirit there's no real fellowship in the church. The real fellowship of the church is a spiritual fellowship. Whenever the Spirit of God is grieved and is not allowed to move in our midst, one of the signs of it will be a lack of real spiritual fellowship among the people of God. Instead of really loving and fellowshipping one another, they will merely put up with each other. Division is a characteristic of the natural man.

In 1 Corinthians, the third chapter, Paul was speaking to people who had the Spirit of God, but they weren't using it (Him). They were still walking as men, using men's judgment and men's ideas, and he said there was division among them. Just as division is a characteristic of the natural man, by contrast, unity is a characteristic of the spiritual man. Jesus talked in terms of how all men could know they were His disciples---if we love one another. If we love one another, we won't make derogatory remarks about one another.

Hebrews 12:15 lets us know that the appearance of bitterness proves the absence of the grace of God. It's when a man fails of the grace of God that bitterness springs up, and nothing springs up that's not already down. Too many people don't know how bitterness begins. He said the roots of bitterness spring up. It first appears as a seed. Somebody may do something wrong to you, and unless you are up to power spiritually, there will be a thought of bitterness. If we dwell on it, then it gets into our heart as a seed. If we leave it there, it will take root. Then all it takes is a certain circumstance and it will spring out in a word, a deed, or an action. However, before that could happen a man had to fail, the Bible said, of the grace of God.

Does the Holy Spirit Have Control?

We need to realize that we're in a world where we can expect more and more of that which is going on in the religious world, at least as long as men put systems, forms, histories, traditions, and different governments and administrations before the presence of Christ. I believe the church has many needs, but one of our greatest needs is to definitely have the experience of the infilling of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Many problems would just disappear and wouldn't even have to be dealt with if the Holy Spirit were to have His right of way. When we walk together in the atmosphere of the Spirit, true fellowship is easy to behold and enjoy.

Without the Holy Spirit there's no real experience of conversion. Certainly, the disciples were used of God. They were in a period between the old dispensation and the new dispensation. Christ was with them and he said he would be in them. They didn't have the Holy Spirit within them because He was with them.

Jesus said He was going to send another Comforter. John 7:37-39 tells us why. When Jesus stood up that great day of the feast, He said: "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (but this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)"

Since Jesus has been glorified, every true believer is converted and filled with the Spirit of God. Somebody may ask, "How?" The message has never changed. We must wait until we're endued with power from on high before we can do one bit of work in the kingdom of God. Again, without the Holy Spirit there is no conversion. When people fail to understand this, they fail to yield themselves to the Holy Spirit, therefore, they don't grow. Because of that, many times their experience of conversion leads to disappointment, disillusion, and frustration. This is the reason so many lose out, and far too many lose out.

Men must not only be told of the Christ on the cross, they also need to be told of the risen Christ and the power of His Spirit that makes this new life possible. No matter how good a Christian we are, there are going to be things that this body wants to do, ideas that we're going to come up with, and desires that are contrary to that of God's. Paul said in Romans 8:13 that we must, through the Holy Ghost, mortify, stop the deeds of the body. This is a necessity to live a holy life.

Without the Holy Spirit there can be no real unification of life. People today divide life: part of their life is sacred and part of it is secular. Well, when we are sold out to God and the Holy Spirit has control of our life, it's all sacred. In 1 Corinthians 10:31 Paul said, "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." David Livingston once said, "Whether I'm writing, preaching, teaching, or shooting buffalo, I'm serving Christ." Without the Holy Spirit it's impossible to cope with life. Everyone needs this Comforter.

These are days when we need courage. I suppose I can truthfully say there has never been a time when the future was so frightening to the average person with all that's going on in the world. We see an apostasy "in the church" (or what is supposed to be the church), a very specious apostasy. Courage is needed, and this courage that is needed to live for God today cannot be obtained from man's inner resources.

We still wouldn't have the courage to live if everything in the world was good and every problem was worked out; we're just made that way. We still need this divine Comforter to come into our life to give us the courage to face life in all of its realities. In our own strength we may be able to put up with things, but we cannot be a conqueror. It's only through Jesus Christ that we can be victorious, and through Him we can be more than a conqueror. We must be aware. We must have a certainty that God is in us and with us. We need guidance.

Life concentrates upon man at the crossroad. Did you ever see a time when we had to make so many decisions? There's no map of life with fixed roads. There are maps of fixed roads to many geographical locations, but we are on a spiritual journey. Somebody may say, "Oh, the Word of God is the map." Yes, but what part of the Word of God is for us? It takes the Holy Spirit to map our individual course.

Your course of life may take you contrary to my course of life. I'm not talking about sin, but I'm speaking of everyday living. The commission is to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. Where are we going to go first? We can't go to all the world at once. Just as the Holy Spirit gave Paul a certain course to follow, we must also follow the course of life in which the Holy Spirit leads us.

God expects us to finish our course. We need to be able to say when we're facing death, "I have finished my course, I have fought a good fight, I have kept the faith." Paul went on to admonish Timothy to be sure to live where he could finish his course with joy. I don't know of anything that brings any more joy to a person than to know that we have lived for God, been true to Him, obeyed His command, and followed His direction. We not only need Him for direction, after we know what we need to do, we need Him for the power and the strength to carry it out.

Meeting the Conditions

I'd like to use an illustration that I read in an old book: The man who discovered the principle of the lever said that if you place a lever below a mass, you can lift it no matter how heavy it is. In his book, he said that if you gave him a lever long enough and a place to stand, he could lift the whole world. He was sold on lever action, and you can lift a lot with lever action. Now obviously we can see that it would have to come from an outside source if the world is lifted. Likewise, it's from the outside that you and I are lifted. As long as we depend on ourselves, our efforts will only bring frustration. Only the power of the Spirit of God can bring us the strength of God and the grace of God whereby we can attain that which we wish to attain.

Someone may say, "I believe the Holy Spirit can do all and more than we talk about." Well, the question is, are we ready for spiritual power? This is the question that needs to be answered. There's no question about the fact that you and I can obtain it. It's what we really want. It's what we really need.

We may say, "Oh, I believe I'm ready." Then let's ask ourselves some questions: Are we ready to be used? Are we willing to be unused? Are we willing to be misused? Let's mark it down, when the Holy Spirit takes hold of our life, we're going to get misused. Some get the idea, "Oh, we're going to have a wonderful time. No one is going to bother me because I'm a Christian and follow the footsteps of Jesus." When He gives us His Spirit, we're going to walk in His steps, and we're not going to go to long before we get misused. God may try us by letting us be unused. There are too many that God can't use because they're not willing to be unused.

I know this is a million miles from what most of the preaching on the Holy Spirit is over the land. According to some teachings, we have to get down and roll on the floor, and have a real fit before we'll get what they call the Holy Ghost, then we'll be happy and shout and jump and talk in tongues. NO, NO, NO! We're not even getting ready for this power with that kind of business. We're getting ready for confusion. I've been in churches that are spiritually dead, where people prayed a formal prayer, "Oh, Holy Ghost, come down." If He would have, He would have scared them to death, and half of them would have run out the door. God is just being merciful to them. Are we really ready for this power?

Are we willing to become nothing so Christ can be all? He cannot be all if we're still something. In too many instances, there's too much pride today for the Holy Spirit to ever work. Someone might ask, "What do you mean when you say, 'Are you ready to become nothing?'" Well, that's What God makes something out of. Have you ever read about it in Genesis? He takes nothing and makes something out of it. In the true church, Christ is to be all in all, but He cannot be all in all if you and I are three-fourths of it.

The possession of power is a great responsibility. With the self-will and self-esteem that some folks have, if they could get possession of the power it would be a deadly thing. They would try to kill-off half of us. Too many want to get possession of this power and use it, but God wants the power to get possession of us and use us.

Too many at the altars are waiting to be filled when they need to wait and be emptied first. We need to have a good, old-fashioned emptying service. If we can have a real emptying service, a real filling time would follow, and when it gets filling it will get thrilling. We cannot fill a bucket unless it's empty; likewise, God cannot fill anything unless it's empty.

In One Accord

There are conditions under which we may look for divine outpourings. God promised to pour His Spirit out on all flesh, and certainly we are in the day and time for it, but there are conditions that God must see to pour out His Spirit. Acts 1:14 tells us, "These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication..." In Acts 2:1 we read, "And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place." Somebody may ask, "Why do you think God poured the Spirit out?" He looked down and saw a oneness; that doesn't exist in too many places called the church today. We have to be in one accord before we can have the pouring out of God's Spirit.

They were in one accord in one place. They were in one geographical location, but truth of the matter is that they were in the one place that Jesus designated for them to be. That's exactly the one place you and I must be in, the divine order of God, waiting where Jesus said wait. There's not enough one accord to see mighty outpourings today.

There were many of the disciples in number, but they were drawn by a common impulse to one place. The thing that brought them together was the fact that they were in one accord; they had one vision. What was the vision? Jesus' last words to His disciples were that this Gospel must be preached unto all the world, but they were to wait until they were endued with power. How were they in one accord? They had one vision, one burden: they were ready to work one work.

They weren't in agreement on all doctrines, but they were in one accord. The doctrine on the kingdom had not yet come. They were not in agreement about the doctrine of tongues: it had to be cleared up. They were not clear on the doctrine of eating things sacrificed to idols, and many other doctrines, yet they were in one accord. They had one burden, one desire, and they were working together for one purpose---to preach the Gospel to a lost and dying world. That's the thing that 's lacking today. We can't be in one accord and argue and fuss around over doctrinal points, and set up modern sectarian divisions.

They were in one accord because they believed the word that this Gospel must be preached unto all the world. If our vision doesn't take in all the world, we're not in one accord with the rest of God's people.

Divisional lines are being set up. Some people's only vision is their own congregation, and they spend all their time in their own congregation. They spend all their money on their own congregation, with no vision that the Gospel has to go to the whole world. Those disciples believed the words of Jesus. The field is still the world and when we lose that vision we are misrepresenting our commission. Millions are perishing ; every week there are thousands of souls going into eternity without Christ.

How can we be in one accord and be content to argue and let sectarian spirits move among us? As long as they do, we won't have that outpouring. We have to come back to some basic, fundamental reasons for our existence. I'm not backing up on any doctrinal preaching. I believe in preaching doctrine and I practice it, but I want us to see that this one accord is also necessary.

There was one accord among the ministry. How do we know? When Peter stood up, the eleven stood up with him. How would it be today? I'm talking about as God looks on. You see, we may try to fool others, but we're not a bit more true to one another when we're together than when we're apart. This one accord means more than a lot of people realize.

The other apostles didn't have the least idea what Peter was going to say, and I don't think Peter knew himself what he was going to say. He didn't have an outline. Up until the time the Holy Ghost fell on him, he was looking for a literal kingdom. He was one who asked if Jesus was going to restore the kingdom to Israel at that time. After the Holy Ghost came, he had it all straight. He said, "Let me freely speak now." He was speaking to thousands of unconverted Jews. They were prejudiced, full of tradition, and against him, but when the brethren all stood up with him, he could freely speak and preach with liberty and freedom and power. It's the little attitudes, the little holding of grudges, and the backbitings which keep people from being in one accord.

Spiritual Power

The religious leaders had misused Peter and John. When they let them go they went to their own company. Acts 4:24 reads, "And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou are God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is." They let them know that they knew God was in control. Nothing man could do could stop them from going forward.

Let's read verses 29-30: "And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak they word, By stretching forth thine hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of they holy child Jesus," We must have these healings and movings of God. Why? Nothing will give us more boldness to preach the Word than having God fulfill His Word.

Some people are ashamed to preach on divine healing because God is not healing, and they say it just brings confusion if you tell all about God healing when nobody gets healed. Well, we don't have to have it that way. We can have people getting healed right along.

A sister had arrangements to go in for surgery. She hadn't had circulation in her leg for weeks and also none in her feet. They were asleep all the time. She said to me, I wanted to tell you so you can come over to the hospital." I said, "Well, wait, let me pray for you," and I prayer for her. This is what she told me later: By the time she got home, she had feeling in her feet. The sleepiness had left. She went to the hospital and the doctor checked her legs and said, "You have good circulation. There isn't any need of cutting on you."

We need these signs. They will give us a boldness like nothing else will do. Certainly, we don't have boldness to preach on divine healing when nobody is getting healed. Furthermore, we won't have boldness to preach on salvation when no one is getting saved. Nevertheless, the Bible promised that the Lord was with them, confirming the Word with signs and wonders. He still does it yet today.

It says in Acts 5:32 that God gives the Holy Spirit to those who obey Him. The measure of the Holy Spirit that a man possesses is conditioned by the kind of man he is. The individual who is honestly trying to do the will of God, wholeheartedly working at it, will receive the Holy Spirit's infillings. When we fail to obey Him and live short of His divine will, then the Spirit fails to move upon us.

I ask the question again, are we really ready for spiritual power? There's no need to ask for it unless we bring ourselves to the place where God can look down and see that we are in one accord, one agreement. When He sees that, it doesn't take a long time. He said it's like the wind, a mighty, rushing wind.

Every one of those disciples were filled with the Holy Ghost, and they began to speak as the Spirit gave them power. I pray that God will help us to realize it is God. Jesus emphasized that when He said, "Wait!" The Gospel must be preached, but don't try to preach yet. Why? It can only be done through the supernatural power of God. Paul's expression was: When I am weak, then am I strong (2 Corinthians 12:10b). The less there is of us, the more there is of God. That's why we are called the Family of God or the Church. It is brought into being by the power of God, and it is kept alive by the presence of God. God still doesn't want any flesh to glory in His presence.

Do we have this spiritual power? Does the Holy Spirit possess us? If we don't have it, do we really want this spiritual power? Are we ready to lay ourselves down in full commitment to God and say, "God, you take over." God will take care of us. If we will live for Him and stay submitted to Him, the gates of hell cannot prevail against us. God will make a way when there is no way; He has done it time and time again. The burden of my heart is that we will so move close to God and one another that there can be that one accord.

Somebody may say, "Well, I don't agree with you on doctrine." Well, I may not agree with you either, but, we can be in one accord. We are interested in reaching the world with the Gospel. We want to hold that one accord and not allow divisive spirits to spoil it. God has to see a oneness to pour His Spirit out afresh on a people.

[The End]