BY VESTA MANGUN
BECAUSE OF THE TIMES, 1987
Fear not, for God is with us! Fear not. Lose all of your inhibitions. Let go of doubt, discouragement, frustration, wondering, guessing! Release it! If this number of ministers at the conference doesn’t tell you something, if God turns His back on this many one-God, Jesus’ name, Holy Ghost, tongue talking people, there is nothing to this!
Have hope. Cheer up! Fear not! The Lord is with us! The solidarity of the ages and the generations have met here. It hangs on us now! I am startled and amazed at the fifteen hundred preachers and their wives who have met in Alexandria, Louisiana. Have no fear! Something is about to happen in this world. Move over everybody. Get out of the way, devil. We are coming through!
Everybody is somebody in this! Lose your inhibitions. Don’t look to anybody else. Look to God and say, “I’m going to become.”
There are 365 “fear nots” in this Book. There is one for every day. Fear not!
To the distinguished leaders of this great United Pentecostal Church; and to the honored guests and to hungry ministers and your wives, dedicated saints of God; and to the sponsors of this “Because of the Times,” Brother Mike Williams, Brother Anthony Mangun, Brother James Kilgore, and Brother Ray Johnson; and to this great church and to these pastors, with shepherd hearts, I do want to give honor. I want to thank you for this privilege, but tremendous responsibility. With fifteen hundred ministers meeting here, this world will hear our voice.
You forgive me if I seem too intense, but please allow me. We must ever and always be fueled by a consuming desire and passion for the purpose. If you will tie yourself to this purpose, you will arrive.
It must dominate every waking thought. You must live it, sleep it. You must dream it. This is for real! I’ve just reread the specs on this. I’ve just reread the blueprint from the foundation of the world. No wonder it was said of Jesus Christ, “The zeal of His father’s house hath eaten Him up.”
The zeal of Almighty God’s body totally consumed by what we have met here to discuss. His passion, His fervor, His white hot zeal–all mankind was awesome to behold and He said, “If ye abide in Me, and My
words abide in you, you shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.”
It was He who said, “I am the Alpha. I am the Omega. I am the beginning and I am the ending. I am He which is, which was, and which is to come. I am the Almighty God I am He that liveth. I was dead, but
behold I am alive. I am alive forever. I have the keys of hell. I have the keys of death. To as many as receive Me, to them will I give them power to become.” Become what? “All that I was. All that I am or all that I ever shall be! That’s my glorious promise to My church. You can have power to become.”
Now, when will we ever be convinced? When will we ever believe this that we talked about? Why are we so long responding to this fact? There is nothing, absolutely nothing He cannot do or accomplish even if
He has to create it into being. He is God, and He is God Almighty and we are His counterpart, or there is nothing to this!
He said, “All things are yours.” Now, can you get it any better than that? He does not say that just once or twice, but over and over and over again, and time after time He promises. Now, the responsibility is on every one of us. That’s where it hangs today. It’s not on Him. He has lowered the scepter. He has offered it to you.
What is responsibility? Responsibility means my response to His ability. You don’t get it by wishful thinking and making powerful statements and not backing them up with something.
Abraham responded and became the “Father of the Jewish Nation.” Joseph responded and became the prime minister of Egypt. Moses, who was heir apparent to the Eyptian throne responded by rejecting the earthly throne and became the great law-giver of God’s people as well as their deliverer from bondage.
David responded and became no longer a sheep herder. He became Israel’s king. Paul responded and said, “I can do all things through Christ, ” the source. He must become your total source. I can do all
things if I get hold of the total source. When He said it, the devil trembled, hell shook, continents were shaken. The Roman Empire crumbled when one man said, “I can do all things through Christ.”
Now, it’s your turn and mine. Quit feeling sorry for yourself and cowering over in some corner somewhere, sucking on your thumb. You can have it if you want it. Don’t pick on everybody else who wants it. They
are going to get it and do something with it!
Get your mind made up in this meeting. How are we going to respond to that “Alpha, Omega, Beginning, the End, the First and the Last, He which is, which was and which is to come, the Almighty, who said it’s yours now.”
Zechariah chapter three verse two talks about a brand plucked from the burning. A brand is a piece of wood prepared to burn or a piece that is already burning. A branch. I hold both in my hand. Every person in this room is this (branch) or this (brand). This branch was just plucked this morning. It would not have been plucked had it not been that we were going to use it as an object lesson. It receives life from the vine or the tree. Look how beautiful! I hold in my left hand what I’m going to call a brand because it is good for nothing, only to burn or disintegrate to nothingness. This has been discarded, I went behind the Family Life Center and plucked it from the garbage. I said, “LaNell, I want to use that. Take it and save it for me.”
It was headed for the dump, but I have snatched it from the burning. I know there is something missing because there is no life. There is no spirit. There is no sap. There is no resurrection. There is no creative force. There is no power. There is no mystical energy operating in it any more. It has lost contact with the supernatural source that was feeding it. It’s not connected properly to its source of life, the vine or the tree. If it were, it would be fulfilling its purpose. Jesus said to His disciples and would-be disciples, “I am the
vine. Ye are the branches, and every branch in Me that beareth not fruit, I take away.”
Now, that is settled. You don’t argue with it. If you don’t do it, it’s settled. “Every branch that beareth fruit, I purge it that it may bring forth fruit, more fruit, and much fruit.”
The vine doesn’t bring forth the fruit, but the branches. Hence, the vine is limited without the branches. The vine is ready, but the branches are refusing the source. The branches cannot bear fruit of itself. They are dependent upon the vine. No more can we expect, can we have except we abide in Him, the total source. Neglect the vine, and the fruit will fail. Neglect the source and you will come to naught.
Neglect the source, and you won’t have anything! “For without Me, ye can do nothing.” That is zero. Nothing! “You will do it with Me, or you won’t do it at all!” That is where we are! “You will do it with Me, or
you won’t do it at all!”
I am offering it to everybody. If you think you are going to make it by yourself, you may as well take your sign down and quit hollering or jumping about or claiming, because the Total Source is available to
everybody in this room. He taketh it away, and it becomes a brand. That is a tragedy. That is a loss. That is a waste.
It was a possibility that was squandered when Jesus said, “Behold, I give you power. Power over all the power of the enemy.” Now He says, through John, “The whole world lieth in the hands of Satan.” The whole world is in the hands of the devil, but Adam was up against a serpent, you are up against a dragon, but if you will, I will. “Without Me you can’t do it, but with Me everything else will come down.”
I refuse to lead a defeated life with that much to offer. I am not going to cower down and be shoved into a little corner of life when that much is offered to me. You do what you will, I am not going to live my life like this old, dead, dry stick. I’m not going to live my life like this old, dead, dry stick! No life! No spirit! No fervency! No enthusiasm! No passion! No resurrection! No force! No visions! No dreams! No motivation! No leaves! No fruit! No shade! No love! No blessing! No praise! No worship! No joy! No excitement! No smiles! No touch! No growth numerically or spiritually. Just an old, dead, dry stick. Nothing. Just a brand. Just an old stick! No love! No comfort! No light! No water! No bread! No cure! No salvation! No attraction! No beauty! No blessing! No anointing! No divine touch! Just a dead, lifeless, worthless brand.
I’m not going to live my life like that, and thank God, I don’t! I don’t have to! I’m not looking to anybody else for the source, but Him, and I can get it! I don’t have to have anybody to lead me around. I’m not blind. I don’t have to have anyone to show me the way. He is the way. I have found the way. I have found the answer. I have the cure. I have the remedy, I have the touch. I have the message. I know where I am going. I know The Truth!
Lose your timidity. Lose your little cowering about and running here and there and saying, “They have it, and we don’t.” You are sick! They don’t have it. You are wrong. I am not going to let anyone get ahead of
me with this! I don’t have to. I can have it. I am God’s child. I am called by His name. I’ve got the Book. I have His promises – 7000 of them! What more do I need?
Let me tell you something that you are not taking advantage of–the veil has been rent! Don’t preach it as a little sermon. Live it! It is ripped! The throne beckons me every day! I can get to the throne that rules this world! If that fails, the sun will refuse to shine and the moon won’t come up any more, and the stars will fall from their orbit.
I have access! I can have the total source. I’m ashamed that I don’t! That is the only one to put it on–me! I’m ashamed that I don’t. That’s the only one to put it on–me! I’m ashamed that I don’t produce any more than I do. I’ve got one little short life. My God, I wish I could get something. Whatever it is, pull it off of me, put it on me, tell it to me, hit me between the eyes. There is a throne beckoning you. You can have the Total Source!
Power to become! Job 14: 7-9: “There is hope of a tree. If it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease. Though the roots thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground; yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant.”
He is going to become. He has decided that He can come alive again! “If it be cut down, if it be cut off, through the scent of water, it is flowing deep and wide.” I came here to get a drink. I came here to get a scent. I came here to get some water!
It will bud again! Don’t lose heart! Don’t give up! Get a scent of water and you can bud again, and bring forth fruit. Even if it will be as water spilled upon the ground which cannot be gathered up again,
yet God devises means that you don’t have to be cut off. There is water flowing here.
Even if old Ezekiel’s bone yard and it’s lifeless and it’s very dry. I came here dry. I came here dead. I came here lifeless, but somebody preached. I got a scent of water. God devised a plan. I heard the Word and breath has entered into me now. I feel like I am coming alive!
I’m going to bloom again! I’m going to smile again! I am going to pray again! I am going to go get a soul again!
I’ve got power in this meeting to become. “It cloth not yet appear what I will become.” There is no telling how wild I will get. There is no telling what all I will do? I’ve got power to become all He is, was and will become.
Paul said, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. ” It’s not by might, nor by power, but it is by His Spirit. I need a scent of that! I need that touch! Now, what will you be? Will you be that brand or will you be that branch?
A young man, Roger Skluzacek, came to our church. He had been to the Catholic church downtown, grabbed hold of the pillars in there, screamed as loud as he could and said, “God, where are You? Is there a
book anywhere that will tell me who You are, where You are, and how I can find You?”
If they can hear The Word, leaves will grow, but if not, there will never be a leaf on that. There will never be any fruit. We will never feed the hungry. We will never clothe the naked. We will never visit those in prison. We will never bind up broken hearts. We will never preach the Gospel to the poor. I am not going to be a brand! I’m not going to be an old, dead stick, with no life-giving fruit, no spirit, no desire, no vision, no dreams, no plans, no actions, no consuming zeal or passion for souls, no fervency, no fiery anointing,
no burden, no concern, no love, no care, no compassion, no future, no vision, no dreams, no miracles. You can have power to become!
I’m going to be a branch! Fruit. More fruit. Much fruit. That is the purpose of “Because of the Times.” “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, and there every one may receive the things done in his body.”
There will be a crowning day. Five possible crowns you can receive: the incorruptible crown, crown of life, crown of glory, crown of righteousness, crown of rejoicing. He may look at you even then and say, “For I was hungered, and you gave me meat. I was thirsty, and you gave me drink. I was a stranger, and you took me in.”
Fruit. “I was naked, and you clothed me.” More fruit. “I was sick, and you visited me. I was in prison, and you came unto me.” Much fruit. “Then shall the righteous answer him, and say, Lord when saw we
hungered and fed thee or thirsty and gave thee drink. When saw we a stranger and took thee in or naked and clothed thee. Or when saw we thee sick or in prison and came unto thee.”
The King of kings and Lord of lords shall say, “Verily, verily I say unto you, inasmuch as you have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. I am disguised unto every type of humanity that treads this earth–black, white, red, yellow, rich, poor, middle-class, native, immigrant, refugee, famous, or infamous. I am disguised in everyone you will ever meet.”
Nobody will escape it. Christianity has never been nor will it ever be a spectator sport. You are not called to sit in the grandstands. You don’t win this game in the grandstands. This game is not over, and the whistle has not been blown, and you are not home yet. After this, comes the judgment. Well done or depart.
Are you a brand or a branch? Which will you be?
I want to tell you, if you don’t know it, that we’ve been called to match an age that is the most solemn period in this world’s history. God thought enough of me and voted on me to be in this generation. I
will not draw my coat about me and pass by on the other side, cry a little, get excited a little, give a little, pray a little, reach a little and say, “May the Lord bless you. Go thy way.” Then go back to business as usual Wednesday night, Sunday morning, Sunday night. No more. No less. That’s enough for me. Wednesday night, Sunday morning, Sunday night. That’s enough for me. Then you talk about perversion. You
talk about pornography. You talk about sodomy on the increase. You talk about emotional illness and child abuse, uprisings, rebellion, violence and domestic unrest, unprovoked murder. Many whom we have not reached start seeking the supernatural through the occult. It’s on the rise. Spiritualism, black sciences, demon worship, witches, anti Christ spirit and rebellion are on the increase.
The destiny of earth’s teeming millions is about to be decided. Our own well-being in our families and also the salvation of our cities, our churches, and multitudes depend upon what we do at this meeting.
Don’t put it on anybody else. I would like to say it like this: Ladies and gentlemen, what is your verdict? Everyone here is a member in particular. Refused to be intimidated by anyone else. The job doesn’t belong to just the preachers, it belongs to everybody! Everybody!
Former generations have looked forward to this time. Prophets longed to live in this our day. Angels desired to look into this. Dare we fail when Lazarus is at our gate full of sores, begging for crumbs.
Nothing but dogs are licking his sores. Dare we become a comfortable, accepted bunch of Christians in our respectability without compassion, while the world rushes headlong into hell, complacent, comfortable,
lukewarm, indifferent, lazy, loveless, compassionless, judgmental, Pharisaical, Sunday-morning bench warmers, with no burden, no concern, no love for souls, no weeping, no mourning, no travailing, no
witnessing, no power, no motivation and no daily prayer schedule, no Bible studies, no teaching, no reaching, no saving, no healing, no training, no long suffering, no patience.
Give me Wednesday night. Just give me Sunday morning or maybe Sunday night. But, daily? No! We might as well quit kidding ourselves. We might as well look at the book of Acts again. We are not a book of
Acts church living like this. I don’t care how much you put on or take off. You’re not a book of Acts church, if you don’t have the supernatural and love for souls.
That is not the New Testament due order. Wednesday night, Sunday morning and Sunday night. Daily! Daily! Daily! Consistently! Do not say that we are going to lay all night so our rod will bud. No! Daily!
Maybe it becomes mundane, but it is daily! In the temple! From house to house they ceased not!
That means don’t ever stop! That means do it every day like you did the day before! That means do it tomorrow like you are doing it today! That means don’t get tired, don’t get weary, don’t throw in the
towel. Daily! Daily! Daily!
This world needs a first-century church in a twentieth century world. That’s what we need! This city right here needs a center of victory. It does not need a bunch of deadheads, nor a bunch of lifeless, spineless, back-upers, nor a bunch of frowners, nor a bunch of “its so horrible to live this beauty of holiness.” This city needs a center of victory!
The alcoholic will be here tonight. The drug addict will be here tonight. The drug addict will be here Sunday night. The prostitute will be here Sunday night. This is going to be a center of victory. What do
we have to do?
Christianity was made for the road, not the sanctuary. Christianity was made for the highways, the byways and the hedges. Christianity was made to run. Christianity was made to go. We might as well admit it. We simply do not believe all men without Jesus Christ die and go to hell. We need to stop there and hang it up. We don’t believe it! Our actions prove it!
Some have lost their cutting edge. They have quit talking about soul winning. They have quit preaching evangelistic sermons. They have quit preaching the doctrines. Death, hell and the judgment and the
hereafter have lost their saltiness, their penetration, their identity, their witness, their power, their anointing, their burden.
There are brands sitting among us. Just old, fruitless, lifeless, dead sticks. They have come here to become, and you can become! The Church I am talking about was in the mind of God before the foundation
of the world, the one that Jesus Christ called My Church. He said, “The gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Peter, you have the keys to it. ” We must be doing something right because it is built upon the
foundation of the prophets, the apostles, with Jesus Christ, being the chief cornerstone.
“I will build My Church.” Lose all fear. Lose all doubt. My Church is predicated on victory. Nothing can stop My Church. My Church is conducting an aggressive, positive, successful mission. My Church will never stop until a door is open in heaven!
“My Church is as terrible as an army with banners. My Church is as powerful as the sun when it goeth forth. My Church is sovereign when on the move, when armed with My mighty weapons.”
Thy Word forever, O Lord, is settled. No deviations. No omissions. No substitutions. It’s more sure testimony than a voice from heaven. This Word.
Nancy Higgins, a pilot’s wife from England Air Force Base, looked at those teaching her a Bible study, saw the revelation that was revealed through this Word, and screamed out, “They have lied to me. They cheated me. I will accept. I will not refuse Truth that has been given to me in that Word.”
Where it is taught and preached, it will not return void. Wherever it is preached, somebody will believe it. Wherever there is a human being, it ought to go! Wherever they hear it, somebody will react!
We have His name. We have the name that is above every name. Without that name nobody can be saved! Without that name, nobody can be saved! It’s the only name given under heaven whereby we must be saved!
The blood! One drop blots out anything anyone has ever done, ever said, ever thought or will ever do. Just one drop! The blood is in the name, and the name is in the blood! I plead the blood!
The Spirit is the power of an endless life you have. With prayer and fasting, praise and worship, preaching and witnessing undergirding all of that. What more do you need? If you have everything I have named, what more do you need? That is the total source. Get it on the road! Get it in the highways! Get it in the byways. That is the total source!
It’s amazing what Michelangelo did with only three basic colors. It’s amazing what Einstein did with only ten digits. It’s amazing what Beethoven did with just seven notes!
It remains to be seen what we could do and should accomplish by the Word, the name, the blood, the Spirit. Undergird it. Launch it by prayer, fasting, continual praise, worship, preaching and witnessing
and teaching! God is helpless without a man. We have not utilized its fullest potential yet! God used one man with a jaw bone of a mule to slay one thousand Philistines. He used a stripling of a youth with a
slingshot and one stone and killed a giant! He used a man with an ox goad and killed six hundred Philistines. He used one angel and is going to bind up Satan and cast him into a bottomless pit. What are you waiting for? God needs a man! God needs a human being!
“But, if my people, which are called by my name…. ” That’s the King James version. The Hebrew version says, “If my people over whom my name has been called…. ” They are doctrinally right. My people are
doctrinally right, but they have lost their first love. “For my name’s sake, they have labored. They have not faded. They have proclaimed my doctrine, but they need to humble themselves now and pray, not preach
about it, not talk about it, not read about it, not say we need to do it. But, if My people over whom My name has been called, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face, seek My will, seek My purpose, seek My cause–every day, and turn from their wicked, selfish, jealous, envious, critical spirit, judgmental attitudes, broken relationships, unforgiving spirits.” We are doctrinally right, but you have to turn loose of all that.
You have to turn from being slothful and indifferent, prayerless, tearless, and compassionless in your ways. Repent for leaving Christ unfed. Repent for leaving Him unhoused. Repent. He has no hope without you.
Then, He said, “I will hear from heaven. I will heal. I will restore. In a day, I can make up for one thousand years. A thousand years will be as a day. If My people which are called by My name will humble themselves and repent of all that, I’ll make it up.”
It still hangs on us. It is up to us. If you will! Turn from your wicked, slothful, jealous, envious, critical, judgmental, unforgiving, talking about, backbiting, critizing, destroying, using people, prayerless, tearless ways. Repent! When the church seeks God, the result is revival! When the church seeks men, the result is evangelism! We need both! We need to seek God and seek men. That’s our job here–seeking God and seeking men. There is nothing else! Hang it up. There is nothing else. Seeking God and seeking men. Every day! Every waking thought, it must dominate everything I do!
Seek God, and go seek men. You may feel that you don’t need to repent, but Daniel, against whom is no recorded sin, humbled himself, took upon himself all the sins of the people when he prayed to God, “We
have sinned, and we have committed iniquity, and we have done wickedly, and we have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy
judgment.”
We need to pray as did Moses, God’s lawgiver and leader of Israel, to whom God offered a promotion, and he turned it down and prayed this prayer:
“Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin, and if not blot me I pray thee out of thy book, which thou has written.”
Pray as did the apostle Paul, “I could wish myself accursed if I could but save my people.”
If we could take one look inside the gates of hell, we would pray, we would weep as did Paul, as did Moses, as did Daniel, as did Jesus weep over Jerusalem. What we ought to have done still awaits to be done. What we think of ourselves is not one important thing to it. We need to be thinking of others! Others! We serve our own needs before we give to others. We keep for ourselves the gifts of His graciousness. We make that gospel that He offered to everybody limited to our own selves.
I must repent. I must repent of being ugly. I must repent of being short-fused. I must repent of my ugly, terrible, slothful, indifferent ways. I must repent of not loving this Word and reading it every day and studying it daily. I need a structured study. I need to hear Him say again, “If you will abide in Me, and I will abide in you, you can ask what you will. If My Word abides in you.”
I need a fresh anointing to preach it and to teach it. I need a new revelation of the Mighty God in Christ! Don’t ever come off of that. If you believe not that He is, you will die in your sins. That is the foundation. You might fool with a lot of other things, but don’t you fool with the mighty God in Christ, and His name. His name is Jesus. This is the only saving name.
I don’t care who you are, how well you can do it, how polished, how clever, how charismatic, how impressionable you are–we need a new revelation of the kingdom and the kingdom principles. We need to
understand afresh and anew the power of the blood. If we want this to happen, we need a new conviction of sin, eternal death, hell, and the judgment. We need to preach it!
We need to commit ourselves to soul winning wherever we see a man or a woman, or else they will die and spend eternity in hell. We need to be involved in some way in the Great Commission. Anywhere. Everywhere. Pray until God’s spirit spreads this country irresistibly, drawing millions to Himself. I believe it will happen!
I believe it can happen, and I believe it will happen! I don’t want anyone to tell me that God doesn’t want growth. God wants growth, and I’m a branch, and He can’t have growth without me. I’m not putting
it on a mighty preacher. I’m not putting it on somebody over yonder. I’m putting it on myself. It is me! I don’t care how good you preach. He is depending on me. Me!
“For whoever has, to him shall be more given and he shall have abundance, but whoever does not have even what he has shall be taken from him.”
“Much known, much required.” That doesn’t sound like “you must hold your fort and not move any place else.”
“God loves the little number.” No! God died for the whole world. That is five billion! There isn’t anything little about that! Anybody who has will get more and those who don’t, will have it taken away from you.
Everybody will become a brand or a branch. Truth will never change. Some things are not negotiable. Never have been. Never will be. That’s settled. This apostolic message, Pentecostal experience, speaking with tongues, the mighty God in Christ, Jesus’-name message is not negotiable. He repented, and said that somebody will get hurt if they fool with that.
Many of our criticizing, judgmental attitudes and broken relationships must change! Must change! We must start believing that all men without Jesus Christ will go to hell. I want to ask, “Are there any sinners any more? Are there any more sinners out there?”
It’s just not that simple. There are some sinners in this world. There are some people to be saved!
The Beatitudes must be our attitudes! Humility of spirit! We’ve got to be blessed to bless others so that a revival will sweep our churches.
Are we going to come here and congratulate ourselves upon the wrong acts which we do not commit, and forget the greatest concern of the matter, which is the heart of God, keeping people out of hell?
Know ye not that we are held accountable for our failure to accomplish all that we should and could have done and what we have been ordered to do and we haven’t done it?
What about Pilate washing his hands? It was not for something he had done, but it was for something he might have done, and he didn’t do it. He had a chance. He didn’t hurt anybody. He didn’t hit a lick. He
didn’t drive a nail. He is not washing his hands because he did something bad. He is washing his hands because he had a chance to do something good and he didn’t do it.
How many of you believe Ezekiel 3:18-19 is out of date? God said, “When I send a message, and you fail to give it, their blood will I require at your hand.”
Will you be like the Pharisees? Days were more important than healings, institutions had priority over pain, tradition was more important than life, more important than a never-dying immortal soul
(and there is one inside every human being you ever look at). The man with the withered hand has to wait for twenty-four hours. We can’t touch him yet. Their defense allowed no exceptions. They became the
jury to decide what was lawful and what was unlawful. But, if men go to hell, we don’t care. If the world rushes headlong into hell, we don’t care. Jesus shows this.
“What man shall there be among you that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out?” (Matthew 12:11).
He said, “Yes he will.” The sheep is too valuable to be lost! “Is not a man worth more than a sheep?” What ought to be done in the interest of a human being who bears the image of Almighty God. He will
live with the angels in heaven or the demons in hell.
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John record Jesus’ saying: “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Mark 8:36, 37).
He said, “Don’t leave a one of them in the ditch. Don’t pass a one of them by. Don’t judge them until you have tried to save them. Don’t kick them when they are down. Don’t destroy them if by any means
you can save them.”
“Be careful,” said the mother whose little girl had fallen beneath a mound of fallen dirt, as they grabbed their shovels and began to dig. “Be careful how you dig for her. I don’t want you to get her head. I don’t want you to get her face. I don’t want you to cut her ears off.”
Jesus made it plain how He cares and feels about people. He said that people are too valuable to be lost. “I’m not willing that just one should perish. The price I have paid and will pay, I will pay for every one of them. I will throw up every road block. I will keep any person I can out of hell. Everybody is too precious and too valuable to go to hell.”
He taught it with simple stories like that of a searching woman, searching for a lost coin, digging past the dust and rubbish, ignoring the tarnish, because the coin must be found. The image of the king is on it. He said there was a seeking shepherd going into the hills after just one. The burden is on the shepherd.
Sure they get dirty. Sure they get torn by brambles, hunted by wolves, but it is a sheep and not a goat, much less a jackal. The shepherd’s welfare is tied to the salvation of his obligation. The shepherd is nothing without the sheep. A father loses his son, he said, and it’s the giant heartbreak. The boy is wrong. Yes! He has reduced to swine and swindlers. He is the prodigal, but he is not a pig! He was created for better things and there is a road back home. Don’t put up roadblocks to obstruct his turn around. The image of the Creator is on that boy. Heaven and earth will go to bat for that boy! Go find them.
Nothing is more important to you than that! Nothing must ever take precedence over that. You must be out here rescuing every immortal soul you can from hell. There is a soul inside of every human being. They matter. They matter more than the whole wide world. They don’t belong in hell. They belong in the fold.
Men travel and spend money to see the Seven Wonders of the world. You pass by the greatest wonder of them all–another human being. “Let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, the Lord.” Let the grace
of our Lord rule and reign in your actions.
Do I care like He cared? Must I care like that? If I care about Him, will I care what matters to Him? If I say I love God and love not what He loves, He is disguised at my door. He is hungry. He is sleepy and tired. He is oppressed. He is lonely. He is needed. He is helpless. He is shut in. He is in prison. He is sick. He is disgusted. He is homesick, but He doesn’t know the way home.
“Inasmuch as you have done it unto one of the least, my brother, you have done it unto Me.”
When I see and understand why God was manifested in the flesh, it is not just a doctrine. There is a reason. Why there was even a Bethlehem, Gethesemane, Calvary–it’s more than for you to make a living preaching about. What happened to the apostles in the early church has got to happen to me. I’ve got to feel hell. I’ve got to feel separation and misery. Then, I’ve got to do something about it every day.
I know a man in this room who set his course forty-six years ago. I’ve lived with him forty-four years. I’ve never seen him go to bed or get out of bed that he didn’t kneel beside it, and I would hear these words, “Order my steps today. Let me find that one closest to eternity and let me turn somebody toward You today. ” I never heard him come to this pulpit for thirty seven years, and this church will testify to that, without saying, “We’re going to love souls, and we are going to spend everything we have. We will do anything to reach another soul. ”
I’ve got to do something about it. Do people really go to hell? What kind of person am I to let people go to hell where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched, where the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever, where they beg for water, where they will never get out!
If I had a cure for cancer, would I keep it to myself? Would I let people die if I had a cure for leukemia or AIDS? Would I keep it to myself? Would I let people die? That would be criminal.
Several years ago in Washington a plane took off and didn’t get very high and went down in the Potomac River. A bystander dove into those icy waters. He rescued three people and went back for the fourth
and went under himself. Something has got to grip you, man! Something has got to grip you, woman!
I saw a doctor in Cabrini Hospital where I was racing to a woman who had exploded her brains. They couldn’t get the resuscitating machine there to her quick enough. The doctor put his mouth to her
frothing mouth and breathed for her until that resuscitating machine got there.
Brother Mangun preached a little charred boy’s funeral in Alexandria. He was only seven years old. They had to handcuff his mother and shove her into the car and drive off with her. Her boy burned to death in the house.
Last week a seven-year-old boy fell into this bayou by the church. They didn’t know where he was, but God let the sun shine on that boy, and a woman, a bystander, dove into that water and rescued him. Nobody would come, but she finally got to where her head was just above the water, and a man came and she threw the boy and climbed out.
I’m not talking about a little human body. I’m talking about that never-dying immortal soul. I’m not talking about an electric chair, gas chamber or the scaffold. They are only grim reminders. You just take another look.
You know what Revelation said? “The smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever: and they will have no rest day or night.” (Revelation 14:11)
We sit here like a bunch of proud, comfortable Christians. You are playing religion and we might as well admit that we don’t love souls as we should.
MESSAGE OF INTERPRETATION: “You have not learned love, for love will give its very life to its Lord. I poured out My life’s blood. My hands were outstretched to a generation that does not know My voice.
They have not heard My cry because they have not heard your cry. You must open your mouth and speak the-word in faith believing. You must go forth terrible as an army with banners, weeping, prevailing, saying, ‘Oh, God, surely there is yet another sheep laying over the ledge that I must find for I will be responsible for his lost condition.’ Follow hard after Me, Yea, pursue Me diligently, saith the Lord, and I will lead you into paths everlasting.”
We must do what we can while we can! While we can, with all that we can! It won’t disappear just because I ignore it or because I refuse to preach it. Jesus Christ preached three times more about hell than He
ever did about heaven. There will be no release where He is talking about. There will be no mitigation for good behavior where He is talking about. Still your church has no organized prayer system. Still you have no organized perennial concerted effort of reaching the lost. Still you have no structured Bible teaching. Still you are not saturating your people in the Word, nor your city with burden, tears, agony, travailing. No impacting of your own area, your own will. Your own desires are taking over. What we need to do is still waiting action.
Lazarus is still at our gate full of sores. Preachers, preach to us about Calvary at this meeting! Preachers, I’ll never love souls enough until you take me to Calvary! Preachers, until I see Calvary in your life, I won’t love souls like I should.
Jesus said, “I came to seek and to save that which is lost. ” You’ve never won a soul, and you call yourself a Christian, and you don’t win souls or love souls? You call yourself a Christian, and you don’t pray every day unceasingly? All the time, every day, like a clock ticking that never quits ticking.
“In the morning, Jesus arising a great while before day, went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.” There it stands as a commentary on the lifestyle of Jesus who is called the Christ!
And you call yourself a Christian, and you don’t pray? Gypsy Smith said, “What a humbug you are. What a walking fraud, what a hypocrite.” Posing as a preacher and not praying and not trying to win souls! It’s built for the road. When the One who identified Himself as the Christ rose up a great while before every day and went somewhere and prayed to meet the demands of the people, something has to happen to us.
There is no need of playing around here! There is no need preaching a little sermon. There is no need to go tell it until you go to God! There is no need to go and try to win somebody and try to put on a big show until you get hold of the source. There is no need to go. You don’t have any fruit with which to go. You’ve lost your bread. You’ve lost your water. You’ve lost your salt. You’ve lost your light. You’ve lost it all! You have to get hold of the source. You have to get something fresh! You have to get something that doesn’t smell and stink and rot. You are not going to go anywhere until you pray! You are just an old stick. You are just an old brand! You are just an old, lifeless, careless individual.
He prayed all night many nights. We are not talking about praying Hyde. We are not talking about Finney. Read all of their books. I am not talking about Edwards, Payson, Moody, Spurgeon, who above all
excelled in prayer! They made prayer the most serious work of their most productive years! I’m not talking about other world-changers, turning continents, nations, cities upside down.
We’re talking about Somebody! It wasn’t a classic book of Rees Howell, Hallesby’s, Ravenhill or Brother A.D. Urshan. I’m talking about Jesus Christ, God Almighty manifested in the flesh!
It had priority. Prayer and souls had priority over His social life, physical rest, appetite, His joy, His popularity, and His unpopularity. He wouldn’t make great decisions until He had prayed all night.
You came here weary and tired! I’m just trying to jar you. You don’t know where to get it yet? There won’t be a preacher who comes to this pulpit who will tell you any more than this: you better go to God and get the total source!
He refused to go forth and teach and preach until He spent nights in prayer. He prayed! There are fifteen mentions of His prayer in the four gospels. “He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also to walk, even as he walked.” (I John 2:6)
Every Jesus’ name believer by prayer and praise is called to enforce the victory of Calvary. He triumphed over all hell and every devil, and He gave the power to you.
The benefits purchased at Calvary are credited to my account. Prayer is more than asking. It is a multi-faceted weapon. It is supplication. It is intercession. It is praise. It is worship. It is thanksgiving. It is travail. It is petition. It is praying in an unknown tongue. Everybody here needs to pray in an unknown tongue and speak mysteries in the Spirit. You need to sing in the Spirit. You need to build up your most holy faith. “Praying with all prayer.” Praying with all kinds. “The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much!” Accomplishes much!
In response to our prayers, our prayers are nothing. Prayer can’t do anything until it reaches God, and the effectual, fervent prayer availeth much! It turns God’s power on, and it releases it toward the individual or the circumstance about which I am praying.
Prayer works! You work it hard, and it will be easy. You work it easy, and you will have it hard.
No bastion will fall without a battle, but no battle will ever be lost if you will effectually, fervently pray. His strength, His might, His unsurpassing greatness, His dynamics of His Almightiness is released to respond to whatever I am asking Him for.
I can pray, and I can fast. This kind comes not but by prayer and fasting. It can touch the highest heaven or shake the lowest hell. Prayer can change anything. It can start a revival that the devil in hell can’t stop.
Do it! Do it! Prayer unlocks the unlimited power of God! Prayer can do anything God can do, and whereas God can do anything, prayer is omnipotent. Nothing lies beyond the reach of prayer but that which lies
beyond the reach of God.
Do it! Do it!
The Williams man who has made a billion dollars selling insurance tells his men, sometimes along with ugly words: “Do it! Do it! Do it! Don’t give me any excuses. Go do it! Do it! Do it!”
We have to have praying churches and praying preachers. They are not going to pray and see you scout around all day. You have to lead the way! From the pulpit to the pew. Between the porch and the altar.
Churches and preachers. Preaches and churches. Don’t call on them to do it, and then you not example it. Don’t tell me to do something, and then you don’t do it!
Since 1950 there has been a chain of prayer and fasting here. One week of every quarter with just thirty-five people, we had it. Sometimes Brother Mangun and I doubled up many shifts. Since 1970, there has been prayer that has never stopped in this church. Now we have one hour prayer anywhere because we have to have prayer. Prayer is an act of violence. Prayer links heaven’s power supply to our helplessness. This church wouldn’t be sitting here with just anybody’s personality or ability to preach. There has got to be something to get hold of the Total Source, and I believe that God can do anything. I’ll believe it until I die, cut my head off and my feet will wiggle for a long, long time, saying “It will. It will.”
I can become. I can do it. Fear not! Get out of here doubt. I’m not frustrated any more. I’ve got direction. I know how to get the Total Source!
Prayer releases divine energy. Prayer snatches souls from Satan’s claws. Every soul belongs to God! When Zion travails, souls are rescued. Don’t tell me you can’t do it. When Zion travails, she can do it! Brands are plucked. DO IT!
Men may spurn your appeals and reject your message and oppose your arguments, despise your person, but they are helpless against your prayers! You don’t buck a praying man. You better shut your mouth. You
better shut your mouth tight!
John, the beloved, by weeping, got the Book opened; Daniel, by prayer in the night vision, the king’s secret was revealed to him. If I’m going to be effective, something has got to course through my blood with a rising will-to-do-it stimulation. The violent will take it by force!
The woman with the issue of blood. The blind Bartimaeus. The roof came off. Elisha got a double portion. You have to want it like that! That will make the difference in how you live seven days a week, thirty days a month, 365 days a year!
DO IT! DO IT!
The best things won’t yield on a “so so” basis or “business as usual.” You have to pursue them. Gold has to be dug! Gems have to be mined. Souls have to be sought and saved. Prayers have to be prayed. Desires have to be lived. You have to lay hold upon something and deem it necessary so much that you covet it. Covet it earnestly! It has to become an inner rage. It has to be your total fulfillment. Covet earnestly the best gifts!
Now, you may feel that all has been done that was necessary to be done, but you’ve come to this meeting and you are going to get something extra! I’ve got an extra gear, and I’m going to get it at this meeting! You ain’t seen nothing out of me yet! My best ten years, if God lets me live, is just before me. I’m like that old boy playing the piano whom I saw many years ago. They gave him a standing ovation, and he got up and looked at them and smiled, and sat down and tore that thing up and said, “Buddy, you ain’t seen nothing yet!”
I am coveting earnestly. Claude Hudson fell in the church two months ago and screamed out, “I want it. You said I could have it, and this church is going to get it! ” Linda Smith prayed all last week, three hours to six hours every day for Mike Williams and hid her face in a corner. I said, “You are going to get something, because Thetus Tenney’s sister is living today because of Linda Smith’s prayers and a lot of others.
Nothing comes by modest efforts. Champions do not arrive with a “so-so” attitude. Look at the professional athletes, politicians, scientists, administrators in business, entrepreneurs, fueled by passion to win for money, for power, for notoriety, for raw achievement. You have to make things happen!
We will never save our families, churches, communities, cities, this world from a burning hell with a “so-so” attitude, with a Wednesday night, Sunday morning, a once-in-a-while prayer meeting or a few nights revival. The people who change things and move people to do great things are fueled by a passion for souls and a consuming desire to save them and won’t stop until it gets them.
That’s my girl. That’s my baby the lion has hold on. That’s my sheep that is in the mouth of that lion. If there isn’t anything but a leg left, I am going to get the leg and give it a decent burial. I’m going after it!
I am going to get that extra gear right here. I am going
to get it, and daily I’m going to live it! Watch out, Alexandria, because I am coveting earnestly a revival like I’ve never seen! I’m coveting earnestly my family. I’m coveting earnestly a revival for this church and for this world.
It churned inside of Jacob. He wanted the best. It didn’t belong to him. It cost him, but he got it!
DO IT!
The source is unlimited. The well never runs dry. The rivers of living waters are springing up in my soul. There are rivers in my innermost being. The throne rules, and I have access! I’ll come behind in no gift. I’ll come behind none of them out there, over yonder, anywhere. I won’t come behind them in any gift. Not who I am, but who He is! Not what I have, but what He can give me!
How bad do you want this Water? Flood my soul! Rivers of living water! Somebody here is feeling this. Somebody is going to get what they need. My family is going to be saved!
What have I got to live for? Another trip to New York? What have I got to live for? Another trip to the Bahamas? What have I got to live for? I’ll do as all others. I’m going to make my life count for eternity and for souls, so help me God! So help me, God! I’ve got a lot of changing to do, but this ole girl is going to be working on her attitude, her spirit, her ugliness.
All this you see on the outside isn’t anything. God looks on the heart.
For your church to have revival, somebody has got to do it. Souls will be saved! If miracles happen, it will be more than just us preaching. We’ve got to hear the Word. Somebody has got to start changing and changing quick. A day then shall be as a thousand years, and a thousand years as a day. When we do, and in so long in coming, the scent of water, the cutoff branch will bud.
Impossible situations are going to change in this meeting. Ezekiel’s bone yard is going to live again because we are coveting earnestly, or this meeting wouldn’t even be going on. It’s going to make more than conquerors out of us. We are going to be fruitful branches. We are going to be like Joseph. Our branch is going to climb over the wall and feed a starving, hungry and lost world. If I can’t do anything but pray, I’ll reach, just as sure as I’m standing here. My generation is going to be reached. I don’t care what you say. I don’t care how you “down talk it. ” God can devise a plan by which His banished can be brought back.
His bone yard is going to breathe again. I know we have the Truth! Now, if I had the strength to scream it, I would scream this:
“Who will declare his generation now? Who is going to stand and turn the tide? Who is going to stand in the gap after this meeting? Who is going to arise a great while before every day and pray. Who will pray all night now? Who will walk and witness even as He walked? Who will go out of their way to reach a Samaritan. Who will go and find the Hispanics? Who will go and find the Indians? Who will go and find them on the east coast? Who will go find them?
Who will hear? The Hispanics? The black? The white? The yellow? The red?”
I covet it! I covet it earnestly! I’ll turn the tide! I’ve got a rising will to win! I’ll do it! I’ll do it! I’ll do it!
Becky Mangun Warren, born with cerebral palsy, has lived in a wheel chair for thirty-seven years. Her mother was forced to become the bread winner. Becky, as a teenager, was placed in a nursing home. Lying
there, praying to die, with no hope, no future, just waiting, just an old brand, just an old stick, but she had a praying grandmother, a praying uncle and a praying grandfather. Something came over her. She got a scent of water, and with a rising will to win, said, “I’m getting out of this place. I’m going to find me some funds and I’m going to college. I am going to make something out of myself. They may have to feed me.”
She went to Detroit, Michigan, and enrolled in Wayne State University of thirty thousand students. In 1976 Becky graduated magna cum laude, with two thousand medical doctors graduating with her, and with two thousand receiving their doctorate in education. With great effort, Becky gave the keynote address to fifteen thousand in attendance. When she got through, they gave her a standing ovation for nearly fifteen minutes. People bowed and wept, after which the president of the college walked over to the stage, and placed a kiss on her forehead. She responded by looking up in his face and said, “By od’s help, I did it!”
If there is anybody here who has been strapped to a proverbial wheel chair, you have been lying in a rest home, in a care center, paralyzed, handicapped, somebody hurt you, somebody nearly destroyed you, feeling alone, abandoned, forsaken, confused, and helpless, I prophesy to you today the scent of water, even if you be water spilt upon the ground then God has a plan devised to bring you back to Him in
full force again. Even if your church is a bone yard.
Ezekiel’s bone yard was dry and very dry, but the preaching of this Book, the naked Truth, the scent of water, the old brand, I can become. I will become. I will go home. I will organize. I will. I won’t let this ever leave me. We will have revival. I will save my family. I will reach the lost. I will do something that will help to reach them.
When you pray, get a vision. When you pray, get a dream. When you pray, say, “God, give me a plan.” I’m not going to give up on anybody because through the scent of water, every brand can become a branch
grafted in.
Not one of His promises has ever failed! Don’t take it out on God. Don’t blame God. Don’t blame others. Don’t blame others! Repent!
I’m changing today. I want to feel the love of God shed abroad in my heart by the Holy Ghost. I want some leaves to shade others. I want some fruit to feed others. I want something to encourage others. I want
to love everybody. I want to help everybody, and I want to reach for sinners wherever, whatever, whenever. I won’t fail Him. He’s never failed me!
“I cannot fail the Lord. I cannot fail the Lord. He’s never failed me yet. Every promise He has met. I cannot fail the Lord.”
THE ABOVE MATERIAL WAS TRANSCRIBED FROM TAPE AND PUBLISHED AT THE 1987 BECAUSE OF THE TIMES CONFERENCE IN ALEXANDRIA, LOUISIANA. THIS MATERIAL IS COPYRIGHTED AND MAY BE USED FOR STUDY & RESEARCH PURPOSES ONLY.
