The Apostolic Faith (November, 1906)
Gracious Pentecostal Showers Continue to Fall.
The news has spread far and wide that Los Angeles is being visited with a “rushing mighty wind from heaven.” The how and why of it is to be found in the very opposite of those conditions that are usually thought necessary for a big revival. No instruments of music are used, none are needed. No choir-but bands of angels have been heard by some in the spirit and there is a heavenly singing that is inspired by the Holy Ghost. No collections are taken. No bills have been posted to advertise the meetings. No church or organization is back of it. All who are in touch with God realize as soon as they enter the meetings that the Holy Ghost is the leader. One brother stated that even before his train entered the city, he felt the power of the revival.
Travelers from afar wend their way to the headquarters at Azusa Street. As they enquire their way to the Apostolic Faith Mission, perhaps they are asked, “O, you mean the Holy Rollers,” or “It is the Colored Church you mean?” In the vicinity of a tombstone shop stables and lumber yard (a fortunate vicinity because no one complains of all-night meetings) you find a two-story, white-washed old building. You would hardly expect heavenly visitations there, unless you remember the stable at Bethlehem.
But here you find a mighty Pentecostal revival going on from ten o’clock in the morning till about twelve at night. Yes, Pentecost has come to hundreds of hearts and many homes are made into a sweet paradise below. We remember years ago, when a bright, young missionary was dying in Bombay, India, in his last hours, unconscious with the fever, he kept crying. “Pentecost is coming! Pentecost is coming! It seemed prophetical. Pentecost has come and is coming in India, and thank God in many other places.
A leading Methodist layman of Los Angeles says, “Scenes transpiring here are what Los Angeles churches have been praying for years. I have been a Methodist for twenty-five years. I was a leader of the praying band of the First Methodist Church. We prayed that the Pentecost might come to the city of Los Angeles. We wanted it to start in the First Methodist Church, but God did not start it there. I bless God that it did not start in any church in this city, but out in the barn, so that we might all come and take part in it. If it had started in a fine church, poor colored people and Spanish people would not have got it, but praise God it started here. God Almighty says He will pour out of His Spirit upon all flesh. This is just what is happening here. I want to warn every Methodist in Los Angeles to keep your hands off this work. Tell the people wherever you go that Pentecost has come to Los Angeles.”
As soon as it is announced that the altar is open for seekers for pardon, sanctification, the baptism with the Holy Ghost and healing of the body, the people rise and flock to the altar. There is no urging. What kind of preaching is it that brings them? Why, the simple declaring of the Word of God. There is such power in the preaching of the Word in the Spirit that people are shaken on the benches. Coming to the altar, many fall prostrate under the power of God, and often come e out speaking in tongues. Sometimes the power falls on people and they are wrought upon by the Spirit during testimony or preaching and receive Bible experiences.
The testimony meetings which precede the preaching often continue for two hours or more and people are standing waiting to testify all the time. Those who have received the baptism with the Holy Ghost testify that they had a clear evidence of sanctification first. Hundreds testify that they received the Bible evidence of speaking in a new tongue that they never knew before. Some have received the “gift of tongues” or “divers tongues” and the interpretation.
The demonstrations are not the shouting, clapping or jumping so often seen in camp meetings. There is a shaking such as the early Quakers had and which the old Methodists called the “jerks.” It is while under the power of the Spirit you see the hands raised and hear speaking in tongues. While one sings a song learned from heaven with a shining face, the tears will be trickling down other faces. Many receive the Spirit through the laying on of hands, as they did through Paul at Ephesus.
Little children from eight years to twelve stand up on the altar bench and testify to the baptism with the Holy Ghost and speak in tongues. In the children’s meetings little tots get down and seek the Lord.
It is noticeable how free all nationalities feel. If a Mexican or German cannot speak English, he gets up and speaks in his own tongue and feels quite at home for the Spirit interprets through the face and people say amen. No instrument that God can use is rejected on account of color or dress or lack of education. This is why God has so built up the work.
In the testimony meetings, they report from cottage prayer meetings where perhaps a number were baptized with the Holy Ghost or saved or sanctified and those who have been seeking at home report what God has done for them.
The singing is characterized by freedom. “The Comforter has come” is sung every day, also “Heavenly Sunlight” and “Under the Blood.” Often one will rise and sing a familiar song in a new tongue.
Seekers for healing are usually taken upstairs and prayed for in the prayer room and many have been healed there. There is a larger room upstairs that is used for Bible study. A brother fittingly describes it in this way, “Upstairs is a long room furnished with chairs and three California redwood planks, laid end to end on backless chairs. This is the Pentecostal upper room where sanctified souls seek Pentecostal fullness and go out speaking in new tongues.”
The sweetest thing of all is the loving harmony. Every church where this has gone is like a part of the family. This description is given for the benefit of the many friends who write in and who would like to be present. So many letters are received in the Apostolic Faith office, which is in the same building as the mission. We cannot but weep as we read these letters and pray for those who are seeking.
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The Lord is saving drunkards and taking the appetite for liquor and tobacco completely away.
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Reports come from Denver that forty souls have received the Pentecost and are speaking in tongues.
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A young man saved from the morphine habit has no more desire for the stuff and gave up his instruments.
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Four workers from Texas, Bro. and Sister Oyler and Bro. and Sister Quinton have arrived in Los Angeles lately. God has been using them in Whittier.
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Bro. Tom Qualis from Fresno said, “I came 300 miles to this meeting and I feel heaven in my soul. It seems to me I am getting some of the crumbs that fall from Father’s table. I feel the presence of God here.”
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“Cartoons in the newspapers were my first introduction to this meeting,” said a brother, “and I said, this is what I have been praying for years. I was warned by leaders that it was of the devil, but I came and got a touch of heaven in my soul.”
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Before the fire broke out in *** a brother had a vision of fires springing up and then gathering together and advancing in a solid wall of flame. A preacher was trying to put it out with a wet gunny sack, but it was evident there was no use fighting it. Our God is marching on. Hallelujah. The man with the wet gunny sack is here also, but his efforts only call attention to the fire.
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The blind man who was saved and had his sight restored was saved because of hearing a few praying in tongues in a cottage meeting. He was a sinner; a very profane man, and was convicted because of tongues. Praise God for His marvelous works to the children of men.
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Sister Lemon of Whittier, who had been a sufferer for eighteen years and could receive no help from physicians, and had been bed-ridden for fourteen years of that time has been marvelously healed by the Lord through the laying on of hands and the prayer of faith. She has been walking to meetings. The opposers of the work cannot deny that a notable miracle has been performed through the mighty name of Jesus.
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Mother Griffith, who has been matron of a rescue home has received her Pentecost. She testified, “It seemed to me when I got saved, I got into the ocean; and when I got sanctified, it seemed the ocean got into me; and when I was baptized with the Holy Ghost, it seemed I got the life preserve on and began floating on the ocean of salvation. Jesus lives in me, and I live and have my being in Him. Thank God for salvation, sanctification, the baptism with the Holy Ghost and the witness.”
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Sister Bridget Welch has been powerfully baptized with the Holy Ghost and is working for the Lord both in laboring for souls and in service with her hands ministering to others. She testifies, “I was a dope fiend and in and out of prisons for twenty years. God Almighty has surely healed my body and given me divine strength. He healed me of cancer of the nose and did not leave a scar. I have no time for a drug store any more. The Lord took me out of an awful pit and set my feet on the solid rock and established my goings and put a new song in my mouth. He sanctified me and baptized me with the Holy Ghost and gave me the gift of tongues.”
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A sister who was very hungry for the Pentecost prayed for the Lord to strip her of everything, but give more of Himself. Then shortly afterwards when her house was in flames, she went out and knelt down in the weeds and prayed, “Lord, you said all things work together for good to them that love you. Give me more of God.” And He answered prayer and gave her a mighty baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire and she is shining for God.
PENTECOST IN DENVER.
1934 E. 18th ave., Denver, Colo.
What I received on that memorable Sunday night in Los Angeles has never left me for one moment and last night in particular at the meeting, did the Holy Ghost magnify the simple Gospel of our Lord in demonstration and power, until about twenty-five crowded the altar and got definite experiences of justification, sanctification, baptism with the Holy Ghost, and healing. One dear old man, who because of his back, could not straighten up nor stoop down without severe pain, was instantly healed, got up and showed the people how the dear Lord had healed him. He stood as straight as a young man, stooped down, touched the floor with his hands without a bit of pain. Then he knelt down and said, “I want the baptism with the Holy Ghost,” and Glory to God, he got it, and there was great joy.
Dear Bro. Seymour, God surely sent me here. These dear, hungry people, when they learned I came from the meeting at Los Angeles, received me with open arms. They gave me the evening, and during the meeting, they embraced me and our joy in the Lord knew no bounds. One dear brother from Los Angeles picked me up and held me as if I were a child. This is but the beginning of a work here such as we knew in Los Angeles. This people have been praying that God would send someone to teach them and give them light and wisdom, and they believe God has answered their prayers, hence their great joy. I feel the need of your prayers. I never saw in all my travels a people so hungry for the truth.
Dear Bro. G.F. Fink, the brother to charge, was coming to Los Angeles to Azusa street to learn and get a better understanding of the baptism with the Holy Ghost. While I was talking to the people last night, he arose and embraced me crying, I love you, I love you, my brother. Surely God has sent you to us; and the people wept for joy, and shouted praises unto God. These people here were set on fire by the Holy Ghost through Bro. Johnson and the two sisters who passed through here, and it is marvelous how the Holy Ghost has led them. You little know how the people have been praying for you and the meetings in Los Angeles in the midst of their own struggles. Give my love in Jesus to all the saints.
-T. Hezmalhaich.
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VICTORY IN OAKLAND.
Bro. Harmon Clifford, the young man who was saved, sanctified, and baptized with the Holy Ghost all in an hour and a half at Azusa Street Mission, and who was also healed of consumption, has been increasing in power, and God has bestowed on him many gifts. He writes from Oakland where the Lord sent him:
“How I praise God for ever sending me to Oakland with Bro. Rosa. I was never so happy in all my life as I have been this last week. It did seem as though I would go up at any moment, but of course God has a work for me to do yet. Praise His dear name. There was some trouble about the Bible evidence to the baptism with the Holy Ghost, but as soon as that was straight, God began to work and has been working ever since. O glory to God! Many have been saved, sanctified, and healed. Six have received Pentecost and spoke in a good, clear language up to Thursday night. People were laid out all over the mission. The people have been very quiet and let the Holy Ghost have right of way, and sometimes before the preaching is over people come to the altar. There are many hungry souls in this city.”
336 Ninth st., Oakland, Cal.
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VISION AND MESSAGE.
A sister who has been healed and baptized with the Holy Ghost related the following vision, “Two days ago the power of God came over me and He said. ‘Whatsoever ye ask in my name believing, ye shall receive.’ I said ‘Give wisdom to speak to the people.’ Immediately I was in a great hall with tables spread all about, and the Lord was the waiter, and I saw His beautiful, smiling face. He spoke to me and said, ‘I have called my friends and they did not come, therefore go out and ask everyone you find to come to the wedding.’ As I looked around to see something beautiful, the scene changed and I was in a hospital and saw poor creatures dying, looking like skeletons. I thought my call was to the hospital and telephoned to know when it was open for visitors, but the Lord revealed to me that it meant all those who are sick in their souls.”
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A CORRECTION.
In our last issue, there was a prophecy by Sister Mary Golmond of an earthquake coming to Los Angeles. She stated that the Lord had not showed the time, but that it would NOT come on Sunday. The word “not” was accidentally omitted.
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HIS BANQUETING HOUSE.
“He took me into his banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.” A brother says the Lord gave him a vision of the banqueting house. He passed under the great arches. Each one had a name upon it. The first was love, then there was joy, peace, and among others he saw, “Independence.” He asked what that meant. The answer was, “Is it not wonderful to be free?” Dear saints, this is one of the sweetest arches in the banqueting house. This bondage to love sets me perfectly free.
UNUSUAL NOISE.
There has been some unusual noise in the town of Whittier, the prayers of those who are burdened for the lost, the sound of praises to God and speaking in new tongues. A few days ago, four workers were arrested while praying in the cottage that had been offered free or rent for the use of the workers. The following letter was received at Azusa street.
“Brother Seymour in Jesus: We are charged with using boisterous language, unusual noise, or in other words praising God and speaking in tongues. This happened in the cottage this morning. The defendants are Sister May Mayo, Sister Jacobson, Bro. and Sister McLain. Trial comes off at 4 p.m. We are standing steadfast, seeing the glory of God. We believe the judge is under conviction. Sunday night nine souls were at the altar. Souls getting saved and sanctified. Power is falling in the audience. People being slain.”
When the word came to Azusa street, fifteen workers rallied to take the place of the four and meetings have been going on there with victory and power ever since.
The band that were arrested are rejoicing in the Lord that they were permitted to go through the trial. The judge gave them the choice of leaving town or going to jail. They consulted the Lord about it and He said: “When they persecute you in one city, flee ye to another.” So the sisters obeyed but Bro. McLain preferred to stand a few days in jail and working on the chain gang. When the judge gave sentence, Sister Mayo raised her hands to heaven and prayed for him and for Whittier.
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PENTECOST IN INDIA.
News comes from India that the baptism with the Holy Ghost and gift of tongues is being received there by natives who are simply taught of God. The India Alliance says, “Some of the gifts which have been scarcely heard of in the church for many centuries, are now being given by the Holy Ghost to simple, unlearned members of the body of Christ, and communities are being stirred and transformed by the wonderful grace of God. Healing, the gift of tongues, visions, and dreams, discernment of spirits, the power to prophecy and to pray the prayer of faith, all have a place in the present revival.” Hallelujah! God is sending the Pentecost to India. He is no respecter of persons.
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VERNON MISSION.
Bro. and Sister F. E. Hill are now conducting **** Forty-third and Forty-fourth streets, 4307 Central avenue. Since they received their Pentecost, they have been holding cottage meetings at their home with seekers every night. Then they told the people God had showed them to start a meeting in that section and in about five minutes the rent was paid for the hall in advance. Bro. Hill has dropped his business and is giving all his time to Gospel work. The Nazarene Church forbade speaking in tongues or testifying on the line of the baptism with the Holy Ghost upon the sanctified life, so they with others have walked out with the Bible and the Spirit, and God is giving them souls. There is room for Spirit filled workers everywhere.
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SPREADING THE FULL GOSPEL.
A number of Spirit filled workers have been going out of late. Bro. Adolph Rosa and Bro. Harmon Clifford went to Oakland and God has been using them there. Then a band of seven left on the steamer for the north, for Oakland, Salem and Seattle. They were, Sister Florence Crawford, Bro. and Sister G.W. Evans, Bro. and Sister Thomas Junk, Sister Ophelia Wiley and Sister Luiu Miller, Bro. Post went to Santa Barbara, Bro. T. Hezmalhalch to Denver, Sister Potter and Violet Price to Fresno, Bro. F.W. Williams to Alabama a Spanish brother, Brigido Perez, to San Diego. Sister Elsie Robinson to Onawa, Michigan. Bro. Seymour has been called for a short time to Oakland, but expects soon to return to headquarters at Los Angeles. We wish to keep track of the workers in the field and be united together in prayer for each other and the work in the different fields.
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BAPTIZED ON A FRUIT WAGON.
Bro. G. Zigler, who runs a fruit wagon, driving into Los Angeles early in the morning, says, “I was on my wagon coming down to the market praising God, when the Lord covered me with His power and I began to sing such a sweet song I had never sung anything like before. I was riding along at three o’clock in the morning. All at once I commenced to talk in a new tongue, and it was the most wonderful blessing I have ever received. What He has done for me, He will do for everybody.”
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The meetings have been going on now for about six months at Azusa Street day and night. How long are they going to continue? We expect them to keep on till Jesus comes, by the grace of God.
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The religion of Jesus Christ is no more popular now than it was when Jesus was here. Many are rejecting the truth and are not going to receive it. The word not only says that signs shall follow them that believe, but that “They that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” This also is being fulfilled.
END OF PAGE ONE
THE APOSTOLIC FAITH
312 Azusa Street
Published by
THE PACIFIC APOSTOLIC FAITH MOVEMENT
Headquarters, Los Angeles.
Subscription Free.
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The Pacific Apostolic Faith Movement stands for the restoration of the faith once delivered unto the saints-the old time religion, camp meeting, revivals, missions, street and prison work and Christian unity everywhere.
We are not fighting men or churches, but seeking to displace dead forms and creeds or wild fanaticisms with living, practical Christianity. “Love, Faith, Unity” is out watchword, and “Victory through the Atoning Blood” our battle cry.
Teaching on Repentance-Mark 1:14, 15.
Godly Sorrow for Sins, Example-Matt. 9:13. 2 Cor. 7, 9, 11. Acts 3:19. Acts 17:20, 31.
Confession of Sins-Luke 15:21 and Luke 18:13.
Forsaking Sinful Ways-Isa. 55:7. Jonah 3:8. Prov. 28:13.
Restitution-Ezek. 33:15. Luke 19:8.
Faith in Jesus Christ.
The blood of Jesus will never blot out any sin between man and man they can make right; but if we can’t make wrongs right the Blood graciously covers. (Matt. 5:23, 24.)
First Work.-Justification is that act of God’s free grace by which we receive remission of sins. Acts 10:42,43. Rom. 3:25.
Second Work.-Sanctification is the second work of grace and the last work of grace. Sanctification is that act of God’s free grace by which He makes us holy. John 17:15, 17.-“Sanctify them through Thy truth; Thy word is truth.” 1 Thess. 4:3. 1 Thess. 5:23; Heb. 13, 12; Heb. 2:11; Heb. 12:14.
Sanctification is cleansing to make holy. The Disciples were sanctified before the Day of Pentecost. By a careful study of Scripture you will find it is so now. “Ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you” (John 15:3; 13:10); and Jesus breathed on them the Holy Ghost (John 20:21, 22). You know that they could not have received the Spirit if they were not clean. Jesus cleaned and got all doubt out of His Church before He went back to glory.
Too many have confused the grace of Sanctification with the enduement of Power, or the Baptism of the Holy Ghost; others have taken “the anointing that abideth” for the Baptism, and failed to reach the glory and power of a true Pentecost.
The Baptism with the Holy Ghost is a gift of power upon the sanctified life; so when we get it we have the same evidence as the Disciples received on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:3, 4), in speaking in new tongues. See also Acts 10:45, 46; Acts 19:6; 1 Cor. 14:21. “For I will work a work in your days which ye will not believe though it be told you.”-Hab. 1:5.
Healing.-We must believe that God is able to heal.-Ex. 15:26: “I am the Lord that healeth the.” James 5:14; Psa. 103:3; 2 Kings 20:5; Matt. 8:16, 17; Mark 16:16, 17, 18; Behold I am the Lord, the God of all flesh; is there any thing too hard for Me?”-Jer. 32:27.
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God loves the pure in heart, the surrendered will, the empty vessel. Believe Him and receive Him. He will have His way if you will let Him.
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Sister Florence Crawford says she had a vision of a beautiful bouquet of flowers all in the bud, and the Lord said to her, “This movement is just in the bud.”
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Sister J. W. Hutchins writes from Chattanooga, Tenn., that they are stopping there in a meeting. People are hungry for the truth. They are on their way to Africa.
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Interpretation of a message in tongues: “Oh Jesus is such a wonderful God. He will reveal Himself to us in many wonderful ways. Jesus is surely with us. O praise Him.”
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The brother who was healed of asthma from which he had been suffering twenty years has received the Pentecost. He is rejoicing in the perfect healing of soul and body.
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Sister Jennie Jacobson, a Swedish sister who had been only two months in this country, was given the gift of the English language with the understanding of the words. She also received another tongue.
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You who are baptized with the Holy Ghost must die daily that Christ may abide in you. If we begin to get puffed up, God will set us aside, but if we give Him all the glory. He will use us to scatter this light.
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Blessed are the pure in heart. We do not get this purity till we are willing to let Him have His way to the fullest extent of the word. We are clay in the Potter’s hands. We must have the self well removed in order to receive Him. As long as we have something to say, “I don’t like this or that,” we cannot receive the Holy Ghost.
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We find some who are superstitious about seeking the Holy Ghost. They are afraid they are going to get the power of the devil instead of God, but men and women that are walking in the light can quickly see that this is of God. It is easy for the Lord to show them that This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel. We are living in the last days when He is pouring out His Spirit upon all flesh.
RIVER OF LIVING WATER.
In the 4th chapter of John, the words come, “Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that saith to thee Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of Him and He would have given the living water.” Praise God for the living waters today that flow freely, for it comes from God to every hungry and thirsty heart. Jesus said, “He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his inmost being shall flow rivers of living waters.” Then we are able to go in the mighty name of Jesus to the ends of the earth and water dry places, deserts and solitary places, until these parched, sad, lonely hearts are made to rejoice in the God of their salvation. We want the rivers today. Hallelujah! Glory to God in the highest!
In Jesus Christ we get forgiveness of sin, and we get sanctification of our spirit, soul, and body, and upon that we get the gift of the Holy Ghost that Jesus promised to His disciples, the promise of the Father. All this we get through the atonement. Hallelujah!
The prophet said that he had bourn our griefs and carried our sorrows. He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon Him and with His stripes we are healed. So we get healing, health, salvation, joy, life-everything in Jesus. Glory to God!
There are many wells today, but they are dry. There are many hungry souls today that are empty. But let us come to Jesus and take Him at His word and we will find wells of salvation, and be able to draw waters out of the well of salvation, for Jesus is that well.
At this time Jesus was weary from a long journey, and He sat on the well in Samaria, and a woman came to draw water. He asked her for a drink. She answered, “How is it that thou being a Jew askest drink of me who am a woman of Samaria, for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans?” Jesus said, “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, give me to drink, thou wouldst have asked of him and he would have given thee living water.”
O, how sweet it was to see Jesus, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, that great sacrifice that God had given to a lost, dying, and benighted world, sitting on the well and talking with the woman; so gentle, so meek, and so kind that it gave her an appetite to talk further with Him, until He got into her secret and uncovered her life. Then she was pricked in heart, confessed her sins and received pardon, cleansing from fornication and adultery, was washed from stain and guilt of sin and was made a child of God, and above all, received the well of salvation in her heart. It was so sweet and joyful and good. Her heart was so filled with love that she felt she could take in a whole lost world. So she ran away with a well or salvation and left the old water pot on the well. How true it is in this day, when we get the baptism with the Holy Spirit, we have something to tell, and it is that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin. The baptism with the Holy Ghost gives us power to testify to a risen, resurrected Savior. Our affections are in Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. How I worship Him today! How I praise Him for the all-cleansing blood!
Jesus’ promises are true and sure. The woman said to Him, after He had uncovered her secret, “Sir, I perceive that Thou art a prophet.” Yes, He was a prophet. He was that great prophet that Moses said the Lord would raise up. He is here today. Will we be taught of that prophet? Will we hear Him? Let us accept Him in all His fullness.
He said, “He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also, and greater works that these shall ye do, because I go unto my Father.” These disciples to whom He was speaking, had been saved, sanctified, anointed with the Holy Spirit, their hearts had been opened to understand the Scriptures, and yet Jesus said, “Tarry ye, in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.” “John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.” So the same commission comes to us. We find that they obeyed His commission and were all filled with the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost, and Peter standing up, said, “This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel.” Dear loved ones, we preach the same sermon. “This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel, and it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; and on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit, and they shall prophecy.* * * The promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.” That means until now and to last until Jerusalem comes.
There are so many people today like the woman. They are controlled by the fathers. Our salvation is not in some father or human instrument. It is sad to see people so blinded, worshiping the creature more than the Creator. Listen to what the woman said, “Our Fathers worshiped in this mountain, and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” So many people today are worshiping in the mountains, big churches, stone and frame buildings. But Jesus teaches that salvation is not in these stone structures-not in the mountains-not in the hills, but in God. For God is a Spirit. Jesus said unto her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour cometh and now is, when ye shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father.” So many people today are controlled by men. Their salvation reaches out no further than the boundary line of human creeds, but praise God for freedom in the Spirit. There are depths and heights and breadths that we can reach through the power of the blessed Spirit. “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things that God hath prepared for them that love him.
The Jews were the religious leaders at this time, and people had no more light upon salvation than the Jews gave them. The Jews were God’s chosen people to evangelize the world. He had entrusted them to give all nations the true knowledge of God, but they went into traditions and doctrines of men, and were blinded and in the dark. Jesus came as the light of the world, and He is that light. “If we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” Let us honor the Spirit, for Jesus has sent Him to teach and lead us into all truth.
Above all, let us honor the blood of Jesus Christ every moment of our lives, and we will be sweet in our souls. We will be able to talk of this common salvation to everyone that we meet. God will let His anointing rest upon us in telling them of this precious truth. This truth belongs to God. We have no right to tax anyone for the truth, because God has entrusted us with it to tell it. Freely we receive, freely we give. So the Gospel is to be preached freely, and God will bless it and spread it Himself, and we have experienced that He does, We have found Him true to His promise all the way. We have tried Him and proved Him. His promises are sure.
—-W. J. Seymour.
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WHISPERINGS OF THE COMFORTER.
The Lord had been giving me this passage, burning it into my soul for months, “The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.” Cant. 2:13. I would always get so blest when the Lord would give it to me. Finally I said, Lord, what does it mean? And immediately the thoughts came into my mind, “Why the fig tree in the Bible represents the Jews and the vines represent the ones who are the branches of the vine, Jesus. The Jews are beginning to gather at Jerusalem and beginning to show life. And the tender grapes on the vines giving a good smell means that the bride is making herself ready, showing that His coming is near. The vines are laden with fruit and begin to give a sweet smell, ripening for His coming.”
At another time, this kept coming to me, “Fear not, for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name, thou art mine.” Isa. 62:4. It would come with such sweetness and power that finally I said, Lord, what is my name? He said, “Hepzi-bah, * Isa. 62:4.
Again the Lord gave me this verse, “Thine head upon thee is like Caramel, and the hair of thine head like purple. The King is held in the chambers.” I asked the Lord what that meant. Immediately it was given me, “Thy head like Caramel, that is red under the Blood; and the hair of thine head as purple, means that you belong to the royal family. The King is held in the galleries, that is in the little cells of the brain of my head as well as of my heart.”
One evening I went to the restaurant for supper, and I sat there and had commenced my meal, when someone touched me on my shoulder. I looked around, but did not see anyone, so I turned around and commenced eating again. Then something said, “You have not given thanks for your food or asked Him to bless it.”
—Mrs. Mary P. Perkins.
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CAME FROM ALASKA.
Bro. H. M. Turney, an evangelist who was in Alaska when he heard of the outpouring of God’s Spirit in California, struck out immediately for Los Angeles, and he has received the baptism with the Holy Ghost and gift of tongues. About five minutes before he received the Holy Ghost, while kneeling at the altar, he whispered to Bro. Oyler that the devil was tempting him that the speaking in tongues was not for him. Bro. Oyler replied, “The devil is a liar from the beginning.” And immediately the Holy Ghost fell on our brother and he spoke with tongues. Since then he says the Lord waked him up at night speaking and singing in tongues, as He has so many others.
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A brother from Redlands, seventy-nine years old, came for Divine healing. He was deaf and used ear trumpets. The Lord opened his ears immediately. Then as he arose to go, a brother asked him,” “Where are you glasses?” He looked around and said with astonishment, “Why, I can see as well as I ever did.” He had had poor eyesight. The Lord also healed him of rheumatism at the same time. “With his stripes we are healed.”
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Father L. C. Ebey, of Hermon, California, has given up his medicine which he had taken for thirty years and took God for healing, the Lord has touched his body. He is in his eightieth year and is earnestly seeking his Pentecost. His testimony is, “I am a believer, I am glad I am alive in Him. I am not afraid of fanaticism. I have been through some things, I believe and look for the true restoration of the apostolic faith, so that the servants of God can go out and lay hands on the sick and they shall recover. This movement is in its infancy. If you keep your hearts pure and open. God will give you the old apostolic power. It depends on whether we keep clear of the entanglements about us.”
RECEIVING THE HOLY GHOST.
God has told His children to be witnesses, and the most convincing evidence is testimony of personal knowledge. To endeavor to help those who are sending in letters of inquiry to the Apostolic Faith office, asking how they may receive the Holy Ghost, the writer will state a little of his personal experience in obtaining this pearl of great price, the baptism with the Holy Ghost.
I dropped into the meetings on Azusa Street some time in April, having heard that some people were speaking in tongues, as they did on the day of Pentecost. Although I had been trying to preach Pentecost for five years, the speaking in tongues was as strange to me as though it had never been mentioned in God’s word. At first the meeting seemed a very tame affair to me, as I had been along the line of much fleshly demonstration and noise. As I was indoctrinated in the second blessing being the baptism with the Holy Ghost, I branded the teaching as heretical, not going to the meetings for some time.
In the meantime, Pentecost came to the place, and many began to speak in tongues. I now began to attend regularly. In fact, I could not stay away. My heart began to break up, and soon I was going from one person to another, asking them to for give me for harsh words and criticism. God so melted my heart that I would cry at my work or riding on a street car. How the dear Lord began to teach me that what I needed was His loving, tender Spirit, and that power with God meant deep humility in our dealings with our fellow creatures.
I now began to go to the altar and earnestly seek for the Lord to have His way with me. Soon the power of God began to work with me. The Holy Ghost showed me that I must be clay in the Potter’s hands, an empty vessel before the Lord. I laid aside all doctrine, all pre-conceived ideas and teachings and became absolutely empty. The Holy Ghost now settled down on me, and I could feel the power going through me like electric needles. The Spirit taught me that I must not resist the power but give way and become limp as a piece of cloth. When I did this, I fell under the power, and God began to mold me and teach me what it meant to be really surrendered to Him. I was laid out under the power five times before Pentecost really came. Each time I would come out from under the power, I would feel so sweet and clean, as though I had been run through a washing machine.
I now had come to the place where I was completely submitted to the whole will of God. I had been seeking about five weeks, and on a Saturday morning I awoke and stretched my arms toward heaven and asked God to fill me with the Holy Ghost. My arms began to tremble, and soon I was shaken violently by a great power, and it seemed as though a large pipe was fitted over my neck, my head apparently being off. I was now filled with the Holy Ghost. * cannot describe the power I felt. The nearest description that could be given would be the action of a pump under terrific pressure, filing me with oil. I could feel the filling in my toes and all parts of my body which seemed to me to swell until I thought I would burst. I do not know how long this continued but it seemed to me a long time. The pressure was now removed and my soul and spirit seemed to leave the body and float in the air just above. My body seemed hard and metallic like iron. This was undoubtedly the baptism into the death of Christ.
It was now time for me to arise and go to work, so I got up without speaking in tongues. I believe I would have spoken in tongues then, if I had remained in the hands of the Lord long enough. About thirty hours afterwards, while sitting in the meeting on Azusa Street, I felt my throat and tongue begin to move, without any effort on my part. Soon I began to stutter and then out came a distinct language which I could hardly restrain. I talked and laughed with joy far into the night. Praise Him name for such a wonderful experience of power and love and joy.-G.A. Cook.
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God is solving the missionary problem, sending out new-tongued missionaries on the apostolic faith line, without purse or scrip, and the Lord is going before them preparing the way.
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O how precious His words are. “Let not your hearts be troubled. Ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself,, that where I am there ye may be also.” So Jesus is coming back again, and He wants us, His bride, to be watching and waiting with the garments of righteousness on, ready to enter into the marriage supper. Glory to our God. Hosanna to His omnipotent name, for He has risen in our hearts. O it is so sweet to live this Holy Ghost life.
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Many church members are paying their way to hell. They are paying preachers to preach against the baptism with the Holy Ghost. They are getting poisoned against the truth and it is damning their souls. People need the baptism with the Holy Ghost that they may know God. “It is not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit saith the Lord.” If we do not get the Spirit in our hearts, how can we know about the deep things of God? We cannot be His witnesses to the uttermost parts of the earth till we speak in new tongues. He gives us power to lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover, and to speak with new tongues and cast out devils. Dear ones, we need the baptism with the Holy Ghost.
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NEW-TONGUED MISSIONARIES FOR AFRICA.
Our dear Brother and Sister Mead, who have spent twenty years in missionary work in Africa have received their Pentecost in Los Angeles, and as the Lord leads and opens the way they will be on their way to the dark continent again with the divine fitness for missionary work.
Bro. Mead’s Testimony of Pentecost.
We are asked by many dear ones about our Pentecost, etc. It is beautiful, simple and full of comfort. I went to the meetings when I first heard of the manifestation of the Spirit, speaking in tongues, healing of the body, etc. I was not surprised, for we had been praying and expecting something of this kind to arouse God’s people to the reality of the Word of God, and the truth of God Emanuel. While seeking the closer walk with God in Africa, the Spirit seemed to fall on us, revealing Jesus so real to our souls; a burden seemed to be on my heart, in writing and in conversation, I could but say, Jesus is real.
The first night at the meetings, my heart went out for the baptism. I went forward to be prayed for, and hands were laid on me, and prayer was made, that I might receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I continued praying and fasting, in hope and much comfort. One evening, in complete abnegation of self, it was revealed to me that the same power and persecutions that were in the beginning were now to be repeated for the perfecting of the Church. Would I choose it? My heart cried out, Oh, yes Lord, with your smile. And my soul was flooded with Divine love; and I commenced to speak as I would sing a new song.
It was entirely different from the way Mrs. Mead received her baptism. I was as conscious as I am at this moment, but my heart was full of praises and thanksgiving. I seemed now to have a conception of the mighty efficacy of the blood of Christ, and His omnipresence in Spirit, as never before.
Many ask, “Do you think these tongues will be used in a foreign field?” As for myself I cannot say. My God is able, this I know. The Pentecost or baptism of Divine love, that would enable a missionary to say to the poor Africans, as the Spirit did through Peter and John, to the poor cripple at the gate of the Temple, “Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk,” would mark a grand epoch in the history of foreign missions. I believe God is about to repeat many of the miracles and wonders wrought in the early history of the church.
—S. J. Mead.
Sister Mead’s Baptism.
Two years before we left Africa, the Holy Spirit began to speak to us in an especial way. We felt the lack of the power and love in the service of our Master, and we commenced seeking that power from Him; we had no definite light on the baptism in our sanctified life of twenty years. And praise God, we did have a most wonderful experience when we were justified, and our sins forgiven. And then after we were sanctified, the joy of heaven filled our souls, and we had the wonderful “anointing which abideth.” Yet we felt the lack of power in our lives, and this was what we were earnestly seeking, as we waited on God in our little mission home in Africa. It was at this time, that the Book of the Revelation was so wonderfully opened up to our souls, for which we shall never cease to praise God.
Just before our return to America, we believe it was the Spirit of God, who said to us very plainly. “Los Angles, California, is the end of your journey.” This seemed strange to us, at the time, as we had no friends in Los Angeles; but we see now it was the Holy Spirit of God, to bring us to Los Angeles to receive our Pentecost.
Our faith was indeed tasted after reaching this city. After three days, I had pneumonia in both lungs, and for days I realized nothing of this world. But praise God He raised me up in answer to the prayer of faith, and I shall never cease to praise Him, that He spared me for this wonderful day of my Pentecost. While in our home in Los Angeles, at times the Spirit would be wonderfully poured out upon us in our morning worship, and then the enemy would thrust sore at us, knowing that His time was short.
About this time, we met a sister in Christ, who told us of the Azusa Street meetings, and that some were speaking in tongues, so we went at once to see if these things were true. We felt the power of God immediately as we entered the meeting. After two or three days, as the invitation was given for those who wished to seek for the baptism of the Holy Ghost, I went forward to the little humble altar. While on the way the enemy said to me, “You, a missionary in Africa twenty years, now going forward to the altar,” I said, yes. I am going forward, for I want all that God has for me, and then and there I gained a real victory in my soul. Then Bro. Seymour, Sister Crawford and another Sister laid their hands upon me that I might receive the Holy Ghost. As they prayed, I felt the power go through my body, but did not receive then the full baptism.
We waited on God daily in our home for three weeks, searching the Scriptures, confessing our faults, and getting everything under the blood, even forgetting at times to take food. During this time, while attending the meetings one day, the tongues became a stone of stumbling to me, and a rock of offense, and I immediately went into darkness, which was so great that my dear husband cried to the Lord for me, and I was restored, willing to submit what I did not understand to God. Then the enemy tried to get me discouraged, telling me that this baptism was not for me. I went into my room feeling so discouraged, when the Spirit said to me as plainly as a voice, “How did you receive your justification? How did you receive your sanctification?” I said, Lord, by faith. He then said, “Receive me.” I arose, and felt very happy, praising the Lord. This was on Friday evening and we went into our front room and said we would have a meeting to seek the Spirit just as they did at Bro. Seymour’s. So we sang and testified, and then fell on our knees in prayer. As we repeated over and over again, We receive the Holy Ghost, in our simplicity, he came in, and we could not retire until late. Then we asked the Holy Spirit to continue His work in us while we slept.
On Saturday morning at the breakfast table I said, something seems to hinder my perfect freedom, and my husband said, “It may be in regard to your little neighbor; you know she did not receive the gospel, and left off coming in to see you, and so you have left off going in to see her. You have more light than she, and perhaps have done wrong.” The faithful Holy Spirit convicted me, and I said, beginning to cry like a child, Oh, Lord, I see it and fell on my knees. Just as I did this crying “let it all be under the blood,” the Holy Ghost fell upon me in great sweetness and power; and just then I had a wonderful revelation of the blood of Christ making me as clean and innocent as a child, and Jesus was real to me.
I was under the power from early morning till about five at night, prophesying in the Scriptures, and then began to speak in tongues, as the Spirit gave me utterance, I spoke most of the afternoon, having some very sweet revelations concerning the precious blood of Christ, which I trust will never be taken away from me, and may, through the Spirit, be used to glorify my Savior.
Since then I have been shown that what I speak is an African dialect, and concerning the blood of Christ.
And now I follow on to know the Lord more fully and may I be able to comprehend with all saints, what is the breadth and length and depth and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge; and may have the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him.
If any sanctified soul is seeking Pentecost, the way is so simple. Believe and receive, and it is His will to fill your precious soul.
—Ardell K. Mead.
THE HOLY GHOST FROM HEAVEN.
Bro. Burke from Anaheim, who received the Holy Ghost, says: “I told the Lord to search my heart and melt me down, and it seemed to me I grew smaller and smaller till I felt about the size of a grasshopper. I asked the Lord to put the Holy Ghost on me, and it came like the outpouring of water on the crown of my head and it went through my entire body to the very tips of my toes and fingers and my heart seemed to expand ten time larger. Then something rushed through me like I was under a faucet. It was the Holy Ghost, and the next thing I knew, something began to get hold of my jaw bones and tongue. I said, Lord whether I ever speak in tongues or not, I want the baptism with the Holy Ghost as they had it on the day of Pentecost. I went home and it seemed a music band of a thousand instruments was set up within me. The next morning it was singing in my soul, ‘The power, the power, the Pentecostal power, is just the same today.’ I was singing it in the yard and my wife was singing it in the kitchen. It has not stopped yet. Then it changed to ‘The Comforter has come, the Holy Ghost from heaven,’ I was so hungry for the Holy Ghost. They told awful stories about this work over there where I live, but I was hungry and thirsty and could not keep away. If you are hungry, come and let God fill you.”
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PAPERS TO DISTRIBUTE
A brother writes, “I wish in your next number you would state what the papers cost per hundred copies postpaid, to issue and mail them. I want a bundle of each issue.”
This is the Lord’s paper and is published free, and we are glad for interested friends to distribute them to hungry souls. It costs in the neighborhood of $1 to issue and mail a hundred copies. We have never even asked for a collection for the paper, but the Lord touches hearts to give. He showed us to publish a Pentecostal paper on Pentecostal lines. We honor Him to provide the means, and He is doing it. We keep no account books here, the Lord keeps the records. We do not publish the names of donors, but the Lord knows who they are. He says that those who give in secret He will reward openly.
Our first issue was 5,000. These were taken so eagerly and brought in so many replies from hungry souls, that we made our next issue 10,000. This issue was as eagerly sought as the first, so we have concluded that we will publish 20,000 this issue, the means being provided. The future issues will depend upon how the Lord supplies the means. We would consider it a great honor if God shall supply us with sufficient means to send out as many as 50,000 each issue. This Gospel must go, for the time is short before the appearing of our Lord and Savior in the air with the angelic host. As workers cannot get to the fields fast enough, the Lord is using the paper.
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A sister in Pasadena who was living a holy life before God and was honestly desiring all God had for her, arose in a Pentecostal meeting and said, “I do not ask for tongues but I want to love God with all my heart and soul and my neighbor as myself,” and immediately she began to speak with tongues.
IN MONEY MATTERS.
There have been teachers who have told all the people to sell out, and many of them have gone into fanatacism. We let the Spirit lead people and tell them what they ought to give. When they get filled with the Spirit, their pocket books are converted and God makes them stewards and if He says, “Sell out,” they will do so. But sometimes they have families. God does not tell you to forsake your family. He says if you do not provide for your own you are worse than an infidel. Some are not called to go out and teach. We find some who have no wisdom nor faith, and the devil takes them to disgrace the work. Under false teaching, children have been left to go half naked, women have left their husbands, and husbands leave their wives to wash and scrub, and the Bible says that is worse than infidelity. Then they will go and borrow and cannot pay back. That person ought to go to work. The Bible says, “Let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.”
He sent those that were called out to preach the Gospel, to “take no though what ye shall eat or drink.” Get down and pray. Make your wants known unto God and He will send it in.
God does not expect all to send out for He says in I. Cor. 16:1, “Now concerning the collection for the saints, * * * upon the first day of the week, let everyone of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him.” It does not mean for you to have great real estate and money banked up while your brothers and sisters are suffering. He means for you to turn loose because all that money is soon going to be thrown to the moles and bats. So it is better to spread the Gospel and get stars in your crown than to be holding it. But for us to go and tell you to do it, pick out somebody that has money and read the Word to them, would not be the Spirit of the Lord. The Spirit will tell you what wakes you up at night and tells you what to do, you cannot sleep till you obey. He says everyone shall be taught of God from the least to the greatest. God wants a free giver.
Annanias wanted to have a reputation that he sold out like the rest, so he plotted that he should give a portion and say he had sold out for the Lord. But the Holy Ghost told Peter that Annanias had told a lie. Peter told him the property was his. The Lord allows you to be the steward over it. The property was his and the sin was in lying to the Holy Ghost. It is right for you to have property, but if the Lord says, take $200 or $500 or $1,000 and distribute here or there, you do it.
We must know our calling. We can work when baptized with the Holy Ghost. Some think they have got to preach. Well, we do preach in testifying. Some think they must go out because they have the tongues but those are good for Los Angeles or anywhere else. The Lord will lead you by His small voice.–W.J. Seymour.
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THE LORD LED HER.
Sister Malone went to Redlands as a worker from Los Angeles. In a meeting there, an old lady eighty-six years of age came in. She had not been taught of man about the Pentecost, but arose and testified that years ago she took her Bible alone and said, “Lord, lead me.” And He gave her the Baptism with the Holy Ghost and the gift of tongues. Sister Malone asked, “Can you speak with tongues?” And immediately she began to speak with tongues as the Spirit gave utterance and to interpret. This is no new thing. It was begun on the day of Pentecost, but has been hidden for centuries except here and there as some humble soul has been taught of God and received His word without question.
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THE FAITH WAY.
While Sister Crawford was praying for money to send workers to Oakland, the Lord gave her a vision of three bills she would receive and she received three five dollar bills. Then when praying about her fare to Salem, Oregon, she saw three gold pieces and sure enough she received the gold pieces. The Pentecostal way is to make your requests known to God and to God alone, and truly it is a safe way as we have tested and proved it. It is a way that honors God, it is the Bible way, it is the only safe way to go out, that is to walk with the Lord by the light of His word.
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EDITORS RECEIVE THE PENTECOST.
Rev. T.G. Attebury, pastor of the People’s Church, Sixth and Mateo streets, Los Angeles, and who has for years been the publisher of The Evangelist, has received his Pentecost. His wife and a number of his congregation have also received the Holy Ghost and the church is a center of fire. He says:
“Perhaps no religious movement in the history of this coast has proved of greater interest to the Christian world than that begun and carried on by the Azusa Street Mission of this city under the leadership of Rex W.J. Seymour. The special manifestations of the Spirit in the meetings conducted there have deepened. Interested the Christian workers of all denominations, so that great crowds throng the building at every service to hear and see the things that are being done. The leaders of this movement teach that all the gifts of the Spirit, as enumerated by the Apostle Paul in the twelfth chapter of his first letter to the Corinthian church, are for the church today; that these gifts are in the Holy Spirit and that when he comes to dwell in his fullness in a human heart he brings all these gifts with Him. They contend that only lack of faith will hinder the Spirit from manifesting all of these gifts through every life that is wholly surrendered to the will of God.
“Another teaching peculiar to this movement is that the scriptural evidence that one has been baptized with the Holy Spirit is the gift of tongues, such as the church in Jerusalem received on the day of Pentecost. That large numbers in this mission, and also in other missions and churches of this city and vicinity, have received the gift of tongues cannot be doubled.”
Bro. Ryan Receives His Pentecost.
Rev. M.L. Ryan, a holiness evangelist and editor of Light, Salem, Oregon, hearing the good news from Los Angeles, suddenly dropped in at the Azusa Street publishing office. After a few words of greeting, he went into the upper room meeting and in about two hours after he arrived, he was baptized with the Holy Ghost and spoke and sang in the power of the Spirit. He has returned to Salem and a band of Spirit-filled workers have gone to Salem to help in a Pentecostal meeting there. Bro. Ryan says:
“Little did I think that God had such a rich experience for so unworthy a person as myself. When I arrived in Los Angeles I had my mind made up that I must seek for the Pentecostal Baptism at least one week before receiving it. To my unutterable surprise and joy the power fell upon me at once. The Holy Ghost prayed and spoke through me in tongues. One of the blessed privileges conferred upon me was a place in that heavenly choir, the songs of which defy all power of human to imitate. Hallelujah for His unspeakable gift.”
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TESTIMONY OF HEALING.
Thirteen years ago, I was brought into the light of Divine healing, through the Word of God. I had never heard any teaching from man. But I had been for a long time very greatly afflicted in body. I had taken physicians and medicine until I became discouraged and continued to grow worse till I decided to drop every remedy and take the Lord for my healer.
To this my people would not give consent. They thought I was losing my mind. One morning, through a nurse, I was chloroformed and taken out of my home to the hospital where they performed an operation. After the physicians had cut and slashed and found that the seat of the trouble was deeper than they anticipated, they lost courage and said it was impossible for me to recover. It was only a question of a few hours that I could possibly live. My husband was away in God’s work at the time, and my people became alarmed, and realized what they had done, and decided to take me back to my home to die. But, praise God, He had another plan in store for me.
I did not regain consciousness for many hours, I opened my eyes in my own room and heard them praying around my bed. Then I realized my dreadful situation and in the most excruciating agony, I lifted my eyes to heaven and saw a light streaming down upon me. And in a moment, I heard the voice of Jesus telling me to trust Him, that He was my healer. I said, “Yes, Lord, I do trust Thee and will trust Thee, for Thou hast healed me and healed me now.” Then there was a wonderful joy that came into my very being, and I felt the Spirit and the healing power of Christ permeating my whole being, praise God. In three days time I was up and around my room, and in less than a week I was able to walk a mile. Never from that time have I doubted the healing power of Jesus. Since then, for thirteen years, I have been in the Lord’s work.
Now I wish to relate another instance of His healing power. While in Oakland, California, during last August, through an accident, God permitted the old trouble to come back, and from Saturday evening until Tuesday noon, I suffered intensely. At noon time, we always held our workers’ class there, and it was during the saints’ meeting, I had a wonderful spirit of prayer, and I tried to say, “Jesus is here,” and found I had no utterance, but He was present in my soul. The spirit of prayer continued on me until 2:30. When the Lord permitted me to raise my eyes, I saw a vision of beautiful, rolling clouds, and Jesus suspended in the midst, and just then I realized that He was there for my healing. Sister Crawford and Sister Junk who were with me also saw Jesus, and God revealed to them He had come to heal me. I felt the healing work of Jesus. Many of you loved ones have seen the mason lift up his trowel of motar and throw it upon the wall that he was building, and just so it seemed to me that the Great Physician was rebuilding the temple of my body. O Hallelujah! praise His name. O, I know that He is the only physician that can heal all our diseases. All that afternoon and evening, no matter which way I turned, the form of my Savior was suspended in front of me, and I wish ever to behold the smile of His countenance as I saw Him on that day. My healing was instantaneous, and today I rejoice in a perfect body.–Mrs. May Evans.
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UNDER THE BLOOD.
We can only have life in our souls as we live under the blood. We live in the Word, then the blood flows. The blood is the life. If we stay in Jesus, we have life flowing in us. How watchful we must be to feed on the word and keep under the blood, or else we shall become sounding brass and tinkling cymbals. We may retain the gifts for a time but not the life.
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Bro. J.C. Mackey, of San Diego, California, says, “I heard of the meetings in Los Angeles and it set me on fire. The Spirit said to me, ‘You go.’ I said, ‘I will.’ I got my ticket and came and today I am saved, sanctified, and baptized with the Holy Ghost, and have the witness.”
END OF PAGE THREE
VISIONS OF HELL.
A sister who has been baptized with the Holy Ghost was at a church where the evangelist denounced the works of grace, the baptism with the Holy Ghost and gift of tongues. That evening she says the Lord showed her a vision of an open hell just back of the pulpit, with the awful, lurid flames coming up, and people sitting around the altar with their feet hanging over into the open hell, unconscious of their condition.
Bro. Thos. Junk, while in Oakland, had a vision of hell. He seemed to leave his body and was taken to the top of Knob Hill, in the midst of the ruins of San Francisco. The Savior commanded him, “Son of man, speak.” As soon as he spoke, the ground at his feet parted and moved from him, disclosing a liquid fire, like molten iron, with demons and men and women in flames. He says there came to him an awful fume of burning sulfur and he heard the screams of the damned, which were heart-rending. All around the edges of the great opening, people were walking, unconscious of the open pit, and a continual stream of them were falling into the lake of fire. He beheld them splashing into the fire and heard the laugh of demons as each struck the fire.
While beholding all this, he saw a woman he had known for some time, a professor of holiness and one who took a prominent part in testimony and prayer, running toward the opening, looking too high to see it. She dashed right over into the flames, and a shout went up from the demons, with such roars of laughter as he had never heard before.
Bro. Junk had been an infidel, and since his conversion could not believe the scripture statements concerning hell, and had been teaching that the sufferings of the lost would be remorse and spiritual distress, but not fire. As he looked on this scene, Jesus Christ told him to preach a hell of fire, just as it is in the word of God, and he promised to do so.
The next Sabbath that professor of holiness was in the meeting as an opposer, insisting that she was filled with the Holy Ghost, but that this work was the work of seducing spirits and the doctrines of devils.
The above incidents are taken from the Household of God and many will remember Bro. Junk, who was with us in Los Angeles.
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PENTECOSTAL EXPERIENCE.
Sister Lucy M. Leatherman writes from 231 Second Avenue, N.Y., of her work there witnessing to the Pentecost. We have not space for a full report, but her testimony will be of interest to all.
“While seeking for the Baptism with the Holy Ghost in Los Angeles, after Sister Ferrell laid hands on me, I praised and praised God and saw my Savior in the heavens. And as I praised, I came closer and closer, and I was so small. By and by I swept into the wound in His side, and He was not only in me but I in Him, and there I found that rest that passeth all understanding, and He said to me, you are in the bosom of the Father. He said I was clothed upon and in the secret place of the Most High. But I said, Father, I want the gift of the Holy Ghost, and the heavens opened and I was overshadowed, and such power came upon me and went through me. He said, Praise Me, and when I did, angels came and ministered unto me. I was passive in His hands, and by the eye of faith I saw angel hands working on my vocal cords, and I realized they were loosing me. I began to praise Him in an unknown language.
“In a few days, while on my way to church, I met a lady and two little children. She was talking to her children in a language that sounded like the words God had given me. I spoke a sentence to her, and she said, ‘What you say means God has given Himself to you.’ She is from Beirut, Syria, and speaks Arabic. Eight years ago, in A.B. Simpson’s missionary school at Nyack, New York, I heard the Macedonian ery to go to Jerusalem, but it is to the Arabs. I am told there are more Arabs than Jews there, and God has been speaking to me and asks me if I would be willing to go with Him to the wild Arab of the desert. Anywhere with Jesus I will gladly go.
On land or sea, what matter where.
Where Jesus is ’tis heaven there.
“Pray that God will send a revival to this city and pray for Arabia.”
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SIGNS FOLLOW.
The signs are following in Los Angeles. The eyes of the blind have been opened, the lame have been made to walk, and those who have accidentally drunk poison have been healed. One came suffering from poison and was healed instantly. Devils are cast out, and many speak in new tongues. All the signs in Mark 16: 16-18 have followed except raising the dead, and we believe God will have someone to receive that power. We want all the signs that it may prove that God is true. It will result in the salvation of many souls.
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ANOTHER FREE PAPER.
Rev. M.L. Ryan of Salem, Ore., who received his Pentecost in Los Angeles, has now put his paper, “Light”, on the free subscription line and it is full of Pentecostal news and truth. Send for it if you want to keep in touch with the work being done in the north. Address, “Light,” Salem, Ore. The subscription was 50 cents a year, and though it is free now, we would suggest that those who can will put in an offering for the work there, for he is depending on God alone and they need help in forwarding the work. Bro. Ryan is a true man of God and filled with the Holy Ghost.
IN JAIL FOR JESUS’ SAKE.
When I first went down to Whittier from Los Angeles, as soon as I got on the car to go down, it seemed the power of God came on me, and all the time I was there and during the trial in the court room I felt the power of God. I could hardly sit on my chair in the court room. I knew it was all in the order of the Lord for me to be arrested and put in jail. The Lord wonderfully used me. I never had such power of God on me as when I was in that jail.
As soon as we would come in after supper, after working on the chain gang during the day shoveling dirt, I would get my Bible and call the men into the big room and the Lord gave me their tongue, the Mexican language. I did not have that tongue, until I went into the jail. As I would talk with them, the tears would run down their faces. There was not one of them but was weeping bitterly. Then when I went into my little cell, after I got done preaching, two or three of them would come in and talk with me a long while. Most of the men were Mexicans. Two or three could talk my language and they could interpret English for the others. I did not know what I was saying in tongues, except as they interpreted for me. When I was preaching to them in tongues, I read the 55th chapter of Isaiah to them in the Mexican language, with my Bible in my hand, but I did not know the chapter, nor that I had read it until they told me. I never had the Lord use me so much before as in jail. It seemed wave after wave of power would run over me. There was hardly a night I would sleep more than an hour or two. The Lord was giving me messages to give them. Bless His holy name.
The men in jail asked me where the mission was, and they were going to come down as soon as they got out. They were anxious for the day to come to get out of there and get to the mission.
I and my wife feel the call of God to go out into the work as the way opens. Our call is first to our old home near Onawa, Michigan.–Henry McLain.
Sister McLain says that when her husband was in jail the presence of the Lord was more precious than ever before in her life. “While I was asking Him to supply my needs. He appeared to me and seemed to enclose a dollar in my hand. All my wants were supplied. Now we are going forth to preach the Gospel. The word keeps coming to me, Go, Go. We have forsaken all for Jesus. We will take our three little children with us and when we get to Michigan, God has provided a home at our daughters for the children. We expect to preach the word till He comes.”
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A BLESSED EXPERIENCE.
Bro. and Sister S.K. Gibson from Kentucky, who have been in Gospel work for years, have received their Pentecost. Bro. Gibson testified, “Night before last, I received the fullness. I have been a Christian over sixty years. I re-consecrated, and God’s blessing and word never were so sweet to me as now. Last week in prayer the Lord wonderfully blest me and came into my room while I was on my face on the floor, and He said, “I will baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and your vile body shall be changed like unto my glorious body, never more to die.” It was a revelation in harmony with God’s word. What a joy came into my heart at those words. I believe God will work in this old body that has so long been worn out and use it to His glory.”
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BIBLE SALVATION.
The object and end of all the precious Scripture is that a definite work may be wrought out in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. God’s design through the ages and through all His work with the children of men, has been to implant His own nature-love, in a fallen race. Oh how sweet to feel the tender thrills of that love, going through every part of our being. This is real Bible salvation-not a mere theory or contention over different passages of scripture.
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SANCTIFICATION AND POWER.
Have you accepted Jesus? Will you accept Him? Have you accepted Him as your sanctifier? In John 17:15-17, Jesus prayed, “I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth. * * * And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they might also be sanctified through the truth.” Also in I. Thess. 1:4, “This is the will of God even your sanctification.” Bless His dear name. He says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in unto him and sup with him and He with us. Praises to our God. Hosanna to His omnipotent name!
If we are sanctified and have clean hearts, living pure, holy lives and having perfect love in our souls, O, let us receive the baptism with the Holy Ghost, the promise of the Father, that we may be able to be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth. For Jesus gave this great commission in His resurrection power, after He rose from the dead. “Go, ye, into all the world and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always even unto the end of the world.”
O, dear loved ones, we must preach and teach and practice all that Jesus has commissioned us. If we have not received all of the fullness of our blessed Christ, let us continue till we shall be filled with all the fullness of God. Let us press forward to the mark of the prize of the high calling in Christ Jesus. O, dear loved ones, this means the baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire upon our souls. It is heaven in our souls here. O, let us get down before God and humble ourselves until we can hear Him speak. He desires to speak with His people today as He did in the early morning of the church. The Holy Ghost wants to speak to the people. We praise God for the instruments He has raised up to bring to us light, but far above all, we admire the great Teacher of teachers that never makes a mistake, that loved us even to the throbs of death when He hung on Calvary from the sixth until the ninth hour and there was darkness over the face of the earth, proving to a lost and benighted world that He was the Son of God. Infidels were compelled to confess that this was the Son of God, for they heard His words on the cross, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” His great desire on the cross was for the salvation of souls.
Dear ones, have we got that burning passion for souls of the lost? When we are persecuted and tried for the word of God, can we say in our hearts, Lord, forgive them, for they know not what they do? This is what it means to have the faith that was once delivered unto the saints, faith such as Stephen had when he was being stoned to death. He could look up into heaven and see Jesus at the right hand of God. It seems that He could not feel the stoning He was so wrapped up in Jesus. There was a smile on His face like an angel when He fell asleep in Jesus.
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VISIONS OF JESUS.
While Brother G.W. Evans was with us in Oakland, exhorting the people to come in Christ, we observed he was speaking in verse with great earnestness, in which the great blessing of salvation and happiness and eternal life were held out to all who would come to Christ and obey Him. After speaking in this manner for probably five minutes he fell backward to the floor, and remained in an unconscious state for probably ten minutes; and then arose.
After meeting a woman in the congregation went to him and requested a copy of the poetry he had spoken, and found he was oblivious to the fact that he had repeated a number of verses.
Later I talked to him about this experience, and he stated that he had never committed any such verses to memory and knew nothing of having repeated them in the meeting.
He then told me that while he was speaking the whole rear end of the Hall became filled with faces of angelic beings from floor to ceiling and from wall to wall. A literal bank of beautiful faces, with Jesus in the center, and all faces turned towards Him.
He says he recognized Peter and James and John, also John Wesley.
During his gaze at this Heavenly host he spoke unconsciously the invitations and exhortations to all to come and receive the rich blessings offered. He knew nothing of his fall, but returned to consciousness to find himself on the floor.
The same thing occurred again, about ten days later in the meeting, with this difference he did not recognize any of the faces, except Jesus, standing in the center.
At both times, he says, there were waves of spiritual power and glory coming from Jesus all over him.
I believe every one in the house felt the Divine power present, and the altar was instantly crowded with penitents.–Household of God.
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A CATHOLIC THAT RECEIVED PENTECOST.
Bro. Lee, whom God so wonderfully saved from darkness and a life of sin, and baptized him with the Holy Ghost, testified, “I praise God for this old barn. This is my confession box right here. My priest was Jesus Christ. I praise God for justifying me and sanctifying me wholly, and baptizing me with the Holy Ghost. Jesus Christ is the head of my church. It was Jesus who did the work for me. When the Holy Ghost comes in He speaks for Himself and sings His own songs. Friends, I did not go to college to get this language. It is the Holy Ghost that speaks. He can talk the languages of the nations. It makes no difference what judges or policemen say, this Irishman is saved by the grace of God. Glory to God. It settles a man when he gets the baptism. It gives you a sound mind. This salvation keeps me out of the saloons and jails and red light district. Jesus Christ gave his life for us that we might be saved. Glory to God for a salvation that keeps me night and day. This means persecution. Hallelujah.”
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PREACHING TO THE SPANISH.
Bro. and Sister Lopez, Spanish people, who are filled with the Holy Ghost, are being used of God in street meetings and in helping Mexicans at the altar at Azusa street. Bro. Brigido Perez is another young Spanish boy who has received the Pentecost. He is now in San Diego. He writes his testimony in Spanish, which being translated reads, “Through the grace of Almighty God and faith in Jesus Christ, I can testify to sanctification and the baptism with the Holy Spirit and fire of love in my heart. How good He has been to me. On September 3rd, while I was praying, I felt in my heart that Christ our Savior wanted me to go and testify in His precious name in different parts of the country.” The Holy Ghost shines out of this brother’s face.
THE TEN VIRGINS.
I saw a vision of the ten virgins before me, five wise and five foolish. The five foolish virgins had oil in their vessels and their lamps were burning. The five wise virgins also had their lamps burning, and oil in their vessels. This was something more than a clean heart and yet the same nature. The oil in their vessels with their lamps was the baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire. The five foolish virgins were holiness people, but they were saying, “There is nothing in it, we got it when we were sanctified and we are satisfied.” But the Lord showed me that the five foolish virgins, who would not accept the doctrine and seek the double supply of oil, will find that their lamps are beginning to go out, burning low. There is nothing to keep burning. They are burning now just as brightly as they ever will. The time is coming when the oil is going to give out.
Let me warn you, do not oppose the baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire, for if you oppose it your lamp will go out, but you get that vessel filled with oil.
The cry went forth, “The bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet him!” Then those poor ones whose lamps were going out, said, “We have not enough oil.” And as they went to buy or seek the baptism with the Holy Ghost, (for the time is coming when they will begin to seek) the bridegroom was taken away. Dear ones, do you want to be there when Jesus comes? If you do, seek the Holy Ghost today.
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THE CHARACTER OF LOVE.
It is sweet to have the promise of Jesus and the character of Jesus wrought out in our lives and hearts by the power of the Blood and the Holy Ghost, and to have that same love and that same meekness and humility manifested in our lives, for His character is love. Jesus was a man of love. The people flocked to Him to hear His words. Women lugged their babies in the hot sun and spent days listening to the words of Jesus. Men got into boats and went across the sea to see Jesus and hear His precious words. While there were many that followed for the loaves and fishes, many followed Him for healing. Yes, He was a man of love. He was the express image of the Father, God manifest in the flesh.
Dear loved ones, we must have that pure love that comes down from heaven, love that is willing to suffer loss, love that is not puffed up, not easily provoked, but gentle, meek, and humble. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter day by day. We are crucified to self, the world, the flesh and everything, that we may bear about in our body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that our joy may be full even as He is full.
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There are three regular Pentecostal missions now in the city, besides a number of cottage prayer meetings in which the Lord is working in power. In Monrovia, Pasadena, Sawtelle, Whittier and other points about here, as fast as workers are ready to go out, meetings are springing up.
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Bro. A.C. Atherton, a Presbyterian Evangelist from Greenfield, Iowa, hearing the glad tidings from Los Angeles, came 2,500 miles, and the first night he was in the meeting he was slain under the power of God and said that one meeting paid for the trip. Afterward he received the baptism with the Holy Ghost and spoke in tongues. He then started home filled with great joy to spread the good news.
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Some who learned of the Pentecost in Los Angeles through reading this paper have come to Los Angeles and received the baptism with the Holy Ghost and the Bible evidence as received on the day of Pentecost. One received the Holy Ghost and gift of tongues while reading the first number of the paper. May the Lord continue to bless these printed messages to souls. We expect the Spirit to accompany this paper to the heart of each reader.
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News comes from Colorado Springs that souls are being saved, sanctified, and baptized with the Holy Ghost. Some are being healed also. A number are speaking in tongues. The Lord is calling some to go as missionaries, and a number are expecting to go to different parts of the world. The gift of singing and playing instruments in the Spirit has been given. A child six years of age has the gift of tongues, also a person eighty years of age. A girl of twelve years preaches and signs in the Indian language.
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The Word says: “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.” Chicago is going to stand up in the judgment; Los Angeles shall stand before the judgment, New York and Indianapolis shall be brought into judgment. After the white throne judgment, we are going to see men and women who have scorned this holiness and baptism, and they will be cast down into the burning hell. Today is the day of salvation. Today if ye will hear His voice, harden not your heart. O, accept this salvation.
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Sister Seeley of Temple street, Los Angeles, had been suffering eight years from rupture. She could not live without her medicine and was subject to sudden spells of great pain. During the last attack, she decided to trust fully in the Lord. She came to Azusa street and asked prayers and as hands were laid on her and prayer was being offered, Bro. Seymour got the witness that she was healed, and at the same moment she felt a thrill of joy through her being, and knew the work was done. She has since taken no medicine and her healing is perfect. She has also received the baptism with the Holy Ghost and is a joyful witness.
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Looking Out of the Corner of Their Eyes: An Analysis of the Trend in Spiritual Development of Youth in Bulgaria
The Bulgarian Pentecostal movement is rooted in the Azusa Street Holiness Revival, which began in April of 1906. As a result of the revival, which followed throughout the United States less than a decade later, denominations such as the Church of God (1896) and Assemblies of God (1914) were established and sent missionaries to foreign lands including Bulgaria. After Assemblies of God missionaries to Eastern Europe Zaplishny and Voronaev embarked on their missionary endeavors in the 1920s, Bulgaria officially received the message of Pentecost. However, when Communist Dictatorship began in 1944, religious freedom was repressed and forced Pentecostal believers underground for 45 years until the Fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
From this oppression, Christians became creative in where and how they would gather. Services were held in secret rooms, moving from one house to the next and literally underground. During difficult times they would even gather in secluded mountain plains and hold services, which would last for days at a time. Even to this day, this tradition is kept where every year believers will assemble together for a time of praise and worship. And it is from these times that branched other church movements, which attempt to replicate this experience with a focus on evangelizing the youth of Bulgaria. However, some of these attempts have not been very successful. These movements successfully target young people, but the experiences which they are having are not as their fathers and grandfathers. Unfortunately, they are somewhat superficial and have become a time of leisure and socialization. There has been a perversion of the genuine experiences of the past in this attempt to simply copy what is happening without having a sincerely encounter with God. The church attempts to keep the tradition without having the experience.
Yet, in the midst of these movements of camps, rallies, mega services, concerts, there are young people which do have a genuine encounter and are on fire for God. But unfortunately, these movements with a lack of a better word are not properly equipped with a follow through plan in which the youth can be plugged into a local church where they can be discipled. It is almost as if the churches do not have an internal program for youth because they are relying on the many external activities to minister to their youth.
Many Bulgarian congregations are struggling with how to motivate their youth locally. They are confused why during the times of conferences and camps youth appear to be on fire for God, but when they return to their local church, for the ones who have a local church, they “lose” this drive. The simple, simple answer to this is that our youth are lacking in a strong internal biblical foundation. Youth need this foundation to build on in order to genuinely grow in Christ. Therefore, the churches’ focus should be to educate our children and give a solid Biblical basis as opposed to waiting until they are lost to gather them in a camp and attempt to reach them. If ones motivation is based internally, no external factor will be needed to motivate your youth. There is no substitute for an internal passion for Christ for when something is internal it does not come and go with a movement or trend. This foundation comes from our fathers and mothers and from the local church.
Youth are ready for a serious authentic move of the Spirit, which is Biblical based in the foundation of the roots from which their faith is grounded. When understanding from where you came, you will be able to appreciate your here and now. Meaning that in identifying with your roots you know who you are and do not waiver with movements. But for those whom have had a genuine encounter on the mountain tops, so to speak, where are they to go? Who will father them? With the crisis in leadership in the churches of Bulgaria, there is a spirit of discouragement and distrust among believers. This is harsh to say, but should not be kept silent simply because of pride. Only when Bulgaria is ready to recognize this, will it be ready to genuinely minister to youth. It is only then that the young people will have a place to go and someone to minister to them. For how can one minister to another when they themselves are occupied with bitterness and power.
Children from birth watch everything. All is new to them, everything is interesting and they are instinctively curios. This curiosity is a God given desire in order to learn and grow. When a child is learning to pray they are told to bow their heads, close their eyes and listen to the words of their parents, but if you observe this process closely you will notice that a child will at first peak around. Why do they do this? Initially, one might think that a child is just playing around and not taking prayer seriously, however this is not the case. They look out of the corner of their eye and peak around in order to watch and see what you do and how to pray. They cannot learn when their eyes are closed. They have never before closed their eyes to pray and need a model.
So just as children look to their fathers and mothers to learn how to pray, the Bulgarian youth are looking to their spiritual fathers to know how to pray. With much sorrow I say the following: these children do not like what they are seeing. They peak out of the corner of their eye and see arguing, hostility, selfishness, depression, burnt-out, and worst of all, they do not see their fathers praying. They do not see their fathers fasting. If a father does not pray or fast how will the children know how to do these biblical acts. This lack of spiritual discipline leads to a rebellion against the church in which you hear from the mouths of babes “I believe in God, but I don’t believe in the church”. This factual quote should be eye opening. Yet instead, we keep our eyes wide shut. We need to overcome the lie that if we do not see things or problems, they do not exist. It is time to listen to what we know is truth.
So on one hand, we have a lost generation that does not have any faith in organized religion and on the other, we have a generation of youth that is hungry if not starved. They are hungry for solid foods and tired of living off babes milk. They are ready for a real experience and need spiritual parents. Who is willing to be that spiritual father? Who is willing to stop arguing? Who is willing to open their house again to be a home for the spiritual orphans of Bulgaria? Let the church once again be a place of refuge and not a place to be prostituted out to the highest bidder. Let the pastor genuinely be a father again instead of a corrupt politician. Let the children of Bulgarian have a voice, because if their voice is taken away today, they will have no future tomorrow and be lost for an eternity. This is not a price we should be willing to pay.
This article is based on a word the Lord gave me on 09/09/2010 that “The Children of Bulgaria are looking out of the corner of their eyes up to their fathers and not liking what they are seeing”.
-Kathryn N. Donev
The Apostolic Faith (October, 1906)
All along the ages men have been preaching a partial Gospel. A part of the Gospel remained when the world went into the dark ages. God has from time to time raised up men to bring back the truth to the church. He raised up Luther to bring back to the world the doctrine of justification by faith. He raised up another reformer in John Wesley to establish Bible holiness in the church. Then he raised up Dr. Cullis who brought back to the world the wonderful doctrine of divine healing. Now He is bringing back the Pentecostal Baptism to the church.
God laid His hand on a little crippled boy seven years of age and healed him of disease and made him whole except his ankles. He walked on the sides of his ankles. Then, when he was fourteen years of age, he had been sent to college and God had called him to preach. One day as he was sitting reading his Bible, a man came for him to go and hold a meeting. He began to say to the Lord: “Father, if I go to that place, it will be necessary for me to walk here and vonder, just put strength into these ankle joints of mine.” And immediately he was made whole and leaped and praised God, like the man at the beautiful gate. He has since been in evangelistic work over the United States, seeing multitudes saved, sanctified and healed.
Five years ago, God put it into this man’s heart (Bro. Charles Parham) to go over to Topeka, Kansas, to educate missionaries to carry the Gospel. It was a faith school and the Bible was only text book. The students had gathered there without tuition or board, God sending in the means to carry on the work. Most of the students had been religious workers and said they had received the baptism with the Holy Ghost a number of years ago. Bro. Parham became convinced that there was no religious school that tallied up with the second chapter of Acts. Just before the first of January, 1901, the Bible School began to study the word on the Baptism with the Holy Ghost to discover the Bible evidence of this baptism that they might obtain it.
The students kept up continual prayer in the praying tower. A company would go up and stay three hours, and then another company would go up and wait on God, praying that all the promises of the Word might be wrought out in their lives.
On New Year’s night, Miss Agnes N. Ozman, one who had had for years “the anointing that abideth,” which she mistook for the baptism, was convinced of the need of a personal Pentecost. A few minutes before midnight, she desired hands laid on her that she might receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. During prayer and invocation of hands, she was filled with the Holy Ghost and spoke with other tongues as the Spirit gave utterance.
This made all hungry. Scarcely eating or sleeping, the school with one accord waited on God. On the 3rd of January, 1901, Bro. Parham being absent holding a meeting at the time, while they all waited on God to send the baptism of the Spirit, suddenly twelve students were filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues, and when Bro. Parham returned and opened the door of the room where they were gathered, a wonderful sight met his eyes. The whole room was filled with a white sheen of light that could not be described, and twelve of the students were on their feet talking in different languages.
He said they seemed to pay no attention at all to him, and he knelt in one corner and said: “O, God, what does this mean?” The Lord said: “Are you able to stand for the experience in the face of persecution and howling mobs?” He said: “Yes, Lord, if you will give me the experience, for the laborer must first be partaker of the fruits.” Instantly the Lord took his vocal organs, and he was preaching the Word in another language.
This man has preached in different languages over the United States, and men and women of that nationality have come to the altar and sought God. He was surely raised up of God to be an apostle of the doctrine of Pentecost.
This Pentecostal Gospel has been spreading ever since, but on the Pacific coast it has burst out in great power and is being carried from here over the world. We are expecting Bro. Parham to visit Los Angeles in a few days and for a mightier tide of salvation to break out.
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FIRE STILL FALLING.
The waves of Pentecostal salvation are still rolling in at Azusa Street Mission. From morning till late at night the meetings continue with about three altar services a day. We have made no record of souls saved, sanctified and baptized with the Holy Ghost, but a brother said last week he counted about fifty in all that had been baptized with the Holy Ghost during the week. Then at Eighth street and Maple avenue, the People’s church, Monrovia, Whittier, Hermon, Sawtelle, Pasadena, Elysian Heights, and other places the work is going on and souls are coming through amid great rejoicing.
Four of the Holiness preachers have received the baptism with the Holy Ghost. One of them, Bro. Wm. Pendleton, with his congregation, being turned out of the church, are holding meetings at Eighth street an Maple avenue. There is a heavenly atmosphere there. The altar is filled with seekers, people are slain under the power of God, and rising in a life baptized with the Holy Ghost.
The fire is spreading. People are writing from different points to know about this Pentecost, and are beginning to wait on God for their Pentecost. He is no respecter of persons and places. We expect to see a wave of salvation go over this world. While this work has been going on for five years, it has burst out in great power on this coast. There is power in the full Gospel. Nothing can quench it.
Missionaries for the foreign fields, equipped with several languages, are now on their way and others are only waiting for the way to open and for the Lord to say: “Go.” We are on our faces before God. Let a volume of prayer go up from all the Lord’s people. Awake! Awake! There is but time to dress and be ready, for the cry will soon go forth. “The Bridegroom cometh.”
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Eight missionaries have started to the foreign field since this movement began a Los Angeles a few months ago. About thirty workers have gone out into the field.
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The brother at Elysian Heights who received his eyesight after being blind for a year and a half, is a living witness of the power of God. Since that he has been sanctified and anointed with the Holy Ghost and his wife has been saved.
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In the City of Oakland, during the five weeks that the band from Los Angeles were there, Brother and Sister Evans and Sister Florence Crawford, sixty-five souls received the baptism with the Holy Ghost, thirty were sanctified and nineteen converted.
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A man who was twice in the insane asylum, an infidel that had been going from place to place denying the name of Jesus Christ, is now saved, sanctified and baptized with the Holy Ghost, and working to win others.
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Sometimes, among officers of the law, we find a keen judgment in regard to genuine or spurious religion. In Pasadena, where the Lord was working in power some months ago, the chief of police made the remark: “I would not give much for a meeting that did not have a shout in it.”
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Sister Lizzie Frazer of Colorado Springs, Colorado, was one of those who received the gift of tongues when the Palestine Missionary band passed through there. She writes that she expects to go to India with a band of missionaries next month. The Lord has given her a wonderful equipment.
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Mrs. J. Kring was healed of cancer of the lungs on August 8, after the doctor had given her up. One lung was entirely closed up. When she was prayed for, the Lord immediately touched her body and healed her. She shouted for an hour with strong lungs, and is the happiest woman you ever saw.
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A mother brought her son to the Mission to be healed of epileptic fits. He is about twenty-one years old and has been suffering for years, like the boy that was brought to Jesus whom the devil had often caused to fall into the fire and into the water. The boy was so wrecked in mind and body that he was in a semi-conscious condition. Bro. Batman, who is called to Africa, prayed for him, asking the Lord to cast the demon power out of him and give complete healing. The boy raised up from the floor and witnessed that the work was done and went home rejoicing.
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A brother living in the east had been down sick for quite a while and sent a handkerchief to be blessed as in Bible times. His sister brought it to the Mission, praying for the Lord to show her to whom she was to give it, and the Lord showed her to give it to Sister Sallie Trainor. She immediately took it upstairs and as she knelt before the Lord, the Spirit came upon her in great power and she prayed in tongues, and kissed the handkerchief three times, as the Spirit seemed to lead her. It was sent with a prayer and the brother was immediately healed.
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A PORTUGUESE MINISTER RECEIVES HIS PENTECOST.
Rev. Adolph Rosa, a Portuguese brother from Cape Verde Islands, was baptized with the Holy Ghost in Oakland and is now in Los Angeles preaching the full Gospel. He was a Catholic and his father had expected to have him educated as a Catholic priest; but God had His hand upon him. He came to America, was converted from the power of Romanism and captivity about six years ago in a Portuguese Methodist church in New Bedford, Mass., and entered the ministry of the Methodist church as a missionary to the Portuguese in the state of California. He was sanctified about four years ago, and is now conducting Pentecostal offerings in the People’s church in Los Angeles.
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BRO. ROSA’S TESTIMONY.
When Rev. Evans and his wife and Sister Florence Crawford went to the city of Oakland preaching the full Gospel, I went the first night, not to criticize but to investigate. Many preachers were there to criticize, but when I stepped in, I felt the power of God and could not say that it was the work of the devil, as most of the preachers declared, for I was practically convinced that it was the work of the Holy Ghost. I went home and began to study my Bible, and went to God in prayer to reveal to me if these people were really the people of God. He revealed to me in the attitude of my supplication, that they were preaching exactly what the disciples of old preached. I was convinced that every minister of the Gospel should receive the same baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire that the disciples received on the day of Pentecost, before they are prepared to preach the Gospel. I was teaching that when we receive sanctification, we receive the Holy Ghost, as most of the preachers are teaching. But as I went to my Bible with the spirit of prayer, God revealed to me that the disciples were justified before Christ ascended: but they never were baptized with the Holy Ghost until the day of Pentecost.
The second day that I went to the meeting, the Lord put a real hunger in my soul to go forward, but I was too proud as a minister of the Gospel to humble myself in a lowly mission and let ladies pray over me for the gift of the Holy Ghost, and I had in my mind what people would think of me. I at the third day, as I arose to testify in the audience, the only words I could say were: “What does God think of me?” Then I could only weep for some minutes and the power of God came upon me until I dropped to the floor. I was under the power of God for about an hour and a half, and it was there that all pride, and self, and conceit disappeared, and I was really dead to the world, for I had Christ within in His fullness. I was baptized with the Holy Ghost and spoke in a new tongue.
I praise God for the light, and now I am walking in it. The desire of my heart is to see every man and woman that preaches the Gospel of Christ, baptized with the Holy Ghost, for without the Holy Ghost it is almost impossible for us to convince the world of sin, of righteousness, and the judgment.
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GET INTO THE CORNFIELD.
“It is an awful hard thing to get a holiness preacher that has been indoctrinate for years to see that he has not received his Pentecost. I have been preaching for twenty years and never preached anything but a full salvation. To get a fellow that has been preaching twenty years to see that he has not received the baptism, when he has been preaching all the time that he has it, and then to get him to turn seeker, is a hard job. I tell you it means for him to get pretty near the end of himself.
“The time has come, in the full blaze of Pentecost, that if you do not walk in the light, you will become a dry chip. I bless God, I humbled myself. On the 10th day of July the Lord gave me the evidence of the Pentecost. It took me three weeks, searching the Word, from Genesis to Revelations to see that these things were so. Any fellow that will get down on his knees and pray through and read through, will find that the Holy Ghost only falls on a clean temple. You must give over and let God have His way.
“So many folks remind me of the hog that was trying to get into a big cornfield. There was a big, hollow, crooked log in the fence, laid in such a way that both ends of the log were on the same side of the fence. The hog would go into one end of the log expecting that he would get into the cornfield. He would go in and come out, and look all around to see how it was that he was not in the cornfield. There are a lot of folks today just in that place. They crawl through a hollow log of experience and never get anything. Bless God, I would hunt the way. Jesus said: ‘I am the way.’ Get into the cornfield. Hunt for the wicket gate and you will get in. Hallelujah! I am in the cornfield.”
The above is the testimony of Bro. Hill, a Nazarene preacher. He and his wife have both received their personal Pentecost and Bible evidence.
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TESTIMONIES OF OUTGOING MISSIONARIES.
A company of three missionaries left Los Angeles September 13, en route for the west coast of Africa. Sister Hutchins has been preaching the Gospel in the power of the Spirit. She has received the baptism with the Holy Ghost and the gift of the Uganda language, the language of the people to whom she is sent. A brother who has been in that country understands and has interpreted the language she speaks. Her husband is with her and her niece, who also has been given the African language.
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SISTER HUTCHINS’ TESTIMONY.
I was justified on the 4th of July, 1901, and at that time, I felt that the Lord wanted me in Africa, but I was not then at all willing to go. But on the 28th of July, 1903, the Lord sanctified me. Before He sanctified me, He asked me if I would go to Africa. I promised Him I would. From that time on, I have felt the call to Africa, and have been willing to go at any moment, but not knowing just when the Lord would have me leave.
On the sixth of last month, while out in my back yard one afternoon, I heard a voice speaking to me these words: “On the 15th day of September, take your husband and baby and start out for Africa.” And I looked around and about me to see if there was not someone speaking to me, but I did not see anyone, and I soon recognized that it was the voice of God. I looked up into the heavens and said: “Lord, I will obey.” Since then I have had many tests and temptations from the devil. He has at times told me that I would not even live to see the 15th of September, but I never once doubted God. I knew that He was able to bring everything to pass that He told me to do.
After hearing the voice telling me to leave Los Angeles on the 15th, I went to one of my neighbors and testified to her that the Lord had told me to leave for Africa on the 15th of September. She looked at me with a smile. I asked her what she was smiling about. She said: “Because you have not got street car fare to go to Azusa Street Mission tonight, and talking about going to Africa.” But I told her I was trusting in a God that could bring all things to pass that He wanted us to do. He has really supplied all my needs in every way, for the work where He has called me.
I want to testify also about my husband. He was a backslider, and how the devil did test me, saying: “You are going out to cast the devil out of others, and going to take a devil with you.” My husband was not saved, but I held on to God and said: “Lord, I will obey.”
I continued to testify and to make preparations to leave on the 15th. The Lord reclaimed my husband and sanctified him wholly and put the glory and shout in him. So now it is my time to laugh. The devil has oppressed and mocked me; but praise the Lord, now I can mock him. Glory to God!
It is now ten minutes to four o’clock in the afternoon on the 15th day of September. I am all ready and down to the Mission with my ticket and everything prepared, waiting to have hands laid on and the prayers of the saints, and expect to leave at eight o’clock from the Santa Fe station en route for Africa. We expect to go to Mt. Coffee, Monrovia, Liberia.
Feeling the need of a real companion in the Gospel that was out and out for God, I prayed to God that He might give me one to go with me. I had my eyes upon one that I wanted to go, but in prayer and humility before God, I found out it was not the one the Lord wanted to go. So I said: “Anyone, Lord, that you would have to go will be pleasing to me.” And, to my surprise, He gave me my niece-a girl that I had raised from a child. Now she is nineteen years of age, is saved, sanctified and baptized with the Holy Ghost, and is going with me out into the work of the Lord. So instead of giving me one companion,, He gave me two-my niece and my husband.
Our first stop will be Chattanooga, Tenn., Harge Row. I want the prayers of the saints that I may stay humble.
Mrs. J.W. Hutchins. Address Mt. Coffee, Monrovia, Liberia, Africa.
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A GIRL’S CONSECRATION FOR AFRICA.
I am saved, sanctified and baptized with the Holy Ghost and have the Bible evidence. The Lord showed me that the language I spoke was the language of Africa. My aunt who has been the same as a mother to me, was going to Africa. I asked the Lord if He wanted me to go, to open up a way for me, and the next morning He opened the way for me. I did not have the means and He gave me the fare and supplied all my needs. I am willing to trust Him through to Africa. I know the Lord wants me to go there. I want to testify to those people and teach the children about the blessed Lord, and to work for the Lord. I am willing to forsake all my loved ones for His sake. I want the saints to pray for me for I am young in the Lord.
Leila McKinney.
END OF PAGE ONE
THE ELDER BROTHER.
“And he was angry and would not go in.” Luke 15:28.
The prodigal son had returned amid great rejoicing to his father’s house. There was music and dancing, and perhaps the whole neighborhood was stirred up and came out to see what was happening. “Joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth.” And when heaven rejoices, if we are connected up properly, we will catch the refrain and join in.
Father has certainly opened up His house on Azusa street for the return of the prodigals. And they are coming in from the north, south, east and west. The fatted calf is daily being killed, and the fine new garments of praise and salvation are being handed out to the poor prodigals who are so lean and weary, and covered with filth and rags. Praise His name!
This causes great rejoicing among Father’s servants and such scenes as the weeping prodigal, the Father’s kiss of peace, the loving welcome, the whole household welcoming the prodigal, arraying him in the best robe and ring of authority, killing the fatted calf, and sweet strains of heavenly music, are being repeated every day and often run far into the night. People that have been good, pious church members for years, and have been noted for their sobriety and level-headedness, are attracted by these things. If they are honest before God, they soon realize that Father is furnishing the music and singing, and supplying the wine of the feast. As the table is spread so freely, they take a small drink of the “new wine.” Immediately their eyes begin to light up and heavenly illumination comes into their faces. The prodigal has entered into justification, and sanctification, and the baptism with the Holy Ghost. They have never seen it on this fashion before, but they find it all on the table and all from heaven, so they are soon “filled with the Spirit” and begin to speak and sing with new tongues, as the Spirit gives utterance. Business cares are forgotten, while they enjoy the feast.
There was one discordant voice in the parable, as told by Jesus. It was the elder brother’s. He is here also. The father called him”son,” and he was “in the field.” We do not read, however, that he was doing any work. It simply states that he was in the field. He may have worn a long-tailed coat and white necktie and walked around and gave orders. If he had been hard at work all day plowing with a deep plow, with his father’s interests at heart, would he not have rejoiced with the household at his brother’s return?
Yes, the elder brother is angry and will not come in to the feast. He sits on the fence and finds fault, saying that the “new tongues” and other gifts that Father is handing out to His children are of the devil. He says “It is spiritualism, hypnotism, and the rankest kind of fanatacism.” Father has gone out to him several times, and continues to entreat him to come in. He says that he has not worn gold nor costly array, neither has a feather been seen in his hat, “lo, these many years,” yet he has had no fatted calf killed for him. He does not drink tea, nor coffee, nor eat hog meat, neither does a necktie adorn his shirt front. He has done many wonderful works, but here are the drunkard and harlot entering into the kingdom before him. He does not understand it and has not recognized his brother as any kin to him. We are praying that he will soften his heart and come in before it is too late. But in the meantime, the rejoicing goes on. Father hands out the clean, white raiment, and spreads a feast of fat things. The new wine of the kingdom never runs out, and peace and joy and heavenly music are flowing like a river, till the sound is heard over the whole land.
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TESTIMONY AND PROPHECY.
[The following was written down from the lips of a sister, who is unlearned and works and washing and ironing for a living. Sue received the gift of prophecy ten years ago, and though she is not learned in books or affairs of the world, she has been foretelling great events, and her prophecies accord with the Scriptures.]-Ed.
Years ago there was a Jew holding meetings in Pasadena, and he invited them to come up and receive the Holy Ghost. I had a little baby in my arms and could not get to the altar, but knelt in the aisle. I did not get anything, but I went home and washed my baby and put him to bed, and got down on my knees and said: “Dear Lord, please give me the Holy Ghost, if there is such a thing as the Holy Ghost. Give me what you would like for me to have.” So that night He called me and anointed me with the Holy Ghost. It was just like an outpouring rain from heaven, and the next day it seemed I was nothing but a feather walking around. He told me I should see, hear and know the wonderful things that should come to pass, before they did come to pass.
He told me the Japanese would win against the Russians, and showed me these things before a gun was fired. He said: “The Japanese will win, because the Russians started the war, and they shall die in their own blood and stampede one another.” He said: “They wanted blood and they shall have blood to their heart’s content.”
LABOR AGAINST CAPITAL.
The Lord says. “The time is coming when the poor will be oppressed and the Christians can neither buy nor sell, unless they have ‘the mark of the beast.'” Then He says: “The time will come when the poor man will say that he has nothing to eat and work will be shut down. And the rich man will go and buy up all the sugar, tea, coffee, etc., and hold it in his store, and we cannot get it unless we have the mark of the beast.”
“That is going to cause the poor man to go to these places and break in to get food. This will cause the rich man to come out with his gun to make war with the laboring man. They will cause blood to be spilt in the street as it never was before.” I saw the blood ankle deep, and they were holding to the horse’s bridles with the right hand and cutting and slashing right and left with their swords. And the Lord said the blood would be in the streets like an outpouring rain from heaven. He says all these unions are bringing the sword to their own head, to cut their own heads off. (I had never heard of unions before the Lord showed me this and I asked my husband what ‘labor against capital’ meant.)
Then He said to me again: “The time is coming when men are going to get desperate and will go into the banks even at noon-time and hew men down, and take out the silver and gold and walk on with it. They will rob the banks in open daytime.”
The Lord said the time was coming when men would not regard a man’s life any more than that of a dog. Then He says again that there is going to be a war as there never was before. Four nations from the four corners of the earth are coming together for battle, and it is going to be one of the worst wars that ever was in history.
The Lord says: “The time will come when the rich man will bury his silver and gold and return to it no more, and he will floods and pestilences and earthquakes shall weep and howl and his misery shall be great.”
EARTHQUAKES.
The Lord says that earthquakes will come as they never have before and more often, because of the wickedness of the people. He wants His people to get ready. The only way He can get you ready is to bring disaster. If you do not repent, a great many of you will be lost. Not only is the earthquake coming, but death and destruction everywhere. Every day you hear of these things and you are walking into it with your eyes open, and death is overlooking you on the cars and railroads, and in floods and storms.
The Lord says there will be more destruction than there ever has been, because you will not serve God. You will not give God your hearts. He brings these things upon the earth, that you might repent and be drawn nearer to Him. He says wars and floods and pestilences and earthquakes shall come upon us. We must prepare ourselves for it.
The Lord showed me the earthquake in San Francisco just a year before the day it came to pass. He showed me an earthquake coming to Los Angeles. He showed ** eagle flying over Los Angeles and lighting on the highest building, and as it lit, the building began to crumble. I asked the Lord what it meant, and He said: “The eagle means death and the crumbling is an earthquake. There will be a violent shock in the morning and one at night. There will be mangling and tangling with wires, and the street car rails will bend and twist, and the telegraph poles will come down.” He showed me the cars and people mangled up together and the live wires setting fire to the buildings. I asked Him if this was coming to pass, to show it to me again and He showed it to me again. And I saw a death angel flying over the city and fire falling on the city. The Lord showed me the land was going to sink and I saw water. Then five weeks after this earthquake, He said that Pasadena would be shaken, and many cities would be destroyed, and Chicago would be one of them.
I fasted two days and asked the Lord when it was coming, and He told me: “It will come on Sunday,” but He did not tell me when it would be. He says: “Be ready and look for it.” I believe He will either save us or come and catch us up to heaven. The Lord said to me ten years ago: “If you are faithful, you shall never see death.” I said: “Lord, when are you coming?” He said: “Be ready when I come, saith the Lord.”
THE REVIVAL IN LOS ANGELES.
The Lord showed me that since Bro. Seymour came to Los Angeles, there have been more souls converted and sanctified than in all the city of Los Angeles during the last five years. And He said there would be more, and they should be as thick as the leaves and twigs on a tree.
Mrs. Mary Galmond. 1106 N. Marenge Avenue, Pasadena, Cal.
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THE SECOND CHAPTER OF ACTS.
A preacher’s wife, who at first opposed Pentecostal truth, went home and read the second chapter of Acts, and while she read, the Spirit fell upon her and she began to speak in tongues. She is a member of the Nazarene church in Vernon. As she was on the way to the church she met a brother whom she had been instrumental in leading to the Lord. He is a foreigner and as soon as she saw him, she began to pour out her soul in French. He was amazed and *.
“When did you learn French?”
“What did I say?” she asked.
“You said: “Get ready! Get ready! Jesus is coming soon!”
She went on up to the church, and as they were giving out the Sunday school leaflets she began to speak in tongues again and spoke for some time. They could only listen to this manifestation of the power of God.
AWFUL REALITIES OF HELL.
The question is asked: “Do you believe in hell?”
Brother, it makes no difference what you or I believe, that does not do away with God’s word. Hell exists in its awful reality, whether you believe it or not, and multitudes are plunging headlong into it. “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.” Ps. 9, 17.
Jesus believed in hell, and warned men to flee from it. Why are the pulpits so silent today? Because we are in the latter day apostacy. Read the words of Jesus:
“the Son of man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity and shall cast them into a furnace of fire, there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.” Matt. 13:41, 42.
“So shall it be in the end of the world, the angels shall come forth and sever the wicked from among the just, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.” Matt. 13:49, 50.
“But Abraham said: Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivest they good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things, but now he is comforted and thou art tormented.” Luke 16:25.
“But the fearful and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death.” (or separation from God.) Rev. 21:8.
“And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever.” Rev. 20:10.
Beloved, these are the words of Jesus, and when He says “forever and ever” what could be more expressive of eternity?
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PENTECOST IN DANVILLE, VA.
Dear Saints in Los Angeles:-God be praised for His power and grace. We are making preparations to go to India as soon as possible. Three of us-with the baby, four in all-will go just as soon as possible, so as to be on the ocean in the right time.
When we came here from Los Angeles, we found the band to whom we had preached while here before, most of them backslidden and fussing among themselves. But when they saw that God had really done something wonderful for us, they all came in and began to seek the Lord. Most of them have been baptized with the Holy Ghost and have received the foreign tongue.
One young girl received the baptism Friday night and she spoke in German. God sent us a German to interpret. He said he could understand everything perfectly. Sister Jennie Eans has also received the German language, and speaks it very fluently.
Sister Garr improves every day in her Tibetan and Chinese. O, how I praise God that He ever gave us this wonderful experience of the baptism with the Holy Ghost.
The folks fall under the power of God, and a great time is on here. The church was packed twice yesterday and altar overflowing with seekers. One saved man was sanctified in the afternoon meeting and in the evening meeting received the baptism with the Holy Ghost and spoke in tongues and magnified God.
A real revival has begun and three holiness preacher boys have fallen in line. Two of them have received the baptism and the tongues. The other one is seeking and says he will never stop till he receives it. A good many have received the tongues, we do not know how many.
The sick are being healed. Soon after we arrived, a lady sick with dropsy came to the meeting. She got out of bed to come; had been sick a long time. As she told us how glad she was to see us back in Danville and of her long sick spell, I said: “God will heal you,” and took her hand. She immediately shouted that she was healed. I felt the healing power flow into her body. The next day she told us that her limbs were swollen, but that every bit of it was driven out at once. She walked down town and then told her neighbors about the wonderful things the Lord had done for her.
Several have been healed. But, best of all, many are getting the light, and as the Bible opens to us, they rejoice for the precious truths that have been hidden from us for so long by the “traditions of the elders.” This is the greatest power I ever saw. Glory to God! I have wanted just this for years, but did not know how to get it. But, Hallelujah! After all, the great God opened my eyes and let me see the truth, and it liberated me from the bondage of ignorant teachings and the devil in general. I see the Bible now as never before.
Many are tied through fear. Some are afraid of their leaders, some of one another, some are so afraid of the third blessing that they are not quite sure of the second. So it goes. And the world speeds along its way to hell, while the so-called sanctified people are asleep or else arguing that they got it all when they were sanctified. The feebleness of the so-called sanctified is enough to convince any honest soul that they have not got the power. We rejoice daily that we are free from sectarianism. Hallelujah, that God ever showed us that there was a real witness to the baptism. Why did we not see it sooner?
May God open the eyes of the world, and show the people that He is willing to give them what He gave the disciples on the day of Pentecost.
We are expecting God to give us a good revival in India. Pray for us.
A.G. Garr and Wife.
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SERMON FROM A DRESS.
The Lord makes His truth so plain that a wayfaring man, though a fool, shall not err therein. You have all seen a dirty dress washed. But you never saw a person take a dirty dress and iron it. And you never saw them take a dress and wash and iron it all at once. And you never saw a person put on a dress and iron it. And you never saw them take a dress and wash and iron it all at once. And you never saw a person put on a dress and iron it.
The dirty dress represents a person in sin. Your righteousness is filthy rags. “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.” When you get the dress washed, that represents a justified experience. When the dress is washed and on the line, you rejoice because the washing is through.
But the clothes need nothing else before they are ready to wear. What do they need? Why, they need to be ironed. You would be ashamed to take the clothes off the line and wear them without ironing. Jesus would be ashamed to present you before the Father if you were not sanctified, but when you are sanctified He is not ashamed to call you brethren. Christ gave Himself for His church that He might wash it and present it without spot or wrinkle. So we must let Him iron out all the wrinkles.
What next? You take an ironed garment and there is something lacking yet. What is it? Why you need to put it on and wear it. But that is no work. The work was done when you washed and ironed it. So the Holy Ghost is a free gift. It is the promise of the Father to the soul that is sanctified. You do not have to repent to get the Holy Ghost, but you must be washed clean and whiter than snow. Now you have nothing to mourn over, but something to rejoice over. You can know you are baptized. The Holy Ghost will cut your tongue loose and let you praise Him in an unknown language. God will not iron a dirty piece. He will take out the spots and then the wrinkles, and after these two weeks, He will baptize you with His free gift-the Holy Ghost.
Ophelia Wiley.
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MARKS OF FANATICISM.
Fanatics are marked by harshness towards those who do not fall in line with them, an Jesus is not held up. Sooner or later the fruits of the flesh appear in a lack of holy living.
We note these things because some honest souls have feared that this Pentecostal movement was fanaticism. So we mark some of the features of the meetings which are the opposite of fanaticism. Divine love to all, especially to the church, the body of Christ, of which every justified soul is a member. Humility: This is a humble work in a humble place and we are glad that it is. We humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God and constantly search the scriptures to know His whole will and plan. Holy lives: these people are living holy lives, separate from the world, the flesh and the devil, and rescuing other souls to a life of purity and holiness. There is a Holy Ghost shine on the faces of the workers. Is this the work of the devil? Friends, if you profess to know the Spirit of God and do not recognize Him when He comes, there is cause for you to be anxious about you own spiritual condition.
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WHEN THE HOLY GHOST SPEAKS.
Bro. H.M. Allen, 3081 E. 6th street Los Angeles, who received the gift of tongues, says he wrote down the sounds phonetically and took the standard works on languages and found out what it meant. He says: “I find everything the Holy Ghost speaks to me in the unknown tongues is of profound report. He has not given me liberty to tell all He has shown me in unknown tongues, but they are the most important things that can possibly take our attention, things that are speedily coming on the whole earth. God performed a miracle in speaking to me in unknown tongues. I have taken the dictionary of languages and found out that it was absolutely true. It may sound foolish to you to hear people speaking in unknown tongues, but if He speaks only two words they are well worth listening to.”
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A KNOW-SO SALVATION.
If God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you your sins, you know it. And if you do not know it better than you know anything in this world, you are still in your sins. When you go down in the atonement, in the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ, you are accepted. And if you are accepted, and He has given you a clean heart and sanctified your soul, you know it. And if you do not know it, the work is not done.
If you are baptized with the Holy Ghost, you know it, and everybody else knows it. That is one thing you cannot hide. When you are sanctified, people have to take your testimony and watch your life, but when He comes and covers you over and around and about, people know it. Man may say, it is of the devil and they are drunk, but glory to God, He will shine out Himself, and there is a power back of you that men and women cannot gainsay. It will give you holy boldness to stand up before the world without fear.
END OF PAGE TWO
SHALL WE REJECT JESUS’ LAST WORDS?
Many of the dear holiness people are rejecting the last words of Jesus in the last chapter of Mark, beginning at the fifteenth verse:
“And He said unto them: Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe; in my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover.”
Why do they reject these verses? Because Dr. Godbey, in his commentary and translation, has left them out. Why did he leave them out? Because they were not in the Sianitic manuscript from which he translates. It was a manuscript found in later years in a mission on Mount Sinai. The man who found the manuscript, a German by the name of Tischendorf, said that some sheets of it had already been thrown into a receptacle for kindling wood. In this or some other way, a part may have been lost from that manuscript.
However this may be, we feel sure that these are the words of Jesus. The writer herself, being a great admirer of Bro. Godbey, was for some time influenced by his views in regard to the last words of our Lord as given above. But since being in these Holy Ghost meetings, and hearing these same words given again and again by the Spirit in unknown tongues and interpreted, all doubt has been swept away in regard to them. Besides they are proved true before our eyes. We have thrown all doubts to the winds and taken to our hearts the whole word of Jesus. Dear friends, do not let any man riddle your Bible for you or cut out any part of it. You need the whole. Hallelujah for the Word.
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PRAYING FOR THE HOLY GHOST.
We are now hearing from individuals, and companies who are definitely waiting on God for their personal Pentecost. Some have been stimulated in seeking by hearing of God’s visitation in Los Angeles. We join hands with all such hungry seekers and meet you at the throne. Some are expecting to come this way. We expect the Lord to speedily prepare such to go out into the field. Calls are coming from every direction for workers who are filled with the Spirit and have the Bible evidence. We are expecting the Lord to send out workers all over the country carrying this Gospel.
Before another issue of this paper, we look for Bro. Parham in Los Angeles, a brother who is full of divine love and whom the Lord raised up five years ago to spread this truth. He, with other workers, will hold union revival meetings in Los Angeles and then expects to go on to other towns and cities, and will appoint workers to fill the calls that shall come in. So begin to pray right away for a revival in your neighborhood or town or city. Perhaps you need one in your own closet or at your family altar first. But expect great things from God. Begin to prepare for a revival and a great and deep revival, too, and believe for it. It may cost you money and it may cost you humbling processes, but prepare for the Lord’s coming.
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LETTER FROM BRO. JOHNSON.
New York City, Aug., 31st.
Peace be unto you. I am, God willing, going to leave New York in a few days for Palestine and Jerusalem. I am going via Gibraltar, Spain. God is working mightily. I would like to say good-bye to you before I leave this land, it may be never to return in this life.
I have been working for my Master all the way along, and God’s hand is with me. He has saved a few and many have been blest. Some have received the Holy Ghost. I give all glory to God for it. Please pray for me. I would like for God to send me a brother to help me in Palestine. I am still hungry for more of Jesus. He is so good to me. The Lord has been giving me more freedom and power than I ever had before. I now speak eleven or twelve languages.
Sweet peace and love is in my heart toward every man. Pray that God will keep me humble. I want to use the gifts to the glory of God. Tell Bro. Seymour that I am one with him and all the other saints in Los Angeles. I love my dear Bro. Seymour so much. He has been a good help to me. May God bless him in his work.
My love to all the saints. I want the whole assembly to pray for me that God may have His whole way with me in this life. My heart goes out for the Jews and every lost soul in this world. God is my refuge and He will never leave me nor forsake me.
Andrew Johnson.
Address Care of Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Home, Gibraltar, Spain.
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Sister Florence Crawford says: “There is no spot on earth so dear to me as this place, but I must go out and tell this story. Souls are perishing far and near. The Lord told me yesterday to go into all the world and preach His Gospel. ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand,’ and ‘Behold, I come quickly. What He says to me, He says to every baptized soul. He wants us to go out into the highways and hedges and declare this Gospel. He has anointed me to tell the story of Jesus and I can go alone for Jesus is with me. O, glory to God!”
PENTECOSTAL SCENES.
At Brunner, Texas, in August, a wonderful meeting was held by the Apostolic Faith people. Fifty, seventy-five, and one hundred seekers at a service crowded the altars for two whole weeks. The sixty-foot altar was doubled half way back, then trebled, until the whole front half of the Tabernacle was occupied with the great altar service. Think of one hundred seekers and twice as many faithful Christians assisting, all praying before God. Glory to His great name! Then see them rise with shining faces and Pentecostal power.
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CAME THREE HUNDRED MILES.
Some have come long distances to see the Pentecost in Los Angeles. An Armenian brother, who came three hundred miles, said, “I am like the queen of Shebva who went to see the wisdom of Solomon, only when I heard about these meetings, I did not come so far, I came only 300 miles to see if this was true. And now I am well satisfied that I see the wonderful works of God. If these people who have only a few drops from God are crazy, what will it be when the shower comes. The shower follows the drops.”
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UNITED TO JESUS.
Jesus says, “Take my yoke upon you and learn of me.” The Lord showed me that this yoke was the covenant of the new testament in His blood, and we put this yoke on when we are baptized with the Holy Ghost. This covenant is a marriage covenant. We are married, not for one day or year or life, but eternally married. When I got married to my wife it was settled for this life. So when I got married to Jesus Christ, it was settled forever. Hallelujah! Jesus and I are united. He baptized me with love.
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THE WORK IN VIRGINIA.
907 Glasken St., Portsmouth, Va.
We had a glorious meeting last night. It was the sixth night and we have six speaking in tongues. It is wonderful to see how the Lord is working with His believing children, but there is much to be done here. There is a band of saints that do not read the Bible like saints. They say the Bible is for unbelievers so they do not read it at all. O for some one to help. Won’t you come and help if you can, and as soon as you can?
God is making a short work in the earth today. He is soon coming to earth again. He said we should not get over the cities until the Son of Man should come, so we have not much time to lose. Remember me to all of the saints. Tell them to pray for me much. I can’t write to all, so you remember me to all as one. Ask them to pray for the work in Virginia. It is much needed. I don’t know how long the Lord is going to keep me here. There is so much to be done.
I did not come through Danville, but I am going there as soon as I can get off from this place. I came through New Orleans and changed cars there, and laid hands on two sick, and sowed seed on the way from Houston here.-Lucy Farrow.
A later report is that twenty have received the baptism of the Holy Ghost in Portsmouth.
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CHINESE WANT THE GOSPEL OF THE BIBLE.
A dear friend went to China as a surgical missionary, preaching the Gospel and cutting up people. She has been in China eight years and only has a little of the language. (Cannot God, who confounded the people at the tower of Babel, and caused all nations at Jerusalem to hear in their own tongue, give a language?) She writes that the Chinese are smart people, and some of them had been reading the Bible and came to her with the open Book, saying, “When you do what your God tells you, then we will believe in your God. Here He says, ‘These signs shall follow them that believe,**they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover,’ and here you come with your knives cutting us up, and with your pill bags. Why don’t you do what your God tells you to do?” What do these things mean? They mean that if we go as representatives of our Lord, we must go with the equipment He gives. The heathen want the whole Gospel.
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LITTLE CHILDREN RECEIVE THE HOLY GHOST.
A number of children have been baptized with the Holy Ghost. A sister at Hermon has been holding a daily children’s meeting and three children have been baptized with the Holy Ghost. One Sunday night also at Azusa Street Mission three little girls, sisters, were baptized with the Holy Ghost and each of them spoke in tongues, and different languages. It was touching to see how they went to praying for others at the altar. They had to leave with their mother for Canada and expect to cross the ocean from there, but before they left the Lord gave them their Pentecost. A number of children have been clearly saved and sanctified in the Sunday afternoon children’s meeting, led by the boy preacher, Clayborn, on Sunday afternoon and some have received the gift of the Holy Ghost, and God is using their testimonies.
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Apostolic power will mean apostolic persecution. Hell with all its power will be turned lose. It behooves us to get a spiritual backbone, spiritual stamina and stick-to-it-iveness that will enable us to stand in these last days against all the forces of the enemy. Jesus came to destroy all the works of the devil, and He said He would give us power, the Holy Ghost coming upon us, the same power that He had.
THE POLISHING PROCESS.
Several years ago, when I was very hungry, seeking God in all His fullness, I shut myself away in my closet one day, and the Lord gave me a wonderful revelation. As I was kneeling before my Maker, beseeching Him to show me all He expected me to be, right before my eyes I saw this wonderful vision. There appeared a man with a large, long, knotty, but straight log. The man had an axe. Did you ever see anybody score timber? He was scoring the log, and it seemed to me the axe went clear to the bit. And every time he scored, it hurt me. He scored it on four sides and then took the broad axe and whacked off the knots. Then he took a line and with adz he made it pretty smooth. Then he raised it in the air, and taking a great plane, turned to me and said: “This is the plane of the Holy Ghost,” and he ran the plane up and down, till I could see the image of the man perfectly reflected in the face of the log, as in a mirror. He did this to all four sides. Then turning to me, he said: “Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee.”
That is what God wants to do with us. He wants to take all the bumps, all the barnacles off. We have only begun to lay ourselves on the anvil of God’s truth. The hammer is being applied to us. He may have to throw us back in the smelter several times. Let us stay in the fire till there is no more dross in us. Sometimes we think God has done all He needs to do; but something comes up that we do not like, and the old man can get up and hobble off on a pretty good shin.
Several weeks ago, I thought surely the last stroke is put in, and now I am dead to the world. But it was not very long till I found out there was a little self there. I was holding a meeting in a little village. We had to move a kitchen stove, and there was no way but for me to get on top of that cook stove and ride behind an old mule team, and I found Sister Hall had a little life in her yet. Thank God, I am dead to that thing now.
Let us stay on the anvil of God, till we reflect the image of the Master. There is a place where we can get, that God Almighty will say: “Thou art all fair, my love, there is no spot in thee.”-Mrs. Anna Hall.
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A MESSAGE CONCERNING HIS COMING.
A young sister, Miss Lillian Keyes, daughter of Dr. Keyes, of this city, speaks and singe in tongues as the Spirit gives utterance. She also interprets, and the following interpretation was also corroborated by Sister S.K. Mead, twenty years a missionary in Africa. Sister Mead arose and said that the language spoken was their dialect in Africa, a beautiful language, but one that is very difficult for English-speaking people to acquire, but the Holy Ghost, through the young lady, had given the perfect accent. The message interpreted was as follows:
“Jesus is coming again,
Coming again so soon,
And we shall meet Him then.
“Prepare your hearts now, for the Lord is coming soon, and ye know not the hour. If you are not prepared, you will not go with Jesus. He sees each heart, and wants to prepare them for His coming. Seek Him now, for some day it will be too late.
“The Lord says: ‘I will bless all those that seek me with all their hearts, for God is no respecter of persons. The Love of God is so great.’ He says. ‘Come unto me; come unto me, and I will give you rest. I will baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire, and all those that seek me diligently.’
“O, Jesus is such a wonderful Savior. He is coming soon and all must have their hearts ready. O, Jesus is so sweet. He says: ‘Watch and be ready when I come.’ O, He is coming so soon.”
Our sister also speaks two Chinese dialects. She speaks to the Chinese as she passes them on the street, or as they come to the house, and they listen in astonishment and say she is telling them about God.
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ONE CHURCH.
At a recent church trial, a brother made the remark that he little thought when he was seeking more of God it would mean for him to be turned out of the Holiness church. This brings to mind the old lady who was turned out of the church, and as she walked down the hill, she said: “Yonder is the meeting house, here goes the church.”
They may turn you out of church houses and organizations of men, but not out of the one church. Thank God, that church book is kept in heaven. Jesus said: “Rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
One of the Holiness leaders said that the church had always taught sanctification as the baptism with the Holy Ghost, and they could not afford to give it up. Besides he would have to burn his books and sermons. Brother, on that great day of judgment, how much will those books and sermons weigh as compared to God’s word?
At first the Holiness leaders approved of the work at the Mission, but at their camp meeting, they decided against the Pentecostal baptism as distinct from sanctification, and also the speaking in tongues. These were ruled out and not to be mentioned on the camp ground. What might not that meeting have been, if they had let the Holy Ghost have right of way? Eternity alone will reveal the great loss to souls through leaders who would not let the hungry sheep enter into this blessed life of power and the Holy Ghost.
“THIS SAME JESUS.”
When the Holy Ghost fell on the one hundred and twenty it was in the morning of the dispensation of the Holy Ghost. Today we are living down in the evening of the dispensation of the Holy Ghost. And as it was in the morning, so it shall be in the evening. This is the last evangelistic call of the day. As John the Baptist was the voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Prepare ye the way of the Lord,” so the voice of warning is going out through the land today to prepare the world for the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. The angels said to His disciples as He was received up into Heaven, and they stood steadfastly gazing upward: “This same Jesus that was taken up from you into Heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into Heaven.” This same Jesus is coming back again to sit in the kingdom of His Father. This same Jesus that wore the crown of thorns and was lifted up between heaven and earth. This same Jesus that hung over yonder on Calvary, and now sits at the right hand of God the Father, is coming back to earth. Is not that enough to ravish your souls, dear ones?
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BACK TO PENTECOST.
What mean these salaried preachers over the land that will not preach unless they get so much salary? People have wandered from the old landmarks. The priests had no land of their own. They were to live on the tithes and offerings. The ministers of today have wandered from the old landmarks, therefore they are seeking salary over the land. Get back. You have no time to lose. We must all be up and doing something for perishing souls around us. Do you want to be blest? Do you want the approbation of God? Be a servant to humanity. The loaves and fishes did not multiply in the hands of our blessed Redeemer till He began to give out to the hungry.
God does not need a great theological preacher that can give nothing but theological chips and shavings to people. He can pick up a worm and thrash a mountain. He takes the weak things to confound the mighty. He is picking up pebble stones from the street and polishing them for His work. He is using even the children to preach His Gospel. A young sister, fourteen years old, was saved, sanctified and baptized with the Holy Ghost and went out, taking a band of workers with her, and led a revival in which one hundred and ninety souls were saved. Salaried ministers that are rejecting the Gospel will have to go out of business. He is sending out those who will go without money and without price. Glory to God for this Apostolic day.
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VICTORY.
Thank God for the means with which to get out this second number of the Apostolic Faith. This large issue is paid for in answer to prayer. The last issue of 5,000 was sent all over the United States and the world and was soon exhausted, so that we had to refuse a good many requests for papers. This time we publish 10,000. We could have used several thousand more last time , to good advantage. We do not find it at all necessary to advertise the paper, because the news of the work has gone far and wide already. The people are rejoicing to hear of this wonderful outpouring of old time Gospel salvation. And no wonder, they are starving on theological shavings. Never mind what the preaching say or anyone else, go in for Pentecostal salvation.
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“ASK WHAT YE WILL.”
Sister M. Eila Judy, a teacher in the Blind School of Columbus, Ohio, came to Los Angeles for her summer vacation. She dropped in the Azusa Street Mission soon after her arrival, and felt that God was there. She had been a great sufferer from insomnia and other troubles and was a very hungry soul. In the past she had felt that the Lord gave her the promise that she should be one of His bride. He had said to her. “Ask what ye will,” and she had answered: “thy will be done.” Then what joy it was for Him to choose so great a gift for her. Afterward her faith failed, but God was true.
About an hour before the train left Los Angeles on which she was to go, the Lord, in the little upper room at the mission, graciously baptized her with the Holy Ghost and gave her the Bible evidence. She could not speak the English language for some time. It was taken away and she spoke the language of the Spirit, pointing those about her to Jesus. It was a heavenly spot. Our sister was sealed as one of the bride and she was very happy. We expect to see her back in Los Angeles. The Lord has called her to His work. He has used her in winning souls in the past, and now that she has the Pentecostal enduement, we expect her to be much more used of the Lord.
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The Lord put His seal of approval up in the departing of the missionaries for Africa, September 15. For about two hours at the depot, the saints sang, while some wept and rejoiced in the Spirit, and some danced before the Lord. While Sister Wiley was preaching the Gospel to the crowd, one of the officials, being angry, tried to break up the meeting, but the saints began to pray, and were allowed to continue undisturbed for some time, till a brother began to speak in tongues. This seemed to stir the devil and Bro. Lee was put out into the street, which resulted in a meeting there. God has wonderfully supplied the means to send the missionaries.
END OF PAGE THREE
THE APOSTOLIC FAITH
312 Azusa Street
Published by
THE APOSTOLIC FAITH MOVEMENT
of Los Angeles.
Address all communications to the Apostolic Faith, 312 Azusa street.
As we have no paid subscription list we are not entitled to second-class postage rates. Papers will be sent to any address in quantities needed, as the Lord furnishes the means.
We are not fighting men or churches, but seeking to displace dead forms and creeds and wild fanaticisms with living, practical Christianity. “Love, Faith, Unity’ are our watchwords, and “Victory through the Atoning Blood” our battle cry. God’s promises are true. He said: “Be thou faithful over a few things, and I will make thee ruler over many.” From the little handful of Christians who stood by the cross when the testings and discouragements came, God has raised a mighty host.
Seeking Healing.-He must believe that God is able to heal.-Ex. 15:26: “I am the Lord that healeth thee.” James 5:14; Psa. 103:3, 2 Kings 20:5; Matt. 8:16, 17; Mark 16; 16, 17, 18.
He must believe God is able to heal. “Behold I am the Lord, the God of all flesh; is there any thing too hard for Me?”-Jer. 32:27.
Send for a roll of sample copies to hungry souls. We can send seven for two cents postage.
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NOTICE.
The Lord sends us to preach the Gospel, but not to beg. Anyone soliciting money does not represent the Apostolic Faith, as it is carried on by free-will offerings. Jesus commanded them to give the Gospel freely. “Freely ye have received, freely give.”
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Nothing less than the whole Gospel of Jesus Christ will suffice in these last days.
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We are not divine healers any more than we are divine saviors. Healing is done through the Almighty God.
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A woman in San Pedro was very sick, suffering such great agony that she was all most unconscious and her body rigid. She was almost insane. The saints were called to pray for her, and as one laid her hand upon her she was immediately healed and arose and cooked dinner that day.
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Sister E. Thomas came for the healing of her wrist which had been sprained and the bones so out of place that it was stiff and very painful. As prayer was offered, you could see the Lord working in the wrist, arranging the bones, etc., that were out of place, and He did a perfect work, putting the wrist into shape so that she could bend it without pain.
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Two dear sisters that we have known years ago, Mrs. May J. Sharps and Mrs. Roba Schoepf, hearing of these meetings through reading the Apostolic Faith, came from Orange county, and before they returned they both received the Holy Ghost and Bible evidence. The Lord is certainly blessing this little paper to many hungry souls.
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Sister Lucy M. Leatherman writes from 692 Eighth Avenue, New York city: “Praise God for the gift of the Holy Ghost, the third person in the trinity.” We have been receiving letters from those who have been much blest and have been led into the Pentecost through our sister and the rest of the Palestine Missionary band.
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Jesus said: “If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered.” Now, if you cut off a withered branch, you will find, perhaps, a worm has killed it. When a Christian goes into sin, he is withered and is no longer a branch of Christ. Then the fist thing you know, he is bearing the fruits of the flesh. As soon as the fruits of the flesh appear, everybody knows you are a sinner.
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Bro. G.W. Batman and wife are saved, sanctified and baptized with the Holy Ghost and have the gift of languages. They are all packed up for Monrovia, Liberia, Africa. They have three little children, but are willing to trust the Lord. Have had a call to that land for years. Bro. Batman said God gave him a vision of a town on the west coast of Africa, and said he should go there. Bro. Meade, a missionary who has been there, said it was a perfect description.
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Praise God for a salvation that brings a witness. God gives us a witness that we are justified, the Spirit witnesses that we are sanctified and when we receive the Holy Ghost, He witnesses through us, as recorded in Acts 2:4, the speaking in other tongues. Jesus had a witness for everything. When He was born, the angels sang on Bethlehem’s plain, when He was baptized with the Holy Ghost. He had the witness of the heavenly dove and the voice from Heaven, when He arose from the dead, the angels witnessed at the tomb, and when He ascended, the angels witnessed that He would come again. Why not have the Bible witness, a supernatural witness that people will not have to take your word for?
Evangelist Daniel Awrey heard of this Pentecostal revival while in Dudleyville, Arizona, and was led of the Lord to come. He says that about fifteen years ago, when he received the baptism with the Holy Ghost, he saw a flame of fire come down on his head and the Lord took control of his tongue, making him pray in another language. He did not realize the significance of the new tongue at that time. He is now looking for God to restore it, as He sends him back to hungry souls.
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A man who had been using tobacco for twenty-five years was seeking at the altar to have the appetite taken away. He had a plug of tobacco in his pocket. He took it out and gave it to one of the altar workers. And immediately the Lord began to bless his soul, and he got victory over his old enemy. He could get no help till he cleaned up his pockets. Many seekers have some hidden shelf behind the door that needs cleaning out of its idols.
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A man said to me: “I would be afraid to get down at the altar and seek the wonderful power that you tell about, the devil might give me something.” What! Do you think when I get down covered with the blood of Jesus, and seek Him to baptize me with the Holy Ghost that He is going to give me a serpent? “If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone, or if he ask a fish will he for a fish give him a serpent? How much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him.”-Luke 11:11.
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Christians are sleeping in their pews in the churches and hireling preachers are sleeping in their pulpits. We have got to have something to wake people up. The tongues are like a bell, ringing the people up. They are waking up to the fact that God is in the land. The priest used to wear bells in the temple, so that the people could know he was alive. If they ceased to ring, they knew he was dead. As long as the Holy Ghost is in us, He will continue to ring out Jesus.
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THE WAY INTO THE HOLIEST.
A sinner comes to the Lord all wrapped up in sin and darkness. He cannot make any consecration because he is dead. The life has to be put into us before we can present any life to the Lord. He must get justified by faith. There is a Lamb without spot and blemish slain before God for him, and when he repents toward God for his sins, the Lord has mercy on him for Christ’s sake, and put eternal life in his soul, pardoning him of his sins, washing away his guilty pollution, and he stands before God justified as if he had never sinned.
Then there remains that old original sin in him for which he is not responsible till he has the light. He hears that “Jesus, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered without the gate,” and he comes to be sanctified. There is Jesus, the Lamb without blemish, on the altar. Jesus takes that soul that has eternal life in it and presents it to God for thorough purging and cleansing from all original and Adamic sin. And Jesus, the Son of God, cleanses him from all sin, and he is made every whit whole, sanctified and holy.
Now he is on the altar ready for the fire of God to fall, which is the baptism with the Holy Ghost. It is a free gift upon the sanctified, cleansed heart. The fire remains there continually burning in the holiness of God. Why? Because he is sanctified and holy and on the altar continually. He stays there and the great Shekina of glory is continually burning and filling with heavenly light.
W.J. Seymour.
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SPREADS THE FIRE.
When Bro. Wm. Pendleton and thirty-five of his members were turned out of the Holiness church and their church doors closed on them, they were invited by Bro. Bartleman and other workers to occupy the church at Eighth street and Maple avenue that had just been opened up for Pentecostal work, and God has been using them as never before. And when some of the saints were rejected from the Nazarene church at Elysian Heights on account of the baptism with the Holy Ghost and evidence of tongues, they opened cottage prayer meetings where hungry souls flocked, and in both of the above named places meetings sometimes go on all night and souls are coming through into Bible experiences. We can do nothing against the truth but for the truth.
“Truth crushed to earth will rise again.
The eternal years of God are her’s;
But error wounded writhes in pain,
And dies among its worshipers.”
In California, where there has been no unity among churches, they are becoming one against this Pentecostal movement. But, thank God, the source is from the skies and cannot be cut off from below. The dear church people know not what they do. Many of them are hungry and coming and saying: “This is just what I have been longing for for years.” God is drawing His people together and making them one. No new church or division of the body of Christ is being formed. Christ never had but one church. We may be turned out of the big wood and brick structures, but “By one Spirit are ye all baptized into one body.”
BRO. PENDELTON’S TESTIMONY.
When my place of worship was taken away from me, I said: “Lord, I trusted you once and you gave me a better place,” and, praise God, He gave me the best place I ever had in my life and gave me more people to listen to the Gospel than I ever had before. God will never allow things taken from us but He will give us better than ever before. There is not a vail or shadow between heaven and my soul today. I am getting more from God than ever in my life. My prospects of heaven are getting stronger and stronger. There is no life that gives a man such an assurance of heaven as the life in the baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, can use these members to His own glory.
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SPANISH RECEIVE THE PENTECOST.
[There are a good many Spanish speaking people in Los Angeles. The Lord has been giving the language, and now a Spanish preacher, who, with his wife, are preaching the Gospel in open air meetings on the Plaza have received their Pentecost. They are very happy, and God is using them. The following is their testimony and the translation.]-Ed.
Los Angeles, Cal., September 14.
Soy testigo de el poder del Espiritu Santo, en perdon, en sanctificacion, y bantismo en fuego. Acts 1:8; Mark 16, 17, 18. Doy gracias a Dios por esta combicsion y poder. Recibibo de Dios comforme a sus promesas el os giara. John 16:13-14. Gracias a Dios por la ordenacion de ir a la Calle de Azusa a la Mission Apostolic Faith. Old time religion Ho y mi Ezpoza el dia, 29th of May, 1906.
Por sanctificacion en verdad y gracias a Dios por la dadiba del baptismo del Eptu Santo en fuego, 5th de Junc. 1906. No podemos expresar en nuestros corazones dia tras dia y momento tras momento usandonos el Sr como instrumentos para la salvacion y sanidad de almas y de cuerpos y de cuerpos tomos tes tizo de estas permosas marabillas y miligros, en el Espiritu Santo y son promesas para cada uno de los que a Dios, se lleguen por medio del Sr. J. Cristo, San John 7:37:39; Rev. 22:17; Acts 2:37:39; James 1:5-7. Due Dios os Vendiga a todos. Acts 10, 34, 35; I John 1:1-3; Rev. 1:6, 7.
Abundio L. Lopez an Wife, Rosa de Lopez.
The translation of the above into English is as follows:
We testify to the power of the Holy Spirit in forgiveness, sanctification, and the baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire. We give thanks to God for this wonderful gift which we have received from Him, according to the promise. Thanks be to God for the Spirit which brought us to the Azusa Street Mission, the Apostolic Faith, old-time religion, I and my wife, on the 29th of last May. I came for sanctification, and thank God also for the baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire which I received on the 5th of June, 1905. We cannot express the gratitude and thanksgiving which we feel moment by moment for what He has done for us, so we want to be used for the salvation and healing of both soul and body. I am a witness of His wonderful promise and marvelous miracles by the Holy Ghost, by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. May God bless you all.
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MISSIONARIES’ FAREWELL.
New York City.
“Grace, mercy and peace be multiplied to you.” How wonderfully God has blest us all the way. Praise His dear name! Hungry souls have flocked to the altar at every service and many have spoken in the tongues. Bless God. How I praise God for leading me to Azusa street mission and the baptism with the Holy Ghost and a new tongue He gave me. What a blessed privilege to lift up Jesus to a lost world.
Mrs. Rushnell, an old friend about sixty years old, is with me, and is going to Jerusalem with me. We shall sail, God willing, September 15. I praise God we can meet every day at the throne of grace.
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Pray for the dear Jews, and ask all of the dear saints there to pray also.
Asking God to bless and use you more and more for His glory.
Till Jesus comes,
Louisa M. Condit.
Address Jerusalem, Austrian Post, Palestine.
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STREET MEETINGS.
We have been holding our street meetings in front of a saloon at the corner of San Pedro and Second streets. The devil tried at first to drive us away by throwing a lot of water there and heaping it about to make the ground muddy. But the workers went on, mud or no mud, and get a wonderful blessing, standing and kneeling in the mud. The Lord has been in the meetings in great power. Street meetings in Pasadena and Whittier have been held also with victory.
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HALLELUJAH FOR THE PROSPECT.
What do such congregations as this mean here and there over the world? Jesus is coming back to take His bride. How long is it going to take? The way this wonderful power is spreading over the world today, not very long. We are looking for God to separate a company of men and women from Los Angeles that will carry this Gospel over the whole world, people that are willing to forsake all and carry the Gospel. We are only in the A.B.C. of this wonderful power of God that is to sweep over the world. We have only gotten the soles of our feet wet in the power of God that is to be manifest in these last days.
TO OUR CORRESPONDENTS.
We thank you, dear brothers and sisters, for your letters of appreciation of the paper, showing that God has made it a blessing. They more than pay us for all the labor of publishing the paper. We thank you for the lists of names you have sent and the offerings which enable us to send the papers to other hungry souls.
Your requests for prayer for healing and salvation and the baptism with the Holy Ghost are presented before the assembly of God’s children. We cannot set dates for prayers, so look up and expect the blessing from heaven at any time. Requests are presented as soon as possible. We shall be glad to hear what the Lord is doing for you. If you do not get the answer right away, perhaps there is something on your part that needs to be gotten out of the way. Let the Spirit search your heart and life.
Send in your lists of addresses for the paper. If there are some who want the paper sent regularly, please state it and we will put your names on the permanent lists. To the others we will simply send one or two copies till we hear from them.
We have not time to write to all, so we will let the paper do for a letter. It will be issued as often as the Lord provides the means and will always be paid for before it comes out.
We thank the Lord for this blessed way of publishing the paper, trusting Him for the means. It is a restful way and saves much time. It also enables us to send it far and wide. We pray for God to bless its messages to the readers. Most of these messages have been taken down in shorthand in meetings of great power messages that are inspired by the Holy Ghost. To God be all the glory.
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HONOR THE HOLY GHOST.
Let me warn you, dear ones, as a mother in Israel, Don’t try to prune one another, Jesus says: “I am the vine and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he purgeth it.” Let Him do the pruning and purging. If you see a brother or sister doing anything you do not approve of, instead of blazing it abroad, get down on your knees and say: “My Father, I honor you to bring them out of this fault.” Multitudes and great bodies of Christians have gone to the wall for that very same thing. They tried to prune one another, tried to make others believe just as they believed and think just as they thought. If this movement stands for anything, it stands for unity of mind. It was raised up to answer the prayer of Jesus: “That they might be one, as thou Father art in me and I in thee.” What is the matter with the world today? Here is a little selfish sect and there a denomination by itself. They do not love one another as God would have them. Let us honor every bit of God there is in one another. Let us honor the Holy Ghost to teach men to get them out of their error. Dear ones, watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation. Watch that something does not come in to grieve the Holy Spirit. “Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.”-Mrs. Anna Hall.
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HEALED BY THE LORD.
A sister who has had hemorrhages of the lungs for years was brought very low lately, having seven hard hemorrhages one after another. She was nearing the river and heard her name called three times by a heavenly messenger, but she answered that she did not feel she could say she had fought a good fight and kept the faith. Then the drawing to the other shore ceased. The saints prayed for her, and she arose, and dressed, being perfectly healed. She went to the table and ate her dinner and afterwards played and sang several hymns. She has received the baptism with the Holy Ghost and God has raised her up to preach the whole Gospel.
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BURIED WITH HIM IN BAPTISM.
A wonderful day was spent at the Terminal Island beach September 11. Four cars packed with people went down from the mission, and singing, praise, prayer and rejoicing, as well as preaching the Gospel, made it a continual meeting all the way. Eighty-five were baptized in the ocean. This was the second service. It is a beautiful place for this service as there is a pavilion seating several hundred people and we were given free use of the bath house and all its rooms. Two services were held in the pavilion. The power of God rested on the baptismal service. Heaven and earth certainly came together.
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Jesus is searching for a people that will believe the gospel. He has never changed the gospel in any way since He commissioned it. Many take sanctification to be the power. They stop when they have original sin taken out, and Christ enthroned in the heart; but God wants us to go on and get filled with the Holy Ghost; that we may be witnesses unto Him to the uttermost parts of the earth. The times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth men everywhere to repent. The Lord is restoring all the gifts to His church. He wants a people who have faith in His word and in the Holy Spirit.
Jesus was not only nailed to the cross, but hung there till He died. He did not come down from the cross as they told Him to do, though He had the power to do so. So with us, when we are crucified with Christ, we should not come down and live for self again, but stay on the cross. A constant death to self is the way to follow our Master.
END OF PAGE FOUR
MissionSHIFT (Part 1): Paradoxes in Missions
The following thoughts on missions deserve a proper introduction, which defines my personal approach in responding to the issue at hand as drawn from both experience and education. They are defined via my being Bulgarian born, American educated, and having served as a national worker in my home country for over 20 years while having dedicated 11 years to the earning of three higher theological degrees from Baptist and Pentecostal educational institutions. Ministering with my American born wife in Bulgaria has demanded a response to a number of vital questions in the missional context of the ministry, which vary from micromanaging how to go through today to a much broader and purposefully strategic planning for the future of the Bulgarian Evangelical Movement as a whole. The most important result of this process has been the foreseeing and training of a new missional and visionary generation for the ministry to which we have dedicated our lives in the past several years on both formal and personal levels. Thus, finding a working paradigm between 21st century theology and current missiological trends for us personally has not only been an interest in trends and thought, but a way to survive post modernity and do actual ministry.
History of Missions
With this said on our personal ministry history and missional experience, we turn to the historic overview of missiological trends in the first essay of MissionSHIFT, which has sparked some controversial responses in the book. The text is undoubtedly interesting and fulfilling, while presenting a much needed juxtapose with the similar historical attempt in the third essay of the book. However, the reader is surprised by the quick jump through the Constantine era, which quite frankly forgoes Eastern Orthodoxy and Catholicism, major contributors to two main branches of Christianity and main players in a period some one millennial long when evangelicalism simply did not exist. And while it is understandable, how these two church institutions may remain far to the interest and knowledge of the Western mindset, it also must be stressed that this very period of church history is responsible for setting the stage for the Reformation and the birth of Western English speaking church as a whole, as both Luther and Wickliffe draw from Eastern Orthodox missiological trends to justify their own call for the reformation of the church and identify themselves with the earlier Bogomils’ movement.
Globalization of Missions
When exploring virtually all branches of Christianity, it is clear that globalization of missions begins nowhere else but in its localization as a ministry of the congregation. With this said, the consideration that missional terminology and action emerges localized in predominantly in North-Western setting is a dangerous one. Philip Jenkins’ Next Christendom has made a strong case for missional theology and action as related to the New Testament church emerging nowhere else but in the East, beginning in Israel with the Great Commission of the Lord Jesus Christ. And while Jenkins’ prediction stops with the Americas and perhaps Australia, our dialogue with his work in 2004 projected that the missional message of the Gospel is completing a full circle around the globe, going from East to West, and returning back to its starting point in Israel. Any opinion that characterizes church missions as purely or predominantly an Western endeavor is imperialistic at best, regardless of its cultural and anthropological context. Missing to discover there is a world existing around us till now, does not make us missionary pioneers, but it does makes us ignorant.
Donors and Sponsorship
The same argument is valid for the opinion contributing the success of missions (in the 19th century and beyond) to (again predominantly western) donors and sponsorship. While the contribution of philanthropy and financial support to missions cannot be denied on any logical ground, eliminating all other factors toward missional success is quite a dangerous endeavor. Even at this contemporary time of missional history, missional agencies make the argument that a one time offering of some $30 is sufficient to save one human soul somewhere in the world. This cheapening of missions through placing a cash value to its ministry must be stopped at once. No price could be assigned to the human soul, no other but the blood of Jesus. And any evangelical mission having embraced such approach is no different than the 16th century papal pontificism of indulgencies and must be reminded of Luther’s 95 Thesis again. It is a terrible, horrific mistake to define the Missio Dei as missio mammon. {http://goo.gl/jZTjk & http://goo.gl/fDzS}
Back to the Basics
The discussion also introduces the so-called “three self model,” which is still practiced by missional agencies around the world. The idea is to start and build a church abroad to a point where it becomes self-sufficient, as in most cases the new community church resembles the parenting church in theology and praxis. The problem arises with the understanding that the meaning of “self-sufficient” changes quite a bit with time and location, to the point of being meaningless today in the context of globalization and postmodernism. If once upon a time, “self-sufficient” meant a church network growing globally, but directed from one locality somewhere in the northwestern hemisphere, it means this no more and most probably it never will. It is simply impossible to create a self-sustainable paradigm of a church movement with truly global growth and leadership localized to a certain geographical, economical, philosophical or social region.
Missions and the Trinity
Possibly the best point in the discussion in relationship to the first essay was made as a call for the recovery of the Trinitarian view on missions (p.44). The 1960s shift of missions from the Church to God and the world is also properly acknowledged as a step in that direction. So is the discussion about anthropological or God centered missions, which Jesus fulfilled 100% both ways. The argument for a Trinitarian Mission seems most necessary in our current evangelical-charismatic context, but when your historical observation on missions misses the role of the Eastern Orthodox Church, where the doctrine of Trinity is theologically confirmed, it leaves a very little argument in favor of Trinitarianism. And even more, it leaves one movement without its historical identity as a Trinity believing church.
Evangelical or Not?
But instead of picking from doctrines and dogmatic, perhaps the discussion on 3rd millennium missions needs to be focused on the main missional shift, namely the moving of the focus of missions toward evangelicals. It seems like what needs much more deconstruction in terminology is the view on missions as an evangelical entity (about p. 20). Before defining missions as evangelical, it will be beneficial to redefine anew the term “evangelical,” which gains quite a bit difference in consistency when contextualized to postmodern globalization.
The social role of the Gospel is unarguably its strongest motivator for the move from this world toward the Kingdom. It is this move that constitutes the very basics of missions and mission mindedness. The preaching of the Gospel not only does not exclude but motivates a social transformation through the salvation of the person, which serves as the personal motivator, first for transformation of one’s mentality and then for social transformation. Translation of the Bible, focus on education, upbringing of culture and national belongingness were not only procured by early missionaries, but become the very essence of a paradigm that move whole communities toward a chance. And the church was the author of such movements, effectually advancing whole nations toward a democracy based on puritan principles.
The early Reformers drew from the same evangelical principals as modern day reformed theologians and practitioners do. Yet, it must be dully noted that reformed theology and praxis in the modern missional context of globalism and postmodernity is a minority at best. The fastest growing and largest Pentecostal charismatic wing is far from ever subscribing to basic reformed principles as divine predestination, preteresitc or postmillennial eschatology. And this does not make us less evangelical. On the contrary, it demands the rethinking of a new theological view on missiologoy, which forgoes 16th century reformism and addresses modern day evangelical churches by speaking to the issues of today. For if a person cannot chose salvation, a person cannot chose anything at all. {goo.gl/FCCso}
So What Should Missions be Like?
Before all, missions must remain practical, which denotes being created by people who have practiced missions in order to be able to others that will practice the ministry mission. If ministry is the practice of the Kingdom, missions is its outposts far beyond the walls and the borders where things are but practical. Only when missional thinking is practice oriented, can become a practice of mission. My practical advice for Missions in the 3rd Millennium follows with several characteristics of the ministry of missions in the 21st century. Our missional approach must be:
1. More mission minded than agency structured
2. More missionary focused than leadership centralized
3. More operational than organizational
4. More result oriented than self and strategy containable
5. More praying than thinking while more feeling, than cognitive
6. More giving than fundraising oriented
7. More focused on the Dominion of the Kingdom, than the denomination.
Liked this publication? Here are some more articles on missions:
» 8 Simple Rules for Doing Missions in the Spirit
» M3: Missions for the Third Millennium – A Public Position
» Church of God Eastern Europe Missions: Leadership, Economics and Culture
» First Bulgarian Mission in Chicago (1907)
The Apostolic Faith (September, 1906): Pentecost Has Come…
The power of God now has this city agitated as never before. Pentecost has surely come and with it the Bible evidences are following, many being converted and sanctified and filled with the Holy Ghost, speaking in tongues as they did on the day of Pentecost. The scenes that are daily enacted in the building on Azusa street and at Missions and Churches in other parts of the city are beyond description, and the real revival has only started, as God has been working with His children mostly, getting them through to Pentecost, and laying the foundation for a mighty wave of salvation among the unconverted.
The meetings are held in an old Methodist church that had been converted in part into a tenement house, leaving a larger unplastered, barn-like room on the ground floor. Here about a dozen congregated each day, holding meetings on Bonnie Brae in the evening. The writer attended a few of these meetings and being so different from anything he had seen and not hearing any speaking in tongues, he branded the teaching as third-blessing heresy, and thought that settled it. It is needless to say the writer was compelled to do a great deal of apologizing and humbling himself to get right with God.
In a short time God began to manifest His power and soon the building could not contain the people. Now the meetings continue all day and into the night and the fire is kindling all over the city and surrounding towns. Proud, well dressed preachers come into “investigate.” Soon their high looks are replaced with wonder, then conviction came, and very often you will find them in a short time wallowing on the dirty floor, asking God to forgive them and make them as little children.
It would be impossible to state how many have been converted, sanctified, and filled with the Holy Ghost. They have been and are daily going out to all points of the compass to spread this wonderful gospel.
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BRO. SEYMORE’S CALL.
Bro. W. J. Seymour has the following to say in regard to his call to this city:
“It was the divine call that brought me from Houston, Texas, to Los Angeles. The Lord put it in the heart of some of the saints in Los Angeles to write to me that she felt the Lord would have me come over here and do a work,and l came, for I felt it was the leading of the Lord. The Lord sent the means,and I came to take charge of a mission on Santa Fe Street, and one night they locked the door against me, and afterwards got Bro. Roberts, the president of the Holiness Association, to come down and settle the doctrine of the Baptism with the Holy Ghost, that it was simply sanctification. He came down and a good many holiness preachers with him, and they stated that sanctification was the baptism with the Holy Ghost. But yet they did not have the evidence at the second chapter of Acts, for when the disciples were all filled with the Holy Ghost, they spoke in tongues as the Spirit gave utterance. After the president heard me speak of what the true baptism of the Holy Ghost was, he said he wanted it too, and told me that when I had received it to let him know. So I received it and let him know. The beginning of the Pentecost started in a cottage prayer meeting at 214 Bonnie Brae.”
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LETTER FROM BRO. PARHAM.
Bro. Charles Parham, who is God’s leader in the Apostolic Faith Movement, writes from Tonganoxio, Kansas, that he expects (D.V.) to be in Los Angeles Sept. 15. Hearing that Pentecost had come to Los Angeles, he writes,
“I rejoice in God over you all, my children, though I have never seen you; but since you know the Holy Spirit’s power, we are baptized by one Spirit into one body. Keep together in unity till I come, then in a grand meeting let all prepare for the outside fields. I desire, unless God directs to the contrary, to meet and to see all who have the full gospel when I come.”
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THE OLD-TIME PENTECOST.
This work began about five years ago last January, when a company of people under the leadership of Chas. Parham, who were studying God’s word tarried for Pentecost, in Topeka, Kan. After searching through the country everywhere, they had been unable to find any Christians that had the true Pentecostal power. So they laid aside all commentaries and notes and waited on the Lord, studying His word, and what they did not understand they got down before the bench and asked God to have wrought out in their hearts by the Holy Ghost. They had a prayer tower in which prayers were ascending night and day to God. After three months, a sister who had been teaching sanctification for the baptism with the Holy Ghost, one who had a sweet, loving experience and all the carnality taken out of her heart, felt the Lord lead her to have hands laid on her to receive the Pentecost. So when they prayed, the Holy Ghost came in great power and she commenced speaking in an unknown tongue. This made all the Bible school hungry,and three nights afterward, twelve students received the Holy Ghost, and prophesied, and cloven tongues could be seen upon their heads. They then had an experience that measured up with the second chapter of Acts, and could understand the first chapter of Ephesians.
Now after five years something like 13,000 people have received this gospel. It is spreading everywhere, until churches who do not believe backslide and lose the experience they have. Those who are old in this movement are stronger, and greater signs and wonders are following them.
The meetings in Los Angeles started in a cottage meeting, and the Pentecost fell there three nights. The people had nothing to do but wait on the Lord and praise Him, and they commenced speaking in tongues, as they did at Pentecost,and the Spirit sang songs through them.
The meeting was then transferred to Azusa Street, and since then multitudes have been coming. The meetings begin about ten o’clock in the morning and can hardly stop before ten or twelve at night, and sometimes two or three in the morning, because so many are seeking, and some are slain under the power of God. People are seeking three times a day at the altar and row after row of seats have to be emptied and filled with seekers. We cannot tell how many people have been saved, and sanctified, and baptized with the Holy Ghost, and healed of all manner of sicknesses. Many are speaking in new tongues, and some are on their way to the foreign fields, with the gift of the language. We are going on to getmore of the power of God.
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Many have laid aside their glasses and had their eye sight perfectly restored. The deaf have had their hearing restored.
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A man was healed of asthma of twenty years standing. Many have been healed of heart trouble and lung trouble.
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Many are saying that God has given the message that He is going to shake Los Angeles with an earthquake. First, there will be a revival to give all an opportunity to be saved. The revival is now in progress.
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The Lord has given the gift of writing in unknown languages, also the gift of playing on instruments.
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A little girl who walked with crutches and had tuberculosis of the bones, as the doctors declared, was healed and dropped her crutches and began to skip about the yard.
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All over this city, God has been setting homes on fire and coming down and melting and saving and sanctifying and baptizing with the Holy Ghost.
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Many churches have been praying for Pentecost, and Pentecost has come. The question is now, will they accept it? God has answered in away they did not look for. He came in a humble way as of old, born in a manger.
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The secular papers have been stirred and published reports against the movement, but it has only resulted in drawing hungry souls who understand that the devil would not fight a thing unless God was in it. So they have come and found it was indeed the power of God.
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Jesus was too large for the synagogue. He preached outside because there was not room for him inside. This Pentecostal movement is too large to be confined in any denomination or sect. It works outside, drawing all together in one bond of love, one church, one body ofChrist.
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A Mohammedan, a Soudanese by birth, a man who is an interpreter and speaks sixteen languages, came into the meetings at Azusa Street andthe Lord gave him messages which none but himself could understand. He identified, interpreted and wrote a number of the languages.
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A brother who had been a spiritualist medium and who was so possessed with demons that he had no rest, and was on the point of committing suicide, was instantly delivered of demon power. He then sought God for the pardon of his sins and sanctification, and is now filled with a different spirit.
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A little girl about twelve years of age was sanctified in a Sunday afternoon children’s meeting, and in the evening meeting she was baptized with the Holy Ghost. When she was filled those standing near remarked, “Who can doubt such a clear case of God’s power.”
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In about an hour and a half, a young man was converted, sanctified,and baptized with the Holy Ghost, and spoke with tongues. He was also healed from consumption, so that when he visited the doctor he pronounced his lungs sound. He has received many tongues, also the gift of prophecy, and writing in a number of foreign languages, and has a call to a foreign field.
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Many are the prophesies spoken in unknown tongues and many the visions that God is giving concerning His soon coming. The heathen must first receive the gospel. One prophecy given in an unknown tongue was interpreted, “The time is short, and I am going to send out alarge number in the Spirit of God to preach the full gospel in the power of the Spirit.”
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About 160 people in Los Angeles, more than on the day of Pentecost, have received the gift of the Holy Ghost and the Bible evidence, the gift of tongues, and many have been saved and sanctified, nobody knows how many. People are seeking at the altar three times a day and it is hard to close at night on account of seekers and those who are under the power of God.
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When Pentecostal lines are struck, Pentecostal giving commences. Hundreds of dollars have been laid down for the sending of missionaries and thousands will be laid down. No collections are taken for rent, no begging for money. No man’s silver or gold is coveted. The silver and the gold are His own to carry on his own work. He can also publish his own papers without asking for money or subscription price.
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In the meetings, it is noticeable that while some in the rear are opposing and arguing, others are at the alter falling down under the power of God and feasting on the good things of God. The two spirits are always manifest, but no opposition can kill, no power in earth or hell can stop God’s work, while He has consecrated instruments through which to work.
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Many have received the gift of singing as well as speaking in the inspiration of the Spirit. The Lord is giving new voices, he translates old songs into new tongues, he gives the music that are being sung by the angels and has a heavenly choir all singing the same heavenly song in harmony. It is beautiful music, no instruments are needed in the meetings.
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A Nazarene brother who received the baptism with the Holy Ghost in him own home in family worship, in trying to tell about it, said, “It was a baptism of love. Such abounding love! Such compassion seemed to almost kill me with its sweetness! People do not know what they are doing when they stand out against it. The devil never gave me a sweet thing, he was always trying to get me to censuring people. This baptism fills me with divine love”
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The gift of languages is given with the commission, “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” The Lord has given languages to the unlearned Greek, Latin, Hebrew, French, German, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Zulu and languages of Africa, Hindu and Bengali and dialects of India, Chippewa and other languages of the Indians, Esquimaux, the deaf mute language and, in fact the Holy Ghost speaks all the languages of the world through His children.
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A minister says that God showed him twenty years ago that the divine plan for missionaries was that they might receive the gift of tongues either before going to the foreign field or on the way. It should be a sign to the heathen that the message is of God. The gift of languages can only be viewed as the Spirit gives utterance. It cannot be learned like the native tongues, but the Lord takes control of the organs of speech at will. It is emphatically, God’s message.
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During a meeting at Monrovia, a preacher who at one time had been used of God in the Pentecost Bands under Vivian Dake, but had cooled off, was reclaimed, sanctified and filled with the Holy Ghost. When the power of God came on him his eight-year-old son was kneeling behind him. The boy had previously sought and obtained a clear heart,and when the Holy Ghost fell on him father, He also fell on him and his hands began to shake and he sang in tongues.
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Bro. Campbell, a Nazarene brother, 83 years of age, who had been for 53 years serving the Lord, received the baptism with the Holy Ghost and gift of tongues in his own home. His son, who was a physician, was called and came to see if he was sick, but found him only happy in the Lord. Not only old men and old women, but, boys and girls, are receiving their Pentecost. Viola Price, a little orphan colored girl eight years of age, has received the gift of tongues.
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Mrs. Lucy F. Farrow, God’s anointed handmaid, who came some fourmonths ago from Houston, Texas, to Los Angeles, bringing the full Gospel, and whom God has greatly used as she laid her hands on many who have received the Pentecost and the gift of tongues, has now returned to Houston, en route to Norfolk, Va. This is her old home which she left as a girl, being sold into slavery in the south. the Lord she feels, is now calling her back. Sister farrow, Bro. W.J. Seymour and Bro. J.A. Warren were the three that the Lord sent from Houston as messengers of the full gospel.
END OF PAGE ONE
THE APOSTOLIC FAITH
312 Azusa Street
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Published by THE APOSTOLIC FAITH MOVEMENT of Los Angeles.
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Address all communications to the Apostolic Faith, 312 Azusa street.
As we have no paid subscription list we are not entitled to second-class postage rates. Papers will be sent to any address in quantities needed, as the Lord furnishes the means.
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THE APOSTALIC FAITH MOVEMENT.
Stands for the restoration of the faith once delivered unto the saints-the old time religion, camp meetings, revivals, missions, street and prison work and Christian Unity everywhere.
Teaching on Repentance-Mark 1:14, 15.
Godly Sorrow for Sin, Example-Matt. 9:13. 2 Cor. 7, 9, 11. Acts 3:19. Acts 17:30, 31.
Of Confession of Sins-Luke 13:21 and Luke 18:13.
Forsaking Sinful Ways-Isa. 55:7. Jonah 3:8. Prov. 28:13.
Restitution-Ezek. 33:15. Luke 19:8.
And faith in Jesus Christ.
First Work.-Justification is that act of God’s free grace by which we receive remission of sins. Acts 10:42, 43. Rom. 3:25.
Second Work.-Sanctification is the second work of grace and the last work of grace. Sanctification is that act of God’s free grace by which He makes us holy. John 17:15, 17.-“Sanctify them through Thy Truth; Thy word is truth.” 1 Thess. 4:3; 1 Thess 5:23: Heb. 13:12; Heb. 2:11; Heb. 12:14.
Sanctification is cleansing to make holy. The Disciples were sanctified before the Day of Pentecost. By a careful study of Scripture you will find it is so now. “Ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you” (John 15:3; 13:10); and Jesus had breathed on them the Holy Ghost (John 20:21, 22). You know, that they could not receive the Spirit if they were not clean. Jesus cleansed and got all doubt out of His Church before He went back to glory.
The Baptism with the Holy Ghost is a gift of power upon the sanctified life; so when we get it we have the same evidence as the Disciples received on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:3,4), in speaking in new tongues. See also Acts 10:45, 46; Acts 19:6; 1 Cor. 14:21. **** days which ye will not believe though it be told you.”-Heb. 1:5.
Seeking Healing.-He must believe that God is able to heal.-Ex. 15:26: “I am the Lord that healeth thee.” James 5:14; Psa. 103:3; 2 Kings 20:5; Matt. 8:16, 17; Mark 16; 16, 17, 18.
He must believe God is able to heal. “Behold I am the Lord, the God of all flesh; is there any thing too hard for Me!”-Jer. 32:27.
Too many have confused the grace of Sanctification with the endowment of Power, or the Baptism with the Holy Ghost; others have taken “the anointing that abideth” for the Baptism, and failed to reach the glory and power of a true Pentecost.
The blood of Jesus will never blot out any sin between man and man they can make right; but if we can’t make wrongs right the Blood graciously covers. (Matt. 5:23, 24).
We are not fighting men or churches, but seeking to displace dead forms and creeds and wild fanaticisms with living, practical Christianity. “Love, Faith, Unity” are our watchwords, and “Victory through the Atoning Blood” our battle cry. God’s promises are true. He said: “Be thou faithful over a few things, and I will make thee ruler over many.” From the little handful of Christians who stood by the cross when the testings and discouragements came, God has raised a mighty host.
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An editor is Salem, Ore., Rev. M.L. Ryan, writes: “When I finished reading in your letter of what God was doing in Los Angeles, I fell on my knees and agonized Godward a bursting soul of appreciation; a great and blessed conviction seized me, and I rushed out of the office shouting and praising God. The fire had struck my soul. I then read the wonderful works of God in Los Angeles to others and a little crowd gathered around me; they too caught the fire of the spirit in the letter and some shouted and some wept.
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The disciples were looking for Jesus to set up His millennial kingdom at His first coming, and they expected to reign with Him there in Jerusalem. They asked Him when they went out to the Mount of Olives, “Lord, wilt thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said, “It is not for you to know the times and seasons which the Father bath in his own power; but ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.” When they received the baptism of the Holy Ghost, He would teach them things to come. Dear ones, do not puzzle yourselves by theorizing, but tarry in Jerusalem, and the Spirit will throw light upon God’s word and you will see it just as it is. He will reveal the whole word from Genesis to Revelations.
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THE PRECIOUS ATONEMENT.
Children of God, partakers of the precious atonement, let us study and see what there is in it for us.
First. Through the atonement we receive forgiveness of sins.
Second. We receive sanctification through the blood of Jesus. “Wherefore Jesus also that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.” Sanctified from all original sin, we become sons of God. “For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren.” Heb. 2:11. (It seems that Jesus would be ashamed to call them brethren, if they were not sanctified.) Then you will not be ashamed to tell men and demons that you are sanctified, and are living a pure and holy life free from sin, a life that gives you power over the world, the flesh, and the devil. The devil does not like that kind of testimony. Through this precious atonement, we have freedom from all sin, though we are living in this old world, we are permitted to sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
Third. Healing of our bodies. Sickness and disease are destroyed through the precious atonement of Jesus. O how we ought to honor the stripes of Jesus, for “with his stripes we are healed.” How we ought to honor that precious body which the Father sanctified and sent into the world, not simply set apart, but really sanctified, soul, body and spirit, free from sickness, disease and everything of the devil. A body that knew no sin and disease was given for these imperfect bodies of ours. Not only is the atonement for the sanctification of our souls, but for the sanctification of our bodies from inherited disease. It matters not what has been in the blood. Every drop of blood we received from our mother is impure. Sickness is born in a child just as original sin is born in the child. He was manifested to destroy the works of the devil. Every sickness is of the devil.
Man in the garden of Eden was pure and happy and knew no sickness till that unholy visitor came into the garden, then his whole system was poisoned and it has been flowing in the blood of all the human family down the * till God spoke to his people and said, “I am the Lord that healeth thee.” The children of Israel practiced divine healing. David, after being healed of rheumatism, (perhaps contracted in the caves where he hid himself from his pursuers,) testified saying, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless his holy name, who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases.” David knew what it was to be healed. Healing continued with God’s people till Solomon’s heart was turned away by strange wives, and he brought in the black arts and mediums, and they went whoring after familiar spirits. God had been their healer, but after they lost the Spirit, they turned to the arm of flesh to find something to heal their diseases.
Thank God, we have a living Christ among us to heal our diseases. He will heal every case. The prophet had said, “With his stripes we are healed,” and it was fulfilled when Jesus came. Also “He hath borne our griefs,” (which means sickness, as translators tell us.) Now if Jesus bore our sicknesses, why should we bear them? So we get full salvation through the atonement of Jesus.
Fourth. And we get the baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire upon the sanctified life. We get Christ enthroned and crowned in our hearts. Let us lift up Christ to the world in all His fullness, not only in healing and salvation from all sin, but in His power to speak all the languages of the world. We need the triune God to enable us to do this.
We that are the messengers of this precious atonement ought to preach all of it, justification, sanctification, healing, the baptism with the Holy Ghost, and signs following. “How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?” God is now confirming His word by granting signs and wonders to follow the preaching of the full gospel in Los Angeles.
W.J. Seymour.
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GOOD NEWS SPREADS.
People from all over the country are sending in letters of inquiry, having heard that Pentecost has come to Los Angeles. Some have come long distances and report that the half had not been told them. Through this paper we answer inquiries, as it would be impossible to write to each. Souls are hungry all over the land.
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TONGUES AS A SIGN.
Man is a fallen creature, and as such cannot receive the things of the kingdom of heaven, because they are spiritual and “foolishness unto him.” He must be born again to understand God and His word. God recognizes this, and all through the ages has granted signs and wonders to awaken man from his spiritual death and turn him to seeking after God.
If you will turn to Mark 16:14, you will read as follows: “Afterward He appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen.” You see that after these men had been personally with Jesus for something like three years, and had witnessed His mighty power in raising the dead and performing all manner of miracles, in a few hours after His crucification, had allowed Satan to harden their hearts and fill them with unbelief. They were also sanctified, as we read in John 17:17, Jesus prayed, “Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth.” This prayer was undoubtedly answered, as Jesus never prayed in vain. In John 15:3, we read, “Now are ye clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.” In John 20:22, we read, “And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said unto them, receive ye the Holy Ghost.” By comparing the gospel of Mark referred to above with this message from John just quoted, we believe both utterances of Jesus were made at the same meeting of the disciples and after He had upbraided them for their hardness of heart, He breathed on them the Holy Ghost to sustain them until Pentecost. They were anointed, as many sanctified souls are today while seeking a real, personal Pentecost.
Jesus at this time also said to them (Mark 16:16, 17), “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe. In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues.” Here a belief and baptism are spoken of, and the sign or evidence given to prove that you possess that belief and baptism. This scripture plainly declares that these signs SHALL follow them that believe.
We also read in Paul’s epistles to the Corinthians that he speaks of nine specific gifts in the Holy Ghost. We also find in searching the word that eight of these gifts were in the church before the Day of Pentecost, the gift of tongues on this day being the power that startled the multitude.
“Now, when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, (marginal reading, troubled in mind) because that every man heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed and marveled saying one to another, behold are not all these which speak Gallileans? And how hear we every man in his own tongue, wherein we were born? And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this? Others mocking said, These men are filled with new wine. But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice and said unto them, Ye men of Judea and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and harken to my words: for these are not drunken as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel: “And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophecy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.”-Acts 2:6, 7, 8, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17.
In Luke 24:49, Jesus told His disciples to “Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.”
“And being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the father, which, saith 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. When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times of the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”-Acts 1:4-8.
They obeyed this command, and Acts 2:4 states, “And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” We see here that they ALL spoke in other tongues.
If you will now turn to Acts 10 and read the story of Peter and Cornelius, you will see that the speaking in tongues was the sign or evidence to Peter that the Gentiles had received the Holy Ghost. Peter preached the Word, and they were cleansed through the Word, as the disciples before the Day of Pentecost. This was a hard dose for Peter to take, he being a Jew and having been taught that the Gentiles were dogs and unclean. God had previously given Peter a vision of a great sheet let down from heaven, filled with all manner of unclean animals, with the command, “Rise, Peter, slay and eat.” The preaching of Jesus to the Gentiles was part of the eating, but Peter obeyed, and Pentecostal signs followed (Acts 10:46): “For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God.”
If you will now turn to Acts 19:1-6, you will find that about twenty-nine years after Pentecost, Paul found some disciples at Ephesus that had not received their Pentecost. He preached the Word and explained to them their great privileges in the gospel, “And when Paul laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them: and they spoke with tongues and prophecised.”-Acts 19:6.
How foolish so many of us have been in the clear light of God’s Word. We have been running off with blessings and anointings with God’s power, instead of tarrying until Bible evidence of Pentecost came.
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Sister Wettosh, a German sister of Pasadena, who was in the darkness of Romanism and in great physical suffering about a year ago, but who has marvelously saved and healed, has been baptized with the Holy Ghost, received the gift of tongues, and has gone out to carry this Gospel. Her destination was Reno, Neb.
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Los Angeles, Aug. 12th, 1906. This will certify that my daughter, Mrs. S.P. Knapp, of Avenue 56 and Alameda street, was healed of consumption by God on the above date, God’s Spirit working in answer to prayer and through a poor Mexican Indian. For particulars, inquire of Frank Gail, with Troy Laundry, corner 14th and Main, Los Angeles.
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In a cottage meeting on Morton Ave., Elisian Heights, several souls have been baptized with the Holy Ghost, and a brother, George Hock, who has been stone blind for more than a year and a half, was saved and then received his sight. He can now read, and his relatives and friends who were unbelieving are filled with wonder and are publishing it everywhere.
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Canes, crutches, medicine bottles, and glasses are being thrown aside as God heals. That is the safe way. No need to keep an old crutch or medicine bottle of any kind around after God heals you. Some, in keeping some such appliance as a souvenir, have been tempted to use them again and have lost their healing.
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Jesus said, “Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me, or else believe me for the very work’s sake.” He is showing signs in Los Angeles, and yet some doubt, as Philip did. If you cannot understand it, just take the word of God. He said, “These signs shall follow them that believe: In my name shall they cast out devils: they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover.” Believe for the very work’s sake. God is confirming His word with signs following.
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A young man who a year ago was in the chain gang, is now baptized with the Holy Ghost and preaching everywhere. He was a Catholic but God took all the Romanism out of him. He is telling the Catholics to get their own Bibles and the Protestants to get to God and not lean on preachers. He is a powerfully built young man, but God has so taken the fight out of him that when he was struck and spit upon in the face, he went home and was so blest that he prayed all night and said he loved the people who persecuted him more than if they had asked him to pray for them.
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During the preaching service, the Holy Ghost fell on a preacher and he jumped to his feet shouting “Hallelujah!” and immediately spoken in tongues. He speaks Zulu and many tongues more fluently than English and interprets as he speaks. The Lord has since used him to stir a whole city. He is filled with divine love. His family were first afraid to see him speaking in tongues, thinking he had lost his mind, but when his wife and children felt the sympathy and divine love which the Holy Ghost puts in people’s hearts, they said, “Papa was never so sane in his life.”
END OF PAGE TWO
FROM A MISSIONARY TO AFRICA.
Bro. S.J. Mead, who was sent to Africa by Bishop Taylor in 1885, has been attending the meetings for several weeks. He has the following to say of God’s dealings with him:
“My heart praises God, as I trace the leadings of his blessed Spirit, in the past quarter of a century, when I first sought to know and do His blessed will. My call to Africa in 1884; the blessed thought of going out in His name, so full of comfort and victory; and yet my call to my native land and civilization is more wonderful and blessed. The getting down in quietness in the presence of the Holy Spirit, and letting him teach and show me what he would have me know of His power and omnipresence. I found it so true, He is all love, “and in Him is no darkness at all.” My soul groans out this morning for the Holy Spirit to have perfect control of His temple. We often hinder the blessed wooing and power of His love by cross currents of our human mind and thought. May God help us to be little in our own eyes, not over anxious to serve much, but to love Him with all our heart, mind and strength. It is the simplicity of His love in our hearts, that does the work among the heathen. The dear children of Ham are stretching out their hands for the love that is manifested in the sons of God. Often tears fill my eyes, as I think of their simplicity and kindness to us, in the years of our residence among them. One time while going down to our Annual Conference, one hundred miles from where I was situated at Malange, we often met with a slave woman, with whom we lodged nights, who showed us much kindness. She would listen to the story of the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world, and say, Tell it to me again, then I would go over it again, and she would say, tell it once more; then she said, Tell it to me on my fingers. I said to her, Hold up your hand. I bent down her first finger and said, That means that God’s Son has died for you, shed His blood for your sins; now bend down the second finger, that is, if you believe it, He will take you to His home, where is no death, nor cryings, whippings nor pain; now bend down the third finger, that is if you do not believe, you will be obliged to live in a land of sorrow, pain, death and crying forever and ever. She repeated it over and over again, and we could see the truth getting into her heart. We lost sight of her for a long time; her village was burned up, her people moved away, and she had gone out of our mind. One day there was a commotion at the entrance of the compound at the Mission. I saw the same slave woman, running into the yard, leading a little boy by the hand. I did not know her at first, and she cried out, ‘Don’t you know me?’ I remembered my lesson on my fingers,’ and she repeated it over to me, and said, ‘Now I know what you said about God’s Son is true. See my boy,’ as she pulled him by one hand. ‘He was dying with smallpox and I asked the same Jesus to make him well, and He did.’ Praise God, she may have preached the fundamental truth of the gospel, to more souls in Africa than myself. My brother, if our love and faith were but more simple, to take God at His word, our life would be full of sunshine and it would lighten and brighten up the dark places, that sin has caused on God’s beautiful earth.”
God called Bro. Mead and wife from the Central part of Africa to Los Angeles to get their Pentecost. They recognize some of the languages spoken as being dialects of Africa. When God has fully equipped them they will return to their labor of love.
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NO BOTTOM.
We meet many honest souls these days who are under the delusion that they have committed the unpardonable sin. The following incident should be an encouragement to such.
A child of God was attacked by the enemy with the suggestion that she was forsaken of God and had committed the unpardonable sin. She was then on a mission field in the South, separated from other Christian workers; and without any apparent cause, the arch enemy who tempted our Savior told her that God hated her. The words, “God hates you” seemed to be continually shouted in her ears and she could not get away from it. She lost her faith and believed the enemy, was knowing his power. The next suggestion was, “Drown yourself in the river.” She stood looking into the dark water, but the thought of her dear mother made her turn away.
She returned to her room, and throwing herself down, fell asleep and dreamed. She seemed to be on a boat on which all the people but herself were rejoicing and praising God. She heard the captain call out to the pilot, “Sound the depths and compare it with the love of God.” The depths were sounded and the call came back “No bottom! No bottom!” She awoke in an ocean of God’s love, all darkness past and the cry ringing in her ears, “No bottom!” For years since then she has been in Gospel work on both sides of the ocean.
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A young lady who came into the meeting unsaved, went to the altar during the sermon, under deep conviction, and was saved in about five minutes. Before that evening was over, she was sanctified and baptized with the Holy Ghost and had the gift of the Chinese tongue and was singing in Chinese in the Spirit. Her mother followed her to the altar and has also been saved, sanctified, baptized with the Holy Ghost and healed of asthma and heart trouble, which the doctors said was incurable.
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TWO WORKS OF GRACE AND THE GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST.
We preach old-time sanctification, and old-time baptism with the Holy Ghost, which is the gift of power upon the sanctified life, and God throws in the gift of tongues.
1st. Justification deals with our actual sins. When we go to Him and repent, God washes all the guilt and pollution out of our hearts, and we stand justified like a new babe that never committed sin. We have no condemnation. We can walk with Jesus and live a holy life before the Lord, if we walk in the Spirit.
2nd. Sanctification is the second and last work of grace. After we are justified, we have two battles to fight. There is sin inside and sin outside. There is warfare within, caused by the old inherited sin. When God brings the word, “It is the will of God, even your sanctification,” we should accept the word, and then the blood comes and takes away all inherited sin. Everything is heavenly in your soul, you are a son of God. The Spirit of God witnesses in your heart that you are sanctified.
3rd. The Spirit begins then and there leading us on to the Baptism with the Holy Ghost. Now, as a son of God, you should enter into the earnest of your inheritance. After you have a clear witness of the two works of grace in your heart, you can receive this gift of God, which is a free gift without repentance. Pray for the power of the Holy Ghost, and God will give you a new language. It is the privilege of everyone to be filled with the Holy Ghost. It is for every believing child.
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EVANGELIST T.W. MCCONNELL’S TESTIMONY.
About 28 years ago, I went into a meeting to break it up, and the Lord broke me up. My conversion I never could doubt. I was called to preach and refused, and went on for a number of years trying to get away from the call. Finally I obeyed the Lord, and started in to work for Him, but not to preach. The Lord sanctified my soul. Then I commenced to try to preach. About two years after, the Lord appeared to me in a dream. He so filled me with His Spirit that people were not able to stand up before me, for a time. A few days after, He told me to give up my business, and make my wants known to Him, and not to man. I obeyed. The Lord supplied my every need, and was with me in revival meetings and in healing many that I prayed for. But I heard of people receiving the Holy Ghost and speaking with tongues. I came to Los Angeles to investigate, and found it was a fact, and earnestly commenced to seek the Lord for the baptism with the Holy Ghost. And the Lord, knowing my heart, came and took possession of me and spoke with my tongue. I want to say to every person, test God and you will never deny the baptism with the Holy Ghost.
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THE SAME OLD WAY.
It has been said of the work in Los Angeles that is was “born in a manger and resurrected in a barn.” Many are praising God for the old barn-like building on Azusa street, and the plain old plank beside which they kneeled in the sawdust when God saved, sanctified and baptized them with the Holy Ghost. Those who know God feel His presence as soon as they cross the threshold. “Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?” “Come and see.” This is the Nazareth of Los Angeles. Some have come from long distances to this spot, directed of the Lord, and the humble have always been greatly blest. The work began among the colored people. God baptized several sanctified wash women with the Holy Ghost, who have been much used of Him. The first white woman to receive the Pentecost and gift of tongues in Los Angeles was Mrs. Evans who is now in the work in Oakland. Since then multitudes have come. God makes no difference in nationality, Ethiopians, Chinese, Indians, Mexicans, and other nationalities worship together.
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PENTECOSTAL FAITH LINE.
There are a dozen or more Christian workers who are devoting their time to the salvation of souls, having been called of God from other lines of employment to devote their time in praying with the sick, preaching, working with souls at the altar, etc. We believe in the faith line for Christian workers, and no collections are taken. During the four months, meetings have been running constantly, and yet with working day and night and without purse or scrip, the workers have all been kept well and provided with food and raiment. Workers who have received calls to foreign lands are going out, the Lord providing the means with no needs being presented. The ones that give, give as the Lord speaks to them and do not want their names mentioned. It is a poor time in these last days to board up treasures on earth. When the Lord speaks, it is a blessing to those that obey Him, but we covet no man’s gold, nor silver, nor apparel.
A sister who was called to Oakland had her faith tested as to her fare, as the time was near and she had not received it. That night she was caught away in the Spirit and when the Lord brought her back, the words came to her, “If I can carry you around Los Angeles without a body, I can take you to Oakland without a fare.” So that day she received the money.
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FIRE FALLING AT HERMON.
Hermon is a small Free Methodist settlement in the hills near Los Angeles. At cottage prayer meetings being held there, the Holy Ghost has manifested His presence in a marvelous way. The church people stand aloof to a great extent, but God is overthrowing all opposition.
At a meeting recently held in a cottage near the church, one sister was baptized with the Holy Ghost on the front porch. She lay under the power of God for something like two hours, praising God and speaking in an unknown language.
Two nights afterward, at another cottage prayer meeting, the house was filled to overflowing with people. The meeting lasted until one o’clock in the morning. Five were baptized with the Holy Ghost and three were sanctified. Two sisters lay under the power of God until after one o’clock, speaking and singing in unknown tongues. The singing could be heard over the hills. This is stirring the people, and God is going to work wonders in this place. He recognizes no man-made creeds, doctrines, nor classes of people, but “the willing and obedient shall eat the good of the land.”
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CONTEND FOR THE FAITH.
It is our privilege to earnestly contend for the power that was in the early apostolic church-that men will be instantaneously healed and will be baptized with the Holy Ghost instantaneously. The power of God is going to fall on men in this city. He wants people that will believe in Him and exercise the faith. Faith moves God, that is one thing that makes God get in a hurry, when he can get the faith. When they put Paul and Silas in the Phillippian jail, they went joyfully. They sang and prayed and at midnight God heard their prayers in heaven and shook the earth till doors flew open. The jailer trembled and was going to take his life. He fell under conviction, and what happened? They all got saved. I believe those men had faith in God. When they called upon God, something happened. When are we going to get that perfect faith? The Lord is just preparing His people now for the work He is going to do. We have been a long ways from it. The devil does not like to see us getting back, but God is going to overrule.
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THE MILLENIUM.
All these 6,000 years, we have been fighting against sin and Satan. Soon we shall have a rest of 1,000 years. We are going to rest from our 6,000 years of toil in a reign of 1,000 years. That will be the millennial age. (Jude 14, 15). The saints who have part in * first resurrection will return with Jesus and reign over unglorified humanity. (Rev. 20:4). Our place will be higher than the angels, because we are partakers of His divine nature and His immortality, and angels are simply pure spirits. We can go and come, just as Jesus did when He rose from the dead. We can vanish out of sight and go millions of miles in a second. Paul prayed that the Ephesians might know, “What is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ when he raised Him from the dead.” We shall be “like unto His glorious body.” (Phil. 3:21). We shall have the same privilege as He had, for “we shall be like him.” We shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of our Father. We shall be in the heavenly image.
That is the time when the lion and calf shall lie down together and a little child shall lead them. (Isa. 11:6-9). That is the time when God is going to give some two cities to reign over and some ten, and the twelve apostles will reign over the twelve tribes of Israel.
In the millennial age, we shall have great glory; but it will be still greater glory when Satan has been judged and cast into the lake of fire; and the meek, the justified souls, shall inherit the earth, and we shall be living in the new heaven and the New Jerusalem and Jesus will turn the kingdom over into His Father’s hand and sit down among the brethren, and we shall have the same glory that Jesus had with His Father before the foundation of the world. God will be all in all and we shall be swallowed up in immortality. (I. Cor. 15:24).
It is wonderful how God sent His Son to take little worms of dust and to transform us into glory and immortality. We do not know what it means till we begin seeking God. “He that hath this hope in him, purifieth himself even as he is pure.” We must go on to perfection and holiness, and get the baptism with the Holy Ghost, and not stop there, but go on to perfection and maturity. God has many things to teach us as we remain humble at His feet.
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On Aug. 11th, a man from the central part of Mexico, an Indian, was present in the meeting and heard a German sister speaking in his tongue which the Lord had given her. He understood, and through the message that God gave him through her, he was most happily converted so that he could hardly contain his joy. All the English he knew was Jesus Christ and Hallelujah. He testified in his native language, which was interpreted by a man who had been among that tribe of Indians. This rough Indian, under the power of the Spirit was led to go and lay his hands on a woman in the congregation who was suffering from consumption, and she was instantly healed and arose and testified.
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THE SPIRIT FOLLOWS THE BLOOD.
Jesus said, “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.” The cleansing took place before the Pentecostal baptism. Jesus said on that night before he was betrayed, “Now are ye clean, but not all.” (He knew that Judas had the devil in him). The disciples had been sanctified before Pentecost, for the word of God is true. We know they had been justified a long time before, for he said, “Rejoice not that the devils are subject unto you but rejoice because your names are written in heaven.” And we know they were sanctified when Jesus prayed for them, for Jesus prayers did not have to be answered in the future but were answered right there. He said, “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” They were not only sanctified but had received the Holy Spirit in a certain measure, because He breathed on them in the upper room and said, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” Some have put it off that they were not sanctified until Pentecost. But we know the Spirit only follows the blood. The heart must be clean before the Holy Ghost can endue with power from on high. It is not the work of the Holy Ghost to burn up inherited sin and carnality, he is not our Savior. It is the blood that cleanseth us from all sin. The disciples were cleansed and sanctified and were sitting and waiting when the Holy Ghost fell upon them.
We know also that Cornelius was clean, for when the Lord let down the sheet before Peter, he said, “What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common,” or unclean. The Holy Ghost fell on them as at the beginning and they spoke with tongues and prophesied.
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THE PROMISE STILL GOOD.
The hundred and twenty on the day of Pentecost were baptized with the Holy Ghost according to promise. The converts of Philip in the Samaritan revival were baptized with the Holy Ghost, when Peter and John came from Jerusalem and preached the doctrine to them. The household of Cornelius received the same endowment of power, showing that the promise was also extended to the Gentiles. Again to the Corinthian church is the record given of the fulfillment of the promise. That the Apostolic church had wonderful power, is evidenced by its remarkable growth, as well as by the record of the Word. We have the promise of the same power today. How about its fulfillment?
But did not Paul prophecy that these things should be done away? Let us see. I Cor., 13:8 charity never faileth: Whether there be prophecies they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. Sometimes, not stopping to find out when this shall be, we jump at the conclusion that these things have been done away. We have only to read the next two verses to be set clear. “For we know in part, and we prophecy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.” Paul knew only in part, and prophesied in part, and spoke in tongues only in part; but when that which is perfect is come, then the knowledge, prophecy, and tongues of Paul shall be done away. If they are to be done away on that great and notable day of the Lord, they must be in existence when He shall come. Divine love never faileth. But when He comes these other things shall fail. God’s promises must last till by God’s own word they are withdrawn.
At the beginning of the Eighteenth century, among the French Protestants, there were wonderful manifestations of the Spirit power accompanied by the Gift of Tongues. The early Quakers received the same powerful religious stimulus and had the Gift of Tongues. The Irvingite church, about 1830, had the baptism with the Holy Ghost, and spoke in other tongues. In the Swedish revival in 1841-43 there were the same manifestations of the Spirit and also the Gift of Tongues. In the Irish revival of 1859 there is the record of the power of the Spirit in winning souls and the speaking in tongues by Spirit filled men and women. (For the above facts, my authority is Bishop Hurst’s History of the Christian Church, Vol. 1). Bishop Taylor left the record that he took a young lady to labor among a certain tribe in Africa, and left her preaching through an interpreter; but returned two months later and found her preaching fluently in the native language, without having learned it.
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A drunkard got under conviction in a street meeting, and raised his hand to be prayed for. They prayed for the devil of drink to be cast out, and the appetite was gone. He came to the meeting and was saved, sanctified, and baptized with the Holy Ghost, and in three days from the time he was drunk he was speaking in a new tongue and praising God for Pentecost. He hardly knows himself.
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A sister was healed of consumption when she had but a part of a lung left. She lay in a trance for three days and saw heaven and hell and unutterable things. She received the Pentecost and gift of tongues and feels called to a foreign land.
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The preaching of old time restitution is owned of the Lord. People have been paying up old debts, making wrongs right, getting hard feelings out of the way, etc. One who was saved from drink confessed to crimes and offered himself to pay the penalty of the law. People living in adultery or where one party had a living husband or wife have separated, and God is wonderfully pouring out His Spirit on this line of things.
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END OF PAGE THREE
EXPERIENCE IN TRUSTING GOD FOR NEEDS.
The first time I was out of wood after the Lord had shown me to trust Him, I asked the Lord for wood and the wood did not come. The Lord had shown me that I could not ask for flour till it was gone. I went down into the basement that morning and found some hard knots that had been laid aside and had enough wood for that day. The next morning I asked the Lord for wood. The wood did not come. I picked up enough chunks and chips to do that day.
The next morning, I went to the Lord and said, “Father, there are no more chunks and chips, we are out of wood. Send the wood.” I went down to the city and forgot all about it. Did not think of it, until I returned home, and my daughter said, “Papa, who brought the wood?” I told her that “she need not trouble, the Lord would send it.” But she said, “some man brought wood, who was he that you sent it by?” I thought she was joking, but she said, “Look in the box and in the basement.” I went down and found a large load of wood already for the stove and just the length that we used in our stove.
I did not know for some time who brought the wood; but one day when holding meetings in South Seattle, a man invited me home with him, and while at dinner he said, “I want to tell you something that happened to me. I was crossing the bridge with a load of wood. My wife had written out a bill of some things that we had to have, and I needed feed for my horses. I was taking this load of wood in to get the groceries and feed. While out on the bridge and no one near me, an audible voice said behind me and just above me, ‘Take this wood to McConnell.’ I looked around me and there was no one near me. I said, ‘I cannot take this wood to McConnell, I have got to have the groceries and feed,’ and drove on. The voice said again, ‘Take this wood to T.W. McConnell.’ I said, ‘How can I take this wood to McConnell; I must have these groceries and feed for my horses.’ And the third time the voice spoke, and so strong that it scared me, and I answered, ‘Well, I will,’ for I believed it was the Lord talking. There was no one about.
“I went and made inquiry, finally looked in the directory and found where you lived. I drove to the house and unloaded the wood, then drove back home as quickly as I could, loaded up some wood that I had and drove back to town, sold my wood as soon as I reached town, got my feed and groceries, and from that time I have prospered as never before.”
T.W.M.
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FIRE FALLING AT OAKLAND
A band of workers left Los Angeles for Oakland. All are baptized with the Holy Ghost and speak in tongues. They are Bro. G.W. Evans and wife, Sister Crawford, Bro. Johnson, Louise Condit and Bro. Manley, editor of the Household of God. Bro. Manley had come down from Oakland especially to see the movement but did not receive his Pentecost till after he returned. Reports brought back by Bro. Evans are that hundreds have been at the altar, many converted and sanctified and healed, and thirty have received their Pentecost and are speaking in tongues. Praise God! The saints of Los Angeles rejoice to hear the good report.
A gentleman came saying, “I have been afflicted with paralysis eighteen long years, if you can do anything, will you lay your hands on me? Before he was prayed for, he called a physician to be a witness. The Lord relieved the man of his distress in the presence of the physician.
A minister in the city was raised up after eight years of suffering.
A man who was deaf and said he had not been able to hear for half his life was prayed for. God instantly gave him his hearing, when he was anointed and prayed for. He was a practicing physician in Oakland. He weighs between three and four hundred pounds. The Lord dropped him on the floor and gave him the Pentecost.
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THE LORD SENDS HIM.
A Pentecostal missionary has left for foreign lands, Bro. Thos. P. Mahler, a young man of German nationality. He has the gift of tongues besides the knowledge of several. He left here for San Bernardino. He may go by way of Alaska, Russia, Norway, Germany and to his destination in Africa. As our brother was leaving, Bro. Post spoke of his call and gave a message in tongues in regard to Bro. Mahler which he interpreted as follows: “I have anointed this dear one with my Spirit, and he is a chosen vessel to me to preach the gospel to many, and to suffer martyrdom in Africa.” We are expecting to hear from our brother reports of God’s doings. Our prayers follow him.
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ASCENSION ROBES.
The secular papers have said, “These people are buying their ascension robes.” Now it is not our place to refute any reports, but as this brings up the subject of ascension robes, we do believe in buying them of Jesus, for He said, “Buy of me *** raiment.” We believe the time of ascension is drawing nigh when “The Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we which are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds.” (1 Thes. 4:16, 17). We shall not rise to meet Him in grave clothes or any earthly clothing. We shall leave them behind as Jesus did when he left the tomb. For John saw the linen clothes lying,” and Peter following him, “seeth the linen clothes lie and the napkin that was about his head.” Yet Jesus was clothed when the disciples met Him. So will we be when we are changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, clothed in garments not made with hands, fit for the bride of Christ to wear in the courts of Heaven.
The garments that Jesus wore after His resurrection could appear and disappear and pass through bolted doors and walls. They were none such as are worn on earth. Many who are proud of their clothing here are selling their birthright for a mess of pottage and know not what they are losing. It matters not how poor our clothing may be, the Lord knows those who are ready and all glorious within.”
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GOOD NEWS FROM DANVILLE, VA.
Brother and Sister A.G. Garr, former leaders of the Burning Bush work in Los Angeles, were powerfully baptized with the Holy Ghost and received the gift of tongues, especially the language of India and dialects. Bro. Garr was able to pray a native of India “through” in his own language, the Bengali. Sister Garr also spoke Chinese. They left Los Angeles for the East in July going by the way of Chicago, where they met with the Burning Bush leaders, then on to Danville, Va., where they have been preaching to hungry souls. From there, they will go on to India, D.V.
In a letter from Bro. Garr we learn that God is honoring His precious gospel in a marvelous way, reclaiming, sanctifying and filling with the Holy Ghost nearly all the members of the old Burning Bush band. The brother writes that when they spoke in tongues the people had such confidence in their Pentecostal baptism that those who were sick were immediately healed.
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TONGUES CONVICT SINNERS.
We clip the following from the Apostolic Faith published by Bro. Chas. Parham at Baxter, Kan.
“A remarkable incident of God’s searching power was recorded in Melrose, Kan., during a revival which has been held by some of our young people at that place.
“The power of the Holy Spirit was greatly manifested in the meetings by the speaking in unknown tongues. This was much criticized by the town and vicinity, so the principal physician, who was familiar with several different languages, was prevailed upon to go to the meetings in order to denounce the whole as a fake. Miss Tuthill, in an unknown language to herself, but known to him as Italian, spoke his full name, which no one in the town knew save himself, telling him things that had happened in his life twenty years ago, and on up to the present time, until he cried for mercy and fell on his knees seeking God.
“He found full salvation the next day, and is now a believer in ‘the Gospel’ that Jesus taught, and also in the power of the Holy Ghost that was given unto us to witness to a living Christ. He now says he would rather pray for the sick than give drugs, and is seriously thinking of leaving his profession and going into the Lord’s work.
“Many precious souls have been saved, sanctified and baptized with the Holy Ghost as a result of the preached word under the Spirit’s anointing power.”
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HOLY GHOST SINGING.
A song in an unknown tongue was interpreted as follows: With one accord, all heaven rings-With praises to our God and King; Let earth join in our song of praise, And ring it out through all the days.”
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VICTORY FOLLOWS CRUCIFIXION.
Think of what hung on that momentous hour that Jesus suffered. No hour in all history has been fraught with such eternal interests. It was a crucial hour and He was a willing offering. He said, “What shall I say, Father save Me from this hour? But for this cause came I into this world.” There is a crucial hour in every man’s and every woman’s life. Someone now may be facing their cross, their Gethsemane. Will you say, “Father save me from this hour?” You know the blessing that came when Jesus endured the cross, despising the shame. Face the hour. God will give you grace for the hour of your opportunity. Some are drawing back. Let us pray, “Lord, save me from drawing back.” Our Christ, who went every step of the way, says, “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.” When we get on the resurrection side of the cross, the glory and victory will be unspeakable.
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SAMPLE COPIES.
If you receive a sample copy of this paper and wish it continued, send your name and address to The Apostolic Faith, 312 Azusa street, Los Angeles, Cal. Subscription free. If you know of any hungry souls to whom you wish the paper sent, send in their addresses and as the Lord permits we will send the paper. We are having 5,000 of this issue printed. The money came in answer to prayer. The next issue will come out as He permits.
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JESUS IS COMING.
Sister Anna Hall, who came here from Houston, Texas, in response to the call of God, is now assisting in Los Angeles. The Lord led her into the Pentecostal Baptism and gift of tongues without her hearing the truth except from the Word. She related the following wonderful vision and revelation.
A few weeks ago, as we were in our camp meeting, the first night we called our altar service there were 100 at the altar seeking God, and a strange power came into my being that I had felt once before when God wanted to reveal something to me. I have learned that it pays to be quiet before the Lord. I went home to my daughter’s house and prepared for bed. Just as the gray dawn began to appear, I waked as if someone had touched my shoulder, and felt the same power. I heard the beautiful warbling of a bird, and thought it was a mocking bird which one might hear there. But no, it seemed away down in my soul. And as that beautiful bird began to sing, I saw a little infant face right before my eyes. And as the song of the bird began to ripple, it began to sound like water running over pebbles. It increased till it sounded like many waters, and the face enlarged till it was a full grown face. I said, “Surely this is a messenger from the holy country.” The voice answered. “Yes and I have come to tell you that Jesus is coming. Go forward in My name, preach the Gospel of the Kingdom, for the King’s business demands haste. My people have only time to get on the beautiful garments, and prepare for the wedding supper in the Heavens.” Dear ones, have you got on the beautiful robes of righteousness? I said, “Lord, reveal unto me what this means, the singing of the bird and rippling of the waters.” And God spoke to me, “The singing of the beautiful bird and the baby face was the proclamation of the first coming into the world; and the voice of many waters is the proclamation of Jesus Christ that is soon coming.”
Repeat and believe the Gospel, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.
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DIVINELY HEALED.
Bro. J.A. Warren of Houston, Texas, relates his experience as follows: “I had suffered two years from chills and fever and could never get rid of them. I was down with them, when it was told to me that the Lord would heal us and wanted to do it without the help of medicine, so I made up my mind that I would not have another chill; that the Lord would heal me. My chill was to come on about seven o’clock in the morning. It started to come and I was about to call my people to put more cover over me, when I thought how I had taken the Lord for my healer. So I got up and dressed and would not let the devil bring a chill on me, but prepared for breakfast. When the ice wagon came along and my little grandchild called my attention to it, I started to say, “No, I will not take ice for this is my chill day.” (I was in the habit of taking ice only on the day I had fever). Then I stopped myself and said, “Yes, I will take ice,” and I drank ice water all day. I was healed and in two months had gained about twenty-five pounds in flesh.”
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RUSSIANS HEAR IN THEIR OWN TONGUE.
Different nationalities are now hearing the Gospel in their own “tongue wherein they were born.” Sister Anna Hall spoke to the Russians in their church in Los Angeles, in their own language as the Spirit gave utterance. They were so glad to hear the truth that they wept and even kissed her hands. They are a very simple, pure, and hungry people for the full Gospel. The other night, as a company of Russians were present in the meeting, Bro. Lee, a converted Catholic, was permitted to speak their language. As he spoke and sang, one of the Russians came up and embraced him. It was a holy sight, and the Spirit fell upon the Russians, as well as on others, and they glorified God.
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A baptismal service was held at Terminal Island, one of the beaches near Los Angeles. One hundred and six persons were baptized in the ocean. About 500 people went down from Los Angeles and spent the day. A number of extra cars were filled and such a singing, shouting, joyful company Terminal Island never saw before. The day was spent in services of worship and the baptismal service. Bro. Seymour performed the baptismal services. All were immersed.
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Monrovia, Pasadena, San Pedro, Sawtelle, and Whittier are places about Los Angeles that are catching the Pentecostal fire. Elysian Heights and Hermon, suburbs of Los Angeles have cottage prayer meetings where souls are being baptized with the Holy Ghost. Two holiness churches, one in Los Angeles and one in Monrovia have caught the fire, the ministers and numbers of the congregation having received the Pentecost and are speaking with tongues. The Burning Bush workers in Los Angeles came into the movement in a body and numbers of the different missions and the New Testament and Nazarene people are being filled with the Spirit and carrying the blessed light to other hungry souls. It is not our desire to tear down churches but to make new churches out of old ones. We pray for God to send the Pentecost to every church.
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THE LORD LEADS.
We earnestly invoke God to manage the publication of this sheet and He is editor-in-chief and business manager. We publish it with the clear leading of the Lord. Hundreds of workers and missionaries will be represented in it. We wish no human writer to receive any honor but that it might be all to the glory of God, and that it may voice the power and presence of Almighty God who is moving on the people in Los Angeles and over the world. We start with not a cent in sight, but in the little upper room office above the mission on Azusa street, we dropped on our knees and asked Him to send the means to publish the paper. In a short time, the money began to be sent in. No debt will be incurred. The paper will only be published as the money comes in advance.
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MESSAGE FROM GOD.
A message that was given in tongues for God’s people was this, “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God.” He is now about to move on the world in a mighty wave of Pentecostal power and salvation. A sister had a vision of God’s people as vessels that were full, and the Lord said, “The vessels must be emptied and I will fill them.”
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ARRESTED FOR JESUS’ SAKE.
A brother who has been baptized with the Holy Ghost was arrested on account of the disturbance which the preaching of the Gospel created among the people who crowded about the tent in Pasadena. As he stood to answer the accusation of disturbing the peace, another brother says he saw an angel standing by his side. He was released. The Lord has been doing great things in that place and we expect greater things.
Some workers were preaching on the street corner in Los Angeles and a poor drunkard had just been saved, when a policeman came up and ordered them to stop, and took two of them off to jail. The sister sang all the way to the jail and shouted and prayed while they were there. They soon were anxious to get rid of them and let them go. Meantime the other workers returned to the mission and told how the workers had been arrested and they all went to the altar and prayed and arose praising God; and soon in walked the ones who had been arrested. We are ready not only to go to prison, but to give our lives for Jesus.
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MISSIONARIES TO JERUSALEM.
A band of three missionaries, Bro. Andrew Johnson and Sisters Louise Condit and Lucy M. Leatherman, who have been baptized with the Holy Ghost and received the gift of languages, have left for Jerusalem, going by way of Oakland, leaving there Aug. 10th. Reports came of meetings on the way that four souls received the Pentecost in Colorado Springs and three in Denver.
Bro. Johnson has received seven different languages, one of which is the Arabic. Sister Leatherman speaks the Turkish language, and while in Oakland, some were talking on the street about the gift of tongues, Sister Leatherman began to speak just as a man wearing the Turkish fez came by. He listened in wonder and asked what college she had attended, saying she spoke the most perfect Turkish tongue he had heard spoken by a foreigner. He was an educated man from a Turkish college in Constantinople. She told him the Holy Ghost gave her the language which she did not understand herself and he was the first person that had interpreted for her.
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When we leave the Blood out, Satan has power to switch us into fanaticism, but no powers out of hell are able to make their way through the Blood.
2011: The Year of the Bamboo
While preparing our annual report of over 50 completed projects in 2010, we shared a few thoughts with a close friend and partner in the ministry. For one or another reason, our impression has been that things appear to be moving slower than expected while working with the Bulgarian Church of God in the context of some 40 various denominations in the period 2005-2010.
Our efforts in the ministry have contributed to several major developments like a ministry center in the capital Sofia, the start of a national Sunday school program and a master’s program in chaplaincy, the international X Youth Event, national youth ministry Bible camp and the Leadership Training Seminar (LTS) to mention a few. But this success in ministry has not been without many painful and exhausting days and nights of praying, planning, organizing, gathering the needed resources and trying to stay away from destructive politics and man-made divisions.
So it was not until the last quarter of 2010 that our efforts began reshaping the reality around us as we quickly realized the long-term projects had finally come to completion. As a result, just during the last three months in Bulgaria, we brought to finishing point major goals of our ministry and completed work which generally would have taken us a year time. And it was awesomely encouraging as we watched goal after goal being completed literally over night.
Our friend listened closely to this great testimony of the ministry and quickly compared it to the story of the bamboo. The strongest and fastest growing wood on the planet does not grow 20 inches over night without several years of long preparation. During this time, the roots spread rapidly in the soil clamping together in a strong underground system that will serve as the foundation to the future plant. They remain unseen under the surface until the day the first spurs shoot out of the ground.
2011 will be the year during which ministries with global vision that have worked hard and long for years, following Spirit led investing of time, efforts in resources in projects and goals that seem unreasonable, unnecessary and foolish to others, will see the spurs of their efforts shooting out of the ground over night. And then, no one will be laughing at the vision any longer.
For others, it will be a wonder, but these ministries will know that many years of hard labor and efforts have finally brought long waited results. For the only way to have a fast growing strong ministry is to take the time for preparation. 2011 calls for an end of preparation and a time of new growth.
Happy New Year
