Excellency of Knowing God — Leonard Ravenhill

I don't think I have any really bad habits. Well, I have one, and that's buying books. The pastor graciously gave me some books yesterday, and he told me I can have some more, so I'm going in there later.

Anything that's free, I like. Grace is free, mercy is free, the joy of the Lord is free, the burden of the Lord is free. Outside of reading the Word of God, I find that maybe the most profitable reading is reading biographies, or, if they're available, preaching autobiographies.

There are two great big volumes on the life of Hudson Taylor. He was the founder of the China Inland Mission. The first volume is called The Growth of a Soul. It shows the expansion of his life, spiritually, intellectually, and in every other way.

The second volume is called The Growth of a Work, because he founded the Gospel of Christ right in central China, never once asked for a penny to support his cause. And there are two great volumes on the life of William Booth.

They were written by Begbie, and they're astounding. I think I could write the life of most men in two volumes. But God writes the life of one of the most wonderful men that ever crossed the bridge of time, and he writes it in two words.

Prayer as the Measure of a Life

He prayed. No man is greater than his prayer life. It's amazing to me always that the disciples never once said to the Lord, teach us to preach. They didn't say, teach us to do miracles. But they did say, teach us to pray.

The most awesome time in the life of Jesus, I think, was when he went there into the garden of Gethsemane, and he prayed. And nobody could bear that. Now, I don't know how it sounds. My voice is echoing all the time.

Is that normal? He's working on it. Good for him. Maybe you need to work on me. What are you going to do? Oh, the roof? Well, here is a man. I say again, one of the most amazing men that ever crossed the bridge of time.

And all it says of him, he prayed. You could say of him, he subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions. You know, if ever you attempted to get proud, and I suppose you are, I mean, proud of your spiritual achievements, proud of your spiritual development, proud of your spiritual vision.

I think the one great remedy for me, anyhow, if I'm tempted that way, is to go to the 11th chapter of Hebrews. One of the most amazing chapters, surely, in the whole of the word of God. And there you have men and women.

What does it say of them? It doesn't tell you a word about their social standing or their intellectual powers. It says of them, they subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions.

Women received their dead, raised their lives again. Here's the repair, man. Which is all. Good. I'd rather kiss my wife than kiss this thing. What's this for, Ben? Okay. But the staggering thing about about reading Hebrews 11 for me, when I read what they did, it doesn't say they went to Bible schools.

It doesn't say they had degrees. It says they had one thing that we all need so vitally. They had faith. Listen, they subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, stopped the mouths of lions. Women received their dead, raised to life again.

And you know what knocks me flat? Not one of them ever had a Bible. Don't brag about your Bible knowledge here. Wait till you get to the judgment seat. You'll possibly discover it will shrink. You see, we've made a big mistake in America and other countries.

Almost every magazine you pick up, know your Bible, know your Bible, know your Bible. No. It's not know your Bible, it's know God. You can know your Bible in Hebrew and Greek and Latin and all the rest and not know God.

It says the people that know their Bible should be strung into exploit. Does it say that? Not in the reverse version. The people that do know their God, know him intimately, know something about his majesty, his glory, his resources.

Knowing God Through Elijah

So here you have a man comes on the stage. About 50 years after dividing of the kingdom, we read that Elijah came onto the stage. He came in one of the most, the darkest hours in the history of the nation.

There have been at least five kings before Ahab. The second king did more evil than the first. The third did more evil than the second. The fourth did more evil than the third. The fifth did more evil than the previous four.

And finally Ahab came and you take all the aggregate iniquity of the nation and Ahab exceeded it all. He broke every law, every commandment of God. He led the people to strange gods. He rebuilt Jericho, which God said should never be rebuilt.

And he built altars to Ashdod and to Baal. And yet it's all summed up in this word, he prayed. And in James 5 it says he prayed the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man. So we know that he was a man and God's looking for men.

And he doesn't despise women. He helps their infirmity. But, thank you. He says I sought for a man to stand in the gap. There was a man sent from God. I looked for a man. John the Baptist was a man. Elijah was a man.

He wasn't half God and half man. He was a man. He must have been a man. He stood up against 800 men and ran away from one woman. So he must have been a man. Very fallible. But then, it says in verse in the first book of Kings in chapter 16 and it says in verse 32 he reared up an altar to Baal in the house of Baal and he built in Sama.

And Ahab did more, made a grove to Ahab, he did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel and all the kings that were before him. And all you do, if you read that story slowly you see it's a kind of list of impiety and impurity and deliberate, determined opposition to the revelation of God.

You know, I believe right now well, let me put it this way in the last two weeks I've received three prophecies from different parts of America people that don't know each other and all saying the same thing that this is going to be, the next three years are going to be three of the darkest years in the history of America.

I don't know that Senator Sam Nunn is a, I know he's a politician obviously I don't know whether he's a Christian but somebody asked him since you're a very popular mature senator you know the affairs of America you know about its economy you know about the world situation why don't you run for presidency?

So Senator Nunn said could I honestly go could I honestly go in front of a congregation of people and say vote for me to be president of the United States in the next four of the most difficult years in American history and the answer is not in the politicians the answer is not in the White House it's in God's house that is if we put our house in order if we humble ourselves before God.

Well here is this amazing, amazing man Montgomery. Bishop Montgomery was the grandfather of Lord Montgomery that was a famous man in World War II. Montgomery said that prayer is the simplest form of speech that infant lips can try prayer the sublimest strains that reach the majesty on high.

Humility, Clean Hands, and Effective Prayer

Yes I love that 24th Psalm. You see prayer is the language of the poor. Here is a man he has written more Psalms. He lives nearer to God than any man in his day. And he is mighty in battle. He supersedes the kings before him.

And yet though he sits on the greatest throne in the world he says bow down thine ear and hear me I am poor and needy. Or again he says this poor man cried I'll tell you what. You can't have arrogance and pride and pray.

The one cancels the other. Yes the secret is in Psalm 24. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord. He that hath clean hands. That's our relationship with the world. Now you can't live wrong and pray right.

You've got to live right to pray right. And we've got to humble ourselves under the hand of God. You see the self-sufficient don't want to pray. The self-satisfied don't need to pray. The self-righteous cannot pray.

Prayer is based predicated on these two things. My relationship with the world is clean and my relationship with God. My heart is pure. My motive is purely to the glory of God. Well let me jump into this here on the 17th chapter of the first book of Kings Elisha the Tishbi was the inhabitants of Gilead.

And he said unto Ahab as the Lord God of Israel liveth. Nobody knew that God was alive. Here is a man saying God lives. The God that divided the Red Sea. The God that opened the windows of heaven and fed them with manna every day.

The God that did the miraculous. The God that sent a pillar of fire and led them by fire during the night and by cloud during the day. And he says to a heathen king listen. I want to tell you something.

The Lord God of Israel liveth. I remember Gypsy Smith coming to the college that I went. I went to a little Bible college a small one only 30 young men there no girls were allowed. They're too distracting just thirsty men.

And very often I sat and had dinner with this wonderful fellow Gypsy Smith. I remember him saying he was on a train in America and he began to testify to a man. The man said to him sir you look intelligent but you're a fool.

So the gypsy said why am I foolish. He said because God doesn't live. You're dreaming. Well then he pulled out a little notebook and he said in that train in America I wrote this hymn. The world says I'm dreaming.

But I know it's Jesus. And the chorus is let me dream on if I'm dreaming. And he said to the man listen. I'm having a wonderful dream. Don't wake me up. I'm not dreaming. But we know in whom we have believed.

Here is a man. Oh what I was going to say. This man said to him how do you know God lives. He said because I talked with him for half an hour this morning. That's pretty good truth isn't it. Somebody once asked D .L. Moody.

How do you know the Bible is inspired because it inspires me. Dear God. I go to my office past midnight usually. And boy I'm more excited. I don't like the word excited. I'm more inspired when there's nobody there than even when there's a crowd there.

You see God isn't very busy after twelve o 'clock. So I get the Lord all by myself. It's wonderful. You try it. You lazy bones. You try it sometimes. No wonder you're fat and overweight. You stay in bed too much.

The Lord God of Israel before whom I stand. Why does a man stand before royalty to take command to receive some word of authority. He recognizes he is in submission and it says listen so clearly here the Lord God of Israel before whom I stand.

Do you know what our generation thinks that God's gone out of business. I said this morning. I'm not facetious when a young person says to me I don't go to church. Church is as exciting as a Tupperware party.

Not. So when God is there dear God there's life in a cemetery compared with a church when God isn't there. What do you do when you have a dead preacher giving out dead sermons to dead people. That's a qualification for the highest rank of nonsense.

But when God is there and Elijah says God before whom I stand this is the most awesome thing I think in the world. It's not only that God before whom he stands but listen. He says the word of the Lord came unto me.

Does God ever speak to you. Supposing you lifted the phone and it was a president of the United States. You'd be all shaky and say this is wonderful. But supposing you knew a man who really walked with God and then you talk with him.

What a difference there is. And Elijah says God before whom I stand. What did he say to him. Get thee. Hence and turn eastward and hide thyself. Hide thyself. That's why I had you sing trust and obey.

There's no other way go hide thyself. Look at the next chapter verse 18. And it says in verse 1 go show thyself. It's wrong to show yourself when you should hide yourself. It's wrong to hide yourself when you should show yourself.

You see there's a timing in the affairs of God. Well even Shakespeare said there's a timing in the affairs of men which if taken of the flood lead on to higher things. Sometimes a boat has to stay outside of the harbor because the tide doesn't bring enough to bring it in.

You know I believe there's a tidal wave of holy power coming over America. You see God once poured out his spirit and since then the Holy Ghost has become the prisoner of our theology. Your preacher believes in the Holy Ghost.

He quotes him just before you go to sleep. No right at the end of the service in the name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit. That's the only mention of the Holy Ghost in most meetings. But we're going to see a manifestation of the power of God to supersede all other powers that we've ever known.

God is jealous for his glory. This man is jealous for the glory of God. He's not jealous for his name but God says go hide thyself. I don't know how he was there. How long. Nobody else does. Some say he was there a year.

Some say two years. Some say three years. Well you try it. Go hide thyself. How often do you say oh when I get the children off to school boy I'm going to be quiet. The first thing you do is turn the dumb old TV on.

And some of you of course have been in the shadow of death and sorrow ever since PTL died. Because you were living on what you got from that junky thing I said this morning. Not many people live on God.

We live on meetings. This man didn't he heard the voice of the Lord say go hide thyself. That's the most difficult thing in the world to do. We love companionship. What did he do in that in that cave.

For the years he was there he wasn't counting the bats and the rats. For sure. Go he says and hide yourself. You know when preachers come to me or call me they say Mr. Raymond I'm very tired. I think I need a I need a vacation.

I say you don't. You need a cave. Get away from telephones. Get away from people. Be still and know that I'm God is as much the scriptures be filled with the spirit. The Lord said go tarry. In Jerusalem.

People say the last word of Jesus was going into all the world. That's nonsense. It wasn't so. That was the last word of Jesus to the disciples. The last word of Jesus to the church was repent. Repent repent in the book of the revelation.

And until she repents she'll never have revival. God isn't impressed with our buildings and our programs and our star preachers and all the fundraising as I said this morning you see evangelists are fundraisers.

Revivalists are hell raisers. And I'll tell you when God comes it's not a very pleasant thing to be confronted with God. Be still and know that I'm God. You know almost every man that God has used has had a period of darkness.

I have three big volumes of what St. Teresa's and one of them is called what the the dark night of the soul. And sooner or later somebody goes through that a time of splendid isolation. When other helpers fail and comforts flee.

When God seems to be a million miles away. When there's no one you can trust. When you seem you've run into a wall and they're in the darkness. I'll tell you wasn't much daylight in the first submarine that was ever invented.

Do you know when who traveled in the first submarine. You don't know. Mike you ignoramus. Would you imagine a past of a place like this. Never heard of Jonah. So he goes down. What does Jonah say. He's at the bottom of the Mediterranean ocean.

And it's the first waterbed that was ever invented. No it's a rubber bed. Every time the whale goes he goes you know like you do on your waterbed. But what does he say. Round about him is all the flesh of the beast.

And round that you have the big rushes. And round those you have the mountains. But listen he says from the belly of hell I cried. Do you know what I believe. Disbelieve it. If you like I don't care. I believe the generation this generation this nation this generation is going into the belly of hell.

We're going into the darkest period in our spiritual history darker than it was when Jonathan Edwards was used. And those people in the 1600s 1720 we're going to the darkest place. I'll tell you a picture.

Paul in the Storm and the Angel of God

Read it. It's in the 27th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. You remember Paul was on board a ship. Isn't it wonderful. He got on as a prisoner. He finished as the pilot. He got on as what they thought.

He was a murderer but he was a messenger. What does he say. He says for 14 days and nights. Have any of you been in mid-Atlantic in a storm. I crossed the Atlantic about 16 or 17 times on the Queen Mary the Queen Elizabeth the United States.

Boy you look at that ship. The ship is half as long again as this. It's the length of a football field and a half a monstrous boat weighing 80. Queen Mary weighs 82 ,000 gross tonnage and carries about 3 ,000 people.

I looked up at the deck when I was standing there I thought well how do you get the thing going. But when I got in mid-Atlantic you know the mid-Atlantic tossed it around like a rowing boat. Boy people screamed and yelled and the storm only lasted about 12 hours.

But I'll tell you it was terrible. You can't get off. That's the trouble. And you can't go forward and you can't go backward. It was a mess. But in this storm that the Apostle Paul it's typical of the end days I believe.

So what happened he says for 14 days and night the sun never appeared. The ship was rolling the seas were boiling the sails were ripping and the structure was all snapping. And the women were screaming and shrieking for 14 days and nights.

So what. Everybody's lost hope. They throw the cargo of the ship out. They cut the lifeboat off. Everything's gone. And so now they're in a terrible state. And it was then Paul says when all hope was gone not before he let them go through the misery.

He let them see. There was no human help. There was no deliverer that nobody could stay. That ship it was at the mercy of the storm. It was in the grip of what they called Euroclidon which is the most powerful storm you could ever have.

And he let the thing go on. And then suddenly there was a change. The captain of the ship says hey come here get that little guy in his chains and bring him up here. So the captain says to him you know we've lost the ship.

We've lost a million dollars worth of cargo. We're in deep distress. What can we do. I don't know what to do. All hope is gone. Paul says well I want to tell you something. Boy did that captain's ears go up.

He said in the midst of the storm when you were terrified last night when you were all throwing up overboard there stood by me an angel of God dear Lord. Isn't that wonderful. You can have your friends.

Let me have the angels. Boy it's wonderful when the angel of the Lord appears and he said the angel stood by me whose God whose I am and whom I am. Isn't it amazing. Paul said what about. He said I live move and have my being in God.

He wasn't a weekend preacher. He wasn't sanctified one day a week. He didn't have one Sabbath a week. Every day is a Sabbath when God indwells us. Every day is a convention. Every day is being lifted into heavenly places.

Every day because we're seated with him in heavenly places. Where do you live. You say I live in Kansas. I pity you. It's a dump of a place. Why don't you live in heavenly places. Why don't you live above the world.

You sing. I want to live above the world. I'm pressing on the upward way. New heights. I'm gaining every day. Sure. That's what God wants. Revelation is progressive. God's challenges are progressive anyhow.

Paul says there stood by me an angel of God this night whose I am and whom I serve. And the storm ceased. I believe we're going into that situation where there be no hope in the White House. People will turn in droves to God house because God is the only answer.

We've tried everything else we've tried every gimmick and gadget in evangelism. Forget it. We don't need some new thing to draw the crowd. We need a pillar of fire. We need God the Holy Ghost to move in the midst.

And you don't have to say God is here. You don't tell people if you're going to room full of flowers. You smell the fragrance. Well if God is in the place I don't need to tell you God is here. You'll feel stirrings and moving in your spirit such as never before.

Obedience, Solitude, and God's Discipline

Okay let's go back a minute there to Elijah in the cave. What did he do. He obeyed. Well look why didn't he say why me. Lord you told me to go. What about my brother Elijah. Elijah is the most spiritual man in the world.

Can you make it to. And the Lord says no. I deal with individuals not couples. Well he could have said well Lord you know I'm a very busy busy preacher. I'm planning to go next week. And I'm planning to go next week.

I mean the next next year. I'm booked to preach Tuesday and Thursdays for the next year in the school of prophets. For my friend Elijah it's not convenient. Well very often it isn't convenient if it's convenient for you to do the will of God.

You're in trouble. I saw an automobile going down the road and on the back it said try God. That's junk. You don't try God. God tries. You think of the old lady she prayed. She said Lord you've tried me with sickness.

You've tried me with poverty. You've tried me with loneliness. Please try me with money. And he didn't. What do you think he's doing in that period of loneliness. Come on. You think you're pretty strong.

Shut the door someday. Go in a room and say I don't want to see anybody for a day for 24 hours. See what it's like. You see sometimes God tries to get our attention. We won't listen. So then he comes.

I did a wonderful meeting for Dr. Chaucer in 1951 in that great church in Chicago. The glory of God came. The meetings went on till midnight. Every night they had to open the gallery for the first time in years.

And it was marvelous. And the very last night the hotel we were in caught fire. I had to jump out of the third story into the street breaking my back my legs all my body was broken. But you know I just planned to go around the world.

Boy I was going to change the world. Well you know the result I didn't get around the world. So you see the mess the world's in. You see God couldn't get my attention. So for two years I had to stay at home.

I was brought up with the wholeness people and they believed that insurance is of the devil. And you know I was in that hospital and in 1951 when money was money it was over $100 a day. And you know not one of them ever sent me a penny.

They thought it was of the devil. Well I thought something else. But you see God was teaching me a lesson a lesson of faith. Be still and know that I'm God sure. I suppose somewhere in your history you heard somebody quoting about John Knox one of the greatest men in history.

What did he do when he so prayed that Mary Queen of Scots. Bloody Mary said I would rather know the armies of England are marching into Scotland than know that John Knox was praying. So what this is John Knox a man sent from God a man that came with an anointing that revolutionized the country.

Where did he come from. He came from 12 years in prison away there in France. There was a very famous ambassador at the time of John Knox. England and Scotland were fighting each other and a fellow by the name of Randolph was a British ambassador in Scotland.

He wrote a letter and put it on the stagecoach. Deliver this as quickly as possible in London. And when he got there they opened the letter. And the letter said from Randolph John Knox has come back. He'd been 12 years in prison in France.

He'd been 2 years as a slave on a ship rowing a ship and had 14 years of trial and testing. And though God had forsaken him the meals were rotten. The crew were the most vulgar vicious men you could find in the world.

And God sets him down there in the midst of them all. So he comes back after 14 years of loneliness. What happens. Well Randolph says this. Listen carefully. He says John Knox has come into Scotland. His voice is worth 500 trumpets.

Why. Because of his spiritual vigor. Because of his integrity his honesty, his purity. You know there are 3 things about preaching. I don't want to prove them and David won't prove them. There are 3 things missing in modern preaching.

Intensity, immensity and eternity. You know I love you so much. I hope you don't sleep one night this week. I hope the Lord gets hold of you for that. The promises you've made, the disappointments you've been to God the vows you've made and you haven't kept the times you said you were filled with the Holy Ghost and instead of the fire of the Spirit you were not just the chosen you were the frozen people.

But John Knox served 14 years in quietness. God got hold of him. Go hide thyself he says in chapter 17 and in chapter 18 he says go show thyself. And there was a sore famine in the land. You know we're in a stage of awesome difficulty.

Prophetic Confrontation and Revival

When Elijah went down the street or when he saw there were groves to Ashcroft and to Baal. He was angry. I read this afternoon there that 16th chapter in the Acts of the Apostles where Paul this man for all seasons.

He went into Athens. You see Paul's life began in the ancient capital of the world Tarsus, he finished in the military capital of the world Rome, in between he went to the intellectual. He went to the religious capital of the world Jerusalem.

He went to the corrupt capital of the world Corinth and he went to the intellectual capital at Athens. And he met the stoics and poets and philosophers and every one of them. He beat them all. But what did he do?

He went down the main street he saw temples to strange gods and in the sleepy Elizabethan English it says. And when he saw the temples to strange gods and the devotees and all they did his spirit was stirred within him.

But if you read the translation by J .B. Phillips he says that when he saw the idolatry he was exasperated. Isn't it amazing what people will do for false gods? I noticed the other day in the news, I turn the news it just said this new fella Tyson is going to fight.

And what do you do when you are not fighting? He said I get up at the same time every morning at 4 o 'clock. I go to bed at 9 at night. I get up at 4 in the morning. I do so many miles training by myself in the cold wet morning.

I'm going to stay champion of the world dear God when those youngsters come out of those colleges that the Mormons have and they have to go to some part of the world and the parents have to support them.

They are not supported by the church. If you have 6 children you have to support those 6 children for 2 years in a foreign country. And when they leave school they are told this you can't write home to your parents, you can't telephone your girlfriend you can't go to movies, you can't go dancing and lots of things.

You can't. And they take it as discipline. Do you think you could run a protestant bible school, Nazarenes or Pentecostals. If you put all those restrictions, forget it. They say listen you are interfering with my freedom.

But Madame Guillen says my freedom is my grand control. You see we don't want to live under discipline. And yet the greatest men that have lived in the kingdom of God have been disciplined men. You know there is not much said really about the praying of this man.

Let me put it this way, I'll use this another night. But this man Elijah is bracketed with the most distinguished men that ever walked on the face of the earth. Now this is a strange world we are living in.

We've got some men living in America that walked on the moon. We've got some men that walk on the bed of the ocean off Miami looking for debris from something that exploded in the air. But the greatest men are not men who walk on the moon.

They are not men who walk on the bottom of the ocean. The greatest men in the world are men who walk with God. And this man is in the greatest of all classifications, why? He is called by a name that I think we use too easily.

He is called a prophet of the most high God there used to be a brilliant Jewish scholar in this country. His name was Bux Basin and he was converted to Christ, not to Christianity. Thank God to Christ.

And he said this about the prophets of the Old Testament. He says the prophet by the very nature of his calling is a unique and tragic figure because he has a fierce loyalty to God and he has a broken heart over the sin of the people.

How many men do you know that qualify as prophets. If that's the standard a broken heart over the sin of the people and a grief for God because his laws are violated. People have forgotten the mercy and deliverances of God.

But this is where this man stands, Elijah the prophet of God the word of the Lord came unto him get thee to Zarephath. But why to go to Zarephath, that's the stronghold of the opposition. That's where the greatest captains of Baal were.

That's where they had their college if you like to put it that way. But he's going to walk as it were into the very jaws of death and the Lord says to him the same Lord that said go hide thyself says I've commanded a widow woman to feed thee there.

Oh you hear these TV prophets say well I don't mind asking you women to send me money even you widows, Elijah did that. He didn't send a letter to every widow in the nation dear God, all he did was talk to one widow and God supplied his needs to that one person.

But again let me go back a minute here when a man has been still and he really knows God. I'd love to know exactly what happened in that cave and I don't know a thing about it except I'm sure God became more real and more vital and more wonderful to him.

But you see we don't have time. Dr. Charles Eustace and me often again say Len in America we're activists, we have to be doing something. We have to be going somewhere, we have to prove something. We won't be still and listen to God.

I was asking brother Noel about a man that lived in in Africa a few years ago by the name of, what was his name again? Duma, D-U-M-A. I went to see Dr. Charles one day and he had a piece of ragged paper and he was stroking it and he said I would rather have this, it's from a black man in Africa.

I may never see him and he didn't but he said I get these letters from Duma. Well I quoted this in a church where was it? Spartanburg, thank you Spartanburg, South Carolina. There was a man at the back, big guy you know wealthy looking so I knew he was a preacher and he kept nodding his head and nodding his head and nodding his head and I said, he said you told a story of Duma, I said have you heard it before?

He said that was my daddy's church. You said that little black man was conspicuous in the white people. He came to the altar and as he went out my daddy said to him, can I do something for you? And he said yes, give me a church.

Give you what? Oh, oh, he said now I see you got a different suit, you're the little black man and there was kneeling at the altar, he said no I'm not he said now come on, you are there's only one black man in the meeting tonight, you're the black man I remember the suit, you were kneeling at the altar, you're that black man.

He said I'm not, what do you mean you're not? Oh he said you saw a black man go but I'm not that man, he died at the altar he said I'm a new man. Well then he came back to the pastor and said give me a church so the pastor said we can't do that so he went out to the church in Durban he walked up the road, he came to a forest he found a path in the forest, he walked through the forest till he found a stream, he walked to the side of the stream till he saw a cave, then he took a piece of a rock and he marked outside on the side of the cave and he stayed in that cave 21 days and 21 nights and never ate food, he just drank water from the stream like Elijah, and he said Lord you make it clear to me if I'm to be a preacher and he's a Baptist, listen, the Lord enjoys funny things he said to this Baptist man, you're going to be anointed you're going to be a preacher, you're going to heal the sick.