Samson's Strength — Leonard Ravenhill

Samson’s Secret Strength

Judges chapter 16 and reading from verse 6. And Delilah said unto Samson, Tell me, I pray thee, wherein thy great strength lieth, and wherewith thou mightest be bound to afflict thee. I'm told that one of the European translations of the scripture injects one word into the text.

It's not there by inspiration here, but it is there by revelation. So the text in their language reads, The Lord of the Philistines came unto her, and said unto her, Entice him, and see wherein his great strength lieth, and by what means we may bind him.

Delilah said to Samson, Tell me, I pray thee, wherein the secret of thy great strength lieth. Now he knew he had a secret, she knew he had a secret, his enemies knew he had a secret, but they couldn't understand the mystery of this superman.

I call him God's superman. You know, there's a saying, teachers often say that repetition is the law of learning, and so it is, so I'm going to use it tonight a little. Before, Dr. Carl F. Henry, you may or may not remember, was the founder editor of Christianity Today.

Carl Barth called it Christianity yesterday, but anyhow, Christianity Today is supposed to be the most prestigious Christian magazine in the world, by certain people anyhow. And before he resigned, he sent a questionnaire out to 20 of the most intellectual men in America.

I'm sure he wasn't right, because I never got one anyhow. But the question Dr. Henry sent to these outstanding people was this, What do you see for the Church of Jesus Christ by the year 2000? One of the good answers came from Leighton Ford, who's the brother-in-law of Billy Graham.

The other came from a Quaker, Elton Trueblood, a Quaker philosopher. I don't agree with all this philosophy, but he says some very, very stabbing awakening truths, I think. His reply to the question, What do you see for the Church of Jesus Christ by the end of the 20th century?

His answer was this, By the year 2000, the Church of Jesus Christ will be a conscious minority surrounded by an arrogant, militant paganism. That's something to think about. By the year 2000, Christianity, the Christian people will be a small minority surrounded by an arrogant, militant paganism.

The Church as a Persecuted Minority

Well, I swallowed that and went to bed and had a kind of mental indigestion, and I kind of, I won't say what I was going to say, but anyhow, I turned it over a lot in my mind, and instead of looking to the year 2000, I began to back up and say, Well, Elton Trueblood, you may be a brilliant philosopher.

Why didn't you say that Christianity today is a conscious minority surrounded by an arrogant, militant paganism? Why didn't you go back to Christianity when it was born? How many people are waiting for Jesus coming?

Just a minority. An old lady, old people have wisdom, as you know, and there was a very old lady there waiting along with the others at the temple. But what about the day of Pentecost? You know, I had a young man in my office not long ago.

He was so sure this country can be turned around if we get the right men in Washington. Forget it. The saddest day, I think, for Christianity since it was born was 317 Anno Domini. Constantine made Christianity the religion of the state, and it went down.

Until then, Christianity was persecuted. They began to flatter it. They began to give it all the access it needed, and the glory went, and the power went, and the zeal went, and the daring went, and the courage went.

I've not a bit of confidence in politicians. If politicians are going to do it, why doesn't God pour his spirit out on Washington? Now, I don't believe politicians are going to turn the nation around.

I've told you before, the great enemy of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the great hindrance to revival in America, is not a combination of Mormonism and otherisms. The one great stumbling block is the Church of Jesus Christ.

We're trifling with eternity. We're not eternity conscious people. Know that today, sin struts around with arrogance. It doesn't hide in a corner anymore. We've got homosexuals planning to get into government.

Homosexuals have been ordained in the churches. Can you think of anything more dirty and devilish? And you can't legislate righteousness. They're coming down heavy now on cancer. How many people did not die last year on smoking?

Pardon me. And the cancer rate dropped because so many people stopped smoking. You can't legislate righteousness. Men know if they persist in their sin, they'll get AIDS, and they'll die three years after they get it, and yet they go to hell with their eyes open.

The government says you can't drive over 55, but people do do that. Lots of Christians do that. You cannot legislate it. And people won't just do right because you tell them right is right, and wrong is wrong.

I've been thinking this over so much, you know, because people say the Holy Spirit's going to be poured out on all flesh. That's what the scripture says, but I don't believe it means everybody in the world.

Lots of people say the prototype of the final outpouring of the Spirit was the day of Pentecost, but Jesus was seen of 500 brethren at once. Did he pour the Holy Ghost on them? No. There were a lot of devout people in the temple.

Did he pour the Holy Spirit on them? No. He poured out the Holy Spirit on a minority who were waiting there in the upper room obeying God, and that's the only group I believe. I don't believe every man and woman is going to be touched by the Holy Ghost.

I believe God is going to raise up holy men who will be so super dynamic that it will be uncomfortable to live with them. In the Welsh coal mines in 1904, in the revival of 1904... Excuse me, I'm going to have to take off my coat.

My boy does that, so if he can do it, I can do it. He sets me bad examples. I wish he'd reduce this bar of steel. I need to be strong to stand up. I say on the day of Pentecost, the outpouring of the Spirit was there in the upper room.

They were met together. What were they doing for 10 days? Praying? Were they discouraged? Were they terrified? No, they were in the upper room, and they were when they waited, and Jesus appeared to them after his resurrection.

They were afraid of the Jews, but now they were waiting there with what? I believe they had the greatest hallelujah meeting the world's ever known, because when they saw Jesus ascend to heaven, they returned to Jerusalem with great joy.

Do you think they quit when they got to the temple? They knew that 50 days after they were there that the Holy Ghost would come upon them, because that had happened previously in Scripture. And they waited with patience, and the Holy Ghost came on some men who obeyed God.

They'd already made, separated themselves from the world. They weren't waiting to receive power to do miracles. They'd done every blessed miracle Jesus did before the Holy Ghost was upon them. You know, we're so substandard today that if ever we become standard, we'll think we're, um, well, let's say we're so, what do I want to say?

Supernatural. Martha could preach this. She's heard it so often. We're so substandard spiritually that if we, if ever we become normal, abnormal, we'll think we're abnormal. We've lived on such a terrible level.

Spiritual Awakening and the Sleeping Church

I see this man that's, well, obviously himself. He starts off with a blaze, he sinks, and he recovers, and he becomes greater. He does greater things in his dying hour than he did in his beginning, and that's what the church will do.

That's what Jesus did. He did more in his dying hour and his resurrection than he'd done in all all his ministry. I can remember in England when I was a little boy, it seems centuries ago, but anyhow, I remember the teacher said, I'm going to tell you tomorrow about America.

Well, all I knew about America is that people wore feathers in their hair, and, and Rip Van Winkle, and a few other people, you know, and Little Orphan Annie, and all that marvelous tribe of folk, and that's a great story, Rip Van Winkle.

I can't remember the guy's name who wrote it, but I, come on you Americans, who wrote it? You don't know? Washington Irving, thank you. Washington Irving wrote it, and all I knew about it, all I've ever heard about it, was that this man, he went up to Sleepy Hollow, which happens to be just up by the Bible School at Nyack.

He didn't go to the Bible School, he went to Sleepy Hollow, and the story is he slept for 20 years. That's not the story at all, it's a saying that when Rip Van Winkle walked up the hill, there was a sign hanging on a tavern, and it had a face painted on it, the face of George III, who was ruling in England at the time, and there it was swinging in the breeze, the face of George III was there.

When he woke up and came down the hill, he forgot to look at the sign, that got him into trouble, because they had erased the face of George III, and they put the face of another Englishman, at least partly English, his name was George Washington, if you've ever heard of him.

And the point is not that he slept for 20 years, the point is he slept through a revolution, and that's exactly what the Church of Jesus Christ is going to do today, sleeping through a revolution. The greatest revolutions in history are happening now, revolutions in models, revolutions in politics, on every level, in science, everywhere, we're sleeping through a revolution, and the only thing that's going to answer our situation is that God is going to raise up some supermen.

I see you've got a map here, I mean we've got a board, I can't draw a map, but let's, let's, do you know what that is? You wouldn't guess, you could guess 50 different things, you wouldn't guess right.

Well there was one of the greatest military generals in history, was a man about five feet two, which was the height of Wesley. One day he gathered together his warlords, he'd been marching through Europe, and treading everybody down, smashing everybody up, and conquering everywhere he went.

One day he gathered his warlords together, and he had a map of the world, and he ran it, ran his finger around a section of it, and he said, gentlemen, there lies a sleeping giant, let it sleep, because he said, if that giant ever wakes up and harnesses its manpower to its material power, it will shake the world.

That was Napoleon, before 19, before 1815, because he failed at 1815, on my birthday, my birthday wasn't 1815, but it's the same day, that's why I always remembered it at school. When the men were restless, again he snapped, gentlemen, there lies a sleeping giant, let it sleep.

If ever that nation harnesses its manpower with its material power, it will shake the world. What country was it? Russia? No, China. China has a thousand million people, can you think of that? I can't.

We're told she has a hundred million now on the border of Russia, a hundred million men, because they can lose a hundred million, they'd be happy to do it. It'd be an advantage, you wouldn't have to feed them, clothe them, take care of them.

But if she wakes up and starts marching, and no, she's the fear of America, as much as we try to be funny about it, and friendly about it, she's a friend of Russia, and she's terrifying. But he says, if that nation ever wakes up and discovers its manpower and its mineral power, she'll shake the world.

I'm going to translate that, and there's the devil. And he points to the church of Jesus Christ and says, there is a church of Jesus Christ asleep, let it sleep. Because if it ever wakes up, it will shake the world.

And this is the only answer for our day. The church is sleeping, and the only answer is that God is going to find men like he found this man. Here's a question of a woman of the world to a man of God, what's the secret of your supernatural power?

Why do you conquer where other men fail? Why do you go on when other men stop? What's the secret? Oh, people, every art gallery I've been in, I go into art galleries, not modern art, I don't understand it.

I went to a house a while ago, a few years ago, beautiful modern house, and a lady said, oh, I've got one thing, it's my supreme joy. I've got a piece of modern art, my husband paid so much for it, it's lovely, went into the room, there's a big, huge splash of yellow, about as much shape in it as that.

Don't you like it? I said, what is it? Don't you know what that is? I said, it looks like a poached egg that got out of control. She said, that's done by a modern artist. I said, why, was he blind? But everywhere I've been, I ask, I go to Australia, other countries, I love the art gallery.

Do you have any biblical pictures? Yes, do you have any of Sam? Every time I've seen Sam, he's a superman. You know, the king of, Saul, the king of Israel, was head and shoulders above the average man.

Goliath was head and shoulders above him. We talk about this man, of course we interest children with David, and interest children with Samson. Then the normal man is here, King Saul is here, Goliath is here, and Samson's somewhere up there.

Do you think a woman's going to a man and say, hey buddy, what's the secret of your strength? I know you're 12 feet tall, but what's the secret of his strength? Wheatish? Sure he's not, I don't believe he's an inch taller than any other man.

I think that was a surprising thing, he was so abnormal, so normal in his appearance, and so abnormal in all his achievements. But he says, tell me where in the secret of thy great strength lieth. Again I say, she knew he had a secret, he knew he had a secret, these enemies knew he had a secret.

Nobody's ever to stand against him. To me he's a sample of that promise, no weapon that shall form against thee shall prosper. He pulls down all his enemies. He says to her, if they bind me with seven green widths, it said in verse 7, then shall I be weak.

Now listen gentlemen, you'll enjoy this. He doesn't say, then I shall be like other men, he says, then shall I be weak like other men. Do you know the curse of the church to do is mediocrity? We turn students out of, I won't say here, we turn students out of seminaries and elsewhere, they're just like cookie cutters.

They all graduate on the same level, and they all walk on the same level, and think on the same level, and serve on the same level. As you know, if you don't I'll tell you, I love Wesley's hymns. And because of something a lady told me today, I was suddenly stabbed awake to a statement that I used to quote so often.

You know, this job here behind this desk is the most awesome in the world. President of the nation hasn't got that much on it. The man who stands here is going to wield an influence for eternity. I believe every meeting, people go out of a meeting damned, or they go out delivered.

And a lot hangs on the preacher. And not totally, because God's sovereign. But again I say, you see, we have the responsibility. And I love Wesley's phrase. I've turned it over half a dozen times today in prayer.

Charles Wesley says this, my heart is full of Christ. Not my head full of theology, not my will full of zeal. He says, my heart is full of Christ, and longs this glorious message to declare. Remember, he was rescued not from crime, not from drugs, not from debauchery.

He was a gentleman. He was as clean as Nicodemus when Jesus found him. And yet he wrote that awesome hymn that I'd be glad to live my life if I never wrote anything else about that. The hymn that we're going to learn, and stick it on the front of our book, like we have a thing in the back.

But he says this, and can it be that I should gain an interest in the Savior's blood? You see, your zeal for God depends on how much you realize he's lifted you now from a horrible pit, and saved you from an eternal pit.

Long may my imprisoned spirit, a gentleman, a scholar, a man from the highest family in the world, in England, one degree below the royal family. Okay, so he says, long my imprisoned spirit lay fast bound in sin and nature's night.

Thine eye diffused a quickening ray, I woke the dungeon flame with light, my chains fell off, my heart was free. Long my imprisoned spirit, he wasn't tied to tobacco, he wasn't tied to drink, he wasn't tied to lust.

Why did he say he suddenly was liberated? Because that's what the gospel is. It's to undo heavy burdens, and lift heavy burdens, and undo bondage. I remember just now, going down a street in High Holborn, London in 1913, let me tell you correctly, it doesn't matter, does it?

I was 32, I guess. A little old lady came out of her house, and her feet were like Charlie Chaplin's, you know, about five minutes to three, and she shuffled along like this, and we have some pillar boxes, post boxes this high, big red thing.

She put a letter and slipped it in there. I was walking with a distinguished English preacher, and he said, you know that lady is? I don't know, some poor little widow. She's the widow of Hugh Price Hughes, in his day the mightiest preacher in England.

He packed an auditorium, not big for America, big for England, with about 2 ,000 people every Sunday morning, every Sunday night. I used to have his biography about this thickness, written by his daughter.

And she said, my daddy was one of a million preachers. It wouldn't satisfy him if the place was always packed Sunday night. It wouldn't, it wouldn't satisfy him if he was eloquent, he was always super eloquent.

But he would come home at night and say to his wife, darling nobody was born tonight. And she said, if nobody was born again, he'd throw himself over his bed, and you couldn't console him. My mother would go and stroke his back and say, well darling you did your best, but I didn't rob the devil.

Nobody was saved, nobody was born again, nobody's delivered. What happened in the church today? You know what, I've come to this conclusion. I'm going to preach somewhere in January, I'm going to say my peace to.

Anyone I believe the biggest hindrance to revival is in America? Evangelism. We're getting people to come up, they don't know they're lost, they've no sense of eternity, they've no sense of the fact they've offended a holy God.

They're just told to say a simple prayer, pray the sinner's prayer, they don't repent, they don't make restitution, and they go to hell. People are not getting saved anymore. Nobody's preaching salvation, we preach forgiveness.

Oh people came forward and they asked God to save them, they were sorry. They do that in Catholic churches every Sunday, does that save them? I've been reading something of American history, those revivals.

Jonathan Edwards again, what awesome things. He says, preachers stood and pledged together that they would not pluck unripe fruit, because they said if we lead people into salvation unafraid, they'll go to damnation anyhow, if there's no brokenness, if there's no godly sorrow for sin, they don't have time to have godly sorrow.

Well you said a prayer, now put these tracts in your pocket, read them when you get home, and then forget all about them anyhow. There's going to have to be a mighty revolution in our preaching. Sure people say Jonathan Edwards was a hard man, but read his biography, you'll discover this, he's a man who wept in secret.

He had no price tags. He's a man who knew something about travailing in birth till Christ was formed in men and women, and that takes strength. You think the world is saying to the church, what's the secret of your gains?

They ignore us. They make legislation for any damnable thing they want. This man was ruling as a judge in Israel. The last words of Joshua were to the nation to be upright and strong in God, but at the very time that this man did these things, the nation was backslidden, they were marrying into foreign nations, which God said they should not do.

So this woman of the world says, well how do you get to do these things? What things? Well go back and do some homework and read. The first thing he did was slay 30 men. The second thing he did was tie the fox's tail of 300 foxes.

You move up a bit little, a little bit further, and you discover again he's doing exploits. Remember what the Word of God says, the people that do know their Bibles, no forget it. There's never been more Bible knowledge in America than today.

There's seminars all over the place, we have tens of thousands of books. I think I've got about 50 different versions of the baptism of the Spirit on shelf in my little library. It's not the people that know their Bible.

You can know your Bible and sleep on the thing. You can know your Bible and have no prayer life. You've got seminary men here that can read the Bible in Hebrew, read the New Testament in Greek, but they've no passion, they've no vision, they've no compassion, they've no tears for the lost.

It's not the people that don't know their Bibles, it's the people that don't know their gods. Their god should be strung into exploit. There are men buried in yonder cemetery who knew grief in Hebrew, and boy they had tremendous ministries, they didn't know God.

And the only reason you and I exist today is to know God, that's all. Not to be known, I don't care about being known. Here is a man who is drawing the attention of the world because the anointing of God was upon him.

Tell me the secret, it says in verse 11, it says, He said unto her, if they bind me with, oh let me go to verse 7, He said unto her, if they bind me with seven green wisps that were never dried, then I shall be weak and be as other men.

Isn't that something? Isn't it something when people say, look that man's a teacher in Sunday school, that man's a deacon, and he comes out of church smoking his cigarette, and he's known to go to places and drink cocktails, he's known to tell an off-color joke where he works, and the world sneers at him.

What's the difference between going to church? Well the church it is now, most of the buildings in town, they're just a country club without a golf course around them. The devil has no fear. People feared when this man moved.

As I've told you more than once, I'll tell you more later, if I live I'll tell you more again. The devil feared every time Paul opened his eyes. I hope it is when you open yours too, Paul. He gets his guards, he says, well here's this fellow Paul, we don't know what he'll do.

What we do know, it will be supernatural. What we do know, it will be eternal. He can't open his mouth without giving awesome utterances. He can't preach without a mighty demonstration of God. Every time he moves he wrecks our kingdom.

And remember demons came out of a man when some men were trying to cast demons out, and the demons turned round and said to the man, Jesus we know and Paul we know. That's the greatest honor this side of eternity.

To link Jesus with the name of a preacher, link the preacher with the name of Jesus. Well in God's name, what do you think this world has? Anything to compare to that? If you're the most brilliant preacher in the world, so what?

If you're the head of a great denomination, so what? I like to tell preachers, get mad, but I'll still say it. Preacher, if you're not known in hell, you're no good. You're not worth a hill of beans. I was meditating the other day and I thought of how many times I've, I've read a newspaper or heard TV news, Ford Motor Company, what do you call it now, recalling all their 90, what it is, 1976 models, their 14 this.

Chrysler is recall, recalling its cars. Somebody has said never yet has one Japanese company had to recall its cars for deficient work. We recall them. There's something wrong with your carburetor, there's something wrong with your transmissions.

I wish to God I had the opportunity to recall every preacher that's malfunctioning. There'll be 95 percent of the pulpits empty in America on Sunday. They're not doing the job, they're not getting people redeemed, they're not known in hell.

The only time they mention the hell is when they get mad with the kids at home, most of them. Hell is no longer on our horizon, it's a million miles beyond the Milky Way. When asked for the man going down the street just now in his new supercar, he's one heartbeat from hell, that's all he is.

I remember one night we went down into New York, into West 44th Street, where the legitimate theater is. We would, we were, I forgot we were there for some challenge at that time. And out of the old opera house which is being pulled down, people were streaming, oh ladies, good night, you never saw such jewels in your life.

And there were the men in the opera cloaks and the ladies, oh brother, brother, brother. And I suddenly thought, these poor things, they brought the scripture to my mind, she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she lives.

And they're planning a tour, and they're planning buying this, planning building a million dollar home. And don't know the only one heartbeat from eternity. If that gripped every preacher, I think, boy, we'd hear a lot more fireworks in the pulpit.

We'd see more brokenness in the pulpit. We'd see more concern. But no, it's become so automatic. I say, say again, this man obviously is a type in himself. He's a type of Israel. She began with glory, glorious miracles.

She backslid and went, and is in a bit of a mess today. But, but the glory is going to be restored. She's going to finish with glory. The church of Jesus Christ began in a fantastic way, in the acts of the apostles.

Right now she's in the doldrums, but she's going to have a new visitation, a resuscitation, if you want to call it. A new invasion of divine power, and the church is going to end with a, not with a whimper, but with a bang.

With the most glorious manifestation of the divine power that the world has ever known. They fasten him with green widths, and he gets out of them. She says, now, you didn't tell me the truth. Verse 10, you mock me and told me lies.

Now tell me, I pray thee, wherein thou mightest be bound. She's had one warning, you notice? No man backslid, backslides after one incident. He's been repeatedly warned by the Holy Ghost, and he resists the Holy Ghost.

Verse 10, Delilah said to Sam, thou hast mocked me and told me lies. Now tell me, I mightest be bound. That's a second warning to him. He said, if you fasten me with new ropes that were never occupied, then thou shall be weak and be as other men.

And Delilah took new ropes and bound him. But men were lying in wait, and he break them off. Verse 13, Delilah said to Samson, you mock me again. And he said to her, if you fasten my hair, my long hair with a, into a beam, put a pin and nail me to the wall, I'll be helpless.

He did that, and he nearly pulled the house down. You see, there's nothing that a weapon that conformed against him can prosper while he's obedient. He goes to sleep in a room over the gates of the city.

And they said, well, there Israel's getting him. What did he do? He woke up, he heard them, he woke up, and he carried the gates and the whole shebang to the top of the hill. Quite mischievous. I think he enjoyed the joke.

He said, I carried these gates here. There isn't a living man can carry them back. They'll have to have a special government investigation. They'll have to have a special group of men to try and get these things back.

Just one man's achievement. She fastened his head with a pin there in verse 14, and said unto thee, the fullest times be upon thee, Samson. And he awakened out of his sleep, and he went away with a pin and a beam and a web.

She said to him in verse 15, how can you say I love you when your heart is not with me? Thou hast mocked me these three times, and hast not told me wherein thy great strength lieth. And it came to pass that she vexed him.

She vexed him. Stupid man should have run away anyhow. And she vexed his soul unto death. Verse 16 says, why did he flee from it? Paul says flee from youthful lust. Don't say I'm strong enough, I can take it.

No you can't, it'll get you down. There's no man in sin can beat the devil at his own game. It takes a man with a holy ghost upon him to resist the devil and pull down strongholds. Well if you go back and read earlier in the other chapter, you'll find his mother.

The Nazirite Vow and the Need for Holy Separation

You see there's nothing said about this man having an anointing. He's not a king, he doesn't have an anointing. He isn't a priest. He's out of line, but he becomes one of the most abnormal men in history.

His mother was told when she was pregnant with him, you can't drink wine or strong drink or do anything that the world does. This child is a holy child. You know the thing that makes me so happy about this is that Samson, this superman, was born of a barren woman.

John Baptist was born of a barren woman. You see we don't get desperate about it. We're happy to be in a good mood. Oh the preacher was so good. You know I was good because he never disturbed your conscience, that's why.

He just added about a little thimble full of knowledge to your already wonderful store of Bible knowledge. He never stirred your heart, he never broke your heart, never show your vision of a lost world, never show your hell.

So it's good. You just deal out nice quiet so-called Bible teaching. Oh you can be popular, you can have seminars, nobody will be disturbed. But get the anointing of the Holy Ghost and burn and yearn and travel and you'll find the door shut in your face.

Remember Rachel was satisfied up to a point. Her husband had two wives. One of them was very charming. Rachel wasn't too much so. But one day she got to the end of the line, she got tired of being scorned.

This woman is beautiful but barren, the curse of God is on her. So what if she does wear the finest clothes? What if she does wear the finest clothes? What if she does wear the finest rings and all the other furniture on the body?

She's barren, she's barren. So she comes down one day, I don't think she parted her hair so meticulously careful, I don't think she put on those rich perfumes they used to wear in those days. She comes in despair, she's been sleepless, she can still hear the mocking of people that said in the street yesterday or when she went to the temple, she's barren, you know, she's a curse.

She's very rich, she's very important but she has no children. God has a curse on her. I visualized it, the original copies of Why Revival Tarry had a picture of, I think, throwing herself at the feet of Jacob, where Rachel said give me children or I die.

Remember that was translated by John Knox. You see God doesn't raise up denominations, he raises up men. He raised up John Knox. Wasn't it Mary Queen of Scots who said I fear an army more than I fear, I fear John Knox more than I fear an army when he's prayed?

How often does hell get rocked with prayer meetings? John Knox knew the tragedy that was going to fall on that nation, he cried. They packed the cathedral to capacity when he preached and yet his constant prayer was give me Scotland or I'd die.

He told her all his heart and said unto her if there's no razor come upon my head I've been a Nazirite from my mother's womb. You see you don't step into anointing of the Holy Ghost by just reading a pretty little book about the Holy Spirit and revival.

He was a Nazirite from his mother's womb. There were three things a Nazirite could not do. Number one he could not drink wine. His mother could not drink wine, he could not drink wine. Wine is a sign of worldly pleasure, it makes you excited.

He couldn't touch anything dead, which he did. Remember he took a line, when the power of God was on him, you know the greatest thing is in this book if you read it carefully this chapter, the greatest thing you can say of any man this side of eternity is not that he knows the Bible in Hebrew and Aramaic and Chinese and all the other junk.

The greatest thing that can be said of any living man is full of the Holy Ghost and every time before his exploit the spirit of the Lord came upon him. If I can't have some measure of the spirit of God I don't want to live.

I believe I can be full of the Holy Spirit every moment of my life. That doesn't mean I'm anointed. I need the fullness. Remember the old hymn, Abide with me fast falls the eventide. It was written at a school that Paul went to in Ireland.

By Francis Henry Light, Abide with me fast falls the eventide. He says I need thy presence every passing hour. Not just Sundays, not when I'm good in church, I need thy presence every passing hour because not that thy grace can foil the tempter's power.

I can't do it with my theology. You can't love a theology, you can only love what can love you back. You can't love a doctrine, all you can love is the blessed one who made it all real, Jesus. But he says I need thy presence every passing hour.

Not that thy grace can foil the tempter's power. I need to be filled with all the fullness of God every moment of my life but then on top of that I know there are rich anointings that God gives. Delilah told this, I mean this man told Delilah all his secrets.

And she says, it doesn't say it here, this is the Ravenhill version which is up to date. She says you know you keep going around doing these exploits you're going to be tired. You need a rest. So what does she do?

Verse 9, 10. She made him sleep on her knees. You know if he kept on his knees he'd never get on hers. Oh you're tired Dick, you need to relax. You're overdoing it. Oh now don't be too zealous. We had some society ladies saved in our meetings in Bath during World War II.