What Is the Secret of Your Strength - Part 2 (Alternative) — Leonard Ravenhill

Spiritual Authority Is More Than Titles and Degrees

God, he cast demons out. At least, you remember, there's a place where, was it Sons of Sceva? Tried to get the demons out of a man, and the demons have some self-respect. They kicked the man off. And you know what the demons said?

Jesus we know, and Paul we know. The greatest honor, this side of eternity, is to be known in hell. Known in hell. If there's a danger list in hell, I'd rather be the last person on it than the first person on anybody else's list in the world.

You can have a D .D. It should be a devil destroyer if you have. But titles won't do it. Degrees won't do it. They've had their days. Time for the spiritually anointed men of God. I say about the Puritans, the difference between them and us was this.

Living in Eternity Through the Word

The Puritan preachers lived in eternity six days a week, and they came down to earth on Sunday to tell us what they'd seen. No wonder people went out awed. Again, when the Holy Ghost came on a Baptist like Spurgeon, he'd say, now God has troubled some of you this morning.

Meet me in my office tomorrow morning. There's not much emotion around at seven o 'clock Sunday, Monday morning. Particularly if you get up at five. But you know, all day long, from seven till seven at night, people were going into that office.

Yesterday the Lord, I mean, he just preached the word of God. You see, I tell these young students, listen, keep this clear in your mind. Study to show thyself approved to the deacons. No? Oh no, that's the old version.

Oh, the new one is, to show thyself approved to the congregation. No, that lady says. Does it matter if everybody in the world says I'm a success, if in my heart I know I'm a failure? Study to show thyself approved unto God.

Just yesterday I read it marked in my Bible. Peter on the day of Pentecost said of Jesus, a man approved of God. Dear God, if that's good enough for Jesus, good enough for me. He was a man anointed of God.

He had dominion over demons and sickness and every other diabolical thing. So this young man has no trouble, he tears up the lion. What was the first thing they did with Samson? I'll run through it quickly.

Samson’s Binding, Blindness, and Grinding

The first thing they did was bind him. The second thing they did was blind him. The third thing they did was grind him. In this way, in so the old castles in England, I've been in them, they have, instead of a treadmill, well it's a treadmill, but also there's a bar, and a man leans on it, he goes round, and he grinds corn.

You see, this old trickster, he not only fought the devil, or the demon, or the lion, he not only slew an army of people with the jawbone of an ass, but one night for mischief he caught foxes, well it's 600, tied their tails together with a faggot between, and turned, and he burned the crop down.

Israel, the Nations, and the Need for a Faithful Remnant

Yes, a famous preacher keeps saying, remember, I was in Ethiopia, and ships were backing up there. Where were they from? They were from America taking grains, fine. But do you know those ships turned round and took grain to Russia, and sold it at cut prices?

Do you know the bankers in Russia are getting billions from America now at the lowest rate of interest, and they don't have to account for it? We're financing the war in Afghanistan. That dirty rascal the other day, that fooled us all on TV as he signed that thing.

Did you notice what he said? I sign this in the name of eternal man. That was a shot at our Christianity. And he said, he did this, he said, we're winding down the war in Afghanistan, and that demon man, he knew that a week after, they were going to rape Afghanistan worse than they've ever done.

Thousands fled. I have a picture on my desk right now from Africa. It shows a young man with half a leg. 300 ,000 young men and women in Angola alone have lost their limbs through landmines that have been put down, and it says by the Cubans who have been backed by Russia.

I could tell you some startling things, make your hair stand up, but I won't tell you tonight, because I get back to the press maybe and get back, get some people in trouble. But I'll tell you what, our pastor, boy, he was a poor creature.

Couldn't preach for nuts. But two things stuck in my mind from being about 12 years of age. He used to say, God has always had a remnant. And you know, there's a remnant inside of that remnant. And then he would say, keep your eye on the Middle East.

The Middle East is a thermometer. Israel is this size. You could pick it up and drop it in Lake Huron and never find it. You could do the same with England as far as that goes. I'm absolutely sure in my own mind that Israel has the atom bomb, and she's going to use it when it will suit her, and we'll be amazed when it happens.

But you see, Israel, again, is the thorn in the side of Russia, the thorn in the side of America. As long as we support her, we'll be okay. If we drop her, we'll get dropped. Because God says, whoever blesses her, he'll bless.

Whoever curses her, he will curse. And we're pretty well tied up with that. But, you see, God's problem tonight, as I've said, it's not Mormonism or Russellism or demonism or humanism. God's problem in America tonight is a bankrupt church, a church with a form of godliness, a church where, like the early Pentecostal...

A Church That Burns With the Spirit

You know, I used to go to Pentecostal meetings and get scared to death. There was one man, he'd get voices, he'd say, Oh God, come and walk up and down the hills and aisles. I thought, boy, if he does, I'll be through that door in ten seconds.

But you know, he came down. I'll tell you, when a church is blazing, when there are more people at the altar before the service than after it, you need to uphold the hands of this man, not just when you've finished washing dishes or something, coming out that came out.

Have a time every day when you pray for him. I'm praying that God will do something in this church he's not doing in any church in this community. He lights a fire here that all hell will be afraid of.

No man filled with the Spirit is afraid of the devil. Samson prayed, the Spirit came upon him mightily. So the first thing they did was bind him. The second thing they did was blind him. And the third thing they did, they tied him and made him grind out corn for the Philistines.

He burned their crops. So they said, we'll make him give it back to us. Then what happened? After he said the last time, and I'll refer you through this, at the end of verse 17, put a razor upon my head.

You see, the other thing they did, first thing, he couldn't touch anything dead. Secondly, he couldn't drink wine. The third thing, he had to bear reproach. He had to bear long hair like a woman, and it was forbidden in those days.

And therefore, he's a marked man. Everywhere he went, he was marked. He bore reproach. Nobody wants to bear reproach for Christ anymore. Many Christians... Keith Green told me not too long before he died.

As a matter of fact, he hasn't spoken to me since he did die, but he spoke to me before he died. I wish I got the statistic where he got it from. He said that most of the girls in churches that get pregnant get pregnant at Bible camps.

But, you know, it's no longer outside the church there's gross sin. There's gross sin in the church. Swaggart says there's more immorality in the church, in the pulpits, now than ever. And you've had the case of two churches there on the coast last year, or within a couple of years.

Thousands going Sunday morning, and the pastor's living in immorality. There's no fear of God anymore. Not only no fear of the judgment seat, there's no fear of going to the sanctuary, and suddenly the Holy Ghost comes, and you feel as though there's something tearing you on the inside.

The Word of God is quick and powerful, and it's as though somebody stabbed you. And God says, look, that sin, that pride, that lust, that child you fathered and ran away, that false thing you did. I talked with a man about ten years ago in California.

Burden for the Lost and the Cost of Revival

I went into a meeting, and there was a little fellow sitting there with an English dog collar, and I looked at him twice. That man used to come to our church when I was 14 years of age. He terrified me when he preached.

But he got into sin, and as soon as he saw me, he said, well, Len, you were only a boy when I saw you last. I mentioned his name, and he clung on to me. He said, please don't expose me, don't expose me, will you?

I said, no, I won't. I said, that's between you and God. That man used to make people to tremble. He used to spend whole days and nights fasting. George Jeffries, and I'm going to hurry, I keep saying, George Jeffries came to our city in 1927, the city of Leeds, and a holy ghost revival.

The big auditorium was packed to the rafters. All kinds of crippled were healed. The blind were seeing, the lame were walking, the paralyzed went out, new creatures, physically. Everybody said, what a wonderful, wait a minute, I happen to know the Pentecostal preacher in a little church that was despised.

Do you know that man had three breakdowns, not mentally, but physically? He fasted until he could hardly stand. His wife said he would groan on the floor as though he was being beaten. Read the second chapter of Lamentations and see where few and I are there.

What does Jeremiah say? My bowels are torn, my liver is torn, my heart is torn. That's burden for the lost. He's not asking to be a super preacher. How many of us dare to ask, really, can ask God honestly for the burden of the Lord?

It's an awesome thing. But it's the only thing that's going to bring this nation back to God. So let me tell you, that man fasted and prayed. The little church grew and grew and grew, and he got the church to pray, and believe that God would send a man.

George Jeffries came, and the whole city knew that God had come. It didn't take money. It wasn't advertised in the paper. God came. The dirtiest, filthiest, wickedest man in the neighborhood came in, and somebody carried him, head, body, soul, and spirit, laid him at the feet of the preacher.

And George looked down there, immaculately dressed, asked him what he needed. He said, I need to be healed. He said, no, you need God more than that. And he began to cry. He said, I'm wicked, I'm wicked, I'm vile.

I have a filthy tongue and a filthy heart. And a filthy home. Can God save me? He said, if you repent, I repent. And then in front of a packed auditorium, that man repented of his sin. And George, handsome George, just looked down and said, brother, because he'd been born.

He said, brother, rise and walk. That man jumped up. Do you know those stuffy English people forgot their manners? They threw hymn books in the air and Bibles in the air. Began to clap. That's the sin unto death in churches in England.

Preaching Christ Rather Than Social Problems

What do you think we're going to do when they see a man liberated like that? That should be an everyday occurrence. You shouldn't have to invite some healer. You see, today we're not preaching the word.

We're preaching against drugs. We're preaching against abortion. We're preaching against crime. But Jesus says, if I be lifted up. It was that famous Scotsman. What's his name now? He wrote the classic on the first epistle of Peter.

I've forgotten his name for the moment. Oh, thank you. Yes, Leighton. Leighton, in his day, somebody came and said, Dr. Leighton. Ah, he says, you're not preaching up the times. All the events, all the preachers are preaching up the times.

He said, well, if they're preaching up the times, do you mind if one preacher in this city preaches Jesus up? If I be lifted up. We've cursed the darkness long enough. God help us. Don't tell me anymore how many illegitimate babies are born.

Texas has the world record in that. And in crime and in murders. But what can we say? How many churches could you take people to? I say, could you take your church, could you take your friend, your drunken, your lying, your son that's wicked, and your girl that's messed up in sex.

Could you take her to the church and say, listen, I guarantee that within two visitations, you'll be born again of the Spirit of God. You could say that in early Pentecost. And it's got to come back. So they shave off his hair, which is a sign of his covenant with God.

Losing the Anointing Through Compromise

You know what happened? She said, now you keep tearing up lions and lifting gates. You're going to have a physical breakdown. Darling, darling, I love you so much. Just put your head on my lap. You know, if it stayed on his knees, it never got on hers.

And that's where you'll backslide as soon as you let up on your prayer life. Don't blame this. Don't blame the other. The fact is, you've lost out preaching. You've lost your anointing. You keep up the gesticulations.

You keep up the terminology. And you know you're as empty as a drum. Paul said, my preaching is not in word only. Dear Lord, wouldn't you like to have heard the apostle Paul teaching, teaching Romans or Ephesians or Hebrews?

But there was something of another world about him. He said, my preaching is not in word only. He wasn't eloquent because his bodily presence is weak and his speech was contemptible. He didn't give utterance.

The orator of the early church was Apollos, the orator. Paul did, well, I've had some strokes. The last one took my, this arm isn't too good and part of my, it didn't affect my brain, just my body. Some people think I lost my brain too.

But he lost his anointing. So what did he do? Verse 20 says, the Philistines be upon thee, Samson. Oh, let me finish, please, in the middle of 19. She caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head and she began to afflict him.

She began to afflict him. Before that, she'd been oppressing him and pestering him. A bit earlier in the chapter, that doesn't matter. But it says she vexed him, you see, she tormented him to, oh, I may as well get rid of this and get out of it.

So he says here in the middle of verse 20, I will go out as at other times and shake myself. And he wished not. I heard G. Campbell Morgan preach often. I remember one day he said that's the saddest text in the Bible.

Here's a man in the pulpit saying the right words, doing the right things, and he doesn't know the Holy Ghost departed from him six months ago. He wished not the Spirit of God had departed from him. He's still getting his wage.

He still visits the sick. He's still a nice man to talk to. But devils don't tremble when he stands up. All hell isn't alerted. Get round that building and just put all demon power you can because this man is a terror.

God Raises Up Consecrated People

One man with God is a majority. God raises up men, not movements. He didn't raise up Methodism. He raised up Wesley. He didn't raise up the Salvation Army. He raised William Booth. Half Jew and half Gentile.

His wife had a curvature of the spine. And yet that man, the Salvation Army, went into 70 countries in 90 years. Not 70 cities, 70 countries. One of the greatest orators in America, Brangle, went and joined the Salvation Army.

And William Booth turned into clean boots for a hundred students the next morning. That was a come down. He forgot about his Greek and Hebrew, but he became the outstanding special in the Salvation Army.

He wished not that the Spirit of the Lord had departed from him. Okay, verse 21. The Philistines took him and put out his eyes and brought him down to Gaza. And they bound him with fetters of brass. And he did grind in the prison.

Can you imagine going down? Let's picture it. Look, you come down the steps and there's this man going round blind. And you can hear the grinding of the corn. And you get a bit nearer, you can hear the grinding of his spirit above the grinding of the Lord.

He knows he's a captive. I'm bound. I'm blind. I can't see. I don't know what's going on. I'm in a prison. I'm shut off from Israel. And God leaves me here. And they bound him with fetters of brass. And he did grind in the prison house.

Now look here. The next verse says, Howbeit the hair of his head began to grow again. Don't you think one morning he woke up and put his hand up like this and said, Glory to God. Oh, this is an act of mercy.

I let that wicked woman take my anointing away. It was a type of anointing. And he said, Oh, my hair is coming. Hallelujah. Glory to God. I'm going to have another chance. I won't mess it up this time.

He meant business. Notice what it says in verse 23 at the end of it. Or let me read the whole verse. Then the lords of the Philistines gathered together to offer a great sacrifice unto Dagon their God, and to rejoice, for they said, Our God hath delivered Samson.

Do you see that? The enemy said, Our God is greater than your God. Otherwise, how could we take him? This man used to slay lions. He could slay an army with a stupid jawbone in his hand. But he can't now.

He's paralyzed. There he is, grinding corn for us. Our God hath delivered Samson, the enemy, into our hands. Verse 24. When the people saw him, they praised God. They praised their God. Why? Because they brought him into the temple of Dagon.

It used to be a tourist place. And I guess Samson had been in and seen the place. Okay. They were merry and they said, Call for Samson and make a sport. Imagine that. That's what the news did the other day.

They laughed and scorned. Showed a picture of Oral Roberts and said, This man made the holy God into a terrorist. And the uncircumcised Philistines were laughing. Listen, if Pentecostal people really loved God with a holy love, they'd have shut down every Pentecostal church in the nation for a week and had a week of prayer and fasting for Roberts to get his anointing back, if he ever had it.

And for Baker, too. Baker spent 20 years building the biggest pile of wood, hay and stubble of any man since Pentecost. And when God put the torch to it, he'd have ashes up to his knees. You see, wood, hay and stubble are above the ground.

That's ministry people can say. Silver, gold and precious stones are under the ground. It's ministry that can't be seen. The best men I know wouldn't hardly come in a pulpit. You can't take pictures of them to put in magazines.

They know God. They shut away with God. I know of a man who prays and for 10 years, he's 37 this year, he has prayed 10 hours a day for the last 10 years by himself. I know another man that's 65 years of age who prays 5 hours a day.

The great thing that rejoices my heart, I don't make money like these guys, I'm glad I don't. I like to give it away if I get it. But these guys, the guys that have the anointing of God are not on TV, I'll tell you that.

They shut away. You guys with the little country church. If I had my day over, and I could go to a church now, be co-pastor of a church with 12 ,000 members, a guy offered to build me a mansion and all the rest of it, forget it.

I would rather be pastor of a country church where I know every one of my sheep, and where they'll knit together and believe God to send a Holy Ghost revival. Again, it proves here again. Do we need to know it?

Knowing God and Doing Exploits

What's it saying, Daniel? I don't know the chapter. The people who know their Bibles shall be strong and to exploit? Daniel 11 .32. It doesn't say that. Don't look at it now, please. It doesn't say the people that don't know their Bibles.

It says the people that don't know their God. If you knew God, brother, as much as you know your Bible, you'll be shaking the whole community. These seminary men, I tell them, you go there, you read your Hebrew, you read your Greek, and all hell is filling.

And you stand there, get a big salary and do a great job, and hell doesn't even know you. You're certainly not a dangerous up there. The people that do know their God shall be strong and to exploit. What exploits did he do?

He lifted the gates of the city. He ripped the life out of a lion. He took a jawbone of an ass. He did exploits. He didn't have a committee meeting. He did it. Somebody said committees spend hours making minutes.

That's all most of them do in churches, anyhow. You say, well, that's rough. Well, fasten your seatbelt. It might be a bit rougher right now. Verse 25 says, It came to pass when their hearts were merry, maybe they were drinking, they called for Samson that he may make sport.

Can you imagine a holy man of God that they were terrified of? And now they bound him up. He's binded and blinded and shut down there. And nobody trembles. And they make sport. They ridicule. How do you think Jesus felt when Jennings said to, I don't know, maybe a hundred million people listening on TV, this man, showing all robbers, this man revealed God as a terrorist.

Don't you think the heart of God was grieved? You know, I believe that Jesus still weeps. He's the same yesterday, today and forever. He could rejoice over the Pentecostal church in the New Testament.

He weeps over it now. I guarantee the smallest meeting in this church is a prayer meeting. The prayer meeting is the Cinderella of every church. And that power has to come back. Well, you'd rather have the anointing of God in tears than be laughing at some stupid harlot on TV.

The house of God has to become the magnet where it pulls us. Where we don't just come once or twice a week. We get to the place where we have an appetite for God every day. This Baptist preacher I've been talking to for a few weeks came to see me a few days ago and said, I have a prayer meeting in my church, a Baptist church, at 5 .30 every morning of the week.

And it's wonderful to see how many men are coming before they go to their offices in Dallas in a Baptist church. People around the country waking up to the efficacy of prayer. I'm almost through. They call for Samson, make sport.

A boy held him by the hand, verse 26. And I can see him saying to the boy, hey boy, go steady. Oh, he said, I'm taking you on the platform. He said, you know, there are 3 ,000 spectators in the gallery.

That's what it says. 3 ,000, the house is packed. And they're all laughing, making, ridiculing you. And Samson comes, he says, be careful, remember I'm blind. And he leads Samson up onto the platform.

Verse 27 says, there were upon the roof about 3 ,000 men and women. And you know what, the gallery usually only, the gallery of a church usually holds less than half than the main auditorium, usually a third.

So I estimate there were 10 ,000 people in this auditorium looking at a man they were terrified. If they'd seen him coming down the road, they'd have fled. But now he's blind, he's crippled, he's helpless.

And so they make fun of him. Verse 28 says, and here is one of the most remarkable prayers in the Bible, I've never heard it preached on. The middle of verse 28, O Lord God, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me.

I pray thee only once, O God, that I may be avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes. He doesn't ask for freedom. He doesn't say, God, get me out of jail and I'll serve you. He doesn't say, Lord, give me my eyes back and I'll serve you.

He's concerned about one thing, and that's the glory of God. Lord, come in your glory, that you're selfish and carnal. Do you pray for your daddy so he'll get saved, so he won't go to hell? That's not the first thing.

He's robbing God of the glory of using that brain and heart and affection of his. Your daddy might be one of the greatest prayer warriors in this town, but you're letting him slide. And the thing is not merely that he's bad.

He's dead. Jesus did not come into the world, get it clearly. He did not come into the world to make bad men good. He came into the world to make dead men live. I don't care how wealthy they are. I don't care if they're D .D.'s and they're wealthy.

It makes no odd. Their dead interest was in sin. Verse 28, I pray thee, strengthen me, I pray thee, only once that I may be avenged of my two eyes. Do you know how I know he meant that? From the very sense of his being, every fiber of his being, every beat of his heart, every one of the three million cells in his body cried out for the living God?

How do I know? Because it says in verse 30, Samson said, let me die with the Philistines. Do you know why, brother, do you know why there's no anointing in your church? You're trying to hold it together.

You're afraid to die to your reputation. You're fighting, you're propping that church up and it's killing you. Die! And let God come and take your life over completely. Lose all the rights to yourself, the rights to sleep, the right to eat, the right to spend money.

If you're a slave of Jesus, a slave has no rights. And Samson says in the midst of that howling bunch of agnostics and critics and rulers of the nation may be, he says, God, please, just once, that marvelous anointing I had when I tore the lion up, that marvelous anointing when I carried the gates, that marvelous anointing when I remember a surge of eternal life sweeping through me that marvelous anointing when I remember a surge of eternal life sweeping through me when I flew the 2 ,000 with a job on them and I, please, Lord, just once, give me one more chance.

I'll never ask again. Give me one more chance. Even if I die. What does the scripture say? The house fell upon him. Upon the lords, that's the aristocrats in England, dukes and lords and ladies, the house fell upon the lords.

So the dead which he slew in his death were more than they which he slew in his life. You see, that's the greatest prayer he ever prayed. Lord, please, don't let me die a half-back slidden. Don't let them take my body in the church.

And people come around, oh, he's the sweetest pastor we ever had. Of course, he didn't trouble you much as he got older. He kind of petered out. He didn't pray with much anointing. He didn't send us home all bruised on the inside.

He had more of a massage than a message. That's what most preachers have today. It's funny and it's terrible. Strengthen me just once. Even if I die. And he pulled the house down and he killed more in his dying than in his living.

Returning to the First Love of the Anointing

I still believe that Joel 2 has to be fulfilled. People ask me, you know, so many men, you've watched the Giants fall, sure I have. I've seen men that I thought were as firm as almost the throne of God fall down over money, fall down over women, fall down over praise or something.

The devil doesn't care what it is as long as you lose your anointing. And you go on as at other times. You're nice to the deacons, you're sweet to the old ladies, you're gracious. And hell, heaven has written you off a long while ago.

And hell, you're no longer a hell wrecker. The devil and demons don't fear you anymore. So in essence, Simon Thompson says, I can't die like this. Oh, I have a thousand memories of the majesty of God.

And here this heathen crowd laughing at me. Give me one more chance. I'm through with this. I remember preaching in Australia some years ago. And the pastor said to me, Brother Raymond, just look to the right there.

There's a man, a tall man with a large bald head. I said, yes. He said, you know, 35 years ago, that man moved through this country of Australia and everywhere he went, he was dynamic. He was like a torch in the midst of bales of hay.

And everywhere he went, God delivered people. Even physical deliverances and demon deliverances. But he said, when he spoke, it was almost like a breath of fire coming. Well, that's a symbol. You see, you see that cross.

It's all right. But it's not Christian. That's a symbol of paganism. The symbol of the church of Jesus Christ is a tongue of fire. Our God is a consuming fire. It makes his ministers a flame of fire. But it's pretty tough, isn't it?

When your husband's here, your deacons are here, for you to get up and walk here and say, Brother Raymond, I haven't shed tears. My pillow's dry every night. I don't weep from the loss. I have no burden.

I got a few nice little gifts from the church at Christmas. Oh, they're so nice. They're not nice. They tell you the truth. I said, you didn't hear that. I said, you have to nail it on. Do you know, when Mao Zedong took over in China, do you know what he did?

He liquidated 90 million people. And millions of them are Christians. Do you know what they did with some? They came into services like this, and they took the pastor, and they nailed him to the wall of his church.

That's communism. That's the stuff Mr. Gorbachev wants to do in America. But, brother, you can't say, you shouldn't say, it's not my brother nor my sister. It's not headquarters up at, where is headquarters?

Springfield? There's no virtue in going to Springfield. And it won't kill you to go. But listen, the glory isn't even in Pentecostal Bible schools anymore. The kids go drinking. The kids fool around. They ought to go in that room and be terrified when they go in.

Prayer, the Holy Spirit, and the Fear of God

Oh, we're in one of the fastest growing churches in Dallas. Forget it. Do you know what the Holy Ghost church is? No man dares join himself. Do you think a man that's living a double life would come in a meeting filled with the Holy Ghost?

Somebody would say, listen, you've got a serpent in you. George Fox, the founder of the Quakers, would go to a man and say, I see a demon spirit in you. I see the spirit of a fox in you. I see the spirit of a serpent in you.

And he used the anvil. And he went to people continually. And yet they never preached gifts of the Spirit. They demonstrated the power of the Holy Spirit of God. Strengthen me just once. How do you know this isn't the last message you'll hear?

How many times has God rebuked you privately and you've gone home, you've come to the altar time and time again and you've gone out and done the same crazy things? You came paralyzed, you went out paralyzed.

You came without vision, you left without vision. I tell you, if you come to this place with brokenness, you can come. But listen, I don't make altar calls in a general way. I certainly not going to try and stir you emotionally.

Some of you preachers know you're on the verge of bankruptcy. You know it's a job. You know it doesn't break your heart, other people in your church. I had a pastor of a church of God. I'll put it that way.

That's what it is. Came to see me a while ago. He gets a thousand people Sunday morning. And he said, Mr .Ramiel, you know, 50 of my congregation are divorced. You see, there's no fear of God in any shape or form.

And that will come back. And it's not a cringing fear. It's a fear of grieving him, hurting him. The Lord spoke to me first when I was 14. I started leading a youth meeting. I got a couple of prayer meetings going when I was 16.

Just for youth on Friday night in the church. And Sunday morning at 7. And at 19 I went to an altar. Because I knew I had a problem. And problem was jealousy and pride. I was youth leader, most admired guy in the church, I guess.

I went to the front. And as they did, they used to come with a Bible and say what you need. And this preacher came and said, well, Leonard, I'm amazed to see you at the altar. You're such a fine young man.

I said, oh. He said, what do you want? I said, I want Romans 6. And verse 7, to be real in my life. Oh no, you mean Romans 6 .6. Knowing this without all money is crucified. I said, no, I don't want Romans 6 .7.