Be Strong and Do Exploits — Leonard Ravenhill

In the service we had this morning, three little boys came to me, and each of them gave me an envelope. And it was their week's allowance, spending money. And I received it very gratefully, very joyfully.

And I told you yesterday, I think that ever since I was married, the first day we were married, that's almost 50 years ago. We've been married 50 years. Ever, ever since the first day, I've given Martha every penny I ever earned.

And she's really looked after it. It's a one-way street, but it's not bad. And then today I got three envelopes with some coins in. And yet yesterday, I didn't tell Martha this, dearie, I had a gift of money yesterday.

Brother Mike gave me some money, and he didn't want to do it publicly tonight. So he just pressed my hand, and he gave me this penny. Somebody says it's like Mike. It's not, he's not stingy. He just knows how to control his generous impulses.

Maybe you'd better close the meeting. We're getting too happy. Can you hear all right? Good. Thank you. If you didn't hear that message this morning that our precious son David brought, you certainly should get a copy.

I'm pretty prejudiced, I suppose. I think it was a masterpiece. It was on the subject of Samson. And the parts in it, he had, I would say, almost exquisite exposition. And not only that, there was eloquence, but more than that, there was authority.

To me, it was a verse after the Lord. One phrase he used there has been with me and will be with me a long while. David left a church in New Zealand with a congregation like this every Sunday morning.

Sixteen hundred, with six hundred in Sunday school at the same time. And the Lord told him to come to America. All kinds of promises were made. We'll open doors and open doors. They were never opened.

And he's had a year. I don't say it's starvation point, but doors have not opened when he hasn't come. And you can speak with authority. A man with an experience is never at the mercy of a man with an argument.

And he had experience in the things he preached this morning. And one phrase was very beautiful. He said to his wife at one point, Nancy dear, please, what did you say, don't help me. Oh, don't rob me of this wilderness.

Isn't that a classic phrase? It's been told about men on the backside of the desert. About Jesus in training for thirty years. John the Baptist for thirty years. Moses on the backside of the desert. And he's been on the backside of the desert.

Don't rob me of my wilderness. And if you haven't been there, you will. Because God has no spoiled children. I'm going to take that same theme tonight from the 16th chapter of the wonderful book of Judges.

Samson and the Church’s Lost Strength

It says in verse 6, and Delilah said to Samson, tell me, I pray thee, wherein thy great strength lieth, and wherewith thou mightest be bound to afflict these. This is a question of a woman of the world to a man of God.

It will be a very wonderful day when the world again begins to ask the church, what is our strength? Right now it thinks we're bankrupt, I'm sure. If I remember correctly, that brilliant Christian scholar Dr. Carl F. Henry was the founder editor of Christianity Today.

Just before he retired from that position, he sent out a questionnaire, he said, to a hundred of the most brilliant preachers in America. I didn't get one. But the questionnaire was this. What do you see for the Church of Jesus Christ by the year 2000?

I forget most of the answers. I know one was from Billy Graham's brother-in-law, Layton Ford. It was pretty good. The other was from a Quaker philosopher called Elton Trueblood. And Elton Trueblood said by the end of the year 2000, or by the year 2000, the world will be a conscious minority in the midst of an arrogant.

Oh, I'm sorry, what did I say? Oh, sorry. The church will be a conscious minority, surrounded by an arrogant, militant paganism. We're living today in the third chapter of the second letter of Paul to Timothy.

We're living in a time of aggressive iniquity and slumbering Christianity. One of the greatest military leaders in all of history was Napoleon Bonaparte. He lost his greatest battle on the 18th of June, which happens to be my birthday.

Make a note of it. But it was on the 18th of June in 1815, which is not my birthday. He had had successive victories until he was one of the few men that wanted to dominate the world. Do you remember Alexander the Great, at the age of 27, conquered the world and sat down and cried because there was no more world to conquer?

The only thing, he never conquered his own appetites. Napoleon gathered his warlords together. He had an office with a huge map of the world on it. And he took his finger and he ran his finger around the ragged edge of a great country.

And then because some of the officers there were a bit restless, he commanded them to attention. Look at this, he said. And he outlined that great country again. Then he thrust his finger into the middle of it.

And he said, there lies a sleeping giant. Let it sleep. Because he said, if that nation ever wakes up and puts all its resources and all its manpower together, it will shake the world. He said that in 1815.

About America? No, about China. We're told now China has a thousand, have a million men on the border of Russia. We don't know exactly what power she has. But anyhow, he said, if she ever begins to march, the world had better take notice.

Because she has such awesome strength. Change the characters. Instead of seeing a map of the world, seeing a map of the ages. Instead of seeing Napoleon, see the devil. And he goes to a spot there and he runs his finger around it and he says to all his demons in hell, look at that.

Just as Napoleon said, and I didn't quote it exactly. He said of China, there lies a sleeping giant. Let it sleep. Because if it ever wakes, it will shake the known world. I imagine the devil says to his demons, look, there is the church of Jesus Christ asleep.

Let it sleep. If it ever rises and gets the resurrection power of Jesus Christ, harnessed to human endeavor, human zeal, human holiness, it will shake the world. And if we don't get that, we won't shake the world.

Do you know the most famous story from America around the world, even in Russia? It's the story of Rip Van Winkle. Do you know who wrote it? Mike, do you know who wrote it? A brilliant American answer, he says the author.

I wouldn't have known. Mike, you don't need to go to Australia. You need to go to school. Isn't that disgusting? Where's his wife? You do homeschooling. You've got new students. Anyhow, everybody knows the story of Rip Van Winkle.

I forget the name of the guy. But I'm an Englishman. I'm not an American. Well, I'll come down to your level. Who wrote the story Little Orphan Annie? You don't know? I'm sorry, I'm running out of zeros.

Anyhow, the story about Rip Van Winkle is, you know, he went up a hill. It's in a place called Sleepy Hollow. I've been in that area up the, what do you call the river, up the River Hudson, up behind New York there.

We saw this sign Sleepy Hollow. I said, well, that's where Rip Van Winkle went. Well, some people say he slept for a year. Some people say he slept 20. Some people say he slept for a hundred. But that's not the point.

You see, when you went up the hill, there was a sign hanging outside a tavern. And it had on it, it had the head of George III on it. Because England had some money and power at that time in this country.

But while he was sleeping, somebody erased the picture of George III and they put the head of another, well really an Englishman, by the name of George Washington. The point of the story isn't he slept 20 years, or 30 years, or 50 years.

The point is he slept through a revolution. Exactly what the Church of Jesus Christ is doing tonight. Sleeping through a revolution. A moral revolution, an intellectual revolution. You can't get a map of the world anymore.

It changes every year you need a new map. Everything's changing. And people say to me, you know, we're not living in the days when you were a boy or a wife. They listen. Some people have said things that change, very much that are the same.

Is pain any less today than it was a hundred years ago? I know a precious woman has a gorgeous daughter. She came home a little while ago and told her mother she's pregnant, she's 16, she's a beauty queen.

Is that mother's heart not as broke as a woman a hundred years ago? Is crime any less? Is sin any less? No and the gospel is no less. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation. I like this wonderful man for many reasons.

Samson, the Nazarite, and the Anointing of God

Here is a woman, there's always a woman in the story. And she comes to this man, Samson. You know, I've been around the world a few times and I, I like to go to art galleries and I say, do you have any, do you have any religious paintings?

And very often you see a picture of Samson. He's, you know, he's a superman. He's about 12 feet high, enormous muscles, mountains of muscles and everything else. Trees like red, legs like redwood trees.

A chest you could almost run a truck over it. And here is this monstrous guy. Now women can ask awkward questions I'm sure. You see Saul, the king of Israel that you heard of this morning, was head and shoulders above everybody else in Israel.

And Goliath was head and shoulders above Saul. And you try to persuade me that this man Samson is head and shoulders above the rest. Do you think a woman's going to say to a man 12 feet high, hey buddy, what's the secret of his strength?

What kind of wheaties do you eat or something? I think the wonder of it, he wasn't any different physically than anybody else. But he's typical. He's a remarkable man. It gets into that list of most amazing people that ever lived in Hebrews 11.

As I told you before, I can read that chapter Hebrews 11 every day and nobody needs to preach to me. I read it and then I fall on my face, face embarrassed. People in that chapter did exploits. No, they didn't have degrees like you have.

They're not famous and clever and brilliant. They were poor and sophisticated people. You know much that they don't know, but they knew much you don't know. They knew God. What's it say in the Word of God, the people that do know their Bibles?

Is that what Daniel says? We've never had more Bibles in America. We have 600 million Bibles in America. That's three for every person in the nation. We have more Bible schools in America than all the other nations of the world put together.

We have more gospel broadcasts. We have more preaching. But do we know God better? The Word of God says the people that do know their God shall be strong and do exploits. And so in Hebrews 11 you have this amazing list.

If I'd been writing Hebrews 11 I'd have changed the whole thing. Do you think if I'd written Hebrews 11 about faith I'd have put a prostitute in it? God did. He put, what was his name? Rahab. Thank you.

Rahab. I would have put Joshua in. He isn't in. Oh, he's there by inference. By faith the very walls of Jericho fell down. But his name isn't mentioned. Surely I would have put Elijah in. Boy, what a man Elijah was.

Superstar. If he lived today he'd be booked for the next 15 years in every church. There's a wonderful record. But he isn't mentioned in Hebrews, in Hebrews, what, 12? 11. 11. He isn't mentioned. There are people in the chapter I wouldn't put in.

There are people not in the chapter I would put in. But Samson is there. The author says, time would fail me to tell of Gideon, and of Barak, and of Jephthah, and of Samson, who through faith did what?

Subdue kingdoms. There's a very old saying, it goes back about 200 years ago, that one man with God is a majority. God never raised up Methodism. He raised up Wesley. Now Wesley was born Methodism. He didn't raise up the Salvation Army.

He found a man who was half Jew and half Gentile, filled him with the Holy Ghost, and caused him to lead a Christian army called the Salvation Army, that went into 70 countries, not cities, 70 countries in 90 years.

The richest people in England joined it. People came from America to join the Salvation Army in England. And God finds men. I look for a man to stand in the gap. And here is this Superman Samson. Oh, this morning David mentioned the fact that he was a Nazirite.

There were three things a Nazirite could not do. He could not drink wine, which is a sign of a worldly pleasure. He could not touch anything that was dead. That's a type of people, dead in trespasses and in sins.

And third, he had to have long hair. His hair had to be long to bear the reproach. People scorned him as looking effeminate. And that comes with a Christian too. We have to be separate from the world, we have to be separate from dead people, and we have to bear reproach for Christ's sake.

But here is this man. And let me get this straight here a minute. The woman again asked the question, tell me what is the secret of thy great strength? Do you know the curse of our day is mediocrity? If you go into one Pentecostal church, you'll be in every one of them in the nation.

You know what they'll do? They'll stand and clap for the first 15 minutes, go to sleep the next part, and go out all happy. Doesn't matter where you go, there's a dreadful mediocrity. There's nothing about this man which is normal.

He is abnormal. These are abnormal days. They demand abnormal men with abnormal messages and abnormal anointings. There's a phrase recurring in the story of this man over and over again. I give it from chapter 14 and in verse 6, pardon me, in verse 5.

Samson went down and his father and his mother to Timnath. And they came to the vineyards at Timnath, and behold a young lion roared against him. Now that lion, in my, in my thinking, that lion is typical of the power of the devil, who goeth about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.

He could have gone that way to Timnath. Don't go that way, there's a lion in the way. What did he care? It says repeatedly in the story, read it, the Spirit of the Lord came upon him. And there is no substitute for the anointing of God.

Scholarship is no substitute. Human genius is no substitute. Organizing is no substitute. Financial backing is no substitute. There is something which God alone is able to give. That is the anointing of the Spirit of God.

And repeatedly it says, the Spirit of the Lord came upon him. It says in the, in the 13th chapter, and in verse 25, the Spirit of the Lord began to move on him at times in the camp between Zorah and Eshterhal.

Well there's nothing in this world that equals that mighty anointing of God. Many of you don't remember World War II. That's a blessing. Or World War I. I remember both of them. But you know Hitler was a Superman.

This is God's Superman. Hitler was a genius, an evil genius. He rallied the whole nation behind him. Millions of people died for him. Okay, he had the sports palace in Berlin. Often he got 200 ,000 men in full army rigged.

They wore steel helmets, packs on their backs, their guns with their bayonets in. And they stood in a torrid heat to hear him with that tremendous thrust that he had, that oratory that he had. And on one occasion he stood up and he spoke for about 15 minutes and he got nowhere.

As flat as could be. Usually the people would get up and yell and cheer. But not a thing. It was like a cemetery. And behind him he had his staff. One was a man by the name of Goring, and the other was a man by the name of Goebbels.

And Hitler stood there a little while, quite restless and shifty and uncertain. And then he started speaking again and suddenly he went up. The whole bunch of men were there ready to fight. Cheering madly.

Do you know what Goebbels said to Goring? He's all right. The Holy Ghost is upon him now. That suggests to me they had known something of God in some meetings. And yet he realized there's a moment of release.

Some people, some orators, maybe the Greeks called it the nimbus. Others called it the athletus. We call it unction. You can't buy it. You can't make it. You can't give it. It's the prerogative of God.

And sometimes that holy anointing is there and you feel you want to close your eyes. God is so near. This awesome thing came. David reminded us this morning. This people had been in captivity to the Philistines for 40 years.

Spiritual Deterioration Begins in Neglected Prayer

And so the way to get to him is through a woman. Listen to the story quickly here. I read you that sixth verse. Delilah said to Samson, tell me I pray thee, the secret of that great strength liar. That's number one warning he got.

Look at verse 10. Delilah said unto Samson, behold thou hast mocked me and told me lies. What did he say? He said, if you'll get green ropes that were never used and bind me, then I shall be as another man.

Isn't that awesome? Look, she knew he wasn't an ordinary man. He knew he wasn't an ordinary man. The Philistines knew he wasn't an ordinary man. He was more powerful than an army. And yet he sold out.

We've had some of the greatest preaching, with a question on it. At least, men with the greatest audiences in history in the last few years in America. They talked to the whole world. But tonight, nobody wants to hear them.

They sold their privilege. They got arrogant. They were cursed with money, not blessed with it. They were cursed with favor. And tonight, the world laughs and mocks at them, just like these people mocked at this man.

Samson said, if they bind me with seven green wrists that were never dried, then I shall be like other men. He doesn't say that. Listen to it. Then shall I be weak. The other morning on TV, I don't watch much of it.

It showed the progress of Japan. And it said that dropouts in school are almost unknown. Children beating up the teachers are not known. Because in Japan, almost all the teachers are men. Whereas in America, all the teachers are women.

And all the teachers in Sunday school are women. It's a tragic situation. The true husband is the king in the home, and he's the priest. You reminded us this morning that this son was born of a woman who herself was a Nazirite.

She didn't drink wine. She wasn't foolish. She wasn't careless. Going out Sunday morning, a young lady, where's Jeff, somewhere here. Jeff's wife said to me, well you said lay on your tummy and worship God.

She said I'm five months pregnant. Can I lay on my tummy? I said no, lay on your back. It's just the same. But you know it makes a difference. If you're pregnant, talk to the child. Sing to the child.

Maybe one reason I love hymns was, my mother could sing like, oh boy, she was like a canary. And she was beautiful looking. And they say, you know, if you blend those two things together, harmony, music, and quietness, talk to that child, and the child will become like its mother.

And my mother was beautiful. Look at me. Listen, why settle for mediocrity? Demand of God that that child you're going to bear is going to be an abnormal child. Claim it as abnormal appetite for God. In the revival in the 1720s, boys and girls, six, seven, eight, nine years of age, didn't want to go to bed.

They traveled all night in prayer. In that revival that launched the greatest mystery, opposition to the devil, since the day of Pentecost. All because those young people had been trained properly in the lived.

Well I mentioned again here, verse 14 of the 15th chapter says, when he came against him, the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and cords were upon his arms, became as flax, as though they were burned with fire, and his hands loose from off his.

And then it says in this verse again, you see the stupid things God can use. He found the new jawbone of an ass, and with it he slew, what? Ten men, a thousand, with a jawbone of an ass. Isn't that amazing?

I remember in, somebody saying in England, a fellow was preaching on this, he said, well, the preacher said, well, no the lady said, we were studying that study the other day, we were talking about the story of the Samson, and he took the jawbone of an ass, and he slew a thousand men.

And well, that was in that day. God doesn't use the jawbone of an ass anymore. She said, he doesn't go to church. He says, he went up to the city, and when they heard that he was in the city, they locked up the city, and said, we'll take care of him now.

So this man got up, flexed his muscles, took the gates of the city, carried them up on the mountain, and said, you'll have more difficulty getting them back, than I had getting them here. The Spirit of the Lord is upon him.

He's the type of this people who are anointed, and there's nothing can stand against them. And the one thing the devil hates, he doesn't mind you giving up your smoking. He doesn't mind you giving up your silly habit.

He's very, very much afraid you might get filled with God, the Holy Ghost, and be under divine control. Your intellect will be illuminated by the Spirit. Your strength will be of the Spirit. Your love will be of the Spirit.

Your emotions will be of the Spirit. Your compassion will be of the Spirit. Because he's come to invade that wonderful personality of yours. So they bind him with new robes, and he gets out of them. And then this woman comes again.

She asks him at least three times. Let me jump over this for time. Three times she comes and says, what's the secret of great strength? That's the warning. Listen. Whatever's happened on TV to those men, it wasn't that they slipped.

Every man begins his spiritual deterioration in the place of prayer. Neglecting the Word, neglecting the secret place of the Most High. The devil says, oh you're so busy. A friend of mine came to see me not long ago.

He'd been right across America preaching in the greatest churches in the country. And he asked me had I been to a certain church. I said yes. I've been, I've never preached there. I was there Sunday. There were over 3 ,000.

I told the pastor I'll come and preach to you on Sunday, if I can have fellowship with you on Monday at lunch. And so he said on Monday I went. And he said I've been wanting to ask you a question for three months.

Tell me this. You're the pastor of this fabulous church. You stack some money. You're known throughout Pentecost. Tell me this. How much time do you spend personally in prayer? He said, he laughed. He said, hey, what do you mean spend time in prayer?

I've got 3 ,000 people to look after. I have so many committees. I go to five or six meetings. I haven't time for prayer. Well then you ought to get out of the job. The devil doesn't see it organizing.

He sees it agonizing. It doesn't matter who we know if we don't know God. And it doesn't matter we don't know if we know him. To know him he is the source of all power, all strength, all wisdom. And in every situation that this man came, he's more than conqueror through him that loved him.

There's no failure there for a while. Anyhow, it came to pass. Listen what she did. She pressed him daily with her words and urged him so that his soul was vexed. She pressed him, she urged him, she got him vexed.

Until he told her all that was in his heart. There is no razor come upon my head. If I be shaven then my hair shall be shaven. I shall become weak and become as another man. And when Delilah saw that he told her all his heart, she called for the Lord of the Philistines saying he has shown me all his heart.

Now look it says what? She said look you're getting tired. You've been overworking. You carry the gate to the city where everybody's talking about you. Just lay, just get down a minute and lay your head on my lap.

You know if it stayed on his knees it never got on her knees. It's just a subtle thing that the devil says you're tired. Sure he'll tell you about everything. He'll make any excuse as long as you don't touch the throne of God every day.

As long as you don't touch resurrection life. As long as your vision is blurred. As long as he can get you mesmerized by materialism and fascinated with all the wretched stuff, trivia that we have around about us.

She said to the Philistines when you walk out of his sleep. Can you imagine him? Pardon me let me go in verse 19 again. She made him sleep on her knees. She called for the man and she caused him to shave the seven locks off his head and began to afflict him.

She, a woman, began to afflict him. A man that had recently, what did he do? Well there was a lion in the way. And when he met the lion he got all of it and he tore its jaws apart. Doesn't it say in the Hebrews chapter 11, subdue kingdoms, wrought righteousness, stop the mouths of lions.

You say that's Daniel. Daniel didn't stop the mouth of the lion. The Lord shut the mouths of the lions. But on this occasion this man beats the devil and meets the lion head on. The devil's having a millennium today.

We're fighting more enemies in the true church of Jesus Christ than ever. You see what you saw you read. You can't break God's laws. Two of the greatest curses in the world today, I believe, are Mormonism and Jehovah's Witnesses.

They were both born in America. We threw them out to the world. Mormonism and Jehovah's Witnesses. Spiritism was raised in America again in 1834. You know I believe America and England are the same in this.

They're being crushed. All our young people and others are being crushed with two walls. This wall is the occult and the other wall is drugs. All over the world the pressure is on like this. And you can lecture as much as you like and talk as much as you like and shout over TV as much as you like and do all the rest.

Until the manifestation of God's holy power in America will do nothing. You can't do it by hand bills. There's got to be such a holy attraction in the sanctuary that people want to rush here. Dear God if you're watching a stupid film tonight you couldn't have had more joy than when you're raising your hands and singing here.

Oh hallelujah Christ arose. We need to recapture the majesty of the gospel. A critic in the New York Times book review said recently, the trouble with modern Christianity, the modern preachers have lost two things.

They've lost sight of the awesome beauty and thrilling majesty of the gospel. That's a critic. We've lost sight of the awesome beauty. Of the thrilling majesty of the gospel. That the gospel is the power of God unto salvation.

They shook, took the hair off his head. It's a sign of a broken vow. And they began to afflict him. And she said unto him, Samson awoke out of his sleep. And he said I will go out as at other times and shake myself.

And he wished not. I heard G. Campbell Morgan say fifty years ago. This is one of the saddest texts in the whole of the Bible. He didn't know the Lord had gone. The anointing left swaggered two years before that wretched mess in his life.

Of course you can get excited and weep. I can do that every day of my life whether I have anointing or not. I can do it so natural hateful sin that the devil is such a chronic and rotten taskmaster. Yeah I tell you what there are some people discovering right now.

They're dying at this moment. They're gasping. They had a few nights amusement and they got a damning disease called AIDS. And they're suddenly discovering the Bible is right. That if you sow to the flesh you of the flesh reap corruption.

Somebody said for a man to have AIDS is like taking hold of a man and sitting on the red hot stove. He's burning like hell. It's hell on the way to hell. And yet people who get it tonight. The lust of the flesh is so much they have no dominion.

I can't give you the statistics. Maybe sometimes brother Mac can tell you about what did. What's the preacher of the prophets have a say. Yeah. There'll be three. Three strains of AIDS given by told us by Paul Cain a man that you love very dearly.

And this is the worst isn't it. Oh there's one more coming which will be worse than what we have. We've no power against it. Where is our power. I'm sick of performance and talk. You don't like this. It's English.

The Gospel’s Power, Prayer, and the Need for Revival

Listen it was a very charming young guy came into my office. He works alone. He carries a pack on his back. He's a fine young American. He calls himself God's mule. M U L E. He packs his back with Spanish Testaments and Spanish Bibles.

And he's been going into Nicaragua and to the Sandinistas and bullets are whizzed by his ears. He's a precious man. And he came in my office and with tears. He said Mr. Rainer I've been away. And he said well I've been away.

He said I went to the Sandinistas. I went where the Nicaraguans were. There were no TVs. There were no telephones. There were no radios. Guess what they were talking about. Well one of two things. Either sports or politics.

No. They were talking about the sin of preachers in America. But he said look. He said this last year in 1988. Number one we had a national day of prayer. Number two. We had Washington for Jesus. Number three.

I understand the Rock Church in Dallas says they have at least a hundred thousand people that pray 15 minutes a day. For America. So you have a national day of prayer. You have Washington for Jesus. They prayed from midnight till three o 'clock.

You have a hundred thousand people in America praying 15 minutes a day. What did it do? Nothing. We've had a drought. The greatest drought in a hundred years. Why? Oh there's a hole in the sky. Forget it.

God says that when he's angry with the people he says I'll send, I'll lock up heaven. And you know what? The drought this coming year may be even greater because there's no snowfall. Where the snow usually melts and fills up.

There's no snowfall there. So despite our so-called praying. We had the greatest drought in a hundred years. We had the greatest fires on the West Coast in a hundred years. We have AIDS devastating us.

We have a little fellow there in Panama thumbing his nose at us. He doesn't care if it's 50 million airplanes. He doesn't care if it's 10 ,000 atom bombs. He's getting his millions of dollars, drugs, and pushing them in this country.

And he sits and laughs at us. Prayer didn't lose him. I think every day, I hope you Americans do. I think what about ten young men locked up in Lebanon in rotten dark cells. And they talk about it in the United Nations.

And they talk about and have their fun up in Washington. Do they care if those men, the men can go to hell for all they care. I'm not only embarrassed at the politicians. I'm embarrassed at the church.

I want to suggest to you people in this church. Start some target praying. Say this month we're going to pray about prostitution in this town. Next month we're going to pray about drugs. And believe God will give us some of the leaders.

Why in God's name don't we go for some big things. We're always praying for money for a new rug or something. I'd like to see some people that are full of the Holy Ghost. I don't know if there's a dozen in America.

Get together and say, like Rachel said when she discovered the barrenness, which David emphasized this morning. She says give me children or I die. Listen the most expensive thing in America today, and you know spends the most money, the Mafia.

And I'll make a guess there isn't one evangelical in the Mafia. Think about the rest. Sure we've had our sins and our failures. Why don't we pray. Oh I go to conferences, a lot of talk, Dr. this, Dr. so and so.

This fellow founded so many churches. So do you know the hardest mission field in the world today is America. We've less real genuine new births than anybody else. We have people coming forward. Dear Lord I looked at a TV about two years ago and they said this has been a wonderful conference.

2 ,000 people have been filled with the Holy Ghost in two days. Forget it. Were the 2 ,000 in the upper room? I read and read and read. The book Seven Pentecostal Pioneers. I read the latest version of Azusa Street.

On the first page Bartleman who wrote the book says there are 70 million Pentecostals in the world. I had a Pentecostal theologian in my office and I said would you answer a question, just one. He said I'll try.