Prayer and Revival - Part 4 — Bill McLeod

The Command to Be Filled With the Spirit

I want to read from Ephesians chapter 5. Wherefore he saith, verse 14 that is, Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light. See then, that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

Wherefore be you not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. And be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.

Just that far. It seems that wherever I go, Christians, and I probably could rightly say the majority of Christians, they do not know whether they're filled with the Spirit or not. How do you know, they say?

I pray a lot about it. I believe I have been, but I don't see any evidence of it. And I hear this wherever I go. You'll notice in Ephesians 5, it's not an option, it's a command. Be filled with the Spirit.

So we should be filled. And if we don't know how, I want to try and deal with that tonight. First of all, back in Acts chapter 2, of course we have what they call a Jewish Pentecost. Jews, there were some proselytes among them, Gentiles who'd become Jews.

They could do that in those days. And then, following this, in Acts chapter 4, I call this an extension of Pentecost. I don't believe that the 120 were filled with the Spirit on the day of Pentecost. I think just the 12 were.

And there's some evidence of that, I think, if you follow it through. And I don't want to argue with anybody about it. Okay. It was an extension. And that all those converts on the day of Pentecost were filled with the Spirit in Acts chapter 4.

And they spoke the Word of God with boldness. As a consequence, that ought to be one of the signs of being filled with the Spirit of God. Then going down, thinking further, we have what we might call a Samaritan Pentecost in Acts chapter 8.

The Samaritan and Gentile Outpourings of the Spirit

Now, these Samaritans, they felt they were really the people of God. They were not. They were, if you know the story about Samaria in the Old Testament, they were people that came down from Babylon and other places and dwelt in the cities that the Israelites had to leave because of their sin.

And it says, they feared the Lord and served their own gods. Strange. That's the kind of people they were. So, of course, the Jews and Samaritans did not get along because the Jews did not recognize them and the Samaritans wanted to be recognized.

But Jesus said to a Samaritan woman, salvation is of the Jews. So this, when they believed on Christ, they did not receive the Holy Spirit. And they didn't receive the Spirit until Peter and John came down and laid hands on them.

Then they received the Spirit. I think God did that to help humble them, help them to understand. If they had any pride, they should really lose it because the Jews were a special people to God. Then in Acts chapter 10, we have what we might call a Gentile Pentecost.

Because the same things happened in the house of Cornelius as it happened on their Pentecost. And those who were there at the time with Peter, they were astonished that God had poured out His Spirit on the Gentiles exactly as it happened to the Jews on their Pentecost.

And both the Jewish Pentecost and the Samaritan Pentecost were referred to as a baptism of the Spirit. Okay, then I would call this, in Acts 19, a missionary Pentecost. Paul had talked with twelve men who were disciples of John the Baptist and he explained to them about Jesus Christ more fully.

And they were baptized in the name of Christ. Then Paul laid his hands on them and they received the Spirit. And it was another type of Pentecost. And it was a powerful experience because through these twelve men particularly, Paul got training people in a school belonging to a man called Tyrannus.

And as a result of this it says, listen carefully, that all of Asia, all of Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus. Jews and Greeks, Jews and Gentiles. A marvelous thing happened. It must have been through these twelve men that Paul trained and sent out.

He couldn't have done this himself. In any case, what happened there in Acts 19 was certainly another outpouring of the Spirit of God. Then there's a personal Pentecost in Acts 9 .17. Ananias said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto you in the ways you came, has sent me that you might be healed.

I might be filled with the Holy Spirit. That was kind of a personal Pentecost then, right? His ministry was the most powerful of all the apostles. So his filling of the Spirit must have been as powerful as theirs at the same time.

Humility Before God's Call

Let's go from there. I met a man. He lived in Toronto, then moved to New York. And he worked for Billy Sunday. He had a great evangelistic gift. His name was Harold Stevens. And we were talking one day.

He said, tell me about your experience with God. He said, well, I played the organ in a church. I had no interest in soul winning at all. I had never felt called into ministry. But the church was having street meetings with a little portable organ.

And they kept begging him to come and play the organ. No way. He didn't want to be seen on the street, you know, playing an organ. That was beneath him. So he kept on saying no. And they kept praying that God would speak to his heart.

And one day, it became such a burden, he couldn't say no anymore. The street meeting was already in progress. So he began walking down. Made up his mind, I'll do it. And halfway to the organ, he was filled with the Spirit of God in such a dynamic way that when he got there, they said, hey, Harold, great to see you.

Here's the organ. Forget the organ. He said, I've got to preach. And he started preaching. And a revival erupted. And people stopped. They had to go to a nearby church building. Get all these people in.

And a revival came. And many, many people were saved. And Harold Stevens was launched into this evangelistic ministry. He wasn't even called into it. He was pushed into it. But please notice this. It didn't happen until he did what?

Until he humbled himself and forsook his pride and did the thing. He knew all along he really should do, but for pride's sake, did not want to do. Harold Stevens. John Nicholson was an Irishman in Northern Ireland.

Years ago, before he was converted, he was just a hooligan. Big guy. Loved to fight. Loved to get drunk. And he had a terrible mouth. Then he got saved. And for eight months, he struggled terribly with all these old habits he had.

And had little victory over them. And then he heard of a deeper life meeting of some kind. And he went there. And there he discovered, after you become a Christian, you should surrender yourself totally to God.

And one night in the meeting, that's what he did. Okay, God, he said, now, anything you ask me to do, I'll do it. You know what he was asked to do? To go and stand with a Salvation Army group on the street.

In a street meeting. On a Saturday night. He begged, oh God, I'll do it, but you know, can't we have it on Wednesday night? The reason he didn't want it on Saturday night was because on Saturday night, everybody came in from the country.

A lot of his old cronies would see him standing on the street. Oh, Nick, he didn't want that. But God wouldn't give in. And God kept saying, Saturday night. So he had to do it because he told God he'd do anything.

And then when he got there and saw the crew, he almost fainted dead away. Two teenage girls and a guy that was so daft. They said he didn't have enough brains to have a headache, you know. And he had some kind of a board on both sides with some Bible verses on it.

And this was the team he had to work with. Oh, he was so embarrassed, but he was there, you know. And one of the girls said, nobody's listening to us, so let's pray. Get on your knees, Mr. Nichols. And so he saw friends of his, old cronies of his, on the sidewalk watching him get down on his knees.

Man, he did it. He got on his knees and he heard them jeering and hollering at him and all this stuff, you know. And he knelt there. And finally they got up and one of the girls said, Mr. Nicholson, lead our parade down to our feet.

It was a building of some kind. And he thought to himself, what parade? Two girls and this daft guy? Okay, so let's go. And as he was going in that parade, God filled him with the Holy Ghost. He was filled and became an evangelist of great renown in Ireland.

Anybody from Ireland would know who John Nicholson was. I think he's gone on now. Died perhaps 1950 or something, but greatly, greatly used of God. What was the difference? Well, he was like Harold Stephens, you know.

Same problem. Pride stands in the way. And many times in Christians' lives, the reason why we're not filled with the Spirit is because God is asking us to do something. We don't want to do it for pride's sake.

We don't want to admit it for pride's sake. But that's the real problem that we have. Cecil Carter, some of you heard me in one of the other sessions. I don't think here, but one of the other sessions we had.

But Cecil Carter, a great man of God. He was a big fellow and a tremendous athlete. For two years in a row, he took top honors running the mile in British Columbia, Canada. And he was a real witness for God.

And he ran a hardware store. But he felt he should be in full-time Christian service. And it never happened. And so finally he bargained with God. He said, God, if you don't call me into full-time service, by the time I'm 30, I'll never think about it again.

I'll just do what I'm good. And you know what happened? His 30th birthday came and nothing had happened. He said it was the saddest day he ever put in. But at 10 o 'clock on that night, the phone rang.

And Percy Wills from Victoria, British Columbia said, Cecil, God has told me to ask you to become a missionary with the Shantyman's Christian Association. Well, he got out of that store in five seconds, you know, and on the road.

But before that happened, he was up in the mountains one day, he told me. And he was trying to surrender himself to God. And he just couldn't. He said, I knelt there. It was a beautiful, sunshiny day and not a cloud in the sky.

And he's kneeling there and talking with God. And he kept saying, God, I can't do it. And God kept urging him. And he said, God, I just can't do it. And just then, a stroke of lightning hit the ground about 20 feet away.

I can do it. I can do it, God. And he surrendered totally and God filled him. And he became a, he was one of the most Christ-like people I've ever met. And led hundreds of people to Christ in logging camps in Canada.

Had a wonderful, wonderful ministry. I was never with him, but I was moved towards heaven. He's dead now. I hope somebody writes his life story. Moody sought this baptism for six months. This baptism, call it a filling or a baptism, whatever you want.

I don't care about the language that we use here. But he sought it for six months because he saw two ladies praying in one of his congregations. And mind you, he had the largest Sunday evening congregation of any church in Chicago at the time.

And he asked these ladies why they were always praying when he was preaching. And they said, because you don't have it. Don't have what? You're not filled with the Holy Spirit, you know. He couldn't believe it.

Well, I've got the biggest congregation in Chicago, you know, on Sunday night. They said, we know that. That's got nothing to do with it. You're not filled with the Spirit. So he began praying with these ladies.

And then he got a tremendous burden. And for six months, nothing happened. Then walking down the street one day. See, he had to humble himself to pray with these old ladies. What had they got to show him, you know?

But he was willing to do that because he wanted to know. And so one day, walking on the street in Chicago, he was filled with the Spirit of God. He was so overwhelmed with the love of God in his experience.

Now, it doesn't always come this way, but it came that way for him. And he rushed to a friend's house and asked for a room where he could be alone for a few hours. And in that room, he thought he was going to die.

He was so filled with the love of God. And then God sent him around the world, and a million people found Christ before he died. Spurgeon. I don't know of any writer that's ever said anything about Spurgeon being filled with the Spirit.

I found something in one of his sermons, though, that I think would indicate this happened to him at a certain time. He was converted at the age of 15. He was baptized in a river, dividing two colonies.

And here's what he said. Before my baptism, he said, I often doubted I was really a Christian. And he said, I was very fearful. I didn't like talking to people about the Lord or giving out tracts or anything.

But he said, when I went down under the water, something happened. And he said, all my doubts and fears disappeared. And I think, he said, that the river carried them down to the ocean. And the fish in the ocean swallowed them, because I've never felt them since.

Now, I think that's when he was filled with the Spirit. Because the evidence is all there. And at the age of 17, when he began pastoring this Water Beach Little Baptist Church, 40 members, he said, we had Holy Ghost revival from the first day.

What did he mean? Water Beach was a little town with a horrible reputation. Many people in the area were drunkards. He went from 40 to 400 members in two years. Every drunkard in the area had been converted.

That's why he said, we had Holy Ghost revival. He couldn't have said that if he wasn't filled with the Spirit himself. I think it's important to keep that clearly in mind. Whitefield, an Anglican bishop, laid hands on his head and prayed for him.

And at that moment, something happened in his heart, he said. Wesley, he spoke about a strange warming of his heart. These two men, Whitfield, they preached. He and Wesley sometimes preached to crowds as many as 20 ,000.

And a kind of slang in Scotland, nobody really knows. But they say there could have been 100 ,000 people in the open air. No voice amplification. Whitfield was heard clearly by them all. He had a tremendous voice, a gift from God, no doubt.

For these men had had a meeting with God at some point. And they walked with God. I think, you know, that one of the reasons why we maybe have a good experience, but we don't walk with God is simply because we don't walk with God.

Walking in the Spirit Through Obedience

Walk in the Spirit, the Bible says, Galatians 5. And you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. And the reason why we fall into the lust of the flesh is because we're not walking in the Spirit. We're not doing what the Spirit is asking us to do.

We're not listening to our neighbor. We're not giving out tracts, perhaps. Whatever God is, He may be asking me to make a large donation to a missionary fund. And I say, no. But the Spirit's leading me to do that.

I don't do that. Then I wonder why I start having trouble with the lust again. I mean, this is all connected in the Word of God. Do you know who Sam Chadwick was? A very well-known preacher years and years ago.

They said his sermons were works of art. They were absolutely beautiful. And he loved that, you know, and he may put all kinds of poetry in. And he had a great command of the English language. And his sermons were renowned far and wide as just beautiful, gorgeous things.

But he wasn't filled with the Spirit. And he didn't know why. And he prayed and prayed. And one night, God said, Chadwick, you want to be filled with the Spirit? Burn your sermons. What? Burn my sermons?

That's right. And Chadwick got up and got his sermons and threw them in the fireplace. And you know what he said? From that moment, I was filled with the Spirit of God. And he became an outstanding preacher of the gospel of Christ at that point.

Now, that may not make any sense to you. I don't know. It makes a lot of sense to me. I mean, this was an idol in his life, you see. And he had to get rid of this idol. And you may have an idol, too, that God wants you to get rid of.

He burned all his sermons. Hudson Taylor was struggling for years. He saw a few souls saved, you know. But not much going on. And in anguish about being filled with the Spirit. And he prayed many times to be filled with the Spirit.

Nothing seemed to happen. In his case, it was somewhat different. He got a letter from a friend. And his friend told him how he'd been struggling for years to be filled with the Spirit. And he finally found it by resting in Christ.

And apparently this phrase, resting in Christ, was used of God in Taylor's life. And he saw it and quit all his fussing and worrying. And just leaned back, he said, in the arms of Jesus Christ. And rested.

And the following day he led seven people to Christ. And he never looked back. He always had that anointing of the Spirit on his life from that time and forward. A .J. Gordon used the following words, four of them.

Desire, desire it. Enthrone Christ on your heart. And then expect and accept the Spirit of God by faith. And his life was transformed following this particular way. Trumbull, he was greatly used of God.

He came to the place where he realized he had to stop working for Christ. But rather let Him do His work through him. So he gave up trying to serve Christ. And came into close fellowship with the Lord, just letting Him work through him.

So as the Spirit worked through him to go out and evangelize, he did that. Or maybe to go out somewhere and do something else. Whatever he was led by the Spirit to do, he did. And it wasn't until he began doing this that he saw the power of the Spirit in his life.

It says, remember, dear people, walk in the Spirit. If you walk in the Spirit, you'll see the evidence of the Spirit in your life. But if you keep saying no to God, you'll see nothing. And I think this really is our major problem.

Dethroning Self-Sufficiency

I remember one time in a revival meeting where God was working. And we had a time of sharing. And a teenage girl, maybe she was 15, a Mennonite Christian. And she came and asked if she might sing her testimony.

And we say, that's fine, yes, you can do that. She wanted to sing with her accompaniment in front of this huge crowd. And she stood there and sang so sweetly. Oh, to be like thee, blessed Redeemer. Oh, to be like thee, pure as thou art.

And people, as she was singing, the Spirit of God came in the whole congregation. And everybody began to weep. I said to my wife afterwards, honey, what did you feel or sense when that girl was singing?

She said, it's the closest to heaven I ever expect to get till I get there. And all was felt the same thing. The presence of God just swept the whole place, you know. While she was singing, oh, to be like thee, blessed Redeemer.

Is that the cry of your heart, to be like Him? Is that what I want to be? I remember meetings one time and, you know, people start saying nice things about your sermons. And I said, hey God, listen, I don't want them to remember me.

I want them to remember you. And I prayed for a whole afternoon, dear God, would you let them see Jesus instead of me? After the meeting that night, Ralph Lew's wife was there. Not Ralph Lew, Lew Soteri's wife, Henrietta, was there.

And she and a friend came up and they said, brother Bill, we don't know how to say this. But when you were speaking tonight, we never saw you. We saw the Lord Jesus standing there. You know what I did?

I just said, hallelujah. Wasn't that wonderful? I'll tell you. I don't know what they saw. But thank God they never saw me. Oh, to be like thee, blessed Redeemer. Is that the cry of your heart? Or do you want to be some kind of an outstanding Christian worker?

Forget it. Forget it. The Bible says the lame take to pray. Not the well and the strong. But the lame take to pray. The little person, the humble person. And God is looking for people that will be that kind of person.

Goforth, here's what Goforth said. He's a famous Canadian missionary to China. He spoke about the dethronement of the idol of self-sufficiency. And it was when he did this, when he dethroned the idol of self-sufficiency in himself, that's when the power of God came on him.

He saw revivals in China all over the country. For the many years he served there, great turnings of Chinese people. You know, Chinese people, before those days of revival, you'd never ever see them cry.

It was a matter of pride. They wouldn't cry about anything. He saw whole congregations sit in there weeping their hearts out in those times of revival. But you see, it didn't happen until he dethroned self and enthroned Christ on his heart.

And then the blessing came. I'd like to say this. There is such a thing as a personal Pentecost. Listening to what I said tonight, you'll understand it doesn't always, by any means, come in the same way.

Although, underneath this, there is something that's common to them all. And that is a giving up of self. And a willingness to let Christ truly sit on the throne of the heart. And I know this partly through my ministry and partly through my own experience.

We can keep on saying no to God, but you can't do it forever. You may wind up, as many Christians do, cantankerous, critical, cold, conniving. Instead of being like John the Baptist, it says, he was a burning and a shining light.

He was shining because he was burning inside with love for God. And we can be like that if we're willing to dethrone the idol of self-sufficiency. Or whatever it is that God is talking to you about. Maybe it's your men.

It may be your attitude to your wife. Ladies, it may be your attitude to your husband. Or to your children. Or to your neighbor. Or something God is asking you to do that you're not willing to do. Until you are willing to do what God is asking you to do now, don't bother praying to be filled with the Spirit.

It just will not happen. Many years ago, the first revival I ever saw was at Pioneer Camp on Lake of the Woods. I was directing a camp there of teenage kids. But on the way down, I went down on a train.

And they called it the water something, a tiny little train. Just one coach on it, or one cab, or whatever you want to call it. And there was maybe 30 people there. Before we got to the end, the Lord said to me, I'd like you to give up some tracks.

And you know what? I didn't want to. I went, oh man, this is too close. I'm not sure about this. The Lord just kept gently saying, please. And finally I got up and gave up tracks. And nothing happened.

But we had revival in that camp. Have you ever been in a teenage Bible camp where the kids can't eat their meal and sit there with their heads on the dinner plates? They can't even eat. They're so under the conviction of God, you know.

That's the first time I saw revival. I saw what God could do. And God said to me, if you hadn't obeyed me on the train, you wouldn't see what happened here. Now, that's a principle we're thinking about here.

Obedience, Faith, and God's Strength

How much more should your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him? But then in Acts 5 it says, He gives the Holy Spirit to them that obey Him. It's not just asking, it's obeying. And He may ask you to do a difficult thing.

It's not difficult. You see, the will of God is good, acceptable, and perfect. If it's good, it's not bad. If it's acceptable, it's something you can do. He will never ask you to do something you can't do.

When God called me to preach, I really thought it was a joke. I was lying on my bed in a logging camp where I was working. And I said, hey God, you know what I'm like. You know, I can't even talk to people without running out of words.

I can't be a preacher. And I argued with God all night, you know, in that camp. And all He ever did was give me one verse. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And I couldn't get away from it.

And finally before the sun came up in the morning, I said, Okay God, I'll do it. And if anybody asks me anywhere to preach, I'll do it. I knew, of course, nobody would do that. And two weeks later, somebody asked me to preach, you know.

Ooh, that was hard. But I didn't turn back. I did it. Because I had that verse in my mind so strongly. I can do all things. Don't ever say you can't do it. You can say this, I won't do it. That's what we're normally saying, I won't do it.

But what is God saying to you right now? Is there something He's brought to your attention that needs to be dealt with? You want to be filled with the Spirit, forget about the way it happens. And just please remember, it will not happen in any way.

Unless I'm willing to do what God is asking me to do. The Bible says, listen carefully, in James 4, Submit yourself there to God, and what then? Resist the devil, and he'll flee from you. I don't think I told this story here.

Maybe I did. Forgive me, but maybe some hadn't heard it. Dave White in New Brunswick. He was an alcoholic, and he became a Christian. And for eight months after he became a Christian, he was drunk at least once a week.

And he just gave up, and he didn't know what to do anymore. He just couldn't beat the thing, you know. Well, I was holding meetings in Woodstock, and he was in the meetings. And one night, I preached from this text.

Submit yourself there to God, resist the devil, and he'll flee from you. He said to his pastor, I want you to take me in to St. John's tomorrow, and you'll be coming home alone. Likely. Here was the problem.

He had broken some law. They were searching. He'd been, he'd evaded the law for 21 years. He'd been hiding in little towns in New Brunswick. And God told him that night, Now, if you want to resist the devil, you're going to have to submit to me.

And you've got to go back to the police and surrender yourself. And he did. That's why he told the pastor, you'll be coming home alone. When they walked into the police headquarters, the chief police was away, and the assistant was there.

And when he walked in, he said, Dave Smith, where have you been hiding? We've been looking for you for 21 years. And he told him what had happened. Well, why did you come? And he told them. And then the deputy chief began to cry because he said, you know, three years ago, a Baptist preacher led me to Christ.

And I fell off in the ditch off the King's Highway. You guys coming today. I'm back in the King's Highway. Thank you for coming. And he said, Smith, listen, you don't have to go to jail. We're going to wipe the records clean.

Just live for God. You know what happened? He had no, no desire, absolutely no desire from drink from that day when he gave himself up. So, you see, it's the same thing. Submit yourself to God and then resist the devil.

He'll run. But he won't run unless you submit to God, because you don't have the power to resist the devil. You get that from God. When you submit to God, do you understand? Does that make any sense? It should.

I mean, it's from the Word of God. Mark 11, 24. What things so ever you desire when you pray, believe. It really runs like this from the Greek. Believe that you have received them and you shall have them.

And we should pray, certainly pray the prayer of faith when we're asking God to fill us with the Holy Spirit. But I say, if these other things are not rightly taken care of, nothing's going to happen.

I know from my own experience for people, because sometimes, you know, God will ask you to do something. You don't want to do it. And what happens? The power of God isn't there anymore. Nothing happens.

I remember, I didn't hear a voice, but as clear as a bell, God said to me one time, I can't bless disobedience. I can't bless disobedience. Just as clear as a bell. And I had to go and do the thing I didn't really want to do.

And when I did, the power returned. Submit yourself, if God is asking you to do something, whatever it is. Maybe make restitution to somebody you wronged long ago. Or pay some bills you've been avoiding.

Whatever it happens to be. Say yes to God tonight. And then ask Him to fill you with the Spirit. Then believe Him. Remember, we have to dethrone the idol of self-sufficiency, or whatever kind of idol it is, so Christ can sit on the throne.

Christ on the Throne of the Heart

I was holding meetings in New Brunswick one time, and a missionary was in the area. Somebody told me he was a wonderful missionary, so I gave him a night. And I'm glad I did. And he told us how, where he came from in Africa.

If a chief has a throne, it'll likely be, not big, a thing like this, maybe a log. But if you ever see a log with a scarlet-colored cloth on it, that means a king sits there. So he had a little thing made like a throne, with a little scarlet cloth on it.

And he had a little wooden man. And this man represents you and me. And so this little man, he's walking around, looking at the throne, and he says, You know, I'd like to sit on that throne. So he climbs on the throne.

But after he's been on the throne a while, things aren't going well. And so he gets off the throne, and he kneels in front of the throne. Then things go very well. But after a while, he decides to get back on the throne again.

He does it again. And again, things go badly. So he gets off the throne, asks God's forgiveness, and kneels down in front of the throne of Christ. He got that far, and a lady in the congregation jumped to her feet, crying, and she said, Hey, that's me, that's me, that's what I've been doing all my life.

She just kind of forgot herself, you know. So, but many of us are like that. We're doing that. A personal Pentecost. How much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit? If you then, being evil, know how to give good goods to your children, how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?

If you're a Christian believer, of course you have the Spirit reciting within you. But He can't fill you if you're filled with self. Let me lose my life and find it, Lord, in Thee. May all self be slain, my friends, see only Thee.

Though it cost me grief and pain, I shall find my life again. If I lose my life, I'll find it, Lord, in Thee. That's a song we sing in revival circles many times. So, let me lose my life and find it, Lord, in Thee.

Invitation to Self-Examination and Surrender

Has God spoken to your heart? Is there something? Maybe you should come and kneel at the altar here if you've got something you need to deal with tonight. We'd invite you. Let's just stand, shall we? I'd like to pray.

Father in Heaven, just bless your people, bless your children, and bless those who may respond tonight, we pray in Christ's name. O people, the altar is open. Please come if God has spoken to your heart.

And pray the prayer, Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts. See if there be any wicked way in me. And then confess whatever God may show you. If there's no room here at the front, kneel at one of the pews.