Forsake Natural Understanding and Follow God's Way — Hans R. Waldvogel

Praise as Essential to Spiritual Life

The reason praise is so blessed is because it's indispensable. You can't get along without it. If you do, your loss will be an eternal loss. And the reason people don't understand it is because the natural man cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God.

The Natural Man and the Need for New Life

And when you live in the flesh, I mean in the natural, the natural, I know that the natural man has 1 ,000 billion brain cells, but they're all sick. I mean, they're dead, the Bible says. You've got to be quick and then made a new creature.

A Woman's Persistent Prayer for Salvation

I was so happy the other day to hear a saint testify whom I was permitted to lead to the Lord, or at least she got saved in one of our meetings. She was a woman, German woman, who was mad with God and man.

She had been treated so badly that she didn't care about anything. She was just mad. And when we put up our tent in her vicinity, she came just out of curiosity. And so she sat down and listened to the testimonies impressed her more than anything else.

And after listening to the testimonies of people who were saved, she said, Well, there must be something to it. I'm going to try it. So she came to the altar one night and she said, Jesus, if this is really real, if you are real, you must come to me.

And he did, of course. He came into her heart and she stayed a long time. I like lengthy altar services. I like altar services where you make God know that you mean business. And I tell you, God means business.

He tells us that men ought always to pray and not to faint, and that includes women, too. They shouldn't give up. God will certainly come. Everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth. And if you don't find right away, then keep knocking and the door will open.

The Transforming Power of Salvation

Well, she did. And when she went home that night, she was so changed. She took herself by the ear. She went to the mirror. Magic mirror on the wall. Who is this woman after all? Why, she said, in her broke mind, that ain't me.

Who is that woman? She's smiling. She hadn't smiled in 20 years, and now she's smiling. She was bright. Well, last night, or last time I saw her, she testified with a glowing voice. This happened about 30 years ago.

She said, you know, Jesus made a new creature out of me. She couldn't understand it, but she couldn't understand how it was possible that God could come into her poor life and take an old heart like that and renew her and give her a right spirit.

And she was praising the Lord. And so God Almighty will come to people that open their hearts to Him. And the natural man cannot perceive the things of the Spirit of God. And I have to laugh sometimes at the things God does.

He does strange things. Because people come in here, not so much in here, but Seneca Avenue, so impressed with their dignity, so deeply impressed with their imagined education. The Bible says, knowledge puffs up, but love edifies.

But the Bible says that the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God and none of the princes of this world understood but unto us. God hath revealed them by His Spirit. And tonight coming through the park, I like to walk through the park because it gives me a chance to talk to God and to praise the Lord.

And when I see these wonderful trees that the Lord set on fire again, how beautiful is fall. Of course, I like summer. But fall is nice too, when the weather is nice and the sun shines. And I was praising the Lord.

I was saying, Jesus, I praise you. I praise you. And then I stopped. And then I said, well, Jesus, do you care if I praise you? Does it mean anything if I praise you? And then He sweetly showed me why it mattered to Him that I praised Him.

Why it gives Him a chance. That my heart gives Him a chance to praise God in me and through me. It gives Jesus Christ a chance to fill this body of mine with light and with glory and with the power of His resurrection.

Praise as a Spiritual Operation

That's what praise does. It's a spiritual operation. It's God doing something that the natural man can't do or doesn't want to do. Wherever you go today, you're bothered with cigarette smoke. I like to go into the park and sit at the bench sometimes and breathe this fresh air.

And sure, some fogey comes along and pests the air and poisons it with cigarette smoke. I wish they'd lock them all up. Why, it's a disgrace. It's a shame to do that. Of course, I know some men can't help it.

They're addicted to it. And Jesus will deliver them. And then the next worst thing is these transistor radios. Just to make a noise. They don't play anything decent just to make a noise. Well, they've discovered something.

They discovered a mystery. They just turn an knob and some noise comes through. And the noisier it is, the better they like it. And they bother everybody on the bus and everybody on the street with that thing.

But I made a discovery. I tell you, I made a discovery when I lift my heart in thanksgiving to God, Jesus Christ. Since He broadcast from heaven glory and grace. And that's what praise does for me. That's why He says, Whosoever offereth praise turns on this radio.

That you can read between the lines. This is the way God says. There's the open door into the sanctuary, into the presence of Almighty God. And oh, now I'm beginning to see and to understand the mystery of praise.

These fellows that make noise with their transistor radio, they don't know what it is. They don't know the mystery. They just know how to make noise. Well, anybody can do that. But it's a good thing to discover this wonderful receiving set, which is your heart, which was created by God for that very purpose, that Jesus Christ might use those lips of yours to praise the Father by.

These lips that have been talking naughty things. No wonder you're naughty. No wonder your stomach aches. No wonder your kidneys are sick. But when you praise God and Jesus Christ gets hold of you, there's contact with heaven.

God's Presence in the Praises of His People

God inhabits the praises of who? Of you. Haven't you found that out? Did you praise Him tonight? Oh, when you praise God in the Holy Ghost, there's the current moving on the line. You can feel that current moving on the line.

And you can sense that wonderful unction increasingly coming down. Do you know why? Because God purchased you with a great price. He bought your body to be that receiving instrument to show forth the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

And when I was unsaved or didn't know the Lord, I was full of darkness. These dark, depressive thoughts. And criticizing, and fault-finding, and hating, and unforgiving. All these things lodged within me.

And yet I looked very decent and very religious. But inside was darkness. But I tell you, since Jesus came in. And He came in when I praised Him. When I raised my hands and opened my mouth and began praising the Lord.

And since that time, my whole body has been full of light. The light of His presence. Oh, if I could tell you what praise does. Maybe I could wake up somebody in this meeting to really do it. When we had our meetings in Wuppertal, we put up our tent.

Praise, Salvation, and the Holy Ghost

And a group of preachers came from one of the greatest revivalists in Germany. They were adopted by Him and they were ordained by Him to be His ministers. And they came to our tent, night after night.

And they had all kinds of questions. They said, what is it when we come into this tent? We feel God, we feel heavenly. And when we step out of it, then we're dark again. And they said, one of them confessed.

He says, you know, we're just a bunch of hypocrites. We're preachers. But we live in the flesh. And when we get to meeting, when we get to the door, then we take that old face off. And then he smiled.

Fool the people. He confessed that. But he said, what is it? When I get out of this tent, darkness comes upon me. Then I told him, if they would just come and get saved and get right with God and praise the Lord.

Why, the reason we praise God is because Jesus is here and He manifests His presence. And He baptizes us anew every night in the Holy Ghost and power. And praise opens all the doors and all the windows of your being.

Praise the Lord. And so one of them said, well, tonight, he said to himself, when they all lift their hands, I'm going to raise my hands. I'm going to see what will happen. So he did. And a wonderful thing happened.

He put up his hands and the glory of God came down. You know that today is a very wonderful preacher in the power of the Holy Ghost. Really. He really got saved and he really got filled with the Holy Ghost.

Going God's Way Instead of Fighting the Enemy

But he had to go God's way. In Germany, where we minister, most people don't know anything about those things because the preachers, oh, I don't know what's the matter with them. And they go around casting out devils.

And they're full of it themselves, some of them. I know them personally. You don't get rid of the devil that way. You get rid of the devil by letting Jesus Christ come in and possess you. Hallelujah. You open the door and let him come in.

Praise God. Why, the enemy's got to go. That's the way, God says. That's the way. And if you find another way, you're just fooling yourself. We had friends in Switzerland when I was a little boy. There was a family and they had three or four sons.

Fine gentlemen. They were strong men. They're really strong men. But all these men were afraid of cats. Especially black cats. And once a year when they have election, they don't go to polls and sign a slip like we do.

But every man has a weapon. My father had a sword. And every man has to come with a weapon, either a tomahawk or a sword or a gun. And these boys had swords. And so when they have their election, then they put up the sword for yes.

So I guess they had a little bit more than election. They must have had a little bit Swiss beer. I don't know. Anyway, one of them came home at dusk. And he came into his room and he threw his stovepipe hat on the bed.

And then he had a little nap. And then when he came again into that bedroom to go to bed, he was a black cat. His hair stood on end. He said, Swiss, get on, you cat. The cat wouldn't move. He commanded him three or four times, get down.

He wouldn't. So he took his sword and he threw it. And there it was, his stovepipe hat. And that's what happens to these preachers that cast out devils. They cast out nobody. You got to go God's way, praise God.

Praise as the Path to Victory

And if you go God's way, you'll first of all begin to give him the glory. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. And when you begin to praise God, forgetting yourself, forgetting your past, forget the things that are behind.

Say Jesus Christ. Hallelujah. And praise him. I tell you, the enemy is defeated. What marvelous victories God gives today to people when they praise the Lord. Sister Schultz knows the missionary in China who was taken with black smallpox.

All the other missionaries went and were vaccinated. I suppose that was the thing for them to do. According to your faith, be it unto you. But this woman said, I've had Jesus for my physician all my life.

I'm not going to stoop to that thing. And now those black things came out all over her body. The fever was raging through her veins. But she wouldn't give in. The other missionary said, serve your rank.

She wouldn't give in. She walked up and down and praised the Lord with a loud voice. And when the others ran away so they wouldn't catch it, she said, oh God, please send somebody to help me praise the Lord.

Strange, wasn't that strange? But somebody came along and helped her. And I don't know how long they praised the Lord, but it wasn't very long when her sickness was gone. Blown away. Praise victory. I told that story in California.

And after a meeting, a woman came to me. She said, I was the missionary that helped her praise the Lord. So here was proof. But we have many such experiences. And the best thing is this, that you ought to get your experience.

And when you get an experience, you'll find out that God himself inhabits the praises of his people. And nothing else. There's no substitute for the praises of God's people because the Holy Ghost answers to your praise.

He comes. And after a while it is Christ within. He says, in the midst of the church will I sing praises unto thee. And if there's anything sweeter than a meeting like this, where all join in heavenly harmony, praising the Lord.