The Glory of the Impossible — Devern Fromke

I want to assure you that it's a real joy to be back and to say once again that these years, I can't believe it's ten years, I don't think that's right. But anyway, we'll let that go for now. We've not been on the East Coast much the last few years.

I was thinking as we flew in this afternoon, well, why haven't you been back for a number of years? We would start in Norfolk and work all the way up to Jamaica. It's been years since we've been here.

And I guess the answer has been, after we moved to Indianapolis, I was traveling most of the time and folk would ask me, well, what's happening in Indiana? And I always said, not very much. Seems like it's the hardest place I've ever gone.

And in the midst of it, one day the Lord said, maybe you'd like to stay home and let something happen there. And I said, Lord, it's impossible here. I'd rather go other places. And I really went through a battle for two or three years, enjoying traveling other places.

And finally I came to grips with the fact God was saying, I moved to Indianapolis. I want you to stay there and let the Lord work. And I can say tonight God has wonderfully moved in our area. Even Billy Graham has tried to have a couple meetings in Indianapolis, and they were difficult.

So you see how difficult it really was. But we have seen the Lord raise up a number of fellowships throughout the central area. And once a month about 50 of the elders come together. I'm no longer identified with the fellowship that we started, but we sort of move around.

They call me pal, pastor at large. And it's not easy. I sometimes rather stay with the group we were with than you only have one group problems. And now I've got 12. But I bring greetings from my wife.

She was planning to come until noon yesterday. We weren't sure. We thought maybe we'd drive through. We had a dear friend visit us from New Zealand, and the place we had been three years ago in the south part.

And she flew in from Singapore and was spending the days with us. We didn't know how long she was going to stay. And of course, you know, you don't get up and leave company usually. So my wife had to stay home.

But she's with you tonight, with us here. And what I want to share with you is just a word that God's been developing in my own heart having to do with the impossible. If the Lord's been speaking any one thing to my heart, it's the fact that He seems to delight to take His people into very difficult circumstances in order that He can demonstrate through it the glory of the impossible.

God Leads His People Into the Wilderness

I was invited by Jamie Buckingham about three years ago to go with him to Sinai. He had taken a troop of men about ten the year before, and we've been working with Jamie occasionally. And he wanted me to go on the next.

And so I started studying about Sinai and Israel's sojourn all the way through the wilderness. And the more I got into it, I came up with one question. Lord, why would a loving God take His people out of Egypt into the most desperate place, the howling wilderness, sand and rocks, and demonstrate that He loves them in the midst of all of that?

Now, maybe you've never thought along that line. I've only seen pictures of it. I have to say that after I really looked it over and prayed about it, the Lord said, Don't go. And I was glad. First of all, it cost $2 ,500, which I didn't think I ought to waste.

And then I began to realize that there wasn't much to see. It was mostly going to develop some character in some men who had learned to live together. And so I took the easy way out and didn't go. But in the process of it, I began to make some study into God's taking His people out of Egypt and His desire to bring them into the place, into the land that He had for them.

And the question came up, Lord, why would You take a people into such a difficult situation? And He seemed to say to me, If you can understand this, why I did it to them, you'll understand why I take my people through difficult things now.

Maybe I'm in the wrong place tonight. Nobody here has problems or difficulties or wilderness or situation. I don't know. But I'm convinced that there is something that God's been trying to say to my own heart for a number of years.

And I just share this with you for a little bit tonight, trusting that Lord will enlarge a little bit to our hearts. If you will, would you turn and let's read in 1 Corinthians. Here's a portion that justifies our using this as an example.

Over in 1 Corinthians 10. 1 Corinthians 10, verse 1. Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and did all eat the same spiritual meat, and did all drink the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them.

And that rock was Christ. But with many of them God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our examples to the intent, we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted.

If you'll jump over to verse 11 now. Now all these things happened unto them, for examples, and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.

There hath no testing or temptation taken you, but such as is common to man, but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted or tested above that ye are able, but will with the testing also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

I see two things that come into this. One is some may need admonition tonight, lest there become carelessness or a little bit of casualness. Others may need the word where God says that he is faithful, the Lord is faithful to take his people through.

I want us to bow for a moment before we go any further, and ask that God will have a personal word to our own heart. I said this before and I need to say it again. One of the most difficult places for me to come and minister is where Brother Kong has shared with the rich ministry.

And for days as I've been praying, it seems as though all I can hear is, what could you ever say to those people? But I have to reject that and believe that God has a word to our hearts. But you'll have to claim it too.

Do you understand what I mean? You've forgotten my habit, haven't you? When I put my hand like this, I mean it's your turn to respond. Ten years, forgotten. Well, let's pray, shall we? All right. Father, we're not here just for Bible reading tonight, but we're here for you to sort out a personal word to our hearts.

And Lord, I refuse any intimidation and claim that somehow the Spirit of the Lord will bring that anointing that makes things very real and very personal to our hearts. So we thank thee. We know that you're faithful.

God is faithful. We stand on that tonight. You're able to meet our needs and to sort out a special word to each heart. We believe you're able to bring admonition to someone who maybe just has been drifting or has been a little casual.

Lord, you speak to the heart tonight according to their need, and we'll be sure to give thee the praise, the honor, the glory. For we ask it in Jesus' lovely name. Amen. Amen. One thing that I was impressed with as I began to get into this study was the fact that in God's working, bringing a people out of Egypt and bringing them over to the land of Canaan that He had promised to them, these years that they had been in Egypt, in servitude and bondage 400 years, had really played its toll.

But you know that the time came when God, through Moses, led them across the Red Sea, and they were out approximately two years, and they came to a place called Kadesh Barnea. It was a very crucial place because there they sent spies over into the land to see if it really was what God had promised.

And you know how they came back, and the hearts of the people melted with fear. Now, what I'm interested in is this. Here they were for two years, during which time God gave them a place to worship. Someone has said, and I think the Scripture verifies, that they went through ten murmurings during those first two years.

But would you believe that God was very patient, almost as though He didn't hold it against them, the murmurings they went through. But once they came to the place called Kadesh Barnea, and the choice was made, they from that time on began a wandering.

In fact, we come to our first real distinction that I want you to consider tonight. Up to this time they had been pilgrims, but now they become wanderers. What's the difference between a pilgrim and a wanderer?

Could it be that we look at a people back there and say, my, too bad they missed it? Thirty-eight years wandering around in the wilderness as wanderers. If I understand the pilgrim quality that was in them, as Moses led them out, there was first of all a sense of the purpose that God had to work out, and there was something of a sense of destiny.

They enjoyed during this whole period of time much of God's provision, but there came a point when they just became wanderers. Then God began to speak to my own heart. Vern, you know a lot about the Bible.

How do you know you aren't a wanderer? How can I be sure that you haven't lost the sense, the keen sense, the awareness, the destiny, the thing that God really laid hold of you for? Well, that began to bring me to this distinction.

Pilgrims, Wanderers, Goals, and Destinations

I believe there's a difference between a goal and a destination. A destination has primarily to do with a place, and I think we'd all agree that Israel was interested in getting where? Into Canaan, land that had been promised to them.

It was a wonderful place that had been promised, and they were place conscious. But a goal, at least as we're going to use it tonight, has to do more with a purpose. By that I mean, I think it is possible for people to reach a destination and miss a goal.

What do you mean by a goal? Well, a verse we know real well over in Romans says,. For we know that all things work together for good to those who love the Lord, to those who are the called according to his purpose.

Now, this shocks people. I just want to shock you right off the bat. I don't believe that heaven is our goal. I heard a lady one day in a meeting, dear elderly sister, get up and say, I just have one goal in life, and that's to make heaven my home.

And the sad thing about it is everybody sort of amened as though that was wonderful. Except that in my own heart there was a growl, and I said, Oh, dear Lord, she's really coming short. Heaven is not our goal.

Heaven is just a destination. Somebody says, Are you going to take heaven away from me too? No. No. No. Cheer up now. Jesus said, I go to prepare a place for you. I go to prepare a place. I'm not taking heaven away.

But what's the goal that God really wants to work out? Well, the very next verse says, For whom he did foreknow, and it goes on in that verse, we often stop short. But you see, the thing, as we so well know that God's working out, is to bring us to the conformity of his lovely son, the Lord Jesus.

And the goal has to do with something that God gets. If he can conform me to the likeness and image of the Lord Jesus, then it brings glory to him. And he says, as he said of his first son, This is my beloved son.

I'd like many more just like him. But the place has to do with what we get. Oh Lord, won't it be wonderful when we get to heaven? Yes, it will be. But it very quickly reveals, you see, the center, the real throb of our heart.

Oh God, what are you getting out of it? What will satisfy your heart? Or what am I going to get out of it? You say, Brother Vern, you haven't changed your theme, no. It's every chapter in the Bible. What does God get?

What do I get? The goal then has to do primarily with what God is getting. And I believe that pilgrims have a quality about them that says, Oh Lord, just so your heart is made glad, just so you're getting something out of my life, and then I'll be satisfied, you see.

Amen? Well, I didn't think that was new to you folk. So a destination's all right. But thank God we have something more. And I believe that Israel primarily centered in just getting into the land. Just getting into the land.

Bitter Waters and Educative Conflicts

Well, let's go back and read a little of it over in Exodus, if you will, please. Let's pick it up in Exodus 15. Verse 21, we start, I guess. Do you sing this one? Verse 21, And Miriam answered them, Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously.

The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. Here we are now. They've come out of Egypt. Moses has led them across the Red Sea. And they just get across the Red Sea. Verse 22, So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur, and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water.

Well, here they are. Three days out. Just across. And they come to a no water situation. How many have ever had a no water situation? That means no job, no money, no friends, nobody understands. A real no water situation.

The first tendency for folk when they get into that kind of a situation is to say, I must be backslidden. I must have missed God's will. I must not be where He wants me. And if you don't think that, there's someone who will come along and whisper in your ear.

Because he's always accusing. Saying, you've really blown it. No job. Nobody understands. No water. I think you know what a no water situation is. How many of you would agree that Israel hasn't really had time to backslide yet?

I mean, just three days out. It only takes an hour, I know, but anyway. Three days out and a no water situation. Well, I think what God is saying to us at this point is that the God who loves and the God who's prepared something for His people is going to bring us into conflicts.

Conflicts come because God is primarily concerned in developing character and bringing us into the place where we will learn to trust to get to know Him, that is. And people need to make the distinction then between conflicts and consequences.

Consequences. A consequence comes because of disobeying a law or violating a principle. We'll get into that. A consequence comes because I am reaping for something I've done. But here is Israel, three days out, and I believe it's not a consequence but a conflict.

I have to be honest. I thought I'd really arrived at something when I made that little discovery between conflicts. And then I read at the bottom of my school field Bible the very same thing. And I thought, Lord, how did I miss that?

I've used this for over 30 years. This is the same Bible. I mean, not the same one, but the same, you know. Let me read what he says. These bitter waters were in the very path of the Lord's leading and stand for the trials of God's people which are educatory and not punitive.

God isn't punishing them. He's brought them out into the schoolroom to train them. It's a conflict. The conflict that comes, education. And I began to look back and realize how many times I had joined sides with the enemy or with people in thinking that what I was going through was something the enemy had brought or was a consequence.

And here God, in His wonderful mercy and His wonderful preparation, was bringing me right into the conflict to educate, to teach a conflict. You know, it's interesting. When you look into the Scripture, suddenly you begin to realize how many situations that we misinterpreted were really conflicts.

Let me give you one. Read over in 1 Samuel, where there was a lovely handmaid by the name of Hannah. Hannah was the favorite wife of Elkanah, her husband. She did have an adversary by the name of Peninnah, the other wife, who was very fruitful in giving many sons to Elkanah.

And then one little phrase says about Hannah, that Hannah was barren. And the last phrase says, but the Lord had shut up her womb. Barren, but the Lord had shut up her womb. Now, I believe that if Hannah had been like the other wife, fruitful, she could have gone on on a certain plane for quite a while.

But God has something very distinctive to work out through Hannah. And he comes in and she is one of seven women in the Bible who are barren. Very interesting, but God uses that barrenness as a way, somehow, to move in and get something of His purpose.

You see, the history of the time was that Israel is in decline. And God, knowing it, is secretly working on a man that is going to be born as the means by which He is going to bring back Israel's glory and some restoration.

And so He comes down, the little handmaid, and brings a conflict into her life, into Hannah's life, and closes up her womb. And do you know what Hannah does out of her crying and bitterness? She finally gets around the place where Hannah says, Lord, Lord, if you'd just give me a son, I'd give him to you.

And I think all the angels say, Hallelujah! It's what we've been after. God was wanting someone who was not turned in and concerned for a son for herself, but a son for God. And this is the way Samuel comes on the scene.

So I say that the barrenness, the barrenness of Hannah was a conflict. Agreed? Brought about by who? By God. God, you mean you set up conflicts in our lives? Yeah, I'd delight to, He says. And there's something real about it.

Let me give you another illustration. Here is King David. We'll get into that a little later, maybe Sunday. David has finally succeeded in bringing the ark into Jerusalem. And that day as the parade goes down Main Street, Jerusalem, the priests are carrying the ark.

David is so excited, he's so elated before the Lord that he throws off his outward garments, his kingly garments, and he dances before the Lord. They say that sometimes they would have a buffoon or a clown doing it, but this day it was the king.

And do you know peeking out the palace window, who was looking on? It were all the rest of Israel enjoying the procession as it went down Main Street, Jerusalem. But Michael, David's wife, wasn't with the crowd, wasn't a part of the great jubilation.

And that night when David gets home, he's had a wonderful day, just excited before the Lord. Only married men would understand this, I guess. He gets home after a wonderful day and walks in. First words his wife says is, My, the king was all glorious today, dancing in front of all Israel without his kingly robes.

What a mocking accusation. I just have to stop and tell you that I didn't understand that for years because I didn't realize that there were two sides to our ministering to the Lord. There's the side in which we stand as kings and put on the royal robes and we represent Him.

The key word is for. We are representing God. We are something for Him. And I really love that. And then one day I saw the other side that God uses to balance out our life where we become as a little child.

And we lay aside all the royal robes and we become unto Him as a servant. And I said, Lord, I feel called to the floor. Give me the robes. I'd like to represent you and sometime later become unto you.

And God said, I'm going to so balance your life that they'll not only be the representing for me, but they'll be the ministering unto me. And that brought a great liberation in my life. Some of you would never believe it, but I was able to dance like David even.

Shock, isn't it? Well, praise the Lord. It's just one of those things, but God works the balance. Well, anyway, that day when Michael met David as he came in, she made an awful accusation. You know what the next line says?

And Michael was barren from that day forward. I want to ask you a question. Hannah's barrenness was a conflict. Michael's barrenness was a what? Consequence. I believe that. Somebody said, Brother Vern, I don't know whether I've got conflicts or consequences.

I don't know which it is. You want the good news? You can get the same lesson out of both. I mean, you don't really have to know right now. You can just say, Lord, consequence or conflict, you get out of it the education for me that I need.

Are you there? People get so stalled. I don't know whether it's conflict or consequence. Well, don't worry. Get the lesson. Get the lesson. God is quick. If there's a barrenness, it could be sin. It could be violating a principle, breaking a law.

It could be. It could be a conflict. And God is saying, I'm trying to squeeze you into a new level where I can get some real fruitfulness of your life. After I found this, I was visiting with a pastor.

Very godly man. Been much used to the Lord in his area. In fact, been really a soul winner. And he came so puzzled. He sat down. He said, Brother Vern, I don't know what's happened, but the last two or three years, it seems like my life has just become barren instead of being able to win souls.

I'm just in a drought period. And I probed a little bit, asking if the Spirit of God was dealing and speaking anything special. Finally, I just looked and I said, Do you know the difference between a conflict and a consequence?

And I explained it. I said, I believe this is a conflict. And if God left you on this level, you'd just continue on. But God's trying to crowd you into a new place where you can get a new fruitfulness out of your life.

Maybe the Lord has shut up your womb, like Hannah. Otherwise, we would just go on in the course of things. Well, we're after something here. Notice in chapters 15 now, it says, there was no water. Verse 23, And when they came to Merah, they could not drink of the waters of Merah, for they were bitter.

Therefore the name of it was called Merah. And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? This is one of those first murmurings. Here they are, just a couple, three days out. I've wondered many times why they did call a group together and have a prayer meeting and say, Lord, we're just excited.

We've seen how you got us out of Egypt, how you got us across the Red Sea. We're beginning to learn your ways. We're just wondering now what you're going to do. We can hardly wait. That's what we do, isn't it?

Lord, a new opportunity, another classroom, another opportunity to learn of you. Ten murmurings. Ten murmurings. And it could have been ten opportunities to get to knowing. See, my burden is just simply this tonight.

God's Glory in Impossible Circumstances

The God who brought this people out there into this terrible howling waste sand and blowing wind, just nothing but a place to help them learn to know Him. It seems to me God says, I delight to reveal my glory in the impossible things.

That's dangerous because you have to be sure that you're not in a consequence, but this is a conflict that God's taking you through. But in the midst of the impossible, you begin to say, Lord, no water.

Here's this conflict. Here it is. My heart's open. Begin to ask how your glory can be really demonstrated in the midst of the impossible. I guess I began to really face that in Indiana when the Lord said, just stay home for a while.

Don't run all over the country. There are people here who need the Lord. But Lord, this is impossible. This has been a burned over area. I could give you all the ten reasons why it was impossible. Furthermore, we had a group of older brothers there in the fellowship who had been brakes.

You know what a brake is? It's something that says, no, it won't work. We've tried it. It won't work. And I was the steering wheel, always trying to give them vision, and all I had was brakes. And I began to cry out, Lord, there are other places that are ready.

They've got a motor out there. There are some young people who are ready to go. They need a steering wheel. No brakes in that place. And it was in the midst of it that God began to speak to my heart and said, I want you to dare to believe that I can do something, even in Indianapolis and central Indiana.

And I know the Lord put it in my heart. And I began to claim that You give me twelve young couples. Old people are impossible. Anyway, I won't say that. But they're difficult. Lord, give me twelve young couples that they're moldable and they're enthusiastic.

Let them be the motors. And I began to claim it and then forgot about it. And He asked me to stay home for one year and not travel a bit. And in 18 months, I suddenly realized I'd had six weddings among those young people and He'd brought some others in.

And it utterly changed the whole character and the whole outlook. Now, you understand, we older brothers were really the stable part of it. But I saw what God could do through young people who were alive and reckless for the Lord.

And it began to be the change of a whole new thing. And I came to realize that God was asking just one thing. And that is that we began to accept that the impossible was the way He always delighted to reveal His glory.

How many of you know an impossible thing tonight? Really something difficult, something impossible around you. God's saying, I'm in it. I'm there. I may not have maneuvered it, but I'll sure use you in it.

I can work some glory out of this until everybody will have to say, it surely wasn't Frankie, it was me. That's the way of the Lord, the glory of the impossible. How could God take a people out and going to bring them to the land, into this awful school room where they were for two years?

You remember their question was, can God furnish a table in the wilderness? I don't know how many people there were. Some folks say two million. A friend of mine says that the Hebrew is a confusion there.

It's probably a couple hundred thousand. But I can accept the fact it's still a miracle feeding 200 ,000 people in that howling waste. And the first was giving them water and then giving them manna and God says, this is all written for your encouragement as an example.

Cheer up, I got a wilderness for you and you and you. The glory of the impossible being revealed. Well, I read a little further and I saw they were saying, what shall we drink? Verse 25 says, and he cried unto the Lord and the Lord showed him a tree which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet.

Now, I believe that God hides a principle here and it is this. He is saying, I want you to know at the very outset that all through your journey, all along the way is going to be one governing principle.

And if you don't learn this, everything will be bitter. But if you learn this, you can turn everything into sweetness. How many would like to know that principle? You've heard it. It's a tree cut off from its source, a tree that was put in.

It is the principle of the cross. God is saying, all along your pathway unto fruitfulness and reaching the goal, the instrument I'm going to use is to somehow always bring you up into my viewpoint so you can see what I'm doing in it.

And as you look at this situation and the cross is working to cut you loose from your plans and your own getting and gaining, you'll see in it how I can turn everything into sweetness. Everything into sweetness.

Then I read the rest of that footnote. There it was all the time. Strange, isn't it? The tree is the cross which became sweet to Christ as the expression of the Father's will. When our merits are so taken, we cast the tree into the waters, and guess what?

They become sweet. I don't believe there's one thing we can go through. But we begin to look at it and say, Lord, what are you doing? What's this? What is this? And he says, it's a means by which I'm going to work out some character and strength and some conformity in your life.

But more than that, cause you to be poured out wine, a blessing to somebody else. Say, Lord, I've been praying that you'd use me. A little differently, but I've been praying. Are you there? You mean that this is the first principle that we learn?

Bitter water becomes sweet? I'm going to take your head because we need to learn this. In chapter 17, well, let's go over and read it, shall we? Chapter 17, verse 1,. And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of sin after their journeys according to the commandment of the Lord, and pitched and referred them, and guess what?

There was no water for the people to drink. Another no water situation. And can't you just see a Moses saying, no problem, folks? Principle A. Anytime there's no water, you just cut off a tree. This works.

Except that God, God, this time has a way that's higher than our way. And he says to Moses, well, we'll read it, shall we? Verse 2,. Wherefore the people did chide with Moses and said, Give us water that we may drink.

And Moses said unto them, Why chide you with me? Wherefore do you tempt the Lord? And the people thirsted there for water, and the people murmured against Moses and said, Wherefore is this, that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?

And Moses cried unto the Lord, saying, What shall I do unto this people? They be almost ready to stone me. And so he's crying to the Lord, and the Lord says what? Moses, remember that rod of authority that you used that parted the Red Sea?

I want you to go up and strike the rock, and water will come out. And incidentally says, Moses, this is principle B. Principle A, you use a tree. Principle B, you use the authority of the rod. Would you like to know something?

They came to another no water situation. Quite a while later, this time Moses inquired, says, Lord, what will we do? And you know what Moses did? He listened, but he didn't hear. You know the story. He listened, but he didn't hear.

Hearing God's Voice Rather Than Relying on Principles

God was saying this time, Moses, it's principle C. Principle A, you put a tree in. Principle B, you what? Take the rod of authority. Principle C, Moses, this time, I want you to speak to the rock. And the Hebrew word is different.

The first time where he struck the rock, it's a picture of Christ crucified. But the Hebrew in this is a picture of a lifted up rock, which is Christ risen and ascended. And we speak to him. Well, you know the story.

Moses listened, but he didn't hear. And he went out, and he took the rod, and he used principle B. If it had been me, I'd have struck the people, I think. After all these years of wandering with them, God wanted him to speak to the rock.

But he struck the rock. Now I'm after something. You know what God began to show me in this? I guess those who teach maybe get to be guilty of it or victims of it more often. But it's so easy for us to get a hold of a principle of truth and to say, Lord, now I know what to do.

Principle A, principle B, principle C, do you know why God keeps taking us on? His ways are above our ways. Do you know what the secret of it all is? One little phrase we need to read back here in verse 15.

Verse 26, And he said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and thou wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear. And suddenly I knew what the Lord was saying.

Because my proneness has been always to have a principle for every situation. And God said, You've missed it all. I'm just trying to teach you that today you'll learn to hear my voice again. Suddenly I realized why he said, Today if you will hear his voice.

I made that generally. But I think he means today. Today if you will hear his voice. Anybody guilty besides me is saying, No water, praise the Lord. I just cut a tree off. Worked last time. Only trouble is it doesn't work then.

So you say, well principle B worked, let me try that. And you are somehow depending on what? Depending on principles. I never dreamt I'd say that. And God is trying to bring us to the place where we're dependent on who?

On him. But you see, if I am knowledge centered, then I am not him centered. And it's the most difficult thing. Somebody says, Well, what's the point in learning principles? I'm afraid I lost you now.

Are you trying hard? Lord, make it a revelation of the heart. There's nothing wrong with wisdom. God is trying to develop in us a sensitivity to hearing. He may go back and say, Use A over or B or C. But he wants the right to have our ear continually.

And that's problem number one in most of God's people who are well taught. Praise the Lord. I got a verse. Know what to do. Got a principle. And God is always taking us on. You don't remember this, but I remember when I was in the first grade and I learned to add.

Two and two is four. I came home and I said, Mother, I know how to add. I felt I'd arrived. And do you know what that sneaky teacher did in about a couple of weeks? She introduced subtraction. And I said, I'm not going to learn.