Gone With the Wind — Harold Vaughan

The Wind of God Gives Life

Now the book of Genesis we read how that God breathed the breath of life into Adam and he became a living soul. It was the wind of God. It was the breath of God that brought life to Adam. The prophet Ezekiel says these words prophesy under the wind son of man.

Listen to this. Thus saith the Lord God come ye four winds and all breath and breathe upon these slain that they might live. Ezekiel implored the wind of God to come and to blow upon that valley of dry bones.

Those lifeless corpus corpses and when the wind came in blue they rose up an exceeding mighty army. Jesus said the wind bloweth where it listed and you're the sound thereof. But you can't tell what's coming from and you can't tell where it's going.

So is everyone that is born of the Spirit. Things are going to happen when the wind of God blows that would never happen under normal conditions. And I want you to look in the book of Acts real quick here this afternoon chapter 2 in verse 1 very familiar Portion of Scripture here.

Acts chapter 2 in verse 1. Oh man, what a. What a passage. Acts chapter 2 in verse 1 notice what it says right here. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come they were all with one accord in one place.

Verse 2. Read it out loud and suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled the house. Where they were sitting now look at that right there suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and Filled the house where they were sitting now the roaring breath of God the wind of God blew here at Pentecost as we well Know now the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts is represented by two elements Wind and fire and it was the sound of a rushing mighty wind that signified the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost.

It was the breath of God. It was the very breath of God that in inaugurated the dawn of a new era at Pentecost. It was the wind of the Spirit that took the element of fire and blew the blew the gospel to the ends of the earth.

The Promise of the Holy Spirit

Jesus said in John chapter 15, I will pray the father and he will give you yet another Comforter that he may abide with you forever. Now notice what Jesus said. I'm gonna give you another one just like me.

I'm gonna give you my spirit. I'm gonna give you another comforter and notice it says I will abide with you forever. Now in Acts 1 Jesus told the disciples To wait in the upper room for the promise of the father.

They were to wait for this promise. Jesus didn't tell them to witness. He didn't tell him to preach. He didn't tell him to plant churches. He told him to wait for the promise of the Spirit. Now these men in that upper room these men and women.

They had a date with destiny. They were there to wait and anticipate the coming of the Holy Spirit. William Graham Scroggie the old the great expositor said that the sin of the Old Testament was the rejection of God the Father.

He said the sin of the New Testament was the rejection of God the Son. But the sin of the church age is the rejection of God the Holy Spirit. All Christians have been to Calvary for pardon, but how few have ever been to Pentecost for power?

It says here in verse 2 suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind. I want to give you five things this afternoon that are blown away when the wind of God blows five things that are Demolished and blown away when the Holy Spirit comes in power.

So the message this afternoon is gone with the wind number one gone with the wind when the Holy Spirit comes in power gone with the wind is a cowardice in witnessing a Cowardice in witnessing. Now look in chapter 3 or chapter 2 verse 3.

Bold Witness Through the Filling of the Spirit

There appeared unto them clothed and tongues as a fire and it set upon each of them and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance and they were dwelling at Jerusalem.

Jews devout men out of every nation under heaven and when this was noised abroad the multitude came together and they were Confounded because that every man heard them speak in his own language. Now here they are filled with the Holy Ghost that began to speak in these languages whereby everybody could hear and understand in their own Tongue.

Now in Acts chapter 4 and welcome to you Baptists on Baptist standard time. Come on in the house boys. Come on in the house. Hey stand up if you got an open seat. Stand up if you got an open seat. All right, y 'all come on in.

All right, the rest of the latecomers stand in the back. All right, y 'all come on in and have a seat right here. All right, if you do that right there. Now in Acts chapter 4. Acts chapter 4 listen that listen to their prayer.

Verse 29. Grant unto thy servants that they may speak thy word with boldness. They were praying for boldness in Acts 4 31 and when they had prayed the place was shaken where they were assembled together.

They were all filled with the Holy Ghost and they spake the Word of God with boldness. Do you understand that one evidence of the filling of the Holy Spirit is a compulsion to win other people to Christ?

Now before Pentecost Peter Denied the Lord he denied him three times. But after Pentecost he was willing to rebuke thousands and bro boldly proclaim that Jesus is Lord. Now in Acts chapter 2 Peter preached that mighty message.

Prior to this he was intimidated by a slave girl. You know The Bible tells us when he was confronted you're one of his followers and he cursed and he swore and he denied the Lord. But after the wind of God blew he bellowed out at Pentecost this same Jesus whom you have crucified.

Hath he made both Lord and Christ and I'm telling he was unashamed of Jesus. He mightily declared the gospel and it said you said well, what happened to this guy? What happened? Did he go to a soul winning seminar?

That's one in verse 8 listen to this. But you shall receive dynamite power after that the Holy Ghost has come on to unto you and you shall be Witnesses unto me all over the place. It was the coming of the Spirit that made the difference.

Now in Pentecost Peter Peter preached one sermon had 3 ,000 saved today. We preach 3 ,000 sermons and we're fortunate to see one person saved now. What is the problem. The main problem is not a lack of training?

The main problem is not is not that we don't understand the facts of the gospel. The main problem is a lack of compulsion to speak up for Christ and the main problem is a lack of the fullness of The Spirit of God, that's the main problem.

But when the wind comes gone with the wind is a cowardice and witnessing point to gone with the wind is a coldness and worship a coldness and worship. I'll tell you I go into churches. Sometimes if I didn't go around and shake hands, I wouldn't get my hands shook.

If I didn't smile at somebody nobody would smile at me. WP Nicholson said he went in a church one time that was so cold. He said if you came in the back door with a quarter milk, it would turn to ice cream before you reach the pulpit.

It's pretty cold. Pretty cold. You know up in Canada the ground freezes so they the undertakers they can't dig in the frozen earth. So they have to find a place to store corpses. So in the old days they would rent the basements of Churches to store the dead bodies to wait for the spring thaw.

They were so cold in those basements. I'm pretty sure I preached in a number of those churches now in Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2 it says they continued steadfastly. That means they persevered earnestly.

Revival Worship and the Life of the Early Church

They continued diligently in the Apostles doctrine and in fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers. Notice the four pillars of the early church. It was not programmed. The four pillars of the early church were doctrine.

Ambiguity was over. They knew whom they had believed. They continued in fellowship and I'm not talking about talking about the Green Bay Packers and what's wrong with the current administration. And I'm telling you the fellowship in our churches is so shallow and I'm telling you brother We they had deep soul fellowship.

They were they were talking about the things of God and they were pouring out their hearts before the Lord and one another. They continued in Fellowship notice they continued in breaking a bread and they continued in prayers.

I'm telling you when the wind blew the days of impotent praying were over. The early church was a bright blaze with the presence of God and I believe that one of the greatest hindrances to effective evangelism are cold dead worship services.

You know when the countenances in the congregation look like a reprint of the book of lamentations. It's time to get a facelift. Amen. And It's unlikely anybody's going to get born again and I bound up stiff Atmosphere where the whole crowd looked like they're sitting on a curtain rod or something like that.

I was in a meeting one time. I Said a meeting one time and God got in it always good to be in town when God is amen. One lady got in the prayer meeting. We had 250 300 people praying. One lady said Oh God.

She said Lord. This is just as exciting as going to the amusement park. Another lady maybe on the way out of that morning. She said who needs drugs when you can have salvation. I'm telling you brother.

It was a place of excitement now if we want to duplicate Pentecostal power we need to enter into some Pentecostal praise as in the book of Acts. Now Peter preached his way into jail and the church prayed him out.

Paul and Silas preached their way into jail and they praised their way out. And I want to tell you when word got around town about that spiritual jailbreak. You can better believe the services were packed out and the early church had an atmosphere about it full of anticipation.

Nobody knew what was going to happen next and I want to tell you the cold Ritualistic services will remain a barrier to evangelistic growth. But gone with the wind will be cold worship services when the wind blows.

I'm here to tell you that Jesus is alive. And we need to live like it we need to witness like it we need to work like it and we need to worship like it. That's why tomorrow night when our hearts are all cleansed.

You're gonna hear some men with some unbridled praise going on in here. And I'm telling you this is what heaven's gonna be like only multiplied about a billion times with all those people up there. And I want to tell you brother.

You don't have to sing like you mean it because you can sing when you mean it when your heart is clear and you're full of the Spirit of God. Now in Acts chapter 2 verse 13, they didn't know what to make of them and they said they were mocking.

They said these men are full of new wine. They're drunk. The world didn't know what did what how to account for the Apostles because they weren't acting normal. They were under the influence of the Holy Spirit.

They accused them of being drunk. Now think about it G Campbell Morgan. Morgan said when was the last time somebody accused you of being drunk on your Christianity? Brother they were living under the influence now the earth atmosphere in the early church was indescribable.

There was praise in the midst of persecution. There was life in the air. They were electric with anticipation now. Let me give you just a few points right here. These are too good to pass over. They had godly fear godly fear.

Not cold dead certain godly fear. Listen to this fear came upon every soul. Because many wonders and signs were done by the Apostles and a nice and Sapphira got struck dead right there. I'll tell you what that that shake up the business meeting.

Amen. Some character fell out of the window and he died and the Paul went out raised him to life again. And I want to tell you that miracles possess a drawing power that reason can't explain. They had godly fear but listen to this.

Generous Fellowship and Evangelistic Growth

They had generous giving generous giving verse 45 and all the believed worked together and had all things common and they sold their possessions. And goods without a stewardship month say amen on that point right there.

Where do we come up with this stuff listen a little boy gonna get in trouble here. But they sold their possessions and goods and parted them to all men as every man had need. Listen where they had unspeakable joy.

I know some of you can't relate to this and they continued daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house did eat their meat with Gladness and singleness of heart and they had explosive evangelism.

Listen to verse 47 praising God having favor with all the people and the Lord added to the church Daily such as should be saved my friend when gone with the wind will be coldness in Worship services and when the spiritual temperature rises the iceberg melts.

When the wind blows brother you put up the snowsuit and you bring out the short sleeves. When the wind blows you get rid of the stocking cap and you bring out the sunglasses. I'm telling you you put off the sackcloth and put on the garment of praise.

Now in Acts chapter 3 there was a lame man healed. There I mean this guy got healed and the Bible says he leaping up. He didn't stand up brother. He jumped up. He left up and walked and entered into the temple.

Walking and leaping and praising God and all the people saw him walking and praising God and they were filled with wonder and amazement. You know what we need to see in our churches brother. We need to see some things happen on a spiritual level that are so miraculous that it fills our hearts with wonder and amazement.

I'm telling you in revival. You've got holy wonder in revival brother. You have holy amazement. I mean, there's just enlightenment. There's enlivenment. We're seeing things we never seen before and God's doing a mighty work.

Unity Beyond Secondary Disputes

Oh my friend gone with the wind will be coldness and worship but listen to this one number three when the wind of God blows gone with the wind will be a contention in their walk a Contention in their walk now conflict over non Essentials are gone with the wind.

Now, let me tell you something. There's not a there's not a thousand essentials. There's not even a hundred essentials. There's eight or ten things that brother. We're not going to negotiate on but I want to tell you not every preference is a biblical absolute.

Do you have an amen in the house on that? Contention in their walk acts chapter 1 says they were in one accord in one place and the whole crowd was together. The Bible says in Acts 2 they had singleness of heart acts 4 they were of one heart and one soul.

Vance Habner said when the tide is out every shrimp has its own puddle. Most towns in America the Baptist they got their own puddle. We're not kingdom minded. No, no, no. No, no, we're national minded.

We're we're click minded. We're institutional minded. We're group minded, but brother we better get kingdom minded. I Want to tell you division and contention or hindrance hindrances to an evangelistic church?

You can't fish and fight at the same time. Any fisherman knows that commotions go to scare all the fish away? And when there's contention among the brethren, I'm gonna tell you it's a killer. There was a Boston newspaper that carried the article about a christening party and a in a home where the family invited their friends and relatives to come and to celebrate the christening of their newborn.

Their newborn child their newborn son. The party was going along. Everybody was eating and fellowshipping and having a great time when somebody said to the mother, by the way Where's the baby. And when she heard that?

She jumped to her feet ran into the master bedroom and begin to dig down through the coats and the wraps of the guest. And there she found her newborn son dead. Smothered by the coats of the guest. He was the main attraction.

He's why they all came but he was he was smothered by the coats of the guest and here we are in the 21st century smothered by the garments of unnecessary conflict. Now in the upper room, they got rid of the religious clutter.

They got down to the irreducible minimum. Jesus Christ was the chief cornerstone. They were so obsessed with the resurrected Christ that in the presence of Jesus. They couldn't squabble over secondary issues.

Now the Bible addresses this. Listen to this when the wind blows we get beyond doubtful Disputations. Romans chapter 14 that's arguments over non-essentials. When the wind of God blows we get beyond foolish and unlearned questions.

I'll which gender strife when the wind blows we shun profane and vain babblings. Which increased a more ungodliness when the wind of God blows? We don't give heed to Jewish fables or the commandments of men.

Now listen when the wind blows the commandments of men. Carnal arguments doubtful Disputations profane and vain babblings. Fables and the tradition of men are all blown out of the window when the wind of God blows.

Overcoming Jealousy, Revenge, and Division

Now, let me give you some particulars. Contention in the walk. What are you talking about? I'm talking about petty jealousies. Petty jealousies. Prior to Pentecost, you know, the disciples were posturing for position.

No, James John and James said to Jesus Hey grant us that one might sit on the right hand and another on the left hand. But when the Holy Spirit came and put it into this fleshly posturing and I want to tell you they weren't fighting about who got to preach at Pentecost.

Peter just stood up there and preached the gospel and they all rejoiced. Andrew Bonner said the Christ in me will not fight with the Christ in you. The Christ in me will not fight with the Christ in you.

And I want to tell you if you're fighting with the brethren all the time it ain't Jesus fight with him. It's somebody else in there doing the fighting. You know when revival is in the air, you're not gonna be fighting with your family members.

It's our father. It's give us forgive us. It's deliver us. You know in a revival atmosphere. Everybody's so thrilled to be a part of the family of God that nobody has the inclination to find fault with their brothers and sisters in Christ and.

These contentious jams over personal preferences are non-existent when the wind blows. Listen friend when a church is knee-deep in love it covers a multitude of Transgressions and just because you don't agree with somebody on every point.

Can't you appreciate the good points if they've got any say amen right there? I'm not talking about ecumenical compromise. That's not what I'm talking about. But the kingdom is bigger than your group and I don't care what group you're in.

And if you get out of the country you'll find out brother the kingdoms a whole lot bigger than you ever thought it was. Now listen when personal preferences instead of biblical principles become the acid test for fellowship.

You can be pretty certain that the wind is gone now in the book of Acts. They had to deal with issues, but they pared it all down. It was pretty simple. They told them to avoid fornication and things offered to idols and I want to tell you my friend Petty jealousies will go.

Number two a contention in the walk when the wind of God blows the desire for revenge will be gone. The desire for revenge. A Quaker one time was milking his cow and cow took his old filthy dirty tail and swiped the Quaker right in the face.

He had to pour the milk out. He tried it again and the cow took took his foot and stepped right in the middle of the milk bucket. He had to pour that out. He's trying to doing it again and about that time the cow kicked him out of the barn.

Into a heap of unclean blessings out in a barnyard. Quaker picked himself up cleaned himself off came back in and he said to the cow. He said thou knowest that I am a Quaker and I cannot be angry with thee or hit thee.

But I can sell thee to a Baptist and he'll beat the devil out of you. Gone with the wind is the desire for revenge. You know after Pentecost you don't find Peter chopping anybody else's ear off. And I want to tell you when the Spirit of God comes in power.

You're not going to find Christians cutting off each other's heads over over things that really don't matter. Let me give you a third thing gone with the wind contention in the walk or carnal divisions.

Carnal divisions. Now I was up in Maine at a church one time. You know back in those days. I was bold and I said he pastor want me to come. I said alright if you want me to come here's what I want you to do.

I want a prayer meeting every day for 30 days. The men every day the women every day the young people every day praying for 30 days and they did everything else. I said, okay, we'll come well. No wonder God showed up in a place like that the second week into the meeting the two years prior.

They had a church split and the people that has split out went down the road. About five miles four or five miles and started another church. Now on Tuesday night, I think it was Tuesday night of the following week or Wednesday in the second week.

They decided they needed to send a delegation from the home church to the split church. To ask them for forgiveness for the sorry attitudes. They had had toward them after they had left and We sent a delegation out of our meeting to go to their meeting and they got their consciences cleared and got that Situation taken care of.

Now listen when you're consumed with Jesus, you're not worried about what's wrong with the other man. Gone with the wind number four listen to this unbiblical extremes. Yeah, you heard it right unbiblical extremes.

Avoiding Unbiblical Extremes and Prejudice

We're living in days where we even got snobs or slobs. We're living in days when if you're not a fad just a Pharisee you tend to be a Sadducee. We have those who will spiritualize compromise and then we have those that will compromise spirituality.

But when Jesus is the center of attention, you're not going to get hung up over Non-essentials because love covers a multitude of transgressions. French Francis Schaeffer said that you can be doctrinally pure in the flesh.

You can be doctrinally pure in the flesh or you can have compassion in the flesh. But you can only do both in the power of the Holy Spirit. It's a balance here now truth out of balance is falsehood and every truth in the Word of God has a balancing truth, but when we magnify one truth above all other truth.

It becomes an untruth and I want to tell you the narrow way. It's just not narrow enough for some people. So they want to pare it on down more than what it already is and for other people the narrow way is too big.

So they want too narrow. So they want to stretch the gate man to get everybody in and I'm here to tell you there's a difference between mother Teresa and the Apostle Paul. Am I getting the flesh on this point right here?

But anyhow that there's a tension in the scripture to keep us from extremes now. Jesus was full of grace and He wasn't full of grace and he wasn't full of truth. He was full of grace and truth and brother when we're full of grace and we're full of truth.

I want to tell you something these these contention in the walk is gone with the wind. Let me give you this one right here ungodly prejudices. Yeah, ungodly prejudices. Carnal well, you know, you know when the love of God filled Peter's heart.

He got over his carnal superiority. He got over his self-righteousness. He got over his fear of touching the unclean Gentiles when he had that vision of that. Unclean animals come down, you know, and he went off to be the Apostle to the to the Gentiles now.

Listen, if you've got a chip on your shoulder. It'll get blown off when the wind of God blows. I'm telling you there's no place for prejudice in the house of God. You know what? We need brother. We need a vision of the sea of human need that's around us.

We never have our hearts opened up to see. I want to tell you the problem is not political preferences. The problem is not race. The problem is we get all out of sorts with God and each other when the wind of God ceases to blow.

We're living in america where the christian people are all mad at sinners because they're being true to their nature. Why don't we get mad at ourselves for not being true to our new nature in christ? By the way, no extra charge.

No extra charge right here. When jesus came on the scene, what was israel looking for. A political messiah. They were looking for a change of political leadership. They were looking to overthrow rome.

They wanted jesus to set up the throne. He only said two things about politics, by the way, pay your taxes and tell that old fox harrod where to get off. That's all he ever said about it. He didn't seem to have a lot to say about it.

And you know something when the spirit of god came at pentecost. You don't find one political moral majority rally anywhere in the word of god. You just don't find it. And i'm not trying to be hateful here because i'm as concerned as everybody else.

But I want to tell you friend our problem our problem cannot be solved maybe at all. But the kingdom of god is doing just fine and i'm telling you they can't pass a law that's going to shut us up. They can't tell us not what to not what to do.

The early church went on under fierce persecution and god blessed them in an incredible way. Let's get our eyes off capitol hill and back on a hill called calvary. All right. Let me give you another thing going with the wind as a carnality of words a carnality of words.

Now brother these unnecessary comments. I want to think tell you that things happen in revival. When revived people they become so extremely conscious of the presence of god. They become extremely sensitive about their speech.

And you know when you're in the white heat of god's presence you don't go spouting off at the mouth like I do so often. You know, they said in the canadian revival Esther satura told me that sometimes.

That the presence of god was so thick that nobody could speak a word. Not even the preachers and the moderators on the platform. And I want to tell you when the wind of god blows brother. A carnality of words listen these contention sins grieve away the spirit of god in the first place.

And when the wind of god blows they're gone. Let me give you this one gone with the wind not only a contention in the wall. But gone with the wind is a complacency in the work. A complacency in the work.

Can you make that a little brighter? All right, uh, uh the complacency with god's work was gone. We're all right. A complacency in the work. You make any sunglasses. Now listen to this no, we're good paul warned every one day and night with tears.

They were going from house to house preaching jesus christ, you know. They tell me that a door-to-door doesn't work anymore. You ever heard that you ever said that? Tell that to that church in california that visits 400 000 doors a year and gone from 19 to 5000.

Tell them that and see What they say if they'll believe. Now listen. Stephen was ordained a deacon, but you never find him doing the work of the deacon. You find him doing the work of an evangelist. He was a red hot soul winner.

Now brethren are our lives marked by complacency or by commitment? Let me ask you something. What are you contributing to the work of god in your your your neighborhood in your church and in your sphere of influence?

I had a guy call me from california and and somebody told him about me. I didn't know this guy from adam and he said I want to come and visit you. I said well i'm coming to california. We'll just have lunch.

Well come to find out this guy, uh was a Uh missionary for for years down in um down in uh, central america. I never heard of this guy and he works with all these tribal people these indian people, you know these uh, In that area and he told me he preached to a hundred over a hundred thousand christian leaders in in five years.

He said I want you to go down and talk about revival. I said, I don't know the language. I don't know the culture. I don't know anything about it. I got nothing to say. No, no, we want you to go. I said well you play pay for the plane ticket me and my wife will come so we went.

He picked us up the airport and he had led the camp driver to christ before they got to the airport. We did a we did a six hour run from from guatemala city to another city. And I listened as he witnessed in spanish to the camp driver and got him praying going down the highway receiving christ as his savior.

We got to the hotel and uh. And and and the staff all came around. Because he's won over half of the staff in the holiday crown plaza holiday in crown plaza. Won over half of the staff to christ and they all come around.

It's kind of like a he was a father in the faith. And he told me his testimony. He was a missionary. He had lost his wealth. He'd lost his health. He'd lost his way. He told me he got backslidden for 10 years.

He told me he got addicted to internet pornography. But you know what he got revived and I want to tell you something friend. Failure was not final with the god of the impossible and you might be on the bottom of the stack right now.

But brother i'm telling you god can raise you up and put you back in circulation. And complacency will be replaced with commitment. When an individual relinquishes control of his life my friend gone with the wind.

A Revival of Expectant Prayer

But let me give you this one gone with the wind is a casualness. In in prayer a casualness in their wants a casualness in prayer. Now if you study the book of acts, you'll find 10 corporate prayer meetings.

You'll find 38 references, uh to prayer at least in the book of acts 53 references to the holy spirit. And wherever you find the holy spirit you find people praying. And I want to tell you that upper room encounter so changed those present that they never were the same again.

And I want to tell you man that upper room prayer meeting i'd love to been there. I know they were taking the witness stand against their own hearts. Let there be light. I'm telling you. I I know they were doing that.

This was not a tame affair like a typical wednesday night where we give our request instead of praying our request. And got 95 physical needs and zero spiritual needs. I'd like to see i'd like to see a prayer request for the glory of god on a prayer bulletin one time.

I'd like to see that. But anyhow, uh brother i'm telling you they met the lord and after that upper room encounter. You find them praying on the rooftop on the seashore in the jail in the prison in the homes.

You find them praying everywhere. You find them praying about everything and you find them praying all the time. One pastor asked this particular pastor who had two to three thousand people coming out every week for midweek prayer meeting.

And this one pastor said how do you get thousands of people to come and pray? And the other pastor said when your people believe that god answers prayer, it's no problem to get them to come. We are baptized in unbelief.

We have wrote our dispensations are clear to put god out of business in some cases my friend. Now all of that's good in moderation. But I want to tell you something when we get to the point where we're not expecting anything and we're not believing anything.

We might meet day and night, but i'm telling you brother if god isn't in the midst. What difference does it make nothing's going to happen and I don't know about you. But i'm sick of the program and I like to see the glory of god come back into the house of god.

That's what i'd like to say. And I want to tell you we can't control all that that might be the problem right there now. Listen, listen, what what happens what happens? Well, one of the great marks that god is about to do the work.