Desperate Prayer — Leonard Ravenhill

Christ’s Soul Offered for Sin

Those wounds yet visible above in beauty glorified, I thought of an old professor in the University of Edinburgh. He taught Hebrew to the seminary students, and he always took the Bible as his textbook.

And one morning he read to them the 53rd chapter in Isaiah. This man was a Scotsman, but they nicknamed him Rabbi Duncan because he had such a profound knowledge of Hebrew. And he read this 53rd chapter of Isaiah one morning, read it in Hebrew, read it in English, and when he got to the place where, as you remember, it says he was wounded for our transgressions, and he was bruised for our iniquities.

And then he stopped and he said, listen to this, it pleased the Lord to bruise him. We make a great deal about the sufferings of Jesus, the physical sufferings, the bleeding wounds, and yet it wasn't his body that was offered, it was his soul that was made an offering for sin, the word said.

And they said, the tears coursed down his face and he said, and his soul was made an offering for sin. Gentlemen, it was damnation, and he took it joyfully. The students were discussing this profound teaching, and one of them said what I say about every man I meet, I'd like to hear him pray.

So at night they went up to his bedroom, his dorm, they looked through the keyhole, and they'd watched him going to the bedroom. He was kneeling there in his nightshirt, he'd just had a candle at the side of the bed, and he read his scripture quietly.

And then he put his hands together, the teller said, he's going to pray, he's going to pray. Well let me look through the keyhole, wait a minute, here I was. And they all wanted to just squint and run, and squint and run you know.

And this man with such profound knowledge, not only of Hebrew, but of God, put his hands together and said, gentle Jesus meek and mild, look upon a little child. Pity my simplicity, suffer me to come to thee.

And I'm increasingly conscious that with greatness there's simplicity. With the deepest knowledge of God, there's an awful conscience of ignorance. I want to share some thoughts with you tonight on the, almost the greatest exercise we can have as Christians.

Prayer, Praise, and Worship

As I've repeatedly said this week, that prayer is preoccupation with our needs, and praise is preoccupation with our blessings, and worship is preoccupation with God himself. And I think that praise should precede petition, and I'm sure that worship should precede petition.

Men are always putting a label on the age in which we live. You know it's a scientific age, it's this age, it's that, the other, and I'm quite sure it's an age of rush, and push, and crush. And there are very few people that want to wait upon the Lord and renew their strength.

Wait upon the Lord, and again I say, wait upon the Lord. The classic prayer, to me, the classic prayer of the intercessor in the Old Testament, is made by woman. The church is always described in the New Testament as a woman, because she brings to birth.

There are three phases in a child's birth. One is conception, the other is gestation, and the third is birth. You can't change the order, it's not possible. The same is true in revival. There's a sense in which you can't accelerate it, and you can't delay it.

I was thinking as we sat here tonight, well let me say this, I'm glad I got in here when the tidal wave came. You missed the meeting last night, you missed the tidal wave. The glory of the Lord filled the temple, by the same token.

The Lord Who Suddenly Comes to His Temple

If people knew tonight that God was going to fulfil his promise, and suddenly descend in majesty, not for a rapture, but to visit us with revival, the house would be crowded. As I said, I hang on to a word.

In Malachi it says, the Lord whom ye seek. I thought many other things for years. I thought miracles, and saw them. I thought clouds and got them. I thought friendship with famous people and had some.

And there wasn't much in anything of it. But the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple. And remember those shepherds that night, didn't expect that the prophecy that had been said hundreds of years ago would be fulfilled that night.

They were looking after their stupid sheep. And the scripture says, suddenly there was a sound of a heavenly host. And those men in the upper room that had been waiting there for ten days, suddenly had an invasion.

It says that suddenly there was a sound of a rushing mighty wind. And Malachi says, the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple. And one day God is going to, just as you pull a switch, he's going to descend.

I mentioned this morning, there was a revival. It began just as a clock, Dr. Eleven o 'clock on the 13th of August 1727. It began with a group of people being quarrelsome and arguing about doctrines. And somebody got them together and said, let's forget our differences and unite here fundamentally on the word of God, on the things we agree on.

On the virgin birth, on the redemptive work of Jesus by himself without any help, on the physical resurrection, and on the work of the Holy Spirit. And just as the clock dropped to eleven, as though it was going to strike eleven, suddenly God descended on a bunch of people.

One of the most unique things in history happened there at Hernhut. That prayer meeting lasted without a break for one hundred years. Never stopped. The longest prayer meeting I can find recorded in history.

Little boys and girls prayed in the Spirit. If you went into the sanctuary at two o 'clock, you might find thirty people there. You went at two in the afternoon, you might find seven or eight little girls there, weeping, praying for revival.

They'd been born in that atmosphere. They learned the vocabulary. Somehow God invaded those tremendous little personalities. That was the greatest move, revival move, the greatest missionary move, through the Moravians.

John Wesley was really converted to a Moravian. Peter Bollock. The Moravians through Zinzendorf gave us some of our greatest hymns. You see, you take on the likeness of the atmosphere in which you're born.

If you're born in a flimsy revival, most likely you'll be a flimsy Christian for a long while till you get your feet. If you're born in a fire, you'll never be satisfied to live in the smoke. If all you have is water baptism, you can swim the rest of your life, but there's another baptism too.

A baptism of fire. And there's another baptism which less people have. Jesus says there's a baptism. Are you able to take the baptism that I'm baptized with? The thing that the Apostle Paul knew, and yet he still desired that he may know more of it.

The fellowship of his suffering. I remember Mr. Chadwick said he'd often been in prayer meetings with priesthood when they would almost scream, oh that I may know thee, and the power of thy resurrection.

But there's where they stop. Would you like to know resurrection life? It's easy. I hear people saying, Lord fill me, and I think they should knock the F off and put a K on it. And if you let him kill you, then he'd raise you up in resurrection life.

But you see, the only way to get resurrection life is to die first. And Mr. Chadwick said, well if you're willing to die, you'll get resurrection life. God won't hold it back. And then from there, it isn't just joy bells necessarily.

You know, we'll have all eternity. You won't be able to weep in eternity. You'll weep at the judgment seat most likely. Revelation says there are no tears in heaven. It also says God shall wipe away all tears.

When's he going to wipe them away? No tears in heaven. Just at the judgment seat. Our last regret. Our last miserable looking back at all the places we missed. All the burdens we wouldn't carry. All the spiritual pregnancies we wouldn't have.

All the loans we wouldn't lift. All the disobediences. All crowding on us. The pastor prayed tonight so beautifully there. Sure, it'd be wonderful. I tell my crowd, my wonderful church, nearly 25 of us.

And I say to them, I don't get too much inspiration looking at you. You're not that bright, and not many of you. But I keep looking at the end of the journey when we sit down again with Abraham and with Isaac, in that great marvelous banquet.

That's going to be really something. A way there in eternity. And there's just one horrible experience before you get your seat at the banquet, and that is that we all have to go to the judgment seat.

That's about the only thing keeps me sane. It's almost terrifying. But by the same token, the word of God says, and how beautiful it is, shall not the judge of all the earth do right? Nobody will get a false deal or a wrong deal in that day.

Well, it's been good to be with you. I don't know whether you say that, and I don't care whether you do or not. I told you what the Lord told me. As I told you, I didn't have to come here. I'd much rather have gone to New Zealand, because my boy's there.

And there'd be about 3 ,000 people a night, but I just couldn't go. Couldn't get free to go. My wife would have liked to have gone, blessed her darling heart, but she wouldn't go without me. Sure, she's a wonderful woman.

Look what I've done for her for 30 years. But I'm glad for the privilege of sharing some thoughts with you, and I don't ask you to believe all I said anyhow. I asked you to obey the life he gave you. That's all.

Whatsoever he said, unto you do it. All right, the first book of Samuel. We'd better start, shall we? First book of Samuel, the first chapter. I say this is the classic prayer of an intercessor. The intercessor is even beyond the person who prays.

Hannah’s Desperate Prayer and the Birth of a Prophet

The intercessor is beyond the prayer warrior. The intercessor is the one who himself will take the load. God said more than once that he marveled that there was no intercessor. Do you think that God has kind of wound the clock up of the ages, you know, and set the alarm, and said it's going to go off in say 1978, or whatever happens?

Oh, I know he knows all things in his foreknowledge, but I'm asking you, do you think he's wound up the clock of the ages, and set the alarm it's going to stop at a certain time? Does judgment come by reason of time, or by reason of temperature?

When judgment fell on Solomon, two things happened. Abraham ceased to pray. As I said, it may be yesterday, that not only was it true that the corruption of Sodom was so great, but the salt had lost its savour.

There were not ten righteous, and if there had been ten righteous, judgment would have been postponed. While ever Abraham made representation with God, he represented man before God, and while ever finally Abraham, yes, and while ever love was in Sodom, God could do nothing.

Read the story, that's what he says, hurry up and get out. And then at that moment judgment fell. In this chapter we have all the necessary, I almost said ingredients, that sounds a bit too like Betty Crocker, it's not a mixture, too many, all the necessary, what do we call them, attitudes, dispositions, and the true intercessor are found in this chapter.

When Norman Grubb wrote his book, Rees-Howe's Intercessor, and if you haven't read it, you've missed one of the greatest books of this generation. I said to him after, I said, Norman, you are very daring to say that Rees-Howe's is an intercessor.

You don't find one intercessor amongst a hundred thousand Christians. But Lenny said he was an intercessor, that's exactly what he did, that's exactly what he did. As I told you the other day, the last time I preached at that school, Bible School of Wales, I walked up some stairs when Mrs. Howe's asked me to, and she showed me a door and said, my husband went in that door at six o 'clock in the morning, and he stayed there till six o 'clock at night, every day for eleven months.

Twelve hours a day along with God. That's why afterwards he had authority. As I said this morning, Elijah didn't say there'd be no rain according to God's word, he said there'd be no rain according to my word.

He knew the mind of God, I'll shut up heaven, I'll open heaven. Now here is this wonderful woman, Hannah. Let's skip over this quickly here, look in this chapter. This man went up out to the city yearly to worship, notice that.

He went to Shiloh and so forth and so on. All right, verse five, to Hannah he gave a worthy portion for he loved Hannah. But the Lord had shut up her womb and had the adversary provoked her so forth to make a threat, because the Lord had shut up her womb.

And as he did so, year by year. Now this wasn't some sudden thrill she had in a meeting. It wasn't some quick, unpremeditated prayer. She had been provoked. Just pin that down will you. There had been provocation.

It says in the middle of verse seven that she wept. It says in the middle of verse eight, why eatest thou not? So she was fasting. It says in the same verse that she would grieve. It says in verse 10 that she was in bitterness of soul.

It says in verse 10 again, not only did she weep, but she wept sore. It says at the end of verse 15, she poured out her soul in prayer. That always reminds me of Jesus. Obviously he walked into the garden of Gethsemane and then he knelt in prayer and then he prostrated himself in prayer.

She prayed, yes, but she wept in her prayer. And not only wept in her prayer, she wept until she ached. She was sore. And not only wept until she was sore, she prostrated herself in prayer. So here are the ingredients again that she was provoked.

She wept, she didn't eat, she was grieved. Verse 10, she was in bitterness of spirit. Verse 11, she vowed a vow. The same verse, she had an affliction. And in verse 12, she continued praying. And in verse 15, in the middle, she had a sorrowful spirit.

And at the end of that verse, she poured out her soul in prayer. And in verse 16, she had a complaint and a grief. Now I suggest that's quite a mixture. A complaint, a grief, a bitterness, a sorrow, weeping.

For what? For what? Because she was a barren woman. It was a reproach. I remember going down High Holborn in London some years ago. There's a little woman there, looked very much like Charlie Chaplin.

Her feet were out like this and she's a little old dresser and she just walked about at that speed and she put a letter in the mailbox. And a friend said to me, do you know who that is? I said, no. That's the widow of Hugh Price Hughes, one of the greatest preachers London ever had.

And in the autobiography of her father, his daughter says this, when my daddy came from the sanctuary on a Sunday night, that very big Methodist temple in London, it might be packed to the rafters, right to the very end of the High Gallery, and the people would hang on every word.

He was a master of preaching. He was eloquent, he was passionate. You'd think he was seeing visions, although he could sing to eternity when he preached. And at the end he would sing, let's sing a word of welcome, you know, I hear thy welcome voice that called me Lord to thee.

And he would ask people to come and they wouldn't come and he would put his hand up and say good night. And she said daddy would come home and take his coat off, I don't want any tea, I don't want anything.

And she said he would throw himself on his bed and weep and weep. Why don't they come? It was inconsolable. Not because he failed to catch fish, but somebody slammed the door in the face of the Son of God.

In other words, he said I've got to hell rather than repent. You think it's fun to preach? I go on many times, break my heart. Every meeting is a favor of life unto life or death unto death. Somebody will die in this meeting tonight.

You might go to a hundred meetings after this and Almighty God has an obligation to knock at the door of your heart. Who do you think he is? You notice what he says, behold I stand at the door of not?

Now that isn't really at the heart of man, it's at the door of the church. There are some churches tonight, God can't get in. But he's not going to knock at the door of the hearts of individuals, sure enough he does.

But he's not obligated to keep knocking, knocking, knocking. Now this woman is praying for what? You say she prayed for a child. No she didn't. Well what in the world did she pray for? A man child. And the Lord gave her a man child.

No he didn't. Well he didn't give her a girl. No he didn't. But he gave her a child. Yes he did. Well if she didn't get a man child and didn't get a little girl, what in the world did she get? She got a prophet.

God did more than she could either ask or think. And you see this little fellow was born of prayer, conceived in prayer. I see some of these young women going around pregnant and smoking. I feel a boy if you weren't pregnant I could almost hit you on the jaw.

Do you know why? Because that child in that womb was already in its conception also conceived in appetite for nicotine. Perhaps a friend of mine told me in England. A while back he said you know we had a problem here with a baby.

It was born and from the moment it was born it screamed and screamed and they did every jolly old thing they could do to Christ. Every old wise tale you know. Give it some cinder tea and poor thing they experimented on it more than a guinea pig.

The only thing it yelled. Morning, noon and night in cinder sweet. Yelling, yelling, yelling, yelling. And finally somebody said oh there's a new doctor in town. Now you bring him along he's got the answer.

And in our homes of course we have a fireplace and the young man was smoking as he came in and he took the last pull and he threw the cigarette in the fireplace and he just leaned over the crib and said well the baby quit.

Oh the mother said how wonderful. What did you do? Gave the baby what it wanted. Didn't give it anything. I did. I gave it a breath of smoke. Your baby wanted to smoke. Was born with an appetite for smoke.

He used to see gorgeous girls almost blind you with their beauty come into teen talent pregnant. The little baby already has a habit. It's born handicapped. It's got a drug habit. So scream and cry. The baby cries you can't console it.

Why? Because it was born in the atmosphere of drugs. Conceived in the atmosphere of drugs. By the same token this little fellow somehow mysteriously. You see he took on the nature of his mother. Now you women who are pregnant you better you ought to pray.

Now my mother did that while I was coming along. She sang. She was always singing. Not for sorrow don't think that. For joy that I was coming along. And she had a beautiful voice. Oh how she used to sing.

I used to love to hear my mother sing. The result was I loved to sing. For three years I traveled with a revival party and I never preached once. I just sang, sang, sang, sang. Loved to sing. What happened to this little fellow?

He became a man of prayer. No she did not get a child merely. Or a man child. But she got what? She got a prophet. That's why right now to me disagree if you like. I told you the pastor would disagree whether he was wrong.

But anyhow disagree if you like. But you see every period of barrenness brought forth a supernatural child. Again there came a day when Rachel wasn't happy to have the nicest clothes and the jewelry. One day she comes her hair's blowing in the wind and she says to Jacob give me children or I die.

I said to you and say to you again whether you're a pastor or not. The only reason you don't have revival in your church is you're willing to live without it. When it becomes a matter of life or death really in your life you won't care about anything on earth.

What did Rachel get? Did she get a child? No. Yes she got a child. Did she get a prophet? No. God didn't want another prophet. You see very often when we pray and God answers prayer we think that God's answering our prayer.

God was solving his own problem. He wasn't solving Hannah's problem. He needed a prophet up the road 20 years ahead. And do you remember when they put him out of office? When they put this marvelous man Samuel out of office?

He says all right put me out and there was no spirit in him not rebelled either. But he says God forbid that I should cease that I should sin in ceasing to pray for you. And if you ask people to write a catalog of sins I guess that prayerlessness would not be on the list.

You say thank God I've got victory over sin. I don't smoke. I've no bad temper. I don't have this. Did you sin today by prayerlessness? You find the case again of Samson. His mother was a barren woman.

There was a great need of a superman and she conceded and she brought forth Samson. Go right down through the scripture. The man we had the other night John Baptist. His mother was old, beaten up old woman.

You know we read the bible often don't we and just put it down. It doesn't thrill us too much. I get awfully thrilled about it. I think of Sarah going up to her husband Abraham. No he went to her first and he says I've got news for you.

Oh he said what's the news? Are we moving again? He said no dear we're not moving again. I've just got over that trip to murder of the Chaldeans. It nearly broke my heart. I've just got the garden set and a few other things.

Oh we're not moving. Praise the Lord we're not moving. Well now what news is it? Well he said darling you're going to have a baby. Have what? I'm going to have a baby. Oh sweetheart she said I forgot to send it.

I forgot to send your greeting card the other day. You were 100 years old. I'd forgotten about that. And I'm 80 and we're going to have it. Oh wait till I ride home and tell my mother about this. She's going to say something isn't she?

I told you in the first place not to marry a preacher. They're not sending help and he took you all that way to murder the Chaldeans and now you're going to have a baby. Marvelous. But he came along all right.

What an amazing time. You know talking of get well cards reminded me just how often as our dear pastor said tonight we substitute as I said this morning in the Christian life you watch this. Write it on a piece of paper maybe.

The good is the enemy of the best. Satan won't tempt you to get drunk. He'll tempt you to go to the smiths up the road and listen to two records and somebody's tape when you should be making intercession.

It's the good that's the enemy of the best in the Christian life. The books are all right. Mine particularly but anyhow good books are all right but they're no substitute for the word of God. Records are all right but they're no substitute for a song in your heart.

What ripes me about a lot of the modern singing is this. When I was a kid you know people used to have nights of prayer. They couldn't sustain a two hours prayer night but they can stay all night at a gospel sing and pray five books to go.

Yeah there's some wonderful songs that I've lost pace. I spit them out nearly. Do you know why? Because some folk that wrote them that were unknown a few years ago they'll take a trio to a church and ask for five thousand dollars for the weekend.

Forget it. I'm not interested. That's selling the blood of Christ as far as I'm concerned. Now I would go to a shop and get a birthday card for my wife. Sure I get a get well card for a friend but I wouldn't let anybody else write my love letters would you?

Supposing you were away and you said Mary Jane I love you dear I'm very busy. I've got two men coming and I've got to play golf with a guy for business this afternoon. So I've asked the man he was sitting there in the hotel.

I said hey are you busy? And he said no. I said would you write a love letter to my wife? Sure what's her name? Sue. And oh he piles it on all gooey and you know puts a lot of barbed wire at the bottom and sends a letter.

And you read it and say this is fantastic. My husband never did look like this. And he gets on the phone and says hey sweetheart this letter. What happened? Have you had a baptism of love or something?

This is an amazing letter. And you say well sweetie I didn't write it I got a friend to. You got a what? Do you want somebody else to write your love letters to God? All right this woman has prayed. Look at the ingredients.

She's prayed with sorrow. She's prayed that she's been provoked. Ha ha. She made a vow to the Lord. Don't make them. Better not to vow than a vow and not fulfill the vow the word of God says. Give me the child I'll give him back to thee.

Are you going to suggest she did that easily? Are you going to suggest every year she made him a cod and took it to the sanctuary her heart didn't ache as she came back without the child. She made a vow she kept her vow.

The glory of God had departed. But read the book through before you get to the third chapter. God has come back again to the temple. Why? Because one woman prevailed and prevailed and God restored the authority of the prophet.

Do you know why she prayed the greatest prayer? Because she never said a thing. You know why she prayed the greatest prayer? Because she lay there in her grief and the man of God came and said you know I don't like this woman coming every day.

I think she's drunk. She must have never said a word. The greatest prayers in the word of God have no language. There's a poem that says what am I an infant crying in the night. An infant crying for a light with no language but a cry.

Brother Elder my wife was saying she saw their baby today. Lovely baby. Should be with a daddy like mummy like that. Supposing our baby six months, five months and six months. Supposing in the middle of the night the little boy, little girl, little boy yells out Elder and I want the light.

He'd say to his wife did you hear her voice? Yeah. Well you better go in the room. A little fellow picks up he says hey dad I need a light. I think dad's light would go out. You don't expect him to ask for the light.

He's afraid and he yells and not affect it's fear. Put the light off. Quits crying. Night after he cries and Elder says oh what's wrong? Did he leave the light on? Yeah he's hungry. What did he say? No bring me a bottle.

Boy she'd be startled if he did. He has no language but a cry. He cries in pain with one voice. He cries for a feed with another voice. He cries for loneliness in another voice. He has no language but a cry.

But the instinct of the mother knows the language of the child. We don't move God with eloquence. Some people can paint stained glass windows nicer than these things behind with wood. You don't impress God.

I'm so thrilled it thrills me to death you can't impress God. Your prayers are not more valid because you earn a thousand dollars a day than the man down there that sells newspapers at the corner. You're not more impressive to God because you have a phd or an xyz.

Doesn't make any odds to God. You see some people that think that prayer is a position you've got to kneel or you've got to face to the east. Prayer is not a position it's a disposition. It's not an attitude it's an attitude.

This woman prayed why? It wasn't her barrenness but in Israel the priests were corrupt and Eli refused to deal with his sons and they corrupted him further. This little woman cried. This little one prayed.

She had no language. Oh you mentioned about you shouldn't pray like that tonight. You got me excited. Sitting down with Moses. I'm going to talk to him for about 10 ,000 years. So if you see me would you keep your nose out of it a bit till I've asked him a few questions.

I want to ask him a lot of questions and about his prayer life. When God said uh Moses come here a minute let's talk to him. God ever say that to you? Or are you too busy to listen? Moses I'm sick to death of the corruption of this people.

I've delivered them again and again and again and every time. Now look this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to rub them out just like you rub a mark out off the wall. Rub them out and out of your loins I'm going to make a far greater nation.

If he'd had half an ounce of carnality in him he'd have said well hallelujah I've been waiting for you to say that. I can't wait till I stand there tomorrow and say listen you backslidden folk. Two million of you are going to burn in hell forever and I'm glad it's what you deserve.

But me I'm so sanctified the Lord is going to preserve me and not only preserve me he's going to produce a new race out of me. And God says come up. You see one of the greatest things in the world is when God reaches down and takes hold of a man.

There's only one thing greater and that's when a man takes hold of God. And there's a paraphrase in the old Methodist hymn book about that situation. Let Moses in the spirit grow and God cries out let me alone.

That isn't Moses screaming because God has a grip on him it's God screaming because Moses has a grip on him. Let Moses in the spirit grow and God cries out let me alone. You see the prophet Isaiah talks about praying concerning the work of my hands.

Command me. I knew you last in a prayer meeting that was bathed with tears or somebody got angry over the monopoly of the devil in the world. Prayers don't move God because they don't move us. If they don't move us they never move God.

Again it doesn't necessarily mean exciting language but deep down there in your spirit what we said there in Romans 8 with groanings which cannot be uttered. It's the language of the spirit. The spirit groans.

The whole creation is groaning. We groan within ourselves. It's an orchestration of groaning. We want birth without pregnancy. We want birth without pain. There is no revival that's ever been in history that isn't preceded by traffic.

At least I can't find one. This woman doesn't care a hell of beans about the man of God. She prays. Read to the end of the chapter. She comes in church one day with a baby and she doesn't say it any sarcastic bit of way.

She says for this child I pray. When you can produce the answer to prayer. Does it matter what folks say? For this child I prayed and the Lord has granted me the petition that I asked of him. Yes she'd watched the other woman not as attractive.

The other woman getting more clothes. But not getting as many clothes as she was. Not getting as much attention of the husband. But she did have a bunch of children around her skirt. And every time she heard the laughter of those children she was sour in her own spirit.

Look at my sister's condition. The same with Rachel Rodney. I think that's one reason why it's good to read the history of revivals. They're provoking. They get under my skin. They hurt me. Why is there no movement of God today as in former days?

This country has had some of the greatest revivals in history because it's had some of the greatest praying men in history. I told you the other night when they buried Pace and they found at the side of his bed it was a hard floor like this.

They found two not long grooves. They found his kneecaps were like a camel's. And the kneecaps had got hard by rubbing in those grooves at the side of his bed where he used to pray with fervency. John Hyde.

The lady asked me in a conference one day did you ever meet John Hyde? I said no I wish I'd rather meet John Hyde than meet the President of the United States. Did you meet him? Yes I met him at the Cyclops convention in India.