Something Is Happening — Hans R. Waldvogel

The Urgency of Spiritual Watchfulness

And something is happening. While I travel around the world, I find things are happening all the time at a very, very rapid pace, and they're happening to you. I'd like to hit you right in the solar plexus, with the sword of the Spirit, and make you realize that something, and the Bible tells us what is happening.

Look, be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, has a roaring lion. Well, that isn't modern anymore to believe in a devil. Well, don't. As a roaring lion goes about trying to find a hot dog sandwich someplace.

The Man-Eating Lion and the Danger of Sleep

Let's see, what does it say? What is it looking for? Well, when some years ago in Nairobi, in Africa, they were building a railroad station, they had the roof over their heads, and a man-eating lion came around and tried to get at those men that were working on the inside.

He was trying to scratch up that, pull up that tin roof, and they didn't know what to do. They were caught right in a trap, like a mouse in a trap, and they couldn't escape. But they had a telegraph instrument there, and so they telegraphed, please send us some hunters.

And presently, a railroad car came along with three British hunters. You know, they're the best shots in the world, the British. And so they came to kill this lion. And they were supposed to watch all night at intervals.

One would take two hours, another one two hours, and so on. And so here they were, ready to defend these people from this man-eating lion. And the fattest of them was sitting on the steps of this railroad car with his gun across his knees, and he went to sleep.

And the lion came and ate him up, and next day they found the watch chain. That was all that was left of the British hunter. Because he went to sleep, I wonder what's going to be found of you tomorrow.

I'd really like to know, because the devil as a roaring lion is on the job, and he knows who is awake, and he knows who is asleep, and he gets those that are asleep, and oh, how many he gets, and they don't know it, they're asleep.

They wake up in the stomach of the lion, perhaps. As a roaring lion he goes about, oh, beloved, everywhere, everywhere I've traveled, in Switzerland, in Germany, in America, in Formosa, everywhere I find Christians that have already been devoured.

They have not watched, they have not prayed, they have not allowed God to keep them. The end of all things is at hand. Be therefore sober. How to be sober? Why, that means to be awake all the time. To be watchful all the time.

Spiritual Warfare and the Keeping Power of God

That's what the Holy Ghost has come down from heaven to do. Not only to make me watch, but to make me fight, not with carnal weapons, but with weapons that are mighty through God. And those are the only weapons the devil is afraid of.

That's why he tells us here, whom resist, step fast in the faith. And then he tells us something else that happens. He says, humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time, the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus.

After that you have suffered a while, make you perfect. Establish, strengthen, settle you to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Now one of those two things is happening to me. Either the devil has got me by the neck and is trying to devour me.

Either I am watchful and either God Almighty is working in me moment by moment. Oh he is, I tell you, God is in earnest today and he sends his Holy Spirit, his seven spirits out into all the world. And what are they looking for?

They are looking for hearts that are alert, that are awake, that are sober, that recognize that without him they can do nothing. And he has exceedingly great power toward them. He has power to keep them from all evil and to present them spotless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.

He has power to subdue all things unto himself so that everything, your mind, your body, your soul, your spirit becomes subject to the Holy Ghost. You walk no longer in the flesh, you think no longer in the flesh, you don't speak anymore what you please, but the Spirit of God has come to set up the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ within your heart.

Revival, Spiritual Hunger, and the Fountain of Living Water

These things are happening in the world today, thank God, and they really are happening. I have greetings from Germany. I was so delighted to see what God was doing in Switzerland while I was there for a whole week and how hungry the people are and how they came, flocking to the meetings and opening their hearts.

I've never seen the Holy Ghost poured out like last week in Switzerland, because hearts were open and hearts were hungry, hearts were desiring. And the thing that bothers me is to learn how to say no to the many that beg me to come.

Come here, we're dying, we're in trouble. What is the matter? The theologians have come, the great healers have come, and they've left people in confusion. And why is it? Because they've forsaken the fountain of living water.

That fountain is Jesus Christ himself in all his majesty, in all his holiness, in all his purity, in all his dominion, except you eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man. Hardly anybody thinks of doing that today.

They're not taught that. God complains about Israel. You've taken my blessings. I blessed you with blessings unspeakable. As you read Genesis and you read Exodus and Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy, you see what mighty manifestations of God were among those people.

How he opened that Red Sea and the water stood like walls on both sides, and they went through that Red Sea, dry, and then they saw those waters swallow up their enemies, the Egyptians. You'd think that every one of them would have been saved, would have been on the….

Well, they were for a little while. And the next day, they began to murmur. And then they said, we got nothing to drink. We can't drink the water of the Red Sea. So God smote the rock. Why didn't he tell Moses to get a load of Coca-Cola along?

He smote the rock and water gushed forth out of the flint. Mind you, God manifesting his presence. What did they do? They kicked. Sure, they got around their coffee pots, and they kicked about those preachers, Moses and Miriam and Aaron.

They think they're the whole cheese. We're somebody too. Oh, beloved, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. And the devil doesn't have much trouble at all to find the carcass.

He doesn't. And God says, you took all those blessings, but you didn't want me. Beloved, that's the great call over my life tonight. Jesus Christ has called me from the foundation of the world to be partaker of himself, to be one with himself.

Receiving God's Love and Cleansing Grace

Hallelujah. We say, I'm his and he is mine. And it is true, as our brother Gardner said, he loves me. That has been a light that's shone upon my path now for many years. God loves me. And how many times he has said, let me love you.

Let me love you. That's my job to let God love me. And as I let him love me, he sets my heart on fire with his own love. And he purifies and he cleanses and he fills me anew with the Holy Ghost because of his mercy and because of his love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in trespasses and sins.

But how many people are dead in trespasses and sins? Going through Switzerland, I used to praise the Swiss people. I said, they're a wonderfully clean people. Beloved, they're rotten to the core. Adultery, fornication, lust, pride, conceit, selfishness, everybody striving to live a comfortable life and their hearts are not pure toward God.

What a dreadful thing. Dead in trespasses and sins. The poison of asthma is under their lips. Go and listen to them. You have to talk to them for five minutes and they'll spit at you and you'll be poisoned.

But God is working, the God of all grace, thank God, is working toward those whose hearts are perfect toward him. And how does he work? With exceeding great power and exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think.

My God, I want you to love me. I'm going to let you love me and I'm going to let you subdue all things unto thyself. That's the thing I need to watch for. Day by day and hour by hour, my eye must be single toward the Lord Jesus Christ because his eye is upon me all the time.

And he says, if your eye is single, your body will be full of light. I've heard the Lord talk to some of his sons. He says, your body is full of light. The devil doesn't have a chance in that body anymore.

The God has come. He dwells in that body. They watch, they pray, they're sober, they're waiting for the coming of the Lord. The love is appearing and they that are ready are going to go in with him into the marriage and the door will be shut.

Prayer, Waiting on God, and the Transformation of a Family

Oh beloved, things are happening in the world today, I tell you. But they're not happening to careless Christians that are asleep, except from the side of the devil. But God Almighty will see to it that something will happen to you if you're one of those servants that are watching for the coming of the Lord.

Jesus says he'll gird himself and he'll come forth and he'll serve them. I saw that in Kirchan. I was so happy to get to Kirchan last week. They've had five weeks of prayer and the whole place is on fire.

It has been a marvelous experience to come into that place. And it's a church a little larger than this. And when I came there Sunday morning, it was too small. And people had prayed for five weeks and sought the Lord.

And many of them didn't know what that was, but they did it. And every week made them more hungry for more of God. They don't do like we do, have a coffee break every half hour. They get together at nine o 'clock in the morning.

They stay solidly on their knees until three in the afternoon and they pray and they seek the Lord and God seeks them and God comes to them. We had a testimony meeting Saturday night that was an eye-opener to me.

Wonderful people. I told about Mrs. Wohlhaupter. She's the wife of one of the chief factory owners. Got a large factory. He sells his goods all over the world and he's had to enlarge his factory all the time.

And when I first came there and they got saved, they said, Walt Fogel, he tells us we ought to spend an hour a day praying. How can we? He ought to come to my factory and see how much business we have.

Well, they got one of our girls to be their maid, to do the wash and to do the housework. And the first thing she asked when she came there, when do you have worship? They said, we have no time. She said, then I have no time for you either.

Goodbye. Well, so then they agreed to have half an hour or an hour's worship every day. And after one week, they came to meeting and they said, why we didn't know how wonderful it was. We didn't know.

You don't know. You don't know God until you draw nigh to God. Until you wait upon the Lord, you'll be dead in trespasses and sins. Nobody can save you but God. Jesus Christ says, no man cometh unto the Father, but by me, I am the way, the truth and the life.

And I am your life. And these folks woke up. And when some years later, we had a tent in Salzburg. They had rented a cottage in Italy. They were going to have a vacation. And so on the way, they stopped in Salzburg on Sunday.

They came into that tent and God was there. And the first thing that happened was that he came under power of God and was baptized in the Holy Ghost. And his wife got so jealous. She said, now we're not going to Italy.

We're going to stay here. And she stayed there until she had the baptism. And this week again, she was so drunk and so many, many people, they were so drunk by the power of God. What in the world had happened?

Why God had come to them. The God of all grace had come. And I tell you, God Almighty is in earnest. And if the whole world denies him and if all Pentecost denies him, and if all the churches deny him, he's going to have a bride without spot or wrinkle or any such a thing.

Holiness, the Mind of Christ, and the Bride

He's going to have a people that are going to be like him, inwardly, pure and holy and spotless. They have the mind of Christ. They humble themselves like Jesus. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, humbled himself.

Walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called. Wear a button. That's worthiness. Or a dog collar. Or some distinction that makes you different from others, that makes people. Or wear a holy face.

Or impress people with your religiousness. It would be better for us to wear a muzzle. If any among you seemeth to be religious and bridleth not his tongue. But who in the world bridles his tongue? I tell you who does.

The bride of Christ. Those who walk with him in white. Those who keep their garments from all defilement. Those who watch and pray because they know that they cannot keep themselves. But God Almighty, who saved them, must keep them.

Revival at Kirchheim and the Need for God's Presence

And how is it that Kirchheim today has become a pillar of fire, not only in Germany, but all over Europe. The light shines all over Europe. Now I can tell you that and some of you have been there and you know it's so.

And people come from every quarter. From the Bible school, where formerly they forbade their students to come near us. Didn't allow them to come to our meetings. They came anyway. Now they want us to come.

They say, what you have we need? What do they need? They need the presence of Jesus. And more than that, they need the kingdom of God. They need the reign of the Holy Ghost. They need the leadership of heaven.

They need the open heaven above them. They need the baptism of the Holy Ghost. They need holiness. They need righteousness. They need the power of his resurrection. Who is going to give it to me? Jesus.

And how come that Kirchheim is like that? I'll tell you why. Because God got Walter. That's the secret. And when I see these boys here and these girls here, I'm interested in boys and girls. They're going to fulfill where we failed.

And when Walter first came, he was just a kid. And I said, what in the world can you do with that kid? He didn't want to work. No, sir. He said, the Lord's coming soon. Why should I torture myself going to school and learning algebra and learning mathematics?

But he came to the faith home and then he came to meeting. And when he saw other young people baptized with the Holy Ghost, he woke up. My dad woke him up. He said, God, God, I don't know what that is.

I must have it. And immediately began to seek the Lord with all his heart. He really did. He really came down. And he wasn't satisfied to pray an hour at a time. He had to pray all day long. And sometimes way into the night.

I met, I found him praying two o 'clock in the morning in the parlor in the faith home. I said, Walter, what are you doing? He was weeping. He said, I'm afraid I'm not ready for the coming of the Lord.

And God got hold of that boy. And what a changed person he is. He lives a holy life. He lives in the presence of God. And the whole town knows it. I tell you, it's not his preaching, but it's his life that makes the difference.

A Life That Embodies the Gospel

And the brethren in his church, they said to me, why we never knew there was anything like this. One of the leading brethren, a banker, said to me, oh my, we haven't got words to tell what God's done for us.

It is perfectly marvelous. He said, there's nothing like this in Europe. I don't say this to crack up Walter. I'm saying this to crack up you. I'd like to crack that shell that you put around you and show you what God Almighty can do with you.

That's what's the matter. That's why I say something's happening. The God of all grace, strengthen, settle you, sanctify you wholly. That's what God wants to do. Where does he get a chance to do it? Well, Walter gave him a chance.

He really did. And everybody knows it. And not only that, and he's not boasting at all. He just quietly goes his way and quietly follows on and quietly draws his people into prayer and they follow him.

And that whole church has been transformed by the power of the Holy Ghost. And other churches likewise. What a blessing, what a blessing to have a ministry walking before you that can say, follow me like I follow Jesus Christ.

A ministry that we can honor, we can follow safely because they live the life. They don't preach it only, but they live it. It's the life, the life of the son of God. It isn't something you can put on, not something you can learn in books.

It's something that God has to give you when he strengthens you with might by his spirit in the inner man. And I preached in that Bible school in California. I said to the students, there are two elements that you need.

First of all, a deep Holy Ghost humility, a lowliness of mind, and a hundred percent purity of heart. And one of the teachers was weeping, said to me, you certainly struck. Oh, the lack of living the life.

And I said to one preacher, how do you dare preach what you don't live? But thank God for ministers and Walters is not the only one who lived the life, not because they want to shine before people, but because they want to please God.

The apostle Paul says, you know how wholly and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe. And he became followers of us and of the Lord. That's the kind of a ministry God must give us.

Training Ministers Through the Holy Spirit

And we ought to pray for, and we ought to pray that God will thrust ministers like that into the world. And that's what God is after today. And that's what God's been after in this fellowship. And I don't know how well or how ill we have done, but that's his call.

When we started 42 years ago, brother Salter was with me. He said, you can multiply yourself by training other ministers. And that's what God wants. But beloved training ministers is not the job of a Bible school or a theological seminary.

They can act, but it's the job of the Holy Spirit. And he has means that are sharp and strong. I've chosen you in the furnace of affliction. And as I go through the world, I came into a country in Europe that has been spoiled.

Pentecost is, it has a black eye. Why? Because the leaders lived in sin and the whole world knows it. Now the fact that they were disgraced is not so bad, but the fact that Jesus Christ lost the great victory and lost the whole country because one man was not willing to resist the devil when he came and tempted him.

Beloved, it requires a life of watching and praying in these days. The end of all things is at hand. Thank God the beginning of our kingdom is here. Who among you has a hearing ear and can hear what the Spirit says unto the churches?

Surrendering to Christ's Sanctifying Work

I'm speaking out of my loving heart to you because I paid the price. I shed my blood that you might be altogether mine. And if you'll surrender yourself to me, I'll take you as you are and I'll make you such as I would have you to be.