Elijah and Elisha 02 ~ Keswick Conference 1970 — Harold Wildish

Reading 2 Kings 2: Elijah’s Departure and Elisha’s Calling

Now, tonight, for Scripture reading, will you turn to the second book of Kings, chapter two? Down in the West Indies, we feel very strongly that the most important part of every public meeting and service is the reading of Holy Scripture.

I don't know whether that's a custom throughout America or not, but we love to take a great chapter and read it through, and sometimes encourage the congregation to all join in with the reading. I'm not going to trouble you with that tonight, but when the last word is spoken about the Bible, thank God these precious sacred scriptures can speak for themselves of their race.

Now, we're going to read a great story of a new character, Elisha. This morning, we talked about Elijah, the man of God, and now we are going to see this younger man who takes his mantle. Verse 1,. And it came to pass, when the Lord would take up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind, that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal.

And Elijah said unto Elisha, Carry here, I pray thee, for the Lord hath sent me to Bethel. And Elisha said unto him, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. So they went down to Bethel.

The sons of the prophets that were at Bethel came forth to Elisha and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy master from thy head to-day? He said, Yes, I know it, hold ye your peace.

Elijah said unto him, Elisha, carry here, I pray thee, for the Lord hath sent me to Jericho. He said, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. So they came to Jericho. And the sons of the prophets that were at Jericho came to Elisha and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy master from thy head to-day?

He answered, Yes, I know it, hold ye your peace. Elijah said unto him, Carry, I pray thee, here, for the Lord hath sent me to Jordan. He said, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee.

And they too went on. Fifty men of the sons of the prophets went and stood to view afar off, and they too stood by Jordan. Elijah took his mantle and wrapped it together and smote the waters, and they were divided hither and thither, so that they too went over on dry ground.

And it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said unto Elisha, Ask what I shall do for thee before I be taken away from thee? Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me.

He said, Thou hast asked a hard thing. Nevertheless, if thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee, but if not, it shall not be so. And it came to pass, as they still went on and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder, and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.

And Elisha saw it, and he cried, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof! He saw him no more, and he took hold of his own clothes and rent them in two pieces. He took up also the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and went back and stood by the bank of Jordan.

And he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and smote the waters, and said, Where is the Lord God of Elijah? When he had also smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither, and Elisha went over.

When the sons of the prophets which were to view at Jericho saw him, they said, The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha. And they came to meet him, and bowed themselves to the ground before him. And they said unto him, Behold, now there be with thy servants fifty strong men.

Let them go, we pray thee, and seek thy master, lest, peradventure, the spirit of the Lord hath taken him up, and cast him upon some mountain, or into some valley. He said, He shall not send. And when they urged him till he was ashamed, he said, Ascend.

They sent therefore fifty men, and they sought three days, but found him not. And when they came again to him, for he tarried at Jericho, he said unto them, Did I not say unto you, Go not? And the men of the city said unto Elisha, Behold, I pray thee, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my Lord seeth, but the water is not, and the ground barren.

And he said, Bring me a new cruise, and put salt therein. And they brought it to him, and he went forth unto the spring of the waters, and bashed the salt in there, and said, Thus saith the Lord, I have healed these waters.

There shall not be from thence any more death or barren lands. So the waters were healed unto this day, according to the saying of Elisha, which he spake. God will bless to our hearts the reading together of Holy Scripture, for his namesake.

Taking Up the Mantle

Now, over Chapter 1, I asked you to put a little chapter heading this morning, Man of God. I'm going to ask you to put over Chapter 2 the heading, Take the Mantle, for I think perhaps this will be a key to our Bible study tonight.

Take the Mantle. Now, this story that we've read is the story of the last day of a master and his servant fed together. It's a great story. I expect you noticed there was a downward move in the chapter, all the way down, down, down, down, down, together, starting at Gilgal, and moving down to Bethel, and from Bethel to Jericho, and Jericho to Jordan.

They crossed together, and then one is translated, and the other is left to carry on the good work. Now, I don't want to upset anyone's thinking, but I seriously myself doubt that this Gilgal mentioned in the opening verse is the Gilgal where the reproach of Israel was rolled away by Jordan.

If you will take any good Bible map at the back of your Bible, you will find three Gilgals in the map of Palestine, and if you look for Bethel, you will find at that Bethel up in the mountain heights of Israel the word Gilgal, and it seems to have been one of the old royal Canaanitish strongholds where a king lived, and it rather seems that their journey started from a way up in the mountains, and the whole of the pathway of this day is down to Bethel, which means the house of God, and then down to Jericho, which is the cursed city, and then down to Jordan, the rolling waters of death, and they pass through those waters, and one is translated, and the other goes back, back, back across Jordan to Jericho, and later to Bethel.

It's a wonderful picture of the last day of these two men together. Now, I wonder if in your thinking I could picture Elijah now master, and you know if you're a Christian, that one of the titles you give to your Lord Jesus, my master, Rabbi, Master.

Yes, our lovely Lord is Master, and strangely enough, he has chosen us and called us, if we are real Christians, to share his life and share his service. I think it would help some of you to just give you the glimpse.

I'm not pressing it. It seems that Elisha is linked with Elijah from the very beginning, and they start their downwards together from Gilgal, the royal city up in the Canaanite mountains, to Bethel, the house of God, and right down to Jericho and Jordan.

One of the most amazing things I know is this. I shall never forget when it dawned upon me as a young Christian, only about 17 to 18 years of age, that God had linked this child of Adam with Christ long before the foundations of the world, and that God, in his mighty foreknowledge, had chosen me.

Oh, you say you're on debatable ground, Mr. Wildish. Well, I can't help it. I'm only quoting Scripture. I was chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, and God has linked me away in his mighty knowledge and sovereign foresight with Christ in that mighty stoop of my Master Lord as he came down from the heights of glory to Bethel, the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

He came unto his own. He stooped even lower. He came down to the cursed world of sinful men, and he stooped even lower. He went down into death, and he's linked me with Christ his Son, my Master, in the mighty stoop right the way through, and Jesus Christ amazingly has gone back, my Master, to heaven, but he's left me in this old world to recross Jordan, to face Jericho, to be of some blessing in Bethel, and somewhere in the picture, at the center of the picture, is a mantle, and the mantle falls, but the mantle has to be taken.

The Holy Spirit and the Possibility of a Victorious Christian Life

Now, I knock around in the mission field a good deal, and I know everything from the dry, awful, sometimes historic churches that never mention the person of the Holy Spirit and his mighty possibilities in the life of Christians.

From one year end to the other, it's a dead subject, and I know the extremes to which our loved Pentecostal brethren have gone to people seeking the Spirit and rolling on the floor and barking like animals.

I know as a missionary these things. I have to meet them constantly, but I look into your faces and I say this tonight. I believe there is pressure-balanced teaching in this book that shows that you and I, by an act of faith, just as Elisha put out his hands and took that fallen mantle, and that man whose eyes were looking upward to his departing Master took the mantle and was able to go back over the old ground alone and win victory after victory.

So, there is a possibility of us, by faith, taking the fullness of the Holy Spirit to make us victorious, usable Christians, to display our Master's strength and glory seven days a week in every battleground he puts you in.

This is the possibility. Now, turn back with me for a moment to 1 Kings, chapter 19, and we have to go back to get the settings. 1 Kings, chapter 19, and in verse 19, the story of Elijah finding Elisha.

I don't want to cover much ground, but this morning we saw how this dear man Elijah has had a nervous breakdown, or was it a physical breakdown? Now, some of you doctors, you tell me this at the end of the sermon, or was it a mental breakdown?

It's a breakdown, anyhow. Bless his dear little heart, Elijah, the great, big, strong, rugged, big man of the hills, broken down, too much worry and care and hard work, had a terrific day before it happened, watering prophets of Baal and standing in the heat of the sun on Mount Carmel, and then chasing twenty miles in the front of Ahab's chariot, and at the end of the day, with Jezebel looking out of her window and Gadar catch him and wring his neck and finish him off just like he did my prophets, the poor fellow collapses.

Too much for him. Well, it's usually this that brings a breakdown, the constant, constant stress and strain, and then it comes to the extra strain, and something happens. The Lord knows our frame. He remembers that you are dark.

Don't you worry too much if you've had a breakdown. Thousands of God's choicest souls have had them, and there is a solution, you know. If the Lord wants you to live, your days are numbered, and he says, now look, Elijah, go to sleep, eat a little, go back to sleep again, good food and good rest, and poor old Elijah is recommissioned in a big cave away down in the south country.

The man who said, I only am left, poor fellow, he wasn't. He was seven thousand and one, and there were seven thousand others who had never vowed the need to veil. Am I not better than my fathers? Whoever said he was.

God never uses men because they're better than daddy. Poor Elijah. He says to him, now listen, you need someone to work with you. You need a young understudy. You go and find him. So, here we are. I'm reading it now, verse 19.

He departed thence and found Elisha, the son of Shaphat, towing twelve yoke of oxen before him. He were the twelfth, and Elijah passed by him and cast his mantle above him. You see him taking off his big, hair-made mantle, swinging it over the young shoulders of a strong farmer boy out in the fields under a sun with the oxen ahead of him.

He's thrown his mantle over the shoulders of a younger man, and he, Elisha, left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, let me, I pray thee, kiss father and mother, and then I will follow thee. And he said, go back again.

Tell you there's something New Testament about this, except a man shall have no regard for mom and dad and wife and brother and sister and all the love family circles. Cannot be my disciples. Tremendously stern words.

You know, the Lord is the great Creator, your Lord Jesus. He fearfully and wonderfully made us. He gave us human affection. He wants us to love dear old mom and dad. I hope you kiss them as often as you can.

I hope you treasure a little wife or a husband. You have children around you, brothers, sisters, and you treasure the family circle. He wants you to, but when he comes to the call of God to be a man of God, all that must be turned from, and it must be kept in its right place.

He demands first place. You cannot be my disciple. You know, that dear saint who wrote that hymn, the great consecration hymn, comes to our last verse. Take my love, my Lord, I pour, at thy feet its treasure store.

Take myself, and I will be ever only all for thee. And wrapped up in those words, ever, only, all, always sing them so easily. Ever. No retreat, no reserve. The moment that act of discipleship is really done, everything falls into its rightful place.

You'll love the loved one better than ever. You may not see them so often, for if you're a young man, he may send you to the Amazon jungle. He may send you to the Congo forest. You may have to kiss them goodbye for six, seven, eight years, and never see them.

But that's discipleship. That's what it's going to cost in following the law. And this young man said, let me go back to mom and dad. Let me go back and just say all my farewells. And Elijah says to him, go back again.

And it seems as if he didn't bother to go kiss mom and dad. It says, he returned back from him and took the yoke of oxen, slew them, broiled their flesh with the instruments of the oxen. He just bumped his bump at the farming lad out on the farm.

He steps after Elijah and moves off in that direction in a new pathway of service. He's following his master. If you watch him for 10 years, 10 long years, do you know what he did? He shared in a growing knowledge of his master's service and his master's God.

And all that Elijah was teaching to the 7 ,000 and the families of the 7 ,000 in the little schools of the prophets all over the country, all he was teaching, Elijah heard. And he heard it again, and he heard it again, and he learned to know it.

And his task was to get meals for his master. His tasks were simple tasks like pouring water on his master's hands to keep his master's hands clean. These were the menial jobs he did for 10 years. Now the 10 years are over.

The Cross, the Spirit, and the Double Portion

The moment is coming when his master's going to leave him. And here I must go back to my type which springs at me whenever I read through this portion of Scripture. Yes, our Lord, our Lord who left the glory heights and came down to the house of Israel, and came down to a cursed world, and down to the cruel death upon the cross of John, has gone.

You and I are linked with him in this mighty stoop. And now his mantle's fallen, and he says, you will have a double portion of my spirit if you take it. Are we willing to take it by faith? And are we willing to set our faith back to Jordan, and back to Jericho, and back to Bethel, and back for the 101 tasks?

For next 10 years you say, no, no, no. We shall see this as we move forward. Elijah, taken to heaven without dying, Elijah lived to a ripe old age until he lay upon his dead a sick man, and he couldn't go into the presence of his king.

His king had to creep into his house and up into his bedroom to teach his last lesson to a young king, the lesson of the bow and arrows. He puts his old hands on the hands of the young king, and says, now shoot the arrow out of the window.

And so, and Elisha died, died of a sickness, a disease in a ripe old age. Well, what can we learn from this mantle? Now, here in this portion of Scripture, turning back to 2 Kings 2, I want you to see these two men tramping together side by side after passing through Jordan.

He has seen his master take the mantle. He has seen his master, in verse 8, wrap it together. He has seen the waters divided, and if any of you have been to Jordan's swiftly muddy streams flowing, how those waters divided, I don't know.

It's one of the miracles of Elijah's day, and they've crossed over Jordan, and they've gone to the father's side when, all of a sudden, that which his master has been talking about all day happens. I wonder if you notice.

I've got to go down, he says, to Bethel, and when he gets to Bethel, he says, call anything, please. Let the congregation, the assembly, come together, the Sunday school, whatever you like to call it.

Now, he says, I've got some news for you, and while he was passing on the news of his rapture, his leaving, his departure, Elisha was outside, probably getting breakfast with coffee and rolls, or something like that, and when the meeting breaks, it's a buzzing meeting full of excitement, and they come out, and the first thing they see is Elisha busy, and they rush over to him.

I say, Elisha, do you know that your master is going to leave you today? I know all about it. The master comes, and he said, I've got to go on down from Bethel to Jericho. I'm going with you, master. Wouldn't you like to stay here?

No, I'm going all the way with you. When they get to Jericho, they call the school of the prophets, and the master is just doing what he's been doing for ten years. The greatest work in it. I just like it.

Gathering little groups to teaching them the word of God, all he knew of the living gods, the school of the prophets. We shall see before the week is out, so much of that school. Some of the rich and glorious Christians, ultimate believers, who came through this school of the prophets in those old days.

They were great girls, great boys. Same thing happens. The meeting breaks in Jericho, and they rush out. He's going to be taken away. He's leaving. I say, do you know this, Elisha? Yes, Miss Elisha, I know all about it.

Now, said his master, you stay here in Jericho. I've got to go through the wards of God. I'm going with you. And they go through, and on the father's side, as they're trampling along, he turns and looks at the younger man, and he says, Verse 9, Ask what I shall do for thee, ask what I shall do for thee before I be taken away from thee.

What do you want? And in all his conscious frailty, and the sense of loneliness that is creeping over him, as he knows the moment of passing is coming. I use the New Testament word. Some of you will pick it up at once.

He just felt like those orphaned children, orphaned children that Jesus knew his disciples would feel like after he left. How will I ever get over Jordan? How will I ever face the people of the cursed city?

Will I ever mingle with those people in Bethel, the house of God? They had tough teenager problems then, you know. Did you know that? That's not a modern thing. It's happened all through the history of Adam's race.

It was the kids of Bethel, probably 16, 17 years of age, not little kids, but youths, who chased after him when he got there and said, Go up there, bald head! Your master went. Go up, bald head! He had a bald head, poor fellow, like I have.

Do you remember how they were judged? Those were days of judgment in Israel, and these men, these men were encrusted not only with power, but God. Judgment was falling upon the people, and this man has to face all the future alone.

Now, what's he going to ask? He asks for one thing. Look at it. I pray thee, let a double portion of my spirit, thy spirit be upon me. Now, I'm quite conscious of your margin, at least. My margin says that is the portion of the firstborn.

See Deuteronomy 21, verse 17. But you forget about that a bit. Let's be very practical about this. Here is a man asking for something in his loneliness, in his feebleness, in his feeling I'm not adequate for the situations I've got to turn back to and face.

I know the spirit of God has been upon my master. I've seen him working miracles. I've seen the power of God in his life, and if he had it, I need twice as much. By need is twice as much as what you had.

Will you get a grip on this? Your master, Lord Jesus, was conceived of the Holy Ghost. The Word became a human being. The Word was made flesh and tabernacled amongst us. There was never a moment when the Spirit of God did not dwell in that glorious body that God had prepared for him, a body in which he would deal with sin upon the cross and bear our sin in his own body on the tree.

He had made this mighty stoop down, down to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, down to a cursed world of sinners, but he's got to go down through death and burial and resurrection to ascension in glorified manhood to bring many sons to glory, and face him.

Jesus sure must not face his life without the Holy Spirit. Live his life. That's why publicly at his baptism, the Holy Spirit came down looking like a dove descending upon him, and from that baptism he was led of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil, and came through the spotless Son of God in the power of the Spirit.

He stood up and he preached, preached that magnificent sermon of the mouth, the principles of the kingdom of God's honor, and he said it was in the Spirit he preached. He moved around and began his miracles.

All that he did was in the power of the Spirit, and when he picked up that wonderful scripture of Isaiah in the synagogue at Nazareth, he turned to the verse and read, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, and by that Spirit I do all these things.

In strength of the Spirit, he offered himself by the Spirit upon the cross of shame to be our sin bearer, and he couldn't live in this world without that gracious person of the Godhead. If you look into his face and he says to you, the Father sent me into this world, and now I've got to leave you, but I'm not going to leave you like orphaned children.

I'm going to ask the Father to give to you something. What do you want? What do you want? I do feel you may not feel your need as I do, but I say, Lord, if you needed the Spirit, I need a double portion of thy Spirit.

I need the Spirit of Christ. I need the Holy Spirit of God that was with you to be with me as I face my battles and so on. Looking back into the face of that younger man, he says, you've asked a hard thing.

Of course it's a hard thing. I want you to realize this, that there's no possibility of you knowing the power of a gracious, indwelling Holy Spirit to make you a victorious Christian seven days a week in every battleground you have to face.

There's no possibility of it without Jesus facing the hardness of the cross, the awfulness of what he did upon the cross. No easy thing when Jesus returned to the glory and said, Father, you sent me. I finished my task.

I've come to ask you, Father, as a risen, glorified man, bearing the marks of accomplished redemption, to give to those men I've left down in the world that you gave me out of the world, to give them the confidence that he might be with them, that he might be in them, that he might be everything to them that I see to them and to you all.

Jesus’ Promise of Greater Works

I must turn you to John's Gospel. I want you to look at some words that are startling. If you will look at those words in John 14, middle of the chapter, somewhere, John 14, verse 12, I remember when these words first gripped my soul.

I read them again and again, and I said, it can't be true, it can't be true. Verse 11, believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me. Most believe me for the very work's sake. Verily, verily, truly, truly, I say unto you, and may I point out to Bible students, that this little phrase is found, I think, 25 times in the Gospel of John.

Verily, verily, I say unto you, it's unique to the Gospel of John. You may find it once, or twice, or three times, somewhere else in Scripture, but it's an introduction all through John's planned Gospel to some tremendous truth that's going to be unfolded.

Verily, verily, I say unto you, if you ladies ever want a good Bible study in your Bible study group, take the verily, verily, I say unto you of John's Gospel, and it'll give you 25 lovely mornings around the Word of God, rich in the revelation of Jesus Christ.

This is the 22nd one in the Gospel. Verily, verily, I say unto you, verse 12, he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also, and greater works than these shall he do. Because, I go unto the Father.

Aren't those startling words? He says, if you believe on me, the works that I do, you'll do, and greater works than these you'll do. Because, speak with reverence, I'm saying goodbye to you and leaving you alone in the world.

The Master looks at him, and he says, ask, ask, what you want before I leave you. He said, I want a double portion of my Spirit, Master. You've asked a hard thing, but if, if, if you see me when I'm taken, if your eyes are not looking back at Jericho, if your eyes are not looking at rolling Jordan Stream, if your eyes are not looking around at the surface of the earth, if your eyes are looking at me, and you see me as I'm taken and disappear, if your eyes are heavenward to where I'm going, whirlwind came and carried Elijah up, as he watches his Master go.

The mantle that was thrown over his shoulders ten years before, lying on the ground, waiting to be taken, face back towards you. No feelings, no strange emotions, no wanting some sarcastic tongues or something, no, no, the mantle's in his hand.

Where is Elijah? Waters are open, Jericho says to a young foal, if you'll take the trouble to do it, I wonder how many of you will. Read through the days of Elijah and Elisha, and jot down a list of the miracles that these men, the supernatural miracles that these men saw, and you'll find that there are seven great miracles of Elijah.

But, when it comes to Elisha, it's fourteen, and twice seven of fourteen. I want a double portion of thy spirit. Thou shalt do greater things than these, because I go to my Father. The lovely Lord went on looking into the face of those disciples who perhaps were distressed.

Verse 13 of John 14, whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it. If ye love me, keep my commandment, and I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another comforter, that he may abide with you forever, even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot perceive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him, but ye know him, for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

I will not leave you, countenance. I will not leave you as orphanship. The picture is the spirit of Christ, living Christ made real by the indwelling spirit in the believer's life, so that we can face the old battleground and win the victory.

The Indwelling Spirit and Christian Victory

I'm going to ask you a question as I close, and some of you are not going to like it. Have you ever taken by faith God's great gift that he gave to you, when the spirit of God came to be with us and in us?

You say, if any man hath not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his. I quite agree. You say, is it possible for a believer not to have the spirit? No, it's not possible for a believer to be ignorant of the spirit.

I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren. Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit? If you are a true believer, and you said, Jesus, thank you for dying on the cross for me, I come just as I am without one plea.

I'm cast upon thy love and grace and mercy. You know my heart's repentance as I confess my sin and need, and I'm going to yield myself to thee. You receive him, and he receives you. And as you receive him, he's made real in that dead spirit a new creation work takes place, and it's the work of the Holy Spirit to make Jesus real within you, a new life.

But oh, how many say, thank God my sins are forgiven. I know I won't go to hell. I know I'm saved by God's grace. Yet the days slip by, and the battlegrounds are paced, and there's defeat. Oh, such constant defeat.

And instead of Christ ruling and reigning in that life, self largely reigns. When you talk to them, oh, so often there's distress, and they say, you see, it's just too bad. I say, listen, yes, it's just too bad.

The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and they're contrary one to the other, so that you cannot do the things that he would. You're a Christian, and you can't be the worldly, nasty, dirty, smutty worldling because the spirit of God dwells within you.

And you can't be the devout, holy man of God that could be a mighty instrument in the hand of God because the flesh still strives and sits on the throne and wants to rule the world. You living largely in Romans 7, oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver?

And there is deliverance. You will look at your written law, into its face and say, Lord of my life, I know in my own strength I can do nothing. I know I'm not sufficient and adequate for any battleground.

Don't you mean that he did again and again? But, Lord, your strength, made perfect in my weakness, I can begin to let thee live thy life by the Holy Spirit. And this mantle, a mantle that was put on your shoulders years ago, Elisha, can be taken.

Where is, where is the Lord God of Elisha? The Lord God of Elisha is the Lord God of Elisha. And slowly and steadily you see this man in his training now being able to say, yes, before whom I stand, and again and again moving into battleground, out to battleground, victorious.

And I say to you very lovingly, and I'm amongst you, moving into the evening of life, it is possible, it is possible to be more than conquerors through him who loved us so much. We won't say more tonight, the time is gone, but these studies will develop and you'll find this line of picture teaching all through them.

Prayer for Faithful Service in Every Battleground

The provisions of God for us today, men of life passions with Elijah and Elisha. Shall we bow together in prayer? Now, quietly in prayer, I want to name one or two things. Christian, do you really believe that Jesus meant what he said to those disciples he was leaving?

Greater things than these shall ye do, because I leave you and go to my Father. In other words, the presence of the Comforter, the Holy Spirit in them, would make Jesus real within them to live his life, a new life completely.

It wouldn't be Jesus tramping the roads and sharing their beds, and sitting at their tables and piling into their boats to cross the lake, but it would now be Jesus made real by the Holy Spirit within them, so that they could say, Christ lives in me, and the life that I now live, I live by faith.

That's God's provision. When you say, Mr. Wabish, I don't see if Jesus could raise the dead, I've never seen any greater works of people raising dead people, haven't you? Well, I've seen thousands. You say, what?

Yes, not corpses raised like Lazarus, or Jairus' daughter, or the son of the widow, but I've seen thousands of people who were dead in trespasses and sins, quickened to newness, eternal life by the power of the Holy Spirit.

That's a far greater work than raising a body that's going to die again. Well, you say it doesn't satisfy me. I just don't see these miracles happening. I don't see the blind eyes being opened to a constantly, the God of this world has blinded the minds of them that believe not, and I see these eyes opened constantly to see beauty in Jesus.

That's a far greater miracle than any great healer in America can produce, isn't it? Sure it is. God has given the gift of healing. It'll prove itself physical healing, but I tell you, these spiritual miracles are far more wonderful.

Oh, I tell you, to see a lips that could only open and speak about money, and curse and swear with oaths, now speaking forth the things of God is far greater than speaking in tongues. Of course it is.

These are greater miracles, and every Christian can have the joy of seeing the greater miracles as the instruments for the loving, living Christ, by his Spirit, to live his life in you. Now, Lord, we abode in thy presence.