Saving Souls

So what?  If all the people who hated me during the height of my ministry were here, this building couldn’t accommodate them.  But they couldn’t stop me one time! …APPLAUSE…  And they’re not going to stop you.

“Put on the whole armor of God, for we wrestle not with flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places, against demonic forces who are in those people,? who are motivating those people, who are causing those people to oppose everything of God that’s in your life.

They don’t dislike you.  They could care less.  They just don’t like to see someone with more power than they’ve got. …RESPONSE…  They’re mad now because Christians are getting hold of some of the money.  And they’re going to get a lot madder before it’s over.  …APPLAUSE…

  He said, “Put on the whole armour of God that you might withstand in the evil day.”  And I’m telling you, the evil day is all around us.  What I feel is that the church, what we call the church, is becoming a spectator sport.  Go into one and tell me where the power of God is.  Tell me where someone is getting healed.  Tell me where someone is speaking in tongues or prophesying or using one of the nine gifts of the Spirit.  Tell me.  Go to any of them.   Am I against them?  Certainly not.  I’m for everything good that they’re doing.  But in a minute I’ll show you where they’ve stopped and where we must not stop because we’d be just like them.  We’re not to be proud because we could be just like them.

He said, “Having done all to stand, stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth.”  Why did he use that piece of the armor first?

Now we’re adults.  I don’t see any children here. My loins are between my legs, as yours are.  This is where our procreative power is.  And God said, “Multiply.”  The only way God could have children and people born on this earth was to give people loins.  And He said, “For this reason they shall leave father and mother and cleave only unto each other and become one flesh.”

The only way they can become one flesh is when the male organ goes into the woman’s vagina.  That’s the only way they can be one.  There’s no other way.  And the physical oneness is to be the type of the spiritual oneness of the man and his wife.

And he said, “Deal with your loins.”

There’s something to avoid.  There’s a separation to be made in our attitude.  Not necessarily in not being with them, but in listening to them.  And also to avoid being a person who hinders people from coming to God, because our own lives are not godly, although we claim to be godly.

And to avoid being a scoffer, being a critic, where you’re miserable and nothing ever suits you.  That is very important to be avoided.  And God says you are to delight yourself.  You are not to do these three big things, but not to stop there.

I remember growing up in the Pentecostal movement where we were told not to do this, don’t do that, but they failed to tell us WHAT to do.  And God is trying to tell us, “Don’t do certain things, but here is what to do so you don’t do those things.”  Delight yourself in God’s Word.

The night I was converted at age 17 on a bed of tuberculosis, I memorized the books of the Bible, forwards and backwards.  So from that power I’ve been able to turn instantly to any book in the Bible.  The majority of Christians cannot find a book in the Bible very easy.  One of the first things to do when you get home is to memorize the books of the Bible so you can turn to it instantly.  Did you hear what I said?  …YES…  “Cause this is a deadly business that we’re in.  It’s between the devil and God. It’s between the godly and the ungodly.  We’re in a battle.

And now He says to delight ourselves in the Lord and in His Word and to meditate day and night.  You don’t have time?  Of course you have time.  Everybody has lots of time to meditate on the Word of God.

And He said, “You shall be like a tree when it’s planted.”  That is, God put you where He wants you.  And would you believe that most Christians don’t know that they’re in the place God wants them?  Would you believe that many of them are doubtful and wondering, Should I be here, or should I be somewhere else?

It’s a great defeatist spirit not to know where God wants you to be.  And God planted this tree and said that he would plant a man who is blessed not to do these things but to delight himself in the Word of God.  And He’s planted like a tree by the rivers, because there has to be an abundance of water for a tree to grow, to live, and to produce.  If the water stops, the tree dies.

It cost you $100,000 just to prepare the program, not counting the air time.  And I’m there praying.  I’m on the platform.  I’m a sponsoring pastor.  I said, “Yeah, Lord, speak to the people.”  The Lord said, “Son, I’m speaking to you.”  I said, “Yeah, Lord, speak to the people.”  I’m trying to drown out His voice.

I didn’t have it, but I went down there and stood, not with a thousand people, but 1,500 people.  God gave you more than what you asked for.  And as I stood there, I’ll never forget his prayer.  He said, “Lord, the majority of these people, they don’t have it.”  I said, “Lord, I know he’s a man of God.”  Didn’t have it.  But he said, “Give it back a hundredfold return.”

I want you to know God gave it back.  I went back and resigned that church.  God gave me a trailer, and we pulled that thing all over America, preaching the Gospel.  And this is out our 50th year, and I’ve never seen God fail-and He never will! (Response)

Now I sense in my spirit there’s a lot of people that you haven’t done what God wanted you to do.  It’s so easy to come down here when everybody comes.  Dollar bills, maybe that’s all you have.  But God’s speaking to some of you to give one of the greatest offerings you’ve ever given.  And I believe that if you will be obedient to God-we never even prayed.  Didn’t have to. The Holy Ghost took over.  And you still have time to get out of that seat and come down here and give your offering and get ready for a hundredfold return-not just money, but an anointing for this last day to reap the harvest.  Hallelujah!

CHARLES GREEN: Hallelujah!  Hallelujah!  When it was time for the children of Israel to build the tabernacle, they did not have to coax, nor beg, nor plead, but merely the word came saying, “It’s time to build.  And if you want to bring a freewill offering, you can do it.”

And the people began to move with such a determination and such a commitment that all at once every preacher’s dream comes true.  “We’ve got enough.  We don’t need any more.  You don’t have to bring any more.”

And God is saying in this hour, the word of the Lord is this, God says that revival, true revival is not just the local church being visited.  But God’s objective is that the society in which we live all over the earth is ready to be transformed.  The seed is being planted throughout all the earth, and the time has come that the harvesters are going to overtake those who are planting seed.

And a few days later I was out in the backyard mowing our yard, which Evelyn said was a very rare occasion at our place. And this neighbor leaned over the fence between us and said,  “Hey, young preacher, that old rattletrap car of yours is not worth much, is it?”  I said, “No, sir, it’s not.”  He said, “I’m the Buick dealer.  I want you to come down in the morning with your wife, drive the old car down, and I’m going to put you in a new Buick.”  I said, “You are?”  He said, “Yes, sir.”

So the next morning we went down there, and we came back in a brand-new Buick.  And, oh, it smelled so good.  Oh, did it smell good!  (Applause)  Now these were the days when we hadn’t had anything in life.  And, I tell you, the leather in that car smelled so sweet.

And Evelyn said, “Stop the car, stop the car.”  I said,  “What’s the matter?”  She said, “Stop the car.”  So I pulled over.  She said, “Get out.”  I said, “What’s the matter, Evelyn?”   She said, “Get out.”  And she put her hands on top of the car, said, “Put your hands up here with mine.”  I said, “What are we doing?”  She said, “Let’s just praise the Lord.”

And as the cars whizzed by, here’s a young man and his wife pounding on top of the car, praising the Lord.  And she said,  “Oral, this is not just a car.  This is a symbol of what God wants to do for His people.  This is a symbol of what He wants to do for us.”  (Applause)

My!  I think about that.  I think about that 53 years ago when I began to preach it and when I reached some influence across America and got on national television in 1954, and the millions began to hear us with a front-row seat.  And the board of one of the great Pentecostal denominations called me to meet them in Kansas City in a hotel room and to talk about Seed-Faith.

And I went up there, and they laid the boom down on me.  And they told me how unscriptural I was and what harm I was doing to the body of Christ by preaching on Seed-Faith, that it’s not money, it’s seed.  And you plant your seed and you expect a harvest.  And when you receive, you’re to give.  And when you give, you’re to receive.  And when you breathe out, you’re to breathe in.  And when you breathe in, you’re to breathe out.  And if you breathe out and stop, you’ll die.  If you breathe in and  stop, you’ll die.  So when you breathe out, when you give, then you breathe in.  You receive.  But if you stop with your receiving and don’t get back into giving, you’ll die.  I was preaching all of that.