Meeting Transcripts

Called and Established, Sister Florence Crawford

"Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will chew thee"

"And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:"

"And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him, that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed" (Genesis 12:1-3).

It would seem a wonderful thing if, as we are sitting here this morning, God Almighty should call out our names individually and speak to us as He spoke to Abraham. Well, God said in His Word that in those days He spoke to the fathers through the prophets, but in these days He has spoken to us through His Son Jesus Christ. The call is just as clear and just as plain to us today as it was to that faithful old man of God in those days. God gave him a call to go out of that land and out of that country and into a land that He would show Him. He didn't just put His finger down and say, "To a certain place you will go, and at a certain place you will make your abode," as many people today have God speak to them. He had to step right out on naked faith and believe God and take Him at word. I praise God that the call of God is in our hearts to-day; that it does not only sound upon our ears, but it has to get into the very depths of our soul, down into our heart, in order that we may make the journey that God has called us to make.

I think many times of how faithful God is to speak to the heart and to the mind of people. He calls them definitely, and He calls them while they are yet sinners. All they have to do is to let that call get down into their heart; and real conviction will settle down upon the man or woman who has heard the call. That conviction will work godly sorrow for sin; and godly sorrow for sin will work repentance in the heart. Godly repentance in the heart will draw us to God where the Blood of Jesus Christ will flow over our soul, and sin will be washed away. The Spirit will answer to the Blood that we are redeemed, that we are free, that we are called and chosen of God, that we have set out for the Promised Land, that we have really purposed in our soul to make the goal at any cost.

How I praise God this morning! I wouldn't exchange this marvelous Gospel that came into my soul for a million worlds like this! How I praise God this Sunday morning that my ears ever caught the sound of the real Gospel of Jesus Christ! Oh, how I love this pure Gospel! How I thank God that our feet can start to-ward the Promised Land! We can take step after step, step after step, and God is back of every purpose, every plan, every motive that lies in our hearts that is born from Heaven. Oh, what a Gospel we have!

Thank God that the Spirit of God will draw a human heart to Him and make the plan of salvation so simple and so plain that a wayfaring man, though a fool, need not err therein.

"And ye murmured in your tents, and said, Because the LORD hated us, he hath brought us forth out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us."

"Yet in this thing ye did not believe the LORD your God" (Deuteronomy 1:27, 32).

Do you know that it is a very easy thing to have a heart of unbelief! It is a very easy thing, even after God has done wonderful and mighty things for us, to have a little unbelief down in our hearts. We know that after Jesus Christ had risen from the dead and His disciples were gathered together in a certain place, Jesus appeared to them and upbraided them for their hardness of heart and their unbelief.

We know that the very tendency of the human heart is downward. We know that from the very time that our forefathers committed sin in the Garden of Eden, in turning their back to God Almighty, the whole human race turned downward. Gravitation is toward the earth, and we know that the power of hell is drawing and pulling downward. But we know that there is a greater power than the power of gravitation. We know that there is a greater power than that, that the power of God is greater than the powers of the devil, and hell, and the grave; because God manifested that thing when He brought forth Jesus Christ from the grave. Today, while the very tendency of the human heart and nature is to doubt God and turn from Him, there is a great power that is operating on the hearts of men and women to draw them into full confidence and faith and assurance.

The great God of Israel, who moves upon the earth today is moving upon the hearts of men and women. It makes no difference how vile and full of sin they may be; it makes no difference how much degradation has entered into the very soul of a human being; God has power sufficient to meet the whole thing and cleanse and purge and mold; and pour the ointment—the oil, the faith, and the courage—into that soul. He will put a purpose in the heart, as He did in faithful Abraham, and start him toward the Promised Land.

Today, while the very tendency of the human heart and nature is to doubt God and turn from Him, there is a great power that is operating on the hearts of men and women to draw them into full confidence and faith and assurance.

I feel like going on. I am on my way to Glory. That song has been ringing through my soul these days, and I thank God that I do not feel like going back, not taking one backward step. Ever since the day God liberated my hell-bound and hell-deserving soul, there has been something in my breast that has been propelling me on. I know that in the breast of many who sit under the sound of my voice there has been that deep determination and that faith in God that makes them want to make the goal at any cost. Many have become discouraged along the way, have been overwhelmed by the awful oppression of darkness and disappointment. Many a saint has had that experience; but I want to tell you that God's chosen are marching on, and they are going to see the end of a Christian race. Many are wavering these days, and many are finding the way too narrow and the place too strait. Some people would like to build a tabernacle for themselves; but, oh, I thank God that the narrow way is good enough for me! I know that the Son of God is going to part the clouds some of these days and catch away His waiting Bride, and I want to be one of the number. I do want to be there when Jesus comes.

I used to sing that old song, "I want to be there, I mean to be there," and I always sang, "I expect to be there, I do." Hallelujah to the Lamb that was slain, but liveth again, to intercede for us this Sunday morning! Not yesterday, not a week ago, not a month ago, not fifteen or twenty years ago, but He liveth again to intercede for us this very day!

"Who went in the way before you, to search you out a place to pitch your tents in, in fire by night, to shew you by what way ye should go, and in a cloud by day."

Do you know that there is a pillar of fire by night and there is a cloud by day that is guiding the child of God? Do you know the thing that keeps the fire always in view at night and the cloudy pillar in view by day? It is the confidence in your soul in God Almighty. Faith is a marvelous thing. Without faith it is impossible to please God, but there is something that has to come before faith, and that is confidence in God.

You may ask a person, a friend, a neighbor, how far it is to a certain place; but if you haven't confidence in your heart that he will tell you the truth as far as he knows, you wouldn't waste breath asking him how far it is.

You must have confidence in His Word. We must have confidence in God Almighty in order to have faith in Him. Faith just pours into the soul when we have confidence in God.

Confidence in God is brought by Holy Ghost conviction. Conviction brings repentance and godly sorrow for sin. The very moment that you cry, "0h, God, be merciful to me a sinner," there is confidence planted in your heart by the Spirit of God. If you hold that confidence in your soul, you can move right up and on, from grace to grace, glory to glory, and experience to experience.

The trouble is that so many people get their confidence shattered. They will pray for God to do some great and marvelous thing for them, and they don't pray according to His will. They pray according to the desire of their own natural and carnal mind. While they may be saved from sin, yet there remains the root of sin—carnality in the heart. It is sometimes impossible for us to know just positively, even after the carnality has been destroyed at sanctification, even after we have been baptized with the Holy Ghost, just what God wants us to have and what He wants us to do; so our prayers are always to be in accordance with His will. That is the reason that when we pray to God, we say: "Lord, help our faith not to waver. Help us to pray in faith, believing. Nevertheless, not our will but Thine be done."

It is not necessary for us to lose faith and confidence in God just because certain prayers are not answered. God will answer enough prayers for you that are according to His will to give you enough confidence and faith in God to take you through to Glory. One answered prayer is enough.

The answer of salvation in your heart is sufficient evidence to give confidence that God is God, that He is real, when He saves that soul of yours. That is enough evidence in your heart to put living, abiding confidence in your soul to carry you through to bright Glory, even if you never knew that you would have another prayer answered while you live on this earth.

It spoils people sometimes to have too many prayers answered. They get puffed up over the thing. One man sits in this hall today who came to me with his face smiling and said, "Why, I know I have this experience because God answers my prayers." That is not the reason for confidence that you have an experience in your heart. God may be answering someone else's prayer. You don't know. Someone else may have prayed that very same prayer, and God answered his prayer instead of yours. The confidence that we have an experience in our heart is the assurance that God has wrought that experience in our heart according to the Word, according to the will of God, according to the Blood of Jesus Christ. The Spirit always answers to the Blood, and no soul need be in doubt.

A man talked with me one night in Tacoma, and then went to the altar and came back. He was smiling and his face was lit up. I said, "Brother, are you saved?" He said: "I believe that if I would claim it, God saved me. But I want the kind you got." I said: "Well, you can get it. You can get the real experience that you will absolutely know about." It wasn't that my experience was any better than anybody else's, but he was not satisfied. That was the point. If he had been satisfied he could have told the thing just as sure and just as straight as I could tell it, or you could tell it, or anyone else could tell it.

I'll tell you, God is stirring men and women in these days to get the real experience in their soul, and the Spirit of God bears witness with their spirit that they have been born again.

It is not sufficient to know that our sins and outward things have dropped out of our life, for conviction will do that many times. You get old-time, sky-blue conviction, and I tell you that if you have been frequenting the pool room, or the saloon or such places, you will just flee from those things and will hate the very sight of them. Many a man has come under such awful conviction that he would go to the saloon and to places he never went before, just to drown the sorrow and the conviction that was in his heart, while all the time he hated the thing. So it is the real Bible experience that counts. It is not the outward effects, although the outward effects are bound to come.

People said, because I had taken off my feathers and my flowers and my jewelry, and had stopped taking my carriage to go out in the evening for pleasure and had turned it into a conveyance to carry the sick out for a ride, take food to the hungry and clothes to the naked, "Why, that woman is sanctified! " Well, I want to tell you that you can take all the outward things off; you can do all that you like, all the good works you want to do; you can consecrate your life unto death; but if the fire does not fall on the consecration, you are not sanctified. You may say just what you please. The preachers and evangelists, holiness preachers of every kind, whom I interviewed and asked to help me, every one said I was sanctified. They didn't know what they were talking about. I want to tell you that it isn't what someone else says; it is what God says.

I was as ignorant as a Hottentot. I did not know how to get the experience. I did not know how to find the thing. My soul was so hungry that I could almost scream. I felt something crying out in my soul for more of God. I was searching hither and yon and every place, but I couldn't find anyone who could help me. Many times I would throw my hands up into the air and just cry: "0h God, there is more for me. How can I get this longing in my soul satisfied?" If I had been as wise as a third of you, or a half of you people, or perhaps all of you, I would have gone down upon my knees, and God would have given it to me; but I didn't know how to find it. I consecrated my life to God. I did everything in my power. I just did everything I knew, but still the thing didn't come. But I always will believe that God wanted it to come in the very place it did, at the very time it did, and I have never ceased to praise God that He at last gave it to me.

A sinner can get just a glimpse of the Kingdom—it is afar off; but Jesus has brought the Kingdom nigh to those who are even under conviction.

I praise God today for a second, definite experience—sanctification. Oh, that holy flame that came from Heaven into my soul! I had nothing more, it seemed, to consecrate to God, but I want to tell you that God gave the thing to me when I met every condition, and had somebody to lead me a step. It seemed that I was led just a step.

The thing that shook me and wrecked my confidence was that I thought I was different from anyone on earth. I thought: You are different from anyone on earth; nobody has the thing that you are after; certainly it must be that you are getting excited, and you are wanting something more than other people have. But that was not the case at all. I wanted to come in contact with people who could lead me into that experience. I found them; and I got it.

It is the greatest thing that ever came down to this old earth, and you don't have to lower the standard of justification in order to preach sanctification. God will save from sin. He will strip you for the race. He will put a purpose in your heart; and, above everything else, He will put a hunger in your soul when He saves you.

Let us turn to Deuteronomy chapter 1, verses 34 to 36.

"And the LORD heard the voice of your words, and was wroth, and sware, saying,"

"Surely there shall not one of these men of this evil generation see that good land, which I sware to give unto your fathers, Save Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him will I give the land that he hath trodden upon, and to his children, because he hath wholly followed the LORD."

Do you see? There is the secret of the thing. You may murmur; you may complain; you may set up judgment of the way's being too narrow; you may find fault; you may do anything you like with yourself, with the Gospel, with the saints, with the preachers. That is your privilege, but I thank God that there are a few people who do not have it in their heart to do that, and are striving to make the goal.

God had given those Children of Israel wonderful experiences. He parted the Red Sea, and He did all these great and mighty things for those people. He brought the plagues upon the land at His will, and took

His children out with a mighty hand. He closed the sea upon their enemies, and they praised God for that great and wonderful deliverance that had come to them. And, still, because someone went over into that land and brought back a report that the giants were tall and the spies had seemed like grasshoppers in front of the giants, that the high walls towered up before them, they found it in their hearts to murmur. But there always has been, always will be, someone who will see straight through to the Throne of God, who will be an example to those who are weak, to those who are tossed about and have lost their confidence. God always has someone who can help point them right through, above the high walls, above the giants. It is not the high walls or the giants. It is the power of God in the Word.

"And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, to love the LORD your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul" (Deuteronomy 11:13).

It ought to be an easy thing to serve God with all our heart and with all our soul. It seems a hard thing to some, and many can hardly find it in their heart to put their whole soul and life into the service of God. I thought, as I was in Canada a few days ago, of the mothers and their babies who are watching for the return of their loved ones from the war. Many women have given up their houses and have gone to take apartments with their little families, and they are just living daily to get a letter from the front, and their heart is anchored and settled in their loved ones who are "over there."

I thought: How like the Bride of Christ and Jesus Christ—the One to whom the children of God are married, even Jesus Christ. Their hope is anchored within the veil, and they are waiting and longing; and every word, whether it is preached from this Bible or whether it is given out in testimony from a fellow saint, praising and exalting that Christ, brings a sweetness that we love above everything on earth. We long for His coming and are just waiting and watching.

How many of the saints of God have sold their homes and have moved into little humble houses, that they could come to the Mission and worship God and praise Him, and look forward and wait, and yet occupy until He comes!

I would rather be the Bride of Christ today, with my Loved One over there, who loves me with all His heart, who cares for me, who heals me when I am sick, who feeds me when I am hungry, who clothes me when I need it, than anything else in all the world. He is my Helper; He is my Sustainer.

We have those dear to us in the flesh who are on this earth, but sometimes how they will prick us to the heart with disappointment, and many times our fellow saints will grieve us in the spirit by something that they do. But oh, there is One whom we can fly. to, even Jesus, the Lover and Redeemer of our souls! We can lift our cross once more, and press forward with a shout of victory in our soul.

0h people, I would just love to see every saint and every minister and every street worker, every hospital worker, every jail worker—they are all so precious—and the little mothers in their homes, who have no visible part in this work—oh, how I long to see all of them with their whole heart and their whole soul centered on the One, even Jesus, who is coming back to this world speedily!

We are living in awful days. If the thought of a great war breaking out upon this country, the United States, had come three years ago, consternation would have reigned in almost every home, in every community, in every city. Now we can be on the very verge of our nation's going into war, and people simply pay no attention to it at all. Some will say, "Well, I thought it would come." Others say, "I never expected it would come." But they just go on indifferently. It may be that our sons and daughters —I mean the nation's sons and daughters, may be plunged into awful bloodshed and war; but there is not as much stir about those things as there should be, and there is a reason for that thing. I'll tell you, people's hearts and ears are getting accustomed to awful things coming upon the earth; and without knowing it, they have almost taken on that awful spirit of antichrist and are just waiting for the thing to come to pass.

Oh., how I praise my God today that it is not so with the children of God! They do not fear the calamities of the earth; but down in their heart there is a settled peace, there is a quietness, there is a rest that the world can know nothing about. We don't know how far God is going to permit these awful things to come to pass before He catches away the waiting Bride and takes them to Himself and shuts them away in the clouds—away from the awful storm and deluge that is going to sweep over this world. One thing we do know: that we must love God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength; and then it will be as easy to follow wholly the Lord as it is to open our mouth to speak.

That is such a marvelous thing to me to find that there is no struggle, that there is no strain when we get into the real Gospel of Jesus Christ! There isn't a struggle at all. The struggle is over, and you are just waiting and praying and looking forward to every opportunity that you can have to consecrate deeper, to lay aside some selfish desire, to lay aside something that might hinder you from just drawing closer to the sky and getting more ready to meet the Son of Man in the air. How I praise Him this morning!

Let us turn to the 119th Psalm.

"Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the LORD."

"Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart."

Isn't that food to your soul? That was such a revelation to me! When I was in sin, dancing on the ballroom floor, God spoke out of Heaven to me—raised an infidel, cradled in "Bob Ingersoilism"—and called me to be His child. But that thing that God planted in my heart that I could wholly follow the Lord, that I could love Him with all my heart, that I could give Him my life—I didn't know how to do it; but how I did love the thought that I could give Him my whole life! It falls upon your heart that way, just sweet as honey in the honeycomb, when God has really appeared in that heart of yours and has given you an insight—a glimpse—into that Kingdom of Heaven.

A sinner can get just a glimpse of the Kingdom—it is afar off; but Jesus has brought the Kingdom nigh to those who are even under conviction. He will part the clouds just a little and give you a small glimpse of the Kingdom; and then, as you step out and on, and get deliverance and His love in your soul, and you become His own child, the Kingdom of Heaven becomes so near that you can see it. It begins to come down into that heart of yours, and God sets up His Kingdom in that soul. 0h people, that is the most wonderful thing!

We have been wishing in these past few days that we could go into afternoon meetings and into some place where we could take this old Bible and just unfold the fundamental principles, just go over everything that has been taught and preached under the sound of this Gospel. God has raised many up to be real monuments and bulwarks against the powers of hell, who are able to stand, but others are weak and sickly and lack faith. If we could only help them to get real confidence to lay hold on God! It seems that if there ever was a time in the history of the world when we need to bring all things to our remembrance, it is today; and God is already laying things up in our soul for the next camp meeting. I just wish we could go on that campground, if Jesus tarries, and scarcely eat or sleep, but just devour this Bible. If God would only give the strength so that we could be in the meetings night and day, and we could get that old Bible right down in our hearts!

The Lord draweth nigh, and we know not the day nor the hour when He shall appear, but we do know that He said, "Watch" -- and in our heart of hearts we are watching. People have been writing from far and near, begging us to come and tell the Story; and I thought: How can we ever go? There is so much to do so much to do! But the thought came to my heart: God, send me. I will go. I will weather anything; I will do anything if I can only get the Gospel out to people.

The devil is trying to rob people of their faith and their confidence; and the thing we are here for today is to encourage the saints to hold on to their faith, and not lie down; but get into the Gospel with everything that is in them, and battle the enemy to the very gates.

One time in a northern city, when we were having so much to do — working on the paper in the day-time, and attending the meetings at night—as I sat there that Sunday morning I looked over the saints who were so hungry for the Word of God, and I said, "0h God, if You will just give strength we will have afternoon meetings in this city." I thought: What if I should leave this city without having afternoon meetings, and after I would go away God would point me back and bring condemnation on my soul, and point me back to that place and say, "You could have had afternoon meetings, and you didn't have them." I said, "0h God, we will have them." We announced them, and God gave strength, and the saints were helped and blessed and built up.

I tell you, people, we have to keep in that attitude before God that we can keep the thing fresh within our hearts. We must pray according to the will of God and according to the plan of God, but we have to keep our heart open lest we should get a little tinge of condemnation. We must keep right in the place that God would have us to be in.

I'll tell you, there is one Gospel that is going to sweep over this earth and save souls; and you know it, as well as I know it. Someone has to carry the Gospel out to dying souls so that men might hear about the power of God to save, the power of God to redeem and cleanse.

Today lost humanity is running to the preachers, they are running to the pulpits, and trying to get interviews with people; and do you know that now, almost universally, these so-called ministers of the Gospel, when people come for interviews with them, are saying that it is impossible to live without sin, that Jesus was not divine, that He did not die with sufficient power to save from sin and break habits and appetites! "Do the best you can. Change your environments. Join the church. And you will be free." How many have told me that!

And on this trip up North many come to me just in that condition. I'll tell you, it stirred me to my very soul! I said, "God, if You can keep this old body of mine on my feet --" And I went deeper than that and said, "God, if You have to take me on a stretcher over this country, I will preach this Gospel."

I want to tell you, it is no little thing to stand with the Word of God in your hand and have faith, in God Almighty to see Him slay sin and condemn sin in the flesh, and have it in your power to stand before the people in testimony, in prayer, or in preaching the Word -- it matters not which.

You will have to answer to God if you don't get the Word out before the people. I'll tell you these are wonderful days! powerful days! awful days!

"Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect unto all thy commandments."

"I will praise thee with uprightness of heart, when I shall have learned thy righteous judgments."

Do you know, a shade or a tinge of doubt never comes over the man or the woman whom God Almighty has redeemed and has given the determination to follow wholly the Lord. God's people will never be ashamed. They will come and counsel—the learned men will come and ask you questions, and there is something in your heart that can always give an answer to the hope that you have in you.

If there is something in your heart that questions the doctrine of baptism by immersion, that questions divine healing, that questions the second coming of Jesus, that questions the ordinance of the Lord's Supper or the Washing of the Disciples' Feet, or places little significance on that wonderful commandment of Jesus Christ, and there is always something shaky and trembling about you when someone touches on that point, and you weaken and fall down, then people can feel that there is no stability in the answer that you give to them. But I want to tell you, when you wholly follow the Lord, when His commandments and His statutes are not grievous unto you —but you love them with all your heart —then you want only to know His will and you are ready to step out onto the thing. All you have to do is to let God drop some nugget of truth down where your ears can hear it, and it will lodge in your heart, and, you will say, "God, I am just here to step right out into all the fullness of God." God's people are not ashamed to-day. They can face the world; they can face men and devils; they can face any condition or circumstance, because they know in whom they have believed, and they have it wrought out in their heart.

"I will praise thee with uprightness of heart, when I shall have learned thy righteous judgments."

The judgments of the Lord are true. The judgments of the Lord are nothing more nor less than the commandments and the statutes and ordinances. It is all summed up in one thing, and the man or the woman who has it down in his heart can praise the Lord with uprightness of heart.

"Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word."

"With my whole heart have I sought thee: let me not wander from thy commandments."

That was the desire of that holy man of God who had fallen by the wayside and had gotten into trouble. God's Spirit was calling him back; and when he began to seek God, oh, how he threw his life at His feet! how he knew that sin proceeded out of the heart! that that was the seat of all sin and evil-doing; and with his whole heart he rejoiced in God when he got back. All of these things -the commandments, the judgments, the ordinances and everything of the Lord -- fell right into his heart.

Now, people, today you can get any experience you want from God. You don't have to be feeling around about this thing. You don't have to be questioning. You don't have to be wondering whether the thing is for you. This morning if you have had any ears at all to hear, you know that God's Spirit convicts of sin. You wouldn't be here this morning if the Spirit of God was not in some measure operating upon your life. You would be someplace else; but you are here this morning, and you have that to thank God for, that the Spirit of God is in some measure operating upon your heart.

You may have come here with a purpose to fight the Gospel. You might be here out of curiosity. You might be here because you are without friends, and you can't go anyplace else. It doesn't make any difference how you happened to come here. God has brought you here; and now you just let the Word sink into your heart --- and you take one step toward God. The soul that is discouraged, you who feel that you have tried and tried and you haven't been able to get anywhere, you just go back to the very foundation. Some people may be scared to death of throwing away their confidence —who haven't a speck of confidence to throw away. If they had any confidence, they wouldn't be seeking like that.

Some people come to me and say: "I know the Lord saved me, but I am not just settled. I don't just feel right about the thing, but I am afraid to go back and seek the Lord again. I am afraid I will be throwing away my confidence." Well, you haven't any confidence to throw away. If you had, you would have the thing you need.

Now, I don't want everyone who is seeking God for deeper experiences to come here and seek God for salvation. I am not talking about that, but I am talking about people who are just driven and tossed and driven by the power of the enemy, and have failed to get settled on the Rock. Now you can go down before God wherever you are—at your seat, at this altar. You know you are living without sin, you know God has done much for you; but you are just shaky in your faith and in your confidence, and in your consecration. Just now, while you go down on your knees, say "God, You just put that confidence in my soul. I will plead the Blood to flow over me just now. I will set my stake right today, and I will have that thing that is in the Word of God for me." You can get it.

If you are seeking your baptism, and you are discouraged and feel: "Well, I don't know whether I can get it or not," then just pull that buckle up just another inch or two, that girdle that God has put on you, and say "I know when God saved me. I know I have lived without sin from the day that God saved my soul. I know when He sanctified me. I know that the work stood. Now God, I am going to have my baptism at any cost. God, let the Blood flow over me. Purify my faith. Put within me that confidence and that faith that will just battle the thing right through." I believe God will do the thing for you.

The same is true in the healing of your body. The devil tries to get everybody sick, and lets everything come to discourage people. That is all he does it for. But the thing God wants us to do is just to stand like a rock. When they sent us word that this one was sick —and that one was sick—and this had happened—and that had happened—why, there wasn't a tremor in our soul. We knew that was the devil, right from the beginning. All we had to do was to hold steady and trust the Lord and look to God in confidence. I always begin to praise God for what He has done, when the devil turns up something.

I always begin to praise God for what He has done: that He has healed the sick, that He has wrought such wonderful miracles; and before I know it, the faith is just bounding in my soul. The devil is trying to rob people of their faith and their confidence; and the thing we are here for today is to encourage the saints to hold on to their faith, and not lie down; but get into the Gospel with everything that is in them, and battle the enemy to the very gates.