Preached August 1939.
Published in the Pentecostal Evangel, December 30, 1939.

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” Hebrews 11:1-3.

Faith is a reality, and God wants to I bring us to the fact of it. He wants us to know that we have something greater than we can see or handle, because everything we can see and handle is going to pass away. The heavens are going to be wrapped up and the earth melt with fervent heat, but the word of the Lord shall abide for ever.

“Through faith we understand that the worlds were made by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” God spoke the word and made the world, and I want to impress upon you this wonderful word which made the world. I am saved by the incorruptible word, the word that made the world, and so my position by faith is to lay hold of the things which cannot be seen, and believe the things which cannot be understood.

Faith lives in a commanding position where you know God will work the miracle, if you dare to stand upon the Word.

Paul related his conversion many times over, and I believe it is good to rehearse what God has done for you. I have been privileged to be in many parts of the world, and have seen that God has arranged a plan for me. I said to our people, “The Lord is moving me to go out through the States and Canada.” When the Lord told me I said, “Lord, you have three things to do; you have to find money for home; and find money to go; and you have to give me a real change, for you know that sometimes my mind or memory is no good at all to me.” Straight away money came from all over and I said, “It is true God is sending me. I have already $250.” I went to Liverpool and a man said, “Here is $25 for you.” When I was on the ship a lady, poorly dressed, gave me a red sugar bag; and when the ship went I opened the red sugar bag and there was $250. Just as I was getting on the ship a man came and gave me a book and said, “There is a leaf for every day in the year.” The Lord said to me, “Put down everything that takes place in the month.” I did so, and I had a memory like an encyclopedia. You see, I never learned geography, and God sent me all over the world to see it.

The Lord has a way of making you equal to live in a place of command in the power of the Holy Ghost so long as you have learned the lesson needed. God will make us know how to live. I went to a Quakers’ meeting, quiet and still, and there was such a silence that I was moved. You know it is of faith, and so I jumped up and I had the time of my life. All these Quakers came round me. They said, “You are the first man that we have ever seen in this place who was so quickly led by the Spirit.” John says it is the unction of the Holy One, and you need no man to teach you, it is the Holy Ghost who teaches. It is simplicity itself.

When the ship began to move I said to the people, “I am going to preach on this ship on Sunday. Will you come and hear me preach?” They said no. Later they came around again and said, “We are going to have an entertainment and we would like you to be in it.” So I said, “Come in a quarter of an hour and I will tell you.”

They came round again and said, “Are you ready?” “Yes,” I told them, “I have got a clear witness that I have to be in the entertainment.” They said, “Well, what can you do?” I replied, “I can sing.” They said, “Now we want to know what position you would like to have on the program.” I answered, “Tell me what you are going to have on the program.” They said, “Recitations, instruments and many things.” I asked, “What do you finish up with?” “A dance,” they replied. “Well, put me down just before the dance.”

I went to the entertainment and when I saw the clerical gentlemen trying to please the people it turned me to prayer. Every hour had been bathed in prayer. When they had all done their pieces, my turn came and I went up to the piano with my “Redemption Song.” A lady who was rather less than half dressed, when she saw the music said, “I cannot play this kind of music.” I said, “Be at peace, young lady, I have music and words inside.” So I sang:

If I could only tell Him as I know Him,

My Redeemer who has brightened all my way;

If I could tell how precious is His presence,

I am sure that you would make Him yours today.

Could I tell it, Could I tell it,

How the sunshine of His presence lights my way,

I would tell it, I would tell it,

And I’m sure that you would make Him yours today.

God took it up, and from the last to the greatest they were weeping. They did not have a dance hut they had a prayer meeting, and six young men were saved by the power of God in my cabin.

Every day God was saving people on that ship. I never can forget a young man and woman who came to me. They were paid to look after a lady and gentleman in the first class. They said, “Our lady is in great distress. She is a Christian Scientist and she gets no relief. She has brought a doctor and he gives her no hope, and now she is in despair and we have told her about you.” They brought me to the door which they opened and I went in and stood at the door just inside. I looked at the lady who was in a poor state of health, and said, “I am not going to preach, I am going to stand here and pray, and I believe as I pray you will be perfectly healed.” While I was praying God healed her, and she shouted. She said, “This is something new; come over, will you?” I had the opportunity of bringing that woman into the fulness of redemption. God delivered her and she said she would not rest until she had gone through all England in Christian Science and had told them about the blood of Jesus.

Live in the Acts of the Apostles and you will see every day some miracle wrought by the power of the living God. Do not fail to claim your holy position so that you will overcome the power of the devil. The best time you have is when you have the most difficult position. Sometimes the strangest things happen for the furtherance of the gospel. I was at Southampton station and there were four men to see me into the train. They knew everything and I knew nothing, only I soon found that I was in the wrong carriage. There was a man in the carriage, and I said to him, “I have been to Bournemouth before, but I do not seem to be on the way. Where are you going?” He said, “I am going to South Wales.” I said, “Well, if I am wrong I am right. I have never once been wrong in my life only when I have been right.”

I asked, “What is the Lord Jesus Christ to you? He is my personal Friend and Saviour.” He replied, “I do not thank you to speak to me about these things.” The train stopped and I said to the porter, “Am I right for Bournemouth? How many stops?” He said, “Three.” I said to the man, “It has to be settled before I leave the train; you are going to hell.” That man wished he had never met me. The train stopped and I had to get out. I said, “What are you going to do?” He answered, “I will make Him my own.”

We are born of the incorruptible Word of God which liveth and abideth for ever, which made the world and brought into existence things that were not there, and there was nothing made but what He made, and so I realize I am made twice. I was made first by the creation of God. The next time I was begotten in a moment of time, eternally begotten, and if you believe in your heart you can begin to say, and whatsoever you say will come to pass if you believe in your heart.

A man came to me with two people assisting him. He said, “Can you help me?” He had a cancer in his chest, and when they operated they found the cancer entwined about the swallow. They took away the cancer and the only way to save his life was to take away the swallow. Now they knew he could never eat again, so they made a hole in his stomach with a tube. So for three months before he came to me he was feeding himself with different juices made by his wife, and they were pouring the liquid in. He was just a shadow of what life ought to be.

Could I help him? For faith is a fact, and as you live in the glorious possession of God’s wealth, you will find how wonderful it is. When this man stood before me I believed what Jesus said in Mark 11.23, “Believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he saith.” I said to him, “Listen, you shall eat a good supper.” He answered, “I cannot swallow.” I said, “Listen, you shall eat a good supper. Take him home.” His wife asked, “What has happened?” He said, “Nothing! You know I cannot swallow, but he has told me I shall eat a good supper tonight in the name of Jesus.”

He was ravenously hungry and he ate all his wife could give him. I had no need to go. All I had to do was to believe. As he chewed and chewed, God made his swallow as perfect as ever it was, and the food went down until he was full up. They had such joy, and when they woke the next morning they began to talk about the remarkable thing. He looked down to see the hole that the doctors had made, but God had closed it up. He had been a policeman in Switzerland, and as he went round again the people came out and said, “Let us go out and look at -----.” He said, “I am just full to overflowing with praises to God for the faith that works impossibilities.”

Ask God to give you the grace to use the faith you have. Peter had like precious faith. When you were saved it was by the like precious faith, wonderful faith.

Labels: 1939, Pentecostal Evangel