22-0710A_THE ARROW OF GOD'S DELIVERANCE
The Arrow Of God's Deliverance Shot From A Bow
25 And Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz took again out of the hand of Ben-hadad the son of Hazael the cities, which he had taken out of the hand of Jehoahaz his father by war. Three times did Joash beat him and recovered the cities of Israel.
And he said, Open the window
eastward. And he opened it. Then said Elijah, Shoot. And he shot. And he said,
This is the arrow of the LORD's deliverance...
May He add His
blessings to the reading of the Word: "The Arrow Of God's Deliverance Shot
From A Bow."
E-16
Now, you know, no--no matter how mysterious it seems, God always keeps His
Word. No matter how unreasonable it may seem to people, God keeps His Word. And
if God makes a promise of anything, God will keep that promise. You and I make
a promise, we--we break it because we don't mean to have to do it, but
sometimes circumstances causes us to do it.
But when God, being infinite, then He knows all the future from the
beginning, and He can't... He don't make a--a promise 'less He--He knows what's
going to happen. And He always keeps His promise. Sometimes it seems like
it's--it's ridiculous the way that He would go around about to keep His promise,
but God always does it.
E-17 How strange that the people might thought
in the days of Noah when he was building away on an ark to save himself and his
household, that there'd be rain come down out of the heaven. But God rained it
just the same.
And I think of Moses, how that Moses, standing up there on the mount by the
side of this burning bush, he'd lost all hopes of freedom. Didn't seem like
that the freedom that the people he so gallantly stood for one time, was ever
going to happen. But in the Light of God, standing by that burning bush,
everything in him changed.
And I think it's the same today, that many of us lose the sight of freedom. I
think here, here's a little boy setting before me, probably an infantile
paralysis, little arms twisted up. I--I look at a--a lady here with a white
cane setting in front of me, a--a--probably a blind woman; lovely young lady
laying here on a--a little cot. And maybe many of you there with cancer, heart
trouble, and--and diseases that--that's going to kill you, but you lose all
thought of freedom as soon as doctor says it's incurable.
E-18 Why, brother, if we'd ever come in the
Presence of God like Moses did, why, it was a revolutionary to him. Why, I...
It would revolutionize. When the... In the Light of that Angel of God standing
there on that mountain that day, everything that he once had, or thought never
would happen, come to be a reality.
And I think if men and women today would ever step into the Light of the Holy
Spirit, under the unction of God's Spirit and the Light of God's Word,
everything that God has promised will illuminate to you and be real again.
E-19 Why, the reason Moses failed in
the first place... Here's what was the matter. It was the lack of having what
the burning bush had. That's right. And what's our failure today, is lack
having what the Holy Spirit has. And the Holy Spirit has all good things for
us. And if we receive the Holy Spirit, then all things are possible; and not
only possible, but promised to
us. Jesus said, "Ask the Father anything in My Name, I'll do it. If ye
abide in me and My word's in you, ask what you will, it'll be given to
you." See? When we step into the Light of God's Word, with the unction of
the Holy Spirit to shine the Light on It, brother, the impossible becomes
little things then.
God asks us to believe His
Word. He sends the Holy Spirit to energize that Word when He falls into It.
When the Word's being preached and the Holy Spirit brings the Word, He
energizes that and flashes the same Light of God's blessed promise. God said,
"I have remembered My promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and I'm sending
you down there to do it." See? Then when God's Word, His promise becomes
enlightened by the Presence of the Angel of the Lord, stop Moses now; he's on
his road. And God always keeps His promise.
E-20 And in our text tonight it's a very
outstanding text to me, that when... They'd had a great line of kings since the
death of Ahab. And
Elijah had told him of how he was going to die, and what God was going to do because
he was wicked, and how that Jezebel was going to be fed to the dogs because
that she'd did the evil thing that she had done.
And remember, my brethren and sisters, you'll reap what you sow. You
that... Well, that's God's law. That's God's law of nature. You reap what you
sow. (1 KINGS 21)
E-21 So now,
dear people, you here in Shreveport, let this be a warning to you. If you
believe me to be God's servant, listen. The best thing for you to do around
Life Tabernacle and everywhere else is keep an old fashion prayer meeting
going, and keep the unity of the Spirit, keep looking up and watching for the
coming of the Lord. Keep all the worldliness out of you, no matter how bad it
hurts; circumcise by the Holy Ghost will cut away the worldly things. Now, I begin
to feel a lot of worldliness creeping into you. So now, get that out. No matter
how bad it is, I... Life Tabernacle I'm talking to. Now, you Baptist brethren,
talk to your people over there the same way.
But I begin to notice there's something different. It ain't the same Life
Tabernacle I used to come to. And I want you to remember tonight, you keep that
old fashion prayer meeting. Keep the old fashion Holy Spirit falling among you.
Keep the world out. Seal Christ in. And you're letting down in prayer some way.
Just remember, as you sow you'll reap. Just remember that.
E-22 You've
got one of the best churches I ever walked into in my life of anywhere, on any
continent. Life Tabernacle's one of my favorites. It breaks my heart to see you
letting the world reach into you the way you're doing. So don't do that no
more. Snap out of it. Pray out of it, and let God come back and take over.
Submit yourselves to God and get the old fashion blessing back again.
And Shreveport, you dear, dear southerners down here, who are the finest people
I ever met... I don't say that to compromise with you; I say it because I love
you. If you want to get some real good treatment, and real good, old fashion
hospitality, come to Louisiana. I mean that from my heart.
And I tell you, don't let the world creep into you. Don't let the world
get into your churches, brethren. Pray it out, fast it out until God comes down
and takes a hold. That's right. Keep the joy of the Lord among the saints. Keep
them prayed up. And guard every little place. If Noah seen a leak in his ark,
why, he put some pitch in it. And so that's about the best thing I know to keep
the leak out, the world out, is to stop up the leak, is the best thing that I know to do. Only one way to do it; that's prayer.
Prayer stops the leak. Prayer changes things.
E-23 Now, a long line of kings had come down.
Ahab, the wicked one, had been shot by a bow and killed. And Jezebel was throwed
out of the room as she tried to--to make love, or dance. Or Jehu, when he drove
down, and he had the eunuchs to throw her out the window into the street.
And did you know what? Let me
tell you, Life Tabernacle. Seeing some of you women begin to wear your makeup
and stuff like the rest of the women of the world, that nearly killed me when I
walked in here the other day and saw that. Look. There's only one woman in the
Bible that ever painted her face. You don't paint your face to meet God; you do
to meet men. And the woman that did that, God fed her to the dogs. So when you
go to wearing that, just remember, God's turned you over to some dog meat, when
you see anybody doing that.
E-24 Now, now,
keep away from it. Shun the very appearance of evil. You may think I'm giving
you a scorching, but, brother, I believe it needs it down here. There's something
that is wrong. There's something... Now, I don't want you to get angry with me;
I'm your brother. And God's going to make me answer before you at the day of judgment.
That's right.
And the whole Pentecostal
world, if they do let down, don't you do it. You stay true to God. Pray up.
Live right. Associate yourself with God and His people. And come out from among
the worldly, ungodly things, that the Bible said. The Holy Spirit calls the people out. No matter what your
neighbor does and how good she is, what this fellow does, don't associate with
that unbelief. It'll leap right out on you. Amen. "Come out from among
them. Be ye separated," saith God, "and I will receive you."
That's right.
That's the reason it's so hard to have a tent meeting down here. That's the
reason it's so hard to have a meeting of any type, is because that we let down those
things. We ought to have a real meeting here. Sure we ought to have, with such
fine people. And you preachers, if you don't tell them that, God have mercy on
your sinful soul. That's right. Sure. There's something wrong. And you got to
get the world out before Christ come in. He just won't associate with unbelief
and things of the world.
(AHAB — AHAZIAH — JEHORAM — JORAM - JOASH)
E-25 Now,
look, friend. Down along--they come along after Ahab, of borderline believers,
all the way down. After this Ahab had left, then another one taken his place,
another one, till we get down to King Joash, was king during this time. And he
was a lukewarm, borderline preacher, or believer. Any way the people wanted to
do, that was all right with Joash. Oh, he'd taken out a few of the high places,
and where the heathen worship was, and He done a few of these things, but yet
he departed not from the sins of his father, and like that. Just any way the
people wanted to go, that's the way he wanted to go.
Now, isn't that just exactly like preachers today? The way the
congregation wants to do, that's the way the preacher preaches to them. I want
to tell you: a God-sent, Holy Ghost borned preacher won't compromise with any
congregation. That's right.
Could you imagine John the
Baptist, when they brought out Herodias that night, and Herod. Why, John walked
right to his face, and said, "It's not lawful for you to have her."
That man had the Holy Ghost. He didn't compromise; he told the truth. And what
about it now? It's all over. What will it be at the day of judgment, when the
head of John the Baptist rolls up before Herodias? What will it be then?
E-26
Brother, if you're ever going to make a stand for God, make it now. This is the
time. Now's the time when we need of it. Nows the time when the church is
weighed in the balance and found wanting. After all these great miracles, and
signs, and wonders that God has sent men across the country doing, and yet the
church is in the poorest, backslidden state I ever run up in years. That's
right. I'm preaching to Pentecostals. Amen.
When I first come among your groups ten years ago, it
looked like a church; but today it looks like the world. It's the truth.
Something happened somewhere. You got to wearing better clothes, got to making a
little more money, and it just made a sap out of you; that's all. Now, you...
That's the truth. That's right. You're trying to--you're trying to act like the
rest of the world.
You just take... Today is a compromising time. That's true. You paint your steps
red and watch and see if your neighbor don't paint his steps red. Sure. You
wear a little round hat to church with a little feather up in it and watch all
the women come to church with a little round hat and a feather up in it. That's
right. Yes, sir. All of them want to look like one another.
E-27 It's a
matching time. You know that's true. It's a matching time. Amen. That must've
went home. That's right. Listen. That is true. Now, I'm going to tell you, my
brother: I don't care whether my shoes match my trousers, or my trousers
matches my coat. I want my experience to match God's Bible. That's the matching
time.
If you want to match something, match your experience against Paul's. Amen.
That's what we need today, is a matching time with Paul's faith in the Bible.
That's our example. Right. Real matching time... Don't try to match your
neighbor; match--match some of the saints of the Bible. If you're a saint, act
like a saint, walk like a saint, dress like a saint, talk like a saint, pray
like a saint, believe like a saint, dress like a saint, be like a saint, live a
saint, die like a saint and go to heaven like a saint. Amen.
E-28 Separating
time... This borderline believing, this halfway, lukewarm, do you know the
Bible said this day would come? The Laodicean Church Age, He said you'd just be
lukewarm and make God sick at His stomach. He said He'd spew you from His
mouth. The Laodicean, just enough religion to make you sick. We're still
longing for the things of the world, say, "I'd better not do that."
Oh, brother, if I wanted to do it, I'd do it. But I know tonight that there's a
good, old fashion baptism of the Holy Ghost that makes you love God so well you
don't care to do it anymore. Amen.
It's the joy unspeakable and full of glory. How the old saints of God used to
set around and sing the redemption song, and sing of the Blood and the power of
God. And today it's as cold as zero nearly. You don't have them old fashion
songs you used to sing. You don't see their faces light up no more, and sing
and clap their hands, and raise their hands to God, and praise God, pray all
night, and lay out in the corn fields, and things. Why, you can't set in church
thirty minutes without grumbling and growling. True. It's the truth.
Borderline, lukewarm, Laodicean... My, shame on you.
E-29 Oh, what a day that we're living in, like
the day of Joash, borderline, halfway, lukewarm, blowing away, tossed about,
wind, clouds without rain, tossed about, never learning, able to come to the
knowledge of the truth. Don't be tossed about by everything. Don't be tossed
about by what you see on the television. Why, some Christians today are staying
home on Wednesday night to see the television. You know that's true. Why, you
know that's the gateway of all Hollywood out there. Why, it's nothing else but
a bunch of big prostitution, and some of the vulgar...
Look on the police records; I have them. Police records, where them movie
stars... And you want to act like them? What happened to Christ? What happened
to the saints in the Bible? You're trying to pattern after Hollywood, and dress
like Hollywood, and act like Hollywood. The reason of it is you got a lot of
Hollywood evangelistic preachers, jump up-and-down on the platform, and spend
two hours for the offering. We ought to get out of that stuff and trust God,
lay on our faces and pray, pour out...?... God-sent, old fashion Holy Ghost
revival again. Amen. That's right. It's a shame the way we're acting. Get back
to God.
E-30 Now, this
old king, he thought he would just go any way the winds blowed, tossed about by
everything. Why, you're never stable. You don't know what you do believe. And
the people today, they'd rather stay home and see "I Love Lucy," or
what is that? Lucy--Lucy something. They're very loosey; I'll take that again.
They're loose enough, they're running to hell. Exactly. That might be all right
for the--from the heathens, but that's not for Christians. That's right. It's
not for Christians. Christians won't...?... and love the Word of God. If you've
got something in you feeding on such nonsense as that, you need to repent.
That's right.
All your old rock-and-roll and boogie woogie, where did it come from? Out of
the heart of Africa. I just left Africa. You women with that paint on, you know
where it come from? That's a mark of heathenism. They paint their face, and
that's where you got it from. Heathens does it. Christians wash their face.
Amen. That's right. That might kind of scorch a little, brother. You better be
scorched here than burnt somewhere else. So you better get right. Amen.
E-31 God loves the Truth. And the Truth shall
set you free. God wants you to know the Truth. Christ is the Truth, the Holy
Ghost...?... [Congregation worships--Ed.] He's here now, the Holy Spirit,
likes...?... power...?... under consideration His Word. And if the Holy Ghost
is in you, He feeds on the Wor--Word of God, and not on televisions, and
"True Story" magazines and love books. That's you people calling
yourselves Christians wrap yourself up in. Why do your children...?
Just--just looky here. In less than three months time every teen-age kid in the
country from five years old to eighteen knowed who David Crockett was. All out
on the street singing, "Davy Crockett." Some kind of fiction story,
nonsense: killed a bear when he was three years old. How crazy. But the kids
will wear coonskin caps and everything else and guns on their side. Oh, a
ten-cent store is just full of it, everywhere else. Nonsense.
And you Christians, with the message of God, if the world could put that over
and sell a lot of nonsense and stuff to kids, how much more ought the Christians
to put over the program of the Lord Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy
Ghost, the resurrection, and Eternal Life, the coming of the Lord. There's a
hundred--thousands of kids tonight in America could tell you all about Davy
Crockett and don't know a word about Jesus Christ.
E-32
What's the matter? That's why they're staying at home, stuck they're head in a
television instead of the Bible. Got nothing against the television, if it's
used for God's program, all right. It was God's way in the first way. Who made
the airwaves and so forth? But the devil just took it and perverted it, is all it
was.
Hollywood got a hold...
Anything they get a hold of is rotten 'cause they can't come for nothing else.
I read in a crime magazines where those most famous women out on the street of
prostitution at fifty dollars a night, living with men and things all up and
down the coast, and then run out there and some other four of five husbands...
And you little girls want to pattern yourselves after that? When the man out
there that's supposed to be such movie actors and so forth, when they live with
women so much till the natural course of life is changing, and they become
perverted. And saying you want to pattern yourselves after that?
Look yonder at Calvary
where a Man hung on the cross and died. The only real Example that was ever put
in the world for human beings to live by is the Man Christ Jesus. Amen. That's
right. Then we call ourselves Christians and harmonize our souls with such as
that. No wonder the world leaks in. No wonder something's happening. No wonder
you can't have soul stirring meetings anymore, because the world leaked in:
borderline, halfway, wishy-washy, oh, my, what a condition.
E-33 In the face of all that now, to show you
there's a hope... This old king Joash heard that the prophet was sick, and he
went down to visit him. And
when he went to visit him, he didn't come irreverent. He would come with
respect. He walked up. He had enough God about him to know that he must visit
this prophet with respect. So he walked up and wept over him, and said,
"My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and the horsemen
thereof." And when he did...
See, that's the way you
want to get something from God. Don't come around a meeting like this to make
fun. Don't come around to pack some kind of a tale from one place to another.
If you do that, you'll never get nowhere with God. Don't read the Bible to fuss
about it. Read the Bible to live it. That's right.
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