Yielding 30-, 60- or 100-fold

Elisha said, “Bring your vessels, not a few.” So how do we comply with that? Where do we fit in there? Are we supposed to go to the kitchen and see how many vessels we have and then just rap on the apartment doors and, “Would you lend me a…?” What would they think of me? Would you rap on the next door, “ Do you… could you lend me a big pot?” In other words, would you lend me a big kettle? What does it mean to us?

I think we were talking about that the other day: “I want to…” I’m saying, any child would say, “I want to go to the… I’m in a fourth grade, I want to go to the fifth.” And some [x] says, “Well, I want a nice meal.” And it’s not…it doesn’t stop just with that “I want.” But what do we do instead of just saying, “I want, I want, I want, I want”? [woman: “I will.”] Um-hmm. “I will.”

Because she just stood there and looked at Elisha and said, “Well, I really would like to do this. I really would love to get to the place where I could have something done about this. I want…” What did she have to do? [woman: She has to be willing to do what the Lord had told her to do to give all of the oil that she had.]

Action, action; she did something about it. So, say, we’re here tonight and we can want to move out in the Lord and move out to find our place, whatever it is, different ones that are in, say, different grades and we want to have something more. But we have to, as you said, empty ourselves and give up what… there, she had to give up the last she had.

One thing she had to do was to give up what she had. She couldn’t keep her oil there somewhere and just expect the neighbors to start with it. She had to start with the oil. It was at her house that it was started, right in her home. And they lent the vessels and they were willing. But she had to set up the whole thing in her own heart, in her own home, her own life, and just start right there. And not just wait and say, “Well, I want to do this,” and say to the neighbors, “Well, I hope this works. There’s a man in my house and he has told me to borrow this, and I really don’t know what it’s all about. I’m not sure about it anyhow what’s going to happen, so we’ll just see. But you just wait and I’ll let you know something later.”
18: But she did this by faith, right? She knew this was going to work. That when she got filled, emptied out what she had out of the little bit, that there would be something there for him to start with and just have everything ready. So when he started, he… and saying, “The Lord fill this one, fill the next one,” they were just pushing pots and pans and everything they could get. And no more, and then the oil stopped, [until] any more empty vessels. So everything was filled, but it wasn’t up.

Until [x]… He doesn’t give us our greeds, but He gives us our needs. He doesn’t fill our greeds, but He fills the needs, just what is necessary. Just have enough to pay her debts to be able to say, “Well, my dear son, [you’re safe].” Isn’t it beautiful?
19: So whatever your case is tonight… some fear, surely it’s not oil, well, oil of the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit is represented, symbolized by oil, the anointing oil. He anoints, so we can use that symbol, as He symbolizes. What else is the Holy Spirit symbolized by? The dove. When was that, do you remember, George? [man: When Jesus was baptized.] When Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit descended, came upon his shoulder. And what else happened there at the baptism there in that beautiful scene in the river Jordan? The Jordan is a very dirty river, very thick with mud. As I’ve often said, it starts in the mountains in the heights where snow melts and forms just beautiful clear water. By the time it goes through the land, it gets dirtier and dirtier and thicker and thicker. It doesn’t make any difference, Jesus… I’ve been there, right there exactly, they say where Jesus was born, I mean, was baptized. But it’s so dirty all the time.

You remember when—who was it that said, “I’m not going to bathe in this river”? Naaman, the leper. Who was it that told him to bathe in that river? [others: Elisha.] The same one—isn’t it beautiful? The same one when… that’s another beautiful story. Who can tell that? But now we see there… I was going to say, to finish that up, was the beautiful scene, and then what else happened when Jesus was there being baptized by John, and the Lord had said, “Upon whom you see the dove come upon, he is the one,” and he saw that? And then what else happened?

Jesus was a man, the flesh and bones of God on earth; He came upon the earth. When they said they saw him and he came into the room, the doors being shut, and they thought they’d seen a spirit. And he said, “I am not a spirit.” He said, “Touch me and see.” And he said, “What do you have to eat?” And they gave him something to eat. He wasn’t a spirit, but he was flesh and he was bones, praise God. He had shed then His blood on Calvary. Praise God.

Then, as God the Father spoke, Jesus the Son, or God in the flesh, and then the Holy Spirit. There is a doctrine called “Jesus Only,” the Jesus Only doctrine, that all they talk about is Jesus; they never mention the Father. They think it as so foolish… I really have never… we’ve tried to talk to them at times, but they never can get anything clear themselves to come out with. But they say it’s so foolish to say “the Father,” because you just don’t say… refer to a person as… when it’s Mr. Jones, you don’t say the father, you say Mr. Jones. And so we just keep saying Jesus, because that’s enough; we don’t have to refer to the Father.

Then there’s something called the Church of God, I forget it’s from the Middle West, and they don’t believe in talking about the Father… no, they don’t believe in talking about the Son, they talk all about the Father; they can get all kinds of false things.

But then the thing that the… you could say the verse… when I spoke with one, I said, “Well, do you remember about the scene where Jesus was being baptized in the Jordan River, and how Holy Spirit was there and on His shoulders as a dove? And then the Father spoke from heaven? And how do you account for that? The Father spoke. Who was it that spoke from heaven and said, ‘He is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased?’ So there it is, and the three right there.” [x].

Praise the Lord, that the Lord could give me that quickly, that, and I think it was excellent. And God does do an excellent thing and gives us excellent opportunities and answers for things that we wouldn’t even just think about ourselves at times; we’re surprised ourselves. Have you ever been surprised at yourself? I have.
But then the other, about Elisha, another one of the miracles, was what? We just started to talk about it, Naaman at the river Jordan. [woman: Naaman, the leper. There was an Israeli girl who was a captive in the land of Syria and she told the mistress of Naaman whom she served, would God that Naaman could go to the land of Israel because there’s a prophet there that could heal him of his leprosy. So his mistress told this… [man: It’s his wife; her mistress, his wife.] I’m sorry.

Naaman’s wife told them and Naaman went to see… I guess he wrote a letter to the king of Israel and the king of Israel rent his clothes and he said, “Am I God that I can heal this man? Surely he’s seeking a way to find fault with me and to challenge me.” But then Elisha came to him and said, “You shouldn’t have done that because… that he was able to do that by the power of God.” So Naaman went with camels bearing all sorts of presents, went to the house of Elisha and then Elisha did not see him personally but he sent his servant Gehazi to tell him go wash seven times in the river Jordan and then you shall be clean. And Naaman was, the Bible tells us, very angry because he thought surely… he said, “I thought surely the man of God would come out here and he would strike his rod against the ground or something and utter great words and I would be healed.” But then the servants said…

What was the excuse right there that I was bringing out?

And more about Elisha—where did Elisha get his start anyhow? [SWV: Through Elijah.] [RS: He got his start as a farmer, he was plowing out in the field when Elijah came along and put his mantle upon him and in effect asked him to follow him. And Elisha, being a man of spiritual understanding, realized that that was a call on his life then and there, so he, I believe, he sacrificed his oxen there using the plow for the wood to perform the sacrifice and immediately went and followed Elijah. So there was that willingness in him to go at the call and not wait for some future day or something.][woman: He didn’t start out as some great one, but he was the servant of Elijah. In fact, later he was referred to as the one who had washed Elijah’s hands, or poured water over Elijah’s hands. So he was willing to do just very ordinary and menial things and used his time with Elijah to great advantage, because he was ready when Elijah was taken to receive a double portion of the Spirit that had been Elijah’s.] [man: He was more than ready. He insisted upon it.] (laughing)

That was further on in more of the story, that he was going to be translated on a chariot. What made Elijah ever go to such a one as Elisha? How did he know to pick… that there was an Elisha in the world living? But why did Elijah get the courage of Elijah to go to Elisha?

Um-hmm. And there were circumstances that led up to that. So, who knows the circumstances that led Elijah up to the point to anoint Elisha in his stead? (Don’t answer the next one, please. Who else knows this? This should be [snap, snap, snap] by those that know. Those that should have had much reading of the Bible, you wouldn’t know, you don’t know it as well, you do have…)

“Your head is going like theirs…” It’s going to be blonde or…? What was it going to be? [man: Well, you’re going to die just as they had died.] Sure. [man: So he, at that time, just panicked. In fact, he fled with his life, he ran. And the story tells of different spots. He rested one night, and he woke up and found a fire, coals, and something there to eat and he ate. And I think this happened twice. He eventually ended up, he finished his flight at Mount Horeb, the mountain of God. And there, the Lord met him. There were a couple of… well, it gives the account of first, there was an earthquake, a strong wind that shook the mountains, a fire. The Lord was not in any of these things. Then he heard a still small voice. He knew that was the Lord and the Lord asked him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” This was up on Mount Carmel or a cave, I think.] [man: Yes, he came to the mouth of a cave.] He wasn’t up on a mountain, he was in a cave. [man: It wasn’t Mount Horeb, was it?] A cave. Go ahead.

What the Lord was saying, since you don’t feel able to go on… It’s so nice to see too that the Lord doesn’t compel us. We have that hymn—does anybody know that? The Lord doesn’t make you, you know… [AB: He will not compel you to go against your will. He’ll just make you willing to go. It’s 78.] … from the nest of my hornets are loosed in this room, He’ll not have to compel you [KG: And the creature is allowed to go free.] [man: You would not need urging to make yourself scarce, you’d want to get out, don’t you see?]

So there’s more than one way to help us to go, because the flesh is just something like Elijah’s… because we get into our mind at times, well, here’s a great prophet, well, he was so great that he was taken out of this world by a chariot of fire and first one. And yet, he failed God and he couldn’t go on any further. And the Lord said, “Well, since you’re insisting, then just anoint Elisha in your chamber.” And the prophet anointed two kings and finish up sort of the things that’s on the table and let’s get that out of the way. And then start out with another prophet and here’s a man a young man.

Well, I was thinking how many times you say, “Well, what is the will of God for me?” And is it to be, say, a bank president? Or the head of this or whatever line, the best lawyer that ever walked down the streets? We certainly want to be the best in the line that we’re called, but is that the height of it all? Because in it all there is the will of God there and the expectancy that even as we do the best we can. Because certainly it isn’t to somebody that’s sloppy with the job.

Paul talks about that: what we do, we do with our might. What does he say about that, about working? [KG: He says, “Not slothful in business.”] “Not slothful in business” takes in those things. So there’s some people that would sort of rush ahead: “Oh, I gotta get the will of God and I gotta get this [or x]. You know, after all, what’s this paper and what’s these books, what’s this ledger, and what is this, and what’s the other?” That’s not the way.

Elisha, the young man, brought calves. All of this was in him, in his heart, in his life, and he looked, you could say, in the spiritual view before him. But he was faithfully plowing at his parents’ farm—it must have been a farm, they had 12 yoke of oxen. A big thing—imagine—he was with the twelfth yoke. He had all those eleven beside that and he was managing it. He hadn’t known anything about that certain day that the Lord would do this wonderful work.

He wasn’t there pressing his claim and just getting out of his senses and trying to do something: “Well, I’ve got to get this and I’ve got to get there and what’s going to lead me to being a prophet anyhow?” He must have known maybe something about one day he would prophesy, but God would have to lead him. But he would be faithful in what he’s doing. He wouldn’t skip over those times that were leading him on.

The same thing with Matthew. He was working at his desk, he would see the customers, I suppose something like tax work. And when Jesus went through his office or to his office, he just got up and left his desk as it was and followed the Lord. But that was the time. He hadn’t threatened the boss and he hadn’t said, “Well, anytime I’ll be leaving you because I got a higher call.” He was doing what he was doing right then.

I remember when the Lord called me, I thought one day I’ll be out full time work somehow, I don’t know how. My husband had two jobs, and when I found the Lord, received the Holy Spirit, and I thought, well, then I am ready now to go with my friend, whom I had led to the Lord before, who had received the baptism. And she was having a big… well, you could call it a campaign, Ocean City, Maryland, on the boardwalk there—tremendous for such people as we. And I thought, well, I’ll be able to help her. I was very young, I couldn’t pray awhile. I was very much like a little mouse. I could pray a storm up alone, but I couldn’t do anything in public. And I had told her, “Anytime I’m with you, please don’t call me to pray out loud, I just can’t do it.” But she didn’t go by that.

And when we needed some prayer at home, she would say my name. “Now [x].” And then, I got more brave and more, well, more confident, and I could help better, but not anything special. If I could just go and pray, just go and pray behind the scenes, anywhere, just to be there, I would think just moving out in my place for the Lord.

And I was working. We didn’t have very much of this world’s goods. My husband had two jobs, I had one and I felt like, well, now’s the time. Nobody told me but the Lord. He said, “You don’t do it like this, you don’t push your way anywhere. When it’s time to go, I’ll let you know. You’ll know; I’ll know and you’ll know.” I didn’t hear any audible voice, you know, “Thus sayeth the Lord, thou be in the work.” But I knew that I was off the track, that I was pushing myself; I was getting pushy. And you will never get anywhere really with God pushing. You know, we don’t serve a God that gets in back of you and keeps you pushing and pushing your way somewhere.

And then there’s the cross between being energetic and being right and being up in the things of God but not trying to: “Here I am now, you lucky people, don’t you think it’s nice that you would see how… well, [x] I am? Here I am.” Just be faithful unto where He’s called you, and so was Elisha.

Well, I don’t know if he’d ever… whether he had heard of Elijah, I don’t know, we can’t just surmise. But that day that Elijah went out to do the Lord’s will, that is, look for… come across Elisha. Well, there it was, he was ready.

And so when I did, when the Lord told me, “Well, now it’s time, this is the time now.” And that was much, much longer, and I knew that it was time and everything was lovely. There was no pushing to it, praise the Lord. No just energy of the flesh in it. So thank God I knew this was the hour, this was the day.
But I so thought of Elisha, so faithful—well, right there, where he was, with… it happened that he was right with his mother and father, they were right with him. Some are not; they just couldn’t be there with them at all. But there he was with the 12 yoke of oxen, quite a feat, I would think. Going around those bends, getting everything straight, and then coming along to plant that, I don’t know what they were favoring there then, to plant the fields right.

You can just hold it now. Don’t rush off, don’t rush now, just hold it. And when he saw that the call… with the calling [clear] inside. Was he feeling around: “Where can you get in and how can you get in?” It wasn’t any of that, it was that this is the moment. And he knoweth, God knoweth, the prophet knoweth and anybody who was concerned knew it. But it didn’t stop him from slaying the 12 oxen and boiling the meat and offering to the neighbors. They all had a big time, a big feast. And yet, he did not trail along with Elijah that day: “I’ll think about it, [be strong and x].”

It’s so wonderful to see how it’s being faithful and learn to work hard: faithful in business, faithful in our dealings, faithful with whatever is in our path and as we are. But also with the desire with the heart, with the purpose, with the knowing—[x] you don’t just smother that over with just being “I’m so faithful, I know the Lord will have to do something.” It’s just that delicacy of knowing exactly where to be in the very center of God’s will, whether you’re on the farm as he was or whether you’re washing his hands, because that was the beginning of him following. We just don’t know exactly the time, but he was the one that was the one that watched, you could say so to speak, of attending Elijah’s needs.

Elijah was an older man naturally and had also, well you could say, failed. He got so disheartened, so disheartened that things were so bad that he said, “It’s better for me to die.” He got to that place, “It’s better that I could die.” And Romans, or Saint Paul, says that he was so… in such desperation and so saddened that he didn’t want to go on any longer. Praise God, it’s wonderful how the Lord took him out—whoever had a chariot to take him out of the earth with fire, wonderful, the horsemen. And as we know about Elijah, which we can go on to, as the Lord wills.

But to know that you’re not in some pushing and trying to get out of something, to get on, always getting on. It’s like the donkey with the carrot out there—it’s just out there on a board and the carrot. The donkey keeps going and the board and the carrot keeps going. I think he’s the one that’s carrying it all, but it’s out ahead of him. His tongue out to the carrot all the time, but yet he can never make it that way. His eyes are so big for the carrot and he then forgets to be right to the rider or to be right, jogging in the right way or striding in the right stride, taking the master where he must go. And that’s how it is.

A real old-timer, I learned from that faith years ago. I’ve been around a long time, I never was pushed on by the Lord, but I’ve been willing to go. [x] here, praise God. (audience laughing) I just think about that, how God helped Elisha in such a way. He was so willing, but he didn’t… he wasn’t… I mean, he would listen when Elijah told him the different times, “Just hold up now,” so he did [come down] and he did follow. And it’s really sad to think how Elijah missed the best.

And I have often spoken on the three—what would you call it—classes, types of people, God’s people, and likened them to the 30- and the 60- and one hundredfold. There are the 30 that never get any further than 30. And then we have types of these: thirtyfold, we have the types and we can put Elijah right there—he never made it to where he should have made it, the sixtyfold. And then we have the hundredfold. And I know we’d say, “Now what, what I want, hundredfold, I want hundredfold.” But all in here is the walking, the waiting. They know it, they learn it, grow in it and all of this to get there. It would never be just because you want that. If I want… say I want a home. Sure, but what have you to get it? I want to have the best place that God has. Yes? There’s the entering, there’s the walk to get it. And Elijah stopped and then it was finished and he was then distracted, you could say. He stopped, he said, “I didn’t want [x].”

“If that’s what you want, I’ll make it easy for you and I will take you, you’ve gone so far.” It didn’t mean that he was lost, he wasn’t a lost person, but he just didn’t have the hundredfold. So we can put in right there where 60 is definitely. Then I’m going to call the 80 or 70, what he would he be.

What would Moses be? Don’t any of us that know it say it, because we want to give different people an opportunity. [x] We have those that do know it well. What would you think Moses was? [woman: He wasn’t 100, because he didn’t go the full way with the Lord; he fell short.] Could you speak out loud? [woman: He fell short of the hundredfold.]
But how did he do? Does anybody know how he fell short, Moses? Wouldn’t you think he was a hundredfold? No? Why? You’ve heard this before? [man: We’ve talked about it before.] We’ve talked about it before. Who hasn’t heard about it before? Who hasn’t thought about it, let’s say, before?

[woman: Well, I think that I may be incorrect, but the Lord told Moses to strike… oh, to speak to the rock and instead he smote it, he hit it.] Yeah, it isn’t your thought, but it’s good that you remembered it, because you heard it before. You are asking her what it is. [woman: No, no, no.] Are you getting it from the Word? Well, that’s good, go ahead. [woman: And because he did not speak to the rock, he didn’t enter the promised land?] No, not really, but of course… [others: Yes.] Yes, it is, that’s right, because it tells you in the psalm—what does it say? It tells you plainly why he didn’t go in. [woman: It says he was provoked to anger by the people.] [man: “Spoke unadvisedly with his lips.”] [man: “Must we fetch you rebels water?”] [man: The Lord says, “Because you honored me not before the people of Israel at the rock…”] We shall have to look into that, if we’re to understand. I mean, you’d have to know the Scriptures, but you can’t [x].

All that Moses did, the people did cause him to get angry. He could say, “I had righteous indignation,” when people say, “Well, I have a right to be angry, it’s really righteous.” But this, the Lord did hold him accountable and not unaccountable, that he caused that whole part of the plan to fail, as far as he was concerned.

So what happened to him at the end? (Don’t you know anything to add about what happened?) [woman: He couldn’t go into the promised land; he could only look from afar, but he was not allowed to go in.] Well, what happened right there? When it was time for him to die, what then? (Anybody know that?) [woman: Well, the Lord took him up to Mount Nebo and showed him the promised land, every vision, every aspect of it, and it was supernatural the way the Lord showed it to him. And after that, Moses died and no man knows the place of his burial—it’s written in Jude—until this day.]
Well, he… it says that he started to plead with the Lord, wasn’t that? What did he say to the Lord? (Anybody?) [man: He pleaded and asked the Lord that he would be permitted to enter, and the Lord said, “Don’t talk to me anymore about that.”] Yeah, don’t talk. [man: In other words, it was a settled matter.] Don’t talk, don’t bring this subject up to me anymore. You can’t go in. You can see it, but you can never go in. One of the saddest things that you can think about.

Then can somebody tell me who would be 100% or -fold as a percent? Abraham, Paul, Stephen, Elisha, Joshua, Daniel. [CW: Jeremiah.] Now, they’re not all men, believe me. (others laughing) Deborah, Esther, Hannah, and Anna, Sarah. So. [man: Peter.]
“I want to be a hundredfold, Lord.” May it be. But are you willing to be made willing to go? If you’re not willing, are you willing to be made willing? Or will we just go through it as some do—just, well, it can be, say, a meeting tonight. We come, we see that through, and we miss opportunity after opportunity. And when the Lord’s put something perhaps on our heart, it would be a blessing and an opportunity to grow and to take steps.

The children go to school, they take their steps and you expect them to go from one grade to another. And you don’t expect them to stay in the same grade. It’s a disgrace, more or less, isn’t it, to stay in the same grade two years? [JP: Absolutely.] The child feels ashamed, the parents feel ashamed that their child has to go through a whole year of their little lives… and just a little life so far, but to go through that again.

And yet we do this, or people do this right along, or get off on a wrong trail. I was thinking about how there are certain dogs—what do you call them—greyhounds, bloodhounds and all. You get them all fixed up to follow… to get that captive man that they’re taking captive or find the trail and he’s all worked up exactly. And suddenly a little rabbit runs across his path, he’s gone.

And the Lord, all the painstaking. Say, with fox hunting—I don’t know much about it—but they go out in certain seasons, especially in England, after the foxes and all. But then you have a dog, what they do with a dog. That dog is no more of anything with that pack, that certain pack—it’s a pack of hounds that go after the bait or whatever it is. But certainly, the Lord just can’t trust us that we’re going to do that work that night or that day or that time. So what does he do?

And those, as we just sang here about the Lord raised up a whole new generation, those first Israelites that failed, there were only two—do you remember—that gave a good report? And then finally they were all wiped out, only the ones under 40 lived. And they got wiped out, their bones bleached in the wilderness, and then on and on. And only those that were of a particular, you could say now as we’ve said here before, the age after age, and generation after generation, from those that were sort of these that were called out, taken out, that were for God’s purposes.

So, so very pure in comparison. It is such good that it makes your heart ache for God primarily. Not just for men, but for God. After God had with all of the years… who knows what He’s done for years and years getting out a people for His namesake. And then at the end, they just failed, they couldn’t do any more. And the writer to the Hebrews said, “Those that started out all had an opportunity to turn back.” “If you want, you can turn back.” Anybody can turn back, if they want to.

And as I said, I was talking that anybody can find an excuse. You use any… that there are thousands of excuses you can use. Well, “So-and-so said this,” “I didn’t like the way that,” and it just seemed to me this—anything. The excuse is never the reason, [we’ll find]. If it be, will he turn back? With disciplining, he can turn back for. “Well, I just didn’t care for this,” “I didn’t see that.”

Or some have said to us, “Well, I would never blame it on you. And far be it from me, you did everything you could.” But you just wait a little while and it’s coming around to me or to us that there was some little thing that they didn’t care for that does them out. And just to say that somebody did do something. Well, what did God do to anybody?

I wonder and wonder, why do they… why can they say…? Of course, the demons and devil there in the end. But why would you account, well, I won’t follow God anymore because this happened at that person or the other did this and that and the other? But what’s God got to do with that? All of us follow Him, can follow Him anytime, anywhere, on any occasion that is proved in the Word. We always have the Word that we can go to and find there that under any occasion, every occasion, any occasion [x].

I received a beautiful letter the other day, somebody, a lady, she came to us when we were having a campaign in Bogotá, and she heard that there is… umm, I forget along the same name what she thought we were? [AB: She thought we were Jehovah’s Witnesses.] But she came and she found out we weren’t and she loved it and just beautiful, beautiful and lovely and she came to the place of fullness and so many things. And then she started staying home where she wouldn’t have knowledge and she wrote the most beautiful letter saying in the end, “Well, I won’t be back.” We have no idea what it is, what happened. And would God that she have some place that she could go and get the right teaching, which I wouldn’t know where to tell anybody.

If you say to me, “Where could I go in New York or Niagara Falls or, name it, Canada or any…?” I just don’t know. And if I knew any of those places, I certainly would want to know those people. Because we never want the attitude or to have that or to get that attitude that Elijah had when he said, “I, only I, am left.”
The Lord said to him, “There’s 7,000 at that time in my remnant,” He had a remnant. Thank God He had that remnant. We don’t know that they stayed where they were. But He had 7,000 in the remnant of that day that had never bowed their knee to Baal or called on a false god and were calling on Him. So in that, Elijah didn’t know what he was talking about. But then to think that He said, “Well, it’s better after all, as I see it,….”

Of course, when you know what the flesh is made of, you know it’s not difficult to get there. With enough pressure from the enemy and you let it get you. Then He said, “Well, while the going’s good, I had better be making towards the other plan.” And the Lord [x] you to have it that way. It was so gracious of the Lord to be so kind to him—beautiful, beautiful kindness. And many people say, “Well, I would be satisfied with that.”

And there are people that believe in the rapture and believe the Lord’s coming in a moment, the twinkling of an eye and He’s going to take all the people that are His out. And then—I just don’t know off the top of my head—they know it all themselves and explain it all, but it is that there will be these people and no matter just what way, especially their living, but they think it is that as they… it must be as they’re transferred through the air, they’ll all become a bride and sanctified and be fit for heaven, forever and ever to be the Lord’s bride, not having overcome or paid the price or whatever God would have had them to do.

Because when all the wars, rumors of wars, and the hell that is going on now all over the earth, and they sigh and cry to get out of it all. “I’m just waiting for the rapture, and all I know is that God’s going to take us all out. And we’re not going to have to go through with anything useful, it will be a little while longer. And the main aim and the main call is to get out of it all. Main aim, main call is to get out of it all.” And that’s what Elijah… the main thing he had on his heart was to get out of it all.

Well, thank God, He’s never been at a loss to have someone, a man of His choice, that will pay the price, thank God. He’ll never be at a loss to have a man, no matter how few they are, there are those in every epoch, every generation that will say, “Lord, not I. Not I but Christ,” as we think “Himself in me.” Just give us the grace, because we truly need that, the grace is absolutely needed, no doubt about it. We couldn’t do it, that’s all.

There’s no flesh, living or mortal, that could stand it, unless… but the grace is there. “My grace…” you know that. “My grace,” Paul said… as God said to Paul, said to him, “My grace is sufficient,” and He gave sufficient grace. And there wasn’t anything over, there wasn’t anything under. It was just the grace to get him through. And he took it and got through. It is something, praise God.

The good thing of it is, here we are again. Thank God that we can meet, but it is to more of a purpose than we can imagine, and the highest kind of a person… a purpose. The greatest that He is preparing, that company, His glorious bride. And, in the meantime, there are those things that come to try us even so as by fire. Then to think of a man that laid it all down and the Lord told him, he knew that he was to go. And at that time, there were these schools of prophets at Bethel, at Gilgal and at Jericho. And after having waited on and helped and done everything—we don’t know how many years passed or what—but those prophets had the same vision that Elisha had. And that was that Elijah would be taken up in a whirl, the chariot, the horses, but they didn’t do anything about it.

But Elisha, as we know, started to follow. And Elisha asked, “Well, what is it you want?” when they stopped—they stopped and he said, “Well, what is this you want?”

The prophets came out and said to Elisha, “Do you know that your master is going to be taken away from you today?”

And he said, “Hold your peace, I know it. I know it, that you don’t have to tell me.” But what were they doing? They were 50 in each place and they said the same, saw the same thing, they got up to that point. They could have been in it too, they got up to that point. But there was one, say, of 150 right there in the end. And on to the next place, Gilgal, and then to Jericho or whatever.

And Elijah said, “What is it you want? What is it? Why are you following?” And God does that, God asks us and gives us. Because Elijah would say, “Please go back. Go on back to the school of prophets. Go on back.”

And he said, “As the Lord lives and my soul lives, I will not let you go. I will not let you go until this… what I’m asking for happens.”

He said, “What is it?”, trying him out. And the Lord tries us out. We can have, [x] as I said, the opportunity to go back. And real cause—and you’ve seen them in my time, you can imagine, of how it goes, I’ve seen many, many, I couldn’t count them, I couldn’t remember them all, that said, “Well, you know, for this reason… that, well, very good reason.” So, just that.

But he said, “I’m not letting you go.” It’s something that those other prophets all knew that.

“Do you know that your master is going to be taken up?”—telling him. Of course, he not only knew this, he was going to be in it with God telling him. He was going to be back, that he started out with there at his father’s farm. Same thing. He didn’t water down anything. It was the same call, the same vision. The same thing he had in his heart: I’m going through Jesus. “Others may start in the race, but with their Lord they could not keep pace. But I’m going through.” Well, God grant that that’s right. And there was Elijah that God granted was right and it was right.
33: And he got to the place where he said the word “if.” And if you would stop to ever look in a concordance to find all the ifs and what they mean. Because God’s promises always hang, as I say, like the door hangs on the hinges—that’s what holds it there—because these promises are if, if. “If you do this, this, this and the other, you will never fall.” You will, there’s eternal security, you will, it’s absolutely sure. But if you don’t, you are blind and you have forgotten that you were once saved from your dead works. So it’s if, if, if—they’re contingent. The promises of God on the little “I-F.” In Spanish, it’s “S-I”, same thing, two letters.

If, if, if you see me, that’s all. I’m going to have to do one thing, and that’s the thing that’s the most difficult: to stay by, to stay by till the end. And there’s where the devil steps in, the demons, and tries to deviate, to get your eyes on something else or somebody else there or some denomination or some other person or a big man that can do so much better or they have this or that, but don’t stay by that. And he was just steadily plodding along to the next town and waiting for that fire to come. And he knew it would be the chariot. And all of that, “Yes, I know it, shut up, I know it, I’m going, no matter what you think.”

And all these voices called, fifty. “Elisha?”

“Well, all right, I’m going.” And sure enough, when he saw the chariot and the horses and he called out, “My father, my father, the chariot and the horsemen, they’re up.”

And he said, “If you see me, then that you will be granted.”

What he said was a double portion: “I want twice as much as what you have.” That’s it, I don’t only want… satisfied with what you’ve got. And I believe these are double portion days. And I believe we’re going to need all of a portion we can get. Because this is the greatest hour that’s ever come upon this earth and will be. We are going through the most trying, the most… the times when more demons get let loose from the pit. More attack the very government and very president, everything’s attacked, that can be attacked. There’s a Watergate.

All of the things that we saw—our president, when he was President Nixon, going off to China absolutely with the shut doors and everything and the people murdered and nobody could speak Jesus, where they used to send missionaries there. The missionaries mainly in those days were to Africa and to China and somewhere across there. You would never know South America existed, and with Bogotá, well, you wouldn’t know the name.

All of that, but it was all across that way, over toward the east. But anyhow, there it was, and the China and Nixon, now we’ve got all that, who knows what that’s going to go into? But one thing we do know is that there are people at this time that can get the gospel, thank God for that, because that’s what was so closed and so… red China. That’s what it was. Closed doors, but now it’s a little bit open, a little crack open. What they say that they’re doing is getting on to more of our things and how they work and more of the armament and more of the infamous [x], start and just kill us with that, but whatever. Anyhow, more people are here in China now, thank God.

But there it was. “And he said, ‘My father, what I want and told him, is the double portion.’” And that’s what we can ask for. He said, “What we need, the baptism.” We need more, we need all we can get from heaven, than just be satisfied with something. We need everything we can get from Heaven. And God’s got it. The thing is if: if you’re in the place, if you’re following closely, if you’re this, if you’re that; it’s nothing’s going to deter you or keep you from the mark.

Yes, this just means the mantle fell and he went to that Jordan and he said, “Where is the God of Elijah?” and walked across it. You wouldn’t have to wonder about how he was going to get across and start it. And if you count it up, there’s twice as many miracles, praise God. There it is. And that’s one of them that he… that’s after he got the power that we heard, “Bring your vessels…,” that’s one of them. And I often think of one of the others that seems to be so important. He came back to the very school of the province of Gilgal or which, and he had told them to put on a big pot, because they were all going to eat good that day. And he… “I don’t care now, we’ll all eat. Put on the big puffs, as you’re here. Put on the big puff, the little puff, everything.” But he told them to go out and gather the herbs.

And there was one fellow who didn’t have discernment, he didn’t know that herb. He didn’t know what and he… I suppose they washed what they had and then found a pot and threw it in. And here this fellow comes back and throws in poison, throws in, just like you say, black ivy or poisonous ivy or whatever it was. You know, I don’t know the name of it, entirely different. But threw that in and they started to eat.

And when they started to eat and the cramps struck them, they said, “Man of God, man of God, there’s death in the pot.” Who were they calling on then? Because they told him, they mocked him, they said, “God’s going to take your master, and he’s going to take him up somewhere, and he’s going to drop him down on another mountain. And then, you old bald head”—they called him [x] that bald head, “you old bald head.” And the very ones, the bears came down the mountain and ate those kids up for calling that prophet the bald one for his bald head. But the wrath of God came upon them. When they needed somebody to save them, they said, “Man of God, there’s death in this pot.”

And he just said, “Well, take a little bit of meal, throw it in the pot. It’s all nice.” They ate and they had a good meal, praise God. So they went on. He went on, a miracle, a miracle to miracle till from his own body, and he was dead. They went to bury him and where his body struck a person that was dead, that man resurrected. He had power in his dead bones to resurrect the man where he was thrown right in that very spot and the man rose. (Did you know that?) Praise God, hallelujah.

So it works. God does it, it works and they were glad. When I read it one time, I thought, “Well, isn’t that great?” That they had the man of God there and they recognized who he was. And all that screaming and yelling and sending somebody to mock him and all of that, there he is—the very one they needed when they needed a miracle done, praise the Lord.

So tonight if, if there’s something we can’t get by…. We sing that: “Must I be carried…” can someone say it? [others: “To the skies on flowery beds of ease, while others fought to win the prize, and sail through bloody seas? No, I must fight if I would reign. Increase my courage, Lord, I’ll bear the cross and endure the pain, supported by Thy word.”] That’s right. So there’s all that in it. And we’re not going… not with passivity floating somewhere or float off somewhere until we get into ecstasy.

We will have to fight, if we would reign. Increase our courage, there’s a fight, it is a fight. The fight… Sinners have a fight to live a life, and we have a cause, hallelujah. And we’re fighting the fight of faith. What a different fight. We’re not fighting to win it over some germs, the newest thing that we… to discover, or how to combat that disease or another germ, a microbe, and all of that. Fight the fight of faith, a good fight of faith, hallelujah. There’s a prize for everyone. “Not only for me,” as Paul said, “but for all those who love his appearing… and not to believe cunning, devised fables and old wives’ things”—they say fables or something—but the Word is so wonderful, we have that word.

And I’m so glad that I could, with this Hungarian the other day that was at our house—as you know, I work the Hungarians—and there the brother came from Hungary to visit them and we could have him come to our house and he being, I suppose he would have to be a communist. I don’t know what he is at heart, but to live there and to suffer it all. And there he came and he was so happy for the word of God, he was so glad to hear it read. And as I brought my little Hungarian New Testament out that I taught the others out of those many years ago—how many years from 1950 something? [AB: 23.] 23 years ago. And I wrote in it and [said], “[x] This is yours.”

And then after I did that, George gave me another one. [x] Praise God, another one to replace it, in case somebody else comes by [x]. It’s so good that I could give. And he prizes that so and he went out of the door throwing kisses and just praising God and praising God. And to think that he came all the way from Hungary, one man, and he got the Word and he got the Bible, the New Testament in his hand and could go out of our home.

It’s so wonderful to have a home, it’s so wonderful to have a place that you can invite him to come. And he went around looking at the things that we have in different places and enjoyed everything. He told us the names of the plants in Hungarian and Latin. It was so interesting this man and made everything… He didn’t come to look us over or to see what’s this. He came to enjoy us and to… Praise God that through what the Lord helped me to do, his own brother and his own brother’s wife and their child was saved out of I don’t know what, and others that were in that too, two-layered [x]. And I had nothing, so to speak, and God helped me to get most of what I was able to do. So praise God it all worked. It’s wonderful, if you live long enough, to see it. Some people would be dead and then some you knew would be there would say, and say, “Well, Hannah knew this man, so it’s a shame she isn’t here,” but I saw him as a brother and as a brother was such a dear man.

And I asked him, and when I prayed and, of course, I always… and this is [x], the one I helped. She tried to interpret and she could some, she did very well, from Spanish, because she and I talked Spanish together, and from Spanish to Hungarian. And she went on with it, what was done, you could tell it was beautiful. The Lord’s anointing was upon it, as we were there together at the table together, praise God.

He was so happy and that was next to his last day, he left the next day and that was the end. And I know because of God, that was the best part of his—it was one month there, was it? [man: I think even longer.] Maybe six weeks he was in the States and all that time I almost didn’t get to see him. Praise God.

So we have Elijah that took it on and went on and then the others. And all the time the faithfulness until down to our day, here we are. And then we can say who out of us… and we, we, what’s that…?

He died a martyr—what’s his name? The one that said, “All I want is that the Lord would help that I wouldn’t fail.” [others: Vanya?] That’s right. What’s the name? [others: Vanya.] Vanya. You should read the book, George, beautiful. Vanya. Oh, my God. And he died a martyr. But “Just,” he said, “Just so God keeps me and I keep faithful to God.”

And so as my husband used to help me so much, he said, “You’ll never be rewarded according to how many.”

The first thing people in the world say, “How many do you have? How many people are there?” That’s not the thing. You will be rewarded according to our faithfulness. Because everybody can’t be this or that… Are all evangelists? No. Are all prophets? No. But we all can be thankful in whatever God has called us to be. Thank God. Faithful is He who has called and will also do it. Praise God.