Roberts Liardon tells us that our God is not a God of coincidence! Oral had finally reached the place where he’d stopped running from God, and so God began to “run” toward him with one personal miracle after another. During the same time that Oral was saved, a healing evangelist named Brother George W. Moncey came to Ada, Oklahoma, and set up a tent revival meeting. Brother Moncey is an enigmatic figure in history, as not much is known about him. A business card in the Oral Roberts University (ORU) archives is one of the only records about him, and it reads: “Geo. W. Moncey— evangelist, divine healer.”195 He seems to have been one of the scores of roving evangelists who thrived in the post-depression era. According to in­terviews with those who remember him, few Pentecostals had never heard of Moncey before the meeting, nor did he return to the city again; rumors even persisted that he left town under a cloud.196 Nevertheless, hundreds of people filled the tent each night, including Oral’s oldest brother, Elmer.

At each meeting, as the word of faith came forth, the power of the Holy Spirit fell upon the people, and many were healed. Elmer Roberts didn’t own a car, and Oral now lived eighteen miles away with his par­ents, but Elmer knew that he had to get Oral into those healing meetings. Elmer borrowed a friend’s car and used his last thirty-five cents to buy enough gas so that he could get his younger brother to the meeting.

For the next ten years, Lester Sumrall split his ministry time between his renewed pastorate in South Bend, Indiana, and his unquenchable call to minister to the lost overseas. In 1956, Lester felt a call to Israel and moved his family to Jerusalem. In that same year, the Sinai War was waged between Israel and Arab nations. Lester believed his family was in the middle of God’s will, and they remained in Jerusalem. Lester’s love for the Holy Land led to another ministry, and, over the next three decades, he led thousands of Christians on visits to Israel through his annual trip there.

Roberts Liardon tells us that in 1957, Lester followed the call of God to Hong Kong. While he was away from the South Bend church, Morris Cerullo became the interim pastor to lead the flock in Indiana. Lester was excited to return to Hong Kong. It had been over twenty years since he had ministered with Howard Carter in that thriving city. He knew in his heart that it was another city God had chosen to be an evangelistic center. Thus, Lester began New Life Temple on the fourth floor of a downtown office building.

The Chinese came to him in scores to hear the good news of salvation and healing through the blood of Jesus Christ. There was so much to tell the thousands of people who had been blessed by Lester Sumrall’s ministry. So, Louise and Lester began World Harvest Magazine to share the gospel through the written word. Lester had started writing books in the 1930s, beginning with Adventuring in Christ, about his trip around the world with Howard Carter. The Sumralls continued to produce books, knowing that doing so was another way to reach the lost with God’s message.

The next evangelistic center to be built was in Brasilia, Brazil. The heartbeat of the people could be reached from these large evangelistic centers. Evangelism brought people in to hear the Word, and biblical teaching and the power of the Holy Spirit kept them growing in Christ. Ministering in these centers, Lester laid hands on the sick and saw them healed in the mighty name of Jesus.

The healings and miracles continued as Lester and Howard entered the country of Manchuria. On the day after their arrival, Lester noticed the terrible diseases that seemed to abound throughout this poor country. The next day, he and Howard announced a special healing service, and many people came forward to be healed of all sorts of diseases. One woman approached the altar walking with a crutch because of a badly deformed leg. After prayer, she was able to jump up and leave her crutch at the altar. She walked about the church with a faster and faster gait and went home praising God and His healing power.

Roberts Liardon tells us that in Manchuria, Lester and Howard stayed with Brother Kvamme, the missionary in charge of the region. Brother Kvamme had been quite ill before they arrived and could eat only a limited amount of foods, due to his strict diet. As brother Kvamme interpreted the message during their first service, he felt the Lord’s healing power touch him, and all of his intestinal pains vanished completely.

While the blessings of God were marvelous to behold, the wretchedness of Manchuria was often hard for Lester to fathom. In the city of Harbin, people died throughout the winter from the piercingly cold temperatures. Their naked bodies were left strewn about the city, having been stripped of their clothes by other beggars. The bodies would be removed when the spring thaw hit the nation. Each time Lester saw human depravity and suffering, he pushed himself harder to reach the lost with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

After Lester had conducted six weeks of revival services, the newly saved began asking for water baptism. More than sixty people walked to the local creek and were baptized by the skinny “Little Preacher,” as they called him.97 Recalling what he had seen other ministers do in the past, Lester baptized these people in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and they began to walk in the newness of life. Still, for this now eighteen-year-old preacher, it was as though he performed on a stage, somehow separated from the reality of the hearts and lives changing around him. He just watched as God took care of the people who were drawn to the gospel.

Roberts Liardon tells us that traveling throughout Florida, Louisiana, and Tennessee, Lester con­tinued to preach with ferocious zeal in every church that invited him but felt no compassion for those who came to hear. He was angry and disgusted with them more often than he was friendly and warm.

Then, one night, all of that changed.

A full-scale revival was going on in a small schoolhouse in rural Tennessee, where Lester was preaching. The service began, and joyful praises were rising to the Lord in swinging harmony. Suddenly, the scene in front of Lester dramatically changed. He was no longer sitting in the schoolroom or aware of anyone or anything around him.

Lester was receiving his second vision from God, and it was even more dramatic than the first. It was a vision that he would share with millions of people around the globe for the rest of his life.

With his eyes wide open, Lester saw a great highway filled with the peoples of the world. Every nation was represented. He saw them dressed in the colorful, native costumes of their individual countries, walking in one stream of humanity. Japanese, Chinese, Africans, Euro­peans, Americans, and others all were walking quickly along the road together. Lester realized that he was seeing the highway of life.

One writer noted, “Phillips believed that his task was to protect the churches from the force of Jeffreys’ personality.” The Holy Spirit had moved powerfully through Jeffreys for decades. Was Jeffreys’ appeal now just the power of human personality, as Phillips suggested? It is hard to believe that that was so. The healings that took place under Jef­freys’ ministry could never have been performed by simple human per­sonality or will. In fact, it would have been difficult for Jeffreys’ person­ ality to command any special attention on its own, as he was known to be “painfully shy” when not preaching from the platform.

Roberts Liardon tells us that the power of the Holy Spirit had moved freely in Jeffreys in the 1920s. Had his power turned into a force of his personality just because of his newfound desire to reform the Elim church? Or, had Phillips sim­ply ceased to recognize the power of an anointed leader because of the mounting administrative responsibilities of such a large organization? We may never know the full answer to those puzzling questions. How­ever, it certainly seems of Jeffreys, and if Jeffreys had released his com­mitment to the supplementary doctrine of British Israelism and submit­ted himself to the counsel of some of his peers in other countries, such as Barratt and Pethrus, then this tragic fracture in the body of Christ might never have occurred.

After Jeffreys’ resignation, the Executive Council put a small para­graph in the Elim Evangel stating that Jeffreys had resigned from the Ex­ecutive Council and was released from the “business side of the work” to be free to conduct his spiritual ministry.70 However, Jeffreys wanted the members of the Elim Alliance to know that the separation had been due to quarrels. He wrote and circulated a pamphlet entitled Why I Resigned from the Elim Movement. In response, the Executive Council published A Reply, which announced some of the opposing views of the Executive Council. Letters of this nature from both sides were sent to the churches for the next six years, demoralizing many of its members.

James later recalled, “When he laid his hands upon me I felt as if a dozen hands were placed all over my body, and I felt every bone going back into place. I was instantly released and I was completely healed.”

Over the next two weeks, James gained strength and put on thirty-three pounds! Soon, he was able to return to work as an ironmaster. On Easter Monday, just a couple of weeks after his healing, he gave a testimony in Royal Albert Hall before thousands. The next morning, London’s Morning Post printed a story about the meeting with a headline that read, “London Audience Mesmerized.” Years later, James Gregson testified that he had never missed another day’s work after his healing.

Roberts Liardon tells us that Miss Edith Scarth was also gloriously healed during the Leeds cam­paign. She suffered from tuberculosis of the spine and had to lie flat on her back and be wheeled around in a spinal carriage. For years, she had worn a spinal jacket and splint that came up behind her head and was fastened to her forehead by a strap. On first hearing about Jeffreys’ meet­ings at Leeds, she was skeptical, but then, despairing, she determined to go and see for herself if God was really moving.

At the second meeting she attended, Edith embraced the message of salvation and was saved. Jeffreys called for prayer for those in need of healing, but there were too many for him to lay hands on individually. So, he asked them to stand for corporate prayer. By holding on to the seat in front of her, Edith managed to stand. Suddenly, the Holy Spirit moved in her body.

During this time, Bosworth adopted a controversial view called Brit­ish Israelism, a concept that gained popularity in the early twentieth cen­tury and continues to be accepted by some people today. British Israelism maintains that Western Europeans, particularly those from Great Brit­ain, are direct descendants of the ten lost tribes of Israel who were taken into captivity by the Assyrians. (See 2 Kings 17:18.) The belief was most widely upheld in England and the United States. How strongly Bosworth embraced this idea is unknown, but he did resign from the Christian and Missionary Alliance denomination for several years because of it. By the mid-1940s, Bosworth had renounced his belief in British Israelism and was reinstated in the church.

Roberts Liardon tells us that by 1947, at seventy-one years of age, Fred Bosworth was ready for the next step in his life. He and Florence decided it was time to retire to Miami, Florida. But what would this dedicated man of God do with the remainder of his years?

But retirement was clearly was not in the Lord’s plan for him. Wil­liam Branham, an American evangelist from the Midwest, was begin­ning to move out in his healing ministry and had been invited to Miami, Florida, to conduct a revival campaign. Curious, Fred and Florence at­tended the revival and were moved by the powerful presence of the Holy Spirit and the number of healings that had been recorded as a result of Branham’s ministry. Bosworth introduced himself to the younger man and, after they’d spent some time fellowshipping together, offered to travel with him and minister as part of his team.

As suddenly as the beating had begun, it stopped. The mob, tired of its sport, picked up Bosworth and demanded that he leave town imme­diately rather than wait for the next train. Bleeding, and with his wrist pounding with pain, Bosworth picked up his suitcase with his other hand and began walking toward Dallas. An attempt to flag down a train on the way proved futile, so he continued on foot. Two days later, he reached home and collapsed in front of his frightened wife. It took a month of bed rest to recover, but Bosworth was thrilled that he had been able to walk all those miles in a glorious state of deep intercession. He was thankful to be alive and able to preach the Word of God. Not long after this, a report came to Fred and Estella that the two leaders of those mobs had met with separate and untimely deaths.

What follows is a letter that Bosworth wrote to his mother shortly after the beating:

Roberts Liardon tells us that we were so glad to get yours, Bert’s and Bertha’s letters this morn­ing and will answer at once to save you the unnecessary worry about me. When I wrote you from Calvert on my way home from Hearne, Tex., I started a letter telling you all about the mobbing and then thinking how it, might worry you, I tore up the first, letter and wrote you the other one, not, mentioning the pounding I got.

I did this only to save you from worrying. I have never seen any paper with the account, of this mobbing so I don’t know what the paper said, wish you would send me the paper. I heard day before yesterday. It was in one of the papers here and went and looked over the files but failed to find it.

At times in my life there has come what I call multiple warheads. The devil can’t get me with just one bomb anymore so he comes at me in multiples. Have you ever experienced those kinds of attacks?

Roberts Liardon tells us that after a few heated battles, you’ll become a veteran in war and the devil’s attacks won’t bother you as much. I’m immune to most of the devil’s attacks. It doesn’t bother me when people want to fight with me. I’ve been through money wars, rumor wars and spirit wars — I’ve been through every kind of war you can think of. These kinds of wars don’t bother me anymore. When they come at me I just say, “Get a number and get in line! Next!”

Roberts Liardon tells us that the first couple of times I went through a war it was a big deal, but after the third or fourth time, it didn’t register anymore. I just went out and enjoyed a delightful meal.

Some of you are not at that place yet and you’re facing some major battles. What happens when you’re in trouble and no one is around at midnight to help you? What happens when the one you’re calling doesn’t give you that word of encouragement that gets you through another hour? What happens when those who call you on the phone only give you more bad reports?

Sometimes I hear people say, “That scripture jumped off the page at me!” I don’t normally look for glowing scriptures for my guidance, but if one glows, I’ll receive it!

Roberts Liardon tells us that when the Holy Spirit illuminates a scripture to you, it becomes a specific word from God. Praying in tongues helps these things come to you. It helps you to accurately express before God the inquiring and questioning that is in your spirit. And He likes to respond to you in specifics.

How To Overcome The Homebuyer’s Blues

Roberts Liardon tells us that it’s nice to know that it’s God’s will for you to own a home, but are you buying the right one? When you’re investing $ 150,000, you have to know what you’re getting into, my friend! It’s not like buying a piece of bubble gum! When you sign your name on that loan, you’re going to spend thirty, forty or maybe even fifty years paying that thing off. You don’t want to be in a house that’s not right for you! If you pray in tongues a lot, when you walk up the driveway, you’ll be sensitive enough to hear God say, “No, don’t buy it,” or, “Yes, It’s for you!”