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Horseshoes and Hand Grenades

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John 14:9 Jesus replied, Have I been with all of you for so long a time, and do you not recognize and know Me yet, Philip? (AMPC)

You’ve heard the phrase, “Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades!” Horseshoes is a popular game where points are scored by tossing a horseshoe close to a stake 40 feet away. Grenades, when they detonate, send shrapnel into any object close-by. The clichéd phrase is often spoken by a bystander after listening to someone complain that he was not quite close enough to do something or win something. Philip was close to Jesus – but yet in his heart, so far. Imagine being that close to the Creator of the Universe – and still a stranger. Yet, this happens everyday. God draws near to us, whispering through all creation, circumstances, other believers, Scriptures, sermons and church worship services – and we snooze right through it. Many who claim to be born-again are so close to Jesus yet so far. They are like those who have gone looking for their car keys, or sun glasses only to discover they are right where they began their search (or on top of their head). Jesus is calling during this season but many are missing His call. They are so close yet still so far. Asleep in the light we fail to awaken from our slumber of comfort, and complacency continuing life as usual. We are under the spell of the satanic lullaby found in our Laodicean Church age. With our mouths we say one thing but our actions affirm that we think we are fine – just the way we are. We mouth the creed of the Laodicean Church, “We have no need.” Yet over the centuries God’s call has reached the hearts of those who became aware that something was missing. One of those awakened from the lullaby was a man by the name of John G. Lake. Lou Engle describes his awakening in the following excerpt:

John G. Lake operated in one of the most powerful and awe-inspiring gifts of healing that the world has ever seen. In a single ten-year span, Lake saw over 250,000 confirmed physical healings. In 1918, Spokane, WA, was declared the healthiest city in the U.S. because of Lake’s Healing Rooms. His congregation fondly called him “Dr. Lake” because he saw more people get healed than the local physicians.

Lake was saved at the age of 16, learned about sanctification around the age of 20, and then entered into a ministry of healing after experiencing the power of healing in his own family through the ministry of John Alexander Dowie in Chicago. Lake continued to operate in the gift of healing for the next 10 years and saw hundreds healed. 

At the end of those 10 years, Lake was more hungry for God than ever. Although he walked in the miraculous, he claimed that he had not yet experienced the baptism of the Holy Spirit. He would often walk the streets and spontaneously cry out loud to God, surprising all those around him. Lake said, “It was the yearning passion of my soul, asking for God in a greater measure than I then knew. But my friends would say: ‘Mr. Lake, you have a beautiful baptism in the Holy Ghost.’ Yes, it was nice as far as it went, but it was not answering the cry of my heart. I was growing up into a larger understanding of God and my own soul’s need. My soul was demanding a greater entrance into God, His love, presence and power.”

Driven into the wilderness by his hunger for more of God, Lake fasted and prayed for 9 months, waiting on God. Several months into his fast, the Spirit spoke to Lake and said, “Be patient until autumn.” Lake was encouraged and kept going. He prayed, “God, if you will baptize me in the Holy Spirit, and give me the power of God, nothing shall be permitted to stand before me and a hundred-fold obedience.”

At the end of nine months, Lake was weary. He later recounted, “I prayed for the Baptism of the Holy Spirit for nine months, and if a man ever prayed honestly, and sincerely in the faith, I did. Finally one day I was ready to throw up my hands, and quit. I said, ‘Lord, it may be for others, but it is not for me. You just cannot give it to me.’ I did not blame God.” 

Shortly after this, a man named Pierce invited Lake to join him and a group of other believers at his house who had been praying for the past year for the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. None of them had yet received the Baptism. Lake accepted the invitation. Five minutes into prayer, Lake was overcome as “the light of God began to shine around me, I found myself in a center of an arc of light ten feet in diameter, the whitest light in all the universe. So white! Oh how it spoke of purity. The remembrance of that whiteness, that wonderful whiteness, has been the ideal that has stood before my soul, of the purity of the nature of God ever since.”

After this experience, Lake was invited to pray for a woman suffering from rheumatism and bound to a wheelchair. As he prayed with her, suddenly “the Spirit said, ‘I have heard your prayers, I have seen your tears. You are now Baptized in the Holy Spirit.’ Then currents of power began to rush through my being from the crown of my head to the soles of my feet. The shocks of power increased in rapidity, and voltage. As these currents of power would pass through me, they seemed to come upon my head, rush through my body, and through my feet into the floor… Even at this late date, the awe of that hour rests upon my soul. My experience has truly been as Jesus said that He shall be within you ‘a well of water, springing up into everlasting life.’ That never-ceasing fountain has flowed through my spirit, soul, and body day, and night, bringing salvation, and healing, and the Baptism of the Spirit in the power of God to multitudes.”

Lake sold all he had and entered into full-time ministry. God spoke to him that he would soon go to Africa.“One morning when I came down to breakfast, I found my appetite had disappeared. I could not eat. I went about my work as usual. At dinner I had no desire to eat, and no more in the evening. This went on till the third day. But toward the evening of the third day, an overwhelming desire to pray took possession of me. I wanted only to be alone to pray. Prayer flowed from my soul like a stream. I could not cease praying. As soon as it was possible to get to a place of seclusion, I would kneel to pour out my heart to God for hours. Whatever I was doing, that stream of prayer continued flowing from my soul… On the night of the sixth day of this fast, that the Lord had laid on me, while in the act of washing my hands, the Spirit said, ‘How long have you been praying to cast out demons?’ and I replied, ‘Lord, a long time.’ And the Spirit said, ‘From henceforth, thou shalt cast out demons.’ I arose and praised God.” 

Within a week, a violently insane man was brought to Lake. Lake commanded the demon to come out of him in the name of Jesus and the man was instantly delivered. Two days later that same man was released from the institution where he had been confined.

Within the next year, Lake and his family were called by God to South Africa. Over their next five years of ministry in South Africa, Lake saw over one million people give their lives to Jesus, 625 new churches planted, and 1,250 preachers raised up. By the time Lake returned to America, the work in South Africa continued through the hands of those Lake had trained. Lake’s five short years of ministry in South Africa were so impactful that Lake was given the title, “Apostle to Africa”. Gordon Lindsay stated that Lake was “engaged in a ministry which in some respects rivaled that of the Early Church.”

Lake always knew there was something more, but it was the keys of fasting and prayer that opened the door to satisfying his hunger for more of God. By giving up physical satisfaction and hungering in his flesh, he satisfied the hunger of his soul and the world was blessed by it. 

Jesus Fast Day 6

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Atomic Power
“As the Creator is greater than that which He has created, so is the power wielded by the Christian through fasting and prayer greater than that wielded by the atomic scientist.” – Franklin Hall

The next three devotional days may be review for many of you, but these stories are prophetically and Biblically foundational to everything we will discuss. If you have heard these stories before, bear with me. If this is your first time hearing these stories, you will understand why I am gripped by God to call the global Church into the 40-day fast and extended seasons of fasting and prayer during this pregnant moment and decade.

In 1999, I was approached by a Youth With A Mission (YWAM) leader who asked me to help him call the whole world to a 40-day fast to unleash the harvest of the new Millenium. I thought to myself, “Lord how can I call the world? Nobody knows who I am. But if this is you, have a prophet call me with a dream that I am flying a plane and dropping an atomic bomb.”

There was a reason for this somewhat unreasonable request. At the time, I was reading a book that would be pivotal in my life’s calling: Atomic Power With God Thru Fasting And Prayer by Franklin Hall. That very night, a prophet called me with that exact dream! I was flying a plane and dropping an atomic bomb! Whoa!

It was in 1946 that Franklin Hall released this booklet and it began to fly across the world, moving thousands to enter into long fasts for evangelistic power and harvest breakthrough. It seemed that for an entire season the spirit and grace of fasting rested on the Church. Reports of fasting from around the world began to come forth, with many testifying of God’s supernatural power and salvation.

But I believe much more was happening. I am now convinced that a global season of fasting and prayer precipitated a worldwide miracle harvest. Franklin Hall said that 1946 through 1950 was a fasting era. By 1952, two hundred thousand Atomic Power books and over six million pieces of literature were published and distributed all over the world by Hall and his team.

 Within the year following Hall’s release of Atomic Power, healing evangelists like Oral Roberts and T.L. Osborn launched their ministries with extended fasting. T.L. Osborn read Hall’s book in 1947 and was stirred to enter into long fastings which launched him into one of the most remarkable evangelistic careers. Hundreds of thousands attended his crusades. Miraculous healings and deliverances followed. Osborn thanked Hall for his impact through the book, saying, “Our lives have been revolutionized by fasting and prayer.” Oral Roberts fasted seven months in 1947 and then his renowned healing ministry broke out.

Franklin Hall’s newsletter stated that, “A few of the other (not too well-known then) ministers who had major fasting experiences by our writings in the 1946, 1947 to 1950 fasting era and who also became famous (as healing evangelists) are: Wm. Freeman, Gordon Lindsay, A.A. Allen, O.L. Jaggers, Gayle Jackson, Oral Roberts, David Nunn, Wm. Branham, W.V. Grant, Wm. Hagen, Dale Hanson, and Tommy Hicks” (Don’t Cry For Me Argentina).

Do you see the pattern? Unknown evangelists rediscovered the power of The Jesus Fast (extended fasting without food) and a divine reenactment of Jesus’ power exploded on the earth. That was 70+ years ago. The sick and the dying, the harassed and the helpless, demand a new manifestation of Jesus’ healing power.

And shall not we, the children of these Pentecostal forerunners, turn our hearts back to them and return to the sacrifice of the 40-day fast? What if thousands globally entered into The Jesus Fast? I tell you, stadiums will be filled all over the globe and the world will come flocking to Jesus, who is the Savior, Healer, Baptizer, and Soon-Coming King! 

This is not theory, friends. This is what happened when men and women read Atomic Power. And this 40-day devotional series is their testimony. More to come on Tommy Hicks and the rest of these guys later!

Prayer:

God the Mighty One! We cry out to you! Unleash your spiritual atomic power through my life and through your church. Release a worldwide mighty baptism of the Holy Spirit that we may be your witnesses!