SNT 0312 - 2 Kings 6
II Kings 6
Expository teaching with emphasis on the operation of the revelation manifestations and an in-depth look at these manifestations in relation to us today.
SNT – 312
Publication Date: 08-01-1965
Victor Paul Wierwille was a Bible scholar and teacher for over four decades.
By means of Dr. Wierwille's dynamic teaching of the accuracy and integrity of God's Word, foundational class and advanced class graduates of Power for Abundant Living have learned that the one great requirement for every student of the Bible is to rightly divide the Word of Truth. Thus, his presentation of the Word of God was designed for students who desire the in-depth-accuracy of God’s Word.
In his many years of research, Dr. Wierwille studied with such men as Karl Barth, E. Stanley Jones, Glenn Clark, Bishop K.C. Pillai, and George M. Lamsa. His formal training included Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Theology degrees from Mission House (Lakeland) College and Seminary. He studied at the University of Chicago and at Princeton Theological Seminary from which he received a Master of Theology degree in Practical Theology. Later he completed his work for the Doctor of Theology degree.
Dr. Wierwille taught the first class on Power for Abundant Living in 1953.
Books by Dr. Wierwille include: Are the Dead Alive Now? published in 1971; Receiving the Holy Spirit Today published in 1972; five volumes of Studies in Abundant Living— The Bible Tells Me So (1971), The New, Dynamic Church (1971), The Word's Way (1971), God's Magnified Word (1977), Order My Steps in Thy Word (1985); Jesus Christ Is Not God (1975); Jesus Christ Our Passover (1980); and Jesus Christ Our Promised Seed (1982).
Dr. Wierwille researched God's Word, taught, wrote, and traveled worldwide, holding forth the accuracy of God's "wonderful, matchless" Word.
2Ki 6:1-6
2Ki 6:6, 8-10
2Ki 6:11-22
2Ki 6:21-23
_____________________
II Kings Chapter Six
Dr. Victor Paul Wierwille
Sunday Night Service #312
The Way International Headquarters
August 1, 1965
(Name, indiscernible)[1] …will you stand and lead us in a word of prayer?
{We thank Thee, our Father, that … (indiscernible) because you have spoken to us in your Son Jesus Christ; because you have given unto us the spirit that makes us sons of the most high God, that gives us power to walk as the sons of God. And for this privilege of knowing, our Father—knowing that there are no mountains, knowing that there are no days but what we may face them confidently by the strength that we receive from your hand—for this privilege, for this promise, for this knowledge, we are grateful and we praise you and we thank you, Father.}[2]
And Rev. P. J. Wade, will you stand and lead us in a word of prayer?
{Father, we thank Thee for Thy greatness tonight. We praise Thee, oh God, for the greatness of Thy Word. We thank Thee, oh God, for Thy goodness towards those who believe. We thank Thee, Lord, for the opportunity of again fellowshipping together around Thy precious Word. Truly, oh Lord, you are a great God. We thank Thee, Lord, tonight for all our manifold blessings—too many for us to number and name. Yet, oh God, we are humbled to think and to know that these have been showered upon us in the Lord Jesus Christ. We have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places. We praise Thee for it in Jesus’ name. Amen.}
And Jack Hunt, will you stand … (indiscernible).
{Our heavenly Father, we thank Thee in the name of Jesus Christ that we can gather tonight and eat at this table that Thou hast spread before us. We thank Thee, Father, that as we come hungering and thirsting, that Thou just feeds us with the wonderful bread of the Word. And we thank Thee, Father, for the Body of the Lord Jesus Christ gathered here tonight. We thank you for all the love, Father, that Thou hast given us; for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ that Thou hast placed within us. And we thank Thee especially, Father, for his righteousness in which we walk. We thank Thee, Father, for the message and the Word tonight: that it shall edify us; that it shall comfort us and exhort us, Lord, to walk in a believing manner; walking in the victory that Thou hast given us. We thank Thee, our Father, that Thou wilt bless this teacher tonight that, as he ministers the Word to us, that the Body shall be built up and that Thou shalt be raised up and glorified before us. We thank Thee, our Father, for Thy tenderness; for Thy, Thine understanding, Lord, to us-ward; that you see each of our needs, our personal needs, Father, and tonight that as we look to Thee, we thank you, Father.}
Amen. Marcia Randall, I’d like for you to stand, speak in tongues, and interpret, please.
{For verily the Lord thy God has given to … (indiscernible) my children. Walk forth boldly upon my Word and fear not for I am with you and will guide you and will keep you. And I will give you words … (indiscernible) to others so that they may know the Word also.}
Amen. Word of prophecy.
{Yea, verily, it is the Lord thy God who has put thee in this place at this time, at this hour. Yea, verily, it is I the Lord who have given unto thee this Word, my children. Yea, verily it is I who hath built thee up. I make thee full my children that thou mayest go forward into this world of darkness spreading forth the light which I have given unto thee. Yea, verily, it is I who hath made thee more than conquerors. It is I who hath made thee victorious on every hand. Yea, verily, it is I my children who has succored thee, who has girded thee, who will be with thee always. It is the Lord thy God who speaks unto thee this night.}
Amen. Mr. Estherline stand, speak in tongues and interpret, please.
{Yea hear me, my children, for I the Lord thy God am with thee. I do love thee with an everlasting love. What ye have here, carry it forth, for it is the bread of life. Give it forth with love, children, for you have gotten it with love.}
Father, we thank Thee for Thy ineffable greatness, Thy mercy, and Thy loving kindness.[3] And as this class is seated up here tonight on this opening night of this class on Power for Abundant Living, Father, let this be the greatest three weeks in their life. Let this Word of God live abundantly that the name of the Lord Jesus Christ may again be magnified and men and women may know that our God is a big God and that our God is a good God and that His Word is His will. Therefore, Father, let this Word live abundantly among our people in the name of Jesus Christ and by the power of God. Amen.
You see, every person of the Advanced Class has had the foundational classes at least twice—some more than that—and these are men and women who have come here for the next three weeks and will be in here primarily because we’re moving into a real depth of God’s great and wonderful Word. Nothing in the world that I know of equals the Advanced Class. And the Advanced Class goes about just as far as the ability of the people in it. If you open up to the greatness of God’s Word, you expect great things, we’ll have great things. But if you limit God by our believing, we end up passing out peanuts. I don’t want to teach a class that wants peanuts [thumps podium repeatedly].[4] I want men and women who are hungry for God’s Word and who will take a stand on it and be able to handle it. And it’s a class that by the grace of God will move beyond anything that’s being taught any place in the world today.
This class is not suited for many people. There are not many people can take it. There are not many people qualified to take it. Because in this type of class, to fit into it, you must not only have a knowledge of God’s Word, understanding the great keys of God’s Word, but you have to have a real keen spiritual perception, a desire to really understand God’s Word. And the people that are fitted for this class are men and women who have disciplined their lives in the past and who are hungering and thirsting for a knowledge of God’s Word. So once again you can say, “Well, I know that I know that I know that I know.” And there’s no man in any place in the world in any field of education or in any secular field who will be able to back you down on the accuracy of the knowledge you have. It will stand the test of all science, all mathematics, all history, all philosophy, and everything else which is true. For if it’s true, it cannot be broken in any field. And so it’s a tremendous night to begin tonight in this particular open Sunday night on this class on Power for Abundant Living.
You know, some of our people naturally would not know where to go or what to do on some of these instances if it were not for what The Way ministry represents. Everybody knows what the Bible teaches—at least in here we know what the Bible teaches—on bringing our children for baptism or our young people or our adults. And, therefore, here at the headquarters of The Way we simply take our children and dedicate them.
Mr. and Mrs. George—Mal and Jan George—have, have asked for me to dedicate their daughter, Melissa Louise George, tonight who was born almost a little after camp time started: July the 10th, 1965. And it sort of kept Jan out of the running of the camp for a little while. And Mike and Lynn McCabe have requested that we dedicate their daughter, Sandra Lee Ferrell McCabe, who was born March the 29th, 1965. Will you parents please bring your children at this time?[5] Come up here, please. How are you tonight? It’s good to have you. Over there. Come on up a little further.
Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, Mike and Lynn have brought their daughter here to be dedicated unto Thee with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength this night and therefore, Father, we thank Thee for Thy loving kindness and Thy tender mercy. And Father, I thank Thee for making this child a blessing to Mike and Lynn and not only to them but to the world—to the men and women with whom she will come in contact—and for the greatness of the presence of the power of God that lives within her. Therefore, Father, I thank Thee for this privilege of dedicating this child here this night and for these parents bringing this child. Father, I lay my hands upon this little child in the name of Jesus Christ and I command that she be kept from all harm and injury and that the greatness of Thy power and presence may be made manifest into her and that Thy tender love and mercy may over-shower her. And, therefore, I thank Thee, Father, for keeping her and we dedicate her unto Thee in the name of Jesus Christ and by the power of God this night not only as father and mother but as believers of The Way fellowship here present this hour through Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
Heavenly Father, I thank Thee for what Mal and Jan have meant to this ministry down through the years, and the love that we have in our hearts one for another, and the things that Thou hast wrought within our days and within our midst that we have seen with our eyes and which we have beheld week in, month in, year in, and year out. Therefore, Father, I thank Thee for their bringing their little daughter here tonight to be dedicated unto Thee. And we thank Thee for the love in the hearts of these parents that their children will be brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and that this Word of God will live abundantly. Therefore, Father, we dedicate this little girl to you tonight, Father, in the name of Jesus Christ and by the power of God and thank Thee, heavenly Father, for Thy loving kindness and Thy tender mercy.
For I, the Lord thy God have succored thee and strengthened thee. Yea, it is I the Lord who will undergird thee and keep thee. Therefore, my child, fear thou not for I have blessed thee with an everlasting blessing and I will walk by thy side.
Therefore, Father, we thank Thee and praise Thee this day for Thy loving kindness and tender mercy unto us and Thy goodness unto us through Christ Jesus. And we who are gathered here this night lift this wonderful little child and thank Thee for it in the name of the living Son of God, through Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen. Bless you. God bless you. You too, Mike and Lynn.
Let’s sing number three, number three, “How Great Thou Art.”
O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder [6]
Consider all the worlds Thy hands have made,
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed:
Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee:
How great Thou art! How great Thou art!
Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee:
How great Thou art! How great Thou art!
And when I think that God, his Son not sparing,
Sent him to die, I scarce can take it in,
That on the cross, my burden gladly bearing,
He bled and died to take away my sin.
Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee:
How great Thou art! How great Thou art!
Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee:
How great Thou art! How great Thou art!
When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart!
Then I shall bow in humble adoration,
And there proclaim, My God, how great Thou art!
Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee:
How great Thou art! How great Thou art!
Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee:
How great Thou art! How great Thou art!
Wonderful. Let’s turn to number five, number five, “Rise up, oh men of God! Have done with lesser things. Give heart and soul and mind and strength to serve the King of kings. Rise up, oh men of God! The church for you doth wait. Its strength is equal to its task. Rise up and make it great. Lift high the cross of Christ. Tread where his feet have trod, as brothers of the Son of man. Rise up, oh men of God.”
And while we’re singing this song, number five, I’d just like to welcome all the people who have joined us by radio a few moments ago. And I pray that this may be a wonderful night for all of you people who’ve tuned in to this service as it originates here at The Way Biblical Research Center at New Knoxville, Ohio. We want it to be a blessing to you as it is to those of us who are gathered here. And if you know these old church hymns and gospel songs, join in the singing with us if you like. Otherwise, enjoy it as we sing it for you; number five, everybody.
Rise up, O men of God!
Have done with lesser things.
Give heart and soul and mind and strength
To serve the King of kings.
Rise up, O men of God!
The church for you doth wait,
Its strength is equal to its task;
Rise up, and make it great!
Lift high the cross of Christ!
Tread where his feet have trod.
As brothers of the Son of man,
Rise up, O men of God!
Sing that last verse again!
Lift high the cross of Christ!
Tread where his feet have trod.
As brothers of the Son of man,
Rise up, O men of God!
Wonderful. I think we ought to just have a word of prayer for our people who have just joined us by radio. I feel tonight there’s a tremendous need among the people who have joined. And I think God would have me to pray for them now. And I’d just like to say to you people who have joined us by radio, if you believe God is still God and that there is a God and that He means what He says what he means, I’d like to say to you tonight that God is able to supply all your need according to His riches in glory.
And, therefore, heavenly Father, as I lift the people who have just joined us a few moments ago and all of us who are here at The Way Biblical Research Center at New Knoxville, Ohio, I thank Thee, Father, for supplying all of our need according to Thy riches in glory. I thank Thee, Father, that Jesus Christ came to seek and to save those which are lost. I thank Thee, heavenly Father, that he came that we might have life and have it more abundantly. I thank Thee, Father, that we can walk with an effervescence and a glow, that we can walk with a positive testimony, and that we can walk in victory for in Christ Jesus we are more than conquerors through him who loved us and who gave himself for us. And therefore, Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, may every child, every young person, and every adult in this wonderful Bible Center tonight and those people listening be mightily blessed with Thy presence and power, Father, even at this moment, that once again[7] they will know that Thou, oh God, art able and willing to meet each and every need through Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen. Wonderful.
Mrs. Wierwille and I would like to extend an invitation to all our Way friends to join us in the marriage of our daughter, Karen, to James Martin next Saturday evening—that’s August the 7th—at 7:30 o’clock in a garden wedding here at the headquarters of The Way Biblical Research Center. We’d like for you to come for the wedding if you would like and we’d like for you to be a part of the reception afterwards. Mrs. Wierwille and I will be most delighted and happy to have you as I’m sure our daughter, Karen, will be as well as our new son, James Martin, will be.
This week, of course, we begin the final three weeks of our summer school with our Aramaic class continuing to be taught by Jim Chamberlain every afternoon from 4 o’clock till 5. And then the Advanced Class will be meeting each evening at 7 o’clock.
As you people know, the Advanced Class is a closed corporation except for those who have previously taken the Advanced Class. Those who have taken the Advanced Class before may come in any night they like. But you come on time; don’t be late. Otherwise, it is closed to those who have registered and are in the class. So, you people who have already taken the Advanced Class, I trust you will take advantage of this opportunity again this year to be a part of this class and to make your spiritual contribution in the activities of this tremendous class.
The class, as I said, will meet each evening at 7 o’clock, so we’ll be ready to roll tomorrow night at that time. All the registrations and everything must be taken care of this evening and Mrs. Owens will again be at the registration desk, as she was from 4 o’clock on this afternoon, to complete all the details of the registrations including our registration for Lessons in Living. Lessons in Living is a new experiment which we are conducting here at The Way Headquarters and, if you’d like to be a part of these Lessons in Living, you must by all means register this evening and be ready to roll tomorrow morning at 7:30.
I would like to say that, that this, the, the, again Lessons in Living is limited to those who register for it with this one exception and you listen carefully: that the afternoon lectures, when these outstanding men and women who we are bringing in from across the nation—medical men, men in osteopathy, men in, in research of, of, in, in fields of plant researches and so forth—when these men come in and these women, then these sessions are open. Every afternoon the sessions will be open from 2:30 to 4. All the lectures will be made available to our entire student body here as well as any of our people who are living within a driving distance, you know, like New Bremen, Saint Marys, Wapakoneta, New Knoxville; in and around where some of our people are staying. These people, you’re all welcome for Lessons in Living, the lecture sessions, every afternoon from 2:30 to 4 o’clock.
Of course, there is no compulsion on the students who live here in residence. If you are not in Lessons in Living and you don’t want to come, you’re free not to come. But I think it’s a tremendous opportunity that we’re giving to our people in allowing them to be a part of the lectures even though they are not enrolled in the Lessons in Living class. Is this understood? So you take advantage of it if you’d like to. Every afternoon from, at 2:30: the lecture sessions.
Tomorrow morning, of course, the Lessons in Living will be off and running at 7:30, so I’d like very much to call a meeting, which will be of course uh directed by Grace Bliss and Dr. Belk, this evening immediately after the evening fellowship, after you pick up a cup of coffee. I’ll give you five minutes or something. And we will meet in the rendezvous room at our home; the rendezvous room, which you enter down the ramp on the east side. So, we’ll be meeting there, those who are registered for Lessons in Living. And I’d like to say to you if you have not already registered and you hope to, want to tonight, uh, you better postpone that registration until after the meeting or you might not make in in five minutes, right? And those of you who came in late for the Advanced Class tonight and haven’t registered, you be sure you register. Then Lessons in Living, perhaps, Dorothy, we can take care of after this brief meeting so that everything is registered, everything in registration is taken care of tonight, because we have a tremendous amount of material to cover in, in all these fields that we’re in and we want to be off and running with these things tomorrow morning.
I want to make a special announcement regarding a class that people have asked about not only in The Way fellowship but in the, in the community around like at New Bremen and Saint Marys and Wapakoneta, New Knoxville. A year ago, they asked whether we were again going to have a class in rapid reading, which it is commonly called. We, we like to call it developmental reading because it’s not just a course to help people to read rapidly but it’s to help them to read with understanding and apprehension and so forth. Therefore, we like to refer to it as developmental reading.
This year, The Way will again present a special rapid reading course. This class starts on Monday, August the 9th. Registration will be from 4 to 6 p.m., Monday, August the 9th and, of course, this is open to all of our resident students, all of our Way people living in the immediate vicinity and outlying areas, plus any other person in any community who is interested in developing their reading ability. High school and college students should by all means take this course. We will double your reading the first night. We will double your reading the first night. Did you hear what I said? And I meant what I said. We’ll double it the first night. So, if you’re reading 200 words a minute, after the first night you’ll read 400. So, this is our purpose, our plan, and this is exactly what we will be doing. And remember that’ll start a week from tomorrow, which will be, uh, August the 9th, on Monday. Registration from 4:00 to 6:00 and the class, then, will follow that evening.
I’d also like to say that if everything gels properly and the weather is as lovely as it has been, uh, these past Sunday nights, next Sunday night we will start with a hillside sing on the hillside at 7 o’clock. So you people who’ll be coming in for the service, if you’d like to join on the hillside sing, we’d like to have you over there. Then we’ll come to The Biblical Research Center here for the remainder of the service. So maybe the sun will be shining and be real warm out next Sunday. But we’re sure thankful for the rain today. It can just rain all night for all I care. We need it.
But these are, perhaps, all the announcements that need to be made at this time. And, and other things that come up we’ll talk about in our individual classes as we meet. And we’re just looking forward to the last three weeks of this summer session of The Way Biblical Research Center being the most wonderful weeks in the lives of our people of any time.
Now let’s turn to hymn number eight. I think we’ll take the offering before we sing this hymn and then we’ll sing this hymn and we’ll get into the Word of God. I’d like to get into some of these things tonight relative to the Advanced Class and lay the foundation for this Advanced Class. So I think we ought to take the offering at this time, then sing this song and we’ll be into the teaching.
Father, we thank Thee for the men and women who are dedicated to Thy Word and who stand with us in carrying this ministry around the world. Father, tonight, as they share of their tithes, their gifts and special offerings, multiply these gifts back to them according to their believing and their giving. Therefore, Father, we thank Thee for Thy blessing upon the gifts. May they be used to magnify Thy name with the greatness of Thy Word to men and women like those gathered here this night, others like this around the world. For this we thank Thee and praise Thee through Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
Let’s turn to number eight and sing, “Complete in Thee! No work of mine.” Number eight, everybody singing.
Complete in Thee! No work of mine
May take, dear Lord, the place of Thine;
Thy blood hath pardon bought for me,
And I am now complete in Thee.
Yes, justified! O blessed thought!
And sanctified! Salvation wrought!
Thy blood hath pardon bought for me,
And glorified, I too, shall be!
Complete in Thee—no more shall sin,
Thy grace hath conquered, reign within;
Thy voice shall bid the tempter flee,
And I shall stand complete in Thee.
Yes, justified! O blessed thought!
And sanctified! Salvation wrought!
Thy blood hath pardon bought for me,
And glorified, I too, shall be!
Everybody standing please.
Complete in Thee—each want supplied,
And no good thing to me denied,
Since Thou my portion, Lord, wilt be,
I ask no more, complete in thee.
Yes, justified! O blessed thought!
And sanctified! Salvation wrought!
Thy blood hath pardon bought for me,
And glorified, I too, shall be!
And, Savior, when before Thy bar
All tribes and tongues assembled are,
Among Thy chosen will I be,
At Thy right hand—complete in Thee.
Yes, justified! O blessed thought!
And sanctified! Salvation wrought!
Thy blood hath pardon bought for me,
And glorified, I too, shall be!
I think we ought to sing number 23, “In times like these, we have a Savior; in times like these, we have an anchor.” And then I’m gonna ask my friend, Jack Hunt, to come up here in a moment. Come on up, Jack. Number 23.
In times like these, we have a Savior
In times like these, we have an anchor
We’re very sure, we’re very sure
We’re very sure, we’re very sure
Our anchor holds and grips the solid Rock
This Rock is Jesus, Yes, he’s the One
This Rock is Jesus, the only One
We’re very sure, we’re very sure
We’re very sure, we’re very sure
Our anchor holds and grips the solid Rock
In times like these we gave the Bible
In times like these we are not idle
We’re very sure, we’re very sure
We’re very sure, we’re very sure
Our anchor holds and grips the solid Rock
This Rock is Jesus, Yes, he’s the One
This Rock is Jesus, the only One
We’re very sure, we’re very sure
We’re very sure, we’re very sure
Our anchor holds and grips the solid Rock
In times like these, I have a Savior
In times like these, I have an anchor
I'm very sure, I'm very sure
My anchor holds and grips the Solid Rock
Thank you. You may be seated. Wonderful. Well, we did pretty good on that second choir rehearsal, didn’t we? Tremendous.
You know, I just got inspired here a moment ago among this thing of my friend, Jack, being here. You know, I think I could call on many people who have taken the Advanced Class and not only this but who have sat through Foundational Classes, who have worked the Word of God on their own. But I know of no one for whom this Word has gelled any more wonderfully in the Advanced Class and who used a lot of these things that we’ll be teaching even before he was in the Advanced Class. And I feel tonight, Jack, you’ve got something to say. If you haven’t, God went out of business. {Audience laughs.} And I’d like for you just to share with our people here the very thing you have in our heart that I’m sure will be a glory to God and set forth the greatness of that which this Word of God in the Advanced Class stands for. Jack Hunt.
{Well, I’m glad to say that God is still in business. [Amen.] I was sitting back there thinking what I ought to say for the Lord when my brother called upon me to speak. And I was thinking that, over television, they tell us about how it’s good if you have a tiger in your tank. [Dr. Wierwille laughs.] {Audience laughs.} It’s good if you have zapanaly[8] in your toothpaste or something in your Cracker Jacks. Something’s always good; something added. Well, I’m glad to say that I have something more precious than that. A scripture came to mind that had just thrilled my heart so in the last weeks and it’s simply this: “The Lord is on my side.”[9] [Amen.] Isn’t that simple? “The Lord is on my side.” I had nothing to do with it, now. He’s on my side. Regardless of where I go, what I do, “The Lord is on my side.” It goes on to say that, “I shall not fear: what shall man do unto me?”[10] And I want to tell you that because of this precious Word of God—that God says He has set higher than all His name[11]—because of this Word, I don’t fear to walk any place that the Lord would lead me. I tremble not to stand here before you people and praise my God. [Amen.] Because it’s in Jesus’ name; I’m not doing it for you though you love me and though you would do many things for me. I want you to know that this Word of God never fails. That, “The Lord is on my side. And when I speak a thing according to His will, God establishes it. [Amen.] It comes to pass. I wish I could reach down in my pocket and get out a lollipop that each of you could suck on and then you could just have all the thrill in your heart that you’re going to have three weeks from now. Wouldn’t they be hard to hold, Dr.? [Dr. Wierwille laughs.] It’s thrilling what the Word, you know, what the Word has already done. And I know that—in this Advanced Class—that you’ll be walking in a way that you never, never expected. And then when you get into maybe the first week of it, your expectations will begin to grow. And I like a scripture in one of the translations that reads this way; that he that calls “upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”[12] And he shall not be disappointed in his expectations.[13] But let me tell you, as your expectations grow, so are your supplies, so are your blessings, and so are your thrills and your understanding of the Word. You’re going to see more miracles come to pass in your life. More marvelous things are going to happen to you in the next three weeks than you can probably stand. But just hold still, you’ll make it. [Dr. Wierwille chuckles.] I just know, brother, that the Lord is going to bless His Word abundantly. And you’re going to be thrilled with everything that comes your way. You just eat heartily, just drink all you can hold, and God will bless you for it. I want to say once more, “The Lord is on my side.” [Amen.] Bless you.}
Thank you. [14]
Let’s take our Bibles tonight and turn to II Kings chapter six. Thank you, Dorothy, and thank you, Rhoda. You two are fabulous at the organ and piano. You know, it’s a funny thing I don’t pay you for playing. If I had to pay you, I couldn’t get anybody that good to pay, to play. Here we get ‘em, donate their time and talents, and that’s tremendous.
II Kings chapter six. All of you people who are in the Advanced Class know that there are nine manifestations of the spirit. There are no nine gifts of the spirit but nine manifestations of one gift. The gift is the God-given ability. My operation of that gift produces the manifestations. Now there are nine manifestations of this gift.
This knowledge, which you have regarding the gift of the holy spirit and the manifestations; this knowledge, as I said to a group here in the auditorium this morning; this knowledge was lost by the end of the first century and the beginning of the second. We’re going to endeavor, as we have in the foundational classes and now in the Advanced Class, to recapture if at all possible some of the great freshness with which these tremendous truths were originally made known when the Apostle Paul declared them to the saints of God first and foremost. The Mystery of what the Church was, the field of the holy spirit, these things were all lost before the end of the first century and with the beginning of the new, the second century.
And I made a statement this morning that, that just thrilled the Bishop[15] and others of our people, and then I got to thinking about it, it was real good. So it could not have really come from me; it had to come from the Lord if it was real good. Because nothing that ever comes from man is really good. Therefore, if something really gels, it must be by inspiration. And inspiration is always one of two sources: it’s either the true God or the wrong one, one of the two.
And we made the statement here this morning that when people lose the spirit or when the spirit was lost, then they had to start building institutions. Institutions are the results of the loss of light, the spirit. And we carried it a step further and said that when the spirit was lost, then we had to build cathedrals. We had to build buildings because the power was gone. Then we had to establish something that men could see with their eyes and try to fool them into the great fact that they had power. Boy, if you tap power, you don’t need a building. You just need the wide open spaces to be turned loose in, because no building is big enough to hold you when the greatness of God’s tremendous Word and revelation lives.
Now this field that was lost in the first century and for the most part has, very little of it has been recaptured through the years. We’re going to try to work the Word in again to make it living and real and try to get some of the great freshness of that Word to be manifested in abundance among all of us.
There are nine manifestations of the spirit. Three of those nine operate by inspiration: speaking in tongues, interpretation of tongues, and prophecy. These operate via YOUR inspiration; you are inspired for Christ is in you and you, because you bubble on the inside, it effervesces and flows out on the outside.
The more you operate these inspirational manifestations, the more spiritually versatile and alive you become. The more spiritually perceptive you become. Spiritual perception is dependent upon the operation or the utilization of the three foundational manifestations of the spirit.
Now in this class we don’t deal with those foundational manifestations very much. We’ll hit ‘em a little bit tomorrow night, show you some things in it, and then we’re off and running into a field where we’re already going to begin tonight. Because the manifestations that we handle in the Advanced Class are far beyond the Foundational Class.
The manifestations we handle in the Advanced Class are the six remaining manifestations of the spirit, namely, word of knowledge, word of wisdom, discerning of spirits, faith, miracles, and healing. We now are going to give three weeks of our time to research in the Word of God and the tracking of these great manifestations through the Word, from Genesis to Revelation.
You people know that three weeks will be terribly short. But some of our people, listening by radio tonight, I’ll bet they’re sitting there scratching their heads, and so on and so on, and wondering how in the world could any group of people spend three weeks of their valuable time studying only six manifestations of the spirit? Well, I want to tell you, after our three weeks, we will just have barely begun to scrape the surface. We’re going to cover a tremendous amount of the Word of God. But with all of that, even three weeks, we’re just going to begin to scrape the surface. But, bless God, we’re gonna scrape it. We’re going to get some light, we’re going to get some truth, and we’re going to let this Word of God gel and live abundantly within us.
Now, here in, in II Kings chapter six, we have a record of the operation of some of these manifestations of the spirit which we will be dealing with in the Advanced Class.
II Kings 6:1-7[16]
And the sons of the prophets said unto Elisha, [Elisha was the prophet who followed upon Elijah; Elijah and then Elisha] Behold now, the place where we dwell with thee is too strait for us.
Let us go, we pray thee, unto Jordan, and take thence every man a beam, and let us make us a place there, where we may dwell. And he answered, [he said] Go ye.
And one said, Be content, I pray thee, and go with thy servants. And he answered, [that is, Elisha answered, he said] I[‘ll] … go [along].
So he went with them. And when they came to Jordan, they cut down wood.
[And] …as one was felling a beam, the axe head fell into the water: and he cried, [the man cried] and said, Alas, master! [Alas, master!] for it was borrowed.
[Verse 6] And the man of God said, Where fell it? And he [the man who’d lost it] shewed him the place. And he [the prophet Elisha] cut down a stick, and cast it in thither; [in the place that the man had shown him] and the iron did [what?] swim.
Therefore said he, Take it up to thee. [And put] And he put out his hand, and [did what?] took it.
Now, you see, here’s one of these crackpot miracles they talk about, you know. “Can’t happen.” But, lordy, you can sit here in your seats and you can sit by the radio and you believe all the stuff they’re sending back from Mars. Tonight there’s, or was it this week, still in meeting, some 3,200 scientists, meeting here in our United States, studying the reports that have come in from Mars. Now we don’t mind one bit these kinds of things. We think, “Boy, they’re wonderful. You send a man out into outer space.”
Well, let me remind you that this same God who put the things here that make it possible to shoot something at Mars and take pictures while it’s going by, the same God who made available the materials and everything else that you can send a man out into outer space, the same God who’s dealing here. And I want to tell you, God isn’t quite exhausted yet on what He can do. And I’m sure of one thing: neither America or Russia has outrun Him in the scientific field yet. He’s got a few things out in outer space they haven’t quite reached yet. And this is absolutely no problem to me; it’s scientifically accurate and every other way because all you need to do is to tap higher power. Operate greater laws or operate laws that you know to a greater efficacy. Then you can produce things.
But the greatness of this is, let’s say, here you go out to the woods and you lose the old axe. So now it drops in the creek, you know. You’re chopping on the creek bank and the axe falls in the creek. Got to have more water than we got in her now, of course. But, so you say, “Well, throw a stick in it.” Well, you can just throw all the sticks all night. You won’t find anything because there’s a lot more involved than just a silly idea of taking a stick and throwing it in the water. When you read the Word like this, there’s a great deal more set in here than appears on the surface. Verse six:
II Kings 6:6a
And the man of God said, Where [what?] fell it?
What you can know with your senses, God does not give you revelation on. That’s why, even though we’re in an Advanced Class and we’re going to be discussing the operation of the word of knowledge, the word of wisdom, discerning of spirits, and so forth, let me remind you that God expects you to use your brains. He expects you to study to show yourself approved unto Him. You study the Word to show yourself approved unto Him, as workmen who need not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth.[17]
But the revelation manifestations, they begin where the senses cease. What you can know by your senses God expects you to know, understand? And where your senses cease, there these revelation manifestations go into operation. Word of knowledge is one of them. Word of what? Wisdom is the second, and discerning of spirits is the third. These three revelation manifestations are the eyes and the ears of the believer. These three revelation manifestations are your sources of information. Your sources of knowing whereby, whereby you can know anything which is humanly impossible with your five senses to know anything about.
Now that verse, when the man lost this particular item, the prophet said to him, “Where did it fall?” This he could know by his what? Senses. Good gravy, he didn’t take him five miles away and start saying, “Well, now, did it fall over here? Did it fall over there?” No. He said, “Where did it fall?” And he said, “There.”
What you can know by your senses, God expects you to know. Revelation is never given, you never get revelation, except if, y-you have exhausted or you have worked the senses field. Do you understand? What you can know by your senses, God expects you to know. Revelation begins where the senses, the information that you can have by your senses ceases.
And, ladies and gentlemen, there, revelation will always be of one source or the other. It will either be from the true God or it will be from Satan. And there’s hardly a person living today who can separate the two. The one is genuine and the other is counterfeit. And it’s, the difficulty is that most people believe that all supernatural manifestations are of God. They are. But you have to find out which god. That’s right. All supernatural manifestations, all extra-sensory perception, has to be in one or the other of two categories. It’s either true or it’s counterfeit.
Now the counterfeit will be so much like the genuine that we’re going to spend three weeks so that, when you get through with this class, you could spot a counterfeit a mile off and you’ll be the only people in the United States that I know of that will be able to do it. You will be able to recognize it. And that’s one of the greatest things in your life, so that you find out what’s going on.
Remember the Scripture says we’re not ignorant of whose devices?[18] Now how in the world, then, can you be smartened up except you come to the Word? We come to the Word and the Word of God gives us all of these keys. And we’ll be reading them, and they’ll be dealing with how you can know whether it’s genuine or whether it’s counterfeit.
Now, what he could know by his senses he knew. Look at the sixth verse:
II Kings 6:6a
And the man of God said, Where fell it? And he shewed him the place. And he [the man of God] cut down a [what?] {stick},
There’s the word of knowledge. The word of knowledge is in the, in the spiritual realm comparable to the word of knowledge in the senses realm. Word of knowledge tells you the score. Knowledge tells you the score. If you have knowledge, then you know what’s going on. Word of knowledge, word of knowledge is the revelation of God telling you the score beyond what you can know by your five senses.
He told him to cast down a what? “A stick.” Why didn’t he pick up a stone, throw it in? Why didn’t he go get himself a big log, dip her down in there and put a magnet on the end of it or something? Why not? See, why does it say these–like the, the people say–“silly things” in the Bible? “Well, why are these silly things in here?” They’re not silly. They’re word of knowledge, word of knowledge whereby God said to him, “cut down a stick.” And the Word of God is always the will of God. Always.
And he did what? All right, did he cut her down? Did he do exactly what the Word said? If you and I want anything from God and we want to be able to separate genuine from counterfeit, we’ve always got to take the Word of God literally and carry it out. And he had not only the word of knowledge, which told him what to do, but the word of wisdom was “cast it in [what?] thither.” Cast it in, throw it in there, throw it in. That’s the word of wisdom.
Word of knowledge tells you the score. Word of wisdom tells you what to do about it. And it’s always as plain as that. Seven verses of scripture have the whole Advanced Class in these two categories lined up. All the answers are in those six or seven verses. All of them. All, they’re all there. They always operate the same. Always.
First of all, you must, God expects you to know what you, what you can work out. He expects you to work the Word of God. He expects you to understand it. He expects you to work it. Now when you have exhausted your ability here, you’ve done all you can, that’s when you reach up in “Daddy’s cookie jar” for a word of knowledge regarding ANY situation. I said any and I meant any. Because we’re going to read different situations where God gave revelation, you’d say, “Well, boy, isn’t that something?” You’d never thought God would be interested in that.
A guy lost his jackasses once and the Lord got real interested in those. Remember the story? I tell you, it’s quite a story. We’re gonna be reading it, and you better bring your laughing belt along to hold yourself in when we read it ‘cause it’s written beautifully in the Word of God. Why sure, that old fella had his asses lost for a long time; couldn’t find them. But the Lord knew where they were, sure. Yep, boy I tell you.
It’s, it’s regarding ANY situation about which it’s humanly impossible to know anything with your five senses. Sure. Silly little things, the world would call. Axes falling in. Who, why should God be interested in a silly axe? Well, let me ask you something. Why shouldn’t He be interested? You’re His son, you’re His daughter. Why shouldn’t He be interested in what you’re interested in? In every field. Is He interested in your individual welfare? Family welfare? Is He interested in your automobile? In your shop and factory? Is He interested in your tools?
You see, we have relegated our God someplace up in the mystical realm, and in the ethereal realm and not down into concretion. And the God of the Word…[19] When it meets that requirement, then you can believe God for revelation and, when you believe, it’ll always be there. Always! Always! Never fails. Always! The axe head came up.
Now, there are stories like this all through the Bible. This is one. You see, without understanding word of knowledge or word of wisdom, you’d say, “Well, it’s just a silly story. He threw a stick in,” see? So, next time you l-, you lose an axe head, you take a stick and throw it in and the dumb axe doesn’t float and you blame God and say, “Well, God, it did for that fella, didn’t for me, therefore, that other one must be a lie too.” You never had any revelation to throw a stick in, see it? If the Lord said, “Throw a stick in,” and you threw a stick in and you believed, what would happen? Aw, shoot, it’d float. Float the whole bottom of the ocean if He wanted to; no problem to Him. The problem, the problem’s right here.
You know, if, if something like this would go haywire for any of us, the average person would say, “Well, I just lost that one.” See. Right? Just say, “I lost that one.” Or you’ll, you’ll say, “Well, I’ll buy the neighbor a new one.” Or “I’ll do this” or “I’ll do this,” “I’ll do that.”
You see, if we can get ourselves into alignment and harmony and get ourselves quieted down, that we can learn how to reach up in Daddy’s cookie jar to BELIEVE. Believing’s the key to receiving. ALL receiving is due to believing and ALL believing equals receiving. Now the, the method, the technique is one of operation of manifestations: word of knowledge and word of wisdom.
Verse eight. Tremendous story in here. A story of how revelation manifestations averted a war and the, perhaps, the entire annihilation of a nation because ONE man operated word of knowledge and word of wisdom in a great civilization, against great companies, c-countries with great military potential and expediency.
II Kings 6:8
…the king of Syria warred against Israel, and took counsel with his [what?] servants, saying, In such and such a place shall be my camp.
This “took counsel with his servants” means his staff; his chief of staff. The king met with the chief military staff and he said, “Boys, we’re going to penetrate the lines of the enemy over there, so we’ll make our camp over here and we’ll move in there.” That’s the record. Verse nine:
II Kings 6:9
And the man of God [Elisha] sent unto the king of Israel, [a message; sent it by Western Union most likely. Telegram he sent unto the king of Israel] saying, Beware that thou pass not such [and such] a [what?] {place}; for thither the Syrians are [what?] come down.
How do you like that? The old king sits back in his private quarters, all the doors locked, the doors closed, the FBI stationed all the way around it. And he sits there with his military geniuses and he says, “Fellows, we get this great nation of Israel and we’ll make them subservient to us. And the way we’ll do it….” I’ve, I’ve, what do you call these scouts that go ahead? That scout out the land? Spies, yeah but something else. Information bureau or something that he had had out looking the place over. They knew where the weakness in the lines of the Israelites could be found. And so they decided to penetrate at those weak points. They’d sit there. Nobody in there except his planners and he; the top brass, mind you. [Thumps podium repeatedly.] Get the story?
And while they’re sitting this, planning this, a little prophet by the name of Elisha, sitting back in his tea house, you know, ha ha, brewing himself another pot of tea, British. [Thumps podium, laughs.] My Australian friend will like that statement. Sure something. And just like that Father says to him, “Hey, they got a meeting over there. You know what they’re doing? They’re laying plans how they’re going to, going to get rid of the children of Israel.” He said, “Write a note and send it to the king of Israel and tell the king of Israel what they’ve planned in that room.”
Boy, how do you like that? No wiretapping, no placement of hidden microphones, no expense like this involved at all and yet, information. Now how in the world did Elisha get this information? He had to get it from someplace, because he didn’t get it out of the king’s nest did he? No.
God told him. But HOW did God told him, tell him? That’s what I want to know. How was he told? And the way he was told was by word of knowledge. Word of knowledge begins where the senses cease. Anything you could know by your five senses, he wouldn’t have needed word for. But could Elisha get into that outfit? Could he get into the king’s inner court? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. That was the king of Syria and his boys were in there, that’s all. So Elisha had no what? Access to it. Therefore, he had to get his information from some other source. And that’s word of knowledge.
So Elisha sent the king of Israel this note. It says, “Beware that thou pass not such [and such] a place; for thither the Syrians are [what?] come down.” That’s where they’re coming after you. Verse 10:
II Kings 6:10
And the king of Israel sent to the place which the man of God told him [get that?] and warned him of, and saved himself there, not once [not what?] … twice.
But many, many what? How do you like that? Boy, that, that’d just about cool your cookies, wouldn’t it?
Here, you’re the greatest nation in the world, you know. Syria was at this time considered to be the greatest military, prosperous, financially blessed nation in the world. And here they were coming to capture Israel. They’d placed their armies properly. They’d worked it all out mathematically, scientifically, every other way. And just about the time they get ready to go in, nobody there. Moved out over here. So they plan her all over again. Get together in their little meeting, decide they’re gonna come in on this side. So by the time they get ready to come over to this side, the boys move over here. Every time they did the planning, God said to Elisha, “Look what they’re doing.” And Elisha never moved out of his house. [Thumps podium repeatedly.] He just brewed himself another pot of tea.
Boy, I tell you, this is something. You see, this word of knowledge is so big, so wonderful, so tremendous that I told you, they’re very, very few people ever get fitted for this class because to get this kind of info, you’ve got to be walking, boy. You can’t be standing up and shaking at the knees ‘cause somebody back there says, “I don’t believe it.” Nuts to the whole....
I like what Jack said tonight. I don’t teach this class for you. I teach it for Him. You bet your life ‘cause if you’re gonna teach it just for people, no deal. It’s too big. But maybe someplace, somewhere, there’s one who’ll see it.
But boy, you want this kind of revelation, you gonna have to be walking. You’re not going to be pulling God’s leg, sitting on the front pew in the church and saying, “Glory hallelujah.” That doesn’t get it. Oh no, no, no. Or paying through the nose, giving an extra thousand for the building fund, doesn’t accomplish it. Nope. It’s got to be much deeper than that. You’ve got to be born again of God’s spirit, filled with the holy spirit, operating manifestations like speaking in tongues, interpretation, and prophecy, like wonderful sons of God ought to. And then you believe. You believe. And boy, this believing…. [Snaps fingers.]
Look at Elisha. The Syrians had all the advantages. Israel could not withstand the Syrian army. For this man of God, Elisha, to believe that his God could still deliver them. I tell you, that was believing!
So Elisha simply reaches up, as I put it, in Daddy’s cookie jar, and God says to him, they’re comin’ through there, they’re comin’ over through there. And then there’s a remarkable truth in there that the king of Israel believed what the man of God said. [Thumps the podium repeatedly.] Today, they believe the other side. Israel believed what the man of God said. The king of Israel believed what the man of God said and so he put his troops over here. Next time he put them over there, according to the word of the man of God. And all that time the Syrian army didn’t touch him. Not once, not twice, but many times. This caused quite a stir in the capitol at Washington [thumps podium] or I mean Syria. Quite a stir. “What’s going on here?”
II Kings 6:11
Therefore the heart of the king of Syria was sore troubled [he got all shook over this stuff; sore troubled] for this thing; and he called his [chiefs of staff] … and [he] said unto them … [please] shew me which of us is for the king of [what?] Israel?
He thought he had a fifth columnist in the outfit, didn’t he? He thought that one of his chiefs of staff was passing this info to the enemy. Sure! So he gets some them all together and he says, “Now, boys, I want to know who it is.” So he starts down the line: secretary of state, defense department, all of them, the whole outfit. And one of the chiefs of state, you know, chiefs of the staff, verse 12:
II Kings 6:12
And one of his … [chiefs] said, None, my lord, O king: but Elisha, … [that] prophet that is in Israel, telleth the king of Israel the words that thou speakest in thy [what?] bedchamber.
[Laughs heartily.] That something? Oh, the Lord was telling the prophet what the king would do in his bedchamber. I bet that cooled him off a little or something. [Laughs.] {Audience laughs.} Oh, shoot. Ha, isn’t that something? Sure. Well,
II Kings 6:13a
And … [the king] said [verse 13], Go and spy [out] where … [this prophet fella] is, [find out for me where he’s hiding; where he is] that I may send and fetch him.
You know, the Kentucky people must have been Syrians. Uh…. {Audience laughs.}
II Kings 6:13b, 14a
And it was told him, saying, Behold, he is [where?] in Dothan.
Therefore sent he thither [now, this is the king of Syria, mind you] horses … chariots, and a great host,
[Thumps podium.] To get one simple, little old man of God. Just one. [Laughs.] Isn’t that something? To get this one fella and who they were going after, didn’t even carry a .45. [Laughs.] {Audience laughs.} And the whole Syrian host, you know, whole bunch of them, oodles of them, “great host,” and they didn’t even come during the day time. They came how? {By night.} Because they wanted to be sure that that fella didn’t get away from them. One fella. Sure.
And the city of Dothan about, all the way around the city, they set up their guards. Verse 15:
II Kings 6:15
And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and [had] gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant [came running back in the house and] said unto him, Alas … master! [Alas master, Alas master!] … [what] shall we do?
He got all shook over this thing ‘cause this whole city was compassed about with this army. So he runs back in and he says, “Master, look! What they gonna do to us? Chop our heads off?”
Verse 16:
II Kings 6:16
And he answered, Fear not [don’t get all afraid]: for they that be with us are [what?] more than they that be with [what?] them.
Boy, sense knowledge wise you wouldn’t have believed that, would you? No, sir. Because sense knowledge wise you could only see the great host of the Syrians camped round about the city of Dothan, right? With their battering rams, their armaments, their automatics, all of that in line; their atom bombs and everything else ready to roll, see. And yet the prophet said, “Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid, “for they that [what?] be with us are more than they that be with them.”
I wonder how he got this information. [Thumps podium.] Isn’t that something? Boy, they that be with us are more than those that are out there. This is a tremendous lesson to the Christian today because sometimes people who really work the Word of God and love the Word of God they feel sometimes like they have to stand all alone. Well, so what? Long as you’re standing alone you and God make a majority, right? You don’t have to wait on multitudes. The multitudes have never done anything but ruin the things of God. It takes a man or a woman knowing God’s Word to stand. And when you stand and you and God walk hand in hand, you and God are a majority in every situation.
That’s like prayer is, you know. Boy, we think we got to have 150 people praying for us. You know why we need 150? Because nobody’s believing. [Laughs.] Does God need 150 to pray for us? No, he needs just believing. And so we think, if we got big numbers you know, we had a big meeting, if we had 20,000 people in here tonight, we’d have a great spirit moving. Huh! No, no, no, no, no, no, no. If one person believes, it’s moving. That’s the thing. Wonderful to have 20 thousand, I suppose. Never had that many but 50, I’ve had. Wonderful to have 60. But people, it’s one man and God; that’s the way it has to work. You could have 20,000 and nobody would believe, so you pray all night and get nothing, right?
That’s why He that be, they that be with us, are more than they that are with that outfit out there. But did the servant see that? Did the servant see that? No, because the servant did not have revelation. He did not see what this other man was seeing because God was showing Elisha something or had shown him something that the servant had not seen.
II Kings 6:17
And Elisha prayed, [verse 17] and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may [what?] see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; [and this is revelation; this, this is revelation] and he [the young man] saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about [what?] Elisha.
Yes, ha ha, isn’t that something? Sure. Hey, and Elisha, was he a son of God? He was a what? {Servant.} A servant of God this way and a servant to his fellow man on an horizontal plane. Yet the Bible says that you are a what? Son of God, this way and a servant to your.... Will he do less for you than He did for his servants? Then why isn’t He doing more for His sons? Because His sons aren’t believing or they don’t know how. There’s a difference if we don’t know how to tap these resources .
II Kings 6:18
And when they came down to him, Elisha prayed unto the Lord, and said, Smite this people, I pray thee, with blindness. And he smote them with blindness according to the word of [what?] {Elisha}.
Now here is something, perhaps, I ought to handle as best I know it. I discussed this with some people before the service this evening and have done it for many years, off and on. Here is a principle of God’s divine presence that I understand in part but not in full. The best way I can explain it to you is that the man out here on the street who doesn’t know there’s a God in heaven much less care, who curses and swears like a trooper, who does everything contrary to the laws of God, yet he’s allowed to live. Why? Because of the laws that God has established in the universe. When God who established those laws takes that law and withdraws it for a moment, this thing can happen. When God takes His law and withdraws it for a moment, a whole nation can die like that [snaps fingers].
Here was this man of God, Elisha and he prayed. He said, “Lord, strike ‘em blind. Give ‘em the barrel, Lord.” And all the Lord did was withdraw something that’s involved in a law. There’s a law involved here, Estherline. The greatness of it, I don’t fully understand. But it’s a removing, withdrawal of something, which is commonly not done, but it can be done. And when God does this, this kind of thing happens.
And it was the believing on the part of the prophet that brought it to pass. And watch the greatness of this thing. What’s the profit in it? What’s the profit in it? That’s what we’re after. What’s the profit in it?
II Kings 6:19a
And Elisha said unto them, This is not the way, neither is this the city: [ha ha] follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom ye seek.
Well, they hadn’t seen him yet, had they? No, they hadn’t seen him yet. And he led them where? [Laughs, thumps podium.] He took ‘em on a wild goose chase. They went around the city of Dothan where the, the spies had ferreted out that the prophet Elisha was. And so, when they couldn’t see, the prophet himself goes to them and he said, “Fellas, this isn’t the place, this isn’t the place, this isn’t the way.” You notice it wasn’t The Way. So,
II Kings 6:19b, 20a
…he led them to Samaria. [Verse 20:]
And it came to pass, when they were come into Samaria, that Elisha said, Lord, open the eyes of these men, that they may see. And the Lord opened their eyes,
Whatever that law was, He allowed to go back into operation and when it occurred, they could see.
You know, when we talk about these things, I sometimes wonder about a lot of this depth in this thing. Have you ever heard about a man who drives up to a stop sign on a road, you know? Car drives to that sign, he stops completely, he looks both ways, he drives out, a big semi runs right over him, kills him deader than a door nail. Why? He looked both ways. Is it because there’s a law involved in seeing, that you look both ways but you don’t see? Is this perhaps, Jack, what the scripture is talking about when it says they have eyes and perceive not; have eyes but they don’t see?[20] Is this the law that’s involved? I believe it is.
This is the kind of thing when, when these laws operate. The withdrawal of them, that’s the kind of blindness. From my knowledge of the Word of God and working this field, I’d say they all had their eyes wide open just like you and I have it open. But they couldn’t see a blessed thing. That’s right.
So they get back to the city of Samaria—the headquarters, you know, where the king of Israel is—and the prophet says, “Lord, open their eyes.” Word of knowledge, word of wisdom, all the way through here. I didn’t explain it every time it comes up.
II Kings 6:20b
And the Lord opened their eyes, and they saw; and, behold, they were in the midst of [what?] {Samaria}.
I’ll bet that was a shock to ‘em. “And the king of Israel,” here’s verse 21 now, a wonderful king:
II Kings 6:21
And the king of Israel said unto Elisha, when he saw them, My father, [talking to Elisha, let me smite them, let me kill ‘em, let me get to ‘em!] shall I smite them?
Well, well, bless God, he got ‘em handy now, you know. Couldn’t get to em’ before. Now he’s got ‘em here. The kind of Israel said, “Let me chop ‘em to pieces.” See, isn’t that something? And the man of God answers, verse 22:
II Kings 6:22
Thou shalt not [what?] smite them: wouldest thou smite those whom thou hast taken captive with thy sword and with thy bow? set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink, and go to their master.
Go back to the king of Syria. Boy, now that’s the stupidest thing to do, isn’t it? You got the enemy in the palm of your hand. Cut him to smithereens! Chop him to pieces! Blow him off the map! That’s what the king of Israel said we ought to do. The man of God said, “No deal.” He said, “Let’s have steak.” [Laughs.] “Give ‘em bread and water.” Wonder why? Word of what? Knowledge and word of what? Wisdom. In one man. The king of Israel didn’t have it. Oh you, you would say he should have; he was the king, right? He didn’t have it. It dwelt in a little man of God whose name was Elisha.
Elisha sent the info to the king and then the king obeyed. As long as the king obeyed, he avoided calamity, right? Now, when Elisha gets him right back, what’s the first thing the king wants to do? Chop ‘em to smithereens. He wasn’t waiting on the Lord at all. No. He thought, “Boy, oh boy, God brought ‘em.” God didn’t do anything like it. Elisha brought ‘em. God didn’t bring ‘em to the king of Israel. Elisha brought ‘em. And when Elisha brought them, Elisha was responsible to get the information what to do with them.
And Elisha believed God for revelation and God said to him, “Don’t kill them. Don’t chop their heads off. Give them bread and water, give them something to eat, feed ‘em up fat and send them home.” Sure! And one of his servants said…. Where am I? (Verse) 23:
II Kings 6:23
And he prepared great provision for them: and when they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their master [who was the king of Syria; now read the last sentence]. So the bands of Syria came no more into the land of [what?] Israel.
[Thumps podium repeatedly.] Boy, oh, boy! Because of the knowledge of the Word of God in one man who dared to believe. And I can document this thing historically for you because, in the history of Syria, you can read this period of time—about 30 years in there. Because there was one man, named Elisha, who had the Word of God and the king of Syria carried, uh, king of Israel carried out when Elisha told him. A period of 25 to 30 years, the great host of the Syrians, a great army, never came back to molest Israel at all. Because the Word of God dwelt in a man. And the king believed that Word. Even though he wanted to chop their heads off, as soon as he got the word from the prophet, what did the king do? Carried out the word of the prophet. The prophet said, “Set bread and water.” Ladies and gentlemen, that Word says, “So the bands of Syria came no more into the land of Israel.”
Today, you know, we try to be a great nation but not on this principle. Nations can only remain great when the Word of God is great in a nation. When crafty types of living, haughtiness, pride, unbelief, devilish operations move in, a nation goes down. No nation stays great because it has money. No nation stays alive because it has great armament, great forces. The host of the Syrians had it all, people. They overran the entire world. They took captive whomever they wanted. But they ran up against a little nation called Israel. And that Israel had one man whose name was Elisha. And that man operated revelation. And the king believed what the man had; the man of God! And so the host of the Syrians were stayed and there was peace in the land of Israel because of one man of God.
Required reading in the Advanced Class: July issue, Reader’s Digest. You know how I love Reader’s Digest, Life, Look, and Time. Required reading: page 235 and on, “The Crystal Ball.” Even in the introduction here, you ought to wake up and see something. “For more than a quarter of a century, Jeane Dixon of Washington DC has demonstrated an uncanny ability to predict the future.” She has been right so often that the newspaper woman, Ruth Montgomery, confesses to being relieved when an occasion Mrs. Dixon misses. According to Jack Anderson and Fred Blumenthal of the Parade magazine, her predictions are sufficiently enigmatic,’ they say, “that she can disclaim them if they go wrong.” They also note that, “She is bolder about predicting the far than the near future. Nevertheless, she has often been right.” But sometimes wrong.
Hey, if you’re wrong just once, then you aren’t right. If that prophet, Elisha, had been wrong once, he would have had to constantly been getting his information from the other source. It’s that sharp.
Now I’m sure there are a lot more people that are going to believe Reader’s Digest than V. P. Wierwille. But I don’t give a hoot if everybody believes Reader’s Digest. The Word of God still is truth to me. You bet your life. But you see where our nation goes, that’s what I want you to see. And in the article and in the book itself, how the great leaders of the nation, and foreign country diplomats and all, now come to her to reach in her crystal ball for the inspiration.
Remember the scripture where it says, “the stars … fought against Sisera,”[21] or Sisera; Sisera, I guess it is. Do you know what it means? He was looking into his crystal ball. And he was usually right. But just that one time when he needed to really be right, he was dead wrong. So he was just as dead as if he’d been dead wrong all along.
And these are the slight marks of demarcation between the genuine and the counterfeit. They’re so sharply drawn that, unless you have a knowledge and an accurate knowledge of God’s Word and can ferret this thing out and let it fit from Genesis to Revelation, you’ll never be able to separate truth from error because the devil is not stupid.
But, of course, today we don’t believe in a devil. We believe there’s only one God and that He can do all devilish things. Occasionally, He does a good one but, if He does, that’s a misnomer. Everything else He does bad. He’s after you, makes you sick, causes the automobile accident, kills your kids, and does all this wonderful stuff for us, you know. Great God.
This kind of stuff we’re trying to save our nation by. Elisha didn’t save her that way. [Thumps podium repeatedly.] Do you think it’s still possible today for God to reveal to a man, the true God to reveal to a man exactly what the score is? You bet your life. But what good is it except the king would believe the message, right? Why should God reveal anything to a man of God regarding the way the enemy is going to operate? You send the information to headquarters, they wire back, don’t believe it. So why should God show it to him? The king of Israel said, “That’s it, boy.” So he moved his troops, not once, not twice, but what? Many times! You bet your life!
Because we have become so engrained in the negative side, the devilish side that, if the truth of God’s Word were made known, it would be rejected because we’re so acclimatized this. And Satan knows how far he can go. The scripture says he’s an angel of light.[22] He knows the Word of God better than you know it. That’s right. But you’ve got something he hasn’t got: you’ve got Christ in you, the hope of glory. And he that’s in you is greater than what? {He that is in the world.}[23]
And that’s why I’m willing to teach another class on the operation of these nine manifestations. Because if the day should ever come when heads of state will again rise up and believe men of God, YOU may have to be just that person that will have to believe God for the information that would save the nation. For God is still God and He still is able to reveal. And I want to tell you, He knows what’s going on in Viet Nam. He knows what’s going on in the state of Ohio, down in Indiana and Washington. But what good is it for God to give me information if the person I related it to wouldn’t believe it anyways? Then He wouldn’t give it to me in the first place unless it was for my edification. And if it was for my edification, He’d never allow me to do what with it? Spit it out. Get it? [Thumps podium twice.]
She foretold the death of Kennedy, it says. What profit to it? He died anyways? Right? If it had have been of the true God, if it had been of the true God, then the people would have believed to whom she said it. God had given her revelation. She’d have said it, they’d have believed, Kennedy would have stopped. Don’t you see it?
Boy, that line is just as sharp as that. Because had it been for the true God, from the true God, had He shown it to you and He would have shown you nobody’s going to believe, He’d have said, “Well, shut up. Don’t tell anybody. It’s for your edification that, as son of God, you can live.”
Now this is a part of revelation. He sometimes shows me many wonderful things. Then He says, “Shut up.” Why does He show it to me? He shows it to me for the same reason that He showed things to the Apostle John, as He showed the things to, to, to, to, to the Apostle Paul. Simply that I may be comforted, that I may be encouraged, that I may be able to walk. That’s right.
But when He shows this to me, it’s specifically to me, I don’t blurt it out, I don’t yak about it. If I told people what God shows me and tells me to shut up about, you see, my revelation would stop too. I wouldn’t be walking in the light as He is the light. And then I couldn’t believe, see it? So when He says, blub, blub, you button her so tight not even the little woman knows. Nobody! That’s right.
Don’t you see this tremendous importance of this field we’re dealing in, kids? Boy, I’m telling you, this is something! And before another week goes by, you’ll be able to take the genuine and the counterfeit and you’ll be able to read articles like this…. And we’re going to read ‘em. We’re going to take them apart line by line and word by word, so you get the practice. So you get the practice of spotting truth and error. Then you become spiritually alive and versatile in it to the end that you just know when it’s from the true God and when it’s of Satan because you’ve got the whole Word to back it up.
A great nation saved because one man dared to believe God. [Thumps podium.] Boy, shouldn’t there be one man in these our United States who would rise up to believe God? And shouldn’t there be some man to rise up to be the head of our states who would listen to a man of God? They’re listening to this side and it’s bringing defeat, defeat, defeat, and defeat. Thousands and thousands of dollars, millions of dollars, and thousands of our boys and girls.
Ladies and gentlemen, let’s let this Advanced Class really gel in our souls. And let’s see if somehow or other we can’t gel enough of the Word that we get the freshness of the greatness of the revelation that God originally gave when He first made it known to the Apostle Paul and men and women walked it with the greatness of the power of His holy spirit.
Let’s stand for prayer.[24] Our gracious and loving heavenly Father, I thank Thee again tonight for the ineffable greatness of Thy Word and the power of Thy holy spirit. I thank Thee, Father, that this Word is living and real and that we understand the word of knowledge and the word of wisdom as we see it manifested in this great chapter tonight. Oh Father, raise us up men and women who will be able to understand the Word and be able to walk on it. Who will have great believing so that the revelation from Thee, oh Father, will again be made manifest not only to them but there’ll be people who’ll believe it so that it can be used to change the course of history and life and to be a blessing to the hearts and lives of people. Father, for this we praise Thee and thank Thee through Christ Jesus our Lord.
Lord, I believe,
All things are possible, Lord I believe.
Lord I believe, Lord I believe,
All things are possible, Lord I believe.
Sing it again.
Only believe, only believe,
All things are possible, only believe.
Lord I believe, Lord I believe,
All things are possible, Lord I believe.
Our Father, we thank Thee for They loving kindness and tender mercy here tonight.[25] We thank Thee for Thy blessing upon every person here. And above all I thank Thee for the living Word which is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path.[26] And Father, we thank Thee for Thy abounding presence. And as our people go forth this week, may this be the most wonderful week they’ve ever had. May the abundance and presence of the Word live abundantly among our people. For this we praise Thee and thank Thee this night through Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen. Goodnight. God bless you. Have a wonderful week all week.
[1] Parentheses ( ) within the text indicate an insertion by author or transcriber for clarity, explanation, etc.
[2] Individual and audience response is indicated by/within modified brackets – { }.
[3] Song “Unworthy” chimes in background through the end of this transcript paragraph.
[4] Dr. Wierwille’s laughter, means of emphasis, comments within quoted material or the comments of others, etc., are indicated by/within brackets – [ ].
[5] Organ music plays in background through the end of the dedication and again at various other points during the service.
[6] Singing is accompanied by organ and piano in the recording. Song lyrics are italicized in this transcript.
[7] Organ begins to chime in background and continues through the end of this transcript paragraph.
[8] Unfamiliar term; spelled phonetically.
[9] Psalm 118:6a
[10] Psalm 118:6b, with the word “shall” substituted for “can” and “will.”
[11] Reference to Psalm 138:2b, “for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.”
[12] Romans 10:13
[13] Apparent paraphrase of Romans 10:11, “For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.”
[14] Organ chimes briefly.
[15] Bishop K. C. Pillai
[16] The Scripture used throughout this transcript is quoted from the King James version unless otherwise noted.
[17] II Timothy 2:15
[18] II Corinthians 2:11, “Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.”
[19] Break in the recording; then, briefly indiscernible.
[20] Isaiah 6:9
[21] Judges 5:20b
[22] II Corinthians 11:14
[23] Reference to I John 4:4, “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.
[24] Organ chimes in background through the end of this transcript paragraph.
[25] Organ chimes through this transcript paragraph.
[26] Psalm 119:105, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.”