Being Honest With God

Being Honest With God

by Ruth Carter Stapleton

Transcribed from the original recording; may contain errors.

I went to my first camp about nine years ago. And how many of you are here for the first time tonight? Oh, gee, that’s just glorious. That’s wonderful. Well, I hope you don’t do like I did, and I packed my suitcase three times before the week was over. But I didn’t leave, and I stayed to the bitter end, and it turned out to be the most glorious week of my whole life.

When I look back and I think of what CFO really means, it’s going to mean something different to every single one of you. But to me, it is the expression of the love of God. It’s really God incarnated in people, I think. Love flowing from one to the other. I remember slipping out of town so that nobody would know, none of my friends would know I had a need. And I was going to this place, the CFO. I didn’t know what it meant. And I had been a hypocrite for so many years, you know, going to church every Sunday, pretending. And I got to that CFO, and I saw 250 hypocrites at one time.

I knew that 250 people couldn’t be as filled with love and joy as those 250 at that first camp that I went to. And I watched them. And I observed. And I talked to different ones. And I really thought I was spying on them. But you know, they were just loving me into opening and opening and opening more and more. And before I knew it, I was confessing and I was sharing and I was letting all of my burdens drop off. And there at that camp, I don’t know how many different people ended up with me in the prayer room. This week, if anybody… I don’t know if you have a prayer room here. Do you have a prayer room here? It’s a castle down by the way. It does. But if anybody wants to take you to the prayer room, go. That’s when I really found out that Jesus Christ was real. Now, I didn’t know it that first week that I was at camp. I just thought the answer to life was CFO. And after I got home that first week, everybody that I could find that would be still for five minutes, I said, “If you want your life changed, go to CFO.” And it took me three months to find out that it was really Jesus.

That this was really Christ and these people in this camp. And this was the expression of the love of God. Now, I know that so many of you, probably some of you who have come here for the first time, there are all kinds of reasons why we come to CFO. I remember at an orientation at Kanuga, that’s my hometown. Each one had to stand up and say why they had come. And some said, “Oh, I just came to sit at the doorsteps of heaven.” And some said, “Oh, I heard the food was so good at Kanuga, so I just had to come for the good food.” And some said, “Oh, my husband dragged me there.” And some said, “It was my wife. I promised her I’d do a favor and this was it.” But you know, there’s a funny thing. As you stay day by day at the camp, you begin to realize that no matter how you thought you came to camp, there is really just one reason and it’s that God brought you here. Because God has a plan and a purpose for each one of us this week. And it’s so exciting. You know, I don’t really get to go to as many camps as I’d love to. And each one I go to, I get so excited that first day because I think, “What has God got for me this time?”

And so I really look and I expect. Now, as CFO, with this flow of love that you who have been here before have experienced, and you who have never been here before will experience, you find that really, every person that crosses your path this week, it’s no accident, it’s a plan of God. And so on the very first night, if you can just say, “Lord, here I am. I’ve been in control of my life all of these years. But now this is one week I’m going to give myself to You. All the good things about me, all my problems, all those rebelling teenagers that I have, my husband, my wife, or whatever I’ve left behind.” To say, “Lord, I’m going to give all of it to You.” And even if you’ve brought them all here, just give them all to God. And say, “All right, now I’m going to trust You with every minute of my life. So as I go to the dining room, You just be in control of my steps. And wherever You want me to sit, You just place me there.” You know, it gets to be the most exciting thing, because you’ll start to go down one aisle, and all of a sudden you’ll just feel like you’d like to go down the other aisle, so you just turn.

And here you end up sitting by a person who has just exactly the thing that you’ve been needing to hear. Now, there are all kinds of activities that you’ll hear about tonight. And God is working through every single activity, through every single person. He’s working through the stillness and the quietness.

And you’ll begin to recognize that as time goes on. Now, I said that I packed my bags three times that first week. It was because God was working in my life in some ways that I didn’t approve of.

You know, they say love ain’t all sugar. And so sometimes, maybe there’s a little needling or correcting or… Something you need to face in your life. And so when those times come, it’s just real unpleasant. Maybe that’s when you need to take a walk by yourself. And many times at camp when I’ve been at a place like that, I’ve said, “Lord, what did this happen last week?” I was at a camp last week. Tommy and I were together. And I went off and I sat down by myself. And all of a sudden, I said, “Lord, I need somebody. I need a friend right now. Lord, please bring somebody to me right now.” And I was sitting way down at this building on some steps right by myself. And all of a sudden, somebody said, “Ruth,” I almost jumped out of my skin. And this man said, “Can I sit down next to you?” And I said, “Yes.” And so he sat and we talked. And I said, “Do you know you’re an answer to prayer?” He said, “Well, the Lord just told me that you needed a friend.” And he said, “I was sitting in that meeting down there in that building. And all of a sudden, I just had to get up and go find you.”

And that’s just the way God is. Isn’t He wonderful? You know, you really find out that really, He knows that you are a personal individual. And He wants to have that personal relationship with you. This is the thing that shocked me so much nine years ago. That Jesus is real. He is really real. He knows your needs. And He knows your needs. And He knows the desires of your heart. And He knows exactly where you are in your spiritual growth. And so if you will just turn loose and quit trying to manipulate your life. And it’s a hard thing for us to do to turn loose. And let Him take over. He’s going to work it out. And He’s going to bring you one step higher than you are spiritually this week in your brain.

Somebody was raising their hand. I thought she would have been my kitchen. I think it’s a little girl. You know, there’s a, I was at a camp. Oh, this was one of my home camps in North Carolina. And there was this young man from Florida. And down in Florida, he wanted to take a vacation. And he went to this business meeting. And he was, he ran into a friend from, a friend of mine from North Carolina. And he said to him, “You know, I have always wanted to go to North Carolina for a vacation. And do you know any good places or good resorts that I’d love to go to in the mountains?” And this friend of mine happened to be the chairman of the Kanuga camp, which is up in the mountains. And he said, “Well, when would you like to go?” And he says, “Well, my busy time is over at the last of the summer.” He said, “What about September? How’s the resort in September?” And he says, “Well, I know one great place.” He said, “The food is good, the fellowship is good, the activities.” He said, “I think you’ll really enjoy it.” So this man said, “All right, well, can you send me some information?”

He said, “Well, just give me your name and address, and I’ll take care of everything. And I’ll send you the address of where the place is.” Well, in September, here came this man from South Florida, driving up to the camp, in this great, big, long, blue Cadillac, with his television set in the trunk of the car, and a sack of sex books that he had brought, paperback.

And it was in the mid-morning, and everybody was down at the gymnasium, participating in the verse in motion, which you’re going to hear about, those of you who don’t know about it. Marge Lawrence happened to be back because of the time, and they were, she got this thing, when you’re all just down on the floor, and you’re stretched out, and you really just kind of commune with God. Well, anyway, this young man went up to the desk, and he checked in, and he said, “Gee, you know,” he was so surprised, because the rent was just so cheap. He said, “Now, what does this cover?” And they said, “Well, room and board.” He said, “Room and board? You mean three meals a day?” And they said, “Yes.” And he said, “Oh my gosh, I’m in the wrong place. It couldn’t be much good, this.” But anyway, he stayed on, and he said, “Well, where is everybody? Oh, I don’t see a single soul.” And they said, “Well, they’re all down at the gym.” And he said, “Oh boy, you know, ball games, too.”

And he walked down to the gym, and he stood at the door, and all of a sudden, he looked in, and he said, “There were 200 people lying down there with their arms stretched out.” And he said, “Oh my gracious, it’s a mass wake.”

And he turned around, and he said, “This is it. I’ve had it.” And so he went back to check out. But he had had some car trouble coming up the mountain. And so he knew he’d better not get too far away. So he thought, “Well, I’ll spend one night.” So anyway, he had to take his car into town. So he got in his car. Well, my mother was at that camp for her first camp, and she was feeling a little bit left out. So she was wandering around looking for something to do. And she ran into this young man, and she says, “Oh, where are you going?” He said, “Well, I was going to town to take my car.” She says, “Oh, well, I’ll be glad to follow you and bring you back.” And he thought she was a little old for him, you know. But at that time, he kind of needed a ride, and it was a friendly spirit. So anyway, they got in town. And she said, “Have you ever been here before?” And he says, “No, I haven’t.” And she says, “Well, I haven’t either. But,” she says, “you know, I just don’t go for all that they’re doing.” And he says, “Well, I don’t either.” She said, “Well, let’s get some cards, and we’ll get up a bridge game.”

So my mother and this young man got cards, and they had a bridge game going that way. Well, it turned out that this spirit of love that I’ve been talking about began to move. And that young man, by the end of the camp, he had a camera. He was a camera bug. And he was going around that camp taking pictures.

And everybody’s picture that he took in that whole camp, he mailed those pictures to them individually when they got home. And he said to me that last day, he said, “You know,” he said, “in all of my life, this is the first week that I have ever had people to love me. Not because of something I could do for them, but in spite of myself.”

And he had planned to go on to Duke University to have a medical examination in order to get his vacation off, deducted from his income tax. But it turned out to stay two weeks at that time. And my mother became one of his best friends, and she gave him the first Bible. The Spirit touched my mother at Camp Tate. The next day, he was back. And now he’s the chairman of one of the camps in the United States. I won’t tell you which one. But he loved the Lord as much as anybody I’ve ever seen. And I’ve heard him praise the Lord over and over. “Thank God He brought me to that first camp, regardless of the way He did it.” And so tonight, just praise the Lord and just rejoice that you’re here. And every day this week, when the going gets tough, or when the joys come, just praise the Lord in all of it, because you’re really in for a tremendous blessing.

Let’s just bow our heads for a word of prayer. And let’s just tune in to the source of all abundance. Father in heaven and our earthly Father that ministers through the Spirit, personally to each one of us. Be with us right now here at Winnipesaukee.

Father, as we open our hearts and our minds and our spiritual ears to Your voice, we ask that You begin to speak to us. Speak to us in every single part of the camp, in every activity. Speak to us as we sit in silent meditation. Father, speak to us through each other as we move about in the camp, as we move in the dining room.

Speak to us through our roommates. And speak to us through that deep part within each one of us. And oh Father, we ask right now tonight at the beginning of this camp, that You open our spiritual ears, that we can hear that for us as You speak.

And bring each one of us to that place that’s a part of Your perfect plan for our life this week. And so Father, help us to be broken within, that we can release all that we are to You, so that You can have Your own way with our lives this week. And so tonight, Father, in this next few minutes, just fill this room with Your Spirit. Fill this room with Your heavenly divine love.

Father, give us a sense of knowing that there is someone sitting on the left and the right, someone that You love. Help us to move into this God love so that we can learn to care this week. That we can look at each other and look with the eyes of Christ and really love and care.

And so Father, right now, just begin to melt each one of us. Melt all the thoughts that we have about us. Melt the image that we have of ourselves and the image that anyone might have of me or the speaker or any of the leaders here in the camp. And turn our eyes to the one leader. The Holy Divine Spirit.

Who teaches us and turns us to Jesus Christ. Amen. Well, I really didn’t mean to pray so long, but… Anybody want to stretch a little bit? Well, don’t worry, all of you that need it, 10:30. I’m not going to speak for 10:30. I want to read just a few words of Scripture from the first chapter of Ephesians. And this is a prayer, too. This is the prayer that Paul prayed. And you know, I think this is the most beautiful prayer that’s recorded in the Bible, because it says everything.

Paul says, since then I heard of the faith of yours in the Lord Jesus Christ. So, in the practical way in which you are expressing it toward Christians, I thank God for you. And I will never give up praying for you. And this is the prayer I pray, Paul says. Now, just listen closely to this prayer that Paul says, because this is for us. You see, we’ve left our homes, and we’ve come here this week.

I’ve left husband and children. Some of you have left families. Some of you have brought them. But you see, we have come here almost in a response to this prayer that Paul prayed. You see, somebody was praying for us. We don’t know who. We don’t know how many. But it’s because of others’ prayers that we’ve been brought collectively here this week. And it’s for one purpose. We were born for one purpose. And that’s to be transformed into the image of Christ. That each one of us can become perfected in Christ. That we can grow spiritually in all truth. That we can find out who we really are. I found out this summer who I was. I’m going to tell you this week.

To find out who we really are. And this is what he said. This is my prayer. I pray that God, the God of our Lord Jesus, and the All-Glorious Father, I pray that He will give you spiritual wisdom and insight to know more of Him. That you may receive that inner illumination of the Spirit which will make you realize how great is the hope to which He is calling you.

Now, you see so many people, so many in the world today. And you know, I think I can almost say so many of us really are not walking in life. You know, we’re either dead or we’re alive. If you begin to open up and share, there are so many people in this world that don’t even know why they’re walking around. They don’t even know why they were born. They don’t even want to go to bed at night because they’ve got to get up and face the next day tomorrow. Now, I’ve been here myself. I’ve been at this place myself.

Inside, I’ve had this feeling when on the outside I had a big grin and a smile. You know, like, the world is so rosy and everything’s all right. When there was nothing but death inside. But this is not the way it’s supposed to be. And in Christ, we find out the purpose for living. And we find that joy that Jesus talks about that’s going to overflow like rivers of living water. Now, if you’re not there, if you don’t have that joy overflowing like a river of living water, I know that right now, if you had one wish in this world, you would desire that. “Oh, if I could have joy overflowing.” And what you would be saying is, “Oh, if I could have life.” Instead of being… instead of walking around here dead, if I could have life.

Now, you might be a church member. You might have been a church member for 40 years. But do you have life? Do you love? Or do you have to try to love? Do you really have joy? Or do you have to wind yourself up every day when you go outside, so that people won’t know that these things that are going on inside? Is there peace deep down in your heart?

You see, in Christ, we can have all of that. We can have love. I mean, genuine love. Real joy. Real peace. Patience. We can be gentle. This is what we really want more than anything in this world.

And then we say, and it almost has become a cliché, “All things are possible in Christ.” Now, you might want to say right now, “All right, but I believe in Christ. I know Him. Why is it I’m not here?” Have you ever thought about that woman at the well? And she stood there, and oh, she felt like this. She was walking death. I mean, she was looking for love. That’s what… she was starved for love. And so she just had one man right after another. And she didn’t understand what she was looking for. And here Jesus walks up to the well, and He said to her, “I can give you water, living water, so that you’ll never thirst again.” And she said to Him, “How can You give me water? That well is so deep, and You don’t have anything to even draw with. You don’t even have a dip or a bucket.” Well, you see, that’s the way we think sometimes. How can Jesus meet this need in me? This well is so deep in me. There are so many things I need.

Nobody knows the trouble I’m in. Nobody knows the problems I have. Nobody knows the situations that are going on in my home. Nobody knows the conflict and the turmoil that goes on in my mind. How can Jesus be the answer?

And yet, this is what the Bible promises. And this is one thing we come to see, I hope to find. If this is where you are tonight, if you could begin at that place of honesty. And tonight, when you go to your room, and you get ready for bed, and you stretch out comfortably in the bed, just lay down that bed and get honest with God.

And say, “God, this is the desire of my heart. I want peace. I want a friend. I want a husband. I want healing for my body. I want to be rid of the anxiety that I’ve got. I want a job, a life work that I can enjoy, and I hate to go to work every day. I want to be able to enjoy my children.”

Now, when you get honest with God, it’s at this point of honesty that prayer really begins to work. And you really begin to come face to face with Jesus Christ. Now, don’t hang on to the fact that you’ve been going to church for 90 years.

Don’t hang on to anything. Let everything go. And you might even have to say, “I’ve been pretending that I believe that You’re real. And so prove it to me.” Make your request known to Him. You know, so oftentimes, well, we really just don’t know Jesus personally.

And we wait and we wait and we wait and we wait for Him to reveal Himself. “Where are You?” I’ve had people say to me, “I’ve looked and looked and looked and searched. I’ve been on my knees and I have begged and begged and begged. And He’s never spoken to me.” Well, you see, sometimes you just have to step out in faith. And if you can get honest, right now, the very first night of camp, if you can get honest with Him, and let Him begin to prove Himself to you. I know the very first CFO camp I ever went to, I remember that the speaker said at that camp that he couldn’t find God. He couldn’t come into a personal relationship with Christ. It seemed easy for everybody else, but it just wasn’t easy for him. And he said he begged, he pleaded, he did everything. But then he said finally he got so desperate, he hit rock bottom. And so he said he started out one day and he said, “Well, I’m just going to step out in faith. I don’t know that God is. I don’t know that Christ lives today. I don’t know that prayer really works. I don’t know that there’s any living vital force or energy moving in this world.

“But I’m going to step out on faith. And faith is believing what you can’t see. Faith is believing what you haven’t experienced. And I’m going to step out in faith. And I’m going to thank God for every single experience, good, bad, indifferent. And I’m going to thank God for every person involved.”

Well, you know, I stepped out in that audience that night and I heard this speaker say this. And it didn’t impress me. I mean, after all, I’ve been knowing Jesus, you know, since I was 10 years old. Even though nothing worked in my life, there was no victory, there was no joy, there was no love. But after I got home from that camp, within a month, my oldest son, he’s a man going off to college in a few weeks. But at that time, he was a little boy, about 12, 13 years old. But within a month, he was run over by an automobile.

And it was one of those miracle experiences. The doctor said after everything was over with, after he regained consciousness and was discharged from the hospital, the doctor said, “There is no way in medical history that this child could possibly have lived. There is no way. It had to be a miracle of God.” But what had happened when he had this accident, when he was run over by the car, I was on the way that day to get the babysitter to keep the other children when I went to the hospital. And I was crying and, you know, just completely unglued that the mother would be. And all of a sudden, I remembered what that speaker had said.

He stepped out on faith and he began to thank God for everything. And I thought to myself, “Now who was that speaker? What was his name?” And I couldn’t think of his name in my panic. And I thought if I could just reach him on the telephone, you know, if I could just get in touch with him, and I could have him thank God for the actions of it, and him thank God.

And, you know, because I couldn’t think of his name, and I was pushed to that place, you know, in the corner, I said out loud, “God, if there is a God, I thank You that my son’s been run over. And I thank You for all of the good that’s coming out of it, and for every person involved.” And do you know, you just have to accept by faith I’m telling the truth. But when I said it, all of a sudden, this joy began to flow. And I began to sing that song. I’m not a singer, and I don’t know many words, but I do know “I have a joy down in my heart.” And I just began to sing this song. And it was real. And I got the baby son, and I took her home, and I went to the hospital, and it had been my minister that had run over my child. And he was in tears, and his wife was in tears, my husband was in tears, and I was filled with joy. And I was consoling everybody. And my minister kept saying to my husband, “Don’t leave her, she’s going into shock any minute.”

But you see, that’s the power of this Christ. This is the living Christ, that brings victory in our life. You see, if we’re going to say, “I’m a Christian,” we want to be a Christian. We want it to show on our faces. Not like I used to let it show, you know, having to put the grin on every morning, and then to take it off when nobody was looking. But for it to be spontaneous, and real, and come from deep down within. Joy overflowing.

God reveals Himself to everybody in a different way. There are not any… There are no two people who have ever really experienced God in the same way. And your experience, if you got up and shared it tonight, would be different from my experience. And those of you who have never come into this experience, it can be for you this week.

Jesus Christ wants to meet you at your level of need. I was at a little meeting not too long ago. And this speaker… I went several miles out of Pan to hear him. And this speaker… Had just come into this new experience. And he said… He was talking to a group. And he said to the group, “What is your heart’s sincere desire?”

And he said, “Most everybody, when you ask them that, they say, ‘Oh, I want to grow deeper in the Spirit.’ Or ‘I want to know Jesus better.’ Or… Well, something pertaining to the Spirit.” But he said it rang over and over in his mind. And at first he thought, “I don’t have any desire. I don’t have any desire of my heart.” And he said, as he said that, he realized what a big mess he was in.

In fact, he said he realized that he was at the worst place that a human being can get. If you’re so complacent in your life that there is nothing that you desire or want or need. And I’ve been there.

And he said that’s where he was. And so he began to pray, “Oh God, help me.” And then he began to really desire with his heart. And you know, he challenged that group that day to get down to the real honest-to-goodness place of need. And I was sharing this with a friend of mine. And I asked her, I said, “What do you really desire in your heart?” She said, “Oh, I desire to be more like Jesus.” I said, “Okay, now that we’ve gotten that one over with, what do you really desire?” She said, “Well, it’s so selfish. I can’t possibly tell you. It’s just too selfish.”

And you see, that’s the way a lot of us are. Why is it that we think that God’s not going to bless us unless our desire is presentable on Sunday morning in church? You see, God sees us as we are. We can’t fool Him. And we try to fool ourselves. So this is what it means to get honest. Accept who you are and where you are and say, “Okay, Lord, I know there are higher desires to be had, but I’m not there yet. And this is where I am.” So anyway, this friend of mine, she said, “Well, I’ll tell you what I really desire. I would like for my husband and I to just really relate to each other and just enjoy each other. And I’d like for him to love me so much that every night he couldn’t wait to come home. And when he comes home at night, I’d like to have these gorgeous lounging, you know, at home outfits.” And she said, “I’d like to keep all kinds of exotic food in the kitchen to serve so that if any company drops by at night, you know, I just have all of these French pastries and two or three choices of things to drink in the house.”

And that’s what I’d rather have than anything in this world. And you know, we stopped and we began to analyze that. And you see, no matter how self as she thought, or how this was to gratify her, you see, when she turned that prayer, and that afternoon we sat there on our sofa and we turned that prayer to God. And we said, “God, this is what she wants.” And then He began to open our eyes and oh, the most beautiful spiritual vision came. And here, God could take this desire of the heart and bring this husband and wife that it was almost a broken marriage into that oneness in Christ. And all things are provided. You see, He doesn’t say I’m just going to provide the spiritual things, but the material, anything that you desire of your heart. All of this was to be provided. Her home was to be open. And knowing her, she’s a spiritual person. And so she was going to be drawing spiritual people to her house. And it could just be a place of real Christian fellowship. And everybody would love to go there because she just would serve such good food. And she looked so pretty.

Well, you know, that woman had the greatest relief that day. That woman, the whole, this spiritual image that she was holding of herself, that she had to attain, crumbled. And she became a human being that afternoon. I mean, a real living human being that could operate on a level that was comfortable.

And so maybe if some of you, and all of us, if we haven’t really met Jesus at the level that we desire to meet Him, maybe it’s because we haven’t really been real honest. And so… tonight… let’s just…

Just drop off any spiritual ideal that we might have of ourselves. Just let your mind wander. Wander. Think of all of the things that… that you’ve suppressed or things that you’ve pushed down that you didn’t want. You know, this might seem very worldly, but I have this friend. In all of her life, she said that she desired to have a grand piano. That’s what she wanted more than anything in this world, a grand piano. But she said she knew she could never afford it. And so, when she became a Christian, she said that’s the first thing that she asked God for, was a grand piano. She prayed that she’d have that. She lives in Fayetteville, now, and this has been about 20 years ago when she prayed this prayer. But she said not too long after… Oh, it was long. I mean, a year or two after, but… To her that wasn’t long. But the music store called, and somewhere up in the New England state, they had bought a whole house of furniture, and in that house was a grand piano. All of it was shipped to North Carolina. And the man who owned the music store called her and told her he had this piano. And since she was a music teacher, did she have any use for it?

It was a price that she could afford, and she bought it. And she said that was the first experience that she ever had, that she really knew that prayer worked. That Jesus Christ was a living, vital force. That there was power in prayer in the Spirit. And now, as I say, it’s been about 20 years, and she’s selling her home, and she and her husband are retiring, and she’s doing almost full-time Christian work. She goes to nursing homes and plays the piano and leads group singing. And she doesn’t even have a place for the piano. But you see, her life has grown in the Spirit. But she began at that place of need, and Jesus revealed Himself to her at that place of need.

And so that’s what I want to challenge you right now this very first night. And you see, every day, we don’t come to camp just to have needs met. But we come to share and to give out and to let the Spirit work through us to meet needs of others.

But you see, we should never, ever feel that it’s selfish to pray for ourselves. Because unless we know Christ as a living force, we’re not going to have much power in praying for other people. You see, we have to witness Him. And to witness Christ doesn’t mean going around talking about Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. It means letting His nature shine through you. And you know what His nature is? I mentioned it at the very first. It’s the fruit of the Spirit. So to witness Christ means to let that fruit just radiate from your life. And when people see you, they say, “Oh, gee, what is it about you that’s so different? That glows?” You know, everybody should have this experience. Once in a lifetime, when somebody comes up to you and says, “What is it about you that glows so?” or “What have you got that I haven’t got?” I was in the beauty parlor. You see, you know, people say, “Well, I wonder, she must not be very spiritual, because she dyes her hair.”

That’s another story that I’ve had to come through. You see, when I became a Christian and I began a public ministry, I thought I had to be all drab, you know, and my hair was dyed at the time, so I dyed it back the original ugly color. And I quit wearing bright clothes, and I took my makeup off. And then a chaplain, the Lord spoke through him, but he said, He had given me his Bible class to take over. And he said, “Ruth,” he said, “I gave you that Bible class to teach because,” he said, “it wasn’t because you knew so much Bible. And it wasn’t because you had so much experience. But,” he said, “you look like a person that army wives could identify with. And so for goodness’ sakes, go back and fix yourself like you were.”

But anyway, I was in the beauty parlor the day before I came here. Well, it was Friday was the day I was in there. And this Jewish woman in my hometown, her husband, almost a pink pussycat. That’s the go-go place of all the go-go places in Fayetteville, and we have over 200.

And anyway, she came up to me and she said, “Ruth, I love your hair, that new color.” She said, “It just changes your whole expression and your whole, all your features. There is just the glow that just comes.” And she said, “You should have done your hair like that a long time ago.” And I said, “Mm-hmm.” And I said, “Yes, Lord, You know, You and I, we know what that glow is.” So anyway, I looked over there and she was reading the book Psycho-Cybernetics. Has any of you read that book?

And so, it was just… Well, the reason I thought about this, I was thinking about witnessing. So anyway, I looked at the book in her hand and I said, “Well, listen.” I said, “By the list of that book, you must be looking for an inner glow yourself.” And she said, “Well, I am.” And I said, “Well, I’m going to be gone out of town for two weeks. But,” I said, “I know all about how to get the inner glow. It’s not just dyeing your hair. There’s more to it than that.” I said, “Would you really like to know?” And she said, “Ruth, do you really have the secret?”

And I said, “Well, I really do.” Now, I’ve been seeing her every Friday in the beauty parlor for about five years. And this is the first time we’ve ever had any word. So she said, “All right. As soon as you come back in town, give me a ring and I’ll come right straight over.” Well, I want you all to all be praying for me.

Because, see, that inner glow, that’s Jesus. He changes your life. I’m going to take three more minutes. We had this young girl to come into our Bible class at Fort Bragg. And her name was Emma. And she was a Puerto Rican and she couldn’t speak English. I mean, she didn’t speak any English. I used to wonder why she came to that class. And she came Thursday after Thursday after Thursday. And then one day, she had this beautiful experience. It was just… she just overflowed with love and laughter and joy. And… Later on, oh, sometime later, her husband came to the chaplain there at the religious center. And he said to the chaplain, “What is it that Emma’s got? I’ve got to have what Emma’s got.” And he told the chaplain the story about… He was a Catholic. And Emma was a Catholic. And so they were Christians. But there was no joy. And he said he just hated Emma. He just couldn’t stand her. And he said every day he hated to come home because it was nag. And said she’d get up close, you know, to smell his breath. And he said, “Where have you been today? What have you been doing?” And he said it just got to the place he just couldn’t stand it any longer.

And then he said all of a sudden, he noticed he’d come home. And Emma would meet him at the door. And she wouldn’t ask him any questions. And she quit nagging. And she started cooking good food. And she started doing things to make him happy. And one day he said, “Emma, what’s going on in your life?” And she said, “Well, what do you mean?” Well, she was terrified to tell him that she was going to a Protestant Bible class for fear he might be upset. Well, anyway, finally he insisted and she shone. Well, she couldn’t understand any English. And this did me so much good. You see, it’s not in words. It’s in the power of the Spirit. It’s that holy divine love of Christ that comes from within. That’s the living water. That’s the river that flows. That’s the abundance that God has for us. It’s nothing you can touch. It’s nothing you can… Well, really get from a book. It’s what you just have to open up to.

By honest prayer. And asking Him to bring this into your life. Well, anyway, Emma’s husband, when he found out where she’d been going, the chaplain began to witness to him. And then he brought all five children, and the chaplain witnessed to all five children. And then he baptized Emma and her husband and all five children. And about three weeks after that, the husband came back and he said, “Chaplain, I forgot to ask you, what are we now?”

Well, even though that was a Methodist chaplain, you see, they were still Catholics. So it’s not in Catholicism. And it’s not in the Baptist denomination. And it’s not in the Episcopalian denomination. And it’s not really… Well, CFO, we don’t even have a car to audit. You see, it’s Jesus Christ. And in Him, all barriers are broken down. And so to be a Christian doesn’t mean to just profess something with your lips and to believe something with your mind. But to be a Christian means to let that life of Christ flow. And that’s love. That’s divine, holy love. And I think that’s why God can work so in a CFO. I think that’s why I can feel free to say, look for it. Expect it. Anticipate it. Because at CFO, you have so many people here that are so open to let that Spirit flow through them. So don’t avoid anybody this week. And when you get ready to go into the dining room to eat, just kind of whisper a little internal prayer and say, “Father, where would You have me sit today?” And just kind of let that flow of the Spirit move you to the table that He has for you. You’ll find yourself sitting right next to just the right person that says just the thing that God wants you to hear.

If you feel like taking a walk, take a walk. Because when you get to the end of the path, wherever you’re going, God’s going to have somebody right there to tell you that thing that you need to know or to share. This is the way the Spirit really moves. And when we come into this kingdom living, this is what it is. It’s flowing in that Spirit. And this is the best school I know right here this week, right where you are. And so let’s bow our heads now for just a minute, just about one minute of silent prayer. And I’m going to ask you to pray for one thing, yourself. Don’t pray for your one on the right or the left or your husband or your family or the camp, but pray for yourself. For one minute, just in solemnly, for the needs that you have and the desires that you have.