Humility Crawling Under Cover

Humility Crawling Under Cover

by Henry Adams

Transcribed from the original recording; may contain errors.

In a council ring meeting while we were praying, I heard my brother Hal give me a verse that I had not included. So I went in to pray about it. That’s what my wife and I slipped off to kind of talk. And he rearranged the whole thing. I come out and I hear Marge say, “Let him be surprised by the things he said.” Thank You, Jesus.

Praise the Lord. Oh, boy, God is something. Praise the Lord. Since it’s the last time I’ll be on the podium, I do want to thank the council ring most sincerely for making it possible for us to be here. And, you know, many times you think that because you’re speaking or what have you, or because you see a speaker, he’s here to minister to me or to minister to us. Well, I have news for you. You know, we receive as— and the only way you receive is to give what you have, right? Then we learn that principle, and you give out, and you receive. And we have received so much from all of you, and from the Holy Spirit, through you, and all kinds of ways. We just thank the Lord for getting us here. And for bringing our whole family here. Hallelujah. Thank You, Jesus. Father, we do thank You, and we praise You, and we give You honor, and we give You glory, Lord. And, Lord, we just ask You to have Your way. Have Your way. In Jesus’ name. Hallelujah.

Okay. I believe He wants me to start with a verse, Revelation 12, 11. And I’m not sure I’ll be as orderly as I’ve been in the past. We just may kind of flow a little bit, and we’ll see where we go. Okay. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and a word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto death.

And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by a word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto death. How do we resist the enemy? How do we go about resisting the enemy? Many of us read scripture and we get the impression that we’re to stand forth against the enemy. And I believe there are times when we are to do that.

But I think I’d like to come to grips with the verses that talk about that just a little bit. Let’s look at 1 Peter 5. 1 Peter 5. And we’ll start at the fifth verse. Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder.

Yea, all of you be subject one to another and be clothed with humility. For God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time. Casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you. Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour. Whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you.

Okay. Okay. In the places where it talks about the enemy, I noticed it, and I noticed it this morning, there’s always an admonition to humble yourself, or submit yourself. And I believe the Lord is showing us today that if you want to really deal with the enemy, duck.

Humble yourself. You see, we, in our pride, in our— What is it we’re— In 1 John, it talks about lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, and pride of life. And in our proud selves, we have a natural stubbornness and rebellion within us, which causes us to want to stand for it. And that’s the way we normally bring into this walk that kind of an attitude. What I believe the Lord is showing us is that what we’re to do is to humble ourselves. You see, when the enemy comes at you, he comes at you with something that appeals to pride, usually. Because that’s what he’s basically made of. That’s what got him in trouble. And it’s his rebellion and his stubbornness and his pride that got him in trouble. “I will exalt myself above God. I will be—” What is that in Isaiah 14? The I wills. Praise the Lord. So he’s exalting himself. Well, when he comes at you, he comes at you on that level. And so what do you do? You humble yourself.

Hallelujah. And what happens? He misses you. Because he’s punching up here, and you’re down here. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Oh, my. Oh, boy. I think He’s answering Marge’s prayer. Oh, boy. Lord knows how to deal with you. Praise the name of Jesus.

Let’s look at James. James 4. Starting with verse 6. But He giveth more grace, wherefore He saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves, therefore, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you. Hallelujah.

What’s being said? Duck. Duck. You know, the good things of God are on the bottom shelf. Mm-hmm. Because it’s tough for us to humble ourselves. Okay, let’s— What have we been talking about for the last couple of days? All of us have been kind of admonishing you to make it right with your brother, make it right with your sister, and all that kind of thing. Okay? Okay? What’s more humble than that? You know, the reason you won’t go do it?

P-R-I-D-E. It’s called pride. And we are proud. Oh. That’s where we are. And God isn’t happy with that, because that’s part of our natural nature, which is not pleasing to Him. So we have to— We have to work these things into ourselves to some extent. Now, what do I mean? By decision. We have decided to lay our life down. I’m just saying it. You’re laying your life down before the Lord. Hallelujah.

And it seems glorious that you come in. As a speaker, I come in and I minister the word. Hallelujah. Somebody says, “Brother Adams, we’re a little short of people to help clean up. Would you mind sweeping the floor?” Absolutely not. No way. Hallelujah.

You see, that’s part of doing it unto the Lord. What were we talking about the other day? Doing it unto the Lord. Do it unto the Lord. Submit yourselves unto God. And you can do anything that is required because you’re doing it unto Him.

Hallelujah. Hallelujah. You see, by doing that, it seems to me from— Oh, hallelujah. Praise the Lord. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb. Hallelujah. It takes the blood to get us redeemed, to get us cleansed, to get us to the place where we can duck under and get ourselves under the blood so that we’re covered. So that we overcome him. We overcome him by the blood of the Lamb. Hallelujah. And we get ourselves completely covered by the blood by ducking under that blanket. You see, if I’m laid out on the ground and I— There’s a blanket that covers me, but my toe is out. You see? See, that’s some kind of resentment against somebody or a little sin in my life or something. And Satan comes around and he looks all over that blanket. He sees me completely covered except for a toe. He says, “Hey, hallelujah.” And he says, “God, can I get that toe, you know?” And he gets all ready to leap on that toe and I duck it under the blanket. Hallelujah.

Hallelujah. You see? And he has nothing— There’s nothing he can grab a hold of. There’s nothing he can get a piece of. Praise the Lord. And God then shrinks the blanket. He says, “Praise the Lord.” And we keep getting smaller and smaller and lower and lower. Hallelujah. And I think it’s right on. I like that. Praise the Lord. That’s one. I hadn’t thought that one before. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Let’s look at Proverbs 22.

Proverbs 22. Proverbs 22. Verse 4. By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches, honor, and life. By humility and the fear of the Lord. I see humility as a tunnel through which God has to crush our pride to slide us through so we can come up in the good things of God.

Be clothed with humility. Humble yourselves. Be willing, Philippians, to esteem others better than yourself. Well, what does it take? The lowest place at the wedding feast. And, you know, it’s a good— For me— Okay, I’ll tell you about myself. For me, it’s— I practice that literally. At least I try to. You know. I try to actually practice that thing. And when I go into a place, try to take the lowest place. Literally do that.

And I’ll tell you, you’ll find that it’s interesting how often you get called up. To take another place, you see. But don’t assume. Don’t be presumptuous to take that upper place. Because that may not be the place for you.

Praise the Lord. And I found one of the ways to really humble yourself is to keep your mouth shut. Keep your mouth shut. What’s it say in Proverbs? If you feel something stirring up inside, and it’s about to come out— Lay thine hand over thy mouth.

It’s in there. Oh, yeah. What is that? Thank you, sweetheart. Hallelujah. Boy, I tell you. That’s my gift. 30-32. If thou hast done foolishly in lifting up thyself, or if thou hast thought evil, lay thine hand upon thy mouth. Thought it wasn’t in there, didn’t you? That means shut up.

Thou shalt be quiet. It’s a good practice to keep your mouth shut. I’ll tell you now, it’s amazing what happens when you keep your mouth shut. When you’ve got something to say and you just keep your mouth— How many times it comes out through somebody else in the group in a way that is within— in love, and a way that is more pleasing to the body. Because the things we say are either damaging or life-giving to the people who hear it.

And there’s something very important about words. You know, God spoke the word, spoke the world into existence. We have to confess our sins. We have to— There’s a lot about speaking in the word. It all has to do with this thing. What’s it say in James 3? You know, the tongue is vile. It’s a fire. It’s just bad news.

And the best thing— You know, if we can bridle this thing— If we can bridle that— We can bridle our whole body is what James 3 says. We can get it under control— If we can get that thing under control.

Because I’ll tell you, you can wither somebody with the things you say. Hallelujah. I had told you before that— When I left state government, I left with the idea that I was going to set up a Christian bookshop and all that. And that never came to pass. And so, about— Oh, a year ago or so— A lady— A young lady was in my presence. We happened to be in a bookshop. And she was talking about the need for a charismatic bookshop in Harrisburg. Well, I’ve been crying about that thing for four years. Okay? And she was just talking about the need. The need. The need.

And I just about— I said— Boy, do I see the need, you know? And I said, “We don’t move on need. We move on a word from the Lord.” Mark of Zorah, right on her. You know, she just withered. You know, just withered. I just said, “Oh, Lord.” I mean, as soon as it went out, I knew I was— I knew I was in trouble.

You see? And so we have to heal that breach in the body. We have to go and make amends. And it just never is quite the same as if you kept your mouth shut in the first place. Praise the name of Jesus.

I’ll tell you, it’s best to just be quiet. It’s good. You know, if something needs to be said, it can usually be said five minutes later as well as the time you thought it needed to be said. And a lot of times, five minutes later, you find out it doesn’t need to be said at all.

Hallelujah. Oh, thank you, brother. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Thank You, Jesus. Let’s give Jesus a hand. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Thank You, Jesus. Woo! Praise the Lord. If you look through the word and you start seeing the things it talks about as concerning the tongue, I’ll tell you, really, gossip, all that stuff. Idle words. You see, a lot of times we’re here and we get to cracking jokes and we just have fun and we’re just talking. And my wife will just say to me, “What’s your idle words?”

“What’s your idle words?” You’ve just got to be careful about what you say. Because idle words, you know, what are idle words? There’s things that don’t need to be said that are being said. Whatever that may be in your case. Praise the Lord. Do you know I don’t have anything down here about your tongue? I don’t know what to actually get in that area. Praise the Lord. But, well, I’ve done it before, see, and I know what’s going on in the whole area of the tongue. That whole area is just bad news. And we don’t respect much what we say. And we have to be more careful about what we say. And we have to— And when we speak something, it ought to be God’s word.

It needs to be God’s word. It needs to be said in faith. See, speak in faith. The world says, “Put your money where your mouth is.” God says, “Put your faith where your mouth is.” Hallelujah. Let’s hear your faith.

We were talking about patience in one of the groups. What is patience? Patience seems to be waiting a long time for something. And I was always kind of wondering why Noah, who waited 110 years before he built the ark, before the flood came, between the time he was told and the time he built the ark, why he wasn’t known for his patience, and Job, who the whole book of Job, as I understand, it’s only nine months, why he wasn’t known for his faith. But Job is known for his patience, and Noah is known for his faith. It didn’t seem to make sense to me.

Praise the Lord. But you know what patience really is? It’s the quality of the time you spend and how you spend it. Look up the definition. That’s why God got so upset when they murmured in their tents. Because the time— You can spend five minutes in patience.

Because you spend it quietly. You spend it praising Him. You spend it exhorting Him with faith. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Thank You, Jesus. We really have to come to grips with the fact that we have made a commitment to the Lord. And realize that our lives are to be different than the world.

That may cause you some problems in the group that you flow with, if you’re not flowing with Christians. If it doesn’t cause you problems, then I want to know, you know, how bright is that light shining in that group?

Because the world is not to understand the life of a Christian. If they look at it and they can add it all up and it all makes sense to them, then there’s something wrong. Because you’re to be a spiritual creature.

They should not really be able to understand it. They look at your life and they say, “Well, how come you, in the middle of the mess you’re in, are so happy?” Hallelujah. Hallelujah. “How come, with the fact that you’re not working right now, or your wife just left you, and your kids are on drugs, and the whole— It’s just a terrible mess. How come you’re just flowing? I don’t understand that.” Amen. They’re not supposed to, baby. It’s Jesus. You see, when they come to you with that, let me tell you, that’s the bait. And you’re fishers of men, right? You’ve hooked them. And they’ve come, and they’ve come to check out what this bait is. And they say, “Hmm, that’s not bad. That’s not bad.” And you say, “Well, it’s Jesus in my life.” They say, “Who?” You say, “Jesus.” And you explain it to them. And they may run, like I told you before. You let them run. But they’ll come. He’ll reel them back in time. Hallelujah. Because they’ve gotten the bait. They’ve grabbed hold of something. And it’s by your life.

Praise the Lord. Praise the name of Jesus. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. We many times deal with what in the scriptures is called vain humility. And that’s not real humility. That’s an effort to be humble on our own. Now, get me right. The things you do that you know to be scriptural, you do. If it takes the lowest place, take the lowest place. But do it quietly. Don’t tell everybody, “Look at me. Take the lowest place.” You know.

You know, “Watch how humble I am.” You see. It’s like the guy that we— In our— My idle words. Lord, forgive me. I heard about a guy in a group who was so humble, they gave him a— They gave him a pin. But it was a real tragedy, because they had to take it back. He wore it.

Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. See, humble yourself under the mighty hand of God. The thing that happens when we get a real grasp of who God is, and the magnitude and the magnificence of the God we serve, by that we are really humbled.

See, we have ideas who God is, and we have ideas what He’s like, but we need to abandon those idolatrous ideas. And come into who God really is. We serve a magnificent God. He blows our minds. And so we envision this God. We get a hold of this idea, and we make a God for ourselves in our heads. And we serve that God.

And we serve that God. Release that God, and come into who God really is. And when you want to think about God, think about Jesus. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. We have been on a faith walk for about four years, roughly, walking by faith. And the Lord was providing. And some of the brothers came to me and counseled and said that they thought it was time for me to get a job. And, you know, I hadn’t had— I had had that witness a couple months before, and I had made up resumes and sent them out, but nothing happened. And so, you know, they came to me again. They said, “You ought to get a job.” I said, “Okay.” And I went and I had 25 copies of my resume made out. And I just knew that the business world and the government world were just waiting for me to decide that. And they were just going to rush to give me— I heard absolutely nothing. Nothing.

Then, a brother of mine who knew of my situation and what I was doing said, “Hey, there’s a job here that you can substitute two days as a van driver with our organization. It’s the Office of the Aging, Dauphin County Office of the Aging. And you can drive, and there’s no problem with that.” Now, you have to understand that I had been an administrator in the state government, doing real well, and had moved out to walk by faith. And now I’m being asked to be a van driver. Well, I didn’t have any problem with substituting as a van driver. Sure, no problem. I’m looking for— Two half days. That was what it was. So I went two half days and substituted as a van driver. And before those two half days were over, they asked me if I’d substitute another day. I said, “Fine, no problem.” You know, nothing. I’m just waiting on all these great calls that are coming from these industries. And so as soon as they come in, I’ll, you know, you understand the condition, you know.

So I worked another day. And before that day was over, they said, “Hey, you know, if you want to work for us, you can work for us.” I said, “Oh, it’s a van.” I said, “Fine, but you understand now. As soon as the industries call, I’ll have to pull out. And you understand.” I said, “Sure, no problem.” “We understand.” I’ve been there a year. Hallelujah. You see? And I know some of you wanted to know what I was alluding to when I was talking about the van driving. But that’s my job. Now, you have to understand that I had people on my staff before who made twice and three times as much money as van drivers make. Okay? Praise the Lord. But you see, God is the source. Okay? Let me come back to that. Because I had to deal with that thing because I wasn’t sure God could provide partially. I knew He could provide all together. Because I’d seen Him do that. But then to take a job where He’s providing some and He’s going to provide on the others— Yeah! Hallelujah! He can do that too.

So no matter what your income is or where you are in your situation, He’s able to take care of the extra. He can meet your need. Regardless. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. Hallelujah! And as a result, let me tell you something. I took that job as a van when I realized that that’s what God really had in mind for me to do. I said, “Okay, Lord, I’m going to keep my mouth shut and be a servant.”

And really, that’s how it came about. Of course, when they get on the van, you see, and I’ve begun to appreciate the elderly. I really have. And how we have cast them out of our society in a real way. Just put them aside. They get on the van and they begin to cry about their loneliness or cry about their health or whatever. And it’s, you know, I’m just forced to tell them about the Lord.

I just— I can’t do anything other than just share Jesus with them. And you see, I’ll tell you, more than enough have met Jesus as a result of that situation. And a lot of them have met Jesus and then gone on to be with Him as a result of it. Not as a result of it, but shortly thereafter. I have one testimony I’ll give you about that. And this lady got on the van and— As unusual as I say it is, I just started telling her about the Lord. And it was quite a ways away from where I had to pick her up to take her to the doctor. I take people to medical appointments. That’s my job. And so, it was quite a ways away to take her where I was going. So we had maybe almost a half hour or so in the van. And I’m just talking about the Lord. And she begins to cry and all that, you know. And so, I’m driving down Interstate 83, you know, 55 miles an hour leading her to Jesus, you see. You get pretty good at that after a while. And so, that’s what I was doing, you know. So she met the Lord. But let me tell you what her problem was.

She had a daughter. And she had sold her house and she had some investments and she had all her money in a savings account, which her daughter had the pass book. And her daughter stole all her money. And she was in the process of suing her daughter.

Okay. And I told her she had to forgive her daughter. And in the prayer as I led her to Jesus, I prayed for forgiveness for that and forgiving her daughter, the whole thing. Okay. And she went through the whole thing. Okay.

And I took her home. I gave her a book and all. I took her back where she was going. I didn’t go there very often. And about two or three months later, I went back. And as I was putting the man on the van, I heard a voice from the porch and said, “Are you the van driver that took Mrs. Jones?” I’ll say. I don’t remember her name. I said, “I sure am, you know.” So I— And the lady said, “She died, you know.” I said, “Did you really?” So I said, “I got to get the rest of this story.” So I went on into the home. It was an old folks home.

The story is this. The lady had a real hatred for her daughter. Okay. This was the owner of the home telling me about this. She had been on your van, she said. That hatred just wasn’t quite the same. It was different.

She— Apparently, the lady used profanity regularly. All the time. But after she’d been on your van, she no longer used that very much. Okay. Now I knew— See, I’m about to— I’m about at the ceiling about now, you know. Hallelujah. You know, I know. God, it was a real conversion took place, is what I’m saying. Okay.

One day, the late— By the way, she died a week after she’d been on my van. Okay. And during that week, she’d been sleeping on the porch. In a deep sleep. And she just jumped right out of that sleep and said, “Lord, don’t take me till I make a will.”

Hallelujah. Hallelujah. So she spoke to the owner and said, “Get your lawyer here, you know.” Well, the lady didn’t know she meant, you know, right away. So she said, “Oh, okay, I will.” And the lady went to the dining room. This is the lady— The subject of the story. Went to the dining room. And she got sick and she brought everything up. Okay. And they cleaned it up and then put her to bed. Now, when they put her to bed, she immediately said to the owner, “Did you call your lawyer yet?”

And she said, “Well, I didn’t know you meant right away.” She says, “I want your lawyer here.” So, they call the lawyer and of course the lawyer just happened to not have anything to do. Have you ever heard of lawyers that didn’t have anything to do? Just didn’t happen to have anything to do. And he came out and had a session with the lady and went on his way.

The next morning, the lady got up and said, “I’ve had the best night of sleep I’ve had in so many years.” She went to the doctor, was checked over, went to the hospital and died that night. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. You see, God is able. He knows what He’s doing. He puts these things together.

He puts them together. And we don’t know why God wants to put us in the place He puts us. You know, I’ve noticed that there are a number of van drivers now starting to talk about Jesus. There are about seven or eight, ten van drivers. You know. And there’s a prayer meeting now in the transportation section. It meets in the morning. It doesn’t have anything to do with me. I mean, it just happened, you know, it just came about. And I really didn’t have that much to do with that. It was just prayer and God did some things. I know He wants that whole Office of the Aging saved. I know we’re just believing God to do that.

But it’s amazing what He’ll do if you will allow yourself to be placed where He wants you. And usually the reason we don’t want to go there is because we’re too proud. “What will my friends say? I don’t— that’s not God’s will.” You know, what did I tell you about our experience at Elam when we were— when we were up there, you know, vacuuming the rugs and my wife’s cleaning out the toilet bowls. Let me tell you, my wife was— was cleaning out the toilet bowls at Elam and singing praises to Jesus at eight o’clock in the morning. Now, a lot— all— it was all being used by Christians and they had a lot of problems with the fact that the state president of the Women’s Aglow Fellowship is cleaning out toilets. You see, there’s no respect of persons in the kingdom.

Hallelujah! Okay? It doesn’t matter what you do in the kingdom, you do it unto the Lord. It doesn’t matter whether you’re up ministering, it doesn’t matter whether you’re president of the organization or the janitor, you do it unto the Lord.

Hallelujah! By humility and the fear of the Lord is riches, honor, and life. And some of these tunnels we need to go through, we’ve got to be willing to allow the Lord to do it. And we don’t— man, I tell you, we just resist that thing.

Hallelujah! We resist it. We don’t know what God really wants for us. And you don’t know how it’s going to open up to you. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah! Fear of the Lord. Fear of the Lord. Now—

Right away, as soon as I say fear, everybody says, “He’s not given a spirit of fear, but of power and love and of sound mind.” Hallelujah! Everybody’s got a scripture all ready to jump on me, right? Hallelujah! I want you to just make a note of this, okay? Get your concordance, and I’m going to give you some, but you get your concordance and you look through the scriptures on fear of the Lord. And I’ll tell you there are 20 times more scriptures admonishing you to fear the Lord than there are about the fears you’re talking about.

Praise the Lord. So what are we talking about when we talk about fearing the Lord? Let’s look in— In Psalms 34, because— It’s true, we do have fears. But these are the fears that we have. Psalms 34, verse 4. I sought the Lord and He heard me and delivered me from all my fears.

Okay. So it’s clear that we have fears. I’m not going to go through a whole bunch of scriptures on that because that’s not where I’m at. But we all are familiar with the fact that we’ve got fear. We come in with fears. We could probably go through this group and find somebody had fears of heights and somebody had fears of this and fears of that and all kinds of fears.

But what is fear of the Lord? Let’s look at Proverbs. Proverbs 8, verse 13. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil. Pride and arrogancy and the evil way and the froward mouth do I hate.

Now, most of us dislike evil. We aren’t happy with evil. But we don’t hate evil. In the way God is talking about here. As I understand the fear of the Lord— Let me show it to you. Psalm 5, verse 7.

But as for me, I will come into Thy house in the multitude of Thy mercy and in Thy fear will I worship toward Thy holy temple. Some scriptures indicate God speaking to us about our fear. And some scriptures indicate man speaking to God about Thy fear. His fear.

So what I came to understand is there are two kinds of fear. There’s fears we have, but we have to come out of that kind of fear to come into the kind of fear that God is talking about. It’s almost a gift from the Lord. So that you can come into that place where you fear God. And you— By fearing God, you hate pride. And you hate evil. You hate arrogancy. And the froward mouth do I hate.

Praise the Lord. Some of you are looking rather strangely at me. Praise the Lord. Psalm 34, 7. The angel of the Lord encamped round about them that fear Him and delivereth them. Verse 9. O fear the Lord, ye His saints, for there is no want to them that fear Him. Verse 11. Come ye children, hearken unto me and I will teach you the fear of the Lord.

I believe it’s Psalm 128. Blessed is everyone that feareth the Lord, that walketh in His ways. For thou shalt eat the labor of thine hands. Happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee. Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house. Thy children like olive plants round about thy table. Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the Lord. The Lord shall bless thee out of Zion, and thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem all the days of thy life. Yea, thou shalt see thy children’s children, and peace upon Israel. There are promises throughout the word for those that fear the Lord.

Hallelujah. Praise the name of Jesus. Praise the name of the Lord. I’m just going to run through some scriptures, and I’ll read them so I don’t bother to turn to them. Deuteronomy 10, 12. And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul?

Joshua 24, 14. Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt, and serve ye the Lord.

Ecclesiastes 12, 13. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God, and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. Isaiah 8, 13. Sanctify the Lord of hosts Himself, and let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread.

Praise the Lord. 1 Peter 1, 17. And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear. Additional scriptures there would be Deuteronomy 13, 4. Joshua 4, 24. 1 Chronicles 16, 30. 2 Chronicles 19, 7. Proverbs 3, 7.

Look at Luke 23, 40. Romans 11, 20. Sorry about that. Okay. I’ll go over those last ones again. Deuteronomy 13, 4. Joshua 4, 24. 1 Chronicles 16, 30. 2 Chronicles 19, 7. Proverbs 3, 7. Luke 23, 40. Romans 11, 20. Revelation 14, 7. These are all on being enjoined to fear God. Fear the Lord.

Promises concerning fearing the Lord. 1 Samuel 12, 14. If ye will fear the Lord and serve Him and obey His voice and not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then shall both ye and also the king that reigneth over you continue following the Lord your God.

Proverbs 25, 12. What man is he that feareth the Lord? Him shall He teach in the way that he shall choose. Psalm 31, 19. Oh, how great is Thy goodness, which Thou hast laid up for them that fear Thee, which Thou hast wrought for them that trust in Thee before the sons of men.

Additional scriptures here is Psalms 103, 13. 147, 11. 147, 11. Proverbs 1, 7. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. Okay. Isaiah 50, verse 10. Who is among you? 50, 5-0, verse 10. Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of His servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? Let him trust in the name of the Lord and stay upon his God.

Malachi 3, 16. Luke 1, 50. And His mercy is on them that fear Him from generation to generation. Acts 10, 35. But in every nation he that feareth Him and worketh righteousness is accepted with Him. That’s just some of them.

That’s just some of them. I’m telling you. Coming into the fear of the Lord. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. Praise the name of Jesus. One of the things I think the Lord has been showing me, and I will share a testimony as I roll through here.

We have a neighbor, and I’ve told this to some of you, who has a dog. Okay? Three years, three years ago roughly, he had a Great Dane. He had a big dog. He had a six-foot dog and a three-foot fence.

But in Pennsylvania, all you have to have around your plot is a fence. As long as you have a fence, you’re within legal rights. And so, he was doing training of this dog. There was a guard dog or attack dog. It was kind of a vicious kind of training he was doing to the dog. So that the dog took on some rather— Well, he was rough. He was rough.

And Ellie mentioned to you yesterday about the young lady we had staying at our home. Well, one day, Debbie and Charles were out back, and they were playing, and she was riding in piggyback on her back and running around the house. And the dog got excited and jumped the fence. And chewed Debbie’s arm up, put 22 punctures in her forearm, and bit Charles on either side of his leg. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Thank You, Jesus. Hallelujah. Thank You, Lord. He paid no medical expenses. Thank You, Jesus. Hallelujah. We just thank You, Lord.

So, we said, “Well, Lord, You’re our protection. You’re our guidance. You’re the one that takes care of us. And we know You have a hedge of fire around our house, so we thank You, Lord.” About six months later, the dog shot through the house and chewed up a young lady that was coming to pick up his daughter. I mean, really mauled her, really, all up and down her arms, just a little band. And so, as a result of that second attack, the dog was put to sleep. Okay. We had no real sense of victory, but we said, “Praise the Lord.”

Six months ago, my neighbor got another dog. This time, it’s a Doberman Pinscher. Hallelujah. Thank You, Jesus. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Oh, hallelujah. And he’s getting bigger, you know, as they do. He’s doing the same kind of training.

About two months ago or so, I was asked by my wife to go out and dig up a little garden we have with a fork, you know. And I went out. I wasn’t really all excited about the request, you want to know the truth. But I went out and I did it anyway.

The dog was out. Well, that didn’t bother me particularly, because, you know. But the dog, some, I don’t know what got all excited, but he must have seen Jesus or something, and his demons didn’t like that. So, you think dogs don’t have demons? -huh. Praise the Lord. That’s what makes the whole, you know, lions, that’s what makes them all vicious. Praise the Lord. Okay.

My brother used to have deliverance at his house, and every once a month he’d have to deliver to his dog, you know. In the name of Jesus, the dog’s like, and go on about his brother. Praise the Lord. So— Well, anyway, I was out digging up this garden, and the dog got excited, and he started dancing back behind— I mean, he was really getting excited. You know, going at it, and he was up and down the fence, the whole bit, you see. And I’m just digging the garden. You know, trusting Jesus, hallelujah, hallelujah, you see. Well, he got so excited that the mistress of the house came out and brought him in the house. He’s still in the house, jumping up and down, carrying on. Then I got upset, you see. Because I began to realize it, and I dug up that plot in about ten minutes. I mean, I was going— You think you’ve seen farm equipment? You should have seen me that day, boy.

I was going at it. But every time I put that fork down in the ground, I realized I was doing it on the dog, and on the dog owner, and on the dog owner’s wife, and his children, and his house. I was— I was warm. And you see, I’m going to tell you the truth. I thank the Lord for that dog. Because that dog ministered to me. Because he bubbled up something inside of me that I needed to see about me.

He bubbled up a temper and a viciousness in my personality that I had buried twenty-some years ago. And I began to understand that God wants to change us down in the deepest recesses of our being, down in the warp and woof of our personality. He wants to make us new. And I began to understand 1 Peter 1-4. That is, that we are partakers of the divine nature. And I got excited because I began to understand that He is replacing our nature with His nature. You see, and what happens when I get to the point where I release myself to God, is that when you come at me with something I don’t like, my natural reaction will be love. My natural reaction will be forgiveness. My natural reaction will be the characteristics of Jesus. That will be my— I won’t have to fight back and think about it and do it and then say, “Well, I’m supposed to— because I’m a Christian, you know,” that no way. It will just naturally ooze out of every portion of my being. Every cell in my body will love you just because that’s what my nature is. If I will allow Him to have His way in my life. Hallelujah. And the same is true of you.

Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. And all we can do is love and flow and move together. He wants to make us new. And I praise the Lord for that. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Lord.

Praise the Lord. Father, in the name of Jesus, I just thank You for what You’ve put together today and what You’ve put together all this week. I thank You, Lord, that You saw fit to use this vessel to bring these messages, Lord. Lord, I pray, Lord, that Your divine work has been done.

And I’ll give You the praise and the glory and the honor. In Jesus’ name. Amen.