Hurricanes Give Warning, Tornadoes Do Not

Hurricanes Give Warning, Tornadoes Do Not

by Betty Malz

Transcribed from the original recording; may contain errors.

Well, at 5:30 this morning, the Lord rolled me out of bed onto my knees. And He said, “Lay aside those stale notes. I want to give you something as fresh as the morning dew and as new as the morning news.” And I said, “Oh, no, Lord, I’ve been working on these notes for eight months. These people will be impressed.”

He said, “I didn’t send you here to impress them, but to invest in their need.” So I rolled out on my knees and I began to listen. Now, I’m not smart enough to write the telegrams nor the prescriptions. I only take dictation. So I started scribbling notes. And I’m excited with a brand new message, just something I’ve never used before, just for you. So if you came tonight hoping to get high on a religious Ferris wheel, you’ll probably go home disappointed. But if you came to get fortified for the storms of life up ahead or to find some answers to practical questions, you will be satisfied when you leave here tonight. I have been through many storms. I decided, after talking with my prayer group this afternoon at 4:30, to adopt the second verse of “Amazing Grace” for my theme. “Through many dangers, toils, and snares, I have already come. ‘Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far. Safe He’ll lead me home.” Tomorrow morning, I’m going to talk about survival. How to survive as a modern Christian. Now somebody, more than one person, approached me and said, “Please, Betty, you left us dangling Monday morning. You started to tell us about the Oreo cookie concept.” Well, I could tell you that that was a commercial gag or, you know, a hook, a bait, but that would be lying.

I’m just being honest with you. You know, after you die, you don’t even lie about your age anymore. So I’ll tell you the truth. I just plain forgot. Okay, the Oreo cookie concept. Pray first thing every morning. And pray the last thing at night. The first thing I do in the morning is pray before I ever leave the bed. Yes. That’s my first prayer. And then after I kiss my husband goodnight, I pray silently till I fall asleep. That’s the Oreo cookie. The one little wafer in the morning, one wafer in the evening. And God fills my whole day with that sweet center cream all day long. It is so good. And then I have to tell you, if you fall asleep at night praying until you fall asleep, if you do not sleep well, you can be, it’s the Lord. No, it’s the Lord. See, if you sleep well, it’s because the Lord knows you need it. But let me tell you, if the devil is waking you up and you will pray in the night when you wake up, he will quit waking you up. Because he doesn’t want you to pray. And I started to close my message because I looked at the clock. And I want to reassure you, Satan doesn’t care how much you talk about prayer.

He doesn’t even mind if you write a book on prayer. He doesn’t care if you bad-mouth him or talk about him. But he doesn’t want you to talk to God because that’s when he gets in trouble. And that’s when things start to change. Now, I hate introductions and I hate commercials. But I have had several people ask me and I have been asked to describe or talk about the tapes and the books that are available. I’m not going to call it a commercial. It’s take home and carry out. You may want to take something home. I have learned a long time ago. I had a big, mean trucker come up one day and tell me, “I want to hug you, woman.” He was dirty. He was sweaty. He came in off the road having seen an ad in the newspaper where I was speaking to a woman’s group. And he was the only man in the crowd. He said, “I wouldn’t be seen dead in church. But do you know what? Somebody mailed me a copy of your book anonymously with no return address on it.” And he said, “I was just nosy enough to see what was in that book. And one night, I pulled my rig over to the side of the road, took an old motel, closed the window so no one would see me reading a religious book in case some other trucker peeped in the window.”

And he said, “I stayed up all night. And that book saved my soul. I went home on Sunday and I told my wife, ‘I found you a new husband.’ She said, ‘Thank God.’ I said, ‘I’m trading me in for someone new.’ She said, ‘Thank God.’” And he said, “I went to church with her for the first time in 22 years.” Well, I’m turned on to material. Send the tape, Alcoholic Delivered, to someone that you know is a closet alcoholic or someone who doesn’t want people to know. The Lord will help. Marge Block ruined three marriages and was delivered through prayer. And she prays for alcoholics. She’s on this prayer list, too. But I have ten tapes. Glimpse of Eternity is my death experience. Women in Tune is a wonderful tape that shows the possibility of what a woman can do when she learns how to pray with results. There’s a tape back there, Can One Person Save a Marriage? Ron and Veena Poole. Sometime you may want to have them come here. They’re Canadians. They were working full time for the Lord. Got so busy with the mechanics of a ministry that they lost the energy. And he took off with an 18-year-old girl. They were divorced 18 years. But the Lord brought them back together last January.

They have a counseling ministry now telling the signs that you look for when Satan is trying to drive a wedge into your marriage. And they also pray for the reunion of people who are divorced. Wonderful tape. My husband did one on the energy crisis. This talks about the things that rob you of your joy. I have another one, Coping with Disappointment, by Esther Zink. I mean, if you think you’ve got trouble, you need to listen to Esther’s tape. And she tells how she learned to cope and rebound after one disappointment after another. My husband did a tape, Healing the Wounded Spirit. If you know anyone who has had deep wounds that they cannot recover from, this tape is very valuable. Some of these tapes are so sensitive, you may not want to give them in person but mail them to people. Then the one, How to Handle the Hassle in Your Castle. My husband is a certified family counselor. Now, some of you women think you have a hard act to live with. I want you to know I cannot pull any tricks. My husband knows all of the tricks because he has been doing this for 19 years. And his tape, How to Handle the Hassle in Your Castle, is how to settle differences in a marriage.

Another one that he has is Things Your Wife Will Never Tell You. This is for men only. And ladies, if you want a wonderful husband, you give that tape to your husband. And fellas, if you want to invest some money, get Making Your Husband Feel Loved and give it to your wife. This tells women how to treat men. I’ll be honest, I do one whole seminar on marriages. I feel sorry for men. I mean, that man goes to bed in a box called a bed, gets up and rides in a box called a car to a box called a factory or an office, gets to go to a box called a church on Sunday. And finally, when he gets about 50 years old, he feels all boxed in. And then when he gets all worn out, they put him in a box called a casket and drop him in a hole and it’s all over. I feel sorry for men. Get this book, Making Your Husband Feel Loved. Okay. There is a tape back there. Ann Morrison, and the front page of the Tampa Tribune gives the story of Ann Morrison that was healed at Leesburg, right up here on Lake Norman. And if you know anyone with an incurable disease, Jesus is still the great Physician.

That tape will offer hope. I have several books back there. Glimpse of Eternity is my story. Prayers That Are Answered also contains a short version of that story and the shafts of light concept. Supernatural Living comes in hardcover and paperback. This is the good balance between the super and the natural. I meet people who are so super they’re not natural. Then I meet people who are on that natural path of life and I feel sorry for them. They have never tasted super. This is a good teaching book. If You’re Over the Hill, You Ought to Be Going Faster is a book by my husband. He had a total breakdown. Was 66 pounds overweight. And at 40 years, he looked in the mirror and said, “My God, I don’t want to live in this ugly shell the rest of my life. I just want to die.” But God helped him put together a little book on depression, weight control, and how to reverse the aging process. Some of it’s health. Some of it’s biblical. Some of it’s supernatural. But if you want to see it, I’ll show you a picture of my husband at 69. He can ride a bicycle 236 miles in two days. On his 66th birthday, he ran 20 miles on the 500-mile racetrack in Indy 500.

I mean, he’s an amazing person. But he thought it was all over when he was 40. But the Lord has helped him. Don’t let the title fool you. It’s a good book. The brand new one is Touching the Unseen World. There’s one chapter in there on the invisible enemy. Another chapter on the invisible helper, which is the Holy Spirit. This book, Women in Tune, is the modern woman in leadership, spiritual leadership. It’s a valuable teaching book for women’s groups or if you yourself need a shot in the arm. This is the hardcover of that one. Heaven. This one was a brand new book. It was on the bestseller list last October. I have taken 11 years, lots of time, lots of money, to interview 103 people who have died and come back. All the way from a 5-year-old boy in Livingston, Montana, that drowned to a 91-year-old man that described it as he was leaving. This is help. I’m a pastor’s wife. I do not want to be a pastor’s wife. With Michelle Buckingham, we interviewed 30 pastor’s wives. All the way from Freda Lindsay, from Christ for the Nations, down to very young pastor’s wives. Everyone should read this to understand a pastor’s wife. It’s a tough job. It’s a tough job. Or if you know a pastor’s wife, it would make a great gift.

Then the one that a lot of young people are using for Sunday school classes and for bedtime stories for children is Angels Watching Over Me. The two pictures on the back table describe two stories in this book. This is the modern ministry of angels today. I could tell you stories from last week that are very helpful. On the table is a little card with my address. And I want to say with all my heart, I mean this. I have no copyright on the tapes. Please take them and make copies. Give them away. Sell them at your church. But get the message out. Take any of the books and any of the tapes that you need or want to use for ministry and witnessing. Take one of these little cards. I do not keep records. You take my address. And someday when you get rich, you send me a check. Sometimes I’ve been out of money for postage and I will get a check. And someone will say, “Three years ago, I took books without money. Today I’m sending it.” And it meets my postage bill. So I mean that with all my heart. The Lord has never let me come up short. And I want the good news to get out. I have one story I want to use tonight from Touching the Unseen World.

This is the brand new gold book that is just out. And on the 16th of July, they’re having an autograph party in Orlando, Florida, at the National Booksellers Convention. From 9:30 to 10:30, I’ll be autographing books. The story that I want to share in that tonight, I feel, is something near to the heart of every born-again Christian. Now, we had an author that wrote a book. He prophesied that September 17, 1988. 88 reasons why Jesus would come in 1988 and it didn’t happen. So I’m not standing here trying to prophesy. The Bible says no man knows the day nor the hour. But it doesn’t say he might not know the year or the season. I was up near Suwannee River just a week before this book went to press. I was visiting in the home of a family. And in their family, they had passed down an old manuscript, black and white, merely put together on typing paper with staples in the middle. It had come down for 100 years in their family by a farmer, an Amish farmer, a great uncle of the man that gave it to me. And he was from the state of Iowa. His name was Noah Troyer. Noah Troyer was desperately sick and they knew he was going to die.

Before Noah died, he kept repeating a message over and over again. Finally, his wife called the elders of the church and they all sat around his bed before he died. And Noah again, for the 19th time, repeated a message from the Lord. The message was, God gave Noah a warning. “I will give you 120 years to preach repentance. Then I will destroy the earth with a flood.” God is giving me, Noah Troyer, a message. “I am giving you 120 years to repent. Then I will destroy the earth with fire.” This was the year of 1878. 120 years added to 1878 would put that time to 1998. Now, folks, that’s not very far off. If old Noah Troyer was right, and he may well be, we have about seven more years left to do what we need to do. Two people have come to me today and told me that while Edwin was talking this morning, the Lord called them to the ministry. I believe the Lord is preparing an army and people to warn because Jesus is coming again. I believe that tonight I need to title my message, “Hurricanes and Tornadoes.” I’ve never used this topic before. Now, if you can have a choice, take a hurricane. A hurricane is predictable. They can track them through the media and warn you to be fortified as far in advance as two weeks.

But I was in a tornado in Indiana that in 20 seconds tore down our house. One wall was left standing. My husband and I saved for 10 years to build a house. It was very beautiful. Porter Paint Company took pictures, used it for advertisement. It was gray Bedford stone with purple wrought iron, all white carpeting with lavender trim. 20 seconds. It was all over what we spent 10 years to build. At that point, I realized that you can’t take it with you. One of these days, we’ll leave it all behind. And do you know it was so amazing? That tornado was not registered at the airport. A tornado dips down unexpectedly and takes… And 36 homes were totally destroyed. One house sitting next door to ours was not even touched. Now, we are fortified and prepare for the expectables, such as growing up, puberty, aging, and natural death. But I want to talk to you tonight about being fortified for the end suddenlies of life. And suddenly there’s a divorce. And suddenly a death. And suddenly cancer strikes. Or someone has a serious fall and is left with brain damage. Folks, you don’t buy insurance after you have a wreck. You buy the insurance before the wreck. Now, I’m here as a witness that trouble comes in litters.

I don’t know if you have found that out. But if not, get ready. Somewhere down the line, you will come back and say, “Yes, Betty, you were right. Trouble comes in litters.” About eight weeks ago, things were going so smoothly, it was a piece of cake. My riding, my life, everything was going smoothly. My kitten, whose name is Sinner Man, jumped out the door and decided to run away. Well, I lunged out on the sun deck, crammed my foot between two rails, caught the cat, but I snapped a bone in the top of my foot, broke my littlest toe on the right foot and the bone up on top of it. I was hobbling around for a week and a half, and I got a call to come to the Brevard County Correctional Institution in Sharpes, Florida. The chaplain said, “Betty, I need you to talk about life after death to the inmates. First of all, I want you in the afternoon at 2 o’clock to talk to the young boys from 16 to 20.” And went to prison. After they locked me up and I got in there, I limped and walked on my heel. I talked with these men, and 18 of them came forward to receive Jesus as Savior. It was one of the most exciting days I’d had in a long time.

I, for a moment, forgot the pain in my right broken foot until one of those wonderful boys that got saved rolled up with a wheelchair to hug me and rolled over my foot and broke it again. I didn’t have the heart to tell him what he had done because he has two dead legs, was in a wheelchair. Well, trouble comes in litters. My daughter, April, was home on leave from school and had a boating accident. 48 stitches in her leg. Laid up for three weeks. Awful hospital, Bill. Our kitchen stove rolled over and died. Both of my car, my husband’s car and my car, had problems. Mine overheated. I had to walk with a broken foot everywhere I went because my car was in the garage for eight days. Then my husband went back to Russia, left me defenseless with a broken foot and no automobile. I went to Canada, almost canceled, and hobbled up there, did two television shows in stocking feet, and went to a meeting that I felt satisfied. God had had His way. Six women were born again. But that organization were offended because I gave an altar call in that Christian retreat. Even those six received Jesus, they were angry. Also at that meeting, I had a news reporter show up.

And she was an evil person. And she gave me so much trouble. I mean, it was like a wall. I have told my story several times, but if I had not done it before, I almost choked to death. The sound system went out. Everything went wrong that could go wrong. And that woman had a heyday. Instead of telling people my husband was in Russia winning souls, she told them we were divorced. She really did some negative reporting. She hurt my family, harassed my church, harassed my doctors, and it was really bad. I came home, and I was discouraged. One old man put his arm around me. He says, “Sister, be glad you have that kind of reputation in hell that the devil finds it necessary to rally his troops against you.” Well, I took a little bit of courage.

Then an old lady came up, and she said, “Have you ever noticed that a person with no testimony of their own finds it necessary and seemed compelled to disprove other people’s testimony?” Then the pastor of the church got up on Sunday morning, not even knowing that I had just returned from this battle, all wounded and scarred and hurt. And he got up and he said, “Folks, turn to chapter 11, St. John. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead after four days. Now, we’ve got a woman here that was only dead 28 minutes. If you have a hard time believing that, Jesus raised Lazarus after four days being dead. And you would think folks would say, ‘Isn’t Jesus wonderful?’ But instead, not the sinners, but the church folks, the Pharisees, tried to kill Lazarus. Because, see, that was the evidence of the witness, the testimony. If they could kill Lazarus, that would disprove Jesus’ miracle.” And he said, “Take courage. The Pharisees yet today will try to kill your testimony.” Well, I took a little courage. But I want to talk to you. And trouble comes in litters. I mean, I could go on and on. My daughter was in Gainesville when those murders were going on last summer, working part-time, living alone. She was a prime candidate, one block from where those took place.

But I’ll tell you in a few minutes how we fortified my daughter. But I want to talk to you about the end suddenlies in your life and the end suddenlies in the Bible and how God always comes out victorious for His people. In the beginning the earth was without form and void and darkness covered the earth. But the Holy Spirit moved over the deep and brought order out of chaos. The earth became corrupt and perverted. And God said, “I’m sorry I made man. I’m going to drown mankind.” And suddenly Noah had a concept from the living God to build an ark. And suddenly, though it had never happened before, it rained, and eight people got in the ark when God closed the door, and the floods came. I’d like to talk for just a minute, you may feel like people are harassing and tormenting you. Elisha had tormentors that made fun of him when he was trying to preach and evangelize. And finally God said, “It’s enough.” And He sent bears out of the woods and devoured Elisha’s tormentors. Take courage, folks. The Lord has the answer for your tormentors. God will never lead you to a dead end. He always helps you turn a corner. Now I want you to look back in history to Moses.

Moses came to a dead end and he said, “God, You’ve let me down. There is no way out of this circumstance. The Egyptian army is behind me. There’s a mountain on each side and the Red Sea is in front of me and I have the nation of Israel looking to me for the answer. What am I going to do? There is no way out.” But God will never lead you to a dead end. He always helps you turn a corner, and He did not lead Moses to a dead end. Let me tell you what happened. Moses stood at the Red Sea and God told him to put his rod in the water and that He would give him a dry path to walk through. Now I have a son-in-law, Dr. Miles Millard Smart III. He’s an environmentalist and he tells me that if Moses had been living today that he would have to have gone to him and tell him, “Now, Moses, can’t pull this off. When roll back all that water on the banks of the river will destroy the green plant life. We can’t let pull this off.” And he is a technical legal eagle and he would not have let Moses do that. I would guess that if the flood control board had heard about Moses they would have said, “Now, Moses, when pull back all that water, you’re going to back up water clear up into the rivers. You’re going to cause a lot of flooding. Can’t do this. Just can’t do this.” I would say that. But if it was 1991, the Board of Health would have shown up and said, “Now, Moses, when you pull back all of that water and uncover and expose all of this fecal matter, dead carcasses, do you know what will happen? We’ll have a disease epidemic, uncontrollable.

The Red Cross will be frantic. Now, Moses, you can’t do this.” I can just see Moses saying, “Oh, God, what can I do?” He probably looked over to Aaron and said, “Aaron, what can I do?” And do you know what? He looked up to God and God spoke to Moses and said, “Mo, you say yes to me and I will give you four pages in the Holy Bible.” And he said, “Yes!”

And the Lord rolled back the Red Sea and they walked through on a dry path. I used this illustration in a Lutheran conference recently. I had a man come up to me and, “Well, Mrs. Malz, you know, you’ve always got one technical legal eagle in every crowd, Ed.” They’re so busy blowing the whistle, calling fouls, they don’t have time to have fun and play the game. You know what I’m talking about? Well, this old boy came up and he says, “Why, Betty?” He says, “You’re such a smart woman. I can’t believe that you would use that illustration. I have been there. That section of the Red Sea is very shallow. That was really no big miracle.” He had me against the wall. People were standing there wondering what I would say. Now, I’m not that smart. My husband wasn’t there to help me out. And I said, “Jesus.” And the Holy Spirit, my coach, whispered something in my ear. I said, “Well, sir, then that’s a bigger miracle than I realized. If that water was shallow, I can understand how the Israelites, maybe 130, 160,000, walked through on dry path. But the fact that the Bible says that an entire Egyptian army, including horses…” Now, I’ve raised horses. I know they can swim. “And chariots, those big wheels, those deep chariot wheels.

If a whole Egyptian army and horses drown in shallow water, that is one great miracle.” Turned his head. He just wagged his head, tucked his tail between his legs, and he slinked out with not another word. Well, I have to go on. I want to talk about the and suddenlies that might come up in your life. Let’s talk a little bit about when Jesus was on the earth and was a small boy. And suddenly Herod came into leadership and he said, “I can extinguish this heresy that a baby will be born that will take my place.” And he sent out a decree that every male child under the year of two years should be killed. Let me tell you what happened. And suddenly fear gripped Mary and Joseph’s heart. Now, I know fear is not of God, but there is such a thing as good fear. And good fear caused Mary and Joseph to move the baby Jesus. Herod did not kill Jesus. Now, I want you to put that aside for just a minute. And I want to talk a little farther down in history about Daniel. Daniel prayed three times a day. And when hungry, starved lions reached up to get him, an angel tapped the nose of the lions and said, “Don’t you touch Daniel.”

I wonder if we would pray three times a day. And if you love to pray as much as you love to eat those three squares, if God would not do great miracles in our lives. And let’s consider when they dropped Daniel into the lion’s den, those starved lions would rather be hungry than disobey the angel of the Lord. Let’s compare Herod and Daniel. Herod was a ruler. One day while he was making a royal oration, in his royal purple robes, wearing his gold crown, the angel of the Lord smote him, and he died, and little tiny worms ate him up. But let’s look at Daniel. Do you know how he died? He died. He died the way the Lord wanted him to, in old age, and went to his forefathers. But hungry, large lions refused to eat Daniel. But little worms ate Herod, because Herod was not fortified for the end suddenlies of life. I want to talk a minute, just briefly, about Job. I could talk on and on about Job. But Job was tried in so many ways. His wife said, “Why don’t you curse God and get me out of my misery, and just die?” He had no comfort from his friends nor his mate. But do you know, Job never did understand what was happening.

Now we know, because it’s recorded in the Word, but Job never did understand the trial he was going through. But Job reverenced the gap, David, between what he did understand and what he did not. God did not reward him twice as much as he ever had before, because he was tested, but because he reverenced the gap between what he did understand and what he did not. Today, after prayer at 4:30, I decided that I will not let the things that I do not understand rob me of what I am sure of.

Psalm 91:15 is a hope and a promise. “I will be with him in trouble, and I will deliver him.” I want to talk about a reverse. Saul was a very brilliant attorney in the Sanhedrin court. In his briefcase, he carried papers to legally kill the Christians. And suddenly, a light blinded him. He was turned around, and Saul became St. Paul and wrote about the Christians instead of writing against the Christians. In church history, the earth was confused again, and trouble and chaos had come to the believers in God as the supreme creator of the universe.

Christians were being put to death. But after Jesus went away, He said, “When I leave, you will know that I have arrived back in the throne room with my Father. The signal is, when I get there, I will send you another Comforter.” I could only be in one location at one time, but He, the Holy Spirit, will be everywhere. And suddenly, there came from heaven a rushing mighty wind. Now, I know, contrary to the belief of many who say that it’s of the devil, that’s not true. The scripture said, “Suddenly, there came from heaven a rushing mighty wind.” It filled all the room in the upper room where they were sitting. And the Holy Ghost ascended, descended from heaven to them. And it filled all the house. Some of my favorite people were in that room. Philip and Peter and James and John and Mary, the mother of Jesus. If it’s good enough for the Virgin Mary, it’s good enough for me. And there came from heaven the promise of Pentecost. And it was like putting a hand in a limp glove. And life came. And they began to go about preaching with boldness. “And you shall receive power after the Holy Ghost comes upon you.” Now, I have a very strange illustration. Jesus said, “I will not leave you comfortless, but I will come to you.”

Have you ever had a down-filled comforter that brought a lot of comfort to you? It is wonderful on a cold winter night. Now, some of you don’t know what winter is. I lived in North Dakota for 11 years where we have two seasons. We have July and winter. Now, I live in Crystal Beach, Florida, where we have two seasons. We have Christmas and summer. So, a comforter doesn’t mean a whole lot to us here. But do you know what happens? The Comforter does two things. He brings comfort to some, but He makes others uncomfortable. Keep that in mind somewhere down. It’ll come handy sometime. But when I was just a kid growing up in Newcastle, Indiana, our winters were severe. My father was a pastor. Sometimes we lived in an elegant man’s house. Sometimes they put the preacher and the family in a doghouse. I mean, they were really bad. In Newcastle, the floor slanted so bad that the day we moved in, when two fellows put the piano against one wall, it actually rolled downhill, hit the wall on the opposite side of the room, and rested there. That’s how slanted and unlevel this old house was. We had one heater in the living room. Upstairs in the bedrooms, there were little registers, and you left them open so the heat could rise up.

I have actually slept with my head under the covers, and in the morning, if I had uncovered, I’ve had frost on my lashes. Now, that’s winter, folks. I had one little brother about… He was probably five years old. I’ve got four brothers. Two of them are clowns. They’re great. I love those boys. One of my brothers, Jim, had a great sense of humor. Mother would tell us, “Now get in bed, get all ready.” And she would take comforters, put around the stove, get them warm. And then she would say, “Here I come, ready or not.” She would come up those stairs with those warm comforters and put them over us to keep us warm. My little five-year-old brother started singing, “The Comforter has come, the Comforter has come, the Holy Ghost from heaven, the Father’s promise given. Oh, spread the tidings ’round, wherever man is found.” Now, you know why I write things to have seen. The Comforter has come. Isn’t that a great illustration? The Comforter has come and He will comfort you. And if you will wait in His presence, He will endue you with power from on high. Do you know why Christians are blue? I want to tell you, as Christian leaders, make an experiment. Take one breath in. Now, breathe out six times before you breathe in again.

You know what will happen to you if you don’t take another breath? You will turn blue in the face and drop dead. This is what happens to Christian leaders. You give out more than you take in. Do you know what Jesus did? He took His disciples apart and He breathed on them and He said, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” He breathed on them. Now, if I had the spirit of Mendelssohn, I could compose music like Mendelssohn. If I had the spirit of Shakespeare, I could write poetry. If I had the spirit of some of the great artists, I could do what they did. But we have a Spirit greater than that. Jesus said that He would give us His Spirit. He would breathe on us if we would wait and rest in Him. And greater things than He did, we can do because He went to the Father. Now, some people believe that. And several years ago in California, a group of people waited on Azusa Street and the wind began to blow again. And it swept from California across the Midwest to the Bible Belt in the South. On Azusa Street is where it happened and that Pentecostal revival came again. I was born in the year of 1929 in the middle of that great, wonderful, old-fashioned Pentecostal revival.

Now, folks, charisma without character produces chaos. There’s a lot of stuff out there in the name of charisma. But I’m talking about Bible, word-founded, Holy Spirit revival. I was looking at the word Azusa where it fell. A-Z-U-S-A. All we need from A to Z in the USA is for the wind to blow again. And I believe it is about to happen.

The wind is blowing again and it’s the wind of prayer. I was at Leesburg and in a retreat center where they had never prayed for the sick and Ann Morrison was healed from MS. You can see the Tampa Tribune even wrote the story up. I was invited to come to a Catholic church, Espiritu Santo Catholic Church. It’s between Clearwater and Safety Harbor. They asked me to just share whatever the Lord put on my heart on a Monday night. So I told my husband, “You pray for me here at the house. I don’t know what to expect.” Probably 14, 15 people on a Monday night. When I arrived there, there were 466 people on Monday night. They had 13 Catholic people, just ordinary church members that stood in a line with olive oil and anointed the sick and things were happening. I want you to know the wind is blowing again. It’s even blowing in the Catholic churches where they used to teach against it. Now, when I grew up, we had the wind of poverty. It was popular to be poor. We had the prophetic wind which turned out to be a pathetic wind. I have to tell you, I was exposed to people who were religious palm readers and Christian fortune tellers. I have people come up running up to me all the time.

“You have a word for me.” I tell them, “Hon, dial direct. Get your word from Him.” I’m not going to do that. But I do have, in an emergency, I have that direct dial number. I have Jesus’ 800 number for 911. It’s 1-800-J-E-33-3. “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not,” greater than you can expect. Do you know what I get out of that? Have you ever called an answering machine to get a doctor, and he would say, “I’m sorry, I cannot come to the phone right now”? Jesus does not have an answering machine. He said, “Call unto me, and I will answer thee.” He doesn’t have an answering machine. And God neither slumbers nor sleeps, so you can call Him in the middle of the night. Now, He does have millions of secretaries. There are millions of angels that stand under that emerald rainbow around the throne at attention. When you command, as an ordinary person on earth, there are ten times, ten thousands of angels waiting to go out and help answer your prayer. Now, one man, one of the Wesleys, at one point took a survey, and he learned that only 20% of Christian people believe in ministry of angels.

So if only 20% of the people are utilizing angels, that leaves a great excess for those of us who do. And we have them at our command. Well, we went through the tape wind. Do you remember when you had to send to Tulsa to get those tapes? I had one old boy tell me they even think that Jacob’s ladder ascends and descends from Tulsa. But you know what? Some of those tapes produced a whirlwind. Do you know what the difference in a whirlwind and the real wind is? A whirlwind goes around in circles and does a lot of damage. But the wind of the Holy Spirit goes somewhere, and it produces wonderful things. Then we went through the dancing wind. Oh, it was chaos in some churches. We had the charismatic wind. But I believe the wind is blowing again. And it’s the wind of prayer. This is what will move the hand of God. This is what will bring Jesus back when the world becomes unbearable. And it’s going to get worse, folks. I really believe it. But greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world. Several years ago, I went to hear Ethel Waters. And I love the old song that she sang. She said, “Folks, when suddenly the trials become too great, always remember.”

And she’s gone now, but I’ll never forget. She leaned over that podium and looked with those big black eyes and those white teeth. And she sang, “When the storms of life are raging, stand by me.” I love the way she sang it. “When the hosts of hell assail and my strength begins to fail, God who never lost a battle, stand by me.” And she said, “In the midst of tribulation, stand by me.” He will never leave you comfortless, but He will come to you. And then, in the end, she sang the last verse, “God of wind and weather, stand by me.” The little picture back on the book table of the angel is the angel of the wind that directs the winds. The Bible says that the angels will stand on the four corners of the earth at the last days to direct the wind. And I think that’s what that picture means. If you are facing the end suddenlies of financial reversal tonight, I want to quote something I said earlier this week. God pays all bills that He authorizes. And the recording angels are efficient bookkeepers. I had not planned to tell this story, but I’m going to. I may not get through my notes. I may have to do another one, to be continued.

I got to tell you about the time I quit working for Jesus. We were at Trinity College in North Dakota. My husband was working for $450 a month and there were five in our family. The Lord supplied our needs. We had a lovely home there. But I got a call and I went to a very large church on Easter Sunday. They had 900 in attendance and took a large offering. The pastor said, “We haven’t counted it yet, so I’ll mail you a check in a few days.” I waited three weeks. I had had a dress cleaned. I had my hair done. I bought two meals driving up. Gasoline for my car. I had a lot of expenses. I kept waiting for the honorarium to come. When it arrived, it was for $50. I went $9 in the hole. I looked at my husband and I laid it down on the bed and I said, “That’s it. I quit. If that’s the best Jesus can do, I’m not working for Jesus anymore.” He said, “Good. I’d rather see you stay home and bake cornbread than to go out there and grumble about your paycheck. Just stay home.” So I decided that’s just what I’d do. I’d back off. I got a call on Sunday afternoon. Now that was Thursday.

Sunday afternoon. Young man, his name was Larry, he called and he says, “Betty, I pastor a little country church down by Pierce, South Dakota. Our missionary that was scheduled to be here is in bed with a high fever, vomiting, and diarrhea. He can’t make it. Would you come since we have advertised a meeting?” I said, “No, Larry, I’m sorry. I just quit working for Jesus on Thursday.” He said, “You know, I’m sorry to hear that. I thought you were doing a great work for the Lord.” My husband put his arm around me. He says, “Betts, I think you better pray about this one.” So I listened to my husband. I listened to the Lord, and I called Larry back, and I said, “I’ll be there.” I looked at the clock. There was no way I could physically drive and get there in time for the service. So I called Lowell Lundstrom. I said, “Lowell, what would it take for your pilot to take me in that little tiny single engine Mooney plane?” He said, “It’ll cost you $60 for gas.” I said, “Let’s do it.” I thought to myself, hey, that means I’m going in a hole again on this trip. But I did it. Got to the little airport. They picked us up, the pilot and me.

We went to the church. Little wooden church, walked up in there. Probably, I don’t know, 70 people there. The choir had 10 people in there singing. One old boy came in late, bibbed overalls. He had milked his cows before he came. And he was one of the ushers that took the offering. After church, we started back out to the car to go to the little airport to pick up the small plane. And dear Lord, they didn’t even give me an offering. I thought, they must have forgotten. They took up an offering. I heard them. I saw them. All of a sudden, this old boy come running in his overalls, rolling down the window. He handed me a brown sack, twisted with a rubber band on top. He said, “Sister, we didn’t even have time to count this. I hope it’ll meet your need.” Well, I took it, and there it was, paper sack. And when we got back to the airport where I could see a light, I reached in and I pulled out $60, gave to the pilot for the gas. Got in my car, and man, I was caved in. I was so hungry. Hadn’t even had dinner. I looked and Dairy Queen was still open. So I reached in the sack and I got 90 cents.

And I bought a chocolate shake and drank it on the way. The next morning after I woke up, I dumped everything that was in that brown sack on the bed, mostly coins and $1 bills, and I began to count it. I didn’t tell my husband that we didn’t have the money for our house payment. It was $438, and there was nothing in the bank. But as I began to count, I counted and the offering was $438, and $0.22. Had $0.22 left over. Stamps were $0.22. Even the money to send off the house payment. Now figure that out. I took $0.60 out for gas, $0.90 for my milkshake, and to the penny, $438 for the house payment, and $0.22 for a stamp. Guess what? I’m working for Jesus again.

And to the two men out there that said the Lord called you to the ministry, don’t ever be afraid to trust Him. God pays all bills that He authorizes. And when it comes to that time in your life, it is so sweet to trust in Jesus, just to take Him at His word, just to rest upon His promise, and to know, “Thus saith the Lord.” The Holy Spirit is prompting me, and I’ve got to do what He tells me to do here tonight. I had not planned to tell this. How many of you know that song, “‘Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus”? About half of this crowd. Do you want to know the story behind that? I know you musicians maybe know. I didn’t know until a month ago. But I had a family member of the writer of that song tell me how it all came about. A young couple, newly wed, had gone to Canada, were sitting on a blanket beside a lake having lunch together right after they had first gotten married. Suddenly, as they sat there eating lunch together, they looked out on the lake and a small boy in a canoe overturned, and he was struggling and drowning. The young groom flung off his shoes and jumped in his clothes to try to save the lad.

But the boy was so frightened he panicked and they both drowned. This young bride watched her new husband drown and die in front of her eyes. She said, “I died too. My dream, my future, was over. And I sat there and I knew I could never leave that blanket because I was dead inside.” Finally, she said, when I got courage, I went home, but I was numb, no emotions for two weeks. “One morning, I do what I always do when I have to hear from God. I picked up the Bible. I said, ‘Lord, I got to find out what to do when death comes and when grief comes.’” She said, “I read where when David had a death in his family, he worshipped. Then I read where Job lost some children. And when he had death in his family, he worshipped. And suddenly, my husband was gone. In that and suddenly of life,” she said, “I picked up a pen and I started writing, ‘Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, just to take Him at His word, just to rest upon His promise, and to know, “Thus saith the Lord.” Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him, how I’ve proved Him o’er and o’er.’”

Folks, good things are expensive. That was a great cost, a great price that she paid to write that song. But I want you to know it blesses me over and over again when I hear it, when I play it. And my heart has been so heavy the past few weeks, I felt like I was dead inside and I would sit down at the piano. My fingers would hardly move. My back would not straighten up and I’d start playing it. “It is so sweet to trust in Jesus.” And He’s not about to let me down now. I want to talk about some and suddenlies of life. And suddenly I was living in a four-story Victorian home in the president’s mansion at Trinity College. And my husband got restless and moved me to Florida. We had a lovely church and a salary of $41,000 a year. They treated us royally. And suddenly God called him to Russia at a salary of $100 a week now. My stepdaughter that has had three brain tumors removed and has three small children. And suddenly her husband bailed out because he thought he could not cope with her handicap. He was surprised to find out she came through three brain surgeries and is well and strong and is going to college now making A’s.

She’s doing great. My own daughter is in Emory University so I’ve got to keep going to help support a stepdaughter and a daughter that’s going to college. I want to talk briefly about Gainesville. April called and she said, “Mother, these murders are even worse than the newspaper is telling you. Some of the horrors are so gross that here at the place where I am working and the police have told us that this man that is doing these murders takes amputates the breasts of these girls and puts them in prominent places for the public to see to frighten people.” And she said, “I’m one block away laying looking at the ceiling at night because I’m afraid.” I’ll tell you what we did. I wrote out the scriptures and you might want to take note. Psalm 41:1, “In the time of trouble I will deliver him.” John 14:18, “I will not leave you comfortless, but I will come to you.” Psalm 27:5, “In the time of trouble He shall hide me.” “In the time of trouble I will deliver him.” And I told April, “Write Psalm 27:5 down: ‘In the time of trouble He shall hide me.’” And I know it may sound simple, but I’m a simple person, but if it works, don’t fix it.

I said, “April, I want you to write it down: ‘In the time of trouble He will hide me.’ I want you to put it under your pillow when you sleep, and when you get up in the morning, put it in the left cup of your bra beside your heart on the left side and wear it all day. Hide His word near your heart. In the time of trouble, if He hides, that killer cannot find you. If you are hid with Christ in God, he cannot find you.” I want to tell you something else, folks. I know a woman who was married to a deranged man that had gone insane from drugs and alcohol. She put the word under his pillow inside the pillow slip and she put it in other obvious places and the Lord began to restore this man and he has become a peaceful person. See, if don’t have faith, have to borrow faith from someone else, and when someone is weak, loan them your faith. That’s how we survive in the end suddenlies of life. So can be fortified if know the storm is coming. But I want to talk on about the end suddenlies of life. The Lord took care of April and He will take care of God is still. And He will remember His own. “Though troubles may press us and cares distress us, burdens distress us, He never will leave us alone. His promise is true and He will not forsake you. God is still on the throne.”

Sometimes it will be His word. Sometimes it will be a friend. Many times a song that will come and fortify you in the end suddenlies of life. I want to give you what my grandfather gave me as a child. It’s a wonderful legacy. One of my grandfathers was not real smart. He was not very big. But he said, “Betty, I have something to give you. I have no money to pass on to you, but when I’m gone, I want you to remember Hebrews 13:5, ‘I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.’” And he said, “I’ve read my Bible through many times. And I believe it’s the only scripture in the Bible that you can quote backwards. It still means the same. Thee forsake nor thee leave. Never will I.” And I’ll tell you, folks, the world is getting in bad shape. But you know what? And suddenly, Jesus Himself will come. Now, He won’t send bears to help Elisha. He won’t send a light to blind Saul. But, and suddenly, He Himself will come through the clouds, that first heaven. And we will rise to meet Him. Suddenly, the trumpet will sound. 1 Thessalonians 4:16. And we are going to be airlifted out of this world before it is destroyed by fire. We shall rise.

And I’m going to be one of those. I’m ready to go. I want to talk for just a minute about getting your passport visa in order. I feel I have a word from the Lord for anyone that is fearful. “Fear thou not, for I am with thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee. Yea, I will help thee. I will uphold thee with my strong right hand.”