The Admiral and the Lighthouse

The Admiral and the Lighthouse

by Larry Eddings

Transcribed from the original recording; may contain errors.

About two years ago, we were privileged to be in Israel. It was one of those experiences, one of those life experiences that you cannot duplicate or repeat. It stands alone as one of those life experiences that you would not want to repeat because there’s a certain sense of holiness about it. And there will be other beautiful experiences in our lives, such as this week. But that just kind of stands there for you to look at once in a while and remind you how close God really is to you. In the course of our time there in Israel, we went to Nazareth. And we were in the synagogue where Jesus had been many times. I don’t know if it was the same synagogue. It doesn’t matter. 2,000 years changes the landscape a lot and also changes buildings a lot. But we know we were in the general area of Nazareth. And in that synagogue, there were 20 of us in our group. When we went in the synagogue, we were alone. They closed the doors behind us and allowed us time in there by ourselves. And in the synagogue, there are seats along the side of the wall. And that’s the only seating in the place. And the synagogue is much smaller than this room. In fact, the 18 make a fairly good crowd, isn’t it?

It’s about like in the corner of this room in size. But it was an awesome place. As we were seated there, I had the privilege of standing in the front of the synagogue and remembering that this was the place where Jesus had come and He was handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah.

And He unrolled it Himself and found the place where it said, “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to proclaim good news to the poor, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives, the recovery of sight to the blind, release for the oppressed, and to say, this is the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Then we are told by the Gospel writer Luke that He rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. And everyone in the house had their eyes on Him. They were looking at Him to see what He would say. Hear what He would say.

And all He had to say was, “Today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” You’ve heard it a lot of years. But today, it’s become reality. Jesus had such a sense of who He was. And what He was about. His very name held all the meaning of who He was. And what He was about.

His name in Hebrew is Joshua or Yeshua. Which means God is salvation. And so He is our Savior. God is our Savior. That’s all wrapped up in the name of Yeshua. But also wrapped up in that name is God is our Redeemer. He is the one who brings us back.

Also in the name of Jesus, who is our Savior, is the meaning of deliverance. God is our Deliverer. He is the one who takes us out of darkness and brings us into light. That’s what deliverance means. To be brought out of darkness into light.

God is our God. That same name also means healing. Jesus is the Healer. “I am your God who healeth you.” And I will show you what I mean in Jesus. “Today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” Jesus had such a sense of who He was. Jesus had such a sense of what He was about when He was here on earth. He had such a concern for the whole person. Such a concern for their spirit, for their emotions, for their bodies, for their relationships. He had a concern for the whole person.

We mentioned Francis MacNutt a while ago. We’ve had the privilege of knowing Francis, as some of you have, for quite a few years. And also Judith. What a beautiful couple they are in the Lord. We rejoice with them and their children. And last year we had the privilege of being asked to come to Hawaii for CFO. No, it was the year before, wasn’t it? Well, last two years. Like Audrey said, you quit praying after a while. You just want to go. And… But the year before last, we were with Francis and Judith MacNutt and their children over there. And had a beautiful time with that couple. And I enjoy his writing very much. And in one of his books, he makes a statement that really ministered to me.

He said, “Any doctrine of salvation without salvation taking place, and any concept of healing without healing taking place, is empty rhetoric.” I agree. You can talk about it all you want. But if it doesn’t happen, you’re just talking. Well, Jesus wasn’t just talking about it. He meant it. And He had a concern for the whole person. Healing, as Francis MacNutt said, is the practical application of the Christian gospel.

Jesus went about doing two things. Preaching the gospel, healing the sick. Sometimes He would preach the gospel, then heal the sick. And sometimes He would preach the gospel by healing the sick. He was demonstrating what He was talking about. God desires wholeness in His people. Wholeness in every way.

He had such a concern, however, for the healing of your spirit. For the healing of your relationship with God. And that’s what we’ve been talking about today. Audrey talked about the healing of our images of God the Father, and how we have been able to minister to one another throughout the course of the day, concerning our relationship with God. And God has a concern for that relationship. The healing of your spirit. Because sometimes… Well, all the time, He knows He’s dealing with persons who get sick. Not only physically, but in our spirits as well. With spiritual sickness, there are symptoms just like with physical illness. When I’m physically ill, I look sick. That’s one of the things about me. Normally, I have this normal ashen gray color anyhow. But when I get sick, it gets green gray. And you can really tell when I’m sick. But I’m… You go up to some people and you say, “Gee, you look great today.” And they say, “I feel horrible. I wished I looked horrible. So that people would know I’m sick.”

But when we get sick physically, you can tell. There are symptoms. You look sick. You feel sick. There are symptoms which are like fevers and so forth that tell you’re sick. The same is true when your spirit is sick. Paul wrote to the Ephesians and the Colossians and he mentioned their spiritual illness. He said, “You were a people without hope and without God.” That’s sickness in your spirit. When you have no hope and when you’re without God. When you’re separated from the source of your life. That’s illness in your spirit. And all of us were at that point somewhere. And we came into a relationship with Jesus Christ. Somewhere along the line because of what someone said, we came into a relationship with Jesus Christ. But what I want to talk about tonight are those of us who are ill after we come into the relationship with Jesus Christ. Because Christians have problems too. Just like those who do not know the Lord. Those of us who do know the Lord have problems. When John was writing the Revelation, he wrote to seven churches, Christian bodies, who were having troubles in their relationship with the Lord. And the first church, the great church of Ephesus, that letter says, “I know you. You have worked hard.

You have labored long. You have struggled with the adversary. But I have this against you. You’ve lost your first love.” You lost your first love. Do you remember your first love with Jesus Christ? Your first love. Last fall, Audrey and I were back over in Hawaii again. And we were on Molokai. At the Sheraton Molokai. They have a beautiful place there right on the beach. And there’s a swimming pool. And the week we were there, they must have had a special on marriages or honeymooners or something. Because the place was packed with newlyweds. And the first love, have you ever been around 50 newlywed couples?

They would come out in the pool and they’d get in the pool and they’d just touch each other and rub each other and tickle each other under the chin. And it was embarrassing. They just… They couldn’t keep their hands off each other. First love. And Audrey would keep saying, “Look.

Try that. Try that.” You know, I… But you know, I… We noticed some things about those couples also. Some of them were so in love with each other, they’d just stand and stare at each other, look each other in the eye. They acted like CFOs, you know, just looking at each other in the eyes.

Others of them, he would be in the pool and she would be up on the deck laying in one of those lounge chairs reading True Romance. I thought, oh, what a tragedy to be reading True Romance when this is where it is. Don’t read about it. Do it.

But you know, that’s where we are sometimes as Christians. We read about it. But we don’t do it. And one of the symptoms of spiritual sickness is when you lose your first love. When you cool off. When it becomes humdrum. And I think that’s where a lot of us are in our walk with the Lord in local churches. We just cool off. We’ve lost our first excitement, our first joy. Have you ever been around a brand new born Christian?

Aren’t they obnoxious? All they want to do is talk scripture. “Did you read in the Bible?” “Well, 24 years ago I read that.” “But have you talked?” “I talked with Jesus this morning.” You did. Well, and then we had this attitude because we’re more mature in our walk. We have a tendency to grow up and become mature and lose our first love. And as a result, we’d say to them or think about them, well, after a while you’ll get over it. The trouble is they get over it. Because we have a tendency to quench the spirit that’s in them. Encourage them. Say, “Isn’t it exciting to walk with the Lord? I join with you in your joy.” One of the symptoms of spiritual sickness is you lose your first love, which means you lose your joy.

And oftentimes when you lose your joy, it’s a symptom of the fact that you have walked away from walking in wonder with God, and you’ve gone back to trying to do it yourself. “I have to work this out myself.” And we work and work and work and we lose the joy in the process. Have you lost your joy? If you’ve lost your joy, you need to check to see where you are in your relationship with the Lord. Are you trying to do it yourself? Are you looking into the eyes of your Beloved and saying, “Lord, I trust You to do it with me and for me”? And I’m talking about eyes because they’re very important. Look in the eyes of your Lord because another symptom of spiritual sickness in our lives is reflected in the eyes. The eyes play an important part in our relationship with the Lord and the people around us. And to tell whether we have trouble in our spirit or not. Jesus said the eye is the lamp of the body. If the eye is good, the whole body is full of what? Light. Light. And it is. If the eye is good, your body, everything inside you just radiates right out through your eyeballs. But if your eye is bad, everything within you is what?

Darkness. Then He makes an interesting statement. If the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness? If you’re dark on the inside and you think it’s light, but it’s really dark, how great is that darkness? It’s even worse than you think.

I don’t think we ought to go around looking people in the eye to check to see what their condition is or anything like that. But the eyes often reflect what’s going on inside us. And often when you see a blank eye or a blank stare, there’s something wrong in the spirit. We lose our joy. We hang on to unforgiveness. We’ve been talking about that throughout the day in some individual relationships and in prayer groups and this morning. We harbor unforgiveness. And it affects our spirit in our walk with the Lord.

Fear moves in also. We are a people of love. And fear can move in if we allow it. But love can move it out if we allow it. How do you go about healing a spiritual sickness? A sickness in your spirit? I think the first step is repentance. We don’t like that word. But the word repentance means to rethink. To think it over again where you are in your relationship with the Lord. Rethink it. Repent. Repentance means to change. And I don’t know about you, but I sometimes find it very hard to change. I like the way I am. I’m very comfortable with the way I am. Most people are very comfortable with the way they are, even though they are miserable. At least they are comfortable being miserable. Because it is familiar to them. I heard a story from a Baptist pastor, which really helped me. Some of you may have already heard the story and you know it. But it is a good story. There was a ship at sea. It was night and all the lights were on. And as it sailed across the sea, it noticed up ahead another set of lights. So the Admiral went up on the bridge and had the signal man signal, “Turn 10 degrees starboard.”

And the signal came back, “Turn 10 degrees port side.” And so the Admiral, being an Admiral, signal back, “Turn 10 degrees starboard. I am an Admiral, turn 10 degrees starboard.” And the signal came back, “I am an Ensign, turn 10 degrees port side.”

And the Admiral’s signal back, “I am a battleship, turn 10 degrees starboard.” And the signal came back, “I am a lighthouse, turn 10 degrees port side.” We get this Admiral mentality about ourselves. And I set my course and don’t anyone ask me to change because I’m comfortable in it. However, I may be on the wrong course. And the Lord stands there and says, “Larry, turn 10 degrees. Rethink where you are. Change your direction a little bit. And get away from the rocks.” That’s healing of the Spirit. When I’m willing to flow with the Lord and change the direction of my life or allow Him to change the direction of my life. I can’t do it on my own. I can only do it as I rely on the Holy Spirit of God to help me do it. Because I’m too set in my ways many times to want to change. But He gives me the power to do it. Another step is given to us as a prescription in the Old Testament. 2 Chronicles 7:14. “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves…” That’s repent. Humble yourselves. “And pray,” talk to Me. “Seek My face.” Look to Me. Look to Me. “And turn from your wicked ways.” Listen to the signal and move to the side.

“Then I will hear from heaven. Forgive your sins and heal your land.” Jesus said it another way. “Come to Me if you’re weary and heavy laden. And I’ll give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me. For I’m gentle and lowly and humble of heart. And you’ll find rest for your souls.”

It’s a matter of rethinking where we are in our relationship with the Lord. Turning to God. Seeking Him. The power of His Holy Spirit. To change. To be changed into His likeness. From one degree of glory to another. I think the greatest healing of the Holy Spirit. Is to allow the Spirit. To change us into His likeness. From one degree of glory to another.

One of the results of the healing of our spirit. Is a new birth. For the person who has never known Jesus before. It’s like coming into brand new birth. Into new life. For those of us who have known Jesus before. It’s like returning home.

While we were in Israel. We were at the Jordan River. We were baptizing those who were in the tour group. We weren’t baptizing everyone, but those who wanted to renew their baptism vows could come out into the river and we baptized them. And there came to us while we were in the river, and to me while I was in the river, a man with his little boy. They were not a part of our tour group. And the man said, “My son would like to talk with you.” And I said, “Okay.” Well, he asked first, “Are you a pastor?” And I said, “Yes, I am.” He said, “My son would like to talk with you.” Okay. So I got down in the water. I was already out about my waist. So when this little guy came out, he was nine years old. He came out. He was up pretty high on his body in the water. So I got down to where he was and looked him in the eye to talk with him. And his name was Nathan. And I said, “Nathan, what may I do for you?” And little Nathan said, “Would you baptize me?”

I asked Nathan, “Do you know Jesus?” “Yes, I know Jesus.” “Well, Nathan, does Jesus live in your heart?” “Yes, Jesus lives in my heart.” Children have no problem with Jesus, by the way. It’s after we become adults, we have problems with Jesus. But children have no problem.

And we talked a little while, and it became very evident that Jesus lived in this boy’s heart. So I said, “Yes, Nathan, I’ll be happy to baptize you.” But he was afraid of the water. He was out in it. He had already taken his step of faith. So I cradled this little boy in my arms, and I lowered him in the water and baptized him in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And as I watched that little boy go under the water, I watched all the fear washed out of his eyes and off his face. Jesus just lowered him. It was just like watching the Lord dip this boy in that water. And when he came up, he was new. He was brand new. It was like looking in the face of Jesus, because he had become a part of Jesus in that process. I think that’s part of having your spirit healed. You have new birth in Jesus. You’re new. You feel new. Do you feel new tonight? Do you feel new?

A part of the healing of their spirit is there’s a peace in your life. Wherever Jesus went, He said, “Peace be with you.” He was peace. The Holy Spirit is the source of peace. And wherever the Spirit of God is, there is peace.

And there’s an absence of fear in a person’s life when they’re healed in their spirit. Do you realize that in the scriptures on major encounters that God or an agent of God had with humanity, 365 times God or His representative said to the person who was encountered or persons encountered, “Do not be afraid.”

I think that’s one for every day of the year. And on leap year, you can be as afraid as you want, I guess. But on 365 days, don’t be afraid. And when we are healed in our spirit, when the Holy Spirit comes into our lives and brings healing to the spirit, it takes away the fear. You’re no longer afraid to come into the presence of God. And you’re no longer afraid to be in the presence of God’s people. And you’re no longer afraid for yourself. Because you know you’re in the hands of the Lord. And He will take care of you. And then another thing that happens is the restoration of joy.

I think one of the greatest evidences of the presence of the Spirit of God in a person’s life and the fact that their spirit is healed and whole is the presence of joy. And one of the saddest things is, see, the Christians have lost their joy and their excitement about walking with the Lord. I mean, I had the privilege of being in a church in Canada, an Anglican church. And we had been asked to come there for a series of healing services. They had never had healing services before in this little church. And this was fairly early on when we discovered the Lord wanted us to be involved in healing ministry. So it was fairly new to us. Not brand new, but fairly new. And we went to this little Anglican church not knowing what to expect from them and they not knowing what to expect from us. And when it came night for the healing service for prayers for physical healing, and we invited people to come forward, it was as though the Holy Spirit choreographed the whole thing. Because those who wanted prayers for healing got up, went back to the back of the church, went over to the side aisle and lined up against the wall, and they came out one at a time for healing.

It was very organized. I don’t know if that’s what they did for every other thing, but it was very organized. And we prayed for the first one, and we didn’t sense anything happening, but never depend on what you see with these eyes to trust whether the Lord’s working or not.

Prayer always touches the heart of God, and God always moves in response to prayer. Whether you see it or not isn’t important. And so we knew God was moving whether we could see it or not. But we prayed for the first person, didn’t see anything, and they went on back to their seat. Prayed for the second one, didn’t see anything, they went on back to their seat. And prayed for five or six, same story. And a woman came across who was dressed very neatly in an English tweed suit. Very properly dressed. Very stately woman. And yet as I looked into her face, her eyes were blank. There was no joy, no light there. We prayed for the request that she had made. And at the close of the prayer, I looked into her eyes, and I put my hand on her shoulder, and I said, “Lord, restore to her the joy of her salvation.”

And she went under the Spirit. Right in the center aisle of that Anglican church. I don’t know if any of you are familiar with that. I’m sure some of you, if you’ve been around Francis MacNutt and others, you have seen people go under the Spirit. And it just simply means the Holy Spirit comes upon you in power, and you rest on the floor, or in someone’s arms, or wherever you happen to be. Well, she happened to rest on the floor. And they had never seen anything like that before. And the people who were responsible for lining it up, the woman turned to the man and said, “Do you think we should call an aid car?” And he said to her, “Well, the Eddings don’t look too excited, so let’s wait and see what happens.”

They couldn’t see on the inside, because we didn’t know how the folk would respond. But the Holy Spirit, I find, does pretty much as He pleases, regardless of how people respond. So we’ve kind of learned to flow along with that. And so there she lay in the center aisle. And so we turned for the next woman to come across, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to come across.

So we kind of motioned for her to come on over, and she did, and we kind of walked around this woman, and we prayed for her, and the Spirit just rested her right there on the floor. And looked to the next one, and she wasn’t sure. But she came over and prayed, and like this. And the Spirit fell on the place, and all the people fell. Here, there, wherever there was an empty place. And by the time it was over, it would look like cordwood lined up here in the floor. And we prayed, and people kept coming, and I think they all got up and got back in line to come through again, so they could experience this. But it went on way into the night. The Spirit of God kept moving beautifully in that body. Way on into 11:30, 12 o’clock when we finished. It’s amazing. When the Spirit of God is present, there’s no weariness.

But after it was all over, we were kind of leaning against the piano, Audrey and I, up here. Folks had gotten up off the floor. Excuse me. They’d gotten up off the floor, and then we got into a circle around the inside of the sanctuary. And this woman was straight down the other end of the sanctuary, straight across from us. And she was radiant. And we said, “Let’s just offer up praises to God tonight here at the close of the service.” And her hand went up, and she said, “I want to praise God. I want to praise God for restoring the joy of my salvation. My name is Joy.” Isn’t that amazing? Her name was Joy, and everything that God intended her to be was wrapped up in her name. But she had lost it. Lost it. And on that night, God restored it. What’s wrapped up in your name? What’s wrapped up in your name? What kind of a special person are you that God wants to restore? To have you be everything He has in mind for you to be tonight? Have you lost the meaning of who you are as a child of God? Has it slipped away from you? If that’s the case, He wants to restore the joy of your salvation and the meaning of your name.

And Audrey and I were leaning up against the piano, and this woman came up after it was all over, and she said, “Who are you people anyhow?” That’ll destroy your ego just like that. And so we told her who we were, and I asked, “Who are you? I haven’t seen you here all week.” And she said, “I’m Joy,” and she told us her last name. And she said, “Tonight I was walking along the street out here, and I heard something going on in here in the church. So I wanted to see what was going on, and I came through the door, and I saw that lineup over there. So I just went and got in the lineup to come up and see what was happening.”

I think she got more than she bargained for. But isn’t it gracious of God to walk along the street with Joy and say, “Joy, hear what’s going on. Go through this door, Joy. See that line over there? Get in that line, Joy. I have something for you waiting. I have a blessing for you. I want to restore the meaning of your name.”

I think that’s what God has for each one of us. I think He wants to restore our relationship with Himself, to restore the meaning of who we are. What a beautiful place in which to do it. What a beautiful time for it to happen. The Lord who is the Redeemer and the Savior and the Healer, the Deliverer, that Lord Jesus Christ is here in power tonight in the person of the Holy Spirit. And wherever you are in your walk, if you’ve lost your joy, if you’ve lost your first love, I would like to pray for you and ask the Holy Spirit to restore the joy of your salvation and bring back that first love that you had for Him. Restore the excitement of your walk with Him.

And I would like to encourage you, once again, if there is any one thing standing in the way of that happening, I encourage you to let go of it tonight. Just repent. That means rethink what that thing is doing to your life. Whether it’s an attitude or a feeling or a fear. Whatever it is, let go of it. Offer it up to the Lord.

And come to Him if you’re weary and heavy laden. And allow Him to give you rest and restore the joy of your salvation. Will you pray with me? O Lord, gracious God, sometimes when we walk along as Your children, we lose our first love because we become so involved in doing, we forget to be.

I know Your word says, “Be not weary in well-doing.” But sometimes it happens. And we get weary of trying to live up to standards, trying to live up to images that people place on us, trying to live up to principles, trying to deal with rejections and hurts, trying to handle anger and fear.

Sometimes the glow goes out of our eyes and the light goes out of our face. Oh God, sometimes we become weary in well-doing. And we ask Your forgiveness. Lord, that first love, so exciting when we could reach out and touch You, the wonder of it, to walk with You as Friend and Companion, to hear Your voice whisper in our ears.

Lord, sometimes that wonder is taken away by persons who say things that hurt or judgments that are past, statements that are said. And we’re robbed of the wonder. O Lord, we forgive them. And forgive us for allowing the wonder to be taken away from us. Restore that beautiful wonder of Your presence, that beautiful first love.

I just sense the Lord saying that there is a person here who has been put down, put down by family, through the years. You can never measure up. You have never been able to measure up. You would work hard to bring home straight A’s and even that wasn’t enough. They killed your spirit.

I ask you to forgive them. Forgive them that your spirit may be set free and be healed. There’s another here that is very much afraid of a spouse. Not that there’s any physical abuse, but afraid that you’re going to say the wrong thing to hurt a very fragile relationship.

That fear is destroying your spirit. Because you’re not free to be yourself in that relationship. Lay that fear at the feet of Jesus. Lord, I ask You to give that loved one the power by the Holy Spirit to lay the fear down.

There’s another person here that’s hanging on to an old way of life that is not of the Lord. It’s not an immoral thing. It’s like an old way of believing that will keep you in bondage. Because your focus is not on Jesus Christ and the freedom He has for you. The focus is on the only word that I hear is religiosity.

Religiosity. A religion rather than the living Christ. Lay the religion down and take the hand of Jesus. Let Him set you free in your spirit tonight. There’s someone here also with a severe physical pain in the small of your back.

And you’ve been uncomfortable all evening because that pain has been hurting you. I just ask the Lord to reach out and touch you and bring healing in that area of your back. Thank You, Jesus, for healing the back and setting them free from pain.

Lord, we’re doing what You have told us to do and that’s to wait upon You. Thank You, Jesus. I sense our Lord saying, “I would have My people renew their love covenant with Me into My heart.” So let’s just start. Lord, how do You want us to start?

Yes. I sense God saying, “Are you willing to confess your sins to one another?” Let’s do that. Let’s just take a moment. We don’t have to do it aloud. God, let’s just pray it. God, I come into Your presence and I confess my sins.

I name them in my heart. Let’s do that. Let’s name before the Lord in our heart those things that we keep hanging on to that would separate us from Him. I ask You to forgive me. I thank You for Your forgiveness.

I want to cut into the middle of your prayer. Do you know God forgives you? Do you know it? If you don’t know it, I want you to know it. Do you know God forgives you? How do you know it?

How do you know God forgives you? He said He would. God is faithful to His Word. He said He would. Do you accept His forgiveness? Then I want to tell you, in the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven.

You’re forgiven. You’re set free of everything that you laid at the feet of Jesus. Let’s continue in our prayer. Jesus, come into my heart. Live in me. Be the Lord of my life. Jesus, baptize me with Your Holy Spirit.

So that I may be totally Yours. Spirit, mind, and body. Spirit, mind, and body. I thank You for restoring the joy of my salvation. I thank You for restoring. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Amen. Amen. Now I’d like to have you turn for one minute only to one person close to you and tell that person what Jesus means to give.

This is what Jesus means to me. Any person, that’s right there. Don’t ask them what Jesus means to them. Just say, “This is what Jesus means to me.” Jesus, name above all names, beautiful Savior, glorious Lord, Emmanuel, God is with us, blessed Redeemer, living Word.