The Father’s Reaching Hand

The Father’s Reaching Hand

by Ruth Robison

Transcribed from the original recording; may contain errors.

I would like to express my great gratitude to the council ring of this particular special camp, for the spirit in which they have moved forward throughout the whole camp. You know, we find, those of us as leaders who go through the camps throughout the whole country and meet with different groups, that there is such a tendency, because we have not grown yet to the place where we are neither concerned… where we are not concerned about anything that happens as we prepare for a camp, or as we enter into it, or as we move through it. Because it is the work of God. And you know, if we honestly believe what we as CFOs profess to believe, small camps, large camps, as I was talking to some folks this week, I have been speaking this week to a few, we must get to a place where we have no thought of big or little. We have no thought of important or unimportant. The important thing is that from the very beginning, from the very moment that we begin to plan for something, we realize that if it is worth doing at all, or worth having any part in it whatsoever, it is God’s. So, in such a lovely way, this is for council rings, but this is not only for council rings; council rings are affected by what campers feel and think. And if we as campers, as we come, and as leaders, we are speaking to all of us, if we just are not influenced by environment, if we want to put that, no matter what is in it.

But we do remember, as I said last night, neither environment or feeling determine our relationship to God, or need determine it. Oftentimes it does, but it does, it’s not supposed to, if we are close to Him. We will enter every experience with such a radiant glow and expectation that God can do His fullest through every experience. And you know, we are growing that way. And we are so thankful that we are. I need to grow like that. For so many years, if somebody said to me that it was going to be a small camp, I began to feel a bit self-conscious. I thought maybe just because it was I was going there, see. So, you see, but we can’t even think that. No leader can think that. Nobody can think that, you see. Because, you see, this is God’s business. And, of course, I feel that no one person is responsible for this. Nobody is responsible for what things turn out to be if they, in the very beginning, have put everything they had in God’s protection and can direction. So we have no responsibility for results. And it will be a glorious day when we arrive at that, because then we won’t pass through periods of depression, uplift and downpull in the midst of the whole thing, you see.

And you all think on that. And think on that as applied to your daily life, because it’s a tremendous experience and a tremendous growth to be able to live on a plateau. This is not on level ground. What I want you to do is live on the plateau of your relationship with God. Plateaus do not do like this. They are mountains and valleys. But somehow, Jesus lived on a plateau, that always His experience was in a very steady flow between Himself and His Father. And nothing broke it. So it is the challenge to us. I found land this morning to really read to you this scripture that I spoke of last night. And I was like, oh, you’ve heard it so many times. Well, who hasn’t heard scripture many times? And the scripture that I’ve heard ever since I began to read the Bible, and that was very early in my lifetime. As I told you, when I was 16, I really read that verse, “How much more does the Heavenly Father want to give you the Holy Spirit?” And I’ve always been taught to receive anything graciously that a person would give you. And I remember my father telling us as little children that it took a whole lot more to receive graciously than to give graciously.

And I couldn’t quite understand that because they always used to say from the pulpit that there was far more Christian to give than to receive. So, and of course, it isn’t either or, but here comes my favorite expression. It has to be both and. We’ve got to do both very graciously under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. So I want you again to see what I meant last night while we were having a dripping experience about this scripture. So I’m going to read it. This is… and I wish when you go home you really would take seriously this second letter of Peter, the first chapter. This is true, because Walt has spoken to you on it. Others have spoken to you on it. But I find that each passage of scripture can be related to my search. Each passage of scripture has in the answer to my search, has in the answer to your search. And so we can put ourselves in the midst of each passage of scripture and found a new revelation for my need at this moment. So, I was wanting to know in my study time and meditation time, I was wanting to know how one came into the nature of God. Over and over we are told that we are to be born again into His nature. We are to keep on working until we do develop that which is already in us in embryo. And how to do it? Alright. I’m just how to do it kind, you know.

And so I wanted to find it. I was led to this first chapter of Peter. And if you come down here to the end of your fourth verse, I won’t read it all because I want especially to call your mind to this point. “Become sharers, partakers,” and I’m reading from this Amplified version, “partakers of the divine nature.” Now, for this very reason, for this very reason, because this is my desire, I am to do this. And listen how clear your directions are. “Adding your diligence to the divine promises,” you see. Alright, I am promised that I am to partake of divine nature. Now, to the promises of God in this area, I am to add my diligence to the divine promise, “employing every effort in exercising your faith to develop virtue.” Alright? That’s number one. That’s my business. And you know, no one can become or grow or be like God unless one works at it. It just isn’t something that comes otherwise. It works at it, of course, under the direction and with the Holy Spirit and with His power. Now, I use my faith to develop virtue. And here it explains, and that’s the reason I love this, my excellence, my resolution, my Christian energy. And I chose that one as I was going over.

In order that I might really add to the promises of God and to my faith, my Christian energy. I had never thought about energy being particularly Christian. And, of course, energy can be anything. Energy can be used for evil or for good. But this says, I am to use my Christian energy to develop my virtue, you see. Which means Christian energy. And in exercising virtue, in using my Christian energy, I am to gain knowledge or intelligence about the nature of God. As I do this thing, the revelations of the nature of God just come to me. But I have to be working in the stream toward God in order for God to reveal Himself to me. Let’s go on. And in exercising my knowledge, I develop self-control. And, you know, folks, I believe as Christians that one of the greatest things we need is self-control. Who in the world has self-control? Now, nobody can control themselves, I don’t think, unless under the guidance of the Holy Spirit He has taught us how to do this thing. Oh, our human natures are so weak. And, you know, we are so governed, as I said last night, by our moods and by feelings, that our lives can hardly reach beyond moods and feelings. But we must. We must let the Holy Spirit govern us until we are controlled by a higher self, so to speak.

Oh, that reminds me of a joke. You ought not to do this. So, you know, you’ve all heard this old story. Whenever you hear old stories, just say, “That’s all right, Father. It must have a new meaning.” That’s the way I take my husband.

I’ve heard it so many times that finally we agreed in the family and with the children that after Lee told the same story seven times, everybody’s hand would go up quietly. So he would know that that was seven. So, but you know this, that… How many of you have been to Boston? Anybody been in Boston? Good, wonderful. Well, you know the Boston Commons. And you know how it was customary in the early history of our country for people to go out, and it has been customary ever since. If you’ve got any grievance, just like you do in London, you go out to the square and you just stand on a box and say, “Would you please?” You’re perfectly at liberty. Anybody does it. So this particular day, this man was out just raving about Roosevelt. He was to be elected and so he was just standing on the soapbox raving about him. Here was just a simple little gentleman standing in the back and he was listening. And finally this man said, “And the greatest thing about that man is he’s controlled by a high power.” And somebody heard this little man and says, “I don’t like her either.” So, after we get our self-control, we develop. And I like the way this translation puts it, everything is develop these things.

Not pass from something to something, but develop. Out of everything, develop something else. So, out of self-control, we are to develop steadfastness. And God knows that is one of the great needs of every Christian. And oh my, if I could just have an afternoon or a day or a week to talk on steadfastness in its relationship to prayer groups. All of these things, I like in a school of prayer to take each one of these and develop them in the relationship to prayer experience. You see? Steadfastness. It’s the hardest thing in the world for any of us to… You come, put it this way, you come with your need. All right. It’s so easy for me to just pray for you the first time you approach me. And I can keep on maybe for a week. I will hold you in prayer or I will do something for you. But if I do have a family situation, and this family situation, or friend situation, goes on and on and on and on, I am apt to sink under it. I’m apt to get weary under it. Now, these are not easy things. I know how easy it is for me to stand up here and say these things to you. I’ve also been through some of these experiences with members of my own family.

And I know exactly what I’m talking about. I also know that it’s the hardest thing in the world to remain on a high level when our need keeps on stretching out, stretching out, stretching out, stretching out. It’s the steadfastness that we as Christians need in our whole experience as we deal with each other. One day, one of the members of our prayer group called me up and said, “Ruth, I’ve got a question to ask you.” She said, “My sister-in-law has come to me for help. This is the sixth time she’s called me desperately for help.” And she said, “You know, I want to ask the question, how long does God expect me to pay attention to her?” Well, now, that was an all right question. I don’t know. We’ve never said it out loud. No, we’ve never said it out loud. But so many times in our hearts, consciously or unconsciously, we’ve said, “How long, Lord? How long is this going on?” You see, how long am I going to be responsible for this? How long is it going to take something out of me? Well, of course, the Lord, when I said back, I never give up. I never stop. I never even sleep. When there’s a human need. I just always am at…

I’m always present when there’s a human need. This steadfastness… So there came a time in that group, just this year, after my experience, that I relate over and over. And I have to these days, because all these new things, many of these new things relate to it, as I said.

When I had a call, the minute I really got home from the hospital, when the doctor said I could see somebody. Of course, three months, I couldn’t see anybody. But anyway, they felt that I was that ill. Actually, I was never ill, from my standpoint, because I didn’t accept all this business going on around me. But they thought I was very ill, and so, of course, three months, they wouldn’t let me see anybody but the family. Well, anyway, when the news broke out that I could see, broke loose, that I could see people, the interesting thing that happened was that I began getting calls with people who were desperately sick with cancer. Of course, the news had all gone around that this had been my experience. And this precious man, he’s a colonel in the English Army. He was in Richmond studying at the Presbyterian Seminary. And a month before, he had been given the news that this also was his experience, even deeper-rooted than my experience. And so, they had tried everything. Medicine had tried everything, and they finally got to the place where they said there was nothing more. So, his wife called me and wanted to know if they could come over to see me. Well, I could sit up. I had strength enough to sit up in the living room that time, so I said, “Sure, come on.”

This thing of using what you have for God’s purposes, even if you haven’t got but this much, you see. It’s important. So, they came on over, and I sat in a very comfortable chair, and I listened to his story. And then I said, “All right, now, you lie down, and let me come over and lay my hands on you, and let me pray for you. And the Father send some new power and strength into your body so that you can move on from here. But I want to get hold of the Order of St. Luke, because this is their business, and it is their one business.” Now, prayer groups have many businesses, so to speak, in the kingdom. But this is the business of the Order of St. Luke. I said, “I want a group of people, I want a volunteer group of people who are going to volunteer to stand steadfast by you until the pronouncement is made, you are cured.” I wish you could have seen those precious people’s faces. He began to weep. His wife just, oh, she almost fell on her knees in gratitude, because they were carrying this alone, you see. And she said, “Well, suppose it doesn’t happen real quick.” I said, “That’s not our business. Our business is to stand by until the job is done.”

That’s our business. And we haven’t done it as prayer groups. We have… That is most of us. Oh, you know, my precious husband tells me, “No general statement is true,” and I always say, “Neither is that one.” Anyway, when I get up here, and he gives me to get up here and declare these things to you, like all, every, almost all, and so forth, he’ll always come home and say, “Honey, you remember that thing I told you?” I said, “You remember what I told you, too, don’t you?” So we go through that almost every time I make a talk. Because we have to make it so strong. We have to make it so strong that you really will listen to it, don’t you see? So when the afternoon came, then I told… I couldn’t leave the house, but I told him and his wife to come over to the house, and I had the committee, the chaplain and three others who were willing. I told the chaplain to get me these three people. I like to work in either the three or the seven or the twelve, just a little way of working. But I wanted the Trinity. I wanted these three precious, dedicated people to represent God, the Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit.

And so, three dedicated people came. And it was the most tremendous afternoon. Oh, my, so tremendous. And of course, the wonderful thing about it is that after they finished praying for him, I got in, too. See? I said, he got up just feeling so strong and ready to go forth. He wanted to get ready to take a church. He was finishing the seminary, and this thing had come upon him right when he was ready to graduate from the seminary and go into his first church. And it couldn’t… I don’t know whether you use the term Satan or not. It doesn’t matter. But whatever it is, couldn’t have struck at a worse time in a man’s life than in between complete preparation and the readiness for service. Could he? No. It was the hardest thing, hardest moment for him. So, we worked with him. Now, I said, “All right, now, you must come again on Monday.” This was Friday. “You must come again on Monday. You must come again on Thursday.” In other words, you must keep… We must keep… You must keep coming. We must keep staying by you until the life forces have turned around to the other side, you know. They’ve been going downhill. Now, when they take the turn uphill, you don’t have to stay in by as close, but you still have to sustain.

And, you see, so we… The prayer… The group began to learn. And if any of you saw the article in Sharing, that, about the talk I gave the Order, part of it’s implied in that, because I was talking about having a dedicated group who will stand by, or maybe in a smaller prayer group, two people. Go two by two. If you can’t go six by six or twelve by twelve, two by two agree that you will take this need and you will stand by this need until the job is done.

Now, you can’t know what’s implied in that. But, you know, the interesting thing is we have no right to ask what’s implied, because neither one of us can, none of us can, understand nor really hold in our, in our human mind, as great as they are, all that’s implied in working together with God on a special human need. Now, let’s go on with this. All of that is on steadfastness. So, you see, it takes a lot to grow in that area. Now, from steadfastness, I would develop steadfastness meaning patience, endurance. Patience, divine patience, utter endurance, absolute continuous endurance. And only the Holy Spirit can enable us to do that. It’s very difficult. Now, in exercising steadfastness, and these are words that I love, in exercising this steadfastness, I develop godliness. Piety, whatever you choose to call it. I am like God. If I don’t let you go, if I don’t give you up, I’m like God. I’m like the hand of heaven on your tracks. Because, in other words, sometimes when my precious Lee gets, and you know these people we love, we can’t help talking about, sometimes when he gets real depressed and tired, and he is a person that goes way up higher on the mountain than I do, and also goes way down further in the valley than I do.

But when he gets down in the valley, he always says to me, “Now listen, Ruth, I’m quite sure that you’d be far better off with my insurance than with me.” And when he says that, I know where he is. That tells me the whole story. And I say to him, and this goes on over and over, I say to him, “Now listen, honey, you aren’t going to die unless you want to, because I’m not going to let you. I’m not.” Everything I’ve got would be into, for his use in saving him for God’s wholeness and holiness. See? So, then he just perks up like a flower with rain. And he says, “Well, I guess that’s right.” And I said, “It is so right. Now, don’t you forget.” But of course we do. Now, all right, we go over to the next.

Now, in exercising my godliness, I develop brotherly love. How in the world can you love each other as brothers and sisters until you have been conscious of development in these other areas? Until I love, I don’t love you until I can stand by you to the utmost. That’s love. So, you see, as I develop these virtues, I come into, I grow into a godliness, a god love. All right, let’s go on here. I mean, brother, a consciousness that you are my brother. As I go on in this, I add to my brother, a brotherly affection, Christian love. Out of my affection, my true, deep, brotherly affection for you is born Christian love. Sometimes I think we talk, and we have to. We have to talk all kinds of ways. But we talk about God’s love, and people listen, not you folks who stay, who stick by for a week, but people we just talk to once in a while. You see, I have a chance to. And we don’t have an opportunity to go down to the bottom of the meaning of a word and its significance and then come and bring them up to the top again. And so they misunderstand or rather do not comprehend what is meant by divine love. But after you have gone through all of these…

Now, this is 2 Peter, the first chapter. And if you care, you will really take this when you go home and begin to work on it. Now, he goes on to say, “For as these qualities are yours and increasingly abound in you,” you don’t give up one when you work on to the other. You work on all of them because, having attained a starting point, having attained a starting point in any one of these, the Holy Spirit will grow you. I don’t know how else to put it. You don’t grow yourself, but the Holy Spirit will grow you as you move forward in this. “For as these qualities are yours and increasingly abound in you, they will keep you from being idle or unfruitful unto the full personal knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” See, that is, if I’m on this road, nothing I do is unfruitful. And that’s the most perfect, most perfectly gorgeous state of being. Even though you’re in it just a little while, you catch a glimpse. Well, to me, that comes nearer being a taste of glory than anything I know, really. And to live, to let the Holy Spirit help you live in this state, that you know that nothing you say, nothing you do, is unfruitful in the kingdom of God.

Isn’t it gorgeous? Yes, yes, it is. Now, that is for us. Now, he’s teaching us right here that these are for us. As I say, think on that and think a long time. Now, God has a part in prayers. And this is God’s part. And it’s very simple when you put it in words. But my, what it means. When I pray to God in order for God to do something about my prayers, I just have to be on His side.

I have to be on His side in everything I pray for. That is, I have to know, I’ll be conscious of the fact, and I don’t think that as we mature, that we can escape through, “If it be Thy will.” We can’t do it. Now, a young person might be permitted to say, because they have not come into mature understanding, “Father, if this be Your will, do this for me.” But certainly, when you and I have matured to the… Well, I don’t even excuse my youngsters at 30. I tell them that they at 30 simply ought to know some of what God’s will is. And when they pray, they ought to be conscious of whether or not their prayers fit into the will of God, because by 30, they should know the life and teachings of Jesus. And you could even make it earlier than that. But as we pass on beyond this age, certainly, as we grow into a physical and mental maturity, we ought to be deeply concerned about the growth of our spiritual maturity. And we grow into this. And we test ourselves. People have said so often, see whether your prayer is good or bad. See whether it’s this or that. Well, in quite simple words, I think it’s whether or not this prayer is on God’s side.

Or whether this prayer is on my side. Or whether this prayer is on the side of some community or activity that is not on God’s side. Or whether this prayer is related to some world situation which is not on God’s side. So God requires, it seems to me, just one thing when we pray, and that is, besides faith, I’m checked here as Walter was talking on faith, is that, well, I don’t know that we have a great faith unless we’re on His side. So you hear we are checked here too. It all goes in together. So He requires that we are on His side. I must seek to know and see as far as I am capable of knowing what God is trying to do in a situation. I must seek to look at the need from His side or else I will not see at all what is really needed and my prayers will be ineffective. I was finishing up a conference and it was the last evening. I had finished my last talk and I only had time enough to come down and say goodbye to a few people and rush out to get the plane home. There was a man standing at the altar. Of course, precious people came up to line the altar to shake hands. But this man I knew, as I looked at him, that something was wrong.

And he said, “Could I talk to you?” Well, I said, “My minutes are really limited right now, but take a minute and tell me just as clear and concise as you can what your need is.” So he told me that he had packed up his bag and left home, his wife and two little children. And I said, “Why?” And he said, “Just because she could never see anything from my viewpoint. And it was just really hell for me to stay home.” So I said, “Alright, now let’s have just a couple seconds of prayer to ask the Holy Spirit to give us wisdom.” So we bowed just a second. And then I looked up and asked him, I said, “Have you ever tried seeing things from her standpoint?” And I said, “You know, God’s standpoint is both of your standpoint. God sees things from your side and her side too. And until you come into realization of how God sees this, there will be no settlement.” This was one of the quickest solutions that the Spirit ever gave me about anything, I think. So, when I said that, he struck his shoulders and he looked at me. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an angrier person. He turned and rushed out of that church and I knew that he was angry. I felt it. You can always feel anger. Feel everything else in the way of negative vibrations, really.

Well, I went home. And I kept thinking about that precious man. And I really did what I don’t do and what he’s wrong to do. I asked the Holy Spirit if I had heard rightly. Well, it was my business to hear rightly and I knew He had given this to me. So I just let him go. Two years… it went on for two years. And then he had come to my mind so I could bless him and bless his family. Two years later, I went back to the same place for a retreat. And after I had finished talking, I saw this same man come walking up the aisle. And he was so full of vigor and vitality with a smile on his face. And he came up and shook my hand. He said, “I have two questions I would like to ask you, Mrs. Robison, quite quickly.” I said, “Well, I’m not limited in the last time. Just take your time.” He said, “Have you really suffered from any evil consequences these past two years?”

I said, “Well, I guess I would have to admit that some things keep nagging at me. Where they come from, I just don’t know.” He said, “Well, it could very well have been me for the first year. Because,” he said, “believe me, if I ever hated anybody, I hated you.” And he said, “Every time I thought of you, it made me madder. But,” he said, “one morning, after I was away from home about a year, one morning, I woke up and all of a sudden, something inside of me said, ‘Well, you found no other solution. Why don’t you consider what she said?’ And,” he said, “I’m a businessman. That seemed reasonable. I was really getting some sense. So I said, ‘Fine, I’ll do it.’” He said, “I didn’t know how to say the Holy Spirit of God at that time, so I just said, ‘I’ll do it.’” So he said, “I got up and packed my bag and went and jumped the bus and went back to my home. And I got there, this was early in the morning, got there in time for breakfast. And when I rang the doorbell with my bag in hand, my little girl came to the door. And the first thing I heard her scream was, ‘Mama, Daddy’s come home.’”

“And then my wife came and said, did she fuss with me? No, she didn’t. She grabbed me around the neck and she loved me. And my little boy came and he just cried, because he wanted to see his daddy. So I went in and I sat down at the table. We finished breakfast and the children went out to play. And I said, ‘Listen, honey, I’ve been at fault in all this. I’m the one that’s been at fault because I just simply could not see you, get your viewpoint in anything.’ And so, and you know what happened?” He said, “Do you know, she began to cry. She says, ‘No, it wasn’t you. I couldn’t see your viewpoint.’” And of course, that was true. Every bit of this was true. But anyway, it was a happy family. Now you see, the fact is, we have to see God’s viewpoint in things we pray for. We should ask the Holy Spirit to give us wisdom, to see God’s viewpoint. Now this is, this is the ultimate, as far as I know now, in prayer preparation. It’s before you pray, ask the Father through the Holy Spirit to let you get His viewpoint in the prayer you pray, in the request you make. You see, this is an area of petition I’m talking about.

And that’s enough. Let’s go on. Alright, what should be our expectation from this larger prayer? The clearing of our minds on confused issues. Knowing where we stand even on today’s issues. A new sense of direction. A growth in patience with ourselves, as well as with others. Giving ourselves to God’s timing in all things. A desire for mercy in the settlement of human affairs. Stronger faith in the activity of all peoples. More joy in the privilege of working with God. A peace of mind and relaxation of body. A sense of adequacy. A keen of sense, a keener sense of the beauty in every mind. A really, a more abundant life. Just plain physical strength. A sense of physical abundance flowing through you. A deep sense of security in life. A feeling that I really don’t have to go beyond today to feel secure. I don’t have to go beyond this minute to feel secure. Right where I am. I have a deep sense of security. All of my environment is something that I bring security into. But security has to be first in the center of me. Before there is security in my environment. Now, a larger supply of material needs. Of course, because God’s interested in this. This ought to come out of our prior experience.

Satisfactory companionship. And you love that with your Lord Jesus Christ. Again, if real lonely people would really know a satisfactory companionship with Jesus Christ, that would be satisfactory. An outpouring of heartfelt gratitude to God and others. A constant flow of gratitude to all things, to all peoples, to all nations. Yes, when the time comes that we can really deeply appreciate what every nation has to contribute to our lives, there will be at least an advancement in what we think of as world peace. Our new courage to live the highest we know. And oh, how we need that. Oh, how many times every day you and I fail to respond to a situation, to a person, on the level of the highest that we know. A real sense of freedom. A real sense of freedom. Body, mind and spirit. Free as a bird in the kingdom of God. An inner strength in the midst of out of confusion. God’s sight. As I said before, seeing the issues, God sees it. A feeling of warm comfort in the care of God. Don’t you know how the first night was a little chilly here? And you know, sometimes your life seems a little chilly. But if you feel the warm comfort in the presence of God, it’s what is good for your whole being.

You know how you snuggle down in the blankets and everything and get to feel so good and warm. Well, the same sort of a comfort is in a real sense of the presence of God. Knowledge that passeth understanding and inner knowledge. An honest seeker must persevere. Steadfastness is desperately needed in seeking the presence and knowledge and nature of our Lord. Now let me speak just a little on different patterns of prayer. And maybe you can catch here or catch a glimpse of where you are at the present state in your own prayer life. If this is where you are, that’s where you begin when you go home. See? There’s where you start. It’s where… it’s the ground… where I stand. I stand right here. Well, my first step has to be taken from here. See? But I’ve got to know that I stand here in order to take the first step out. I have listed these and think on these. First is what I like to call the wistful prayer. Just wistful. “Oh, I wish…” This is what you do deep down in you. “I wish that this could happen. Oh, I just long that this could happen. I just wish it could.” It’s wistful. It’s a very… it’s a wistful prayer. And it’s a very impatient prayer because if that’s on the level of just plain wistfulness, you have to get impatient with not getting answers.

And you say to yourself, “Well, why doesn’t God do this? Why, you see?” He comes in this. So I like to call this the wistful. Now, good people… these are good people praying these prayers. So think on this. The next is the prayer of hope. And the prayer of hope… I put it like this in my own analysis. The prayer of hope is the self-help prayer. “Oh, yes, I hope and I’m going to do everything in the world to see that this thing is done. By charge, it’ll come through if I have to knock it through, see. It’s just got to do it. I’ve got hope that this thing… I’ve got confidence in myself. And I will just see that this thing is done.” The next is what I call a scattered prayer. Now, this can happen in individual life and in group, prayer group work. You have a group of people sitting here. Here’s your point of need. You have a group of people sitting here. And as you… if you don’t know better, as you bow your heads, there might… if there are 12 people, there might be 12 approaches to this… to this… to this need. And there would be 12 different types of expectation out of this need. And out of the 12, there might be 6 who had no expectation at all.

That is not coming into an agreement. What Jesus meant by agreement was simply not sitting together in a room, giving the appearance of a prayer group. See, that wasn’t what He meant. So, it is important that before a group or an individual prays, here comes this prayer preparation again. I have to keep on working on this. That the prayer group takes the need that has come. We sit around and we let the Holy… after time silence, let the Holy Spirit sink through us on this particular need. Then we discuss… what do I say to you? All right. What do you… What do you expect to happen out of this? You see, Harry, really. What do you expect to come out of the prayer you prayed today? See? Well, if you ask that question to a prayer group, believe me, in the beginning, it takes a long time to get around, even if you have 12 people, because there could be 12 expectations of this prayer experience. But if you will take time to come into a common expectation, if you can only expect half of what you pray for. And this is another thing I wonder. I’m just wondering this now. Could it be that prayers and prayer groups are answered on the level of the point at which that group achieves common expectation?

Exercise is a common faith and has a common expectation. Therefore, if you do accept this, you have the answers why. So many answers do not come when we pray in groups. Or they may come part way. A family may be partly brought together. A person may be… may get a little boost and appear to be getting so well that you feel that the thing has been accomplished. And all of a sudden, they go downhill. They may get better again. They go back again. The better again, go back. And it repeats itself. But I wonder if God is not limited in answering our prayers on the grounds of our common faith. That is the point in which our faith becomes a united faith as a prayer group in God’s capacity and love to do this work. And when we have a common expectation. You see. So we could think on that.

The next is the prayer of faith, which of course we’ve heard so much about that. The last is the prayer of power. And before I do close in my talks with you, I want to come to this whole thought of power. Jesus could have said to His disciples, “All My love I give unto you. Now go on out and do this work for Me.” But He didn’t. And as I read, I see that He needed to give them something else. A handle in their hands. They knew they had His love. And His love was the thing that was going to wrap them around and protect them. And just keep them in the straight power, see. But here He said to the disciples before He sent them out, “Now all power has been given to Me. This power I give to you. Now go and do your work.” See. So, I am so sure, having set my mind three years ago to work and to get revelations on power more than three years ago. Divine power. I was quite sure that my life was lacking at this point. I had no question of the love of God. I had no question about that. He had loved me and I had loved Him since I was a little child.

And there was a growing sense of the deep love of God in my heart. Never any question at any time about the love. But, here comes power. “Why, Father,” I would say to Him, and of course we have a right to use why when it’s the why of the scientists. You see, the why of seeking knowledge. We have no right to use the why when it’s critical and there is a condemnation in it of what we find ourselves in, in its relationship to God. That is sin. But when I say, “Now, Father, why of this or that, in order that I might understand to serve You better,” I find that in my own life that’s legitimate and acceptable. So, alright, now, why is it, I ask Him, that in our prayer groups more is not accomplished than is visible? Because You even said that you can’t accept Me because of Me, accept Me because of the works you see, you see. Perfectly legitimate to people who need to see. Oh, God knows what we need. God knows what we need. Even though He condemned the hypocrites because they wanted signs. He knew they weren’t looking for signs. All they were needing for, looking for, were just simply something, some new thing by which to condemn Him.

That’s what was in their hearts. But here we want to know why. Well, now, why, Father? Are we not able to do these mighty works? And it was not the love of God. We had it. Alright, it was the peril. We lacked the power. This power which was given to the early disciples, I lacked. I lacked. Because I did not accept it as a reality. To me, it was something so fuzzy. Very fuzzy. And another thing, I thought it was wrapped up in love. Of course it is. It is. It is. It has to be wrapped up in love because the love of God is all-inclusive. But He breaks down this love in order to put something concrete in my hand.

And to let them know as they went out to face wolves and so forth, people that were contrary and antagonistic to them, and would even do them harm, they had something to meet this with, you see. They knew they had something. Now, it’s so easy for us to tell people that need, I mean really people in need, that need some money. Alright, it’s a good thing for us to tell them that God loves them. But I want to tell you, God’s love takes form if I put a ten dollar bill in this person’s hand. It takes form in this way. It’s power. The power of God has turned love into a ten dollar bill at that moment, you see. So this is the way God works. So alright, now. When I came to…

When I came to, I realized that this was the time for me to make a tremendous experiment in this business of power. So I knew that all the sincere souls and people in prayer groups throughout the country that knew me and loved me were praying for my recovery. Just the minute they heard the news, they began to pray. That is our practice in CFO, see. And that’s practiced in some of our spiritual life groups and other groups that are interdenominational groups in our country. So I said to myself, “Alright, now.” As they pray in love, they are generating power. And whether they recognize it or not, now, or know what’s happening, they are generating power. Now, it’s my business as the person who is in need to open my mind to this power and to receive it. And strange enough, Walter, it coincides with your hourglass because the only thing I could see was a funnel. Now, you see, this bottom part of an hourglass is really a funnel because here’s this little point right here that God in His greatness flows through. Well, all of your prayer power that you were generating, I could see as in God. So here was this little point here. And being Jesus Christ because it was the point of my mind, point in my mind, that Christ had come into years before this and gave me the revelation.

Then the tiny little point was knowledge at this particular time, you see. It was through my knowledge, through my understanding of the love and the will and the power of God, which was this little point, that all of this could flow through. And it seemed to me, I don’t know whether any of you received the letter that went out, the first letter that went out from my precious Lee telling you about three miracles. But whether you did or not, this is the substance. I knew it became as a great canopy in my room. I could almost see the form of the canopy you see here. And this prayer power coming through this point right here, coming from you folks, all the folks who prayed, coming right here, coming down on me here. Now that part is done outside of me. See, that is the provision made for me. But here I am lying down here, you see. So, and this is what our precious people need to know. And when we go to see sick people, visit them or what not, the time has got to come when we tell them about this, you see. So that they will know how to receive this power. Because if you don’t know how to take something and use it, it’s no good to you.

It’s no good to you. And I feel many a person has died because they just didn’t know how to eat the right thing or have the right thing to eat. Our little children starving in India. All those of us who do know these great eternal truths have not known how to receive at the point, you see, that God sends through the supply which will meet our need. So, I said, “Alright now, Holy Spirit, what is my part?” Now this is the place that I needed to know because for 22 years I had not been sick. I had not been sick since my first experience. I had the most marvelous 22 years of perfect wellness so far as I knew anything about it. If anything was happening in my body, I didn’t know anything about it because it just always float. It would just float everywhere. It was just a wonderful body. And of course this was quite a surprise. I never was sick even in this as far as this was concerned. Never felt anything that was contrary to wholeness. But anyway, here I am. So, I said, “Alright, this is very symbolic.” I looked through the eyes of the Holy Spirit and said, “Now what do we do with this?” So, He said, “Now listen, as you eat your meals three times a day…”

Now this is just a little technique that came to me. “As you seem to eat your meals three times a day, you should have three definite times as you lie here in bed for breathing in this power.” And I don’t necessarily mean through the lungs, but I mean through every cell of the body would be receiving this healing power which is coming, you see, from you folks who pray. And every time I did this, in the beginning, when I was quite weak, as they gave me something to eat or drink every hour, I felt also that I had to do this little breathing exercise every hour to receive the power of God coming through. It came to be the most blessed experience. I have continued it, not as much as I’ve gotten well, because I don’t need it as much. I turned to another point of need and used this power of God for somebody else rather than me, you see. But there are times when I need to use this power of God for me. And I can… What I do is turn my mind to this little point here in the top of the funnel or in the middle of the hourglass and know that above this little point is all this tremendous power for anything possible.

And I let it seep through the promises of Jesus Christ. And I hear Him say to me, “Ruth, any one of you, all power is given to you at this moment. Go therefore and do.” In Florida at the art museum, this lovely art museum, there is a… this artist, Frasier, Mr. Frasier, I don’t remember his first name, but he took it as his experiment. You’ve been to… many of you have been to Ormond Beach, Florida. Well, anyway, he took it as his experiment to paint a series of pictures of great thinkers. And he wanted to show how the philosophy of every one of these great thinkers fit into the idea that spirit is reality. And so in his… in painting these great thinkers of the world since the age began that have contributed something to this vast understanding of spirit as reality, of course he has many pictures of Jesus. And that’s a stopping God. Yes, many pictures of Jesus. And one picture simply thrilled my soul. Because, you know, I’ve always wanted some artists to have the courage to paint a picture of God. You see so many pictures of Jesus, and I wanted some artists to have the courage. Of course, the pictures we have of Jesus are just artist conceptions. Well, I’ve longed for somebody to paint a picture of their concept of God.

So I went through and I sat down in front of each one of these pictures of Jesus and I was looking at them. And I came to this one. This picture just thrilled me. And this is what I saw. And when I finish, I’d like Abibi to lead us again in “Joy to the World.” Because this is such great news that we’ve been having this week from everybody. You’ve been living it. We’ve been grateful. And my prayer is, before I finish the story, that you will continue in this pattern. But here’s the picture. Seated in a chair is Jesus. Now, you’ll recognize Him. You’ll recognize Him immediately. Because you’ve seen so many pictures that look like this. In His hand, in His lap, is the world.

One of His hands is on top of the world and one hand is under the world. In this hand on top of the world, you’ll see the nail print. The hand under the world, you cannot see except the tip of the finger and thumb. Alright, this top of the world here, from this little nail print, here come great streams of light. And that stream of light covers the top half of the world. But as yet, it doesn’t reach the bottom half. Where this hand is. But the bottom half, though dark, is still in His hand. But this glorious light of the Holy Spirit and of God’s love has not reached in here. If you left the picture there, you’d feel that it was a half-finished picture. But as you keep on… you look up, you lift your eyes up, and here behind the chair is a perfectly… How shall I express it? A perfect blending in this painting of youth and age, of youth and maturity. Such freshness in this Father’s face. Just eternal freshness and such a glow. But here… he says stop, really. I know that’s what he’s saying. But I’m almost through. But anyway, here… such freshness. But… and then here are the Father’s hands. One hand is on His Son’s shoulder, like this.

And He’s looking at His Son with such tenderness. But the other hand is like this. Even… and you can see it just reaching out like this. And I felt… my feeling was that this hand was mine. This hand is on His Son. This hand was mine. That is everybody’s seat. And I got such a sense of the Trinity there as I’ve never had before. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. All one. That we may be one.