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     1. Turn Your Eyes upon Jesus, verses 1 and 3   (3:45)
     2. Turn Your Eyes upon Jesus   (22:03)
     3. Here from the World We Turn   (2:11)
     4. The Savior with Me, verse 1   (0:47)

Isaiah 40:31.  But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint.

Psalm 27:8.  When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek.

Psalm 27:4.  One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple.

Matthew 7:8.  For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

I began to live a life of prayer.  I was a kid, but God had awakened my soul, and I didn’t pray because, oh, I wanted certain things from God, but I wanted to be with God, I wanted to be near God.  I was homesick for Jesus.  I was longing for fellowship with Jesus. 

The world didn’t satisfy me.  The world tried to tear me to pieces—they really did.  I had to work among men that were just as wicked, oh, what a rotten bunch!  What horrible sin, and stupidity, and wickedness, and godlessness you find in the shop where I worked!  And they tried to tear me apart.

But I found a Fountain.  I found a “well of living water” waiting to satisfy my thirst.  And I didn’t get it in my church.  That’s the strange thing.  In my church things were awfully dry and awfully dead.  I didn’t get it there, but I tell you where I got it.  I got it from Jesus.  I really got it from Jesus Christ.  And to this day, I’m at the Fountain.  To this day, I wouldn’t dare—I wouldn’t care to, either—to live any other way but to live at the Fountain.

And that’s why I recommend a life of prayer—not the kind of prayer a lot of people do.  They think that they want to pray to get power, or they pray because it’s customary, or anything like that.  But real prayer is a lovership—is a Holy Ghost love affair.

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I discovered in this work that those who have really accepted the call of God to come to the Fountain and who have really come, they have grown “in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ” like nobody else.  You can’t imitate it.  There is no substitute for waiting upon the Lord, for giving Him time.  No substitute!

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The great bulk of people never find out the wonder of it because they don’t do it.  You’ll never find out the glory of the love of God until you open your heart to Him and let Him set your heart ablaze with His love.  And it doesn’t happen if you don’t live a life of prayer, if you don’t give God time.  Beloved, I tell you what happens: the devil takes the time and he’ll poison your system.  He will, and he’s doing it.

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But oh, what happens to people that love God, want to be with God, seek the face of the Lord!  “When thou saidst, Seek ye My face; my heart said unto Thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek.”  It’s a heart matter.  “One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may abide in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord.”  Why, it lifts you into eternity.  It brings you out of this commonplace experience of the natural life and makes you come into a spiritual realm.  And you say, “Oh, God!  …I didn’t know there was anything like this.”  You can’t know.  “The natural man cannot receive the things of the spirit of God.  They’re foolishness to him.”

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I know it doesn’t consist of just kneeling down for an hour or two, or for a day or two, and to spend time in church.  It isn’t that.  But it’s accepting that promise of God by faith and coming “with boldness unto the throne of grace.”  God is there.  God’s waiting for me.  God is answering prayer.  God is doing what He’s promised to do, thank God!  And as I wait before my God… 

And where is He?  Where can I find Him?  Why “Lord, Thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, Thou understandest my thought afar off.”  Don’t be afraid that He doesn’t hear your prayers.  He has understood your thoughts afar off.  “Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.”  And we don’t get into that realm because we don’t give God a chance. 

And that’s why I say prayer—real prayer—is a holy love affair: I want to be with Jesus.  And as I want to be with Jesus, as I draw nigh to Him, something happens: He draws nigh to me.  After all, He is seeking me.  I’m not seeking Him like He is seeking me.  Oh, how Jesus Christ is seeking everyone in this meeting!  …And what is He seeking? Seeking to give Himself to His people, seeking to transform us into His own image.  We have it all in this wonderful Book.

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You’ll find out that when you begin to seek God, the devil and the world and the flesh they’ll conspire against you to drag you out of that place.  And ninety-nine out of a hundred Christians follow that drag of the flesh.

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“Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon their knees.”  He’s not afraid of our preaching and our propaganda.  And he’s not afraid of our boastfulness.  But when he sees a saint really getting to the Fountain, and really getting to God, he knows that God will meet that saint.

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They have no time for prayer, but they’ll have time to go on a vacation—well, they have to.  They have time to go to the hospital, to get a massage and go into a mud bath and so on.  They have time for all kinds of… the beauty parlor—get that tub over your pate, and sit there for an hour to have your hair set.  They have time for everything but time for Jesus.

Listen, time for Jesus!  Don’t you know He’s waiting?  Day by day Jesus says, “If you pray, don’t pray like the Pharisees and scribes to be seen of men.  Your Father’s in secret.  He’s waiting for you—waiting to reward you openly, waiting to be your Reward, waiting to reveal Himself to you, waiting to change you within, to fill you with the Holy Ghost.  And the way is so simple.

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But it might be good to have a “rosary.”  It might be good to force yourself to get that bead and to say a real prayer: “Oh God, my God, I know that I could know you infinitely better if I weren’t so lazy!”  Then take the next bead and say, “Jesus, I know I could know you infinitely better if I weren’t so lazy!”  Take the third bead.  Say, “Jesus, I know that I’m lazy.  Now, Lord, if I’d only get up an hour ahead of time in the morning, I could…Oh, my God!  What riches I would have!”  Then take the next bead till you come to the place where the cross is hung.  I mean it.

I mean it.  We had a preacher that advised us young fellows: “If you get tired and sleepy while you’re at prayer, put a pail of cold water there.  Stick your head in it once in a while.”  I mean it. 

The devil will keep you from your crown.  And God is waiting to “strengthen you with might.”  God is waiting.  God is there.  God is everywhere.  God looks into your heart.  God is ready to bestow Himself and that’s the thing we seek when we pray—not to get rid of a toothache, or an ingrown toenail, but to find God!  To meet God!

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My sister Rose used to invite people and say “Now, oh! come to prayer!”  I said, “Don’t tell them that.  Tell them to stay home.  We’re far better off if two or three come together that really want God than two or three hundred that are just lazy.”  I tell you that’s what’s going to make a revival: two or three meeting in the name of Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ being in the midst.

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Oh for a real getting down—way down at the feet of Jesus, and make Him know that we mean business, and make Him know that we really determine to find Him—not only to seek Him, but to find Him!  “Everyone that seeketh findeth.”

An illustration of young people who took heed.  “I taught them in those days to spend at least one hour a day alone with God, and after a while you could pick out those that did—you can pick them out today.  They’ve got something.”    (from 5:27)

An illustration of a minister whose heart was toward his car.    (from 15:15)

 “Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon their knees.” —William Cowper.

Audio Quality: Excellent

Original tape marked (35).  See project notes for 17A.  The quality of the introductory music is unusually poor.

A sneeze was removed.  “God wants His stuh… sons to be strong” changed to “God wants His sons to be strong.”  Some pauses were shortened, and pops and stutters removed.

During a chat at Pilgrim Camp in 2009, Edwin J. Waldvogel remarked that the pitch of this recording sounded too high.

The original media and project files are available upon request.