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     1. If the Vision Tarry   (28:46)
     2. Worship and Praise   (2:19)

Hebrews 10:35.  Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward.

Habakkuk 2:3.  For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.

“Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward.”  “For the vision will not lie: though it tarry, wait for it.”  I like that word.  That is not an exact quotation, taken from the New and from the Old Testament, but maybe it has an application to us this morning, because during these weeks we have heard rather wonderful testimonies of which the word might be true: “flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father who is in heaven.”  That happens all the time, but it happens especially at a time like this when we give God a chance.

Light comes to your heart.  And when we hear the testimonies, we realize that it’s very real and very wonderful light: light about the inward life, light about the indwelling of Jesus Christ, light about a victorious warfare, or light about the coming of the Lord.  And of course, there has come to all of us a light about fellowship with Jesus, waiting upon God, and the wonderful results. 

And maybe you have received light about divine healing.  It is really very remarkable how much light we get, very remarkable.  The difficulty is this: that most people get stuck right there.  They think that’s a climax when God has dealt with them.  God has given them some light, and they forget that light is not your portion—it isn’t your own until it’s been tested.

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Does it lie?  Does the vision ever lie?  Does God ever say anything that He doesn’t mean?  Or does He say it in a way that you don’t understand what He means?  A little girl said, “If God doesn’t mean what He says, why doesn’t He say what He means?”

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With light there comes a test.  You’re going to be tested—you’re going to be tested severely.  Your faith is going to be tested, but there’s a great High Priest in heaven who is so deeply concerned in your victory because your victory is His victory.  And His victory is the defeat of hell, and it’s the manifestation of the kingdom of God.  That’s the reason for the warfare.  That’s the reason all hell has risen up to quench the light—to take away from you that light of faith.  Don’t be surprised if you’re tested.  Don’t be surprised if the devil tries to come with his devilish lie, and tell you, “Hath God said?  He didn’t mean it like that after all.  You better try something else.  You better not be too sure.”

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[Paul] could say, “I’ve finished my course.  I’ve fought a good fight.  I have kept the faith.”  He knew that he was not chasing a will-o’-the-wisp, but he knew that Jesus Christ was God Almighty, and that the Gospel of Jesus Christ was the only “power of God unto salvation for this poor deluded humanity.  And praise God, there’s nothing else for him to do, but to be true to his testimony, and true to the light that he had received.  But look at the fight he had to fight!  Look at the enemies that rose up against him!  All hell was against him.  But God was on his side.

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Hundreds of times I’ve heard people say that they have light, and they express it, and it’s real light.  But tomorrow, they’re in darkness!  They’re not willing for God to work out to will and to do, because that entails a fight.  God has never been able to do anything upon this earth but it took a fight.

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When you are true to the light that God gives you, in spite of what the devil does, don’t be afraid, “tarry for it: it will not lie; it will surely come.”  But it’ll require a standing by faith.  It’ll require standing against the wisdom and against the reasoning of men, and sometimes against the misunderstanding of your closest associates.  God has given you light, and everything that God does in the world requires men and women like Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who will stand in the name of God and know there’s but one thing to do: when you know God’s will, it’s to do it if it kills you.  “You can heat your furnace seven times more if you like.  That makes no difference to us.”

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“But for the glory that was set before Him, He despised the shame.”  Oh, what shame, what shame, what shame!  We talk about the cross, we sing about “the cross uplifted high,” we sing about the blood that was shed.  But listen, every one of us would have run and hidden our faces if we had seen it.

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God has never done anything, never made a forward move but men have misunderstood, and miscalculated, and have fought and talked against it.  And God had to have somebody that had the vision—had the vision alone—and was willing to pray through alone.  And pray through you must.  You’ve got to pray through, you’ve got to go alone where Jesus Christ calls you.  You’ll never make the grade if you wait for others to come along.  Even your wife may not understand you, or your husband, or those closest with you.  And God gives you a light, and when He gives you a light, He holds you responsible for that light.

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An illustration of light and testing on divine healing.  “They prayed for the child, anointed her with oil in the name of the Lord.  And then the fight started.  This sister left, and left this woman with her sick child.  But now, they had prayed the prayer of faith.  And she kept looking at that child, and it seemed as if that eczema would not go away.”     (from 2:01)

An exposition of the fight of Pastor Blumhardt.  “Even to this day, after 100 years, the revival is still going on.  When we work there now… we feel the power of those prayers and of that revival.  It’s still in the air.”    (from 7:50)

A challenge in the ministry: fanatics.  “My first fight was with fanatics.  As soon as you open a meeting to the leading of the Holy Ghost, all the fanatics come around and want to blow off steam… I thought I had to straighten everything out, every screeching fanatic.  And the Lord said, ‘Leave it to Me.  This is My meeting, not your meeting.’”    (from 15:23)

Another challenge in the ministry: the demand for a program.  We came into a town...  And they said, ‘We’ve got to have a program.  These people don’t understand the guidance of the Holy Ghost…’  But something wonderful happened.  I went to that meeting with that faith, and I sat down on the platform and I said, ‘Now, Lord, what are You going to do?’  Well, He took care of that meeting in such a wonderful way that after two weeks, we had such a revival that nobody could preach, and didn’t have to preach.”    (from 17:10)

The example of Christopher Columbus.  “Sail on! Sail on! Sail on!  Oh, that’s the word of faith…  And you and I have a far better call than Columbus.  We are going to gain a kingdom that was prepared before the foundation of the world.  And the Apostle Paul says, ‘God is not unfaithful, but He’s going to give you that kingdom for which you suffer.’”    (from 20:17)

Pastor Blumhardt: Johann Christoph Blumhardt (1805-1880).  An account of his two year fight is available here.

Columbus
Joaquin Miller, 1892

Behind him lay the gray Azores,
     Behind the Gates of Hercules;
Before him not the ghost of shores;
     Before him only shoreless seas.
The good mate said: “Now we must pray,
     For lo! the very stars are gone.
Brave Adm’r’l! speak! What shall I say?”
     “Why, say: ‘Sail on! sail on! And on!’”

“My men grow mutinous day by day;
     My men grow ghastly, wan and weak.”
The stout mate thought of home; a spray
     Of salt wave washed his swarthy cheek.
“What shall I say, brave Adm’r’l, say,
     If we sight naught but seas at dawn?”
“Why, you shall say at break of day:
     ’Sail on! sail on! sail on! and on!’”

They sailed and sailed, as winds might blow,
     Until at last the blanched mate said:
“Why, now not even God would know
     Should I and all my men fall dead.
These very winds forget their way,
     For God from those dread seas is gone.
Now speak, brave Adm’r’l, speak and say”—
     He said: “Sail on! sail on! and on!”

They sailed. They sailed. Then spake the mate:
     “This mad sea shows his teeth tonight.
He curls his lip, he lies in wait,
     He lifts his teeth, as if to bite!
Brave Adm’r’l, say but one good word:
     What shall we do when hope is gone?”
The words leapt like a leaping sword:
      “Sail on! sail on! sail on! and on!”

Then pale and worn, he paced the deck,
     And peered through darkness. Ah, that night
Of all dark nights! And then a speck—
     A light! a light! a light! A light!
It grew, a starlit flag unfurled!
     It grew to be Time’s burst of dawn.
He gained a world; he gave that world
     Its grandest lesson: “On! sail on!”

Date: “How very wonderfully He has defended His own cause 28 years, no, 35 years.”  The Ridgewood Pentecostal Church began in December, 1925.

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