Common Love for Jesus by Roberts Liardon
Posted on November 24, 2011
Filed Under Roberts Liardon | Comments Off
Oral sent her a long letter about his ministry, along with a little booklet he had written. Evelyn wrote back eagerly, certain that this was confirmation of her initial feelings for Oral. They continued to correspond during the following months. From Evelyn’s responses to his letter, Oral grew certain that she was the one for him. God was drawing their hearts together through their common love for Jesus.
Roberts Liardon tells us that the only thing left was for Oral and Evelyn to meet face-to-face and confirm that their relationship was truly from the Lord. One weekend in September 1938, Oral decided to drive the six hundred miles from Oklahoma to south Texas to meet Evelyn. Knowing how serious Oral was about this girl he hardly knew, Mama Roberts insisted on accompanying him!
She knew that the gifts bestowed on her son meant that he needed the prayerful support of a godly wife, and she wanted to make certain that his decision was the right one. Nevertheless, it had to have appeared strange for Oral to show up with his mother to meet a prospective fiancée.
Evelyn and her grandparents accepted the visit from both of the Robertses graciously, however. During that weekend, Oral and Evelyn talked a great deal and attended church together. They also spent a day alone fishing together on the Gulf of Mexico, but Oral quips, “All we caught was each other!”
By the end of the day, Oral knew that he had found the girl he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. Looking into Evelyn’s eyes, he said joyously, My huge, happy, hilarious heart is throbbing tumultuously, tremendously, triumphantly with a lingering, lasting, long-lived love for you. As I gaze into your bewildering, beauteous, bounteous, beaming eyes, I am literally, lonesomely lost in a dazzling, daring, delightful dream in which your fair, felicitous, fanciful face is ever present like a colossal, comprehensive constellation. Will you be my sweet, smiling, soulful, satisfied spouse?
A Legacy for Young Pastors by Roberts Liardon
Posted on November 3, 2011
Filed Under Roberts Liardon | Comments Off
The C-130, nicknamed “Mercy Plane Zoe,” was even used for more than two months to bring relief supplies to the suffering Kurds after Desert Storm.
Roberts Liardon tells us that the mission was a success. Quickly, the Lord multiplied the work. God brought a Christian businessman named Don Tipton into Lester’s path. Tipton owned a large cargo ship, which he named “Spirit” and dedicated to the work of bringing food, clothing, and medicine to those in need under Sumrall’s direction. Where there were friendly ports and places where food could be distributed from the cargo ship, Don was there.
For Lester, this became the greatest step in his ministry: LeSea Global Feed the Hungry. This last branch on Lester Sumrall’s tree of life was to feed the hungry around the world as the Lord supplied the need, mostly through donations collected from churches in the U.S. He worked on this last project with great passion until the end of his life. He was delighted that “God’s people in a place of plenty had become an answer to the prayer of His people in places of need.”
In his later years, Lester became a prolific author, writing many books for the benefit of young pastors. He would generously give of his time to preach anywhere in the world whenever he was asked by another pastor. It didn’t matter if there were thirty people or three thousand people to hear him. He wasn’t there for the audience; he was there for the benefit of that pastor. When he would arrive someplace, he would insist on being picked up by the local pastor; he had no interest in spending time with anybody else.
South America’s Call by Roberts Liardon
Posted on October 25, 2011
Filed Under Roberts Liardon | Comments Off
When Lester said good-bye to Howard Carter just a few days later, he somehow knew that they would see each other and resume ministering together when the war was over.
Lester returned to America, determined to continue to travel the world with the gospel message. He no longer had Howard Carter as his companion, but the desire to minister to the lost now burned even more brightly in his soul. Hearing of a great need for God’s ministry in Alaska, Lester crossed the United States and headed to the cold, barren frontier of America. He ministered there for several months, saddened that there were so few churches and so many saloons. In Alaska, he met many who were independent-minded and hardened to the good news of Christ.
Roberts Liardon tells us that Lester also traveled briefly through several provinces of Canada. For the first time, he heard of the work of a young missionary woman, Louise Layman, who had just left her native Canada to work in South America. His curiosity was piqued, but they had no opportunity to meet.
When the United States entered the war after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Lester attempted to enlist as a chaplain in the army, but to no avail—there were no openings. He determined instead to continue to fight the spiritual war for men’s souls as he traveled throughout Mexico, Central America, and South America. Avoiding many of the larger cities filled with anti-American sentiment, Lester ministered to the impoverished Indians in the rural areas of each country. He loved them with the compassion of Christ, and they responded favorably to a gospel of hope.
In Central America, Lester encountered much superstition and witchcraft as a result of a mixture of paganism and Catholicism. He preached the gospel with power and saw men and women set free and healed of various diseases. Winding his way through South America in 1942, Lester found himself at the tip of Argentina. In two years, he had traveled from the northernmost parts of North America to the southernmost tip of South America, bringing the light of Christ to all nations. Now, God had a new path to reveal to Lester on his road of ministry.
Start at the Bottom by Roberts Liardon
Posted on October 19, 2011
Filed Under Roberts Liardon | Comments Off
With a bemused smile, Howard invited Lester to come to his hotel room to talk for a few minutes. They were accompanied by Stanley Frodsham, a Christian editor and friend of Howard’s. In the hotel room, Howard opened his prayer journal to reveal the prophetic words recorded a year and a half earlier over three thousand miles away on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.
Dumbfounded, Lester listened as Howard questioned him about his interest in missions. When he asked Lester which country he was most interested in, Lester replied, “All of them.” Lester shared his vision from eighteen months earlier and the passionate call on his life to take the gospel message to the lost around the world. Thoughtfully, Howard asked him, “Are you willing to travel with me?” When Lester agreed, Howard responded immediately, “Then you’re the one!”
Roberts Liardon tells us that the prophecy had proven true. Lester was more than willing to go and thus formed a godly bond of friendship that would last for the next forty-one years.
Although they began with a simple plan that Lester would be the evangelist and Howard would be the teacher, God had so much more in store for them. He established a Paul-and-Timothy type of relationship that benefited both of them personally and spiritually throughout the rough and glorious parts of ministry alike.
Before departing on a journey that would be long and uncertain, Lester decided to pay a visit to his parents in Pensacola. George and Betty Sumrall welcomed their son home with great joy. During the years of Lester’s absence, his father had finally surrendered his life to Christ. With his years of anger and fighting behind him, George Sumrall spent the remainder of his days preaching the Word of God to anyone who would listen.
The Apostolic Anointing on Kensington Temple by Roberts Liardon
Posted on October 12, 2011
Filed Under Roberts Liardon | Comments Off
Roberts Liardon tells us that George Jeffreys left a legacy for the body of Christ. He moved in a dynamic apostolic ministry throughout Great Britain, and a great portion of his apostolic mantle now rests on Kensington Temple in Notting Hill in London’s West End. In the years directly following Jeffreys’ death, Kensington Temple stood empty, with no congregation to call it home. The Elim Trust Corporation had purchased the property rights from the one remaining trustee, but they had no one to fill the pulpit.
In 1965, the Elim Executive Council asked Eldin Corsie, an Elim pastor, to take his small congregation of fifty members to the impressive Kensington Temple to start a new work. Corsie’s parents had been converted through Jeffreys’ campaign in Birmingham years before. After the long-neglected building had been thoroughly cleaned, the services began in earnest. Within a year, the congregation grew considerably. Corsie and his volunteers began to clean out the basement for expansion, and what they discovered ignited within them a passion for the miraculous for years to come. Stored under the floor of the main church were numerous crutches, wheelchairs, and leg braces that had been discarded following miraculous healings in the revival meetings held there. Faith for the miraculous and an assurance of God’s power coursed through the pastor’s spirit. Over the next fifteen years, Corsie built a church where freedom of the Spirit was welcomed, along with prophetic ministry and revivalist worship.
Kensington Temple continued to grow in its evangelistic efforts and miraculous results under the ministry of senior pastor Wynne Lewis from 1980 until 1991. A visionary and a skilled organizer who was also sensitive to the Holy Spirit, Lewis welcomed the opportunity to minister to the internationals who called London home. Through its outreach, Kensington Temple became a tremendous crosscultural center for believers in Christ, growing from five hundred members to as many as five thousand. By allowing the individual cultures to meet in separate church fellowships and preach the gospel in their own languages, the Kensington congregation promoted a work that flourished. As he was led by the Spirit, Lewis would call for healing meetings in the church services, and people would be made whole.
Our Divine Healer by Roberts Liardon
Posted on October 6, 2011
Filed Under Roberts Liardon | Comments Off
Roberts Liardon tells us that for members of mainline denominations who mistrusted claims of divine healing, Jeffreys included a quote from Martin Luther: “How often it has happened, and still does, that devils have been driven out in the name of Christ; also, by calling on His name and prayer that the sick have been healed.” John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist church, was healed from tuberculosis and wrote, “When I was about seven and twenty, I began spitting blood and continued for several years. Eleven years after, I was in the third stage of consumption; it pleased God in three months to remove this also. This God hath wrought.”
Jeffreys included the testimonies of other church leaders who testified to the effect of divine healing on their own bodies: George Fox, Quaker and founder of the Religious Society of Friends, who was beaten by a mob and then healed immediately of his injuries; Dr. E. Stanley Jones, world-famous missionary, who experienced divine healing in India and was therefore able to continue his missionary work; A. B. Simpson, founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, who was completely healed from a lifelong sickness when he began to preach the fourfold gospel of Christ, including healing; and Andrew Murray, who entered a home for the sick, was taught about divine healing from the Word of God, and then was healed completely. Murray wrote, “This healing granted to faith has been the source of rich spiritual blessing to me. The Church possesses in Jesus, our Divine Healer, an inestimable treasure which she does not yet know how to appreciate.”
An Apostle/Evangelist by Roberts Liardon
Posted on September 28, 2011
Filed Under Uncategorized | Comments Off
Jeffreys was a product of the Welsh Revival, which first brought him into the kingdom of God. Not only was the Welsh Revival responsible for his conversion, but it also influenced his vision of the body of Christ—and would do so for the rest of his life. In Jeffreys’ concept of the kingdom of God, revival was not to be considered a mere hope for the future; it was available to the church today. Jeffreys knew that God moved in power to bring people to their knees in repentance and new life, and he wanted to see the flames of that revival ignite the hearts of men and women all over the globe.
Roberts Liardon tells us that God placed Jeffreys in the apostolic office according to Ephesians 4:11. This office signifies a servant whom God sends out with the message of the gospel of Christ to those who live in areas bereft of God’s Word. Through signs, miracles, and wonders that accompany their teaching, they birth new churches. Jeffreys was a true apostle—he preached conversion and built churches.
Today, conferences with numerous speakers may fill various halls and conference centers, but Jeffreys, with his apostolic mantle from the Lord and the power of the Holy Spirit, filled the Royal Albert Hall, the Crystal Palace, and Bingley Hall, among others—all by himself.
As such, George Jeffreys deserves to be recognized as one of God’s generals who was used to birth the Pentecostal movement in Great Britain, as well as to help pioneer the healing revivals of the twentieth century.
In the late nineteenth century, to be poor in Wales often meant working in the coal pits and succumbing to lung disease before the age of fifty. Thomas Jeffreys and his wife, Kezia, lived in Maesteg, Wales, where Thomas performed backbreaking labor as a collier in the coal mines.
Healing Victories in Lima, Ohio by Roberts Liardon
Posted on September 19, 2011
Filed Under Uncategorized | Comments Off
In the summer of 1920, Bosworth was invited to preach at a revival in Lima, Ohio. The pastor had one simple request—that he would bring a message on the healing power of Jesus Christ for today. Accepting the summons as God’s will, Bosworth spent a great deal of time studying the Bible, both the Old and the New Testaments, to learn more about the healing presence of God.
Roberts Liardon tells us that God had brought Bosworth back from near death from tuberculosis through His healing power, so Fred knew that Jesus Christ healed today. Healing for the believer was a part of the salvation message; it was included in the price Christ had paid on the cross. Now, Fred studied the Word closely to find as much scriptural support as he could for his messages.
Fred still had one nagging fear. “I said to the Lord, ‘But suppose I preach healing, and the people come, and they don’t get healed?’ And the Lord responded, ‘If people didn’t get saved, you wouldn’t stop preaching the gospel.’”12 With that, Fred went forth boldly to share the complete message of Jesus’ atonement.
The Lima meetings were held in a large tent during the hot evenings of August 1920. On the first night, Fred Bosworth stood at the podium and announced to the expectant audience, “I am convinced that healing of the body is just as much a part of the gospel as salvation for the soul.” He assured them that Christ longed to do for their “pain-wracked” bodies what He also wanted to do for their lost souls. Then, he made a bold proclamation: bring your sick and infirm—whether they know Jesus or not, God wants to heal them.
The congregation was electrified by this announcement, and many planned to return with their sick and dying loved ones. Bosworth emphasized that the saved and unsaved alike should bring the sick to be healed by a compassionate Christ. He offered hope that they could be well again.
The Power Of Christ To Heal by Roberts Liardon
Posted on September 15, 2011
Filed Under Roberts Liardon | Comments Off
After months of ineffective treatment and worry, the Serios invited Raffaela’s doctor to join them for dinner one Sunday afternoon. As they quietly conversed around the table, the doctor looked with mournful eyes at the sick little girl he had been unable to help. Turning to her mother, he made an unusual statement for a physician: “There is a man holding some kind of special meetings in a large tent in Scranton. He prays, and people get well.”
“Doctor, really, you must be kidding!” the Serios responded.
“No, I’m not joking. I mean it. I had a patient with a very large goiter who has been healed. She said Evangelist F. F. Bosworth prayed for her, and she was instantly healed.” Mrs. Serio looked at the doctor in amazement, and he continued, “Why don’t you take dear little Raffaela down there? They may be able to help her also.”
Roberts Liardon tells us that the Serios drove to Scranton that very evening to hear F. F. Bosworth preach a sermon on Christ’s salvation and divine healing. They purchased a copy of Bosworth’s book Christ the Healer, which would become a Christian classic on the power of Christ to heal. For the next week, the Serios read large portions of the book aloud to Raffaela so that all three of them could understand the biblical promise of healing in Christ.
With their faith greatly increased, the family drove back to the crusade the following Sunday. During the time of prayer for healing, F. F. Bosworth stepped toward the little girl standing on the platform and prayed a beautiful prayer for God’s healing power. He prayed that God would heal her and use her as a living monument for His praise and glory.
Don’t Tamper With How It Comes Out! by Roberts Liardon
Posted on July 7, 2011
Filed Under Roberts Liardon | Comments Off
Roberts Liardon tells us that the Holy Spirit knows what kind of utterance and expression is needed to bring you into victory. And He’ll boil up inside of you various tongues for the various circumstances of life. The Holy Spirit also knows what kind of intensity and what level of divine authority is required in your prayer language in order to bring a change in the situation.
Sometimes, you’ll be praying in your normal tongue and then it will suddenly change. When you experience that, your prayer language has just kicked into a new level of expression or you’re beginning to intercede effectively on behalf of a situation that needs changing.
Roberts Liardon tells us that when the Holy Spirit boils up a tongue inside of your spirit, don’t tamper with it! If you get more intense than you should, if you act more calm than you should, if you weep when He is not weeping—if you rework your tongues in any way — it will effect your victory. You must allow your tongues to come out of you the way He gives them to you.
keep looking »