Jude 1:3, Earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. The Early Church had this faith, but what kind of faith was it? What kind of faith would the Word of God tell you to contend for, to strive in combat and fight for, to struggle for, and hold it to be a fact within you? It’s miracle-working faith.

Assert your right to the faith of the saints of old; step up and claim it. Most of you know how to claim things you have a legal right to: This is my property; this is my car; this belongs to me. I have the title to this; I have the deed. Faith is your deed of inheritance. We are co-heirs with Jesus today, not after we get to Heaven; we are co-heirs with Him right now. In all that He brought, in all that He used, we are co-heirs, sons and daughters of God. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name (John 1:12). How great to know that we have been made sons and daughters of God, brought into the family of God through the blood that stained the Old Rugged Cross!

All must have a Savior; all must be redeemed, for everyone was born in sin, conceived into sin. Without the shedding of blood there’s no forgiveness for sins the Bible declares. Without shedding of blood is no remission (Hebrews 9:22).

This faith, the faith that Adam and Eve once had, is God’s eternal faith. Although in a physical body, they were to never die, to never be sick. Never would they have gone to Heaven because Eden would have always been heaven down here. This whole planet Earth would have been a heaven had man not sinned against God.

They Sold Out

We think it’s terrible that Adam and Eve sold out to the devil, but are you selling out to the devil? Do you know anyone who has sold out to the devil? Do you know anyone in sin? Being in sin and selling out to the devil is the same thing. Adam and Eve sold everything personally that they had, and that’s what you do as a sinner today. If you’re sinning against God, you’re selling everything of value. You’re selling eternal life just as Adam and Eve did, eternal happiness, eternal peace, eternal joy, eternal goodness, eternal mercy, eternal everything good. You’re selling the eternal voice of God to never hear it for all eternity. It’s something to think about.

What kind of faith are we to contend for? Go back to Eden and examine the great faith that was used in the beginning. Adam and Eve had divine faith; their five physical senses worked in perfection with God because those senses were holy. When God made man, He made him in His righteousness, in His holiness, and man was as pure as God Himself. All man’s senses were pure; there was no contamination. He had the eternal faith of God, that sixth sense of faith. Everything man possessed was eternal, but man lost it all because his senses became contaminated.

When man’s senses became contaminated, everything about him became contaminated; his voice, his hearing were different. Even the voice of God sounded different. In Eden before Adam and Eve fell, God’s voice was the loveliest sound they had ever heard. They adored listening to the voice of God; it was music to them. But now God’s voice was a voice of judgment, a voice without mercy, a voice they never thought they would hear. It sounded cruel to them, and they were afraid.

Abel Had Faith

The faith of God was gone from Adam and Eve now. Without hope, without God, they were driven from Eden into darkness, into spiritual night. Oh, God, how terrible! But their son Abel had faith. By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh (Hebrews 11:4). This is the kind of faith we are to contend for—perfect faith; Abel had perfect faith.

Cain had been taught what God would accept, taught that there had to be a blood sacrifice offered. God had already set the example to let man know what was required, showed him how it would be done when He killed the first animal in Eden and the blood was shed. Now man had an opportunity to bring their offerings to God, offerings that included sacrificial blood. However, just like a lot of people today, Cain would not obey the plan of God. He had a spirit of rebellion that refused to submit to the will of God. Cain didn’t want any part of it. He knew the type of offering that would be acceptable to God, but he was stubborn. Soon Cain, in that spiritual night, would commit the sin of murder, killing his brother Abel. No one can get into Heaven if he or she won’t submit to the will of God.

People join a church, are baptized in water, do many good works, help this charity or that charity, and they call that salvation. But Jesus said, Ye must be born again (John 3:7). Works will not give you a born again experience, your soul has to be re-created, born new, created in the righteousness and holiness of God.

The first Adam failed us completely, but the second Adam, Jesus, won for us completely. Thank God for Jesus, I say! Jesus brought faith, love and greatness—everything we need; and the table of blessings is spread today. We must have Abel’s faith; it’s a type of the faith of Christ, our Sacrificial Lamb. That wonderful faith prepared Abel for Heaven.

Rapture Faith

Enoch had the kind of faith that we are to contend for—Rapture faith. God would come down to walk and talk with Enoch. Many years had passed by since God had had that kind of person to fellowship with, so He decided to take Enoch home. Enoch was raptured; he went to Heaven alive. Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him (Genesis 5:24). Enoch is a type of the raptured Bride. There were many other members of Enoch’s family, but only one got to go.

The Bible tells us to pray that we be counted worthy to escape, worthy to make the Rapture. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man (Luke 21:36). As part of the Rapture generation we must contend for this faith.

Mark 13:28-30, Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When her branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is near: So ye in like manner, when ye shall see these things come to pass, know that it is nigh, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, that this generation shall not pass, till all these things be done. In prophecy, the Jewish nation is the fig tree, and that fig tree bloomed in our day when the state of Israel was set up. The Lord said this generation, the generation on Earth when the fig tree bloomed, would not pass until all was fulfilled. We are the Rapture generation. Bible prophecy is moving at rapid speed, and it seems to be speeding up faster and faster every day, by the moments and minutes now. The world church, the false church that the Bible tells us about, is everywhere—how unclean it is! God frowns upon it.

One Hundred Twenty Years of Faith

Contend for the faith Noah used when the Lord told him to build an ark. Contend for that faith; you must have it to do the work that God has called on you to do, and that means you must deny self. In this final hour the Lord is calling for great denial of self as never before. The harvest must be brought in.

As we go to the mission fields we see people gathered by the thousands for the services—acres and acres of people. Souls are our responsibility. When we took on God’s love, accepted His love, we accepted the responsibility to win souls that Jesus died for. The Lord loves sinners; He died for each one of them just as He died for you. You must have the kind of faith that can reach them; know that the Lord has chosen you to reach them. Have the kind of faith that lets you know that the Lord’s command is to get the Gospel to the whole world in this final hour. Never think the task is too gigantic, but contend for the faith that Noah had so you will look to God.

Except for his wife, his three sons and their wives, Noah didn’t look to his relatives; he looked to God. The eight of them were in perfect unity, and those eight were all that could be gathered together. Noah had preached to people 120 years and hadn’t gotten one soul saved. Contend for the kind of faith that doesn’t let discouragement stop you. God never told you to contend for faith that you can’t have. Noah and his family had divine faith; that’s the reason they were able to hold out for one hundred twenty years before the great rains came. They had the divine faith that is offered to us today, not the faith of the five physical senses, not human faith, not human love; they had faith beyond that. They had divine love, divine faith, and it lasted.

Don’t Court Discouragement

It has been so simple for the devil to discourage some of God’s people today. You can’t allow devil or man to discourage you, saith the Lord, in this your final walk, your final hour. Don’t court discouragement; don’t entertain it even for one moment. Allow no discouragement to be around you or in your spirit in any way. When discouragement knocks on your door, don’t answer; be busy counting the blessings of God, busy doing the work of God. On duty for the Lord, you have no time for people who carry bags of discouragement, no time to listen to all their negative talk. Talking discouragement is not talking faith; God’s children are supposed to talk faith.

Whatever you’re full of is what you’re going to talk about. When you get filled up with a good meal and really enjoy it, you talk about it. Hmm, I had the best meal! Ooh, what a dessert I had! But when you’re empty, all you’re talking about is that gnawing feeling. I’m about to starve to death; I believe I could eat a horse. Your imagination runs away with you, and so it is if you court discouragement: Your imagination will run away with you. Everything wrong will be magnified and nothing seem good.

Magnify the Lord

The Bible tells us to magnify the Lord in our hearts. O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together (Psalm 34:3). If you’re going to magnify something, let it be the things of God or things pertaining to God. Don’t magnify hurt from your enemies and those who dislike you. Magnify the love of God flowing from His dear saints who care for you and are praying for you. Pray one for another with divine love.

We must have that deep-rooted faith so discouragement won’t get in. Noah could have found a lot to be discouraged about, but God had given him an assignment, a plan. God has given you His plan; if you don’t have it today, it’s because you haven’t accepted it. He has given you His plan to evangelize the world. All can’t go to the mission field, but we can support those who do go. We have this divine command: Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature (Mark 16:15). Did the Early Church have this faith? They did, and they evangelized the known world in thirty-three years through God’s greatness, God’s power, God’s great love, and through people being just like Jesus. They magnified the Lord.

For those first thirty-three years the Early Church had all the power of Jesus in their lives; they walked like Him, talked like Him, and did His work. Jesus told His disciples before He went away: He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever (John 14:12,16). Isn’t that rich? Doesn’t that feed your soul? Doesn’t that increase your faith to know what you can have?

Noah Waited on God

Did Noah and the other seven members of his family finish the job? Yes, they did. Were they ready when the Lord got ready? Yes, they were ready. Did they have everything that they were supposed to bring on board the ark when the Lord closed the door? Yes. Were they there ahead of time? Yes, and for seven days the door stayed open after they were on board. Did they wait on God or did they get ahead of God? Did Noah get nervous and say, Come on children. We’d better try to get this door closed? I know we’re not supposed to close it, but it looks as though God is not going to close it, and we need to get ready for this flood. Noah waited on God.

I doubt that the Lord told Noah it would be seven days before the door closed; God is not going to tell us that Jesus is coming until the very moment of His appearance. But Noah saw the signs; his great sign was the finished ark and the Spirit of God moving upon the animals to get on that ark.

Noah and his family never could have rounded up all those animals. Can you imagine them chasing everywhere after animals trying to get them on the ark? If that had been some of us, we would have thought, I know God said the animals are to be on the ark, but He hasn’t put one on there yet. They seem to be afraid of this ark; they’re really keeping their distance. I’d better help the Lord; I think I’ll bring on a few animals and get started. Maybe it will get God to notice us. See how ignorantly we can think? It’s because we won’t think in divinity, won’t take on the mind of Jesus.

The Bible says to let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:5). Unless you take on the mind of Jesus, you’re not going to have the faith once delivered to the saints. You’ll have human faith and little measures of divine faith and divine love; that’s the way it works. The Bible tells us that to everyone is given a measure of faith. God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith (Romans 12:3). But faith isn’t measured out anymore. It was given to Christ without measure and He offers it to us without measure. We can have all the benefits that Jesus brought; they are served through the Holy Ghost in our lives. There’s no limitation unless you put it on God yourself with doubt, fear, and unbelief. Don’t limit God; don’t tie the hands of God.

The Faith of Abraham

Like Abraham, you can have the faith to sacrifice all. Abraham had waited years for the fulfillment of the promise that he would have a son by Sarah, his wife. The time had passed by until, short of a miracle of God, it became impossible for Sarah to have a baby, for she was ninety years old. But Abraham didn’t look at the condition of Sarah’s body, and he didn’t look at their ages; the Bible says he waxed strong by looking at the promises of God. And being not weak in faith, he [Abraham] considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb: He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God (Romans 4:19,20). At last that son was born. Abraham was delighted with Isaac. Having a son of the promise was the greatest thing that had ever happened to him; he was thrilled to death. He adored Isaac; Isaac was his very heart, but God came first because Abraham had divine faith.

We have the promises of God; we live by promise outside of Eden. Inside Eden, Adam and Eve didn’t live by promise, for they didn’t need any promises there. Outside of Eden, however, it’s a must to live by promise; it’s the only way to live. The just shall live by faith (Romans 1:17). Living by faith means living by God’s promises. The just shall walk in the Spirit of His love and promises, in the strength of His promises, in the light of His promises, in the grace of His promises.

Contend for divine faith, the kind of faith that belongs to you; it’s your birthright through Jesus Christ. Do you see why many prayers haven’t been answered? People have not contended for the faith.

I Was at Death’s Door

The reason a lot of my prayers have been answered is because of the faith I received when the Lord healed me years ago. I had gone to the edge of the grave, watched my body go down to about a skeleton and I thought for sure death was near. There were many things wrong with me. Just a short few days before my miracle I thought all my faith was gone and God was going to let me die. I knew I was ready to meet the Lord; I’d served Him with all of my heart, but I wanted to live.

Think about being sick like that, your body in an awful condition. There were times when I ate that I’d just die deaths; but if I didn’t eat, I was starving to death. The pain was awful; it felt like a hot iron stuck to my flesh. I didn’t know how I could stand another moment of it. I couldn’t live and I couldn’t die. Then one night Jesus came Himself and made me whole all over.

The Lord told me about a long fast I was to go on. That was the changing point in my life. My physical senses had been kept perfect, pure and clean from the time God saved me and started preaching through me when I was eighteen—before I even saw inside a theological school. The Lord gave me my messages, and the people would swim before my eyes with such glory, such power. I loved to preach better than to eat because of the way the Lord would bless me; it was a brand-new life.

In the vision the night Jesus came to me, He showed me the great wall between me and Heaven. I could just believe for only so much. People were healed under my ministry if I could get them healed before I got to the wall. I had never seen a wall that high, but now the wall came tumbling down in chunks like cement blocks, and I could see from Earth to Glory. What a wonderful feeling! The darkness had passed; the morning dawned with deliverance for this boy. I’ll never forget that night.

I went on that long fast, and God gave me His power. He gave me the six spiritual senses, those divine senses that went in perfect harmony with my physical senses because the physical senses were not contaminated. I had lived in the Lord’s presence, and now the physical and spiritual senses came together and I could reach Heaven.

Come Boldly to the Throne of Grace

Now in taking people to the Lord, I carry them all the way to the throne of grace. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need (Hebrews 4:16). Right here on Earth, not in Heaven, we can come boldly before the throne to find help in time of need.

The Lord never told us to beg, but to ask. I have learned just to ask the Lord for something, ask according to His divine will, and He answers. I have learned to knock, and I find Him always at home. Before the Lord tore down that wall between me and the throne, I would knock but I really didn’t expect Him to be home all the time for me. I was looking at other Christians, the long and drawn out process they went through trying to get one prayer answered. But Jesus had said in His Word: Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you (Matthew 7:7). He gave us these instructions in the Sermon on the Mount, the greatest sermon ever preached. Answered prayer became simple now: I would touch blinded eyes and they’d receive their sight; I’d touch crippled people and they would start walking.

I was conducting services at a church that was packed, jammed full. There were so many people that the children sat at my feet and I had just a little ring to stand in. A deformed baby was brought to me who had been born with one side of its face small and the other side beautiful. I took the baby and held it in my arms. Something like a gentle spring breeze swept across it, and the face came to normal. How thrilling to have a part in God’s miracle—and I had a part by holding the little form He was working on. We passed that baby around like a collection plate for people to see because so many people knew the baby and wanted to look, examine a miracle.

The Reality of Victory

The victory was on now because at last I was wearing the shoes of Jesus, walking in His steps. He said, remember, Not only these works will you do, but you shall do greater works. I had that faith; I had that power; it seemed I could believe God for anything and everything.

I’d always had a good relationship with God, but now I was walking hand in hand with the Lord. The reality of the Holy Ghost was in my life, the reality of God, the reality of the Word. I had the reality that Jesus Christ the Savior would take the poor sinner’s hand—no matter how wretched the sinner—and put it into His nail-riven hand. I had the reality to see that sinner made whole, made brand-new right before my very eyes, transformed by the power in the blood that stained the Old Rugged Cross. It was pure victory; every day was a day of victory; every hour was an hour of victory. The nights were victorious nights, no more suffering, no more pain.

Down through these many, many years, countless times I’ve put my head on my pillow, looked up and said, “Oh, God, I thank you that I don’t have a pain!” I sleep without pain; I wake up without pain. I don’t dread tomorrow because tomorrow is another glorious day outlined for my feet by the hand of God and directed by the Holy Spirit. There’s nothing to fear, nothing to worry about.

My Greatest Sacrifice

You don’t have to be depressed. Don’t let anything depress you in this final hour, Children, take on this faith. Abraham had to sacrifice everything, and I have told the Lord whatever He wants of me He can have. I made my greatest sacrifice anyway when I surrendered my precious wife, Angel, to the Lord. I knew when I came out of that valley that I had won because there would never be another valley so deep. The Lord told me that by taking her when He did, she would bring more souls into His Kingdom than had He left her with me. I’ve never known anyone in our day whose death has brought so many people to the Lord.

When Angel passed away I went into a million pieces. There weren’t enough human hands on Earth that could have put me back together. It’s awful to love someone so much that you feel you can’t breathe without that one. I’d have to catch my breath; my speech would skip. Then I hemorrhaged; I almost bled to death—and I really didn’t care. Angel was gone; it didn’t matter if the moon, the stars or the sun never shined again. I felt like someone had taken a big sword and cut me in half; if I walked it would be with one leg, one foot, and I would have to minister with one hand. I was helpless to go on until the Lord lifted me up and brought me out by that divine faith, that divine love. God was the only one who could console me, the only one who could really fill that emptiness.

I’m glad I didn’t know I’d have to be without Angel this long. I’m glad I didn’t know it would be this long before Jesus would come. My God, it was awful to think it would be just a little while until He came, but to be this long…What has brought me this far is the six spiritual senses, and this is what will bring you out of those deep valleys to the mountain peaks where the Lord can pick you up and leap with you from mountain to mountain, where He can skip over the hills as He promised in the Word of the living God in the Song of Solomon. It’s all there and it’s for you through the faith that was once delivered to the saints. Human beings just like you and me use this faith.

Nothing to Fear

Abraham gave his whole heart, and it was simple now for me to give my whole life anew for the outreach for the nations. I’ve told God I have nothing else to put on the altar. Every particle of me is on the altar. I’ve been targeted for death, men threatening me. They set the time to kill me more than once in the crusades, but I went right on just the same. In Canada at the Civic Center, security officers were there to protect me because of a bomb threat. They kept close to me and searched everyone who came into the service.

Were you afraid, preacher? No, I’m ready to live or to die for His name’s sake. If the Lord said, Ernest Angley, I want you to die for me today, I’d say, Lord, I am ready. It takes divine faith for that; there was a time in my life I never would have thought I could have said such a thing and really meant it. You can say you’re ready to die for the sake of the Lord, but it’s a different story when you’re really put to the test.

At a place in America there was a gang that terrorized the churches. It was just awful; the churches and the preachers were afraid of them, and no one would do anything about them. I was told they were going to wreck one of my crusades. They did their best to do so. One of the police officers came to me and told me, “Reverend Angley, they’re vicious! I want one of your men to throw you down on the floor and cover your body when they start in. I said, “Not so. No one is going to give their life for mine. If God wants me to live, I’ll live. God will protect me; God will take care of me.” And God did take care of me; He took care of the whole situation.

I have nothing to fear, nothing to worry about, and I’ve told the Lord if He wants my life at one time or if He wants it piece by piece, it’s all His. I don’t reserve anything; I don’t keep anything back. No, it’s straight ahead now, ever onward.

How Much Are You Willing to Sacrifice?

I’m called of God and you’re called of God, too, but you have to decide how much you are willing to sacrifice to walk in the divine will of God. There’s a permissible will of God and a divine will. God will permit you to go to Heaven walking in the permissible will, but you still have to live free from sin. You may fail in doing some of His work and still get into Heaven because salvation is not by works lest any man should boast. But to walk in the divine will of God, you’ll have to have the six spiritual senses and this faith which was once given to the saints. And if you don’t walk in the divine will of God, you won’t find that faith, it won’t be there. You’ll seek and get a little bit of faith here and a little bit of faith there—the Bible tells us that faith comes by hearing the Word of God. However, if you have the divine senses, you have the faith that the saints of God had in the past and it doesn’t come in little measures. It will all be yours.

Be glad your feet are planted, glad you know your way straight ahead. The road is narrow, and I like it like that. You won’t lose your way on this narrow road. Strait is the gate, and I’ve gone through that gate; I know I fit the road. Many of you have gone through that gate, too; don’t let anything get you off that road. The blessings and the greatness of God are on the table for you; it just takes prayer, fasting and living in the Word.

Someone asked me one time, “How many forty-day fasts have you had?” I said, “I don’t know. There have been so many that I’ve lost count.”

I thought the first-forty day fast would be the last one. Forty days is a long time to go without eating, but the Lord was with me. I’ve been on those forty days of fasting when I’d lie on the floor and the Lord would be so real to me that it was as though I were being fed through my veins. I’ve gone into the pulpit after days and days of fasting, so weak and not wanting the people to know I was weak. I’d say, Oh, God, you’ve got to give me strength! Then the Lord would anoint me and I’d become as strong as a lion; I wouldn’t know the end of my strength. But after the service I’d hurry to get home before any of the anointing would leave and I would find out how weak I was.

There’s strength in God, and that’s the reason I preach such strength to you. Let the weak say, I am strong (Joel 3:10). Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong (II Corinthians 12:10). Be strong in the Lord, strong in God’s might, God’s love, God’s strength, and God’s joy.

Strength in Joy

There’s great strength in joy. The joy of the LORD is your strength (Nehemiah 8:10). The Lord has made me to laugh. I never thought I could laugh wholeheartedly again after Angel went—and I was one to laugh; God had given me a lot of laughter.

When the Lord gave me the gift of discerning of spirits, I had no idea what manner of person I would have to be to be able to discern all kinds of spirits, good and bad, and to look into the souls of people and see the demons that bound them. I told the Lord I would be any kind of person He wanted me to be; if He didn’t want me to laugh, I wouldn’t laugh. But the Lord spoke to me and said: “I want you to laugh.”

Genesis 21:6, Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh. God has given me much laughter. The Lord was the one who had to make me to laugh and it be for real, and He has made me laugh. I have great joy being with the Lord, spending time in His presence, having His thoughts. I have found much strength in the thoughts of God. Human thoughts will give only human strength, but God’s thoughts give divine strength. This comes through the faith that was once delivered to the saints.

I don’t know anyone on planet Earth today who has more joy than Ernest Angley. If someone does, I haven’t met them yet—but you can have the same joy. Are you happy today? Are you happy in the Lord? Have you been living beneath your privilege? Did you not know all of this belonged to you? It does, it does; it’s not just for Ernest Angley. God is great in lives that are yielded to Him, lives that are being served daily all that the Lord has on the table. Go to His table daily and partake.

Thousands Swept into the Kingdom

Abraham offered his heart, and God moved on the scene. I’ve given all to God and He just moves and moves; He honors the ministry wherever I go. We’re sweeping thousands, untold multitudes into the Kingdom today. It’s hard to tell how many millions of people I will have the privilege of preaching to by the way of television in just one day, and I count that a great honor from God.

It’s a wonder for a little country boy to be raised up to a worldwide ministry. God didn’t choose someone who had all the advantages in life. The first time the Lord visited with me, my patched overalls were on the chair by my bed. The Lord didn’t look at those patches, He didn’t look at that little country boy who was barefoot each summer. He looked in on the heart. I never would have chosen Ernest Angley in a million years to be a preacher, must less to carry His divine power to the nations. I’m telling you these things so you know what God can make you into, what He can do for you. When God calls you to do something, He gives you the talents, the know-how, the abilities to do it; and the price you pay is giving self to God.

Let’s Talk about Self

To contend for the faith once given to the saints, you must know self. The Lord wants me to take you into self today. You’ve got to know the old self or you’ll never identify with the new self. The old self is your worst enemy, public enemy number one to you. What that old self desires, what that old self will do is hurtful to the cause of Christ. The opinions, the rebellion, the resentment, the envy, the strife of the old self are included in the works of the flesh. But the totally new self is glorious.

One of the nine fruits of the Spirit is self-control. The reason self-control is not being produced in some lives is because the old self still lives; it hasn’t been crucified. The old self has to die so that the new self might come to life. There has to be a resurrection of you. We all had to have a salvation resurrection, for we all were dead in trespasses and sin. Jesus is our resurrection; and through His blood every sinner, no matter how vile, can have a resurrection from the deadness of life into the newness of life.

The Bible tells us in Hebrews that Jesus brought the new and living way. Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh (Hebrews 10:19,20). To walk this new and living way, you need a new heart; self must be made new. Isn’t it wonderful to have a new self!

The Old Self Is a Gauge

Self is the identity, the character or essential qualities of a person. Examine your old self; look how mean and ugly, how sassy, how deceitful you were—some of us more than others. Are you different now? Do you have a new self? If you still do the old things—deceiving, rebelling, carrying a heart of anger around all the time, grumbling and complaining—then that’s the old self; you haven’t been resurrected into newness of life. In newness of life you come forth to be like Jesus, to act like Jesus, to talk like Jesus. That resurrection brought the Early Church forth brand-new; they climbed to the Upper Room and were baptized in the same Holy Ghost Jesus had received, and they went forth in the power of the Spirit.

What kind of character was the old you? Were you honest in everything? Were you clean? Were you pure? What kind of person were you? What qualities did you have? Compare them to yourself today, right now, and decide whether you are a real child of God or not. Have you been resurrected from the deadness of sin? You hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1).

You were dead in trespasses and sin; the Bible tells us we all were. If you still have the same old self, the same character, the same dishonesty, the same deceit, the same rebellion, the same complaining, fussing, then that’s the old you. Check the old self, how you used to be. How were you then, and how are you now? After you’re free from the old self, never go back, never identify with it. Check the new self with the old self every once in a while; use it as your gauge. Born new, you’ll realize, No, I’m not like that any longer. My tongue is short now and I don’t say mean things to people. I’m not dishonest in any of my business affairs or anything. I’m clean. I’m honest in little things and I’m honest in big things, I’m just honest. I think the thoughts of God.

Self-Appointed, Self-Assertive

Have you chosen to have the upper seat, chosen to be above other people, chosen to be what you think you are and not what you really are? If so, you’re self-appointed, and that won’t work in the eyes of God.

Are you self-assertive? Do you insist on your rights and your claims of who you are and what you are? Do you grumble at God because He doesn’t go the way you want to go, doesn’t do it the way you want it done? Do you just grumble and complain? If so, you are asserting yourself into being a person that God dislikes. You’re forward, pushy, and God has no time for that old spirit. Some so-called Christians are like that: Forward with their tongue, they’re pushy to say things they shouldn’t say.

Self-Assured, Self-Confident

Here’s self again: self-assurance, confidence in your abilities and in your own talents instead of having confidence in God and knowing where those talents came from. You wouldn’t have talents if God hadn’t given them to you, and those talents are to be anointed and used by God. You see many people in the world who are self-assured. Many who achieve world fame with their talent fall, become disillusioned, and the time comes that they’re pushed aside by the public. Most of them die without hope and without God. Some have committed suicide and others are on their way to taking their life. They climb the ladder of fame, but we’re climbing Jacob’s humble ladder to Heaven. Jesus is our ladder, the greatest ladder of humility that could ever be. You have to be humble to climb that ladder.

Stop being confident in self; be confident in the Lord. Paul said, I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me (Philippians 4:13). But you hear people boasting: I can do this; I can do that. I’m more qualified than that person. Why didn’t I get that part? Why didn’t I get that place? The Bible says to prefer your brother, but is the only time you prefer your brother when it’s something you don’t want to do? The Bible says to prefer your brother, so you say, “Brother, I prefer you for this job.” Then you smile so sweetly and act as though you’ve done someone a wonderful deed, your most gracious deed for the whole day.

Self-Centered, Self-Acting

Self-centered: You’re interested in your own affairs. Being self-centered is being interested in self, self, self. Whatever is going good should come to me. I should be served first; I should have the best, the most attention. If God is going to answer anyone’s prayers, it should be mine first. Being self-centered, being selfish is not part of the new creation, the self of the new man or woman. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new (II Corinthians 5:17). We have that wonderful fruit of self-control for a purpose!

Self-acting is self in action without outside influence: You know it all. You don’t want anyone to tell you anything—a lot of children are like that today. They don’t want mother or daddy to tell them anything. They become like those sassy children on television, and they carry on in all kinds of rebellious ways.

Children think they’re grown at twelve or thirteen today, and some of them much younger than that. But what you’re responsible for, parents, is to keep that old self down with your new self, to keep that bad self down in that child and to groom that child with the Spirit of God. Let them know as long as they sleep in your bed, put their feet under your table and eat your food, they’re going to abide by what you tell them in that home. When they get so self-willed that they can’t listen, then let them know that they can self-will food and money from another source. They’re going to obey or else.

Children will do what they can get by with, and you’re foolish to take it. He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes (Proverbs 13:24).

Jesus Taught Self-Denial

Love has discipline in it. You’ll find in the Bible that God’s love is the greatest love ever, and what discipline it has!

Self-denial is the first instruction Jesus gave: If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me (Matthew 16:24). Jesus, talking to people who had the old self, let them know the old self would have to be denied in order to have the new self. Keep the old self denied through the love of God, the faith of God, and the humility of Christ. You have to live in that state of denying the old self or else that old self will get resurrected. You alone can’t bury self deep enough, so you let the Holy Spirit bury self—and you can be at the funeral.

Self-denial means sacrifice of one’s own desires or pleasures. Moses did that; he denied himself the pleasures of sin for a season that he might win Heaven for himself. By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward (Hebrews 11:24-26).

In self-denial you put down your own desires that don’t match the desires of Christ. You have love for people and you don’t put your desires above everyone else. You don’t “lord it over” people around you; you show the Jesus humility. You can’t do everything the flesh would like to do; you have to spend time with God.

You’ll never know how much Angel and I had to deny ourselves of things that other couples did. Others went places and enjoyed a lot of things, but Angel and I were never away from you for one Sunday in the seventeen years she helped me to raise up this great work—except for the Sunday when I preached my mother’s funeral in North Carolina. We never went away for a weekend. We denied ourselves and sacrificed our own desires and pleasures, things we would have liked to have done. We would have enjoyed a good vacation, but we stayed with the flock, to bless the sheep; and we ministered day and night.

Examine Self

Self-examination: An examination or study of one’s own qualities, thoughts, conduct or motives; an analysis of one’s self is what it amounts to. You have to analyze yourself. Many times we get too busy looking at other people, analyzing them, and that’s not our business. You’re not supposed to be examining someone else; self-examination is for self. Study your own qualities, your own thoughts.

What kind of thoughts do you have? I don’t mean the thoughts that fly through your mind, I’m talking about the thoughts you hang on to. Do you hold on to thoughts of resentment, thoughts of how you’ve been abused, how you’ve been hurt? Those thoughts will bring ugly grudges, and the Spirit of God can’t stay where there are grudges.

What are your intentions? What were your motives in doing different things? Did you mean to hurt someone? This examination of self needs to be done daily.

Watch Out for Ego!

Self-importance, ego—we have too much of that: Look who I am. I decided one day that everyone was made out of the same kind of mud I’m made out of. I never feel big about anything except God; I feel big about the greatness of God.

How big is God? For everything I need help with, God’s big enough. God’s big enough to supply my needs, and He’s big enough to supply your needs; He’s big enough to make plain paths for my feet and He’s big enough to make plain paths for your feet.

Self-ego: your exaggerated opinion of yourself, how important you are, what you are worth. I wish I could buy some people for what they are worth and sell them for what they think they are worth because I wouldn’t have to take any more offerings; I’d just buy and sell. They’re in the old self, not the new self. In the new self that the Lord re-creates, you are like the first Adam that God made, a man with a self like His own self, one with no egotism. We’re to be like Jesus.

If some people today had a garden like Eden they’d strut around like a peacock. In fact, no self-respecting peacock would strut that much. Their nose would be so high in the air you couldn’t see the top of their head…what I own; the riches I have. The riches of this world look like a trash pile when compared to the riches of Heaven. The Lord is using gold to pave the streets in Heaven, and the twelve foundations of the city are garnished with all kinds of precious stones.

I want to see the new Jerusalem. If the foundation is like that, what in the world is the rest of it like? God didn’t tell us all about it, but He used something we would be familiar with—gold. I haven’t seen much gold in my lifetime, but I’ve seen a little, and God gave us a little sample of Heaven: a whole street of gold. Isn’t that fantastic!

An exaggerated opinion is destructive; it destroys. Many people have exaggerated opinions; they’re opinionated. I’m sure you’ve been around people who were opinionated and you have seen what it does. Do you exaggerate a high opinion of yourself and then exaggerate a low opinion of someone else? That’s not the new self. You feel so important, and you show it in your behavior. Self-importance comes out in a way offensive to the Holy Spirit. Study self.

Self-Indulgence, Self-Love

Self-indulgence: indulging self in your own desires, your own ways, not in the Lord’s. You meditate in your own desires and not in the Word of the Lord; that should not be. The fruit of the Spirit takes care of all of this, takes care of the new self and keeps it in one hundred percent heavenly shape with heavenly sunshine.

Self-love: People are in love, but it’s with themselves. When one partner is in love with self and not in love with the mate there’s no real marriage. That’s the reason so many marriages fail. In marriage you must love your mate more than you love yourself. The Bible says to love your mate as you love your own body. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself (Ephesians 5:25-28).

Angel loved me more than she loved herself, and I loved her more than I loved myself; that’s the reason we had such a wonderful, glorious marriage. We put the other one first; we wanted the other one to be satisfied; we wanted the other one to be happy. If you make your mate happy, that one will make you happy in spite of yourself. Like throwing a rubber ball against a brick building, what you are putting out comes right back, and what you put out wrong bounces back, too.

Being stubborn in your own opinions not only causes problems in marriage, it causes problems whether you’re married or not. On the job some people want to give their opinions about everything and no one else’s opinion counts with them. Stubbornness is not a part of the new self; it’s the old self, the self you were born with. If you keep that old self you’re not going to go to Heaven, and you’re definitely not going to make the Rapture.

We’re talking about self, self-love—get rid of it. You must get rid of it. Unfortunately, the time came when the Early Church left their first love and fell in love with other things, mostly in love with self, I’m sure, and that’s the reason they went away from the Lord.

Self-Interest

Self-interest means that you put your will above God’s will. When you come to the end of the day, do you check whether or not you took care of God’s affairs? Was God’s interest your greatest thought today? Did you do His work? When you promised to do anything as a volunteer for God, did you put your self-interest, what you wanted to do for yourself, above your promise?

In all the work you do, the ways you go, do you put God first or self first? When it comes church time do you put God first or self first? When company comes to your house, do you stay home with them and put them first—which is really putting self first—or do you say, Come on; let’s go to church? If they decline, all you have to say is, “Just make yourself at home and I’ll be back.”

“I’ll hurt their feelings,” you say.

You’re thinking more about hurting yourself, your self-feelings because staying at home is really what you want to do. If you want to stay home, you’ll stay home; but if you want to go to church, you’ll go.

I have never let company keep me out of church. It’s time to take care of God’s business, to contend for the faith.

Do You Need Jesus?

Oh, Sinner, Backslider: Come to Jesus! Let me persuade you as one who loves your soul: Believe in the blood that stained the Old Rugged Cross. The blood of Jesus will cleanse you, make you a new creature. The blood can deliver you, give you peace in your soul and spirit, fellowship with God.

If you don’t know Jesus, ask the Lord to let the blood flow into your soul, and let me pray with you now: Oh, God, I confess that Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary with divine blood. Jesus shed His divine blood, blood with power to wash away every sin. I believe that His shed blood will wash away all of my sins. Come into my heart, Jesus! Come into my heart.

If you believe that prayer, the blood is powerful to make your soul new in a moment of time: In a split second all your sins are washed away through the blood of the Lamb. Put your faith in the blood of Jesus, in the holy, sacred blood from Heaven brought down to redeem fallen humanity.

The blood had to be shed for healing as well as for salvation. Without divine blood there would be no healing for us today. God gave this to me, showed me that the blood brought about healing. There is healing through the blood of Jesus for whatever your disease or affliction: Cancer, heart trouble, AIDS, diabetes or anything else. The blood ran from His back when He was beaten, and through that blood we have healing for the physical body. With his [blood] stripes we are healed (Isaiah 53:5). If you need healing—even if it’s AIDS—accept this prayer of faith now: Lord, here they are. I have brought the living Word, the living Christ, the Divine One to the people this day. Now from your supernatural gifts of healing, from your supernatural gift of miracles it comes through the name of your Son Jesus, through the blood of Jesus it flows: Heal! Heal! in the name of the Lord. Heal! in the holy, holy name of Jesus.

This is your hour of revelation; this is your hour of visitation. I have visited with you. During this whole message I have visited with you. I have visited with you and I have flowed my anointing to you in every way that you would accept it so you would receive everything that I had given my servant to give to you.

Open your heart, open your mind to me and I will give you wisdom and knowledge. I will give you wisdom and knowledge and ability to understand, understand the faith, my faith, like you have never understood it before. And I will give you that which so many of you have desired, the understanding of my faith, how it works, and how to receive my faith and all of its greatness.