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Adventures in God. by John G Lake.
John Graham Lake was a man of prayer and commitment. To better understand the quality of his life,
you will want to read his consecration to God at the close of this book. At the Lake
Healing Rooms in Spokane, Washington, 100,000 healings were recorded in five years. Dr.
Ruthlidge of Washington, D C, called Spokane the healthiest city in the world as a result
of Lake's Healing Rooms. John G Lake was born March 18, 1870, at St.
Mary's, Ontario, Canada. While he was still a child, his parents moved to the United States.
At the age of 21, he became a Methodist minister, but later chose to start a newspaper instead
of accepting a church ministry. After his marriage, Lake's wife entered into
a prolonged serious illness, but was miraculously delivered under the ministry of John Alexander
Dowie in April 1898. This experience forever altered the direction of John G Lake's life
and ministry. All that he accomplished as a result of his
intense regard for the Word of God stands as an example to all Christians of what is
possible for any person who will believe and act on the Scriptures.
Adventures in God.
I found God as a boy, so for 50 years, I have been walking in the light of God understanding
fellowship with Him and listening to His Voice. I want to call to your attention some of the
things the Christian enjoys that others miss. A dear man received an injury that caused
his death in a motor accident not far from Beaverton, the day after this man was killed,
I was visiting some friends in Beaverton and they told me of his Injury. After our visit,
my wife and I were driving into the city. As we were coming up one of the highway a
Voice said, "Pull onto the left of the road and stop."
Don't you know that Voice, Christian heart? That Voice is so common that I never even
spoke of it to my wife. The left side is the wrong side of the road,
and you are breaking the traffic law to be there. But I have listened to that Voice so
many years that I have learned in most cases to obey it. Jesus said, "My sheep know my
voice." (John 10:27.) (The thought I am trying to bring to you,
dear friends, is the value of knowing the Lord and what communion with God means. Salvation
is not just something God gives you that is going to bless you after you die; it is having
the presence of the Lord now. God has promised to the Christian the guidance and direction
of the Holy Spirit.) I pulled onto the left hand side of the road,
ran the wheels of my car close into the ditch, and stopped. Immediately, I heard the grinding
of a great truck coming around the curve. I had not seen it before. Instead of coming
normally, it was coming down the driver's left hand side of the road at a 45 degree
angle. The truck had gone out of control and was covering the whole road!
If I had been on my side of the road, it would have sideswiped me and pushed me over the
bank. A 100 foot drop down! But I was on the other
side when the great thing swept past me. The truck went 50 to 100 feet beyond me, struck
a rough spot in the road, and straightened itself. The driver got the truck under control
and went on. Dear friends, men in the Word of God were guided by the Voice of God. God
talked to them. This is the inner thing of real Christian experience, the reason men
seek by the grace of God to enter into the real heart of God into the real soul of Jesus
Christ into the place where He lives within you where His Voice speaks in your heart.
I was sitting one day in the home of the DeValeras in Krugersdorp, South Africa, when a man arrived
who had traveled all over the country. He had been following me from place to place,
trying to catch up with me. He suffered a sunstroke which had affected his mind and
he also had developed a large cancer. He came into the house and proved to be a
friend of the family. In a little while a six year old child who had been sitting near
me went across the room, climbed on the man's knees, put her hands on the cancer on his
face, and prayed. I saw the cancer wither. In half an hour, the thing had disappeared.
The wound was still there, but in a few days it was healed. After the child had laid her
hands on top of his head, he arose, saying, "Oh! The fire that has been in my brain has
gone out," and his mind was normal. Power belongs unto God. Psalms 62 Verse 11. The
simplest soul can touch God and live in the very presence of God and in His power.
It is almost sadness to my soul that men should be astonished and surprised at an ordinary,
tangible evidence of the power of God. A woman came into the Healing Rooms once with
a tumor larger than a full grown unborn child. Her physicians had been fooled, believing
it to be a child until nature's period had passed. Then they decided it must be something
else. She came to the Healing Rooms and I interviewed her. She said, "Mr. Lake, I have
the opinion of several physicians. They are all different, but each has said, 'It is possible
it may be a child.' But now the time has passed, and they do not know what to say." I put my
hand upon her for a moment, and I said, "Madame, it is not a child; it is a tumor." She sat
down and wept. Her nurse was with her. Her soul was troubled and she did not receive
healing. She came back on another afternoon for prayer and returned the next day wearing
her corsets. She said, "I came down to show you that I am perfectly normal. When I retired
last night at 10 o'clock, there was no evidence that anything had taken place, beyond that
I felt comfortable and the choking was gone. But when I awoke this morning, I was my normal
size." I asked, "Did it disappear in the form of fluid?"
She said, "There was not an outward sign of any character." Beloved, what happened to
it? It dematerialized. The tumor dissolved. What is a miracle? It is the tangible evidence
of the supreme control of the Spirit of God over every character and form of materiality.
Beloved, the power of such an event, such an act and sign, shows you and me that through
living, positive, actual contact with the Spirit of God, all things are possible. Blessed
be His Name! I was in a meeting in Los Angeles on one occasion.
An old black man was conducting the services'. He had the funniest vocabulary. But I want
to tell you, there were doctors, lawyers, and professors listening to marvelous things
coming from his lips. It was not what he said in words; it was what
he said from his spirit to my heart that showed me he had more of God in his life than any
man I had ever met up to that time. It was God in him who was attracting people. One
man insisted on getting up and talking every little while. Some people have a mania for
talking. The old black brother endured it for a long
time. Finally, the fellow got up again, and the old man stuck his finger out and said,
"In the Name of Jesus Christ, sit down!" The man did not sit down. He fell down. And his
friends carried him out. That is only one of the living facts of what Christianity is:
the divine power of Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit, filling a man's soul and body, flashing
through his nature like holy flame, accomplishing the will of God.
There is a baptism that belongs to Jesus. It is in His supreme control. No angel or
man can bestow it. It comes from Him alone. He it is which baptizes with the Holy Ghost.
John 1 Verse 33. So the individual who wants the Holy Spirit must come into definite, conscious
contact with Jesus Christ Himself. Bless God! Almost a year before I went to Africa, as
I was praying one night, I was overshadowed by the Spirit of the Lord. The Lord showed
me various places in which I would labor for five years and, by the illumination that would
appear in the heavens, I knew the extent of the work in each place. The last of these
places I saw was South Africa. That night as I knelt on the floor, I was suddenly present
at a church in Johannesburg, South Africa, Where an acquaintance of mine was pastor.
I walked in the door of the church, walked the entire length of the church to the front
and into a little vestry. I looked around the place and took note of everything; the
furniture, the room, and all about it. All of this occurred as I prayed in my hometown
near Chicago. In less than a year, I was in that church and pastor of it. God did the
whole thing. I had nothing to do with it. God having shown with the illumination the
marvelous extent and character of the work He was going to do all over the land, I had
faith to believe that the thing God showed me would come to pass, mid I have lived to
see it through. One evening in my own tabernacle, a young girl about 16 to 18 years of age by
the name of Hilda suddenly became overpowered by the Spirit of God.
She arose and stood on the platform beside me. I recognized at once that the Lord had
given the girl a message, so I simply stopped preaching and waited while the Spirit of God
came upon her. She began to chant in some language I did not know, and then made gestures
like those a Mohammedan priest would make when chanting prayers. In the back of the
house I observed a young East Indian, whom I knew. He became enraptured and commenced
to walk gradually up the aisle. No one disturbed him, and he proceeded up the aisle until he
had reached the front. Then he stood looking into the girl's face with intense amazement.
When her message had ceased, I said to him, "What is it?" He answered, " Oh, she speaks
my language!" I said, "What does she say?" He came up on the platform beside me and gave
the gist of her message. "She tells me that salvation comes from God. In order to save
men, Jesus Christ, Who was God, became man. She says one man cannot save another; that
Mohammed was a man like other men, not a power to save a man from his sins. But Jesus was
God, and He had power to impart His Spirit to me and make me like God. While I was preaching
in a church in South Africa, an American lady whose son resided in the state of Iowa, was
present in a week night service. Before the service began, she called me into
the vestry and said she had just received a letter from her daughter in law. It stated
that the woman's son, It college professor, appeared to be tubercular. He was compelled
to give up his teaching position and was in a condition of great weakness. As I conversed
with the mother, I observed that she, too, believed her son to be tubercular and that,
unless healing came to him quickly, he would die. I returned to the Audience Room; and
as we were about to pray, I stepped to the end of the platform and asked the mother to
hand me the letter. Taking it in my hands, I knelt to pray, inviting all present to join
me in faith in God for the man's deliverance. My spirit seemed to ascend in God, and I lost
all consciousness of my environment. Suddenly, I found myself standing in that young man's
home in Iowa, nearly 10,000 miles from Johannesburg. The man sat by a hard coal heater with a little
boy about two years old on his lap. I observed him critically and said to myself, your face
is hard and shows no evidence of soul development or spiritual life, yet your affection for
your son is a redeeming quality. His wife sat on the opposite side of the table, reading
a magazine. Observing her, I remarked to myself, When he got you, he got a Tartar! While standing
behind the man's chair, I laid my hands on his head, silently praying for God to impart
to him His healing virtue and make the man well that he might bless the world and that
his mother's heart might be comforted. There was no knowledge of my return. In a moment
I was aware that I was kneeling on the Church platform. I had been uttering audible prayer
and the Spirit of God was resting deeply upon the people.
Some six weeks later, word was received that the young man was quite well. His recovery
had begun on the exact date that prayer was offered for him in our church 10,000 miles
away. I was absent from the city of Spokane for
a time and, when I returned, Mrs. Lake was not at home. It was just time to leave for
my afternoon service when someone came in and said, "Your secretary, Mrs. Graham, is
in the throes of death. Your wife is with her."
Immediately I hurried to the place. One of my ministers' wives met me at the door and
said, "You are too late; she is gone." As I stepped inside, the minister was coming
out of the room. He said, "She has not breathed for a long time." But looking on that woman,
I thought of how God Almighty had raised her out of death three years before; how He had
miraculously given her back her womb, ovaries, and tubes which had been removed in operations;
how she had married and conceived a child. As these thoughts arose, my heart flamed!
I took that woman up off the pillow and called op God for the lightnings of heaven to blast
the power of death and deliver her. I commanded her to come back and stay. She came back after
having not breathed for 23 minutes! We have not yet learned to keep in living
touch with the powers of God. Once in a while our souls rise, and we see the flame of God
accomplish this wonder and that. But, beloved, Jesus Christ lived in the presence of God
every hour of the day and night. Never a word proceeded from the mouth of Jesus Christ,
but that which was God's Word. He said, The words that I speak unto you, they ore spirit,
and they are life John 6 Verse 63. When you and I are lost in the Son of God
and the fires of Jesus burn in our hearts, as they did in his, our words will be the
words of Spirit and of life. There will be no death in them. Beloved, we are on the way.
Having formal acknowledgement as a student of science, it was my privilege to attend
clinics, which I frequently did. At one time I submitted myself to a series
of experiments. It was not sufficient to know that God healed; I had to know how God healed.
I visited one of the great experimental institutions and submitted myself for a series of experiments.
First, an instrument was attached to my head. This instrument had an indicator that would
register the vibrations of the brain. I began to repeat things like the 23rd Psalm
to soothe the mind and reduce its vibrations to the lowest point. Then I repeated the 31st
Psalm, the 35th chapter of Isaiah, the 91st Psalm, and Paul's address before Agrippa.
After this, I went into secular literature and recited Tennyson's "Charge of the Light
Brigade" and finally Poe's "The Raven" as I prayed in my heart that at the psychological
moment, God would anoint my soul in the Holy Spirit.
My difficulty was that while reciting, I could not keep the Spirit from coming upon me. When
I finished with "The Raven," those in charge of the experiment said, "You are a phenomenon.
You have a wider mental range than any human being we have ever seen."
In reality, this was not so. It was because the Spirit of God kept coming upon me to such
degree that I could feel the moving of the Spirit within me.
I prayed in my heart, "Lord God, if You will only let the Spirit of God come like the lightnings
of God upon my soul for two seconds, I know something is going to happen that these men
have never seen before. As I recited the last lines of the poem, suddenly
The Spirit of God struck me in a burst of praise and tongues. The indicator on that
instrument bounded to the limit and I haven't the least idea how much further it would have
gone if it had been possible. The professors said, "We have never seen anything
like it!" I replied, "Gentlemen, it is the Holy Ghost."
In the second experiment, a powerful X-ray machine with microscopic attachments was connected
to my head. The purpose was to see, if possible, what the action of the brain cells was.
I proceeded just as in the former experiment. First, I repeated Scriptures that were soothing
those calculated to reduce the action of the cortex coils to their lowest possible register.
Then I went to Scriptures which conveyed better and richer things until I reached the first
chapter of John. As I began to recite this, the fires of God began to burn in my heart.
Suddenly, the Spirit of God came upon me as before, and the man who was behind me touched
me. It was a signal to me to keep that poise of soul until one after another could look
through the instrument. Finally, when I let go, the Spirit subsided.
The professors said, "Why, man, we cannot understand this, but the cortex cells expanded
amazingly." I said to them, "Gentlemen, I want you to
see one more thing. Go down in your hospital and bring back a man who has inflammation
in the bone. Take your instrument and attach it to' his leg. Leave enough space to get
my hand on his leg. You can attach it to both sides."
When the instrument was ready, I put my hand on the man's shin and prayed like Mother Etter'
prays: no strange prayer, but the cry of my heart to God.
I said, "God, kill the devilish disease by Your power. Let the Spirit move in him; let
it live in him." Then I asked, "Gentlemen, what is taking place?
They replied, "Every cell is responding." It is so simple: The life of God comes back
into n part that is afflicted; immediately the blood flows; the closed, congested cells
respond; and the work is done! That is God's divine science.
Oh, beloved, when you pray, something is happening in you! It is not a myth; it is the action
of god. The Almighty God, by the Spirit, comes into
your soul, takes possession of your brain and manifests Himself in the cortex cells
of your brain. When you wish and will, either consciously or unconsciously, the fire of
God, the power of God, that life of God, that nature of God, is transmitted from the cortex
cells of your brain and throbs through your nerves down through your person, into every
cell of your being into every cell of your brain, your blood, your flesh, and your bone,
into every square inch of your skin, until you are alive with God!
That is divine healing. One day I sat talking to Father Seymour in
Los Angeles. I told him about the following incident in the life of Elias Letwaba, one
of our native preachers in South Africa: I went to his house one day in the country,
and his wife said, "He is not home. A little baby is hurt, and he is praying for it."
So I went over to the native hut, got down on my knees, and crawled inside. I saw Letwaba
kneeling in a corner by the child. I said, "Letwaba, it is me. What is the matter with
the child?" He told me the mother had been carrying it
on her back in a blanket as natives carry their children, and it fell out. He said,
"I think it hurt its neck." I examined the baby and saw that its neck
was broken. It would turn from side to side like the neck of a doll. "Why, Letwaba, the
baby's neck is broken!" I did not have faith for a broken neck, but
poor old Letwaba did not know the difference. I saw that he did not understand. He discerned
the spirit of doubt in my soul, and I said to myself, I am not going to interfere with
his faith. He will just feel the doubt generated by all the old traditional things I have learned,
so I will go outside. I went to another hut and kept on praying.
I lay own at 1 a.m. At 3 o'clock Letwaba came in.
I said, "Well, Letwaba, how about the baby?" He looked at me, so lovingly and sweetly,
and said, "Why, brother, the baby is all well. Jesus do heal the baby."
I said, "The baby is well! Letwaba, take me to the baby at once."
So we went to the baby. I took the little black thing on my arm and came out of the
hut praying: "Lord, take every cursed thing out of my soul that keeps me from believing
the Lord Jesus Christ." As I related the incident to Mr. Seymour,
he shouted, "Praise God, brother! That is not healing It is life!"
In my assembly in Spokane, there was a dear little woman who had been blind for nine years.
She had received very little teaching along the line of faith in God.
As she sat at home one day with her six children, she discovered that her dirty brute of a husband
had abandoned her and the children, leaving them to starve. (A debased human being is
capable of things that no beast will do, for a beast will care for its own.)
You can imagine the effect this had on her little heart. She was crushed, broken, bruised,
and bleeding. They were all sitting together on the front
porch of their home. She gathered her children around her and began to pray.
Suddenly one of them got up and said, "Oh, Mama! There is a man coming up the path and
he looks like Jesus! And oh, Mama, there is blood on His hands and blood on His feet!"
The children were frightened and ran around the house.
After a while the biggest child looked around the corner and said, "Why, Mama, He is laying
His hands on your eyes!" And just then, her eyes were opened.
That is divine power... Some years ago there was a farmer in Indiana,
w1io used to be a friend of mine. His son, while in South America had contracted a dreadful
case of typhoid fever. Because he had no proper nursing, he developed a great fever sore ten
inches in diameter. His whole abdomen became grown up with proud flesh, one layer on top
of another until there were five layers. A nurse had to lift up these layers and wash
them with an antiseptic to keep out the maggots. When he exposed his abdomen to me to pray
for him, I was shocked. I had never seen anything like it before. As I began to pray for him,
I spread my fingers wide and put my hand right on that cursed growth of proud flesh. I prayed
God in the name of Jesus Christ to blast the curse of hell and burn it up by the power
of God. After praying, I took the train back to Chicago.
The next day I received a telegram saying, "Lake, the most unusual thing has happened.
An hour after you left, the whole print of your hand was burned into that growth a quarter
of an inch deep." You talk about the voltage from Heaven and
the power of God! Why there is lightning in the soul of Jesus! The lightnings of Jesus
heal men by their flash! Sin dissolves and disease flees when the power
of God approaches! And yet we are quibbling and wondering if
Jesus Christ is big enough to meet our needs. Take the bars down!
Let God come into your life. In the name of Jesus, your heart will not
be satisfied with an empty Pentecost. But your soul will claim the light of God and
the lightnings of Jesus to flood your life! One day, as a young man, I needed healing
from Heaven, but there was nobody to pray for me. I was not even a Christian in the
best sense of being a Christian. I was a member of the Methodist church and had seen God heal
one dear soul who was very dear to me. As I sat alone, I said, "Lord, I am finished
with the doctor and the devil. I am finished with the world and the flesh. From today forward,
I lean on the arm of God." Right then and there, I committed myself to
God and God Almighty accepted my consecration to Him although there was no sign of healing.
The disease that almost killed me and had stuck on my life for nearly nine years was
gone! It was chronic constipation. I would take three ounces of castor oil at a single
dose three times a week. The place of strength and the place of victory
is the place of consecration to God. That victory will come when a man grits his teeth
and says, "I go with God this way." There is no man alive who can define the operations
of faith in a man's heart. But one thing we can be sure of: When we cut ourselves off
from every other help, we have never found the Lord Jesus Christ to fail. If there are
any failures, they are ours, not God's. Edward Lion was a native man who, until a
few years ago, didn't even wear clothes. He was illiterate and knew nothing whatever of
our conception of scholarship. But God anointed that man with the faith of
God and a measure of the Holy Ghost so intense that on one occasion when a multitude of sick
folk had been brought into a valley, the power of God came upon him and he went upon the
mountainside, stretched out his hands over the sick below, and poured out his heart to
God. In a minute, hundreds were healed! Healing
power fell upon them. There is no such instance recorded in the
New Testament. Jesus promised that the Last Days would be marked by greater works than
He Himself had wrought. In 19 12 I was pastor of the Apostolic tabernacle,
Johannesburg, South Africa. One of the cardinal teachings of our organization was the ministry
of healing through faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The sick were brought from
all parts of the land; and thousands were healed through the prayer of faith and the
Laying on of hands of those who believed. Our church was then enjoying a great period
of spiritual blessing and power. Various remarkable manifestations of the Spirit commonly occurred.
At a Sunday morning service, before public prayer was offered, a member of the congregation
arose and requested that those present join in prayer on behalf of his cousin in Wales
(7,000 miles across the sea from Johannesburg), that she might be healed. He stated that the
woman was violently insane and an inmate of an asylum in Wales. I knelt on the platform
to pray; and an unusual degree of the spirit of prayer came upon my soul, causing me to
pray with fervor and power. The spirit of prayer fell upon the audience at the same
time. The people ordinarily sat in their seats and
bowed their heads while prayer was being offered, but on this occasion 100 or more in different
parts of the house knelt to pray with me. I was uttering the audible prayer; they were
praying in silence. A great consciousness of the presence of God
took possession of me. My spirit rose in a great consciousness of spiritual dominion,
and I felt for the, moment as if I were anointed by the Spirit of God to, cast out demons.
My inner, or spiritual, eyes opened. I could see, in the spirit and observed that there
was a shaft of seeming light, accompanied by moving power, coming from many of those
who were praying in the audience. As the prayer continued, these shafts of light
from those who were praying increased in number. each of them reached my own soul, bringing
an increasing impulse of spiritual power until I seemed well nigh overcome by it.
While this was going on, I was uttering the words of prayer with great force and conscious
spiritual power. Suddenly, I seemed out of the body and, to
my surprise, observed that I was rapidly passing over the city of Kimberley, 300 miles from
Johannesburg. I was next conscious of the city of Cape Town on the seacoast, a thousand
miles away. My next consciousness was of the Island of St. Helena, where napoleon had been
banished; then the Cape Verde lighthouse on the coast of Spain.
By this time it seemed as if I were passing rough the atmosphere observing everything,
but moving with great lightning like rapidity. I remember the passage along the coast of
France, across the Bay of Biscay, into the hills of Wales. I had never been in Wales.
It was new country to me; and as I passed swiftly over its hills, I said to myself,
These are like the hills of Wyoming along the North Dakota border.
Suddenly, a village appeared. It was nestled in a deep valley among the hills. Next I saw
a public building that I recognized instinctively as the asylum.
On the door I observed an old fashioned 16th Century knocker. Its workmanship attracted
my attention and this thought flashed through my spirit: That undoubtedly was made by one
of the old smiths who manufactured armor. I was inside the institution without waiting
for the doors to open and present at the side of a cot on which lay a woman. Her wrists
and ankles were strapped to the sides of the cot. Another strap had been passed over her
legs above the knees, and a second across her breasts. These were to hold her down.
She was wagging her head and muttering incoherently. I laid my hands upon her head and, with great
intensity, commanded in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, that the demon spirit
possessing her be cast out and that she be healed by the power of God. In a moment or
two, I observed a change coming over her countenance. It softened and a look of intelligence appeared.
Then her eyes opened, and she smiled up in my face. I knew she was healed. I had no consciousness
whatever of my return to South Africa. Instantly, I was aware that I was still kneeling in prayer,
and I was conscious of all the surrounding environment of my church and the service.
Three weeks passed. Then my friend who had presented the prayer request for his cousin
came to me with a letter from one of his relatives, stating that an unusual thing had occurred.
Their cousin, who had been confined for seven years in the asylum in Wales, had suddenly
become well. They had no explanation to offer. The doctors said it was one of those unaccountable
things that sometimes occur. She was perfectly well and had returned home
to her friends. After returning from Africa some years ago,
I spent some time visiting my brother and my sister. As we sat together one day, my
sister said, "John, I have some neighbors here who are elderly German people and they
are having a very hard time. "First, the old man died; then one of the
sisters died. This thing happened, and that thing happened. Finally, the son, who is a
shipbuilder, fell and was carried to the hospital. Now gangrene has set in; they say his leg
has to be amputated. "The old mother, a rheumatic cripple, has
been sitting in a wheelchair for two and a half years and cannot move."
My brother and I had been having a discussion over this very thing. Jim, a splendid fellow,
a professor and well educated, said, "Jack, don't you think these things are all psychological?"
"Not much," I said. Jim said, "I think it is. Don't you think
healing is a demonstration of the power of mind over matter?"
I said, "No. If that were all it is, you could give just as good a demonstration as I could."
After a while, our sister said, "I have been across the street and have made arrangements
for you to go and pray for these people." I said, "All right. Jim, come along."
When we arrived, I asked the old lady, "Mother, how long have you been in this wheelchair?"
She replied, "Two and a half years. It is awful hard. Not just hard sitting here all
the time, but I suffer night and day, with no moment of relaxation from my acute suffering
for all this time." As I listened to her, the flame of God came
into my soul. I said, "You rheumatic devil, in the name of Jesus Christ, I will blot you
out, if it is the last thing I ever do in the world!" Laying hands on her I looked to
Heaven and called on God to cast that devil out and set her free.
Then I said to her, "Mother, in the name of Jesus Christ, get out of your chair and walk!"
And she arose and walked! My brother said, ','My, it beats the devil."
I replied, "That's the intention!" We went into another room to see the son whose
leg was to be amputated. I sat for a few minutes and told him of the power of God. I said,
"We have come to you with a message of Jesus Christ, and we have not just come with the
message, but with the power of God." And laying my hands on the limb I said, "In
the name of the living God, they shall never amputate this limb!"
The leg was healed. After about six months, I again stopped at
my sister's home. The young lady from across the street called and said, "You must come
across and see my mother and brother. They are so well."
When I called, I found the old lady was very happy. I asked about her son. She said, "Oh,
Jake, he is not at home. Why, he is so well that he went down to the saloon and danced
all night!" I waited to see Jake and tried to tell him
something about the living God that he had felt in his body and who wanted to take possession
of his soul and reveal the nature of Jesus Christ in him.
Five years passed. When I again stopped at my sister's home, she said, "Do you remember
the people you prayed for across the road? Here is Jake now, coming from work."
We sat on the porch and talked. I said, "Well, Jake, how is it?"
"Oh," he said, "I do not understand it all, but something has been going on. It is in
me. First, I could not go to the dance. Next, I could not drink beer; then my tobacco did
not taste good; and then a joy came into my heart. I found it was Jesus."
This man had been born of God his nature brought into union with God by the Holy Spirit. Blessed
be His precious Name! A few days after my arrival in Johannesburg,
the superintendent of one of the great missionary societies said, "Our native pastor, who has
the church a few doors from your home, must leave for six weeks. Will you occupy the pulpit
of the native Church until you are ready to undertake your own work?"
This was God's first door. I instantly accepted! On Sunday afternoon I preached to a congregation
of 500 Zulus through a proficient interpreter, a woman missionary who had lived among the
Zulus for 30 years. As the meeting progressed, a spiritual condition
developed almost similar to the dread silence the deep stillness that permeates the atmosphere
preceding a cyclone. This condition in the Spirit climaxed suddenly
as, by a single impulse, the native audience burst into prayer. Everyone prayed, saints
and sinners alike, but no one came to the altar. No invitation was given.
God had come in overwhelming conviction for sin, and we were impressed that it was not
the mind of God to begin to reap until God Himself thrust in the sickle.
I feel, out of life's experience as a Holy Ghost preacher, that great damage is done
by not waiting for a real ripeness of the work of the Holy Spirit in the soul of an
audience. So frequently, an invitation is given and pressure is put on the audience
to bring souls to the altar before God's ripeness of Conviction unto repentance is complete.
At the close of the meeting my interpreter said, "In all my missionary experience, I
have never before seen such a spirit of prayer on a native audience."
The next meeting took place at 7 o'clock that evening. A quiet stillness pervaded the meeting.
God was searching hearts. I preached on repentance: real repentance,
hundred fold repentance, Holy Ghost repentance, heaven's metanoia, the completeness of separation
from the world, its sin and its spirit, like Jesus separated Himself unto all righteousness
at the River Jordan. (Matthew 3 Verse 13-15.) Suddenly, a man arose in the back of the audience
and started for the altar. When he was about ten feet away from the altar, the Spirit of
the Lord struck him and he fell flat on his face.
Another man arose and walked calmly and steadily to the front. When he came to where the first
man had fallen, the Spirit of the Lord struck him and he fell on top of No. 1!
One after another, they began to come forward. Each one in turn fell at the same spot until
fifteen men were piled, one on top of another. It was a hot, sultry night. I was troubled
because on the very bottom of the pile was a little man lying on his face. The next man
lay on top of him, pressing the first man's face into the floor, and I was afraid he would
smother. I had never witnessed such a situation before.
I had seen many wonderful manifestations of God, but none like this.
Soon my human sympathy for the little fellow on the bottom of the pile overcame me. I stooped
down and tried to pull two or three of these men off him; but they were so piled up, one
on top of another, that it seemed impossible to reach him.
The Spirit of the Lord spoke within my soul and said, "If God has slain these, can you
not trust Him to keep them from smothering?" I replied, "Excuse me, Lord," and returned
to my seat on the platform. My interpreter was greatly disturbed. She
said, "Dr. Lake, what will you do now?" I replied, "The Lord is doing this. We will
just wait and see what the Holy Ghost does and learn how He does it. Remember, sister,
He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel (Psalms 103 Verse
7). We have seen His acts strange ones. Perhaps we can now learn His ways." We sat quietly.
In about fifteen minutes one of the prostrate men began to confess his sin at the top of
his voice. It was a wholehearted soul confession of such evident thoroughness! After a short
time, he arose with the light of God in his face and returned to his seat.
By that time another man was confessing, and then another and another, until the whole
fifteen men had poured out their souls to God and returned to their seats.
I indicated to the interpreter that I wanted the first man brought to me (the little fellow
for whom I had been distressed) so I could question him.
He was a Zulu native who worked for a Dutch family. They had given him a Dutch name, Willum.
I said, "Willum, tell me: What took place while you lay on the floor?"
He said to me in Dutch, "Oh, boss, (This was the manner in which the native always addressed
a white man) while I lay on the floor, Jesus come to me, and Jesus say, 'Willum, I take
all your sins away.' And Jesus go away. Then Jesus come again. And Jesus put His hand upon
my heart, moved it up and down, and say, 'Willum, I make your heart all white.' "
Willum looked into my face. He was all glorified with the light of Heaven until his face was
like the face of an angel. He said, "My heart all white! My heart all white!"
He and his friend remained in the church and sang all night. At 6 o'clock the next morning,
they both went to their work. On Wednesday night, my wife and I sat on the
platform together. Willum and his friend came early and sat on the front seat.
Mrs. Lake asked, "John, who is the boy sitting on the front seat?"
I replied, "This is the boy with whom I was so impressed Sunday night." "John, Jesus told
me just now if I would lay my hands on that boy, He would baptize him with the Holy Ghost."
"Then go to him at once." She laid her hands on him. In three minutes
he was filled with the Holy Ghost, speaking in tongues, glorifying God, and prophesying.
Close to a South African city in which I was ministering, there were hills with outcroppings
of rocks like a series of cliffs, one above another. I would go up into these hills to
be alone and rest. One day I observed a lady bringing a young
child and setting him on one of the shelves above a small cliff. She left the child some
food and water. It seemed a dangerous thing to do, since the child might fall and hurt
himself. However, I observed that the child was crippled and could not move around.
After his mother left, I went over to him, laid my hands on him, and prayed. Immediately
the child bounded off down the hill to catch his mother.
Not caring to meet anyone, I moved around the hill out of sight.
One day a woman came to the Healing Rooms in the old Rookery Building in Spokane. She
could not raise her arm. She said she had an open sore on her side and could get no
help from physicians. She added that she had no faith in doctors, in man, in God, or in
Jesus Christ but asked if I could help her. I prayed for her three times with no results.
After the third time I said to God, "God, her soul is closed. Open her soul that she
might receive." The next morning as she was putting up her
hair, she suddenly discovered that she was using the bad arm and had it raised up to
her head. She felt her side, and the open sore was gone.
Immediately, she telephoned to tell us about it.
I said, "Sister, come down here. There are people waiting to hear your testimony."
How much faith does God require of the person who comes and asks?
A closing sentence of an interpretation of tongues given in June, 1910, in Somerset,
East Cape Colony, South Africa: "Christ is at once the spotless descent of
God into man, and the sinless ascent of man into God, and the Holy Spirit is the Agent
by whom this is accomplished." A holy mind cannot repeat a vile thing, nor
be the creator of a vile suggestion. It is an unholy mind that is capable of such an
act. I say with Paul, Mark such a person Romans 16 Verse 17. He may talk, but he does not
know God. He does not comprehend the power of salvation, nor is he the possessor of the
Holy Spirit.
How the Lord Sent Me to South Africa.
I planned to go to Africa as a boy. I looked forward to it through my young manhood.
Shortly after my baptism in the Holy Spirit, a working of the Spirit commenced in me that
seemed to have for its purpose the revelation of the nature of Jesus Christ to me and in
me. Through this guardianship and remolding of
the spirit, a great tenderness for mankind was awakened in my soul. I saw mankind through
new eyes. They seemed to me as wandering in the midst of confusion, having strayed far,
groping and wandering hither and thither. They had no definite aim and did not seem
to understand what the difficulty was, or how to return to God.
The desire to proclaim the message of Christ and to demonstrate His power to save and bless
grew in my soul, until my life was swayed by this overwhelming passion.
However, my heart was divided. I could not follow successfully the ordinary pursuits
of life and business. When a man came into my office, though I knew that twenty or thirty
minutes of concentration on the business at hand would possibly net me thousands of dollars,
I could not discuss business with him. By a new power of discernment I could see
his soul and understand his inner life and motives. I recognized him as one of these
wandering sheep and longed with an overwhelming desire to help him find God and find himself.
This division in my soul between business interests and the desire to help men find
God became intense. In many instances what should have been a successful business interview
and the closing of a great business transaction ended in a prayer meeting. I would invite
the individual to kneel with me while I poured out my heart to God on his behalf.
I determined to discuss the matter with the president of my company and frankly told him
the condition of soul I found myself in and its cause.
He kindly replied: "You have worked hard, Lake. You need a change. Take a vacation for
three months. If you want to preach, preach. But at the end of the three months, $50,000
a year will look like a lot of money to you, and you will have little desire to sacrifice
it for dreams of religious possibilities." I thanked him, accepted an invitation to join
a brother in evangelistic work, and left the office, never to return.
During those three months I preached every day to large congregations, saw a multitude
of people saved from their sins and healed of their diseases, and hundreds of them baptized
in the Holy Ghost. At the end of the three months, I said to God: "I am through forever
with everything in life but the proclamation and demonstration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ."
I disposed of my estate, distributed my funds in it manner I believed to be for the best
interests of the Kingdom of God, made myself wholly dependent upon God for the support
of myself and family, and abandoned myself to the preaching of Jesus.
While ministering in a city in northern Illinois, the chore boy at the hotel where we were staying
asked for help in sawing down a large tree. I volunteered to assist him. As we sawed the
tree, the "spirit of the Lord spoke within my spirit clearly and distinctly: "Go to Indianapolis.
Prepare for a winter campaign. Get a large hall. In the spring you will go to Africa."
It all came to pass. It is power. Power is manifest in many ways. There is the power
of faith which draws to you what seems impossible. I returned to the hotel and told my wife of
the incident. She said: "I knew several days ago that your work here was done, for as I
prayed the Spirit said to me, 'Your husband is going on.' "
I went to Indianapolis and the Lord directed in a marvelous way. In a few days I had secured
a large hall and began conducting services, as He had directed.
One day during the following February (after I had been preaching some time), my preaching
partner said to me, "John, how much will it cost to take our party to Johannesburg, South
Africa?" I replied, "Two thousand dollars.
"Well, if we are going to Africa in the spring, it is time that you and I were praying for
the money." "Tom, I have been praying for the money ever
since New Year's. I have not heard from the Lord or from anyone else concerning it.
"Never mind. Let's pray again.” We went to Tom's room and knelt down by his
bed in prayer. After some time he slapped me on the back,
saying, "Don't pray anymore, John. Jesus told me just now that He would send us that two
thousand dollars, and it would be here in four days."
Four days later Tom returned from the post office and threw out upon the table four $500
drafts, saying, "John, there is the answer. Jesus has sent it. We are going to Africa."
The gift of money had been sent to Tom by a friend with a letter. The letter read, "I
was standing in the bank at Monrovia, California, and something said to me, 'Send Tom Hezmalhaltz
two thousand dollars.' It is yours, Tom, for whatever purpose God has shown you."
I never knew who wrote the letter, as he desired that no one else know.
We went straight out and purchased the tickets for the entire party to travel from Indianapolis,
Indiana, to Johannesburg, South Africa. There were twelve of us my family of eight and four
others. We had our tickets to Africa, but there would
be many other expenses en route. I had only $1.50 in hand.
As our train pulled out of the station at Indianapolis, a young man who had worked as
my secretary ran alongside the train and threw a two dollar bill through the window. That
gave us a total of $3.50. A young lady, who had been one of our workers,
was traveling with us as far as Detroit, Michigan. I needed $10 to buy her a ticket to northern
Michigan. As we rode along, I said to my wife, "Jen,
when we reach Detroit, I will need $10 for Winnie's railway ticket; but I have no money."
So we bowed our heads and prayed. We always followed this practice concerning
our needs. We never told anyone what our needs were, but we always told the Lord.
When we arrived in Detroit, my brother and married sister were there to meet us and with
them was my younger brother, Jim. As I stepped off the train, Jim took me by
the arm and walked across the station with me. Then he said, "Jack, I hope you won't
be mad, but I would like to give you this, " and he pulled out of his wallet a ten dollar
bill and slipped it into my vest pocket. I thanked him, turned about, and went to purchase
Winnie's ticket. I still had $3.50. We purchased some canned
beans and other edibles which we used on the train a route to St. Johns, New Brunswick.
When we finally arrived at the ship for Liverpool, I had $1.25 left. On board I gave 50 cents
to the table steward and 50 cents to the bedroom steward. When we reached England, I still
had 25 cents. We remained five days in Liverpool at the
expense of the transportation company, waiting for the second ship.
One day Mrs. Lake said to me, "What about our Laundry?”
I replied, "Send it down. I have no money, but perhaps the Lord will meet us before we
need to get it." Being very busy, I forgot about it entirely.
On the last night of our stay in Liverpool, just after I had retired about midnight, my
wife said, How about the laundry?" I replied, "I'm sorry, but I forgot it."
"Just like a man! Now I'll tell you about it. I knew you didn't have any money, neither
did I. So I prayed about it. After praying, I felt that I should go down to the laundry
and inquire what the amount of the bill was. It was $1.65. As I was returning to the hotel,
I passed a gentleman on the street. He said, 'Pardon me, but I feel I should give you this.'
He handed me a number of coins. I returned to the laundry, counted it out to the laundry
man, and found it was just the amount of the bill."
We rejoiced in this little evidence of God's presence with us.
The next morning we left by train for London and that evening boarded our ship for South
Africa. At that time, I had an English shilling. When
our ship stopped at Madeira, one of the Canary Islands, I purchased a shilling's worth of
fruit for the children and the last penny was gone.
Through my knowledge of the immigration laws of South Africa, I knew that before we would
be permitted to land, I must show the immigration inspector that I possessed at least $125.
We prayed earnestly over this matter. About the time we reached the Equator, a rest came
into my soul concerning it, and I could pray no more.
About eight or ten days later we arrived in Cape Town harbor, and our ship anchored. The
immigration inspector came on board and the passengers lined up at the purser's office
to present their money and receive their tickets to land.
My wife said, "What are you going to do?" "I am going to line up with the rest. We have
obeyed God this far. It is now up to the Lord." As I stood in line, awaiting my chance to
explain our dilemma, a fellow passenger suddenly tapped me upon the shoulder and indicated
that I step out of the line and walk over to the ship's rail to speak with him. He asked
me some questions, then he drew from his pocket a traveler's checkbook. He handed me two money
orders totaling 42 pounds sterling, or $200. He said, "I feel led to give this to help
your work." Johannesburg is 1000 miles inland from Cape
Town. Throughout the voyage we earnestly prayed about the subject of a home. As faith missionaries,
we had neither a Board nor friends behind us to furnish money. We were dependent upon
God. Many times during the trip to Johannesburg, we bowed our heads and reminded God that when
we arrived there we would need a home. Upon our arrival, as we stepped ashore, observed
a little woman bustling up, whom I instantly recognized to be an American. She stepped
up to Tom and said, "You are a American missionary party?" He replied, "Yes."
"How many are there in your party?" 'Four."
"No," she said, "you are not the family. Is there any other?" He said, "Yes. Mr. Lake."
Turning to me, she said, "How many are in your, family?" I answered, "My wife, myself,
and seven children only." "Oh," she said, "you are the family."
"What is it, madam?" "While in prayer last night, God told me to
meet, this boat, and there would be upon it an American missionary with a family of nine,
consisting of two adults and seven children, and that I was to give them a home."
At 3 o'clock that same afternoon, we were in a furnished cottage in Johannesburg. God
had provided the home for us. Our beloved benefactor was an American missionary,
Mrs. C. L. Good enough. She remained our beloved friend and fellow worker in the Lord.
And that is how we got to Africa.
How I Came To Devote My Life to the Ministry of Healing.
No one can understand the tremendous hold the revelation of Jesus as a present day Healer
took on my life, and what it meant to me, unless they first understand my environment.
I was one of 16 children. Our parents were strong, vigorous, healthy people. My mother
died at the age of 75, and my father, still lives at the time of this writing', and is
77. Before my knowledge and experience of the
Lord as our Healer, we buried eight members of the family. A strange train of sicknesses,
resulting in death, had followed the family. For 32 years some member of our family was
an invalid. During this long period, our home was never without the shadow of sickness.
, As I think back over my boyhood and young
manhood, there comes to mind remembrances like a nightmare: sickness, doctors, nurses,
hospitals, hearses, funerals, graveyards, and tombstones; a sorrowing household; a brokenhearted
mother and grief stricken father, struggling to forget the sorrows of the past, in order
to assist the living members of the family who needed their love and care.
When Christ was revealed to us as our Healer, my brother who had been an invalid for 22
years, upon whom my Father had spent a fortune for unavailing medical assistance was dying.
He bled incessantly from his kidneys and was kept alive through the assimilation of blood
creating foods which produced blood almost as fast as it flowed from his person. I have
never known any man to suffer so extremely and for so long as he did.
A sister, 34 years of age, was then dying with five cancers in her left breast. Before
being turned away to die, she had been operated on five times at a large hospital in Detroit,
Michigan, by a German surgeon of repute. After the operations, four other "heads" developed,
making five cancers in all. Another sister lay dying of an issue of blood.
Day by day, her lifeblood flowed away until she was in the very throes of death.
In my own life and circumstances, there were similar conditions. I had married and established
my own home; but very soon after marriage, the same train of conditions that had followed
my father's family seemed to appear in mine. My wife became an invalid from heart disease
and tuberculosis. She would lose her heart action and lapse into unconsciousness. Sometimes
I would find her lying unconscious on the floor or in her bed, having been suddenly
stricken. Stronger and stronger stimulants became necessary
to revive her heart until we were using nitroglycerine tablets in a final, heroic effort to stimulate
the action of her heart. After these heart spells, she would remain
in a semi paralytic state for weeks, the result of over stimulation, the physicians said.
But suddenly, in the midst of the deepest darkness, when baffled physicians stood back
and acknowledged their inability to help, when the cloud of darkness and death was again
hovering over the family the message of one godly minister, great enough and true enough
to God to proclaim the whole truth of God, brought the light of God to our souls!
We took our dying brother to a Healing Home in Chicago, where prayer was offered for him
with the laying on of hands. He received an instant healing and arose from his deathbed
a well man. He walked four miles, returned home, and took a partnership in our father's
business. Great joy and a marvelous hope sprang up in
our hearts! A real manifestation of the healing power of God was before us. We quickly arranged
to take our sister who suffered from cancers, to the same Healing Home. We had to take her
there on a stretcher. As we carried her into the healing meeting, she was speaking within
her soul, Others may be healed because they are so good,
but I fear healing is not for me. It seemed more than her soul could grasp.
But after listening from her cot to the preaching and teaching of the Word of God on healing
through Jesus Christ, hope sprang up in her soul. She was prayed for and hands were laid
on her. As the prayer of faith arose to God, the power of God descended upon her, thrilling
her being. Her pain instantly vanished! The swelling disappeared gradually. The large
core cancer turned black and in a few days fell out. The smaller ones disappeared. The
mutilated breast began to regrow, and it became a perfect breast again.
How our hearts thrilled! Words alone cannot tell this story! A new faith sprang up within
us. If God could heal our dying brother and our dying sister, causing cancers to disappear,
He could heal anything or anybody! Then our sister with the issue of blood began
to look to God for her healing. She and her husband were devout Christians; and although
they prayed, their prayers seemed unanswered for a time. Then one night I received a telephone
call and was told that if I wished to see her in this life, I must come to her bedside
at once. Upon arriving, I found that death was already
upon her. She had passed in unconsciousness. Her body was cold. No pulse was discernable.
Our parents knelt, weeping, beside her bed, and her husband knelt at the foot of the bed
in sorrow. Her baby lay in his crib. A great cry to God, such as had never before
come from my soul, went up to God. She must not die! I would not have it! Had not Christ
died for her? Had not God's healing power been manifested for the others, and should
she not likewise be healed? No words of mine can convey to another soul
the cry that was in my heart and the flame of hatred for death and sickness that the
Spirit of God had stirred within me. The very wrath of God seemed to possess my soul!
After telephoning and telegraphing some believing friends for assistance in prayer, we called
on God. I rebuked the power of death in the name of Jesus Christ. In less than an hour,
we rejoiced to see the evidence of returning life. My sister was thoroughly healed! Five
days later she came to my father's home and joined the family for Christmas dinner.
My wife, who had been slowly dying for years, suffering untold agonies,
was the last of the four to receive God's healing touch. But, oh, before God's power
came upon her, I realized as never before the character of consecration God was asking,
and what a Christian should give to God. Day by day, death silently stole over her.
Then the final hours came. A brother minister who was present walked over and stood at her
bedside. Then returning to me with tears in his eyes, he said, "Be reconciled to let your
wife die." I thought of my babies. I thought of her whom
I loved as my own soul, and a flame burned in my heart. I felt as if God had been insulted
by such a suggestion! Yet I had many things to learn.
In the midst of my soul storm, I returned home, picked up my Bible from the mantelpiece,
and threw it on the table. If ever God caused a man's Bible to open to a message his soul
needed, surely He did it then for me. The Book opened at the l0th chapter of Acts,
and my eyes fell on the 38th verse, which read, God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with
the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed
of the DEVIL; for God was with him. Like a flash from the blue, these words pierced
my heart: Oppressed of the devil! So, God was not the author of sickness! And the people
whom Jesus healed had not been made sick by God!
Hastily taking a reference to another portion of the Word, I read the words of Jesus in
Luke 13 16. Ought not this woman . . . whom SATAN HATH B0UND, lo, these eighteen years,
be loosed from this bond? Once again Jesus attributed sickness to the devil.
What a faith sprang up in my heart! What a flame of knowledge concerning the Word of
God and the ministry of Jesus went over my soul! I saw as never before why Jesus healed
the sick: He was doing the will of His Father; and in doing His father's will, He was destroying
the works of the devil. Hebrews 2 Verse 14. I said in my soul, this work of the devil
this destruction of my wife's life in the name of Jesus Christ shall cease, for Christ
died and Himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses.
We decided on 9:30 a.m. as the time when prayer would be offered for my wife's recovery, Again,
I telephoned and telegraphed friends to join me in prayer.
At 9:30 1 knelt at her deathbed and called on the living God. The power of God came upon
her, thrilling her from head to feet. Her paralysis left, her heart became normal, her
cough ceased, her breathing became regular, and her temperature became normal. The power
of God was flowing, through her, seemingly as blood flows through veins,
As I prayed, I heard a sound from her lips not the sound of weakness as before, but a
strong, clear voice. She cried out, "Praise God, I am healed! With that, she caught hold
of the bed clothing, threw it back, and in a moment was standing on the floor.
What a day! Will I ever forget it? The power of God thrilled our souls, and the joy of
God possessed,' our hearts because of her recovery.
The news spread throughout the city, the state, and the nation. Newspapers discussed it and
our home became a center of inquiry. People traveled great distances to see and talk with
her. She was flooded with letters. A new light dawned in our souls. The church
had diligently taught us that the days of miracles had passed; and believing this, eight
members of the family had been permitted to die. But, now, with the light of truth flashing
in our hearts, we saw that as a lie, no doubt invented by the devil and diligently heralded
as truth by the church, thus robbing mankind of its rightful inheritance through the blood
of Jesus. People came to our home, saying, "Since God
l1as healed you, surely He will heal us. Pray for us." We were forced into it. God answered,
and many were healed. Many years have passed since then, but no
day has gone by in which God has not answered prayer. I have devoted my life, day and night,
to this ministry; awl people have been healed not by ones and I twos, nor by hundreds, or
even by thousands, but by tens of thousands. In due time, God called me to South Africa,
where I witnessed a manifestation of the healing power of God such as the world perhaps has
not seen since the days of the apostles. Christian men were baptized in the Holy Ghost,
went forth in the mighty power of God, proclaiming the name of Jesus and laying hands on the
sick. And the sick were healed! Sinners, witnessing these evidences of the power of God, cried
out in gladness and gave themselves to the service of God. Like it was in the days of
Jesus: There was great joy in that city and that nation Acts 8 Verse 8.
Finally, God brought me to Spokane, where we have ministered to hundreds of sick persons
each week, the city is filled with the praises of God More because of the blessed manifestations
of God's Adventures in God healing power everywhere. People have come from as far as 5,000 miles
away for healing. Some have written letters. Others have telegraphed. Some have cabled
from halfway round the world, asking for prayer, and God has graciously answered.
Ministers and churches throughout the land have seen that, although the church has taught
that the days of miracles only belonged to the times of the apostles, that statement
was a falsehood. They have seen that the healing power of God is as available to the honest
soul today as it was in the days of Christ on the earth. The gifts and callings of God
are without repentance, and Jesus is the Healer still.
More Adventures in God.
During my ministry in South Africa, I came across a bachelor who hated everything that
was Christian. He had a reputation for cussing preachers off his place.
One day I realized that he had not been seen for it while, so I decided to pay him a visit.
Immediately, I was warned as to what kind of a reception I could expect. I went anyway.
Upon entering his home, I observed that he was it very sick man. Before he could say
a thing, I tossed my hat down, prayed that God would heal him, and Left.
A few days later he came to church. He was a changed man!
The Christian, the child of God, the Christ man who has committed his body as well as
his spirit and soul to God, ought not to not be a subject for healing. He ought to be a
subject of continuous, abiding health, because he is filled with the life of God.
Jesus Christ is at once the law and life of God.
When I lived in Africa, one of our departments was the native work. I bless God for the marvels
He let me witness among the native people. I believe we had a privilege never accorded
any other white man in modern times. In Basutoland, on Christmas Eve, 19 12, the
Lord's Supper was administered to 75 healed lepers. They had been healed under the ministry
of a black fellow whose sole raiment when we first knew him was a goatskin apron.
It was a beautiful thing to sit with a man under whose ministry 75 lepers had been healed!
Some were without noses others without fingers, or toes, or ears.
But I am going to tell you another leper story. Until about seven weeks ago, a man by the
name of Young was quarantined in the State of Nebraska. Correspondence with him was made
possible through a senator, another leper. Reared as a Roman Catholic, Young believed
in the power of faith. God told him He was going to move in behalf of this deliverance.
Officers of the institution discovered that he had been sending and receiving letters,
contrary to instructions. When confronted, Young said, "Yes, I have
been corresponding with people who pray the prayer of faith that I shall not die like
a dog or pig." The officers asked to see the letters. In
a few days they came back to him and said, "If you think you can get healed, we will
turn you loose on your pledge that you will go directly to Spokane to these people who
heal." So he started for Spokane with their pledge
to furnish him 'With the necessary funds. The day before I left Spokane, I sat down
with that man and he dictated the story of his healing by the power of God. He joined
his wife and children in Key West. My Lord is not dead! But I'll tell you, dear
hearts, we have been satisfied to live in Christ in our babyhood, to perpetuate our
babyhood, and to go on shouting like a lot of babies, instead of entering into the secrets
of the heart of Jesus Christ by the grace of God and claiming from Heaven the divine
flames of God upon our souls. When that takes place, then we shall stand
amazed at the action of God in our own and others' lives.
A Mrs. McDonald was brought to the Healing Rooms so emaciated by tuberculosis that she
weighed only 70 pounds. Her condition improved so rapidly that she put on flesh at the rate
of one pound per day. She attended our Divine Healing Meeting and
gave public testimony to her healing. An hour later she called us on the telephone,
exclaiming, "I am so happy I just had to tell somebody. I have walked all the way home,
kindled the fire in two stoves, and am preparing supper. A thing I have not been able to do
for over a year." A 12 year old boy suffering from tuberculosis
of the spine, so extreme that he was compelled to wear a steel jacket both day and night,
was brought to the healing Rooms a few days for prayer.
In less than ten days, his condition was so improved that he discarded the jacket entirely.
His shoulders had straightened; the vertebrae remained fixed; and the boy returned to his
home at Rosalia, praising God that He had proven in our own city in March 19 19, that
Jesus Christ is still the Healer. At Cookhouse, Cape Colony, there were ten
brothers by the name of Watson. Men who had been saved and baptized in the Holy Ghost.
As I was conducting a meeting at the home of one of them, the Spirit fell upon the youngest
of the family. He arose and we observed that he was giving the arrangements for a drama.
He was perfectly under the power of the Spirit. He had no consciousness in the natural of
what was taking place. All at once, the Spirit fell upon another
of the brothers, then another and another until all ten became actors in the same drama.
We sat there amazed for hours, observing a perfect five act drama. A presentation of
God's dealings with the race of man throughout the history of the world.
I left that night with the awe of God on my soul so deep that, for weeks afterwards, I
felt as if I wanted to walk very softly. The life of the Christian without the indwelling
power of the Spirit in the heart is a weariness to the flesh. It is an obedience to commandments
and an endeavor to walk according to a pattern which you have not power to follow.
But, bless God, the Christian life that is lived by, the impulse of the Spirit of Christ
within your soul becomes a joy, a power, and a glory.
When preaching at Bloom fawn tain, Orange Free State, a man by the name of Johnson,
an epileptic for twelve years, attended the meetings. He had been suffering 12 to 15 seizures
a day. After the service, a group of us were in an
attitude of prayer and communion with God preparatory to going out for an open air meeting.
Someone turned and asked this young man if he would like to be a Christian. He said,
"Well, I guess not. I would do the same things tomorrow I have done today if I were."
Like a flash out of the blue, the Spirit of God fell upon him and he fell prostrate upon
the floor, remaining there until 10 o'clock the next morning.
Before morning, that fellow who had been having about 15 seizures a day was not only saved,
but also healed. He went forth at 10 o'clock, baptized in the Holy Ghost.
One day our minister at Bloom fawn tain was going out to conduct a meeting for Basuto
natives. He could not speak enough Basuto to preach to them, so it was necessary for
him to have an interpreter. Johnson was with him.
The interpreter did not arrive. But when time came for the meeting to begin, the power of
God came upon Johnson. To the amazement of all, he stood and spoke forth the Word to
those native people in the purest Basuto! One evening as I was preaching, the Spirit
of the Lord descended upon a man in the front row, a minister from London, England.
He remained in a sitting posture, but began rising from the chair. Gradually, he came
down on the chair; then gradually, he began to rise again, somewhat higher. This was repeated
three times. Was it a reversal of the law of gravitation?
I think not. My own conception is that his soul became
so united with the Spirit of God that the attractive power of God was so intense it
drew him up. One day I stood at the railway station in
Logansport, Indiana, waiting for my train and observing a group of Italian men, apparently
laborers, sitting on a bench. They were going somewhere to work.
As I walked up and down the platform, I said, "Oh, God, how much I would like to be able
to talk to these men about the living Christ and His power to save! "
The Spirit said, "You can." I stepped over to them; and as I preached,
I observed myself beginning to speak in some foreign language.
I addressed one of the group, and he instantly answered me in Italian. I asked where he was
from, and he replied, "Naples." For fifteen minutes God let me tell the truths
of Christ and the power of God to that group of laborers in Italian, a language of which
I had no knowledge. That was a little flash, a gleam but one day,
bless God, there will come from Heaven a shower that will so anoint the souls of men that
they will speak in every language man speaks by the power of God.
And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations;
and then shall the end come Matthew 24 Verse 14.
While I was in Africa, the Church of England sent a three man delegation to Johannesburg
for a year to report back to England concerning our work in South Africa.
The result was a great conference of Church of England preachers was called and I was
asked to preach at the conference. It resulted in the establishment of healing
societies in the Church of England. We were blessed recently in this country with
one of their "healers," Mr. Hicks, who held meetings in the various Episcopal churches
all around the land. I have just come from Portland, where the
streets were filled for ten blocks around the church with automobiles carrying the sick
to his meetings. Mr. Clark Mitchell was in a logging accident
ten years ago in which his left side was severely injured the knee and left shoulder were crushed.
For ten years he experienced great suffering. His knee developed a tumor so large that it
filled his pant leg. He told me there were occasions when he was
able to walk perhaps a single block, but with great suffering. Other periods he was compelled
to be confined to his home and his chair. One day as I was hurrying down Pacific Avenue
on the way to my meeting at the Free Methodist Church, I passed Mr. Mitchell's home and his
daughter, waved to me. She had seen me coming and said to her father,
"I see Mr. Lake, and I am going to call him in."
Mr. Mitchell replied, "No, don't do it. I don't take any stock in that kind of stuff."
Though I knew nothing of these circumstances, I would have paid no attention if I had. I
am Scotch. When I entered their home, I said, "Mr. Mitchell,
I have no time to talk to you." I threw off my overcoat and hat, and knelt
to pray. He indicated it was his knee, so I laid my hands on his knee and began to pray.
As I did, I was conscious that he was healed. I said, "Mr. Mitchell, stick out your leg."
He did. "Get up and walk." He did. As he walked, he kept saying, "I don't understand. I don't
understand." He came back and sat down, still saying, "I don't understand. What is it you
do not understand, brother?" "Why, I cannot understand God's healing me.
I am not a Christian." I said, "Is it possible you have not yet given your heart to God?"
He said, "It is." "Then, brother, in the name of the Lord, let us do it now."
So he, his dear daughter, and another lady, knelt with me and all three yielded their
hearts to the Lord Jesus Christ. As he sat in his chair, I told him of the
healing of another man and how the bones would grind in his hip.
Mr. Mitchell said, "That is like my shoulder." This is when I first learned he had a bad
shoulder, so I called his daughter again, and we prayed for his shoulder.
Then I said, "Put up your arm, brother." When he raised his arm, I asked him if it
was perfectly free. He replied, "Perfectly free."
By 8:30 p.m. the tumor that had been on his knee for ten years had totally disappeared.
The next morning, he went to the printing office, presented himself to the editor, and
said, "Mr. Scott, I am the man the Lord has healed." And the newspaper editor wrote up
a statement about the man's healing. The same day he spaded his entire garden.
The day after, he went to work for a plasterer where he continued work. The day of miracles
had not passed as of this incident. March, 19 22, in Forest Grove, Oregon.
Dominion.
Now I want to teach you something of the inner things of healing that people are not aware
of. There is a conscious dominion Jesus Christ gives to the Christian soul. It was that thing
in the soul of Peter when he met the lame man at the Beautiful Gate.
Instead of praying for the man's healing, Peter said, In the name of Jesus Christ of
Nazareth rise up and walk. Acts 3 Verse 6. No prayer about it; no intercession.
Peter exercised the dominion that was in his soul. The divine flash of the power of God
went forth from his soul, and the man instantly arose and went with them into the Temple walking
and leaping, and praising God. Verse 8. Sometimes those who minister to the sick are
aware of what takes place, although the individual himself is unaware of any healing. There is
a dominion in the soul of the real man of God who is in touch with Heaven. When the
real thing takes place when a person is saved or healed from disease we know what it is.
We pray until we are satisfied in our souls that the work is complete.
In the same building that we had our Healing Rooms, there was an X-ray laboratory. The
technicians wanted to see what it was all about, so they asked to take X-rays, at no
charge to us of some of our prospects for healing. It was a unique opportunity.
Among those we sent to them was a man with tuberculosis. Each time after he was ministered
to in prayer, they would take an X-ray. We could see the progress of the healing. Each
picture showed less and less of the disease until there was no more evidence of it. He
was completely well. We always prayed for a person until we were
satisfied that the healing was complete. There was no dependence on the arm of man (flesh).
Mr. W A Fay suffered from cancer of the stomach. He has been ministered too perhaps thirty
times. For the first ten days there was no evidence
of healing whatever or a subsiding of his suffering. After that, there was a gradual
subsiding; then color began to return to his face, and he began to put on flesh.
Now he can eat anything and everything, and as much of it as he can get!
And that is not all, beloved. He found the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ while the process
was going on, and he says that is the big part of it.
I guess the Lord knows how to open doors in people's hearts. A good many Christians overlook
the fact that Jesus Christ made the ministry of healing just as broad as He could make
it. Luke 10 Verse 8-9. To the Seventy, He said....
into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you ... heal the sick that are therein. And
then what did He tell them to do? ... Say unto them, The kingdom of God is come nigh
unto you. I once lived near a man who was sick unto
death. Some went to him and told him he had to be baptized, or he would die and go to
hell. I have always said that was a form of coercion,
and Jesus Christ never used it. He was too much of a gentleman. He never took advantage
of a man when he was down to grind his soul and try to influence him to be a Christian.
If the man was sick, Jesus went and healed him by the power of God. Then, when that man
was healed, the natural response of his loving soul led him to Christ.
I wonder, have you ever paid attention to the different occasions in reading the Scriptures
when the Voice of God is mentioned? You know, the thing that makes the Bible the
Bible is the fact that somebody had an interview with God! Somebody heard from Heaven before
there was any Bible. Then the conversation or the incident was recorded, and these became
the Word of God. Now, the Word of God is indestructible, because
it was a real Voice, a real experience. God really did or said something, and the record
of it is true. It is very simple to prove the inspiration
of the Bible. Every child is taught to "prove" whether or not his sum in mathematics is correct.
If you have doubts, questions, and fears concerning the Bible and its inspiration, we know that
if one soul ever heard from Heaven, another soul may.
If one soul ever had an interview with God, another soul may.
If any man ever knew his sins were forgiven at any period, another man may know his sins
are forgiven now. If a man or woman ever was healed by the power
of God, then men and women can be healed again. The only thing necessary is to return again
in soul experience to that same place of intimacy where the first individual met God.
That is the way you prove the Word of God. That is the reason Christians love the Word
of God. That is the reason the Word of God becomes
the thing men live by, the thing men will die for. The Word of God becomes a present,
living reality to them not just a theory. In my church in South Africa we published
a paper in 10,000 lots. We would have the printers send them to the church, and we would
lay them out on the front platform in packages of 100 and 200. At the evening service I would
call certain people from the congregation (that I knew to be in contact with the living
God) to come and kneel around the packages and lay their hands on them.
We asked God to not only bless the reading matter in the paper that the message of Christ
should come through the words printed on the paper, but that the paper' itself become filled
with the Spirit of God, just as the handkerchiefs became filled with the power of God. (Acts
19 Verse 12.) I could show you thousands of letters from
people in all parts of the world, telling me that the Spirit of God came upon them when
they received our paper. Not only were they healed, but the joy of God came into their
hearts and many were saved. One woman wrote from South America: "I received
your paper. When I took it into my hands, my body began to vibrate so, I could hardly
sit on the chair. I did not understand it. I laid the paper down, and after a while took
it up again. As soon as I had it in my hands, I shook again. The third time I picked up
the paper, the Spirit of God came upon me so powerfully, I was baptized in the Holy
Ghost." Beloved, do you see that this message and
this quality of the Spirit contains the thing that confuses all the philosophers and all
the practice of philosophy in the world? It shows the clearest distinction, which characterizes
the real religion of Jesus Christ. It is distinct from all other religions and all other ministries.
The ministry of Christianity is the ministry of the Spirit. It is the Spirit of God that
inhabits the words, that speaks to the spirit of another and reveals Christ in and through
him. Miss K. is a woman I term a victim of surgery
operated on 26 times, then left to die. She was an invalid for 13 years, and was visited
and ministered to by different physicians for 6 years.
(I know you will pardon me if I speak with great plainness. I must in order to let you
know what God has done in this woman's life.) In one operation, an incision was made connecting
the rectum and the vagina. That wound refused to heal. Three times the wound was sewn up,
but to no avail. Also, she was thought to be tubercular, and no doubt she was.
One day this dear soul called Brother West wood to minister to her. We commenced to pray
the prayer of faith on her behalf, and right away the wounds on her body began to heal
until all the outer wounds were healed. If you were close enough to her, you could see
scars all down her throat and neck where some of these 26 operations had been performed.
Now I want you to see the power of God: When she discovered that the rectal incision had
not healed, it became a matter of special prayer. Soon her bowels ceased to operate;
she had no movement for 28 days. Think of it! If such a thing occurs in your life for
three or four days, you think you are going to die.
Note the purpose of God: During those 28 days when there was no movement whatever, the wound
healed up. Miss K. went to the south side of town to
do some dressmaking; but while working, she became unconscious due to the gas pressing
upon her heart and lungs. A physician was called. In his examination,
he discovered that the incision was perfectly healed; but during the long time that the
lower end of the rectum had not been used, it had adhesed. Now according to the doctor,
she could never have a movement of the bowels until she was operated on.
They were about to carry Miss K. off to the hospital when she became conscious and said,
"No more operations for me, even if I die. I have committed my body, my soul, and my
spirit to God!" So they took her home.
She came down to the Tabernacle to drill the children for their Christmas entertainment.
On her way home, she fainted on the street and was carried to the emergency hospital.
They examined her there and corroborated the statement of the other physician.
They were in the act of taking her to St. Luke's when she became conscious and said,
"No, sir! No more operations for me, even if I die."
When they asked her what she wanted to do, she told them she was coming to my home. That
was on Saturday, November 27th. On Sunday afternoon, November 28th, she was
sitting in the audience. As prayer was being offered, she said it seemed as though a hand
was laid upon her body (abdomen) and another hand on her head. Then a Voice said, "You
are healed." She left the Audience Room and became perfectly
normal, and has remained a normal woman ever since.
Beloved, people who oppose this ministry and do not understand it will say, "That is all
right. We know God does do such things as that on special occasions, but they are special
cases. Paul had a thorn in the flesh. He prayed three times that it might be healed, and the
Lord said, 'Paul, My grace is sufficient for you'. 2 Corinthians 12 9, and he was not healed."
Who said so? Who gave you the interpretation? Did you hear the Voice of God, or are you
repeating the old fable that has come down through theology for 100 years?
Do you not see, beloved, just one of the many tricks the old theological dodgers use to
get away from the responsibility of praying the prayer of faith that saves the sick?
My, the Church has had a time trying to dodge this issue of healing! They come up with Paul's
thorn in the flesh. Paul said, "I wrote this large letter with
my own hand" (Galations 6 Verse 11), and they interpret that to read that he had bad eyes.
Who said so? On another occasion, the people said they
loved Paul so much they would pluck out their eyes for him. I believe they would have cut
off their leg or their right arm, too, if it would have done him any good, but none
of these things argue for a moment that there was anything wrong with his leg, his arm,
or his eyes. Paul prayed three times. The first two times
he was not conscious of the answer. He prayed again, bless God, and this time God met his
faith and said to him, "Paul, My grace is sufficient for you."
Apply it, Paul. Dive in, Paul, and take all you want of the grace of God. It will fix
your thorn in the flesh and everything else that is troubling you.
We went to Lourdes, France, in the company of a group of Church of England people who
had been appointed as a committee to visit all the institutions of repute along the healing
lines in Europe. We visited a Catholic institution where healing
is obtained by the waters of Lourdes. They maintain a board of 200 physicians whose business
it is to examine all candidates and report on them.
We also visited the greatest hypnotic institution for healing in the world while at Lourdes.
This institution sent its representatives to demonstrate their method before the Catholic
board of 200 physicians. Hearing of our committee, they invited us to come before this body and
demonstrate healing along our lines. I agreed to take part, if I were given the
final demonstration. The committee selected five candidates. People who had been pronounced
absolutely incurable. The hypnotists tried their several methods
without success. I then had the five candidates placed in chairs
in a row upon the platform, in view of this large audience of physicians and scientists.
I then prayed over each of them separately and at the same time laid my hands upon them.
Three were instantly healed, a fourth recovered in a few days, and one died.
In 19 01, I joined the Dowie Institution and moved to Zion City, Illinois, with the objective
of becoming a student and teacher of divine healing.
I was made manager of Dowie's Building Department. During that year we handled business amounting
to $1.2 million, or $100,000 per month. We issued 1,200 building contracts.
This was the year John Alexander Dowie made his trip from Zion City to New York City,
taking 3,000 people with him in ten trains. We had a road choir of 1,200 selected voices
and a road processional of 100 church officers. Dowie rented Madison Square Garden, which
holds 20,000 people. The New York City Police said some nights they turned away as many
as 100,000 people. The streets were congested for four blocks away.
In 19 04, when Dowie's financial affairs were entangled, I left Zion City practically broke,
my holdings in the Dowie property having become depreciated at his death.
One Saturday night in South Africa, the church was packed. All available standing room was
occupied as men stood shoulder to shoulder. The majority of them were men from the Tattersall
Racing Club. Most were Jews. They included horsemen of all classes: bookies, jockeys,
stablemen, racetrack gamblers, etc. I was preaching on the power of God and, in
a strong spirit, was endeavoring to demonstrate that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today,
and forever; that His power is as great as it ever was; and that the only qualification
for touching God for anything is faith in Him. The audience was greatly moved.
At this point, I observed a gentleman and two ladies trying to squeeze through the people
who were standing in the aisles. I asked the crowd to separate, if possible, to permit
the ladies to come through and I tried to arrange seating space for them on the steps
of the platform. As they approached, I observed that one of
the ladies held her arms perfectly stiff. She did not move them at all. By instinct,
I knew at once that she was a rheumatic cripple. When she got to the platform, I asked, "What
is the reason you do not move your arms?" She said, "My shoulders are set from rheumatics."
I said, "How long have they been like this?" She replied, "Ten years."
I inquired if she had been treated by physicians. She replied, "I have been discharged from
three hospitals as incurable." "What hospitals?" She answered, "Kimberley, Johannesburg, and
Pretoria. Then addressing the gentleman who accompanied
her, I asked, "Do you know this lady?" He said, "Yes, she is my sister in law."
I said, "Do you know her story to be correct?" "Absolutely," he said.
I asked her what she had come for. She replied, "In the hope that the Lord would
heal me." I inquired, "Do you wish me to pray for you
for healing?" "Yes," she said. Addressing the noisy crowd in the aisles and
around the doors, I said, "You men never saw Jesus heal a person in your life. You do not
know anything about this matter. You have never witnessed an exhibition of the power
of God, and therefore you should be considerate enough to keep still, confess your ignorance
of such matters, and learn. "This is what I want: Select two men from
your group, and let them come and see for themselves if this woman's arms are stiff,
as she states." I waited for them to make their selection.
Finally, they put forward two men. One was a barber, a very intelligent gentleman. I
learned afterwards he was an American. They examined the lady's arms critically and
found them to be as she had said quite immovable. I asked the men, "Have you finished your examination?
Are you satisfied her condition is as stated?" They said, "We are."
"Then stand back, for I am going to pray that the Lord will heal this woman." Placing my
hands on her shoulders, I commanded in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, that
this rheumatic devil that bound the woman be cast out. In Christ's name I commanded
it to go, rebuking it with all the energy of my soul.
The power of God flashed through me like a burning fire until perspiration burst from
the woman's face. Then, taking her by the hands, I said, "In
the name of Jesus Christ, put your arms up!" The right arm went up.
Then I said, "In the name of Jesus Christ, put the other arm up, too." She instantly
obeyed. Her arms had become free! As I moved her arms, making the shoulders
rotate, I heard a grinding sound in the joints. I said to the two men from the audience, "You
have never heard a dry joint in your life. Come put your ear to this woman's back while
I make her arms move." As they did, I moved her arms, and the shoulder joints ground,
because the oil had not yet returned to them. In the woman's delight at being healed, she
threw up her hands, praised God, and started for the door. The crowd parted for her, and
she disappeared. I did not see her again for some months.
John G Lake's Consecration Statement as A Christian.
I, this day, consecrate my entire life to glorify my Heavenly Father by my obedience
to the principles of Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. All my effort
from now on will be directed in an effort to demonstrate the righteousness of God in
whatsoever I may be engaged... Principle 1.
All the things earthly that I possess shall not be considered my own, but belonging to
my Heavenly Father, and shall be held in trust by me to be used and directed by the wisdom
of the Spirit of God, as the law of love of men as Christ loved them may dictate.
If at any time God should raise up men wiser than myself, I will gladly commit my all to
their use and turn over all my possessions to them for distribution.
If at any time in my life I should be engaged in any earthly business and should employ
men to aid me in conducting it, I shall reward them justly and equally, comparing their own
energy expended with My own after adding a sufficient amount to my own to cover all risk
that may be involved in the operation of my business.
I shall consider my employees my equals with rights to the blessings of nature and life
equal to my own. I shall not strive to elevate myself to a position of comfort above the
rest of my employees and shall direct all my efforts to bring all mankind to an equal
plane, where all enjoy the comforts of life and fellowship together.
Principle 2. I shall not cease to cry to God and implore
Him to deliver mankind from the effects of sin so long as sin lasts, but shall cooperate
with God in the redemption of mankind. I will have seasons of prayer and fasting
in behalf of mankind, weeping and bewailing their lost condition and imploring God to
grant them repentance unto life as the Spirit of God may lead me.
Principle 3. I shall live my life in meekness, never defending
my own personal rights, but shall leave all judgment To God who judges righteously and
rewards all according to their works. I shall not render evil for evil or railing for railing,
but shall bless all and do good to enemies in return for evil. By God's grace I shall
keep all hardness and harshness out of my life and actions, but shall be gentle and
unassuming, not professing above what God has imparted to me, nor lifting myself above
my brethren. Principle 4.
I shall consider righteous acts as more necessary to life and happiness than food and drink,
and not let myself be bribed or coerced into any unrighteous action for any earthly consideration.
Principle 5. By God's grace I will always be merciful,
forgiving those who have transgressed against me and endeavoring to correct the ills of
humanity instead of merely punishing them for their sins.
Principle 6. I shall not harbor any impure thoughts in
my mind, but shall endeavor to make my every act uplifting.
I shall regard my procreative organs sacred and holy and never use them for any purpose
other than that which God created them for. I shall regard the home as sacred and always
guard my actions in the presence of the opposite sex, so as not to cause a man and his wife
to break their vows to one another. I shall be chaste with the opposite sex who are married,
considering them as sisters. I shall be careful not to cause them undue pain by playing on
their affections. Principle 7.
I will always strive to be a peacemaker. First, by being peaceful myself and avoiding all
unfruitful contentions, and treating all with justice and regarding their rights and their
free agency, never trying to force any to my point of view.
If I should offend anyone knowingly, I shall immediately apologize.
I will not scatter evil reports about any person and so try to defame their character,
or repeat things that I am not certain of being true.
I will strive to remove the curse of strife among brethren by acting as a peacemaker.
Principle 8. I shall not become discouraged when I am persecuted
on account of the righteousness mentioned above nor murmur on account of any suffering
I undergo, but shall gladly give my life rather than depart from this high standard of life,
rejoicing because I know I have a great reward in Heaven.
I shall strive to make the above principles the ideal of all the world and give my life
and energy to see mankind get the power from God to practice the same.
by John G Lake. The End.