The Donkey Saw What Balaam Could Not

It is a genuine, genuine joy to be back in this place. And I tell you, if you got a seat tonight, the Lord has been good to you. It's amazing what really is happening.

I want to give you a word of admonition. The scripture says that we should know how to conduct ourselves in the church or in the house of God or in the family of God. One of the things that happens when an interpretation is being given, and I'll be saying some more about tongues and interpretation, but when tongues and interpretation has been given and someone is interpreting or prophesying and you get blessed, for you to break out in joy and in clapping while the rest of us are trying to hear and get our portion is just a little bit selfish.

Are you there? See, because you hear the part that blesses you and then you take off with it. And I was waiting for the next part to bless me so I could take off with it. But no, what we want to do is to learn to listen.

See, the scripture says, take heed how you hear. Now listen, as you know, this camp that we meet here is a very serious time in God. The joy, the spontaneity is second to nothing that I know of across the land.

The choice believers come from all over the southeast part of the United States. We come together to sit at the feet of Jesus, to hear his word, to understand. Now, the thing that is happening across the world and across our land, as you know, is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the baptism in the Holy Spirit.

I want to talk to you along these lines tonight, but I'm asking you on this first night to take heed how you hear. These are serious times. How many of you know we're living in serious days? Amen.

Glory to God. I'll tell you what's happening in my life. I have never been so full of joy, so full of expectancy, and yet so absolutely, I just want to reject everything that isn't important.

Do you understand what I mean? I just can't, I don't have time to fool around with things that don't matter. You understand what I'm saying? I sense God moving us toward some consummation of his purposes, and you're here tonight. Now, if you're here tonight thinking this is a normal CFO, you've already been shocked, I suppose.

But I want to read to you a text now this evening. I've got an hour to deliver to you the word of God, and 1 Corinthians chapter 14. Will you look with me now and let me read to you some verses from 1 Corinthians, beginning to read at verse 14.

1 Corinthians 14 and verse 14. I just want to introduce to you the concept that Paul introduces to us in this, and lay some foundation, and then we want to be instructed in the ways of the Spirit. We want to learn the ways of God, and it's very important now that you have your Bible open, and you follow along with me.

I hope that you didn't come to church with a half a sword. Do you know what a half a sword is? The New Testament. All right.

You have to bring the whole sword if you're going to learn the ways of the Lord, because we're going to go back in a few moments to the Old Testament, and we learn that it's just one revelation of God unfolding his purpose to us. All right. 1 Corinthians 14, 14.

For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth. Will you underline that for me? And you know what to do if your Bible is too good to mark. Throw it away and get another one.

That's right. All right. Okay.

Now look. If I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth. I want you to underline that.

Lay hold of that. All right. But my understanding is unfruitful.

That is, I don't understand what I'm saying. Verse 15. What is it then? I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the understanding also.

So there are two ways to pray. I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with the understanding also. You heard both kinds of singing tonight.

You heard singing when we sing how great thou art. And then we hear singing in the spirit as the praise and volume of our spirit rises to God and we begin to magnify the Lord from our spirit. All right.

Verse 16. Else when thou shalt bless with the spirit, how shall he that occupies the room of the unlearned? Now there's a word unlearned or the word is ignorant. Literally.

How if he who is in the room or the place of the ignorant, how can he say amen at the giving of thanks? Seeing he doesn't understand what you're saying. For verily thou give us thanks well, but the others is not edified. And then the verse to prove that Paul was from Georgia.

You all know that, don't you? I thank my God that I speak in tongues more than you all. Now it's kind of wild, you know, on a first night, just to jump in with both feet and, and, and choose a subject like this. But I'll tell you what, somebody said, how come you charismatics, all you ever talk about is tongues? I said, because that's all you ever ask us.

Because how many of you know that no matter what you believe, you can believe anything about all this business till they say, do you speak in tongues? Are you one of them? And I say, I'm sort of like a Baptist, you know, but you can't say that anymore. Cause the Baptists are getting it. Well, you're not safe anywhere anymore.

Good to see you brother. God is invading every place and everywhere. God is invading.

You see the world with the baptism or the power of the Holy Spirit. It's a divine invasion. If you see it as an invasion, then you, you relate to it a little different.

No man started it. No man can stop it. There's a few who wish they could.

But you see God, now listen, God is a spirit. They that worship him must worship him in spirit. See now when, when Adam transgressed in the garden, God said, if you eat of that, you will die.

See now, you know, as well as I, that Adam didn't drop dead, but his spirit, the spiritual man, that inner man, that man died. You see, and when he died, that spiritual man died. The ability to communicate the ability to relate to God, God is a spirit.

And so that spirit, the human spirit died. And when that spirit died, Adam's ability to communicate with God died. Now almost everyone in this place tonight knows what we call regeneration or being born again.

But what it is regeneration or being born again is simply this. It's when God, the Holy Spirit breathes upon our spirit and makes us alive again. Amen.

How many of you know that's the way it works? And it's just God, the Holy Spirit, see, and he comes along and he breathes on your spirit again. And suddenly there's an awakening inside and you feel your spirit begin to come alive. And suddenly you love what you used to hate.

See, they said, what are you doing going to CFO? Oh, it's great. 11 meetings a day. So I said, my God, 11 meetings a day.

Who wants to go to church? I'll go to church Easter and Christmas. But you see, suddenly you love what you used to hate and something's coming alive inside. You see, and that's regeneration.

But you see, when a man is regenerated, he has the ability to pray with his understanding. And he can pray fervently and he can pray effective prayers and he can get answers and he can pray for the sick and he can cast out demons and he can do a lot of things without ever being baptized in the Holy Ghost. But when God the Father wants you and I to be baptized in the Holy Spirit is for the purpose God wants, God, who is spirit, wants to communicate with our spirit.

When I pray in the spirit, my understanding is unfruitful. How many times have you ever wanted to say to God something that you didn't know how to say to him? Before I was baptized in the spirit, I was so overcome with God's love and I was so filled with the joy of the Lord and I'd get down to pray and I'd get all steamed up and I'd say, God, I love you. I used to get so frustrated, you know, I thought, well, you love your dog, you know, and I knew there must be something more that I could say to God.

But see, I didn't understand that it was my spirit, the spirit of man. See, now God had breathed upon my spirit. It was beginning to come alive.

And what God was wanting in my life is what is simply understood as the baptism in the Holy Spirit so that once again, my spirit can pray. Jesus said it this way, the day is coming when out of your innermost being or out of your belly shall flow rivers of living water. And God, who is spirit, then we would learn to pray in spirit.

And some people think to pray in the spirit means you get all worked up. No, no, no, no. That's praying with your understanding with perspiration.

Always have to keep clear the difference between perspiration and inspiration. But you see, you know, and we said, oh, tonight I'm going to pray, see, because what's happening inside is our spirit is wanting to be released in God. And we want to be able to stand in his presence and magnify the Lord and find that satisfaction that our spirit is claiming.

But you see, if you can look at it from God's point of view, God is the one who wants you to be baptized in the Holy Spirit because God wants to open to you a whole new dimension of moving and acting and understanding the ways of the spirit. All right. Now, somebody said to me, Bob, what is the evidence of the baptism in the Holy Spirit? I said, trouble.

Are you there? You know, it's really encouraging, you know, when you meet someone and they say, are you Bob Mumford? I said, yes. Well, we got one of your tapes in our church and there's been nothing but trouble ever since. Oh, it makes you feel good, you know.

But the truth is, you see, where the ways of the spirit comes, see, when God the Holy Spirit comes on the scene, he comes to be Lord. He comes to change the natural into the supernatural. He comes to change the business meeting and things that are dead and stale and dormant.

God the Holy Spirit comes to adjust those things and change them around and breathe into them the power of the Holy God. But he begins with you and I. He begins with individuals, persons like you and me, and he baptizes us in the Holy Spirit. And what he does is releases in us a new capacity both to sing and to pray in the spirit.

Now, I want to talk to you about this because the great problem in all of the world is this. Most people who reject this dimension, the reason they reject it is because they don't understand it. How many of you will say with me tonight, I have been ignorant of God's ways for many years.

How many of you have just, sometimes it just grieves me. I think, God, why don't I know your ways? And they said, you know, the thing that frightens men like Derek and Wendell, people look at us as the leaders, you know. And I thought, man, if I'm the leader, where's the rest of this crowd? Because see, I know, and Derek and Wendell, we know how much we don't know.

You don't. See? But here, now look, here's a man, an earthbound creature trapped in sin. And Jesus comes along and breaks the feathers off him and looses him, breathes upon him, and he begins to come alive.

And how frustrating is it to be alive in God and not be able to communicate to him spirit to spirit? See? I don't know what I would do if I didn't know God in this dimension. I think I'd explode. I'd have a blowout, I suppose.

Amen. But you see, here's what's happening now. Now, I learned then to pray in the spirit.

I learned to sing in the spirit. And in fact, I got so delivered, I even got my hands up. I always watch for those who get them up half-mast, you know.

But see, God now, after years of ignorance, listen, after years of ignorance, God the Holy Spirit is invading time. He is coming into our generation, pouring out his spirit on all denominations and all nations and all flesh. And he's just moving everywhere.

Now, it's important for you and I to understand one of the great values or the one, in fact, I feel one of the basic reasons why God has granted to us the ability to pray in other tongues. Now, I want you to listen and learn tonight. Now, the problem, as I suggested to you, the basic problem has always been this, ignorance.

When I was in Bible college, I remember one of my professors saying these words with great earnestness and intensity. And he said these words, my people perish. Somebody help me with it.

For lack of knowledge. My people, God is saying, my people perish for lack of knowledge. That interpreted into good old English means we're ignorant of God's ways.

Now, some of you've heard me say the time when the Lord said to me, Mumford, I say, yes, Lord. He said, you and I are incompatible. I say, yes, Lord.

And he said, I don't change. I said, okay, I got the message. Now, I got these youth for a whole week.

And one of the things that I've got to teach these youth is you have just run into Jesus, who is the rock. You can weep and cry and throw spiritual temper tantrums, get mad, get glad, and he stands right there. And he said, when you're all done crying, how about obeying? You can con your parents, you can con people, you can con teachers, you can play all kinds of games till you meet Jesus.

And brother, I'll tell you on the authority of God's word, he doesn't budge for any man. Not even me. I tried it.

I said, come on, God, give a little. He's the rock. You fall on him and break.

But there is a word. Now, listen carefully to this word. There is a word which frightens me and that word is called acquiesce.

And it simply means this. Acquiesce means to give in reluctantly. See? Now, there's a frightening thing in our whole walk in God, and it's this.

If we press God for our own way, if we insist and continue to insist in our own way, there's the thing that God has of just saying, OK, stupid. Good. Did you mean I'm free? He said, sure, take off.

But not until God has resisted us and sought to bring us into his way. Now, we said before the basic problem is ignorance. So in truth, we really don't know.

Listen to these words. We really don't know how to go God's way. See? Is this true, young people? Is this true? We don't know how to go God's way.

If I knew how to go God's way, and this is true with ministers and missionaries and people of all walks, educated and uneducated, they're saying, Brother Bob, teach us God's way. Show us the way to go the way in the Spirit. Now, I want to show you that a little bit.

Let's go over for a moment to Numbers chapter 22, will you? And I want to show you one of God's wonderful prophets. Very wonderful man by the name of Balaam. Let's see, Matthew, Mark, Deuteronomy.

Are you there? Numbers chapter 22. Now, follow now. And then I'm after something.

We got to go back to the New Testament again. And so we want to move right along. Numbers chapter 22.

And let's begin to read at verse 19, all right? And I'm reading over to verse 34. You follow me, and I'll just read it very quickly, and we'll get a grip on it. I hope you can see a Bible somewhere.

All right? Now, therefore, I pray you, tarry ye here also this night, that I may, quote, know what the Lord will say more unto me. And God came unto Balaam at night and said unto him, If the men come to call thee, rise up and go with them. But yet the word which I say unto thee, that shalt thou do.

And Balaam rose up in the morning and saddled his ass and went with the princes of Moab. And God's anger was kindled because he went, because God had told him not to go. And yet God opened the door and let him go.

All right? And God's anger was kindled because he went. You ought to underline that. And the angel of the Lord stood in the way for an adversary against him.

Now he was riding upon his ass, and his two servants was with him. And the donkey saw what the prophet couldn't see. You already got the message.

I can quit now. All right, now let's go. And the ass saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way and his sword drawn in his hand.

And the ass turned aside out of the way and went out into the field. And Balaam smote the ass to turn her into the way. But the angel of the Lord stood in a path of the vineyards, a wall being on this side and a wall on that side.

And when the ass saw the angel of the Lord, she thrust herself into the wall and crushed Balaam's foot against the wall. And he smote her again. You stupid donkey.

The angel of the Lord went further and stood in a narrow place where there was no way to turn either to the right or to the left. And when the ass saw the angel of the Lord, she fell down under Balaam and Balaam's anger was kindled, which shows there was murder in his heart. And his anger rose up and he smote the ass with a staff.

And the Lord opened the mouth of the ass and she said unto Balaam, what are you laughing about? Okay, let's go. And she said unto Balaam, what have I done unto thee that thou hast smitten me these three times? And Balaam said unto the ass, thou hast mocked me. How many of you see a little pride here? Do you? All right.

Thou hast mocked me. I would. There was a sword in my hand for now I would kill thee.

Isn't that a wonderful prophet? And the ass said unto Balaam, am I not thine ass upon which thou hast ridden ever since I was thine unto this day? Was I ever want to do so unto thee? And he got convicted. Sure he did. And he said nay.

And the Lord, listen, then the Lord, then the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way. And his sword was drawn in his hand and he bowed down his head and fell flat on his face. And the angel of the Lord said unto him, wherefore hast thou smitten thine ass these three times? Behold, I went out to withstand thee because thy way is crooked or perverse.

Your way is wrong before me. And the ass saw me and turned from me these three times unless she had turned from thee. Surely now also I had slain thee and saved her alive.

And then Balaam gave the greatest excuse that every one of us gives. What is it? I didn't know. I didn't understand.

See, after seven automobile wrecks, I said, Lord, are you trying to talk to me? Three broken legs, four divorces. And I said, are you hinting at something? How many of you know, listen carefully, that in our own blind and self-willed way, we press against the ways of God? How many would confess that's right tonight? Come on, put them up, brother. I want to see them.

That's right. We go against the ways of God. See? And basically because we don't understand.

Well, I don't know, God. How do I know? You know, I just been to Sunday school 42 years. Sunday school pins clear down the hearing.

Oh, see, because bless God, I tell you, when I get around, talk about dumb sheep. I've been learning it. The church has to be supernatural.

There wouldn't be anything left. All right. Now, look, I can't go into all this business, but let me show you how God works.

God resists you. Then he has a little rheostat that he turns up, you see, and he resists you harder. And then when you insist on going your own way, you see, he resists you harder.

Now, what happened was the donkey just turned out of the way. See, I think I think I'll go to California. And when I get there, the plane, I missed the plane.

I said, well, I think I better think this thing through. But you see, there's such a way as being so destined, so desirous to go my own way that God has to increase the difficulty to prevent me from going my own way. And so the donkey comes up and matches his foot on the side of the thing.

And he says, oh, what are you crazy? Don't be beating a donkey. You know, the poor donkeys lose it. Oh, stupid.

Come on. Let's go think. Think a little bit.

Finally, he sees him. The donkey just says, I can't. I won't go any further.

He falls over. And he said, you humiliated me. Oh, I better not touch that.

We never get back. All right. God has a special little machine.

He runs you through. All right. Now, look, he said three times God was resisting this man.

Now, he come to the place where the angel said, you know something? If circumstances now the donkey, as I think you understand by now, is the circumstances of life whereby God prevents us from going our own way. I want you in this school, not that one. But I've always wanted to go to Ohio State, you know.

And so we press and press, and God shuts one door after another to keep us from going our own way. So finally, he says, the angel says, you know something, boy? If it hadn't been that donkey was on your side, I'd have cut your head off. He said, now I'm beginning to understand.

Now, that is the typical disciple. Believe me, it is. All right.

So then he says, so then he says, then he confesses these words. I knew not. I didn't understand.

See? Now, I have counseled and shared and prayed for people who have so messed up their life, you see. And I thought, God, there must be some better way than kicking against the pricks. How many of you would like to know a better way than that? Would you? See? So let's go over now to Romans chapter 8. And I want to show you something.

All right. Now, let's go. Romans chapter 8. And I want to read to you something that I just began to understand in the last year or so.

God has been making this so real to me as I begin to as I begin to understand my walk in the spirit. All right. Romans chapter 8, verse 26.

OK. Romans 8, 26. This is our last section tonight.

We'll be here from now till 1030. OK. All right.

Romans 8 and verse 26. The problem is ignorance and self-will. And God hedges us up with circumstances because we are continually seeking to go our own way.

And so God resists us and resists us. And finally, we come to the place where even our very life is in danger if we continue to press in and want to go our own way. I dealt with a young man several years ago that had, I think, had five or six motorcycle accidents.

In fact, his nickname was Rubber Legs. It really was. He had so many fractures in his legs from a motorcycle.

And you know, again and again, God had spoken to that man, spoken to him, but he insisted, persisted in going his own way. Now, let's read Romans 8, 26, and let's follow through. Likewise, the Spirit, that is the Holy Spirit, helps our weaknesses or our desire to go our own way.

The lack of willpower is made up in the realm of the Spirit. Now, I want to try to make this clear to you. Young people, especially, and older people, let's lay hold of this tonight.

The Spirit Himself lends us a hand. The Greek says, the Spirit lends us a hand with our infirmities. Now, would you underline these words? For we what? What is that translated into modern parlance? Ignorance, right? For we are ignorant.

We don't know. We don't understand. What don't we understand? We don't understand what we should pray for as we ought.

All right? But the Spirit, the literal Greek says, the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. That is, prayer in the Spirit rises from the deep of your spirit and rises up to God. All right? Let's follow now.

Verse 27, and he that searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because he, that is the Holy Spirit, makes intercession for the saints according to the will of Mumford. Uh-oh. According to whose will? How many of you see this now? According to the will of God.

Now, verse 28, and we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His, what is it? Purpose. All right? Now, I take it tonight that you are the called according to His purpose, so that gives you the ability to use Romans 8.28 like a fatalistic, like some sort of fatalism. How many of you know that Christians use Romans 8.28 like some kind of cure-all, you know? And they say, you fall down, break a leg, and you say, oh, well, all things work together.

And you wreck up your car, things go bad, the, you know, the roof falls in, and we say, oh, well, all things work together. You know, I have had a hard time believing that. Have you? How many of you have had a hard time? I used to, I used to say it, you know, because I didn't know what else to say.

And like the doctor, you know, you have to do something when you come rushing in and you don't know what to do, you have to do something. So, you know, but this is the way it is with spiritual things. Sometimes we say, well, oh, well, all things work together.

But, you know, I begin to understand that God has made a way for the earnest saint or the child of God, and it's called praying in the Spirit, see? Now, it happened to me on this wise. I was in a sun parlor in a meeting where there was going to be a meeting in a home group. And as I sat there, this doctor came up behind me, and he laid his hands on me, and he said, God, I don't know how to pray for this man, but he said, I'm asking you, God, in Jesus name to let the perfect prayer come forth.

I thought, that's interesting. I'm supposed to be the teacher. So he prayed on this, so he stayed there for a moment, laid his hands on me very gently, and suddenly he started praying in the Spirit.

Shambo rebe kustalabehim serapuram. And as he began to pray, the Holy Ghost came down over my being and electrified my whole being. I thought, wow, whatever he's praying sure is right.

But I didn't know. He didn't know. I didn't know.

And we were all ignorant. And I, out of that experience, I began to suspect something. And it goes something like this.

Now, God has given the Holy Ghost to the church of Jesus Christ for this purpose. It's to bring us along and carry us through life and present us in his presence with the fullness, faultless, and with fullness of joy. Amen.

Do you believe that? That's the job that God has given, assigned the Holy Spirit to carry us through life and bring us to the place where he can present us faultless and spotless before his presence with exceeding joy. So I thought, well, Spirit of God, I sure would like to begin to cooperate with this thing a little bit. Instead of fighting and resisting and going my own way continually and continually being in trouble, there must be a more excellent way.

So I began to pray in the Spirit, see? And as I would begin to pray in the Spirit, see, I'd come home or wherever I was, and I would pray in the Spirit. And now that's where I began to learn that he who prays in the Spirit gets in trouble. See? I would pray in the Spirit, and sure enough, everything would get worse.

How many... Maybe I better not ask that. But how many of you know that if you really get serious with God, things get worse? Do you really? All right. Rest of you, cheer up.

It'll be there, dear. Money back, guaranteed. All right? But you see, the truth is, here's what's happening now.

And I began to understand the law of the Spirit. And that law is this. He who prays in the Spirit, see, is not praying according to my will.

See? I see Virginia down there. I just appreciate my sister Virginia. I say, oh, Lord, bless her.

Give her a new Cadillac, you know. And Lord, you know, she needs three new dresses. See, I think I know what she needs.

But I really don't know what she needs. So when I want to pray for her, I have an ability to pray for her in the Spirit, see? And so God, the Holy Spirit, who knows her real need, the need that's deep down in the life of the believer, when I begin to pray, As I begin to intercede the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of God loses from my spirit, touches the Almighty, and brings to her that which she needs, not what she wants. Yeah.

See, now I begin to understand all this Holy Ghost business, you see? The sign of the baptism in the Holy Ghost is trouble, dear. You know why? Because when you begin to pray in the Holy Ghost, that the angel of the Lord begins to stand in front of you with the sword of the Lord and resist you from going your own way. Cheer up.

I was down in Columbia. I was down in Columbia and I was supposed to be teaching those brethren about God. I tell you, they knew more about God.

They told me an instance where the persecuting soldiers came down the mountain and they got down to the bridge, truckload of soldiers with fixed bayonets to kill the Christians in Columbia, a little group of Christians meeting in a house. And they began to pray. They said, God, no place to run, no place to hide.

We're asking you in Jesus' name to be our guard. And as they came down that bridge or down that mountain and started across that bridge, as they got to the end, about halfway, three quarters across that bridge, the truck stopped and threw that thing in reverse. They backed up across that bridge and tore up the mountain.

They thought, what in the world happened? Later, the driver and the lieutenant that was in the front of that truck saw the angel of the Lord standing, the angel of the Lord standing at the end of that bridge with his sword drawn. I said, now I'm beginning to get the message, boy. I'm beginning to get the message.

How many of you know when you're fooling with the Holy Ghost, we're not playing game. You are in a serious meeting tonight. If I were you, I'd get your money back and get out of here.

These folks really mean it. This is not a little playtime. All right, now let's look this thing through.

He, the Holy Spirit, has been given to you to lend you a hand with your infirmities. As he prays through you, not only for yourself, but for others. He prays for you, not according to Mumford's will, but he prays for you according to the will of God.

How come you're doing it like that? Because usually, we always want to go the wrong way. God wants us to go this way. The angel of the Lord is waiting for me here.

I said, well, God, I don't want to run into the angel of the Lord. He said, all right, then pray in the spirit. I said, all right, I will.

I began to pray in the spirit. As I prayed in the spirit, the house fell in. Oh, listen now.

Here's what I want you to see with me. I want to be a few minutes now. How are we doing? Praise the Lord.

Okay. Now, here's what I'd like to read verse 28 with you. Now, perhaps you've already thought this through or heard somebody teach along this line, but I want you to mark in your Bible for me a certain principle in God.

That principle is found in verse 28, and I'll give it to you like this. And we know that when we have prayed, according to verse 26 and 27. Are you there? Now I got it.

Now I understand it. Now we know that after we have prayed, according to verse 26 and verse 27, the answer has to be good. Are you there? See, I just got a new Pontiac Bonneville.

Glory to God. I'm sort of getting proud and puffed up. How can you be humble and have a new Pontiac? And so I said, Lord, if this car is standing between you and me, Lord, I know that couldn't be.

I rebuke you, devil. I said, Lord, thank you for that new Bonneville. Lord, I always wanted one black and three blocks long with steam heated doorknobs.

I said, oh, Lord, but see, while I'm getting all puffed up and full of pride and about to backslide over a Pontiac, the Holy Ghost comes on me. Are you there? Okay. And while I'm driving down the road, I begin to pray in the spirit.

Now I begin to pray in other tongues, magnify the Lord, turn around the corner. The devil got me. That's what it is.

Now, Jesus gave some interesting teaching on prayer one time. And he said, if you being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, then your father who is in heaven will not give you a serpent. He will not give you a stone and he will not give you.

What was the other thing? A scorpion, a scorpion, a serpent, and a stone. I thought, I wonder why he said that. Ah, you're there, aren't you? You're right in there.

Because I'll tell you a little thing that I've learned. Sometimes the first answers that God sends looks like a scorpion. It looks like a serpent.

It looks like a stone. I've prayed in the spirit and the Lord gave me the answer. I said, Lord, I want to be used in healing.

That's what I want to do. And then I pray in the spirit and get sick. God's man of faith and power.

Sick. See, he knows. We stand up here behind this thing with rubber legs trying to preach.

So sick we can hardly think and preach healing and God heals. Why we're sick ourselves. And I said, God, if this keeps up, I'm going to quit praying.

But I said, no, no, no, look, look, see that thing right there? I said, yes, Lord. He said, that's not a serpent. I said, I said, it isn't.

He said, no, that's bread. I said, it's cold and slimy. I said, it sure looks like a serpent.

He said, oh, just hold it now. Hold it, hold it. Do you believe that your father cannot give you a serpent? I said, I believe, I believe, I believe, I believe.

I said, man, I said, Lord, if I didn't know what the Bible said, I'd be sure that was a serpent. He said, no, that's not serpent, that's bread. Now I've looked, this has literally happened in my own life.

I looked at that thing and I said, you were bread. God said, you were bread. And all of a sudden, it worked for my good.

Are you there? See, every bitter experience, everything in my past that I thought was a serpent, it really wasn't. I can stand before God and men and I can testify to the faithfulness of Almighty God. Lord, you've never given me a serpent.

It looked like one. In fact, it was skinny and it had a tail that curled up. I said, wow, man, you sure don't look like fish to me.

But I stood there and looked at that thing in faith and as I understood and as I prayed in the spirit, and as I prayed in the spirit, God turned that which looked like a serpent into bread. Glory to God. And fish and bread.

What was the other thing? Egg, right. Fish and bread and egg. In other words, the main element to nourish my spiritual man and strengthen me in the Holy Ghost.

See, I said, oh, now I see, Lord. You want me to go out and teach everybody how to pray in the spirit so they can get worked over. I say, Lord, you know, Lord, I've been such a good preacher all these times.

Lord, you've blessed and things have been so good. Hallelujah. I've been praying in with my understanding.

See, then finally I get kind of spiritual and I start praying in the spirit. And what I'm really praying in the spirit is this. Lord, I'm getting sort of puffed up now.

Prides begin to work in me a little bit, Lord, and I need your help. Who would ever pray that with their understanding? Not me, brother. No, sir.

But see, I have to pray that in the spirit. And then most of you have heard me tell about the little machine that God has. God has a little machine that has big teeth on it, and it's called a contriting machine.

And he picks you up and he runs you through that thing. And when you come out on the other side, you're all contrite. Humble, sweet and tender.

Lord, do you know what got me a ride through that machine? Praying in the spirit. Well, you got two choices. Pray in the spirit and go for a ride through God's machine.

Or wait till the angel gets you. That angel whips out his sword and you say, oh, I see you. You start praying in the spirit, then I'll tell you.

God is a spirit. And God is crowding us down his way, the way of the spirit. See, we're ignorant.

We don't know how to pray as we are. But once we begin to pray in the spirit as we ought to pray, this we know. That once we have prayed, according to verse 26 and 27, we know that all the answers work together for our good.

I don't care what they look like or how they may appear. They work together for our good. How many of you can look back and see God in those things? Can you see? But the whole joy of the Christian walk is learning to see God in the thing while you're in it.

See, and so when you go around the corner and the new Pontiac gets totaled and you get out, if you can get out and you look at it and you say, well, hallelujah. The state trooper said, what'd you say? I said, you heard me. I said, glory to God.

This young doctor, this young doctor was walking up the corridor of the hospital. Another doctor, the chief surgeon, and they both had these rubber OR shoes on. You couldn't hear them coming.

And so this young doctor is walking down the hall, praying in the spirit, just praying in the spirit. And this doctor comes up behind him and he said, what language are you praying? This little doctor, you know, he didn't know what to say. And he said, oh, it's just the language of my hometown.

And as he prayed in the spirit and the doctor said, oh, and he went on down. Amen. How many of you are glad that God has given you the language of the new Jerusalem now? Amen.

Let's stand and worship the Lord. Shall we? Hallelujah. Let's just magnify the Lord.

Amen. In the name of Jesus. In the name of Jesus.

Glory to God. Amen. Just lose your spirit in the Holy Ghost tonight.

Amen. Just pray in the spirit. If you're here tonight and you want to be baptized in the Holy Ghost, just let the Lord do it right where you stand.

In the name of Jesus, receive ye the Holy Ghost. In the name of Jesus, receive ye the Holy Ghost. Glory to God.

We bless your name, Lord. We bless your name.