Personal Revival - Part 1

Thank you so much, Brother Sam, and I greet you in that name that is above every name in whose name the world shall bow and declare him Lord. And so we praise God that we have this opportunity to share with one another. Thank you so much, Brother Sam, and I'm so grateful for you, Saints, inviting me and your leader, Brother Sam, and Brother JP, and Brother Daniel, and Brother Levi, inviting us to come and to share with you. May you only hear from the Lord tonight, because whatever words will be spoken will reflect my life to a great extent. Maybe it will help some of you for those gates to open up, that Jesus can come in fully, possess you to the utmost, to overflowing. And so, Father, I just thank you so much for this congregation, for everyone that is here. And now, Lord, have your way, Lord, have your way, have your way, Lord, that you would be glorified, that you would be heard, and that you would be seen, for you're worthy, you're worthy. And Father, we pray even for the tears that we heard, your tears that you're shedding, and that we might have broken hearts, Lord, and that we might remember that the book of Revelation is just before us. Your return is just before us, and we need to rise up. We need to do. We should not just listen, but we should internalize it and then act on what you tell us, Lord. So help us all tonight. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Thank you. I currently visit you from Toronto, Canada. It's a little colder there than here, and so it's a joy to be here. And I'm not talking just about the weather. I'm talking about the fellowship here and the warmness of your hearts and of your fellowship and the joy that I see in your faces and your love of the Lord. So it's a privilege and an honor to be with you. I was originally born in Germany in 1942, and it was World War II going on at that particular time point. I was born in May. My father was fighting with the 6th German Army that had gone towards Moscow. They came within 26 kilometers of Moscow, then were turned away, and they went towards Stalingrad, and about half ways in Voronezh, my father was shot and killed. I never knew him, so I grew up without a father. But when you grow up without a father, there is a heavenly father. And so there's a special verse for us in John 10. And depending on what your translation says, the Old King James Version says, in John 10, the thief comes to steal, to kill, and to destroy. I am come that they might have life, and not only life, but may have it more abundantly. And so Jesus came to give us that joy, to give us that assurance, to give us that hope, that future, and we have something to look forward to that is incredible. So my father was killed, but you know, I don't blame God for that, because evil will also come, and God did not tell Cain to kill Abel. God did not tell King David to kill Uriah. And when Uriah was killed, there were soldiers sent with him to the front to have a cover-up of this evil, and in that cover-up, there were soldiers killed together with Uriah, and they were widows, and they were orphans, and it was because of evil. It was not because God did it. So when evil hits us in our lives, and many of you may have some issues in your life, it may well be the thief that comes to kill, steal, and destroy, and prevents the Lord Jesus from entering into your gate to the fullest, because maybe you're listening to lies. Maybe you're believing some things that are not truth in accordance with Scripture. And so maybe I can share a little bit more about my life, and perhaps it will give a mirror for you, and a mirror for all of us for personal revival. And that is the title for tonight, Personal Revival Part One, and tomorrow morning, we will have Personal Revival Part Two. And so in 1945, the war was coming to an end. The war stopped officially in May 1945, but in January, the Russians were coming towards where I was living in East Germany, and my mother had my sister and myself, and we used to have a farm, and animals, and things like that. But stormtroopers came from Hitler, and they knocked on the door, and they said to my mother, you have two hours to get out. If you don't get out with your children, you will be shot. We will leave no one behind. And mother said, why would you shoot me? And the soldier said, you will be raped many times. You will betray positions of the German army, and we will not leave anyone behind. You must leave. You must flee. And mother said, where shall I go? And they said, we don't know. Flee. Go. It was the winter of 1945. There was deep, deep snow. You don't know snow like this here in Australia, but it was 20 minus below freezing. And so my mother took a little cart, and she put one feather bed on the bottom. She put two children in between that little cart, and then put another feather bed on top. And that's how we lived. You see, the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. But Jesus came to give us life, to have us experience life more abundantly. And then as mother fled in that snow with two children, there were white mounds all along the way. And mother said, is this to show the way to where we are to go? And the other refugees said, no, no, no. These are people that sat down, and they froze to death, and then snow fell on them, and then ice fell on them. And so I should have died right there. But Jesus said, the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. But I have come to give you life. And so during the day, we then had to hide because there were airplanes coming to shoot at the refugees as well. They were flying low over us with bombs and with machine guns. And so we had to hide in the woods during the daytime, and then travel by night. And that was actually good because in the night, it gets colder, and more people would have frozen to death. We arrived in Dresden on February 13, 1945. We had met a relative on the way. He had a wooden leg. He was not inducted into the German army, and he took us on a horse-drawn carriage. And that's how we lived again. God gave us life. And as we came into Dresden, German soldiers came and took away the horses because they said the horses are needed for the army. You cannot keep those horses. And mother said, well, it's okay because the city has a Red Cross. Maybe there's a little milk for the children. We haven't eaten for days. We have nothing. And this relative said to my mother, we must leave immediately. We cannot stay. We cannot stay. The mother said, why? And this relative said, I don't know, but you cannot stay. You must leave right now. You must go. We must go. And mother said, why? And he said, I don't know, but we must leave. Mother said, well, your horses are gone. That's a sign from God that we are to stay. And he said, no, no, no. It's not a sign from God. We must leave. Mother said, I cannot walk anymore. The children cannot walk. We need the horses. And so after a little while, this relative who was sitting outside a little wall, we were with him outside that little wall in the city of Dresden. He went inside the city and then came back and he took towels and he took some blankets and mother said, what are you doing? And he said, well, I found my horses inside the city and I will take them back. And mother said, you will be shot immediately when you touch those horses. And he said, no, the soldiers are on the inside having supper. And mother said, well, you better not do it. And he said, we must leave. Mother asked, why? And he said, I don't know, but we must leave. And so he went inside the city. He took the towels and the blankets. He put them around the hoofs of the horses because there was cobblestone and you would hear the noise of the hoofs on the cobblestone. So he put the towels and blankets around the hoofs of the horses. He brought back the horses. He put them in front of this little cart. He put us on the cart and started to pull us out of Dresden. And when you check on wartime stories and you go to your computer, on February 13th, 1945, four raids started by 3,600 American and British planes. They dropped 3,900 tons of explosives, dust and firebombs on Dresden. And a firestorm erupted and developed into a hurricane. And the hurricane was churning and turning. And the people that had even hid in the cellars, the heat became so great that when they opened up the cellar doors, they thought they had found children. But these were adults. They had shrunk in the heat to the size of children and died. And so the thief comes to kill, steal and destroy. But I am come that you might have life more abundantly. And so God saved us one more time. God gave us life. I didn't know why he chose some people to have life. But there's a purpose in your life. You are here. You have life. There's a future. There's something for you to do for the Lord. Ephesians 2:10 says that you're his workmanship. You're wonderfully and beautifully made. Maybe you don't like yourself. Maybe the way you are. But thank God for he's given you health. He's given you a task to do. He's given you a future. And even so, in John chapter 9, there was a blind man and the disciples were arguing, asking, you know, did the family commit sin or did he commit sin? And Jesus answered them and said, no, no, no. There was none of that. He was born for the glory of God. And each one of you is born for the glory of God, that God would use you. You see, the thief comes to kill, steal, and destroy. He brings stuff into your marriages. He brings stuff into your life, through your job, through your eyes. As our brother spoke, looking at wrong things, at the internet, things that tempt us, where the devil comes to kill, steal, and destroy you. He doesn't want the gates to be opened for the Lord to come in fully into you and your church and to use you for the utmost, for which he has made you. Praise God. He will do so if you open that door and you say no to this wrong gatekeeper that might come to your front door at times. It does say resist the devil, but you've got to submit first. You can't skip that step of full surrender to Jesus. There must be a step of holiness with the Lord first. And then you resist the devil with his help and he must flee. And so praise God. God gave us life again from Dresden. And by the way, in Hiroshima, there were 150,000 people killed. In Nagasaki, where the second atom bomb was thrown, 76,000 died. And in Dresden, about 80,000 people died. So you can see that it was a terrible inferno there, but God gave us life. We went to a train with 56 cattle cars. The train got attacked by fighter planes and bombers. The train was bombed. 55 cars were destroyed with the people inside. There was one car left and we were in that car and God gave us life again. One more time, he gave us life. Then there was a refugee camp between Munich and Salzburg and I was dying. I was three years old and we had not eaten and I needed desperately a blood transfusion and no blood could be given by my mother. And so she went out on the streets to beg for my life and she found an American soldier who gave me his blood to live. You see, later on, there was another person who gave me his blood to live. Amen. And Jesus Christ did that. But this soldier was a forerunner to give me life because he gave me that blood transfusion. Now, beloved, during that period of time, they did not test blood types yet. And during that war period there in that area, they did not test blood types. So God selected a soldier that would have the same blood type as I had. So it was just another miracle from the Lord on what he did. And then we started to starve. We had no food. My mother had a heart condition. She could only knit sweaters and she knit sweaters to keep us alive and sold sweaters, but she could not make enough money. So we went for berries. We ate contaminated food. When I went to the bathroom, I had worms coming out and so I also tasted poverty. And it was good that I was allowed to taste that because it was so important for me to understand the different sides that are in this world. But God still gave us life and we got through that period of time. However, another thing happened at the age of 10. I was sexually misused, beloved. And I could not understand this for a long period of time. And I do not believe that this was caused by God. This was done by the evil one. And he came to kill, steal and destroy. But Jesus came that we might have life more abundantly. I could not understand that until a few years ago. And I spoke to 90 young people that were in a boot camp. They had been given a choice, either jail or six months of boot camp. And the leader of the boot camp was a Christian. And he invited me to share. And even as I shared, with this group of 90, I thought they weren't listening. But I shared how I was misused and how maybe some of them were misused. And after we spoke, I thought no one had listened. And I gave an invitation and 40 young people came rushing forward to be right with God and to understand that when we are born again, we have a new body. Without sin, the old body must fall off. Whichever way the old body was misused or touched, it will fall off and die. It will remain on the earth, beloved. It will not go with us to heaven, praise God. And so 40 young people got life because I suffered a little bit. And so it's okay. When God allows some suffering sometimes in your life, he will use it for good if you let him. Okay? So even if you have some suffering in your life, trust God. Cry out to him. Go against the evil one. Don't give in. So when Christians fall down, you know, we fall to the ground. And I always tell people there are snakes on the ground. Jesus said when you're right with God and you don't do what he's asking you to do, then that evil devil demon will come back and bring seven more more evil ones than himself and affect you. So don't stay on the ground. Get up. Pray. Return to the Lord. Let him cleanse you anew and ask him to help you. Cry out to him. And if you're sincere in your heart, if you truly follow him, if you do what the word of God says, you will see a mighty breakthrough in your life. I promise you, you will see a breakthrough. Now, at the age of 18 in Germany, I had no future and no hope then because I had started to work at the age of 14 to help my family, to provide for my mother, but I had learned no trade and I had left school in grade seven and a half. But then a miracle happened. My mother, together with the two feather beds and the two kids saving them, had saved the documents from the farm and the house. And there was an economic revolution in Germany in the early 1960s. And she was given a lifetime pension. I said to her, mother, I've had no chance in life. Will you allow me to go to Canada? There were signs all over Germany. Give yourself a new start in life. Come to Canada. So anyhow, I saved my pennies and then I went to Cologne by train to apply to come to Canada. And there was a large room, perhaps a little larger than here, was full with people. I was the last one. I waited maybe six, seven hours and I was the last one. And the consul came out and he came out with an interpreter and he said, I just wanted to see the young man that had the audacity or had the nerve to apply to go to Canada and cannot speak English, has no schooling, and has not learned a trade. And he said, you're a welfare case. You will not make it in life and we don't want you. And so I stood up and I said, well, thank you very much for considering the application. I said, you have signs all over Germany that say, give yourself a new start in life. But on those signs, you do not say that you must have the language, you must have the trade, and you must have schooling. And I said, but you so badly behave, I'm not sure if I want to go to Canada. So I went out and never expected to go to Canada. And then six months later, I had a visa from the consulate and I don't know how, but the thief comes to kill, steal, and destroy. But Jesus came to give us life more abundantly. Praise God. And so I made it to Canada. I couldn't speak the language. I ran an elevator. All I needed to know was one, two, three, four, and that was it. In those days, they still used manual elevators. And so I managed with that. And then I had three cleaning jobs and I went to government school to learn English. And one day the teacher came running, waving papers, all excited. And she was shouting at me, you've won, you've won. And I said, what did I win? I need money. And she said, no, you didn't win money. But she said, you won a speech before the Queen of England. And what had happened was that we were asked to write an essay about Canada as new Canadians. And the essays were all marked nationwide. And so I ended up winning and being able to make a speech. Now the Queen came for this, the Queen's played a horse race, but she didn't want to hear a new Canadian, you know? So she sent the governor general and she sent someone else to hear me. But nevertheless, what it told me was that perhaps I might be able to learn, because I didn't think that I could learn, you know? And again, this story is about the Lord. It's not about me, okay? Because he can do the same in your life. You open up your gate to him. You make sure that the wrong gatekeeper is not at your gate, okay? Because the devil comes to kill, steal, and destroy. But I have come to give you life more abundantly, says Jesus. And so he will do the utmost, the wonderful in your life if you let him in. And if you reject the wrong gatekeeper at your gate, you don't need to allow him to be there. You don't need to accept him anymore. And so after I realized I could speak English a little bit and that I was able to learn, I put an ad in the newspaper and I asked for tutors to come and tutor me. And I would pay one Canadian dollar per hour. And in those days it wasn't much, but still two Chinese students from the Mao Tse-Tung area came and knocked on my door and they said, Mao Tse-Tung has allowed us to study in Canada, but as the peasants do, we must earn our own money to eat. So we want to tutor you. And they asked me what I wanted to do. And I said, well, I want to go to the University of Toronto in six months. And they asked me, what schooling have you got? And they sort of smiled at me, you know, and they said, you have public school, you must be reasonable. You cannot do this, okay? It's not possible. And so I said, well, I'm paying and you're doing this for me, so you will try and I will try. And then I found out that even having an undergraduate degree at university would still not give me a good job. So I looked at postgraduate things and it's God, okay? And so we jumped over middle school, high school, university and got into a postgraduate program. And you know, later on, God even allowed me to teach at the University of Toronto, okay? So God is able to do the incredible, the abundant in your life, okay? And by that time, I was also with a young woman from Ireland and we got married at that time point. And I also went to church. I went to church with her and I went forward and I professed Christ, but there was no change in my life, beloved. There was no change. Nothing happened that showed that there was a God and that God was real for besetting sins in my life. And so for many years, I put up with that and I lived a double life. I lived a hypocritical life, okay? I looked good in church, but in my own personal life, there were things that kept out the Lord Jesus. There was the wrong gatekeeper there. The gate wasn't open for him to come in. And so, beloved, one day in my office, I was sitting and I was fighting sin and temptation. And then I said, now, I believe in you, God, but you haven't done anything about this besetting sin in my life. And I don't believe you're real if you don't help me. And I want to know that I am set free. And so I fought for five or six hours. I was drenched in sweat and I could not overcome. And so I gave up and I said, God, I'm going to turn against you. And this is what I did. I turned against God. And then all kinds of horrible things happened. This was the most terrible decision in my life. Never make that decision. Never do that in your life, okay? Never try that. Because then evil just poured into my life. And my marriage started to fail. We ended up having a divorce. I left two beautiful daughters behind. I ended up to be very successful in business, by the way, because when I was misused as a 10-year-old, I didn't trust anyone anymore. And because I didn't trust anyone anymore, I kept distance to all people that I met to keep on top and to do the things that would make me successful. And so I reached the other end. I've talked about poverty before. And then I reached the ultimate of success running a $900 million corporation, okay? But it was terrible. It was a horrible life. Beloved, money is not the answer for happiness. Money does not give you happiness. There's so many young people that even take their lives. They have everything in the world. And for me, it's only the Lord Jesus Christ who is the ultimate answer. And so then I wanted to come back from there to Canada because I didn't want to stay in Europe for a prolonged period of time. And after six years, I asked to come back. And I came back to New Jersey because they didn't have a job for me in Canada anymore based on the level. And I went to head office. And there I found that they were changing policies. They had hired a new team from DuPont. And DuPont wanted their own things implemented. And they didn't work for that company. So I changed to another company. But at that particular time point, my mother started to die in Germany. And I got a phone call from my sister. And she was shouting on the phone. And she said, mother is dying. Mother is dying. You must come right away. It was on a Sunday morning when she called. There was a big snow storm in New Jersey. All the airports were closed. And I didn't know what to do. But I thought I better go to church. I better go to church. And so I went in a circle around where I lived. And there was a Baptist church. And I said, well, the Baptists believe the Bible. So maybe I'll go there. So I went inside. And it was an all African American church. And I was the only white man walking in there. And they were, the ushers were wearing white gloves, you know. And it was really, really overwhelming in a sense. But I sat and I listened to the sermon. And it was actually a sermon on holiness, by the way, Pastor. And so at the end, I wanted to leave. But the pastor said, now I wonder if we have any visitors here. And I didn't have a place to hide. So I stood up and I thanked them. And I said, thank you so much for the sermon. And I'm here because my mother is dying. And I just thought I would go to church. And the pastor said, well, let us pray for your mother. And so they started to pray. The pastor prayed. All of the congregation prayed. And I said, thank you very much. I left the church. I went home. Monday morning came. And I tried to reach the airport to get a plane to Germany to visit my mother. And my sister called at that particular time point. And she was shouting on the phone. And she said, don't come. Don't come. I said, mother is dying. I must come. She said, no, don't come. Mother is well. And I said, what happened? And she said, well, the doctors initially had told me that all of her systems were shutting down and her liver was shutting down. And when that happens, the person is dying. And she said during the night, all of her systems started up again. And this morning she's well and she's alive. And so I didn't have to go. And God gave my mother two more years. And then came D-Day. D-Day in my life came on a Saturday morning because God had mercy on me. And in this D-Day, D-Day, of course, is where the forces of evil were started to be defeated on the beaches of Normandy. But D-Day for me was when God had mercy on a sinner, on a great sinner. I should not be alive. I should be in hell, okay? And so I woke up at 7 a.m. on a Saturday morning and all of a sudden I was in a vision. In the vision I was in an open grave. The grave was neatly cut out six feet down. I was lying on my back in the grave. There was a late afternoon sun. It was cold. There was a leaf, a tree with leaves rustling above me. And I said, what am I doing in this grave? I got to get out. I got to get out. And I was lying on my back in the grave and I tried to get up. I tried to sit up. I could not sit up. And when I looked at myself, I was bound with these great big ropes of sin all around my body, going all around my body to my toes. And I could not move. And I realized I could not help myself and that I needed help. And so I started to call for help, but I couldn't call too loudly because these sins were so heavy on me. And I just called, help, help, help. Is someone there to help me, please? Please, someone help me. And no one came. No one came. And then the sides of my body started to turn to dust. There were worms coming from the earth, feeding on me. And that moment I had a vision that I would be going to hell forever and ever and ever. And I got so terrified. I got so scared in that grave. And I knew that Jesus Christ was the way, that he was the Savior. And so I started to call for his name. And I said, now, now, Father, if there's any mercy left for a sinner like me, would you please come? Would you please send your son to save me? Jesus, would you have mercy on me? And I seemed to call for hours and no one came. And then after what seemed like an eternity, a person came at the bottom of the grave. He reached with his hand into the grave. He put his hand around my neck, helped me to sit up. All of my sins snapped off my body like if they were thread. And that moment I woke up and I'd fallen out of bed. I was next to my bed and I knelt. And I said, Lord Jesus, I confess my sins. I'm an evil man. I don't deserve to be in heaven. I've done so much evil to you and to my family, to many people I've hurt. Father, I don't know how I can be forgiven, but if you would forgive me through your son, Lord Jesus, if your precious blood would take away my sins, if you would wash me, please make me whiter than snow. Please do that, which I cannot do. Please have mercy on me. I believe in you, Lord Jesus. I believe that you died on the cross and that you rose again, and I want to follow you. And so if you save me now, I will give my life to you and I will follow you. In Jesus' name, amen. And then, beloved, what happened is that heaven came down and glory filled my soul. When at the cross, the Savior made me whole. My sins are all forgiven, and now I am on my way to heaven. Praise God. Now, beloved, it is also true that after God has forgiven us, that there are times then in our life where we have to look at what does it mean to be a Christian. Thank you kindly, brother. Thank you. You know, what does it mean to be a Christian? Would I be willing to set aside all known sin? Would I be willing to stop all of the things that I was involved in? Would I be willing to forgive those that had misused me? Would I be willing to ask for forgiveness of my wife that I had left, of my two daughters? Would I be willing to make restoration where I had taken things that didn't belong to me? Would I be willing to surrender to Jesus with all of my life because he wants all? Would I be willing to do his will in whatever he asked me to do? Would I be willing to do that? Now, beloved, you'll have to come back tomorrow morning to hear the second part of this and what happened in my life. But they were some of the hardest things in my life. They were harder than running a big corporation, okay, to ask for forgiveness for my daughter, for my wife. I had lived common law, and I will share tomorrow about that. But I don't want us to forget about ourselves because many of you here, you have burdens. You have issues in your life, okay? You have things that beset you that maybe have to be set aside, have to be forgotten, have to be changed. The work of the Holy Spirit will start in you when you commit to holiness, when you give all. You will rise up with faith like eagles, but you must change some of your gatekeeping. You must change some of the things that keep Jesus from possessing you to you all. And he will do it. He wants to because he said the thief comes to kill, steal, and destroy. But I have come that you might have life and that you might have it more abundantly. There was once a little eaglet up in the top of a tree in a nest by eagles, and that little eaglet fell out of that nest from the top of the tree and fell to the ground. It fell on pine needles, and so it didn't get hurt too badly, but there were a bunch of chickens on the ground. And so a little eaglet then was adapted by the chickens, and he started to look for worms. He started to look for little grubs. He started to do what chickens do. And one day, little eaglet looked up in the sky and saw this beautiful bird swerving up high and higher and higher and looked up, and the chicken said to eaglet, what are you looking at? And eaglet said, I'm looking at that beautiful bird. I want to be like that bird. And the chicken started laughing and said, you're nothing but a chicken. You will never, you will never rise. You will never rise alive from the devil, okay? Alive from the devil. Alive from the devil. You're fearfully and wonderfully made. Each one of you has a calling from the Lord. Each one of you can, with the help of Jesus, do the things that he has ordained for you to do. He can do things that are wonderful and incredible in your life. And you know that little eaglet one day started to flap its wings, and it flapped it more and more, and then one day it rose off the ground, and then it rose up higher, and it rose up into the sky and rose up further and further until the eyes could no longer see it. And I think that eaglet is still up there, okay? That eaglet rose with Christ, with the right gatekeeper. And so you may need to oppose some things in prayer today. You may need to go to the Lord and say, no, I will no longer do these things that beset me. I will no longer do what my parents even taught me that is wrong. I will not follow what the world says. And I did also what I was taught, by the way, from parents. Parents always mean well, but they may not teach you always the best way. The best way is this book, beloved. You start doing. Don't just hear the word, but start doing it. Because if you don't flap your wings, guess what? You're going to be on the ground with the chickens forever, okay? But flap your wings. And Christ has had mercy on you. Perhaps there's someone here who has never yet accepted Christ. You can do so tonight. I want you to do so tonight, because I want you to experience what many here have experienced, what I have experienced. Because there's mercy, there's love, there are wonderful things with the Lord. You will not find true happiness either in poverty or in riches, but find it in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so let us bow our heads in prayer forward. Brother Sam, would you please come and lead the group in prayer, please? Would you do that?