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The All-Inclusive Promises of God
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paid for. It’s already been provided by grace. What’s really the hold up? They have to lay hold of
it by faith. What about you and me?
People have been filled with the Spirit in our services, and some of them had been seeking for
years. They got filled and spoke in tongues. That is particularly near and dear to my heart
because that happened to me. I was born again as a boy, and I heard people speak in tongues. I
saw it in the Bible, and I knew it was right, but I didn’t do it. All I was taught, all I knew, was to
tarry. What does “tarry” mean? Wait. And so I waited, for years.
We would have revival meetings, and after the service was over, they’d invite people to come
down to tarry to receive the Holy Spirit, or tarry for the Holy Spirit. I tarried, and I tarried, and I
tarried. One night I started tarrying about 9:30 p.m., and at 2:30 in the morning, I was still there
tarrying. I was tarrying and tarrying, month after month, and I was upset. “God, why won’t You
fill me? God, what?”
Some folks told me, “Well, if you’d shave that mustache off, God would fill you.” I thought,
“Hey, no problem.” I shaved and tarried and tarried. Others had other suggestions: if you’d
change the way you dress, if you’d do this, if you’ll do that, and say this, and don’t say that… I
tried everything I heard.
Phyllis didn’t grow up like that. She was with me in these meetings, while I’m tarrying, and this
would go on night after night, week after week, month after month. She told me later that she
thought, “Well, maybe it’s me. Maybe I’m holding him up some way.” She would sit back there
tired and say, “Lord, whatever it is he wants, would You give it to him so we can go home?”
Finally she said, “Well, Lord, is it me? Am I hindering him some way? I’ll go to the altar. What
do You want me to do?” She went up to the altar, fell out under the power, and before the night
was over, she was talking in tongues. And I’m still tarrying. I thought, “God! This doesn’t seem
right!”
We don’t receive based on what seems right to us. God doesn’t move based on needs. If He did,
miracles would be popping all over the planet right now because there are needs everywhere.
God doesn’t move based on how upset you are. You being upset does not move Him to manifest
for you. You being confused does not move Him. What causes God to be able to manifest in our
lives? Faith. And what is faith? Faith is a receiver. You believe that you take. You believe that
you receive.
For weeks and weeks after that, I still tarried. I was frustrated. I would get up in the middle of the
night, and I’d go out in the woods and say, “God, what do You want me to do?” Now, this is
where a lot of people miss it. They buy into someone else who will come along and tell them,
“Well, this is not for everyone,” and will give them these doctrinal explanations as to why it’s
not happening for them. What did they just do? They just watered down the Bible to match their
lack of experience. If it soothes their mind a little bit, it’s not enough, because they’re still not
filled. They still don’t have something that they need just as much as anyone else.