Holiness and Power 2/1 Monday Meditation

Not long ago I stood before great audiences of the churchmen of the world.  They said, "Through all your ministry there is one note.  It is the call for power."  They said, "Do you not think it would be better if the Church was calling for holiness instead of power?"
And I replied, "She will never obtain the one without the other.  There is something larger than holiness.  It is the nature of God."

--John G. Lake

Hungry for a Little Bit of God? 1/29 Friday Faith

"Blessed are they that hunger."  Bless God!  What are we hungering for, a little bit of God?  Enough to take us through this old world where we will have the dry rot and be stunted and then squeeze into heaven?  "Blessed are they that hunger," for the nature and power and love and understanding of God.  Why?  "They shall be filled."  Bless God!

The Purging Power of Christ 1/28 Thursday Thoughts

Think not to come within the court of God with stain upon thy garments.  Think not that heaven can smile upon a nature fouled through evil contact.  Think not that Christ can dwell in temples seared by flames of hate.  No!  The heart of man must first be purged by holy fire and washed from every stain by cleansing blood.  Know ye not that he whose nature is akin to God's must ever feel the purging power of Christ within?

--John G. Lake

Attain the Highest 1/27 Wednesday Wisdom

Think not that thou shalt attain the highest in God until within thine own soul a heavenly longing to be like Him who gave His life for us possesses thine heart.

-- John G. Lake

A Preacher for 50 Years 1/26 Tuesday Truth

An old brother who was recently healed was a Methodist local preacher.  He was 73 years old.  He said to me with tears, "I have spent almost my little all on the doctors, medicine, etc., during the last four years of my sickness...  I would give the little all I have left if I could be well."
I said, "Brother, how long have you been preaching the Gospel?"
He said, "Fifty years."  Think of that -- a half century.
I said, "Brother, haven't you been in the habit of calling on God and getting answers to your prayers?"
He said, "Yes, I have."
I said, "Well, Brother, why have you not called on God to take away this evil thing, this sickness that is on your life?"
His old eyes opened with wonder and he said, "I never thought of it."
He went home amazed.  He and his old wife came back every few days, and they said it was such an awakening that he could look up to God to take away his sickness the same as he could pray about anything else.  Yet he had been preaching the Gospel fifty years.

--John G. Lake 

He Will Bless Your Soul 1/25 Monday Meditation

"Prepare ye the way of the Lord.  Make His paths straight."  You want God to come and bless your own life?  Then separate yourself from the superficialities and formalities that have possessed your mind and taken your attention, and come back with directness and simplicity to God and He will bless your soul.

-- John G. Lake 

Outpouring of Spirit at Hand 1/22 Friday Faith

It was that consciousness of God's presence and God's power in the disciples and the Church of the first centuries that wrote across the pages of history the wonderful, wonderful record of Christianity of the first four hundred years.  There were thirty million Christian martyrs, those who were slaughtered in the Christian wars, etc.  Thirty million gave up their lives for the Christ.  There was a spirit that made it so intense, so powerful, that had such a power of induction that the world got out.  Bless God. 
But there came a day when the Church traded the communion of the Holy Ghost for the smile of the world, and then he long, long night of the middle centuries followed.
But bless God, I tell you we are living in a day and hour when the Spirit of God has come into the world afresh, when the consciousness of mankind is opening up to God in a manner that they have never opened before.  There is an awakening in the world from ocean to ocean, from pole to pole, as there never was before.  And I believe, bless God, that God Almighty's outpouring of the Spirit upon all flesh is at hand.  And though we are receiving the dropping and our hearts are being warmed under the impulse of the Spirit, the day is not far distant when the flame of God will catch the soul of mankind.  And the Church of the latter day will close this era with a place of divine glory excelling that of the early Church.
This according to the prophecy of the Word.  "If the former rain was abundant, shall not the latter rain be more abundant."  Bless God.

--John G. Lake

External Evidences 1/21 Thursday Thoughts

I tell you, beloved, that the external evidences of God and the power of His Spirit, no matter how wonderful, are a small matter compared with the consciousness of the Word of God in the human heart; in your heart and mine, bless God.

--John G. Lake 

Baptism of the Holy Spirit 1/20 Wednesday Wisdom

The baptism of the Holy Spirit was the common experience of New Testament times.  The New Testament was written by men who had the baptism of the Holy Spirit.  It was written to churches that possessed the baptism of the Holy Ghost.  Indeed, in my study of the New Testament the disciples seemed to consider it essential that each individual should himself possess the baptism of the Spirit.  When Paul came down to Ephesus the first question he asked them was, "Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?..."

--John G. Lake

Get a Good Foundation 1/19 Tuesday Truth

For the Church of God and Christian faith to become strong and to be built up in God, it is necessary to get a good foundation.  It is a greater problem with most builders to get the old rubbish out of the way than to do the building.  If we will look at our own lives, we will observe this:  that the things that have been rooted and grounded in our hearts--some tradition of the Fathers, some of it misconception of the meaning of the Word of God; much of our teaching is fragmented-- these form the greatest obstacles to the engrafting of the living Word of God.  Every one of us who have progressed in God have found that the difficulty was not in believing the Word of God, but the difficulty was to get away from things that were settled in our own being as facts, though untrue.  How hardly have we struggled over the matter of, "If it be Thy will," considering sickness.  From our babyhood and all down through the generations, we have been taught that if you are sick, the proper thing to do is to pray, "If it be Thy will," forgetting all the time that the Lord has forever demonstrated and declared His eternal will concerning the subject of sickness by healing all that come to Him.

--John G. Lake

The Common Conception of Christ 1/18 Monday Meditation

Indeed, beloved, I have felt, and I feel today, that the world has never had a proper comprehension of the Lord Jesus Christ.  We all realize the common conception of the Christ as it has been presented to us by the orthodox Church at large.  And I want to say with all frankness that while in large measure that conception of the Church largely is true, yet it is ten thousand miles below the real standard or God's conception of presentation of Christ as I see it in the Word of God...

--John G. Lake 

Receive Power 1/15 Friday Faith

"Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you."  (Acts 1:8)  We are entitled to it, bless God.  We are glad to see some of it and wish, bless God, that we might see a great deal more.  And beloved, I have a splendid conviction in my heart that we will.

--John G. Lake

The One Prayer That Is Answered 1/14 Thursday Thoughts

There is only one prayer that is answered.  It is not prayer that is answered, but it is the prayer of faith.  It is the prayer of faith that shall save the sick.  Believing prayer is not much noise.  Believing prayer may not be any noise at all.  Believing prayer is an intelligent committing of yourself to God, and you mind is stayed in God and your heart is stayed in God and you are walking in God.  You are ready to die rather than go to anyone but God.  That is the real believing prayer.  That is the continuous prayer. That is prevailing prayer.  Blessed be God!
--John G. Lake

Our Exalted Place 1/13 Wednesday Wisdom

Indeed, I have this in my heart, that the low state of Christian experience that is common among men is mostly accounted for by this one fact: that Christians have failed to grasp the exalted place into which Jesus Christ puts us when we have been made sons of God.

--John G. Lake

One of My Favorite Lake Quotes 1/12 Tuesday Truth

At the tabernacle service Thursday night, it was a very sweet service with nothing out of the ordinary.  Mrs. Arlow of Whurter, instantly healed of violent internal inflammation.

--John G. Lake,  Thursday, Dec. 8, 1910 

If that happened in our churches today, could we say "Nothing out of the ordinary"? 

The Gifts Today 1/11 Monday Meditation

And now, beloved, is the Holy Ghost in the Church today?  Verily, yes.  But you say, "We don't see Him work in this way in our church!"  Why?  Because you say, "All these things were for apostolic days."  Can you find anywhere in the Scriptures that the gifts of the Holy Ghost were withdrawn from the Church of Christ?  There is no biblical authority for such an assertion, but rather we read, "The gifts and calling of God are without repentance" (Romans 11:29).
--John G. Lake

Rx: Psalm 91 seven times a day 1/8 Friday Faith

A Prescription for Healing, by John G. Lake

One of the prescriptions for healing in the Talmud [writings of the rabbinic scholars] is to repeat the Ninety-first Psalm seven times a day.  Well, if a man repeated the Ninety-first Psalm seven time a day, he would not keep it up long before the spirit of faith in the Almighty God got into his soul.  That was good medicine for the soul, and good medicine for the body too.

[My personal advice would be to read Psalm 91 at least once a week, and Psalm 103:1-5 once a day. - Lep]

Lack of Faith 1/7 Thursday Thoughts

Beloved, we have seen that the Holy Ghost came into the Church at Pentecost and the gifts are in the Holy Ghost.  Consequently, if the Holy Ghost is in the Church, the gifts are too.  But for lack of faith we do not see them exercised in the ordinary church.  Now we stand for obtaining the Holy Ghost through our personal baptism in the Holy Ghost and the enduement of the Holy Ghost power as promised by Jesus, yea, commanded by Him.  "Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you" (Acts 1:8).

--John G. Lake 

Savior, Sanctifier, Healer 1/6 Wednesday Wisdom

O, I praise God for the discovery of the gifts of the Holy Ghost and especially the gift of healing.  May we all learn to know Christ, not alone as our Savior, but as our Sanctifier and Healer too.   

--John G. Lake 

A Gold Field 1/5 Tuesday Truth

 A fellow in California and his boy were working in the garden about two years ago. They had to dig up a stone, and in digging out the stone they discovered a pocket of gold nuggets, something like six or eight thousand dollars worth. The father said, "Let's not say anything. Maybe this was buried here." They dug around a little more, and the boy found about two thousand more, and they found they had a gold field, a limited one.

There is none of you folks here but have a gold field. First you have the nature and life of God. Second you have the great, mighty Holy Spirit. Third, you are the son of God.

Do you need any moire capital to begin to do business?"     --John G. Lake

Introducing John G. Lake 1/4 Monday Meditation

I am going to begin the new year with quotes from John G. Lake (1870-1935).  Lake had one of the largest evangelistic / healing ministries of all time, first in South Africa, and later centered in the State of Washington.  You might want to Google him or you might want to join "John G. Lake Fan Page" on Facebook.  I have the 1000-page complete teachings, but my quotes will be few, as his teachings did not lend themselves well to brief "sound bytes".

 

There used to be a Bible school in Ohio where they waited in continuous prayer meeting for nine months for the Gifts of the Holy Ghost.  I said to them, "It seems to me if you stay around for ten years and nine months you will miss the Gifts of the Holy Ghost.  But if you take off your coat and go out and use what God has given you to bless others, He will give you more."