Dear Brethren and Friends,
What a magnificent Feast of Tabernacles God gave us this year! As mentioned in my member letter, many felt this year’s Feast was the “most inspirational” ever! Read for yourselves some of the detailed reports on the Feast in this issue and perhaps some in the next issue as well. Your encouraging and inspiring letters about the Feast are still coming in.
During the Feast, my sermons mainly touched on the twin themes of “Restoring Apostolic Christianity” and building an “atmosphere of FAITH” within God’s Church. I hope and pray that all of you are picking up on these themes—and that you will pray about them, and really study the Bible so as to be very conversant with these vital themes. After all, this is nothing new. It is exactly what we see reflected in the book of Acts and in the history and writings of the early Apostolic Church. This approach is what we ought to be imitating! Yet it is encouraging and inspiring to realize that—if we do our part—God will no doubt begin to “pour out” His Spirit on us as He did the early Church of God. For, as we know, “Jesus Christ is the SAME yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).
Remember the atmosphere of constant prayer and SEEKING GOD that is described throughout the book of Acts? Soon after Christ ascended to heaven, we read of the Apostles: “These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers” (Acts 1:14). “Supplication,” of course, has the connotation of very humble and heartfelt prayer! Mr. Armstrong used to tell us that he felt one of the greatest LACKS in the prayers of God’s people in this age is that all too often we do NOT put our “hearts” into our prayers. We do not have the dynamic earnestness and PASSION of those who are truly “crying out” to the Great GOD!
Please think about it.
Again, notice the constant atmosphere of prayer even among the new converts in the early church: “Then those who gladly received His word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in PRAYERS” (Acts 2:41–42).
Notice this powerful prayer to God by the Church when some of the Apostles’ lives had been threatened: “And being let go, they went to their own companions and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. So when they heard that, they raised their voice to God with one accord and said: ‘Lord, You are God, who made heaven and earth and the sea, and all that is in them…. Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word, by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus’” (Acts 4:23–24; 29–30). In this case, the answer came quickly and God literally SHOOK the building in which the brethren were meeting!
But notice what the early Church of God people asked for: boldness in preaching, and that God would grant signs and wonders and HEALINGS to back up the preaching of His Word. And God began to answer DRAMATICALLY in a number of ways, including the Apostles’ performing many signs and wonders and even Peter’s “shadow” causing people to be HEALED! (Acts 5:12–16).
When it came time to call the first Gentile to conversion, Peter was sent to a Roman captain who was a “devout man” who “prayed always” (Acts 10:2), and who had been FASTING for about four days (v. 30). This is the kind of man whose prayer God hears!
In our day, God mightily used Herbert W. Armstrong because of this same type of attitude and zealous approach to God. In his autobiography, Mr. Armstrong describes a time when he was financially impoverished, when his wife was about to have a baby while at the same time she had developed a severe case of anemia and other complications. What did Mr. Armstrong do? His answer is contained in the following quote from the Autobiography of Herbert W. Armstrong, Vol. 1, pp. 391–393:
There was no more time to lose. I had to find the answer. I knew of only one way. Fasting and prayer! It was the last-ditch resort. I didn’t know how one ought to fast and pray—I had never done it before. But when Jesus’ disciples were unable to cast out a demon, Jesus said such a result came only by fasting and prayer. So I began to fast.
The fasting was begun on a Sabbath morning. That morning I ate no breakfast. Not knowing how one ought to go about fasting and prayer, I first prayed and asked God to show me the way—to open my understanding. Then, since God speaks to us through His written Word, I began to search the Bible for instruction about fasting. For one hour with the aid of a concordance I studied passages of Scripture on the subject of fasting and praying, much of the time on my knees.
Then for one hour I sat in thought and contemplation. I turned over in my mind the scriptures I had read. I reflected on my own life in recent months. I tried to compare it with God’s way, as revealed in the Scriptures. Then I spent the next hour in talking to God—in prayer.
And so I decided to continue in this order—one hour in scripture study, one in contemplation, and one in prayer. I did not once ask God to heal my wife—as yet. I had been doing that for weeks, without result. I was fasting and praying, not for the purpose of bringing pressure on God to force Him to obey my will and give what was asked—but to find out what was wrong with me! I realized we did not need to nag at God. NEVER fast as a means of inducing God to answer!
I read of Elijah’s prayer, in presence of all the priests of Baal, when God answered and the fire came down from heaven. I timed that prayer. It was very short—only about 20 seconds. But the awe-inspiring answer came crashing from heaven instantly! Elijah did not need to talk God into it by a long prayer, or by repeated prayers. But I knew that Elijah at that moment was close to God—that he had previously been spending hours in long prayers to be in contact and close communion with His Maker! And he naturally knew His Maker would answer!
Gradually the truth began to pierce through the fog in my mind. Gradually, as this process of fasting and prayer continued all day, and into the afternoon of Sunday—as I became more and more hungry—but closer and closer to God, the realization came that I had been keeping my mind more and more fully on this clay project.
In the following pages of his autobiography, Mr. Armstrong relates how God answered every single request he had made to God while fasting—plus supplying a couple of additional needs Mr. Armstrong had not thought to ask for! For he had truly been humbly, fervently SEEKING God—and so God ANSWERED in a wonderful and inspiring manner.
Brethren, if we in the Living Church of God will unitedly begin to SEEK GOD in this manner, we ourselves may be astounded at the wonderful results. Again, I urge all of you to please join with me in a CRUSADE to restore the full spirit of Apostolic Christianity within God’s Church! Pray earnestly for abundant FAITH. Genuinely study in a direct effort to make God more real and to build an understanding and dynamic FAITH (Romans 10:17).
Let us all join together to beseech God to build within His people a radiant faith in Him, in Jesus Christ and in the inspired Word of God. And let us ask God to use His chosen servants today to powerfully preach the Gospel, heal the sick and cast out demons (Mark 3:14–15).
In order that a truly effective Work may be done in Christ’s name, let us all CRY OUT to God to use us powerfully as His tools so that it may someday be said of us—as it was of Jesus’ original disciples: “And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying SIGNS” (Mark 16:20).
