<TITLE>10. Par 83-97</TITLE>L-83 And that's just exactly where our Christianity has got. That's just exactly where our Pentecostal movements are coming to. It's a family tradition. See? We don't--we don't identify ourselves with our Sacrifice, that we are dead with our Sacrifice. We are... We say, "Oh, we're Christians because I went and joined the church." Joining a church is fine. But until you are identified, till you lay your hands upon Him, and you and He become One, until the Spirit of Christ becomes in you, and you in Christ, until you'll become a son and daughter of God, there don't seem to be the sincerity that they--they ought to have. It becomes a ritual. Just the same as it is now, it's a ritual for people to become a Christian.

L-84   Here some time ago I asked a young lady in the prayer line, "Are you a Christian?"

L-85 She said, "Well, I'm an American, I'll give you to understand." Now, like that had anything to do with it.

L-86 An American, it's great to be an American, but that don't mean you're a Christian. You've got to be born again.
Another woman I asked, "Are you a Christian?"

L-87 Why, she was so put out, she said, "I give you the understanding, I burn a candle every night." Like that had anything to do with it.

L-88 You've got to be identified with Christ, and His Life living in you. That's when you're identified with Christ, is when Christ lives in you. It isn't a ritual. It isn't belonging to church. That's all good, but you see the real sincerity.

L-89   When we come to the healing services, if you'll notice on the discernment in the line, it's constantly, "Tell people to repent." See? There you go, till our prayers has become a tradition. We kneel down at night and say, "Lord, bless So-and-so, and bless So-and-so, and do this. And help John do all this." You make God a mascot, or you make Him some kind of an errand boy. "God, You do this. And You do this. And You do this." That's not the way Jesus told us to pray.

L-90 He said to pray like this, "Our Father Who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy Kingdom come. Thine will be done in earth, as it is in Heaven."
But we try to order God, what to do for us.

L-91 And that's the reason the church is cooling off. That's why the great revival that's just struck the land, has put millions into the church. It's, they have got to a place that they're using these experiences, and so forth, as a tradition, instead of being godly sorrowful, and letting the Holy Spirit do the work of His office within you, and creating in you a new life, and making you so hungry to go to church that you can't stay away from church. Then, that's what it is. Not to sign tickets, and join, and have so forth. It's to be have the Life of Christ in you, that you just longs to go. There is Something within you, pushing you.

L-92   As I was saying to a young man yesterday, in a talk, a little interview. I said, "I used to pass by a little spring, when I was a game warden in Indiana. And there was..."

L-93 It was always the happiest spring I ever seen in my life. Great springs in Indiana, they bubble up with that fine cold water, of limestone water. And one day I set down by the spring, to talk to it, just like I guess that Moses would have set, to the burning bush, to speak with it. And I said, "Little spring, what makes you so happy, that you're bubbling all the time? If I come here in the wintertime, you're bubbling. If I come spring, autumn, summer, whenever it is, you're bubbling. Is it because that maybe, perhaps, you're so happy that the rabbits come and drink out of you?"

L-94 Well, now, if he could talk, he'd say, "No, that's--that's not it."

L-95 I'd say, "Well, maybe because deers come by and drink out of you."
He'd say, "No, that's not it."

L-96 I'd say, "Now, well, maybe it's because I come by, once in a while, and drink from you."

L-97 "No, that's not it. I'm glad that they all come and drink, but that's not the reason that I'm bubbling all the time."


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