Roberts Liardon

Roberts Liardon tells us that she answered yes, and he thought nothing more of it. But the encounter meant a great deal more to the young lady, Evelyn Lutman Fahnestock. After meeting the handsome, dark-haired young man, Evelyn walked alone to her tent and wrote in her diary, “I sat by my future husband tonight!”201 That was a young lady in tune with the Holy Spirit! She saw far more of God’s will in that situation than Oral ever could have imagined. Wisely, Evelyn gave her thoughts and hopes to the Lord in prayer and returned to her teaching position in Texas that fall.

Early in his ministry, it was obvious to everyone who heard him that Oral possessed an unusual anointing to preach. Following the Sulphur, Oklahoma, camp meetings in 1936, he preached for two years, sometimes with his father but more often alone. He was excited to be preaching for the Lord, but he was also experiencing the lonely life of an itinerant preacher. At the end of those two years, Oral decided it was time to find a wife, but not just any wife. She had to willingly accept the rough roads of a Pentecostal preacher’s life journey.

He Who Finds a Wife…

“Adam’s wife came from his rib, while mine came from Texas!” Oral often joked.202 As Oral began praying for a wife who would share his home and ministry, some friends told him about a wonderful girl named Evelyn. After a few inquiries, he discovered that she was the same young woman he had met two years before at the Sulphur, Oklahoma, camp meetings. Oral could hardly remember what she looked like, but he was very impressed by the reports of her love for the Lord and her good reputation among other Christians.

For five hours, Lester heard the heart of God as He spoke of the suffering among much of His church throughout the world. There was so much ravaging hunger in the world, especially in the war-torn areas. If Lester would obey, God would provide the means for him to transport the desperate­ly needed food into the interiors of many countries. The purpose was to bypass the government bureaucracy of third-world nations and to get the food and relief sup­plies directly into the hands of God’s people through local pastors.

Robersts Liardon tells us that God spoke, “You will distribute the food through My churches only. Around the world I want you to feed My people who are hungry.” When Lester asked the Lord why He’d chosen him, God’s answer was clear: “You’ve preached in 110 na­tions, and you love all those people. I want to use you to feed them.” At five o’clock that morning, in the Holy City, Lester an­swered God’s call once again: “I am will­ing, Lord.”

Over the next year, an unbelievable series of miracles occurred to bring the first load of food to a starving people. Lester realized that the ministry needed to have its own airplane to reach the interiors of countries, where the greatest food shortages occurred. He discovered that the best type of airplane for that mission was the C-130, a military transport plane. But Lester was laughed at when he declared that they were going to find a used C-130 to purchase for the ministry.

Miracle number one was finding a used airplane in excellent condi­tion. Once that was accomplished, the 1.5-million-dollar asking price had to be raised. Finally, both the United States Department of State and the Federal Aviation Commission had to approve the purchase of a C-130 by a Christian ministry. No one thought that the last hurdle could be cleared. But with an extra stamp of approval from the White House administration, both applications were accepted! Within months, the first load of food was flown into Guatemala and delivered directly to a local missionary. The plane was able to land on a dirt airstrip in the mountains where food was desperately needed.

Roberts Liardon tells us that Lester’s faith grew stronger as he spent time with Smith Wigglesworth, and he longed to be solely focused on God, just like Wigglesworth. Unfortunately, this special time would not last. The year was 1939, and Hitler’s aggression in Czechoslovakia and Poland had erupted into World War II. Because Lester was on a temporary visa during a time of war, the British government informed him that he had just ten days to leave England.

With a heavy heart, Lester prepared to leave Howard Carter and Smith Wigglesworth. He said his good-byes to Smith Wigglesworth first. Lester never forgot the day that he and this mighty Apostle of Faith met for the last time on this earth. As he sat in Wigglesworth’s familiar parlor, Lester spoke tearfully of his gratitude. He thanked Wigglesworth for the blessed times of prayer in God’s presence and the rich inheritance he had shared on the blessings of faith. As they ended their visit, Wigglesworth asked Lester to stand because he wanted to bless him.

Lester described the extraordinary moment thusly: He laid his hand on me and pulled me close to him, and I let my head go in closer to him. Tears flowed from his eyes and ran down his face and dropped off onto my forehead and ran down my face.

As he cried, he said, “Oh, God, let all of the faith that is within my heart be in his heart. Let the knowledge of God that resides in me also reside in him. Let all the gifts that function in my ministry function in his life.”

As the men stood there weeping and praying, Lester felt the tremendous anointing of God flow from Wigglesworth into his own spirit. He was quickly reminded of the prophets of the Old Testament and how Elijah’s anointing was passed on to Elisha in the book of 2 Kings. (See 2 Kings 2:9–15.) Lester felt a special unction from the Holy Spirit and a new authority to serve God stir in his innermost being. Smith Wiggles­worth had passed his spiritual blessing on to Lester Sumrall—glory to God for the great way in which He uses His mighty ones to minister in His kingdom!

This was not the first time that Howard Carter had received a prophecy from the Lord, but it was certainly the most puzzling word he had heard. Standing before the Hampstead Bible College faculty and student body, Howard read the prophecy aloud. “This is a prophecy,” he told them. “If I am a false prophet, mark me as one and discard me—but, if this comes true, then you will know that I am a prophet of God.”

Nothing happened concerning that prophecy for eighteen months. Howard Carter was expecting to leave for a long missionary trip to the Far East when he received an unexpected invitation to preach in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. When he inquired of the Lord, he was amazed that God actually wanted him to accept the invitation to the United States.

Roberts Liardom tells us that at the same time, led by the “coincidental” hand of God, Lester Sumrall was impressed to leave a revival he was preaching in Oklahoma and drive 150 miles to Eureka Springs, Arkansas, for a Bible conference. Unsure of why the Lord wanted him to go there, he asked his sister, Leona, to pack up their things so they could be on their way.

On the day of Lester’s arrival, Howard Carter lectured on the nine gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to 1 Corinthians 12:7–10. Lester was fascinated by the depth of Howard’s understanding of the gifts of the Spirit—he was speaking of things Lester had never considered before. After the lecture, Lester followed the Bible teacher outside to discuss the Scripture passage with him further. To his own amazement, after just a few polite words, Lester Sumrall began to speak prophetically to Howard Carter. He talked of things he had never considered, using language that was not in his Southern vocabulary. His prophecy began like this: “Wherever you go, I will go. Over the highest mountains, over the temptuous waves of the sea into the deep valleys, into the plains….” On and on, Lester spoke the exact words of prophecy that Howard Carter had received eighteen months earlier! His statement ended with, “…and you shall be unto me as a father.” Immediately after he had finished, Lester apologized for the unusual words, especially as they had been spoken to a stranger, and began to walk away, shaking his head.

Roberts Liardon tells us that after Jeffreys resigned from Elim, E. J. Phillips remained the Secre­tary-General of the denomination for nearly thirty more years. During that time, he remained wholly committed to the work of the Elim move­ment. After a few years of illness, Phillips died on September 5, 1973, at the age of seventy-nine. He had served in the Elim movement for more than fifty years. While Phillips remained at the helm, no one made an attempt to challenge his authority. Through the 1950s, Phillips served on no fewer than ten of the thirteen committees that had been formed to run various aspects of the denomination. Believing it was in the best interests of the Elim churches, he had personally maintained the central control.

Since he was an administrator without the five-fold ministry gifts, Phillips’ leadership was one of maintenance, not one marked by aggres­sive evangelism and church planting. The question remains: When Phil­lips took control of the Elim movement, did it result in a stable church or a stagnant one? Da­vid Neil Hudson notes in his thesis on the Elim schism that “by 1973, Elim had not essentially changed since 1940.”80 During his time as the senior pastor of Kensington Temple, Wynne Lewis made a personal observation concern­ing the Elim conflict: “They kicked out the ap­ostolic spirit and took the dead hand of the ad­ministrative spirit to lead the denomination.”

In 1984, the nine-member Advisory Com­mittee of the Bible Pattern Church Fellowship joined with the Elim Foursquare Gospel Al­liance. Twenty-two years after Jeffreys’ death and eleven years after Phillips’, the two Pen­tecostal denominations came together once again to serve the Lord. Many of the things that George Jeffreys wanted are now a part of the Elim churches.

Today, the Elim movement continues to grow and flourish with five hundred fifty churches in the United Kingdom and their work in more than forty na­tions around the world.

None of these men was married, as they all dedicated the sum of their time and energy to spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. When James McWhirter married later in the 1930s, he stepped down from the Revival Party and helped in less time-consuming capacities. Fifty years after the Birmingham campaign was over, it was possible to still speak with people who had been converted during those days, or whose parents had given their lives to Christ at Jeffreys’ meetings.

Jeffreys rented the huge Crystal Palace in London for the first time in 1930, and the crowds filled it to capacity. The building had been con­structed for the Great Exhibition of 1851 and was used every year follow­ing by the Elim movement until it burned down in 1936.

Roberts Liardon tells us that in 1932, Jeffreys wrote an in-depth book entitled Healing Rays on the healing power of Christ throughout the history of the Christian church. In the book, Jeffreys contended that while sin, sickness, and death com­pose a curse that came upon the earth through Adam’s disobedience, the atoning and redeeming work of Jesus Christ is the answer to overcome the curse in its entirety. Healing and deliverance from sickness can be experienced now, according to Jeffreys, and the final deliverance from death will come when Christ returns to bring His own to glory.

In Healing Rays, Jeffreys also made a clear case for divine healing today based on the Word of God and the great cloud of witnesses who have testified to healing since the foundation of the Christian church. He shared the testimonies of the early church fathers, who spoke of God’s healing power at work. Clement in the first century, Irenaeus in the sec­ond century, and Tertullian and Origen in the third century all spoke of “disciples in His name who still do miracles…others still heal the sick by laying their hands on them, and they are made whole.”

Nearly one thousand candidates followed Miss Munday into those baptismal waters, and, by God’s grace, Jeffreys and his team immersed each one of them.

Two days later, on Easter morning, the crowds lined up before dawn for the eleven o’clock service. Newspapers would later report that ten thousand people were in attendance, filling the hall with sounds of praise and thanksgiving to a risen Savior. The two-thousand-member Crusaders Choir, comprising vocalists from all over London, stood on both sides of the platform and sang songs of joyful praise to the Lord. There was a beautiful Communion service, and the congregation broke bread in memory of the death and resurrection of Christ.

Roberts Liardon tells us that the service that evening ended with hundreds raising their hands in surrender to the saving grace of Jesus. Hundreds more stood up to ac­knowledge that they had received a healing. Finally, thousands of voices rose together in glorifying praise to God. The meeting closed with the hymn “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name,” after which the redeemed and transformed filed out of the hallowed hall. For the next eleven years, Jeffreys would fill the Royal Albert Hall each Easter weekend, giving the praise to God for His work among the people of London.

George Jeffreys began his Spirit-filled minis­try in the first half of the twentieth century as a healing evangelist. Thousands came to Christ as a result of the four-part gospel he preached: Je­sus as Savior, Healer, Baptizer in the Holy Spirit, and coming King.

With little time to recover from these tremendous disappointments, Fred faced another, greater tragedy. Estella had been a hardworking help­mate for eighteen years, but in her exuberance for the ministry, she often overexerted herself. As her health slipped, she continued to ignore the bed rest that she needed. Early in 1919, she developed a cough, which quickly became pneumonia and then tuberculosis. Even though prayers for heal­ing went up in earnest, Estella Bosworth died on November 16, 1919, leav­ing two daughters without a mother. Fred had seen countless healings as a result of answered prayer, which made his wife’s death seem an even greater tragedy, but he never gave up his faith in a faithful, living God.

Roberts Liardon tells us that through these tragedies, Fred Bosworth became a more compas­sionate human being. He was seen as kind, self-effacing, and completely dependent on the Lord for everything. Through these trials, his faith was not moved, so God gave him a greater power in witnessing for Him.

After finding someone to take care of his daughters, Fred Bosworth turned his steps to national evangelism, answering the call to preach wherever he could. He had rejoined the Christian and Missionary Alli­ance Church and asked his younger brother, Burton, to join in his revival ministry as the worship leader. They began traveling wherever they were invited, carrying a burning passion to see the lost come to Christ. The decade of the 1920s would see F. F. Bosworth preaching the Word of God in power with signs and wonders following.

Roberts Liardon tells us that on a cold winter morning in 1925 in a schoolyard in Scranton, Pennsylvania, a group of rosy-cheeked children laughed glee­fully as they chased each other around the tall oak tree. Little girls giggled on the swing set as they swung higher and higher.

Suddenly, one little girl fell to the ground, crying as she clutched at her chest. Apparently, she had injured herself, but even as she wiped her tears, the adults who were supervising were not concerned. Nine-year-old Raffaela Serio continued to have pain near the “invisible” injury on her chest. Her parents were concerned, so they took her to see one doctor and then another. It appeared she had just bruised the area near her left breast, but as the pain increased, a small lump formed and then grew to the size of an orange.

Raffaela’s parents called on a friend who was a pediatric specialist trained at Johns Hopkins University. After administering several diffi­cult tests, the doctor gravely pronounced the diagnosis. Little Raffaela Serio had sarcoma cancer of the left breast.

The grieving parents watched as their precious daughter lost weight rapidly. The specialist determined that the cancer was rooted too deeply for surgery and said he could do little for the pain. There was also an open, seeping sore, but since not much was known about cancer at the time, the doctor prescribed a special brown salve to be applied on the af­fected area each day, which would then be wrapped with clean bandages. Although they tried to be hopeful, Raffaela’s doctors saw slim chance for a recovery.

Roberts Liardon tells us that most Bible teachers today only teach about one type of tongue; tongues for personal edification. That’s why most Christians are stuck in one zone when it comes to praying in tongues. They don’t teach on the diversities of tongues that God makes available to His people.

Tongues for personal edification is important, but what about tongues of intercession? Diversities of tongues need to be taught in the Church so that the people can understand what they are and how to flow in them.

Roberts Liardon tells us that if you know about the different diversities of tongues that are available, you can step into them when the Spirit of God leads and get things done faster.

Many Christians today don’t know that diversities of tongues are available to them. Some may know it by chapter and verse, but they don’t know it experientially. When they begin to venture into the deeper things of God through praying in tongues, they withdraw themselves from different diversities because of fear or because of ignorance. That’s why so many have troubles in their life that never seem to conclude. They don’t know how to go deep enough in the Holy Spirit to find the answers to their problem.