023 - Don't Give Up #3 - Don Gossett

[00:00:00] Don't Give Up, that's my appeal to you, don't give up regardless of what your problem.

[00:00:05] Don't give up on your marriage, don't give up on your financial need, don't give up on

[00:00:10] your health issues, don't give up because God's grace is poured out upon you abundantly.

[00:00:16] I have shared in recent days people who were set on fire to be used by God and as I've

[00:00:23] studied their lives each of them possess this don't give up spirit the Lord honored.

[00:00:28] Now John G. Lake, he wrote about Daddy Seymour, William Seymour.

[00:00:36] He said these words, that man has more of God in his life than any man I've ever known.

[00:00:44] What a wonderful commendation that that dear beloved preacher Daddy Seymour, John Lake said

[00:00:52] he had more of God in his life than any man I've ever known.

[00:00:56] As I've had the delight of sharing stories of people who did not give up and how they have

[00:01:02] been a blessing to the world.

[00:01:05] Now, a significant scripture for all of these and all of you to hear me today is Acts 10 38.

[00:01:14] God anoint Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and power.

[00:01:18] He went about doing good, healing all oppressed of the devil for God is with him.

[00:01:24] John G. Lake was a Methodist minister when his wife Jenny was dying of tuberculosis and God healed her.

[00:01:34] That so touched the heart of John Lake that he accepted the miraculous healing power of God was the answer for people.

[00:01:43] And the truth of Acts 10 38, anointed with the power to go about doing good, ministering healing to all the repressed of the devil.

[00:01:55] Those became the watchwords for many of these dear people whom I have studied their life.

[00:02:00] And John Lake's impassioned interest in this wonderful action of God's healing power became so real to him.

[00:02:08] And he was used by God.

[00:02:11] Well, I have been out to South Africa many times.

[00:02:16] And out in South Africa, I heard so much about John Lake's ministry there.

[00:02:20] Wherever I went, in Johannesburg, in Cape Town, in Port Elizabeth, in Durban, in Pretoria, in Orange Free State, in all these places,

[00:02:31] people shared with me how years before John Lake had come.

[00:02:36] Now, he found the Lord's call to his life when he was filled with the Holy Spirit.

[00:02:43] And he was called to become a missionary to South Africa.

[00:02:47] With his wife and seven children, they traveled to South Africa.

[00:02:52] And he was immediately awed by God's provision for his ministry and his family.

[00:02:58] When he left the United States, he had less than $2.

[00:03:02] But God provided the funds for each step of the journey.

[00:03:05] And when he and his family arrived in Cape Town,

[00:03:09] God again demonstrated his divine planning.

[00:03:12] His coming had been revealed to a lady missionary in South Africa.

[00:03:16] And she had already prepared Lake and his family a place to stay.

[00:03:21] That missionary was named Mrs. C.L. Goodenough.

[00:03:24] And she had been told by the Holy Spirit the exact number of children

[00:03:29] who would arrive with John Lake and his wife.

[00:03:32] And this lady, Mrs. Goodenough, began to work with the lakes

[00:03:37] and remained a very faithful worker in their ministry.

[00:03:41] Now, John Lake founded the Apostolic Church and was used by God all over the world.

[00:03:47] In his own evangelism, he traveled throughout South Africa.

[00:03:51] He saw thousands of Africans experience the healing of Jesus.

[00:03:57] And one of the sad events in his life,

[00:04:00] he took a missionary journey to the Kalahari Desert.

[00:04:04] And when he returned home, he discovered his wife had died of a stroke.

[00:04:10] Possibly caused by malnutrition and the difficult work she was involved,

[00:04:15] John Lake was heartbroken.

[00:04:18] And he soon returned to the United States where, after a time of loneliness,

[00:04:23] he married a lady named Florence Switzer.

[00:04:25] Well, he moved to Spokane, Washington.

[00:04:29] A year later, and he opened healing rooms where tens of thousands of people

[00:04:35] were not only healed but were able to learn how to pray for healing.

[00:04:39] And the record is that in five years,

[00:04:42] more than 100,000 confirmed healings occurred.

[00:04:46] And in many nations, even today,

[00:04:49] healing rooms have been established that bring glory to God and healing to people.

[00:04:54] Now, one of the most uniquely anointed ministries I've talked about

[00:04:59] is the son of a former slave.

[00:05:03] And that man is William Seymour, whom we call Daddy Seymour.

[00:05:07] And John Lake, in his book entitled Adventures in God,

[00:05:11] Tales of Visiting the Azusa Street Church,

[00:05:14] where Daddy Seymour was pastor.

[00:05:17] And Luke said,

[00:05:19] There was this dear old black man,

[00:05:21] who had the funniest vocabulary.

[00:05:23] But I want to tell you,

[00:05:24] there were doctors, lawyers, and professors

[00:05:26] listening to marvelous things coming from his lips.

[00:05:30] It was God in him attracting the people.

[00:05:33] And that was a beautiful account

[00:05:36] about two persons that I had.

[00:05:39] They had the wonderful grace of God

[00:05:41] that they did not give up in the face of adversity.

[00:05:44] Let me tell you about another dear person.

[00:05:48] Her name, Amy Semple McPherson.

[00:05:51] She was the most well-known

[00:05:54] and also most controversial of all the evangelists of that time.

[00:05:59] And she was also considered to be among the most anointed

[00:06:02] of all the evangelists that were serving God.

[00:06:06] Now, Amy was a Canadian.

[00:06:08] And she met Robert Semple there in Canada,

[00:06:12] who was preaching,

[00:06:14] who caused Amy to reaffirm her faith in God

[00:06:17] just before her 18th birthday.

[00:06:19] And she and Robert Semple were married.

[00:06:22] And then they were called to become missionaries in China.

[00:06:27] Soon after they arrived in China,

[00:06:30] Robert Semple contracted malaria and died.

[00:06:34] Because she was pregnant,

[00:06:36] Amy stayed in China until the birth of her daughter.

[00:06:39] And then she returned to the United States

[00:06:42] and worked with the New York City Salvation Army.

[00:06:46] It was there she met a man named Harold McPherson,

[00:06:49] who became her second husband.

[00:06:51] The couple moved back to Canada.

[00:06:54] With her intense evangelistic fervor, however,

[00:06:58] Amy experienced increasing difficulties with her husband

[00:07:01] and the consequence they divorced.

[00:07:05] So Amy was one under increasing persecution by the media.

[00:07:09] They found her attractive,

[00:07:12] but also because she was such a successful woman preacher,

[00:07:16] she was a good copy for their write-ups.

[00:07:20] Now, in her world travels that they call

[00:07:22] Calvacative Christianity,

[00:07:25] huge crowds were drawn in every country.

[00:07:28] And Amy's commitment to help the poor,

[00:07:31] even there in Los Angeles,

[00:07:33] gave a new emphasis to her unique but powerful ministry.

[00:07:37] So let me share with you another man used of God so mightily.

[00:07:42] His name, Smith Wigglesworth.

[00:07:45] His accomplishments as an evangelist became legendary

[00:07:49] and remained an inspiration for all believers

[00:07:52] seeking to experience the miraculous

[00:07:54] and the loving intervention of a loving God.

[00:07:58] At age 16, Smith Wigglesworth began working

[00:08:01] with the Salvation Army,

[00:08:02] bringing hundreds to Christ each month.

[00:08:05] During that time, he met and married Polly,

[00:08:08] who was an evangelist.

[00:08:10] And Wigglesworth had little education,

[00:08:12] but he had this aggressive approach to the gospel

[00:08:16] that made him an effective and endeared soul winner.

[00:08:19] During those years,

[00:08:21] he experienced a healing that God would eventually use

[00:08:25] to alter his destiny.

[00:08:27] God endowed him with a special gift of ministering healing,

[00:08:30] and he would use the Lord even to raise the dead on several occasions.

[00:08:35] But it was especially painful

[00:08:37] when Wigglesworth's beloved wife died of heart failure.

[00:08:41] And when he arrived at her deathbed,

[00:08:44] he commanded her to live in Jesus' name,

[00:08:48] and she came back to life.

[00:08:50] However, as he held her in his arms,

[00:08:54] Polly told Wigglesworth that the Lord wanted to receive her

[00:08:57] and she wanted to go home,

[00:08:59] he kissed her and released her to heaven.

[00:09:02] What momentous stories about these men of God

[00:09:05] who lost their wives by death.

[00:09:08] Well, Mr. Wigglesworth traveled across many continents

[00:09:12] and quickly became the nation's favorite evangelist everywhere.

[00:09:17] He laid hands on the sick,

[00:09:19] and he welcomed challenges

[00:09:20] that would demonstrate how easy

[00:09:23] the impossible was for God.

[00:09:26] In Sweden, the police forbade him to lay on hands,

[00:09:30] and they told him that he could not do that.

[00:09:33] Well, and to those massive crowds,

[00:09:37] Wigglesworth said to them,

[00:09:38] lay your hands upon yourself,

[00:09:40] and they would be healed,

[00:09:42] and hundreds were.

[00:09:44] Well, Smith Wigglesworth continued preaching

[00:09:46] short of his 88th birthday

[00:09:49] when he achieved that home for which he had so long,

[00:09:53] and God called him to be with him forever.

[00:09:57] Well, I esteem so much these dear people

[00:10:00] whom the hand of God is upon their lives.

[00:10:03] Authority, boldness, compassion

[00:10:05] were their keys to the miraculous.

[00:10:08] I just wanted to interject here briefly my testimony.

[00:10:12] When I was 18 years old,

[00:10:13] I began to work with people

[00:10:15] whose ministries were awesome.

[00:10:17] These men and women were truly world shakers.

[00:10:21] I'm only sharing brief introductions to each of them,

[00:10:25] and perhaps at a later date,

[00:10:26] I'll open my heart to tell you more

[00:10:28] of the wonderful adventures

[00:10:30] the Lord enabled me to experience.

[00:10:32] William Freeman.

[00:10:33] His ministry was used by God

[00:10:35] to reach and touch my parents

[00:10:37] with salvation and healing miracles.

[00:10:41] It radically changed my home.

[00:10:43] The Lord spoke to William Freeman,

[00:10:46] Invite Don Gossa to travel with you.

[00:10:48] He will do you good.

[00:10:51] I responded to his invitation,

[00:10:53] and for much as seven years,

[00:10:55] I had the light of doing good,

[00:10:57] as I was called.

[00:10:58] I served as Freeman's magazine editor.

[00:11:02] I wrote 16 books for him,

[00:11:04] and I was the afternoon speaker

[00:11:07] for Vast Crusades.

[00:11:08] Yes, I have hundreds of memories

[00:11:11] in those years,

[00:11:13] and praise God for it.

[00:11:15] And then T.L. Osborne.

[00:11:16] He was the one who impacted my life

[00:11:18] more than any other man of God.

[00:11:20] And I was editor of his worldwide publication,

[00:11:27] Faith Digest,

[00:11:28] read every month by hundreds of thousands.

[00:11:31] And I have cherished the way he would write me.

[00:11:34] He would say,

[00:11:35] Don, you are my friend for a lifetime.

[00:11:38] And he would write,

[00:11:39] say, Don, be fearless.

[00:11:42] Well, this man was so used by God

[00:11:44] to impact my life.

[00:11:46] I've also told you about Jack Coe.

[00:11:49] I wrote books for him,

[00:11:51] and I served as a platform manager

[00:11:53] and faith builder

[00:11:54] in an enormous tent crusade.

[00:11:57] What a delight.

[00:11:57] And Jack was a bold man of God.

[00:12:01] Now, I was never an official part of his team,

[00:12:04] only had brief working relationships.

[00:12:07] Then there was a man,

[00:12:08] William Branham.

[00:12:09] Only through my working with T.L. Osborne

[00:12:12] was I privileged to meet Brother Branham

[00:12:14] and be a brief part of his ministry.

[00:12:17] And I must mention Raymond T. Ritchie,

[00:12:20] one of the sweetest encouraging leaders

[00:12:22] whom God permitted me to work with.

[00:12:24] I was so humbled and honored

[00:12:26] when he invited me to be on his staff.

[00:12:29] And then there was Catherine Kuhlman.

[00:12:31] Now, I was never again on her ministry team,

[00:12:33] but I was the Canadian coordinator

[00:12:35] for the World Conference

[00:12:36] of the Holy Spirit in Jerusalem.

[00:12:39] And there's where I had occasion

[00:12:41] to see this delightful lady

[00:12:43] who had this fervent prayer

[00:12:45] before she'd go out to minister.

[00:12:47] Holy Spirit,

[00:12:48] can you trust me just one more time?

[00:12:51] Well, Father, I thank you for Memory Lane,

[00:12:54] where I have gone down today

[00:12:56] to share about people who you united me with.

[00:12:59] Now, I pray for every listening friend today

[00:13:02] that you'll put a fire in their belly,

[00:13:04] a fire in their heart,

[00:13:06] that they'll be used by you, Lord,

[00:13:08] and the lives will count.

[00:13:09] In Jesus' name, amen.

[00:13:12] Join me now as we say praise the Lord.

[00:13:14] Let's say it five times.

[00:13:16] Praise you, Lord.

[00:13:18] Praise you, Lord.

[00:13:20] Praise you, Lord.

[00:13:22] Praise you, Lord.

[00:13:25] Praise you, Lord.

[00:13:27] Praise you, Lord.

[00:13:29] Hallelujah.