[00:00:00] I thought it good to show the signs and wonders that the High God has wrought toward me.
[00:00:05] How great are His signs and how mighty are His wonders.
[00:00:09] His Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom and His dominion is from generation to generation.
[00:00:16] I've shared with you from Daniel chapter 4 and I want to share how mighty His wonders have been
[00:00:22] by the grace of God in my life and the life of my family.
[00:00:26] I mean never can I forget when my family one by one came to Christ and it was the fact that
[00:00:34] the dear Lord Jesus had made Himself very real in healing my afflicted mother and making her
[00:00:40] completely whole physically and she was born again.
[00:00:44] And I can never forget that night when my mother and dad returned from my meeting and I met them
[00:00:49] there at our farm home about midnight.
[00:00:52] When they walked in the door they glanced at each other with a smile.
[00:00:56] Then my mother broke the news. She said,
[00:00:59] Dad was saved tonight.
[00:01:01] Oh those four words about the greatest words I'd ever heard.
[00:01:04] Dad was saved tonight. How I had labored all those years with a heart broken over a dad who's infidelity
[00:01:13] and whose dad was unfaithful to the marriage vows.
[00:01:16] His dad was an alcoholic and I can never forget the great hurt it was to me.
[00:01:22] The night when my dad was put in jail for drunken driving and I was just overwhelmed with the fact
[00:01:29] that my dad was now a prisoner incarcerated. So now to think that he was now saved was just
[00:01:36] almost overwhelming. I say what a hallelujah time it was that night.
[00:01:41] Rejoicing the fact that both my mother and my dad were saved by the grace of God.
[00:01:46] They're heaven-born and heaven-bound.
[00:01:49] And never again did my dad partake of the impurities that characterized his life
[00:01:54] for most of 45 years. Alcoholism, gambling, unfaithfulness to the marriage vows.
[00:02:00] These were all things of the past. Past, thank God.
[00:02:03] The Bible says old things pass away and all things become new when Jesus Christ makes one a new creature.
[00:02:10] And then it was during my 19th year of life that I made the decision to leave Bible school
[00:02:17] and enter full-time evangelistic ministry. Sometimes I regretted that I'd not continue longer
[00:02:23] in my Bible training, but it seemed at that time circumstances were such that I was led to enter
[00:02:29] full-time ministry. I realized that 19 is a very young age for one to become a full-time minister,
[00:02:36] but that was my experience. And I began traveling immediately as an associate evangelist to William Freeman.
[00:02:44] His meetings were very large, usually city-wide with many churches cooperating.
[00:02:49] While many of my duties were in the role of personal assistant to this man,
[00:02:54] I was personally involved in soul winning and ministering deliverance to the oppressed.
[00:03:00] Also, I was invited often to preach at churches wherever we travel. And then when I was 21,
[00:03:06] I met the Lord in a sweet revelation of his word concerning the power of praise. I became aware
[00:03:13] God wanted me to praise him in everything for all things and to live the life of praise. The life of
[00:03:20] praise, I say, was something that I had never known before. And I would praise him because I loved him
[00:03:27] and because I knew it was pleasing him. Now, I don't think I was just praising the Lord with an ulterior
[00:03:34] motive that if I praised him, I'd receive unusual blessings or special favor. No, I think I genuinely
[00:03:41] praised him because this was his word and the call of the Holy Spirit to my own heart. And one time,
[00:03:48] when I was concerned about the responsibilities of continual travel and the dangers that sometimes
[00:03:53] represented, the Lord met me in a very precious way and gave me assurance of what I call a protection
[00:04:02] covenant. Did you like to hear about my protection covenant? Well, you can have this same covenant.
[00:04:08] It's all based on the God's word. I was led to study how the man David was protected divinely.
[00:04:15] I mean, nobody in the Bible had more protection devices or experiences than David.
[00:04:20] David and he discovered his key in life was revealed in Psalm 22 3. But thou art holy,
[00:04:28] O thou who inhabits the praise of Israel. David received the divine revelation, how the Lord always
[00:04:35] inhabits our praises. His vow, I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in
[00:04:43] my mouth. That's Psalm 34 1. I've made that one of my vows of life. I will bless the Lord at all times.
[00:04:51] His praise shall continue to be in my mouth. And then on about David. Later, he was to extol the
[00:04:57] Lord for his benefits and he enumerated those benefits quoted in Psalm 103. Bless the Lord, O my soul,
[00:05:04] and all that's within me. Bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits,
[00:05:10] who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases, who redeems thy life from destruction,
[00:05:18] who crowns thee with loving kindness and tender mercies, so thy youth is renewed like the eagles.
[00:05:24] I mean, that Psalm 103 became a watchword for me to bless the Lord that he redeemed my life from
[00:05:31] destruction. That's what David said. That word redeem means to deliver, to protect. And I knew God had
[00:05:40] said to me, Don, if you, like David, will praise me, your life can be redeemed from destruction.
[00:05:48] I praise God that what it means to have God preserve one from destruction. For especially as
[00:05:54] we honor him by praising him, thereby we build for him a habitation to dwell. When it says God inhabits
[00:06:02] our praises, this word inhabits also means the Lord manifests himself. So David blessed the Lord that
[00:06:10] he had preserved his life from destruction. Now, some may reject the experience I had as simple, absurd,
[00:06:17] but let me tell you, it ministered to my heart. And even though it was many years ago, to the present
[00:06:23] time is hell good as I have acted upon God's protection covenant as a praiser. And it was shortly after this
[00:06:32] revelation and praise that I was traveling with my friend, Brother Freeman, from Mowley, Illinois,
[00:06:38] to Springfield, Missouri. We had had great meetings where many had been saved and delivered. And as we were
[00:06:44] traveling on the highway, the conditions were extremely bad, snow and ice everywhere. And we were up in the
[00:06:52] Ozark Mountains. We lodged overnight and next morning we were advised that the roads were clear so the ice and snow was
[00:06:58] no longer a problem. However, my friend, Brother Freeman, began to drive his Buick at about 65 miles an hour,
[00:07:07] thinking the roads would be ice free. However, after driving for some time that morning, we came over a
[00:07:14] mountain and suddenly encountered a sheet of ice on the highway. That big car left the highway and crashed
[00:07:20] over an embankment. As it rolled over the first time, I was throwing out of the car into a snowbank.
[00:07:26] Well, having been involved in several car accidents before, I knew the perilous thoughts that gripped your
[00:07:32] mind as you suddenly are aware that you're in an accident. Everything happens in such rapid fire
[00:07:38] succession that there's no time to really sort things out in your mind. All I knew was suddenly
[00:07:45] the car was leaving the highway and the car began to roll violently end over end. I was thrown out of
[00:07:52] that car with a great thud into a snowbank. Those were the years before it was required to have seat
[00:08:01] belts. And I was thrown out of that car. And as I was thrown into this deep snowbank, I could hear the
[00:08:09] crash of the big Buick going down that devastating road down the mountainside. My first thought came to
[00:08:17] me, wow, we've been an awful car wreck. I must be dead. That was a presumptuous statement on my part.
[00:08:26] Well, you see, I had never been dead before, so I thought this must be it. But then I pinched myself
[00:08:32] and found that I wasn't dead. And the next thought came to me, Lord, you told me if I would praise you
[00:08:37] as David did, I'd be protected from destruction. The Lord spoke so tenderly to my heart, but you're not
[00:08:44] destroyed. And indeed, I was not. Then the thought came to me, if I'm not dead, then I must be terribly
[00:08:51] battered up. I began to feel for broken bones in my legs, arms and body. I felt my my face and other
[00:08:59] exposed areas to see that there was blood flowing. There were no broken bones, nor was any blood
[00:09:04] flowing. Indeed, the Lord Jesus Christ had responded to my sincere praise life and preserved my life from
[00:09:12] destruction. That's what he said in Psalm 103. As we praise him, he'll preserve our life from destruction.
[00:09:20] Now, there were highwaymen working nearby that day, and they witnessed the awful accident. And they came
[00:09:26] rushing up to me, and they would say, man, you're sure lucky. We thought for sure when you were under that
[00:09:33] car, it went over you. We thought you'd be crushed to death. It was a sure thing. But man, we're amazed
[00:09:41] to see you standing here. And they repeated again, oh man, you're so lucky. When I heard their account,
[00:09:47] how the big buick had rolled over me after I was thrown into the snowbank, I could only reply to them
[00:09:52] as humbly as I could. Men, this isn't luck. It's the Lord. The Lord is the reason I'm standing here
[00:09:59] instead of being crushed to death. And while I may have modified some of my beliefs through the years
[00:10:05] of growing in the Lord, knowing more of his word, I still have this simple, humble confidence
[00:10:11] that the Bible says the Lord inhabits our praises, Psalm 22-3. And he also says, as David did,
[00:10:19] because we praise him, he redeems our life from destruction. And I thank God I've been preserved
[00:10:26] from that untimely death a number of times when destruction seems certain. Well, my beloved friend,
[00:10:34] I want to motivate you to know how the Lord Jesus is not only your Savior from sin and hell,
[00:10:40] not only the great physician of your physical body, but he also wants to be your protector.
[00:10:46] Now, this isn't something far out. This is Bible facts. And I have had the delight of living this.
[00:10:53] Let me see how long. Well, many, many years, scores and scores and scores of years.
[00:10:58] I've put this to the test, as it were, not testing it, but just the reality of what's happened.
[00:11:04] God has preserved my life from destruction. And he can do the same for you. So make it your
[00:11:10] affirmation that you're going to do as David did. You're going to praise the Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:11:16] Not that it'll merit any special abundant blessing, but just simply responding to his holy word.
[00:11:23] Thou art holy, O thou who inhabits the praise of your people. And again, the Lord, because I praise
[00:11:30] him, he redeems or preserves my life from destruction. Well, that's my testimony.
[00:11:35] And I pray it'll be a blessing to you. I'll share with you on my next broadcast about
[00:11:41] the next great revelation given to me that has also been a life transformer.
[00:11:47] And my beloved friend, this truth about praising the Lord is so beautiful. It's so wonderful.
[00:11:54] I've had the delight of memorizing many, many Bible verses from both the New and Old Testament
[00:12:00] about the blessing of the Lord that comes as we praise him. So why don't you take 20 seconds today
[00:12:07] and just focus on the person of Jesus Christ. Just begin to think about him. And as you dwell upon
[00:12:16] him, let's give him the glory due to his name. He says, whoso offers praise glorifies me.
[00:12:23] Will you join me as we glorify our Lord? And let's say, praise you, Lord. And let's say it with a whole heart.
[00:12:31] Praise you, Lord. Cokean 24,495und巧craft.
[00:12:53] I'll preach M. saja in exercise in you today but not with a whole word.
[00:12:54] Jesus said to me most blessings that much more about the Lord.