I
Believe in miracles because I believe in God and
It would be no miracles
If God
No longer
Was God Almighty
Today for a few minutes you and I couldn't have an old-fashioned heart-to-heart talk
Just sit down and for 30 minutes
I'm going to talk to you about something as most practical thing in the whole world and that is the fact that
The presence of God is not just a theory it's a fact
Years and years ago, and it's been a long time ago when I first started out in the ministry I
Started my ministry in the state of Idaho, Oh
Young inexperienced
My whole life before me everything was wonderful such a challenge
in reality really never having had a real heartbreak a
real honest-to-goodness heartache oh sure I
Knew what it was to be hungry. I knew what it was to sleep in a turkey house
once I slept in a struggle stack
Just because I knew had been called to preach but
at least a week I
lived on
butter hearts
At that time they were just bison trolls and loved it oh
But all I could preach about it was just a new birth experience it was all that I knew I
Had no, knowledge regarding the Word of God except the knowledge of having been born again. I
Had had that wonderful experience I had been born again
Jesus had come into my heart, and you can't give to someone else any more than but you have experienced yourself
first sermon I ever preached you will never believe it I
Preached on Zacchaeus up a tree and the Lord knows if anybody was up a tree. I sure was
But I was fooled by subject Oh
What I believed the Bible I didn't know too much
concerning output which was in the Bible, but I believed the Bible and
Every time I would have finished a sermon. I think my goodness life. There is anything else to preach about I think
the supply
And I'd walk out of the little presbyterian church walk out of the little Methodist Church thinking
What I preached on tomorrow I?
Have exhaust
The Word of God there's nothing more left to preach on then each time. I think well
If I can't be Joe anything else. I'll preach on heaven
Heaven was very real to me
Heaven were wonderful so far as I was concerned and about once a week. I preached on
That's been a long long time ago. I
Make a confession to you
Seldom do I ever preach a sermon on heaven and yet?
heaven is just as real to me now as it was then and I believe in heaven just as
Surely now as I did then
But the years have come in the years have gone, and I've learned something
There's a lot of living that takes place
before
You and I get the glory before you and I ever make it
And old philosophy a lot of heartache a lot of heartbreak and
That's what you and I are going to talk about today I
Want you to know something?
if you forget everything
That I say in the next few minutes remember this
The presence of God
Is not merely a theory it's a fact
And you can depend on it
How and the precious little waitress
slipped
To my side as I have said did a meal in a restaurant
And has said to me
Mr.. Coleman I couldn't go on
If I didn't know that the presence of a heavenly father was real to me
How often in a department store a little lady
Has come and said miss Perlman
What do folks do who do not realize the presence of
a heavenly father and
I promise you something today
If you are a part of humanity you're going to have your heart ache
You're going to have your sorrow
There'll be deep waters
You'll have a bit cemani there will be sickness. Yes, surely you were a part of humanity
None of us are immune from sickness
None of us are immune from heartache and tears and sorrow
and death
Maybe not tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, but there's coming today when you two will stand before an open grave
You too will know that our when the night is so dark there's not a star in your sky, but I promise you something
His
Presence will be there with you
just as surely as his presence is with you when the sun is shining and all that is glory I
Will read a familiar portion the Word of God
One that has meant so much to me in fact in most of my Bibles it swore never fear
I've read it so often and it's something that happened to Elijah
And I still say this is one of the greatest compliments that was ever paid a human being
When the king of Syria
sent out his whole
army
To get just two men
Elijah and his servant what greater compliment could be paid
Watch it. I read to you it's in the sixth chapter, ii kings
And he said go and spy where he is go after Elijah
His whole army now going out after one of God's precious servants
That I may send and fetch him and it was told him saying behold
He's in Dothan
Therefore saying he's here the horses and chariots and a great
host
Just get this picture
Just get this
the king of Syria
sending his entire army after Elijah and his servant and
Said go after them
He said horses and chariots and a great host and they came by night and
they compass the city about and
When the servant of the man of God was risen early and gone forth
behold and this is a thrilling pot and
hold
encompassed the city both with horses and chariots and
His servants said unto him unto Elisha
Here's Elijah's service game that I haven't visualized this over and over again
this poor servant
He was so frightened he said unless you my goodness alive look
We don't have a ghost of a chance to win
we don't have the
slightest chance
of
Getting on top of this thing. We're defeated before we have stopped
Don't you see the enemy?
arrayed against us
They got horses. They've got chariots and in the natural. He was right
He was an entire army
Against two men, that's all
And he answered this is what the man of God answered
For he saw God
He didn't see the enemy. He took his eyes off of circumstances
The enemy didn't frighten him one bit
And he answered
be or not
Don't be afraid
for Bey that be with us are more than they that be with them and
Elijah prayed
And I'd give anything in the world right now
If I could pray that simple prayer for you
The little mother who's so worried
For whom the night is so long
That's someone who this is so
And you feel so alone
I'd give anything in the world
If somehow in a very simple way I could say for you
Wonderful Jesus
Do for that precious one
for the life for his servant, and this was a simple prayer that he prayed I
Pray be open his eyes that he may see
And God granted the prayer and this is what he saw
the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw
and behold
The mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha
If right now this very moment in your hour of despondency in your hour of darkness
If only you could see
The chariots of fire round about you
The strong arms are the master underneath all of the uncertainties of life you are not alone
Can't you understand and I pray that somehow the Holy Spirit of making the heart can't you?
Understand beloved he doesn't leave you in the eleventh hour
You're so certain of his breast
When there's no sickness
When the sun is shining and all of the specifics blending
When there's laughter and there's gaiety
And it's so easy to pray and it's so easy to believe it's so easy to have faith you
Feel so secure in him and you're sure of his presence love
He's with you when the night is so dark you
Can't see the shining star
And you're waking in the middle of that night
Almost afraid as frightened as a little child
There may be sickness
There may be a broken heart
You are not alone
He never leaves you in the eleventh hour he
Hasn't left you now
If only your eyes could be opened and you could see one day he said to Abraham go
And Abraham said, but where
Go Abraham, and I'll be with you
Go Moses, but where where Lord?
Just go
But I can't see I can't see one step ahead of me
You don't have to see go the Word of God says
Obedience is greater than sacrifice
And all that you have to do is to be obedient unto Him you don't have to understand that
was one of the greatest lessons that I have had to learn in my life I
Don't have to understand
It is my business to be obedient unto Him
and if I am obedient unto Him
obedient to his voice
obedient to his word
He'll be with me
Had Moses known that one day he would stand the very brink of the Red Sea
He would never have dared to
Have responded to the word of the Lord
He was obedient when God said go
And when he stood at the very brink of the Red Sea?
God taught at those waters as though it was more than glass
And the children of Israel were led through dry-shod
See something
Something else that happened in the life of a Niger and this has always been most thrilling to me and again
You see this lowliest thing of obedience
That's your part
Don't worry about God
Don't worry about the lack of his presence you
Be obedient unto Him what he tells you to do do it?
Something happened to Elisha
But here's the secret
before the miracle ever took place there was obedience first of all on the part of Elisha and
He went and did according unto the word of the Lord
I know immediately something's gonna happen. I know immediately
There'll be victory
immediately no matter what the future would hold for Elisha and
the Ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning and
bread and flesh and evening any
drink of the brook
And it came to pass after a while that the brook dried up
because there'd be no rain in the land and
Again the word of the Lord came unto Elisha
He'll not leave his own in the eleventh hour. I promise you I
Give you his word if you are obedient. He'll not let you down
as
Long as Elijah was obedient unto God God provided. He said all right. It's time now for you to go
But I have prepared a little widow woman
Who take care of Mia? She's that rich she's poor?
But I have provided you with this little woman and
She'll take care of your needs you go and when he came
Behold the widow woman was there just does the Lord said
Gathering of sticks and he called to her
and said
Fetch me I pray thee a little water in a vessel that I may drink
And she was going to fetch it. He called her and said
bring me I pray thee a morsel of bread in thine hand and she said as
the Lord thy God liveth I
Have not a cake
Water I can bring you
but a morsel of bread a
Widow woman who was the most unlikely person in the whole world for God to use
To supply the need of a poor hungry preacher
Elisha
she said that's all I have I
Only have a morsel of bread
Mm-hmm
and
Just a handful of meal in a barrel and just a little oil in the Cruze
And behold I'm getting two sticks now that I may go in and dress it for me and my son
That we may eat it and die
Because we have only enough for one meal. That's all
just that enough food for my son myself for one meal and
After we will have eaten this one meal
We'll starve to death
There's no more left and
Yet, you come and ask me for something to eat
Now in the natural this was the most unlikely thing in the world
But never underestimate the power of God
When you are obedient to his word oh
I read this a thousand times I
Love it as sterling and I pray each. I mean as much to you as it has meant to me through the years
And a light just said unto her fear not go and do as thou hast said
But make me therefore a little cake first and bring it unto me and
after make for thee and thy son
For thus saith the Lord God of Israel the barrel of meal shall not waste
Neither shall the cruse of oil fail
until the day that the Lord sent his reign upon the earth
here comes obedience obedience
That is greater than sacrifice
and she went and did according to the saying of Elijah and
she and he and
her house
did eat
not one day not two days, but
Many days and the barrel of meal wasted not
Neither did the cruse of oil fail?
according to the word the Lord
Which he spake by Elijah you can stake your very life on the word of God
And it came to pass that after these things that the son of a woman the mistress of the house fell sick
And his sickness was so short that there was no breath left in him and she said unto Him
What to do with thee although a man of God Oh coming to me to call my sin to remembrance and to slay my son
watch
And he said unto her
Give me thy son
He took him out of her bosom and carried him up into a loft. Where bowed and laid him on his own bed
and he cried unto the Lord and said O
Lord my god
What a super pair
Hast thou also brought a veil upon the winner with whom I sojourn by staying her son
and he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried and the Lord and said O
Lord my god
I pray thee left of this
Child's soul coming to him again and the Lord heard the voice of Elijah and the soul of a child
Came unto him again, and he revived
and Elijah
Brought him down out of the chamber into the house delivered him
unto his mother and Elisha said see
My son
And the woman said to Elisha
Now by this I know
that
thou art a man of God and
That the word the Lord in thine mouth is
This is God's Word
Is it dark within your soul, are you afraid?
Are you full of anxiety
Your first duty is to be obedient unto Him
You may not be able to see
But I promise you
Underneath are those everlasting
Underneath
His presence is as real to you this very moment
as the hour that you said that his communion table
If only your eyes could be opened
He has made a wave asleep for you you provide for you. I promise you
You may feel as you look at circumstances there's only enough meal
By the one day
Just the one day
But get your eyes off of circumstances you say I have strength to go on just for another day
But he'll give you strength for today and for tomorrow
And all of the tomorrow's of your life, I promise
His presence with his own
He is not just beautiful sentiment not just
If only I could pray that prayer for you just now
Open her eyes wonderful Jesus is she nice see
Open his eyes that he may see
If only you could see the crosses there are with you
If only you could feel those everlasting arms just now
Underneath those uncertainties, and what are these days?
But I am with I will never leave no
He's gone
You
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