Hallelujah!  Amen!  Let’s turn to the book of Galatians.  It’s great to see a good portion of the family was away this weekend took-time-for-some-refreshing retreat.  The old camp meeting up in West Virginia.  The Assemblies of God, the camp’s been up there for close to 100 years.  I was reminded as I walked the property.  The last time I was there was 1975.  As I was walking the property, I was just kind of imagining how many young people were filled with the Holy Ghost up there on that property, in that very tabernacle.  They’ve remodeled it and a lot of things over the years, but in that very place.  Actually, a couple of our Pastors were filled with the Holy Spirit up there in the same year at a youth retreat.  How far reaching has that gone?  How many of those young people have gone into all the world and are now preaching the gospel, hallelujah!  How many of them are godly husbands and wives that are training up their children and establishing these truths for another generation?  Let’s not take for granted what we have, the heritage that belongs to us, the treasure that’s been imparted; amen?  Let’s make sure that it goes into another generation.

This Foursquare Gospel, we know Aimee Semple McPherson started the Foursquare Church.  It was basically the same tenets of the Assemblies of God and the Pentecostal Church of God.  As our minds go back, we realize, as Pentecostals, our origin was from “not many mighty, not many noble.”  The poor folks, some unlearned.  Preachers that were standing, and imparting the wisdom of God, that couldn’t read.  Some people think that it’s just some kind of a tradition.  It’s still done in some churches today, where they used to have a reader.  Someone would stand and read a passage for the pastor, many times.  You’d see this man imparting the wisdom of God.  It was always interesting for me, as a young man, to watch.  Then he’d turn to him and say, “Read,” and he’d read some more.  These guys, full of the wisdom of God, full of the power of the Holy Spirit; amen?  Let’s remember, it’s “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord,” hallelujah!  We don’t look to the world to document our degrees.  We don’t have to, intellectually, try to persuade those who have chosen another way that there was no cessation of the gifts.  Let’s do the miracles and they can’t deny that a mighty work has been done; amen?  You don’t have to win it by doctrine; you can win it by evidence, empirical evidence.  Once I was blind; now I see, hallelujah!

We’re a people called to that.  That’s our heritage.  That’s who we are.  People of power and of might, people that do not serve dumb idols, as Paul said in Corinthians.  A lot of people idolize knowledge of the Scripture.  I think we ought to covet obedience to the Scripture.  So, we’re in a place where we’re coming into these last days.  We know there’s going to be the rise of the man of sin.  There are going to be false prophets that will arise.  There are going to be lying signs and wonders.  Jesus told us in the last days men would be running to and fro and following these signs and wonders saying, “Here they are!  Lo, it’s over here.  It’s this man.  It’s this personality.”  Let’s remind ourselves, He’s not there.  He’s not in California, He’s not in the ministry of some personality.  He’s in us, praise God!  By the person of the Holy Spirit, Jesus indwells us in His fullness; so does the whole triunity of God.  Indwelt by the power of the Holy Ghost!  As we look in these last days, we said that we should be expecting for signs and wonders, demonstrations of the gifts of the Spirit in our midst.  Let’s remind ourselves again.  We don’t follow signs, they follow us!  Amen?  We don’t run around to different miracle workers, “This guy’s doing this!”  The Bible says, “And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name…” hallelujah!