David du Plessis Part 2 Just Believe!

One of God's choice servants, Dr. David de Plessy, known around the world as Mr. Pentecost, was a recent guest of the Catherine Kuhlman Foundation. The message he brought to those in our service was excellent. And for the next couple of days, we'll repeat portions of his talk for you, our radio listeners. If you are present to hear him, you'll understand why we feel so impressed to put this message on the radio. And you may even wish to invite others in your neighborhood or in your own family to tune in for this very special series of talks. Now, may I introduce Dr. David DuPlessis. I am a great believer in the healer divine. I believe more in the healer divine than I believe in divine healing doctrine. The doctrine cannot heal you. I came to a hospital, and there lay an old gentleman, and he said to the pastor, I'm glad you've come. Because I want to tell you, this doctrine of divine healing that we've been preaching doesn't work. I've preached it for 30 years, taught it in Sunday school, and now I'm sick and it doesn't work. I said to him, why do you say it doesn't work? Well, I've quoted every promise in the book and nothing happens. I suffer pain, terrible. I said, sir, why did you come to hospital? He says, because I want the doctor. I want the services of the doctor. I said, why didn't you stay home and read the doctor's book? You see, he was reading the book of Jesus, the Bible. And he thought by reading the book, unquoting the book, he ought to get healed. He says, what's the good of reading the doctor's book? Have you ever tried to read the doctor's book? If you're well, you better not read it. Why? Because as you read it, you'll come to the conclusion, I've got the symptoms of something coming on. And before you know it, you've got it. Doctors' books have made people sick. I know people that study doctors' books every day, and they get worse and worse. The doctors can't be blamed for it. It's these people. I said, sir, why don't you give up the book? begin what you need isn't the doctrine of divine healing what you need is the healer divine why don't you talk to Jesus he says I told you I can't even pray anymore I said I didn't say pray I said just talk to Jesus don't you talk to the nurse yes and do you talk to the doctor yes why don't you tell Jesus what do you do when you call the nurse Well, I tell her where the pain is. And what does she do? She turns me over. And does that help? No, then the pain goes to the other shoulder. Well, I said, you see, it doesn't help. Why don't you say, Jesus, the pain is here. Please, Lord, you are the healer divine. I said, just tell her. This was nearly midnight. It was after a Sunday night service. Monday morning I said to the pastor, let's go and see that preacher. Can we get in early? Yes. So we went to the hospital. And here I come and found a smiling old man on the bed. And I said, you look wonderful this morning. Oh, he says, I slept like a baby. Really, I said. What did you do? He says, well, I did what you said. I began to have terrible pain in my shoulder. And I said, Lord, I can't sleep with the pain. Please do something. How many times did he say that? He said, only once. I fell asleep and I awoke this morning. And the nurse chipped in. She says, yes. And he slept so soundly we thought he'd passed out. We took his pulse. He was a nuisance before. He calls us a dozen times at night. And last night he never woke. And the man was healed. Tonight, Jesus is here. Another thought. Years ago, Jesus saved me when I was just a boy. In fact, I was too young and too dumb to know how to get saved. I couldn't get saved, so Jesus saved me. And when I say Jesus saved me, nobody has ever asked me how. But when I say I got saved, they say, how? How did you get saved? Let us learn to recognize Jesus in what he really does. And admit, Jesus saved me. Jesus healed me. Jesus baptized me. Jesus did this for me. Because this I learned from the Africans. It may surprise you, but I am a white African. My ancestors have lived in South Africa longer than black Americans' ancestors have lived in this country. And if you can have black Americans, we can have white Africans. But I was living among these black Africans. And in those days, there wasn't as much education as now, in South Africa now, I doubt. whether you will find five percent that cannot read or write it's a different story but in those days especially in the country where i was there was very little education except what came from the missions we were living there and my father was building a home for missionaries i was 12 years old when i discovered i knew the bible i'd read through the bible these people knew Jesus. They didn't know the Bible like I do. They couldn't read. They could hear. What they heard, they believed. What they believed, the Lord honored. And so, through the lives, not the preaching, the lives of black Africans, I discovered Jesus is real and the Bible is true. I treated the Bible like a history book. They treated the Bible like a workbook. And if the Bible said so, oh, they believed it. You had to be careful what you preached to them. Because what you preach, they believe, and they'll go and do it. So a missionary, one of the missionaries came and preached a marvelous sermon on Naaman the leper that went to the prophet, you know. And the prophet says, go and dip yourself seven times in Jordan. And he made it so dramatic how that he went to Jordan, dipped himself, came up sick. Dipped himself twice, came up sick, and went on and on. And the seventh time he came up, and he was healed. And the Africans enjoyed that. They said, now we know what to do. And there was a fellow that couldn't get healed. Do you know what they did? They hauled him off to the river, dipped him seven times, and unfortunately he got healed. Why unfortunately? Because then they wanted to dip everybody seven times if they couldn't get healed. But the Lord knows our hearts, and he honors our hearts. And so there in that country, I saw. the miraculous hand of God in these people. I love them. I grew up with them. I have learned to love all people. But that is my background. Now in those days, in 1916, Jesus saved me. But I saw these people that when they had become got acquainted with Jesus. They heard all about Jesus. He's the way. He's the truth. He's the life. And they were told Jesus was born of the Spirit, that he may become your Savior, that you could be born of the Spirit. And when Jesus was 30 years old, he went to Jordan and was baptized in Jordan. And when he came out of Jordan, he stood on the bank, and the Father baptized him in the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit came on him like a dove. So, when they heard that, oh, they said, now we are born of the Spirit. Now we ought to be baptized. And you know, they wouldn't be baptized in a tank or a pool. They wanted to be baptized in the river. And so we all had to march to the river a few miles. And there in the river, at the river, they would go in and they would pray and say, Now, Lord Jesus, we follow you through the water. And when we come out, we expect you to baptize us like the Father baptized you on the bank of Jordan. For John said, He that sent me to baptize in water, the same said to me. The one upon whom you see the Spirit descend and remain upon him, he shall baptize in the Holy Ghost. Who said that? John the Baptist. You know, it's a wonderful thing that the first man that ever said there was a baptism in the Holy Spirit was a Baptist. And now people call themselves Baptists and they baptize in water, but they don't tell about Jesus, the Baptizer in the Holy Spirit. He's still the Baptizer in the Holy Spirit. For I saw these people come out of the water and raise their hands and praise God. And I saw a wicked witch doctor that the people feared, except Jesus. How did this man come to be interested in Jesus? Because Jesus healed people that he made sick. His poison didn't hurt them. His poison didn't kill them. Jesus healed them. He said, that's greater power than I've got. That's greater power than I have in poisons. And he came and accepted Jesus. That man. also went to the river. He was told, he was taught, that now you bury the old man, you bury the old life, you become a new creature, you rise up in a new life. And that man became a precious elder, a saint. How could that happen? He hadn't learned a catechism. He wasn't educated that way. But he had met with the living Christ. And Christ changed his life for him. How could I doubt the word when I saw the word in action before I ever heard arguments as to whether it is for today? They couldn't tell me these people were bluffing. What was my conclusion in those days? When I saw the miracles that these people did, and I hadn't seen it among the white folks, I said, well, I suppose there's one explanation. They are too dumb to know what's impossible. They just believe everything. We are so clever, we always know what's possible. In 1918, the Lord also baptized me in the Holy Spirit. And now... My life changed once again. I became concerned about those around me. And I became a witness for Jesus. And I wanted to talk to everybody. I wanted to pray with people. And I did. I even on Sunday mornings would go to the jail and preach to the prisoners. Later on in life... I found some of those prisoners had become preachers. And I found them in big congregations. And then when they introduced me, they said, this man, when he was a boy, came to the prison where I was and told me all about Jesus. And Jesus brought me out of darkness into light and out of the prison. And so here is the man that showed me the way, the truth, and the life. Now during these days we had prayer meetings, groups in homes, much of what you have today again in the churches, prayer groups. And in these prayer groups we would have meetings where we would join in prayer. And I was kneeling one day next to a farmer and he groaned a little as if he was suffering some pain. And I felt sorry for him, and I said, Lord, please touch my brother. And the Lord said to me, put your arm over his shoulders. So I put my arm over his shoulders, squeezed him a little, and said, Lord, bless my dear brother. When the meeting was over, he said to me, David, did you know you got the gift of healing? I said, no, I know I haven't. Oh, yes, he says, I know you have. I said, how do you know? Well, he says, you know in the meeting there, you put your arm over my shoulder? I said, yes. He says, I was healed from a trouble that I suffered from for 11 years. Oh, I said, that's wonderful. Then you got the gift. He says, no, you got the gift. I said, man, I wasn't sick. I didn't need a gift of healing at all. You were sick. You need a gift of healing. Gifts of healing are for sick people. His blessings are gifts. Free, paid for. But what's the good of a gift if you don't accept it? When does a gift become meaningful? Not when it's given, when it's accepted. And if it isn't accepted, it's no good anyhow. What would be the good of getting a gift from somebody nicely wrapped up and you never open it, never use it? Never display it. I love to take gifts home to my wife. And I'm real proud when she uses it. Then I know she appreciates it. She likes it. She'll wear it. She'll use it. How many times has God offered us gifts of grace? And we do not accept them. We do not appreciate them. And sometimes when we've got it all, you would think we deserve them. And we display them or we talk about it as if we had been so good that we really earned this by our goodness. To me, There is no such thing, for all I am, and all I have, is by the grace of God. And so I think tonight that many people, and this I find as I travel through the country, we miss somebody. They tell me, I think hundreds and hundreds throughout the country, have said to me, we saw you on Catherine Coolman's TV program. I said, I'm glad you did. Oh, it was wonderful. I said, and I'm glad you think it was wonderful. But she's gone. Well, I said, but Jesus didn't go. He's still here. And Catherine, in my hearing, never claimed that she had. the gift to heal people. But I saw, I witnessed, how that she delivered gifts of healing to sick people. She told them it's there. And the remarkable thing is that the Lord could show her there is someone that he has just offered the gift. And then she'd say, come up here and tell us about it. I used to like those testimonies. And in my own meetings now, I say to people, don't wait till I'm through preaching. Please, while I'm preaching, if you believe what I say, you've got it. You can have it right there. And rather than come at the end of the meeting, you see, I didn't ask Jesus to wait in the wings and when I'm through, then he can start blessing you. the Lord to touch you while I'm speaking I want the Lord to do everything for you because you know in the house of Cornelius Peter was preaching and he began he told them all about Jesus and said that in his name there was preached remission of sins and while he said that they believed it and they got it And before Peter could make an altar call, the Lord even baptized them in the Holy Spirit. And Peter's sermon was interrupted by these Gentiles. What interrupted Peter? Those people started talking in tongues before it was a prayer meeting. Oh, that's wonderful. They just started praying in tongues. And so Peter's friends, Peter was a wise old Jew. He knew he'd get in trouble, so he took six witnesses with him, six other Jews. Are you surprised that the world is now, the church world, is a little puzzled? I am one of their problems. The Spirit bids me go, and I go where the Spirit sends me, just like Peter did. That's where I got the word. Peter said to his brethren in Jerusalem, the Spirit bids me go. Now what is happening in the church today? What is all this doing? So much so that here, U .S. News and World Report comes out with the April 11 edition. And on the front page there's a church. And over that they have... A Time of Renewal for U .S. Churches. And then 15 pages of it. In this paper, while U .S. News and World Report can spend 15 pages on a story of what's happening in the churches today, you can be sure it's happening. Now, this has been going on. And they say to me, what is it? I said, it is a 20th century extension of God's program. When Jesus sent his first 12 disciples, did you ever notice what he said to them? He sends them according to Matthew 10. And I read here, That he says to them. These twelve. The fifth verse says Jesus. These twelve sent Jesus forth. And commanded them. Saying. Go not in the way of the Gentiles. And into any city of the Samaritans. Enter ye not. But. Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as you go, preach. Say, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Is here now. Heal the sick. Cleanse the leper. Raise the dead. Cast out devils. Freely have you received. Freely give. But to Jews only. No Gentiles. In our day, they'd say, well, then he's a racist. Have you ever heard that? Racism. And here he says, none but Jews. That's a racist. They came back and reported that what he gave them authority to do has happened. And then I find in Matthew 24, same book, same writer, same Jesus. But now something has happened, and he is speaking to them prophetically. And now he says in the 14th verse of Matthew 24, this gospel of the kingdom, what gospel is that? The gospel. where they heal the sick, cleanse the leper, raise the dead, cast out devils. This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations. Then shall the end come. Well. Jesus started out by saying Jews only. Now he says all nations. What's happened to Jesus? In modern terminology, he has become ecumenical. Now he's ecumenical. Or, if you like, he's become Catholic. Universal. Now it's everybody.