Adventures
in God
by
John G.
Lake
John
Graham Lake was a man of prayer and commitment. To better
understand
the quality of his life, you will want to read his consecration to
God at
the close of this book. At the Lake Healing Rooms in Spokane,
Washington,
100,000 healings were recorded in five years. Dr. Ruthlidge of
Washington,
D C., called Spokane the healthiest city in the world as a result
of Lake's
Healing Rooms.
John G.
Lake was born March 18, 1870, at St. Mary's, Ontario, Canada.
While he
was still a child, his parents moved to the United States. At the age
of 21, he
became a Methodist minister, but later chose to start a newspaper
instead of
accepting a church ministry. After his marriage, Lake's wife entered into a
prolonged serious illness, but was miraculously delivered under the ministry of
John Alexander Dowie in April 1898. This experience forever altered the
direction of John G. Lake's life and ministry. All that he accomplished as a
result of his intense regard for the Word of God stands as an example to all
Christians of what is possible for any person who will believe and act on the
Scriptures. Adventures in God I found God as a boy, so for years 50 of them
almost I have been walking in the light of God understanding fellowship with
Him and listening to His Voice. I want to call to your attention some of the things
the Christian enjoys that others miss. A dear man received an injury that
caused hi death in a motor accident not far from Beaverton The day after this
man was killed, I was visiting some friends in Beaverton and they told me of
his I jury. After our visit, my wife and I were driving into the city. As we
were coming up one of the highway a Voice said, "Pull onto the left of the
road and stop." Don't you know that Voice, Christian heart? That Voice is
so common that I never even spoke of it to my wife. The left side is the wrong
side of the road, and you are breaking the traffic law to be there. But I have
listened to that Voice so many years that I have learned in most cases to obey
it. Jesus said, "My sheep know my
voice."
(John 10:27.)
(The
thought I am trying to bring to you, dear friends, is the value of
knowing
the Lord and what communion with God means. Salvation is not
just
something God gives you that is going to bless you after you die; it is
having
the presence of the Lord now. God has promised to the Christian the
guidance
and direction of the Holy Spirit.)
I pulled
onto the left hand side of the road, ran the wheels of my car close
into the
ditch, and stopped. Immediately, I heard the grinding of a great truck
coming
around the curve. I had not seen it before. Instead of coming
normally,
it was coming down the driver's left hand side of the road at a
45degree
angle. The truck had gone out of control and was covering the
whole
road!
If I had
been on my side of the road, it would have sideswiped me and
pushed me
over the bank.
A 100foot
drop down! But I was on the other side when the great thing
swept
past me. The truck went 50 to 100 feet beyond me, struck a rough spot
in the
road, and righted itself. The driver got the truck under control and
went on.
Dear friends, men in the Word of God were guided by the Voice of
God. God
talked to them. This is the inner thing of real Christian experience,
the
reason men seek by the grace of God to enter into the real heart of God
into the
real soul of Jesus Christ into the place where He lives within you
where His
Voice speaks in your heart.
I was
sitting one day in the home of the DeValeras in Krugersdorp, South
Africa,
when a man arrived who had traveled all over the country. He had
been
following me from place to place, trying to catch up with me. He
suffered
a sunstroke which had affected his mind and he also had developed
a large
cancer.
He came
into the house and proved to be a friend of the family. In a little
while a
six year old child who had been sitting near me went across the
room,
climbed on the man's knees, put her hands on the cancer on his face,
and
prayed. I saw the cancer wither. In half an hour, the thing had
disappeared.
The wound was still there, but in a few days it was healed.
After the
child had laid her hands on top of his head, he arose, saying, "Oh!
The fire
that has been in my brain has gone out," and his mind was normal.
Power
belongeth unto God. Psalms 62: 11. The simplest soul can touch God
and live
in the very presence of God and in His power.
It is
almost sadness to my soul that men should be astonished and surprised
at an
ordinary, tangible evidence of the power of God.
A woman
came into the Healing Rooms once with a tumor larger than a full
grown
unborn child. Her physicians had been fooled, believing it to be a
child
until nature's period had passed. Then they decided it must be
something
else. She came to the Healing Rooms and I interviewed her. She
said,
"Mr. Lake, I have the opinion of several physicians. They are all
different,
but each has said, 'It is possible it may be a child.' But now the
time has
passed, and they do not know what to say." I put my hand upon her
for a
moment, and I said, "Madame, it is not a child; it is a tumor." She
sat
down and
wept. Her nurse was with her. Her soul was troubled and she did
not
receive healing. She came back on another afternoon for prayer and
returned
the next day wearing her corsets. She said, "I came down to show
you that
I am perfectly normal. When I retired last night at 10 o'clock, there
was no
evidence that anything had taken place, beyond that I felt
comfortable
and the choking was gone. But when I awoke this morning, I
was my
normal size." I asked, "Did it disappear in the form of fluid?"
She said,
"There was not an outward sign of any character." Beloved, what
happened
to it? It dematerialized. The tumor dissolved. What is a miracle? It
is the
tangible evidence of the supreme control of the Spirit of God over
every
character and form of materiality. Beloved, the power of such an
event,
such an act and sign, shows you and me that through living, positive,
actual
contact with the Spirit of God, all things are possible. Blessed be His
Name!...
I was in
a meeting in Los Angeles on one occasion. An old black man was
conducting
the services'. He had the funniest vocabulary. But I want to tell
you,
there were doctors, lawyers, and professors listening to marvelous
things
coming from his lips.
It was
not what he said in words; it was what he said from his spirit to my
heart
that showed me he had more of God in his life than any man I had ever
met up to
that time. It was God in him who was attracting people. One man
insisted
on getting up and talking every little while. Some people have a
mania for
talking.
The old
black brother endured it for a long time. Finally, the fellow got up
again,
and the old man stuck his finger out and said, "In the Name of Jesus
Christ,
sit down!" The man did not sit down. He fell down. And his friends
carried
him out. That is only one of the living facts of what Christianity is:
the
divine power of Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit, filling a man's soul and
body,
flashing through his nature like holy flame, accomplishing the will of
God.
There is
a baptism that belongs to Jesus. It is in His supreme control. No
angel or
man can bestow it. It comes from Him alone. He it is which
baptizeth
with the Holy Ghost. John 1: 33. So the individual who wants the
Holy
Spirit must come into definite, conscious contact with Jesus Christ
Himself.
Bless God! Almost a year before I went to Africa, as I was praying
one
night, I was overshadowed by the Spirit of the Lord. The Lord showed
me
various places in which I would labor for five years and, by the
illumination
that would appear in the heavens, I knew the extent of the work
in each
place. The last of these places I saw was South Africa. That night as I
knelt on
the floor, I was suddenly present at a church in Johannesburg, South
Africa,
Where an acquaintance of mine was pastor. I walked in the door of
the
church, walked the entire length of the church to the front and into a little
vestry. I
looked around the place and took note of everything. The furniture,
the room,
and all about it. All of this occurred as I prayed in my hometown
near
Chicago. In less than a year, I was in that church and pastor of it. God
did the
whole thing. I had nothing to do with it.
God
having shown with the illumination the marvelous extent and character
of the
work He was going to do all over the land, I had faith to believe that
the thing
God showed me would come to pass, mid I have lived to see it
through.
One evening in my own tabernacle, a young girl about 16 to 18
years of
age by the name of Hilda suddenly became overpowered by the
Spirit of
God.
She arose
and stood on the platform beside me. I recognized at once that the
Lord had
given the girl a message, so I simply stopped preaching and waited
while the
Spirit of God came upon her. She began to chant in some language
I did not
know, and then made gestures like those a Mohammedan priest
would
make when chanting prayers. In the back of the house I observed a
young
East Indian, whom I knew. He became enraptured and commenced to
walk
gradually up the aisle. No one disturbed him, and he proceeded up the
aisle
until he had reached the front. Then he stood looking into the girl's face
with
intense amazement. When her message had ceased, I said to him, "What
is
it?" He answered, " Oh, she speaks my language!" I said,
"What does she
say?"
He came up on the platform beside me and gave the gist of her
message.
"She tells me that salvation comes from God. In order to save men,
Jesus
Christ, Who was God, became man. She says one man cannot save
another;
that Mohammed was a man like other men, not a power to save a
man from
his sins. But Jesus was God, and He had power to impart His
Spirit to
me and make me like God. While I was preaching in a church in
South
Africa, an American lady whose son resided in the state of Iowa, was
present
in a week night service.
Before the service began, she called me into
the vestry and said she had just
received
a letter from her daughter in law. It stated that the woman's son, It
college
professor, appeared to be tubercular. He was compelled to give up
his teaching
position and was in a condition of great weakness. As I
conversed
with the mother, I observed that she, too, believed her son to be
tubercular
and that, unless healing came to him quickly, he would die. I
returned
to the Audience Room; and as we were about to pray, I stepped to
the end
of the platform and asked the mother to hand me the letter. Taking it
in my
hands, I knelt to pray, inviting all present to join me in faith in God for
the man's
deliverance. My spirit seemed to ascend in God, and I lost all
consciousness
of my environment. Suddenly, I found myself standing in that
young
man's home in Iowa, nearly 10,000 miles from Johannesburg.
The man sat by a hard coal heater with a
little boy about two years old on
his lap.
I observed him critically and said to myself, Your face is hard and
shows no
evidence of soul development or spiritual life, yet your affection
for your
son is a redeeming quality. His wife sat on the opposite side of the
table,
reading a magazine. Observing her, I remarked to myself, When he got
you, he
got a Tartar! While standing behind the man's chair, I laid my hands
on his
head, silently praying for God to impart to him His healing virtue and
make the
man well that he might bless the world and that his mother's heart
might be
comforted. There was no knowledge of my return. In a moment I
was aware
that I was kneeling on the Church platform. I had been uttering
audible
prayer and the Spirit of God was resting deeply upon the people.
Some six
weeks later, word was received that the young man was quite well.
His
recovery had begun on the exact date that prayer was offered for him in
our
church 10,000 miles away.
I was
absent from the city of Spokane for a time and, when I returned, Mrs.
Lake was
not at home. It was just time to leave for my afternoon service
when
someone came in and said, "Your secretary, Mrs. Graham, is in the
throes of
death. Your wife is with her."
Immediately
I hurried to the place. One of my ministers' wives met me at the
door and
said, "You are too late; she is gone."
As I
stepped inside, the minister was coming out of the room. He said, "She
has not
breathed for a long time." But looking on that woman, I thought of
how God
Almighty had raised her out of death three years before; how He
had
miraculously given her back her womb, ovaries, and tubes which had
been
removed in operations; how she had married and conceived a child.
As these
thoughts arose, my heart flamed!
1 took
that woman up off the pillow and called op God for the lightnings of
heaven to
blast the power of death and deliver her. I commanded her to come
back and
stay. She came back after having not breathed for 23 minutes!
We have
not yet learned to keep in living touch with the powers of God.
Once in a
while our souls rise, and we see the flame of God accomplish this
wonder
and that. But, beloved, Jesus Christ lived in the presence of God
every
hour of the day and night. Never a word proceeded from the mouth of
Jesus
Christ, but that which was God's Word. He said, The words that I
speak
unto you, they ore spirit, and they are life John 6: 63.
When you
and I are lost in the Son of God and the fires of Jesus burn in our
hearts,
as they did in his, our words will be the words of Spirit and of life.
There
will be no death in them. Beloved, we are on the way.
Having
formal acknowledgement as a student of science, it was my privilege
to attend
clinics, which I frequently did.
At one
time I submitted myself to a series of experiments. It was not
sufficient
to know that God healed; I had to know how God healed.
I visited
one of the great experimental institutions and submitted myself for a
series of
experiments.
First, an
instrument was attached to my head. This instrument had an
indicator
that would register the vibrations of the brain.
I began
to repeat things like the 23rd Psalm to soothe the mind and reduce its
vibrations
to the lowest point. Then I repeated the 31st Psalm, the 35th
chapter
of Isaiah, the 91st Psalm, and Paul's address before Agrippa.
After
this, I went into secular literature and recited Tennyson's "Charge of
the Light
Brigade" and finally Poe's "The Raven" as I prayed in my heart
that at
the psychological moment, God would anoint my soul in the Holy
Spirit.
My
difficulty was that while reciting, I could not keep the Spirit from
coming
upon me. When I finished with "The Raven," those in charge of the
experiment
said, "You are a phenomenon. You have a wider mental range
than any
human being we have ever seen."
In
reality, this was not so. It was because the Spirit of God kept coming upon
me to
such degree that I could feel the moving of the Spirit within me.
I prayed
in my heart, "Lord God, if You will only lot the Spirit of God come
like the
lightnings of God upon my soul for two seconds, I know something
is going
to happen that these men have never seen before.
As I
recited the last lines of the poem, suddenly The Spirit of God struck me
in a
burst of praise and tongues. The indicator on that instrument bounded to
the limit
and I haven't the least idea how much further it would have gone if
it had
been possible.
The
professors said, "We have never seen anything like it!"
I
replied, "Gentlemen, it is the Holy Ghost."
In the
second experiment, a powerful X-ray machine with microscopic
attachments
was connected to my head. The purpose was to see, if possible,
what the
action of the brain cells was.
I
proceeded just as in the former experiment. First, I repeated Scriptures that
were
soothing those calculated to reduce the action of the cortex coils to
their
lowest possible register. Then I went to Scriptures which conveyed
better
and richer things until I reached the first chapter of John. As I began to
recite
this, the fires of God began to burn in my heart.
Suddenly,
the Spirit of God came upon me as before, and the man who was
behind me
touched me. It was a signal to me to keep that poise of soul until
one after
another could look through the instrument.
Finally,
when I let go, the Spirit subsided. The professors said, "Why, man,
we cannot
understand this, but the cortex cells expanded amazingly."
I said to
them, "Gentlemen, I want you to see one more thing. Go down in
your
hospital and bring back a man who has inflammation in the bone. Take
your
instrument and attach it to' his leg. Leave enough space to get my hand
on his
leg. You can attach it to both sides."
When the
instrument was ready, I put my hand on the man's shin and prayed
like
Mother Etter' prays: no strange prayer, but the cry of my heart to God.
I said,
"God, kill the devilish disease by Your power. Let the Spirit move in
him; let
it live in him."
Then I
asked, "Gentlemen, what is taking place?
They
replied, "Every cell is responding."
It is so
simple: The life of God comes back into n part that is afflicted;
immediately
the blood flows; the closed, congested cells respond; and the
work is
done!
That is
God's divine science.
Oh,
beloved, when you pray, something is happening in you! It is not a
myth; it
is the action of god.
The
Almighty God, by the Spirit, comes into your soul, takes possession of
your
brain and manifests Himself in the cortex cells of your brain. When you
wish and
will, either consciously or unconsciously, the fire of God, the
power of
God, that life of God, that nature of God, is transmitted from the
cortex
cells of your brain and throbs through your nerves down through your
person,
into every cell of your being into every cell of your brain, your
blood,
your flesh, and your bone, into every square inch of your skin, until
you are
alive with God!
That is
divine healing.
One day I
sat talking to Father Seymour in Los Angeles. I told him about the
following
incident in the life of Elias Letwaba, one of our native preachers in
South
Africa:
I went to
his house one day in the country, and his wife said, "He is not
home. A
little baby is hurt, and he is praying for it."
So I went
over to the native hut, got down on my knees, and crawled inside.
I saw
Letwaba kneeling in a corner by the child. I said, "Letwaba, it is me.
What is
the matter with the child?"
He told
me the mother had been carrying it on her back in a blanket as
natives
carry their children, and it fell out. He said, "I think it hurt its
neck."
I
examined the baby and saw that its neck was broken. It would turn from
side to
side like the neck of a doll. "Why, Letwaba, the baby's neck is
broken!"
I did not
have faith for a broken neck, but poor old Letwaba did not know
the
difference. I saw that he did not understand. He discerned the spirit of
doubt in
my soul, and I said to myself, I am not going to interfere with his
faith. He
will just feel the doubt generated by all the old traditional things I
have
learned, so I will go outside.
I went to
another hut and kept on praying. I lay own at 1 a.m. At 3 o'clock
Letwaba
came in.
I said,
"Well, Letwaba, how about the baby?"
He looked
at me, so lovingly and sweetly, and said, "Why, brother, the baby
is all
well. Jesus do heal the baby."
