The spirit world is an unknown realm to many Christians. Others live every day of their lives there, and they are more conscious of the spirit world than of the place called earth. Those who operate in the flesh do not understand. They look at those who have paid the price to live in the spirit world and call them “weird,” “fanatic,” or “in error.”

However, one thing the critics cannot outdo is the miracles of those who live in the realm of the spirit. Neither can they outdo the Holy Spirit sermons they preach!

The Word of God says,

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. —James 1:4

Patience is so important—not only in the realm of the spirit, but in the natural world as well. We can see the differ­ent results of patience versus impatience all around us. In the world of finance, a person who saves and invests wisely and carefully will see a steady growth in their net worth. An impatient person who is always looking for a big-money, get-rich-quick scheme is always on the verge of “making it big” but never really does. This is an example of how “slow and steady wins the race.”

Now keep in mind that patience isn’t the same as inertia. I’m not talking about sitting back for months and being inactive. There is a time for patiently sitting and listening to God, and there is a time for action. When He tells you to move, move! When that time for action comes, don’t be afraid. God may be calling you to do something new and different. Sticking with the old ways of doing something does not constitute patience. You can keep up with what God is doing and operate in patience at the same time.

One day, if the Lord tarries, the things that are occurring in the world right now will come to a divine conclusion. Something new will begin to happen, and we will need to be in tune with that, whatever it is. We need to listen to God and be led by His Holy Spirit so we always stay on the cutting edge—always moving forward. God wants us to be patient and to wait on Him, but He doesn’t want us to grow fat, complacent, and lazy. His job is to lead. Our job is to follow and hang on tenaciously to His word to us.

In the midst of his agony and feelings of hopelessness, Oral learned his first lessons about sickness and the results of a lack of healing faith in the body of Christ. A leading pastor of the city came to see Oral, but he had no faith for his recovery. The man merely prayed that Oral would have patience with his disease and then went quietly away.

Some well-intentioned Christians who visited their home told the family that God had given the terrible disease to Oral for a purpose. Sunday afternoons were the most miserable for Oral as scripturally in­effective neighbors came over to talk about his disease and how God had “put” tuberculosis on him. All of Oral’s hope was crushed by their predictions of woe. He cried out in revolt against the ideas they believed.

“If God put this on me,” he shouted to his parents, “I don’t want to serve Him.”

“God Is Going to Heal You!”

Roberts Liardon tells us that in His faithfulness, the Lord always sends someone into our lives at our moments of desperation. Just as when Oral was a small, stutter­ing boy, God used his mother to prophesy over him once again. Mama Roberts was a woman of incredible vision and the spiritual strength to believe. She spoke with the assurance of her faith, “Oral, God didn’t’ af­flict you…the devil did! When God calls someone, son, the devil always tries to destroy him, but if you will give your heart to Jesus and have faith in the Lord, He will raise you up from this bed and heal you.”

Healing! How his heart leaped with joy. This was the first time Oral had a glimmer of hope for his own healing! It was the devil who had caused his illness. It was the devil who was stealing his life! God hadn’t put this sickness on him! This was a new revelation to Oral and the hint of things to come.

Lester was exhausted. One more day of battle would be necessary to win this fight. He spent the rest of the day fasting and in communion with the Lord, sensing His presence and reassurance that there was nothing to fear. The newspapers, perhaps misreading his strained appearance, declared that Pastor Sumrall had been defeated by the devils.

However, Lester knew that God’s victory was at hand! Good news greeted him at the Bilibid Prison the next morning. Clarita had not been bitten anymore overnight. There were onlookers in the chapel again that day, and Lester asked them all to kneel in prayer—newspaper reporters, doctors, and officials alike. They humbly obliged.

Once again, Lester commanded that the demons leave in the name of Jesus, and, this time, Clarita relaxed completely. They were gone. When questioned, Clarita responded that they had gone out the window. The newspaper reporters and officials who had crowded into the room were weeping in amazement at what the Lord had done.

One more time, Satan attempted to have his way. Clarita screamed, and the demons seemed to have reappeared. They declared that Clarita had not asked them to go. Once again, they were commanded to leave in the name of Jesus. Then, Lester explained to Clarita that she had the power in the blood of Jesus to refuse to allow them entrance again. That night, when they tried one last time to torment her, the guard reminded her of the power of the blood of Jesus. She commanded them to leave, and they left, never to return again! The victory was won!

Roberts Liardon tells us that Clarita left the prison shortly after this and moved in with a Christian family arranged by the Sumralls. A year later, she moved away from Manila to a small Philippine village, married, had children, and lived in Christian peace.

A few years later, while preaching in Mobile, Alabama, Lester discovered what had really happened in the heavenlies that day. The pastor of the church in Mobile, who was also a longtime friend, and his wife shared a strange story. They had been warned by the Holy Spirit one evening that Lester was dying somewhere on the other side of the world.

They had fallen on their knees, crying out to the Lord, “Save him. Save him. Don’t let him die.”132 Later that evening, when Lester checked his diary, he discovered that their prayers on his behalf had been offered at the exact time he had been struggling for his life. He shared this with his friends, and God’s faithfulness once again brought them to their knees in thanksgiving!

Roberts Liardon tells us that the mortal dangers in China came from outside sources, as well. The Communist Chinese were creating havoc throughout the nation as they “persuaded” people to accept their Communist doctrine—using brutal tactics. Just a few weeks before Lester and Howard arrived in China,  two young missionaries, John and Betty Stam, had been martyred for their faith, with only their infant daughter surviving. Lester and Howard were now traveling in the same area near the Tibetan border by mule, going from village to village to preach salvation through Christ.

On more than one occasion, the fact that Lester’s life was in God’s hands became immediately obvious. Once, Lester’s mule panicked and ran away from the caravan, stranding Lester fifteen hundred miles away from Hong Kong in the midst of a crowd of laughing Chinese people with no interpreter and no idea where Howard had gone. Lester gave a frantic plea to the Lord for direction and assistance.

In spite of his mother’s prayers and the miraculous deliverances he saw around him, Lester determined to avoid God. Even though he at­tended church services with his mother, he shared his father’s opinion that all preachers were parasites who lived off of others.

Lester dropped out of high school at age sixteen and spent his days fishing and looking for ways to make easy money. It was then that the tuberculosis struck with a vengeance. After months of trying to fight the disease, Lester neared his untimely end. At the brink of death and discovery, he experienced the visions of the coffin and the huge Bible and made the choice that would change his life forever. Lester’s instan­taneous and complete healing from tuberculosis firmly established his belief in a God who heals today.

Roberts Liardon tells us that George Sumrall was happy that his son was healed but not certain how it had come about. He was excited about Lester’s natural ability to do well in business and assumed that he would resume earning money for the family’s needs. Yet, three weeks after his miraculous healing, Lester heard the Lord say once again, “You need to preach My Word!”

With determination, Lester went to his strong-willed father and explained that he would be leaving home to preach the gospel. He believed that obeying God was the only thing that would keep him alive! Furious, his father roared at his “stupidity,” forbade him to leave, and stomped out of the house. With tears in his eyes, Lester ran up to his room and pleaded with the Lord for an answer to this conflict. Should he obey his earthly father or follow the call from God? The Lord answered Lester’s prayer with a Scripture.

To challenge Phillips’ control, Jeffreys began sending out letters to individual churches to ask for support. What followed was a six-year period of devastating attacks and counterattacks between Jeffreys and Phillips through this correspondence.

Frankly, both of these men were guilty of immaturity in their han­dling of the leadership conflict. They had begun the Elim movement as young men who loved the Lord and desired nothing more than to see His kingdom increase in the world. But the rapid growth of the denomi­nation, along with the popularity, influence, and power that came with their positions, would have affected any man. Jeffreys erred in looking primarily to the people in the Elim movement for counsel. As the ap­ostolic leader of the denomination, he should have sought counsel for how to bring about change in the church government from his peers in ministry, such as T. B. Barratt of Norway and Lewi Pethrus of Sweden. And Phillips, though he was a diligent administrator, should have been willing to listen to the man whom God had used to bring so many into the kingdom of God and the Elim churches. In the end, both men leaned too much on their flesh and gave Satan a place to intensify the conflict.

It may seem odd that so little has been written about the Elim con­flict in light of the state of warfare in Europe at the time. The Bible is clear to point out to believers, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12).

As Phillips and Jeffreys were on the brink of war over control of the Elim denomination, there was a nightmarish conflict brewing in Eu­rope. As the evil forces of darkness working at that time through Hit­ler and the Nazis began the bloodshed of world war, it seems clear that spirits of conflict and desire for power were also attacking the church of Jesus Christ.

Roberts Liardon tells us that one of the ugliest parts of the Elim conflict came at the Conference of 1939, just as Hitler was preparing to enter Poland. Because of the caus­tic letters and questionnaires that had been circulating, Jeffreys initially refused to come to the 1939 Conference and instead stayed in a home just a few miles from the meeting location. He sent emissaries to the meeting to give his answers on the subjects that were brought up for discussion. Frustrated and angry over his lack of cooperation, Phillips used Jeffreys’ absence as an opportunity to put the “nail in the coffin” of eroding sup­port for Jeffreys.

Phillips opened the Conference by refuting all of the changes Jef­freys had again proposed for church government. He then ridiculed the number of changes Jeffreys had proposed for Elim church government over the years, including a couple of mistaken plans that had cost the denomination both time and money.

Next, Phillips attacked the proposals having to do with British Is­raelism, arguing that the only reason Jeffreys wanted to empower the local church governments was to make it a possibility for them to teach British Israelism, which contradicted the spiritual guidance from Headquarters. Phillips ended the discourse by attacking Jeffreys’ motivations and stat­ing, “The fact is, he is not fighting for a principle, he is fighting for his own way—for every new scheme that comes into his head.” And Phillips’ final conclusion was that George Jeffreys was to “have no more say in [Elim’s] government than King George VI has to the government of this land.” “It was a devastating attack on Jeffreys’ character and ability.”

It is tragic how far those attending the conference had fallen from their Spirit-filled desire to extend the gospel of Jesus Christ through the work of George Jeffreys, anointed evangelist, and their commitment to support his work throughout the British Isles. What a sad day it was for Christendom.

Astoundingly, after his discourse was over, Phillips suggested that Jeffreys continue to be the “spiritual father” of the denomination. To come to some sort of compromise, the Executive Council agreed to add a small number of lay representatives to the Ministerial Conference and to allow that Conference to be the governing body over the denomination, with the Executive Council taking a secondary role.

Roberts Liardon tells us that Jeffreys’ response to the compromise was simply that he would dis­cuss it with some of his lay advisers. At this point, all polite discourse ended. The Council members gave Jeffreys an ultimatum on the timing of his decisions and asked him to transfer all the properties in which he still held a trustee position back to the Elim Trust Corporation. In response, Jeffreys personally entered the Conference site and formally resigned from the Alliance and from the Elim Church.

Roberts Liardon tells us that at the outset of 1926, the Elim group launched a revival campaign in Town Hall in Portsmouth, England. Within a few days, the hall was no longer big enough to hold the crowds. Jeffreys sent a letter to E. J. Phillips, Secretary-General of the Elim Alliance, and excitedly informed him, “I am having the time of my life. Souls are continually flocking to Christ, most startling and marvelous healings, while yesterday hundreds were turned away from the Town Hall an hour before the starting time.”

Jeffreys’ next campaign was in Liverpool, where he rented the Liverpool Boxing Stadium to hold the meetings. Understanding the need for publicity to draw crowds to this new work, he preached from inside the boxing ring itself.

In the days before Easter 1926, the Elim team was getting ready for a convention at Liverpool’s Surrey Tabernacle when Jeffreys received a surprise phone call from Aimee Semple McPherson. She told him that she was in France and wanted to travel to London to conduct a few meetings before going on to Palestine for ministry. The team was a little perplexed, but they invited her to participate at the Surrey Tabernacle meetings. She spent a few days ministering in London before she left for Palestine. On the way back from the Middle East, she planned to join Jeffreys for the Easter meetings.

The reservation at Surrey Tabernacle was cancelled, and the meetings were rescheduled for Royal Albert Hall in London to accommodate the crowds that Aimee Semple McPherson was expected to draw. She preached on the night of Easter Sunday and the next day. The British press had been thrilled by the opportunity to cover the meetings led by this well-known, flamboyant American preacher. Yet the crowds in Great Britain did not really warm to her, perhaps because the stereotypically sedate British personality was not accustomed to her dramatic, boisterous mannerisms.

Roberts Liardon tells us that one news reporter from Pittsburgh alluded to Luke 8:25 when he wrote, “The simplicity of the services and the wanton lack of any attempt to play upon the emotions of the great throngs who crowd themselves into the building naturally incites the onlooker to inquire, ‘What manner of man is this?’”

Eunice N. Perkins, Bosworth’s early biographer, was a great admirer of his preaching style, which she described thusly: “No dramatics! A clear, convincing logic ofttimes, for altho uneducated in a worldly sense, he has an unusually bright mind, has studied the cream of Christian literature, and is con­tinually being taught the Word of God, by the Spirit of God. Moreover, his simple natural­ness, or natural simplicity, is delightfully re­freshing to all who hear him, while it is, at the same time, more forceful than the most amaz­ing pulpit oratory.”

Bosworth believed in the living power of the Bible to build faith in the hearts of those who read from its pages or heard it preached. Because he believed so steadfastly in the solid foundation of the Word, he preached with a quiet, firm authority that was uncommon at the time.

When the Bosworth party was conducting a crusade in St. Paul, Minnesota, the Rever­end J. D. Williams reviewed F. F. Bosworth in the local newspaper. He admired “the wide scope of his message. The preaching was Scriptural and earnest and the truth presented covered the entire Fourfold Gospel, i.e., Christ as Saviour, Sanctifier, Healer and Coming King. Special stress was laid upon the Atonement covering both spiritual and physical needs.” Commendable aspects of Bosworth’s ministry, according to Williams, included the thorough preparation of the workers who were ready to pray for those who came forward, as well as the preparation of the hearts of those who were so ready to receive.