Healed From Sickness
A sister who has had hemorrhages of the lungs for years was brought very low lately, having seven hard hemorrhages one after another.
She was nearing the river and heard her name called three times by a heavenly messenger, but she answered that she did not feel she could say she had fought a good fight and kept the faith. Then the drawing to the other shore ceased. The saints prayed for her, and she arose, and dressed, being perfectly healed. She went to the table and ate her dinner and afterwards played and sang several hymns. She has received the baptism with the Holy Spirit and God has raised her up to preach the whole Gospel.
From AlaskaBro. H. M. Turney, an evangelist who was in Alaska when he heard of the outpouring of God's Spirit in California, struck out immediately for Los Angeles, and he has received the baptism with the Holy Spirit and gift of tongues. About five minutes before he received the Holy Spirit, while kneeling at the altar, he whispered to Bro. Oyler that the devil was tempting him that the speaking in tongues was not for him. Bro. Oyler replied,
"The devil is a liar from the beginning." And immediately the Holy Spirit fell on our brother and he spoke with tongues. Since then he says the Lord waked him up at night speaking and singing in tongues, as He has so many others. A brother from Redlands, seventy-nine years old, came for Divine healing. He was deaf and used ear trumpets. The Lord opened his ears immediately. Then as he arose to go, a brother asked him," "Where are you glasses?" He looked around and said with astonishment, "Why, I can see as well as I ever did." He had had poor eyesight. The Lord also healed him of rheumatism at the same time. "With his stripes we are healed."
Bro. G.A. Cook Receives The Holy SpiritGod has told His children to be witnesses, and the most convincing evidence is testimony of personal knowledge. To endeavor to help those who are sending in letters of inquiry to the Apostolic Faith office, asking how they may receive the Holy Spirit, the writer will state a little of his personal experience in obtaining this pearl of great price, the baptism with the Holy Spirit. I dropped into the meetings on Azusa Street some time in April, having heard that some people were speaking in tongues, as they did on the day of Pentecost. Although I had been trying to preach Pentecost for five years, the speaking in tongues was as strange to me as though it had never been mentioned in God's word. At first the meeting seemed a very tame affair to me, as I had been along the line of much fleshly demonstration and noise.
As I was indoctrinated in the second blessing being the baptism with the Holy Spirit, I branded the teaching as heretical, not going to the meetings for some time. In the meantime, Pentecost came to the place, and many began to speak in tongues. I now began to attend regularly. In fact, I could not stay away. My heart began to break up, and soon I was going from one person to another, asking them to forgive me for harsh words and criticism. God so melted my heart that I would cry at my work or riding on a streetcar. How the dear Lord began to teach me that what I needed was His loving, tender Spirit, and that power with God meant deep humility in our dealings with our fellow creatures. I now began to go to the altar and earnestly seek for the Lord to have His way with me. Soon the power of God began to work with me. The Holy Spirit showed me that I must be clay in the Potter's hands, an empty vessel before the Lord. I laid aside all doctrine, all pre-conceived ideas and teachings and became absolutely empty. The Holy Spirit now settled down on me, and I could feel the power going through me like electric needles. The Spirit taught me that I must not resist the power but give way and become limp as a piece of cloth. When I did this, I fell under the power, and God began to mold me and teach me what it meant to be really surrendered to Him.
I was laid out under the power five times before Pentecost really came. Each time I would come out from under the power, I would feel so sweet and clean, as though I had been run through a washing machine. I now had come to the place where I was completely submitted to the whole will of God. I had been seeking about five weeks, and on a Saturday morning I awoke and stretched my arms toward heaven and asked God to fill me with the Holy Spirit. My arms began to tremble, and soon I was shaken violently by a great power, and it seemed as though a large pipe was fitted over my neck, my head apparently being off. I was now filled with the Holy Spirit. Words cannot describe the power I felt. The nearest description that could be given would be the action of a pump under terrific pressure, filling me with oil. I could feel the filling in my toes and all parts of my body which seemed to me to swell until I thought I would burst.
I do not know how long this continued but it seemed to me a long time. The pressure was now removed and my soul and spirit seemed to leave the body and float in the air just above. My body seemed hard and metallic like iron. This was undoubtedly the baptism into the death of Christ. It was now time for me to arise and go to work, so I got up without speaking in tongues. I believe I would have spoken in tongues then, if I had remained in the hands of the Lord long enough. About thirty hours afterwards, while sitting in the meeting on Azusa Street, I felt my throat and tongue begin to move, without any effort on my part. Soon I began to stutter and then out came a distinct language which I could hardly restrain. I talked and laughed with joy far into the night. Praise His name for such a wonderful experience of power and love and joy. G.A. Cook.