01 -- WE MUST PREACH IT EXPERIENTIALLY
We must preach it experientially, not experimental, but as something proved by experience.[This distinction drawn between "experiential" and "experimental" here
is not altogether welltaken, for the word "experimental" can mean "that which is known by experience" as well as "thatwhich involves an experiment or a test." While
some may prefer the word "experiential" applied to spiritual knowledge, the word "experimental," used by many of the older writers, mayalso be used to denote
the same thing. See the Oxford Dictionary -- DVM] It must be proved byspiritual science in the laboratory of your own heart. You cannot give to others something
whichyou do not have yourself. If the early Disciples had to "tarry until they were endued with powerfrom on high," we must do the same. You must KNOW that you
have been and are still sanctified,or there will be a lameness in your own message like the one in your own soul. How long has itbeen since someone was sanctified
under your own ministry? If it costs days, friends, positions,and shallow professions to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you have been cleansed fromcarnality
and filled with the Holy Ghost, "all the fullness of God." This will make your stepssteady, and you can offer to others what you are more certain of and more
conscious of thananything else in this world. This will save you from cowardice, weak knees, compromise andhypocrisy, and make you holy, valiant and fearless
in the face of every foe. It will make you themost loved and hated person in all your community round about.
A. J. Gordon said, "My ministry was fruitless for 20 years, until I went into my study andshut the door, and told God that I would never come out until He baptized
me with the HolyGhost." The mighty baptism came, and revivals followed him around the world. At our Iowa campsome years ago, a leading minister who fell at the
altar to be sanctified, said to the evangelist that"I had lost the blessing, and because of the inconsistencies of others, I had wondered if there wassuch a thing as
sanctification, but when I heard you preach it, I felt that you had it, and that I couldhave it." About seven preachers got sanctified in that camp, and revivals spread
all over theconference after the camp. "Lord, send a revival and let it begin in me."
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