The Bible and Life

Apostolic Church History Podcast

Friday, April 17, 2026

Our Blessings Are To Come

Hello everyone. Praise the Lord!

Are blessings are to come.

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"We must not expect much in this base world. All our richest blessings are to come. This world is but a preparatory state. We are disciplining and preparing for the glorious inheritance above.

But how often, through wretched unbelief, we seem to wish to have our all here. And although, from bitter experience, we feel and acknowledge that this poor world is polluted, and it is not our rest, yet more or less we go on, often repining, because we cannot have things just as we wish.

Oh, to leave ourselves in a loving, tender Father's hands! He knows what we need, and what we ought to have, and will deny us no good thing. But He must judge for us, who are but as babes, who cannot judge for ourselves."

~ Mary Winslow 1774-1854 (mother of Octavius Winslow)

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Tuesday, April 14, 2026

Fortune-tellers Nightmare

Hello everyone. Praise the Lord!

A FORTUNE-TELLER'S NIGHTMARE.

I spent five years ministering with Brother A.A. Allen. Most of what I know today, I learned by his side. I describe my experience as that of an apprenticeship. A.A. Allen cast out more devils accidentally than most ministers do on purpose. During those years with Brother Allen, I learned a few things about devils. As a result, I have cast out some devils in my day, too.

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I had an interesting encounter with a devil in Pennsylvania. My wife's father had a hunting cabin in the mountains. One weekend he asked me to go there with him. I had the weekend off, so I said, "All right, Pop, I will go with you."

After the second day, I could no longer take it. I was tired of preaching to squirrels. By Saturday night, I was looking for some excitement. I am used to a Holy Ghost night on Saturday! In the woods, in a log cabin, killing flies was the only excitement there was. So I said, "Pop, I am getting out of here."

There was a small town of about 375 folks nearby where a street fair was underway. I saw a number of little tents and something about a tent attracts me. One of the tents had a crystal ball in it. In the front there was a sign that said, "Fortunes Told." I headed for the fortune-teller. I wanted some excitement, and I was going to get it. I had found a devil.

I saw the fortune-teller come out of her tent. Dressed in her attire she played the part perfectly. She wore a gypsy scarf and long earrings that hung down to her shoulders. Her eyes caught mine and she froze. My eyes were glued to hers. I headed right to her. When I got close enough, she spoke—or rather, the demon inside her spoke. She took the tent curtain, draped it around her and said, "I know you, you man of God."

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I said, "I know you, too, you devil." I was telling the truth. I do know him! She quickly drew the curtain closer to her and stayed inside the tent. I leaned in and said, "You aren't telling any fortunes tonight, you devil. You have been tormenting God's people, but now I am going to torment you!"

And I did. Acts 19:15 says, And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye? You need to be so full of the Holy Ghost that the devil knows who you are. God never intended for us to run away from the devil. God intended for us to run after him!

- R. W. Shambach ( Miracles)

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Apostolic Church History Podcast

Friday, April 10, 2026

God Has Some New Things

Hello everyone. Praise the Lord!

God has some new things!

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The majority of people throughout Church history never move beyond their first blessing from God — the salvation experience. When John Wesley began to preach sanctification — the cleaning up and discipline of your life — many denominations did not even look around.

They said, "We've already got it all."

Once the average believer gets in a groove, that is exactly where he or she dies. We are creatures of habit. We move ahead in almost everything except God. I think the primary reason is because the devil does not want us to move forward.

In the Bible, the scribes and Pharisees and the Sadducees had their own little cliques. They were in their own little ruts and were determined to stay there until they died. The only thing they ever agreed on was to get rid of Jesus!

People are interesting. They want the latest model car, the latest suit and dress fashions, the nicest food, and the very finest of everything, but when it comes to religion, they do not care. Any old church will do.

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God can do something new, and people will say, "Must be fanatics!"

If God does a new thing, I believe it is time to look into what He is doing and move with Him.

In Acts 19, we are told that Paul went to Ephesus. He walked into a church with only twelve people in it. They were having it rough. They could not afford a preacher with only twelve people. Paul found out the twelve had been baptized by John the Baptist, who had his head cut off twenty years earlier. They followed a headless man for twenty years.

Paul began to preach Jesus to them — and they listened. They burned their idols — worth fifty thousand pieces of silver. (One piece of silver was one day's pay at the time.) (Acts 19:19.) That is called revival! They got out of the past groove and into the next one.

People will praise you for buying a new Lincoln, but they will curse you for receiving the Holy Ghost and allowing the gifts of the Spirit to operate through you as the Spirit wills. I believe God has some new things.

- Dr. Lester Sumrall

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Tuesday, April 7, 2026

Elias Letwaba

Hello everyone. Praise the Lord!

One day I sat talking to Father Seymour (William J. 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."

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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."

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I said, "The baby is well! Letwaba, take me to the baby at once." So we went to the baby. I took the little black thing on my arm and came out of the hut praying: "Lord, take every cursed thing out of my soul that keeps me from believing the Lord Jesus Christ." As I related the incident to Mr. Seymour, he shouted, "Praise God, brother! That is not healing, it is life!"

_ Letwaba was John G Lakes Associate.

- John G Lake ( Adventures in God )

Roberts Liardon

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