OTHER VISITS FROM JESUS

Another time I saw Jesus, I was about 11 years old. This time, He walked in through the front door while I was watching the comedy, "Laverne and Shirley" on television. He came over, sat down beside me on the couch, and kind of glanced at the TV set.

Everything in this natural world clicked off. I could not hear the television or the telephone. All I heard was Jesus, and all I saw was His glory. He said, "Roberts, I want you to study the lives of My generals in My great army throughout time. Know them like the back of your hand. Know why they were a success. Know why they failed, and you will lack nothing in that area."

Jesus promised me certain things that day. He said, "Roberts, if you will be faithful in this thing, I will promote you." The Bible says you must be faithful first of all in small things. (Matt. 25:21-23.) I had to leave the television set alone after that. I had to turn my back on school sports. I had to leave everything, even my best friend, and do what was required of me to follow God in order to fill the office He has for me.

He made me another promise that day. He said that if I would be faithful in these studies, He would see that I met the great generals of this day. And God has kept His promise. He has brought me in contact with them. If you let God do it, things will happen in His time. Everything will work out all right—everything. For God has a timetable that He runs on. We need to run on His timetable.

Jesus got up, walked back out the door, the TV clicked back on, and I resumed watching—for that day, anyway. After that, I studied carefully the great ministers of the past, along with some who were not well-known, to find out why they succeeded or failed. I began by reading a book my grandmother had on British evangelist Smith Wigglesworth.

Then I studied the lives and ministries of such men and women as John Alexander Dowie, Charles Finney, Maria Woodworth-Etter, John G. Lake, Aimee Semple McPherson, Kathryn Kuhlman, and many others.

Most of the time, we are running from the devil. But I found that the great preachers of the past lived on the offensive. They were not afraid of anything. We can learn much from the examples of these great men and women, who are now with the Lord.

As I read a book during those years I was studying what Jesus told me to study, the Holy Spirit taught me. He would tell me what different people were like. He would say, "Did you notice that? Did you notice how they said that—how they moved with Me in this way?" (Robert Liardon)