How to Train People to Work in the Altars

Perhaps it would be good if we'd raise our hands and thank God for what we've heard here today. Father, we thank you for your goodness and mercy. Thank you for what we felt and what we've heard. Thank you Lord Jesus for the touch of the Holy Ghost that we have felt on these sessions today. Thank you Lord Jesus for tools that we can use for the kingdom. Praise God. God bless all of you. You may be seated. I've appreciated so much what has been said here today. I would mention to you that I am very very conscious of the time and I will uh I will move very quickly swiftly through the notes that I have prepared for you and hopefully uh get you out of here in just a few minutes. I tried to persuade brother Bryant to uh just give brother Johnson the rest of my time and I was enjoying so very very much what brother Johnson was sharing with us and uh brother uh Bryant was not very cooperative. So I'm up here. Praise the Lord. The Lord is good to us and we're going to talk to you just for a moment about working in the altar and

specifically on how to train your people to work the altars. Uh the United Pentecostal Church is one of the only organizations left in our world today that still believes in the essentiality of the baptism of the Holy Ghost with the Bible evidence of speaking with other tongues. Uh if you've studied the assembly of God, you are full aware they no longer believe that it is essential to salvation. Perhaps never believed it like they should, but today don't believe it at all. And there are many other supposed Pentecostal groups in our world today that do not stress the baptism of the Holy Ghost uh uh perhaps like they once did. that the United Pentecostal Church still believes and always will believe I hope that the baptism of the Holy Ghost evidenced by speaking with other tongues is essential. Can you say amen? Now, there's a a great paradox here in the fact that we believe that the baptism of the Holy Ghost is essential. We believe you are not saved without the baptism of the Holy Ghost. And yet in the United Pentecostal Church, we train people for service in every area of the church except for how to pray people through to the baptism of the Holy Ghost. And so I do feel like knowing how to work the altars and training our people how to work the altars is very critical. It concerns me that we put such effort in our music. We put such effort in the facility where we uh are having church. We put such effort in the program. We put a lot of effort and we should in all of these areas uh in having the right kind of PA system. We want to know uh what the service schedule is going to be and we want it to flow smoothly without any dead time. We have worked these areas uh until we are as good and probably better than most other churches in our towns at conducting a a service that people are going to enjoy and benefit from. It's already been said here today. We have some of the greatest preachers and the greatest singers in all the world in the United Pentecostal church. Again, it is a paradox or an irony to me that we go through all of this and when it comes to the altar, most United Pentecostal Church preachers are of the opinion that when it comes to that part, people come forward and they just got to fend for themselves from there on, you know, we're going to we're going to sing, we're going to work on the service, we're going to train the choir, we're going to train the ushers, we're going to we're going to train the soundman, we're going to do the whole ball of wax, but when it comes time to close the deal. You're on your own. Nobody's going to help you. Nobody's going to give you an instruction. Nobody's going to be there to carry you through. I think we've dropped the ball. And I'm I'm talking to ministers today. So, I'll be this plane. I think we've dropped the ball in this area. And uh I my hat is off to the Louisiana district today for uh uh adding this particular session to uh your training. Let me go through some things that I believe need to be taught to your people that are going to work in the altar. And I'll move very quickly as I said. Number one, repentance. Repentance is a pre

prerequisite to receiving the baptism of the Holy Ghost. As you and I both know, the Holy Ghost can come before water baptism, but the Holy Ghost cannot come before repentance. And so many times people that we are working with in the altar, the first thing that we need to work with them on is repentance. Before we ever give them instructions of how to receive the Holy Ghost, before we even talk to them about the Holy Ghost, we need to talk to them about repentance. There are many people that I move to in the altar to pray with them to receive the Holy Ghost that I realize when I walk up to them that they have not repented of their sins. And if I can lead them into repentance and work with them in the area of repentance, I can then go on and help them receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost. There are some in our fellowship, not a whole lot. They're a minority, but they got big mouths. And uh they're talking about people receiving the Holy Ghost today without genuinely repenting. That's about as dumb as I've ever heard in my life. It's absolutely impossible to receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost without first repenting. It is not possible to do that. And so we need to work people through a repentant experience. I think we need to help the seeker repent. Now, some of you may not want to agree with me on this, but just bear with me for a moment if you will. We need to help the seeker know how to repent. We need to help them know what repentance is. People that come to church in 1995, they don't understand our Pentecostal vocabulary. They do not understand what the word repent even means. Had you not been around the church as long as you have been, uh, you would not know what the word repent means. And so, we need to explain to them what repentance is all about. It's purposing in your heart to turn away from sin. Now, they can understand that. It's purposing in your heart to live a life that's pleasing and acceptable to God and to be sorry for sin. sorry to the point that you're going to walk away from sin or turn your back on sin. That's what repentance is. And the seeker can understand that. And so when you bring people to an altar of repentance, we also need to tell them what repentance is. Repentance is more than shedding tears. People can shed tears and not purpose to walk away from sin. People can even say the words, "Lord, I'm sorry for the things I've done wrong and not purpose in their heart to walk away from that sin." And so, we need to help them understand repentance and work them through repentance. When I asked somebody to repent, I repent with them. I did it in the altar last night. Four or five uh folks that I had an opportunity to pray through to the Holy Ghost last night. When I walked up to him, one boy especially, the first one that I prayed for last night, they told me it was his first time to ever be in a Pentecostal church, the the guys around him, the first thing I did was led him through repentance. I explained to him what repentance was, what he needed to feel in his heart, determine in his mind, uh, as far as his relationship toward God and where he would go from here. And then I said, "Let's repent." And when he bowed his head to pray, he could hear me repenting, too. I said what I wanted him to say. What I wanted him to hear was genuine repentance. God, I'm sorry for my sin. God, I don't want to live a life of sin anymore. God, I want to turn my back on sin and walk away from sin. I want to be righteous and holy. I want to live a life that's pleasing to you. I don't want to live a life of sin anymore. That's the way he heard me praying and that helped him understand how to pray. Now, I want to say it again. People receive the Holy Ghost before they're baptized. It happens all the time. It happened in the scripture. There are some that are baptized and then get the Holy Ghost, but nobody gets the Holy Ghost that has not repented of their sins. And so, the first place to begin is repentance. I think in a lot of our churches, we're seeing uh our pastors are working toward having people receive the Holy Ghost. Spirit 95, Pentecost Sunday, Harvest 96 that is coming up. All of these thrust are uh uh bringing our preachers, ministers, churches to a place where we are expecting people to receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Let's not overlook the importance of first leading people to a repentant experience and then the Holy Ghost will come. If you understand that, say amen. Let me hurry right

along. I want to talk to you about assisting the seeker in the altar. Number one, and this stuff is very simple, but I've been asked to give you the basics so you can go home and give them to the people uh in your church that will be altar workers. Number one, an altar worker should speak so the seeker can clearly understand what they're saying. Be conscious of the words we use, the phrases that we use. I don't have time to go into it, but what in the world does the word yield mean to a sinner? What does a sinner know about the word yield? That's a triangle yellow sign out at the intersection. As far as they're concerned, it does not mean to them, "Open your mouth and let God speak." If you want them to open their mouth and let God speak, then say that. Open your mouth and let your tongue go and let God begin to speak through you. If that's what you want, say that to the sinner in 1995. Don't say hold on. They wonder hold on to what? And then somebody on the other side invariably will be hollering let go. And so in one ear they're saying hold on. The other ear they're saying let go. Somebody's running their fingers up and down their ribs, tickling them in the back and and and and and jumping and jerking and hello. We need to be very very careful that they understand what we want them to do and how they can receive the Holy Ghost. I encourage our older workers that we train that people that are seeking for the Holy Ghost, they don't automatically go deaf when they come to the altar. We get all excited and get about that far from their ear and then scream to the top of our lungs. Now, they can't possibly understand what you're saying when you're given directions in that uh in that volume. Say amen. Okay. Speak clearly. Explain to them exactly what will happen when they receive the Holy Ghost. Unless the person you are working with has been a chronic seeker and has been around the church for two or three or four years and in that amount of time anybody can figure out what we want of them. But unless you're dealing with a chronic seeker, that person is not going to understand our vernacular. They're not going to understand what we're trying to get them to do unless we take the time to clearly explain to them what is going to happen when they feel the Holy Ghost and when the Holy Ghost comes upon them. Can you say amen? I tell people that when I'm praying with them, I did this last night, that when we begin to worship the Lord, you're going to feel the presence of God come very close to you. You're going to feel God move upon you. I tell them, don't be afraid of what they're feeling. Do not resist what you're feeling. By the way, let me tell you how to notice when somebody's resisting God. You walk up to somebody and the spirit of the Lord comes on them and they go from this to this, they're resisting God. When they come down with their fist and bring their arms close, they are resisting God. Some of you is not going to like my next statement, but most folks that fall out in the floor are resisting the Holy Ghost. Most folks that jerk and and and and and are almost spasmotic. I'm not talking about when the choir's singing and we're all juking and jing. I'm talking about whenever we're in the altar trying to receive the Holy Ghost. Most people that are jerking and falling and doing this are resisting the Holy Ghost. You need to explain to them to allow the Holy Ghost to move upon them without resistance. If they're clenching their fist, open their hands up. I will literally take some I will literally open up people's hands that are that that have their fist clenched or their arms are pulled tight to them or if they begin, as I said, the

jerking or the shouting, I'll tell them, "You don't have nothing to shout about yet. Let's wait till we get the Holy Ghost and we'll all shout. But right now, we want to receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost. You see, we got it in our mind. Now, some of you is not going to like what I'm fixing to say, but we got it in our mind that shouting and jumping and clapping and hollering is evidence that the Holy Ghost is there. The only Bible evidence we have for someone receiving the Holy Ghost is speaking with other tongues as the spirit gives the utterance. Say, "Brother Cunningham, I want him to get a good experience." Friend, God don't give bad experiences. Hello. If they speak with tongues, they have the baptism of the Holy Ghost. And it's a whole lot easier after they receive the Holy Ghost. And we all rejoice over that fact for them to go on and receive what we call the joy of the Lord. But sometimes in our effort to get the joy of the Lord first, we actually are hindering them from getting the Holy Ghost. Hello. Some are sitting there saying, "This guy's way off the wall." But praise God, I prayed for a fell in a district somewhere. I think it's brother Arnold that said somewhere between Canada and Florida and California and New York. I prayed I I was praying for this dude that uh came to the altar. They told me he had been seeking for the Holy Ghost for eight years. His name was Bob. Laid hands on him, gave him a few instructions. I felt the spirit of the Lord on him. I said, "Bob, the spirit of God's on you right now, man. You can receive the Holy Ghost. It's not hard. Throw your hands up. Open your mouth. Quit speaking English. Let God speak through you. He'll form the words. Just let God begin to speak. He did exactly what it said. Threw his hands up, started talking in tongues like a China. I'm telling you, he just talked and talked and talked and talked. I went over and got the pastor. I said, "Come over here and listen to him speaking in tongues." He got down there and listened. He ran to the microphone, grabbed the microphone off the podium and said, "Curch, let's pray. Bob's almost got the Holy Ghost." Talking in tongues like a China. And so they prayed with him. I'm telling you, for 30 minutes, standing up here before Almighty God, 30 minutes he stood there and talked in tongues. And after about 30 minutes, he did this three times, clapped his hands together, and that church went nuts. They walked the pews, jumped over pews, did cartwheels. The pastor ran to the pull pit and screamed, "He got it. He got it." I stopped him. I said, "Sir, hold on just a minute. Maybe you're reading a book I ain't been reading. But my understanding is speaking in tongues is the evidence of the Holy Ghost. Not clapping your hands three times over your head. Hello. Everybody said amen. Everybody said move on. Help them understand exactly what we want them to do. What they're going to feel when the Holy Ghost comes upon them. I had one guy tell me in this camp meeting that when he received the baptism of the Holy Ghost, he said, "Man, this is easy." I said, "Yeah, I told you it was easy." He said, "I thought I was going to fall out on the floor." He said, "I thought I was going to shake. I thought something was going to knock me down." Now, where do they get those thoughts? Unless it's from the people in our churches. Hello. The Bible evidence of speaking with other tongues or of receiving the Holy Ghost is speaking with other tongues. Say, "Amen." I tell them when the Holy Ghost comes on them, they're going they're going to uh find that it's hard to speak English. I watch people pray that whenever they're they're worshiping the Lord. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. And then all of a sudden, their words get all jumbled up. I love you, Lord. I magnify you, Lord. And then they got to stop. They got to take a big deep breath. They got to gulp, a breath of air. And then they start over. Hallelujah. I love you, Lord. I magnify you. And they'll get to where they can't hardly speak English, and they'll stop. When you see somebody doing that, it's time for the altar worker to move in and say, "Hey, that's the Holy Ghost you're feeling right now." Whenever you feel God move on you like that, you quit speaking English. Don't stop. Don't take a breath of air. You open your mouth. Let your tongue go. Let your voice out loud. God's going to fill your mouth. God's going to speak through you in a language you don't understand. Help him through that particular hurdle or that particular place. I tell them that when all of this happens that they need to let their tongue and mouth go, that God's God is going to form the words in their mouth. They need to give their voice out loud. There are some folks I worked with some young people yesterday that told me that it was their opinion that when they received the Holy Ghost, another voice would speak out of them. Hello. They wanted to get the Holy Ghost. So, they're standing there with their mouth open. They really thought another voice was going to speak out of them. I said, "No, he's going to use your voice, your mouth, your lips, your tongue. He's going to cause he's going to form the words in your mouth and cause you to speak in another language, not some foreign voice speaking through you." Saying, "Brother Clam, where do they get all this?" Friend, in 1995, there's all kind of wacky stuff going on out there. Hello. There's all kind of wacky stuff going on in our world. So, please make our directions very clear. And we tell them to allow those strange sounds to come out of their mouth. Don't be afraid of it. You won't understand it. It's a heavenly language. Everybody said a heavenly language. Now, those are some

areas of And I'm just skipping through things here. I have six pages of notes and I'm ju I'm just trying to hit the highlights. Uh, let me say something to you about body contact in 1995. My recommendation, everybody said his recommendation. My recommendation is to lay your hands on the seeker's head or the seeker's shoulders only. In 1995, we've got folks that give people back rubs. We got they beat them on the back. Uh, I don't know whether to say it or mind my own business, but I don't like the idea of our ladies going around laying their hands on other ladies chest. And I can promise you a woman coming in from the world and the first time she stands in your altar, she don't understand our ladies doing that. I guarantee you. Hello. I know that's real blunt, but I'm talking to preachers and preachers wives here. Those people that come in out of the world, men do not understand. A big old burly sinner man there, first time he's ever been in a Pentecostal church and one of our goooo gaga dripping with honey fellas that filling all kind of love, wants to just hug him and hang on him and weep over him and and oh brother, I love you. He don't understand all that stuff. Give him some time to be around us. We're living in a world where homosexuality and lesbianism and immorality and promiscuity is running rampant. It's not in the closet anymore. It is running rampant in our society. And they don't understand in the world, friend, touching a person in certain places means something. And I know our our our uh uh uh motives can be absolutely pure, but you don't know what that guy thinks or feels or what what's on his he he doesn't have a halo yet, maybe like you do. And when you walk up and put your hand I I've seen men run their hand up and down a guy's back. Just stand there and run their hand up and down his back or put their hand on his stomach and his chest. And again, men have done that for a while and it's not right. But now the ladies are starting to do it. Hello. Put your hand on their head. Put your hand on their shoulder. That's my opinion. Or else help them hold their hands up when they pray. Put your hands on the elbows or the arms. All of that qualifies as laying on of hands. And it'll keep you from being offensive to new people that may or may not understand our ways. Another thing and and preachers, this is probably more for us than it is the saints. Saints are not uh as guilty as doing this of doing this as we are. But preachers are awful bad of about shaking somebody's head clear off their neck. That's not necessary in receiving the baptism of the Holy Ghost. You don't have to uh uh break their neck for them to get the Holy Ghost. Amen. Everybody said amen. Now, some miscellaneous things. And again, I'm I will quit in about five minutes. I'm going to get you out of here. I'm going to take less than my time and get you out of here quick.

No seeker should have to stand in the altar. Again, my opinion by his or herself, more than 30 seconds. I think that ought to be a rule in our church. Probably it ought to be 10 seconds, but that may be a little unrealistic. But no seeker should have to stand in that altar even 30 seconds by themselves. When a seeker comes to the altar, we should have trained alder workers in our church that without the pastor saying, "Somebody come and pray with this poor soul." Wouldn't there be somebody here that could help him tonight? Couldn't I get some of you ladies to come and I mean we need trained alder workers that when that person stands there within a moment somebody's laid their hand on their shoulder and is beginning to explain to them how to repent and how to receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Okay. Uh I think the people that come to the seeker in the altar they need to uh start by introducing theirel to the person and then they need to ask the name of the person. They need to use that name often when they're praying with them. And the purpose of this is develop to develop some kind of a personal relationship. You're fixing to lead them into and through the greatest experience of their life receiving the baptism of the Holy Ghost. And they're going to entrust their emotions and their uh their prayer and what they uh uh how they respond to God. They're fixing to entrust that to you. So, let them know who you are. Talk clearly to them. Look them in the eye whenever you talk to them. Second of all, I encourage alder workers to stay with the seeker that they start with. Don't float from person to person. United Pentecostal Church people like to float. Just boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. They start with this guy, pray with him for a minute, then they move to that guy. Pray with him for a minute, and move to the next guy. Stay with the person that you start praying with until they receive the Holy Ghost. It really does something to the seeker when you leave them standing there and they've not yet received the Holy Ghost. It actually implants in their mind that the reason you left is you don't believe they're going to get it. Hello. Stay with them until they receive it. Don't move around. Now, the ministry may need to go from person to person in order to oversee the older service or to give uh personal help or personal attention to uh perhaps some hard cases or some special needs. The ministry needs to do that. I think you ought to train your older workers in your church that when a minister approaches that he doesn't have to part the waters to get to the person that whenever they see the pastor coming this way and I'm starting down the steps and they're here praying in a circle. When somebody sees us coming, they ought to stand back and let the minister in there. They ought to know he's approaching to give special attention to that individual so it doesn't have to become a a a hard situation to get to the seeker where they are. My opinion again, and I'm I'm underscoring what I'm telling you is my opinion. My opinion is it's best again in our world for men to pray with men or women to pray for women or with women unless it's a sister's brought her own flesh and blood brother or a uncle or a grandpa or a daddy or somebody she works with. Unless there is some reason for a sister to pray with a brother or vice versa for a man to pray with a woman, somebody that's related to him or very close to him. Other than that, strange women should not pray for strange men and strange men should not pray for strange women. That's my opinion. And again, it's based on the world we live in today. Our ladies and our men can have the purest motives and they can be praying for a guy that his motives is a million miles from being pure. Amen. We need to be conscious of personal hygiene. I'm not saying this to you. I'm saying this is one of the basics for you to teach your altar workers at home. They need to carry their own handkerchief. If they're an alder worker, they need to have their own handkerchief. They need to have breath sprayer mints. They need to be uh they need to be conscious of of deodorant and cologne and those kind of things. It'd be a shame for somebody not to get the Holy Ghost because the person working with them breath is so bad that they can't stand to look at them or listen to them whenever they talk to them. Uh I think a lot of our churches now are putting Kleenex around uh in the podium or off on the sides of the platform. If you're going to have a bunch of people seeking for the Holy Ghost, that's probably a real good idea because when they get to repenting, the tears are going to come and sometimes other things. And uh we just need to have it there for them to uh uh be able to not be embarrassed. Everybody said not be embarrassed. Know when to move in and give special attention. Let me give you a short list of things to look for in the altar. Now, I want to tell you why I developed this particular list. And I'm just I'm just being real transparent with you here today. Uh, I knew I was talking to ministers and I put things in my notes that I've never shared with uh with actual lay people and alder workers before. I'm talking to ministers. And so that's why I'm saying some things here that I otherwise would not say. when I have a group of people come to the altar, if it's two or if it's 200 that are standing there before me and I'm

fixing to give them uh instructions of how to receive the Holy Ghost and then we're going to pray. I always, not not ever an exception to this, I always personally want to pray with the first one that is going to receive the Holy Ghost. And I try to find out who I think is ready to receive the Holy Ghost and go to them first. And then I go back to the microphone and say, "This man's already got it. This woman's already got it. God's pouring out his spirit." The reason I do that is to instill faith. When you've preached faith or preached Holy Ghost and you've got people kneeling or standing and they're ready to receive the Holy Ghost and 10 minutes later nobody's got it, faith is doing this. Instead of going up, it's coming down. And so it's very important that in the first few minutes, now this is me and I'm talking about where we have several receive the Holy Ghost. It's very important that somebody gets it quick. That's what I have found will instill faith and encourage the faith of others that are in the altar. So I always try to pick the one that I think is going to receive the Holy Ghost first. Now, I'm going to tell you some things I've never told anybody in my life. And I've done many, many alder worker seminars. I'm going to tell you some of my secrets here today. Okay. Number one, if there's a pregnant woman standing in the line, I will go to her before I go to anybody else because they are the easiest people in the world to pray through to the Holy Ghost is a pregnant lady. I have no idea why, but I've never prayed with a pregnant lady that it was hard to get her through the Holy Ghost. They always get it boom, that quick. And it's easy. They weep, they cry, they open their heart. It may be because of the the whole maternity picture. I'm not sure, but their hearts and their minds are open and boom, the Holy Ghost comes on them. They're always the easiest ones to pray through. Second of all, if I see somebody there and while we're all praying and talking to the Lord, tears are streaming down their face. And and please don't go out of here and say, "I'm starting a new doctrine." I'm not. I'm just telling you some little things I look for. But if I see someone standing there and they're moving their hands like this, you ever seen anybody do that in the older? They're standing there. You know what that is? That's a sign that if they'll do that, the tongue's fixing to go next. They're feeling after it. They're reaching. They're they're trying to be sensitive. somebody stand there like this, they're the last dude I'm going to go to. I mean, I will go to them and I'll give them instructions and I'll work them through it and I'll try to tear it down, but the first one I go to, I want them to get the Holy Ghost quick. And so, I've learned to look for some signs. Somebody that's standing there weeping, somebody that's trembling, it all speaks to the fact that the Holy Ghost is already on them. They're already feeling the Holy Ghost. They're already sensitive to the Holy Ghost. They're reaching out for the Holy Ghost. People like that are very easy to pray through. And I want that first one to get it. And as soon as they do, I want to run to the microphone, Brother Cupid, and say, "He's already got the Holy Ghost. She's getting it right now." And that inspire, it inspires faith in that other two or 200 that's there to receive the Holy Ghost. They think, "Man, it is fallen." And they begin to receive the Holy Ghost everywhere. So, I found that little things like that help. Uh, I'm not going to talk to you about followup.

That's already been said here today. I'll skip that whole section. Let me close with this. The baptism of the Holy Ghost. Five steps necessary to receiving the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Let me give them to you and you can write them down. Five steps necessary to receiving the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Number one's repentance. We've already talked about repentance. No one receives the Holy Ghost that hasn't first repented. The Bible says, "Repent ye and believe the gospel. Except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. Repent ye therefore and be converted." God commanded all men everywhere to repent. Repent and turn to God. The scriptures full of instruction concerning repentance. Number two is the seeker must have faith to receive. They must have faith to receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost. In 2 Corinthians 6 and2, for he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation I have secured thee. Behold, now is the acceptable time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. When you pray with that person, they have to believe they're going to receive the Holy Ghost in the next five minutes. And it's your job to inspire their faith to believe that. I don't talk to people about sometimes this week, you're going to get the Holy Ghost. Or I I believe before the year is over, you're going to have it. Or I believe in our next revival, John, you're going to get the Holy Ghost. When I pray with somebody, I tell them, five minutes from now, you're going to be speaking in tongues. Five minutes from now, God is going to have give you the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Now, every now and then, both church members and people that have been around the church for a while, in fact, it's one of the signs to me of when I'm praying with a chronic seeker, when they answer me, when I'll say, "In the next five minutes, you're going to get the Holy Ghost." And they'll say, "Well, if it's the will of the Lord, he'll give it to me in his time." Let me tell you clearly, it was his time yesterday. You're already a day late, honey. The Bible said today is the day of salvation. Now is the accepted time. God wants to give you the Holy Ghost right now. this business of when it's his will. It is his will right now. It is never his will to wait till next week, next month, or next year. Now is the accepted time. And so we preach to them and instill into them while we're giving instructions that you're going to receive the Holy Ghost in the next five minutes. I was up in Michigan just a few weeks ago and I had I gave an altar call and 19 people came to the altar. 19 folks stood across the front of that church. And I gave them the very instructions that I'm giving you right now uh for seekers in the altar. And when I came to the part where I said, "In the next five minutes, you're going to get the Holy Ghost." And there was a little lady there, the spirit of God was all over. And she was she was already within a hair speaking in tongues. And I said, "Ma'am, you're going to be the first one to get it. It's already all over you. Do you believe you're going to get it?" She said, "Yeah, yeah, I'm ready. I'm ready." That's the way she responded. Beside her was a woman with her hair piled up in her head, dresses down to here, sleeves down to here, neck up to here. I knew this lady was Pentecostal and probably a chronic seeker to be standing in that altar. And I went to her and I said, "Ma'am, God's going to give you the Holy Ghost tonight. Do you believe that?" She said, "Nope." Out loud. I said, I thought she didn't understand me. I said, "Don't you believe God's going to give you the Holy Ghost tonight?" She said, "No, I don't. I don't know why I did. I got Billy Cole's blood in me. every I try to suppress it, but every now and then it comes out. And I said, "Oh, man. Why don't you just go sit down? Don't waste my time or yours either because if you don't believe you're going to get it tonight, honey, you're not going to get it." And so, they have to have faith. I went to the pastor. Let me tell you a little funny side story here. I went to Pastor Reed after that service. I said, "Brother Reed, I've never done that before. I am sorry. I apologize to you." All of his people laughed. Some of his people, I should say, laughed when I told her to go sit down. I said I said I am sorry that I did that. I I forgive me please. I shouldn't have done that. He said brother Cunningham you know what we were all laughing about? He said your uncle brother Billy Cole preached here more than 10 years ago and he told the same woman to go sit down. Don't waste my time. Praise God. Hallelujah. Number three. Number three. The seeker must worship the Lord because God inhabits the praises of his people. God dwells where praise is. Now, how many of you have ever been with someone when they receive the Holy Ghost? Hold your hand up. Has anyone ever seen someone get the Holy Ghost that wasn't worshiping God? Not a hand in the building. You know why? Because it don't ever happen. Just as sure as nobody can get the Holy Ghost without repenting, nobody will get the Holy Ghost without worshiping God. And so if you've got a person in the altar and they're begging and pleading and repenting, if you feel like they've adequately repented, lead them out of repentance and into worship. If you feel like they've adequately repented, if you feel like they've been sincere, you don't get the Holy Ghost, the gift, everybody said the gift, the gift of the Holy Ghost by begging God. You don't have to beg for it. He's already promised it. The Holy Ghost comes through worship. And so lead them into worshiping God. We all know that the highest praise that you can give is the word hallelujah. But that's another one of those words that sinners don't have any idea what it means. They don't have the first idea that the definition of hallelujah is praise you jaw. And that literally means that you're the greatest God. You're the you're the highest. There's nothing higher, nothing greater. And I dedicate and commit myself totally to you. That's what they're saying every time they say hallelujah. And so you need to explain that to them. The highest praise you can give God is hallelujah. And then you may want to even show them how to praise. Lift your hands and I'm going to worship with you. And just start worshiping. Oh God, I love you. I worship you. I magnify you. Hallelujah, Jesus. I love you, Lord. And do it like that. And you're going to show them how to praise. Somebody stand there like this. That's not praise. Hello. Get them to open their mouth. Get them to lift their head up. Get them to lift. let their voice out loud and help them to worship God to receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost. We enter into that place or presence through worship. Can you say amen? Number four is they is the seeker must keep their attention on the Lord and not allow their mind to wonder. You've heard brother Billy Cole uh talk about this and probably I I think the Lord has given him a tremendous uh insight here. It's very simple, very basic, almost childlike. But brother Billy Cole has taught us all over North America. That an easy way to keep your mind on the Lord is just to fix a picture of the Lord in your mind. If you picture him sitting on a throne, if you picture him hanging on a cross, standing at the door and knocking, whatever he looks like, or however you picture the Lord in your mind, if you'll tell the seeker, that simple. Everybody said tell the seeker. Everything I'm saying to you, we need to tell the seeker. We've got a little bit of an attitude in the United Pentecost church. We ought not tell them nothing. We sure don't want to help them get it. We want them to have to fight for it and work for it as much as we did 25 years ago when we got it. That's really not right. Hello. And so tell them that if you'll get a picture of the Lord, especially if they're praying with one eye open and one closed, you can pretty much figure they're not keeping their mind on the Lord. or you know if they're trying to be sly about it and just barely open their eyes, you know, see who all's with them and what's going on. They don't have their mind on the Lord. If they're praying and stopping and praying and stopping and looking around and pulling for a handkerchief and you know, just do it. They're not keeping their mind on the Lord. And it's one of the greatest tricks of the devil toward a seeker is to get their mind to be divided and not on the Lord. Amen. And number five, stand and I'll give you the last one. Number five is yield to the spirit. When the spirit comes upon the seeker, they need to yield themselves to receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Now again, what do we mean by yield? What do we mean when we say yield? When you stand in front of a seeker and say, "That's the Holy Ghost. Yield. Yield to the Holy Ghost." What are you really meaning when you say that? Are you not meaning open your mouth and let your tongue go? Let God fill your mouth with with those strange sounds or that strange language. Don't you really mean God is getting ready to speak through you in other tongues? Let your tongue go. Let God speak. If that's what you mean, I implore you in 1995 to say what you mean. Hello? Because they don't understand all of our language. They don't understand our terminology. When you mean yield, when you mean let it go, when you when you want to say hold on, let it go. Yield. Say what you mean. And when the Holy Ghost comes upon them, there's nothing wrong with you telling them that's the Holy Ghost you're feeling right now. Buddy, when I'm praying with somebody and they start to trembling and the tears start flowing and they can't speak English, I don't wait a moment to tell them. Not a moment to tell them that's the Holy Ghost you're feeling. Don't be afraid of it. Go ahead and let God fill you. You're right there, man. This is great, isn't it? Doesn't it feel good? You're fixing to get the Holy Ghost. And if you talk to them like that and make it easy for them to understand what's happening, you'll be able to walk them through every step right into receiving the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Brother Bryant, God bless your folks heart.