Roberts Liardon

When “King” Oral arrived at school to escort the “Queen” (the daughter of a rich family), he found her wearing a beautiful, white satin evening gown. The contrast of denim with white, lacey satin would have thrown most individuals for a loop. However, the young farm boy from the poor Pentecostal family extended his arm to that young lady, held his head high, and escorted her into the school assembly, looking every bit a king. It was a foreshadowing of the strength Oral would need in many difficult times throughout his life.

Stutterer to Preacher

Not all of Oral’s early memories were as pleasant as being crowned king of the school. As a young man, he was greatly afflicted with stuttering. Although he was extremely bright, he could seldom do his school recitations without stammering so excessively that he ended up in tears. His uncles, who never believed he would amount to much, criticized him unmercifully.

Roberts Liardon tells us that when Oral’s father would speak of him being used by God one day, Oral’s uncle would answer, “Why, Ellis, have you lost your mind? Oral can’t even talk.” But Papa Roberts was persistent. “This boy, this is the one.” Oral was taunted by his classmates and relatives alike. The godly influence of his parents, inspired by God’s promises, became his greatest hope.

Mama Roberts was a short, stout woman, but she was a spiritual powerhouse. She would pull her growing boy onto her lap and boldly proclaim God’s promises to him: “Oral, I gave you to God when you were a baby. You are God’s property. Someday, he’s going to heal your tongue, and you will talk. Son, you will preach the gospel!”

Imagine Louise’s disappointment when they first walked through Tondo, one of the dirtiest slum areas of Manila. The stench around the abandoned warehouse that would serve as their new church was so bad that they could not stay in the building for more than a few minutes. Tondo was too far from the center of Manila to reach the millions that Lester had on his heart. What could the Lord ever do in such a destitute place to offer the Filipino people freedom in Christ?

Roberts Liardon tells us that God had called a man of great prayer to Manila. As disappointed as he was with the first church building, Lester knew that his answer would be found in fervent prayer that the God of the universe would provide a location for them in the center of the city. The vision of Lester’s heart was to build not just a church but also an evangelistic center to continually bring the message of salvation to an ever-growing audience of “the untold” of this world.

After some weeks of prayer, Lester was led by the Lord to a bombed out lot near the center of town. It had remained vacant since the end of the war. Letters sent to Christians in the United States were answered with donations totaling $20,000 to purchase the property. Not long after this, Lester was able to purchase a disassembled airplane hangar. He wanted to reassemble it for the church building on the bombed-out property. There are so many things that God can use for His glory when people think outside the “church box,” as Lester Sumrall did.

Roberts Liardon tells us that the mysterious Death Valley was filled with enticingly beautiful foliage that resembled a tropical paradise. But one more sign decorated the top of the ravine; it was a final warning of impending doom: “Danger! Stop!”

How much like the “Death Valleys” of life this is, thought Lester. While some valleys of death are obviously dark and gloomy, many are apparently beautiful, fascinating, and glamorous. They may be filled with the enticements of fame, wealth, and education—yet, when we worship 0them and place them above the Lord, they become our own valleys of death.

Whatever may entice us into the death valleys of life, there are warning signs given by a loving Father all along the way. They come from His Word and from believers who share the gospel with those around them. Never ignore the “Danger! Stop!” signs along the way of life! They can save you from the highway of sin, pain, and destruction.

Traveling through a land of spiritual darkness like Java, it was inevitable that Lester would face demonic spirits protesting the message of Jesus Christ. Still a young man, he really wasn’t prepared for such intense spiritual warfare.

Acts 10:38 says, “Jesus…went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil.” At a revival service one evening in Java, Lester had his first encounter with demon possession.

As the night grew darker, Lester became more frightened. Was this the end of his life at just seventeen years of age? O God, he didn’t want to die. Lying in pain on the bed, Lester turned to face the wall. Suddenly, he blinked his eyes and found himself staring at a vision of a coffin suspended in midair, open, and leaning toward him. The inside walls were lined with a white, silky material prepared for a body just his size. He knew that the coffin was meant for him.

Roberts Liardon tells us that turning his head the other way in fear, Lester saw another vision, this one of practically the biggest Bible imaginable. It stretched from the ceiling to the floor with huge letters on its pages. As Lester stared in amazement, he heard God speak to his heart, “Tonight, you will choose that coffin or that book. I want you to preach My Word or tonight you will die.”

Lester had run from the thought of being a preacher his entire young life, but there was no way that he wanted to die. So, he took God at His word and agreed, saying, “God, if the only way in the world for me to live is to preach, then I’ll preach.” After Lester spoke his willingness to submit, something opened up inside of his heart. He turned to God, cried for the forgiveness of his sins, and asked Jesus Christ to save him.

As his mother slept fitfully on a chair near the bottom of his bed, Lester Sumrall became a new creation in Christ. He was still a boy full of questions and quarrels, but he now belonged to the King of Kings. He fell asleep a terminally sick teenager and woke up the next morning completely healed!

“Mama, please get me some breakfast,” were Lester’s first words the next morning. His mother could hardly believe her ears and tried to talk him out of eating. Then, thinking she was giving him his last meal, Mama Sumrall went and filled a breakfast plate for Lester. He leaned his plate with no problem and startled his mother with his next statement: “Mama, you don’t need that doctor no more. I’m healed, and I’m going to be a preacher.” With eyes full of tears and a heart full of joy, Lester’s mother praised the living God. Her heart’s desires had been answered. Her boy was saved, miraculously healed, and called to preach!

Roberts Liardon tells us that Jeffreys was determined to bring this form of church government to the Elim movement in Great Britain. But he wasn’t certain of how to ac­complish that, and his various attempts to make the necessary changes, as well as his suggestions about how to do so, added strain to the rela­tionship between Jeffreys and Phillips.

Perhaps the issues regarding church government could have been worked out between Jeffreys and Phillips if there had not been another deeply divisive problem at hand. For some time, Jeffreys had been dis­tracted by the doctrine of British Israelism, the belief that people from Western Europe, particularly Great Britain, are the direct descendants of the ten lost tribes of Israel. One of the earliest books on the subject, The Rights of the Kingdom, was published by John Sadler in 1649. British Is­raelism reached the height of its popularity in the early twentieth century and was embraced by many of the intellectual elite of European society.

Jeffreys came into contact with some of those intellectuals and was swayed by the theory. He was also influenced by John Leech, a close friend and longtime Elim member and attorney for the movement. Leech became the General Commissioner of the British-Israel Federation in July 1926 and gave up all of his legal responsibilities in other areas to de­vote himself to that work. He remained a stalwart defender of the Israel connection throughout his lifetime.

In the fall of 1912, George entered the Thomas Myerscough Bible School in Preston, Wales. There, by God’s providence, he met several of the men with whom he would serve throughout his adult life, including William Burton, future founder of the Congo Evangelistic Mission, and Ernest John Phillips, who would serve as Secretary-General of the Elim movement for almost four decades.

The Emerald Isle

In early 1913, Stephen began preaching at an evangelistic crusade in Swansea, Wales, and the meetings quickly grew in frequency and size. Urgent for help, Stephen called George home from Bible school to help him.

Roberts Liardon tells us that the meetings went on for seven weeks and officially launched the ministries of both Jeffreys brothers. From there, they preached in other parts of Wales and had scores of converts. Their first healing miracle occurred when Edith M. Carr was healed of a diseased foot, which her doctors had planned to amputate. Stephen and George went to her home, anointed her with oil, laid hands on her, and prayed. God answered the prayer of faith and healed her completely. She later gave a testimony to the power of God that had touched her as the Jeffreys brothers prayed, saying, “A great light came around me, and filled me with great power, and I arose from the couch and stood on both feet and then walked gently round the room with scarcely any help.” People came from miles around to see for themselves the woman who had been healed and to hear the Jeffreys brothers preach.

In 1913, Boddy invited the Jeffreys brothers to attend his Annual Pentecostal conference in Sunderland, but only George accepted. Nearly all the men on the platform were Christian leaders in their forties and fifties who had served God for years. George was only twenty-four, but he made such an impression on the platform that Boddy invited him to remain in Sunderland and continue preaching even after the close of the convention. This confirmed his rising influence in England’s Pentecostal movement, which had been birthed along an apostolic succession from Azusa to Barratt to Boddy, and now, to Jeffreys.

Bosworth was convinced that these Scriptures clearly revealed the will of God concerning healing. He declared, “Faith begins where the will of God is known.”23 The Word reveals that it is God’s will to heal, and believers can accept His will by faith—faith that is produced by hearing the Word of God. (See Romans 10:17.)

Finally, Bosworth pointed out that the Greek word for salvation, sote­ria, implies all the deliverance, preservation, healing, and soundness that Christ promised with His death and resurrection. Full salvation was in the atonement of the blood of Christ.

During the first half of the 1920s, Fred and his brother Burton trav­eled continuously throughout the nation. Their primary purpose at each meeting was to save souls.

Roberts Liardon tells us that during a seven-week campaign in Ottawa, Canada, the “conserva­tive” Canadians showed a great enthusiasm for the Lord. Twelve thou­sand people surrendered their hearts to Christ, and ten thousand people attended the farewell meeting. The Canadians were so grateful for the powerful message that Christ heals soul and body that five thousand of them accompanied the Bosworth party to their train. They picked up the brothers and carried them on their shoulders all the way to the train sta­tion! Yet Fred Bosworth was always careful to give the glory to God and not to take it for himself.

It had been several years since Estella Bosworth had passed away, and Fred was perfectly content to remain unmarried while serving the Lord. But he also desired God’s will for his life. When he was forty-five years old, he met a young lady named Florence Valentine, a post-graduate stu­dent at a New York campus of Nyack Bible School. When Bosworth met her, he realized that she shared his desire to serve God and preach the gospel. They both prayed that God’s will would be done and were married quietly a short time later. Florence brought him great joy and was an excel­lent helpmate during their thirty-six years of marriage.

Roberts Liardon tells us that Fred’s career was not his only struggle. His health was deteriorating rapidly. Eight years earlier, when the Bosworths lived in University Place, a young boy had been hurt, and the local doctor needed to perform sur­gery. There was not enough adult help available, so young Fred helped the doctor during the surgery. The operating room was kept very warm, and when Fred left, he walked out into an icy-cold Nebraska night. As a result, he developed a severe cough that weakened his lungs and resulted in a chronic lung condition that manifested as a dry, raspy cough.

Now, at the age of nineteen, his cough had worsened, and it had become painful to breathe. After spending several weeks in bed, Fred was finally diagnosed with tuberculosis—the “killer disease” of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. And the doctor’s verdict was hopeless. He predicted that Fred had little time left to live.6

What should he do now? His parents had moved to Fitzgerald, Georgia, for a fresh start one year earlier. Facing death at nineteen, Fred Bosworth decided to take a train trip to Georgia to see his par­ents one last time. He was seriously ill during the long, agonizing train ride and wondered if he would make it there alive. When he finally reached Fitzgerald, Fred stumbled off the train and into his mother’s loving arms. She nursed him over the course of several weeks, until he was finally able to get out of the house for short periods of time.

On his first outing, Fred went to another Methodist revival so that he could be encouraged by the Word of God. Miss Mattie Perry, a healing evangelist, was teaching a series on developing a deeper walk with God. Fred coughed throughout the service, and she looked his way intently several times. At the end of the sermon, Fred went forward to pray for more of God in his life.

Roberts Liardon tells us that he want us to understand the different diversities of tongues so we can yield to them when the Holy Spirit brings them up inside us.

That’s why sometimes I will say to people by the Spirit, “Change that tongue. You’re praying in the wrong tongue to get victory in that situation.”

You can’t be praying in tongues of edification when you need a breakthrough. You’ve got to have something more.

You have to be careful that you don’t pray in those same old boring tongues all the time. If you constantly pray in the same monotone tongue and your utterances never fluctuate, you’ve got a problem. Your fluency has been broken and you’re stuck in a rut.

And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, DIVERSITIES OF TONGUES.

1 Cor 12:28 (KJV)

Roberts Liardon tells us that this verse contains a lineup of things that Jesus “set” into the church. These things are not just for private use in your prayer closet. Jesus ordained these things to be publicly manifest in the church! He set, apostles, prophets, teachers and after that miracles!

iracles belong in the church, my brother and sister. They are not just for the mission field or the evangelistic crusade. God has “seí” these things into the church and man has no right to excommunicate them!

Roberts Liardon tells us that when God “sets” something into the church, it means He wants them to have a residential existence. In other words, these things are not just supposed to have “visitation rights,” they are supposed to dwell residentially in our midst.