In August 1936, the East Oklahoma Pentecostal camp meetings were being held in Sulphur, Oklahoma. Oral was to be licensed as a minister in the Pentecostal Holiness church at one of the last meetings. When he arrived, though, his mind was set on far more than that ordination. He was determined he would not leave those campgrounds without personally experiencing the fire of Pentecost. Oral began to seek God with all his heart for the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Roberts Liardon tells us that southern church camp meetings were full of excitement and expectancy. They were begun as early as the 1770s by Methodists, Presbyterians, and those of other denominations who wanted to dedicate time to God in prayer, praise, and teaching. The camp meetings were festive affairs celebrated annually by many church groups. There, friends and family could meet to fellowship and worship God. The Southern farmers, in particular, would take time in late summer to dedicate a week or so to the Lord.

In the earliest days, groups arrived in wagons and pitched tents in small groups around a central location. The largest tent would be the meeting place for all who attended. In later years, camp meeting sites were established with small, family cabins built around a meeting hall, where the congregation would meet during the days and evenings. Today, these gatherings are commonly referred to as conventions or conferences. Whether in tents or cabins, there were praise, prayer, and teaching services all throughout the seven to ten days of each camp meeting, with the power of God falling upon the people in a great anointing. There was also a time of sweet fellowship as fathers, mothers, children, neighbors, and friends enjoyed eating, sleeping, playing, praying, and worshipping God together.

Throughout the 1970s, Lester’s ministry continued to purchase additional television stations across the U.S. God’s initial word to Lester was to have not just a Christian station but also a network, so that people   could be reached far and wide.

Roberts Liardon tells us that in the 1980s, an earth station was constructed on the grounds of WHME-TV, and LeSea was able to broadcast via satellite 24-7.168 The 1980s also saw the first of the shortwave radio stations set up to minister to listeners in Europe and South America.By the time LeSea Broadcasting entered the twenty-first century, it had grown to include thirteen television stations across the U.S.; two satellite channels covering the entire continents of Africa, Asia, and Europe; five powerful shortwave stations; and three FM radio stations.

Through the media of LeSea Broadcasting, over 90 percent of the world’s population can be reached with the gospel of Jesus Christ! One man with a vision from God, and the body of Christ walking beside him in faith, can bring the message of salvation through Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth!

The year was 1987. Lester Sumrall was seventy-four years old. He had a blessed marriage of forty-three years with Louise, the love of his life. His sons and their families were in ministry alongside him. Frank was his copastor at the newly constructed, 3,500-seat Christian Center. Stephen handled all of the administrative details of the ministry. His youngest son, Peter, had oversight of the broadcasting division. Lester was still preaching around the world, reaching 20,000 cell group leaders at Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul, Korea; four million people through World Harvest Broadcast from South Bend, Indiana; and hundreds more through yearly tours of the Holy Land. His life was rich and full…but God wasn’t finished with him yet!

Even though that particular phase of their journey had come to an end, the men were still on fire to spread the gospel to the unreached of the world. After a quick trip back to London, Lester and Howard returned to America. At twenty-three years of age, Lester had already ministered more in three years than many men do in a lifetime. But his amazing work in the kingdom of God had only just begun. He and Howard next ventured to South America, ministering in Brazil and elsewhere across the continent. Then, it was back to Europe to visit Spain and France before finally settling for a time to teach in England.

Roberts Liardon tells us that after their first travels together, Howard Carter had a great deal of administrative work to catch up on at Hampstead Bible College, and God had another divine appointment awaiting Lester Sumrall. A Pentecostal leader recognized throughout Great Britain, Howard had organized a teaching conference in Wales. He honored young Lester with an invitation to be the featured evening speaker. In accordance with Pentecostal conference tradition, Howard chose a man with a teaching ministry to speak at the afternoon session. This man was none other than Smith Wigglesworth, fondly referred to for years as the Apostle of Faith. Lester was speechless with excitement to know that he would be ministering on the same platform as Smith Wigglesworth. To Lester’s delight, Smith Wigglesworth had read some articles he had written for a Pentecostal journal. Wigglesworth listened to Lester preach the gospel that evening and then invited him to a visit at his home in Bradford, England.

Roberts Liardon tells us that as the numbers of people responding to the gospel grew, Lester was pleased when his younger sister, Leona, joined him. She had a beautiful voice, and she led the worship services, as well as preached a powerful message of salvation. Their dear mother had been well rewarded for her prayers, as most of her children were now actively serving the Lord as ministers of the gospel. The effectual, fervent prayer of Betty Sumrall had accomplished much! (See James 5:16.)

Listening to Leona preach God’s Word, Lester realized she had a gift of power that he did not. Although he had preached on the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the power of God for a renewed life, he had never received it himself. Somehow, the tradition of travailing at the altar had not brought him any results. As Lester watched others receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues, he asked in anguish, “What’s wrong with me, Father?” Finally, one evening, after a revival meeting, he cried out to God again concerning his failure to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

The Lord spoke to his heart and admonished him that there was no formula for receiving His gifts and blessings. God would simply give the infilling of the Holy Spirit to Lester as a gift of His love. That night, in a room far from the bustle of church services or the “travailing altar,” God gloriously baptized Lester Sumrall in His Holy Spirit, and Lester began to speak in a new, heavenly language.

As late as 1960, Jeffreys received a telegram from Pastor A. Hun­ziker in Geneva acknowledging his role in the founding of his church in Geneva twenty-five years earlier: “For its 25th anniversary our church remembers and sends you, dear Principal, our gratitude and love…. (Signed) Hunziker.”

Roberts Liardon tells us that in May 1960, Jeffreys’ teachings were instrumental in the healing of Mrs. Margery Stevens of England, who was in critical condition—para­lyzed, confined to a wheelchair, and fed every meal by her parents. The teachings the family had received for years from Jeffreys had strength­ened the faith in her heart. While in prayer one day, she received a vision of her healing. Five months later, the Lord brought it to pass exactly as she had envisioned it. She gave the testimony of her healing to “an enthralled audience” the following Sunday in the People’s Church in Clapham, London, with Jeffreys as the presiding minister.

On Sunday night, January 14, 1962, Jeffreys ministered at Kensing­ton Temple, London, still preaching the Word with power. At the close of the service, he made a passionate plea for the lost to accept the call of Christ. The service concluded with a Welsh song about Christ’s free forgiveness.

The next Tuesday, Jeffreys visited the homes of people with needs and laid hands on the sick. That Friday night, January 25, he traveled around London with Albert Edsor, posting notices for the annual Easter Monday meetings that would be held at Westminster Central Hall. The following morning, by nine o’clock, a friend entered Jeffreys’ bedroom and found he had gone home to be with the Lord. On January 26, 1962, one month before his seventy-third birthday, the beloved founder of the Elim movement had finished his course on this earth.

Just five weeks earlier, E. J. Phillips and his wife, Molly, had paid Jef­freys a visit. It was the first time they had spoken in years. Some attempts at reconciliation were made by both sides. After Jeffreys’ death, Phillips wrote a tribute to him in the Elim Evangel entitled, “A Tribute to One of Britain’s Greatest Evangelists.”

rent or purchase a building where the new congregation could meet, and the administration team would han­dle any remaining details.

Roberts Liardon tells us that the following year, the campaigns continued, although not as many as the year before. Jeffreys visited Croydon, Reading, Eastbourne, Bath, Exeter, and Bradford, adding thousands of converts to the body of Christ. In 1928, there were seventy Elim churches throughout the British Isles. By 1930, the number had risen to 100, and by 1933, the churches totaled 153.

In 1933, Jeffreys preached in towns such as Aberdeen, where 400 converts were added. Immediately, a new church was founded there.

Again, in his apostolic ministry, Jeffreys continually established new congregations to extend the kingdom of God on the earth. “His success can surely be the result of serving God with the ministry gifts he had received, namely those of apostle and evangelist.”

A few years later, in 1936, the Elim churches recognized Jeffreys’ apostolic ministry and his twenty-five years of dedicated service to the Elim movement:

As an Apostle, you have pioneered the Full Gospel message and established churches in the largest cities and towns of the British Isles. As an Evangelist, your ministry has been signally owned and blessed of God. Through your faithful proclamation of the old-fashioned gospel, you have led countless thousands to Christ.

The rambunctious little boy hung from his arms on a crossbar in the hospital therapy room while his parents and the doctors discussed his miraculous recovery. His cast was removed immediately. In relating the story, Oscar Jr. always gratefully added that his once-shattered arm played in many successful football games in the years to follow!

In his biography of Bosworth, Oscar remembered the man with great affection:

Roberts Liardon tells us that Fred Bosworth gave me, and tens of thousands of others an un­shakable faith in God that we will carry to our graves. He dem­onstrated again and again that the real benefits of Christianity are not just spiritual, but physical as well. And through him God gave the inquiring mind a granite-solid foundation for faith…. Those of us who were privileged to know him will remember him always. But more important, the Faith that he gave us will live on in our children and grandchildren for years to come.

In 1958, when Bosworth returned to Florida, and to Florence, after his final campaign in Japan, he announced to his family that the Lord was about to take him home. At the age of eighty-one, he was not ill; he had asked the Lord to allow him to live his life without succumbing to any illness, and he simply believed that his time on earth was over.

Bosworth retired to his bed, and all of his children came home to say good-bye, getting together for the first time in over sixteen years. His son Bob wrote about the final weeks of his father’s life:

About three weeks after he took to his bed, we were around the bed talking, laughing, singing. Suddenly Dad looked up; he nev­er saw us again. He saw what was invisible to us. He began to greet people and hug people—he was enraptured. Every once in a while he would break off and look around saying, “Oh, it is so beautiful.”

For several hours, Fred remained in this state, between two worlds. Then, he quietly fell asleep. Sometime later, he passed from sleep to his eternal place in Christ. It was Thursday, January 23, 1958. After five decades of honoring and preaching about Jesus Christ, his Redeemer and Healer, Bosworth joined Him in heaven. It has been estimated that during his lifetime, Bosworth was instrumental in more than one mil­lion decisions for Christ. There would have been many joyful souls to greet him in heaven.

Just days before his death, Bosworth was quoted as saying, “All I have lived for, for the past sixty years, has been the Lord Jesus. And, any minute, I’m looking for Him to walk in the door and go with Him for eternity.”

I was not prepared for how much I would learn, be blessed, and receive encouragement from reading Roberts Liardon’s God’s Generals: The Heal­ing Evangelists. I have no doubt that you will, too. The title of God’s Gen­erals is an apt one for the particular people Roberts has chosen to describe. Although these “generals” are largely from the Pentecostal and charismatic sector of the Christian church, they have impacted countless millions of people from every theological and ecclesiastical position. Although I myself was brought up in a different tradition, I have been blessed profoundly by men like those described in this volume. Oral Roberts actually wrote fore­words for two of my own books, and he graciously entertained my wife, Louise, and me in his home a few years before he went to heaven.

Some readers may not know that Roberts Liardon was actually named after Oral Roberts, one of the generals of this book. Roberts Liar­don’s parents were charter members of Oral Roberts University. He was the first male child to come from that charter class! Oral himself wanted to help name the baby and they all came up with the name Kenneth Roberts Liardon.

Roberts is the principal of the International Bible Institute of London. This institute is part of the ministry of Kensington Temple, of which my close friend Colin Dye is the Senior Pastor.

Mr. Liardon has done a remarkable job in his research. He has un­covered details that have been remained hidden until now. What is more impressive is that he has not glossed over facts that don’t always show his subjects in a good light. He gives praise when it is due but reminds all of us that even the best of men are men at best.

Would love to see you all at home. We are all happy in the will of God.

I would much prefer to be faithful and have some little tribulation now than to fail to overcome and have to pass through the great tribulation soon to come. Praise God I am determined to have God’s plan for my life carried out.

With much love to you all, I am Your Devoted Son. Fred

Ten Years of Revival

Roberts Liardon tells us that as the Pentecostal wave moved through the country, Assemblies of God congregations began to spring up. In 1910, Bosworth established the First Assembly of God church in Dallas, and people flocked there from miles around to hear him preach. From the very beginning, seekers were saved and baptized in the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues. Bosworth didn’t have any formal seminary training, but he was an intelligent man who studied the Bible with more diligence than he had displayed when teaching himself to play the cornet. God had placed him in the spiritual office of evangelist, as well as teacher, for building up the body of Christ. (See Ephesians 4:11–13.) This was evident to ev­eryone who heard him.

In 1912, Bosworth invited Maria Woodworth-Etter, the famous Pen­tecostal evangelist, to lead a series of meetings at his church. During her six-month stay, revival rocked the city of Dallas. Scores of people were saved, filled with the Holy Spirit, and healed under her ministry. Bos­worth became well-known among Pentecostals because of the success of Woodworth-Etter’s meetings. Revival continued in his church for the next several years.

The number of Assemblies of God churches grew, and Bosworth was selected as a delegate to the General Council of the Assemblies of God denomination as it was being formed. In April of 1914, the first General Council met in Hot Springs, Arkansas, to discuss the new work. Bo­sworth was then invited to become one of the sixteen members of the executive presbyters. It was the role of the Council and the presbyters to set the tenets of faith for the new denomination.

“But brother Roberts, these things are not in the church that I go to!”

Then you’re not in a church, my friend, you’re in a club!

Notice the rest of this verse: “And God hath set… in the church… gifts of healings, helps, governments and DIVERSITIES OF TONGUES.”

Roberts Liardon tells us that the word “diversities” here means: different kinds of tongues. There are different types of tongues that do different things.

Roberts Liardon tells us that one guy said to me, “We have diversity of tongues in our church. We’ve got some Russians that speak in Russian. We’ve got some French and they speak some French and we’ve got some Hispanics and they speak in Spanish.”

That’s not what this verse is talking about at all! The term “diversities of tongues” here is referring to the various kinds of utterances that bubble up from within your spirit by the supernatural power of God.