The Real Thing
by Rolland Baker

Heidi and I get to be in Africa where revival is going on. When I was a teenager, I never thought that I would get to sit down with people that had just been resurrected and talk to them, ask them about heaven, sit down there and say "what did it feel like?" "What do angels look like?" "What did you see?" They would answer things like, "Well, I saw my own funeral." I ask the kids "What did you sing when you danced around the throne of Jesus?" "Well, we sang our songs that we sing here." "What did you do?" "Well, the angel picked me up and put me on his shoulder and he said this, and he said that."

And some of the "rotten" little kids would see Jesus and He told them "You stop lying, and you stop cheating and fighting and start preaching, because I'm coming soon. All right?" And the next day the kid stops his lying and cheating and fighting and all of that and he gets up with an adult voice and he preaches to everybody and half our kids want to be preachers the rest of their lives. We didn't do that; we didn't make them do that. We didn't talk them into that.

Spend just a few minutes with Jesus in heaven, and it will do it to you. The point is, there's no pressure, there's no compulsion. It is the real thing. How many just don't want anything but the real thing anymore? Just reject the pressure, reject the compulsion. Reject performance driven attitudes.

Another lady got raised from the dead two weeks ago; that wasn't our fault either. I mean, there are a few other evangelical conservative missionaries in Mozambique and they stay in the towns; they don't go out into the bush. They just have their church operation; they don't hear and they don't know. They don't believe and they're mad at me. I keep telling them "It's not my fault!" One of the Mozambique pastors e-mailed me about a lady who died of Malaria. They're in a mud hut in a little town outside of Nampula, the capital of that province. They don't have a mortuary. They don't have a way to make the body smell nice and fix it up and all of that. But they're waiting for their relatives and friends to arrive to bury the lady. So she's just lying on her bed, smelling, in a mud hut. She lost her body fluids. She was stiff, messy, eyes rolled back -- very dead, not partly dead! Very smelly! So they prayed and they prayed. She died on a Wednesday. On Friday, she just got up!

This is the third time for that pastor, Don Weckie and his wife, in Nampula. They're helping us run our Bible school and Temba now. They are the kind of Bible school teachers I wish I had! People come to them at 3:00 in the morning, anytime. They come with their dead babies wrapped up in their skirts; they're sick and there are malaria cases and there is cholera, AIDS, and all of that.

In Africa, they just start receiving right away. The first time you say no to Jesus, the second time it's going to get harder to receive Him. The first time you doubt the second time you try to believe it's going to get harder. We're talking about the real thing that comes without pressure, that comes without compulsion, without anything. There are no strings attached. This is wine without cost, bread without cost. Everyone who thirsts and has no money, come buy and eat. Come taste and see that the Lord is good. The Africans know that.

We started our first bible school class with 12 pastors. Two of them were Rego and Johnnie. I said "You start praying for every dead person you see" and they went and did it. And the dead people started getting up. If you wait, it's going to get harder! It's the real thing! This gospel is free, the love of God is free. His love, His beauty, His relief, His joy -- it's free. It comes free; there is no cost. It's not hard, you don't have to strain for it.

Surpresa is our national director. His mother and father were the witch doctors. They were really powerful, wicked witch doctors. Surpresa was about 15, and his parents were well known in the area. All of a sudden, one night, the Holy Spirit came and said "Surpresa, get out of your parents house, because if you don't you'll be dead in one week." He wasn't looking for God, he wasn't seeking God. He just got the word. He didn't know who this Jesus is, he didn't know anything about Him. Nothing! But he got out of the house. A week later his parents were dead. He went down the road, having no idea what the cross was, or what propitiation or regeneration are. He just walked down the road saying, "I don't know who this Jesus is, but I know my life is His." How many teenagers would like to start their life like that, with 100 per cent commitment on day one? He didn't know where he was going, he didn't know what he was going to eat, he didn't know what is going to happen to him. He didn't even know who this Jesus was. But Jesus spoke to him, "You get out!" So he got out and began walking down the road. He lived along side the road, eating leaves and bugs and whatever.

Then there was a huge civil war that caused him to flee to Malawi. He ran into a pastor who knew his own local tribal language, and that pastor explained the cross and salvation. Eventually, during the war, he escaped to South Africa, where he learned English and a couple of other languages fairly well From then on, it was just sheer miracles. God gave him ten more languages supernaturally, over night. I take him with me everywhere I go; it doesn't matter where we go. We just land and he interprets. He gets visions all the time. He e-mails me for more interpretation. He has flown with me more than anyone else in Africa; more than Heidi or anyone.

One time Surpresa and I was flying in hazardous weather and I prayed for protection, for angels. Then Surpresa saw a big hand coming out of the sky. He was just shocked. This big hand came out of the sky and held the plane as we flew along for the rest of the trip.

It's free. Everything's free. Is there enough love? I preached the Song of Solomon in the bush, to old wizened chiefs in the village that haven't felt any love in years and years and years. They don't know what love is; they don't know what marriage is. They have multiple women, they have AIDS all over the place because they don't know what faithfulness is. Is there enough love for these people? Yes, there is. There is always enough.

That's the title of our book that just came out, "There's Always Enough." Is there always enough money? So many people write us asking how to get started as a missionary. What do they do, how do they get more money? You don't even try. In 23 years we've never tried to get any. We've put millions of dollars into Mozambique, but we've never lifted a finger to get any. We've never written one newsletter to get any. We've never put out any publicity pleas, we've never tried to sponsor it, we've never taken any offerings.

But do you know what? We can't keep the money away. We can't stop people from giving to us. It follows us. People write us and say "You can't believe how much joy it gives us to send this." Isn't that greater than saying "You can't believe how much we need your money."

It follows us. People get raised from the dead, these things just follow us. Because they're free; it's the goodness of God! Is there forgiveness? There's always forgiveness. That's why I love God. I don't love God because He did this miracle or He did that thing. I love Him because He sent His Son who died for me and wiped out all my sins. That's why I love Him. That's why my life is His. He's captured me for that reason alone. It's free.