Juniper Tree

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E-18 And Elijah, who was trying with a heart in him of God, trying to show the people that God was still God... And it had backfired on him. And he run out into the wilderness when he heard it. And there he laid under the juniper tree, trying to find consolation. He'd--he'd sent his servant away and left him.

Our story goes in three different places: one, Mount Carmel; the next, under the juniper tree; and the third place God meets him is in a cave.

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E-19 And it's very strange. Pastor here knows, and other ministers. Watch after your Mount Carmels, you're going to have a juniper tree. Whenever a man has a blessing, and the power of God pours down and does something for you, look out, Satan's on the track. Just remember the next day, that Monday after a good day on Sunday, it's going to be a hard thing, because he's going to do everything he can to knock that confidence out of you that the Holy Spirit instilled in you the day before.

So Elijah had a big day. And he's nervous anyhow. All prophets are--was could declared insane, Jesus Christ was declared insane. Every one of the apostles was declared insane by the public, 'cause their ministry was so supernatural till the people thought they were out of their minds. Everyone that lives godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. You become a different person.

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E-22 And I tell you, Elijah and his nerves on the edge anyhow... I always felt sorry for him. His nerves was about ready to break anyhow, and that great pound from Jezebel finished the stroke. Then he run and went into the wilderness and laid under the juniper tree.

Oh, that experience of the juniper tree. There's many of us find ourselves under the juniper tree. I get myself under there many times, to a place that you don't know what to do. You're flusterated. Frankly, I'm right under it now, and wondering, "Oh, God, what would You have me do."

You know, people under the juniper tree is like Elijah; they like to sleep. I--I preach to more tired people than anybody in the world. People's so tired. They--they--they--they're so mentally strained until they're filling the insane institutions and the hospitals everywhere. They're went in such a nervous condition, till they don't know what they do believe and what they want. They're just laying there; they don't know what to do. Oh, it's such a sad sight.

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E-24 There he laid under the juniper tree. He didn't know what to do. His nerves was broke; he was shaking. He was crying, no doubt. And he was in a terrible condition. Many of us hit those places, especially after a Mount Carmel experience.

It was ask of me the other day by someone about that. And how that... What would we... What can we be done... What can be done for us at the time? There's only thing to do: commit yourself to God.

And I know that a man can overwork himself, and a man can underwork himself. A man... God knowed this man needs feeding. He needed something to eat. And under this place here where he was laying, God had to do something for him. God has to do something for every man that comes under the juniper tree, or he'll go to pieces. He has to do it. If His servant's laying under the tree yonder, don't know what to do, he's carried out his commission; Elijah said, "Oh, Lord, let me die."

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E-25 I've had those feelings after I come out of a meeting and looked like I tried, and preached, and begged, and persuaded, and seen the Angel of God sweep through a meeting and do signs and wonders, and set in a car on the outside and hear them cry, say. "It was nothing but psychology; there's nothing to it. Nothing to that. That's all nonsense."

Oh, then I crawled under the juniper tree; I think, "Lord, what did You... Why'd You let me do it for?" What can it be done, but we all hit those experiences. But the mercy of Jehovah to His servant: God knows your trials. Just know this: He knows all about it.

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E-27 Sometimes you feel like, as I did one time, put a pistol against my head to commit suicide, but I couldn't do it. I took my glove off to lay it on a high voltage line where I was working, but I couldn't do it. Something still held. The same God that was with Elijah, that same God today He seen me under the juniper tree, my wife and baby laying in yonder in the grave, and my dad, and my brother-in-law when I was just about gone myself. I've laid under the juniper tree. It's hard. And I got to a place I was so beside myself, I tried to make a gun shoot my brains out, and it wouldn't do it. See, there's work yet be done. Something has to be done; God wasn't finished. He'll always take care of you.

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E-28 Poor, tired, and weary servant, He saw him. He knowed where He was. He knows where you're at tonight. You may be under a juniper tree, everything gone. But remember, He knows where you're at. We don't need a whole lot of refixing up.

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E-47 If you're listening to hear... Not no remarks, no reflections, but if you're listening to hear a--a--of a great revival somewhere where ten thousand people are gathered, go ahead, you're listening to the wrong thing. "I'll go over and see. They say they have great crowds." That don't make a bit of deference. The race tracks has that. Everything else has that. The rock-and-rollers have that. "I'm going over to... I'm going over for something else." If you go for anything else...

But if you're listening for anything else but that still small voice, get back in the cave. Go back under the juniper tree until we can prepare, hold yourselves quiet and wait. Let the thunders go by; let the earthquakes shake. Let the rushing winds go, and the fire sweep, whatever it will. I think of that song:

Teach me, Lord, how to wait when hearts are aflame,

Let me humble my pride, call on Your Name;

Keep my faith renewed, my eyes on Thee,

Let me be on this earth what You want me to be. (That's what I want to do.)

They that wait upon the Lord, shall renew their strength,

They shall mount up with wings as an eagle, (You believe that?)

They shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint;

Teach me, Lord, teach me, Lord, how to wait.

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E-48 Let the thunders go by; let the fires sweep by; but let me hear that still small voice says, "Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden; come out from under the juniper tree, and come out of your cave."

I want to veil my face--face in His Blood, walk forth and saying, "Yes, Lord. I now believe."

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E-51 Teach me, Lord, to wait down on my knees,

And in Your own good time You'll answer my pleas. (That's right.)

Teach me not to rely on what others do,

But wait in prayer for an answer from You.

That's what I want, a answer from heaven. I want to hear His voice, not the manager's voice, not the mayor's voice, not the governor's voice, not the bishop's voice. I want to hear Your voice, Lord, that meekness and gentleness of the Holy Spirit speaking in my heart, "Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavily laden." Yes, Lord, we're laying under a juniper tree now. We're waiting, seeing what He will say. The Lord's bless you each one now.

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E-17 So what happened? He called them together and the God of heaven answered in a supernatural sign to Israel that He was still the God that could answer by fire. And He did just what He always did, answered prayer, kept His Word.

And after all of this, still it wasn't sufficient. And little old Elijah he didn't know what to do, so he run to the juniper tree. I'm glad that there is a juniper tree. All God's people needs to go to that juniper tree. It's a place where he was so discouraged he didn't know what to do. So he ran out to himself and got under the juniper tree. Many of us feel like going there.

And today, when we see the institutions filled with people of God, nervous breakdowns, tension, oh, it makes us all want to run to the juniper tree.

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E-19 So his poor heart was broke, and he ran to the juniper tree for refuge. And he laid out there, and I can see him leaving his servant many miles behind and just went to himself out under the tree. All of us have a little place we go to when we get in those troubles.

I got a little cave that the FBI couldn't find me that I get into, stay in there for two or three days have to wade up a creek, up over a hill, through a branch, go under a tree, and go down into a cave. And there's always somewhere that we can retreat and get in the Presence of God again.

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E-21 And Elijah knew that his God was real. And so he had brought it to a showdown, but then when the people had turned down the supernatural sign, "Oh, there was nothing to it. The lightning might've struck..." Jezebel made her threats, and all of her gang. They didn't want to give up their social societies. And little old Elijah's heart was broke.

Any minister knows what Monday morning is after a hard day on Sunday. Compare that; you preacher's wives you know how your husband is on Monday morning after he's preached hard two or three times Sunday. He's so worn out.

What do you think about poor little old Elijah? There he was, no one to comfort him, and he stopped under this juniper tree. And he knelt down, and looked up to God and said, "Lord I'm so tired and so weary. Why don't You just take my life and let me go. My fathers all went, so let me go."

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E-25 I'm so glad that there is a juniper tree, when we get all wore and tore up, we can go under that juniper tree and find spiritual vitamins to travel any kind of a trip.

There he laid. Woke up feeling a little better, and he went forty days and forty nights. I'd imagine if there's a doctor a listening in, wouldn't you like to know what kind of a vitamin he used, that'll keep a man on a corn cake and a glass of water for forty days and forty nights. That's the power of our God.

Then he finds the cave way back in the wilderness. And the first thing you know, God found him back in there. And He called to him, and there went a rushing wind through that tore up the mountain. The rocks rent and fell down. Elijah just set and listened. And there came a shaking, an earthquake that shook the mountain. But Elijah just set still. And then come the fire fell; lightning flashed, and Elijah set still. But then a still small voice spoke, and Elijah answered. He wrapped his mantle over his face and walked out.

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E-12 But it goes to show that when God's doing something, Satan is always present to block it, or to tear it down, or do what he can to interrupt it.

And he was worn out. His nerves were all on the edge, and... And--and just like the people today. We need a juniper tree. I preached to tired people, nervous people; pray for nervous people. And it's a nervous, neurotic, upset world right now that we're living in. Everybody's just on the edge, as to say, or to speak. Like it's just any little thing so upsets them.

God's people is that way. The world is that way. We all need a juniper tree, a place to rest. I trust that this convention will be a juniper tree.

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E-13 The insane institutions are filling up. The hospitals are filling up. And juvenile crime is on the rampage. And we're living in a terrible time. And men are trying to drink it away with whiskey, or they're trying to play it off with cards, or laugh it off with a joke. But what we need is a juniper tree--place where we can get quiet before God.

Now there's three stages of this we want to talk about: Mount Carmel, the juniper tree, and the cave.

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E-19 He was tired and weary, but God cared for His prophet. I think of the lovely kindness that God showed to Elijah when He took him out under the tree, and left his... went out of his own province over into another province, and there He'd left His servant; and then run on into the jungle, way out into the wilderness to a appointed place. I believe that juniper tree was put in the ground there for that very purpose.

God laid him down under the juniper tree and put him to sleep so he could rest a little while. And then He knew he was hungry, and He woke him up. An Angel touched him. And there it was a--some co--cakes baked and laying on the coals. And he ate the cakes, and went back to sleep again. He must've been really tired. That revival and them miracles that he had performed, and the supernatural upon him, he was wore out. And then the Angel let him sleep a little while, and then woke him up again, and said, "Eat some more, because that the journey is very hard."

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E-51 And if you know that you ought to be borned again, and filled with the Holy Ghost, and have an experience like they had on the day of Pentecost, and you let some church creed hide you behind something that you know is the truth, don't you expect God to ever answer your prayer. He won't do it. That's right.

"My church don't speak, and my church don't..." I don't care what the church believes; it's what God said. You know that you got to be borned again, and you got to be Christ-like. And if you haven't got that experience yet, and all condemnation of the world and things gone from you; you get back in the cave or under the juniper tree right quick, and into the cave as hard as you can go, and listen and see what you can hear. You'll hear something more than a rushing wind. You'll hear something more than a sensation, or a Divine healing, or a blood, and fire, and smoke, or ever what they have, all these things going on, or a big church, or join this, or call a cult or something to join in, or some great organization; You'll hear a Voice that speaks to you. You hear God come down into that soul and make you confess everything, and go make it right.

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E-58 Let us pray. O Lord, here they are. Forgive me, Lord; I didn't mean to say it like that. Here we are, Lord. Just as true as I'm standing here, God, I believe that You're calling Your Church into a cave now to speak to them. And Lord, it doesn't altogether have to be a--a made cave, like the prophet hid in; but it can be a little cave in our memory; it can be a cave in our soul where we can move back, stop, and take inventory, look around, and then listen to see what we can hear. And we've heard the wind, and we are grateful for it. We've heard the rushing winds; and we've heard the roaring revivals; and we've seen the miracles of Mount Carmel; and we've seen the defeat. And Lord, we are tired tonight. We're nervous. We need You. We're laying here under the juniper tree. Feed us of Thy Truth, Lord: Thy Word is the Truth. Then take us from here, this moment, Lord, to the cave, and let us hide there in the cleft of the rock, until we hear that still small Voice.

And may this convention not altogether break in a great shout and a jubilee, but may it break up into an experience, into a sobbing, and a repenting, and a--a revival spirit in men's hearts that revives them, that brings them back to God again, and to that sweet humble experience like the night that we were saved, Lord.

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E-42 We found out that there's something wrong. The other night as I was preaching on the subject of the News flash, Greatest In History. Old John, his eyes got--prophet John was kindly filmed over. He was like--he had the spirit of Elijah. And Elijah had a breakdown when he was under the juniper tree. John had a breakdown in the prison.

And he was a high pitched prophet. Them nerves on edge. And then his eagle eye filmed over. He said, "Go see if I been wrong. Ask Him if He is One--or the One? Or do we look for another?" Jesus never sent him any book now, "Here's How To Have Patience While You're In Jail" or so forth. What did He say? What did He tell him?

He said, "Just stay and watch this afternoon's meeting then go show John." The lame walk, the blind see, the... John had preached a Gospel that a Messiah was coming' that would have--fan in His hand. And would thoroughly purge the floor. Sure, burn the chaff with unquenchable fire.

But when He come, He was a little meek fellow. Meek and lowly. Joh... It did--didn't meet up to what John thought it ought to be. But He said, "You go tell John I'm running right on schedule. It's all right. Everything's all right."

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127 You remember when Elisha, later on, had called down... After that meal-offering that he had, Christ, and sustained the widow's house with it, notice later on when he called fire down out of the heavens, and so forth, and proved his sending of God, the prophet's Spirit...

Notice, in the wilderness, when he was laying down there under the juniper tree, a Angel come down with that same kind of meal, and baked some cakes and fed him. And a little later on He put him to sleep again, and woke him up, and he had some more meal cakes baked there for him. And he went in the strength of those cakes for forty days. Glory to God. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. Oh, how we love Him, spiritual Food in its season.