When I first learned this I prayed for people and nothing happened. I know many of you have done the same thing. When I learned this I can remember men. And right now a man comes to my mind. I walked up one morning to a man. I walked up and shook his hand and said, “Good morning sir. I am Thurman Scrivner.”

He said, “I am Larry.”

I said, “Larry how are you doing?”

He said, “I am fine.”

I said, “Where do you go to church?”

He said, “I don’t go to church. If I wanted to be preached to I would go to church. You talk to them other guys about that religious junk, but don’t you talk to me about it.” How many of you have ever met a person like that?

I said, “All right. No problem.” So I walked off.

The next morning on my way to work I catch myself up into the third heaven. When I am up into the third heaven, driving along in my truck, up there sitting in Christ, I look over and said, “Father, I am tired of the devil blinding the mind of Larry yesterday that I met. That man needs to be saved. You love him just like you do me. Father, Since I am your son and Satan has to be subject to me I said devil come right here and sit down in my pickup right now in the name of Jesus.”

I said, “Now devil, I’ve got a word for you from the Lord. I have been given all power and authority over you mister. I am fed up with you blinding the mind of this man Larry. The word of God says that if there are any lost it is because you have done it. You are not going to drag that man into hell because I am taking authority over you. I am commanding you in the name of Jesus, from the third heaven, to stop blinding his mind by those spiritual wickedness in the heavens and those demons. Did you hear me? I am not taking no for an answer from you. I have all authority over you because Christ the hope of glory is in me and the Holy Spirit is in me. I am much bigger than you are because I have them in me. Now Satan you can get out of my truck.” And then I stayed up there and worshipped the king a while. I did this nearly all the way to work, a 45 minute drive.

Just as I drive in I said, “Lord, I have got to go down now. I am going to go down. Lord, I want to thank you for saving Larry.”

The next time I saw Larry, a few days later, I said, “How you doing?”

He said, “I am fine.”

I said, “You are saved.”

He said, “I don’t believe in that junk.”

I said, “I know, but you are saved. I kicked the devil out of you and you are saved. You ain’t going to have nothing to say about it.”

He said, “I ain’t never going to get saved.”

I said, “Oh yeah?” I just walked on off. I didn’t say another thing to him.

The next morning I caught myself back up into the third heaven. I did that every day for two weeks. The same thing, I did it every day. I said, “Devil you are not going to have him. Father, you said whatever I ask you in the name of Jesus from the third heaven is mine guaranteed. It is done. Larry is saved.

After about two weeks I came in real early one morning. I was working on the computer trying to get some stuff up. He walked in and says, “Thurman would you mind if I sit here a while and drink a cup of coffee and talk to you a minute?”

I said, “No go right ahead.”

He is sitting there drinking his coffee and he says, “Where do you go to church?”

I said, “I go to the First Baptist Church up in Justin.”

He said, “What do you think about people like Robert Tilton?”

I said, “The man made a mistake. He is a man of God and he made a mistake. It is no big deal. God takes care of his kids. He knows what he is doing. The man just made a mistake.”

He said, “What do you think about a guy like Jimmy Swaggart?”

I said, “He is another great man of God. He just made a mistake. It is just unfortunate that we do that, especially as pastors. We make mistakes. And when we make mistakes the world crucifies us and the church crucifies us. They were both great men of God who loved God. They just made a mistake.”

He said, “What do you think about all these preachers who ask for money all the time?”

I said, “Larry, it takes money to run the kingdom of God. Nothing is free. You know. You work here. Every week you expect to get paid. You have to pay your bills. Do you know what? The devil will tell you don’t dare go down there to that church. If you go down there to that church all that preacher is going to want is your money. The devil will feed you that lie. He will cheat you out of the blessings of God. Then one day you will get old and you will die. Then the devil will drag you screaming into the pit of hell saying you fool. The price of salvation was paid and I deceived you and now you are going to spend eternity in this Godless hell with me.”

That man jumped up and liked to knocked his cup of coffee over. He said, “I’ve heard that voice. He ain’t going to have me.”

I said, “He’s going to have you if you don’t change your ways.”

He asked, “What do I have to do?”

I said, “Stop by the store this morning on the way home from work and buy you a Bible. Start reading in the book of Matthew. When you have some questions come and ask me and I will give you the answers.” He started reading every day. About three weeks into it he came upon the plan of salvation.

He said, “Thurman this couldn’t be this simple. It says I I got to do is ask Jesus into my heart to be saved.”

I said, “That is exactly right.” I said, “Why don’t we do that right now.”

He said, “I’d love it.” I lead that man into the kingdom. This was a man that every other word out of his mouth was a word of profanity. He had been divorced twice. No he had been married twice. He was married then. He had been an alcoholic, a drunk. He was 50 years old. He was wondering if he was going to make it for two or three more years because he had so many problems. He had problems with both arms. He had already had surgery on one arm. And it hurt so bad that he wasn’t going to have surgery on the other arm. He couldn’t hardly work. He had been down in his back for 30 years off and on. He had so much back problems that he was always in excruciating pain. And now I got him saved. He has come into the kingdom.

A few weeks after I got him saved I went down there one day. One of the guys said to me, “Thurman, this Jesus you preach is absolutely real.”

I said, “So? What made you change your mind?”

He said, “This guy Larry, I have known him for 10 years. He is a drunk, is mean, uses profanity every other word. You got him saved. He hasn’t used a curse word since. This guy is always talking about Jesus. Everything about him has changed. This Jesus is really real.”

I said, “Isn’t that wonderful.”