JOHN
G. LAKE
How God's Power Came
by Andrew Storm
JOHN G. LAKE
John G. Lake was known as God's "Apostle to Africa".
Born in Canada in 1870, his family soon relocated to the
United States, where he grew up. His healing and preaching
ministry spanned the years 1898 (when he saw his wife
instantly healed under the ministry of John Alexander
Dowie) until his death in 1935. In 1908, God sent him
to Africa, where his anointed miracle ministry resulted
in what has been described as "the most extensive
and powerful missionary movement in all Africa."
As Gordon Lindsay wrote, "during that time he spent
five history-making years in South Africa, engaged in
a ministry which in some respects rivaled that of the
Early Church." Upon his return to America, Lake established
a ministry in Spokane, Washington which resulted in no
less than 100,000 astounding miracles of healing within
the space of five or six years. He then established a
similar work in Portland, Oregon, which also attracted
widespread attention.
John G. Lake had already experienced
mighty breakthroughs, powerful anointings and a real calling
from God for many years before Azusa Street and the Pentecostal
Revival. The following is a condensed account of the spiritual
hunger and preparation that Lake was taken through by
God, near the beginning of the most anointed period of
his ministry.
(Taken from the book, 'John
G. Lake - Apostle to Africa', compiled by Gordon Lindsay,
and told in Lake's own words):
"Eight years passed after God revealed Jesus the
Healer to me. I had been practicing the ministry of healing.
During that eight years every answer to prayer, every
miraculous touch of God, every response of my own soul
to the Spirit had created within me a more intense longing
for an intimacy and a consciousness of God, like I felt
the disciples of Jesus and the primitive church had possessed...
Shortly after my entrance into the ministry of healing,
while attending a service where the necessity for the
Baptism of the Spirit was presented, as I knelt in prayer
and reconsecration to God, an anointing of the Spirit
came upon me. Waves of Holy Glory passed through my being,
and I was lifted into a new realm of God's presence and
power. After this, answers to prayer were frequent and
miracles of healing occurred from time to time. I felt
myself on the borderland of a great spiritual realm, but
was unable to enter in fully, so my nature was not satisfied
with the attainment..." (Pg 16).
"Hundreds and hundreds of
people were healed by the power of God during these ten
years. But at the end of that ten years, I believe I was
the hungriest man for God that ever lived. There was such
a hunger for God that as I left my offices in Chicago,
and walked down the street, my soul would break out, and
I would cry, 'Oh God!' I have had people stop and look
at me, and wonder. It was the yearning passion of my soul,
asking for God in a greater measure than I knew. But my
friends would say, 'Mr. Lake, you have a beautiful Baptism
of the Holy Ghost.' Yes, it was nice as far as it went,
but it was not answering the cry of my heart. I was growing
up into a larger understanding of God, and my own soul's
need. My soul was demanding a greater entrance into God,
His love, Presence, and Power. And then one day an old
man strolled into my office, sat down, and in the next
half hour, he revealed more of the knowledge of God to
my soul than I had ever known before. When he left I said,
'... God, if that is what the Baptism of the Holy Spirit
with tongues does, I am going to possess it.' Oh the wonder
of God, that was then revealed to my heart!..."
"Finally I was led to set
aside certain hours of the day that I dedicated to God,
as times of meditation, and prayer. Thus a number of months
passed, until one morning as I knelt praying, the Spirit
of the Lord spoke within my spirit, and said, "Be
patient until autumn." My heart rejoiced in this
encouragement and I continued my practice of meditation
and prayer as formerly. It became easy for me to detach
myself from the course of life, so that while my hands
and mind were engaged in the common affairs of every day,
my spirit maintained its attitude of communion with God...
I said, 'God, if you will baptize me in the Holy Spirit,
and give me the power of God, nothing shall be permitted
to stand before me and a hundred-fold obedience.'
"I prayed for the Baptism
of the Holy Spirit for nine months, and if a man ever
prayed honestly, and sincerely in the faith, I did. Finally
one day I was ready to throw up my hands, and quit. I
said, 'Lord, it may be for others, but it is not for me.
You just cannot give it to me.' I did not blame God. One
night a gentleman by the name of Pierce said, 'Mr. Lake,
I have been wishing for a long time you would come over,
and we would spend a night in prayer together. We have
been praying for the Baptism for a whole year and there
is not one of us baptized yet. Brother, I do not believe
that you are either, so we can pray for one another."
I was so hungry to pray, so I went with all intentions
of praying for the rest, but I had not been praying five
minutes until the light of God began to shine around me,
I found myself in a center of an arc of light ten feet
in diameter, the whitest light in all the universe. So
white! Oh how it spoke of purity. The remembrance
of that whiteness, that wonderful whiteness, has been
the ideal that has stood before my soul, of the purity
of the nature of God ever since.
"Then a Voice began to talk
to me out of that light. There was no form. And the Voice
began to remind me of this incident, and that incident
of disobedience to my parents, from a child; of my obstinacy,
and dozens of instances when God brought me up to the
line of absolutely putting my body, soul, and spirit upon
the altar forever. I had my body upon the altar for ten
years, and I had been a minister of the Gospel. But when
the Lord comes, He opens to the soul the depths that have
never been touched in your life. Do you know that after
I was baptized in the Holy Ghost, things opened up in
the depths of my nature that had remained untouched in
all my life, and that which was shadowy, distant, and
hazy became real. God got up close and let His light shine
into me.
"Shortly after this experience,
one afternoon a brother minister called, and invited me
to accompany him to visit a lady who was sick. Arriving
at the home we found the lady in a wheel chair. All her
joints were set with inflammatory rheumatism. She had
been in the condition for ten years...While my friend
was conversing with her, preparing her to be prayed with,
that she might be healed, I sat in a deep chair on the
opposite side of a large room. My soul was crying out
to God in a yearning too deep for words, when suddenly
it seemed to me, that I had passed under a shower of warm
tropical rain, which was not falling upon me, but through
me. My spirit, and soul and body under this influence
soothed into such a deep still calm, as I had never known.
My brain, which had always been so active, became perfectly
still. An awe of the presence of God settled over me.
I knew it was God.
"Some moments passed; I do not know how many. The
Spirit said, 'I have heard your prayers, I have seen your
tears. You are now baptized in the Holy Spirit.' Then
currents of power began to rush through my being from
the crown of my head to the soles of my feet. The shocks
of power increased in rapidity, and voltage. As these
currents of power would pass through me, they seemed to
come upon my head, rush through my body, and through my
feet into the floor... Even at this late date, the awe
of that hour rests upon my soul. My experience has truly
been as Jesus said that He shall be within you 'a well
of water, springing up into everlasting life.' That never-ceasing
fountain has flowed through my spirit, soul, and body
day, and night, bringing salvation, and healing, and the
Baptism of the Spirit in the power of God to multitudes.
"Shortly after my Baptism
in the Holy Spirit, a working of the Spirit commenced
in me, that seemed to have for it's purpose the revelation
of the nature of Jesus Christ to me and in me. Through
this tuition and remolding of the Spirit a great tenderness
for mankind was to awaken in my soul. I saw mankind through
new eyes. They seemed to me as wandering sheep, having
strayed far, in the midst of confusion, groping and wandering
hither and thither. They had no definite aim and did not
seem to understand what the difficulty was or how to return
to God. The desire to proclaim the message of Christ,
and demonstrate His power to save and bless, grew in my
soul until my life was swayed by this over- whelming passion."
(Pg 16-20).
"I found that my life began
to manifest in the varied range of the gifts of the Spirit.
I spoke in tongues by the power of God, and God flowed
through me with a new force. Healings were of a more powerful
order. Oh, God lived in me; God manifested in me; God
spoke through me. My spirit was energized. I had a new
comprehension of God's will, a new discernment of spirit,
and a new revelation of God in me.
"Then a new wonder manifested.
My nature became so sensitized, that I could lay hands
on any man, or woman, and tell what organ was diseased,
and to what extent, and all about it. I tested it. I went
into hospitals where physicians could not diagnose a case,
touched a patient, and instantly I knew the organ that
was diseased, its extent, condition, and location.
Before obeying the call into full-time
ministry, Lake felt the need to dispose of his very successful
business interests. He sold everything, giving the money
to God's work, and embarked on full-time ministry with
a heart full of the fire of God. Soon afterward, when
he was ministering in a city in Northern Illinois, God
spoke to him clearly and distinctly: "Go to Indianapolis.
Prepare for a winter campaign. Get a large hall. In the
spring you will go to Africa."
John G. Lake continues: "One
morning when I came down to breakfast, I found my appetite
had disappeared. I could not eat. I went about my work
as usual. At dinner I had no desire to eat, and no more
in the evening. This went on till the third day. But toward
the evening of the third day, an overwhelming desire to
pray took possession of me. I wanted only to be alone
to pray. Prayer flowed from my soul like a stream. I could
not cease praying. As soon as it was possible to get to
a place of seclusion, I would kneel to pour out my heart
to God for hours. What- ever I was doing, that stream
of prayer continued flowing from my soul ... On the night
of the sixth day of this fast, that the Lord had laid
on me, while in the act of washing my hands, the Spirit
said, 'How long have you been praying to cast out demons?'
and I replied, 'Lord, a long time.' And the Spirit said,
'From henceforth, thou shalt cast out demons.' I arose
and praised God." (Pg 21) An opportunity to test
this newly-given anointing to cast out demons came the
following Sunday, when a violently insane man was brought
to Lake, who commanded the demon to come out of him in
Jesus' name. The man was instantly delivered, and two
days later was released from the institution that he had
been confined in.
In April 1908, Lake and his family
left for South Africa. Though they had no visible means
of support, they were miraculously provided for every
step of the way. And thus began a tremendous Revival,
with mighty healings, miracles and deliverances, which
was to profoundly impact the African continent for years
to come, even long after Lake was gone. In 1913, following
the tragic death of his wife, Lake returned to America,
but by this time the torch had also been passed on to
Elias Letwaba and others in Africa, and the work went
on there, in great power. Lake continued his ministry
in North America until his death in 1935. He fought an
outstanding fight and ran a great race, right to the very
end.
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