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The
Story Of A Hungry Man
I love to tell this story because it is the story of a hungry man. A short
time after I went to South Africa and God had begun to work very
marvelously in the city of Johannesburg, a butcher who lived in the
suburbs was advised by his physicians that he had developed such a
tubercular state he might not live more than nine months. He wanted to
make provision that his family would be cared for after he was gone, so he
bought a farm and undertook to develop it that when he died his family
would have a means of existence.
One day he received a letter from friends at Johannesburg telling of the
coming of what they spoke of as "the American brethren," and of
the wonderful things that were taking place. Of how So-and-so, a terrible
drunkard had been converted; of his niece who had been an invalid in a
wheelchair for five years had been healed of God; how one of his other
relatives had been baptized in the Holy Ghost and was speaking in tongues;
other friends and neighbors had been baptized and healed, of the powerful
change that had come in the community, and all the marvels a vigorous work
for God produces.
Dan Von Vuuren took the letter, crawled under an African thorn tree. He
spread the letter out before God, and began to discuss it with the Lord.
He said, "God in heaven, if You could come to Mr. So-and-so, a
drunkard and deliver him from his sin and save his soul and put the joy of
God in him; if You could come to this niece of mine, save her soul and
heal her body and send her out to be a blessing instead of a weight and
burden upon her friends; if You could come to So-and-so and they were
baptized in the Holy Ghost and speak in tongues; Lord if you can do these
things at Johannesburg, You can do something for me too." And he
knelt down, put his face to the ground, and cried to God that God would do
something for him. And don't forget it, friends, I have a conviction that
that morning Dan Von Vuuren was so stirred by reading that letter that his
desire to be made whole got bigger than anything else in his
consciousness. His heart reached for God, and bless God, that morning his
prayer went through heaven and God came down into his life. In ten minutes
he took all the breath he wanted; the pain was gone, the tuberculosis had
disappeared, he was a whole man.
But that was not all. He not only received a great physical healing, but
God had literally come in and taken possession of the man's life until he
did not understand himself anymore. In telling me he said, "Brother,
a new prayer from heaven was born in my spirit. I had prayed for my wife's
salvation for eighteen years, but I could never pray through. But that
morning I prayed through. It was all done when I got to the house. She
stood and looked at me for two minutes, until it dawned in her soul that I
was gloriously healed of God. She never asked a question as to how it took
place, but fell on her knees, threw her hands up to heaven, and said,
'Pray for me, Dan, for God's sake pray for me. I must find God today,' and
God came to that soul."
He had eleven children, splendid young folks. The mother and he went to
praying and inside of a week the whole household of thirteen had been
baptized in the Holy Ghost. He went to his brother's farm, told the wonder
of what God had done, prayed through and in a little while 19 families
were baptized in the Holy Ghost.
God so filled his life with His glory that one morning that God said to
him, "Go to Pretoria. I am going to send you to the different members
of Parliament." He was admitted into the presence of Premier Louis
Botha. Botha told me about it afterwards. He said, "Lake, I had known
Von Vuuren from the time he was a boy. I had known him as a reckless,
rollicking fellow. But that man came into my office and stood 10 feet from
my desk. I looked up, and before he commenced to speak I began to shake
and rattle in my chair. I knelt down, I had to put my head under the desk
and cry out to God. Why he looked like God. He talked like God. He had the
majesty of God. He was superhumanly wonderful."
Then he went to the office of the Secretary of State, then to the
Secretary of the Treasury. Almost the same thing took place in every
instance. For eighteen days God kept him going from this one to that one;
lawyers, judges and officials in the land, until every high official in
the land knew there was a God and a Christ and a Savior, and a Baptism of
the Holy Ghost, because Dan Von Vuuren had really hungered after God.
"Blessed are they which do hunger."
Source: John G. Lake: His Life, His Sermons, His
Boldness of Faith
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