Hyman Appelman – little jew with a big Jesus

by Leave a Comment

This is the day that … Hyman Jedediah Appelman was ordained, in 1930.

This remarkable evangelist began life in White Russia on 7 January, 1902, born to an Orthodox Jewish family.  He was reared in the Jewish faith, emigrated with his family to America in 1914, became an outstanding scholar at various schools and universities and eventually (in 1921) was licensed to practise law.

During a holiday in Kansas City a newspaper reporter named Daly witnessed to him concerning the claims of Christ.  The next morning a Mr Garrett invited him to church – the first Protestant service he had ever attended.

It was later that year – now in Denver, Colorado – that Appelman was directed to Dr James Davis of the Central Christian Church.  There the 23 year-old Jew found his Messiah, was baptised the following Sunday, and sent a wire home to his family telling them the news.  His family disowned him, the Jewish law firm dismissed him, and his fiancée broke off their engagement. His father said to him, “When your sides come together from hunger, and you come crawling to my door, I will throw you a crust of bread as I would any other dog.”

But Hyman Appelman never faltered in his new-found faith.  He joined the United States Army, joined the Baptist denomination, and began preaching.

Shortly after his ordination by the Southern Baptists, he married Verna Cook (on 4 September, 1930), and commenced a remarkable evangelistic ministry that took him around the world, including Australia … in 1948. Just as the highly educated Apostle Paul laboured ‘more abundantly’, so too did this modern Jewish convert. It was hard to find a day when he was not ministering. He averaged two weeks at home out of a year.

Appelman looked directly to the Holy Spirit for his enabling. “The all-pervading, all-controlling, all-achieving Holy Spirit is the only Source of power. It is not in our schools, not in our churches, not in our organizations. It is not in our separation, not in our busyness, not in our attractions. It is not in our programs. It is solely the Holy Spirit who gives this power to do exploits for God, to promote the interests of God’s kingdom, to overcome Satan, to win the lost. There is no separating of spiritual power from the Holy Spirit. It is not power; it is the Holy Spirit. You cannot have power without the Holy Spirit. You cannot have the Holy Spirit without being flooded by Heaven’s power.”

Time Magazine once reported: Overflow crowds jammed Detroit’s Convention Hall to hear a sensational evangelist, Dr. Hyman Appelman, who calls himself “the little Jew with a big Jesus.”

This Russian-born Jewish American Baptist died in 1983.

The Holy Spirit as a Dove – Poem

by Leave a Comment

Last week I posted on the image of a the Holy Spirit being like a dove in our chest, stirring when we worship and seeking to soar into the heavenly places. However we tend to restrain that impulse out of our sensibilities to those around us, not wanting to be out of step or to look foolish. The imagery developed to the picture of a dove being released, soaring into the skies and transforming into a powerful eagle. The sense that came with this imagery is that of the great benefit we can enjoy if we would only get past our self-consciousness and allow the Holy Spirit to be freely expressed through us. We would soon find ourselves mounting up with wings like an eagle and soaring far above the things of earth. 

Some days after capturing the initial imagery I found myself in another poetic frame of mind and so I penned the following verses to encapsulate the concept outlined above. 

A DOVE FLUTTERS IN MY CHEST – stirred by worship and the Word. Chris Field Friday April 18, 2008

A dove came down upon my chest and settled there to make its nest.
How sweet the tune and soft its wing and Oh how sweetly it did sing.
My life transformed by heaven’s dove, who brought me stirrings from above.

At times the dove doth stir and move, as worship lifts me from my groove.
When I embark on heartfelt praise I sense the dove doth lift its gaze.
It warms me so to sense things such, as if refreshed by God’s own touch.

At times I must restrain this dove, which stirs and coos of God’s great love.
I almost feel my chest will burst and so I quell my rising thirst.
My worship held my soul is calmed, yet I wonder if I’m harmed.

Then in a burst of free delight I let the dove take glorious flight.
I did not hold it back again but let it fly at will and then…
The dove transformed before my eyes into an eagle as it flies.

So now I soar in heavens above, since I released this heavenly dove.
With eagle wings I fly alone up to the place of heaven’s throne.
Hold not the stirrings of God’s dove – t’will lift you to God’s arms of love. 

Prophetic People

by Leave a Comment

Numbers 11:29 “And Moses said to him, Are you envious for my sake? I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put his spirit on them.”

Moses’ wish is also that of the Lord. When God promised to put His Spirit on all flesh, in Joel 2, the emphasis was that God’s people would be a “Prophetic People”.

Joel 2:28,29 “It will come to pass afterward, that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; and your sons and your daughters will prophesy, you old men will dream dreams, and your young men with see visions; And also on the servants and on the handmaids in those days will I pour out my Spirit.”

When the Apostle Peter quoted this text on the Day of Pentecost he cast an even stronger emphasis on Prophecy resulting from the giving of the Holy Spirit.

Acts 2:17,18 “And it will come to pass in the last days, says God, I will pour out of my Spirit on all flesh: and your sons and your daughters will prophesy, and your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams: And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit: and they will prophesy.”

Prophets tell or reveal things about God. They display truth about God. They speak of the marvelous works of God.

All of God’s children are called to do this. Such a role is part of them being a chosen people for God.

1Peter 2:9 “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, to show forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.

We know from the example of God’s prophets in the Bible, that some prophecy comes as spoken words. Other prophecy comes by way of action and example.

Spoken prophecy reveals the mind of God and calls people to respond appropriately. It is also used to call something into existence on God’s behalf, by prophetic declaration. Just as God calls those things which are not as though they existed (Romans 4:17), and then the thing materializes or becomes real, so too God’s prophets spoke things which then resulted as real outcomes.

Prophecy by action also reveals the mind of God and calls people to a response. Actions of faith can result in calling things into existence.

A Prophetic People will both speak with Divine authority and also act on God’s behalf. This is the calling of God’s People.

Prophetic Call

There is currently a call emanating from heaven, drawing people to a place of obedience and the fear of God, which will accelerate the manifestation of a Prophetic People.

God is raising a new generation of awesome people, a Prophetic People, who know their God and act in profoundly powerful ways (Daniel 11:32). Many of these people are unseen. They are not on the platforms or the TV screens. They are not writing books or composing the latest songs. In due time they may do all of those things.

Right now, however, they are simply responding to God. They are feeling His heartbeat and His call on their life. They are doing the painful thing of yielding to God, sometimes at great cost. Others around them may be getting it easy, but these Prophetic People can’t get away with such things. They are under the mighty hand of God. They are being humbled right now, but in due time they will be raised up (1Peter 5:6). 

Many of these people do not realize what God is doing. Some can only see that things have not turned out as they hoped. They are almost in despair because they have been plunged into challenges they never wanted to face. But those very people stand in a prophetic moment. How they respond will either lead to their frustration or the glory of God. Some will experience the loss of all they hold dear, but will then rise from the ruins with such grace and glory on their life that they will be a prophetic testimony in everything they do. 

Many feel as if they are in no-man’s land. They can’t go back to where they were. The world doesn’t satisfy them any more. Yet they can’t tell where they are going. They are on an Abrahamic journey to a new land, having left their past, but having no clear idea of where they are going to end up.

THE PROPHETIC CALL

There is a prophetic Call going out across the earth, by the Spirit of God.

A trumpet has begun sounding in heaven, and although people can’t hear it audibly, something inside them is stirring and restless in response.

New horizons of destiny are opening. The skies are clearing. New kinds of journeying are now possible which were not available in the past. Just as a century ago the church tried to come to terms with things that were old yet new again, so too this new generation will struggle to get a solid grip and theology on what is happening.

Many will be awakened, but some will go off on tangents of the flesh and the devil’s direction. What we are about to see will be messy and unworthy of God’s Kingdom. Yet this is a move of God. This is the work of the Lord.