In this issue I am celebrating my sixtieth year of preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ, by looking back over my journey and giving praise to God for His faithfulness.
I was converted to Jesus Christ on a hot July night in 1946, in Nady, Arkansas, in a revival meeting in the southern part of Arkansas County, which is a part of the Delta. My mother, Estelle Tharp, had been greatly influenced by a Bible scholar, Martha Honeycutt, who was a New Testament professor in Union Bible Institute in Westfield, Indiana. Through Miss Honeycutt, my mother studied the great revivals of church history and knew that a mighty outpouring of the Spirit on the wicked community of Arkansas County was our only hope, especially those of us who lived in the lower part of the county.
My mother and Miss Honeycutt formed a prayer pact. Miss Honeycutt returned to Indiana, and she and my mother met every morning for seven years at the Throne of Grace, interceding for revival in Arkansas County, though they were 700 miles apart.
The two began praying in 1939, but it was in 1946 that God hit Arkansas County like a tornado. Everyone on Momma's prayer list got saved - all of our relatives, including my dad. When I saw my dad get saved, it was then that I gave my heart to Christ. My sisters and brothers got saved. All our neighbors got saved, and many came from distant places, drawn there by the Holy Spirit, to find Christ. Our community had been wicked and rebellious and had no time for God or church. But after everyone got saved it became the most loving and friendliest place on earth.
In the summer of 1947, while sawing logs, herding cattle, and putting up hay, I felt the Holy Spirit calling me to the ministry. I had hoped to become a prosperous cattleman. But I finally yielded to the Spirit, and at age seventeen, I preached my first sermon on a hot August Sunday afternoon in the old Menard Schoolhouse, where the revival had been held. My text was Romans 1:16, and my subject was "The Power of the Gospel." I suppose the crowd consisted of about 100 people, most of whom had already been saved in the revival.
I organized a Gospel Team, secured a loudspeaker system and started traveling to the small towns to sing and preach on the streets on Saturday afternoons in the spring, summer and fall of 1947 and 1948. Great crowds gathered, and several people gave their hearts to Christ. In the fall of 1948, I enrolled in Union Bible Institute. In 1949, while in Bible College and still single, I accepted an invitation to become pastor of a church near the Bible College. In the summer of 1949, I met Maxine McClain, who became my wife in 1950, and who went to be with the Lord in March, 2006. We spent our 56 years together pastoring churches in Indiana, Pennsylvania, California, New Mexico, Washington and Montana.
At this point I want to list the people God put into my life who influenced me greatly. Most influential were my mother, Estelle Tharp; my wife, Maxine; my mentor, Martha Honeycutt; my father, James W. Tharp, Sr.; my sister, Anniece Tharp Shelburne, my sister Jeanette Tharp Menard, my grandma, Alma Castetter, my aunt BettyLee Best and my aunt, Hollis Tharp Krablin.
The following are not listed according to the significance of their influence on my life, but chronologically as they came into my life: Rev. Joseph Youmans, Dr. John Newby, Rev. John K. Summers, Rev. Woody Shields, Mr. Charles (Steve) Kercheval, Dr. Joshua Stauffer, Miss Amy Harvey, Rev. G. R. Bateman, , BettyLee Best, Dr. Paul S. Rees, Dr. Paul Billheimer, Rev. Boyd Skinner, Rev. Joseph Hoffman, Dr. A. W. Tozer, Dr. W. T. Purkiser, Dr. G. B. Williamson, Dr. Duncan Campbell, Dr. Irving Laird, Dr. Harold Reed, Dr. C. M. Ward, Rev. Ben Smith, Mr. Mike Biggs, Dr. Mike Ross, Dr. Guy Nees, Dr Bob Pierce, Rev. Armin Gesswein, Dr. Billy Graham, Dr. T. W. Wilson, Dr. Wesley Duewel, Mr. Gail Fremont, Dr. William Greathouse, Dr Jerald Johnson, Dr. Kent Hill, Mr. Steve Fowler, Rev. Fred Fowler, Rev. Jack Terry, Dr. Tom Phillips, Mr. George Best, Mr. Henry (Buddy) Best, Mr. James Best, Mrs. Marilee Donivan, Governor Ronald Reagan, Governor Bruce King, President Jimmy Carter, Dr. Jesse Middendorf and Dr. Jim Diehl.
There are three educational institutions to which I am indebted: Union Bible Institute, Westfield, Indiana (1948-1952); Olivet Nazarene University (1966); and Seattle Pacific University (1982).
Forty-two of my sixty years in ministry were spent in nine pastorates. I need to confess here that the first 37 years of my pastoral experience was not a period of my life when I was devoted to prayer, and this cost me decades of mediocrity in ministry. But in 1986, God called me to devote myself to prayer with a threefold promise. If I would for the rest of my life and ministry devote myself to prayer, He would: (1) Fill me with His Holy Spirit; (2) Teach me to pray; and (3) Show me revival! As I have sought to obey, He has kept His Word. Praise His Name!
Since 1994, I have gone wherever God has opened doors (Asia, Europe, South America, the Carribbean, and 40 of the 50 American states) to take the message on prayer, revival and the Spirit-filled life. Through His anointing, and by His grace, I have seen sinners repent, carnal believers sanctified holy and filled with the Spirit, the sick supernaturally healed, instantaneous deliverance for many in bondage, demons cast out, and many churches brought to a state of revival and ready for a harvest of souls! To God be all the glory.
In all my sixty years of ministry, I can testify that not once has God failed to keep His promises. He has opened many doors, supplied every need, directed my ways, given me specific messages and anointed me for preaching, teaching and counseling. I marvel at His special revelations, outpourings of His Spirit and the signs and wonders that He allowed in the meetings.
I have no idea how long the Lord will allow me to continue, but I do not see retirement in the future for me. As He continues to heal, strengthen and energize me, I want to continue to go through the doors He opens and deliver the messages He lays on my heart.
I do know that I owe a great deal to many of you who are reading these lines of testimony. There's no way I could publish, travel and go to the smaller churches without your prayers and financial support. Most of the churches can see that I break even financially, but some of the churches that call me cannot pay the expenses I incur in going to them. I have never turned down an invitation because I anticipated a small offering.
What I really beg from you is prayer. When I have the backing of prayer, God will do anything that is within His will - the money will come in, the people will attend the services, believers will repent of their cold-heartedness and carnality and get filled with the Spirit, Satan will be defeated in his schemes to rob Christians of their fire and destroy local churches and ministries, and the Kingdom of God will be advanced.
It's been a great journey. But as I begin my descent of the western slopes, I am resolved to not live in the glow of yesterday's revivals, but to believe God for the great revival He longs to give, whether it comes in my sunset, or even in the twilight of my life.
As for the rest of my time on earth, I am available to God to go anywhere He leads, give any message He lays on my heart, and to continue to devote myself to prayer with more fasting. I cannot but believe that as we come to the close of the dispensation of the Holy Spirit, the latter outpourings of the Spirit will supersede the former. I cannot see the Church going out with a whimper, but with a bang! I truly believe God has saved His best for the last. So I am praying and preaching and believing for the kind of end-times revival God promises in Isaiah 35: The desert and parched land (a dry church) will rejoice greatly and shout for joy. The feeble hands will be strengthened. The eyes of the blind will be opened. The ears of the deaf will be unstopped. The lame will leap like a deer and the mute tongue will shout for joy. The believers shall walk the Highway of Holiness. We shall enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown our heads. Sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
LEAD ON, O KING ETERNAL! THY KINGDOM COME, THY WILL BE DONE ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN!
No comments:
Post a Comment