Corrie Ten Boom Talks at 700 Club (Transcript)

And I don’t know if you had the same as I, that I was a little bit amazed that so many people fall down.

But you know, I understood something and made me very happy. Some time ago, I was in Holland, and there came a hurricane that is not so often in Holland, and it went through the woods and everywhere there was an old tree, it fell down. And when I saw these people here, I thought of the wind, of the storm, of the Holy Spirit. And people fall down through the Holy Spirit. And I know that many of them stood up with a new life, the old life had begun.

And when I understood that, I enjoyed it and I understood it a little bit better. I like to read for you Ephesians 3:14 (Living Bible): “When I think of the wisdom and scope of God’s plan, I fall down on my knees and I pray to the Father of all the great family of God, some of them already in heaven, and some down here on earth, that out of His glorious, unlimited resources, He will give us the mighty inner strengthening of His Holy Spirit. And I pray that Christ will be more and more home in your hearts, living within you as you trust in Him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love, and may you be able to feel and understand as all God’s children should, how long, how wide, how deep and how high His love really is, and to experience His love for yourselves, though it is so great that you will never see the end of it.”

And about this mighty inner strengthening of the Holy Spirit, I will say something. What it means that there is happening something over the whole world. What is happening here, as we are together with thousands from many countries, I do not believe that that was possible ten years ago. That is possible because God is doing a tremendous work.

Why does He do it? Why are so many thousands more who have the joy of the baptism of the Holy Spirit than times ago? I believe it is because we need a mighty inner strengthening of the Holy Spirit in this time. And the Lord is willing to give it. And I hope that you and I understand a little bit more about why God gives us this.

Is it to have such joy together and to sing in the Spirit as if it is a little bit of music from heaven? Yes, that is it. Is it to see people healed and God’s miracles go on in the heart, in the bodies of many people? Yes, that is it. Is it that the expressions on the faces here show the joy of the Lord, most of you? Yes, that is it. Because it is more.

I believe that it is that we need a power and an inner strengthening like never before because the problems of the world and the suffering around us is so terrible that there is a great work for you and me to do, to be channels of streams of living water. This not only for the joy of ourselves. The world is deadly ill and you and I are here in this world as overcomers.

Is there hope for this world? Who is it that overcomes the world? He that believes that Jesus is the Son of God. That means that you and I, when we believe that we are standing on the front line of the battle and the battle is so terrible now that it could scare you if the Lord did not give us not a spirit of fear but a spirit of power, of love and a sound mind.

What does it mean that you and I live in this world of suffering, this world of terrible sinning, a world that has gone down and down? We are ambassadors for Christ. We are representatives from heaven on this world. Like the astronauts were representatives from the world to the moon, you and I are representatives from heaven to this world and because of us, God sees this world as something good.

In Sodom, if there had been only ten righteous people, Sodom would have been saved and this world is acceptable for God because of you and me, because of the Holy Spirit and we are the dwellings of the Holy Spirit. Do you understand it? May I tell you a little example?

Betsy and I were in the concentration camp Ravensbrück because we had saved Jewish people and we were together in a room with seven hundred. It was built for two hundred, and two people started to fight. One had kicked the other out of the cot and then they started to fight and other joined and at last it was a yelling and a swearing and a terrible noise and Betsy said, ‘Corrie, let’s pray; for this is a danger.’ These people are so nervous in such a tension and when the hatred comes up, this is terrible and Betsy started to pray and she prayed and she prayed and she prayed… and it was as if a storm laid down, the noises disappeared.

It became quieter and quieter, and Betsy prayed till everything was quiet and then Betsy said, Amen. Do you see it? Do you see the situation? Do you see there a room full of people who were in a great danger because the hatred tried to keep possession of these people and there was an old woman starving, Betsy starved after some time, weak, very frail and she prayed and that woman saved the situation.

Do you understand what it is for work to do for you? Do you understand that when you pray that you are a strategic point for the Lord and for the devil, that when you pray that this world will be acceptable for God because you are His representative and not one of your prayers is lost.

Do you pray for your king, for your president? Do you pray for Golda Meir who has such a difficult time? Do you pray for the people who are in the government? There is a word that is said in the Bible, that we have to pray for those who have to reign us, and there is a great joy that we may do it, but why do you and I have now the Holy Spirit?

Because in this time it is very necessary that we have a good look, a good view. Our eyes must see better, our ears must hear better because the world is dark and dangerous and where there is no vision, the people perish, especially now. And the Holy Spirit gives us the vision of the victorious life.

We stand on victory ground because Jesus is victor, we know the best is yet to be and how we need to see the world and the pattern of God’s plan.

Some time ago a man said to me, I do not like to read a book where sad stories are told, but do you know when I must read such a book I always first look at the last pages and when I see, oh yes, yes, they get each other and they live a very happy years after that, oh yes, then I can read the whole book, do you know of such an attitude? Thank you.

I say, do you get sometimes frightened when you read in the Bible that all the things that are happening now in the world are told in the word of God. If I had never believed in the Bible, I should now believe in the Bible when I read the newspapers, because it can make you scared, because there are things in the Bible told that are terrible when you read a book of the Revelation.

Now I can tell you when you are afraid, just read the last pages. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. People, I will say only one thing on the last pages that is written that Jesus has said, ‘I come and I will make everything anew.’ That is the future, that is the hope for this world.

And this world now covered with pollution and terrible delinquency once will be covered with the knowledge of God like the waters cover the bottom of the sea, that is the future. And you stand in the front line of a battle that will have victory, because Jesus will be victor and He will make you and me more than conquerors.

Sometimes it is so difficult to understand the secret of God’s plan. I was so happy this afternoon what God did for many of the sick people, but do you know I had to pray for the people who were not healed. But I knew one thing, God did not make a mistake, for God never makes a mistake.

Betsy and I in the concentration camp, we prayed that God would heal Betsy, and Betsy said yes the Lord will heal me, and the next day I saw that she had died, and I could not understand it. Now I understand it already, for now Betsy is used by the Lord because of the book and also the movie, because people see there someone who was so weak, but she had her hand in the hands of a strong one, and that was Jesus.

And so many people over the world tell me, I love your sister Betsy, and I can tell you she is far more blessed than she ever could have been if she had not died. You know how my life is like a weaving between my God and me. I do not choose the colors, He works steadily. Of times He weaves a sorrow and I in foolish pride forget. He sees the upper and I the underside, not till the room is silent and the shuttle sees to fly, will God unroll the canvas and explain the reason why.

The dark threads are as needful in the skillful weavers’ hands than the threads of gold and silver in the pattern He has planned. And God has a plan with your life and with my life. God has only plans, never a problem, there is never a panic in heaven. There is such a joy.

How do I know it? I know it through the Holy Spirit and I understand the Bible when the Holy Spirit teaches me and I understand even much of the world’s history when the Holy Spirit opens my eyes. You know, it is such a joy that we know that the future is so good. I once was in Russia and I gave a woman a text in the Russian language, it was just a text about the way of salvation, but when she saw it she would not take it. I was sorry, and my teammate and I were in the elevator to the dining room and we were the only ones and suddenly we started to pray and I prayed, oh Lord, that woman, I cannot reach her more, please bring her in contact with someone who knows her language. And suddenly I prayed this prayer, ‘Lord, I claim that woman for eternity.’

I was afraid, was it good? Can you claim a soul for eternity? I trembled and I said, ‘Lord, was it a good prayer, may I do that?’ And then I heard myself praying this prayer, ‘God, I claim all Russia for you.’ Oh, it was good.

People, that prayer was not from me, it was from the Lord in me and I trembled, but then I said, yes Lord, at least in the Bible, the world is the Lord’s, the earth and all who live there. Suddenly I saw the future, yes, all Russia will be saved. How? I don’t know, I don’t understand everything in the Bible, but I believe it.

You know, the Bible, I always say: God tells it, Jesus did it, I believe it and that settles it.

You know, when I came for the first time in America, I had to learn many English words that I had not learned in the high school in Holland. And I remember that there were three words that I did not understand: a millennium, pre-millennium, and post-millennium. I remember that I went to Edwin R. and I said, ‘Edwin, can you tell me what is that a-pre-post-millennium?’

He said, ‘Corrie, that is a-pre-posturous question.’ I don’t know what you think about millennium. I have my idea, but I don’t tell you, but I found that the people started to quarrel about it. When he is an a and he is a post and there is a pre-millenniumnist, they cannot come together, so it was some time ago, without that they quarrel.

I am not interested what you think, but I am very interested that when the Lord Jesus should come tonight, that you are ready for His coming. Are you ready for His coming? The Bible tells it very, very clear that we have to be ready.

Peter says in 2 Peter 3:14, because you have a hope like this before you, I urge you to make certain that such a day would find you at peace with God and men, clean and blameless in His sight.

Is that possible? Can you, can I be at peace with God and men? Can we be blameless and clean in God’s sight? Hallelujah, yes, that is possible. Everyone who is here, also that one who has never believed in God, also that one who is here because he must do some business and he helps us with the lights and so, but he does not know the Bible and God, he can be ready for Jesus coming. How?

It is a great joy that it is the Holy Spirit who makes us ready for Jesus’ coming. Jesus Himself is working in the world to make us ready because He is longing for His coming. Do you know that? I read it in the Bible, Jesus is longing to come back here and to make everything new and He is willing to do the job to make you and me and everyone here ready.

Paul says, may the God of peace make you holy through and through, may you be kept in spirit, soul and body, in spotless integrity until the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Say, is that not too much?

You and I, in spotless integrity, no that’s not too much. That is possible because the rest of the text is, He who calls you is utterly faithful and He will finish what He has set out to do. And the only thing you have to do is throw yourselves in the arms of the Lord, lay your weak hand in His strong hand and He will make you ready for His coming.

And He is busy with us like never before. He fills us with the Holy Spirit and suddenly we see the answer, how can you be in spotless integrity because of the fruit of the Spirit. When we repent of our sins and that is necessary — when we repent of our sins and ask forgiveness and claim the finished work that has been at the cross, then we can have forgiveness and cleansing.

At the cross, at the cross, when I first saw the light and the burden of my sins rolled away, it was there by faith I received my sight.

And when the Lord cleanses your heart so that it is a clean and good dwelling for the Holy Spirit, then the fruit of the Spirit is love and peace and joy and kindness and generosity and fidelity and tolerance and self-control, all just opposite of what our sins were. And that is why we can be ready and that’s why we need the Holy Spirit very, very much.

Be right with men. The Lord has spoken to us already that we have to forgive, for also when we believe that there was one who carried our sins for us, but we are not willing to forgive that other person, then we have no forgiveness. Jesus says that.

Do you realize it? Have you still a resentment against that one who has offended you? Can you forgive that woman who has stolen the love of your husband? Can you forgive that man who has stolen the love of your wife? You can’t, but Jesus can.

When you are filled with the Holy Spirit, in Romans 5:5 it is said, the love of God is brought into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, and when that ocean of love of God is in your heart, you can love and forgive. I know it. I had a difficulty that I hated.

I was some time ago in Berlin and I saw — came a man to me and he said, don’t you know me? And suddenly I saw who he was. He was one of the most cruel guards in Ravensbrück. And there he stood and he said, ‘I know you, I have, but I have been a guard, do you remember me? But now I found Jesus Christ. I have brought Him all my sins and He has forgiven me. I know it, but I have prayed, God, give me the grace that I may meet one of my very own victims and ask her or him forgiveness. And that is why I asked you, Fräulein, tambonon, signir, forgaben, will you forgive me?’

And my friends, it was such a darkness in my heart, I could not shake his hand. I thought of how my dying sister had suffered through his cruelties. And then I understood it, what was happening. I did not forgive and so I had no forgiveness for myself. And suddenly I found it. I said, Lord, I claim Romans 5:5, your love is in my heart through the Holy Spirit. And that moment I felt that God’s love in me was stronger than my resentment and hatred. And I could say, ‘Brother, I forgive you everything.’ I shook his hand and it was, I say, the stream through my arm. The love of God, you never touch so the ocean of God’s love as that you love your enemies.

Do you see that you can be ready for Jesus’ coming? If you turn away from your sins, if you repent and bring your sins to the Lord and let Him forgive and cleanse you and be filled with the Holy Spirit, then He does the job to make you ready. What a joy.

The Holy Spirit gives us the right look. Through the darkness of now, look around and be distressed. Look within and be depressed. Look at Jesus and be at rest. What a joy. And we can only look at Jesus when the Holy Spirit turns our eyes in the right direction.

I stood on roll call in the concentration camp and there was one of the guards who used that time to demonstrate her cruelties and I could hardly bear to see and to hear what was happening in front of me. Suddenly a skylark came and started to sing in the sky and we all looked up and listened to the bird song.

And when I looked up, I looked further at the sky and I thought of Psalm 103, where it is written, as high is heaven over the earth, so is God’s love and mercy over all that fear Him. And suddenly it was as if I woke up to reality, all love of God, how deep and great, far deeper than man’s deepest hate.

And God sent that skylark during three weeks daily to turn away our eyes from the cruelty of man and to God’s ocean of love. I read once a book of Frankl, Man’s Search For Meaning. He was a Jew who has suffered much more than I. But that book was not negative, it was positive. And that man saw something and he ended his book with these words: ‘Our generation is realistic for we have come to know man is a being who has invented the gas chambers of Auschwitz. However, he is also the being who has entered those gas chambers upright with the Lord’s prayer or the Shema Yisrael on his lips.’ Do you see the two sides? He saw it.

The Holy Spirit opens our ears so that we can hear God’s voice. In the concentration camp we had to go to roll call at half past four, and we had to stand there many hours, but our head of the barracks centers a whole hour too early into the icy cold morning. And that was cruel, but Betsy and I did not go to the place where we had to stand on roll call, but we made a walk all around the camp. It was still pitch dark, yet only the light of the stars.

But Betsy and I walked with the Lord and talked with the Lord. And Betsy said something, and I said something, and then the Lord said something. How I don’t know, but we both understood him. The Holy Spirit had opened our ears that we could hear His voice. And you and I have to hear the voice of the Lord in this time.

I have been in countries where there was terrible persecution. I know that in China the people were told in the churches, ‘Don’t be afraid, before the persecution and the tribulation comes, you will be translated.’ There came a terrible tribulation and persecution, millions of Christians have been tortured to death. And I heard a bishop from China who said, we have failed to make the people strong for persecution. And he said, you have still time, tell the people how to be strong in times of tribulation. And I found that it is possible to be strong, and that you and I are in a training — a training for tribulation, what is now already more than 60% of the body of Christ suffering. Do you know that?

Do you realize that we are one body of Christ over the world, and that 60% and perhaps more are suffering terrible persecution. And watch when he said, when my feet were whipped, my hands had pain, suffered pain. And you and I have to suffer together with the other part of the body of Christ. And we have to pray for them like we did today.

And Mr. Van der Hoven prayed, for this many of us who are suffering so much behind the iron and bamboo curtain. Is that the only thing, or is it perhaps necessary that you and I train, go in training for times that this wave of persecution will also come in your and my free country. I was very interested when yesterday I got a paper, and that is the Eve of Persecution. It is written by Dr. Basilea Schlink, and those of you who are not afraid try to get this paper. It will make you scared if you are not, are you not, not alert. But those of you who know I have not a spirit of fear but of power, of love and a sound mind dare to read this paper.

And here you read the reality of what it means to live in this time. And how we can be ready, yes, half of the paper is written about the terrible situation of America, of Holland, of all kinds of countries, but it seems to be rather free. But how the devil is working to prepare the time of the anti-Christ.

And then the second part of this paper is how to be strong and how to train. I must tell you something: when my family, my father with all his children and a grandson were arrested in Haarlem and fifty of our friends because we had saved Jewish people, I remember that my nephew Peter came to me and said, ‘Auntie, what have you in your shoe?’

I said Romans 8, ‘What have you?’

He said, ‘I have Ephesians 1, do you know what mom has?

‘Yes, Colossians 3?’

Do you understand what had happened? We were going to a place where it was possible that our Bible should be taken away. And we had hid under our, even under our hairs, in our hairs we had hidden just pages of the Bible.

You see, we were — we tried to be ready for suffering and how it was necessary for our Bibles were taken away. And do you know, they have taken away my Romans 8, but there was something they could not take away and that were all the texts that I had learned by heart.

Learn by heart the text of the Bible that can be a help for you when tribulation comes. There is so much in the Bible that gives us ammunition for the battle, that is so tremendous when you read that in the Bible are limitless resources. And the Holy Spirit can teach you what text you must learn by heart.

Since I have met that Bishop from…

For Further Reading:

At a Crossroads: Jordan B. Peterson 2022 Commencement Address (Transcript)

Who was Jesus, Really? Searching for the Historical Jesus: William Lane Craig (Transcript)

Marriage, Family and Parenting: Paul Washer (Transcript)

The Lamb vs. The Beast: Derek Prince Sermon (Transcript)

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