Part 4: Getting down to Business

With sure-footed stride, Lake boldly crossed into a new threshold of success. A strong anointing to heal the sick had come upon him. And while he handled this anointing with great success on the outside, on the inside, it only intensified the struggle that had been going on for years.

The struggle? Choosing between getting down to business with God, or getting down to business with the world. It started back in October 1891.

Eight months after Lake had married Jennie, the Methodist Church appointed him to be pastor of a church in Wisconsin. But for some reason, instead of taking the pastorate, Lake decided to go into business for himself.

It wasn't long before Lake's success in the business world equaled his passion for God. After all, he was an intense and determined man. Whatever he went after, he got - and a lot of it too!

One of Lake's first business ventures was to start a newspaper, The Harvey Citizen, in Harvey, Illinois. Then, after making the move to Michigan because of Jennie's failing health, Lake dove into real estate. On the first day of business alone, he earned US$2500. And within two years he had amassed nearly US$250,000 in personal wealth, which around the turn of the century was a fortune.

By the time Lake was 30, he had helped start another newspaper - the Soo Times - and some of the wealthiest men in North America were courting him for his expertise in managing people and money. He later bought a seat on the Chicago Board of Trade, and was reported to have become a millionaire.

In the height of Lake's financial success, from 1900 to 1907, he was hired by a group of investors to form and manage one of the country's largest life insurance companies. Part of his job included managing the company's agents. By simply advising an agent just 20 to 30 minutes, Lake could earn hundreds of dollars in commission. That was in addition to a salary that already set at about US$50,000 a year.

But in the middle of all this financial success, something richer was happening in the heart and soul of John Lake. He was beginning to see - and count - the value of men's souls.

Since that glorious morning when Jennie was healed in 1898, Lake had started preaching and holding healing meetings in the Chicago area. By 1901, he and his family had moved 40 miles north to Zion City, Illinois - where John Dowie had moved his ministry headquarters - so Lake could study divine healing up close, as well as teach it, until 1904.

In all, Lake ministered part time for a period of 10 years, and during that time, hundreds of people were saved and healed.

"But at the end of that 10 years," Lake wrote, "I believe I was the hungriest man for God that ever lived. My friends would say, 'Mr Lake, you have a beautiful baptism in the Holy Ghost.' Yes, it was nice as far as it went, but it was not answering the cry of my heart."

How could that have been? How could such a glorious display of God's power through Lake's life not have satisfied the cry of his heart?

Simple. Many of Lake's friends and associates assumed that he had received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, when in fact, he had not. Actually he had never fully understood it, though many had talked to him about it. Meanwhile, the people who saw him minister with such success were indeed judging him by his works - and certainly he had been wonderfully anointed by the Spirit to minister. Yet, there was more for Lake to learn, more for him to receive. And deep in his heart he knew it.

As I read this last part of the sharings, I am once again so stirred by his life. It is so easy for us to preach to people about faith, about healing, but when it really comes down to appropriating it for ourselves, suddenly we find ourselves at the place where we need to truly believe what we've preached!

Apart from faith for healing, what are the other areas of your life that you have preached about before to someone, but when it comes to yourself, you find you have a problem following through? Don't you think it's time as history makers, to really start living out our preaching?

-signing out
DeReK