Ezekiel 3:22:
"And the hand of the Lord was there upon me; And he said unto me, Arise, go forth into the plain, and I will there talk with thee."

For many years, any time I picked up a Bible and just let it fall open, it would without fail, open to the page where the above Scripture is at. I have taken different Bibles from different people in different parts of this Country and, without fail, each would always open to the same Scripture. I don't remember when the first time was nor do I remember where I was that the first time it happened but I do know that it happened for several years before I move to Wyoming in the later part of 1982.

Prior to moving to Wyoming, I did much evangelistic work among the Pentecostal and Full~Gospel people. I did have a certain amount of success as did many who was on the field preaching, yet there was also many times when I asked our Lord to do things which I never saw done. I had many, what is called 'prayer lines' whereby we would have the people come up for prayer for healing or whatever they had need of. Yet, there was many who did not receive what was asked for. Those who did not receive was told that they didn't have faith.

Those who did receive so spread the word of what happened till finally there was some business men who came to me with the following offer. This was during the days of the great 'tent revivals' of the 50's and 60's. These men offered to buy me a great big tent, set up all my meetings in the larger cities of this USA and send someone with me to take up the collections of which they were willing to give me 50%. I was told that all I had to do was 'preach' and 'pray for' those who had needs. If I didn't feel like preaching, they would even send another 'preacher' with me to do the preaching for me so all I had to do was 'pray for' the needs of the people.

I turned this 'offer' down flat, telling them that I would not 'sale' the gift of God, if indeed it was a gift of God.

My wife and I continued going to the mostly small churches which would receive us. Most all those churches would give us an offering, though most of them were very small. Of the money which was given us, we gave most of it back to the church which had given it to us. My reason for doing this was because I had seen so many preachers who seemed to have no other care but "How much money will we receive?", and I sure did not want to be like they were.

As a result of this, many were the nights which the wife and I slept in the car, even in the cold of winter with snow on the ground.

Let me say this; I do not believe today that what I did was any more right than was the preachers whose only care seemed to be money.

Those preachers went about trying to get more than the people were willing to give. Today I believe we were both wrong.

I have always believed that if our God sends a man out to preach the Gospel, He will take care of that man. I still believe that same thing to this day. I have never believed that a God~sent man needs the promises of support from people at home! I have always taken these words of our Lord in Matthew 10:1~11.

1: And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.

2: Now the names of the twelve apostles are these; The first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother;
3: Philip, and Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the publican; James the son of Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus;
4: Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him.
5: These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not:
6: But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
7: And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.
8: Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.
9: Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses,
10: Nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves: for the workman is worthy of his meat.
11: And into whatsoever city or town ye shall enter, inquire who in it is worthy; and there abide till ye go thence.

This is the way I have always went and this is still the way I do it to this day. I never ask support form those left at home, nor do I speak of my present or future needs to any that I minister to. Yet, Godalways supplies all my needs and I believe He will do the same for any God~sent man.

I have received quite a number of email requests from ministers asking for financial support before going on the field. In each case, I have been made to wonder if these men are God~sent.

Let me say this, I do believe in giving, but I only give to those that I feel in my heart that my God wants me to give to. Not always, but in most cases, it is just a little Christian family who is having money problems.

Well, let me get back to my message. The wife and I continued on the field till we were expecting our third child at which time we went off the field and joined a precious Brother in his Church, where we remained until just after the death of the minister.

Over the next several years, (during which time, the scripture at the beginning of this message began coming to me)we lived in several parts of this country. During these years, I worked at many different jobs, sometimes preaching here or there.

In the early 80's, we were living in Bryan, Texas while I worked in the oil fields. Sometimes in 1982, the oil field work began to dry up and hearing that there was oil field work in Wyoming, I moved my family here in late 1982. Moving first to Cheyenne, our Lord again began to deal with me so I made contact with several ministers of Cheyenne and told them that our God had sent me to Cheyenne to work with them. For a short time, God did some great things there, but it was not long before the doors began to close. Again I spoke with those ministers and this time, I was told; "We are responsible for the things we let come into this town."

"Yes," I said, "and you are also responsible for what you keep out." I was given to understand that they would not accept me any more for they were afraid that after I became known among the people, I would pull away , start my own church and pull many of their people away from them.

I went home from this meeting and told my wife; "Judgment will strike Cheyenne." None of those preachers are now in Cheyenne.

After this, while still living in Cheyenne, The Bible seemed to become to me a NEW BOOK. Things began to open up to me which I had never seen before.

I had began my Christian walk in a small Holiness church in Smith County, Mississippi. Many times, I would take different scriptures to the Elders of that church and ask about them. Most of the time I was told that "We don't believe that, for that is some other church doctrine."

One of the first things our Lord began to open up to me was this; "Any thing that is in the Bible is God's Doctrine and not the church's doctrine and MUST be preached by God's ministers to the people.

I began to as God why so many things which are written in His Word is laid to the charge of some church as being "their" doctrine and not the Word of God? This is the answer which came to me. "It is because people either misunderstand or don't understand the scripture, therefore, they deny it being the real Word of God.

During this time, we came into a presidential election year. Walter Mondale and Gary Hart were the forerunners in this election. Things really looked like Walter Mondale would be the next president of the USA, when all at once I told my wife that neither her nor Hart would win but that Reagen would go in with the biggest land slid that had ever been. Many were the times after that I wondered why I had made such a statement when it seemed everything was against it. I assure you that when election night came, I followed that election as I had never followed any before or after. But that night, I saw that statement come to pass as I have seen many strange statements since come to pass.

A few days later, I told my wife that I believed God would place me back on the field shortly after the inauguration of Reagen to the office of president of the United States. This our Lord did. I left home within two weeks of that time.

I have always been one who loves to prove God and I did this time. I didn't have the money to leave home on, so I took a 4-10 gauge shotgun which my Dad had given me when I was a small boy, left it in the hands of a minister in Cheyenne for a loan of $25.00. (This minister was suppose to hole the shotgun until I returned home which he did not do. Before I returned home six weeks later, he sold my shotgun. Ir ia my prayer that my God will someday give me the money to find and regain this shotgun.)

At any rate, I took $10.00 of the money, filled my car with gas, put $15.00 in my pocket and hit the road. I left Cheyenne, Wyoming and traveled through Colorado, Kansas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Indiana, and back home. I was gone for six weeks, and by God's grace, was able to send money home more than once. However, when I got back home, once again I had $15.00 in pocket, just what I had when I left home with. Never one time on this trip or any other did I ever one time ask for money or speak of money in any way as to let people know about any money problems I had. I have always believed that if our Lord Jesus sends us, He will take care of us without any help on our part in making our needs known to any except Himself.

I continued in this trend until 1985 when our Lord laid it on my heart to get my family out of Cheyenne. At that time, I took my family and moved to Denver, Colorado.

A few weeks later, in about July of 1985, a freak storm hit Cheyenne. There was no time to inform the people by TV or radio. Instead, they used the sirens to warn people.

The first siren sounded telling the people to get into the basement as a tornado was striking. The people no more tha had time to get in the basement till again the sirens sounded warning them to get out of the basement due to flash floods coming in. Several did not have time to get out of the basement and were drowned. All total, there was 12 people lost their lives during that storm. Parts of Cheyenne received flash floods, parts hail, all parts received very heavy rain. Also, for several hours, there was an anvil~shaped cloud over Cheyenne. A picture of this anvil~shaped cloud was in the Denver papers.

A short time after this, our God lead me to return again to Wyoming, this time settling in Laramie, about 45 miles west of Cheyenne, where we live today.

During this time, I could still take the Bible, let it fall open and it would, without fail, open to the Scripture at the beginning of this message.

After returning to Wyoming, the Bible again started to open, and I began to see so many things in the Word of God which has been, and is still being overlooked by God's people, even unto this day.

For several years, I continued on the field ministering in many parts of the country till about 1989.

While speaking to a minister in Michigan about any Bible always opening to that one scripture where it said "Arise and go into the PLAINS and there I will speak with thee."

This Brother looked at me and asked "Do you know what the word PLAINS means?"

I said, "No. I don't."

He said, "It means "WYOMING", or rather, "Wyoming" means "Plains". I said, "Well, I don't know about that, but I do know that after I went to Wyoming, God began to reveal His Word to me as never before."

From that day to this, no Bible has ever fell open to that scripture again.

Now, some people may wonder what Wyoming has to do with anything, and I say, "Only this, Wyoming is the place my God wants me.

Read I Kings 17:1~16;
1: And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.
2: And the word of the LORD came unto him, saying,
3: Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan.
4: And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there.
5: So he went and did according unto the word of the LORD: for he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan.
6: And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the brook.
7: And it came to pass after a while, that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land.
8: And the word of the LORD came unto him, saying,
9: Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.
10: So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there gathering of sticks: and he called to her, and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.
11: And as she was going to fetch it, he called to her, and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand.
12: And she said, As the LORD thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.
13: And Elijah said unto her, Fear not; go and do as thou hast said: but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son.
14: For thus saith the LORD God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the LORD sendeth rain upon the earth.
15: And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah: and she, and he, and her house, did eat many days.
16: And the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake by Elijah.

Notice, it was only at that branch and that widow woman that Elijah had a promise of food.

So, we sit here in Laramie, Wyoming today with a promise from our God that He will have a Gentile Church in this endtime with the same power and authority of God that the Church of Pentecost had in Acts, chapter 2.

God bless,
Rev. Whatley