A Mantle or A Veil - By Wayne Weaver

I want to tell every one of you who confess Jesus Christ tonight, you either have a mantle or a veil. You either have a veil over your eyes, or you have a mantle upon you.

The Bible talks in the book of Revelation about the church, I believe it was 51 years after Pentecost. Jesus took another look at the church that He had established, and He found something wrong with every one of them except one. To one of them He advised, and He told them they were lukewarm. They had need of nothing, and He advised them to anoint their eyes with eye salve so that the scales might fall of their eyes. The scales, we call that a veil.

Jesus was speaking to church people. He was not speaking to the people out in other cities who were lost and gone astray. He was speaking to those who named the name of Christ, and called themselves brothers and sisters.

He said, "You have need for something." One thing is that you go through the fire. That you get anointed with the Holy Ghost. That your eyes might see because as yet there is a veil over them and there are scales, and you are looking around and you see no need in your life.

I want to tell you, I believe that the greatest man who can walk this earth, outside of Christ. The man who can have the most effect upon people's lives, is the man who is kneeling at the bottom of the Cross more than anybody else, because he has seen his own need. He never came to a place where he was sufficient. He never thought he had everything set right, just in order. There are always needs in his life. The one big need and openness which he has, is for the Holy Ghost to come and to walk with him.

If I were to tell you to go up on a mountain, this evening, on the highest peak by about midnight. If you have never been in Pennsylvania before. You would, first of all, inquire where the highest peak is. You would then like to have a guide who has been there before. You would ask him if he could go with you, so you could make it tonight.

But for some reason when we walk in Christ, we think we have it all mapped out. We look to the man next to us, and we think He made it this way, so we will do the same. That cancels out the very need for the Holy Ghost to be our guide. If you are not in any need, then you are not in need of a guide.

The Holy Spirit is a guide tonight. He will guide you into all truth. Not only half way. He will not leave you out there to sin. He will not leave you over here half done. But He will work a work of righteousness, and a work of holiness within your heart, if you have the Holy Ghost.

I want to tell you something that concerns my heart. We have many people tonight who name the name of Jesus. We name the name of Jesus. We say we are Christians. We say we have been born again. We say we have the Holy Ghost. But for some reason we can violate some of the smallest commands that God gives for His children to follow.

One of those small commands, that might be small, and it is preached about very little in the churches, is called the word holiness. Holiness, for some reason, is a word that is no more amongst us. I am not saying specifically, I am saying across the globe. It is a word that is not very popular. We find that in the Christian mind, somehow we believe this God has become some kind of a new God. He is an all merciful God. He has mercy on all my faults even though I deliberately walk against His will.

I want to look at this word anointing. While King Saul was a small man he could walk with the Lord. But when he became a big man he feared the people, and he disobeyed the Lord.

I would like to ask you a question. If you are walking under the fear of men you have a veil over your eyes so that you cannot see. You make decisions that are based upon those whom you fear and not God. God cannot use you like that. The Holy Ghost will stop. The Holy Ghost is your guide. He is your comforter. He is your strength. He is the one who sets you free through the blood of Jesus Christ. Why don't we learn to walk in obedience to Him?

Let me ask you a personal question. How many of you fear the people? Is there somebody in your life, whether it is a family member, whether it is an employer or an employee, or whoever it might be, that you fear more than you fear God. God cannot use you. You can give Him all the money you want. You can give Him your fifteen minutes in the morning, and you can read ten chapters a day, but obedience is still better than sacrifice. That's what the Bible says.

Do you fear man? Or do you have a mantle or a veil over your eyes? Let me ask you a question. Who and what is your strength? The strength of your church? Or of the Assembly that you are with? Who is the strength of that? Is it the world? Is it the sports? Is it the TV? Is it the pleasures of life? Is it the fear of men? Who is the strength of your being tonight? Is it pride? Or is it God?

Unless the God and the Holy Ghost whom you have in your heart tonight, demands holiness in your life. It is not the Holy Ghost.

The Holy Ghost from Heaven, Who has existed down through eternity forever, will demand one thing from you, and that is holiness and refinement in your Christian experience.

Where is that gospel today? Holiness! Without holiness you cannot see the Lord. Are you holy?

I would like to come down the aisles and ask individuals, "Are you holy? Is the holiness of God upon you? Has He mantled you? Are you walking now in your own power and strength, or under the power of God?" Do the people see it? Is it the power of God.

What is mantling you? Or are you veiled? Do you have need of nothing? Are you just satisfied with nothing? I can't have victory in my life. I am falling into sin all the time, but I have no need. That is a veil over your eyes.

The power of God is available. The old fashioned cross is still available. The blood is still running down the side. The blood is still here. It still cleanses. It still cleans up. The Holy Ghost still comes down. There is still a Pentecost for us today. He still comes down and anoints His children.

Other churches have started somewhere along the line, who don't believe in the Book of Acts anymore. So it is not an Acts church. We need to get back to the Acts gospel. Get back to the old truths.

Elijah was a man who had a mantle on him. When we look at a mantle, for some reason that doesn't register in our minds. What is a mantle? What is it when Elijah can walk down the road, and mockers come out and mock him. Elijah turns around, and he curses them in the name of God, and the bears come out of the woods?

What is it? What kind of a mantle is upon a man who can get down on his knees, and start crying and praying to God that it wouldn't rain for three years and it didn't? What kind of a man is it who can be lying down in a grave and be totally dead. Dead and dried up, and they throw a dead boy into the grave of Elijah when the enemy army came by; the dead boy sprang up when he hit the old dead bones of Elijah. What kind of a mantle was that man wearing? Was it the same Holy Ghost that we see today?

Why is it today that the church in America is arguing whether God is a God of all might. Whether God is a God Who can still do miracles? Whether Jesus can still heal the sick?

Last night, a young man was sitting back there, and the power of the Holy Spirit was coming down upon him. He lay there, just weeping and sobbing in brokenness. I looked at him. I sat beside him all that while. I just had to think, God is mantling that young man. There is a mantle being put down upon him. I know he will never be the same because God in Heaven has touched that man. He has mantled him.

Some of you have seemed to be mantled, but you fear your brother, your sister, your mother, your father, some body else. You fear and you cannot give yourself up to the power of the Holy Spirit. You would like to tell this man over here he needs Jesus. But you can't. You need a mantle.

Some you might go out, and you might do a lot of tract work, but see no results. You tell people about the saving knowledge of Jesus, but there is no power. Somehow you have talked to a hundred people, and none of them have come to the Lord. Friends, why argue about the Holy Ghost? You just need the Holy Ghost. You need that mantle.

The reason there is so much powerlessness going on in the Christian church. Why we can call on God, and He doesn't move, is because we haven't surrendered everything to Him. We haven't. We still think a lot of ourselves. We still think a lot of the other person. We still think a lot of whoever his name is. We think a lot of ourselves. We don't care if the world comes against us. Or do you?

What about your friends? I had a phone call just before I came down here. A man told me I will have an awesome sight at the Judgment Seat of the Christ. He said, "You have deceived so many people." This was a man who has not been born again but he belongs to a religious circle, a religious church. He said, "You will have an awesome day at the Judgment Seat of Christ. Look at how many people you have destroyed." He finally just hung up. Another man did almost the same thing before I came down here.

I have had a man put a curse on me, not long ago. I haven't told anybody about it. It was a religious man. That man, I know, will go to church Sunday after Sunday, and he will not miss a communion service. I know he looks all right on the outside, but denying the power thereof. From such turn away, the bible says.

The Bible warns you to stay away from those who have the form of godliness, but deny the power and demonstration of God. It says, "From those stay away." Why? Because they are more defiling. A lukewarm Christian is more defiling than an unbeliever.

That's why God says, "I will throw them up. A lukewarm man, I will throw him up. I will spit him out. I have no use for him." It is like a man said here lately, he gave a little illustration about the three preachers who walked down the road. Well they see the man lay there on the side who was all stricken down, and tore up from the thieves, on the Jericho Road. There was a good priest. He was good. He had his things together. He probably carried his Bible. He probably had some wine and bread with him to serve communion. The other ones could all do good, but they were good for nothing. They couldn't even help that man.

You might be good. You might be so good. You might be all in order. But you are good for nothing. There is nothing you have ever done. Maybe you can't help a man. Are you a good man, but good for nothing?

What I would like to tell you, is that there is a way. There is a way to receive the power of God upon your life. It is still here for us today. The power of Pentecost has never stopped. It is for all of us.

The Bible says, in Acts chapter 3, "Unto you, to all who are afar off, to as many as God shall call." His promise is unto all of us.

Well, what is it then? Well, this theological school over here says it this way. Or this preacher made a deep study of it, and he said it is this way. But history says it's this way. But the man over here experienced something like that, and he went this way. I tell you friends, if that is the way you are going to go through life you will never make it. I don't care what he says, or what she says, or what they say. What does the Bible say?

Unless we get back to the Bible, and believe this Bible the way it is. Unless we can humble ourselves, and get down on our knees and feebly say, "God, I admit that I need the Holy Ghost. I thought I had the Holy Ghost, but I need the Holy Ghost. I am powerless. I haven't led a soul to the Lord yet." What an awesome way to meet a Savior.

I have been having Christian people tell me that you can't hear the Lord speak to you. This thing about "Thus saith the Lord," or "The Lord told this or that." Yes, a lot of people use that as an excuse to serve their own flesh. I know that's the truth.

But I tell you the Bible says, "My sheep know my voice. They come at my call. A stranger they will not regard. They will not hear a stranger." When they hear the evening sound of the dinner bell, they will come. They know that is the bell. Even though there are ten bells in the neighborhood. But that one bell stands out because, you know that bell. That's my bell. That's the bell that brings me to dinner.

"My sheep know my voice and they come at my call." There are a lot of calls out here, my friends. There are a lot of calls in this world. For some reason we are hearing those other calls. We are not hearing the Bible call. We are called here, and called there.

This man Elijah, who was known to be a troublemaker. He was once approached as, "Are you the man that troubleth Israel?" He was a known troublemaker because he had the mantle of God upon him. The holiness of God was poured out upon his life. He was not a common man. He went through a lot of suffering.

He didn't have a job. He didn't have any work. He just worked for the Lord and the Lord blessed him. He didn't even have any food. He would have been known as a lazy man amongst us today probably. He would have been known as a terrible manager. He would have been known as a man good for nothing amongst most religious circles. He wore a leather girdle. A big piece of leather was hanging over him.

He had to turn to the Lord. The Lord brought some ravens down, and He fed him by the brook. He fed him with ravens. That man, Elijah, who was full of the power of God couldn't even be fed by himself. He didn't have enough management to manage his own business. Couldn't make enough money per hour to provide his own food. That man was a terrible manager.

I tell you, today a religious organization or ministry will start. They will go out and find the best managers, and the best successful people to bring them onto the board.

God said, "Yes, certainly there are kings over here. There's gold up here in Jerusalem. There's gold over here in Syria. There is gold all over the place. But I am going to send you to a widow who is out of food. I'm going to have her feed you." That's the organization that was around Elijah.

Was Elijah a successful man? Yes, because he was mantled by God. He was mantled by the Holy Spirit. He prayed, that God would shut up the heavens that it wouldn't rain, and all at once it quit raining. It quit raining for three years. Then he prayed asking God to send rain. You know how he prayed? He knelt down and put his face between his knees.

How many of you don't believe in praying that way? Yet when you have been so low, and there is such a need in your own personal life, you don't care how low you bend. You just bent down. You beg on God for mercy. Like the beggar did for crumbs on the rich man's table. He was satisfied with a couple of crumbs, even though he had blisters. It looked like foolishness and curses from every direction upon him, yet tonight he is sitting in Heaven. The other one is still begging for water. If we could hear him, we would hear him say it right now. "Water."

It says in the Word of God that when Elijah heard the still small voice, he went and folded his head up in his mantle. Where did he go? He went into the entrance of a cave. He didn't go back into the back end of the cave and lay there. He had no home. He just went into the entrance of a cave, and there he stood. He said, "I heard the Lord speaking to me. It is the power of God that brings me to this place."

Have you ever done that? Have you ever almost complained to the Lord and said, "Lord, life has been so hard and so rough. The whole world stands against me. Nobody is out there. Everyone despises me. Lord Jesus, do I still belong to you?"

He probably walked back and forth through that cave and said, "God, why do I have to be different? Why do I have to live different? Why don't I have a home? Lord God, why am I misunderstood? Why am I called a troublemaker, as a heathen?" And then he noticed he had a mantle over his face. And there was something on that mantle. The power of God, and the anointing of God.

A lot of you have been seeking for the anointing of God upon your life. But you only want to give up a little bit. You need to give it all up. Everything has to be surrendered at that call. Everything has to lay down. A complete repentance, a complete giving up, a complete dying to yourself. No more future plans.

Yes, it will all come, maybe, but maybe not. You will still be happy whether it does or it doesn't. You see, friend, I have concluded that the power of the Holy Ghost is such a powerful, and such a holy thing that God gives His children alone. Most people do not realize what that power really consists of. They are not willing to sacrifice.

When I do something wrong, I want to repent. I want to get right. I'll go anywhere, I'll strive, however long it takes to make something right if I do something wrong, for the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Jesus mantled me one afternoon. As I was seeking to be full of the Holy Spirit, He came down and He mantled my life. And it hasn't been the same since.

I knelt there in front of my desk. I had my hands down. I said, "Lord, whatever it takes. It doesn't matter." I went in humility, on my knees, and I begged God. I said, "God, I am in need. I can't talk to these people over here. I have talked to these people over here, and for some reason they haven't changed. I just had a topic several evenings ago, and Lord, I know it didn't affect anybody. For some reason nobody was changed. I need the power of God."

Friends, that is the only way it will come. You have to die. You have to die to live. As much as that little seed of corn goes into the ground, and dies, then it will grow up into a new life. You have to go down in that same grave and die to yourselves.

You have to lay that old body down. You have to lay that reputation down. You have to let it die so that the life from God can come into you, and you can walk under His power.

You see, friends, if you are not in that condition God wouldn't want to put His power upon you because you would go back to your first love. The love of the world. If you want to be mantled you will never be the same. There is a stamp that is pushed down. I've had the chance a number of times to be amongst people who received the mantle of God upon their lives. I have to think, when that happens, that man will never be the same. That sister will never be the same. They will have a response. They will be torn up. They might have to die for their faith. They will never be the same. But one thing you can know, they will have the power of God with them.

I am convinced it is the power of God that makes God's children successful. It is no school down in Texas. It is no seminar down the road. It is the power of God.

Last night, as that man was lying there on his side, I looked to one of the other brothers and I said, "That's seminary. That's where we learn of Christ. That's when we learn to carry the cross. That's when we know of Jesus, when we meet Him, and when He meets us."

It is not going to school, and learning a bunch of papers, and knowing how to do. It is not bringing all these lists, and all the do's and don'ts that I have to do now. No, I can't do this. I have to be this to my wife. I can't do this because of my wife.

No! Meet God! Meet Jesus! Meet the Redeemer! Meet the blood washer! Get clean! Get filled with the Holy Ghost!

That's the gospel cry, brothers and sisters. If that wouldn't be in my heart I wouldn't be here preaching tonight. I would have a list of posters over here on the bulletin board, and I would tell you to go to this school or this school, or this school or this seminar coming up.

All I can say is get down on your knees, and humble your life before God, and beg on His mercy to change you. It is the only way. It is the last gospel that shall be preached. It's the best gospel that ever will be preached.

The schools are full of more enrollments every year. There are more schools in America than anywhere else. Why? To teach the people how to preach? Meet God. Get mantled by the power of God. Let Him take the veil off of your face.

I am amazed. A brother stopped by my place up in Canton the other day. He had a long talk with me, and he said, "I just got finished speaking to a preacher." His preacher had heard that this certain man got delivered, and there was actually some of this demon stuff going on.

The preacher said, "That can't work. That just can't work. That can't be the way it is." This brother told him, "You know that a long time ago you used to get up behind that altar, and you used to preach, and people were changed. Do you remember that?" The preacher said, "Yes".

"But now nobody is changing anymore. What has happened? What has happened to your life? There is no evidence of life from Heaven."

And the preacher looked down and he said, "Well, as much as I might have to disagree with you concerning all these things about victory, and deliverance, and the Holy Spirit, I have to tell you that I guess I am not serving the Lord the way I used to."

But he was a preacher. He was a well-known preacher. I know that he got ahold of books about how to do this, and how to do that.

Friends, once you know how you don't need a guide. Then the guide will have to leave you.

I want to see the church in this end time to be full of the power of God. Full of the power of the Holy Spirit. That the world can see that man has the power of God in him.

We need to have a testimony. We are called by the name of Christ in this day and age. We bear the last banner. What does it say on it? Fightings and wars and rumors of wars amongst us. That's supposed to be out in the world.

This mantle that Elijah had. This mantle witnessed the multiplying of bread. This mantle witnessed the multiplying of oil. This mantle witnessed the raising of a dead son. This mantle witnessed the Spirit of the Lord transferring the body that was inside that mantle somewhere else. This mantle stood before 450 male killers, called prophets of Baal.

This mantle witnessed the killing of 400 of those prophets. That mantle was folded around Elijah's face after he heard the Word of God come to him.

Friends, I ask you, what kind of stains are on your garment? Is it the stains of sin, or is it the stains of victory somewhere? A big slaughter you had down one day when you were tempted to do something, and he wouldn't yield to it? Or is it stained with sin? Is it full of fear of men? What people will say? Or is it a veil that is over your face and you say, "I am a pretty decent young man, or a pretty decent young girl. I don't have a lot of needs." Then you don't have the mantle.

When that mantle is around you, it will keep you on your knees. It will keep you in a place where you constantly see that you are in need of a Savior. Even though you had been saved ten years ago, you still need Him. You are in constant need of the Holy Spirit. You are in need of the anointing of the Holy Spirit. You are in need of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. You are in need of the infilling of the Holy Spirit. You are in need of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. You are in need of everything the Holy Ghost has to give. And when you are not, you are in need of nothing.