Personal Experiences of S. O. Susag Part 15

When I went to his house, his wife said, "What do you think about my husband?" I answered, "He is pretty low, but I am going back to see him tomorrow morning at nine o'clock." She said, "He isn't going to live that long." I told her he was not going to die, but going to live, and she said, "Who said so?" I answered, "The Lord."

Next morning I went back and eight nurses met me and one said, "What did you do to that man yesterday? He had one foot in the grave and now he is going to live." "Of course he is going to live," I said. Then they said, "But what did you do? We have never seen anything like this." "Well," I said, "I did what they used to do in olden times." "What was that?" they asked. "Prayed," I said. "Yes," they said, "that helps."

Going into his room, he was smiling and I began to talk to him about the Lord. Then he said, "I do not believe in those old women's fables." I said, "I am going to get you to believe in G.o.d." He replied, "You can't do it." I answered, "By G.o.d's help I can, for where you are, I have been, and where I am, you can come. If I can only gain one point with you I can get you to believe in G.o.d." (He was a professor at the University of North Dakota). I had to come back in the afternoon at three o'clock and the next morning at about nine. When I came in he said, "You are too late. The doctor was here with two specialists and I told them I wanted to get up and go home; I am well. They answered me, 'You stay in bed; you are a sick man. There are no T B germs about you but we are studying about what kind of medicine to give you.'" He then asked me how I would have answered them, if I had been here, and I said to him, "I would have said to them, 'The G.o.d of Heaven that you don't believe in, heard prayers and smote those germs and made you well.'"

He said, "If you had told them that, there would have been a panic."

The next morning he got up and went home. I was sent to Europe on a special mission the next day by the Missionary Board and the church. After returning in January, one Monday morning I went to the Northern State Bank on business and on opening the door into the bank, who should I meet, but this professor. My hands went up and I said, "Glory to G.o.d! Here is the man the Lord kept out of the grave last August." Up went his hands, and he said, "Bless G.o.d. G.o.d Almighty did something for me."

I regret that I have not kept a record through the years. The only record I have is for the first eleven months I was pastor in Brookings and White, South Dakota. I preached 272 sermons, made 178 pastoral visits, wrote 202 letters, traveled almost fifteen thousand miles during that time, and in my fifty years ministry, have had a stated salary only about six years. In my first ten to fifteen years, I preached (at intervals) as many as six sermons a day, three in Norwegian and three in English. In all I have preached something over 17,000 sermons, and have traveled over one million miles. I have crossed the Atlantic Ocean seventeen times one way, and preached a good many times on fifteen of those voyages.

Returning to America in the late fall of 1939, many people asked me who I thought was to blame for the war. They named a number of the leading rulers of the warring nations, and then they added, "The devil." I said, "None of them are to blame for the war." "Who then?" they asked. "Backslidden, professing Christians," I said. Then they asked if I thought America would get into it, and I answered, "Most a.s.suredly." However the majority of them said no, and they also said that our American boys would never leave American soil to fight. I told them that our boys would not only go to Europe to fight, but to almost all the Islands of the sea. Then they asked how long I thought the war was going to last, and I told them "1949." A goodly number laughed me to scorn. Not long ago, I received a letter from my oldest son who said, "I have been checking up on you dad and everything that you said would happen, has come true up to the present date." The actual fighting is over, but thousands of our men are in foreign lands, and no peace. If the Lord does not get an opportunity to perform a miracle, another war will start before any real peace.

I have not built any chapels large or small, but I have started about fifty or more congregations in this country (America) and in Europe. Also I have raised quite a sum of money to build chapels and to help ministers and missionaries in need. I have raised thousands for church and missionary work in general, seventy per cent has come from the brethren of Norwegian descent, fifteen percent from the Danish descent, ten percent from those of German descent, three percent from the Swedish, and two percent from Americans. The percent here mentioned is for the work in Scandinavian countries only.

While holding a meeting in Bowbells, North Dakota, after a few days three families quit coming and I went out to the farm to see them. When I arrived at the first farm, the other two families were there visiting. After conversing a while, I asked them why they had not been out to the services of late. Finally the man who was the head of the house said, "We did not like it when you said the preacher could not forgive sins." I answered, "If you have wronged the preacher, and ask him his forgiveness he can forgive you, but there are some sins that even the Lord cannot forgive. For instance, if you owe ten dollars to your neighbor over the hill, and you are not willing to pay him, you can keep on praying as long as you live, and the Lord could not forgive you if you are not willing to settle with him. Of course, if you didn't know where he was and couldn't find him, the Lord would forgive you all right." The man answered, "We will come to the services," they said, and some of them got saved. Unbeknown to me, he had owed his neighbor ten dollars for four years and was unwilling to pay, but after he became willing he got saved and paid his debt.

One man got saved in a meeting in South Dakota, and the Lord reminded him of twelve ears of corn which he had taken from his neighbor's field to feed his own oxen. As he went by on his way to town, he said, "Yes, I'll attend to that tonight." So after dark he filled a bushel basket with corn and took it over and emptied it into the man's hog pen, feeling good that he had done his duty. The next morning after worship, the Lord spoke to him and said, "I suppose today you will go over and settle for the twelve ears of corn." "Why I took that over last night," he protested, "But you took that over to the hogs, and they were already fed." So he went over and confessed to the man. We can see by this that it was not the corn the Lord was so interested in as his humble confession.

G.o.d WORKS IN VARIOUS WAYS FOR THE PROTECTION AND DELIVERANCE OF HIS CHILDREN

A certain brother who was a farmer needed a threshing machine badly, and an agent visited him to see if he could make the deal. They were agreed on prices and terms, but when they talked over the time of delivery, the agent acknowledged he could not get it to him in time for fall threshing, so the deal fell through. Another agent, hearing of it decided he would go and see the farmer. This time the deal went through, with the promise that the machinery would be delivered in time.

The brother mortgaged his farm and the threshing machine for forty five hundred dollars, but when harvest time came it had not come. He wrote the manufacturers, and they said that as soon as they could get it built and shipped, they would do so. The farmer became desperate. He took the sales contract to an attorney, but he found a clause in it that prevented him from doing anything about it. It looked as if he would lose all his threshing income that fall as well as the machine and his farm too. Many earnest prayers went up that the Lord would intervene in his behalf.

During harvest time that year, he lost hundreds of dollars in not having the machine.

Finally in January, the machine was shipped from the factory. The freight train that was pulling it got within three miles of the town. It was pulling up grade slowly, and in turning a sharp curve the whole car which was carrying the threshing machine loosened from the rest of the train, and tumbled down a steep embankment, completely demolishing the whole thing.

The railroad paid the damages, and the brother was released from all responsibility.

A good many went out to see the wreckage, and none could understand how the car would become disconnected from the train. They did not know our G.o.d, and the way he answers prayer.

When I was holding a meeting at Grand Forks, wife wrote me that an epidemic of small pox had broken out in the neighborhood, but that it was not necessary for me to come home because, she said, "I put the children and myself into the 9lst Psalm and we will remain there until the scourge is over" and I thank G.o.d, it did not come near our dwelling.

No apology is made for writing this book, recording the incidents and experiences herein found. As Elijah's G.o.d is still the G.o.d of the universe and today He hears the prayers of the humble and delivers them in time of need. The author is acquainted with the persons mentioned herein, and has a personal knowledge of the things related. No doubt some will question the truthfulness of some of the statements made in this volume. But the truth must not be withheld because of a few skeptics and unbelievers. Some doubted the miracles wrought by the apostles. One good minister in California said one time, when introducing me to the ministers at a ministers' meeting, "This brother can relate more incidents than anyone I have ever known, and if I did not know Brother Susag, as well as I do, I would have said he lied." I answered, "If I did not know him as well as I do, I would have said he lied, too."

Brother C. E. Brown, present editor of the Gospel Trumpet, upon introducing me to a number of ministers at the Anderson Camp meeting, also stated that I could relate more actual incidents and experiences than anyone he had ever met.

Many ministers and the laity as well, have through the years wanted me to write a book of my experiences, even ministers of other movements. But I am afraid I have waited too long to remember hundreds of incidents that have taken place during my ministry. People say that when I am under the anointing of the Holy Ghost when preaching, the incidents flow from my lips like a stream.

My earnest humble prayer is that these incidents and experiences may prove a blessing and an inspiration that will quicken the faith of those in need whose help can come only from G.o.d.

As my name is S. O. Susag, I think it is fitting to say as the distress call of a ship is SOS, that I have heard the distress call in my fifty-two years ministry, hundreds of times from the evangelistic field, and missionary fields in other lands, from insane asylums, hospitals, sick rooms, and the Lord has heard prayer, and wrought many miracles, almost unbelievable. To G.o.d belongs all the glory and praise.

One time I received a distress call from Geo. W. Green and family who were living that time on a farm near Hanc.o.c.k, Minnesota, to come and pray for a sick child. They were living six or seven miles out of town, and no one was there to meet me, so I had to get the taxi to take me out. I arrived late in the evening. Going into the house, I learned the child was already dead.

All the occupants of the house, both up and down stairs, were sick in bed with the flu, thirteen in all. Sister Green was the only one able to get out of bed to let me in. I had no way to get back to town, but as we were talking and praying, a doctor happened along and stopped and came in and asked Sister Green to make him a strong cup of coffee and sandwich. He said, "This is the third night since I was in bed, and I need something to strengthen me." He filled out a burial permit for the child so it could be buried. And he said, "You can't stay here tonight." I told him I had no way to get back to town, so he offered to take me. I went and the next day I returned with the undertaker. The road to the cemetery went through the town, but the leading lady, a social worker (I presume) forbad us taking the body through town. So we had to detour several miles out of our way. An epidemic of flu broke out in the town and I am told that this lady was the first one to die with it. At the Green home the Lord restored the entire thirteen to health, and protected me. Throughout the years I have been protected from all manner of contagious diseases where I have been called to pray.

Brother Edward Ahrendt and I were holding a meeting in Grand Forks, North Dakota. One evening the call was made, and the altar was filled with seekers. Brother Ahrendt and I started at opposite ends to pray and instruct. As I knelt, the first one was a woman and I felt as if I had knelt by a barrel of devils. I was surprised that she was professing to be a Christian. Lifting my hand in astonishment, I said, "Sister G--you are possessed with devils." After the altar service was over, Brother Ahrendt and I laid our hands on her and commanded the devils to come out in the name of Jesus, which they did. The next morning we had prayer and testimony meeting and she arose and testified and in a way she excused herself. I said, "Sister, be careful or the devils will enter into you again."

Evidently they did, because the other women in the rooming house told me that in the evening when she arrived at her room to go to bed, the devils rolled her up like a ball with her heels almost on her shoulders, and her sufferings were horrible. They prayed and did everything they could to help her get straightened out, but to no avail. They tried to find Bro. Ahrendt and I, but we had moved that night to another place. No one seemed to know where we were. They called up all the saints that had phones, but without success. Finally, two of the sisters started out going from house to house among the saints that had no phones, and at four o'clock in the morning they reached the house where we were stopping. We went over as quickly as possible, and when we went up onto the porch, she straightened out instantly. The devil was going to play possum on us. Brother Ahrendt and I had a consultation, as he had never had any experiences with cases of devil possession before. He said, "Brother Susag, Sat.u.r.day night when we prayed for her, there was no manifestation showing that she was possessed."

"Well," I said, "There is no need of them having to be thrown around by the devil when you know they are possessed," so I said I would pray and we would see how it would come out, because I knew there was a need of full agreement. We phoned Brother Gus Niles and asked if we could come to his place with Mrs. G----. When we got there, we went into a room and locked the doors. Brother Ahrendt prayed in one corner and Brother Niles in another corner. I gave her a chair by the table, and I sat opposite. I said, "Sister, I have known you for four years and all that time you have deceived yourself and the saints and the ministry. You have had no salvation all this time. Now tell me what the devil had you do when you came home from meetings." She said, "One time when I came home, I went out to the barn to feed milk to the calf, and he wouldn't drink, and I got angry and took a small club and struck him. He bawled and broke the rope and jumped through the window and ran out into the woods." When she was telling this, her hand flew up and she commenced beating the air with it and she could not stop. I let her continue beating for a time, then I said, "Lord, stop that arm," and it did stop. Then I asked her what the devil got her to do other times when she came home. She said, "Another time when I came home, husband's dog had gotten into the house, and I opened the door to get him out, and as he went through the door, I kicked him in anger because I hated my husband," and as she said this, she started kicking the table and then she fell on the floor on her back still kicking the chair and the table. Just then Brother Ahrendt came running and said, "I rebuke the devil in Jesus' name." He had become convinced that the devils were there by now.

Then the three of us laid hands on her, commanding the devils to come out of her, which they did. Then she got saved and sanctified, and got a sweet settled experience which everyone had confidence in. She later became an able Sunday School teacher and worker for the Lord.

A WARNING

The evening when I said, "Sister G, you are possessed with devils," I looked back in the audience and saw a sister with her mouth open and looking at me with surprise and apparent criticism, as if to say, "What do you mean by saying such things to Sister G?" Just then I saw many serpents crawling in her lap and up her breast and in to her mouth. After the service this woman's sister came to me and said, "Do you know that my sister, Mary, is possessed with devils?" I said, "Yes," and she asked how I knew, saying, "She told me she had just gotten possessed." I said, "I saw them entering."

We took her to a private home and she was delivered by the power of G.o.d.

There is always a cause when G.o.d does not answer prayer, either in individuals or congregations. I have been speaking of individual cases in this book, where prayer was not answered. Now I will speak of congregational hindrances that I know of personally.

There is never an effect without a cause that produces the effect. In a certain congregation where I held several successful revivals for several pastors, there came a time when the work did not prosper as it had in previous years. By chance after twenty years absence, I stopped in there one prayer meeting night, having business in the town that day. They entreated me to come back and speak for them on a certain Sunday, which I did. The Lord gave us two precious services. They took up their regular Sunday evening offering. After that, they announced that they would take up an offering especially for Brother Susag, which they did, and set the basket in a position where I noticed the contents, which was in the neighborhood of fifteen dollars or a little more. Next morning when I was ready to take the train, I was handed four dollars with the remark, "This is our custom." No wonder the congregation did not prosper, and still these dear people had done their duty, but were unaware of what the hindrance was.

I know of other cases of that same kind, both with other ministers and myself. Once in a camp meeting a young minister was the evangelist, whom the Lord used mightily. One evening they were going to take up the love offering for the evangelist. A nice offering came in, not any too large, and they gave the evangelist seventy percent.

Once at the Grand Forks, North Dakota Camp Meeting, Brother P. Pederson of Hoboken, New Jersey was to preach. He read his text and related some of his experiences and the Holy Ghost began to bring the people to the altar. He then closed his Bible and said, "A greater preacher than I is now speaking."

During the depression it looked as though we were going to lose the state camp grounds at Grand Forks. At the camp meeting the Board said there is no other way than to let it go. I said, "No." "Well," they said, "Then you will have to raise the money because we cannot." I said, "If you will give me a free hand, to go at it when the Lord says to, I will." They said O. K.

One evening the Lord said, "Now is the time," so I said to Brother Monk, "Let me have a few minutes?" Within a few minutes we had the amount to the cent. Brother Monk said, "This time the devil was licked and the depression also." It pays to pray.

The first Camp Meeting I attended at Grand Forks, I generally got up at 3 or 4 a.m. and went to the woods to pray. At that time you could hardly find a place to pray.

There were two or three members praying behind every tree before I got there.

The first Camp Meeting I attended in Anderson, I went out early in the cemetery and here they were praying every where.

The pioneer ministers knew how to pray, because they had no sermon outline book to take it from. Their converts knew how, too, for they were taught by the Holy Ghost.