Problems have arisen because people just sit like a bump on a log, waiting to get a platform somewhere, waiting for Brother or Pastor or Doctor Whoever to give them a platform and let them preach. Your platform starts at home, your platform starts on the sidewalk, your platform starts in the street.

Despise Not the Day of Small Beginnings

I remember when I started in the ministry. Nobody wanted me. If I called a pastor and said, "We are passing through town...," they said, "That's wonderful, just keep passing through."

Even though at that time nobody wanted me, I knew that God had called me to preach. He had anointed me in 1979 and I hit the ground running. I would preach anywhere the opportunity arose. It didn't matter if there were two people. It didn't matter who was there.

I would go and find an auditorium in a small city somewhere, only seating a couple of hundred people. I had thousands of handbills printed up and advertised a four-day crusade. I walked out the first night and saw there were eight people sitting there. I rejoiced. I had eight more people than what I had before I started. I went out and preached up a storm.

Then after three nights, we ended up with forty people and I thought I had a Holy Ghost revival. Ten people got saved, three people got baptized in the Holy Ghost, two deaf ears were opened. I can look back on that now and rejoice because I can see where we have come from.

You Need Something That You Can Fall Back On

People would come to us in the early days and I realize now that they were trying to help. They would say to me, "You know, maybe you need to sell insurance on the side. Maybe you can sell gold coins or air purifiers or something that everyone needs and sell it on the road. It will at least be something to fall back on if the ministry

does not work out."

I would be indignant and refuse and then they would say to me, "Well, maybe your wife could sell something on the side to help sustain you in the ministry. You need something to fall back on."

I would look at them and what they would say would really irritate me. I would get mad and say, "Bless God, He called me to preach and I am going to preach and I don't care what anybody says. I will not quit. I am going to preach the gospel. I don't care if it tears up the whole nation, but I am going to preach the gospel from one nation to the other. We are going to do what God has called us to do." Every year I would tell my wife, "Honey, next year has got to be better than this one; it can't be worse."

When you begin in the ministry, there are hard times, but you have to purpose in your heart that you will not quit. There is no turning around. I would rather die

than to stop doing what God has called me to do. I will not quit doing what the Spirit of God has called me to do.