Books: Personal Experiences of S. O. Susag
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S. O. Susag >> Personal Experiences of S. O. Susag
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* * * * *
THE LORD STILL HEARS PRAYER
At a Ministers' Meeting at Tulare, California, in 1945, while the noon
lunch was being served, I was sitting in the chapel with my head bowed on
the chair in front of me, praying for a certain amount of money, not
expecting any money at that meeting. Soon I felt the confidence that the
Lord had heard prayer and dismissed the matter from my mind. A few minutes
later a man came and sat down beside me and said, "Say, how do you get your
expenses; do you get a salary for traveling around this way?" I answered,
"No, I have no salary; I pay my expenses as the Lord puts it into the
hearts of the brethren to give to me." "Well," he said, "the Lord told me
to come over and give you this."
And he handed me the very amount I had been asking the Lord for!
* * * * *
Brother Renbeck and I were holding a meeting out near Kellys, North Dakota.
After the service one afternoon I saw Brother Renbeck sitting in a corner
of the room weeping. I went over to him and asked him what was the trouble.
He said, "I am weeping because there were not more sinners in the meeting
to get saved, for if there had been more there, more would have been
saved." To which I replied, "Keep on weeping."
* * * * *
MY FIRST EXPERIENCE IN DEALING WITH DEVIL POSSESSION
Another time we were holding meetings near and in Fosston, Minnesota. It
was said of us that "those preachers are of the devil." One evening a man
came to the meeting who had blood poisoning in one of his knees. In getting
to the meeting he used a long pole to help support himself. He wanted to
see those preachers who were "of the devil." When he arrived the room was
full and there being no chair for him to sit on, I gave him mine. When we
knelt down to pray I laid my hands on his knee and asked the Lord to heal
him and he was healed instantly.
A few nights later a man came to the service who was possessed with devils.
He was frothing at the mouth and acting like a madman. As I took hold of
him and laid my hands on him we almost wrestled. I commanded the devils to
come out of him, and I told the Lord I would never let Him go until He
delivered the man, and he was finally delivered by the Spirit of the Lord.
Although it was winter time I was as wet as though I had been dipped in the
river. While the struggle was going on all the people ran out of the room.
But the man was fully delivered and then he was saved.
* * * * *
In another of our meetings a sister got saved and received light on
baptism. She had a little baby girl and her husband wanted to have the
child sprinkled, as that was his faith. The mother was to carry the baby
forward to receive this rite, but she objected and said, "No, I cannot do
that; but if you care to, you may do so, for she is as much yours as she is
mine." But the husband would not consent to do that. Well, she didn't know
what to do and went to Brother and Sister Anton Nelson for advice. Brother
Nelson said, "Let us ask the Lord about it." After they had prayed about
it, Brother Nelson said to the sister, "You go and carry the baby and we
will come along and pray for you and it will all come out all right."
At the Sunday service that the baby was to receive this rite, there were
seven children in all being subjected to this ceremony. The minister came
to this sister and said, "What is the name of the child?" The sister
answered, "Anna Marie." Then the minister said, "Anna Marie, do you forsake
the devil and all his works? Do you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and
will you upon this faith be baptized?" (The mother was supposed to answer,
"Yes.") The sister answered nothing. So he read his ritual once more and
again no response. So after asking the question the third time, he said,
"Anna Marie, don't you answer?" At this, the father of the child called out
from the audience, and stamping his feet, said, "Come on, wife, that's
enough!"
You will remember reading at the beginning of this book I told of how my
mother, when I was a child, used to say to me, "Child, O child! You are
more trouble to me than all the other eight children put together!" And
yet, after I had been away in America for twenty-four years, when I went
back home, the very first day my mother had me sit facing her not more than
about four feet away and I listened to her telling me stories about the
most wonderful boy I had ever heard of. After about two hours of this
pleasant entertainment I smiled and said to her, "I have recollections of a
mother who used to weep over this same boy and say, 'O child, what shall I
do with you, you are more trouble to me than all the other eight children
together.'" "O Ja," she said, "but you were the best boy anyhow." I am
fairly good in arithmetic, but that is a problem I have not solved yet.
* * * * *
PREACHING ON WORLDLINESS
While conducting a revival meeting at Grand Forks, North Dakota, I preached
one afternoon on the subject of worldliness. An attorney and his wife from
Langdon, North Dakota were staying in the city to attend the meeting. After
hearing this sermon the wife would not attend the services any more. At the
close of the Sunday afternoon service, two days later, the attorney came to
me and said, "The Holy Spirit was in the meeting this afternoon, wasn't
He?" I replied that He was, and he continued, "Every sinner present was
saved and something happened to me that I never remember having experienced
before. I cried like a child!"
I asked him why his wife had quit coming to the meeting. In reply he asked,
"Has Sister Hansen told you anything about us and our home?" I said, "Yes,
you once gave a minister twenty-two-hundred pieces of money, they were all
pennies. You did a good thing. This is all Sister Hansen ever told me about
you folks. I have heard nothing whatever about you."
He referred to the sermon on worldliness and said, "In your talk, you
practically, set a price on everything we have in the home, such as
curtains, carpets, furniture and the range; and you illustrated it this
way: 'Supposing a person could buy a suitable range for $42.50 but seeing
another, just the same kind only with nickel-plated trimmings, for $82.00
and he would choose the latter, wouldn't that be called the pride of the
eye?' And that is just the kind of range we have! and my wife could not see
it that way." She thought that Sister Hansen had told me and did not get
that out of her mind and was finally lost, the husband said.
I was preaching under the leading of the Holy Spirit and in what I said I
had no one in mind in using that illustration, but was simply trying to
show that such money could be used to better purpose and that sometimes
when folks yielded to the temptation to take the finer appearing article
they might be going beyond their means.
* * * * *
One Sunday morning when I was pastor in Grand Forks and had just gotten
through preaching a man came rushing up to the pulpit and said in a rough
voice, "Who told you all about me?" I put out my hand and said, "My name is
Susag, what is your name?" He answered, "You stood before this audience
this morning and told them everything I have ever done!" I answered, "Dear
man, I don't know you, nor have I ever heard of you, what is your name?" He
looked around, then turned and out he ran! I never saw the man again.
Some years ago when in Norway, Morris Johnson and I held a meeting on a
large farm in Roleg in Numedahl. A large crowd was out at the first
service. We knelt down to pray and while we were praying I heard a great
commotion and when we rose from our knees we found that two thirds of the
people were gone. The foreman of the King's highway was in the audience and
he had said when he came out there, that those preachers were too fanatical
and if he had had his gun along and had shot them, he would have done the
Lord a good favor. However, I do not think that in his heart he meant as
bad as it sounded, for some time later he invited us to his home and
treated us with much courtesy and kindness. A number were saved and
baptized and quite a nice little congregation was raised up at that place.
* * * * *
While we were at Sanes, Norway, Brother Morris Johnson was very sick and
one evening when we arrived at our stopping place he rolled onto the bed
with his clothes on, exhausted. He had been bleeding from the lungs and was
so weak that I could hardly get him home. We wept and prayed and finally I
said to him, "Morris, can't you get out of bed and kneel down with me and
pray?" "I might," he said, "but I think the bed is the best place for me."
However, he got down and said a few words and then rolled back into bed
again. He wasn't able to undress all night and I was afraid to go to sleep
for fear that he might leave me most any time during the night.
In the morning he seemed to be somewhat rested and I said to him, "Brother
Morris, we must try and get down to Sister Svenson's and get you some meat
broth." (Sister S. had a delicatessen store, and Morris hadn't eaten
anything for a couple of days) but he said, "I am unable to get down there
nor can I eat anything." "But," I said, "You've got to get down there even
if I have to carry you there on my back. You'll have to eat or I will be
having to bury you somewhere among the rocks in Norway." He got up and I
put my arm around him and, as luck would have it the road was down hill. We
had to stop and rest several times but we got there and the Lord must have
impressed Sister Svenson for she had some broth all ready made, but as she
was preparing to serve it the trouble in his lungs began again and he went
to the wash room. I fell prostrate on the floor crying to God for help for
him. Suddenly I realized I had received faith for him and called to him,
"Morris, the bleeding stops, now!" And it did. And from that time on he
recovered rapidly. (When I think of that dear brother and the plight he was
in, it brings tears to my eyes, even now).
* * * * *
A WONDERFUL MEETING AT STAVANGER
A telephone call came to Sr. Svenson from two ministers at Stavanger
requesting the two American evangelists to come to them. We accepted the
call and Sr. Svenson's daughter and Bro. Fjield went with us. How the
ministers came to locate us at Sr. Svenson's I never knew, as neither of us
had ever been at Stavanger. The names of the two ministers calling us were
Johnson and Jornsen of the Christian church. We called first at Brother
Johnson's where we were warmly welcomed. They told us that they had heard
of us and had been earnestly praying for the Lord to send us to them and
that they were glad we were there: "You are here in answer to prayer," they
said, and then opening a door into another room informed us that there was
our bedroom. They showed the dining room, saying, as they did so, "Anytime
that you are hungry, come here and eat." To all this kind welcoming my
response was, "This really seems to me to be like too much of an open door
in face of the fact that you do not know us nor do we know you, perhaps we
had better go in and have prayer together and some consultation about the
matter. After we had had prayer they related the following:
"We belong to the Christian Church; formerly there were two hundred members
of us or more, but two years ago a 'Tongues speaker,' an ex-Baptist
minister, came to this city and as he seemed to be earnest and sincere we
were sorry he was not getting a single opportunity to speak, so decided to
give him the privilege to speak once in our chapel, and that was once too
often! At the meeting, I [Bro. Johnson] was sitting on the platform with
him, and Brother Jornsen, who weighed two hundred and sixty pounds, was
standing in the aisle holding on to the back of a chair on which a man was
sitting, as the chapel was packed. After the preacher had spoken ten or
fifteen mintues seven women were lying on the floor in a trance.
"We took a stand against the spirit that was working and, talk about power!
The chapel wall on one side cracked (the evidence of which was still to be
seen)." Brother Jornsen said, "I took a stand against it with all my soul
but nevertheless my feet went from under me and I was thrown to the floor
and my jaws were just jabbering." "This continued eight days and nights
until we finally got the victory over it and the preacher took over two
hundred of the congregation with him, leaving us but nine persons, we two
ministers make the total number eleven. And if you go with us to the
service tonight there will be thirteen of us and we will have services,
Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and" they added, "you must preach
only until nine o'clock, the services start at eight fifteen. Don't let any
women testify nor any pentecostals!
"Now," I said, "I will give you our proposition, we will go with you
tonight and tomorrow you can advertize in the two city daily papers that
two American evangelists are here to hold services every night including
Saturday and three services on Sunday, all next week until Friday and then
we will see how things go." "That will not do," they said, "No one will
come out Saturday night nor Monday or Tuesday nights." "Well," I said, "you
can let us have the key and if no one comes Brother Johnson and I can go
inside and have prayer. Upon this condition we can stay, and if not, we
will take our grips and go."
To which they replied, "You can't go, for the Lord has shown us that you
are to hold a meeting for us." The next night there were about two hundred
in the congregation and some ten minutes before nine o'clock eight persons
started to get ready to leave; I was still speaking, so paused and said,
"Just a minute, please: We have just come from Denmark where we preached as
long as the Lord would lead, until nine or ten o'clock. Now if you have to
go home you are welcome to go, but if it's simply your custom to leave a
meeting at a certain time whether or not the service is over, we are going
to pray the Lord to break up such a custom." Six of the persons sat down
again and two left. Saturday night the chapel was full and Sunday night
quite a number were saved. The meeting continued almost four weeks and
souls were getting saved right along.
One day we had a baptizing service between two boat houses in the North sea
and after I had baptized all the candidates, a fisherman, who owned one of
the boat houses, came out and asked me whether I would not baptize him. On
my inquiry as to his being saved, he told me this: "I was saved three years
ago but have never before met folks with whom I believed the Lord was
working, but today as I witnessed this service I was convinced that the
Holy Ghost was with you folks." I baptized him and never saw him again.
After that we were not allowed to baptize from the shore but had to take
the folks out in a boat and baptize them from a rock in the North sea.
Following that incident we were invited to a sea Captain's home, to be
there at 9:30, the next morning. The house was the most finely finished
house I had even been in. When we arrived in the morning we found it was
full of people of the upper class, the men with their silk hats and the
women equally distinctive in their dress. Some of the company were saved
and some fifteen more were saved that morning.
The lady of the house and her six sisters had a brother who was an old sea
captain and was sick. We were told he was an infidel and would have nothing
to do with preachers, that if any happened to come into his house he
ordered them out. His seven sisters were praying earnestly for him and they
felt that we could be a help to him. Their plan was to set a day when they
would all go and visit him and if the weather was fine we were to come by
and they would be on the porch talking to him. We were to pass along on the
other side of the street and when they saw us they were to call "Good
morning" and invite us over and introduce us to their brother, he was not
to know that we were preachers. The plan was successful and after talking
awhile Captain Parsons invited us into the house.
On coming into the room we noticed that the walls were hung with pictures
of ships, thirty-eight steamers. He said he had been seaman on each one of
them and captain on several. So he took us for a trip around the world.
Finally he came to the last one, a very large ship, but it looked, like a
rusty, broken-to-pieces tin can, its masts, smokestacks and bridges had
evidently been blown or swept off. We were awed by the sight and said,
"This looks bad." "Yes," he said, "that was the trying hour of my life, it
was in a typhoon off the coast of Sidney, Australia. This is how it looked
when we were towed in." Then I looked at my watch and found we had been
talking for two hours and feeling that it was time for us to leave I said
to him, "We are two ministers and generally when we make a call, before
leaving we sing, read some Scripture and have prayer. Would you grant us
that privilege here?" He said, "I see no reason why you should not do so."
We, accordingly, sang, read a Scripture lesson and had prayer, after which
we said to our host, "We have certainly had a pleasant visit and enjoyed
the trip around the world with you immensely, and now there is one sailing
trip left for you to take. For all these other trips no doubt you made
suitable preparation. What about this one; are you ready to meet your Maker
in peace?" "No," he said, "The Lord doesn't have such bad men as me." But
we told him that was just the kind He came to save. He said, "Boys, boys,
you don't know what bad men seamen are." We tried to talk to him, but to no
avail. So we thanked him and said Goodbye. As we left he said, "Boys, boys,
come back soon."
The next day we heard that he was poorly and the Board of Health had
ordered that no one shake hands with him as his case was not yet diagnosed.
We continued to visit him, instructing him and praying with him. On one of
these occasions on leaving him we both made a good mistake. We broke down
and wept. Morris speaking to me in English said, "I love this man's soul
like my own father's and wouldn't lay a straw in the way of his getting
saved; I would like to shake his hand, but may not." "As far as I am
concerned," I said, "I wouldn't be afraid to take his hand in both mine,
but for the sake of the public we cannot do it; but he is a man of
understanding, we will go and explain to him and I'm sure it will be all
right." Later, as we were leaving, he said, "Be sure to come back soon."
The next day I was called out to an Island and Brother Morris went over
alone to see him. He was up and apparently pretty well and he said to
Morris, "Young man, you had better speak English. I understand your English
better than I do your Norwegian." Now you can see that the mistake the day
before was a good one. That day he got gloriously saved and the next day he
was up and around happy and praising the Lord, at two o'clock in the
afternoon he lay down to rest and went home to glory. On account of his
salvation we were asked to speak to the students at the mission college.
Here at Stavanger a good congregation was raised up and Brother Mortensen
became pastor, he was a tailor by trade and also was the owner of a fine
clothing store. They got the chapel the revival was held in, in 1911, in
1922. I went through and they expected me to remain for a three weeks
meeting to preach on Church of God doctrine. I was supposed to be there on
Sunday, but did not arrive until Monday. They had advertised for three
services for Sunday, and between fifteen hundred and two thousand were
present for each service. I was unable to remain for the three weeks
meeting as I was traveling through on a special mission for the Missionary
Board and the boat left the next morning. Speaking of the truth, this would
have been the greatest opportunity that Norway will have for years to come
and perhaps ever.
Brother Mortensen said, "O how sad--this all happened because of a crooked
preacher that Brother Susag had to take back to America." Brother Mortensen
raised up a number of congregations on the West coast, and in 1937 the old
chapel at Stavanger was razed and a new and larger chapel was erected in
its place.
* * * * *
MY WIFE HEALED OF CANCER
Some years ago my wife had a sore on her left cheek. Dr. Morgan examined it
and pronounced it cancer. She was prayed for and the third day after there
was no sign of cancer.
A little later a growth started on her right side just above the hip. It
grew until it was twenty-two inches long, sixteen inches by the body and
fourteen inches around at the end of it. It finally developed into cancer.
She was prayed for often but seemingly was not helped, the odor from it was
horrible. We went to the Anderson Camp meeting. On the day especially set
apart for the healing of the sick, and seats at that particular meeting
were so arranged that for each sick person there were three preachers to
pray for him or her. My wife came up and sat down on the chair next to the
one where I was offering prayer, and after prayer had been offered for her,
I heard one of the ministers say to her, "Sister Susag, do you believe the
Lord heals you?" She answered, "By faith I am healed." And the minister
said, "Yes, by faith, is right." From that time the cancer began to fall to
pieces.
On the way home I asked her what it was that gave her the faith for
healing. She said, "I don't know; when I went onto the platform I wanted
Brother and Sister Byrutn to pray for me, and could have gotten on their
chair, but there came a young lady who looked as though she might be in the
last stages of tuberculosis, to such an extent was she affected that she
had to be supported by a sister, one on each side of her when she attempted
to walk, and I saw she was in greater need than I was, and, too, she was a
young woman. I was willing for anyone to pray for me, and if I were healed
or not it would be all right." I replied, "that is where you gained the
victory."
This happened in the latter part of June and around the first of October
there was nothing left but a red spot about the size of a dollar to show
where the cancer had been. Just before we went to Anderson, a neighbor lady
wanted to see the cancer and the sight of it made her so sick she was in
bed for two days. And through it all my wife never once complained.
* * * * *
On the last evening of a meeting I was holding in Whittier, California, a
man came to me telling me of a sick lady who wanted me to come and pray for
her. I consented to do so but told the man I must go quickly as a brother
was coming very soon to take me to Los Angeles. On arriving at the bedside
of the sick woman I asked her what her trouble was. She told me she had a
cancer on her left breast and side, and that having to lie on the one side
all the time she became very sick and sore. I prayed the prayer of faith
for her and left immediately.
One year later I received a letter from her. She wrote, "It is just a year
ago tonight since I sent for you to come and pray for me. As you prayed for
me it was as though an electric shock went through me and after you left I
turned over on my left side and went to sleep and slept all night and in
the morning when I woke up I was perfectly healed. I have waited a year
before writing, to see whether any symptoms returned, but none ever did."
In one of my meetings while I was pastor at Grand Forks I felt impressed to
speak to a young man, Tom Perkins, a World War I veteran. I went down into
the audience to speak to him, and told him he ought to seek the Lord that
night as something was going to happen. He said, "Do you think so?" I said,
"No, I don't think so, I know so." But he said, "Not tonight." That was
Sunday, and on Wednesday afternoon as I was going down DeMeres Avenue he
came out of a clothing store with a friend of his, I said, "How do you do"
to him and passed on in front of him, but as I was passing him the Lord
said to me, "Go back and speak to Tom." I at once turned back to him and
said, "Tom, listen to me; you ought to seek the Lord. Let us go back in the
store and settle it with the Lord." But he said, "No." I said, "It is very
important." He said as before, "Do you think so?" And again I answered, "I
don't think so, I know so." He took it very nicely but refused to make any
move toward seeking the Lord. Two days later, the following Friday, he went
to Minneapolis and on Sunday afternoon he was crushed to death between two
street cars. Would it not be well for people to heed the warnings of God's
servants and His Spirit?
The pastor of the Scandinavian Free church at Brookings, South Dakota, one
time sent for me to come to pray for a sister who was a member of his
congregation and had been sick in bed for some six months. I preached there
several times and then announced that I was going to pray for the sick
sister at three o'clock the next day, and asked all those who had faith to
be present and those who did not have faith to stay away, preachers and
all. Only one person was there--an elderly Baptist sister from Huron-Sister
Shall. The prayer of faith was offered and Sister Johnson was healed and
was present at the service that evening.
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