At one time I was holding a meeting at Badger, South Dakota. The meeting
was fairly good in a way but I expected results and hoped to see souls
saved. I worked and fasted and prayed, but to no avail. It seemed there was
no conviction upon sinners. When that meeting was over, I decided to quit
the ministry, thinking to myself, "What is the use to go on this way,
enduring hardships and sufferings and not seeing any souls saved." I
thought I must be a failure, so going home, I went through Minneapolis,
Minnesota to visit my sister. After the evening meal I thought I would take
a walk. As I strolled up Lake Street, I saw to my left in the middle of the
block, a large sign, 'Revival Meetings, Minnesota's Greatest Evangelist.' I
became interested because I had lived in Minnesota many years and had never
heard his name before, so I decided to attend. By the time he was half
through his sermon, my discouragement had vanished. I thought, "I'm a
better preacher than that; I can preach the Truth." So I went back to
preaching with fresh courage and determination.
The next year just before the Minnesota State Camp Meeting at St. Paul
Park, I came home with another load of discouragement. It seemed to me I
was backslidden and that Brother Nelson and Brother Tubbs were going to
deal with me at the meeting and tell me so. I told wife to go on to the
meeting and I would stay home and rest a few days, as I was tired. She
objected and refused to go without me, telling me the saints would be
asking about me, and if I told them you were home they would be wondering
why and I would have no peace, so that was that. We went and I did not
attempt to preach neither Saturday, Sunday, nor Monday. I was waiting,
expecting the brethren to come and have a talk with me. Finally on Monday
afternoon Bro. Nelson came and said, "Let us go out into the timber. I want
to have a talk with you." Then he said, "Brother Susag, what is the matter
with you? You are holding up the meeting. Everyone is expecting you to
preach and you sit there and say nothing." I answered, "Yes, I know that
you know what it is." "Why I don't know anything," he said, "What do you
mean?" I said, "Aren't you and Bro. Tubbs going to deal with me? You know I
am backslidden." "Since when?" he asked. I told him I did not know. He then
said, "We surely do not know anything. It is just an imposition of the
devil. Rebuke him and get into the pulpit and preach." We had prayer, and
rebuked the devil and his accusations, and the spell was completely broken.
A year later at the Minnesota State Camp Meeting, Brother Nelson was not
feeling well, neither was I. One day, Brother Nelson said to me, "What do
you think is the trouble with us? Maybe we are bad boys." I told him, "No,
that is not the reason, however, we do not see many healings and miracles
now." As we stood there talking, we could not think of anything that had
taken place of late.
Just then a sister came up to where we were and said, "Praise the Lord,
brethren." We said, "Amen." "I do not suppose you know me?" "Yes, we know
you," we said, "But we have forgotten your name." "My name is Rasmussen,"
she said; "I haven't seen you, Brother Nelson, since you were down and
prayed for our youngest son who was down with double pneumonia." Brother
Nelson said, "The Lord healed the boy, didn't He?" "I should say He did,"
she answered. "He not only healed him, but changed him from a puny,
delicate child to a strong, husky child--the healhiest one we have." She
went away and we felt we had gotten a reproof, and yet an encouragement,
from the Lord.
Then a brother came along and he said, "Praise the Lord. Wasn't it
wonderful how the Lord restored Brother Krutz?" That was another reproof.
Then a sister came by and said, "Have you heard about Sister Johnson?" We
asked, which Johnson, and she said, "Brother Morris Johnson's mother. She
fell and broke her leg just above the ankle and they took her on the train
to St. Paul and while waiting in the Union Depot for a train for home,
saints came on their way to the camp meeting and seeing her suffering they
had compassion on her, and prayed the prayer of faith, and she was
instantly healed, insomuch that she went back to the camp meeting." After
she left, Brother Nelson started one direction for the timber and I the
other. We felt the Lord had been grieved because of our discouragement and
had reproved us in this way.
* * * * *
On Sunday morning while I was holding a meeting at Rice Lake, I was
preaching on the Joy of the Lord. After speaking a few minutes, the Lord
spoke to me and said, "Your theme today will be trials and
discouragements," so I announced to the congregation that the Lord had
changed my subject, and in my talk, I related some of the worse trials and
discouragements I had passed through. After I was through speaking, a
brother came up to the pulpit and said, "Shame on you, Brother Susag." I
said, "Say that again." He did a little stronger than before, so I said,
"Say it again, for 'all good things are three.'" Then he did say it strong.
He said, "Here you have been standing here telling that preachers get tried
and tempted and discouraged like that--" and he turned and went out.
When he had gone, a young lady came up and asked me for dinner and said
that Brother and Sister ---- were coming to dinner, too. On arriving at
their home, they all sat down to visit. They didn't take off their wraps,
nor ask me to either. They said to me, "Do you know why the Lord changed
your subject today?" I told them it must have been for somebody. "Yes,"
they said, "It was for the four of us." (These four had gotten saved in the
revival I had held the year before.) "We have been tempted and tried so
much," they said, "so we came near giving up." Then they'd said to one
another, "Look at Brother Susag. He is happy all the time. He is not tried
and tempted like we are." But when they heard of my experiences, they said,
"The shame is on us." They were much encouraged and went on in the service
of God. They finally moved somewhere to the northwest and I am told that
one of the brothers became a minister, and the other three Sunday School
workers.
Many people do not realize that ministers pass through much suffering both
spiritual and physical for the sake of others, but they are glad to do so
for Christ's sake and for the sake of others.
While pastoring in Grand Forks, North Dakota a lady called on the phone one
day and asked to speak to The Rev.
Susag. "I am the one speaking," I said. Then she told me she had heard from
Mrs. Werstlein that I would pray for anyone no matter what church they
belonged to. I told her I would. Then she said, "My husband is at the
Catholic hospital and the doctor just called up and said he is liable to
die any minute, and cannot live longer than until three o'clock this
afternoon. He is an infidel." Then she continued, "Would you kindly go see
him and talk to him and then come by the house as I'd like to hear what he
had to say and what you think about it." I told her I would if I could get
in to see him. "Tell them that I sent you," she said. At first they refused
to let me in, but after telling them I was pastor and that his wife had
sent me they said alright. They said, "He is near death and almost has one
foot in the grave."
When I went into his room and saw how bad he was, I introduced myself to
him and said, "I'm sorry to find you in such a condition. I have been where
you are now. I will not tire you out with much talk, but would you let me
read you a scripture lesson and pray with you?" He answered, "It would be
out of place to refuse such an offer under such circumstances." So I read
Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus (John 3:1). Then I knelt and prayed a
short prayer. When I got through, he put his hand out and said, "Thank you,
I have got to see you in the morning." I asked him what time and he told me
nine o'clock. Then I bid him good-bye and went to the door. When I reached
the door I thought I heard him say something and turned and said, "Beg your
pardon, did you say something?"
He said, "Can I depend on you?" I answered, "Yes, you can depend on me, and
furthermore we have service tonight in the church, and I will tell the
folks to agree in prayer for you and also to fast and pray tomorrow that
the Lord will heal you." He thanked me and I left him.
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 God." He replied, "You can't do it." I
answered, "By God'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 God." (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 God 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 God! Here is the man
the Lord kept out of the grave last August." Up went his hands, and he
said, "Bless God. God 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 assuredly." 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.
GOD 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 God,
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 God, 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 God is still the God 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 God.
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 God 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 Hancock, 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, Saturday 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.
* * * * *