‘Verily Thou Shalt Be Fed’
by Norman Grubb

According to our usual custom, we gathered together on the evening of the third anniversary of Mr. Studd’s death, July 16, 1934. We were talking over what God had done through him and since, in sending the ten, fifteen and twenty-five, when a man, known only to one of us, walked into our midst. He had come on quite another errand. He had travelled 50 miles to find the secret of the Spirit-filled life. He had been in contact with one of our number some months previously, and although nothing had been said on the subject the fellowship had awakened in him a longing for a deeper experience of Christ. He remained three days with us. As is our usual method, we did not lightly encourage him to go all the way with God. We showed him from the Scriptures that the Holy Spirit, Whose full indwelling he desired to realize, changed the nature of those whom He possessed from living for themselves to living for others. Through us He travails. By means of us He finds the time and money and lives necessary for the spread of the Gospel. Through us He often answers both our own prayers and those of others for the men and munitions for God’s war. Those who will have the Holy Spirit will have the Sufferer for mankind as well as the Saviour of mankind indwelling them, and will be changed into His likeness. It was for this reason that Christ said to those who sought this way of life, ‘Sit down first and count the cost.’

However, this brother was on fire for God’s best and declared himself willing to drink of the cup and be baptized with the baptism of the Lord Jesus, abandoning himself by faith to the full control of the Holy Spirit.

During the course of those three days with us he naturally heard at our daily meetings of our next objective. With the completion of the twenty-five we had waited on God to find out what number of new workers we should ask for in the coming year, and the answer had come—fifty. This was double the previous year and considerably more than the whole staff of three years before, and it meant £5,000 to send them out; but we had come to know the God of miracles by now through so many infallible proofs, that I think we found it easier to trust Him for fifty this year than for ten three years previously. Not that faith can ever be said to be truly easy; for to the fallen reason it always has the appearance of a blind plunge in the dark, and can only be maintained by persistent adherence in the Spirit to the promises of God, ‘enduring as seeing Him who is invisible.’

During the days this brother was with us he enthusiastically added his faith and prayer to ours for the coming of this number, but he was on dangerous ground. There was nothing about him which gave us any inkling that he possessed more than an income sufficient for his present occupation, but we were to learn differently.

He left us. Ten days later we received an ordinary unregistered let-ter. When opened there was seen to be from this brother a cheque for £6,ooo: £5,000 for the fifty and the extra £1ooo to be used as the Lord directed! Apparently, on returning home, he had continued to pray for the fifty. Then the Holy Spirit spoke to him. Was he altogether His? ‘Yes, Lord.’Was all he had His? ‘Yes.’ Then he must learn that a man of God must not pray for what he can himself pay. He is always himself the first sufferer, the first giver, as was God Himself. He must always answer his own prayers up to the limit of his ability, then he will have authority with God to receive from Him all else that he cannot himself give. Hence the cheque, and in one gift the full supply. Once more we were ‘like them that dream.’Within a fortnight of our asking the Lord for this number so much greater than any in the past, all the finance had been supplied.

There only remained the coming forward of the volunteers, and these arrived in a steady stream till the number was complete. They included, as usual, some who were later rejected, others being accepted in their places, for although we only accept candidates who have been through one of the established training colleges, they all have to come and live at headquarters for a while. By this means we observe whether they are men and women of the Holy Ghost, and they have an opportunity to decide whether they are truly one with the principles of the Crusade. With some it takes time, with others there are further preparations to be made, such as the learning of a continental language; so that it was not till some time later that we had completed the outgoing of these thirty-two men and eighteen women to ten different fields.

Such increases in our numbers brought feeding problems which we had never anticipated. Led out by God, as before explained, to depend on Him personally for household needs, we had never reckoned on a family of forty or forty-five; but all these years, without a human being knowing our condition from week to week, we can say to the glory of God that we have never lacked a meal.

Nor has debt been allowed. To ensure this, arrangements were made to pay at the door even for the daily supplies of bread and milk. In earlier years I must admit that the burden weighed heavily on me, although it was not I, but Pauline (and latterly Mrs. Purves) who looked after the catering, so I don’t know what they must have felt! I used to alternate between weeks in the sunlight and weeks in the shadows. The Lord did a new thing some years back and by His grace I have learned something of that secret by which the eye and ear are kept closed to Satan’s suggestions of doubt and fear and kept in singleness of gaze on God, the place where the word of Jesus Christ becomes true, ‘If thine eye is single, thy whole body shall be full of light.’

I remember one early and outstanding deliverance, when the household numbered only ten. I was going off for four days of meetings and was leaving Pauline with only 4s. 6d. in the house. We had some prayer before parting and told each other that we should meet again to hear of God’s deliverances. All the same, it was a test for us both. When I returned I learned that two hours after I had gone a large hamper arrived at the door from the other end of London. It was taken in and opened before the assembled household, and they had a praise meeting round it. It contained, not special delicacies which could only be an addition to ordinary food, but all the necessities for several meals—leg of mutton, potatoes, bread and cheese, the very things needed, and a box of chocolates ‘for the Grubblets from a raven.’Weeks after we learned the history of the hamper. We were at tea, in their Kensington flat, with a brother and sister whom we had met only about twice before. The sister took Pauline aside and said, ‘I don’t know whether my brother would like me saying this, but I thought I would tell you of a strange guidance he had some weeks back. You remember receiving a hamper? Well, early that morning, when my brother was having his quiet time, the Lord told him to go out and order it and send it to you. I was wondering whether it met some particular need?’

Another wonderful provision of the Lord has been a regular supply for the past six years of what now amounts to tons of potatoes, lentils, rice and oatmeal. It was particularly wonderful because the beginning of the supply came just after we obeyed God in taking on the feeding of the household. A few weeks later we entered the only period of extreme testing that we had, when our only food for a week was bread and cheese. We were at dinner one day when a van drove up and deposited half a ton of potatoes. Next day came two hundred weight sacks of oatmeal, and a few days later two of lentils. They were from a Christian gentleman whom I had met only twice at meetings, and who even yet has never been to our headquarters; but through his goodness we have never since been without lentils and oatmeal, and potatoes in season.

Indeed we are usually able to tell what has been the crop of the season! One apple year we received over a ton within a few weeks, but all were most acceptable. I think we tasted every form there is of preparing apples for the table!

Beyond all special instances of deliverance stands out the fact of the unfailing regularity of supply all these years. It still remains a wonder to me when I look back on the many times in which I have enquired of Pauline how the household funds are, to be told that she is using the last pound; yet through all these 2920 days the barrel of meal has never failed, the fresh gift has come along just in time. Sometimes even larger numbers have to be catered for. At our conferences at the end of each month we sit down sixty to eighty in number. At our last conference, from Saturday afternoon to Monday morning, I asked the candidate in charge of the kitchen how things had been going, and she replied that there had been only 4s. 6d. in the morning, but during the day 10 lbs. of cheese, two joints of beef, 5 lbs. of sausages, pots of jam and marmalade, biscuits, swiss rolls, tins of peas, potatoes had arrived, practically all from unknown sources. We can only speak from experience at the home end, but, were the Crusaders on the fields to write of their tests and deliverances also, what book could contain them?

–from After C.T.Studd