ATOMIC SUB CAPTIAN FINDS JESUS

Gordon Leverette was called to a particular ministry in England, the canvas ships won victory for England in 1588 against the Spanish but the canvas ship of a Gospel tent would be this Captain’s testimony of God’s Glory for English people.

LONDON, ENGLAND -- The British Navy destroyed the Argentinian war efforts during the Faulkland’s War in 1981 and that defeat caused the greatest outpouring of God’s Spirit over that country. Argentina today knows God in a supernatural way but Great Britain suffers from any belief in Him at all. God has been forgotten in the land that at one time sent pastors and evangelists all over the world. As powerful as the British Navy was they may have won the war but lost the moral battle for their own homeland. .

Gordon Leverette was in the Royal Navy as an officer at the time of the Faulkland’s War. He was working very closely to help defeat the Argentinians but today he fights another battle. Leverette found Jesus in an evangelical meeting while working at the Royal Ministry of Defense in London. Eighteen months later he retired his captain’s rank to accept a full time call to evangelism of his native land. As a nuclear submarine captain he had worked over a 24-year period of time in the Royal Navy to achieve the rank of captain, but God saved him so he could be used in the canvas of revival. While the Royal Navy built its power upon the canvas of wooden ships, Gordon would try to help rebuild England under the canvas of a gospel ship. During the recent Bradford outreach you could see him on a ladder at the top of his tent during 70 mile per hour gale winds. It meant something to him to be on top of that ladder because he knew it was God’s will to work under a big top for the glory of God. He had promised God that England would have revival and the tears in a man’s soul found the burden of his work far more rewarding than traveling under the icy poles of the arctic. Gordon found more power in the gentle touch of God’s Holy Spirit than the power to destroy a continent by the push of a button from a conning tower.

"I had a very dear friend who launched the torpedo that sank the great Argentine cruiser. Hundreds of sailors died that night and my friend has never been the same since." God spared Gordon from the Faulkland’s War but chose Gordon for a different type of warfare. He would be in the battle for men’s souls. After being saved in London he had the vision of a great tent that would be used for evangelism throughout England. At first Gordon sought the Lord for help and then he decided to have a tent appeal. Pressing in, the Lord knew the desire of Gordon’s heart but as the appeal went out, the funds were very small as they returned. Many friends just sent in an offering as a token of their support. Gordon checked back with the tent manufacturer in Darby, England, and during that time the price of the tent had gone up. The Lord had spoken directly to Gordon about a tent ministry as an evangelist but so far the means to that ministry had not yet appeared. Leverette was not discouraged. God always provides where the vision leads. He began to seek God in a deeper way about the tent. The tent he desired would hold 1000 people and it would measure about 40 feet by 40 feet. After the appeal had brought in very little, he was a broken man with a vision but that didn’t stop him in his burden for the tent. The great secret about the faith of Gordon Leverette is that he never stopped pressing into the thing that God had placed in his Spirit. If God so ordered him to have a tent for evangelism then God would make a way for him to obtain it. Still pressing in he had a call from Lake Wales, Florida, in 1994 from a tent manufacturer that wanted to give him a tent. "I hear you want a tent for ministry." It wasn’t an ordinary tent that God wanted to give him. When Gordon gave the man on the phone the dimensions of the tent the man quickly replied. "We don’t make anything that small." What had happened was that the man told Gordon that a tent was going to be given to him and that it would be twice the size of the tent he had originally asked for, the tent God ordered for him would hold 2,000 people. As he got off the telephone he knew God had heard his prayers and in a matter of months he was on his way to America in January of 1995 to receive his new tent. God had provided for the tent and with that Gordon was led by the Spirit of God to bring it back.

Men of faith know that God never rests and ministry is never determined by the amount of money that is in hand. Gordon, a man of faith, began to move in faith once again. After he returned with his tent God placed a burden on his heart for a ministry headquarters where meetings and seminars could be held. While driving outside of London he came across an abandoned convent that was almost in ruins. God once again spoke to him and told him, "You can have it, if you believe." Once again the faith process started in the man of God as he got the number of the realtor who wanted to sell the old convent. Once again Gordon found out the world demanded a price that couldn’t be afforded by the ministry but Gordon remembered God’s voice and pressed in. God moved in a mysterious way through this realtor. Gordon offered his house for the sale of the convent. Finally with the realtor moved on by the Holy Spirit and in tears he offered the property to Leverette. It was given over to Gordon without any strings attached, for his house in return. It was a bargain that went beyond the limits of the natural into the supernatural.

Gordon Leverette is a ship captain by trade but a minister by call. He would be the first to tell you that God is not logical when it comes to needs. He will also tell you that the church is a lot like a vessel at sea. Even when the winds are blowing and the storm is howling the master of the seas is always there for people who want to walk on the water.

How much more could we all do in ministry if we had the faith of a man like Gordon Leverette?