Then a young man came up on the platform, and he began to run and jump and leap. Dr. Idahosa, you were there that night. He would run across the platform, and as he ran, the crowd, they began to leap and praise God. And I didn’t know what was going on, so said to my interpreter, “What’s happening?” And he told me the story that I’m telling you.
Everyone knew this young man. Everyone knew that he couldn’t walk. But now he was walking. He was running. He was leaping, and he was praising God. And the people were jumping, and they were shouting.
And the members of the news media were there that night, and they brought their cameras up on the platform. And they wrote his story, and they put it on the front page of the newspaper the next morning. And the television stations carried the story. And the next night the crowd tripled. And there were many more miracles.
How does it happen? It does not happen in my name. It does not happen in my strength. It happens in the authority of the name of Jesus Christ, God’s only begotten Son. Shout hallelujah! Not because of me, but because of Him, on the basis of the shed blood of Jesus.
Jesus took the stripes on His back that you and I might be healed—thirty-nine stripes. Recently someone sent me an article from a medical journal, and the article talked about medical science putting sickness and disease into thirty-nine categories. And I thought to myself, Isn’t it amazing? Medical science is confirming the Bible. Each stripe He took was for a disease.
And I’ve not come tonight in my name. I’ve not come tonight in my strength. But I have come in the authority of the name of Jesus, whose name is above every power, whose name is above every principality, whose name is above heart disease, whose name is above crippling diseases, whose name is above blindness, whose name is above deafness, whose name is above arthritis, whose name is above diabetes, whose name is above cataracts, whose name is above cancer, whose name is above tumors.
Now anyone that has pain in your stomach, put your hand on your belly. Kidney problem, liver problem, ulcer, colon problem, digestive tract, gall bladder. In the authority of Jesus’ name, I speak to it. Every pain, every sickness, come out. Come out. Come out, in the name of Jesus.
And someone’s stomach is being healed right now. There’s burning that’s coming out now. There’s burning coming out of stomachs right now. Examine yourself. Examine yourself. Someone’s being healed right now. There is an anointing.
Tumors and growths and cancers, in the name of Jesus, every tumor, every growth, every cancer, come out. Come out. Come out, in the name of Jesus. There’s cancer falling off someone now. There are tumors and growths that are falling off now.
Just the other night a woman had a large growth in her breast, and God completely healed her. He’s doing it again tonight, in Jesus’ name.
There’s some that have throat problems tonight and a balance problem. When you walk, you waver. Someone’s getting healed of a balance problem. You’ve not been able to walk without help. And God is healing you now. You can take some steps now. If you can tell that’s you, come forward. If you can tell the tumor or growth is gone, begin to come. Come and share your testimony.
Now for those who have a problem with your hearing, put your hand on that ear. Put your hand on that ear. In the authority of the name of Jesus, I speak to deafness and hardness of hearing. I take hold of that problem and pull it out. In Jesus name, come out. Come out. Come out. There’s hearing coming now. Someone’s ear just popped open. Suddenly my voice sounds about twice as loud. There’s hearing coming in ears right now.
They were living in the shadow of that. They had seen and heard of the healing power of Jesus. The miracles had spread throughout the land, throughout all that known part of the world. And Jesus was alive. Not only alive, but He was alive in them.
And wherever they went, this was their message, “Is any sick among you? Is there any sick emotionally? Is there any sick physically? Is there any sick in your spirit? Is there any sick or diseased, anyone who is not at ease or dis-eased among you? Is it something that’s hurting you in your family, or your marriage, or your business, or your job, or your ministry?” That was their hallmark, “Is any sick among you?”
And they were in fear of their lives at almost any time, and they suffered greatly for this gospel message. Some, as you know, history teaches us, were boiled in oil. Some were crucified. There are many who believe that Peter was crucified upside down. There were others who were thrown to hungry animals, in the coliseum in Rome and in other places of that part of the world. And they suffered greatly. They suffered because of their faith.
But something happened in the fourth century. Constantine became converted to Christianity and was named the emperor of Rome. And he stopped all of the persecution of the Christians, becoming a Christian himself.
Suddenly the Christians were no longer persecuted, and they no longer suffered for their faith in God. And somewhere along the line, someone got the brilliant idea, “We have to have something to suffer for. Therefore, let us suffer for God through sickness and disease.”
And the prayer, which I’m sure some of you have heard from time to time in your life, “And if it be God’s will, He will heal you.” How many of you have heard that prayer at some time in your life, put your hand up. Yeah. If it be God’s will, as if God had not already made up His mind.
But before I go into that, let me just share with you just briefly from this scripture, James 5, which we’ll use as our hallmark scripture tonight. I don’t know about in the morning. We’ll see what God wants in the morning. But beginning at verse 13. Notice that James, who may or may not have been a disciple. We don’t know.
There are many who believe that he was one of the disciples, but there are others who do not. We don’t know, but we know this, he was very close to Jesus. “Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray. Is any merry? Let him sing psalms. Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.
“And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up. And if he has committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.
“Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that you may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” May God bless the reading and hearing of His Word.
This was the hallmark of the early disciples. Wherever they went, if it was on a street corner, it was in a home, it was in a cave or some hidden place, they asked this question, “Is there any among you afflicted? Is any among you sick? Let them pray. Let them call on someone to pray the prayer of faith, and the prayer of faith,” not the prayer of doubt, “but the prayer of faith will save the sick person, and the Lord will raise them up.”
They were just fresh from the resurrection of Jesus, where He had been nailed to a tree on Golgotha at Calvary. He took the stripes on His back for your healing and mine. The nails pierced His hands and His feet, the spear thrust into His side, as the blood was shed for the remission of sin.
The second thing He said write down is: You must sow in quality soil. Cornerstone is quality soil. Why? Seven days a week, 24 hours a day, broadcasting the gospel of Jesus Christ, with the saving, healing, delivering power of God. There’s not a day that goes by without someone giving their life to Christ through this great Christian network.
You’ve got to sow in quality soil. And anyone who sows in the natural understands that you want good soil. No one wants to sow in rocky, thin soil. You want to sow in good, good ground because it’s that quality soil that produces the mighty harvest.
I was talking to a farmer out in New Mexico who said, “I can take four pounds of chili pepper seed and reap 40,000 pounds of chili peppers.” Now that’s a hot dinner right there, if you like chili peppers as much as I do. But four pounds of chili pepper seed will produce 40,000 pounds of chili peppers.
It’s a divine principle. God set it in order. All we have to do is discard what we’re hearing and believe it and do it.
First of all, He said, “Sow and sow first.” Second of all, “Sow in quality soil.” And third, “You must sow with expectations.”
I was out at my dad’s—my dad lives in California, and I was out with him three weeks ago. And when I got to his house, he had seven preachers at his house. And that’s not unusual for him. About every week he has pastors that come to his home. He teaches them. He preaches to them. He hears their questions, what they’re going through in their ministries. He counsels them. He lays hands on them. He prophesies over them. He lets them take pictures with him, and he gives them autographed copies of his book. They sow an offering into his life because he’s living by his preaching.