And there was a woman watching, I think if I remember right, she was from Wyoming. She put her hands against mine. She had two inoperable brain tumors, both were cancerous. She put her hands against my hands, and there was an operation of the gifts of healing.
She felt the power of God go into her head. And she went back and had all the examinations, including the MRIs done. She telephoned us several days later, “The doctors can’t find any tumor. The cancer is totally gone.” It was an operation of the gifts of healing.
Acts Chapter three, Peter and John were on their way to prayer. The man is carried there each day, he can’t walk. Some 40 years he’s been there. Peter and John said, “Such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk, and he put out his hand.” That was an operation of the gifts of healing. Those gifts will operate through you.
You know the main reason why ministers of the Gospel will not lay hands on the sick? The main reason is because they feel like they’ll fail. Well, I’ve got a little secret for you this morning. You can’t heal them! If you could they would already be well. GOD is the healer! Turn to the person next to you and say, “God’s the healer.” (RESPONSE)
My father could tell you he’s probably had more failures than successes, but he always prayed. My wife will tell you that Oral Roberts is the only one who prayed the prayer of faith over her father in 1968 when he was dying with cancer–when their pastor said, “Why don’t you just let him die in dignity?”
People never forget someone who prays, someone who tries. Well, I’m just not comfortable laying my hands on someone, you know. There’s something special about your hands. The doctors say that you’re made up of one sixth skin. And God showed us what He’s like by sending His Son in skin. There’s something special. The gifts of healing will flow through us.
You talk about enlarging crowds. You talk about the word spreading. It’s the operation of the gifts of healing–it’s miracles. The Bible says in John 6:2, “The multitudes followed Jesus, because of the miracles that He did.” They stayed tuned for the preaching.
I often tell the story about how once I was in Nigeria, and there was a young man who was like this man at the Beautiful gate there in Jerusalem. He had never walked. Some 22 years of age, he pulled himself along the ground. Lindsay and I will never forget him pulling himself along the ground. He had taken Coca-Cola cans and cut them in half and smoothed them down, so he could put his fist inside and pull himself along the ground. He pulled himself to the service. His name was Abdul, he was a Moslem.
I learned that years ago from one of our trustees, Pastor Ralph Wilkerson. Back in the days when I was singing only, back when I was a teenager, I remember one night being at Melodyland and he was there. And he had me come up, and I sang two or three songs. And he jumped up and grabbed the microphone and gave an altar call. And I wanted to say, ”Brother Ralph, nobody’s preached. Nobody?-and he turned to me and said, “The anointing’s here right now for people to get saved.” And hundreds of people came rushing to the altar and gave their lives to Jesus.
You know, God doesn’t operate the same way every time. He won’t be boxed in. And if you’ll allow Him to flow and if you will be willing to step out there on the edge-that’s that faith realm out there where you don’t know what’s going to happen, where you might not necessarily be totally in control, when you are afraid of pandemonium breaking out, that’s when God will move.
And I’ve got news. You can’t organize a miracle. And you can’t control one either. The people went berserk when there was a miracle in the Bible. I mean, they came running from every direction when Jesus healed because you never knew when something miraculous was going to happen.
Now He put His stamp of approval on nine gifts of the Spirit, and they will flow through us. He’s put His stamp of approval on laying on of hands. I grew up under the ministry of my father, watching him lay hands on the sick. And I watched him be willing to lay his hands on anybody.
I remember one night, I was a little boy, and his custom was after he preached and gave an invitation, while they were preparing the healing line-and some of you who were there will remember-he would go to an auxiliary tent where invalids had been brought on stretchers and on wheelchairs and on beds from hospitals, people who were too ill to stand in the prayer line. And he would minister to them first. You remember that, Brother Derstine. Oftentimes people never knew that was going on because he never made an announcement of it. But those are the ones he ministered to first, sometimes to a hundred people. And I would walk with him amongst those who were sick with cancer and everything under the sun.
And I remember one night I was right by his side, and he walked up to a man who was in the last stages of cancer. They’d brought him from the hospital. And if you’ve ever been around someone who is in the last stages of cancer, the odor will almost knock you out. And the odor of that cancer was so foul that when my dad reached forward, he stepped back and threw up all over the floor. I’ll never forget it as long as I live.
And he whirled around to walk the other way. Now I didn’t know what I’m going to tell you now until I was grown. All I was as a little boy and I saw my dad turn away. Then suddenly I saw him go back around and put his arms around the man and take him in his arms and pray for him. I didn’t know what happened in the meantime. It wasn’t until I was grown that my father said, “When I stepped away that night,? He said, “the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, “If you’re not willing to pray for him, you’re not worthy to be My child.?”
Well, that’s when he turned around and took that man in his arms. I saw it. I was there. Now that’s compassion. That’s that irresistible urge to rid the person of the problem. And when that compassion comes up in you, that’s the time to act. That’s the time for you to get your hands on somebody.
The Lord had healed me while I was in a hospital room at the University of Kansas. Because I was facing surgery, and I said dangerous words: “Lord, if You’ll heal me, I’ll serve You.” Now those are dangerous words. And He healed me and spoke to me and told me, ”Your destiny is here.” I didn’t know He’d called me to preach. I certainly didn’t know He’d call me into the healing ministry. And I really didn’t know that the day would come when I would become President of the school that I ran away from. Isn’t God good? Well, give Him a shout tonight.
These students on this campus, more than 20,000 graduates, and another 20,000 who’ve attended ORU – we’ve impacted more than 40,000 lives. There are hundreds of them that are in more than 30 nations this summer in mission teams. They’re all over America; they’re all over the world. You can scarcely go anywhere without bumping into one of them. And you may have them in your church as graduates; you may have them as students here now, or some that are on the way. And I am so thrilled what’s happening on this campus, because ORU has not lost the marriage of academics and the Holy Spirit. That’s what makes the difference. While other schools are lowering their standards – I was telling a group earlier today that one of the premier Christian universities in America, up in the Chicago area, just had a vote of their Board of Regents; and they decided that after more than a hundred years of existence, they’re going to allow their faculty and graduate students to smoke and drink alcohol. And this is one of the most prestigious Christian universities in America. ORU is not lowering our standards. We’re raising our standards in Jesus” name. Raising up a new generation of young men and women filled with the Holy Ghost, academically trained to go into all the world. Now Jesus said we are to go into all the world and preach the gospel. And to me that’s always meant you have to go into every person’s world. That’s why we have more than 60 majors on the undergraduate level. That’s why we have 10 masters” programs, and several doctoral programs. That’s why this place is alive with the power of God.
Summer school is on now. I wish this conference sometime could be held when school is in session. And I wish you could be in a chapel service so I could just peel you off the ceiling when you feel the presence of the Lord like we feel in those services. And I thank God for it.
And there were several in this room, including Pastor Daugherty, who were on the platform that day. And they called me forward, and I stretched out my hands, and I prayed a Holy Ghost prayer over him for the angels of the Lord to encamp about him. I prayed over him, I prayed over his family, over his children. I anointed him by the Holy Spirit, laid my hands on him, and set him. They said, “What gives you this authority?”
Because he asked me. He asked me.
What does the Bible say? “You have not because you ask not.”
He asked me to…and set him in the office of mayor. And I didn’t use any namby-pamby prayer. I prayed in the authority of the name of Jesus, whose name is above every name named in heaven and earth, knowing that at that name every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. That’s the name I used.
They said to me afterwards, “It’s the first time the name of Jesus has been used in a prayer over a mayor in this city over the last ten years.” I’m not dwelling on the past; I’m telling you what’s happening now.
Something is changing in the spirit realm. Joyce Meyer said it very well. Twenty-two percent of Christians voted in the last presidential election. It is a tragedy. And we, the body of Christ, have been sold a terrible bill of goods. We’ve been told that the separation of church and state is something that it is not. We have been told that as citizens we don’t have any rights. We’ve been told that we cannot get up and talk about issues. We’ve been told that we cannot endorse candidates who are godly. And it is a lie and a trick of the enemy.
The law, the laws says that we as a ministry, a church, a ministry, a board, a university, a college, a Bible school, as an entity we cannot endorse or support anyone. But as an individual you can stand up in your pulpit and say whatever you want and be within every bounds of the law of the United States of America.
I am not a politician. I don’t intend to be a politician. I’m a minister of the Gospel. But, friends, I’ve got a right and a responsibility.
Heart, beat normally in the name of Jesus. Every vein, every artery, be unclogged. Carotid arteries, open up in the name of Jesus. Cancer, I speak to you in the authority of the name of Jesus, you take your filthy, rotten hands off God’s property now. Every cancer cells, go.
Leukemia, go. Hodgkin’s disease, go. Cancer in the lymph glands, be healed. Cancer in the lymph nodes, be healed. Cancer in the colon, cancer in the pelvis, cancer in any organ of the body, in Jesus” name, go. You take your hands off God’s property, for we were paid for by the shed blood of Jesus.
Just keep your prayers going. Something’s happening. Something’s happening. Something’s happening. There’s a move of the Spirit right now. Lives are being changed. New callings are coming on people right now. Holy Ghost decisions are being made, ”I’m going to do it.” Some who have been thinking about quitting the ministry are saying, “No, I’m going to stay with it. I’m going to be like that stamp on the letter. I may have taken a lickin” but I’m going to stick with it till I get delivered.”
Thank You, Father. Praise You. We bless You. We worship You. We give You all the honor and all the glory. Thank You, Lord. We’re doing Your business this morning. We’re about our Father’s business all throughout Mabee Center this morning. Thank You, Father. Thank You for the anointing of the Holy Ghost. Thank You, Father.
I prophesy your churches are going to be different. Why? Because you are going to be different. You’re getting new ideas and new concepts, new revelation, new vision. There’s Holy Ghost transformation going on. It’s all over this section right here. The Spirit is moving across this place. (Tongues)
Find somebody else if you can and pray for them. Find someone else you’ve not prayed for. (Tongues) Backs are being healed. Legs are being healed. Feet are being healed. God’s healing disks and vertebrae. Pain is leaving someone now. The Scripture is being fulfilled. As we pray one for another, the healing is coming back to us.
Father, we want to launch out from this place like a rocket, with jet propulsion, with a singular purpose in our heart, to be obedient to the Father, to go and to do and to be what You’ve told us to do.