Transcription
About why healing is God's passion and what Biblical healing means in our world. Ideas that have kept me inspired, truths that have anchored our ministry through these many years. Concepts that have kept me balanced, facts that have kept my faith alive.
Matthew 4:23 and 24: "Jesus went about all Galilee teaching and preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing all manner of sickness and disease among the people." That's our ministry, isn't it? That's not the ministry of the church per se. That's the ministry of every minister. It's the ministry of every person, of every Christian, of every believer.
"His fame went throughout the country. They brought to him all sick people with diverse diseases and torments, and those possessed with devils, and lunatics, and those with paralysis." And to heal them were healers. That's our mission. And great multitudes followed him. Multitudes will follow us when we heal them.
The closing day of our meeting in Murai, India. There was a great field of people, probably 100,000 people. They were so beautiful out on a big flat field. And the platform was covered full of Indian preachers, pastors, all in their white clothes, beautiful. And as they sang, I asked them to wave their hand, and they did. And it looked like a field of ripened grain. Their their brown skin, it and the sun was right. It really looked beautiful. And as they as they waved and sang, it it was like heaven, you know.
And I hollered while everybody sang, I said, "Preachers, some of the Indian preachers needed perking up a little bit, you know. They can tend to be a little a little hesitant." And I said, "Preachers, look at your country. Your country is saying to you, 'Preach me your Christ with miracles, and we'll follow you.'" That's what they're saying. "Preach me the Jesus of miracles, and we'll follow what you tell us to do."
I believe that great multitudes followed him. John, John 17, he said, "As thou, Father, has has sent me into the world, even so have I sent them into the world." You can't make it any clearer than that. He came and showed us how to do it.
One of the great things that Daisy said. She was full of little short statements like this. But she said one day, "Honey, uh, why did Jesus come?" And I puckered up to give her a good pontifical answer, like we husbands do to our wives, you know. And uh, and I saw a twinkle in her eye, and I figured I better shut up and I listened. She said, "He came to show us God." Well, I said, "That's what I was going to tell you." But he, he, she said, "That's not all. He came also to show us us." And I had never heard anybody say that.
"As my Father has sent you, even so send I you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world." You can't beat that. That's reliable. You can count on it. I count on that. That's not something to read. That's not that's not just words to me. That's not a ritual or a ceremony.
I believe that when you walk out on a platform amidst a sea of hurting people, surrounded by demoniacs, lepers, witch doctors, people dying and crying and moaning, when you walk out there, you cling to something. What you cling to are promises like that: "Lo, I am with you always." And when I walk out there, I practice, as Kenyan said so often wrote so often, "practice the presence of Jesus."
I believe in Paul's revelation: "Christ in you, in me." Jesus Christ alive in me, in the same way that God was alive in in Christ. You believe that? I believe that. And when I walk out there before those people, I depend on that. That must be fact, otherwise there's not anything I can do for those people. I don't happen to have any tingles or gifts or blessings or touches or fires or anything in me that uh, I've never had anything like that. I I'm I'm I'm nothing at all. But I have this, and this is what I bank on. He has chosen us. He trusts us. He sends us. I'm talking to you. He sends us to heal the hurting people of our world, to value and to esteem them as His special creation, to love and serve Him by loving and serving them. That's the secret.
I want to plant some dynamic seeds in you about the believer's mission of healing. Seed power is ultimate power. Seed power is the only absolute truth. True prophecy: what is planted will come up. You can bank on wheat if you plant wheat. Never fails. True prophecy. We have the power to plant what the people need, and we can bank on it if we trust it.
The greatest parable Jesus gave concerned seed power, and we, we must, we must ponder this until we come to the place we trust the seed. We believe in the seed. Often believers need to take a fresh look at life to realize how they can help heal a broken world.
The worst disease that a person can have is the deadly virus of a surrendered will, of an empty life, of neutrality, without focus, without commitment to do something. When you reach that place, you're dying. The greatest revelation that God has ever given to humankind is sending Jesus to show us that His will is to bring health and dynamic living to people. That is His mission. That is our mission. That keeps a smile on our face, a spring in our steps. We're not duds. We're somebody, arrive, important, with something good to say to everybody. We have life, and we transmit that life. That's His mission. That's our mission.
I'm alive. He's alive. I'm alive. God is a lifegiver. He can even give life to the dead. You know how we know that? He came back from the dead. If He had not come back from the dead, we can not be raised from the dead. But He came back. We can come back.
If you're dead tonight, spiritually, if you're dragging, if you've lost the fire that this conference was put on to share with you, come alive tonight. So many people are already dead while their hearts are still beating. That's a tragedy. In one way or another, they've lost their dreams, their ambitions, their desires for a better life. It's tragic to lose that. They've surrendered their fight for self-esteem. They've compromised their potential. They've settled. What a tragedy to settle for mediocrity. Don't do it. They've accepted nights of tears. Don't do it. They're dead while they live. Don't die when your heart's still beating. They're boxed in their negative world. They've chosen to give up. Don't do it. As long as you can move, don't do it. As long as you can talk and touch and bless, you can heal. You're a healer for the world. Don't do it. They've chosen. People have chosen to die when they could choose to live.
Tonight, those kind of people, if there's anybody like that left in this Fire Conference on this closing night, you can experience the greatest miracle in the world. You can come back from the dead tonight. Hallelujah. What a wonderful thing to be able to say that, say that with conviction, and know it can take place. That's the healing that God wills for you. That's every Christian's mission of healing.
In my book, "The Best of Life," on page 131, I wrote something that is good for people like that. I wrote this: "God has given me a power secret which I alone control. Soak this up. Listen to it. Get it off the tapable. Repeat it. Get the book. Read it. It is my right of choice, my ability to decide how much I want out of life, how high I want to climb, how rich I want to be, how long I want to live, how much power I want to have, or what goals I want to reach." Say, "I'm listening." Say, "I'm hearing." "I'm hearing. I inform myself. I set my targets and I achieve my goals because I choose to win. I have decided that God and me cannot."