Evan W. V. Grant
YOU SAY, “I AM PUTTING OUT A FLEECE ABOUT MY HEALING.”
GOD SAYS, “FOR ALL THE PROMISES OF GOD IN HIM ARE YEA, AND IN HIM AMEN, UNTO THE GLORY OF GOD BY US” (II Cor. 1:20). We do not need to put out a fleece to see if God was really telling the truth! Gideon fleeced the Lord to determine whether or not God was actually speaking to him. He had no written promise as we have concerning healing.
No one would put out a fleece to see if salvation is right. We would not put out a fleece to see if the doctrine of the resurrection is true. After I had prayed for a preacher’s healing, he told me that he had fleeced the Lord before prayer saying, “Lord, heal me if you want me to hold a revival.” He was trying to force God to break His promise or else let him hold a revival. A sister said she fleeced the Lord by telling Him to heal a certain lady if He wanted’ her to be re-baptized into a “new issue.” She was trying to force God to lie, or approve of her false doctrine; for He had already promised to heal the lady if she sought with all her heart (Jer. 29:13) .
We may put out a fleece about something the Bible does not specifically promise, if we are led by the Spirit to do so. Then, our fleece should not involve other persons, because that person might not be living close enough to God for God to bring your fleece to pass.
YOU SAY, “PAUL SAID THAT SATAN HINDERED, AND HE MIGHT HINDER ME.” GOD SAYS, “BEHOLD, I GIVE YOU POWER…CHRONIC CASES CURED
OVER ALL THE POWER OF THE ENEMY” (Luke 10:19). To be sure, if you are sick, Satan has hindered you; but, remember, Paul did not mean for us to slouch around and let Satan win the battles. Paul said, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” He said, “In all these things we are MORE than conquerers” (Rom. 8:37).
YOU SAY, “SOME SICKNESS COMES OUT ONLY BY PRAYER AND FASTING.”
GOD SAYS IN HIS WORD THAT THERE WAS ONE CASE WHICH REQUIRED PRAYER AND FASTING; THAT WAS DEVIL POSSESSION. Read carefully and see if you are in that condition (Mk. 9; Matt. 17; Luke 9:37).
It was not the possessed boy who should have done the fasting; it was Peter and the other apostles. The boy was delivered because Jesus already had done the fasting. Neither Jesus nor the apostles ever told the sick ones to fast; often they told them to eat (Mk. 5:43).
Your healing does not necessarily depend on your fasting, but if you feel led to fast, do so and receive your healing.
YOU SAY THAT IT IS NOT GOD’S WILL TO HEAL ALL PEOPLE, BECAUSE GOD SAID THAT NAAMAN’S LEPROSY WOULD CLEAVE TO GE-HAM.
GOD SAYS IN HIS WORD THAT PRAYER CAN CHANGE EVEN THE MIND OF GOD (Ex. 32:14). Hezekiah was healed by prayer after God’s message stated plainly that he would die and not live (Isa. 38). God spared Nineveh when the people fasted and prayed three days. This was after God had already declared the city would be destroyed within forty days (Jonah). Moses prayed and caused the Lord to spare the Children of Israel even after God had said that He would destroy them (Ex. 32:14).
It is God’s will to forgive all sins; it is not His will that any should perish. God does not leave man; man leaves God. Man can cross the dead line (I Jn. 5:16). He can sear his conscience (I Tim. 1:4), receive strong delusions, and become as Esau, who found no place of repentance (Heb. 12:16). Gehazi may have crossed the dead line, by treating God’s power lightly (Matt. 12: 32). If he committed the unpardonable sin, he could never get back to God. Sinners are not promised healing.
The fact remains that God forgives all our iniquities and heals all our diseases (Ps. 103:1-3) as we meet God’s conditions. God forgave Miriam and healed her of the leprosy that had come upon her as a curse (Num. 12).
YOU SAY, “MAYBE I AM GOD’S `JOB’.”
GOD SAID THAT JOB RECEIVED HIS HEALING (Job 42:10). So can you. Job was sick only a few weeks (7:3; 29:2; Scofield note) ; he was a well man about 200 years or more. Job lived before the covenant of healing was given. Fear and pride gripped his heart (Job 3:25; 33:17). He had married an ungodly woman.
Yet Job proved that a man may receive healing from God without the use of medicine. He proved once and for all that it is the Devil who afflicts man, and that it is God who heals. God also wants you to prosper and be in health as Job (III Jn. 2). If you are God’s Job, you will receive your healing; Job did.
YOU SAY, “SOME DID NOT ACCEPT DELIVERANCE THAT THEY MIGHT OBTAIN A BETTER RESURRECTION.”
GOD SAID THIS ABOUT FAITH HEROES, SPEAKING OF MARTYRDOM, NOT SICKNESS.
Their martyrdom was the persecution for Jesus’ sake; sickness never brings glory to God, nor is it rewarded of the Lord.
All these men were strong in faith (Heb. 11) and trusted God for supernatural deliverance. None of them sat back making excuses, contented with bondage, hugging it to them and refusing healing.
YOU SAY, “DANIEL HAD TO PRAY 21 DAYS FOR AN ANSWER.”
GOD SAYS THAT WE HAVE POWER OVER ALL THE POWER OF THE DEVIL (Luke 10:19). Jesus has conquered Satan since then.
Daniel’s prayer was not a prayer for healing, nor for any other recorded promise which was purchased at Calvary (I Pet. 2:24). Then, the prince of a nation was fighting to destroy a disobedient nation; now we are a holy nation (I Pet. 2:9). We have power over the Devil since the Holy Ghost has been given (Acts 1:8; 10:38; Mk. 16:15-18) .
YOU SAY, “WILL GOD HEAL ME IF MY HUSBAND IS A SINNER, AND REFUSES TO PAY TITHES, ETC. . . .?”
GOD SAYS, “. . . AS THOU HAST BELIEVED, SO BE IT DONE UNTO THEE . . .” Matt. 8:13). Your believing does not depend upon another’s salvation. If you believe part of Psalms 103:3, you should believe it all. You may be healed just as you may be saved, regardless of your loved one’s condition.
Neither Jesus nor the Apostles ever turned any sick person away telling him he could not be healed because of another’s sins.
YOU SAY, “MAYBE I AM REAPING WHAT I SOWED.”
GOD SAYS THAT YOU MAY RECEIVE HEAL-ING OF SICKNESS WHICH HAS BEEN CAUSED BY SIN (Ps. 107:20; James 5:14, 15). A sinner could refuse salvation, saying that he must reap as he had sowed. But Jesus suffered our guilt, our shame and our sicknesses.
We can change our crops from thorns to wheat or from wheat to thorns (Jer. 12:13). We can move away from the field so we will not have to reap the harvest (Mic. 6:15). We shall reap good if we faint not (Gal. 6:9).
Jesus has never refused anyone healing because he was responsible for his sickness. If he did, few would ever receive. Oh, the riches of God’s great grace! All may receive!
YOU SAY, “I MUST BE ANOINTED WITH OIL TO RECEIVE HEALING.”
GOD SAYS, “THEY SHALL LAY HANDS ON THE SICK AND THEY SHALL RECOVER” (Mk. 16:18).
If the lame man at the Beautiful Gate had believed this excuse, he would never have been healed (Acts 3). Oil does not heal any more than water saves a sinner. God uses various channels and ways to bring healing to His people. He used men who were not elders in healing the sick (Acts, chs. 7, 8, and 9). He used the seventy.
In James 5, oil was used when the elders went to the sick person; we use oil in church services, although we have no Scripture for it.
Bible characters were healed by a command, a word, a touch, spit, clay, a shadow, an apron, a handkerchief, a pool, a river, or whatever way the Spirit directed. Gifts of healing are in the plural. There are diversities of operations (I Cor. 12).
YOU SAY, “THE SPIRIT IS WILLING, BUT THE FLESH IS WEAK.”
GOD SAYS, “WALK IN THE SPIRIT AND YE SHALL NOT FULFILL THE LUST OF THE FLESH” (Gal. 5:16). Why not move out of the seventh chapter of Romans over into the eighth?
The quotation used for the above excuse has no connection with healing (Matt. 26:41). The disciples merely went to sleep, at an hour when the power of darkness was great, and before they were endued with the Holy Ghost. Peter was delivered from prison although he was asleep; Eutychus was healed even though he went to sleep and fell out the window (Acts 20:9).
Sleeping in the natural will not hinder God, but don’t go to sleep spiritually! As many as are led by the Spirit are the sons of God. The Spirit will lead you to healing.
YOU SAY, “HEALING MAY BE IN THE MILLENIUM.”
JESUS SAID, “THIS DAY IS THIS SCRIPTURE FULFILLED IN YOUR EARS” (Luke 4:21).
God’s name has always been “I AM.” It is now, and always will be. He is a PRESENT help in time of need. NOW is the accepted time. We may receive the earnest of our inheritance here in this life. Our inheritance includes life for both soul and body.
The gifts are set in the Church (I Cor. 12). We are in the Church period now. The Devil will be bound during the millennium, and the curse which includes pain and sickness will be lifted. We need healing NOW in this life. And, thank God, He has provided it for whosoever will! (James 5:14; I Pet. 2:24).
Pastor Reports 650 Receive Holy Ghost
Baptism in One Meeting
H. C. Noah, Pastor, Oak Cliff Assembly of God, Dallas, Texas
We recently closed one of the greatest Holy Ghost meetings in the history of Oak Cliff Assembly, with Evangelist W. V. Grant. For months the people met each morning at 10 o’clock for prayer. The revival began in April and continued on for 71/2 weeks, day and night, a number praying through to a definite experience in each service.
People came hundreds of miles from a number of distant towns and were saved and filled with the Spirit in the old time way. Most of this number were grown men and women. Some of them were from 70 to 90 years and had never been saved before.
Souls were filled with the Holy Ghost at home, sitting in the services, in the balcony, in the prayer rooms, at the altar, and standing up in the church. Some who had been seeking the baptism for years received in five minutes. Many denominations were represented among those filled, such as a Baptist minister, a Methodist minister’s wife (with a Ph. D.) Some were from the Bible College, Nazarenes, Catholics, Church of Christ, and many other laymen and teachers from various denominations.
There were around 650 filled with the Spirit, and a great number refilled. Never before in the history of the church did that many people receive the Baptism in the same number of weeks. It is impossible to know the exact number saved or healed. Several completely blind and partially blind persons were healed, some of them so perfectly that they could read fine print. Scum which had covered the eye-ball in one case, disappeared instantly. People discarded walking canes, glasses, braces, etc. A little boy who had never walked in his life is still walking perfectly. Many stiff joints are now working smoothly and without pain. Ears, without eardrums for many years, are hearing, and stone deaf ears can hear a whisper. The deaf mute was healed, the sense of smell restored, goiters left instantly, cancers left and many other growths disappeared. Arthritis, heart trouble, and twisted backs were also healed by the Hand of the Lord. Many were healed in the audience, others at home, over the telephone or the radio. We can hardly think of any disease or affliction that was not healed. God has been so good to us and the power of God continued to fall after the meeting had closed.
“CHURCH MEMBERSHIP INCREASED FIFTY PER CENT”, Says Pastor By Rev. James V. Courtney, Pastor, Central Assembly of God Church, Baton Rouge, La.
For four weeks God poured out His Spirit in the Grant revival, in Baton Rouge. Each night seekers went forward, as the altar call was given, as many as 125 in one night. It is impossible to know the exact number of those who were saved and filled with the Holy Spirit.
Night after night, we saw the blind, mute, deaf, lame and afflicted healed by God’s power. Those who had been in total silence since birth were enabled to hear.
One lady returned and testified that after prayer, 12 cancers had left her face and that a large growth disappeared.
A lady with one leg shorter than the other testified that God had made her leg normal, after the Evangelist prayed.
A little boy, afflicted with polio, was healed and enabled to run when his braces were removed!
My church membership ‘has increased 50 per cent and we have had the greatest crowds in the history of our church! All the cooperating churches have reported that their memberships have increased likewise.
This sermon comes from the book “Gift of Faith”
This is copyrighted and may be used for study and research purposes only.
