All right. Now the Holy Spirit is big enough to deal with every single situation
of that kind here tonight. You can receive individual
attention not from Brother Prince but from the Holy Spirit. Just take
a moment to ponder on your life. Look back over it. Consider if it
has the marks that I've described. All right. Now we're going
to say it, you say it after me. Thank you, Lord Jesus that on the cross you were made a curse that I might be redeemed from the curse and enter into the blessing. And because of what you did tonight Lord Jesus in your precious name I release myself from every curse over me and my family and I claim the blessing that you purchased for me with your blood. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Let's give Him a little praise, shall we? Now that's the last of the barriers. There's one other thing
you need to be aware of. When we come to pray for the sick
sometimes sicknesses are caused by or associated with
the presence of evil spirits. And the ministry of healing frequently includes the ministry
of driving out evil spirits. It isn't done in some churches,
but someone who does do it and did do it, Jesus, that's right. Let's look just at one example. I say
this so you come mentally prepared. Luke 4. Luke 4. Verses 40-41. Luke 4:40-41. Now when the sun was
setting, all those who had anyone sick with various diseases brought them to Him, and He laid His hands on every
one of them, and healed them. And demons, or evil spirits
also came out of many, crying out. Notice that associated with the ministry of
laying on of hands of the sick for healing there was the driving out of demons. Because when the supernatural power
of God comes into operation evil spirits just can't stand it
any longer, they have to come out. There are two different main ways in which evil spirits are
associated with sickness. The first is they are
direct causes of sickness. There are spirits of infirmity,
of pain, of crippling and of death, to name only
four that we deal with commonly. For instance, many people who
have some kind of spinal curvature or deformity of the spine,
that is caused by a crippling spirit. And for that person to
receive full release it necessary for that crippling
spirit to be driven out. Jesus encountered a woman who was bent double
and couldn't stand up straight. He didn't treat it as a physical sickness, He said this woman has been bound
by a spirit of infirmity 18 years. He loosed her from the spirit and she
immediately straightened up. We have dealt with all these many times. I don't think I can go into details now. Except perhaps the spirit of death
which is very, very common. And the way this works is to cause
a person to be infirm and weakly and ultimately to die untimely. And such a person somehow tends
to have a morbid outlook on life. They'll tend to look on the dark side of
things. They may tend to wear dark clothes. There's something morbid about them.
I've had to say to several young ladies: I suggest you don't wear black any longer. You may think this is strange
but there's association between... I'm not saying people
should never wear black. There are just some people for whom it
isn't altogether wise to wear black. Ruth and I probably have dealt
with hundreds of cases of people who need deliverance
from the spirit of death. I think we're going to
do something that I didn't plan. We discovered as always
the right thing to do is replace the negative by the positive. See, one way the spirit of death
comes in is you get discouraged, disheartened, oppressed
and you say, I might as well be dead. I wish I were dead.
What's the good of living? When you say that, that's an invitation
to the spirit of death to come in and take over. And it doesn't
need many invitations. One of the most dangerous things
a person could ever say is: I wish I were dead. Well, we're going to unsay that. We're going to give you an opportunity
to revoke the negative things you've been saying about yourself. Psalm 118:17, the psalmist says: I shall not die but live and declare the works of the Lord.
That's a positive decision. You say that after me the first
time and we'll say it together until we make this place
full of positive faith. Now, don't try to say it with me
to start with but after me. I shall not die but live and declare the works of the Lord. You've got good memories,
you can say it with me this time. I shall not die but live and declare the works of the Lord. Stand up and say it, there's something
about being in a standing position. I'm not going to lie down under the
devil, I'm not going to let him trample over my emotions and my attitudes. All right. For the third time,
are you ready? I shall not die but live and declare the works of the Lord. Now, it's wonderful to say it
into the air and say it to me. I'd like to suggest that every
one turns to somebody looks them full in the eyes and says
to them: I shall not die but live and declare the works of the Lord. Let's make a proclamation
of praise on the basis of that. Praise you, Lord Jesus. Thank you,
Lord Jesus. Glory to your name. Victory, victory, victory
through the blood of the Lamb and through the name of Jesus.
Amen and amen and amen. Now feel free to be seated if you can. We're going to come to
the actual ministry to the sick. There are many different
scriptural ways to minister to the sick. But we are going to follow Mark 16:17: These signs shall
follow them that believe. In my name, Jesus said,
they shall lay hands on the sick. And what happens? And they shall recover. What shall they do? Recover. It doesn't say that all
of them will be instantly healed. Sometimes healing is instant,
sometimes it's progressive. But it comes. When I met Ruth in 1977 and
she was virtually an invalid on her back. I laid hands on her and prayed for
her and said, now, keep the plug in. Stay with your plug
into God's power outlet. The way to keep the plug in is keep thanking Him until the
healing is completed. That was in June.
She kept the plug in till November and in November her healing
was instantly completed. She had a ruptured disc in her spine
and a spine that had been curved from childhood. She has no ruptured
disc and she has a straight spine. But... But she didn't get an instant miracle.
She got a progressive work. Jesus says they shall recover but
He doesn't say how long it will take. Sometimes it's instantaneous.
Praise God, but not always. Some of you will be
instantaneously healed. Some of you will get a healing that
begins. If it begins, keep your plug in. If you say as you walk out of
here: I didn't get healed do you know what you've done?
Pulled the plug out and nothing more will happen after that.
If you say, They laid hands on me God touched me, I'm going to keep
thanking Him till it's complete, it will be completed. Now, the way we're gonna do it and it's rather difficult. Or let me
just check something out first. Of all the people in this auditorium, how
many would wish to be prayed for? Well you see that, brothers?
We've got a busy evening ahead of us. I told you it would be like that. We are going to do our best.
More than our best we cannot do. Ruth and I here are to minister to you
and we have seven other teams either couples or threesomes. All of them called to the ministry with proven ministries
and anointed of God. And they and we together
are going to minister to the sick by the laying on of hands. We are going to lay hands on you
in the name of Jesus. Now, this is not going
to be a counselling session. So, don't come with your life story
or even a medical history. All we want to know is arthritis a weak heart a bladder infection,
'I can't have children', menstrual cramps, whatever it is, try to say it
in one short sentence. After all we are not going
to heal you, God is. And God knows your problem
even before you state it. Come with this attitude
that in coming to these ministers of the Lord I'm obeying God's Word,
I'm doing what He told me to do and I'm not looking
to brother Prince and Ruth or to any of the other
teams for my healing. I'm looking through them to Jesus
who told them to lay hands on the sick. Please don't focus on human personalities because they can't do much for you
when it comes to healing. Jesus can do anything. Now, we are going to seek to maintain
an atmosphere of prayer and worship. If you're a child of God I don't
want you to be just a spectator. I want you to be prayerfully involved. Have the same attitude as if it
was your brother or your sister or your parent,
who is up here being prayed for. And we will with the help of our
worship leaders from time to time have periods of praise and worship. We've learned by experience
that in an atmosphere of worship it is much easier for people
to receive healing. So, please let there be no spectators. Don't any of you get involved in a lot of
idle conversation with your neighbours. Although the preaching is coming
to an end, the real part of the service is beginning. And we are
not to time conscious. If you need to leave at any time feel
free to go without embarrassment but we are going to get on as long as
we feel God would have us to continue. Usually speaking including the teaching
it's very rare that our healing services last less than five hours. We've
had some that lasted eight hours. That's very short by comparison
with those of Jesus. Some of His lasted three days. We've got the wrong attitude about time.
Isn't that right? God, I can give you ten minutes.
What can You do for me from there? Well, that's between you and God. Could we begin to get the platform lined
up? Move the chairs to the back? And before we actually begin to minister
those of us who are in these teams we are going to unite
in the center of the platform join hands with one another and
invoke the anointing of God upon us. And by that act we are going to acknowledge
that we can do nothing of our own selves. It's only by the grace
and the power of God. We can remove the pulpit. It's a
beautiful pulpit. I'm grateful for it. Now, am I still audible? I am. Wonderful. Could those of us that
are going to be in the initial teams could you be with your team partners?
We'll join hands. I'll probably need to be at this side
so I can look at the people. Let's leave that part open
so the people can see us. You have a word of knowledge?
We'll do this first. We're just gonna humble ourselves
before God. In fact I believe it would please God
if we would kneel down before you all and simply say: God, we are
putting ourselves at your disposal. Let each of us just pray and cast
ourselves before the mercy of God. O God, we present ourselves
before You now as your servants your servants and your handmaidens. Lord, we acknowledge that
there is nothing in ourselves. It's not by might, it's not by power. It's by your Holy Spirit. Blessed Holy Spirit, we acknowledge You,
the third person of the Godhead, the One who holds
the key to the storehouse. We just submit and yield
ourselves to the Spirit of God. We evoke the Spirit of God
into this whole auditorium and upon this entire congregation. Holy Spirit, You are welcome.
Come amongst us. Reveal and glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. Touch the people of God. Manifest the mercy of God tonight,
the victory that was won by the death and resurrection
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let that victory over sin and over
sickness and over demon powers be manifested through us
here tonight, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Glory to God. Thank You, Lord. Now, if you kind of line up from
one end to the other in your teams just as separate entities. Now, we are going to need
the help of our ushers. The ushers have got
a very responsible task here. We are not gonna
call you forward by categories. We're going to say that those of you
who want prayer will come forward. Don't move yet. And listen, I want you to
be very cooperative with the ushers and with me. One thing
we have learned by experience: If people become disorderly and
disrespectful of the Holy Spirit He moves elsewhere.
If the Holy Spirit moves we might as well close this meeting cause without Him
nothing is going to happen. The more you cooperate with the leadership,
the more you please the Holy Spirit. But before we begin this general ministry I'm gonna call my wife forward. God
has given her a word of knowledge about someone here tonight,
a specific condition. Now, God does this to create faith
and to encourage the person who may be indicated, because
God wants to show you that He loves you so much, He has
pinpointed your particular need tonight. He's gonna show you that He
knows it without you telling Him. And if you are the person
we invite you to come forward and respond as soon
as the description is given we will pray for you.
Come forward expecting to be healed. Let me give you just an example. We
were in England about a year ago and it was not a healing service.
It was just a morning church service. But before I began to speak
Ruth said: I have a word of knowledge. Knowing my British people
I said to them: Now, listen don't get stuck in your seat.
Don't be embarrassed. Don't wait. If you are the one, come up.
Don't let satan hold you back. Ruth said: There is someone here this
morning who is afraid she's going blind in one eye. There was an Indian
lady in her sari in the second row and before Ruth was halfway
through her sentence she was up on the platform.
She said: That's me. That's the only reason I came,
because I'm afraid I'm going blind. I said: Are you a Christian?
She said: I'm a pure Hindu. But that was the only way God
could have got that woman. Can you speak into that? We probably need another
microphone available somewhere. The person that God has showed me
has a blocked right ear. Now, I don't know if this person is deaf. It's a man past youth. Come up here. That's a tactical description. Well I knew the man was middle-aged. Come right up. Ushers,
if he needs help just help him up. I need one of you ushers as
a catcher in case anything happens. You know the Lord Jesus?
- I do. You do. Are you serving Him
and living for Him? How long do you have
this blockage in your ear? For years.
- Are you believing now that God's going to touch you?
- I believe that the Lord will heal me. Thanks You, Father. Now, Lord, in the name
of Jesus, we release him. In Jesus' name. Thank You, Lord. Did you have difficulty in hearing before?
- Yes. It was your right ear?
- It was this ear. That's the right ear. Say what you hear. Thank you, Jesus.
- Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. You're hearing a whisper. What do you feel about that?
- It's magnificent. Can we praise God? Amen. Thank you, Lord. Thank You, thank You, thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord Jesus. God bless you.
