From Heaven Come God's Weapons for the Church

by

Norvel Hayes

(Volume number one of a nine part series on The Gifts of the Spirit.)

"Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant"

I Corinthians 12:1.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

God Has a. Big Key Ring

Chapter 2

Getting Into Shape to Receive

Chapter 3

It, Isn't, Easy

Chapter 4

Tongues and Interpretation—A Mighty Weapon

Chapter 5

Let the Fire of God Burn It Out

1

God Has a Big Key Ring

From the Spirit flows victory for everybody that belongs to God's Church; for everybody that believes in the power of the Spirit.

"Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led. Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal" (I Corinthians 12:1-7).

You might say, "Well, I got a manifestation from the Spirit, I got blessed."

Brother and Sister, Jesus blesses you because He loves you. Jesus could bless you today, but you could die next week with cancer. Is that clear? You get things from God because you BELIEVE THE BIBLE.

There is a lot more in the Bible to believe than just believing that God is a good God. Now God is a good God and you're supposed to believe that God is a good God. But God has things He wants to give you.

He's got nine gifts He has given to the Church. And all those manifestations are supposed to be manifested in the Church. They are given to profit withal—to every man and to every woman, to everybody that belongs to God's Church.

They come down from heaven. THEY ARE CALLED WEAPONS.

You're in a battle. You say, "What do you mean I'm in a battle? The battle has already been won. It's already been won by Jesus."

But you're not Jesus. Is that clear?

The battle has already been won by Jesus. The price has already been paid. On the cross, the price has already been paid by the stripes on His back for your healing. He's already been to hell. He's already taken the keys away from the devil.

He's got a set of keys to give to you.

Jesus said, The Church that I build, the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. But the Church needs the gifts of the Spirit operating in it, God's weapons, to let you in on what the devil is trying to do to you.

The gifts give you power, by faith, to do anything. Bring healing, miracles. Tongues and interpretation to build you up. Prophecy to build the whole church up.

Jesus said, When you get born again by the Spirit of God and become part of the Church, I'll give to you a set of keys, Believer.

And that's all you are ever going to get. That's all, on this earth. You inherited heaven when you got born again. But this is the thing that the Lord Jesus Christ wants you to understand: you're not in heaven, yet. You're living here. You have to go to work every day. And you have to fight devils. There's a great storehouse of blessings in heaven, for the believer.

Jesus said, "I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven..." (Matthew 16:19). There are a lot of things in the kingdom of heaven. But that's no sign that you'll ever get them. It all depends if you find the right key or not.

There is one key on the great key ring of God that says divine healing. That's no sign that you'll ever be healed, though. It all depends on if you take the time to dig into God's Word and find the key to healing. Even after you find it, you have to pull it out of there and take it and stick it into heaven by faith. And you have to turn it yourself (put action to your faith). And when you do it, healing flows down to you.

Of course, if you haven't memorized some healing scriptures and don't know where they're at in the Bible, and haven't taken the time to find the right key, you might as well order the flowers now if you're dying because you're not going to be healed. Not maybe, you are not going to be healed.

I had a good Christian mother who died with cancer at 37 years of age leaving three little children on the earth crying and wringing their hands because their mother was gone, never to come home again. I was a ten-year-old cotton-headed boy when my mother died. She never found the key to healing.

After I prayed and went into heaven and God started talking to me, I said, "Why didn't my mother get healed, Jesus? She loved you."

He said, "The church she went to never taught her anything about how to receive My divine healing power."

You only know what you've been taught. That's all you'll ever know. You won't ever know anything else.

There is a key on God's key ring that says success, financial success. Most people never find it.

There's a key on there that says spiritual success:

God takes you into the things of the Spirit.

God wants the things of the Spirit to go forth. There are all kinds of good things in the set of keys that Jesus gives to the believer. But if you're not a student of the Scriptures, you'll never find the key. That's the sad and sick part. If you don't study the Scriptures, and don't take time to dig and read, you won't ever get it.

Things from heaven don't fall on you just to be doing it, or because God wants them to. Things from heaven, all things in the New Testament, fall on you because you believe the Bible and your faith pulls them out of heaven down to earth to you.

Jesus said, The Church that I build, the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. It's not fair for sick people to walk into the church and have to go home sick. Have the ministry of the laying on of hands and I'll guarantee you, God's healing power will flow from your hands into the sick person.

Go out to the byways, to your neighbors and lay hands on them in Jesus' name and watch the healing power of God go into them. Some of them will accept it and some won't; but that won't have anything to do with it. It will come through you.

Jesus has given you the keys. Read the Bible for yourself and find out what's in there. Memorize what you get from God. Know and memorize the 12th chapter of I Corinthians. Know that it is alive and God wants to give you the weapons.

If you'll get the 12th chapter of I Corinthians in you, it'll be just like anything else, when you need something, the Holy Ghost will come and begin to manifest Himself to help you. I don't care if it's the gift of faith, the gift of working of miracles or what it is. But He'll come as the Spirit wills. You can't make God do it. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man severally as He will.

"For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healings by the same Spirit; To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues; But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will. For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ ... But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.

And if they were all one member, where were the body?

But now are they many members, yet but one body.

And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you" (I Corinthians 12:8-12, 18-21).

You need all the gifts of the Spirit. You can't say, "I've got healing, I don't need miracles." Or, "I've got miracles, I don't need prophecy." Or, "I've got wisdom, I don't need tongues and interpretation."

God says you're going to need every one of them. There's coming a time in your life when you'll need every one of the gifts of the Spirit, because they are God's weapons to fight the devil with.

I don't care how much you know the Bible. I don't care how much you worship God. I don't care how much you shout. The devil is not dead. And he's going to try and attack you. You have to watch yourself real close. The devil is nuts. You watch yourself real close so you won't believe that spirit that's trying to come to you and appear as an angel of light to make you think things are right that aren't.

The Bible says that in the last days the devil is going to perform miracles. So, I don't even believe half of what I see and hardly anything of what I hear. Just because you see a miracle performed, that's no sign that the fellow is sent from God. God has already warned you. In the last days the devil is going to perform miracles.

You need for the sweet Holy Spirit to manifest himself. But you have to believe in the manifestations of the Holy Spirit to get them.

You need every one of the gifts of the Spirit.

The gift of faith is a gift of power where God's power explodes and comes on you and changes you into what God needs you to be at that moment. The gift of healing is God's healing power that comes into manifestation all of a sudden. The third power gift is the working of miracles. (One time a little baby was in a well and they couldn't get him out. All of a sudden, God made a big rock right in front of them. They stepped up on the rock and got the baby out. That's a miracle.) That kind of power is available.

There are three revelation gifts. The word of wisdom points toward the future. (When you need to learn about things from the Spirit coming to you in the future, God will give you a word of wisdom, as the Spirit wills.) The word of knowledge is a manifestation of the Spirit where God shows you the condition of things in your house, in your business, in somebody's life that He wants you to help. He shows you the condition of it right now, so you can do something about it now. The other revelation gift is the discerning of spirits. The Holy Spirit will manifest himself and show you some spirit that He doesn't want you involved in (if somebody has a flaky spirit), a spirit that's not of God.

The vocal gifts are prophecy, tongues and interpretation. Prophecy is when God's power comes to you and the Holy Spirit manifests himself on the inside of you and the ministry gift begins to boil up supernaturally, words in a known language (words that you know) that God wants you to get up and speak out. Tongues: the Spirit of God will manifest himself and tongues will begin to flow out of you and flow out of you. Then God's power will come on another person in manifestation and give him the interpretation to explain and tell in English what you said in tongues.

That's God power. That's the sum and substance of the gifts of the Spirit.

2

Getting Into Shape to Receive

"How can I get myself in shape to receive the gifts of the Spirit?" you ask.

There is only one way that I know of. You first of all have to be delivered from yourself. As long as you are

involved in some old denominational spirit and you think that God works like this and God works like this, and my people did this and my people did that, you have to get all that junk out of you. You have to pull every bit of that out of you. The Holy Spirit is inside you now.

How do you get it out of you?

You get it out of you by the fire of God. God's got fire in His Spirit. Do you understand that?

Remember on the day of Pentecost when God sent fire with His Spirit? The fire of God follows God's Spirit. They began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance and tongues of fire were on top of their heads.

What does fire do? It burns. The fire of God burns. It burns, demolishes, does away, makes things disappear that don't need to be there.

John the Baptist told them He was coming. "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire" (Matthew 3:11).

There are so many full gospel people that should know better but don't know very much about the fire of God. The fire of God is so important to get a person delivered, to burn the chaff out.

In other words, you have to be delivered from yourself so you can receive what the Holy Ghost wants to give you.

Whether you know it or not, you are your own worst enemy. I mean, you don't have to do what your mate does. You don't have to do what your children do. I don't care if your mate doesn't pray. You've got the privilege to go in the back room and close the door and pray for two hours and worship God yourself, if you want to.

You can't go by what somebody else does. You have to pray yourself. You have to get hold of God yourself. You have to worship God yourself.

Your mate may worship God three hours a day and pray two hours a day, but that's not going to get you any victory from heaven. You've got to do it yourself. Jesus is a personal Jesus. You can't live on your mate's experience from God. You can't live on your relatives' experience from God.

You can't live with God because your mother was a good Christian. You've got to bow down your knees before Almighty God, yourself and make Him the living God of your life.

The Spirit world is real. And all of these beautiful gifts that God wants to give to you are weapons from God to the Church. They are weapons to do away with the works of the devil. God doesn't want His believers, His children, putting up with the devil.

And you wouldn't have to put up with him if you didn't listen to him. Jesus said don't listen to the devil. You can't believe anything he says. The truth is not in him.

You just have to watch his deceiving power. He'll try to put a part of a truth over to you. And oh, it will seem so right to you. But after you've done it you'll say, "How did I ever get into this mess?"

You didn't pray through and get the mind of God. You did it just because it seemed right.

The devil will give you four or five things that seem right and tell you one big lie so he can trick you and get you all goofed up, messed up, weak and confused.

BUT GOD'S GOT WEAPONS TO LET YOU KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON.

"But Brother Norvel, it's hard for me to receive those. How do I get myself in shape for them?"

Be willing to listen to the three vocal gifts: tongues, interpretation, prophecy. When they roll out of somebody supernaturally, and the Holy Spirit witnesses to you, be willing to study the interpretation, study prophecy.

Don't just sit there and hear tongues and interpretation and say, "Well that sure was nice. Praise the Lord." Buy the tape. Find out what God said. Take it home and study it. The longer you play it, when it comes from God, the more beautiful it will be. Every time you play it, it will get sweeter and sweeter just like the Bible every time you get in it.

Now, why can't you receive those weapons from God?

Is there some reason why you can't receive those nine gifts of the Spirit like you're supposed to? Sure there's a reason why you can't.

"There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit" (Romans 8:1-4).

Do you walk after the Spirit? I want to know what the Spirit inside of me wants. You have to know that. You have to want that. You have to walk after that. You have to hunger after that. All of those mistakes that we have made in the past, we just flat weren't interested in what the Spirit wanted. We got ourselves involved in it. Me, me, me. And that's why you got in trouble, too.

You see, the righteousness of the law is not going to be fulfilled in you unless you walk after the Spirit. YOU HAVE TO BE HUNGRY FOR THE SPIRIT.

"For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.

"For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

"Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

"So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

"But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

"And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

"But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.

"Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.

"For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

"For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God" (Romans 8:5-14).

The Lord reminded me of something. Nobody ever led my mother into healing scriptures. That's why she couldn't get what rightfully belonged to a son of God; because nobody ever led her. If someone had led her truly into healing scriptures then she could have gotten her healing.

The sons and daughters of God are robbed for only one reason—not two—just one: Because they are not led by the Spirit of God. They are led by doctors. They are led by themselves. In other words, that means THEY ARE LED BY FLESH. People will lead you every way except the Bible way.

"For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father" (Romans 8:15).

The Spirit of adoption where we cry Father. We walk around crying Father.

"Oh, Father, healing is for me. Oh, Father, miracles are for me. Father, the gifts of the Spirit are for me. Father, a clear mind is for me. Father, financial success is for me."

But you have to say that. You have to SAY THAT IT'S FOR YOU. You have to say those things. As long as you wonder, it won't work. God doesn't answer wondering prayers. He answers faith prayers. He answers confession prayers.

"The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God" (Romans 8:16).

Does the Spirit of God ever manifest himself to you? That's a sign that you're a child of God.

All right. If you and I are children of God, why don't we believe our Father? If we'd only believe Him, we could receive everything He wants to give us.

He is the F ather and you are the child. And the Spirit that is in you will bear witness that you are a child of God.

The Bible says that your Father will not withhold one good thing from you. He'll give it all to you.

3

It Isn't Easy

You might say, "Is it easy to yield yourself to the Spirit of God? I mean, if all of these weapons come to you supernaturally, is it easy for a human being to yield himself to God's power so they'll come through?"

No, it's not.

And when it first starts in your life, it will usually scare you. It did me.

The Lord Jesus tried to get me to prophesy. He put words in me and tried to get me to prophesy, and I'd hold on to the church pew. He'd shake me and I'd cry. I would weep and hold onto the church pew. I would not do it. It scared me too bad.

He would boil up in me, giving me the words, but I didn't want to get up and say them out. I loved the Lord. But I didn't want to get up and say them out because I was afraid I’d say something wrong. And I just wouldn't do it. I mean, for two or three years I hung onto the back of the pew.

Oh, tongues and interpretation can bring confidence to you. It can build a foundation in you.

I was in Tulsa, Oklahoma, at Brother Hagin's apartment late one Sunday afternoon. We were having a prayer meeting, a little meeting. Brother and Sister Goodwin were also there. We were there praying.

All of a sudden, Sister Goodwin came over to me and starting speaking in tongues to me. And when she got through speaking in tongues, Brother Goodwin just walked over, and this is the word that he said to me. "Now Son, those words that I've been putting in you, I want you to get up and speak those words out. Now I want you to go home and I want you to get permission from your pastor to get up in the church and speak those words out. Now if your pastor refuses you,

I'm going to give you the ministry anyway (but just not there, in other words)."

I went home and asked the pastor. I said, "Pastor, I was praying in Kenneth Hagin's home and an Assembly of God pastor and his wife were there. She spoke in tongues and he interpreted and the Lord said He's going to put prophecy on me, words on me. He wants me to get up and speak them out. Jesus said for me to come and get permission from you. When it comes on me, do you want to give me permission to speak them out?"

"Oh yes, Brother Norvel," he said, "you know you can obey God in this church. Just go ahead and obey the Lord."

So I said, "Well, we'll just have to wait and see."

And sure enough, it came about two weeks later on Sunday night, at the end of the service. God moved on me, and melted me.

Since that tongues and interpretation, I'd been thinking about that. And that ministered to me, gave me strength and confidence.

I got up and spoke them out. After I spoke them out, as soon as I got the last word out, God came on me so strong and started blessing me so much, I just fell on my knees and started crying and weeping and getting blessed. When I spoke them out the first time, God blessed me so much I couldn't hardly stand it. You talk about getting blessed! Boy, I wish He'd bless me like that all the time now. But after you get used to doing it, you don't get that kind of blessing every time you do it. I thought He was going to carry me away.

What did He do that for?

I found out He loves me and He was petting me because I obeyed the Holy Spirit. God is a spirit. Those that are led by the Spirit of God, are the sons of God When Jesus starts petting me I just say, "Go ahead, Lord."

When God was training me and bringing me up in those days and trying to mold me and burn the denomination out of me, oh He'd bless me.

I'd start reading the Bible in the morning in bed. I'd get so involved and scriptures would start jumping out at me. The Lord would begin to shake me and I couldn't read the Bible any more. I'd just lie down there, tears coming up out of my eyes, just streaming down my cheeks. I felt like all my bones were going to jump out.

Sometimes He would shake me from 8 o'clock until noon. My bed would shake for three or four hours. I mean my bed would shake. I couldn't even stop. I would just be saying, "Oh, Jesus, Jesus." Talk about getting blessed!

Some times, my pastor would come out there. My daughter, Zona, would go to school and leave the door unlocked. He would come about noon, and he'd hear me going, "Oh, Jesus, ooh, ooh." So he would come back to my bedroom. I would be lying there on the bed shaking, and the bed shaking. He'd stand there at the door and just look at me. I wouldn't pay any attention to him. (What would I want to leave Jesus and talk to him for?) He would just say, "Well, Brother Norvel is gone again," and he'd go home.

I would see him a day or so later and he'd say, "I came out to your house, Brother Norvel, but you were gone to another world." Yeah, that's right. And I didn't want to come back, either.

But after three or four hours, He'd leave. I'd hate to see Him leave though. When I would get up, the world would seem to be in slow motion before me. Everything looked so beautiful, too. Oh, the Lord is wonderful.

So the gifts began to operate through me, because I was ministered to by a precious couple that the Holy Ghost operated through that knew how to minister to me. The Spirit of God knew exactly what I wanted and what I needed. I needed Brother and Sister Goodwin to minister to me. I needed for God to tell me, "I'm putting words in you and Son, I want you to get up and speak them out."

4

Tongues and Interpretation—A Mighty Weapon

It is important that you listen to what the Spirit of God says to you. You have to have the right message, the right time. Listen to what the Spirit of God is saying to you.

I was in Jackson, Mississippi, at a Full Gospel Convention. I was one of the speakers. Ken Copeland was another teacher.

Dr. Keller (who was in charge) came up to me and said, "Norvel, I don't know the reason, but the Spirit of God said to get you to speak tonight about 15-20 minutes before I put on the main speaker."

Ken Copeland was one of the speakers at the convention, but he was not speaking that night; but he was sitting on the platform with a number of other people.

I got up and began to speak. I was giving a testimony about doing some street work, working with dope addicts. I was telling how I got an alcoholic saved in front of a Dairy Queen. He jumped up and down in front of the Dairy Queen shouting, "I'm saved, I'm saved." I had been speaking about 17 minutes.

At that time, nearly half of my businesses were broke. My daughter was out in a gang, and things seemed to be all messed up. Everything was messed up, usually, except me. I wasn't messed up and wasn't going to get messed up. I kept on walking with and working for God, right in the midst of the whole thing.

Brother and Sister, I know what it is for every member of your family to walk off and you're left in the house alone.

I know what it is to have nearly all of your businesses go broke and you don't even have enough money in your bank account to pay your secretary. You have to pray your secretary's salary in for three years! I know what it is.

I know what it is to talk to mountains—big ones. I know what it is to thank God when, in the natural, there is no light anywhere; everything is in darkness, no hope.

I know what it's like for the devil to come and talk to you for three years. "It doesn't pay off. It doesn't pay off." For three years he bombarded me.

I'd meet my daughter and sometimes she would speak to me and sometimes she wouldn't.

I walked like that for three years. I was in the middle of that when I was standing up giving the testimony about the alcoholic who was saved in front of the Dairy Queen.

All of a sudden, tongues came forth in the congregation— powerful. God's power dropped on the congregation and they began to cry and weep.

Ken Copeland got up and gave the interpretation. The interpretation was about 22 minutes long.

Right here there is something I'd like to point out to you. Sometimes you'll have a short tongues and long interpretation. Many people teaching on the gifts of the Spirit do not teach them correctly. They get mixed up between translation and interpretation.

Translation means that you speak, for example, 15 sentences in French and you don't know what it says. So you get somebody to translate it over into English, word for word for word. Interpretation is not that.

Your tongue can be so powerful. Your tongue can be short and the interpretation can be long or the other way around. You can start giving out the interpretation and God start moving up in you and the Spirit of God may not let you go for a while. You have to understand that.

When somebody gets up and speaks in tongues for five seconds, don't try to speak out in English about the same amount of time they do and then stop. JUST FOLLOW THE SPIRIT OF GOD, that's all. It's interpretation, not translation, get that straight. God tells you the interpretation.

The Holy Ghost wanted to minister to me. God hit me and I grabbed the pulpit and began to cry and weep and hang onto the pulpit.

In that interpretation that Ken spoke out, he told me the reason God had found favor in me was because of my bold, uncompromising position upon His Word. I refused to waver. God said, "I'm going to bring your daughter back and I am going to turn your businesses around and when I get through blessing you financially, it's going to be like the prophet of old. Men will look at you and say, 'How does he do it? How does he do it?' And He said, "Son, I'm going to take you in three different manifestations. I'm going to take you into the spirit world. I'm going to show you and unfold to you the entire operation of the devil's kingdom, and how he operates."

And He already has. He's taken me through the air, three different manifestations, and let me float through the air. Float over the cities. Float down the streets. Float just like a chicken hawk. He let me float through the air backwards and forward, just like demons, lurking, hungry, seeking desperately, trying to find some stupid human being that they can live in. They are looking for a house of flesh, that's made in the image of God.

Their master hates God so much. They want to get in the flesh that is made in the image of God. If they go too long and can't find somebody to get into, they will live in animals, for a while. But if they can, they want to get inside of a human being.

They like to live in human beings so they can curse God out of the mouth of the individual.

Does that ring a bell with some of your relatives? Now you know what's inside of them. Not oppressed, not depressed, not obsessed—possessed, POSSESSED. They're inside.

When a man begins to curse God, he's possessed with the devil. The devil has already taken his voice box over.

So that's the way demons operate.

They don't get in a hurry. Demons just go backward and forward like a bunch of chicken hawks in slow motion. There are not just a few thousand of them either, there are hundreds of thousands of them in the air that don't have bodies to live in. And they want bodies to live in.

They are going to try to get your body, try. They can't ever live in your body as long as you belong to God's Church and you bow down to God and worship Him. Not as long as you live your life for God. Not as long as you pray and read your Bible. Demons will never live in your body, never.

All the demons from hell can't blow your mind. You will never go to a mental institution as long as you read the Bible, pray, worship God and praise Him.

Every person in a mental institution that I've ever worked with has been doing crazy, goofed up things to their body, to their flesh. They do that because the wrong spirit gets in there and makes them do it.

You see, demons are personalities without a body. When a particular demon gets inside of a person, that person becomes what that demon is. The longer the demon operates through that person, the stronger he gets and the more wicked the person gets.

One manifestation of tongues and interpretation can blast that person into the kingdom of God and make him repent.

One prophecy can come from a man's lips and so blast that person, if they're sitting there, that they'll fall on the floor and repent before God.

That's how important the weapons of God's warfare are.

5

Let the Fire of God Burn It Out

You say, "I wish I could get myself in shape, Brother Norvel. Help me get myself in shape to receive the gifts of the Spirit, to do what God wants me to do."

All right. You know how God got me in shape to receive the gifts of the Spirit easy? He began to burn. The fire of God began to burn the ways of men out of me and make me a vessel that the Spirit of God could manifest himself through, because I would allow Him to.

He wants to manifest himself through you and me more, but you have to become a person that will allow Him to do it. You have to be like a piece of putty sometimes. Let God mold you and do what He wants to with you.

I didn't know the fire of God would burn this stuff out of me.

I liked football. Do you understand that? I liked other sports also, but I liked college football.

A number of years ago I was going to Augusta, Georgia. A friend of mine told me to look up some people when I got there. I looked them up because he told me to. They were real precious people, a Church of God pastor and his wife.

They insisted that I stay at their house instead of checking into a motel. So I slept the night in the parsonage.

In the morning the pastor came up to me and said, "Norvel, I've been praying and the Lord told me that He wanted you to stay in my church and speak in my church on Sunday."

I said, "Pastor, I've already got my weekend planned. I'm going to leave here Saturday morning and I'm going to drive to the University of Georgia and I'm going to watch Tennessee beat Georgia."

"Well," he said, "I'm just telling you what the Lord told me."

"I'll come back and speak for you some other time, Pastor. I've got my weekend all planned," I said.

Oh, I wanted to see Tennessee beat Georgia, so bad!

"I'm just telling you what the Lord said," he said.

So I stayed another night. He came up to me on Friday night and said, "Brother Norvel, the Lord moved upon me again and He wanted me to tell you that He wanted you to stay here at the church and speak on Sunday."

I said, "Pastor, I already told you I'll come back some other time and speak in your church. I promise. I'll come back and speak in your church sometime."

He said, "I'm just telling you what the Lord told me."

The Lord hadn't told me not to go to the football game. No sir, boy. He hadn't told me not to go to the football game. THE REASON HE HADN'T TOLD ME WAS BECAUSE I HADN'T ASKED HIM. And I wasn't going to ask Him. I didn't have any intentions of asking Him. I had made up my mind what I was going to do this weekend. Then here comes this full gospel preacher trying to mess up my weekend.

I got to thinking about it a little bit, but I wasn't sold on it though. I wanted to see Tennessee beat Georgia, so bad.

Saturday morning I got up and was going to leave before too long. The pastor came up to me and said, "You haven't been to the church since you've been here. I want you to stop there and see our sanctuary on the way out. But," he said, "you ought not to be leaving, Norvel. The Lord dealt with me again last night. He said He wants you to stay at my church and speak Sunday."

"I've told you, Pastor," I said, "I want to see Tennessee beat Georgia."

"Just telling you what the Lord said," he said.

So I started out. I went out and opened up the trunk door of my brand new wine-colored Cadillac and put my suitcase in. I went back to go in my bedroom to get my clothes bag. I got as far as the parsonage and the pastor's wife started talking to me.

I was just sitting there, minding my own business and all of a sudden my heart began to hurt. I started holding my chest.

She said, "Brother Hayes, do you want us to pray for you?

I said, "No, un, un. Everything is okay. No, that's all right."

About that time, the phone rang. When she came back from answering it she said, "Our janitor just had a heart attack down at the church, a real severe heart attack." The pastor had called and asked us to pray for him. So we did.

She hit the floor and started praying. I hit the floor by the coffee table and started praying in the living room.

She was praying and praying and I was praying and praying. While we were praying, the phone rang again.

When she got up and went to answer it, all of a sudden in me, the Holy Ghost just went bloop and joy began to boil out of me. I felt so good I couldn't hardly stand it. That pain I was having in my heart just left. I felt so good and the joy began to boil up out of me. I thought the Lord had healed him.

Then she came back in and said, "The janitor is dead."

I thought, uuh, then what in the world was that? (But the Lord showed me that same type of manifestation again when a girl died. But He showed me that she went to heaven.)

She said, "He wasn't even saved. His wife is saved, but he wasn't saved, Brother Norvel. We never could get him saved."

The man owned the store across the street from the church. He just wanted to do the janitorial work for the church to help them. But he wasn't saved.

She asked me, "Will you go over to the store with me and tell his wife?"

I said, "Oh, yeah, sure. Something like this happens, I don't have to leave now. Sure, I'll go."

We got in the car and went to the store. We called the lady out from behind the counter and told her to sit down.

The pastor's wife said, "I'm going to have to tell you something. Your husband just died."

The lady broke and started crying. We started praying for her.

About the time we finished praying, the assistant pastor walked in. I was standing there talking to him when suddenly, the Spirit of God came upon me and said, "Go over to the church and pray." I was standing there, just shaking, in the store.

I said, "Sir, is the front door of the church open?"

He said, "No, but the side door is."

"When the pastor comes back," I said, "tell him I'll be over at the church praying. God told me to go to the church and pray."

What did God want me to go to the church and pray for?

He wanted me to go to the church and pray because I didn't have much sense. God always wants you to pray, especially for yourself, when you're still goofed up.

I walked in the side door of that church toward the pulpit. As I did, God's power moved on me and by the time I got there, He just melted me to the floor. And I mean, just melted me—laid me out on the floor.

I began to pray in tongues, supernaturally, the Holy Ghost through me. I prayed in tongues for I guess, maybe two hours, just about as hard and fast as I could, making intercession in tongues.

Then, I got beyond tongues. The Spirit of God began to groan through me. And the fire of God came. I could feel in my flesh, junk (including football games), being burned out of me. I felt the fire of God burning everything out of me.

I laid on the floor and the Spirit of God groaned through me, maybe two hours. After a couple more hours went by, He just stopped.

I pushed myself up to a sitting position. I couldn't get up off the floor. Everything seemed like it had been burned out of me. My flesh seemed like it had things just burned out of it. I had no desire to go to a football game. It was too late anyway. Tennessee had already beaten Georgia while I was on the floor, flat on my back, groaning before God. Fire came down from the Spirit world and burned football games out of me. (I think I've been to one since then.)

God can burn golf courses out of you, if it keeps you away from the work of God. There is nothing wrong with football games, that I know of. There's nothing wrong with playing a game of golf, that I know of. But there is no use wasting a lot of time playing golf and going to football games, if you're not going to pass out any tracts.

The fire of God can come and burn it out of you.

Make up your mind that you'll do what God wants you to do. Say, "Jesus, help me to do what you want me to do. I love you Jesus. I want my life to count for You. I know, Jesus, that I've only got one chance to win souls, not two. Help me to be God's man, full of power, full of love, and full of holy boldness."

Brother, Sister, there is nothing wrong with you today but what the fire of God, the groaning of the Holy Ghost, will come and deliver you from it. I don't care what it is. Groaning before God will burn the chaff out of you.

"Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God" (Romans 8:26-27).

That is what He did, with tongues and groanings, making intercession for Norvel Hayes in Augusta, Georgia. For what? To get the will of God for me.

What was the will of God for me? To go and see Tennessee beat Georgia in football, or stay in the church and speak on Sunday?

The Holy Ghost got the will of God for me.

When I raised up and sat, leaning on one arm, the pastor and the assistant pastor were sitting there. I couldn't even get up. I said, "Okay Pastor, I'll speak in your church Sunday."

He said, "I know it."

I said, "Yeah, I guess you do."

I spoke on Sunday morning, and I gave an invitation at about 12:30 p.m. When I gave the invitation, they started running to the altar and got all over the floor, everywhere. God's Spirit started moving on those people. Many people got blessed.

I started to go back to the pulpit and turn around to close the service. (I looked at a clock and it was 20 minutes until 2:00.)

A young couple (about 21 years old) came down the aisle. They had just gotten married. The young man said, "We've never been in a service like this before. Mr. Hayes, we've been watching this for two hours and I know this is real. I've got sense enough to see that. My wife and me want to get saved."

Just think, if I had closed the service at 1:30, they might have gone to hell. He wasn't impressed at 1:30. He didn't get up at 1:30. He got out of his seat at 20 minutes until 2:00. The Spirit of God was trying to sell him, but he wasn't completely sold at 1:30. (When a salesman comes and tries to sell you something, you're not sold until you start getting the money out of your pocket and pay him.)

He wasn't sold until 20 minutes until 2:00. Does it pay to obey the Holy Spirit?

After church, they took me out to eat with a whole bunch of people from the church. As soon as I sat down I said, "As soon as I get through eating, I'm going to go out to the parsonage, get my clothes and drive back to Cleveland, Tennessee. I'm going home."

The pastor said, "Oh no you're not. I'm going to get a revival out of this."

I said, "Pastor, no. No revival, Pastor. I'm not going to stay. I've got some things I have to do tomorrow morning. I'm going home."

He said, "Oh no, you're not. I'm going to get a revival out of this."

"I'm going home," I said.

You might ask, "What did Jesus say about it?"

I don't know, I didn't ask Him. I wanted to do what I wanted to do.

Most of the time, when you come out of a service like that, you're kind of weak because you've prayed with people so long. Most of the time, when you begin to eat food, you'll start gaining a little strength.

This was the only time in my life, every bite of food I took, I got weaker. By the time I got through eating, they got me to the car. By the time they got me back to the parsonage, the pastor's wife turned the bed down. By the time they got me in bed, I was just like a rag that had been wrung out. I went off to sleep.

I woke up at 5:30 p.m. and I felt like a jack rabbit. It was too late to go home.

"It's too late to go home, Brother Norvel," the pastor said, "Jesus wants you to speak tonight."

I said, "I know it. Okay, Pastor. Okay, okay, okay."

The service started at 7:00 p.m. At 20 minutes until 11:00 p.m., a very well-dressed man with diamond rings on his fingers and diamond stick pins, came strolling down to the altar.

He said, "This is the first time I have sat some place for four hours and didn't smoke a cigarette. I've never seen anything like this. I'd like to find God myself, but I've been married before. The wife I am living with now and I have two children. I met some Christians (I own a jewelry store over in another city), and they said if I gave my life to Jesus, I'd have to get rid of my wife and children now, and go back and marry my first wife again. And I love the girl I'm married to now and I love my little children, I don't want to give them away. That's the reason I rejected Jesus. I don't want to give them away. Is that true, Mister?"

I said, "There is no use in trying to unscramble an egg. Forget it. Are you willing to drop on your knees right now and ask Jesus to forgive you of all your sins, and ask Him to come into your heart by faith? Are you willing to do that, Mister?"

"Yeah," he said, "I'm willing to do that." "Show me," I said.

He looked at me, dropped on his knees and started crying out to God for mercy and help. Right there on his knees, he gave his life to God and got saved.

Just think, what if I had closed the service at 10:30 p.m.? Now there's two in one day.

Why?

Because of the fire of God, speaking in tongues, groaning before God, burning the football game out of me, keeping me laid out on the floor so I could stay there. And maybe, because I didn't go to that one football game, there's a good chance of dozens and maybe even hundreds of people coming into the family of God.

You might say, "Well that's good, Norvel. That's good to love the Lord that much."

Listen to me Brother and Sister, I hate to tell you this: I loved Jesus then, and I love Jesus now; but I didn't love Jesus enough then, not to go to the football game. The Holy Ghost that lives inside of me made intercession for me with groanings which cannot be uttered. He delivered me. The Holy Ghost made intercession for me.

Right now I have that testimony of salvation of those two young people and that man that owned the jewelry store because from the Spirit world, down from heaven, come weapons to the Church: God's weapons.

I'd like to tell you that there is some easy sweet precious way of getting the junk out of you, but I'm sorry to have to tell you, Brother and Sister, you'll have to come the way of tongues. You'll have to come the way of groanings before God. The Holy Ghost needs to come through you, and set you free.

Get yourself ready to receive the gifts of the Spirit.

FROM HEAVEN COME GOD'S WEAPONS FORTHE CHURCH

VOLUME NUMBER ONE

by

NORVEL HAYES

Norvel Hayes shares God’s Word boldly and simply with an enthusiasm that captures the heart of the hearer. He has learned through personal experience that God’s Word can be effective in every area of life — that it will work for anyone who will believe it and apply it.

Norvel owns several businesses which function successfully despite the fact that he spends over half his time away from the office, ministering the Gospel throughout the country. His obedience to God and his willingness to share his faith has taken him to a variety of places. He ministers in churches, prisons — anywhere the Spirit of God leads.

Table of Contents

God Has a. Big Key Ring

Getting Into Shape to Receive

It, Isn't, Easy

Tongues and Interpretation—A Mighty Weapon

Let the Fire of God Burn It Out