PLEASING THE LORD

Knowing God's Will and Receiving His

Rewards

by

Norvel Hayes

Harrison House

Tulsa, Oklahoma

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are

taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Pleasing the Lord

Knowing God's Will and Receiving His Rewards

ISBN 1-57794-033-4

Copyright © 1997 by Norvel Hayes

P. O. Box 1379

Cleveland, Tennessee 37311

Published by Harrison House, Inc.

P O. Box 35035

Tulsa, Oklahoma 74153

Printed in the United States of America. All rights

reserved under International Copyright Law. Contents

and/or cover may not be reproduced in whole or in part

in any form without the express written consent of the

Publisher.

Contents

Introduction

5

1 Two Worlds: Faith and Unbelief

7

2 Right Talk Pleasing Faith

13

3 Holy Ghost Prayer Pleasing Faith

21

4 Proven, Tested, Pleasing Faith

31

5 Obedient Faith (The Day I Didn't Go Fishing)

37

6 Worship Pleasing Faith

41

7 I Want a Camel!

45

8 Servant Hearted Pleasing Faith

51

9 Let God Walk in Your Shoes

57

10 Cancer Healing Pleasing Faith

63

11 Pleasing Faith Words Will Set You Free!

77

12 Patient Pleasing Faith

83

13 "Action" Pleasing Faith

87

14 Demon Casting Pleasing Faith

93

15 Never Changing Pleasing Faith

103

16 A Chip Off the Old Block

111

Introduction

Pleasing the Lord is simple. But many people don't

understand how simple it really is. First Timothy 4:1 says,

the Spirit expressly says that in the latter times some

shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing

spirits, and doctrines of devils. The devil has separated

some of our brothers and sisters who once knew and

walked in the power of the world of God's "unseen" faith.

Some have departed from the faith after working for

God a while, thinking they can please the Lord by saying

or doing just any old thing.

Others have departed from the faith by seducing

spirits that have goofed up their thinking and have been

led over into the devil's world of natural reasoning.

But, glory to God, there are many others who have

continued to please the Lord by obeying Him. They live in

God's right now world of unseen faith.

Book of Hebrews faith is right now faith, because:

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the

evidence of things not seen.

Hebrews 11:6

Right now faith always worships the Lord and says and

believes what God wants to do— right now! It doesn't

reason about this, or that, or why, or why not.

I wrote this book to teach and remind us of the Lord

Jesus' blessed faith commandments. Because doing what

the Word says like the Lord Jesus taught in the Gospels

always pleases Him. And those who want to please the

Lord always get blessed. Always!

5

C H A P T E R 1

Two Worlds: Faith and Unbelief

1

. . .

Several years ago a chiropractor in Harrisburg,

Pennsylvania, invited me to speak at a Full Gospel

Businessmen's Banquet on a Saturday night and at his

church on Sunday morning. Harrisburg is kind of in the

bottom part of the state, and I was scheduled to speak in

Williamsport Sunday evening. So he called me on the

phone and asked if I could stop in. He said they were

doing the work of God and needed some help, so I told

him I would be glad to do it.

We left on Sunday afternoon, and got there around

three o'clock. The banquet hall was full of Pentecostal

pastors and leaders from that city. I mean I had to actually

work my way around to even get a place to stand up. They

had a big banquet spread with all kinds of good food and

asked if I would like to eat before answering questions.

But I told them to go ahead with the ministry session first.

The place was so packed I had to actually push myself

through the crowd to get up to the platform. Looking the

crowd over, I greeted them and asked for the first

question.

Then a nice looking fellow stood up and said, "Brother

Norvel, I belong to a local church here in town, and my

wife and I have a ministry downtown where we work

with dope addicts in a coffee house type of thing. We're

not rebels of the church. I'm in agreement with my pastor,

and he approves of our ministry. We work together and

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P L E A S I N G T H E L O R D

pray for people all the time and see them set free from

dope." Then he said, "We're Full Gospel Pentecostal

people, but I have to ask you a question. Ah, I have a

disease in my body, an affliction, and my wife has one,

and we prayed and prayed, and other people have prayed.

And I want to ask you, Brother Norvel, why doesn't God

heal us?"

The moment he said that to me, the Holy Spirit on the

inside of me went bsssssshhh! He shot a verse of Scripture

in my mind, and said to me just as quick as you could bat

your eye, "Flag him down; he's on the wrong road. Tell

him the verse." Before I answered his question, I told the

group, "Many of you won't understand this, but you will

in a few minutes." Then I turned to the man, and said,

"Mister, Jesus won't heal you because you've been

committing sin."

Well, I might as well have hit him in the face with a

wet dishrag. He went, "Ah—ah!" and said, "No. No,

Brother Norvel, I—I—I haven't been committing any sin—

I live my life right. I'm not involved in any sin."

So I said, "Well, let me ask you a question. Do you

understand English?"

He said, "Well, yes."

Then I said, "Jesus won't heal you because you've been

committing sin. Is that clear?"

He said, "Ah—ah, I—I don't know what to say.. really,

Brother Norvel, I haven't been committing any sin. I'm

living my life right. At least I haven't committed any sin."

Then he turned to his wife to check up on her and said,

"We live our life right, don't we, Honey? Have we? uh, er,

Honey; have you?"

But she was just as dumbfounded as he was and said,

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T W O W O R L D S : F A I T H A N D U N B E L I E F

"No, I haven't committed any sin."

So I said, "Well, both of you need to look at me now."

And they both stared at me as I said, "Listen closely. Jesus

will not heal you because you've been committing sin. Is

that clear?"

I could tell he was having a hard time with my answer,

but I wanted to make a point. Because if God doesn't

answer your prayers, there's always a reason why.

Healing has already been paid for, yet, they weren't

getting healed. And I wanted to teach, not only him, but

the whole group what can hinder the promises of God.

So I looked at the man and asked him again, "Where

have you been committing sin?" Then I answered my own

question, "I'll tell you where you're in sin. You're a

doubter, and you've left the world of faith. And even

though you have a ministry, and you're in good standing

with your pastor and your church, you've left the world of

faith and have gotten over into the sin of unbelief."

"Oh really?" he asked. "What's the verse of Scripture

the Holy Ghost gave you? Where is that in the Bible?"

WHATSOEVER IS NOT OF FAITH IS SIN

. . .

So I told him to turn to Romans 14:23 and I read, ...for

whatsoever is not of faith is sin.

Then I turned to the crowd and said, "Many of you

people here this afternoon are wanting your healing, too.

You want it very much, but until you understand this

truth, you're not going to get it. There's no use in just

wandering around and thinking, Maybe, God in His

goodness will help me someday. 'Someday' may be too late.

God wants you to have faith in Him right now. Because

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P L E A S I N G T H E L O R D

Now faith is the substance."

Then I looked at the man again and said, "Now listen

closely," and I quoted 1 Timothy 4:1: “Now the Spirit

speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall

depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits,

and doctrines of devils."

"The devil has seducing spirits," I went on. "And if you

want to know the truth about it, the devil has seducing

spirits that get hold of your mind. They'll cause you to

think in a certain realm or area of your life to go down a

certain avenue, and that avenue will seem right. But it's

outside the book of faith, the Book of Hebrews. And when

you step out of God's world of faith, and start in the world

of reasoning, you have just left God."

"God doesn't honor the world of reasoning or making

excuses for faith," I continued. "Now, there is safety in

reasoning things out among each other if you have

someone who knows what they're doing. But there's no

use trying to reason things out with a bunch of Bible-

ignorant dummies. That's not going to help you at all."

Then I said, "If you want to know why the Lord's not

doing something for you, always have a dedicated faith

teacher present before you ever start reasoning it out.

Because if you start reasoning something out with people

that think like you, they'll just make excuses. They'll say

things like, 'Well, uh, you're a good person,' and this and

that. And, 'The Lord won't look on this as sin...you know,

God has His own timing....'" And they will go on with,

God has this, and God has that, but the time for you to

believe the Bible is right now! Faith is right now! And it

takes faith to please the Lord—Bible faith that does

everything you do to please the Lord.

Finally, I told this group, "Many of you people in here

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T W O W O R L D S : F A I T H A N D U N B E L I E F

are wanting your healing real bad. You'd like to have your

healing, and you want it real bad, but until you change,

you're not going to get your healing. You can't doubt God

and get out the world of continually giving thanks and

speaking God's Word and get Him to heal you, because

He doesn't approve of doubt. He hates doubt! Get that

straight! All of it! He hates it. And wondering is just as bad

as doubt. Wondering, wondering, wondering. You don't have

to wonder. All you have to do is take God at His Word,

and healing is yours now!"

Well, I can tell you that I didn't leave that group

wondering that afternoon.

RIGHT NOW FAITH!

. . .

How can you please the Lord? First of all, my brother,

make up your mind that you will believe God by faith

right now! Always remember this, my sister: someday

with God never comes. The only thing God ever approves

of in your believing is faith in Him RIGHT NOW!

So don't wait. Sometimes we judge ourselves and think

we're good Christians because we go to church. We do this

and that, and because God blesses us with His love, we

can receive a love blessing. But God will bless you with a

love blessing today and let you die next week. Get that

straight! Healing my brother, just like finances and all of

God's blessings, is a benefit of the believer. But, my sister,

you have to please Him to receive it. And you please the

Lord with faith. God loves you whether you get healed or

not. But He wants to heal you now with RIGHT NOW

faith! He wants to bless you with His presence and joy

now, with RIGHT NOW faith! He wants to bless you with

finances now, with RIGHT NOW faith!

11

C H A P T E R 2

Right Talk Pleasing Faith

2

. . .

The beautiful part about God is, He will do anything

He says He will do. And the beautiful part about the

Gospel is, He will do it for you! That is, if you say it. Glory

to God forever! He does it for me, and He will do it for

you.

Some time back a nationally known evangelist along

with some other Full Gospel evangelists came to me

wanting to talk in private. They asked me the same thing

the man in Harrisburg did, "Brother Norvel, we see the

Lord heal people all the time through our hands, but we

all have infirmities, why doesn't He heal us?"

So I told them why, "Because you don't talk right.

There's a calling upon your lives, an anointing, and it's

been given to you to bring healing to others. But you've

left the world of faith for yourselves."

"What do you mean 'we don't talk right?'" they asked.

So I answered, "Do you ever walk the floor and call

Jesus your own personal Healer? Do you ever walk the

floor and say, "Jesus, I believe that You are the Healer. I

see You heal people every night through me. Now Lord, I

also believe You are my own personal Healer"?

If you want the Lord to heal you, you have to make

Him your own personal Healer, just like you made Him

your personal Savior. You have to come to a place that

your mouth will speak words of victory up to heaven that

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P L E A S I N G T H E L O R D

say, "Jesus, you are my personal Healer. Jesus, YOU ARE

MY PERSONAL HEALER AND YOU ARE HEALING ME

NOW!"

If you want to please God big for your healing, say,

"God by Your stripes I am healed and Your healing power

is welcome in my body. Your healing power is flowing

through me to heal and set me free. Thank You, Lord, for

driving all affliction out of my body. I will not put up with

affliction or disease, in Jesus' name."

If your right leg is infirm, say, "I take authority over

this weakness, and I command all weakness to leave my

right leg. Jesus, You are my own personal Healer, and I

believe that Your healing power is flowing through my

right leg now to drive out all weakness and disease, and

give me strength, in Jesus' name."

And you can do the same for any other affliction or

disease.

THE LORD DOES WHAT YOU SAY AND DO

. . .

The Lord does what you say. And the Lord does what

you do. He is everything. Jesus is, Alpha, and Omega, the

beginning, and the ending of your life. He is everything!

The Lord Jesus Christ is the Savior; He is the Healer;

He is the Deliverer; He is the Miracle Worker. He is the

Financial Blesser. But He will never be that to you until

you call Him that.

You have to come to the place where you no longer

have to ask, "Why won't God heal me?"

Do you read your Bible? It says your healing is already

paid for. Jesus is the Healer. All through the Bible He tells

you that. He revealed Himself as Healer long before He

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R I G H T T A L K P L E A S I N G F A I T H

showed Himself as Savior:

I am the Lord that healeth thee.

Exodus 15:26

If you want God to work for you—if you want God's

mighty power to help you—you have to come to a place

where you get over into the world of faith and the Word.

Quote the Word, talk victory all the time. Faith has a voice

of victory, not a voice of doubt.

Never open up your mouth and start wondering,

"Well, I don't know why God won't heal me.. or, maybe it's

not God's will to heal me.. ."

Stop that stuff. Don't do that anymore. If you've been

talking like that, stop it today. If you don't, the devil will

have so many doors open in your life that he will just

come in and start putting things on you. You have a divine

right to stop him in Jesus' name.

NO RESPECTER OF PERSONS

. . .

Because I walk in God's blessings, do I think God loves

me more than He loves you? NO! There's no such thing as

that. Do you think He blesses me financially and keeps me

healthy and does all these wonderful things for me

because I am in the ministry? Or because I have a home for

unwed mothers? Or because I have a ministry to abused

children and a Bible school, and because I teach and

preach all over the world?

The answer to all of that is, NO, He doesn't. If you

want to know the truth about it, I get nothing from God

unless I claim it. I talk right. And I take time every

morning to worship Him...just worship the Lord first

thing...and praise Him, and tell Him my life belongs to

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P L E A S I N G T H E L O R D

Him. I say, "I want to please You, God, I want to please

You, Lord, I want to please You." And when I do that, I

read my Bible and pray and tell Him I believe Him by

faith. Then my heart stays a heart of flesh instead of a

heart of stone.

I don't want my heart to turn to a heart of stone, and

become Gospel hardened. I sometimes meet Gospel

evangelists and Gospel preachers, and I feel so sorry for

them. It's like their minds have been seared over with the

Gospel. They call it "Gospel hardened, but it's not really

the Gospel that's hardened them. It's more like burn out,

and I feel so sorry for them.

THE HUMBLE PLEASE GOD

. . .

A man with a humble and hungry heart finds great

favor with God. When you bow down before God, and

show Him that you mean business, and worship Him, and

praise Him, God just loves that. He loves to see you

worshipping and praising Him. He just loves to see you

walking the floor, and hearing you confess that He is God.

He loves to hear you confess, "By the stripes of Jesus, the

Son of God, I am healed. Oh, God, by the stripes of Jesus I

am healed. Lord, by the stripes of Jesus I am healed.

Health belongs to me!"

I talk to the Lord like He is my best friend. And I tell

the Lord I want to stay out of this sin business. I tell Him I

know that He hates doubt—and that unless I believe Him

by faith—unless I believe those stripes on Jesus' back were

for my healing—I know that I will miss out on my healing

and I will be slaughtered by some disease, unless I eat

from His table daily.

The only reason our squirrely minds begin to wonder

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R I G H T T A L K P L E A S I N G F A I T H

about why God does or doesn't do this or that is because

we haven't been eating the Book of Hebrews. When is the

last time that you quoted from Hebrews 11:6: Without

faith it is impossible to please him?

Did you know that you can give money to God, and

you can sing songs to God, and you can pray and pray

until your jaws get sore. You can speak in tongues until

you have to rest your mouth. You can do all of this, but

without faith it is impossible to please the Lord?

"Whoa...wait a minute," you say, "that man in

Pennsylvania told you he loved the Lord."

That's right. But my message to him out of Romans

14:23 was that he was in sin for being separated from Jesus

the Healer. Not Jesus the Lover. Or Jesus the Savior. Or Jesus

the Blesser. He was separated by his intellect and his

doubting. So his body was separated from God's healing

power because he allowed doubt to come in, for whatever

is not of faith is sin (Romans 14:23). And sin separates

from the blessing of God.

YOU CAN'T SAY JUST ANYTHING YOU WANT AND

PLEASE THE LORD

. . .

Sometimes we get so religious in working for God that

we think we can do or say anything we want to because

we are working for God. We think, Well, He will heal me

because I minister the Full Gospel message.

No He won't! He won't heal you dear Full Gospel

leader, because He said if you doubt Him, you're in sin.

That type of a sin separates healing from you. It doesn't

separate you from a relationship with God—it separates

you from healing. Then it causes your mind to go into a

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world of wondering, Why doesn't God heal me? I'm a Full

Gospel leader. I love the Lord, why doesn't He heal me?

I have heard Brother Kenneth Hagin, Sr. say, "I haven't

had a headache in fifty-two years.. I've had several real

bad headaches to hit me, but they never did last over a

minute. Because the minute that stinging pain hit me, I

said, 'No you don't. No you don't.'"

MAKE THE DEVIL NERVOUS

. . .

So the greatest word you will ever say to the devil in

your life has two little letters. The greatest word that you

will ever say in your life to any kind of the works of hell is

"No! Nooooo you don't; not to me." "Nooooo sin!"

"Nooooo disease!" "Nooooo sadness!" "Nooooo!"

"Nooooo!"

When the devil comes and tries to tempt you in any

way, or put a disease on you, or a pain or any of his wiles,

all you say is, "No! No! No, I WON'T ACCEPT THAT!"

If tomorrow the pain is worse, you need to continue to

say, "NOOOOOO. NOOOOO, I won't accept that." Then if

on the third day the pain is worse, stand up again and say,

"NOOOOOOO!"

The devil is hard of hearing. So when the pain gets

worse, you get louder and longer. It makes the devil

nervous. And after a few days you will get so loud and so

long with your resisting and your NOOOOOOOOO, that

he goes, "OWWWWWWWWW!" and leaves. He does. I'm

not kidding you—it's the truth.

Now I am going to say something that may sound

mean to you, but I am going to tell you the truth. If you are

sick today, the only reason why is that you didn't say

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R I G H T T A L K P L E A S I N G F A I T H

"NO" to the devil. No you didn't. You didn't press on

through doubt, fear, discouragement, and demonic

harassment. You didn't bind the devil and keep binding

him. But you can, because Jesus said, I give you power

over all the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt

you (Luke 10:19, author's paraphrase). We are in a war.

We can't just sit in our living room chair and be nice and

say, "You shouldn't do this to me, Satan." Are you

kidding? The devil eats words like that for lunch.

You need to learn to tell the devil to eat your NO'S

—"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, I WONT RECEIVE THIS! I

won't accept it, and I bind you, devil, and all your little

demons, in the name of Jesus Christ Who said I could!"

Then begin to praise the Lord Jesus Christ as your

personal Healer and Deliverer.

God said it first:

I am the Lord that healeth thee.

Exodus 15:26

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C H A P T E R 3

Holy Ghost Prayer Pleasing Faith

3

. . .

...before him whom he believed, even God, who

quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which

be not as though they were.

Romans 4:17

Now I want to get real with you. I want to tell you how

the devil came against my finances and afflicted my

daughter physically, and how talking faith's talk became

real to me.

In the early days of my ministry I didn't know the

importance of the offices of the church. The only thing I

really knew was, I was a successful businessman making

five or six thousand dollars a week, and everything I had

was paid for, plus my four Cadillacs. But one day, I

realized that everything I earned, and everything I had,

didn't satisfy me. In fact, I was miserable and I didn't

know what was wrong. It was so bad that I came to a

point that there was no one else to turn to, and I gave my

life to God.

At that point in my life, I had never heard of Kenneth

Hagin, Sr., but the Holy Ghost spoke sovereignly to each

of us, thousands of miles apart, and put us together in a

way that only He can.

Brother Hagin was in California conducting a meeting

when a word from the Lord came to him saying, "Go to

Washington, D.C., for the Full Gospel Businessmen's

Convention. You are going to meet a man that you are

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divinely destined to meet."

Little did I know that I was that man. I was in

Tennessee carrying on my businesses when one day the

Holy Spirit pulled me up into the Spirit world and showed

me Brother Hagin. I knew I was supposed to bring Brother

Hagin to Tennessee for a meeting. This was some twenty

years ago.

So, God sent me to Washington, D.C., to attend the

Full Gospel Businessmen's Convention. And when I saw

Brother Hagin, I walked up to him and I said, "Brother

Hagin, the Lord pulled me up into His presence and told

me that He wants you to come to Cleveland, Tennessee."

Brother Hagin said, "I know it; I know it. I'll come. I'll

come. I saw you."

And I thought, Oh, my God! What kind of a human being

is this? I'm just a businessman trying to find a building; I don't

know anything about God to speak of...

THANK GOD FOR THE OFFICE OF THE PROPHET!

. . .

Later, I found out how dangerous it is to go to a

Kenneth Hagin service. Especially when a man walks in

the office of the prophet. But it can also be one of the

greatest blessings in the world. Thank God for the office of

the prophet! The offices of the church are so wonderful.

And I sense in my spirit that the Body of Christ is hungry

for the ministry of the church offices.

I am not a prophet, I am a teacher. God just unfolds the

Bible to me and tells me to teach it. Today I teach it

everywhere. But Brother Hagin walks in the office of the

prophet. And that night in Washington D.C., I was sitting

in the congregation where he was teaching, when all of a

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H O L Y G H O S T P R A Y E R P L E A S I N G F A I T H

sudden, the Spirit of God came up on him, and he began

to prophesy.

In the prophecy, he called my name, and said, "Norvel

Hayes, the devil is going to attack your finances, but if you

will pray, and pray, and pray, and pray, you will come

through the attack. 'But you must be faithful to Me, and

you must pray, and pray, and pray, and when you have

come through the attack, it will change your life. When

you come through the attack, you will be more successful,

financially, than you've ever been.'"

Well, I thought, What does he mean by that?

I had never had any trouble, financially. Then, about

six months went by. Brother Hagin was somewhere

preaching, and at that particular time in my life I was

down in Florida. I had bought a two hundred acre

subdivision on which I developed 544 lots and built five

miles of streets, paying cash for all of it as I went. I also

owned six restaurants as side investments, my own ring

manufacturing company, and just a bunch of stuff. Then

about six months after that prophecy, the devil hit my

businesses. And did he ever—he really attacked me. I'm

telling you, it was something else.

One of my restaurant managers went bad. And then

another one went bad. And then another one went bad.

Then the Holy Ghost said to me one night, "Go to

Columbus, Ohio, where your manufacturing company is,

and check your books."

Well, I knew there was something wrong, or He would

not have told me to do that. So I took a man who was

knowledgeable with me and we went out to the

manufacturing company about eleven or twelve o'clock

one night. We went in and checked the books, and found

that one of the employees—the secretary, had stolen

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thousands and thousands of dollars. So much money had

been stolen, that I was going to have to sell the plant.

The next morning, I went to my corporation lawyer's

office and laid all the information on his desk. He gave it a

quick look and said, "Norvel, this is a state corporation,

and you don't have to press any charges. All you have to

do is take this material to the District Attorney's office and

they'll do everything else. It'll be the state of Ohio versus

her. And I can tell you right now that she'll go to the

penitentiary for three years. But for good behavior, she

could get out in a year-and-a-half or two years. But she

will definitely get three years for embezzlement of a state

corporation."

I said, "Well, she's been working for me for years, and

before this, she was a good employee. I don't want to see

her go to jail."

"Well, Norvel," the lawyer told me, "you're going to

have to make up your mind concerning what you want to

do: either take the loss, or she'll go to the penitentiary."

So I decided to take the loss and sold the

manufacturing company.

Remember, the Holy Ghost had told me, through

Brother Hagin's prophecy, ".. the devil is going to attack

your finances."

Thank God for the office of the prophet! The Holy

Ghost can operate through him, or any Spirit-filled person,

to tell you what the devil's going to do in the future. Glory

to God forever.

In the middle of all of this, I was trying to pray, but all

of my businesses were gone, except for one little

restaurant. Month after month, it was all out-go and no

income. I couldn't sell one lot in my subdivision down in

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H O L Y G H O S T P R A Y E R P L E A S I N G F A I T H

Florida. The manager of every restaurant I had went flaky.

And my good help that had been with me for years, was

stealing money from me.

GOOD SENSE

. . .

So I had lost all my restaurants, my manufacturing

plant, and now my daughter, Zona, was afflicted with

boils all over her body. That's right, boils! The devil put

boils all over my daughter's body. I didn't know what to

do, so I just kept on doing the work of God. I wasn't

making very much profit, but I would take what little

profit I did make, and I would go buy groceries for the

poor. In the midst of it all, I just kept on passing out tracts

and praying. I just acted like I had good sense.

During this time, one of the best known candy

companies in America would give us a pickup truck load

of candy whenever we wanted it. We would sack it up in

little sacks, and give it to poor kids. Then, we would take

them to church on Sunday. A big rental van company

would give crushed ice flavored "snowballs" to the little

poor kids on Saturdays. On top of the sack of snowballs,

we would give them a little Bible, all free.

We would go to their neighborhoods and talk to the

parents and ask them to come to church. At the beginning

of our children's ministry, we had one school bus. But after

about three or four years of that, we had eight, all full of

little kids. Finally, we had so many kids in church, we had

to build another church. We built another sanctuary and

called it "Little People's Church." Glory to God!

Then, we hired a youth pastor and he would preach to

the kids every Sunday while the main pastor was

preaching to the adults.

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P L E A S I N G T H E L O R D

I just kept on working, like I had good sense, calling

myself successful: "I'm successful in Jesus' name." But my

mind would say, are you kidding me? You're everything but

successful. So I would walk the floor and say, "I am

successful in Jesus' name. I have a right to confess things

that be not as though they were" (Romans 4:17, author's

paraphrase).

I tell you, it's hell to own a bunch of businesses, and

not make any profits. There were times when I wished

someone else owned every business I had. It was like a

curse.

Things got so bad that I went to work for Sears and

Roebuck making $150 a week. It was better than trying to

run deadbeat businesses. Who on God's green earth wants

to own a bunch of businesses if they're not making profits?

The devil had attacked my businesses, and he had put

forty-two knots and growths all over my daughter's body,

I mean—dear God in heaven. But I said, "I have a right to

call those things that be not thought they were" (Romans

4:17).

I knew Jesus said, Not that which goeth into the

mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the

mouth, this defileth a man (Matthew 15:11). And that it

was what comes out of my mouth that defiles me. I knew

words that I spoke out of my mouth could defile me or put

me over. So I watched my mouth. I wouldn't go through

any pity parties, and I watched my dedication to God.

Every day I would bind up every work of hell that

attacked my businesses, and say, "I command you, Satan,

take your hand off of my businesses! I call myself

successful! I call myself successful. I call myself successful.

I call myself successful!"

I was being attacked financially and then the devil

26

H O L Y G H O S T P R A Y E R P L E A S I N G F A I T H

began to put boils and knots and growths all over my

daughter's body. There wasn't a single person in my

family I could turn to, because no one, not one of my

family, was serving the Lord. Talk about Job! My daughter

Zona had boils and knots and growths all over her body,

and I was being attacked in my businesses.

At that time I didn't have any problem praying for my

businesses, but I didn't know a whole lot about healing. I

had learned a little from Brother Hagin, and others. Still, I

had never really tried to pray for anyone's healing. But

desperate people do desperate things, and I was beginning

to get desperate. Anyone or anything that touched my

daughter had me to deal with!

I began, "Oh, Lord, I pray that You would heal my

daughter. Oh, God, I pray that Your healing power will

come upon my daughter and remove those growths, and

all those knots, and all of those awful looking things off

her body. Oh, God, remove them off of her. Remove them

off of her. Remove them off of her, in Jesus' name!" Then I

would pray and praise, and pray, and praise, and pray,

and praise. If you want to know the truth about it, I was

about to wear myself out praying and praising for both

Zona and my businesses.

This went on for about two or three years. That's right!

Two or three years! Faith has patience. Faith has patience

all the time! Because, The trying of your faith worketh

patience (James 1:3).

Well, after I had been speaking and binding up the

work of hell for all that time, I asked my personal

secretary, who has been with me for more than twenty

years, and is very efficient, "Mary Lou, how much money

do I have in the bank after I pay you Friday?"

She said, "You have eighty-five dollars."

27

P L E A S I N G T H E L O R D

So I said, "Eighty-five dollars to run all these

businesses?"

"That's what you have," she said.

I thought, If an air conditioner would break down in one of

these buildings, it might cost five or six thousand to get it fixed.

That's how the devil messes with your mind.

But it was then that I said, "Eighty-five dollars? Mary

Lou, I don't accept that. I see thousands and thousands

and thousands of dollars in there, don't you?"

She said, "Whatever you say, Mr. Hayes."

"That's what I say," I told her. "Faith is not seen, and I

have every right to call those things that be not as though

they were. I said I see thousands of dollars in there, don't

you, Mary Lou?"

She said, "Whatever you say."

And I said, "Well, that's what I say."

"Good," she said.

Well praise the Lord! I was just being bold enough to

call those things that be not of as though they were

(Romans 4:17). I was calling myself successful. For three

years, I called myself successful, and my daughter healed.

So now you ask, "Norvel, did she get healed then? And

did your businesses begin to make a profit?"

No. In fact, they got worse.

So, what did I do?

LIKEWISE THE SPIRIT...

. . .

I just kept on like I had good sense, calling myself

successful, and calling my daughter healed. "Oh, God, I

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H O L Y G H O S T P R A Y E R P L E A S I N G F A I T H

ask You, Lord, to heal my daughter, and bless my

businesses."

Then one day I went home and I learned a good lesson

on this. I was reading in my Bible, and suddenly words

jumped out at me from the page. I found that the Bible

said, if I would let the Holy Ghost pray, instead of me

praying in my natural mind, I could have anything I

wanted (Romans 8:26, author's paraphrase).

Then I said out loud, "What? What? Yeah! Have

anything you want." And I said, "Is that right?" and I read

it again:

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

The will of God is victory in everything about your life.

There is no defeat in God.

You ask, "Well, how do you know it's the will of God?"

So I say, "Show me in the Bible where defeat is the will

of God."

Being broke, and sick is not the will of God. An

afflicted body is not the will of God. Do you want me to

say, "Well, if the Lord wants my daughter to keep knots

and growths all over her, the rest of her life, I'll just glorify

the Lord"? That's ignorance gone to seed.

IT'S UP TO YOU

. . .

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P L E A S I N G T H E L O R D

When you think defeat in any area of your life, you're

not accepting the Lord Jesus Christ as a Healer. You're not

accepting Him as a Miracle Worker. You have a right to

have healing, and you have a right to have a miracle, and

so do your children. But it's up to you to take it away from

the devil.

30

C H A P T E R 4

Proven, Tested, Pleasing Faith

4

. . .

Once I learned the great secret of Romans 8:26,27 that

showed me I could pray in tongues while the Holy Spirit

would take what I said in the Spirit, straighten it out, and

give it to God, I started mixing my confession in English

and tongues! I would go into my office at nighttime, and

would pray in tongues for a while, then I would pray in

English. I would pray, "I call myself successful. I call

myself successful." Then I would pray in tongues, "I call

my daughter healed." Then I would pray in English, then

in tongues. And I would pray that way for hours.

I did that for several months. Then, finally, I went

down to my home office, looked at the "big company

checkbook," you know, big deal, "eighty-five dollars"—I

would open up my checkbook, to see the balance. Then I

would lay it open on top of the desk and pray in tongues.

Then I would pray in English, then in tongues, then in

English. I would call myself successful. I would say, "In

Jesus' name, I see thousands and thousands of dollars in

my checkbook. In Jesus' name, I call thousands of dollars

there." Then I would laugh in the Spirit.

You ask, "Were you full of joy?"

No, I just acted like I was. I made myself do it.

Sometimes you have to make yourself do it, because ...the

joy of the Lord is your strength (Nehemiah 8:10b).

FAITH DOESN'T WEAR A WATCH

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P L E A S I N G T H E L O R D

. . .

After a few weeks of that, I would get louder, and

sometimes my laughing in the Spirit would get weaker.

But I always did it. Always! Always! I would say, "The joy

of the Lord is my strength!" And I would say it over and

over and over and over.

Faith doesn't wear a watch. And if you ever get time

mixed up with faith, you will jump out of the Book of

Hebrews and be out on your own.

"But Brother Norvel, when do you think the

manifestation will come?"

Now listen closely: If you get time involved with faith,

you will bog the manifestation down, and it will take it ten

times as long to come. Ten times! Or it may never come.

There's no wondering about faith in God. Leave time to

God. No wondering, just faith.

NO PITY PARTIES

. . .

I just kept on working for God, helping little poor kids

and stinking people while my daughter was covered with

boils and my business was under attack, with no pity

parties. I would go down to my office and lay my

checkbook open, and I would pray in tongues. Then I

would pray in English, "I am successful in Jesus' name, I

call my daughter healed in Jesus' name, I am successful in

Jesus' name." I started getting happy about it. "By the eye

of faith I'm successful in Jesus' name, I see thousands and

thousands of dollars in Jesus' name!"

Then I would go home to my daughter. She was the

only family I had, because all the rest of the family had left

32

P R O V E N , T E S T E D , P L E A S I N G F A I T H

me because I was serving the Lord in the Full Gospel

Movement. A "proper" kind of religion would have been

all right, but they didn't want to get involved in "that kind

of stuff."

My daughter was covered with boils, and knots, and

growths, and my businesses were gone. Sometimes I felt

like I was Job, Jr. But I still had my Bible and the Holy

Ghost lived in me. And I was still working for God, I still

had the victory, and I was still praying in tongues.

Then one day after I had just finished a meeting in San

Antonio, I was sitting alone in my motel room waiting for

some missionaries to take me to the airport. I was fixing to

catch a plane to go to Chattanooga. But the Spirit of God

moved upon me and overshadowed me and said, "Don't

go home. Go to Tulsa, Oklahoma, and I'll show you two

things after you get there... "

Always remember this: When you're going through a

trial, God will see you through, and you will receive the

manifestation of your prayers, if you can pass the final

test.

The plane touched down in Oklahoma City, and I

called Brother Kenneth Hagin and said, "Brother Hagin,

the Lord told me to come to Tulsa. He said He would

show me two things after I got here."

Brother Hagin said, "Come on over. We've stayed in

your house a lot of times, come and have dinner with us."

I said, "No." But he insisted, so I agreed. At that

particular time I knew only three people in Tulsa,

Oklahoma. I knew Brother Hagin, Oral Roberts, and a man

named Ford, who had helped Demas Shakarian start the

Full Gospel Businessmen's Fellowship.

About the second day after I arrived in Tulsa, I was

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P L E A S I N G T H E L O R D

sitting in Brother Hagin's house when all of a sudden, a

spirit of intercession came upon me. Oretha Hagin,

Kenneth Hagin's wife, heard me, and came in and said,

"Brother Norvel, do you want us to pray with you?" I said,

"Yes."

They had other guests at the time, so she called them

and Brother Hagin over.

Then we got on our knees, all around the fireplace, and

we began to pray. After we prayed a while, I got up and

began to walk the floor. I began walking back and forth

and praying, back and forth, back and forth. Then, now

listen to this, somebody wanted me to pray for them, and

while I was praying, Brother Hagin got up and left the

room. As I continued to groan in the Spirit, and cry out to

the Lord, the Lord said, "You can go home now. I brought

you here to pray for that person, so you can go now."

Brother Hagin had gone to the back room to continue

praying where he was groaning and praying in the Spirit.

When he finished, I said, "Brother Hagin, the Lord told me

I can go home now."

"He did?"

"Yes."

Then Brother Hagin asked if I could stay a few more

days.

I thanked him, but said I had to go, and asked if he

could drive me to the airport. So he took me to the airport.

Now on the way to the airport (you aren't going to

believe this, glory to God).. . On the way to the airport

with this same man who years earlier prophesied how the

devil was going to attack my businesses and finances,

said, "Brother Norvel, the Lord moved on me this morning

back there in my prayer room. He said to tell you that

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P R O V E N , T E S T E D , P L E A S I N G F A I T H

you've passed His test, and the light of God is going to

shine down from heaven, down upon your finances, and

never again, as long as you live, will you ever have any

want."

By then, I wasn't sure I needed a plane to fly home.

Glory be to God!

About two weeks went by, and a real estate company

called me on the phone and a man said, "Mr. Hayes, I have

a buyer for that little piece of property you have listed

with us. I see you paid $13,000.00, but my buyer will give

you $28,000.00 for it. Would you be willing to sell it?"

Real calm, I said, "Yeah, I think so. I believe I'll sell

that."

Another week went by, and the same real estate man

called me again, and said, "Mr. Hayes, that piece of

property that you own on the country road—I don't know

if you know it or not, but the county has come by, and

paved that dirt road in front of it. I know what you paid

for it, and you can get almost three times what you gave

for it. Would you be willing to sell it?"

So I said, "Why not? As you know, I only gave

$1,500.00 for it."

Not long after selling those two properties, I made

another transaction for property that I had given

$55,000.00 for and sold it for nearly half a million! Then I

asked, "Lord, what am I going to do with all this money?"

He said, "You're going to spend it for me, or I am going

to take it away from you."

Thank You, Lord.

35

C H A P T E R 5

Obedient Faith (The Day I Didn't Go

5

Fishing)

. . .

Not long after God began to turn my finances around,

my close friend, Vep Ellis, (the man who wrote so many

great Gospel songs) and I were riding up Highway 19

north from St. Petersburg, Florida. Vep and I were going

fishing with one of his deacons. It was just about daylight,

and I was following them in my car. But there was so

much fog, I got lost from them. For a minute, I got real

worried. Then, suddenly, the Holy Ghost came upon me

and said, "Don't go fishing today. I want you to buy a

piece of property for Me, and I want you to use this

property to win some of these elderly people in Florida to

Me."

He continued, "Son, buy this piece of property for Me

and begin to train mission workers to reach every one in

this area. I want you to send them out, two by two, from

house to house. And I want you to work these towns and

villages all around here." He specified a certain section,

and said, "Just knock on doors, and leave a tract. That's all

I want you to do."

Then the Spirit said, "Don't invite any one to come and

hold a meeting, just knock on the doors of individual

homes. These are Jewish and Italian people who used to

live in New York City. And there are many people from

Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and other places—

they live in a totally different world. They will live the last

37

P L E A S I N G T H E L O R D

days of their lives here. They will play golf as long as they

are able, shuffleboard, have their parties, and just live out

their lives and wait to die. But I want you to bring some of

them to heaven, and give them a little heaven to go to

heaven in."

Then He showed me five little bitty acres of property

with a dirty looking motel on it, and I bought it. It cost me

$90,000.00.

Then, I began to send out workers door-to-door,

trailer-to-trailer, apartment-to-apartment, and condo-to-

condo. I said, "Don't miss a trailer. Understand me,

workers, don't miss a trailer. If there's no one at home,

leave a tract. Leave salvation tracts and healing tracts.

Don't miss a door in this town. Go street-by-street, and

trailer court-by-trailer court. Don't miss a living soul. I

don't care if it's a five million dollar mansion or an old

rusty trailer that's not worth a thousand dollars. Make sure

the Gospel gets into that home, and into the hands of the

people."

In obedience to the Lord, I would send people out two-

by-two in ten or twelve cars, armed with thousands of

tracts. That was more than ten years ago. Then one day, a

real estate man called me and said, "I know you paid

$90,000 for that piece of property ten years ago, but I have

a buyer who wants to give you $1,400,000.00 for it."

"You mean, I could make over a million dollars cash

for it right now?" I asked.

"Right now," he said. "So, you do want to sell, don't

you?"

But I told him, "Are you kidding? What do I want a

million dollars for? I deal in souls. If I did sell it, I'd build

something else just like it, or even better."

38

O B E D I E N T F A I T H ( T H E D A Y I D I D N ' T G O

F I S H I N G )

I built a sanctuary on that million dollar property, and

now we have preaching, teaching, and healing meetings,

and whatever else the Lord directs. That's what happens

to you when you put the Gospel first, my brother. Put the

Gospel first. You could be a millionaire by just obeying the

Holy Ghost one time.

ZONA HEALED!

. . .

Then one day when I was praying for my daughter's

healing, Zona's manifestation happened. By now, Zona

had places on her hand that were split and bleeding, and

knots and growths all were over her legs and knees, forty-

two of them. And the Lord said, "Son, you are not

declaring right; you are declaring wrong. Stop praying,

'Lord, would You heal my daughter?' and curse those

things on your daughter's body. Curse those knots and

boils. Curse the very root of them in My name, and they

will die and disappear. Then after you curse them, call her

free from boils. Call your daughter free from those knots

and growths, and thank Me for removing them."

So I cursed them in Jesus' name and said, "I curse the

roots of you knots and growths! I command you to die and

fall off of my daughter's body in Jesus' name." I said,

Leave her! Leave her in Jesus' name!" and I walked the

floor doing it for about forty days.

"Thank You, Lord, I call Zona free from growths and

knots! I call Zona free in Jesus' name. Thank You, Lord, for

Your healing power coming, and overshadowing her, and

removing all the growths off of her."

One afternoon, after about forty days of thanking and

praising God, and calling those things that be not as

39

P L E A S I N G T H E L O R D

though they were, Zona was hanging up some of her

dresses. It was about 5 PM. She had taken all of her

dresses out of her closet, and laid them on the bed to sort

them out—winter from summer. And while she was in the

middle of hanging up her dresses like this, just minding

her own business, you know, she started to turn around to

get another dress … and,.. she goes,

"AWWWWWWWWOW!'' She saw herself in the mirror

and every growth on her body had disappeared. And new

skin came all over her. Glory to God forever!

Today Zona often looks up at me with tears in her eyes

and says, "Daddy, had it not been for your faith, I would

have knots and growths all over me and probably be in

hell now. But, your faith in God for me has made me

whole."

Glory to God for His healing power for those who will

walk the floor and curse the works of darkness and receive

His healing gifts!

GIVING THANKS PLEASES GOD

. . .

In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of

God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

1 Thessalonians 5:18

Later the Lord instructed me, "Tell My children not to

forget to thank Me for everything. Because if they forget to

thank Me for everything, I forget to give it to them. I have

it set up that way. Tell them to remind Me of what I have

promised them (Isaiah 43:26). Tell them I have it set up

that way, and that I want them to remind me of the

Scripture they are claiming. Tell them to give thanks for

the Scripture they are believing. And tell them that when

they speak My Word, it gets My attention."

40

C H A P T E R 6

Worship Pleasing Faith

6

. . .

Then Jesus went thence, and departed into the

coasts of Tyre and Sidon.

And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the

same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy

on me, O Lord, thou son of David; my daughter is

grievously vexed with a devil.

Matthew 15:21,22

This woman came to Jesus crying, "I have a devil-

possessed daughter, Jesus. Have mercy on me. .Jesus, I

have a devil-possessed daughter. Have mercy on me.

Jesus, I have a devil-possessed daughter. Have mercy on

me"

And I tell you, Jesus didn't honor that. He didn't accept

it initially, because the next verse says, But he answered

her not a word (Matthew 15:23a). He wouldn't even talk to

her, much less honor her faith. Then the Bible says ...his

disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her

away; for she crieth after us (Matthew 15:23b).

But I also tell you that Jesus wasn't interested in

sending her away. He was interested in her believing that

He was God: But He answered and said, I am not sent but

unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matthew

15:24).

Remember now, this woman had a devil-possessed

daughter. Then she came and WORSHIPPED him, saying,

Lord help me (Matthew 15:25).

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P L E A S I N G T H E L O R D

The first approach didn't work because the Lord put

her faith to a test. The Lord always puts your faith to a

test. The Bible is a test. So she said, "Oh, well, Lord. I know

you Jews call us Gentiles dogs. But it doesn't make any

difference about that kind of stuff. That's just an old

saying, you know. You're my Master, and I'm just telling

you now, Jesus, the way it is. You're my Master, and I'm

telling You that I've come to worship You, Jesus. And it

doesn't make any difference what You say to me, I am

bowing down before the One, the true and living God.

You are the Master of my life, and I'm just going to

worship You, Jesus, that's the way it is!" (Matthew

15:25,26, author's paraphrase).

Now, Jesus is standing there watching her. A few

minutes ago, He wouldn't even talk to her. Now, are you

ready for this? After standing there watching all this, Jesus

answered and said unto her, "Because you believe I am

God to the point that you will worship Me," O woman,

great is thy faith... (Matthew 15:28a).

GREAT FAITH

. . .

Jesus said this woman's kind of faith is not just faith.

He called it great faith. Jesus said, O woman, great is thy

faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt (Matthew 15:28).

Her devil-possessed daughter was made whole from that

very hour (Matthew 15:28b, author's paraphrase). And the

daughter wasn't even present. Glory to God!

People ask me all the time, "Can you make devils leave

someone at a distance?"

Are you kidding? The devil-possessed daughter was

over in another village, but because the woman bowed

down before God, and worshipped Him, and didn't take

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W O R S H I P P L E A S I N G F A I T H

"no" for an answer, just worshipped God—Jesus said,

"Your faith pleases Me." Then all of a sudden, His power

shot over into another village, into the room where the

devil-possessed daughter was, and drove all the devils out

of her. Why? Because the mother bowed down before God

and worshipped Him. Can you imagine how that mother

felt when she went back home and her daughter who had

been demon-possessed, sat up and said, "Hello, Mother, I

love you.. ?"

So you say you have a need and say, "Brother Norvel;

how do I get God to help me?"

Well, then, get this:

But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet,

and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father

which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret

shall reward thee openly.

Matthew 6:6

Several years ago, the Lord said to me, "Son, tell My

children to believe that I am God, and invite them to come

to Me and worship." Then He gave me this Scripture, He

that cometh to God must believe that He is... (Hebrews

11:6). If they'll believe that I am God—that is first, and

then worship Me, because I am God—then, what I see My

children do in secret, just alone in their secret place

worshipping Me because they love Me as their personal

God—I will reward them openly."

But now listen real close: If you're going to try to use

God as a stepping-stone to get something from Him, you

can forget it. God told me to tell you to spend time on your

knees worshipping Him first before you ever ask

anything. Just like the woman with the demon-possessed

daughter, worship God, and He will honor your faith.

Glory to God!

43

C H A P T E R 7

I Want a Camel!

7

. . .

If you are ever going to know how to please the Lord,

you will need to know that the flesh, my brother, that

body of yours, will drag you up and down every alley in

town. Even after you get saved, you will never get in the

will of God until you tell it "NOOOOO!" You will live out

there, somewhere in God's permissive will, the rest of your

life. And you will never know the divine will of Almighty

God.

MORE POWER

. . .

After I gave my life completely to the Lord Jesus, I

finally came in contact with the Full Gospel Businessmen,

glory to God. And they started telling me about an

experience I could have with God that would give me

more power called the Baptism in the Holy Ghost with the

gift of speaking in other tongues. I had already been

serving God for some time in the ministry of helps and

thought I had given Him my life completely. So the first

time I heard about it, I thought, Well, okay God, I give all of

my life to You now, and I thought that was it.

But the devil immediately said, "Tongues aren't real,

that group is crazy, it's a cult. Why don't you leave and go

back to your own kind?" I thought about it a while, and

stayed.

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P L E A S I N G T H E L O R D

So I kept on fooling around, and attending these

businessmen's meetings. And I want to tell you, if you

keep fooling around the Holy Ghost and His people, you

will get so hungry for this experience that you will be

willing to do whatever God asks. And I got it, glory to

Jesus. Because I was amazed watching these businessmen

praying for the sick and casting out demons. And I was

amazed that people could be set free just by speaking

Jesus' name, saying, "GO!"

But before I could receive God's supernatural power,

the Lord had to deal with me in my spirit. I'm either God or

I'm not God, He told me. You either believe what I say or you

don't. If you believe that I mean what I say, why don't you act

like it?

Then the Holy Spirit began to unfold the Scriptures

that got me hungry. And after a while, I was so hungry for

this experience that I began to beg Jesus to baptize me in

the Holy Ghost. Day after day, I just kept on begging, but

nothing happened.

BODY RULING, PLEASING FAITH

. . .

Well, this was before I quit smoking, and one day the

Holy Spirit said, "I want you to stop smoking!"

So I said, "What's smoking got to do with it? I've been

smoking for twenty years."

But Jesus said, "You want Me to baptize you in the

Holy Spirit, so I want you to stop smoking."

So I said, "Oh, I didn't know it was that important to

You, Lord. But if You want me to quit smoking, I'll take

these Camels and I'll just lay them down." So, I just took

the Camels out of my pocket and laid them down, and

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I W A N T A C A M E L !

said, "Okay, I quit."

Well, glory to God, about three or four hours went by

and my jaws began to ache. Then very nice and quietly my

body said, I want a Camel.

You see, your body wants exactly what it's been used

to. Eat three chocolate bars a day for a month, then try on

the thirty-first day to stop, and see what your body does.

About three o'clock in the afternoon your body will say, "I

want a Hershey bar!" I'm not kidding. This goes on in the

flesh of everybody who is addicted to anything.

I knew a young woman who was addicted to Coca

Cola. She drank twenty-five cokes a day. That was in the

day when cokes were in little bitty bottles. She would

drink twenty-five a day, and she became addicted. Her

addiction was so bad that she decided to go to the doctor.

After hearing her story, the doctor told her she was

addicted and was going to have stop drinking cokes

before they killed her. "But I wouldn't dare advise you to

stop drinking cokes tomorrow," he said. "To do so would

cause your body to go into shock. So tomorrow, I want

you to start reducing the number of cokes you drink a day.

On the first day, drink twenty-four cokes. On the next day,

I want you to drink twenty-three. And on the next day

twenty-two, and on down until you are down to one coke

a day." Then he finally told her, "It will take you twenty-

five days to get free of your addiction."

YOUR BODY WANTS WHAT IT WANTS WHEN IT WANTS

IT

. . .

Can you believe that? This woman's addiction was

cokes and my addiction was cigarettes. And after I

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P L E A S I N G T H E L O R D

decided to quit smoking "cold turkey," my body wanted a

cigarette. But I told it "No you don't. You can't have a

cigarette because I've quit smoking." Still, my body said, I

want one anyway.

It makes no difference what the addiction, your body

wants what it wants, when it wants it.

Another eight hours went by, and my body rose up

again—not quietly, but with a loud voice and said, I want

a Camel! So I said again, "No! You can't have one." But my

body was aching all over. I wanted a cigarette so bad I

could hardly stand it. When I went downtown I would

meet people on the street who were smoking, and you

know how you pass them, and it blows in your face. So I

would turn around and want to follow them. People who

have never smoked, or who have never been an alcoholic

or on dope, would never understand this.

Then finally one day, I just said, "No, body." But about

the second day after that, I was fit to be tied. I mean my

body was pounding and shouting at me, I WANT A

CAMEL, I WANT A CAMEL! I WANT A CAMEL! ARE

YOU CRAZY? WHAT DO YOU MEAN FEEDING ME

CAMEL CIGARETTES FOR TWENTY YEARS, THEN

SUDDENLY CUTTING ME OFF? I WANT ONE. I WANT

ONE. I WANT ONE!!!!

I was a nervous wreck. I told my body, "NOOOOOO,

you can't have a Camel!" Then just as plain, my body said,

THEN GIVE ME A CHESTERFIELD! "You've got to be

kidding," I told it. You have to be desperate to want a

Chesterfield.

It took a while, but my spirit won the battle over my

flesh, and I am free from that filthy addiction. And I got

baptized in the Holy Spirit. I couldn't do any of the things

I do today without the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. The

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I W A N T A C A M E L !

devil will tell you to go hide somewhere. And your body

will fight you. But when you're not in control of your

body, you will do all kinds of dumb things. So keep your

spirit strong enough to tell your body what to do by

reading the Bible, praying in tongues, and worshipping

God every day.

Jesus may not tell you to quit smoking if you smoke

before He baptizes you in the Holy Spirit. He may baptize

you just to give you more power to quit smoking. But

never let your spirit get so weak that your body orders you

around. You can't afford it.

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C H A P T E R 8

Servant Hearted Pleasing Faith

8

. . .

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus

Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad,

greeting.

My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into

divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of

your faith worketh patience.

But let patience have her perfect work that ye may

be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

James 1:1-4

Some time ago, I was in El Paso, Texas, holding a

meeting, when God told me He wanted me to do

something to serve Him in a special way. I had been

serving Him, I thought, in the ministry for many years. So

I asked, "God, what do You mean, serve?" And as I waited

before the Lord, He said, "I want you to bring Rock

Hudson your tape series, How to live and Not Die.

Rock Hudson was dying with AIDS in Los Angeles. So

this meant I would have to buy a plane ticket from El Paso

to Los Angeles. This was about five weeks before the

movie star died.

At that time, the only connection I had with Mr.

Hudson was Toni, one of his nurses. She was a beautiful

black Christian nurse who had appeared on the 700 Club.

And she was one of Rock Hudson's nurses. So I got on a

plane and went to Los Angeles.

I had been in touch with Toni about how God had

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P L E A S I N G T H E L O R D

been dealing with me to get these tapes to Rock Hudson

and we agreed to meet. When we did, I found out Mr.

Hudson didn't have a cassette recorder. So I bought him

one, and Toni agreed to get the tape recorder and my tapes

to him.

TONI

. . .

Toni would be the real servant in this situation. The

next day she took my tapes and the tape recorder to work

with her. She was on the night shift at that time. But when

she brought them into Rock Hudson's room, he said, "I

want to tell you something right now, Toni. I like you,

that's the reason you're here. But I don't want anything to

do with religion—nothing, understand? Nothing."

So Toni just agreed with him and left the recorder and

my tape series, How To Live and Not Die, by his bed. When

her shift was over, she took them home. Then when she

would go back on duty, she would put them back beside

his bed. Toni wouldn't say a word. She would simply walk

in, and just put the tapes there every day.

Well, as you know, Mr. Hudson kept getting worse,

and about two weeks before he died, Toni saw him

looking at the tapes and the recorder. Then finally one

day, he reached over, opened the case, and started

listening to one of my tapes.

Later, Toni called me on the phone and said, "Norvel,

he started listening to it, and I could tell he was real

interested. After he had listened for a while, and he got to

a certain point, I could tell it was time. So I just walked up

to his bed and I said, 'Mr. Hudson, you know I'm a

registered nurse, and I know about medical science. I

know what can be done by medical science, and I know

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S E R V A N T H E A R T E D P L E A S I N G F A I T H

what can't. And Mr. Hudson, there is nothing medical

science can do for you now. In fact, there is only one way

that you could ever possibly be healed, only one way.'

'"What do you mean?' Mr. Hudson replied. 'The doctor

says there's no way I can be healed.'

"'Well,' I said, 'there is one way, only one way.'

'"What's that?'

"Then God gave me just the right words to say, 'If God

Almighty came down out of heaven, and touched you,

you would be healed, that's the only hope for you ever to

be healed.'

'"From what the doctors say, I guess you're right,' Mr.

Hudson said. 'That's the only way I could ever be healed.'

"So I said, "Mr. Hudson, you know Jesus loves you,

and He does great things for people that belong to Him.'

'"What do you mean?' Mr. Hudson asked.

'"I mean, He loves you,' I said, 'and He would like you

to belong to Him. He wants you to come to heaven.'

"Finally he said, 'Well, Toni, I guess it's about time in

my life that I started thinking about things like that.'

'"Yes sir, Mr. Hudson, it is that time. I would be glad to

pray for you if you wanted me to. Would you let me pray

for you?'

'"Well, uh...sure, if you want to.'

"Then I asked God to take away Mr. Hudson's physical

pain, and led him in a sinner's prayer."

As Toni told me all of this, I stopped her, and said,

"Now Toni, I can't share this testimony in public meetings

unless I get it straight. Did you actually hear Rock Hudson

ask Jesus to come into his heart?"

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"Yes I did," she said. "He actually asked the Lord to

come into his heart, and he received Him. And after he

did, I saw a peace come upon him and he would smile and

say, 'Well, I'm all right now...well, I'm all right now, I'm all

right.'"

Elizabeth Taylor came to see Rock Hudson one day

and Toni heard him tell her, "Liz, don't worry about me,

I'm all right."

Toni told me how hard it was for all of Rock Hudson's

friends to see him, a tall, handsome, talented man being

eaten away by AIDS down to just a skeleton. But she also

said when they would come the last two weeks of his life

that he would reach out to them just like he did to

Elizabeth Taylor. "I'm all right now," he told them. "Don't

worry, I'm all right. I've made my peace.. ."

About two or three weeks after Rock Hudson died, an

international magazine wrote an article about him that

said, "Rock Hudson said in the last week of his life, 'Don't

worry about me, I've made my peace with God.'"

Now this happened because a bold nurse named Toni,

who had a servant's spirit, delivered my tape series, How

To Live and Not Die, to Rock Hudson when he was dying

with AIDS. She put it on the table beside him, every day.

Then she had enough godly wisdom to know when it

was time to lead him in the sinner's prayer.

GOD IS PLEASED WHEN YOU BECOME HIS SERVANT

. . .

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus

Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad,

greeting.

James 1:1

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S E R V A N T H E A R T E D P L E A S I N G F A I T H

When you become a servant of God, like Toni, you

obey Him. It doesn't make any difference what it costs me,

that's beside the point. When the Holy Spirit speaks to my

spirit for any service, I want to obey Him. So should you.

IF YOU WANT TO PLEASE THE LORD, BE AVAILABLE

. . .

Be available to obey the Lord. I tell Him daily that I am

available to go anywhere in the world to pray for one sick

person. Or to cast the devil out of one person if He wants

me to. All God has to do, is just tell me who and where

they are, and what He wants me to do.

The day before Rock Hudson died, Pat and Shirley

Boone called me out of my convention in Gatlinburg,

Tennessee, to tell me Rock Hudson wanted to see me.

So I said, "Okay. All right. I'll be out there in about two

days, are you kidding?" But the devil killed him the next

day, just sitting there. He wasn't even supposed to die. He

was supposed to live two or three more weeks. They said

he got up, they put his clothes on him, he Walked over to

his chair, and he sat down. Then, all of a sudden, he just

died.

The devil beat me to Rock Hudson before I could teach

him on physical healing. But because of Toni's servant

heart, he didn't get his eternal soul! Glory to God forever!

I have found from experience that if you show God

you will help Him spread the Gospel, He will bless you so

much you can't stand it. He will bless you with joy, and

He will bless you with peace. He will give you boldness.

And, you won't have nervous faith, glory to God. You will

find that when you freely give your life to become a

servant of God, a lot of those crazy things that have kept

your faith from working will begin to drop off of you. And

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P L E A S I N G T H E L O R D

God will have another trusted servant to minister in this

world.

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C H A P T E R 9

Let God Walk in Your Shoes

9

. . .

This people draweth nigh unto me with their

mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their

heart is far from me.

Matthew 15:8

There are all kind of worlds, and I believe if you don't

like the world you live in, you can change it. You choose

to walk in one of the two worlds I talked about in chapter

1. You can walk in the world of faith, or the world of

reason. The kind of world you live in depends on the

strength of your faith. If you are goofed up and in the

world of reason, the condition that put you there makes no

difference, none at all. Because God's mighty power in

your life can change the condition. You can walk in faith,

but you have to choose.

Now I want to teach something out of the Gospel of

Matthew that will help you choose your world. You may

not like it, but it's in the Bible, glory to God. You know,

sometimes, if Bible lessons and sermons don't make you

mad, you don't get any help. God didn't call your pastor to

leave you in the condition he found you in. God called

your pastor to shake your brain every Sunday morning so

you can think straight, and start thinking in a heavenly

way. Heaven is a place of victory and God wants you to

walk in victory. He wants you to enjoy a touch of heaven

now.

Here it is; here is the verse that will help you choose

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P L E A S I N G T H E L O R D

your world: Jesus said, This people draweth nigh unto

me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips;

but their heart is far from me (Matthew 15:8).

What does that mean? It means your heart may belong

to Jesus, but your life can belong to you if you won't lay it

down for Him. It means you can choose to walk your own

way, in your own shoes, go to church on Sundays, and live

your own life. Or you can choose to walk with Jesus, in

His shoes, and let Him be the Lord of your life.

FLOATING, JUST FLOATING ALONG CHURCHES

. . .

Many churches in America are full of people who in

their heart basically belong to the Lord. They love the Lord

to a degree, and they want to go to heaven because they

don't want to go to hell. They believe that Jesus is the Son

of God, and that God is real. And they believe in the virgin

birth and the death and resurrection of Jesus. But they also

believe their life belongs to them. They do what they want

to, when they want to. And it doesn't make any difference

to them what anybody thinks.

Most Christians have never won one soul to the Lord

in their entire life. They have never brought a sinner to

church. They don't pray for the sick. They don't help

people when they're sick. And they don't help people

when they're hungry. They just kind of float along. They

find a church that can feed them, and just stay there all

their life. Because God is merciful, He may give them a

room in somebody's mansion in heaven. But when they

die, they're going to be judged by the works they did

while living in this body. Why?

Because that's when we will all find out if we have

been sold out to God, my brother.

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YOUR BODY IS NUTS!

• • •

Now let me tell you something again about your body.

Your body is only a house that your spirit lives in. And

you can get your spirit in pretty good shape with God.

You can read the Bible, and pray, and get close to God. But

you have to put up with your body. And your body is nuts

—it's totally crazy!

Your body doesn't ever want to pray. And it never

wants to put on Jesus' shoes to go to the grocery store to

buy groceries to feed the poor. In fact, your body doesn't

want to do anything that it doesn't have to do. Are you

kidding? The only reason your body even goes to work is

because you have to live. If you would let your body have

its way, it would just lay around all day, watch TV, and

eat hot fudge sundaes.

Every time my body sees a coconut pie, it wants three

pieces. But my spirit says, "You crazy thing, you don't get

three pieces, what's wrong with you? Are you crazy?

You'd get so big you couldn't get through the door." So I

make a deal with my body and tell it, "I'll make a deal with

you body. If you'll be real nice, I'll give you one big piece."

But most of the time, my body wins.

SMOKE BREAK SUNDAY

. . .

If you want to know the truth about it, I never even

thought it was wrong to smoke when I was growing up. In

chapter 7 I told you the end of the matter. But I was

brought up in a traditional denomination, and the men of

that church smoked like a furnace. In fact, I think they

invented it. When you're raised in Tennessee and North

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P L E A S I N G T H E L O R D

Carolina like I was, no one gives a second thought about

smoking, because that's where they raise tobacco. Many

families make their living raising tobacco as a money crop.

You can make big money raising tobacco.

My daddy smoked, and my uncles smoked. All the

men smoked. So we gave a smoke break in church. Every

Sunday morning, Sunday school turned out at five

minutes till eleven and the men would leave the church

building real quick like to go out into the church yard.

Then the moment they stepped out, they would light 'em

up.

The Bible says you produce after your own kind. If you

smoke, don't you know your little boys are going to want

to smoke? They will think it's all right, because you do it.

But if you don't smoke, they probably won't. So, I didn't

think it was wrong. I saw my daddy and my uncles, and

all the men of the church smoke, and I smoked for about

twenty years. But when I really came to know the Lord, all

that changed.

PLEASING FAITH

. . .

When the Lord called me to start living in His world of

pleasing faith, I was an executive making around $5,000.00

a week in my business. One night I came out of an

executive meeting, and got in my Cadillac and started

home. After driving about 175 miles through Ohio, I lived

in Indianapolis, I don't know why, but I started to say a

little prayer. And when I did, the Spirit of God came into

me, and His Presence filled my car.

The Holy Spirit broke me open inside, and the Lord

melted me for an hour-and-a-half as I drove down the

highway. That was the night I gave my life to the Lord. He

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L E T G O D W A L K I N Y O U R S H O E S

said, "I want to set you on a high hill. I'm going to set you

on a high hill and the light of God will shine down from

you to many men on earth. Come, follow Me."

I said, "Really me? I'm a businessman. I thought You

called preachers." So I gave my life to Him and worked in

the ministry of helps for about seven years.

I didn't know God had a teaching ministry for me. I

just worked in the ministry feeding the poor, helping little

poor kids and trying to keep the high school kids off dope

by putting on high school assemblies. I also helped build a

little church over by the city dump for little kids that

didn't have any money.

Then one day the Lord said, "I want you to teach for

Me."

I said, "Are You kidding?"

He said, "No. I want you to start studying the Bible,

son, on the subject of faith."

I had been teaching supervisors how to teach salesmen

how to sell, but I didn't know God was ever going to call

me to teach the Bible. If you want to know the truth about

the matter, I didn't care about any of it. I didn't care

anything about the kind of public ministry God has me in

today. I was satisfied working with my own money

helping little poor kids and poor families and high school

kids in the ministry of helps.

Once I began to teach, I didn't even take an offering for

seven years. What did I need an offering for? I had a

business of my own. I wanted to give money to God—not

take it from Him. But I found out that if you start working

in the ministry of helps, if you start walking in Jesus'

shoes, God will bless you so much you won't be able to

stand it.

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LET GOD WALK IN YOUR SHOES

. . .

God doesn't bless stingy or lazy people! If you're going

to be one of those kind of human beings, you're on your

own. You will never please the Lord. And you will never

receive His blessing. So just get ambitious and start

working for God. Tell your body to "shut up!" and start

worshipping God every day. Tell your body that you're

going to walk in Jesus' shoes and start bringing sinners to

church.

"Wha—what? You mean God in my shoes?"

Oh, yeah! God, loves to walk in them. He loves to be in

your shoes. And you will begin to understand that God

loves busy people. Just get busy for God. Don't be one of

those lazy Christians who draw near to God with their

words, but their hearts are far from Him. Get busy with

God.

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Cancer Healing Pleasing Faith

10

. . .

If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that

giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it

shall be given him.

But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he

that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the

wind and tossed.

For let not that man think that he shall receive any

thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in

all his ways.

James 1:5-8

Many times people say, "Brother Norvel, can you tell

me why I can't..." but before they can finish, I say, "Oh

yeah, I can tell you why. You're letting your faith waver,

and when you allow that to happen, you won't receive

anything from God. Are you kidding? I can't afford to let

you even think you're going to receive from God if you let

your faith waver." So I want to talk to you in this chapter

about some of the things that can cause your faith to

waver. But most importantly, I want to teach you how to

receive God's healing from cancer and how you can teach

others to be healed.

That's right, I said cancer. Only Jesus can heal cancer. I

am going to show you how God healed Hulda's cancer so

He can heal cancer if you've got it. Or somebody else if

they've got it. Because Jesus is the healer of cancer! Glory

to God! It is His will to heal cancer!

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HOW TO LIVE AND NOT DIE

. . .

There's nothing that can make a person's faith waver

like cancer. Oh yeah. It will make you waver if you let it.

So in God's world of faith, you have to know how to do

things. This means you need His wisdom. And you need

to ask for wisdom because the Bible says:

If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that

giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; it shall

be given him.

But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he

that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the

wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he

shall receive any thing of God of the Lord.

James 1:5-7

So what does that mean? It means to ask with patience.

It's so pitiful when I walk in sometimes and see a person

wasting away with cancer because he doesn't know how

to minister the spiritual laws of the Bible. It has been only

a few years since God gave me the ministry to teach

people How To Live and Not Die. When He called me to do

it, He said, "Son, walk into that cancer patient's room with

your spirit full of patience and faith, and tell them just like

it is." So that's what I began to do. That's what I did with

Hulda.

HULDA

. . .

A millionaire friend of mine who lives in California

called me one day and said, "Norvel, I have a secretary.

You know, the black-haired Italian girl, Hulda. She's only

in her thirties, has a child thirteen years old, and she's

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C A N C E R H E A L I N G P L E A S I N G F A I T H

getting eaten up by cancer. They've operated on her twice.

All of her hair's fallen out and they've sent her home to

die. But after hearing you teach, I've been wondering, does

she have to die with cancer?"

"You're wondering right," I told him. "She doesn't have

to die."

So he invited Hulda over with her thirteen year old

son, and the three of us had dinner together that night.

After dinner, we went into the living room, and I learned

Hulda had been told that she didn't have one chance in ten

million to live. They said she had cancer from the top of

her head to the bottom of her feet. She had cancer of the

liver, cancer of the breast, and cancer of the kidneys.

Cancer was eating her up.

I told Hulda right away that she didn't have to die, and

that cancer was a lie from the devil.

Then I told her, "You don't have to die, Hulda, Jesus

wants you to live. And I'm going to start teaching you

right now how to live and not die. Is that all right?"

"Yes, oh yes," Hulda told me.

I told Hulda the teaching would take a while, and that

I would take her through my six-tape series on, How To

Live and Not Die. Then I shared with Hulda how the Lord

showed me several years ago how people miss His

blessing for not confessing His Word.

"Most of My children believe the Bible to a degree, and

they love Me," the Lord told me. "But they miss Me and

miss My victory because they don't speak My Word out

loud."

I asked the Lord what He meant about the speaking

part and He gave me an example.

"Have you ever heard a human being talking to the flu,

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P L E A S I N G T H E L O R D

holding a conversation with the flu?" the Lord asked me.

"No, Lord," I said, "I've never heard anybody holding a

conversation with the flu."

Then He said, "Well, neither has any of the rest of My

children. Many of them know nothing about it at all. But I

plainly tell them in My Word exactly what to do. Every

church has a Bible, and they read it. But only a few of

them ever obey it, they just read it. They read it because

it's a nice book."

I said, "What do You mean by that?" And He showed

me a Scripture, and said, "I have already told My people

what to do. I have said to them, whosoever shall say unto

this mountain...'be thou removed.. .' But they don't talk to

mountains, they talk to Me about their mountains, and

that is unscriptural."

For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say

unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast

into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall

believe that those things which he saith shall come to

pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.

Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye

desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and

ye shall have them.

Mark 11:23,24

When Jesus told me this, I said, "Lord, what do You

mean by mountains?" And He said, "Son, anything that's

bothering you at any specific time, that is your mountain."

Then I told Hulda the cancer that was eating her up

was her mountain.

"We're not praying for good blood, or good lungs, or

whatever. We're dealing here with a cancer that is eating

away at your whole body," I told her.

"Now pay attention closely, Hulda, because I want you

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to get this message so you will know how to talk to that

cancer."

I told her I would pray first, and that she would pray

later. Then I reached my hand toward her and said, "Now,

cancer, I come against you in Jesus' name, and I curse your

very roots. I curse your roots, cancer, and I command you

to die! I command every root of this cancer in Hulda's

body to die! Stop and wither away cancer, you disappear. I

command it in Jesus' name!"

Then I told Hulda that it was her turn to pray.

"Now then, Hulda, that's my part. But now, I'm going

to teach you how to talk to your mountain. I'm going to

pretend that I'm you, and I'm going to walk the floor and

say, 'Heavenly Father, I come to You in Jesus' name, and

Your Word says that I have a right to talk to mountains.

Jesus, You said in Mark 11:23 and in Matthew 21:21,

Whosoever shall say to this mountain, Be thou removed,

and be thou cast into the sea, You said that mountain

would be removed. So Lord, the doctors tell me that I have

cancer, and that I'm going to die with cancer. But I'm not

going to receive that because I'm going to talk to it. So in

the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, cancer, I'm talking to

you right now, and I am telling you, cancer, I want you to

listen to me, cancer. You understand, cancer, I'm talking to

you. Cancer, I'm talking to you, not somebody else. I'm

talking to you, cancer, and I'm telling you in Jesus' name,

you aren't going to kill me. I'm telling you, cancer, in Jesus'

name, you remove yourself from my body, and you be cast

into the depths of the sea!"

Then I demonstrated cancer healing prayer again:

"Cancer, you go from me in Jesus' name. I don't want

you, cancer. I resist you, cancer, and I am telling you, go

from me in Jesus' name! I don't want you, and I'm talking to

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you. I'm not asking you anything. I'm telling you. Go from

my body in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm not

going to give you any choice. You don't have any choice.

Jesus said in the Bible that whosoever shall say unto this

mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea,

it shall be done for him (Mark 11:23, paraphrase).

"So I say with my mouth, cancer, you remove yourself

from me, and be cast into the sea. In Jesus' name, I don't

want you. Remove yourself from me! Remove yourself

from me! Remove yourself from me!"

I asked Hulda if she was getting it so far. And she said

she was. So I told her getting it wasn't good enough

because you can't heal yourself.

"The Holy Spirit Who lives inside of you is here on the

earth to perform what the Bible says He will, Hulda. And

we're going to put the Holy Spirit to work to start healing

you today."

Then I prayed, showing her how again, "Now I'm

going to walk the floor and say, 'Thank You, Lord, thank

You, Lord. I resist cancer and I command it to be removed

from me . I'm talking to you, cancer. Remove yourself from

me! Thank You, Lord, for doing it. Now, heavenly Father,

in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I am Your child and

the Holy Spirit lives in me, and the Holy Spirit does the

work of God on the earth. Not somebody else—the Holy

Spirit, and He lives in me.

'The Bible says that the Holy Spirit Who lives in me

performs what He hears. And Holy Spirit, You hear me

say right now that Jesus is my Healer, and the Lord Jesus

Christ is healing me now. You hear me say that I believe in

the healing power of the Lord Jesus Christ. You hear me

say that the healing power of God is in my body now. The

healing power of the Lord Jesus Christ is driving out all

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symptoms of cancer in my body.

'And Holy Spirit of God, You are healing me

completely and making me whole and making me well,

and making me free from all disease. You are healing me

now. And I thank You, Lord, for healing me. I thank You,

Lord, for healing me. I thank You, Lord, for healing me!'"

Hulda nodded her head when I asked if she got it

again, so I said, all right, show me you have it.

Then I sat down, and she got up. I told her to start

walking the floor just like I did, and speak to the mountain

of cancer. So she started, "Oh. Oh, heavenly Father, in

Jesus' name, ah, ah, I come to you, and I confess that You

said that whosoever shall say to this mountain, be thou

removed and be thou cast into the sea... "

I stopped her right there and said, "Wait a minute, wait

a minute, Hulda, Hulda. You'll die if you do it like Hulda,

you're saying about the same words that I said, but your

words have no meaning, they have no power. God doesn't

confirm and work with nonchalant faith. He doesn't work

with nonchalant words. You can't say the words of the

Bible any way you want to. You have to say them with

power and enthusiasm. You have to say them like you

mean it. Now, let's try it again."

"Okay..., Jesus, You said—You said whosoever shall

say unto this mountain be thou removed and be thou.. ."

"No, no, Hulda, that won't work—here, give me your

hand, and follow me. Do you understand what I mean

when I say get up on the inside of you? Get up!"

Bless her heart, she was so weak, but she nodded, and

I took her by the hand, and we started walking the floor

together. I said again, "Jesus, You said whosoever shall say

unto this mountain, be thou removed, be thou cast into the

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sea, go from me, it shall be done for him. Whosoever shall

say to this mountain..., and I say, cancer, you depart

yourself from me. You go from me because the roots of

you have been cursed in Jesus' name, and you can't live in

me. I'm talking to you, and I'm telling you, be removed

from me, in Jesus' name!"

If you have a disease like cancer, it's so important

when you come to the truth of confessing Jesus as Healer,

that you do it for at least ten or fifteen minutes. Say

nothing but, "Jesus, You are my Healer. Jesus, You are my

Healer. Jesus, You are my Healer.. " over and over and

over and over. It will save your life! Not only will Jesus get

the message that you believe it, but pretty soon, your inner

man will get the message. And then the devil will get the

message that his cancer has no part or place in you.

HAVE FAITH IN GOD'S WORD

. . .

Whatever you call Jesus, He becomes that to you. Not

whatever you think He is, but whatever you call Jesus

with your mouth, in reverence from your spirit, He

becomes that to you. So if you're dying of a disease, make

sure that you stick to that for ten or fifteen minutes two or

three times a day, saying, "Jesus, You are my Healer. Jesus,

You are my personal Healer. Jesus, I love You, and You are

my personal Healer. My faith, Jesus, is in You. My faith is

not in something eke, it's in You, Jesus. You are my

personal Healer. Jesus, You are healing me now. Your

healing power is flowing through me. Jesus, it is—because

it's free. It's free for Your church. It's a gift to Your church.

It's a free gift that's already been paid for, and I receive

your free gift."

"But now Brother Norvel," you may ask, "if I do that,

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do you really believe Jesus will hear me?"

Not only will He hear you, my brother, but if you will

do it every day, He will come to your house and heal you.

Jesus didn't talk just to hear His brain rattle and to hear

His tongue flap. When He says something, He means it.

I'm telling you, if you're born again by the Spirit of

God, and you're washed clean and white as snow,

anything that Jesus says to you, you have a right to it.

Have faith in God's Word. Blessed be the name of the

Lord!

TELL THE DEVIL WHERE TO GO

. . .

Hulda isn't the only case I've worked with. I take cases

all the time, where there's no hope. They are dying with

cancer, and nearly all their flesh is gone, just skin wrapped

around a body. And I work with them like I did with

Hulda. The devil knows God uses me this way to get them

healed. I get hold of impossible cases, but I'm telling you

that the Lord God heals them when we tell the devil

where to go.

Hulda, was dying with cancer, without hope or hair.

She was dying! But she spoke to that mountain of cancer,

and bound the devil every day, just as I taught her. I made

her promise me to stay in there, every day! Every day!

Every day!

Later, Hulda told me that she talked to that mountain

of cancer for five months. She couldn't tell any difference

at all in her condition until after two or three weeks. But at

the end of the second week she knew she was getting

better. And by the end of the second month she knew she

was completely healed. Her hair began to grow out and

she began putting on some weight, glory to God! Finally,

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in the fifth month, she knew she was completely healed.

Hulda was full of faith and would say to her mountain

for about an hour or two in the morning, and sometimes

an hour in the afternoon, "Jesus said, whosoever shall say

to this mountain, be thou removed, so I say unto you,

cancer, remove yourself from me, in Jesus' name. You've

been cursed, and you can't live in me. You can't live in me.

My body belongs to God. You can't live in me. What do

you think you're doing, trying to take me over? You can't

take anything over because you're dead, in Jesus' name.

You've been cursed. And you can't live in me. You can't

live in me. Jesus is my Healer. Jesus is my Healer. Jesus is

my Healer. The Holy Spirit is healing me now. The Holy

Spirit is healing me now!"

After eight months Hulda went back to the same

hospital where she had been sent home to die. She dressed

up real nice, her hair long and shinning black, walked into

the offices where her doctors were, and said, "Hi."

Only one of the doctors recognized her. "You look like

the Italian lady we operated on months ago," the doctor

said. "But it can't be you, no way, you can't be Hulda."

Another doctor looked at her and said, "The Hulda we

operated on has been dead for months."

Then another doctor asked Hulda her name. "My name

is Hulda," she answered. "You doctors ought to know me

like the back of your hand, you've cut me open twice."

"Oh, no. Nooooooo," they said. 'No. We've got the

record over here. We all remember Hulda. We have the

record over here. Our Hulda was totally eaten up with

cancer. She's dead."

"What do you mean dead? I'm here. I'm alive!"

After a long, long, time, they said, "Hulda, you look

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like the specimen of health, but we won't believe it unless

you let us open you up and see for ourselves."

Hulda thought they might become believers if they

were convinced. So she said, "I took it twice before, and I

can take one more time."

They scheduled surgery, and Hulda actually went

back into the hospital so they could cut her open again.

Oh, glory to God. And now listen to this—their medical

records showed they couldn't find one trace of cancer

anywhere! Glory to Jesus! They said, "What in this world

happened to you? You're your normal size, your hair has

grown out, and you look so beautiful. What happened?"

So Hulda told them about the minister from Tennessee

who taught her to hook up with Jesus and cast her

mountain of cancer into the sea. "He taught me how to

talk," she told them.

"Is that right?" they asked her. "What do you mean

taught you how to talk?"

"I'm telling you," Hulda said boldly, "the gentleman

from Tennessee taught me how to talk. He spent over an

hour and demonstrated how to walk across the floor, and

speak to that cancer, and tell it to leave. I began to talk like

he did, and the more I did what he taught me to do, the

better I got, and finally that cancer left because I talked to

it, in Jesus' name."

So the doctors finally said, "Well, whoever that man

from Tennessee is, keep on doing what he said—because

he's got the answer." Glory to God forever!

The only reason I have the answer is because God

showed it to me in the Bible: Whosoever shall say unto

this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into

the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall

believe that those things which he saith shall come to

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pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith (Mark 11:23).

Now some people come to me now and then and say,

"Brother Norvel, I know a lot of people who talked to their

mountains of sickness who didn't get healed." And I tell

them, "I don't doubt that a bit." I know probably a

thousand who didn't get healed, but they didn't do what

Jesus said. They may have been talking, but they were

doing their own thing. You can't be confessing God's

healing Scriptures one minute, then flaking out the next by

wavering in what the devil has convinced your reasoning

to do. You can't do your own thing. You can't doubt. You

have to believe and be patient when you act on your faith.

All the time! Every day! Be patient! I'm telling you, if

you're born again by the Spirit of God, and you're washed

clean and white as snow, anything that Jesus' Word says

to you, you have a right to it. Have faith in God's Word.

Blessed be the name of the Lord!

YOU START TALKING TO YOUR MOUNTAIN

. . .

So start talking to your mountain. If it's cancer, don't

let that mountain take you over, you belong to God. It will

take patience and perseverance, but you can have it. Put

your hand on this book right now and pray this prayer:

Heavenly Father, give me patience in my spirit. 0 God, calm

me down. Calm my mind down. Give me patience, in my mind,

and in my spirit, that I would walk the floor every day, talking

to my mountain in Jesus' name, telling it to be removed, and be

cast into the sea.... Help me to act on my faith in God's Word

knowing that it is Your Word, when I confess to my mountain,

"Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea," it will go from

me, disappearing from me, forever and I'll be free.

God, give me patience in my faith, that I will obey the Lord

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Jesus Christ, and I will walk the floor, and I will talk to my

mountain, and I will claim Jesus as my Healer, and I will praise

Him, and I will thank Him out loud, for healing me. I will do it

every day. Thank You, Jesus, for setting me free, all diseases!

Thank You for giving my spirit, and my mind patience that I

can believe God according to Thy Word! Amen.

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Pleasing Faith Words Will Set You Free!

11

. . .

Probably the shortest sermon Jesus ever preached is in

Matthew 15:10. It says, And he called the multitude, and

the first thing He said was, Hear and understand.... Then

He said unto them, Not that which goeth into the mouth

defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth,

this defileth a man (Matthew 15:10). What Jesus said was

short, but powerful, glory to God. What comes out of your

mouth defiles you (author's paraphrase, Matthew 15:11).

The only reason that you're sick today, my brother, is

because the right words haven't been coming out of your

mouth. Now listen real close! If you speak the right words,

like Hulda dying from terminal cancer did, you, yourself,

can get God to heal you. But, just like Hulda, you have to

learn how to do it. Then after you learn how to do it, my

brother, you will have to do it. And I mean do it diligently.

You have to do it faithfully. You have to do it every day.

Every day. Every day!

"But Norvel!" you say, "I don't have time to talk right

words each day and get God's healing power out of the

Book of St. Matthew, and St. Mark, Luke, and John. I need

someone to pray!"

Is that right? Well then, let me say this again. God

doesn't bless doubt and laziness! You may want to be

healed, but until you understand this truth, you're not

going to get it. There's no use in just wandering around

and thinking, Maybe, God in His goodness will help me

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someday. "Someday" may be too late. God wants you to

have faith in Him right now! Because now faith is the

substance.

I don't mean you shouldn't ask for the prayers of

others. God works through anointings and through the

laying on of hands. But your pleasing faith words to God

that speak out His healing power every day—diligently,

every day! every day! can get God to heal you yourself.

Your eyes have to be set on Jesus like a flint of fire, and

all the way to the end where you can't see anything but

victory—only victory. No conditions, nothing but victory.

And if you don't have that kind of faith, and that kind of

determination, you won't get the victory.

If your legs are crooked and twisted, you have to look

at your legs and say, "Legs, I command you to be straight

and to be normal!" You have to repeat it, "Legs, I

command you to be straight and be normal. I command

you! I'm talking to you, legs. I command you to be strong

and be normal! I command you!"

You do it. Not Brother Hayes, not your pastor, not

Brother Hagin, not anybody else. Forget that. You have to

do it for yourself.

There is no Scripture to cover the idea that others can

get healing and all kinds of miracles for you. God works

through the anointing and through laying on of hands. But

after you get your healing through somebody else's

praying, always remember this: If you don't pass God's

test of faith, and confession, and dedication, and worship

—you will lose your healing every time.

Why?

You can't keep your healing from God and remain

ignorant. God loves you, my brother, but He doesn't bless

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ignorance. So if you want God to do anything for you, you

better get smart real quick.

There is nothing ignorant about God. You and me pass

that test pretty good, glory to God. But there is nothing

ignorant about God. God doesn't deal in ignorance with

any human being. He deals only in the truth of His Word.

And the Holy Ghost who lives inside of you, is a

performer. Do you understand that? He's a performer, and

He will perform any verse of Scripture you will obey. So

don't pray about it to see if God wants you to have healing

or not. That's unscriptural.

"Well, Brother Norvel, I've been praying about it,

and...."

DON'T EVER AGREE WITH THE DEVIL

. . .

No, I said, don't pray about it. That's unscriptural. God

doesn't answer prayers for people who have to pray about

the Bible. You can pray fourteen years if you want to. The

Bible is true before you ever pray, and it will be true when

you get through. And God will just be sitting there, never

changing, knowing nothing but victory. Because faith has

total victory, and God will give us anything we want,

according to His Word—that is, if we ever get our mouths

straightened out.

The things that come out of your mouth can defile you.

They can rob and steal your health, your money, and

everything you have. They can make you suffer, or they

can bless you. It all depends on what you've been doing.

I can look at most anyone and tell you what they've

been doing with their mouth. I can listen to them less than

three minutes and they don't have to tell me what's wrong.

I already know what's wrong with them. Their mouth

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doesn't speak the right kind of words. They confess to me

all the things that are wrong with them. But my brother,

the worst thing that you could ever do in your life is to

confess what's wrong with you. When you do that, you

agree with the devil. Don't ever agree with the devil. Don't

do it.

GOD'S CONTRACT

. . .

Agree with God in faith and He will bless you, because

it's like a contract from heaven to earth. Jesus said, Have

faith in God (Mark 11:22). That means, have faith in His

Word. God wrote the Bible and sent the Holy Spirit from

heaven to earth to perform the Bible. Mark 11:23 says the

Holy Spirit performs what He hears. But it all depends on

what He hears from you. What He hears from you, He

does for you. This is the reason a book like this is so

important.

What are you confessing? You say, "Well, I'm

confessing that we have a good church." Well, thank God

for that.

Someone else says, "I'm confessing I have a good

pastor, and that I love the Lord." Well, thank the Lord for

that too. I'm glad you have a pastor, and I'm glad you love

the Lord. That's the foundation of Christianity.

Then someone else says, "Well, I'm just confessing that

the—that, you know, the Lord's will be done."

But now I say, "That's dangerous."

Let me explain. Now it's good to confess, where your

daily life is concerned, the same prayer that Jesus prayed

in the garden: "Not My will, but Thy will be done in My

life."

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But if you confess that kind of a prayer over every

thing in life, the devil will sift you as wheat because you

don't know God's will.

The Bible tells you God's will for your finances,

healing, and miracles. It tells you what you can do about

God's will through using Jesus' mighty name and through

your faith confessions. And the Bible tells you that faith is

not seen.

The Bible also plainly says you have a right to call

those things that be not as though they were (Romans

4:16-21). And the Bible plainly tells you, through the Lord

Jesus Christ Himself, that those things that come out of

your mouth can defile, or destroy you: Not that which

goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which

cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man (Matthew

15:10). Now listen—Jesus didn't say those things that go

into your mouth could destroy you in this verse. He said it

is those things that come out of your mouth that can defile

you. They can destroy you. They can rob you from the

blessing of God.

That broken, sick, beaten down, weak, confused kind

of life that many of you may be in today, is totally

opposite from the life that God's prepared for you. There's

only one lifestyle, my sister, that God Himself has

prepared for you through Christ Jesus—it's called the

abundant life. Do you have abundance in your life today,

my brother? If you don't, you're being robbed by the devil.

And the only reason you're being robbed by the devil

is because you're ignorant of what God says. That's the

truth. You might as well know it. The Lord said, if you

know the truth, the truth will make you free (John 8:32,

author's paraphrase). Jesus said the devil is here for three

reasons: to kill, steal, and destroy. He wants to kill you,

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your relatives, all your friends, and all your children. The

devil wants to steal everything the Holy Ghost has for the

church, and he wants to steal it all away from you. He

wants to steal the gifts of the Spirit from the church,

(which he just about has). And He wants to rob you of

everything that God has for you. Jesus said the devil is a

thief and a liar. So you can't believe anything he says or

does—nothing at all!

MOUNTAIN MOVING FAITH PLEASES GOD

. . .

So, have you been talking to the flu? Have you been

talking to your crooked legs? Jesus said, Whosoever shall

say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou

cast into the sea... (Mark 11:23). What is your mountain? Is

it cancer like Hulda had? Is it your empty pocketbook?

Your rent payment? Why don't you claim what is

rightfully yours? Tell that filthy devil to take his hand off

your money Say, "You flake, let go of my money, in Jesus'

name." Claim it for yourself. It doesn't matter whether you

have cancer or a twisted leg, or a bad kidney. Start

resisting that demon. In Jesus' name, say, "No you don't!

Not to me. No you don't! I resist you. I resist you. I resist

you. I resist you!"

Do it. Resist the devil. Resist conditions in Jesus' name.

Resist him with authority. And do it continually, until in

Jesus' name, you break the devil's power over you.

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Patient Pleasing Faith

12

. . .

The Book of James says, The trying of your faith

worketh patience (James 1:3). So faith has patience all the

time, because faith is always tried. You may not think

that's good, but God does, because patience pleases the

Lord.

Sometimes, the longer God waits to give you the

manifestation of what you're praying for, the greater the

benefit. As you wait on the Lord, you will see the greatest

things in the world begin to happen. Especially if you

don't allow your faith to waver. All the time you're

waiting, you're practicing, and practicing, and you're

thanking God, and praising God, and believing God. If

you refuse to waver, I will guarantee you, the next time

you come upon something you have to use your faith for,

you won't be trying to find every evangelist in the country

to pray for you. Because when you practice your faith for

yourself, you build your faith muscles.

It's good to have people pray for you, but did you

know that you can get God to do anything you want for

yourself? Did you know that? Well, I'm telling you boldly

that you can. God loves you, my brother, and He will do

anything for you personally.

Several years ago I asked God this question about

unanswered prayer: "What about these people who have

memorized the whole Book of Hebrews, and they say they

have great faith, but You don't answer their prayers?" I

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asked. "What's wrong, Jesus?"

Well, the Holy Spirit unfolded it to me. Sometimes the

Holy Ghost will move upon me and unravel the Word of

God right in front of my eyes. He does that for the office of

the teacher, because He wants the teacher to teach His

truth. And He did that when I asked this question.

The Lord told me, "Some of My children pray and ask

Me for something, and want Me to give it to them

yesterday. But I won't do that, because sometimes, they

aren't ready for what they ask. So I want you to teach them

this way—I want you to teach the people to worship Me.

Then, I want them to become My servants. I want them to

serve Me and obey Me. And then, I want them to have joy

in their life all the time."

GOD DOESN'T ANSWER NERVOUS PRAYERS

. . .

Then the Holy Spirit taught me that God's servants

must learn patience, because God doesn't answer nervous

prayers. He told me the more we worship Him and the

more we praise and thank Him for whatever we're asking

Him for, the better we will be able to understand His

timing.

You know in some cases, God has His timing. He

really does. But you need to learn that about God and quit

trying to make God do things now. You can't make God

do anything. So start learning to believe God by faith, with

patience, joy, and thanksgiving.

LET PATIENCE HAVE HER PERFECT WORK

. . .

People are always asking me, "Brother Norvel, could

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you tell me how I could get myself to the place that I won't

be wanting everything? I'm always wanting this, and I'm

always wanting that, and nothing seems to work."

Oh yeah! We've all been there. But I can tell you how

to change that. If you will get your spirit, your own human

spirit, and your own human mind, full to overflowing

with patience, you can have anything you want—it's easy.

You just need to learn what the Lord Jesus Christ said. He

said, ...take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; you'll

find my yoke is easy and my burden is light... (Matthew

11:29, author's paraphrase).

So it's not hard for you to get something from God. But

when you wrestle with God, and wrestle with this, and

wrestle with that, you won't get patience—you will only

get worn out. Instead, learn to wait before God. Find a

promise in the Bible that you need, and claim what you

want from Him. Then approach Him with patience. And

thank Him with patience. And wait before God. And do it

with thanksgiving and patience. If you will do it, this is

what the Lord says, patience has the perfect thing to

perform in you (James 1:4, author's paraphrase).

The Bible says to ...let patience have her perfect work,

that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing

(James 1:4). What do you mean wanting nothing? If you

will let your spirit and your mind be possessed with

patience for a few years, and make this be your way of life,

you won't be wanting anything, because you will have

everything.

"Is that right?"

That's right. I said you will have everything. And you

will have to stop and wonder, Is there anything that I want?

I have so many things, God's blessed me with so many

blessings, now let me think. You will have to wrestle with

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your own mind and have to think for a long time to think

of even one thing that you don't have. God will give you

everything you want. He will totally saturate you with

blessings, because God says:

And all these blessings shall come on thee, and

overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of

the LORD thy God.

Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt

thou be in the field.

Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit

of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase

of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep.

Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store.

Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and

blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out.

Deuteronomy 28:2-6

IT ALL COMES THROUGH PRAISE AND PATIENCE

. . .

It all comes through praise and patience, my brother.

And always remember this: Stop that nervous business, or

the devil will try to keep your thinking flaky. Always

praise Him and He will bring the patience you need in

your own faith.

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"Action" Pleasing Faith

13

. . .

And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with

an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and

touched the hem of his garment:

For she said within herself, If I may but touch his

garment, I shall be whole.

Matthew 9:20,21

If you have the voice of victory and the voice of faith,

you will also have action faith, glory to God. Because faith

without action is dead. And faith that reaches out and

touches Jesus with the voice of victory is action faith.

Here, in the Book of Matthew is a woman who was

dying from disease and had no hope. But she pushed her

way through the crowd, saying, If I may but touch his

garment, I shall be whole (Matthew 9:21). Glory to God,

she walks into this crowd and says, "If I can touch His

garment, I'll be made whole. If I can just touch His hem,

I'll be whole."

This is called action faith, my brother. You have to

have action, my sister, not just faith. Get that straight,

because God will honor that kind of faith.

I don't care if you're dying with cancer. All you have to

do is touch Jesus. When you press in to seek Jesus with an

affliction, when you walk the floor in prayer, saying,

"Jesus! Jesus! You are my Deliverer, Jesus! You are my

Healer!" And tell the devil "NOOOO!!!" This is action faith

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that is pleasing to God.*

GOD'S VIRTUE FLOWS INTO THOSE WITH ACTION FAITH

. . .

When this woman reached out and touched the hem of

Jesus' garment, virtue went through her and she knew she

was healed, glory to God. And Jesus knew that virtue

went out of Him. But now get this: When she touched

Jesus, He turned around looking, and asked, "Who

touched Me, who touched Me?"

So the disciples said, "You've got to be kidding, Jesus.

There's hundreds of people around here—a lot of people

touched You!"

But Jesus said, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no! Somebody

touched Me with faith and action. Somebody touched Me

with faith!"

Then this woman looked up at Jesus, trembling,

knowing she was healed, and Jesus said, "Lady, your faith

has healed you!" ...Daughter, be of good comfort; thy

faith hath made thee whole. And the Bible says ...the

woman was made whole from that hour (Matthew 9:22).

ACTION FAITH HAS A VOICE OF VICTORY

. . .

And Jesus stood still, and commanded him to be

called. And they call the blind man, saying unto him,

Be of good comfort, rise; he calleth thee.

And he, casting away his garment, rose, and came

to Jesus.

And Jesus answered and said unto him, What wilt

* You can read more about this woman's whole action faith miracle in

my book, Your Faith Can Heal You.

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thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man said

unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight.

And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way; thy faith

hath made thee whole. And immediately he received

his sight, and followed Jesus in the way.

Mark 10:49-52

Blind Bartimaeus was sitting by a road when the Lord

came by, and Bartimaeus began to reach out with his

voice, saying, "Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me!

Master, son of David, have mercy on me!" And he kept on

and on and on and on and on. The disciples tried to get

him to stop, but he said, "NO!" And he kept on and on,

saying, "Son of David! Jesus, have mercy on me!" He kept

on and on and on and on.

ACTION VICTORY FAITH KEEPS ON AND ON AND ON

AND ON

. . .

Even after the crowds charged him that he should hold

his peace (v. 48), Bartimaeus wouldn't stop. Instead, he

said, "He's the One I want to see! He's the One I'm crying

after! He's the One I need! Jesus! Jesus! Have mercy on me!

Jesus! Have mercy on me! Son of David! Have mercy on

me!"

The Bible even says, He cried the more a great deal,

Thou son of David, have mercy on me (v. 48). It says he

cried out louder, and louder, and stronger, and stronger.

"Jesus, have mercy on me. Jesus, have mercy on me.

JESUS, HAVE MERCY ON ME!!"

Bartimaeus wouldn't listen to those who wanted him

to "show some reverence, and hold his peace." And if you

will stop listening to human beings and religious

organizations, and turn your face toward heaven, calling

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out to Jesus with the voice of victory, you will see that God

is pleased with that.

You don't have the time to sit around with people who

say, "Let me explain to you about the sovereignty of God.

And let me explain to you about some of these cases.. you

know, some of these cases, ah, you know, well, I mean we

just can't understand everything. We just, you know, can't

understand why these things happen...."

God's either God, or He's not. And there's no use of

you trying to wrestle with Him in your own sick mind for

a reason why God didn't heal some person you know.

You've got to be kidding.

I wondered for a long time why my mother died of

cancer at the age of thirty-seven. And eventually, God told

me the truth about the matter. It took me three days to get

Him to tell me, but He did. He said: "She went to the

wrong church."

My mother was never taught what I'm teaching you

here. People only believe what they've been taught. But if

you stayed around me very long, you would believe it.

Oh, yeah, you would. After a while, you would get to the

point that you believed God would do anything for

anybody.

Wondering in your own mind why God is making you

wait so long isn't faith. And reasoning isn't faith. If you

want to know the truth about it, that will just keep God

from paying any attention to you at all.

This woman and blind Bartimaeus refused to take

anything except victory for an answer. Their message to

you is: The God kind of faith keeps on with the voice of

victory and keeps on with action until the manifestation

comes. It keeps on with your voice of victory in the Lord

Jesus Christ. Not someone else's, not your pastor's, not

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your friend's. No, your voice of faith keeps on with the

voice of victory in the Lord Jesus Christ. And when you

have that kind of faith, action voice of victory faith that

believes God will do what He says, God will honor your

faith.

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C H A P T E R 1 4

Demon Casting Pleasing Faith

14

. . .

One night the Holy Ghost came upon me in a

shopping center and said, "Norvel, go to a certain city at a

certain address." So, I got in my car and I drove there.

When I arrived, I saw a demon-possessed college boy. He

had lost his mind and didn't even know his own name.

So I asked the person in charge to lock me up in a

room with him. They were only too glad to oblige. Locked

up with the kid in that room, I prayed and bound the devil

all night long. I said, "COME OUT OF HIM!" I command

you to turn his mind loose! You're not going to keep this

boy's mind! I've been sent here by God Almighty under

direct orders from heaven, and I've come here to get this

boy's mind back for him. You're not going to keep his

mind. I'm not going to let you have him!"

I kept my action faith voice of victory working all

night long.

"I know, Satan," I commanded, "that you want his

mind, but you can't have him! I'm telling you, you can't. In

Jesus' name, I'm telling you what you can't do, and you

can't have him! I've come to get his mind back for him.

The God I know is a miracle-working God, and God has

sent me here under direct orders to pray for this boy in

Jesus' name. OBEY ME! COME OUT OF HIM!"

About daylight the next morning, I broke that thing,

and white foam began to bubble up out of that young

man's mouth onto the floor. Then all of a sudden, he sat up

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and made a crazy kind of noise, and in seconds he was

normal. The Bible calls it, ...Clothed, and in [your] right

mind (Mark 5:15). He was perfectly normal, glory to God!

If you think you are going to break demon power in an

instant by just saying, "in Jesus' name," I have news for

you. You have to stay there, my brother, with the voice of

victory, and let the devil know who you are in Christ

Jesus. You have to let him know the power that is in Jesus'

name. You have to have action faith, "demon-loosing" faith

in God, and faith in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. You

must say NO to the works of hell and claim the victory for

the demon-possessed person, in Jesus' name. Glory to

God! You need to do that, just like I do it.

ZONA

. . .

My daughter Zona married Bobby when they were

only eighteen. God told me they shouldn't get married, but

they did it anyway. And almost immediately after they

did, Bobby was drafted into the Vietnam War.

Zona was a faithful young wife, and never missed a

day writing to Bobby. But I will never forget the day Zona

came running and screaming through the house—I didn't

know what had happened, and I couldn't stop her. She just

kept running and screaming. Then I picked up the letter

she had thrown aside. It read:

Dear Zona:

I don't want you anymore. This letter is to set you

free from our marriage...you can do anything you want

to do. I will never see you again....

I learned later that Zona read only the first part, and

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thought it was a "Dear John" letter. But I read further, and

it said:

I'll never see you again...I'm going to die, I know

I'm going to die. All of my buddies have been killed

trying to crawl through these stinking swamps. At

night we have to pick off these blood sucking leeches

before we can get any sleep. But there's really no

sleep...there's no way a human being can do this for

very long. And I know of no way to get out of here....

From that very day, my daughter changed from a

sweet, loving, Christian, to a demon possessed being. She

started taking dope and running with a gang in our town,

and the next three years of our lives would be a living hell.

After about a year of all this crazy stuff, Bobby came

home. When he drove into the driveway, I met him, but all

I wanted to do was get hold of him and thrash him. The

love of God wouldn't let me do that, so instead, I said,

"Bobby, I need to talk to you before you go in. You're not

going to see the same girl that you left."

Then I asked him a question, "Bobby, why in the world

did you write Zona that crazy, stupid letter?" He just

stared at me in unbelief. So I said, "After she read the first

paragraph, she threw your letter down and began running

through the house screaming at the top of her voice. And

at that moment, the devil came into her. She took off with

a gang of dope addicts, and she's been with them ever

since."

Bobby didn't say a word. So I continued, "I've had to

put up with this since the day you wrote that stupid letter!

I've been praying and binding up devils, and everything

else. But you're not going to see the same girl that you saw

before."

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Finally, Bobby said, "Well, er I—I—uh, Mr. Hayes, I

was on dope, and I thought I'd never see Zona again. And

I didn't want to wreck her life. I mean, uh, I—I—I wanted

her to be free, after I got killed, to marry somebody else if

she wanted to, and to have a life.

"I—I—I never thought that I'd ever come back. Mr.

Hayes, it's an awful thing to be with your best buddies one

minute, crawling on your belly in the water, in the muck,

and the snakes, and the leeches are up to your neck, and

snipers are shooting, and you're trying to spot one, and

shoot back. Then, all of a sudden, you don't hear anybody

beside you, and you look over, and there is your best

buddy laying over there with half his face gone.

"After I went through that for months and months of

crawling in the swamps every day, and seeing so many of

my buddies getting killed, I started taking drugs to try to

have a sane mind. So, I just wrote Zona that letter."

"Well, I want you to know, Bobby," I said, "when you

wrote that dumb, stupid letter, you wrecked Zona's life."

Then he said, "Mr. Hayes, I love Zona so much," could

I please see her?"

I agreed, but told him, "You won't want to see what

you will see, Bobby. You're not going to see the sweet,

little Spirit-filled girl you left. You know, that's the way I

raised her, and that's the way you married her. But that's

not what you will see. Instead, you're going to see a

demon-possessed creature from another world."

He looked at me with unbelief, and said, "Well, can I

just see her?"

"Go on," I said, "she's back there in her room."

We went into Zona's bedroom, and she was sprawled

on her bed. After staring for a few seconds, Bobby finally

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said, "Hi!"

But she looked up and told him, "You, you make me

sick." When Bobby saw her condition, he knelt down by

the bed in a position of prayer. And when he did, Zona

just stepped over the top of him, walked out of the house,

got in her car, and left. She didn't come back all night long.

I told Bobby this wasn't anything unusual. And that

sometimes I wouldn't see her for two weeks. Sometimes I

would see her on the street. Sometimes she would speak,

and other times she wouldn't. Sometimes she would come

home after being gone for two weeks and bring four or

five girls with her, all of them on drugs.

Bobby looked at me in total despair, and I didn't see

him again for a long time.

DO THE 'FUNKY' CHICKEN

• • •

I never will forget the day when five or six of Zona's

friends came out. They were all in hot pants (very short

skirts that were in style back then). I was out on the back

porch, and one of Zona's friends came out and said, "Oh,

Mr. Hayes, your daughter can really dance."

"Is that right?" I said.

"Oh, yeah," she went on, "we go to the Playmate Club

all the time, you know, where they have the girls in the

cages and the bands and everything. And every time they

see Zona coming in, the band stops and they say, 'Here

comes Zona,' then they start playing, and Zona begins to

do the 'Funky Chicken.' Everybody at the Playmate Club

likes to see Zona do the 'Funky chicken.'"

I said, "Funky Chicken, what's a Funky Chicken?"

"Well, that's the name of a dance, Mr. Hayes. All

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generations have certain types of dances," the girl went on.

"You know, back in your day it was the Charleston."

"No, it wasn't the Charleston," I argued. "I wasn't a

teenager back in the '20s. In my day it was the Jitterbug,

not the Charleston. How old do you think I am?"

"Oh, well, I mean, you know," she said, "today it's

'Mashed Potatoes' and the 'Funky Chicken.'"

Finally I told her with a voice of victory, "Well, little

darling, I've got news for you, and Zona, and everybody

else who needs to know it. I have attacked my daughter's

condition with my prayers of faith, and I'm not going to let

my faith waver. My daughter is never going to go to hell.

I'm claiming her soul, in Jesus' name. I'm putting my faith

to work, and I'm not wavering. Do you understand me,

little lady?"

She giggled a silly little giggle and said, "I guess so."

"And I'm telling you right now," I said while looking

straight into her eyes, "My faith is going to work. And one

of these days, Jesus is going to show up, and when He

shows up, He's going to 'funky' my daughter's chicken!

"Oh, really?" she answered. "Really," I said.

Things got a little quieter after that. Then I said, "Do

you remember the young man who owned the clothing

store downtown, a real sharp young man?"

She nodded and said, "Yeah."

"Well, I used to go in his store and buy clothes from

him," I went on. "He had a real exclusive men's store

downtown. Had it all decorated and everything, but he

started running with Zona and you all, and the other night

he died of an overdose of drugs. And I'm telling you right

now, my daughter is not going to die! The devil's not

going to kill her! I'm claiming her in Jesus' name!"

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Then this girl said in a shaken up low tone, "Oh," and

left.

Well it wasn't very long until another one died. And

then another, and another until five of them had

overdosed on drugs. Five young people in one small town

died, overdosing on drugs. They weren't gangsters. They

were just on dope. Most of them were basically half-way

decent kids. But they were just on dope, and it killed them.

ACTIVE FAITH KEEPS ON AND ON

. . .

My daughter wouldn't go to church, but I just kept on

claiming her, and I kept putting my faith to work.

Through it all I learned again that you have to put your

faith to work if you want God to show up. It doesn't

matter what it's for, you have to just keep active in putting

your faith to work.

As I prayed and sought the Lord, I remembered how I

stood in the gap for Zona when she was afflicted with

horrible growths and boils. And how the Lord

overshadowed and healed her—totally healed her! I

remembered how new skin came upon her. And how the

Lord removed every growth from her, just like that, as

quick as you could bat your eye, and she was healed.

But now, years later, she was on drugs, and it seemed

like I couldn't reach her. So I kept reminding her, "Zona,

don't you remember how the Lord healed you and was so

good to you to put new skin upon you and heal you? But

now, you don't even go to church. You know you ought to

serve Him the rest of your life. Not only did He heal you,

Zona, He died on the cross to give you a new life, and

bring you healing. You ought to serve God the rest of your

life." Zona was not only on dope, she was also afflicted

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with a full-blown case of anorexia, and was taking up to

ten boxes of laxatives a day.

NO MATTER WHAT YOU ARE FACING GOD IS GOOD

. . .

But during this time, I continued faithful to God in my

witness for Him, and I was on a television show telling

how the Lord removed all those growths from Zona's

body. Later, Pat Boone's wife, Shirley, called me and said,

"We were sitting there watching you, and thank God, our

daughter Cherie was watching too when you were on

television, Norvel.

"Then when you told how the Lord came and removed

all those knots and growths off of Zona's body, and put

new skin upon her, our daughter was sitting there with

anorexia, just like your daughter had. She was beginning

to get growths on her body too. The devil was trying to

kill her. And when you said, 'Stretch your hand out

toward the television screen—I'm going to pray for you

and I'm going to curse those growths in Jesus' name'—

Cherie got up and walked over to the television set. Then

she knelt down and put her hands on the television screen,

and said, 'I agree with Brother Norvel in Jesus' name.'

"She had given her life to the Lord, Norvel," Shirley

told me in thanksgiving to God. "But she still had

anorexia. And when you cursed those things in Jesus'

name, and commanded them to disappear, the growths

disappeared off of Cherie's face."

Glory be to God forever. It pleases God to work

miracles of healing right in the middle of the devil's mess.

God was still showing Himself strong, and I just kept on

praying and putting my faith to work.

Zona didn't want to have anything to do with Bobby

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whatsoever, and finally divorced him. But at night, I

would walk the floor and make intercession, and worship

God, and make intercession and pray, and confess in

English, and say, "Satan, you'll never send my daughter to

hell. In Jesus' name I say, you'll never send my daughter to

hell! You're not going to drag my daughter to hell. I bind

you in Jesus' name. I claim her soul for heaven in Jesus'

name!"

And because I know it pleases God when His children

speak to Him in tongues, I would pray in English, then in

tongues.

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Never Changing Pleasing Faith

15

. . .

You may want to take a deep breath before I tell you

how long I prayed for my sweet daughter Zona. How long

you ask? Three years. And while I was praying that Zona

and Bobby would get back together, they got a divorce.

Zona would have nothing to do with Bobby. She got even

wilder. I would try to get her to go to church, and she

wouldn't go. For three years, I just kept on claiming and

kept on claiming and kept on claiming with my voice of

victory and action faith.

After about two-and-a-half years, the Lord told me one

day while I was driving down the road, "The thing you

want most of all is not going to happen until you change."

I said, "What do You mean, me change, Lord? Zona's

the one who needs to change."

"No, You are not loving your daughter just like she is,"

He said. "So from now on I don't want you to keep

lecturing her with your 'fatherly wisdom.' I only want you

to tell her two things. Tell her 'I love you.' And tell her,

'Jesus loves you.' That's all you tell her. And then you be

quiet."

So Zona would come in at two or three o'clock in the

morning, and I would say, "Zona, I love you, honey, and

Jesus loves you." Then I would make myself shut up.

After six months of this, the Lord said, "Do it all the

time." So I would do it all the time, all the time, all the

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time! When she would come in late, I would just say,

"Zona, I love you, Honey, and Jesus loves you. Zona, I love

you little darlin', and Jesus loves you. Jesus loves you, little

darlin'."

She would lay in her room, probably taking redbirds (a

form of drugs) or smoking marijuana, and I would knock

on her door and say, "Hey, Zona, I just want to tell you,

Honey, that I love you; I love you, little darlin'."

FIRST SPARK

. . .

I never will forget the day when I saw the first little

spark of light, glory to God. About six months had gone

by, and up to that time, Zona was hard as nails. I couldn't

reach her. Forget that part. I just couldn't reach her.

Then late one Friday afternoon, Zona was sitting in the

living room. She waiting on the gang to take her to the

Playmate Club when she said, "Daddy, I know th...that

you've taught me right, and I know the people I run with

don't love me, they don't love anybody but themselves,

that's all."

I just stood there, dumbfounded, and she went on,

"And, Daddy, I'm getting to the place where I hate to go

anywhere. I love this house, and when I'm here, I feel

secure. There's no security in the world...my mind keeps

wondering all the time. Most of the time I'm broke, and I

don't have any money to buy dope and, and I try to do this

and that, and nothing is working for me. .. Daddy, I know

I—I know that you love me."

I said, "Yep, you got that right, Honey, I do love you." I

wanted to say so much more, but decided it was better to

just listen.

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"Daddy, I'm getting tired of my friends, they're all so

phony."

"Well," I said, "I could have told you that. The devil's

phony. Everything about the devil is phony. I could have

told you that two-and-a-half—three years ago." I heard

myself starting to "preach," so I just said, "Well, Zona, you

don't have to go with them. You can make a decision now,

you don't have to go with them. You know they're going

to pull up in the driveway in a few minutes, but you don't

have to go."

"But, they're looking for me, and I've already promised

I'd go."

"Zona, don't go, Honey, don't go. You don't have to go

—if you like this place and you feel secure here, you feel

peace here, just stay right here."

"Well, yes, I know..."

About that time, the "devil" pulled up in the driveway,

and she said, "Well, that's them, Daddy. I guess I'd better

go."

The hardest thing I've ever done, was to stand there

and let her go.

When she did, I just did the same thing I had been

doing. Faith doesn't ever change! I began to walk the floor.

And as I heard that hot rod with the gutted muffler go

roaring out of hearing, I continued to walk the floor. And I

said, "Satan, you devil, I bind you, Satan. I bind you,

Satan, you can't have my daughter!"

And I kept on repeating my command to the devil to

take his hands off Zona. When you keep on and on and

on, and you don't waver, that is called faith.

And always remember, without faith, it's impossible

to please God (Hebrews 11:6). That's another way God

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can approve your faith. You keep on and on and on and

on and on, claiming what's in your spirit.

I kept praying and praying and praying that day. I

walked across the living room floor, back and forth, to and

fro, walking and praying and praying and walking, and

telling the devil, "My daughter will never go to hell."

Well, walking the floor was nothing unusual for me, I

had been doing it for three years. And when I saw a little

spark of light that day in Zona, I was inspired to keep on. I

mean I was binding the devil in Jesus' name. I Kept

walking and praying and making intercession.

Then all of a sudden, the Word of the Lord come unto

me saying, "You never have gone into her room, and put

your hands on her bed, and prayed where she sleeps."

I said, "Oh!" That's right; I never have done that." So I

ran into her room right quick, and I said, "I lay my hands

on this bed in Jesus' name. Lord, I pray that You will shake

her up; You will shake her up!"

Then I remembered when right before she left that

day, that I asked her, "Zona, what would God have to do,

Honey, to get you to follow Him again?"

She said, "I don't know, Daddy, shake me up, I guess."

So I said, "Well, God can shake you up, you know."

"Well, I guess He'd have to," she said.

Because I remembered what she said, the Holy Ghost

started praying through me that way. I would bend over

her bed and pray, "God, shake her up. I give my daughter

to You, Jesus. When she lays in this bed tonight, shake her

up, God, shake her up. Shake her bones, Lord, shake her

up. I give her to You totally, Lord. Don't be nice to her.

Shake her up. Shake her up."

I prayed loud and strong like that, glory to God

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forever. Then one night after I had prayed until 2 AM,

Zona never came in, so I went on to bed.

Then, something woke me up in the middle of the

night, and I heard a teeny, little voice. It sound like a

mouse, or something. It went, "Eeeeeee, eeeeee, eeeeee,"

and it got a little louder, "EEEEE, EEEEEEEE!!"

"What's that?" I asked myself. "It sounds like a mouse,

way off somewhere." Then I heard the same little voice,

"Da—deeee, daaa-deeee."

"Daddy?" I said. "I only have one child, but that doesn't

sound like Zona."

Everything in my room was just as quiet as it could be.

I got up out of bed and opened my door, and Zona was

standing there shivering, with that little squeaky voice

coming out of her saying, "Daaaa-deeeee, daaaa-deeeee,

daaaa-deeeee, daaaa-deeeee."

"Zona? What are you doing?" I asked her.

"Daaaa-deeeee, daaaa-deeeee, me, eeee, ma—man—a

man, no, not a man, me, me, me, me, me, me, my room,

my room, daddy, my room, daddy, man, man, me, me, not

a man, me, me, meeeee."

She couldn't stop shaking. So I finally took her in my

hands, and said, "Zona, Zona, stop it. Stop, Zona, talk to

me. What are you trying to tell me? In Jesus' name, be

calm."

Well, she kept shaking. I have never seen a human

being that scared in my life. But I finally got her calmed

down.

"Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, uh, uh, uh, there's a man in

my room. There's a man in my room. I mean, he looked

like a man. He was big, as two men, and taller than the

ceiling He could have killed me. Daddy, he could have

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killed me, don't you understand that?"

Then, I remembered, she didn't know I had been

praying in her room, so I told her, "Zona that wasn't a man

in your room."

But she said, "Oh, Daddy, oh yeah. Yes, it was."

I said, "No, no it wasn't a man, that was your angel."

"Oh, no, no, Daddy, I don't want him here, he's too big;

he scares me."

"I don't care if you want him or not, Honey, that's your

angel; and he goes with you everywhere."

Then she screamed, "Daddy, don't say that! He scares

me; don't say that!"

"Well, I am saying it. He's your angel, and he goes with

you everywhere."

Now, I know I'm talking to my daughter, a demon-

possessed dope addict girl who has put me through hell

for three years.

So I said, "Zona, Honey, come in here and I'll show

you. Now, remember, you locked the front door when you

came in. See right there; the front door's locked."

She was still shaking, but said, "Yeah, I see it."

Then I showed her that I had locked the back door

before I had gone to bed. And she said, "Yes, Daddy. But

he didn't use a door, Daddy. I woke up. I woke up, and he

was sitting by my bed, just sitting on the floor, looking at

me. And—an—and I got so scared, I didn't think I could

stand it. He stood up, and he was bigger than the door,

and he didn't even bend over. He walked through the

door, wall and all!"

"I jumped up out of the bed," Zona continued, "and I

went over to the door, then and I watched him, and he

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walked down the hallway and he didn't even use a door.

Daddy, he was so big. When he got here to the kitchen, he

just walked through the wall right over the top of the

house, and into the air."

"Wow!" I yelled, "God just put meat on one of your

angels so you would know you have seen your angel!"

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A Chip Off the Old Block

16

. . .

Since the morning Zona's angel appeared to her, she

hasn't taken one ounce of dope. She is completely set free!

When Bobby heard about it, he began to seek God again

too. And God saved him all over again, and delivered him

from dope. Then eventually, they got back together, got

married again, and started all over. Glory to God forever!

After Zona and Bobby were drug free, born again, and

happily married for three years, one day they came to see

me, and started telling me they wanted to have a baby.

"Daddy, I think I want a baby," Zona told me.

I couldn't believe my ears.

But there was a problem. When they decided to have a

baby, the doctor said they had taken too much dope to

conceive.

"You've taken so much dope that you have messed up

your body. The anorexia, and the dope together have

messed up your insides so badly that you will never be

able to conceive.'"

At this point, Zona teared up a little bit, but went on,

"The doctor says we might be able to have a baby if I have

an operation, but even if I did have the operation, he

couldn't promise me that we could. Oh Daddy, I don't

want an operation, I just want a baby.. " So she just let it

drop. I knew if Bobby and Zona were really serious, I

would hear more.

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Nearly two years had passed when Zona came to my

office and said it was still her desire.

"Daddy, I still want a baby, and I was just thinking,

you believe that Jesus is a Miracle Worker—could He

perform this kind of a miracle for me?"

I said, "Yeah, Zona, He could, but do you really, really

want a baby?" After listening to her for a while, she

convinced me that she and Bobby did want a baby.

"Daddy, I want you to lay hands on me and ask God to

give us a child."

So we went to a pastor who is really successful in

praying for barren women. We laid hands on Zona, and

agreed in Jesus' name to heal whatever was wrong to

make it possible for Zona to have a baby. Then the doctor

laid hands on her and prayed that she would conceive.

Then we continued to pray and believe, and asked others

we had confidence in to pray.

Not long after we got serious with God, Zona got

pregnant, and gave birth to a beautiful little girl. I know

she is beautiful, because she looks exactly like me. If you're

ever in one of my meetings when Zona is there, just see for

yourself!

A CHIP OFF THE OLD BLOCK

. . .

Once when Shambach was helping me in one of my

meetings, he walked in and said, "I'm here to see that

baby." So he walked over and took one look at the baby

and said, "Oh, God! This baby looks like you! Never in my

life did I ever see a baby that looked so much like anybody

as this baby looks like you!"

Then he said, "Oh, God, please don't let this baby

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continue to look like Norvel!" (Glory to God.)

"Not two of them on earth! Not two of them!" he went

on.

The next couple of times I saw Shambach he told me

he was praying for "God to change Zona's baby's looks."

I'm not kidding, she does look like me.

But, glory to God, that's not the end of the story. Not

only do Zona and Bobby have a wonderful baby girl, but

Zona answered a call from God to minister to women who

are overweight or have anorexia. She opened a beautiful

exercise place where ladies come to work out and has

about thirteen instructors to help her with thirty some

classes a week. She also ministers to women and girls who

are on drugs.

And she has written her own book called, Fatness to

Fitness. Zona is no longer a divorced drug addict, covered

with knots and boils. She is God's child, totally delivered

from the onslaughts of the devil. Blessed be the name of

Jesus forever!

It took Zona's guardian angel to "shake her up," and

bring about the answer to all the prayers we prayed for

her. So never forget, glory to God, that it pleases God to

send an angel to set you free from all your bondages.

ANGEL SENDING FAITH

. . .

Angels are real. Oh yeah! Some of them are so much

bigger than you can imagine, because it takes a big angel

to do warfare, and sometimes they have to do warfare.

And there was war in heaven: Michael and his

angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon

fought and his angels,

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And prevailed not; neither was their place found

any more in heaven.

Revelation 12:7,8

Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with

the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst

not bring against him a railing accusation, but said,

The Lord rebuke thee.

Jude 1:9

And angels can materialize. If you want to know the

truth about it, angels can walk through a wall into your

dining room and have a meal with you. Then they can get

up and walk right back through the wall before your eyes.

Angels are created beings. They are ministering spirits.

And they will minister to you if God needs them to. If they

have to materialize to "shake" someone up, or minister

help to someone, God can cause it to happen.

There are also angels that bring us a message or help in

other ways:

And the angel answering said unto him, I am

Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God; and am sent

to speak unto thee, and to show thee these glad

tidings.

Luke 1:19

I know for certain that many of us would be dead

today if it had not been for our angel.

Why?

Because this world is full of demons and there is

constant warfare in heaven going on between the angels,

the demons, and the devil (Jude 1:9).

ACTIVE VOICE OF VICTORY FAITH GETS GOD IN ON

YOUR FIGHT

. . .

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God has armies of angels, and the air is full of demons.

So you need to let God in on your fight. You need to get

His attention by letting Him know you believe Him in any

situation, and that He will deliver you by faith. Anything

that comes into your life that is not good, or healthy, or

strong, or of good report, is the work of hell.

So if you go to a church and have a pastor who doesn't

know anything about binding and casting out demons,

and doesn't want to learn about any of it.. . Or if you

yourself are trying to pastor a church and you don't want

to deal with the devil or demons...you might as well be

driving a truck! And if you go to a church where the

pastor doesn't know anything about binding the devil and

dealing with demons, that's crazy.

Why do I say this?

Because devils and demons are here to wreck the

human race. If you go to a church where you spend your

time and money, and the pastor of the church doesn't

know how to deal with the devil, always remember this:

You have a choice.

The devil is crazy! He is your enemy, and he's going to

do everything he can to get to you. So you had better find

some place where they know how to deal with the devil,

and love God. Find a church that wins souls for Jesus,

throws the devil out, and gets the glory of God in the

place.

But you say, "Well, Brother Norvel, they don't have a

church like that in my town."

Well then, why don't you pray and ask God for His

anointing and guidance? Maybe He will have you build

one, or maybe someone else. Glory to God forever. It can

be done. And God will visit there, glory to Jesus.

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P L E A S I N G T H E L O R D

When an angel as big as two men comes down from

heaven, he doesn't have to preach a sermon. All he has to

do is just appear in a dope addict's room, say, "Look!" And

devils look at that big angel, and they go!

When your faith pleases the Lord, He will use you as a

faithful servant to minister to others every day. Every day!

And He will honor your voice of victory and send angels

on your behalf. He will accept your faithful worship and

speak to the hearts of businessmen to prosper you

financially. He will heal your body, and the bodies of

others you pray for. And He will ask you to show others

how to walk in God pleasing faith.

That's why I have shared in this book how I learned to

follow Him after spending years in a traditional

denomination that didn't live in God's world of unseen

faith. Glory to God! If He could get my attention, He could

get anybody's.

And that's why I have shared how Hulda pleased the

Lord in believing, active faith to escape cancer's sentence

of death. And how Rock Hudson was born again because

of a woman's servant-hearted obedience to bring him my

tapes. And how my daughter Zona was set free because of

active, Bible faith!

If you're following the Lord, you need to know and

live in this kind of Bible faith, because, without faith it is

impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must

believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder... get that...a

rewarder of them that diligently seek him (Hebrews 11:6).

Jesus wants you to take care of your body so He can

walk in your shoes. Oh yeah! Jesus wants you to stand up

like blind Bartimaeus against the unbelief of others and

give you a miracle. He wants you to press into the crowd

like the woman with the issue of blood so virtue can flow

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to you. And Jesus wants you to worship Him, like the

Canaanite woman, so He can set the captives free.

Pleasing the Lord is easy once you decide to believe

God by faith, never doubting that He will always perform

His Word. Glory to God! When you obey the Bible by

saying and acting on what Jesus said in His Word, He will

do anything for you. Because you will be pleasing the

Lord. So go do it! Amen.

117

For additional copies in Canada,

contact

Word Alive

P. O. Box 670

Niverville, Manitoba

CANADA R0A 1EO

Norvel Hayes is a successful businessman,

internationally renowned Bible teacher, and founder of

several Christian ministries in the U.S. and abroad.

Brother Hayes founded New Life Bible College,

located in Cleveland, Tennessee, in 1977. New Life

Bible Church grew out of the Bible school's chapel

services. The Bible school offers a two-year diploma

and off-campus correspondence courses. Among its many other

outreaches, the church ministers God's Word and hot meals daily to the

poor through New Life Soup Kitchen.

Brother Hayes is also founder and president of New Life Maternity

Home, a ministry dedicated to the spiritual, physical and financial needs

of young girls during pregnancy; Campus Challenge, an evangelistic

outreach that distributes Christian literature on college campuses across

America; Street Reach, a ministry dedicated to runaway teens located in

Daytona Beach, Florida; and Children's Home, an orphanage home and

education center located in India.

Known internationally for his dynamic exposition of the Word of

God, Brother Hayes spends most of his time teaching and ministering

God's deliverance and healing power in churches, college classrooms,

conventions, and seminars, around the world.

For a complete list of tapes and books

by Norvel Hayes, write:

Norvel Hayes

P. O. Box 1379

Cleveland, TN 37311

Please include your prayer requests

and comments when you write.

The Harrison House Vision

Proclaiming the truth and the power

Of the Gospel of Jesus Christ

With excellence;

Challenging Christians to

Live victoriously,

Grow spiritually,

Know God Intimately.

Document Outline

- Pleasing the Lord

- Contents

- Introduction

- 1 Two Worlds: Faith and Unbelief

- Whatsoever Is Not of Faith Is Sin

- Right Now Faith!

- 2 Right Talk Pleasing Faith

- The Lord Does What You Say and Do

- No Respecter of Persons

- The Humble Please God

- You Can't Say Just Anything You Want and Please the Lord

- Make the Devil Nervous

- 3 Holy Ghost Prayer Pleasing Faith

- Thank God for the Office of the Prophet!

- Good Sense

- Likewise the Spirit...

- It's Up to You

- 4 Proven, Tested, Pleasing Faith

- Faith Doesn't Wear A Watch

- No Pity Parties

- 5 Obedient Faith (The Day I Didn't Go Fishing)

- Zona Healed!

- Giving Thanks Pleases God

- 6 Worship Pleasing Faith

- Great Faith

- 7 I Want a Camel!

- More Power

- Body Ruling, Pleasing Faith

- Your Body Wants What It Wants When It Wants It

- 8 Servant Hearted Pleasing Faith

- Toni

- God Is Pleased When You Become His Servant

- If You Want to Please the Lord, Be Available

- 9 Let God Walk in Your Shoes

- Floating, Just Floating Along Churches

- Your Body Is Nuts!

- Smoke Break Sunday

- Pleasing Faith

- Let God Walk in Your Shoes

- 10 Cancer Healing Pleasing Faith

- How To Live and Not Die

- HULDA

- Have Faith in God's Word

- Tell the Devil Where to Go

- You Start Talking to Your Mountain

- 11 Pleasing Faith Words Will Set You Free!

- Don't Ever Agree With the Devil

- God's Contract

- Mountain Moving Faith Pleases God

- 12 Patient Pleasing Faith

- God Doesn't Answer Nervous Prayers

- Let Patience Have Her Perfect Work

- It All Comes Through Praise and Patience

- 13 "Action" Pleasing Faith

- God's Virtue Flows Into Those With Action Faith

- Action Faith Has a Voice of Victory

- Action Victory Faith Keeps On and On and On and On

- 14 Demon Casting Pleasing Faith

- Zona

- Do the 'Funky' Chicken

- Active Faith Keeps On and On

- No Matter What You Are Facing God Is Good

- 15 Never Changing Pleasing Faith

- First Spark

- 16 A Chip Off the Old Block

- A Chip Off the Old Block

- Angel Sending Faith

- Active Voice of Victory Faith Gets God in on Your Fight

Table of Contents

Introduction

Two Worlds: Faith and Unbelief

Right Talk Pleasing Faith

Holy Ghost Prayer Pleasing Faith

Proven, Tested, Pleasing Faith

Obedient Faith (The Day I Didn't Go Fishing)

Worship Pleasing Faith

I Want a Camel!

Servant Hearted Pleasing Faith

Let God Walk in Your Shoes

Cancer Healing Pleasing Faith

Pleasing Faith Words Will Set You Free!

Patient Pleasing Faith

"Action" Pleasing Faith

Demon Casting Pleasing Faith

Never Changing Pleasing Faith

A Chip Off the Old Block

.*

Pleasing the Lord

Contents

Whatsoever Is Not of Faith Is Sin

Right Now Faith!

The Lord Does What You Say and Do

No Respecter of Persons

The Humble Please God

You Can't Say Just Anything You Want and Please the Lord

Make the Devil Nervous

Thank God for the Office of the Prophet!

Good Sense

Likewise the Spirit...

It's Up to You

No Pity Parties

Zona Healed!

Giving Thanks Pleases God

Great Faith

Body Ruling, Pleasing Faith

Your Body Wants What It Wants When It Wants It

Toni

God Is Pleased When You Become His Servant

If You Want to Please the Lord, Be Available

Floating, Just Floating Along Churches

Your Body Is Nuts!

Pleasing Faith

How To Live and Not Die

Have Faith in God's Word

Tell the Devil Where to Go

You Start Talking to Your Mountain

Don't Ever Agree With the Devil

God's Contract

Mountain Moving Faith Pleases God