The Gift of Working of Miracles

by

Norvel Hayes

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

"... to another, the working of miracles"

I Corinthians 12:10

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

The Gift of Working of Miracles

Chapter 2

Getting God's Power to Work for You

Chapter 3

When You Believe in Miracles, You'll Enjoy the Results

Chapter 4

Elisha's Faith and Balaam's Figuring

Chapter 5

The Orange Grove Miracle

Chapter 6

My Daughter's Hands

1

The Gift of Working of Miracles

I've visited a lot of churches, all kinds of them across the country, and as a whole, the church knows less about the gift of the working of miracles than any other gift of the Holy Spirit. This is the gift the church is most ignorant of. To tell the truth, they're pretty ignorant of all of them. I hate to have to say that, but they are. Old line denominational churches are ignorant on all of them.

God has a gift that is given to the church called the working of miracles.

What is working of miracles? Well, there are a lot of different kinds of miracles, but it's a power gift, where power from God is sent from heaven down to earth to do something that's beyond the natural, beyond the natural thinking of a man. When this gift operates, God's power is sent to earth and manifests itself to do something that you won't understand. That's the reason it's so hard to believe.

When God performs a miracle, a supernatural miracle, it's so hard for a natural human being to believe it.

So the church doesn't go into it that deeply. The average church I've been into, most pentecostal churches I mean, believe in tongues and interpretation in public assembly, but they don't know anything about miracles to speak of.

As far as I know, and as far as I can see inside of the church world, the gift of working of miracles is the gift that the church is most ignorant of. Most full gospel people have a pretty good ministry in healing. They believe in miracles for healing, where a healing requires a miracle. They can believe that pretty well.

But I've got news for you my brothers and sisters. When God says He has a gift for the Church called working of miracles, He means WORKING OF MIRACLES.

He'll work a miracle for you any way you need it, not just in the healing line.

He'll work a miracle for you on Tuesday afternoon while you're downtown if you'll believe that. God's power will come and perform a miracle when it's impossible to do it. That kind of power is available for the believer. But you have to believe it.

2

Getting God's Power to Work for You

How can you get it to work for you? The first thing, the foundation, is that you must believe that Jesus is a miracle worker. And, you must believe He is a miracle worker for you.

If you don't believe that, it won't work for you.

Now pay close attention. Unless you believe, recognize, and are willing to confess that Jesus is your healer, you'll never be healed. No, you won't be healed. You may get a touch of God's healing power through somebody else, but it won't last. I'm talking about being healed permanently, not about being healed for three or six months. I'm talking about being healed permanently.

You can go from one ministry to the next having someone lay hands on you, but unless you're a person who will get out and tell people that Jesus is your healer, and not be ashamed of it, that same affliction, pay attention to this, that same affliction will come back on you. Lazy people never stay healed. Never. Just get that in your spirit once and for all. Lazy people never stay healed. You overcome by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of your testimony. Not the word of somebody else's testimony, yours!

If the Lord Jesus Christ ever heals you one time by His mighty power, He expects you to tell people about that healing for the rest of your life.

You may tell it so many times you get sick and tired of telling it, and the devil will tell you, "You must have told that 5,000 times. What do you want to tell it again for? That same healing? You know people get tired of hearing that all the time. People get tired of hearing that all the time." The devil will tell you that.

The members of your church might get tired of hearing it all the time too. Do you remember somebody at your church who tells the same thing over and over and over and over again? When someone testifies the tenth time, you kind of nonchalantly go, uuunnnnngghh. I've heard that sister tell that for ten years. I've heard that same story over and over and over again.

Change your attitude! The first time you heard it you probably liked it. By the tenth time you ought to be shouting and rejoicing with her and not making fun of what God has done!

The working of a miracle by God's power is like an explosion of power that comes upon a given situation to get the job done, to come against natural circumstances that seem naturally impossible to overcome.

It's an explosion of power from heaven to perform a miracle from God that is impossible for man to do. And if you want to know the real truth about it, it's impossible for the mind to understand a miracle.

The only reason that a human being ever gets confused where God is concerned is that he's trying to figure everything out. I've got news for you: you're too DUMB to figure everything out! Is that clear? Get that into your spirit once and for all. You 're too DUMB to figure everything out.

Can you go out into your yard where the flowers are blooming and figure out how that flower blooms? Why no, you can't figure that out. In fact, if you want to know the truth about it, you can't figure out very much about God. Just believe it that's all. I mean believe it!!

When you eat a watermelon, can you figure out how you can plant one little seed, and it makes a watermelon, green on the outside, red on the inside, with black seeds, and sweet, juicy meat? All that stuff coming from one little black seed. Can you figure that out ?

Well, no. You're just like me, you can't even figure out a radio, much less a TV. Forget it. That will blow your mind.

Now, let me explain something.

The gift of working of miracles is all by itself, my brothers and sisters. The gifts of healing and the gift of working of miracles are two of the power gifts. They work very closely together many times when God's power comes into manifestation, but both of them are completely separate and have their own unique way of coming into existence.

Because the gift of working of miracles is a gift of power, it's like an explosion when it comes to you. Even though you may not hear or see anything, something may just, swissshhhh, appear! Or, it may just, bliiiipppp, disappear! There's nobody around to do it.

That's the gift of working of miracles. That was God's power coming into manifestation to take a problem away or to create something for you.

It can create things for you. God's power can be released to do what your human mind can never understand. Don't try to figure it out. You'll wind up confused.

3

When You Believe in Miracles, You'll Enjoy the Results

One time God sent me to Southern Illinois University. They gave me a classroom, and I taught the Bible. While I was there, I won a psychiatrist to God. He came to hear me teach, and then he wanted to counsel with me for an hour after the service. I went to lunch after the service, with a university psychiatrist.

He asked for that appointment. He said, "I'd like to talk with you for one hour. I always take patients, but I'll be your patient this time. I'll come whenever you say."

I said, "I'll talk with you for an hour this afternoon."

When we got together, he said, "Some of my patients have been coming over to the classroom at the University Building to hear you teach the Bible this week. They've been coming into my office and begging me to come to hear you.

"I told them I didn't want to come, that I didn't have time. But they just kept on and on and on and on. They had such enthusiasm about it, so I had to come over this morning."

He said, "I must say, I've never heard anybody talk like you before in my life. I've met a lot of people in my day. But I've never heard anybody talk like you."

He said, "You sure do talk like you know what you're talking about."

I said, "If I didn't, I wouldn't be talking that way."

He said, "Mr. Hayes, I guess you know that my mind is playing tricks on me. I guess you know that my mind is telling me that all this stuff isn't true and can't happen that way."

I told him, "Now listen Doctor. I know that you've got two psychiatrist's offices here, and I came here to teach the Bible. But God made you, and there's no use in you trying to understand everything about Him. Now let me pass this on to you Doctor." I said, "I'll help you. You've helped a lot of other people, so I'll help you.

"Just reach in there and get all of the intellectual knowledge and all of those college degrees you've got, and reach in there and pull them out.

"Pull them out and lay them down. And just listen to me for the next hour just like a little child. Just ask me what you want to know, and if I can't answer you, we'll look it up in the Bible. God can answer you if I can't."

He said, "Okay, all right."

I said, "Doctor, you spend your time teaching people how to live. Your problem is, you haven't learned how to live yourself. How could you teach people how to live when you don't even know how to live yourself?

"You've been leaving your office for years after counseling with people all day, teaching them how to live. Then you go to the country club, sit there and look at the bottom of that cocktail glass after listening to your buddies tell dirty jokes.

"After you've laughed at all their dirty jokes for 15 years, you sit there and say to yourself, 'Is this all life has to offer? Is this what life is all about, telling other people how to live, winding up in the country club in the afternoon before I go home, looking at the bottom of a cocktail glass, listening to dirty jokes?'"

He said, "How did you know that? I've been thinking that for years. How did you know that?"

I told him, "Why the Holy Ghost knows everything. Didn't you know that? He knows everything, and knows how to do everything."

After I talked to him for an hour, I said, "Tonight's the last night I'll be teaching on the university campus. Are you going to come?"

He said, "Are you kidding? I wouldn't miss it."

He sat there that night and listened to it. I taught a message that night called, "God's Double Dose." It was about being baptized in the Holy Ghost and receiving power to heal your body. When I got through, I said, "Now I'm going to give a double invitation."

I said, "All of you that want to be healed by God's power, get up and get out of your seat and come down here."

He got up and came down and stood there, the first one there. He even jumped out of his seat when I asked people to come.

Then I said, "Now all of you that want to receive more power in your life, come over here and stand, and you'll get baptized in the Holy Ghost."

A gospel service was new to this psychiatrist, and he didn't even know how to act in a gospel service.

While he was standing there, he asked real loud, "Can I leave this line and go over and get in the other one?"

Everybody laughed, and I said, "Just take it easy Doctor. Take it easy. God's in no hurry. God never changes. Let me get over there and lay my hands on you first and you receive your healing, and then come over here and receive power."

I walked down, laid my hands on him, praying for him in Jesus' name that God's healing power would come into him and bring a healing. Then I said, "Now that you're healed, go over there and get baptized in the Holy Ghost and get power."

In about ten minutes he was talking in tongues. The psychiatrist if you please.

He'd believe anything I'd tell him. If I told him the moon was going to be blue tomorrow, I believe he'd have believed it. That's the reason I gave him such a good recipe to follow at the first. That's why it didn't take him very long to learn anything.

You see, I told him to get rid of all that intelligence he had, to be like a little child.

I told him to let the Lord Jesus Christ teach him by His Word and lead him by His Spirit, and he obeyed that. The psychiatrist did.

I went back a year later when they called me up and asked me to stay two weeks this time, at the university. I said, "Why not?" I hate to turn down an opportunity like that you know, where they have 22,000 students.

It's a university campus, and they give you a classroom free. Next door to me they were having a homosexual play. On the other side a witchcraft lecture. I was there in between them. They'll just let anybody come in. It doesn't make any difference who they are. That's one way of getting the Lord in. Of course you get the devil in, but that doesn't make any difference. If you can get God in, He's always stronger than the devil.

When I taught on healing there at the university, I said, "Everybody in here who has never seen Jesus heal anybody with your own eyes, hold up your hand." Needless to say, nearly a whole roomful of hands went up.

I said, "Tomorrow night I'm going to teach you on God's healing power, and I'm going to pray for the sick. Now come tomorrow night so you can watch Jesus heal people right here in this room."

They said, "Oh yeah, we'll be here. Oh yeah, okay, I've never seen Him heal anybody."

And of course, sure enough, God just laid them all over the stage. Everywhere. I had to get off the stage to find room for them. Bodies were all over everywhere.

I just stood there. I'd never seen anything like that in my life. God just came in.

Do you know that not many Christians see the results of their prayers? Do you know that not many Christians have ever seen a miracle?

Well, after a year had passed, I got to talk to the psychiatrist.

He said to me, "Brother Norvel, I want to invite you over to my home. Do you like cabbage rolls?"

I said, "Why not?"

He said, "After you left last year, I started holding a prayer meeting in my home. Do you know, my wife got saved?

"After I got saved, my wife got saved, and all of my children got saved. We started a prayer meeting in our house, and it wasn't very long until we had so many people we couldn't even get them all in our house.

"I watched you real close last year, and we lay hands on everybody that's sick. We cast out devils in Jesus' name just like you do."

He said, "I cast out devils all the time. I lay hands on people in my office and cast devils out of them."

I got a letter from him a while back, and he said, "If you hear of anybody that wants a Christian, Spirit-filled, praying for the sick, casting out devils psychiatrist, let me know."

He said, "My daughter gave her life to Jesus, and she's worse than I am." He said she just believes God for everything.

He said that she and her husband were out in a field and her child fell into a well. It was built up high, and there wasn't any way they could reach over far enough to reach down in there and get the child's hand. They were desperate. They looked for something to stand on, but there wasn't anything.

They were out in the middle of nowhere, far from a town, and there wasn't anything around to stand on. So, they just said, "God is our helper. God is our helper. God loves us, and God is our helper. We look to God. Thank you Lord. Yes Sir. Thank you Lord."

They looked around, and there, all of a sudden, God made a great big rock, just high enough to stand on and reach down and get the child's hand and pull it out. It wasn't there before.

Ah, it's very simple my brother and sister.

It's a free gift. It's a free gift. Free. To the Believer. Not to somebody special. Every believer is special to God.

Do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God? Then you're special to God!

You're a member of His church. You have a right to it. To what? To anything that's in the Bible, and the gift of working of miracles is in the Bible.

Now pay attention! God doesn't want you to be ignorant of this. I hate to say this again. I hate to have said it in the first place, but the gift of working of miracles is the one thing in the Bible on which the church in general is most ignorant.

Christians don't look to God for that kind of a miracle. That's the reason they never get one.

All you have to do is trust Him.

Do you want Jesus to perform a miracle for you? Do you want God's power to perform a miracle for you?

Just say, "Jesus, I believe you're a miracle worker. I believe God's power is available to perform a miracle for me."

Get right down there where you live. You've got to believe it for yourself, not for somebody else. You've got to believe it's for you.

4

Elisha's Faith and Balaam's Figuring

God doesn't work on maybe's. God works for believers.

At a time when things get desperate, you can't get shook up. You've got to stand with patience and steadfastness and say, "God is a miracle worker for me. If I need something, He'll give it to me."

You have to say that. You have to believe that. If you don't, you'll never see a miracle. You just won't ever get one, that's all. Don't look for it. It's not coming.

The 12th chapter of I Corinthians is so beautiful. All the gifts are free. You don't have to pay anything for them. Sometimes I look at this chapter and I just break, and cry, and weep. The Holy Ghost begins to rise up within me. All those precious gifts are free to the church.

It's like Christmas every day. You and I have Christmas once a year. The 12th chapter of I Corinthians is like Christmas every day for the believer. Like Christmas!

God said: "Now concerning spiritual gifts brethren, I would not have you ignorant" (I Corinthians 12:1).

Look at that church!! GOD DOESN'T BLESS IGNORANCE!!

As long as you remain ignorant of the gift of working of miracles, you'll never have one. God said, "Now concerning spiritual gifts brethren, I would not have you ignorant. Ye know that ye were gentiles carried away unto these dumb idols" (vv. 1-2).

He might as well have said, "You believe today what your dumb friends or relatives have taught you." That's about all you believe about God, what they taught you.

He says here:

"Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God who worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal" (vv. 4-7).

Now get it out of your mind that God won't perform a miracle for you because He will. Because the Bible says, 'But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal"(v. 7).

"For to one is given, by the Spirit, the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; to another, faith by the same Spirit; to another, the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; to another, the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another, divers kinds of tongues; to another, the interpretation of tongues. But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will" (vv. 8-11).

Don't ever say, "I'll never have my child down a well. I don't need God to create a big rock for me to step on, so I can reach down and rescue that child."

That's only one type of a miracle. There are lots of kinds of miracles. And I've got news for you, my brother and sister. Before you die, you're going to need God to perform some miracles for you.

I said, you're going to NEED it. I didn't say you'll ever GET it. Most Christians don't, you know.

I'm not saying you'll EVER get it. I am saying you'll need God to perform a miracle for you.

And He will perform it for you if you believe it.

Right where you are, say, "I believe that Jesus is a miracle worker. I believe God's power will perform a miracle for me because it's a free gift, from heaven, to me."

Don't ever go around saying you won't need a miracle. God performs different kinds of miracles. You can get one by believing Jesus is a miracle worker. If you can believe that, that's the way to get it. It's a gift of supernatural energy. It's a release of heavenly power by God to do something for you.

In the Old Testament, Elisha believed God for a miracle. He believed God would perform one for him. Look at II Kings chapter six. Begin to read in verse one, and you'll see what I mean.

"And the sons of the prophets said unto Elisha, Behold now, the place where we dwell with thee is too small for us. Let us go, we pray thee, unto Jordan, and take thence every man a beam, and let us make a place there, where we may dwell. And he answered, Go.

"And one said, Be content, I pray thee, and go with thy servants. And he answered, I will go. So he went with them, and when they came to the Jordan, they cut down wood.

"But as one was felling a beam, the axhead fell into the water; and he cried, and said, Alas, master!

For it was borrowed.

"And the man of God said, Where fell it? And he showed him the place. And he cut down a stick, and cast it in there, and the iron did swim" (II Kings 6:1 -6).

You see, an ax was all they had in those days. If you didn't have an ax, you couldn't build a house. They hewed the beams out with an ax so they would fit each other. They didn't build houses with nails in those days. They hewed the beams. Well, the axhead flew off into the water. Look what the man of God did (verse six).

Are you paying attention?

Are you a man of God? If you're born again, you're a man of God. You have the same right as any other man of God, if you're born again.

The Bible works for you. Do you understand?

God put things in the Bible for you to believe them for yourself.

"And the man of God said, Where fell it? And he showed him the place" (verse six).

Now by the mind of the Holy Spirit, Elisha cut a stick, threw it into the water, and the axhead swam.

"Is that right?" I can just see your mind turning. "Everybody knows iron doesn't float."

But some people know God's power can reach down to the bottom of the Jordan River and get an axhead and make it come to the top of the water and swim around. Yes, just float there.

If you're like most people, your mind is telling you right now, "I can't believe that. I can't believe that. I can't believe that."

I KNOW YOUR MIND CAN'T BELIEVE THAT. YOU DON'T BELIEVE THE BIBLE WITH YOUR MIND.

The Bible says:

"But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them" (I Corinthians 2:14).

Let me add something to that, neither can he enjoy them.

"And the iron did swim. Therefore, said he, Take it up to thee. And he put out his hand, and took it up" (II Kings 6:6-7).

Oh! Do you mean God just raised it up off the bottom and just let it float where they could just reach out and get it?

That's right! Why? They were building a house. They had only one ax. It fell in the water. They were desperate.

But I want you to see that Elisha didn't get shook up. Elisha, the man of God, just walked over and said, "Show me where it fell in." The man pointed and told him where it fell in.

Elisha had faith brother! He believed in the miracle working power of God.

He just cut a stick and threw it there in the water, and the axhead started swimming. Your mind is asking, "Why did he cut a stick?"

I don't know. Why did Jesus put the mud on the blind man's eyes and tell him to go wash it off? I don't know.

THERE'S NO USE IN YOU TRYING TO FIGURE IT OUT!

You can't understand why God does things. He just does them.

God has His own ways of doing things and He takes you step by step. He takes believers step by step. If you aren't willing to take the first step and do what He tells you, then you'll never enjoy the big things of God.

You won't ever enjoy the victory, and you won't see many victories either.

That's because you're trying to figure God out in your mind.

The natural man doesn't understand the things of God. Right where you are, say, "My mind cannot understand how an axhead can float, but my spirit, because it's born again, can believe it, just because God said it."

Now thank God for that spiritual understanding.

Just because God said it, you believe it. You believe the Bible just because God said it.

When you make a piece of iron float on water, that's a miracle. Do you understand? It's an explosion of power that does what's impossible in the natural mind.

When you're dealing with God, you're dealing with the supernatural power of God. You're not dealing with the natural thinking and normal nature. You're not dealing with that. You're dealing with God almighty himself.

Now let's look at a Bible example of a man who tried to figure things out for himself.

God came and tried to get Balaam not to go with certain people. He didn't want to do it. Instead, he got up the next day, got on his donkey and started down the road. God told him what to do, but he started to do his own thing.

God sent an angel with a sword, and the angel stood in the middle of the road. Right in the middle of the road. Well, Balaam didn't see it. He was thinking in the natural, but the donkey he was riding saw the angel standing in the middle of the road with a sword.

So the donkey turned out of the road. A donkey's got more sense than to run into an angel with a sword. He started through a field.

Balaam started telling that dumb donkey to get back in the road, but it wouldn't do it. He started beating it. Three times he beat it while the angel was standing there. It got three beatings because it wouldn't go against the angel of God.

In Numbers 22:28, you see the miracle God performed.

"And the Lord opened the mouth of the ass, and she said unto Balaam, 'What have I done unto thee, that thou hast smitten me these three times?'"

You might not believe that. Your mind probably wants to say, "That's pretty far out there, Norvel. I guess you want me to believe that a donkey started holding a conversation, saying words."

That's right.

You probably are going to want to tell me that I know as well as you do that donkeys don't talk.

No, I don't know that they can't talk. I know they can talk. When an explosion of God's power comes in one, God can have a donkey talk if He wants to. He doesn't have to ask you.

You say, "Well I can't understand how a donkey could talk."

Well, you don't have to understand it. Just believe it.

Now look at Balaam. He starts talking back to the donkey like it was an everyday thing.

"And Balaam said unto the ass, 'Because thou hast mocked me, I would there were a sword in mine hand, for now would I kill thee'" (Numbers 22:29).

He was really mad.

"And the ass said unto Balaam, 'Am I not thine ass, upon which thou hast ridden ever since I was thine unto this day. Was I ever wont to do so unto thee?" (verse 30).

He said, no you've been good to me.

"Then the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand, and he bowed down his head, and fell flat on his face" (verse 31).

He fell flat on his face.

"And the angel of the Lord said unto Him, 'Wherefore hast thou smitten thine ass these three times? Behold I went out to withstand thee, because thy way is perverse before me'" (verse 32).

Wrong! Do you understand? Wrong before God. Why? When you're not led by the Spirit of God, you start going down the wrong road. When you start doing your own thing, sometimes you get so far away from God that He gets angry at you, because you don't believe Him. But if you believe God, when you need it, a miracle is a free gift from Him.

A miracle is a free gift from God, but if you start running around like a chicken with its head cut off, you don't even know where you're going.

You're trying to figure this out, and figure that out, and figure this out, and figure that out. You get confused and all messed up, and in six months you're in worse shape than when you started. If you'd just stop, and start confessing God's Word and look the thing right in the eye and say "Jesus, you're my miracle worker; God is my miracle worker," then you could get your miracle.

When you can't see a way out with your natural eye, when you can't see the light for the fog, you'll want to accept what you see. You'll forget that all the time God's power wants to perform a miracle for you.

God's power is your miracle worker. It's a free gift to you, and it can even create things that you need. It can take things away, make them disappear. You can look away from something, and it's gone.

Your natural mind can't understand that!

You're not supposed to try to understand with your natural mind anyway. Remember? The Bible says your natural mind can't understand the things of God.

You know, God has lots of compassion for human beings. Why? Because they're so dumb. Isn't the story of Balaam something? His donkey was more spiritual than he was.

I don't know if you know it yet or not, but where some things of God are concerned, we humans are pretty ignorant about what He wants to do for us.

All you have to do is to follow His Spirit, do what He says do, and He'll perform a miracle for you.

5

The Orange Grove Miracle

You see, the gift of working of miracles is available for you. It's an explosion. What is it? It's an explosion of God's power that comes to perform something your natural mind can't figure out.

The experts can't figure it out either. And of course they don't believe it either. Well, they believe some things. If there's evidence that it's real, then they'll believe something, like what happened to me.

I've got a little mission down in Florida. God moved on me one morning and told me to buy a place on the side of a highway to make a mission out of it. It cost me $90,000.

God told me, "I want you to make a mission out of it, and I want you to start feeding Bible students and people that I send here. I want you to hold meetings and train workers to go door to door."

He told me people around there were retired Italians and Jews, one foot in the grave and the other slipping in, and they didn't have anyone to help them.

He told me that they wouldn't go to church, but I could send workers door to door. He told me to feed the workers. He said He'd send them in if I'd feed them.

Of course I've had twenty years of experience organizing sales teams, training salesmen, and sending them out in territories to sell. I know exactly how to organize and do it. He reminded me of that fact. He said I knew how to organize and send them out door to door. I hadn't made up my mind to do it or not. He told me this. He said, "If you'll do it for me, it'll be easy for you."

Now pay attention to this. He didn't tell me that I had to do it. He didn't say He'd can me or lift His anointing off me if

I didn't. But this is what He told me that made me do it.

Jesus said to me, "Son, will you do it for Me?"

I said, "Yes, Jesus, I'll do it for You."

Jesus said to me, "I love those old people, Son. But they don't know Me. They're dying and going to hell by the hundreds."

Let me give you an example. Right close to our mission there is one subdivision called Beverly Hills. About 90 per cent of them are from New York City. Jews and Italians. There are about 7,000 of them, and they die like flies. That's just one section. Then there's another one over here, another one over there, another one over here, another one over there, and so on.

That is the reason I spent $90,000 to buy that mission. That's the reason we've been putting on meetings and training people for four years to go door to door, to talk to people in every home or to leave a Voice magazine and a tract if they aren't home.

One time I was in Florida at the mission, and God showed me an orange grove on about 25 acres. It was solid orange trees, laid out in rows, and God wanted me to buy it.

A couple of years ago, a big freeze came to Florida. It snowed in the Bahamas. It snowed in Miami. I'm about 250 miles north of Miami, right on the coast, on Highway 19. That far north in Florida, everything froze.

Now remember, the gift of working of miracles is a free gift for you. Free. But you have to believe it. You have to believe that God will perform a miracle for you when you need one.

Well, my orange grove was covered with snow, icicles hanging from the trees, limbs hanging all the way to the ground, loaded with ripe oranges in January. A Catholic man from Massachusetts had a grove right across the street from me that was in the same condition.

If you know anything about citrus at all, you know that when this happens, you not only don't have any oranges, you don't have any trees.

When an orange tree freezes and is covered with snow for three days, or even one day, icicles hanging off the tree, you don't have a tree. It's dead. You might as well start knocking them down and planting a new grove, because you don't have any trees left.

I knew from the natural that my orange grove was dead, all the trees. But I believe the 12th chapter of I Corinthians. I believe God's power will do anything for you if you can believe it. So, I just pulled my car up to my orange grove and sat there in the car by myself. I was afraid to take somebody with me because I was afraid they wouldn't believe it. When you want a miracle, you've got to get all unbelief away from you. So I just went out by myself.

I sat there and looked at that orange grove, icicles hanging off the branches, knowing in the natural every tree is dead, never to bear another orange. The devil will give you pictures too. He helps you see the bulldozers pushing over the dead trees.

I said, "Satan, you thief, I break your power in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ." Then I said, "God, the God I serve is stronger than snow storms and ice storms." I reminded Him, I said, "Now Jesus, I obeyed You early one morning when Your Spirit came upon me and told me to buy this property, start a mission, and work from door to door with these elderly people."

I said to God. "I obeyed You. I spent $90,000 buying that property, and I started a mission for You. And I thank You for every soul that's been saved.

"Now I believe You are a miracle worker and that Your power is available for me now. I come to You heavenly Father, in Jesus' name, and I bring this orange grove before You now and ask You to release Your miracle working power from heaven and let it come and hover over every tree and protect it.

"And I say with my mouth that my trees will live and not die because Jesus said I can have whatever I say. And I believe that Your power will protect my trees, that they will live and not die, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe it. Thank you Lord. Thank you Lord."

When I got through, I watched, over the next three or four days, as the sun popped out. The ice began to melt, and every orange on my trees fell off. Every leaf on my trees fell off. The same thing happened to my neighbor's trees.

I kept saying, "Thank you Lord for protecting my trees by Your mighty power."

About three or four weeks later it was time for the trees to start budding. Buds began to come out all over my trees. The leaves began to come out all over my trees. All of them. Not on one of them, not on 95 per cent of them, I said on all of them.

I just sold 2,500 bushels of oranges.

My neighbor's trees are all dead. Every tree he had died, and every tree everybody else had around there died. Every one of them.

Every tree I had in my grove LIVED, every one of them.

I know God loves my neighbor, but my trees lived and his died because I believed God for a miracle.

I was in my neighbor's office one day, and he said to me, "Mr. Hayes, you know it's amazing what happened. Your trees lived and mine died. Somebody told me you went up there in the snow and prayed. Is that true?"

I said, "Oh yeah. I went up there and prayed and asked God's power to come down over my trees and perform a miracle. God's got more power than a snow storm and the devil."

He said, "I want to know how to do that. Do you mind if I borrow your tapes?"

I said, "No, go ahead. I don't mind. You just read the Bible that's all. You believe God is a miracle worker. It's just that simple."

You see, even the orange experts can't understand what happened. It cannot be done, not with anybody's orange trees. It cannot be done.

But see, that's where God's power comes in. God releases an explosion of His power to give you a miracle if you need one, if you believe He's a miracle worker.

6

My Daughter's Hands

Now I told you that healings and miracles are closely related, like twin brothers.

The working of miracles can create parts of your body that aren't there. It's like a healing, but it isn't the same.

You know, the devil is so mean. The devil always hammers a girl's mind if she's gone through a hysterectomy. He says, "Why you won't be as exciting to your husband as you were before. You won't be a good wife any more. You won't be this, and you won't be that." Oh brother, what a pain. He always does that to women.

Well, I've got news for you. If you have that operation, there's a gift in the 12th chapter of I Corinthians called the gift of working of miracles. And God's power will release enough power in your womb to give you a new womb. God makes new wombs. Do you understand that?

God made Sarah a new womb.

She was saying to herself, "Oh, I couldn't have a child, how could I have a child? I'm over 95 years old."

Abraham believed it. Brother he believed it. How could his wife have a child at 95 when her womb was dead? It's impossible. I mean she didn't even have any desire for Abraham any more.

The Bible says her womb was dead, dead, dead. Well, God makes new wombs. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Norvel.

That sure is a nice Bible story. Is that what you're thinking? Well, God can and will do it for you today.

When? Is today soon enough?

You might be thinking, "I don't know if God will do it for me or not. Are you sure God will do it for me?"

No. Not for you. You're not sure yourself. You see, I'm trying to talk you into believing the 12th chapter of I Corinthians. If I can ever get you to believe in the gift of the working of miracles, He'll do it for you. You have to believe that.

Now about my daughter's hands.

My daughter began to get knots all over her, and especially on her hands, but I couldn't do anything about it. I prayed and prayed and prayed some more.

I got the surgeon to cut them off, but they came back and brought all their cousins and brothers with them. I prayed some more, and they got bigger. Then I prayed some more, and they spread. I didn't know what to do.

I've got news for you: Jesus knows what to do.

I was walking through my living room one night, just minding my own business, and all of a sudden, swoooossshhhh. I went into another world. I wasn't in my living room anymore.

You say, "Ah; Norvel, did your body go to heaven?"

I don't know. I can't tell you if my spirit went to heaven or if my body went. I was in heaven in the bat of an eye. That's all I know. I was in the world where God lives. And He began to talk to me with His voice.

He said, "How long are you going to put up with those growths on your daughter's body? How long are you going to put up with them?"

I said, "Lord, they're not on me. I don't have them, Jesus. They're not on me. I don't have them Jesus."

When I said that, I knew exactly how Balaam felt when God's anger was kindled. When I said that, I kindled God's anger. The Holy Ghost is real touchy. You can just start talking a little bit of doubt, and God's anger is kindled. Why? Because He loves you so much.

He knows that as long as you doubt, you can't receive anything from Him.

Remember? "Let not that man think he shall receive anything of the Lord" (James 1:7). Doubt causes the anger of God to rise up. He hates it. He doesn't hate the doubter. He hates doubt.

I was in the spirit world, but I started talking Cleveland, Tennessee language. Off the wall kind of talk.

"Lord Jesus, they're not on me. Jesus, I don't have them. I don't have them. How long am I going to put up with them? They're not on me Jesus."

Don't ever talk that way to God.

He said, "You're the head of this house."

I said, "Yes Sir."

I wish men could find that out. Some men don't realize that what happens in their house is their fault, theirs and the devil's. And the Lord just plainly told me in no uncertain terms that because my daughter had 42 knots on her body it was my fault.

How could it be my fault? The devil put them there. I know, but I had the right, the authority, the power, and Jesus' name to break his power and throw him out, to claim a miracle from God for my daughter. The sad part of it was, I hadn't done it.

So, as the days and weeks and months went on, her little body became more covered with knots, and more covered with knots.

Because of my ignorance of the gift of working of miracles, on account of my ignorance and my failure to take authority over the devil in my own house, my daughter wound up with the ugliest hands in high school.

My daughter Zona had the ugliest hands of any 16-year-old girl I'd ever seen. Her hands were ugly. Her hands were covered with hard, ugly looking things. Her hands were so ugly that she cried at night.

She was a cute girl, but her hands were ugly, and so were her knees and legs.

There I was with God, and He told me to go in there and curse those things in His name, and they would disappear. But He told me I had to believe and not doubt.

The moment He said that, I began to come back into my body. Standing there in my living room, I was turning back into Norvel Hayes again. I found myself standing there weeping and shaking.

I was desperate. My daughter had been pleading with me to help her. Her hands were so ugly she was ashamed even to have a date.

When I got back from talking to God, I walked in and cursed them in Jesus' name, told them to die and disappear. I claimed the victory for God's power to come and give my daughter new hands, to perform a miracle for her.

You have to say what you mean. As long as you flim flam around and shrug off your responsibility of standing boldly on God's Word, I've got news for you: you aren't going to get a thing. All you're going to be doing is a bunch of praying.

You can be a Bible teacher, a Bible preacher, an evangelist, or anything you want, but if you don't stand on God's Word for your own house, the devil will come in and smite your family. You have to throw the devil out.

YOU HAVE TO GET ANGRY AT THE DEVIL AND CLAIM GOD'S POWER BY FAITH.

One afternoon, about 5:30, I was standing next to the kitchen, and all of a sudden, I heard a noise back in Zona's room, kind of like a dresser turning over.

She came running down the hallway, holding her hands in front of her, looking half-walleyed and half-scared, crying, "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy." She said, "Daddy, this scares me, this is spooky. It scares me, Daddy. Look at my hands, Daddy. I've got new hands. I've got new hands."

I looked, and both of her hands were shiny. They were the most beautiful hands I've ever seen on a 16-year-old girl. I took her little hands and held them up. They looked like they had baby skin on them, so rosy and fresh looking, like a baby's skin after a bath.

She said, "I was just standing there Daddy, and I looked off a few seconds. When I looked back, I had new hands. I have new hands." She said, "I can understand Jesus doing something for you because you work for Him, Daddy. Do you mean to tell me Jesus loves a 16-year-old girl enough to give her new hands?

"Daddy, I didn't know Jesus loved people that much. Why would He love me that much? I don't do anything for Jesus. Why would He love me that much?"

I walked over to her and took her hands again. I said, "Yes, honey, Jesus loves 16-year-old girls enough to come to their house and give them a complete miracle of brand new hands."

I want you to know that I testify about my daughter's hands all the time. I share it whenever I get a chance. I've shared it on TV several times, and when I shared it on Channel 40 in Los Angeles, the MC started to cry so much he just couldn't do anything. Wherever I tell it the Spirit of God just anoints and hovers over me as I tell of God's miracle for my daughter.

You see Church, God wants you to know and to believe that He is a miracle working God.

I want you to know that you can come to the place where you believe the Bible for yourself. You can believe for your own miracles. When things look impossible, look to God and believe Him yourself. Just stand there because you're a child of God, saying, "I believe God," and He will release His power for you. It's an explosion of power that is great enough to cover orange trees. It's an explosion of power that can make an axhead float. It's enough power to make a donkey talk. It's the kind of power that gave Sarah a new womb so she could have a child for Abraham and for God. It's an explosion of power to give you whatever you want, and God does it so easy.

An explosion of power came to my house to give my daughter, my own daughter in my own house, brand new hands. Every time I call her on the phone and say, "Well honey, the Holy Ghost told me to tell them about the miracle Jesus did for your hands," she says, "Did you tell them, Daddy, that when Jesus gave me a miracle none of those knots ever came back?" Nothing ever came back. God is a miracle working God.

God is a miracle working God, and a miracle is a gift. The gift of working of miracles is for you, as the Spirit wills. But pay attention. The Holy Spirit always wills for those people who believe the 12th chapter of 1 Corinthians. You see, that's the beautiful part. The Spirit always wills for Bible Believers! Glory be to God forever.

If you NEED a miracle from God, and you WANT a miracle from God, and you believe that Jesus is your miracle worker, RECEIVE your miracle now. It doesn't make any difference what it is. I don't care what type of miracle it is. Jesus will give you the miracle you need. It is given by the Spirit of God, as the Spirit wills.

Say: "Thank you, Jesus. You are a miracle worker. The Word is true. The truth shall bring me a miracle, if I believe it. And I believe it. It is a gift, free from heaven, to the believer. It is an amount of power that explodes and comes and does the impossible.”

"Thank you, Jesus, for the 12th chapter of I Corinthians. I receive my miracle in Jesus' name. Thank you, Jesus, for my miracle. Thank you, Lord."

THE GIFT OF WORKING OF MIRACLES

VOLUME NUMBER SIX

by

NORVEL HAYES

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

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

Table of Contents

The Gift of Working of Miracles

Getting God's Power to Work for You

When You Believe in Miracles, You'll Enjoy the Results

Elisha's Faith and Balaam's Figuring

The Orange Grove Miracle

My Daughter's Hands