Contents

1    Rules of Behavior

2    The Strength of Agreement

3    Danger Points

4    Losing a Battle But Winning the War

5    The Wishful and the Real

6    Do Not Mix the Present With the Future

7    Turning Defeat Into Victory

8    Best Defense is the Offense

Chapter One

Rules of Behavior

A miracle happened and it happened to you: Jesus was passing by and made you whole. All those wonderful stories you had heard about present-day healings when cripples received deliverance, the blind saw, the cancerous tumor disappeared and you had not known at that time, whether to believe them or not—and now, God's supernatural power reached to your street, the shadow of Jesus fell on your own doorstep, and the virtues of heaven surged through your body.

While still in thrill and wonderment, your first thought that emerges amidst the jubilation is the question: "Is this really for good? Can I keep it forever? Is there some kind of instruction book in the parcel which would usually accompany all expensive items bought in shops? How long is the guarantee for and what are the conditions?"

I could offer you a set of general instructions. They are all good and very scriptural, though not very specific and to churchgoers they appear somewhat threadbare:

Resist the devil, Abide in Jesus, Stand on the Word of God, Do not live by sight but by faith, Pray without ceasing, praise God, Proclaim your testimony," etc., etc.

All these phrases express true principles of victory and are all basic ingredients for the life of a believer; but by much usage, they sound like platitudes to our ears. No doubt, the fault lies in our human nature that, if left to its own, soon develops a resistance, a kind of immunity against often-heard exhortations.

So rather than use the common approach, let us highlight the crucial points from different angles and spell out plainly the rules of—shall we say—"spiritual maintenance" of received miracles.

Life and death, joy and agony, victory and tragedy are in the balance. So our objective must be decisive and our commitment absolute.

Rule #1: Practice the Idea of Permanency.

To understand the full gospel, one must know the enduring nature of God's salvation. And then, closely linked with this, we must know that although God's gifts are intended for permanent keeping, they remain conditional right through until the Day of the Lord. How can the permanent be possibly not permanent? This seems to be a paradox.

Let us look at the greatest event: our salvation. We are not saved unconditionally, but so long as we remain on the straight and narrow road, we are saved eternally. Now as regards to healing, this principle is similar. Our healing is not guaranteed unconditionally, but so long as we remain in the faith which was initially present and caused the Lord to accept our person and heal us, our deliverance stays assured and lasts to the end of our life.

There is a significant, small point we must not overlook. The Bible says we are saved by faith. Every Christian knows this. What many Christians may overlook is this verse: "For we are saved by hope..." (Romans 8:24).

Both Bible statements, of course, are correct—although they may seem contradictory. Faith is an action of the spirit in the now but hope is directed towards tomorrow. We reach out by faith and possess the promises right at this very moment. Today is ours, tomorrow belongs to God; we cannot obtain things for tomorrow if the future is not given over to us. Yet we know very well that the Lord of today will remain faithful and will not change regardless of how many millions of years will pass.

What exactly should we hope for? We hope, that is, look forward patiently to our final redemption out of this corruption. Our hope mainly should concentrate on God's continued willingness to protect us and to save us from the devil and from our former self. God is not a machine; He is a wonderful Person but cannot be taken for granted. There is a certain well-defined code of conduct to be observed, and this obligation does not allow us to relapse into slothfulness. Our faith for the present and our hope for the future keep us in a state of readiness. This is a kind of wholesome fear, a refreshing godly fear that keeps us on our tiptoes of alertness and gives the extra incentive to maintain our spiritual armory in sparkling condition.

In the sporting season during the time of competitions, all keen participants stay in constant fitness with carefully planned training programs. The worst thing they can do is to go away for a long-term vacation where lazy habits arise and their bodies soon lose fitness to win races.

To believe the doctrine "once saved, always saved" is like going away on an extended vacation from duties and responsibilities. To believe that irrespective of our conduct, our place in heaven is secured, lulls a person into a state of false security where he becomes an easy target to the tempter.

Similarly, to think that once healed a person will always stay healed whether or not the life of faith is being cultivated and carefully maintained, is like saying good-bye in mid-term to all obligations and basking in the sunshine on an island of the South Pacific Ocean. This can never work out well in the life of the Spirit. If we

"sow to the flesh, we shall of the flesh reap corruption" (Galatians 6:8).

It may never even come as far as the reaping time. Anything can happen when we continue to slumber and sleep and when we let down our guard. In the recent tragic events on the island of Grenada, some holiday makers found themselves in an inferno of burning buildings and exploding shells coming from the Cuban bunkers and from the United States fighter planes and helicopters.

Just before this time, a similar war with a horrible blood-bath had erupted on another favored vacation resort, on the opposite side of the globe. In Sri Lanka, formerly Ceylon, many tourists, most British, were booked in the luxury hotels and spent their days lazily on the resplendent seashores. All at once, violence flared up around them and many were killed and injured, others were thrown into refugee camps with starving, poverty-stricken natives. These tourists, living for their pleasures, became totally oblivious to the gathering storm of the civil war.

Life teaches us to remain alert and vigilant in all circumstances. Having understood this important point, we can now practice the thought of God's enduring promises. His mercies endure forever, His Word endures forever, His love endures forever, His promises are in Christ Jesus, yea and amen! God's gifts are for permanent keeping. Jesus is not—what people call—"Indian giver" who gives and then takes back again.

Permanency is the result of faith in God's unchanging character. To develop such faith one must take time to meditate on the unshakable and unchangeable facts of

God's promises. By faith we are anchored to the Rock of our salvation, to the fixed point in this shifting world, and to the foundation of an everlasting happiness. We are also offered an abundant earthly life with an unfailing divine health as a free gift if we can believe enough to receive it.

Rule #2: Instead of Negative Anticipation, Believe for More.

It was only yesterday when you were saved, just a day ago you received your healing or were freed from tormenting demons. Yesterday you were still a sinner living in Satan's dark domain; you lived in fear, were racked by pain and were ignorant of the atoning blood of God's Son, Jesus Christ. A man of God, filled with the Holy Ghost has transmitted healing virtue to your body or perhaps the church elders prayed for you and then suddenly you were delivered. You were dancing and shouting praises to God. The bells of heaven were ringing in your heart and even the flowers became brighter colored and the sky appeared of deeper hue. But now it is another day and you are asking yourself, is this dream-like condition going to continue or will the stark realities of the gray morning light burst the euphoria asunder?

HOLD FAST, says the Bible (Hebrews 10:23) and the happiness is going to continue. You are going to get even more thrill, more strength, more liberty. You will know more as God's marvelous light shall illuminate more truths of His Kingdom until you will not only be recipient but a dispenser of God's power. Yes, the Lord wants more for us than only to experience His supernatural strength in our body. He wants all His children to become ministers of His gifts thereby extending His healing virtue to the needy.

Not only are we to avoid negative thoughts and fearful imaginations of impending troubles, but we have to turn our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, and expect more power, more knowledge, and more efficiency in our witness.

"Let us hold fast the confession of our faith without wavering: (for he is faithful that promised;). "

This verse can mean only one thing: the continuation of a healthy Christian life and a constant demonstration of the power of God in our earthly walk. We are looking forward, not to the shrinkage but to the increase of power, not to the setting but to the rising of the Sun of Righteousness. What we receive by faith from the Lord Jesus, we should joyfully demonstrate in our life; moreover we should not merely use it but pass it on to others.

"These signs shall follow them that believe...they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover" (Mark 16:16).

Do not imagine yourself like a circus artist under the "big top" walking on a tight rope above the gazing crowd: —Now I am on, now I may be off. Do not treat your miraculous healing as if you were a balancing acrobat, precariously swaying on the tight rope of your health: now I am still holding on, my old deafness has still not come back, my crippling arthritis is still not playing up, it seems that my cancerous tumor has not yet reappeared, how long can I go without having to take insulin for my sugar diabetes, how long before my symptoms of asthma will return?

This analogy with the tight-rope act is not quite complete in so far as no balancing artist would ever look downward and anticipate a fall; when such a man walks on a tight rope he looks steadily ahead, but carefully avoids looking below.

Let me repeat the lesson with a change analogy: do not offend the Holy Spirit by treating the work of God like a badly repaired motorcar that goes for a few miles before the old trouble reappears.

The fear of losing our healing is not often recognized. To make our subconscious attitude right, we must spiritually "wash" ourselves constantly with the written promises of God: "by washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost" (Titus 3:5). The living Word of God penetrates deep and creates the right attitude of the heart, namely, childlike trust, confidence, and boldness.

"Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me " (Psalm 42:7).

God's Spirit communicates with our spirit as the "healing waters" of the Word of God run through our thinking. His judgments and corrections have buried our old sin nature.

Rule #3: Know Your Enemy—It is called: Fear.

Fear comes from the pit. This is the number on enemy in the case of losing God's deliverance. By discerning the spiritual ingredients of fear, by knowing its devilish chemistry, we can exterminate it out of our system.

Fear in reality is faith—not in God but in Satan. Fear of the recurrence of a cancerous tumor, for instance, means to believe in the ultimate victory of the cancer; such a person fears—whether knowingly, or just not admitting it—that the inevitable killer would sooner or later emerge from the background into which he was temporarily driven by God's power. I have not read in a book what I share with you. The Lord revealed to me and commanded me that after I successfully prayed for a terminal disease such as cancer, I should spend time to deliver the victims from the spirit of fear. This is not always possible because of lack of faith either in me, the minister, or in the sick, or in both of us; I cannot tell for certain.

Sometimes, as if the sick person were under a hypnosis of fear, even if my prayer resulted in an instant end to all pains, the cancer would come back the moment my back is turned, so to speak. It is very sad when, in spite of all the forceful preaching and repeated admonition, the sick person still views himself as having a stamp of that mortal disease on him, for by this he seals his doom. This fear, which is like a drug that makes the victim numb, is easily discernible by the Holy Spirit and unless the person yields to the measure of divine faith that is placed in all of us, no man or angel can help him. It is not even advisable to force the matter in such cases because if we attempt to spiritually force-feed the fearful in our fleshly zeal, we often end up worse. God's blessing soon leaves and we "dry up" thus depriving others, who would be more receptive to the outflow of God's healing virtues had we retained His anointing. The rules of God's covenant cannot be changed.

Although the fearful would never admit it, fear is an inner testimony of the devil's superiority over Jesus. "Granted," says the coward in his heart, "Jesus seems to help for the moment but that which was determined by Beelzebub would happen just the same." Fear magnetizes us and draws us irrevocably into the jaws of disaster.

The Stages By Which Fear Works:

A characteristic way in which we can see the downward spiral of the spirit of fear is shown in Isaiah 24:17: ... "Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee..." We notice here a sequence: first fear, next the pit and lastly the snare from which there is no return. This is the order in which the life of a doubter begins and ends. The tailspinning into the belching furnace of hell begins with loss of trust and the increase of the cares and anxieties of life. After this, fear rapidly grows into a strong bondage. In this stage the entities of "the pit" become more and more recognizable. Fearing people becomes agoraphobia, fearing opposition can develop into a persecution mania, hatred into murder, lust into perverseness, etc.

In the last stage, the oppression of the special varieties of demons reaches a point of no reversal. In this final phase the utter yieldedness to the devil passes the point of no return and in the end the fearful becomes an inhabitant of hell.

The description refers to a person who, out of fear for possible reproach of the truth, denies God and is ultimately ensnared by hell. The sickness of a Christian cannot do this, but the tragedy is still great and the stages that lead to it are very similar. In this case it is the body only which gets overpowered by the spirit of death.

It all starts with losing the fear of God and gaining the fear of the world. Proverbs 29:25 says:

"The fear of man bringeth a snare: but who so putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe."

One may fear his employer, the man who, as wrongly assumed, has power to employ or dismiss the believer. To fear the loss of a job, the loss of food, shelter or security can be traced to the fear of man from whom it is assumed all things depend.

There are many kinds of fear. The pagan fears to break an idol but in fact he fears the spirit behind the idol. We may fear something impersonal and do not realize that we fear the demon linked with it.

Some may fear fire in an unnatural way. This can happen when a demon attaches himself to his victim and generates in the fearful a subconscious expectancy of a force pushing him into the fire.

Others might have an intensified fear of height when again some evil entities had access to their mind and exerted fear—generating influences upon them. What can we do in such cases? Run into the arms of Jesus, of course!

First John 4:18 tells us:

"There is no fear in love: but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love."

He who fears God, fears no man and no devil. The right kind of fear swallows up the wrong kind of fear. For myself, it may sound humorous but it is true, I fear fear. I know that fear is dangerous and I run away from it and "rejoice with trembling" that my Jesus who lives within my heart is the "Lion of the tribe of Judah."

I fear fear and I run into courage. I have no choice if I want to stay in the right side of eternity. Revelation says:

"He that overcometh shall inherit all things...But the fearful and unbelieving, and the abominable and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death." (21:7-8).

The list of the damned starts with fearful as if to say that this is the gateway to hell and the slippery first step to all the abominations that follow.

The last final phase of fear could be summed up by this verse:

"He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy" (Proverbs 29:1).

Let us learn to recognize these three stages of deterioration also in regard to losing our God-given healing. Since all spiritual truths run parallel, it is fear, too, that starts the sad process of forfeiting God's gift of health. By losing our keenness in the Word of God and growing careless and casual with the rules that guide divine health, we become exposed to satanic attacks. Even if we do not become sick in this stage, we begin to sense that our shield of faith is lost and feel increasingly insecure. Increasingly we turn to human means to bolster up our defenses. We think of good doctors, good medical insurance and take a little medicine, "Just in case." "Oh, it is okay to help nature," you reason, on your way to the herbalist to buy some harmless-looking tablets. Indeed, the Lord does not rebuke us to go for medical check-ups or to seek as many doctors as we wish. There is no harm in taking a precaution as such; the harm is in the subtle fear and anxiety which may motivate these acts. What makes one, for instance, start a sugar and salt diet, when one has been healed of high blood pressure? Healthy people never think of going on special anti-high blood pressure diets, at least, so long as they do not expect the sickness in their system.

Are these human measures taken to help God to keep you from the recurrence of the disease? Has the person decided to be "wise" and "prudent" upon the advice of sincere but maybe sincerely wrong people? What lies behind these little acts—otherwise, so insignificant and so innocent? Bluntly speaking: a child of God has committed treason against the spirit of a child-like trust of the Kingdom of God. The traitor attempts to cover up his unfaithfulness by weaving a web of worldly explanations to justify his infidelity and fear. By now the next stage is inevitably on the way.

The reliance upon worldly help soon develops into a bondage. The devil enjoys a little game first with his victims, like the cat with the mouse she has caught. More medical check-ups follow and then comes the different specialists. Of course, one must find the best and usually the costliest ones in the country. One examination gives way to the other, one specialist sends the believer to another friend of his. All of these men must be paid from money which could have saved sinners, if wisely invested. The little, grudgingly-given information of doctors becomes more and more dominating in the mind of the sick, like red-letter words written across the sky. The Word of God and the joyful realities of salvation no longer fill the heart and make the topic of conversation. All communications are filled with reference to doctors, to hospitals, to x-ray plates or to the merits of old and new treatments.

Yet there is still time to stop and think. Still there are moments when one can clearly think it through and return to the former point when the miraculous happened; to reflect that God is good and Jesus paid for our sickness and by His stripes we can be instantly healed, just as it happened before.

All too soon the last opportunities for returning to our first love and original faith pass and the demons get in full control. The rapids of tormenting fears drift the canoe over the chasm and the life terminates. This time it is not eternal damnation that follows, but premature death. The believer comes to a point under the treatments of different medicines and painkillers, when he loses his reasoning abilities and becomes like a zombie unable to fully regain his power of concentration and the ability to make any decision. The control over his life imperceptibly passed from him.

In the case of wealthy people, the moment of bitterness comes when his eager relatives with the help of clever lawyers deprive him of his legal rights for his own money on account of diminished responsibility. The "poor" bedridden hospital patient suddenly has no authority over his own property and has to live the last phase of his life helplessly and often resentfully pining in an indifferent environment. The sick person may receive very little attention and comfort from his own folk, who now in possession of his fortune, are not so anxious to visit him as frequently as before. A member of our fellowship, a nurse, who cares for the wealthy patients of a special hospital in Dallas, describes vividly the agonies of these very rich people in her charge whose mental tortures are often greater than that of the physical.

Rich or poor, young or old, the bondage and the oppression upon the soul and body can imperceptibly become final. Death may not come for a long time but the fate is sealed and another Christian life has been curtailed, another potential witness for Jesus has been rendered useless; all because of unbelief, fear, compromise, backsliding and ignorance.

"For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep (prematurely die). For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged" (1 Corinthians 11:30-31).

Even Job found himself sucked into satanic power by ignorance and lack of trust:

"For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me" (3:24).

Rule No. 4: Get Used to the Idea of Large Place and Solid Foundation.

The Lord has done a good job on you and your healing is foolproof; you are not only a conqueror but MORE than a conqueror (Romans 8:37). This means that with some reserves of strength still left in us we can win, we need not get over desperate, we need not just manage to win by the last drop of sweat upon our brow. We can "kill the bull" elegantly, with white gloves and graceful movements, like a toreador would do it.

David says in Psalm 31:8:

"thou has set my feet in a LARGE ROOM."

This picturesque language expresses the thought of generous provision, ample reserves, and overflow of abundance. Practice this thought in respect to your healing. If your heart disease was healed, for instance, do not continue to be overcautious with your movements. Do not stay away from normal activities of life to avoid putting a strain on the heart. Do you think the Lord has healed you just enough that by living still and quiet like an Egyptian mummy, you may last out for a few more years? Be "very careful" lest you become "too careful" and break the rules of faith and open up yourself to the heart disease once more.

We are given a gift of God and that not by a miserly individual. Upon our healing we may exercise a little caution in using our limbs or lungs; we do not exert our hitherto sick organs. We rightly give them time to get used to the requirement of a fully lived-out existence. But then let us occupy the whole area of deliverance. Let the person who was healed of stomach ulcer eat normally like anyone else, let the one healed of tuberculosis begin to jog longer and longer distances, and let the formerly broken back bend and lift and stretch according to how the happy believer goes about his work whether he digs, loads his truck or climbs. Endeavor to keep a longer and longer distance from your past sickness. Do not think on the problems, forget the memories associated with your former ailments.

Apostle Paul exhorts us in this manner:

"forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before. "

He says:

"I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:13-14).

Walk and exercise yourself spiritually as well as physically on the God-given large place, meaning both His grace and earthly space. Shout, praise the Lord, go out swimming and yell praises to your Creator, take a long walk into the wood and have the noisiest prayer meeting of your life. Teach your spirit to respond generously to the emotions of happiness or to the sorrows of compassion. Simultaneously, discipline your body to respond to the quickening of the Holy Spirit, and to increase its capabilities, rejuvenate its faculties. This is not mind over matter but the Holy Ghost quickening over His temple which is the believer's body. This is not faith-healing either, but rather "Jesus healing." If the Lord would not be willing, our faith could not overcome the devil nor create a single miracle. We however, firmly believe in Jesus and have faith that He heals us, which He always does, because we keep to the spiritual laws of liberty.

"I called upon the Lord in distress: the Lord answered me, and set me in a LARGE PLACE. " (Psalm 118:5).

... "Now the Lord will feed them as a lamb in a LARGE PLACE. " (Hosea 4:16).

You have asked in faith, received in faith—stay in faith upon God's large place of saving and keeping power.

"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 anything of the Lord. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways." (James 1:6-8).

This book of James also tells us that

"Blessed is the man that endureth temptation for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. "

We have an enduring gift of life and also an enduring gift of health received from the Lord whose mercy "endureth forever."

Chapter Two

The Strength of Agreement

The Covenant

The Full Gospel's backbone is—the Covenant, which is a contract obligating both parties to a certain course of action. It means—a list of rules, of "cans" and "cannots." From our side, we must believe; and if we do believe, God must act. It is just as compulsory to God as it is to us to comply with the conditions. If I believe that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses me, God must justify me—He has no choice in the matter. Since He made a contract with us, He surrendered a part of His sovereign will. It would be wrong to say that I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and God may save me if it is His good will to do so.

There are no "Ifs" and "Buts" in the Covenant. Psalm 25:14 declares,

"The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him; and He will show them His covenant."

Psalm 89:34 also says

"My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips."

The Full Gospel cannot work if the secret of the Covenant is not known to us. On the other hand, if we don't believe in our hearts in the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, God is in no position to save us at all, even if He wanted to. God loves the whole world (John 3:16) but He cannot save the whole world; only those who believe in His Son.

Identically, this principle runs through the ministry of divine healing. The rules of the Covenant keep the healing virtue of Jesus within precise bounds. Two ounces of faith will bring two ounces of healing. Three ounces of faith result in three ounces of healing. No more—no less. There are no ifs and buts in the Covenant. Sympathy cannot change the Covenant, nor can the love of God. Jesus was moved by compassion, but it took His blood to entitle Him to heal the sick. As the people of His home town did not believe Him, He could not do mighty miracles there.

The Covenant satisfies God's commandment of life-for-life. If I believe in Christ, that is, if I accept Him into my heart and life, it means that His life becomes my life. I must accept His whole life, or, in other words, the entire Word of God...which means the Full Gospel. The Word was made flesh when Jesus came on earth. To accept Jesus fully is identical with accepting the Word fully. Proverbs 4:20-22,

"My son, attend to my words...for they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh. "

Faith in divine healing becomes vulnerable when we look away from the Lord on the cross, where He became a complete substitute for all our ills...

"Himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses" (Matthew 8:17).

To look fully at the Lord Jesus is the same as to look fully at the Word. It is this entire Word which the Lord sent,

"...and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions. " (Psalm 107:20).

First Corinthians 11:29-30 shows us the tragedy of

"not discerning the Lord's body. For this cause, many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. "

Scriptural Death is Not Caused by Failing Health.

The Sun of Righteousness is risen upon us who believe, upon us who by the death of Jesus are saved and by the stripes of Jesus are healed. In the eternal light of the Gospel there is no sunset, there is no diminishing process, no dimming out of daylight into pitch darkness. For us the sun does not go down again.

There is a staggering miracle recorded in the Old Testament which perhaps still reverberates far out in space. It is the greatest supernatural act which God did to humanity apart from the birth and resurrection of the Lord. The Lord stopped the sun in its course from going down in the evening, and kept it up for about a whole day (Joshua 10:12-14). This true event, whether it happened by the earth stopping in its orbit or some other way, is a beautiful symbolism for our eternal life and for our divine health which are miraculously preserved from diminishing. We shall never have another spiritual sunset, Jesus needs no more to die, the light will no more go out. What does this mean to our physical body, which we know has to die? (Hebrews 9:27).

Romans 8:11 says,

"He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you. "

If we fully believe, the Holy Spirit quickens our body, even though it remains still mortal. It can mean only one thing: God decreed that a believer who is stable and knows the promises of His covenant and therefore expects health and not deterioration of his body shall be accordingly rewarded. The body is to be quickened whether it is an old or a young body.

If this is so how can we die? The answer is simple, we die healthy.

The actual technicality of dying is, of course, to stop breathing. The Bible says that God takes our breath and our body returns to dust. The Lord does not need a heart attack, a malignant tumor, nor a tormenting pain to assist Him to finish our life, He is well able to do this Himself without the aid of demons. And since the pangs of death have been borne by Jesus for the true believer, we do not have to repeat the death agony again, provided we know our rights.

"Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints." (Psalm 116:14).

This is how the Bible describes the death which God intends for His children.

"Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh to his season" (Job 5:26).

The simple truth of the Gospel that Jesus saves and heals and through Him we can live an "abundant life" until we peacefully die sounds fanatic and false, the doctrine of a cult. This indicates how far we have moved from the apostolic teaching of the New Testament.

To extricate our mind from the traditional thinking of our society may take an enormous effort on our part. We must radically change our attitude towards old age and of what people generally associate with it. Shall we together with the world, precondition our mind to the expected downward slide into poor health, failing of faculties, limitations and loss of memory? Shall we not rather take advantage of what Jesus did on the cross?

We must make a choice, we must make a quality decision and die to our old doubts and fears. By the grace of God we rise in the newness of life and with it in the newness of thinking. We become brand new people with a totally different pattern of thinking. We say what God says and we live or die by the Words that proceed out of the mouth of the Heavenly Father.

We get old, we get wrinkles and grey hair, we may not do those things we could easily do in our youth, but by no means shall we be limited to enjoy the abundant life, to glorify our God in our spirits as well as in our bodies and to attend efficiently to all our business which the Lord permitted us to have. The Son of Righteousness is not going down for us who fully believe the Full Gospel; the Son of Health stays put in the middle of our resplendent sky —a sky on which there are no clouds of mistrust, fear or sin to separate us from the love and power of God.

Chapter Three

Danger Points

Resentment and the Legitimate Anger and Judgment.

Resentment is a luxury no Christian can afford. It puts our nervous system under a constant tension and it is said, it often causes arthritis and other ailments. To allow bitterness to take root is like letting a crocodile swim in our bath. By faith in the Lord Jesus we can forgive. We must believe we can do it and effectively we must rebuke the animosity just as if it were a demon—which probably it is. Then, as we expect immediate deliverance, we should act on our forgiveness by demonstrating our graciousness with smiles, presents, benevolent deeds and by spending time with the former enemy if possible, and reopening communication with him.

Now let us approach this subject from another angle; from the legitimate anger point of view. Beware of zealous but ignorant advice and admonitions about forgiving at all costs and about not judging the evil person. These advisers would want you to be a "mummy," to be absolutely insensible to take insult, treachery and vileness without the batting of an eyelid.

Some who do not know better would accuse you of resentment and an unforgiving spirit and would add to your trouble, when in fact, your reaction or horror towards an evil person is acceptable in the sight of God. The Lord has inbuilt into us an aversion and animosity against evil, and we naturally react to it in our heart. The Lord also reacted to it: has He not chased out the moneylenders with a whip from the house of His Father?

"Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated, " says Romans 9:13, in quoting Malachi 1:3.

We are created in the image of God and we are bound to have similar aversion to evil as He has. All over the world people hate treachery, for instance. However, the Lord is the judge, we are not. We have been evil ourselves and God was merciful to us. In view of this, we are not permitted to maintain animosity toward those who repent and we are not allowed to revenge ourselves against those who do not repent.

"Vengeance belongeth to me, I will recompense..." (Hebrews 10:30).

"Avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath... " (Romans 12:19).

The lesson is this: let not the devil, who is the accuser of the brethren, accuse us for what is lawful, namely: a righteous indignation and a legitimate reaction to evil. At the same time, we must not retain animosity against people but lift ourselves above our personal feeling and by the power of God cut off bitterness. In this way we can continue in our joy and peace regardless of all the bad things that might be leveled against us.

Ephesians 4:26, says:

"Be angry and sin not; let not the sun go down upon your wrath; Neither give place to the devil" (v. 27).

As regards to judging, the principles are also in need of discernment. The truth is between two scriptural axioms: "do not judge"... and "...judge righteous judgment" (Matthew 7:1, 1 Corinthians 4:5, etc. and John 7:24, 1 Corinthians 5:12, etc.).

In one sense we must not judge. We must not become critical nor search out faults like the communist secret police. In another sense we can judge a man just as we see the fruit of a tree and recognize what kind it is. We are allowed to be "fruit inspectors." We must separate ourselves from evil men, yet love them enough to be ready to help them or restore them to the Church if they truly repent.

We must judge, that is, recognize sin in our neighbor and rebuke him for it—if he is believer—or at any rate warn him if he is an unbeliever.

Leviticus 19:17 says:

"Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart; thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor, and not suffer sin upon him."

Do not be fearful of offending God and in doing so let sin go unchecked in the Body of Christ. You do offend God in this case—just what you wanted to avoid. You have washed your hands in the water of expediency and not of the Word of God. This behavior caused damages collectively in the whole of the fellowship as well as individually. You certainly will not be trusted to reign and judge with our Lord Jesus during the ages to come.

"Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? no not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren?" (1 Corinthians 6:5).

"Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world?..." (v. 2).

Conclusion: In order to keep the gifts of God and remain in our spiritual and physical strength, we must keep within love, ready to forgive, ready to show compassion. Yet, it is equally important, not to fall into a fearful and servile spirit of shunning responsibility in dealing with matters when we come face to face with them—either in our family, in the Church or in our community. We can remain human and let our anger be vented, but afterwards we must resume our gentle disposition. We should not try to suppress our indignation and let bitterness smolder in our heart; this would lead to emotional and physical breakdowns.

Beware of Doctrinal Negativism and Be Ready to Repudiate It

If we do not know enough Scriptures we are at a disadvantage; however, we still can withstand wrong teaching just by remembering the actions of Jesus. Jesus is the Word and He lived out all the Scriptures.

When, for instance, we hear a teacher say, "God does not heal always, even if one believes," We may retort immediately by saying that Jesus has never refused anybody who came to Him believing. Any time you may feel in your heart that one misapplies the truth, look away in your heart to Jesus and ask yourself this question: would Jesus behave as this preacher tries to show?

Chapter Four

Losing a Battle But Winning the War

Faith Accidents and Their Remedy.

If you are faithful to the Lord and if you mean to do His will as best as you recognize it, by the light you have, yet fall sick after your healing—you have had a faith accident.

Accidents need not happen, accidents are caused—says the well-worn slogan. A teachable and humble person can search out the reason why the healing was lost and make amendment. The fact that the healing had taken place before is a proof of the person's ability to believe. One has to get back to the original attitude which produced the healing in the first place. One must search out what has happened between the time the deliverance was received and when it was lost.

The Holy Ghost is willing to guide us into all truth and we can test our honest feelings about our faith. Are we slackened off in our trust in the Lord? Has anyone influenced us, have we changed and departed from the simplicity of childlike confidence in our Heavenly Father? Have we made some compromises with the plain instructions of the Bible? Have we let resentment grow up in our heart like a big poisonous weed?

Be careful not to carry this self examination too far and imagine evil where there is none. The devil is the accuser of our brethren and would delight to see us blaming ourselves for what God does not blame us and chasing after nonexistent causes. The Lord has justified us. We may be an unripe fruit and not very sweet, but so long as there is no definite sin in our life, we are accepted by the Lord. We ought to concentrate in our self examination on fear and doubt or on some twist of doctrine that might have crept into our thinking.

Healing is not a reward for our good conduct. It is given purely on the merit of our faith. I have seen cruel men with many wives in Africa who had faith and were healed. Once I even prayed for a communist informer who had betrayed many Christian but he had faith and was instantly healed of his deaf ear.

What Happens If You Feel the Old Pains or See The Former Symptoms Reappearing?

You must realize that it is not God but the devil who tempts you (James 1:13). Romans 11:29 says:

"For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance."

This means that whatever God gives you is on a permanent basis. Having established the fact that the recurring symptoms are being planted on you by the devil, you now are:

a)    not afraid of them because they can be only temporary—in view of the permanent healing you had already received from the Lord Jesus;

b)    you consider them only illusions because only the Word of God is real, therefore you will not say, "My sickness has returned" which would be like a signature upon the receipt acknowledging a parcel from the postman;

Losing a Battle But Winning the War

c)    you rebuke the devil in the Name of Jesus but do not spend much time in this, nor repeat yourself often but rather

d)    praise the Lord for the victory and:

e)    act your faith by continuing your daily schedule.

What Happens If The Sickness Will Not Go Away After a Day or So?

The Bible says:

"According to your faith be it unto you" (Matthew 9:29, etc.).

We must not argue with the Scripture but humbly accept the fact that our faith was not enough and begin immediately to believe that

"Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith... " (Hebrews 12:2),

and that

"faith coming by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Romans 10:17).

The Scriptures encourage us to increase our faith by reading the Bible, meditating on the promises of God, listening to anointed teachers of the Church, and by all means going again and again to the Throne of Grace until our faith is of acceptable quality, allowing the Covenant to release the power of God.

"Ask and it shall be given you, seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you" (Luke 11:9).

Jesus says:

"Men ought always to pray, and not to faint" (Luke 18:1).

The most common reason for lost healing is unbelief, and this develops by negligence and by adverse influences. Unbelief takes the form of fear and it needs to be searched out, for it is hidden away in the complexity of human nature. The Bible says:

"the Spirit searcheth all things.... "

Therefore by God's help, the reason for our faith accident can soon be discerned and put right. The healing, though temporarily lost, still belongs to us because God's gifts are given "without repentance." Once the faith-attitude is readjusted, healing returns.

What do we do in an accident? Nothing? Just bear it with patience and suffer quietly? No, we call the ambulance, send for the doctor, get the family notified. The injured need quick transportation to the hospital, perhaps need blood transfusions and certainly need a hygienic environment and professional care.

Why are we so slow to act this way when it comes to spiritual matters? Let us quickly take the needy into a "faith hospital." By this we mean a good fellowship where they know the Full Gospel and there are experts in the apostolic doctrine. Spiritually speaking we need a hygienic place where the message of God's delivering power is not diluted. It is scrubbed clean of modernistic theology, compromises, and errors. Let us get the injured saint who is racked with pain in the trap of the devil to a fellowship where the Word of God is proclaimed, where skilled believers can remove the doubt and fear and cast the devil out. Let us put the injured in the emergency ward on the operating table. Let us discern the root of the trouble, by the gifts of the Holy

Losing a Battle But Winning the War

Ghost and bring about a speedy recovery. Let us administer quick blood transfusions from the Heavenly Lamb; let the Blood of Jesus "speak better things than that of Abel"; let peace, purity and child-like trust return; let the proud religious spirit be cut out and let courage and godly zeal be transplanted. Get the victim into an isolation ward where all negative speech is banned and only people of faith can enter.

It is essential to separate the sufferer from harmful influences, even if it means a temporary suspension of his association with his local church, which has proved detrimental to his faith. After his restoration the happy believer can return to his church. With his blazing testimony he can become a missionary among his fellow believers and prove the Gospel of deliverance by his miraculously restored healthy life.

Chapter Five

The Wishful and the Real

Is Claiming Right or Wrong?

Especially in the United States the practice of "claiming" and "standing on the Word" until hopefully the claim becomes reality is very widespread. Certainly the method has a scriptural connection and conveys determination to carry the battle to victory. A person does not actually receive his healing then and there but begins to "claim" it for the future and goes on to "confess" the healing Scriptures and saying for instance, "By His stripes I am healed."

The Right Way of Claiming

In a sense, laying claim, on the ground for a church building and fervently praying for it until the prayer of faith is rewarded by the Lord, is commendable. Nevertheless, the Lord Jesus did not die for that special plot of land, and this property was not given to the believers at Calvary. The prayer is projected for the future and during the prayer the believing heart is exercised in communication with the Lord who loves us and honors our prayers which we say in Jesus' name.

It is possible, however, that we miss the guidance of the Holy Ghost in our ambitious request and pray not according to the will of God. In such cases, of course, the Lord will answer with "No."

Many people have been wonderfully healed by "claiming" their healing but AT THE SAME TIME they are acting on their claim as much as was possible for them. In these cases faith was there even if the terminology used, saying "I claim it" is not quite correct. Praise the Lord for the quickening of our body by the Holy Spirit as we begin to believe. When we do this, they say we express our faith, whether "standing on the Word" or "keep confessing" makes no difference to the Lord.

Some Christians, I personally know, have been healed over a period of a whole year. Over the whole of this time they "kept confessing their healing" and dared to act it little by little. This "doing" part was the real factor of their deliverance. This is a good method, even if it is not the best one. The Lord would like to heal us at once and He does not wish to receive the fruit of our faith on an installment basis.

Hallelujah, the main thing is, that we can arrive at our objective if we both say and act our claim. Commonly we only "claim" our insurance policy until it is paid up. Jesus paid for all our healing; it is not the claiming but the receiving that counts with Him. The Lord is very patient and understanding even if we use some words wrongly so long as we show definite faith.

"Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?" (James 2:22).

In the same way, "standing on the Word" without action is meaningless, however, if one acts as well, at least a little, the blessing is on the way.

The Wrong Way Of "Claiming"

Although the terminology is not important when our faith is real and we act according to our confession, those who listen to our wrongly used words, such expressions as: "I am claiming my healing" can have a disastrous effect. Those who do not have the revelation of divine health through the atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ, often try to get healed by shortcutting corners and by imitating the external technique of divine healing. For them the misunderstood terminology becomes harmful.

I know of many who have died in their diseases confessing as fact their desired healing almost to the last moment. I had to help a number of those who had developed an unhealthy double-mindedness. They had grown into habitual play-acting of their faith whereby they gave an air of victory and suggested an actual deliverance. All the while, deep down, they were unhappy. They would come to the healing lines for their cure feeling guilty. As they wanted healing they in fact belied their often-repeated testimony and contradicted their own heroic statements. Since they had been accustomed to claiming, they were projecting God's healing power into an uncertain future and upon my first prayer they would not be healed. When I questioned them about their phraseology which included words like "it will be manifested in God's good time," etc. they gave themselves away, and I could recognize their problem. The Lord Jesus inspired me to change their thinking and to bring them into victory. It was a great joy seeing them delivered and healed on the spot.

The practice of "claiming" is a borderline case. The principle is basically good, but its application is misunderstood. With a right attitude it can be legitimate and beneficial, but the practice can very easily drift into error.

Let us look at the Word of God. "For everyone that asketh receiveth," says the Word, not "claimeth." (Luke 11:10). Words "immediately" or "straightway" are frequently used in the Bible as healing followed prayer. Jesus never sent anybody away with the instruction: go and claim it; it will be manifested in My good time. The idea of "futuristic healing" is not propagated in the Bible.

Even the "slow healing" is not strictly the will of God, although it happens very often in our experiences today. The habit of expecting gradual healing is not conducive to the developing of a faith-life such as the early Church had. It is a downgrading of the Scriptural objective and the practice can lead to procrastination. At the lower end of the scale the "gradual" becomes so slow that a lifetime is not sufficient to wait for the manifestation of the healing.

We are very glad, of course, if we are healed even gradually. A slow healing is in fact a slow believing which limits the power of God. God will not heal beyond our faith because of the strict condition of the covenant but He is gracious and longsuffering; he patiently goes along with our slow faith and does His best with it.

There is only one single instance in the ministry of Jesus which suggests gradual healing but on careful examination it is not. In any case, no doctrine can be built on single instances but by at least two or three witnesses may the truth be established. (Deuteronomy 17:6)

The case in question is the healing of ten lepers as recorded in Luke 17:12- 19. In this account of the miracle we read that Jesus did not even lay hands on them, nor pray for them but said:

"Go shew yourselves unto the priests.... "

The lepers obeyed.

"And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed" (v. 14).

How long did it take before they were healed? It could have been within minutes or five minutes but hardly more than a half hour, because one of the lepers returned healed BEFORE he arrived to the priests, (v. 15).

Why should the Lord want to give us something later for which He has already suffered? Would we withhold our help from our children if we could stop their suffering in that very moment? Who in his right mind would tell his child who just had a splinter go into his eye to wait patiently and claim victory until his problem will be considered?

Apostle Peter says:

"...by whose stripes ye were healed" (1 Peter 2:24).

The Lord Jesus has indeed healed us legally and it can be obtained anytime we appropriate it by faith.

All these practices are artificial applications of Scripture, because they are taken out of their proper context. The Bible does not finish the message of healing with these words "by His stripes we are healed." No, the Bible completes the full meaning elsewhere. The central message is a combination of two passages which tells us that—by the stripes of Jesus we are healed,

"according to our faith. " (Matthew 9:29).

The Lord Jesus paid for all our ills and legally delivered us from every curse provided we can bring enough faith, courage, and trust to activate the benefits of Calvary. The result hinges on this: dare we or dare we not leap into the intangible realm of faith?

There is an area in Northern Ireland which is called "bandit country" of Armagh, near the border with the Irish Republic. It is made very dangerous by the terrorists in the unhappy political situation. Special English paratroopers are chosen to control the area. These crack battalions have learned in their training to jump before their parachutes open, and the principle of this is akin to what Christians should learn to do. In order to be successful in our lives we have to dare to jump into the promises of our Heavenly Father. We cannot open the parachute first to see whether it works or not, but must trust the Lord will fulfill His Word and will not let us fall. The "bandit borderland of hell" needs the assault of God's "faith parachutists."

Romans 10:10 clearly teaches us that before confessing anything with our mouth, we must believe it in our hearts. The technique of saying it with our mouth does not bring about deliverance. God looks at our heart, and the assurance must begin from within.

Chapter Six

Do Not Mix the Present With the Future

The Wrong Way of "Standing On The Word"

Some people make heroic declarations in respect of their claimed healing by repeatedly making these statements: "I am standing on the Word." The unbelievers may wonder about the effectiveness of such a "word," which seems to leave the man who stands on it still lame, humped, coughing or spitting blood. This does not glorify the Lord but it does create disrespect and reproach to His Name. On close scrutiny we discover the paradox of this high-sounding declaration.

The Word of God is an act. God thinks and decides and when He speaks His Word, things immediately happen. "Let there be light," He said, and "there was light." Between His Word and the action there was no interval. "Be thou clean," said Jesus, and the lepers were instantly healed.

We may read the written Word recorded in the Bible and this can be reading dead letters. "It is the spirit which quickens," the letter can be dead. The Bible says in Psalm 107:20

"God sent his word and healed them and delivered them from their destructions."

This is action.

Again, the book of James,

"But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?" (James 2:20).

One asks the question, on what kind of Word are those sick claimants standing? If they mean the printed Word, then no matter how long they actually keep standing on the Holy Book, they will not be healed. This is easy to realize by anyone.

The claimer obviously means to stand figuratively on the Word as much as he keeps quoting the appropriate promises of God for divine healing. In a way we all have to keep the Word of God before our eyes, as it were (Proverbs 4:21). This means to view the action of the obeyed Word of God.

"But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves" (James 1:22).

According to this statement the claimers who profess "to stand on the Word," are in fact deceiving themselves by not acting on the healing promises of God.

Just as we cannot confess holiness while living in sin and claiming to "stand on the promises of God" for future manifestation of salvation, we cannot, by right, keep saying "by His stripes we are healed" when we are undergoing medical surgery and the bedside cabinet is filled with a hundred varieties of drugs. We all know that we cannot "stand on the Word," claim forgiveness and cleansing ahead of time and remain in sin. It would be inconceivable that anybody living in adultery for instance, yet "stand on the Word" for holiness in "God's good time," or a thief while continuing stealing, to say that he is waiting for "the manifestation" of his salvation.

Misunderstanding Well Known Men of God

Do Not Mix the Present With the Future

A famous faith preacher making a statement about his healing can easily be misunderstood by earnest listeners attempting to follow his examples. In the course of his testimony the noted man of God declares on television, radio or to reporters how he was miraculously healed after claiming his deliverance for—let us say—seven days. He explains that on the seventh day he sat to eat breakfast and the menu was: two eggs "over easy," grits and syrup. All of a sudden he realized his throat infection was gone.

Such is the effect of the human psychology, especially when enhanced by the mighty news media, that this powerful person's testimony can cause well meaning, and otherwise sensible believers, to seek their healing by "standing on the Word" for seven days, and finally sitting down to a breakfast of specially prepared eggs with grits and syrup.

Of course, the Lord Jesus healed the man of God—just like He would heal the least of the saints—the moment he believed and relaxed in a child-like trust. Jesus would not heal anyone just for claiming healing for seven days.

Perhaps the preacher intended to convey that at the end of a period of preparing his heart by meditating on the Word of God, and by eliminating all his doubts, he finally reached a point of true faith, whereupon the promise of God was immediately fulfilled.

Differentiating Between Abraham's Expectation and Healing.

The wonderful example of Abraham in believing steadfastly for the birth of his son, is not quite identical with the principles of obtaining healing. Faith is active in the promise of God regarding a future event in the case of Abraham, and faith is active to receive a provision already offered, in the case of divine healing.

Abraham

"against hope believed in hope...who considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old...who staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief... " (Romans 4:18).

God promised Abraham a child for the future. He believed the promise of God and considered his child a reality although Isaac was not yet born. Abraham looked ahead with confidence until the promise was "manifested."

In the matter of divine healing we are not looking forward into the future nor claiming something to be manifested sometime in the future. The Bible says

"By whose stripes ye were healed" (1 Peter 2:24).

You notice that the healing has happened in the past, so this fact separates this topic from the example in Abraham. The healing as well as the salvation is waiting for us the moment we receive it by faith. It is not a question of waiting for a manifestation but rather of acting the Word of God and making it a reality.

The Right and Wrong Way of "Name It and Claim It"

We must look at Romans 4:17 and realize the tremendous power hidden in it which opens up the secret of success and abundance. Let us concentrate on the last half.

"...God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were."

If we are new creations in Christ Jesus, we must walk by faith and not by sight; our nature has become like the nature of our Heavenly Father and along with Him we also can "call those things which be not as though they were." The important factor is that we must be in unison with God. When we decide to "Call" something being, we must seek a perfect agreement with our Lord and obtain from Him His permission first, before confessing with our mouth that, yes, we have the petition already by faith.

We can, if we are not very careful, presume that God is in agreement with us in a particular thing and proceed with the "technique" of "name it and claim it" until hopefully the desired thing will materialize. We may get the false impression that just to "name" a desired thing and say "I believe for it, I claim it and I have it, in Jesus' name" will make God, on the strength of the Bible promises, acquiesce to everything we lawfully possess. Let us imagine ten Christians begin to claim a new Cadillac automobile, each. They had all "prayed about it and received it by faith" so now they, in fact, "possess their dream by faith" until the car actually turns up. After some time, some of the claimers would get good cars, maybe even a Cadillac, but others may have to be content with a bicycle or a donkey, or even with —what the Englishman calls—"shanks' pony," meaning walking on foot.

The Lord Jesus did not die for a "Mercedes" or a "Cadillac," but if we can, by prayer and faith, obtain the Lord's willingness about the desired request, the invisible will become visible; God is generous, Hallelujah. In this case we can honestly "call" the thing "which is not as though it was" and virtually drive out of our prayer closet in our new dream car. It is only a matter of time and the generous Lord will bring it about somehow. That real agreement between Himself and His believing child becomes a reality. Everything depends upon to what extent we believe and ALSO what kind of mutual agreement we made with our Heavenly Father. Was there in the prayers really an agreement between the Lord and the petitioner— about the matter in question?

The fact is that our Heavenly Father does not always agree to our request, no matter how much we implore Him. He only agrees to promises He made and to things according to His will. Since our faith has its source in God, if our desires are not the will of God, really and truly we cannot believe to receive them. In this case faith cannot be generated because we are not in harmony with Him, who creates faith. If we imagine that we have faith, we deceive ourselves and are presumptuous.

No one may force God to agree with everything they ask. The Lord cannot be manipulated according to carnal ambitions and covetousness. The abuse of the right doctrine breeds arrogancy, dishonesty and vanity.

The landmark, separating responsible word and wishful thinking corrodes away and the "claimers" become "covenant breakers." In other words, formerly honest people become accustomed to saying unsubstantiated claims, which in process turn into a mode of life. Everything develops for them a "claim," even their own words. The pretense overlaps the facts, a trustworthy Christian becomes very unreliable.

There are two classes of divine promises:

1)    those included in the covenant and paid for by the atonement of the Lord Jesus,

2)    those that are not specifically included in the covenant but are related to God's statements about His generosity towards them who trust Him.

We always can expect the fulfillment of our requests within the covenant promises, but not always outside of those promises. Those outside the promises must be in agreement with Him.

One of the members of the company of the prophet said:

"O thou man of God, there is death in the pot" (2 Kings 4:40).

As in everything, we must be careful not to gather "wild gourds" together with our wholesome diet and make a pottage for the Church to eat. If we have a genuine assurance in our heart that the Lord has granted our request, we can "call" it as real. But it is dangerous to say things to be real, when God has not given them to us because we speak presumptuously.

Chapter Seven

Turning Defeat Into Victory

How to Recover From the Wrong "Claiming" Habit

By humility we can regain our lost confidence after the debacles of frustrating exercises and by the Lord's help we can build up genuine faith.

We must humbly accept the fact that we have not discerned our spiritual condition properly. We have received, spiritually speaking, a "bleeding nose" in our attempt to obtain a quick deliverance because we have estimated ourselves higher than we ought. We have not sufficiently prepared our heart. Faith is a work of our spirit. In athletics, untrained flappy muscles result in defeat. An undisciplined spirit, without a prayer life and without meditation upon the promises of God, will not attain to the power source of the Kingdom of God. Claiming and mouthing Scriptures is the lazy way to reach a goal by cutting corners. God's gifts are free but to have faith the principle is still held, namely, you can only get out what you put in. Pride would induce us to feel hurt and mad at God but humility perceives the beckoning hand of Jesus to say "try again, seek, knock, ask and never give up." If we seek God with all our heart, He promised that we can find Him.

Confessing victory must come from the heart and not from the mouth only. The result of the genuine confession is always manifested in the actual deliverance. Jesus has no long term policy of gradual healing. His love is instant, His power is unceasing, His compassion unabated. The Lord says, "He that asketh, receiveth," therefore, the measure we believe is the measure we receive. If we fail to receive anything, if our healing has no sign of at least, the first stages of recovery, our faith was imaginary and our confession spurious. Claiming is not synonymous with belief—it is a mere aspiration for the future—while believing is a realization of the present. The criteria is the genuineness of confession: this only begins about the realization of deliverance.

Keeping Our Spiritual Hair

This book is addressed to you, who have been healed of your ailment as of yesterday. The miracle is still fresh and the jubilation is still intense. You remember how the previous day upon the prayer of faith, if for instance you had been crippled, you got out of your wheelchair. Please, realize that what will keep your muscles and limbs moving today is not going to be your will power and your regular exercise—although the exercise is always commendable. The key factor to sustain your physical freedom will be the continuation of your faith of yesterday. You must maintain your spiritual health which implies of course, praising the Lord, obeying Him, and resisting the devil with courage and without fear.

Three essential points have to be kept in mind. They are: spiritual eating, spiritual drinking and the manifesting of the life of Jesus.

John 6:53 says,

“EXCEPT ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. "

This scripture indicates the eating and drinking part. To live out the abundant life through the indwelling Christ, pointed out by 2 Corinthians 4:11,

"For we...live..., that the life also of Jesus might be made MANIFEST in our body. "

In the symbolic way the Jews had to learn to accept all the words of God. They had to eat the entire lamb of the Passover sacrifice after it was roasted in open fire (Exodus 12:10). The "Vow of a Nazarite" (Numbers 6:2) foreshadows the reality of the Full Gospel in which a Christian has to believe without any reservation. The power of Samson lay in his keeping his hair uncut. No scissors were ever allowed to cut off even the smallest lock (Judges 13:5). No scissors should cut out any pages of the Bible either.

A believer must accept all the promises of God without any "if or "but". Beware of anybody rationalizing away any part of the Word of God that is sent to heal us and deliver us. God always heals if there is a child-like faith. God made a covenant. If we keep our steadfast faith, He obligated Himself to keep his side of the contract. He will not, He cannot break His word, because He is a true God. Be careful to resist the "peer pressure" of ambitious but spiritually half-baked leaders, with sonorous voices, pontificating over the doctrinal understanding of the Bible. Love them, pray for them but do not abdicate your responsibility to check them out whenever they are attempting to use Scriptures to prove exceptions to the Covenant. THERE ARE NO EXCEPTIONS TO THE COVENANT.

Meditation for Power-Release

The important question is how can faith harmonize with the confession of our mouth? This needs some spiritual homework but a glorious result is ensured! There is a solution against inability to receive our healing and in our merciful Jesus there is a happy ending to every distress.

We can be both child-like towards our Heavenly Father and logical by His wisdom. To start with, let us take stock of what we have. Our faith is not yet of the required standard for our healing, but we do have creativeness and quickened imagination lent to us by the Holy Spirit. By using these two abilities we can acquire the missing faith. This is done by meditation. Basically this is a shutting of all outside windows, and an opening of the spiritual window on the inside. It is a spiritual gaze upon the sublime things of God's Kingdom. We can become very creative and imaginative by the help of the Holy Spirit as we are shut in with the Word of God.

All we have to do is to look at Jesus and use our creative imagination to re-enact the scene of Calvary and taking in all that happened on the Cross. We are healed by the stripes of Jesus in the measure we believe. The more we look at the Lamb of God dying for our sins and injured for our sicknesses by the cruel whip, the more the facts of our deliverance become real to us.

This steady contemplation must be maintained by a certain effort because the flesh dislikes it. The body either wants to get on with the daily activity or desires to slumber. We are, however, on our guard, willing to pay the small price of the spiritual discipline for its high rewards.

We keep looking at Jesus and observe all the details of the atonement. To look again and again at the cross by the inward eyes of the soul is a communication where our spirit hears the utterances of the Spirit and during which our doubts get dissolved.

It all becomes very vivid: we see Jesus bearing our sins and ALSO that particular disease which may have been plaguing us for years. We begin to discern the facts of the "Great Exchange," namely the curse which Jesus takes and the blessing which He gives instead. Our faith may reach the point of consummation in a short time, but if this does not happen, we go on repeating the exercise over and over again because:

"faith COMETH by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God" (Romans 10:17).

Our spiritual awareness of principles of deliverance gradually increase. Yes, Jesus, indeed, took that cursed disease on His body. Our carnal unbelief that has been weighing us down like a strong pull of gravitation is beginning to ease up, we experience a lightness, a kind of "lift off." Yes, the truth of the covenant is getting clearer, not only in the head but we are receiving the revelation of it in our spirit, twilight gives way to brightness.

"The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him; and he will SHEW THEM HIS COVENANT." (Psalm 25:14).

God decreed:

"...seedtime, and harvest...shall not cease. " (Genesis 8:22).

We have sown to the Spirit and shall reap of the Spirit, (Galatians 6:8). The Lord

"shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. " (Romans 8:11).

We have sown the seed of divine health and there comes a time of harvest, there comes the moment of true faith and the "transfer" happens. Our disease cannot be in two places at the same time, it is either on this body or on Jesus' body on the Cross. The moment this is truly appreciated, the moment this is realized, the malady is transferred instantly from us to the Cross of Calvary.

Chapter Eight

Best Defense is the Offense

Job Prayed for His Friends and Was Healed Himself

The greatest protection against recurring malady and the greatest benefit of our life to the needy world, comes into being when we begin to pray for others and pass on the power of God that blessed us to our neighbors. There are several Christians in the position of pastors and evangelists, who were at the point of death and were healed by the Lord in the course of my deliverance ministry. After being healed, I urged them to learn the laying on of hands on the sick and casting out devils. Not only did the sickness not return, but the demons were retreating also from many other sick people upon the ministry of these friends of mine.

In the 42nd chapter of Job we read that the moment Job used his new knowledge of God—of whom he had only "heard by the hearing of his ears" but whom he now saw by the eyes of revelation—he was healed, made prosperous and happy.

When the Outflow Is Mighty the Inflow Is NonExistent

My home base is near Dover, England where the so-called "hovercrafts," ferry passengers and cargo across the 30 miles stretch of waters to Calais and Boulogne in France. I also, with my car, slid to and fro on these fast boats, literally flying on a cloud of spray which was created by the enormously powerful airjets.

Heavy trucks, cars and people are borne up by a cushion of air just because the wind blown downward is greater than the pressure of the water that is displaced by the weight of the boat hovering over the surface of the sea. As long as the rush of air—or shall we say—the controlled tornado continues, the water has no chance to envelope the boat.

The outflow of our spiritual power should be such as to make impossible the devil's invasion into our soul and body. We often quote the passage of 1 John 4:4,

"...greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world."

This truth, however, has a deeper meaning and one wonders if this is fully discerned by the average believer.

Love is never static, it is an outflow, God's power is not a passive force but an expansive good will. The divine virtues of Jesus, who lives in the believer's heart cannot be contained within; they must flow out of us if they are real.

A Christian who quotes 1 John 4:4 and shows no sign of the outflow of the divine power, is being deceived and offers no defense against the recurrence of diseases.

Attack

Although we wear an armor and use a shield—"the shield of faith" for defense—the whole concept of Christian soldiers is based on a forward movement or skillful and courageous assault of the hated enemy of mankind. All these scriptural phrases like—"we are more than conquerors," "always causes us to triumph," "the gates of hell shall not prevail against us,"—all of such words point to an attacking army in its relentless forward thrust.

The sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God is given to us both for defense and for attack. It has edges on both sides, for cutting loose the ropes of bondages and for slaying the enemy. Our battleground is both on the earth and in the air and we have power to "pull down strongholds"—which means every thought, idea or teaching —that "exalteth itself against the knowledge of God."

"Power from on High" and Speaking in Tongues.

The Lord Jesus saves us and heals us freely. If we keep our child-like faith and do not continue in sin, we need not fear the loss of our divine gifts.

However, to fulfill our purpose in life and to make our Heavenly Father's heart happy, we do not want to neglect one single provision that is offered us for a victorious living. We want fully to cooperate with the Lord and have all that it takes to produce the most profit for God's Kingdom. The greatest of these provisions is the "baptism of the Holy Ghost. "

It is not within the scope of this book to develop this subject. When John the Baptist introduced our Saviour to the people of Judah, he mentioned the two most important features about Jesus, namely:

1.    "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world," and

2.    "the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost" (John 1:29-33).

The wonderful "fringe benefit" of the baptism of the Holy Ghost is the ability to speak with the language of the spirit. This both edifies us and has a wonderful therapeutic effect of releasing an inner tension and freeing our spirit to believe and to maintain the victory. In order to be "oracles of God " (1 Peter 4:11) the tongue must learn to speak exactly as the Holy Spirit wants it—whether in an unknown or known language. By the baptism of the Holy Ghost the Lord makes our words like a "polished shaft" and our tongue like a "sharp sword” (Isaiah 49:2).

About the Author...

Born in Hungary, the son of a Director of the Railways, Don Odon graduated from the Military Academy as a lieutenant of the Tank Corps. After many miraculous escapes in WWII, he became a student of the University of Goettingen in the postwar Germany. There, in a philosophical debate he heard the Bible quoted: this ultimately caused his conversion. Without anybody ever explaining to him the plan of salvation, only by God’s direct audible voice, he was convinced and made to surrender to Christ. At this time he also saw a clear vision of God’s wing folding over him and for the following three days he could not eat nor drink.

In his ministerial career he has pioneered churches, ministered internationally and founded the present Worldwide Missions, Inc. Don Odon has written several books, all of them are used for study manuals by churches and ministers and were translated into other languages. School of the Prophets; Full Gospel, Half Gospel, Quarter Gospel; A to Z Faith Clinic and Bible Numerics Strengthen Miracle Ministry are waiting for republishing together with the manuscript Power in Biblenumerics.

With great personal risk, Don Odon managed to minister extensively behind the Iron Curtain, holding clandestine meetings in many villages and towns. He was arrested in Hungary and in Russia and was on the “wanted” list of the Rumanian and Czechoslovakian police, but God wonderfully intervened. Blind eyes were opened—once an eyeball was created in an empty eye socket—goiters disappeared and the lame leaped as the Lord confirmed the deliverance ministry with thousands of conversions and many signs. These results were repeated also in India, Africa and Japan.

During his visits to the U.S.A., because of the exceptional operation of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit during a CBN television program, the station extended the broadcasting for a full hour on two occasions.

Presently, Don Odon works from the U.S.A. but his home base is in England: Manor Lodge, Manor Avenue, Deal CT14 9 PN. He has eight God-loving children and his wife often helps him in the ministry.

Don does not limit God but ministers wherever believers can be found. If you desireMo see the “right-now" miracle power of God in your church, please contact Don at P.O. 900742, Dallas, Texas 75940.

David Alsobrook Ministries

P.O. Box 2676 Paducah, Kentucky 42002

Table of Contents

1 Rules of Behavior

2 The Strength of Agreement

3 Danger Points

4 Losing a Battle But Winning the War

5 The Wishful and the Real

6 Do Not Mix the Present With the Future

7 Turning Defeat Into Victory

8 Best Defense is the Offense