She Brought Shoes To the Healing Meeting

She Brought Shoes To the Healing Meeting

by Tommy Tyson

Transcribed from the original recording; may contain errors.

I’m going to read from the first chapter of the Colossian letter some verses, giving, starting with the 12th verse of the first chapter of Colossians. If you have your Bibles, want to turn with me. Paul is… just to show you I’ve been to school, I assume it’s Paul.

The Apostle writes, and he’s praying, and we’re going to cut into his prayer, giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness… I hope you heard these words… who hath delivered us from the power of darkness… and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son… in whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins… who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. For by Him were all things created that are in heaven, that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. For by Him all things were created by Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell.

We know that we are not worthy. But You’ve called us and You are worthy. And so we come in Your name. We come knowing that You are here in the midst of us. We come knowing something of the great love You have for each one of us individually. We come knowing that You are here now to minister.

Let every block, every hindrance be removed that would stand between each one of us and the work that needs to be done in us. Let every principle be brought into effect. And let the power of the Holy Spirit magnify Your name in such a way that heaven and earth can become one in the midst of us. For Your glory, Jesus, and for the good of everyone here. Let me be very mindful of You. And just respond to You thought by thought, word by word, deed by deed. Thank You. Amen.

Anytime you start out doing a job, it’s wonderfully good to have an idea of what the finished product is to be. Anytime you start out on a trip, it’s wonderfully good to know where you’re going. And when you start walking in the Spirit of God, it’s good to know what it’s all about. Now, the purpose and plan of God, as I understand it, is that He shall conform you to the image of Jesus Christ. That He is to bring Jesus to full stature within you. And God’s purposes in every process of heaven and earth is to conform you to the image of Jesus Christ. So that your mind, both in the way it thinks and in its content, will be that of the mind of Jesus Christ. So that your inward affection, your spirit, will be under the subjection and manifest the presence of the Holy Spirit, the spirit of Jesus Christ. And that ultimately, your vile body, as Paul used the term, is to be changed into the likeness of His own glorious body. This is why I get excited about physical healing. If physical healing had no permanent basis, it would be merely a temporary alleviation, with which we could do without very well. But the glorified body is the basis of healing.

And every time we have a healing, to that degree, we are manifesting God’s ultimate purpose in giving us bodies locked into the own glorious body of Jesus, in which there is no sickness at all, no disease, but wherein there rules and reigns life in its fullness. And so I’m against sickness because Jesus Christ becomes the basis of our life and indeed is our life. And sickness is unlike Jesus, whether it’s on the level of mind or spirit or body. So we’re not just working for temporary release. We’re working on the basis of the permanence of the revealed glory of the purpose of God that is in Jesus Christ. And that is for the Father to conform us to the image of His Son. For you were made by Jesus. You were made for Him. And you’re held together in Him. That is, when you’re not in Him, you fall to pieces. Let’s face it. And that’s the trouble with most of us. We’re coming unstuck. We’re unglued. We’re falling apart because we lack union with the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Now, the way whereby this union is brought into being and is sustained and fulfilled is through the work of the Holy Spirit. So this afternoon, I want to talk about some of the lessons I’m learning in walking in the Spirit.

For each one of us. We do not become like Jesus by trying to act like Him or trying to look like Him. We’re just making up. And every time you make up, the night comes when you have to have the cream to cleanse it.

It’s not just a makeup job that we’re going through to become like Jesus. We don’t become like Him by trying to act like Him, by trying to be like Him. We actually become like Him by learning to respond to the Holy Spirit. It’s the Holy Spirit’s work. No human effort can bring it to pass. No gift of man can bring it to pass. Regardless of how good our background might be, nothing can bring it to pass, save the working out of the Holy Spirit within our lives. And this is a moment-by-moment process. There are definite experiences in the life of the Spirit where we come to climactic expressions and releases. But there is no one experience that is adequate. And no experience will suffice for the moment-by-moment response to the life of the Spirit. So in walking in the life of the Spirit, it’s good and I think very important to know that you are being conformed to the image of Jesus. It doesn’t yet appear what you shall be, but you know when He appears, you shall be like Him, for you shall see Him as He is. And the Holy Spirit is bringing that to pass. This means that you don’t settle for anything else less than that. Anything else less than Jesus is below your calling.

So don’t put up with it. Don’t be satisfied with it. Realize, keep this picture of Jesus Christ as your own fulfillment. And keep that picture enlarged. For He’s greater, He’s more glorious than you’ve yet known Him to be. So learn to behold Him in His glory. Learn new ways of seeing Jesus. As John was saying this morning in such a wonderful way. Incidentally, isn’t it wonderful to meet John Sandford? He’s up yonder, so I’m not smudging his light. But isn’t it wonderful to find a man with such good sense and has the wit about him and is able to transmit in such helpful ways. But as he was saying this morning about listening to Jesus, learn to see Jesus in different ways. Learn to see Him in all things. Learn to see Him in every one you meet. And He is there in every one you meet in some relationship. In some relationship. I’m not giving over much. It really doesn’t impress me when folks come up and just say, “I want to see the Christ in you.” I mean, I’m not suggesting that. That’s a metaphysical language that doesn’t satisfy me. There’s a whole lot about you that isn’t the Christ. And I see a lot about you that isn’t the Christ. But nevertheless, you are in some relationship to Jesus.

And my privilege in working with you, in being with you, in living with you, is to see that relationship that you have with the Lord Jesus Christ, and by faith, to call Him forth from within you and keep listening until I hear that voice that I recognize as Him. I keep looking until I see that glory that I recognize as Him. Keep working until I see that work that I know comes from Him. And I find new ways of beholding Him in His glory. I’m also glad, I hope Agnes, and I know she will, will go deeper than she’s gone yet in terms of the natural order. Because God is dealing with me on this too. I’m getting excited about seeing Jesus in the natural order. It says it was made by Him. And everything He made reflected something of Him. And when He talked about considering the kingdom of God, He did not paint ethereal pictures. He said, “Consider lilies, how they grew.”

And Solomon said, “Look at the ants.” And so, all through the… Jesus said, “Look at the birds.” And all through these scriptures, we began to get God showing us the expanded view by seeing Him in the world that He’s created. I’m not pantheistic, I don’t think, at all. But I do think that we should see the world related to the Lord and see these processes of the natural order reflecting something of the face of our Savior. And so, I’m appreciating this world more and more as I look out on it and seek to look in it and discover the picture of the Lord. A few weeks ago, a friend gave me a copy of, is it, This Week magazine that, you know, that a lot of the newspapers have. Anyway, it was a Sunday edition. I think it’s This Week magazine. And in it was an article, very brief article, boy, had done a good job, however, of selecting various experiments over the world that were related in terms of discoveries about vegetable. And it was talking about the revolution that’s going on in the vegetable kingdom. And some of these scientists were discovering or saying, really, right out loud, that vegetables have feelings, that vegetables have memories, that cucumbers have strokes.

Now, this is just fabulous, isn’t it? And the United States Army Air Force, or United States Air Force, excuse me, folks, if any of you military here, I understand that’s ugly to just say Army Air Force. The United States Air Force has discovered that alfalfa can react and throw off poison, carbon monoxide, and also can respond to love. They took a machine, this one fellow in England, took a machine, something like the officers use for a lie detector machine, and hooked it up to a tomato and began to pierce it, this tomato, just jabbing it irresponsibly, and the tomato reacted violently. But when they cut the tomato to eat it, it didn’t respond at all. It was willing to give itself.

Now, I’m just telling you what I read. I don’t know whether to believe it or not. But, however, it does give you some windows through which you can peer and give you some thought in terms of seeing expanded pictures of the living Lord in terms of the natural order. And it certainly is in the prophetic stream that when these boys get caught up in glory, they see the fir trees clapping their hands together. They see that all of the natural world begins to respond and come into a harmony. And certainly Paul said he understood that the creation was in birth pains, in travail, as in labor pain, waiting to behold the liberty of the manifestation of the sons of God. So I take it there’s locked up in the natural order around us pictures of Jesus that we could see if we released on the natural order enough faith and enough love to call Him forth. There’s locked up in you pictures of Jesus that enough faith and enough love will call forth. There’s locked up in me pictures of Jesus that enough faith and enough love will call forth. Do you want to see Jesus? Well, you’ve got to love me to do it.

Glory to God. You’re just not going to sit off in a corner and whittle your thumbs and say, “Jesus is coming soon and every eye will see Him.” You just will not see Him unless you love the day of His appearing. And you don’t love the day of His appearing if you want to reject those through whom He wants to manifest. And that’s His children. See, He just hooked up with His young’uns.

And now, if you want an expanded view of the Lord, you learn to behold Him and to call Him forth. And get these expanded pictures. Jesus Christ is in His body. The church. And that’s us. When I say church, I don’t mean denomination. I mean His people. And by faith, we behold Him. And that is, we exercise faith and love in His children and in ourselves. Holding this vision of who we are. Now, I am finding in my own walk, and this is very limited as we all know, I’m finding in my own walk that I’m having to learn a balance in terms of the life of the Spirit. Not only do I need to know something of what the ultimate is in terms of the purpose of God and conforming me to the image of Jesus, but I’m finding one strong and necessary element in the life of the Spirit. It’s our desire. There are times when the Lord creates within us such a deep hunger that it feels as if our hearts will break if we don’t see this hunger satisfied. I meet people who are seeking to be baptized with the Holy Spirit. And they become almost desperate. Seeking and yearning, they run to everybody that’s offering to pray for anybody. They run to every prayer group that dims the light and talks in tongues.

They run to every prayer. And when I say that, I’m not throwing off on anything. You understand that. I do it too. I do it too. They… And if dims the light’s helped, I cut them out. I’m for everything that helps anybody. Find the Lord. But people get so hungry, they get desperate. And in that desperation, they begin to plunge. And I find people this way concerning healing. I don’t know why it is that we have to get to the place where our hearts hunger like this. That we really want to be healed. We want God’s healing power more than we want anything else in the world. And then it seems as if in the very heart of this hunger, the very thrust of it, God says to us, “You’ll have to release it in order to receive what you’re hungering for.” I’m finding that sort of balance. Because if you keep that hunger at its cutting edge, it’ll tear you to pieces. I think we go off balance at this point. That we get so hungry, so desperate, that our insecurity throws us off balance. And we just feel, you know, just stay right at the cutting edge of hunger and hunger. And don’t ever get to the place where we release it and say, “Lord, it’s Your business.”

Now, I’ve hungered all I can hunger. That if You don’t baptize me, it’s going to be Your fault. And we release it to Him. And it’s Your business, Lord. Lord, I’ve hungered and I want to be healed all I know how to be healed. And I’ve done everything I know how to get healed. But now it’s Your business, Lord. Now You get at it. And we release it. Lord, I thought for God, that’s all I know. And I waited on You. And it looks like to me everything around me is closed in. I’ve heard all these preachers talking about prosperity. My business has gone to pot. Here I am waiting on You for guidance. And no guidance has come. Now, Lord, if You want to guide me, You better get at it because I’m going to start doing what turns up. And the first thing you know, as you release it, you’ll find that in the place where the waters meet, the hunger meets the relinquishment of the hunger. The desire meets the relinquishment of almost an abandonment of the desire. And there in the meeting of the waters, somehow the Lord works out His processes in our life. I’m finding this so often true in my life, in the life of others, that I almost think it’s a basic rule or law of the kingdom of God.

And I’ve met it on different levels in different ways. And I’m still meeting it over and over again. So if you would walk in the Spirit, you must realize you are to be emotionally involved. And if you’re not ready for your emotions to be dealt with, you’re not going far in the kingdom of God. I’ve met some people in our day who are very much afraid to go into any kind of experience that has to do with an emotional experience in depth. And so rather than to go in terms of the emotions, they stay in the level of the mind. And there on the level of the mind, they affirm their walk with God and live in a place of placidness, in an ivory tower, almost separated from anything that has to do with the give and take of humanity in the raw. Now this kind of person can develop an aura that is rather becoming. They can develop something of a light that reflects this placidness in their countenance. And it’s wonderful to see such a person as long as everything goes well. But this kind of experience on the level of the mind does not have the power to get the job done in the valley of crisis. And humanity is in the valley of crisis where it’s taking something more than a mental affirmation.

It’s taking an involvement of all that we are from the heart system out. And we are involved emotionally as well as mentally and as well as physically. And so if we will walk in the Spirit, it is the how of the Holy Spirit to seek out the desires of our life and to help purify those desires step by step in divine selectivity. And you don’t have to do this. I think we run ahead of the Lord in terms of our frustration and give up things that we won’t just to show God that we are pious. Wade and I were talking to some of the students on the campus the other day. And you know, I don’t know why I think this, but I think the Lord has given us some of the… I think the finest students in the world at Oral Roberts University. I’ve never met anybody like them. My daughter’s one of them.

But we were talking with some of them the other night and one of the bright young girls popped up and said, “You know, we were just discussing this business of being pious.” One of the bright young girls says, “Why don’t we run over to Africa and get us a hut and be humble?”

And we run into that, don’t we? These desires of the Spirit of wanting to be like the Lord and just the very fact that we want something or something is meaningful to us, we feel like we’ve got to give it up. And we’ve seen so much of that in dedicated people who make sacrifices that are startling only to end up discovering that if they’d been patient and waited on the Lord, He could have gloriously used that which they were so willing to give up. I know I had this experience with Rufus Moseley. Shortly after I got to know Brother Rufus, you know, this man should reveal Jesus to me. And I fell in love with Jesus and Rufus. And I wanted everything that both of them had.

So, shortly afterwards, you know, I really began to be concerned to bring in the kingdom of God. I’d heard Rufus talking about it and I was supposed to do it. And so, I was pastor in this church in Durham, North Carolina. It was rather compact community. And I’d just gotten a new car. Well, I didn’t have enough money to make the payments like, you know, in freedom anyway. That was part of it. But the other part was noble. So, I said to Brother Rufus one day, we were riding along in that new car. I said, “Brother Rufus, I’m going to give this car back in. And I’m going to take the money and give it to missions and buy me a bicycle. And I’m going to visit these folks on the bicycle because it’s close enough to ride. And I don’t need this car.” He said, “Tommy, I think that’s a very loving thought. And it might be exactly what Jesus would have you do.” And as we rode along, you know how he waited on the Lord and just praised Him and acted like he forgot everybody else around him. Just, “We do love You, Lord. Thank You, Jesus.” And bragged on the trees and everything else.

Then he looked the car over. And he said to me, “I wonder, this is a mighty fine car,” he said, “and I wonder if the person that gets it after you will use it nearly as much for Jesus as you do.”

You see? And it just hit me head on. This business of being pious is not for you to do without a fall coat. See? Not necessarily, though it may mean that, but not necessarily. Or it’s not necessarily that you’ll do without another car, though it may mean that. But it really does mean that you’ll use the coat to the glory of Jesus. Or you’ll use the car to the glory of Jesus. Or you’ll use what you are in every way to the glory of Jesus. So there is that balance between a willingness to release and the ability to appropriate. I know the Lord wants us willing to turn over everything to Him. And I know that from personal experience. It’s a place where we are willing to keep everything on the altar before the Lord. And keep it released. And as we do that and let Him be preeminent within us, then we don’t have to hold on to things. He gives them to us as they’re needed. Now, some of you are new. How many of you are new at this camp? You’re new… Well, that’s enough for me to tell some old stories.

This was true in my life concerning finances. I’ve had great battles along this line. I’ve had so much fear and hatred and bitterness. You know, and so much… Not just earthly desire, but worldly desire. That I grew up somehow thinking that you couldn’t be a Christian and have money. That one true sign of grace was poverty.

And grace was the ability to do without. And not only that, but to like it. And rather despise those that did have it. And after I came to know Jesus, I found that still in me. And after I came to the pastorate, it’s amazing how the Lord, you know, leaves some works unfinished in pastors.

I still found these needs. Well, I didn’t have grace enough to say to the board, “Now, look, fellas, you have one of the best preachers in the conference. Now, you act like it when you set aside his salary.” I could do that now. I really could. I could tell a church board, “Now, look, fellas, you can’t pay me enough, so let’s get this salary up.”

You know, why shouldn’t we? We’d do that. I would tell a businessman that. If I were working for him, I wouldn’t mind going and saying, “Look, I think I need this much, and I’m worth this much to you, and maybe more, but I’ll get by with this.”

Why can’t we talk this way at the church? Because church folks have concepts about what it is to be pious. And so, “Preacher, you stop talking about money. You stay humble. We see to it you stay poor.” Ha. Ha.

I mean, I grew up with that kind of trash. Ha. And then I tried to relate it to kingdom living. And all of this fear gripped me. And then the Lord called me into evangelism, an appointment without salary.

No parsonage, you see. No nothing. Just having to depend on the Lord. Isn’t that terrible? Ha. No, but really, He brought me to the place in my heart where I was willing to give up everything. And then He began to lead me in His Word. “Now you seek first Me in My kingdom and I’ll add all things to you.” And when I read it, I didn’t believe it. It didn’t make sense. It was contrary to everything I’d been taught. I’d been taught if you seek first Me in My kingdom, I’ll give you grace to do without everything else. Not everything will be added to you. But when He brought me to that place where I could release it and just start seeking to follow Him, and I fell miserably and still fell miserably. But as someone was saying, the thrust of my life is Godward. The thrust of my life. I’m not prone to wander. We sing that song, “Prone to wander, prone to leave the God I love.” I’m not prone in that direction. I’m tempted. But the prone of my life is Jesus. I’m… If I’m not centered in Him, I’m centered toward Him. I’m going in His direction. But I fail miserably sometimes. But even so, He’s never failed me. And the very minute I started walking in this light of obedience, I found victory over the fear of things.

And to the degree that I’m walking in obedience to Him, to that degree, I’m finding victory over fear of things. And I’m finding that as I live in union, this way, not looking to man, never letting a single man know what any needs are, but just looking to Jesus, every need is met according to His wisdom, which is always beyond that which I could ask or think. I’m finding it out. I’m finding this same principle in terms of healing, especially with loved ones. I’ve had two experiences that have been very much involved in my own life in terms of deep emotion. One was our son, Tom, as some of you know, some years ago when three doctors stood for three weeks and said he couldn’t live. And we had to just relinquish him. But in the relinquishing came faith to bring healing. And then last year, this past year was a year ago, it’s been about a year and a half now, my brother George, who’s a preacher in the North Carolina Conference at the Methodist Church, the doctors told him he was in the acute stages of leukemia. And his wife is a very well-trained nurse. And sometimes, I think it’s more difficult when you know how to describe the symptoms. So you beware of trying to analyze problems all the time, will you?

If you become centered in problems, it’s going to take unusual love to have enough faith to overcome them. So, my brother’s precious wife, Judy, knew what this meant. And doctors told her from three to six months. And I went over and Judy just said to me, quite frankly, she was a little bitter about it. She said, “Now, Tommy, I know George is dedicated to Jesus and you do too. And I know that Jesus gave me to George and George to me. And I know that Jesus Christ is using him. And I need him more than I’ve ever needed him, and I believe the world does. Now, why has this thing happened?” And boy, she wanted, she was putting God on the spot and wanted the Lord to answer right quick. “Why are You treating me this way?” Now, so, I said to her, “Judy, I don’t know that the Lord is obligated to heal anything that belongs to you. I haven’t read that in the Bible.

But I do believe God is committing Himself to make whole everything that’s given to Him. George was really made by Jesus. He’s made for Jesus. And I believe if we can get him surrendered to the one He’s made for, we can get some healing going. And so, rather than trying to ask God why He’s let it happen, why don’t you and I slip out to the altar of the church and see if we can’t let the Holy Spirit release George from our hearts?” And so, she was very gracious about it. She’s a precious girl. And we went out to the altar and knelt and just began to wait on the Lord and yielding to the Holy Spirit, not in desperation but just in holy quietness. And scripture verses would come and verses of hymns would come and we had a good worship kneeling together. Then we just sensed the Holy Spirit as He began to reach into our hearts and bring out this boy and put him on the altar. And so, I suppose Judy and I stayed at the altar, I don’t know, half an hour, 45 minutes or so, and just had a great experience of releasing him and the work was done by the power of God. So we went on back to the parsonage and then I laid hands on George, had prayer for him, and Judy followed me out to the car and as I started to leave I said, “Judy,” and I just heard myself saying this, I didn’t think it, it was just spoken through me, “You needn’t to worry anymore. The diagnosis is going to be changed than the doctors will tell you.”

She looked at me and laughed, almost a foolish laugh, and said, “You sure don’t know anything about medicine.” I said, “Well, maybe not, but you and I both know the Lord.” So I drove off and I went off to hold some meetings. When I came back a few weeks later I called Judy. I said, “Judy, has the diagnosis been changed yet?” She said, “I’m not looking to diagnosis, I’m looking to Jesus.” “Well,” I said, “it’s been changed whether the doctors said it or not, then, if you’re that way.” And it was just a few weeks later before he went back to his team of doctors and they said, “Will you go up to Duke and let them look you over? We want them to see if they’ll confirm.” They didn’t even tell him that, and then Judy called the doctors. And they said, “We couldn’t find any leukemia, Judy. But we’re not going to tell George until we get it confirmed.” But Judy told George.

So George went up with the records from the first team of doctors to the hospital at Duke. They looked the records over. And then they were talking to George before they examined him. And he said, “Incidentally, the reason I’m here, they couldn’t find any sign of leukemia.” And the doctor that was heading up the team said to him, “Well, George, in light of these records, if they didn’t find any leukemia, you better get down on your knees and thank God.” And when the Duke team examined him, they confirmed the home team. Now, that came through relinquishment. Wanting a boy healed as much as any young girl ever wanted a husband healed. But then laying him on the altar. And then letting others pray the prayer of faith. Say, that hunger matched with that relinquishment. As you release this way, walking in that contrast, in that balance. I think this is basic to kingdom living. As we go this way, seeing what the Lord is offering, hearing what He’s saying to us, seeing what He’s showing us, desiring it with our hearts, relinquishing it with our wills. I’m finding also this other principle to which I alluded. And that is a glad obedience to the things that are at hand while we are waiting on the Lord.

Most of us, in terms of waiting, think that it’s just a time when we’re separated, waiting in apprehension. But really, our waiting on the Lord is a joyous abandonment while we give ourselves to the tasks that are at hand. A girl who is waiting for the wedding date is not somebody who’s just sitting around gnawing her fingernails.

She’s going around, making sure that the gown fits, seeing that her daddy and mama are looking after the flowers, being sure the preacher’s got his date all cleared, being sure the church calendar is all set, making sure all the right invitations. You see, she’s preparing for the great event. She’s not trying to get him married before the date, but she’s making everything is set at the right time so nothing will hinder it when the date does come. Now, the Lord showed me this in the parable of the prodigal. In the Bible, we call the parable of the prodigal. I had had this father sitting around, chewing his fingernails, getting hump-shouldered, peeping out between the Venetian blinds. And every time he saw a form down the road, getting his hopes built up, only to be disappointed to find out it was a neighbor boy. You know, I had just had this father getting gray-headed and going to his grave ahead of time because his boy had gone. Well, now, Jesus doesn’t paint any such picture. That’s self-pity. And Jesus paints a picture of faith, not self-pity. I don’t know anywhere where the Lord is more ruthless, if the Lord is ever ruthless, than at the point of self-pity. I don’t know anything that’ll tear you up that is any more unbecoming a Christian and not waiting on the Lord than just sitting around in self-pity.

See, I saw this boy come in, and when he came, his father saw him and ran out and met him, threw his arms around him and brought him on up to the house and said to the servants, “Go in and get the best robe and put it on him.” Which implies that there were several robes there, but he got the best one. “Go in and get the best pair of shoes and put it on his feet. Now, go and get the ring, put it on his finger, and go out and get that fatted calf and kill it.” So I saw, when this dawned on me, that the father had been quite busy. He’d been making robes. I say, you know, coop and homies. Good suits. He knew that old boy was going to come with a tattered coat. So he was making good suits. He knew he was going to come with bruised feet and worn out shoes. So he was making good shoes. He knew he was going to come hungry. He knew, boys. So he was fattening a calf. He knew he was going to come in fear, wondering if he’s going to be accepted. So he had a ring made with his seal on it, which was a checkbook to his whole bank account.

See? No insecurity here. The father had been busy preparing things for the boy when he would return and live at home. So if you really want to know what to do to wait on the Lord, find some ways to prepare your mind. Find some ways to prepare your heart, to prepare your soul to serve the Lord with the things at hand so that He can have you in the movement of service at the moment that your healing is released. One of the greatest stories of healing I’ve ever heard is what is called the Betty Baxter story. This girl up here in Minnesota who was crippled, her body was twisted and torn. She just was almost a ball of mangled bone and flesh.

And she knew that the Lord was going to heal her. And when she heard that Oral Roberts was coming to that area, the Lord told her this was the time. Do you know what Betty Baxter took with her to that meeting?

A pair of shoes. You say, “This is waiting on the Lord.” She had already had those shoes. And she had things already prepared so when the Lord healed her, she could start running. Now, you want for the Lord? What is it you want from? You want to be healed? Well, hunger for it. Know that He’s got healing for you. There’s no sickness in Jesus. Jesus is help. Know that God wants you to be healed. What do you want for Jesus? Do you want to be filled with the Holy Ghost? Well, know that He’s promised you shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost. Even as John baptized with water. You see, Jesus said, He at least implies, He’s as willing, I think more willing, to baptize with the Spirit than the Baptists are with water.

John baptized with water. He baptizes with Spirit. So, are you really hungry to be, well, hunger after? Well, don’t settle for anything less. It’s a promise is to you. What is it you want from Jesus? You want your needs met? Well, hunger for it. Know that it’s His desire to meet your needs. Relinquish it. Relinquish it in faith to somebody in your prayer group this afternoon. Lay it on the altar. Let them be the ones who pray the prayer of faith. If you must wait on the Lord for a while, don’t just sit around and say, “Well, the Lord must not want to heal me. I prayed and I prayed. I just prayed. I’ll be praying. Jordan Wade prayed.” No. That’s no faith. Thank God. All these people have prayed, and I know these people have prayed prayers of faith, and it’s got to be answered. Thank You, Lord. You see? So, Lord, it hadn’t been made manifest yet, but if one more person lays hands, it’s only it’s going to be. Get in the faith. Get in the expectancy. Get in the thrill and paint these pictures of the life God will have on you in the healing love that’s to be made manifest through you. These are some thoughts about what I’m learning in walking in the Spirit.

Let us bow our hearts before Him. And, Lord, we thank You that You just got us all set here to go to these prayer groups. And, Lord, we’re going in Your name. We’re going knowing that You’re in the midst of us. And, Lord, if we don’t know what it is we’re desiring, open up these doors of our hearts. Don’t let a one of us go to these prayer groups without hungering for something from You. And, Lord, give us new pictures of that which we can hunger for. New ways to see You. New ways to hear You. New ways to love You and to be one with You. Lord, create within us an enlarged capacity to want and desire all that You are and have. But as we go, Lord, not only give us the hunger, give us the willing to relinquish it, give us the friends who will believe with us, and give us the willingness to turn to things at hand and walk in obedience at the moment while we’re waiting on You. Thank You, Lord. Amen.