The Sign Roger Printed In the Hallway

The Sign Roger Printed In the Hallway

by Ordelphia Nelson Proctor

Transcribed from the original recording; may contain errors.

Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it just doth not yet appear what we shall be. But we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And every man that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself, even as He is pure. The Lord has been mindful of us. He will bless us.

Look on us. I told you that I had met some peculiar people. The Lord ordained it. I went to fellowship with these people. I prayed with them during the summer. And when September came, it was time for me to return to my classroom, where I taught these brain injured children. These children who had emotional problems. These youngsters who had severe perceptual disorders. Many had been diagnosed at several different places. I had stacks of papers concerning each of my students saying that they were unable to do many of the things that, quote, normal youngsters could do. At this particular time, I had seven students.

Each of them ranged in age from 8 to 13 years of age. When I entered my classroom on the first day of school, it was the day that the teachers go in to prepare the classrooms for the students and get things in readiness. I went into my new classroom. We’d already had our teachers meeting. I had received the list of children that I would have. I looked at those names. I did not know these children yet. I didn’t want to look at their folders and find out all of the things yet about them.

Having stayed around those peculiar people all summer, the people who told me that I could ask believing and I could receive, the people who said that if you ask in the name of Jesus, He would answer, the things that I’d been reading in the Bible that summer and praying about, sometimes standing on the street corner with Harald Bredesen and his crew, sometimes knocking on people’s doors and doing foolish things that I wasn’t accustomed to doing, but I enjoyed it. I decided I’d do a peculiar thing in my classroom. I took that list of names and I said, “I will do what we’ve been praying about this summer.” So I looked at the children’s names. I had an Ingrid. I had a Roger. I had a Kenneth. I had several youngsters. I had a Joni. And I said, “Lord, I claim these children for Your glory.” I’d been told in that prayer group that we could claim things for the glory of God. And if we believed it, we could receive it. I called each one by name and I arranged my seats in that classroom. I’d been watching Oral Roberts on television and he said, “Have a point of contact. Touch the television or touch the radio.” So I said, “Well, I think I’ll touch these seats.” So I arranged the seats and I said, “Joni will sit here.”

“In the name of Jesus, I claim Joni for Your glory.” And, “Kenneth will sit here. And in the name of Jesus, I claim him for the glory of God.” And I arranged all my seats and I claimed each of my students for the glory of God. Well, this was the era when we did all sorts of things in that prayer group, such as oiling down things with the prayed over oil. I thought I’d better oil the seats down. And I got the oil out and I oiled my desk first. I put a big cross with this oil. And I said, “No, Lord, I thank You for allowing me this job. I do need livelihood. And I thank You for allowing me to be a teacher.” And I made this sign of the cross with this oil on my desk. And I did it on my chair also. Then I went to each of the desks where I had arranged for the students to sit. And I made a sign of the cross with the oil on each of those desks.

Then I went over to the windows. Thought I’d better put the sign of the cross on the windows. So I oiled down the windows. And I thought I’d better oil my door in the doorknob. I really greased the doorknob real good. And I put a sign of the cross on my door. And I said, “Thank you, Jesus.” Then I went about my duties. The next morning, these youngsters that I hadn’t seen arrived. Joni was legally blind. She was eight years old. She was schizophrenic. She walked on her tiptoes. She talked to herself. She hallucinated. And we had large books for her with letters this big. And she hold the book this close to read. Kenneth was paranoid. He would pinch the youngsters. And if you gave him anything, he would tear it up.

All these youngsters had some peculiarity. Each one of them could not read. They were in my class because they had some emotional block that kept them from putting a consonant before a vowel and making the proper sound. I had lots of gadgets in my classroom. Lots of books. And lots of people helping me. The people came in periodically. There were several psychologists. There were psychiatrists. There were speech therapists. There were physical therapists. And periodically, they would come in and take my students out for blocks of time to give them coordination exercises, articulation exercises, or different therapies. I had so many little toys. My room was called a self-contained room. We had our private bathroom. We had our own sink. We had everything we needed. I would hold up the words, “wet.” W-E-T. Stick my little children’s hands in the water and say “wet.” And we were trying to learn how to spell “wet” and recognize that mountainous word to those eight, through 13 year old youngsters. I would dry their hands and tell them “dry” and hold the big word up, three letters, D-R-Y, “dry,” W-E-T, “wet.” These youngsters could understand concrete things. I could show them a toy bird. They could understand that. I could do things like drying their hands and spelling three-letter words, and they could understand things like that.

Most of these youngsters were reading on the pre-primer level, what we call choppy reading, you know, stumbling and hesitating. Abstract things were very, very difficult for them to understand. Now, I had been going to my prayer group and praying for my youngsters and praying for my own private problems, thinking and hoping that the Lord would really deliver me from my situation, change it. And I was sort of having fun at school, but I was seriously hammering on the gates of heaven for my own problem at home. This was before I had consummated the story I told you about.

Well, as I said, each month I went to those Full Gospel Businessmen’s breakfasts. I went to the Women’s Aglow. I was in every line that said, “Line up for prayer.” I was soaking in everything like a sponge and trying to exercise all of the things that I read in the scripture. I was reading the Bible. I carried my Bible everywhere. And if I stopped at a light, I had my Bible on the seat of the car and I was reading. And what I didn’t read, I made up a tune for and I sang. I read the Bible from cover to cover in three months and started over again. Some of the things were soaking into my spirit and a lot of it was coming alive. Now, you remember I told you that the prayer group at Harald’s Church asked me to sit in the chair that they may lay hands on me and if I would open my mouth and give the Lord my unruly member that He would baptize me. So I sat in the chair, opened my mouth, and nothing happened.

This went on for several months. I enjoyed the fellowship. I sang. I listened to the testimonies. I followed these people around and had a delightful time. One morning, March 17, 1968, I was driving to school, feeling exceedingly happy. And I began to be a bit peculiar talking to myself like some of the people in the crew did. And I was saying, “Lord,” driving along, “I thank You for introducing me to these lovely people. Lord, I’m so happy this morning,” driving along, talking out loud. “I thank You for taking away the glooms and the misery and came flowing out of my mouth.” I’m driving along. And as I drove along, these words just continued to flow out of my mouth. There was no preface. There was no indication that I was going to do it. I didn’t feel any different. I just continued to thank the Lord and the words continued to flow out of my mouth. Now, when I reached the parking lot at school, I thought everybody in school would know. And I thought I’d better not go in and sign in as I usually did. I’d better sneak in the side door. So I went to the side door of school. I always carried my Bible. I had my Good News in my school books.

And I got into my classroom. Being a peculiar person in my home, I was also a peculiar person at school because I taught the special children. I had my unique classroom isolated at the end of the wall. I had my unique little yellow buses that brought my children. Other kids came on the big buses. But my class came on the special little buses. They were bused in from all over the county. And my classroom was rented. I went wherever the need was. And when the population fitted the type of work that I did, I was sent there. My kids were bused in. I was standing behind my desk with my books and my Bible when the school buses arrived. The first youngster that ran into my classroom stopped short at the door and said, “Gee, you look so strange this morning. What happened to you?” And I said, “Oh, the Lord just gave me this new language to praise Him.”

I said, “Oh, boy, you’re not supposed to say that at school.” And I said, “Oh, Roger, you read this in the Bible in Acts.” I said, “This is something that happens in the Bible.” And I hand Roger my Good News. Couldn’t read. Didn’t, you know, Roger couldn’t read. None of my students could read. But I gave him the copy of the Good News I had in my hand. And I said, “This is something you read about in Acts.” Now, in our school, you really don’t mention the Lord unless you’re saying the pledge. And when you say, “Under God,” that’s it. You don’t mention the Lord. This is a public school in New York State. And you just don’t do that. Unless it slips out. Now, and so that particular morning, I had done the unpardonable, according to the school system. I said, “The Lord had given me that language,” which He did. I didn’t know how to speak in any other tongues. And I didn’t know what I was saying. All I knew was that I was joyfully enveloped in love. And these words, without any provocation, any action on my part, came flowing out of my mouth as I drove to school that particular morning.

Now, that day, Roger was quieter than he’d ever been. Again, my class was a very hyperactive class. It was not a class of children that would do what you told them to do. You had to follow them around the room to teach them. You had to hold their hands, and you had to sit next to them. And it was my business to hold my… Sit them in their seats and instruct them individually. Those of you who know anything about special ed know that the United States requires us to have what is called an IEP, an Individual Educational Program, for each brain-injured, emotionally disturbed child, or whatever they decide to label them for that particular year. Learning disabled, whatever. Well, anyway, I had an individual program for each of my seven students. Each one read on a different level, at a different pace, on a different page. Each one wrote in a different style. Some held the pencil so tightly that they would tear the paper trying to write. Some had to use crayons. Some used various methods. Now, this was before we were given aids in our classrooms. And so, I was constantly asking the Lord to lead me and guide me into what I was to do with my students and to make me the best teacher possible.

That day, each time the bell rang, I would try out my tongues to make sure I still had it. And on the way home that afternoon, all the way, the round trip of 30 miles that I drove, I prayed aloud and couldn’t wait to get to that prayer group to share with them that it had happened to me. This is something that they had been doing. I didn’t understand it and didn’t know what they were doing, but I just enjoyed being in the presence of these people. They glowed. They got answers to their prayers. And it had happened to me. The next day, when I arrived at school, Roger came running in. Roger was a 12-year-old, blonde, blue-eyed youngster who was small for his age, who had emotional problems like the rest and couldn’t read. He was reading on a pre-primer level, “See the kitten.” Chop, choppy reading. He came running in on March 18th. He looked at me and said, “The Lord has given me such insight.

That book you gave me, I read it. And I’m going to get that language just like you did.” Well, right here in my belly, I knew he was going to do it. And I said, “Roger, what did you read?” Because I really didn’t believe that he had read. He said, “I read from this book.” And he opened it and he read, “On the day of Pentecost, they began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave utterance. And I’m going to do that just like you did.” I knew he was going to do it. But I said, “Roger, I want you to read something else for me.” So I took a dictionary from my desk and I opened it to A’s and I pointed to a word and I said, “Read.” “Aardvark, an anteater, a long-nosed animal.” That wasn’t good enough for me. I said, “You must read something else.” So I opened one of my teacher’s books. The boy read it as perfectly as I. Still wasn’t enough for me. I wrote a note and I said, “Now, Roger, you take this note and you go down to Mrs. Hess’ classroom.” Another thing I did wrong. A teacher of emotionally disturbed, brain-injured children has a conference with the principal, the teacher, and her supervisor before she sends one of those children to anybody’s classroom.

You explain to the teacher what kind of child it is. What they can do. And if, perchance, the child does one subject well, you get him mainstreamed after a lot of papers are signed and a lot of conferences have been held, subject by subject. But I didn’t do that that morning. I sent Roger off with a note to Mrs. Hess. When the bell rang, there was Mrs. Hess at my classroom door with Roger. And she looked at me and she said, “Ordelphia, what is this about this boy being in this class with these sick children?” And I said, wow, to myself, must have done something exceedingly well down there. She says, “I’m going to keep him and take him to Mrs. Katz for math.” So she whisked Roger away. And everything seemed to be going along pretty good until one of the psychologists arrived and one of the physical therapists arrived to give Roger his coordination exercises. And I had to get him back into my classroom without creating any suspicion. And somehow the Lord did it. I don’t remember. But the physical therapist took Roger off to the gym where he had to do a lot of coordination exercises. She usually kept him 40 minutes. In about 15 minutes, she was back with Roger looking at me strangely.

And she said, “Roger has done all of those exercises perfectly. And there’s nothing else I can do with him.” I said, “Why don’t you take him to the office and have a conference and get him enrolled in regular gym?” The thing that I didn’t do, I was telling her to do to get him in regular gym. She says, “I think I’ll do that.” So she went down to the office and the gym teacher, the principal, and this physical therapist had a conference. And after a lot of talking and the gym teacher said he really did not want Roger in his class. He was getting ready to have his competitive sports. And all he needed was a special kid from my class to blow it for him. And I said, “Well, why not take him? And if he does anything wrong, I’m here. Just send him back.” And he told me in no uncertain terms, he was certainly going to send him back. Now, we’ve already heard and we know the Lord has a sense of humor. Roger went into the gym class and they began to rehearse for what they were going to do. And he did all right because they didn’t send him back. So they went away for their competitive sports. They were giving the bronze medal for third place and the silver one for second and the gold one for first.

Roger ran the father’s jump the highest and did all the relays better than anyone else and came back with the gold medal. Now, if they looked at me strangely before the boy left, they were looking at me most peculiarly when he returned. But they whisked him off to art class the next day.

And they were doing block printing. Now, I had given Roger the Good News and the boy seemed to be understanding the book better than I. I was reading a book by Watchman Nee. And this book had something about the soul, the body, and the spirit and the inner man. And I was having difficulty understanding it. Since we had the playground to ourselves, I had the lunch room to myself also. I would sit reading Watchman Nee and my youngsters would play. And Roger would run over and ask me, “What are you reading?” And I would tell him some excerpts from the book. The boy could understand it as well or better than I. And I knew he was understanding this. Anyway, they took him off to the art class.

He came after art class to get me. And he took my hand and said, “Come down the corridor. I want you to see my sign I just printed.” And I went down the corridor. And among all of the printings that the children had made, there was Roger’s. “Ask and it shall be given. Ask and it shall be opened unto you.” And his face lit up like a glorious light.

I was so happy. And he was ecstatic with joy. And his sign was in the hall of our school. “Suffer the little children and forbid them not. For such is the kingdom of heaven.” The Lord allows a lot of things through the children that we just don’t get away with, beloved. You know I could never put a sign up like that in school. But the art teacher tacked Roger’s up with the rest of the kids. And everybody could see it. The next morning, Roger came running into school again. And he told me once more, “I’m going to get that language just like you.” And once more right here, I felt that he was going to do it. And I thought, wow. I’d better call Harald Bredesen and tell him what’s happening at school. After all, I was praying for a miracle at home. And I was wondering why the Lord wasn’t answering what I’d ask Him to do at home. And why He was doing this. But I was enjoying it. So I called him and I said, “Harald, all these things are happening at school.” He said, “Well, you better call those parents and get permission for having given that boy the Bible.”

“Get permission.” I’d already given the boy the Bible. “And ask his father if you can bring him home this afternoon.” So I went to the public phone in school, Carter. And I called this boy’s parents. And I said to his father, I said, “Sir, you know, the book I gave Roger the other day, I just wanted to get permission.” He said, “Oh, any book you give my son is all right.” I said, “Well, this is Good News. It is a paraphrase of the New Testament.” And he repeated, “Any book you give my son is all right.” And I said, “May I take Roger home this afternoon for dinner and I’ll bring him back?” He said, “All right.”

Well, I drove three miles across the Tappan Zee Bridge from Rockland County into Westchester County. And Roger sat looking at me with a beaming face all the way. I went straight to Harald Bredesen’s house, knocked on the door and said, “This is the youngster I was telling you about.” And almost before we could get the boy introduced like a cork popping out of the bottle, the boy was speaking with other tongues.

No, I didn’t do anything. The only thing I did was pray for the children. And as I gave them individual instructions, I did lay hands on them silently and ask the Lord to heal them and open their understanding.

And I said, I was waiting. The next, that afternoon after we’d had dinner, I had to take Roger back home. And that little boy looked up at me as I was driving him home. And he said, “I’ll protect you. I know I’m not supposed to tell this.” And I said, “Roger, you don’t tell it until the Lord tells you to share it.” And it was so amazing, the insight that Roger had. Now, this is day three. Day one, I’m driving down the highway, March 17th, and I began to speak. Gave Roger the Bible, and day two, he was reading. Day three, he’s speaking with other tongues.

Day four, he arrives. He’s sitting in his seat, looking at me, and I’m at my desk preparing for the day’s work. I knew he was praying. I could tell. As the students came up to my desk, I laid hands on them silently, and I prayed in my spirit, and I knew Roger was praying. Every child in my class was completely healed of his brain injury. Totally.

How do I know? After Roger… After Roger and I had prayed silently for these children, two weeks went by, and Roger came running in one day to tell me that he had been walking his dog. He had a German shepherd. He was walking his dog down in the woods, but he was shouting in his tongues, praising the Lord. He said he didn’t pray at home aloud, but when he walked his dog out in the woods, he would pray with his language. His neighbors heard him. They asked him what he was saying, and he told everything from beginning to end. And of course, they told his parents. So he comes running in again to tell me that his parents were coming to school. But the two weeks preceding their visit, we’d had quite an exciting time in my classroom. As I read, anything that is bound on earth is bound in heaven, and anything that’s loose on earth is loose in heaven. So I began to bind ignorance and loose intelligence. And I would bind distraction and loose receptivity. I would bind all the negatives and loose positives. I bound schizophrenia and I bound paranoia. I bound a stuttering and I loosed perfect speech. And I loosed whatsoever things are honest and whatsoever things are true and whatsoever things are lovely and whatsoever things are good report.

And if there were virtue in these things or praise, I loosed these things on my class. And the children began to blossom and bloom and learn. Their countenances began to brighten. They began to walk with a steadier gait. They began to read. And I told you I had a battery of people working with me. Seven students and about seven people working with me. So the psychologists decided to test them. First they gave them the Rorschach. Then they gave them the Bender Gestalt. They gave them the California achievement, the Metropolitan achievement, the Gates. They gave my class a battery of tests. The youngsters passed everything with flying colors. All of the profiles that were down at the beginning of school were up. So they began to look at me strangely again. And they came in a committee to talk to me. And they said, “Now, we noticed that your youngsters have made such improvement. Did you use Ginn program?

Or Scott Foresman?” And some of the other many tools we had. I said I closed my mouth because I knew I shouldn’t say that I had prayed for them. Because they’d already thought I was a bit daffy. But they kept asking me. And I said, “I prayed for them.” They looked at me as if I had dropped from Mars.

They said, “We’d like to write this up for the academic journal. Now, Scott Foresman says such and such a thing. And Ginn says such and such a thing. Now, which one did you use?” Well, beloved, you know, I told them that I just went through my usual procedure. And I prayed for them. It’s amazing how the world just will not accept the glories of God. Needless to say, I didn’t get written up in the school journal.

So, two weeks later, after my class had passed with flying colors, they prepared to get them bused back to their districts. And I was to get a new class of seven more students. But before they left, I had to have this meeting with the supervisor, the principal, and Roger’s parents.

Roger came running in and said, “My parents are coming to school today.” I said, “They know.” He said, “Yes.” And he told me all about it. And I was to meet down in the conference room, the long table with me on one side, the principal, the superintendent, Roger’s father and his grandmother, and these people looking at me. And they said, “Now, we know you’re a good teacher. But what is this about this boy thinking he can speak in some other language?” And I said, oh boy. I spoke to his father. I said, “You know the book that I called you and asked permission to give Roger’s?” “Yes, yes.” I said, “He read it. He believed it. And it happened.” “Well, what is this about?” I said, “You know that book that I got permission from you to give Roger?” “Yes.” “He read it. He believed it. And it happened.” “Well, what about his doing such and…” “You know that book? He read it. He believed it. And it happened.” I didn’t tell them that I spoke in other tongues. And I didn’t tell them that I prayed for Roger. And I don’t know what Roger had told them. But I had my answer. And I stuck to it because that was the truth. I gave Roger the Good News for Modern Man.

He read it. He believed it. And it happened. I asked the Lord about this. I said, “Lord, why aren’t these people happy about these children? They were all healed. Why aren’t they pleased?” And He assured me that these kinds of things weren’t discerned that way. And they couldn’t receive it. They were happy that the children could leave that school. They were happy that they were returning to a normal school setting. But they did not want to hear that I had prayed for them. And they did not want to believe that their children were healed by the divine providence of the Lord. This is sad for America, beloved. This is very sad. But this is truth.

I was told by the principal and the superintendent not to pass out any more Bibles in school and to keep my religious ideas to myself. I received another class of youngsters. Seven times worse. Seven more. And the weakness in me at that time and to a pretty great extent now is snakes. These children went out and found a nest of garter snakes. They came into the classroom with the garter snakes to show me. Now, teachers are supposed to be chummies and buddies and brave, but I don’t have anything for an oversized earthworm to do.

And I had to be brave, because perfect love cast out fear. And I had perfect love, and I wasn’t to be afraid of those little garter snakes. They weren’t any longer than this, but you know how children are. They brought those snakes in to show me, and I took a deep breath, and I touched one. It felt kind of silky, you know. It wasn’t so bad. But I said, “Now, children, take these snakes and put them back where you got them from, because they don’t belong in here.” They didn’t do that. Now, I told you how we were isolated from the beginning in that school. We had the playground to ourselves and the lunch room to ourselves. And they went in the hallway and put the snakes in their lockers.

And we went to lunch. Needless to say, while we were in the lunch room, the snakes were crawling down the corridor. I had some exciting experiences. Of course, I was called by the intercom. You know, they knew my class had done it. And somehow, the kids got the snakes, took them back. One of the exciting things about teaching brain-injured children. Now, beloved, the Lord had taught me that in my classroom, where I had oiled down that doorknob and put the sign of the cross on the seats and the windows, I had power in that room. But outside in the hall and other places, I didn’t have all this. But in my classroom, I did. And I, excuse me, I could lay hands on the sick in my room and they recovered. Now, those, the second group of youngsters didn’t respond the same way that the first group did. Roger was the only one that spoke with other tongues. But the other youngsters had revelations. And I share this with you because you are in the kingdom and we’re taking a little taste of the kingdom here this week. I didn’t understand a lot of things in the scriptures. And out of the mouths of those babes came answers to me. One day, Roger began to tell me the story of Peter walking on the water.

The other students began to join in and tell me Bible stories. Joni, my little girl who was legally blind, began to tell me about Cain and Abel. And for some reason, I hadn’t read that too well. And I didn’t understand why the Lord had rejected Cain’s offering. And Joni explained it to me. And she said, And I hadn’t gone back to read that story before that little girl explained it to me. And I had to tell you, I don’t share all of the things that happened with everybody. I got some of it on tape. Some of the things those children said is very precious. That was a unique experience. When that first class was bussed back to their own school district, the year was coming to an end. Teachers began to get pink slips. And I seemed not to be so peculiar and strange. They would sneak into my room, crying, “Ordelphia, I got a pink slip. Would you pray for me? They are trying to fire me.” I said, “You really want me to pray for you?” “No, I’m not supposed to pray at school. Oh, please pray for me.” So, I said, “Now, I’ll pray for you. But you have to give God the glory.” I prayed for several teachers and they did not lose their jobs.

One day we were… The teachers had come into my room at lunchtime, asking me something biblical when the principal walked in the door. He chimed in and joined the conversation on the biblical subject. I didn’t say anything. We had a teachers meeting. And the principal’s mouth opened and said, “We’ve had such good progress. We should thank the Lord.” My antennas went up. When the meeting was over, I went over to him and I said, “I think it’s great that we’ve had such a good statistical report.” I said, “I know a group of men that would be glad to hear all about this report. And I think you should share it.” Now, I had a little means for doing this. I wanted to get this principal over to the Full Gospel breakfast. I led singing for the breakfast. And I knew if I could just get him over there, those men could get him born again. So I talked to them and I said, “You know, my principal has a statistical report about our school. And if you just let him come over here as a speaker to share it, we could pray for him because we need this man saved.” And the men agreed. They knew that he wasn’t born again, but they agreed to let him come to the breakfast and give his statistical report.

I’d never mentioned to the man that I sang or did anything. I just told him that it was in Scarsdale and he thought it was great. Scarsdale has some kind of stigma and some people think it’s great to be going to something in Scarsdale. So this breakfast was held at the Schrafft’s restaurant in Scarsdale. He came that morning and when he walked in the door, a man grabbed him and gave him a hug and said, “Good morning, brother!” I was standing way over in the other side of the room. It was so funny. He made a few steps in the room and another man grabbed him. “Good morning, brother!” And gave him a big hug. Well, before they could get him down to the front, he had about six hugs and six “good morning, brothers.” I usually would stand up on the podium and lead the singing, but I didn’t stand up there that morning. I stood down on the floor in front of the tables and I led the singing. I wouldn’t even look back there. They had him sitting in the middle with the men on each side and I fed him a good breakfast. And then they announced that the principal from my school was going to give the talk. He stood up at the microphone and he said, “You people!”

The tears started coming down his eyes. “You people!” He was crying. “You people have something I want.” And the men gathered around him, laid hands on him and prayed for him and got him born again. Before he left, he was filled with the Spirit.

From that day on, I could go into his office and pray with him in the morning. And we did a lot of things at that school. And when the year was over, they sent me away to another school.

Stop me when it’s time. When I went to this next school, I had been at the school about three years. When one day, I noticed some school buses. This school was a very large school. It had five wings. A, B, C, D, E, and so forth. A wing came from one district. B from another and so on. The youngsters that I had taught at that particular school were going to the regular school in a wing. And I was in the opposite wing. When the buses were getting ready to leave school on this particular afternoon, two youngsters came running over. They were 15 years old then and in junior high. And they spoke to me and told me that they were in the class that had gone back to their districts. And they were in regular class. And, “Don’t you tell anybody that we were ever in that special class.” I said, “Okay.” They said, “Roger’s there.” They ran over and got Roger. Roger looked at me and said, “May we go up to your room and pray?” So we went up to my classroom in this new building and we prayed. He prayed that he could come and have fellowship. He was 12 years old when we separated at the first school and he’s 15 now.

And he said he was going to ask his parents if he could come and spend the weekend with me. This was a Wednesday. And on that Friday, he came with his little bag and permission for… to spend the weekend. And of course, I took him to a Full Gospel breakfast where he could give his own testimony. I had been talking about this little boy. And we had a glorious time. I took him to CFO at Silver Bay where I go to camp and we had a glorious time. Roger had been diagnosed as being able to perhaps complete seventh grade. He graduated from high school. He passed the induction exam and he was in the army. He helped the chaplain, had a prayer group on base, went overseas, returned, and is doing well. I moved from that particular school to a high school. This class moved with me to the high school. They graduated and we didn’t tell anyone that they’d ever been in that special class. Seven children the Lord claimed for His glory. Seven children were unique because the Lord moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform. I sat the other children in those same desk and I prayed for them. But He doesn’t do the same thing the same way. But when I asked Him about this being scriptural, He told me that the morning that Roger ran into my classroom and said, “You look so different today.”

He said, “Peter and John went to pray. And they met this lame man at the beautiful gate there. And they didn’t give him money. They said, ‘Look on us. Look on us.’” And beloved, the Father says, He has planted something in our earthen vessels called His Son, Jesus. Jesus, to those who have embraced Him as Redeemer, Savior, Lord, Healer, Baptizer.

If you have the peculiar enslavement of being bought by a price. I’m not my own. I belong to Jesus. I’m not my own. I belong to Him. Bought with a price. The blood of Jesus. I’m not my own. I’m His. This is the perfect kind of enslavement. To be peculiar, I’ve heard from my sister, who gave me that lovely writing yesterday, that it also means enslavement. I’m enslaved to Jesus. I’ve been bought with a price. I’m worth a lot.

I’m worth a lot because God did not hold His only begotten Son. He did not keep Him in the ivory palaces. He did not say, “This is my only child and I’m not letting go.” But He gave Him up for me and for you. And the kind of purchase that He made with His blood means that we are an exceedingly costly commodity. You and I. You and me. We are expensive, beloved. We are very expensive. We are worth the blood of Jesus. Don’t ever belittle yourself. Don’t ever look down on yourself. Because you are expensive. You cost God all. And in these beautiful earthen vessels that are seated in this special place this evening, because you are ordained of the Father to be here today, He has something special for you this week. He has something exceedingly special for you this evening.

Jesus loves you. He loves your children. He loves special children. He allowed them to be born. He gave birth to these children. We couldn’t do it. And all of the beauty of those of us who are complete in Him, those of us who are altogether lovely, this may come as a shock. What you need, you have got. You are altogether lovely. Praise the Lord. Take a look. And you’ll see what the Lord would have you be. Complete in the beloved. Praise the Lord.

It is the Father’s good pleasure to give us the kingdom, to give us every good and perfect gift. It is not just for the learned. It is not for those who are wealthy, but it’s for whosoever will, beloved. And tonight, we can ask with simple faith, just as my little student believed, “Ask and it shall be given.” We can do that. Some of you perhaps have a brain injured child or relative. At home, maybe. You may have a friend who has a child that needs a special prayer. The Lord is here, beloved. He loves those children. And He knows that some people are unique. And they can receive these bundles of joy and not see them as unfinished children, but a gift from God. Certain people the Lord entrusts these joys to. Now, those of you who have special relatives and friends, I want to just pray for them now. I want you to hold hands. Let’s just touch each other.

And let’s pray for our loved ones. You know their names. You may whisper the names. You may say them aloud. But you can believe that your Father, who breathed into them life and who let that little embryo come into the world, loves them more than you. Father, here we are this evening, in this beautiful place, talking to You on behalf of these lovely children that You’ve allowed in the world.

We know that people look at them as strange. Some of them are rejected. But You love them, everyone. And they are perfect in Your sight. I bind the powers of darkness that have attacked our families in this way, O Lord. And I loose upon each parent an overwhelming desire to love these youngsters and these relatives as they’ve never been loved before. I loose upon them the receiving love that they’ve never known before, that these beautiful children will know that they are loved, that they are wanted, that they are beautiful, that they were ordained to be born because only You give life. And it was Your will for them to come into this world. I speak healing to these bodies, to the gnarled and twisted limbs, to the brains that are imperfect.

May their encoding and decoding be perfect, orderly, and clear. Father, I thank You for healing the gait of those with cerebral palsy. Father, I thank You for touching the spines of those with muscular dystrophy. Dear Lord God, visit those who have stammering tongues. Lord God, straighten those eyes that they might see clearly. Align those bodies. For we are made in Your image. Perfect, Lord. Lord, we bless the patient mothers, the loving fathers, the understanding teachers, those who come to do the patterning, those who speak tenderly, those who are gentle. We bless them, Lord Jesus. And we thank You for these dear ones that You’ve given and entrusted to us. We bless every home that has been visited by a special bundle of joy. And we thank You now as You, by Your redeeming love, Your healing flow, that balm in Gilead, touch and heal. We loose healing in the name of Jesus. We send the word that heals and delivers to the utmost. That our Lord be glorified. For we give Him the glory and we’ll tell of His love. In the name of Jesus. Amen.