"No-one was healed. In fact, no-one felt even remotely better…It was a 'psyche' job of hell."

  Jack developed a severe case of pinkeye and I decided to preach the crusade that night. Just as we started, the heavens opened and it began to rain tropics style. It poured. We hustled into a nearby home and between filling the living area and the carport (where people could still see and hear what was going on inside) we gathered about 125 people. I preached the message God had given me, called for converts and then for the sick. I prayed a mass prayer (a small mass to be sure) and no one was healed. In fact, no one felt even remotely better. This event did such a 'psyche' job on me that I did not again minister in a crusade setting for seven years. I know now it was a 'psyche' job of hell to defeat the ministry God was wanting to place in our fellowship.
  Thankfully, and to his glory, God does not simply quit or give up on his purposes. In those seven years I noticed God did bring significant deliverance to people whenever I preached faith sermons. Then in Mexico I had a word of knowledge and some healing occur in a mass prayer during a conference service. Again, I became stirred about healing ministry. Early in 1988 I was to preach in Mexico City. Just prior to leaving Prescott I called for the schedule of services, and to ask what my part would be. I had assumed it would be a conference setting, but learned to my amazement, that I was the featured speaker in a crusade. Rather than shift or change my role in the meetings, I decided to preach the crusade. The first night, after preaching and calling for salvation, we got about 35 people who needed healing into the altar area. I instructed them in the dynamics of the mass prayer. First, lay your hand on the part of your body where you are sick. Second, repeat the prayer of faith in which I lead you. Third, when we finish praying lift your hands and begin to worship and thank God. Fourth and last, as you praise God, check your body and see if you are healed. After instructing them, I led them in a mass prayer and then in praise while those sick checked themselves for evidence of healing. I then asked for testimonies. One man, thrown from a horse twelve years earlier, suffering pain from a head injury, was healed. A severely crippled woman, suffering for five years from painful arthritis in her hands, was healed. There were ten other significant healings. This provided me a great insight. I knew the 'psyche' job seven years earlier was the devil's work. I knew that I had done nothing special. Without question, what I had done was not operate in any special 'gifting', but simply obey the revealed will of God to preach healing in Jesus name. As a result of this crusade, I determined to bring healing into our church in Prescott and to those throughout the United States.
  Back in Prescott I preached and prayed the same way I had in Mexico City. Twelve people were dramatically healed. I then went to a rally in Denver. On the plane while traveling to Denver, I felt God give me a Word of Knowledge that he was going to crossed eyes and a shoulder injury. The rally was attended by about 650 people. After preaching, calling for salvation and then assembling folks in need of healing at the altar, I instructed them in a mass prayer. Lacking boldness and confidence to specifically call for particular diseases as a Word of Knowledge, I mentioned what God had spoken to me on the plane as I instructed the people in prayer. After prayer there were a number of notable miracles. Several deaf ears had been opened, a woman with a crippling and painful arthritis of ten years was healed, and a number of other people with various infirmities were healed. Also, two people with crossed-eyes were healed. One was healed as he stood at the altar and prayed the mass prayer, and the other was healed as he stood in the congregation and prayed. The Word of Knowledge had triggered his faith. The shoulder injury was also healed. It was a man who had been seriously hurt in a sports accident two years earlier. He had recovered, but until that night in Denver the pain had never left. IN that rally I gained another valuable insight to healing ministry. I knew a 'gift' ministry, either in healing or Word of Knowledge, could trigger and enhance people's faith.

"I was eager to share what I had learned with all of our pastors and began doing this…"

  From these experiences, I determined that a portion of our fellowship's energies would be focused in crusades. I was eager to share what I had learned with all of our pastors and began to do this by conducting, with the help of other men, 'Schools of Healing' in conjunction with miracle rallies and crusades. One of our first crusade efforts was in Oceanside, California which is one of the first venues anywhere in the world for attracting large numbers of sinners. This has become an annual outreach for Prescott and many of the southern California churches. We also do an annual crusade in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is a yearly highlight for the Prescott people who spend their weekend outreaching and participating in this great event. For several years there have been outstanding results in Guam. Crusades there have been especially fruitful in producing converts as well as dramatic and exciting healings. Anyone interested in how to organize and promote a crusade could learn much from the Guam congregation.
  Many other cities have hosted crusades with great success. Most of the time, now, we follow-up the crusade with revival meetings in the local churches. The outstanding results in converts adds greatly to my firm conviction that healing ministry is crucial to world evangelism.
 

  The will of God has been a deep shadow…obscuring…blessing with its decrees of sorrow…The will of God is associated with sick room, poverty, loss, bereavement, funerals, the open grave. The will of God, to such [as are schooled in this mindset], is always dressed in black. And this conception of his will gives us sickly Christians, weak faith, empty joy, puny conquests…When we say in prayer, 'Thy will be done,' are we always impressed with its significance? God's will is not. vindictive…His will is a blessed companion, which illumines our way, cheers our spirits, makes glad our lives and brings fruitfulness to all that we do (Pentecostal Theology, p. 372-373).

  This thinking robs evangelism of its most effective and compelling witness. Healings are powerful, authenticating both the message and the messenger of the gospel.
  Occasionally we get news coverage of our crusades and almost without exception the reporters manage to interview everyone not connected to the crusade. A Redlands newspaper published an article which treated healing skeptically following our crusade. They quoted as an authority the daughter of a denominational pastor. She just happened to come to the crusade because she saw a "large crowd" and wanted to know what was happening. Her comment to the reporter reflects the deep-rooted theology of suffering in the religious world. "You can be spiritually healed," she said, "but you can't come in a wheelchair and just prance out of here…If that's all people had to do, there would be no sick people in the world." Advocates of suffering always leap to extraordinary conclusions whenever God's will to heal the sick is proclaimed. She, along with the reporter, apparently missed the entire crusade. Comments like hers are typical. Often people will say something like, "If healing is valid like you say, then why don't you just go into the hospitals and heal everyone?" A variation of the same theme would be, "I have an aunt (uncle, father, etc.) who's sick and in a wheelchair. Why don't you come and heal her?" As the reporter and so-called authority failed to see (and hear explained at the crusade), Jesus' ministry of healing involved several structural or procedural dynamics. Very clearly healing took place in an atmosphere of preaching and proclaiming the 'Kingdom of God.'
  When Jesus commissioned the disciples, he told them to heal the sick in the houses into which they were received, saying to them ""he Kingdom of God has come near you (Luke 10:9)." Of great importance in healing is the issue of faith. Jesus says, "your faith" has made you whole to the woman with the issue of blood, to the leper who returned and gave thanks and to blind Bartimaeus. People came to Jesus for healing and requested it. Even the man at the pool of Bethesda was not healed until Jesus had asked him, "Do you want to be made well?" In fact, as far as we know, He healed only the one in that vast place filled with the infirm. Paul, preaching at Lystra, perceived a lame man who had been listening to him had faith to be healed. Paul then commanded him in a loud voice to stand to his feet (which had never been done) and the man leaped to his feet and walked (Acts 14:8-10). All things are possible to those who believe (Mark 9:23); if we have faith in God anything is possible (Mark 11:22-24); and Jesus makes clear that faith is necessary eve if it is only the size of a mustard seed (Luke 17:6). We pointedly preached in the Redlands' crusade about man's condition before God and laid out God's requirements of repentance and faith. We included God's promises to the believer and how Jesus had paid the price for sin in His atoning sacrifice. Healing was never presented as 'just prance in sick and prance out healed.' The issue today, as always, is one of believing God. God helped only one widow woman, and healed only one leper (Naaman) in the days of the prophet. The issue was not need. It was faith. Having a need has never been enough.
  Many prayers are not prayers of faith. Many will add, "If it be thy will," to the end of their prayer. This is the standard Bible school prayer. This is actually a prayer of unbelief. Taught commonly in Bible Schools the "if" nullifies faith in almost every realm. The Bible clearly teaches the will of God and his commission to heal the sick. Believers are to use this knowledge and move in authority against sickness and disease. Jesus, "called His twelve disciples together and," after giving them power and authority over diseases, "sent them to preach and to heal the sick (Luke 9:1-2), " saying to them, "The kingdom of God has come near to you (Luke 10:9)." To the healed leper Jesus said, " Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well (Luke 17:19)." Once you discover the believer's authority in Christ, it changes how you pray.

"I was eager to share what I had learned with all of our pastors and began doing this…"

  But she wanted to meet with me again. In our second meeting she remembered more connections to the occult, contacts with spiritual healers, and some other issues. We prayed again. She was completely healed and began to attend church-something she had never been able to do. For her, sickness was a spiritual issue, not an organic one and had to be treated as a spiritual issue. I was not surprised to find this family had, like so many others, spent a large amount of money for healing. Their quest had led them into many non-medical areas for relief, to the occult and magical healers. The answer, however, was in Jesus. He alone finally and completely set her free from disease.
  It was not surprising as well to discover her immune system had been affected by non-physical factors. Medical researchers have confirmed in many different ways that chronic 'feelings' of hopelessness or unforgiveness can affect the immune system. Holding, retaining, grasping and nurturing bitterness and resentment releases a hormone which suppresses the activity of the immune system and makes man susceptible to disease. Upwards of 85% of those visiting doctors do so because of guilt and shame. People working with chronic pain sufferers, especially lower back pain, point out that much of the pain is related to stress. Current research is bringing to light many such connections between health and spiritual factors. I am convinced that it is the spiritual issues which are most important in healing.

  Here is what the evangelist explained: Every disease has a life-a germ causes it to grow. That evil life in the germ did not come from God because it kills and destroys human life. It is from Satan. It is that evil life, or spirit of infirmity, that give life to the disease, or growth, just as your spirit gives life to your body.
Just as your body, when the spirit leaves it, dies and returns to the dust, so your disease, when the spirit of infirmity is cast out, dies and disappears.
We all matured from a tiny germ. The life of that germ came from God. The body, living by the germ or spirit of life which God caused to exist, developed until it became a complete human body.
So long as that life, or spirit, remains in the body, the body continues to live. But as soon as the spirit leaves the body, the body is dead; it decays and returns to the dust.
Many human sicknesses and diseases begin from a tiny germ, and evil satanic life, sent to live in and posses the human body and destroy it. As long as that life, the spirit of infirmity, exists in the body, the growth or disease lives and continues its destructive work.
But as soon as the evil spirit, the evil life, or spirit of infirmity has been cast out of the body, in Jesus' name, that disease or growth is dead. It will decay and pass from the body. This is the process of healing (p. 219-220).

  It is my firm conviction that the devil is the author and perpetrator of all disease. Disease had its opportunity in the Fall of Man and exists as incipient death. Prior to the Fall there was neither disease nor death. NO injury, accident or illness was able to strike man until he fell and became vulnerable because of sin. With the Fall came the curse and accident, injury, sickness, weakness and infirmity, all foreshadowing death which came upon all. Physical death is a shadow of spiritual death. All sickness is energized by a spirit of death. Man is a spiritual being. He is not primarily a physical being with a spirit but rather a spiritual being inhabiting a physical body. This is not merely semantics. This thinking will change the way you deal with the sick.
  Oral Roberts was one of the healing ministries that received a good amount of ridicule when I was in Bible school. His story is enlightening. The Washington Times (June 26, 1995, p. 25) reports, "As a teen-ager Mr. Roberts dreamed of being a lawyer and eventually governor of Oklahoma, and it was not until he contracted tuberculosis that he discovered the healing power of faith in a tent revival…As Mr. Roberts tells the story…the Rev. George Moncey, a traveling evangelist, laid his hands on his head and commanded the disease to leave him and he felt his lungs open as a flower. 'I actually yelled, 'I'm healed! I'm healed!' Then I cried [sic], laughed and praised God…'" The actual words of Rev. Moncey, recorded in Oral's own book Expect a Miracle, My Life and Ministry were, "You foul tormenting disease, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazereth, come out of this boy! Loose him and let him go free (p. 33)."
  This is a dramatic testimony. There may or may not be germs, bacteria, parasites and deformity present but the power of disease is spiritual. Its energy, its power to make ill and eventually destroy is spiritual. If that power is destroyed, cast out or neutralized, so is the disease. Jesus can in the same circumstance forgive sin or command healing. Both are as easy and both accomplish the same thing. Once again, all sickness has its roots in the activity of the devil who exploits man's fallen nature and involvement in sin.
God gave man dominion with a condition. Disobedience brought death. A clear connection exists between sin and sickness, which is incipient death. "Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, 'Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die (Gen 2:15-17).'"

  We find the connection again in Moses' account of Miriam's Leprosy.

  "When the cloud departed from above the tabernacle, suddenly Miriam became leprous, as white as snow. Then Aaron turned toward Miriam, and there she was, a leper. So Aaron said to Moses, 'Oh my lord! Please do not lay this sin on us, in which we have done foolishly and in which we have sinned. Please do not let her be as one of his mother's womb!' So Moses cried out to the LORD saying, 'Please heal her, O God, I pray!' Then the LORD said to Moses, 'If her father had but spit in her face, would she not be shamed seven days? Let her be shut out of the camp seven days, and afterward she may received again.' So Miriam was shut out of the camp seven days, and the people did not journey till Miriam was brought in again. (Num 12:10-15)."

  She is shut out from God because of sin, sin manifested in the physical disease of leprosy. God makes this connection over and over, showing that the devil is at the root of disease. "The LORD will make the plague cling to you until He has consumed you from the land which you are going to possess. The LORD will strike you with consumption, with a fever, with inflammation, with severe burning fever, with the sword, with scorching, and with mildew; they shall pursue you until you perish (Deut 28:21-22)." Again, the LORD will strike you with the boils of Egypt, with tumors, with the scab, and with the itch, from witch you cannot be healed. The LORD will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of heart. And you shall grope at noonday, as a blindman gropes in darkness; you shall not prosper in your ways; you shall be only oppressed and plundered continually, and no one shall save you (Deut 28:27-29)." And again, "The LORD will strike you in the knees and on the legs with severe boils which cannot be healed, and from the sole of your foot to the top of your head (Deut 28:35)." And one more time, "then the LORD will bring upon you and your descendants extraordinary plagues; great and prolonged plagues; and serious and prolonged sicknesses. Moreover He will bring back on you all the diseases of Egypt, of which you were afraid, and they shall cling to you. Also every sickness and every plague, which is not written in this Book of the Law, will the LORD bring upon you are destroyed (Deut 28:59-61)."
  Many stress the story about Job but miss the source of disease. "So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD, and struck Job with painful boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head (Job 2:7)." This theme is repeated in Luke 10:10-16. "Now [Jesus] was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bent over and could in no way raise herself up. But when Jesus saw her, He called her to him and said to her, "Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity." And He laid his hands on her and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God … So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound; think of it; for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?" Clearly the source of infirmity was the devil.
Consider the following story in Mark's gospel.

  "And when He came to the disciples, He saw a great multitude around them, and the scribes disputing with them. Immediately, when they saw Him, all the people were greatly amazed, and running to Him, greeted Him. And He asked the scribes, 'what are you discussing with them?' Then one of the crowd answered and said, 'Teacher, I brought You my son, who has a mute spirit. And wherever it seizes him, it throws him down; he foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid. So I spoke to Your disciples, that they should cast it out, but they could not.' He answered him and said, 'O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him to Me.' Then they brought him to Him. And when he saw Him, immediately the spirit convulsed him, and he fell on the ground and wallowed, foaming at the mouth. So He asked his father, 'How long has this been happening to him?' And he said, 'From childhood. And often he has thrown him into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.' Jesus said to him, 'If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.' Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, 'Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!' When Jesus saw that the people came running together, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, 'Deaf and dumb spirit, I command you, come out of him and enter him no more!' Then the spirit cried out, convulsed him greatly, and came out of him. And he became as one dead, so many said, 'He is dead' But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose. And when He had come into the house, His disciples asked him privately, 'Why could we not cast it out?' So He said to them, 'This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting (9:14-29)."

  The source of infirmity is spiritual. The power is from the devil and it seeks to destroy. Jesus deals with the disease as a personality and rebukes it.

  All of these graphic and detailed accounts directly tie sin, man's spiritual nature and the devil to sickness and disease. One of the greatest revelations a young minister can have is to understand that healing is not simply something God does. It is His nature to heal. He gives specific promises of healing through the work of Jesus on Calvary. The Bible promises healing by the prayer of faith and anointing with oil by the elders, by a sound heart, by preaching the gospel, and by laying on of hands. It is imperative that the promises of God be preached to the needy.

  And the LORD will take away from you all sickness, and will afflict you with none of the terrible diseases of Egypt which you have known, but will lay them on all those who hat you (Deut 7:15).

  A sound heart is life to the body, but envy is rottenness to the bones (Prov 14:30).

Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed (Isa 53:4-5).

  And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. 'He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.' So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen (Mark 16:15-20)."

  Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing Psalms. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven (James 5:13-15).

  These specific promises, the commission to "heal the sick," and the nature of God our Healer allow confidence in ministering to the sick.

  The necessary revelation is simply, "God wants me well." One writer put it: "The devil wants you begging; Jesus wants you living. The devil wants you crawling; Jesus wants you walking. The devil wants you whining; Jesus wants you dining. The devil wants you down Jesus wants you up." The enemy is the devil. God is not punishing with sickness. At the root of all sickness is the devil. He gives energy and power to all disease and infirmity. The Bible is God's self-revelation. In its pages we learn how to relate and approach God in obedience to his revealed will and not according to our feelings, moods or human reasoning. The lack of power in many churches is because many are unaware of who God is and how to approach Him. They have lost the revelation of The Lord-Our-Healer and the truth of Jesus' dynamic healing ministry-someone has counted twenty-seven miracles attributed to Jesus in the Scripture as well as ten occasions of general healing in large numbers of people with a wide variety (every kind) of diseases. Jesus, never passive about sickness, treated it as the enemy. There are two primary hindrances to healing. First is ignorance concerning the will of God. Lilian Yeomans said, "I believe that one of the greatest hindrances to healing is the absence of a certain definite knowledge as to God's will. There is lurking in most everyone a feeling that God may not be willing, that we have to persuade Him to heal us." Secondly, we tent to be very passive about disease and infirmity. There is a reluctance to believe and aggressively pursue healing.

  "Aggressive action in the company of faith pleases God, and He anoints it."

  Jesus makes aggressive action a necessary ingredient for kingdom living, saying "…from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force (Matt 11:12)." Likewise in Luke, "The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it (16:16)." Aggressive, or violent, action in the company of faith pleases God and he anoints it. See how "…God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him (Acts 10:38)." Importantly, Jesus heals because he is God 'The Healer.' He does not heal as some special event but because it is his nature.
  The language and context of Isaiah's great messianic prophecy clearly point to Jesus actually carrying our sickness and diseases. In His death, and shed blood, is provision for physical healing as part of salvation. "Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded by our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed (Isa 53:4-5)." Matthew applies this prophecy directly to the healing ministry of Jesus. "They brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying 'He Himself took our infirmities And bore our sicknesses (Matt 8:16-17).'" Peter also uses this scripture, only he applies it to believers. "[Jesus] bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness; by whose stripes you were healed (1 Pet 2:24)." The story of the leper ties the nature of God together with his willingness. Jesus, "moved with compassion, stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, 'I am willing; be cleansed (Mark 1:41).'"
The most significant insight concerning healing comes in the revelation of God as Jehovah-Rapha, The Lord-Our-Healer.

  Most brought Israel from the Red Sea … And they went three days in the wilderness and found no water … when they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters … [and Moses] cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a tree. When he cast it into the waters, the waters were made sweet. There He made a statue and an ordinance for them. And there He tested them, and said, 'If you diligently heed the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the LORD who heals you (Exo 15:22-26).'

  The redemptive name, 'The Lord our Healer,' has been replaced in many churches with a theology of suffering that evades responsibility, trusts in formula prayers, is filled with unbelief and waits doubtfully in inaction. Biblical healing, however, is always actively pursued and the result of dominion over the power of the devil. It is aggressive faith that pleases God. Aggressive faith is possible only through understanding God's will is to heal the sick. God has, "qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us form the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins (Col 1:12-14)."

The Blood
  The blood of Jesus is the token or proof of the covenant God has with man. We have redemption through His blood. This blood is known and recognized throughout the spiritual world. Just as the blood of Abel speaks out of the dust of the earth, Jesus' blood speaks of the final complete victory of Jesus over the powers of hell and the devil. It is proof that man is qualified to receive from God because of Jesus' atoning death on Calvary. This reality was powerfully demonstrated one Easter Sunday. My son, Greg, preached and was using the elements of the Communion Table to stir faith in the congregation. He had begun to minister to the sick and the mother of one of our members came for healing. She had arthritis. When she realized she was healed, she said to Greg, "I have a deaf ear, too." The usual method we used at that time was to demonstrate both their deafness and, after prayer, their healing by having them plug their good ear and repeat things whispered or spoken behind them where they could not see or read the lips of the speaker. We would get just behind them and whisper things like "praise God," "hallelujah," or start counting "one, two, three." If they were able to repeat the phrases we moved back and repeated the procedure. We used to do this before prayer to provide proof of their deafness but I have stopped doing this because in several cases the deaf spirit left (played opossum), and when I tested them, they could already hear. Later, after the service, the deaf spirit would return. Now I demonstrate only their healing. If, after prayer (casting out the deaf spirit), they are able to repeat the phrases it is a great demonstration of their healing. Most times I am able to move several yards behind people and demonstrate their ability to hear clearly out of an ear that moments before had been totally closed.
  That Easter morning as we began to demonstrate her healing, she could at first hear clearly and then she couldn't. Then she could, and then she couldn't, and finally she was unable to hear my whispering behind her. I felt inspired, in desperation perhaps, to whisper, "the blood of Jesus sets me free." The ear instantly 'popped open' and she could hear normally. This was astounding to me as well as to all those watching. Very obviously the blood of Jesus was a key to her healing. Now, after prayer, I frequently demonstrate this demonic response to 'the blood of Jesus.' Often people will hear me say, 'the blood of Jesus,' but be unable to hear anything else. It makes a great demonstration and shows clearly that deafness is a spirit. The spirit of deafness may be stubborn and resist leaving, but demons recognize 'the blood of Jesus' as the final authority, the proof of their defeat nearly 2000 years ago.

Action Is Necessary
  That Sunday I felt inspired to speak the words, "the blood of Jesus sets me free." I had already discovered it was often necessary to pray more than once. That is, to persevere. I will almost always pray three times for people. Done properly, you can press the battle in prayer and not get distracted by the devil's games. In a significant number of cases it is the third prayer that brings healing. Persevering that Easter Sunday morning led to an inspiration or 'word of knowledge' that brought the healing. In other cases perseverance will lead to insight concerning spiritual problems that must be dealt with for healing to occur.
  The recent Redlands crusade's most notable miracle came because someone persevered. A severely crippled man, on crutches, came for prayer. He had been injured in a fall and was in pain. After prayer he was significantly better and said so, but he wasn't totally healed. I asked him, as I often do, to stand to one side and watch while I went on ministering to others. I do this for several reasons. One, as he watched, his faith would grow. Secondly the crowd watching would not perceive a defeat which could prompt unbelief to grow. Third, it must be remembered that the crowd is an important part of the crusade and their interest must be maintained. It is easily lost in long drawn out personal interactions. As this man stepped aside, Larry Monteith, one of our evangelists, began to talk with him and encourage him to act out his faith. Larry got him to move, to test himself for pain, to move some more. Without my further involvement he was totally healed and able to put down his crutches. Larry recognized, as I have for many years, the importance of acting on faith. This miracle, perhaps the most significant of the crusade, did not occur in the 'limelight' but off to the side as someone worked with a man not totally healed but 'touched.' The passive approach to healing in most churches would have left this man 'feeling better' but not healed. The passive 'waiting on God' theology taught in many churches is a substantial hindrance to healing. It teaches that faith is an intellectual exercise.
Faith, indeed, is something you believe. But it is also something you say and something you do. Faith must be demonstrated. Following prayer meeting one morning, one of our pastors, Jim Duran, came to me for prayer. He had severe pain in his back and was unable to straighten up or walk very well. I got one of our evangelists, Harry Hills, to help me and together we prayed for Jim's back. Nothing happened. Jim was still in pain. A lot of pain. Desperate, I said, "Move your back" Jim tried, we prayed again. About the third time Jim tried and we prayed, the pain left and he was completely healed. It was obvious to me, and those watching, that action was a necessary ingredient to Jim's healing. This is true in many, many cases. The old theological cliché, "I'm waiting on God," simply implies unbelief. The man at the pool of Bethesda waited 38 years, and he had not acted on Jesus' command, he would still be there. This 'waiting' mentality is as detrimental to healing as it is to receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
  God has determined that the human will must be involved in faith. The young Oregon girl whose demon of destruction had ruled and ruined her life was delivered the moment she involved her will with the will of God. The devil, a master at deception and exploitation, seizes any opportunity to afflict and dominate human life. He is especially proficient at exploiting trauma. Often people will heal but where the devil has gained an advantage because of bitterness, anger, or unforgiveness, the deformity, loss of feeling, or pain remains. In a Tucson rally I prayed for a young man who had broken his ankle two years earlier. Even though the bones had healed, he still suffered from pain. After prayer he was not healed. Having seen this kind of result many times, I asked him, "Who has really upset you or hurt you?" He replied, "My father." I led him in a simple prayer of forgiveness, casting out hate and pain. I then asked him to put some weight on the ankle and the moment he did the pain left. This is quite common in cases of broken bones and traumas such as knife, bullet and surgical wounds.
  Faith involves more than intellectual assent or a casual "I hope so." It involves confession and speaks in this way.

  Do not say in your heart, 'Who will ascend into heaven?' (that is, to bring Christ down from above) or, Who will descend into the abyss? (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).' But what does it say? 'The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation (Rom 10:6-10).'

  Faith also involves believing action. This is shown repeatedly in the gospels. Those 'not yet healed' were told to 'go' and do something. As they obeyed, they were healed. When Jesus saw the lepers, "He said to them, 'Go, show yourselves to the priests.' And so it was that as they went [not yet healed], they were cleansed (Luke 17:14)."

  Paul treats sin almost as a personality. In Romans 7, he says, "Sin revived [it came alive] and I died." And, "Sin, taking occasion [seizing an opportunity] by the commandment produced all kinds of evil desire." He continues saying sin (an entity) does wickedness in him and another law (power or authority) brings him into captivity (Rom 7:7-8, 17, 23). In Paul's view the devil by sin is able to exploit, gain dominion, manipulate and extend it's power over men.

The Occult And Sin
  Stewart Cameron, now a pastor, suffered one of the worst cases of eczema I've ever seen. Sometimes parts of his skin were so inflamed and cracked it would look like raw flesh. Doctors had been totally ineffective in dealing with his condition. During my second tour of pastoring in Australia, Stewart came to me for counseling. I had begun to understand the impact of family curses and had discovered a relationship between witchcraft and skin conditions such as eczema. While we were talking, Stewart recalled he possessed some medals his grandfather, a mason of high degree, had given him. We prayed and renounced the curse of masonry. Many, perhaps, don't realize that at initiation and then through each degree of masonry literal curses are taken involving the member and his family. Stewart went home, got rid of the medals and recovered from his eczema. This story, however, was far from complete and as it worked out, I gained additional insight into the power of sin.
  Stewart decided to witness to his grandfather. This led to a dramatic confrontation. As Stewart was witnessing, the demeanor of his grandfather suddenly changed. He turned to Stewart and said, "I will never accept the blood of Jesus." His grandfather became so violently agitated that Stewart's parents took it upon themselves to separate, and keep separate, the two of them making sure Stewart and his grandfather were never alone together and allowing no further witnessing by their son. Sometime later this grandfather became ill and was hospitalized. He grew steadily worse and Stewart wanted to see him but he was forbidden to do so. Finally, Stewart, on his lunch hour when no one dreamed he would come, made a visit to his elderly and seriously ill grandfather. Once again he witnessed of the 'blood of Jesus' and won his grandfather to salvation. Quite clearly, secret societies may appear religious but are defiantly opposed to salvation by the blood of Jesus. Equally clear is the reality of curses. Sin somehow has legal access and can exercise dominion by means of occult objects through the generations to other family members. Its power is broken by the 'blood.' Paul writes, "He [God] has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love [Jesus], in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins (Col 1:13-14)."
  In sickness we have an intertwining of the human and spiritual life with the demonic. Jesus made a notable connection between sin and sickness in the story of the paralytic. "They brought to [Jesus] a paralytic lying on a bed. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, 'Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you (Matt 9:1).'" He could be of good cheer because his 'sins' were forgiven. Two factors in this story have bearing on healing. One is the connection with sin. The disciples recognized and knew this because they were raised to think that way. See the story of the man born blind to see this way of thinking. Clearly, Jesus informs them, you cannot always make direct cause and effect statements. Nonetheless sickness is in the world because of sin and some specific illnesses are the result of some specific sins. Disease is energized and given opportunity because of man's nature. This truth is lost on today's generation. The second factor is Jesus has power over both sin and disease. He can forgive and/or heal. This makes the necessary ingredients of a crusade apparent. Men must be brought to a place of repentance or open-heartedness with God. If they repent, turn from their sin and receive forgiveness they are well on their way to being healed. The dynamics of guilt and shame for their sin are rarely incorporated in the modern preacher's therapy oriented message. Instead, people are buoyed up with self-esteem and platitude preaching and are never brought to a place of repentance. It is one of the main failings of modern ministry. The greatest sin in this is that people can leave the crusade not only unhealed but unforgiven.

SIN
  The summer of 1995 we held a crusade in Prescott prior to the Bible Conference. Following the preaching and call for salvation, I asked for the people suffering back pain to come forward for healing. I have a great confidence that Gad will heal from this condition and often call for these cases to help trigger faith in those watching. I prayed for a number of people and for some other conditions and had wonderful results. However, after the meeting was over a woman came saying she had back pain and wanted me to pray for her. I asked her why she hadn't come earlier. She replied, "I was embarrassed to come because I am wearing shorts." Knowing I was dealing with a person of religious background I asked her where she went to church. She told me she attended one of the local charismatic churches and had been doing so for about five years. I asked her to sit in a chair for me while I checked to se if perhaps one of her legs was shorter than the other. Having prayed for hundreds of backs, I was sure she would have a shortened leg, and she did. I led her in a prayer. We renounced hate and bitterness, involvement with magical healers and chiropractors and cast out the pain. Nothing happened. The leg did not 'come out'. The pain did not leave. Absolutely nothing happened. I asked her, "Are you married?" She dropped her head in obvious shame and said, "No." Then she quickly added, "We are planning on it in about a month." Immediately her leg came out and the pain left. This was amazing but not surprising. This woman, who had been attending a Pentecostal church for five years, was living with a man to whom she was not married. Living in sin! This was a clear demonstration of the impact sin has on our physical body and its hindrance to healing Jesus wants to give and has paid for with his blood.

  "Miracle Crusades are not magic shows. They are a confrontation with the powers of darkness…healing involves many details of a person's life."

  The Bible plainly details a number of sins which bring curses (a significant hindrance to the natural growth and vitality of the body) upon men. Miracle crusades are not magic shows. They are a confrontation with the powers of darkness. Thirty-four years of ministry have taught me that human beings are complex creatures and healing involves many details of a person's life, the hidden and secret parts as well as the open and know parts. Only when these are dealt with is healing possible. Some evangelists have gotten themselves in big trouble by advertising healing in a guaranteed way leading people to believe it was an elixir or formula. It is not. People came to Jesus and desired healing, which they received. Jesus is the healer and people must come to Him on his terms. Sin is a powerful dynamic that opposes health and salvation. An exhaustive list of sins and their connection to health is not possible here. But, there is enough Bible evidence to link illegitimacy, incest, idolatry, robbing God's tithe and murder to physical woes in this life.

  Even casual reading of the Old Testament reveals God's great displeasure in sexual sin. "You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination. 'Nor shall you mate with any animal, to defile yourself with it. Nor shall any woman stand before an animal to mate with it. It is perversion (Lev 18:22-23).'" It is also a fraud against the body of another person made in God's image and belonging to Him. I am convinced many involved in perverted behavior such as homosexuality are not healed because they are unwilling to repent. This was demonstrated to me during a crusade in England. A young man, totally deaf in both ears, whom I suspected of being homosexual, came for healing. I tested him and prayed for his ear to open. I then tested his hearing again. I was whispering things like "praise the Lord" and "I'm healed" to no avail. He could not hear. Suddenly I felt inspired to whisper, "Are you a homo?" He immediately got a shocked look on his face, turned to look at me and shook his head. He, like many homosexuals and sexual deviants, in mockery of the gospel, resist the grace of God (healing) because they resist the Spirit of God calling them to repentance.
  Illegitimate birth and abortion have serious spiritual and physical consequences. My experience and medical research bear this out. Many illegitimate children are brought to me suffering from deafness in one ear and respiratory problems (allergies, sinusitis and asthma dominate the list). Many of these also suffer from rejection or fear of being rejected. Most receive instant respiratory relief when that fear is cast out. It might seem the fear of rejection cannot be, in the very young, related to the physical problems. Questioning parents, however, has led me to believe that factors surrounding conception have an impact on the baby's health. In a significant number of cases I found the pregnancy unwanted. Apparently, by a mechanism we don't understand, this spirit of fear is able to exploit the sin (fornication) or rejection of the parents and lay hold on the child's respiratory system.
  Sometimes these illegitimate children are not healed (especially from deafness) until the curse of illegitimacy is renounced and broken by the parents. An eleven-year-old boy, deaf in one ear, was brought forward by his mother for healing in our Phoenix crusade. Experience had shown me several times that children, deaf in one ear, have been conceived out of wedlock, so I asked his mother if that had been the case. She said it had. We prayed, broke the curse of illegitimacy, and cast out the spirit of deafness. The boys ear instantly opened. We were able to demonstrate this miracle for the congregation. His father was watching all of this and was so moved by it that he came to the platform. Weeping as he spoke, he confirmed the miracle. This kind of confirmation is a great help in crusades.
  Abortions are now out of control in this nation and elsewhere in the world where the premium is on having boys. Many Asian nations, for example, routinely abort female fetuses. I know, in spite of what the media says, it does affect the mother and the entire nation's spiritual health. Ministering in Southern California, a woman suffering a powerful demonic manifestation came for healing and deliverance. After talking with for a few minutes I felt inspired to say. "Dear, you've had an abortion, haven't you?" This question brought about a considerable confrontation. I don't recommend this line of questioning except when definitely led by the Holy Spirit. She has since written me a long letter. In it she explained the torment she suffered as a result of that murder. Many women in today's world are similarly affected and this is being brought out more and more in medical research. Abortion is one of the primary sins where demonic activity (pain, sickness, mental breakdown, rage and weakness) occurs on anniversaries of the act. This occurs often nine months, five and ten years later.

Idolatry And Witchcraft
  Idolatry is a curse on any nation and on individuals as well. The sin of idolatry is linked to the generations. "You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaved above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me (Exo 20:4-5)." Repeatedly God's children are told to "tear down the idols." Obedience leads to blessing and disobedience to destruction. Put another way, obedience leads to healing and disobedience opens the way for sickness.
  The scripture specifically deals with objects and ########. Ezekiel warns,

  Thus says the Lord GOD: 'Woe to the women who sew magic charms on their sleeves and make veils for the heads of people of every height to hunt souls! Will you hunt the souls of My people, and keep yourselves alive? And will you profane Me among My people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread, killing people who should not die, and keeping people alive who should not live, by your lying to My people who listen to lies?' Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: 'Behold, I am against you magic charms by which you hunt souls there like birds. I will tear them from your arms, and let the souls go, the souls you hunt like birds (Ezek 13:18-20).'

  Ezekiel says objects are used in the "hunt for souls" which is an enlightening view of false religion, objects and occult power. Idolatry is also corrupting to behavior. "Take careful heed to yourselves, for you saw no form when the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, 'lest you act corruptly and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of any figure: the likeness of male or female (Deut 4:15-16).'" The idolatry of Horeb was immediately followed by moral corruption. After Gideon's victorious battle he was asked to rule over Israel, and he refused. He did, however, collect the gold earrings from the plunder which he made into an idol and immediately "all Israel played the harlot (Jdg 8:27)." Needless to say idolatry is in direct conflict with the work of the Holy Spirit.
  The story of Asa whose anger at God provoked him to jail the prophet of God illustrates clearly the relationship of witchcraft, sickness and healing. "And in the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa became diseased in his feet, and his malady was severe; yet in his disease he did not seek the LORD, but the physicians [magical healers]. So Asa rested with his fathers; he died in the forty-first year of his reign (2 Chr 16:12-13)." The Bible links his trust in foreign nations and foreign gods to him sickness. In the case of Jehoram the idolatry of his father Ahab, his own idolatry, and murdering his own brothers resulted in his entire household being smitten with disease.

  "And a letter came to him from Elijah the prophet, saying, Thus says the LORD God of your father David: Because you have not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat your father, or in the ways of Asa king of Judah, but have walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and have not made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to play the harlot like the harlotry of the house of Ahab, and also have killed your brothers, those of your father's household, who were better than yourself, behold, the LORD will strike your people with a serious affliction; your children, your wives, and all your possessions; and you will become very sick with a disease of your intestines, until your intestines come out by reason of the sickness, day by day … Then it happened in the course of time, after the end of two years, that his intestines came out because of his sickness; so he died in severe pain. And his people made no burning for him, like the burning for his fathers. He was thirty-two years old when he became king. He reigned in Jerusalem eight years and, to no one's sorrow, departed. However they buried him in the city of David, but not in the tombs of the kings (2 Chr 21:12-15, 19-20)."

  He died after two years of sickness and the Bible adds, "to no-one's sorrow."

Objects
  In dealing with believers in many nations over the years I have found many that incorporate ######## and religious objects ignorantly into their faith. They do so to their great hurt and hindrance in receiving from God. I recall two cases that crystallized my thinking on idolatry. The father of one of our members was visiting our church one Sunday and came forward for prayer. He had been born again seven years earlier and attended faithfully a Pentecostal church in another city. He was deaf in one ear. He was not healed or helped initially, and I noticed a chain and a medal that was on his neck. It was a Catholic medal with a cross on one side and the inscription, "I'm a Catholic, Call a Priest," on the other. Now here was a born again believer ignorantly wearing a piece of jewelry that has occult significance. He told me it held no meaning for him at all. He took it off and the ear was instantly opened. This happens in nearly every crusade. It cannot be coincidence that when the medal, talisman, scapular, or religiously blessed (actually cursed) object is removed, the sickness leaves.
  The other case occurred in the Philippines where we have one of our finest churches in Davao. Several of our pastors were doing a Bible conference and I was preaching a crusade night. It was during the crusade that I saw an astounding healing from blindness. We had use of the downtown plaza each evening and had been having outstanding conversions and healings. On the final night the government usurped our use of the plaza and we were forced into a gymnasium some distance away. This severely cut down our crusade crowd. Especially the number of visitors. I was not excited at our prospects as the service began because crowd size and visitors are important dynamics in crusades. They are not like church services. After preaching, I decided to pray for people individually because we had a relatively small number of non-church people present. While I was ministering, a seventy-six year old woman was led to the platform by the younger members of her family. As she waited she was apparently listening while I ministered to others. As her turn approached, I dealt with a man who was wearing several Catholic objects. I had begun to mock these things from time to time and make a show of their ineffectiveness. The man, or I threw these objects down and he was healed. This elderly lady had heard all this but had seen nothing because she was totally blind. After a fruitless prayer I asked her about any objects she might have on her. Without any hesitation she reached into the blouse of her dress and pulled out a packet that had been sewn into the lining. It was a talisman and contained only God knows what. Now prayer had instant results. She could see! It was a glorious and outstanding miracle. It more than made up for the disillusionment I had at the beginning of the service. This seventy-six year old woman, healed, led her family down the steps from the platform, out of the gymnasium, onto the sidewalk and down the street on their way home. I was so inspired over this miracle that in my motel in Manila a few days later, I put together a new sermon dealing with idols using the story of Gideon tearing down the altar of Baal. I did this for the express intent of getting Malaysians, those in my next crusade in Kuala Lumpur, to throw down their talismans and be healed by Jesus Christ.
  Let me say once again, these objects have spiritual significance. The majority of the world wears them because they live in fear of evil spirits and view these idols as protection rather than what they are in truth, a curse. Many, many people in America wear them in ignorance. In California I dealt with a man in much pain wearing a body brace because of a serious back injury. He was wearing a string of beads about his neck. He told me he had gotten them in India. To him they had no significance. What they were in fact was a talisman, blessed by some heathen priest for warding off evil spirits. He removed the beads and was instantly healed, confirming in front of hundreds the curse of evil spirits connected to religious objects. It is not a wonder that God hates idolatry.

Magical Healing
  My thinking regarding magical healers, and chiropractors in particular, was triggered one day when I was working with a young minister, trying to get him experience in healing ministry. We were working with a teenage girl brought to us by her mother for lower back pain. As I already observed, people with lower back pain often have one leg that is shorter than the other, and this girl was no exception. He was praying and not having any success, so I asked, "Let me pray for her?" and he, gladly, allowed me to step in. The girl was seated and I began to check for a shortened leg. While I was doing this I asked the mother if her daughter had been to a doctor or received any treatments for her back and condition. She replied, "She's been treated by a chiropractor." I was holding the girl's heels, and looking at the noticeable difference in the lengths of her legs, and the moment her mother spoke those words the leg 'came out.' The girl was healed, as she demonstrated by moving her back without pain. This type of reaction is the same for people involved or treated by witchcraft, witch-doctors, Indian religion and reflexologists, leading me to conclude that chiropractory is also a magical healing art.
  It is necessary to see this clearly, because chiropractic 'medicine' has undergone a massive media makeover in recent years. Many people, disaffected by the medical profession and because of its non-invasive approach to healing, seek chiropractors as part of a 'holistic' approach to health. An approach our 'quick-fix' and 'have it your way' generation finds appealing. Moreover, the American legal system has quashed decades of the American Medical Association'' resistance to chiropractory as unscientific and non-medical making it possible for chiropractors to be listed as primary care providers in hospitals. No longer are they viewed as magical healers but as legitimate medical doctors. There are well over 30,000 'licensed' chiropractors in the United States alone where over 163 million visits are made to their offices each year.
  In spite of the massive media campaign to the contrary, chiropractory and its related healing arts (reflexology, neturopathy and homeopathy, in particular, and great variety of occult practices which hide under the chiropractic banner) are neither scientific nor Christian. Its roots are in occultic religion (chiropraxy) practiced by the ancient Egyptians, Hindus, Chinese and Greek societies, the flow of chi and acupuncture (based on meridian points which correspond to the ying and yang of eastern religion and the flow of good and bad 'energy'), and the knowledge of the 'Innate' which is a 'fellow within' or guide like personality associated with occult power. All who are trained as chiropractors pick up this spirit, the Infounder, David Palmer, was himself a confessed practitioner in occult religion and passed, or transmitted, his 'psychic powers' to his son. Ankerberg and Welddon (Can You Trust Your Doctor, 1991) quote from the well-known chiropractor and developer of 'Touch for Health,' John F. Thie.

  The modern 'Chiropractor believes that the innate nature that runs through the body is connected to universal [cosmic] intelligence that runs through the world [i.e. 'God'], so each person is plugged into the universal intelligence through the nervous system (p. 207).

  They quote Palmer's son.

  Occult power really exists and is the most forceful end result bringing things into the world. Everyone may absorb as much of it [occult power] as he will from divine energy. All nature shows that it is to be used for securing the needed things of life. One must learn to absorb and use it as surely as one must learn to draw if one would paint or to use one's legs if one would skate (p. 211).

Continuing, they comment on the 'Innate'.

  The Palmer's call this psychic energy that is used in the occult by a specific term, 'Innate.' Innate was a mysterious, divine life force within all men that flowed from the brain through the nerves to the organs of the body … all manifestations of occult or psychic power fall within the domain of manifestations of the innate…
  The most recent study of chiropractors done by the prestigious Consumers Union, publishers of Consumer Reports, comments
  But chiropractic is not just a set of techniques for manipulating the spine; it is a belief system that credits the spine with a major role in health and disease … the problems we identified two decades ago still exist (June 1994).

  Chiropractors who are trained in the 'Innate,' pick up this spirit in their training and pass it along to those they treat. Treatment by a chiropractor is not a simple adjustment or subluxation but an impartation of occult power. Many times people will not be healed of a wide variety of maladies until this involvement in the occult is renounced and their faith focused on Jesus Christ. Chiropractors use magical arts that are not new, not scientific, and not Christian to treat people who often end up being their lifetime patients, constantly needing an adjustment. Although massive amounts of money and publicity have been invested by chiropractors to change the public's perception, I remain convinced that there is simply no difference between them and any other magical healer.

At Marah
  Bible interpretation is governed by specific rules. One of these, the 'law of first mention' says the initial mention of a theme, symbol or revelation in the Bible is of primary importance in determining its meaning or usage. It is therefore significant that God reveals Himself as Jehova-Rapha at the biter waters of Marah (Exo 15:22-26). Early in Israel's exodus they come to have a bitter experience. I have long understood, and medical science is confirming this on nearly a daily basis, that emotions, especially bitterness, hate and unforgiveness, play an important role in sickness and disease. Torment, physical and emotional, is related to unforgiveness. Jesus says concerning the unforgiving servant, "His master was angry, and delivered him to the tormentors until he should pay all that was due to him. So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses (Matt 18:33-35)."
  In Hebrews bitterness, resentment and strife are linked to feebleness and lameness. We are encouraged to, "Strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed. Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled (Heb 12:12-15)." This spirit of bitterness is able to infect or poison other people. It is attributed to Esau, a profane man who was ungrateful for God's providence in his life. The profane or carnal man is often ungrateful and bitter over life expressing it in slander, evil speaking and lies which poison his life and others, and open an avenue for demonic activity.
  James writes about words and says, "The tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles!" And, "No man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison." And then concerning bitterness he adds, "If you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, and demonic (James 3:5, 8, 14-15)." Anger is another strong emotion which allows a beachhead for demonic activity. Paul writes to the Ephesians warning them to, "Be angry and do not sin: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil (Eph 4:26-27)." When these hateful emotions rule in life, the door is opened for emotional and physical infirmity.

Emotions And Infirmity
  For many people their healing revolves around emotional issues. The vast majority of women with scoliosis have been sexually molested as children or young girls. Renouncing bitterness and unforgiveness brings dramatic healing in most of these cases. Many female disorders are closely related to emotions associated with unforgiveness, bitterness and resentment?

  My firm conviction is that healing provides confirmation of the gospel message and messenger. This generation, mirroring that of the First Century, is immune to philosophy and platitude. It demands reality. For many years we have preached a 'changed life' as the valid proof of salvation. Healing validates the gospel. Jesus healed in His generation as a sign of His authority. If we don't believe Him, Jesus says, "believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him (John 10:38)." In most of the world demonic activity is in evidence everyday and as occult, experiential religion gains credibility the demonstration of God's power becomes more significant. We must have a tangible reality of the power of God.

Evangelism
  Healing from disease, fear and oppression comes in the practical demonstration of faith in the reality of Jesus' authority that is both judicial (legal) and powerful (mighty). It does not come merely in intellectual understanding. Without the power of God being a reality in lives, there will be no whole-hearted loyalty to Christ or him kingdom. The impact healing has on evangelism was one reason I was eager to share my Mexico City experience with the fellowship. I saw very clearly how healing moved the people watching as well as those healed to faith in God. I knew it would do the same everywhere.
  Very clearly God intended to work with and confirm the gospel and his ministers by a supernatural demonstration of power over sickness and disease. He intended that the devil would be clearly portrayed as the root of all affliction. By healing He would show his dominion. The experience of the New Testament church was that God confirmed their ministry with accompanying signs. Mark concludes his gospel with, "they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs (Mark 16:20)." Jesus aggressively confronted the demonic in his ministry because God was with Him and God was in partnership with the New Testament church in evangelism. Luke writes how God, "anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him (Acts 10:38)." John plainly describes Jesus' conflict with the devil. "He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8)." The healings of Jesus in Luke chapter 5 dramatically make the connection between healing and the 'presence' of the Lord. "Now it happened on a certain day, as He was teaching, that there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by, who had come out of every town of Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was present to heal them (Luke 5:17)." Healing is not the work of the devil but the result of the presence of the Lord, our healer, to heal. The same is true on our ministry as we aggressively confront the devil.
  Religious onlookers (Pharisees and teachers of the law in Luke 5) always present a special problem for the ministry of healing. The confrontation with religion can result in an acute crisis, as the apostles found out. Threatened and beaten, they were thrown into prison (tantamount to a death sentence) after healing the lame man. This confrontation was provoked by the dramatic evidence of power to heal in Jesus' name. After being released from prison they gathered for prayer and said,

  'Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word, by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus.' And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all they filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness. Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul; neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common. And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all (Acts 4:29-33).

  Healing was plainly part of the apostle's ministry. Equally clear from the scripture is the fact that the disciples did not intend to lay healing aside. They prayed for it. The result was an even greater release of power, grace and boldness in evangelism.
  The writer of Hebrews understood healing was a confirmation if the witness if Jesus Christ. The gospel is confirmed by three things. Jesus brought it, the apostles saw it and the Holy Spirit validates it with signs. Look at the scripture. "How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him [the apostles], God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will?" Miracle healing is the will of God. Healing does not usurp or seize from God his initiative or volition. It is not presumption. Healing is already the will of God and He does not have to be appeased, persuaded or prevailed upon because it is His nature to heal. He is Jehovah-Rapha.

Demonstration
  Demonstration is part of God's plan. God allows men to test him in the tithe, that is, men can for some reason put God on the spot concerning His tithe. "Test me," He says, "see if I am able" to provide, and God, of course is able. It has also been my experience that God is pleased to demonstrate the spiritual nature and his power over disease. Years ago I was with Harry Hills in Bullhead City conducting a 'School of Healing.' As we prayed for the sick, we had little success dealing with lower back pain when we simply prayed. If, however, we sat these people in a chair and demonstrated their legs were unequal in length and then prayed we had outstanding results. This kind of demonstration became especially effective stirring faith in a congregation. I now will take time early in a crusade to sit people with back pain down and call for new converts and skeptics to come and watch as the short leg 'comes out.' It is then easy to have these people stand and demonstrate their healing by bending or twisting their backs. It is especially wonderful when people watching see this dramatic demonstration of God's power. The healing is confirmed, not by the leg growing out, but by the recovery from pain and disability.
  By praying for back pain this way, we clearly demonstrate the spiritual nature of man and disease. Bones are 'solid.' Yet something happens and the bones are changed after prayer is made over bitterness, anger, witchcraft or some other spiritual issue. Dealing with back pain this way has become such a tool that I rarely hold people's legs to show people the difference in lengths for very long because I know that they'll be healed before I can gather new converts and skeptics to watch. In Anchorage, Alaska, a man with a pronounced limp and serious back pain came for healing. He had broken his leg and it had healed nearly an inch and a half shorter than his other leg. Walking caused him the pain. I asked him to sit down in a chair. I knelt down and lifted his heels off the ground to check his legs. I couldn't help but marvel at the difference in length. Suddenly his short leg simply 'grew out.' He was healed before I even had a chance to pray! Nonetheless, with a high degree of success, many different back and leg conditions can be demonstrably healed using this method in prayer.
  Falling out or being 'slain in the Spirit' may occasionally have a spiritual benefit. In praying for the sick, however, I would rather they not fall down. Generally I will hold people by the hand, lay my hand on their shoulder or perhaps even behind their back or neck if I suspect they might fall. If they do fall, I want them to be helped up as soon as possible. Too often the devil is out to 'psyche' or 'con' people into believing that all the work is done. Often the devil simply plays 'opossum' until he gets people away from the crusade. Then he manifests anew and convinces them they can never be free. It is diversion the devil wishes to employ and confrontation he wishes to avoid. It is best to continue working with people until the issues have been satisfactorily resolved and you are satisfied a genuine healing or deliverance has taken place. It is not to anyone's advantage to fall, get up thinking they are healed, and leave the meeting without the necessary repentance, faith and demonstration of healing. The devil must be confronted and dominion gained. Sometimes not everyone is healed. The dynamic involved is faith. In these cases understand that we are called to "heal the sick, cast out demons and preach the Kingdom of God." We are not called to explain everything. God is present and He rules.

Other Gods
  A charismatic couple had attended our church in Prescott for awhile when one day the wife called me about strange manifestations in their home. I asked, "Like what?" She replied that they had a cuckoo clock and occasionally the cuckoo would come out and cuckoo. That seemed pretty normal to me. She said, "It doesn't have any works." Immediately I agreed that it was strange. I visited their home and discovered a number of jade statues which they said were worth about $3500. I suggested they break them up. They did and the cuckoo stopped its cuckoo. Objects have always been associated with the occult and demonic. A talisman, from the Greek work for consecration, are consecrated for religious use and used to ward off evil spirits. In Greek culture they were used in initiations to the mystery religions. Often they are carried on a person but they can also be household decorations or pictures. Often crystals, jade or other stones carved into statues, many traditional crafts and engravings or carvings from many countries are prayed over (consecrated) by spiritualists or priests. They are invested with spiritual power in direct opposition to God's command. Many times these are purchased for the express intent of protecting the home from evil. Often believers receive these objects as gifts. Unaware of their spiritual nature and personality, they bring them into their homes or wear them.

  "False Gods … here is another arena in which I have found God is pleased to demonstrate His authority."