Hi all,
Last week I shared from my heart about our lives dealing with what we believed of the Lord in Word of Faith (WOF) versus the reality of our handicapped son.
I shared how I fasted for 15 days water only, but in my spirit there was no life there, no witness in my spirit about doing so. I ended the fast once I made that honest assessment there was no life in what I was doing.
I realized the Word and Spirit are always in agreement. No matter what the verse says, it is the Spirit that gives life. (John 6: 63) If the Holy Spirit isn’t involved when I speak a verse, nothing will happen.
So this is why the title of this 4-part teaching is ‘The Holy Spirit does it all.’
When Jesus was casting out a demon in Matthew 12: 22-32, the religious leaders said He did it by the power of the devil.
Jesus responded that wasn’t even logical, for if demons cast out demons, Satan’s kingdom will fall. Then He said: “But if I cast them out by the Spirit of God, the kingdom of God has come to you.”
Jesus is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. (Hebrews 13:8) He, the Son of God, cast demons out by the Holy Spirit. Let that sink in. We are Him in this earth. His body. What He did then He does now, through us.
IF we think God wants to do something just because we know a verse that applies, BUT the Holy Spirit is not involved, then nothing will happen.
For example
A pastor I knew received the diagnosis of thyroid cancer in about 1989, but was Word of Faith (WOF) and chose to call it an infection. He refused to have it treated. Thyroid cancer is slow growing and only fatal if left untreated for years.
I knew nothing of his diagnosis in 1999 when the Lord told me he has cancer, and that he needs to deal with it or it will kill him. I gave that word and was soundly rebuked, told I was thinking of it wrong, that it was just an infection. I left certain what the Lord had told me, but shocked I was rejected.
About 8 years later he realized he was losing the battle, and began seeking treatment. In the last months of his life he let his congregation know he had cancer. The whole church began praying, some fasting, for his healing. When he died weeks later, many were in shock, questioning all they had believed – they spoke the Word, they proclaimed the Word, but he died.
It wasn’t until after his death that his wife shared he had been diagnosed those many years earlier. You see, he did it to himself by not doing what was within his authority to do. There was no miracle healing for him as a result. The sin of presumption is thinking that something is God’s responsibility, when in fact it is our responsibility. You can speak the Word, command, declare all you want, but if you are in presumption, the Holy Spirit isn’t in all your efforts – there will be no life to them.
Thousands of people were ‘speaking the Word over him’, but the Spirit was not present. Jesus the Word, and the Spirit, were not in agreement to heal him because he ignored common sense and refused to do what was within his power to do.
Deaf girl, Fedra
I was in Saltillo, Mexico for about a week of meetings, helping a missionary our church supported. Two women came to the ministry house to ask if I would come and ‘pray over’ a 7 year old girl who was born deaf, and had never spoken. I excused myself while the missionary and his wife and the women continued to visit.
Back in my room, I told the Father I wasn’t going to go unless He would heal or deliver her, whatever was needed. For it did no good to proclaim the Word if the Spirit wasn’t going to do the deliverance from a deaf and dumb spirit, or heal her – whichever was needed, I didn’t know. Immediately He said: “Go, for I will heal her.”
I came back to them and told them I would go. In the morning the 11 Americans in our group, plus the missionary and the two women, drove to the little village where the girl lived, and then into her home. Her parents and family spoke no English, the 11 of us spoke very little Spanish.
They set the very scared little girl in a chair facing all of we Americans, with her family lined up behind her. We were roughly a dozen people on each side standing, facing one another in an uncomfortable silence, while this little girl sat in the chair, staring with saucer sized eyes at what was going on.
Finally, the missionary explained to the family what was going to happen as I explained what I was going to do, and the parents made gestures and stood next to their daughter giving her assuring pats on her shoulders.
I stepped forward, put my fingertips in her ears saying, “I command the deaf and dumb spirit to leave, and little girl, I say you, be healed in the name of Jesus.” (I didn’t know if a spirit was involved, I had no leading, no discernment, no idea at all – I knew the Father said He would heal her, but at that point in 1988, I wanted to cover every possibility, so ‘when in doubt, cast it out’. But I think it was a healing.
I had the scripture of course ‘by His stripes we were healed’. And I had scripture that said we have authority to use the name of Jesus to lay hands on the sick. But it was the Father – by the Spirit – who said “Go, for I will heal her.” I had the Word AND the Spirit in agreement, so she was healed.
At first she started looking around the room with a startled look in her eyes, then one with us, a nurse, noticed her eyes were following whoever was talking….suddenly she realized what had happened and she jumped up and started jumping and making noises, not speech, but noises of extreme joy for the first time in her life…
She literally jumped into my arms and pointed to outside….we went and stood just outside her door, and a bird was in the tree overhead, chirping. She smiled this huge smile and look straight up and pointed to the bird. Soon more than a dozen children came running and she scrambled to have me set her down.
In the excited circle of children they began calling out her name: “Fedra” and she would turn and point to which child said that. After a few seconds of this game, she turned and saw one of the mini-vans we had come in, and pushed her way through the kids, running to the van. She pounded on the door and someone opened it for her. She scrambled into the driver’s seat and started pounding on the steering wheel, finally hitting the horn, which caused her to jump back in astonishment. It occurred to us she had seen people drive into the village pounding their horns, but she had never until that moment understood why they did that –
The Word and Spirit MUST be in agreement.
Today, many people have been taught it is the Word that is the power. Just declare, just speak over a person or situation; they’ve been taught there is power in that. What Jesus made clear, is that He the Word, works via the Holy Spirit.
We will pick it up there next week, until then, blessings,
John Fenn
