6. Resultados
6.2. El Caso de estudio de UPCT-SHOP
I graduated from the Northwestern Bible College in 1938 in Seattle, Washington. I immediately entered the evangelistic ministry, and also served as the President of the Alumni As-sociation of this school for nine years. After a short time on the evangelistic field I pastored three churches in the state of Washington.
It was while pastoring my last church in 1943 that God began to speak to my soul in a greater way than ever before.
I spent hours in prayer and God gave me faith to believe H i m for great revivals with miracles of healing.
I resigned my church, bought a trailer house, secured a cor-respondence school course for our two children and started out believing God for Apostolic revival. I had dedicated my life afresh to God and had promised H i m to pray for the sick in every revival.
In the first campaign I prayed for many hours a day seeking God for a demonstration of His power. I read the book of Acts again and again. M y heart was broken as I compared it with
our churches and evangelism today. I listened to the great men of faith, such as Smith Wigglesworth and Dr. Charles Price, and my soul was stirred and faith inspired. I cried out to God and said, "Why can't we have meetings like that today?" God spoke to my soul and said, "You can if you'll pay the price."
I determined to have God's best regardless of the cost and to let this generation see the power of God.
I announced a healing service for the next night and spent all day fasting and praying. The devil came to me and said,
"Not very many people get healed when you pray for them, do they?" I answered, "No." (No use trying to lie.) Those were days when faith was very low. Very few preached healing or had any faith. I had a lot of hope and a little faith. One man stood and testified like this: "I thank God for His healing power. I had a very bad cold. So I left church early, took a hot bath, drank some hot lemonade, took a couple of aspirins, rubbed myself down good with Vicks, put on a hot mustard plaster and went to bed and trusted God to heal me." (Amaz-ing faith how sweet the sound.)
Yes, those were difficult days to pray for the sick and the devil was trying to discourage me. I rose from my knees and began to talk back to the devil. I said, "Listen devil, I'm pray-ing for the sick tonight. If the first one I pray for falls dead I'll say, 'Next.' If that one dies, I'll go on down the line. If they all die I'll go to another church and start praying for the sick there. I'm going to pray for the sick because God's Word says, if I call He'll answer, if I lay hands on the sick they'll re-cover. M y job is to pray, it's up to God to heal." The devil left me then and a new revelation of the power of God's word flooded my soul.
I prayed for the sick that night and many miracles were wrought by His power. I prayed for the sick then in every meeting and we saw miracles of healing that shook cities and brought great revivals.
W I T H T H E " S W O R D " . . . A F L A M E 21 In Eugene, Oregon, in 1948 I conducted my fourth revival campaign for Pastor Gordon Kampfer. The meeting had a small beginning, but finally grew to tremendous proportions, with people saved and healed and filled every night. Great crowds came for many miles each night. This great revival lasted for 10 weeks.
It was during this meeting that God visited my soul again.
I was praying and reading the Bible one Saturday morning.
I read Mark 13:34, "For the Son of M a n is as a man taking a far journey, who left His house and gave authority to His servants." THIS V E R S E O F S C R I P T U R E S E E M E D T O L E A P O U T O F T H E PAGES O F T H E B I B L E I N T O M Y V E R Y S O U L . Then God spoke to my soul and showed me the
"authority'' He had given to His servants today, and that no sickness, disease or devils could stand before our prayers. He showed me that every demon power was subject to His servants that were filled with His power. I immediately began to pray for the sick with a new found faith. It wasn't a struggle anymore. God had spoken to me through His word and at last I had a living faith for suffering humanity.
A short time prior to this great experience with God, I was in another revival in Washington state. The news came to me that D r . Price and Wigglesworth had both suddenly been called to heaven. I went down in the basement of the church and cried my heart out. I thought of all the sick, twisted, de-formed, broken bodies. A n d then I thought of how few men were praying for the sick and had a compassion for the suffer-ing. I cried until it seemed I couldn't stop. Both of these men had been such a help to me. I cried, "Oh, God why did you take them? The world is filled with sickness and disease. The world needs the faith of Wigglesworth and the preaching of Price, but now they're dead and their message gone."
In brokenhearted despair I lay before God on the cold basement floor. T H E N L I K E A M I G H T Y F L A M E O F F I R E
GOD'S SPIRIT B E G A N T O B U R N W I T H I N M Y SOUL. I knew that I was in the presence of the One that walked into the fiery furnace. I knew that the God that sent fire on Carmel had seen my tears. His Spirit spoke to me and said, "It is true, Price my servant is dead, Wigglesworth my servant is dead.
But the God of Price and Wigglesworth still lives. A n d if you will humble yourself and walk softly before me, I will be with you as I was with them."
God promised miracles of healing and revivals that would shake the world. I leaped to my feet and began to praise G o d for the answer to prayers that had burdened my soul for years.
At that very time G o d began to raise up men all over the country. Men of faith. Men that believed God. Men of prayer.
Men of holy character. Miracles of healing were wrought.
B I B L E D A Y S W E R E H E R E A G A I N .
At this time Rev. Gordon Lindsay invited me to his church in Ashland, Oregon, where he was pastoring. We were there nine weeks and again God moved in a great way. During our stay there, Brother Lindsay told me of the great burden on his heart for bringing the churches together in great Union Cam-paigns and the great revival he believed God was going to send the world. It was during our time in Ashland that he resigned this thriving church and organized the Voice of Healing magazine.
In the providence of God, Bro. Lindsay organized some great Union Healing Campaigns i n the state where I was in meet-ings. I postponed one of my meetings and went to a week of these healing services. I saw the verse of scripture God had burned into my soul, "on our authority over sickness and the devil," put into practice by God's humble servants. I saw what God would do if we dared to believe. I saw miracles that thrilled my soul. Immediately I began holding meetings in large auditoriums and saw God move with signs and wonders I had never seen before. People would come for hundreds of
W I T H T H E " S W O R D " . . . A F L A M E 23 miles every day to the services. Scores were being saved. God's blessing was upon my soul. I was the happiest I ever had been in my entire ministry.
I was sure everyone would be as happy over these great revivals as I was. However I soon found out that this was not the case. Many of my friends began to oppose these great revivals. I knew that if I wasn't careful I would lose the favor of men. I had invitations to nearly all the largest churches in our movement. So to keep popular I compromised the message God had given me. I stopped praying for the sick and even began opposing some of the men in the healing ministry. God's blessing lifted from my soul. The meetings became empty and lifeless. God's anointing had departed. I became discouraged and was planning on quitting the ministry. M y great revivals were over. No healings, very few conversions, no one being filled with the Spirit. M y soul was empty of God's blessing. I still had more invitations for meetings than I could fill, but I wasn't satisfied. There were no results.
God was merciful once again and allowed me to go to an-other great healing revival. There I heard God's Word preached under one of the greatest anointings I had ever felt in all my fife. I saw hundreds answer a single altar call. I saw miracles that stirred my soul. I saw Jesus being exalted and magnified. I cried out to God and asked H i m to forgive me.
/ prayed and cried out to God all night and promised God if He would forgive me and anoint me again I'd preach the gospel of deliverance without compromise or fear of man. I told God I'd follow Him if every church in America closed its doors to me. I promised God I'd preach healing and pray for the sick if I had to do it in the corn fields.
I felt the fire of God once again begin to burn i n my soul.
Immediately hundreds began coming to Christ in our meetings.
Miracles of healing were again wrought. We purchased a large tent and equipment and have seen thousands come to the altar
seeking salvation. We have seen hundreds receive the Holy Ghost. We have seen totally blind eyes instantly opened. We have seen the deaf hear and cancers and tumors die. We have seen dying people leap from stretchers. We have seen the para-lyzed leave wheel chairs. W e have seen the lame leave their crutches and limp no more.
Friends, B I B L E DAYS A R E H E R E A G A I N and as for me and my house " W E W I L L S E R V E T H E L O R D . "
Gkaf>Ur 5
"Tke Grace of God in My Life"
BY W. V. GRANT
JLhere were a few things that I wanted to do before I got saved. I wanted "to get" a certain school teacher who had whipped me unmercifully with a stiff limb. I intended to
"bump off' a guy who had stolen a gun and had given me so much trouble. I intended to kill a neighbor's mule because he had killed our mule; and, of course, there were a few places I wanted to go before I changed my way of living.
I began to pray, but determined that no one should know that I was under conviction until I was saved. I had an im-pression to tell Mama, but I was ashamed. Every time I would start to pray, I would hear someone coming and look up to find no one.
I began to feel that I was the meanest man in all the world.
Among the mean things which came up before me was a picture of myself in the back of churches laughing and making fun. I thought of how I mocked those who had testified. At last I made up my mind to go to the altar, during a large revival campaign of about five thousand people. I knelt down and
began to pray. I can still hear those prayers of the neighbors and kinfolks, as they surrounded me in that sawdust.
As I unloaded, I got to where I could lift one hand at a time and then lift my head before that large crowd. I then unloaded all my sins, and my feet were so light that it seemed I was just touching the floor now and then. I felt as light as a feather, instead of as heavy as a bale of cotton.
JESUS H E A L E D M E
I was prayed for to be healed the night I received the Holy Ghost, but the next morning I could see no difference in my physical condition. As I was praying, in the bottom of a dry branch near the corn patch, I opened Mama's Bible and Exodus 15:26 seemed to leap out above all the rest of the verses, just for me. I did not know that it was in the Bible before. The verse said that if I would obey God, I was healed.
The devil said no one could obey God, but that I would die. I told him it would be a short route to glory. God then sent a peace into my soul which drove out all fear, doubt, worry and unbelief. 7 threw my medicine down. I did not know how, hut I believed that I could go on without it. About two weeks passed before I could tell a great deal of difference; but some-how G o d helped me to live. In two months I had gained twenty-five pounds; in six months forty pounds. U p until then, my stomach had felt as dead as a piece of wood, but now it was alive. I began clearing land for seventy-five cents a ten-hour day.
M y uncle had the same trouble I had had. I wrote him such a long letter that he had to pay extra postage to get it. How-ever, he did not believe me. H e died soon thereafter.
After Jesus healed me, I could plow all day and could walk from four to fourteen miles to and from church each night.
Previously I was not able to stay up until nine o'clock one
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night each week. It seemed that I was now living in a new world among new people.
T H E L O R D W I L L G U I D E
After I was saved and filled with the Spirit, the Lord began teaching me to trust H i m for guidance, even in the little details of life. One night I was riding Old Lidge, a twenty-five-year-old, bare-backed, tough-mouthed, stubborn mule through those mountain roads, which all looked alike, when I lost my way to a cottage prayer meeting. After trying a long time to keep him from going home, I decided to just turn him loose and pray. Old Lidge turned off each road just right and carried me to the door of the prayer-meeting, stopping at the gate. If God can guide a mule, we should not be more stubborn than Old Lidge.
I was determined to pray three times each day as Daniel did, and I prayed for God to let me go through something as Job did, so I could show H i m how I loved H i m by trusting Him. I prayed for hours at a time with my face i n the leaves, pine-straw or the cotton-seed. God saved many of the roughest boys in that country. One lady told me that she did not approve of her boy running with me, after I had helped him get saved and filled with the Spirit. She said she wanted him to make a mark in the world. H e joined the army and was lost in battle after he backslid.
S A W FIRST " H E A L I N G C A M P A I G N "
Sometime after I had been called to the ministry and was pastoring a church, I heard that several of my members and some other neighbors were going to Shreveport, Louisiana, to a "Healer." I will admit that something within me rebelled against the thought. One of them gave me a magazine called
MEN WHO HEARD FROM HEAVEN
"THE VOICE OF HEALING." After I read this I saw no one claimed to be a " H E A L E R . " I changed my mind and told them I believed I would go along with them. I felt impressed of the Lord to carry others who needed healing.
There I saw Brother and Sister Gordon Lindsay and Brother Hall and a girls' trio for my first time. I was amazed as I saw the results that took place i n that "Healing Campaign." It seemed like Bible Days were here again. The only fault I could find was they were doing many times as much as I was. Then when I saw the group who responded to the altar-call my heart cried out, "That is just what the world needs today!"
People were there from far and near. I stepped to the phone and told my wife I would not be home as early as I had planned. But I stayed and observed this, and realized that it was what my heart had always cried out for.
I went back happy because my members received marvelous healings. It would have been so easy for me to get up and preach against " H E A L E R S " the next Sunday morning. But I am so glad I went and found it to be just what I had been try-ing to do, but on a much larger scale. It is better to get a hundred souls saved than one.
From that day the desire to stay there and toil for weeks to get two or three saved left me. I decided that I would stay in my room and pray two hours each morning and two hours each afternoon.
" F A S T I N G A N D P R A Y E R "
U p to that time I had been against long fasts, and I am yet, unless God leads i n that direction. I had never fasted over four days. After getting a preacher to take care of my church, I shut myself up in a room and fasted the number of days that God directed.
On the last day of the fast, the voice of the Lord spoke
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plainly to me. I will not tell you what it said, but you can read it in Mark 16:17-18. It is so real when God speaks a verse direct to you. I would not take a thousand worlds for that experience.
It was something I had been waiting on to happen for seven-teen years as I prayed and waited. It was just what I believed always, even before I was saved. I have had no new revelation.
I did not know exactly all that God had done for me at that time until later. Immediately, I saw people healed of heart trouble, cancer, arthritis, and several things. People were de-livered from whiskey and cigarettes, surprising the neighbors.
The Sunday School went to twice as much as it was when we came there, and people came for miles to be prayed for. Several were delivered from the hospitals.
One night God gave me a vision about my future connection with " T H E V O I C E O F H E A L I N G " Magazine, even giving me the new address which they now have. No one knew about it then, as far as I know.