The Bible and Life

Tuesday, September 1, 2026

The Anointing To Teach

Hello everyone. Praise the Lord!

THE ANOINTING TO TEACH.

Even though I wasn't a teacher to begin with, I always had the greatest respect for the Word of God, and always was very studious. I spent hours studying and reading, digging things out for myself in my early years as a pastor, but I didn't teach those things. I had no unction or leading to teach.

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I did teach a Bible class in the church, however. That's the custom in most Pentecostal churches. Sometimes Full Gospel, Pentecostal people criticize denominational people for formality and ritualism, yet Pentecostals are bound with customs! They'll fight for their customs. All these things are bad.

I received the baptism of the Holy Spirit and spoke in other tongues in 1937, and in 1939, as I say humorously, I received "the left foot of fellowship" from among the Baptists and came over among the Pentecostals. My wife and I accepted the pastorate of a little Pentecostal church in North Texas.

The people said, "It's a custom that the pastor teach the men's Bible class and the pastor's wife teach the older ladies' Bible class."

"Well," I replied, "I just changed the custom." I hadn't been around Pentecostals too long at that stage, and I thought they were all sprouting wings. I found out later those were just their shoulder blades sticking out. They weren't about to grow any wings.

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And I found out if you start changing their customs, you're in for it. So I had to maneuver and speak softly, but finally I got it over to them that my wife didn't teach. They said, "Well, we'll

tell you what we'll do. We'll just combine the older men and the older ladies and have an auditorium class, and you teach it."

I'd rather have done almost anything else, but I taught it. never was so glad of anything in my life as I was when that class was over each Sunday morning. I'd lay that teacher's quarterly down and say, "Whew, now I can relax for another week."

I so detested teaching that I wouldn't look at the Sunday School quarterly for the whole week. Sometimes I didn't pick it up to study it until just before the class started the next Sunday morning!

I could get by with that because I had developed a unique ability—after I was born again—of being able to read something once and never forget it. I didn't have that talent before I got born again. But afterwards I could read a chapter in my high school history book once and recite it word for word for the teacher. It was because I learned to walk in the life of God.

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Doing that will increase your mentality. I could hardly remember anything before. So I could read the teacher's lesson once from the quarterly and rattle it off. Then I'd say, "I'm glad that's over! Now I can get back to preaching!" And I'd preach up a storm, going like an air hammer, waving my arms like a windmill. (I thought it wasn't preaching unless you did that.) I was a preacher, and I loved it.

I'd have rather preached than eaten. I preached for nine years. All I had was the evangelistic message. I never preached anything else. I didn't have anything else! But I remember one Thursday afternoon at 3 o'clock. (The year was 1943. I had been preaching since 1934.),

I'd been lying down. I walked across the parsonage living room and into the kitchen for a drink of water. As I was coming back across the living room, right in the middle of the room, something dropped down on me and inside me. It just clicked down on the inside of me like a coin drops inside a pay phone. I stopped dead still. I knew what it was. It was a teaching gift. The anointing to teach had dropped inside me. I said, "Now I can teach."

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If I get any gift from God, I prove it out first, and I would encourage you to do the same. Prove what you've got from God,and then you can talk about it. But if it's never proved, proclaiming it won't make it so. I never said a word about having the anointing to teach.

We had a little prayer group of seven or eight women who met Wednesday afternoons from 2 to 4 at the church. People would turn in requests and they would pray over the requests

and pray about the church and the services for a few hours. My wife always met with them, and I usually met with them.

We trained this little group to pray. They became expert prayer warriors. If you didn't want something, you'd better not turn in a prayer request to them, because they'd get it for you!

I suggested to them that we have a Bible lesson for an hour before our prayer time, but I didn't invite anybody else to come.

It wasn't an announced meeting. I started teaching those seven or eight women, and the anointing would come on me. I hadn't known you could stand in one spot and just teach the Word and get that strongly anointed to teach. I thought you were supposed to be hollering at the top of your voice, waving your arms like a windmill, and "spitting cotton," as in preaching.

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But just standing there with a handful, teaching them the Word, the anointing would come on me so strongly I couldn't stand it. I'd have to say, "Lord, turn it off—I can't stand it anymore!"

You talk about getting blessed! It was like getting hold of electric current. That anointing and the Word flowed out to the women. They went home and told their husbands and others.

Still we never announced the Wednesday afternoon Bible study. Nobody was invited to come.

But people started coming Wednesday afternoons in spite of the fact that we had regular Wednesday night services, too. The women's husbands would take off from work to get in on that afternoon service. It wasn't long until we filled the building. We had a bigger crowd Wednesday afternoon than we did Wednesday night!

I proved my teaching gift. It worked. I started out by faith and kept going, and the building filled up in the afternoon. That proved the gift, didn't it? I began to do more and more teaching as a pastor until the ratio was probably about half teaching and half preaching. Now I seldom get the anointing to preach anymore. Thank God for that teaching anointing! It's a little different, but it's still the same Spirit who anoints you for whatever He calls you to do.

- KENNETH E. HAGIN ( understanding the Anointing)

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Hospice Care and Dying

The Trucking Tango

Friday, August 28, 2026

Once Saved Always Saved

Hello everyone. Praise the Lord!

“Once Saved, Always Saved” — The Most Dangerous Lie in the Church?

Isaiah 50:10-11.

There’s a doctrine floating around that has lulled countless people into spiritual sleep… it’s the idea of “Once Saved, Always Saved.”

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It sounds comforting, doesn’t it?

The thought that no matter what you do after salvation, your eternity is locked in… no matter if you walk away from God, live in rebellion, or trample grace underfoot.

But let’s be clear: that is NOT in the Bible.

In fact, the Bible teaches the opposite.

Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9:27, “But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.”

Why would Paul—an Apostle who wrote most of the New Testament—fear being a “castaway” if salvation was unconditionally guaranteed?

The writer of Hebrews warns in Hebrews 6:4-6 that it is possible to “fall away” after having received the heavenly gift. Peter warns in 2 Peter 2:20-21 that if someone escapes the corruption of the world through Christ, but then becomes entangled again, their latter end is worse than the beginning.

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The Bible does NOT say “once saved, always saved.” It says things like:

• “He that endureth to the end shall be saved.” (Matthew 24:13)

• “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” (Philippians 2:12)

• “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.” (Hebrews 3:12)

Friend, if “once saved, always saved” were true, the Bible wouldn’t be filled with warnings about falling away, backsliding, and apostasy.

The truth is: Salvation is a covenant relationship.

You must abide in Him. You must remain faithful. Jesus Himself said in John 15:6, “If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire.”

That doesn’t sound like “always saved” to me!

Here’s the danger: This doctrine gives people false assurance while they drift from holiness, stop pursuing God, and live in sin—yet believe heaven is guaranteed.

The Word of God is clear: you can walk away. You can backslide. You can forfeit your salvation.

But the good news is this—if you stay in Christ, continue in faith, and walk in obedience, His grace is more than enough to keep you.

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Roberts Liardon- God’s Generals

Tuesday, August 25, 2026

Jack Coe

Hello everyone. Praise the Lord!

JACK COE

Jack Cole contracted tropical malaria at the age of twenty-six and his weight had now dropped from 230 to 135 pounds. He was literally skin and bones. Once his fever shot up to 106 degrees, then remained there for fifty-four hours. His spleen and liver swelled to twice their normal size, producing pain so great that Coe would bite his tongue until it bled.

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Finally, when the fever broke enough for Coe to understand conversation, the doctors told him of his condition. They saw there was nothing they could do for him, so after a few days, he was discharged and sent home to his family. "Now, God, what shall I do?" was his earnest prayer. The Lord's answer was, "I've called you to preach the Gospel. Go out and preach it!"

For a while, Coe would appear to be well, then another malaria attack would bring him down. Strong chills and a high fever brought the man to his knees. It was difficult for him to maintain a normal life. The intense pain in his spleen and liver was almost unbearable. Juanita would sit with him for hours, applying ice packs to comfort him.

Finally, Coe thought he could stand it no more. Feeling it was her husband's time to die, Juanita left their trailer in tears. It was then that Coe began to repent as the Lord showed him different things. This went on for some time, and Coe began to feel inwardly free. "All right Lord, I'm ready to go now," were his words toward the end of this time. A voice spoke back to his heart, "You're ready to go, but you don't have to." Then suddenly, Coe felt as if he were covered with warm oil from head to toe as the Lord spoke, "You are healed now."

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Coe jumped out of bed. He grabbed his wife, who by this time, was asleep near him and shouted, "Honey! Honey! I'm healed! I'm healed!"

The next night, despite harassing thoughts from the devil, Coe dressed and preached on the street. Three people were saved. Later that same year, the Assemblies of God ordained him into the ministry. Coe would never have another attack of malaria-God had truly healed him!

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GOD’S GENERALS by Roberts Liardon

Friday, August 21, 2026

Charles Parham Always Believed

Hello everyone. Praise the Lord!

Charles Parham always believed that God would provide the ﬁnancial support for Bethel. That was Parham's healing House in Topeka, Kansas. Later he would start a Bible College there.

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Once, after a hard day ministry he realized the rent was due the next morning and he

didn't have the money to meet it . Tired and weary, he looked to the sky and told the Lord

that he must have rest and that he knew God wouldn't fail him. The next morning a man

showed up at Bethel, saying, "I was suddenly awakened with the thought of you and your

work; no sleep came to me until I promised to bring you this."it was the exact sum for the

rent."

Another time, Parham only had a partial sum to pay on a bill that was due. So he set

out to the bank to pay what he had and while on the way, he passed an acquaintance who

handed Parham some money. When Parham got to the bank, he found the money was the

exact amount he needed to pay the bill in full. And there are many other incredible stories of financial provision surrounding Parham’s Ministry!

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Tuesday, August 18, 2026

The Inward Witness

Hello everyone. Praise the Lord!

THE INWARD WITNESS.

I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my

conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost.

—Romans 9:1

The number one way the Spirit guides us is through the inward witness. Number two is by the inward voice. The inward man, who is a spirit man, has a voice—just as the outward man has a voice. We call this voice of the inward man conscience. We call this voice the still small

voice.

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Your spirit has a voice. Your spirit will speak to you.

In September 1966 we moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, from Garland, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. We had lived there 17 years. The move came about like this: My wife and I were in Tulsa on business. The ministry was growing and I had already figured out in my head what I would do with my office and home in Texas to accommodate the growth. But a friend with whom we were staying in Tulsa, said, "Brother Hagin, you ought to move to Tulsa. Brother T. L. Osborn's old office building is for sale. His business manager asked me to sell it for them. "Then he quoted their price. It was extremely low. But I was not interested.

Finally, he said, "Let's go look at it." I went along just to humor him.

The minute I stood inside that building a buzzer went off inside of me. (Sometimes that inward witness is so real it can almost sound like an inward "buzzer.") I knew as well as I knew my name, this is it! But I didn't want to

listen to it; I wanted to stay in Garland.

(That's why we don't hear a lot of times. We don't want to hear. We say we do, but we don't.)

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Back at our friend's home, my wife asked me about the building.

"Oh, no. I've already got it all figured out. We'll stay where we are. We'll turn our whole home into an office. And we'll just stay in Garland."

We went to bed that night, but I couldn't sleep. Ordinarily, I have no trouble sleeping. The Bible says,

"... he giveth his beloved sleep" (Ps. 127:2). I am His beloved. So are you. "... he hath made us accepted in the beloved'' (Eph. 1:6).

So I always claim the promise of God and say,

"Lord, I'm Your beloved. So I take You at Your Word. I thank You for sleep."

And I always go to sleep. But this time, I couldn't. My conscience was hurting. My conscience is the voice of my spirit. My spirit knows I didn't listen to it. Lying there quietly in the nighttime, I said,

"Lord, if you want me to move to Tulsa, I will. In the natural, I don't want to move there, but I wouldn't want to stand in Your way."

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Then on the inside of me I heard the still small voice. Now I'm not talking about the Spirit of God speaking.

When the Holy Spirit speaks it is more authoritative. The still small voice is the voice of our own spirit speaking. But our own spirit picks it up from the Holy Spirit who is in us.

That still small voice, that inward voice, not

authoritative, just something on the inside of me said, "I am going to give you that building."

I laughed. I know there is a lot of unbelief about this, but I said, "Okay. When you do, I'll believe it."

That inward voice, picking up on what the Holy Spirit was saying, said,

"You watch me."

Without going into all the details, it would surprise you how God gave us that building.

-Kenneth E Hagin ( How to be Led by the Spirit of God )

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Friday, August 14, 2026

Power From High

Hello everyone. Praise the Lord!

POWER FROM HIGH - Charles Finney

I could fill a volume with the history of my own experience and observation with respect to this power from on high. It is a fact of consciousness and of observation, but a great mystery. I have said that sometimes a look has in it the power of God. I have often witnessed this. Let the following fact illustrate it.

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I once preached, for the first time, in a manufacturing village. The next morning I went into a manufacturing establishment to view its operations. As I passed into the weaving department I beheld a great company of young women, some of whom, I observed, were looking at me, and then at each other, in a manner that indicated a trifling spirit, and that they knew me.

I, however, knew none of them. As I approached nearer to those who had recognized me they seemed to increase in their manifestations of lightness of mind. Their levity made a peculiar impression upon me; I felt it to my very heart. I stopped short and looked at them, I know not how, as my whole mind was absorbed with the sense of their guilt and danger.

As I settled my countenance upon them I observed that one of them became very much agitated. A thread broke. She attempted to mend it; but her hands trembled in such a manner that she could not do it. I immediately observed that the sensation was spreading, and had become universal among that class of triflers.

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I looked steadily at them until one after another gave up and paid no more attention to their looms. They fell on their knees, and the influence spread throughout the whole room. I had not spoken a word; and the noise of the looms would have prevented my being heard if I had. In a few minutes all work was abandoned, and tears and lamentations filled the room.

At this moment the owner of the factory, who was himself an unconverted man, came in, accompanied, I believe, by the superintendent, who was a professed Christian. When the owner saw the state of things he said to the superintendent, "Stop the mill." What he saw seemed to pierce him to the heart.

"It is more important," he hurriedly remarked, "that these souls should be saved than that this mill should run." As soon as the noise of the machinery had ceased, the owner inquired: "What shall we do? We must have a place to meet, where we can receive instruction." The superintendent replied: "The mule room will do." The mules were run up out of the way, and all of the hands were notified and assembled in that room.

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We had a marvelous meeting. I prayed with them, and gave them such instructions as at the time they could bear. The word was with power. Many expressed hope that day; and within a few days, as I was informed, nearly every hand in that great establishment, together with the owner, had hope in Christ.

This power is a great marvel. I have many times seen people unable to endure the word. The most simple and ordinary statements would cut men off from their seats like a sword, would take away their bodily strength, and render them almost as helpless as dead men. Several times it has been true in my experience that I could not raise my voice, or say anything in prayer or exhortation except in the mildest manner, without wholly overcoming those that were present. This was not because I was preaching terror to the people; but the sweetest sounds of the gospel would overcome them.

Power From On High

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Tuesday, August 11, 2026

Transfer The Fire

Hello everyone. Praise the Lord!

TRANSFER OF FIRE

The Gospel is nothing less than the voice of God. When that Gospel is preached by a Holy Spirit-filled person or in a Flame Church, people will hear. The Gospel becomes a transfer of fire from God. Without the Gospel and without fire, however clever or magnificent the setting, it leaves hearers cold and dead. Pomp is not power. The Spirit makes the Word alive (John 6:63).

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THIS IS NO OLYMPIC TORCH. THIS IS THE BURNING TORCH OF the fire of the Holy Spirit passed from eternity to time and from generation to generation. The fire Moses saw now rested on the disciples; from the burning bush (Exodus 3:1, 2), it ignited the altar of Solomon (2 Chronicles 7:1) and landed at Pentecost on the disciples’ heads (Acts 2:3).

The fire of God Himself, in tongues of flames now leaping on each head, not appearing as a mere spectacle or manifestation but an experience—God and man together. He is the God of fire and burning. We live in a spiritually dark and cold world. The best way to keep from freezing is to be aglow with the Holy Spirit. God will light a fire on the altar of your own heart so that you can be a firelighter.

THE HOLY SPIRIT - Are We Flammable or Fire Proof.

By Reinhard Bonnke

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Friday, August 7, 2026

The Police Sent To Arrest Me

Hello everyone. Praise the Lord!

TWO POLICE MEN WERE SENT TO ARREST ME FOR PRACTICING HEALING WITHOUT LICENSE.

- Smith Wigglesworth

When I was in Switzerland the Lord was graciously working and healing many of the people. I was staying with Brother Reuss of Goldiwil and two policemen were sent to arrest me. The charge was that I was healing the people without a license.

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Mr. Reuss said to them, "I am sorry that he is not here just now. He is holding a meeting about two miles away, but before you arrest him let me show you something."

Brother Reuss took these two policemen down to one of the lower parts of that district, to a house with which they were familiar, for they had often gone to that place to arrest a certain woman, who was repeatedly put in prison because of continually being engaged in drunken brawls. He took them to this woman and said to them, "This is one of the many cases of blessing that have come through the ministry of the man you have come to arrest."

This woman came to our meeting in a drunken condition. Her body was broken, for she was ruptured in two places. While she was drunk, the evangelist laid his hands on her and asked God to heal her and deliver her." The woman joined in, "Yes, and God saved me, and I have not tasted a drop of liquor since."

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The policemen had a warrant for my arrest, but they said with disgust, "Let the doctors do this kind of thing." They turned and went away and that was the last we heard of them.

We have a Jesus that heals the brokenhearted, who lets the captives go free, who saves the very worst. Dare you, dare you, spurn this glorious Gospel of God for spirit, soul and body? Dare you spurn this grace? I realize that this full Gospel has in great measure been hid, this Gospel that brings liberty, this Gospel that brings souls out of bondage, this Gospel that brings perfect health to the body, this Gospel of entire salvation. Listen again to this word of Him who left the glory to bring us this great salvation, "Verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, . . . he shall have whatsoever he saith." Whatsoever!

BOOK QUOTE: Ever Increasing Faith.

William James Roop

Tuesday, August 4, 2026

Learn To Depend On Him For Your Healing

Hello everyone. Praise the Lord!

DEPEND ON YOUR SPIRIT.

"For verily I say unto you,

That whosoever shall say unto this mountain,

Be thou removed,

and be thou cast into the sea;

and shall not doubt in his heart,

but shall believe that those

things which he saith shall come to pass;

he shall have whatsoever he saith.

Therefore I say unto you,

What things soever ye desire, when ye pray,

believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them."

—Mark 11:23,24

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Your spirit knows things that your head does not know, because the Holy Spirit is in your spirit.

When medical science gave me up to die as a teenager and said they could do nothing further for me, I knew somehow that if there was help for me anywhere it would be in the Bible.

I started with the New Testament because I knew I didn't have much time. Eventually I came to Mark 11:23 and 24. When I came to Mark 11:24, something from outside me somewhere said to my mind, That doesn't mean what things soever ye desire physically, or materially, or financially. That just means whatsoever things ye desire spiritually. Healing has been done away with.

I tried to get my pastor to come and tell me what Mark 11:24 did mean. He did not come. One preacher finally did come. He patted my hand, put on a professional voice and said, "Just be patient my boy. In a few more days it will all be over."

I accepted the verdict and lay there expecting to die. It was two months before I got back into the Bible and back to Mark 11:23 and 24.

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I said, "Lord, I tried to get someone to help me and I couldn't. So I am going to tell You what I am going to do. I am just going to take You at Your Word. When You were here on earth, You said it. I am going to believe it. If You didn't lie about it, I am coming off this bed, because I can believe what You said I can believe."

Then I hit on this idea. (It took me a long time because I had limited use of my hands. They propped the Bible in front of me and I just sort of "scooted" the pages.) I decided to run my reference on faith and healing. I came to James 5:14 and 15.

JAMES 5:14,15

14 Is any sick among you? 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:

15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.

I thought all the rest of the healing scriptures and prayer promises hinged on that—I thought you HAD to call for the elders of the church. (You don't have to—you just can if you need to.) So I began to cry, "Dear Lord, if I have to call for the elders of the church to anoint me with oil to be healed, then I can't be healed. I don't know any elders of the church that believe in that."

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I had been saved about six months, and I had never heard an inward voice. I am not talking about the voice of the Spirit of God—that is more authoritative—I am talking about that still small voice of my spirit. My spirit said to me, "Did you notice that verse said that the prayer of faith shall save the sick?"

I had to look again. I'd had my mind on the elders and had missed that.

"Yes," I said aloud, "that is what it says!"

It came as a real shock to me. Then on the inside of me these words were spoken,

"You can pray that prayer as well as anyone can."

Hallelujah!

But my spiritual education was slow—just like yours. I stayed in that bed nine more months before I finally saw that I had to believe I received my healing before it would be manifested.

It was while I was praying and saying,

"I believe that I receive my healing,"

that I saw what I must do. I said,

"I believe that I receive healing from the top of my head to the soles of my feet."

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Then I began to praise God because I believed that I received my healing. Again, on the inside of me, I heard these words—this was not that authoritative voice, but just a still small voice, so faint I would not have heard it if my mind and body had been very active—

"Now you believe that you are well."

I said, "I sure do."

That inward voice said,

"Get up then. Well people ought to be up at 10:30 in the morning."

I had been paralyzed. It was a struggle. I pushed myself. Finally, I got up to where I was draped over the bedpost. My knees sagged down not far from the floor. I had no feeling from my waist down. But draped over that bedpost I said it again,

"I want to announce in the Presence of Almighty God, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, and the holy angels present in this room, and I want to call the devil to record and all evil spirits that may be present in this room, that according to Mark 11:24, I believe that I receive my healing."

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When I said that, physically, I felt something. It felt like someone above me was pouring a pitcher of honey on me. I felt it strike me on the top of my head. It seemed to pile up like honey would, and then it began to ooze down over me. It had a warm glow to it. It spread down over my head, down my neck and shoulders, down my arms and out the ends of my fingers, and down my body and out the ends of my toes.

All of a sudden I was standing straight! I have been straight ever since.

But I want you to see this. I listened to my spirit. Faith is of the spirit. Your faith will not work to its fullest until you learn some of these things. Learn to depend on Him the One who is in you. Learn to develop your own spirit.

Have faith in the fact that your faith in God works.

- Kenneth E Hagin ( How You Can Be Led By The Spirit Of God )

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