T. W. Barnes
The working of miracles of signs and of wonders gives definite proof that Jesus lives.
Jesus’ custom was to go to the synagogue. He had no great following then. But when he went to the wilderness to fast and pray, He returned in power. Then the multitudes began to follow Him, because the supernatural was being released. Jesus said, I the son of man can do nothing, but what I see the Father doing. If the virgin born Son of God in the flesh could do nothing, what do you think we can do? We must also say, “It is not me that doeth the works, but my Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.”
The next great supernatural move in the earth will be the gift of miracles. We need to pray for God to give men who love and preach this truth the gift of miracles. Faith for divine healing is a miracle. It is so easy, but we make it hard. We make it hard to get the Holy Ghost. You know, on the day of Pentecost there was not anyone to work with the seekers. The Holy Ghost just fell on them.
I remember going to a little town. Everyone there fought me. I even met with the preachers and they told me, “We don’t need you here.” They wouldn’t let me have a little community house. They told me dances were held there. (These were preachers talking.) I asked them how many people they had in their churches and they told me. I said, “You are not even reaching ten percent of the people here. I only ask for the other ninety percent.”
They still said no, so I got a little ragged tent and pitched it in the town. The crowds came. We needed a break. I said, “God, I don’t know what You are going to do, but You told me to come here.”
Someone brought a man in a wheel chair every night. He was deaf; could hardly hear it thunder. They put him right in the speaker so he could listen. Every night they would bring him in and put him by the speaker.
One night the Lord said, “All right it is time for revival to start. Go back there and tell him to get out of that wheel chair and I am going to heal him.” When I did, he leaped out, started running, and hollering, “I can hear and I can walk!” Every night after that, he came in running the aisles. God filled him with the Holy Ghost and revival broke out. We were able to build a church in that town. God knows how to start a revival.
Let me give you five steps to a miracle.
1. Hear the Word.
Hear it deep; go to church, hear the Word, get it inside. Pray it inside. Live it day and night. There is nothing greater than living in the Word. I can send the Word, one will hear it and get healed, another will hear it, but stop it in the eardrum. It never gets to the cancer or sickness. Doubts can stop the Word when it hits the eardrum. So keep your ears open and pray and believe and hear the Word.
2. Believe the Word.
Believe it with all of your heart. Jesus said, “Do you believe I can do this?” He made them speak their faith: “Yes, I believe.” Usually this is where we stop. We just hear and believe it, but do nothing about it.
3. Receive the Word.
The preacher has sent the Word. You have heard it and you believe it and now the time comes when you must act and say, “I receive what the Word promised. My problem is gone; my sickness is gone. The devil is gone.
I asked the Lord why more of our people who have the Holy Ghost do not get healed. He answered, “They have more faith in wasp spray than they have in Me. I said, “What?”
He said, “What do you expect to see when you spray the wasp nest.” I said, “Wasp falling dead and running for their life.” He said, “Why can’t you see demons fleeing when you speak my Name. In Jesus name they are gone. When we receive the word we will get results.
4. Confess the Word.
After you have heard the Word, believed the Word, and received the Word, you have to confess the Word. Hold fast your confession; don’t ever let it go. Confess your healing to the Lord. When the devil comes by, and he will, confess it to him. Every time a symptom arises, confess the Word. It is dead; it is gone.
I remember once a young preacher in my church announced a healing service in the revival he was preaching. I went out to just sit and hear him. He went after it; headaches, stone trouble, etc. He didn’t need me at all. He was having a big time. An old fellow came up and he asked him, “What is your trouble?” He said, “I have been blind in this eye thirty years. Can’t see nothing.” The preacher said, “Bro. Barnes, you better come and help me.” But that was no harder to heal than the headache. Just a simple prayer and he began to scream and cry, “I can see! I can see!”
When your pastor anoints you and prays for you, confess it, “I believe it is done.”
One fellow went to a healing service. He was blind. The evangelist who prayed for him had gifts working in his life. He told the man, “You are healed.” But the man could not see. He went home. When he was asked, he would say, “I am healed.” People would laugh at him. One day he went to the barbershop to get a shave. The other men in the shop were teasing him a little, “Well, we hear you got you healing.”
“Yes, he said, “I got it.” All of a sudden he jumped out of the chair with the towel around his neck and ran down the street hollering, “I can see; I can see!” This was a fellow who just kept on confessing it until he could see. Healing is God’s gift to His children. He wants you well; He wants you free from all bondage, all depression, all fear, and all disease.
Let me tell you how to get rid of sickness, uncleanliness, etc. The Bible talks about the Holy Ghost and fire. When you get full of the Holy Ghost, you are full of fire and no disease or cancer can live in Holy Ghost fire. Get the fire burning; let it burn. Turn your faith loose. Faith will kindle the fire. The Word is the log you put on the fire until it burns and everything is gone that is unlike Jesus. To be like Jesus, stay full of fire.
Fire kills natural germs. Holy Ghost fire is far ahead of natural fire. Just one flash of the Holy Ghost fire is just like lightning and as it hits your stomach and back and heart or any other organ that needs healing, it creates new arteries, backbone, legs, muscles, etc. Sickness has no right in God’s children.
The devil is scared of Holy Ghost fire. He knows fire will be where he is going. When you talk about fire, it scares him. If he comes in my room and messes with me, I say, “Devil, do you ever read in the Bible where it says you are going to be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone?” He is gone!
Let the Holy Ghost and fire burn. If anything in the world will set the pastor on fire is to see his saints on fire. A lot of you may have been healed of cancer, but you didn’t know it. Your pastor anointed you and prayed for you for a pain, and it left. If you had known it was cancer, you would have given up and died. Why do we let the demon of fear torment us? All we have to do is say, “All right, devil, in Jesus name I am kindling the fire. Here is the Book, hear it; I am kindling my fire.” And the Devil is gone. As long as that fire is burning, he won’t be back. Keep the fire burning.
5. Possess the Word.
It is yours. This same line of thought will bring revival: Hear the Word, believe the Word, receive the Word, confess the Word, and possess the Word. Faith can cause things to appear or to disappear. Faith can bring things in or send things out. If we have the Holy Ghost, we have faith. It doesn’t matter how long ago we received the Holy Ghost; when we received it, God gave us a measure of faith.
He said, “Now, this child is going to go through some valleys; I will give him/her enough faith to begin with. He will make it. Twenty years from now he will have cancer, so I am giving him faith.” When we get the Holy Ghost, we get everything we need to last us until we leave this world. He is God. He knows all things.
The Lord is ready to do a great thing among his ministers who are hungry. All the apostolic power in the Book of Acts is coming full force in the church now until He comes. We do not have to water down the truth to attract the crowd. That is the lie of the devil. If the truth will not attract the crowds, I quit. I have a right to quit. God blesses the truth. We need to get into the limelight. The church is coming into focus and the world is going to see a people that love God.
Many people of other denominations visit me. Awhile back a Baptist minister’s wife came to the office and told me, “Bro. Barnes, we want the Holy Ghost.” I looked at her and said, “Lady, you know about our Pentecostal ladies and their standards of dress.”
She said, “That doesn’t bother me at all. If I can get the Holy Ghost, that will be no problem.” She said, “Do you know why we are here? A little Pentecostal girl passes our house every day going to school with her long hair, long dress, no make up. Conviction got me, and I want to be like that girl.” We do not know who watches us. Let’s live it and let our light shine!
A few weeks ago a man came to see me. He said, “Bro. Barnes, I pastor a certain big church in Shreveport, Louisiana. I got the Holy Ghost and preached it. Some of the members wanted to throw me out, but I had so many on my side they lost the vote, and I am still pastor.
A sheriff from a city near where I live walked into my office one day. The Lord told me to tell him about one God, baptism in Jesus Name, and the Holy Ghost. When I got through, he shocked me. He said, “Could you baptize me now?” I baptized him, and in two weeks he had the Holy Ghost.
Sinners are hungry and dying. Let’s tell them how to be saved and how to be healed; hear the Word, believe the Word, receive the Word, confess the Word, and possess the Word. Prayer: “Lord, I take authority over every disease and every fault and every failure and every sin in each one who reads this and believes. I command it to leave their body and vanish forever in the Name of Jesus Christ. Help us think right and believe right and trust right and walk right. In Jesus Name. Amen.”
This article “Five Steps to a Miracle” was excerpted from the book If You Need Healing by T. W. Barnes. It may be used for study & research purposes only.
