The Gifts of the Spirit

By Verbal Bean

 

I do not know all there is to know about the gifts of the Spirit. I do know some things by study, and by experience. Experiences in other people, as well as my own experiences. I’ll give you what I understand, and then the sky’s the limit. Where you will learn the most about the gifts of the Spirit is in their operation.

 

I’ve had to analyze the Scripture many times to come up with an understanding, because I’ve seen a gift operate, and it looked to me like it was contradicting the Book. We can’t have that. But the move of the real Spirit will never contradict this Book, in any degree.

 

All gifts, or manifestations of the Spirit in any form are subject to the pulpit. If that’s always understood in your church, there will be no problems with the gifts of the Spirit. The problem arises when people become so spiritual that they do not recognize the authority of the pulpit. They’re getting theirs straight from God. They don’t even need a Bible. That is the most dangerous, deceitful, Satan-inspired idea that you could ever get a hold of, to think you cannot be taught, that you are not in subjection to anyone, and you don’t even have to agree with this Book.

 

Invariably, this Book teaches me that what you do in the Spirit, focuses to somebody who has authority.

 

I remember going to one big tent, during the day, to look at the tent. They said it was the largest in the world, and I wanted to see the largest tent in the world. I stood by and listened to the conversations of the people who were there. A had her congregation, and she was talking, getting wilder and more inspired by the moment. Talking in tongues for awhile, then in English. I overheard her call the name of one of our churches. She said, “They tried to get me to settle down, but I’m going to follow God, and nobody’s going to bind me!” It doesn’t take even one eye, or half sense to understand what spirit that is.

 

First, she despises government. And you read the terrible, terrible consequences of people who despise government. What condition are they in? The Book of Jude gives you the answer, also the Apostle Peter gives you an understanding. One of the traits of these people, they’re not afraid to speak evil of dignities, despise government, and are not in subjection to anyone, or anything.

 

I believe in obeying God by trying the spirits, and the way you try the spirits, sometimes, is counsel with someone in whom you have confidence. When a thing is a little questionable, it wouldn’t hurt to have a little counsel.

 

“Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counsellors, there is safety” (Proverbs 11:14).

 

There is a balance to be reached if you’re going to operate in this

realm. It’s like the balance of nature. Mankind has gotten so smart,

until he is throwing the balance of nature off. God has a way, in his

plan of nature, that it balances itself. You can go out and kill all

the jack rabbita, but you’d be surprised what effect that will have.

You may think you’re doing something great to go kill all of a useless

animal, but it may, in turn, destroy one that’s valuable, because it

imbalances nature. God has fixed it that way.

 

In this great realm of the spirit world, if you throw something too far

off balance, it’s going to effect something else a lot. This is the

reason the Apostle Paul taught the Corinthian church about the gifts.

He certainly wasn’t trying to convince them they needed them, and he

certainly wasn’t trying to convince them they weren’t useful. He was

simply trying to get them to arrive at a balance with the use of these

gifts. There’s a danger with going overboard with any of it. I don’t

say that to hinder peoples’ faith. I’m fixing to teach that you need

them, and how they can bless. But while you’re getting them, also get

some wisdom and understanding.

 

There are some that feel that they’re called to preach, but rather are

called to be helps. If they’d understand that, there’s no telling how

many they could win to God. What they’re called for is to help. There’s

as much a calling for helps, as there is a calling to the ministry.

Just as sure as someone gets a little anointed to testify, the devil

says, “You’re called to preach!”

 

Here’s what happens, when they’re not called. They’re never able to

attain it. It’s a goal they’ll never reach, and yet they’re not doing

anything else. A person who feels this call, that didn’t get it from

God, is the most useless human being on earth, because they’re never

willing to be a help. Always condemning themselves for not going

preaching.

 

I counselled a woman one night, who spent her Christian experience

under condemnation, thinking she was called to preach. She never

attained anything. She wasn’t a Sunday school teacher, no burden for

souls, she wouldn’t go out and witness, because she never felt worthy

to do anything.

 

If I was the devil, and I wanted to ruin a good faithful saint, I’d

call them to preach.

 

I asked her, “Did God ever give you grace to go preach?”

 

She said, “No.”

 

I said, “Well then he didn’t call you. Because if he calls you, he’ll give you grace to go.”

 

Another woman was called to Hawaii. Every time I saw her, she was about to have a nervous breakdown. She was a pastor’s wife, and her husband didn’t feel the call, though she did. For years, she spent her time in her prayer room, crying over the fact that she couldn’t go to Hawaii. She wanted us to come to her rescue, and talk him into going. I talked to her awhile, “First of all, what are you doing now? Your Sunday school is running in the thirties.”

 

See what the devil did to her? This went on for years. Every time she got down to pray, it was Hawaii. The devil was making her reach for a goal that God didn’t set for her.

 

I found a young man a while back, who was an assistant to one of our good pastors. He went out a few times, and tried it, and came back. He was talking to me, and God had already spoken to me. I actually feel that we can share each other’s callings.

 

I’ve had preachers say, “I feel like the Lord wanted you to go do this.” Maybe I was already feeling it. It’s amazing how the Lord’s body works together.

 

I told this young man, “I feel you’re called to be a help. ” He had thought of that, but he was scared to admit it, because he had already preached a few sermons. Just because you’ve preached, doesn’t mean you’re called to go out on your own. He was so thankful that somebody else was thinking this way. He felt condemned not to go out, and as a result of an assurance, the man has made an excellent worker. He has won more souls to God in the position he’s in, than if he’d have gone off on his own. He’d have gone out there and been a failure.

 

“For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues” (I Corinthians 12: 8-10).

 

These are the nine gifts of the Spirit.

 

I’m going to refer to a book, written by Harold Horton. He is a trinity preacher, but he gives us a good outline, and has good research. I can’t say I’m totally in agreement with him on every point, but I would recommend it very highly.

 

Let’s first organize these gifts into their groups. The nine gifts are in three groups of three. The three groups are the gifts of revelation, gifts of power, and the vocal gifts or the gifts of inspiration.

 

The gifts of revelation are: the word of wisdom word of knowledge

discerning of spirits.

 

The gifts of power are: faith working of miracles gifts of healing.

 

The gifts of inspiration are: prophecy divers kinds of tongues

interpretation of tongues.

 

The word of wisdom is supernatural revelation of divine purpose.

 

The word of knowledge is supernatural revelation of facts in the divine

mind.

 

The discerning of spirits is supernatural insight into the realm of

spirits.

 

The gift of faith is supernatural trust in God for the miraculous.

 

The working of miracles is supernatural intervention in the ordinary

course of nature.

 

The gift of healing is supernatural power to heal diseases.

 

The gift of prophecy is supernatural utterance in a known tongue.

 

Divers kinds of tongues is a supernatural utterance in an unknown

tongue.

 

The gift of interpretation is supernatural showing forth of the meaning

of other tongues.

 

I believe that when God put the word of wisdom at the head of the list,

he had a reason. Although none could say to the other, “I have no need

of you. ” When God put this in the church, he put it here for our

benefit. This is artillery for you. If you’re going to perfect the

church, and save souls, then God says this is what you can have from

him. In every case, every gift is one hundred percent supernatural. In

every case it is always miraculous.

 

You will meet ideas contrary to this, but I believe we have arguments

that will be fairly easy to prove. Here is what is complicated to a

degree. When these gifts actually start operating, these gifts overlap

one another, to the point where you can hardly tell exactly which one

is in operation. In some cases, you almost need one gift to operate

another gift. An example, in most cases, the gift of healings is generally accompanied by another gift. In almost every case I’ve seen, the gift of healing was preceded by the gift of the word of knowledge.

 

Since these gifts are kindred gifts, falling into groups, it’s confusing sometimes, “What’s going on tonight?” “What just happened?” It could be a continuation of one of the gifts, or it could have suddenly lapsed over into another gift. These are so technical, that while the gifts are in operation, you’re not particularly thinking about it. But with a clear understanding it could be less confusing.

 

For example, I’ve seen someone give out a message in tongues, and someone would interpret it. And then with no message in tongues, the interpretation seems to be continuing. It seems to be continuing beyond the point that the Apostle Paul said it ought to go. It ought to be by courses, and not more than three under normal conditions.

 

You’ve heard a fourth utterance, and I’ve heard it. I’ll have to humbly admit, that I have given it out, even the fifth. Until I understood what was happening, I felt real condemnation. I am feeling an anointing to say this, and yet the Book says I ought to stop on the third round. What happened is that two or three gifts can operate in the same service. Interpretation of tongues, ceased and prophecy picked up. Bringing no contradiction at all to God’s Bible. It was two separate gifts in operation that night. But they are so similar. As far as feeling a difference in Spirit, or a difference in utterance, it was by the same force. Interpretation and prophecy came by the same inspiration. If we can get these things in our mind, it will help us to understand, but sometimes it is confusing.

 

“Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led. Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: But all these worketh that one and theselfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will. For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body ? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. And if they were all one member, where were the body? But now are they many members, yet but one body. And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary: And those members of the body, which we think to be less honorable, upon these we bestow more abundant honor; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness. For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honor to that part which lacked: That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular. And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues. Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? are all workers of miracles? Have all the gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret? But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way”

 

(I Corinthians 12).

 

We will begin with the word of wisdom. It is generally believed by most Bible scholars, that he put it first because it is first. It is an extremely valuable gift. There’s not much said about it. If you noticed when Paul discussed the different gifts as members of a body, he goes on to say that there are some of the members that get more attention than others. This is exactly what happens to us so many times in the gift realm.

 

I would say that interpretation of tongues is one of our most common gifts. If we’re going to have a gift of the Spirit it will more than likely be this one. I’m not saying that it is a gift that is not needed, but we should not become hung-up on it, because it is not one of the major gifts. We certainly need these others as badly as we need interpretation of tongues. But somewhere, we’ve developed a faith in interpretation of tongues and therefore, we give more honor to it. It shouldn’t be that way.

 

The gift of the word of wisdom is very valuable to our lives, and in the perfection of God’s church. There is a teaching among one God, Jesus’ name preachers that when a church is perfected when it ought to be, it no longer needs these gifts. That is so totally ridiculous! There’s no such a thing as bringing a church to; perfect state, and then locking it. It would be wonderful if you could. You may have a church tonight in good shape, but in six months, it could be in bad shape. Even if the church was perfect tonight, no sin in it, and everybody is strong. The church still needs the gifts for inspiration. God gets glory out of all of this.

 

I don’t think you believe this, but I want to knock it in the heat if I can, because you’d be surprised how many and who believe it Some believe that tongues, and prophecies have ceased, and the we no longer need them.

 

He very clearly explains that the gifts in operation affect the unlearned man. When he comes in he hears a man speak the revelation of his own thinking, and he falls on his face, and says “Surely God is in this place.” Has a church so thoroughly reached perfection that they’re not supposed to reach sinners?

 

As long as we’re in this earth, there will not be such a thing a church not reaching for sinners. This Book says that the operation of certain of these gifts reach the sinner. So you could not a all reach the conclusion that we no longer need the gifts, or that we can mature to the place, and the knowledge of Gods Bible. Its a carry over of the old Camelite doctrine. It’s unscriptural and unfounded. It’s as unscriptural as the doctrine of when a saint matures, he no longer needs to speak with tongues. Believe me, when you start traveling, if you haven’t already met it, you’ll meet this doctrine among Pentecostal preachers and saints. I want you to be able to understand it, and not be shaken by it. They don’t believe a backslider needs to come in and talk in tongues. He just starts serving. I’ve actually heard older preachers, one in particular, that have said they haven’t spoken in tongues but once, and this particular preacher hadn’t since he prayed through forty years ago. I do not believe that’s acceptable to God. You’ve got to be renewed in the Holy Ghost!

 

How do you renew something if you haven’t brought it back to what it was? Renewing and restoring are synonymous terms. When you renew an automobile, do they take a ’28 ford, and put a ’70 Cadillac fender on the thing? No sir, they put the same model fender as the car is. They actually bring it back to what it was.

 

“…Renewing of the Holy Ghost” Titus 3:5).

 

David said,

 

“He restoreth my soul” (Psalm 23:3).

 

If I’m going to be renewed, and restored, I’m going to get what I originally got. I’m going to speak with tongues. Bringing it back to the original state, is to get what it originally had. That’s a false doctrine, and it’s a dangerous doctrine. You’re telling people that they can actually perfect themselves. That they can live above sin without the assistance of the power of God in their life. They can develop habits, and God accepts habits. Live an habitual Pentecostal experience, and you’ll be saved.

 

You are bordering on, if not totally saying, “Once saved, always saved.” That’s exactly what it’s headed toward. Of course we cannot accept that. It is a must that the members of your church pray through, and pray through often.

 

Do you know why the gray hairs are coming on my head early? Because there’s people in this church right now, that haven’t prayed through lately, and I can see them failing. Invariably it works that way. You never mature to the place that you can say, “I’ve got it, and I won’t fail from here! ” You’ve got to go back the next morning, and get a renewing.

 

Brethren, let me tell you from a heart that is burdened and concerned for your ministry. If your ministry is what it ought to be, don’t take for granted that because you believe one God, and Jesus’ name, and holiness, that you can drift along without personally contacting God, and operate any of these gifts, or be effective even in the preaching the Word. You must have your soul recharged! How can I operate a spiritual gift, if I don’t even have the Spirit to begin with?

 

This is a damaging, dangerous thing that’s happened in our land. Men start out operating gifts, then they drift away from their personal devotion. There’s a difference. You’ll learn, feel and see it. The temptation will be there. I’ve been tempted to get up while I’m participating in a service. I feel the anointing, the power is on me. But, if I’m not participating in the service I feel nothing. You’ll learn that before it’s all over with, preachers learn to inspire others to pray, but don’t pray themselves. They can inspire others to worship, and not worship themselves. But you know who you’re killing? You’re destroying yourself, and those that hear you. Somewhere down the road, if you’ve ever operated in the spiritual realm, if you maintain your honor, and acceptance with the people, you’re going to want to keep operating where you’ve been operating. If it’s a spiritual gift, you’re going to want that spiritual gift.

 

The Spirit’s not flowing in your life, because you haven’t prayed through. You have no personal devotion. You haven’t gotten down and cried and repented, and gotten things out of your heart, the bitterness that might have lodged there, desires that shouldn’t be there. Do whatever it takes to keep your soul in touch with God.

 

You’re trying to maintain a level in the sight of the people, but you see the spiritual level is fading away. First thing you know, you’re going to try to operate that gift mechanically, and here’s where latter rain, and the damaging effects of the gifts of the Spirit has come in. This is why some of our Pentecostal preachers will not allow it in their churches.

 

Did you know we have one God, Jesus’ name, preachers that will not allow tongues and interpretation? They will stop you! A lot of it is a development of someone who gave out, and it didn’t prove out. Somebody mechanically tried to operate one of these gifts. I could site you cases of good men, that walked in this realm.

 

I know one in particular that God used mightily. A saint could hardly put anything by him, because the Spirit would reveal it to him. But he got involved in things that he shouldn’t have. It was not necessarily outright sin, simply too much on his mind. He got involved in political fields of organizations. And as a pastor you can get involved in being a pastor. I mean, you’re not out nailing nails, or making money. You’re out visiting, talking, and business for the King. But you can get so involved in that, you’ll lose your personal devotion. You can get so involved in the service of the Lord, that you can backslide.

 

Somewhere, sometime, and it had better be often, you need to back up from everything, and say, “God, I need to soak up some glory! Recharge my battery, I’ve used all the juice up!”

 

A friend of mine was with this particular man, who would come in from church, and dial saint’s numbers until he found two of them busy. The next morning in prayer meeting, he would say, “Sister, you were talking to Sister so and so last night,” as though he’d got it from the Lord. Friend, that’s dangerous! First of all, he’s lying. He lied on God, to infer he got that from God. This is a damaging effect of not staying personally prayed up.

 

Don’t start out in the gifts, if you don’t plan to stay spiritual, be cause it’ll do you more harm, than good. The end of your life will be damaged far more if you ever launch out into that field. If you ever say, “God, I’d like to operate in this realm,” and God trusts you, and gives it to you. Friend, you’re stuck for life! You’ve got to be consecrated! You’re bound and obligated to be.

 

Of course, you should be as a preacher. You can get by preaching sermons without the anointing, but not as well, especially if your church is spiritual. They know when you’re anointed. Still, you could get by preaching without the anointing, but not the gifts, because they are totally miraculous. They are totally supernatural. Preaching doesn’t have to be supernatural. By knowledge, and by memory you could preach a sermon. But don’t ever go into this field, until you are well prepared to say to yourself, “Look Boy, every now and then, you come aside for a time of personal consecration, and devotion. ”

 

I don’t know how to impress that like it ought to be. If you ever launch out in this field, and then let up, you’re ruined. Because what will happen if you’ve ever been used, they’re going to say, “Why is he not used now?” It’s going to be a dead giveaway. Human nature being what it is, they don’t like people to know what they are. I don’t care who you are, that’s human nature. If there’s a decline in your spirituality, you’re not going to want people to know. So if you’re not careful, you’ll still try to operate the gifts.

 

One of the mysteries of godliness to me, is that there are occasions when God used men that were backslid. This can be a damaging thing. It seems that when a gift ever comes to you, or a certain anointing, that it can operate in you on occasions, though it’s possible you’d still not be where you ought to be in God. Before God totally abandons a man, he may attempt to bring him back. I’ve discussed it with preachers many times. Why did God speak through Baalim, one of the greatest prophecies ever spoken? It was one of the most beautiful utterances ever given by human lips, and the man was backslid! I’ve actually seen men operate in spiritual realms that I knew their lives were not measuring up.

 

I know a woman right now, and I could almost guarantee you that you could call that woman tonight with one of your problems, and not tell her a thing about it, just say, “I’ve got a problem, and I need to know the voice of God.” She would almost invariably give you an accurate reading. And she is as backslid as can be. That is, if turning away from Jesus’ name baptism is backslid! She is serving the trinity right now! One of the biggest trinity preachers built her a room on his house to do nothing but serve their preachers in the form of prophecy. They come from all over the world, to walk through her room to get answers.

 

“Brother Bean, how do you know that it’s accurate?”

 

Her nephew said he was praying about a piece of property to buy. He had not told his aunt about it, but in the meantime he receives from her a tape of her voice talking to him. He didn’t take time to listen to it. He got busy and forgot about it. He didn’t want to get involved with her, anyhow.

 

He went on and bought the property. Later on she called him, and she said, “Did you listen to the tape?”

 

He said, “No, I haven’t had a chance yet.”

 

She said, “Listen to it, God gave me a word for you.”

 

So he got the tape out and listened. She knew nothing about what he was trying to figure out. On the tape was, “Son, you are looking for a piece of property. Go South toward the river, you will find so and so.”

 

That’s that property he bought! It was South, and toward the river. She described it accurately!

 

What I’m saying, is she feels saved tonight, because whatever it is works in her life. Can you see how damaging that would be? If you don’t keep your soul prayed up, and keep loving the truth along with these gifts, you can operate them into an orbit. I don’t know if it becomes human spirit, or demon spirits, or what happens. I have my ideas, but I couldn’t say exactly. Once you’re ever in that orbit, watch your life, and your doctrine, because you could be deceived by the gift He gave you.

 

The warnings come first. I don’t mean to totally scare you away, and I don’t think I am, but there’s nothing better than an understanding of some of these things before we launch out further. A scary percentage of people who have operated gifts have made shipwreck! This is why people are against them, and pastors don’t want them in the church, because they’ve seen others fail with them.

 

But here is where they’re making a mistake. Why can’t we sit down here tonight, and determine why they’re dangerous? And determine what we should not do. What we’re doing right now is a safeguard, if you’ll receive it. Don’t ever put a gift beyond doctrine or consecration. Don’t try to operate them mechanically, and you won’t get in trouble. Always be willing to take advice Keep in mind the gifts are only assistance, and not the governing factor of the body. The five fold ministries are gifts.

 

“And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists, and some, pastors, and teachers” (Ephesians 4:11). (Emphasis added.) They’re as much gifts as the gift of faith.

 

Some are always seeking after a big gift, but they never want to hear a preacher. They don’t understand that the preacher himself in his ministry, is as much a gift as the gift of faith.

 

All the gifts work together in harmony, to edify the body, to save the lost, to perfect the church, to assist us in our labors. God simply wants us to know things that we cannot know. He wants us to have things we cannot have in the natural realm in we live. These things that we cannot have normally, they defy the laws of nature, and they furnish for us things that He wants us to have, as sons of God.

 

All but two of the gifts operated in the Old Testament. The two are divers kinds of tongues, and the gift of interpretation.

 

The gift of the word of wisdom has been defined briefly, but I’d like to go a little deeper into it. It’s the supernatural revelation of divine purpose. The only way I know how to teach on the gift of the word of wisdom, is to teach it with the gift of the word of knowledge at the same time, and then show you the difference.

 

The word of wisdom is for you to miraculously know something that no one but God knows.

 

There are three types of wisdom. The wisdom of this world, which you could learn from a book. It doesn’t necessarily have to do with God. By reading, sight, hearing, you collect things in your mind, and as a result you actually gain both wisdom and knowledge.

 

There is a God-given wisdom, that is not miraculous. Solomon asked for this type of wisdom. Good understanding of how to handle situations. Accumulation of anointing and past experiences, that would make you know how to help a man with his problem.

 

If a man comes to me with a problem, I can look back over the past experiences, and remember some that had the same problem. I remember how one of them acted, and the others acted, and they all acted differently. I remember how they all came out of it. An accumulation of past experiences, the knowledge of the Bible, plus what the Holy Ghost inspires me to know, is a God-given wisdom. The Holy Ghost can inspire you to remember a scripture, or an event. This isn’t the gift of the word of wisdom, but is a wisdom attainable by all.

 

“If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him” (James 1:5).

 

The gift of the word of wisdom is not given to all. This is miraculously knowing something, that you did not learn in a book. You did not know by experience. You did not necessarily know a scripture in connection with it. It is something that you have never heard, necessarily, though it could be. It could parallel with something, but you didn’t think of it in that term until God miraculously gave you that word of wisdom.

 

For example, suppose a man came to me, and I couldn’t think of an example which fit his case, because I have never heard a case like his. He doesn’t know what to do, or he wouldn’t be in my office. We are both at a loss to call on any experiences, or any understanding we’ve accumulated out of books, the Bible, or from other men. But he explains his problem, and all of a sudden I say, “I have the answer,” and I give

him the answer to that problem. I received the answer in a miraculous

form. To know something, that God alone knows.

 

To clarify, let me bring the word of knowledge up beside it, and we’ll

get a little better understanding. The gift of the word of knowledge is

knowing something miraculously, that someone else knows. For instance,

the Spirit moved on me one night. I was sitting there waiting my time

to get up, when the Spirit moved so heavily on me. I said, “Pastor, God

spoke to me, and I want to tell them what He said. ” I had no way in

the world of finding this out. I did not know it, but someone knew.

This is the difference in wisdom and knowledge.

 

I walked up there, and said “There is a woman in this audience tonight, and she is not a member of this faith. She does not believe this truth. You have been to a doctor today, and he has told you that you have a serious kidney infection. If you will come to the altar bench, God will heal you. I didn’t know it, but she knew it. This is the word of knowledge operating.

 

An Assembly of God woman walked up, sat on the altar bench, and said, “I’ve been to the doctor. He has declared that I have serious kidney infection. I’m the person!”

 

She knew this, but I didn’t know it. I miraculously learned something, or knew something that she already knew.

 

“And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth” (l Corinthians 14:25).

 

The word of knowledge will reveal thoughts. It will reveal happenings that people know about. Brethren, there’s nothing that can be more valuable in your ministry, than for God to speak to you, and say there’s a man here with a certain knowledge. It’s amazing how it works, and what effect it brings, and what faith it produces! A good portion of the people that prayed through in my revivals, came through the workings of the gift of the word of knowledge. As many by itself as compared to all the rest of the things that God did.

 

The two backsliders I told you about, God told me they were there. I began to tell them what was going to happen. I couldn’t hear them, they were on the next to last seat. I stopped and said, “Don’t tell me you don’t know what I’m talking about!”

 

One of the Brethren that was sitting behind them heard one say to the other, “I don’t know what he’s talking about.”

 

She had no more than got it out of her mouth, until I said, “Don’t tell me you don’t know what I’m talking about!”

 

It didn’t take much, and they were in the altar, because they knew I had no way of knowing that she said that.

 

This is the operation of the gift of knowledge.

 

Prophecy is a divine utterance. It is in the first person. God is speaking, “I, the Lord saith!” The divine utterance could have come that night and said, “Behold I the Lord see in your midst two who have backslid, and I am telling you so and so.”

 

And the woman could have leaned over and said, “I don’t understand. ”

 

God could have said through divine utterance, “Don’t tell me you don’t understand!”

 

This would have been two gifts in operation. One would have been used to give the utterance, the other would have been used to receive the knowledge of it.

 

The night I was talking to the two ladies, I was not giving out a divine utterance. It was not the Spirit speaking through me. Generally a divine utterance is in the first person. To the two backsliders, it was in the second person. “The Lord showed me… ” If it had been prophecy or tongues and interpretation, it would have been in the first person. And it would have been a divine utterance in the first person, but it would have actually been the operation of prophecy, and tongues and interpretation, together. I received by the word of knowledge the fact that there were two backsliders, and what one said to the other. If God wanted, He could have chosen that I reveal that, not in the second person, but in the first person, but He’d have had to use one of the other gifts to do it. Jesus said,

 

“…Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee” (John 1:48).

 

This was a demonstration of the word of knowledge.

 

To simplify, wisdom is where only God knows it. Knowledge, is when God, and somebody else knows it, and He tells you about it. Wisdom is knowing the divine purpose of God. It’s knowing those things that God knows, and He knows things from the beginning to the ending.

 

The Lord spoke to me, and let me know there was going to be an explosion. I saw a swamp, and beyond the swamp I saw a mighty explosion, and fire began to spread, and I was standing with a group of saints. Flames were coming our direction, and at first, we were all afraid. Suddenly, a faith came to me, and I said to those around me,

“Let’s pray!” We did, and the flames went on over, and did no harm to any of us.

 

I got up in front of the church. It was not a divine utterance, not in the first person, when I simply said, “The Lord showed me there will be an explosion.” Nobody knew it, because it hadn’t happened.

 

This came to me in the form of a dream. It happened exactly as I saw it. There was a man that prayed through in that revival, who worked at a paper mill. His boss told him, “Go work over there today. ”

 

He looked at him and said, “No sir. ” Later, he said, “Why I did it, I don’t know. I’ve never resisted my boss.”

 

The boss never objected, he said, “Okay, then go to work over here then. ”

 

He had no more than gotten on a ladder, than the place where he was supposed to go, exploded, and scattered men everywhere! Not a man from the church was hurt. The flames went on over, and the mill was beyond the swamp from the church!

 

If we hadn’t prayed, and if God hadn’t showed me that in a dream, and had helped me to have faith to tell the church, no doubt that man may have been killed. Prayer prevented that.

 

When I mentioned the church where the man stood up and said, “Flee for your life! ” That was interpretation of tongues, but is was by the gift of knowledge revealing the event to happen. Those men knew they were coming to kill. The saints didn’t, but somebody knew. So, it came under the confines of the gift of knowledge, but it was given out through the gift of interpretation.

 

The man could have stood up and said, “Saints, I think we ought to run. There are killers coming!” It would have been the same gift of knowledge, but it would not have come through the gift of interpretation.

 

With the woman that had the infection, the gift of knowledge operated. I didn’t know her. I doubt if I even saw her in the audience as a visitor. All of a sudden, the Spirit says, “There is a woman here who is not a member of this church, has been to a doctor, and the doctor has said she has a serious kidney infection.

 

The gift of knowledge operated then, because she knew.

 

Working hand in hand with that gift, came the gift of healing. She had faith, but it wasn’t the gift of faith. There’s a difference in the gift of faith, and having faith.

 

I believe I could pray the prayer of faith for you, for a healing in your life, and not necessarily have the gift of healing. My faith could have reached a level at that particular time. Faith is a little bit different than these oral gifts. The oral gifts, once you’ve used them, you’re stuck with them.

 

The man who is used consistently for healing, has the gift of healing. I do believe in resident gifts. There are some who believe that it operates in the body, on whosoever it chooses. I’ve tried to look at it that way, but I simply can’t see it. I believe that it is dwelling in that person. Once you receive that gift, I believe that it is without repentance. It will reside there as long as you stay where you ought to in God.

 

Some believe the Holy Ghost may use someone randomly for a gift, but may never use him again. The gift dwells in the body, and God uses whoever he decides to on that particular occasion.

 

I haven’t seen that the Scripture teaches it that way, and I have to say I’ve never seen it work that way. Usually, one who interprets will interpret again.

 

I’ve seen one used for interpretation, when I had five others that were as consecrated. Why doesn’t God ever pick them out to use them?

 

It takes faith to operate a gift. Whereas some may be as dedicated, consecrated, sincere, and may have faith, but they may not have the faith it takes to operate that gift.

 

God won’t use anyone who isn’t faithful. If you think you can be haphazard, carnal, up one day and down the next, in and out, backslid awhile, rebellious, and lustful, then all of a sudden get all fired up, and say “God, now use me!” forget it. I’ve contended that He doesn’t even use a mule that hasn’t been faithful. The mule that carried Baalim, said “Haven’t I carried you everywhere you wanted to go?”

 

The rooster that crowed, when Peter denied the Lord. God used that rooster, because he was a faithful rooster! I talked to a man who lived in Jerusalem. I cited to him the case of the donkey. As quick as a flash, he said, “Certainly, Brother Bean, it is a definite plan and program. They depend on that rooster as their clock. If he doesn’t crow at a certain time, they eat him! ” So evidently, that rooster must have been faithful, since he hadn’t been eaten yet! Don’t you believe that everything that happens, occurred according to divine plan?

 

Have you ever heard a message preached that accurately described someone? If you are preaching a message, it’s more than a sermon. You are preaching a message that fits the man. You literally took the Book, and it became Spirit and life for the present need. I believe these Scriptures, written many years ago, about people long years ago, can become exactly what we need, as though written directly to us. It takes a preacher to dig this out and present it. As he presents it, if it’s a message, and it accurately describes someone and their need, it is a ministry, and the gift of knowledge is also in operation.

 

The Word of God itself is prophecy. Let’s take the birth of Jesus. Nearly every writer, wrote of it. The Spirit that was in them did signify beforehand of the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. That was divine purpose. Isaiah and Joel both foresaw the outpouring of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost. One saw more than the other. Isaiah saw them talking in tongues, Joel saw them dreaming dreams, and seeing visions. But they both foreknow the experience of Pentecost. Yet nobody knew it, only in the purpose of God since it hadn’t happened.

 

The Spirit spoke to me in Shreveport, Louisiana, and in that service, there was a potential murderer. This was the gift of the word of wisdom, since the potential murderer didn’t know it yet. In another city, the Spirit said to me, there were two potential murderers in connection with that particular church. They had guns in the glove compartments. This miraculous working was the gift of the word of knowledge, because they knew they were potential murderers.

 

Discerning of spirits is actually knowing what spirit is there. For many years we have had discernment mixed up with the gift of knowledge. We have used this term wrongly, and I’ve done it, myself, because actually it was the gift of knowledge. Discerning of spirits is exactly what it says.

 

Let’s say we’re in an audience, and all of a sudden the Spirit says, “There’s a man here who has a cancer.” He knows he has cancer. I didn’t know it. The two gifts that were operating were knowledge and discerning of spirits. Discerning of spirits made you know what kind of spirit was involved. Another example, “There’s a man here tonight that has bitterness in his heart.” Knowledge made me know he was there, discerning of spirits made me know what spirit he had.

 

The discerning of spirits can be valuable in casting out devils, in knowing to what you’re talking. There was a man that with the help of the Lord, we cast out demons, except the last two. I knew there were two in there, but that didn’t necessarily mean I knew what two. One gift was saying, “There’s something left.” That’s valuable, because those spirits can become dormant, and nest! Demons are sneaky. They will quiet down to make you think they’re gone so you’ll leave them alone. They quieted down, but the Spirit was saying they were still in there, that’s one gift. Then the other gift told me which ones were there.

 

There are interchanges between gifts, where one helps the other. At most times when there’s a real healing, you’ll generally operate one of the other gifts.

 

This is the blessing of it. Suppose a woman is here, and she doesn’t believe in us to begin with, because we’re a different faith. God wants to heal and save her. She knows I don’t know her, and have never seen her before in my life. In fact, she knows that nobody could have told me, because she hasn’t told anybody in the audience. Then I say, “There’s a woman in the audience that does not believe this message, who has been to a doctor, and he’s stated you have a serious illness.

 

Immediately that built her faith. She is going to get her healing, because God built her faith through the miraculous operation of the gift of knowledge. “If He can tell that preacher where I’ve been, what’s wrong with me, and pick me out, then God can heal me!”

 

“If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. …If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them” (Jeremiah 18:8,10).

 

Here’s where you’re going to have to fight the battle of your life, if you ever use the gifts. They’ll say you’re a false prophet because nobody died. And they didn’t die, and you said they were going to die. This is what made poor Jonah so angry at God. He walked through the city, and told the whole group that in forty days they’d be killed, and it seemed to him, God made a monkey out of him by sparing the whole city.

 

“Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil” (I Corinthians 13:4,5).

 

If you don’t have this more excellent way, you’ll give out a prophecy, and rejoice when it happens, because you’re seeking your own justification. You’re wanting to be made an accurate prophet.

 

Do you see why he’s showing you a more excellent way? He’s not saying, “Boys, I told you about the gifts, but I didn’t mean for you to have them. This is the best thing to have here.” That’s not what he’s saying. He’s saying, “Here are the gifts, but if you’re going to operate them, I show you the most excellent way to do it. Don’t seek

glory for yourself!”

 

Jonah was showing us an example of knowing something miraculously, yet not having charity. Here is a perfect example of wanting to be an accurate prophet, at the expense of the souls of an entire city.

 

Men, if you don’t love souls, more than your prophecy, you’re not qualified to be a prophet. That’s why, whenever I’ve given out a prophetic message, I’ll always try to explain so that people won’t run out saying I missed it. It’s ridiculous, the lies told on me, but I haven’t got time to go look them up. Don’t chase down your enemies. I always tried to explain, “Look, God is saying, as of tonight I feel that there is a last call. This could be changed by repentance, tonight! ” After all, ninety-nine percent of the time God gives it to you, is for the sake of causing repentance. There have been times that God gave it, and gave no place for repentance. A man asked me to pray for him. I said, “No, I won’t pray for you. I can’t pray for you. ”

 

“…There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it” (I John 5:16).

 

But you’d better know it’s God. It nearly scared me to death. It doesn’t happen that often.

 

He said, “Man, you’re not going to pray for me?”

 

I said, “No.” That was it.

 

But ninety-nine percent of the time, He says it for the sake of giving them a chance.

 

“But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand”

(Ezekiel 33:6).

 

I told them many times, “Make a false prophet out of me tonight! Come on, repent so it won’t happen. Let the world say I’m a false prophet, but I want you saved!” You’ve got to love souls more than you love yourselves…It vaunteth not itself, . . .Rejoiceth not in iniquity ” (I Corinthians 13:4,6).

 

So I can say, “See, I told you!” You’ll have to watch it, that spirit will get on you, and you’ll almost say, “Boy at last, he fulfilled one of them!” At the expense of a soul? Man, no! Hope that he repents! Pray him through, and let them believe you were a false prophet. There will be enough that won’t repent to confirm you, to your sorrow, and if you love them, it never ceases to shock me.

 

I was evangelizing in Louisiana, and God spoke to me one morning, when I preached a man his last message. That man walked out of there, and told his wife, “That was mine.”

 

She said, “Come back tonight!”

 

He said, “There’s no need, that was mine.”

 

He got in a car wreck. They came to me and said, “He’s dead.”

 

Yeah, that will help you in the next revival. Now you’ll have a scary one to tell! You’d better not feel that way, or God will quit using you. He’ll let your gourd vine whither.

 

That hurt me. I suddenly saw a man in a flame, that I could never, as long as God lives, ever preach to him again. I can’t reach for him. I can’t get to him. I can’t give him any water. I can’t pray for him. The thought came to my mind, “Did you do all you could? Were you as persistent as you should be? Are you going to face him in the Judgment?”

 

Listen, Brethren, I show you a more excellent way. Love that soul in spite of what revelations you get. Love that soul in spite of what faith could do.

 

“. ..Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did” (Luke 9:54).

 

He might have had faith enough to do that. But charity says,

 

“Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them” (Luke 55,56). Charity suffers long. It waits on prophecy. It hopes it doesn’t come tonight. It suffers long and kind. I show you a more excellent way to operate these gifts.

 

Why did you want the miracle? How come you wanted to see the blind eye opened? Did you want to tell somebody, you prayed the prayer of faith? Or was your compassionate heart touched with that little blind child.

 

In every case I find Jesus said, “Don’t tell anyone.” It also said, “He was moved with compassion.” Why do I want the gift of healing? So I can go around with throngs following me, and put up a big tent, and say, “The divine healer is here!” If it ceases to be a compassion. If your ministry itself ceases to be for compassion. If it’s a way of life. If you study your Bible, like a lawyer studies his law book, to argue a case, you’re wrong! Study it to be able to give an answer to every man. The lawyer doesn’t love his law book. He’s trying to outwit somebody. Why do you study that Book?

 

“Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee ” (Psalm 119:11).

 

I love his Word, and you can’t separate God from his Word.

 

The gift of prophecy is divine utterance. It is very similar to interpretation of tongues, except it is not preceded by tongues. To me the gift of prophecy is interpretation of tongues, with no tongues proceeding it.

 

When Belshazzar saw the handwriting on the wall, he saw it but didn’t know the interpretation. When Daniel interpreted the handwriting, this fell under the gift of the word of wisdom.

 

Supernatural wisdom is not natural wisdom developed, augmented or

intensified. The wisdom that Solomon had was wisdom intensified by God.

He prayed to God for an increase in wisdom. Taking what you already know, and God strengthening it.

 

When the animals marched by Adam, he named them according to gift of wisdom. I’ve contended that the reason we have geniuses today is they’re an aftermath of Eden. Adam had wisdom all the time. There’s one thing he did not know about, and that’s evil. When a genius like Einstein comes along, it’s a little insight to what Adam was all the time. He was as a god, miraculously knowing. There are born geniuses in Africa way back in the jungle, but they never have the right environment to develop that genius ability, so they still are playing on tom-tome.

 

I’m saying, the purpose of this school is to develop someone who may be a spiritual genius, if given the right environment. Since Adam had it in the garden of Eden, and we’re going to have it when we are resurrected, God has promised us touches of it in between Eden and immortality. I believe we ought to have it. I believe we ought to plug in every now and then, and know some things miraculously.

 

Every so often the mind of God needs to come to us. What He knows ought to be shared with us, if we walk with Him as we should. As I see it, Calvary restored mankind back to Eden, allowing, when needed, access to God’s resources of knowledge and understanding.

 

That’s why, of all people, that should walk in this realm, it should be us. The prophets did, and they didn’t have what we have. But available to us momentarily is the divine knowledge and wisdom, if we would avail ourselves through consecration.

 

I believe the miraculous word of wisdom does not necessarily mean it is for a future event. It can also be a word for a problem in the present, when man cannot find the answer.

 

The word is not only divine, but it is opposed to human wisdom. The word of wisdom is a glance into the hidden realm of God’s future plans and purpose. It is not to be confused with wisdom and prudence.

 

The word of wisdom does not require that the one who has the gift of the word of wisdom is necessarily a wise person. Some of the most unlearned men can, in the Spirit, get a revelation.

 

Having gained wisdom could hinder you, because invariably you would want to reason, with what you already know. Reasoning can hinder any of the gifts. If you’re the type to reason things out, you’re going to have difficulty operating any gift in God’s Bible.

 

Supernatural is opposite to the natural. Human reasoning combined with divine purpose, can distort and confuse the thought. The best way for a man to operate any gift, is to be totally helpless, and bankrupt. That doesn’t mean we should lazily sit back and say, “Oh God, whenever I need to know something, I’m going pull on the word of wisdom.”

 

We should be growing in wisdom all the time, the Bible teaches us to do it, but not in human reasoning.

 

“For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God” (I Corinthians 1:21).

 

This is earthly wisdom. The wisdom the Bible is teaching you to gain, is more about God, or his Word. The more of this world’s wisdom you’ve got, the more apt you are to reason things out. That’s the reason why an older man loses his faith. The older he gets, the more apt he is to reason things out. A young man is built for strength, older men for wisdom, and counsel. As a man grows older, he becomes more conscious of the intricate parts of our life, and has a way of putting things together better. If he’s not careful, he’ll lose his faith.

 

That’s why men would trust God with their babies, while an officer stood there, threatening to put them in jail, when they were young. The same men today are going to hospitals. The dangerous part of your life, is the older you get, the more accumulated earthly wisdom you get, the more you reason, and the less faith you’ll have. Human reasoning defies faith.

 

For me to grow in the wisdom of the Lord, is for me to know how better to serve him, how to pray, and how to conduct myself as a preacher. This is growing in godly wisdom.

 

Reasoning will tell you, “That man’s eye won’t be healed. ” “That arm will not be straightened out.” Godly wisdom is accumulating information that will better help you to serve the Lord, and help others.

 

“And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end: That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself. Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying l will multiply thee. And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise”

(Hebrews 6:11-15).

 

I believe that was the gift of faith. He endured and waited patiently, until he obtained the promise. The working miracles is the instant manifestation of something. The miraculous gift of healings, is the miraculous healing of a body. An eye is immediately opened, an arm is straightened out. The gift of faith is to take hold of a promise. It does not necessarily mean that it will happen presently. The gift of faith in Abraham’s case, was that he received a promise, and many years later it was fulfilled. The endurance, stability, courage, to hold God to His Word, in tempestuous times, is the gift of faith. To believe through the storm. The gift of faith operates at very serious times. It is a preventative, and securing faith.

 

(Student) When you try the spirits. Are you using human reasoning? (Bean) Trying the spirits is not human reasoning. But human reasoning can enter into any of this. Where we are at a loss, sometimes, is we spend so much time checking His voice, that it becomes human reasoning. We ought to be able to do is to understand His voice quicker, before human reasoning has destroyed us.

 

When I was impressed with the thought of being killed in a carwreck, it came in the same manner that God usually spoke to me. Usually before, I could easily detect the devil’s voice. But this time it came like the Holy Ghost. We must learn to learn to try the spirits. The tempter is forever there to give human reasoning. It has helped me simply to determine the will of God.

 

“…If we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him” (I John 5:14).

 

I may feel a strong impulse that a soul is going to be saved. Well, the devil will never talk that way, so there’s no reason for me to reason that out.

 

In one place where I was preaching a revival, we met every morning in prayer. Faith built up so strongly, that we were speaking out, how many were going to get the Holy Ghost that night. He never gave us less, He did sometimes give us more. This particular morning it came to me strongly to believe for four. We generally had fifteen to thirty in the altar, so it wasn’t hard to believe four out of thirty would get the Holy Ghost.

 

As the service started, two women walked in, and the Holy Ghost spoke to me, and said “There’s two of the four. ” The devil will tell you things to put question in your mind. At altar call, we had five come up front, and these two ladies were among them. This helped my faith, until they got up and walked back to their seats. After awhile another left, and this left two in the altar. There I was supposed to be

believing for four, and there wasn’t but two left, and they were the hardest ones.

 

I came off the platform and went back to those women, and said “Ladies, God spoke to me when you came in the door, that you both were going to get the Holy Ghost tonight, so go on back to the altar!”

 

They believed me, and went back to the altar, and both received the Holy Ghost. They worshipped and praised the Lord for awhile, and then I said to them, “You see those two at the altar? You’re going to help me pray them through!”

 

I had already convinced them that I knew what I was talking about. There was faith in their hearts. We marched down there, and it wasn’t long until the other two were prayed through.

 

Human reasoning could have entered into that very easily, and said, “There’s only five.” There was no need to check the spirit, because I believed it was God, because it was telling me about a soul being saved.

 

You are forever in danger, when you try the spirits, of exposing yourself to human reasoning. But there are some things to help eliminate human reasoning out of your trying the spirits.

 

Is it the will of God? Okay, then I don’t have to reason. That’s the voice of the Lord. But there is a thin line between human reasoning and trying the spirits. The voice of God is generally the softest voice you’ll hear. And if you’re not careful, you can run right over it.

 

When I was trying to find the will of God, whether or not to marry my wife, human reasoning entered into that so severely, that any signal God gave me, I tore it to pieces.

 

The further you go in trying the spirits, beyond where the voice of God is speaking, the more you’re going to get into human reasoning. I feel that God is obligated to guide you. I ask God to let it die out if it is not of Him. In fact, this is one of the things I used about my wife, and it didn’t die it got worse! Hallelujah! When you are trying to forget her, because you’re scared it’s not God, and it’s still coming through strongly, something’s wrong.

 

I hope you don’t ever go through what I went through. God showed me in a dream, myself, and I was an old truck loaded down with junk. I was loaded with fear.

 

You need to be cautious about whom you marry. If you’re going to be a preacher, you’d better be cautious, but not to the extent that you can’t hear God. I got to where I didn’t believe I’d ever hear His voice again. I got that far out into the wilderness. I finally went to a friend of mine, and knelt in the altar and said, “Lay hands on me. I can’t pray, I’m dead, and I’m lifeless.” I was like a rag wrung slap out. There wasn’t any juice left! I didn’t have the heart to pray. The only reason I’m telling you this, is God knows I want you to find the right one.

 

Here’s what I had always been able to do. I could forget girls at the snap of a finger. Put me in a revival, and I wouldn’t care if there was such a thing. I could get totally lost in a revival, and forget every human feeling I had in this world. I guess that’s why I enjoyed revivals so much, is because I got lost in them.

 

That’s why environment meant nothing to me. If the house was shabby, it looked like a mansion, when I was lost in revival.With my ability to get lost in God, I could get burdened, and prayerful. That was my life. Jesus said,

 

“. ..I have meat to eat that ye know not of ” (John 4:32).

 

I believe that was what was happening to me. I didn’t even have an appetite. I’d as soon eat red beans, as to eat a steak. Whatever they put on the table was fine for me. I had no appetite. I ate for strength only. I was lost in revival, and that’s the sweetest place on earth. There’s nothing in this world like getting hid in God, to where nothing matters.

 

That’s why money never did bother me. If I got a dollar, fine, if I got two hundred dollars, fine. My ultimate goal was to get more of God, and get some souls prayed through.

 

Between revivals, after I learned better, I learned to give a little more to human appetite. To eat the right kind of foods, relax, and rest. But when in revivals, forget it. Nothing else mattered.

 

But I was sick and tired of wrestling with the thought whether or not this girl would be the girl. I didn’t want to fool with it anymore, so I wanted to get lost in revival. However, I couldn’t go to revival, because I got sick. If my fear that she was the wrong one was true, why didn’t God let me go get lost in revival? All I could think of was, “Wouldn’t it be nice to have a wife, to bring broth to me!” God knew I could get lost in revival. He knew I could drown my thoughts for that girl. So He wouldn’t let me go, until I knew His will.

 

I’ll never forget the evening I found His will. Man alive! Don’t ever let anyone tell you, that you can’t know the will of God for a thing like that!

 

Guilt was built up that she wasn’t the will of God, so I was sinning and doing wrong to keep from calling and talking to her. But again, here came that strong feeling to talk to her. I never had it for another one like that. I said, “Lord, I’m going to call her one more time, and I’ll repent later!” I called her, and what do you think happened. Before, a guilt would come, and I’d say, “My God, forgive me.” We didn’t say anything wrong, I felt like if this wasn’t God, then I am disobeying God to play around with this.

 

But when I called this time, there was no guilt. And I tried to create some, and it wasn’t there. The more I thought on it, the better I felt. A joy started coming to my heart. I went home, and said, “Mother, I believe I found the will of God! I believe she’s the one. ” And when I admitted it, the glory of God fell on me, and I started talking in tongues uncontrollably!

 

I was shaving and getting ready for church, and I was talking in tongues and shaving, I couldn’t quit! I have never felt a greater assurance. I didn’t get it for my ministry like I got it for my wife. Until this day, there is that deep, forever lasting assurance. Boys, don’t stop until you get it.

 

Well, what got us off on that? The gifts of the Spirit!!

 

The gift of healing is a miraculous healing of the body. Understand the difference between the faith that a saint has for getting healed, and the miraculous gift of healing. The operation of the anointing of oil, is not necessarily the gift of healing. It could be, but not necessarily. This is prayer of faith for the sick.

 

A friend of mine had something go wrong with his hearing. A small sound, vibrated like thunder. As a result, while his wife was cooking, the rattling of pots and pans sounded like war. He’d have to go outside while she cooked. Any sound was magnified many times what it should have been. He couldn’t even come to church. He was a faithful man, but he couldn’t stand the noise.

 

One night, they were having a healing service. Someone persuaded him to come, and was standing in the line to be prayed for, but the noise was about to get him. He saw an exit door close by, and he was thinking, “I’m fixing to leave, I can’t stand it.” The preacher doing the praying, stopped, and went around about a half a dozen ahead of him, and said “I feel like praying for you right now.” God knew he was fixing to go out that door.

 

He prayed for him, and he turned around and took about three steps, stopped and raised his hands and said, “I’m well!” His hearing went immediately back to normal. And that old man has testified to the mayor, to a college, everyone he meets.

 

That is the gift of healing in operation, with the assistance of other gifts. In the majority of cases, the gift of healing is supported by the word of knowledge. Not every time, but generally it is.

 

Operating a gift will usually build your faith for a particular gift. One morning I was up on a platform praying, and the Spirit spoke to me, “There’s stealing here in this church.”

 

God had shown me adultery, and a lot of sins, but I had never revealed stealing. And I’d been criticized so much about going latter rain, and had even been told that I was going crazy. I’ll be honest with you, I wondered if I wasn’t going off my rocker that morning. I thought to myself, “Boy, do you reckon this is the last stage?”

 

God came back with a voice that this time wasn’t that soft. He said, “You reveal it, or I’ll take the gift away from you, and you’ll never use it again!”

 

I said, “Okay God, I’ll tell them.”

 

I got up in prayer meeting that morning, and said, “There’s stealing in this church.”

 

I got up there that night, with the house packed out, with sinners back there, I said “There’s stealing in this church!”

 

I wasn’t going to let God take that away from me. If you never get a feedback on some of these things, it can be damaging to you. In this case, and I wasn’t interested in listening to confession. I had heard all I ever wanted to hear. This pastor didn’t invite me in to hear. That was fine, but the only thing was, here I had revealed stealing, plus some adultery, and I didn’t know if it had been confessed or not. So, I went to the pastor’s office. I said to the pastor, “I don’t mean to be nosy. I’m not trying to indulge into your affairs. But I revealed some things that I need some feedback on. I need to hear some of this to know and renew my faith.

 

He said, “That’s all right. Come on in.”

 

I picked one woman, she was a good consecrated saint, that felt like she hadn’t prayed enough, so we got rid of her pretty quickly.

 

The next one I picked, the man had stolen a thousand dollars from his brother. Besides having committed adultery, and he was the musical director of the church, and a Sunday school teacher.

 

The next one I picked was a woman who had operated in the ladies’ auxiliary, and she had stolen five dollars out of ladies’ auxiliary money, and she had been guilty of adulteress actions.

 

I said, “That’s all I want to hear.”

 

My faith had been established that I had accurately discerned the will of God in that case.

 

I asked him later, “I’ve been revealing some adultery cases. Has any been confessed.”

 

He was sick to the stomach. He couldn’t eat. He said, “Has it been confessed? Five separate cases have been confessed.”

 

I didn’t glory in that, but I knew I wasn’t going down the wrong trail.

That strengthened my faith in this word of knowledge.

 

I believe it’s good for you to know that you prayed the prayer of faith for a sick body, to know a healing occurred, to continue your faith. I have faith tonight, because the anointing is on me, but tomorrow the devil may give me a fit. To prevent him from doing that, I go in and get me an assurance for what I’ve said.

 

There are times when God speaks to me, that I never question it. Why it’s that way I don’t know. I don’t want to leave the impression that every time the voice of God speaks, that I go through a great maneuvering to find out what voice that is. You’ll do some things under the anointing that tomorrow, when that anointing is gone, will nearly scare you to death.

 

The woman who brought me the handkerchief, said a woman was dying of cancer, and had but a few days to live. She didn’t have the Holy Ghost, and could hardly speak above a whisper. I poured the oil on the handkerchief, and said “When you lay it on her body, she’ll get the Holy Ghost, and she’ll be healed!”

 

Well man, when I think about that now, it almost scares me! Where did that kind of boldness come from? Right then I had the faith. There was no doubt in my mind. But a few days later, God was good to have the lady write me a letter, and told me “When I laid the handkerchief on the sick lady, she got up and shouted all over the room, talking in tongues, and healed!” I believed it when I said it, but in the meantime faith can be hindered, or void, so he reassured me by allowing me to know it happened.

 

You could have faith for something, but while you’re waiting for God to do it, you lose faith. That lack of faith can void out the previous faith.

 

“For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise” (Hebrews 10:36).

 

This was why when Abraham patiently waited, he was called the father of fathers. If he would have staggered at the promise of God, he wouldn’t have gotten the promise. A man kneeled at the feet of Jesus,

 

“And besought him greatly, saying, My little daughter lieth at the point of death: I pay thee, come and lay thy hands on her, that she may be healed; and she shall live. And Jesus went with him, and much people followed him, and thronged him” (Matthew 5:23,24).

 

Then a certain woman approached Jesus with her issue of blood. Jesus took time to heal the woman of her infirmity.

 

“While he yet spake, there came from the ruler of the synagogue’s house certain which said, Thy daughter is dead: why troublest thou the Master any further? As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, he saith unto the ruler of the synagogue, Be not afraid, only believe” (Matthew 35,36)

 

The man was asking Jesus to come heal his daughter, but in between his request and the healing, the discouraging news, the girl was already dead, came to them. Jesus, no doubt, saw that this man’s faith was going down. So, He said,

 

“…Be not afraid, only believe” (Matthew 5:36).

 

He gave the ruler a reassurance. Many times, in our holding on for things, God has to strengthen our faith, occasionally. Once you get an assurance from God, hold to it. He wouldn’t have told you that, if He didn’t plan to do it.

 

“Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2).

 

God will not author a faith that He won’t finish. There are things I tried to believe for, and I couldn’t, because God didn’t want to do it. Therefore, He wouldn’t author the faith for it. But if He ever authors it, He meant to do it. That’s why He speaks of the full assurance of faith.

 

(Student) Are you saying that God will give somebody the faith for something? He chose that people ask for things through prayer. He’ll give someone the faith to pray for that particular issue.

 

(Bean) He gives to all men faith. Faith is available to all of us. But, then, there is a gift of faith resident in a man, who consistently operates in this realm. Whereas, you and I may do like the first sputnik. We may go to the border of space, and come back down. These that are in that orbit of continuous circling, they have the gift of healings. It is a more consistent thing with them, not them personally, necessarily, but through them to others. These individuals generally inspire faith. In a massive audience, they may inspire a miracle of faith, though it would not abide when that man leaves, and they’d go back to their normal believing again. This man has not only the ability to operate it, he can inspire it. This would be predominantly in the ministry, but not exclusively.

 

I know a man in our community that never preached in his life, and didn’t claim to be a preacher. God used him miraculously through the gift of healing. He was a good, faithful saint. Anyone in our community that got sick called for him, and invariably got their healing.

 

One night, someone called him in the night, and he was tired. He said, “My Lord, why don’t you ever get somebody else!” And that gift left him, and it never operated again as long as he lived.

 

That’s why a person needs to understand what they’re doing, when they are seeking after gifts. You can’t play with them like a little toy.

Gifts will make you work!

 

I don’t say this boasting to turn attention to me, but I’ve been in services when I knew everybody there was waiting on me to know the mind of God. I’ve had preachers get me for the purpose of discerning what the problem was in their church. That puts you on the spot. That’ll make you work your legs off!

 

(Student) I know of a preacher that said, as far as he’s concerned, they’re healed after being prayed for, but their unbelief may cause them not to receive their healing.

 

(Bean) There may be some merit to that statement. I certainly do feel that an individual, especially if they are adults, and conscious, can hinder results, or their faith could help.

 

In any of these gifts, especially in the gift of healing, a person needs the ability to inspire others to believe.

 

“And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief” (Matthew 13:58).

 

It wasn’t that He didn’t want to, or that He couldn’t, but his unbelief hindered Him.

 

(Student) If a hundred people come up for healing, and seventy-five get healed, then should they have all been healed?

 

(Bean) The only reason that all one hundred weren’t healed, would be because they have sin in their lives, or else total unbelief. Usually, the faith for a person to walk up to a prayer line, is faith enough for a healing. Many times the operator of the gift of healing will have to have the gift of knowledge operating. I’ve seen this many times, where as they started praying for sick people, they’d stop and say, “Wait a minute. God showed me such and such in your life, and it will prevent your healing. ”

 

In fact I remember Brother Duke saying on an occasion, “I can’t even pray for you! ” And pass them on by. The gift of knowledge will tell you what the trouble is, and if they’re ready then to repent, then God would both forgive and heal them.

 

A few times I have prayed for saints, that I felt were not ready to receive their healing, so I’d quickly pray for them, rather than make an obstacle out of the thing. I feel to disturb it right then. It wasn’t time. I didn’t mean I’d be a hypocrite, my prayer would be, “Oh God have mercy on them. Show them their need. ”

 

If a person has failed, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll have to name their sin. The only reason you’d name their sin, would be to make them conscious of it. They may already be conscious, and they may be crying and repenting while you’re praying for them. That’s between God and them, and the sin may have been between them. If so, they can repent without you knowing of it, or revealing it.

 

The only purpose for revealing sin, would be to stir their minds up about it. Sometimes, they’re trying to get by with it. But the Holy Ghost will reveal it to you, so they won’t. When you bring it to their attention, they’ll see they couldn’t get by with it. Maybe they’d thought they had repented, and God would bring it to your attention, to let them know they hadn’t. If I’ve failed you, I can’t tell God about it, I’ve got to come to you. Sometimes a person may feel they’ve fixed it with God, when they need to fix it with their brother.

 

If you feel that they’re doing something about their sin, don’t mention it. They may be conscious of it, and not doing anything about it, and in that case you have to mention it, as the Spirit leads. There’s a premature time to mention sin.

 

I went to pray for a man, and I knew he wasn’t going to get well. He was going to get worse, because it was the plan of God, for he wasn’t right with God. He wasn’t ready to receive healing, or instruction. He wasn’t sick enough! You get them hurting badly enough, and they’ll say “Yes sir.” But, right, then he wasn’t that sick.

 

After a while, it was the hospital and an operation or die. I went back to him, and anything I had to say, he was ready to do, and he got his healing. But, he couldn’t get his healing until correction was made in his life.

 

I already knew what the correction he needed was, but it wasn’t time to tell him. If I’d have told him, he’d have become aggravated with me, and I wouldn’t have had the chance to come back and pray for him later.

 

The gift of miracles is separate from physical recovery. It’s more of a natural change, such as the parting of waters, or flames of fire. If someone is raised from the dead, that to me would be the gift of miracles. There’s a thin line, sometimes, between the different gifts, barely indiscernible which was operating.

 

To me there’s a thin line, because sometimes the disease itself has a spirit. I believe cancer is a demon. There’s a spirit of infirmity. I believe that you can get rid of the spirit, but I don’t necessarily believe it will heal that scar. There will have to be a healing. If the gift of faith is what is used to cast out spirits, then the gift of faith cast out the spirit, and the gift of healing replaced the recovered the place that was wounded by the infirmity.

 

I have believed this for a long time, that the reason some people don’t completely get their healing, is they received deliverance from the spirit, but since they didn’t get their miracle of healing, they gave up and conceded they didn’t get anything, when they should have waited.

 

“When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none” (Matthew 12:43).

 

When you’re sick you’d best learn that when fighting the devil, if you’ve had the spirit driven out that caused the infirmity, before the signs of healing are apparent, he’ll come by again with the same symptoms to attempt to convince you that you weren’t healed.

 

When the gift of healing occurs, it is instantaneous. If healing, or faith is operating, it could lead to recovery. It doesn’t mean that it will occur instantly. But I’d have to confine the gift of healing to instant results.

 

I believe as an operator of the gift of healing, I may get from God the fact that God wants, or is going to heal. And I may declare it, but maybe the sick person’s faith didn’t match the instant, miraculous faith.

 

I prayed for a woman that was totally deaf. The gift of healing operated, but her faith did not operate instantly. She woke up the next morning, hearing! She left there that night not hearing. It took her until the next morning to accept what had been given to her. It was instant and miraculous when she did accept it. She didn’t gradually get to hearing a little better, she woke up hearing. At the moment, she didn’t claim it. As far as God and I were concerned, it was done, but there was a delay in her faith. But this is still in the realm of the gift of healing. It was instantaneous, but not in the instant we prayed.

 

Recovery faith would have been a gradual improvement in her hearing. Day after day there would be improvement, until finally six months later, she can hear.

 

The operation of the gifts is a constant mystery. You think you’ve got it all confined to a set pattern, then something will happen totally differently.

 

One night I was praying for a woman, and don’t copy me on this, because it may never happen again. She was having serious trouble with an anemic condition. She looked dead walking around. I went to pray for her, and the Spirit spoke and said, “You tell her that the same God that turned water into wine, is going to turn water into blood! Tell her to go home, and get a glass of water, in the name of Jesus, and drink it, and believe that it will become blood, and will actually furnish her a blood transfusion.”

 

I told her, and she went home and drank the water, and said to me later, “I’ve never in my life felt like I feel. The water felt like warm flows were going through my veins. I laid on the bed, for quite a while, feeling like I was having something warm flowing through my veins.” Now that sounds totally ridiculous, except,

 

“. . . Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. … When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eye of the blind man with the clay, And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing” (John 9:1,6,7).

 

Why did he do that? All I can figure is that some people cannot receive things from God without a little effort. Their faith needs to have works. This little effort on her part, helped her to believe.

 

I didn’t try to figure it all out, I said what God told me to tell her, and it worked!

 

We know that any special event that God would do is considered a miracle. In the light of the gift of miracles, is somewhat separated to itself. It is slightly separate from the gift of healing.

 

The working of miracles has to do with intervention of God into the course of nature. Jesus turning the water into wine was a miracle. Nobody was healed there, it was jug of water that turned into a jug of wine. The parting of the Red sea was a miracle. The stopping of the sun for a space of a day was a miracle. These are in the course of nature, that God intervenes.

 

You’ll notice in the terminology of the Bible, that it will use words that are almost alike, but yet they’re not.

 

“Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, emulations… wrath, strife” (Galatians 5:19,20).

 

It’s difficult to separate emulations from strife. They’re almost identical yet there is a difference. This is what I find in the gifts of the Spirit. Since they are so closely akin, and even overlap one another, sometimes you find it difficult to know which one is in operation. But, to help us know, we come to the conclusion that it is evident that the gift of miracles had to do with that outside the body, God’s intervening into natural things. Also, the casting out of evil spirits comes under the category of miracles.

 

A demon could be cast out by the gift of miracles, and that scar that was left would be healed by the gift of healing.

 

I believe there can be the scar of cancer, and a spirit of cancer. I do believe there is a demon of cancer. That spirit can be removed, but then something must be done with that which was injured. That doesn’t mean that these two gifts operate at different times. They could both instantly happen.

 

Brother Dallas Hayes was telling me about the time he had cancer on his nose. He said, “There is a spirit with cancer. There wasn’t a day that went by, that devil didn’t set on my shoulder, and tell me I was going to die.” That happened all day long. He said, “Normally I was a very happy, cheerful man. I love my farm, and my horses. But those horses started looking like rats. Everything looked dreary.” That demon of cancer got him so depressed that he lost all desire to do anything.

 

I’d like for you to make a mental note, that in my experience, I have seen, at times, an association of spirits that go along with a cancer. I’ve seen people who got cancer become very critical. Who were normally beforehand good, faithful saints. Brother Hayes fought a spirit of oppression. It seems like when a cancer comes in a human body, it gives leeway somehow, to other spirits.

 

Brother Hayes said, “One day I was riding along in my wagon, all of a sudden in desperation, I threw the lines down.” It didn’t make any difference if the horses ran into a hole, or a tree. He didn’t care. Then, he screamed as loud as he could scream at God. And said, “God, I’ve gone as far as I can go! You’ll have to take over!” When he threw the lines down, that was the end of it.

 

All of a sudden, it was like a warm wind blew by his face. The next morning half of that growth had dried up, and fallen off! By the next day, the other half dried up and fell off, and didn’t even leave a scar!

 

If we’re going to draw thin lines, to decipher between the two, I would say the gift of miracles drove the spirit out, and the gift of healing took the scar away.

 

The gift of miracles, and the gift of healings are both quicker than nature itself would heal.

 

I read in Reader’s Digest what the body can do to recover itself, but anything shorter than that comes under the categories of healing and miracles.

 

I don’t believe that people that have cancer aren’t right with God, necessarily. I’ve seen good, faithful saints that had cancers, that trusted God all the way through. Brother Hayes wasn’t sinning, but another spirit joined the cancer spirit. It’s possible that the spirit of depression opened the door to the spirit of cancer. I believe that spirits can open the door to the heart for other spirits.

 

I’m not sure why God would allow cancer to come upon faithful saints, unless, maybe, to test their faith. As far as I know, it’s not always a sin issue.

 

“Who through faith subdued kingdoms,… stopped the mouths of lions, Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword,…and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection” (Hebrews 11:33-35).

 

They all died having a good report through faith. Here’s one that stopped the mouth of lions, here’s another who was sawn asunder. They refused deliverance to obtain a better resurrection. They could have had deliverance, but they said, “Not me! I want a better resurrection! ”

 

And “others. ” When that dawned on me, it helped me to understand why God would let a faithful saint die, trusting him with some horrible disease.

 

A lot of this is a lack of faith among us. Fewer would die with cancer, if we would have these gifts in operation. God has to have faith before he can operate. That doesn’t mean that a good, faithful saint isn’t in touch with God, but somebody’s going to have to believe for that cancer to be removed. If there’s no faith, it won’t be removed.

 

We’re not here just to decipher the gifts. If that’s the reason we’re here, we’re wasting our time. I want to inspire you to reach for some of this. I’m going to reach for the men, you hear me! I’m reaching now!

 

Many times, I have felt that my mother has suffered sicknesses for the sake of others. When people watch a person suffer, and trust God right on through it, and then watch God heal them, that encourages them to believe God. Somebody has to be offered up. There has to be an Isaac.

 

If you’ve been used to pray for people, you can develop a faith for that. Whereas, if it were raining and your revival was being hindered, you would say, “My God, stop that rain.” You’re almost there in another dimension of faith. If a man had the faith to stop the rain, and operated consistently in that, he will stand a greater chance of

operating the gift of healing.

 

As I understand the gift of faith, it’s why Abraham had to wait the many years for Isaac, and also to endure taking Isaac up the hill to offer him. That’s the gift of faith.

 

The gift of faith is generally a longer range program, yet above the level of believing. It’s believing through the hardest of tests. It caused Paul to stand out on the boat when there was no hope,

 

“Wherefore I pray you to take some meat. . for there shall not an hair fall from the head of any of you ” (Acts 27:34).

 

He didn’t stop the storm. That would have been the gift of miracles. The faith to endure that storm, and believe that everything was going to come out all right.

 

The gift of healing was shown after he landed, and shook the snake off in the fire. You would have thought he could have stood up, and said, “I rebuke the storm,” and they would have sailed on. But God chose to test his gift of faith, rather than the gift of miracles, because there was a witness on that island he wanted.

 

Brother Bullhound went down to the train station. God told him to go to a certain city to preach. He took his trunk, and went and sat down at the train station. This is the gift of faith in operation. That is, if it’s consistent.

 

I believe everybody can on occasions go into orbit. This can add to the confusion. But I’m talking about someone who can consistently operate in the realm of having the gift of faith.

 

I believe I have seen all of this, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that I have all the gifts. I believe that’s why it’s confusing to some people, and they don’t believe it’s resident. Because, you may be inspired, sometime, and that faith will jump up and get a miracle. But it doesn’t mean your faith will stay at that level. I believe it’s for all of us to have our faith grow, but there is a definite resident gift.

 

Brother Bullhound sat there waiting with no money, but he was going to that particular town to preach. The train was coming down the track, and he still didn’t have a ticket.

 

After a while a man drove up in a hurry, and opened the door, and ran toward him, and said, “Preacher, I feel like giving you this money! ” And it was exactly what he needed to buy a ticket.

 

In those days, you had to pay additional for your trunk, and it wasn’t enough for his trunk. The man started back to his car, and he got to the car, and then turned around and said, “That wasn’t all I was supposed to give you.” He came back and gave him enough for his trunk. While the train was pulling up, he was buying his ticket.

 

That is under the auspices of the gift of faith.

 

Joe Duke was in Miami, Florida in revival. A tornado was headed toward them, and Joe Duke went out, and rebuked that thing in the name of Jesus Christ, and it went straight up and over! If it would have come on, it would have knocked a path right down their throat. That’s the gift of miracles.

 

The incident I described in Prayer, involving Brother Harks in Liberia, was a working of the gift of miracles. He was cutting down a tree to clear a way for a runway. That mammoth tree had roots as wide as normal tree, so you could imagine what the tree looked like. They had worked weeks on cutting the tree.

 

When they had cut through the tree, instead of falling away from the clearing, it started to fall toward the area of the runway. They knew they didn’t have enough equipment to ever move that tree. It would have taken years moving that tree if it fell into the clearing, and you don’t find a lot of clearings in that jungle easily.

 

The sky was blue without a cloud, and when that thing started popping and falling the wrong way. He backed up and said, “My God, you said you were a present help in time of trouble, help us! ”

 

Instantly there was a clap of thunder, and a black cloud formed, and a mighty wind came, and literally picked that tree up and threw it into the jungle. When it finished there wasn’t a cloud in the sky! There wasn’t a drop of rain! This is operation of the gift of miracles! You wouldn’t call that a healing!

 

Faith is a tricky thing. A man could have faith for one thing, and not another. It’s amazing. You’d think if you had faith you could believe for anything, but it doesn’t necessarily work that way. Brother Bullhound carried a pistol. You’d think a man that could get God to throw a tree in the woods, wouldn’t need to carry a pistol to kill snakes, and animals.

 

He was walking along one day, and God said “What are you doing with that pistol? What would you do if a mammoth python fell down on you? That pistol wouldn’t kill him. Who would you trust against a tiger or lion? You got it to kill the smaller things, but what’s going to kill the larger animals? If you can trust me with the large ones, why can’t you trust me for the little ones?”

 

He said, “God, if you let me get back to the house, I’ll never wear that pistol again as long as I live.”

 

I’m glad he told me that, because I had often wanted to go to the mission field, and I wondered, what would I do? That answered it for me. If you’re going to trust him, then trust him.

 

Brothers Bullhound and Freeman were laying on cots, and had covered themselves with a mosquito net. All night long these huge spiders as large as my hand crawled over one another, and they made a noise. Besides, there were rats that breathed on you, and actually deaden the nerve with their breath. They have something in their breath, that’ll deaden the nerve. They can eat and breath, and you’d never have known it. They wouldn’t even wake you up! They could deaden your nerve, and eat your toes off!

 

It got to be a comfort to hear those spiders and rats, because when they got quiet, there was a cobra in there!

 

To show the faith he had to have, one night they were going way back into the jungle, where people live in little thatched huts. He started to go in this particular hut, and he said it was exactly like a big arm reached and grabbed him, and stopped him. He knew it was God. He took his light, and started flashing it around on the floor. He thought a cobra must be in the hut. He happened to glance up, and right there on the wall was one of those huge spiders, crouched ready to jump. Of course, that’s why the Holy Ghost stopped him.

 

One of our missionaries said he was called to go preach in a place in Africa. He said he had never seen the like of light bugs (the kind that collects around lights). The air was thick with them. Every time he’d breathe, they would get down his throat.

Finally he said, “Brethren, I’m sorry, but I can’t preach, they’re too thick. So he went to the house.

 

One of the native preachers that he spoke of highly as being a man of faith, was out there by himself. He so desperately wanted to hear this missionary preach. That native preacher got down and said, “God, I ask you to rebuke every bug in this air. Drive them out of here!”

 

After a while the native preacher came in and knocked on the missionary’s door, and said, “Brother, I believe you can preach now. ” He went back out there, and there wasn’t one bug that flew around his head. They were gone! That is a miracle.

 

When the disciples were on the sea in the storm, and would have simply waited, believing that the storm would pass over them, that they would be secure, that would have been the gift of faith. The gift of miracles was Jesus calming the waters.

 

Faith would have endured no matter what happened to the waters. The gift of faith is passive, while the other gifts are active.

 

The gift of faith is erroneously regarded as the basis of all the other gifts of the Spirit. This is to confuse the different kinds of faith. Faith, that is above general faith, is certainly necessary to the operation of all the gifts. Even the operation of the gift of faith. General faith is needed to operate the gift of faith, in addition to the other gifts, but the gift of faith is a supernatural endowment quite distinct from the general faith, and equally distinct from the other eight supernatural endowments of the Spirit. All the nine gifts operate by faith, even the gift of faith, just as all motor cars run on gasoline, even that great six wheel motor gasoline tank. Here is that big truck putting gasoline in the tank, and yet it’s running on gas.

 

The more you study the different degrees of faith, the more enlightened you’ll be on every phase of our doctrine. The more you can explain why a man can believe on God, and yet not talk in tongues.

 

Simon believed and was baptized, but he didn’t get the Holy Ghost. The different denominations declare themselves as believers. I believe they are believers, but their believing is not to the degree saving their souls. There is a faith that believes in the historical fact of Jesus. When their faith reaches a saving level, it will cause them to speak in tongues. Here’s what’s confusing to them. They know they believe, but they’re not believing as the Scripture said, or their faith has not reached the saving level.

 

There are different phases of faith involving healing. There is recovery faith, an instant miraculous faith in healing.

 

“…Let us prophecy according to the proportion of faith” (Remains)”…According to your faith be it unto you ” (Matthew 9:29). “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved” (Mark 16:16).

 

Somebody says, “I believe. ” The Bible says that Simon believed, and I believe the Bible is true. He believed and was baptized. He had to believe in something or he wouldn’t have been baptized, but his faith did not reach the saving level. You talk about driving it home to denominal people,

 

“He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified) ” (John 7:38-39).

 

They that believe, should receive the Holy Ghost. If they believe on the saving level, they’re going to receive the Holy Ghost.

 

Paul declared that the disciples that he found were believers.

 

…Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?” (Acts 19:2). (Emphasis Added)

 

He acknowledged whatever faith they had. There are degrees of faith. The reason I’m bringing this out, is it’s a good argument to use for the man that feels he’s saved by believing. But did his faith reach the saving level that Paul spoke of to the twelve disciples? Did his faith come to the level where he spoke in tongues? If he didn’t, it’s not to the saving level, yet. I won’t deny he got something, but not enough to save him.

 

Faith is one of the fruits of the Spirit, in addition to all of this. So, you have to understand what category of faith we’re talking about. “For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith” (Romans 1:7). “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God. . . that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God” (II John 5:13).

 

His point was that they believed in the name for a baptismal formula, but he wanted them to believe in it also as a miracle giver, healer, and a deliverer.

 

From faith to faith. I don’t even believe it’s limited to that. When I have attained the general faith, I can go from that faith to some of these other faiths. The point is that you can grow in faith.

 

. . .Building up yourselves on your most holy faith ” (Jude 22). “Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God ” (Hebrews 6:1).

 

We’ve believed that

 

“…He is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him” (Hebrews 11:6).

 

Now, he says,

 

“. . . Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment” (Hebrews 6:1).

 

On top of that foundation, let’s add faith to faith. Let’s do more than believe in God’s existence, and God’s eternal doctrine, let’s believe in his ability to heal. Spread on out now.

 

Here’s one of the most beautiful messages God ever gave me to preach. I want everyone of you to preach it, before you die, somewhere, if you have to preach it to your wife!

 

“Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities: shine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down; not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken” (Isaiah 33:20).

 

We know Zion to be the church. The city is where we are now. We have come to the general assembly, and church of the first born. We have come to blood sprinkled that speaks better things than that of Abel. We are not at a place that Moses stood, we are at a city now. We’re in Zion. This is where blood screams, but it’s better things than that of Abel’s blood. Abel’s blood cried condemnation against Cain. The blood that spilled at Calvary cried justification. When he said,

 

“…Father, forgive them” (Luke 23:34). “By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh” (Hebrews 11:6).

 

His blood was talking by faith. Jesus Christ died, but the faith He had, caused His blood to talk. Abel’s blood was saying, “Condemn him,” he killed me. Jesus cried from Calvary, “Forgive them.” There’s the voice of His pool of blood, crying justification.

 

We have arrived at the general assembly. We’re not going there, we’re there. Our names are on the general assembly role. We have come to the mountain of God, where they have actually grounded out their lives. The spirits of just men have been made perfect, where we are. We’re at the place where Paul suffered and died, where Peter was purified, and crucified with his head down. We’re there now. We’re not going; we’re there!

 

Look at Zion, look where you are. Where have you arrived? Is there a law over your head? Is there a law that says on Saturday you can’t go out to pick up sticks, or you’ll be killed? That’s not where we are. My Bible says that He took the ordinances that were against us, and nailed them to his cross. Every statute and ordinance that was against us, He said “Put that in there, and nail that one there. ”

 

Now then, we are at a place not under condemnation. Paul said,

 

“Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:12-14).

 

Look at Zion, that’s where we are. No ordinances against us, they’re taken out of the way. We have redemption through His blood. We have access to that which is behind the vail. The accumulation of the grace of God of all dispensations has been brought in a package, and sat in our lap. For the Book said of all the men, the panoramic view of God’s program is the eleventh chapter of the Book of Hebrew. You sit in the bleachers and watch God pull curtains, and watch one act after another, and everyone of them keeps you on the edge of your bench.

 

First of all, you see Him reaching out for a ball of nothing, and throwing it from nothing, and making a world out of it.

 

“Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear” (Hebrews 11:3).

 

The next act, the curtains are drawn on the two boys I’ve been telling you about, and it’s a murder scene. A little gruesome.

 

The next scene, out steps Enoch. Walking along, then all of a sudden, God says, “We’re closer to my house, than we are yours. You go home with me!” And Enoch starts going by faith, but before his translation he had this testimony,

 

“. . .He pleased God ” (Hebrews 11:5).

 

The curtain is drawn open on Noah, tacking away on an ark, and by faith

 

“…He condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith ” (Hebrews 11:7).

 

Now, talking about exciting, look at Abraham! He left family, and wealth, and walked out into nothing.

 

“…Dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob the heirs with him of the same promise” (Hebrews 11:9).

 

Before the curtains are closed on Abraham, he had his son, and was fixing to offer him as a sacrifice. Before he dropped the sword, Gods said, “Don’t do it. I’ve caught you a ram over here in the bushes.” What an exciting scene!

 

And, then we see Sarah, by faith, herself receiving strength to conceive seed, and bore a son and called his name Isaac.

 

By faith, Jacob, leaning on a staff, blessed the sons of Joseph.

 

By faith, Moses, did not fear the wrath of the king, but endured as seeing Him who is invisible.

 

By faith they stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire! My, what exciting scenes!

 

But I said all that, to say this. The accumulation of all the goodness, grace, mercy and favor of God was accumulated and dropped down in our laps. The eleventh chapter of Hebrew declares,

 

“God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect” (Hebrews 11:40).

 

We are obligated, Gentlemen, to operate the gifts to make the faith of these men perfect! It’s a missing link. A prophet walked up to the king and said,

 

“…There were two men in one city; the one rich, and the other poor. The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds: but the poor man had nothing, save one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished up: and it grew up together with him, and with his children; it did eat of his own meat, and drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was unto him as a daughter. And there came a traveller unto the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd, to dress for the wayfaring man that was come unto him; but took the poor man’s lamb, and dressed it for the man that was come to him. And David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man; and he said to Nathan, As the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die: And he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity. And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man ” (II Samuel 12:1-7).

 

God revealed to the prophet that David had stolen Uriah’s wife. If God did that for those men, and revealed secrets to them, and the Book says He revealed His secrets to His servants, then we’re going to be a missing link, if we don’t receive revelations. They, without us, cannot be made perfect. Perfection of truth is in this church. You are in the greatest scene. Any play writer saves his last scene to be his best one. All other scenes point to the last. Any book writer makes every chapter point to the conclusion. What are we doing? We are acting out the very last! When we finish, they’re going to draw the curtain, and a big sign in blue is going to say “The End.”

Upon whom the ends of the world are come”

(I Corinthians 10:11).

 

We’re sitting around sucking our thumbs, and looking pitiful, and wondering why we can’t have revival. When available to us is the accumulation of dispensations! If you’re satisfied with a little jig every now and then, and a little sermon, then God have mercy on you. That’s all I’ve got to say.

 

Look upon Zion. Look where we are. That which was accumulated from Moses, was perfected, and that which was not good for us was taken out. Didn’t he say he planted a vineyard in a very fruitful hill? And he moved the stones out. Then he hedged it about. We are surrounded and covered by his Spirit. Then He put a tower in the midst of the vineyard.

 

“The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe” (Proverbs 18:10).

 

We’re in that vineyard. He’s moved the stones out,

 

“And planted it with the choicest vine ” (Isaiah 5:2). “I am the vine, ye are the branches” (John 15:5).

 

Did not He plant Himself three days and three nights in the heart of the earth? The choicest vine. Moved the stones, hedged it about, and put a tower, and said, “Bring forth fruit. ”

 

To His disappointment it brought forth wild grapes.

 

“What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it” (Isaiah 5:4) ?

 

He brought the focus of every prophet’s vision, and made the bulls-eye at Calvary. When he bowed his head, and said

 

“…It is finished” (John 19:30).

 

It was the culmination of every prophet’s vision! Every one of them pointed to Calvary. He surveyed the mirror of prophecy and saw Himself in it, and saw that He had fulfilled to the very letter every prophetic vision concerning Him! And then rose from the grave, “…He ascended up on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men” (Ephesians 4:8).

 

Do you understand what it means when it says, “Led captivity captive?” That meant He put the jailhouse in the jailhouse! He took chains and chained them. He put our prison cell in a prison cell. What more could He have done? Then He said,

 

“…Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

 

He showed them His hands, feet and sides to His disciples. Those were not marks of defeat, they were marks of victory! Paul said”…The captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings ” (Hebrews 2:10).

 

I do not salute bars on his lapel, nor stripes on His shoulder, but I salute the wound in His side! That’s what made Him Captain!

 

There’s not one alley, bypass, area, or corridor that He didn’t walk down and take! It’s His!

 

Jesus stood that day in the synagogue, and read out of the Book of Isaiah,

 

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering the sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down” (Luke 4:18-20).

 

That happened more than literally. When Jesus Christ bowed his head and said, “It is finished. ” He finished an earthly ministry, and the things contained in that prophecy concerning him were suddenly handed to the ministry. He closed the Book that had included in it delivery to those that are in captivity, recovery of sight to the blind, salve to them that are bruised, preaching the gospel to the poor. He said

 

“. . . This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears ” (Luke 4:21)

 

At Calvary, when He bowed His head, He did more than literally hand the Book in a synagogue to some priest. He, in reality, turned to the preachers, and said, “Here’s the Book, Boys. You are now Ny ambassadors. You represent Me.” Paul said

 

“. .. We pray you in Christ’s stead ” (II Corinthians 5:10).

 

The Book is in our hands now, to deliver those that are in captivity, and to recover the sight of the blind.

 

Look at Zion. Blood bought. Streaming from that pool of blood is justification, healing, salvation, blessing, hope, eternal life, everything that’s good and blessed! Here it is! We’re there!

 

“…Thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down; not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken” (Isaiah 33:20).

 

When the Apostle Peter grabbed that big sledge hammer that day, and said, “Boys, here’s where the corner stake of this tent goes.” He did that when he said,

 

“God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36).

 

And he stretched the cord. He preached repentance and baptism in Jesus’ name. The other apostles took their sledge hammers, and drove their stakes.

 

“And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone ” (Ephesians 2:20).

 

They drove them down, and tied the cords. Atheism, Catholicism, and every other kind of ‘ism,” has battered this tabernacle, but never forget, in the midst of all the confusion, and babbling of Babylon, eternal truth shall stand. The stakes have been driven, and will be there when He comes. Because He said

 

“For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven ” (Psalm 119: 89).

 

There will be a one God, Jesus’ name church when He comes! You and I may flounder, and falter, and mess up, and loosen our standards, and compromise our message, but somebody’s got a hold on the cord, and the stakes are still driven!

 

I don’t want to move the stakes!

 

Some said, “The only way we can have miracles, is to do away with the stakes.” Do something with the doctrine. Move our position doctrinally. Don’t be so harsh, and hard. Accept trinities, dualist, and oneness. But that’s not what this teaches!

 

“. . . Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down; not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed ” (Isaiah 33:20).

 

If you’ve got it settled in your heart, don’t worry about a thing. I believe I can launch from this launching pad to the moon, and come back if my keep my launching pad established.

 

Some are scared they’ll go off the deep end, but not if you’ll keep the stakes where they ought to be! All I’m trying to do is tap them every now and then to drive them a little deeper. There in the confines of this glorious Zion, in the confines of truth, holiness, one God, and Jesus’ name. We don’t have to go beyond this point. We don’t have to reach out to some false doctrine. We don’t have to get AAL, or any of the rest, in as our partner.

 

“But there the glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams ” (Isaiah 33: 20, 21).

 

We confine them to little narrow brooks. “Poor God has run out of soap, and can’t do much more than bless every now and then! ” “One reclaimed and three blessed,” and highly advertise that evangelist as a good singer. He said it won’t be that way! It will be a broad river.

 

“…And he brought me through the waters; the waters were to the ancles. Again he measured a thousand, and brought me through the waters; the waters were to the knees. Again he measured a thousand, and brought me through; the waters were to the loins. afterward he measured a thousand; and it was a river that I could not pass over: for the waters were risen, waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed over” (Ezekiel 47:3-5).

 

No wonder Paul said that we,

 

“May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height” (Ephesians 3:18).

 

Man, it’s so wide! You could swim the rest of your life in one of these miracles after another, and still not have all of them! Don’t worry, it’s a broad river!

 

Well, if I get started on the gifts of the Spirit, I’ll run into the bank somewhere, it’s such a narrow little stream.

 

Be what God wants you to be in consecration, prayers, mentality, thinking, spirit, attitude, and doctrine. Where do you want to go? That’s all He’s asking! How far do you want to go?

 

Nixon said the other day that in the next decade we’ll be touching down on Mars, and we may go to Jupiter.

 

Poor old Nixon! If he only knew, we’ve got far outer space experiences. John was on the Isle of Patmos with buzzards flying all around him, and he went further in two seconds, than they’ll ever go!

 

“I was in the Spirit on the Lords day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,…And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man,…His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire;. . .And when I saw him, If ell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not” (Revelation 1:10-14,17).

 

I’m fixing to carry you into orbits! Did you ever notice how many times John said, “And I John saw!” Boy, there’s no limit to what all John saw, because God carried him away in the Spirit, to a mountain great and high! That’s unlimited areas for you to go.

 

Here we sit, out in the middle of a broad river, and our little boats are drifting around in circles. Get up and take the prayer requests, and sing three songs, and testify, “I thank the Lord for the Holy Ghost, you all pray that I endure to the end,” and the preacher preaches his little sermon, and they go home, and come back. Then they get up, and take the prayer requests, and sing three songs, and testify, “I thank the Lord for the Holy Ghost, you all pray that I endure to the end,” and the preacher preaches his little sermon, and they go home. Then they get up, and take three….

 

Moses got up and saw the Israelites marching around a mountain where they had a little experience one time,

 

“Ye have compassed this mountain long enough: turn you northward”(Deuteronomy 2:3).

 

It’s time to get out of that rut! Can you imagine one of the early church services? Do you think they got up and said, “Okay, you all quit talking now, let’s have service. Any requests? Yes, the same old ones. Can you imagine that? No way!

 

I could imagine Peter having to say, “Attention! That’s enough! Attention! Please! Please! Quiet! Quiet! Brother, would you run back there and get that bunch to quiet down?”

 

It finally settles down, then it breaks out on him again! Fellows are bouncing up and down back there! Peter looks through the massive multitudes then says, “Oh yeah, that the fellow that we prayed for at the gate called Beautiful, I’ll let him shout, he ought to shout, he got his healing!”

 

Can you imagine how they started a service? What do you imagine their testimonies were like? The same old one? “I’m so glad I got the Holy Ghost. You all pray that I endure to the end.”

 

I imagine one was standing and saying, “Brother Peter, I want to testify! You know I was walking on the road, and there was a blind man, and God moved on me to pray for him, and he got his healing! and he’s here tonight! ”

 

Here’s another one here! “I was in jail, and I was praying, and an angel visited me, and brought me out of there!”

 

It was time to call on Philip for his testimony at the fellowship meeting, and it wasn’t “Bless God you Preachers,…and slinging mud.” I’ll tell you what he was saying, “Boys, the Lord spoke to me about going down to Gaza. While I was on my way down there, I joined myself to a chariot. I got on the seat with that black man, and it didn’t matter if it was South, North, East, or West! I didn’t pay any attention to that, I saw a soul, and I got him out and baptized him, and while I was baptizing him he started talking in tongues! I felt the need of getting to Gaza quicker, and the Lord gave me a ride! After I was done baptizing, Zoom! I was over there! ”

 

Do you believe that happened in a Jesus’ name church? Do you actually believe that Philip was transported by the Spirit to where he was headed?

 

Could you imagine coming into one of these churches, and saying, “I came here by air!” They’d think you were as crazy as a loon! Latter rain wouldn’t be the half of it!

 

“. . . Wherein shall go no galley with oars ” (Isaiah 33:21).

 

You don’t get this by works. It’s faith. Columbus had faith. He set out for India, believing the wind was going to blow him there. Wouldn’t you say that was faith? A man that rides a sailboat is a believer. No oars on this. It’s only faith. You’ve got to have a sailboat to get around on this river, but the problem is,

 

“Thy tacklings are loosed; they could not well strengthen their mast, they could not spread the sail: then is the prey of a great spoil divided; the lame take the prey” (Isaiah 33:21, 23).

 

No wonder the trinitarians have the miracles, healings and gifts in operation. The lame have got what we ought to have! Did you hear me! Who specializes in the gifts of the Spirit! It hasn’t been one of God folks. It’s been the trinitarians. It ought not to be that way. What’s the problem? Here we are on a broad river, but we can’t raise the sails, and that’s the only way to get around on this river. God won’t let you use oars. That’s human ingenuity, and works. The sail is just flopping around, the tackling is loose, and nothing is tight. It would pop that sail off quick. What’s the problem? How do you get the tackling tightened up? How do you strengthen the mast? Get a lot of the foolishness, carnality, and worldliness out of us. Jesus said there are three things that will choke us to death: deceitfulness of riches, lust of other things, and cares of this life. Tacklings are loose, the mast isn’t strengthened.

 

Brother, when you’re walking close to God like you ought to do, you’ll tighten up on that tackling, you’ll draw up on your life. You’ll make it more consecrated. It won’t have loose ends floating around. One day you’re consecrated, and the next day you’re not.

 

A missionary comes along and makes you cry, and then you forget it after he’s gone. Real consecration tightens the tackling, and strengthens the mast, and then God’s breath starts blowing.

 

Right now in the air right here in this room is music and pictures. We’re not interested in picking them up, but they’re going through here right now. All you need to do to tune in and you get yourself a little radio, and plug it in, turn up the volume, and you could pick out of the air, music. What I’m saying, available to us right now,

 

“For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men ” (Titus 2:11).

 

The grace of God is abound in our midst. The power of God is here now to heal the sick, raise the dead, save the lost, perform miracles, and reveal the secrets you need to know. It’s all here! All you need to do is get that sail up into that breeze that’s blowing.

 

After a while that sail will pop tight, filled with air. After a while, here we go!

 

They tell me a man that knows how to use them can sail almost into the wind. He knows how to make that wind work for him.

 

But we lay around. No fasting or praying. Carnal and thinking of earthly things, and then we want to jump up and say, “My God, I’d like to go across this river! I’d like to get big things in God!” If you’re life is not going to meet the requirements, you can’t do it, Boys. Without sacrifice and self-denial, the mast won’t be sturdy enough to hold that big sail, when you start trying to operate some of this stuff. What you want to do is get a good sturdy consecrated life, based upon the foundation of truth where the stakes will never be removed.

 

“And when they had taken up the anchors, they committed themselves unto the sea, and loosed the rudder bands, and hoised up the mainsail to the wind, and made toward shore” (Acts 27:40).

 

The only thing they did wrong was they loosed the rudder bands, and ran the ship aground. You want to always have your hand on the rudder. This can be directed.

 

The majority of the time when a man or a woman walks into your office and says, “I have a problem,” they’re not, at first, going to tell you what the problem is. They will tell you things all around it. I’d say ninety percent of the people that I have ever talked to, will not forwardly, immediately expose the root of their problem. Human nature doesn’t want to expose embarrassing situations.

 

In one place, I walked to the pulpit for the first service. I had never been there before then. The first thing I said was “God talked to me tonight, and there’s adultery in this place.” This was my opening line.

 

Here comes a woman into the office. The pastor wanted me in there with him. By request I sat and listened. The woman told about a certain man in the church that had been coming over to her house. She didn’t much like it. All she’d say, was “I know it doesn’t look right for him to be over there. My husband has left me, and his wife has left him, so he comes over.

 

I said, “Is that all that happens, he just sat over on the couch?”

 

“That’s all that happens.”

 

That woman came in there for help, but the spirit that had her bound was trying to lie her out of the problem. There always a spirit of lying with adultery. They couldn’t work without the other. Though she came for help, and no doubt momentarily in the service she says, “I want this off my heart. ” But after she gets in the office, now the horrible torture of saying, “Yes, I’m guilty.” So all she says is, “Yes, he came and sat on the couch.”

 

But the gift of the word of knowledge told me she wasn’t telling me the truth. You don’t always come out and say, “Woman you’re lying.” First of all, are you positive? And if I am, I don’t mind telling. I believe there’s a way of saying things. I’d rather have a person tell me, than me tell them. I feel that it does them more good. So I wait on them for it.

 

I asked, “Did he ever come over and sit down by you?” This is where they say that I pick it out of them. I didn’t have to pick it out of her to know it existed. I knew it. But you don’t go around accusing people, because you can get sued for that.

 

Let’s say she never wanted to confess it. And I’d say, “You did! ” She could take me to court, and sue me. There are people that would do it. When I see a reluctance, I am reluctant to tell them what I think or know. I’ll wait until they admit it.

 

When I asked her if he ever came over and sat with her, she said, “Well, he did one time.” Little by little, I was getting the story.

 

So, instead of confession services, they say Verbal Bean has extraction services. I don’t deny that I did this woman that way.

 

I said, “He sat down by you on the couch. That wasn’t right was it?”

 

“No sir, it wasn’t.”

 

“Is that all that was done?”

 

“Yes sir, that’s all.”

 

I said, “You mean he never put his hand on you?”

 

“Well, yes sir, he did.”

 

“That was bad, wasn’t it?”

 

Finally, she, step-by-step so thoroughly confessed that she said, “It went all the way. ”

 

I could have left that woman with the first story that he just came over to the house, and she would have been in sin. Services would have been tied up, and I knew better. But in my counseling her, the gift of the word of knowledge was valuable. I believe I used the discernment of the spirit, the gift of the word of knowledge, and I also used an accumulated wisdom. Not a miraculous wisdom. God granted me enough wisdom to know in the Spirit, how to question her, to where she would finally admit the sin.

 

It was constantly present that she had an adulteress spirit, and that she had committed adultery. There’s a spirit of adultery, and then there’s the act of adultery. I had to learn that someone can have the spirit of adultery that hasn’t actually committed adultery. And I can pick that up almost as accurately as if they’d already committed the sin, and I had to watch what I said. This is one reason I got into the habit of questioning the woman like I did in this case. Although in her case I felt sure that she was guilty.

 

I have seen people that were possessed with the spirit of adultery that had never yet fallen. But it registered as accurately as if they’d already committed it.

 

Tom Barnes told me one time that they brought a girl to him that was mentally off. This can be a spirit. The devil can take your mind over, and you become demented because of the spirit. But there is an insanity that is not necessarily a spirit. So in dealing with that, you’ve got to know what to do. Brother Barnes said the

 

Holy Ghost showed him in a vision of this girl when she was little, on a horse, falling off on her head.

 

When the girl, and her parents arrived he walked up to them, and said, “God showed me that your girl has fallen off a horse before, hasn’t she?

 

“Yes sir.”

 

She was injured pretty seriously, wasn’t she?

 

“Yes sir.”

 

God showed me this in a vision, so I know how to pray for her. It’s not a spirit that has her bound, it’s a result of a fall. Through the gift of the word of knowledge, he had understanding how to pray for that girl, and he prayed for her. And of course she got her healing.

 

He needed the gift of healing instead of the gift of miracles.

 

In any of our counseling, or in our praying for the sick, in our working in the altar, there is no way to put a price tag on the gift of the word of knowledge, or any of the gifts.

 

You can be praying with a man, and the Spirit will tell you his problem, to what he’s holding. In some cases he doesn’t know, and that’s where the gift of wisdom comes in, but you tell him.

 

Any of these gifts can be operated by a saint, but they’re apt to be more in the ministry, especially in the areas of praying for the sick, and counseling. Saints aren’t supposed to counsel with one another, so as a result God would more readily use a preacher. Although, I have seen saints used of God in prophecy, tongues and interpretation.

 

I know a saint that God began using for discerning of spirits, and interpretation of tongues, and it would have liked to have destroyed her, when suddenly her feelers were developed to discern spirits. She didn’t know what to do with what she discerned. She was getting feedback.

 

I was in a place one time, and the Holy Ghost spoke to me, and we prayed thirty-five through, and had the time of our lives. Then all of a sudden the Spirit stopped, and became dead, and lifeless.

 

Instead of a blessing, a fear came, and the Spirit said, “There’s adultery in this place. Then came the choir director, and other officers admitting adultery.

 

Previously, the Spirit had moved me to ask the choir standing behind me, to have every member of that choir to come and stand at that place where the anointing beam was shining. I didn’t know why, I was obeying the Spirit. So, one-by-one they came and stood. Not one of them stood over two or three seconds without the power knocking them. Then came this woman, and this is before I knew she was in adultery.

 

She stood in that place, and the power got all over her. Mind you, she had committed adultery, and was making plans to miss one of the revival services to go commit adultery again. She stood behind this sacred desk under this great light of anointing, and you’d think she was getting a blessing. The power got on her, and she doubled over, but it was more like agony than blessing.

 

Finally, she ran out of there. I noticed the difference. The others were rejoicing, but hers was more of an agony. Here she has already committed a sin, and we know that God will not dwell in an unclean temple, yet God was shaking her like a reed in the wind. Why? She would have never repented. It’s the goodness of God that leads to repentance.

 

I’ve always explained it like this to someone who looks on another one in the church, that knows that their lives are not clean, and yet sees them shouting. “Forget it! Let them shout! ”

 

When I was a boy, one of my jobs was to clean out a well. We had an old fashioned open well. Every now and then it would get clogged, filled up with gourds, pots, and pans that we’d drop in there. On one occasion, my mother asked me to draw some water. Some of the best water was out of that well. After our fast we drank some of the water, and that evening I looked in there, and there was a cat that had been there long enough to become twice his normal size! The hair was already slipping. The water didn’t taste half as good!

 

We had to get that dead cat out of there, and get that well cleaned out. But you do not stop the flow of water in a well to clean it. In our case, we had an old hand, and somebody kept pumping, until they’d pumped it down. Then I’d ride the stick down in there, and get the buckets, and junk out, and the sand, until I got down to clean white sand.

 

Water is flowing all this time. You don’t stop the flow to clean it out, you keep pumping.

 

What I’m saying is God’s pumping. That doesn’t mean their lives are clean. He’s cleaning it out with His Spirit. The anointing is on them. Even the blessing is on them. I’ve seen them get a blessing with sin in their lives. But that blessing was to lead them to repentance. Mellowing their hearts to where they’d be willing to repent. You’re not condoning hypocritical shouting, you’re believing and knowing that God is working on them to cause them to repent. His power’s moving. The water is still flowing even though the well is not clean. It’s in the process of being cleansed.

 

I’ve prayed blessings on people that didn’t want blessings. I said, “God, they don’t want it. They’re so sick, they don’t have any appetite.” Spiritually, you can get to where you don’t want God. “God, give them a taste!”

 

I use the example, my dad found a little pig one time. It had snowed and the pig was nearly frozen, and starved, until he didn’t want to eat. You can get so hungry you won’t eat.

 

One of us opened his mouth, and the other poured milk down him. After awhile he got to tasting that stuff, and it revived him.

 

That’s the reason why the ministry, and laying on of hands on saints is a very valuable thing. They don’t want the blessing. They’ll get angry at me. But we got his mouth opened, and a lot of it went down the side of his mouth, but he turned out to like it more than the rest of them. You need the persistence and boldness, and courage to feed them when they don’t want to be fed. Moses had to lead them, and them and they all of the time saying,

 

…Let us alone” (Exodus 14:12)

 

(Student) You mentioned about a spirit of adultery was cast out of a person, that went into the preacher. You said, two years later he fell.

 

(Bean) A preacher friend of mine was the one that was having it cast out. He said he saw leave his own body, circle around, and went into the pastor of the church. Two years later he fell.

 

(Student) Why did it take two years?

 

(Bean) Habits are formed in our lives. We learn to be habitual Pentecostal, and that’s dangerous, but it also could be good to sustain, if we could get the victory over it. But since he had formed habits, and human courage, and human strength resist sometimes, he may have been thinking about his family, and church, even though the spirit was already in him. It took two years to wear him down.

 

When you are counseling a woman, make sure you have your wife with you. If they want to confess, or talk to you about something, they may not want anyone but you present, just say you’re sorry, but when she gets desperate she’ll talk to you with your wife present. A woman doesn’t want to talk in front of another woman, but you can’t jeopardize yourself. If it’s just you and she, you are more tempted, than if someone else knew about your conversation. Also, she could lie. There’s a strength in someone else knowing what’s going on. In the case of a marriage, I would never want to know something on a woman, in the form of evil, and not immediately tell my wife. That is an anchor, her knowing. I tell them, “My wife will know this. Nobody else, but my wife.” I don’t want her to think that she and I have a secret.

 

They should be able to trust your wife. There are some that wouldn’t, because that woman is a blabber mouth. It’s your job to keep her quiet. If the wife is not a blabber mouth, they’d usually rather talk to the woman. It’s best not to fool with details unless you have to do it. I have, but the only reason is let her or him see how it happened, and where they made their mistake. Otherwise, for you to know details is adding knowledge in your mind, that could later cause you to fall.

 

We understand the word of knowledge and word of wisdom, and their value to us, in altar work, counseling, preaching, preventing problems in the church, keeping down sin, keeping the person being tempted from a fall by knowing in advance, and the discerning of spirits. There’s no way to express the value of all of this to keep your church going in the right path.

 

God help the churches that don’t have it! Have mercy on them. No wonder they’re clogged up with sin and bound down, with no revivals. If these ministries and gifts do not operate, then sin can collect in the church wholesale, and nothing can be done about it.

 

Preaching alone doesn’t keep sin out of a church. Believe me, it does not! This is the reason He put the gifts of the Spirit in the church. If the five-fold ministry had been enough, then why did He give us the gifts? It takes the cooperation of all of it, to bring forth that which God is pleased to have.

 

Divers kinds of tongues, is a tongue that’s not interpreted, necessarily. For instance, the man that came to a service where I was, asked me if I spoke Spanish. I said, “No.”

 

He said, “Well, you did tonight. ”

 

As far as I knew, I was talking in tongues.

 

There is a tongue that’s not even understood, but yet produces results. I’ve seen it in a service, where there was no interpretation, just a mighty speaking of tongues, but it brought conviction there. As far as I know, no one understood it.

 

Divers kinds of tongues, are tongues that are not interpreted by the gift of interpretation, but are directly understood by the hearer. That’s what happened on the day of Pentecost. This happens often on foreign fields. A person praying through to the Holy Ghost may speak English, that has never spoken it in their lives.

 

If you ever interpret, that’s it. Just like you are about preaching. If you preach one time an anointed sermon, you’re a preacher the rest of your life. God doesn’t reach out, and take a saint and raise them up to preach a sermon, and then say “I’m not going to use you any more.” If He did that, we’d be in a mess.

 

I don’t know of a case where there was an interpretation, when that person wasn’t continually used. Maybe not as often, because of their lack of faith, and consecration. I know when God started using me in interpretation, it scared me, and I would be very reluctant about it. It took me quite a while to develop consistency.

 

The gift of interpretation comes to me like a sermon. I feel the spirit of the interpretation, before I know what’s going to be said. He gives me one or two words. Or, sometimes it’s like a ticker tape, and I’ll get the whole sentence. Sometimes, I’ll only get it as a thought like you’d get a thought for a sermon. The spirit of it comes first.

 

The five channels that interpretation will come through are correction or instruction to the church, faith building to the church, love message to the sinner, doctrinal message to the sinner, or a judgment message to the sinner.

 

Generally, I would find the spirit of this message as myself or someone else is speaking with tongues. First, I find the spirit. Let’s say I feel it’s going to be judgment. I feel it strongly. Then come the words, whether it’s the first two or three, or the whole sentence. I speak out with divine utterance, with strong concussion, and sometimes it comes out before I even think what I’m going to say.

 

The Spirit a lot of times will tell me who He’s fixing to use. I’ve seen the Spirit move on people to give forth tongues or the interpretation, and they refuse.

 

The other night in a conference in Laurel, after Brother Cavenus had finished preaching, there was such a move of the Spirit. Brother Kenneth Morgan was in charge of service, and he came to me, and he said, “You can close the service.”

 

So I went up there, and I didn’t know what to do, but the Spirit was on me, and I began to weep, and wait on the Lord. All of a sudden, I detected there was to be a message. The Spirit bade me to call on Brother H.B. Morgan.

 

This will break it. If you can get God to talk to you this way, it helps so much. Because a lot of times in a big service like that, people who even have the gift are somewhat reluctant to use it. They need a starter. This is why I call on them to pray. I don’t call on them just to pray, even though I believe that’s part of it. But in the back of my mind, it’s revealed to me that when they start praying, that gift’s are going to start. This is exactly what happened.

 

Brother Morgan began his prayer, and he hadn’t prayed three or four sentences until he began giving out a message in tongues. A preacher sitting in the audience can be lifeless and dead, until he’s called on to participate. This is why we need to encourage saints to participate, to stir the Spirit. Participation stirs it. This is what I’m doing. I felt God wanted to use H.B. Morgan, but he had not participated; therefore the gift is not stirring as lively. But get him to pray and it will.

 

I’ve felt it even in this church. Like Sister Doris, I’ve felt many times that God wanted to use her. I’d say, “Saints, obey the Lord, He’s trying to talk to someone.” A lot of times she starts weeping or a travail. I acknowledge that spirit by saying, “That’s it, open it up.” She hears me, and it encourages her to go a little further. The Spirit’s starting, it’s kind of like a big diesel. It almost takes a motor to start the motor.

 

To feel in your heart that God wants to use somebody, then calling on them to participate, can be a great asset to you.

 

At the first ecumenical council that Pope John called, I was in Texarkana, Texas, and I had no way of knowing that it was in the making. It had not been released to the press. At this particular place there was serious rebellion in the church. God, through the gift of interpretation of tongues spoke out and said, “I have this night seen the gather together of officials, and government, and leaders, and they are gathering together against My church. ” And went on to describe this gathering, and who all was involved. And He made it clear that night that a rebellious saint in a church thinks they’re against Catholicism, but rebellion against the church is rebellion against the church, no matter where. A rebellious saint doesn’t know it, but they’re joining hands with Catholicism and communism. The same devil that would make the Catholic church rebel against the church would make a saint inside the body rebel. There are enemies in the camp, but all of them are being used by the same devil.

 

Nobody knew this. And a day or two later, the news reported about the ecumenical council, which was an event in history. It had been many years since they had such a council, and it was the starter that was bringing to head the gathering together of all the religions into one. Which was to erect the image of the beast. The beast had received a deadly wound and the wound was healed.

 

Here’s what happened. The gift of the word of knowledge operated through the gift of interpretation and tongues. Knowledge rode the gift of tongues and interpretation. This revealed something that people knew that we didn’t know.

 

The gift of the word of wisdom operated one night in Silby, Texas. I stood at the pulpit and said, “There is a backslider in this community that is not in this church tonight. She is going to be paralyzed over her entire body, as a visitation of divine judgment. Nobody knew this. She didn’t know, nobody knew it. Divine wisdom. There was no alternative, because it was a declaration of judgment.

 

Sure enough, they brought her into the church in a wheel chair paralyzed, and Brother Morgan tried to pray for her, and couldn’t touch God. It was a sealed thing. She was cut off completely. This happened as a sign to others that they might fear.

 

God used Pharaoh as an example of unrighteousness. He took Pharaoh and displayed him, because of the hardness of heart, what happens to people that do unrighteousness.

 

Get your charity with the gifts or the gifts are void. Why? Because what is the benefit of the gift of healing? You must have compassion for the sick. Whatever Jesus did, He did with feeling for the one who needed it. If you have that in you, these gifts can operate successfully. But if you have faith to do all of this, but you don’t have charity, then it’s nothing.

 

Charity suffereth long for whom? For others. Others is His constant burden, and it should be ours if we have the Spirit of Christ. It was said of Him at Calvary as they looked at Him hanging there. They said,

 

“He saved others; himself he cannot save’ (Matthew 27:42).

 

They did not realize how true their words were. That was the motive of His coming. Gentlemen, that is your obligation. The Bible said for us to please our neighbor, do good to him for good and edification, and not to please ourselves. Jesus Christ pleased not Himself. When He fed the five thousand, He made twelve baskets. Who were they for? The twelve who assisted him in the dispersion? Did he make one for Himself? No. It was all for others.

 

If you’ve been kind, whose advantage is that? Others. This is the purpose of every one of the gifts. Others. For their edification, correction, healing and satisfaction. And that’s why He said,

 

“…And yet shew I unto you a more excellent way” (I Corinthians 12:31).

Not to get big crowds, and gain a big name, and get big money. If that’s the purpose, it’s in vain that you seek after it.

 

“. . . Charity vaunteth not itself: (I Corinthians 13:4).

 

Whose advantage is that? If you’re going to operate the gifts, you’d better get some charity with it. If you’re going to success fully operate prophecy, you won’t be doing it to seek your own. To have them say, “Man, that’s a prophet!” What advantage is that if you have not blessed the people through your prophecy?

 

You know why you need charity? If you’re going to operate prophecy, or any of these, if you don’t have charity, you’ll be a Jonah. Prophecy that something will happen, then they repent and it doesn’t happen, and you’ll get mad because it didn’t. A man that has charity hopes that the audience makes a false prophet out of him.

 

He says, “There’s a man in this audience that will die, or will be cut off if he doesn’t repent tonight.”

 

A man comes to the altar and repented, and the prophecy doesn’t happen. “Well, that’s a false prophet!”

 

I’ve had that said about me. I’m glad it was said. Not from the standpoint, that I’m glad people are criticizing me, but for whomever it was humbled themselves to obey the warning.

 

You will not rejoice in iniquity, you will not want it to happen. You won’t go around glorying that it was going to happen, and bless God it did.

 

These gifts can make you endure a lot. If you don’t have endurance, you’d better not launch out into them. Because there’s times God will reveal things to you and you’ll have to endure the results: criticism, hate, unbelief, and spite, or the sadness and sorrow that’s associated with it. You may have to endure and bear up under the pressure of having to tell a man something, that you would not normally want to tell him. There’s more to this than you might realize.

 

There’s a pressure on a man who operates a gift, that’s not on a preacher that preaches a sermon. He needs more faith, and that’s a pressure in itself. You’re standing in an audience, and God has suddenly shown you something, and you know there’s nobody there that believes you. You’ve got to have the courage and faith to tell it, anyhow. Exposing yourself to what if it didn’t happen? The thoughts of all kinds of misunderstanding and criticism.

 

In one town, I called all the funeral homes and asked how many caskets they had? I told them, “I’m fixing to preach a sermon that is entitled, ‘It is appointed unto man once to die,’ and I would like to emphasize my sermon is true, with the fact that you’re a business man, doing nothing but selling coffins. Is it true that you’re going to sell these things?”

 

He said, “We’ve got to sell them to stay in business.”

 

“In other words, you’re expecting somebody to die. How many are you expecting to die?”

 

So I stood in the pulpit, and said “I called several funeral directors today, and there are so many caskets right now ready to go in this town. And the men that bought them have to sell them to stay in business.

 

This was only to emphasize a point. I wasn’t saying anyone was going to die in a certain length of time..

 

Somebody said, “Brother Bean called the funeral director, and told him to get a certain number of caskets ready, because on a certain day so many people were going to die!”

 

This was when I took sick, and since they didn’t die on that day, they said, “He took sick and had to leave the revival.”

 

Of course the mistake they made, they said I did it in one city, and what I had done was in another city. A lot of people believed it. There were officials that believed it. I got up at a conference, and told it, “This has been told on me, and I want to explain it to you, Brethren.” One of the officials after it was over with said, “I still believe it.”

 

There’s a pressure, and you have to be patient, kind, and you’ve got to be longsuffering, because of people and their unbelief. They don’t always take what you say. You’ve got to give them time to believe it. You’ve got to wait on your prophecy. Wait on your ministry. Sometimes, it may take a year or two for the judgment you declared to happen. In the meantime, what are you? A false prophet. So you’d better get some charity before you launch out. Charity will make you operate these gifts right.