<TITLE>03. Par 20-29</TITLE>L-20   Now, my purpose, in praying for the sick. I'm going to talk about that now: prayer for the sick. Is... We don't try to say that's what we're here for. We, one thing we're for, but praying for the sick is a minor. You can never major with a minor. We know that. So, but Jesus used, I think they estimate about eighty-six percent of His ministry was prayer for the sick, healing the sick. Because, in that, it catches the attention of the people.

L-21 And, then, every sign has a voice behind it. And the voice must be a Scriptural voice, the same as it must be a Scriptural sign. And then the sign is accompanied by a voice. Like Moses, when he went down in Egypt; the voice of the first sign, the voice of the second sign. And every great thing that happens with God, that gives a sign, there's a voice follows that sign. Like Jonah, when he was delivered from the belly of the whale, that was a sign; then his voice was, "Repent, or in forty days you'll perish." So there's always the voice going with the sign.

L-22   Now, what we try to do, is--is try to get the people to believe the Lord Jesus, just accept Him, without being hands laid on. Now, we know there is a Scripture that says, "Lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." And we don't try to belittle that Scripture, because that was the commission Jesus Christ gave to the Church, to "lay hands on the sick." But, if you'll bear with me, that was more like a Jewish tradition. Now, remember the--the girl that was laying sick, she died, Jairus' daughter. He said, "Come, lay Your hands upon my child, and--and she'll get well."

L-23 But the Roman centurion, a Gentile, said, "I'm not worthy that You come under my roof. Just speak the word, and my servant will live."

L-24 And Jesus turned around and said, "I never seen faith like that in Israel."

L-25   See, the Gentile way is to believe Him, just absolutely believe Him. Now, we lay hands on the sick, of course, we do. But we try to--to bring the--the reality, by the Scriptures, of Jesus Christ being present; then when you, by faith, reach up and touch Him, yourself, see, like the woman with the blood issue touched His garment.
"Well," you say, "if He was here, I would touch Him."

L-26 The Bible says, in Hebrews 3, that, "He is now a High Priest that can be touched by the feeling of our infirmities." He can be touched just as well tonight as He was then. So we want to touch Him.

L-27 Usually somebody say, "Well, you know Brother So-and-so," some minister, evangelist, "laid hands upon me, and, oh, the Lord healed me. They lay... Brother So-and-so laid hands." See? That makes everybody want to see that brother to lay hands on somebody. After all, it wasn't a brother's hands that did it. It's your faith, that's what does it. So, then when the evangelist leaves town, the pastor is just a little bitty fellow, in the sight of the congregation, usually. Some things happen, the healings and so forth. They think they have to have that evangelist back in town before anybody can be healed. Listen. Don't you never believe that.

L-28 It's your faith in God that does the healing. See? You must believe God. And now if you can touch Him, then, nobody laid hands on you. It was your faith that touched Him, and your faith brought the reality. So then it wasn't no one touched you, but your faith touched Him. And so that brings real genuine testimony to Him then. That's what we're here for, to--to magnify Him.

L-29   Now, each day, my son will be down and give out prayer cards. If he isn't here, one of the other, well, campaign's, will give them out. And they give out prayer cards, just a little card that's got a number on it. Night by night, we call those numbers and pray for the sick. And now we... And each day they give out new ones, because that newcomers come in. And if they give them all out, the first day, they don't get a chance to get any prayer card.


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