Healing - Part 2 — Derek Prince

Hearing God's Voice

Until it's a voice, you're not God's people. Please understand, I think it's a good thing to read the Bible. But it's not sufficient. Obey my voice and I will be your God. That's not sheets of paper with black marks on.

That's something living, personal, that you have to hear. You say, well the New Testament was different. Oh no it wasn't. You look in John chapter 10, verse 27. Jesus is speaking. My sheep hear my voice and I know them.

And they follow me. Jesus did not say my sheep read the Bible. He said my sheep hear my voice and that's how they follow me. And if you can't hear the voice of the Lord, you can't follow him. There's no other way to follow him but to hear his voice.

Hearing God's Voice as a Requirement for Healing

Now I want to point out to you in specific relationship to healing, without any doubt, the great basic requirement for receiving healing is to hear God's voice. It's always emphasized first. I'll show you just three passages of scripture.

In Exodus 15, verse 26. Passage that was quoted from the words that Jim read at the beginning from the prayer manual. This is where the covenant name of Lord Jehovah Rapha is found. The Lord thy healer.

And I want you to notice the primary condition for having the Lord as your healer. Exodus 15, 26. God said if thou will diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God. And will do that which is right in his sight.

And will give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes. I will put none of these diseases upon thee which I brought upon the Egyptians. For I am the Lord that healeth thee. I am Jehovah your doctor.

That's a perfectly legitimate translation. That word is used in modern Hebrew for a doctor. What's the great primary condition? Would you look there? What is it? If thou will diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God.

Where the King James says diligently hearken. The Hebrew says if listening you will listen. One way that Hebrew emphasizes a verb is to repeat it. Use it twice. When I lay in a hospital bed wondering what I could do to receive healing.

I read that scripture and I said to myself. What does it mean to listen, listening? And God answered me into my mind and he said you've got two ears. A right ear and a left ear. And to listen, listening is to listen to me with both ears.

Your right ear and your left. And I've come to see many people listen to God with the right ear and the devil with the left. And what's the result? Mental confusion. Two different streams are coming and meeting inside that person.

Shut your ear to the devil and open both ears to God. You'll never gain by listening to the devil. In the long run he's got nothing good to say. I suddenly thought about something that happened. That's why I smiled.

It's got nothing to do with my message but I think I'll tell you anyhow. About two years after my wife went to be with the Lord. I met a man who told me this incident. I never knew it had happened. I remember being in the church which was Liberty Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh.

And I remember the night when I called the people forward. And said that I would pray for their healing. And I said in a rather casual way that my wife also prays for the sick. And you're welcome to go to her.

And I didn't know what happened. But this was told me by an eyewitness. There was a man who had been prayed for by another preacher in Texas. For the healing of his eyesight. He was wearing glasses. And the preacher said now I've prayed for you.

Keep on trusting God and he'll show you when to take your glasses off. So in this meeting in the Liberty Presbyterian Church. The young man came up to my wife in the presence of two or three other people.

And he said he told her the story. And he said I don't know whether to take my glasses off or not. Now normally Lydia would have said you thank God for the doctor and keep your glasses on. But this occasion she said take them off and put them on the devil.

The man took his glasses off and was instantly healed in his eyes. Not merely the weakness of his eyesight. But he'd been colorblind and he was healed of being colorblind. Now that's a rhema. That's something that God speaks to you personally.

Doesn't work for everybody. Don't imagine you can all just take your glasses off and see instantly. But when it comes as a rhema. When it's the voice of God speaking to you. You do it. It'll work. All right let's look in Deuteronomy 28 verses 1 and 2.

Blessings Through Hearing and Obeying God's Voice

Now Deuteronomy 28 is the chapter that contains the blessings for obedience. The curses for disobedience. The first 14 verses are blessings. And the next 54 verses are curses. And here is the basic condition for receiving the blessing.

It shall come to pass if thou shalt hearken diligently under the voice of the Lord thy God. To observe and to do all his commandments. What's the great basic requirement for blessing? To hearken diligently to the voice of the Lord.

To listen listening to God's voice. All these blessings shall come upon thee. Verse 2. All these blessings shall come on thee and overtake thee. I love that word overtake. Many people pursue God's blessings and never seem to catch them up.

God says if you'll just listen to me. You won't have to pursue the blessings. They'll pursue you. And no matter how fast you're going. They'll catch you up. I tell you it is good to be caught up by the blessings of the Lord.

What's the requirement? To do what? To hearken diligently to the voice of the Lord. With an attitude that you'll do what he says. One final scripture and I'm preaching on healing. I could never leave this out.

God's Word as Medicine for the Body

Proverbs chapter 4 verses 20 to 22. Now there are some of you here this morning who will be healed by miracles. There are some of you who may not be healed by miracles. And I just want to tell you don't give up.

God doesn't heal everybody the same way. But here is one of the most all-inclusive specific promises of healing I know in the Bible. And I just want to say this is the promise that got me out of hospital.

And made me perfectly well when doctors could not heal me. So I'm not offering you a theory. I'm telling you something that works. Proverbs 4 20 through 22. My son bear in mind God is talking to his child.

This is not addressed to unbelievers. But it's addressed to every child of God. Attend to my word, incline thine ear unto my saying. Let them not depart from thine eye, keep them in the midst of thine heart.

For they are life unto those that find them and health to all their flesh. All right what more can you need than that? Health in all your flesh. As I understand it health and sickness are opposite. If you have health there's no room for sickness.

If you have health in all your flesh. Then there's no room for sickness anywhere in your body. And the alternative reading for health is medicine. This is God's medicine bottle. Take it according to the directions.

That's what God showed me when I when I came to this passage. He said this is my medicine bottle. The directions are on it you better read them. I went back and I saw there were four directions for taking God's word as medicine.

Number one, attend to my words. An attitude of reverent careful attention. Number two, incline thine ear. Notice where it begins with the ear. Unto my saying. To incline your ear is to humble yourself when you listen to God.

It's to bow down that stiff neck of yours and let God tell you what he wants to say. Many people read the Bible with their minds already made up as to what God should have said. And if he hasn't said that they just don't hear it.

The inclined ear means be teachable. Let God tell you he's got something to tell you. You don't know it all. It says my words, my saying. I believe that's the written word and the rhema. You need them both.

My words are there but when it becomes my sayings. The things I actually say that's what imparts it to you. Let them not depart from thine eyes. Keep them in the midst of thine heart. All right there are four directions.

We're not going to dwell on them. Attend, incline your ear, focus your eyes and admit them and keep them in the midst of your heart. And when they get to the midst of your heart they'll do what God has promised.

Because the next verse says keep thy heart with all diligence. For out of it are the issues of life. What's in your heart determines what you experience in life. Now the Lord helping me. I'm going to minister to the sick.

The Gift of Faith and Lengthening Legs

I'm going to start in a way that's familiar to some of you. It always embarrasses me a little bit. You might not think so but it does. Basically the people that are in my spiritual stream tend to have certain specific characteristics.

They believe in physical exercise, amen. They're 100 pro-Israel and they lengthen legs. I discovered in my recent trip to Jerusalem that I had the disciple there I really didn't know about. The leading Baptist minister in Jerusalem.

Both cast out demons and lengthen legs. I was talking to him this time and he said that just recently he prayed for the wife of one of the professors. The Jewish professors in the Hebrew University and the Lord had lengthened her leg.

Praise God. So we're going to start with this rather strange gift of faith which the Lord has given me. It's not to me only. He's given it to others but I'm talking about myself. This is faith for people whose legs are unequal.

I remember Jim Chandler here when he was teaching. I think this is correct. He can correct me afterwards if I don't correct me in public now. But he was teaching in Fort Lauderdale High School and my grandson Stephen was there in his class.

And they met on the basis of the fact that they both had their legs lengthened by me. And I must say about Stephen he is a real persistent leg lengthener. There's just no doubt about that. Stephen also has an unusual faith for teeth.

He's had many teeth filled by the miracle working power of the Lord. What I'm going to do is exercise this gift of faith. This is my faith. You may not have it. I do. God gave it to me. And I can basically assure you that in nearly every case where I minister to people with unequal legs.

They will be made equal visibly and virtually speaking immediately. Some things take more faith than others. There was a man in South Africa last year whose left leg was two and a half inches shorter than the right.

Well I would never begin with a case like that. Because that takes a little, you have to take two breaths to take that one. But in due course after we'd done some of the shorter leg lengthening we went on to this.

And his leg began to grow and straighten very steadily. But it was taking a little while. So I called another brother there and said listen hold on to his leg while it grows. I'm going to pray for the others.

And in due course he took off his boot or his shoe which had a two and a half inch build up. And walked down off the platform with equal legs. Matter of fact when the report was recorded in a South African secular newspaper.

They stated that his left leg was a little longer than the right. I don't know whether they realized that that had been the one that was shorter. That miracle triggered many others in that situation. And the man whom I picked on innocently just to hold his leg while it grew.

Got fired up with the idea and went around the whole area lengthening the legs of everybody he could meet. And many dramatic miracles took place through that man's ministry. Now I want to make it clear to you that this is strange.

I agree if I'd been God I'd have thought of another way to do it. But God didn't give me an option he gave me a gift. And when some good friends of mine began to suggest to me. That it wasn't very dignified for a well-known Bible teacher.

To walk around and travel about holding people's legs. I thought well maybe that's right I'll ask the Lord about it. When I asked the Lord about it this was the answer I feel he gave me. I've given you a gift.

There are two things you can do with it. You can use it and get more or you can fail to use it and lose it. So I settled for the first option immediately. And I praise God that in this faithfulness I have been getting more.

Using Spiritual Gifts to Build Faith

And particularly in Australia this past January. When I had large congregations sometimes a thousand or fourteen hundred people. It's obvious that you can't pray for say 700 people. In one evening to have their legs lengthened.

And so I used it as a jumping off point. And a few people experienced specific visible miracle testified to it. Their faith was built my faith was built. And after a while I said no I don't think I need to pray for you individually any longer.

I'm going to release the healing power of God into this entire congregation. And I suppose about 50 people in different areas immediately went down under the power of the Spirit without anybody touching them.

And after that God showed me one sickness after another to pray for collectively. In South Africa I prayed for about 15 people at one time all of whom had arthritis. And all of whom testified to being instantly healed.

So God has been faithful. I just start at this simple familiar jumping off point. And then we see where we go from there. I need to tell you just a few simple rules. First of all I don't take people in a line.

I start with the people I feel it'll be easy to minister to. I usually start with medically diagnosed cases of unequal legs. Because then more difficult for people to say that I'm making it up. And when God touches you.

When your leg grows and you'll feel it and see it. It'll not be imagination. It'll not be mind over matter. Bear in mind that's a very vital moment in your experience. That's the evidence that you are plugged in to God's supernatural power outlet.

Now I plug you in. But from that time onwards what happens becomes your responsibility as well as mine. And if you know how to respond to the supernatural power of God. You can receive almost anything.

How do you respond? Not by praying. Not by being religious. Not by trying to have faith. But by relaxing, opening up to God and doing one specific thing. Which is thanking him. Most of us here, oh God half a billion thanks.

Today would be a good time to start paying off. Now when God touches you. Don't be like a pump that has to be primed. And I have to say to you now God has touched you. Start thanking him. Because that takes a lot of energy out of me which I can use better.

The moment God touches you spontaneously in obedience to me. Begin to thank him whether you feel like it or not. And as you open up and thank him. You expose yourself for God's power to do in you whatever is needed.

Testimonies of Healing Through Prayer

I'll give you just a few examples. There's a lady named Helen Dodge. Who's a retired judge of the Supreme Court of the state of Virginia. If you get woman's aglow magazine. Her testimony is the first testimony in one of the recent issues.

I was in a meeting in Falls Church Virginia in a Methodist church. Which was not charismatic. Definitely not. And this lady came up to me and she said. Mr. Prince I've been in continuous pain night and day for 10 years.

There is no painkiller that can stop my pain. I said what's wrong with you. And she began to give me a long list of things. I said hold it. I don't need to know all that. What you need is the package deal.

I said come this evening. And when I pray for people. Don't be the first one in the chair. Watch what's going on. And when your faith is built up. Then sit in the chair. So she did that. And after I'd ministered for about maybe 20 minutes.

I said to her are you ready. She said I am. And she said it very definitely. And I knew she was. I put her in the chair. Measured her legs. And fortunately one leg was shorter than the other. It grew out.

I said there you are. You're plugged in. I stepped back. And for the next 45 minutes. And she told me this herself. At the national prayer breakfast last year in Washington. Where I met her and sat at the same table.

She said for 45 minutes. I was under the power of God. And when she came up out of that experience. For the first time in 10 years. She was free of all pain. About a week later. She realized that God had healed her completely.

My wife said to her. Sister Dodge. What was it like when the Lord healed you? And she said. It was as if 15 plumbers moved into my stomach. And started joining up the pipes. And in her testimony. Which is printed in women's aglow.

She told something I didn't know. That she had various pieces of plastic. And stainless steel inside her intestine. And when God healed her. He just removed them. And left no scars. That's a written testimony.

That all happened as a basis. Out of the result of my simply lengthening her legs. In Mississippi. In the Ole Miss University. I had meetings two nights. The end of my teaching. Which was not related to healing.

I offered to pray for the sick. People came up. One lady came up. I said. What's the matter with you? She said. I got cataracts on both eyes. I was about to say to her. I prayed I don't have much faith for iron.

Then I thought to myself. Why spoil it? So I said. Sit down and let me measure your legs. She said. Well that sounds crazy. To somebody who's got cataracts in their eyes. But sometimes God's foolishness is wiser than men.

So she sat down in the chair. Her leg grew out. I said. God bless you. And let her go. The next night before I preached. Thought we'd have some testimony. So I said. Is anybody here who was healed last night?

And up stands a lady with her face radiant. Looks me right in the eyes across the audience. I said. What were you healed of? She said. Cataracts on both eyes. Well I thought it was a good thing. I didn't tell her that I didn't have much faith.

Now it was not my faith that healed her. But I plugged her in and God took over. So that's what we're going to do. Now I want to say to you people that are in the congregation. This is not a one-man show.

This is the body ministering to the body. And so I want all of you that are believers. To be in a prayerful, reverent, worshipful spirit. And I want you to take upon you the needs of the various people that we minister to.

There are some people here with serious needs. There are some people with incurable conditions. And I don't know how the Lord is going to lead. But it may be before we close that we'll be ministering to them.

I start off when I don't know what direction the meeting will take. But the more the people are praying and worshiping. And identifying with me and with the people I minister to. The better results we get.

Ministering Healing to People with Unequal Legs

Now is there anybody here with a medically diagnosed inequality of the leg? Can I have your legs? Your left leg that's short. Can you feel it growing now? Can you see that? I want you to look. Can you see?

All right. Can you see that? You're exactly equal. Do you want to take your shoes off and try? All right. Her left leg grew out approximately, I would say, three quarters of an inch. Now you're the. That's right.

You don't need that anymore. Praise God. And you have double curvature. All right. Now I'm going to plug you in. And after that it's between you and the Lord. I want everybody to hear this. Frequently when a person has spinal curvature.

What happens is the short leg grows out beyond the long. And then the long leg catches up. That's what appears to happen. In actual fact, I believe that we see in the legs the manifestation of what's happening in the spine.

So if the short leg grows out beyond the long one. Relax. It's all right. Okay. But when that happens you're plugged in. Okay. So that's a vital moment. You just begin to thank God and open up to him and receive his power.

Okay. Now your left leg is a little bit short. About half an inch. Can you feel it growing now rapidly? And there you are. It's gone well beyond the other one. In fact, it's gone about an inch beyond the other one.

Now the other one will start to move out. You feel your right leg moving? Amen. Now you're under the power of God. That's right. He's touching you through and through. Thank you Lord. Let's all just worship God together.

That's right. Thank you. Amen. Thank you. Thank you Lord. That's right. Now the power of God is going right through your body. That's it. Amen. Just don't fight the Holy Spirit. Yield to him. Thank you Lord.

Thank you Lord. There you are. Amen. Thank you Lord. Thank you Jesus. Let's all worship God. I believe he's performing a miracle. Amen. We thank you Lord. We thank you Jesus. We praise your name Lord.

We give you the glory. We give you the praise. We give you the honor Lord. We worship you. Hallelujah. Thank you for our sister Lord. We give you the glory for what you're doing. Amen. In the name of Jesus.

Brother Soan come up and stand behind your wife. And just exercise faith on her behalf. You can see God's power is touching her whole body. Don't put your hand on her. Just stand behind her and thank God for her.

All right. Our sister has a curvature that was caused by an accident. And she's had back trouble all her life. Which I would say is long enough. Now are you prepared to get plugged in? Okay. You see part of your back trouble is your left leg is an inch short.

Can you feel it growing now? That's right. Begin to thank him. Thank you Lord. Thank you Jesus. Thank you Lord. Thank you Lord. Now you're plugged in. Begin to thank him. Father in the name of Jesus. Thank you Lord.

Thank you precious Lord. Hallelujah. Thank you Lord. That's right. Now that God is touching you. Right now. Thank you Jesus. You can just thank him because you're healed. That's right. Amen. Thank you Lord.

Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. Can't remember what your problem was. All right. Your right leg is the short one. Can you feel it growing now? Now you're plugged in.