Acts 14_pt1 — Bill Gallatin

Acts 14: Satan’s Territory and the Advance of the Gospel

This Bible study was recorded at Calvary Chapel of the Finger Lakes and was taught by Pastor Bill Gallatin. This evening we're in the book of Acts, starting in chapter fourteen. Before we do chapter fourteen, because of some of the things that Paul experiences, I'd like to have you turn to Matthew chapter ten, something that Jesus taught to the disciples.

Now, you remember, Paul is now, the gospel is beginning to move, as Paul is the apostle, to the Gentiles, and Paul and Barnabas were in Antioch, Syria, ministering to the Lord, just worshiping the Lord, waiting on the Lord, and the Spirit of God came upon them and then spoke to them that they're to take the gospel into the area of Galatia, which really is the belly of Turkey today.

And you can see that the church now is moving away from Jerusalem up to the Gentile world, up toward Istanbul, and from there would move on up into all of Europe, and eventually from Europe over to Great Britain, to the United States, and as you go to the right, as you go off into Asia from the belly of Turkey, you're going up toward Iran, up into the Soviet Union and all points east.

And so you can see now where Satan's territory is being invaded, things that he's had under control through the religions of the world. All kinds of religions, all getting along together, tolerant of one another, and most of the religions of the world took pride in being tolerant of other faiths.

And you see, Satan doesn't mind that. He doesn't care how many different styles of religion there are, and he'll have everybody get along, but don't approach the truth. He'll design a system, a political system.

He'll work in a culture, make them deeply religious and devout, design a religion that the government will make it legal to have shrines on every corner, to worship any way you desire. Another thing you have, and this proves again the Bible, as it says, there's nothing new under the sun.

Now, the New Age is really old. It's just all starting up again, but one of the common things in the religious minds of the people in Paul's day was that the spirits or the angels would come down in the shape of human beings to enlighten the cultures.

God would come down and visit mankind in physical form and mingle with the human race to enlighten, to give them, you know, greater intelligence, to bring their utopia on the earth and enlighten man in such a way that they couldn't do without them.

They'd come and go. Really, all it was was the distortion of Genesis 6, again when Satan tried to pollute the human race with angels and evil spirits before the Flood judgment. And it just continued on after the Flood, and the Grecian culture, particularly, and the Roman culture had many of their shrines were to these beings that would come back and forth to enable the human race to be enlightened.

Now, they didn't use the term channeling, but they had, you know, the exposure to these gods Hermes and Mercury and Zeus and Jupiter and Diana, Aphrodite, Horus, Isis, Superman, Captain Marvel, Batman.

I mean, it's amazing how, you know, you're going to get them in something somewhere for the children, and then to get them maybe interested in the greater ones. But this was the culture, this was the world, Satan's world, that the light of the gospel was coming.

And so, there's going to be tremendous resistance. Satan's not just going to lay back and say, oh, there's just another religion now coming in. We will be tolerant of extreme fundamental Christianity.

It just doesn't work that way. And again, as we shared, I think, last week or Sunday, the Roman government was tolerant of every religion with the exception of Christianity. You don't see in history where thousands upon thousands, millions of people who worshipped Aphrodite or Bacchus or Diana were thrown to the lions in the Coliseum.

It was only the Christians, only the Christians. But Jesus said something interesting, and it's not a contradiction. He is the Prince of Peace. In fact, unless Christ is in someone's life, in their heart, and, you know, beginning to dominate our lives, you're not going to have peace.

There's no such thing as peace apart from Christ. Now, there may be chemical substitution in the central nervous system because of a drug or a tranquilizer for a while, but that's such a false peace, or alcohol, or a narcotic.

But there's no real peace apart from Jesus Christ. He's the Prince of Peace. Valium wears off, Librium, you know, Fluorazine and all the other stuff, whether the doctor gives it to us legally or you have your doctor on the street.

It wears off. It's a false peace. But Jesus said something in Matthew 10. He said in verse 32, Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.

Now, what does that mean? Does that mean at the end of the age I have the guarantee of my salvation if I didn't deny Christ in this life? Certainly there's some truth there. Jesus said, if you're not for me, you're against me.

There really isn't that. Faith is active. True faith is active. It's not passive. But what he's saying here, if you're living that life and your life is a confession of mine and you're going to face persecution, yea, and they that will live godly shall suffer persecution, Paul wrote young Timothy, you remember.

You're entering into Satan's Roman territory and your light is driving out darkness by your open confession in life for Christ. Now while that's happening down here, we need supernatural strength. So as you're confessing Christ by your life and your expression and your conversation down here, Jesus is confessing to the Father, your faithful is down here, and then he's going to confess you to the Father to give you and impart you the strength and the comfort of the Holy Spirit that you need in any given situation.

You remember Jesus told the early church that tarry ye in Jerusalem until you receive power from on high that you may be witnesses. And that word witness in the Greek is marturis, or in other words, you're not afraid to give your life.

You'll die and not be afraid. Yet you may be witnesses. It's supernatural power. And so as we confess our Lord and do not deny him and shrink back through persecution or threat, we're confessing him down here.

He's at the right hand of the Father, our great high priest. He's confessing your situation down here, and there's the promise of strength. Even if we may need an angel, and time and time again in the Scriptures we see the children of God in situations needed angels, and God sent them.

They didn't have to ask for them or pray for them. If they needed the angel, the angel would just show up. You remember Paul on several occasions, the angels came to encourage Paul when he was in that tremendous storm in the Mediterranean, and all hope that they would survive was removed.

Not that Paul had little faith, but God designed it in such a way, and that miraculous strength that Paul received had an effect on the Roman soldiers, and it gave Paul the chance to show the gospel or share the gospel with these Roman pagans as the ship crashed in Melita.

But the Lord himself appeared to him to encourage him. Another time, the Lord sent an angel to strengthen and encourage Paul. The Lord sent an angel to free Peter from jail, you remember. You remember Elijah was discouraged and wanted to quit, and he went out down into the Negev Desert down south of Beersheba on the way toward the Red Sea, and he just sat down under a juniper tree and says, I just want to die, and he quit eating, and he felt a gentle nudge while he was asleep, and he woke up to hear an angel was there.

But God sent an angel to encourage him and fix breakfast for him. Had breakfast there for him. So whatever you may need, Jesus said, I will confess you before my Father. If you're faithful down here to confess me and not be some chameleon that you're only a Christian with other Christians, and then you can be whatever the crowd is that you're in just to be accepted, you see, that's denial.

That's playing Russian roulette with eternal security. If I'm really a child of God, I will be confessing Jesus Christ, and he will give me the power. And it's interesting, as we see in Acts tonight, the greater the persecution, and God allows persecution for greater power.

It brings a greater anointing, greater supernatural strength from the Lord. And Jesus said in verse 33 of Matthew 10, Whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.

Then he said, Think not that I am come to send peace on earth. I came not to send peace, but a sword. Now he uses the allegory of the sword here because the sword divides, and I really believe what he's really speaking here is that the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, to shake things up, to startle people, to bring a division, to wake them out of their spiritual slumber, the delusion that Satan has placed upon them in their organized religion, no matter how devout they are.

They're damned. They're lost. The God of this world has blinded them, and yet they may have some priest, some pagan priest or some false religious system saying, if you just go through these rituals, you're going to go to heaven.

If you, you know, flip some little thing and have some little thing done to you over you on your deathbed, you have a guarantee of going into paradise or heaven. He said, all the religions design those things, and so they're just kind of just in that stupor of, oh, I've got to do it just to see, make sure I get there on this day of the week and this day of the week, and maybe submit to this ritual and have this done to the babies and kids when they're born.

And none of these things are biblical, and people are going along living a life without any change whatsoever in these religious systems, and so here comes the gospel. And Jesus said, I'm going to divide.

I'm going to use the sword of the Spirit, the truth of God, to maybe stir things up between a husband and a wife. Think not that I've come to send peace on earth. I came not to send peace, but a sword.

I want to stir things up, shake things up, wake you up out of your stupor, your religious stupor. There are people who think that because they come to Calvary Chapel, that makes them a Christian. That doesn't make anybody a Christian.

That could be just as deadly as being a Hindu, if you're not born again, if we haven't realized the plan of salvation, the grace of God through Jesus Christ, giving His life on Calvary, the Lamb of God to take us away, the sin of the world, and the only offering for sin that can justify, that God will accept, to just blot out the transgressions, there's no hope for mankind.

There's no other way for salvation. And so, Jesus comes along and starts saying, hey, you're being sprinkled with a little baby, isn't doing anything for you. It may be just, it may give you your guarantee of hell, because you think that saves you.

You've come out of some system that says that automatically redeems you. There's not one verse in the Bible that has anything to do with that. That's not biblical truth, and it may upset a parent. It may upset the parent who wants their baby to go to heaven because they had it sprinkled.

Or maybe gone through a ritual at the age of 10 or 15 or whatever, and then to find out that those things don't work, that the gospel says that doesn't work, that's not in the Bible. And that can really stir things up and make people angry, and that's what Jesus wants to do.

I've come to set a man at variance against his father. I think of what happened with Gideon. God wanted to bring revival. The whole nation, remember, had gone into it again. They kept drifting back into this Baal worship, where they worshiped the queen of heaven.

And they were always, God would come along with a prophet and get the people back to him, you know, and they destroyed the shrines and their droves to the queen, you know, and another generation, they'd drift back to the worship of that female deity.

It was all the way from Babylon. Many of the religions today all incorporate the worship of some female deity. And God told Gideon he's going to start a revival to bring the people back to him. And his parents were worshiping the queen.

And they had a shrine that they built in the local village, you remember, and dedicated it to her, to Baal and the queen of heaven. And the Lord told Gideon, I want you to go destroy it. And Gideon, boy, that really, you just think, what's mom and dad going to think?

Destroy their shrine? God says, you love me? Do you want revival? Do you really want your parents saved, Gideon? You want the nation brought back and the blessings of God back? And so he thought about it, and he said, well, I really do, Lord.

But you know, he was a little scared, so he went at night. He did it at night. When mom and dad, they went there with an axe and just, you know, just beat the thing, the pieces, cut down the beautiful garden that they had for the queen, and he wrecked the thing, and slipped out of the, you know, way from it.

And boy, the next day, the townspeople went to do their thing with, you know, the queen, and they found out that their shrine was destroyed. And Gideon's father, you know, he was so upset, and that's exactly what God wanted.

It'd be like if, of course, nobody would do anything like that, but dynamite Moroni over there in Palmyra. I mean, that would make the picture. If somebody would do something like that, put some dynamite, or, you know, do you realize what that would do?

Of course, nobody would do anything like that. But I've come to set a father and a son against each other, and the daughter against her mother. Maybe they were both, you know, under the delusion of this religion, this system.

And here comes the apostle Paul, here comes the apostles, here comes the truth. And pretty soon, one person in the family gets saved, gets born again. And boy, instead of things being peaceful, it's just the opposite, exactly as Jesus said, to wake people up.

And the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. It's hard enough to get a daughter-in-law and a mother-in-law to agree. I mean, once, and boy, if you do get them to be friends, then they come in with Christianity, you know, and then all of a sudden, stir things up.

And it says, A man's foe shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father and mother more than me is not worthy of me. And he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Then he goes on to finish it by denying self, taking up our crosses and following him as he leads us and guides us.

How badly do we want our relatives saved? How badly do we want our friends saved? How badly do we want revival? Well, you see, the Apostle Paul is taking the message of the truth into a darkened area, but into the control of Satan.

Everybody getting along good, tolerant of each other's religion. A wonderful society, very sensual, very materialistic. The Roman Empire, the Grecian Empire, very religious, very educated. And here comes the Apostle Paul with Barnabas, with the truth.

Persecution as Preparation for Gospel Ministry

Now, this is, again, you remember in the earlier chapter, God allowed persecution as they went from Antioch and Syria over to Cyprus, then from Cyprus up to the coast of Turkey, Pamphylia, and now they're going inland.

They're going up north. And because of the persecution that we saw in Pamphylia, God used that to move the Apostles further inland to spread the gospel in other areas. And Satan's saying, man, here he comes.

He's coming into this territory. Now, notice how God prepared them for the pressures they were going to face. Notice verse 52 at the end of chapter 13. And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Ghost.

Persecution brings power. Remember, they'd been sharing the gospel and people were getting saved. And so the Jews, you know, stirred up honorable women. And before you know it, there's a ruckus and things are getting tense and they're being persecuted and being threatened.

And God's allowing that to move them on because Jesus said, when that takes place, shake the dust off your feet and move to another city. And so they're being obedient and moving on. But at the same time, God is filling them with the Holy Ghost.

He's equipping them for the next town. Sometimes I think we get a wrong idea when the persecution, you know, begins. It's time to just quit everything. And here God's using the persecution to fill us with more of the presence of himself or the power of the Holy Spirit for the next situation he's going to use us in.

And so now they pass in Iconium, which is up some 40 miles from where they were, going north with a drift toward the east into the inner belly or heart of Turkey or Galatia. And they went both together into the synagogue of the Jews and so spake.

And this is interesting. It's not so much the words, but the way they spoke. And so spake they that a great multitude both of the Jews and also of the Greeks believed. Now, how did Paul speak? Was it his tremendous intellect?

And we know that Paul was a genius. He's considered one of the five geniuses of the human race. The Apostle Paul. His mind. Was it his vocabulary? His education? His theological background? You know, it's interesting.

But it says here the way they spoke and so spake that it just captured the hearts of people. How did Paul speak? See, this encourages me. I've heard people speak that are so eloquent. You just go, you know, Lord, I can't speak like that.

I have a terrible vocabulary. I can't even pronounce words right. I can't get the tenses right. Sometimes I'll think one thing and something else will come out. And God says, you see, that's what brings me glory, Bill.

It's the foolish things that bring me glory. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 2. This is how Paul spake. I remember one time the Lord said, Bill, I don't need your adjectives. I don't need your clever stories, really.

There's nothing wrong with humor now and then and bringing a little sidebar in here and there. But you know, there's only one thing God really honors. That's His Word. That's the only thing God's Holy Spirit anoints is the Word.

And I discover I don't have to be charismatic. I don't have to run back and forth across the stage and use hairspray and fancy clothing and sweat and spit and put on a big show, you know, to get the attention of the people.

Notice what Paul says about his preaching in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 1. And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech. That gives me encouragement. I mean, yeah, God can use.

He can write into Jerusalem. He can write into a skating rink on an ass. The power of wisdom. Declaring unto you the testimony of God. He just shared the truth of God. That was one of the great things about John the Baptist, you remember.

It says he performed no miracle. Yet Jesus said he was greater than Moses and Abraham and greater than, you know, Elijah and Elisha. He said, but he performed no miracles. All he said about me was true, though.

He had a good understanding of the character and the personality of Jesus Christ, and he portrayed Jesus in such a beautiful, simple, truthful way. He gave a true picture of Jesus Christ. I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified.

And I was with you in weakness. Paul wasn't some boastful, loud, arrogant, self-confident, charismatic, with a dynamic vocabulary kind of a guy. In fact, you remember, it's this letter to the Corinthians that he's writing in defense of himself because they couldn't believe that he is the great apostle Paul.

He seemed like just a, you know, hunched over little guy with a big nose. Not much of a good looker. He wasn't charismatic. I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of men's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.

In other words, when he spoke, he spoke the truth concerning Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit anointed that. So that's the greatest thing we could ever do, is share the Bible with people, not our feelings.

You see, God anoints his Word. It's his Word that will not return void. It will not fall to the ground. I think some people, you know, try so hard to impress the people and get the message across. They do so many things, drawing such attention to themselves.

When people leave their churches, they talk about the preacher. It's almost like a carnival atmosphere. Our prayer is that when you leave, you're thinking about Jesus Christ. Something has happened on the inside, a new understanding.

Somehow the Spirit of God has honored his Word, and you're thinking of Jesus Christ and nothing else. Or we're miserable failures. If you're not falling in love with Jesus, what a tragedy if you fall in love with your church, or the pastor, or an elder, or a musician.

And you're enamored with a Christian musician more than Jesus Christ, or a Christian pastor. And so Paul, it was the way he spoke. It's the things he brought forth. He didn't put on some show. It says, they sowed faith, the way they spoke.

But how? In weakness and fear and trembling, not with enticing words or clever speech. It says, a great multitude, both of the Jews and also of the Greeks, believed. God's Spirit honoring the Word of God.

But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and made their minds evil-affected against the brethren. See, at quick Satan's working. Here comes the division. Long time, therefore, abode they speaking boldly.

Now, isn't that amazing to me? Persecution starts. They're stirring up people against them, and they decide to stay a long time. They don't say, well, let's pack it up. It's time to leave. Well, I guess God didn't call us here.

There's just a lot of trouble here. Let's just pack it up and leave. Let's go back to Jerusalem. People are saying things about us, and yelling at us, and there's persecution. Isn't that amazing? But they were anointed before they got there for this persecution.

They were equipped by the past persecution and given greater strength. And look what it did for them. When the new persecution began, they didn't quit and run. They didn't pack it in and leave. They stirred up Gentiles against them.

And so, they decide, we're staying for a while. This has really got Satan worked up. That just proves that we're where we should be. That just proves that God's doing something here. Satan's so worried that he's stirring up the community against us.

So, a long time. Therefore, abode they, speaking boldly in the Lord. Which gave testimony unto the word of his grace. The more they were thrashed verbally, and lied about and persecuted, the more, notice, they shared the word of God's grace.

God's forgiveness. Oh, to be able to tell people that God wants to forgive you. That God has so much long-suffering and patience, no matter what your sin is or has been. He is willing to forgive you.

And God loves to forgive. God loves to show mercy. To reveal his mercy. You see, that's the gospel. Grace. You remember Zechariah, when he is told to prophesy to encourage Zerubbabel. And Zerubbabel sees this impossible task.

A handful of Jews coming back from Babylon with no money, no skills, really, to rebuild the temple. He sees his country and sees the devastation after 70 years, after Babylon was destroyed through Nebuchadnezzar.

And here God's told him he wants them to rebuild, and he's going to return the people and restore the country. And he's just overwhelmed. And the Lord tells him that it's by his grace, it's not by might nor by power, Zerubbabel.

You started this work, and your hands will lay the foundation. I'm going to stay working in your life, and as impossible as the task looks right now, by my Spirit, it's going to be accomplished. It's not by might nor by power.

And he says, and this mountain, and this is how you remove the mountain, the obstacle, by crying or shouting of grace, grace. Not repent, repent. Grace, grace. God loves his people. And God loves to redeem.

And God loves to show himself faithful. That's the message, you see. And notice as they're sharing the message of grace, God granted signs and wonders to be done by their hands. Now, it's interesting how God, in different ways, in different cities, does different things.

Signs and Wonders Follow the Word of Grace

The tragedy in church today is if God does a sign and a wonder, they say he has to do it all the time. Now, they had just left, remember, the earlier area of Antioch and Pisidia. God did no signs and wonders up there.

But in this area, down here, God is following with signs and wonders, as he said he would in Mark chapter 16, verse 20. After they would teach George, he said, signs and wonders would follow. God would work with them.

In this particular area, he's using signs and wonders to be done by their hands. And as soon as they go to the next area, no signs and wonders are done. I think it's wrong to try and say, it has to work this way all the time.

There's another imbalance in the church today. And you never know when God's going to do the sign or the wonder. That's his prerogative. The promise is they will follow. If it's needed in this area, they will follow.

Now, too many churches today try to get signs and wonders to get people to show up. And they try to build a church on signs and wonders. And so you walk in and you see people lined up. You see a lot of chaos as they try to, you know, promote these things before.

And sometimes the word of God is not even taught. And so suddenly people have these tremendous experiences and yet they still don't grow. You see no victory in their life. They keep thinking they're going to have demons cast out because nothing's being put in.

It's the entrance of the word that heals by his word. He sent his word and he healed his people. The entrance of the word give us light. And he's magnified his word above his name. Not miracles. He promises that they will follow.

In this particular area, he's doing signs and wonders. But the multitude of the city was divided. Exactly what Jesus Christ wanted. Wake up, world. Religious world. Wake up, marriage. Maybe there's division in your marriage tonight.

And it may be Jesus working in such a way. Wake up. Return to the Lord. Change an attitude. Change a concept. God wants to bless. And remember, he doesn't divide to destroy. He divides to make whole. If God did not design division in his universe and the scheme of life, you wouldn't exist today.

There'd be nothing but one big ear sitting there looking at me. But thank God he designs division to bring beauty and to bring order. Do you realize if cells didn't divide, you may be a 160-pound nose sitting there.

Wouldn't that be something? Some noses are big enough. I look at mine when I was younger. I don't know what's happening. I don't even drink in this thing. I don't know what it is. Everything seems to be expanding, except my IQ.

But just as Jesus said, when you invade Satan's territory, particularly religious, devout areas, because, you see, that's deadlier than drugs and alcohol. That's deadlier than atheism. Someone at the end of the delusion, because they're devout and deeply religious, they're automatically going to heaven.

And so Jesus wants to invade that area. Those people are really captive. And so the division has taken place. The multitude of the city was divided in part held with the Jews and part with the apostles.

And when there was an assault made both of the Gentiles and also of the Jews with their rulers to use them despitefully and to stone them, they were aware of it and fled into Lystra and Derbe, the cities of Lycaonia, into the region that lies round about.

So now they're going further. As they've gotten to Antioch, now the persecution is moving and they're making a loop and heading back down south now towards the Mediterranean and the inner belly of Turkey or Galatia.

And where they're going, you see, the gospel is touching lives. God's allowing this to move them about. And so as Jesus said, OK, I haven't done something supernaturally here. Use the mind that I gave you.

And again, here's the weakness sometimes, the imbalance of the church. God does the deliverance supernaturally in one area and so the person thinks, well, this is the way he's going to do it all the time.

You could get killed. He may work supernaturally this year. Next year you may be in a situation and God says, use the mind I gave you. Make a decision. Do something to protect yourself. Here, you see, they fled.

God can send the earthquake and collapse a jail. He can send an angel and lead you out in the middle of the night. But the same man who had the earthquake and was freed from the jail, he had to be let down from a Damascus jail in a basket once in his life.

And there they preached the gospel. And as he's preaching the gospel, there's that a certain man at Lystra, infinite in his feet, being a cripple from his mother's womb who never had walked. So here's a man who none of the false religions of the world could do anything for, crippled all of his life.

And here's the Apostle Paul with the truth of the gospel. With the truth concerning Jesus Christ. You can imagine what they must have gone through with all their temples and all their shrines, paying all their money, going through all the different rituals probably to get their child healed so that he could walk.

But he's been crippled. And now the light of the gospel has come. The same heard Paul speak, who steadfastly believed. Paul locked his eyes on him and was staring at him. Knew that he was responding. That the Holy Spirit was beginning to work in him.

And Paul could tell he was just staring at him. Knew that the Spirit of God was preparing this man's heart. Because God was going to do something. And he perceived that he had faith to be healed. Now there's all kinds of gifts of the Spirit that start coming into operation here in the Apostle's life.

First of all, you see the gift of prophecy. He's prophesying or teaching the Word of God. And the Spirit of God is taking the Word of God and preparing somebody for a miracle of life. As he's sitting there listening, Paul sees...

You can just see the work of the Spirit and Paul locks eyes with him. Says he beheld him steadfastly. Just really looking at him and knowing that God's zeering in on this guy. Then he has discernment.

He discerns that this guy is being prepared for a touch from God. And then Paul has the faith to speak forth what God wants to do for this man. He discerns that the man has the faith that Jesus has given the man the faith to respond.

And then there's a miracle. The gift of a miracle takes place and the gift of healing. All these things, these gifts of the Spirit operating in one event. And you know what? God still works that way. I remember one time in Ohio.

Pastor Jack and I were together. And we're in this church, a denominational church. And we were sitting towards the back of the church. And we were on the right-hand side of the church. And we saw a blind person.

Now, as I looked at him, as he walked in, I could tell by the way he was eating he was blind. And I'm way in the back. And I see him walking across the front. And next thing I know, I see these people take a turn and start coming toward me.

And the Lord says, I want you to pray for him. And I was really frightened. It was bad enough because we had long-haired beards in those days. And they thought, in this church, everybody had a coat and a tie on.

And already we were being stared at. And then the Lord says, I want you to stand up and pray for this man for healing. And as he was coming down the aisle, I'm thinking, well, maybe, Lord, you're going to stop him up front and I won't have to do it.

But as he's getting closer and closer, I knew the Lord was going to do something. I knew it. And the discernment came that they were going to bring him right. Now, this is amazing, too. Because this giant church was really kind of a dead church.

It could seat probably 500 and there were probably only about 30 people in it. Scattered all around the place. And so there was all these spaces on the way back as they're leading him back that they could have just turned into any aisle and sat, you know, any pew and sat down.

But the Lord gave me the discernment. It's like he's coming right back and they're going to sit next to you. You're going to have to do it, Bill. And sure enough, they did. They walked all the way back.

And Jack and I are sitting there. And I stood up, laid hands on him, and prayed for God to heal him, and give him his sight. And he had like, there was no pupils or anything. It's just like a film. He had no dark glasses on.