But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. …Earnestly desire the best gifts. (1 Corinthians 12:7-10, 31, NKJV)
Faith is the gift I asked for when I was baptised aged 13 in the Holy Spirit. I wanted that precious powerful gift of faith more than any other, and now the Holy Spirit was using that gift in me: suddenly the Scripture is coming alive! When you are praying, when you are seeking God, you need the interreaction between Jesus who understands your heart, and the Holy Spirit who knows and understands the mind of God! It’s that interreaction between the two, it’s knowing that Christ the Intercessor, through the Spirit, knows and intercedes according to the WILL OF GOD! And in that moment I KNEW that I would be healed! This was still Sunday, I hadn’t yet faced the doctors!
Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:37-39, NKJV)
But I just want to take you to the end of the chapter, Romans 8:35ff, where Paul says, ‘Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?... For I am persuaded that neither death not life, nor angels nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord!’ Nothing. This was to comfort me when I was in the communist prison, because the whole time I was in prison from 1972 through 1973, I KNEW that what I was doing, what had brought me into the prison, was by the WILL OF GOD! Whatever they did to me, however they tortured me and beat me – you don’t understand what it was like in there – but in all the time I was there, I had the peace of God which passes all understanding! When the other prisoners were suffering – broken marriages, broken lives, suffering with the ‘prison-shake’ – the peace of God kept me, because I was persuaded, and I KNEW, that neither cancer, nor death, nor danger, nor principalities, nor powers, nothing – no height, no depth – could separate me from the love of God in Christ which was in my heart. Because, in 1964 when I had this cancer and I’m praying for healing, suddenly I had peace, and I KNEW I was healed according to the WILL OF GOD!
So here we are on the Monday, how do I stop these doctors from operating? I thought about Naaman, the leper, when the prophet told him, “Go and wash seven times in the river Jordan.” He went in six times and wasn’t cleansed, only on the seventh time did the leprosy disappear. It was as if the Lord said to me, “Look, you’re going to have to let them put those instruments down your throat seven times. Six times they’ll see the cancer, and the seventh you’ll be healed.” I said, “No! Not seven... not six, five, four, three...” God said, “Stop, do it three times.” The amazing thing is when I went to the doctors the next morning, I KNEW I was healed, they didn’t. They put the instruments down once and pulled them out. Then a second time. Then they were angry and rough with me, and put the instruments down the third time. And when they pulled them out, they said, “Who did it?! Over the weekend somebody has operated and cut the cancer out, we can see where they have operated and left scar tissue where the cancer was! Tell us the name of the doctor, which hospital?” A Hand had operated and cut that cancer out – the Hand of God! This was an incredible miracle. I have never heard in all my life such a testimony – from doctors – that the Hand of God has physically touched you and we can see what God has done!
The result was that I made that decision to leave my church and give my life in service in Russia and in Israel. The outcome is in my life today. God bless you. Amen.