Greetings, and welcome again to Meditation Moments, and God bless you. We feel sometimes like saying again and again, as Billy Graham says, “God bless you real good.” We do pray that your own life is truly being a blessing to others.

I had a most interesting, but I would say a somewhat embarrassing experience recently when I was suddenly called to the home of a very godly woman who is near death’s door with a malignant disease.

Someone had placed in her hand a copy of my book The Hem of His Garment, that book that tells of the wonderful healing I experienced when I was for years a total invalid. My healing was a miracle from the hands of God. The woman that sent for me to come and pray for her was a member of a prominent Los Angeles church, and the pastor of that church was a prominent, well-known dignitary and a man of many letters.

What was my surprise, when ushered into her sickroom, to find this very pastor sitting by her bed, and yet I had been called there to pray for her! Her husband very coolly explained that as he did not share his wife’s views regarding healing, he felt it only fair to have his pastor there, who shared his views.

The husband nodded to me to proceed, but since the pastor was a friend of the family, and a man, I felt he should have the preference. So I said, “I’ll just wait.” But the pastor insisted; he himself wanted me to go ahead. So I opened my Bible and, trying to forget their presence, I began reviewing some of the precious promises from God’s Word, and I kept my mind fixed on this needy, suffering one lying there so helpless, and lifted her to the Lord continually while I was trying to help her.

My courage grew as I thought of how I really would have been gone years ago hadn’t it been that someone came to me and told me that Christ would heal the body today, that He’d never change, and His Word showed us His will regarding healing.

I looked for the Lord to empower my words, and He was surely helping me, when I was suddenly interrupted by the pastor. He said, “Are you not presumptuous to take it for granted that it’s God’s will to heal this woman? Up to this time she had not asked for God to heal her because she does not want to resist God’s will if He is chastening her.” These were his words. “Now I’ve read her a number of times Hebrews 12:11 that she might not lose the blessing to be had through God’s chastening.”

Then he read aloud that passage: “Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.” And he proceeded to read much of that passage, and I have read it before on this program, and you know it, how God’s Word says if you are without chastening, you’re a bastard, for what father chastens not his own children for their good. And if your earthly father chastens you for your good, how much more will the heavenly Father chasten you for your eternal good. If you are exercised by it, it will work out for this eternal good.—Not only eternal good, but for your righteousness' sake.

Then after he read that he said, “Do you want her to lose this blessing? Do you think that we have a right to thwart God’s will?” After he had said all that, I had to give an answer, for he waited. He said, “You believe that God allows sickness to come upon us at times, don’t you, as a means of drawing us to Him or as a means of needed chastening?” I said, “Yes, I do, and I believe that if we get our hearts right and if we meet God’s conditions and we learn the lesson, then I believe that God is ready to do the work and work a miracle and heal us.

“That doesn’t mean that the chastening must continue on and on, but that after the divine purpose is accomplished, we can claim the promises. The rest of this chapter, which says so much about chastening, ends with an admonition, and I wonder, brother, if you have read the rest of the chapter. Now let’s turn on down.” We both had our Bibles, so I said, “Let’s turn on down to the very last of this passage.” And he did. “Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed” (Hebrews 12:12–13).

I said, “You see, God doesn’t want them to get discouraged by the chastening keeping up forever and ever, but in the end after the lesson is learned, and after God’s purpose is accomplished, then He says, ‘rather let them be healed.’ Now this is the answer to the word afterward in the eleventh verse. After the lesson is learned, after the will is surrendered, after the heart is fully yielded, then rather let them be healed. That’s the will of God.”

Then I continued, and I said, “So often the trial continues so long only because we’re unwilling to believe this and accept God’s promises for healing.” And I said, “I’ve known some of the most precious saints, realizing the purifying process of their suffering, they fear to seek deliverance, not realizing that there was unbelief and that unbelief is a great sin also. If the peaceable fruit of righteousness mentioned in this verse has been accomplished, I don’t think the trial is any longer needful, do you? There comes a time when we must accept deliverance and then begin to trust God.”

He looked up, and he said, “Go on.” I said, “We have to accept and trust. There comes that time, doesn’t it?” But he didn’t answer. Then I said, “I often say, you might as well begin to trust now, as that’s what you’re going to have to do in the end. I have seen just recently some who seem completely hedged in with no way out, and yet the Lord brought by wonderful miracles and He completely healed them the moment that they came to the place of absolute trust.” He said, “You absolutely knew these people; you saw these things?”

I sensed that this man wasn’t just critical; he hadn’t come there just because he was the pastor and was critical. I said, “He’ll not refuse to deliver us from the affliction when His purpose is accomplished, when we’re ready to fully trust, that I surely believe.” I said, “I repeated that a couple of times because I do so truly believe it. The prophet Hosea says, ‘Come, and let us return unto the Lord: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up.’” That’s Hosea 6:1.

Then he asked, he said, “But, in this case, shouldn’t she ask for a special revelation as to God’s will? Isn’t that all right for her to ask for a special revelation as to whether it’s His will to heal her or not?” I said, “God has spoken His will for us through His Word, and I don’t believe that He will give any special revelation just for that which He has already plainly revealed in His Word. It cannot be denied that God has revealed His will to be the healing of His children; that is, as I’ve said, when all the conditions have been met.”

Then he said, “You seem quite sure and dogmatic about His will, don’t you?” “No, I don’t think I’m dogmatic about it, but I really trust the Word and believe His Word. You begin way back in the Old Testament and you’ll find the revealed Word of God with the Israelites, the things that He said to them and the way He dealt with them, and then,” I said, “you come on down through the scripture that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”¹

He said, “Wait a minute now. You belong to that crowd they call ‘full gospel,’ don’t you? They’re always quoting that verse.” I said, “I know His power hasn’t changed, and His love hasn’t changed. As I’ve often said, it just took two things in those days to heal the sick: the power of Christ and the faith of the suffering one. Do you know why this changed?”

I waited a moment. “Well,” he said, “maybe we have.” I said, “The power of God hasn’t; it’s the church that’s lost faith, isn’t it? God hasn’t changed His power any; He hasn’t changed His dealing. Oh, what you do not have faith for, why, you’ll very likely excuse yourself, saying it isn’t for today or it isn’t God’s will.”

Then he began along this line. He said, “But, He doesn’t heal all.” Then I had to turn to Matthew 12:15 and where Christ had healed all, and I quoted different scriptures along that line.

The things which convinced me most regarding the Lord’s power to heal today was the fact that I found His command to heal in every one of the commissions. When He commissioned His 12 disciples that they were to heal the sick, that’s Matthew 10, and I went right down through the commissions: the commission to the 70, and then the commission to the world—it’s called the world commission, that is the commission to the church, to all believers—that’s Mark 16:17–18, and it includes the healing of the body.

When I got into that, he was so definitely interested; that pastor just leaned over and closed his Bible and listened. He said, “You know, I never noticed that before.”

There are such positive statements in the Word of God, which give us a knowledge of the will of God. We don’t have to say “if it be Thy will.” That’s in our very hearts. I don’t see why we put such emphasis upon it. “If” implies doubt, and doubt undermines the faith to take hold of the promise and all the heavenly Father has already revealed of this, and He’s definitely, definitely shown it to be His will. I believe I’ve got the right to take hold of it and expect it. If He hadn’t revealed His will, that would be a different matter, but His Word reveals it to be His will to heal the body.

I’m going to say to you also, the one listening in that isn’t saved, I want to give you a verse from the Bible; it’s for you. He is “not willing that any should perish.”² It’s God’s will for you to be saved. It isn’t God’s will you should be lost. It is His will to save you, bless you, guide you, keep you, and give you eternal life. God’s Word says this is the will of God in Christ Jesus.

But Jesus said, “They will not come to Me that they might have life.”³ So if you’re not saved, it’s because you’ve not accepted God’s will for you. You haven’t willed to come to Him. He wills to change your life, to lift the burden of sin off of your soul and give you a clean, pure heart. Life in all its true fullness, abundance, peace and joy, and rest can be yours. Yield your will to Him right now. Won’t you yield your will to Him and by His power and love become all, just all that He meant you to be?

Let’s pray. Father God, we pray for Thy help right now. Break down stubborn wills. We pray for a yieldedness of heart that will reveal the wonders of Thy grace and Thy glory. In Jesus' name we ask it. Amen.

This was a transcript of a Meditation Moments #74 broadcast. Read or listen to the next episode called Blackout.