If you will serve the Lord faithfully He may heal you without your even being prayed for much less exercising faith.

One time in Palo Alto the Lord healed me of arthritis in my right knee. It was terribly painful! I was getting ready to go to Kaiser hospital for another shot of cortisone and probably to pick up a crutch. I was standing in my front room, and the Lord touched me and healed me. I went jumping around the front room saying "I'm healed! I'm healed!" I wasn't even prayed for. Maybe I had prayed earlier, I don't remember. It took about two weeks for the swelling to go down but I knew I was healed. It has lasted to the present day. That was about thirty years ago.

Once I was healed in the middle of the night from a siege of anxiety that had lasted several months or maybe a year. After you have been healed a couple of times you know when it has happened. It's real!

Another time I prayed for a young lady in a healing line. I was wearing glassesùhad been from the time I was seven years of age. I had on bifocals. She wanted me to pray that she wouldn't have to wear her glasses.

What do you do? I prayed for her. I don't know whether or not she was healed,

but the next morning I awoke and could read the finest printing on my wristwatch without my glasses. This also took place about thirty years ago. The healing has remained, although now at the age of seventy-one, after all these years writing books and pamphlets, I am beginning to wear glasses to read the Bible. I can read without glasses but it is uncomfortable.

My wife was healed suddenly of a congenital thyroid condition, and our children have been healed of one thing or another on occasion.

We know healing is real. You don't do an "I believe I believe" number. You just lead a holy life and do the Lord's will. Then when you have a need He meets it in His time and way. And they are always at the perfect time and in the perfect way.

I will admit that God likes cliff hangers and loves dramatic entrances. You are falling out of a tenth-floor window. "Ta-dah! Here I am, just in time. Why are you troubled O you of little faith?" Whew!

Are you beginning to catch the flavor of what I am telling you?

You can't force God. I'll tell you that God does not like to be forced to do anything. He much prefers to say and do things in His own time and way, and sometimes He insists!

All right, how then do you get from where you are to the fulfillment of the vision?

You read the New Testament from Matthew to Revelation and do what it says. The New Testament is full of mitzvot (commandments).

How can I keep all these holy commandments? By praying continually to God for wisdom and strength; by reading the Bible every day; by assembling with fervent Christians (if you can find any); by presenting your body a living sacrifice that you may prove His will for you; by giving of your means, serving as you find opportunity, remembering the orphans and widows in their affliction.

We must do what we can to obey the writings of the Apostles. But we have to pray consistently because of the weakness of our flesh. If we try to force ourselves to keep the commandments of the New Testament we end up performing dead works. Dead works are those not wrought in the Spirit of God.

To be continued.