USE IT AND GET MORE OR FAIL TO USE IT AND LOSE IT - Derek Prince
From 1957 to 1961 I served as principal of a teacher training college for African teachers in Kenya. During that time we had a sovereign visitation of the Holy Spirit in our college. In meetings with my students I saw all nine gifts of the Spirit in operation among us at various times. I also saw two of my students—on different occasions—raised from the dead. They both testified later of what they had experienced while their spirits were out of their bodies.
Later, in America, I received an unexpected “gift” for ministering to people who were lame. As I seated them in a chair and held their feet in my hands, the shorter leg would grow out in front of my eyes and they would be healed.
Some people, however, suggested that this was not an appropriate ministry for a dignified, scholarly Bible teacher. I decided to ask the Lord about this and I felt He gave me this answer: I have 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. There and then I decided to go on using what God had given me, and indeed I did receive more.
On occasion I have seen a short leg grow out as much as two inches. Also the release of God’s supernatural power in this way triggered other miracles. In one place, without any special prayer being offered, a man was healed of three major infirmities and delivered from nicotine addiction.
I remember one woman who came with a paper bag in her hand and a one-and-a-half-inch buildup on the heel of one shoe. When I took her feet in my hands, her short leg grew out one and a half inches. Then she opened her paper bag and took out a pair of new shoes with normal heels. They fit
her perfectly.
I eventually decided that the scriptural name for my gift was “workings of miracles (power).”
About the same time God directed me into what I came to see as a different application of the same gift. He began to use me in the public casting out of demons. Once again,there were those who objected to the noisy and disorderly manifestations that often accompanied this ministry. I observed in the gospels, however, that similar manifestations often accompanied the ministry of Jesus and so I decided to continue. In the years that have followed I have seen thousands of people wonderfully delivered from demon power.
If we desire the unhindered operation of spiritual gifts, we sometimes need to set ourselves free from traditional ideas of how we should behave “in church.”
Another key to exercising spiritual gifts is to cultivate sensitivity to the Holy Spirit and to make room for Him to move as and when He wills. On one occasion, Ruth and I were having lunch with a Christian couple, and the wife shared that she had a medically diagnosed genetic defect that made her unable to utilize certain amino acids. Her brain was progressively deteriorating.
The husband left to keep another appointment, and we walked back with the wife to their apartment. In the parking lot we paused for a moment to say good-bye. Prompted by the Holy Spirit, Ruth said, “Let me pray for you.” Then we parted.
About three weeks later the husband told us that his wife had been completely healed. This was later confirmed at the same hospital where her condition had been diagnosed.
In that instance, God had just one place and one moment where He made healing available. Because Ruth responded to the prompting of the Holy Spirit.
- Derek Prince (Rules Of Engagement)
From 1957 to 1961 I served as principal of a teacher training college for African teachers in Kenya. During that time we had a sovereign visitation of the Holy Spirit in our college. In meetings with my students I saw all nine gifts of the Spirit in operation among us at various times. I also saw two of my students—on different occasions—raised from the dead. They both testified later of what they had experienced while their spirits were out of their bodies.
Later, in America, I received an unexpected “gift” for ministering to people who were lame. As I seated them in a chair and held their feet in my hands, the shorter leg would grow out in front of my eyes and they would be healed.
Some people, however, suggested that this was not an appropriate ministry for a dignified, scholarly Bible teacher. I decided to ask the Lord about this and I felt He gave me this answer: I have 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. There and then I decided to go on using what God had given me, and indeed I did receive more.
On occasion I have seen a short leg grow out as much as two inches. Also the release of God’s supernatural power in this way triggered other miracles. In one place, without any special prayer being offered, a man was healed of three major infirmities and delivered from nicotine addiction.
I remember one woman who came with a paper bag in her hand and a one-and-a-half-inch buildup on the heel of one shoe. When I took her feet in my hands, her short leg grew out one and a half inches. Then she opened her paper bag and took out a pair of new shoes with normal heels. They fit
her perfectly.
I eventually decided that the scriptural name for my gift was “workings of miracles (power).”
About the same time God directed me into what I came to see as a different application of the same gift. He began to use me in the public casting out of demons. Once again,there were those who objected to the noisy and disorderly manifestations that often accompanied this ministry. I observed in the gospels, however, that similar manifestations often accompanied the ministry of Jesus and so I decided to continue. In the years that have followed I have seen thousands of people wonderfully delivered from demon power.
If we desire the unhindered operation of spiritual gifts, we sometimes need to set ourselves free from traditional ideas of how we should behave “in church.”
Another key to exercising spiritual gifts is to cultivate sensitivity to the Holy Spirit and to make room for Him to move as and when He wills. On one occasion, Ruth and I were having lunch with a Christian couple, and the wife shared that she had a medically diagnosed genetic defect that made her unable to utilize certain amino acids. Her brain was progressively deteriorating.
The husband left to keep another appointment, and we walked back with the wife to their apartment. In the parking lot we paused for a moment to say good-bye. Prompted by the Holy Spirit, Ruth said, “Let me pray for you.” Then we parted.
About three weeks later the husband told us that his wife had been completely healed. This was later confirmed at the same hospital where her condition had been diagnosed.
In that instance, God had just one place and one moment where He made healing available. Because Ruth responded to the prompting of the Holy Spirit.
- Derek Prince (Rules Of Engagement)
USE IT AND GET MORE OR FAIL TO USE IT AND LOSE IT - Derek Prince
From 1957 to 1961 I served as principal of a teacher training college for African teachers in Kenya. During that time we had a sovereign visitation of the Holy Spirit in our college. In meetings with my students I saw all nine gifts of the Spirit in operation among us at various times. I also saw two of my students—on different occasions—raised from the dead. They both testified later of what they had experienced while their spirits were out of their bodies.
Later, in America, I received an unexpected “gift” for ministering to people who were lame. As I seated them in a chair and held their feet in my hands, the shorter leg would grow out in front of my eyes and they would be healed.
Some people, however, suggested that this was not an appropriate ministry for a dignified, scholarly Bible teacher. I decided to ask the Lord about this and I felt He gave me this answer: I have 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. There and then I decided to go on using what God had given me, and indeed I did receive more.
On occasion I have seen a short leg grow out as much as two inches. Also the release of God’s supernatural power in this way triggered other miracles. In one place, without any special prayer being offered, a man was healed of three major infirmities and delivered from nicotine addiction.
I remember one woman who came with a paper bag in her hand and a one-and-a-half-inch buildup on the heel of one shoe. When I took her feet in my hands, her short leg grew out one and a half inches. Then she opened her paper bag and took out a pair of new shoes with normal heels. They fit
her perfectly.
I eventually decided that the scriptural name for my gift was “workings of miracles (power).”
About the same time God directed me into what I came to see as a different application of the same gift. He began to use me in the public casting out of demons. Once again,there were those who objected to the noisy and disorderly manifestations that often accompanied this ministry. I observed in the gospels, however, that similar manifestations often accompanied the ministry of Jesus and so I decided to continue. In the years that have followed I have seen thousands of people wonderfully delivered from demon power.
If we desire the unhindered operation of spiritual gifts, we sometimes need to set ourselves free from traditional ideas of how we should behave “in church.”
Another key to exercising spiritual gifts is to cultivate sensitivity to the Holy Spirit and to make room for Him to move as and when He wills. On one occasion, Ruth and I were having lunch with a Christian couple, and the wife shared that she had a medically diagnosed genetic defect that made her unable to utilize certain amino acids. Her brain was progressively deteriorating.
The husband left to keep another appointment, and we walked back with the wife to their apartment. In the parking lot we paused for a moment to say good-bye. Prompted by the Holy Spirit, Ruth said, “Let me pray for you.” Then we parted.
About three weeks later the husband told us that his wife had been completely healed. This was later confirmed at the same hospital where her condition had been diagnosed.
In that instance, God had just one place and one moment where He made healing available. Because Ruth responded to the prompting of the Holy Spirit.
- Derek Prince (๐Rules Of Engagement)
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