By Frances
Praise God that the eyes of our understanding are open for new spirit revelations because God is always right there wanting us to have a greater understanding of his Word and his workings.
One of the most outstanding teachings that has been received by the body of Christ has been from Mark 11:23 and 24, "For verily, I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them."
I believe there is a dimension to this scripture which will take us into another realm of healing. The eyes of our understanding are being enlightened, and I believe that as we go into the final stages before Jesus Christ comes back again, people are going to be
looking into the spirit world as they have never looked into that vast, exciting world before!
are going to see a lot more angelic activities! Many people who never dreamed that an angel would ever come down in the twentieth century are going to be surprised to see angels accompanying them
wherever they go.
We will see the supernatural power of God greatly accelerate where healing is concerned!
I believe the supernatural power of God will be
operating through great hosts of ordinary people. For many years, we had only a few "stars" who went out and laid hands on the sick. God is no respecter of persons, so there are no "stars" in the kingdom of heaven, but I believe that God is raising up armies of people all over the world to go out and lay hands upon the sick!
The more we learn about the different ways to heal the sick, the more qualified we will be to go out. We want to remind you that if one thing does not work, try something else until you have victory in that area.
I want to share something with you that I have not totally developed yet, but I believe you can see from some of the things which have happened as a result of this revelation that it opens up a whole new world for healing. I believe you will find this a real bell- ringer in your own life!
to pass, when the Lord would take up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind, that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal. And Elijah said unto Elisha, Tarry here, I pray thee; for the Lord hath sent me to Beth-el. And Elisha said unto him, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee." (I want you to remember that phrase, because it is very important!) "So they went down to Beth-el. And the sons of the prophets that were at Bethel came forth to Elisha, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy master from thy head to day? And he said, Yea, I know it; hold ye your peace."
Watch the words that Elijah said, then note the answer by Elisha, and watch for repetition.
"And Elijah said unto him, Elisha, tarry here, I pray thee; for the Lord hath sent me to Jericho. And he said, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. So they came to Jericho." Did you notice the repetition again?
"And the sons of the prophets that were at Jericho came to Elisha, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy master from thy head today? And he answered, Yea, I know it; hold ye your peace. And Elijah said unto him, Tarry, I pray thee, here; for the Lord hath sent me to Jordan. And he said, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. And they two went on."
this is so vital in your Christian experience. Elijah kept saying to Elisha, "Get lost!" Notice he kept
saying, "Tarry here, I am going over to so and so, you just stay here, Buddy!" Elisha knew that Elijah had something that he wanted, and he was not about to miss out on the blessing of God. And he kept saying, "Oh, no, you don't, Brother. As long as you live, I'm not going to leave you. As the Lord lives and as you live, I am not going to leave you. Here I come." And so Elisha went along with him.
Elisha was one of the most persistent men in the Bible, and I want you to be the most persistent follower of Jesus Christ that the world has ever known; because God is looking for people who have persistence! God will give you power, but God is looking for people with persistence.
Persistence pays off in every area of your life. I don't care what area you are operating in, persistence will pay off.
I want to show you a really good example of that. I was born with persistence! I lived with persistence. If you could see me in person, you might find it
difficult to believe, but I weighed only two pounds when I was born. My first bed was a shoe box,
believe it or not, because that is how small I was. No one believed that my parents would ever raise me. Praise God! I sure proved them wrong!
was hanging on, and hanging on, and it said, "I want to live, I want to live!" Persistence is so vital! This has been with me my whole life long, and I praise God for the characteristic of persistence. Persistence brings success! I have never known anyone who was a success who was not persistent.
Many times people get sidetracked because they lay hands on the sick one time, and when that one person doesn't get healed, they say, "Well, God didn't call me into a healing ministry."
The first person I ever prayed for died! But that didn't keep me down. I thought, "Well, surely I will get a better track record!" You cannot do any worse than that, can you? That should not discourage you. You should just go on. I will have to admit, however, that it was a terrible shock to me when the first one died!
Someone told me recently about an evangelist in the healing ministry years ago who said, "If I prayed for 500, and 500 dropped dead, I'd still go on praying and believing for the sick!!" We feel exactly the same way!
I want to show you another area of persistence, to point out that sometimes we do not understand in the beginning why we are so persistent. Yet, some fifty years down the line we will know.
Spaniard came into our school auditorium, and he had a machine called a typewriter. Today, everyone is familiar with typewriters, but when I was growing up, a typewriter was really something that very few people had ever seen. He sat down at this machine and it spelled words right out on a piece of paper as plain as anything. He typed 125 words a minute, and I was completely fascinated. My own handwriting was miserable, so I thought a typewriter would be a perfect answer for me, and I purposed in my heart that I was going to be a good typist.
I signed up for a typing class in school. After the first week, I decided it was harder than it looked when he did it, but I had made up my mind that I was going to learn how to type, even though I didn't get up to 125 words per minute the first week.
I went to my teacher and said: "Do you stay after school for a while, and if so, may I stay with you and practice on the typewriter until you go home?"
Then listen to what I said, and it involved a Christian principle I knew nothing about, because I said to her, "I want to practice, because I am going to be the best and the fastest typist that this school has ever seen." I didn't even know what I was talking about, and I could not even hit two keys without making a mistake. But I made that statement because I had purposed in my heart that I was going to be the best typist that the school had ever seen. While the other kids were down at the corner having cokes and
cigarettes and doing all the other things that high school kids did at that time, I was sitting in the high school going type, type, type, type, learning how to type!
That wasn't enough, however, because the teacher did not stay long enough after school. We had department stores in St. Louis where I was raised, and so I would spend a dime to get on the bus and go downtown where they had three department stores right in a row.
I would walk into the first one where they had three different typewriters on display and say, "I am
interested in typewriters, may I try this one?" I didn't think I was being dishonest, because I didn't say I was interested in buying one, I just said I was interested in typewriters. I would stand there and type on each of the three typewriters until I had the paper completely filled up, then I would thank the clerk and go on to the second store. I would do the same thing there, and then on to the third store. Then I would go back the next day and do the same thing over again!
What I am trying to instill in you is a desire to develop your persistence. I used all the time I could at school! I used all the time after school that the teacher would give me! Then I went to the
department stores, and I used up all their paper! Finally, came the great day when I had my first speed
test. If I remember correctly, I typed 31 words a
minute with 97 errors! You never saw so many errors in your entire life! Thirty-one words a minute is not bad for a beginner, but 97 errors was absolutely unbelievable! But I purposed in my heart that I was going to be the school's best typist, so I started back on the same routine again. First I would stay after school, then down to the department stores I would go.
Finally the day came when I passed a test at 40 wpm, 50 wpm, 60 wpm, 70 wpm, 80 wpm, 90 wpm, and even 100 wpm, BUT THAT WAS NOT GOOD ENOUGH! I had purposed in my heart that I was going to type 125 wpm like that skinny little Spaniard did! And I wasn't going to settle for less than that, so I kept practicing and practicing until the day came when I typed 125 wpm on a manual typewriter. You really have to put forth energy to type that fast on a manual typewriter. But I did it without any errors
whatsoever in a fifteen-minute test! That is what persistence does for you!
I had no more talent in that area than anybody, but I did have persistence! If you keep saying, "I am going to be the world's most dynamic evangelist! I am going to have the world's greatest healing ministry!" do you know what you are going to have? You are going to have exactly what you say, providing you live the life God says! If you will keep on being
persistent, and you will keep on doing, even at times when you would like to be doing something else, you
will succeed. Be persistent in whatever you do! At that time I didn't understand why I was learning to type, because most girls want to get married and have a family and never think they are going to use the skills they learn. Little did I realize that my husband was going to die at a very early age, and that I would be thrust out into the business world to raise two children. I praise God for that ability I had because it allowed me to support my children. I owned and operated a secretarial service which eventually turned into a big printing company, but I don't believe that is the only reason God had me learn to type. I don't believe that is why God kept prodding me long before I was a Christian.
Do you know what I think God was doing? God knew that he called me to be an author. God knew that I would have no time to try to write a manuscript in longhand. Fifty years before I ever used the talent, God taught me how to be an outstanding typist, and today I am one of the few authors who type all of their own manuscripts. I do all of my own typing, and after I edit the book I retype it myself, because I know how I like to paragraph, and I know how I like things spaced. I know how I want everything in a book, and these are things I could never have done if I had not been persistent in learning to type.
Now let's get back to Elijah and Elisha. Continuing with II Kings 2, we read in verses 7 and 8 that "fifty men of the sons of the prophets went, and stood to
view afar off: and they two stood by Jordan. And Elijah took his mantle, and wrapped it together, and smote the waters, and they were divided hither and thither, so that they two went over on dry ground." Elisha was very impressed with that, so remember it!
Verse 9 says, "And it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said unto Elisha, Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee. And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me." He wasn't satisfied to have a little crumb of Elijah's power; he wasn't even
satisfied to have as much as Elijah; he was a spiritual pig! A spiritual hog! He wanted twice as much! And that is what EACH one of us ought to be - A REAL SPIRITUAL PIG! I love Elisha because he wanted everything God had for him!
Let's watch what Elijah said: "Thou hast asked a hard thing: nevertheless, if thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee; but if not, it shall not be so."I want you to circle the word SEE in this book right now, because it's going to play an
important part in your life.
"And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Elisha SA W it, and he cried, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. And he
saw him no more: and he took hold of his own clothes, and rent them in two pieces."
Elisha could have let his attention be distracted by a lot of things. He could have thought, "WOW, look at those trees today, those leaves are really turning." He was a young man, so he could have kept his eyes on girls and missed God! But because he was a
persistent man, and he kept his eyes on Elijah, he SAW Elijah when he departed in the whirlwind! AND HE GOT WHAT HE WANTED!
He was a real man of action, because here is faith in action, "And he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and smote the waters, and said, Where is the Lord God of Elijah? and when he also had
smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither: and Elisha went over."
Elisha could have picked up that mantle and said, "This is so holy and so righteous, I can't put it on." But he knew that God was no respecter of persons, so he picked it up and did the same thing that Elijah did. He thought, "Boy, I will crack that water, and watch that water split open." "POW!" There the
waters went! Elisha SAW him when he departed, and then he immediately put into practice what he had seen Elijah do.
I was teaching about persistence on the radio one day, and as I began to teach on this, I suddenly saw a whole new dimension open up through the word
"see." I began to think, "Lord, have we been missing out on things because we are not looking with spiritual eyes the way we ought to look?"
A couple of years ago, an evangelist got up in a
meeting one night and said, "I had a man come up to me the other night in a meeting, and he handed me a little piece of paper, and he said, 'Brother, the Lord told me to give this to you,' and I thought it was a little note or something." He stuck it in his pocket, thinking it was a prayer request.
He forgot all about it until he got home, and then he took it out of his pocket, and it was a check for
$100,000. I always get excited when another ministry receives a big gift, because we rejoice for all
ministers of the gospel. WE ARE FOR EVERY
CHRISTIAN MINISTRY THAT PREACHES THE GOSPEL OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST! Neither of us has a jealous bone in our body. I get excited because I always feel that if God does it for one, he will do it for another, since he is no respecter of persons!
Charles and I were driving to a meeting one night and I said, "How come nobody ever walks up to me and says 'Frances, the Lord told me to give you this check for $100,000!'" I was really talking to God, and God said, "Because you never SAW it."
What a surprise that was to me! And I began to think about what he had said! I discovered there are two kinds of visions. There is a supernatural vision
which is the kind that God gives you for a particular circumstance and time. And then there is the natural vision where you can stand on the Word of God and begin to see a promise in your spirit, and it will come to pass.
I believe we are in the days of Acts 2:17: "And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream