“Expect a Miracle" - Part 2

I started a series of posts yesterday based on the book “Expect a Miracle – My Life and Ministry” by Oral Roberts. You can read part 1 here.

It is a very good book.

Here is a cut n paste from a book report I did while at bible college - be inspired!

He gained a reputation as an eloquent and passionate speaker. His wife reflects that “he is more at home in the pulpit than he is in his own backyard. The words flow out of him until I don’t know him as my own husband. He is another man...when he is in the pulpit something comes over him and he becomes another man. His voice becomes vibrant; every word has great power” (Roberts, 1956, p 39). Lee Braxton, a businessman and key associate of the ministry powerfully notes of Oral Roberts preaching:

"He was a human dynamo charged with God's power. His voice took on a vibrant tone as if it were charged with magnetism. He preached like a man possessed with God. In a few seconds he brought Jesus to that crowd and I am sure every person present saw Jesus so real and close that he could reach out and touch him....he then announced he always put first things first in his meetings. 'I never pray for the sick,' he said, 'until I have led people to Christ to be saved. The saving of a lost soul is God's greatest miracle.' Then the healing line was called and he began praying for the healing of the sick...as he prayed for the people he seemed lost in his prayer, completely oblivious of the crowd. His soul was in his voice and the words of his prayer rang with sincerity." (Branxton in Roberts, 1952, p 6),

Powerful preaching was a hallmark of the ministry of Oral Roberts. His wife, Evelyn, states (Roberts, 1956, p 31) that he feels that the preaching of the gospel is the most important thing in the world. He says that he has no faith apart from God’s Holy Word and the only way he can get people delivered is to build up their faith by the preaching of the Word. I know that his faith reaches its strongest point just after he has finished preaching. He does his most successful praying for the sick following his sermon. He feels that if he can bring their faith to a climax through his preaching, then his prayers for their healing will be answered. For that reason he intensely dislikes praying for the sick privately. A lot of people can’t understand why. He always quotes that verse: ‘Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God’ (Romans 10: 17).

The anointing of the Holy Spirit was another feature of the ministry. Roberts discovered that the difference in being anointed and not being anointed is monumental: “Without it, you're on your own. With it, all your senses come alive, your mind blossoms, your body feels light and graceful in its moves, your spirit is in control, and you realize what you're doing is God inspired beyond any measure you know. People hearing or dealing with you know all this, too. That is, they feel something powerful and wonderful that they can't always understand or explain. But it reaches inside them for a decision to be made one way or the other toward the Lord” (Roberts, 1995, p 352). He relays a powerful illustration of the anointing working through his in a meeting:

"I began to preach , and I had not preached more than ten minutes until the anointing of God struck my mortal flesh. I began to tingle from the crown of my head to the soles of my feet with the presence of God. My brain became clear and sharp, the words started rolling out of my mouth like volumes of water. I heard myself saying things I had never dreamed were possible for any man to say. The spirit of prophecy came on me and I began prophesying...I told the people that this last worldwide revival would be a revival of signs and wonders and that it would be characterised by a great wave of healing power coming from heaven upon the sick bodies of mankind....I was just a little over halfway through in this sermon when the anointing of God became so great that I could not stand still. Suddenly I leaped off the high platform down to the lower floor. When I did it, it seemed the audience was swept off its feet...I saw at a glance that I would not get to finish my sermon, that the power of the Lord was present to heal and I must act immediately...a lot of people were healed that day...both the people and I knew I was called of God for we had seen His outstretched hand that day and many, many people had felt His healing power upon their souls and bodies...I felt I could go out with God's anointing and set the world on fire" (Roberts, 1952, p 93).

The anointing would move powerfully through Oral Robert’s right hand and was a sign to him of God’s presence. As he felt the warmth running through his hand, faith for healing seemed to leap out of his heart and up to God. It helped him understand the absolute necessity for him to release his faith and to inspire the people to release their faith in God also. The rallying cry since this revelation in his ministry has been : “Turn your faith loose! Release your faith to God! Let it go up and out of you to God!” Roberts notes that his ministry was being a faith releaser.

In his preaching and praying for the sick he could encourage people to become God-conscious, then faith-conscious, then learn to turn their faith loose to the Lord and see what the Lord would do. His touching the people with the presence of the Lord pulsating through his right hand became a point of contact for their faith and his faith to be loosed to God for their healing. Before a meeting, Oral Roberts discovered that if he hung on expectantly the presence of God would start coming into his right hand for a few minutes before he went to minister and would cause his faith to become active inside him (Roberts, 1995, p 104).

See you for part 3 tomorrow!