OR:  Richard, right in the midst of this God sent a minister of the gospel across my path, Rev. Green in New Orleans.  You know our dear friend.  (Yes)  And he told me a story, really touched my heart.  He said there was this young man who wanted to be a success and he didn’t know how.  And there was one man in the city that was the most influential, the wealthiest, the most successful, but he couldn’t meet him.  And one day he was thinking about it and he went fishing and looked over and there sat that man fishing.  And he thought, “I wonder how I can meet this man?”  So he walked over and he said, “Mister, my name is so and so, can I fish by you?”  And the man said, “Well, son, sit right down here and be my guest.”  And after a while he said, “Sir, I’ve wanted to be successful all my life and you’re the only successful man I’ve ever met.  Would you tell me how to be a success?” The man said, “Yes, stand on your feet.”  And they stood up and the man promptly shoved him into the water and jumped in right in after him.  And he got him by the hair of the head and plunged him under and then pretty soon jerked him back up, and the boy was trying to get his breath.  He shoved him under again, pulled him up and the guy was trying to breathe. The third time he shoved him under and kept him under until he knew he’d better get him up or he’d drown.  And the boy was just gasping for breath and said, “Mister, why did you do me this way?”  He said, “Son, do you know how you felt when you thought you had only one more breath?”  He said, “Yes.”  He said, “When you want to be a success like you wanted that last breath, you will be a success.”  Somebody said, “Oral Roberts, how much do you want to send God’s medical presence to the nations?”  I said, “I want it just like that boy did who had one more breath or he would die.  I want to live. I want 20 more years in the gospel and I believe God’s going to give them to me.  I’m asking you to stand with me because God’s going to reward you.  You’re going to have favor with God.  When God looks down and sees these medical missionaries all over the earth and the healing teams with them and souls coming to God and the sick being healed, He’s going to look at the ones who sent them.  And I praise God for you.  I’m asking you for two months pledge, pledge this month and next month.  (applause)  Whatever amount God lays on your heart, it may be $50 in July, $50 in August, or $100 or it may be less, it may be more. But do it.  You can’t earn your way to heaven. You’re saved by grace. It’s a gift of God.  But you will be rewarded on your works.  Oh, what a joy it is.  You know, God said this because He believed in us.  (Of course.)  He believed we could do it.  He believed we would do it.

RR:  And He told you to believe it could be done.

OR:  Oh, yes.  When He told me to raise the $8 million, my stomach just turned over.  He said, “I want you to believe you can raise it, believe.”  And I tell you, I’m believing.

RR: Dad, I was sitting here thinking back over the years as you were talking. You know, there’s no group of people in the history of this country that have done what the partners of this ministry have done. I remember as a little boy how we had a farm and you’d pitch a tent and our partners would come from all over America and Canada and from foreign nations and how you would say, “We’re going to build a university, will you help me build dormitories, will you help me build classrooms, will you help me start with nothing?” And those partners, somehow, I don’t know how, but somehow that got in their soul. It got down in their gut where they live. And they said, “Yes, I’ll help you. I’ll sponsor a mattress. I’ll sponsor a, I’ll sponsor a door. I’ll sponsor some tiling, some carpet. I’ll sponsor the ceiling. Yes, I’ll help you buy books for your library. Yes, I’ll help you build that Prayer Tower.” You know, here we are this summer, we’ve been remodeling some of those original dormitories. And I was thinking of that. And I thought to myself, where else on the face of this earth are there a group of people like the partners of this ministry who have singlehandedly built a university? And I thought, where else on the face of this earth have partners, have men and women like you stood together to raise the only medical center of its kind where the doctors and the nurses are Spirit-filled, they have great medical abilities but they also know to pray? Where else on the face of this earth? (Applause) And I was thinking, there’s no other group of people, there’s no group of people on the face of this earth. You say, what are you trying to say? I’m trying to say what Paul the apostle said to the church at Philippi when he wrote in the 4th chapter, when he said, “Nobody communicated with me except you concerning giving and receiving.” There’s nobody that’s done what you’ve done. There’s no one who has built a university like what you have built through this family. There’s no one like you who has built a medical research center where prayer and medicine science are being joined together. Nobody has done it. Nobody has built a Healing Outreach Center with the Journey Through the Bible like you’ve built. And the good news is, it’s only in its first phase. There’s lots more to come. When you go through the Journey Through the Bible this summer or this fall or whenever you come to Tulsa, the first part is only done and you only get through Genesis. There’s the whole Bible all the way through Revelation to be done. But my point is, nobody has done what you’ve done. And I believe that the partners of this ministry are going to rise to the occasion because we are on the way now. We are not going to lose. We’re going to go over the top for God and the nations of this earth are going to be reached with the medical missionaries. Hallelujah!

OR:  Well, I can only tell you that when God said if I don’t turn it around He’s going to take me to heaven, that I’ve asked Him does He mean it literally.  I know you, do you remember what you said to me when I told you that morning that God had spoken to me?

ER:  Yes.  You said that God told you you were on the last rung of the ladder.  And I said, “Well, honey, that could mean 30 years.  It doesn’t necessarily mean that right now you’re on the last rung of the ladder and you may go tomorrow.”  But then when He spoke to you again and said, “I’ll give you one year to turn this around,” I asked you, “Does He mean literally one year in time as we think of time or in God’s eyes time may mean a different thing?  But why is He so urgent about this?”

OR:  Well, I can only reply in two ways, whether He means literally in 12 months, only He knows.  I know I’m going to obey Him.  But I think for sure He’s trying to get our attention. (Yes, yes.)  Because he’s not got the attention of the church. We as a church have neglected the nations.  There are only 50,000 missionaries in the whole world, only 400 medical missionaries in the whole world.  We have 480,000 preachers in the United States, 530,000 doctors in the United States, only 50,000 missionaries and 400 medical missionaries.  If it takes my life to get people’s attention, sobeit.  But if we obey, in fact, I believe we’re going to obey and God is going to let me live. (Applause) But the second thing is this, I believe God has said this because He’s concerned about the healing of the sick.  Jesus preached and He taught and He healed.  The signs and wonders must be restored to the gospel.  And God raised me up to take His healing power to the people in order to win souls and change lives.  Now I want you to think a minute.  Fifty-one years ago there was a 17-year-old boy lying dying with tuberculosis in Pontotoc County, Oklahoma.  Three doctors, Dr. Shy, Dr. Craig, and Dr. King worked over me.  Finally they took me for prayer and God restored my life.  Don’t you think He is just as concerned about a 17-year-old boy with tuberculosis in Africa, in Asia, in South America, in some nations where the gospel is not allowed to go, where they are desperate for doctors?  Don’t you think He’s concerned about sick people everywhere?  Don’t you think God cares?  I think that’s what this is all about.  And, you know, I’ve only got two months before we open our medical school for the fall semester, 48 brand-new freshmen.  There are 192 in all four classes. I need your help.  I need you to make a two month Seed-Faith pledge and redirect some of your giving where you don’t know for sure it’s winning souls and healing the sick. Because this is good soil.  And He said if you planted in good soil you will get a hundredfold return and He will restore you seven times what the devil has stolen from you.  (Applause)  Pray about this.  I have a good feeling about it.  I feel so good about it.  I’m encouraged about it, and I’m asking you as my partner who stood by me.  I didn’t build all this.  I was just an instrument.  You partners have done this, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.  And God’s going to reward you, you can count on that.  And I’m asking you for a pledge for this month and next month, say $50 this month, $50 in August or $100 in July and $100 in August, or whatever amount, it’s smaller or it’s larger.  I’m talking to somebody who can sponsor an entire student.  I’m talking to some church that needs to redirect your missionary giving to where you know without a doubt that you will win souls and heal the sick.  My mailing address is Tulsa, Oklahoma.  Or Oral Roberts, Tulsa, Oklahoma.  In Canada, Oral Roberts, Toronto, Ontario.  And I tell you, I’d love to hear from you.  In fact, I must hear from you.  And God will put you in His reward system.

LR:  You know, one of the things the Lord spoke when He had Oral open up the school was that the students’ work would exceed Oral’s work and in that God will be well pleased.  Well, you know, you’ve got to travel a lot of miles and lay hands on a lot of people and pray for a lot of people to exceed Oral’s work. But this is one way that that prophecy can be fulfilled, because when we send out our teams, they’re going to all the nations where we can’t go as individuals.  One man or one woman can’t go to all those places.  But the more medical teams we send out, the more students we send out, the more healing teams we sent out, they’re going to infiltrate the entire world.  And that promise will be fulfilled then.  (Applause)

RR:  Well, dad, everything is on the line.

OR:  Pardon?

RR:  Everything is on the line.  We must do what God told us to do. And I’d like to just interrupt and say something.  I’m not saying this because my father is here, I’m not saying it because I’m his son.  I’m saying it because it’s true and the truth isworthy to be heard.  Here is a man who was dying with tuberculosis, his sister came in and said to him, “Oral, God is going to heal you.”  He was converted, received Christ because he saw Jesus’ countenance in his own father’s face, in my grandfather’s face, Ellis Melvin Roberts.  He was converted.  He was carried to a healing crusade where a preacher was preaching and praying for the sick.  His brother Elmer, my oldest Uncle Elmer, took him.  And God spoke to him in the back seat of that car and said, “I’m going to heal you and you’re to take My healing power to your generation.”  For more than 25 years he traveled the nations of this earth, more than 46 nations, preaching the gospel, winning many times more than a million souls a year to Christ.  All right, he did what God said.  Then God said, “You are to build Me a university.”  And as you look right now you can see this great campus.  You can see a university that’s unlike any university on the face of this earth, Spirit-filled young men and women, Spirit-filled faculty, staff and administration, students who are learning how to hear God’s voice and how to prepare themselves to go to the nations of the earth.  When God said, “Build me a university,” friend, you’re looking at it.  Then God said, “Build the City of Faith and put prayer and medical science together.”  He had no plan of building a hospital.  He was told to put prayer and medicine together.  But the other hospitals, for some reason, for some reason which only they know, they decided not to allow our medical students to do their clinical work in their hospitals. So we had to build our own hospital attached to the City of Faith.  But thank God, it’s over there.  Prayer and medicine are being merged together right there at this very minute while I’m talking to you.  (Applause)  God said, “Build the Healing Outreach Center and build a Journey Through the Bible.”  The first phase is open.  We’ve been talking to you about it.  And you say, well why are you telling me all this, Richard?  Why are you giving me this history lesson?  I’m doing it because here is a man who has said, “God told me to do this and I did it.  Now God told me to build a university and I did it.  God told me to build the City of Faith and I did it.  God told me to open the Healing Outreach Center with the Journey Through the Bible and I did it.”  All right, here is a man who has credibility in America.  If any man in the United States of America has credibility in what he says God told him to do and then he did it, then his name is Oral Roberts.  (Applause)  Now I’m not saying this because he’s my father.  I’m saying it because he’s a prophet of God. He is an evangelist.  He is an apostle.  He is a trailblazer, and God has said to him, (Applause) “Turn your medical school around.”  Now I think–there are many things that I love about my father–but I think the thing that I love most is the fact that he will die, he will die doing what Jesus told him to do.  He will be obedient.  And the Bible says, “Obedience is better than sacrifice.”  (Applause)  I’ve seen him make many personal sacrifices in his life, but that is no comparison to the obedience of God.  And here is a man who is willing to pay the price, who has been willing for many years, who continues to be willing, and is saying to God, “God, I want 20 more years.”  And when Oral Roberts says, “I want 20 years,” he doesn’t mean ten years of health and then ten years like a vegetable.  He means 20 years of health, 20 years of doing God’s work.  (Applause)  And God said to him, “You must do this.”  Now he’s a man who is obedient.  And you need to hear what he’s saying today because this not only can turn the medical school around and turn foreign missions around and put God’s medical presence in the earth, but, friend, as a direct result it can turn your life around.  It can turn your shattered life into a miracle and bring you the needs, get your needs met in your life.  And I’m serious about this. This is, this is something that is a mandate from God.

OR:  You remind me of–

RR:  They are one of those 34.

OR:  –yes, of a pastor down in Texas who heard about this and met his deacon board and they reexamined their whole missionary program.  And they found that in some places their money wasn’t winning souls and healing the sick.  Richard, you remember he flew up here with a $45,000 check from his church to sponsor one of the ORU medical students to be a medical missionary in a nation.

RR:  And he said, “This isn’t the last of the money you’re going to get, you’re going to get more than this project,” he said, “because I’m with you.  (Applause)

ER:  Honey, let’s get back to the point of why God wants this done and why He’s so urgent about it?  To me the whole result of why He said, “If you don’t turn the medical school around, I’m going to take you home,” the reason He said that is because He’s concerned about hurting medical people in there because a medical person opens up a country so that the other team can get in.  And as an example–let me tell you this–tell the people this.  You know the story and Richard and Lindsay.  But our people don’t know it.  I may have shared it on television once before.  We had a medical team of students who went to Africa a summer or two ago just for the summer and they took some singers and ministers, etc., a whole group of students went.  And they went to a little clinic in Africa.  Two of the young medical people had been examining the patients there because they didn’t have a permanent doctor.  And one night a young woman came in to that clinic and she was just as heathen as she could be.  She’d never heard of Jesus, but she was bleeding to death.  And the young doctors examined her and they said, “This woman has to have blood or she won’t live.” So they went around to all the team to examine their blood to see who had the kind of blood this woman needed, and it happened to be one of those medical students.  And he gave her a blood transfusion of his own blood and saved her life.  The next morning when she came to, they said to her through an interpreter, “Do you know what has happened to you?”  And she said, “Well, I know I’ve been very sick.”  And they said, “This young man right here gave you his blood and saved your life.  But the most important thing that you should hear is that two thousand years ago a man spilled all of His blood on a cross thatyour soul might be saved and you might have eternal life.”  And that young woman accepted Jesus Christ lying right there on the bed.  (Applause) Now that is the end result of what these healing mission teams can do. We who are at home can participate and help to open up a country.  We may not be able to go like the young doctor who will open it up, but if we give to this program the Lord will give–our reward will be just as great.  I really believe that.  Our reward will be just as great if we take a part in helping to open up a nation as the young doctor who was in there and helps to open it up.