I spoke to those who have deafness and cannot speak, and those who could not hear and speak were healed last night.  And what God did last night, He will do tonight.  (Response)  He is God.  There’s nothing too hard for Him.

Suddenly the power of God came into Bartimaeus’ eyes.  And for the first time in his life, he could see just like that man last night who had been blind for five years, and he came up on the platform and testified that he could see.  And he followed me all among the people.  Wherever I went, he followed me.  And he’s healed.

Suddenly Bartimaeus could see.  And everyone saw the miracle.  And the word began to spread.  And the word has been spreading all day here in Niamey.  And the word has spread to the villages around the city and to the far borders of Niger.  And what God did for Bartimaeus, He is ready to do for you tonight.  (Response)

Lift your hands unto Him tonight.  Father, in Jesus’ name, I give You praise.  I give You honor and glory.  The Bible says, “I am the Lord that healeth thee.”  And the Lord Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  So what He did in Bible days, He will do these days.

I am going to begin to pray.  I want you to lift your two hands unto the Lord.  And when you hear me speak to sickness and disease, when you hear that and when I touch on something that has affected you, I want you to get your faith working.

What do I mean?  I mean I want you to believe with me.  The Bible says it only takes two—“If two shall agree on earth.”  There are thousands and thousands here tonight.  But it only takes two, you and me.  “If two shall agree on earth as concerning anything that they shall ask, it shall be done by my Father in heaven.”

So when I speak to sickness and disease tonight, you go into agreement.  And then after I pray, I will begin to ask those who are receiving healing to come up on the platform and to testify and to let the people know what God has done in your lives, so that we may know, so that Niamey may know, so that Niger may know and so that the world may know that Jesus is a healing Jesus.

Begin to come to the platform.  Come to my right.  Come to my left.  Line up.  Come and give a testimony.  If you can tell there’s a healing, if you can tell God’s doing something, step out.  Come to this platform and give a word of testimony.  Come quickly.

If you can tell there’s a healing, come now.  God showed me there would be many.  If you can tell the difference, come quickly.  Come quickly.

MAN:As the man of God started preaching, a man was bringing his wife who . . . for five years.  And he was bringing her down to this stadium.  But the moment he got to the door here . . . to the stadium.  As they stepped through that door . . . (Applause)

RR: Did you receive healing?  Yes, David.

DAVID: For two years this lady has had a pain or a pressure on her chest.  Tonight when you prayed, the pressure has left.

RR: What happened when we prayed?

MAN: When you prayed, there was a movement in my chest . . . she found out that she can now breathe very well.  The pain is gone.

RR: Breathe all the way in and out.  Is your breathing good?  Hallelujah!  Yes.

MAN: Richard, this man says that . . . and he’s healed tonight.

RR: Back pain for a year?  Bend over now.  Up, now down.  How is it now?

MAN: I’m completely healed.

RR: Hallelujah!  Give praise to the Lord.  Hallelujah!  Yes, Dr. Cordray.

C: Richard, this lady has had asthma for more than 20 years, could not breathe.  But when you spoke the word, she said she was healed.

RR: What happened to your breathing?

MAN: She said when you were praying she couldn’t breathe very well.  But something came like a . . . to her chest now . . . and it was driven out.  I can now breathe.

RR: Breathe all the way down.  Ask her how many years it’s bothered her?

MAN: She said it was over 20 years.

RR: Over 20 years?  Hallelujah!

MAN: Dr. Roberts, this woman came to the crusade having suffered from severe pain in her head for over four years.  Tonight she says the pain is completely gone.

RR: Is the pain gone?  How many years?  Four years?  And the pain is gone now?  Hallelujah!

MAN: Richard, this lady has had back and waist pain for two years. When you preached tonight, she felt something leave her body.

RR: Ask her what happened.

MAN: . . . prayer before she came here.  I was praying for my hands and my legs.  But after prayer . . . hands and legs are gone.

RR: Hallelujah!

MAN: This lady’s had heart problems for 15 years.  She was so bad that she couldn’t even walk . . . She began to walk.  And she’s been totally healed.

And so I telephoned home.  My father was out of town preaching, but my mother was home.  I said, “Mother, I want to come home and go to Oral Roberts University.”

She said, “I don’t think you can get in.”  My own mother said, “I don’t think you can get in.”  She said, “You’ve developed some habits in your life, and we have a lifestyle and an Honor Code.  And to come to ORU, you have to agree not to smoke, not to drink alcohol, not to take drugs, not to live an ungodly lifestyle.  You have to agree not to lie or steal or cheat.”  She said, “I don’t know if you can get in.”

I said, “I can change.”

She said, “You think you can change?”

I said, “Yes, I can change.”

And the next year I came to ORU.  And while I was there, God got hold of my life.  And I fell on my knees, and I prayed a sinner’s prayer.  And I asked Jesus Christ to come into my heart.  And God saved me that night.  That night I was baptized in the Holy Spirit, and I began to speak with other tongues as the Holy Spirit gave the utterance.

I did not get to be a nightclub entertainer, but I got to preach the gospel.  (Applause)

Thirteen years ago I became President of the university that I ran away from.  I had earned a bachelor’s degree, and then a master’s degree, and then a doctorate degree.  And I had served by my father for many years.  He stepped down after 30 years as the first President.  That was 13 years ago.  I have served now as the second President for these 13 years.

We have more than 5,000 students.  They come from all over the world.  We have 60 majors on the undergraduate level.  We also have a school of nursing, a school of business, a school of theology, and a school of education.  It is fully accredited by every accrediting agency.

There is a hell.  I don’t want to go there.  There is a heaven, and that’s where I’m going someday.  The Bible says, “If you confess your sins, God is faithful and just to forgive you and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness.”

There’s some of you here tonight who have never made a commitment of your life to the Lord, but you do not want to leave this crusade without committing your life to God.  I believe that my prayers can help you.  But you’re going to have to cooperate.  You’ll have to do what I say.

I’m asking every man, every woman, every young person who is tired of running from God, you’re tired of the lifestyle, you want to repent, you want to ask God to forgive you, and you want to live for God, and you’d like me to pray a salvation prayer with you, if that’s you, if I’m describing you, then put your hand up high.  I want to pray for you.  Hold it high.  This is a call for salvation.

Now you with your hands up, rush to this altar right now.  Rush to this altar.  I want to pray for you right here.  Come and stand before me.  If you’re coming from my left or right, I’ll wait.  If you’re coming from the back of the stadium, I’ll wait.  I want to lead you in a sinner’s prayer.

The Bible says, “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”  Sure, we all make mistakes.  Sometimes we even commit sin.  But a person who is a sinner is a person who has made sin a way of life.  And you’ll lose your soul, and I don’t want that to happen to you.

And I want everyone who can hear my voice, who wants a personal relationship with Jesus, you know you’re lost, you know that you’re not living for God, but you want to begin living for Him tonight, if you do, then come to this altar.  Come to the front or come to the back, and let me pray.  I want to pray.  I am willing to pray.  I am able to pray.  But there’s nothing I can do unless you let me pray.

I was teaching this recently to a group of students in my class, which I teach each semester on the Charismatic Life and the Healing Ministry.  And I said to them what I will say to you.  The gifts of the Spirit flow through virtually every born-again believer, at the will of the Spirit in His timing, whichever gift He decides, whenever He decides.

But oftentimes our tendency is when that happens to say, “Well, I wonder what that was?”  Or “WOW, that was sure different.” Or “Where did that thought come from?” Or “I could never say that.”  And we suppress it; we hold it down.  And the bottom-line result is people do not get blessed as a result of it.

More and more I’m being asked by ministers to speak on the subject of the gifts of the Spirit: how they operate, how they don’t operate. And those of you who say, “Well, those things don’t operate in my life.”   You’ll find that they ARE operating; you’re just holding them down.

I want you to write three things down this morning:  Revelation, power and vocal.  Let’s break these nine gifts up into three sections: The first three–the revelation gifts; the second three–the power gifts; the final three–the vocal gifts.  And let’s begin with the word of wisdom. Everybody say the word of wisdom.  (RESPONSE)

Now oftentimes people say, “Well, the gifts of the Spirit only operate in the New Testament,? and that’s not true, because He’s the same Holy Spirit.  We didn’t get a new Holy Spirit when Jesus went to the cross.  The same Holy Spirit who operated in the Old Testament is the same Holy Spirit who operated in the New Testament is the same Holy Spirit who’s operating now.  So let’s deal with the word of wisdom for a moment.

The word of wisdom is: specific understanding or specific direction given in a specific situation.  How many times have you faced a situation where you suddenly knew what to do?  Or you suddenly knew the exact word of wisdom to give to someone?  What do we often do?  We often say, “Well, I wonder where that came from?  Why, that was out-of the-blue,? not realizing that’s an operation of one of the gifts of the Spirit–the word of wisdom.

First Kings Chapter 17, you know the story of Elijah and the widow.  God had sustained Elijah by the brook.  The ravens fed him.  He drank from the waters.  God wanted more than just Elijah to be sustained, He wanted a widow to be sustained so that we could be sustained.

And he came to town.  She was gathering sticks for a fire.  What are you doing?   “I’m getting ready to cook my last supper.  I’ve got just enough meal in a barrel, just enough oil in a cruse.  We’re going to eat our last meal, my boy and I, and we’re going to die.”

When the word of the Lord, (a word of wisdom) came to Elijah, he said, “Give me the first portion.”  Now that was an operation of the word of wisdom.  “Give me the first portion, for if you will, thus saith the Lord, “Your meal barrel will not diminish, neither shall your cruse of oil fail.?”  Now that was actually the gift of prophecy and the word of wisdom working together.

But it’s too much of the same thing, preaching and teaching, but leaving out the healing ministry.  Jesus said we’re to preach, teach, and heal-not that we can do the healing, but we pray and He does the healing.  We’ve got to do all three.  And He’s put His stamp of approval on the laying on of hands.  And hands are important.

My father has taught me, “Make certain never to do anything that you can’t find in the Bible.  If you can’t find it in the Bible, don’t do it.  Make sure that everything you say, everything you do is backed up by the Word of God.  They may get upset with you, but they cannot argue with the Bible.”

And hands are wonderful.  Take your hands like this and look at them.  Hands are wonderful.  The power of God comes into my hands, they get so hot.  I look down and think surely my hands will be red likefire, but they look just absolutely perfectly normal in every respect. And yet I can feel it.  I can feel it right now.  There’s a burning fire in my hands, and yet there’s no redness and yet they’re hot.  God uses hands.  In Acts He said He brought special miracles through the hands of Paul.

And that’s the Scripture that God gave me.  As I would stretch out my hands on television and say, “Walk over to the television and lay your hands up against my hands as a point of contact and expect miracles.  What would happen if members of your congregation would come forward and just let you put your hands on their hands?  I’ll tell you what would happen.  Miracles would begin to break out, miracles like you’ve never seen before.  Do you want to fill your church?  Fill it with miracles.

I can remember those services with Kathryn Kuhlman and the tremendous miracles of God as she would give words of knowledge, and people would come forward and give their testimonies.  She always waited till the end of the service before she would give her altar call.  I    never saw her give an altar call after she preached, and she only preached about ten or twelve minutes.  She couldn’t wait for the miracles.  And people would get healed and after many, many testimonies, she would say, “Well, you’ve been waiting to receive Him.  Come on.”  And that was her entire altar call.

 You think I’m kidding.  I’m not.  Dozens of times I was in services where she would just say, “I’m waiting.  He’s waiting.  Come on.”  And hundreds of people would get up and come streaming down to the front, with tears streaming down their faces, giving their lives to Jesus because of the miracle.  The miracle is the Holy Ghost tenderizer.

I was preaching in a service, and there was a woman who had not breathed out of her nose for 22 years.  And when we prayed for her, God healed her.  And she was giving the testimony and demonstrating that for the first time in 22 years she didn’t have to breathe out of her mouth, when a man came walking down the aisle and stood in front of me.

And I said, “Sir, can I help you?”  He said, “I am her husband. She dragged me here, because I don’t like you.  But that’s my wife.  I live with her.  I know that she cannot breathe out of her nose.  But I have seen a miracle.”

I said, “Well, what do you want me to do?”  He said, “I want you to lead me to Jesus, that’s what I want you to do.”  And I took him by the hand and led him in a sinner’s prayer.

God will work through you, but satan will tell you, “No, if it doesn’t work, what will you say?  What will you do?  What will people think?”  Who cares what they think?  You’re not responsible for what somebody thinks.  You’re responsible for what He tells you to do.

And we can make positive change.  And then you talk about evangelization.  And that’s what it’s really about.  It’s about winning people into the kingdom of God.  That’s what we’re here for.  We’re here to get something so we can go out and do what we’re called to do.

Who has that as your number one goal in your life?  Put your hand up.  Stand up on your feet for a minute.  That’s what this is all about.

Jesus came preaching, teaching, and healing.  That’s what He’s all about.  That’s what we’re about.  The word Christian means little Christ.  We’re to be like Him.  We’re to do what He did.  We’re to say what He said.  We’re to go where He went.  We’re to do those things, and to be proud to do it.  And, thank God, we have a country in which we can do it.

And never again allow someone to take our rights.  Paul was a citizen of Rome, and he had certain rights.  There were certain things they couldn’t do to him when they found out he was a citizen of Rome.  We’re citizens, not just of a country, but we’re citizens of heaven.  this world is not our final home.  We are passing through, but we’re going to leave our mark on it for the Lord Jesus Christ.

Lift your hands unto the Lord tonight and begin to give Him praise.  And make a determination that we’re going to make a mark on this country for God, for evangelism.  We’re going to do it for God’s glory as a witness, for the Bible says this Gospel shall be preached as a witness in all nations, and then shall the end come.  This is not the end. No, no, no.  Why?  Because this Gospel has not been preached in all nations as a witness.  But we’re getting closer every day.

Father, in the authority of Jesus” name, I pray right now for a Holy Ghost anointing upon every one of us to discharge the responsibility that has been given to us as a minister of the Gospel.  Nearly 2,000 members of ICBM, that’s nearly 2,000 ministries represented here, and many others here who are guests and visitors from our land and from other lands, Lord, we make a commitment to You tonight that we are about evangelization, of winning this world to the Lord Jesus Christ.  For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.  For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

RR: Well, give a shout to the Lord.  To Him be the glory.  God bless you.  Thank you.  You may be seated.  Quickly turn in your Bible to Luke 4:18.  Now I’m not going to preach long but, believe me, it’s going to be powerful.  Not because of me, but because of the anointing.

What I preach tonight I am compelled to do.  There are times when the Lord will allow me to preach what I feel led to preach.  There are times when He compels me to do something.

I told the trustees this morning that I am compelled to do something, and I’m going to carry out that compelling.

I heard a story about a man many years ago who stretched his revival tent in Chicago.  And on the first night, his message was, “Repent and be born again and receive the Lord Jesus Christ.”  And when he gave the invitation, many came forward.

On the second night of the crusade he preached from the subject, “Repent and be born again and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.”  And many came forward.

And on the third night he preached, “Repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.”  And the fourth night and the fifth night.  And finally one of the men got tired and pulled him aside and said, “When are you going to preach on something else?”

He said, “I’ll stop when you repent and when you are born again and when you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.”

I want to say it to you again.  Are you going to get what you came for?  If my message had a title, it would be, “Get what you came for.”

Luke 4, beginning at verse 18.  “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, he sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed or bruised, to claim the acceptable year of the Lord.”

“Then Jesus closed the book and gave it back to the attendant and sat down.  And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on him, and he began to say to them, Today the scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.  But they were not too excited about it.

And those little eaglets are so tired of those thorns that they quickly jump out onto that wing.  And suddenly before they know it, she swoops up into the air.  And they hold on for dear life with their talons.  And there she goes, higher and higher and higher.  And they look up and they see the sky, and they look down and the see the mountains and they see the earth and they see a new realm of possibility they’d never seen before.  It’s wonderful.  Everything is brand-new.

And then she drops them off in that bristly nest again, and there they are once again.  They’re so uncomfortable.  They’re so scared to launch out on their own.  You know what?  I became president of ORU, I was so scared.  I was so scared, I couldn’t even spit.  Now that’s really fear when you get so scared you can’t even spit.  I mean, you go p-f-f-f-t-t-t and nothing comes out.  I was so scared.

Fifty-two million dollars in debt.  One day I had no debt. The next day I owed fifty-two million dollars.  I didn’t even have a chance to work up to it.  And I took personal possession of it.  I acted like it was mine.  And it nearly killed me.  Nine months later the joy of the Lord came into my heart, and God began to turn the tables on the devil.  But I was so scared.

And those little eaglets are so scared.  Time after time she would lay down her wing, and they’d get on.  And she’d soar.  And then when she thought the time was right, with a jerk, she wouldflap this wing and thrust the little eaglets off.  “Ahhhhhhhh! Do something.  Mama has these things.  Come on, boys, work! Ahhhhhhhh!”

Have you ever had God thrust you off His wing?  How many times has He thrust me off His wing?  Try fifty-two million dollars in debt.  That’s being thrust off His wing.  And you don’t know what to do, “Oh, me, O God, oh, stained glass window, oh, Bible.”

And you’re screaming and you’re crying and you’re calling out and you’re hurting and you don’t know what to do.  And those little eagles just keep screaming and screaming and screaming and screaming.

Seems like every time the plagues came, the Egyptians just wanted to make it worse on Israel.  But God had something in mind.  And about the time the little eaglets are about to hit the ground and be smashed, she’ll swoop down and pick them up and take them back up.  And she’ll drop them off again, “Ahhhhhhhh!”  There they go again.  Pounding those little wings as fast as they can.

And right now in the authority of Jesus’ name, I stretch my faith out in a healing prayer for those of you who are standing right now.  I the authority of Jesus’ name, whatever it is, I come against the heart problem, I come against your blood pressure, your blood sugar problem.  I rebuke it now in the name of Jesus.  I speak to every fibroid tumor.  I speak to the anemic condition.  I command it to go.  I speak to your blood, coagulate  normally.

I speak to the veins in your bodies, the arteries, that which is clogged, I bind it in the name of Jesus.  Arterial sclerosis, go in the name of Jesus.  I speak to the pain in your head.  I rebuke it now.  The living Jesus is here to bring healing tonight.  Healing is not in us, it’s in Him.  But we’re in Him, and we can call on His name, for healing was provided at the cross.

And so in the authority of Jesus’ name, I stretch my faith out to you and I believe God for your healing, in the name of …

 … hallelujah!

CARLTON: Richard, this lady was born with spina bifida, and she’s actually had the surgery.  But when you mentioned that cool feeling going up her spine, she said instantly it went up her spine.  She believes she is totally healed from the thing that surgery couldn’t heal by the power of God.  (Applause)  Come on, somebody, give God praise in this place.  (Applause)  Spina bifida right here.

RR: Healed by the power of God.

CARLTON: Yes, healed!

RR: Who’s had a back problem for five years, you can tell there’s a difference right now?  Come up here real quickly.  Yes, ma’am, right up here.  Carlton, can you come up here a minute?  Bring her right up here on the platform.  What did you just feel a moment ago when we prayed?

LADY: I just felt all my vertebrae just shift over and a major difference in just sensation as far as nerves and feeling.