SU01 Praise the Lord.  (APPLAUSE)  More and more and more testimonies.  And I received a prayer request the other day, and a letter that I must share with you.  “I’m writing this prayer request for my husband because he’s had trouble in several areas in his life.  Please feel free to pray for us, and don’t hesitate in reading our letter.” Although there are something in here — well, you might not necessarily read something like this on the air — but these people are desperate.  “We watch your program every day.  Many times I have wakened in the morning to see my husband touching the television set or his self, hoping for a miracle while you pray.  He wants God to heal him.  I have never seen or known anyone who wants God so much.  My husband is depressed all the time, and has some other problems that he has had to deal with.  He is an alcoholic.  And he has a liver problem that has been caused by all of the alcohol.  My husband wants God to touch him and make him whole.  He needs peace in his mind.  And he needs the old war memories cast out.  He still has the horrors of serving in the Vietnam War since 1967.  This has caused him all kinds of problems.  Will you please pray?”  And the P.S. says, “My husband  SM01 carries guilt because when he served in Vietnam he had to kill.  The Bible says,” this woman says, ‘thou shalt not kill.’ ( MS_Deuteronomy_05:17 ) How does this apply to the war?”  I don’t know — maybe James Robinson may want to deal with that in a little while.  First of all, God will never hold you responsible for what you must do in a war.  I want to remind you that David, a man whom God said was after his own heart, is the one who took his slingshot and slew Goliath.  And in the name of the Lord David had to destroy many people.  But God did not lay it to his charge because he was acting under orders from God.  And I say to you as a Vietnam veteran, or a veteran of the Korean War, or you could be a veteran of some other conflict where you served the United States of America —  you don’t have to carry that guilt.  And now you my brother, who is suffering in this way, I pray for you. Everybody just stretch your hands out toward the television set.  And you at home, stretch your hands out toward me.  And let me be your point of contact, and let’s pray.  My brother in California, you are a representative of so many men and women who may feel this way right now.  In the name of Jesus I cast out that discouragement and that load of guilt that you are carrying.  God did not put that on you, the devil has put that one your life.  And in Jesus’ name I rebuke it. And I ask all of those memories to be driven out of your life by the Holy Spirit.  And I want to pray especially for you, my Brother, you’ve been so discouraged and so distressed it has caused you to turn to alcohol.  Alcohol is not the answer to your problem.  All that is going to do is destroy your liver.  The answer to your problem is receiving Jesus as  your Lord and Savior and getting that peace in your heart.  And I want to pray for you, and I want to pray for anyone else who’s lost and you know you are lost, and you want to receive a miracle. You want Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.  I’m going to ask you and everybody here in our studio to pray this prayer out loud after me.  Will you do it?  Oh, Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner.  I’m a sinner, Lord, and I’m sorry.  I repent of my sins.  I turn my back on the past.  I reject the devil.  I renounce him and all of his works. And I take Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.  Come into my heart, Lord Jesus.  Save me.  Heal me.  Deliver me.  Forgive me.  And now by my faith I receive your forgiveness.  Your forgiveness is flooding in me now.  Forgiving me of every sin, of every trespass, in Jesus’ name I’ll never be the same again.  Oh, friend, if you meant that prayer from your heart, and I believe you did, God is changing you now.  God is turning the situation around in your life.  I want you to go to your telephone right now and call area code 918 495-7777.  That is the Abundant Life Prayer Group.  Area code 918 495-7777.  And let me know that you just prayed that prayer and you agreed with me for Jesus to save your soul and set you free.  And my dear brother, you don’t have to carry that guilt anymore.  I’m so proud of all those men and women who have served our armed forces in wars and in conflicts.  I’m proud of those who are in the United States Army right now, who are serving around the world — who are in our Navy, our Air Force, our Marines, our Coast Guard. All of our armed forces services.  I’m proud of them.  We must have our armed forces.  And I thank God for them.  And I pray for every military leader today.  And I pray for you as a soldier, as a seaman, as a pilot, as a technician, or whatever it is that you are doing in the armed forces.  You are protecting your country, and God needs a protective service in the United States of America.  I thank you.  You are not alone.  There are servicemen that are watching this program in places around the world right now, even as I am speaking.  I thank God for you.  You are not forgotten.  America has not forgotten.  Don’t believe the news that you are lost and you are forgotten.  We’ve not forgotten you.  The core of America has not forgotten you.  And we are not going to forget you.  You are our own.  We are yours and you are ours.  We believe in you and we love you, and we pray for you. Don’t let that guilt load up on you, of what you had to do when you where serving your country.  That’s covered under the blood of Jesus Christ.  I praise God.  I think we ought to give the Lord a great handclap. (APPLAUSE) Hallelujah.  Well, Dr. Larry Lea is here today, the dean of our Signs and Wonders Seminary. He has a good word for you.  James Robinson is here to minister the Word of God to you.  Buck and Dottie Rambo are here. This is going to be an exciting program, I know it.  The ORU Singers are standing by with the Oral Roberts University Orchestra, (APPLAUSE) to minister “The Time Is Now” — give them a good handclap as they minister the gospel in song.

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.

ER: No, I’d have to have a computer.

ORU: Around 142 left, I think. Let me tell you, in two monthstime that’s what God has done. (Applause)

RR: Can I, can I share a story? (Yes) Recently–my dad and my mother know this story but I’ve not shared it with anybody on television. Recently I went up to a city to preach. I had gone to ORU with a young man. He and I had graduated from ORU together and I’d gone up to preach at their church up in Indiana. And I was telling them this story about what God had commanded us to do, to put the medical students on scholarship. And I’d preached for two services that morning and then we were having lunch with their family the story, asking them if as a family, ministers of the gospel, if they would pray. And the senior minister looked at me as I told the story and the tears were streaming down his cheeks. And he said, he said, “I wondered who God would send.” And I said, “What do you mean?” He said, “For 30 years I’ve been in this ministry. I came to this city 30 years ago. I’m celebrating my 30th anniversary.” It was the anniversary week. He said, “Every time we get on the brink of a miracle for an answer from God we have to have, every time we get near, God will speak in my heart and say, ‘I’m going to bring about this miracle, but I don’t want you to forget the world.’ Now,” he said, “instantly I knew what God meant. He was talking about missionary projects around the world.” He said, “Every time we get to the brink of a miracle, God always sends a man or sends a woman to present a missionary project.” He said, “We are on the brink of opening a new television station in our city. There are only four television stations. There’s the NBC, there’s the CBS station, the ABC and there’s one independent station.” He said, “God laid it on our heart to open up 24-hour-a-day Christian television on a U television station with the largest tower built in our state. And we’re having a great deal of problems getting it opened, but we’re on the brink of getting it opened and I’ve been wondering who God would send because the other night God spoke in my heart and said, ‘I’m going to bring about this miracle, but don’t forget the world.’” And with the tears streaming down his cheeks as I told him the story, he looked at me and he said, “Our church, our church will take one of those medical school students. We’ll sponsor that medical student. They’ll be our medical doctor in the world and God will bring about this television station,” and they’re doing it.

RR:  Now that’s the key.  That’s the key.  

 ORU:  And I asked Him what I must do.  He said, “Take your Bible and study My reward system.”  Now, partner, I had never heard that term, God’s reward system.  I knew God is a good God.  I’m one of the men who originated that phrase, God is a good God, back in the late forties.  And I went to my Bible and as He directed me, I went to Mark’s gospel, chapter 4, about the four ways how people plant their seed.  And Jesus told, some plant by the wayside, some plant in stony ground, some plant among weeds, and of course the seed does not grow and produce.  But the fourth way, He said, “Some plant in good soil and they receive a thirtyfold return, a sixtyfold return, and a hundredfold return and they can determine the percentage of their return thirty, sixty or a hundredfold by the quality of the soil that they plant in.”  And He said, “Don’t ask your partners for new money. Don’t ask them for new money.  Ask them to redirect some of their giving where they don’t know that money is causing souls to be saved or the sick to be healed, to redirect some of that money into the scholarshipping of the medical students of Oral Roberts University School of Medicine and they will not have to have those debts, so they can go to these nations and open them up for the gospel.  (Applause) And if they do, I will give them a hundredfold return, either in money or in what money cannot buy.” Then he directed me to a Scripture that I knew about in the Bible but I had not paid a lot of attention to. Here in Proverbs 6, verses 30, 31, “Men do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy his soul when he’s hungry.  But if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold.  He shall give all the substance of his house.”  Here God says through Solomon that when the devil, and that’s what He’s referring to, the thief is the devil, when he steals from us–and who hasn’t been ripped off by the devil?–God will give us a sevenfold restoration.  And that, as I said, I knew about that, but I had not really studied it.  Then He led me to Joel, chapter 2 and verse 25.  He says, “I will return to you what the locust has stolen,” or taken away, “what the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, the caterpillar and the palmer worm.  I will restore those years which the locust hath eaten.”  Now we know who the thief is.  John 10:10, Jesus said, “The thief (or the thief) cometh not but for to steal, to kill, and to destroy.” We know who it is that restores.  God said, “I will restore the years that the locust hath eaten and the cankerworm and palmerworm,” all forms of locusts.  He said, “I will restore them.” And in the sixth chapter of Proverbs, He said, “I will restore seven times what has been stolen from you.”  So I said, “What do you mean?” He said, “The hundredfold return for the seed that you plant to put My medical presence in the earth,” and I caught that term “medical presence.”  I said, “God, I know that Jesus said He came to preach, to teach, and to heal.”  Preach, teach, and heal.  “Now You’re saying that You must have your medical presence in the earth.”  He says, “Yes, because many of the nations will not take ministers and evangelists unless doctors open up the way.  And I also heal through doctors.  I heal through medicine, and I heal through prayer.  Now,” He said, “you tell the people to redirect some of their giving.  Don’t ask them for new money, to redirect some of their giving where they don’t know for sure that it’s winning souls to Christ or it’s healing the sick.  And I will restore to them one hundredfold and I will return to them (Applause) seven times what the devil has stolen.”  And now here it is in July.  And, partner, you have a letter in my hand in which I’ve asked for a two months pledge, a pledge this month and a pledge next month, for we open school around August 20th and we have 48 in the medical freshman class, have 192 medical students in all. And God told me to scholarship everyone of them and have them sign a contract that for every year of their scholarship they give a year as a missionary doctor, even in this country where there are areas not covered by medical science and the gospel and in Canada certain areas, but mostly in the nations in the Third World.  And do you know, Richard, as of today of the 192 scholarships we have to raise, it’s $8 million a year, God has given us the money for 15 in cash and 34 are pledged.  We only lack, let’s see, 49 from 192. Anybody help me out there?

RR:  Now that’s the key.  That’s the key.

ORU:  And I asked Him what I must do.  He said, “Take your Bible and study My reward system.”  Now, partner, I had never heard that term, God’s reward system.  I knew God is a good God.  I’m one of the men who originated that phrase, God is a good God, back in the late forties.  And I went to my Bible and as He directed me, I went to Mark’s gospel, chapter 4, about the four ways how people plant their seed.  And Jesus told, some plant by the wayside, some plant in stony ground, some plant among weeds, and of course the seed does not grow and produce.  But the fourth way, He said, “Some plant in good soil and they receive a thirtyfold return, a sixtyfold return, and a hundredfold return and they can determine the percentage of their return thirty, sixty or a hundredfold by the quality of the soil that they plant in.”  And He said, “Don’t ask your partners for new money. Don’t ask them for new money.  Ask them to redirect some of their giving where they don’t know that money is causing souls to be saved or the sick to be healed, to redirect some of that money into the scholarshipping of the medical students of Oral Roberts University School of Medicine and they will not have to have those debts, so they can go to these nations and open them up for the gospel.  (Applause) And if they do, I will give them a hundredfold return, either in money or in what money cannot buy.” Then he directed me to a Scripture that I knew about in the Bible but I had not paid a lot of attention to. Here in Proverbs 6, verses 30, 31, “Men do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy his soul when he’s hungry.  But if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold.  He shall give all the substance of his house.”  Here God says through Solomon that when the devil, and that’s what He’s referring to, the thief is the devil, when he steals from us–and who hasn’t been ripped off by the devil?–God will give us a sevenfold restoration.  And that, as I said, I knew about that, but I had not really studied it.  Then He led me to Joel, chapter 2 and verse 25.  He says, “I will return to you what the locust has stolen,” or taken away, “what the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, the caterpillar and the palmer worm.  I will restore those years which the locust hath eaten.”  Now we know who the thief is.  John 10:10, Jesus said, “The thief (or the thief) cometh not but for to steal, to kill, and to destroy.” We know who it is that restores.  God said, “I will restore the years that the locust hath eaten and the cankerworm and palmerworm,” all forms of locusts.  He said, “I will restore them.” And in the sixth chapter of Proverbs, He said, “I will restore seven times what has been stolen from you.”  So I said, “What do you mean?” He said, “The hundredfold return for the seed that you plant to put My medical presence in the earth,” and I caught that term “medical presence.”  I said, “God, I know that Jesus said He came to preach, to teach, and to heal.”  Preach, teach, and heal.  “Now You’re saying that You must have your medical presence in the earth.”  He says, “Yes, because many of the nations will not take ministers and evangelists unless doctors open up the way.  And I also heal through doctors.  I heal through medicine, and I heal through prayer.  Now,” He said, “you tell the people to redirect some of their giving.  Don’t ask them for new money, to redirect some of their giving where they don’t know for sure that it’s winning souls to Christ or it’s healing the sick.  And I will restore to them one hundredfold and I will return to them (Applause) seven times what the devil has stolen.”  And now here it is in July.  And, partner, you have a letter in my hand in which I’ve asked for a two months pledge, a pledge this month and a pledge next month, for we open school around August 20th and we have 48 in the medical freshman class, have 192 medical students in all. And God told me to scholarship everyone of them and have them sign a contract that for every year of their scholarship they give a year as a missionary doctor, even in this country where there are areas not covered by medical science and the gospel and in Canada certain areas, but mostly in the nations in the Third World.  And do you know, Richard, as of today of the 192 scholarships we have to raise, it’s $8 million a year, God has given us the money for 15 in cash and 34 are pledged.  We only lack, let’s see, 49 from 192. Anybody help me out there?

Think about Oral Roberts University. Think about those 4,600 young people. Think about them this summer as they’re out ministering across America and in foreign nations around the world. Think of those healing teams being raised up to send medical doctors and nurses and dentists and evangelists and others to the nations of the world to treat people medically, and treat people spiritually, physically, to help them to understand that God wants them to get their needs met.

I’ll tell you, in the face of all the adversity, we’re talking faith talk, not
doubt talk. John Wesley Fletcher, the Lord won’t let me wait any longer. Get over here. Come on, give him a good welcome. John.

Meadowlark, give him a microphone. John, I told you many times that we make our plans for this program, but we want the Spirit of God to come forth. And what’s happening today is not anything that we planned. It’s what the Spirit has planned and it’s not, it’s not unusual that the Lord would send you our way on this day.

It seems that I show up when things like this happens enjoy it. I rather enjoy coming. I heard recently your father make a plea on one of the Sunday telecasts and out of that as I was upstairs in the dressing room, God spontaneous gave me something. You see, it’s scribbled. And it’s not prophecy but it is the basic ingredient of all of this that God has done through your father, you and all of those that God has given you to work with.

This place is what  is writing about. I just wrote it out. And I will say to all of you, the university and the City of Faith is a place where faith flows into peace and courage and hope spills at the feet of hope and gives life to this wonderful world. Where a traveling river forges its way into the setting sun to give a drink to the edge of many long nights. A place where love is married to God and research has a love affair with education. A place where towers of study press the heaven’s skies and kisses a doubting cloud and fills it with faith and knowledge to teach faith that will defy death where little children may live and not die.