Chapter 4
4 Ministering Healing Without an Anointing...................................................
The Scripture doesn't say, "These signs shall follow those
who are baptized with the Holy Spirit"; it says, "... these signs
shall follow them that BELIEVE... they shall lay hands on the
sick, and they shall recover" (Mark 16:17,18).
I'd tell my Baptist congregation that. I'd preach it from the
pulpit, but I didn't lay hands on them publicly. When I'd visit
them in their homes, I'd read this to them.
"See, it says right here. We believe, don't we? Don't you
believe on Jesus?"
"Yeah, I believe on Him, all right," they'd say.
"I'm going to lay my hands on you, and God is going to heal
you," I'd tell them.
After coming into Pentecostal circles, I found from talking
to the pastors that while I was a Baptist boy preacher, without
the baptism of the Holy Spirit, I was getting a higher percentage
of my people healed than any five Pentecostal pastors were their
people. Some said they seldom got anybody healed. It was a
common occurrence with me. The difference was that I was
teaching faith and prayer. I didn't have any anointing; I didn't
feel anything; and nothing went out of me into them.
One of these early experiences with healing involved the
pianist of the little country church I was pastoring. When she
wasn't there one Sunday, I asked about her and was told she was
in the hospital and was scheduled for surgery the following
morning.
I got up very early the next morning to get to her before they
gave her a shot and I couldn't communicate with her. The sun