Understanding the AnointingThe first time it happened to me was in 1950. I was
preaching in Oklahoma. A woman came forward for prayer. She
said she was 72, but she looked like she was about to give birth
to a baby. Of course, she had a tumor.
She had been operated on twice in Oklahoma City, but the
tumor had come back the third time, and the doctors wouldn't
operate again. They said, "We feel you'll live longer if we don't
operate on you anymore. You'll probably live another few
years."
She told me, "Eighteen months have passed, and you can see
this huge tumor."
"Well," I replied, "isn't it wonderful that we have inside
information? Himself took our—and your—infirmities, and bare
our—and your—sicknesses. Healing's yours."
"Yes," she said. "That's right. Healing's mine, and I'll be
healed, too."
I started to lay hands on her to pray when the Word of the
Lord came to me, saying, "Hit her in the stomach with your fist."
On the inside of me, I said, "Lord, You're going to get me in
trouble, going around hitting women in the stomach with my
fist! I don't believe I much want to do that!"
Well, if you get to arguing about it, the anointing will leave
you—it will lift from you just like a bird flying away after
sitting on your shoulder. It left me.
When it left me I thought, Well, I'll go ahead and minister
with laying on of hands. I laid hands on her again and the
anointing came again and the Word of the Lord came again: "Hit
her in the stomach with your fist."
I decided I had better stop and explain that to the crowd
before I started doing it. So I told them what the Lord said, and I
punched her in the stomach with my fist. And God and hundreds
of people are my witnesses that that stomach went down like
you'd stuck a pin in a balloon.
And she gathered her dress up around her and said, "Why—