Saving Souls

OR: Expect a miracle.  Expect a new miracle every day.  This is our day for a miracle.  Turn in your Bibles to Philippians, about the middle of your New Testament to chapter 3.  We’re going to be reading in chapter 3 and then a little later in chapter 4. Philippians, chapter 3, verse 13 and 14.

The apostle Paul is talking to his partner people in Philippi, the great Roman city where he had gone and established a church under tremendous persecution.  He almost lost his life. He was put into prison with his associate Silas, and at midnight they sang and praised God.  And the Lord shook the place with an earthquake and broke off the bands upon their wrists and bodies, as he did on the other prisoners.

And the jailer saw them free, and under Roman government if a jailer let prisons escape, he would lose his life.  So he came in, scared to death.  And Paul said, “Don’t kill yourself.  We’re all here.”  And Paul began to explain to him that miracle of God shaking the place and shaking off their bonds and he explained salvation through Jesus.  And the man accepted Christ, he and his family, and among others in that town turned to the Lord, and they became a church.  And it became the favorite church of the apostle.  He said things to them he never said to anybody else because the others were not in position to receive it.

And there’s some things God can only say to me and to say to you when we are in position to receive it.  If we’re not open, if we’re not listening to that still, small voice, if we’re not studying His Word and hearing the Word, we’re not in position to hear and receive what God has for us.  But when we’re open, truly, we do receive great and mighty things.

Paul is now in Rome, hundreds of miles away, in a dark and filthy and lonely and cold prison.  He’s there for the Gospel. And this church has been on his heart.  They’re very dear to him.  And they have carried out his instructions from the Lord, to the extent that he says, “You are partakers of the grace of God in my life.  God’s grace in me is coming in your life.”  And can you realize what that would mean to you if Paul was standing here and telling you that, “You are partakers of the grace of God in my life?”  Wouldn’t you like to be a partaker of Paul’s grace?

But I went home, and Evelyn said, “How was the service?”  I said, “Real good, honey.  We got the down payment on the parsonage.”  She said, “How much did you give?”  “Well,” I said, “the best I could.”  “Oral, how much did you give?”  I said, “I gave our week’s salary.”  She said, “You didn’t!”  I said, “I did.”  She said, “What am I going to buy groceries with next Saturday for these children?”

We went to bed on that cold night, and that was the coldest bed I ever slept on.  (Response)  You could have driven a truck between her and me.  I don’t know what’s wrong with you people. Richard, if I keep drinking this water, you’ll have to pour me some more.

Well, about almost daybreak, there was a loud knock at the door.  And I jumped up and opened it, and it was Art Newfield, a member of the church, a big wheat farmer in Northwest Oklahoma. He said, “Brother Oral, excuse me for coming at this time of night.  Please let me in.  It’s cold out here.”  And I let him in.

And he said, “I was there tonight, but I didn’t give anything.  I went home, I went to bed and couldn’t sleep.  A little while ago, I got out of bed and went out in the yard and dug this up,” and he handed me four one hundred dollar bills. I’d never held a hundred dollar bill in my whole life.  There were four one hundred dollar bills he’s handed to me.  And Evelyn was looking around the corner.  I walked over and just shook them in her face.  (Response)  In a matter of hours, my $55 was $400. I’m telling you, that was a good deal, wasn’t it?

But something else happened that was extraordinary that will affect your life.  It changed my whole life.  Art Newfield gave me that money, and this is what he said.  “Brother Oral, this is not money.  This is seed.”  He said, “You know I’m a wheat farmer, and I have to plant in order to reap.”

I was a farm boy till I was 14.  I helped Papa plant and to reap, and I knew all about that.  But I’d never put a spiritual application on it or heard anybody else.  And he said, “This is not money.  It is seed.  And I’m in trouble.  I’ve neglected my big farm.  I’ve been playing the commodity market.  I’ve lost nearly all my money.  And I’m planting this seed that I’ll have a harvest and I’ll get out of trouble and get back to my farm and to farming where I belong.”

And a light came on in my soul.  Seed-Faith was born in the month of May, 1947, in the front room of our little parsonage in Enid, Oklahoma.  And it has been absorbed by the body of Christ. It has caused billions of dollars to come into God’s kingdom.  It changes lives.  If you’re not in it, it will change your life too, because it’s not only money.  It’s everything else that you do.  Anything you do for God is not that.  It’s a seed that you are planting.  It’s not money you’re giving.  It’s seed you’re planting.  And that seed has a harvest on the other end of it. When you plant your seed, you’re ordering your harvest in advance.

And He said, “Take your pen and paper and write.”  And these are the original little slips of paper that I picked up.  And He said, “Write nine things down, and I’ll tell you what the thousand times more is.”

Number one, He said, “You shall possess the land.”  He said, “The devil doesn’t own one inch of the earth.  He doesn’t own one dime of the money.  He doesn’t own anything.  He was kicked out. He’s a renegade.  He’s bound for hell.  And you have no right to let him steal from you one inch of the ground, one piece of lumber, one piece of furniture, one car, one dollar.”  He said, “You shall possess the land.  And you tell the people about the land, that they are to have land.  They are to have a house. They are to have a home.  They are to have furnishings.  They’re to have a car.  They are to have money in their pockets.  I’m not pleased with them being sick and tired and broke all the time.  I can’t run My kingdom on people who are sick and broke all the time.”  (Response)  And He said, “You tell them to possess the land.”

Well, He took me back, and Evelyn and I were starting in this healing ministry in 1947 in the month of May, and we were leaving Enid, Oklahoma, where the call had been revealed, to move to Tulsa, which was an airline hub.  And we came over in June, this month, 51 years ago.  We had a car, $300 worth of furniture, and $25.  It was two years after the end of World War II.  We came over here where the houses were scarce.  You couldn’t buy one hardly, and certainly not many for rent, certainly not for $25.

But the man who was chosen to take my place as pastor in Enid lived in Tulsa in a little five-room, two-bedroom house, and he said, “Oral and Evelyn, stay with me a few days while you’re looking for a place to rent or buy.”  So we walked into his little house over here on North Main.  And just as I walked in, the Spirit said, “This is your house.”

And just as I thought that, he said, “Oral, I just sold my house.”  And I said, “Lord, he just sold my house.”  And he said, “The man is coming at six o’clock to sign the deal.    Meanwhile, Steve Pringle, a preacher here in Tulsa, has a big thousand-seat tent up, and he’s been trying to fill it and hasn’t been able to because of weather and different things.  And he’s heard you’ve entered the healing ministry, and he wants you for Tuesday and Wednesday night to come and preach and pray for the sick.”  And he said, “Go tonight.  I’ll wait here till six till the man comes, then I’ll come later.”

How many of you can say you’re so full that if the guy next to you asks you for a million bucks, you could give it?  See, there’s not that many.  How many of you honestly have debt?  How many of you honestly have a family issue?

You know, let’s do this.  Stand up if you have debt.  It ain’t looking good so far.  Stand up if you have an issue in your family that has not been resolved.  Ain’t looking so good.

Stand up if you need healing in your body.  I just want you to look around and let you know that Christians are the poorest, sickest bunch in the earth.  And it’s not supposed to be that way.  And it’s that way because we have not stirred up the gift that’s in our container.  We’ve been worrying about the color of our hair.  We’ve been worrying about whether or not the preacher preaches too long.  We’ve been worried about this denomination fights with that denomination, and do you believe in healing, and “Oh, they’re only in it for the money.”

In the meantime, Christians are the sickest, poorest bunch in the earth.  And it’s time for us to get over ourselves and to get into our substance.  And as we stir up that substance and we bring it all together, we do what we did in that container.  We begin to bring something together that’s valuable.

Now I want you to start—have we got any music left?  Go ahead, Leanne.  I want you to start praying in the Holy Ghost.  I want you to stir up the gifts of the Spirit.  And I want Richard to come up here because it’s time for the Lord of the harvest. 

Now we’ve all got something inside of us that we can sow in to somebody else.  And when we sow in to somebody else, that harvest can start happening.  Richard and I have been praying, friends of mine have been fasting for this night after night after night.  And it’s time for us to look to the Lord of the harvest.