In this sermon, the speaker shares a personal experience of his wife, Jan, being in agony and near death. He describes how he prayed to God for guidance and revelation of any sin that may be hindering their deliverance. The speaker reflects on the unbelief that he and his church had experienced in the past, which prevented them from fully trusting in God's power. However, through persistent prayer and pleading the promises of God, they received a word from the Lord that they would see His glory. The sermon concludes with the speaker recounting the moment when he anointed Jan with oil, leading to her miraculous healing and their urgent desire to go to church.

Come, all who are thirsty, come to the waters. And you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Come buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good. And your soul will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to me, hear me, that your soul may live. Welcome to Springs of Living Water with pastors Ray and Jan Greenlee. He said, if you listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in His eyes, if you pay attention to His commands and keep all of His decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord who heals thee. Then go to the New Testament, Mark 11, 22. Have faith in God, Jesus answered. I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain he was standing on the Mount of Olives, he was talking about the Mount of Olives, now he's going to move the Mount of Olives. You know in Revelation it says when he comes he's going to step on the Mount of Olives, and Mount of Olives is going to split in two, half of it's going to move one way, half the other way, and it's going to make a plain 1,200 miles square that the New Jerusalem is going to come and rest on. So he understood what he was saying when he said the mountain's going to move. I tell you the truth, if anyone says to the Mount of Olives, go throw yourself into the sea and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. As he stood on that mountain, he could with the disciples see visually the great dead sea. So he was not talking philosophically. He was saying this mountain can move to that sea. Go throw yourself into the sea and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours. And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him so that your Father in heaven may forgive your sins. Now go with me to the book of John, the 14th chapter. I'll begin reading with verse 12. I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I've been doing. He will do even greater things than these because I am going to the Father and I will do whatever you ask in my name so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name and I will do it. Now listen, these passages of scripture that I'm reading to you, either tear them out of your Bible tonight or believe them. If you don't believe them, just cut them out of your Bible. But if you're going to leave them there, believe them. First John, fifth chapter. I'll begin with verse 14. This is the confidence we have in approaching God, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have what we ask of Him. Now I need to share some history. And pardon me, but I'm going to be very graphic because I want you to know what Pastor Jan and I have been walking through and the battle we've been facing. Just over four years ago, Jan said to me, Ray, I'm seeing blood in my stool. I said, do you want to go to a doctor? She said, no, I'm going to trust Jesus. I'm finished with doctors. I said, okay. But I was concerned. Periodically, I would ask Jan, are you still bleeding? Yes. We were visiting with a dear friend who was a physician. Jan told him. He was very concerned. He said, Jan, immediately either come in and see me or go to your family physician. This is serious. This could take your life. I said, Jan, what do you want to do? We're going to trust Jesus. That condition continued to grow worse. The bleeding increased. And finally, about a year and a half ago, maybe not quite a year and a half ago, it began to be diarrhea. And for the last year, Jan has had only diarrhea. I said, do you want to go see a doctor? She said, no, I'm trusting Jesus. Let's pray. And we began to seriously intercede. I began to fast and pray. I began to cry out to God. There was no change. When it got really serious and I prayed, there would be a bit of improvement. And then soon it would revert back. Several months ago, in the early spring, Jan began having difficulty eating. Everything she would eat would upset her stomach. It would cause her bowel to cramp. She grew weaker and weaker, so that unbeknownst to you, during the week, she would be in bed most of the time. She would rally her strength for an appointment, and the cost would be two days in bed. She would rally herself to come to church, and then she'd be in bed for the two or three days of that week. Until Thursday night, she'd come and then she'd be wiped out again. She was doing less and less at home. I was having to pick up more and more of meal preparation, of shopping, of cleaning. Her strength was being depleted. It was dropping. And finally, on June 1, Jan collapsed. She couldn't go any further. We knew she was dying. She began to rapidly lose weight. To date, she has lost close to 30 pounds. On her frame, 30 pounds is a huge amount of weight. I began to fast on June 1, and I began to cry out to the Lord and weep before Him. And I spent all of the time that I was not preparing broadcasts or preparing sermons or meeting obligations for this congregation, all of the remaining time was given to prayer and fasting. As I pressed in and waited for God and asked Him to speak, and the first thing He said to me, Brother Kevin came over, Brother John came over, and he was praying with me. At 2 p.m., on June 5, the Lord said, You're too big for me to heal Jan. I was devastated. Brother John was devastated. We spent most of the rest of that day in silence before God, saying, If we're too big for you to heal Jan, is she going to die? And we began, both of us, to cry out and ask God to reduce us. That evening, many of you gathered in our home and you began to pray with me for Jan. And that was the night Catherine came and she said, Could I be born again? And unbeknownst to she or David, David was standing beside her with some of you all, laid hands on her and asked that she be given a new birth. And that night she was born again. And Jan said to me when they left, If I die, a baby was just born. It was worth it. On June 6, I was up very early. I was weeping before the Lord. I was crying out to Him. I was fasting. And the Lord spoke. And He said, I will heal Jan. She will live and not die. I clung to that promise like a sinking, drowning man. I would wake up in the morning with tear in the pit of my stomach. There was no going back to sleep once I was awake. I was too scared. All I could do is get in the prayer closet and get on my face and weep before God and ask Him to save my sweetheart. But more than that, to save the promise He'd made to this church. Because this whole church was founded on one simple premise. That when I go in the prayer closet and I pray, God will hear my prayer and He will answer me. If God would not answer me for my wife, how could I believe Him for you all? And how could I believe Him for revival? And I said to God, if I can't believe you for my wife's healing, then why'd you call us to Woodbridge? You said if you go to Woodbridge, you will not sink. God, we're sinking. Jesus, we're sinking. I mean, I was crying out to God. Jan was not eating. She would try and the cramps would hit her. At this point, she began to stop drinking water. She couldn't take liquids. Because as soon as that liquid would hit her gut, she would convulse. Sunday morning, June 21, Father's Day. Jan was very weak. She was losing weight. Let me try to tell you another part. She was having diarrhea 15 or 20 times a day. All she was doing was going in the bathroom, stumbling back to the bed and collapsing. And as the pain level would reach a height she couldn't bear, she would almost go unconscious, almost go delirious with the pain. I had a hard time even broadcasting because her groans were so loud in the house that they could be heard as I tried to broadcast. So I had to turn it off. I couldn't broadcast. All I could do was pray and cry out to God and ask God to deliver her. That Sunday morning, Jan said, Ray, help me get dressed. I'm going to go to church. And if I die, I want to die in the house of the Lord. We got her dressed. We got her downstairs. I fixed poached eggs. That's all she could take. I'd always fix her two poached eggs, hoping she could eat two. She would struggle to get one down. I had the heating pad because that helped her. She was slumped over on the couch with a heating pad wrapped around her, her gut area. I sat on the couch, dressed, ready to come, weeping with my arms around Jan. She was almost unconscious. She was crying in agony. She was doubled over in the pain. And the Lord said, Place on Jan the oil of anointing. I leaped from the couch. I ran for the olive oil, spilling the olive oil on the floor. I was so eager to get it on her. I covered my hand with olive oil. I came and put it on her forehead. As soon as the oil touched her, she was unconscious. That was Father's Day. I wiped my hand off. I went and just held her in my arms. In about 10 minutes, she shook her head. Her eyes popped open. She said, Come on, Ray. We've got to get to church. We're going to be late. She got up under her own power. She walked to the car and got in without help. I brought her to church. Some of you walked with her. She walked into the church under her own power. Strength flowed into her through that service. You testified that you were healed, that God had healed her. I took her out after that happened. I got her a meal. That evening, the cramps began again. And she began to rapidly go downhill. And everything began to revert to what it was before. Monday, September 7, Labor Day, I'd been up since well before daylight, weeping, praying, crying out to God. At 10 a.m., the Lord spoke. He said, Don't you believe that I will come? And He said it to me in a hurt voice. Like, Don't you believe I'll come? Like He was incredulous at my unbelief. Yes, Lord, I know you'll come. That mild rebuke was great encouragement to me and caused me to press even more earnestly into the Lord, standing on the promises, reading them aloud, pleading the promises of God. Friday, September 11, 3.45 p.m., the Lord spoke. You will see the glory of God. And I rejoiced, because I knew I was going to see the glory of God. The next Sunday, the 13th, many of you saw Jan's condition, much worse than it had been before, at the very gate of death. She could not walk. Sultana brought her a wheelchair. We brought her into the sanctuary. Many of you saw Jan was dying. We cried out to the Lord for her. About a half hour into the prayer time, Jan began to tremble violently. Cries began to come out of her mouth. We continued praying for probably another 20 to 30 minutes. When we were finished praying, the praise and worship began. And Jan tremblingly stood to her feet, and we claimed her healing. I took her out to eat again afterward. She ate a full meal for her. But within 24 hours, the cramping began again. Diarrhea didn't stop. The bleeding didn't stop. And she began to go rapidly downhill again. She continued to lose weight, and we knew something had to happen. Yesterday, Jan was back in the condition she was in on the 13th. She was in agony, physical agony, crying out to the Lord. I too was crying out to the Lord. I said, Lord, I don't understand. You heal her, and then the devil comes back and steals her healing. What's going on? I'm sorry, you all. I'm immature in this. I don't have experience in walking this kind of walk. I've never seen such attacks of the enemy in my life. I've never experienced the fire of the attack and the bitterness of the attack. I have had many prayers answered through the years. I've cried out to the Lord for finances, and the finances have come. I've cried out for healing. The healing has come, but this time nothing stuck. I was crying out to the Lord. What is this? I was loud. And the Lord spoke. One word. Afterclap. That's all he'd say. What is afterclap? I had to go to the dictionary. I'd never heard the word before. I want to read you Webster's definition of afterclap. Afterclap. An unexpected, often unpleasant sequel to a matter that has been considered closed. Or an unexpected adverse event resulting from following supposedly a closed affair. So, an afterclap is when you have come to God, you've dealt with an issue, you know you reached the throne of God, you know it's done, and then comes an afterclap. And it's straight from the devil. An afterclap is from the devil. Never from God. I said, oh, I'm beginning to understand what's happening here, Lord. Jan was on the bed. She couldn't walk. She was in agony. You couldn't eat. She couldn't drink. She was dying yesterday. We knew we were just that close to losing Jan. I went in and knelt down on the floor beside her bed. I carefully put my arms around her, and I said, in the name of Jesus, Satan, leave here now. I will not believe your afterclap. I will believe what Jesus said. He said, she is healed in the name of Jesus. Now, I don't care what the circumstances look like. I don't care that it looks like she's dying. She is healed in the name of Jesus. Now, get out of here in the name of Jesus. The blood of Jesus is against you. And I went after him. Instantly, Jan's whole condition changed. Instantly, her whole countenance changed. I looked at her and I said, Jan, you're healed. You were healed on the 13th. This was a lie. We believed it. Jan was healed on the 21st, on Father's Day. And everything we've been experiencing since then has been the afterclap. Now, I need to talk about what the Lord has shown us. Last night, Jan began to cramp again. Jan began to go back down the tube. She began to go right back where she'd been. Now, what I've noticed is that the recovery is much shorter-lived than before. Very quickly, she's drawn back down into the sickness. Now, look, I'm not talking about feelings. I'm talking about increased rectal bleeding. I'm talking about increased diarrhea. I'm talking about increased pain in her gut. I'm talking about 10-plus pain levels that make her go unconscious, the pain is so great. I'm talking about listening to the groans and the cries that I think the neighbors can hear through the walls. This is not pretty that I'm talking about. Last night, she began to go right back into this. And nothing that I would pray would change it. So again, I'm weeping before the Lord. I'm saying, Lord, I don't know how to pray. What's this about? How do I get through it? This morning, Jan is hurting. She's in agony. She'd had a little bit to drink when she got up. And her whole system is convulsing against it. I sat down beside her on the bed and put my arms around her. And I began to pray. And I said, Lord, if you don't show me a way through this, we're going to lose Jan. Would you please show me? There is sin on my part. I can't get through it without your Holy Spirit revelation. Will you please show me my sin? And immediately, he began to unveil my sin. And he began to unveil Jan's sin. And I want to tell you what it was. You notice, not what it is, what it was. I was raised in a church of about 70 people. No matter what the pastor would do, we had about 70 people. He'd hold an evangelistic series. Some people in the church would get mad at the way he was doing it, and they would leave. And some new people would come, and we'd have about 70 people. And I knew the church could not grow. My dad said, Ray, no matter what, do what you know is right. Follow Jesus. But in my heart, I said, okay, but it'll never make any difference. There was a root, a familiar spirit root in my heart that was wed with discouragement, wed with a belief that I was going to do everything I could do, but in the end, it would not be enough, and I could never break through. My dad was faithful to the day he died, but he never saw the blessing of God on the little church he pastored. I said in my heart, I'm not going to do it dad's way. I'm going to go learn marketing. I'm going to go learn a whole new way of doing church. And so I immediately got into that whole area of church growth and development, and I followed the principles of marketing and opened a new church and within the first year had over 300 people in that congregation. We were booming, and I said, okay, dad just didn't know how to do church. That was the church the Lord finally said to me after dad died, close the church, it's your church, not mine. And that's when he took Jan and I for seven years into the wilderness without any real public ministry because God was not going to allow me to do my marketing deal. It had to be his church. So deep in my heart, I've had this unbelief that says I can pray, but nothing's going to happen. I'll pray. You all are going to continue walking in sin. You all are going to continue struggling. You're never going to come through to victory. Okay, I'll walk with you. I love you. But Lord, can't I just bail out of this deal? How long do I have to put up with this? Can't I be like Elijah and just say, just let me die, I'm no better than my father. It's hopeless after all. So I began to confess this. Jan began to weep. She began to confess that she too had given up hope, given up hope that revival would come, given up hope that she would see it, that she would die before it came, given up hope of living. It was too painful. It was too desperate. I mean, when you're having diarrhea 15 or 20 times a day, how do you deal with that? As we prayed, the Holy Spirit began to quicken my heart, began to quicken her heart, and we began to understand what afterclap means, that when we pray for deliverance and we stand by faith, there is no sickness that can stand up against the blood of Jesus Christ. There is no demon power that can stand against the blood of Jesus. It was our unbelief. We would stand in belief for the first act of God, but the afterclap would come and knock us off our feet, and we would then spiral down into hopelessness and whimper and cry before God and say, why are you treating us this way? Lord, we've got to be delivered. Don't you see what this is doing to your people? We have to be delivered. I've done everything I know to get through this. I've prayed all I know how to pray. I've pleaded the promises, all I know how to plead. What do we do, God? It might start by just standing and believing and not going with the afterclap, not agreeing with it no matter what the circumstances are. Don't agree with it. That's what God told us. Now, the strangest thing began to happen as we confessed this to each other with tears, weeping with each other. I'm holding her in my arms. She's saying, can we go for a bike ride, Ray? I'm hungry, Ray. Are you going to fix me some breakfast? Totally healed. I'm Pastor Jan Greenlee. We pray that you've been awakened today by the Holy Spirit to a hunger for Jesus and his holiness. If you need someone to pray with you, call 703-490-8723. That number again, 703-490-8723. Write to us at the National Prayer Chapel, Post Office Box 2346, Woodbridge, Virginia, 22195. That address again, Post Office Box 2346, Woodbridge, Virginia, 22195. To receive a copy of today's message, visit our webpage, NationalPrayerChapel.com. If you want to get right with Jesus and experience his joy in your heart, come worship with us on Thursday evening at 7.30pm and Sunday afternoon at 2pm at the Grace Lutheran Church located on the corner of Prince William Parkway and US 1 in Woodbridge, Virginia. At the National Prayer Chapel, you will find Jesus, the Bread of Life.