This sermon by James Robison at the 31st annual convention emphasizes the importance of spiritual warfare and the need to be vigilant against the enemy's attacks. Robison shares personal experiences of encountering the enemy's tactics and the power of prayer and scripture in overcoming spiritual battles. He calls for a deeper reliance on God's Word and the Holy Spirit to combat the enemy's schemes and to experience true freedom and healing in Christ.

Join me now in welcoming to our 31st annual convention, James Robison. Thank you very much. I would like to introduce you to my wife, if you'd give me that privilege, and I consider it a privilege because I love her very, very much. And she is so important in my life. This is my wife, Betty, would you stand right over here? This is Betty. I would like to express personal and very, very deep within my heart appreciation to many of you. Some of you, when I look at you here tonight and recognize you, it's especially appropriate to say thank you for your prayers, for all of my ministry, and for your prayers and your friendship and support during the last two years when some very definite, distinct changes have been made in my own life and my ministry. I do not in any way believe that the changes that have occurred in me are unique, for I believe the Lord is going to change all of us far more than we ever imagined. And I am convinced in my own mind that the changes that have already begun in my own life are minute compared to the changes that God is going to bring about in my life in the months and years ahead. And I don't think you'll meet anyone on earth more anxious to change than I am. I don't think you'll meet anyone any more aware of the need to change, because I really do want to be conformed to the image of Jesus. I want that with all my heart, and I want you to pray that way for me. I am not interested in being a leader in the terms that we think of leadership. I want to learn what it is to be a servant and to serve you and to see the body of Christ built up so that the body can do the work of ministry, the work of service. That's what I want to see with all my heart, and I'm praying to that end. Now they've changed microphones, and I'm wearing this little microphone. I want to be sure you're hearing all right. Are you hearing okay back here? God bless you. I'm glad this is not the Sanhedrin. Are you hearing all right out here too? You're doing all right, good. Well, I pray that it'll be worth hearing. I was here in December in a crusade. It was a wonderful occasion. I remember Paul and Jan were here with TBN, and I'm excited about going on Trinity Broadcast Network daily. In about two weeks we'll be beginning daily, 30 minutes every day. We're on several stations now daily. The Lord has given us so much to share. The reason we added this daily program is not only with compassion and mercy for those who will be receiving ministry, but compassion and mercy on me. I had so much to share I was about to explode, so we had to give me another outlet and just keep letting us share because there's so much in our heart. The Word of God is shut up in our bones like a fire, and we have to get it out. So that's one reason we're on daily, and we really believe it's going to be a blessing. I was here in Anaheim in this very building back in December, and Arthur Blessed had just come in. What a blessing to be with Arthur. He's properly named Blessed because he is a blessing. I remember one night the Lord interrupted me in the middle of my message. I had commented to one of our associates, Dudley Hall, before I got up to preach. I said, Dudley, I'm not sure I know how to preach. I'm not sure I've ever really preached as God wants me to preach. I'm still not sure that I have, and I said to Dudley, one thing I'm certain of, I know very little about ministry, and I really want to learn. Quite frankly, I think the body of Christ, I think the pulpit knows very little about ministry today. That night the Lord showed me a little about ministry. I have much more to learn, but during my sermon the Lord just totally interrupted me, and I was preaching to several thousand people here, and the Lord directed me to a person dressed in blue jeans, as he most often is, and that person was Arthur Blessed. And somehow every burden, every pain, every heartache, every moment of loneliness that had ever passed through Arthur's mind and person came on me that night, and I began to love and minister to Arthur Blessed, a man who's walked alone carrying a 90-pound cross, 12 feet long, 21,000 miles. And I began to minister to Arthur. I just began to love him in front of much of America watching on television, and then God called on me to pray for Arthur Blessed, and I began to pray, and the whole nation received ministry, those who were watching. I can remember during the invitation on this cement floor, Arthur Blessed was stretched out on his face before God, and many people, hundreds of people, I barely extended an invitation. I guess it was something like if the Lord's ministering to you right now, and you want to come to be in his presence, just come. And people just fell everywhere, all over the place on their face before God. It was a beautiful experience. The next afternoon, Arthur Blessed and I was sitting on some steps here at the front of the Anaheim Convention Center about three o'clock in the afternoon, and we were doing some television programs, some interviews, and people began to walk into the Coliseum, and they were coming from all over California, people just drifting into this building. And they began to listen to the interview, and I paused for a moment, and Arthur Blessed looked out at several of the people coming in, asked them where they were from, and they told him different places in the state of California. And Arthur said, well, what are you doing here? And they said, well, we just drove in because last night we were watching on television, and the Spirit of the Lord fell here. And Arthur said, it really did. He said, what happened to you in your living room? And the people began to come in. We fell on the floor of our living room before holy God in the presence of God. And that was the experience of many. And you know, it is my prayer that all of us will find ourselves prostrate in spirit, in our heart, and perhaps even physically before holy God. God really wants to minister to you tonight. I have not come here to simply extend my ministry or expose my ministry to more people. I really haven't. There isn't even the inkling of that in my heart. I can't describe adequately how much I'd like to be an instrument of God to minister to you tonight. I really want to be an instrument of the Lord to minister to you. And I don't think there's a person here that doesn't need ministry. That was the thing unique about Arthur Blessey. Here is a man who has seen as many as 70,000 people saved instantaneously as he prayed with them. Here is a man who has seen entire cities healed by the power of God instantaneously. Here is a man who has watched God work miracles all over the earth. And yet Arthur told me that as I was ministering to him, his own family fell on their knees in front of the television set, his children, his wife, saying, someone has identified with daddy's need. Here is a man mightily used of God, but Arthur said, you'll never know how much in that moment I needed to be ministered to. And I really believe tonight the Lord wants to minister to all of us. I confess to you that as I come to minister, I too need the ministry of Jesus. I want Jesus Christ to minister to me tonight during this service. I long for that in my heart. I want him to minister to every one of us. If somehow at this moment we would no longer exclude ourselves from the need of ministry, I think we would find ourselves receiving the ministry of Jesus to us. Because every one of you who are hungry, every one of you who are thirsty, every one of you who are needy, I believe if you'll come now, I believe Jesus Christ will minister to you. And that's my prayer. I was listening, I guess two or three weeks ago to Oral Roberts. And I just received a letter from him. Oral had invited a number of us to come to a meeting just to visit. And I understand I didn't get to go to the first meeting, but it was quite an experience for those who were there. And I plan if nothing prevents me from going to be with him next week. And he'd written me a personal letter. And then I'd also gotten the letter that he wrote his entire mailing list. And I watched him on television. And Oral was talking about not losing his dream, not losing his vision. And let me just say this, and don't miss it. Many of the dreams and many of the visions that Christians have today and that churches and ministers have today are not at all God-given visions. They are the result of spirits of divination, the enemy himself, placing before Christians and churches visions that are totally unrelated to the purposes of Almighty God. We have returned to seek counsel in the shadow of Pharaoh, in the shadow of Egypt. We're trusting in flesh. We're trusting in horses. Our measuring stick and our standard is not this book, but it is the same standard. We must examine and allow the Holy Spirit to examine our hearts to see whether in fact we have heard God when we say we have a vision. I was listening to Oral Roberts, and what I just said is not an examination of Oral Roberts' vision. God Almighty will examine Oral Roberts. He is a man that I love. And I want to tell you this. One of the most glorious experiences of my life was when the Lord sent me to him to apologize for the critical spirit and attitude I'd had toward him, unkind things I'd said. Holy God invaded that room. Things began to happen in all of our lives, even that day, including Oral's. And you've been able to see dramatic changes occurring in his own life and ministry, even from some of those time frames. And I believe the whole Church of Jesus Christ will someday say thank you when God's healing power, listen, is again released as it was through Jesus and through the New Testament Church, we have not seen anything yet. And if you settle for the glimpses of glory, if you settle for the mercy drops, you're going to miss the outpouring that is about to come, because God wants to do again what he did then and beyond anything we ever imagined or ever dreamed. But it is going to happen only through a holy people. I believe that we will be able to say thank you that God did lead Oral Roberts to take the healing message to the world. I believe that we will be able to say thank you to the Lord God that a man kept saying Jesus is healer still. And I think all of us as Christians and the Church must confess that it is very obvious by the words of his power and his ways, and we must learn much, much more. But while Oral was talking about his dream, it was as though the Holy Spirit said to me, James, what is your dream? Do you have a dream? And I can remember in what was an emotional moment for me, I just said to the Lord, Lord, I have a dream. I too have a dream. I have a vision, Lord. I want to see your body healed. I want to see the body of Jesus healthy on this earth doing the ministry of Jesus. I can't tell you how much I long to see his body healed. I was ministering in Alabama in a meeting. There were thousands of people there, but when I got up to preach, I saw one girl. She was on a stretcher. She had various medical apparatuses attached to her. It was obvious that she could not move. And when I got up to preach, I looked at her and I said, Honey, I don't know you, but I know you came here because you know when Jesus passes by, he does what only he can do, and I know you want to be healed. And I'm going to come over after I minister to the people, and we're going to pray with you. I just want to tell you that now. I'm impressed to come over and pray with you. And she managed to smile. That's all she can do is smile. She can't move any other part of her body. She can't even talk. She has a break, I found out later, the highest break that anyone has ever survived. Her back, her neck is broken at the brain stem. And she survived the break, but she's totally paralyzed. And so after the meeting, and it was a glorious time together, I went over along with two of my associates and my wife who was seated there by her head right behind her. Her name is Kim, Kim Lunsford. And I went over and I knelt down by Kim. And when you've been paralyzed, as I found out she'd been paralyzed for two years, your hands will begin to take the shape of the tissue that has not been used or exercised properly. And her hands were not normally shaped, but were totally helpless. And I reached down and I took her hands in mine, and I knelt by her. And bear in mind now, I experienced something that I want to live in. After the Lord had healed me, which he did, I was not looking for healing. I knew that he could heal. I have preached some of the most unscriptural, the most godless messages. I listened to one of them the other night in the car. Somebody pushed the tape and said, listen to James Robinson. It was the most nauseating experience I've had in some time. I turned it off. It was not only nauseating, it was totally unscriptural. It was a verbal assault on the very word and nature and character of Almighty God, all in the name of deep convictions in the religious realm. And the Lord gloriously healed me. I was sick for 10 years of various ailments. I carried infection in my blood system. You could check my blood at any time. It was checked nearly every time I went to any town to preach. I carried infection. I was checked to see if I was contagious. I had infected throat and terrible problems all the time, sinus infections that were chronic. I had a stomach disorder. Every identifiable functioning gland that I knew the location of in my body ached and throbbed with pain. And that was the way I lived. It was horrible, but the Lord Jesus spoke through a pastor I've been warned to stay away from. There's a Baptist pastor named Jim Hilton at Lake Country Baptist Church, and people had told me, said, stay away from him. And they put a label on him. Naturally, the best thing we can do to get people to stay away from any possibility of being helped is label them, scare them. Do you know that the church of Jesus Christ today is largely controlled by fear and intimidation, putting the people down? And it is tragic. But I heard Jim Hilton say, as he was preaching, the power that raised Jesus' dead body from the grave lives in you. Preaching from Romans 8, the same power that raised his dead body lives in you. And I heard not Jim Hilton say that. I heard God say it. And seated on the front row of that building, God Almighty came upon me and healed me right there. And I'm telling you, it was wonderful. And it still works. I'm living in beautiful health and learning to walk in that health. I went home and prayed for my wife, who had suffered with various illnesses for years. My daughter had been 17 years with terrible asthma. I can remember the last attack she had on the sofa in our den. She was about to choke to death, as I've seen her so many times. This was one of the most severe attacks I'd ever seen her come under. And sitting down on the sofa, I looked over at her. And in the name of Jesus, I rebuked asthma. And my daughter, as quickly as you could turn on a light, my daughter was healed of asthma right there in the midst of a severe attack. And it has not returned. And she lived in that health. She could not run. She could not play like other children. My daughter can now run three, four, and even five miles a day. What a beautiful, beautiful work God did in her life. The same thing happened to our son that was 12 and had been sick for 12 years with chronic stomach disorders. He went alone with his Bible because we had shown him that God said His Word and healed him and delivered them from their distresses. And I'll tell you, many people are seeking healing in the wrong place. They're seeking it at the hands of people rather than by the Word of God. The Word still lives. Deliverance by man is in vain. But through the Word of God, it is real, as is healing. Well, I knew that healing was real. And I began to study the Word of God. And I became zealous for what God said. I became so caught up in what the Word of God said that I couldn't hear the traffic and speculations and the doubts and skepticism of men. Bear in mind, and this was glorious, Lord, I want to live there. I want to move there and live there till Jesus comes. But I want to tell you, with religion bombarding you, with the vain speculation of men, the assertions of men, the fruitless discussions of men, in a religious village atmosphere, it's nigh and impossible to stay here. But I lived in a situation where for six months, as my memory serves me, I do not recall a single instance, a single occurrence, a single place, either in person or by telephone, where I prayed with anyone for six months who was not instantaneously healed of whatever sickness or disease they had. For six months, every single one of them. Some of them were dying. Some of them were waiting to die. The miracles were absolutely incredible. Do you know that when I went to pray for people during that six-month period, I could not even find, get this, reaching my mind, subconscious or conscious. The thought never entered my mind. It never got to my mind that they might not get well. That thought never got here. The only way I can explain that is to tell you it was a miracle. All I could hear was God, not men. God wants us to live there. As I went over, and I believe we're so supposed to live there that when the miracles that Jesus did don't happen, He will tell us why. I'm going to tell you the church is so sick today. If He told you why, they couldn't take it if you told them. And if you told the individual why they didn't get well, your name would be mud because it'd be all over the community that you're putting condemnation and guilt on that person, even if you told them the very word of God. I want to tell you we're dealing with the sickest organism on the face of this earth when we refer to the body of Christ, the church of Jesus Christ today. And as I knelt beside that girl on that stretcher, longing in my heart at that time to see her get up, I took that little crippled hand and held those fingers, and I lifted her hand up to my lips, and I kissed that little crippled hand, and I prayed, God, heal this girl. I rebuked destruction. I rebuked the effect of injury. I rebuked paralysis. I rebuked the tissue's inadequacy. I spoke healing and life and strength into every fiber of her body. And as I held her hand, and I felt no quickening of the muscles, and I want to tell you something. I don't rest on past experiences or miracles. I want God to touch you because God feels your need. And as I held her hand, I said, Jesus, heal her body. And then as I felt no quickening in her body, I said, speak to me, Jesus. And as real as I've ever sensed anything, it was as though Jesus himself right there in front of thousands of people just knelt down right beside me. And as he knelt down beside me, put his hand right there on my shoulder. And as I was holding her hand, Jesus said to me, James, her hand is like my hand. Her hands are like my hands, like my body today. In proportion to what they're supposed to be, my hands are like her hands. James, her body is like my body, severed at the head. Jesus said, I'm not the head of my church. Me and are. By their own fleshly exaltation and by the foolishness of the sheep who fix their focus on men rather than Jesus. We're not only blind leaders of the blind. We have chosen rather to follow men than to follow God. It takes time to be holy. He speaks in a steel small voice. You have to train your ear to hear it. He's not often noisy, as are his preachers. It's easier to heap to yourselves teachers having itching ears according to your own desires. Whatever kind you want, they're a dime a dozen. Whatever you want, you can find an appropriate teacher to motivate your flesh. Then Jesus said to me, my body today is being stimulated by artificial means, just like Kim's body. Then Jesus said something else to me. He said, Kim understands the condition of my body. Kim is an intercessor for the healing of my body. Jesus said, as my body is restored, Kim's body is going to be restored. Tell her that. I said, Kim, Jesus just said to me, you're an intercessor. You understand the need for the healing of the body of Jesus. As his body is restored, your body is going to be restored. She nodded. She had told her mother just two days before those exact words that Jesus had spoken to her. I'm going to tell you something, folks. Before you're going to see the healing of the body of Jesus, it's going to take some travail in Zion. It's going to take some people who are going to pray through, who are not satisfied by simply going to some conventions, who are not satisfied by statistical reports, who are not satisfied with the world's slogan that bigger is better, but who want to see holy God manifested in holy people, and they have a heart for God, and they're going to tune out. They're going to tune out every preacher and every teacher. They're going to turn off the superstars and the celebrities, and they're going to train their ear to hear the shepherd, and they're going to recognize truth and go after it with their whole heart, and they're not going to follow men anymore. They've had it. An insecure, concerned preacher said to me the other day, I don't know what we're going to do with these people of God. I think we're losing control. I said, I want to affirm that. You are. God is taking over. Praise His holy name. The day of manipulating God's sheep is over. The people of God are going to become noble, more noble than those at Thessalonica, like the Berean Christians who receive the word of God with readiness of mind and search the scriptures daily, whether those things are so. We're not going to believe it because so and so says it. We're not going to come and simply sit before the distinguished men of the earth. We want to hear God, and you need to test the spirits. You need to discern the spirits. There are many of them, and the reason you need to discern the spirits, John said, is because many false prophets have gone into the earth, more today than any other time. There's as much flesh in this pulpit as there is in any country club. I'm telling you as much carnality and worldliness and materialism and flesh and unholiness in church sanctuaries than there is in a nightclub. We are parading flesh. God is about to shake down everything that can be shaken, folks, and I want to tell you if you're standing on a worldly system of religion, if you're standing on worldly tradition, it's coming down. If you're standing on it, you better get off it. It's coming down. If you're standing near it, get away from it. It's falling down. Don't be near it. The only thing that's going to stand is the word of God. Plant your feet on the word of God and stand there. See what God says. It's going to take time. Many of the people that I have known now in the past months who've been healed by going to this word, many of you for years have camped in the fifth chapter of James. Call for the elders of church and know them with all and pray. The prayer of faith will restore the sick, but you forgot the first four chapters of James. The first one says, let no double-minded man think he receives anything from the Lord. So stay out of chapter five until you get chapter one down. Many of you forgot chapter four. If you make friendship with the world, that's enmity, hostility with God. You don't receive anything from God. God will not answer you. Find yourself in the presence of God. Come with brokenness. Watch God work. I went with my wife a few weeks ago. I'm going to share with you several things the Lord told me to share, and then the Lord is just going to carry us along and we'll minister as the Holy Spirit directs prayerfully. I was with my wife for a couple of days. Well, really a day, a 24-hour period. We drove about two hours, have a little place we can get away to pray and just be alone. And we were going to eat that night, and I was going to charcoal a steak for me and Betty, and we had a little charcoal. I don't know how many of you have ever done this, but I'll tell you what I would do if I were pastor of a church, and you're not, you shouldn't make your people do anything, but I would encourage my people to do two things. I would encourage my people to build a charcoal fire until they were successful. Not with self-lighting charcoal, the kind you have to soak in light. And I would encourage every single member of my church from child, from junior age up, and possibly even younger than that, I would encourage every member of my church to grow some kind of a garden, either a flower garden or a vegetable garden or some kind of garden, because it is only then that you begin to understand what it means to be fruitful and to multiply. And I'm going to tell you something about a garden. I don't care if it's a flower garden or vegetable garden or a field of hay or grain or wheat or corn. You can plant the very best, but if you leave that field unattended, I can tell you what's going to take over. And I'll tell you something else. Your flowers and your vegetables will not be in sin. They don't sin, but they will find themselves under the assault of a destroyer, as surely as any holy person sitting in this room tonight. For the fiery darts of the wicked come against every breathing, living being. There is a destroyer that will grow weeds and thorns and briars in your garden. And the black spot and the spider mite and every other fungus known to man will attack plant life that doesn't sin. And I can assure you that you and I are in a war with the spiritual powers of darkness. And if you leave God's field unattended to by the husbandman, by Jesus Christ, the vine dresser, if you're not in Holy Spirit communion with Holy God and allowing the sword of the Spirit to do work in your life, you too will be overgrown and your field will become a field that is sprouting poisonous weeds rather than good fruit to the glory of God. And I'm telling you that most Christians right now have their lives so infested by the work of the enemy that is an abomination to think about. Well, I was building a charcoal fire, and as I had the charcoals there on the grill, I remembered last winter a friend of mine went out to build a charcoal fire, and he couldn't get it lit. And I went out and I saw that the charcoal was scattered all over the grill, one little layer of charcoal. He was dousing it with the lighter fluid and putting the match to it and it'd go like that and did black charcoal. Well, I had remembered that. I am fairly perceptive. I learn quickly. I'm not like some people in government, Mr. Watt, who never will learn no matter what they do, you know. And so what I've done is I knew that in order to get charcoal to light, you've got to pile it up in a neat little pile. Now watch this. I get the charcoal and I make a little pile and some of the little briquettes trickle off and roll down the side. And meticulously, I reach down and pick up the charcoal and I place it in. I have to lodge it. I have to prop it up with some more charcoal. I've got dirt all over my fingers and I'm piling up the charcoal. And it's as though the Lord himself is just chuckling at me. He does that a lot about me, chuckles at me a lot. He thinks I'm pretty funny. And he's just chuckling at me and he says, well, look at you. What are you doing? The Lord and I talk like this a lot. Excuse me. Some people don't believe you can, but I'm enjoying it. I'll go right on talking to him. He likes to talk to me and we fellowship like this. It's really all right to fellowship with your father. He really likes to talk to you and I never will contradict his word. That's the reason he gave you the word because the devil will masquerade as an angel of light. And his ministers will come as ministers of righteousness and they'll deceive you. They don't come in and announce, behold, a false prophet. They think they're right. But when you're deceived, you deceive. Well, the Lord and I talk a lot and he's chuckling and he said, what are you doing? And I said, I'm stacking this charcoal. It won't light unless you get it all together where all of it's touching each other. And I said, that's what I'm doing, Lord. And he said, isn't that something? He said, why don't you preachers learn to do that with my people? He said, my people are scattered all over the earth, not even touching each other, and you're running around trying to soak them in the oil of the Holy Spirit and in truth. He said, you just soak them and soak them and soak them and soak them. And then you wonder why they don't get on fire. He said, my son's already prayed it, that you may be one as we're one. A new commandment he gave you that you love one another, even as we love one another. And by this, the world will know you're my disciples, my disciples, not full gospel, not badness, not Pentecostal, not charismatic, my disciples. If you love one another, really love one another. And the Lord said, the Lord said, you can soak them in truth, soak them in Holy Spirit emphasis, but until my people agree to come together, until my people will seek, strive diligently to preserve the unity of the spirit into which they were born in Christ in a bond of peace. He said, you need not expect me to light the fire. He said, let my people come together with this purpose to seek me as they did at Pentecost, waiting on me, waiting on the promise of the Father, waiting on me and I'll light their fire. That's what I want to see. I'm committed to that. I'm committed to it. There isn't anybody I'll stop loving. I've been called the ugliest names I know any preacher been called. I never know a preacher get called what I've been called in the last year. I don't know any other preacher here been called a cult and a cult leader. That's been on the headlines of several papers with a very flattering picture of me like this. I want to tell you, I love those people. I'm not even a little bit mad at them. I mean, I'm really not. I'm not even chapped. I'm not even hacked. I'd preach for them next week if I had the courage to let me come. I mean, I'd just love to go and just preach to their people. I'm not mad at them. Let me tell you what we're doing. Listen, folks, we're revealing the true nature of our system. We've got the nature of the accuser of the brethren. We're mean to each other. God's going to heal us because we're going to agree to love one another. Some of us say, I'm not going to compromise. Well, I believe it may be the greatest compromise of all to refuse to love one another. As a matter of fact, if you don't love one another, God says you don't even know him. I didn't say that. God said it. You can't hear God if you won't walk in love. How are you going to know the truth if you're committed to walking in madness, hating one another? God forgives. He's going to. I don't know that I've ever had a vision where I could see everything clearly. My wife had a vision recently. Our little 11-year-old daughter had a terrible growth on her lip. We had everybody pray for her. We knew to pray for her. We prayed for her. It stayed there, and it was ugly. It wouldn't go away. We took her to a doctor, and he wouldn't take it off. He sent her to another doctor. He wouldn't take it off. He sent her to a plastic surgeon. He said, it's serious. It'll leave a scar. I need a plastic surgeon. I went to him, and he said, I'll do it in about another month or so. It really upset me. We prayed, and the doctor said he could do it, but he put the thing off. I called Betty. I said, Betty, why'd you do that? She said, I don't know, honey. We didn't understand why it didn't go away, but it was ugly. She could hardly brush her teeth. She could hardly eat. There it was. It was as big as the end of my finger, just a bulbous, tumorous little growth here. It was horrible. It was ugly like a cigarette ash hanging off her lip. Everybody stared as she walked in the room. Everybody stared, and there it is. She didn't have a pretty strong disposition and character to be pretty secure. It would have been tough on her, but she handled it well. There it was. I called Betty. I said, Betty, did the doctor take it off? They said, no. He said he's going to do it in about a month. I said, what'd he do that for? She said, I don't know. Robin said, Mama, let me talk to Daddy. She's 11. She said, Daddy, I sound like a woman. I said, Daddy, you remember the conference we were in a week ago? Blind people saw. Lame people walked. Tumors went away. Right in front of people, you could see them. Like that. It was wonderful. She said, Daddy, you remember that conference? She said, God told me he wanted to heal my lip. I said, well, honey, that's wonderful. She said, Daddy, that's why the doctor didn't take it off, because God told me he was going to do it. I said, well, that's wonderful, Robin. I got back to Betty. I said, Betty, she sounded so mature, and she really did. I said, well, honey, that's wonderful. Did you know that Sunday night after that, Betty had a vision. She saw that thing on Robin's lip falling in Robin's hand during the night. Woke up with that growth in her hand, and her lip was healed. And she got up and went and looked at Robin, but there it was. And she told Robin about it. She said, Robin, I saw that thing in your hand, off your lip, in your hand during the night. She said, Mama, do you think that was a vision? Betty said, I don't know, but I hope so. That night, Robin was taking a bath. She had a little play at her Christian school on Friday night. She told her mama, I don't want that thing on my lip when I get up there Friday night. And she's taking a bath on Monday night after mama's giving her a vision. And Betty went in the bathroom. She said, Mama, I was just sitting here in the bathtub practicing my testimony that I'm going to give Friday in chapel when I tell everybody how Jesus healed me. Well, Betty said, well, honey, that's wonderful. And there that thing is sticking out her lip. And I came home the next day, and there it was. It looked worse. And then on Thursday, it was worse than ever. And Thursday night, we went to her brother's little league baseball game. And Dudley Hall, my associate, came with his son. And when they saw Robin's lip, he said he just cringed with pain. He went home, got his family, got on his knees, said that thing's getting worse. We've got to pray more for Robin. It was horrible. It was the worst we'd ever seen it look. Thursday night. I left Thursday night after that ball game and drove to East Texas for a director's meeting to begin the next day. We got there at one o'clock in the morning. At five o'clock in the morning, the telephone rang. My wife was hysterical. She said, James, we've been waiting an hour shouting all over this house. At four o'clock this morning, Robin got up with that thing in her hand. Her lip is healed. It is perfect. You can't believe it. It's a miracle. God, it's a miracle. I shared that with my director. Some of them had seen it. When we went home, they wanted to see Robin. They said, let's see Robin. I want to see the miracle. And I'm telling you, it was perfect. I just couldn't get over that huge thing gone and nothing there but just a beautiful little lip. The doctor had said, I'll have to hide the scar in the creases of her lip, but I'll run the scar vertically up and down so it'll hide in the creases of her lip. But God didn't leave a scar. Well, I've not had a vision that I know of that I saw that clearly, but listen, recently God gave me a vision and he told me to share it with you. I didn't see it clearly. I saw it in a shadow. I saw Jesus giving gifts to his church, beautiful grace gifts. They were sign gifts. They were ministry gifts. And as he gave these beautiful gifts to the church, I saw a great part of the church standing over to the side ridiculing the gifts, mocking them, making fun of them, belittling them. And I thought, oh God. And then I saw what I considered an equally shocking picture. I saw other people receiving the gifts gladly. And then I saw them take the gift and put it under their arm like a little trophy. And I saw them carry their gift across the room like a little prize. And then I saw them take their gift and put it on a pedestal. And then I saw them bow down and begin to worship the gift. And I looked across the room and Jesus was weeping and weeping and weeping. And he says, my church, it is impossible, impossible to have a New Testament church without the receiving of and the releasing of all spiritual gifts. Do not applaud. It is impossible for a believer and the body to move in power and wisdom and knowledge without all spiritual gifts operating in the unction of the Holy Spirit. It is also equally impossible for spiritual gifts to operate with idolatry toward those gifts. Much of the church today worships the gift of preaching. If a man can preach, the people following, they go after the gift. That's been one of the greatest sins of idolatry among the people I've ministered to in the circles I've ministered. They idolize preaching. Many have gone after the gift of teaching with notebooks and recorders and all powerful media. They go after teaching. And many have gone with equal zeal after the gift of tongues. How many miss the anointing of the Holy Spirit trying to get what someone else has magnified? I do not find in my Bible the command to seek gifts. Desire them? Yes. Need them? Receive them? Absolutely. Seek them? No. Seek the Lord. Pursue love. Pursue God. And He gives gifts. How many live in absolute disappointment because they've been trained to go after what someone else has rather than what the Spirit does? Listen, folks. Seek the Lord. The issue must never be what He does but who He is or He won't do what He does. You know what He showed me? He said it's a wicked, perverse generation that seeks after signs and wonders. He said you follow the Word. Preach the Word. Do the Word and signs follow. Don't follow signs. Follow the Word. Signs follow the Word. If you follow signs, you miss the Word. Listen. When the people murmured against God and the fiery serpents bit them, God said, as a sign, raise up a brazen serpent on a pole. When the people look as a token and expression of faith, they will live. God gave them the sign. Jesus said as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. We look to Him and live. Do you know what Israel did with that gift? Do you know what they did with that sign? God gave it to them. They began to worship the snake on the pole. And so does the church. Time and again we're drawn to say this is what has divided us. Listen folks. If you really are born of the Spirit, you'll recognize the things of the Spirit. I want to tell you the merchandising of gifts has done as much to hinder the acceptance of gifts as unbelief has. The magnification of gifts. We've got to receive them. Do you know what I have found with people who've had these beautiful, beautiful, deep experiences of the Holy Spirit? I mean where it's God and not flesh. There is a difference. Do you know what I found? It is so intimate and so sacred, it's like a marriage relationship. It is precious. Between them and the Lord, it is so real and so sacred. They wouldn't dare exploit it. Merchandising. Who does this? The enemy. The enemy wants to magnify everything but Jesus. The enemy wants to bring us into captivity. The enemy wants to deceive us. The enemy wants to defeat us. The enemy wants to divide us. The enemy wants to destroy us. The enemy wants to disease your body. And I want to tell you once the enemy gets in, you may think he's coming to entertain you, but when he's in there, he does his destructive work too. Many of you have oftentimes invited the evil one to come and minister to your flesh, not even knowing what was happening. He ministered to you. He ministered to your flesh and he built a campground in your life, a stronghold, a fortress. And I want to tell you that for every one of you that have ever been set free, every one of you that have ever been healed, everyone here that's ever been blessed with God, from the moment you got that freedom, from the moment you got that blessing, the enemy, the prince of the powers of the air, the ruler of this present age and world came to take back that which God blessed you with and to take you back into captivity. As surely as Pharaoh came after the people of God, when he had turned them loose, he's coming after you to take away your healing, to take away your liberty, to take away your freedom, your deliverance, your life, and your spiritual power. And you know how he does it? He snatches away the word from your heart. He causes affliction and persecution because of the word to cause this word to be set aside. He causes the worries of the world that cares for other things and the deceitfulness of riches to snatch the word of God from your heart. Many of you who've come to this conference have been blessed. If you've been blessed at all, it has been because you have heard the living word of God and the word has ministered to you. Now listen closely. If you're going to walk in that freedom, you're not going to live by bread alone. You're not going to live by what you see and taste and smell and sense. You're going to live by the word of God in spite of what you see, hear, taste, and sense. You're going to let the word of God prevail over any other symptom that comes in your life. Now folks, listen to me. I can't talk the word of God into you. I can't talk faith into you. You've got to come to the place that you lay down every idol and every tradition and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and you come after the word of God with your whole heart because Moses said in truth, this is not an idol word for you. This is your life. This is your life. Jesus said the words that I speak to you, they are spirit and they are life. I want to see you walk out of here full of the life of God. I don't want to see you go out of here pumped up because of a convention atmosphere. I want to see you go out of here with your eyes on Jesus to feed on the word of God. I want to see you diligently, diligently pursuing the word of God. If you don't do it, if you don't do it, you cannot, you absolutely cannot overcome the world. This word must be more thrilling and more exciting. Going to it for food, going to it for life, going to it for bread, going to it for water, going to it for ministry. This word must consume you or your flesh will be consumed. Few are the people who really live by this word. Most live by sight. I want to see you live by the word. I want to see you free. I want to see you walking in fullness. I want to see you committed to live by the word. Now that's the commitment I believe the Lord wants you to make tonight. Lay down every every tradition. Refuse ever again to follow men. Hold those in the Lord and of God in high esteem for the work's sake. Thank God for those who labor among you with the compassion of Christ, but do not follow men. The Holy Spirit is your only teacher. Men cannot teach you. The Holy Spirit can teach you through men, but men must not be your source. The nominations, church organizations, church buildings, church groups, prayer groups, and fellowships, and individuals must not be your source. The source is the Holy Spirit. He guides you to all truth. No other person can guide you to truth. You receive life and truth only through the Holy Spirit. I have preached the word of God for 22 years. When I began preaching at age 18, I confessed and testified, and I still do to this day, I have never read biblically or historically of what I consider to be a more dynamic and dramatic encounter with the Holy Spirit than the one I personally experienced in the power of the Holy Spirit. As an 18-year-old boy, the Holy Spirit came on me in such power, in such anointing, that the only way to describe it is awesome. I was a boy so shy, so withdrawn, so afraid of everyone that I would not even stand up in front of a classroom and make a report. For 10 years of school, I would carry my lunch in a sack and eat alone. I wouldn't even mingle with the kids at school. I was fearful. I was a kid that was totally rejected. I'm an illegitimate child. My father deserted me before I was ever born. I was given away by an ad in a newspaper. I grew up feeling inferior and rejected. When I was 18 years old, God singled me out. God said, I want to use you. God said, I'm going to use you to preach to the world my truth. And I heard him, and I said, God how? And God said, where is your faith? And as an 18-year-old boy, I never felt a step. It was as though I were carried by God. Charles Finney described the outpouring of the Holy Spirit as waves of liquid love coming into his being. And I was saturated with love. I was saturated with boldness. I was saturated with a confidence that I longed to see in every believer. Many of you here are filled with intimidation and insecurity and inferiority. I tell you, the New Testament church was characterized by confidence. They had confidence because they'd been with Jesus. They had boldness. And out of their innermost being, there was released a river of life. I'm telling you that every person here is capable in Christ of releasing a personality and a power and a life and a zeal and a joy and a confidence beyond anything you've ever experienced. And it's not fleshly exultation. It's not those of you who think it's high-powered personality. It's not that at all. It is the power of the Holy Spirit. And God wants to free you and release that in you. And I know that night God so anointed me and separated me to preach. And I began to preach in power. And people came from everywhere. Buildings were filled. I didn't care anything about denominations. All I cared about was Jesus. But I want to tell you, if you're anointed, religion will pay a big price for you, my friend, if you'll make them look good. Now you hear what I'm about to say. Preachers, many of us have wasted a lot of time making systems look good that God is about to destroy. You'd better not spend another moment making look good what God's against. And He is against idolatry. Brother, we worship the houses we build. We worship the church buildings and the palaces and the temple. Hosea said, my people have forsaken me and built temples. We have built buildings and we have not built the holy house, the real temple, with living stones and lively stones. We're full of vanity and false visions. It's not wrong to build, but it's wrong to build without building the body. We have not built the body of Christ. We're taking people that are committed to being against other parts of the body of Christ and use them to build up our images and our empires. God forgive us. God set us free from that. I, with the gift, was used to double church memberships in a week. I've been in churches where they would baptize hundreds of people, 800 saved in one church in a week, 708 saved in a church in another week. Imagine that. Incredible. In the crusades, hundreds coming, churches growing, and all the time animosity toward other believers, criticism, hatred, and I began to get caught in that. And I too became a chief hit man in the name of Jesus. If you want anybody bumped off, I could bump off more people in one night than any other preacher in the country. I could shoot down every group in town with a single swat. I had preachers invite me in to stop Bible study groups. They said, I don't know what we're going to do with our people. They're having prayer meetings in their homes and Bible studies. We've got to get it stopped. I'd come in in a single night, blow them all right out of the saddle. Isn't that sad? Can you imagine preachers being afraid of prayer meetings? They're afraid of anything they can't control. If they can't keep you under their thumb, they're terrified. Because the hand of God is not on many of them. I would get up and blast. I can remember taking shots at charismatics. I remember one night a friend of mine called them charismatics. The charismatics. These charismatics are about to drive me crazy. I remember that cute little statement. I thought I might use it, except for when he said the charismatics, I was acutely aware that somebody dismissed themselves from the auditorium. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost left. I knew that every time I lifted my finger against these various parts of the body of Christ, somebody was conspicuously absent. I noticed that. But when you're a hired gun, you just keep blasting. Your reputation depends on it. I learned how to shoot at everybody, and I was miserable. I was drawn away from the Word of God. The only thing I went to the Word of God to get was a sermon to shoot somebody else with. I would go to the Word to get sermons, but it was a dull book. Then, my friends, I moved into prison. There were no bars you could see, but oh God, what a prison I lived in. I'm going to tell you something. I don't know whether you'll admit it or not, but there are hundreds of you here tonight and perhaps thousands who live in the same kind of prison. I was trapped in a religious prison. I was trapped in darkness and deception and dissension and defeat and disease and depression. It hit me like a ton of bricks. I found myself so consumed by the enemy, but I had to keep my reputation going. I had to look good, but I would tell my wife, I don't want to preach tonight. I don't care if I never preach again. I was preaching at that time to perhaps the largest crowds in the country. From the time I was 22 years of age, I began preaching to eight and ten thousand, sometimes twelve thousand a night. I'm told, I don't think it's an exaggeration, I've preached face to face to more people in this country than anyone who's ever lived. Not because Billy Graham hasn't preached to larger crowds. He has, but he hasn't preached as many crusades here as I have. I've preached 500 in this country, whereas he's probably preached 75 to 100 in this country. I've just gone and gone and gone and gone and gone, but I was a prisoner. I was miserable. I began to love the things of this world. I would look at things, remember that verse, love not the things that are in the world, and it would convict me. I said, God, I love things. I want to tell you there's something wrong with our hearts going after things. There's nothing wrong with enjoying that which God has made, but there's something wrong when your heart is drawn after things, and that's the way most Christians live, and they try to take the word of God and justify materialism. It won't fly. Read Timothy. Read your Bible. It won't float. God will not give you the grace or the word to justify materialism ever. Period. Period. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. It's a sin. It's the flesh. I was in bondage. I began to burn in lust. I'm so sorry to confess that. I can't express the joy that comes to me in going night after night, place after place, and preaching in buildings where there are many, many attractive women, and to be able to say to you, without any exaggeration whatever, that I do not lust. I can remember when I was afraid to hug a woman, whether she was attractive or unattractive. I didn't want to hug those who were not attractive. Now I found out there are not any who aren't attractive. They're all lovely. When they know who they are in Christ, they're beautiful, but I'm not afraid to hug those who know they're attractive. I have found oftentimes when I embrace them, it's as though they smile and say, I know somebody embraced me who didn't lust, and for some it's the first time. I can remember how it was. It was horrible. But it's not there. It's gone. And it's good. Listen. I was in such misery in my life as a minister that I prayed to die. I asked my wife to pray that I would die. What a stupid request. I tried to take my life. I didn't want to go on. I didn't want to live. And here I was, a big minister, big name. I was miserable. I can remember a preacher showing another example of a man struggling under the load of his ministry, the financial load, the responsibilities, the administrative load. God helped preachers to quit trying to be administrators and be pastors and preachers and let somebody else be administrators. Why don't we ever get in place in the body of Christ? I tell you, some of you businessmen here are going to have to leave your business and go to a church and become the church administrator, or you won't be right with God. And you're going to have to free your preacher up to go preach and quit administrating, or either he's going to have to resign the pulpit ministry and become a minister of administration somewhere else and let somebody else preach. We're all fouled up. It's a mess, folks. I mean, the miracle of the ages is that we've got anything left to share. We're a mess. And God's trying to fit us in place. Our boys came in the other night. They tried to go camping at night. This is Friday night. I mean, Monday night of this week. Tried to go camping. And they decided to go camping at 1030 at night. At one o'clock in the morning, they walk in all mosquito-bitten, all messed up. And they said, we couldn't put the tent up. We couldn't find the poles. They wouldn't fit. We tried for hours. And a preacher friend of mine sitting there, he died laughing. He said, that's just like us. We're trying to put the tent up in the dark. And he said, you can't get the tent up because somebody wants to be a pole when there's supposed to be a stake in the ground. Nobody wants to be a stake in the ground. We all want to be the center pole. We don't want to fit. Well, this preacher made this expression of a man struggling under the load. And I thought, God, he can't get in a horrible enough contortion figure to be like me. And I just started crying because that was the load I felt. Trying to go on. Oh, my God, it's heavy. That's the way a lot of folks live. I finally reached the place I didn't want to go on. And then the Lord sent to me a friend who said, there's a man that could help you if you'd let him. He's a carpet cleaner, a man by the name of Milton Green. He really knows this word. And he could set you free in Jesus' name if you'd just get with him. I said, no, I don't need to get with him. And my friend said, well, if you don't, don't call me anymore and share your problems because I'm not going to talk to you anymore. He said, you're wearing me out and driving me away from the word with all your talk. He said, I'm sick of listening to your mouth. It goes 90 miles of nothing. And he said, I can't hear God for hearing you. He said, it's terrible. Don't call me anymore unless you go get with Milton and let him pray for you. You're in a mess. And he hung up on me like that. And I'll tell you, you get lonely when you're in a mess. You know, the best thing you can do for somebody who's determined to walk in their own rebellion is to just withdraw fellowship from them and let them feel the real loneliness out there. And then let them come back. Well, that's what he did. And I called Milton Green. He couldn't believe I called him. He's a carpet cleaner in ninth grade education, had suffered brain damage from his heart not beating from some severe problems and some drug usage. And I called him I said, Milt, this is James Robinson. He said, oh, I said, Milt, I'm on my way to Alabama, preach over there. How would you like to get on the plane with me right over there? We'll just visit something. He said, really? I said, yeah, Milt. Would you like to go? Oh, he said, I really would. You mean you really want me to go? I said, sure, Milt. We got on that plane and took off. I started reading the newspaper. Milt put his Bible down in front of him, sort of thumped on it. Every now and then he'd sneak a peek while I was reading the paper. Then he'd said his Bible. He didn't bother me with his Bible. I was getting up sermons, reading the paper. Finally, I put the paper down. Milt Green said, oh, I looked at him. I said, Milt, would you like to share something in the word with me? He said, could I? Could I? Could I share something in the word? I said, yeah, Milt, go ahead. He said, well, look right over here. Let me show you something right over here, brother. Every verse in his Bible was marked. I mean, he had circled every word in every verse. I mean, this man, I said, this man is a fanatic. This man has been in this world. He began to read the Bible. I said, I've never heard anything like this. It was so alive. Well, we went to the service. I preached. Hundreds of people got saved. Went somewhere else and preached. Lots of people got saved. Went back to the motel room. Milt said, man, he said, you love Jesus, don't you, brother? I said, yeah, Milt, I do. He said, I feel so sorry for you. He said, son, I believe you're the most pitiful person I have ever seen. He said, do you know that I have cast demons out of witches, drug addicts, hell's angels, murderers, convicts? And he said, I believe you're the most demonized person I have ever seen. Folks, if you're full of pride, the counseling session is over right there. That is the proper New Testament word, demonized, not demon possessed, demon assaulted, demon tormented, demon infested, just like weeds in the flower bed, just like poisonous sprouts, just like the fortresses, the Jerichos, and all of the cities in the promised land where the enemy dwelt. And there's a lot of them squatting on your ground right now, trespassers tromping all over God's blood-bought people. Isaiah said, your tormentors have said, lay down that we may walk over you, and you laid down and your backs became smooth streets for them to walk on. That's what the people of God are finding right now, the enemy's tromping all over them, putting anything he wants to on them, because they don't know who they are in Christ, and they don't exercise their God-given rights. Brother, I was being tromped on. Milt looked over there at me, and he said, son, I've been praying for you for six years. He said, I followed you all over this country. He said, I've given money to your ministry for six years. He said, I've sat out and I prayed for you, and I've wept over you. He said, son, would you mind if tonight I prayed for you? Could I pray for you? I said, well, Milt, I suppose you could. I said, I don't guess I mind. It'd be all right if you pray for me, Milt. And Milt got up, and he walked across that Holiday Inn motel room, and he grabbed a chair, and he put it just like that. He said, would you mind coming over here and sitting in that chair while I pray for you right there? I'm sprawled out on the bed. I got a carpet cleaner standing in my room with a ninth grade education, saying, would you come get in the chair so I can pray for you? I wanted to say to him, do you know who I am? Have you seen my brochure? He said, would you get up and come sit in the chair so I can pray for you? And I got up off that bed. Thank you, Jesus. And I walked over, and like a little boy, like a little boy, I sat down not in front of a carpet cleaner, but I sat down in front of a carpenter of Nazareth, Jesus, Lord of lords and King of kings. And I said, I'm so sick of the torment. I had told my wife, I said, honey, I don't think I use 90% of my active brain. I think I can only use 10% of it. I said, I believe it's like I got a vice on my head. It's like a claw in my brain. I said, it's like something's got my brain. That's the only way I could describe what I felt. I sat down in that chair and Milton Green walked over and said, son, bow your head now and just concentrate on Jesus. Okay? And he patted me on the shoulders. He said, son, just think about Jesus. Now, would you do that? And Milton laid his hands on my back and he began to pray nothing but scriptures. When Milton prayed scriptures flowed like a river. I sat there and began to cry. I said, God, this man knows the word of God. Like I'd never thought about knowing. I said, Lord, all he's saying is the word just scriptures poured out of him and poured out of him. And then all of a sudden Milton Green shifted gears. He stepped away from me and he walked out into the room and he began to address the powers of darkness. He began to call on the name of the Lord Jesus to stop all the hordes of hell and every ruler, demon and evil spirit that was bombarding my mind and infesting so much of my life. And he began to root them out and tear them out, and he was talking to the devil. And that was back in the day when Milton Green thought that authority had a whole lot to do with volume, and he was going after it with volume. And I was sitting there in that chair and I was thinking, dear God, I hope these walls are well insulated in this motel. I said, God, I don't want anybody to hear this man praying for me. I said, Lord, he's talking to the devil and I'm sitting in the chair. I said, God, what if my preacher friends find out about this? I'll be sunk, Lord. Don't let anybody find out about it. Turn the TV off now. I'm telling this story. I said, Lord, I hope nobody finds out. That's all I could think. Oh, God, help him to stop. Please, God. Finally, he just stopped. Oh, I was relieved. I was relieved that he was through. I said, thank you, Lord, that he's through. He sat down across from me on the bed. He said, well, how do you feel? I said, fine, fine, Milton. I feel fine. He said, I mean, do you feel like anything sort of left? I mean, do you feel like a weight lifted off? I mean, do you feel like anything just went? I mean, it's gone. I said, Milton, I didn't feel nothing. Nothing. He said, I mean, sort of like something, sort of like something sort of just came out. I said, Milton, I didn't feel nothing. But now I was talking to a man who doesn't live by sight. He lives by faith. And old Milton just leaned over. He just patted me on the knee. He said, God bless you, son. And he went like that. He just said, son, the traffic's going to stop. He said, all those voices, all that talk, all that noise coming against your mind. He said, it's over, son. He said, you're going to be able to hear God. He said, son, and he went in front of my eyes. He just said, son, the scales are coming off, son. He said, you're going to be able to see God. And he got up. He patted me on the shoulder. He said, it's all over, son. See you in the morning. And he walked out. And I sat there and I said, huh. I traveled back home. And two mornings later, I awakened at daylight. When I awakened at daylight, tears were coursing down my cheeks. And scriptures were coming out of my mouth like a river. I was quoting scriptures that I'd never memorized, but I knew they were the word of God. And they just flowed like a river, the word of God coming up. And I turned and grabbed my wife. And I said, Betty. And she looked at me. I said, Betty, it's gone. It's gone. It's gone. It's gone. She said, what? What? What's gone? I said, that claw, that claw is gone. It's gone, Betty. It's gone. And I grabbed my Bible and the words leaped from the pages and lodged in my heart like fire, like flames of love. I had a living Bible. I had a living word in my hand and I knew love never fails. I knew that Jesus ministry is to the whole body, not just a part of the body. I knew my reputation didn't matter anymore. It was his name that must be exalted. I was free in Jesus, free in Jesus. Jesus wants you to leave here tonight free to be freer to live for in him. One week ago in Florida, I was closing a meeting like this about to say the closing prayer. It was a preacher's meeting, a hundred preachers there. When suddenly in the back of the room, a Baptist preacher stood up and said, James, James, ever since I heard your testimony on television and one of my laymen heard it, I knew there was hope. He said, that layman paid my way, saved his money. I drove 600 miles to get here today to be set free. I don't want to walk out of here without being free, preacher. I can't stand it. He said, I'm so full of lust. I'm so full of self. You may say, pray for yourself. I can't. I've rebelled against God. Set me free. He walked down in front of those preachers. He grabbed a chair. He said, I heard that somebody asked you to sit in a chair. Is that right? I said, yes, sir. He said, here's the chair. Here I am. Set me free in Jesus name. Set me free. One half of those preachers, one half of the rest of those preachers got up and came and fell on their face around that chair to be set free in Jesus name. I want to tell you here tonight, my friends, here's the chair. Here's the chair. Pride cannot sit in this chair. Idolaters can't get in that chair. Religious traditionists can't get in that chair. Seekers of God who will humble themselves before Jesus, mighty to deliver, can sit in that chair. Here is the chair. Would you like to get in the chair tonight right here by coming here to stand or to kneel and to say, I need to be set free tonight. Just come and stand right here. I want to be set free. I want to be set free. Don't you let pride keep you from coming from this platform up here. I came off a mighty big platform to get set free. I came off a big platform to get set free, fellas. Would you come and say, I've had it. I'm sick of it. I'm sick of it and bondage. I'm sick of being a religious. I want to be a follower, a disciple of Jesus. I want the truth to set me free tonight. I want God to set me free tonight and fill me up with his spirit and his love and his life tonight. Would you come right now because the Holy Spirit draws you. You just get up and come right now. I want God to set me free. Praying all through this building, just praying all over the building, asking God right now to minister to people. You want to be set free. Here's the chair. You just get up and come right now. Come on right now. Pride can't come and I don't care what the stronghold is. I don't care how mighty the fortress of the enemy, the walls of Jericho come down in Jesus' name. The walls of Jericho's come down in Jesus' name. I don't care how devastating the work of the enemy. Jesus is mighty to save. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness. He wants to translate us and transfer us into the kingdom of his dear son right now. Overcoming promised land, living spirit-filled, spirit-controlled life right now. Come on. In repentance you come. In repentance you seek him. You separate the precious from the worthless tonight. That's how you come. God set me free. Listen, some of you are going to have to get set free of your doctrines, those winds and spirits of doctrines. You're not going to be set free from truth. You're going to be set free from the worship of truths rather than the worship of truth, Jesus. You've made an issue out of truths. You've made a point out of your position. It's an idol. It's got to come down tonight. Some of you are going to have to be delivered from a spirit of Pentecostalism, from a Baptistic, from a Catholic spirit, from a religious spirit, and you got to get that thing out tonight. Come on right now. When you get here, I want you to bow your head and fix your eyes on Jesus right now, and I want you to ask Jesus to let you see your field. I passed through central Florida the other day, and I saw the hundreds of miles of dead citrus trees that froze in the winter. Orange trees, citrus trees by the millions, dead. And God said, that's the way my field looks, just like that. And I wept. I said, my God, look at that. No fruit, just dead trees. God wants to bring it to life. He wants you to bring forth His fruit. He wants every one of you standing here to go out of this place to do the ministry of Jesus, not to discuss it, to do it, not to promote it, to do it. He wants every one of you to leave here as priests and kings and conquerors and ambassadors and witnesses, every one of you, every one of you. Father, I ask you in the name of Jesus right now to just come and settle on these people like a blanket of conviction. I ask you, Father, to show them how Satan got ground in their life through their pride, through them not loving you with all their heart and making a covenant with the devil to love him. Show them the worldliness of their heart, the materialism. Show them their flesh. God, I ask you to convict them of unforgiveness and bitterness in their heart where they've had a bad attitude toward another person, in their own family, in their churches, in their religious groups. I ask you, dear God, to show them that bitterness must go or they will never be freed from the hand of the torment or the torturers. They must forgive everyone from their heart. Lord God, give them the capacity to forgive tonight. Lord God, give them this moment. Lord, the desire to confess the sin of idolatry, the sin of loving this world, the sin of worshiping the devil, Lord, their own ways. God, I ask you to show them that their sins nailed your son to the cross. Dear God, show them the awfulness of sin. My God, let us see sin as it is. Oh God, may we detest sin, our own sin, Lord. Convict us of our sin, Lord. God, break our hearts over sin tonight. God, break our hearts over sin. Lord, convict your people. And Lord, as they confess their sins, you promised in your faithfulness to forgive them their sins and cleanse them from all unrighteousness. I ask you, Lord, to sweep over this congregation in cleansing power right now. Wash those sins away, Lord, as far as the east is from the west. Cleanse them from all unrighteousness. Cleanse them this moment, Lord, all sin. Lord, cleanse them in Jesus' name right now. Now, Lord, I come to you in the name above every name, the name of Jesus. I come to you in agreement with these who've come in repentance. I come to you in agreement with every Christian that's standing with their feet on the word tonight free. I come to you in behalf of these believers, and in the name of Jesus, God, I ask you to set them free from the power of the enemy. And I ask you to tear down every stronghold and every wall of resistance in their life. I ask you to tear down every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and to bring into captivity every thought obedient to Jesus. I ask you, dear God, to set them free right here in the name of Jesus Christ. In the name of Jesus, I stand against all the powers of darkness, every deceiving spirit, every demon of hell, and I command you to release these captives in Jesus' name. These are the children of the most high God. I command every evil spirit to leave in the name of Jesus from these believers right now. I command you to release them, Satan, in Jesus' name. I hold the word of God and the blood of Jesus against you, and I command every evil spirit to go, to go through dry places, waterless places, to go to the pit. Go in Jesus' name right now. I stand against doubt and fear and unbelief, and I command it to leave in Jesus' name. I smash the spirit of idolatry. I command the spirit of harlotry to go in Jesus' name right now. I command the spirit of slavery and bondage and tradition to go in Jesus' name. I command all fear to go in Jesus' name, fear of men, fear of sisters. I command doubt to go, unbelief to be gone in Jesus' name right now. I command it to go in the name of Jesus. I want those of you who are standing here, I want you to look up here at me right now. I want you to look right here and listen. Has the Holy Spirit convicted you of sin and sins in your life? Have you agreed with God about that sin that it is in fact against God and that it's wrong? Have you agreed with God that Jesus Christ's blood is sufficient to cover that sin, enabling you to come into the presence of God boldly because it's a throne of grace? Do you understand you can approach the throne as a child, as a king, as an heir? Then you can come boldly to a grace throne to receive grace for life and living. If you have gone after the world without even knowing it, you have broken the first commandment, the one that says thou shall love the Lord by God with all thy heart, soul, mind and strength. When you didn't do that, you linked up with the enemy by design, by intent you did. Second, if you've not loved your neighbors yourself, Jesus says if you do not forgive everyone your brother from your heart, my Father will turn you over to the tormentors. If there's anybody you've not forgiven, you cannot be set free until you forgive. You cannot be set free until you confess my heart was drawn away from you, God, toward things. I confessed to you to like many things, didn't I? Some I didn't want to confess. They're not pleasant. I confessed to you that I was trapped by a system where my reputation became more important than the needs of the people. The enemy ran over me, folks. Now, I have forgiven everyone who's hurt me. I can walk in freedom. I have confessed my sin. Have you? Are you willing to forgive every person that you've ever had ought against? Are you? How many of you have thought tonight God has shown you someone that you've had ought against? Someone you've had ought against. You've thought unkindly to God. You've not forgiven. Somebody, until tonight, you've not forgiven. Let me see your hand if there have been some people like that. Will you forgive them? Will you let them know that you want things right? Will you ask their forgiveness? You make that commitment. You've got to get it right. If it's a relative, loved one, I don't care if it's a past church experience, I don't care what it is. A lot of you folks have left churches and you went out to start another fellowship. You will not have fellowship like you want when you leave with a bad attitude. You're out of fellowship with God. Will you get right? All right, then, in Jesus' name, you can leave here free tonight. I want us to claim that freedom. I want you to pray after me. You don't have to close your eyes to pray. You just talk to the Lord. You can look here, just look nowhere, but I want you to talk to the Lord and I want you to pray after me and repeat this prayer. Father in heaven. I do love you. And I know you love me. You gave your Son for me. His blood covers my sins. I have confessed my sins. I repent of them. I don't want to do it again. Ever again. I want to be free from that sin. From those sins. I will forgive my enemies. I will not love this world. I will not love my own life. I will lay it down. I will lose it for Jesus. It is yours, Lord. You're my Father. Jesus is my Savior. He is my Deliverer. He is my Healer. He is living in me. The truth sets me free. I have confessed my sins. In Jesus I have authority over all the power of the enemy. Satan, I know who you are. You are a liar. You are the Father of all lies. You're a murderer, a thief, a robber. You won't rob me anymore. You won't destroy me. You won't deceive me. You won't murder me. I refuse your lies. All of them. Leave me in the name of Jesus. I resist you. I renounce your works. I smash them in the name of Jesus. I hold the Word against you. I command you evil spirits, ruler demons, unclean spirits, deceiving spirits. Leave me in the name of Jesus. I command pride to go. Doubt and unbelief, idolatry, religious tradition, spirit of rebellion. Leave me in Jesus' name. Don't come back. You're not welcome here. Selfish ambition, I cast out. Materialism, greed, envy, selfishness, covetousness. Leave me. Spirit of harlotry, now you listen a moment. You can prostitute your body to food. You can prostitute your body to success and popularity. You can prostitute it to people and things. Spirit of harlotry, leave me. Lust, leave. Leave in the name of Jesus. Stay out. He lies even as he leaves, folks. He'll tell you he's not going. Tell him he's a liar. You're a liar. Stay out. In the name of Jesus, stay out. Gluttony, leave. Drunkenness, addiction, homosexuality, pornography, leave me. Fear, leave. Spirit of fear, get out. I fear no evil. Jesus is with me. Guilt, anxiety, intimidation, spirit of rejection, spirit of compromise, spirit of slavery, passivity. I'm not passive. I'm strong in the Lord. Greater is he in me than you in the world. Get out, Satan. Spirit of condemnation, spirit of embarrassment, bitterness, hurt, self-pity, insecurity, suicide, depression, failure, confusion, insanity, spirit of fatigue, of compulsion, of murder, hate, violence, wrath, anger, malice, jealousy, leave me in the name of Jesus. Deception, leave. Gossip, leave. Spirit of criticism, spirit of slavery, and bondage, get out of my life in the name of Jesus. Spirit of infirmity, get out of my life. Sickness, leave me. Pain, go in Jesus' name. Tumors, leave. Cancer, go. Heart problems, blood diseases, get out in Jesus' name. Leave my brothers and sisters. Leave us all in Jesus' name. The truth has set me free. The truth has set me free. I will live by the word of God. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Now you just thank him for what he's done right there where you are. You thank Jesus. Now I want us to ask the Lord to fill these earthen vessels with the Holy Spirit. I want you to simply stand there very quiet before the Lord right now with your heart open to him, relaxed. And I want you to just receive the ministry and the power and the anointing of the Holy Spirit. And as you receive the anointing of the Holy Spirit, you will understand that the Holy Spirit gives gifts to men, that he releases and uses gifts, that he anoints you for the purpose of edifying the entire body of Christ, building it up and equipping it. He will release through you words of knowledge, words of prophecy. He will loose you to praise him. He'll loose your tongues. He'll do whatever he wills to do. You don't come to him with a preconceived notion. You don't come to him with a prerequisite. You don't come to him with a requirement. You come to him saying, Lord, I just received and I want that confidence and that power. They were filled with the Holy Spirit. The place was shaken and they spoke the word of God with boldness. They spoke the word of God with confidence. Now that's what God wants you to do when you leave here. He wants you to go out of here with the greatest assurance, the greatest confidence, the greatest joy, the greatest peace, the greatest power you have ever known in your life. Now, will you receive the power and the ministry of the Holy Spirit into your life? I'm going to pray and I'm going to ask the Holy Spirit to come on you in power and to do whatever he wills to do to simply fill you and control you and flow out of your innermost big rivers of living water. And whatever the Holy Spirit bids you do from now on, he's just in charge. I'm going to command in the name of Jesus that the Holy Spirit simply anoint you right now. Father, in the name of Jesus, I ask you to baptize, fill and anoint every person in this place with the Holy Spirit right now, Lord. Fill them right now with your power and your Holy Spirit right now. Anoint them, dear God, all over this room. Anoint them, Lord, with your power. Fill them with your Spirit, Lord. Encounter them with power right now, Jesus. Come in power. Anoint them, Lord, never to be the same when they go out of this place, Lord, anointed with power. All over the room, Lord, just anoint them right now, right here. Anoint them, Father. Fill them with your confidence and your boldness, Lord, never again to be the same. Free them, Lord, to speak your truth, to speak your word. Free them, Lord, to communicate with you in the Spirit, Lord, in the Holy Spirit's power, communicating with you, Lord, totally. Thank you, Jesus, right now. Holy Spirit, thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Now, you just praise Jesus for what he's doing in your heart and your life right there where you are. You can just thank him and love Jesus right there. You just love Jesus right there where you are. Just love Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Never again to go back our way, Lord. We are free in Jesus' name. We walk over the power of the enemy in the name of Jesus. Thank you, Lord, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. I want us to sing Alleluia, just a cappella as a worship song. Lead us, brother. Just sing that Alleluia. Would you, right now, sing it. Alleluia. Alleluia. I am free, Lord. I am free. Yes. I am free, Lord. I am free, Lord. Sing it. Heal your body, Lord. Yes. Pray it. Heal your body, Lord. Yes. Yes. Heal your body, Lord. Heal your body, Lord. With real praise. Alleluia. Alleluia. Just praise Him right there where you are. Would you do that? Praise Him from your heart. Thank you, Jesus. Alleluia. Praise you, Jesus. Don't you quench the spirit of God. You praise Him. You love Him. Would you hold back? We will go from this place. We will leave here as disciples of Jesus. We will love one another. I'm committed to love you, to minister the Word to you, to be reproved by you, corrected by you, exhorted by you, as well as to exhort you and to reprove you. We are one in Christ. We are a little pile of charcoal being soaked in the Holy Spirit. God is going to light the fire, and it will burn to the ends of the earth with His love. Love never fades. We don't go out of here to promote our positions or our experiences. We go to lift up Jesus, to set the captives free, to visit those in prison. The world is the prison. Get them out. His people are trapped. Set them free. Visit the naked. Don't expose all their sins. Expose the unfruitful works of darkness. Cover their sins by clothing them in righteousness. Get these little naked believers to the righteousness of Jesus. Get the garments that have been defiled by the world, the old religious junk off of them, and get on the garments of praise. Get it that way. Folks, we've got to walk in righteousness. Listen, you move only by commission. Some of you are going to be assigned a mission in a dungeon. It's going to have a steeple on top of it, but it's a dungeon just the same. And you're to be a missionary there. You're not to go there to correct the preacher, to set him straight. You're to go there to walk straight. You're to go there to live straight. You're to go there to do the ministry of Jesus. If no one else does, there are hungry people there that will come to you for help. The preacher may run you off, but Jesus says in Isaiah that you don't leave as a fugitive. And you don't leave in haste. That means you don't run, and you don't leave as a fugitive. They may kick you out, but you're not a fugitive because he says the Lord goes before you. Even if they kick you out, the Lord went before you, so you're not a fugitive. You're being a follower. You're following Jesus. And he says he'll be your rear guard, so you don't have to worry about anything. He's going to look after you. Now listen. How do we live? By the Word of God. Folks, there's no shortcut to living in victory. There's no shortcut to promised land living. You go after the Word of God, and you carry it on sanctified shoulders. This is it. This is the sanctified vessel. Carry the Word of God. Please, for your sake, the sake of the body of Christ in a lost world, live this Word. Live in this Word. Let this Word flow through you. You've got to know it. You've got to know it. I have unloaded a truckload of truth on you tonight that'll open up this whole Bible to you. If you'll go, you'll see this is not only a love story. It's a war manual to teach you how to do war with the enemies, the powers of darkness. And every chapter will tell you how to win. You look at it. Let God talk to you about this battle that's raging, and he'll show you how to win. Amen? I'll tell you something I think might help some of your friends. The testimony that I've shared tonight is in this book. Somebody help me. People are distorting, perverting, and misrepresenting what I'm saying about healing, what I'm saying about my testimony. This is it right here, my testimony. I'd suggest you get a copy of this out here on the book table. We have a little book table set up out here close to where Paul and Jan are. Get my testimony and read it and share it with somebody. There's a chapter in here on how to know you're saved, how to be saved, and know it. A lot of people just don't know. They live in fear and doubt. Get this. It'll bless you. Also, there's a tape out there that just gives my testimony on being set free, how God delivered me, what I shared here with you tonight, just that part of it, and it'll bless you. If some of you want a Bible study, I'm going to tell you something. I'm not trying to promote material. I'm trying to give you some ministry helps. This is a book written, I put it together, but it was written by a woman named Kay Arthur in Chattanooga, Tennessee. It's called Blockage to Communication, the Keys to Repentance. Some of you say, James, I want to go out of here and get in the Word. How do I do it? This book will start you into the Word and the Word will renew your mind. It'll tell you who you are in Christ. This has the confessions of a new creation in Christ. Go by and get some of these materials because they'll help you and then you can help others. I want you to do something for me. I would like, as often as the Holy Spirit calls me to your mind and memory, pray for me that God will lead me and direct me. I want to see the body of Christ healed. That's my dream, my vision. I want to see a healthy body. I want you to pray that for me. If you're able, watch our program on television. It'll help you weekly. We're on all over the country and we're going on daily on TBN and I understand possibly on PTL very soon daily, but we're going on TBN in two weeks, every day for 30 minutes teaching. God bless you. I love you and thank you for receiving me with love tonight. Do you want me to pray for you? Yes, sir.