continued from part one above
They Told Him His Daughter Would Be Spastic!
About this time our little girl was born. When she arrived, we were filled with joy, but it soon turned to great concern. She was so lifeless. She couldn’t move normally. The doctor was concerned and had her x-rayed before leaving the hospital. He could find no broken bones. After she was released we took her t a specialist. She looked at her and said, “Mrs. Osteen, I can tell you now your child is not normal. She may be a spastic or something else of that nature, but she is not normal.”
I had always been taught to shun the idea of praying for the sick. “Divine healers” and Divine healing services were things a professional preacher dare not touch because he might lose his prestige and good standing. but you know, when it is your child it is different! When it is your child, you want to know what God has promised. I was determined to find out. I was amazed to learn that God’s first promise to a redeemed people was, “I am Jehovah-Rapha, the Lord that healeth thee.” As I read, I heard David say “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities, Who healeth all thy diseases.” I discovered that much of the ministry of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ was spent in healing the sick and casting out devils. i found to my amazement that
Matthew 8:17 said that Jesus not only died for our sins, but also for our sicknesses and pains. I heard the Lord say, “They shall lay hands upon the sick and they shall recover.” I found it was an ordinance of the church to call for the elders of the church and let them pray over the sick and anoint him with oil that he might be healed by the Lord. So we began to pray and ask God to heal our baby. We took her back to the doctor in a few weeks and she said, “Mrs. Osteen, you know I have not treated your baby. I have prayed for it along with you and your husband. God has healed her.”” Hallelujah! “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever!”
Called to Hibbard Memorial Baptist Church.
God was moving things out of the way. How good and how patient He is! About this time Hibbard Memorial Baptist Church here in Houston extended a call to me to be their pastor. I decided to accept. I also decided to set my face toward God to find the power. I said to myself, and to God,”The hour is too late. Hell is too horrible, sins are too black, heaven is too real, eternity too long, and time too short for me to fail you.” I preached to the church on the text, “I baptize you with water, but He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and Fire.” My subject was in the form of a question: When did Jesus baptize you in the Holy Ghost and fire? If we know when we are baptized in water, we would certainly know when and if we had been baptized in FIRE. I confessed to them that I had not had this experience, but was setting my heart and soul toward God to have it.
I was alone in my office in downtown Houston. I read and studied day and night. Suddenly it came to me. I read of Moses, Elijah, Elisha, Jesus, the early church and disciples. I read carefully the commands and desires of our Lord Jesus Christ. I began to see that we are sent to help to face and help a darkened, hell bound, demon ridden world, but we were not to do it in our own power. It was God’s plan that HIs people have a supernatural ministry. It was and is His plan that the Power of God be for our day in this twentieth century. The supernatural was God’s plan to destroy the devil and set men free. Oh, I remember when it came to me and I knew it was true. I wept. I got in my car and drove 16 miles to my home. I shouted and cried all the way home. My God, it’s true! No wonder I have been confused and defeated. Praise the Lord! God has the best way.
God’s Power Comes Upon Him in His Office
I had never heard of a man by the name of William Branham. I had faintly heard of Oral Roberts and his work. I was ignorant of all this. I just simply tell you what God did to me. I was there in my office waiting and praying into the night. I never knew what a touch from God was. As I waited before God, I had my hands up --I wasn’t excited. I was just waiting and yearning. Directly there came into my hands a strange feeling, and it came down to the middle of my arms and began to surge! Like electricity, it was like a thousand --like ten thousand --then a million volts of electricity. It began to shake my hand, to pull my hands. I could hear, as it were, a zooming sound of the power. It pulled my hands over and held them there as though God took them in His. There came a voice in my soul that said, “Lay these hands on the sick and I will heal them.”
But I didn’t have the Baptism. I was scared even for God to touch me again. I went to a revival meeting at the First Baptist Church of Blythville, Arkansas. While on the train, I sought God, and as I fasted and waited upon Him, this same power came into my hands. God would touch me, but I couldn’t get baptized in the Holy Ghost.
One morning I got up, and I said, “Well, goodbye.” My wife asked me, “Where are you going?” I said, “I don’t know, but I’m not coming back until I hear from heaven.” I didn’t expect to see her for a month. I went to downtown Houston and rented a hotel room where I shut myself up. I shut God in with me. I said, “Oh, God, Thou who didst save me and call me and Thou whose call is upon my soul, Thou knowest my heart. I want to be used. I want to serve you. You’ve been so good to me.” God showed me two things. He showed me an old school debt that I had somehow overlooked and didn’t feel like I ought to pay. I got up and wrote a check for $600.00 to pay it. I said, “Lord, that's settled.” Then the Lord showed me the spiritual pride.
He said, “Are you willing to be numbered among the despised? Those who are ostracized? Are you willing to lose the prestige of your denominational standing? Are you willing to be fired from your church and have your salary cut off? Are you willing to have every door shut against you and never be invited to preach in their churches? Are you willing to accept the ridicule and embarrassment?” To all these and many more questions, I said, “Lord, I am! I am! I am!”
He Receives The Baptism of The Holy Ghost
In an air-conditioned room, with my hands lifted up t heaven and my heart reaching up for my God, there came the molten lava of His love. It poured in like a stream from heaven and I was lifted up out of myself. I spoke in a language I could not understand for about two hours. My body poured out perspiration as though I was in a steam bath. The Baptism of Fire! Glory to God! The surge of His power and glory of His presence defies the mind of man to explain! but Hallelujah, He filled the temple!
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