A SECRET OF LIVING ABOVE SICKNESS

Dr. John G. Lake traveled to Africa as a missionary at the turn of the century. He originally had been a Methodist minister, but had gotten discouraged. He quit the ministry and went into the insurance business, becoming very successful.

Later, he got back into fellowship with God and received the baptism in the Holy Spirit. He went to Africa, where he preached and established hundreds of churches in five years. While he was there, an outbreak of bubonic plague occurred.

In the book The John G. Lake Sermons on Dominion Over Demons, Disease and Death, edited by Gordon Lindsay, Dr. Lake recalled that he and a Dutchman buried many who had died from the plague. They went into the people's homes, carried the bodies out, dug the graves, and buried the dead. "Sometimes we would put three or four in one grave," Lake noted. Yet he and the Dutchman never contracted the disease.

The plague was so severe that the British government sent a shipload of doctors and medical supplies to South Africa to relieve the suffering. Hearing of Lake's work, one of the doctors sent for him. He asked Lake, "What have you been using to protect yourself? . . .We concluded that if a man could stay on the ground as you have, and keep ministering to the sick and burying the dead, you must have a secret. What is it?"
Lake answered, "Brother, that is the 'law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.' I believe that just as long as I keep my soul in contact with the living God so that His Spirit is flowing into my soul and body, that no germ will ever attach itself to me, for the Spirit of God will kill it."

The doctor suggested that Lake use the same preventatives that the doctors were using as protection from the plague. But Lake, who was deeply interested in science, suggested a scientific experiment instead.

He said, "If you will go over to one of these dead people and take the foam that comes out of their lungs after death, then put it under the microscope, you will see masses of living germs. You will find they are alive until a reasonable time after a man is dead. You can fill my hand with them and I will keep it under the microscope, and instead of these germs remaining alive, they will die instantly."

Lake wrote, "They tried it and found it was true." When they wanted to know how it worked, Lake explained, "That is 'the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.' When a man's spirit and a man's body are filled with the blessed presence of God, it oozes out of the pores of your flesh and kills the germs." Lake had found the secret. It is knowledge acted upon that brings results. (Kenneth E. Hagin)