NEVER GIVE UP ON PEOPLE

In one church my wife and I pastored in Texas, there was a woman about 82 years old. She had been in the hospital in my hometown of McKinney, suffering with cancer of the stomach, and was finally sent home to die.

I went to visit her at her daughter's home, and as I talked with her she said she was old enough to die and she wanted me to leave her alone so she could die. (You're not going to get people healed when they think they're going to die.) I told her that wasn't right. I told her to let God heal her before she died. She told me she had lost all confidence in divine healing — and she was an old-time Pentecostal saint. It was divine healing, in fact, that had brought her out of another church into the Pentecostal church back in 1917. She mentioned a certain pastor who hadn't gotten healed. I told her that didn't have a thing in the world to do with it. I told her we weren't reaching all 3,000 people in the city for salvation, but we thanked God for those we could reach. We didn't give up because we couldn't reach them all. I told her I didn't know why those people didn't get healed, but that I wasn't going to question God.

I told her healing still belonged to her. I read to her from the Bible on the subject of healing, laid my hands on her, and asked God to help her not cast away her confidence. She had wasted away to nothing and had suffered much. She could hardly eat anything and was right at death's door. We had divine healing services every Saturday night in our church. Her family would carry her in and seat her in a large chair with pillows around her. Sometimes she would have a spell and we would think she was dead. Then somehow she would start breathing again. Those were some experiences!

That went on for about six months. We can get faith into people by teaching them, but they also need to get into services where God is moving and manifesting Himself. Smith Wigglesworth said that if God doesn't manifest Himself, it is doubtful whether the Holy Spirit is really there.

One Saturday night this woman was at the service, and as we came to the close, I had a quick vision about her. I saw Grandma, as we all called her, jump out of her chair and start dancing. I looked at her and told her it was her time. I walked down off the platform, laid hands on her and prayed. At the moment nothing happened, but ten minutes later she let out a yell, jumped out of the chair and started dancing. She was healed.

Several years later, when Grandma was 91, my wife and I stopped to visit her. Her daughter said she was away visiting some people and that she was always out running around, so we didn't get to see her. She died when she was 93, without sickness and disease. She just fell asleep in Jesus. I'm so glad I didn't let her die of that cancer! I've done my best for some others but couldn't help them. Yet God's Word is still true, and the gifts of the Spirit are still real. (Kenneth E. Hagin)