WE CAN DO SO MUCH IF WE ONLY KNOW THE WORD

"I never had heard anyone preach on this before. But some eight years before, I'd had an unusual experience with this verse of Scripture. I had stopped to see my mother and she'd told me I should visit my grandmother, who was very ill. I did stop to see her, but I was in a hurry. I wished afterwards I'd had a word of prayer with her.

While I was at my next meeting I learned Granny had become unconscious. After preaching every night, I would go where she was, which was about 35 miles away, and stay up all night with her. The rest of the family would stay with her in the daytime. She was unconscious all the time, so there wasn't much to do except watch her in case she did wake up.

One night I was sitting in the large chair by her bed and began to pray. I said, "Lord, I wish I had prayed with Granny. I'm sorry I didn't have a word of prayer with her. I know she is 77 years of age — and I can sense in my spirit she has lived her life out — but if she could just regain consciousness and I could have a word of prayer with her____"

I said, "I know she never would tell a lie for anything in the world." Yet, sometimes we can see sins of omission in our loved ones. I asked the Lord, "Let me have a word of prayer with her, so I can be sure everything is all right, and I will be willing to let her go."

Sins of omission as well as sins of commission are wrong. Granny had been born again in an old-time Methodist campmeeting in Tennessee when she was 14 years old. But for 40 years she'd had a serious physical condition — she couldn't hear out of her right ear. At one time she'd had an operation, but she still wasn't healed. The right side of her head always hurt, and as kids we never could jump around because she said it felt like something was pounding in her head. One time, however, some Full Gospel people laid hands on her and she was instantly healed.

Three years after that, when I was pastoring a church close by, I stopped and noticed she had cotton in her ear. I asked what was wrong and she said she had lost her healing. She had promised the Lord she would go to a church nearby, and would do more Bible reading and praying. But she hadn't done what she'd promised, so she had lost it.

I was thinking about these things and praying when a voice said, "WHY DON'T YOU ASK ME TO FORGIVE HER?" I was so startled I jumped out of my chair. My Bible and a book by A.B. Simpson went flying across the floor and back under the bed. I must have jumped three feet! I looked, but nobody was behind my chair. I got down, reached under the bed, and got my Bible and book. I sat back down and thought, Well, this is the third night I have sat up with Granny, and my imagination is playing tricks on me. I read a little while longer.

But then I got to thinking about this subject again. I said, "Lord, just bring her out of this coma and let me have a word of prayer with her so I can believe everything is confessed — and everything is all right. And I'll just let her go on home then." Just as plain as if somebody were standing behind me, the voice said, "WHY DON'T YOU ASK ME TO FORGIVE HER?" I jumped again. My Bible went flying one way and my book the other, all the way across the floor. I must have leaped three feet out of that chair again.

I picked up my book and looked behind the chair, but there wasn't anybody there. I said to myself, / know I heard somebody say that! I went back into the next room, which was the kitchen. The door had been closed, so I looked behind the door. I looked all around. And I couldn't find anybody. I went back to the bedroom where Momma was asleep, and I stood at the door and listened. I could tell by her breathing that she was sound asleep. I went back to another room where Grandpa was asleep in the back of the house, and I could tell by his breathing that he was sound asleep. Nobody else was in the house except the two of them.

I checked the back door. I even checked the screens and doors to make sure they were hooked or locked. I said to myself, There couldn't have been anybody in here. I went into the living room and looked behind the couch. I couldn't find anybody. I said to myself, / know it sounded like a man's voice.

I sat back down and decided, Well, this is the third night I have been sitting up with Granny and she is nearly dead. We expect her to die any minute. It's just my nerves. It's just my imagination playing tricks on me. I read a little while longer, and then my mind got back on Granny. I prayed for the third time, "Lord, I'm so sorry — You forgive me — that I didn't pray with Granny. Just let her come out of this coma and let me pray with her, so I'll be sure everything is all right. Then I'll let her go on home."

And the third time that voice said, "WHY DON'T YOU ASK ME TO FORGIVE HER?" This time I didn't jump. I sat there and answered back, "ME ask You to forgive her?" And the voice said, "YES. DID YOU EVER READ IN FIRST JOHN 5:16 WHERE I SAID, 'IF ANY MAN SEE HIS BROTHER SIN A SIN WHICH IS NOT UNTO DEATH, HE SHALL ASK, AND HE SHALL GIVE HIM LIFE FOR THEM THAT SIN NOT UNTO DEATH. THERE IS A SIN UNTO DEATH: I DO NOT SAY THAT HE SHALL PRAY FOR IT'?"
I told Him I still did not know what the verse meant. He said He was referring to the first part of the verse and He told me to ask Him to forgive Granny of every sin of omission.

I did that, and also asked that she be forgiven of any sins of commission. I asked that she be forgiven of every wrong, fault, mistake, and failure. I asked that her homecoming might be glorious. To me, that settled it. There's nothing more sure than the Word of God. I didn't build on an experience; the experience was built in line with faith in God's Word.

Eight years later, when Jesus appeared to me in a vision, He brought this verse up again. I told Him the only time I'd had an encounter with it was the time I was with Granny. He told me she had been in heaven with Him the past eight years. (Kenneth Hagin)

God bless u bro