RIGHT PURPOSE VS WRONG MOTIVE

Did you know you can have the right purpose with the wrong motive and never succeed? Let me illustrate what I mean. In 1947 there came a healing revival here in America which lasted through 1958. Several years before it came, God stirred me up to pray. I didn't know anybody else was praying; however, I am sure they were for this is God's way. God's plans are prayed through first. I was seeking God because the only manifestation of the Spirit we had in our services was tongues and interpretation.

I said, "Lord, here in First Corinthians chapter 12, are all these other manifestations of the Spirit. But about all we ever see manifested are tongues and interpretation." Thank God for tongues and interpretation, but let's not stop there. That is not all of it. I said, "Your Word reveals three power gifts: special faith, working of miracles, and gifts of healings. These should be in manifestation among us." I prayed almost every night about this matter. Sometimes at three or four o'clock in the morning, I'd get up and pray an hour or so. In the winter, I'd go into the living room to pray by the heater. It was too cold to kneel on the bare floor in the bedroom because there was no heat in that room.

On three occasions, I woke up kneeling by the couch in the living room, and I didn't remember going in there. I said to myself, How did I get here? I must have come in here in my sleep. I prayed about nothing other than the manifestation of the power gifts among us. I did not pray that God would use me, because I really preferred that God would use anyone else except me.

Many prayers for the supernatural workings of God are not answered because men's purposes are wrong. Oftentimes men have in mind, God use me. I did not pray that He would use me. I couldn't have cared less whether He used me or not. I wanted people to be blessed and helped, for the Church to be enhanced, and for the glory to be given to God.

At that time, I prayed that these things would come into manifestation as they are revealed in God's Word. I knew they belonged to us. I prayed that we would have a prolific manifestation of these power gifts, and I just persisted in my praying.

One day, I went to my little study in the church to prepare the Sunday sermon. But I was so burdened to pray that I got out of my chair and started praying. I prayed approximately five hours in other tongues. It was the longest I'd ever prayed in tongues at one time. I'd get up only to go next door to the parsonage for a drink of water, or to move around a little because I was on my knees all the time. But I counted only the time when I was actually in prayer.

I said, "Lord, I've been praying about the manifestation of Your Spirit, but I don't know what to pray for as I ought. So I'm praying in tongues, in the Holy Spirit, depending upon You to help me pray this thing through." God wanted to manifest Himself, and I knew how to pray in a measure. But I still didn't know how to pray as I should. Today, we don't know exactly how to pray either. There's a move of God upon us. God is wanting to manifest Himself through signs and wonders to the world. We know to pray, and yet we don't know how to pray as we ought (Rom. 8:26). So we must rely on the Holy Ghost.

After approximately five hours into my prayer, I hit a "gusher." Glory to God! The Holy Ghost gave me a word of wisdom. Some people say, "I don't ever get anything."I know. You never stay long enough in the Presence of God to get anything. By the time it comes, you're gone. When this word of wisdom came, I grabbed my pad and pencil and wrote it down: February 1943. I still have the original note. Here is what it said: AT THE CLOSE OF WORLD WAR II, THERE WILL COME A REVIVAL OF DIVINE HEALING TO AMERICA.

God's plan was revealed four years before it came! The next year, I preached that at a young people's rally in Longview, Texas. I gave the date and told them what God said would happen. When I made this public announcement of God's plan, the power of God fell on the crowd. Every preacher ran to the altar. Every person present—both young and old—hit their knees praying. The glory fell on us.

It happened just as God had said: In 1947 the healing revival started. Eventually, there were 120 ministers in what we called "The Voice of Healing." Every healing evangelist in America of any stature except Brother Oral Roberts was in it. The Voice of Healing magazine edited by Gordon Lindsay reported the revival, and we used this magazine as a medium of advertisement.

Now here is the point I want to get to, and Jesus talked to me about it in the recent visitation. I had to lay a foundation, however, for you to see it. You see, you can get God's plan, but your purpose can be wrong in carrying out His plan.

There was an outstanding healing evangelist in "The Voice of Healing." He was a man called of God and anointed by the Spirit. He had God's plan for the hour and God's plan for his life. He was equipped with supernatural equipment to fulfill the ministry God had given him. As the Spirit willed, the Holy Ghost manifested Himself through this man in some of the most miraculous things I've ever seen.

I saw blind eyes instantly opened through his ministry. I saw a person—the only one I've ever seen with this disease—whose body had begun to petrify. This dear one was carried into a meeting lying like stone on a stretcher, but was instantly delivered and arose and walked. It was a marvelous sight to behold.

Once my wife and I were traveling and we stopped by to visit one of his meetings. A state home for the deaf was nearby, and they had brought in five men who could neither hear nor speak. Each one, right down the line—one, two, three, four, five—was instantly healed before everyone's eyes. The minister immediately got up and started receiving an OFFERING and the anointing left. His purpose was wrong. You can't use God's plan to raise MONEY.

The Lord said to me about that same minister, "You go tell him he is not going to live much longer unless he judges himself." The Lord told me to tell him he must judge himself in three areas. One of those areas was about MONEY. I did not go to this minister, and God dealt with me about that. But this minister never judged himself and within three years, he was dead at a young age. Your purpose has to be God's purpose.

I trust you get the message of Jesus' appearance to me. A mighty move of God's Spirit is coming and we must keep our purposes right. We must pursue God's plan—not man's—with God's purpose.

You cannot use the things of God to raise MONEY. You can only tell people what God has told you and give them an opportunity to be in on it so that fruit may abound to their account (Phil. 4:17). I tell people, "God said to start RHEMA Bible Training Center." But I put no emphasis on MONEY. I tell people what we're doing AND GIVE THEM AN OPPORTUNITY TO HELP IF THEY WANT TO AND IF THEY CAN. You have to be very careful in this area.

Jesus once said to me, "MANY UPON WHOM I HAVE PLACED MY SPIRIT AND HAVE CALLED TO THE MINISTRY HAVE BECOME MONEY-MINDED AND HAVE LOST THE ANOINTING."

Ohhh! I don't want to lose the anointing—not for a second, not for a minute. Every minister, every preacher, every singer, and every person called of God must be careful along these lines. We cannot take God's plan and pursue a different purpose. We have to pursue both His plan and His purpose. Not only do we need to be careful about our motives concerning MONEY, but we must beware of human ego. (Kennth Hagin)