Make Your Day Count

SPKM STEVE VICKERS It’s a joy to be here.

SPRR RICHARD ROBERTS  SU04 It’s a joy for us to get to meet you personally and for you to share this story.  It  began, Denise, with you when the doctors told you that you had rheumatoid arthritis and it looked like you might very well end up in a wheelchair the rest of your life.  Can you just share the story.

SPKM DENISE VICKERS I’d be glad to.  I tell you, I’m going to pay the devil back for the rest of my life for what he did to me for 2| years.  I’ll tell you what happened.  In the middle of the night my body was electrified with rheumatoid arthritis.  I was put in the hospital and they diagnosed it and I was healed…. God healed me after two months but then I let the medical field, which I praise God for the medical field, but I let men’s words convince me I was in remission because of being pregnant.  They said rheumatoid arthritis goes into remission while you’re pregnant and I let those words take root in me.  Then as soon as I gave birth, while I was in the hospital it came back on my body because I allowed those words…. see, the power of men’s words…. to take root.

SPRR RICHARD ROBERTS Did you give up your faith at that point?

SPKM DENISE VICKERS I kept telling myself, “No, God healed me,”

but I let those words take root without realizing what I was doing because when I gave birth to my baby, when I was in the hospital the first thought I had was:  How soon will it come back?  And while I was in the hospital, it came back on me.  And I went home and I was standing in the shower and I cried out to God because my body was hurting.  I had pain in every joint in my body.  There wasn’t a joint that wasn’t affected and I was standing in the shower and I screamed out, “God, heal me.”  And when I did, Richard, it was like God slapped those words back in my face and he said:  I did heal you.  And I got out of the shower and I turned to Steve and I said, “Steve, how can you be healed and still be in pain?” And I went down a road, I went to hell and back for 2| years in severe pain, and I was on medication morning and night to keep my body walking.  I tried to miss my medication one time and I had to go get shots in my hips to release my hip joints.  And I mean, even though I knew what the Word of God says…. my husband is a pastor that preaches the Word of God, preaches healing, and yet the devil would torment my mind and say:  Where is your God?  Where is that healer?

SPRR RICHARD ROBERTS What was happening in your mind while all this was going on?

SPKM STEVE VICKERS  SU05 Well, you know, Richard, at night I would lay beside her in the bed and she would be crying.  She would be saying, “Pray for me, Steve. I’m hurting.”  And as soon as I would touch her she’d say, “Don’t touch me,” cause she hurt all over her body.  I would start to pray for her but, Richard, it was like there were ten thousand demons around me saying:  And you call yourself a man of God.  Where is your God?  Where is this Jesus you preach about?  Where are the signs and wonders and miracles?  You preach about them and you see them happening in other people’s lives, but you can’t even produce it in your own wife’s life.  And he was trying to steal from me that boldness to stand firm on what I knew to be the truth.

SPRR RICHARD ROBERTS Now you had already joined the Charismatic Bible Ministries Fellowship at that time, you had attended several of the conferences…..

SPKM STEVE VICKERS Every one of them.

SPRR RICHARD ROBERTS …. and you were making plans to attend another one.

On September 23, I walked out of that prison compound with this Bible high and lifted up, unashamed of the gospel of Christ.  And I jumped on a Trailways Bus for a 12 hour ride home, wondering if anybody would be there to meet me.  And right there on a half way house parking lot my momma and daddy jumped out of a car — as I ran across a gravel parking lot my daddy ran with his arms right open, with a brand new suit of clothes in his hand.  My wife and children came running.  They said, “Welcome home, son.”  That is the kind of love we need in America today.  Jesus is going to say (APPLAUSE) that one day, “Welcome home, my son, my good and faithful partner, come on in to the mansion in the sky.”  And my little girl, Summer, grabbed a hold of my leg, my wife Gwen — her rose garden bloomed again that day.  I had broken her heart, Richard.  I had broken that rose, bruised it through the things that I had done.  But I saw the Holy Spirit water that rose garden and he restored our marriage and called us into a ministry.  We are traveling all over America today.  We opened up a rescue mission in Spartanburg, South Carolina where we take in the drug/alcoholic people, and the street people.  And we house them, and we clothe them, and we minister to them. And we win them to Jesus Christ.  We have been in over 200 churches and 20 high schools and colleges, we’ve seen 15,000 young people come to the Lord Jesus Christ.  God’s going to use the youth of America to bring in this last great revival before Jesus comes back. (APPLAUSE)  Praise God.

SPRR RICHARD ROBERTS Well, give the Lord a handclap for that testimony.  And more than that, Don, right now, this minute there is someone who has heard you and they feel the presence of Jesus on them now.  I want you to pray for them.  I want you to lead them to Jesus, right now, this minute. In just this moment before we close our program.

SPKM DON STANLEY As the Holy Spirit is touching you today I ask you just to give your heart to Jesus.  Just bow where you are, right there in your home.  PRYM Say, Father in heaven, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me, a sinner.  Have mercy on me, Lord.  I’ve failed you.  I’ve done a lot of things wrong, but I realize, Lord, that I am nothing without Jesus.  I repent today and I come to the Cross.  I open my heart. Come in Lord Jesus, heal me and deliver me from this alcohol, and drugs, and sins, that have kept me from Jesus.  And I’ll serve you, Father, with all my heart.  Come in, Holy Spirit, fill me with your power.  I accept the blood today, to wash all my sins away. Thank you, Lord, for this new beginning.  Today I am saved.  I am washed in the blood. And my name is written in the the Lamb’s book of life for ever and ever.  Amen.  If you prayed  that prayer you call this prayer line here at 918 — it’s on the screen, I believe.  495-7777.  There is a counselor waiting to tell you what has just happened to you, and to teach you how to overcome, to say no to drugs and alcohol.  I thank God for being able to come and share what good things the Lord has done for me, what compassion he has had upon us.  How he can restore marriages, how he can restore a family.  How he can make a daddy out of an old drunk and a cocaine addict, who can love his wife like Christ loved the church, and hold his children in their arms.  We ask you to pray for us as we travel over the high schools and colleges of America.  We are just laymen who are excited about Jesus.  If you are principle or a pastor, or a teacher, or a preach — and you want us to come to your church or school we’ll come.  Praise God, I’ve got a dream of carrying a million young people to heaven with me.

Richard, please encourage people to believe right up until what seems like is the very end.”  Are you at a place in your life where you think, “I’ve come to the very end.”  Here is a woman who had an egg sized lump on her breast.  And I’m sure the thought’s going through her mind, “The surgeon is going to have to do a radical mastectomy, he’s going to have remove one of my breasts.  And I feel like part of my life is going to be destroyed.”  And she is saying to you, “Don’t stop believing even up to the very end.”  Don’t stop.  And I say to you today, in the name of Jesus, even though everything may look like it’s going wrong.  Even though you feel like you have come to the very end, don’t give up on God.  (APPLAUSE)  God hasn’t given up on you. In fact, I want to pray a prayer for you right now.  I want to pray a “very end, don’t give up” kind of prayer. And I am expecting that when I do, that people across this nation who are right where I have been describing, you have either given up on some financial situation, or you are about to give up on some sickness or disease, that you just say, “Everything is coming in on me, everything is closing in on me.  And I need a miracle.  I need what you were singing about a minute ago.  I need to be on the edge of a miracle.”  You say, “Well, I’m on the edge of a defeat.”  Well, let’s take that defeat and turn it around in the name of Jesus.  Heavenly Father, I thank you for the privilege of praying.  I believe when I pray that you confirm your word with miracles.  Now my brother, my sister, young person, you who have sickness or disease in your life, you who feel like you are near the very end, you who are discouraged and depressed, and fear has gripped you and you feel like that you want to take your life. Or maybe you are on drugs, or maybe you are an alcoholic, or maybe there is something wrong in your family.  Maybe you are facing a divorce or a failure in your life in some way.  I say to you — all is not lost.  Just when you think everything is over hope remains.  And faith is the substance of things hoped for. There is a person right now who is getting a, yes, yes, let me have it all, Lord.  Mmmm huh, yes, okay.  There is a person who is watching who has had deafness in your left ear for two years. I’ll do that, Lord.  God is healing that left ear right now. There is a person who cannot bend your right leg.  God is healing your knee right now.  All that pain and swelling in your knee is — yes, yes, I’ll do that, Lord — is leaving.

The person who has been extremely dizzy, you’re been extremely dizzy.  Your equilibrium and balance has been affected by something in your ear.  And you’ve been very, very dizzy.  If you will stand up from where you are sitting right now God is healing the balance problem that you have been having.  You’re not going to have anymore dizziness.  Yes, yes, I’ll do that, Lord.  And you who pulled that muscle right above your wrist, and you can’t even open and close your hand now because there is such intense pain in the muscles above your wrist.  God is healing you.  You say, “Well, how do you know?”  I know because God is confirming his word right now with signs and wonders.  Uh huh, you who have had the little growth, mmm huh, on the right side of your chest. It’s not a breast tumor. But it’s a growth on the chest.  And it’s been worrying you.  That thing is dissolving right now.  If you will check yourself, someone is going to find that growth on your skin — mmm huh, yes, in fact, you’ve been thinking it’s a cancerous growth.  You’ve been thinking that you have skin cancer.  God is healing the little growth on someone’s skin on their chest.  How do I know?  God is confirming his word with a word of knowledge.  I know it’s true.  Oh, that’s — a tremendous healing in somebody’s hand.  I want you to get up and call the Abundant Life Prayer Group and let  PRRR me know who you are.

None of us were there 2,000 years ago when Jesus was crucified on the Cross.  We didn’t see what He endured that day when He was beaten and reviled and hung on a cross to die.

The Bible calls Jesus the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8).  This was God’s plan:  before we were ever born…before the world was even created…Jesus went to the Cross for you and for me.

Jesus Paid the Price

When I went to see Mel Gibson’s movie The Passion of the Christ, I wept through nearly all of the film.  As I looked around the theater that night, I saw that most of the audience was weeping too. 

I think we were completely overwhelmed by the love of God that was so accurately and powerfully portrayed in the movie.  We couldn’t help but weep when we saw that God loved us so much that He gave His only Son to pay the price for our sin. 

Think of the love Jesus had for us in taking the terrible punishment that was inflicted upon Him.  He paid the price that we deserved to pay so we could be free from sin. 

Thank God, Jesus never has to go through that terrible torture again!  As He hung there between heaven and earth, He declared, It is finished (John 19:30).  The price was paid once and for all!  And He believed that you and I were worth the price He paid.

Healing Is Yours!

In those days, a sentence of 40 lashes was virtually a death sentence.  So the authorities gave Jesus 39 lashes, just one lash short of killing him, and the beating left Him virtually unrecognizable. 

But the Bible says that every one of those stripes was for our healing: he [Jesus] was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5 NIV).  And you can receive that healing today.

The greatest way to show your gratitude for what Jesus did on the Cross is to receive His gifts—including healing and salvation—in every area of your life.  I encourage you to give total control of your life to Him today.  Lay everything down before Him at the Cross and receive everything He’s done for you. 

If you’ve never received Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you can do it now by praying this simple prayer with me:

Lord, I repent of every sin, and I lay my sins at the Cross where You bore it all for me.  I denounce the devil and all his works.  By my faith I receive Him as my Savior, my Healer, and my Deliverer.  I declare that I am born again!  Amen.

    Down the road from my house there is a big yellow Humvee—or “Hummer”—sitting on a pedestal outside a large bingo hall.  Close by there is a huge billboard declaring that you can win the Hummer, and how much money has been won at the bingo hall. 

Basically the sign is saying that if you come in and play their games of chance, the reward system they have set up will work for you.  Of course, it doesn’t say how much money has been lost, or what effect it has had on people’s finances and their lives.

You Can Succeed Every Time

All across America, people go into gambling establishments—or bet on horses, or buy lottery tickets—and when they come out, they often don’t have money for milk or diapers or house payments.  It is a reverse reward system that has an enormous amount of failure, risk, guilt, and devastation that never gets displayed.

But God has a reward system, based on His eternal Word, in which you can succeed every time!  

God’s system is planting your seed for a harvest.  And Galatians 6:9 NKJV says, Let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.  Notice it says we shall reap—that means when you believe and act on God’s Word, you can win every time!            

But with God’s system we don’t always win at the exact moment we want to win.  And  if we don’t get a miracle in 24 hours, on our own timetable, we may start doubt God and speak negative words.  Before you know it, we’ve poured gasoline on our seed.

The devil hates it when you plant your seed, because he knows a harvest is on the way.  He bombards your mind with doubt.  He tells you that God’s reward system is a lie.  Even though God tells us Give and it shall be given unto you (Luke 6:38), the devil will tell you that you have a better chance hitting the lottery or some other system that involves the luck of the draw.

Get Bolder!

God’s system works.  We just have to keep our eyes on our Source, His supply, and His perfect timing.

That’s what Peter did in Acts 4, when he was being threatened not to preach in the name of Jesus.  Peter didn’t doubt God.  He didn’t rehearse the problem by thinking on it or talking about it.  He just said, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servant to speak your word with great boldness. (v. 29 NIV). 

Instead of focusing on the problem, Peter focused on the solution and prayed for boldness! 

When you face trouble and discouragement, don’t give up—just get bolder!  Don’t let the devil talk you out of your seed-planting…or he can rob you of your harvest.  Be bold in sowing for your miracle, and in believing God for the harvest.  According to His own Word, His reward system is sure.  And in due season, you shall reap if you don’t lose heart!