Opening Prayer "The sick man answered and said, I have no man to put me in the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I'm coming, another steps down before me. Jesus said to him, rise, take up your bed and walk." I am going to be sharing the word of God with you, and I do believe that you are going to experience a miracle. People are going to get set free, you're going to get delivered, you're going to see and begin to experience the miracle power of God that is available for you because of Jesus Christ, who died on a cross 2,000 years ago and paid the price for your sin. And because of his sacrifice, you can be reconnected to God. And being reconnected to God, there is a newness of life that is given to you. Jesus Christ himself said, "I came to give you life eternally, but I came also to give you life abundantly. I came to give you a reason to live. I came to give you a story of what I'm going to do in your life that only God can accomplish." And once the word of God is spoken and you've had an opportunity to respond, then you can celebrate that with us. Father God Almighty, I thank you for the anointing of your Holy Spirit. Lord, you told us years ago, cast the internet on the right side of the boat and I will bring in a harvest. And we obeyed you. And this prayer meeting is now in over 200 countries and dependencies around the world, and Lord, you're going to bring in a harvest. God, I thank you for the numbers of people who are going to come out of darkness and into light, out of captivity and into freedom, out of weakness and into strength, out of confusion into clarity of thought. God, you're going to send healing into homes, families, marriages, minds. God, you're going to deliver. Lord, we boast about you, we talk about you, but the work is all yours, and we acknowledge that. You have the power, and you proved your heart when you went to a cross. It wasn't just a vain display of your affection. Lord, there was power released when you were raised from the dead, and because of that, God, we have hope in this generation. Lord Jesus Christ, we ask you that the work that you came to do, you would do today. God, you would set free the oppressed, give sight to the blind. Let the poor have the treasure of heaven open to them, the strength of God revealed to them. Heal those that have been wounded so deeply they think they'll never recover. Bring healing into their lives. Lift up the weak. Set free, God, those that are captivated. And Lord, we ask you to do this for the glory of your name. Lord, it's time for you to work. God, the world is dark, the day is late, you're coming soon. We ask you, God, to move in miraculous power again in this generation. As you have done — we sing about it — do what you are famous for. Do what you have done, what you have displayed, what you've shown us, God. Clearly in the scriptures, we see your heart. You healed all who came to you. You never turned somebody away and said, come back some other time. You healed every person. We are here to declare your victory, your power, your heart, your cross, your work. And we do it in Jesus' name. Amen. The Pool of Bethesda — John 5 My message is called "Will You Be Made Whole?" John 5, beginning at verse 2: "Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water." I think of the numbers of people who are exactly like this — sick, blind. You don't see a way forward. You don't have the strength to get up and move into what God has. You're paralyzed by fear, perhaps, and you're waiting for your divine moment. The moving of the water symbolizes a divine moment. It was the stirring of God, and whoever got up and got into the stirring of this water first was healed of whatever disease or circumstance they had. "For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water, that whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was made well of whatever disease he had. Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years." I want you to picture that. Can you imagine what this man felt like? Thirty-eight years lying there, unable to move, can't see a way forward. The only way forward is if he can make it into a divine moment in his life. He somehow knows that only God can make a difference. Thirty-eight years of hopelessness. "When Jesus saw him lying there, he knew that he had already been there in that condition a long time. And he said to him, 'Do you want to be made whole?'" "The sick man answered him, 'Sir, I have no man to put me in the pool when the water is stirred up. But while I'm coming, another steps down before me.'" In other words, maybe there were people there at one point saying, "Hey, we're going to do this together. We're going to get you through this. We're going to fight through this together." But after thirty-eight years, everybody gave up. There's nobody left. Nobody there to help him. All of the words of encouragement that would be spoken into this man's life are gone. There's just nobody there. It's only him. Don't you love it that when everybody's gone, Jesus Christ is still there? He is the one who sticks closer than a brother. He does not walk away from us in our struggle, in our time of difficulty. "Jesus said to him, 'Rise, take up your bed and walk.' And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed and walked. And that day was the Sabbath." Gary's Story — A Modern Miracle Several years ago, this prayer meeting used to be on a Tuesday night in New York City at Times Square Church. And requests were coming in from all over the world, but some were repetitive. There was this one that kept coming in from a place called Newfoundland in Canada, from a lady called Heather. She kept saying, "Pray for my husband Gary. My husband Gary is a drug addict. Everyone has given up on my husband Gary." As a matter of fact, in line with this passage, Gary had been a drug addict for 38 years. Gary had gone to every conceivable program known to humanity and nobody had been able to help him. He would always get out, maybe experience momentary victory, and then go back again into his old habits. He had a chair in the house and used to sit in that chair and do drugs — whatever kind, some of them were pretty hard drugs. Heather was watching this prayer meeting, this worldwide prayer meeting. And one night the Spirit of God came upon her and she went downstairs, got an axe, and chopped his chair to pieces in the living room. I told her she should write a pamphlet and call it the Book of Acts, according to Heather. She chopped Gary's chair to pieces in the living room and she said, "Satan, no more in this house. No more drugs in this house. No more debauchery in this house. No more captivity in this house — because I'm hearing something online. I'm hearing a message that I can be free. My marriage can be restored. My husband can be delivered." She kept giving those prayer requests week after week. Pray for my husband Gary and my son Liam, if I remember correctly. So one Tuesday night I got up and I saw that Heather had submitted another prayer request: pray for my husband Gary. And at that moment, the Holy Spirit came upon me. Now you and I need to learn this — especially the students here in this Bible school. We need to learn to cooperate with the Holy Spirit because we live a supernatural life. The Spirit of God is within us. And if we learn to cooperate with God, when God is moving and God is speaking, miracles start happening. I looked into the screen that night and I pointed my finger at the screen. I said, "Gary, listen to me. You are not a drug addict. God has called you to be an evangelist. You are an evangelist. You're not a drug addict." He'd been 38 years on drugs...
