Tree of Life Blog

Healing Truths That Destroy Traditions

Rev. Curry Blake

You need people that encourage you. You know iron sharpens iron. You need to be around people like that. Don’t be around people that dull you. Life’s too short. Be around people that sharpen you. See if you can sharpen them. If they don’t want to be sharpened, get away from them. It’s just that simple. There are people that Satan will send to sap you of your energy. You need to able to find out who those people are and get away from them. Any minister knows exactly what I’m talking about.

Now let’s pray. (Speak out loud)

Father, we thank you for this day. Lord, I thank You that You have seen fit to widen our areas of influence and Lord I just take full responsibility. Lord, I understand what a great responsibility it is. So Father, I ask that You help me to watch my mouth. To say only that which You would want Your people to hear. And Father we just bless Your name. We thank You for all of the things that You’ve done for us and what You are doing in us and through us. Lord, we just ask that the world will better see your Son through us. In Jesus’ name. Amen

Matthew 7:24,

“Therefore whosoever heareth these saying of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him as unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rains descended, and floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And everyone that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be liken unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: and the rains descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.

“And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at His doctrine: For He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.”

Now, one of the things about John G. Lake that people don’t seem to understand is that his understanding grew over time. Most everyone’s does if they are truly men or women of God. If you read their materials, Smith-Wigglesworth, Amiee Semple-McPherson, any of them, you have to remember that their materials were collected over a lifetime of preaching. So what you read from the early years sometimes won’t match what they say in the latter years. Because, hopefully they grew. Over that period of time hopefully there was growth in God. You have to take that growth into account anytime that you read something. So when you go back and read the first writings you might have already read some of the later writings. You don’t always know when what you are reading came out. So everything you read, you should try to find out when it was written, when it was spoken, and you should try to find out something about what was going on.

I’m in the process of writing a book. It’s a biography of Dr. Lake that will go year by year. You’ll be able to tell where he was, who he was around, what sermons he preached, what was going on in his life, who were his friends at the time. Because who your friends are will determine what comes out of your mouth when you start preaching. That’s why I said earlier, “You need to be around people that make you sharp.”

Dr. Lake hung around with some pretty strong people. At one point I can pin point him in car going down the California coast. In the car with him, was a young man named Gordon Lindsay. I’m sure that he was just listening and not talking much at that point. Charles Parham was in that car with them and E.W. Kenyon. Now the old cars, as some of you may know, had the running boards on the side. And I started thinking what I would give to be able to hang on that running board and listen in on the conversations that took place in that car. So you have to realize what was going on to understand the Theology of Dr. Lake.

There are some things that stood out about Dr. Lake and which will stand out about any Apostolic ministry. Now you say what is Apostolic Ministry? I’m not talking about the way you baptize somebody. That is not the essence or the sum total of Apostolic Doctrine. The term Apostolic, as Dr. Lake used it and the way we use it today, means the way the Apostles taught and what they understood. But it primarily means even more than that. Literally it means, “Sent on a mission”.

I have people come to me and say, “I’m called. God’s called me to the ministry. He’s called me to go preach. He’s called me to do this or that.” The very first thing out of my mouth is, “What is your message?” If they can’t give it to me in a sentence. They’re not ready. It’s just that simple. Now I don’t mean that they are not called to preach at all. I’m just saying at that point they are not ready to launch out into ministry. Because every minister has a message.

To be sent of God you have to have a message. He’s going to tell you to go. But before He tells you to go, He’s going to give you a message for the people you are going to. My mandate from God is very clear. My Mandate from God, is to restore Biblical New Testament Christianity.

Now that’s not just revival, that’s revolution. It’s not just a healing ministry.

Do you realize, that no person really has just a healing ministry? And if you do you’re lopsided. Jesus did not have a healing ministry. The Apostle Paul said that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. And then he said that Christ had given the ministry of reconciliation to Paul and to all of us. Jesus did not have a healing ministry per se. He had a ministry of reconciliation. And that is the same ministry any minister has. You are not called to do one thing. Now there may be one thing that stands out, but you are not called to do one thing.

You are called primarily to reconcile the world unto God by way of Jesus Christ. So whenever you are ministering to a person you are going to be reconciling people. Now if you are going to reconcile people you are doing one of three things. You are reconciling their spirit to God. You are reconciling their soul to God. Or you are reconciling their body to God.

When you reconcile someone’s body to God that’s healing. When you reconcile someone’s soul to God that is healing but it’s emotional healing, it is soulish healing. It is a method of healing. It is renewing of the mind basically. That is the best way to say it. But whenever you renew, or reconcile, a person’s spirit to God we call that salvation. But it is all the same thing. It’s all just the life of Christ being ministered to a person.

There are times when I will say something and people say, “Well I’ve already heard this before.” There’s a reason for that. Number 1 is you only remember only about 20% of what you hear any way. So if I really want you to understand it and to hear it, some times I have to say it at least 5 times so you’ll catch it. So what God does He gives me a message and says, “The church needs to know this.” And as I travel, I minister that same message everywhere I go. It always comes out different but it is, in essence, the same message because the church needs to know it.

You can get the message from tapes and you can get the benefit of an anointing from the tapes. What I mean by the anointing is, you can get the fire of God in you. But there is that which takes place when you are face to face, hands on, you hear the words coming from a person that hits you more so than just what’s on a tape. So that’s why I repeat a lot of things. There are truths that will always be true and you will always need to get hold of them and I’ll say them for the rest of my life.

One of those points is that whatever you tolerate will dominate you. That’s a fact. Whatever you tolerate. Sin dominated you as long as you tolerated it. When you got fed up with it, you got out of it. And if you didn’t get fed up with it you’re still in it. The best way to find out what sin a person is in, is to talk about a whole bunch of different sins and whichever one they defend that’s usually the sin they are in. Usually that is the best way to tell it. And you say, “Well, I’m not doing that.” If you are defending it you’re doing it in spirit. You are doing it in heart whether you work it out or not. So Jesus said, “If you’re not gathering with Me you are scattering.” So there has to be a unity of the Spirit, which is what Ephesians tells us. We have to have unity with the Spirit of God. Which means we are going the direction God is going.

You just heard what Jesus was teaching. Actually, He had taught Matthew 5 thru 7 and at the end He said, “Now you have heard my words. If you act on them you are smart. And no matter what happens you’ll stand. If you don’t act on them, you’re foolish and your house will fall.” Not, it can fall. It will fall. And it says that, “Great will be the fall of it.” So that means not only will it fall but when it falls it’s going to do some damage.

When He got finished saying that, it says, “And when it came to past when Jesus had ended these sayings the people were astonished at His doctrine.” And then it tells us why. “For He taught them as one having authority not as the Scribes.” The Scribes were basically the ones that the people really dealt with. The Scribes would all gather and say, “Well, Rabbi So and So said this. You know that could be true but this other Rabbi says this.” They would never come to a conclusion. They were the quintessential politicians. You could never pin them down on anything and they would always change from one thing to another. It wasn’t that they were trying to do that, they just didn’t know.

But Jesus comes along and says, “Look, it’s real simple. You do my words, you’re smart. You’ll stand. You don’t do my words, you’re foolish. You’ll fall.” All of a sudden the people are saying “wow” and they were astonished at His doctrine because He taught as one who had authority. You notice that one thing about Jesus, He never went and said, “Now wait a minute. Let me go check with Jerusalem. Let me run down to the council there at Tulsarusalem and let’s see what they have to say.”

Now there is wise counsel and you should have counsel around you. People that you trust, that you know where they are going. You know that they love you and that they care for you. But also that they care for God and the ministry and they know what it is going. Once you get hold of something from God and you know it’s from God and you have proven it out in the Word of God go ahead and do it. I like what Davy Crockett said. “Make sure you’re right. Then go ahead.” Hey, I’m from Texas. What can I say?

There comes a time when you have to say, “You know what? I’ve heard from God.” When you do that, if you’ll make a stand God will back you up. As long as you’ve heard from God and it’s in His Word.

One of the things now that we see is that once again, for the most part, there is no Word being taught with authority. Ministers today speak with a total lack of authority. Because they don’t know. They are just preaching what they have heard someone else preach. You listen to a minister three times and you’ll hear four different opinions. From the same minister! Because of some new book he’s read. “This new book came out. Oh, everything is different now.” No, it’s the same book. It’s the Bible.

One thing that I can say about Dr. Lake is that he caused me to read the Bible without a preconceived idea. He caused me, by his writings, to challenge what I had been taught. And I had been taught by world-renowned teachers. I believed everything they said because I figured, “Well these guys are my spiritual leaders. They ought to know what they are talking about. I ought to listen to them.” And then I kept looking at things and saying, “This isn’t the way it’s supposed to be. If this is true, and I can see this, and I’m right, then surely these guys that are light years ahead of me see it. If they see it and are not talking about it then they are dishonest. So that would disqualify them from being my spiritual leaders. If they don’t see it then they are not real smart. And that would disqualify them from being my spiritual leaders.” So I had to decide whether I was going to listen to them or read the Bible and find out what the Bible said. Well, I stuck with the Bible. It has caused a lot of flack because we don’t toe a party line for the most part. To be honest I don’t care about a party line. I want to see people get healed. I want to see people get free. I want to see the Glory of God manifested in His church. That’s what I want to see.

Now the people “They were astonished at His doctrine because He taught as one that had authority.” He didn’t hem-haw around. He didn’t say, “Let me go and check with somebody else.” He said several times, “You’ve heard it said. But I say unto you.” Every time He fought the devil, He said, “It is written.” He always stuck with the Word.

Our problem is we think we are sticking with the Word. What we’re really doing is, we’re reading the Word, but we’re reading it through either our denomination, or our group or movement or whatever it is. We’re reading it through their eyes.

I have taken scriptures and said, “Now this is what it says. Now what does that mean to you?” And some one will say, “Oh, that says this.” I’ll wonder, “How did you get that out of this when it is so simple? We’re reading the same thing. One verse. I’m not talking about having to interpret. I’m talking about one verse. I would even get to the point where I would take a newspaper and say, “OK. Read this sentence to me.” And they would read it and I would read it. Now we both agree it says the same thing. How is it you can go to the Bible and all of sudden it means something totally different than what is written? I mean one sentence can be taken to mean something totally different. And when you get down to it it’s because of their traditions. Usually it is because people try to spiritualize what is written. They try to find the “hidden” meaning and they ignore the plain meaning. When that happens, usually the plain meaning would require them to do something.

But instead of wanting to do something, they just want to come up with some special revelation.

Something that will show people how “deep” they are, how “spiritual”. How foolish.

Jesus said, “You do err, not knowing the scriptures and the power of God.” Now that’s important. You need to make a note of that. “You do err, not knowing the scriptures nor the power of God.” If you don’t know the scriptures and the power of God you will err. Just a matter of time. Every minister should be able to manifest the power of God when needed. If they can’t, they should not be ministering.

Look at every cult. Every cult is in error for both reasons. They err because they don’t know the power of God. Every one of them. You look at the Jehovah Witnesses. They err because they don’t know the scriptures. You say, “Now wait. Jehovah Witnesses know scriptures.” No, they know the New World Translation. That’s what they know. They don’t know the scriptures and they don’t know the power of God because they will tell you that the power of God is passed away basically. Which is funny because then they say that the Holy Spirit is the power of God. So I guess the Holy Spirit died somewhere.

Any time that you don’t know the scriptures, or you don’t know power of God, then you are going to err. It’s just that simple.

Jesus made a statement. “…you make the Word of God of none effect by your traditions.” So anytime you are seeing results that differ from the Bible results – which is: Jesus healed them all, that’s Bible results – any time you see something different it is always your traditions that make the Word of God of none effect. Always, every time. What you have to do is start analyzing your doctrine. Paul told Timothy, “Take heed at what you’re teaching in your doctrine.” He said it’s because by your doctrine that you are going to save others and yourself. Doctrine is extremely important.

Now it shouldn’t be dead and dry. I have one minister back where I came from that told a friend of ours, (this friend was quoting some Word of Faith teaching), and this other man was a local Pastor and he said, “That’s good theology but in real life it doesn’t work that way.”

Well first off, if it’s good theology it will work that way. Secondly, if it doesn’t work that way in real life, it’s not good theology. Real good theology is practical. It doesn’t have to be dead and dried and drawn out. It’s practical.

The Assemblies of God has a statement of their 16 fundamental beliefs. I’ve gone through it, read it. And you can take each one of those things and beat the devil. Each one of them. You can beat the devil somewhere on one line anywhere through there. It is amazing. Even their own statement. But for the most part even most of the people that make the statements don’t believe them and don’t live by them. Even Jesus said, “I know the Pharisees, I know what they are doing and they are messing up. Don’t do what they do. But if they tell you to do what the Bible says do it.”

So there are only two things that will ever nullify the Word of God. One is traditions of man and the other is unbelief. Now unbelief nullifies the Word of God in your life for you, or in your life for someone else that you are ministering to. But their unbelief won’t nullify the power of God working through your life even on their behalf. We’ve proven it. You say, “I don’t believe that.” Well what about the man with the demoniac son. The disciples tried to cast it out and said, “Lord, we couldn’t do it.”

The man came to Jesus and said, “Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.” Obviously there was a mixture. Well you know if there is a mixture of belief and unbelief, unbelief over rules. Generally speaking. Jesus said, “All things are possible to him that believes.” And the boy got delivered. So the man’s unbelief, whatever amount there was, didn’t stop the boy from getting delivered.

See this is the tradition we have. Well they’ve got to be in perfect belief. They have to be right on. They have to everything just right. We have this long chart we go through and it’s a checklist.

I always joke like when you set up a computer you know it has this trouble-shooting thing. You know you’ve plugged it in. Now it doesn’t work. OK, check your plug. Make sure it’s really plugged into the socket. Now, check your power switch. Make sure it’s turned on. And you go down this list. Yes, done that. Still doesn’t work. OK, now go to this.

That’s what we do with healing. We tell a person, “Oh come serve the most magnificent awesome God. He is it. He is the creator of the universe but if you got mad and kicked the cat this morning, forget it. He can’t over rule that. He can create the world in six days but He can’t over rule you getting mad at the cat or somebody that you cut off on the highway.

That’s ridiculous.

The power of God will flow through anybody that will let it. And the power of God is available just like electricity. These are the things that Dr. Lake taught that we’ve been able to get hold of.

Over at Brother and Sister Windsor’s earlier this week in Illinois I made a statement that I still stand by it. I still believe it’s true. That is, “An anointed teacher makes the complicated simple. But an annoying teacher makes the simple complicated.” Unfortunately we’ve got a whole lot of people that make the simple complicated. Well, why is that? Well, because that guarantees they’re needed. See the bigger mess that you can make, the more likely you are to be hired to clean it up.

“For He taught them as one having authority and not as the Scribes.”

Later on we are going to get into some things that I’ve been waiting to get into. We’re going to be dealing with the church. You say, “I thought we were going to be talking about healing.” We are. But you can be talking about driving in the Indy 500 all you want but if you can’t get the car running it isn’t going to work. You’ll just stand on the sidelines. Our problem is that we talk about the race but we end up not having our car running. So we’re going to talk about how to get the car running; how to get the people out there actually doing the work.

One thing you’ll learn about me, if you get around me very much, I will put you to work. The reason is because there are not enough people out there doing the work as it is. If that wasn’t true I wouldn’t be here. You wouldn’t need me because you would already be doing it.

James 1:17-

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”

First off we want to find out why God heals. The answer is basically that God heals because it is His nature to save and heal. It is His nature. He can’t help it. God can’t help himself. He heals because it’s His nature. That’s what’s in Him.

You say, “Well I’m not too sure about that.” We’ve been taught that we have to coerce God, beg God, twist His arm, and prove how some people deserve it. You can’t do that.

The very thing that we tell people about healing, if they tried to do it with salvation, we’d run from them. Oh, salvation by works. No way. But we turn right around and do that with healing. People are taught that they can get healed by works but that they can’t get saved by works. Healing is salvation of the body. Salvation of the spirit is what we call salvation. But salvation of the body is healing.

The Bible says very clearly that God, “who forgives all your sins, all your iniquities, and heals all your diseases.” Isn’t that what it says? Now, if you can’t get your body healed, how do you know that you got your spirit saved? That’s in the same verse. If you ask me for a dollar and I say I don’t have a dollar but here’s a ten. If I will give you the ten dollars of course I would give you the dollar. Everybody says, “Well, healing, that’s nothing. Salvation of the spirit, that’s what counts.” Well if healing is “Nothing”, (even though since Jesus died for it, I don’t think I’d call it nothing. Because he did take a beating for it.) But let’s say it is the lesser of the two. Well, if I can get the greater, of course I can get the lesser. Right?

You don’t go buy a car and then say, “Oh yes I need some tires to go with that too. Can I get the tires too?” “That’ll be extra.” “No the tires come with the car.” Why because they are part of the car. That’s what makes it work. The Bible says, “He forgives all your iniquities. He heals all of your diseases.” So if you can’t get your body healed how do you know that your spirit is saved?

I have people say to me, “I just don’t believe that God heals today at all.”

I’ll say, “Really? What’s going to happen? What’s the next thing that’s going to happen in the church? “

They’ll answer, “Oh it’s the rapture. The rapture’s going to happen next. I’m sure of it.”

I then ask them, “Are you going in the rapture?”

They’ll say, “You bet.”

Then I’ll say to them:

“So you’re telling me that you can believe that in the twinkling of an eye God is going to change your physical, mortal body from corruptible to incorruptible. He’s going to change you that quick. You’re going to dematerialize, like on Star Trek, and get beamed out. God can do that. But He can’t fix something that’s wrong with your body now?”

“Well, that’s not what I’m saying.”

“That’s exactly what you’re saying. If you’re not saying that, you’re not saying anything. Because that is exactly what you are saying. So you can believe in a rapture but you can’t believe in a healing?”

(Please do not misconstrue this to mean that I don’t believe in the rapture, I’m am just making a point. The reason we believe in one and not the other is because one we’ve heard taught a lot and the other we haven’t.)

But yet we say we believe that “I’m saved” but can’t get your body healed. Now you can see why I’m careful about where I say that. Because you get a weak new Christian, baby Christian, and they can get scared and start thinking they are not saved. So I have to be real careful how I say that.

Dr. Sumrall had a service in Tulsa and said, “Anybody that needs physical healing come down now.” You know Americans, they’ll look at their watch. “Yes, I got enough time to go down.” They’ll make sure that they are all set. And then they’ll get up and kind of wander down. Now overseas you say, “Is there any one here that needs healing,” and they will run down front. You don’t even have to give a call. They’ll run down there first. But these people wandered down and Dr. Sumrall was watching them. And this crowd kind of gathers up at the front. Finally he says, “OK ushers, stop them. No body else comes down.” “Nobody else comes down. You had your chance. I gave the call. You didn’t come. Don’t come now. If you come now I’ll send you back.” That’s just the way he was. I’m watching this and I’m getting mad at him. I’m thinking, “That isn’t right. How can he tell the ushers to send them back?”

This woman came down. She thought that she was sneaking in. Sumrall was going down the line praying for people and he got to her and looked to her and said, “Where’d you come from?” She said, “I just came from up there.” “Were you here before I said to stop?” “No.” “Go sit down.” He sat her down. You could see the people in the audience whispering. I was waiting for the people to get up and leave. Because here in America you don’t put up with that. But then Dr. Sumrall turned around and he looked at the congregation there and said, “If you’re not hungry enough to come you aren’t getting nothing. Because hunger draws God. And if you didn’t come when I called, if you had to sit and decide whether you are going to come down, you aren’t getting nothing.” That’s the way he was.

While in San Francisco, John Alexander Dowie, had people lined out in the hallways waiting to be prayed for. He prayed for maybe one out of twenty-five to fifty. Just one. He’d walk down the hall and say, “You a Christian?” “Yes” “You smoke?” “Yes” “Go home. I’m not going to pray ‘God heal your body’ while you are trying to destroy it.” Well, he only prayed for about one out of twenty-five or fifty. But everybody that he prayed for got healed.

You don’t see the world beating a path to their door of the men that God has used greatly. For the most part people run from them. When I was up there is South Bend, Dr. Sumrall, lived in a little house behind the church. You could go over there any time you wanted to. There was no crowd there. Greatest man of God I’ve ever known personally. Fifty years in ministry never a controversy. Not even a hint of controversy. Tremendous ministry.

Now there may be times, and for those who know how I pray, I get loud. I’m usually soft spoken when I’m preaching and talking to people. I’m very calm. You know I don’t work people up into frenzy before we pray for them. But whenever I minister we get kind of loud. Well that’s because I’m talking to the devil. I’m not praying to God. I’m not talking to you. I’m talking to the devil. I yell at the devil a lot of times because he does not like to listen. He’s like a little kid that sits there and goes, “nah nah nah.” You have to get loud sometimes to get his attention. Yelling also brings that fight up out of you. When you get loud that automatically brings it up. You can’t help it. Paul said to stir up that gift that is in you. That’s one way to stir up that gift. It’s one of the best ways.

Another way to stir up the gift is speaking in tongues. The best way to speak in tongues to stir up the gift is to speak in tongues loud. It’s the same thing. It’s the best way. I tell everybody there are three ways to speak in tongues: Fast, Loud, Hard. You do that and it works every time. But you need to pray in tongues and you need to do it daily. You need to start out wherever your limit is. The next day you do 5 minutes more. Pretty soon you’re up to an hour. Then you’re up to two hours. When you can do it for 3 or 4 or 5 hours, loud, then you have some spiritual strength. Not to mention physical strength, because that will wear you out.

When we started in the healing ministry we didn’t have a crowd of 100 that wanted to be prayed for at one time. We were in our living room praying for 3 and 4. We could stay as long as we needed to get the job done. People started getting healed and they started bringing more people out. Especially one brother. He got healed of mercury poisoning and became an “evangelist”. He plays pool in a pool hall. He would go out on a Friday and Saturday night playing pool in the beer halls. That’s how he made his living. Playing pool. Apparently he was a good pool player. He would be out there in this pool hall amongst sinners. God forbid, didn’t he get defiled? Guess not. Didn’t loose his healing. He’d go out there and he would hear that some one got sick. He would tell them that he knew of a guy,that could get them healed. He didn’t go into a long “I don’t know what you believe. But if you believe right and I believe right then we can get lined up and we can tap into the spiritual energy.”

No, Peter, would hear somebody’s sick and he would bring them to my house. I’d pray for them. They’d get well. He’d go back out. There was a couple times he came in from the pool hall, brought somebody with him, we’d pray for them and he’d go back out to the pool hall and finish playing pool. That was going on regularly.

There was one time a lady had an aneurysm and he had found out about it playing pool and came and got me about 1:30 in the morning. “What did you do? Wait until last call before you came and got me or what?” He said that he had just found out about this lady. She is in the hospital and they don’t expect her to live. I told him OK.

He said, “Let’s go to the hospital.” He loved to go to the hospital. He’d come over and get me and we’d go. I told him, “Let’s call up there first to see and make sure that she is there. Make sure that we can get in.” So we called and they told us that you couldn’t come right now because we are getting her ready to fly to Dallas. I told him to go home and go to bed and to be back out here by 8:00 in the morning. We’ll go to the hospital and pray for her. I told him that I’m going to pray for before I go to bed.

I really don’t like to have people around me when I pray.. A lot of times people will hear you. They are listening to you. They are trying to hear your words. It’s not the words. It’s knowing that it is done. Whatever words that do come out, it will have something to do with that, but it’s not the words. You can hear the words. You can repeat the words and it won’t work because you have to know that God is going to do what He said He’s going to do. That’s all faith is. Just confidence that God means what He said.

I said that I’m going to walk around and pray a little bit and I’ll meet you in the morning. I go to bed after I pray for the lady. I get back up in the morning and look out my window. He slept in his car outside because he didn’t want to miss going to the hospital. I told him if I had known that you were going to sleep there in the car you could have at least slept here. I thought that you were going to go home.

I said, “Let’s call the hospital and find out what is going on.” I called down there and the daughter was there and I said, “This is Curry Blake. I want to come and pray for you mom.” “Who are you?” “Well who I am is not really important. But I’m Curry Blake and I just want to come and pray for your mom.” “Do you know my mom?” “No. I never met her.” “Why would you come and pray for her?” “Well, because she needs help.” “But you never met my mom.” “I know. I never met you mom.” “Who are you again?” “I’m Curry Blake.” “Do I know you?” “No, I’ve never met you.” “And you never met my mom?” This woman was just amazed that somebody would come and pray for her mom that didn’t know her. That just blew her away. And I thought, “Where’s the church?” The church has a reputation with the world that basically says we don’t care for anyone

That does not belong to our church.

And I kept talking to this woman on the phone. This woman said, “They are taking my mom to Dallas for tests. They ran tests on my mom last night. She had this aneurysm. They were afraid that she was going to die. They ran test on her again this morning. They can’t find the aneurysm. So they are going to take her to Dallas because their instruments are better and more fine tuned and they can be more specific.”

And I said, “Well the reason they can’t find it is because we prayed for your mom last night. She’s healed.” I said, “She’ll be OK now.”

“Who are you again?”

This kept going on. I said, “Well, when your mom gets back, if she wants to, I’d like to come and see her or tell her to call me.”

They took her to Dallas. Three days later she’s at home. They couldn’t find anything wrong with her. She’s well. I mean God just healed her overnight.

Do you know how Smith Wigglesworth got healed?

When he was a young man he had appendicitis. A young man and woman came to his house and they started praying for him. At the end of the prayer the young man jumped on the bed and punched him in the stomach. Well with a person with appendicitis that takes faith. And it worked, it got him healed. Now Wigglesworth, years later, started praying for the sick. After he was fifty years old he received the Baptism of the Spirit and started praying for the sick. Now guess how he ministered to people? He punched them. That’s what he is known for. Punching, kicking. He never heard God say, “I want you to punch this person.” He knew what worked with him and he did it. Real simple. No special divine revelations. No special leading. No Word. None of that. He just saw something that worked and he did it.

Peter T. once said to me, “You know I’ve been healed of this. I’ve been healed of the mercury poisoning.” (Which had the effect on his body that made him look like he had AIDS.) But he got healed of that and then he came to me one night and said, “Curry I’m watching these people get healed and it’s awesome. Now I’d like to get healed of my allergy. I can’t eat certain things.”

I said, “If you could eat or drink anything right now what would you do?”

He said, “Well, I would like to have a vanilla milkshake from Jack In The Box.”

You know I’m sitting here and it’s late at night and I’m thinking, “Yes. That sounds good.” And I’m standing here talking to him and I said, “If you leave right now and go get that milkshake and drink it right now you’ll be absolutely healed.”

He said, “Bye.” Got in his car and went to Jack In The Box. I didn’t see him for about 3 or 4 days.

Next time I see him he’s out at the mall walking toward me with a toothpick in his mouth. I said, “Where’ve you been?”

He said, “I just got back from El Chico’s”

I said, “How have you been doing?”

He goes, “I just got back from El Chico’s.”

He was absolutely healed of all of his food allergies. He said, “Man, I went and did what you told me to do and I’ve been healed ever since.”

A lady had food allergies and hadn’t been able to eat anything for several days. I said, “What is it that you’d like to eat?” She said that she would like to have some pasta but she couldn’t keep it down. Every time she tried, she just couldn’t keep it down. I said, “OK. Well it’s late but you find some pasta and you eat it and you’ll be healed.”

She went and got the pasta. The next day when we walked in the door she said, “Curry Blake. I’ve got a testimony for you.”

I looked at my wife and said, “Now that’s good to walk into.” So we walked on over to her. She said, “I went and got the pasta last night and ate it.” There were all kinds of other things that she had: Problems with her arm; Problems with her back; A whole bunch of stuff. Absolutely, totally healed. Everything. What did she do? Did I pray for her? No. I didn’t pray for her. I didn’t pray for the man with allergies either.

There was a young girl in Jacksonville, Fl., that was allergic to certain foods, particularly carrots. There was another lady in the meeting that was allergic to seafood. I have a lot of home meetings where I meet in people’s living rooms. We had about 85 people in the living room of this house. Too many people to put chairs in there, so adults were just sitting on the floor. Because if you put chairs in there you limit the number of people that you can put in there. This lady said that she was allergic to shrimp.

I said, “OK. Go find some seafood.” The lady that owned the house said that she had some shrimp in her refrigerator. So they cooked it. She sat right there and said, “I’m glad I’m here. If I had went to a restaurant I’d be there by myself. At least you’re here.” So it was not her faith that was getting the job done. She ate the shrimp. And everybody was watching her. Waiting to see if she had a reaction. And the little girl they found some carrots in a can. So they heated up the carrots and gave the little girl carrots. Both of them were absolutely healed. Didn’t pray for either one of them.

I don’t pray for people with allergies anymore. I just tell them to go and eat it. So if you have a food allergy, I’m telling you now you don’t have to come and ask. You know what I’m going to tell you. Go find what you’re allergic to and go eat. And if you’ll do that you’ll be healed. It’s that simple.

Now the reason I’m saying this is that we are finding out some things. I’m taking all of the doctrines, all the traditions, all the things, every reason why I’ve heard that God won’t heal and we are putting them to the test of the Word. And so far I haven’t found one that holds up. Not one. There is not one that holds up.

Even sin. Sin doesn’t stop the power of God. You can be in sin and still get healed. Now woe be to you if you remain in sin after you are healed. That’s why Jesus said, “Go and sin no more.” Obviously you should give up the sin.

But you know most people won’t give up sin until they see the power of God manifested in their body. They won’t do it because God’s not real even though they see it. Yes, you have to experience it. My job is to get people to experience the power of God. See I’m not here to really get you healed. I mean if you need to be healed then yes. We want to get you healed. Because, as a representative of Christ, you should have a healthy body. But my job is to get you out ministering healing to others. That’s my job.

I was up in Ruth Ward Heflin’s. I was up there with a meeting with her and Bob. Bob was preaching and he gave the alter call. Crowds came down. He started praying for them for salvation and they came up and said, “Brother Blake would you like to help Brother Bob pray?”

“Well he’s got the salvation. Bring the sick down here on this side and I’ll pray for the sick”

So they brought the sick down and it was tremendous. I started about 9:00 praying for the sick. At 1:30 the crowd was still the same size. I mean they were coming, they just kept coming. I stood there and at 1:30 they came and got me. They said, “Brother Blake you’ve got to go to your room so you can come back in the morning.”

You know you’re going down the line – now this is something that you have to remember if you are going to be involved in a healing ministry at all – I had already seen that who I touched got well and who I didn’t touch die or at least has a good chance of dying. I proved that out in a city in North Carolina and it made an affect on me.

You don’t turn it on, turn it off. People talk about turning on the anointing. Turning off the anointing. The anointing coming and going? The anointing doesn’t come and go. You come and go. The Holy Spirit is the anointing and He’s always on. He always wants people well. He’s ready. Most of the time it’s from your own physical or your own mind won’t stand up to the strain of continuous activity of the Holy Spirit. All that revival is is whenever Christians start to obey the scriptures again and the Spirit is able to move freely through them. The Holy Spirit only acts on the Word of God. And if you’re not doing the Word of God He can’t work through you.

So a revival is nothing more than when Christians begin to obey the scriptures. Now that’s not me saying that. Charles Finney said that back in the 1800’s. He also said that man was not made to operate under that continuous, he called it a, strain of the Holy Spirit operating through them. Now I personally believe we could and believe we will. I believe that’s called the corruptible taking on incorruptibility.

But I was there in Virginia, praying for these people and at 1:30 they came to get me. I said, “There’re still lines of people. Where do I stop? If this was your sister, your wife, would you be getting me now or would say no do one more?” You see. You can’t stop. If you can stop you don’t believe in what you’re doing. Because if you really believe that who you lay your hands on gets well you’ll be laying your hands on everything that moves. And some things that won’t move. If they die and you can get to them, they’re not moving, lay your hands on them.

I was going down the line and there was this lady from Omaha. I turned and she was beside me. I looked at her and said, “Can I help you?”

She said, “I want what you’ve got.”

I said, “OK.” I grabbed her and command her to receive. She went down. That doesn’t mean anything special that she went down. I’m just telling you what happened. If she hadn’t gone down she still would’ve received. God doesn’t put a premium on falling. Most of the time if you’ve heard me you know my stand on falling. Most of the time when you fall you get out of the Spirit any way. You are too worried about how you look lying there. So you start trying to adjust. So I prefer you not to fall out. I prefer you to stand and let the power of God work in you. You don’t have to fall. Now if you do, you do. But you don’t have to.

Then I went on praying for the other people. Couple minutes later I looked back and there she is again. Just standing beside me, watching me. I said, “What are you doing?”

“I’m watching you. I want what you’ve got.”

I said, “You’ve got what I’ve got. Just go use it right down there. You get in that end of the line. I’m at this end of the line. We’ll meet in the middle.”

“OK.” She went down there and every now and then I’d glance out of my eye and I’m looking down there and people are falling. Everybody she’s touching. And their getting up and I hear, “I’m healed. I’m healed. There’s no pain.”

Not long drawn out. One good, “Receive.” That’s all it took. That’s it. She went on. Then later on that night, and that’s how we got through most of the crowd, she and her husband invited me to Omaha. We ended up in having meetings in her home.

There was a young man in there that had leukemia. I have to tell you these stories really quick because I don’t want to cry. When I start talking about these stories I start crying every time because I’m back there and I see it. If you ever allow God to work through you and you lay your hands on somebody and they’re healed, it changes you. I couldn’t go back. There is no way I could go back to the way I was before. When I started doing this there was sin in my life. I’ll be honest with you. I’m not here hiding anything. There was sin in my life when I first started doing this. And the fact that God still used me, you know what it did? It drove me to my knees. I went to God. There came a time, and I even told my wife at one point, she said, “What are you going to do about this?” I said, “What do you think I’ve got to do. I’ve got to do something.”
Every time I lay my hands on somebody, God heals them. And every time I do it’s a testimony to them of God’s power. But it is also on the Day of Judgment, it’s going to be a testimony. These people that I lay my hands on, that I’m getting healed by putting my hands on because of the power of God and there’s sin in my life and I know it. I know God is healing them. These same people I’m going to see again on the Day of Judgment because God’s going to bring them forward as a witness against me. “You knew. You saw this one healed and you still didn’t get out of sin.” So if there is sin in your life get it out. God will still heal people under you. He’ll heal people with sin in your life. Why? Because He loves them. He wants to help the people. But get it out because those same people will become witnesses against you some day. Because God is going to say, “You’ve got no excuse. You knew I was real. You knew it was true.” I had to get the sin out of my life. It totally changed me.

And this little boy – when I start talking about the kids that’s when it really gets to me. So I have to tell it kind of fast and kind matter of factorally. This young man had a certain type of leukemia. There was a blood clot and they had to amputate one of his legs from the knee down. They had found another blood clot of the same type in the other leg and said they were going to take the other leg off at the hip. I think this young man was 11 years old. And I sat there and I watched this young man. When I came in he was sitting there and he had this prosthesis on for his leg. And he had the crutches and he was walking around. They had given him all different kinds of treatments and stuff and he was looking kind of ruff. He came up to me and I prayed. The reason they asked me to pray was so that the other blood clot would disappear so they wouldn’t have to amputate the leg. So I prayed and we commanded this thing to leave. We commanded for it to leave his body without any side affects and no problems. Then he asked me, “Do you think that God would give me my other leg back?”

I said, “No, I don’t think He will. I know He will. I know He will.”

And this young man said, “Would you pray for me?”

And so I sat down. He was on the couch and I sat down on the floor in front of him. And he took off this thing, you know this leg, this prosthesis, and I sat there and I held his – I’m not trying to be crude – but I held the nub of his leg in my hands and commanded it to grow. I commanded it to be restored.

Well about a month after that we got a call that they had been to the doctor. The blood clot had left the other leg. There was no sign of leukemia. And the amazing thing to them was that they had the growth plates removed. That’s what makes things grow in the body. They had removed those out of that leg because they can cause problems they say. They couldn’t explain how come he leg had grown 3 inches. God is growing that leg back. Now I haven’t heard back from them in about a month and a half. But God is growing his leg back. Why doesn’t God just do it instantly? I don’t know. Maybe it’s because I’m not there to keep laying hands on him and to continue to impart unto him.

There’s something you have got to learn. I appreciate Word of Faith teaching. OK. I identify with them as much as they let me. For the most part they kind of keep me at arms length right now because of some of the things I’m saying. But I love them. I appreciate them. If it hadn’t been for their teaching I wouldn’t be where I’m at today as far as what I know and things. It definitely helped. But Romans 12, if I don’t get into it this week you have to study Romans 12. Because that and Ephesians 3:20 answers all your questions concerning healing. Romans 12 and Ephesians 3:20 those are it.

It is according to your faith that you minister the gift that you have been given. So it’s whatever level of faith. I always use numbers because that it is easier to understand. Let’s say healing takes 100 units of faith. OK? If I’m operating at 25 units of faith it’s going to take me laying hands on that person 4 times. If I’m operating at 10 units of faith it’s going to take me 10 times. And people say, “Well I laid hands on them and nothing happened.” Keep doing it. Keep doing it. Why? Cause every time you lay hands on them you minister more out of your spirit.

Where do you think the Spirit of God is going to come from to minister to these people? It’s not going to fall from heaven. It comes through His people. If it could fall from heaven God would have just said, “Everybody, be healed.” And everybody would be healed because it would just fall from heaven. There has to be somebody believing that will lay hands and transfer the Spirit of God. If there is no transfer of something then laying hands on people is foolish. Why do you do it? “Well, it is ritual.”

Christianity has no ritual in it. It has no ritual. Everything Christianity does has a purpose and it produces. You say, “Well what about the Lord’s Supper?” Glad you asked. The Lord’s Supper is not a ritual. Let me tell you this. If you thought that in your heart, if you are thinking that it is a ritual, it is why you are sick right now. That’s why you are sick. That’s what Paul said, “That because you have not discerned the body of Christ there are many among you that are sick, weakly and some even sleep.” Which he meant dead.

Now you notice he did not say because did not discern the blood. He said because you do not discern the body. The blood is for your salvation. The body is for your healing. And if you don’t discern the body when you participate in communion you drink damnation on yourself. That damnation is that sickness and disease that you are not getting healed of. A communion service is, in my opinion, the number one healing service. If you want a mass healing service do a communion service. I’m telling you if you do it right there will be people getting healed as they take that Welch’s and they take that cracker and they participate in it. God will heal their bodies because they discern correctly the body of Christ.

But you have got to preach it. You have got to tell them, “If you do this, don’t do it until you discern the body right.” That body which is broken for you. Well it wasn’t broken for your salvation. You know for your sins. It was broken for your healing.

You keep laying hands on people. You keep doing it. You keep going back. That’s why Dr. Lake had the results that he did at the healing rooms. That’s what did 100,000 healings in a five year period. It’s because he and 16 other people that he had trained knew, and made the people to commit to coming back for 30 days. He told them, “I will continue to minister to you but you have to commit to come back for 30 days.”

He had one lady call him and said that she was not coming back. He told her that she had only been there for 5 days. She said, “I know.” He said, “Oh so that’s the kind of person you are. You make a commitment and then you back out.” She said, “Well I don’t need to come back because I’m healed.” Well that’s good enough.

But there was another young man that disappeared after like a week and Dr. Lake found him. Did you get healed? He said that he didn’t. “Well, why didn’t you come back?” He said, “I just didn’t see I was getting changed.” So nothing happened. Lake said, “Well, if you’ll come back God will heal you.” So the young man came back again and stayed about another week and disappeared. Dr. Lake saw him again and asked him why don’t you come and stay until a full 30 days? Finally, the young man said that he would do it. He came back. On the 29th day he got healed. Was God waiting for the 29th day? No. God was waiting to see the commitment in his spirit to say, “I really want this. I want to be healed.”

The other story about Dr. Lake at the healing rooms there was that this man came one time. This is a point. Even the newspapers as a matter of fact said that Dr. Lake would pray for “Sinner, Saint, Jew, Catholic.” I’m giving you the list that was in the paper. This man went into his office one day and Dr. Lake was sitting behind his desk. This young man said, “I need healing.” And Lake said, “OK.” Then the man said, “I’ll tell you though I have no faith in doctors, I have no faith in God, I have no faith in preachers and I don’t have any faith in you.” Lake laughed. Pushed himself back away from the desk and said, “That’s alright young man. I’ve got enough faith for the both of us.” The man was absolutely healed.

That defies most common teaching. But I’m telling you, you can get a hold of the Spirit of God. You can have Him indwell you to the point where you can lay your hands on anybody, anytime, anywhere of any thing and have them healed. Because all you’re doing when you do that is you are demonstrating the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. The Reign and Rule of the Lordship of Jesus Christ over sickness and disease. Then once you do that you say, “Well they’re not believing.” Well they will. They should. Because the goodness of God draws men to repentance. That’s what the Bible says. You get them healed then say, “Now shouldn’t you serve God.” If they don’t then you walk off knowing that they are going to get it back 7 times worse.

You say, “Are you really doing them a service if they are going to get it back again?” You don’t know what they are going to do until you get them healed. A lot of people may be in some really deep sin and you get them healed and they will walk out of it. You say, “Well maybe we shouldn’t do anything unless we know they are going to.” You never know what they are going to do.

Lake prayed for one man that had a real bad disease on his foot and couldn’t even walk or work and he prayed for the man. A week later went back by the house and his mother said, “Oh he’s down at the dance hall. He’s been down there ever since you came by that day. He dances every night.” Kept his healing. God didn’t do anything to him. But Lake told her, “You need tell him to get right with God. Because if he doesn’t it won’t be long and that thing will come back on him.”

Well why? Is it God that’ll put it back on him? Of course not. Do you think that God doesn’t know that man’s heart? Sure He does. He knows the end from the beginning. So God doesn’t differentiate. “If you call me, somebody uses faith, I’ll heal them. If they don’t get right I know the enemy will come back in because I have no right to continue to bless him.”

Look at it this way. Jesus is a King. We are trying to win people over to His Kingdom. You don’t do that by going out telling people, “Live for God. It’s a great life. But if you mess up He’s going to smash you in the head, give you some awful disease or kill your kids to get you back in line.”

Well, number one, you’re not that important. You’re not important enough for Him to kill somebody else over. You need to think about that. He’s not going to take your kids and kill you kids because you mess up.

Now as we go out and witness for this King we need to tell them, “You need to serve this benevolent King because He has only good things in store for you. Instead of serving this king that you’ve been serving.” And you tell them that he’ll heal anybody, any time, anywhere of any thing. We’re the ones that make the limits. Not God. We are the ones. Our limits. Your own conscience. The biggest hindrance to healing is the conscience of the person praying. That’s the biggest hindrance. If you don’t think that God can use a person like you don’t lay hands on them because He won’t. All you are doing is hurting people because they won’t see anything and then they will say that God doesn’t want me well. No it’s not God that don’t. It’s you that don’t because you didn’t get right before you did it and you have no confidence.

The Bible talks about having a clean conscience before God. Because, if your conscience is clean you have confidence toward God. That’s what the Bible says. If you have confidence toward God guess what? That’s called faith. Then you will get what you prayed for. Have a clean conscience.

It’s the number one hindrance, in my opinion, to the power of God. Because people think, “I’m not worthy for God to use me.” You still won’t be worthy. You can’t be worthy in that sense. He makes you worthy. He makes you able to where He can use you. But it’s nothing that you do.

So we tell people all of the time, “Oh, come the Christ.” “Oh, I have to get my life right. I’ve got to get straightened up first. Get my life cleaned up first.” And we tell them, “No, no don’t wait. Now, today is the day of salvation.” If they talk about waiting and cleaning their life up we get on to them. We get mean toward them. “No, don’t do it. That’s filthy rags to God just come as you are.” And then we turn right around and we start to pray, “Oh God, I know my life should be clean. I know that I should clean up my life before I come to pray for this person. I know that you can’t use me because of…” You’re a hypocrite. You’re telling them to do something that you’re not living by. You’re telling them that God is one way and then you are proving it by your actions that you believe He is another way. Just get your hands on people. Get out of sin. Sin is not that big of a deal. It’s not worth it. I’m telling you. You get your hands on some people, you start watching them get well, sin pales in comparison. I mean it pales. There is nothing, nothing like this. I could go on not even teaching but just sharing testimonies. I could go on for weeks. Stand right here and just tell testimony after testimony. It is amazing what God is doing.

And He’s doing it through other people other than just me. I would tell you personal testimonies cause I’ve seen them. But the people we’re teaching, the people that are getting a hold of the message are doing it. And not people who have been through all of the training. I know, like Sister Ann. Came down to Eureka Springs. She was there for 4 or 5 days something like that. Now she had some teaching before. I’m not saying that it was all me. I’m just saying that it doesn’t take that long to get a hold of it. And she started getting their hands on people and they started seeing results. I was at her church just last weekend. We had testimonies Sunday morning. We had almost an hour worth of testimonies. Not necessarily like, “Brother Curry laid hands on me and this happened.” But people going out and doing it. People that I had never seen. I knew them because they were in her church. It’s not me. The more you get a hold of that the more you realize that He can use you. I’m telling you all God has done is given me a platform from which to speak to encourage you to get your hands on people.

Like I tell everybody, I believe that I have 2 gifts that God has given me. Both of them are ones that I desired. One is the ability to impart information, to teach, and get information to people so they can get a hold of it. The second one is to be able to read the Bible with un-biased eyes. I believe that is the only gifts that I claim, it would be them. I don’t know what you would call them. But that is what I claim. Because I don’t claim a gift of healing, per se. But I just know that God wants the church to rise up.

Now I operate in a particular office and as such there is an authority that comes with it. But at the same time, you determine that authority, because it’s you that has to decide whether to listen or not. In reality there is really only one answer. All you can do is decide is what I’m saying “Bible.” If it is, you do not have a right to choose whether you are going to obey it or not. If it’s Bible, if you claim to be a Christian, you are bound to obey it. My job is to make sure all I tell you is what does the Bible say. I do my best and I am definitely open to anybody that has got something to say. Please come to me and let me know. Tell me. “You know you quoted a scripture wrong or you did this wrong or something.” If you come, come with scripture. Don’t come and tell me what your church says or what you’ve heard some preacher say because I don’t care. I’ve heard all that before and I still buried my daughter. But now I’ve seen babies and children not get buried because I decided to go against what some preachers were saying and I started reading what the Bible said. Amen.

Right now we are kind of low key because back there I was crying a little bit so I’m still trying to get over that. To give you an example. You say, “Well why were you crying.” It was a very selfish cry. Everywhere I go I look around and I see what God is doing and opening doors like this to us. And when I walk in it affects me. Because I know better than anybody that by all rights and means God should not use me. But He does and I’m extremely thankful. Nobody knows how thankful I am.

My mom was at Eureka Springs not too long ago at the healing rooms there. And when she walked in she started crying. She had heard me talk about this for 20 years. She came to me and said, “These people don’t understand. I’ve heard you talk about this. I heard you describe this and how it should be done. Now I look around where ever you go they’re springing up. They don’t understand this is 20 years. I see it and it is coming to pass.”

I joke all the time. I tell them it has taken me 20 years to be an overnight success. So I’m just telling you. Believe me. God will use you. Don’t think that He will just use you to heal head aches. He will use you to do anything that needs to be done. OK?