Lesson 13. The Price of the Lord’s Miracle-Working Power. A. A. Allen’s “God Guarantees Your Healing” School
My Own Testimony
This chapter is a brief summary of my book, “The Price of the Lord’s Miracle-Working Power.” In it, you will read my own testimony of an encounter with God that took place when, many years ago, I locked myself in my prayer closet—a storeroom. There I fasted and prayed. As He communed with me, God pointed out thirteen things in my life that separated me from God and blocked the way for His miracle-working power, sent to believers in response to their ministry.
He revealed to me that these same things also prevent many other Christians from experiencing His miraculous power. This book is a revelation from above, firmly grounded in the finest traditions of biblical teaching and persuasively argued.
I was converted at the age of twenty-three and soon heard the voice of God calling me into ministry. I heard His voice so clearly that afterward I never allowed myself to doubt the reality of what had happened.
As a Methodist, I knew nothing about baptism in the Holy Spirit. In fact, I knew very little about what the Bible teaches. I could not even quote such a well-known verse as John 3:16 or name the Four Gospels. After my conversion, I felt a genuine hunger for knowledge; I wanted to learn everything that was known about my Lord, and I began studying the Scriptures.
I asked God to be my guide and help me study the Bible. And He began revealing to me truths about baptism in the Holy Spirit, the signs that accompany believers, the gifts of the Spirit, and God’s miracles.
Soon God led me to a Pentecostal Church, where I was able to see modest blessings from God and some manifestations of the Spirit. At the very first gatherings of believers, I became convinced of the urgent need to experience the miraculous baptism in the Holy Spirit. I began praying regularly and drawing near to God for this experience. Exactly thirty days after my conversion, I attended an outdoor church service in Miami, Oklahoma, where I was blessed to be filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in tongues.
After reading the words, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you…” (Acts 1:8), I became confident that, once filled with the Holy Spirit, I would receive power to heal the sick and perform miracles. But very little time passed before I realized that achieving positive results required something more than simply baptism in the Holy Spirit.
Baptism gives access to this power, while the gifts of the Spirit make way for His miracles. I immediately began to pray and ask for the gifts of the Spirit to be bestowed upon me. I felt an urgent need to receive the power to heal the sick, because I knew that God never called anyone to preach the Gospel without also commissioning that preacher to heal the sick.
Two years after my conversion, I got married and began ministry. When conducting revival services, I devoted at least two evening services to divine healing and prayed for the sick. During such services, we witnessed a great number of miraculous healings. In this way, God responded to the preaching of His Word. Despite the results we were seeing, I understood that God’s plan for me was far more significant, and this gave me hope that the time would come when that plan would be fulfilled in my life.
In Search of the Lord’s Power
My wife and I often studied Scripture and became increasingly convinced that all of God’s promises—especially those concerning the gifts of the Spirit, accompanying signs, healings, and miracles—were intended for us, who live today. It became clear that God had promised all of this to us, His ministers. But we clearly understood that we did not fully possess the power God had promised. We knew there had to be a biblical reason for this. Since God cannot lie, the reason had to be somewhere within us!
While preaching in my first church, I gradually came to the decision that I needed to hear an answer from above and learn the specific reason why my ministry was not accompanied by signs and miracles from above. I believed that if I began fasting and praying, sooner or later I would hear His voice. God would show me what separated me from Him and prevented me from receiving His miraculous power. I hungered for the power of God and felt that I could no longer stand behind the pulpit and preach sermons. So I decided to fast and pray until God answered me. My wife knew about my plan.
It was then that I endured my fiercest battle with the devil. He opposed my decision to fast and pray until God gave me His answer. Using every possible trick, the unclean spirit tried to make me leave my prayer room. The devil knew that as soon as I communed with God, his demonic harassment would come to an end. That is why he opposed my decision and remained constantly ready to seize the first opportunity to disrupt my plan to commune with God.
Day after day, I took my place in the storage room that had become my prayer room, and each time I was determined to remain there until God spoke to me. But again and again I emerged from my hiding place without an answer. My wife would greet me by saying, “I thought that this time you would stay until the end, until you received an answer.” Then she would usually smile her sweet smile, probably remembering that “the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41).
Again and again I replied, “Dear, I really wanted to pray all the way through this time, but…”—and I could always easily find a reason that made me leave the prayer room once again without waiting for an answer from above. I always found an excuse in the thought that tomorrow I would definitely stay and pray until the end. Perhaps tomorrow, fate would not pass me by without showing me favor.
The Lord filled my heart with inspiration, drawing my attention to how Daniel fasted and prayed. He nevertheless managed to wrest the answer from God out of the devil’s hands. It took a full three weeks to battle the unclean spirit (see Dan. 10:2, 12).
Struggle of the Soul
The next day, I knelt down again in my prayer room. Once again, I told my wife that I would not come out until I received the answer from God. I truly meant it. But just a few hours later, I smelled the enticing aroma of food being prepared, left the pantry, went into the kitchen, and asked my wife, “Darling, what smells so delicious?”
Some time later, as I was sitting at the table, I suddenly heard the voice of God calling me in my heart. After swallowing the first bite, I pushed my plate away. God had spoken to me! And then I realized that unless I desired fellowship with God more than anything else in the world—whether food or the satisfaction of other fleshly desires—I would never hear His answer.
I quickly got up from the table and said to my wife, “Dear, I am going to fellowship with God! I will go into the pantry, and you lock me in from the outside. I will stay there until I hear the answer from God.”
My wife had heard these words so often that at first she doubted whether I could suppress my fleshly desires for long enough to overcome the devil. So she replied, “You’ll be knocking in an hour and asking me to open the door.” Nevertheless, she locked the door and promised, “I’ll let you out as soon as you knock.”
I replied, “I will not knock unless I receive the answer I have been waiting for so long.” At last, I resolved to wait for God’s answer at all costs.
Hour after hour, I battled the devil and my flesh in the prayer room. It seemed that entire days passed, yet I did not feel any closer to my desired goal. Many times, I was tempted to give up, try to fulfill my desires without receiving an answer from above, and return to what I had been doing before. But deep in my soul, I could not escape the feeling that this would not bring me true satisfaction. I had already tried that and realized it was not enough. So I decided to wait until the end.
Visitation
Suddenly, I felt an otherworldly bliss begin to fill my prayer room. The entire interior was illuminated. At first, I even thought that my wife had opened the door. But the door was closed. Jesus had opened the gates of Heaven, and the entire pantry was literally immersed in light—the light of an otherworldly bliss emanating from God.
Now I cannot say exactly how long I had been in the pantry before all this happened. Perhaps it does not matter. But I can now state with complete confidence that I prayed for exactly as long as was necessary! The presence of God was so real that I felt I could die—die right there in the pantry, kneeling. It seemed to me that if God came any closer, I would not survive it. And at the same time, I passionately desired this and had been inwardly prepared for it for so long.
Was this truly the whole answer from God? Would God speak to me? Would He refresh my thirsting heart? Would He satisfy my deepest desires after so many years of seeking? It seemed that I had lost my sense of reality and could feel only the miraculous presence of God. I tried to see Him, but then I became afraid of what I might see, realizing that I could die (see Exod. 33:20). His blessed presence was entirely sufficient!
Oh, if only He would speak to me now! If only He would answer my questions: “Lord, why can’t I heal the sick? Why can’t I perform miracles in Your name? Why don’t signs accompany me, as they accompanied Peter, John, and Paul?”
And suddenly, like a hurricane bursting into a storeroom, His voice reached me! It was Him! He was speaking to me! I heard the wonderful answer I had been waiting for since I came to faith at the age of twenty-three!
In His presence, I felt like a pebble at the foot of rocky mountains towering above me. I felt unworthy even to hear His voice. But He was speaking to me. He was not speaking because I was worthy, but because I needed it. Centuries had passed since the day He promised to give us what we needed, and now my day had come. Today I would receive what was promised.
It seemed to me that God was speaking to me too quickly—so quickly that I could not even understand what He was saying. I think no one could have kept up with such a pace of speech. My heart pleaded, “Speak a little more slowly. I want to remember everything You are saying.” I thought this, yet at the same time I realized that I could never forget what He said.
God told me the conditions that, once fulfilled, would remove the barriers separating Him from me and preventing me from receiving His miracle-working power. After each new condition was impressed on my mind, He explained certain details of His requirement and emphasized the importance of fulfilling it.
If I had foreseen that I would be given so much information to remember, I would certainly have prepared paper and a pencil. But I had never imagined that communication with God could be so specific. I could never have imagined that so many barriers stood in my way to receiving the power of God, or that I was so far from His favor. Nor had I thought that so many things in my life had become a source of disappointment and doubt. They were preventing my faith from growing.
God continued speaking to me, and I instinctively began feeling through my pockets for a pencil. At last I found what I was looking for and began searching for paper. I could not find a single sheet of paper in the storeroom. Suddenly I remembered the cardboard box in which we stored our winter clothes, kept in the storeroom. It became my altar. I would write the answer on the box!
Now I was fully equipped and ready to receive God’s answer.
A Life-Changing List
I asked the Lord to start over and let me write everything down in order. I asked Him to speak slowly so that I could write everything on the paper.
And God began speaking again and repeated everything He had already revealed to me. While He spoke to me, I wrote down His words.
When the last of His conditions had been written down, He spoke to me again, saying: “Here is My answer. When you are able to put an end to everything I have listed for you in this list, you will not only heal the sick, but also cast out demons in My name. You will witness miraculous healings and preach My Word in My name. Behold, I give you power over all the power of the enemy.”
God revealed to me what was hindering my ministry and what was keeping Him from working with me. What He said was also confirmed in the Word of God. All the conditions He named applied to many other people who desired to enter ministry.
Now it began to grow dark in my prayer room. I felt His wonderful power beginning to disappear from the storage room. A few moments later, He seemed to pause for a minute and then ascended. I was left alone. Alone, but not lonely.
I trembled at the moment He ascended. Feeling around in the darkness, I found the bottom of a cardboard box and tore off a piece, on which I wrote God's answer. In my hand I held the bill I would have to pay in exchange for obtaining the power of God—the power to work miracles.
I knocked loudly on the door. I kept knocking until, at last, I heard my wife’s footsteps. She opened the door and, as soon as she saw me, immediately understood that I had been communing with God. She said, “You received an answer!”
“Yes, dear. God came down from Heaven and visited me. Here is the answer.”
In my hand she saw a piece of old, darkened cardboard on which I had written the answer that had cost me so many hours of fasting and prayer, waiting and, of course, faith!
My wife and I sat down at the table. The cardboard lay before us. As I told her what had happened in the storage room, we worked our way down my list, and both of us wept. Even as I was leaving the storage room, I found thirteen items on the list, but I had to destroy the last two entries: I erased them because they contained very personal information that I did not want to share even with my wife. She understood and did not ask what had been at the end of the list. She knew perfectly well that there are things that should remain between God and me.
The remaining eleven conditions, or requirements, are described in detail in my book “The Price of the Lord’s Miracle-Working Power.” I devote a separate chapter to each condition. If you, too, hunger to obtain miracle-working power and see it multiplied in your life and ministry, be sure to read this book!
Since God spoke to me in my storage-room prayer room, my wife and I have torn many pages from the calendar. In fact, we had to replace the calendar more than once. Time passed, and I crossed off one condition after another from the list given to me from above. Thus, one by one, I fulfilled God's requirements; the list grew smaller and smaller with each new victory I won over the devil!
Finally, the day came when only two unfulfilled conditions remained on my list. The devil said to me, “You have crossed off eleven items, but there are two left that you will never be able to overcome! You are on my hook.”
By God’s grace, I answered the devil that he was lying. For if God had told me I would be able to cross all thirteen items off my list, then I would do it with His help! But a great deal of time passed before I was able to declare victory over the final two items.
I doubt I will ever forget the day when, after looking over my list once again, I discovered that only one item remained uncrossed! If, with God’s help, I could overcome this final requirement of God’s, He would send me what He had promised.
I must claim my right to this promise. Millions of people are sick and infirm, and medicine is passing them by. But someone must bring them deliverance from suffering and disease. God spoke to me and called me to bring healing to His people. And He is calling every minister of the Gospel to do the same! (see Ezek. 34:1–4).
Many times during my travels across the United States, I felt God pouring out His Spirit on those who attended my services. But I kept waiting for the moment when, having fulfilled God’s final condition, I would see miracles I had never before witnessed.
You know that for a long time I sought victory, relying on God to help me achieve it. I knew that my victory would glorify God, and that other people would receive support and inspiration in their pursuit of the power of God.
A Great Move of the Lord’s Power
I wrote this book during a service for the revival of the Christian faith in healing, held in Oakland, California. According to eyewitnesses, this service became the most remarkable event in Oakland’s Christian history. Hundreds testified to a powerful move of the Lord’s power. The evening meetings of our fellowship were literally overwhelmed by great waves of the grace of God.
Many testified to healing they received right during the service, while sitting in their chairs. Again and again, we felt the great power of God taking hold of those present. People rose from their seats to testify that they had been healed immediately; some healings were truly miraculous—external tumors disappeared, and people who had been crippled began to move.
I felt thyroid growths disappear under my hands in the name of Jesus.
Here and there, cries of victory rang out from those who had received their sight. One woman testified: “It was as if I had come out of darkness into the sunlight.”
We prayed for a woman with a throat condition. After some time, she rushed to the restroom. When she returned to the hall, she admitted that after the prayer she had felt something detach in her nasopharynx, and she had run out to spit out this foreign body (I suspect she may have had cancer). What she spat out was pale orange.
Hernias the size of a human fist disappeared during a single evening service. Cancer, deafness, thyroid dysplasia, diabetes—all kinds of diseases vanished without a trace as soon as we laid hands on the sick in the name of Jesus. In many cases, the healing was confirmed by doctors’ reports and X-rays.
Awe and wonder—this is how one could describe the feelings of those present as they witnessed the miracles of the Lord’s power. And the work of that power began literally from the very start of each service. People were delivered from the enemy’s oppression—they were saved, healed, and filled with the Spirit.
At this meeting, we did not have what we usually call a “healing line.” At least ninety percent of those on whom we laid hands fell into a trance under the influence of the mighty power of the Lord. Some, under the influence of this power, began to dance, took a few steps, and then suddenly fell. From the outside, one might have thought they were intoxicated (see Jer. 23:9). Such reactions from people losing self-control made it completely impossible to conduct the service according to the usual procedure.
Many who were present later recalled everything that happened during the church service as a kind of fanaticism. But this cannot be called fanaticism in any way! It was the mighty power of God that came upon the people—the same power under which John “fell at His feet as dead…” (Rev. 1:17).
Many note that the most significant thing that happened during the church service was that a large percentage of the sick people present in the hall received miraculous healing. And we would probably even underestimate the figure if we said that the result was positive in ninety percent of the cases.
One of our evening services was called “The Service of the Holy Spirit.” The hall was filled to capacity. People were even sitting on the benches by the altar. Only God knows the exact number of people who were filled with the Holy Spirit that evening. It was announced that during this service we would lay hands on those who desired to be filled with the Holy Spirit (see Acts 8:17).
After the sermon, everyone who had been filled with the Spirit came forward for prayer. With rare exceptions, everyone whom our hands touched in the name of Christ fell into a state of stupor. What an unusual sight the hall presented to those standing on the platform. Many were “struck down by the power of the Lord.” Those who came forward filled all the space in front of the altar and even beneath the side aisles!
The sounds of divine music became increasingly harmonious as voices praising God joined in: the Holy Spirit filled the obedient believers, and they began speaking in different tongues and exalting God (see Mark 16:17; Acts 10:46).
I do not mean to say that I possess the gift of healings, but I can confidently state that hundreds of people recovered during this church service and during several subsequent healing campaigns. Nor do I mean to say that I possess any gift of the Spirit or have the authority to impart this gift to others, but I can responsibly testify to the operation of the gifts of the Spirit during the evening services we conducted. God confirmed the word He had given, and signs accompanied the believers.
The Long-Awaited Victory
Why did the results of my ministry change so dramatically? You ask, WHY? Haven’t you figured it out?
Because I finally managed to fulfill the last of God’s conditions, and I crossed out the last item in God’s answer! Hallelujah! Many times I nearly lost hope that I would be able to cross out this final entry on the sheet containing God’s answer. But at last, the long-awaited victory came. Thank God, I overcame this condition as well—it has been fulfilled!
Having crossed out this final condition, I received God’s promise. I healed the sick, cast out demons, and performed miracles in the name of Jesus while preaching the Word of God!
Do you hunger to receive the power of the Lord? Then spend time alone with God. Draw near to Him. Open your heart to Him and ask Him to reveal to you what separates Him from you (read Isa. 59:1–2). Do not stop until you overcome everything that may cause doubt and unbelief!
The foregoing, of course, should not be regarded as a “magic formula.” It is rather a path—a very difficult path—that can lead you to victory. The road you have chosen is full of obstacles; on it, you will feel like a lone wanderer. But God promised in His Word that, having traveled this road, you will receive miraculous power!
If you truly need to receive the Lord’s power, be sure to get and read my book, “The Price of the Lord’s Miracle-Working Power.”
