Jim Van Gelderen: Welcome to the Thee Generation Podcast. This is Jim Van Gelderen. If you’ve been listening the weeks before, you know that we’ve been in a series of preaching by evangelist Harold Vaughn on the protocols of prayer.

Of course, tonight’s is going to be our final one in the series. This one is on a very important protocol, but I’ll let Brother Vaughn tell you all about it. Here he is.

Harold Vaughan: Let’s look at one more tonight, what I’m calling the faith protocol. The faith protocol. And it says in Hebrews 11, but without faith it’s impossible to please him, for he that comes to God must believe that he is and that he’s a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Now, if you’re going to come into the presence of God, you’ve got to believe. And you’ve got to believe that he’s a rewarder and he’s not reluctant to give. If we give good gifts to our children, how much more shall the Father give good gifts to his own children?

How much more shall he give the Holy Spirit to them that ask? That’s what the Bible says. And, brother, don’t try to demystify the entire Scripture.

I’m not going off into lunacy. But, brother, I’m telling you, there’s a supernatural element in New Testament heart theology and we need an experiential, supernatural encounter with Almighty God. And our children need to get in the presence of a service that’s saturated with the spirit and the power of Almighty God.

John R. Rice went into a church, 400 people, left three weeks later with 800 people. Did I get that right?

Well, brother, that was then. What about now? According to your faith, so be it unto you.

You know, you can’t approach God apart from faith. You can’t relate to God with your five physical senses. You can only relate to God through the instrumentality of faith.

One man said that faith makes giants look like grasshoppers. Faith makes giants look like grasshoppers, but unbelief makes grasshoppers look like giants. You know, unbelief always considers it too soon or too late for God to work.

Unbelief always considers it too soon or too late for God to work, but faith expects God to work. Now, learn to pray with exclamation points instead of question marks. Quit praying the prayer of doubt.

Start praying the prayer of faith. Now, man’s extremity is God’s opportunity. Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity, and the sphere in which God does his greatest work is the sphere where no one but God can work.

I like this one, God loves with a great love the man who has in his heart a passion for the impossible. So faith is the only doorway for God to enter a human heart. You’re saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

It’s a faith thing. It’s the sixth sense. Now, I was over in Champaign, Illinois.

In fact, it was, well, that’s where we had that revival. But I was in Danville, Illinois, and we were having a prayer summit. So the pastor took my wife and I out to Diage’s Restaurant.

restaurant. Biaggi’s is better than Odyssey. It was the best Italian restaurant I’ve ever been at in Champaign, Illinois.

So we get in there and the pastor begins to tell us about his kidney stone attack, which is not the most appetizing topic of conversation over marinara sauce. And he began to tell us this whole thing. Oh brother, thank you brother.

Yeah, right. And we left the restaurant. No kidding, no sooner he got outside the door, he doubled over in writhing pain.

My wife and his wife were in the car in the back seat. I managed to help him out to the car, and he was behind the automobile. And my wife looked back and said, I think your husband is sick.

His wife didn’t even look. She said, he’ll be all right. He’ll be all right.

Now, ladies, let me tell you something. Your man is a wimp, and when he’s sick, he needs some sympathy. Say amen on that point right there, guys.

I mean, you just need some sympathy, you know. Oh, he’ll be all right. My wife said, I don’t think he’ll be all right.

Well, it got him in the passenger seat. I got in the driver’s seat, took him over to the hospital. We had his first kidney stone episode.

And we checked him in and the doctor said, well, it’d be 24, 48 hours at least before this all clears out. And we started a prayer summit Friday night. This is Saturday lunch.

So we checked him in the hospital, went back to church. And I stood up that night at the prayer summit. I said, now, folks, listen, a pastor is in the hospital.

The doctor said he won’t be here tomorrow. But how many of you think we ought to pray the prayer of faith and ask God to let the kidney thing resolve itself, pass, and he’ll be here in the morning at Sunday school? And they all said amen.

I said, okay, let’s pray the prayer of faith and believe God. Would you believe at 1 o’clock? And the whole episode was over.

He was at home in bed. He showed up at 9 o’clock. I mean, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

Nothing’s impossible to God. First time I came here, I think it was 2006, I think. We got held up because we got in a revival meeting in Champaign, Illinois.

That second week was something. Oh, that second week was something. We had people coming in off the streets, tattoos, buck shots.

I mean, the whole thing, it was tremendous. Those guys got in those, we had prayer meetings every night. We were having the CPR prayer meetings, confession, praise, and request.

And those guys got in those prayer meetings where the Christian guys were confessing their sins, no holes barred. You should have heard these guys poured out their hearts to God. Some of them got born again.

One guy, his girlfriend came the next night. I mean, she was one tattoo from the top to the bottom, buddy. And she stood before that crowd and she said, I’m happier now than I’ve ever been in my entire life.

Man, we had all kinds of people showing up. And by the way, when the love of God fills the hearts of God’s people, it has an attractive, magnetic impact upon people who have needs. Well, I’ll never forget the second week.

There was a lady in the church. Her husband had been diagnosed with manic depressive and antisocial, and they slapped all kinds of psychological labels on him, and he believed them. He couldn’t leave the house.

He couldn’t go in public. He couldn’t hold a job. He couldn’t go to the store.

She prayed for him for 30 years. Would you believe the second week he showed up? And there he was sitting in the back of the church.

I can see him right now in those coveralls. If you looked at that man, you’d say to yourself, he’s got some issues. You would say he’s got some issues.

But he came, he sat and listened for like over two hours, which was like the demoniac being delivered, sitting clothed and in his right mind. It was like a miracle. He came the second night.

He came the third night, came the fourth night, and the old boy got born again. The next night he stood before over a couple hundred people and testified to the grace of God. I want to give you a report.

He joined the church. He got over his antisocial thing. He wasn’t perfect, but boy, he’s 100% better than he was before.

He came to church every time the doors were open. He worked in the Iwana program. I mean, it was miraculous what happened.

And you know what I thought to myself? I thought Jesus was passing by. This man just happened to be in the right place.

And I thought to myself, I could bottle up this atmosphere. Revival is an atmosphere. The presence of God is an atmosphere.

If I could bottle up this atmosphere, and buddy, I believe there’s millions of people that have real issues in their hearts, in their souls, in their minds, in their emotions. But if I could just bottle up that atmosphere and just throw it on people, I believe there’s substantial healing in this life and total healing in the next life.

You know, I was in that church a week ago, and the week prior, my friend Roger had graduated and passed on to glory. It was my privilege to talk to his dear wife for him for 30 years. I want to tell you a revival atmosphere is a healing atmosphere.

When revival comes, there’s a healer in the house and things happen that don’t happen under normal circumstances. According to your faith, so be it unto you. Now, brother, my brother, my sister tonight, what impossible prayer requests do you have?

What do you need? Do you have any prodigal sons or daughters or grandchildren? You got any prodigal parents?

You got any deep burdens, you got any crises going on, you got any sicknesses. How many here tonight have had cancer or have cancer that you know of in your lifetime? How many cancer survivors do we have in the house tonight?

Why don’t you put your hands up all over the place. Put them up all over the place. Well, this is an unusually low amount of people, but thank God we’re still here, brother.

And I want to throw this out. People who are sick don’t need to hear the prayer of doubt. they need to hear if somebody prayed the prayer of faith.

And I’m going to tell you the way the prayer of faith normally goes. There’s really no prayer of faith at all. And instead of giving a negative illustration, I’m going to give a positive illustration.

My friend Steve Rebert, a Bob Jones graduate, so just relax. I’m not as crazy as you think I am, all right? He had lymphoma.

35% chance of survival, they told him, if he had treatments. Gave him very little to no hope at all. He wanted the prayer of faith.

So we assembled some brethren. It fell to me to lead it because the other guy didn’t show up. So I stood up and I said to those guys, I said, now listen, if you can’t pray in faith, don’t pray out loud.

Don’t pray at all. And I want to tell you, the way this thing normally goes is the, whoever’s in charge is nervous. He’s nervous that we’re going to cross some line here and do something that is not in the book.

And generally what will happen is the guy in charge will put on his best ministerial low tone of voice. Well, brethren, we all know that there is no medicinal value in the oil. Well, brethren, we all know there’s nothing miraculous about the oil.

As a matter of fact, this is olive oil. And he’ll spend 15 minutes stripping what little faith several of them had. And by the time after 15 minutes of unbelief and disclaimers, they have the prayer of doubt.

And you listen to me, you listen to me. That guy sitting there, that person sitting there is already baffled, already disturbed, already tore all to pieces. And if the people of God can’t believe for him, who can?

And I want to tell you what they need to hear. They need to hear somebody praying the prayer of faith over them. Jehovah Jireh, Jehovah Rapha, he’s God, our healer.

So we prayed over Brother Steve. We laid hands on him. We prayed the prayer of faith.

We asked God to heal him and we thanked God for healing him. You know what happened? He got in the pulpit about three months after that.

And brother, he had all these treatments, but brother, he’s cancer free right now. I’m just here to tell you, brother, the prayer of faith shall save the sick. That’s what the word of God says.

You say, well, what if God doesn’t heal him? At least that wasn’t our unbelief that missed the miracle then. If God chooses to give him ultimate healing instead of temporal healing, at least it wasn’t our unbelief.

If you’re gonna pray, pray in faith. And I wanna encourage you tonight, when people are sick, man, pray the prayer of faith. Ask God to touch them.

Ask God to restore them. Thank God for doing it. I’ve got a friend, I don’t know if I told this one or not, that had a boy that he was a primordial dwarf.

Did I tell this story in this auditorium? Well, it’s a good story. I’m going to tell it again.

He was a primordial dwarf and he was sick. You know, he was counseling. We were there in meetings.

He was counseling his mother and trying to comfort his mother about his own imminent death. You know what I thought? I said to my wife, what is wrong with me?

Here’s an eight-year-old boy comforting his own mother about his own departure. But they prayed the prayer of faith. The grandfather said to me, he said, Harold, we’re believing God’s gonna raise Landon up.

But if God doesn’t raise Landon up, if God takes him home, we’re gonna wash her face and we’re gonna go out and have a meal. But until then, we’re believing God. Faith pleases God.

If you’re going to come to God, you’ve got to believe. Don’t let bad past experiences hobble you from believing God for future things. We’ve all had things that we thought we were confident about and we prayed about it and it didn’t happen the way we thought it was going to happen.

Don’t let that strip you of the desire and the ability to believe God in the future. Are you with me on this point right here? And brother, whatsoever you ask in prayer, just get a hold of some of these promises.

Now, the prayer of faith shall save the sick, The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Robert Elaine said, God usually answers us according to our expectations. God normally answers us according to our expectations.

It’s time for the people of God to believe big. I’m believing with Pastor Van Gelderen for this men’s dormitory thing. 600,000, nothing, nothing to God.

Nothing to God. It’s a lot to us. It was a lot to me.

Well, you’re nothing but God. So let’s believe big. You got some God-sized needs?

Pray some God-sized prayers. Have some God-sized expectations. Nothing shall be impossible.

Jesus said, if you ask anything in my lane, I’ll do it that the Father might get the glory. So when we pray big prayers, we get the benefit, God gets the credit, and it’s a win-win proposition. And I just want to say that it’s the faith protocol.

If we’re going to come to God, we have to believe. Now listen, this has nothing to do with your feelings, nothing to do with your past experiences, nothing to do with the theological unbelievers you’ve been trained by, nothing to do with all that stuff. You’re going to come to God, you’re going to have to believe that God is and that he’s a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

I just want to say this quietly. If your theology puts God out of business, you ought to bury your theology. And I’m not for stupid wildfire.

I’m not talking about praying in a jet plane so you can go to Hawaii. That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about praying about things that we really desperately need to see.

How many of you have lost family members out there tonight? Somebody in your family that’s lost? Amazing.

Let’s pray some prayers of faith. How many need a breakthrough in your home, in your immediate family? Anybody need some breakthroughs tonight?

Anybody got any emotional situations going on? Depression issues going on? You just need a touch from God?

Yes. Yeah. Hey, let’s pray prayers of faith.

Let’s huddle up tonight and let’s exercise our faith and let’s ask big. Let’s expect big. Let’s thank big.

Let’s believe big tonight. Let’s just huddle up with somebody. Express your main prayer burden, your main prayer need.

I’m talking about something that’s a faith issue. So let’s exercise and pray the faith protocol tonight.

Jim Van Gelderen: Well, now you know what the protocol is. It’s the protocol of faith, expectancy. It’s an absolute key part of prayer.

I hope the podcast encouraged your heart and that you will spend time not just praying, but expecting God to do what he says he will do. Remember, that’s all a part of total surrender to God. It takes trust to surrender to God, believing that his will is best, depending on his grace to do his will.