Some years ago, I was listening to Gloria preach on healing and I heard something that I’m certain has added years to my life. I’ll never forget it. She was teaching on Psalm 91 and she’d just read verse 16: “With long life will I satisfy him, and show him my salvation.”
I immediately turned to Genesis 6:3, where God said, “His days shall be an hundred and twenty years.” Suddenly, The LORD spoke up on the inside of me. That’s just as much My WORD as by His stripes ye were healed! He said.
Although that might sound like an obvious statement, at the time it was exactly what I needed to hear. In the previous months, I’d let the devil sneak up on me with some lies about my age. Without even realizing it, I’d let my faith for long life begin to slip. I’d confessed for years what Psalm 103:5 says about God renewing my youth as the eagle’s, but something had changed.
I’d begun to wind down. Having reached my 70th birthday, I’d gotten to the age where my ancestors declined physically, and I’d let the same thing begin to happen to me. But, praise God, I woke up to what was going on. I got a fresh revelation of the fact that the length of my life isn’t defined by my family history. It’s defined by the written WORD of God, and it says “[man’s] days shall be an hundred and twenty years” (Genesis 6:3).
Since that day in Gloria’s Healing School, The LORD has talked to me a lot about this. He’s commanded me to quit yielding to the natural DNA I inherited from my physical ancestors and release by faith the DNA in my born-again spirit—which is the very DNA of God.
I’ve obeyed that command and my body has come in line. Instead of winding down, I’ve gotten fired up!
This past December I turned 78, and I’m stronger now than I was 20 years ago. I’m walking in the life and energy of God. I’m flying all over the world preaching the gospel and having the time of my life.
I’m not the only one who’s happy about it, either. The LORD is, too.
Why? Because the Anointing of His Spirit on the lives of His people is designed to develop with age. So if we keep walking with Him, the older we get the more developed our anointing becomes.
Not long ago The LORD made this very clear to me. Kenneth, He said, when you were 30 years old My Anointing came on you. As the years passed it grew and developed and by the time you were 40 it had matured considerably. But at 40 you couldn’t get the 60-year anointing. It doesn’t work that way. You have to grow in grace and the knowledge of The LORD. You have to grow in faith. At 60, you could have the 60-year anointing, but you can’t have the 80-year anointing until you get there.
Then The LORD went on to say this: Because My people have let the devil talk them out of living much beyond 80, they’re missing out on the anointing I’ve designed for them to have at 90, 100, 110 and 115 years old. As a result, I don’t have those anointings on the earth!
“But LORD,” I said, “there are some people in the world who are living longer and longer and getting closer to that age.”
Yes, He replied, but My people—those who are Anointed of Me—aren’t doing it!
Departing in Style
I know what you’re probably thinking. Is it really possible to keep developing in God’s Anointing when you’re over 100 years old?
Sure it is. Not only are there examples of it in the Bible (Abraham and Moses, for instance), but I was personally acquainted with one man who did it. His name was Otis Clark.
An anointed minister of God and a Partner with this ministry, when Dad Clark went home to be with The LORD he was 109 years old. But you never would have guessed it by looking at him. He usually sat on the front row at the Believers’ Conventions and he always looked strong and fit. At an age where most people would expect to be shuffling around in a bathrobe and house slippers, he wore a sharp suit and a fedora hat.
What’s more, he never retired from preaching the gospel. He preached all his life. The Saturday night before he crossed over into heaven, he told his family, “I want you to take me to church in the morning.” He hadn’t been feeling quite up to par so they tried to talk him out of it. They said, “Daddy, the doctors are concerned about you. You don’t need to be preaching right now.” But he insisted.
He spent all of Saturday night praising The LORD and shouting the victory. When he went to church Sunday morning he was asked to say a word and he did. He preached…and preached…and preached! Then he went home and just laid back and went to heaven.
Dad Clark departed in style. He preached his way to glory at 109 years old!
What was his secret?
He put The WORD of God first place in his life. He meditated on it, believed it and obeyed it. He sought God’s wisdom and lived according to it, not just spiritually but physically. In other words, when it came to staying healthy Dad Clark did his part where natural things were concerned. He ate right and exercised. He did what was right for his body.
If you and I are going to live out the full number of our days we’ll have to do the same. We can’t just sit around, eat anything our flesh desires, live sloppy, get fat and believe we’re going to live 120 years. It won’t happen.
So make a quality decision right now to renew your mind and think scripturally about food. Don’t get fooled by all the dumb stuff worldly people are saying about it. They don’t know anything. They’ve been coming up with ways to lose weight for years and their ways don’t work. That’s why so many people end up losing the same 20 pounds over and over. The world doesn’t know how to fix the problem.
But God does!
So instead of trying to get healthy by following the latest fad, start praying and believe God for wisdom. He’ll bring the right information across your path.
God’s Will for All Men for All Time
Religious tradition has tried to steal God’s healing power from believers for years by claiming those words applied only to this one man. Entire denominations have preached that although it was God’s will to heal the leper it might not be His will to heal someone else. But that’s just plain wrong! Matthew 12:15 says that during Jesus’ earthly ministry “great multitudes followed him, and he healed them all.”
Jesus never turned anyone down for any reason, and He is the perfect expression of God’s will for all men for all time. So what He said to the leprous man He has said to us all: Healing is My will for you!
Jesus confirmed this when He taught us to pray for God’s will to “be done in earth, as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). Is it God’s will for there to be any sickness in heaven? No! Therefore it’s not His will for sickness to be on earth, either.
“If that’s true,” someone might say, “then why is sickness here?”
Because of the curse the devil brought on the earth through sin. According to Deuteronomy 28:61, “every sickness, and every plague” is a result of that curse. But Galatians 3:13-14 says, “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ….”
Thank God, as New Testament believers we’re no longer under the curse! We’re BLESSED, and THE BLESSING has always included healing. The Bible affirms it again and again. It says:
“Ye shall serve the Lord your God, and he shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee.” (Exodus 23:25)
“He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.” (Psalm 107:20)
“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases.” (Psalm 103:2-3)
“My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh. Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” (Proverbs 4:20-23)
Look again at that last verse. It says the “issues” or forces of life flow out of your heart or your spirit. That’s good news because you have Almighty God living on the inside of you. His divine life is in you. His healing forces are in you. His cleansing forces are in you. The forces of His righteousness are in you.
So stir up your faith. Put The WORD of God in front of your eyes and release His divine DNA. Let the healing, youth- renewing forces of God flow!
Live from the inside and instead of getting weaker as you age, get stronger. Grow in faith, in grace and in the Anointing of God. Sail past 85 or 90 years old and keep on going to 120. Then, depart this earth in style like Dad Clark did. Shout your way to glory, praising God and saying, “With long life He satisfied me and showed me His salvation!”
*Article taken from February 2015 issue of BVOV Magazine. Read the PDF version here.
