ACTS 9:17
17 And Ananias went his way, and entered into the house; and putting his hands on him
said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou
tamest, hath sent me, THAT THOU MIGHTEST receive thy sight, and BE FILLED WITH
THE HOLY GHOST.
Ananias didn't say, "God has sent me to pray for you that He would give you the Holy Ghost."
And Ananias didn't say, "God has sent me to pray for you that He would pour His Holy Ghost
out upon you." Ananias said, ". . . [JesusI hath sent me, that thou mightest . . . be filled with
[receive] the Holy Ghost" (Acts 9:17).
You don't pray that God would send salvation and save someone; God has already done that
through Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection. You pray for that person to receive salvation.
You don't pray that God would send healing and heal someone. You pray for that person to
receive healing. There is nothing wrong with the sending end. If people fail to receive
something God offers, the problem is not with God; something is wrong on the receiving end.
The Sending End or the Receiving End?
A number of years ago, a minister friend of ours was going out West to visit a relative who was
dying of cancer. She was the wife of another minister. My wife and I felt led to go out there with
him to pray for her.
After we arrived, we all prayed for two days and nights for this minister's sick wife. We ate only
one meal a day. We slept only three or four hours a night, getting up early in the morning to go
into the room to pray where the woman was bedfast.
On the second night I said to my friend, "Something is wrong. I have been saved for sixteen
years and healed for fifteen years, but never have I prayed this long for anything without
getting an answer, and I hate to start now.
"Something is wrong with our praying," I said. "What I mean is this: In this little town there is
only one radio station. If the radio in your car failed to pick up the local station, you wouldn't
phone or write a letter to that station and say, 'You'd better have your radio station fixed. My
radio won't pick up the broadcast.'
"Nothing would be wrong with the sending end. You would have to work on the receiving end.
So in the morning when we go into that room, let's concentrate on the receiving end."
The next morning when we gathered at the woman's bedside for prayer again, I told everyone
that we were missing it somewhere — that the fault was with us and certainly was not with
God. The woman on the bed began to cry and said, "Oh, the trouble is with me. I have failed."
I said, "Wait a minute, Sister. Don't condemn yourself, because if you do, you can talk yourself
right out of faith. Maybe you have failed. Who of us hasn't? But you asked the Lord to forgive
you, didn't you? And First John 1:9 says, 'If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.' So if you've repented and
have asked God to forgive you, He has forgiven you and cleansed you from all
unrighteousness. You can stand in the Presence of God as though you have never done
anything wrong."