He Has Promised Us Long Life
258
Proverbs 9:10-11 says, “The fear of the L
ORD
is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of
the holy is understanding. For by me thy days shall be multiplied,” by Him, by the wisdom of
God, “and the years of thy life shall be increased.” Are there things you can do that will increase
the days and years of your life? The Bible says so.
Finally, look in the tenth chapter. Proverbs 10:27 says, “The fear of the L
ORD
prolongeth days.”
Are there things you can do that will stretch out your life and make it longer and better? “The
fear of the L
ORD
prolongeth days: but the years of the wicked shall be shortened.” That’s not
because of some pre-ordained thing that God set in motion; it’s because of the choice that men
made to live righteously or to live wickedly.
There are some folks who don’t like that, but it is in the Scriptures. If you like long life, you’ll
like it, because it means you’re not some helpless victim waiting for your number to come up
with no idea when that might be.
I am endeavoring to establish that Paul really did have a choice, that he could say he was going
to choose whether he stayed and lived some more, and worked some more, and had some more
fruit. Or he could decide he was going to choose to go on.
Do you remember just a few days ago when you were in elementary school? Or when you were
learning how to drive? And when you first did this, and first did that, and you were just getting it,
and now looking back, you’re 50 or 60 or 70 years old? Well, you have a right to the rest of your
life. You have a right, if you’re a young person, to two more hours. Older people, you have a
right to the rest of your hour. You want to make sure that before you leave, you’re through, and
that you did everything you were supposed to do. You want to make sure that you got out
everything God put in you and that everything He ordained for you to do, you did it, and did it
well, finished it.
I first learned about this before I had ever gone to RHEMA or had any training in Bible school or
anything. I had gotten a hold of some tapes about faith and some tapes about healing, and I got
excited about it.
There was a lady in our church who was a mother in the church. I don’t know if you know what I
mean by that, but she was a strong believer and had been a mother spiritually to a lot of people.
She was just a wonderful woman who loved God, knew the Word, knew the Spirit of God, and
was a praying woman.
She would testify, and it blessed everyone in the church when she did. She didn’t call herself a
preacher per se, but she would sure prophesy when she testified.
Well, she got sick and was down for month after month. Finally, they said she had multiple
things that were killing her, and she was not going to make it. She had been bedfast virtually for
months.
Well, I wasn’t too far from the hospital where she was, so in the evenings after work, I would go
by and see her. Of course, I’m beginning to get a hold of healing scriptures and just starting to
