INTERVIEW
Oral Roberts: A Legacy of Faith
By Shannon Woodland with Scott Ross
The 700 Club
CBN.com
– Scott Ross [reporting]: Today, at 91 years old, Oral Roberts says he has not finished the work he believes God gave him to do. But what he’s accomplished in 74 years is impressive. In his early days, he prayed for thousands weekly at tent revival meetings; he preached on the radio; he hit the air waves in 1955 with his church services, and he founded a university. On top of that, Oral is a prolific author, and yes, he still writes books.
Ross: This book, The Ultimate Voice: God’s Still Small Voice, The Clearest and Loudest Voice You’ll Ever Hear. There are people who do not believe that God still speaks today. You think otherwise?
Oral Roberts: Well, I know otherwise. There’s a scripture that I would like to bring to your attention in Revelation, chapter 3 and verse 20. “Behold I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear My voice and open the door, I will come into Him and will sup with Him and He with me.” “If any man hear my voice” -- which suggests to me He’s speaking to all men, every man. Every person has to realize that at some point of life God created him, passionately loves him and is going to speak to him. If he misses that, he’s missed the meaning of life.
Ross [reporting]: Oral was born into a Christian home – the youngest of five children. But as a young boy, he was uninterested in the things of God until a crisis convinced him that God is for real.
Ross: When you speak about the voice of God, you have heard the audible voice of God.
Roberts: Yes, audible and inaudible. But I have heard his voice many times. He’s spoken to me. That’s the first contact I had with Him. When I was 17 and a half years of age, I was being carried to a healing meeting where I was to be prayed for to be healed of tuberculosis. I was lying in the back seat of the car, and my brother was driving with my parents by his side. He was talking about the miracles he had seen. I was listening and then everything faded. Everything got real quiet. In his silence, God spoke to me, “Son, I am going to heal you. I’m going to heal you today, tonight. You are going to take my healing power to your generation, and someday, you’re to build me a university, based on my authority and the Holy Spirit.” Those were the first words I heard God say, and I’d never heard them before.
Ross [reporting]: Not only was Oral healed of tuberculosis, but he accepted Christ as his Savior and has stayed true to the words God spoke to him. In 1938, he married Evelyn. They were together for 66 years until her death in 2005. Oral said he misses her every day. During their life together, they travelled around the country bringing God’s healing to thousands.
Roberts: My first healing crusade was in a tent. The crowds filled it up. It was an enormous scene. I prayed for the sick.
Ross: For hours.
Roberts: Yes, sir, I did.
Ross: When you began to see the demonstration of the miraculous power of God, how did you interpret that?
Roberts: Well, I wasn’t surprised, because He told me that He would heal the people. The first miracle that I had was a woman of German decent who didn’t speak good English whose hand had been still for 38 years. When God loosed it, she jumped up and started shouting at the top of her voice that her hand was loose. She showed the people, and I just thought, ‘That was God doing what He told me He would do.’
Ross [reporting]: Gone are the days of tent meetings and praying for the sick for hours. But Oral’s legacy will be carried on by Oral Roberts University and the thousands touched by his ministry. It’s a legacy of faith.
Roberts: Once you set your mind to believe God as the mantra of your life, it’s a different story. You’re going to believe Him every step of the way. You’re not going to question Him or what He said to you. You’re going to accept it, and you’re going to do it. I developed the faith obedience plan that I would do what God told me to do, because that was the life of faith. The just shall live by faith, the Bible says. The second one was obedience. I would obey instantly, because I had set my plan for my life.
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