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I went beside her stretcher, and when I looked ino her eyes, I realized that she already had the faith to be healed: not a dead faith, but a living faith. I touched her forehead with my hand and said, "Sister, in the name of Jesus Christ, be healed."

Instantly the power of God came, and she was healed. She stood up from her stretcher, thrilled, frightened and amazed.

This woman had received such a miraculous healing that word of it instantly spread. Soon afterward one rich woman came to the church, also being carried in by a stretcher. She had been a Christian for a long time, and a deaconess in the church. She had memorized scripture after scripture of divine healing.

I prayed for her with all my might, but nothing happened. Then I shouted, repeating the same pryaers for healing. I used the Word of God, and I even jumped, but nothing happened. I asked her to stand up by faith. Many times she would stand, but the moment I took my hand away, she would fall down like a piece of dead wood. She would claim to me that she had all the faith in the world, but her faith never would work.

I became quite depressed, and eventually she began to cry. She claimed, "Pastor, you are prejudiced. You loved that other woman so much that you healed her. But you don't really love me. So I am still stick. You are prejudiced."

"Sister," I replied, "I have done everything. You saw me. I have prayed, I have cried, I have jumped, I have shouted. I did everything that a Pentecostal preacher can do, but nothing happened, and I can't understand it."

I then travailed and cried, "Why Father? Why should it be like this? God, please give me the answer, a very clear-cut answer." And He did. So now I would like to share this answer with you, and some realizations that led me to this understanding.

People think that they can believe on the Word of God. They can. But they fail to differentiate between the Word of God which gives general knowledge about God, and the Word of God which God uses to impart faith about specific circumstances into a man's heart. It is this latter type of faith which brings miracles.

One in Korea a lady had a tremendous youth meeting on Samgak Mountain. She had a great ministry. Many young people would flock to her meetings.

During the week of the youth campaign it rained heavily, and all the rivers overflowed. A group of young people wanted to go to the town on the opposite side of the river, where the meetings were being held. But when they came to the bank of the river, it was flooded. There was not a bridge or a boat to be seen, and most of the them became discouraged.

But the three girls got together and said, "Why can't we just wade through the water? Peter walked on the water, and Peter's God is our God, Peter's Jesus is our Jesus, and Peter's faith is our faith. Peter believed, and we should do all the more."

The river was completely flooded, but there three girls knelt down and held hands together, quoting the scriptures containing the story of Peter walking on the water, and they claimed they could believe in the same way. Then, in the sight of the rest, they shouted and began to wade through the water.

Immediately they were swept away by an angry flood, and after three days their dead bodies were found in the open sea.

This incident caused repercussions throughout Korea. Non-Christian newspapers carried the story, making headlines of it.

What kind of answer would you give? Those girls had believed. They had exercised faith based on the Word of GOd.

But God had no reason to support their faith. Peter walked on the water because of logos, which gives general knowledge about God. Peter required that Christ give a specific word to him: Peter asked, "Lord, if you are Jesus, command me to come."

The word Christ gave to Peter was not logos, but rhema. [It was given] in a specific situation, a storm.

Rhema brings faith. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the rhema. Peter never walked on the water by knowledge of God alone. Peter had rhema.

But these girls only had logos, a general knowledge of God, and in this case, the working of God through Peter. They exercised their human faith on logos: that was a mistake. God, therefore, had no responsibility to support their faith.

Two years ago two Bible school graduated failed completely in their first venture into the ministry. These two fellows had been disciples of mine. They listened to my lectures, they came to my church and learned i concept the principles of faith.

They began their first venture into ministry with what seemed to be a great deal of faith, clinging to such scriptures as: "Open you mouth wide and I will fill it" (Ps 81:10); "If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it" (Jn 14:14)

They went to a bank and made a large loan. With this money they bought land and built a beautiful sanctuary - without even having a congregation. They began preaching, expecting the people to flock in by the hundreds, and their debts to be paid; but nothing like that happened.

These young men were [eventually] cornered in a terrible situation, arriving at a point where they were near to losing their faith in God.

They cried [to me], "Ps. Cho, why is your God and our God different? You started with $2500, and now you have completed a five million dollar project. We went out and built things which cost only a total of $80,000. Why wouldn't God answer us? We believe in the same God, and we exercised the same faith. So why hasn't He answered?...We did exactly as you taught and we failed."

Then I replied, "I am glad that you have failed after hearing my word. Surely you are my disciples, but you have not been the disciples of Jesus Christ. You misunderstood my teachings. I started my church because of rhema, not just logos. But you went out with just logos, a general knowledge about God and His faith. God therefore has no responsibility to support you, even though your ministry was for the Lord Jesus Christ."

I dare not go up to the platform without first waiting upon the Lord and receiving the rhema God would have me give for that message. If I do not receive rhema, I will not go to the platform.

We are not building a holy country club in the church...If the pastor does not supply rhema to his people, then you have just a religious social club. The churches we build should be places where people get their solutions from the Lord, receive miracles for their lives, and can gain not just a knowledge about God, but get to know Him in a vital way. In order to do this, the pastor must first receive rhema.

One of our church's finest deacons became ill; this deacon gave everything to the Lord and working for the Lord in an amazing way. He was told that he had a growth inside his body and that the doctor wanted to operate. But everybody in my church knew that God was going to heal him, for he was a tremendous saint with great faith. That was their reasoning.

I prayed for his healing. All of our then 40,000 members prayed...But nothing happened. He became worse and worse. Eventually he bled so badly he was carried to the hospital and operated on. Many complained, "Where is God? Why is God treating him like this?"

But I praised God, for I knew that He had some specific purpose in what was happening.

When he was hospitalized in the ward he began to preach the Gospel to all the people with whom he made contact. Soon the whole hospital knew that there was a living Jesus. The doctors, nurses and all the patients daily became saved.

Then our members rejoiced, saying, "Praise God. It was far better for him to be in the hospital than to be divinely healed immediately."

God showed that His priority was the eternal healing of souls rather than the earthly healing of the physical.

To discern between the suffering brought by satan that God would rather deliver, and suffering that God would use to bring about the flow of redemptive grace, is not always easy. To make this kind of decision you need to wait upon the Lord, and to know the will of the Lord. Do not become discouraged, but through you prayer, fasting and faith, let God show you His will.

Be careful, however, not to move ahead of God. Many people do move ahead of God, as did Paul, in his eagerness to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus commanded that we go to the ends of the world and preach the Gospel, so Paul went out on the logos, and headed for Asia. But the Spirit of Jesus Christ did not permit him to go there.

We can imagine his wonderings, that he was confused, thinking to himself, "I was just obeying the command of Jesus. Jesus said to go to the ends of the world and preach the Gospel. Why am I a failure?"

But as he was praying and waiting upon the Lord, he received the rhema, and a man from Macedonia appeared in a vision and said, "Come into Macedonia and help us!" So he took a boat and cross over to Europe.