Copyright © 1982

All Rights Reserved

BT709
Printed in U.S.A.

Oral Roberts
Evangelistic Association, Inc.
 How to Receive the
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Desires of Your Heart

T he greatest thing God ever showed me...

the greatest thing I know today... is that
God is a good God! He wants us to be well
and to prosper. He wants us to have life and to
have it more abundantly. He wants to give us

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the desires of our heart.
God in His Holy Word has outlined the
way
1. Know that God is a good God (John
10:10).
2. Know that God wants you to prosper
in all things (3 John 2).
3. Know that God has GUARANTEED
you the desires of your heart (Psalm
37:4).
4. Know that guarantee goes into effect
when you delight yourself in the Lord
(Psalm 37:4).

1. Know That God Is a Good God

The thief cometh not, but for to

steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am
come that they might have life, and that
they might have it more abundantly
(John 10:10).
That scripture means two distinct things:
God is a good God. The devil is a bad devil.

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God wants you to be blessed in every facet
and phase of living. The devil wants you to be
tormented by fear, sin, sickness, and poverty.
So many people are LIVING RIGHT
AND THINKING WRONG! They live
according to the standards of the Bible. They
live a clean spiritual life, which is what they
are supposed to do. In fact, God requires it.
(Paul said that it was our reasonable service to
offer our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and
acceptable to the Lord—Romans 12:1.) But
somewhere a bad seed has been planted that
robs them of their rights through the New
Covenant Jesus gave us when He died on the
cross and then rose from the dead.
They have gotten the idea that God gets
glory from the suffering of humanity, that it is
God's will for them to be sick. Many are of the
opinion that God wants them to be poverty-
stricken. Nothing can be further from the
truth.
As I've said before, THEY ARE LIVING
RIGHT AND THINKING WRONG. God's

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Holy Word declares that the devil comes to
steal and kill and destroy, but Jesus came to
bring us abundant life.
Jesus wants all good for you. He wants to
give you not just a sufficiency, but an
overflowing surplus of His miracles, His
riches, and His love. He came to make you
more than what you are and to give you more
than what you have.
More and abundant are the words Jesus
used to describe the life He wanted you and
me to have. More speaks of larger quantity.
Abundant speaks of inexhaustible supply.
Jesus is saying that God is so rich in every
good thing, He wants to give you more than
just enough for your needs. He wants you to
prosper. He wants you to have the desires of
your heart.

2. Believe That God Wants You to Prosper

Beloved, I wish above all things

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 that thou mayest prosper and be in
health, even as thy soul prospereth (3
John 2).
As long as I live I will never forget the
morning I discovered 3 John 2. It was a spring
day in May 1947. I was a young married
college student, a struggling young preacher.
There was barely enough money to support
my little family or cover the necessities of life.
There was certainly none left over.
I had made it a point to read two or three
chapters of scripture each morning before I
caught the city bus to college. Reading the
Bible in the morning seemed to get my day off
to a better start.
On this particular morning I was standing
in my yard, watching for the bus to come to
our corner. Suddenly I remembered that I had
forgotten to read my Bible that morning. I
looked and the bus was not in sight yet. I
realized that if I hurried I still had time to read
a verse or two.

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 Running quickly back to the house, I
grabbed up my Bible and flipped it open to
read a quick passage of scripture. The Bible
fell open to the Third Epistle of St. John, the
second verse:
Beloved, I wish above all things
that thou mayest prosper and be in
health, even as thy soul prospereth.
My eyes just locked onto that verse of
scripture. As I read it over and over, the glory
of God seemed to explode in my mind.
I never did get around to going to college
that day. I forgot the bus, the college, myself.
I had one thought in mind: I had to show my
wife Evelyn what I had discovered in God's
Holy Word.
When she finished reading it she said,
"Oral, is that in the Bible?!"
I said, "Well, Evelyn, you just read it from
the Bible."
She shook her head and replied, "I know,
but is it really in the Bible? Have you ever

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read it before?"
I knew what she meant. I had read the
Bible from cover to cover many times. I had
read the New Testament through over 100
times, but I had never seen that scripture like
God was revealing it to me then. It was like
He was giving me a special revelation of this
verse.
Looking back, I realize now that was
exactly what He was doing. I did not know it
at that precise moment in my life but that
scripture would revolutionize my ministry and
my life ... and the lives of millions.
Even though I had read it straight from the
Bible and knew beyond a shadow of doubt
that it was the absolute truth, I told Evelyn,
"Honey, if this is true we have missed the boat
that has already left the port. But we can catch
the next one that's coming through."
The problem we were having with that
scripture was that we had never been taught
that God had made a covenant with man and

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He wanted us, His children, to prosper as
much financially and physically as He did
spiritually. The realization of that was a whole
new breakthrough for us.
From that day on I knew in my heart that
God is our Source of total supply for our
every need. I began to preach with a new
awareness, "Jesus Christ the same
yesterday, and today, and forever"
(Hebrews 13:8).

God Wants to Prosper You With Material

Things

Even though we try hard to be, we are not

yet totally spiritual beings. Those things we
feel moving around on our back when we
raise our arms are shoulder blades. They are
not wings sprouting!
There is a day on the horizon when we
will be consumed by the Spirit of God. We
will be like Him. But now we are human. We
laugh, we hurt, we cry, we feel good, we feel

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bad, we make mistakes ... we do all these
things because we are human. We are in the
world even though we are not of the world.
Because we are human, we have natural
needs and desires. Every person I know has
them. It is not wrong to want material things.
It is not abnormal to want money and nice
things. Money is not all God has to offer, but
it is part of God's total blessing.
Most folks would rather drive a new car
that looks good and runs well, than an old one
that has to be "jump-started" every time you
take it out of the driveway. I want to tell you
that God does not object to your driving a
good car.
It is natural for people to want to live in
nice homes on nice streets instead of living in
poverty on skid row, with a box over their
heads.
There is nothing abnormal about wanting
to wear a new dress, new shoes, or a new suit
of clothes. It uplifts the human spirit to wear a

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new garment.
Nobody enjoys hiding from the bill
collectors, or hiding the car so the finance
company will not repossess it. I do not know
anybody who enjoys having their phone
disconnected or their gas and electricity cut
off.
Everybody seems to enjoy the feeling of
having their bills paid on time and some
money left in their pocket. That is not wrong
or abnormal.
I believe that God wants us to have the
very best life has to offer. God wants you and
me to be blessed with the material things we
need to make living more productive. Material
blessings are one-third of God's total plan for
your life. "... I wish ... that thou mayest
prosper" (3 John 2).

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 God Wants to Bless You With Health

I believe God can heal you and then keep

you well after you are healed.
To me, it makes no sense at all that God
would get glory from the suffering and
sickness of humanity. My entire being cries
out in rejection of this idea, because I know
that God is a good God, and receives no glory
from the evil that is brought upon His
children.
The whole of the plan of God is hinged
upon the vicarious suffering of the Savior.
Jesus suffered so that you and I would not
have to carry sickness in our bodies or minds.
He rose from the dead that we might have
LIFE ... more abundantly.
While I lay dying from tuberculosis, as a
teenager, people from local churches came to
visit me and, I suppose, wish me well. But
their well-wishing almost finished me off.

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 Doubt was being pumped into me by the
minute as I listened to their conversations
concerning my sickness. They all seemed to
be in total agreement that God had done this
to me, and was somehow getting glory from
it.
I was so confused by that theory. I could
not understand why a kind, loving God would
do this to me. What had I done to deserve this
killer disease in my body?
In the middle of my despair, I heard the
greatest sermon ever preached to me. It was
not a long sermon, only seven words long. It
was preached to me by a person who was not
even a preacher. But it brought Jesus to the
point of my need. That is where Jesus always
appears, you know.
It was my sister Jewel who preached this
sermon to me. She said, simply, "Oral, God is
going to heal you!"
I tell you, I still think that is the greatest
sermon I ever heard. It literally gave me the

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boost of faith I needed to rise up from the
deathbed. It gave me hope where there was no
hope. It was the spark that started the flame of
faith to receive my healing.
The accomplishments of this ministry
would never have been achieved had God not
raised me up from sickness. The multiplied
thousands of souls who have been born into
the kingdom of God through this ministry
could never have been won if God had not
made me whole. I was in no condition to even
live, much less take His healing power to my
generation.
Good health is one-third of God's total
plan for your life. "... I wish ... that thou
mayest . . . be in health" (3 John 2).

God Wants to Prosper You Spiritually

The first step to spiritual prosperity is

simple enough. You must be born again.
Spiritual prosperity is the other one-third of
God's total plan for blessing. "... I wish ...

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that thou mayest prosper...even as thy soul
prospered" (3 John 2).
All the material blessings that I have
written about and all the blessings of health
that I have written about are worthless unless
you have been born again.
For what is a man profited, if he
shall gain the whole world, and lose his
own soul (Matthew 16:26).
Money cannot buy some things. Money
cannot buy peace of mind, joy, or the
happiness that comes only from knowing the
Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior.
The gap in the soul of one who is separated
from God can only be bridged by God's grace.
A person who is the perfect specimen of
health is missing a vital part of his well-being
if there is sickness in his soul. When there is
sickness in the soul, the body feels the effects
of it.
There is no doctor or medication on earth
that can cure the sickness in the soul caused

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by unforgiven sin. The diseases of the soul
must be cleansed as well as the diseases of the
body; they feed upon one another.
There is no feeling in the world like the
burden of sin being lifted, and walking in new
life.
If the son therefore shall make you
free, ye shall be free indeed (John 8:36).
You shall be free! Free from what? Free
from condemnation ... free from the bondage
of sin ... free from feelings of guilt that once
haunted the mind.
When freedom and liberty come to a
person they begin to experience spiritual
prosperity. Spiritual prosperity is simply
having the peace and joy and happiness of the
Holy Spirit in your life. It is having an
abundant supply of the power of the Holy
Spirit working in you and through you to be
His faithful witness.
When I tell people that God wants to use
them as a channel, many of them say, "Oral

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Roberts, do you mean that God can use me? I
thought you had to be a special person!"
You do have to be a special person ... and
YOU ARE a special person.
God wants to bless you with spiritual
prosperity. Prosperity is having enough goods
for yourself and enough left over for someone
else who needs it.
You can have so much spiritual prosperity
that it overflows onto those around you. Your
cup of happiness, love, joy, and power can
overflow. God wants it to overflow ... to
someone else.
Do not live beneath your rights provided
in the covenant God cut by the blood of Jesus
of Nazareth. Remember that the God of
heaven wants you to be the recipient of His
great and bounteous blessings.

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3. Know That God Has Guaranteed You the
Desires of Your Heart

Delight thyself also in the Lord;

and he shall give thee the desires of
thine heart (Psalm 37:4).
This scripture has inspired me through the
many years of this ministry. It says that the
Lord WILL give us the desires of our heart.
He not only wants to give you the desires of
your heart, He GUARANTEES that He will
do it.
Now to those of us who have limited
sources of supply, that is a pretty big
guarantee to back up. But to God, who
himself is the unlimited Source of Supply, it is
easy to fulfill. That's right. IT IS EASY FOR
GOD TO DO IT.
The HEART that David wrote about in the
37th Psalm is the very core of man's being. It
is the part of the individual which moves
beyond human understanding. It is a part of

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God. It is the life within us. It is more than a
blood-pumping muscle in the center of the
chest, it is the spiritual epicenter of our very
being.
What does the heart desire? It desires total
fulfillment. It desires total fulfillment because
it is a part of God, the total Source of life
itself. No one thing can satisfy the longing of
the heart of a man. It takes the combined
blessings of God—spiritual, physical, and
financial—to do the job.
Now you may say, "Oral Roberts, that is
impossible to do." But it is not impossible to
do. In fact, it is your right, through the
covenant of God, to have your heart's desire
fulfilled. God guarantees it.

4. Delight Yourself in the Lord

Delight thyself also in the Lord …

(Psalm 37:4).
Let me sum up what I've said by telling

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you that what the heart desires is total
fulfillment.
Think about that for a minute and you will
see that it is exactly right. Because if you have
plenty of money and good health but are not
born again, you are missing part of the total
blessing.
If you are born again and have good
health but are so poor that the poor folk call
you poor, you are missing part of the total
blessing.
If you are born again and have plenty of
money, but are sick and suffering in your
body, you are missing part of the total
blessing.
Now you ask, "Oral Roberts, how do I go
about getting this total fulfillment?" Well,
there is a secret to it: DELIGHT THYSELF
IN THE LORD! That means to make yourself
happy in the Lord.
Now I want you to read this part very
carefully because there is a message of

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enlightenment in what I am about to say.
YOU CAN BE MORE THAN A
SERVANT OF GOD! I know that is bold but
I have not gone off the deep end. Keep
reading.
Jesus said:
... I call you not servants; for the
servant knoweth not what his lord
doeth: but I have called you friends
(John 15:15).
In Hebrews 8:6, the Apostle Paul wrote
that Jesus is the mediator of a better covenant,
established upon better promises. Those better
promises are literally preferred positions in
God. Through this preferred position, you
become a FRIEND of God. Now that is
powerful. You become a friend of God. As
God's friend, you are the heir of His great
blessings.
It is easy to be delighted about being
God's friend. If you see your position in God
as a drudgery, you cannot be delighted. It is

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very hard to get excited about being a slave.
Unfortunately, that is the way a lot of people
see themselves, as slaves at labor.
They get no joy from praying, reading the
Word of God, going to church, witnessing, or
praising God. They feel that they are "forced"
to do these things.
That concept is somewhat like holding a
gun on your husband or wife so that they will
tell you, "Darling, I love you so very much!" I
think you get the point! God does not want to
use force to get praise from anyone. If force
must be used, the purpose is defeated. Get into
the idea that you and God are best friends.
Stop and think for just a minute. No one is
forcing you to be a Christian. You are doing it
by choice. Satan lies to so many people and
tells them that they are the very dregs of
humanity because they are children of God.
That is not so. We are children of the King of
Heaven and Earth, and it is the greatest
privilege ever granted to be a part of the
covenant family of God.

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 Delight thyself in the Lord. If you have
any other gods, the end result is total failure.
Money will make a person happy for a little
while. So will nice homes, new clothes, new
cars, and leisure-living. But the joy provided
by these things fades fast and leaves a vast
emptiness in its place.
Delight thyself in the Lord. Beauty and
youthfulness are soon replaced by age.
Growing older without God is foolish. If God
is your Source, beauty does not disappear with
age. It increases! Nothing in the world is more
beautiful than a grandmother or grandfather
whose delight is in the Lord. If beauty and
youthfulness is the source, joy will be short-
lived because youth is over before it gets
started.
Delight thyself in the Lord. Realize that
God is your very best friend and wants you to
have the best He has to offer.
Delight thyself in the Lord. Make God
the center of your life. Seek the kingdom of
God and His righteousness and God will

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supply all the desires of your heart, according
to Matthew 6:33:
Seek ye first the kingdom of God ...
and all these things shall be added unto
you.
Delight thyself in the Lord. Nothing in
the world is more counterproductive than a
person who is an unhappy Christian. Some
folks never laugh or smile, never have
anything good to say about anybody, and
never have the victory. They are "enduring" to
the end. When you are in Christ, as a new
creature, you can ENJOY your relationship
with God. You are in covenant with Him.
Through Christ that covenant is a better
covenant because it's based on God's better
promises.
Delight thyself in the Lord. Realize that
God's total plan for blessing you is made up of
three parts, according to 3 John 2: spiritual,
physical, and financial. One part will not bring
the fulfillment that the heart is seeking.

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 Delight thyself in the Lord. All problems
are spiritually based. Make God the center of
your life. Always put Him first by seeking the
kingdom of God and His righteousness. If you
will seek Him before you seek anything else,
He will bless you with the desires of your
heart, according to Matthew 6:33. Put
everything you have into the hands of God.
Give Him the "title" to your soul, your body,
your finances ... and he will give thee the
desires of thine heart (Psalm 37:4).
DELIGHT THYSELF IN THE LORD
AND HE WILL BLESS YOUR HEART
WITH TOTAL FULFILLMENT. GOD
GUARANTEES IT AND YOU CANNOT
AFFORD TO BE WITHOUT GOD GIVING
YOU THE DESIRES OF YOUR HEART.

Now Let's Pray Together

Lord, You said whatsoever we desire

when we pray, that we're to go from asking to
believing that we receive what we've prayed

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for.
And now, dear friend, I pray that as you
delight yourself in the Lord, He will give you
the desires of your heart. I pray that those
desires will be focused in your mind, and by
faith you'll see yourself receiving whatsoever
you've asked from God. I join with you in
believing that you have it now, and that your
faith is going to reveal it to you. Therefore,
you're going to look for the revelation of it...
the receiving of it. I pray that as God rewards
your faith, you will open up more and more to
receiving God's total blessings in every area
of your life—spiritually, physically,
emotionally, and financially... that you might
be made a blessing to others.
In the name of Jesus, whose name is
above every name, I pray. And I declare by
faith that it is so in your life. Amen and amen.

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 I Care About You

I want to invite you to write me. When

you tell me what you're going through, I can
know better how to write you back ... and how
to pray and help you believe God for the
miracles you need. I care about you. I want to
encourage you in the Lord and help you learn
to get your needs met. Simply address your
letter to:
Oral Roberts
Tulsa, Oklahoma 74171

In Canada write:

Oral Roberts
Toronto, Ontario M4P 2G2

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