W.V. Grant, Sr.
A number of great healing evangelists have been led by
God to "fast and pray" for quite long periods in order to
break through into greater realms of anointing and communion
with God. W.V.Grant Sr, who was a mightily used and anointed
man of God from earlier this century, was one such
evangelist. Before coming into his full ministry anointing,
he was one who spent all his spare time with Jesus in the
secret place. This man constantly sought God, and fasted on
the weekends. He read many books of God's servants in the
past and studied his Bible day and night. He would pray for
a couple of days until he got answers. He would not leave
his prayer room until he got an answer from God. This and
Christian work was virtually his lifestyle for fourteen
years.
He had already received the baptism in the Holy Spirit
fourteen years earlier, and he spoke in tongues. "Yet, I
felt like I had a bow without an arrow, a car without a
battery, or a boat without a paddle. I read how Peter did
it, but I could not do it. I had the highway map. I was on
the right road, but on the wrong side." (W.V. Grant,
'Searching for the Supernatural', pg 6). "I prayed around
the altar. I fasted three days at a time. I testified about
a supernatural God. I told people that I had the Holy Ghost.
I spoke in tongues to prove it. All the time my heart was
crying out, Where are all the miracles the Bible tells us
about?" (Pg 2).
"I was a director over 13 churches... I saw people saved,
filled with the Holy Ghost with other tongues. I saw a few
people healed. I preached that we had the Pentecostal power.
But where were the results we saw in the early church after
Pentecost? I read about 200 books written by Godly men. I
read every word in the Pentecostal Evangel for years...
After I fasted three days, I still felt empty. That longing
surely can be satisfied in some way? Who was putting that
longing and searching in my soul?" (Pg 3).
"What was I waiting for? Nothing else mattered to me. I
wanted to see His Glory. I wanted to see His Miracles. I
wanted to see the dead raised. I wanted to see the devils
cast out. I wanted to see the deaf, blind, and the mute made
whole. Did not God say in the last days the lame man would
leap as a hart, the tongue of the dumb would sing, and the
eyes of the blind would be opened? (Isaiah 35:5)... John
said in Luke 3:16, 'He shall Baptize you with the Holy
Spirit and with FIRE'... It was fourteen years after I
received the Holy Ghost and tongues before I received the
Holy Ghost and power." (Pg 13).
"If God has called you into a full time ministry of healing
the sick and casting out devils He usually gives you time to
give yourselves to fasting and prayer... Then one night to
my surprise the Lord appeared to me and told me to go on a
seven day fast, which I was willing to do. After the fast
was over the Lord appeared to me. I heard the angels singing
a song I had never heard. I wrote it down. It was beautiful!
It was like heaven. Then an angel just above my head spoke
these words, 'In My name shall ye cast out devils, ye shall
lay hands on the sick and they shall recover.' As I began to
eat, I felt something like an electric cur- rent run out at
the ends of my fingers and down to the bottom of my feet.
The fire of God was all through my body!" (W.V. Grant Sr,
'Must I Fast for Forty Days', pg's 20, 36, 37): -
"But on the last day just about break of day, the Holy
Spirit began to speak to me. Mark 16:17-18 - 'These signs
shall follow them that believe. In My name shall you cast
out devils, they shall take up serpents, if they drink any
deadly thing, it shall not hurt them, they shall lay hands
on the sick, and they shall recover'... I got up, and
walked, and my feet were burning as they were connected to a
high voltage wire. The Holy Spirit, and Fire was running all
through my whole body from my head to my toes. It seemed
like all my strength had been drained out of me, and the
strength of Christ had taken its place. For several years
since, devils have been cast out, and people healed.
"I had the Holy Spirit for years, but it seemed that now, I
was not only filled, but baptized with zeal, compassion, and
with the divine nature of Jesus, with virtue, and with the
fire... If you feel like the Lord has called you into a
special ministry of casting out devils, then remember this:
There are many more things, which are just as necessary as
fasting. Fasting within itself will not be sufficient... But
when I was called to fast, it was just as real as being
called to preach. I was conscious of the fast, that it was
the Lord's doing and not my own... It takes a longer fast
for one man to be brought to the place where he is yielded
to the Lord enough to receive certain gifts in his life than
it does for other men. It took a certain amount of days for
me to fast and to become so yielded to the Lord; it seemed
that all my strength left my body, and the Lord's strength
came into its place! Then I felt the virtue and divine
nature, and the fire of the Holy Ghost dwelling in my body,
which gave me power to meet devils and to cast them out.
"But I still have to be led by the Lord when and how to do
it. It is not myself that doeth the works but the Father
that dwelleth in me. God will not trust you with a ministry
if you do not know the leading of the Spirit. I have talked
personally to several evangelists whom God has called into a
supernatural ministry. None of them went on forty-day fasts
without any food. Since God has given other people
ministries of deliverance without a long fast you can take
courage and believe for a ministry without fasting forty
days..."
With permission from Job Anbalagan gloryofhiscross@yahoo.co.in