Thank you for coming today. I have been asking God daily what He wants to do in these moments of honoring the life of Paul Cain. I think we are each here for some very specific reasons, which I will elaborate on before I close. I want to begin by sharing with you some of Paul’s story: some aspects of his life as a boy and as a young prophet which I hope will give you context for the man he became.
Getting to Know Paul
Allow me to give you a glimpse into the Paul Cain I knew. I met Paul in the late 70s (over 40 years ago) while attending a Full-Gospel Businessmen’s Conference. Paul called out the man sitting next to me and told him he had debilitating gout and pronounced him healed. That man was my wife’s dad and he was instantly healed. After that, as a young businessman, I was able to personally meet Paul and found ways to serve him and his ministry, ultimately becoming a close friend of the family. Several years later, feeling a call to ministry, I went to work full-time for Paul, thinking I would serve him for a few years, receive an impartation then launch out on my own. I had no idea that I would become so interwoven into his family and that I would care for his mother until she died in my arms 10 years later, nor that I would care for his sister Mildred until she passed into eternity. I never intended to serve Paul and his family and fight for his calling for 18 years, but these were God’s plans during those years.
My time with Paul was the hardest season of my life, but also the most instructional. We lived and worked daily with generals of the faith such as John Wimber, Mike Bickle, Rick Joyner, Dr. Jack Deere and numerous others. They were my mentors and big brothers that I honored for the way they discipled me and for their love for Paul. Whenever things grew hard during serving Paul, the Lord would always tell me that if I was faithful to build the dreams of another, He would one day allow me to build my own dreams. Six years into working with Paul I went through a divorce. Because of the influence of Paul’s beliefs regarding second marriage and ministry, I did not date for the next 12 years. Amazingly, the Lord used this time to equip me in ministry, but also to heal my own brokenness. This time also prepared me for marriage. In 1998 I resigned after nearly 20 years of service to pursue the heart of Monette, with whom I enjoyed 20 years of marriage.
As one who served Paul and his family and his vision for so many years, I feel qualified to tell you about the man and the prophet Paul Cain and his prophetic heritage. It is my honor to share accounts of his childhood and early years as learned from his family and contemporaries. I will also try and give you some context for understanding the kind of man Paul became and what shaped his character and values. Most of all though, I want to share what I believe we can take away from his life.
Paul’s early years
Paul grew up in a matriarchal family. His mother, grandmother and great-grandmother were well-known prophetesses in East Texas. Paul’s dad would later get saved through an angelic visitation in one of Paul’s crusades, but growing up, he was a very passive, unbelieving Jewish man who had little connection with or influence in Paul’s life. Paul was essentially raised by prophetic women who were afraid to discipline him because of his holy calling.
Paul had two older sisters and his mom was 44 when she became pregnant with him. During her pregnancy she contracted TB in both lungs; she had a terminal heart condition, cancer in both breasts and 3 malignant tumors in her womb preventing Paul’s birth. She was confined to bed and quarantined in her own home where she was wasting away to skin and bones and expected to die, but the baby continued to grow.
I will recount what happened next in her own words which were spoken to me through tears of joy and gratitude many times: “I was near death and it was the midnight hour when the angel of the Lord appeared to me and announced: Daughter, be of good cheer, you shall live and not die. The fruit of your womb is a male child. Name him Paul for he will preach the gospel as the apostle Paul of old.” Anna Cain
Surrounded by prophetesses, Paul was groomed as a seer in his youngest years. By age 8, he was a child preacher that could see into men’s hearts and already learning the art of prophetic ministry. By age 12 he was preaching, prophesying and filling churches to capacity in the Dallas area. This was happening simultaneous with the beginning of the Healing Revival era. It was a time when great preachers were arising, having huge tent revivals with countless healings with truckloads of empty wheelchairs and crutches carried away from meetings each day.
Still in his teenage years, Paul was discovered by a wealthy promoter who enabled him to minister on prominent stages with the generals of the Healing movement even though he was such a young prophet. Bear in mind that he had no spiritual fathering and no apostolic oversight. He had raw prophetic anointing with no intentional character-building relationships and his preaching and healing gifts were growing powerfully. Imagine what this would do to the mind, heart and ego of a teenager.
From some early Voice of Healing records, we see that Paul was a respected healing revivalist. But by his own admission, when he was in his mid-twenties, he got caught up in the fame and focus on wealth which marked that era so much so that he once owned seven houses, numerous high-end cars, a huge tent and semi-trucks so he could mobilize the show. While not all bad things in and of themselves, Paul would often say they distracted him from his humble beginnings in the presence of God and he would say that the demand to preach and the constant need to meet his financial obligations drove him until he finally broke down.
In his late 20s, Paul became disillusioned with what was going on as he watched his peers drop like flies into various forms of sin. Paul’s disillusionment became so intense that he virtually disappeared from the movement and went into relative obscurity for the next 25-30 years, only coming out of hiding to preach occasionally. No one knows much about those years, but I did meet several people who were miraculously healed and delivered during those hidden years when Paul prayed for them in a meeting, visited them in a hospital or mental institution. He never stopped ministering, but he shied away from the limelight.
For the most part, the Healing revival that shaped Paul’s character and values was led by men and women with sovereign callings and gifting, but they were largely un-fathered. They were breaking new ground with no road maps to follow and no apostolic fathers to care for their hearts. Gifts were exalted above character and ministry above family and friendship. For the most part, those ministries were outwardly glorious, but inwardly unhealthy and it was only a matter of time before the ticking time-bomb blew up for most of them.
As a teenager Paul was thrust into rock-star status where he knew fame and unprecedented supernatural power and authority. Incurable diseases such as tuberculosis and polio were ravaging our country and created the vacuum into which these men and women stepped. Into this perfect storm came an un-fathered boy prophet with extraordinary gifts.
Like Paul, each of us carries heaven’s treasure in an earthen vessel. The weakness of our flesh and underdevelopment of our character does not diminish the quality or the purpose of the treasure, but it does limit the scope of our ministry and impact.
Before anyone dares to judge Paul and the revivalists of that era for their failures, we should ask ourselves what are we doing to prepare our own hearts to handle God’s power with dignity and consistency. How much of our daily lives are we spending in the presence of God and at the feet of Jesus? Are we passionate about developing healthy wineskins that can handle the new wine of God’s power or will we succumb to the corruption of power and the ways of the world as God uses us? What are we doing to be mentored and fathered by healthy mothers and fathers? If we are a mom or dad in the faith, what are we doing to invest in the next generation? One thing I noticed is that the only ministries to survive that powerful era are the ones that went into education and became next generation focused. Think of ORU and Christ for the Nations.
Please allow me a few minutes to talk about why we are here today and what I believe God wants give us.
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We are here to honor a man who once walked with the generals of the faith; a man who once moved mountains and healed the sick and cast out demons. When Jesus disciples did these things, He proclaimed that He saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning.
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We are here to honor a man who was born into revival as a boy prophet but did not choose this prophetic calling; it was given to him. Born in 1929, his prophetic and healing gifts propelled him to fame even before his teenage years and into the emergence of the healing revival of the 1940s and 1950s. Raised by prophetesses, he received no fathering or healthy mothering as a child, but he also did not understand the need for such things. This absence of spiritual and apostolic fathers became a gaping hole later in life which significantly restricted his effectiveness and spiritual health. Despite the impact of these unmet needs, he carried a pure hope for end-time revival.
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We are here to honor a man who was born into revival and made for revival and who could not find his place in this world in-between revival expressions. Apart from revival, Paul was a Ferrari confined to a parking lot. His theology and preaching were never balanced, nor was balance his mandate. He was a single purpose prophet – made to call a generation to revival of New Testament caliber and beyond.
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We are here to honor a man who was first broken and disillusioned in his late 20s when the healing movement came crashing down around him and his peers were failing by the dozens. From what I can tell, Paul’s personal and ministry development was arrested during the glory of those early years and he never grew past the message and hope of real revival.
Few know of the depth of Paul’s repentance and godly sorrow for his failures and excesses during those early days. Nor do they know his sorrow for those he hurt in his later failures, but as one who was hurt by his weaknesses later in life, I experienced his repentance first hand for the pain he caused me and I honor him for his tenderness to the Holy Spirit and his desire to be a man that pleased God.
We are also here to RECEIVE from a prophet who was also a man.
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When Job recounts the glory of his earlier life in chapter 29, he declares that “the blessing of a perishing man came upon me” There is a significant blessing that is imparted when we touch the gift of men like Paul. Most of us here today have touched that gift and our hearts were once warmed by the fire of the anointing he carried.
When the dead soldier was thrown into a grave with Elisha’s bones and rose from the dead, he touched the residual anointing that lingered long after Elisha’s death. I believe the prophetic anointing and calling of Paul Cain still has power and that there is an impartation for those who desire it. I believe we are here to receive the inheritance of Paul’s unfinished calling. If you can believe it, by honoring who he was meant to be and what he was called to do, we can receive an impartation of his anointing. It is not the mantle of a man, but divine impartation from God. The gifts and callings of God are irrevocable and what Paul was called to do has never been more important. One way we honor those we have loved and lost is not only with our words, but by completing their unfinished assignments.
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Paul died on the one-year anniversary of my wife’s death. As I laid my lover of 20 years to rest, the Lord told me clearly that the greatest way I could honor her was by completing the assignments he had given us. This is true regarding Paul’s assignments.
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Paul has left us some unfinished work in the raising up a prophetic generation that can bear God’s power in purity.
We are not here to take the easy path of a critic
8. We are not here to join our voices with those who love to point out where strong men stumble. As Roosevelt said,
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
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We are not here to be Paul’s critics, nor are we here to puff Paul up or portray him as a superhero. He was a man, but he was also a prophet. He carried the treasure of heaven in an earthen vessel just as each of us does. Let us all choose not to be the critic who celebrates the attitude of the older brother and crucifies the prodigal son for his failures. We are men and women of honor who share the heart of the Father and rejoice in whatever measure the broken are restored. Sometimes, I think we have forgotten one of the most important rules of the Kingdom: “Let him that is without sin cast the first stone”
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We are not just here to honor Paul today, nor are we here merely to celebrate the more epic moments of his life. We are here to receive something that God is longing to give to our generation. We are here to receive an impartation of prophetic anointing and power of which Paul was a forerunner.
For me, and any of you who are willing, we are here today to pick up a ripped and torn, dusty old mantle that once housed one of the purest prophetic gifts ever given to men. A man’s mantle is really just his assignment and the authority to complete it. We are here today to receive an assignment and the purity of a prophetic gift that is essential for reaching our generation. By honoring Paul’s life and calling, we can catch the anointing he was given and carry on the work he started.
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Jesus said of John the Baptist in Matthew 11
“What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swayed by the wind? 8 If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear fine clothes are in kings’ palaces. 9 Then what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. 10 This is the one about whom it is written:
“‘I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you’
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John was not the man you wanted to marry your daughter or teach family values in your church. He was an Old Testament Prophet and not a model for today. His value and impact lay in his singular prophetic destiny. He was a single purpose entity. Paul was no John the Baptist, but like John, he was a single-purpose man and he was a forerunner that pointed us to lost Kingdom-realities and end-time caliber transformation. He was indeed a prophet with the capacity to inspire his generation. Even those who grew disillusioned with Paul and walked away from years of friendship with him, must surely recall that their hearts were once drawn closer to God by him. Though we may have hoped that Paul came in a more polished package that was without weakness and sin, we must acknowledge that he truly carried the treasure of heaven in an earthen vessel that the excellency of the power was of God and not of himself.
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Allow me to share some closing verses before we pray:
“know no man after the flesh, but after the spirit” 2 Corinthians 5:16, 17
“Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” 1 Samuel 16:7
“The gifts and calling of God are irrevocable” Romans 11:29
“For though you might have 10,000 instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers”
I Corinthians 4:15Joshua 1:1-9 The Message
After the death of Moses the servant of God, God spoke to Joshua, Moses’ assistant:
“Moses my servant is dead. Get going. Cross this Jordan River, you and all the people. Cross to the country I’m giving to the People of Israel. I’m giving you every square inch of the land you set your foot on—just as I promised Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon east to the Great River, the Euphrates River—all the Hittite country—and then west to the Great Sea. It’s all yours. All your life, no one will be able to hold out against you. In the same way I was with Moses, I’ll be with you. I won’t give up on you; I won’t leave you. Strength! Courage! You are going to lead this people to inherit the land that I promised to give their ancestors. Give it everything you have, heart and soul. Make sure you carry out The Revelation that Moses commanded you, every bit of it. Don’t get off track, either left or right, so as to make sure you get to where you’re going. And don’t for a minute let this Book of The Revelation be out of mind. Ponder and meditate on it day and night, making sure you practice everything written in it. Then you’ll get where you’re going; then you’ll succeed. Haven’t I commanded you? Strength! Courage! Don’t be timid; don’t get discouraged. God, your God, is with you every step you take.”
Prayer of Impartation
Father, your servant Paul is dead and seemingly was not allowed to cross into the promised land, but like Joshua, there are those in this room who are prepared and called and long to carry on your mission to take the promised land.
I ask that you give us the prophetic tools, gifts and character we need to possess the land of our inheritance which you promised to give our ancestors. Show us how to pick up the call for true cultural-transformation and empower us so we can fulfill the promises given to previous generations. Give us wisdom. Give us strength and put your courage in us.
Keep us from becoming cynical and critical and give us the Father’s heart to go hard after the prodigals who stray from the path. Raise up apostolic fathers and mothers to mentor and disciple us in our gifting so we can stay the path and mature in all aspects of Kingdom life.
Enable us to be a generation of prophetic leaders and humble sons and daughters that are good at friendship and thrive in community. We want to know your ways and not get distracted by your acts of power as they flow through us. Teach us how to honor the imperfect men that go before us so the blessing of a perishing man may come upon us.
Though Paul did not get to pull the pillars down before he died, show us how to do it. Empower us to do what Paul could not! Help us to become a wineskin that can bear the new wine you long to pour out in our generation and finish all that you call us to do and become all you have called us to be! And, above all Lord, keep us in your presence all the days of our lives so that we may finish well. In Jesus name!
