This is not the hour that thou shalt stand before the Lord with fears and reluctance in thy heart to press forward. Truly as thou art worshipers of the Lord thou shalt set thy heart to wholly follow after Him with all that is within thee. This is not a day in which thou shalt say, “Behold, tomorrow or the next day I shall do this and that,” but thou shalt earnestly seek after the Lord’s will. Thou shalt walk in the thing that the Lord sets before thee to do. Thou shalt be prepared to be the people that God hath chosen to bring forth His glory and His praise and a song unto the Lord in all of the earth. Let not your hearts be filled with fear or reluctance; think not upon thyselves as humans with limitations. Think upon thyselves as extensions of the Lord, the Lord who is limitless, the Lord who is without any measure in His power or authority. Thou art His extensions; thou art His channels in the earth to do His will.
Sometimes you’ll find a little story sandwiched away in the Word and it intrigues you to the point that you just can’t let go of it. Have you ever had that happen to you? In Matthew 21 the thing that intrigues me is the story of the fig tree. Let’s believe the Lord to see something in this Scripture we’ve never seen before, to see ourselves in relationship to the Lord, to see His complete authority over us and what it is intended to really mean.
The human thinking continually reverts to the idea of power whenever the word “authority” is presented. When you think of authority you think of a big angel with muscles. Angels don’t have muscles! Muscles belong to a physical realm. God doesn’t have muscles, but He has the authority of being the Creator. The devils have power, they have learned to use power and psychic forces upon individuals. This distinction between power and authority has to be understood. Devils can come as big as houses, but the weakest saint on his knees, using the authority of the name of Jesus Christ, can send them into eternal judgment. The problem is that we don’t see ourselves in relationship to the authority that shrouds us. We don’t understand how the spirit world really works and we want to add a little bit of muscle to it.
You may say, “Oh, I’m so weak, I’m so inadequate, I’m so insufficient for the problems that I am facing.” This is true, but if you can see your position in God and the authority, you can begin to make inroads in that area. We must study the authority that belongs to a believer. We can be hopeless in every area, but if we understand what the name of Jesus can mean and are submissive to it, it can open the door to release in all other areas.
In Matthew 21, we see that some eventful things had taken place. Jesus overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves, then He left them and went out of the city to Bethany, and lodged there.
Now, in the morning, when He returned to the city, He became hungry. And seeing a lone fig tree by the road, He came to it, and found nothing on it except leaves only; and He said to it, “No longer shall there ever be any fruit from you.” And at once the fig tree withered. And seeing this, the disciples marveled, saying, “How did the fig tree wither at once?” And Jesus answered and said to them, “Truly I say to you, if you have faith, and do not doubt, you shall not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, (That’s a little bit different from a fig tree—a mountain.) ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it shall happen. And everything you ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive.” Verses 18–22.
Now, I wish I would believe that, don’t you? I wish I could really believe it. But I do believe that I’m going to believe it because I’m coming to grips with the unbelief. I believe that I’m going to believe it and come into the full expression of faith, the mountain moving power of faith. I’m going to see it work!
It was a little fig tree by the side of the road, nothing but leaves. Can you blame a fig tree? I don’t know; the scientists are saying all kinds of things now. They say the stars may be talking, that there may be some strange kind of life in them. They say porpoises talk—scientists have discovered certain languages of the undersea world. They have also found that plants react as if they had emotions. If someone who’s been known to pull up plants walks in the room, the little plant will droop and express fear. This has been established scientifically through electrical recordings. Isn’t that fantastic? Knowing this, a person could almost get a guilt complex every time he eats a salad!
We can’t understand a lot of this but if you look at Matthew 21:19 you understand it even less. Jesus came to the fig tree and started talking to it, “Now listen here, fig tree, no longer shall there ever be any fruit upon you,” and He went on His way. He rebuked fevers and He rebuked sicknesses—He talked to them. He would take some strange thing like death, and personify it, and He would rebuke it. There was nothing complicated about the Lord, He reduced things to the place where something could be done about them. He said to the fig tree, “No one will ever eat fruit from you again,” He was hungry and the purpose of a fig tree, was to feed its master. Do we have to assume that the fig tree was guilty? I suppose so. I don’t think the Lord would have judged it if it hadn’t been guilty. If the Lord will judge a fig tree, what will He do with you if you don’t bear fruit unto righteousness, if you don’t do the will of God, if you don’t do the thing you’re supposed to? You have quite a bit more intelligence than a fig tree, and you have a responsibility before God to produce the thing God says.
The disciples were standing there and they marveled and said, “Lord, how did You do that, how did it just wither and die like that?” He said, “If you have faith and do not doubt, you shall not only do what’s done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain”—Talk to a mountain? is there a basic consciousness of some kind so a mountain can hear the word of the Lord and obey?—“ ‘Be taken up, be cast into the sea…’ ” What’s this strange authority that a fig tree, a mountain, a sea, an ocean, and death itself hear the voice of the Son of God, respond and do all of His will? I think I tend to be like the disciples, I marvel at it.
I don’t understand the wonder of my Lord’s authority. How is it He could testify so simply that all authority in heaven and in earth was His? John 1:3 says of Him, All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. What strange authority our Creator and Redeemer has, to speak a word and everything, except our own rebellious hearts, obeys Him. How can we come to the place where we too would respect and honor His word, and respond and say, “Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth”?
The Lord tries to tell us, “Look, what I am doing you’re going to be able to do; what rests upon Me in authority, I’m going to let rest upon you. As the Father has sent Me, so I’m going to send you. I’ve been commissioned, now I commission you to go forth and bear much fruit.” It is marvelous, wonderful, and almost beyond what we can bear; to know that the Lord could have such authority, such marvelous authority, and tell us we’re to have it too.
In John 14:10–12, Jesus spoke to His disciples and said, “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works. Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me; otherwise believe on account of the works themselves. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do shall he do also; (I think I’m prepared to accept that. I think most of us are prepared for that.) and greater works than these shall he do; because I go to the Father.” How can we be prepared for what we can’t comprehend? Can we even imagine anything greater than what the Lord did?
“Greater works than these shall he do;…And whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.” John 14:12b–14. Lord, help our unbelief. He not only did it Himself in the flesh, but He wants to step it up and increase the whole thing in us.
Would you have been better prepared if the Lord had said, “You’re going to come pretty close to the works that I have done, you’re going to do some fantastic things, but they’ll be a little bit short of what I’ve done”? I could accept that, but it seems impossible that the Lord, with His sinless perfection, could accomplish such marvelous things; be such a complete channel to the Father, then find us and say that we are going to do more than He did. We have a problem accepting this. We still don’t grasp the idea that it isn’t based upon us; it’s based upon His commission of authority to us to do it.
Don’t you like what authority really means: You can go as high as you envision in your heart. You can rise up to the spectacular, unbelievable height of walking in the authority of Jesus Christ, the Lord of lords and King of kings. The trouble is you want to think like somebody that’s being stepped on. You are prone to think defeat. You may be conditioned, but you can throw it off; you can become reconditioned. You can stir your heart to say, “I’m going to believe for something better than the way I’ve walked. I’ve walked too long in defeat. I haven’t expected victory.” You’re going to start expecting victory in the name of the Lord; you’re going to anticipate it; It’s yours in the name of the Lord!
Did you ever hear about the old woman who went to church and heard a sermon on mountain moving faith? She went home and looked at the big old hill behind her house—it blotted out the morning sun and everything—she just hated it. So she went out and stood on the back porch and commanded it to be cast into the sea, then she went to bed. The next morning she got up, went out and looked at the hill and mumbled, “Ah, I didn’t think it was going to go away anyway.” That’s the problem; we don’t think it’s going to go away. We still have something within our hearts that rises up—Oh, God deliver us from this awful thing of unbelief, this slavery to our senses.
The worst thing that science has done for us is to give us that indescribable, filthy principle which tells us we should rely upon our senses, we should rely upon what we can prove in a test tube, under a microscope, or through a telescope. It has taken away people’s faith in the unseen, in what God says He will do; that’s why it is despicable. I have no respect for a teacher of science who wants to limit people’s horizons to some little microscope or polliwog or something they can see. I hate that. The things that are real never could be measured by a ruler; miracles never could be measured in a scale. This is the wonder and the reality. I’ve watched the intangible happen, but some scientists want to deny it all because their stupid little eyes can’t see it. I hate the fact that they want to circumscribe wisdom around their ignorance.
I’m going to believe that one of these days not far away we’re going to cast those mountains into the sea. I believe we’re going to believe for it. What’s the basis, is it some great thing in me? No, it’s the great thing that is in Him—all authority in heaven and earth. He says, “If you ask. If you ask, I will do it. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you.” (John 15:7). You say, “Ask whatever you wish? Oh, that’s some kind of a Pollyanna dream.” No, it isn’t because in our persistence we’re going to have it. We shall have a lot of things because we believe for them. You may say, “Oh, yes, we’re going to be worthy of them by and by.” If you’re thinking that way, it’s a lie of Satan! It is not because we’re going to be worthy, but because He is worthy; not because we deserve it, but because His grace and mercy gives it to us. We’re going to insist on it in the name of the Lord. Jesus said, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain; that whatever you ask of the Father in My name, He may give it to you” (John 15:16). That’s your destiny. “I chose you. What did I choose you for? that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain and whatever you ask of the Father in My name, He may give it to you.” That is your heritage, O house of God, that is your destiny. He chose you, He appointed you that this should happen to you. Don’t go by appearances. Things may look terrible, but don’t go by appearance; trust the Word of the Lord.
I know this word is challenging, and perhaps deep within your spirit, maybe unconsciously, you’re reacting to it; you don’t want to accept this word and yet you do. You’re in a war, a civil war. You’re having trouble with the Word of God, but that’s good. That’s a sign that I’m a good man of God, when I can throw the word of God at you so that it becomes a problem to you. I have the problem of the Lord speaking the word to my heart and I’m giving you the problem. You have to do something about it, accept it or reject it. You’re going to have to believe in the things of faith or you’re going to have to reject them. It’s going to make blisters on your spirit until you make that decision.
Jesus said, “And in that day you will ask Me no question. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you shall ask the Father for anything, He will give it to you in My name (John 16:23). Do you feel like a boa constrictor that swallowed a whole pig? Are you thinking, “It’s going to take awhile. In the meantime, my spirit is distorted, out of shape—what am I going to do with a promise like this?”
“If you shall ask My Father for anything, He will give it to you in My name. Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be made full.” That really explodes the impression that we are supposed to have sort of a hangdog look, and that if we were really religious it would look like our shoes were two sizes too small—kind of a pinched look. The Word says that our joy is supposed to be full. How are we going to reconcile this with the world’s idea of being religious? Is your motto “Grin and bear it”? That’s not in the Word, it’s not in the Scriptures. It’s more true to the Scriptures to stand on the promises of God and snarl when you “bear it.”
There has to be something in our hearts to believe God, something to come against the circumstances in the name of the Lord. There’s a passivity in us—a thing that folds up under the battle too quickly, that gives up before God has given you the answer, that walks away just before the answer comes around the corner. There’s something perverse about it. God deliver us from that kind of thinking.
“Until now you’ve asked nothing in My name; ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be made full.” I have to have the concept that even though we’re going into the midst of tribulation and the beginning of sorrow, that for God’s people everlasting joy shall be upon their heads (Isaiah 35:10), that crown of joy and rejoicing. I have to believe in the fruit of the Spirit; second only to love is joy. I’m going to believe that God didn’t intend for me to ask only for enough to exist in some miserable state; there is a better life of joy. A life of fullness of joy, and I’m going to have it: an abundant joy! There are people who have a faith in their own misery. They have a faith for it, they believe that tomorrow is going to be just as bad as today. They are convinced of it already. You say, “Wasn’t it hot today?” and they answer, “Yes, and tomorrow’s going to be worse.” Today a heat wave and tomorrow a drought. But God is expecting us to anticipate the joy of the Lord. Of course, things are going to get worse for the world, but we’re going to have a joy and rejoicing in our hearts born of the Holy Spirit within, born of an authority that rests in the Lord because He has commissioned us to walk in it—“You ask it in My name.”
If you were to ask a modern preacher, “What is your degree?” He might say, “I’m a D.D.” or “I’m a Th.D.” or “I’m a Ph.D.” All of them are various degrees of frost and freezing. Now, if you would ask one of God’s people the same question they would look at you and say, “Well, I’m nothing, but I’ve got some very important credentials here. I have a proxy to vote for the Lord. I have a power of attorney to do the business of the Kingdom in His name. I’m nothing, but this is everything and I stand on that authority that He’s given me.” That’s better than the degrees of frost and freezing. I am nothing, but I’ve got the power of attorney and I can say, “In the name of Jesus,” and the devils obey it, because there is authority in that name. “Anything you ask in My name, I will do it.” Don’t you think that your unbelief is the most ridiculous, asinine, insane, foolish thing your human heart ever devised?
O God, bring us to the place where we can trust You. Let us get rid of this unbelief. Lord, just lay us open and reach in and take this cancer of doubt and unbelief out of us and let us function like the sons of God should function in the name of the Lord.