Let’s be concerned about turning our dreams into achievements. There is nothing worse than the torture of a dream that can never be attained or one that is filled with frustration and despair. We will turn all of our problems into victories, and all the open doors before us will be triumphs. We will suffer, we will sacrifice, but we will be joyful in all of it.
We are living in New Testament times again. The prophecies that come have such an unfeigned, beautiful, inspired flow of Scripture, that we can feel ourselves transported into an age past and into an age to come. It is not spiritual pride, but there is a satisfaction that comes when you have been so desperate for something real, and it begins to come beyond anything you could have imagined. Perhaps you are fearful and hesitant in your spirit, not knowing what will happen, but have faith in the Lord for what is coming.
Matthew 21:18–22 is a passage of Scripture that describes an incident which happened, just a day by day incident. 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, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it shall happen. And everything you ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive.” Matthew 21:18–22.
You must keep talking to those mountains and bolster your faith. The mountains are trembling already, but one of these days you will cast one of them into the sea. There has to be a time, a place in the Christian world where people believe the words of Jesus Christ. There has to come forth one generation with people who will believe the promises of God, and we do! I haven’t heard of any mountains being cast into the sea, but someday one of our young men or young sisters will do it. It will happen! When Jesus withered the fig tree, the disciples were impressed and said, “Look how fast that tree withered.” Jesus answered, “If you have faith and don’t doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but you can say to this mountain, ‘You go over there,’ and it will do it.”
Of course there is a secret to it. A man going out with ambition would make a big name for himself if he could move a mountain, especially if he had photographers, T.V. cameras, and newsmen there when he moved that mountain. He would have it made in this world.
We are going to see people who will believe God. “Anything that you ask—anything is possible to you,” but then comes the problem: “if you really believe it.”
I wish our babies could be raised in homes in which they would never be exposed to doubt or fear and from the very beginning would be taught to observe the world and to believe God concerning it. We would be careful what we taught those children. We would give them no history books; we would give them nothing of the story of man’s defeats. We would tell them only what we had been able to do. We would not build responses and conditionings in their minds to feel that anything was impossible, but we would teach them from the very beginning that all things are possible. We would teach them about the realm of the Spirit. I think when the Kingdom comes, we will be doing that. I yearn for the day when history will no longer be taught, but the Kingdom of God will come until people are not conditioned to think racially and nationally. Our color or country doesn’t really make any difference, does it? We are concerned about the new heredity we have as sons of God, about being citizens of the Kingdom, and about what can really be done if we have faith to believe it.
I believe that God has created the situation for more miracles than we can possibly realize. Every day miracles are taking place in the lives of our young people. One young man who had been addicted to heroin and had been delivered at a Bless-In came to me, so excited. He said, “I’m so thankful. It’s a new life.” We don’t even have opportunity to rehearse in your ears the things that God is doing. One boy, a college student, gave the money he had worked for all summer, so we could print the Word and send it forth.
God deliver me from being a professional preacher. I would like to be remembered as having been a real believer. I want to believe in the potentials and the possibilities of a little child; I want to look at him and know what he can be, to look at anyone who begins his first prayers and know what he can be. I don’t care to be the kind of prophet who analyzes a man’s problems and sees all his faults, but I want God to make me a seer who can see what God is bringing forth in people’s lives and strengthen the living miracles of God who are coming forth.
If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatsoever ye will, and it shall be done unto you. John 15:7.
If ye have faith, and doubt not … whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive. Matthew 21:21–22.
Do you remember the story in the Scriptures about the father who brought his son to the disciples to be healed? Jesus, Peter, James, and John had been up on the mount where Jesus had been transfigured, and as they came down, they saw a great crowd of people. When they saw Jesus, they came running to Him. You can imagine the hopeless gestures of the disciples.
“What’s the matter?”
“Well, this boy has a devil in him, and we just can’t cast it out of him.” Jesus came over and cast the devil out of him, but first, one thing was said: the father looked at Jesus imploringly, “… if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!” And Jesus said to him, “ ‘If you can!’ All things are possible to him who believes.” Mark 9:22–23. He put the “if” where it belonged.
We are saying, “O Lord, if You can, please help me.” And the Lord says, “ ‘If you can?’ All things are possible, if you believe.” The “if” is back with us. “If you just believe, all things are possible,” not, “If You can, do something, Lord.” There is no question there; the “if” is: “Will you believe? Open your heart and say, ‘Yes, Lord, I’m going to believe! It is going to happen!”
We will see great financial releases, and our young and old doing amazing things, building churches without much planning or seeking of financial backing; but we are looking forward to the prophecies and revelation to come that will speak what we are to walk in. With these prophecies upon us we can war a good warfare; we can do the impossible. Many works are to be done; many things are to come forth for the glory of God. What is the key to it? Is there a secret for our faith to come up? Yes, there is. What can we ask God for? Anything impossible is possible with God; so we start there. What is it that we need, and then, what is it that we aspire to do in God? We start at that point.
I will give you an exercise that will help you. Up to this point you could say, “Yes, that sounds very good, but it won’t work.” I want to deal with that conditioning of your mind. I want to give you the key of it in Luke 11:5. Why does God keep talking to us about persistence in prayer when He knows what we are going to ask before we ever ask Him, and He knows what we have need of before we ever open our mouth to pray? Why is continuous prayer necessary? This passage of Scripture gives you a secret that is very essential. When you repetitiously do something, you condition your subconscious mind and your spirit with that same thought, idea, or conviction.
You can say, “Yes, I’m going to believe the Scripture,” yet you don’t know what conditioning of your subconscious mind could still rise up from days of limitation and days of defeat to wipe you out. You may subconsciously have a will to fail that is greater than your will to succeed, and you may have deep within you unbelief that is wiping out that conscious effort toward faith and repetition of your prayer. Jesus said not to think that you will be heard because of your much speaking (Matthew 6:7), but He also emphasized that you need to pray that prayer often (Matthew 7:7–11). There is a reason for it: not so that God will hear it, but because each time you pray it, over and over, you are reconditioning yourself to the very depths of your mind and your spirit.
That is the reason a boy learns to persevere in saying, “I love you,” to his girl. He brings presents and says, “I love you.” She needs some help in a situation; he is a good friend, and he says, “I love you.” About six months go by, and it finally gets through to her, “He loves me!”
Have you ever had something said to you over and over again until one day it clicked, and you realized that you really believed it? That is what you do in your own prayer life. If you have enough faith to start your prayer, you have enough faith to continue it.
And He said to them, “Suppose one of you shall have a friend, and shall go to him at midnight, and say to him, ’Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; and from inside he shall answer and say, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been shut and my children and I are in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs.” Luke 11:5–8.
Now, the literal translation of verses nine and ten: “And I say to you, ask and keep on asking.” The Greek tense involves continuous action into the future. The translation into the English: “ask, and it shall be given to you”; does not convey it. “… ask and keep on asking, and it shall be given to you; seek and keep on seeking, and you shall find; knock and keep on knocking, and it shall be opened to you. For everyone who asks and keeps on asking receives; and he who seeks and keeps on seeking finds; and to him who knocks and keeps on knocking it shall be opened.” God is willing, but “Oh,” you say, “can I believe it?”
Now suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish; he will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he? Or if he is asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?” Luke 11:11–13. Matthew’s gospel reads, “… how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!” Matthew 7:11.
There is no limit, and yet there is a limit—you are the one who determines it. Your limitations are self-imposed; they were not divinely imposed on you. God intended that your life should have a greater potential than it does. You are the one who has imposed the limitations on yourself. You have done it with your thinking; you have built the walls; you have circumscribed your horizons and said, “This far I can go and no farther.” You are the one who is responsible for it, and it is time you take down the walls and cry to the Lord continually, as we come into this age of miracles, “Lord, make me a believer! Lord, make me a believer!”