THE ANXIOUS—PHILIPPIANS 4:6
If we could have one Word for all those who are interceding and praying, it would be out of Philippians, the fourth chapter: Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. That is the Word—“Be anxious for nothing.” There is a great need for this, because the next verse is talking about how the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6–7.
These two areas are where all the battles are lost or won—in your heart or in your mind. You can become anxious; you can draw back from something that God sets before you.
You have to be dedicated in order to pray, because when you start, know that you are going to find an encounter somewhere along the line where Satan will try to bluff you out. He will try to threaten you; he will intimidate you in every way he can. According to the law, a witness cannot be threatened or intimidated. Theoretically, we’re protected from it, but recently in the newspaper I noticed cases in which state’s witnesses were threatened to keep them from giving evidence. And in the Spirit, when you’re moving toward a goal, it is from the pit, right out of Satan’s heart, to try to intimidate you, to threaten you with certain reprisal, with certain things that will happen to you if you hold on to the promises of God and insist on going through with them. Satan will do everything he can to put you in a position where you will draw back.
I think of a battle on a very simple plane that involved a sister in the Body. Every time she was moved by a sermon to make a dedication, Satan knew how to hit her, and she would draw back completely. He knew that all he had to do was press a certain button—he knew where her fears were-and she would draw back. We worked with that, and after two or three years she said, “Even if I die, I am going to trust the Lord.” She broke through, and it wasn’t long before her whole life was changed. God gave her a husband and two beautiful children; everything has worked fine for her. But she would have had none of that; she would have been fearful of anything happening because there were certain weaknesses in her that the enemy could push the button and put her in the battle of her life.
It is true that prayers are answered by faith; you believe God and something happens. But while you are praying for one thing, Satan knows how to hit something else that is a weak area, the place where the fears come up, and it wipes out your faith. But be anxious for nothing; refuse to be fearful about anything, and in everything with prayer and supplication let your requests be made known unto God. Then there is a peace of God—it is God’s peace, not human; it is divine in its origin and its very nature—and it guards your heart and mind.
The Greek word here means “referee,” like a referee in a prizefight. God’s peace referees your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. It keeps you from getting to the place where you can’t handle the thing in your mind or in your heart. It helps you to come into a faith that you can walk in consistently.
I have been thinking about how Satan manages to disturb faith. First of all, we are constantly assaulted with the illusion that God and His promises are mutable—that they change, they vary (Psalm 119:89; Malachi 3:6). How Satan creates that illusion I don’t know. The day we understand that, we will have him beaten; we will have him in a corner.
You may get a promise from the Lord, and the next day or two everything happens to make you feel that the promise is the changeable thing, the thing that isn’t to be. Or you may get a commission from the Lord, a promise or a prophecy, and in two or three days the whole thing looks completely different. However, nothing has changed. It is Satan’s trick to create an illusion that things have changed.
He can highlight appearances that you accept until you would declare that yellow was green and blue was red, for you see things differently; they look different than they did before.
On the other hand, Satan creates the illusion that certain things that are supposed to be mutable (changeable) are actually immutable (unchangeable) until a man will waver in his faith toward God. He will have complete confidence that not one thing is ever going to change in his life, that certain circumstances, relationships, assaulting personalities (in the spirit world or natural), or certain needs will never change—they are going to remain exactly as they are; he is stuck with it the rest of his life. Yet the truth is that everything is in a state of flux and change.
Look back and consider: Is your life the same now as it was a year or two ago? How many changes has the Lord made?
“Well, they are not fast enough to suit me.”
That is where the enemy comes in. In your impatience he will convince you; he will use impatience to get you to believe a lie that nothing will ever change in your life. And he will use past failures, for you may have had a pattern that every time God gave you a promise, you drew back in fear so that nothing changed.
Have you ever stopped to think that if you believed God consistently for thirty days, your life would be completely different? Can you point to thirty days that you’ve walked without wavering several times? It was just enough to wipe you out, then you start back up again.
You must see the illusion. It is as if almost everyone is on an LSD trip when it comes to spiritual things. I have never taken LSD, but those who have say that there is a time factor; it seems that everything is slowed down. They can listen to a record for maybe fifteen or twenty minutes but it seems that everything slows down and they have an illusion of almost endlessness. I think that Satan puts us on some kind of trip until the things that we are undergoing seem interminable, that we are in them and cannot get out, and on and on we go and there is no end to them. But the sudden realization is how swiftly things are really moving. It is Satan who wars against us with an illusion of time and tries to convince us that there will never be any change, that things are not going to be different, that we will be in a situation forever.
“But,” you say, “I’ve been praying and seeking God and nothing has happened.” How many days have you been praying? “A couple of weeks now.” Keep on, because things will change.
When Satan wants to destroy faith, he brings illusions and lies in many different, subtle ways. They are illusions out of the pit of hell. You may be moving right into the threshold of the greatest victory you have ever won, yet how the enemy would cause you to give up right at that moment if it were possible.
These are the problems of walking with faith, and the Lord says, “Be anxious for nothing. Don’t be afraid; don’t be anxious; don’t worry.” Oh, how easy it is. I notice the minute that I’m on the right track, some distraction will come up that has nothing to do with my goal or objective—some haunting, disturbing little thing that worries away at me. Sometimes when I feel that the Lord is trying to do something and I must listen to it without the distraction of all the little sheep bleating and messing up the pasture, I will miss a few services to keep myself free for a while. Yet I could be smitten with such guilt over that, for the accusation comes, “You know they have needs.” Yes, I know they have needs; but you know, the need is the same with all of us—to follow the will of the Lord undistractedly. We have to do it. And in that process our needs will be met. God will raise up ministries and he will see that they are met.
How are we going to cope with this problem of fear? It isn’t just fear of the negative forces that come against you; it is the fear of what you trigger off when you start to walk with God. You don’t want to take a swing at the devil for fear he will swing back. We always have this thing confused in our mind. “Well, the devil is a lot smarter than we are. He is shrewd and wise—he knows. In that perverted wisdom, look how many people he has destroyed.” I know that is what people think, although it may be unconscious; they may not even be aware that they are thinking that. But they are fearful that if they get into the battle, they are going to be hurt.
There has to be a dedication to the battle. According to the book of Ephesians, God’s pleasure, His whole purpose through the ages (it was a mystery hidden until He revealed it to Paul), was to manifest His wisdom through the Church to the principalities and powers.
To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God, who created all things; in order that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him. Ephesians 3:8–12.
All of Satan’s wisdom and all of his shrewdness has come up against something that is just unbeatable, and that is the divine commission of Christ’s authority to you to move in.
You may not be very bright—“Well, I don’t know the source of it; but I’m getting hit.” Don’t spook it; don’t use your imagination; just say, “I stand in the authority of Jesus’ name and the authority that that name represents. I submit to it with all my heart, and I come against the powers of Satan in that name.” Authority is better than anything. I have to believe that. Authority is greater and better than wisdom. Why do I believe that? Because as I draw back from areas that the elders must move into and let them move in, I know that there are areas where they do the wrong thing. Sometimes I get angry, sometimes I just cry, sometimes I’ve gotten physically ill over it; for I have a burning desire that if a word is given, it be a Word from God, not it word off the top of someone’s head, and I’ve seen how many times that has been missed.
You say, “Why don’t you do something about it?” I don’t have to. God has given them authority; and even if they don’t know one end from another, God will bless the authority He has committed and make it come out right. He will make it come out right.
Authority is greater than wisdom, and so I stand with divine order and I believe in it. If we have morons as elders and deacons and we lay hands on them, God can still do a perfect work in bringing forth a New Testament Church. He is not limited by the limitations of human intelligence or wisdom. That is why I’m pushing it, because I know it works. It is in divine order and I know that if I keep my hands off, eventually they will all come into the wisdom of the Lord. They will all come into it.
We believe in that authority. I’ve done a lot of praying about this: Will we have a word or the Word? We must all strive to have the Word of the Lord. Many of the elders have a word, but we are going to see what we can do to move into the Word. That is my job—to teach them and lead them and help them into it. I stand amazed that God is doing such a perfect thing through such imperfect channels. And who are the imperfect channels? All of us at this point. Our limitations are frightening, but they are going to change. I am more determined about that than anything else. God has better things for me to walk in than I’m walking in, and I’m going to believe it. I’m going to protest it.
I hope this causes your faith to rise. If you start to pray for something, don’t stop. You say, “Well, I get snowed under.” I know. I know how it happens: you really get determined to walk with God and everything looks just fine, and the next day the enemy throws something at you to keep you from praying.
Keep pressing in. Are you discouraged with prayer? You cannot be. Press for the goal with all your heart. Some-times it helps you not to let yourself think too much about your limitations; you will scare yourself to death. You’ll realize that you are walking out there way beyond your abilities, your knowledge, your understanding, your capacities—that you are out of your depth.
Have you ever watched this with little children? A child who doesn’t really know how to swim may still like to go underwater, paddle around awhile and then come up. After awhile he can get so tired that he can hardly come up to cry for help before he goes down again. He is swimming around without the strength or the brains or the ability. But when you pull him out, he takes a couple of deep breaths and jumps back in again. God give us the heart of a little child!
It takes a long time to really learn fears. They can be communicated; they can be transferred to you; they can be imparted by others. I have watched how children are affected in homes where there has been uncertainty and confusion, wondering which way to go and what to do next. The children are affected. But when they are taken out of that situation and blessed, they start changing, almost immediately; they begin to relax and play and be little children. It is a beautiful thing to watch. You can learn so much from studying a child. You learn the deadliness of fear, and you learn how you can convey faith instead of fear to people. I don’t know whether a child learns more from a wise parent or if the parent grows wiser by watching the child, but you learn.
We’re going to have battles, but it is in the battles that we take new ground. If you’re afraid of the battle, where are you going to go? Are you going to withdraw to your own circumstances and problems, or can you press into the thing that God has for you, even if it is with a great deal of opposition? Put your confidence in the Lord. Will everything change? It will change.
“But I know myself. I’m too weak; I back off.”
There is always that one moment you break through! I have seen it over and over again: people who have had a pattern of defeat can break it in an instant and walk in victory the rest of their lives. I believe in the power of God to change a person’s life. So we stand, and we believe.
“I tried and it didn’t work.”
It will work the next time or the time after that. Get up and go after it.
“I don’t know which way to go. Every time I start something, everything happens.”
That is a good sign. You can change things.
In this walk, there are no lock washers on the whole mechanism. What is a lock washer? It is like an ordinary washer, but it is split and the edges are sprung apart so that when pressure is put on it by tightening the nut, it will hold the nut more securely; and it will not come off of its own accord. Circumstances are like that; it takes more than normal force to finally break them loose. The nut would come off easily otherwise, but if it has a lock washer under it, it is going to stay there. That is the way your life is: your circumstances, your heredity, your reaction to environment—the whole pattern will not change much until you determine that it is going to change and you set about crying unto the Lord, putting the pressure on the thing until it gives way. Soon it will change completely.
Do you want your life overhauled? Do you want God to do something for you? This is the way to do it: believe and put on the pressure in faith. No matter what opposition and resistance comes to keep it from changing, stay right with it, and it will change. You can believe God for it.
There has to be that total dedication, an undeniable, fixed set of your heart and your own will that every obstacle, every circumstance, every adversity is a challenge to success. You can succeed because there is no failure in Christ; He will always clothe you and equip you for every circumstance and every situation. But you have to set your heart, your thinking, your confession, and your action to really get with it and say, “I’m going to succeed in this situation. It is literally to come down because I have faith that I’m going to change it.” And it will change. It may take a few hours, sometimes a few months, but it will change. There is nothing that can stand before you.
Faith is not something that floats around; you have to set it, you focus it on a thing. Your faith has to be set on a Person concerning a thing, concerning a circumstance. Set it on the Lord. David said, “My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed on Thee” (Psalm 57:7). Set it.
You do not need just a blessing to help you survive; you need your faith built up because you need to prevail over all the powers of darkness. You need to break through in the things that are bothering you, the things that you have accepted as immutable and unchangeable. They can be changed. Anybody, anything, anyplace can be changed!
THAT FIG TREE
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 (Isaiah 12; 60:1–3).
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 (Matthew 28:18–20). 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. 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 that 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 (Luke 10:19). 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 (Mark 16:17; Hebrews 6:2). 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 so 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 we 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 had 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 He 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 could really believe that, don’t you? 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 that 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 into the room, a little plant will droop and express fear. This has been established scientifically through electrical recordings.
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 (Luke 4:39; 9:42; Matthew 8:26). 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? (Luke 3:9.)
You have quite a bit more intelligence than a fig tree, and you have a responsibility before God to produce the thing that He 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 that a mountain can hear the Word of the Lord and obey?), “ ‘Be taken up, be cast into the sea …’ ” What is 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 that He could testify so simply that all authority in heaven and in earth was His? (Matthew 28:18.) John says of Him, All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. John 1:3, KJV.
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, respect and honor His Word, and respond and say, “Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth”? (I Samuel 3:10.)
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 (John 14:12; 17:18). I’ve been commissioned; now I commission you to go forth and bear much fruit” (John 15:16).
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 said to His disciples, “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 (Mark 9:24). 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, could 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.
Isn’t it wonderful 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 (Revelation 17:14).
The trouble is that you want to think like somebody who’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! (I Corinthians 15:57.)
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. That hill 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 that we should rely upon our senses, that 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 (I Corinthians 2:9); 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 a 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 within 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 is 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; it’s 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 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 that 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. It is a sign that I am 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 the 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.” John 16:23–24.
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 have asked for nothing in My name; ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be made full.” John 16:24.
I have to have the concept that even though we’re going into the midst of tribulation and the beginning of sorrow (Matthew 24:6–8, KJV), 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 (Galatians 5:22). 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. There is 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 he 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 the authority that He has 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.
IT HAS BEEN LOOSED
This Word will help us understand what God is speaking by His Spirit to the Church today (Revelation 2:7). We want hearing ears, open hearts to respond. We want to say, as the prophet of old in his infancy, “Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth” (I Samuel 3:10).
“I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you shall bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you shall loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.” Matthew 16:19.
We could dwell a great deal on the finality with which things have been accomplished in the spirit realm. Mainly, the ministry which we have today is to take the reality of the spirit realm and bring it into view in the physical realm. Whenever you see a man healed, remember, “By His stripes ye were healed” (I Peter 2:24). We are just bringing that into manifestation in another realm. It exists, but we bring it into focus; we bring it into view. A man may have a lot of money in the bank, but to him it is just a figure in a bank book or on a bank statement. But when he writes a check at the counter and they start handing him that money, then what really is his anyway comes into view.
What we are doing today is to prophesy the Word of the Lord, that the things come into view which God has said are so. Concerning everything we are seeking today, we have had prophecies repeatedly saying that they are ours. And the teaching of the Word confirms that we are “blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 1:3). All these are ours! When the Lord says, “All Authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth: go ye therefore and make disciples of all the nations” (Matthew 28:18–19), He is laying something before us, that we have to move in that authority—His authority! He has the authority, but it remains for the people to come forth who will manifest it.
Christ sits at the right hand of the Father, henceforth expecting until His enemies be made the footstool of His feet (Hebrews 10:13). In the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ, at the right hand of the Father (Colossians 3:1), it is a reality that He is Lord of lords and King of kings (Revelation 19:16). But we do not see that in evidence in the earth. We see demon powers and principalities; we see many things that rise up against Christ, even in our own hearts. We do not find ourselves as submissive to Him as we want to be. Yet He reigns, and He will reign until every enemy is made the footstool of His feet (Psalm 110:1; I Corinthians 15:25). In His heart, that victory is wrought already. He has accomplished it all, and the Father has proclaimed it. In due course it remains for a people to come forth: His many-membered Body that shall execute and bring into sight all of these things that are the reality of our Head, the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the first-born from the dead; so that He Himself might come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fulness to dwell in him. Colossians 1:18–19.
In order that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him. Ephesians 3:10–12.
It is not a matter of saying, “I’m believing for a miracle.” What is a miracle? The miracle we are seeking is not such a fantastic thing, so difficult to understand; it isn’t that at all. Jesus performed miracles; but He said, “Whatever I see the Father do, that I do” (John 5:19). He saw that it had its reality, even down to the last detail of everything that He did; He saw that the Father had accomplished it first, so He went about doing it.
God, by the Spirit, anoints you to see blind eyes opened. Then He says, “There’s the man; go open his eyes.” Jesus was bringing into physical manifestation the thing that He saw in the spirit realm. This is what God has ordained us to do. The reality is there: through faith we understand that the ages were framed by the Word of God (Hebrews 11:3). Just one Word that God speaks frames His ages and brings to pass all of these things that we see. His works were finished from the foundation of the world (Hebrews 4:3). Then why are we sweating in them so much? The works were finished from the foundation of the world in the heart of God, and that is where all reality is found. We set about to bring it into focus and into being. We are struggling and travailing in prayer and in faith and intercession to be the instruments with just that little spark of faith that brings into action and into sight all of the things that God has said are belonging to this age.
Whatever you shall bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; whatever you shall loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. You cannot enter into anything by the leading of the Holy Spirit that has not already been done. This is why the Scripture says, “While you are yet speaking He will answer; before you call, He has heard you” (Isaiah 65:24).
“Then why am I supposed to pray so much?” I don’t know; it is just that God has ordained it to be that way. He said that prayer is going to be the greatest principle of all. And even then, He seems to draw out the reluctant souls until a violence of faith fires their prayers.
Continue praying. Go through the Scriptures noting the prayer life of Jesus Christ, especially His continuing all night in prayer (Luke 6:12). If our blessed Lord, the Son of God, understood the Father well enough to devote Himself that much to prayer, then we had better do it too. If He did not fail to enter in and pray, and seek the face of the Lord with all of His heart, how much more ought we to cry out to the Lord and intercede.
There are many other examples: the prayer life of the apostle Paul, the prayer life of the other apostles. When the hour of prayer came, three o’clock in the afternoon (almost approaching the world’s cocktail hour), they didn’t have their cocktails; they went up to be filled with the Spirit all over again and to seek the face of the Lord (Acts 3:1; 10:30). Oh, with what devotion did they seek God! And how they changed a world! They changed it because God had ordained that it be changed. It was going to happen in the name of the Lord. This is why the Lord could say, “Go and preach the gospel. Go make disciples.”
And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age”. Matthew 28:18–20.
Some of you do not yet have a sense of your destiny. You have a destiny to fulfill what God has ordained to be! In this I could be almost fatalistic: “If I stand fast in faith believing God, then oh, what God has ordained to do through me!” This is true of you, too—oh, what He has ordained to do through you! The world has yet to see a man who would measure up to the full thing that God had prepared for him. This is why I think that in the Judgment Day, the judgments will come almost like two movies being run. One movie will be running, and God will say, “This is what you did.” He will show another and say, “This is what is in My heart, which I prepared for you to walk in.” Then He will measure how faithful you were. That is the way you will be judged for that reward of the Kingdom. “This is what I had planned for you; isn’t that wonderful? This is what you walked in; isn’t that terrible?”
“O God, I stand condemned.”
“I gave you many promises; I exhorted you in the Spirit. I preached, but you were dull of heart; you wouldn’t listen. You would not know what I had really chosen you to be; you didn’t see how true it was. I wanted you to be a miracle people. I wanted you to walk before My face. I wanted you to be My hands and My feet, My mouthpiece in the world. I wanted you to be My Body. And you settled down for a human, limited existence, when I had planned so much for you.
The sinner may dread the judgments of God, but I dread the judgment seat of Christ (II Corinthians 5:10). I dread the hour when I will have to give an account—not for what I’ve done, but for what might have been.
To be born in this generation of destiny is one of the most solemn responsibilities a man can have.
If you could just sense how God has tried to take all the limitations off—every limitation! He has tried to eliminate any limitations in our thinking, but we go right back to them.
O Lord, we grapple with it! We are going to believe what You have said: not only these promises that are so fantastic, but even the lesser things—those specific prophecies that have come over our lives.
Believe God! How difficult it is to believe, even for our brother too, the prophecies that have come over him—to believe that God will do what He has prophesied over him.
We need a rude awakening. Would that God would give you the sight to see yourself in relationship to Him as He sees you, to see yourself the way He plans you to be, to see your own life the way He intends for it to be. Oh, how deeply you would repent if you began to review what you have thought about yourself and what God has planned for you! You would smite your breast as though you were an unbeliever. You would see why Christ was continually rebuking His disciples for their unbelief (Matthew 17:19–20).
Do you know who you are? Do you know what you are to be? Can any of us understand that it is our unbelief that holds back the miracle power of God to just the limited trickle we see coming?
Don’t wait for a thousand churches to come with missionary offerings, thinking, “If we add them all up, we can do a bigger work.” We are believing for something bigger than that! We are believing for something bigger than the individual resources of any church; we are believing for the miracle power of God to sweep over the world! We are ordained to be this, in the name of the Lord.
This one thing God is speaking; this is what He is saying: If you could know what is in the heart of God for you to walk in—you have had a little glimpse of it from the prophecies, from the preaching of the Word—you would no longer accept yourself in this limited viewpoint that you have of yourself.
Something happened to the disciples in the book of Acts, that they didn’t think of themselves as ignorant and unlearned men, as fishermen (Acts 4:13). They sensed a number of things about themselves. One of the things they sensed was that they were commissioned men; they knew they had been commissioned by the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of lords and the King of kings (Revelation 19:16), who has all authority in heaven and earth. His Lordship over them, and His authority over all things, was the realization of their hearts. They realized also that He had a plan and a purpose that He was going to execute in the earth through them. They had learned and had accepted their place as His instruments and His channels in the earth (Colossians 1:15–28). They believed in His working within them as the divine channels of destiny. They accepted His designation of authority that was to rest in them as His servants. They accepted that authority, and they appropriated it. They learned the secret of continually drawing from His fullness. Persistently and continually they exercised faith in His authority in executing His plan and His purpose in the earth. They believed those simple words, If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it. John 14:14, KJV.
Lord, bless the Word to our hearts. Give us faith, like the early Church, to so walk before You, to earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. Jude 3, KJV.
This message has reacted in my own heart with such opposite feelings. I feel like repenting, and yet I’m challenged to stand and shout. It is a mingled feeling—to know that I am an instrument in the hand of God, and yet I want to repent of the filth of unbelief that has attended us: the unawareness of who we are, the unawareness of His absolute authority that rests upon us, the divine, holy commission to be His people. I want to be loosed of this, in the name of the Lord. It is a time to get rid of unbelief. If you are impatient, get over it. Be more than impatient; be desperate for the blessings of the Lord. Be adamant! Be persistent! He importunate! (Luke 11:8–9.)
Lord, search our hearts. We are going to come to grips with what You have stirred up in our being. We feel that we are on the operating table and You have made an incision. You have bared the inner corruption of our hearts where unbelief has reigned, where we have not been able to get at the sore spot, the troublesome thing, the thing that causes us to waver, the thing that causes us to be unstable as Thine instruments in the earth. Lord, we want forgiveness; we want the cleansing. We want to repent of this, confessing it before Thee.
We want the release that will come to our spirits, O God, young and old alike. Loose the older people from their conservatism. Loose the young people from their shallowness of perception. Loose us from the thing that causes us to just linger on the outskirts, whether we be young or old, male or female. Loose us from it, that there be something different that shall seize hold upon our hearts. Lord, You are moving on us; we grasp it. We refuse to be sensitive in the sense that we will have our feelings hurt. We refuse bitterness, or pride, or rebellion, or any of these things. We open our hearts to a new level of absolute submission to You, an absolute acceptance of Your authority and Your commission on our lives. We open our hearts to catch a new glimpse by faith of this fantastic walk with You. Lord, reveal our destiny to our hearts.
Those who may be on the outskirts, Lord, could be such men and women of faith! These doubting Thomases, who waver in the hour of testing, O Master, meet their hearts! Meet their hearts now! Meet their hearts and loose them. Wash them clean. There are so many things that You have said are ours, that they have been done, have been accomplished. O God, for that faith to prophesy them into being! We speak the words, “O will of God, spring forth within our hearts!” In this hour, we yearn after Thee, O Lord. Let this thing be brought forth in Thy will. Let Thy people break forth. For the handful of corn that will be scattered upon the mountains, O my Lord, we believe for the treasures of wisdom to be opened, the divine power to be released, the people of God to break forth into their heritage (Psalm 72:16, KJV; Colossians 2:2–3). We are claiming that heritage, O Lord. Amen.