We get to the place where we have accepted our spiritual state, our present level of growth. We have accepted what the enemy tells us is unattainable, and we’ve accepted that it is unattainable. We have refused to think with that audacious reaching out of faith that believes God for what has not been attainable.
It seems like it cannot be attainable. It seems like that you’re never going to be able to get into that walk in the Spirit with the gifts and ministries that you’re anticipating.
And so, you have resigned yourself, well, I’m more or less as far as I can go. Now, that’s one of the deadliest things that we can have.
And the reason for it is that we think we have probably come as far as we can come, walking as we’re walking, living as we’re living.
But there can be a drastic upheaval, a change in certain patterns of living which have hindered our spiritual progress, and we’ll be able to get on into greater things of the Lord.
Oh, may God give you wisdom to understand this, because this is the thing that changes you.
When you reach a certain place, in any kind of progress and development, you seem to go stale.
It seems like you can’t break through any further. Musicians hit that. I’ve watched them practice up to a certain point and they can’t seem to break loose. They can’t seem to get on up in that next step.
Athletes will do that. They will reach just a certain speed in their running or a certain ability. They can jump so high, they can run so fast, they can throw the discus so far and then they can’t seem to break it. They go stale. They can’t seem to come up. No matter how much they train, how much they try, they can’t break loose over that.
Weightlifters hit the same thing. They hit a certain point. They can’t budge that extra pound. They can’t seem to break over it. And so, they struggle and struggle and struggle with it. They’re stymied.
The same thing holds true in the spiritual realm. Some of you believers have more or less accepted that your efforts have brought you up to a certain level and there isn’t much hope of going any further.
But I’ve been weighing it very carefully, and I believe that we are going to break loose and some of you that have been more or less at a certain plane maybe for several weeks or several months or several years and can’t get any further. We’re going to find the key of breaking it.
But the first thing is that there should not be a resignation. At no point should a New Testament church accept the fact that it’s grown as far as it can grow, it’s developed as far as it can develop.
What is the spiritual law that we follow? We shall grow up into Him in all things, which is the head. And when you accept that, you will have many encounters with YHWY, and experiences you never dreamed possible.
Now, you haven’t experienced all the experiences that they had in New Testament times. We haven’t seen all the Ministries over us that they had in New Testament times.
But I’m persuaded that they had things that went on in the services that Fundamental Christianity today would reject, they would reject it as mystical or heretical. They would reject it on many, many points today, but they accepted it back then.
Paul wrote epistles, and when the epistles wouldn’t do it, he says, I long to see you, to the end that I might impart some spiritual gift to you, to the end that you might be edified.
If they couldn’t teach them, if they couldn’t lead them, if they couldn’t pray them into it, if they couldn’t teach them into it, they’d lay hands onto them and project them into a dealing of God that would bring them into it, but they would break down every barrier.
They would break down every limitation until the rest of the church came into it.
You’d need something to jar you loose from a sticking point. You can’t get up any further.
What we need is the recreation of hopes and anticipation.
What the Lord has laid upon my heart, is that you should anticipate change. We have noticed that we fight circumstances and we often become then resigned to them, or we accept the situation as being unalterable.
Maybe we have battled with it, but the deadliest thing that can happen to spiritual growth is that you accept a certain limitation upon your life, or you accept certain defeats.
It sounds like I’m saying the same thing, but I have something else in mind now. It’s the approach of another problem that is just as widespread as this accepting a limitation on your growth.
For instance, you may find yourself in a family situation in your home. It isn’t a matter of your own spiritual growth. It seems to be something that you can’t do anything about. The situation is there, it presses in on you, and no matter what you do, it doesn’t change. No matter how you pray, it doesn’t seem to alter. It seems to be just a bondage that you cannot break through. All your own praying and all your own faith for yourself doesn’t seem to reach that circumstance that presses in and restricts you.
It’s not always a family situation. Sometimes people are brought into other kinds of circumstances at their work, or they are brought into certain pressures upon them. And they think, well, this is a terrible thing, I can’t break through it.
Sometimes it can be a characteristic, an appetite, a propensity, something in your own human nature that you have struggled with so long that there’s a danger of you saying, I will never change.
This is something of the human nature that I’ll never be able to rise above. It is a fault that I know, and it’s going to hold me back, and it always will hold me back. It always has held me back, and so it always will always hold be back.
But the longer I walk with God, I find that believers get irritated and often lose patience under a thing like this too quickly, especially a church that is related to a New Testament church.
A New Testament church has one thing about it: change is the order. Change is the order. There’s a constant state of change going on in the church and in people’s lives.
And the more you observe it, you’ll notice the church isn’t the same one six-month period to the next six-month period. Families are in a constant state of change. If you can accept that change is for the best, if you can accept it so that you can take advantage of it, you’re wise.
If you take the changes with fearfulness or human unbelief ingrained in you brain, you’ll find yourself repetitively coming down into a rut of bondage which is deadly.
You should take advantage of every situation that God brings, because with every change, every alteration that He brings, there’ll be an opportunity for you to press in on some point. This is what people will do if they have a walk with God.
There’ll be a chance for you to do it. You’ll have your problems there, too. But you see, in a time of change, that’s a good time to do it. You can use it for a real rejuvenation of your spirit if you will.
I would say that in your life you must face the fact that there are certain changes that will take place in your body. An opportunity then exists for you to press in and gain and establish certain physical habits while the Lord and physical nature are helping you to open the door to it widely.
Get all the changes that you can in your life so your whole way of living alters for the better and you come out of it much richer, in much rejoicing.
Thanks be unto God which always causes us to triumph in Christ Jesus. You see that? It brings you in such a positive faith that everything is going to happen well to you.
You’ve got to believe in the destiny that God’s going to work in your life. You can’t accept, well, it started all right, and I am so far, but I can’t get any further. And there’s no breaking of this circumstance. There’s no altering of it.
Yes, there is an altering of it. Praise the Lord. There is an altering of it. You try one angle, it doesn’t work. You try another, it doesn’t work. You try another, it doesn’t work. You say, well, that’s poor advice when we’re looking to be led by the Lord.
We shouldn’t have any wasted efforts. We shouldn’t have anything that is going to slow. Well, this past week the Lord led me to preach on the blind man that was healed. And the Lord spit in his eyes. That’s right. Don’t look startled. That’s what the Scripture says. He spit in his eyes and then asked him if he saw anything.
He looked around and said, I see people like trees walking. And so, he laid his hands on him again, prayed for him, and said, then the Greek says he tried thoroughly to see, tried hard to see. He said he saw every man perfectly.
Why was the Lord limited in ministering to that blind man, because of the city he was living in. Because when Jesus was on earth, he only had authority on earth and not in the heavenly places until he rose from the dead, so he had to take the man out of that city to heal him- Mark 8:22. And then he had to pray for him twice, because of the effect that city had on his body, this was because thee was a fallen angel over that city that had a stronghold on the people of that city, Jesus would do not more miraculous works in that city because they rejected him.
Now, if the Lord found it necessary to back up and try it again, as perfect as his ministry was on earth, you must recognize now in the days of our limitation, we never give up, we keep seeking the Lord until he reveals what is restraining us.
We prophesy in part, we know in part, and sometimes it’s going to be necessary to do like Elisha did.
He saw the Shunammite woman coming, and he says, the Lord’s hid this thing from me. Well, a prophet on that high of a level is supposed to know all the answers. These people think so. So, then he sent his servant with his staff. He says, lay it on the child, but don’t speak to anybody.
He recognized how that when you speak, especially if you speak to someone that’s talking to someone in unbelief, you can drain off a lot of faith that way. Did you know that? Oh, you can speak life, or you can speak death. He said, don’t say anything to anybody. There is a divine anointing to speak but also a divine anointing not to speak, I am very limited in what I can say, and most people are not going to understand me anyway.
Just take this staff and lay it on the child. Child still didn’t respond. Well, he said, well, try again. So, he went in and put his hands on the child’s hands and his eyes on the baby’s eyes and his mouth on the baby’s mouth. Then he paced up and down the floor and came back and did it again. Then the boy sneezed seven times and was healed, raised from the dead.
Well, you would say he did a little experimenting. No, he didn’t. He was working what he knew would work. And when one thing didn’t jar loose, because death is not an easy thing to overcome, you try something else. And he kept pushing until he came into the victory.
Now, that’s what you need to do. Fast, pray, seek the face of the Lord. Yes. In fact, while you fast, you’ll find yourself analyzing almost everything that you do critically because you reach a place where if it isn’t necessary, you let it go. You don’t do it. There just isn’t enough energy drag around. And you begin to weigh the advisability and the drain of energy that comes from so many things.
And you find yourself centering your mind and your heart upon spiritual objectives. So fasting is a way to break through that sticking point when you’re up against circumstances and they won’t seem to yield.
You’re up against problems in yourself and you can’t seem to rise above them. You’re up against a certain church where you’ve grown so far, you can’t come up any further. That’s the time to lay hold upon the Lord with all your heart. Enter into intensive worship. Rejoice in the Lord. Another thing that is a spiritual shock treatment is just a real praise fest for the Lord. Praise the Lord with all your heart. That’s right. Give Him the worship. Give Him praise that is due His name.
You say, well, I don’t feel like doing any of those things. That’s another thing to learn, that when you reach a point like this, if you give way to feelings, you are only making more permanent the situation that you’re in. You only seem to make your situation more permanent, more difficult to break out of it.
In every case, I would advise a little action on your part. Give yourself to a discipline of prayer, a discipline of eating the Word of God, a discipline of fasting of you are in good health. As you do that, disciplining yourself to do it, you break loose the thing that has hindered you.
Yes, there are opportunities right at your doorstep. You can break the common routine. You could go on a binge of the Word of God. Intoxicate yourself. Let the Word of God dwell in you richly, speaking to yourself in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
Be filled with the Spirit. And as you’re filled with the Spirit, just go into a period in which you just rejoice to the Lord almost to an excessive amount, if that’s possible.
Go into a time of fasting in which you just stay with it and fast and watch your soul quiet down.
Watch the Lord just bring you to an end of turmoil and confusion and just launch you into that next step that you’re ready for in the Lord.
What a golden opportunity it is for you to give yourself a spiritual shock treatment, jolt yourself into another plane of spiritual living.
What a beautiful time to alter the patterns that may be stifling. You see, faith is a living thing. That’s why the Lord always was calling upon people to act upon their faith.
Go away from the Pool of Siloam, stretch forth your hand, take up your bed and walk. What do you want me to do for you? Well, one thing and another, you see, to the lepers, go show yourselves to the priests. As they went, they were healed.
You see, the thing was always demanded in action because the action brought about something within them that they were at least taking a step.
They couldn’t do it in themselves, you see, but they were at least breaking loose from the acceptance of that disease and infirmity, and faith was actively approaching a victory to resist the enemy and see the victory come. It must be there.
God wants you to walk in this. We need this right now, and we’re ready for it. I, by the grace of God, I’m going to walk in things this week that I’ve not walked in last week. It can work. It can work. It’ll work because God is with you. God has promised it’ll work. It’s the New Testament order.
The quicker that we get over the idea that the supernatural miracles and healings are something out of the ordinary, the better off we’ll be.
The minute that we understand that they are the ordinary functioning and moving of the New Testament church, then we can discern there is something missing in our life.
Get over these ideas that this is something super spiritual, way out there someplace where you can’t get to it.
No, sir, no ma’am. And get down to the place where you understand this is the normal thing within the realm of the New Testament. To walk in the power of God. You must get this in your spirit and get out of your mind.
If you still look around and you see a miracle, you see a revelation, you hear a word of prophecy, you see something like that and you’re impressed by it, you’re not you’re not going to break through, your still living in the natural realm.
You can’t be impressed by that thing as though we’re out of the ordinary. You’ve got to learn how to praise God and bless God, but know that it is ordained that you and I walk in miracles, that you and I shall come to mountains and cast them in the sea, that you and I are going to face the fact that in our weakness and all of our limitations and everything that you’re facing, yet the miracle walk is prescribed for us. Let’s accept it and believe it.