There are many requests and burdens that people are looking for God to fill; however, the Lord must bring us into one Body before He meets us as individuals, for this is the day of the Body ministry. When God starts blessing a body of believers and we claim the things God has for the Body, then it is very simple to move into what each person needs.
Pentecost is the time of reviewing again our basic needs: seeing that all the families in the churches are filled with the Spirit and learning what their defenses are to be and how to appropriate them.
The Holy Spirit comes as the Spirit of Truth, the great Teacher who is to guide us into all truth. We must see what that is to mean to us, for many of us are not listening to the teaching of the Spirit that we now have available.
Instead we are listening to the verdict of our own reasoning and coming up with the wrong answers. God wants to help us.
If any still have to shake the viper off into the fire, we want to help them; we can believe God to give them a special release.
Satan continually works at those in the flock who fall or fail in what they are to do, to make them a curse instead of the blessing God called them to be. Every one of the flock must be held fast in the love of God so that there are no stragglers or casualties.
Believe that you are going to change! People who refuse to change, will change eventually, for the worse. As God keeps pressuring you, your spirit will learn and change—either for the better or for the worse—because you won’t remain at one level very long.
God must receive from us what He is looking for, the harvest of the firstfruits. There was a difference between the wave offering of Passover and Pentecost.
At the Passover Feast they waved the sheaf of wheat, but at Pentecost there was finely ground flour, made into two beautiful loaves—symbolizing Christ and the Body.
It isn’t enough to say, “Christ is in me”; the Christ within us is a thing of refinement and of deep searching, of change, of progress and development. God is refining everything He is bringing forth in us, and the promise of the firstfruit is coming forth.
How careless and cruel people can be to that which God is bringing forth, pulling it up by the roots and destroying it. People can unintentionally be exceedingly evil and with just their words of bitterness and criticism they can destroy in another person what God is doing.
On the other hand—through the Holy Spirit—healing, comfort, and strength can flow out of us. How we need to be filled to overflowing with the Spirit of God.
And as for you, the anointing which ye received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any one teach you; but as his anointing teacheth you concerning all things, and is true, and is no lie, and even as it taught you, ye abide in him. I John 2:27.
We should be concerned about the abiding. I don’t think there is any danger of losing out with the Lord if we follow the anointing that comes to teach us. That teaching anointing is very important.
The Holy Spirit has been teaching me what not to believe. We know that many of the prophecies and words of the Spirit come to pass, but some of them do not come to pass because other things happen.
Our own negative thinking can turn aside everything that God says. If we don’t believe God’s Word, none of it will come to pass. We give force to the things we believe. We must be just as careful not to exercise a disbelief, as we are careful to exercise belief. The Holy Spirit teaches us all things; and by that teaching anointing within us, we will abide in Him.
Faith can co-exist with faith in many other things that can nullify and defeat it, setting it aside. We can believe in all the prophecies over us, but if we also have faith in the ability of anyone to prevent them from coming to pass, we have crossed out their fulfillment with two opposing faiths. Be sure you believe what the Holy Spirit is leading you to believe.
I am affirming in my mind some very positive truths. I do not believe that anything can defeat me—if I refuse to let it. I do not believe that anyone can oppress me or hurt me—if I do not believe that he can. I do not believe that anyone, or anything or any situation is the sole cause of my problems.
My problems are based upon God’s dealings with me and my acceptance—consciously or unconsciously—of the works of Satan. When I refuse to believe the works of Satan, they will have no power.
As an illustration, in America, very few people are killed by witchcraft because they don’t believe in it. However, in Africa people believe in witchcraft and consequently many are killed by it. You have to believe in a thing before it can reach you.
The first step in witchcraft is to get the individual to accept in his mind a fear (which is left-handed faith) of something happening to him. Then the channel is open, because the human mind and the human spirit are such that they almost generate the fulfillment of every word they believe. Words are powerful. If someone gives you a word, it may have a force and a spirit and impact behind it, but you can still nullify it.
You may have all kinds of doubts and fears thrown at you, but if you open your heart to the Holy Spirit, He will teach you not to believe in those things. We are not children of the night; we are children of the day (I Thessalonians 5:5). We are not to walk in darkness; we are to walk in the day, and have confidence in what God is doing.
When I say that I do not believe certain things, I do not believe them! I may accept that they will come to pass, but I don’t believe them valid as far as my life is concerned. I accept the fact that there have been many antichrists in the world since the days of John the Beloved’s preaching, because he said so in his epistles.
While I accept the fact that antichrists and false prophets could come forth in this day, I do not believe in them, or in their power.
The Bible speaks about their great signs and wonders (Matthew 24:24); but I’m affirming what I believe. I don’t believe in their power. I don’t believe in witchcraft. I don’t believe in the devil. Does that sound like false doctrine? It is not!
I accept that witchcraft exists—but I don’t believe in it. I accept that the devil exists—but I don’t believe in him. To me he is a defeated foe. To a man who does not accept Satan as a defeated foe, he is a very active foe. I don’t believe in demons. I know that they are a reality and that I can cast them into the pit—but I don’t believe in them or in what they can do. This is what you have to come to understand.
The Holy Spirit will teach you that the immunity over the spirit world which comes against you, begins first of all in your mind. When you say, “I am immune,” you are saying in effect, “I don’t believe it.” No tenet of faith will convince me that the devil can do this or that to me, because I believe that he cannot. When I believe that he can’t do anything, he can’t!
But if I put my faith in the negative aspect, it will be as powerful, or maybe more powerful, than the positive at this time in my walk. When I audaciously come out and say, “I don’t believe the devil can touch me,” that’s the first step toward his never being able to touch me.
We believe too much in sickness. We believe too much in discouragement. We believe in defeat. We would never have them, if we didn’t believe in them.
The life of a believer is a life of receiving what he believes in. If he is open and he believes in righteousness, he has it. This is not saying that this is mental control; it is saying that your carnal mind can open the door to any oppression—if you believe in it.
The Word says you pass from darkness into light, out of the dominion of darkness into the Kingdom of the Son of His love (Colossians 1:13). If you believe that, then you believe that Satan has no authority or power over you—you believe that Jesus is Lord of lords and King of kings.
In I John 5:19 we read…the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. Satan is called…the deceiver of the whole world…Revelation 12:9; and…the accuser of our brethren… Revelation 12:10. You can believe that in a sense, but there are also Scriptures that speak of Christ’s authority. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name. Philippians 2:9. He is…King of kings, and Lord of lords. I Timothy 6:15. All authority in heaven and earth is His (Matthew 28:18). The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool. Matthew 22:44.
It has to balance out. Which Scriptures am I going to believe? Note carefully: I accept the truth of the Scripture that the whole world is lying under the power of the wicked one; but I don’t believe it to be a force in my life. I’m accepting it as a fact, but I’m not believing in it, because I’m not going to be under the power of that wicked one. I believe in Christ as Lord and King.
The early historians were often puzzled, for though the Christians were dying in such great numbers under the persecution of the Romans, they continued exalting Jesus as the only Lord.
Jesus was the only Lord they believed in—to them there wasn’t any other—and therefore they died. They walked in liberty and they walked in victory. They have a better resurrection; they never knew what defeat was.
Too many churches that believe in the end-time prophecies pick out a passage here and there with the result that they have a big antichrist and a big devil. They are praying that they will hold out to the end, yet they are doubting. They have come to believe too much in the working of Satan, and they have believed it to the extent that they’ve made it a force in their lives.
I believe in the victory of Jesus Christ, in the coming King. Because I believe it that is what is operative in my life. You can dial into many positive things with which you can fill your heart and mind. The Holy Spirit can bless you and anoint and lead you. In the way He has taught you, you will abide in Him.
Let’s think differently than we have in the past. There are some people in church who run scared. All their lives they have been fearful. Believe God! Open the door to the supernatural and the fantastic. Don’t back off from anything. When God gives a word, don’t say, “Well, let’s see now; how could that work out? I don’t believe we can do it.” Instead, go right into it; believe that you can. It’s what you accept in your mind that works.
For example, I could find many truths in the Old Testament about diet. Then I could read health books about harmful preservatives, poisonous sprays, and cancer-producing derivatives of coal tar products, until I would believe in the great menace of sickness and death, and find myself staggering into the health-food store. I might be careful about what I ate, but because I believed all those facts, my own mind could make me sicker than the food.
Accept the facts and eat wholesome food, but don’t be overly concerned about these things. In other words, an acceptance of a fact that is true does not of necessity make it an operating reality of major importance in your life.
The Holy Spirit will help you to practically ignore the negative facts without giving them additional thought. As you become absorbed with the positive and believe in that, a flow of life is opened to you and you live because of it, saying, “I do not believe that anything can defeat me.”
Weigh one Scripture against another where there seems to be a contradictory emphasis. Although one passage emphasizes the fact that the whole world is lying under the power of the wicked one, it is also a fact that Christ is ruling, and He will reign until all enemies are made the footstool of His feet (Hebrews 1:13). We don’t have to figure it out; we just believe in His Lordship. That then becomes a truth, very valid and operative in our lives.
You can make yourself sick by believing that you’re sick, or you can believe in health. Believe in the thing you should believe in.
Don’t believe in your own negative habits and problems. Some people believe in their own importance, while others continually must attract attention to themselves because they don’t feel important otherwise.
People have all kinds of disbeliefs about themselves, and because they believe them and emphasize them, they never have anything but problems. If they would forget their problems and think of themselves as members of the Body, placing their belief in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Master and the Head of the Body, as the All-Sufficient One to them, they wouldn’t have so many problems. We stand in our own light by placing the emphasis of what we believe on the wrong thing.
If people are told that they are insane enough times, they will begin to question their sanity. They might not become insane but their problems will be emphasized a great deal.
If they are told that they are beautiful, they will become beautiful. You can do that effectively with small children—keep assuring them that they are beautiful and they will come to believe they are beautiful.
Their entire outlook will not be one of arrogance or pride, but they will develop modesty and graciousness when they learn to accept themselves; and they will have a desire to learn and experience many new things.
Teach the children who they are and what they can do. Imagine what could be done with new converts if we told them what a real Christian could do—that…All things are possible to him that believeth. Mark 9:23.
There is a coexistence of two or three things in all of us. I know I have a human nature, but I don’t believe in it. I am beyond human. I know I have a Christ nature within me, and that is what I believe in! Where I put my faith and confidence is where everything is activated and begins to work.
Opposite things are true. You have the old flesh, and you have the Spirit. Which do you want to believe in?
The best way to keep a habit is to emphasize it until it attracts your attention. If you want to break a habit, take a day and fill it with so many good things that you don’t have time for the habit. Continue that day after day, and before you know it, many days will have gone by, so filled with wonderful activities that you’ve forgotten all about the habit. It will work.
People develop habits because they believe in them. They accept them as being valid in their lives, and easily find various excuses for continuing the things they do.
If you ask someone who drinks, “Why do you drink?” he might say, “It’s something to do,” or, “It helps me to relax.” Drinking a lot of wine or alcohol doesn’t stimulate you or produce anything—rather it becomes a depressant; until all your natural capacities are lessened. Who needs that?
But what do you need? And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit. Ephesians 5:18.
The Holy Spirit will teach you and bring forth your faith in the capacities and abilities that God is placing within you. God can give you the muscles, but it’s the Holy Spirit who constantly whispers in your ear, “Exercise them; believe in them.”
We have all received many more things from God than we are exercising; and we’re not exercising them because we don’t believe in them.
For instance, have you ever prophesied at some time in your life? If so, then do you accept the fact that you have the gift of prophecy? Do you believe in that gift? Some of you may be exercising it all you can, but most of you are not. You have a gift, but you don’t believe in it or you would be walking in it more.
If someone comes to me saying, “I saw an elder do such and such; he really fell,” I am going to say, “I don’t believe it. I believe what God is doing in that man’s life and that’s what I will continue to believe in.”
You may have things wrong in your own life—are you going to believe in them and emphasize them, or are you going to believe in the good things of God? Focus on the blessings of God in your life. Be loyal and faithful to that. We would correct so much in our lives by not emphasizing the negative.
We observe that principle in everything else we do. We don’t look at the thing we don’t want to see; we look at that which we do want to see. Do it even more.
It is true, that you will be out of touch with the whole world, but you won’t be disturbed by a continual concentration upon calamities. That’s why you should use discrimination when reading the newspapers. Many people read the news and then are under a cloud of gloom all day, because their focus is on the horrible things people are doing. Good news is rarely printed.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a newspaper you could believe in? Even if I accept the fact that the news may be reported accurately, I still don’t believe in it. I’m going to believe in what I see when I come to church: the Lord is moving and the people are being blessed.
What is the Holy Spirit trying to teach us?…Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit (things that we wouldn’t know or get into our thinking, God keeps teaching us): for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For who among men knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of the man, which is in him? Even so the things of God none knoweth, save the Spirit of God. We can believe what the Spirit is trying to teach us, can’t we? But we received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is from God; that we might know the things that were freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Spirit teacheth. I Corinthians 2:9–13.
The Spirit even teaches us the words to use to teach others the things God has for them, the truths that the Spirit is trying to show them. A little complicated? No, very simple. The Holy Spirit is there to teach us, and God is concerned that as He teaches, we come to believe and dwell upon those truths.
The power of a person’s thinking is so great that he can be in church, hear the Word and rejoice in it; yet when he goes out his mind immediately reverts to old channels, and he approaches everything with a gloomy outlook. People who worry about things always have something to worry about; whereas problems seem to evaporate for those who refuse to worry.
How can a person say, “Praise God, I’m filled with the Spirit; I spoke in tongues and I’m moving on in this glorious wonderful life in the Holy Spirit”; and the next minute murmur and complain, letting bitterness rise up?
Don’t tell me he is filled with the Spirit. People may have experiences in the Holy Spirit, but that doesn’t mean they are wholly filled with the Spirit. They are only filled to the limited capacity with which they have opened up to God. The rest of them is filled with their own ways and devices, with their own attitudes; and by believing and dwelling on them, they poison the entire stream of their life.
The Holy Spirit comes to teach you the things that are freely given to you in God; to search the depths of God, bringing up and letting you see what God really has for you. Unless we follow this, nothing will work in our lives. Don’t nullify all that God is doing by believing in the wrong thing, thereby giving it power and strength.
Many mothers recognize this truth. If you have a child who is doing something he should not, and you make a big issue of it, that child can become bound because of a simple thing, and retarded in the progress he would otherwise make.
As an illustration: a little girl always took a Raggedy Ann doll to bed with her. Her mother was concerned that maybe this was not a good practice and she should stop it. She was counseled not to make an issue of it. One day the girl went to her little cousin and said, “I think you would enjoy having this to take to bed with you,” and gave her the doll. That was progressive thinking.
If someone had made an issue of the situation she would only have been thinking about her own need. But because she was thinking in a healthy way and was concerned about someone else’s need, she gladly gave up her treasure.
You can call attention to a thing until it is overemphasized in a child’s life. Let children constantly expand and grow, and believe in their growth and development. Set the important things before them and they will discard the others.
When we look into the Scriptures, where is the focus of our mind going to be? If we worry about the things that are difficult to accomplish, they’ll be difficult. If we emphasize the great resources of God, that’s what we’ll have.
When I was a child I read the biography of Billie Gray, a Cornish miner who was converted to the Lord. He had a very simple philosophy: “I take my honey with a ladle and my vinegar with a teaspoon.” Some people, though, want to take the vinegar with a ladle and their honey with a teaspoon. The bitter things and problems are what they will emphasize in their lives.
When you stop to analyze what has happened to you, the good things far outweigh anything that you in your imagination could feel bitter about. Yet, in your problems, what do you emphasize?—just your bitterness? A person is foolish to emphasize any wound or hurt of the past. Look up and say, “The Lord’s been good to me; He’s been very good to me!”
Times of difficulty and pressure can enable God to do a quick work within us by applying all that pressure, forcing us into a spiritual maturity that only He knew we could achieve.
How fortunate you are to have the opportunity and privilege of walking with God. Choose to dwell on the wonder and beauty and freedom that you attain to in it.
There are those who are prone to emphasize the negative. You can accomplish a great deal more by looking for the good in a person.
Some of you wives who are trying to get your husbands to walk with God may see only their faults. Why not look and see if God is doing something in their lives? Start believing in that and see how soon the whole picture changes.
If you say, “He’s doing so many bad things; God should judge him severely,” God probably will; and He will deal with you severely too for what you were voicing.
But suppose you say, “I see something good there and I’m going to believe God to bless it and strengthen it.” Soon it grows and expands and the negative things are crowded out.
Whether you believe it or not, there is a little bit of devil in all of you. You can magnify it—or you can shrink it, mortify it, and put it to death. You can say, “Fill my cup, Lord. Fill me up with the Holy Spirit.
It is so easy to emphasize the faults and shortcomings of someone you don’t like, until you actually convince yourself that you believe all those terrible things about them.
If you were to make a list of the faults you see in the Apostle Peter you would find quite a few. And people are always preaching about how David fell into sin.
They rarely preach about the beautiful psalms God gave him, or the wonderful things he did, all the times he went out boldly leading his men right into the teeth of death. People like to point the finger and accuse. But if you denounce the other fellow, be sure that it is really of God to do so.
Love covers a multitude of sin; it works a lot better. I used to be a Pharisee of the Pharisees, but God surely changed me. He put compassion in my heart for others.
You should try to see others as God sees them and move in love and compassion for them. Do the same for yourself. If you get a word or a prophecy; go home and meditate upon it and say, “Do I really believe this about me? Am I actually going to walk with God that way? Do I believe it? Or do I believe all this other garbage that keeps coming up?” What you believe, is what will come to pass.
Walk in these truths. Don’t believe in your brother’s mistakes; believe in his spiritual growth and his exploits.
I believe in the restoration. I believe in the outpouring of the Spirit of God. I believe in what God is doing in your life. I believe in what He is doing in my life. And troubles you may be having can be easily dispelled if you can just keep on believing in the Lord, believing in His Word, and the great outpouring that is to come.
How about making a list of the things you do not believe in? I do not believe in gossip. I do not believe in backbiting. I do not believe in murmuring and complaining, in grumbling and whining. I do not believe in fear. I do not believe in unbelief. I do not believe in demons—I may have a mental acceptance of their existence, but I’m not putting any faith in their ability to harm me.
When someone asks you how you feel, what is your answer? “Oh, not too good”—is that what you say? or, I did have a headache, but I don’t believe in headaches. I choice to feel great!”
Do you believe in the fullness of the Spirit—not only in receiving the Spirit, but in the whole operation, of being continually filled with the Spirit? (Ephesians 5:18) I believe in that. I believe in what it means. I believe in what will be accomplished in the overflow.
From now on I am looking at the enemy through the other end of the telescope, shrinking him down to a little insignificant thing because he is defeated. Every day he withers away more. Believe your problems to shrink down and disappear completely. Let the focus of your heart be upon God and His great endowment of grace upon you, upon the fullness of the Spirit and the blessings He is going to bring.