Matthew 16:19, “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.”
We will dwell on the finality with which things have been accomplished in the spirit realm. 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 that, “By His stripes ye were healed” (I Peter 2:24). It is bringing that healing manifestation in another realm. It exists, but we bring it into focus; we bring it into view. A man may have money in the bank, but to him it is just a figure in a bank book, or a bank statement. When he writes a check at the counter and they start handing him the money, the thing that really is his anyway comes into view.
We are prophesying the word of the Lord, so that the things come into view which God has said are so. I cannot point to one thing we are seeking today that we haven’t had prophecies repeatedly saying that they are ours. The teaching of the word, that we are blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, confirms these are all ours. When the Lord says, “All authority is given unto Me in heaven and earth; go ye therefore, and make disciples of all nations,” He is laying something before us so that we have to move in that authority—His authority. He has the authority, but it remains as He sits at the right hand of the Father henceforth expecting until His enemies be made the footstool of His feet, (Psalm 110:1; Matthew 22:44).
In the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ at the right hand of the Father, it is a reality that He is Lord of lords and King of kings, but we do not see that in evidence in the earth; we see demon powers, principalities and many things rise up against Christ, even in our own hearts. We don’t find ourselves as submissive to Him as we want to be; but He reigns and He will reign until every enemy is made the footstool of His feet (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.
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 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 open: “There’s the man, go open his eyes.” Jesus was bringing into physical manifestation the thing that He saw in the spirit realm. That 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. The works were finished from the foundation of the world, so why are we straining 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 move to bring it into focus and into being. We are struggling and travailing in prayer, faith, and intercession to be instruments with just that little spark of faith that brings into action and brings 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.
That is why, while you are yet speaking He will answer. Before you call, He has heard you. “Then why am I supposed to pray so much?” I don’t know, but God has ordained it to be that way. He has said prayer is going to be the greatest principle of all. And even then He seems to draw out the reluctant soul until a violence of faith fires their prayers.
It is worthwhile to go through the Scriptures noting the prayer life of Jesus Christ, especially His continuing all night in prayer. If our blessed Lord, the Son of God, understood the Father well enough to devote Himself that much to prayer, we had better do it too. If He did not fail to enter in, 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. Came the hour of prayer—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.
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. That is why the Lord could say, “Go, and preach the gospel. Go, and make disciples. All authority is given unto Me in heaven and earth. Go therefore, and make disciples of all the nations” (Matthew 28:18, 19).
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 (there’s a little “if” there) in faith believing God, then, oh what God has ordained to do through me! And it’s true of you, too—what He has ordained to do through you! The world has yet to see a man that would measure up to the full thing that God had prepared for him. That is why I think in the Judgment day, the judgments will come almost like two movies running. One movie will be running and God will say, “This is what you did.” He will run another and say, “This is what is in My heart, that I prepared for you to walk in.” 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?” “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 refused to 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. You settled down for a limited human 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. 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 tried to eliminate any limitations in our thinking, but we keep going 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; see your own life the way He intends for it to be. Such repentance there would be 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. 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—add them all up and we can do a bigger work. We are believing for something bigger than the individual resources of any church; we are believing for that miracle power of God to sweep over the world, as a people are ordained to be this, in the name of the Lord.
I’m stopped right here in this one thing God is speaking. This is what He is saying: if you could know what was 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. They sensed a number of things about themselves. One of the things that they sensed was that they were commissioned men, and they knew they had been commissioned by the Lord Jesus Christ, Who is the Lord of lords and the King of kings, Who has all authority in heaven and earth. His lordship over them and His authority over all things was the realization of their heart. They realized also that He had a plan and a purpose that He was going to execute in the earth through them. They learned and accepted their place as His instruments and His channels in the earth. They believed that He was 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 magic 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 anything in My Name, I will do it. John 14:14. Lord, bless the word to our hearts. Give us faith like the early Church, to so walk before the Lord.
Are you opening your heart to the word? I don’t know when I have had a message that 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 thing 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 commission, the divine holy commission to be His people. Lord, I want to be loosed of this, in the name of the Lord.
We should take Communion with the Lord dealing with our hearts. 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, be importunate. Let’s do it.
Lord, search our hearts, and prepare us for real repentance. We are going to come to grips with that thing that you have stirred up in our being. Lord, 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, Lord, from their shallowness of perception. Loose us, O Lord, 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, in the name of the Lord, 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 the Lord: an absolute acceptance of His authority and His commission on our lives to open our hearts to catch a new glimpse by faith of this fantastic walk. Lord, reveal this walk to our hearts.
Those who may be on the outskirts, Lord, could be such men and women of faith. These doubting Thomas’s that waver in the hour of testing; O Master, meet their hearts. Loose them, wash them clean, O Master; and above all, the one who always stands in this church as the most needy one of all, meet my heart, Lord. There are so many things that you have said are mine; that have been done; that have been accomplished. O God, for that faith to prophesy them into being, we speak the words that will cause the whole will of God to spring forth within our hearts. If I seem as one who is mad, O God, it is because I’m beside myself. In this hour I yearn after Thee, O Lord. Let this thing be brought forth in Thy will. Let this church 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. We are claiming that heritage, O Lord. Amen.
Yea, the Lord would have thee to be like unto Elijah of old who stood in the presence of the Lord. He would have thee as those who shall stand in the gap and make intercession, in order that the Lord’s blessing shall be poured upon the sons of men. Turn your hearts away from indifference and even the pursuit of your own devices, all thy planning—lay it before the Lord, for the Lord hath great things for thee to walk in, He hath great things for thee to lay hold upon in the name of the Lord.
Thou shalt be like unto the prophets of God who stood in the gap. Behold, they cried unto the Lord and the Lord was entreated on their behalf. And did He not bring blessings and rain from heaven, like the rain upon the earth, upon God’s people? Though they were unworthy yet the Lord did bless them for the sake of those who stood as prophets of God in their prayers before the face of the Lord. Let thine own heart be lifted up to believe the Lord; let there be no dismay within thee, nor discouragement.
If there seemeth to be delays, remember that this is the device of the enemy. Thou shalt not look at the delays that are borne upon this body, at this hour, as being from the hand of the Lord; for the time hath passed when the Lord hath wrought deep things within thy heart and made full preparation for what He would bring forth. He hath given the word that has said sovereignly that this is the hour that He would move. Yea, the Lord shall not contradict Himself, yet the enemy shall come in to delay. Thou shalt know the delays are from the hands of the enemy and thou shalt rebuke them and thou shalt bind them and cast them down; and thou shalt believe the Lord to make a way for thee where there hath been no way to walk in. Thou shalt believe the Lord to make the mountain a plain before thee. Thou shalt cry unto the Lord, and thou shalt rebuke thy mountains and they shall be cast into the sea. Thou shalt have faith to believe for the impossible.
The hour hath come that the Lord doth lift thee up to walk in a new level you have not walked in before. He hath called thee that thou shalt walk as sons before His face, that thou should be manifested before the face of the world, not as patient and longsuffering, but as those that have endured all that and now possess the Kingdom in the name of the Lord.
It shall be in thy heart to move rapidly in the things of the Lord. Thou shalt not be slow, thou shalt not delay in these things; for the time is short and there remaineth not much opportunity unto the people of the Lord. They shall seize that opportunity, in the name of the Lord; they shall enter in. Yea, the urgency shall be upon their spirits. Cry unto the Lord, cry unto Him day and night. Yea, let intercession be in the hearts of God’s people; for the time, the set time hath come. Yea, ask ye of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain. Amen.
“Yea, there cometh forth a ministry in this hour that shall cause the people to inherit the land which the Lord has sworn unto their fathers. In this hour ye shall be strong and of good courage. This shall be an hour that ye shall plant thy foot upon the land of thine inheritance and shrink not back from it, O house of the Lord. It shall be an hour that there remaineth very much land for thee to possess but ye shall systematically possess and conquer the land which the Lord has set before thee.
“It shall be an hour when intercession shall rise from the house of the Lord. Did not the word speak even of that intercession which came up, of that incense which came up out of the censer and the prayers that came before the throne of God (Revelation 8:3)? And it shall be so in this hour, for thou shalt stir thy heart from any measure of lethargy or passivity. Ye shall intercede, ye shall strike the cloud and ye shall believe for the rain to fall upon the vineyard of the Lord in this day.”
“No longer shall there be a delaying of the word of the Lord as it comes forth in thine heart in this hour. This is the hour of the fulfillment of that word, the very word which cometh unto thee shall be a driving force unto thee. It shall be applied to thy very lives, and to thy very breath, in this hour. Take the word and walk fully in it, for the word is not to be delayed one more day. This is the hour of its fulfillment, walk in it.”
“No longer shalt thou live for thyself, for thou shalt take the word which the Lord has spoken over thee: that the Lord hath called thee “lights unto the world.” The Word has made thee, Himself, to be a light on the hillside, yea, a city on a mountain. Thou shalt be that city this day, O people of the Lord. Thou shalt no more live in withdrawal. Thou shalt no more live under or be persuaded by the devices of the enemy, for thou shalt come forth as a mighty, bold people. Thou shalt be strengthened in this day and thou shalt be the people that shall bring down this present world; for the light of the Lord shall shine forth from thee.
“This day the Lord would speak to thee to let the walls down that have blocked the light of the Lord from flowing forth from thee. Thou hast a commission from the Lord thy God, and thou shalt walk in what the Lord has spoken. Thou shalt no more listen to the carnal self, thou shalt no more listen to the devices of the princes of this world, but thou shalt listen to what the Lord has spoken, and thy light shall shine forth this day, O people.”
One more thing the Lord would speak unto thy heart. Thou shalt not say, “Lord, raise up other churches to take the burden”; but thou shalt know that the Lord laid the burden upon thee, and thou shalt not be quick to lay it aside. And if thou shalt say, “Behold, our finances are limited,” yet thy faith is not to be limited—our God is not limited. For thou shalt take, as a people of the Lord, the responsibility to be that people God raised you up to be. Upon this house shall rest the anointing to bless every nation on the face of the earth. And thou shalt have it in mind that God hath chosen this church to be a missionary church.
Yea, the Lord shall raise up others, but what is that to thee? Thou shalt be mindful of what He hath called thee to do. Thou shalt not shirk this thing nor walk aside from it, but day and night thou shalt cry unto the Lord. And if there cometh a time that thou shalt say, “I have no money, I have no strength,” yet thy God hath plenty. Thou shalt draw upon His abundance and thou shalt believe. Be thou the miracle people that God hath called thee to be. Continually stand before the face of the Lord. Amen.
“Behold, thou shalt turn away the doubts and fears of thine own heart; thou shalt no longer look to the weariness of thine own flesh as you see the days that are upon thee. But thou shalt know that the strength of the Lord shall be upon thee. For the Lord shall let thee behold thy calling, O house of God. Even He that hath called thee as weak ones to confound the strong and the mighty, to take of thy foolishness to confound the wisdom of this age.
“Therefore shall the Lord raise thee up as a house. Thou shalt not look to thine own resources, for thou shalt look to the power of God, for His divine power that has granted unto thee all things that pertain to life and godliness. Let there not be that that shall seek to delay; let there be not that that shall countenance even the lie of the enemy that has come before thee. For thou art more than conquerors through Him that hath called thee; therefore hath the power of God come upon thee to speak a word. Thou shalt cast down every lofty thing, every imagination that has caused the people of God to be weary within their own hearts. Therefore thou shalt know that the victory of the Lord is upon thee. This day thou shalt enter in; this day thou shalt possess thine inheritance; this day thou shalt cast down all opposition and thou shalt move forward.”
Prophesy unto the mountains that they come down; prophesy unto the seas that they part; prophesy unto thy limitations that they shall vanish forever. Rebuke the spirits that come against thee for the time of their judgment hath come. Open thy heart, O people of the Lord, to be that instrument in the hand of the Lord to execute his righteousness and His judgments in the earth. Amen.
“Thou art the people that the Lord hath raised up and prepared unto mighty good works. Yea, thou shalt not count as permanent or valid, thy limitations which hath restricted thee in thy focus and thy faith. For the Lord speaketh unto thee that all things are possible to him that believeth. The Lord raiseth up a man of faith in thy house that provoketh thee unto love and good works. He speaks unto thee and challenges thee, that thou shalt be that company that shall do the signs and the wonders and shall enter into the exploits, in the name of the Lord. Yea, enter forth in faith this day that thou shalt see the bonds of iniquity broken upon thine own heart, upon this house. For thou should enter in with great faith, O house of God; for the word of God is not bound and it hath come unto thee that thou shalt be the free people of the Lord.”
“Thou shalt not say in thy heart, ‘How shall these things be, how shall this word come to pass?’ But ye shall even hold the treasure of the word of the Lord in thine heart and ye shall say, ‘Be it done unto me according to Thy word.’ Ye shall not cast about in thy mind what manner of saying this is. Ye shall not say, ‘I understand not the word of the Lord, I have not witnessed this on this wise before.’ Nay, but thou shalt hold the word in thy heart, yea, ye shall even commit it unto the Lord, and in faith ye shall believe that there shall be a fulfillment of all things which the Lord has spoken. For no word that is spoken unto thee shall be void of power, but it shall come forth and it shall execute and create the thing. For it speaketh not as the word of man, but as the word of God that effectually worketh in ye that believe. Therefore, receive the word with humility; receive the word with faith; receive the word with a violent and a ruthless submission to walk in it in this hour, and ye shall be that people of God. Though ye shall be even as dry bones in thine own sight, the word of the Lord shall raise thee up unto an exceeding great army to walk before Him.”
Thou shalt not murmur in thy heart and say, “How shall we be able to do these things?” But thou art a people that hath already been ordained for these good works; God hath prepared them before the foundation of the world that ye should walk in them. Let not thine heart be fearful nor dismayed and say, “I cannot walk in these things.” For He declareth things as though they were before they spring into being. And He hath declared these things in the earth and thou shalt prophesy them. Thou shalt bring them to pass with thy faith; thou shalt come to execute all of the will of the Lord upon this earth. Have faith for it.
Thou shalt not be dismayed and say, “Behold, I cannot abide this violence, I cannot abide this thing that seems to be out of hand, emotionally.” Yea, thou shalt open thy heart for even greater things than this, for behold there shall stand a people that shall rebuke the course of the world. When the tide doth flow they shall rebuke it. When the enemy doth come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against it, and they shall rebuke it, they shall bring it down. Don’t be dismayed at this, that the Lord causes a time of zealous prophesying before His face, for thou shalt yet see men that shall be so moved by the power of God that all of their energies, all of their strength, everything within them shall rise as they cry aloud the word of God and they spare not. They will reach forth to the things that God would bring forth in the earth.
Yea, hath the Lord brought forth a Remnant and left it without any weapon? Hath He brought thee forth in this hour that thou should be as the Son of man who came forth first as a Lamb without defense? Nay, but the Lord thy God cometh within thee, yea, thy blessed Lord cometh within thee as the Lion of the tribe of Judah, that hath teeth, and yea that hath claws, to devour all of His adversaries and bring them down before Him. Thou art not without recourse, O house of God, the Lord hath not left thee weaponless. Thou art not as a beast of prey that shall be taken and devoured, but thou art as one that cometh forth in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thou art as those that come forth to prophesy the word of the Lord. The prophecy within thee shall be greater than all the power of the enemy. The word of the Lord in thy mouth shall prevail over all darkness and every adversary—thou shalt bring it down.
Behold, the Lord would admonish thee: prophesy the word of the Lord! Exhort one another and prophesy until thou shalt see Babylon’s walls come crumbling; until thou shalt see the hosts of darkness slain before thee; and thou shalt find thy limitations giving way to His fullness; and thou shalt know that the unlimited assets and resources of thy God are at thy disposal. Behold, O house of God, thou hast but to bind and it is bound; thou hast but to loose and it is loosed, for such is our authority in the name of the Lord.