Conflict and battle are always a sign of an imminent new step. The first thing you do when you reach a new spiritual level is cast out devils. You might think that you would first make converts, but you do not. In the commission in Mark, Jesus said, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues. Mark 16:15, 17. You cannot reach the people until you get past the devils. Then come the healings and all of the wonderful things that the Lord would bring to pass (Mark 16:18).
First of all you have to cope with the level of the spirit world that you are taking over. This is certainly true in the Hawaiian Islands. The Islanders still have a healthy (or unhealthy) respect for Kahunas and their curses, for the Menehunes and all the rest of the spirit world so prevalent there. Even if you do not live in the Hawaiian Islands, there are elemental spirits that influence your area also (Colossians 2:20, Moffatt and New English Bible). But the truth is that the authority of Jesus Christ will cope with any of it. It is very, very important that you realize that what is imparted to you is more powerful than any Kahuna curse or satanic assault that could come against you. You have to believe that, because what we are moving into is the only real, true authority. The spirit world uses power; it can do things, but this is authority. Jesus said, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations.” Matthew 28:18b–19a. If that authority is not present, then we are helpless in combating the powers of the enemy.
It is interesting to note that a number of the so-called sects or cults that are being persecuted believe in Jesus Christ far more than those who are doing the persecuting and who are also quite content to see the sects being persecuted. Not too long ago the Mormons were considered a sect, but now they are too powerful. They are not considered a sect anymore. There was a time when the Methodists were also considered a sect.
Our critics search to find things in our teaching that they can twist. They say that we do not believe in the Scriptures and that we do not believe in the deity of Jesus Christ. This is not true. They also say that we believe we can receive a direct revelation from God; and this is true. However, it is also true that this direct revelation from God always comes forth out of the Scriptures and through the knowledge of them as the Spirit enables us. The trouble is, we have been audacious enough to believe more than the rest of the Christian world believes. It is not fashionable to believe the Bible that much. Most Christians whittle it down and believe increasingly less and less of it.
A sociologist, Jeffrey Hayden, conducted a poll of ten thousand Protestant clergymen, and the results were printed in Christianity Today, which is supposed to be a rather conservative Protestant magazine. Of the 10,000 polled, 7,441 replied. Notice what these clergymen believe. When asked if they accept Jesus’ physical resurrection as a fact, fifty-one percent of the Methodists, thirty-five percent of the United Presbyterians, thirty percent of the Episcopalians, thirty-three percent of the American Baptists, thirteen percent of the American Lutherans, and seven percent of the Missouri Synod Lutherans said, “No.” When asked if they believe in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ, sixty percent of the Methodists, forty-four percent of the Episcopalians, forty-nine percent of the Presbyterians, thirty-four percent of the Baptists, nineteen percent of the American Lutherans, and five percent of the Missouri Synod Lutherans said, “No, we do not believe in the virgin birth.” When asked if they believe that the Scriptures are inspired and the inherent Word of God in faith, history, and secular matters, eighty-seven percent of the Methodists, ninety-five percent of the Episcopalians, eighty-two percent of the Presbyterians, sixty-seven percent of the American Baptists, seventy-seven percent of the American Lutherans, and twenty-four percent of the Missouri Synod Lutherans answered, “No.” When asked if they believe in evil demon power in the world today, sixty-two percent of the Methodists, thirty-seven percent of the Episcopalians, forty-seven percent of the Presbyterians, thirty-three percent of the Baptists, fourteen percent of the American Lutherans, and nine percent of the Missouri Synod Lutherans said, “No.”
Not only are they doing away with the deity of Christ, but they are doing away with the devil too. Most of them have never encountered devil power. A highly skeptical Modernist once came up to Billy Sunday and said, “You talk so much about fighting the devil; I’ve never met the devil.” Billy Sunday answered, “Of course you haven’t. You are walking the same direction he is; you will never meet him going that way.”
An example of permissiveness in the pulpit is Dr. Joseph C. Webber, Professor of Biblical Theology in Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C. When the admonition “Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind” (Deuteronomy 6:5; Matthew 22:37) was quoted to Dr. Webber, he replied, “You cannot command anyone to love. That is not any kind of commandment God would give.” All of this shows the things we are facing.
We have abandoned—and wisely so—the ritualism of religion because it is only a facade, a shell that is left. The heart is gone. Have you ever heard of warfarin? It is a special kind of rat poison. When a rat eats it, the poison completely destroys his insides; only the skin remains. He appears to be perfect, but if you touch him with a broom, you will see that everything has been eaten out of him, and he has turned into powder. This illustrates the condition of much of Christianity today. It looks as if it is something, but it cannot stand. And that is why it is ready to come down.
What are we doing? We are taking one more step forward. Not only do we believe the Scriptures, but we believe that we will walk in everything that is proclaimed in them. Any of the works that Christ did, we dare to believe to do also (John 14:12). Whatever the Lord said was to be done—the signs and wonders—we are believing to do. This last step (the laying on of hands) is the greatest step forward into the Kingdom we have ever made. Of course, immediately we have battle. What did you expect? We are encountering the world forces and spirits that are governing things. All the world lies under the power of the wicked one (I John 5:19). This does not mean that he cannot be brought down, because the authority is Christ’s. Everything else is an illusion. The heart of any resistance has been taken away. By His death on the cross, Jesus Christ overcame principalities and powers.
Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; and having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it. Colossians 2:14–15, KJV.
If this took place, it means that the victory is ours, by the authority that He has committed to us. The authority that He has, He has delegated to us to use. We are not moving in our own power, by our own energies or planning or strategy or by anything that is human. We are daring to believe that we will move in the power of God; but more particularly, in that authority which was committed to the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what the laying on of hands is all about.
Some of the channels by which great authority and great blessings are ministered are very simple. One of those simple channels is the Holy Communion. And yet what a foolish ritual has been made of it in most churches. When the Lord partakes of it anew with us in the Father’s Kingdom (Mark 14:25), you will be amazed to see the power it has. The life and the force of Jesus Christ will be transferred to us.
Another simple channel is the laying on of hands. That, too, has been very confusing to people. They have done it down through the years, but it was usually empty hands laid on empty heads and empty hearts. Consequently no one received very much. But when you look to the Scriptures and see what the Lord and the apostles did by the laying on of hands, you will see that a great deal was imparted. More is imparted to you in the laying on of hands than you realize. What do you receive? What happens to you? You obtain something beyond your understanding, but you must know how to move in it. What will you do with it?
I have never been more aware of the impartation taking place than I am now. But I know that it could dead-end; it could be dissipated and slowly diminish if we do not exercise it and give full attention to it. For that reason, when the Word speaks about the laying on of hands, it also exhorts us to stir up the gift that has been imparted and to keep it active.
And for this reason I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. II Timothy 1:6.
Do not neglect the spiritual gift within you, which was bestowed upon you through prophetic utterance with the laying on of hands by the presbytery. Take pains with these things; be absorbed in them, so that your progress may be evident to all. I Timothy 4:14–15, NASB.
We are told to meditate and pursue the development of that gift, because it is expandable. It can increase until there is a great deal of authority and power present. But it does not start out that way.
This is true also in the natural physical realm. When you introduce a person to something new, he usually has difficulty with it. For example, the first time a person uses a shower that he is not familiar with, he may have difficulty adjusting the temperature of the water. First it is freezing cold, and next he is practically scalding himself—all because he does not know how to work it. It isn’t the shower’s fault; it is his fault. Sometimes areas of ignorance exist because we do not know how the impartation functions. God has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness. Marvelous promises He has given us (II Peter 1:3–4). If they are not working, it is our fault.
Where would you go if you did not believe in the Kingdom? Would you join the ranks of those Protestant clergymen who responded with unbelief to the poll? Would you want to be one of those Methodists who do not believe that there is any demon power? When Jesus told His followers, “Unless you eat My flesh and drink My blood you have no life in you,” it was difficult for them to hear it. As a result, many left Him. Then He asked the twelve, “Are you going also?” Peter answered, “To whom shall we go?” (John 6:51–69.) That is a question you too must consider carefully. Those who have ever been in any kind of a walk with the Lord, and then leave, rarely become active in any other church. When they draw back, they have nothing to go to. They have already been ruined for the formal church world, because there is not enough there to satisfy them. There is never enough reality, and they see through the emptiness of it.
As we unfold several passages of Scripture, you will realize what happens by the simple expedient of the laying on of hands. Paul wrote to Timothy: Do not neglect the spiritual gift within you, which was bestowed upon you through prophetic utterance with the laying on of hands by the presbytery. The word translated “presbytery” is presbuteros in the Greek—the word for “elder.” This means that a Presbyterian church is a church that is governed by its elders.
Take pains with these things; be absorbed in them, so that your progress may be evident to all. Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things; for as you do this you will insure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you. I Timothy 4:14–16.
Timothy, an apostle, is listed among the twenty-three or twenty-four apostles mentioned in the New Testament. Although he had progressed so far, he was still being reminded that the elders had laid hands on him and committed to him gifts of the Spirit. In II Timothy 1:6 Paul mentioned that he had laid hands on Timothy and imparted to him. However, the impartation does not mean as much unless there is an appropriation. There must be an awareness of it. Someone who does not have this awareness may say, “I just have to take it by faith. I received a blessing but I don’t know what I received.” You must develop an awareness. Become absorbed in it. Pay close attention to it. As you give yourself to it, what you have received becomes evident to all; everyone will see it. If there is anything supernatural involved, it is not only in the impartation; it is also in the appropriation as you pick it up and do something with it.
I believe with all my heart that I can impart great things, but those to whom I impart must know that they have received it. I could continue giving, and be aware that I am giving, but in the final analysis it works because the recipients believe it. They become absorbed in it. They pay close attention to it. They do not let anything cause them to draw back from it. They believe that they have received. Paul told Timothy, “The things that you have seen and heard in me, commit to faithful men” (II Timothy 2:2). It always has to be passed on to others who follow in that same pattern.
In the first chapter of II Timothy, Paul wrote, I constantly remember you in my prayers night and day. Verse 3b. It is up to me, too, to continually pray for you. I find myself praying for people who apparently never can make it. Yet later we find them walking with God again, and even more effectively. We cannot judge things by the outward appearance, and Paul realized that. In this beautiful first chapter of II Timothy he told how everybody had forsaken him (verse 15). This did not mean they had all forsaken Christ; it just meant that they left at the time of Paul’s trial. They did not have the courage necessary to stand by him. All of II Timothy is devoted to Paul’s exhortation: “Don’t be ashamed of my bonds. Don’t be ashamed to stand up and be counted. Don’t be afraid.”
And for this reason I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, or of me His prisoner; but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God.
Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you. II Timothy 1:6–8, 13–14, NASB.
In the final analysis, the thing that is given to us today will either work or not work the same as it would work or not work with Timothy. Paul talks about the fear and the shame. He talks about the fear of man, though he does not call it that; he calls it other things. But those are the things that keep the gifts from working. At a time of persecution when God begins to move, the enemy will do everything he can to stir up fear—the last stronghold in the emotional level, in the carnal mind, that could nullify and cross out your faith so that it is not operative.
Sometimes we hear a person say, “Oh, I have all kinds of faith.” That is good, but all we need is just one kind—the kind that works. All kinds of faith are not necessary. All you need is just a little mustard-seed faith, the kind that will move a mountain (Matthew 17:20).
Paul told Timothy, For I am mindful of the sincere faith within you, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois, and your mother Eunice, and I am sure that it is in you as well. And for this reason I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. II Timothy 1:5–6. Notice that Timothy had received that gift of God through the laying on of Paul’s hands. He told Timothy, “I know you have faith. I know I laid hands on you and gave you a gift from God. Now what are you to do? Kindle it afresh. Visualize blowing on it as you would a small fire, and soon the flame will burn brightly.”
For God has not given us a spirit of timidity (fearfulness and timidity do not come from God), but of power and love and discipline. II Timothy 1:7. “A disciplined mind” expresses the true meaning, based on the Greek word sophronismos (self-control).
When we reach a new spiritual level, we often find that the discipline of our mind is the one thing that must be controlled through the dedication of our spirit.
When we are assaulted with depression and melancholy and withdrawal, we must realize that this is the backwash from the enemy. For every reaction in the spirit world there seems to be a counteraction. Every time you receive a blessing, almost immediately you go through difficulties. We are familiar with that pattern. Part of it is of God, but part of it is the fact that when God meets you, the enemy wants to nullify or minimize the blessing as much as he possibly can. In order to minimize it, he hits you with a spirit of fear.
But Paul says, For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, or of me His prisoner. II Timothy 1:7–8a.
Have you experienced this sense of being ashamed, the fear of man, the timidity, that Paul spoke about here? Paul said, “Do not be ashamed, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God.” II Timothy 1:8b.
If we have all of these gifts and all of this blessing, then why do we have to suffer? Because this is the escalator to the throne where you will be seated with Him. If you suffer with Him, you will reign with Him (Romans 8:17b; II Timothy 2:12). When you begin to move in authority, when you begin to move in a gift, the first thing that happens is that the doors open for you to have some suffering with it, because that is the way to the throne.
Nobody sits on the throne with Jesus Christ the Lord unless he has suffered with Him. Then he will reign with Him. Are you thinking, “I would just as soon do without the suffering.” I would too, but there is no other way.
“He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.” Revelation 3:21, NASB.
Paul continued: (God) has saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity. II Timothy 1:9. In verse 12a Paul spoke again about suffering: For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed. His suffering had no shame included in it.
The enemy often comes to ridicule, to make fun. When Christ was crucified, it was between two thieves (Matthew 27:37–38). Paul said, “I suffer imprisonment as a criminal, as an evildoer; but the Word of God is not bound” (II Timothy 2:9). His enemies could not put the Word of God in jail. It was from the jails where Paul was imprisoned that the New Testament flowed out. He was never ashamed. When he wrote to the Philippians from prison, he expressed his joy. He called them “my joy and my crown” (Philippians 4:1). James wrote in his Epistle, “Count it all joy, when you fall into divers temptations, knowing what God is working in you” (James 1:2–3). Those early apostles went through many difficulties, but they had something within them. It was not a dignity, but it was a realization that they were in the sufferings of Jesus Christ. Paul did not even call himself a Roman prisoner; he would not even refer to what the Romans were doing to him. He called himself a prisoner of the Lord Jesus (Ephesians 3:1; 4:1). Unbowed and with boldness, he said, “Thank You, Lord. Whatever they do, even if they throw us to the lions, we will not have a spirit of timidity. We will not have fear. We will not be shamed.”
Paul wrote to the Philippians, “When the enemy sees your boldness, it is an evident token to them of their destruction, and that right soon.”
According to my earnest expectation and hope, that I shall not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness, Christ shall even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.
In no way alarmed by your opponents—which is a sign of destruction for them, but of salvation for you, and that too, from God. For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, experiencing the same conflict which you saw in me, and now hear to be in me. Philippians 1:20, 28–30, NASB.
When the enemy cannot get you to back down or to be fearful or ashamed, he knows that he is defeated, because nothing is operating except the pure faith that God has given you. When you get into that realm where you are not bluffed out by the circumstances or by what the enemy does, your gift will work very effectively. Therefore, stir it up. Do not be afraid. Keep moving.
Have you ever felt that you would be afraid to experience what some of the early apostles did? When you get going, you will not be afraid; you will do the same as they did. Are you concerned that you might be considered a religious fanatic? What is the difference between the things that a man of God did in the Bible times, and what would be labeled as fanaticism or heresy today? There is no difference; it is the same thing. How much is the Christian world believing? We read the statistics showing what pastors believe. What about the people? What are they believing? Down in their hearts, what are they really believing? What do the Jews believe in today?
My spiritual grandfather visiting Israel several years ago, asked his guide, “What do you believe in?”
“I believe in tradition.”
“Does that mean you believe all the Scriptures?”
“No, I don’t believe that.”
“Do you practice all of the Jewish rituals? Do you go to the temple to worship?”
“No, I don’t do that. But I believe in tradition.”
“What is tradition?”
“Well, I don’t know; it’s a family thing.”
They don’t even know what they believe in. They are held together by a fabric that is almost nonexistent. The life is gone out of it. It looks like a big, healthy thing, but it’s just an outward veneer. This is true of the Jews. It is also true of the Protestants and the Catholics. They don’t know what they believe in anymore.
Catholics pray to the Virgin Mary and believe that all authority rests in the Pope, the Pontifus Max. Does that make them secure? Evidently not, as evidenced by the demonstrations against the various papal edicts. If the Catholics believe that the Pope is infallible, why do so many of them fail to follow the word he gives on birth control? Why is the Catholic church arguing over various issues, such as the right of priests and nuns to get married? Are the foundations being destroyed, because people do not have faith in them? For the Catholics, the Bible derives its authority from the church. They believe that because the church says that the Bible is the Word of God, it is. The church declares its authority.
The Protestants say the opposite. They say that Christ has given us the Scriptures, and if any teaching does not line up to the Scripture, they do not have to follow it. But they do not know exactly what the Scripture is saying; consequently there are a thousand translations and a thousand different denominations, each of which interprets the Bible in a different way. They don’t know exactly what they are talking about. Isn’t it time for the Lord to bring the Kingdom?
What do we believe? We believe that Jesus Christ has all authority in heaven and earth (Matthew 28:18). The Lordship of Jesus Christ is the one basic foundation of our faith. Because we believe that He is Lord and Christ, as well as our Savior (Acts 2:36), we believe that we have been taken out of the dominion of darkness and transferred into the Kingdom of God’s dear Son, the Son of His love (Colossians 1:13). That is where we are. Therefore we can believe that everything of this authority can be transmitted to somebody else and it will really work.
Then why hasn’t it worked more efficiently? We have had a lot of fear. Even in our intercession, we have backed off many times because some wanted a more orderly church. What do they mean, “orderly”?
If we cannot break through the principalities and powers, how effective will we be? Those principalities and powers are squatters, sitting on the territories that really belong to Jesus Christ. And we should approach them as such.
In vision my spiritual grandfather has seen caravans consisting of a thousand prophets traveling through the land in buses and vans, binding things. They could cause great disturbance by the words they speak as they move through an area. We have seen the beginning of this in the elemental-spirit search. About ten years ago, I said that the time would come in which the most essential ministry I would perform would be to go with authority to bind those elemental spirits, rather that preaching to congregations. It is extremely important that those spirits be bound—those powers that rule the air. In Ephesians 2:2, Paul spoke of “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that rules in the children of disobedience.” We have to read the Scriptures again and again. We must be well versed in them. It is not enough to say that we believe in gifts; we must know how those gifts operate, and how we are to function in the ministry that is going to come in the name of the Lord.
Paul said, … I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day. Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you. II Timothy 1:12–14. Notice that he calls it “the treasure.” Do you like that?
A gut-level kind of teaching is coming to the third generation of the walk with God. The first generation established a beachhead. The second generation has had a great struggle to break out of forms which had no power. They had forms of godliness, without the power to break out of them (II Timothy 3:5). The third generation comes along, and they seem to say, “Hey Caleb, hey Joshua, let’s bring down those giants. Let’s go and take them. Where we’ve been bluffed out and fearful, let’s go and take them. Let’s go after it!” Yet they must not minimize what the others have done; they were breaking out of the bondage of a whole age. If they had not done that, none of us would be where we are today. The mantle has fallen on us. Now let’s all go in and do the job we were called to do in the first place. Let’s get at it with everything that is within us.
Do not give the excuse, “I work too hard; I can’t listen to tapes, I can’t meditate, I can’t pray.” Do you realize that we have more leisure time today than any people have had in the history of the world? Do you know what your grandfathers did? Some of them went into the coal mines when it was still dark, and they came out when it was dark. The eight-hour day is relatively new. A forty- or forty-eight-hour week is not that old. It was not too long ago that a man spent every waking hour laboring to make a living, to survive. You can survive much more easily today.
Of course, you can determine what level of survival you will be content with. You may want to survive with a Cadillac, with all kinds of luxuries; but if you are humble before God, you can devote at least fifty percent of your waking time to ministry. This is possible. We do not need professional pastors and clergymen and high-ranking officials as they had in the Church Age. Then they had one requirement—that you come to one service on a Sunday, and pay your dues, and that was all it amounted to.
Now it isn’t that way at all. That is not enough. Now we will come together so much the more as you see the day drawing near (Hebrews 10:25). In fact, I expect to see a thousand little groups started up in homes during this next year. I look for the people to begin to move, to go over and heal a neighbor who is sick, saying, “God sent me to lay hands on you. Get up and walk.” Stop being bluffed out of healing and out of miracles, and the Word God has spoken. Stop backing down just because there is a backwash and the mood and the fears hit, and a spirit of timidity overwhelms you and you’re ashamed and overtaken by the fear of man.
You may be trying to let your light shine, when you are actually putting a blanket or a bushel basket over it. Speak up! Believe in what you have received and give it out. God has not given us that wrong spirit of timidity, but of power and love, and a disciplined mind (II Timothy 1:7). That is what goes along with the gifts. That is what you are going to have.
The power of God will rest upon you because you have authority. Love will be there because it is flowing right through you. You will have a disciplined mind because for the first time you are truly being led by the Spirit, and not by all the whims of human thinking. You will be transformed by the renewing of your mind, and you will know what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. (Romans 12:2).
These are the things God wants you to do. I feel in my heart that I must break you loose. I must make you know what has happened to you. You have to rekindle and revive the gifts.
Do you ever experience moods where you wonder, “How can I have all of these feelings? I must be losing out with God.” That is the backwash of the enemy. The back door is hard to defend; remember that the next time you feel like withdrawing and running. Ephesians 6:13–17 describes the Christian’s spiritual armor. You have a breastplate, a shield, a helmet; and your feet are shod with what are called “greaves,” the armor that gives protection to the front of the legs.
All of this armor protects you while you are facing the enemy, but not when you are running from him. You are very vulnerable when you begin to withdraw. Whenever you give in to fear, and you turn your back, you have no protection. Keep facing the enemy. Protect yourself with your shield of faith. This is the time to believe.
You have never worked a miracle? Well, you can’t start any younger than you are right now. Or aren’t you sure that you even believe in miracles? Then perhaps you should join a denominational church. Read the statistics again so that you can figure out which one of them believes the most. But probably in none of them will you be required to go out and fight the devil.
I want to emphasize again verse 14 of II Timothy 1: Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you. In the second chapter Paul also exhorted Timothy: You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, these entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also. Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier. II Timothy 2:1–4.
As long as the world beckons, and you are interested in what the world can give you in the way of possessions and pleasure, you do not have the basis for discipleship. Read the Gospels again. The disciples left all to follow Christ. And in a sense, you have to do that too.
Just how much money do you want to make? Do you want to be financially blessed of God in a miraculous way, to see the Living Word go forth? I would like to see the time that whenever the Spirit would say, “Separate this one or that one for the work,” there would be no selfish feeling whatsoever. Instead, we would lay the money on the line and send the brothers out to minister, and see nation after nation fall under the Living Word. Something will have to break the impasses. Somebody will have to prophesy against the financial powers that manipulate and control the little people in the nations.
We ought to be believing God for the release of ministries. We need ten times as many ministries as we have right now. I told you that when the time came, we wouldn’t have enough men. And there are not enough who will stand up and speak the Word of the Lord.
You must reach the place where you live with an awareness. You must be aware of your gift, aware of what God has given you, aware of what is going on round about you. You cannot have that awareness unless you give yourself wholly to it, as Paul said: Take pains with these things; be absorbed in them, so that your progress may be evident to all. I Timothy 4:15.
Every one of you has something from God that you could be moving in more than you are. Move in what you have before you say, “Give me more!” If the impartation to move in much more is to be successful, you must move in what you now have. I am in favor of us laying hands on people, blessing them, ministering to them, helping them to revive and rekindle the gift. And every once in a while I would like to return and lay hands on them again.
Believe that God wants something else out of your life besides spiritual survival. Instead of always being in a battle, always going through something, let’s get up on top spiritually. Let’s move in the gifts.
We should have more prophetic proclamation than intercession. Intercession still has too much of a whine, as if you are in a corner. It still has too much sound and fury. It has been effective—as effective as it could be—but we must do better than that. We have to speak the Word of the Lord into the earth.
Mark 4:36–39 records the account of the storm when Jesus was asleep in the boat. He stilled the storm and immediately they were at the shore and He healed the demoniac (Mark 5:1–16). Even though some of the disciples had been fishermen who were familiar with a stormy sea and knew what to do in a storm, this storm was so boisterous that they were very frightened. Do you believe that those demons could stir up a storm like that to create fear because they knew that the demon-possessed man would be delivered—a man in whom there were a legion (two thousand) of demons? Jesus cast them all out (Mark 5:9–13). Do you see how the devil anticipates a defeat and tries to throw a block of fear in the way before it hits? Once we learn his devices, we will not accept them anymore (II Corinthians 2:11, KJV). We are going to live on the level where we will not waver, where we are always steadfast and immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord (I Corinthians 15:58).
We have had the impartation. We have experienced the storm. We have had everything come to bluff us out, but out there someplace in the path that each one of you is going to follow there is a predetermined destiny of miracles, of bringing down principalities and powers. Babylon will fall in one hour (Revelation 18:10).
In this day of sophisticated unbelief, everything points the opposite way, but we still believe in the Parousia. We believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as the only Lord and Savior, the only potentate (I Timothy 6:15). We believe that He is coming to reign (I Corinthians 15:24–25). With all of our heart, we believe every Word that is recorded in the Scriptures about His coming and Kingdom. Now let’s see those Words fulfilled. We have to start within ourselves. There is a gift from God that has to operate here. Kindle it again. Do not neglect it. Give yourself to it.
If the enemy can divide us, he will weaken the exercise of authority. We cannot let it happen. It doesn’t make any difference if you are offended by your brother. Offenses are not the basis of breaking unity. We have learned how viciously the enemy can use things to create division. But you must go by what the Lord is doing. He is establishing His Kingdom. You cannot let anything else influence you.
Are you happy limping along? I’m not. Let’s move. Already the Lord has positioned us in a place where no one has a position. We don’t need a position. All we need is a commission. We will speak as the oracles of God. We will minister with the ability that God gives.
Whoever speaks, let him speak, as it were, the utterances of God; whoever serves, let him do so as by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing; so that also at the revelation of His glory, you may rejoice with exultation. If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. I Peter 4:11–14, NASB.
The usurper has power and position; but Christ Jesus has all authority in heaven and on earth.
When God imparts to us a spiritual gift, it will function by faith or fail by fear.
When we reach new spiritual levels, the discipline of our mind is controlled by the dedication of our spirit.
When you begin to move in spiritual authority, you begin to enter into His sufferings. Sharing His sufferings is the escalator to sharing His throne.
The purer our faith, the less our fears, and the greater our victory.
When you turn your back to the enemy, you have no protection. The shield of faith does not protect the backs of the fearful when they flee.
The end outcome is not spiritual survival, but to be more than conquerors by Christ’s authority.