This message may well be the most revolutionary and scriptural faith concept you have ever read!
Do you ever find yourself in a troubled place because you are a believer in God and His Word? Then there is no question that you are in a difficult place because you are walking with God.
Realize that when you reach that point where there is no answer for your problem, then you have the climate for a miracle. However, that miracle will not occur because you need it personally, but because God needs it. He has a plan and purpose for you, and He wants to see it executed.
We all understand that in ourselves we are nothing. But by the divine design which originated before the foundation of the world, before there ever was a universe, God had us in His heart, and He had a plan in His mind for us. The Scriptures bear witness to the extreme selfishness of God: … the Lord thy God is a jealous God… Deuteronomy 6:15. Many times God said, “I am a jealous God.” He wants us to realize that He is not to be used by us for our selfish ends, but that He has a destiny in His own mind for us, and He intends to possess us. We shall be a people for God’s own possession.
We find those exact words in I Peter 2:9–10. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Those verses tell of God’s purpose for us. It helps a great deal if we realize that the issues we face are not our own interests basically, but God’s. Our troubles are not principally our own; they are God’s troubles.
When the children of Israel murmured and complained in the wilderness, God became so disgusted with them that He told Moses, “Leave Me alone, that My anger may wax hot against them.” Moses reminded God, “You know what the Egyptians are going to say? That You started something You couldn’t finish.” Immediately God backed up and repented of what He had planned to do to Israel (Exodus 32:9–14). How can God repent? Isn’t He unchangeable? Yes, God is absolutely unchangeable. When He vowed that He would kill the people of Nineveh in forty days, He meant that He was going to kill them. But forty days later, when He took another look at them, He saw that they were not the same people. If they had been the same people, they would have been dead Ninevites. But because God saw their repentance, He was moved to spare them (Jonah 3:4–10).
God has chosen you. He has chosen me. He has chosen all of our brothers and sisters in Christ to walk before Him. When you are in trouble, and it looks as if you have too many problems, simply cast all your cares upon Him, because He cares for you (I Peter 5:7). You are a part of His plan and His purpose. You are one of a people for His own possession.
Satan is very clever in some ways, and not too bright in others. He still thinks he can beat God. So he tries to frustrate the plan of God by using the people whom God has chosen to glorify His name. Satan used Saul of Tarsus for a while, but then God reversed the situation. After God knocked Saul flat on the road to Damascus, He told the prophet Ananias, “I will show Saul what great things he must suffer for Me. He will be someone special to Me” (Acts 9:1–16). In the midst of his sufferings, Paul did not pray to get himself out of trouble. He knew that God was making an exhibit of him, as well as of the other apostles. Therefore, he wrote in I Corinthians 4:9, “We are made an exhibit, a spectacle, before men and angels, that they can see what God really wants to do.”
I have lived a good, rich, full life. I have lived and walked in His Word and seen many things come forth. Within the ministry that God has given me, I have actually passed through three phases of restoration: from the traditional Church age, to the accelerated restoration period, and now the coming into the Kingdom. Not many men are privileged to live through three ages and to speak a Living Word from God to participate in seeing it happen. Nevertheless, I am not inclined to cash in my “chips” yet. Even though it looks as if the dice are loaded and the deck is stacked against me, that does not make any difference. That is not what counts; it is the authority and the revelation that God bestows on you that ultimately determines the outcome. If everything is alligned against you, then declare that you are against everything. When Martin Luther was told, “The whole world is against you,” he stated, “Then I am against the whole world.” Behind this stand must be the realization that God has a purpose for your existence, and it is for His glory and His praise. All the words of the apostles can be summed up in Paul’s exhortation to the Church: “Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that He can be glorified, He can be praised, and He can be honored” (Colossians 3:17). When you do that, you are in the scriptural position for a miracle.
If you lived on a farm, you may have heard the squeal of a pig that was caught in a fence. Did he ever set up a ruckus! There is no sound as penetrating as the squeal of a pig when he is caught and cannot get loose.
It reminds us of some people’s prayers when they are in a difficult place. They pray loudly and think that they are exercising violent faith, but their prayer is only a desperate cry of self-pity to the Lord, because they have a need. Is that the right way to intercede?
How should you intercede for me, or I for you? Pray for the Lord to bring forth the great gift of faith that He has promised us. Do we pray because we have a need? No, that is just incidental to it.
The Lord needs a door-opener in His will, a door-opener for you. There are many more doors to be kicked down. This ministry is in the will of God. It is a ministry that God wants, one that brings forth praise to His name.
A personal situation should never be uppermost in our thinking, or we will sink to a level of sympathy, and that produces despairing whines before God. Whining is not what God wants. How many people have whined to God, thinking that they were making a prayer of faith? Nothing happened.
Eliminate your self-pity and have one focus: “Lord, I am in this difficult place because I am walking with You. You know what You want to do through me.”
Sometimes the greatest prayer comes because you are true to the Word that God made real to your heart. You will not fulfill His will if you abandon that Word. You must hold fast to the Word that God gives. Stand firm and declare, “This is what I am going to do, because God gave me a Word.”
Do you suppose that the three Hebrews cared that the furnace was made seven times hotter than it had ever been before? Even the men who opened the door to throw them in were slain by the flames, but the three Hebrews walked unharmed in the flames.
That was a miracle of miracles, it was the gift of faith in manifestation.
Danel 3:17If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.
If what be so, if you throw us into the fire. But one thing we do know: We are not bowing down to that image. We believe the Word of the Lord, and we will live by that Word and be true to that Word” (Daniel 3:17–25).
Perhaps you are in the same position. Circumstances may threaten you, but you say, “I don’t know if or how God is going to deliver me, but I have faith to come out of this victoriously. I do not know how much or how little I must suffer before I come through, but I am expecting, hour by hour and moment by moment, that the Lord will give release.” Regarding myself, this I know: I have brought a Word from the Lord. On that basis, God has a mouthpiece in the earth; God has a humble oracle. He has told me that a thousand more will rise up to speak that Word also. I believe this will be.
When hard circumstances come to the unbelieving and immature, those circumstances seem to be the ominous crises of the day, of the year, of the century, or of the millennium, but this is not true. It is God’s will in the earth that should move us, not our circumstances. A crisis is just another time when our faith and our walk with God seem to put us in a corner—but it really puts God in a corner. For many years I have had a desire to be one minister who so thoroughly believes the Word of God, as well as the confirmed prophecies of the Holy Spirit, that I would walk with the Word until it proves God’s Word a lie, or it proves Him faithful. It does not make any difference who else is a liar, because there is a little bit of liar in everybody. Let God be true and every man a liar (Romans 3:4).
The main objective is to walk with God to the extent that He is actually put on the spot, for this is all that a man of faith does. He walks with God, and he trusts God. Then he encounters a Red Sea, a mountain to be moved, a fiery furnace, a lions’ den, or a showdown on Mount Carmel with prophets of Baal to be destroyed. Let us so walk by the Word of God that He is obligated to bring forth the miracle. And He will bring it forth!
Are you encouraged by this teaching? Does it stir your heart? Apply it to yourself. Do you easily worry over your circumstances? Has all your joy left? Maybe things do not seem to be working as they ought to, and you feel like saying, “This isn’t right. I trusted God, and I should not be in this position.” But remember that you walked into it! You asked for it. Nothing is happening to you that you did not ask for. You asked for a walk with God, and this is the way He is leading you. Do you want to walk with God only up on the mountains? Be careful, because you can fall off that mountain. Do you want to really feel His presence? Then take His hand and walk with Him through the valley of the shadow of death without fear (Psalm 23:4). That is where you can say, “Lo, Thou art with me.”
In your walk with the Lord you must have complete confidence in Him. Reach up to Him and say, “Lord, I trust You. I cast my cares upon You, because You care for me.” The Scripture does not say, “Cast all your cares upon Him, because you care for Him”; it says “… because He cares for you.”
What is the climate for a miracle? A miracle does not happen because we need it, but because the Lord needs it. It is part of His commitment to a people whom He calls His own possession. When you pray for the pastors, the elders, and the young prophets, refuse to focus on their need. Express great faith for the flow of the Word that is to come through them, because His people need it. God has a need to speak through them. God needs this Word to come forth. As He has chosen me and each one of you, so let us speak His Word. God needs His people to move in the earth, to bring every knee to bow and every tongue to confess that He is Lord (Philippians 2:10–11).
Remember—a miracle is never worked apart from you, or in your circumstances alone. A miracle is worked through you; God always involves you. God wants sons, not just the averting of circumstances to confuse the enemy. God could have destroyed the devil long ago, but He was waiting for this hour in which He can bruise Satan under your feet.
All creation is groaning. We also experience that groaning. His sons will come forth now—not because they must have their fulfillment, but because the Lord Jesus Christ must have His own fulfillment (Romans 8:19, 22). We are battling valiantly by the Spirit of the Lord to take the Kingdom. For what purpose? We are winning for the Lord Jesus Christ the rewards of His suffering. We are bringing everything under His feet and making every knee bow before Him, for He is the Lord. It is all based upon the Lordship of Christ. There can be no manifestation of the sons of God unless it is wrapped up in this bottom line: the Lordship of Jesus Christ over all men.
The mature sons of God must think the way God thinks. Prayer that reacts too much to circumstances does not produce the will of God. Subjectivity does not interpret our life experiences by revelation; it makes its own assumptions of what God is thinking. When Peter looked at the Lord and said, “You can’t go to the cross,” the Lord answered, “Get behind Me, Satan. You are not thinking the thoughts of God” (Matthew 16:23).
Believe God. Without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is (not just an impersonal being somewhere, but believe that He is what He says He is in His Word), and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Hebrews 11:6.
Hebrews 6:1 exhorts us to press on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of faith toward God. Like David, you must say, “I would have fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord” (Psalm 27:13). Even when you do not know how things will turn out, believe in His goodness. Believe His promises. Believe that He has a plan and a purpose for you. You may not know exactly how it will come to pass or what it is, but you must believe that God is in control. Then your vision will not be colored, bringing a distorted view of the Lord; instead, you will have a revelation of Him. You will see His greatness, and you believe that He is that great. Sometimes, before the Lord Jesus performed a miracle, He asked, “Do you believe that I can do this?” When the person responded, “Yes, I believe,” then He did it, saying, “According to your faith, be it unto you” (Matthew 9:28–29). That was not a general faith beamed out into space; it was focused: “Jesus, I believe that You are who You say You are.” And we, too, believe that God is who He says He is.
Are you terrified by your circumstances? Let me tell you about the little boy who was terrified of a chow dog that was running down the street growling. The boy ran into his house screaming and crying, and his mother asked, “What’s the matter?” The little boy sobbed, “There’s a lion out there!” When the mother looked out the window and saw that it was only a dog, she said to the boy, “Don’t be afraid. It may look like a lion, but it’s only a dog.” Remember this story, because it shows you how easy it is in fear to make the enemy bigger than he is. Fear magnifies Satan to your heart until there is a distortion of the problem. But faith makes God as big as He is. Faith reaches up and says, “What God has promised, He is able to perform.” It does not stagger in unbelief.
Perhaps you are thinking, “If I just hang on and hang on to the promises of God, they will be fulfilled.” Yes, but also say, “I stand on the promises, but their fulfillment is God’s problem. He made the promises. Now He will have to perform. And He is able!” This is the faith of the sons of God, who believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and stand on the promises of God.
We are demanding that we will not be just nominal Christians. We are to be the sons of God. And when we determine to follow that course and to walk in the Word, it gives God pleasure. He does not have to play God anymore; He gets an opportunity to really be God. It is one thing for a little girl to play with dolls. But when she grows up and gets married, then she can have a real baby. She does not have to play mother or pretend anymore; she gets to be a mother, because she has a real, living offspring.
God is waiting for the glorious mature sons to come forth. Christ is Lord, and all authority is vested in Him, for He said, “All authority is given to Me in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18) But the full execution of His authority comes when the sons of God bring down in His name every high and lofty thing, when every knee bows, and every tongue confesses. Then the full manifestation of His Lordship and of the Kingdom comes forth. Your faith gives God a chance. The Bible will be only promises on a page until you give Him a chance.
Our services will no doubt be geared differently. I predict that we shall no longer come into the services for what we can receive. We shall come to see the Lord glorified, to see what we can give Him and how we can lift Him up. There will be more and more magnifying of the Lord. With the Psalmist we cry, “Oh come, let us magnify His name together. Let us exalt His name” (Psalm 34:3). When the emphasis and the focus is wholly upon the Lord, you will watch how people are drawn in. The Spirit of the Lord will whisper upon the winds, and people will be drawn from all over, because He is being lifted up (John 12:32).
The value of the Living Word is that it constantly keeps our focus in the right direction, and that is very important. It comes right down to the principle that we have emphasized for so many years: The whole foundation of revealed truth is the Lordship of Jesus Christ. All other scriptural truths that we preach gravitate to this main line like tributaries which feed into a river. Christ must be Lord over your life, and He will be glorified in you. II Thessalonians 1:10 says that He will be admired in all of His saints.
In John 14:12, when Christ spoke of the greater works to come, I do not believe that He meant they would be spectacular miracles that had no revelation of Himself in them. Many of the so-called gifts in the Charismatic movement are focused on the performance of ministry. While there may be some power, some authority in them, most do not have the glorifying revelation of Christ that they should have.
God never intends to do anything in which He is not revealed. It is dangerous to see a miracle without a revelation of Christ in it. False Christs and false prophets will arise and perform signs and wonders, to deceive the very elect, if it were possible (Matthew 24:24). If you are just looking for a miracle, be aware that a devil can do a trick that will mystify or deceive you enough to make you believe that it is really happening.
Witchcraft seems to affect healings and destiny; it seems to change circumstances. Satan worshipers say that they worship him because it works. Circumstances work out for them. They get money and other things that they want. We do not serve God to get things from Him. We are truly His servants. We serve Him because He is to be magnified; He is to be glorified. This was in the heart of Peter when he asked, “Why do you look on us as though by our power or our righteousness we made this man whole?” (Acts 3:12.) Lift Christ up! He will be revealed in every miracle that takes place. He will be revealed in every greater work.
All your intercession for your ministers or for me should be prayer for the Lord to be glorified in our lives. In Philippians 1:20 Paul said, “I am determined that Christ will be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death.” In verse 17, he said, “I am set for the defense of the gospel.” He was saying that his circumstance or his imprisonment was not the issue. He wanted Christ to be glorified, whether he lived or died. Paul told the Philippian believers that he was persuaded he would live, so that he could minister more of the Word of God to bring forth the will of God in their lives (Philippians 1:24). He wrote to the Roman believers, “I long to see you, so that I can impart some spiritual gift to you” (Romans 1:11). He was not trying to build up his ministry as an apostle. He wanted to build up the people in the will of God so that they could serve Him better. Let this be the focus and the goal of every believer in Christ. Is this not basic to being a disciple of our Lord?