Part 3 (2/2)
Angels are real and they protect us. There are angels right where you are, but G.o.d is the One who directs them and takes care of you. Many people think that they have to a.s.sign their angels and that their angels can't do anything without being told by them what to do. You make a very poor G.o.d. It would be much better to just trust G.o.d and let Him be the One to direct the angels. He can see what you can't see. The Lord can take care of things much, much better than what you ever could.
Real Effort These truths are the foundation for basic Christianity. You could consider them Christianity 101. They're as foundational as you can get. But if you lay hold of these truths, they will really make a positive difference in your life.
If you think G.o.d is controlling everything and causing all the tragedies, illnesses, and heartbreaks, then there is no way that you're ever going to resist these things lest you find yourself resisting G.o.d. If you think that the Lord is responding to you and you're the one making G.o.d move by your great faith, you're wrong. You can't bear that kind of responsibility. You simply aren't capable of doing that.
G.o.d loves you more than you love yourself. G.o.d loves your family more than you love them. He wants you to succeed even more than you want to succeed yourself. G.o.d, by grace, has provided everything that is necessary for you to accomplish what He wants you to do. It's already been done. Now you must simply rest and trust that G.o.d has already provided everything you need. That sounds easy, but the hardest thing you'll ever do is rest.
You must labor to enter into rest. (Heb. 4:11.) That sounds contradictory on the surface, but it's exactly the truth. The hardest thing you'll ever do is get to where you trust that G.o.d has already done everything instead of thinking that something still needs to be done. It's challenging to control your tongue, actions, and anxiety. This takes effort. You'll have to get into G.o.d's Word and start taking control of your thoughts with true knowledge instead of what the world has to say. This will take some real effort.
Paul said:
I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of G.o.d which was with me. 1 Corinthians 15:10 G.o.d, by grace, has provided everything. But it takes effort on our part to trust and rest in the truth that G.o.d has already done it.
Chapter 9, Believe and Receive.
We're saved by grace through faith. (Eph. 2:8.) Grace is what G.o.d does for us independent of us. His work has nothing to do with us or it wouldn't be grace. Therefore, you didn't earn it. You didn't merit it. G.o.d didn't respond to us. Rather, grace is something that is done by G.o.d before we ever have a problem. It's done independent of us- independent of anything we deserve.
That's a wonderful truth; however, some folks have taken this truth that G.o.d does things independent of us, not based on our worth or value, and they've gone to an extreme. They forget that it takes faith on our part to release the grace of G.o.d.
Other people forget that it's G.o.d who provides everything. They actually think that we, by our faith, can make G.o.d move. They think that we can manipulate and force the Lord to do things, which is equally wrong.
We aren't saved by faith alone. Neither are we saved by grace alone. Both of these are poison by themselves. They must be taken together properly. We're saved by grace through faith.
True Biblical Faith Everyone deals with the problem of understanding, ”What is G.o.d's part, and what is my part? What does G.o.d do, and what must I do?” Probably one of the most common questions people ask me is, ”What does G.o.d want me to do?” He wants you to understand, believe, and receive what He's already provided.
Faith isn't something you do, and then G.o.d responds to you. If you hold to this concept in any form or fas.h.i.+on, you think that G.o.d is looking at your Bible study, prayer, holiness, and goodness. You think that when you do enough, He'll release His power. If that's what you think, you aren't operating in true biblical faith. That thinking is legalistic and religious, and it's the reason that things aren't working in your life. Faith is not something you do to get G.o.d to do something. Faith is just your positive response to what G.o.d has already accomplished by grace. It's how you appropriate and receive what G.o.d has already provided.
G.o.d doesn't ”move” when you believe Him. If you believe G.o.d for healing, He doesn't respond to you and heal you. First Peter 2:24 reveals that by His stripes, you were healed two thousand years ago.
...by [His] stripes ye were healed.
This is speaking of what happened in Herod's judgment hall. The Lord Jesus Christ, on His way to the cross, took those stripes on His back. (Matt. 27:26.) Jesus isn't healing people today. He healed people two thousand years ago. All of the power that it takes to heal every sickness, infirmity, and disease of the entire human race was generated two thousand years ago.
Raising-from-the-Dead Power The very instant you received the Lord and became born again, G.o.d placed that raising-from-the-dead power on the inside of you. (Eph. 1:19.) You don't need G.o.d to heal you. He has already done it. He's placed raising-from-the-dead power on the inside of you in your born-again spirit. You just need to understand what has already been provided by grace and learn how to release that provision out into your soul and body by faith.
When the Lord showed me this truth, it transformed my life. These aren't things that I've just studied and made a message out of. This is what G.o.d has done in my life. This is how I live. It's how I think. I haven't arrived and I'm not perfect, but I've seen some supernatural things happen, including seeing my own son raised up after being dead for five hours.
In a meeting my team and I ministered in one evening, a lady received healing for a lump in her breast. The lump dissolved instantly. She went and checked herself. It was gone. In another meeting earlier that day, we ministered to several people who had pain, some for fifteen to twenty years. The pain left, instantly. They were healed. We have seen people healed of back problems, sinus problems, and many other things. I'm not saying that I have it all figured out, but I know I'm moving in the right direction. I'm seeing results that are beyond human explanation.
My life was transformed when I quit trying to get G.o.d to do something and started believing what He had already done instead. I began putting faith in grace instead of faith in my ability to make G.o.d move. This is where many people are missing the mark.
Paradigm s.h.i.+ft When my eldest son was very young, he became sick with a certain illness on the same day in December every year. It didn't make any sense. I don't believe it was a physical problem, I believe it was a demonic attack. Just like clockwork, the same day every year he would get this same sickness.
After a few years of this, I began to antic.i.p.ate the surely coming sickness. When I recognized the symptoms coming on my son again, I started fasting and praying, rebuking and binding, and many other things. But Joshua kept getting worse and worse. I remember praying, ”G.o.d, I know this isn't right. I know this isn't normal. People don't get the same sickness on the same day every year. This is just the devil. Why is it that we aren't seeing better results?”
What the Lord said in response really changed my life. He said, ”The problem is, you aren't fighting because I have healed you, you're trying to get healed. You see yourself as the sick trying to get well instead of the well from whom Satan is trying to steal your health.”
From that point on, I made a paradigm s.h.i.+ft and declared, ”This is wrong. G.o.d has already healed us. By His stripes we were healed. He's already put this power on the inside of me and I'm acting like I'm the one who is fighting to obtain a victory. I already have the victory. I'm not fighting toward a victory. I'm coming from a victory. I have already been made more than a conqueror.”
When you think that healing is over there and in the name of Jesus you are going to get there, you're in doubt. Even though this sounds positive, you're actually believing, ”I'm not there.” And if you're not there, then there is a possibility that you might not get there. But if you said, ”I'm already healed. I refuse to let anybody take from me what G.o.d has already given me,” how can you not get what you've already got? How can you not get there if you're already there?
Complete in Christ I no longer see myself as the sick person who is trying to get well. I am a well person. G.o.d placed His power on the inside of me, and I'm not trying to get G.o.d to move.
Once you understand this foundational truth, it'll change your whole perspective. You'll see that the Christian life isn't about getting G.o.d to do anything. It's about renewing your mind to the truth of G.o.d's Word and receiving the physical manifestation of what He's already done. However, most people view the Christian life as seven steps to get G.o.d to do this and three steps to make G.o.d do that. It's all about how to get G.o.d to do something, and how to make Him move.
If I were to come into most Pentecostal, Spirit-filled, Charismatic, or other churches of this type today preaching, ”It's double-portion time. G.o.d is going to pour out twice as much of the Holy Spirit. Would you like more of G.o.d? Do you want G.o.d to do something new in your life?” I can get nearly 99 percent of the people to run forward because they are looking for something. They're looking for G.o.d to do something new and touch them. Technically, all of that is wrong. G.o.d has already done everything that He's going to do.
On the inside of every born-again believer is the same power that raised Christ from the dead. The fullness of the G.o.dhead dwells in you bodily. (Col.1:27;2:9.) You don't need G.o.d to do anything. You don't need G.o.d to bless you. You don't need joy or peace. You are complete in Christ. (Col. 2:10.) Yet, you may still be struggling, thinking, Well, you don't know me. I'm depressed. That's because you're only looking on the outside. You're searching your emotions. Most of us don't understand what we have in our born-again spirit. In your spirit, you already have love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance. (Gal. 5:22-23.) Those aren't things that are ”out there,” and if you'll pray hard enough, study the Word, live holy, and do right, then G.o.d will give you love, joy, and peace. No, in your spirit, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, every day of your life, your born-again spirit is rejoicing and praising G.o.d. It has never been depressed. It is never discouraged. When you're depressed and saying, ”Oh G.o.d, where are You? It feels like You just up and left,” it's never your spirit voicing these things. That's only your flesh speaking because you are going by what you can see and feel. But there is a spiritual part of you that is seated with Christ Jesus in heavenly places. (Eph. 1:3; Col. 3:1.)
G.o.d Is Always On The truth is, if you're a born-again believer, you already have the same power on the inside of you that raised Jesus Christ from the dead. You have more than enough healing. You don't need G.o.d to heal you, you need to find out what He's already provided. Once you get this revelation, it'll change your entire mind-set. Instead of trying to get healed, you'll know G.o.d has healed you and you'll defend what G.o.d has already given you. You're not going to let the devil steal it from you. This makes all the difference in the world!
When the Lord revealed this truth to me, I had been fighting this sickness that, for years, attacked my son on the same day every year. I'd fight the sickness and eventually, I'd see him get healed. It looked like we were going to go through this thing again, but once the Lord showed me this truth, in ten minutes time the sickness was over and that was the end of that. Why? I was no longer trying to get my son healed. I knew he was already healed and there wasn't a devil big enough to steal from me what G.o.d had already given me. It's much easier to defend what you've already got than it is to try and get something that you don't have.
When people come up to me and ask, ”Would you please pray that G.o.d would pour out His love in my life?” the spirit of slap just comes all over me. What they're implying is that G.o.d, for whatever reason, has shut off the flow of His love, peace, joy, or whatever. They think that the reason they don't feel love, peace, or joy is because G.o.d hasn't released it. That's never true!
Grace is independent of you, and it's consistent. That means it isn't based on you. It's not based on whether you've lived a holy life or done anything right or wrong. His grace is always the same. The grace of G.o.d never fluctuates or changes. The Lord never releases His power into your life, and then when you do something wrong, switches it off. Religion teaches that, but the truth is G.o.d is always on. He's always releasing His power.
Take Revival I'm definitely for revival, but the way most of the body of Christ seeks revival is wrong. The Lord isn't up in heaven with His arms folded, saying, ”I'm not sending revival until more people pray longer and harder, until you get another 100,000 people together, until you beg, plead, and repent some more....” This implies that G.o.d controls revival and it's just up to Him to ”send” it. This att.i.tude says that if G.o.d wanted us to, we could be having red-hot revival. All of our churches would be packed out and our entire nation would be turning to G.o.d. In essence it is saying that G.o.d is our problem. He's the One not sending revival.
It's not like that at all. G.o.d's arms aren't folded-they're wide open. He's trying to release His power through us. G.o.d wants us to be revived much more than we do. We don't need to plead with Him. We just need to start believing that He's already placed revival on the inside of us. We already have the same power that raised Christ from the dead, and we can do the same works that Jesus did. Just go out and raise a few people from the dead. You'll have all the revival you can handle!
We're praying, ”Oh G.o.d, send revival,” but He's saying, ”You go take revival. I've already placed My power on the inside of you- release it!” Most of the Church is wondering why G.o.d hasn't moved, why He hasn't done something. G.o.d has already done everything. He moved through the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything that G.o.d will ever do for the whole human race has already been accomplished through the atonement. It's done. When Jesus said, ”It is finished,” it was finished. He accomplished it. It was done. You don't need G.o.d to save you or heal you. He's already saved and healed you. He's forgiven the sins of the whole world and provided healing. G.o.d's grace has already provided, the issue is: Will you believe and receive, or doubt and do without?
G.o.d, by grace, has already moved. He's already done everything He'll ever do. Through Christ's atonement, He's already provided everything we'll ever need. Now it's just up to us to appropriate- receive-it by faith.
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