Part 4 (1/2)
Peter then added this in verse 19: We have also a more sure word of prophecy.
Peter had just talked about how he saw Jesus radiate light. He saw the glory cloud of G.o.d overshadow Him. He heard an audible voice out of heaven saying, ”This is my beloved Son.” (Matthew 17:1-9.) He had seen Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead and open up Bartimaeus' blind eyes. (John 11:43-44; Mark 10:46-52.) He had seen the power of the Lord heal the lame man and make him walk. (Acts 3:6-8.) Peter had seen all of these things. He was recounting the things he had witnessed, saying, ”This proves what we've seen and heard is real.” But then he came back and said, ”We have something better than all of this.” What could be better than seeing the visible presence and hearing the audible voice of G.o.d? What could be better than seeing Jesus perform all of these miracles?
Verses 19-21 say: We have also a more sure word of prophecy... Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of G.o.d spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
Putting all of this together, Peter was saying, ”We have something better than a visible representation of G.o.d, something better than an audible voice from G.o.d, something better than all of the physical, tangible miracles. The most authoritative thing that we could possibly share with you to validate the truth is the Word of G.o.d. The Word of G.o.d is greater than any other means for you to hear from G.o.d.” Therefore, the Word of G.o.d is the strongest, most powerful way that we have to counter our fears and unbelief.
BACKWARDS.
This ought to be obvious. Yet in my dealings with people, most folks just want you to put your arm around them and say something encouraging. They'd like a little note with a chocolate from you. They'd like this or that. They have the Word with them, but they don't care what it says. They wouldn't say that this is true, but do they come up to me and ask, ”Would you pray for me and give me a word?”
I'd have to answer, ”Well, you have ten thousand words right there under your arm, on your night stand, or wherever your Bible is. Why don't you open it up and use it?”
The problem is most people don't honor the written Word of G.o.d the way that they would honor a prophecy or word of encouragement from a person, or some audible or visible sign. That's backwards, and it's precisely the reason that we have so much doubt.
The Lord will meet us where our faith is. G.o.d has spoken to many people through these different external means. I'm not against them. I know many people who have experienced these external expressions, and the testimony of what they heard, saw, and experienced lines up with the Word. I don't doubt that's G.o.d. I'm just saying that if you are more insistent, more desirous of a sign, an audible voice, a visible representation, something miraculous that will help you-that's just a temporary fix. Those things don't last very long. Circ.u.mstances change. Satan can come along and give you negative signs and such. But if you would just go to the Word of G.o.d, making it your absolute authority and viewing it as G.o.d speaking to you, then the Word will overcome any doubt you have. G.o.d's Word will confirm everything you need to know. It's the highest and best way of hearing from G.o.d.
PHYSICAL, TANGIBLE PROOF.
When one of the Lord's disciples, Thomas (often called ”Doubting Thomas”), heard that Jesus was raised from the dead, He responded: Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.
John 20:25 In other words, ”Unless it comes out of the spirit realm and manifests itself in the physical realm, I'm not going to believe. I need physical, tangible proof/That's the way most people are today.
Eight days later, Jesus showed up. Thomas was present this time. After inviting Thomas to inspect His hands and side, the Lord said to him: Be not faithless, but believing.
John 20:27 Thomas answered, ”My LORD and my G.o.d” (John 20:28). Then Jesus said to him: Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.
John 20:29 Jesus put the greater blessing on believing because of the Word rather than believing because of physical experience.
STEP UP.
This may not sound exciting because you look at the Word of G.o.d as being lifeless, dead, and dry. If this is your perception, it might be that you haven't gotten sincere and serious enough to have the Holy Spirit quicken the Word to you. I tell you, G.o.d's Word is alive. It's living. It's powerful. (Hebrews 4:12.) It's the most sure word of prophecy. (2 Peter 1:19.) A greater blessing and anointing would be released in your life if you could just take the truths of G.o.d's Word by faith and say, ”I believe this is G.o.d speaking to me. I've had it revealed to me by the Holy Spirit, and I don't have to have three goose b.u.mps and two visions to confirm it. This is what G.o.d's Word says.” If you would get that att.i.tude, and start believing and basing your life on the Word of G.o.d, you would experience a greater anointing and manifestation of faith through that than through all these other things people pursue. I've had it revealed to me by the Holy Spirit, and I don't have to have three goose b.u.mps and two visions to confirm it. This is what G.o.d's Word says.” If you would get that att.i.tude, and start believing and basing your life on the Word of G.o.d, you would experience a greater anointing and manifestation of faith through that than through all these other things people pursue.
G.o.d wants to bring you up to this higher level. The very reason He may not have answered your pleas, cries, and begging for a dream, an angelic visitation, or someone to call out your name and prophesy directly to you is because He loves you so much. G.o.d doesn't want to keep you on the bottom rung of the ladder. He wants you to take a step up higher and begin to trust Him through His Word.
In 1978, my wife and I, and our two boys, went out to California to a West Coast Believer's Convention with Kenneth Copeland. At the time, I was pastoring a little church, so this was a major vacation for us. We pooled all the resources we had. I went there expecting to hear from G.o.d.
The Lord had been speaking to me about making a change in my ministry. I had always pastored churches up until that time, but now the Lord was speaking to me about starting to travel and minister much the way I do currently. This was a huge step of faith for me, so I went out to this conference really believing I was going to receive a prophetic word from G.o.d.
There were thousands of people at this convention. We sat way up in the balcony-in the nosebleed section. We were so far away, I'm not even sure Kenneth Copeland could have seen us from the platform. Yet, in my heart I was putting a draw on him and saying, ”I'm believing for a word. Oh G.o.d, give me a prophecy.”
”WHY DON'T YOU TRUST ME?”
Right in the midst of my praying and asking G.o.d for a prophecy, Kenneth Copeland started prophesying. He was standing way down there on the stage, but as he spoke, it looked like he was pointing right at me. I was shocked. I thought, ”It worked! G.o.d is speaking to me!”
This prophecy basically went along the lines of, ”Just do what I've told you to do. I've told you to get up and go for it. I'm going to provide for your needs. Take this step of faith. There's a change coming. You have to leave where you are, and go out into this promised land that G.o.d has given you.”The prophecy also included some other powerful things.
Everything Kenneth Copeland was saying matched exactly, almost word for word, what G.o.d had spoken in my heart. I was just so excited. I thought, It worked! G.o.d is speaking directly to me! Then, at the end of the prophecy, Kenneth said, ”Did you hear that Ed? That's for you.” I looked down below and saw a man named Ed standing up downstairs on the main floor. Kenneth Copeland was actually prophesying to him. While I was praying and asking G.o.d for a word, I missed the first part of his comments identifying Ed as the intended recipient. So when I heard him say Ed's name, my heart just sank. I thought, Oh, G.o.d. I thought You were talking to me.
Then the Lord spoke to my heart and said, ”If that prophecy had been for Andrew Wommack, would you have learned anything that I haven't already told you? Would you have received any new piece of information that I hadn't already revealed to you as you studied the Word and prayed?”
I answered, ”No.”
”Then why don't you trust Me instead of having to have all of these other things? Why don't you get to where My Word is sufficient?”
”FATHER, THAT'S IT!”
The Lord was lovingly rebuking me. Accepting His rebuke, I said, ”Father, that's it! I'm not going to have to have three confirmations. I know what You've said to me in my heart.” I made a decision. So right after that, we left the church I had been pastoring and I started traveling. It was a major change of direction in my life and ministry.
Most of us don't want to just take the Word. We're too insecure. We don't have confidence in G.o.d's Word alone and the Holy Spirit quickening it to us. We want to have everybody come and give us ten confirmations so that there is zero doubt. That's not how G.o.d usually works.
The Word of G.o.d is a more sure word of prophecy than anything else you could ever get. Take G.o.d's Word, begin to meditate on it, let the Holy Spirit make direct application to your situation, and then act on it-that's the highest form of faith you can possibly have. That's faith based entirely on G.o.d's Word alone. If you will take these wonderful truths and apply them to your life, you'll be transformed.
Chapter 10.
Read With Your Heart When I first started seeking the Lord, the parables in Mark 4 made a profound impact on me. They changed my life and set me on a course. They actually gave me a track to run on. I knew that G.o.d had some awesome plans for my life, and that there needed to be a tremendous amount of growth and change in me, but I just didn't know how to get started. I didn't know how to get from where I was to where I saw in my heart that G.o.d wanted me to go. As I was seeking Him, the Lord specifically spoke these parables to me. I still use them weekly, and very often daily. They've become woven into the very fabric of my life.
Jesus taught ten parables about how the kingdom of G.o.d worked, all on the same day that He ministered the parable of the sower. This is actually the most recorded information in one day of the life of Jesus that we have in all of the Word of G.o.d. You can see this by taking all the scriptures from Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and putting them side by side chronologically, like they are in my Life for Today Study Bible and Commentary - Gospels Edition. It's really helpful to be able to see all of the Gospel accounts of one event right there on one page.
And he began again to teach by the sea side: and there was gathered unto him a great mult.i.tude, so that he entered into a s.h.i.+p, and sat in the sea; and the whole mult.i.tude was by the sea on the land. And he taught them many things by parables, and said unto them in his doctrine. Mark 4:1-2 At this point, Jesus began to teach what I call the parable of the sower: Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow: And it came to pa.s.s, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up. And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth: But when the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. And other fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased; and brought forth, some thirty, and some sixty, and some an hundred. And he said unto them, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.
Mark 4:3-9 FOUR TYPES OF GROUND.
Jesus spoke this parable about a man who went out and sowed seed. He didn't dig furrows and plant the seeds one by one. Back then, a person would carry some kind of a sack that would have all of the seed in it. He would just walk through the fields, throwing this seed and letting it land anywhere and everywhere. According to the parable, there were basically four different types of ground on which this seed fell.
Verse 4 reveals the first type of ground by saying: Some fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up.
In other words, the seed never even got below the surface of the ground. The birds came and ate it before it ever took root.
The seed did begin to get beneath the surface of the second type of ground, but there was too much rock for the plants to grow. (Mark 4:5-6.) There was so much stone that there was no depth of earth, so the seed simply didn't produce properly.
The third type of ground had a good depth of earth. It began to produce, but there were weeds that choked the seed and prevented it from bearing fruit. (Mark 4:7.) The fourth type of ground brought forth fruit-up to one hundred fold return on the seed that was sown. (Mark 4:8.) SPIRITUALLY DULL.
After Jesus spoke the parable, His disciples came and asked Him for an interpretation. They thought this parable was just about someone sowing seed and how that seed germinates and produces fruit. They knew there had to be some spiritual application, but they didn't know what it was. So they asked Jesus for the interpretation of this parable. They also asked Him, ”Why do you speak to these people in parables?” (Matthew 13:10.) He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath. Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
Matthew 13:11-13 People have become hardened toward G.o.d. They just can't understand spiritual truth because their thinking is so inconsistent with the way G.o.d intended us to be. They're spiritually dull.
For this peoples heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
Matthew 13:15 Although Jesus made this amazing statement to a group of people two thousand years ago, it's also quite descriptive of our day and age. He said ”this people's heart is waxed gross.” This is literally speaking of a step-by-step, incremental progression toward insensitivity. A person's heart doesn't just instantly turn against G.o.d and become insensitive and unable to hear from Him. It's a process.
SPIRITUAL CODE.
This word ”waxed” literally refers to the way old-fas.h.i.+oned wax candles were made. They took a wick and dipped it into hot wax.