Part 8 (1/2)
ACT IN FAITH.
If you put a seed in the ground, and then go out and dig it up every day to see if anything is happening, you'll kill that seed. That seed has to be left in the ground for a period of time. There has to be faith. Farmers may not use this terminology, but it's true. The person who plants the seed has to believe that the seed is germinating, putting roots down, and producing. You just have to leave that seed there by faith, and over a period of time it produces.
It's the same with the Word of G.o.d. You can't just take a promise, plant it, and expect to reap a harvest right away. You can't just hear 1 Peter 2:24 for the first time, then confess ”By His stripes I am healed. I claim it in the name of Jesus,” and then if you aren't healed in the next ten minutes, go dig that seed up by saying, ”Well, nothing's happening.” And then the next day, you go back and do it again. That's not abiding in the Word, and letting the Word abide in you. (John 15:5.) You must come to a place where the Word is just part of you. It's not something you study for a little bit and then go out and live your whole day contrary to it. I'm not against specific devotion and prayer times, but you need to keep focused on the Lord and His Word all day long. It does you no good to spend ten or twenty minutes in ”devotion mode,” being sweet and kind and listening to G.o.d, but then once it's over you go back to being a piranha the rest of the day-being just as mean, angry, and vicious in your relations.h.i.+ps and business dealings as anyone else in the world. You may have planted the Word in your devotion time, but you dug that Word up. It's not working on the inside of you. It's not staying in your heart, and because of that, you aren't going to see it produce. It takes more than that. specific devotion and prayer times, but you need to keep focused on the Lord and His Word all day long. It does you no good to spend ten or twenty minutes in ”devotion mode,” being sweet and kind and listening to G.o.d, but then once it's over you go back to being a piranha the rest of the day-being just as mean, angry, and vicious in your relations.h.i.+ps and business dealings as anyone else in the world. You may have planted the Word in your devotion time, but you dug that Word up. It's not working on the inside of you. It's not staying in your heart, and because of that, you aren't going to see it produce. It takes more than that.
You can't just consider G.o.d's Word during your devotion time, and expect that to all of a sudden change the way you act that day. You have to take those truths about loving people (John 13:34-35), turning the other cheek (Matthew 5:39), and thinking more highly of others than you think of yourself (Philippians 2:3), and leave that seed in your heart over time. Then whenever somebody rubs you the wrong way, you need to act in faith and let that Word continue to affect you. You must abide in the Word and allow the Word to abide in you, for it to release its power and impact your life.
Yet many people are trying church, trying prayer lines, and trying everything else except taking G.o.d's Word and meditating on it, and they're wondering why they aren't getting the right results they desire. This truth is so simple to understand, you have to have somebody help you to misunderstand it. You take the Word of G.o.d, put it in your heart, leave it there, meditate on it, and it just produces.
FULL BLOWN MANIFESTATION.
Verse 28 goes on to say: For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.
It takes time for the Word of G.o.d to work, and when it starts working, you don't get the full blown manifestation at first. There's first the blade, then the ear, and then the full corn in the ear. In other words, there's growth. Just like when you plant a seed in the ground, it doesn't just stay there for a week or a month and then- BOOM- instantly you get a full grown tree. No, there's a growth period. First you see a tiny shoot sticking up out of the ground. Then it begins to grow and develop. We recognize that this is the way it works in the physical realm, but many people haven't realized that it's also how it works in the spiritual realm.
People come up to me all the time who have spent virtually no time getting established in the Word of G.o.d. They hear me talking about how the Word works, how I've seen G.o.d set me free, seen people healed and raised from the dead, and other great testimonies. They ask, ”What scriptures promise that?” I give them a seed, and they plant it, but if they don't have the same results I've described by this time tomorrow, then they say, ”I don't believe that works. The Word doesn't work. I did exactly the same thing you did, and it didn't work for me.”
You need to recognize that I've been walking with the Lord now for over forty years. It's been forty-two years since I had this encounter with the Lord, and G.o.d called me, and things really began to work. I have spent some time over the years meditating and seeking the Lord. But I didn't start off seeing some of the results that I am seeing today.
NO SHORTCUTS.
Today, Andrew Wommack Ministries needs about two million dollars a month just to pay our bills and keep things going. I didn't start at that level. I remember the very first time that Jamie and I ever prayed together and agreed for a certain amount of money. We prayed and agreed for $250 a month. Back then, that would pay our rent, all of our utilities, and allow us to give $75 a month. That was our total need.
When we moved to Manitou Springs, here in the Colorado Springs area, we started this ministry and I began traveling. I remember that Jamie and I agreed for $3,000 a month. That would pay all of my employees, rent, ca.s.sette tape bills, and everything else. There was a growth process. Sometimes when I'm talking about the millions of dollars we need to operate today, people think, I'm going to take those scriptures and try it. Then if it isn't working for them by this time next week, they say, ”That health and wealth, name it and claim it, blab it and grab it stuff doesn't work.” They become critical because they don't understand that there's a growth process. There was a growth process in my life, and there will be a growth process in your life.
You may not like that truth because you just want to jump ahead. You want to skip all the intermediate steps and go from where you are to full maturity. You can desire that all you want. You can pray and beg G.o.d. You can even get a thousand people to agree with you in prayer, but it doesn't matter. You cannot circ.u.mvent the process. It's first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear. That's the way the kingdom of G.o.d works. There are no shortcuts.
Personally, I believe that to the degree you put yourself into seeking G.o.d, you might be able to speed up the process a little bit, but there's still going to be these steps, stages, and growth. You can accelerate it to a degree, but you can't stop this process. You aren't going to go from having never seen the Word of G.o.d work in your life to seeing a hundredfold return. There is first the blade, then the ear, and then the full corn in the ear.
I once had a Bible College student who was a lovely man. He had a great heart and I really liked him, but he had spent most of his life in psychiatric hospitals and he had a lot of problems. He had no social skills. I decided to take him on as a project and see him change through G.o.d's Word. I shared a lot of things with him, and he really grabbed hold of the teaching on prosperity. He began to dream big.
He came to me one day and gave me his plans for buying an old hundred-room hotel that was partially burned with thoughts that we could restore it so we could use it as a dormitory for CBC students. He had done his homework. He had calculated the cost of buying the building, knew how much money he would have to borrow, what his payments would be and how much income he could produce by renting out the rooms. His plan was well thought out, and he wanted to know what I thought of it.
I told him I was really glad he was beginning to think of being productive and trusting G.o.d for bigger things, but I told him this definitely wasn't G.o.d's will for him at that time. He was crushed and asked what was wrong with his plan.
This man had lived off government payments his whole life. He was attending CBC on a government program. He had never worked a job a single day in his life. He had never made a dollar before. On the basis of this parable, you don't go from seed to full harvest without any intermediate steps. You can't go from 0 to 100 m.p.h. instantly. That's not acceleration. That's a wreck.
So, I complimented this man for moving in the right direction, but I made it clear that he couldn't believe for millions of dollars until he believed for one dollar. He couldn't manage a large hotel until he had managed to get a job and become faithful in a small thing first. He went on to graduate and the last time I saw him, he had a job and was making it on his own. He's not arrived, but he's left.
You must realize that seed, time, and harvest are all parts of the process. Reaching the harvest takes time. And time is your friend, not your enemy.
Chapter 19.
Life And Power.
On the same day that Jesus taught these ten parables of the kingdom, including the parable of the sower sowing the seed which emphasized the significance and power of His Word, the Lord also told His disciples to get in the boat and go over to the other side.
And the same day, when the even was come, he saith unto them, Let us pa.s.s over unto the other side. And when they had sent away the mult.i.tude, they took him even as he was in the s.h.i.+p. And there were also with him other little s.h.i.+ps. And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the s.h.i.+p, so that it was now full. And he was in the hinder part of the s.h.i.+p, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish? And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith? And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?
Mark 4:35-41 Now remember, Jesus had spent the better part of this same day teaching these disciples that the Word of G.o.d is like a seed.
You sow this seed in your heart. The seed has the life of G.o.d in it, and you don't need to go somewhere else to get that life. If you want a tree in your yard, you don't have to go get a tree. Just plant a seed, and that seed will turn into a tree. The seed has life in itself.
THE CREATOR SAID.
So Jesus had been teaching these truths from a number of different angles. Then that same day, He said in verse 35, ”Let us pa.s.s over unto the other side.” Do you realize what Jesus was doing? He was the Word made flesh and dwelt among us. (John 1:14.) Jesus was the incarnate Word of G.o.d. He had just been talking about the power of the Word. So what did He do? He gave them a seed. He gave them a word.
Jesus said: Let us pa.s.s over unto the other side.
Mark 4:35 He didn't tell the disciples, ”Let's get into the boat, go halfway, and then drown. Let's get in there and be overwhelmed by this storm. We're never going to make it to the other side.” No, He gave them a word.
This was the Creator of that Sea of Galilee. He's the one who created the heavens and the earth and everything in the natural realm that was coming against them. The Creator said, ”Let's get into the boat and go to the other side.” He gave them a seed. Jesus gave them a word, and then proceeded to the back part of the s.h.i.+p and fell asleep.
While He was asleep, a great wind came up. A great storm arose and the waves beat into the s.h.i.+p so that it was now full. You have to remember that this wasn't a huge ocean liner, or even a cabin cruiser with berths below deck that were dry and warm. No, this was a little open boat.
As a matter of fact, I've been out on a tour of the Sea of Galilee in what they called the ”Jesus Boat.” It wasn't the exact vessel that Jesus used, but they said it was a replica of the type of fis.h.i.+ng boats they used at that time. We had about thirty or so people on this boat. It was all open. There was nothing below deck. If Jesus was in the back end of this boat asleep on a pillow, and the boat was now full of water, then that means Jesus was slos.h.i.+ng around in the water. He was aware of what was going on, but instead of getting up and taking care of the situation, He just stayed asleep. That's amazing!
NEVER, EVER YOUR PROBLEM.
Look at how the disciples responded to this: And he was in the hinder part of the s.h.i.+p, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish?
Mark 4:38 This is so typical-not only of these disciples, but also of people today. You come into a problem and the doctor tells you that you're going to die, the banker tells you that you're going to have something repossessed, your spouse tells you that they're going to divorce you. Somebody tells you bad news, and all of a sudden the depression starts. These storms come and we go to the Lord saying, ”G.o.d, I thought You loved me. Why aren't You doing anything? Don't You care if I perish?” We basically put it all off on G.o.d as if it's His fault. G.o.d's not the one who sent this storm.
Religion has caused a lot of confusion in this area by teaching that G.o.d is ”sovereign,” meaning that He controls everything. They say, ”G.o.d is the one who caused or allowed your sickness, poverty, divorce, or whatever.”That's not true. G.o.d didn't cause this storm in Mark 4. The Lord doesn't control everything.
Now, Jesus did have the power and authority to do something about this storm. He exercised that power by rebuking the wind and speaking to the sea, ”Peace, be still.”The Lord has the power, but not every problem that comes into your life is G.o.d ordained. He didn't make these problems. So for us to say, ”G.o.d, why did You let this happen?” is wrong. In the first place, you're imputing iniquity and error unto the Lord, and you need to stop it. G.o.d is a good G.o.d. He's not the source of your problems. Don't go to G.o.d blaming Him and saying, ”Why haven't You healed me?” or ”Why did You let this person die?”
G.o.d is never, ever your problem.