If you don’t believe in yourself, you can’t do what God tells you to do.

In Matthew 16:18-19 Jesus told Peter, “You are Peter, and on this rock I will create the Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it; And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (author’s paraphrase).

Poverty comes from hell, not from heaven. Sickness comes out of hell, not from heaven. Fear comes from hell, not from heaven. All liars, deceivers and angry things come from hell, not from heaven. Nothing that comes from the gates of hell will prevail against you! Hallelujah! The gates of hell will not prevail against you! I don’t care what has been coming at you, it will not prevail. It will not persist. It will not continue.

Why? Because you have a revelation from heaven, Christ has told you who you are. And when you know who you are, everything that you bind on earth will be bound and everything that you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Because you know who you are!

We were preaching in Mariupel, Ukraine, at the top of the Black Sea. There we stayed with a Pastor who had a church of four hundred people. I noticed that the Pastor had no phone and no car. In conversation I asked him, “How can you minister to your flock if you can’t talk to them or visit them?” He told me communication was very difficult and He spent much time on the trolley busses.

That night I challenged the church to pay to connect a phone in his home. All agreed, but with half of his church unemployed and the others only making fifty dollars a month it looked like the biggest miracle in the world to his congregation. Some waited for a phone for thirty years because they couldn’t afford to pay the required thousand dollars.

I encouraged the congregation to trust God to use them as a source to purchase the phone. I asked how many would allow God to use them as a channel of supernatural blessing, and most agreed.

The next night as we were about to begin preaching, a salty old sailor came up to us with big tears in his eyes and shouting, “I’m the one! I’m the one!” I watched him approach thinking, you’re the one? What does that mean? 

 He continued, “I’m the one to give the phone! I stood up last night and committed, and when I got home I received two phone calls from foreign shipping companies. They have asked me to work at European salaries for the next two years. I’ve been unemployed for two years!”

Only when more people will stand up in their faith and pledge to a Godly cause will we see more miracles of supernatural supply in the body of Christ!

By faith you can receive your miracle from God. Confess God’s Word over your life, “By His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). In faith come to God in prayer and say, “Lord, in Your Word You said that by the stripes of Jesus I am healed. I believe and I receive my healing from You!”

You know, sometimes I don’t feel well either. For example, if I have a cold and my throat is sore and I can hardly lift my head off the pillow, my flesh wants to be sick and stay in bed too. But instead, I start proclaiming the Word of God, “In Jesus’ name, I am healed by the stripes of Jesus! I strongly believe in it and I thank you, Lord, that You are touching me with Your healing power! And now, body, listen to me…” And I start speaking to my body, head, throat and to all the symptoms. I proclaim that I simply cannot be sick because I am already healed by the stripes of Jesus Christ.

This is my faith. This is what Jesus calls “faith,” and it’s very important!

Jesus said, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you”(John 15:7 author’s emphasis).

He reveals that the power of His Word in your mouth is as powerful as rain upon the earth. When I lived in a desert for three months it became easy to appreciate a little rain. Hidden seeds that lay dormant for years under the sands would spring forth immediately when drops of life from above would fall.

We experience this in our crusade meetings all the time. A little word will bring to life a dormant dream hidden for years in the hearts of people. A word spoken releases a healing from above for those trapped by cancer, lameness, deafness and all types of disease.

“For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it”(Isaiah 55:10-11 author’s emphasis).

God’s Word in your mouth on any subject carries the same weight as if Jesus Himself were speaking. Spoken in faith, it is never empty or ineffective. It brings the rain of blessing from heaven on a cloudless day.

Keep saying what God says and the earth will yield its abundance to you!

Christians should be the leaders in the field of science, where discoveries are made. They should be the leaders in the business community, where favor is needed. They should be the leaders in the stock market, where having a hunch is often the key to success. They should be the top surgeons in the medical field, where skill and insight are required.

Why? Because Christians have the Anointed One living on the inside of them, giving them knowledge of clever inventions and showing them things to come. “But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him”(1 John 2:27).

We are not left to our own intelligence or wisdom in this life. We have a living relationship with God, Who has chosen to live inside the believer!

Understand that God knows where the opportunities are and will readily open them to you! He is on your side. When you run up against a closed door and there are no open doors at all, He will make one for you.

In Astana, Kazakhstan, our team leader and the local organizers came bearing bad news on the day the tent was to go up on the palace grounds of the Muslim president’s own central park. This was going to be a first for Christianity, as no Christian evangelist had been allowed to preach in the capital before and here we were next to the palace grounds in the heart of the city.

The bad news was a flash flood had covered the grounds with six inches of water. The local administrators were planning on abandoning the site, but we rose up as we have done before and said, “NO! We’re keeping the site. Now let’s start draining it.”

In our efforts to try and drain the field, a man with a dump truck drove by and felt compelled to give us eleven truckloads of sand. He was an angel on assignment from heaven, even if he did not know it. It was enough to cover the ground for the big tent so that we could start on time. It was a miracle idea for a miracle moment. God is involved in the affairs of men!

Jesus had 3 ½ years to show us how to live and minister. Why did He only need a little over 1,277 days to establish the pattern for mankind? Some church leaders preach for 20 years to try and get their people ready for service, but Jesus wrapped it up in a few years.

He was confident in His finished work, called redemption.

He was confident of His Spirit in us continuing the training.

He was confident in the new nature we received from Him through the new birth.

He was confident of God’s favor on us and our new right-standing that connected us to Him and God forever.

Miracles demonstrate God’s desire to meet the needs of His people.

Matthew 15:22-28 gives us a picture of the Canaanite woman who came to Jesus seeking healing. She had no access to the blessings available at that time to the children of Israel—the people God had made His covenant with and who were the ones to receive His blessings. She was apart from God, His temple, His covenant, separated by the law and without hope! Yet she reached beyond the barriers and touched the very heart of God and found something even deeper than religion. She found grace and mercy for her time of need.

The Canaanite woman discovered that healing is the children’s bread, the very sustenance of life that God intended for you and me to experience.

When you look at our modern world you see that we are ravaged with a multitude of diseases, many of them incurable. These are diseases that the best medical practices and technologies in the world have no answer for.

In this story, Jesus reveals the picture of healing as common as bread on the table. Bread was a central part of every meal in middle-eastern society, and healing is meant to be just as common for our everyday life.

The Gospel of Matthew reveals healing as the very bread of life, the very bread on our table, the very sustenance that you and I should experience!

In the Old Testament we find the story of the children of Israel and God’s promise that He would take them to a land flowing with milk and honey. Moses led the nation of Israel to the edge of that Promised land. Perhaps you are on the edge of your promise today?

Moses sent twelve men to spy out the land. Ten of the spies saw themselves as mere grasshoppers in the sight of the giants that lived in the land. Two of the spies had a different perspective. They saw the giants through God’s eyes and said, “These giants are bread for us” (Numbers 14:9 KJV).

 What is your perspective on healing? Has healing become a giant in your life? Jesus said, I am the bread of life (John 6:35)! He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed of the devil (Acts 10:38).

With the advent of His life, miracles became the foundation upon which everyday life was to be built. No longer were miracles to be a mystery or strange phenomenon, but miracles were to be front and center on the table of life!

Jesus came down from heaven as the express image of our heavenly Father, taking Him out of the shadows and revealing Him as the healer of humanity. Have you seen the bread of life come down for you? Jesus has set the table with healing for you!

Have you ever stopped a storm? Jesus did. In a boat when all others feared for their lives, He spoke peace and the winds obeyed! Over the years we have seen the power of the Name of Jesus in similar situations when storm winds threatened our events.

It is truly a wonder when the winds respond to that name.

It happened in the northern desert of Mexico at a church roof dedication. We were suddenly pounded by a mighty wind and rain such as the people had not experienced before. First the side windows began to rattle. Then the roof we were dedicating began tearing off, panel by panel, right above the pulpit. The people ran for the door and the walls. I did also, but Leslie stood her ground at the pulpit and commanded the storm to stop in the name of Jesus. After she said the name three times, the wind and rain instantly stopped. The roof was saved and we had a glorious celebration!