A Presbyterian evangelist named Charles G. Finney, who lived from 1792-1875, successfully popularized the altar call. Finney referred to the altar call as coming to the “anxious seat” or to the “inquiry room,” and began using it in his evangelistic services in about 1820. Evangelist D.L. Moody took Finney’s altar call and refined it, and in turn it was passed on to its modern champion, Billy Graham.
In Finney’s time, most denominations were not preaching a gospel that allowed you to publicly call on the name of the Lord for your conversion to Christ. They were preaching a gospel of predestination, which said you were predestined to be born again so you would eventually find Christ on your own.
Finney was willing to challenge the status quo, and he preached his emotional messages with altar calls in all the churches. Of course, he was highly criticized for challenging the accepted Christian theology of the day. He faced many difficulties because the religious hierarchy didn’t believe you could stand up on the platform and call the people down front and have them call on the name of the Lord to be saved. Yet, undeniably his preaching ushered in one of the greatest revivals ever experienced on the North American continent.
To comprehend our position on miracles, like Charles Finney, we must challenge the broad understanding that it is ok to ask Jesus into your heart, but not ok to ask Him into your heart and expect healing at the same time!
If you think you’re working for a person, then you’re allowing a person to hold back your potential. You could easily slip into destructive attitudes of doing only what is necessary instead of what is right. You could end up being a men-pleaser or a clock-watcher. This creates mediocrity, and mediocrity is not rewarded with promotion, increase or new opportunity.
There is no average person in the Kingdom of God. The same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead now dwells in you with His resurrection life force inspiring and directing (Romans 8:11 paraphrased).
In God’s eyes you were destined for success the moment you became born again!
In Jesus’ parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14-30, the servant who hid his talent had a wrong perception of his Master. He said “I knew you were a hard man.” The ruler only asked for a minimum increase. In other words, just do something with what I give you. He was not making it hard. He was making it fair. A wrong perception of God causes fear, and fear causes wrong actions that result in destruction.
God is for you! He understands the fallen environment you live in and has given you gifts to overcome in this environment:
He gave you the gift of eternal life so you would have peace of mind about your future.
He breathed into you part of Himself so you would have awareness of His presence.
He gave you the name of Jesus so you would have authority over all evil spirits.
He gave you His promises for every area of your life so you would know His best for you.
He is not hard, He is benevolent! Right thinking will bring right increase!
Our own personal experience can be a formidable hindrance to walking in the abundance Jesus Christ made available to us. You might say, “I love God and I’ve never had any money. I’ve never been rich and God still loves me. If prosperity really is God’s will for me, then He would have given it to me a long time ago.” These objections are real, but that doesn’t make them legitimate! Just because we haven’t experienced something doesn’t mean it isn’t the will of God for us.
We lived in sin and experienced emptiness, separation and spiritual blindness before discovering salvation in Jesus. Does that mean it was God’s will for us to live in that dark world? No! We just hadn’t heard and responded to God’s Word on the subject. Our decision to act on God’s idea, His Word, and His substitutionary sacrifice for our sins opened a whole new world to us.
I believe we can change our personal experience in the financial realm as well. Armed with truth, you can go into the arena of need and come out a winner!
The devil wants to convince you that prosperity isn’t for you. If that doesn’t work, he’ll try telling you that prosperity isn’t for you today, but maybe tomorrow.
He pulls out his flip chart and starts reciting all the reasons why you don’t qualify. He wants to know what you’ll believe, so he can lock you into that belief system of limiting the unlimited God. Then he’ll recite to you the reasons for your poverty:
“God wants to keep you poor to train you.”
“God has hidden blessings for you in poverty.”
“Jesus was poor and you’re following His example.”
“Poverty is a form of holiness.”
Don’t allow yourself to land on his flip chart! Keep your spirit alive! Paul said, “Now to him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us” (Ephesians 3:20).
God has given you power! You are not a victim, but a VICTOR!
We wake up each morning with a world of possibilities before us. The morning news will reveal what went wrong while we were sleeping, but the good news is that there is more that has gone right! If you have found a right relationship with God, you had peace as you slept and a confidence when you woke up that He will be with you in your decisions and help you in your weaknesses.
In a world that is producing Pantheists with no framework for their faith except for the one they make up, you can be a shining witness of something solid to stand on. When you go into a grocery store, you never ask for the mush aisle where you can buy all the foods that require no teeth. That being true, why do people go into their spiritual life wanting a “mush” God, who has no definition, clarity, or voice other than the feelings they have during the day?
People are not interested in having mush on the menu for dinner, nor do they want mushy preachers sharing indefinite truths that are portrayed as opinions rather than guiding lights for us to hold before us!
I gather strength from my memory of watching Billy Graham stand before the leaders of nations and religions at a national meeting, and addressing all of them first by stating that He is a Christian minister and must therefore represent the One who has sent him. In our ministry we often have to address crowds of mixed religions, and they respect it when we identify who we are and why we must speak on behalf of the One we represent; just as they would represent their faith.
We are called to love people in their differences. People do not want to feel like you are tolerating them. It is a sign of disrespect to tolerate a person. We love people, and they recognize that love when we tell them from our heart why we are different, and what a difference Jesus has made in our life.
Our conviction is what draws people to Christ as it is expressed in sincerity. The truth that must be chewed on is what puts teeth in our mouth and strength in our bones!
After we have accepted Jesus Christ’s gift of salvation and are enjoying the freedom of the redeemed, we would be wise to do a little checkup to make sure we haven’t unconsciously slipped in any way from redemption into religion.
The following are 5 differences between Redemption and Religion:
- RELIGION is a “got to” way of life; REDEMPTION is a “get to” way of life.
- RELIGION is a door you must pass through in order to get into God’s presence;
REDEMPTION is an open door that is held open by Jesus, and no man can
shut it.
- RELIGION is man’s attempt to satisfy a holy God; REDEMPTION is God’s
attempt to make us holy by the sacrifice of a holy substitute.
- RELIGION is a shadow of the things to come without substance or power;
REDEMPTION is the reality of things to come through the substance of our
flesh and our words.
- RELIGION is form, a ritual, a tradition that acts like an empty shell, containing
no life or revelation within itself; REDEMPTION is an inner realization of the
Kingdom of God in the temple of our bodies that needs no form, ritual, or
tradition, because the King Himself resides within us!
Can there be a more important decision than the one that determines where we spend eternity? Every other decision seems trivial at best when compared with this one. Yet billions, myself included, have made assumptions about salvation that we would never make about any other decision!
Here are three mistakes you can make:
- Not reading the contract for yourself. For 22 years I assumed that the leader of my church had everything under control. He read the contract for us and told us what to do. He read it but never signed it himself or had any of us sign it. We were never told what was required to guarantee a relationship with God and ensure us a place in heaven.
- Not understanding the conditions. I was told I was a good guy, so I assumed I was going to heaven. I presumed that was enough. Millions of people compare themselves with others and believe they are not so bad, so they think they will make it to heaven. I belonged to a big church, so I supposed they could not all be wrong. I thought my church membership would get me in! This is folly. Without a relationship with the living God, you cannot be sure that you are going to heaven.
- The third mistake people make regarding salvation is not knowing a clear path to God exists. My last assumption was that no one could personally know for sure where he or she would spend eternity. Now I realize that if you do not know, you will not go! My greatest moment in life came under an elm tree at Michigan State University in June of 1978. That’s when I made my connection with God. For the first time I knew my past was forgiven and my future in heaven was secure. If I never knew anything else, that alone was enough to enable me to die a happy man!
There is a choice to make.
The power of choice determines your future. Though God loves you and has provided you with a wonderful life on earth and in the time to come, accepting what He has provided is still your choice. Even though God knew you before you were born and provided a purpose and provision for your life, He cannot choose that for you. You must choose it for yourself.
Laws are designed for good. They are intended to protect us. When an offender breaks the law, we want him in jail. There are laws in every area of creation, both seen and unseen. For example, there are laws that govern nature, such as the law of gravity. We build our science on laws that work. In physics, for instance, there are laws that dictate how electricity works. These laws have always existed. When men understood them, they could harness the power of electricity for good to bless mankind. But if these laws are broken, then what was meant for good can do evil to you. The same heat generated by electricity to cook eggs on your stove, will also cook you if you sit on it—even though you own the stove. The laws that govern electricity are not respecters of persons.
In the same way, the law of faith is a dynamic given for the good of mankind to bring the blessings of heaven to earth. It is the currency of heaven. It is the evidence of things not seen. It is the victory that overcomes the world. It is the answer to all things desired. It is what makes possible the things that look impossible. We can value it for our benefit, or it can easily be used for our destruction. Let us operate in the light of the faith revelation.
What is our future? If we really believed that what we plant today is what we will see tomorrow, then we would start planting what we want to see. What are the seeds that we have to plant? The law of sowing and reaping shows us that good and bad are the result of what we sow.
If we want good in our life, Jesus told us very clearly what the seeds are when He revealed the law of faith. Faith is designed to bring to pass good desires, or what you want. If you are not admiring your life right now, then change the seeds you are sowing!
There are laws that govern God’s “moral universe” just as we recognize the laws that govern the physical universe. Cause and effect is used to defend the creation of earth by God. Is there a cause and effect in the realm of faith where actions can predict results? If we have an unchangeable Christ, can we discover principles of His kingdom that are unchangeable?
In Galatians 6:7 Paul said, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.” God declared that seedtime and harvest would continue as long as the earth remained (Genesis 8:22). He sowed the seed of His Son to reap the harvest of billions of sons and daughters. There are two overriding truths here: Seed produces after its own kind. And seed always produces more than the amount of seed sown.
These truths will work in every area of life. At my home I have terrible bushes that try to overpower my property, and they flourish. If these principles work for bad, corruptible seed like those undesirable bushes, just think how well they will work for an incorruptible seed like the words, thoughts, and actions motivated by your relationship with your Lord!
We are seed planters. Everything in my life; my world, my body, my ministry, my job, and my family begins with a seed.
How much do you want out of life? How high do you want to climb? How long do you want to live? How much power will you exercise? What goals do you want to reach?
You could say this: whatever you give yourself to will increase. Whatever you put your focus on will multiply. In your life, whatever you pay attention to will grow, and whatever you ignore will diminish. Seeds give back what you plant, and more.
