When your motive is love the world will listen to you. Love is the most talked about subject on TV. Love is the theme of most movies in Hollywood. Love is what the world is drawn to, yet they are looking in the wrong places. Jesus laid a foundation for our faith by saying it requires the right motive to get the right results. Faith works by love. Jesus said that if we love as He loved then all the world would be drawn to him.
He also said, “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all people know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” (John 13:34).
This type of love is not understood by the world, but the world is drawn to it because it comes full of forgiveness and acceptance. This love believes in you and wants the best for you.
The world has forgotten what God is like, so God became flesh and dwelt among us and showed us what He is really like. God needed flesh to show off His love.
Let’s give our flesh to God’s purpose—being examples of love.
There is a debate as to whether Jesus always knew who He was. Some think that Jesus was all knowing in the flesh, but think for a moment. He was born a baby and had all the limitations of a baby. For 30 years you only hear of Him once and that was in the synagogue talking about scripture.
Jesus was born a man and had to grow in wisdom like any person. Did God have to give the revelation to Jesus, or did He already know it? Scripture says, “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which GOD GAVE UNTO HIM, to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and He sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John” (Revelation 1:1 author’s emphasis).
I believe that God had to give the revelation to Jesus of who He was, just like He has to give it to us. He had to discover it in scripture, and He challenged the religious people to search the scriptures for they speak of Him.
Jesus found Himself in the Word, and you can find yourself in the Word. Accept the letters to the church as personal letters to you. Examine the lifestyle of Jesus in the Gospels as an example of your own lifestyle. Read the commission to Jesus as God’s commission to you, because the world is waiting for the sons of God to be revealed.
Many people don’t receive their healing because they do not understand the continuum of time.
I can think of many instances of this in our meetings from around the world, one particular woman in Kazakhstan comes to mind. She was a worker at the Italian embassy and had a vision problem, needing glasses in order to read properly. She had been attending the healing meetings during the week and was hopeful that something would happen, but so far had not noticed any changes.
We would serve tea on the breaks, and this woman came up in the line behind my husband to get her cup of tea. I remember this very specifically, she picked up the tea bag and when she did, she began to shout, “I can see! I can see! I can see!”
She had prayed for the healing for her eyes and though it did not happen instantaneously, later in the week she picked up the teabag and could read the fine print on that teabag.
When did her healing begin? Her healing began on the day that healing was ministered to her—on the day that she believed she received!
Jesus came to reveal not only Who God is, but who we are! Here are a few revelations that the Scriptures give us about Who Jesus is and how much we—all of us—are like Him:
[Now] He [Christ] is the exact likeness of the unseen God [the visible representation of the invisible]; He is the Firstborn of all creation” (Col. 1:15 Amplified).
Jesus began a new species of god-men. He is the first-born so we are born of His family and likeness in the image of His Father who is now our Father.
“For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection” (Romans 6:5). And when did our resurrection occur? The moment we were born again from death to life!
“…Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him” (2 Cor. 3:18 The Message).
We go from faith to faith, from love to love, from adventure to adventure!
The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John yesterday, have now become the Gospel of you today. Christ in human flesh in the Gospels has become Jesus in your flesh today!
Much of the modern church would think this is an extreme goal that is too lofty for humans, but how does the unseen God reveal Himself to humanity? God is revealed in flesh.
There is too much wasted prayer for God to come down and reveal Himself. He will not. He is in heaven with many wonderful ideas, but He needs flesh to reveal those ideas. He needs a voice. Christ in you is what He needs.
As I travel the world and speak to multitudes who do not speak English, I need an interpreter. My ideas are without power until they are heard, received, and acted on. In that way I am like God. He needs a voice. This is an awesome responsibility that God has entrusted us with; the message that saves humanity! If we don’t do it, God can’t do it!
Matthew 18:20 promises that where two or three are gathered together in the name of Jesus —He is there in our midst. When the Word is preached, His presence is preached, and His presence fills the atmosphere around us.
In Luke chapter 4 Jesus says, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me because He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor, to declare freedom for the prisoners…” Mark 16 says that He sends us to do the same thing!
Declare with me today, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me for He has anointed me; His Holy Spirit is upon me.” When we speak His Word, His power and His incorruptible presence is in that Word.
When we are born again He dwells in us, His presence is in us, and we have the mind of Christ. He is there wherever two of us gather together. His presence is here in our midst and upon us, dwelling in us and surrounding us.
Now what does this mean to Christians? It simply means that we are not seeking to find a manifestation of God; we are living in the manifestation of His grace and His presence.
I no longer have to beg God for a miracle, because I am a miracle; He’s come to dwell in me! I no longer have to beg God to show up and present Himself, for I know the miracle of His presence exists in His Word!
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!
Moments of great exchange occur for the believer who is acting on the Word of God in the area of giving tithes and offerings. Predicting the exact moment of exchange is as difficult as predicting the moment of rainfall on your property. But the rain always comes.
As the Israelites were leaving Egypt a moment of great exchange occurred. God released favor on His children and the Egyptians gave them all their silver and gold.
Peter was out fishing one day and Jesus showed up on the shore. Jesus directed him to throw the net on the right side of the boat. Peter obeyed and had such a harvest of fish that he had to call the other boats to help bring it in.
God is a God of more than enough if we will act consistently with His Word and expect the great exchange!
Heaven’s bank is secure from thieves. This bank pays higher dividends and greater interest. A guarantor superior to the U.S. Government backs up this bank! The only requirement for withdrawal is your faith. You must present your faith and the name of Jesus to make your withdrawal, and you must have deposited something into your account.
It doesn’t matter how old, how ugly or how poor you look. You don’t go to the teller with your own check, you go with a check signed in the name of Jesus. His signature always gains the bank’s attention. He paid in full for everything you need or desire in this life, and it is in your account.
We determine the size of our withdrawal by the size of our deposit. God gives seed to all people, but we decide whether to eat the seed, waste the seed in poor soil, or put the seed in a place where we can gain harvest from it. “But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully” (2 Corinthians 9:6).
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!