“I Can See!”

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!

 

We Are Like Him

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!

You Are God’s Voice

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!

You are a Miracle

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!

Where’s the Works?

The church has settled for a knowledge of the miracle worker without the miracles.

Years ago there was a Wendy’s Hamburgers commercial where a little white haired lady famously demanded: “WHERE’S THE BEEF??”  Where are the works?  Have we settled for a meatless hamburger?

If Jesus needed miracles to validate His ministry, how much more do you need miracles to validate your ministry?  Why should someone of another religion leave their religion and accept your Jesus as the way and the truth?  They have a black book and you have a black book.  They have morals and you have morals.  They have a history and you have a history. What do you have that they don’t have?

The answer is a living Jesus and the proof of that is miracles.  Christianity is the only form of worship in the world that can be validated by miracles that no witchdoctor or psychologist can duplicate.  The whole history of God’s intervention in the affairs of mankind as recorded in Hebrew scripture is that of miraculous intervention.

Jesus continued the tradition of miracles and we as His followers after Him continue in this same fashion!

Who Are You?

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!

ALWAYS!

Second Corinthians 2:14 says, “Now thanks be to God, who always causes us to triumph in Christ.” Hallelujah! He always causes us to triumph! Always! Always!

Not, “I win sometimes, I lose sometimes,” not, “well, I’ll see…maybe it will work, maybe it won’t work…” No!  Thanks be to God, who always causes me to triumph! Always! Always!

I don’t care what the government says, I don’t care what the people say, I don’t care what religion says, I don’t care what my finances say, I don’t care what the economy says!

Thanks be to God, who always causes me to triumph. ALWAYS!!

A Lesson in Latvia

Years ago I preached in a Bible school in Latvia. The first time l got up to speak the students started to clap and stomp. When I finished they clapped and stomped some more, and I was gratified that they appreciated my lesson.

A short time later I returned to the front to teach the second session amid more clapping and stomping. When I finished I received the same response, and was really pleased that they seemed to be getting so much from the teaching.

When I got up to teach the third hour they clapped and stomped as usual, only this time when I finished the clapping and stomping was louder than ever.

I was finished with my teaching sessions and sat down in one of the back rows. Another teacher stepped up to teach and the students once again began to clap and stomp. Finally I approached the director of the school and asked, “Why do your students clap and stomp so much? Did they like my lessons?”

He replied, “They’re all freezing. They’re allowed to clap and stomp between lessons to keep warm.”

The Great Exchange

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!

 

A Way When There is No Way

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!