2020
Effects of Praise
Living a life of praise is not only the most enjoyable way to live, but it’s also one of the most powerful ways to change your life.
Praise isn’t like the caboose that just follows what happens, but it’s more like the engine of a train that makes things happen. Your faith isn’t complete without praise. Colossians 2:7 says that you abound in faith with thanksgiving. No thanksgiving equals not abounding in faith.
Praise affects you, it affects the devil, and it affects God. It touches everything and every part of your life. Likewise, a lack of praise affects you in a negative way, turns the devil loose in your life, and doesn’t bless God. You have to get this area of your life right.
Nearly everyone agrees that praise is good, but very few feel any responsibility to praise God when they don’t feel like it. I don’t know anyone who wakes up in the morning and plans on being depressed. They would like to be happy and praise God, but they don’t feel they have any control over this. They think that praise is just a response to what happens and that if everything goes right, they will automatically do it. That is definitely not the case.
The Lord told His disciples the night before His crucifixion not to let their hearts be troubled (John 14:1). This wasn’t a suggestion. It was a command. Yet most Christians today would think this was insensitive and unreasonable. They would say that Jesus wasn’t being understanding and compassionate.
These disciples were about to see Jesus arrested and then flee in fear for their lives. They would see Jesus unjustly condemned and then crucified and buried. And He was telling them not to let their hearts be troubled! To the average person, that’s unreasonable.
Jesus ended His discourse to His disciples that evening with a promise that they would have trouble (John 16:33). Wow! What an understatement! Yet He said to be of good cheer. How was this possible? He said it was possible because He had overcome the world.
At the time Jesus said that, He hadn’t been crucified, much less resurrected and seated at the Father’s right hand. It was because of faith that the disciples were supposed to rejoice. He had promised that He would be resurrected and then reign, and if they were in faith, they would rejoice—and so would we.
We live in a negative world, a fallen world where it seems that the ungodly are getting more and more prominent. So much of what we hear is just negative, and we have to make a deliberate effort to be positive and counter the culture we live in. Praise is a great tool to help us achieve that.
If someone were to pass out, the first thing we’d do is check their pulse to see if their heart is still beating. In the same sense, checking our praise lives is how we check our spiritual pulse. If we don’t live lives that are constantly giving thanksgiving and praise unto God, we are not spiritually healthy. Some people may take offense at that, thinking I just don’t know their situations. But Paul said in Philippians 4:4—
Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice.
Paul didn’t just say it once; he said it twice. He didn’t want anyone thinking he had made a mistake or that there were exceptions to what he said. We are always supposed to be rejoicing in the Lord. It’s a command, not a suggestion to do it if we feel like it.
Paul lived what he preached. When he was beaten and thrown in the deepest darkest part of the dungeon, he and Silas broke out in praise at midnight (Acts 16:22-26). They didn’t just do this as spiritual warfare. They weren’t praising God through gritted teeth, just to get out of their problem. When they were set free, they didn’t leave. They were actually praising God because they loved Him and were worshiping out of a pure heart. It so affected the other prisoners that none of them left either. Praise caused a revival.
We may not feel joyful, but Scripture tells us in Galatians 5:22 that the fruit of the Spirit is joy. If we have the Holy Spirit, we have joy. We may not feel that joy, but we can choose to lift our hands and speak forth praise to God by faith. Learning to praise God even when everything is going badly will change our hearts, make us much more effective, and cause our faith to abound.
I truly believe that my choice to praise God, even after getting the report that my son was dead, was one of the biggest factors in seeing him raised from the dead after nearly five hours. I didn’t know what the outcome would be, but I started praising God with all of my heart and telling Him—and the devil—that regardless, I would not quit serving Him. It was at that moment that faith abounded in my heart, and I knew he would be raised from the dead. Thank You, Jesus!
We have to accept responsibility. We aren’t just elevated animals, responding to stimuli. We are created in the image of God. We can choose to say that we are going to give thanks and rejoice in the Lord. But until we do, we are victims. We will never be victors until we quit being victims. We have to get rid of the excuses and just do what the Word of God says.
Philippians 4:6 says—
Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
Do you know what the Greek word for “nothing” in that verse means? It means nothing! It means there are no exceptions. Sure, you might have problems, but you don’t have to worry about them. You don’t have to be careful about them. You can go to the Lord in prayer with thanksgiving and make your requests known to Him.
Jesus demonstrated the right way to bring our requests to God. He used what I call the “sandwich technique,” where we sandwich our requests in between two slices of praise. We start with praise, and we end with praise. We can just look at how Jesus did it in the Lord’s Prayer (Matt. 6:9-13). He started by praising God: “Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.” And He finished by praising God: “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever.” That’s the way to do it.
Even in the Old Testament, believers were told to “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name” (Ps. 100:4). But the nation of Israel didn’t always do this. In fact, the Lord said that because they did not serve the Lord with joyfulness and gladness for the abundance of all things, He was going to bring judgment upon them (Deut. 28:47-57). This shows that God holds us responsible for rejoicing, praising Him, and being thankful for all the good things He’s given us.
We face a lot of tough circumstances in this life, and the world expects us to behave a certain way when problems come. But God told us to respond a different way—to not let our hearts be troubled. We get to choose (Deut. 30:19). We have the option of following Jesus’ words and acting on the Word of God.
I have personally felt the benefit of rejoicing in the Lord. I have seen it destroy the devil. He cannot stand it. I really believe that God inhabits the praises of His people (Ps. 22:3). God is so pleased when we look beyond the natural and see things in the light of faith. That blesses God.
Praise is not the inevitable byproduct that comes when everything is going right in our lives; it is the driving force. Praise will get our focus where it needs to be—on God. If we start praising God in the middle of our problems, our problems will shrink so much that we’ll hardly remember to bring them to God! We’ll be so busy praising Him and thanking Him for His blessings that our problems will be an afterthought.
2020
How to: Hear God’s Voice
One of the greatest benefits of our salvation has to be that of hearing God speak to us personally.
There can be no intimate relationship with our heavenly Father without it. But, as easy as it is for us to speak to Him, the average Christian has a hard time hearing His voice. This is not the way the Lord intended it to be.
Learning to clearly distinguish God’s voice is invaluable. Instead of going through life blindly, we can have the wisdom of God guide and protect us. There isn’t a single person receiving this letter who couldn’t have their life radically transformed by hearing the voice of the Lord better. The worst marital problem is one word from the Lord away from a total turnaround. If you have sickness or disease, one living word from the Lord will instantly heal you. If you are in financial crisis, the Lord knows exactly how to turn your situation around. It’s just a matter of hearing His voice.
The Lord constantly speaks to us and gives us His direction. It’s never the Lord who is not speaking, but it’s us who are not hearing. Jesus made some radical statements about hearing His voice in John 10:3-5. He was speaking about Himself as the Shepherd of the sheep and the only way to enter the sheepfold.
“To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice; and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.”
Notice that He said in verse 3, His sheep hear His voice. He didn’t say His sheep CAN hear His voice or SHOULD hear His voice. He made the emphatic statement that His sheep DO hear His voice. Most Christians would question the accuracy of that statement since their experiences don’t line up. But it’s not what Jesus said that is wrong; all true believers can and do hear the voice of God; they just don’t recognize what they are hearing as being God’s voice.
Radio and television stations transmit twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week; but we only hear them when we turn the receiver on and tune it in. Failure to hear the signal doesn’t mean the station isn’t transmitting. Likewise, God is constantly transmitting His voice to His sheep, but few are turned on and tuned in. Most Christians are busy pleading with God in prayer to transmit when the problem is with their receivers.
The first thing we need to do is fix our receivers — believe that God is already speaking and start listening. However, that takes time, effort, and focus. The average Christian’s lifestyle is so busy, it isn’t conducive to hearing God’s voice. For instance, what is your typical answer to the question, “How are you?” Many of you probably answer something about being very busy. I often say, “I’m busier than a one-arm paper hanger.” All of us seem to be busier than ever, and that’s one of the BIG reasons we don’t hear the voice of the Lord better. We’re just too busy.
Psalm 46:10 says,
“Be still, and know that I am God.”
It’s in stillness, not busyness, that we tune our spiritual ears to hear the voice of God. The Lord always speaks to us in that “STILL, small voice” (1 Kings 19:12, emphasis mine), but often it’s drowned out amid all the turmoil of our daily lives.
Second, and this is very important, most often we mistake the voice of the Lord for our own thoughts. That’s right. I said the voice of the Lord comes to us in our own thoughts.
John 4:24 says,
“God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”
This is saying that communication with God is Spirit to spirit, not brain to brain or mouth to ear, the way we communicate in the physical realm. The Lord speaks to our spirits, not in words, but in thoughts and impressions. Then our spirits speak to us in words like, “I think the Lord wants me to do this or that.” The Lord doesn’t typically say “You do this or that,” but He will impress your spirit to do something, and then your spirit says, “I think I should do . . .” Therefore, we often miss the leading of the Lord, thinking it’s our own thoughts.
Every one of us has done something stupid and afterwards said, “I knew that was the wrong thing to do.” We didn’t feel right about our decision, but we followed logic or pressure only to find that our impression was actually the Lord speaking to us. I learned this the hard way while pastoring in Pritchet, Colorado.
All the elders of the church were custom combiners. Six months of the year, they were gone following the wheat harvest. They insisted that we ordain another elder who would always be there. Their choice for eldership, I had nothing against, but as I prayed about this man and his wife, I didn’t feel right ordaining him as an elder. However, being a man, I went with logic instead of my heart.
Within two weeks of the others leaving for wheat harvest, this new elder turned into the devil himself. In his reports to the elders, he accused me of stealing money from the church, committing adultery, drinking, smoking, and everything else you can imagine. It was a terrible experience. As soon as this man showed his true colors, I knew in my heart that the feelings and thoughts I had were the Lord speaking to me, and I had dismissed them as my own. I made a decision right then and there that I would never ignore my heart again.
Psalm 37:4 says,
“Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.”
This verse has often been interpreted to mean that the Lord will give you whatever you want and has been used to justify selfishness, greed, and even adultery. But it doesn’t mean that the Lord will give you whatever you want; it means that when you are seeking the Lord, He will put His wants or desires into your heart. He will make His desires become your desires. The Lord changes your “want to.”
I once was planning a trip to Costa Rica, a place I had been before, and was excited to be returning to. Yet, as I prayed about it, I lost my desire to go. Instead, I actually felt dread about going. The first thing I did when that happened was make sure I was really seeking the Lord with my whole heart. While on a road trip, I spent seventeen hours praying in tongues, and the more I got my mind stayed on the Lord, the less I wanted to go back to Costa Rica. On the strength of that alone, I canceled the trip.
When the people of Costa Rica asked why, all I could tell them was I didn’t want to go. That was hard to do, and I’m not sure they understood. The plane I had booked my flight on crashed on take-off from Mexico City, killing all 169 persons onboard. The Lord warned me of that and saved my life, not by saying, “Don’t go to Costa Rica,” but, by communicating to my spirit and taking away my desire to go. That is the dominant way the Lord speaks to us, and we often miss that kind of communication.
One of the most important decisions of my life came in 1968. I was in college when the Lord radically touched my life, and all my desires changed. I didn’t want to be in college anymore, and following those new desires, I made the decision to quit school. Then all hell broke loose. My mother didn’t understand, and she quit talking to me for a time. Leaders in my church told me I was hearing from the devil. I stood to lose $350 per month in government support from my father’s social security, and I would lose my student deferment from the draft. Without the deferment, I stood a good chance of ending up in Vietnam.
Because of these adverse reactions to my decision, I backed off for a while and was absolutely miserable. This continued for two months until I couldn’t take it anymore, and one night the Lord finally spoke to me through Romans 14:23, which says,
“Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.”
I realized I was in sin because of indecision. I determined to make a faith decision that night and stick with it. As I prayed and studied the Word for guidance, I found Colossians 3:15, which says,
“And let the peace of God rule in your hearts.”
The Lord spoke to me that I was to head in the direction that gave me the most peace. To be truthful, I didn’t have total peace in any direction, but just as an umpire has to make a decision and stick with it, I needed to make the call. I had the most peace about quitting school, so I made the call and stepped out of indecision into faith, to the best of my understanding. Within twenty-four hours the Lord gave me such confirmation and joy that I have never doubted the wisdom of that decision since. That one decision, possibly more than any other, set my life on a course that has brought me to where I am today.
I am convinced that our gracious heavenly Father speaks to every one of His children constantly, giving us all the information and guidance we need to be total overcomers. There isn’t a problem with His transmitter; it’s our receiver that needs help.
I have a three-part teaching album called How to: Hear God’s Voice that expounds on this in greater detail. I teach this every year to our second-year CBC students and see powerful results. Most people are imploring God to speak, when it’s our hearing that needs to be adjusted. Taking this faith-stance that God is speaking and then learning to listen and obey will transform your relationship with the Lord. It could save your life just as it did mine.
2020
Our God is a good God!
In this hour of a pandemic, it is important for every believer in our Lord Jesus Christ to have answers to some basic fundumental questions the world is grappling with, like:
- Is Corona God’s idea? (1 John 1:5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.)
- Does the coronavirus reflect character of Christ? (James 1:17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.)
- Does our loving God send viruses, sickness, death, turmoil, to show Himself strong even after the cross of Christ?(1 Peter 2:24 “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.”)
- Is God using the devil as His messenger boy?(James 1:13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man, even in the book of Job, temptation/test was not God’s idea)
- Is God behaving like the mafia godfather (creating fear to gain respect)?(1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not abeen perfected in love) Yes there’s Godly fear like in Romans 2:5-9, but this isn’t the same as fear of a tyrant, or a dictator. To fear God is absolute reverence and awe for an Almighty God, the Creator of all things.
Notice: the church of Christ has NEVER been closed down worldwide by the faithfuls willingly due to fear of the devil’s works (a virus in this case) or in obedience to worldly authorities, not even during the world wars. So could God be behind all this pain, death, confusion and fear? Does it make Him look good or that doesn’t matter to Him?
No! If God was behind all that is happening, it would make Him look very bad, i guess you may agree. That is not like our God!
However, by the time all this virus dust settles down, maybe the truth about this virus shall be revealed and for everything the devil intended, our God will have turned the whole situation around for His glory. (Romans 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.)
So it may not be right, to just attribute this virus to our God, its bad PR and that doesn’t reflect God’s character at all especially after Christ!
As believers who know their God, let us continue to tell the world that “our God is a good God all the time” (John 10:10b ) for that is His nature and remind the world that the devil is a bad devil if we must (John 10:10a).
Thank you Jesus!.
Charis Uganda
2020
God Wants You Well
A head-on collision, the jaws of life, a helicopter flight to the hospital, and thirty-one days in the ICU. The injuries were so extensive that Ken should have died.
But his wife, Virginia, believed God, and a healing journey began.
Had Carol sunk into an earthly pit so deep and dark that even Jesus’ arms could not rescue her? At 290 pounds with a history of drugs, multiple abortions, and abuse, if Jesus couldn’t—or wouldn’t—save her, she knew she would die.
After years of severe headaches, twelve-year-old Scott was healed and then diagnosed with a rare disease. He had Barrett’s esophagus, a life-threatening condition unheard of in children. The story of a little girl’s miracle opened the door to his healing.
Merci’s multiple sclerosis progressively worsened. Unable to work, drive, or even walk, she had come to the end. “What am I doing wrong, Lord? Why am I not healed?” The answer would change her life.
The ultrasound showed fluid on the brain, flattened facial features, calcium deposits in the heart, and more—all symptoms of Down’s syndrome. The doctor recommended abortion, but the parents believed God!
These five stories have been documented and recorded on a new DVD called Healing Journeys, Volume 2. They are all stories of the power of God’s Word working in the lives of people who gained a revelation of what God had already done for them through Jesus. Every one of them is a Healing Journey that will touch your life.
Jesus used miracles like these as a dinner bell. He used them to prove He could forgive sin (Mark 2:10-12). God used them to authenticate Jesus and His message (Heb. 2:3-4). Jesus told His followers that they would do the same works He had done (John 14:12). He said that the preaching of His Word would be confirmed by signs and wonders (Mark 16:20).
So why aren’t we seeing greater manifestations of His healing? Aren’t people still suffering from sickness? Doesn’t Jesus love people today just as much as He did when He walked the earth? Don’t believers still need to see demonstrations of His power?
YES! Not only do we need the healing power of God today, but God wants to release that power. Hallelujah! However, healing isn’t up to God alone. It isn’t God who decides who gets healed and who doesn’t. That’s a radical statement, but it’s true. And herein lies some of the greatest obstacles to receiving God’s healing power.
One of the worst doctrines in the body of Christ is the belief that God controls everything that happens. Fundamentalists/Evangelical Christians believe that God either controls or allows everything, and that Satan has to get His permission before he can do anything.
That’s a convenient theology because it absolves the individual of any personal responsibility. That’s also the reason for its popularity. I know this may shock some people, but it’s true: That belief will kill you. God’s will doesn’t automatically come to pass. We have to believe and cooperate with God to receive what He has provided for us, including our own salvation.
Second Peter 3:9 says it isn’t God’s will for anyone to perish:
“The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
That’s as plain as the Scripture can make it. It is not God’s WILL for anyone to perish, but they do. In fact, Jesus said more people would enter through the broad gate unto destruction than enter through the narrow gate unto life (Matt. 7:13-14). God doesn’t force salvation on people.
People don’t have to ask Jesus to save them; they just need to believe the nearly-too-good-to-be-true news that their sins are already forgiven and receive their salvation (Acts 16:31). The same thing is true of healing: God has already healed everyone, just as He has already paid for the forgiveness of everyone’s sins.
Healing is already an accomplished work. First Peter 2:24 says,
“Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.”
Jesus isn’t healing people today—healing was given 2,000 years ago in Jerusalem when He took those stripes on His back. He hasn’t, and won’t, receive any more stripes. People today only receive through faith what has already been accomplished by Jesus thousands of years ago.
The Scriptures don’t tell us to pray for the sick, in the sense that we are powerless to minister healing to them. It’s just the opposite: Jesus told US to HEAL the sick (Matt. 10:1, 8; Luke 9:1, and 10:9). There’s a big difference between asking the Lord to heal people and healing them.
Most Christians today are appalled at what I’ve just said. They think, Who do you think you are? Well, without Jesus, I am nothing (John 15:5), but the good news is that I’m not without Jesus! He will never leave me nor forsake me (Heb. 13:5). Hallelujah! Therefore, I can say with the Apostle Peter, “Such as I have give I thee” (Acts 3:6).
This is what Peter said when he ministered to the lame man in Acts 3. Peter didn’t pray for this man. He didn’t say, “O God, we can do nothing without You. Please heal this man if it is Your will.” It’s always God’s will to heal (3 John 2). We don’t ask and then wait and see. That’s not believing His Word. Instead of beggars, we need to become believers who, knowing God’s will, use our authority to heal.
Talking and acting like that today will get us kicked out of most churches. After all, who do we think we are? That’s not the way many Christians believe it’s done. And that’s one of the main reasons we don’t see more of the healing power manifest that Jesus provided.
I have prayed for thousands of people in my meetings across the country, and I have yet to see every person healed. It might be a problem in the heart of the one receiving prayer, or it might be something I don’t understand in regards to that particular person. But one thing I know for sure—it’s not God.
Healing is such an important issue that I’m beginning a six-week series on it on television in April. You won’t want to miss it. I have also put together a special package to help you. I call it A Better Health-Care Package.
2020
Sickness Is Strange
If you are following after Christ, the number one challenge you will encounter is not sickness and disease. It’s persecution:
All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
2 Timothy 3:12
How should you respond when you’re persecuted? Probably not how you might think. The Apostle Peter gives the answer:
If any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.
1 Peter 4:16
What?! Shouldn’t we pray to God to excuse us from persecution? No. According to Scripture, if we’re following Christ, persecution is an inevitability. That doesn’t mean we should thank God for it, and that’s not what Peter was saying. But we shouldn’t think it’s strange when we’re persecuted either:
Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice.
1 Peter 4:12-13a
What we should think is strange is being attacked with sickness. But unfortunately, we as Christians have had a lot of help accepting sickness as normal. When we think of something as normal, we put our guards down. We submit and become passive. Worse, we make provision for and accommodate it.
So, what should you do if you’re dealing with sickness? Fight! You have the victory over sickness and disease. You can win! Look at what Andrew said on the Gospel Truth:
“[God] has not redeemed us from persecution, but He has redeemed us from sickness.”
Even though God wants us well, we have a part to play. We have to act on our faith. Andrew really gives a powerful exhortation to help us:
“There are some of you that are believing God for healing, but you aren’t acting healed. Get up out of your wheelchair. If you can’t stand, if you’re a quadriplegic, well then move something. Do something. Believe God to move your big toe, your little finger, and once that starts moving, well then move the next one and start doing something. You resist the devil, and he’ll flee from you. You resist sickness and that sickness will flee from you, but start doing something. Do what you can do. If you can’t do it all, do part of it. The Lord will meet you where your faith is, but faith without works is dead. You’ve got to start acting well.”
If I knew I had the power to prevent someone from stealing from me, I wouldn’t idly sit back. I suspect you wouldn’t either. How much more would you act if what was being stolen was something valuable, like your health?
You might need to be convinced that sickness is not something you should just tolerate. I think Andrew would say, “As long as you can live with sickness, you will.” Some Christians would say, “Well, the devil has attacked me with these symptoms. I must be doing something right.” That’s what Satan wants you to think. But never use the Enemy’s activity as an indication that something is of God. The Enemy attacks just because he’s evil. But he defaults to persecution to stop you from advancing. Of course, he attacks also with sickness, but he attacks everybody with sickness, whether they’re Christians or not.
In Andrew’s teaching, God Wants You Well, he clearly shares that Paul’s thorn was not some physical ailment. It was, in fact, persecution. To hear more about this topic, tune into the Gospel Truth this week: check your local listings to tune in Monday through Friday, or watch him online anytime at https://www.awmi.net/video/this-weeks-tv/.
2020
Is Covid 19 From God?
Is the virus from God?
It is concerning how many Christians want to jump to the “day of wrath” (Rom. 2:5), and assume that God is behind a virus.
Just because plagues and viruses are predicted in Scripture does not mean they are from God, nor does it mean that we are in the last days of the last days. Jesus called such things “the beginning of sorrows.”
The gospel is not about afflicting humanity with judgments and sicknesses. God is not judging regions and nations. He told us to go into all the world and preach the Good News. He is not trying to kill everyone before we get there.
The heart of God for humanity has not changed. Consider the following:
The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. (John 10:10)
For the Father judges no one . . . (John 5:22)
God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. (2 Cor. 5:19)
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” (Luke 4:18-19)
The list of verses about the heart of God toward mankind could go on and on. God is not the thief! He does not come to steal, kill and destroy. Those who say so are preaching a false gospel. God is not imputing sin in this “acceptable year of the Lord.” He is not judging.
When the “day of wrath” begins at His return, you will know it. He will take vengeance on His enemies. But we are not in that time. As the church, we should be about the ministry of Jesus.
For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. (1 John 3:8b)
A virus is not the work of God.
There is a devil, he has works, they are worthy of destruction, and Jesus came to destroy them. We are His body on this earth, and we should have the same focus and purpose as Jesus did when He healed all who came to Him.
2020
Walking by Faith
One year at our annual Charis Bible College Expand Your Vision Weekend, as I was worshiping the Lord, I just knew in my heart that the Lord had entered the room.
I didn’t feel it, I just knew it.
I knew He had walked into the auditorium through the left front doors and right up in front of the stage. He stood there next to me for a moment, then He turned and started down the middle aisle and toward the back of the room.
I know the Lord promised He would always be with us and, in fact, lives within us. But there was a tangible manifestation of His presence. Very simply put, I believe what we call the anointing is just a manifestation of what is already true in the spirit realm. The Lord is always with us, but His presence isn’t always tangibly manifest. This time it was.
The presence of the Lord was so real, I opened my eyes to look and see if I could see Him. Within moments, people began to drop to their knees and worship the Lord in the same sequence that I had sensed Him walking through the room. People were rejoicing and sobbing out loud. It was a powerful time of being in the manifest presence of the Lord.
But here is the thing that was so special to me: I didn’t physically see or feel anything extraordinary. I didn’t need to. I knew it by faith. By the Spirit, I knew what was happening before I opened my eyes and saw any confirmation of the Lord moving through the meeting and touching people. I was just as satisfied to know these things by the Spirit as if I had been physically overwhelmed and pinned to the floor under the power of the Holy Spirit.
As the meeting continued, there were many people touched by the manifest presence of the Lord. It was one of those times that people want to build three tabernacles and just camp there (Matt. 17:4). Although I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience, I’ve come to the place where faith when God’s presence is not manifest is just as real as the special times when feeling confirms what faith believes.
That night I ministered from Luke 24 where the two disciples of Jesus were walking to Emmaus. As they walked along the road, the resurrected Jesus joined them, but they didn’t recognize Him.
The scripture says,
“And it came to pass, that, while they communed [together] and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them. But their eyes were holden that they should not know him.” (Luke 24:15-16)
These were Jesus’ disciples, and yet they didn’t know Him. How could that be? How could you not recognize a person you had lived with for over three years? Mark’s account of this same instance gives us the answer. Mark condenses this whole encounter into one verse and says,
“After that he appeared in another form unto two of them, as they walked, and went into the country”. (Mark 16:12)
The reason Jesus’ disciples didn’t recognize Him was because He was in another form. This doesn’t mean He looked like another person and had different physical features. That same day, just minutes after this encounter with the disciples on the road to Emmaus, Jesus appeared to His disciples in Jerusalem and showed them the print of the nails in His hands and feet (Luke 24:39). This was the same Jesus they had intimately known before. He bore the marks of crucifixion in His resurrected body. But they didn’t know Him because He was no longer in a physical body. He was in a spiritual, glorified body. They were looking with physical eyes that could only see physical things, and Jesus was in a spiritual body that could only be fully recognized with spiritual eyesight.
Here is an amazing truth: Spiritual things can only be perceived by our spirits. Jesus said to Nicodemus in
John 3:6,
“That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit”.
What Jesus was saying was, flesh is flesh and spirit is spirit. You cannot perceive the spirit through the senses of the flesh. They are totally different worlds, or realms, of reality.
The Apostle Paul made this same point in 1 Corinthians 2:14 where he said,
“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned”.
The physical senses can’t discern spiritual things. This isn’t speaking only of understanding spiritual truths with our minds; this also applies to seeing spiritual realities with our eyes or feeling spiritual things with our emotions. Of course there are exceptions where God opened physical eyes to enable people to see angels and even heaven, but normally the only way to access the spirit realm is through our spirits by faith.
Although special times of the manifest presence of the Lord do occur when we can feel in the natural what is always true in the spiritual, this is the exception rather than the rule. We are not to be more excited when we feel something than when we are just walking by faith in the promises of God. That’s a radical statement!
The Lord began to teach me this very early in my walk with Him. On March 23, 1968, the Lord manifested Himself to me in a tangible way. For four months, I was physically aware of the Lord’s love and presence with me in a way that took virtually no faith. I could feel it. It was awesome. But then that physical sensation left. Shortly thereafter, I was drafted and found myself in Vietnam. The absence of Christian fellowship and everything I was used to made my desperation for the Lord’s love and presence even more acute. I could truthfully say that I was desperate for God in the worst sense of the word.
Then one day, I woke up and felt like God was totally gone. I had no sense of His presence. Hopelessness and a fear came over me that I had never known. I remember someone coming into my bunker, and I hid under a stack of clothes. I was so afraid, I just couldn’t face anyone. I felt exactly like
Ephesians 2:12 says, “That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.”
It felt like God had died or at the very least deserted me. For three days I did everything I knew to do to try and regain God’s presence. I fasted and prayed and studied the Word constantly. Nothing seemed to make any difference. Then on the morning of the third day, I woke up and found myself kneeling beside my cot praying. Nothing special was happening, but the simple presence of the Lord was back. Or maybe it was simply that the fear and hopelessness was gone. Whatever it was, I had my normal peace back.
I know according to the Scriptures that the Lord never leaves us nor forsakes us, so I believe that this was only my perception that the Lord left me. However, this taught me a wonderful lesson. I discovered that I had taken for granted the everyday peace that the abiding presence of the Lord produces. I believe the Lord was tired of me begging for some special emotional experience. He was wanting me to start walking by faith instead of feeling. So, He removed my awareness of His presence and let me feel what hell (the total absence of God) must feel like. It had a profound impact on me.
I quit asking for some epiphany and just started thanking God for what I had. I got into the Word of God and began to believe that the Lord was with me and loved me, not because of what I felt, but because He told me so in His Word. I began the transition from feelings to faith, carnality to spirituality, immaturity to maturity. This is how I was relating to the Lord that night at our CBC Expand Your Vision Weekend.
I perceived the presence and ministry of the Lord apart from feelings. It was just a revelation from the Lord that I accepted by faith. When the manifestations confirmed what I knew by faith, I wasn’t more certain of His presence than I was before physical confirmation came. I wasn’t dependent on some physical experience. I had the everyday love, joy, and peace that I walk in, but I had faith that let me know God’s presence and love was with me in an infinitely greater way than anything I could feel or see.
I’ve had some awesome encounters with the Lord, and doubtless, I will have more. But regardless of what wonderful experiences you or I have with Him, they are limited. We’ve only scratched the surface or touched the tip of the iceberg of God’s great love and awesomeness. What we have inside is infinitely more powerful and wonderful than we can grasp, and it’s always that way. You may not always perceive God’s presence and peace with you, but it is. Even in the times when circumstances are yelling at you and affecting your emotions, God’s glory is right there inside of you, giving you love, joy, peace, and all the fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5:22-23.
You won’t always feel God’s presence. That may come as a shock or disappointment to you, but that’s the way it is. And if you are believing, unrealistically, for a constant tangible manifestation of His love and presence, you are out of step with God and setting yourself up for disappointment. That’s not the way He is. The Lord loves to work in subtle ways that only faith perceives.
Look at the way Jesus came to earth. He didn’t come in some grandiose style. He came humbly, as a child born to poor parents. His birth wasn’t announced to Caesar or Herod the king. It was heralded to lowly shepherds. Even Jesus’ physical body wasn’t exceptional.
Isaiah 53:2 says
“he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.”
When people looked at Jesus’ physical body, it took faith to believe that He was God. He wasn’t beautiful. He was natural. He wasn’t extraordinary. And when Jesus rose from the dead, He never showed Himself to a single person who wasn’t already one of His disciples. We would think He missed a great opportunity. Thousands had seen Him crucified just three days before. All He would have had to do was walk down the streets of Jerusalem or into Pilate’s judgment hall, and people would have been forced to bow their knees and acknowledge Him as the Christ. But that’s not the nature of God. Hebrews 11:6 says, “But without faith it is impossible to please him.”
Our God is a God of faith, and it takes faith to please Him. He could make a bird come sit on your shoulder and tell you He loves you every minute of every day. He could write your name with instructions on every cloud that passes over. He could have angels come visit you every morning and night to affirm to you that what He says in His Word is true. But that’s not faith, and that’s not God. Second Corinthians 5:7 says, “For we walk by faith, not by sight.”
We don’t just walk by faith until we get the sight we really desired. We walk by faith, period. When sight comes, we praise God and keep walking by faith.
The things I’ve tried to share with you in this article are profound. Not everyone will realize the importance of them. But faith is as far superior to feelings as true love is to lust. There really is no comparison. Yet lust seems to be more common and easier to come by than true love. Likewise, dependence on our feelings is more common among Christians than faith. We know what God said in His Word, but we don’t feel it, and therefore, we don’t believe it. That’s all wrong. Faith comes before feelings and always trumps feelings. Faith will produce feelings, not every time, but sometimes, and we need to enjoy them when they come. But being controlled by feelings is a BIG hindrance to true faith. We need to get to the place where God’s Word is proof enough without emotional confirmation.
I’ve made an audio teaching on this from Luke 24 entitled “Walking by Faith.” In this teaching, I share about this experience at the Expand Your Vision Weekend and my Vietnam story I shared in this article. I go into a lot of detail on this subject that I think could really make a big difference in your life. There is much more to this than I was able to convey in this article.
2020
The Reality of Faith
Many people think faith is acting like something is so when it really isn’t so, and if we do that long enough, then it will become so.
But that’s not it at all. Faith is real.
Hebrews 11:1 says,
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
Faith is substance. This is saying that faith is real. It is the evidence of things not seen. Notice it didn’t say “things that don’t exist.” They do exist. They just aren’t seen.
Even in the natural world, we’ve come to realize that there are things that do exist that we can’t see. We can’t see television signals, but they do exist. In fact, wherever you are right now, there are television signals right there with you. If you say “No there aren’t” just because you can’t see or hear them, that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. It just means you aren’t very smart. They do exist, they are just unseen. They are unseen realities.
A television set can make unseen signals visible. When we see the images is not when they became real. They were already there. A television set doesn’t generate images. The set just receives the signal and converts it into sights and sounds that we can perceive. But the television signals were already there, before we tuned them in.
Probably every person reading this letter has watched television when suddenly the picture went blank. What did you do? I bet you didn’t call the television station and complain about them stopping their broadcast. The first thing you did was check and see if everything was working on your television set. Was the electricity on? Was it plugged in? Did a tube go out or did some circuit melt? You checked your receiver to see what was wrong with it. You trust that the station broadcasts 24/7. You don’t question that until you eliminate all the possible problems with your set.
Likewise, God is real and does exist. He just can’t be seen. He is broadcasting all His power and blessings 24/7. It’s never God’s transmitter that is broken. It’s always our receiver that is the problem. If we ask God for something and we don’t see it manifest instantly, most people question why God hasn’t answered that prayer yet. They assume that because they haven’t seen or heard anything, nothing has happened. That’s all wrong. We need to have more faith in God than we have in a television station.
There is a very good illustration of this truth in 2 Kings 6. Elisha, the prophet of God, was revealing the Syrian’s battle plans to the king of Israel. Every time the king of Syria tried to ambush the king of Israel, Elisha would warn the king of Israel, and he would ambush the Syrian’s ambush. This happened so often that the king of Syria finally asked his servants to reveal who the traitor was. He knew that the king of Israel could not be maneuvering like he was without inside information.
When one of the king of Syria’s servants said that Elisha, the prophet of God, was revealing the words that the king of Syria said in his bed chamber to the king of Israel, the king of Syria sent his armies to capture Elisha.
Second Kings 6:15 says,
“And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do?”
When Elisha’s servant saw the Syrian troops, he panicked. He knew why they were there. They had discovered Elisha was the one telling the king of Syria’s battle plans to the king of Israel. They were in big trouble. Look at the response of Elisha to this situation in
2 Kings 6:16:
“And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.”.
People who don’t believe anything exists beyond their five senses would say Elisha was lying. He was confessing something was so when it really wasn’t so, hoping that it would become so. But that’s not the way it was at all. Elisha spoke the truth. There were more with him than was with the Syrian army. It’s just that Elisha’s forces were in the unseen reality.
The key to understanding this is to recognize there is another realm of reality beyond this physical world. Those who are limited to only their five senses will always struggle with this. They think Elisha was lying, and indeed, he would have been lying if all that exists is this physical world. You could count the Syrian troops by the thousands, and there was only Elisha and his servant. But Elisha wasn’t lying because there was another world of reality. If you looked at the whole picture, the physical and spiritual world, then Elisha was right on. In the spiritual realm, there were many more horses and chariots of fire around Elisha than there were Syrian troops.
According to 2 Kings 6:17,
“Elisha prayed, and said, LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And he LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.”
Gehazi’s physical eyes were already wide open. God was opening his spiritual eyes. He was able to see with his heart into the spiritual world. And when the spiritual world was taken into consideration, then Elisha’s statement was perfectly true.
Those who see faith as an attempt to make something real which isn’t real will always struggle with those who see faith as simply making what is spiritually true a physical truth. Those who limit truth to only the physical realm would have called Elisha one of those “name it, claim it,” “blab it, grab it” cultists. But in saying such things, they condemn themselves. They show they only consider what they can see, taste, hear, smell, and feel to be reality. They are what the Bible calls “carnal.”
When Gehazi’s eyes were opened, the Syrians didn’t disappear. They were still there. The physical truth was still true, but there was a greater spiritual truth that emerged. True faith doesn’t deny physical truth; it just refuses to let physical truth dominate spiritual truth. True faith subdues physical truth to the reality of spiritual truth.
Because Elisha believed in the realities of the spiritual world, he raised his hand and smote all the Syrians with blindness. Then he led the whole Syrian army captive to the king of Israel. Praise the Lord! That’s not bad for an old prophet whom carnal people would say was all by himself.
Elisha was not just speaking some wishful statement, hoping that it would become a reality. He knew what was real in the spiritual world, and he controlled his emotions and actions accordingly. There is no indication that Elisha saw the horses and chariots of fire around him. He didn’t need to. He believed it. Those who operate in true faith don’t need to see with their physical eyes. Their faith is evidence enough.
There was a woman at a campmeeting who had a huge goiter on her neck. She went forward for prayer and knew that she knew she was healed. So, she got up in front of the audience and gave a testimony of her goiter being healed. However, the goiter was still visible. But the people praised God, thinking that the healing would manifest itself shortly.
The next year at the same campmeeting, the woman got up again and praised the Lord for her healing, but there still wasn’t any visible proof. This concerned a lot of people, but they didn’t say anything. Then the next year, the same thing happened. This was too much for most of the people, and it caused the leaders of the meeting to approach this woman and tell her she couldn’t testify of this healing again until the goiter was gone.
The woman told the Lord that she knew He had healed her, and she didn’t have to see visible results to believe it. But for the sake of the unbelievers, she asked the Lord to physically remove the growth. It disappeared and the woman showed them what she already knew was true. You can get that strong in faith. Your faith is substance and all the evidence you need. Faith is real.
I’ve experienced this in my own life. When my youngest son, Peter, died on March 4, 2001, my wife and I spoke our faith and said,
“The first report is not the last report.”
We spoke resurrection life back into Peter’s body, and then we headed into town. It was one hour and fifteen minutes from the time we got the call until we got to where Peter was. During that time, I was operating in faith. I remembered prophecies that had not yet come to pass in Peter’s life, and therefore, I knew it wasn’t time for Peter to die. I rejoiced by faith, seeing Peter alive and well.
My oldest son, Joshua, met me at the door and said, “Dad, five or ten minutes after I called you, Peter just sat up.” Thank You, Jesus! This is the point: I didn’t rejoice more once I saw Peter raised from the dead than I did while I was still driving. During the drive, I knew Peter was alive, and I was rejoicing with all my might. It was actually anticlimactic when I saw in the physical what I had already seen in the spiritual. Don’t get me wrong; I was blessed and I rejoiced to see my son raised up after being dead for five hours. But the physical reality wasn’t more real to me than the spiritual reality of faith.
This is the way I live. I know it’s not “normal,” but I’m not getting “normal” results either. I’ve been believing big, and there have been big results from that believing. When we moved into our new offices, and when we see the warehouse finished, that was, and will be, anticlimactic. I’m seeing all these things in the spirit now. When they manifest physically, others will be impressed, but I’m impressed now.
I’m not believing for something that isn’t real to become real. I’ve seen into the spiritual realm by faith, and I’m simply making what I’ve seen in the spiritual world manifest in the physical world. All of the things I’m seeing with my physical eyes now, I have already seen in my heart. I saw it on the inside before I saw it on the outside. This is a wonderful way to live. This is the normal Christian life. This is walking by faith and not by sight (2 Cor. 5:7).
2018
Knowing God
What It Means to Know God – Just how do we get to know the Lord?
If I were to ask a group of people what’s the greatest thing in life, I would probably get as many answers as there were people. Certainly many things contribute to a full and happy life, but I hope all believers would agree that knowing God is absolutely the greatest and most important of all. Without that, everything else loses meaning.
The Apostle Paul put it this way in Philippians 3:8:
“Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.”
Think of this: Paul wasn’t a loser. He hadn’t hit rock bottom with nowhere else to go. He wasn’t turning from a life of failure and counting that as “dung.” He was one of the most educated and accomplished men of his day. He was the elite of the religious class. People knew him and they wanted to be like him.
Paul wasn’t writing just about the time before he was born again. He had been a Christian for decades at the time he wrote this. He had traveled the world and been used of God as few men ever had or ever will be. Yet here he was still seeking to know God more (Phil. 3:10).
Paul was saying that the best life had to offer and the greatest accomplishments and pursuits of any man, when compared to knowing God, ranked in the same category as manure. He was admitting that he hadn’t arrived but that he had left and was pressing toward that goal of knowing God more (Phil. 3:12-14).
What does it say, when the man who wrote half of the New Testament was still pursuing knowing God decades after his conversion? Certainly there has to be a depth of knowing God that goes far beyond just getting saved.Paul spoke of this in Ephesians when he prayed that the Ephesian Christians would come to know the height, length, depth, and breadth of God’s love (Eph. 3:18-19).
He said something very interesting in Ephesians 3:19:
“And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.”
At first glance this seems confusing. How can we know something if it passes knowledge? Paul is speaking about experiencing God’s love in a way that is infinitely greater than mere intellectual knowledge. And notice that when we experience God’s love in this way, we will be filled with all the fullness of God. What a statement!
All we have to do is look at our lack of experiencing God’s fullness in order to realize we don’t know God’s love the way Paul described it. If we did, we would be filled with all His fullness. Therefore, there is a dimension to knowing God that the average Christian hasn’t experienced. How do we get there?
First of all, we have to realize that there is more to knowing God than just becoming a Christian. Multitudes of people have received salvation, and if they were to die, they would go straight into the presence of the Lord. But they don’t know God.
They don’t know that He loves them because He is love and not because they are lovely. They think they have to earn God’s favor, and they are needlessly suffering condemnation and lack of fellowship with Him because they feel unworthy. They don’t know Him as a loving heavenly Father but see Him as a harsh taskmaster.
Many Christians think our Father is the source of all their troubles and suffering. They think He uses those problems as tools to teach them something or change their behavior, even though the Word clearly proves the opposite (James 1:13). They don’t know their God as Healer or Provider, or in any other of the ways He manifests Himself to them. Truly, God’s people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge about Him (Hos. 4:6).
Much of the blame for this falls on the church. The Bible says in Romans 10:17,
“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
The church, as a whole, has proclaimed that Jesus died for us to keep us from going to hell. Now, that’s true and quite a benefit. If that’s all there was to salvation, that’s more than we deserve. I would preach that message if that was all there was, but that’s not what the Scripture teaches.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
That verse specifically says the goal of salvation is “everlasting life.” And everlasting life was defined by Jesus in John 17:3, which says,
“And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”
Knowing God the Father and Jesus Christ is eternal life. That doesn’t start when we go to heaven. Knowing God (eternal life) is something we can have right now (John 3:36). The word “know” is used in Scripture to describe the relationship between a man and his wife that produces a child (example: Gen. 4:1). It is speaking of intimacy. So “knowing God” is speaking of intimacy with Him.
To receive salvation and then stumble through life without experiencing intimacy with the Lord is to miss or ignore the most important part of what Jesus provided. Let me put it this way: if you received forgiveness through the sacrifice of Jesus and then continue on without an intimate, personal, close relationship with God, then according to John 3:16, you are missing the real purpose of salvation. This is where the vast majority of Christians live.
People believe they need to get saved because that’s the message they’ve heard. So they get saved and then they get stuck. They aren’t hearing that knowing
God is the real goal or that it’s even attainable. They are waiting on the sweet by and by, but struggling in the rough here and now.
Knowing God in the way I’m discussing isn’t even on the radar screen of most Christians. They aren’t pursuing it and they aren’t experiencing it. It begs the question, how do we get started in our pursuit of intimacy with the Lord? We can begin by spending time getting to know Him through His Word.
The Apostle Peter said in 2 Peter 1:3-4,
“According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”
It’s through the knowledge of God that we are able to receive all things that pertain to life and godliness. He has already given them, but it’s knowing Him that allows us to partake of His divine nature, to receive all His great and precious promises, and to escape the corruption of this world. What a deal! Knowing the Word is knowing God.
I recently taught a new series that focuses on knowing God, and it expounds on many of the key things I’ve learned about God through the Scriptures. I talk about the real meaning of eternal life, how to see with our hearts clearer than with our physical eyes, and much more.
This is a series that may not sound really interesting on the surface, but it is one of the most important messages I teach. If you ever want to fulfill what God has called you to do, you must know Him personally, and I believe this message will make a huge difference in your relationship with the Lord.
Need to join Charis for a Life changing Grace experience: so why are you waiting?
Apply now
Aliquam erat volutpat. Duis ac turpis. Donec sit amet eros. Lorem ipsum dolor. Mauris fermentum dictum magna. Sed laoreet aliquam leo. Ut tellus dolor, dapibus eget, elementum vel, cursus eleifend, elit. Aenean auctor wisi et urna. Aliquam erat volutpat.