TThere were two spirits that marveled Jesus. One was the spirit of unbelief, and the other was the spirit of faith. Those are the two spirits that operate in the lives of human beings all the time. Until you decide and make up in your mind that you are going to believe the Word of God, regardless of circumstances or situations or whatever is surrounding you, then you will always be wavering between two opinions. As a matter of fact, one prophet in the Bible said, “How long will you be halt between two opinions?” Either you are going to believe God, or you are going to believe the devil.
There comes a place in the believer’s life where they have to resolve, “I am going to believe the Word of God.” Everybody else can trend or evolve or go wherever they want to go, but I am going to stick with God. Anybody believe the Word of God? Amen. That is why when you come to this church, we are going to keep opening these Bibles. I am not going to tell you what I think or what my opinions are, because you know I am human just like anybody else, and I can trend away from the Word of God.
But it is the Word of God that is going to keep us rooted and grounded, and, amen, able to grow in God. In order to grow, God said that, like babes, you have to desire the sincere milk of the Word of God, that you may grow thereby. But then you have to come on and get to maturity, because He says that meat is for them that are of full age. It is time to grow up! You cannot say a baby forever.
You have to get to the place where you are full grown in the things of God. That is where you really start seeing the power, the glory and the manifestation of that Word. Prayer, after prayer after prayer, that is where the Word of God has gotten past just hearing. You have amalgamated with it and you have meshed with that Word so until you are a living manifestation of the glory of God. Tell yourself, “I am a living manifestation of the glory of God!”
One writer in the Bible attributed all his assets to the grace of God. He said, “God has been gracious to me.” We need to begin to know and understand that whatever I have, no matter how much or how little it is, God gave it to me.
Now, go with me to Mark 6:3-6. Mark 6:3-6. [3] Is not this the Carpenter, the Son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not His sisters here with us? And they were offended at Him. [4] But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, but in His own country, and among His own kin, and in His own house. [5] And He could there do no mighty work, save that He laid His hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them.[6] And He marveled because of their unbelief. And He went round about the villages, teaching.
Go now to Matthew 8:8-10. [8] The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that Thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.
[9] For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.
[10] When Jesus heard it, he marveled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.
He said to speak the what? The Word of God. There is power in the Word of God! So, He marveled at the centurion’s faith, at his level of faith. Now, what you have to understand about that is that the centurion was a Gentile dog. He was a Roman. He was a stranger to the promises. In other words, they did not even belong to him, but he knew how to tap into them. That is why—a lot of folks don’t know about this—the rich keep getting richer. They operate in a biblical principle that most folks don’t know about, giving and receiving. Michael Jordan, no wonder he sells so many tennis shoes. He has all these foundations, and he is always helping in impoverished areas.
So, there is a biblical principle: “Give, and it shall be given unto you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, shall men give unto your bosom.” So, once you employ that biblical principle, whether you are in the Kingdom or not, that principle is going to work.
There are two things you need to always know and understand about Jesus. Number one is His person. Number two is His principles. His person has to do with Him, His character, who He was, and why God sent Him. Buy His principles have to do with what He taught us, so we can learn how to employ the Word of God. There is nothing wrong with shouting, praising God. You know I will shout with the best of y’all. I will dance with the best of y’all. But after all of that, I have to have something that I can put my feet on.
I have to have some substance. And I enjoy Chinese food. Have you ever noticed that about 15 or 20 minutes after you leave the restaurant, you are going to be hungry all over again? That is because you did not get the substance and the nutrients that your body needed to cut off the hunger pangs. So, you cannot live off your shout. As a matter of fact, your shout ought to be a part of your offering. “Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord.”
So, everything is invited to praise God. You hear me say this all the time, everyone can praise God, but not everyone can worship Him. Worship means I know what God is worth to me. And I forget about what other men think of me, raising my hands, closing my eyes, if they move on me to cry, I am crying. . .I don’t care anything about all of that because I know what God is worth to me. Has God ever brought you out of car wrecks? Brought you out of operations? Brought you from poverty to prosperity? Everything you do, you ought to give glory to God. Everything you do, you ought to give glory to God! You cannot drive that truck without the Holy Ghost!
Everything I have, I owe glory to God! Whether it is a little, or a lot. If I learn how to clown with God when I have a little, it will not be long before I have a whole lot. “But seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.”
Let us go know to Hebrews 11:6. “[6] But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.”
So, God responds to my faith. God responds to my ability to believe Him, no matter what it looks like, what is surrounding you. As a matter of fact, sometimes, God allows you to be in the pit fires and lion’s dens of life so He can show you how strong He is. You did not catch that, did you? Because when I get strong, I rely on myself, on my education, on my strength, on my ability.
But God wants me to get to a place where I say, “God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all I can ask or think, but here is the hook, according to the power that works on the inside of me.” When I get some power working on the inside of me, I can tell the doctor I am going to hold up on that surgery. When I get some faith working, I can tell the folks, “Just give me a few more days; God is going to come through! If it ain’t here right now, I just need 24 more hours for God to get it here.”
And if God had more folks hearing from Him, more stuff could happen in the earth realm. If He is speaking to you, and you are hard-headed, you have this man’s blessing held up because He wants to bless this man through you! But you are slow to hear, slow to believe, operating in the spirit of unbelief and fear all the time. How many of you know that you would say, “No, I don’t think I heard from God.”
Sometimes, we put on human reasoning too much, when all God wants us to do is just trust Him. That is what God wants us to do. I have walked with Him so long until I know that if I fall back, He catches me! Has God ever caught you? When you thought you were at your last, and there wasn’t going to be any hope, God caught you. God will catch you before you fall!
What I trying to get you to see is that you are not depending on just anybody! You are depending on the Creator of the Universe. You are not depending on a man. God is not a man that He should lie, neither is He the son of man that He should repent! He said it; He is going to do it! He spoke it; He is going to bring it to pass! He is the God that calls those things that be not as though they already were! I am already healed! I don’t have a limp! I am in my right mind! All my bills are paid! It is a state of mind.
I don’t care if your children are acting crazy, the Bible says, “The seed of the righteous shall be delivered!” Declare it. You just arrested them by the Holy Ghost! You issued out a Holy Ghost warrant for their spiritual arrest.
