Dave…
Father, we look to You, the author and finisher of our faith, the beginning and the end… You establish us on our faith… You are faithful and we thank You for Your grace… let us see what we need to see…
I have one scripture. It’s 2nd Timothy 2:11, “Here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with him, we will also live with him;
12 if we endure, we will also reign with him. If we disown him, he will also disown us; 13 if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself.” I’m going to read that in a different translation. Let’s read it in the TPT: “You can trust these words: If we were joined with him in his death, then we are joined with him in his life! 12 If we are joined with him in his sufferings, then we will reign together with him in his triumph. But if we disregard him, then he will also disregard us. 13 But even if we are faithless, he will still be full of faith, for he never wavers in his faithfulness to us!”
I like those last few words. He never wavers in His faithfulness to us. the Bible says that while we were yet sinners, Jesus died for us. Isn’t that a great thought. That statement says that when we were helpless, and did not have the ability to help ourselves, He saved us. That’s the Gospel right there. When we had not the ability to achieve or overcome or have faith… when we were faithless, He remained faithful.
How many times in your life have you looked to heaven for help because you had need of help. Everybody could raise their hand. We all need God. The wise person is the one that recognizes the need for God. The person who has even a thimble full of common sense recognizes that. Only in our pride do we push away God. Only in our pride do we think we can do it on our own. We look at ourselves at how foolish how we fall into that on a daily basis and catch yourself doing things that… you know what, why don’t I just let God do that. Taking a care on that you shouldn’t be caring about. Carrying a load of something… you prayed about something and thinking about it all the time. “Lord, what are you going to do about that?” In my life, the greatest miracles that have happened and I’ve had a lot of them and I do mean miracles. There are things that not by a chance… if this didn’t happen you weren’t going to make it kind of miracle. In any of these significant miracles that have happened in my life has always been in a place when I could not help myself. Where if I didn’t make it, I was going to either die or … it wasn’t going to happen if God didn’t do something. And not one of us here want’s to feel that sense of being alone. That’s why we come in prayer… we had the sense of hope that if we could just somehow reach God… if He could hear my prayer, I could get where I need to go and God manifest Himself, I’ll be okay. We have this hope within us. That’s why we come and pray. Because we know we have need of Him. Humility is the beginning of wisdom. The humble man gets the grace. So it really isn’t so much about you, and prayer isn’t so much about you as much as it is about Him. All He wants is just you to say “I acknowledge you. I acknowledge the need for you and I acknowledge that I can’t do it myself.” That’s how simple salvation is. Everyone in this planet can receive salvation, that comes by grace. What limits a person from receiving from God is just not asking. Or just not recognizing and not acknowledging Him. That’s it. That’s how simple it is.
It’s not so much about you. Did I not read my Bible this week? I forgot to go to church this week. I didn’t pay my tithe. I didn’t do something that somehow garnishes you something, a position where you feel good enough about yourself that you can now know that God can hear your voice. God heard your voice the day you lifted your voice to Him and acknowledged Him. And I assure you today that when you’re here and you come to hear from God or hear the Word of God, He is here to give you what you have need of today. Absolutely today. Not tomorrow. Today! The answer.
“Oh brother Dave, would it be that way. I’m been praying about this, that and the other.” And you know what? Sometimes that’s why you don’t have it. Why? Cuz I’m praying about it. No. Because all you do, it’s like you keep going after it and after it. The Bible says when you pray, believe. Well if you believe, then you’re not asking all the time. It’s kind of like a little kid coming up to you. Okay, son, I’m going to take you to the park this weekend and go fishing. It’s Monday and you tell your son “we’re going fishing on Saturday.” And every day he comes to you and asks you “Dad, are we going fishing on Saturday?” And they remind you about the fishing trip. “I got it. I told you we were going on Saturday. You don’t need to say anything to me.” But kids are like that. They come after you and after you. They tug on you. “Are we going to go?”
Do you remember the Bible verse where the Roman centurion in the New Testament said to Jesus, “Only give me Your word and my servant shall be healed. I have faith to believe that You can do what You say You can do. All you have to do is tell me you’re going to do it and you don’t even have to come to my house.” That’s faith. And Jesus said, “What great faith this man has.” When God says you have great faith, you have great faith. And it wasn’t so much like he was some great person of faith or anything. He said he just understood how it worked. I ask you. I trust what your answer is. And then I forget about it. I know this to be true because I have people working for me. And they’re people that work for me that when I tell them to do something, I’m not so sure they’re going to get it done. I have to remind them. But then I have people that I know that if I tell them, I just have to say it one time. I guarantee you I could set my watch that person will get it done. And those ones that are like that, they are my right arm. They’re the ones I count on. They’re the ones that I know that if I get in a bind or something, they’re the ones I call. I have their phone numbers on speed dial. Because they are faithful in the way that they know how important it is to accomplish the things… when you work with people, how important that is. But God is that way. When you speak to Him, He knows your problem. How important it is to you. You cannot sit there and cry for hours on end and say things about what your problem is and Him not understand it. He knows it before you even ask it. Why I’m focusing on this is because it’s not about having all these things, this great faith. Receiving from God is just so easy and simple. We are the ones that make it complicated. We mess it up. Because we’re like that nagging thing. “Lord, I need this…” Yeah, I heard you the first time. So after you pray about something, the attitude should be looking for opportunity. I asked You so now I know I’m looking for the answer. If that means there’s something that you’re praying about in your body, that okay I laid hands on myself or I get up and start doing this. I start moving my arm. Or if I have a shoulder problem or I can’t walk for some reason, I start getting up and stretching my legs because I’m looking for God’s grace in my life. I’m not questioning whether He’s going to heal me or not. He’s healed me and I know His power and grace is there to take the pain and sickness out of my body. So I start doing what I couldn’t do. I start acting like the way I couldn’t act before.
I heard this testimony of a friend of mine, a full time itinerate minister. He had this women come to him after one of his meeting. She came up to him and said, “I couldn’t make the meeting but could you still lay hands on me?” He said, “no.” If getting healed was important to you, you would have been here. “Oh no, no. I just couldn’t. My car… whatever.” He says, “Okay, I’ll make a deal with you. I’ll lay hands on you if you get healed.” Ha, ha, ha. That’s kind of a strange way to say that, right? She said, “What do you mean? I’ll get healed if God heals me.” He said, “No, I won’t lay hands on you that way. I’ll only lay hands on you if you get healed.” She was a little taken back by that because she thought, “If I get healed” as if she had control of the healing, somehow any kind of control over her being healed. So she couldn’t understand that. He said, “I’m not going to do it unless you agree to that.” She said, “Oh okay.” She thought for a few seconds and said, “Okay, I’ll get healed.” She just wanted him to lay hands on her. So he said, “Okay, here we go.” He’s in a place about twice the size of this room. He said, “Okay,” he laid hands on her for a few seconds and prayed for her. “Okay, now let’s go try it out.” He grabbed her by the hand and started… she can hardly walk. She came in with a walker. He grabbed her hand and said we’re going to start going around the sanctuary. He started dragging her. He’s literally dragging her. Imagine the thoughts going through her mind. He’s saying to her, “God’s healed you. If God’s healed you then you can run.” He drug her around however many times and she didn’t have any signs of this happening. Eventually, the word started coming out of her mouth that she was healed. “The Lord has healed me.” Yet, she was still dragging. Eventually, she started moving a little quicker. He noticed her voice started getting louder. He said eventually she was shouting at the top of her voice thanking the Lord for her healing. He said when she was shouting, BAM, she was instantly healed. She was running around the room, completely made whole.
The reason I gave that testimony is that the healing was already there. She just wasn’t convinced of it. The miracle is already there, we’re just not convinced of it. And I say that to say it’s not to point out our weaknesses. Because I know you’re so acquainted with your weaknesses. If you’re human, you know you have limitations. But it was something inside of her that turned over that she did not give herself an option for failure. Something inside her said, if I’m ever going to be healed, this is the time to do it. And she received and walked away whole.
I was so grateful to hear that testimony because I’ve seen that miracle happen in my life several times. Where it wasn’t there and then it just got radical all of a sudden. I got to the point where I couldn’t live in that situation any longer. I pointed that out just to say this: that your miracle is closer than you think it is. Your manifestation is right before you. Even in your hands. “Yeah, but I would like it if it was…” Yeah, you know what? I know what you mean. I hear you. I’ve been in situations where physically I was unable to… I was in bad shape. And I’ve seen God’s power go through my body and heal it instantly, miraculously. And I believe in the power of God and I believe in healing and I believe in His grace. But my point is not about how great His power is because I think most of us believe He’s powerful. My emphasis today is just that how do I get to the point where I’m at when I’m walking in the fullness of God’s grace. And walking in the fullness of God’s grace is not difficult to do. First of all, Lord, I don’t know the answer. Humility. And I need You. I don’t have the answer. And when you come to God that way, that’s 99% of the way of that prayer right there. If you pray that prayer, you’re 99% of the way there. Because you’ve eliminated yourself out of the situation and looking to God for the help you need. So what does that one percent that keeps me from that manifestation? It’s the human condition that holds onto the reality of that thing in your life. Instead of letting go and saying, “Well, if you said we’re going fishing, I don’t need to ask You anymore.” Well, if you said I’m healed, then I’m getting out of this chair and start walking. If You said that it’s a certain way, then I’m going to do what you said I’m going to do. And anytime that miracle power has ever manifested for me at that great level, it’s always been where I just said, “Well, if You said it’s this way then it’s that way.”
I was in the hospital not far from here in bad shape. Had surgery the day before and I’m bleeding from everywhere. The doctor said, “We don’t know what’s going on. But we know you’re really messed up and all the tests we’ve done are all saying we need to go back in and figure out what is wrong.” The doctor said, “You cannot walk out of here today. If you do you could die.” I heard the Holy Spirit say to me, “they can’t heal you.” That’s all He said. But when He whispered “they can’t heal you,” He also let my spirit know “I’m the healer.” Don’t look to them. Because they cannot solve your problem. As soon as I heard that, I made a switch inside me. Click! I was in the hospital looking for their help. But at that moment, I switched over to His help. When I switched over, the sign of that switch over, I turned the television on and started watching the football game. I’m not thinking about sickness anymore even though I can barely move my body. All I’m thinking about is enjoying the football game. I’m not thinking about pain or symptoms. I heard from heaven and if He said He’s going to heal me, then I’m okay with that. Whatever happens from this point, I don’t have concern because that’s His deal. I’m not concerned about that. When I did that, it’s like I took the load off me and put it on Him. When I put the load on Him, my body started mending like this. Within ten to fifteen minutes, I was up out of bed and I couldn’t even move that day. The miracle power of God was just working in my body. I didn’t have all these shivery feels, feeling the anointing on me. I had no funny feelings. I didn’t have tingly… All I knew is that my body was getting better. My family had to get me out of bed and take me to the hospital. I couldn’t even move. I’m at the end of the bed and I’m watching the game while I’m doing this at the side of the bed. Then I got up and kind of doing this, looking at the football game. Yeah, I’m excited about the game. Ha, ha, ha. The doctor came back and said, “Okay, we’ve got all the test results and here is the deal.” I tell him, “I think I’m okay.” No, you’re not okay. They show you all the paperwork. You’re not okay. But something inside me knew I was going to be okay. And I had to pick what I was going to believe. I was either going to believe what God had spoke to me, whether it’s through the Word or personally. And when you pick that over that, guess what is coming! Manifestation. I wasn’t worried about it. I told the doctor, “No, I’m okay.” No, we got to… “Nope, I’m okay.” Well, I can’t let you go. I said, “you need to get some paperwork in front of me so I can sign it so I can get out of here. I know why you won’t let me go because if I go and die, you’re responsible.” That’s all they care about. So I signed the documents. “Are you sure about this?” Yes, I’m fine. I came in a gurney and walking out to the vehicle. The next thing we go to Sam’s Club and I’m walking around. Now do I have any pain. Yes, I did. I still have pain in my body. But I’m walking when I was walking this morning. Things are getting better. The next day I’m at the Fair and it’s the hottest day of the season. I spend the whole day walking around the Fair the next day with no pain or symptoms. Amen. That’s a snapshot of what it takes to cast your care of the Lord. To just not care. Cuz I didn’t care if I died. I cared that I heard from the Holy Ghost. That’s the difference. I can’t about what He said rather than what I felt in my body, what I thought in my head, when everything else was absolutely contrary.
