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Welcome to the Jesus Image podcast. I'm going to be teaching about healing, but I don't want it just to be a teaching. I want us to see Jesus healed. I think that one of the great purposes of teaching and the importance of the pastor teacher function in the church office in the church, is to teach people into faith. You know, there's concern about false prophecy and there's mentions of it in the scripture, but there's also the concern about in the future there will be false teachers that will arise in the church. And we know that there were heresies were created and division was caused. And I just believe that it's so important that we value the office function ministry of the pastor. And some churches are growing so fast, they need thousands of pastors for the scores of thousands of members. I was thinking as I watched the baptism, one of my spiritual sons in Brazil, he's having about 1500 baptisms a year. But we also have a church in our network that's having about a thousand baptisms a year in the United States at Corpus Christi. And it's an amazing thing to see God, what he's doing. And I think good teaching brings people to Christ. I think good teaching prevents heresy. I think good teaching builds faith for healing. I believe that if we have a service and I'm leading that service and nobody gets healed, it's not my job to point my finger at them and said, you would have been healed if you'd had faith. My job is to say, if I would have been a good teacher, I would have taught in a way that created faith in them. And so it's my responsibility. Nobody gets healed. It's a huge, awesome responsibility to be a teacher in the church. And it's for that reason that I have dedicated the last part of my life to spend a lot of my time and energy in trying to raise up good teachers and good pastors. And good teaching should promote unity, not division in the church. One of the things that apostolic people were to do was to. To protect the unity of the body of Christ. And so I just want to say I am so grateful for your pastor and for how God is using him to speak a really important word to the church that I believe it will not just be in America, but will have be heard around the world and is a model of what we need to see more of in our pulpits and in our churches. This concern for the unity, concern for the truth, concern for the presence, concern for seeing people not just become a member of the church as an organization, but become a member of the body of Christ. And so wonderful to see such a baptism with the sealing of oil, which was so reminiscent of the way it was done in the early church in the first few hundred years, you know, to be baptized without the sealing of oil, pointing to the filling of the Holy Spirit was seen to be a great tragedy. One church father, a bishop in the church, he had baptized a man who was on death's door and hadn't sealed him with the oil and the prayer for Holy Spirit. The man recovered and the bishop in this city had never gone back to him and did the sealing with the oil and praying for the filling of the Holy Spirit. The other bishop wrote him and reprimanded him and said this was very serious. And I'm going to paraphrase this part. It's not a direct quote, but it's close. He said baptizing someone without praying for and be filled with the Holy Spirit is like recruiting somebody into the military and then not giving them a uniform or sword. So both are important. Dying his filling, Amen. Well, we're going to talk. It's actually a lesson I have in our school in the master's and doctorate program. And the title of this lesson is the Currency of the Kingdom. And I want to talk about faith in several capacities, but particularly tonight. Faith for healing, but that won't be the only way. Faith, you know, maybe for miracles, for provisions. There's many things we have to believe God for, but particularly for healing. When we look at the word faith in the New Testament, there are several ways it is used. And we need to make a distinction between these ways and understand all of them. One is the faith. The faith which is once for all handed down through the saints. That's the body of beliefs. What is the creed that we were confessing is to capture the essence of the truth of the New Testament. And if there ever was a time in America where we needed to be familiar with the creed, this is our faith, it's now. Because so much of the New Age religion repudiates so much that we say. And so we need to feel like we are in line with that historic faith of the church. But that's not the way I'm going to be focused on tonight. Except that is one of the ways this word is used. It's also used in the sense that there can be a measure of faith when it comes to the ministering in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Paul, particularly in Romans 12, they were going to prophesy, prophesy according to the measure of your faith. And so in the gifts of the Spirit are actually to be done according to the measure of faith. And in the measure of faith, there really are degrees or measures of faith in a sense of. There's what's called little faith in one passage and greater faith or great faith in another passage. And we'll talk about that more in a moment. But in addition to the measure of faith, there is the gift of faith. And the gift of faith, in my opinion, is, and I hope it's biblical. I think it is. At the best of my knowledge, it is. And if somebody convinces me about Scripture, I can do it better. I will. You know, my mentor, John Wimber, he changed his view several times, depended upon someone bringing him a more biblical perspective. And that's humility. And I want to be teachable and I want to learn. And always just I tell the students, I said, I'll give you an A, not because you agree with me, but because you argue your position very strongly, very biblically. And one time, a young person, sex doesn't make any difference whether it's a man or woman. But anyway, this person in the class wrote me on an email and said, you didn't give me an A because I didn't agree with your position. It was on eschatology study the last things. And I wrote her back. I wrote him her back, sorry, this story does have a redemptive side to it. So I wrote her back and I said, well, that's not really true. I give you a B instead of an A because you didn't deserve an A. And it wasn't because you disagreed with me, because you need to know the that the person who got the highest grade of the class on this essay was a woman who agreed with what you said, who disagreed with me, who got the highest grade, because she really did do a good job of arguing her position and trying to give Scripture. I didn't agree with the interpretation of the Scripture. She was really doing solid job of trying to back up. I remember when I was in, I went to a Baptist seminary for my master's and Methodist for the doctorate. But Anyway, this teacher, Dr. Moody, he would say in class, he said, I don't care about your opinion. I want to know where you find what you're saying in the Word. I want to know what the Word says. He would always go back, what does the Word say? And so that's really important. So there is this gift of faith. And the gift of faith, I believe, is just that it's not Our attainment. It's not our ability to believe. It's not created because of our memorizing. A lot of Scripture, though that's helpful, and that can move you in the measure of faith. And sometimes a great measure of faith can look like a gift of faith, except there's a difference. When you're in a great measure of faith for something, it's because most of the time, because you've seen it happen so many times, you've seen God be so faithful so many times that your faith is always there for that one thing or another. It's not like it's, I got great faith, and then the next time I don't have very much faith when it comes to that. It's like a friend of mine, Dr. Alan Hawkins. See, every person he prays for who has migraines gets healed. You would think he had a gift of faith for migraines. He really doesn't. He has a great measure of faith because he expects it for every person he prays for with migraines. That's just where he's at. And if it was a gift of faith, it wouldn't be constant like that. Because the gift of faith is in that moment and for that particular situation. And we'll talk about that a little more later. So the relation. I want to also talk about the relationship of faith to gifts of revelation and how the prophetic words can cause faith to do something. Prophetic words have been used to birth faith, to pray for revival, sustained faith to pray for revival that brought about revival. Finney understood this concept. One time, Charles Finney had gone to a church and they told him. And I don't remember the exact number, but I'll just make this part up. But it was a long time. They said, we've been praying for revival for, let's say, six months or two years, something like that. And then they said, would you like to join us for prayer? He said, no. He said, well, you don't want to pray with us? No, because if you guys really had faith for revival in your prayers, you would have had it by now. You don't really believe. You don't really have expectation. You're just praying, logging hours without expectation. It's not just the prayer, it's the faith behind it. And I've discovered in the search and study of revival that these great revivals as preceded by prayer. I wanted to find, well, what caused them to have that kind of prayer, that kind of faith, what cost them. Sometimes it was because they had heard of what God had done in the past and they built faith. Well, we should do this. They really did. It brought faith, faith because they, this revival is connected to prayer. This revival is connected to prayer. And you know, and. But other times it's related to God speaking to them. The Welsh The Hebrides Revival 1949 was based upon the Isle of Lewis was based upon two women, two sisters, 79 and 81 years old that heard God speak to them and said, I'm going to give revival, start praying and ask. And my mind has gone blank because I'm in my 70s and it happens more than it used to because I know this name really well. And so it's to go call this evangelists. And they did. And he said, we want you to come. God has told us you are to preach the revival for us. And he answered them, I'm sorry, I can't come, I am booked for a year. A few weeks later they received a call from him, I'm ready to come. All my bookings canceled. And he did end up coming and leading the revival in 1954, five years before, in 49, God had taken a school much like Jesus image in City Bell in Argentina, right outside of Buenos Aires and had an angel had met this 12 year old boy, which I met him in his 70s or 80s. He just recently died actually I just heard this. And the angel came with him inside the place where they were at the presence of holiness the angel carried woke everybody up. They started wanting to repent for their sins. One young person packed their suitcase and left because they didn't and weren't willing to give up their sin. But they couldn't stay, they had to leave. And God showed this 12 year old boy in visions places around the world that was going to break out in revival. And God told this little boy and they're writing down these like he took him up in the Spirit, showed him these places, revival's coming. And God told this group of young people, teenagers mainly, that Argentina was going to have a great revival, that it would fill the largest stadiums of the country. Up to that time, Argentina was not called as it has been since the 70s, the land of revival. Argentina was called instead the graveyard of Protestant missionaries. It was so resistant to Protestantism, resistant to many things. But because of that experience, this school began to go out and have revival for several years. A few years I think it was around three or four max. And then as God's moving powerfully on them, it had teams going all throughout Argentina. The Holy Spirit spoke again and said now stop. And actually one, they had a division over this because one of the leaders said, well, I don't think that's God. And the other said, it is. And they had, you know, they split their ways, but it was God. And at least this one leader with his group said, we got to stop now, because the Lord has said, stop now. We go pray. And they went and began interceding for a great. This great revival. Within about a year, the revival breaks out. A great healing revival. So many miracles took place that they filled the largest stadium, 80 some odd thousand people, and had scores of thousands more. And prior to this, no Protestant meeting had ever had more than about 500. God had spoken. And it's this gift of faith, or great measure of faith is related to. To pray even for revival is to the prophetic word sense of timing. Sometimes it's people believe that they are entering a season that is an indication of God's about to pour out his spirit. And several times in the history of revival, going back even into the time of Napoleon, was one of the things that happened when a prostitute was crowned the goddess of wisdom in Notre Dame Church and they were trying to eradicate Christianity from France. People began to say, this is the abomination that makes desolate. And they began to say, the end of time is coming close. And it caused, okay, let's start praying based upon scripture promises. Much like Daniel in Daniel 10, he realized prophecy of Jeremiah that they'd be in captivity for 70 years. And it's getting close to 70 years. We need to start praying for our liberation. And that's what he was reminding God of his promises. And he's praying in faith where they had the visitation of the angel that had come. So when we talk about faith, there's things that cause us faith. And God is the source and we can pray. And he wants to take us from faith to faith, from glory to glory, you know, and so it should be something that we believe. There's even more. That's why I love. I think I always thought a title of a good book would be called There is More that makes sense for those of you that are younger. That was my second book. There is More then Heidi wrote a book. There's always enough. You know, one of the things I wanted to show you tonight, but I. I feel like I shouldn't take the time. But I'll just tell you the story. We were in and Tom Rotola, I saw you sitting out there. There you are. I don't know if you were with us at that time in Miesi, in Mozambique, where the young mother brought the little boy that was born blind. And I don't know if you were with us or not, but anyway, this mother. And this is the distinction between wanting your child prayed for and wanting your child healed. So she had a little boy I got as a, you know, just like a few years old, but had been born blind. And she brought him to my associate, Tom Jones, who's the vice president of our ministry, raised a Pentecostal to pray, pray for his healing. Tom prayed, did his best, prayed, and the boy didn't get healed. So the mother brought him to me. I prayed quite a while. The boy didn't get healed. But see, the mother didn't bring the boy to church to be prayed for. She brought him to church to be healed. So she went then to Heidi, and Heidi began to pray, and the boy wasn't being healed. And then the Lord gave Heidi an act of faith to do, or an instruction to do, an act of obedience, I would put it that way. And she said, well, bring water. And he took. She took the water and just began to put it in his eyes. His eyes opened, and. He also wasn't able to walk or stand on his feet. She didn't know that. And sat him down. He stood up, he got healed. And some. There's something about a seeing faith. You know, in Acts, Paul and I forget, was it Lystra Derbe? I forget where he was at. But anyway, it says he saw faith that was, like, crippled. He saw faith. And I'd read it, I'd say, I wonder what that looks like. What does it mean? He saw faith. And so I think it's important to know that there are signs when God's giving someone faith. And one of the things as we work together is the family of God and the one body is to learn of how we work together and how the gifts in each other creates a greater atmosphere for the working of God in our midst through the gifts of his spirit. And expectation is really important. So we want to talk about these things. So when we mention the measure of faith in. In Mark, chapter nine, 1429, we have a great faith that's mentioned. And with the father of the demonized boy in Mark, chapter nine, it's little faith. We say, well, how do you know it was little faith? Because he says to Jesus, if you can do anything, take pity on us and heal my son. Take pity on us. And the question is, he didn't say, lord, heal my son. He said, if you can do anything. Would you think that's great faith? Does that sound like great faith to say to Jesus, hey, if you can do anything? And Jesus says, if I can do anything, all things are possible to him who believes. And then the man says, I do believe. Help my unbelief. He has mixture. And the Bible talks about that. And it talks about in Nazareth, how Jesus could do no mighty deed there because of their unbelief. There are places where there was the quality, except that he healed a few. He did heal a few. It wasn't like he couldn't do anything. But there were no miracles because of their unbelief. And then there's times of great faith, like the centurion. He said, I'm a man under authority. You don't even have to come to my house. Just say the word. I understand. Say the word. Just say the word. Jesus was amazed. I've not seen any faith like this in all of Israel. Great faith. Sometimes it would be a nice Bible study just to look at the times that Jesus was amazed at somebody's faith. And wouldn't you like the Lord to be amazed as he looked down upon Orlando and saw great faith in this gathering tonight, that because he's pleased. The Bible says in Hebrews, without faith it's impossible to please God. And I think great faith brings him great pleasure and we would see more. It's odd, though, that sometimes people even outside of covenant can have great faith. Let me explain. Remember the story of the Syrophoenician woman? Her daughter. Her daughter is demonized and she wants Jesus to heal her of our physical problems and her demonization. But before Pentecost, in the original plan was go to the Jews first, and we don't go to the Gentiles until after Pentecost. And that was what the plan was. And I love when Bill talks about this, that great faith can move the plan of God, because it wasn't yet in the original plan for Syrophoenicians who are not believers, don't know the God of Israel. Not even Gentile God fearers to have the benefits of the kingdom. So what Jesus says to her, he says, it's not right to give the church children's bread to the dogs, which is a euphemism for like Gentiles, which is a kind of a. It's not the way you win friends and influence people. I mean, that's pretty rough. But she is undeterred. And she responds not by being offended, but she responds, yes, Lord, but even the dogs get to Eat the crumbs that falls from the master table. And he's impressed. And she, by her faith, Was able to move Jesus to bring into her present reality something that was reserved for the future. Great faith. I'll give you an illustration of that one time when I was frying donuts to make a living, to support my family till I could get the church big enough to draw a salary. And it was very boring. And so I was asking, lord, Lord, you give me a word of knowledge, I'll give it. I don't care where I'm at. Vice president, office, once a month of marketing for Kroger Corporation or with the lowly donut fryer that I'm training, I will, you know, I'll do it. And then I said, lord, I'm not getting enough words of knowledge. It's still boring. I'm going to just start asking people if they say they're sick. I say, can I pray for you? I'm a Christian. I believe that God still heals today. Can I pray for you? So anyway, this one young man, he told me he was sick and I said, wait, well, I'm a Christian, and I believe that God still heals today. Can I pray for you? He said, no, as the only one had ever said no. Everybody else, and none of them were believers, everybody else said yes, and they were not yet saved. And this one guy, I've written about this in one of my books, and it's called why Are There Unbelieving Believers and Believing Unbelievers? What would really be better if we had believing Believers? More believing believers. Anyway, he said, no, I don't want you to pray for me. I said, well, you could be healed. He said, I know. That's why I don't want you to pray for me. I said, I don't get it. He says, I'm backslidden and I don't want to give my life back to God yet. And I believe if you pray for me, I'll get healed and then I'll probably want to give my life back to God. Here we are, a backslidden guy. I believe if you prayed for me, I could get healed. I would be healed and then I would want to give my life back to God. I know. I don't understand that. But anyway, there are. That's just the illustration. Sometimes there are people who actually aren't yet in covenant with God, not yet a believing sense of being walked through baptism, baptized into Christ, that still they have faith. Not saving faith, but faith in that there's God. God's got power anyway. So when we think about faith, I also want to talk about faith and sovereignty. What's the relationship between faith, sovereignty? Let me give you an illustration. If I say, how many of you believe in God's power to heal? I believe everybody would lift their hand in here. And if I said, how many of you believe it's God's will to heal you? Keep your hand up. If I say, how many of you believe it's God's will to heal you? Molly, keep your hand up. If I said, how many of you believe it's God's will to heal you tonight? And I've done this actually many, many times and a lot of people still keep their hand up. And then I said, if you really have faith that God would heal you tonight, you'll be healed tonight. But sometimes we think we have faith when it's not faith, it's hope or it's a doctrinal belief. You see, I believe in healing and I believe it's God's will to heal me. And. And I remember once, I've had a total of nine herniated discs, three different situations, and I got healed three times. But one time I was, I got hurt praying for a big guy in a hotel in Nigeria in the capital. And he was really big, tall and big and heavy, and he had a nice three piece suit on. And we're in the lobby and he's not expecting, neither was I expecting what was about to happen. He said, would you pray for me? I said, sure. He said, no, I mean now. I said, okay, we're right in the lobby. So I tried to reach his head and I start to pray for him. I see his eyes bug. He grabs my wrist and shoots backwards and jerks me off my feet and I don't have time. He doesn't let go of my wrist to give me time to protect myself when my head went right into his chest. And I ended up with four herniated discs from that impact in the neck. And I got prayed for immediately. Matter of fact, I heard it pop. I thought, oh, I hope I'm not quadriplegic after that. I mean, it scared me and it hurt really. It was loud and I wasn't, of course. But I did have a problem for a year. And I was prayed for many times by Bill, by Heidi, by John Arnott, by, you know, lots of people, Blaith Hetland. And I prayed for anybody I knew that I need help. I'm in pain. And I did get healed because all of a sudden, something changed. Right before I got healed, God gave a person a word of knowledge. Now, I had four herniated discs in my cervical, and I'd been prayed for many times. I believed in healing. I see healing, but I wasn't healed. And some of it's just mystery. I don't understand, you know, some of it I don't understand, why this one? Why not that one? And why did it have to, you know, why wait five years or whatever it was? For me, it was like a year. And so the word I was going down where my school was with me. And by the way, your school's here, right? Some of them. Is it all right if I use some of them? If God gives them a word of knowledge? So those of you that's in the school, if God gives you a word of knowledge later tonight, you can come up and help. You can come up and give your word of knowledge, because I believe it's for us. So anyway, I'm going down the line to all of my students, and we have. The building is full, and I get to this one guy, and I said, do you have a word? And he said, I think I do. And I said, well, what's your word? He said, somebody's here that has cervical, herniated disc, plural. I don't know how to make it sound plural, so I just say plural. So. And I'm thinking I do, but I don't. I'm playing it a poker face. Well, let's just see. Anybody out there got herniated disc, and I'm getting ahead of myself. Then he says, oh, and by the way, whoever this is, Your birthday is February 18, 1952. But I don't say anything. I. Poker face. Anybody out there. Your birthday's February 18, 1952. I wanted to rule out possibility of anybody but me. And I said, nobody out there has a birthday on that day. I waited like five seconds and then said, that's my birthday. Pray for me. Now, I've been prayed for many times for by all the most famous guys I know personally that I could get to pray for me. I wasn't him today. I was one prayer. I was like, one prayer is like 80% better. And he starts to pray for me again. I said, no, don't, don't. And that's what I teach. Pray for him again. Get it all. But I just said, no. Yeah, I don't need any more prayer. I'm only 80% right now, but it's a done deal. God will not give that kind of a word and then not do it, it's done. You know, I mean, I was convinced, why did I get healed then? But it wasn't healed? I'm not sure, but I think some of it was. I moved from a belief in healing to understanding that this is the moment, this is the time, this is going to be the moment that I get healed. And that was caused by. By a gift of revelation and a word of knowledge. And when people understand, particularly if it's very specific, that that's me, it should cause great joy. It moves us from I know I could be healed to this is it. This is the moment I'm going to be healed. That's why when there's a really. When people come up, when people get prayed for by words of knowledge, a high percent get healed. the end of the meeting, when people come up for prayer for the laying on of hands, it's about 50% and 50% both times. But the numbers of people, percentage wise, who gets healed when there's a word of knowledge is like 80, 90%, I would guess. But it's not that men that high a percentage. When people are coming for prayer, then they need prayer. I am talking about some of the things that God does. This is going to be helpful as God takes you into this decade of healing to know how to work together and how important it is that we do seek God, that we are, as Paul said in the ending of the 12th chapter of First Corinthians and the beginning of the 14th chapter of First Corinthians, that we are to be eager for or to earnestly desire spiritual gifts. Because the spiritual gifts. This is where I like the orthodox teaching much better than the Western teaching is kind of in the West. It's like, it's transactional. Like, I know he's thirsty and I come up to him and said, hey, Michael, here's some nice water from France. And I hold it out to him and he says, randy, will you give me the water? Will you give me the water? And I'm thinking, is this honoring? Is he honoring what I just said? I said, I want. I offered him water. Get this. To ask God to do what he just said he wants to do is an act of unbelief. I remember, I think Tom was with me on this one. We were in Mawa Baptist Church in Brazil and I was getting some words of knowledge. And in the midst of these words of knowledge, I got Juan. And it was on the right shoulder, I think it was. And I'm praying And I started praying and I said, oh, God, I ask you. And I stopped because I realized what I was doing. And I felt the conviction of Holy Spirit, this is not the way you pray. Because I started to say, God, I ask you to heal that shoulder. And I said, lord, forgive me. I'm asking you to do what you just told me you want to do. That's not an honoring response of faith now, or I would call it at least. It's a weak measure. But I had more than that. The language was wrong. And I stopped and I said, forgive me, Lord. And so I just. I command in the name of Jesus, because I know that this is his will. And if we know that we're asking something according to his will, we know that he hears us. And if we know that he hears us, we know that we receive that which we ask according to 1 John 5:14. So there's a difference between being presumptuous and moving in faith. But when we see more, he expects more faith from us. Or I should say, when we see and experience more, then God has a right and he does expect more faith from us. I like parallels. So in Jesus just fed the 5,000. They get in a boat and they realize. The disciples realize, oh, we don't have any bread. Oh, he just fed 5,000 people with just a few loaves of bread and a little bit of fish. There's a great miracle that just took place, but they're complaining and concerned that they don't have any bread. And he's kind of, well, how many people lied to his feet? And how many loaves of bread did they pick up leftovers? And you're worried about not having bread. It's like there's a little bit of rebuke in that. Like, I got the power, you know, Jesus, not me. You know, you've seen me feed twice thousands. God created. My Father created bread. You're worried we don't have bread. So there's a. There's the point of that story was this. The more we see and the more we experience, he wants us to grow trust and faith and has an expectation that should help them the next time they're in a situation like that. But we have to be danger, have to be careful lest we become presumptuous. Now, I think another time in the last. I think it's last chapter of John or second to last chapter. I think it's the last one. But anyway, you know, they've gone fishing. It's. After the resurrection. I think it's that first day and they've heard the stories. But anyway, they're out fishing and they didn't catch anything. And Jesus in his glorified body shows up on the shore. I don't know if it's, you know, I don't know if it's got the fog like you guys have had this last couple of mornings, or hard to see, it's early in the morning or I didn't get home the other day because the fog was so bad in Sacramento. We couldn't fly out and I missed my flight. Perhaps we couldn't see clear because the fog, I don't know. But for some reason they don't recognize him. And then he talks to them. And John, who's a beloved disciple, who I believe is one on Jesus, chest, breast, at the Lord's Supper, one of, I think was one of the most intimate with him, recognized his voice and he said, it's the Lord. So when Peter hears it's the Lord, now he's got his swimming trunks on because he's a fisherman and he's, you know, he's been working out and I mean not working out, but working. And all of a sudden he says, it's the Lord. It says he wrapped himself in his outer garment, jumped into the water. You ever watch television? Anybody? They're getting ready to jump into the water, they take their coat off, they don't put it on. And he's a fisherman. It always bothered me, why did he do that? Then I realized one day, oh, yeah, of course, he's the only man that ever walked on the water other than Jesus. I don't think John was planning on swimming. And if you got a better explanation, tell me what it is that makes total sense. He I've done this before. I'm going to walk on the water again. I've done it before. Just because you've done it before doesn't mean you got an invitation to do it again. And where God has the right to expect more faith. But we need to be careful. And we go into the other extreme and become presumptuous. You see, the first time when Peter walked, I like it. A friend of mine, commentator or commentator. Anyway, he said, Jesus just didn't walk on the water that first time. I mean, Peter just didn't walk on the water. He walked on the word of invitation from Jesus. Lord, if it's you, bid me come to you. Come on. There's a difference stepping out in faith on a word, a rhema word, than believing. I did this last time. It can happen Again, but that's also, to be honest with you, that also makes it really risky. And sometimes it's harder to do it the second time than it is the first time in a sense of to go for whatever Jesus tells. You know, for example, one time I felt like the Lord said it was the first time we ever did it. I mentioned this morning, tell the people I'm going to heal them during worship. And I'd never done that. And, you know, I was in Dominican Republic. And that's one nice thing about going out, going away from your own church, because if you miss, you never have to see them again and you'll risk more and sometimes you'll grow in your faith in another place that then it gives you faith to come back and try it with your own people. And so that's really. I mean, a lot of the stuff I do today is because I experimented and saw God be faithful in another place and then came back and tried it at home. So anyway, the next time, though, that I felt like I should tell him he's going to heal him during worship was more hard for me than that first time. Because now the first time, I think I would never have thought of that. God's reminded me of something he told me a decade ago almost. I wouldn't doubt have thought of that. And I wouldn't. But the second time is, oh, yeah, this worked once. Is it the Lord telling you now the idea because. Or is it your idea? And it's harder sometimes, and sometimes you don't know. And I think when we're in that situation, we just say, I don't know if this is the Lord or not, but I think we're supposed to do this. And if that's where I'm at, I actually say it because I found out if you just be honest and humble and don't say, thus saith the Lord God, when you're not sure just to build up people's faith. Because if you say it and it's not the Lord and you're wrong, then it really. It's horrible for the people and for you and for everybody. It's awkward. It's better to say, I don't know if this is the Lord or not, but I think this is. I think he might be saying this. And if you missed. So what you said, you weren't sure, you know, so when we talk about faith and teaching to see more faith, which I'm going to get to that. And we're talking about faith and sovereignty, I wanted to quote, not from A Pentecostal and not from a charismatic, not even for a third wave evangelical like I consider myself. I want to quote from a Baptist about sovereignty and faith. I want to quote from a cigar smoking revivalist Baptist named Charles Haddon Spurgeon. God's sovereignty does not conflict with his promises and his promises never clash with his sovereignty. He's too wise to say anything that he will have to retract and he is too immutable ever to change. In his declaration, he never forgets a promise or alters it or cancels it because he has no need to do so. He always remains faithful to his word. Another quote from Spurgeon about sovereignty, because a lot of people know if it's going to be God's will, and I understand that, but they cloak it in sovereignty. God did everything he wants to do. He always does everything he wants to do. Well, he wants all people to be saved and not all people are going to be saved, you know, so another word from Spurgeon. He gives his promises as if they were bonds or notes, solemnly binding himself by that which comes out of his own mouth. Because he cannot lie, nor in any respect go contrary to his own word. In another place, Erdt says, when God gives a promise, his sovereignty is not bound by that promise, but his sovereignty is included in the promise and he will do what he says and he's free to do what he has said. One more from Spurgeon. The sovereignty of God never rends the covenant of his grace, nor does the eternal purpose of God ever come into conflict with his own promise. He is a sovereign, but he is a sovereign who always is, keeps his word. When I was at my first trip to Reading, California was I was there for four days and second trip I was there for eight days teaching. And the first time I had an intern, my first intern I ever had. And he was like just turned 18 years old when he started traveling with me. And he was a missionary kid raised in Guatemala for the last 10 years, from the time he was 8 to 18. And I was teaching in a church in St. Louis, a sister church. And he was there, I'd never met him. And I was teaching about how to get words of knowledge and praying for people. And he came up to me later and he said, I feel really sick. I need you to pray for me. I feel so sick in my stomach. So I start praying for him. And then as I'm praying I stop and say, wait a minute, when did you start getting sick? When did you start feeling this nausea? When you Were teaching words of knowledge. I said, well, you're not sick. You're getting a word of knowledge. I said, well, I don't know. I said, I know. So watch. Hey, Ben is feeling this in his stomach. Who has that? And three or four people raised their hand and I said, come here. He's going to pray for you now. He told me later. He said, that freaked me out. And he said, I'm going to pray for him. I hadn't prayed for anybody, and I'm just learning. But I'm so grateful you prayed for me for a little while, because I remember, oh, he did this. And he said this. Well, anyway, Ben prays for him. These people, every one of them gets healed. And now he's excited because after that, I said, when did you start? How did you come up to me? He said, well, after I got feeling sick, I felt this heat on my face. And I said, I'm going to just follow. I want to walk into the heat. And so I'm following the heat, and it brings me to you. That's why I asked you to pray for me. And I think God wants to use this kid. And he did. So later, I asked him to travel with me, and I'd pay his way, which takes about $30,000 for every time I do that to somebody, for the airfare and food and hotel and stuff like that. So I asked him to come. And when we were on our first trip and we weren't ready, and I said, hey, Ben, I just given words of knowledge. I'd given. Let's pretend I don't know how many. I don't remember. Let's say ten. I'd given ten words of knowledge. Ben, do you have a word of knowledge? Because, you know, he's my intern. He's supposed to be learning. Got to give him a chance. He said, I think I do. I said, well, come here. Give it. And he came up. He gave a word of knowledge for physical problem. Somebody had it. I'm happy. This is my intern. I must be a good mentor. He's giving words of knowledge. Oh, I'm so excited. He gives another one, another one, another one, another one. And when he got to 11, all of a sudden my smile's gone. And when he gets to 12 and 13, subconsciously, I'm backing away from him, and I'm realizing I'm not comfortable with this. I'm the mentor. He's the mentoree. He's making me look bad. He's getting more words than me. I don't like that. I know none of you would ever think that, but in that moment, my life changed. I so thank God for it was a revelation. He did speak to me because Ben is almost exactly the same age as my oldest son here, Josh. And so at that time, he's 18. And the holy Spirit says, what are you doing? Do you see what you're doing? You're backing away from him. Cause you're uncomfortable. Because you're threatened. You're threatened by the guy you're training. Would you be threatened if it was Josh? Would you be threatened if it was your son? I said, no. I'd be so happy. I'd be so excited. I'd be so proud. I'd be. What parent doesn't want their kids to be more and better than they are? I mean, we do. We do. We want them to go past us. And I realized, and the Holy Spirit said, you cannot be a spiritual father if you're threatened by your spiritual sons. This has to be healed in you, or you will, even subconsciously, you will begin to distance yourself and be uncomfortable. And that will give them a message. And so I came right back up, right to his side because he just healed me of that. And to show you how I actually got healed. Will Hart. Anybody know Will Hart? Will Hart is amazing. He oversees Irish ministry for Heidi. He was one of my interns, too. And one time we were in India and we did this meeting and we had some tapes that were being sold or. Anyway, Will came up to me. Randy, Randy, I am so excited. I am so excited. My teachings, I sold more. They sold more of my teachings than yours. And I smiled at him and I said, well, I'm glad. I'm excited for you. 100% the truth, too, because more important than being the best is being the best spiritual father I can be. So the point I was wanting to make while I was there, which I haven't got to the point yet, that's why I haven't made it as I am in reading on this night, the same time that that happened. That day, we gave words of knowledge. I think it may have been that night we gave words of knowledge. And normally for that size crowd, we were, at that time, have 3% of people get healed. Now it's 20%. And for a long time it was 10%, but at that time, it was 3%. So out of 1,000 people, we'd have 30 people get healed, 50% from words of knowledge, and 50% at the end of the service, the laying on of hands with the team. So 50% of 30 is 15. But what happened this first night, we have 25 healed by words of knowledge, not 15. And I'm excited and I feel like I heard a slight. Now when I say I heard, I have never heard an audible voice. I believe that happens. I have a few friends that has had a few times that they heard an audible voice. I haven't. It's always been impressions. And it was. This impression was pretty strong. And it said. And it was true. He said, the Holy Spirit said, I want to do more than what you think I do. You think I only want to do 30, 15 and 15. And that's where your expectation's at. And you think that's all I want to do because that's what you think I want to do in my sovereignty. And you're blaming my sovereignty for your lack. And the issue is not on my sovereignty side. The issue is on your expectation side. Ask. And then the next thing was, ask me for more according to the measure of your faith. Now, I process outside out loud in front of people. Internal processor Bill told me. He said, I love that about you because I know exactly how your process is working because you do it in front of everybody. So I said, this is what I think God just said, so we need to ask him for more. And so we, you know, gave some more words, knowledge, and prayed again and counted them. But I asked them, what do you think we ought to do? And they said, well, and then we agreed we were going to ask for 50. The crowd was yelling, outnumbering, okay, we'll ask for 50th. Now, normally it'd been 15. 50 is a lot more percentage wise than 15. So we said, God, we're going to ask you for 50. And so we prayed and then we counted it. Now total number is 57. Now he said, ask me for more according to the measure of your faith. So I said, let's ask him for more. What do you think we ought to ask for? And they said, 75. Okay, let's ask for 75. God, we're going to ask you for 75. And we prayed and counted the number of people healed now, and the total was 75. Normal had been 15 for two or three years. It would have been 15. This was the moment that after this moment, reading never went back to seeing people healed on the weekend on Sunday, but very few during the week to seeing people healed all week long. The number went up significantly, the number of healings and never went back down. But also from that same night, we tripled what we were seeing. And the number never went back down to where we were. In one day, in one experience, there was this increase. And it was because of God's help. I mean, if God hadn't have done this, I wouldn't have had this experience. So we need to pray. God, teach us, teach us, help us, help our faith to grow. And I think he likes that. So anyway, one more time. We said, okay, God, we're going to ask you for 100. And we prayed and counted. Now we had 130. What did I say? 54 or 57 a while ago? 57. So 134. 134. But we haven't even prayed yet. For the laying on of hands would have been 15. My life changed on that night. I realized a lot of what happens isn't really based on the sovereignty of God. A lot of what happens is our expectation and learning how to work with God, learning how to see, learning his ways. We were coming from a Baptist church in Brazil. On the way to the church, from the hotel to the church. And on the way there, I felt like the Lord quickened the scripture to me. And I looked it up and I found it. It was in Second Corinthians, 4:13. It's a quote. Paul is quoting David. And Paul says, as it is written, I believe, therefore I have spoken. That's the end of the quote. And then he continues to write, though based upon that quote from David. And in that same spirit of faith, we too believe and therefore we speak. And so I'm sitting there on the bus, it's just about a 15 minute drive to get to the church. And I think, why would God quicken that to me and what does it mean? Why is he quickening that verse to me? And I'm trying to figure out, God, what are you saying? How do I apply this and what does it mean? And then I felt like. I just felt like the Lord says, if you honestly believe I'm going to do something, you need to tell the people, declare what you're believing God's about to do. Because if you do that, and I'm going to clarify this in a moment, not going to leave it just where it's at, because if you will do that, it can help shift the atmosphere of what the people are expecting. Some of the people will join you. Your declaration will shift what they're expecting and will cause people to become engaged in faith with you. What I do not mean by that, and I don't think God meant it either, is I Give you the right carte blanche to just say anything you want and I'll do it. You know, the New Age talks about create New Age religions by your confession, what you're saying you can create your own reality. Well, the problem with that is that is not the Christian view at all. Because in the Christian view, we are not free agents. We are not independent free agents to do what we want. In the Christian faith, we are the servants of the Lord and we do what he tells us. And when we find out what he's wanting to do and then we join him in what he wants to do and make the declaration, people join us in that, you see more. Amen. One other thing I feel like I'm supposed to mention is in the west, we're very independent minded and we read the New Testament through Western eyes of a. You know, especially the United States, probably more than anywhere else. Very, you know, let's go west, young man. The pioneering spirit. And, you know, just this independence. And we read things as if the Bible's written to individuals, but the Bible is actually written to community, written to churches, is written in much of the world. They don't have the same worldview we do. I mean, they look at it more from the collective, more from the tribe, more from the group, more from the body than just an individual. So in Second Corinthians, chapter one, again, there's another time. You know, sometimes God knows that I don't know the Bible as good as I wished I did. You know, I've spent a lot of time studying and reading and going to school, but I still wished I knew it better. And now I think I'm forgetting more than I'm learning. But anyway, he has to give me help. And he knows I won't know if he says a certain verse, I won't know what's there. So he's got to give me a little more help than that. And then I have to look it up. And so I felt like I heard in Jesus Christ, the answer is not yes and no, but it's yes. And that's a weird thing in my mind. I said, what does that mean? And I said, guys, I think we need to look that up. And when I looked it up, it's like, oh, that wasn't even what God was wanting to say to me, but he knew I knew that part, but I didn't know the next part. If he'd given me the next part, I wouldn't have known where it was at or even knowing it was God. And so we look it up, that passage. And then we found what like the next verse was what God wanted to get across to me. It's another key thing for me. And. Let me get there in 2 Corinthians 1:20. Oh, I repeated the other one. Okay. Oh man, sorry, I had it there. And second Corinthians chapter one, verse 20. I'll try to remember as best I can. Oh, for all the promise there, thank you. For all the promises of God. In him are yes and in him amen to the glory of God. In my translation it's a little different from that. It says for the promises of God or it says for the promises of God are not yes or no, but they're yes in Christ Jesus. For all the promises are yes in God. And so through him the Amen is spoken by us. Amen means so be it or let it be. For no matter how many promises God has made, they are yes in Him. And so through him the Amen is this is the part. And so through him the Amen which is the agreement, which is the yes, let it be. Beatles were singing Amen when didn't know it. The Amen is spoken by us to the glory of God. That's key. It's like the Lord said, look at that and study that. There's a key there. When we have individual faith, individual believing for himself or herself. And so we come together as a body. But we're really thinking about an individual myself more self centered than it is collective. We're waiting for a word for me. And if I get a word for me, I want to exercise faith in the Word for me so I can be healed. But this is talking more about the body and collective. And so the Amen. And so through him the Amen is spoken by a plural by us to the glory. The number one way God is glorified in the Bible is through what he does. And the second most like signs and wonders and miracles and things he healings. That's the way number one way, miracles. The cloud by day and the fire by night and the Exodus, these supernatural things is the number one way God is glorified in the Bible. So if we the us. And so the Amen is spoken by us to the glory of God. I believe it's meaning God tells us what he wants to do and there's a collective Amen. It's like we're engaged not only for ourself, we're engaged for the body and we're engaged for somebody else's word. And we actually join in our faith, our appreciation, our excitement for our brother, our sister, somebody that's going to be healed. It's not like if it's not for me, I don't engage. I want to engage my faith on behalf and our faith. And when God, I actually believe, when we see a church that understands this collective understanding of what it means to be the body of Christ and there is that collective engagement, that collective agreement, that collective amen, so be it. Lord, we're going to, you see, you're going to see more healing and more miracles when that starts happening. And I really feel that God wants to take us there. And so when it talks about things that can help build faith, increase faith from a little measure to a big measure, one is the declarations of what you think God is going to do. You know, I believe we could have over 100 people get healed tonight. So I want to just declare. And you know, half of them before the ministry team praised the laying on of hands and half of them during that time. So whatever the total will be, it's going to be about 50, 50. That's what we see so often. And so that's a declaration. So I discovered that whatever we gave testimony to also created faith for that. Even if we talked about it in a sermon, we used a certain illustration more than others, there'd be more of that happen because it helped build faith as we were talking about it. So I had this video and I played it. And every time we'd play it, this video is about 16 people getting healed of metal in their body in like 15 minutes at a big meeting we had in about 25,000 people, different one, but all of it was like metal. Because really the reason why that happened that way was everything was a confusion. One worship team thought the other worship team. So neither one of the worship teams are there when we need them. Then I'm just going to. I'll just show a video. But the video won't work. And I thought, oh, nothing's working. And we got 25,000 people working. So what are we going to do? I'm going to go for metal. You know, if nothing else works, go for metal. And I told him what we'd been seeing God do, and we went for metal. And 16 people came to give testimonies. Amazing. But when I'd show that video, people would get healed, especially if they had metal in their body. But they never got healed until I prayed. And so one time I said, I want to tell them what I think is going to happen. And I said, I think. And this had never happened ever. I think when we watch this video tonight, which I don't have the video, which, I mean, I could have had a video, but I thought I would need the time. I just tell you the story. But anyway, as we watch the video tonight, some of you are going to be healed of metal in your body. And I believe it's so strong it's going to be before I pray it'll happen to you during watching it. That never happened ever. And I believe that's going to happen so much. And before I pray, I'm going to ask you to chick, stand up and check your body out. We did it. A lot of people had metal got healed, by the way. Now that started in 2009. I mean, metal getting healed. But we've had close to 6,000 people who've had chronic pain or loss of function from something, surgery or bite into surgery that's been healed. And I actually had. That's one of the things I have a strong measure of faith for, you know, most things I want a word of knowledge to have more faith for it. But this because I've seen it happen so much. There's only one other thing that I have that kind of expectation for. It's women with psoriatic arthritis. And that started happening like three years ago. And it was just. I never prayed for it, never seen it happen. And then in one night it happened to two pastors, women night, a woman missionary, and then the next nine people. So we had 12 women in a row that when we prayed for psoriatic arthritis, they got healed of it. And I felt like God's doing it again now instead of metal. So that's the two things I have faith for. And we're going to go for both tonight, you know. But anyway, what I started to say while ago was we never had anybody get healed during the video. It's always afterwards when you'd pray. Why? Because nobody was expecting it. See, they weren't expecting to get healed until there's prayer and they weren't expecting to get healed until some of them until they have hands laid on them. So when we go into a church, they're not used to having hands laid on them and we don't see a good response to word of knowledge. I know they don't have faith for this. Quickly get to the laying on of hands because that's where their faith is at. So we have to try, you know, to teach about God wants to do more than what we think. The problem's more on our end than his end. And when we understand healing as much as we. And have faith for healing in our bodies as much as we have faith for forgiveness of our sins because of what Jesus did, there'll be more healings. You know, Jesus paid an awful price for our healing. You know the guy that. The Passion movie, Mel Gibson did it. The guy that made those whips that they used in the movie where he struck the table and it just pulled a piece of wood out. I don't know how he got my. But he sent. He made me two of those and sent them. I've got them hanging in my house. I have a real appreciation for how much that hurt. Now that I'm looking at those. Those little metal hooks. In the end, it just. Jesus by his stripes, we are healed. So anyway, the point I wanted to make was we started seeing it. Then one time after several years, I forgot to say, you can get healed while watching a video. And we did everything the same. The only thing different was I forgot to tell them, you can get healed watching a video without being prayed for. And so excited, I said, all right, check out your bodies. Everybody's healed. While you're watching a video, 80% or more, stand up and do this. Nobody stood up. And I thought, what happened? That never happens. Nobody. And then I realized, because I'm thinking, what's different? I realized you didn't tell them that they could get healed watching the video. They had no faith for that. So there is something true about it. But it's not like you can just hype it. There's a big difference between hype. Hype is when you're saying God's doing this and he's not doing it. You know, trying to hype will actually destroy real faith because people won't believe in you after you hype things so much. And nothing really happens that way. But when you really feel the Lord is, you really believe it. This is what he wants to do. That's why he said, you got to tell them, because it can help them expect what you're expecting. One, because they trust you and they respect your integrity. That's why it's very important not to try to abuse by just saying, I can say anything I want. Because that's not what he said. It's what you honestly are expecting to do. Tell them testimony builds faith. How many of you have got healed you? You'd be so appreciative if you got healed of something pretty major that you'd be willing to give your testimony, raise your hand okay, good. He saw that. Seriously. You know who I like to ask to come up and give their testimony? It's the one that's crying or laughing or excited and just weeping because I know, boy, that's going to be a big one. If you're really appreciative, if you get healed of something major. It is not pride to want to give your testimony. It's gratitude. It is in Australia, New Zealand, England. All over the world, there are different little things that's in the culture that tries to drive down people's testimony. The tall Poppy syndrome. Oh, don't stand up and draw any attention to yourself because people will cut you down. Oh, it's pride to want to draw attention to yourself? No, it's the only thing you're talking about is I was sick. What's so proud about being sick, you know? And you're talking about what God did. 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