Andrew Wommack (0:01)

Welcome to Gospel Truth with Andrew Wommack, a teaching ministry that focuses on God's unconditional love and grace.

Testimonial Participant 1 (0:08)

Some of the things that he was explaining was just so simple, but it was truth that just hit right home. He's changed my life. He's changed my walk. I have a hunger for God now that I've never had before. And this is just the beginning.

Andrew Wommack (0:24)

And now here's Andrew.

Andrew Wommack (0:27)

Welcome to our Wednesday's broadcast of the Gospel Truth. Today I'm continuing to teach on a subject that I've entitled are you satisfied with Jesus? I have a little 28 page pamphlet here that I put together. I sat down in one day and wrote this and I've spent some time editing it and adding to it. But I mean, I was just inspired to share with you some of these truths that God has really spoke to me. And it just really summarizes a lot of things. The first two days of this week were kind of introduction to get you into this. And Jesus had just told his disciples that he was going to be with the Father. And they knew where he was going and they knew how to get there. And Thomas told him, says, lord, we don't know where you're going, therefore how can we know the way? And he said, I am the way, the truth and the life. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. And from henceforth you have seen him. And this time, Philip said, he says, lord, shew us the Father and it'll satisfy us. And the point that I've been making the last couple of days is that Jesus is awesome. He's God manifest in the flesh. Man. What a, what an honor to have God become a man. You know, the scriptures talk about that even the heavens and the heavens can't contain God. It says that he holds the universe in the palm of his hand, in the span of his hand, that means the width of his hand. God's hand is so big that the entire universe, which our scientists say is still expanding and it's basically infinite, they say that that all fits in the palm of his hand. And yet this almighty God entered into a physical body, was born as a little baby and had to grow and learn how to feed himself, learn how to walk, learn how to talk. It says in Luke, chapter 2, verse 52, that he grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man. Just the same way that his physical body had to grow, his mind had to grow. Now, in the spirit. Jesus was Lord at his birth, but he was in this Physical body. And here's the point of me bringing all of this out. When Philip says, lord, show us the Father and it'll satisfy us. It's not because Jesus wasn't satisfying. It's because they didn't know who the real Jesus was. And I made this statement on the program yesterday, and I want to just expand on this today, that Jesus physical body was an actual hindrance to them knowing who he really was. And most people probably wouldn't look at it that way. They would think, oh, it would have been wonderful if I could have been there and have been one of the disciples and seen these things, then I would have believed. Well, that's not what happened with his 12 disciples. They struggled. And I believe one of the reasons they struggled is because of his physical body. It was not sinful. He was sinless. There are many scriptures that portray that he did not grow into becoming God. He was Lord at his birth. Luke chapter 2, verse 11 says, Come see Christ the Lord. He was Lord. That word for Lord there is the exact word that is used for almighty God. He was Lord. He was God at his birth. But he was in a physical body. And that physical body had all of the limitations that our physical body does. It got tired, it got weary. He had to sleep, he had to eat, he had to relieve himself. He got dirty, he sweat, he smelled. His physical body was so human, so natural. It was sinless, but it was human that it actually was a hindrance to them seeing who he really was. Did you know that the real us is not this physical body? And this is hard for me to get across because if you haven't thought about this and let the Holy Spirit kind of reveal these things to you, this is just so far removed from the way most people think that they just can't wrap their brain around it. But the real you isn't your physical body. Let me use this verse over. In John chapter 6, this was Jesus speaking. And in John chapter 6, and in verse 63, Jesus said, It is the spirit that quickeneth. The word quickeneth means makes alive. It's the spirit that gives life. The flesh profiteth. The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. Jesus is saying, it's the spirit that is the real you. You know, when God created Adam and Eve, he created their physical body, and they were complete and whole. But he breathed into Adam the breath of life and man became a living soul. And that word breathed there in the Hebrew, it's the same word that was used and Translated spirit. Jesus blew the spirit into Adam and that's what gave life to him. It says In James, chapter 2, verse 26, as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. So that verse reveals that the spirit is what quickens. That's what Jesus said. It's what gives us life. You, the real you is, is a spirit. And before you get born again, that spirit was a dead spirit. Not dead in the sense that it didn't function, that it wasn't alive, but dead, separated from God. That's what death means in the Bible. When people die physically, we sometimes say, well, that's the end of their existence. They don't exist anymore. People don't cease to exist. They just separate from this body, from this physical life, and they enter into a spiritual realm where they either live in the presence of God or they will be banished from God for all eternity. But nobody ceases to exist. The spirit, the real you, continues to live. So when the Bible talks about death, it doesn't mean ceasing to exist. It means separation. And when, when you were born, you had a spirit that was dead, not ceasing to exist, not wasn't alive, but it was separated from go. It was actually united with the devil. The scripture says over in Ephesians, chapter two, this is the Apostle Paul talking, and he says we were all by nature the children of wrath, even as others. Our nature was a fallen human nature, a separated nature from God. But when you get born again, God gives you a brand new Spirit. And 2 Corinthians, chapter 5, verse 17 says, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things have passed away, all things have become new. That's not talking about your physical body. Your physical body. Doesn't old things pass away and all things become new? You know, if you were a man before you got saved, you're going to be a man after you get saved. If you were a woman, you're going to continue to be a woman. If you were short, you're going to continue to be short unless you're still growing. If you were fat, you're going to be fat. Unless you go on a diet, your body doesn't change and your soul doesn't change. That's your mental, emotional part. Did you know if you were raised in a foreign country and you were raised in a different culture, you're still going to have those attitudes and you're going to still think that way. You aren't going to all of a sudden have my memory and My upbringing. Your soul doesn't change the way that you were taught. If you were taught to speak some other language, that doesn't instantly change. You know what? Your soul and your body don't change. But it says when you get born again, old things pass away. That's talking about your spirit. It's the spirit part of you that changes. And when you were born again, you were given a brand new spirit and that is the real you. But the sad fact is most of us relate to each other on the basis of this physical body. Sad to say, most of you relate to other people on who you are in the flesh, but that's not the real you. It's just like the vehicle that we get around in. Your body is like a vehicle and it allows you to function and it allows you to get around and to do things in this physical world. But it's only your vehicle. It's not the real you. You know, if I was to go over to your house, if I was to drive up, and if you knew me and you knew the car that I drove, you saw my car coming and you said, oh, it's Andrew coming. And so you go out to meet me. And when I get there, you go out and you start touching my vehicle and saying, oh, I'm so glad that you're here. That vehicle is not me. Now, it's necessary. I mean, if you don't have a vehicle, you are going to be very limited in how you can travel. You're going to be walking everywhere you go and it's going to be cold and it'll be hot and you'll get wet and on and on and on goes. There is a great purpose to having a vehicle and I'm glad I've got a nice vehicle that was given to me. It was a gift. But if you were to run out and just start talking to my vehicle, that's not the real me. That's just what allows me to get around and to. And to go places. And it provides me with some protection from different things. And it's got climate control and man, I got heated seats and it's nice. And I praise God for my vehicle and I praise God for this physical body that I've got, but it's not the real me. And if you are relating to people only on the basis of who they are in the natural, you are missing the real them. Look at these verses of what the apostle Paul said over here. In 2 Corinthians, chapter 5, I quoted verse 17, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. But look at the verse right in front of that. 2 Corinthians, chapter 5 and verse 16. Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the. Yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. It's a little awkward the way it's said here in the King James. But what he's saying is at one time we knew Jesus in the flesh. We knew him by the car, by the vehicle, this earthly suit that he got around in. He says, but we don't know him that way anymore. Because if any man's in Christ, he's a new creature. You now have become a born again spirit. We can know God spirit to spirit. Jesus said this in John, chapter 4. In verse 24, he says, God is a spirit and those who worship him must worship him in spirit. And in truth, he didn't say it was the best way. It's the only way. You have to connect with him spirit to spirit. But see, these disciples, they weren't born again. They hadn't been changed on the inside. And dare I say that they were carnal. You know, when I use the word carnal, most people think of the word carnal as referring to somebody who is demonic, somebody who rapes, murders, plunders, that, that's all carnal. They look at that as being exceedingly sinful. And all sin is carnal. But not all carnality is sin. The word carnal is just referring to the physical realm. It means of the five senses that you are dominated by what you can see, taste, hear, smell and feel. And these disciples were so controlled by the physical realm that they hadn't seen the real Jesus. Again, I go back to this illustration that you know what, you might know me by. The car that I drive, you may recognize I've got a Pickup, a Ford F150 pickup that was given to me and it's a nice one and I enjoy it. And you might be able to recognize me and say, there goes Andrew, when the truth is all you saw was my car. But if I was to come to your house and if you were to sit there and hug my car and try and touch my car. I get out of the car and you ignore me. And you are just amazed with my vehicle. Something is wrong with you. That's just what I get around in. And did you know, some people will take offense at this and they don't understand it because they're carnal. They are just into the physical realm. But The. The vehicle that people get around in, whether they are male or female, that is not the real them. Whether they're tall or short, whether they're one of the beautiful people or whether they look as good as somebody else, that is not the real them. And if you reject somebody on the color of their skin or their gen gender, or whether somebody doesn't look as pretty as somebody else, you are carnal. You are just being controlled, dominated by what you can see, taste, hear, smell, and feel. You don't know a person, the true person. Paul is saying that we used to judge people this way at one time. He could have told you who Jesus was because he was raised at the feet of Gamaliel. He was the leading rabbi in Jerusalem, and Paul was raised there. And certainly he was in Jerusalem. Jesus, when he came to Jerusalem, it says that the whole city was in an uproar. All of the scribes and Pharisees were there criticizing Jesus. They saw his miracles. The scripture doesn't show that Paul was in that crowd, but he was a student of Gamaliel. And I just can't believe that he wouldn't have known who Jesus was. Jesus was the center of attention, especially to the religious people. I'm sure that Paul saw Jesus. He could have told you how tall he was. He could have told you the color of his hair, the color of his eyes. He could have told you some of the facial features. It's like he could have told you what car a person drove. He. He knew the vehicle, but he didn't know who Jesus really was. He fought against him. He actually was persecuting the Christians. He witnessed against them, saw Christians arrested and even put to death and consented to their death. But then he encountered the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus. And it doesn't say that he saw his physical body. He saw a light. He was blinded by this light, and he was knocked to the ground. And he heard an audible voice. He didn't see the vehicle. He didn't see a body, but he saw the real God. He came to know the real God. And so what he's saying is, at one time I knew Jesus after the flesh, but now I don't know him after the flesh. Now I know him by the Spirit. Think about this. The apostle Paul is the one that wrote half of the books of the New Testament. He had a revelation of God's grace that even the apostle Peter said over in 2 Peter, he says, our beloved brother Paul says some hard things to understand, which those who are unlearned and unstable wrestle with as they do other scripture. Peter called Paul's writing scripture. And yet he said they were some things hard to be understood. Peter is one of those who lived with Jesus three and a half years, day and night. He was with him day and night, saw his miracles, heard his sermons, and yet Peter struggled to understand grace. The man who had the greatest revelation of who Jesus really was and what the true nature and character of God really was, was a man who did not spend three and a half years with him day and night. Rather he got his revelation by the Spirit. He went into the deserts of Arabia and for three and a half years he was just shut up with the Lord. Now, as a student of Gamaliel in Jerusalem and as one of the leading Pharisees, Paul had memorized the first five books of the Bible. He had read the Scriptures and the prophets and the poetry books, and he had a tremendous amount of word in him but all of the wrong interpretation before he got born again. And when he had this encounter with the Lord, he had to go into the deserts for three and a half years. And I believe he was refiguring all of this. He was reconnecting the dots, he was reorganizing all of his theology. And so his learning that he had before he got born again, I'm sure was, was critical because he had this knowledge on the inside of him. But when he, when the Holy Spirit came in him and Ananias laid hands on him, he received the Holy Spirit and he talked about speaking in tongues. When you are speaking in tongues, you are praying the hidden wisdom of God. Your Spirit is praying this born again part of him was praying. And my point is, Paul is the one that God gave the revelation of the Gospel, the grace of God. It came through a man who did not sit under the physical ministry of Jesus. And the people who did sit under the physical ministry. The Apostle Peter said, man, some of the things our beloved brother Paul says are hard to understand. He didn't have as great a revelation of the gospel as what Paul did. And it wasn't because Paul was physically present. It was because he had it by revelation by the Spirit. He knew Jesus. And I go back to one of the statements I made a couple of days ago that Jesus physical body was actually a disadvantage for the 12 apostles. And again, I know that that's a startling statement. Some people, oh, I would have loved to been there. That's because I say this in love, because you're carnal, because you are so controlled by what you see, taste Hear, smell and feel that that's where you live, and this is how you do. Everything is in the carnal realm. But man was created to be a spirit. And you can relate to God spirit to spirit, and you can actually come to know God better through the spirit than you can through the physical, natural realm. You know, I went to see the movie, the Passion of the Christ, Mel Gibson's movie that he put out about the crucifixion of Jesus. And there were some people that disliked that because of different reasons. I personally did not dislike the movie. I thought it was gra. I thought that Mel Gibson did as good a job as you could possibly do. But so much of what Jesus suffered wasn't just physical. And he was portraying the physical suffering of Jesus. But the greatest suffering that Jesus went through was the spiritual things. When Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane, praying and saying, oh, God, let this cup pass from me. I'm not saying that the physical crucifixion and the beating and the pain wasn't a part of what he suffered, but I believe it was minimal compared to becoming sin. Jesus was God. Jesus was holy. Jesus was pure. And to sit there and become sin was so repulsive to him. I believe that that's what was really he was going through. And Mel Gibson's movie couldn't portray the spiritual side of it. It could only show these physical things that were going on. And so, anyway, my point is that I had some friends tell me about this movie, and they said that when they went, they just had this revelation of God's love for them like never before. They had an epiphany. They said, it's going to change your life. So I went to this movie expecting it to just make a major impact. And even though, again, I thought it was a good movie, I'm not critical of the movie. I was disappointed because as I sat and looked at the crucifixion of Jesus, again, I'm not going to go over and teach on all this, but In Isaiah, chapter 52 and 53, it shows that Jesus was beaten so much that his face was marred more than any man had ever been on the planet. His body was so marred that it didn't even look human. Mel Gibson showed beating, and it was brutal, but it did. He still looked like a human hanging on the cross. The Bible says he didn't even look human. I believe he took every sickness, every disease, every deformity, every. Everything that has ever happened so that he didn't even look human. And As I was watching this crucifixion scene in the Passion of the Christ, I was actually disappointed because the revelation that I had by the Spirit on the inside of me was so much greater than what was physically being portrayed. And again, no criticism of the movie. You are limited in the physical. I had by the Spirit, seen Jesus crucified. The Holy Spirit had revealed these things to me. And what I'm saying is you can know things by the Spirit greater than you can know them by the flesh. And as I was looking at this movie and thinking, God, what's wrong with me? How come I'm not being overwhelmed? This is, in a sense, disappointing to me. The Lord showed me. He says, I have revealed things to you by the Spirit and you have a revelation by the Spirit that is superior to just seeing things in the natural. He says, the revelation that you have of the crucifixion, it has impacted you more than the twelve apostles or at that time, eleven apostles, because Judas has hung himself and it. It's made a greater impact on you than the apostles who were standing there and seeing it with their physical eyes. Knowing things by the Spirit is greater than knowing things by the Spirit, by the flesh, man.