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Ephesians 3:14, For this cause I
bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, (15) Of whom the whole family in heaven
and earth is named, (16) That he would grant
you, according to the riches of his glory, to be
strengthened with might by his Spirit in the
inner man; (17) That Christ may dwell in your
hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and
grounded in love, (18) May be able to comprehend
with all saints what is the breadth, and length,
and depth, and height; (19) And to know the love
of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye
might be filled with all the fulness of God.
(20) Now unto him that is able to do exceeding
abundantly above all that we ask or think,
according to the power that worketh in us, (21)
Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus
throughout all ages,world without end. Amen.
Ephesians 3:14-21
It Might Have Been...
There's high places, or notable
days and times, which are prophesied of and
talked about in the Bible. There's a greater
and notable day of the Lord ahead of every one
of us -- the day of final judgment. I want us
to realize that we're not only to be judged for
what we have done, but also for what we could
have done.
If we ever have
a real revival, there's two things which must
happen; one, we'll have to see God greater,
mightier, and more terrible than we're seeing
Him; two, we must see ourselves as we really
are, as God looks upon us. It stirs me deeply
when I begin to realize that I'm going to face
a judgment where I'll be judged, not only for
what I have done, but also for what I could have
done. Oh, what could've been done, what
sacrifice could've been made, how much more
time could've been spent in prayer, or how
many more tears could've fallen from my eyes
if I'd been more sincere in what I wanted to
see come to pass? How many more souls could've
been won? Thank God for what's being done, but
if we're true Christians, we'll never be
satisfied with ourselves. If we're satisfied
with what we're doing, we're in bad shape
already.
A poet has said that the saddest
words of tongue or pen are these four words: it
might have been. What could have been done in
place of what was done? Verse 20 of our
Scripture text says, "Now unto him that is able
to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask
or think…" The Apostle Paul's letting us (the
Church) know that there's resources in God,
which we've never touched. They were there
then and they're still there today.
The spirit of the age is one,
which tries to curb the mind of man, making us
feel that we're in a day when God does less
than He's ever done. Preachers will get up and
say, "Back in the days of miracles, back when
God used to heal the body, back when people used
to shout, or back when God filled people until
they ran the aisles." The big move on is to
minimize God and make us feel that He doesn't
work today, that He's not as powerful today, or
that we can't get hold of Him today.
Anoint Thine Eyes...
Brother, I'm here to tell you
that there's resources, which have never been
touched. You can bring up anybody whom God used
in a mighty way, and I'll take the Bible and
prove to you that He can do more with a man
today, if He can get a man (or a woman) to sell
out to Him as completely as He desires. If we
ever see a mighty moving of God's power, we're
going to have to get our eyes anointed.
Revelation 3:18 tells us, "…anoint thine eyes
with eyesalve, that thou mayest sec." That's
exactly what God wants to do for the Church
today, anoint our eyes so that we can see.
What do we mean by 'see?' Well, 2
Peter, Chapter 1, contains a long list of
Christian qualities, and then he said, "But he
that lacketh these things is blind, and can't
see afar off…" (verse 9). The things, which are
seen with the natural eye, temporal things, are
close to us, but the things of faith are afar
off -- we can only see them when our eyes are
anointed. I pray that God will help us to get
rid of those things, which keep us from seeing
spiritual things, mighty things and powerful
things.
The natural man looks and says,
"You're a fool. There's nothing there," but
the man who has his eyes anointed says, "I can
see it!" We need our understanding touched
afresh, and we need our eyes anointed. We need
to be able to see God and the resources of God
beyond anything that man has touched. He has
spiritual wealth, which has never been
discovered, and He has untapped power that He
put in reserve for 2007, to pour out upon the
Church today. God's able to do exceeding
abundantly above all that we ask or think. My
friend, we need to see the vast resources, which
God has laid to our account. God
has deposited power in our account; all we
have to do is, by faith, write the check and put
it in the name of Jesus.
Let us read Ephesians 1: 18, "The
eyes of your understanding [or the Greek version
says, "the eyes of your heart"] being
enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope
of his calling, and what the riches of the glory
of his inheritance in the saints." When Jesus
Christ comes into us, the very inheritance that
belonged to Jesus Christ is ours also. That
inheritance is in the saints. Too many believe
that it's in God, in the Bible, or in the Holy
Ghost, but how many believe it is in the saints?
Infinite Ability...
Let's now consider verse 20 of
our Scripture text, "Now unto him that is able
to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask
or think, according to the power that worketh in
us." Paul turns the vast resource and lays them
to our account. Paul was dazzled, overwhelmed,
and made speechless by the infinite capacity of
God to transcend our own mortal prayer beyond
even our imagination, beyond things that we
could even imagine.
When we preach on this, we can
preach on holiness. There's people who don't
even think that God can save them and keep them
from sin. I'm here to tell you, if we could
even pull together the thought that God could
keep us holy and righteously right in this
world, He's able to do exceeding abundantly
beyond that thought. Paul didn't know what to
say. He saw God so great and mighty, and he
wanted the Church to get a vision of this. He
just heaped words together, trying to tell us
what God can do, if we'll look to Him and put
our trust in Him and really believe Him.
Friend, if we're going to do
strong praying, we must have a deep sense of our
need and a strong hope of supply. There's no
need of praying if we don't, down inside,
really believe the thing's going to happen. We
must have a deep sense of need where we get
right down to 'bedrock' with God, "Lord, we need
this; we must have this." We should pray, "Lord,
what can I do to help to bring it to pass? I'm
willing to lay aside food. I want to see it come
to pass." Then we must have a strong hope of
having our need supplied.
We can have that strong hope. The
Apostle Paul said in Philippians 4:19, "But my
God, [He is ours too] shall supply all your need
according to his riches in glory by Christ
Jesus." Too many people become confused here.
They think that He's going to do it according
to this or according to that. No, He is going to
do it according to His riches in glory in Christ
Jesus, or through Christ Jesus. When we begin to
think about praying, in order to move God on His
throne, let's make sure that we have a deep
sense of need and a strong hope of supply of
that need.
So, He's able to do exceeding
abundantly above all that we could ask or think.
Now, we can't even comprehend all. There's not
a person in the world, that knows what 'all'
means. Why? ALL is an infinite word. Well, He is
able to do exceeding abundantly above 'all.'
That's getting beyond our mental grasp; we
can't even understand all. We've never had
all of any- thing in our life. All is beyond
finite language. Then, Paul just adds "above"
onto that. We can't even realize all, and He's
able to do exceeding abundantly above all that
we can even get a thought about, let alone ask
it.
Nature Tells the Story...
At this point, Paul probably
threw down his pen and said, "It's no use. I've
used every word that I can put together,
and God's greater than that. I've climbed to
the very highest rung on the ladder that
languages and vocabularies will take me. If only
I could borrow Jacob's ladder, I would climb up
to Heaven and try to find out for you what God's
able to do. When I get up there, Gabriel
would say, 'God is able to do exceeding
abundantly above all that you could ask or
think."'
We don't have to look around too
much to prove that. We see that God's ability is
way beyond us in nature, or natural things.
Thank God for what man has been able to do in
his thinking and in his imagination. He comes up
with mighty and beautiful works. Take the artist
for an example. He paints the rose or some other
beautiful flower. Another artist takes wax and
makes a beautiful flower, but just carry in one
of God's real ones -- they'll put theirs in a
box. Mark it down, no matter how great the
imagination of mind ever gets, God's able to do
exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask
or think.
Just let God bring us the warm
spring weather, and the violets begin to appear.
When the natural beauty of those flowers begin
to shine forth, the waxen artist will pick up
his tools and walk away. Why? He'll tell you
that he can't compete with God. Man's been
able to bring materials together and build some
beautiful things. They've made some arches of
real beauty, and when we look upon them, we're
carried away in ecstasy, "My, what beauty, what
greatness!" Then, when a little shower comes
while the sun's shining, God puts His 'arch'
clear across the sky -- He's able to do
exceeding abundantly above. Man can only get his
brush out and try to copy the color while it's
there.
God wants this text as a refrain,
or chorus, to every petition. When we bring the
petitions, real needs or great needs, before
God, the enemy will be right there to withstand
us. He doesn't want us to get what we stand in
need of. He does a 'great work,' by hindering
us, and he takes glory away from God by
hindering you and me from receiving. God wants
this verse to be a refrain in our prayer, "He is
able to do exceeding abundantly above all that
we ask or think."
Abundant Pardon...
Let's consider the spiritual
side, concerning pardon from sin. When people
are deep in sin, the devil works in two ways. He
works on the youth and tells them, "You're not
going very far. You can turn back anytime. It
won't be far back to Father's house," but the
whole idea is to keep us "out there" a while. He
doesn't have to keep us there very long until
he starts telling us, "You've gone too far.
There's no pardon for you. There's no help or
hope for you."
Friend, I want us to see what
God can do today. Suppose we come to Him and
ask for pardon and apply the words of our
Scripture text. We can't really understand, lay
hold of, or conceive God's notion of pardon; it's
beyond us, but it's for us. These things
that are exceeding abundantly above that which
we can ask or think, are real. Even though they're
beyond us, they're for us; we can have
them. When we go to God with a real need, let's own
our need and confess our sin in old-time
repentance, He'll pardon us. It'll be a
pardon beyond that which we can understand.
The best we can do is think of
our own thoughts. We talk about how we were in
the prison house of sin and how we were forgiven
and pardoned, but our thoughts hold us within a
'web of thinking,' of how man pardons. When a
man gets pardoned from a literal prison, they
sign a pardon, but he carries a record. That's
man's pardon, but it's not so with God. Isaiah
55:7, tells us, "Let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let
him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy
upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly
pardon." This's a different kind of pardon.
When man pardons sin, it's still on the record
and still held against you. It's a mark that
you have to 'live down,' but when God pardons
you, it's just like it never happened. He
buries it in the 'sea of forgetfulness,' removes
it as far as the east is from the west, never to
be remembered against you again. As far as God's
concerned, it never happened.
People don't understand this; it's
beyond their thinking. This's why they stand
aghast at a sinner, whom they know has been in
degrees of sin, disgraced his life, and shed an
influence against the cause of God -- when he
comes to an altar of prayer in old-time
repentance and is regenerated through the power
of the Holy Spirit and made a new creature.
It's
hard for them to understand that he can be
free.
God abundantly pardons and goes
beyond that. If we want to have a good revival
and see people saved, we're going to have to
show mercy. One of the ways for us to show
mercy, is for us to stop and think for a little,
on who we were. We weren't too much to brag
about when we came to God. But because God so
abundantly pardons, it's erased and we're set
free from it; it doesn't trouble us any more.
If we're not careful, our own human self will
take advantage of that thought, and we'll
begin living as though we were always good.
Whenever we begin living that way, we'll
have no mercy on someone else who needs help.
Low Spirituality Isn't
Necessary...
Paul, writing to Titus, said:
"Put them in mind to be subject to
principalities and powers, to obey magistrates,
to be ready to every, good work, To speak evil
of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle,
shewing all meekness unto all men. For we
ourselves also were sometimes foolish [We've
quit. If you haven't quit being foolish, don't
glory. I still have shame 'come over me,' when I
think of the foolish things I did when I was in
sin], disobedient, deceived [If you were in sin,
you were deceived], serving divers lusts and
pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful,
and hating one another.
"But after that the kindness and
love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, Not
by works of righteousness which we have done,
but according to his mercy he saved us, by the
washing of regeneration, and renewing of the
Holy Ghost [That's exactly what it takes to
make up salvation]; Which he shed on us
abundantly…" (Titus 3:1-6). Too many people
think that God has a funnel with a very little
hole, or an 'eyedropper.' However, He sheds the
Holy Ghost on us abundantly, not only what we
need, but far more than we need.
There's no need to not be
spiritual. There's no reason for being
powerless. God doesn't pour the Holy Spirit out
in measure; He pours it out abundantly. What's
abundantly? Filling you completely full and to
running over, soaking you on the outside. Paul
prayed in the Ephesian letter that they might be
filled with all the fullness of God (Ephesians
3:19). What does it mean to be filled? Too many
people think that being full is just having
enough to get by on. No, my friend, the word
full as it's used here means "coming to an
overflowing stage."
Study in the Old Testament about
the Nile River. In its overflowing, it irrigates
all the land around it. Many times, there was
hardly enough water to cover the riverbed, but
when they would get an outburst of rain, the
river, being full, overflowed its banks and
irrigated the area around it. That's just
exactly what it means to be full of the fullness
of God. He fills us to the place that there's
an overflowing. God sheds His Spirit on us
abundantly.
There's no need of being
powerless and weak, when God pours His fullness
on us so abundantly. Jesus said in John 10:10b,
"I am come that they might have life, and that
they might have it more abundantly." Our
Scripture text deals with exceeding abundantly;
in other words, the power flows up, out, and
over. Jesus told the woman at the well, "…but
the water that I shall give him shall be in him
a well of water springing up [within you] into
everlasting life" (John 4:14). He said in John
7:38, "He that believeth on me, as the scripture
hath said, out of his belly [out of his life]
shall flow rivers of living water." Consider
that spring; it'll be a well of water within
you. What kind of a well of water? -- An
artesian well, springing up into everlasting
life and rivers flowing out of our belly. Jesus
taught of our experience of salvation as a
spring and as rivers. Both of them are
incalculable. You can measure the resources of a
cistern or a reservoir, but who can measure the
resources of a spring? This spring is springing
up fuller, richer, and more abundantly.
There's a world 'out here,' just
waiting to be fertilized with an overflow of
our experience, but selfishness has hold of
many to the place that they're thinking
selfishly. Too many aren't thinking as God is
thinking. They think, "If I could just have
enough of the power of God to keep me from
sinning," or, "If I could just have enough of
the power of God to witness when He wants me to,
I'd be satisfied." Those are not God's
thoughts. God wants us to have enough of the
power of God to 'wet everybody down' who's
around us.
Divine Power Is Immeasurable...
You can't measure a spring. It's
this spring-like quality of divine power,
this immeasurable quality, that Paul's speaking
of. We can bring vessels to a spring and keep
on filling them until we've filled them all,
and all we're doing is making the spring
stronger. I pray, "Lord, make me a spring, where
people just keep coming back and drinking." God's
able to do exceeding abundantly above all
that we ask or think. We can't exhaust a
spring. If it's a real spring that God has
placed in the hillside, it'll be right there
-- 'putting it out.'
If we don't want to accept a
crystal spring, we'll go to the Bible. We can
read in 2 Kings, about God's welfare program. A
widow, whose husband had died, needed to get on
welfare. She didn't have any support for
herself or her sons. Her husband died -- leaving
a lot of bills -- so she went to the prophet.
(That is a good place to go. We have 'factories
turning out preachers,' but there's not many
prophets being turned out.)
She went to Elisha and said, "Thy
servant my husband is dead; and thou knowest
that thy servant did fear the Lord: and the
creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to
be bondmen" (11 Kings 4:1). According to the
Law, they could take her two sons and put them
in slavery to pay for her hills.
Elisha asked her: "What shall I
do for thee? tell me, what hast thou in the
house? And she said, Thine handmaid hath not
anything in the house, save a pot of oil. Then
he said, Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all
thy, neighbours, even empty vessels; borrow not
a few. And when thou art come in, thou shalt
shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and
shalt pour out into all those vessels, and thou
shalt set aside that which is full.
"So she went from him…and she
poured out. And it came to pass, when the
vessels were full, that she said unto her son,
Bring me yet a vessel. And he said unto her,
There's not a vessel more. And the oil stayed.
Then she came and told the man of God. And he
said, Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and
live thou and thy children of the rest" (verses
2-7).
People look aghast when you
preach such things. God has a hard time working
when the believers don't even believe that God's
able to do exceeding abundantly above that
which we ask or think. The ability of God is
beyond our prayer, our thoughts and our
imagination. God's asking us to 'stretch out a
little.' Someone may say, "I can't imagine such
things." I know. That is what God is wanting you
to do, stretch it out a little. He wants you to
have a better imagination and stretch it out to
some of the extreme sublimities offered in God's
Word.
Think Positively...
Think, what's it actually
possible for me to become (let your imagination
go a little) in God's work? How many people's
thoughts are, "Well, I don't guess I'll ever
be anything but just maybe a prayer warrior, and
support the cause." God's able to do with you
exceeding, way beyond, abundantly above all that
you can even ask or think.
Think for a moment of the great
splendor of (real, true holiness in which we
can live. We don't have to live an
up-and-down, in-and-out battle with the devil
every week. Don't misunderstand me. I'm not
saying that the devil won't be there, but I
am saying that we can put him down. God's able
to help us to live in a way that sin won't
have dominion over us. We can bruise Satan
under our feet every time he comes around. Too
many times, people get under Satan's feet, and
he about tromps the life out of them. God is
able to do more than that for us.
Think of the completeness of
service that can be ours. Oh, what perfect
service we can render to God by His help.
Someone may ask, "Why don't we see this
happening?" -- Because we don't ask for greater
things. Too many times, our lack of faith makes
us afraid to ask. Our asking is bound by our
thinking. This's what Paul's getting at in our
Scripture text. God wants us out in the field
beyond our thoughts. God is trying to break us
loose, and Paul is trying to help the Church see
that there's a greater field of service, and a
greater and more perfect way to live.
We can move to the place of
being a more positive example of a Christian.
What keeps us from getting there? We become
bound with our own thinking, and we begin to
govern what we can do and what we can't do, by
our ability. God's trying to cut us loose and
get us out in the field, free from our thoughts.
Isaiah 55:8-9 tells us: "For my thoughts are not
your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,
saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher
than the earth, so are my ways higher than your
ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."
We, the Church, are supposedly
sitting in heavenly places. Living according to
God's thoughts, running the Church according to
God's thoughts in heavenly places, but man's
ever working to bring her down to the level of
man's thinking. God became incarnate in that
little baby, the second person of the Godhead,
Jesus Christ, and men still rise up and say, "We
can't accept that. It's not according to sound
thinking. It's not according to our thoughts."
The truth is; it's not the fact that it's not
according to their thoughts; it is beyond their
thoughts. What is faith? Faith is beyond man's
thoughts. Faith is beyond what man can see and
feel.
God's thoughts are high above our
thoughts, and God is able to do exceeding
abundantly above what we can think because He
acts according to 'His thinking.' Someone may
ask, "How will we ever get it?" Well, the Word
of God brings us God's thoughts. The Word of God
is God's thoughts. We can know what God thinks
about multiple things. The Word of God is a
(revelation of God and His thoughts. Romans
10:17, tells us, "So then faith cometh by
hearing, and hearing by the word of God." Faith
comes by hearing God's thoughts, and having the
privilege of knowing what God thinks about it.
He won't let us down. Paul said in 2
Corinthians 6:12, "Ye are not straitened in us,
but ye are straitened in your own bowels."
Fear Hinders Faith...
We can move God, if we'll come
with a real, earnest need that God sees we're
really sincere and under a burden about.
Secondly, we must come building our faith, not
on our feelings or hindered by our thoughts.
Why, He actually says in Isaiah 45:11
"…concerning the work of my hands command ye
me." He's not trusting man to actually command
Him, but God loves for us to take His Word and
put it right at Him. He loves for us to remind
Him. "Lord, you said that where two or three are
gathered together... Lord, you said that if we
would preach the Gospel… if we would lay hands
on the sick... God, you said…" He has exalted
His Word above His name. He works according to
His thoughts. Someone may say, "Oh, I don't
think…" That's what's hindering. The big end
of the trouble that we confront in trying to
ever lift up a standard of greater faith for the
people, is, that people don't think high
enough. God operates according to His thoughts.
We would've had a real test if we'd been
that little widow. Put yourself there; I have.
If Elisha had lived in this day, and would
instruct a sister from the Church the way he did
that widow, she'd probably say, "He is
stupid, and he is trying to make me stupid," but
it worked. All our unbelief didn't stop the
widow from getting her bills paid and having
welfare the rest of her life. Praise the Lord!
Fear's a natural thing. God
wants us to have certain degrees of it, because
we can't serve God without a certain degree of
fear. If we get too bold, we get out of line.
Fear's a natural quality. It'll keep us
humble and keep us down where God can use us,
but when fear gets moving in the wrong way, it
hinders faith. Where fear is, faith has a hard
time working. Unless God sees our sincerity and
overlooks the fear and helps us anyway, fear
will hinder us from receiving what we stand in
need of.
There's some beautiful lessons
for the Church in the book of Esther. All the
Jews, God's people of that day, were brought
into a heathen kingdom. Hamen hated Mordecai,
and he hated the Jews. He had so worked his way
in with the king that he influenced the king of
that heathen kingdom to make a decree that all
the Jews should be killed. Everyone was
trembling under the power of it. Esther sent a
message to the people, which said, "Go, gather
together all the Jews that are present in
Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor
drink three days, night or day ...so will I go
in unto the king, which is not according to the
law: and if I perish, I perish" (Esther 4:16).
Joshephus, the historian, said
that she was so fearful when she entered, she
took two little maidens with her -- one to carry
her train and the other one to catch her when
she fainted. She walked in before the king, and
he had such a hard look that she fainted and
fell right into the maiden's arms. To her
surprise, the king walked over and picked her up
and said, "Darling, what do you want? I will
grant you your request, whatever it is." She
saved the people of God in that day.
Ask Largely...
When things get real scary and
rough, God can hardly ever find a man; He always
has to use a woman. That's what old Sister
Stewart used to say. Oh, yes. She was up in
years when God gave her a burden for Cuba. After
she'd paid the fare, she landed in Cuba with a
nickel in her pocketbook and the address of one
American woman who lived in Cuba. She looked her
up and lived with her. The woman gave enough
money to hire an interpreter and put her on the
radio.
Before Sister Stewart went to
Glory, she could account for about eight
thousand souls in thirty-five congregations.
Religious men hated her, so they tried to kill
her by running a gas pipe into her house during
the night. Her hair turned white overnight, and
she lay in a coma for hours; but the saints
prayed for her, and God raised her up. When I
asked her, "Sister Stewart, how did you ever end
up getting down here in all this battle?"
"Well," she said, "Brother
Wilson, all I can say is that God looked for a
man and they were all scared, so He sent this
old woman." God is able to do exceeding
abundantly above all.
When she first went down there,
she thought it was big to ask God for a hundred
souls. It wasn't long until a hundred were
saved, so she asked for a thousand souls. She
worked under much worse conditions than most of
us know anything about, but God saw her through
and gave her victory. Why? He's able to do
exceeding abundantly above all. This's how He
outsmarts the devil, and this's how He
outsmarts men. That's why He could tell Paul,
"…it's hard for thee to kick against the
pricks" (Acts 9:5).
The deep burden of my heart is
for God to reveal to me His divine will. I want
His thoughts because I want to live in heavenly
places. A want of faith makes us afraid to ask,
but never be afraid of expecting great things
from God. We can have no real desire for any
real good, but what it's over-topped by His
desire that we have good. God's way is high
above our way. Religion 'out here,' operating by
man's ways, leaves men bound in the power of
sin, with no victory, joy, or any shedding forth
of the Holy Spirit in their life. God's ways are
higher.
You can be delivered from sin.
Even the smell of sin will be gone, and God will
pour the Holy Ghost out on you abundantly. We
can have no imagination of good, but what it's
been surpassed by a previous thought of His. The
rule's not up to what we can think, but it's
'above and beyond' what we can think.
Hunger and Thirst After
Righteousness...
As infinite as His capacity is to
help us, yet His power to really help us is
determined by the measure of our spiritual
aspirations and cravings. We're not going to
have revival unless God sees that we really want
it. Too many congregations don't really want a
revival. They'll have a weekend or a week's
meeting or so, and many of them are glad when it's
over so they can get back to their program of
life. God's program interrupts them. Now, God
sees all this. Even though He's able to do all,
it's according to the power that worketh in us.
Here's a God who's able to do exceeding above
everything that we ask, but He'll not do it
unless the real power of faith and the real
yearning desire to see it done, is working in
us.
Unless we desire knowledge, He'll
never enlighten us. This's the reason too
many people don't get much understanding of
truth. It wasn't until God saw a real, burning
desire in my Heart to understand the Revelation
message, so I could teach it, that He gave it to
me. Too many are just sitting around expecting
things to drop on them; it doesn't happen that
way. God moves according to the power that
worketh in us. This's what is gauging it: the
power of prayer, the deep desire, and the power
of faith. Unless we desire knowledge, we'll
not be enlightened. Unless we really desire
heart purity, we'll never find it. If we
want to carry some wrong attitudes around in
our heart, we can carry them to our death and
go to hell. We're not going to get heart
purity unless we want to be pure. It's
according to the power that worketh in us. We
have to desire pardon in order for God to pardon
us. We must have a deep desire for spiritual
strength for God to strengthen us.
His communications will he
according to our receptivity. Jesus taught it
this way. "According to your faith be it unto
you" (Matthew 9:29) -- according to the power
that worketh within us. We're just as spiritual
as we really wanna be. We can blame it on
this, that, or the other; but the truth of the
matter is, we're just as spiritual as we want
to be. Jesus said, "Blessed are they which do
hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they
shall be filled" (Matthew 5:6). All this mighty,
abundant, exceeding power worketh according to
our receptivity.
It's just as an indolent farmer
who limits the work of nature. He has a farm,
which could produce 225 bushels of corn per
acre, but he's indolent. The harvest time goes
by, and he doesn't even get a bushel, when he
could have had 225 bushels per acre.
That's the way God's looking at
us today. God could fill our church building.
God could save enough people so that there'd
have to be extra chairs set out. God's thoughts
are that every honest, unsaved individual in
your community would be won to Him and be saved.
God's thoughts are that every one of His
children in Babylonian captivity (false
religion), in the multiplicity of religious
works, be called out and brought back to Zion to
the unity of the body of Christ, to the Church
that Jesus built. These are God's thoughts, and
He's able to do it.
Matthew 13:58 tells us that He
couldn't do many mighty works in His own
country because of unbelief. I've preached
quite a while on God's ability, but God's
ability is all determined by the power that
worketh in us. I'm not preaching to make us
feel bad; I'm trying to widen our vision. I'm
trying to get our eyes anointed in a greater
way, trying to get us to look up, instead of
looking around. See the devil's first move is to
get us to look around, and then he'll get us
to look down. Everybody who looks around very
much, soon looks down. When they start looking
down, they become defeated and discouraged, and
it won't be long until they're out.
God is saying, "Look up! I'm
still God. I'm still on the throne. My power's
not diminished. I love the Church as much today
as I ever did. I want the Church to be just as
glorious in 2007 as she was in
1921." |
