Fire is Free

Fire is Free

I hear alot of talk these days about finances and obtaining wealth in order to impact society. There are many preachers who put a whole ministry focus on getting people to see that God wants them materially rich. Sure spiritually and physically rich also, but I see the focus on material wealth.

One of the reasons why it is ok to chase, yes pursue after and focus on the bigger house or bently or rolls royce, is to better win the lost and impact society for the kingdom. That is what many of these preachers will tell you is the reason why it is God’s will to have more and more and more. 

But fire is free. You cannot buy it, sell it or make a genuine imitation. Fire is fire and fire does not cost a thing, materially speaking. Look at the lives of the apostles of the early Church. 

Acts 2:2-4 “When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. 2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”

Now there is a cost when it comes to fire, but it is not a cost that has anything to do with money. It is the cost of death to self, the cost of being consumed by the fire of God that when you come out, you are burned beyond recognition. You will not look the same anymore, people will wonder what happened to you, when you truly encounter the fire of pentecost!

This Holy Ghost fire in the heart of a man is more powerful than an army, more dangerous to the devil than 1000 years of seminary, more life-giving than other thing on Earth. And this Holy Ghost fire, when it begins to burn within men needs no advertisement! I always enjoy hearing about how during the Azuza Street revival observers would call the fire department because they saw flames on top of the building where God’s presence had come in such a marvelous way. I love reading about John Wesley and the mighty impact his preaching had in England. He said “Catch on fire with enthusiasm and people will come for miles to watch you burn.” People being swept into the kingdom of God happen through the hand of God, not the intelligence, whit, business savy, or material wealth of man. 

You see a man filled with the fire of the Holy Ghost knows that he has all he has need of to reach a dying world for Jesus Christ. Look at what a difference the fire of the Holy Ghost made to Peter. Peter, the one who was always quick to have outbursts, who actually was called the devil by Jesus, Peter who cursed and rejected Christ 3 times; this same Peter, when set on fire by God, was a totally different man. Peter was the first new testament street preacher and boldly preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ so that 3,000 Jews that day were wonderfully saved! When it came down to it, did Peter need anything more? If we have the fire of the Holy Ghost burning within our hearts, is there really anything greater that could add something to our lives anyway?

Do we need money? Of course, we have to eat and live and get from place to place. But when money becomes our focus for evangelism and ministry, and not holy spirit preaching of the Gospel, we have gone way off the deep end. We must see that one man filled with the holy ghost and fire is 1000 times a greater threat to the devil than the man who is a material millionaire, but compromised! “When you’re born in fire, smoke will never do.” Leonard Ravenhill These early apostles had nothing in their mind about overtaking Roman government in order to reach the people for Christ. They had no thought of obtaining wealth in order to show the world how blessed they were! No they had a whole other passion of their heart. They knew they only hope for the world, was that they themselves be filled with the holy ghost and fire! 

As they sat in the upper room and God came down, surely did they remember the words of Jesus. Acts 1:8 “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” What should the focus of the great commission be? Obtaining wealth and worldly stature? Or should are focus be on being filled with the fire of God, and to go forth in power preaching the gospel to every creature? Focus is the key. When we begin to focus on the means, rather than the end, destruction and error are sure to follow. 

Let us see that though money is useful to advancing God’s kingdom. It is not necessary! Yes, that is right! I don’t need a rolls royce, a mansion and $100,000 in my bank account to go preach the Gospel and see sinners saved. All the miracles ever done in the book of Acts, all the times people were supernaturally delivered and set free from the powers of darkness, all of them did not cost a dime. Fire is free. Fire burning within the hearts of men is what is needed today. That is non-negotiable. Resources that come from the Lord, will follow the man who’s heart is set on fire to see the lost be found, not on those who seek to be rich in this life.  

Day 12 A.W. Pink

“We have no basis to believe that we can come casually and sprightly to the Lord Jesus and say, "I have come for some help, Lord Jesus. I understand that you are the Savior so I am going to believe and be saved and then I am going to turn away and think about the other matters of lordship and allegiance and obedience at some time in the future."

I warn you - you will not get help from Him in that way for the Lord will not save those whom He cannot command!

He will not divide His offices. You cannot believe on a half-Christ. We take Him for what He is - the anointed Savior and Lord who is King of kings and Lord of lords! He would not be who He is if He saved us and called us and chose us without the understanding that He can also guide and control our lives.

If we believe the New Testament we must surely believe that the new birth is a major miracle, as truly a miracle of God as was the first creation, for the new birth is actually the creating of another man in the heart where another man had been.

I believe this is the kind of genuine Christian conversion that we are talking about - the putting of a new man in the old man's place, so that we are born "anew."  AW Pink

I believe this is one of the biggest problems of the church in America.  So many believe in half a Christ.  He is good enough to save us all from hell, and we gladly take him for that.  But to say He must also be the Lord of ones life is something all together different it seems.  So we have many people in our churches here, with no real passion for Christ, no dying to ones self, no taking up of the cross of persecution or reproach for Christ’s sake, no real personal devotional lives, no inward heart obedience to Jesus Christ, and yet we called them saved.  

The church as a whole has done exactly what AW Pink said he saw in his day; dividing the offices of Christ.  Would it make any sense to say that I can have Jesus as my prince of peace, but at the same time I will not have Him as my joy and satisfaction?  Would make any sense if I tell you that I have my wife and I am married only to the parts of her that I like and choose?  So when she does something that I don't like, I just say, well I am not married to the part of her that has a temper.  Does that make any sense to you?  It makes none to me!  If we will have Jesus Christ, we will have either all of Him or none of Him!  He cannot be savior of ones soul if He is not Lord of ones heart.  He is both Lord and Savior.  “Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; 11 for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”  2 Peter 1:10-12

Dividing the offices of Christ as if they are all optional is a very dangerous thing.  This false idea does three very terrible things.  

1. It leaves sinners in their sin.  It says the adulterer; adultery is bad and you shouldn't do it, but regardless if you ever allow Jesus to be Lord over your life and change your actions, if you have Him as your savior, you will go to Heaven.  Actual obedience to scripture and to not commit adultery and Christ’s words becomes merely a nice thing to be encouraged.  It says to drunkard and alcoholic; being drunk is a bad thing and you shouldn't be drunk, but regardless if you ever allow Jesus to be Lord over your life and change your actions, if you have Him as your savior, you will go to Heaven.   Actual obedience to scripture and to Christ's words to not be a drunkard becomes merely a nice thing to be encouraged.  And so with any sin or vice a man is involved in, if we believe in a half Jesus that can save ones soul, but not change their heart, it excuses sinners to continue living in sin, thus they stay unconverted in the heart, but think in their head that Jesus is their savior from hell.

1. It causes complacency in the body of Christ.  For those who are truly converted and do have a desire to see others saved, this false idea creates a false security in the people around them.  If we believe that the offices of Christ can be split: that a person can have Jesus as Savior, but not Lord, than when we see someone in our church fellowship is consistently living a life of sin and rebellion, we will come to the conclusion that they have Christ as Savior, but are yet to make Him their Lord.  And so they do not make an attempt to intercede in prayer that God would change their heart and save them.  Though maybe they confront the person of negative consequences of their behavior, they do not share the Gospel with them, thinking they already have accepted the Gospel.  So they pat  them on the back and tell them to start acting like a Christian, instead of telling them they could be in danger of hell.  Instead of telling them they might not have had a genuine conversion experience with the risen one and pleading with them to come to Jesus to be saved.  

1. It turns the new birth into a mental ascent to Jesus and the Gospel, rather than a total transformation that brings them from death unto life.  If we believe that the offices of Christ can be split up and some can have parts of Christ, and some other parts; then it makes God’s word a lie.  If one can have Christ as Savior and not Lord, than we are only new creatures in our minds, and not in actuality!  But no, that is not the word of God!  When we are born again and put on trust in Jesus Christ we take Him as Lord, as King, as Ruler, as guide, as our all in all!  We are infused with Gods very nature and we do pass from death to life.  Being born again is Gods power in us driving out the sinful nature of Adam and putting within us His very nature and likeness.  It is a changing of allegiances.  From following self and sin, to following Christ and holiness!

Scripture of the Day:

"Then God will give you a grand entrance into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." 2 Peter 1:11

Day 11 Kenneth E. Hagin

Day 11  Kenneth E. Hagin

“And faith calls those things which be not as though they were!” Kenneth E. Hagin

Here brother Hagin is almost directly quoting from Romans 4:17.  It says, “As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.”  Here we see God speaking to Abraham and calling him a father of many nations, when in the natural reality of things, he didn't even have  a single child.  Not only that, Abraham and Sarah were nearly 100 years old!  God was speaking into existence what was not really there.  God was calling into being things that were not.

As I read things on the internet and hear from other ministers about doctrine and the things of God, I see many men of God who have a real problem with the idea what we as believers word’s play a part in prayers being answered.  I do not like extremes to much.  There are some extremes that we should all strive for, such as loving God in an extreme way.  We should be completely extreme in our dedication to live our lives for the glory of God.  

But there are some doctrinal truths and are truths, but when bent and twisted and stretched to far, they become lies.  When I see people preaching things that have obviously been stretched so far that they are no longer Biblical truth it really frustrates me.  My initial reaction is to want to preach hard against those things.  But as I want to do that, it is so easy to swing completely the other way to almost make up for their terrible error.  So much doctrine and teaching these days is based, not on the literal word of God, but it’s based on combating false teaching.  For instance if we hear some preacher preaching fire and brimstone and preaching only about the destruction of the wicked and God’s hatred for sin (with no additional teaching about God’s love and mercy), than we have people that will preach only about God’s love and mercy and totally forget that God is angry with sin and that sinners will face a terrible judgment in hell for eternity.  It can get all out of wack, all out of balance.  

So we hear some preacher saying some things that are stretched so far by false teaching that we close down and shut ourselves off to anything that even closely resembles that type of teaching.  I see this happen to many people concerning the gifts of the Spirit.  They see craziness and abuses and say, that’s it, it’s all of the devil.  So error closes them off the the genuine move of the Holy Spirit.

There is a reality that what brother Hagin is talking about is truth.  Faith always calls things which are not as though they were!  Saints of old would call this prevailing prayer.  It is when God places something on your heart that He is doing in your life that you know is happening.  We can know God’s answer to our prayers when we pray according to His will for our life, through the Bible.  What He has promised, we can expect to receive!  God doesn’t just say things to say them.  If God has promised us things in His word, than by faith we can reach hold of them and take them as our own.  

In order for us to do that, we have to be speaking the right things!  Can I just randomly speak something, and confess something if I don't really believe it?  Well I can confess it , sure, but nothing will happen.  I do believer our words are important.  Jesus said whats in our heart will come out of our mouths.  But I am not unrealistic either.  People say all the time to actors in a play, ‘break a leg out there tonight.‘  Should we be saying, whoa, whoa don’t say that your words will cause them to break their leg.  No way!  That is just silly.

However it is very true that true Bible faith will always speak God’s will and God’s word, no matter how many contrary circumstances there are!  I think one of the best prayers we can ask God for is to be closer with Him; to have more love and passion for Him!  That is a Bible promise we can stand on.  It says in Jeremiah 29:13, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”   So we pray and ask God for more of Him.  A week goes by.  A friend asks us if we are grower closer to God.  If we are truly in faith are we going to say the opposite of what we are believing God for?  If we are in faith are we going to say, no actually I am not getting closer to God?  Absolutely not, we would be saying we don't believe in Gods word.  If we believe the Word that says if we seek God we will find Him, then to be saying the opposite just shows we do not have faith in Gods word.  

True faith always believes God’s word.  True faith will take a person to God in prayer and fellowship.  And as that faith fills the heart of a man, he will as a result speak what he is believing.  He will not speak doubt.  Even if all the world seems to be contradicting the word of God, the man who is faith will still call that which is not as though it will be!

Scripture of the day:  Romans 4:17-21

“As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.”He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not. 18 Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”19 Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. 20 Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 21 being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.”

Day 10 Leonard Ravenhill

"My main ambition in life is to be on the Devil’s most wanted list."  Leonard Ravenhill

This is a powerful statement!  If we are on the devil’s most wanted list we are on God’s most useful list!  Leonard would also say that if we are not known in hell we are not worth a hill of beans.  Does the kingdom of darkness know you exist here today?  Are you a threat to the strongholds of the enemy?  If you are not, what good are you to God?  

See our life as a Christian is not to be one of passivity, but of aggression.  We are to be fighting the good fight of faith.  We are to be on the offensive advancing the Kingdom of God and destroying the works of the enemy!  We are to follow Jesus Christ and do as He did.  It says in 1 John 3:8 “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.”  We have a very similar purpose in being birthed into the family of God. Our purpose as a Christian is not to sit around until we are raptured out of here or passively hear a sermon very week or so until we die!  Ever since the very moment you were born again into the kingdom of God you have been called to destroy the works of the enemy!  You are called to be deeply in love with God through Bible reading, prayer and worship.  This intimacy and love for God is to then flow out of you to go and preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all who are lost and captivated by sin.  

If there is more joy in Heaven over one sinner who repents than there must also be more tears and sorrow in hell over one sinner who repents.  For every soul that hears the Gospel and believes, the devil’s strongholds over that person is broken.  Do you want to be on the devil’s most wanted list, then go around telling the world that Jesus Christ is God’s only Son sent to deliver them from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of Gods love.  Begin to do the works of Jesus Christ.  Jesus went about teaching, preaching and healing the sick.  

The devil hates when believers start to operate in the supernatural and perform genuine Holy Spirit empowered miracles.  This is why satan has so many counterfeits.  Praise God though, when the Holy Spirit begins to move and do supernatural things in people, there is nothing more to be said.  When God confirms the Gospel message with true healings, miracles and demonic deliverances, the devil’s power is squashed flat.  Christ has defeated him and the devil stays in submission to His name now and forever.

“Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “We exorcise you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches.” 14 Also there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, who did so. 15 And the evil spirit answered and said, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?” 16 Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.”  Acts 19:13-16

Are you known in hell?  Is your life doing something for the kingdom of God?  Let us be like Ravenhill and desire to be on the devil’s most wanted list.  This is nothing to fear, because we know that greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world.  We need to make our lives count!  We cannot simply coast through life giving half effort in the things of God.  Let us, by the grace of God, give our all in all!  Let us wage war against the sin, corruption, hunger, homelessness, drug dealers, murderers and overall wickedness of this world.  How do we do that?  By preaching the Gospel!  By saving souls.  By living a holy life full of loving others the way Jesus loved them.

Scripture of the Day:  Acts 19:13-16

“Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “We exorcise you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches.” 14 Also there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, who did so. 15 And the evil spirit answered and said, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?” 16 Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.”  Acts 19:13-16

Day 9 Andrew Murray

Day 9 Andrew Murray

"Here is the path to the higher life: down, lower down! Just as water always seeks and fills the lowest place, so the moment God finds men abased and empty, His glory and power flow in to exalt and to bless."  Andrew Murray

"Pride must die in you, or nothing of heaven can live in you."  Andrew Murray

You have been called to die.  Doesn’t that sound enticing Christian brothers and sisters?  If that makes you cringe, then you have not fully experienced this death.  The death I speak about is a most joyous, life giving death!  We must remember that we do not operate like the world’s system operates.  We live in a spiritual kingdom that cannot be seen with the naked eye, but must be known by faith.  If we want to go higher, we must go lower, we want more, we must be less, if we want to be seen by God, we must pray in secret.  Do you want to gain?  Then give all!  

It is a shame when ministers of the Gospel try to make the Bible fit into the world’s system and way of doing things.  As if we can have life without death, that we can gain without losing, that we can be exalted in this life by God without first being humbled.  Though it is easier for the flesh to take in, Jesus said, “He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.”  If we want the life of God, the death of self must take place!  This is not optional.  

What does it mean to die to self?  “Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  Romans 6:11  The whole chapter of Romans 6 deals with this issue.  It means we are to consider ourselves dead to sin, dead to the flesh, dead to self.  What do I mean by self?  Doesn’t the Word say that God will give us the desires of our hearts?  Yes the Word speaks of many blessings to us, and many great promises that God has for us as His children.  But when I speak of self, I speak of the part of us that wants its own way, its own pleasure, its own satisfaction, even if that means God taking a backseat.  It is the life that says I will do what I want to do and will have God help me with my life.  If you have that attitude you will not gain life, but lose it.  That is self speaking.  But when we surrender on a daily basis to the lordship and sovereignty of God, we will not care about our own desires when compared with God’s desires.  We will put the glory of God far above all our wants, desires and even needs!  When we say, it’s not I who live, but Christ in me, we will begin to live the life God desires for us to live.  A life consumed by doing His will and loving Him with all that we are.  When we begin to lose our life for the sake of Christ, then and only then will we be the most happy and fulfilled!  The only real way to happiness is through holiness.  It is a most wonderful thing to be separated from the wickedness of the world unto the beauty of God.

If we really desire Heaven to live in us and the power of God to rest upon us in a mighty way, we must be humbled.  We must go lower, that Christ in us can rise and go higher!  We must pray as the apostle John that we would decrease, but that Christ would increase.  This is the path that is most devastating to the flesh and to the carnal desires of believers.  Yet this is the path of the Christian.  This is the path of blessing and usefulness to the Lord.  Let us today say we will lift up our arms toward Heaven allowing the death of self to take place, that the life of Christ may reign mightily in us!

Scripture of the Day:  Matthew 16:24,25

“Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. 25 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”

Day 8 John Bunyun

Day 8 John Bunyan

The Offense of the Gospel Message

“I say, tell the drunkard he must be damned if he leaves not his drunkenness, the swearer, liar, cheater, thief, covetous, railers, or any ungodly persons, they must and shall lie in hell for it, if they die in this condition; they will not believe you, not credit you.

Again, tell others that there are many in hell that have lived and died in their conditions, and so are they like to be, if they convert not to Jesus Christ, and be found in him, or that there are others that are more icivil and sober men, who, although we know that their civility will not save them, if we do but tell them plainly of the emptiness and unprofitableness of that, as to the saving of their souls, and that God will not accept them, nor love them, notwithstanding these things, and that if they intend to be saved, they must be better provided than with such a righteousness as this; they will either fling away, and come to hear no more, or else if they do come, they will bring such prejudice with them in their hearts, that the word preached shall not profit them, it being mixed not with faith, but with prejudice in them that hear it (Heb. 4:1,2). Nay, they will some of them be so full of anger that they will break out and call, even those that speak the truth, heretics; yea, and kill them (Luke 4:25-29). And why so? Because they tell them, that if they live in their sins that will damn them; yet if they turn and live a righteous life, according to the holy, and just, and good law of God, that will not save them.

Yea, because we tell them plainly that unless they leave their sins and [self] righteousness too, and close in with a naked Jesus Christ, his blood and merits, and what he hath done, and is now doing for sinners, they cannot be saved; and unless they do eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, they have no life abiding in them, they gravel[29] presently, and are offended at it, as the Jews were with Christ for speaking the same thing to them (John 6:53,60)." John Bunyan

Do you preach the Gospel?  You may think you preach the Gospel, but do you really?  Here is a man, John Bunyan.  He was a Puritan from the 1600’s.  I would absolutely love for a man like this to come speak to our lost here in the 21st century!  I would love to hear his message to the church of God today.  

In a day of the church where we are most churches are more likely to compromise the Gospel than rather offend people with truth, we desperately need true Gospel preachers.  So many times preachers want to make the Gospel as easy to swallow as possible so as to get decisions or laughs or have people come forward to the alter.  Preachers of our era want to make salvation a matter of moving from one end of a building to another or saying a nicely formulated prayer that instantly works the work of conversion in a man’s soul. 

Mostly though it is pastors who have no spiritual courage to preach the Word for what it really says.  Hell is one of the those subjects that might drive people away from church, so most churches will not mention hell or teach on it.  That attitude is saying, the Bible is  not sufficient for our church!  We want to pick and choose what we teach and preach on.  Let us make all our topics very light and encouraging.  But I believe all of the Word of God is inspired and has a very important role to play in our lives.  

The Gospel by nature is offensive.  If the Gospel is being preached, it will either convict and convert or condemn and offend.  The Gospel is the Good News you might say, it only offers hope and good things.  Yes the message is very, extremely good!  But the rejection of the message is extremely not good.  If the Gospel is so good, rejection of this Gospel will be all the worse for those who do so.  I don’t care how you would like to word it, the Gospel message is this: repent and turn from your sin, believe on Jesus Christ or you will spend an eternity in hell suffering the just wrath of God for your transgressions.  That is the bottom line.  Salvation is through Christ alone, by faith alone!  There are no loopholes or ways around it.  That is offensive to those who choose to believe otherwise!  

Look at what the Gospel is though.  See who Jesus Christ was in the Gospels and still is now.  He is divisive by nature.  The message of the cross is divisive by nature.  It divides the sheep from the goats, the righteous from the unrighteous.  “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. 35 For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; 36 and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’[e] 37 He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. 38 And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. 39 He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.”  Matthew 10:34-39  What is this division?  It is those will lose their life for the sake of Christ and those who will cling to their own worldly life.  

“For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. 16 To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life.”  2 Corinthians 2:15,16  This is what the Gospel will always do in the heart of man.  It will bring them to a place of decision.  There will be no indifference.  Either you will be for Christ and against the world or for the world and against Christ.  There is no middle ground.  When the Gospel is properly being preached, it will do the same, it will bring men to love God and hate sin or the Gospel will further be the aroma of death to them.  Let us pray and intercede that as we preach the Gospel and as the Gospel goes forth into all the world, that it would be the aroma of life lead to life!

Scripture of the day:

“For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. 16 To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life.”  2 Corinthians 2:15,16

Day 7 Smith Wigglesworth

Day 7 Smith Wigglesworth

Miracles for Today

“I was traveling one day in a railway train in Sweden. At one station there boarded the train an old lady with her daughter. The old lady's expression was so troubled that I enquired what was the matter with her. I heard that she was going to the hospital to have her leg taken off. She began to weep as she told that the doctors had said there was no hope for her except through having her leg amputated. She was seventy years old. I said to my interpreter, "Tell her that Jesus can heal her." The instant this was said to her, it was as though a veil was taken off her face, it became so light. We stopped at another station and the carriage filled up with people. There was a rush of men to board that train and the devil said, "You're done." But I knew I had the best proposition, for hard things are always opportunities to get to the Lord more glory when He manifests His power. Every trial is a blessing. There have been times when I have been pressed through circumstances and it seemed as if a dozen road engines were going over me, but I have found that the hardest things are just lifting places into the grace of God. We have such a lovely Jesus. He always proves Himself to be such a mighty Deliverer. He never fails to plan the best things for us.

The train began moving and I crouched down, and in the name of Jesus commanded the disease to leave. The old lady cried, "I'm healed. I know I'm healed." She stamped her leg and said, "I'm going to prove it." So when we stopped at another station she marched up and down, and shouted, "I'm not going to the hospital." Once again our wonderful Jesus had proven Himself a Healer of the broken-hearted, a Deliverer of one that was bound.”  Smith Wigglesworth

If you have never read a book called “Ever Increasing Faith”, please do!  This book by Smith Wigglesworth is so faith building.  It can be found for free online by just putting into a search engine.  

Some people say that miracles have ceased, that the Gifts of the Spirit have been done away with.  Some think that the ability for believers to perform miracles stopped with the death of the last of the 12 apostles.  However even in the book of Acts, it was not just the 12 apostles who were performing miracles and healing the sick.  Phillip was a table server before he ever even preached the Gospel.  He then was called to be an evangelist of the Lord Jesus Christ.  It says in Acts 8:6 “And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did.”  

All throughout the book of Acts the followers of Christ were going around doing as they had seen Jesus do for 3 years.  They too were healing the sick, casting out demons and raising the dead.  The miracles in the book of Acts have not stopped!  They continue today in those who will believe that God is the God of miracles.  Smith Wigglesworth was a man full of faith.  You must be full of faith to do the works of Christ.  You cannot doubt, it will not work.  Jesus many times rebuked the disciples for doubting His words.  Today their are whole doctrines made to make people doubt God’s power in His children!  The devil loves these kinds of teachings.  The devil doesn’t mind if we know some of the Bible, if we can pray and sing a bit.  It is when we start to act on the Word that he begins to tremble.  It is when believers begin to pray with the power of the Holy Spirit that will shake the shackles off his subjects!  It is when believers will worship the Lord in Spirit and in truth with the anointing of God flowing from their lips that will shake the gates of hell.

There is a reality that we can truly believer God’s Word and stand on it.  The saints of old called it prevailing prayer.  It is a place in the Spirit where we are victorious!  Where we obtain what we have prayed about before we even see an ounce of evidence it will happen in the natural.  This faith cannot be faked or mustered up, but it is a place in the Spirit that comes by deepness with the Lord.  It is a place that see’s the written word of God and takes the promise from out of Heaven and brings it by faith into the Earth.  This is all of God.  He has given us all a measure of faith.  We do not control God in any way, we simply allow Him to work in us to bring about His will.  We choose to believe His word in the face of all adversity.  

Miracles are for today.  Healing is for today.  The dead being raised is for today.  The Gifts of the Spirit are for today.  Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  God has not changed.  The Holy Spirit and His power in the believer has not changed.  Christ is risen!

Scripture of the Day:  Mark 16:15-20

“And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. 16 He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. 17 And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; 18 they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”19 So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. 20 And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen.”